The Yard

In my last post I mentioned that a book cover rarely sales me on a book.  I must be turning into a big fat sucker lately--or not lately... I usually don't need much of a reason to buy new books--because another cover caught my eye at the book store, and I purchased the book (on audile--sorry B&N).  If you're a fan of Sherlock, you'll enjoy reading or listening to The Yard--the debut novel by Alex Grecian.

The Yard tells the story of several detectives part of Scotland Yard's murder squad.  The setting is 1890's, shortly after the last of the Ripper murders.  London is still reeling from the horror of "Saucy Jack," and the citizens are all too willing to distrust the police's ability to protect them.  When more mysterious murders start happening--one of the victims a murder squad detective--everyone assumes the Ripper has returned.

The characters are fictional, though based on several real-life detectives.  One character--a doctor--is on the cutting edge of CSI theory, and amazes the detectives of the Yard with his analytical and deductive abilities.  It's easy to assume he is the Sherlock of the book, but the doctor doesn't do the actual investigating.  This is left up to two detectives, one an old-school veteran, the other a newbie.  Together, the newbie and doctor give us the Sherlock nod.  Also, there is a beat cop unwilling to let a case go unsolved.  Each of the threads are woven into each other by the end, if only a little too conveniently.  I was completely satisfied by book's end, though, despite a few hiccups.    

There were a few points of writing style that got on my nerve.  For example, when the point of view for the villain is given (third-person limited for the most part), he is referred to as the bald man.  Pointless, since no one would think of themselves this way, and if a name was given he would be as equally unknown to the reader as he is as the bald man.  His identity is revealed so early in the book that it is completely useless to do this little trick.  It was like Grecian had been told to hide his villain's identity from the reader to create suspense, but then decided halfway through to just tell us who the dude was.  Thing is, the suspense came from knowing who the villain was--seeing how close he was to the detectives--and seeing how it all played out with the police on his trail.  If the suspense was supposed to be not knowing who the villain was, there never should have been a point of view for him.    One other thing that seemed odd were a few interludes sprinkled randomly throughout the narrative.  The interludes gave a brief window into the past of three characters--one when a character was a child, and the other two only a few years before the beginning of the story.  I understand why the interludes existed--they are there for an extra view of the main characters.  Problem was that they didn't actually add anything to the narrative.  The information given could have easily been done with a simple paragraph of exposition for each.  I would have liked the interludes to matter more to the tale being told, and maybe a bit more structure as to how they were presented.

I enjoyed The Yard quite a bit.  The narration was excellent, the characters were fun, and industrial London is always an intriguing place to visit.  I would have liked more mystery, and a bit of a darker flavor, but all in all, I can say that it is a novel worth your time.  A sequel is scheduled for next year.

The Yard gets 4 out of 5 stars.    

Prince of Thorns

It is very rare that a book cover will entice me to read a book.  I'm much more of a word of mouth/review-reader buyer.  Illustrations are nice and all, but I want someone to tell me why they liked a book.  For whatever reason, this wasn't the case with Mark Lawrence's debut novel.  The marketing department succeeded this time, however, and I knew I had to read Prince of Thorns because of a pretty cover.  I'm glad I did.  It was an excellent novel.  One every dark-fantasy fan should read.

Okay, I have to amend the above statement... just a bit.  See, beginnings are everything--I had to hook you with my opening.  Now that I have, I'll be honest.  The cover for Prince of Thorns never did it for me.  I saw the book on the shelf at Barnes and Noble, and never even bothered picking it up--because the illustration is too... I don't know... graphic-novelish for my taste.  (Not to bag on graphic novels or their readers--I've just never gotten into them.)  But I did say that a cover caught my eye, which is why I put the cover for book two, King of Thorns, up as well.  I haven't yet read KoT, but holy crap!  That is an amazing cover!  Without knowing a thing about Lawrence and his series, I knew I had to read it after seeing that badass owning the throne on a pile of corpses.  

So the cover for book one didn't catch me, but the story and characters did.  The tale Lawrence spins is at times terrifying,  and then beautiful.  I almost feel guilty for liking the main character, Jorg, so much, because he is one hard bastard.  It's quite refreshing, though, to read about a character who is so honest--so brutal because his world has made him so.  In my mind, Jorg compares to Jaime Lannister from GRRM's series (Jaime is by far my favorite character in Martin's world).  Both are the toughest dogs in the yard, and both  do terrible things for gain.  Like Jaime, though, Jorg is deeper than his outward actions.  It takes knowing Jorg's past (which we receive in flash-back chapters) to understand him.  I don't know that understanding him means sympathizing with him, but I believed his arc because of his history.  Pulling this type of character off is no easy feat.  Mark Lawrence knows his business.  I can only stand with my mouth open that PoT is this guy's debut.

Prince of Thorns is the tale of Honorous Prince Jorg of Ancrath, told in his own words.  A brutal tragedy shapes his life at the young age of ten, and he sets off on a path of fire and blood to carve out his destiny in a post-apocalyptic Europe (I think about a thousand years in the future).  The setting is very medieval, with hints of our current civilization in decay.  There are sorcerers, necromancers, mutant-monsters, knights, whores, and blood.  

PoT reminded me of two series while I listened to it (besides Jorg's likeness to Jaime Lannister).  There's a lot of similarities with Stephen King's Dark Tower series (at least the first book, Gunslinger, anyway), and Bernard Cornwell's Saxon series.  The world in PoT reminded me of Roland Deschain's, while Jorg's telling of his story made me think of Uhtred of Bebbanburg.  Both are great comparisons to me.  If you're a fan of either series, you'll probably enjoy Lawrence's work.  

Well, I guess that's enough gushing.  You'll hear more from me on this series and author soon after I give a listen to book two.  (Here's hoping the audio is out the same day as the hardcover--only a couple of weeks away.)  Prince of Thorns gets 4 stars out of 5.  Go read it!   

-Also, check out Lawrence's post about how he became a published author.  It's quite inspiring.           

                  

I write like...

Came across this fun tool to analyze your writing style on this blog.  Click here to see which famous author you are most like.  If I used text from my western fantasy, it said I am most like Lewis Carrol.  If I entered text from my dark, viking-esque fantasy I am more like Ursula K. Le Guin.  And when I used part of my YA space opera it said I was like Shakespeare.  Don't know that I believe any of it, but it's fun anyway!

The Amazing Spider Man

The Amazing Spider Man is, well... amazing.  It was a great movie--much better than the crap trilogy started ten years ago.  So far, it is the best superhero movie this year.  Go see it.  Enjoy it.  See it again.  They got all the beats right in this movie (although the murder of Peter's uncle seemed a bit of a rehash... would have been nice had they done something different with that, and I'm getting sick of New York City.  I hope Spider Man gets out of the Big Easy in his next outing, if only to chase a baddie down... be awesome to see him web-slinging across a different skyline for once).  This new film will make you embarrassed to even mention the Tobey Maguire series, like the Dark Knight and Clooney's horrendous Batman and Robin.

 I've only seen Andrew Garfield--the new spidey--in one other film (The Social Network).  He does a great job as Peter Parker, being more the rebel than geek.  And Emma Stone as Gwen Stacey walks circles around Kirsten Dunst's Mary Jane.  Stone and Garfield have a chemistry on screen that Maguire and Dunst never even came close to.  I hope we get this new Spider Man Mary Jane free, because if Stone has to move over for some other chick, I'm gonna be ticked.  

The tone of this reboot is darker than before.  Like Batman Begins, it goes more in-depth to its main character, really trying to get at the root of what makes a superhero.  I felt the tone was ruined slightly by the very last scene, but I can't deny that it still put a smile on my face (no spoilers).  Parker learns through several tragic experiences that he has the responsibility to make the world a better place, and I think the writers got his character arc perfect in this movie.

The story never goes as dark as Nolan's Batman.  I wish it had--but I can live with where it is.  If The Dark Knight is the perfect adult superhero movie (which it is, though Watchmen and Kick Ass are a respective second and third), then The Amazing Spider Man is the perfect superhero flick for YA audiences.  Writers should pay attention to the smart try-fail cycles, the reversals, and pacing in this movie.  It was all spot-on.

That's all!

False Covenant

The second Widdershins adventure by Ari Marmell is in a lot of ways an improvement on the first.  If you have yet to pick up False Covenant and Thief's Covenant, what are you waiting for?  These little books are stuffed full of action, horror, romance, wit, and charm.  The characters are complex, the setting vibrant and interesting.  And, I am happy to say, the series will continue.  Marmell announced on his website a few weeks back that Pyr bought two more Widdershins novels.  This is one series you don't want to leave unread.

FC picks up six months after Thief's.  Our heroine (am I being politically incorrect by using that term?) is still recovering from the events that culminated in the first book's climax.  (Of course I won't give anything away.)  She is a bit wiser, a bit more cautious.  And she wasn't wanting to be a thief anymore.  Well, turns out life is hard when you can't steal for your sustenance, and so Widdershins finds herself in another caper that doesn't exactly turn out the way she had been planning.

Meanwhile, the city of Davillon is in disfavor with the Church.  A new Bishop has been sent to the city to whip its inhabitants into shape.  He certainly means well, but his schemes go sour and put the citizens of Davillon in real, terrifying danger.

I still have some issues with Marmell's point of view.  It's mostly third-limited, but he seems unable to resist pointing things out as the narrator.  Most of the time it doesn't detract from the story--it usually serves as pleasant bits of humor.  I would still prefer a tighter view point, however, but that's only because I'm biased toward a tight third.  Can't help what I prefer.

The horror in FC is brilliant.  The baddie in this book (had to be inspired by Jack, from Nightmare Before Christmas) is one of the creepiest villains I've ever read in fantasy.  I cringe to think what would have happened if this book were written for the adult market.  Things get dark enough with it being written for teenagers.

There was some language (F bombs) that I wasn't expecting.  Not that there is a hard rule in YA that an author must censor words, but it did come as a surprise.  Didn't really put me off... I snarf George R.R. Martin and Joe Abercrombie books like fat kids snarf cake.  Made my wife wince, though.  She loves YA but doesn't enjoy R-rated content.

I missed the out-of-sequence story telling from Thief's Covenant--it was a different approach and I enjoyed it.  I suppose it wouldn't have really worked, since only six months have passed since the end of book one.  Maybe Marmell will do it again in a later addition?

False Covenant gets 4.5 stars out of 5.      

Prometheus

Oh boy, oh boy.  What the hell has happened to Ridley Scott?  Prometheus was supposed to be his triumphant return to science fiction film (he directed Alien and Bladerunner for those of you who don't know).  Instead, we get this utter mess of a film, full of plot holes, lackluster writing, and predictable sequences we've seen dozens of times.  I'm so frustrated right now!

Let me get the good out of the way, because there isn't that much to gush about with this film.  What was done extremely well was the visuals.  You can't deny that the screenshots from Prometheus are beautiful.  Scott at least has not lost his esthetic touch.  Perhaps he ought to do sci fi art, and leave sci fi films to other people from now on.  The other great thing about the movie are the actors.  Some amazing people were cast in this film.  Too bad they all go to waste.

Okay, that's it for the positive.  Now to all the crap that was wrong.  I won't go too in depth with spoilers, because I don't want to ruin the movie for anyone.  (Other than ruining it by telling you it's an absolute piece of crap.)  First off, the Prometheus is on its way to an unknown planet.  It left Earth with a crew of seventeen people, half of which have no freak'n clue as to what their mission is.  The other half, who know why they're going where they're going, don't know a single thing about the alien planet they are about to land on.  And these people are scientists.  Shouldn't they at least observe the planet in orbit before descending into its atmosphere.  I mean, this is an alien world, after all.  It might be... I don't know?  Dangerous?  This was the first dumb thing about the movie.  No studying of the planet before they land on it.  Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Next, (I'm not listing these in any particular order) the team of geniuses happens to come across the perfect spot to land.  No joke, they fly straight to it without knowing anything about the surface of the world.  Big fat plot coincidence.  Sound like lazy writing to anyone?  Then they head into this alien-constructed pyramid.  Again, no probing or researching.  Just straight in to the belly of the beast.  While in said pyramid two dudes happen to get separated from the rest of the group (cannon fodder).  Problem is, they mapped out the damn place with cool flying drones as soon as they stepped foot inside.  How is it that one can get lost when you have access to a freak'n map???

At one point a character comments how they're half a billion miles from Earth--oh so far away.  Um... half a billion miles from Earth should put them roughly next to Jupiter.  They wouldn't have even left our solar system.  Nice one, idiot Hollywood writers.  Why are you so dumb?

Let's see... people are infected by alien crap.  Magically, different things happen to all of them.  Is any of this explained?  Nope.  There's a prologue to the movie.  Is it explained?  Nope.  Is anything explained in this movie?  NOPE!  There are several other gaping holes that I could list, but then I'd be giving away major plot points.  I said I wouldn't so I won't.  Just know that I'm saving the worst offenders for your viewing pleasure.

The biggest problem about Prometheus is that it doesn't fulfill a single promise that it makes.  Not one.  Does Hollywood even care anymore about crafting a coherent story?  I've been reading a few blog sites since seeing the movie, trying to understand all of the questions left unanswered.  The people who loved the movie came up with the dumbest answers ever.  Some included, "You aren't supposed to understand," or "You're not thinking hard enough.  This movie is for smart people so you have to be smart to get what is going on, moron."  or "If you watch it ten times you'll know what's going on.  Just  pay for a lot more tickets to see this terrible movie and you'll be blown away by how brilliant it is."  (Sarcasm added to offer comic relief for the numb-minded).

Well, that was a bit of a ramble.  Bottom line: don't see Prometheus.  It isn't worth your time and money.  Trust me, it's a mess.  And as for me, I don't know that I'll be going to the theater for a Ridley Scott movie ever again.  I mentioned in my post about Gladiator a few weeks back that he was on the decline.  With Prometheus he has hit bedrock.  

Furies of Calderon

Jim Butcher is best known for his urban fantasy series about wizard-for-hire Harry Dresden.  I tried a Dresden book a few years ago and just couldn't get in to it.  I'm not an urban fantasy kind of guy.  Don't know why exactly.  Too many vampires and tattooed chicks with wrenches maybe?  Luckily, Butcher has also written an epic fantasy--the Codex Alera series.

Codex Alera came about in an interesting way.  If you're an aspiring writer, chances are you've heard the story.  It seems to be told a lot at cons.  Anyway, thanks to copy and paste you can get it from old grandpa Wiki:  The inspiration for the series came from a bet Jim was challenged to while a member of the Delray Online Writer’s Workshop. The challenger bet that Jim could not write a good story based on a lame idea, and Jim countered that he could do it using two lame ideas of the challenger’s choosing. The “lame” ideas given were “Lost Roman Legion", and “Pokemon”.

So, Romans and dumb Japanese fighting animals.  Sound fun?  I've never been all that interested in Rome and I was too old for the Pokemon craze (thank heaven), but Butcher does a great job mashing the two ideas together to create an interesting and original world.

Alera is a nation surrounded by barbarians, monsters, and a deadly world.  Every person in Alera can bond to furies of earth, air, fire, water, or metal.  Everyone besides Tavi, anyway.  Tavi is a fifteen-year-old boy who has lived his entire life in the rural Calderon valley, far from anything important.  As you would expect, however, all this changes as Tavi's home becomes the focus of the kingdom.

I really liked several things about this book.  The furies were cool, the politics and setting right up my alley.  Some of the characters were intriguing.  The problem--what is keeping me from really loving this book--is that the story is way too traditional.  For some readers, this won't be a problem.  And I don't think it would have been for me either, had I started this series ten years ago.  I think that fans of Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson will really like the Codex Alera series.  I'm a fan of those authors too, but they aren't my favorite.  Far from it.  I'd much rather read Martin, Abercrombie, or Lynch, and so FoC didn't quite do it for me.  I've had enough of the farm boy destined for greatness, the hard-nosed country folk he grew up with.  And I cannot buy into a Roman-based (and yes, they are actual descendants from the lost Legion, so they are as Romanesque as you get in fantasy) civilization being so up-tight about showing skin.  The Romans were some of the most immodest people to walk the Earth.  I'm not asking for Martin levels of sex and nudity--we don't need anymore books out there like that.  But if I want to read about men blushing left and right from seeing a woman's legs, I'll go read The Wheel of Time.  Also, there was too much action.  The pacing got in the way of character development.  I would have enjoyed a few slower chapters.

Okay.  You might be thinking I didn't like the book all that much after the bit of ranting.  That isn't the case.  I liked it, and intend to continue with the series.  I've heard it only gets better.  I just can't like it as much as I want to.  Make sense?

If you haven't checked the Codex Alera series out, you should.  Especially if you've heard good things about Jim Butcher but can't enjoy urban fantasy like me.  It isn't going to be the greatest series you've ever read, but Alera is a fun world to visit, and Butcher's writing is precise and expertly crafted.  He's definitely a great writer worth reading.  Furies of Calderon gets 3 out of 5 stars.  

That's all.