Mini Reviews #4

Wow. Time flies when you're busy! I've been neglecting the blog for a while for several reasons, but mainly because I've been in a funk for the past month that has been hard to shake. Here's hoping that's all done with. I have several posts in the works--a few more What the Crap? posts and other things besides reviews. It's been so long, though, since I've posted that I need to get these two reviews out of the way before I forget what I want to say about these books. So here goes.

The King's Blood, by Daniel Abraham. It is the second book of his Dagger and Coin series, and picks up right where book 1 left off. In my opinion, TKB takes this series to a new level, and my respect and admiration for Abraham continues to grow. He is proving to be a master at epic storytelling. The pace of the story certainly quickens in this volume, and the characters end up in some surprising places I hadn't foreseen. I can't wait to see what happens in The Tyrant's Law, which is schedule for release in a couple of months.

Abraham is a subtle writer. I never feel like his characters are beating me over the head with their ideologies and positions. It is impossible, I think, to feel completely for or against most of the cast. (I said most, not all.) Abraham is patient with his story buildup. He carefully lays groundwork for every twist and turn. This might be a deterrent for some who want action packed fantasies. Trust me when I say the wait for big things to happen in this series is worth your time.

The King's Blood gets 5 out of 5 stars.

The second book is The Daylight War, book three of Peter V. Brett's Demon Cycle. This book was one of my most anticipated releases of 2013, and I have to say that it let me down in almost every way possible. I've had several weeks to think about the book since I finished it, and so can now separate the mixed feelings I had after its end. I hope I can do so without insult to the author--I do think Brett is among the best of our current crop of fantasy writers, and enjoyed the previous installments in the series immensely.

The biggest problem was that the plot wasn't advanced hardly at all. Book 2 suffered this problem as well--retelling a large portion of the story from another character's point of view. In the last book it paid off enough that I didn't mind all that much. It was just too boring to do it a third time. Also, (spoiler) the Daylight War, the prophesied war that this book gets its title from, never happens. Why did Brett mislead readers so much with the title?

The sex was way too gratuitous for my comfort. I think The Daylight Porn would have been a more apt description of the book. And lastly, the "cliffhanger" ending felt a bit smug in its cliffhangeriness.

The Daylight War gets 3 out of 5 stars. I hope that this portion of the story will feel more natural by the time the series is completed.

That's all.

The Desert Spear

The Desert Spear is the sequel to The Warded Man, by Peter V. Brett, and takes several chances as a sequel that I'm not sure I liked.  The major one being that the first portion (almost a third) doesn't even feature the main characters from the first book.  When I started it I wanted to get back to the characters I'd come to love in TWM.  I was forced to wait for nearly 8 hours of audio before Arlen, Leesha, and Rojer got some stage time.  That being said, I still liked the book, if not quite as much as the first.

TDS starts off by jumping back in time, telling the story of Jardir and his rise to power among this world's pseudo-Islamic people.  He is a bit of a villain in the first book, and so it is interesting to gain perspective on his life and culture.  I came to appreciate him for the man he becomes.  Again, though, I wasn't really looking to be introduced to another protagonist.  Those introduced in The Warded Man were enough for me.  I suppose this is a case of the story the author is telling vs. the story I want him to tell.  Luckily, Brett is a great storyteller and I was able to overcome my annoyance with the way he developed things.

In TWM I was fairly certain Arlen, the main protagonist, was the Deliverer, returned to save mankind from the Corelings.  Now, though, I'm not so sure.  Jardir claims to be the Deliverer, while Arlen wants nothing to do with the title.  I really like that Brett is defying expectations.  He's using familiar fantasy tropes, but twisting them.  It makes for pleasant surprises.

(SPOILER ALERT) One twist in particular was the relationship between Leesha and Jardir.  There was a chance Leesha would marry Jardir and become a part of his harem.  It seems it isn't going to work out, but I was actually hoping for it after they'd spent time getting to know one another.  This would have been the ultimate surprise.  I'm still crossing my fingers for it in future volumes. (END OF SPOILER)

One thing I thought interesting: Jardir reminds me a lot of Dave Farland's Raj Ahtan.  I don't know if Brett has read The Runelords, but they are very similar characters... except that Jardir isn't a bad guy in my eyes anymore.  He appears to be the man Raj Ahtan could have been.  We'll have to wait for future books to find out how he turns out.

If you've read The Warded Man you have to continue with The Desert Spear.  The story doesn't move forward all that much, but it certainly deepens and sets the stage for book 3.  The fights with Corelings get tedious at times... there's only so many interesting ways to kill demons, but this is the major conflict in the series, so I don't know how to get around it.  The introduction of mind demons and mimics does help, and I'm eager to find out about more Coreling princes.  Also, I'd like to read more about Jardir's people subjugating the northerners, but I'm assuming that's what the next book (The Daylight War) will cover.

I give The Desert Spear 3.5 stars out of 5, if only because I didn't like it as much as the first, so can't award it the same score. (Maybe 3.75)      

The Warded Man

Just finished Peter V. Brett's The Warded Man, and what a great book it turned out to be!  I wasn't sure at first... the first chapter is painfully slow.  And starting off, the plot seems to be very standard hero's journey blah blah blah.  Well, as so often happens in novels, chapter two followed chapter one, and BAM!  The story leaps forward at a break-neck pace, and leaves all of your boring fantasy tropes in the dust.

 Okay, I might be getting ahead of myself to say that TWM leaves all fantasy tropes behind.  It doesn't, but it twists them so well that it feels original.  That's exactly what I hope for in a good fantasy.  Give me the things I like about the genre--heroes, discovery of magic, cool fighting, cool world--and then take the story in a direction I don't see coming.  Brett does a superb job at delivering promises, fulfilling them, and surprising readers/listeners with plot twists.  I can't wait for my audible credits to renew next month so I can listen to the sequel.

Corelings stalk the night.  They are ancient, immortal demons, who rise from the ground each sunset to prey on anything that moves.  Like all good demons, they prefer mankind as their main entree--animals only being tasty appetizers, and destruction of buildings, farmland, and any other item useful to man just plain fun.  This creates such a cool dilemma for people to overcome.  Nobody (at least as far as we know at the books beginning) fights Corelings.  In fact, everyone cowers behind wards at night in stark fear.  Well, eleven-year-old Arlen thinks there is a better way to deal with the demons.  He thinks that men ought to fight, even if it means their own deaths.  He discovers just how much fighting back costs as he leaves his village behind for the wider, more dangerous world.

The limits placed on society in TWM are quite intriguing.  If demons stalk the night, and people can't defend themselves against the horde, what happens to commerce?  To nations, and knowledge?  Most people are trapped behind the wards of their own homes or cities, living life unaware of their own imprisonment.  Brett gets major props for the tension he's created in his world by cutting everyone off from everyone else.

I could tell you more about the characters, or about the magic and action scenes, but I don't want to spoil the fun.  If you haven't picked The Warded Man up, and if you're a fan of fantasy, you deserve to treat yourself to this excellent tale.  There is some sexual content, though none that became too descriptive.  Two things that bothered me: most of the men (aside from main characters) seem much too willing to rape any woman they come across, and most married women (aside from main characters) seem to want to commit adultery.  Again, nothing becomes too descriptive that I think it explicit, but the fact that the majority of people are scum bags kind of got under my skin.  I suppose this qualifies TWM as dark fantasy, which is what I typically prefer, so didn't get turned off by it.  I thought it worth a warning, though, for those of you who stay away from the dark side.  On the bright side, the language is practically as clean as a whistle.  I don't recall a single F word in the book.

The Warded Man gets 4 out of 5 stars.  Give this one your time!

-as an added note, the narrator, Pete Bradbury did a great job.  He read The Dragon's Path, which I reviewed a few months back.