Mini Reviews #3

I've been so busy writing that I don't have a lot of time or energy to come up with creative blogs. So here are some more small reviews. If you're a fan of epic fantasy, or sword and sorcery, then you'll want to check out all of these books I'm reviewing this week. Onward!

First, I want to tell you a little about The Scar, a literary fantasy, by Sergey and Marina Dyachenko. It just came out (translated) from Tor last year. (I think it originally came out in the late 90's.) The Scar is an amazing book. It resonates well with classics like The Count of Monte Cristo, and Les Miserables. It is a beautiful tale about a man who must overcome the most despicable wretch he knows: himself.

Egert is the man. He is the most confident, the most skilled at arms, the best leader, and the best looking man in his city--a city in which physical prowess is admired and praised above all else. Egert always wins. Until a stranger with a sword comes to town, anyway. Egert loses his first duel and flees home in terror and shame. What follows is a redemption story full of poetic prose, deep insight into the human condition, love, and above all else, forgiveness.

The Scar gets 5 out of 5 stars. Don't miss this one!

Next up is The Way of Shadows, by Brent Weeks. Weeks has been gaining popularity over the years and, rumor has it, will soon take over the world with his awesomeness. Awesomeness aside, TWoS is Weeks' debut novel, and my first taste of his writing. I have to say that it was one brutal, captivating, helluva story. It is not for the squeamish! (And young readers, you should probably avoid it.)

The only thing I didn't like about TWoS were some character names. I can honestly say I enjoyed every other part. The story is about a boy who grows up in the violent slums of a city, where the weak are ground into the mud and the strong rule without pity. He believes there is only one way out of his situation: apprentice with the city's most infamous and feared assassin. That is the basic plot, but the book is full of wonderful character development, tense action, political intrigue, and cool magic. This is one of those books that make me so happy I'm an epic fantasy fan.

Beware, The Way of Shadows is for adults. It is violent and dark, and unapologetic. That said, I don't want to overstate its content. I find it comparable to A Game of Thrones, or Best Served Cold content-wise. I give the book 5 out of 5 stars.

Lastly, I wanted to tell you about The Red Knight, by Miles Cameron. This too, is a more adult book worth your time if you love fantasy. It has some of the best battle scenes I've ever read in fiction. Cameron, who also writes historical fiction under his real name, Christian Cameron, is a medieval expert. His knowledge lends an authenticity to the TRK that is unmatched in fantasy. I've never read a fantasy in which the life of a knight has been so meticulously detailed. I was worried going in that this fact would bog the story down with boring, long-winded info dumps. This isn't the case. Cameron has a strong sense of pacing that keeps the story moving forward.

The Red Knight is about the leader of a mercenary troop, hired by an abbess to solve a monster murder. It soon turns into an all-out siege battle with the continued existence of a kingdom at stake. Monsters, mages, and men clash in this brilliant tale. This is the beginning of a five book series. Its huge scope makes it feel like the penultimate book in a series. I am eager to see where Cameron takes us.

I have some issues with the book. Its alternate Christian reality was a hard one to swallow at first. In a way, it felt like lazy world building. I've read on the author's website why he chose to use Christianity and am now okay with it. The good news is that the story overcomes my issues with it. Also, the frequent switching of points of view was annoying. I'd have preferred Cameron using George R.R. Martin's format of one pov per chapter. It would still allow him to tell a story with a large cast of characters, but also give readers significant chunks of time inside one character's head.

The Red Knight gets 4.5 out of 5 stars.

And there you have it. All good ratings this time around! I just wanted to add that I listened to all of these books through Audible. The narrators of each were superb. Now, try one of these out for yourself!

Mini Reviews #2

So I've listened to some more books. Time for a short review of each. Here we go...

1356 is Bernard Cornwell's return to the Hundred Years War. He has already written a trilogy set during this time period, following an archer named Thomas of Hookton. This book picks up Thomas's story several years later and tells of the English victory over the French at the Battle of Poitiers.

Bernard Cornwell is the master of historical adventure fiction. No one does it better. 1356, however, wasn't as good as his previous archer stories. I felt that the central conflict--the Battle of Poitiers--was just thrown in at the end for something for the characters to do. There was no sense of a building conflict that would lead to the fateful battle. I really felt Cornwell phoned this one in. That said, I still enjoyed returning to 14th century France, and archers just plain kick butt. They are way cooler than knights.

1356 gets 3 out of 5 stars. Don't start here if you're new to Cornwell. Try The Archer's Tale or Agincourt first.

It's finally here. A Memory of Light is the concluding volume to one of fantasy's most seminal epics. Twenty three years in the making, folks. Deep breath in... now let it out. Aaahhh... Okay. Now we can get on with it. So did it fulfill all of my hopes and dreams that have been building up since I picked up the first book back in 2002?

No.

But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. I did. However, I thought that there were some serious flaws with this book, and because of it the entire series. I won't discuss it here. I plan to do a post about the entire Wheel of Time series in the future. You'll get an ear full from me then. For now, know this: Brandon Sanderson did an excellent job. Nobody could have done better. But it was never Sanderson's book. Even though Robert Jordan passed away in 2007, he left detailed notes about how things should wrap up. All the flaws and shortcomings are his, not Sanderson's.

You have to read this book if you've been a long-time fan of the series as I have. You have to read it to finish the story. If you've never read the series before, though, I'd suggest stopping after book six. After that, the word count just isn't worth it. I give A Memory of Light 3 out of 5 stars.

Another historical to review. Ironfire, subtitled, A novel of the Knights of Malta and the Last Battle of the Crusades, is a monster soap opera. I didn't like it hardly at all. The only reason I stuck with it, other than the fact that I'd paid to listen to it, was because I was waiting for the siege of Malta to happen. It took way too damn long to get to the battle... which is so idiotic seeing as how the subtitle of the freaking book declares itself to be about the bloody siege! No joke--the final five hours out of thirty-one is all the time the last battle of the crusade got. I'm guessing the only reason this book has its subtitle is because no one would have bought the dumb thing if they knew what it was really about.

What is it about? It's about soap opera romances, modern medieval story cliches, and a bunch of crap completely unrelated to the siege of Malta. David Ball, if I'd wanted a medieval soap opera I would have listened to The Pillars of the Earth. At least that book doesn't use a subtitle to falsely lead readers. Oh, and you suck at info dumping. How boring is it to be taken away from the story to be force-fed historical facts for twenty minute chunks?

And that's all I have to say about that. :D  Ironfire isn't even worth a more detailed review. Don't waste your time on it. If you want a novel about the siege of Malta, read The Religion. It's a bit on the soap opera side, too, but at least the majority of the story focuses on the battle. Ironfire gets 2 out of 5 stars.

Wish there'd been some higher-rated ones to tell you about this time. And it seems there was a theme here: YOU HAVE TO BE ABLE TO STICK THE ENDING. Otherwise, it just hurts the rest of the book or series. Oh well. I've already got more good audiobooks waiting in the wings to tell you about in a few weeks. Until then, That's all!

P.S. I do have to add that all these books have excellent covers. Well done, marketing people!

Mini Reviews

I've been absent from the blog for a couple of weeks. Mostly because I just haven't had the time. Work, family life, and writing (and Halo 4, let's be honest here) don't leave much time left over for blogging. Also, though, I got tired of the majority of my posts being book reviews. I'm not a book reviewer. I'm actually sick of going in-depth on book reviews, because I've had to be more of a critical reader than I want to be. Critical reading is great... sometimes. Most of the time, however, I just want to enjoy a book. Anyway, I will continue to post reviews but not as often, and I'm now (as the title of the post implies) going to be doing it a different way. From now on a book review post will include several books, and only have a paragraph about each. This will give me the chance to point out books I think you should read or avoid, but also let me do it in a less involved way. I don't want to dissect books anymore. I just want to enjoy them, damnit. And now the reviews...

Red Country, by Joe Abercrombie. This is Joe's latest standalone in his "First Law" world. It picks up several years after the end of his trilogy and continues the story of several characters readers have either come to hate or hate to love. Red Country is heavily influenced by western themes and story devices. I found it to be a bit too heavy handed most of the way through the book. I love westerns, and I love Joe Abercrombie, but the two should be a bit more distinct than they were in this book. Some parts of the story just felt like lazy add-ins because, hey, that's the kind of stuff you'd find in a western. The ending seemed less dreary than Abercrombie's usual fair, but the language and gore seemed pumped up from previous novels. Some parts were difficult to get through. Red Country gets 3 out of 5 stars.

Next up is Fevre Dream, by George R.R. Martin. This is the first of Martin's solo books I've read besides his massive epic, A Song of Ice and Fire. Also, it was my first true vampire novel. There was a lot about this book that I really loved. It takes place in the late 1850's, mostly aboard a steamboat called, you guessed it, Fevre Dream. The story takes us up and down the Missouri and Mississippi, through pre-civil war America. The characters were great, and the vampires weren't sparkly and pretty. They are monsters, as all proper vampires ought to be. The only problem I had with this book was its pacing. The ending dragged on and on. My mind wandered a bit in the slow parts and that is never a good sign. On a better note, those who have attempted to read A Game of Thrones and put it down for content, Fevre dream is much more a PG-13 book than an R. There aren't any sex scenes or F bombs. It is a horror novel, though, and so don't expect angsty teenagers looking for romance. People die. 4 out of 5 stars.

The last mini review for today is The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. This is a book that is a bit harder to review because I've read it so many times. Usually the books I review are ones I've just finished for the first time, and so have a stronger sense of what I liked and disliked about them. In my head, The Hobbit is amazing. After listening to it again for maybe the fifth or sixth time, I notice lots of things that are somewhat annoying. Mostly it's the writer in me that finds problems with it, and that's only because the styles writers use today are quite a bit different than how Tolkien wrote. However, if you can look past the dated prose, and the endless songs and such that interfere with the story (very annoying on audio, despite the narrator trying his best to give each a tune of its own), then I think this book can be enjoyed by all readers of all ages. The story itself is timeless, and it holds a fond place in my memories. Read it if you haven't, and re-read it if its been a long time. you'll be happy you did. (And for those of you like me who listen rather than read, Audible recently released this and the Lord of the Rings trilogy unabridged for the first time. Good times.) The Hobbit takes the cake with 5 out of 5 stars.