Pieces on Speculative Fiction

4 stars out of 5. Shield of Thunder is second part of David Gemmell’s Troy-trilogy that is more historical fiction than fantasy. It tells the tale of events that leads to the war between Troy and Mykene. Neither side is presented as being ‘Good’ or ‘Evil’, the story is rather presenting alternate motives for Agamemnon to lust after Troy than Helen.

This ended up being the last book David Gemmell finished. That is sad as I feel Shield of Thunder was as good a book Gemmell ever wrote. I heartily recommend this one to anyone who likes his previous work. New readers are better of starting at say Legend
.

2 stars out of 5. This is decent first novel by Ian C. Esslemont. It tells the story of how Emperor Kellanved and his companion Dancer return to Malaz Island as it is the Shadow night, when the realm of Shadow and mortals are as one. The story has a feel of a short story that has been buffed to novel length. Recommended for the readers of Steven Erikson‘s Malazan stories, others won’t probably get everything and the story is pretty thin and infodumps too frequent.

The world of this book was created by Steven Erikson and Esslemont in the eighties and they both write books in it. Erikson has so far written 7 novels and 3 novellas, this is Esslemont‘s first effort in their shared world. All this means that there are a lot of things in the book that you don’t really fully understand, unless you have read Erikson‘s work. Night of Knives doesn’t work too well on it’s own.

(more…)

I’ve been buried in my studies for the last week, no time to really read nor write. Anyways, I started reading Mary Gentle‘s Ilario: Book One. It tells the tale of Ilario, a hermaphrodite artist, former King’s freak in the secret history world Gentle visited first in Ash. After the first third of the book I can recommend it to anyone who enjoys alternate history stories or previous works of Mary Gentle.

The world in the book is Europe in 1100s, however there are quite a few major differences including no Pope in Vatican and no Sun in North Africa. I just love the way Gentle doesn’t tell everything or go out of her way to point out all the quirks of the world in which his characters live. Everything that you get to know is relevant, but not forced. I get the feeling that this is going to make some things behind Ash a lot clearer.

I think that it is quite curious that the main character is hermaphrodite and I think it’ll be interesting to see how Gentle approaches sexuality later in the book as after 100 or so pages it hasn’t come into play that much.

On another note, I heartily recommend Ash to everyone, it is really, really good alternate history about female mercenary company leader in Middle Ages. It is very good adventure story, but also has a lot of subtle critique of making history and science.

5 stars out of 5. Perfect Circle is brilliant story about ‘Dead’ Kennedy, who can see ghosts and has to embrace his talent for a living. It’s a small story, sad story and story with hope. 243 pages packed with hot goodness that everyone should read.

Will ‘Dead’ Kennedy is in his thirties and got fired once again. He can see her daughter only occasionally, because her ex-wife has the custody. Out of the blue a cousin offers him thousand bucks to check his garage for ghosts. From there on everything gets more complicated for Will.

Stewart has a talent for writing great characters, who haven’t really succeeded in life in conventional terms. In other words, Stewart writes about normal people.

3 stars out of 5. PS Publishing’s edition contains all three so far published Bauchelain & Korbal Broach novellas. Every one of them is worth reading, but lack the touch that makes Malazan Book of the Fallen so interesting. All three have the feeling that Erikson wants to try something different. The underlying humor seems to flower more often in these stories.

First one of the stories, Blood Follows, tells how Emancipor Reese came to work for the sorceror and necromancer in Lamentable Moll. It is fairly simple story, yet manages to introduce to us quite a few really quirky characters, while giving some insight to Reese, Bauchelain and Broach. Yet it lacks the deeper complexities of Erikson‘s magnum opus.

(more…)

3 stars out of 5. I really liked the Blade Itself, but this middle book of the trilogy, while entertaining, feels somewhat lacking. Partly this is because I liked only one of the three main plot lines and just would’ve liked to have more Glokta. Before They Are Hanged still is very good character-driven fantasy and enjoyable for anyone who liked the first part.

There are three main story arcs: the mysterious quest lead by the magi Bayaz, Glokta‘s mission in Dagoska and Union‘s war with Northmen. Glokta‘s arc is easily the monst intersting, in my opinion, and Bayaz arc the weakest, as there are some easily guessed elements(which despite of this are very enjoyable). Union‘s war with the Northmen is quite meh as it is predictable and the characters aren’t the most interesting ones. Luckily there are couple of nice twists in each of the plot lines.

(more…)

3 stars out of 5, first impressions, not as good as Lies of Locke Lamora, but if you liked it you’ll like this one too. Doesn’t have much fantastic feel, but all the wit and banter make up for it quite well. I really appreciate that Lynch is writing these modern thriller and adventure books within the fantasy genre.

This is story of Jean and Locke trying to rob the biggest casino of Tal Verrar, where they fled from Camorr. Not surprisingly there are kinks on the way and they have to embrace the sweet life of sailors. Oddly enough, quite a few of those now verses from various books. Reavers are civilized people.

(more…)

4 stars out of 5, first impressions, Patrick Rotfuss’s opening of the Kingkiller Chronicles shows his talent as storyteller. The story is moving and moves at quick enough pace along with solid and likeable enough characters.

The story starts with an injured local stumbling bleeding into the village inn with a spider-like dead monster that killed his horse and nearly him. From there on everything starts to wind out with the innkeeper Kote taking the lead role. It turns out that he previously was Kvothe, notorious mage-warrior whose story we partly hear. So the format is story in a story as Kvothe stars to tell his tale.

(more…)

I feel that Lynch dropped the ball with this one. There is still the good natured banter between Locke and Jean, but the book is overlong. Cutting parts of the plot would probably have made the book a better read. Reading Red Seas Under Red Skies is a lot like watching one of newer action films: there is really substance for a 1h 30min film, but it drags on over the 2h mark. The ending still managed to seem a bit hurried, when everything came together in one big flurry.

(more…)

Name of the Wind is the best new novel I’ve read this year. Seriously I can’t understand how Acacia(review) can be mentioned in the same breath as candidate for best fantasy debut this year. Name of the Wind has everything Acacia doesn’t have: clear writing, engaging story(or story in a story) and characters who you come to care about. I have to admit that I’m a sucker for coming of age stories, but this one was really, really good. As far as entertaining fantasy goes, this is top notch. Only gripe I have is that the story presented is a premise of a huge story arc. The author has set it so that he could write probably quite a few parts to his Kingkiller Chronicles.

After reading the first 60 pages I wasn’t really sold. There was some apparently evil monsters, this innkeeper who isn’t what he seems etc. I even put it down to read Tim Powers’ Last Call and Joe Abercrombie’s Before They Are Hanged. Today I continued where I left of and had to change the plans for the day as I just couldn’t stop reading.