Pieces on Speculative Fiction

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.

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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.

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I’m really sorry that I haven’t been able to post that often this week, I’ve been a bit feverish, so haven’t got the energy to write. Also was away for the weekend, so no writing done there either.

Sad news this week for some, Robert Jordan passed away. Apparently the last part of Wheel of Time is still going to be published posthumously. I’m really curious whether some hack picks up the WoT franchise. Haven’t been fan of all that tugging and smoothing in a while.

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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.

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Joe Abercrombie mentioned my review of The Blade Itself in his blog. Times a changing when authors are amongst us mortals. Anyways there’s also a interesting post in his blog on how fantasy series compare to TV series, where he goes to point out the that the TV trend of long plot lines and open-endedness might be making it’s way to fantasy series.

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You know, writing this blog has really been an interesting experience. It has shown me that self discipline is something I lack. That’s okay, generally reaching every goal means that the goals weren’t that hard to achieve anyways. However this blog has definitely gotten me into reading more. For a few years I’ve read only maybe 20-30 books a year, which is really miniscule amount. I used to read hundreds of books in my teens, 365 exact in my best year. Perhaps that time instilled the speed style of reading into me. That and my low tolerance for shared shame.

All in all I’m pretty happy with what I’ve accomplished so far. My ambitious side would like to see me writing more pillar content, the stuff of legends! I’m realist enough to know that that is going to need the spark of creativity from somewhere. I’ve never been too good at forcing myself.

As an aside. It never ceases to amaze me how little people read. Or rather how little the people who moan about lack of good speculative fiction have read. There are huge amounts of good SF books just waiting to be read. Not finding out about them isn’t really hard these days, with the net and all. Just browsing quickly through Jay Tomio’s Top100 books of the last 10 years has quite a few unread books for the most of us.

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.

2 stars out of 5. Acacia offers complex fantasy world where the line between heroes and villains is blurred. Sadly there are way too many point-of-view characters and the characterization just isn’t very good. Despite the verbose prose there was lack of feeling between me and the book, at no point did I care about what happend to the various people.

The story is about the children of the Acacian King Leodan. Acacia rules the known world and has done so for more than 20 generations. The times are troubled, Meinish assassin is closing in and Acacian troops in Mein are facing a dire new threat. From there on the story slowly unravels.

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4 stars out of 5. The Blade Itself is the first book of a trilogy The First Law. The story is told character drivenly from the points of views of barbarian, fencer and inquisitor, who are fleshed out very well. Everything of the medieval-style world of the Union is shown through a film noir lens. The grander plot takes the backseat when the characters converge to the heart of the Union against the backdrop of impending war with the North. Very entertaining read despite some length issues.

The book starts with Logen Ninefingers, the former champion of the King of the North, fighting for his life. From there on we are given a host of new characters where each chapter is told through one character. This gives great insight to different characters and despite none of the them being really likeable you come to care about what happens to them, which is something that is often lacking(Acacia anyone).

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Three stars. Passion Play is science fiction murder mystery in Christian fundamentalist America. A great actor is found dead and detective Diane Fletcher is called to investigate, who is the protagonist. She is a shaper, she can read people’s emotions and emotional patterns after some interaction. Sadly her ability is explored only perfunctorily. The interesting parts of the book discuss people’s lives in fundamentalist society.

What I liked the most in the book was describing fundamentalists as quite normal and real people, not cardboard cutouts, their motivations are realistic, even if not to my liking. In this respect the books ending leaves something to be desired. I liked the descriptions of Diane’s professional problems in a phallocentric world, where she was doing what was considered a man’s job. The clashes between her job and social life is quite good.

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