Anyway, like I was saying, last night I finished Speaker For the Dead by Orson Scott Card. This is the sequel, I guess, to Endor’s Game. I say “I guess” because its a very different kind of story and it takes place 3000 years after EG, although thanks to lots of realitivistic planet-hopping, Endor Wiggin is still alive.

This was another Fantastic Audio production, and I got it from Audible.com and listened to it off my iPod. I can’t say enough about how much Audible and my iPod have improved my daily commute. A whole raft of people were in on the narration, making it at times feel as much like a play as a novel. I’ve been very happy with all of Fantastic Audio’s material, and this was no exception. Well worth listening to.

As for the novel itself, well, I’m not very good at reviewing books beyond saying “Wow, I really liked this.” or “Do yourself a favor and stay away.” This was clearly a case of the former. It was a complete suprise to me, since I expected it to be much like Ender’s Game.On the surface, its about humanity encountering a second intelligent alien species (the first being the Buggers of EG). This time, we’re the more advanced civilization. At a deeper level, though, its about, well, the power of truth, I suppose.

These aren’t new books and I don’t know how I missed them for so long, but I sure am glad I found them now. I just picked up Xenocide and its going very near the top of my ‘to read’ stack.

Last night I finished Dave Duncan’s Lord of the Fire Lands. This is one of his “King’s Blades” books, the first being The Guilded Chain which I told you about last July.

Like the first book, Fire Lands is an enjoyable read, though I didn’t like it quite as much. Part of that stemmed from the odd delivery…early parts of the book take place as flashbacks but when we catch up to the present it feels like the pacing changes in an odd way.

Also, though its “A Tale of the King’s Blades” it isn’t really about a King’s Blade. It’s about a Bael, the Baelish being “the enemy” in the first book. Bael’s are modeled on sort of a Viking theme, living on an archipelago complete with active volcano. They aren’t big enough to invade Chivia (where the King’s Blades live) but they harry the coast and strangle trade. Anyway, this book lets you see the war from the other side, so to speak (not that the war is the predominant theme in either book).

Lord, I’m rambling. Anyway, what was really interesting here is that the events of the two books aren’t in sync. Things happen in one that don’t in the other, and vice versa. My first thought was “What shoddy continuity.” but then I flipped back to the front and read a warning that we’ll see discrepancies between the two, and only reading the third will clear them up.

OK, I swallowed that, hook, line and sinker, and you can bet that my next book is going to be Sky of Swords!

It’s been so long since I read Parke Godwin’s Robin and the King that I fear I won’t be able to do the book justice. This one picks up where Sherwood left off, more or less. We spend some time with an older Robin Hood, no longer the outlaw, no longer enemy of the Sheriff of Nottingham. Still, he manages to get tangled up in politics once again.

Godwin writes with an authenticity that totally drags you into Robin’s world. The speech patterns of the characters -seem- authentic (I’m no scholar of the period so can’t say for sure) and mix of old gods and Christianity lend both an air of mystery and a grounding in history at the same time.

As I say, I’ve not kept up the blog and the book is fading from memory now. It’s also out of print. But if you can find it in a used book story or your local library, do yourself the favor of snapping it up. It isn’t ‘light’ D&D fantasy, so be ready to read a meaty book that requires some chewing. And it starts a bit slowly. But stick with it; once things get rolling you’ll be in for quite a ride!

I finished The Crooked House a few days back. This is #2 in Dave Duncan’s King’s Daggers series. I didn’t enjoy it as much as Sir Stalwart. It just didn’t have the same life as the first book.

In part, I think it was because Duncan didn’t have the fun of introducing his characters and telling us their origins. Nor the mystery that the first book contained (as the threads of two lives became intertwined).

But also… no one really did anything. The protagonists made some bad decisions (in order to get into trouble) but never really made good ones to get themselves out. Events just played out more or less in their favor without their really doing anything to make these events come about. Because of this, the book read more like a vignette than a novel. It was still enjoyable, but not nearly as much fun as Sir Stalwart.

Now I’m into Robin and the King by Parke Godwin. This is a book that has sat on my shelf for so long that its no longer in print, sadly. It’s the second in a series by Godwin, the first being Sherwood. The first book tells the story of Robin Hood the Outlaw. The second follows Robin in later life, once again in trouble with the King, but this time as a politician rather than an outlaw.

Well, I’ll save anymore until I finish it, which might take some time because whenever I pick it up and read a chapter, I’m spurred to put it down and fire up Dark Age of Camelot and range about the lands practicing my period anglais.

My g/f came home from the library with a treat for us. I mentioned The Gilded Chain a few days ago… this is the first novel in Dave Duncan’s The King’s Blades series. Well, Duncan also has a young adult series set in the same universe; he calls this one The King’s Daggers. Sir Stalwart is the first book in that series, and it was a delight to read.
I’m one of those oafs who gets really uncomfortable at the idea of reading a “kid’s book” but I’m glad I got past that barrier this time. The only thing that really identifies this as a young adult novel is its relative brevity and the fairly straightforward plot line. I assumed, going in, that there wouldn’t be an violence or real evil being shown, but I was wrong about that. True, at times the ‘camera turn’s away’ from a particularly violent act, but we see the setup of it and the results, and our imaginations fill in the rest.
The story revolves around Stalwart, 5th in line to become bound and a member of the Blades. But instead of following the usual course of a candidate, he is whisked away from Ironhall (where boys train to become Blades) and becomes the only unbound member of this elite troop, and sent on a covert mission. Aiding him (unknowlingly) is Emerald, a White Sister of as few years as Stalwart. To say more would be to ruin the book.
It’s a fast read; perfect for a long day at the beach or a rainy weekend. If you enjoyed The King’s Blades series, don’t overlook The King’s Daggers.

A few days back I mentioned The Crystal Shard by R. A. Salvatore, in a somewhat disparaging way.

I just finished the book, and in the end, I’m glad I did. Salvatore didn’t have a pro’s polish when he wrote this book back in 1988, but he did spin a decent yarn.

My biggest gripes with him have to do with the common stuff that new authors trip up on… characters being omniscient, and items suddenly appearing out of nowhere to help out our hero.

An example of the first: “Gillain could tell by the barbarian’s glazed stare that he’d spent the night in revelry and the throbbing in his head would cause him to move slower than his usual lightning quick reflexes would account for. It was also obvious that the grak eggs he’d eaten for breakfast had been a tad off, and his guts were cramping up, causing him to hunch over and this limiting his reach.” (OK, I exagerate a tad.)

An example of the second would be someone’s cloak catching fire at a campsite, and him dousing it in the nearby river… except that before that moment, the river was never mentioned, even though the party had been at this campsite for several pages now.

You get the idea. So that’s the bad. The good is, as I said, it was a fun story, culminating in an epic battle that was trying to be something like The Battle of Helm’s Deep. Tolkien has nothing to fear from Salvatore (or at least, from the Salvatore of 1988) but if you enjoy your sword and sorcery fiction heavy on the swords and skull-bashing, you’ll probably enjoy The Crystal Shard. I put it aside at one point and I’m glad I came back to it.

Do note, however, that it’s a D&D book and there are places where you can almost here the die being rolled. 🙂

I just finished The Gilded Chain: A Tale of the King’s Blades by Dave Duncan.

What a wonderful, wonderful book. Duncan has put together a fantasy world that’s heavy on the swords and relatively light on the sorcery. The King’s Blades are swordsmen who are bound to the king by a conjuration; its somewhat derivative of Mercedes Lackey’s Companions of Valdemar, or Anne McCaffrey’s riders and dragons of Pern, except in this case both parties are human. But really, the binding is just a plot device and a motivator, and the real story here is about the men themselves (what I’m trying to say is, the men act like men, not like some kind of ensorcled automatons). And if I say any more than that, I’ll ruin at least one surprise, so I’m not even going to touch on the plot. You’ll have to trust me.

This book isn’t heavy with meaning and no scholar will ever decree it an ‘important book.’ It’s just a well-paced yarn, full of surprises, hard to put down, and well worth reading. It gets two enthusiastic thumbs up from me.

Time for another book rant, and don’t get all squirmy over the title of this one. For once in my decadent life I’m ranting against fetishism!

I’ve been reading Stone of Tears by Terry Goodkind. This is the second book in his Sword of Truth series, the first being Wizard’s First Rule.

Now, in Wizards…, Goodkind had his protagonist tortured in graphic and extended fashion. I read that long enough ago that I don’t recall my reaction at the time, but I do know the author eventually made a point with it (the protagonist forgives and aids his torturer, thereby showing us what a swell and compassionate guy he is).

One of the details of his torture was that he was made to wear a collar and led around like an animal. His torturer was female. Eventually she forced him to be her partner in some sado-masochistic sex games. But again, in the end there was a point to all this, so I sorta let him get away with it.

Now, in book #2, there’s another band of women that want to put a collar on Our Hero. And Continue reading “Fetish Fiction”

Well, I finally finished China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station. (Yes, I’m a damned slow reader… after staring at several monitors all day at work, these old eyes tend to get tired fast when I sit down with a book at the end of a day.) Regular readers of this blog (are there any?) might recall me ranting about the author’s fascination with shit and his pompous use of obscure words a few weeks back.

The bad news is, I haven’t changed my opinion about these aspects of the book. The good news is, it’s a damned fine story. In fact, when things get exciting, Mieville’s style becomes much more streamlined and enjoyable. You can imagine him writing faster and faster and not stopping to try and shoehorn in the subject of his most recent “Word of the day” email. Hopefully as he matures as a writer, his wonderful imagination will stay the same and he’ll realize his job is to tell a good story, not dazzle us with his vocabulary.

It’s a dark tale, no doubt, and the city it takes place in is old and grimy and corrupt. It can all get to be a bit much after a while (another reason it took me so long to read it… I had to keep stopping to take a shower so I could feel clean again). The technology is a wonderful spin on ‘steampunk’ and is way, way fun. None of the characters are particularly lovable, so if you’re into Real Heros you might want to pass on this one.

Otherwise, fascinating stuff. A twisty-turny story set in a downright weird world. Gets my thumbs up (I’m sure Mr. Mieville will let out a great sigh of relief when he hear’s about this! Heh.)

So I’m reading China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station. The overall story is pretty good so far, but the author is just *so* impressed with himself. First, he delights in trying to gross us out; I don’t think he can go 3 paragraphs without using “shit” somewhere. Sometimes as an expletive: “Godshit” seems to be the most common curse in his world. But also the action… every living creature has to be seen shitting at least once, it seems.

I can get past that, as I just roll my eyes and mutter “Kids” when the event is worked in clumsily. But what really bothers me is his use of obscure vocabulary. It’s been more than a few years since I read a book that has so many words in it that I don’t know, and I have a reasonably good vocabulary of my own. If I had more time I’d pull out some examples, but for now I’ll just share the one that triggered this post:

Eventually, Yagharek spoke.

“And if you are right . . . I will fly?”

Isaac burst into laughter at the bathetic demand.

“Yes, yes, Yag old son. If I’m right, you’ll fly again.”

Um, excuse me… bathetic?

Now, my battered old copy of Websters doesn’t even list bathetic. It does include the pseudo-root word, bathos, but I wouldn’t have linked the two terms if dictionary.com hadn’t had a few listings for bathetic:
adj : effusively or insincerely emotional; “a bathetic novel”; “maudlin expressons of sympathy”; “mushy effusiveness”; “a schmaltzy song”; “sentimental soap operas”; “slushy poetry”
said one, while another just says:
“Characterized by bathos. See Synonyms at sentimental” [Probably blend of bathos, and pathetic.]

Now, this definition didn’t make sense in the context of the passage (and forgive me for not having quoted enough for you to make that judgement). What I think young Mieville meant can be discerned from looking at the definition for bathos. Two definitions are listed, one concerning sentimentality, which apparently is the one that ‘bathetic’ is based on, but I believe we’re looking for the other definition, which is:
a. An abrupt, unintended transition in style from the exalted to the commonplace, producing a ludicrous effect.
b. An anticlimax. In the passage, the Isaac character was spouting off about his scientific theories for a couple of pages, using lots of technical jargon and laying out some pretty sophisticated thought lines… so Yag’s simple response could be considered a transition from the exalted to the commonplace.

So, that quest laid to rest, I have to ask… “What did the use of this obscure term add to my reading experience?” And I have to answer… “Nothing. In fact, it was detrimental because by the time I tracked all this down, I’d been totally pulled out of the story and I put the book down to do something else.” I suppose one could argue that expanding your vocabulary is a good thing, but I’m not even sure that’s right. I have to stop and explain my terms often enough as things are without starting to sprinkle ‘bathetic’ into everyday conversation.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying this book. Mieville has a wild imagination and the world of his book is fascinating. I just hope by the time he writes his next one, he will have lost his fascination with poop and gotten off the ‘word of the day’ email list.