Graham
People who know me know that I am a massive Abercrombie fan. His Third Law world ticks all the boxes for me - the grittiness of grimdark, a wonderful cast of characters and dark, cynical sense of humour. This world has evolved from the more classical fantasy settings of the earlier books to a world of industry in this latest series and the parallels it draws to the French Revolution and Industrialization of Europe are fascinating. This is fantasy based on real world events that have transferred to a fantastical setting.
The Age of Madness has evolved from the initial Luddite style anti-progressive rumblings of the first novel into a full on revolution at the start of this. King Orso's victory is short lived as he stumbles straight into revolution as the Breaker's and the Burner's take charge. We continue to follow Savine, Leo and Rikke as they navigate this new order, with Savine and Leo learning to survive the revolutionaries and Rikke learning how to control the North.
The strength of Abercrombie is really in his characters. They are all flawed, all somewhat Machiavellian. You end up both liking and despising them at the same time. The growth in the characters over the series arc is impressive as well - the naivety has definitely worn off and these are some clever, scheming and morally ambiguous people. Abercrombie's world has no room for shining paragons of virtue. It gives it all a gritty reality that belies its fantasy setting
I love Asian inspired fantasy for the freshness that it provides and I have been dabbling a bit in the Asian SciFi scene, trying to find similar fresh takes on things. So far I have struggled to find anything that matches. This is dry, flavourless scifi, lost in its own mythologizing. This book comprises 4 novellas, two pairs of linked stories. The first and the last story are a set of love letters written through the perspective of relativistic space travel - the idea that by travelling close to the speed of light you will age at a different rate to those who are not travelling. The base concept is clever - two people hopping through time trying to catch up with each other. The problem is that they are self centered and unlikable in their character. Their travails become overwrought and boring. This idea was done better in ‘How to Lose the Time War'
The other two stories are even dryer. Here we encounter beings known as prophets struggling with the idea of self. It is dry metaphysical bullshit wrapped in quasi religious trappings. The whole thing is confusing as hell and a struggle to get through.
I did not enjoy this - I do wonder if the translation caused me issues, or the audiobook version was more difficult than the text version, but all the same I was left frustrated and bored by it. There are some clever ideas buried within it but it is all lost within its own grandiose mythologizing leaving a stodgy porridge of blandness.
Vampires are one of those tropes that refuse to go out of fashion. Fortunately, they find ways of reinventing themselves to create that evolution of the monster itself. Kristoff's vampires are evil, violent, pitiless and much more in the classical mold than some of the recent iterations (this is most definitely not twilight). These are blood thirsty monsters who treat humans as chattel. They are very much at the top of the food chain.
There has been a trend in recent vampire stories to take a more urban fantasy approach. This necessitates a hiding in the shadows - the vampires of recent years have been somewhat pathetic creatures who cannot stand up to humanity. Transferring the story into a fantastical setting is a smart move in that sense - it allows the vampires to be omnipresent, visible and helps brings their monstrosity to the fore. The world we are in has been recently cursed into a kind of semidarkness allowing the vampires to roam 24 hours a day (although their power grows in the true night). The vampires are on the rise and apparently unstoppable. The one thing standing in their way is an order of half-breed vampires determined to stop them. Their vampire half allows them to counter the vampires with their own abilities. Their one vice - they need to smoke the blood of vampires to manage their own hunger for blood.
Empire of the Vampire is dark, cynical and bitter. The darkness is pervasive - the atmosphere, the sense of despair, the imbalance of power. This is not a happy read. Some of Kristoff's idioms do get a little abrasive at times - I am all for appropriate levels of swearing, but the use here is extremely gratuitous. I do love his dark humour though. The cynicism that pervades this is delicious
A retelling of Dante's Inferno. I think this book suffers most from its own grandiose ideas. Really we have two separate stories - the first part and last part of the story deal with a space expedition which visits the titular mount. The middle part of the book, which comprises the majority of the actual story deals with the ideas of personal liberty in a dystopian future America. There is little to nothing linking these two parts together which is a bit jarring and there is a massive difference in style and enjoyability of the different sections.
Lets start with the good. The central part of the novel is by far the strongest. Here we have the story of a group of friends who have stolen some technology and hidden it on their own private network, amid a backdrop of a failing American state with open insurrection and uber surveillance. The themes of personal liberty and privacy are delved into in an interesting way, through the background of interrogation and multiple different actors trying to gain control of the information being held. This is gritty and dark stuff with an impressive world building and a wonderful sense of dystopian darkness.
The technology being hidden forms the loose bridge to the remaining part of the novel. This section unfortunately gets lost in its own grandiosity. Who are these beings? Why are they doing what they are doing? It all becomes quite messy and incomprehensible and lost in its own mythologizing. There are some interesting tidbits on the meaning of humanity and personhood but the jarring sense of disconnect from everything else just made it confusing. I struggled to understand the point of this and it ended up massively detracting from the rest of the story
Epic Space Opera does not get much more epic than this. We have giant trade spaceships, galactic alliances, criminal underworlds and alien threats all rolled into a very fun and digestible package. Miles Cameron has made his name on fantasy and historical fiction, but this first dive into SciFi is mightily impressive. His roots in historical reenactment shine through in his adaptation of historical ideas (the trade route we follow almost reads like an ancient trade route around the Mediterranean, just set in space) and naming the ship Athens is obviously a nod to his other interests. His understanding of watch keeping and proper military practices lend an air of believability to the story too. I have not seen the world ship idea done better than this though - the ship and the crew are definitely living, breathing entities that drive the story along.
Our lead character is the fallen scion of an ancient family - she had been brought up in an abusive orphanage with shady links to the underworld. For her this voyage is one of escape from her old life. Her adventures are what drives the story forward - learning the ropes of an officer position on board this mighty vessel. I have seen the story likened to ‘hornblower in space' and I can get that - it has a lot of the feel of that, but with the scifi setting
Overall, this is a masterful take on the genre - fun, fresh and enjoyable
A curious title this - a novelization of a student film. John Carpenter of course has gone on to have much success and become a big name director, but Dark Star was his first cinema release. Alan Dean Foster is a renown author for novelizations and it says something about the base quality of the script that he has been able to produce a fairly impressive novel out of this. For reference, I have not seen the film.
Dark Star focuses on the crew of a spaceship tasked with destroying unstable planets ahead of human expansion in the galaxy. The plot focuses on the 4 (5?) crew on the ship. It is very much about the social relationships, isolationism and existential angst caused by prolonged travel with people you do not necessarily get on with. This is not action sci-fi but more a study in human loneliness.
Overall, it was an enjoyable read - a novelization of a film is always going to feel less developed than a true novel and this one is no exception, but Alan Dean Foster has done an impressive job of getting into the characters heads and fleshing them out. Not bad for a student film!
HG Wells is rightly considered to be the grandfather of science fiction. The Island of Doctor Moreau is on of his most well known pieces. Despite its age, this displays some interesting concepts that can still have some resonance today - the questioning on the difference between beast and man and taking a science fiction/horror approach to asking it. The writing is archaic at times (the edition I had had useful notes on some terms which may have dropped out of the common vernacular) but it still grips in a nice way. The relative brevity of the novel gives it an intense focus.
Ultimately my rating here is largely based on the importance of this novel. Here the forgotten land story (which was popular in that era) was taken into a more rationalised and science based direction. The creation of monsters by man in an attempt at being god is a failing that repeats to this day - hubris remains a common failing in humanity. The horror that is generated by these creatures is also very modern in its sensibilities - possibly even more so than when it was written.
HG Wells is such a key figure in the science fiction and this is one of his most important works. A must read for anyone interested in the history of the genre and it still reads in an entertaining fashion to this day.
One of the tropiest of tropefests I have read in a while. A poor prodigy brought to a fancy school unleashes a devil from a secret book. With nods to pretty much every YA trope out there this is not the most original or creative story out there. The prose is written well enough but the storyline was predictable, the teenage angst annoying and I found it ticking most of my pet dislikes within the genre.
I can kind of respect the idea behind this - using a character with FASD is a brave move. I can see the potential for a heartwarming story here. Did this book work for me? Not really. Might it work for other people? Perhaps.
The basic premise follows one of those oft repeated maxims of story telling - write about what you know. In this case, the author has chosen to set it literally in a writing workshop. It uses some of the other classic maxims as its themes, such as ‘show, don't tell'. Unfortunately, whilst preaching about these things it does tend to ignore them quite a lot. In fact to me quite a lot of the setting and theming came across a little bit lazy - even the character name ‘Hope Nicely' feels kind of lazy.
Where the author has put in the effort is in the research into FASD. I can believe that Hope Nicely is suffering from this and it is clear from her notes that she has researched this topic properly. The next question for me is how that affects me as the reader - the problem with reading from the perspective of a character who is perpetually confused is that the reader then ends up very confused.
To me this is a nice idea, but it doesn't quite work. It ends up being a bit lazy and confused.
A fascinatingly philosophical take on a ghost story.
The story is following the denizens of town approaching the one year anniversary of an accident that took the lives of 3 teenagers and left another permanently brain damaged. Only one survivor was largely unhurt. The accident happened during a police chase and the police officer involved has been left deeply affected as well. We follow the ghosts of the 3 who died, who are in turn following the people who were impacted by the crash. The subtext is that the ghosts who haunt you are largely made of your own mistakes, your own experiences. The trauma of the past is very much alive and the struggles to deal with the guilt is an especially strong theme.
This was a beautifully told story, deeply affecting in its subject matter. Losing children, friends or being the cause of an accident are deeply seated fears. Guilt is a powerful emotion. This is not a light read and the crushing sense of inevitability that is produced is fantastically powerful.
A horror takeover issue of GDM, this is wildly successful. The stories are on the shorter scale, but they are extremely well done. Whilst there is a strong horror theme, the stories are all also firmly in the the grimdark zone as well. The quality of the stories was extremely high and never really dropped, despite the bumper set of 6 stories. Most of them play with tropes in a delightful way. Probably the best issue I have read yet!
In general, I quite enjoyed this one. It has some issues with its structure, but the story and world building was pretty impressive. We are introduced to a world in the aftermath of a war between gods. The victorious god set up a storm of chaos and then went into hiding, leaving the mortal denizens of the world to deal with the monsters that come out of the storm. When something new comes out of the storm and starts kidnapping talented children, the motions of the book are set in motion - a mothers quest for her daughter. The overall story and world are dark and mysterious with some interesting underlying tensions. There is a pervading sense of moral uncertainty here - are the denizens behind the storm wall truly evil? The shades of grey here are subtle.
Where I struggled quite a lot is the structure. There is a lot of jumping around between time periods and POVs with often very little sign posting as to what is happening. This can be quite jarring in places, happening mid chapter and with no real indication as to what is happening in the text. It was badly in need of clearer structuring and better indication in the text when we are jumping between time zones/characters.
The story is well worth a read if you can get passed the messy structure!
This was the first book by Joe Lansdale that I have read and I'm not sure this was the best introduction. The stories cover quite a variety of topics, ranging from alt science to subtle takes on the vagaries of fame. There was little connecting sense of theme between the novellas included. The writing was interesting enough, the topics where sometimes sillier than others. It was an interesting dabble into a mind that obviously has plenty of weird and wild ideas. I think I need to try one of his novels to see how the ideas carry through a bit more though.
I love Sci Fi and I love Fantasy, but where they intersect I often struggle. Every Sky a Grave is very much in the Science Fantasy subgenre. We have a galaxy spanning empire, ruled over by a carefully balanced power intersection between the military and a quasi-mystical group who can destroy a planet with a word.
Here we follow an agent of the word, someone who can bring a collapse in planet with a phrase. She is sent on missions to excise planets which are deviating from the plan of the ruling authorities. Usually she is given a chance to refresh and recuperate between missions, but this time she is rushed out on a new mission personally sanctioned by the leader of her organization. This breach in protocol is just the start and we end up questioning the entire basis for the society that is being presented.
The space opera scope is undeniable, but I struggled a bit with the balance between our agents awesome power and her struggles on the ground. The political dimension is intriguing, but ultimately very convoluted. A lot of the motivations ended up confused. The concept and scope are brilliant - the execution ended up a little lost in its own grandeur. Ultimately this isn't a bad book. The fantasy elements of this however left me struggling with the more science fiction aspects and vice versa. I am quite picky with my science fantasy novels!
The loss of a child is possibly the most painful thing a parent can ever experience. I am on the cusp of parenthood myself and this story certainly hit hard! Treading the slightly tropey road of poverty in rural America, this story does not shy away from the brutal realities of this. We follow Eve, who's daughter was one of two 12 year olds found dead in a playground. She is struggling to deal with this loss, being supported by her brother. Her family is the poorest of the poor, brought up in crime in trailer park. She has been trying to break out of this and free her daughter from the cycle. The other dead child, her daughter's friend, is very much from the other side of the tracks - a wealthier family.
As always in these scenarios, the town holds many secrets. Loves, lies and honor are all poorly defined and not where you might expect. The twists and implications are well realised and the denouement is very satisfying. Overall an excellent example of small town crime and poverty in the US.
Son of the Storm is an intriguing addition to the fantasy genre - it takes a closed, African influenced society, buckling under the weight of immigration with a distant elite, eco disaster and racism, but all from a very different bias and perspective. The challenge is combining these elements into an accessible and fun story - in some ways it achieves this and in other places it falls a bit flat.
The story is told through a series of POVs, but I struggled a bit with a lot of the characters. Everyone here is flawed, and even if that is a realistic proposition I failed to find myself engaging with most of them. The best character is probably the out and out sociopath that is Esheme - she will do what it takes to get power. Danso and Lilong who fulfill the more heroic characters are a bit flat to me.
The world building is impressive however - the Eco disaster bearing down upon the society here, its struggles with immigration and the racism that breeds and the aloofness of the elites are brilliantly realised, especially the way everything is taken through an African tinted lens.
African fantasy is a bit of an emerging subgenre these days. I am pleased to see it, after years of white european fantasy it is refreshing to see stories influenced by different cultures. I have dabbled a bit and there have been some truly excellent examples (Rage of Dragons for example). This one has some lovely ideas, the execution is not perfect but it is a fascinating glimpse of a very different world
Very impressive! This reads at times like some of the historical TV soaps from China - somewhat silly and overly dramatic but at the same time a huge amount of fun, poignant and playing out across one of the key periods of turmoil in Chinese history. The search for identity and destiny are the key plot drivers. The genderqueer protagonists give one element of that - they are searching to find themselves. The whole thing is played across a civil war - essentially the whole country trying to find its identity too.
This is historical fantasy at its best, taking real events and subtly twisting them with a fantastical element. The fantasy is subtle, the stakes are real and the drama is on point. I can see where the comparisons are to the Poppy War - this book does not back away from the brutality inherent in war and it is a historical fantasy set in China, but for me that is where the comparisons end - it is a very different period being dealt with, the fantasy is not as in your face and the writing styles are quite different. There is more wit to Shelley's writing - a nod perhaps to the aforementioned Chinese TV shows - and the themes are more subtly portrayed. I do love them both but they are very different beasts.
Easily one of the best historical fantasy novels I have read, from any setting. So far my top read of the year.
On the face of it this is an interesting mix of reference points - eastern European folklore, paganism vs christianity, imperialism and cultural suppression. We follow the story of Evike, a pagan who is betrayed by her village and given as tribute to an imperialistic conqueror. But following betrayals and borderline civil war in that conquering nation she finds herself allied with a disgraced prince who has been betrayed.
The underlying themes are fascinating. The brutality of cultural suppression and cultural appropriation are taken on in an unflinching manner. Where I struggle is more in the character relationships, and the journey undertaken. Evike and Gaspar Barany relationship feels flat for much of the book to me. I struggle with some of the motivations in the characters. The marching up and down the country is exhausting to read and it feels repetitive. The themes are fascinating, the execution was not quite what I hoped for. It is still an interesting read, but unfortunately the characters ended up being a bit forgettable.
This is one of those books that the film is so well known that the book has kind of faded from the discourse a bit. This is a shame. Blatty's novel is an impressively ambiguous critique on faith vs science. I am probably a bit unusual in approaching this book without having seen the film. It is well written with a nice readable prose.
From what I have heard, the book manages to be significantly more ambiguous than the film. The film leaves you in little doubt that there is a devil possessing Reagan. The book is much more open to interpretation, and deliberately plays up that ambiguity - the conflict of science vs faith is central to the story being told here. The eeriness, tension and fear is all still here, but there is always an open question on whether this can be explained using science.
I do need to go and watch the film now - I honestly don't know how I have gone through 35 years of life without seeing it. I am intrigued to see how it compares with the novel, but the clips I have seen do seem to push the supernatural to the forefront compared to original novel
Epic, multibook fantasy seems a lot less common these days, but Jenn Lyon's A Chorus of Dragons is an intriguing new entry into this niche subgenre. The Ruin of Kings is an impressive setup. Told through two narrators of questionable reliability an impressive amount of world building and character development is achieved. We have some dubious prophecy, gods walking around as men and a deep history of conflict and conquest across multiple species. There is plenty to keep a fantasy nut interested!
Even though we have two narrators, the story follows a single character (one of the narrators) and is told from their perspective or from the jailor's perspective in alternating chapters, with their story tending to be more current compared to the jailor's telling of the older parts of their history. With roots in both the criminal underworld and the ruling upper classes we have an insight into all parts of the society we are witness to.
This was a fun read - plenty of swashbuckling action, myth building and general epicness. Whilst it falls into a few tropes in places, these do not feel to tired and the general sense of story is carried impressively through the alternating story telling. The voice of the narrators is clear enough too.
An impressive start to what is slated to be a 5 book arc. I look forward to seeing where this one goes!
The Dresden Files is one of those series held in hallowed regard by the SFF community, but previously I had struggled to get going in it. This was my second attempt at the first book in the series and I am glad I persevered. The combination of a wizard and PI is an intriguing one and the book leans heavily on its noir background. The fantastical elements do help lift it out of occasionally tropey territory. Dresden himself is a likeable protagonist and even if the first person perspective is initially a little jarring it settles into an easy to read style.
Urban fantasy is a big genre these days, largely driven by the YA market. It is actually quite nice to read an adult fantasy book with this setup. Everyone who has recommended the series to me says it only improves as you get further along. Having warmed up to this first book I have to admit I am now looking forward to where it takes me.
On a side note - the Grim Oak Press edition I am lucky enough to own is a gorgeous presentation of this. The artwork is spectacular and the leatherbound book is an object of great beauty.
The penultimate book in a story arc is always a challenging one. Everything needs to be set up for a grand finale so there tends to be a fair amount of character positioning and story prep. Rhythm of War is the 4th book in a 5 book first arc of the Stormlight Archives and has a lot of ground to cover. The main POV character who had previously all be brought together are now scattered apart to fulfill some key tasks. The war which has been going on is not exactly going brilliantly for our heroes - the fused are essentially immortal so a war of attrition is a bad one to be in. These are all challenging positions to tell and keep the reader interested - especially over a 1200 page book! Sanderson is however a master of the epic fantasy genre and holds together all his threads, keeps the reader interested and delivers a mightily impressive take on this, usually the most challenging book in a series.
I don't feel I need to rehash my praise of Sanderson's world building and character work - if you have got this far into such a massive series you should well be aware of it. He is a master of his craft and this is probably the best epic fantasy currently being written. Note: Stormlight Archives need to be read in order. I see too many reviewers of fantasy books starting in the middle of a series and then complaining about being confused. DO NOT START READING THE SERIES WITH THIS BOOK. Do yourself a favour and start from the beginning (The Way of Kings). Epic fantasy needs to be read this way. Sanderson has been clever enough to split his Cosmere into several self contained story arcs, but each arc needs to be taken as a total story and you can't jump in mid arc.
I wasn't sure what to expect from this one. My fiancée read it first but was quite dismissive of it - citing it as being generic and not especially creative. She is quite well read in the gothic genre so there may be some truth to that. A lot of other readers and reviewers have been raving about it online though. I have a lot less reading in this genre than she does so decided to give it ago and I found myself thoroughly enjoying it. The Mexican aspect of this is not really there - you are taken to a creepy European family's house in Mexico - the Mexico location ends up being entirely incidental to the plot. This gothic story really could be set anywhere. However, Silvia's writing style is easy to engage with. She creates an interesting sense of being trapped with an overbearing and frightening set of characters with ambiguous motives. The central mystery of the story is well revealed, even if the mechanism has been used before. To me this is a well executed take on the gothic story. Is it especially ‘Mexican' feeling? No. Is it hugely original? Probably not. Is it fun and easy to read with a satisfying denouement? I certainly think so. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The Icelandic branch of Nordic Noir is an intriguing one. That such a tiny and safe country can produce such impressive crime writing is impressive. Ragnar Jonasson is the third author from this small subgenre that I have tried (after Yrsa Sigurðardóttir and Eva Björg Ægisdóttir). There is definitely something about dark northern winters that give a particularly wild and bleak feel to Nordic noir and Ragnar captures this with aplomb in The Girl Who Died. Here we are are transported to a remote hamlet on a northern peninsular of Iceland, about as bleak and isolated as you can get. A young teacher from Reykjavik has been employed to teach the settlement's two young children. However, such small communities are close nit affairs and outsiders are distrusted and this is no exception. The sense of isolation of the location is effectively compounded by this culture and this loneliness and bleakness feeds effectively into the story as the protagonist takes to drink for comfort.
When a death occurs that is remarkably similar to an earlier one, the teacher starts digging. Ragnar uses the isolation of the setting, the secretive and tight nit nature of such isolated communities and the bleakness of Icelandic winters to conjure an effective and chilling crime mystery. I am a fan of Nordic Noir and this is a worthy addition to the oeuvre.
I think in these pandemic times the idea of apocalyptic plague takes on fresh horror and meaning. That being said, I haven't found what I would call a perfect rendition of this yet. Wanderers does come closer than some in having a believable plague with an interesting exploration in the corresponding collapse in society. The super AI guiding humanity to safety was however a weak point for me in that the required suspension of disbelief was too high - how could humans walk for weeks on end without any sustenance? It just does not work for me. However the story was epic enough to get passed these hurdles and the denouement was satisfying.
It is hard to avoid discussing this book without talking about the elephant in the room that is Stephen King's The Stand. I read The Stand earlier this year and found the quasi-mysticism of the ending very underwhelming. Wanderers treads similar pathways but is more satisfying for taking a slightly more sciencey approach. It is still quite a long way from a perfect plague book for me - the super AI theme felt very forced - but the overall story structure was definitely better than its better known King cousin. These books are similar in many ways but for me Wendig stuck the landing better.