Just brief thoughts on books I have/have been reading recently that I don’t plan to do a longer review on or that I’m just starting and a general update:
Bloodheir by Brian Ruckley - This is the second book in the Godless World trilogy that was released this month. I really didn’t enjoy Winterbirth but I took it at face value as the ‘first chapter set up’ book that many fans of epic fantasy have come to get used to and even give a free pass for. This series has made me stop doing that, enough is enough, and through two books nothing has occurred that was even remotely a surprise and wasn’t telegraphed at least several chapter before. More or less we have the son of a nation’s leader in waiting forced into the role by war who is now journeying with friends who sacrifice to teach him lessons. Meanwhile the last of his family - his sister - is off somewhere else which will almost assuredly play out as a final issue that needs to be rectified when the greater geopolitical ordeal (an invasion by people from the North - the core, and elite of which are segmented into ultra hip named castes called The Lore, the Battle and the Hunt - collectively called the even kewler Children of the 100, scions of a pseudo-Thermopylae defenders turned best at what they do) is brought to a tenuous conclusion. Meanwhile a half-breed with the highest midichlorian count taps into and causes a major disturbance in the Shared (the Force) and he is using the animosity between two nations for his own end: his name is not Palpatine. Now, how did Aeglyss (the Dark Lord) ascend? Pain and suffering. The part that is really aggravating is that Ruckley is a competent writer. He knows what his adjectives mean so he doesn’t tread the Newcomb path, he could write a contemporary epic fantasy and here is where lies the problem (or not)_. If you had never read even the most basic and elementary of introductory epic fantasy, be it by Brooks or Eddings, add the creative inflation of the times and you have Ruckley, and he can succeed in that scenario and this is not a bad thing. How many people did those aforementioned writers introduce to this entire industry? You throw in Bob Salvatore and you have what is undoubtedly (pre-Rowling) the majority of the first steps of many people today that constantly ponder the notions of R+L=J or await the further adventures of Locke Lamora. The issue is that this books gets caught up in comparisons by seasoned readers. Erikson throws us in the mix, with no supplies or weapons, Bakker allows us to be the storm not subject to it, Martin both feeds and laughs at attempts at guesswork - these are masterworks that others will (and in some cases already have) try to pull from decades from now, and Godless World is much more the generation of epic fantasy before than it is of this group. It’s more a rich man’s Brooks than it is a poor man’s Martin and I see more “what if David Gemmel wrote Epic Fantasy” more than I see an answer to the Big III. So in short he is writing the shit out of a story many have read before, and there is nothing wrong with that (for those who missed out or haven’t embarked yet), but for me, I have been here before - many times before - and while I recognize it’s both a functional and viable road - where I go, I don’t need roads
Lord Tophet by Gregory Frost - Really not so much a second book or sequel (described as ‘a novel of Shadow Bridge’) as much as it is completing the first book, a book (Shadow Bridge) that I thought was among the best of last year (see my review) and as I have completed Lord Tophet (scheduled for a July release), I definitely enjoyed Frost’s arc but it did come off rather tame and was brought to a conclusion in a rather hasty manner. There are still wonderful stories being told and I think Frost - like a Valente, and to a lesser extent Park - is really finding this new-old epic landscape and I just dig the whole Morgan of Hed’s great grand daughter walking the pattern in Amber feel the whole thing has but it is a bit neat, but is a story, of a story finding it’s story so it may be appropriate - I am going to reread some bits and try to get my thoughts in order. Still, very nice novel-length introduction to a setting that has infinite chapters that I hope Frost shares with us soon.
I’m not far enough into Matthew Hughes’ Template yet to offer anything. I’m also starting the Wicked Gentlemen by Ginn Hale (we offer exclusively the first two chapters) and Gary McMahon’s Rain Dogs - and up next is Ken Macleod’s Night Sessions. Ken Macleod, baby!
In regards to what else I’m working on, I initialized an interview with the aforementioned Gregory Frost yesterday, no schedule on when that will be done but look for that as it was kind of Mr. Frost to let us take another go at this as I was supposed to interview him earlier but a conflict with my move forced a delay. I also have an interview in the works dealing with a segment of comic book commentary which basically is on the wait and see schedule like the Frost interview. We will also have some cool things planned for Esslemont’s Return of the Crimson Guard (expect my review to accompany that toward the start of next month) and before all that my review of an Autumn War - and some comics stuff!
Next couple of weeks will also continue to feature exclusive excerpts from forthcoming novels from several publishers - lots of great exclusive sneak peaks to a lot of good reading coming up (and to continue beyond).
Busy, busy, but no burning out and on a good pace and with tons of stuff in the works!
6 responses so far ↓
1 neth // Jun 25, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Interesting thoughts on both Bloodheir and Lord Tophet.
After reading Winterbirth I was largely unimpressed, but didn’t he did a particularly bad job either. Mainly I thought there was potential for the forthcoming books. It sounds like that potential is unrealized, but I imagine I’ll see for myself eventually.
With Shadowbridge I made a point in my review that the success of Shadowbridge would be largely dependent upon Lort Tophet and if the novel(s) finish well. You seem to think that the potential was unrealized here as well. It’ll be interesting to see if my thoughts are similar when I read it.
2 jaytomio // Jun 25, 2008 at 2:58 pm
It (Lord Tophet) ended the way it had to end, but I didn’t really feel like it was plucking the right strings as if Frost was playing the right song but not on proper beat. Wait, I withdraw ‘proper’ it may have been what he was going on for, but in my view it came off very sudden and in a manner an epilogue isn’t enough to dramatically offset.
Ruckely’s series just doesn’t appeal to me. it’s neither the deep perceptive single character spotlight a Wolfe can pull off nor the ambitious huge, ensemble cast epics I tend to enjoy now.
3 Damon // Jun 25, 2008 at 8:13 pm
I didnt even like the Ruckely stuff and I think it was written for the type of reader that I am.
4 Larry // Jun 25, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Interesting thoughts on the Frost. I read LT a few weeks ago and like you, I was of two minds about it. The language, the stories - those are excellent, but there just seemed to be a slight false step at the end, noticeable enough to draw some attention, but not enough to detract from the whole, I thought.
5 jaytomio // Jun 27, 2008 at 2:02 am
Larry,
It’s very odd, but when I read the Clute review of Shadow Bridge (which I just read doing a little net research for my first wave of questions for the interview) I really thought he had gone daft until the very last sentence but after reading LT - and I agree - great stories, great language, just a great feeling reading the book period, but the end needed to be something lesser of an embrace for me and I feel like I missed a key sentence that puts it all together for me, that makes my thought moot or an error, but I don’t know. It’s absolutely still a duology (and it is a duology - not two separate books at all) that I highly recommend, not a book I’m at all warning people off of.
Damon, it’s odd you say because this is the book/series (Ruckley) I’d say you’d like if you started reading fantasy now, with the sensibilities of somebody brought up a decade or so later. There is often a lot of spewl written about writers who are extremely creative but can’t put together a competent cohesive story, and here we have just the opposite - Ruckley makes no false moves - but it’s too practiced - its just not very unique and what made say a Gemmell successful at this is that the vast majority of his books are decidedly stand-alone even if they were part of an arc.
6 Larry // Jun 27, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Those are the hardest type of reviews to write, the ones where all is flowing well until a hiccup at the end shatters the mood that had developed. I’ll write my review of LT in a couple of weeks and I’ll be generally positive with it, but that ending certainly will be discussed as much as I can without giving it all away. It’s as if at the end of an opera, the fat lady warbles for a moment, dispelling the images conjured up throughout the entire saga.
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