Reading in May 2009

[Apathy]

Alright, I read Ed Greenwood's Dark Lord and Arch Wizard in his Falconfar series. I think I should start off with saying that while the books are not that good, they are not total trash. He is able to describe scenes well, and his fighting scenes are energetic. But the books have been bugging me ever since I read them, becuase I know they COULD HAVE BEEN good books...perhaps.

The first problem is with the characters themselves. They seem to be totally static. They do not change even over hundreds of pages. Every character is for the most part unlikable, and I cannot seem to find any sympathy in myself for them (except for possibly the main character). The author also fails to flesh them out at all. He describes as the they are and does not even give a background besides their name and where they come from. The villians for the story are not impressive, as he describes their obsession with bondage sex more than the characters themselves. Greenwood introduces many characters, and he continues to introduce nearly 5 new characters at the very end of the book! These new characers get annoying when they take up several pages and seem to do nothing that truely impacts the story. And this brings us to the next point, which is plot.

Throughout the first book it was pretty obvious what was going on and where the author was going with the story. Find some magical place to restore some guy's memory, while avoiding the people who are trying to kill them. The first book got really old really fast when he made the characters repeat the same thing over and over. They would go to some place, rest then have to fight and run. This happened throughout the entire book.
The second book I had more hope for, becuase it seemed the main character had finally figured out what was going on, and was acting instead of only reacting. But it was extremely short lived...within the first 20 pages he was once again a bumbling fool. Strangely enough the main character did next to nothing in this book, and had less "screen-time" then a few other side-characters! After the main character's disgrace in the first 20 pages, Greenwood then started to describe a conflict in the region. It sounded interesting, but it was pretty much totally pointless as it could have been described in less. Much less. After the first descriptive third of teh book the characters in the story move around without much motivation, and I could not really care what happened in the story until something at the end caught my attention. An evil wizard sends minions to Earth to kill the authors responsible for "shaping" Falconfar. The minions go to the publishing house and kill lots of people and terrorize the rest. The ENTIRE thing sounded like some kind immature daydream so I had to laugh. And once again, it did not really impact what was going on in the story.

Man. The book had elements I like (people being blasted into oblivion, or cut into interesting pieces), but the story and characters are not convincing, and I do not really have any idea what the plot is about now that the second book is over. I think he is trying to go for something nebulous and all-encompassing like in a Malazan book, but Greenwood fails hard. I will probably not read anything from him again.

 

[BrightStar]

Alright, I read Ed Greenwood's Dark Lord and Arch Wizard in his Falconfar series. I think I should start off with saying that while the books are not that good, they are not total trash. He is able to describe scenes well, and his fighting scenes are energetic. But the books have been bugging me ever since I read them, becuase I know they COULD HAVE BEEN good books...perhaps.

I'd been thinking about giving Dark Lord a go, but after reading your comments, am thinking twice about doing so now. A shame, I thought it sounded interesting.

 

[Cranky Hamster]

Started Dave Duncan's The Alchemist's Apprentice today. Only 30-some pages in, but it's off to a good start. The amount of period detail is impressive without bogging down the pace of the story too much, and Duncan doesn't waste a lot of time getting his plot started. I'm looking forward to a good read if the quality keeps up.

 

[Apathy]

Started Dave Duncan's The Alchemist's Apprentice today. Only 30-some pages in, but it's off to a good start. The amount of period detail is impressive without bogging down the pace of the story too much, and Duncan doesn't waste a lot of time getting his plot started. I'm looking forward to a good read if the quality keeps up.

Just a warning, I read two of Dave Duncan's series before...and I found the first series I read to be garbage and the second to be quite good.

The first series, The Great Game to be one of my most hated series. There was little to no action, and the whole thing was talking and walking to places. And the author deliberately skipped action scenes to the extent where he SKIPPED THE CLIMAX OF THE SERIES ( UNACCEPTABLE!)

However, a couple years later, I then read The Gilded Chain: A Tale of the King's Blades ( or maybe it was Sky of Swords? Cannot remember...) and found it to be a fun, enjoyable, action book. The contrast was startling, so just beware, not sure what kind of style he is going to write with, or it was just VAST improvement. It might have been improvement since Great Game was written in 1995, and the Gilded Chain was 1999.

If that book continues to be good though, please share your findings.

 

[Apathy]

Read the three books, Inititate, Outcast, and Master that consist of the Time Master Trilogy by Louise Cooper. These are some well-written books full of action, fantasy, and romance(always seem to find romance in almost every book). From the start it was apparent to me that I was not going to waste my time on another book akin to Arch Wizard by Ed Greenwood. I felt some interest and sympathy with every character, and it was enjoyable watching(reading?) them throughout the trilogy. The main characters were well-fleshed out for the most part so you could understand their motivations and what they choose to do in the future. It always annoyed me when characters seem to do things that are not in their nature, and the author really made the characters do just what was in their character to do. I also need to congratulate the female author for creating a likable, and beleivable male character( a lot of female authors tend to make them too...mushy, and touchy feely, which is nasty and unmanly. A man needs to KILL THINGS! Not whine and cry over everything...(sorry, bad flashback to a book a while ago )). Well, yea, I really liked the main characters, even the ones that I could not agree with. Although I found the motivation of Saska to be incomprehensible, but she is not one of the characters that mattered to me anyway, so, eh.

How do I make one of those spoiler warning things? I want to state something to those who read it already....

Anyway, this trilogy kept me reading it for 2 days straight, and I heartily recommend it. Not just to "teenage girls" as I read on a review on another site. Try it. You will not be disappointed.

 

[BrightStar]

Read the three books, Inititate, Outcast, and Master that consist of the Time Master Trilogy by Louise Cooper.

Yay, someone else that's read the Time Master Trilogy. I am a huge fan of Lousie Cooper, (have been ever since I read the Time Master Trilogy) and I cannot recommend her books enough (though she often seems to get very mixed opinions from readers-I don't know why, I find her writing pretty solid and her plots are really gripping).

The Time Master trilogy is actually a sort of "re-write" of a previous book she wrote called Lord Of No Time. Apparently, her editor encouraged her to extend LONT into a three part series, based on the success of her original story. Hence the Time Master Trilogy. I have LOTN on my to read pile, and I'm looking forwards to seeing how it compares to the trilogy. I've heard some readers claim that it's actually better.

Cooper has produced quite a long list of books now, so if you're interested in reading more by her, you'll be happy to know that there's a lot to look forwards to.

If you enjoyed The Time Master trilogy, then I strongly recommend The Chaos Gate Trilogy (followup to the Time Master Trilogy). It takes its time to get where its going, and can be slow in parts, but I enjoyed it a great deal. Though the plot was slightly less interesting than Time Master, I thought the characters were a lot stronger, their motives clearer and overal the pacing better organized. I seem to recall Chaos Gate having lesss of a romantic influence than Time Master.

Her list of standalone books is pretty extensive. I've read almost all of them now, and can happily recommend them to anyone that enjoys her writing. The only exception would be The Blacksmith which is the only book by her that I just couldn't finish. It was far too slow and the plot and characters didn't grip me at all. Most of her standalones do have a stronger romantic influence. Also, there's The Spiral Garden which is a collection of short stories written by her. These were well written, but not very memorable.

You might also enjoy the Indigo series (which consists of seven books-the first one of which is called Nemesis). I've just finished book five, (Troika) and am still enjoying the series very much.

There's also The Star Shadow Trilogy, which is a prequel to the Time Master Trilogy. I haven't read that one yet. It was extremely difficult to find about a year ago, but I think maybe they re-released it-I've seen it at quite a lot of places since then. It's also on my to read pile.

 

[Astra_]

I'm reading "The Master and Margarita" from Mikhail Bulgakov right now. I think it fits into the limitations of this thread well while it is a fantastic horror satire. It is actually one of the best books I've read for a long time (if not ever). If anyone else have read the book, please say what you thought of it. I would love to discuss this book.

I have read it. Twice. I really enjoyed it but I am not sure I was mature enough to understand it completely. For me, there was only the fantasy/mystic & adventure parts of the story, although I believe there is quite a bit more to it. One day, I am planning to re-read it once again.


Anyways,
Finished The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie and started Before They are Hanged.

I don't see what all the hype around the book was about. I enjoyed reading it and the fact that I started to read book II immediately after the book I, instead of taking a break and reading at least one stand alone says a lot, but it is not outstanding. It is not brilliant, fantastic. It is just quite good
One serious flaw, is a missing map. I think I have seen somewhere on Joe's blog or his website that he doesn't like maps and thinks it is unnecessary but I disagree and thanks to a The First Law's fan Scubamarco, who created 2 wonderful maps, I can enjoy the books a lot more.

 

[BrightStar]

I'm reading Tower of the King's Daughter at the moment, by Chaz Brenchley. It's a decent read so far, not loving it, not hating it, but interested enough to keep reading it. Previously, I've read his Selling Water by the River duology, which I thought was really good, so I'm hoping TotKD will be equally rewarding.

 

[Gilgamesh]

Blood Of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski

As promised, I wrote a quick review of Blood Of Elves.

 

[Aurian]

How do I make one of those spoiler warning things? I want to state something to those who read it already....

Just type [spoiler.] and [/spoiler.] around the stuff you want hidden from view (and remove the periods).

 

[BrightStar]

I'm still enjoying my read through of The Tower of the King's Daughter at the moment, and am thinking about ordering the next book in the series. Anyone else read this series? I'm wondering whether the rest of it is up to the same standard as the first book.

 

[Trinuviel]

I'm still enjoying my read through of The Tower of the King's Daughter at the moment, and am thinking about ordering the next book in the series. Anyone else read this series? I'm wondering whether the rest of it is up to the same standard as the first book.

I have this trilogy on my shelf but haven't read it yet. But I aboslutely loved the novel he wrote under the pen name Daniel Fox.

 

[BrightStar]

I aboslutely loved the novel he wrote under the pen name Daniel Fox.

Oh! I didn't know he wrote under a different name as well. What was the name of his novel as Daniel Fox?

 

[suciul]

I'm still enjoying my read through of The Tower of the King's Daughter at the moment, and am thinking about ordering the next book in the series. Anyone else read this series? I'm wondering whether the rest of it is up to the same standard as the first book.

Loved it - all 6 (US ed - UK there are 3 big); if you liked book 1 you will like the rest, same quality.

Dragon in Chains is under Daniel Fox byline - have it but did not get to yet

He also has the River duology as Chaz Brenchley - good writing but I do not like "harem books" that much, so I did not like that as much as the Tower series

 

[BrightStar]

Loved it - all 6 (US ed - UK there are 3 big); if you liked book 1 you will like the rest, same quality.

Yeah, I was a bit confused about that, actually. They have all six books listed at amazon.co.uk which really threw me off a bit-when I brought book one, I was pretty certain it was a trilogy. If my understanding is correct, the three UK editions are: The Tower of the King's Daughter, Feast of the King's Shadow and Hand of the King's Evil. The other three are US editions, and - from what I read - have been very much shortened. Just curious, but does anyone know why that is?

He also has the River duology as Chaz Brenchley - good writing but I do not like "harem books" that much, so I did not like that as much as the Tower series

I liked his River duology, thought the world was fascination and the story and its characters really deep and interesting. Although I do recall that I did slightly enjoy the first book more than the second in the series.

 

[Trinuviel]

Oh! I didn't know he wrote under a different name as well. What was the name of his novel as Daniel Fox?

It's an Oriental fantasy titled Dragon in Chains - there's a link to my review in the book club thread.

 

[Cranky Hamster]

Just a warning, I read two of Dave Duncan's series before...and I found the first series I read to be garbage and the second to be quite good.
[...]
If that book continues to be good though, please share your findings.

I read on Duncan's website that he considered The Great Game to be a not-entirely-successful experiment in which he tried to do something radically different with his writing style, so the King's Blades books are probably more representative of his body of work. I haven't read them though, so I'm guessing on that.

About a third of the way through The Alchemist's Apprentice and it continues to be solidly good, not quite great. Duncan's pretty bad at writing women. Not offensive so much as just loltastic; his handling of Violetta the courtesan is particularly wtf. But the narrator is convincing, for the most part, and I'm enjoying the historical details. I took a fair amount of Renaissance Italian history in college, and everything I've read so far rings true. Usually fantasy novels manage to include at least one wallbanger moment of anti-historical stupidity in the first hundred pages; I'm happy to have found an exception.

 

[kcf]

I finished up A Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin last week. I really enjoyed it - her approach to urban magic in London is amazing.

Up now is The Nights of Villjamur by Mark Charan Newton.

 

[suciul]

Yeah, I was a bit confused about that, actually. They have all six books listed at amazon.co.uk which really threw me off a bit-when I brought book one, I was pretty certain it was a trilogy. If my understanding is correct, the three UK editions are: The Tower of the King's Daughter, Feast of the King's Shadow and Hand of the King's Evil. The other three are US editions, and - from what I read - have been very much shortened. Just curious, but does anyone know why that is?

In the US, the 3 UK books got split into two each so there were six; Tower of King's Daughter (UK) became Devil in the Dust first half of it and Tower of King's Daughter (US) - second half of the UK book same title, and the rest had a similar cut with two new titles for the first halves and the old titles preserved for the second halves - very, very confusing and people wonder why some great series like this one do not sell that well...

 

[BrightStar]

In the US, the 3 UK books got split into two each so there were six; Tower of King's Daughter (UK) became Devil in the Dust first half of it and Tower of King's Daughter (US) - second half of the UK book same title, and the rest had a similar cut with two new titles for the first halves and the old titles preserved for the second halves - very, very confusing and people wonder why some great series like this one do not sell that well...

Yikes, that is very confusing!

Not only is it confusing, it also doesn't make much sense to me at all. It's a shame that the series hasn't gotten more recognition; I'm really enjoying The Tower of the King's Daughter and already ordered the next book.

Didn't the Rivers series come after the Outremer series? I'm surprised, in a way, if it did. Outrememer feels a lot more polished than Rivers (though I enjoyed Rivers a great deal).