Winterbirth by Brian Ruckley

SteveF: Cunning technique to bookend some gentle criticism/observations with praise! Some interesting (and reasonable) thoughts there. I suppose I should spoiler tag my response to a couple of them, for the sake of consistency:

re: Kennet and his depression - in a sense I actually agree with you that I could have done more with Kennet, and I certainly agree that it would be interesting to have a fully-realised fantasy hero who suffered from accurately depicted depression. (I'm not quite sure how enjoyable it would be read, mind you.) That would be a challenging book to write, and it's not quite what I was aiming for with Winterbirth, but I obviously did make a conscious decision to include a 'medically' depressed minor character, and tried to make the depiction of that condition and its effects reasonably realistic, so it's nice you thought it sufficiently noteworthy to comment on.

And re: the question of black and white, 'baddies' etc. - no, you're right, I see pretty much all of the characters/factions in shades of grey. If the balance doesn't quite work for you yet, that's fair enough. I get what you mean about the reader's sympathies being dependent on chance encounters - though to an extent that reflects the book's tone, in that chance and circumstance play as big a role as 'right and wrong' - but I am hoping/aiming to drum up at least a smidgeon of reader sympathy for just about everyone by the end of the trilogy (even the White Owls!). I may or may not succeeed, of course!
 
Looks like book two, due in April, is called Bloodheir. Similar size as well by the looks of it.
 
Mithfânion said:
Looks like book two, due in April, is called Bloodheir. Similar size as well by the looks of it.
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Entirely correct. I'm in awe of your information-gathering skills, since the title's only been agreed for a couple of weeks and even I haven't got around to telling anyone yet ... You're not my editor, heavily disguised, are you? :)
 
Reluctant as I am to remove the Veil of Secrecy, the title and page count are listed on the Little Brown website ;)

Of course, no synopsis as yet so if you could oblige us with that one that would be great.
 
Found this in my bookstore tonight, settled into a nice armchair copy to read the first chapter (with husband next to me reading Nanny Ogg's Cookbook) and rather liked what I read.

I like grit. It isn't just the Australians yanno.

Sadly, Nanny Ogg won the battle of the wallet tonight, but I'm definitely buying this in the not too distantish future.
 
Mithfânion said:
Of course, no synopsis as yet so if you could oblige us with that one that would be great.
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Synopsis? Well, since you asked so nicely: Harry must finally face his destiny and challenge Lord V... Oh, no, hang on a minute - I'm thinking of something else ...
 
It's a very good read; just one question.
Not really a spoiler.....
but I was wondering whether the 3 other races would make an appearance in the trilogy?
 
U-Borat said:
It's a very good read; just one question.
Not really a spoiler.....
but I was wondering whether the 3 other races would make an appearance in the trilogy?
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The focus stays pretty firmly on humans (and Kyrinin to a lesser extent), but a little bit of 'diversification' creeps in as things progress, yes. Kind of. It's never really going to be a series for readers who like their fantasy to be a multi-species free-for-all, though.

For those who are into such things, by the way, the gazetteer section of my website has snippets of further info on races, history etc. - nothing particularly spoilerish, just background stuff, really.
 
Which leads me to my next, rather premature question;

Do you have anything else planned after Godless World?
 
Do you have anything else planned after Godless World?
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I have ideas - plenty of them - but I wouldn't glorify them with the name 'plans' just yet. My mindset at the moment is not to take anything for granted, and my contract with the publisher is just for these three books: if this trilogy does well enough that the publisher wants to hear what else I've got up my sleeve, there's certainly some stuff up there I can whip out and wave in their faces.

I don't know yet what'll be my preferred idea if and when that moment comes, but two things I'm as certain of as you can be of anything in this uncertain world: it'll be fantasy and the story won't take more than three books to tell.
 
Brian,

In the age of Terry Goodkind, Robert Jordan and George RR Martin, I'm thrilled to hear that you're determined to tell stories that take no more than three novels to complete. It's always a worry that every new and great series that comes out will eventually go the Robert Jordan route and extend far longer than necessary and burn itself out.

I just received my review copy of Winterbirth from Alex at Orbit books and will be putting together a review sometime around the US release of the book, so I'll be sure to post my thoughts here when I do that!
 
I'm really curious to see how Winterbirth will be welcomed by the American readership. The same goes for Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself.

Although extremely different in tone and style, both are good fantasy debuts, so it will be interesting to see how well they do on this side of the pond!:) I'm curious because sometimes what sells well in the UK doesn't do as well in North America, and vice versa. Did you guys know that foe years Robin Hobb outsold GRRM in the UK? So we'll have to keep an eye out for those two titles.

If you're short on your dough and you still want to get your hands on Winterbirth, you can win two signed copies here!:p

Patrick
 
I picked this book up yesterday, in Edinburgh oddly enough (been living up there for the last year studying publishing - but never knew about the book shop mentioned in this topic).

I'm having problems with it at the moment... maybe it's because I was tired after a long days journey and couldn't pay attention whilst on the train, but I got really confused with all the different "bloods". I'm guessing the title blood is like clan?

I picked up it having heard good things about it and because one of the reviews on the back said it was for lovers of heroic fantasy... so far I've really enjoyed the some parts of the few dozen pages I've read, but find I keep getting bogged down when it comes to the clan politics and who is at war with who etc.

As I said, it had been a long day and maybe I was a little zoned out. I'll be back at it tonight and so maybe my opinion will change!
 
Wulfa_Jones said:
I picked this book up yesterday, in Edinburgh oddly enough (been living up there for the last year studying publishing - but never knew about the book shop mentioned in this topic).

I'm having problems with it at the moment... maybe it's because I was tired after a long days journey and couldn't pay attention whilst on the train, but I got really confused with all the different "bloods". I'm guessing the title blood is like clan?

I picked up it having heard good things about it and because one of the reviews on the back said it was for lovers of heroic fantasy... so far I've really enjoyed the some parts of the few dozen pages I've read, but find I keep getting bogged down when it comes to the clan politics and who is at war with who etc.

As I said, it had been a long day and maybe I was a little zoned out. I'll be back at it tonight and so maybe my opinion will change!
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Yeah I also had difficulty with the bloods at first. It didn't help that I was reading it in small bits rather than large chunks.
Once the action got going at the castle then things went much better, I even got the hang of the naming. Very good read overall, pity it's going to be next may before the next book is out.

You'll have to write faster Brian:p
 
I've still not had a chance to really get into it as I've been pretty busy, but I'm a little further in and I'm starting to get to grips with it.

Still... I do think the author threw the reader in at the deep end and that a more gentle introduction would have been nice.
 
The Orbit US version of the book arrived on my doorstep, actually in front of my garage, a couple of days ago. A very nice looking book which I am anticpating reading.
 
My review:

Admittedly, I've come late to this party. Winterbirth, Book 1 of The Godless World Trilogy, was released at the end of 2006 and picked up some good press that put Ruckley firmly in the 'new wave' of epic fantasy writers alongside the likes of Abercrombie, Lynch, Rothfuss and Durham. With the second volume, Bloodheir, due in May, it seemed like a good time to catch up and see if this book warrants the acclaim.

The setting is the northern valleys of a continent riven by war. Centuries ago, the gods abandoned the world after a bloody war between two of the dominant races, the Huanin (humans) and Kyrinin (elves, with a few twists), and a third, the Wherinin (shapeshifters). The civilised human nations of the north-west fell apart in the aftermath of the war and the Bloods, tribes of warriors, arose in their stead. Among the Bloods a heresy took root, the Black Road, which states that the gods are merely awaiting for all of humankind to be united under the faith before they return. For their heresy, the Bloods of the Black Road were pushed back beyond the northern mountains and a guard set upon their return. But, after several centuries, the watch has grown lax and the Black Road has found new allies...

The set-up is pretty traditional for an epic fantasy. The Bloods of the Black Road, as perhaps can be predicted, launch a devastating invasion of the lands of the True Bloods, starting with the northern tribe of the Lannis-Haig. This family is almost wiped out save two members, Orisin and his sister Anyara, and their flight from the invasion over a towering mountain range is the principal driving force behind the narrative. Around this are an intriguing array of subplots revealing dissent within the Black Road, the political machinations of the most powerful True Blood warlord which is as great a threat to the Lannis-Haigs as their northern enemies; and the emergence of Aeglyss, the most powerful sorcerer seen in centuries.

The writing is pretty lean - Ruckley's writing is not as rich as Rothfuss nor as immediately striking as Abercrombie and Lynch - and Ruckley succeeds in transmitting a lot of information to the reader fairly quickly. There is a lot of groundwork to establish and unfortunately this requires moments of heavy-handed exposition or info-dumping, but once these are out of the way the story proceeds satisfyingly. None of the characters are particularly original, with Orisian falling into the 'young man doubtful of his ability who comes good in the end' archetype a little too predictably. On the other hand, Aeglyss is a very interesting antagonist and I suspect he will come to dominate the future volumes as a threatening force far greater than that of the Black Road. Winterbirth works well, with its action-adventure story forming a decent spine around which the political intrigue among and between the True Bloods and the Black Road is established and explored. On the other hand, it could be argued that the central narrative is rather slight for the book's length and the narrative is slowed by the groundwork being laid for future volumes. Also, the characters' names are very similar to one another, causing momentary confusion (and occasional flicking to the character list, which is never a good sign).

Winterbirth (***) is a solid, enjoyable debut novel which left me interested enough to pick up the sequel, Bloodheir, when it is published in May. The book is available now from Orbit in the UK and USA.
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I suppose it was 'very promising'. I suspect that, like Abercrombie, the rest of the series will turn out to be far more interesting than the first volume.
 
I've just finished Bloodheir by B. Ruckley, the sequel to Winterbirth. I loved Winterbirth and had high expectations for this one and I am happy to say that they were not disappointed.

Bloodheir - there are quite a few of them running around, though only on the last page or so it is revealed to whom the title applies and why - is still dark, bloody, bleak and with no truck for happy tidings of any sort. Just the way I like epic fantasy :). People who loved Winterbirth will love this one.

The story takes off exactly where Winterbirth stopped and follows mainly the same characters, Orisian, Aeglyss, Wain and Kanin, though The Shadowhand and Taim get more face time as do many other secondary characters from Winterbirth.

Winterbirth was in many ways the story of Orisian, and to a lesser extent of the others. Bloodheir is mostly the story of Aeglyss after his rebirth on the Stone of Tears. Many, many things happen, battles are fought, intrigues are spun and at the end of Bloodheir the situation is quite different than at the end of Winterbirth. There are no really major surprises, and I do not anticipate that many in the Fall of Thanes the last volume of the trilogy either since the story clearly leads there, but so what. The story is gripping, and I still want to find out what happens with several of the major characters. The characterization of Aeglyss and his inner and outer struggles are magnificent and while he may be supposed to be the villain of the story, he is by far the most interesting character of all now and he reminded me of S. Bakker Kelhus quite a few times, so I would not be surprised to see Aeglyss triumphing at the end or thoroughly defeated either...

Fall of Thanes is going to be one of my most anticipated books of (hopefully) next year.
 
I guess it's time to dust of Winterbirth and re-read it. I've forgotten most of the book but I remember enjoying it. If bloodheir is as good as the first book it will probably be one of my more enjoyable reads this year!
 
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