Fantasy Novel Wrap-up

In case you were wondering about the epic dropoff in Mmmm, Opinions at the end of June, you should probably know that I was on vacation in France and therefore not really interested in trying to write posts on my phone. What you may not know is that the main focus of this particular France trip (and its predecessor in 2008) is the following list: drinking wine, eating, swimming in the Mediterranean, reading, and playing cards. Since I don't know a thing about wine (except that Bordeaux kicks me in the ass), I will be reviewing the multitude of books I read over the 9 days I spent on the lovely shores of southern France.

Also, they are all in the fantasy genre and they all are apparently the first books in their respective series, a fact I wish I had known going in. I guess it might pay off to actually judge a book by its cover once in a while. You know, or at least read the cover.

There will probably be spoilers in here, because that's how I get down.

The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett -

The main idea in this book is that once it's dark out, evil monsters called "corelings" come out of the ground and start fucking everyone's shit up. The only way to stay safe is to carve special symbols (the wards) into the houses or city walls or into specially set up poles to form a sort of bubble. If you screw up, the corelings come in and pretty much slaughter everyone around. Probably a good reason to double-check your work.

The story centers around 3 people who start off not knowing each other but eventually become intertwined in their struggle against the corelings. There's Arlen, whose mother was killed by corelings while his father was too scared to do anything. He eventually becomes the titular "Warded Man." Next is Leesha, a girl whose promised husband turns out to be a major douchebag so she becomes a healer ("Herb Gatherer" in the book) instead, only to find out that these Herb Gatherers have lots of coreling-killing secrets. Hot diggity dog! Finally there's Rojer, an orphan whose parents are killed by corelings in an attack that also results in his losing a few fingers and his being raised by a Jongleur, which is a fancy entertainer. Rojer learns that his kick-ass fiddling skills actually have a sort of control over the corelings, which means he's a valuable dude. At the end of the book, the three of them end up in the same place at the same time, and it's implied that they will be adventuring off together in the next book.

This is one of the first fantasy books I've read where there really isn't a gray area. People = good, corelings = bad. Not a whole lot of intrigue going on here. I kind of like it. There are still some plot twists, so it's not boring, but I don't have to read about all sorts of Machiavellian schemes for 400 pages. The next book is The Desert Spear, so I'll be picking that up whenever it comes out in paperback.

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch -

In a city that is clearly ripped from some place Italian, the world of criminals coexist peacefully with the nobles and city watch as long as they follow the "Secret Peace," which means they can rob all the merchants they want but have to stay away from any nobility and any watchmen. The only problem is that Locke doesn't really care for the rules, and that someone else wants to shatter the Secret Peace and kill off the nobility. Uh oh.

This book is a somewhat short story mixed with a bunch of flashbacks to explain how Locke and his band of "brothers" got to where they are. It was very entertaining, and finishes off one story before letting you know there could be a next one. It's a bit like the first Matrix or Pirates of the Caribbean movie, where they could actually stand alone instead of being obvious stepping stones in a trilogy. It also didn't end with me hanging, unlike The Name of the Wind (which was awesome, except that now I want the next book and it isn't coming out until at least 2011. Drat.), so I can feel like I finished something. Hooray for that feeling of accomplishment.

I liked the book a lot. I actually had to keep reading even when I was really sleepy like I was some kind of addict. I am pretty excited about the sequel, since I have to assume it will be equally well written.

The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V. S. Redick -

A giant boat (it's like a floating city. . . with cannons!) is supposed to be carrying the ambassador's daughter to her wedding with a noble of her country's long-time enemy, with the idea that this will result in peace. The only problem is that the boat is actually carrying tons of soldiers and an evil mage who's planning to use the wedding as a distraction while they absolutely annihilate the enemy country and probably pillage it and stuff. The only one who can stop it is. . . well, I don't know yet. The first book ended on kind of a cliffhanger.

I am pretty sure the main good guys are a shipboy named Pazel, the ambassador's daughter Thasha, a tiny warrior clan woman named Diadrelu (they are like a foot tall or less), a sneaky guy named Hercól who was supposed to be dead but wasn't really, and Pazel's friend Neeps, which is short for something that I forgot. They also have a mage working with them, except that he's actually from a different world and has less power when he travels to their world. And also he takes the form of a ferret. I think a magical ferret would probably be one of the most awesome things ever! With that lineup, how can they lose?

The book was ok. There was a lot of stuff happening on ships, and I know pretty much nothing about ships or boats or dinghies or anything. I need some kind of ship diagram so I can figure out what's going on with the different terminology. Other than that, the rest of what was going on what pretty cool. Poor Pazel has possibly the worst luck in the entire world. That kid just can't catch a break. But he's got some secret magic powers, so he'll probably end up ok. The next book isn't coming out in paperback until after Christmas, and that means that I've got a while to learn about seafaring so I can better understand what's happening.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin -

Some girl whose grandfather is like the king of the world gets summoned to the capital city and finds out that she is now one of the potential heirs to his position along with two of her cousins. One cousin is a stupid bitch and the other is a drunken jackass. Also, the people who run the government have some kind of power over the gods or gods' children (who may also be gods) and that is probably important.

I can't get into this book. It's been over 100 pages and the writing style just annoys me. I think there's just something about the lack of coherence that bothers me. It's like reading one of my blog posts, except that is goes on for hundreds of pages. Grrrr! Get some consistency!!

This book is called "Book 1 of the Inheritance Trilogy," which means that there are at least 2 more books coming out that I won't be reading. Sorry, N.K.

And that wraps up most of what I read on vacation. I also read the 3rd book in The Long Price Quartet, but I didn't want to include it because it didn't fit in with the theme of the rest of this piece. I may do something after I finish all four of them, but don't count on it. I've got a lot of other things being cooked up in my brain right now, so you can get excited about those instead.

-Jon

The Night Angel Trilogy is. . .

good, but I probably should have read it before I read the Mistborn Trilogy. Which I didn't write about, because I forget things sometimes. So sue me. Unless you're Rick Reilly and you're suing for defamation.

The books are pretty recent (2008 if the inside covers can be believed) and they feel like the dude who wrote them is kind of new to big-time writing. The story is really good, and it's got magic and swords and people acting all crazy, which means it's right up my alley. But there are some parts that are weird, and just feel kind of awkward.

For instance, the author uses the word "fuck" and various derivations thereof even more than Slick. That's a lot of cursing. I mean, I like cursing as much as the next guy, but at some point it just gets gratuitous. Heh heh, that's a fun word. Also, in the 3rd book there are something like 100 chapters for 700 pages. It's not like we're talking a Dan Brown ratio (where you can sometimes get 3 or 4 chapters in a single page) but that's a little silly.

The good parts are the fact that it's got people that have magic. Yeah, I'm a pretty big nerd. Or geek. Whichever one is better. And in the end, the good guys win, which is pretty much all the time in this genre. I think a funny joke would be to write a book series and have this elaborate buildup for like 3 books, and then the bad guys win in the end. I bet people would flip. Hmmm, maybe I have something to do this summer. Right, back to the book. I guess all the characters that aren't the "main" character are pretty awesome too. Sometimes it was weird because there were a bunch of chapters in a row that didn't even touch on the main guy. Of course, that was only like 20 pages, but it's still weird to leave out the star. It might have been a good plan to ignore him temporarily though, because sometimes he was a jackass and made me wish he would die.

In the long run, it ends up being a pretty good sci-fi/fantasy tale. It's not nearly as long-winded as The Wheel of Time and it actually came out unlike the last 3 books of A Song of Ice and Fire (fuckin' George R. R. Martin. . .), so it's got that going for it. Seriously, what is Martin's game? I swear I read A Feast for Crows right around when I moved to Munsing, and that was a long time ago. At least Robert Jordan has an excuse for delaying his books, what with his being deceased and whatnot. Martin is just being a fat, hairy douche.*

Where was I? Oh right, The Night Angel. Pretty good books. Not exactly up to Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn books, but I'm glad Amazon suggested them.

Final verdict? If you like any of the other books I've mentioned here, you will probably like these ones as well. They will help you kill time until Martin gets off his ass and publishes A Dance With Dragons, or the last Wheel of Time books come out in paperback.

-Jon

*I already knew Martin was fat and hairy before I wrote this, so it doesn't count as research. Also, I hope his Wikipedia page doesn't change the picture at any time soon, because then my link will look stupid.

Outliers is. . .

a great book. I would be referring to Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. I am not sure if there are any other books with the same or similar titles, because I didn't feel like looking it up.

I have previously read Blink, but that was before I decided to mouth off periodically on the internet. Or possibly it was after, but I was too lazy to write about it. Either way, I was a fan of that book and figured I'd give Gladwell's other stuff a try. Since Chuck got The Tipping Point for his birthday, there wasn't much point in buying that one, so Outliers it was.

Now, if you know me, then you already know that I am a nerd. That means that a book with lots of data and junk like that is already going to be appealing to me. However, the book is actually very well written and interesting to read. There is a lot of information, but it's not like a boring textbook with everything in stupid tables that I never bother to look at and end up being confused later when the author refers to them. Plus, the main idea of the book is something that I have always thought: anyone is capable of being successful if they put work into it. Nobody gets to be a millionaire/billionaire/trillionaire just by luck. Even the people who catch the right breaks still have to bust their asses to make it big. Now I just wish there was a way I could convey that information to my students, since apparently they are all going to be rich or famous or rich and famous even though only a small fraction of them are willing to work hard at anything. It will be an interesting future for them.

I read the entire second half of the book today, which says a lot because there was also curling on, meaning a good chunk of my time was spent yelling at the TV announcer. Seriously, how come people think it's a good idea to let anyone announce a sport just because they played it? Does no one else notice Troy Aikman's lack of coherence?

Sorry, off topic there.

All in all, I am glad I read Outliers and I'm looking forward to The Tipping Point. Or maybe I'll read one of the other 10 new books on the bookshelf. Or maybe even get around to finishing Al Gore's travesty, The Assault on Reason. Ok, just kidding about that last one. What an awful book that was, at least at the beginning. Although I can't imagine it getting better. Stick with being a global warming hypocrite there, Al.

Final verdict? Read the book. Just don't ask to borrow my copy. As Amy can tell you, I am a little bit crazy about my books.

-Jon