*****/***** (5/5)
A lot of readers nowadays will eat up Harry Potter but won't touch the fantasy genre otherwise, harboring a healthy aversion to "elves, dwarves, dragons." It's an unfortunate stigma because there's a lot of books in science fiction and fantasy (SFF) written for adults and contains content and themes suitable for adults. That is, SFF books adults can enjoy and don't have to be ashamed of reading. Matthew Woodring Stover authors SFF a lot of us can enjoy. Deliciously arrogant about his views and books, author Matt Stover espouses mature content and themes. Not to mention damn fun reading.
Thankfully, Matt's Caine books are standalone novels, and you don't have to read a host of books just for the sake of continuing the overall story arc. Chronologically, HEROES DIE comes first, BLADE OF TYSHALLE second, but they're independent stories and only familiar characters connects the two. The Star Wars franchise took notice of Matt's writing and contracted him for several Star Wars novels after BLADE OF TYSHALLE (REVENGE OF THE SITH novelization, for example). He's finally returning to his Caine novels and I'm eagerly awaiting his next Caine novel slated for a mid-2008 release now.
Here's a brief review of HEROES DIE:
There's something really powerful and poignant about an old-fashioned struggle for love. At this book's core, we find the quintessential and ageless strife for love. Needless to say, HEROES DIE was a vastly immersing, engaging and enjoyable reading experience for me.
The science fiction/fantasy worlds of HEROES DIE manage to completely blur our idea of right and wrong & good and evil. At times, I find myself pitted against our protagonists, just beginning to understand the death and destruction they cause. At other times, I find myself behind his or her actions. No matter the reader's position or the storyline backdrop, you will always find yourself feeling something. As one of the mad characters mentions in the story, "Anything that is done out love takes place beyond good and evil..."
And trust me, there is never a dull moment. Stover packs every page with action and fervor. With a finale that had me shaking and unable to stop reading until I finished the book, I found myself riveted throughout.
Anti-hero Caine is an assassin in the gritty fantasy world of Overworld; Caine is notorious for killing many key figures in Overworld, kings and innocent commoners alike. Back on a futuristic Earth plagued by rigid social hierarchies dependent on affluence, Caine is Hari Michaelson. Actors such as Hari portal into the fantasy world of Overworld and incite death, destruction and chaos, all for the entertainment of the masses back on futuristic Earth. Overworld is real though, and not some virtual concoction so the people killed back on Overworld represent brutal finality. When the story begins, we're introduced to a bitter Hari estranged from his wife and wanting nothing more than to have her back. His wife Shanna plays the powerful sorceress Pallas Ril in Overworld.
I think the best way to describe Stover's writing: a fantasy romp. Gritty, realistic, and thoroughly entertaining. HEROES DIE contains graphic language and violence so use some discretion.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Ong-Bak, directed by Prachya Pinkaew [4]
****/***** (4/5)
CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON has nothing over ONG-BAK (2003), and for a martial arts marvel, check out ONG-BAK. I caught a copy with English subtitles, and boy, was it nothing short of breathtaking! Based on a recommendation by Matt Stover's fan-based community, I'm glad I finally watched this, as rare as my movie-watching days are. Fasten your seat belt, prepare to be awed by some of the moves and exhilarated by the stunts. ONG BAK qualifies as a wondrous martial arts spectacle molded for the modern age.
Tony Jaa plays Ting, a muay thai fighter from a small village in Thailand, sent on a quest to Bangkok to retrieve a revered statue of Buddha, Ong Bak. Villagers worship the statue and believe it ensures the safety and prosperity of their village both in terms of violence and a fruitful harvest. Don, a former villager turned criminal, removes the head from the statue and takes it to Bangkok, to curry favour from the crime lord Khom Tuan. Ting follows Don to Bangkok and fights to return Ong Bak back to its rightful place.
Nothing special in the story here or the characters themselves. The action and fight scenes however -- wow! Nothing short of impressive, masterfully-choreographed, intense, exhilarating, thrilling, eye-popping and aesthetic in its own style. In the end, thoroughly entertaining and I'm sorry I don't see more movies like this.
CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON has nothing over ONG-BAK (2003), and for a martial arts marvel, check out ONG-BAK. I caught a copy with English subtitles, and boy, was it nothing short of breathtaking! Based on a recommendation by Matt Stover's fan-based community, I'm glad I finally watched this, as rare as my movie-watching days are. Fasten your seat belt, prepare to be awed by some of the moves and exhilarated by the stunts. ONG BAK qualifies as a wondrous martial arts spectacle molded for the modern age.
Tony Jaa plays Ting, a muay thai fighter from a small village in Thailand, sent on a quest to Bangkok to retrieve a revered statue of Buddha, Ong Bak. Villagers worship the statue and believe it ensures the safety and prosperity of their village both in terms of violence and a fruitful harvest. Don, a former villager turned criminal, removes the head from the statue and takes it to Bangkok, to curry favour from the crime lord Khom Tuan. Ting follows Don to Bangkok and fights to return Ong Bak back to its rightful place.
Nothing special in the story here or the characters themselves. The action and fight scenes however -- wow! Nothing short of impressive, masterfully-choreographed, intense, exhilarating, thrilling, eye-popping and aesthetic in its own style. In the end, thoroughly entertaining and I'm sorry I don't see more movies like this.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
A Feast for Crows, by George R.R. Martin [1]
*/***** (1/5)
Unlike much formulaic epic fantasy overflowing in bookstores nowadays, many readers of SFF acknowledge George R.R. Martin's (GRRM) A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF) series as hip, trendy, and really for adults. Not since JRR Tolkien's THE LORD OF THE RINGS has an author captured so many readers. It brings back the medieval setting in fantasy in a big way, it's politically intriguing, historically rich, it's epic (big index), it's dark, it's unique (each chapter is written from a single character's point-of-view all over GRRM's world), and consists of a large cast of characters.
Unfortunately, it's also incomplete, and although the first 3 installments were completely engrossing, I found the latest installment (A FEAST FOR CROWS, 2005) pretty bad. Read the first 3, but skip this one, and wait until GRRM deigns to finish the upcoming A DANCE WITH DRAGONS in the next decade or so.
So far, in the A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF) series:
1. A Game of Thrones, (AGOT), 4/5
2. A Clash of Kings, (ACOK), 3/5
3. A Storm of Swords (ASOS), 5/5
4. A Feast for Crows, (AFFC), 1/5
"Above [the archers of Riverrun] streamed the banners of House Tully, the silver trout defiant on its striped field of red and blue. But the highest tower flew a different flag: a long white standard emblazoned with the direwolf of Stark."
(I always get goosebumps when I read this quote about the Stark flag)
I found A FEAST FOR CROWS such poor quality reading material, I can hardly believe George R.R. Martin's (GRRM) name on the book. Is the prose rich? It sure is, GRRM doesn't disappoint in that department, it's the subject of his prose which fails to move in the least.
It would appear George R.R. Martin can no longer discern the forest from the trees. He tells us the story has grown on its own accord and the pages and chapters we find in this book are somehow "necessary". A story growing on its accord is a sure indication of pumping the reader with pointless, worthless content. The subject material contained within 680 odd pages of this book could be summed up by a few sentences.
This book clearly forces stories where there are none.
The book invites the reader to read 680 or so pages of inane, mindless drivel for something to happen. Nothing ever does. A classic case of epic fantasy syndrome.
You know something is wrong with a book when each word of each sentence of each paragraph of each page of each chapter is read just to move on. And after you've finished the current chapter, you have another scintillating Cersei or Brienne chapter just around the corner; yes, I know, you're about to burst with excitement, contain yourself!
In the end, this book represents filler material, nothing more, nothing less.
This book contains so much additional history and so many additional characters and geneology of this person and that person and so many stories within stories, I find it hard to imagine any reader captured by any of it. I was mesmerized by the telling of the tourney at Harrenhal from 3 different perspectives in ASOS (the crannogmen, Jaime, Ser Barristen Selmy). The histories and stories within stories and the exponentially growing cast of characters contained in this book are so numerous and seemingly extraneous, I found myself reading just to arrive at an end, ANY end.
The pages and chapters comprising the 2 new perspectives - Cersei & Brienne - are by far the most numerous. Unfortunately, they are also a cure for insomniacs, boring, uneventful and dull, at least until the very end. Cersei's chapters doesn't inspire (anything) in the least, driving both Cersei and the reader to insanity from the mindless drivel contained therein.
SPOILERS ahead.
Cersei's chapters: she discovers Tywin has been murdered, goes to her father's funeral (so for 2 Cersei chapters we're still tying loose ends from the previous book), oh joy we get another meeting of the King's Council, more proceedings at court (as if all those meetings in AGOT and ACOK weren't enough, we had to have one from Cersei's perspective, so much better, right?), Cersei convincing a catspaw to kill Bronn, Cersei re-arming the Septons in exchange for a debt forgiven and a blessing, etc., etc.
Brienne's chapters: oh the beautiful contryside, the grass, the trees, the hedges, the burnt fields, traveling to Maidenpool, heading out from Maidenpool, oh back to Maidenpool, oh nevermind, heading out from Maidenpool again, etc., etc. And yes we know the common, small folk are in bad shape. Arya's chapters in ACOK & ASOS already shed light on that common element. We don't need Brienne's chapters showing us the same thing... yet again. GRRM sprinkles in a little sword fighting to spice things up as Brienne kills some Bloody Mummers she meets on the way to her hanging.
I’m still at a loss to explain Brienne’s presence in this novel, other than of course take up space and inflate a poor novel with more drivel. In Brienne’s last chapter we meet for the second time the thing that used to be Catelyn Stark (we met her first in aSOS) who "lives" (if you can call it that) for one purpose and one purpose alone: vengeance. After mindless traveling and some killing for good measure, Brienne ends her travels in aFFC in the hands of outlaws, and hangs at the Thing’s command along with an innocent Podrick Payne. Even though it was Brienne who actually saved the children at the inn? How come her sacrifice at the inn to save the children didn’t come up at her "judgement?" How come none of the children spoke for her? Yes, I’m still at a loss.
The goal of Brienne's traveling - Sansa Stark - dwells at the Eyrie as Alayne Stone, Petyr Baelish's natural daughter. At the end of ASOS, the reader received a preview of the training and tutelage Sansa will receive from the master of A Game of Thrones, Littlefinger. After a couple Alayne chapters, our suspicions are confirmed as Sansa sheds a little more of her innocent ignorance and learns more and more from Littlefinger. Sansa understands for herself that Littlefinger actually payed off Corbray to oppose him. As we could have guessed from ASOS, Littlefinger has the lords of the Vale dangling as puppets on his strings. In the final Alayne chapter, we receive a rather lengthy Arryn genealogy history as Littlefinger pulls some strings to set up Alayne Stone with sickly Lord Robert’s heir, "Harry the Heir." I wonder as to her reaction: a giddy schoolgirl when she was matched with Joffrey and Willas later on?
The chapters in the Iron Islands do not fare much better in the something-happening department. We knew from ASOS that Balon Greyjoy had died and that Euron Greyjoy sits the Seastone Chair. After 3 perspectives and 3 chapters from that area, nothing has changed. Wait though, you meet one thousand new characters from the region! Joy! Oh and we have yet another horn that commands dragons.
The first 3 Samwell Tarly chapters can be summed up by: Jon Snow sends Samwell Tarly, Gilly, Daeron (the singer), Aemon, and Gilly's babe (we learn different later on) by ship for Oldtown. Samwell is to become a Maester. They make a stop at Braavos, and -shock- Sam runs into Jon's sister Arya, unbeknowest to Sam. Oh but wait, nothing really comes of any of it.
After 400 pages, Arya has 2 chapters and again, nothing much happens. She's traveling to Braavos, and working as a servant in the temple of the many-faced God, training to become a Faceless Man it would seem.
I was struck by the second Arya chapter however. In the second Arya chapter, the "kindly man" at the temple forces Arya to abandon her possessions if she wishes to continue her training because she must truly give and give up everything she is to the Many-Faced God. An inner struggle ensues and she finds it very hard to abandon all her possessions. In the end, she throws away everything she's brought with her save one: Needle. She cannot bring herself to abandon Needle, since to her, it represents something more than just a blade. For Arya, Needle is Winterfell, Needle is the Old Gods, her father's Gods, Needle is her family, even Sansa, and Needle is Jon Snow. And despite having to give up everything you are to train as a Faceless Man, Arya can never truly abandon Arya Stark, daughter of Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell. "Who are you?" asks the kindly man. "No one," lies Arya. That was a wonderful piece of writing that I couldn't help reading again and again. The final Arya chapter leaves us in a cliffhanger very much akin to the style of the first 3 books. We’ll have to wait until next book to find out what happens to Arya.
We started with the Starks in Winterfell, and we’ve since seen a metaphoric winter claim them. We’ve seen an 8 year-old boy (Bran) crippled, we’ve read of Ned Stark’s beheading, Sansa beaten and whipped, Arya running, constantly running, Winterfell torched and decimated, Robb & Catelyn murdered and Robb’s host destroyed within a blink of an eye. Death and destruction seems to be a common theme with the Starks, with the Starks implanted on the receiving end.
Jaime starts out in King's Landing but then he's sent away by Cersei to bring the King's peace to the Riverlands, and particularly Riverrun which the Blackfish still holds, ever-defiant. Catelyn Stark released Jaime from Riverrun on the condition he will release her daughters and not raise a sword to a Stark or Tully. And now he returns to Riverrun for that very purpose. Jaime does make a stop at Harrenhal to release Wylis Manderly.
I found Jaime’s chapters very hard to read because of all the people and places we see, constant reminders of the Red Wedding: Riverrun, remarkably still flying the Stark banner, the Freys, Edmure Tully and the Blackfish, defiant to the last.
There sure is a lot training in this novel, isn't there? Everyone is either practicing or training, for something later it would seem. We hear of Jon Snow relentlessly practicing at swords, Jaime sparring with Ilyn Payne, Arya practicing with Needle and training to become a Faceless Man, Sansa training to become a player in the Game of Thrones, etc. A sure sign of a filler book through and through.
Finally, we also receive a more refreshing and eventful storyline, and one in which I didn’t mind the exponentially growing cast of characters: that from Dorne. Out of all of the storylines contained in this book, I found the Dorne storyline the most interesting and enjoyable. Something is actually happening in every chapter: the first, we find the Prince to be a very cautious man, completely the polar opposite of the Viper. The reader meets 3 of his Viper's daughters, one after another, all of whom desire revenge for their father's death. At the end of the first chapter, in an unprecedented and shocking move, the Prince orders Hotah (his Master of Arms, guard) to imprison all of the Viper's daughters including the toddlers. The fear of Tywin Lannister stretches all the way to Dorne it would seem, as the Prince hopes Tywin hears of Dorne's support for King's Landing by imprisoning the Sand Snakes.
In the second Dorne chapter, we read about a plot by the Princess Arianne to abduct Myrcella, crown Myrcella and raise her banners to free the Sand Snakes from her father and rebel against King's Landing. The Princess has completely seduced Myrcella's protector Arys Oakheart of the Kingsguard to do her bidding.
In the third Dorne chapter, someone close leaks Arianne's plans and Oakheart of the Kingsguard is slain and Arianne taken captive by her own father. The Prince is nothing if not resolute to keep Dorne out of a conflict which causes more bloodshed.
The fourth and final Dorne chapter hints of Prince Doran's plans, cautious yet not entirely idle. When his daughter inquires as to the nature of his plans, he places an onyx dragon game piece in his daugher's palm and replies, "Vengeance... justice... blood and fire."
Despite some interesting and enjoyable happenings in Dorne, I didn't care for any of the characters there in a character-driven series such as A Song of Ice and Fire.
A Feast for Crows firmly establishes Daenerys Targaryen’s dragons’ looming shadow upon Seven Kingdoms. Her dragons are coming, GRRM tells us in so many words, whether you’re ready or not. In the prologue and one of Cersei’s early chapters, we learn that sailors from Slaver’s Bay are bringing back stories of dragons. In the final Ironmen chapter, Victarion Greyjoy consents to travel to Slaver’s Bay and seemingly pluck Dany out for his wife. Aemon Targaryen dies drunk on Dany and her dragons, convinced down to his last breath that Dany and her dragons are their last hope against the Others and the terror that awaits the Seven Kingdoms beyond the Wall. "Dany is the one," he says. Prophecies of a younger, more beautiful queen robbing Cersei of everything she holds dear haunts Cersei’s dreams. Cersei believes Margaery Tyrell this "younger, more beautiful queen," and schemes to eliminate the young queen with whatever means necessary while completely ignoring sailors’ reports of a younger queen with dragons beyond the narrow sea. Victarion Greyjoy isn’t the only one on his way to meet Dany; Prince Doran apparently sent his oldest son Quentyn with some other lords to Dany.
Elements are on the move to Dany and this book sets the stage for A Dance with Dragons. Again, filler material.
Compared to Dany, Jon Snow’s humble place in the story as Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch remains small, dull and seemingly insignificant. We’re spared of any of his chapters with a promise to change that.
So you have elements on the move and elements practicing and training.
All in all, filler material and the first sign of an anecdotal epic fantasy disease in a series bereft of it thus far: inflated books that continue to no end but to fill the space in the pages. A Song of Ice and Fire hasn’t grown on its accord; it’s grown because GRRM sees the profit in stretching it out mercilessly.
A concluding thought about the finale, with ending chapters from Cersei, Jaime, Brienne, Alayne and Samwell. I haven’t read a more unsatisfying ending in the series. It isn’t that bad stuff happens, it’s that in general nothing happens which inspires in the least. aGOT ended with the North lords declaring Robb as the "King of the North!" and Dany hatching 3 dragons, aCOK ended with the Battle at Blackwater and Jon Snow sparring with the Halfhand, aSOS ended with... well, let’s just say a lot. What appeared the punch line of aFFC - the events at Riverrun from Jaime’s perspective - fizzled out very quickly. One moment the reader is anxious about what Edmure, Jaime and the Blackfish will do and the next moment Edmure is bringing down the Stark flag and Riverrun has yielded. The reader is left guessing what occurred between Edmure and the Blackfish and how the Blackfish ending up fleeing. GRRM does that a lot: he’ll end a character’s chapter in a cliffhanger and the very next time we see that character’s chapter, the ensuing events of the cliffhanger have already happened off-screen. Are we supposed to cheer when Jaime orders Cersei’s plea for help thrown in the fire? Are we supposed to care one way or the other?
Let’s not forget Cersei’s final chapter. Her attempts to oust roses from King’s Landing and secure the throne for herself and her son backfire when the High Septon imprisons her as well as Margaery. Are we supposed to cheer for this poor excuse of an ending to this horrible novel? I could care less one way or the other and endless Cersei chapters didn’t really make me hate her any more than I already had.
Zero build-up with zero payoffs, and nothing really happening. Another sure sign of a filler book.
GRRM tells us that despite his novels fitting into a larger series, he likes to have each novel with an independent beginning, middle and end such that they stand on their own. This book can’t stand anywhere, much less on its own.
We waited 5 years for... this? Here's to hoping the next book is nothing like this one. I say it will take over 2 years to release (2-to-1 odds on it). I’ll give you 100-to-1 odds if you pick under 2 years!
Unlike much formulaic epic fantasy overflowing in bookstores nowadays, many readers of SFF acknowledge George R.R. Martin's (GRRM) A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF) series as hip, trendy, and really for adults. Not since JRR Tolkien's THE LORD OF THE RINGS has an author captured so many readers. It brings back the medieval setting in fantasy in a big way, it's politically intriguing, historically rich, it's epic (big index), it's dark, it's unique (each chapter is written from a single character's point-of-view all over GRRM's world), and consists of a large cast of characters.
Unfortunately, it's also incomplete, and although the first 3 installments were completely engrossing, I found the latest installment (A FEAST FOR CROWS, 2005) pretty bad. Read the first 3, but skip this one, and wait until GRRM deigns to finish the upcoming A DANCE WITH DRAGONS in the next decade or so.
So far, in the A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF) series:
1. A Game of Thrones, (AGOT), 4/5
2. A Clash of Kings, (ACOK), 3/5
3. A Storm of Swords (ASOS), 5/5
4. A Feast for Crows, (AFFC), 1/5
"Above [the archers of Riverrun] streamed the banners of House Tully, the silver trout defiant on its striped field of red and blue. But the highest tower flew a different flag: a long white standard emblazoned with the direwolf of Stark."
(I always get goosebumps when I read this quote about the Stark flag)
I found A FEAST FOR CROWS such poor quality reading material, I can hardly believe George R.R. Martin's (GRRM) name on the book. Is the prose rich? It sure is, GRRM doesn't disappoint in that department, it's the subject of his prose which fails to move in the least.
It would appear George R.R. Martin can no longer discern the forest from the trees. He tells us the story has grown on its own accord and the pages and chapters we find in this book are somehow "necessary". A story growing on its accord is a sure indication of pumping the reader with pointless, worthless content. The subject material contained within 680 odd pages of this book could be summed up by a few sentences.
This book clearly forces stories where there are none.
The book invites the reader to read 680 or so pages of inane, mindless drivel for something to happen. Nothing ever does. A classic case of epic fantasy syndrome.
You know something is wrong with a book when each word of each sentence of each paragraph of each page of each chapter is read just to move on. And after you've finished the current chapter, you have another scintillating Cersei or Brienne chapter just around the corner; yes, I know, you're about to burst with excitement, contain yourself!
In the end, this book represents filler material, nothing more, nothing less.
This book contains so much additional history and so many additional characters and geneology of this person and that person and so many stories within stories, I find it hard to imagine any reader captured by any of it. I was mesmerized by the telling of the tourney at Harrenhal from 3 different perspectives in ASOS (the crannogmen, Jaime, Ser Barristen Selmy). The histories and stories within stories and the exponentially growing cast of characters contained in this book are so numerous and seemingly extraneous, I found myself reading just to arrive at an end, ANY end.
The pages and chapters comprising the 2 new perspectives - Cersei & Brienne - are by far the most numerous. Unfortunately, they are also a cure for insomniacs, boring, uneventful and dull, at least until the very end. Cersei's chapters doesn't inspire (anything) in the least, driving both Cersei and the reader to insanity from the mindless drivel contained therein.
SPOILERS ahead.
Cersei's chapters: she discovers Tywin has been murdered, goes to her father's funeral (so for 2 Cersei chapters we're still tying loose ends from the previous book), oh joy we get another meeting of the King's Council, more proceedings at court (as if all those meetings in AGOT and ACOK weren't enough, we had to have one from Cersei's perspective, so much better, right?), Cersei convincing a catspaw to kill Bronn, Cersei re-arming the Septons in exchange for a debt forgiven and a blessing, etc., etc.
Brienne's chapters: oh the beautiful contryside, the grass, the trees, the hedges, the burnt fields, traveling to Maidenpool, heading out from Maidenpool, oh back to Maidenpool, oh nevermind, heading out from Maidenpool again, etc., etc. And yes we know the common, small folk are in bad shape. Arya's chapters in ACOK & ASOS already shed light on that common element. We don't need Brienne's chapters showing us the same thing... yet again. GRRM sprinkles in a little sword fighting to spice things up as Brienne kills some Bloody Mummers she meets on the way to her hanging.
I’m still at a loss to explain Brienne’s presence in this novel, other than of course take up space and inflate a poor novel with more drivel. In Brienne’s last chapter we meet for the second time the thing that used to be Catelyn Stark (we met her first in aSOS) who "lives" (if you can call it that) for one purpose and one purpose alone: vengeance. After mindless traveling and some killing for good measure, Brienne ends her travels in aFFC in the hands of outlaws, and hangs at the Thing’s command along with an innocent Podrick Payne. Even though it was Brienne who actually saved the children at the inn? How come her sacrifice at the inn to save the children didn’t come up at her "judgement?" How come none of the children spoke for her? Yes, I’m still at a loss.
The goal of Brienne's traveling - Sansa Stark - dwells at the Eyrie as Alayne Stone, Petyr Baelish's natural daughter. At the end of ASOS, the reader received a preview of the training and tutelage Sansa will receive from the master of A Game of Thrones, Littlefinger. After a couple Alayne chapters, our suspicions are confirmed as Sansa sheds a little more of her innocent ignorance and learns more and more from Littlefinger. Sansa understands for herself that Littlefinger actually payed off Corbray to oppose him. As we could have guessed from ASOS, Littlefinger has the lords of the Vale dangling as puppets on his strings. In the final Alayne chapter, we receive a rather lengthy Arryn genealogy history as Littlefinger pulls some strings to set up Alayne Stone with sickly Lord Robert’s heir, "Harry the Heir." I wonder as to her reaction: a giddy schoolgirl when she was matched with Joffrey and Willas later on?
The chapters in the Iron Islands do not fare much better in the something-happening department. We knew from ASOS that Balon Greyjoy had died and that Euron Greyjoy sits the Seastone Chair. After 3 perspectives and 3 chapters from that area, nothing has changed. Wait though, you meet one thousand new characters from the region! Joy! Oh and we have yet another horn that commands dragons.
The first 3 Samwell Tarly chapters can be summed up by: Jon Snow sends Samwell Tarly, Gilly, Daeron (the singer), Aemon, and Gilly's babe (we learn different later on) by ship for Oldtown. Samwell is to become a Maester. They make a stop at Braavos, and -shock- Sam runs into Jon's sister Arya, unbeknowest to Sam. Oh but wait, nothing really comes of any of it.
After 400 pages, Arya has 2 chapters and again, nothing much happens. She's traveling to Braavos, and working as a servant in the temple of the many-faced God, training to become a Faceless Man it would seem.
I was struck by the second Arya chapter however. In the second Arya chapter, the "kindly man" at the temple forces Arya to abandon her possessions if she wishes to continue her training because she must truly give and give up everything she is to the Many-Faced God. An inner struggle ensues and she finds it very hard to abandon all her possessions. In the end, she throws away everything she's brought with her save one: Needle. She cannot bring herself to abandon Needle, since to her, it represents something more than just a blade. For Arya, Needle is Winterfell, Needle is the Old Gods, her father's Gods, Needle is her family, even Sansa, and Needle is Jon Snow. And despite having to give up everything you are to train as a Faceless Man, Arya can never truly abandon Arya Stark, daughter of Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell. "Who are you?" asks the kindly man. "No one," lies Arya. That was a wonderful piece of writing that I couldn't help reading again and again. The final Arya chapter leaves us in a cliffhanger very much akin to the style of the first 3 books. We’ll have to wait until next book to find out what happens to Arya.
We started with the Starks in Winterfell, and we’ve since seen a metaphoric winter claim them. We’ve seen an 8 year-old boy (Bran) crippled, we’ve read of Ned Stark’s beheading, Sansa beaten and whipped, Arya running, constantly running, Winterfell torched and decimated, Robb & Catelyn murdered and Robb’s host destroyed within a blink of an eye. Death and destruction seems to be a common theme with the Starks, with the Starks implanted on the receiving end.
Jaime starts out in King's Landing but then he's sent away by Cersei to bring the King's peace to the Riverlands, and particularly Riverrun which the Blackfish still holds, ever-defiant. Catelyn Stark released Jaime from Riverrun on the condition he will release her daughters and not raise a sword to a Stark or Tully. And now he returns to Riverrun for that very purpose. Jaime does make a stop at Harrenhal to release Wylis Manderly.
I found Jaime’s chapters very hard to read because of all the people and places we see, constant reminders of the Red Wedding: Riverrun, remarkably still flying the Stark banner, the Freys, Edmure Tully and the Blackfish, defiant to the last.
There sure is a lot training in this novel, isn't there? Everyone is either practicing or training, for something later it would seem. We hear of Jon Snow relentlessly practicing at swords, Jaime sparring with Ilyn Payne, Arya practicing with Needle and training to become a Faceless Man, Sansa training to become a player in the Game of Thrones, etc. A sure sign of a filler book through and through.
Finally, we also receive a more refreshing and eventful storyline, and one in which I didn’t mind the exponentially growing cast of characters: that from Dorne. Out of all of the storylines contained in this book, I found the Dorne storyline the most interesting and enjoyable. Something is actually happening in every chapter: the first, we find the Prince to be a very cautious man, completely the polar opposite of the Viper. The reader meets 3 of his Viper's daughters, one after another, all of whom desire revenge for their father's death. At the end of the first chapter, in an unprecedented and shocking move, the Prince orders Hotah (his Master of Arms, guard) to imprison all of the Viper's daughters including the toddlers. The fear of Tywin Lannister stretches all the way to Dorne it would seem, as the Prince hopes Tywin hears of Dorne's support for King's Landing by imprisoning the Sand Snakes.
In the second Dorne chapter, we read about a plot by the Princess Arianne to abduct Myrcella, crown Myrcella and raise her banners to free the Sand Snakes from her father and rebel against King's Landing. The Princess has completely seduced Myrcella's protector Arys Oakheart of the Kingsguard to do her bidding.
In the third Dorne chapter, someone close leaks Arianne's plans and Oakheart of the Kingsguard is slain and Arianne taken captive by her own father. The Prince is nothing if not resolute to keep Dorne out of a conflict which causes more bloodshed.
The fourth and final Dorne chapter hints of Prince Doran's plans, cautious yet not entirely idle. When his daughter inquires as to the nature of his plans, he places an onyx dragon game piece in his daugher's palm and replies, "Vengeance... justice... blood and fire."
Despite some interesting and enjoyable happenings in Dorne, I didn't care for any of the characters there in a character-driven series such as A Song of Ice and Fire.
A Feast for Crows firmly establishes Daenerys Targaryen’s dragons’ looming shadow upon Seven Kingdoms. Her dragons are coming, GRRM tells us in so many words, whether you’re ready or not. In the prologue and one of Cersei’s early chapters, we learn that sailors from Slaver’s Bay are bringing back stories of dragons. In the final Ironmen chapter, Victarion Greyjoy consents to travel to Slaver’s Bay and seemingly pluck Dany out for his wife. Aemon Targaryen dies drunk on Dany and her dragons, convinced down to his last breath that Dany and her dragons are their last hope against the Others and the terror that awaits the Seven Kingdoms beyond the Wall. "Dany is the one," he says. Prophecies of a younger, more beautiful queen robbing Cersei of everything she holds dear haunts Cersei’s dreams. Cersei believes Margaery Tyrell this "younger, more beautiful queen," and schemes to eliminate the young queen with whatever means necessary while completely ignoring sailors’ reports of a younger queen with dragons beyond the narrow sea. Victarion Greyjoy isn’t the only one on his way to meet Dany; Prince Doran apparently sent his oldest son Quentyn with some other lords to Dany.
Elements are on the move to Dany and this book sets the stage for A Dance with Dragons. Again, filler material.
Compared to Dany, Jon Snow’s humble place in the story as Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch remains small, dull and seemingly insignificant. We’re spared of any of his chapters with a promise to change that.
So you have elements on the move and elements practicing and training.
All in all, filler material and the first sign of an anecdotal epic fantasy disease in a series bereft of it thus far: inflated books that continue to no end but to fill the space in the pages. A Song of Ice and Fire hasn’t grown on its accord; it’s grown because GRRM sees the profit in stretching it out mercilessly.
A concluding thought about the finale, with ending chapters from Cersei, Jaime, Brienne, Alayne and Samwell. I haven’t read a more unsatisfying ending in the series. It isn’t that bad stuff happens, it’s that in general nothing happens which inspires in the least. aGOT ended with the North lords declaring Robb as the "King of the North!" and Dany hatching 3 dragons, aCOK ended with the Battle at Blackwater and Jon Snow sparring with the Halfhand, aSOS ended with... well, let’s just say a lot. What appeared the punch line of aFFC - the events at Riverrun from Jaime’s perspective - fizzled out very quickly. One moment the reader is anxious about what Edmure, Jaime and the Blackfish will do and the next moment Edmure is bringing down the Stark flag and Riverrun has yielded. The reader is left guessing what occurred between Edmure and the Blackfish and how the Blackfish ending up fleeing. GRRM does that a lot: he’ll end a character’s chapter in a cliffhanger and the very next time we see that character’s chapter, the ensuing events of the cliffhanger have already happened off-screen. Are we supposed to cheer when Jaime orders Cersei’s plea for help thrown in the fire? Are we supposed to care one way or the other?
Let’s not forget Cersei’s final chapter. Her attempts to oust roses from King’s Landing and secure the throne for herself and her son backfire when the High Septon imprisons her as well as Margaery. Are we supposed to cheer for this poor excuse of an ending to this horrible novel? I could care less one way or the other and endless Cersei chapters didn’t really make me hate her any more than I already had.
Zero build-up with zero payoffs, and nothing really happening. Another sure sign of a filler book.
GRRM tells us that despite his novels fitting into a larger series, he likes to have each novel with an independent beginning, middle and end such that they stand on their own. This book can’t stand anywhere, much less on its own.
We waited 5 years for... this? Here's to hoping the next book is nothing like this one. I say it will take over 2 years to release (2-to-1 odds on it). I’ll give you 100-to-1 odds if you pick under 2 years!
Monday, July 16, 2007
Archangel, by Sharon Shinn [1]
*/***** (1/5)
My first and inevitably my last novel by Sharon Shinn, ARCHANGEL explores a girl's faith in a story with strong Christian overtones. A fantasy novel preaching about having faith, there's a lot of bickering (between hero & heroine) in ARCHANGEL. ARCHANGEL's world is a sort of a religious utopia, and its grand city of Luminaux represents the height of the Utopian principles in all aspects: economy, social position, politics, etc. Every man in Luminaux goes to the job he loves, there's no such thing as a menial job in Luminaux. Through the nomadic, yet persecuted, gypsy-like Edori, the Edori customs and ways represent the height of a free, giving race; the Edori are perfect, all of their people good and wholesome beyond belief.
ARCHANGEL views all rich merchants in a very evil light, summarily condemning all of them and religiously denouncing all of their capitalistic practices to gain wealth. Simplistically, beautiful people are either power-hunger mongrels (Raphael) or ditzy dolts (Judith), except for our handsome hero Gabriel of course. "Metaphorical and ethical speculation was wasted on the literal-minded (and beautiful) Judith," Gabriel notes at one point.
There's 3 provinces in ARCHANGEL's world, with 3 angels to lead each province and an archangel which oversees everyone (included as 1 of the 3 "leading" angels). The archangel term lasts 20 years and oracles deduce from God the next chosen Archangel and his Angelica (or Angelico). Like most fantasy novels written by authors interested in romance, you have some sort of a soul-mate storyline and also similar to other other novels, you have the hero accepting it and quickly embracing his soul-mate (angelica) while the heroine very reluctant for the majority of the novel. In ARCHANGEL in fact, the heroine Rachel is resistant until the very last page of this 390-page superior paperback. There really isn't any warring factions or violence in ARCHANGEL's world as everyone lives in awe and fear of the Almighty God. The angels' power? Basically they pray in hymns and song to entreat god to help effect weather changes. Rain for farmers during a drought, for instance. The hero Gabriel is the most competent of the singing angels. There's plenty of concerts in the novel if you haven't guessed already by the way.
Finally, god tracks its "children" through the "Kiss of God," acorn-sized balls grafted into everyone's arms when they're a baby (similarly to a baptism). The balls illuminate when they're near people god wants to them love for bloodlines and procreation, and it's also supposed to help people find their true love. Even the final monumental climax is left in the hands of god.
Even though ARCHANGEL tells us early via its oracle Jesiah that the Archangel-elect Gabriel's Angelica will humble him, I thought it was his angelica Rachel that needed the humbling. The story begins with Rachel working as a slave in an affluent merchant household. Oh and just to preserve our heroine, this particular merchant household doesn't allow anyone to molest women slaves. The annual event Gloria, which celebrates, worships, sings and prays to god, is only 6 months away, and this year it marks the transition of power from the previous archangel Raphael to the archangel-elect Gabriel. Gabriel needs to track down his angelica quickly and God (via the oracle) is there to point him in the right direction. Handy!
The book clumps along as Gabriel finds Rachel early on and they fight with each other and other elements interfering in their confirmation as Archangel and Angelica on Gloria 6 months away.
I couldn't stand the story's religious preaching, I couldn't stand Rachel's character, and I couldn't stand anything about the other plots.
I had high hopes though. I liked how the heroine Rachel wasn't a virgin, I liked how she didn't swoon and melt at the hero's touch (only at his singing in this case), and I liked how Gabriel was very virtuous, and not the notorious libertine we find from romantic historicals. In case you're interested, there's no passionate scenes here, only goes as far as kissing.
Possible SPOILERS ahead, and various musings.
Rachel acts pretty superior and childish throughout, it's as though she alone understands the trials and tribulations of the poor and underprivileged. Anyone with a modicum of wealth or ambitions for fortune in Sharon Shinn's world are shunned as evil and power hungry. Certainly, this generalization holds true everywhere. Rachel flaunts her Edori heritage as superior to everyone and everything else. She's very juvenile and frosty with her husband too. By my count, Gabriel apologized to her at least 4 times for things he didn't know or understand about her, and he always shows her kindness and affection. Rachel reacts in her obligatory I-art-holier-than-thou attitude. When Rachel walks in on Gabriel and Judith, she secures Gabriel's promise later on that he has never slept with and never will sleep with Judith. They had begun fighting for a while, but this promise seems to have placated her. Inexplicably, they transition into a more amiable conversation. The amiable transition didn't follow after a heated discussion where both accused the other of infidelities. The author felt the need for Gabriel to comfort Rachel and dispel her misgivings, but not the other way around.
And it's Rachel who flirts with Obadiah, and the Edori Isaac and Adam. It's Rachel who kisses Isaac and Adam. I actually wanted to see Rachel get busy with Isaac & Adam and reject Gabriel. At least then Gabriel would be free of her. Lord.
I especially don't understand Rachel's cold desire to destroy an entire city, the city of Semorrah. For a Good Samaritan devoted to the betterment of the needy (she sets up a children's shelter and school), she wants to indiscriminately kill everyone in a city, she wants an entire city to pay for its slavery practices? Her friend the Lady Mary who lives in Semorahh would die too wouldn't she? Huh? What? How does this compute? At least think about vengeance discriminately, against the Jensai slavers maybe? Not an entire city!
It's so horrific to be an Archangel-elect's angelica in Rachel's mind. She doesn't want to be an angelica (predictably), and more than twice she thinks she will not forgive Gabriel for bringing her. She will not forgive Gabriel for freeing her from slavery and bestowing upon her every kindness and lavish comfort at her fingertips. Now she finds herself in a position of power to do something about the unfair poverty and build shelters and schools for orphaned children, yet of course she will not forgive Gabriel for plucking her out of slavery. Obviously, all of Rachel's childish reactions and juvenile fits of defiance serve simply as a ploy to add some romantic tension. Poor delivery in the novel here, because I didn't see so much a romantic tension than I did a childish juvenile rebelling against everyone and everything for the sake of being contrary. I thought Rachel was 25 and not a teenager?
Like heroes and heroines from other romance novels, ARCHANGEL has Gabriel justify Rachel's disdainful and combative disposition towards him by having Gabriel think he would prefer willful wife than a submissive one. Well, it is possible to be willful and not quite so bitchy. Gabriel shows her caring and kindness at almost every turn, attempting to talk to her but predictably she lashes out at the only person who will take it, her husband Gabriel. Shinn has Gabriel think and care for Rachel relatively early despite her belligerent, bratty attitude. In fact, Gabriel is constantly remorseful (for having to be away from Rachel), caring and affectionate towards Rachel. Consistently, Rachel fails to reciprocate Gabriel's caring and instead presents Gabriel with a childish, spiteful disdain. Stop whining and get over yourself for once.
Gabriel bestows every courtesy and kindness to Rachel. Gabriel makes an elevator lift available for Rachel to subvert her fear of heights, Gabriel agrees to provide funding for Rachel's shelter and school for orphaned children, Gabriel gives her gold bracelets as her wedding present, Gabriel asks after her well-being at every chance, it's always Gabriel who feels remorse for parting with Rachel badly (even though Rachel is equally to blame), for all of Rachel's juvenile fits of defiance and anger, it's always Gabriel apologizing and seeking forgiveness, it's Gabriel giving her gold-embroidered gloves as a gift.
In response, Rachel openly flaunts her friendship with the angel Obadiah, a close friendship which chafes her husband Gabriel.
The immature adolescence Rachel so exuberantly sponsors ranges to levels far beyond my comprehension. Get this. At this end, she's beyond petty and vindictive. Gabriel is aware Rachel's most fervent "justice" is to see the entire city of Semerroh destroyed. When it's clear that just such a feat will come to fruition if she will not sing, she uses that knowledge to test Gabriel's love and devotion to her instead, spiting him for not believing in her. When she threatens the city and its people if Gabriel doesn't promise to leave her alone, Gabriel quickly acquiesces to her ludicrous demands. After, she cries thinking how she wanted Gabriel to risk destroying hundreds of people so he would say he would rather have her instead. Despite telling her before that the only angelica he would ever accept by his side would be Rachel, and that he wouldn't choose another angelica had she died. Despite telling her that he would always come back to her if he ever leaves. Despite comforting her and protecting her, despite sheltering her under his sensitive wings no one is supposed to touch.
Man, I've never seen a character so selfish, so childish, so juvenile, so immaturely spiteful as ARCHANGEL's Rachel. And she hates Gabriel for choosing to save hundreds of lives instead of be with her, an ultimatum she herself lays down. Are you serious? Is that even a choice? That's no choice at all, any likable hero would sacrifice himself and his beloved in a heartbeat if not doing so meant the death to thousands of other innocents. There is nothing romantic about this retarded "choice" Rachel tests Gabriel with.
After all this, Rachel stays away for months traveling with the Edori and then when she finally decides she wants Gabriel back, she tests him yet again. She makes Gabriel with his broad wings walk through iron stakes on the top of a mountain he can't land on. Yep. Childish. Juvenile. Petty. Vindictive. Adolescent.
This book is garbage. I need to take my own advise, and I'll stop whining now. Needed to vent! Oh by the way, the prose and settings aren't half bad (though nothing great).
My first and inevitably my last novel by Sharon Shinn, ARCHANGEL explores a girl's faith in a story with strong Christian overtones. A fantasy novel preaching about having faith, there's a lot of bickering (between hero & heroine) in ARCHANGEL. ARCHANGEL's world is a sort of a religious utopia, and its grand city of Luminaux represents the height of the Utopian principles in all aspects: economy, social position, politics, etc. Every man in Luminaux goes to the job he loves, there's no such thing as a menial job in Luminaux. Through the nomadic, yet persecuted, gypsy-like Edori, the Edori customs and ways represent the height of a free, giving race; the Edori are perfect, all of their people good and wholesome beyond belief.
ARCHANGEL views all rich merchants in a very evil light, summarily condemning all of them and religiously denouncing all of their capitalistic practices to gain wealth. Simplistically, beautiful people are either power-hunger mongrels (Raphael) or ditzy dolts (Judith), except for our handsome hero Gabriel of course. "Metaphorical and ethical speculation was wasted on the literal-minded (and beautiful) Judith," Gabriel notes at one point.
There's 3 provinces in ARCHANGEL's world, with 3 angels to lead each province and an archangel which oversees everyone (included as 1 of the 3 "leading" angels). The archangel term lasts 20 years and oracles deduce from God the next chosen Archangel and his Angelica (or Angelico). Like most fantasy novels written by authors interested in romance, you have some sort of a soul-mate storyline and also similar to other other novels, you have the hero accepting it and quickly embracing his soul-mate (angelica) while the heroine very reluctant for the majority of the novel. In ARCHANGEL in fact, the heroine Rachel is resistant until the very last page of this 390-page superior paperback. There really isn't any warring factions or violence in ARCHANGEL's world as everyone lives in awe and fear of the Almighty God. The angels' power? Basically they pray in hymns and song to entreat god to help effect weather changes. Rain for farmers during a drought, for instance. The hero Gabriel is the most competent of the singing angels. There's plenty of concerts in the novel if you haven't guessed already by the way.
Finally, god tracks its "children" through the "Kiss of God," acorn-sized balls grafted into everyone's arms when they're a baby (similarly to a baptism). The balls illuminate when they're near people god wants to them love for bloodlines and procreation, and it's also supposed to help people find their true love. Even the final monumental climax is left in the hands of god.
Even though ARCHANGEL tells us early via its oracle Jesiah that the Archangel-elect Gabriel's Angelica will humble him, I thought it was his angelica Rachel that needed the humbling. The story begins with Rachel working as a slave in an affluent merchant household. Oh and just to preserve our heroine, this particular merchant household doesn't allow anyone to molest women slaves. The annual event Gloria, which celebrates, worships, sings and prays to god, is only 6 months away, and this year it marks the transition of power from the previous archangel Raphael to the archangel-elect Gabriel. Gabriel needs to track down his angelica quickly and God (via the oracle) is there to point him in the right direction. Handy!
The book clumps along as Gabriel finds Rachel early on and they fight with each other and other elements interfering in their confirmation as Archangel and Angelica on Gloria 6 months away.
I couldn't stand the story's religious preaching, I couldn't stand Rachel's character, and I couldn't stand anything about the other plots.
I had high hopes though. I liked how the heroine Rachel wasn't a virgin, I liked how she didn't swoon and melt at the hero's touch (only at his singing in this case), and I liked how Gabriel was very virtuous, and not the notorious libertine we find from romantic historicals. In case you're interested, there's no passionate scenes here, only goes as far as kissing.
Possible SPOILERS ahead, and various musings.
Rachel acts pretty superior and childish throughout, it's as though she alone understands the trials and tribulations of the poor and underprivileged. Anyone with a modicum of wealth or ambitions for fortune in Sharon Shinn's world are shunned as evil and power hungry. Certainly, this generalization holds true everywhere. Rachel flaunts her Edori heritage as superior to everyone and everything else. She's very juvenile and frosty with her husband too. By my count, Gabriel apologized to her at least 4 times for things he didn't know or understand about her, and he always shows her kindness and affection. Rachel reacts in her obligatory I-art-holier-than-thou attitude. When Rachel walks in on Gabriel and Judith, she secures Gabriel's promise later on that he has never slept with and never will sleep with Judith. They had begun fighting for a while, but this promise seems to have placated her. Inexplicably, they transition into a more amiable conversation. The amiable transition didn't follow after a heated discussion where both accused the other of infidelities. The author felt the need for Gabriel to comfort Rachel and dispel her misgivings, but not the other way around.
And it's Rachel who flirts with Obadiah, and the Edori Isaac and Adam. It's Rachel who kisses Isaac and Adam. I actually wanted to see Rachel get busy with Isaac & Adam and reject Gabriel. At least then Gabriel would be free of her. Lord.
I especially don't understand Rachel's cold desire to destroy an entire city, the city of Semorrah. For a Good Samaritan devoted to the betterment of the needy (she sets up a children's shelter and school), she wants to indiscriminately kill everyone in a city, she wants an entire city to pay for its slavery practices? Her friend the Lady Mary who lives in Semorahh would die too wouldn't she? Huh? What? How does this compute? At least think about vengeance discriminately, against the Jensai slavers maybe? Not an entire city!
It's so horrific to be an Archangel-elect's angelica in Rachel's mind. She doesn't want to be an angelica (predictably), and more than twice she thinks she will not forgive Gabriel for bringing her. She will not forgive Gabriel for freeing her from slavery and bestowing upon her every kindness and lavish comfort at her fingertips. Now she finds herself in a position of power to do something about the unfair poverty and build shelters and schools for orphaned children, yet of course she will not forgive Gabriel for plucking her out of slavery. Obviously, all of Rachel's childish reactions and juvenile fits of defiance serve simply as a ploy to add some romantic tension. Poor delivery in the novel here, because I didn't see so much a romantic tension than I did a childish juvenile rebelling against everyone and everything for the sake of being contrary. I thought Rachel was 25 and not a teenager?
Like heroes and heroines from other romance novels, ARCHANGEL has Gabriel justify Rachel's disdainful and combative disposition towards him by having Gabriel think he would prefer willful wife than a submissive one. Well, it is possible to be willful and not quite so bitchy. Gabriel shows her caring and kindness at almost every turn, attempting to talk to her but predictably she lashes out at the only person who will take it, her husband Gabriel. Shinn has Gabriel think and care for Rachel relatively early despite her belligerent, bratty attitude. In fact, Gabriel is constantly remorseful (for having to be away from Rachel), caring and affectionate towards Rachel. Consistently, Rachel fails to reciprocate Gabriel's caring and instead presents Gabriel with a childish, spiteful disdain. Stop whining and get over yourself for once.
Gabriel bestows every courtesy and kindness to Rachel. Gabriel makes an elevator lift available for Rachel to subvert her fear of heights, Gabriel agrees to provide funding for Rachel's shelter and school for orphaned children, Gabriel gives her gold bracelets as her wedding present, Gabriel asks after her well-being at every chance, it's always Gabriel who feels remorse for parting with Rachel badly (even though Rachel is equally to blame), for all of Rachel's juvenile fits of defiance and anger, it's always Gabriel apologizing and seeking forgiveness, it's Gabriel giving her gold-embroidered gloves as a gift.
In response, Rachel openly flaunts her friendship with the angel Obadiah, a close friendship which chafes her husband Gabriel.
The immature adolescence Rachel so exuberantly sponsors ranges to levels far beyond my comprehension. Get this. At this end, she's beyond petty and vindictive. Gabriel is aware Rachel's most fervent "justice" is to see the entire city of Semerroh destroyed. When it's clear that just such a feat will come to fruition if she will not sing, she uses that knowledge to test Gabriel's love and devotion to her instead, spiting him for not believing in her. When she threatens the city and its people if Gabriel doesn't promise to leave her alone, Gabriel quickly acquiesces to her ludicrous demands. After, she cries thinking how she wanted Gabriel to risk destroying hundreds of people so he would say he would rather have her instead. Despite telling her before that the only angelica he would ever accept by his side would be Rachel, and that he wouldn't choose another angelica had she died. Despite telling her that he would always come back to her if he ever leaves. Despite comforting her and protecting her, despite sheltering her under his sensitive wings no one is supposed to touch.
Man, I've never seen a character so selfish, so childish, so juvenile, so immaturely spiteful as ARCHANGEL's Rachel. And she hates Gabriel for choosing to save hundreds of lives instead of be with her, an ultimatum she herself lays down. Are you serious? Is that even a choice? That's no choice at all, any likable hero would sacrifice himself and his beloved in a heartbeat if not doing so meant the death to thousands of other innocents. There is nothing romantic about this retarded "choice" Rachel tests Gabriel with.
After all this, Rachel stays away for months traveling with the Edori and then when she finally decides she wants Gabriel back, she tests him yet again. She makes Gabriel with his broad wings walk through iron stakes on the top of a mountain he can't land on. Yep. Childish. Juvenile. Petty. Vindictive. Adolescent.
This book is garbage. I need to take my own advise, and I'll stop whining now. Needed to vent! Oh by the way, the prose and settings aren't half bad (though nothing great).
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Altered Carbon, by Richard Morgan [4]
****/***** (4/5)
In the relatively new genre dubbed as cyberpunk, British author Richard K. Morgan's first Takeshi Kovacs novel ALTERED CARBON (2002) leaves an indelible impression. A captivating blend of suspense/mystery, hardcore first-person detective story, and action/adventure in the midst of a science fiction backdrop, ALTERED CARBON is sure to hit you hard with its unique style and flavor. Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs is exactly the sort of kick-ass, intelligent hero I love to read about. Although I'm not a huge fan of first-person storytelling, our narrator Kovacs manages to admirably build the science fiction universe of ALTERED CARBON with its futuristic vocab and prose. ALTERED CARBON's settings, including the bureaucracy, economic social hierarchy, the vernacular, and futuristic sights are thorough, if not confounding at times. For a debut novel, Morgan ably sets the scene and builds his universe which support his story. There's plenty of related history too. Again, the prose can be ambiguous at times, but it depends on how you receive it; don't let the futuristic vernacular bog you down, just take it in stride. Richard Morgan doesn't shy away from explicit language, brutal violence and sex to grab your attention either. His science fiction world is very morbid, and these things are a part of its "culture."
In the futuristic ALTERED CARBON, human civilization conquers death itself. "Poor Death, no match for the mighty altered-carbon technologies of data storage and retrieval arrayed against him. Once we lived in terror of [Death's] arrival. Now we flirt outrageously with his somber dignity, and beings like these won't even let him in the tradesman's entrance." Ouch. But these things are a reality for the universe of ALTERED CARBON: cloning, mind data storage/retrieval, resleeving (brand new body or same body but younger). In a macabre observation, the book notes how virtual prostitution is actually more expensive than sex with a real prostitute, since bodies don't have much significance anymore. Many "Meths" (rich, influential people, socially and economically high on the food chain) have stacks on storage, and they transmit their current memory over regular intervals of time to a data center containing hundreds of their cloned bodies. "Meths" are often thousands of centuries old. Other, common people also have "stacks" for storage and retrieval in their spinal core, though they often don't have the monetary means to afford more than one clone, let alone hundreds. As the story begins, Morgan weaves in religion as we learn of religious Catholics demonstrating with placards against any form of data storage and retrieval on Earth, arguing such altered-carbon technology destroys the soul. In fact, many Catholics still live a traditional lifespan and forgo any form of cloning and resleeving in a new body.
Ex-U.N. Envoy (military conditioning and training) and criminal Takeshi Kovacs has just been hired by a Meth, Mr. Laurens Bancroft to investigate Bancroft's apparent suicide. The story begins as police commandos gun down Kovacs and his friend Sarah to death on Harlan's World. Next thing we know, authorities "needlecast" (transmit) Kovacs' "stack" (stored mind) over to Earth to be resleeved in a new body sanctioned and paid for by Bancroft. Bancraft is convinced it was a murder not a suicide, and he maintains he wouldn't try to kill himself when they'd download him to a new cloned body later anyway. Unfortunately, his last "update" to his personal data center was well before the events preceding his apparent suicide and now, he has no memory of his suicide or the time before it. Bancraft hires Kovacs on the strength of a recommendation by Reileen Kawahara, who Kovacs did some work for a few years back. The police and the ranking officer Lt. Kristin Ortega have already closed the case, declaring an open-and-shut suicide.
As Kovacs pursues the investigation, we learn more and more about the various pieces of the puzzle. If you're astute unlike me, you may be able to figure out some links well before the end. Kovacs investigates Bancroft's proclivity for blue-collar prostitution establishments like Jerry's Closed Quarters, he learns more about Bancroft's wife, the drop-dead gorgeous Miriam Bancroft, and even Kovacs' current "sleeve" (body) and its rightful consciousness currently stacked away seems to bear some disturbing connections to the leading police officer who closed Bancroft's case, the austere Lt. Ortega. Everyone except Bancroft himself wants Kovacs to leave well enough alone, and drop the investigation. The wild joy ride seems to intrigue Kovacs and he doggedly continues his investigation.
Morgan intersperses a lot of history and world-building into Kovacs' characterization. Although not as old as a Meth, Kovacs is an ex-Envoy and a few hundreds of years old himself with a rich and dark history. He often recalls gruesome wars, gritty experiences and brutal people he's met.
Here's just a taste of Kovacs' hardcore characterization. The following passages comes relatively early on in the book when there's a cold fury raging through his veins. It's actually a lot of fun. In a book Kovacs often quotes throughout, he notes: "And make no mistake about this: being taken seriously, being considered dangerous, marks the difference -- the only difference in their eyes -- between players and little people. Players they will make deals with. Little people they liquidate. And time and again they cream your liquidation, your displacement, your torture and brutal execution with the ultimate insult that it's just business, it's politics, it's the way of the world, it's a tough life, and that it's nothing personal. Well fuck them. Make it personal."
There's traces of love in the story, but don't hold your breath there, the book's focus rests on the hardcore first-person characterization of Takeshi Kovacs and the mystery he's hired to solve. What I like about the book: the nihilistic Kovacs' motivations behind his actions are very personal, drawn from a caring for the people he values. Nonetheless, Morgan explores some interesting themes here in the midst of his scifi world. In love, is it the body we love or the consciousness behind the body? Can you love a new consciousness in the body of your lover (Ortega/Kovacs/Ryker)? Can you love a new body with the consciousness of your love (Victor & Irene Elliot)? Is any of this cheating? It seems that a true long-term relationship hinges equally on both: the person behind the body and the body itself. And in Morgan's science fiction universe where bodies are interchanged as quickly as shirts, love is tricky.
My main criticism with this novel has to do with the prose. Because of the rich fabric of history and science fiction vernacular Morgan sprinkles into the first-person narrative, the prose takes some patience to follow, and if you don't really care for this brand of hardcore cyberpunk detective story, you're not going to like it. I dropped this novel in favor of others for months before I actually came back to finish this one. Having finished it, I will definitely continue reading other Takeshi Kovacs novels.
It's an interesting ride to say the least.
In the relatively new genre dubbed as cyberpunk, British author Richard K. Morgan's first Takeshi Kovacs novel ALTERED CARBON (2002) leaves an indelible impression. A captivating blend of suspense/mystery, hardcore first-person detective story, and action/adventure in the midst of a science fiction backdrop, ALTERED CARBON is sure to hit you hard with its unique style and flavor. Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs is exactly the sort of kick-ass, intelligent hero I love to read about. Although I'm not a huge fan of first-person storytelling, our narrator Kovacs manages to admirably build the science fiction universe of ALTERED CARBON with its futuristic vocab and prose. ALTERED CARBON's settings, including the bureaucracy, economic social hierarchy, the vernacular, and futuristic sights are thorough, if not confounding at times. For a debut novel, Morgan ably sets the scene and builds his universe which support his story. There's plenty of related history too. Again, the prose can be ambiguous at times, but it depends on how you receive it; don't let the futuristic vernacular bog you down, just take it in stride. Richard Morgan doesn't shy away from explicit language, brutal violence and sex to grab your attention either. His science fiction world is very morbid, and these things are a part of its "culture."
In the futuristic ALTERED CARBON, human civilization conquers death itself. "Poor Death, no match for the mighty altered-carbon technologies of data storage and retrieval arrayed against him. Once we lived in terror of [Death's] arrival. Now we flirt outrageously with his somber dignity, and beings like these won't even let him in the tradesman's entrance." Ouch. But these things are a reality for the universe of ALTERED CARBON: cloning, mind data storage/retrieval, resleeving (brand new body or same body but younger). In a macabre observation, the book notes how virtual prostitution is actually more expensive than sex with a real prostitute, since bodies don't have much significance anymore. Many "Meths" (rich, influential people, socially and economically high on the food chain) have stacks on storage, and they transmit their current memory over regular intervals of time to a data center containing hundreds of their cloned bodies. "Meths" are often thousands of centuries old. Other, common people also have "stacks" for storage and retrieval in their spinal core, though they often don't have the monetary means to afford more than one clone, let alone hundreds. As the story begins, Morgan weaves in religion as we learn of religious Catholics demonstrating with placards against any form of data storage and retrieval on Earth, arguing such altered-carbon technology destroys the soul. In fact, many Catholics still live a traditional lifespan and forgo any form of cloning and resleeving in a new body.
Ex-U.N. Envoy (military conditioning and training) and criminal Takeshi Kovacs has just been hired by a Meth, Mr. Laurens Bancroft to investigate Bancroft's apparent suicide. The story begins as police commandos gun down Kovacs and his friend Sarah to death on Harlan's World. Next thing we know, authorities "needlecast" (transmit) Kovacs' "stack" (stored mind) over to Earth to be resleeved in a new body sanctioned and paid for by Bancroft. Bancraft is convinced it was a murder not a suicide, and he maintains he wouldn't try to kill himself when they'd download him to a new cloned body later anyway. Unfortunately, his last "update" to his personal data center was well before the events preceding his apparent suicide and now, he has no memory of his suicide or the time before it. Bancraft hires Kovacs on the strength of a recommendation by Reileen Kawahara, who Kovacs did some work for a few years back. The police and the ranking officer Lt. Kristin Ortega have already closed the case, declaring an open-and-shut suicide.
As Kovacs pursues the investigation, we learn more and more about the various pieces of the puzzle. If you're astute unlike me, you may be able to figure out some links well before the end. Kovacs investigates Bancroft's proclivity for blue-collar prostitution establishments like Jerry's Closed Quarters, he learns more about Bancroft's wife, the drop-dead gorgeous Miriam Bancroft, and even Kovacs' current "sleeve" (body) and its rightful consciousness currently stacked away seems to bear some disturbing connections to the leading police officer who closed Bancroft's case, the austere Lt. Ortega. Everyone except Bancroft himself wants Kovacs to leave well enough alone, and drop the investigation. The wild joy ride seems to intrigue Kovacs and he doggedly continues his investigation.
Morgan intersperses a lot of history and world-building into Kovacs' characterization. Although not as old as a Meth, Kovacs is an ex-Envoy and a few hundreds of years old himself with a rich and dark history. He often recalls gruesome wars, gritty experiences and brutal people he's met.
Here's just a taste of Kovacs' hardcore characterization. The following passages comes relatively early on in the book when there's a cold fury raging through his veins. It's actually a lot of fun. In a book Kovacs often quotes throughout, he notes: "And make no mistake about this: being taken seriously, being considered dangerous, marks the difference -- the only difference in their eyes -- between players and little people. Players they will make deals with. Little people they liquidate. And time and again they cream your liquidation, your displacement, your torture and brutal execution with the ultimate insult that it's just business, it's politics, it's the way of the world, it's a tough life, and that it's nothing personal. Well fuck them. Make it personal."
There's traces of love in the story, but don't hold your breath there, the book's focus rests on the hardcore first-person characterization of Takeshi Kovacs and the mystery he's hired to solve. What I like about the book: the nihilistic Kovacs' motivations behind his actions are very personal, drawn from a caring for the people he values. Nonetheless, Morgan explores some interesting themes here in the midst of his scifi world. In love, is it the body we love or the consciousness behind the body? Can you love a new consciousness in the body of your lover (Ortega/Kovacs/Ryker)? Can you love a new body with the consciousness of your love (Victor & Irene Elliot)? Is any of this cheating? It seems that a true long-term relationship hinges equally on both: the person behind the body and the body itself. And in Morgan's science fiction universe where bodies are interchanged as quickly as shirts, love is tricky.
My main criticism with this novel has to do with the prose. Because of the rich fabric of history and science fiction vernacular Morgan sprinkles into the first-person narrative, the prose takes some patience to follow, and if you don't really care for this brand of hardcore cyberpunk detective story, you're not going to like it. I dropped this novel in favor of others for months before I actually came back to finish this one. Having finished it, I will definitely continue reading other Takeshi Kovacs novels.
It's an interesting ride to say the least.
Friday, July 13, 2007
What's important in a novel?
- Characters. They don't have to be all good characters or even necessarily likable ones, but they should be interesting, engaging in some manner. I can't abide too much whining, pining or melancholy from characterizations. Childish characters grate my soul.
- Plotting and pacing. The entire story doesn't have to be happy, but it should be able to hold interest. Violence and sex mixed into the content deters many readers; not me. I'm an adult, I prefer adult content and I'm not going to apologize for it.
- Prose. The writing should invite the reader, and I prefer adult-level vocabulary. Explicit language doesn't bother me.
- Settings. The environment: the sights, smells, sounds, and touches should come alive and complement the story without dragging it down. I prefer settings to supplement and support the story and characters, not swallow the characters and story (i.e., China Mieville). In historicals, the historical backdrop I would consider part of the setting; in SFF, the worldbuilding would qualify as part of the setting. Forgive my amateur qualifications.
- Enjoyment value, the trump card. Admittedly, I place an unreasonable emphasis on the ending, and it affects my overall enjoyment factor. It's the final impression a novel leaves afterall. I don't care how dark, how sad, how challenging the story is to read in the beginning and middle, I unconditionally prefer satisfying endings. Not a 100% happy ending, but a satisfying one nonetheless. Along with the ending, humor also affects my overall enjoyment (favorably). If the first 4 factors are subpar yet I enjoy the novel overall, I'll give it a positive rating nonetheless. The converse is also true (first 4 factors are excellent yet I don't enjoy the novel overall, I'll give it a negative rating).
1 -- Very poor
2 -- Has some merits, but still lacking
3 -- Enjoyed the novel though certain factors bring it down
4 -- Entertaining, worth a re-read
5 -- The Cream of the Crop in terms of entertainment value, prose, settings, plot and characterizations.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Tigana, by Guy Gavriel Kay [1]
*/***** (1/5)
A Review, SPOILERS galore. Considered by many as revolutionary in epic fantasy storytelling, here's my take on Kay's TIGANA (1990) which I read some time back.
3/10
9/10, if you teach a literature class, and you want your students to write an essay for purely instructional purposes.
If you were ever to create Top-10 list of fantasy novels replete with emotional angst, misery and malaise, you must include Kay's TIGANA in this list. I found TIGANA so unsatisfying, so uninspiring, so emotionally draining, I would be reluctant to pick up another Kay novel ever again. There's a story here, but it isn't meant to entertain. Its central intent? To teach, to share wisdom. Like many others, I have to finish a book I start, and with TIGANA, I felt as if I was being forced to read this book so I can write an essay for a class way back in high school or college. I was begging for some Terry-Goodkind preaching after this novel.
Even not having read Kay's afterword, the reader can sense there's some themes, some lessons, that Kay wants to ascribe to the reader. The didactic prose of the book drips into the farthest recesses of your mind while you're reading this.
Clearly, Kay wanted to teach some lessons in TIGANA, as he explains in the afterword of his Tenth-Anniversary edition of TIGANA. Kay wanted to impart -- emotionally and spiritually and relentless in his prose, in his diction -- what it means to refuse letting the past be in the past. Through the binding between the Alessan and the wizard Erlein, Kay also wanted to teach what it means to use unwilling instruments (people) as tools in your quarrels, in order to raise questions to the legitimacy of the plight. This theme also takes root in Alessan's mother cursing his son on her deathbed for not doing anything about the past, at least not in her eyes. The one person - Dianora - who begins to conquer her past with a promise of love commits suicide by plunging into the water, because in the end, she could not escape her past, her history.
The other central theme Kay wants to drum out mercilessly: the duplicity, the ambiguity, and the divided loyalties of human nature. This is also best represented in Dianora's character, although there's traces of it in Alessan. Obviously, Kay wants to show the good in evil, and the evil in good in a genre, as he says, "tends not to work that way." Well thank you, Guy Gavriel Kay, for shedding some of my naivety, I happened to be waiting for you to do it.
I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed Kay's witty humor and political intrigue. In the bar scenes, whether in the beginning in The Paelion, or towards the end, in the inn Solinghi. When Kay isn't edifying us and torturing us with emotional angst, he's certainly readable.
The prose isn't bad, though the messages very repetitive at times. The opening 100 pages or so were, for the most part, fun, witty and full of political intrigue. Then, Kay does a 180 and brings to home what he really wants to talk about when Dianora's perspective starts appearing in waves and waves. Kay often times repeats things over and over again just to fill the pages, about Devin's cursed memory (again and again), about Devin thinking about Alessan's burdens (again and again), about Dianora's life line leading to this moment, to this path (again and again and again in different words). Furthermore, although I enjoy worldbuilding, Kay takes worldbuilding to insufferable heights. For a stand-alone ~650-page epic fantasy novel, Kay is explaining about the history of this province or the history of that ritual or the gods more than 500 pages into it! And it length! Unacceptable, if you ask me.
Also, George R.R. Martin (GRRM) does this too, but I find it acutely unreadable the way Kay leaves the import of the action off-screen. For example, when Dianora returns to Brandin after seeing a riselka for her path made clear, a humanoid creature with green hair and blue veins, Brandin divulges his plans. The reader never hears about the plans, and Kay leaves words to the effect that Dianora listened and cried and listened. Brandin's plans are divulged much later when Alessan, Erlein and Devin visit Alessan's dying mother at Eanna's Sanctuary (one of the goddesses in the Triad of TIGANA).
The Story.
Some 20 years ago, a very powerful sorcerer - Brandin - conquers the western provinces one by one in a peninsula called the Palm. One of the last provinces to fall - proud Tigana - fought back mightily as Prince Valentin of Tigana slays Brandin's beloved son, his youngest son. Brandin brings the absolute and titanic wrath of his awesome power down upon Tigana, decimating everything and killing most everyone in the province. With his sorcery, Brandin also strips the name Tigana from everyone in the Palm not born in Tigana before its fall, calling the province Lower Corte thenceforth. This expropriation of the name Tigana from the Palm serves as the catalyst and underlying impetus of the entire story. I was very unmoved by this underlying energy which drives the characters we read about.
In the beginning we read about the Duke Sandre staging his own death so as to bring together enemies of another sorcerer Tyrant, this time from the eastern Palm, a sorcerer called Alberico, weaker than Brandin. The Duke's plot goes awry when he's betrayed by one of his grandsons, resulting in the death of everyone from his family and other noble families in the Duke's province Astibar. Here we also meet one of the two main perspectives comprising the bulk of the story, our talented, young 19 year-old singer, Devin. Devin serves one purpose and one alone in Kay's story: Devin is our eyes and ears into Alessan, Prince Valentin's youngest son who manages to escape Brandin's carnage of Tigana. Alessan is older now, in his mid-30s and has made it his life-long mission to excavate both Tyrants from the Palm, Brandin from the western palm and Alberico from the eastern palm. In this singular goal, Alessan and Baerd (Dianora's brother) are building contacts throughout the eastern Palm sympathetic to Alessan's cause and against both Alberico and Brandin and everything the tyrants represent.
Returning to Devin, he is a gifted singer touring in the eastern palm, and he discovers he was born in Tigana right before it was destroyed. While most cannot say or hear the name Tigana because of Brandin's magic, those born in Tigana before the destruction can say and hear the name Tigana. My first thought: so Brandin has so much power, but can't vanquish the name Tigana from everyone, including those born in Tigana before the destruction? I guess we wouldn't have a story otherwise. In any case, Alessan does remember the name, as does others born there before Tigana's fall, people like Devin and Baerd and Catriana.
I have many problems with focusing the story on Alessan's side from Devin's perspective. First, I hate it when authors use insignificant characters of no import or impact simply to magnify the mysticism, the intrigue and power of another character. Devin is bewitched by Alessan and Alessan's cause and to return Tigana's name to the hearts and minds of everyone in the Palm, expunging the two tyrant sorcerers in the process. Kay relentlessly makes Devin oooh and aaaah at everything Alessan says and does, as Devin incessantly notes the burdens Alessan has to deal with. Devin is not only bewitched by Alessan, but Devin is constantly thinking what Alessan may be thinking at a certain time! Since Alessan is the last surviving heir of Tigana and obviously very significant, why not just focus on Alessan's perspective?!? Why force the story from Devin's perspective? Devin does little to add to the story (and Alessan's cause) on his own merit, except possibly for Kay to show us that Devin his plagued with an impeccable memory. Devin's memory is his curse, Kay tells us (many times in the beginning). Again, getting back to Kay's lesson of letting the past be in the past.
I believe one of the biggest reasons to read speculative, escapist fiction is to read about characters that go above and beyond the normal, the average. That can do more, that are more. Devin is nothing if not ordinary through every fiber of his being, there is nothing interesting about him, all the intrigue lies with the puppetmaster forcing everyone to dance to his pipes, Alessan. For all of Kay's beliefs in find the good in the evil and the evil in the bad, what happened to letting us inside the head of powerful characters, or a puppetmaster like Alessan? Especially in this genre. Devin is a character that's less than useless, other than to highlight Kay's history lesson.
For all of Devin's impeccable memory and intuition, Devin never really does catch on that Dianora is Baerd's sister. All of the hints are there for him in plain sight too. Before Devin passes out in a barn after severely injuring his leg, he hears of Baerd's childhood friend Nadoo ask about Dianora, and how 14-15 years ago, she disappeared. Then shortly thereafter, Devin and the reader consantly hears about this girl from Certando province brought to Brandin on one his Tribute ships for his harem. And how she almost started a war because Certando is one of Alberico's provinces, not Brandin's. Even when Devin sees her in person and hears more about her in Chiara when they visit the province Brandin holds court, he doesn't connect the dots. Please, for someone as cursed with memory as he's supposed to be, he sure does miss out on a lot of information. At one point, Alessan dismisses the Certando woman having the same name as Baerd's sister as coincidence. Even though the timing of when she was taken on the Tribute ship fits perfectly. For all the connections Alessan and Baerd gather in the 15-16 years throughout the Palm following Tigana's destruction, you're telling me they couldn't trace her? Or find this woman's name which bears the same name as Baerd's sister oddly interesting? The woman who almost started another war with the other Tyrant sorcerer when she was taken to Brandin's harem? Not even Devin's flawless memory can put together all the pieces here? I thought that was Devin's purpose? To absorb information and slowing connect the dots. Okay, I was mistaken Devin is _much_ less than useless, not just less than useless.
Which brings us to the other major perspective comprising the bulk of the story, Dianora. Dianora's heart-wrenching chapters and emotional angst represent the crux of the story and a key lesson Kay wants to teach us. I wouldn't exactly call Dianora's perspective fun, not by any stretch of the imagination. Dianora's character lies at the heart of Kay's story though, and easily eclipses other characters and other happenings. Easily. I would go insofar as to rename the title of this book to DIANORA instead of TIGANA. Because Dianora's inner turmoil even eclipses Alessan's cause to restore Tigana's name and drive the tyrant sorcerers out of the Palm.
Dianora is from Tigana, you see, 13 or 14 at the time Tigana falls to Brandin the Tyrant, and subsequently decimated. Dianora hears of her father's death, watches the glorius city of Tigana destroyed, people killed, her mother go insane, and her brother and friend Nadoo beaten. After her brother Baerd comes upon a riselka and leaves home to find Alessan, the last surviving heir to Tigana, Dianora watches the flames of a fire die but twinning snakes emerge in her heart - twins of memory for what she's seen and witnessed, and hatred for the man who did it, hatred for Brandin the sorcerer. After her brother Baerd leaves, Dianora makes it her life mission to kill Brandin in her own way. She grows into a very beautiful woman and at 19, she's captured on one of Brandin's Tribute Ships which wisks away women for Brandin's harem, his saisan, from his conquered provinces. Dianora is successful in getting taken away on one of these Tribute Ships given her astounding beauty.
As fate would have it however, Dianora falls in love with Brandin. The overwhelming love for this powerful man (Brandin) eventually subdues the twinning snakes of memory and hate in her heart. The same powerful man who conquered her home, destroyed her kingdom, and killed her father. She eventually hopes against all hope that she can live with this man, continue to love this man, and that at the same time, she can somehow restore Tigana's name. Oh and by the way, despite abducting women from his conquered provinces, cruelly torturing people in sickening ways, putting people to death on wheels, and laying Tigana to waste, Brandin isn't really a bad guy. In fact, Brandin is very affectionate, very compassionate. Over time, just as Dianora comes to love Brandin, so too does Brandin come to favor Dianora's wit and humor, so too does the reader receive a glimpse into Brandin's compassion, his good through Dianora's eyes.
Obviously, Kay wants to demonstrate some good in evil and the ambiguity of human nature, not the straight forward good vs. evil we often find in this genre. Further, Kay invites us to see how love in a character can help conquer their past.
Well that would be all well and good if Dianora wasn't so torturous to read. And the upshot of all of her pages? Love isn't enough. That's right, love isn't enough. Thank you and good night. I think a soap opera would be less torturous to watch than read about Dianora's emotional angst over her divided heart. For my part, I don't even see a contest. Kay doesn't really spend time on how Dianora came to love Brandin, only that it happened gradually over 15 years. We're spared of any love making scenes between Brandin and Dianora and there really aren't any scenes between the 2 which would constitute as "romantic." So given the text we have to go on, I'm just not compelled by this overwhelming love Dianora feels for Brandin. For my part, I would have killed Brandin long ago, but Kay points that may shift the balance of power in the Palm to Alberico, and we're led to believe that she's doing us a favor by loving Brandin and saving him from assassination attempts. At one point, Dianora is thinking in her mind to Brandin: LET GO, to something Brandin is saying. Obviously a plea to let go of the past and his hatred of Tigana for killing his beloved son, set Tigana's name free, so she can love him with her whole heart, not just half.
I have to address the Night Walker storyline which comes out of no where, and again reinforces Kay's lesson about letting the past be in the past. Apparently the Night Walkers are cultish group of people with magic, persecuted before the sorcerors conquered the Palm, and executed by the provinces of the Palm for following a religious orientation outside of the accepted the Triad. Baerd travels to another dimension with the Night Walkers to help defeat a nameless enemy - the Others - for a battle over the land, over soil and food. The whole chapter seemed like something from another dimension, which didn't really belong. Ironically enough, it is these same persecuted people of magic which help Alessan's assembled wizards against Brandin's powerful and overwhelming sorcery. That's right, there's a lesson in there. Let the past be in the past!
Kay classifies TIGANA as a romantic adventure, but I would call it anything but. Possibly a romantic tragedy read in a class to analyze, scrutinize and learn. But not simply to read. The most notable "romance" is that between Dianora and Brandin, but it is hardly adventurous. When Devin leaves Alienor after a vicious, but meaningless night of love making, he says something to that effect; that is, maybe we don't feel anything because we think this is all we deserve. The way Kay presents it, there's another lesson in there about sleeping around without any substance. As if our singer boy has stumbled upon some startling revelation for us all to take away. In a couple pages each, we're treated to sparks of romance between some other characters: Devin and Alais, Baerd and Elena, the Night Walker, and finally, between Alessan and Catriana. The final pairing I found very unsatisfying and incongruous, especially since we never receive a perspective from Alessan which would lead us to to the professed love Alessan claims for Catriana. Kay pairs them up but there's hardly any romance really or substance here to these supposed romances. If there wasn't any substance between Devin and Alienor in their feral sex, there certainly isn't any substance in the one page we see Devin kiss Alais towards the end. Substantive romance isn't what Kay is interested in anyway, at least not in TIGANA.
Unimaginate, average and otherwise torturous characters, lessons in every plot and story and an overabundance of worldbuilding. That just about sums up my experience of Kay's TIGANA.
Some concluding thoughts about the finale of TIGANA, with a plethora of magic all at once in a book that uses magic very subtly for the most part. Finally in the end, Brandin does let go of the past and his hatred of the province of Tigana which killed his beloved son. But by then, as Alessan notes from Devin's perspective, it is way too late. In the end, Brandin unleashes everything all the magical power he possesses to kill the rival tyrant sorcerer, Alberico, in a battle that Alessan deftly maneuvers to craft. After Brandin is fully spent, the magic which prevents anyone from hearing or saying Tigana is also released. Brandin also liberates control of his court fool, Rhun, who turns out to be Prince Valentin enslaved and tortured all these years by Brandin's hatred for killing his beloved son. Valentin promptly remembers who he is and kills and Brandin after Brandin is completely spent. Valentin is slain by Brandin's loyal guard, D'Eymon. D'Eymon, seeing how Brandin is killed, plunges the sword in his own body while Dianora promptly plunges into the water to drown after her love Brandin is killed.
There's supposed to be wedding between the new Prince of Tigana, Alessan, and Catriana. The End. I've read some unsatisfying endings, but this is right up there. I'm not sure I got anything out of this than torturous lesson I really didn't need.
A Review, SPOILERS galore. Considered by many as revolutionary in epic fantasy storytelling, here's my take on Kay's TIGANA (1990) which I read some time back.
3/10
9/10, if you teach a literature class, and you want your students to write an essay for purely instructional purposes.
If you were ever to create Top-10 list of fantasy novels replete with emotional angst, misery and malaise, you must include Kay's TIGANA in this list. I found TIGANA so unsatisfying, so uninspiring, so emotionally draining, I would be reluctant to pick up another Kay novel ever again. There's a story here, but it isn't meant to entertain. Its central intent? To teach, to share wisdom. Like many others, I have to finish a book I start, and with TIGANA, I felt as if I was being forced to read this book so I can write an essay for a class way back in high school or college. I was begging for some Terry-Goodkind preaching after this novel.
Even not having read Kay's afterword, the reader can sense there's some themes, some lessons, that Kay wants to ascribe to the reader. The didactic prose of the book drips into the farthest recesses of your mind while you're reading this.
Clearly, Kay wanted to teach some lessons in TIGANA, as he explains in the afterword of his Tenth-Anniversary edition of TIGANA. Kay wanted to impart -- emotionally and spiritually and relentless in his prose, in his diction -- what it means to refuse letting the past be in the past. Through the binding between the Alessan and the wizard Erlein, Kay also wanted to teach what it means to use unwilling instruments (people) as tools in your quarrels, in order to raise questions to the legitimacy of the plight. This theme also takes root in Alessan's mother cursing his son on her deathbed for not doing anything about the past, at least not in her eyes. The one person - Dianora - who begins to conquer her past with a promise of love commits suicide by plunging into the water, because in the end, she could not escape her past, her history.
The other central theme Kay wants to drum out mercilessly: the duplicity, the ambiguity, and the divided loyalties of human nature. This is also best represented in Dianora's character, although there's traces of it in Alessan. Obviously, Kay wants to show the good in evil, and the evil in good in a genre, as he says, "tends not to work that way." Well thank you, Guy Gavriel Kay, for shedding some of my naivety, I happened to be waiting for you to do it.
I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed Kay's witty humor and political intrigue. In the bar scenes, whether in the beginning in The Paelion, or towards the end, in the inn Solinghi. When Kay isn't edifying us and torturing us with emotional angst, he's certainly readable.
The prose isn't bad, though the messages very repetitive at times. The opening 100 pages or so were, for the most part, fun, witty and full of political intrigue. Then, Kay does a 180 and brings to home what he really wants to talk about when Dianora's perspective starts appearing in waves and waves. Kay often times repeats things over and over again just to fill the pages, about Devin's cursed memory (again and again), about Devin thinking about Alessan's burdens (again and again), about Dianora's life line leading to this moment, to this path (again and again and again in different words). Furthermore, although I enjoy worldbuilding, Kay takes worldbuilding to insufferable heights. For a stand-alone ~650-page epic fantasy novel, Kay is explaining about the history of this province or the history of that ritual or the gods more than 500 pages into it! And it length! Unacceptable, if you ask me.
Also, George R.R. Martin (GRRM) does this too, but I find it acutely unreadable the way Kay leaves the import of the action off-screen. For example, when Dianora returns to Brandin after seeing a riselka for her path made clear, a humanoid creature with green hair and blue veins, Brandin divulges his plans. The reader never hears about the plans, and Kay leaves words to the effect that Dianora listened and cried and listened. Brandin's plans are divulged much later when Alessan, Erlein and Devin visit Alessan's dying mother at Eanna's Sanctuary (one of the goddesses in the Triad of TIGANA).
The Story.
Some 20 years ago, a very powerful sorcerer - Brandin - conquers the western provinces one by one in a peninsula called the Palm. One of the last provinces to fall - proud Tigana - fought back mightily as Prince Valentin of Tigana slays Brandin's beloved son, his youngest son. Brandin brings the absolute and titanic wrath of his awesome power down upon Tigana, decimating everything and killing most everyone in the province. With his sorcery, Brandin also strips the name Tigana from everyone in the Palm not born in Tigana before its fall, calling the province Lower Corte thenceforth. This expropriation of the name Tigana from the Palm serves as the catalyst and underlying impetus of the entire story. I was very unmoved by this underlying energy which drives the characters we read about.
In the beginning we read about the Duke Sandre staging his own death so as to bring together enemies of another sorcerer Tyrant, this time from the eastern Palm, a sorcerer called Alberico, weaker than Brandin. The Duke's plot goes awry when he's betrayed by one of his grandsons, resulting in the death of everyone from his family and other noble families in the Duke's province Astibar. Here we also meet one of the two main perspectives comprising the bulk of the story, our talented, young 19 year-old singer, Devin. Devin serves one purpose and one alone in Kay's story: Devin is our eyes and ears into Alessan, Prince Valentin's youngest son who manages to escape Brandin's carnage of Tigana. Alessan is older now, in his mid-30s and has made it his life-long mission to excavate both Tyrants from the Palm, Brandin from the western palm and Alberico from the eastern palm. In this singular goal, Alessan and Baerd (Dianora's brother) are building contacts throughout the eastern Palm sympathetic to Alessan's cause and against both Alberico and Brandin and everything the tyrants represent.
Returning to Devin, he is a gifted singer touring in the eastern palm, and he discovers he was born in Tigana right before it was destroyed. While most cannot say or hear the name Tigana because of Brandin's magic, those born in Tigana before the destruction can say and hear the name Tigana. My first thought: so Brandin has so much power, but can't vanquish the name Tigana from everyone, including those born in Tigana before the destruction? I guess we wouldn't have a story otherwise. In any case, Alessan does remember the name, as does others born there before Tigana's fall, people like Devin and Baerd and Catriana.
I have many problems with focusing the story on Alessan's side from Devin's perspective. First, I hate it when authors use insignificant characters of no import or impact simply to magnify the mysticism, the intrigue and power of another character. Devin is bewitched by Alessan and Alessan's cause and to return Tigana's name to the hearts and minds of everyone in the Palm, expunging the two tyrant sorcerers in the process. Kay relentlessly makes Devin oooh and aaaah at everything Alessan says and does, as Devin incessantly notes the burdens Alessan has to deal with. Devin is not only bewitched by Alessan, but Devin is constantly thinking what Alessan may be thinking at a certain time! Since Alessan is the last surviving heir of Tigana and obviously very significant, why not just focus on Alessan's perspective?!? Why force the story from Devin's perspective? Devin does little to add to the story (and Alessan's cause) on his own merit, except possibly for Kay to show us that Devin his plagued with an impeccable memory. Devin's memory is his curse, Kay tells us (many times in the beginning). Again, getting back to Kay's lesson of letting the past be in the past.
I believe one of the biggest reasons to read speculative, escapist fiction is to read about characters that go above and beyond the normal, the average. That can do more, that are more. Devin is nothing if not ordinary through every fiber of his being, there is nothing interesting about him, all the intrigue lies with the puppetmaster forcing everyone to dance to his pipes, Alessan. For all of Kay's beliefs in find the good in the evil and the evil in the bad, what happened to letting us inside the head of powerful characters, or a puppetmaster like Alessan? Especially in this genre. Devin is a character that's less than useless, other than to highlight Kay's history lesson.
For all of Devin's impeccable memory and intuition, Devin never really does catch on that Dianora is Baerd's sister. All of the hints are there for him in plain sight too. Before Devin passes out in a barn after severely injuring his leg, he hears of Baerd's childhood friend Nadoo ask about Dianora, and how 14-15 years ago, she disappeared. Then shortly thereafter, Devin and the reader consantly hears about this girl from Certando province brought to Brandin on one his Tribute ships for his harem. And how she almost started a war because Certando is one of Alberico's provinces, not Brandin's. Even when Devin sees her in person and hears more about her in Chiara when they visit the province Brandin holds court, he doesn't connect the dots. Please, for someone as cursed with memory as he's supposed to be, he sure does miss out on a lot of information. At one point, Alessan dismisses the Certando woman having the same name as Baerd's sister as coincidence. Even though the timing of when she was taken on the Tribute ship fits perfectly. For all the connections Alessan and Baerd gather in the 15-16 years throughout the Palm following Tigana's destruction, you're telling me they couldn't trace her? Or find this woman's name which bears the same name as Baerd's sister oddly interesting? The woman who almost started another war with the other Tyrant sorcerer when she was taken to Brandin's harem? Not even Devin's flawless memory can put together all the pieces here? I thought that was Devin's purpose? To absorb information and slowing connect the dots. Okay, I was mistaken Devin is _much_ less than useless, not just less than useless.
Which brings us to the other major perspective comprising the bulk of the story, Dianora. Dianora's heart-wrenching chapters and emotional angst represent the crux of the story and a key lesson Kay wants to teach us. I wouldn't exactly call Dianora's perspective fun, not by any stretch of the imagination. Dianora's character lies at the heart of Kay's story though, and easily eclipses other characters and other happenings. Easily. I would go insofar as to rename the title of this book to DIANORA instead of TIGANA. Because Dianora's inner turmoil even eclipses Alessan's cause to restore Tigana's name and drive the tyrant sorcerers out of the Palm.
Dianora is from Tigana, you see, 13 or 14 at the time Tigana falls to Brandin the Tyrant, and subsequently decimated. Dianora hears of her father's death, watches the glorius city of Tigana destroyed, people killed, her mother go insane, and her brother and friend Nadoo beaten. After her brother Baerd comes upon a riselka and leaves home to find Alessan, the last surviving heir to Tigana, Dianora watches the flames of a fire die but twinning snakes emerge in her heart - twins of memory for what she's seen and witnessed, and hatred for the man who did it, hatred for Brandin the sorcerer. After her brother Baerd leaves, Dianora makes it her life mission to kill Brandin in her own way. She grows into a very beautiful woman and at 19, she's captured on one of Brandin's Tribute Ships which wisks away women for Brandin's harem, his saisan, from his conquered provinces. Dianora is successful in getting taken away on one of these Tribute Ships given her astounding beauty.
As fate would have it however, Dianora falls in love with Brandin. The overwhelming love for this powerful man (Brandin) eventually subdues the twinning snakes of memory and hate in her heart. The same powerful man who conquered her home, destroyed her kingdom, and killed her father. She eventually hopes against all hope that she can live with this man, continue to love this man, and that at the same time, she can somehow restore Tigana's name. Oh and by the way, despite abducting women from his conquered provinces, cruelly torturing people in sickening ways, putting people to death on wheels, and laying Tigana to waste, Brandin isn't really a bad guy. In fact, Brandin is very affectionate, very compassionate. Over time, just as Dianora comes to love Brandin, so too does Brandin come to favor Dianora's wit and humor, so too does the reader receive a glimpse into Brandin's compassion, his good through Dianora's eyes.
Obviously, Kay wants to demonstrate some good in evil and the ambiguity of human nature, not the straight forward good vs. evil we often find in this genre. Further, Kay invites us to see how love in a character can help conquer their past.
Well that would be all well and good if Dianora wasn't so torturous to read. And the upshot of all of her pages? Love isn't enough. That's right, love isn't enough. Thank you and good night. I think a soap opera would be less torturous to watch than read about Dianora's emotional angst over her divided heart. For my part, I don't even see a contest. Kay doesn't really spend time on how Dianora came to love Brandin, only that it happened gradually over 15 years. We're spared of any love making scenes between Brandin and Dianora and there really aren't any scenes between the 2 which would constitute as "romantic." So given the text we have to go on, I'm just not compelled by this overwhelming love Dianora feels for Brandin. For my part, I would have killed Brandin long ago, but Kay points that may shift the balance of power in the Palm to Alberico, and we're led to believe that she's doing us a favor by loving Brandin and saving him from assassination attempts. At one point, Dianora is thinking in her mind to Brandin: LET GO, to something Brandin is saying. Obviously a plea to let go of the past and his hatred of Tigana for killing his beloved son, set Tigana's name free, so she can love him with her whole heart, not just half.
I have to address the Night Walker storyline which comes out of no where, and again reinforces Kay's lesson about letting the past be in the past. Apparently the Night Walkers are cultish group of people with magic, persecuted before the sorcerors conquered the Palm, and executed by the provinces of the Palm for following a religious orientation outside of the accepted the Triad. Baerd travels to another dimension with the Night Walkers to help defeat a nameless enemy - the Others - for a battle over the land, over soil and food. The whole chapter seemed like something from another dimension, which didn't really belong. Ironically enough, it is these same persecuted people of magic which help Alessan's assembled wizards against Brandin's powerful and overwhelming sorcery. That's right, there's a lesson in there. Let the past be in the past!
Kay classifies TIGANA as a romantic adventure, but I would call it anything but. Possibly a romantic tragedy read in a class to analyze, scrutinize and learn. But not simply to read. The most notable "romance" is that between Dianora and Brandin, but it is hardly adventurous. When Devin leaves Alienor after a vicious, but meaningless night of love making, he says something to that effect; that is, maybe we don't feel anything because we think this is all we deserve. The way Kay presents it, there's another lesson in there about sleeping around without any substance. As if our singer boy has stumbled upon some startling revelation for us all to take away. In a couple pages each, we're treated to sparks of romance between some other characters: Devin and Alais, Baerd and Elena, the Night Walker, and finally, between Alessan and Catriana. The final pairing I found very unsatisfying and incongruous, especially since we never receive a perspective from Alessan which would lead us to to the professed love Alessan claims for Catriana. Kay pairs them up but there's hardly any romance really or substance here to these supposed romances. If there wasn't any substance between Devin and Alienor in their feral sex, there certainly isn't any substance in the one page we see Devin kiss Alais towards the end. Substantive romance isn't what Kay is interested in anyway, at least not in TIGANA.
Unimaginate, average and otherwise torturous characters, lessons in every plot and story and an overabundance of worldbuilding. That just about sums up my experience of Kay's TIGANA.
Some concluding thoughts about the finale of TIGANA, with a plethora of magic all at once in a book that uses magic very subtly for the most part. Finally in the end, Brandin does let go of the past and his hatred of the province of Tigana which killed his beloved son. But by then, as Alessan notes from Devin's perspective, it is way too late. In the end, Brandin unleashes everything all the magical power he possesses to kill the rival tyrant sorcerer, Alberico, in a battle that Alessan deftly maneuvers to craft. After Brandin is fully spent, the magic which prevents anyone from hearing or saying Tigana is also released. Brandin also liberates control of his court fool, Rhun, who turns out to be Prince Valentin enslaved and tortured all these years by Brandin's hatred for killing his beloved son. Valentin promptly remembers who he is and kills and Brandin after Brandin is completely spent. Valentin is slain by Brandin's loyal guard, D'Eymon. D'Eymon, seeing how Brandin is killed, plunges the sword in his own body while Dianora promptly plunges into the water to drown after her love Brandin is killed.
There's supposed to be wedding between the new Prince of Tigana, Alessan, and Catriana. The End. I've read some unsatisfying endings, but this is right up there. I'm not sure I got anything out of this than torturous lesson I really didn't need.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
The Mallorean, by David Eddings [1]
*/***** (1/5)
1. GUARDIANS OF THE WEST
2. KING OF THE MURGOS
3. DEMON LORD OF KARANDA
4. SORCERESS OF DARSHIVA
5. THE SEERESS OF KELL
I read David Eddings' Belgariad (beginning with PAWN OF PROPHECY) and Mallorean (beginning with GUARDIANS OF THE WEST), around the same age at 16-17. Enjoyed Belgariad quite a bit and I still have fond memories of it. However, unlike the Belgariad, I was frustrated, disgusted and just plain annoyed by Mallorean.
I can't remember other examples when I had two such polar opposite reactions by works from the same author.
Everyone calling each other "dear" as a sign of affection really grated on me, mainly because the person using the word came off as a patronizing prissy. It was mostly Polgara doing it in The Belgariad, but in Mallorean, we find that everyone in David Eddings' world throws around "dear" as a sign of affection. I think I wanted to scream my lungs out every time Eddings had one of his characters use the word.
In the Mallorean, I remember hoping to see Garion and Ce'Nedra act like adults. No such luck, Eddings has 25-26 year-olds act like adolescent, imbecilic, incompetent and inept babies. The presence of Polgara, Belgarath and Poledra really made Garion & Ce'Nedra look dumb most of the time. Garion is constantly going OH-MY-GOD "What are we going to do, Grandfather?" or "Aunt Pol, do something!" or "Oh my god, they're blocking our way, what are we going to do?" C'mon, you're a king, you're an adult, can't you make some decisions on your own, Garion?! Don't get me started on Ce'Nedra, Eddings needs a helpless, stupid and just plain dumb girl in the Mallorean and Ce'Nedra fits the bill. Unlike other women in Eddings' novels, Ce'Nedra constantly needs protection, she's fragile, and Eddings uses her to ask the dumbest questions during banter to move the conversation forward (Polgara answers them with a "dear", of course). Don't get me wrong, I like Ce'Nedra's character best from Belgariad/Mallorean, and whenever Eddings deigns to write her perspective every now and then, I enjoy the story that much more. But she's completely useless besides breeding some kids for Garion. Even Velvet - who's younger than Ce'Nedra - is smarter and more competent than Ce'Nedra.
All the books in the Mallorean were just plain pointless. Eddings could have written the 5-book series in one 500-page book. There was a lot traveling, pointless banter to make Ce'Nedra look dumb, waking up in the morning, setting up camp, etc.
What I found most frustrating in the Mallorean was the lack of personal choice. The lack of choice was there on some level in the Belgariad, but Garion was more or less a teenager in the Belgariad so I didn't find it as bad. In the Mallorean, everyone has a =task= to do at a certain =time= and there's no wavering on that =task=. Everyone does what they're supposed to do, and the formulaic and predictable prophecy comes to fruition. What's funny is I remember the Mallorean hinging on a character's =Choice= at the end. Pfft, give me a break. Lamest ending ever. There's always a voice guiding Garion, or Belgarath or Polgara to help him, or if he wanted to do something that he wasn't supposed to do, his limbs become locked in place so he can't. Choice?!? Please...
In the Mallorean, the characterizations have exacerabated with age and the feeling of deja vu in the story is too strong to even acknowledge the Mallorean as a piece of literature.
Alright I'll stop whining now. In general, I do like Eddings, I think he writes acceptable literature for young adults, but you can only take so much of the same thing. Read the Belgariad, and be content with it.
1. GUARDIANS OF THE WEST
2. KING OF THE MURGOS
3. DEMON LORD OF KARANDA
4. SORCERESS OF DARSHIVA
5. THE SEERESS OF KELL
I read David Eddings' Belgariad (beginning with PAWN OF PROPHECY) and Mallorean (beginning with GUARDIANS OF THE WEST), around the same age at 16-17. Enjoyed Belgariad quite a bit and I still have fond memories of it. However, unlike the Belgariad, I was frustrated, disgusted and just plain annoyed by Mallorean.
I can't remember other examples when I had two such polar opposite reactions by works from the same author.
Everyone calling each other "dear" as a sign of affection really grated on me, mainly because the person using the word came off as a patronizing prissy. It was mostly Polgara doing it in The Belgariad, but in Mallorean, we find that everyone in David Eddings' world throws around "dear" as a sign of affection. I think I wanted to scream my lungs out every time Eddings had one of his characters use the word.
In the Mallorean, I remember hoping to see Garion and Ce'Nedra act like adults. No such luck, Eddings has 25-26 year-olds act like adolescent, imbecilic, incompetent and inept babies. The presence of Polgara, Belgarath and Poledra really made Garion & Ce'Nedra look dumb most of the time. Garion is constantly going OH-MY-GOD "What are we going to do, Grandfather?" or "Aunt Pol, do something!" or "Oh my god, they're blocking our way, what are we going to do?" C'mon, you're a king, you're an adult, can't you make some decisions on your own, Garion?! Don't get me started on Ce'Nedra, Eddings needs a helpless, stupid and just plain dumb girl in the Mallorean and Ce'Nedra fits the bill. Unlike other women in Eddings' novels, Ce'Nedra constantly needs protection, she's fragile, and Eddings uses her to ask the dumbest questions during banter to move the conversation forward (Polgara answers them with a "dear", of course). Don't get me wrong, I like Ce'Nedra's character best from Belgariad/Mallorean, and whenever Eddings deigns to write her perspective every now and then, I enjoy the story that much more. But she's completely useless besides breeding some kids for Garion. Even Velvet - who's younger than Ce'Nedra - is smarter and more competent than Ce'Nedra.
All the books in the Mallorean were just plain pointless. Eddings could have written the 5-book series in one 500-page book. There was a lot traveling, pointless banter to make Ce'Nedra look dumb, waking up in the morning, setting up camp, etc.
What I found most frustrating in the Mallorean was the lack of personal choice. The lack of choice was there on some level in the Belgariad, but Garion was more or less a teenager in the Belgariad so I didn't find it as bad. In the Mallorean, everyone has a =task= to do at a certain =time= and there's no wavering on that =task=. Everyone does what they're supposed to do, and the formulaic and predictable prophecy comes to fruition. What's funny is I remember the Mallorean hinging on a character's =Choice= at the end. Pfft, give me a break. Lamest ending ever. There's always a voice guiding Garion, or Belgarath or Polgara to help him, or if he wanted to do something that he wasn't supposed to do, his limbs become locked in place so he can't. Choice?!? Please...
In the Mallorean, the characterizations have exacerabated with age and the feeling of deja vu in the story is too strong to even acknowledge the Mallorean as a piece of literature.
Alright I'll stop whining now. In general, I do like Eddings, I think he writes acceptable literature for young adults, but you can only take so much of the same thing. Read the Belgariad, and be content with it.
Heroes: from the male vs. female point-of-view
So this is just an observation after having read about the preposterously, farfetched Adrien Hunt in Judith Ivory's ANGEL IN A RED DRESS' .
I suppose this goes without saying, but if you'll indulge me here.
In terms of the hero, female romance novelists often portray their heroes with outlandish displays of power cocooning a vulnerability and weakness that only the heroine is privy to. ANGEL IN A RED DRESS' Adrien is every bit as vain and outlandish as they get.
Male authors from other genres, on the other hand, often take the opposite route: you have a seemingly ordinary guy cloaking a hidden power, a hidden strength.
Age plays a large factor. Often female authors' heroes are older, more experienced and more established in their power. While male authors' heroes are a bit younger, and their power is veiled. Adult SFF author Richard Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs is old and experienced though, and every bit as powerful, just not as ridiculously outlandish or such a pretty-boy. Same goes for Matt Stover's Caine.
Which one do you prefer? I think you can tell my preference . . . Of course Ivory's Adrien Hunt is really an extreme archetype in romance.
I suppose this goes without saying, but if you'll indulge me here.
In terms of the hero, female romance novelists often portray their heroes with outlandish displays of power cocooning a vulnerability and weakness that only the heroine is privy to. ANGEL IN A RED DRESS' Adrien is every bit as vain and outlandish as they get.
Male authors from other genres, on the other hand, often take the opposite route: you have a seemingly ordinary guy cloaking a hidden power, a hidden strength.
Age plays a large factor. Often female authors' heroes are older, more experienced and more established in their power. While male authors' heroes are a bit younger, and their power is veiled. Adult SFF author Richard Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs is old and experienced though, and every bit as powerful, just not as ridiculously outlandish or such a pretty-boy. Same goes for Matt Stover's Caine.
Which one do you prefer? I think you can tell my preference . . . Of course Ivory's Adrien Hunt is really an extreme archetype in romance.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Into the Fire, by Anne Stuart [4]
****/***** (4/5)
There's too many things to like about Anne Stuart's INTO THE FIRE. In my continuing quest for a fusion between romance and other genres, this particular one blurs the lines of distinction between contemporary romance, suspense and mystery, though it's still a romance at heart. I thought INTO THE FIRE does a very decent job in all of these genres and yet still manages to pull off a world unto its own. Aside from the contemporary world, the novel seemed to breath a new world within the garage building in remote Cooperstown, Wisconsin (U.S.), where most of the novel takes place. It was surreal, yet grounded. The settings -- though good -- I thought could have been better if Anne Stuart spent even more time than she already did describing the decrepit garage building. As it is, the inanimate garage building still came alive. The prose isn't bad at all, and the characterizations were excellent with ample backstories and well-realized. Especially Bad-Boy Dillon Gaynor. The romance was very passionate, electrically charged. Anne Stuart even made me laugh as she sprinkles in some witty dialogue.
I've heard you haven't read bad boys until you've read Anne Stuart's bad boys. Within the context of the romance genre, I would have to agree. Although INTO THE FIRE's Dillon is a convicted felon, a high-school dropout, a drunk, a drug dealer, and an all-around insensitive jerk, he still manages to capture our good-girl heroine Jamie Kincaid's attentions, and later, her heart. You have to hand it to Anne Stuart for getting bad boys right, and still have the reader find them endearing, at least on some level. I've also heard Anne Stuart redeems her heroes fully by the end and such is the case here as well because bad-boy Dillon doesn't have the most noble, gentlemanly intentions towards his heroine Jamie starting out.
Jamie signifies courage during very trying circumstances and a spunky wit on her own right, and in that regard, her character pretty much golfs par for romance. What I found funny though: she drives all the way from her home in Rhode Island to Dillon's car garage in Wisconsin for some answers only to find herself wanting to flee Dillon -- constantly. Classic case of a heroine's nerves and instincts guarding her falling heart, but I thought it was funny here, and unique in the midst of the eerie, suspenseful car garage building. For those of you that are a bit squeamish (I myself can't take S&M), I must warn of a rape scene in the beginning. It's part of Jamie's flashback, and I thought it was important in two respects: it showed Jamie's strength of character and it signified in the overall love story and passion between Jamie and Dillon.
My problems?
Well for one, I thought the book contained too many plot holes. I didn't mind that it often bordered on paranormal elements, but it didn't provide a reasonable explanation for the happenings in Dillon's car garage at the end. Either make it paranormal or provide me with some reasonable explanations please.
And secondly, this is getting back to my need for some satisfactory ending - not necessarily happy 100%, but satisfactory nonetheless. I didn't like how the ending didn't spend enough time between its hero and heroine, Jaime and Dillon. It also felt contrived and rushed.
Finally, I felt Dillon was reformed too easily, and all the criminal charges against him absolved too conveniently. Could be related to my problem with plot holes.
The premise (spoiler-free).
Twenty-eight year-old school teacher Jaime Kincaid has just lost her beloved cousin Nate to death. Tall, dark and handsome, Nate possessed a beguiling smile and a comforting, easy presence. Nate and Dillon Gaynor have been best friends forever and Nate was found bludgeoned to death in his best friend's car garage. Jaime fears thirty year-old Dillon for many reasons: she's had a crush on Dillon since she was 15, Dillon's James-Dean, Rebel-Without-a-Cause persona infringes on her deepest, darkest desires, and he's violent in the worst ways having served jail time for almost beating someone to death when he was 19. Yet, Jaime treks out there in her Volvo for some answers and Nate's belongings since Dillon ignores her letters. The police have dropped Nate's case and Jaime is determined to get some answers.
As she arrives at Dillon's eerie car garage, she's horrified to watch Dillon beating someone up. Nope, Jaime thinks, he hasn't changed at all.
Bad-Boy Dillon Gaynor has his own reasons for intentionally withholding Nate's belongings and hoping to see Jaime again in person after 12 years. They aren't the most noble reasons either, he just wants to use her for his own satisfaction. As soon as Jaime arrives, she wants to escape, to return to Rhode Island while Dillon treacherously sabotages her means to return. He effectively imprisons her in his creepy, dilapidated car garage building.
The story continues its wild ride from there as good-girl Jaime and bad-boy Dillon struggle with ghosts from their past and with each other.
A very engaging reading experience, and it had me completely hooked from beginning to end.
There's too many things to like about Anne Stuart's INTO THE FIRE. In my continuing quest for a fusion between romance and other genres, this particular one blurs the lines of distinction between contemporary romance, suspense and mystery, though it's still a romance at heart. I thought INTO THE FIRE does a very decent job in all of these genres and yet still manages to pull off a world unto its own. Aside from the contemporary world, the novel seemed to breath a new world within the garage building in remote Cooperstown, Wisconsin (U.S.), where most of the novel takes place. It was surreal, yet grounded. The settings -- though good -- I thought could have been better if Anne Stuart spent even more time than she already did describing the decrepit garage building. As it is, the inanimate garage building still came alive. The prose isn't bad at all, and the characterizations were excellent with ample backstories and well-realized. Especially Bad-Boy Dillon Gaynor. The romance was very passionate, electrically charged. Anne Stuart even made me laugh as she sprinkles in some witty dialogue.
I've heard you haven't read bad boys until you've read Anne Stuart's bad boys. Within the context of the romance genre, I would have to agree. Although INTO THE FIRE's Dillon is a convicted felon, a high-school dropout, a drunk, a drug dealer, and an all-around insensitive jerk, he still manages to capture our good-girl heroine Jamie Kincaid's attentions, and later, her heart. You have to hand it to Anne Stuart for getting bad boys right, and still have the reader find them endearing, at least on some level. I've also heard Anne Stuart redeems her heroes fully by the end and such is the case here as well because bad-boy Dillon doesn't have the most noble, gentlemanly intentions towards his heroine Jamie starting out.
Jamie signifies courage during very trying circumstances and a spunky wit on her own right, and in that regard, her character pretty much golfs par for romance. What I found funny though: she drives all the way from her home in Rhode Island to Dillon's car garage in Wisconsin for some answers only to find herself wanting to flee Dillon -- constantly. Classic case of a heroine's nerves and instincts guarding her falling heart, but I thought it was funny here, and unique in the midst of the eerie, suspenseful car garage building. For those of you that are a bit squeamish (I myself can't take S&M), I must warn of a rape scene in the beginning. It's part of Jamie's flashback, and I thought it was important in two respects: it showed Jamie's strength of character and it signified in the overall love story and passion between Jamie and Dillon.
My problems?
Well for one, I thought the book contained too many plot holes. I didn't mind that it often bordered on paranormal elements, but it didn't provide a reasonable explanation for the happenings in Dillon's car garage at the end. Either make it paranormal or provide me with some reasonable explanations please.
And secondly, this is getting back to my need for some satisfactory ending - not necessarily happy 100%, but satisfactory nonetheless. I didn't like how the ending didn't spend enough time between its hero and heroine, Jaime and Dillon. It also felt contrived and rushed.
Finally, I felt Dillon was reformed too easily, and all the criminal charges against him absolved too conveniently. Could be related to my problem with plot holes.
The premise (spoiler-free).
Twenty-eight year-old school teacher Jaime Kincaid has just lost her beloved cousin Nate to death. Tall, dark and handsome, Nate possessed a beguiling smile and a comforting, easy presence. Nate and Dillon Gaynor have been best friends forever and Nate was found bludgeoned to death in his best friend's car garage. Jaime fears thirty year-old Dillon for many reasons: she's had a crush on Dillon since she was 15, Dillon's James-Dean, Rebel-Without-a-Cause persona infringes on her deepest, darkest desires, and he's violent in the worst ways having served jail time for almost beating someone to death when he was 19. Yet, Jaime treks out there in her Volvo for some answers and Nate's belongings since Dillon ignores her letters. The police have dropped Nate's case and Jaime is determined to get some answers.
As she arrives at Dillon's eerie car garage, she's horrified to watch Dillon beating someone up. Nope, Jaime thinks, he hasn't changed at all.
Bad-Boy Dillon Gaynor has his own reasons for intentionally withholding Nate's belongings and hoping to see Jaime again in person after 12 years. They aren't the most noble reasons either, he just wants to use her for his own satisfaction. As soon as Jaime arrives, she wants to escape, to return to Rhode Island while Dillon treacherously sabotages her means to return. He effectively imprisons her in his creepy, dilapidated car garage building.
The story continues its wild ride from there as good-girl Jaime and bad-boy Dillon struggle with ghosts from their past and with each other.
A very engaging reading experience, and it had me completely hooked from beginning to end.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch [5]
*****/***** (5/5)
As I'll be returning to sff soon (continuing with romance at the same time as well), here's a review/reaction of a novel I read earlier this year and released last year...
Scott Lynch weaves a very entertaining tale of mischief, mayhem and chaos in this story about a cunning thief, Locke Lamora. The Gentlemen Bastards are a very unassuming and seemingly insignificant gang of orphaned thieves trained and raised by a sage priest, Chains. Locke Lamora leads this gang, but not by steel, not by strength, not by magic, but by his cunning, deceptive mind.
THE LIES OF LOCKE LAMORA stands out for its cunning, witty dialogue, hysterical humor, deceptive legerdemains, and of course for the funny, yet gritty, characterization of Locke Lamora.
As Locke tells us at one point in the novel, "...there's no freedom quite like the freedom of being constantly underestimated." One of his cohort-brothers answers, "Gods, yes...If we were any freer we'd float away in the the sky and fly like birds."
Unfortunately, our unassuming, yet richest, gang of thieves receive some undesired attention when a mysterious Gray King arrives at Camorr (the city serving as the backdrop for the entire novel). Our crafty Locke and his Gentlemen Bastards' schemes and thievery go terribly, terribly awry as they face one complication after another. Locke - short and skinny - must exercise his wit to get him out of the complications that start piling up for his gang.
Scott Lynch's worldbuilding is very thorough, if not prodigiously overdone at times. His city of Camorr and outlying city-states comes alive vividly, from the feel to the looks, from the smells to the tastes, from the languages and accents to the trade and economy, from the political bureacracy to the entertainment.
I do have two complaints.
It took me two weeks to get through the first 200 pages, while two days to finish the last 300 in this hardcover edition. It wasn't until after Chapter 5, The Gray King chapter, that events seriously started spiraling out of control for our band of thieves. I was reading other books during the first 200 pages and I just lost interest in LIES OF LOCKE LAMORA during this time. But man, do things pick up after Chapter 5.
And secondly, the interludes really bring the momentum of the story to a screeching halt. Although they were mercifully shorter later in the novel, they were still jarring to me. The long interludes in the beginning of the book really, really slowed things down.
Otherwise, a thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable reading experience, one I would unabashedly recommend to everyone...
As I'll be returning to sff soon (continuing with romance at the same time as well), here's a review/reaction of a novel I read earlier this year and released last year...
Scott Lynch weaves a very entertaining tale of mischief, mayhem and chaos in this story about a cunning thief, Locke Lamora. The Gentlemen Bastards are a very unassuming and seemingly insignificant gang of orphaned thieves trained and raised by a sage priest, Chains. Locke Lamora leads this gang, but not by steel, not by strength, not by magic, but by his cunning, deceptive mind.
THE LIES OF LOCKE LAMORA stands out for its cunning, witty dialogue, hysterical humor, deceptive legerdemains, and of course for the funny, yet gritty, characterization of Locke Lamora.
As Locke tells us at one point in the novel, "...there's no freedom quite like the freedom of being constantly underestimated." One of his cohort-brothers answers, "Gods, yes...If we were any freer we'd float away in the the sky and fly like birds."
Unfortunately, our unassuming, yet richest, gang of thieves receive some undesired attention when a mysterious Gray King arrives at Camorr (the city serving as the backdrop for the entire novel). Our crafty Locke and his Gentlemen Bastards' schemes and thievery go terribly, terribly awry as they face one complication after another. Locke - short and skinny - must exercise his wit to get him out of the complications that start piling up for his gang.
Scott Lynch's worldbuilding is very thorough, if not prodigiously overdone at times. His city of Camorr and outlying city-states comes alive vividly, from the feel to the looks, from the smells to the tastes, from the languages and accents to the trade and economy, from the political bureacracy to the entertainment.
I do have two complaints.
It took me two weeks to get through the first 200 pages, while two days to finish the last 300 in this hardcover edition. It wasn't until after Chapter 5, The Gray King chapter, that events seriously started spiraling out of control for our band of thieves. I was reading other books during the first 200 pages and I just lost interest in LIES OF LOCKE LAMORA during this time. But man, do things pick up after Chapter 5.
And secondly, the interludes really bring the momentum of the story to a screeching halt. Although they were mercifully shorter later in the novel, they were still jarring to me. The long interludes in the beginning of the book really, really slowed things down.
Otherwise, a thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable reading experience, one I would unabashedly recommend to everyone...
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