The Great Hunt

The Great Hunt is the second book in the Wheel of Time series; here we find Rand & company attempting to recapture the Horn of Valere, and in the process traveling from the Borderlands to Toman Head.

 The Seanchan are introduced, a seafaring empire that uses the One Power in battle.  They have occupied Toman Head and stand as adversaries against the peoples of the mainland.

 Egwene and her female twins are featured heavily, although their story here is solid, not drivel as in some of the later books.

 Overall it is about on par with the first one for quality, but has less variety, as it is very focused on the hunt for the horn.



 8.7/9

The Eye of the World

 Robert Jordan's near endless series "The Wheel of Time" starts here.  Though it is now common knowledge that the later books suffer from an obvious quality drop, the early works were, if nothing else, rather entertaining.

 Yeah the book has a pretty obvious pathing that resembles the Lord of the Rings, the female characters are largely identical to one another while simultaneousness serving as some of the most annoying individuals in fantasy-- but this flaw only becomes a major issue in later books when the females are given more focus.

 I originally read this series in the 90's, but sometime around the 8th or 9th book I quit.  Since then Brandon Sanderson has taken over, following the death of Jordan, and apparently done a rather good job of it.  So I'm slowly rereading the series, since I'd like to see Sanderson's works.  There is a 2-3 book gap between Jordan and Sanderson that I'm not sure entirely sure how I'm going to surmount.

 Anyway, don't read this expecting anything else other than entertainment.

9/10

Gardens of the Moon

   This is the first novel in Erikson's Malazon series.  Some people really like these books-- but I'm not one of them.  This first book was so poorly written and unfocused that I gave up on the series.

 There are lots of characters in this book.  Erikson never describes much of anything about them.  They just appear, and start doing stuff.  Then they disappear for 100 pages, then they reappear, then they suddenly die.  That's pretty much how this book goes.

 Additionally the prose can be painful, this is not lyrical, and repeated words and phrases within just a few lines are common--this drove me crazy! A good editor should have caught and fixed shit like this.

 Some people say the later books are better, and that Erikson's writing improves.  I haven't bothered to test these claims yet, and I'm not sure if I ever will..

 Anyway, this book is not worth reading, perhaps the sequels are, but this one is absolutely not.  It reads like a D&D campaign, and as such has about as much depth.


7/10

The Book Of The New Sun

 "The Greatest SF Novel of the last century." - Neal Gaiman
















  The Book of the New Sun is Gene Wolfe's masterpiece series, and taken as a whole it is easily the greatest novel I've ever read.

 This is the story of Severian, member of the guild of torturers who wanders the lands of Urth.
Yes a torturer.  When in need of money he can use his well honed skills for such as acts as public beheading, and dismemberment.  To clarify, it is never so gruesome that anyone would be put off, and their is no SM or anything like that.

 The language and prose of this novel are of the absolute highest quality, containing a lyrical beauty rarely found in even the most famous of works.

   Now, Wolfe assumes the reader is highly intelligent and knowledgeable.  He assumes your vocabulary is quite large, and even if it is, you will almost certainly have to look up some words(or just infer from the context).

   The novel is told in first person, with Severian claiming he has a perfect memory, but a careful study will show that he does at times contradict himself demonstrating that he is an unreliable narrator.  The observant reader will find many clues are embedded in the text that tell far more of Severian and his world than just his words.


 Now this IS a SF novel, not a fantasy piece.  Severian may see magic, but the reader should know better.  Severian lives in a dying world, an Earth so long gone that technology is magic and the sun is begins to burn the world.

 It was originally released as four novels, "The Shadow of the Torturer", "The Claw of the Conciliator", "The Sword of the Lictor", and "The Citidel of the Autarch".  In recent times the series has been republished in a far more respectable looking edition, comprised of the two novels shown above(each contains two of the original novels).

 This is a definitive work of the 20th century, however unknown it may be to the mainstream, and should not be missed.

10/10

The Wise Man's Fear

 "The Wise Man's Fear" is the second in what is supposed to be a trilogy(though I'm starting to have doubts as to how he can possibly conclude it with only one book).

 This one is much like his first, "The Name of the Wind".  Except it is really damn long.  1126 pages long.

  First, I did enjoy the book.  Rothfuss is a very solid writer, this ant no hack.  He is great a stringing together a sentence, but I'm starting to wonder if he can actually string a full story together.

 Why?

  Well for one, the first 400 pages are a retreat of the first novel.  More Kvothe at University, nothing really new going on here.

 Finally Kvothe leaves the University, he travels 1000 miles(somehow in only 16 days with a shipwreck, eh?) to a distant city where he enters the service of some high and mighty dude.  Denna shows up yet again.  Kvothe pines after her.  Hey this sounding familiar?

 Finally about half way through the book, Kvothe yells at Denna, and is promptly sent out on a mission to eliminate some bandits.


 I should add, that each time Kvothe travels to a new location, the story becomes interesting.. for a time.  But each time Rothfuss overstays, and the reader becomes deadly bored with the location, hoping each time a new chapter arrives that Kvothe will move on.  Kvothe always manages to stay longer than I care for, making me wish they had cut quite a few chapters.

 There is one horrible part where Kvothe enters the fae realm, I kept assuming it would end.. but chapter after chapter Kvothe somehow remained in this most intolerably dull location.

 It does pick up some at the end, Kvothe learns to fight, saves some girls, stuff actually happens, etc.  Why couldn't more of the book been like that?


8.8/10

A Civil Campaign

 Miles is back on Barrayar, and most of the book deals with Miles courtship, or campaign to marry Ekaterin.  New territory for the series-- obviously.. but it works fairly well.


 8.4/10

Komarr

 The third good Miles book in a row.  Miles is now an auditor, and he is helping to investigate a shuttle crash.

This one introduces Ekaterin, as Miles stays at her and her husbands house during his investigation.


8.6/10

Memory

 Memory is another good one.  Miles deals with loss, as does Illyan.  This is also a big changing point in the series,  as Miles role in the story is never really the same from here on.

This is the only book in the Vorkosigan series not included on the free Cryoburn CD put out by Baen, not positive on why, but it may just be because Memory was never included in an omnibus edition.

8.8/10

Mirror Dance

 The first damn good book in the Vorkasigan Saga.

 Miles clone("Mark") is back, and he has a mission.  Unfortunately things don't turn out so well for poor Miles, and he ends up quite dead.

 This one isn't nearly as fluffy as the books that lead up to it.  It is rather dark, and so much stronger for it.

8.8/10

Brothers in Arms

 Miles clone is introduced here.  Fairly dull book aside from that.  This is the last dull book before shit gets good for quite awhile.

7.4/10

Borders of Infinity

 Alright, here was the first sign of life from the Vorkasigan saga.  I had only gotten this far for two reasons.

1) The entire series was released for free(except memory)
2) My iPad could read it aloud while I worked

 Then I stumbled on Borders of Infinity.  This is a novella, not a full novel, but oh man is it a huge improvement over the previous stuff in this series.

 Miles is in a prison camp.  He is naked.  He plans to rescue everyone.

9.0/10

Ethan of Athos

 A side quest dealing with a planet that only has men; they use artificial wombs to procreate.  Their wombs are dying and they need new ones.

 Average.

7.5/10

The Vor Game

 The one somehow got awards thrown at it.  Not sure why.  Its average and fairly forgettable-- actually I've forgotten most of it already.  The good books don't start until Mirror Dance:/


8.0/10

Cetaganda

 This one sucks, avoid it.  It also has nothing to do with any of the other books, so don't worry about missing anything.


6.0/10

The Warrior's Apprentice

 This is the first Miles focused novel in the Vorkosigan saga, it starts pretty good, then gets somewhat silly.

  Miles forms his mercenary fleet through sheer blundering.

 A fairly light read, enjoyable, but by no means the best of the Miles books(nor the worst).

7.9

Barrayar

 The 2nd Vorkosigan novel, and unlike the first, it is actually pretty good.

Again this one follows Cordelia, it is the last book to do so.

8.2/10

Shards Of Honor

 There are too many books in the "Vorkosigan Saga" to go into much detail on each of them..

Shards of Honor is the first, and it deals with the mother of Miles, Cordelia.  It wasn't really that interesting, and I only finished it because I had my iPad read it aloud while I did other things.

 Id say skim it or read an outline, and then read "Barrayer", the 2nd novel in the series, which is also substantially better.

 The covers for the Vorkosigan novels are universally terrible, so I won't offend the eyes by posting them.

 7.0/10