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 Void Trilogy

  The Void Trilogy is really a sequel to Hamilton's earlier Commonwealth series and should be read only after reading those earlier books--starting with Pandora's Star.

 So it's 1500 years after the Starflyer War, and the Commonwealth is a very different entity from the rich mans paradise that existed in the previous novels.  Humanity has spread far into the galaxy, and in the process splintered into various factions, each with their own idea of how mankind should evolve.  Colony ships have passed beyond the known regions of space, but little to no contact has occurred between them and the remaining Commonwealth.

 One artifact that humanity has stumbled across is the Void, an expanding region of space which consumes all in its path. As it turns out the Void has existed for millions of years, with countless species encountering it, fearing it, and studying it so that they might stop its growth.  One species particular has devoted itself to the destruction of the Void, having launched a failed war against it millions of years past, and now guarding its borders so that none may enter.

Then a human named Indigo, while visiting the boundary of the Void, begins to dream of a world without technology, whose human inhabitants are able to shape the world around them with their thoughts. He shares his dream with Gaiafield, a sort of mental network for sharing feelings and experiences, and soon it is realized he is dreaming of a human population actually living within the Void.

 This sets off a series of events that eventually lead to a sizable portion of humanity deciding that they wish to enter the Void.  Most alien races are opposed, and the border guardians in particular have no intention of letting anyone enter, for it is believed that this would trigger a huge Void expansion-- eventually leading to the destruction of the entire galaxy if left unchecked.



  One thing of note about this series is that a significant chunk of it takes place within the Void, in what would traditionally be labeled a fantasy setting.  It tells the story of Indigo's dreams, for he dreams of a young man whose story is something of a heroes journey.  Probably something like 30-40% of the series is dedicated to this story.  It is very well done though, and does tie in nicely with the science fiction story taking place outside the Void.


 Overall I feel that this was a nice improvement over his first Commonwealth series(which was already excellent).  The pacing is much improved(particularly over Judas Unchained), and the characters are all interesting.  And yes, some old characters do make appearances, even the SI eventually shows up.

 9.2/10

The Commonwealth Saga

  This is a giant space opera by Peter Hamilton, although only two novels(Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained), each one packs near 1000 pages.

 The story builds, and builds, and keeps on building-- Hamilton describes a future humanity spread out among the stars via wormholes, with hundreds of inhabited worlds and immortality for any that can afford it.  Pretty depressing to still see such a capitalistic society.

 Yet for all the distance mankind has come from Earth, few aliens have been encountered, and none with any galaxy spanning civilization.

 Enter Dudley Bose, an astronomer watching the night sky, he records two distant stars as the suddenly go dark(On/Off star from Deepness in the Sky anyone?).  Scientists in the commonwealth decide that the only thing capable of causing such an event would be an advanced civilization-- leading to the decision to send a ship 1000 light years to investigate.


+Incredibly detailed galaxy, Hamilton creates many interesting worlds
+Plot that builds and builds, with strong control by Hamilton

-Juda's Unchained, the 2nd novel is weaker than Pandora's Star.  At times it devolves from space opera into much ado about police investigation.
-The ending is too drawn out



 9.0/10

Night Angel Trilogy

The "Night Angel Trilogy" is the debut series for Brent Weeks, it is a fairly traditional fantasy story bent toward action.

 The central character is Kylar, yet another young street beggar-- scraping by to pay his guild dues.  Kylar encounters Durzo, a famous assassin in his city, and eventually becomes his apprentice.  Soon enough Kylar goes forth to slay countless foes.


+It doesn't hold back, no PG rating here.  Kylar is an assassin and he doesn't magically avoid killing the innocent.
+Action is well done, and plenty of it

-Writing isn't of the highest caliber, if Weeks could improve his prose some he would be one hell of an author.
-The ending for the series didn't work for me, too much voodoo and magical nonsense.
-Some of the secondary characters would go through some pretty dull character arcs(Logan in book 1 and book 3).


8.8/10

Earth Abides

 Earth Abides is an end of the world type novel from the late forties by George R. Stewart.  But even today, it is still in print, which must mean something.

 A deadly disease wipes out humanity, but our protagonist Ish survives by shear luck because he happened to be out in the woods alone for a few days.  He returns to civilization, location near San Francisco, and discovers mankind has ended.

 Oh, there are a few survivors and Ish does go about meeting and joining some of them, but this isn't a happy story.  Stewart must have had a bleak outlook on mankind.

 What follows is the story of the reversal of mankind, from the height of civilization to stone age primitives.  And Ish is often infuriatingly passive about the whole affair, rarely making any effort to prevent this degradation.

 The ending is somewhat poetic, and left a lasting impression on me-- despite my annoyance with Ish this book works, and works well.

8.4/10

Under Heaven

 Finished Under Heaven a few days ago-- this was only my second Kay book, and based on this one I think it's about time I start reading his backlog.

 This is a historical fantasy piece set in the Tang dynasty of China, though it is called Kitan here.  Based on events in the novel it appears to take place around the year 755 CE. Most of narrative focuses on on a man named Shen Tai who has spent two years digging graves for the bodies of long dead soldiers, far away from civilization and his family.  While this is fantasy, there is not actually a great deal of magic going on here.

 Kay vividly shows us 8th century China: the silk road, courtesans, bodyguards, and the Imperial court with clean prose and plenty of detail. The landscape is very beautiful, and the cities and roads that lead between them make this seem a land that would have been wondrous to walk--except the society was so rigid and unbalanced you wouldn't actually want to do so.

  Most of the characters work quite well, although their behavior is often so constrained and rigid, as demanded by their society, that I found myself wondering where all the creative strong willed types were. Does this society just breed them out of existence? Shen Tai is supposed to be one of the more wild individuals, but he mostly just goes along with the flow.

  On the downside there isn't a great deal to the plot, its about 500 pages of build up, although it isn't really clear to what, until near the end-- and then a very rapid conclusion. There are also some sections in the early middle part of the book that drag, introducing new characters with excessive exposition.  

  An enjoyable read that takes you back to the 8th century, the pacing isn't always perfect, but the setting, writing, and characters are all high quality.

 8.9/10

Gateway

 Pohl wrote lots of books(and still is actually), but if you are only going to read one, this is it.

 Gateway is a great little book about a man named Broadhead who wins the lottery, that is the lottery that sends you off to Gateway, a space station built to house and maintain the small alien space craft that were discovered here in our own solar system.
    Each alien craft can only fit a few people, lottery winners can volunteer for missions, launching into the unknown in a craft they don't fully understand, and hoping it isn't a one way ticket to nowhere.

 There are also segments where an older Broadhead  recounts his story to a robotic shrink named Sigfrid.

 A deft SF read, not the strongest on characterization, but doesn't weight you down with exposition so it works something akin Arthur C. Clark.

 Pohl's Blog: click

9.0/10

The Ragged Astronauts

 This was my introduction to Bob Shaw, another science fiction writer who doesn't seem to be very well known.

 This is the first in his "Land and Overland" trilogy, and I feel it is the strongest.

 The scene is on "Land" where deadly creatures known as Ptertha are growing in number, they have become so numerous on Land that it seems the human population may soon be whipped out.

 Land has a sister planet, Overland, these these twin planets orbit each other and are so close that they share a common atmosphere.

 In an attempt to escape the destruction of Land at the Ptertha large ballon craft are built, huge numbers of them in order to carry as much of the population as possible to OverLand.

 The plot follows the fight against the Ptertha and the escape toward Overland.

 This is a very entertaining novel, worth reading if you can scour up a copy.

8.8/10

The Forest of Peldain

  I randomly picked this on up in a used book store years ago, had no idea who Barrington J. Bayley was, and it seems I wasn't alone as I've never seen anyone mention this book or much about this author.

 It is a short but enveloping book.  A man wanders out of the forest of Peldain, a forest long avoided for its denseness and danger, claiming that a secret kingdom lies in the center of the forest.

 As expedition is organized to enter the forest, and what follows is a terrific if short science fiction piece.

 The cover indicates that this is crap fantasy, but it isn't, more science fiction in nature.

 Must read if you can actually find a copy.

9.0/10

1984

Everyone seems to know of 1984 by George Orwell, considered a class of science fiction by people who don't actually read science fiction.

 It may well have been influential, but I don't believe a book should be rated by how influential it was, but by how it holds up for the purpose of-- you know.. reading.  And this one just doesn't hold up that well.

 We find ourself in a dystopia future with 'Big Brother' watching, and where everyone is frightened little mouse.  These ideas may have been what cemented its fame, but they've been reused by so many other since(and better), that they don't have much impact anymore.

It doesn't have much of a plot, a man and women get together, get in trouble, and get disappeared.

 The characters are rubbish, Orwell makes almost no attempt to make you give a shit if they live or die.

  One of those books people read so they can say they read it, but nobody really considers it their favorite book(unless they just don't read much).

 7.0/10

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

 This is the story of a rebellion, and I consider it the best of Heinlein's many works.

 The narrator is Mannie, he's a technician born and raised on the Luna(which is used a sort of castaway location for the unwanted of Earth), and as the story begins he is assigned to fix a malfunctioning computer.  As it turns out the malfunction is that the computer has become self aware and developed a personality, this is of course ridiculous, but this is not a hard science fiction, more science lite.  Mannie names this computer "Mike", and they strike up a friendship.

 Soon enough Mike has Mannie running a few errands, others are brought in, and talk of rebellion against Earth begins. Mike is the brains behind the rebellion which soon consumes Luna.

 One thing many might find off-putting initially about this novel, is that it is not written in standard prose. It is in first person, from the perspective of Mannie, and Mannie writes in a very abbreviated style with a heavy accent. You do get used to it.

 Heinlein fills the story with ideas, and it is these ideas that make this novel his best.

9.3/10

The Name of the Wind

 The Name of the Wind was Patrick Rothfuss's debut novel, and it received all kinds of attention when it was released.  Numerous awards too.

 The story centers around Kvothe, and is primarily told in first person from his perspective, although there is a section at the begging written in third person.  As the story begins, Kvothe is an old man, and apparently regarded as a hero, or at least in his own mind.

  The initial section, written in third person is somewhat slow, but once Kvothe begins to recount the story of how he came to be a hero, everything picks up and the novel really shows its strength.
 We follow Kvothe from his days a street entertainer, to his time at a university, although as this is just the first of what is likely to be a trilogy, this novel doesn't go much past that.

 Kvothe is an entertaining narrator, a touch arrogant perhaps, but he seems more capable than most.

 As a single novel this is good read, although it lacks much in the way of conclusion, so until the rest of the story is available, it is hard to judge it fully.  The quality of the writing is fairly high, Rothfuss seems to have spent a great deal of time trimming and perfecting the prose.

9.1/10

The Lies of Locke Lamora

Scott Lynch's debut novel serves as damn fine entertainment.

 The Lies of Locke Lamora tells the story of Locke(who does bare some resemblance to the character Locke in the video game Final Fantasy 6).  We meet Locke as a youngster, he's a born thief and gets himself into a great deal of trouble.  He's eventually sold to a fellow by the name of Father Chains, where he and few other boys serve as apprentices.

 Soon the story moves to Locke's adult life, he has a crew now, and they are out to deprive the wealthy members of the city of their excess coin.  The crew ends up getting themself into serious trouble soon enough.

Lynch comes up with lots of clever pranks and scenarios, sometimes serious, sometimes funny, this is a pretty terrific novel, especially for a first time one.

9.1/10

Mistborn

 The Mistborn series consists of three books by Brandon Sanderson, "Mistborn", "The Well of Ascension", and "The Hero of Ages".

 It does has some traditional fantasy tropes, but it is not entirely a traditional fantasy novel.

 The main character, Vin, is a young girl who grew up on the streets of the Final Empire, an empire controlled by a man known as the Lord Ruler.  The Lord Ruler was once, long ago the hero of his people, but now he is an immortal force controlling them.  Vin is half Ska and half Noble, the Ska are those without power, many live virtually as slaves, and are often used and disposed of at whim.

 In this world there are powerful individuals known as Allomancers, possessing the ability to ingest special metals which temporary give them magical powers.  Sanderson creates a variety of original magical abilities, many of which require a degree of skill to use, this is not your typical magic bolt or ball of fire type stuff.

 Vin soon runs into the crew of Kelsier, known as "the survivor", because he escaped from a work-pit where people are sent to die.  This crew takes an assignment to overthrow the Lord Ruler, and what follows from that consumes the first book.

  Now to some problems.  Sanderson seems to have issues with dialog--it crops up in most of his works( except "The Way of Kings" which shows marked improvement).  On occasion dialog will seem forced, as if characters are mealy saying what they need to say in order to move the plot along, not because it is what they would naturally say.
  Another quibble is that Sanderson's world is G rated, some might say a-bit too disney.  This is noticeable in most of his works, though I'm hoping his Way of Kings series will to suffer less of it as it progresses.
  Some may be more bothered by these issues than others, I was mostly able to overlook them on account of how entertaining the novels are.



  I feel that the first book is the strongest, Sanderson takes the story in a very different direction with the second and third books. Saying where it goes would spoil it, but while it is original and these follow-ups are still very entertaining, they don't stand as strong.

9/10

Anathem

Anathem is a novel by Neal Stepheson of Snow Crash fame.  Be warned, this novel bears little resemblance to Snow Crash.

 The story takes place on a fictional planet, with resemblances to a future Earth, but where technology has stalled and society is rather stagnant.

 Anathem is narrated by Erasmas a fra(like a junior priest) who lives in a Concent(convent focused on math/science, not religion).  He has lived in the Concent since he was a little boy, and is never allowed out.

 The general plot involves the discovery of an unidentified object in the sky, in the pursuit of this the story goes far beyond the walls of Erasmas Concent, with plenty of adventure and exploration, but I won't spoil any of that.

 One unfortunate aspect of this novel is that it starts very slow, the first few hundred pages drag, and it isn't until Erasmas leaves the Concent the things really start to become interesting.  The last stage of the book bears little resemblance to the first, and is very exciting.

 A damn good novel, only marred by the beginning.  Very long at almost 1000 pages.

8.9/10

The Wizard Knight

Gene Wolfe's two part series, begging with "The Knight" and ending with "The Wizard" is brilliant, this is Wolfe at his best as in "The Book of the New Sun".

 Like most Wolfe novels it is told from the first person perspective, with an unreliable narrator who calls himself Sir Able of the High Heart.

 We know that Able is originally from our world, but as a young boy he wanders in the woods and somehow finds himself in another world.  This is a pretty generic starting point, and when I first read it I was afraid Wolfe might have cast his lot in with all the generic fantasy writers of the world.  Thankfully this is not the case.

 Able is writing the story as a letter to his brother Ben, who lives in our world, and whom he has not seen since he left it.

 Able has the body of a man, for he was aged by an aelf named Disire, but he is in many ways still a child, and his recollection of events as he writes are often warped by this.

 Wolfe crafts an amazing world based on Norse mythology, a world with multiple levels, where each levels inhabitants serve as the Gods of the level bellow.

 Wolfe also creates some terrific characters aside from Able, a talking cat named Mani, and a magical dog named Gylf that can transform into a terrifying beast, Gylf can speak but rarely choses to do so.

At first glance, with very simple sounding titles, this may appear to be a children's book.  It is not, Wolfe is a very deep writer, he writes without holding back or coddling the reader.  Still this is one of Wolfe's more accessible works, so it may be a better starting point than "The Book of the New Sun".

10/10

Dune

 Dune was one of my absolute favorite novels growing up, and I still regard it as an essential SF.

I'm sure most people are familiar with the basics, having either read it or seen one of the movie adaptations, although as should be obvious, the movies don't remotely compare with the book.

 The story follows Paul and his family as they are uprooted and given the honor of controlling Arrakis, otherwise known as Dune. All space travel is dependent on a spice which is found only on the planet Arrakis, making it the most vital planet in the universe.

 A people known as the fremen live in the desserts of Dune, they have something of a religious obsession with the planet and the spice, and it is through them that the book becomes something great.

One of science fictions best.

9.6/10

Pirate Freedom

 Pirate Freedom is a new standalone novel by the master writer himself, Gene Wolfe.

The story follows a young man who one day walks out the front gate of the mission he has lived at for many years, and finds himself on Cuba in the age of pirates.  He soon joins a ships crew, and few the next few years travels the sea, eventually becoming the Dread Pirate Chris.

 It is told from the perspective of an older Chris, living and working in what appears to be a modern Church, he recounts his life as a pirate.

 The ending is satisfying and wraps things up fairly nicely.


 This is a very enjoyable little book, probably my favorite of Gene Wolfe's standalone novels, it may not have the depth of his "Book of the New Sun", or "Wizard Knight" series, but it is still very clearly a Gene Wolfe novel.

9.2/10