Original Art Fridays - Green Lantern

I managed to snag this sketch shortly after Doug Mahnke was annouced as the regular penciler on GREEN LANTERN. I've loved his work ever since I I first saw it in the pages of SUPERMAN: MAN OF STEEL, so yes, I was really happy to get this one.

Book Review: The Forest Laird - Jack Whyte

 In the pre-dawn hours of August 24, 1305 a.d., in London's Smithfield Prison, the outlaw William Wallace, who is to be executed at dawn, is visited by a Scottish priest who has come to hear his last Confession. So begins The Forest Laird, the first book in Jack Whyte’s masterful new trilogy. Wallace's story leads us through his many lives—as an outlaw and a fugitive, a hero and a patriot, a rebel and a kingmaker. He is the first heroic figure from the Scottish Wars of Independence brought blazingly to life in Jack Whyte's new trilogy, the Guardians, and will be followed by his two compatriots Robert the Bruce, King of Scots; and Sir James Douglas, known as The Black Douglas. Their exploits and escapades, desperate struggles and medieval savagery, high ideals and fierce patriotism are the stuff of legends, and the soul and substance of these epic novels. 

Why do we read historical fiction?

Well, at the basest level we read it for the same reason we read other genres. Entertainment. But why specifically historical fiction then? I have to surmise that it is because we are intrigued by an event, an era, or a historical personage enough that we wish to know about it/them. We want a fictional account of it/them where the characters are embellished a bit, and events are tweaked slightly to take on an exciting air. We don’t, however, want to read a textbook on the subject, nor have to stray too far from the excitement of a good story in favour of boredom and undressed facts.

I think where THE FOREST LAIRD fails first and foremost is in the language department. Whyte himself is a Scottish ex-pat living in B.C., and something started to creep into his writing a few books ago. When he was writing his second volume of his Templar Series, STANDARD OF HONOR, he started to add a little something that at first was just curiously odd, and then later on became annoying. Any Scottish character that shows up in his books will flip back and forth between their native Scottish dialect (Scots) and a modern English (which stands to represent whatever other language is spoken by the characters, ie. French or Latin). So the modern English is representative of those other languages reads easily and perfectly, while the Scots dialect reads phonetically with sentences comprised of words like “Dinna”, Cannae”, H’ae” and “Ken”. This makes any character speaking in Scots virtually unintelligible without having to concentrate hard on each sentence and work out what the character is saying. This was okay in that second Templar book where one or two characters were Scottish, and by the third where there were more Scots it got a bit trying. Now he’s written this book.....which is ABOUT Scotland, takes place in Scotland and contains...Scottish characters, and huge chunks of the book are written like this.  WE GET IT. You’re Scottish. If this is such a needed mechanic aspect of your books then why don't you spell out French accented words too, or Latin? In fact, I’ll go you one better, every time a character switches from Latin to Scots he tells us “So and So switched to Scots”....um, why tell us then? It’s pretty clear that they switched as one sentence is normal and the next isn’t. Seems redundant to me, by Whyte tells you...every...single...time. None of the Celts in his Arthurian books ever had phonetic speech, even though they had a different language to the Latin Romans. I want to tell you it’s tolerable, but it really isn’t and definitely hampers the enjoyment you might have.

Now, you might say that “We deal with Jordan’s long-windedness, Erikson’s complexity and cacophony of plot-threads, and even Martin’s descriptions of every food eaten in Westeros”, but that is because the story kicks so much ass.

I truly wish I could tell you that the case here. Sadly, it isn’t. But this is the tale of William Wallace, Patriot, Guardian of Scotland, scourge of English Kings....his is the story of war, vengeance, bravery, betrayal and blood-soaked valour...of a country resisting oppression isn’t it?

Not in this book I am afraid.

Whyte has a storytelling trick he’s always used. When a large amount of exposition is needed to propel the story along, he has characters sit by a brazier with a mug of mulled wine and explain things to one another. It was okay in the Arthur books cause there was a great deal of action and intrigue that came along with them. Here what we get is one fireside chat linked to the next by a spate of traveling.  There is very little action to speak of. Characters TALK about doing stuff, or stuff they did, but never really are seen to do it. In fact, this could have easily been a textbook about the politics of the era and nothing more. Wallace and his cousin James (our narrator) do many things, but none of it is all that interesting. While events in the book DO make for a cohesive argument for the Scottish to hate the English king and the beginning of his oppression of their country, nothing ever REALLY happens in that regard. I’m not kidding. I wish I was. Mirren (Wallace’s love interest) is there, and so is that incident with the Sherriff of Lanark who Wallace kills, thus making him an outlaw by the English, and the start of his meteoric rise to nationwide hero...but it happens...at the end. Yup, 500 pages to get us from Wallace is 8 and untrained to Wallace is like 30-something and is pissed off by this Sherriff guy. The in-between is just not interesting in the slightest.  Imagine someone tells you the story of William Wallace and STOPS telling it right before they talk about the battle of Stirling Bridge, his first decisive victory and a wakeup call for the English, or any of those battles that followed. Seriously?!

That brings me to my third and final point in this unfortunate review. Whyte’s skills (as is evident by his Camulod Arthurian series) is the long game. That took like 6-7 books to tell the story of Arthur’s parents, birth and rise as he grows up to become the first High King of Britain. And it worked, bigtime. One of my fave series of all time. Well, it seems that with the previous Templar series, and this new series he is trying to tell the same sort of generational story in a much shorter span of books, thus leaving each book to have completely different characters in different timeframes. This does not work. The Templar series was marred by disjointedness, and none of it really connected. The same will unfortunately be true here, the first book was about Wallace, yes, but the second will be about Robert The Bruce and the third about James “Black” Douglas....so where it might have been good to make a 3 book series about Wallace and company’s full story (including the win at Stirling, and failure at Falkirk ect.) instead we get another disjointed story with snippets of each Scottish patriots life...and boring snippets at that.

Whyte is Scotsman, raised on stories of this man. This should have been all win. He should have owned the hell out of this book, and sadly he doesn’t at all. To say it was boring was an understatement. This book was the first ten minutes or so of Braveheart (storywise). Sadly, this is also the last chance I am giving to this author. I LOVE his Arthur series bigtime. I liked the first Templar book, and hated the other two. I gave him this one last chance to impress me. I think he’s lost what he used to have, and is floundering now. His historical fiction crown has been stolen forever by the likes of Bernard Cornwell, Conn Iggulden, and Robyn Young. 

I can't even recommend this book. I can't do it. No one should suffer needlessly.

Since I hate ending a review on such a bad note....

....speaking of Robyn Young (who so completely bested Whyte with her far more engaging Templar series ,Brethren), it turns out coincidentally that her new series is actually about the same Scottish wars of Independence, and will feature Robert The Bruce as a hero. Quite frankly, I have a feeling this one will be way more worth my time as her previous three novels were amazing.

Comic book reviews for the week of September 29th

A light week this time out, as I make good on my promise to keep my comic purchasing habits under control. So without further ado…

Best of the week

Action Comics #893

Like your Superman based comics to actually have Superman in them? Well then you’re in the minority chumly, because for the past two years the Man of Steel has been MIA in his own flagship title. These days ACTION COMICS is the stomping grounds for Lex Luthor and his quest to locate the power source of the Black Lantern Rings, after his own ring based adventures in Blackest Night. This month, Paul Cornell and Sean Chen continue Luthor’s adventures amongst the Who’s Who of the DCU’s A-List baddies by engineering a confrontation with Gorilla Grodd (kneel before Grodd!!!). And don’t forget the backup starring perennial afterthought Jimmy Olsen and newly discovered afterthought Chloe Sullivan.

Green Arrow #4
I think that the character of Green Arrow has all the strengths of Batman, with none of the weaknesses that come from being that same wildly popular character, with multiple ongoing titles and a 70 year publishing history. In the larger DCU pantheon of heroes Green Arrow is a relatively untapped resource that is all too often overlooked. Unfortunately, in DC’s attempt to give him relevance and meaning they had to set fire to his marriage, morals, back story and supporting cast. All so they could pigeonhole him into mirroring a modern day Robin Hood mythos. The whole concept is uninspired and a little too ‘on the nose’ for my taste, even if the story is adequately handled.

Wonder Woman #603

My plan was to pick up this title only for its first arc under J. Michael Straczynski. The writing is perfectly serviceable and the story line is interesting, but I’ve never been interested enough in the character to follow her adventures on an ongoing basis. Unfortunately, while turning out an enjoyable script, JMS hasn’t done anything this month to make me change my mind about that. Interesting and enjoyable just aren’t enough to counter the paralyzing lack of interest I’ve built up around this character. I appreciate what JMS is trying to do, by playing around with one of DC’s golden calfs and seeing if he can’t alter her frozen status quo, just a bit. Anyway, this month WW continues to learn about her new role as protector of the Amazonian remnants in man’s world.

All-Star Superman Trailer

The trailer debuted today for the next DC animated flick, and it is based on one of the best all time Superman stories every written....by Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely, this one looks fantastic! I am completely biased though as I love this story arc.

Enjoy!

Book Review: THE DROUGHT by J.G. Ballard

The Drought
J.G. Ballard
1965



By all rights The Drought shouldn't be called science fiction. Labeling it as such feels like some marketing intern took the easy way out when asked to categorize the book. Calling it sci-fi means that prospective readers may come into the story brandishing expectations about seeing certain genre elements that will never appear in this book.

The story's hook is that environmental pollutants have built up across the planet and formed a thin skein of chemicals that prevents Earth's water from evaporating. The world's drinkable water is slowly being consumed, leaving behind only oceans of salty death.

Against this apocalyptic setting Dr. Charles Ransom is trying to stay alive in the sleepy town of Mont Royal as the world around him begins to fall apart. When we're first introduced to Ransom he is living on his useless houseboat. His wife has left him for the local police Captain, presumably for the protection he provides her. And, almost everyone is leavign for the coast, where it is rumoured water is more plentiful.

Ransom does a final tour of the town, touching base with with those who have chosen to remain behind. They are an eclectic bunch, mad men and dreamers who are oblivious to the dangers of the water shortages or simply don't care.

Events soon begin to spiral out of control. The various factions of Mont Royal go to war against each other, fueled by their warped ideologies and their fear. Ransom, and a small group of others, are forced to retreat to the coast when the town is set ablaze by the warring inhabitants.
On the coast, life becomes a daily struggle for survival as groups of marauding refugees steal water from each other in an escalating series of conflicts. Ransom quickly finds himself a pariah amongst the lost as his skills as a physician are useless at staving off death and serve only to remind the coastal inhabitants of the hopelessness of their situation.

Its your typical Ballard tale, a protagonist driven to the brink of destruction as social mores around him vanish, revealing the monster that lurks beneath. It's a theme touched on by every Ballard novel I've ever read and he uses it to great effect here.

In THE DROUGHT the apocalypse doesn't happen overnight. It's a long, slow, drawn out process that takes decades to reach its climax. Lovers becomes strangers, neighbours become fanatics and soon humanity is stripped away, leaving behind unfeeling animals who's only desire is their own survival.


THE DROUGHT is a dark, introspective, intense read. And, I'd recommend it to anyone looking for something with a little social relevance to their sci-fi reading.

Book Review: The Devil You Know - Mike Carey

Felix Castor is a freelance exorcist, and London is his stamping ground. It may seem like a good ghostbuster can charge what he likes and enjoy a hell of a lifestyle--but there's a risk: Sooner or later he's going to take on a spirit that's too strong for him. While trying to back out of this ill-conceived career, Castor accepts a seemingly simple ghost-hunting case at a museum in the shadowy heart of London--just to pay the bills, you understand. But what should have been a perfectly straightforward exorcism is rapidly turning into the Who Can Kill Castor First Show, with demons and ghosts all keen to claim the big prize. That's OK: Castor knows how to deal with the dead. It's the living who piss him off... 


Mike Carey is one of those authors that I kept hearing about in the same breaths as Jim Butcher, Carrie Vaughn, and Patricia Briggs as far as how his urban fantasy series holds up. That is a sort of praise as it is, and in this case is certainly not unfounded. I know of the man from his comic book work (Hellblazer, X-Men and the fantastic Unwritten), and only VIA my message board cohorts over at the Malazan boards (Abyss, I am looking at you sir. ;) did I have any idea the man wrote full novels. And so I it was that I struggled to find a copy of Devil You Know in Toronto. Needless to say the subsequent novels in the series were easy to find in comparison to the first one. After much searching, I finally found the first book, and oddly enough it was catalogued away from the other books in the series all by its lonesome in the regular-ass fiction section (What? That’s a section! For real). Strange, but then does that say something about the authors’ skill that someone thought his first novel belonged in the literature section.

So, Felix Castor is an exorcist, but what is nice is that he is not an exorcist in the traditional William Peter Blatty “I need a young priest, and an old priest” manner. Rather Carey’s hero is actually an atheist who just happens to be in tune (pun! Read the book!) and able to interact with the deceased or demonic. In other words he sees ghosts (Go ahead Shamalyan...sue me!). Thankfully the rest of the world is aware of them as well, to some extent, depending on the person. Which is a nice change from the usual “the rest of world doesn’t know and thinks me crazy!” plot. In point of fact though this doesn’t protect our hero from skeptics, as there are those that aren’t in tune enough to see the ghosts, therefore they think it’s bunk of course.

Felix is great. He’s a smartass, and every bit as sardonic and timely with his wit as Harry Dresden, or Spiderman, but where he nicely differs is how dark he can be. He has a past, one we see glimpses of and it isn’t a nice one. It’s one that he doesn’t like to face himself. We get the feeling from the supporting cast, that he is too hard on himself, but is he? Speaking of, Pen is a fantastic foil/unattainable love interest. She is mysterious about what she does, and how she is, and unapologetic about it. There is a scene where she is carving rosary beads down smaller, and Castor asks why and her only reply is “They are too big.” Priceless.

The villains are as bad as you wish them to be, even in Castor's decidedly grey world, and that makes for some nice interaction with our hero and make him seem a little more magnanimous than he likely is. I like the paint Carey uses to shade his characters though. It always feels right, and never garish. There is no lacking for an evil quotient in this story, Russian mobsters, Succubi, Demons, Ghosts and other assorted antagonists. Who isn't gunning for Felix?

The ghost story itself is interesting. Nothing entirely new mind you, but quite riveting in itself and a clever red herring-ed story all told. I’d put the story on par with Butcher's second Dresden book Fool Moon, as it’s good, but not great...yet. For you see what jumps out here is the characters. Pen obviously, Castor's holy man brother Matthew, and then there is Castor’s mistake in the form of Rafi, an old friend who he got too interested in the occult, and who took it upon himself to open his soul up to the dead.  As a result he got himself possessed and while Felix foolishly tries to save him he ends up intertwined with a nasty demon by the name of Asmodeus, and that’s something Castor won’t allow himself to forget. Castor himself leaps off the page with character, and I find myself endlessly intrigued by him, and personally I can’t wait to read more.

What Carey does great other than his characters is the creep factor. He does it so deftly that you don’t even see what’s creeping up on you and then all of the sudden he freaks you right out. This book certainly gave me some goosebumps along the way. Well-written would be an understatement. Carey is good enough to swing with the heavy hitters like Butcher. Easily.

My Christmas wish? Felix Castor and Harry Dresden unite on a case. I think my head would explode from the awesome!

Iron Man 2 - alternate opening

Ever wonder where that 'you complete me' me line went too in IRON MAN 2?

Take a look at the alternate\extended opening to the film.

New Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 1 Trailer.

I am significantly more excited with every subsequently released trailer or TV spot for this flick. I am annoyed by the distance between the releases of the two parts of this final chapter, but damn this movie looks amazing!


Enjoy!

Book Review: The Bearers Of The Black Staff - Terry Brooks

Five hundred years have passed since the devastating demon-led war that tore apart the United States, leaving nothing but scorched and poisoned ruins, and nearly exterminating humankind. Those who escaped the carnage and blight were led to sanctuary by the boy savior known as the Hawk—the gypsy morph. In an idyllic valley, its borders warded by powerful magic against the horrors beyond, humans, elves, and mutants alike found a place they believed would be their home forever.

But after five centuries, the unimaginable has come to pass: The cocoon of protective magic surrounding the valley has vanished. When Sider Ament, the only surviving descendant of the Knights of the Word, detects unknown predators stalking the valley, he fears the worst. And when Panterra Qu and Prue Liss, expert Trackers from the human village of Glensk Wood, find two of their own gruesomely killed, there can be no doubt: The once safe haven of generations has been laid bare and made vulnerable to whatever still lurks in the wasteland of the outside world.
   
Together, Ament, the two young Trackers, and a daring Elf princess race to spread word of the encroaching danger—and spearhead plans to defend their ancestral home. But suspicion and hostility among their countrymen threaten to doom their efforts from within—while beyond the breached borders, a ruthless Troll army masses for invasion. And in the thick of it all, the last wielder of the black staff and its awesome magic must find a successor to carry on the fight against the cresting new wave of evil.

What can we expect every year like clockwork? Winter & Snow, New fall TV shows & Summer blockbusters, and a new Terry Brooks book.

Whether it takes place in the world of his Word & Void series ( Running with the Demon ), Shannara series or even from within his recent resurrection of the Landover series one thing is always sure, the man spits out books at a schedule you can set your watch by every year. I’m admittedly a fair-weather Brooks reader, and to be quite honest it is hard not to be. His early Shannara books (aside from Elfstone’s) make me cringe with how unoriginal they seem now (mind you at the time in 1977 I am sure they seemed like the most amazing stories trumped only by his own influencer, Tolkien himself). Sadly, all these years (and Tolkien-clones ) later those early Shannara books come off as really undisguised copies of that previous work. His Word & Void series on the other hand, was endlessly inventive and easy to read and get addicted to as a unique urban fantasy.

I digress, everyone probably now knows that he had an idea a few years back to unite the two series. The Word & Void series was clearly headed for some sort of human apocalypse, and Shannara never had a stone age. Thus the Genesis series was conceived and released (3 books to fairly goods reviews). Well, that story continues after the end of that 3rd connecting book....five hundred years later to be exact.

Without being too spoilerific, Bearers of the Black Staff: Legends of Shannara is certainly a good book, but it has its fair share of issues as well. Firstly, something Brooks always uses in his Shannara books, and one of my pet peeves is his (clearly Deus Ex Machina) Elfstones. Be they blue seeking ones, or black keeper one, or any variation thereof, the stones always seem to show up when the protagonist needs them most.. They are only briefly referenced in this book thankfully, but I know they are there and I can’t help but groan a little every time they get a mention. Beyond that the main characters here are interesting, though they don’t seem to have the diversity or the fun and playfulness of his Genesis homeless kids. And once again the descendant of the Knight of the Word (Sider Ament) is a dark brooder, just like Logan Tom and John Ross before him, and doesn’t relish his staff’s power. In contrast to Angel Perez who had a sunnier disposition in the Genesis series, and enjoyed use of her power. Nicely though there is a reason for this and it is part of the story, so I was happy with that. The elves are just sort of elves as always; they sit kept behind their walls in Aborlon and are the only ones who will listen to reason when the human trackers come a calling. they serve their purpose, but little else. At least the spoiler princess elf works in her role. Which brings me to my other complaint...there always seems to be humans who disbelieve in the coming villains or evil. Brooks world seems inevitably populated with ridiculous politicians and lawmakers who are too stupid for their own good. Sadly this means trouble for all our various protagonists, who come and warn the villages not once, but twice and it falls on deaf ears.

Sigh.

The Bearers Of The Black Staff is a nice little interlude into the middle ground between the end of our earth and the beginning of the world that will become Shannara, but it doesn’t hold the weight of its predecessor trilogy which I enjoyed immensely. I have hopes that the next volume in the duology will feature more of an interesting plot and maybe the characters will get a chance to break out of their molds a bit, but I am not holding my breath.

Brooks is very hit or miss for me, and when I say I am a fair-weather reader I mean that....if his book is bad I drop it like a dirty shirt. This one was not a drop it one, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I was slightly disappointed by it.

Comic book reviews for the week of September 22nd, in six sentences (or less)

Best of the week

Walking Dead #77

Unless it’s a particularly strong haul The Walking Dead is almost always going to walk away with the best of the week. A story about the ongoing saga of the zombie apocalypse? It’s like they’re writing comics just for me now. Events in this series always seem to either be building to a chaotic confrontation or spiralling wildly out of control. This week has liberal smears of the latter as the survivors must determine the final fate of a spousal abuser in their midst.

Avengers #5

I’m not by nature a Marvel fan. I used to read AMAZING SPIDER-MAN for a few years but gave it up because…well…after awhile it just seemed to reek of sameness, month in and month out. And this whole Civil War\Secret Invasion\Dark Reign\Siege thing? Pass. Too many minis, too many books, too much money. But JRJR on THE AVENGERS, I’ll give that a shot.

The Flash #5

Geoff Johns continues to build on the world of Barry Allen, by drawing from the creative well he knows best – The Rogues. It’s a good read and while Manapul’s art doesn’t seem like it would necessarily be suited to the Flash visual aesthetic, it always surpasses my expectations. But I’m continually hampered by the fact whenever I read this book I always have to ask myself, ‘why can’t this be Wally West?’ And that just feels like a privileged fan boy complaint (well, this isn’t MY Flash). It just seems a shame that they’ve dropped an old legacy character into the exact same boots as his replacement, without bothering to really examine what makes the two men different.

Green Lantern Corps #52

I didn’t think this title would continue to make my pull list with the departure of Gleason and Tomasi, arguably one of my favourite creative teams in recent history. The argument could be made that the writing and artwork has slipped a bit under the tenure of new creative team Tony Bedard and Ardian Syaf. But perhaps that’s just because, freed from the go-go-go pace of Blackest Night ,the title now has to find its niche in the larger DCU. Anyway, I’m willing to keep going with GLC on an arc by arc basis. Especially as the next arc deals with the criminally underutilized Qwardian weaponers.

Justice League of America #49

Oh hey, I didn’t realize when I picked this up at the store that Mark Bagley was no longer doing the art for this book. Is that a permanent thing or just temporary? Cause I just realized that a large reason why I was still reading this was Bags’ pencilling.

Ultimate Comics Mystery #3

This title spins directly out of the events of Ultimate Comics Enemy . You know, rather than asking readers to go leaping from mini-series to mini-series, the Ultimate universe would be well served by a single ongoing title, (a straight up ULTIMATE COMICS UNIVERSE maybe). I have a deep seated unease of mini series because they’re often a dumping ground for ideas and plot threads that are then abandoned and ignored in the ongoing titles. Although admittedly the Ultimate Comics world does a much better job of ensuring that developments in Title A are carried over into Title B.

Ultimate Comics Spider-man #14

It’s comfort food, light, fluffy and with just enough substance to keep me satisfied. Spider-man, freed from the shackles of decades of continuity and allowed to just live his life, without having to reference the MANY tragic milestones he’s faced. Here the Clone Saga and the Death of Gwen Stacey are just plot points, not millstones tied to the character’s neck.

Upcoming: Pegasus - Robin McKinley

"Upcoming" is the category saved for the most exciting up and coming book releases on the horizon. And what better way to begin that category than with the newest book by an author that both Chris and I read and enjoyed as youths.

Robin McKinley.

I believe one of Chris's favourite books ever is a fantasy by McKinley called Hero And The Crown, which I am pretty sure he has a ragged, well-read copy of kicking around somewhere. She also wrote a prequel to that book called Blue Sword which just so happens to be the very first book I ever read as a kid, which I wholeheartedly enjoyed. Not to mention I loved the cover art!

I digress, McKinley is on the cusp of a new book release, this one called Pegasus. Here is the synopsis:

Because of a thousand-year-old alliance between humans and pagasi, Princess Sylviianel is ceremonially bound to Ebon, her own Pegasus, on her twelfth birthday. The two species coexist peacefully, despite the language barriers separating them. Humans and pegasi both rely on specially-trained Speaker magicians as the only means of real communication.

But its different for Sylvi and Ebon. They can understand each other. They quickly grow close-so close that their bond becomes a threat to the status quo-and possibly to the future safety of their two nations.

Sounds like a fun little story. I always like McKinley's take on her own books that she doesn't write them but that she is like a historian and is only writing them down. Her heroine's are always VERY strong and I quite enjoy that aspect of them. At any rate, this one is on my list to pick up.

Also, if anyone knows where I can get a hardcover copy of the aforementioned Blue Sword, I'd be much obliged.

A bit of a dated video, but good nonetheless

This is a video featuring a number of current Gollancz authors discussing various tropes of Sci-Fi/Fantasy, and I find it an interesting watch because I've read and enjoyed books by 90% of them. Anyways, I felt we needed a video today on our inaugural day and it was either this or Neil Gaiman reading "The Day The Saucers Came" at Yale (my fave short fiction by him from Fragile Things).

Anyways enjoy the awesomeness that is Joe Abercrombie, Alastair Reynolds, Richard Morgan sitting at a table together, not to mention the undeniably hot Alex Bell.

Book Review: WORLD WITHOUT END by Ken Follett

Enthusiastic readers who picked up World Without End
may be forgiven if they walked away from the story with more than a touch of déjà vu.

The book deals with the ongoing history of the fictional town of Kingsbridge in the 1300s and is a direct sequel to author Ken Follett’s popular 1989 outing, Pillars Of The Earth
.

Unfortunately, in this book, Follett has decided to play it safe and spends a painful amount of time playing with the same literary tropes and narratives that served him so effectively in his first outing.

Hey remember in the last book how the noble builder had to struggle against the devious clergy in order to build a magnificent cathedral to the glory of God? Well we’ve still got that, only this time, the church is a bridge!

A bridge!!!

WORLD is about what becomes of the lives of four children, Gwenda, Ralph, Merthin and Caris, after they witness a murderous encounter in the woods outside of Kingsbridge. The four watch as a knight, Sir Thomas Langley, is attacked by soldiers intent on getting their hands on a letter that Langley has been entrusted to deliver. With some help from the children, Langley holds off his attackers and manages to safely dispose of the letter.

The incident, and the letter, is forgotten by everyone (including the author seemingly) and the four go their separate ways. And what seemed to be a promising start to the book is eradicated as Follett quickly dips into his file of stock scenarios and does his best to re-create the world of PILLARS.

The number of plot devices Follett reuses is disappointing. There’s the forbidden relationship, the enforced ecclesiastical service, the corrupt religious characters and the degradation of the England’s soldiering nobility.

It’s all very well written and pleasant to read, but if I wanted to take on this story again I would have simply reread the first book.

It takes Follett over 400 pages before he strays from his literary dead end and starts to seriously explore the new Kingsbridge. And this is the story I want to read. The second half of WORLD is set against the backdrop of the rolling plagues that swept through Europe during the time period.

It’s new. Its different. And, most importantly, its not a retread of anything Follett has thrown at us before.

The plague not only serves as backdrop for the story but its presence, its influence, is so real and visceral that it almost acts like a character itself.

With this new direction, the story shifts into a higher gear as the effects of the plague prevent Follett from maintaining the status quo. Change, above all else, is what dominates now. Key supporting characters are killed off, new relationships are born and old ones are unexpectedly severed, the balance of power shifts constantly and with the threat of death imminent the inner workings of everyone’s character is thrust into the light.

Publishing a thousand page (plus) novel is no mean feat. It’s even more notable if you can get a mainstream audience to sit still that long, read it and enjoy it. And to do it twice on the same subject? My hat goes off to you sir.

Unfortunately Follett made his job harder by asking me to stick with a rehash of his first bookfor so long.

WORLD WITHOUT END is about two stories. The first is roughly 400 pages long and feels like a writing exercise that allows Follett to rediscover what attracted him to the world of Kingsbridge in the first place. The second story is about love, loss, sacrifice, corruption and hope against the backdrop of one of the worst plague outbreaks in human history.

If you can hang in there, it’s a story worth reading.

The Way Of Kings (The Stormlight Archive Vol. 1) - Brandon Sanderson - Review

Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.

It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.

One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.

Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.

Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar’s niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan’s motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.


Brandon Sanderson is one of those names in the fantasy arena that we heard a fair bit of buzz about just after he released his debut novel ELANTRIS. Then more buzz as he released his first trilogy MISTBORN to a whack of good reviews and kudos. Though it can be argued that the mainstream audience of casual fantasy readers didn’t have a clue who the man was prior to him being chosen to pen the remaining three books in the popular WHEEL OF TIME series. Chosen by Robert Jordan himself (and his widow Harriet) to finish the series that Jordan knew he wouldn’t finish due to his terminal illness, Sanderson had gotten some pretty high praise just by being that choice. I only ever got five books into the WOT series, so I can’t weigh in on Sanderson’s addition to the series with the 13th volume, THE GATHERING STORM, released last year to fairly decent reviews. I believe Chris read it, so he could weigh in.

At any rate the man has been given a daunting job to do, finishing a series that has polarized fantasy fans and casual readers alike for nearly twenty years. I have enjoyed his writing since I first picked up a hardcover ELANTRIS in 2005 and took a chance on a new author, and I was blown away by the cleverness he showed (with ELANTRIS) and the promise as a worldbuilder and magic systems (with MISTBORN). Somewhere after he accepted the WOT gig from TOR, they commissioned him to begin his own epic high fantasy series (One that’s been gestating in his head for like ten years), and he actually found time to write the first one, THE WAY OF KINGS.

The first book in a proposed ten book series called THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE is a monstrous 1001 pages hardcover. To call this a doorstopper is being generous. It is a behemoth, and is filled with maps and drawings the calibre of which I’ve not seen in any other book. In short, the book is bloody gorgeous inside and out (the cover art is done by the splendid Michael Whelan, who Sanderson says always did the best art in the 80’s covers). I knew I wanted to read this book, and when I came upon it in the bookstore I snapped it up immediately and started in on it the next day.

Oh my gods this is a stunning book. It was odd to me to be so entirely involved in a book this large from the get-go and not stopping. I read it every last chance I got. I recall the first time I read Steven Erikson’s Malazan series and how I was pretty enthralled by their scope and story...but most of the books had portions that slowed a bit for me, or were tougher to get through. That, surprisingly, didn’t happen with THE WAY OF KINGS. I was tucking my nose inside it everyday and by the midway point I found that I preferred to sit down and read a few chapters than do anything else. It became one of those volumes where it’s 3AM and you keep saying to yourself “Okay, one more chapter” and then something happens and you have to keep going. Thus losing precious sleep, but I wasn't complaining.

The characters are well fleshed out, and you care about each of them in their own way. What’s reall remarkable, however, is that Sanderson seamlessly integrates the plots of POV characters Kaladin, Dalinar and Adolin whose story is the war side of Roshar and the fighting of a vengeance pact on the shattered plains (which are...exactly what they sound like and let me tell you battles have NEVER been done so interestingly and brilliantly) attempting to revenge for something that happens in the prologue, and the POV plotlines of Shallan and Jasnah which follows a much different historical mystery study of Roshar and the great thing is that all these storylines are each compelling on their own, but as they sit as disparate parts of the world Sanderson creates they are also unified by relations, and even as a whole to what is transpiring. It’s like seeing all the pieces on a chess board arranged, and though you can’t tell who is going to win, it is unendingly interesting to watch the players make expert moves that you can tell are leading to something very big.

I think we are in for a significant treat with the rest of THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE. Roshar is incredibly realized and vivid, with its highstorms and adaptable plantlife, its various kingdoms and human lives, not to mention the huge historical backstory that is thousands of years old, but never feels like too much to handle. Sanderson has a deft hand at giving us that which we require to push forward but it never feels like he overwhelms us. He knows exactly how human beings interact and how things like love, honour, and betrayal can build from nothing to a crescendo. How the human spirit is at once a gloomy thing as well as a splendid thing. I won’t say too much about specific plot points, but sufficed to say that the last 400 pages or so of this book the pace went from fast to bloody lightning burning through my hands. The ending was a triumph that I can even explain properly in words, and left me completely salivating for the next in the series. I was sad there wasn’t any more to read, and decided that I read it too fast. I found myself wishing I could be at the beginning all over again.

This is Sanderson’s most accomplished work to date, and has all the trappings of catapulting him into the stratosphere of new fantasy authors. I actually went out on a limb when I finished it and called it the BEST BOOK I’VE EVER READ. Weeks later, as I sit writing this review, that is still true. Hands down the best.

I stand in awe of this man’s skill.

If I get you to read one book in 2010, please let it be this one. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

A Fresh Beginning

Chris and I separately have blogged for a number of years. Usually personal blogging, and in the case of myself I've done a number of review-ish type blogs, but never anything with any high frequency of updates.

With this new blog we intend to devote a chunk of time to updates concerning our collective favourite pastime, reading. Be it novels, non-fiction stuff, comic books, and other sundry inked items, we plan to bring you reviews, information and perhaps even periodic comedic posts about what is cool across the board in this category.

Stay tuned for an inaugural review from each of us.