ixoy's reading log

Finished "The Judging Eye" by R. Scott Bakker, the first book in his Aspect-Emperor trilogy which is itself a sequel to his Prince of Nothing trilogy, set twenty years after the event.

Straight out - I enjoyed this a lot more than the mildly disappointing conclusion to the previous trilogy in "A Thousandfold Thought". Here we see the pay off to those events and Bakker skilfully creates the world where Kellhus has risen to a supreme power. We have a number of other returning characters, as well as some interesting new ones.
Like the previous novels, there's a lot of introspection with characters. There's not as much philosophy now (thankfully) but at times the prose does get a little bogged down as characters focus on the significance of any- and everything. Fortunately these characters are interesting, as are most of their musing, but it does mean that you can't get through it at the same pace as you would typically for a book this size.

There are some great moments in here (the last chapter, in particular, stands out for some vivid scenes and descriptions) and Bakker does a good job of keeping the pace in the various story lines by cleanly separating. Never bored, always interested, I definitely felt it was a return to the form of the first two books in the "Prince of Nothing" trilogy and I'll look forward to the sequel.

Finished "The Born Queen" by Greg Keyes, the fourth and final book in his Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series.

I'm not sure what to make of this. The first half continued on with the same characters that I had grown to enjoy. After an initial feeling of displacement (some months had passed in the character's lives from the last book) I got into the grip of it and was enjoying it.
And then, in the second half, it changed. A lot. Characters personalities started changing wildly. It felt as if the characters were being forced to serve the plot too much. It wasn't that there was a deus ex machina here - Keyes generally had established reasons for these shifts - but it was unsatisfying from a reader's perspective as it made it harder to care. Only Cazio came out unscathed and others, whom I liked, were given short thrift.

It's a shame that the ending was a let down because the previous three books were enjoyable and indeed a lot of this is too. It's just a poor farewell - the series deserved better.

Finished "The Engineer [Reconditioned]" a short story collection by Neal Asher (that I was reading in parallel to other books).

There's ten short stories in here and all, bar two, are drawn from two sources (and one of these is from his "Cowl" standalone world). The primary is Asher's Polity universe. We see the first Spatterjay story here and meet two of that story's cast in some of the other stories. Many of these again demonstrate his great ability to create alien life forms. Two of the Polity stories show how religion can grow up around xeno-biology.
The second set of stories (3 in total) are part of his Owner series. What makes them interesting is that Asher's next body of work is a trilogy in the Owner series. I like what I've seen here and my appetite is whetted.
Some of the stories are a little rough around the edges and do come across as early works.

There's one big problem with the book - and it's not really a fault of Asher. The editing is woeful. It's so bad that I started a thread on it. The contents list five stories (there's actually ten). Seven of these have clear cut introductions but three others begin in the next paragraph after the conclusion of an existing story. It's very confusing and very unprofessional (and there is of course numerous typos, etc). It's a shame that it's so very unpolished because there's some rough gems in here. I imagine his "Gabbleduck" collection is more polished but anyone who reads Asher should have a look here and just grit their teeth at the book's layout.

Finished "Morgawyr", Terry Brooks' third and final instalment in his "The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara" series.

Good stuff: Characters were quite good and believable. They weren't omnipotent as you find in some fantasy, but quite frail at times yet had time to grow.
The pace was generally consistent and Brooks' writing style is generally crisp enough.

Bad stuff: It's all a trifle dull. It's not quite boring, but it's never exciting either. The world of Shannara just isn't that interesting compared to where authors like Abercrombie or Miéville are exploring today. It also doesn't have the interesting mix of high-tech and magic that the previous book had, making it just plain fantasy.

It is, in all, an inoffensive series that's just a little bit too forgettable.

Finished "Rainbows End" by Vernor Vinge. It's a techno-thriller set in the author's imagined evolution of the Internet where reality itself can be blanketed in a range of digital overlays. People view events through a worldwide distributed network and the whole concept of knowledge has been altered...
And it's a premise that, although interesting in a high brow sense, never really felt believable to me. Yes Vinge has an interesting idea but I didn't find it credible (e.g. how a system could be put in place and run in an economic sense, how it could be immersive if it was limited to two senses, etc). That made it hard for me to interact with the world - not a good thing.

The plot had some interesting ideas in there as well, including the ultimate mind control weapon. The book doesn't really deliver on them though and the different plot strands don't mesh well. The first two thirds focus primarily on character building, but that's ditched for a final third with the "thrill" moments. The espionage element would be good but it got side tracked by the introduction of new protaganists who were poorly written.

The characters in the book were done quite well I thought as we see definite character progression. What I didn't like was how, again in the final third, this was pushed aside and we barely returned to some of the characters we had been following. There was no sense of finality or closure in the characters and indeed in some of the major plot points.

It's not a bad book - it's just very flawed. Lots of ideas, but I just don't think they were well realised. It won a Hugo for some reason (even though it was up against Charles Stross' "Glasshouse" which was far better, even though Vinge is a major influence on Stross). His short story collection was better... this hasn't really left me wanting any more.

Finished reading "The Family Trade", the first book in Charles Stross' "Merchant Princes" series.

I really enjoyed this one. It's an interesting take on parallel worlds, allowing certain people to flit back and forth and use this to execute trade deals. Stross lays down some foundations for a much larger story to evolve from this with lots of hinted potential. The book definitely feels like the first instalment in a series - it is not a standalone.

It's quite different to other works I've read by him - there's no real focus on science. Instead the lead protagonist applies logical thinking to their situation - thinking about what a parallel world trade could do, etc.

Very enjoyable so far - which is a good thing as there's five books to go.

Finished "Stoneweilder" by Ian C. Esslemont, the second book in his Malazan Empire sequence.

This book continues on with characters established in "Return of the Crimson Guard". Like the previous book, it explores areas that are previously only been hinted at in Erikson's companion series "The Malazan Books of the Fallen". In this case it's Koleri, which has the awesome Stonewall that's featured briefly in character's pasts.

The plot is quite intricate and should only be read by those who have read the previous combined 12 books. Certain plot lines are advanced, there's some interesting revelations, and a future arc is set up.
There's some very good action scenes in this - large epic scale battles. The finale is a tad disappointing as we don't really get a good feel for the grandness of the event. It's a little muted. There's also some mean cliff hangers that will almost leave you frustrated.

The characters are quite good in this - those from the previous book have matured. There's also some interesting new ones and we're introduced to one of the best comic characters in the franchise in terms of Manask, a scene stealer. Some other long term faces re-appear as well but it's too spoiler heavy to mention who!

Esslemont's writing has definitely improved with this one. The pacing is better, although perhaps the time spent between characters is a little unbalanced. He sometimes loses focuses on character stories and they fizzle out a little. I was never bored at any point and read through the book swiftly.

If you're a fan of the Malazan world, then this is a must. There's too many revelations and developments to ignore. It's a very enjoyable experience and, some criticisms aside on the ending and some plot lines, I definitely recommend it.

Finished "Schild's Ladder" by Greg Egan.

The story is about an experiment, gone very wrong, that goes the seed of a new universe to appear and start growing outwards in our own, consuming the galaxy as it moves. Two scientific factions are studying it: one trying to halt it and the others wanting to understand and learn from it.

I like my science fiction with a good degree of realism, verging towards the hard end of the spectrum with its use of science. This is diamond and granite. There are reams of theoretical and speculative physics here, an overwhelming about. It is without a doubt the "hardest" science fiction novel I've ever read (and quite probably one of the hardest in existence). The author even consulted with the guy who theorised quantum loop gravity to ensure his facts were right.
All this meant that I had trouble following some of the concepts here. Egan did try and have his characters use metaphors where possible but I still felt I was losing out on something and was disconnected. I was overly ambitious to feel I could tackle all of the science here.

Is there more to it than the science? Yes, there's some interesting ideas here that I'd have liked to have seen explored. There's thoughts on identity and gender for example that I'd have liked to have seen more of. I wouldn't have minded the characters being fleshed out a little either - a bit too often they feel like they're delivering a quantum physics lecture on behalf of Mr. Egan. It's not to say that the pacing is poor - it moves along at a decent pace - but there's not much in the way of action, more speculation.

It's not a bad novel, just a really tough one. I prefer his short story form where he's more about the ideas rather spending many pages studiously detailing it. I've definitely not been put off him, just think he's a bit too daunting at times.

Finished "Prador Moon" by Neal Asher.

If you've read some of Asher's other Polity works, you'll probably know what's going to happen in this novel. The question then is: is the journey worth it? Mostly. As is his wont, Asher doesn't create deep characters but they're enjoyable - particularly the Prador in this. If you interested in the crab-like maurauders (as featured in his Spatterjay sequence), you'll definitely enjoy their presence here.
The rest of the plot is in some ways thin, and in other ways rushed. This is more a novella than a novel, and it means that at times Asher skims over events that could be fleshed out. There's a somewhat abrupt shift in time frame for some of it too, that I found disjointing.
Those sequences he does focus on are well done and feature Asher's usual attention to gritty action sequences.

Fans of the series will enjoy it but I don't it's his best work and I think "Gridlinked" is a better entry point and return to "Prador Moon" when you're more familiar. A light read - could have been more, but satisfying nonetheless.

Finished George Orwell's "1984" (surprisingly having never read it until now).

It being a classic, there's not too much to say. It's very intelligent, chilling, political, philosophical, and insightful. At times it seems almost to stretch credulity, but Orwell's arguments and rationalisation for this future dystopia - where every thing is regulated, including thought - are well argued ("doublethink" being a particularly interesting, albeit terrifying, concept.). It's interesting to see the origin of so many concepts and words that have entered into our own language too - Big Brother, Room 101, "2+2=5", Orwellian, doublethink, etc. (all of which, incidentally, are recognised by the spell checker).

Definitely worth a read - regardless of what genres you typically would go because its central themes are applicable to us all, even now.

Finished "Stone" by Adam Roberts. Set in a distant future, where crime is almost non-existent, one murderer is freed from his imprisonment, to commit a crime of almost unspeakable proportions.

The plot in this is quite simple (and the reveal not particularly original). What is done well is how it is unveiled. The protagonist has only a vague set of instructions in his head, and as the story goes on he begins to doubt their existence and his own sanity.
The lead - Ae - is quite well fleshed. In this far future, people are almost interchangeable as, wanting for nothing, they find little to distinguish themselves. Ae is almost isolated as a result. Roberts does a good job of making the character sympathetic despite also showing him plainly as a murderer.
The setting is a bit reminiscent of Bank's Culture or one of Greg Egan's far-flung future. It's grand but not interesting (perhaps due to the blandness of the people, which is on purpose of course to contrast against Ae). It doesn't matter too much as the novel is short and moves along at a fine pace.

I enjoyed this novel although I'm not quite sure if it's a "Future Classic" (of which it's a part). Worth reading for unusually decent characterisation (for sci-fi) but not perhaps for its plot.

Finished "The Night Sessions" by Ken MacLeod.

The novel is set some years in our future, after the Faith Wars (a series of world wide battles based on religious ideology). Now there is a "Second Enlightenment" with a complete separation of church and state/society on all levels. Into this acts of terrorism begin against church members and the novel's protagonists begin to investigate.

... And I never really cared. There's three tales in this and I never felt MacLeod balanced them well. We'd spend a large time focused on one character and then dip briefly into another. Their stories do interweave but never in a really satisfying manner for me and I never felt he dove into the psyche of the characters.
I also didn't much care for the world he created. I thought the idea of a post-jihad world was interesting but the novel never fleshed it out or even the strictures of the new secular society. The odd mixture of AI and almost modern-day tech didn't feel believable (although it was very important to the novel).

Maybe I just didn't like MacLeod's style. Maybe it's impatience waiting to get my hand on "The Crippled God". Whatever it was, I never got into this novel and can't see myself rushing to read anything more by Ken when there's so many authors out there I know that I do like.

Finished "The Crippled God" by Steven Erikson, the tenth and final book in his Malazan "Book of the Fallen" series.

Really can't say much here without spoiling. Suffice to say it was a very good conclusion to the series. It wasn't perfect - at times some elements seemed conveniently, but to be fair Erikson had clearly put all the pieces in place in previous books. Nothing happened suddenly that had not been foreshadowed in some form or another before.
The prose is a bit tighter in this novel - there are still the philosophical ramblings but they don't drown the book. There's plenty of time for some superb action sequences, battles on a truly epic scale that do a lot of justice to the series as a whole.
Most of the characters are honoured too - some very well, some not getting as much time as I would like. It's part of the problem when you're doing such an epic story but, for the most, I was satisfied.
Is everything wrapped up? No, nor would I expect it to be (and we were told it wouldn't be anyway). But the core elements are and, though I'm left wanting more, I'm happy with how most of the threads here ended.

One of the most audacious, but rewarding, fantasy series there's ever been and a very hard act to follow. 100% recommended - but only if you've read the previous 9 books and 3 Esslemont books

Finished "Terminal World" by Alastair Reynolds.

Found this one very disappointing. The premise was initially interesting but Reynolds ditches it quite early in favour of a very humdrum steam punk adventure. The world we spend most of our time isn't interesting and is quite clichéd. One of the principal foes is so poorly drawn that it's almost embarrassing.
The dialogue also seemed very wooden. The lead character is quite bland, harmless enough.

I wonder if this was some earlier novel Reynolds had lying around as it has none of the polish I saw in the previous, and excellent, "House of Suns". It's a mis-fire for me and I hope his upcoming trilogy shows it's a one off.

Finished "Best Served Cold" by Joe Abercrombie. It's a solo novel set in the world of his "First Law" series and featuring some of its supporting cast. It's also really good.

It's a tale of vengeance - brutal vengeance wrought by someone who is often more tainted than those she's hunting. She's joined in her quest by a motley crew indeed - many of them with much blood and dark pasts as hers. The characters are nearly all interesting, deeply flawed individuals who, over the course of the story, are moulded by the blood and murder around them.
And oh what quantities of violence are wreaked - Abercrombie excels in delivering gut churning visceral descriptions. He really makes the reader feel the pain mettled out, the sheer bleakness and depression they feel too.

This is a bleak novel, questioning the depths people are willing to go but it's not relentlessly depressing either - there's wonderful veins of dark and skewed humour. It can be as funny as anything Pratchett ever put out.

For fans of his First Law series, this is a must. For those who haven't read him - read the First Law and then this too will be a must.