[ixoy]

Finished "The Price of Spring", the final part in Daniel Abraham's "Long Price" quartet.

This book was very rewarding, a strong character piece. Like the other books it picks up the story 14 years on from the previous instalment. Returning to the characters, it's interesting to see how they've grown and yet stayed the same.
Obviously there's an element of fantasy here and this time it's the hubris of being able to wield extreme power - the power to destroy the world - and yet be so very flawed.

The Long Price quartet - in particular the second half - was one of the most rewarding character fantasy series I've read in the last few years. It may not have intricate plotting found elsewhere but on the level of intimacy with characters, it's particularly strong. A recommended series.

[ixoy]

Finished "Blindsight" by Peter Watts. It's a "First Contact" story that's a little different from others - the main character, Siri, who narrates the story is an observer in the true sense of the word: Half his brain cut out as a child, he coldly calculates outcomes from situations but lacks empathy - a sociopath. His fellow crew members are all odd balls to an extent, none more so than a genetically-resurrected vampire.

If it sounds a bit ridiculous, it's countered by the fact that this novel is seriously hard sci-fi. Watts bases all his concepts - including the vampire angle - on sound scientific theories and extrapolations. So much so that he has an appendix discussing them and links to 144 (!) papers that he used when researching the novel.
I haven't read a sci-fi novel so replete with scientific terms outside of Greg Egan. I'll admit that some of it went over my head, but the core ideas here about consciousness and identity are interesting and well handled. He also does the difficult task of making truly alien entities.

It's not a flawless novel - the scientific jargon is thick and there's a lot of theorising (which makes absolute sense given it's a scientific investigation). The pace is a bit slow although he does an admirable job of creating the sense of alien. It's worth checking out if you're prepared to do some work reading it - it's also free under a creative common licence. Now for something a bit lighter.

[ixoy]

Finished "Manhattan in Reverse" by Peter F. Hamilton. It's a collection of "short" stories - some of these short stories being 80 pages long...
What's there is generally pretty good and fans of his Commonwealth book will enjoy that half of the stories are set there (including two with Paula Myo).

"Blessed by an Angel" is the weakest probably and "The Demon Trap" perhaps the strongest (it also, I think for the first time, directly ties "Misspent Youth" into the Commonwealth Saga universe). "Footvote" is unusually political and "If at First..." is the one that most suits the short story format (coming in at a reasonable length).

Recommended for fans of his work. I can't recall how it measures up to "A Second Chance at Eden".

[ixoy]

Yesterday I finished "Elantris" by Brandon Sanderson. It was his début work and, while I enjoyed it, it shows. In many ways it's like a first run at the Mistborn series - a rougher version. There's a fight against a corrupt nobility. There's a plucky young girl. There's an inspirational leader. And of course there's a detailed magic system.

Pacing is a little off here - the last 15% have a lot of revelations that could have been better spaced out. There's too much happening after a relatively sedate pace beforehand. It also ends with a lot hanging, clearly waiting for a sequel (I know there's the intention of one). Mistborn fixed this by spreading them over the series.

The characters don't stray too much from the archetypes - perfectly good and maybe a little too much so. It's something that again he fixed in his Mistborn series by making them a lot more fallible.

It's hard to separate this from Mistborn series - a lot of what was here was re-visited, refined, and made into an excellent series. "Elantris" is good but flawed, showing the promise that would later bear fruition. Good for more Sanderson, not so much as an example of his talent.

[ixoy]

Finished "The Emperor's Kinfe" by Mazarkis Williams, the first book in the "Tower & Knife" trilogy.

Bit of a strange one this - there's a curse, as such, manifesting itself in the land. It marks its victims with a Pattern, symbols spreading across their body that eventually leaves the person under the control of someone called the Pattern Master. The emperor is beginning to show these signs and various factions, represented by the characters in the novel, make their moves.

On the plus side in the novel is that the Pattern is an interesting concept. The novel also moves away from the European influence to the Asian.
On the negative side I found that the explanations for events were never particularly concrete - it reminded me a little of Esslemont's Malazan novels. Perhaps as a product of William's writing style but I found it hard to picture the world - it seemed empty, not populated by much beyond the main characters. Hard to quite put my finger on.

The novel is something a bit different and I'll most likely pick up the sequel as there's interesting ideas here. I just feel the execution could have been a bit better.

[ixoy]

Finished "Technicolour Ultra Mall" by Ryan Oakley. I got it for free (it was on offer one day) and so I didn't expect much... which is probably just as well. It's set in the future where everyone lives inside a mall divided into three levels - the lowest being red, where our protagonist lives as part of a gang. The story is focused around him, trying to make himself into something better. It's broken up by faked ads for products as well as interludes into TV shows.

My principal problem with it is the portrayal of a world drowning in sex-and-violence. Obviously Oakley is making a comment on consumerism but it's too OTT. It can be very graphic - that's not an issue in itself as Joe Abercrombie can paint some nasty pictures. What's different with him is that that's only a small part whereas here it's a large piece of the book. The characterisation is okay but I wanted more about the plot, the world itself. It's a little too hard to believe that a word like this would ever happen.

There's some good ideas here but it'd be better as a short story, more effective that way. For a better story about being trapped in a confined world, at a similar price, pick up "Wool".

[ixoy]

Finished "Blood of the Mantis" by Adrian Tchaikovsky, the third book in his Shadows of the Apt series. It's a middle book, so it's much more about plot progression than resolution but it's enjoyable all the same. There's different emphasis on the characters here (less on Totho and Salme for example) in favour of looking at some of the characters whose stories got less attention in previous books.

Again, still really like the setting and concepts of people with insect traits in them and the mixture of magic and technology. It works, gives it a refreshing feel and backed up by a good mix of pace and action.

Will definitely be continuing to read this series.

[ixoy]

Finished "The Inheritance" by Megan Lindholm / Robin Hobb (same person, different psuedonyms). It was interesting to see the different writing styles she chose under the two names with Hobb's (who I've read a lot of) being the more impressive and personal for me.

The Lindholm stories were a mixture of urban fantasy and urban sci-fi. They were pretty good but the characterisation wasn't as strong as her works penned under Hobb.

The Hobb stories: One I had read before (in "The Legends II" collection), "The Inheritance" (titular story) was a little bit disappointing but I did enjoy the final piece. All of them are set in the Six Duchies / Bingtown world of her main books.

They're not as strong as her Six Duchies novels but they're a good diversion and worth the time of anyone who's enjoyed her books.

[ixoy]

Also just finished "Trade of Queens" the sixth and final book in Charles Stross's Merchant Princes series.

Hmm.. This wasn't a very satisfying conclusion. It seemed to end rather abruptly and was focused too much on Stross making a point about US retaliation. Indeed his political views on US foreign policy were too evident here and detracted from the story.
The series originally started as an interesting concept in parallel-world hopping drug smugglers and expanded in an interesting direction with the idea of introducing technologies across timelines. Then it got diverted into this terrorist angle and much of the other plots got dropped. By the end many story lines are left dangling and there's no good feeling of closure.

A series with a lot of promise that, in the end, only partially delivered. A bit of a disappointment when I know Stross can deliver so highly.

[ixoy]

Finished "Shadowrise" by Tad Williams, the third book in his Shadowmarch series. It had been quite a while since I had read the 2nd book but thankfully he provided some recaps that helped settle me in.

It's a pretty good world he has here - there's a nice balance in the fairy legend mix and traditional fantasy set up. It's something that he first had in "War of the Flowers" but has greatly expanded on in this series.
The characters are, for the most, likeable and Williams does a reasonable good job of balancing them.
As for the pacing - it did feel a little incomplete (no real surprise as this is the first half of what was originally one book) but I do hope that I don't wait as long before reading the final instalment.

[ixoy]

Finished "A Princess of Landover" by Terry Brooks.

It's a fairly light entry in his Landover series which he takes some time to dip in now and then when not working on his Shannara mega-verse series. I actually prefer these ones because Shannara is a little staid in my mind - this one has a certain lightness and energy that's a good counterpoint to the darker turn fantasy has taken.
The main protagonist is a teenage girl who, rebelling against her parents (Ben Holiday from the previous books) runs away and gets into trouble. Yes, it's done in a manner that would be accessible to younger audiences than say "A Song of Ice and Fire" but it's diverting if fairly unmemorable. Fine if cheaply available.

[ixoy]

Finished "Transitions" by Iain M. Banks.

It's the closest to a hybrid of his Banks / M. Banks personas as it's not a far-future / Culture novel but set in the present day. Or present days really because it deals with the Concern, who jump between parallel dimensions altering destinies. The story is spread over a number of individuals, all linked to the overall arc but not so tightly to each other.
It's a bit of an odd novel - some elements of me really wanted the background info for example which wasn't hugely present. Banks does tie in the character arcs quite well and the ending is satisfying but there was something a little bit missing. It didn't satisfy me as much as say the recent "Surface Detail". I'd be happy to see more set in this world but perhaps with a stronger plot next time.

[ixoy]

Finished "Leviathan Wake" by James S.A. Corey, the first book in the Expanse series. Corey is a pseudynom for two writers, one of whom - Daniel Abraham - wrote the fantasy series the Long Price Quartet, which I really enjoyed.

This is a space opera piece, concerning a copy - Miller - investigating the disappearance of a girl and an idealistic captain - Holden - of an ice hauler who gets tangled up in events when he discovers an abandoned ship that triggers off a chain of events.

The novel has a good pace, jumping between the two characters of Holden and Miller. They're not particularly original and, at times, a bit clichéd but they work well enough with the somewhat pulpish space opera here. The novel isn't as "hard" as other space opera there (it's lighter even than Peter F. Hamilton) and it can be a little cheesy but it is a very easy read. Lacking the depth of the Long Price quartet and its characterisation, I'll still read the sequel because this novel was enjoyable although not spectacular.

[ixoy]

Finished "A Crown Imperilled" by Raymond E. Feist, the second in his Chaos War saga and the penultimate Midkemia book.

Generally a decent instalment but I wasn't too convinced in how he wrapped up plots from the previous book. What he did do well though was set up for the grand finale which seems like it will be on a suitably large scale.

Characterisation the same as ever - likeable characters who are never heavily drawn.

On the negative side, there's the same sloppy editing I've seen in most of the previous works with basic grammar mistakes that you'd really only expect from a self published work. Come on Harper Collins!

First time in ages that I'm fully up-to-date on his works so I look forward to seeing how it all pans out.

[Queen-Mise]

I am so confused with the Feist books - the last one I read was the really military world that Pug & the little magician were on & Kelewan was invaded.


They have gone into a blur of characters & plots etc. Although I do enjoy them. I am trying to work out which one I have read last on his website, not having much luck.

And the website is so damn cryptic - one plot could be a book ten years earlier... The new ones are talking about Kesh & I know have I read it or getting mixed up with ones read already