ixoy's reading log

Finished "Dark Eden" by Chris Beckett. It's a sort of Lord of the Flies with a science fiction spin. The descendants of a small group of starship personnel who crashed on a planet where there's no sunlight, it's set in a stagnant society where the stories of earth have become twisted into legends. One young man decides it is time for a change but that brings about a while shift in society.

The world of this book, one in perpetual darkness out only by the light of alien flowers and fauna, was well realised and original with interesting alien creatures. It also played a very key part in the characters stories. These characters were good too, mostly young adults and reflecting their strengths and weaknesses. The plot itself is quite simple but it doesn't need to be more than that. The prose is worth a mention as Beckett uses first person narrative and let's us see how language had evolved and mutated.

It's well worth a read and I'm glad to hear there's a sequel due next year.

Finished "The Lions of Al-Rassan" by Guy Gavriel Kay. It's a fantasy novel set in an alternative take on Moorish Spain. The fantasy elements are very light and instead he's focused on making an interesting society (presumably close to the historical reality but, as I'm unfamiliar with them, it's very rich to me).

As with "Tigana" I really liked that he had interesting characters who felt like real people even if they were a little bit too perfect - the greatest swordsman in the country is also a brilliant poet. Everyone is a borderline genius. And yet he pulls it off because they're also flawed emotionally and trapped by their backgrounds and ties to countries. The politics of the country, and the threats of war, are very well realised and tie in perfectly with the characters.

I've also got to note that Kay's prose is several steps above the average fantasy author. There's a real beauty to it, a sort of flow of story telling that's almost poetic at times. It puts other authors in a more ill light.

One snag is that the ending seems, in some ways, a little rushed - events, that moved somewhat slowly, suddenly race along to a conclusion. Now there is a sense to it because that final scene is almost perfectly realised, brilliantly done and fits in with everything that's gone before. It just felt that there were some events that were glossed over. It's a niggling thing but a shame I felt it at the very end.

Overall though an excellent novel and I've got a bunch more of his stacked up to read.

Finished "The Machine of Death" - a collection of short stories centred around a simple concept: What would happen in a world where a machine could test you and tell you how you would die. It wouldn't say when, and its answer could be cryptic, but it would always be right.
Initially, I had thought the stories (nearly all by relatively unknown authors) were going to be about their deaths. It's actually about how people react to the machines, to their fates. How some rally against it or make a joke of it and so on. There's a good variety in there and, as such, there's a fair mix of good and weak stories. There's certainly enough there though that the good outweighs the bad and the premise made it an entertaining read.

Finished "Ancillary Justice" by Ann Leckie, her debut novel and the first in the Imperial Radch series. This one came on the back of very strong reviews and thankfully it was very enjoyable. It's the tale of a ship AI that sees events through its many slaved bodies (ancillaries) and how one of these events triggers off a series of others.

The first person viewpoint, told from the same (but not the same) character perspective (and over two time lines) works very well and it does throw in some fun musings on the thought of what constitutes an individual - that being a very core theme of the book.
One item of this that was less successful was the fact that the character had trouble distinguishing gender for reasons that were a little too stretched. Everyone is "her" although other cultures can distinguish between male / female. I know Leckie was making a point but it was a little wearying.

Still though, the pace is pretty good and the two plots - separated apart by twenty years - do dove tail (the earlier time line explaining the circumstances of the latter). There's enough action and plot twists to keep me entertained and it's fairly snappy (350 pages). It does end well set up for a sequel and, as a debut novel, it's very impressive.

Finished "The Stormcaller" by Tom Lloyd, the first book in his Twilight Reign series.
In short: Some nice ideas let down by sloppy execution. There's some good reviews elsewhere on its flaws but I found the characterisation inconsistent and not developed as expected. For example, we're told the lead has a wicked sense of humour to offset his rage but we rarely see this wit and we're left too often with a flat character who I found rather unlikeable.

The world in which the characters find themselves has potential but it's a bit of a mash-up: unicorns, vampires, Gods roaming the earth, etc. In a skilled hand like Erikson it can be pulled off but too often in this book I felt that Lloyd was just throwing in new monsters / ideas without any real thought as to how they integrated into the world. I never really got a feel for the Land as a result.

The plot itself is grand - nothing special, with the usual prophecies and more in place. Lloyd's prose made elements of it a bit unclear at times. I don't think he was trying to be mysterious (such as in the Malazan books) more just a failure in how he told the story.

It's not a terrible book but it's fairly weak. It might just be due to it being a debut novel but then I've read other debut novels (Scott Lynch, Joe Abercrombie, Anthony Ryan) which came roaring out of the gates. Given the wealth of other fantasy series out there, I doubt I'd bother with the next instalment.

Finished "The Dragon's Path" by Daniel Abraham, the first book in his Dagger and Coin series.
Really enjoyed this story. Set against a world of 13 races, created in the time of Dragons, it initially doesn't come across as original as the works in his Long Price quartet. However, the four characters story lines - each taking up roughly the same share in pages - worked very well and interwove in a very satisfying manner. Abraham did a good job showing how their events could impact each other, even without them meeting and the characters themselves had good progressions.
There was good pacing and just the right amount of twists to keep me entertained (even if the final epilogue was something that could easily be seen in advance). Will absolutely be reading the next books and thankfully Abraham is a quick writer so, with two more already published, I won't be kept waiting.

Finished "Infidel" by Kameron Hurley, the second book in her Bel Dame Apocrypha trilogy. It's a "bug punk" (her term!) novel set in a future world infused with Islamic culture. It follows on from the first with the very hard-ass mercenary Nyx taking on a rogue element of the Bel Dames (legal mercenaries for hire).

Like the first it's a world where women are the strong characters, men being sent off to fight endless wars and it's one of the elements that makes it interesting. The Islamic-esque religion that permeates all the cultures adds to it as does the world being fuelled by "bug punk" - tailored insects performing tasks from something as mundane as cleaning dishes to assassinations.

The characters introduced here aren't as strong as "God's War" but thankfully a lot of that cast return, more mature than the last. Nyx is in many ways unlikeable (even to herself) but quite an interesting character and there's enough in here that I'd suspect I'll have some decent closure in the third and final book.

So far a recommended series, especially since I got them for free (legally!). Now off to buy the 3rd.

Finished "Third Shift: Pact" by Hugh Howey, the final book in his "Shift" trilogy which serves as a companion to his "Wool" series.
Picking up some years on from "Second Shift" it continues on the story of Donald while introducing another strand. Donald's story provides some very interesting background to the Wool series (which should definitely be read before this) and the second storyline as well, while not as relevant, is an interesting story in isolation and fear as well as fleshing out other details (being vague as it's a bit of a spoiler).
It was a very satisfying end to the trilogy and it sets up the final book - "Dust" - nicely.

Also finished "City of Dragons" by Robin Hobb, the 3rd book (of 4) in her Rainwild Chronicles series. It's probably the weakest - not much happens and it really feels like a bridge between books or, as suggested elsewhere, almost half a book as there's no real plot climaxes. There's some character progression but it really feels like Hobb suddenly had to meet a deadline and submitted half of a larger novel.
Not a bad book but oddly incomplete. Will of course read the follow up but not one to go into and expect satisfaction.

Also today I finished "Wild Cards - Volume 1", a collection of stories (presided over by George R.R. Martin) featuring an alternative earth where, in 1946, an alien virus over Manhattan caused a number of people to develop mutations. Some of these manifested themselves as powers akin to those of super-heroes (the aces) whereas many just ended up with weak powers or deformities (the jokers).

Each story follows either an ace (primarily) or a joker and the stories span three decades. It's interesting how the stories react against the politics of the time (the McCarthy hearings, Vietnam, etc.). The stories interweave with each other too - so one ace mention as an aside in one story will be the primary focus of the next. This really helps build up the world of the novel and it feels more layered.

Being a collection (hate to call them short as they're generally of a decent length), the quality can fluctuate but generally it's quite high. It's a great concept although I'm daunted by the 21 volumes published so far. Only the next two are yet on the Kindle but I imagine I'll be reading the next series to see how the Wild Card world unfolds.

Read "Bioshock Infinite: Mind in Revolt" by Ken Levine and Joe Fielder. Not much more than a short story comprising interviews with one of the protagonists from the game it would not stand alone outside of it. Still fun for a quick read to give a bit of background to Daisy's mind set.

Also just finished "Shadowheart" by Tad Williams, the fourth book in his "Shadowmarch" series.

It's a satisfying conclusion to a series that I've read over far too many years (meaning I've forgotten a number of character arcs). Plot arcs do converge to a final show down and the resolution does work. Oddly enough the culmination is at about 80% of the way through the book meaning the final pieces are just wrapping up the remnants. Some people quibbled that they didn't get closure even with this but I don't expect neat endings in fantasy epics so it didn't bother me.

Like any such books, an editor is often needed but absent. It could have been shorter, probably should have been (768 pages). It never bored me but perhaps a few less battle scenes would have helped and sped up the pace a bit.

All in all though happy with the series. It's not up there with "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn" and it feels somewhat of a bloated idea of his work in "War of the Flowers" but if you're a fan of the author it's a worthy enough series.

Finished "Words of Radiance" by Brandon Sanderson, his 1088-page potential killer volume in his "Stormlight Archive" series.
Really enjoyed this - probably Sanderson's best novel yet. Writing's more polished than his previous work and the world he's built has some neat ideas. Characterisation is good (albeit not as strong as other fantasy authors out there) but they're likeable and they develop nicely over the course of the book.
He's got a very good eye for action and some of the magic-fuelled scenes are particularly well done.
Despite its length the book never dragged and it did what it needed to: left me wanting more. Very much worth reading.