Essord's Endeavors

Red Country (2012) is the sixth novel taking place in the same universe Joe Abercrombie created with the fantasy trilogy The First Law. This is the third stand-alone installment and like the previous two books it contains a few familiar characters. The setting is new and takes place in a sort-of frontier region. Life is hard and brutal here and Abercrombie writes his most gritty story yet. There is plenty of nastiness. Not in the sense of horrific, but in the lowness of human behavior. There is little good to be found. Much gets twisted and selfishness plays a big role. Being unselfish is often a mistake, leading to complications and tragedy.

Red Country, in its essence, is a story about revenge, but very different than the similar themed Best Served Cold. The story is more straightforward and although Abercromie adds in several minor stories to spice things up and complicate matters  it all remains rather low level. There is some humor and some nice character interaction, but none of these are really memorable. Abercrombie shows his usual skill but the story and the setting are simply too mundane and outside the center of real power to make something more of it. Abercrombie is aware of this and some of his characters show great realism toward their situation. It are these small details that make something more of this novel and something different than the usual fantasy fare.

Abercrombie only manages to get one character go through some serious development. He does this well, but for the story the character is more an anti-hero which stands to great contrast with the other characters who show more guts and attitude. Most of them remain fairly sketchy and we see far too little background to create an idea of what they are. The only exception are the old familiar characters. Abercrombie is well versed in their behavior and nature and they stand out amongst the crowd. I expect that many of these new character won’t be heard of again in future novels, if he writes more. And that’s a bit the downside to this novel. He wraps things up too nicely. Oh, there are a few minor threads that remain open, but the question remains if they are of real significance. It will really depend on it if Abercrombie decides to write another greater story in this universe.

In the end I cannot conclude that this novel is up to par with the other novels of the series. The previous novel, The Heroes, I saw as an interesting exercise in writing one big extended final so that it had something special despite not providing the greater satisfaction I had with the first four novels. I managed to mention some good things about Red Country, but it also contains weaknesses. It is a good novel and Abercrombie all the way, but it is not a great one. In a way it contains too many depressing elements and he does not manage to really develop his cast of characters as well as he did in The Heroes. I will still recommend it, but not highly. At least I know I can trust to buy an Abercrombie book without checking it out, because he at least won’t let you down.

Another one of my top read series has reached its end. This time it is all over for The Twilight Reign, an epic fantasy series by Tom Lloyd after five books. In the series he has mixed familiar elements like elves, vampires and crystal skulls in a refreshing concoction of his own. Nevertheless, none of these take a central role. A large cast of characters plays is handled well by Lloyd. It consists for a great deal of powerful or skilled heroes and brutal or cunning villains who go all the way to reach their goal. Those who hesitate or show weakness are trampled upon. Handling a large cast and a grand plot does cost some on the attention given to the characters. Most remain cursory. Lloyd does his best to give each some quality time, but this remains limited and some characters from previous novels have a far less prominence in this one. That is always a choice one has to make as at a certain point one will have said everything worthwhile about a character. More would become repetitive. As it has been a while since I’ve read the previous book, The Ragged Man, my memory was hazy so that I could not place all the characters that well.

The atmosphere is dark and gloomy. I wouldn’t call it gritty as most of the characters manage themselves better a normal human would as many are of heroic proportions. We see little of the common man or soldier. Should they be there? It is not a requirement and it is refreshing that they are not the focus for a change. I’ve read plenty of fantasy stories revolving around the normal persons in which the heroic characters seemed aloft and their acts strange and mysterious. In The Twilight Reign this is turned around. Now we get a different perspective which is interesting in itself and leads to a change in pace and mood.

The final installment is titled The Dusk Watchman (2012). Lloyd gives some more attention to characters which didn’t get so before so we learn a bit more about them. Overall most of the backgrounds remain a mystery. Lloyd doesn’t delve much into the recent history and old relationships of his characters. He sticks to what is relevant to the story. As this is the closing volume everything needs to be wrapped up. Lloyd makes things easier for himself by making anyone who was still not part of the two main groups join either of them. These are just minor storylines before they join up with the main storyline which is rather straightforward. Even so the pages are easily filled as Lloyd tries to cover all the essential details. However, this is where things go a bit awry. Once passed the one third mark I started to get the feeling that I was missing some little things. What happened to this or that which was mentioned before? Why is nothing mentioned of what happened here? Shouldn’t there be some after effects? To me it seemed that some chapters or scenes are missing and that a brutal editor has cut down the story without making sure continuity was preserved. To me it was: Why keep this, which could just as well be skipped, but throw out the other? I don’t not have the feeling that these scenes were forgotten. They really seemed to be missing. This last book is a bit bigger than the others, but with the common size of fantasy novels it should not have been a problem to extend it more. It was sort of a let down and I was not used to it.

Besides the missing scenes there were some other things that bugged me, especially as they were never explained. Lloyd pulled out a fair number of rabbits out of his hat, things that came out of nowhere. The lack of explanation afterwards which could have straightened some things out would have fixed the issues I had with them. Usually I can think of some things that could have solved the mystery. Now after more than a week I still have no clue. This is a big disappointment as all other great events and surprises of the previous books had a decent explanation or solution to them. I couldn’t find them here, which makes this last book one with quite some holes. I did enjoy the ride as a whole and there were quite some nice scenes, but it was not as impressive as any of the earlier novels of the series.

Lloyd thus does not manage to deliver with The Dusk Watchman. I enjoyed the journey a lot and the quality and originality of the series is certainly above average and well written. So anyone looking for a gloomy series that contains a strong story with familiar elements in a strange mixing pot will not be disappointed, despite the flaws in the last book. The series however cannot match with the best, but Lloyd has the potential to get there. The series is pretty good and well done, so I’ll certainly want to read new novels by his hand.

Great was the surprise of many fans of the Dark Tower series by Stephen King when he published a new novel 8 years after he completed it. As I am a great fan of the series myself, I could stop myself from being thrilled. The new novel, The Wind Through The Keyhole (2012), does not continue the story. Instead King uses an opening between the events of the fourth novel, Wizard And Glass, and the fifth novel, Wolves Of The Calla, to tell a three-leveled story. In fact, the story is a story within a story within a story.

The first level provides the connection with the Dark Tower cycle. As it should not conflict with anything happening in the later story it is of a very minor substance. Even so it is great to meet the central characters of the series again and with only some limited scenes he provides the reader with the familiar touch that defines each character.

In the second level King once again, after Wizard And Glass, goes into the background and history of the main character of which the reader had mainly seen glimpses. I have to say I much anticipated this return and I simply drank in the words. The story itself is not that complex. With several different stories in one novel the space is limited. The story is actually pretty much a canvas unto which King adds new insights and answers to old mysteries, making them part of something else instead of giving them straightforwardly.

The third level is supposed to be an old tale of the Dark Tower universe. Instead King could not control himself. There is a lot of detail in the story and certain elements are clearly connected to the Dark Tower cycle instead of the tale itself. There were certain things the narrator of the story could not know or some things that would provide insights which he should have been using. Some things don’t even seem to belong in the tale. It is a peculiar story. More one that King would tell on the Dark Tower universe than that a native would or could tell about his own. The details also conflict with the idea that it is a children’s story. It is certainly not the right way to have told it. Nevertheless, because of those details and insights, it makes a highly interesting read. The story itself starts fairly cliché and it takes some time before it starts to blossom and become something far more.

Personally I enjoyed the second level tale the most, although it is less complete than the third level story. The Wind Through The Keyhole is certainly a great addition to the series and it holds up to the same quality. As there are more untold background stories I can only say that I hope King will be inspired to write some more. Highly recommended.

Normally the back cover of a book usually either says too little or too much about it, giving away too much of the plot. Only in some cases they publisher manages to put in sufficient information without giving any details away. With The Crown Of The Blood (2010) by Gav Thorpe it turned out to be neither of those cases. In fact, while I progressed through the novel I could only conclude that the book cover seemed to written about some other book. True, there were some points that did agree, but whoever wrote that cover either didn’t really know what it was about or just glanced through it.

The Crown Of The Blood is a high fantasy novel with a very low fantastic element in it. Thorpe follows some typical military tropes to tell his story although he puts it in an original setting. The pacing is moderate although the plot development is fairly fast. Military affairs take up the brunt of the story, but Thorpe does not spend much time on battles, sticking mainly to the top command, which also is taken by the main character of the novel. The plot itself is entertaining enough although it is not much that out of the ordinary. There are some nice twists, but Thorpe has a destination to reach that in the end does get where it intended to be. That does take out some of the anticipation, although there the road taken and the way Thorpe tells his story prevents the reader from getting bored or the story becoming a drag.

Besides following the main character Thorpe has two other major narratives that provide some extra insight in events. One of the narratives is actually not that well chosen, although it does contain the most dramatic storyline, so the character was chosen for that reason and not for the perspective. There are also some minor points of view. Thorpe only uses those were he we wants to add something extra and they don’t get much extra.

The character development is rather minor. Only one character undergoes several changes. Most of the others, including the central character, don’t seem much shaken by the turn of events they come across. The main character himself is rather strange. For an important military commander he seems to think and behave more like a soldier than a general and throughout the novel he remains rather straightforward and naive in his actions. There is nothing special about him and it is more the weakness of the opposition and his unwillingness to show his strength that allow him to move events.

Despite the mundane nature of the story and the peculiar central character, the plot does contain a hidden secret, a mystery that held my interest throughout the novel. On the background something was going on and Thorpe barely gave anything away about it. I am still intrigued about it and it is this which want me to read the next novel as the story is far from done. Thorpe also set the story in an original setting that is different from the usual fantasy fare, creating a society and culture that may not be particularly complex, but is at least different and something else. I really like it when authors take that step and it certainly is a stimulant for my ongoing interest.

I usually don’t pick up novels that have the word “necromancy” on them as I associate the word with undead characters or beings, something which I am not particularly interested in. In many cases it is a horror novel, which is a genre I usually avoid as I read to enjoy myself, not to get anxious, scared or feel disgusted. Not that an undead character popping into a story is a bad thing. As long as it remains a minor element it does not bother me. It is only when it is possibly a dominating theme in the story that I am dissuaded. So when I saw a novel with the subtitle The Necromancer Chronicles I quickly started doubting. However, this was one of the rare occasions that an excerpt of the novel at the end of one of an earlier novel I had read, had given me a different appraisal of the novel.  Of course that is the intention of the publisher, so even one of many being successful into persuading me to try the novel is already a win.

The aforementioned novel is called The Drowning City (2009) by Amanda Downum. The first thing that gave me a better perspective of the story was that it put a setting in a location that was similar to somewhere in southeast Asia. Such a setting is rather unusual in fantasy, so that made me interested in how Downum would present it. She did so quite well. It gave me the right vibe and she managed to keep it nondescript, making it hard to determine familiar elements that I might recognize. For one part this was also caused by a lack of description. The main character only visits a limited number of places so the reader only gets a limited view of those. Downum keeps the point of view narrow. If the character doesn’t pay attention to it, then she doesn’t tell more. Personally I don’t mind that as my own imagination fills in the details where I want them to be, although there could have been a bit more. The picture I could create of the setting remained incomplete.

Although there is a main character, there are some story threads involving minor characters. Although Downum tries to she did not entirely succeed in fleshing them out the extent that I got to care about them. This worked better with the main character, although as a heroine she did move around rather ineffectually, while she claims to be one of the best.

One thing I should not forget to mention is that the term “necromancer” is a bit too heavy as a word. In the story it is just someone who works sorcery through spirits in a wide range of ways. There is no real undead element which once again confirmed my right guess to pick this one up even though of the term. In fact the world the story takes place in has a strong spirit element, which makes it all relatively normal.

The story itself unfolds quickly. Downum wastes no time on introductions or foreplay. Nevertheless things are not rushed. Everything takes it time. Not that the story development is slow. Events run on every turn and plenty happens. The strange thing is that it doesn’t feel that way. Downum has a writing style that has a leisurely pace. In a way it expresses the warm humid climate the characters are in. The surprising thing is that it doesn’t take Downum many words to achieve this effect. It can easily be created by using many words to slow the reader down. Instead Downum uses very few words, allowing for a dual flow in the narrative.

The plot is not very complicated. Downum keeps things as down to earth as possible. Yes there is magic, but it does not dominate. It serves the story and most other things are not so different from normal situations. The characters may have abilities, they only give them an advantage in certain situations. In others they have to handle things no different than any other person.

I did not get particularly excited about The Drowning City. On the other hand it did not have real flaws either. I did enjoy the read. It is different from the usual fantasy fare although it does not take things on a weird or grand scale. It is a good novel, not exceptional although the usage of fantastical elements and the peculiar writing style in combination with the plot development do somewhat impress me. I certainly want to read more and although I have the next novel at hand, I have not felt inclined yet to start with it. Thus my mixed reaction. If it really had taken me, I would have continued reading the series. As I cannot really pinpoint real flaws or dislikes I can only conclude I was not entirely satisfied. The story did not grab me and I only really cared somewhat about the main character. All the others remained unsubstantial. Still I do would recommend this novel, but it would not be on top of any list.