Kushiel's Dart (Jacqueline Carey)
A big fantasy novel about a courtesan who's tossed into a high-stakes world of political intrigue in late medieval fantasy Europe. For the first 300 pages or so this was really hard to put down; Carey's great at world-building and weaving exposition, and the world she's made is pretty interesting. Unfortunately the book eventually slows down and starts dragging, hamstrung by two issues, one big and one small. The big one is that it's simply too, well, big - the paperback comes in at a hair over 900 pages, and it's not hard to suggest some useless parts that could be cut (my recommendation would be the entire Master of the Straits storyline, which not only adds almost nothing to the story, but feels very out of place having a super-powerful wizard in a very low-magic setting). The second issue is that the characters are not always fleshed out as much as one would hope; our heroine and the main cast mostly come off pretty well, but the head antagonist is barely more than a sketch.
All in all, I guess this is a good beach book, but it's hard to really recommend seeking it out unless you pass it on the shelf at the library.
Grade: B
Showing posts with label almost 1000 f'n pages. Show all posts
Showing posts with label almost 1000 f'n pages. Show all posts
Friday, March 20, 2015
Monday, December 15, 2014
"The Grey Knights Omnibus"
A collection of three novels about (checks title) the Grey Knights, W40's super elite anti-demon hunters, and as close as the setting comes to good guys. Contained within are three novels:
Grey Knights - This is a good start; the book kicks off with a battle where an isolated group of Grey Knights mounts a almost hopeless assault on a evil, naughty demon who's sealed for a thousand years, with the story picking up as some naughty, evil Chaos chumps attempt to summon him back into real space. The 13th Black Crusade is going on in the backround (as it is for the entire omnibus, actually), meaning that our heroes are working on as close to a shoestring budget as 8 foot tall psychic genetically modified guys in powered armor can be. Since our heroes work as the Inquisition anti-demon branch and inquisitors need to be super suspicious, there's also a health dose of paranoia, although I'm not sure I exactly followed one character's redemption late in the book. Solid, slightly above average stuff.
Dark Adeptus - This is my favorite novel in the omnibus. It kicks off with an entire planet screaming out of the Warp, and our heroes go to investigate, saddled with suspicious allies who they don't entirely trust, and vice versa. This aspect really makes the book stand out, with our heroes fighting not just against the entire possessed world, but keeping an eye on their companions, who they suspect are there to steal some ancient, highly valuable technology. It does take a little while to get going, but once the characters make it into the more interesting parts of the planet (basically a corrupted super-server), this is the best material in the whole collection.
Hammer of Daemons - Unfortunately the omnibus goes out with a real slog; Our hero is captured in the first ten pages and spends the rest of the book trying to escape a demon planet dedicated to Khorne, the least interesting Chaos god, whose gimmick is that he's real angry and loves blood. While it's interesting seeing our hero taken out of his Grey Knight comfort zone, a lot of the book is portent-filled dreams and symbolic demon possession attempts, and this gets old real quick. I appreciate the author trying something new after the previous two novels, but it didn't quite work in this case.
All in all, this falls squarely into the large pile of good, not great, W40k fiction out there; two good and one okay novels for the price of a single paperback is hard to pass up.
Grey Knights - This is a good start; the book kicks off with a battle where an isolated group of Grey Knights mounts a almost hopeless assault on a evil, naughty demon who's sealed for a thousand years, with the story picking up as some naughty, evil Chaos chumps attempt to summon him back into real space. The 13th Black Crusade is going on in the backround (as it is for the entire omnibus, actually), meaning that our heroes are working on as close to a shoestring budget as 8 foot tall psychic genetically modified guys in powered armor can be. Since our heroes work as the Inquisition anti-demon branch and inquisitors need to be super suspicious, there's also a health dose of paranoia, although I'm not sure I exactly followed one character's redemption late in the book. Solid, slightly above average stuff.
Dark Adeptus - This is my favorite novel in the omnibus. It kicks off with an entire planet screaming out of the Warp, and our heroes go to investigate, saddled with suspicious allies who they don't entirely trust, and vice versa. This aspect really makes the book stand out, with our heroes fighting not just against the entire possessed world, but keeping an eye on their companions, who they suspect are there to steal some ancient, highly valuable technology. It does take a little while to get going, but once the characters make it into the more interesting parts of the planet (basically a corrupted super-server), this is the best material in the whole collection.
Hammer of Daemons - Unfortunately the omnibus goes out with a real slog; Our hero is captured in the first ten pages and spends the rest of the book trying to escape a demon planet dedicated to Khorne, the least interesting Chaos god, whose gimmick is that he's real angry and loves blood. While it's interesting seeing our hero taken out of his Grey Knight comfort zone, a lot of the book is portent-filled dreams and symbolic demon possession attempts, and this gets old real quick. I appreciate the author trying something new after the previous two novels, but it didn't quite work in this case.
All in all, this falls squarely into the large pile of good, not great, W40k fiction out there; two good and one okay novels for the price of a single paperback is hard to pass up.
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
"Honour Imperialis"
Honour Imperialis (Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Rob Sanders, Steve Lyons)
A W0K omnibus about the good ol' Imperial Guard. I'm going to review all of the novels one by one.
Dead Men Walking (ADB) - This is probably the worst ADB novel I've read yet, meaning it's just good and not great. Honestly, by the time I got to the end of the omnibus, I'd forgotten almost everything that happened in this novel; I do remember there were some great action scenes, and I was also kind of gobsmacked that the book contained literally zero female characters. (The Imperial Guard's omnisex - unlike the setting's popular stars, the Space Marines - so there's really no excuse.) That said, I don't want to be too tough on the book; it's exactly the kind of above-average but not spectacular book that fits perfectly in a omnibus like this.
Grade: C+
Cadian Blood (Rob Sanders) - This author wrote one of my all time favorite W40K novels in Atlas Infernal, and he's written probably the best novel in this omnibus. My big issue with Cadian Blood is the same problem I had with Atlas Infernal : The author keeps jumping around the chronology of the story, cutting between our heroes being interrogated in prison and earlier scenes running around fighting Orks. This is annoyingly confusing, all the more so as some characters are introduced in the flash-forwards before we meet them in the earlier parts, which make up the bulk of the book. Still, this is pretty good - it's not quite as bonkers as Atlas Infernal, but this novel is the star of the omnibus.
Grade: B
Redemption Corps (Steve Lyons) - Remember when I said that Cadian Blood was bonkers? This book has Imperial Guard guys charging Necrons on horses. I couldn't imagine this without laughing.
That's pretty much the high point. This is a good-not-great book, unfortunately weighed down by making the focal point of the beginning of the book a frankly boring romance between two goofs I was hard-pressed to care about. After this problem is disposed of, the novel falls into the W40k trap of having too many POV characters, although in fairness it's not nearly as bad as some other books (cough, cough). I'd recommend just skipping all the parts with the two lovers, at least until the second half of the book - once the Necrons warp in the book gets a lot more interesting.
Grade: B-
After the main attraction there's four short stories - one really good ADB one, one not so great Steve Lyons one, and two pretty good ones by (cough cough) and (mumble mumble). All in all, this is one of the stronger W40K omnibusses out there; there's not a single miss here, and while none of the novels themselves are superstars, all three of them for $9 is a great deal.
Total Grade: B+
A W0K omnibus about the good ol' Imperial Guard. I'm going to review all of the novels one by one.
Dead Men Walking (ADB) - This is probably the worst ADB novel I've read yet, meaning it's just good and not great. Honestly, by the time I got to the end of the omnibus, I'd forgotten almost everything that happened in this novel; I do remember there were some great action scenes, and I was also kind of gobsmacked that the book contained literally zero female characters. (The Imperial Guard's omnisex - unlike the setting's popular stars, the Space Marines - so there's really no excuse.) That said, I don't want to be too tough on the book; it's exactly the kind of above-average but not spectacular book that fits perfectly in a omnibus like this.
Grade: C+
Cadian Blood (Rob Sanders) - This author wrote one of my all time favorite W40K novels in Atlas Infernal, and he's written probably the best novel in this omnibus. My big issue with Cadian Blood is the same problem I had with Atlas Infernal : The author keeps jumping around the chronology of the story, cutting between our heroes being interrogated in prison and earlier scenes running around fighting Orks. This is annoyingly confusing, all the more so as some characters are introduced in the flash-forwards before we meet them in the earlier parts, which make up the bulk of the book. Still, this is pretty good - it's not quite as bonkers as Atlas Infernal, but this novel is the star of the omnibus.
Grade: B
Redemption Corps (Steve Lyons) - Remember when I said that Cadian Blood was bonkers? This book has Imperial Guard guys charging Necrons on horses. I couldn't imagine this without laughing.
That's pretty much the high point. This is a good-not-great book, unfortunately weighed down by making the focal point of the beginning of the book a frankly boring romance between two goofs I was hard-pressed to care about. After this problem is disposed of, the novel falls into the W40k trap of having too many POV characters, although in fairness it's not nearly as bad as some other books (cough, cough). I'd recommend just skipping all the parts with the two lovers, at least until the second half of the book - once the Necrons warp in the book gets a lot more interesting.
Grade: B-
After the main attraction there's four short stories - one really good ADB one, one not so great Steve Lyons one, and two pretty good ones by (cough cough) and (mumble mumble). All in all, this is one of the stronger W40K omnibusses out there; there's not a single miss here, and while none of the novels themselves are superstars, all three of them for $9 is a great deal.
Total Grade: B+
Thursday, June 5, 2014
"Path of the Eldar Omnibus"
Path of the Eldar Omnibus (Gav Thorpe)
Normally in an omnibus, I like to review each novel separately; I'm not going to be doing that in this case since the author has written three novels that all describe the same basic events from three point of views.
This is an interesting idea, but I unfortunately I don't think it quite works. The first book is pretty interesting, but the second and third suffer from already knowing what's going to happen. It doesn't help that the main characters of all three books are kind of obnoxious - the first book's hero is a self-obsessed creep, the second book's hero is a arrogant know it all, and the third book's hero is basically the villain of the piece, a truly loathsome dickbag I was hoping would get some kind of comeuppance for his frankly vile actions (admittedly, this reaction really kicked in once he started capturing ship crews to be used as slaves). The book isn't terrible; there is a lot of interesting Eldar background material, and for once they aren't being used as punching bags to show how cool and strong someone else is, but I can still only really recommend this to W40k nerds. (Or, if you're curious, I guess get it out of the library long enough to just read the first included novel; you won't miss much.)
Grade: C+
Normally in an omnibus, I like to review each novel separately; I'm not going to be doing that in this case since the author has written three novels that all describe the same basic events from three point of views.
This is an interesting idea, but I unfortunately I don't think it quite works. The first book is pretty interesting, but the second and third suffer from already knowing what's going to happen. It doesn't help that the main characters of all three books are kind of obnoxious - the first book's hero is a self-obsessed creep, the second book's hero is a arrogant know it all, and the third book's hero is basically the villain of the piece, a truly loathsome dickbag I was hoping would get some kind of comeuppance for his frankly vile actions (admittedly, this reaction really kicked in once he started capturing ship crews to be used as slaves). The book isn't terrible; there is a lot of interesting Eldar background material, and for once they aren't being used as punching bags to show how cool and strong someone else is, but I can still only really recommend this to W40k nerds. (Or, if you're curious, I guess get it out of the library long enough to just read the first included novel; you won't miss much.)
Grade: C+
Sunday, April 20, 2014
"Empire of Liberty"
Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789 - 1815 [Oxford History of the United States] (Gordon S. Wood)
For a massive history book I really enjoyed, I'm not sure I have much to say here aside from a strong recommendation; The core of this book is a why-didn't-I-learn-this-in-school exploration of the early clash between the Federalists - trying to make America into a European-style Power complete with landed aristocracy - and the Democratic-Republicans under Jefferson, attempting to mold America into a republic full of small farmers. This might not sound that interesting, but if so I'm not doing it justice; some of the truly bizarre ideas (including an attempt to completely outlaw commerce) are really staggering, and this is an easy recommend to anyone even casually interested in American history. Don't let the size scare you off from this gem.
Grade: A
For a massive history book I really enjoyed, I'm not sure I have much to say here aside from a strong recommendation; The core of this book is a why-didn't-I-learn-this-in-school exploration of the early clash between the Federalists - trying to make America into a European-style Power complete with landed aristocracy - and the Democratic-Republicans under Jefferson, attempting to mold America into a republic full of small farmers. This might not sound that interesting, but if so I'm not doing it justice; some of the truly bizarre ideas (including an attempt to completely outlaw commerce) are really staggering, and this is an easy recommend to anyone even casually interested in American history. Don't let the size scare you off from this gem.
Grade: A
Monday, September 30, 2013
"Blankets"
Blankets (Craig Thompson)
I was a little tough on the first Thompson book I read, a graphic novel called Habibi that reached for greatness and couldn't quite grasp it. Weirdly enough, his previous work - this book - is everything I could have asked for and more. I don't want to gush too much, but this book is beautifully written and drawn, at turns hilarious and heartbreaking (mostly heartbreaking) as it follows our hero Craig and his struggles growing up.
I guess if I'm looking for some criticism, the art in Blankets isn't as breathtaking as it is in Habibi, both because this is earlier in Thompson's career and because the setting is more stark and less fantastical - and come to think of it, that's more of an observation; the stark art in Blankets perfectly fits the tone of frozen Midwestern lost despair. Huh. Well, I guess for once I can't think of a single thing to complain about. Um, highly recommended.
Grade: A+
I was a little tough on the first Thompson book I read, a graphic novel called Habibi that reached for greatness and couldn't quite grasp it. Weirdly enough, his previous work - this book - is everything I could have asked for and more. I don't want to gush too much, but this book is beautifully written and drawn, at turns hilarious and heartbreaking (mostly heartbreaking) as it follows our hero Craig and his struggles growing up.
I guess if I'm looking for some criticism, the art in Blankets isn't as breathtaking as it is in Habibi, both because this is earlier in Thompson's career and because the setting is more stark and less fantastical - and come to think of it, that's more of an observation; the stark art in Blankets perfectly fits the tone of frozen Midwestern lost despair. Huh. Well, I guess for once I can't think of a single thing to complain about. Um, highly recommended.
Grade: A+
Saturday, May 25, 2013
"The Founding"
The Founding (Dan Abnett)
This is a omnibus containing three Gaunt's Ghosts novels, Gaunt himself being a Commissar in the 40k universe. Collected here are First and Only, Ghostmaker, and Necropolis. Since it took me so long to read, I don't feel bad reviewing each novel one by one. Suck on it, libs!
First and Only: According to the introduction, at one point this was the best-selling book published by Black Library. I get the sense this book came out quite early in the Black Library's run. It's entertaining enough, but it's marred by some weird issues - The Guard is all male, Chaos Space Marines are killed with single shots from a Guardsman's laser rifle (!!), and there's a deformed psyker commissar (!!!!) who "atomizes" an entire city when he dies (?!)
There's also just weird careless details: Gaunt's bolt pistol becomes a laspistol becomes a lasgun becomes a boltgun. On top of that, some of the writing is, put charitably, clumsy (a character's reaction when he realizes he's just been decapitated: "Only when his headless body fell onto the deck next to him he realized that... his head... cut... bastard... no.")
So with all that, is this book worth reading? Well, it's not bad, but the above mentioned issues make it rather difficult to recommend. I'd probably only suggest this book if you either love military-style novels (which this is at heart), or are looking for a friendly introduction to the 40k universe. Otherwise, it's perfectly serviceable, but I can't really recommend going too far out of your way to track it down.
Grade: B-
Ghostmaker: This is a short story collection that meanders around giving different Ghosts some time in the spotlight. I applaud the idea - up until now they've basically been cardboard cut-outs whose personality is no more fleshed out than "medic", "scout", "heavy weapons guy". In fact, the Ghosts themselves have less personality than the Team Fortress 2 characters who are literally named Medic, Scout, and Heavy Weapons Guy. So giving them some personality is a very welcome idea, but the actual execution unfortunately sinks the entire enterprise. What do we learn from a spotlight on Mkoll, the silently-moving scout? Turns out he's a scout, and that he can move silently. The author seems either unwilling or unable to flesh out characters If they're good, they're tough, blue-collar, gritty heroes, and if they're bad, they're either deformed chaos monsters or blue-blooded elitists sipping coffee while our heroic, blue-collar, gritty heroes get the job done. Maybe I've been spoiled by other w40k novels. I'm bumping the grade up because I appreciate Abnett's efforts to imbue the Ghosts with a personality, but it's a cringing failure, and I only got like an eighth of the way through it.
Grade: D+
Necropolis: I was hoping that these novels would improve with time as Abnett became more familiar and comfortable with the setting he's working in, but unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the case. Although the writing isn't as clumsy in this book, it's still full of distracting, careless errors. On page 669, a character is Trygg in the first paragraph and Trugg in the second. A character is hit by a lasrifle shot and bleeds out in a matter of minutes, even though the author has pointed out numerous times that lasrifle wounds are self-cauterized because of the weapon's heat. At the book's climax, Gaunt himself is shot by a bolt in the heart, but lives because he's wearing a steel rose on his shirt. This is dumb and cheesy enough as it is, but is nonsensical because a "bolt" is basically a rocket-propelled explosive. This is like surviving a hit from a RPG because you have a steel plate in your chest pocket; Gaunt would either be a mess on the floor or have had his steel rose punched straight through his body, but then I guess there couldn't be any sequels. Oh, and people also use "gak" as a swear word, and all I could think of was Nickelodeon Gak.
In short, this is not a good book. Some of the military action is exciting, but combined with Abnett's carelessness, lame characters and annoying habit of cutting away from the actual important parts of the book to follow needless sideplots that don't go anywhere, this is a slog far more often than it is an engaging story.
Grade: C-
So in sum, I can't really recommend this at all. Even if you're looking to dip your toe in 40k, I'd suggest the much better Caiphas Cain omnibuses, which not only actually get the details right, but are actually, you know, enjoyable to read.
Grade: D-
This is a omnibus containing three Gaunt's Ghosts novels, Gaunt himself being a Commissar in the 40k universe. Collected here are First and Only, Ghostmaker, and Necropolis. Since it took me so long to read, I don't feel bad reviewing each novel one by one. Suck on it, libs!
First and Only: According to the introduction, at one point this was the best-selling book published by Black Library. I get the sense this book came out quite early in the Black Library's run. It's entertaining enough, but it's marred by some weird issues - The Guard is all male, Chaos Space Marines are killed with single shots from a Guardsman's laser rifle (!!), and there's a deformed psyker commissar (!!!!) who "atomizes" an entire city when he dies (?!)
There's also just weird careless details: Gaunt's bolt pistol becomes a laspistol becomes a lasgun becomes a boltgun. On top of that, some of the writing is, put charitably, clumsy (a character's reaction when he realizes he's just been decapitated: "Only when his headless body fell onto the deck next to him he realized that... his head... cut... bastard... no.")
So with all that, is this book worth reading? Well, it's not bad, but the above mentioned issues make it rather difficult to recommend. I'd probably only suggest this book if you either love military-style novels (which this is at heart), or are looking for a friendly introduction to the 40k universe. Otherwise, it's perfectly serviceable, but I can't really recommend going too far out of your way to track it down.
Grade: B-
Ghostmaker: This is a short story collection that meanders around giving different Ghosts some time in the spotlight. I applaud the idea - up until now they've basically been cardboard cut-outs whose personality is no more fleshed out than "medic", "scout", "heavy weapons guy". In fact, the Ghosts themselves have less personality than the Team Fortress 2 characters who are literally named Medic, Scout, and Heavy Weapons Guy. So giving them some personality is a very welcome idea, but the actual execution unfortunately sinks the entire enterprise. What do we learn from a spotlight on Mkoll, the silently-moving scout? Turns out he's a scout, and that he can move silently. The author seems either unwilling or unable to flesh out characters If they're good, they're tough, blue-collar, gritty heroes, and if they're bad, they're either deformed chaos monsters or blue-blooded elitists sipping coffee while our heroic, blue-collar, gritty heroes get the job done. Maybe I've been spoiled by other w40k novels. I'm bumping the grade up because I appreciate Abnett's efforts to imbue the Ghosts with a personality, but it's a cringing failure, and I only got like an eighth of the way through it.
Grade: D+
Necropolis: I was hoping that these novels would improve with time as Abnett became more familiar and comfortable with the setting he's working in, but unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the case. Although the writing isn't as clumsy in this book, it's still full of distracting, careless errors. On page 669, a character is Trygg in the first paragraph and Trugg in the second. A character is hit by a lasrifle shot and bleeds out in a matter of minutes, even though the author has pointed out numerous times that lasrifle wounds are self-cauterized because of the weapon's heat. At the book's climax, Gaunt himself is shot by a bolt in the heart, but lives because he's wearing a steel rose on his shirt. This is dumb and cheesy enough as it is, but is nonsensical because a "bolt" is basically a rocket-propelled explosive. This is like surviving a hit from a RPG because you have a steel plate in your chest pocket; Gaunt would either be a mess on the floor or have had his steel rose punched straight through his body, but then I guess there couldn't be any sequels. Oh, and people also use "gak" as a swear word, and all I could think of was Nickelodeon Gak.
In short, this is not a good book. Some of the military action is exciting, but combined with Abnett's carelessness, lame characters and annoying habit of cutting away from the actual important parts of the book to follow needless sideplots that don't go anywhere, this is a slog far more often than it is an engaging story.
Grade: C-
So in sum, I can't really recommend this at all. Even if you're looking to dip your toe in 40k, I'd suggest the much better Caiphas Cain omnibuses, which not only actually get the details right, but are actually, you know, enjoyable to read.
Grade: D-
Monday, February 25, 2013
"The Word Bearers Omnibus"
The Word Bearers Omnibus (Anthony Reynolds)
This is three novels collected into one omnibus. I'm going to give each novel its own mini-bite-size book review - if you have an issue with this, take it up with Black Library; There's three full size novels in this omnibus, so you get three reviews here. More like small meal sized book review.blogspot.com!
Dark Apostle: I liked this book well enough, but I have two nits to pick, one big and one small. The small one is that the Word Bearers are about as evil as you get, and that's saying something in Warhammer 40k; I feel that the author goes a little overboard in trying to drive home that these guys are scum, to the point where they don't just light a candle, they light the BLOOD WICK on a BLOOD CANDLE, because, btw, they are evil. The larger issue is that these guys are chaos Space Marines, some of the baddest MFers out there, and when they invade an Imperial world and start fucking shit up, the loyalists send in..... the Imperial Guard? This is like sending in your local middle school's football team to play Green Bay. Even the chaos space marines comment on this, with one of them wondering what the hell the Imperium is thinking here. There's a little less tension than there could be because the Word Bearers never face credible opposition. These issues aren't huge, but the second one especially keeps the book at a good-not-great level, and it's perfectly skippable except that it sets up the next novel.
Grade: B
Dark Disciple: This is where it really picks up. There's a little bit of a refresher for those just joining us, and then it's straight into the ultraviolence. Most of the book is our heroes (is that the right term?) racing to unlock the macguffin from the previous book, backdropped against the Tyranids battling an Imperial fleet trying to stop them. Oh, and there's also a spoiler race hanging out up to no good (who ever is in Warhammer, though?). I really enjoyed this book - there's not a wasted page here, and once it gets going, I believe this may be the most violent novel I'e ever read. The amount of humans, space marines, tyranids, and race I can't name because it's a spoiler getting shot, stabbed, cut, blown up, burned, bludgeoned, and otherwise dispatched is truly impressive. I don't want to sound like a psycho and say I enjoyed it just because it's so violent, but it certainly is action-packed, and I'm not sure I can say more without sounding like a back of the book quote. (Although the back of the book quote is from somewhere called "Huntress Reviews" that yells right on its 1998 era front page that they ONLY GIVE OUT THREE TO FIVE STAR REVIEWS, so, Black Library, if you're one of the four people reading this blog, I'm sure I can come up with a better quote: Buy this omnibus or you're a dumb stupid moron!)
Grade: A
Dark Creed: Now with the activated mcguffin (spoiler alert), the Word Bearers plan is sprung. The first half of the book is setup and a big naval battle, which is nice and tense. In the second half, the Word Bearers finally (!) come up against loyalist Space Marines. I'm kind of amazed it took three novels for this, and unfortunately when it does come it's kind of an anticlimax. In fact, the second half as a whole is a bit weak, culminating in a not so fulfilling ending (there's one thing the Word Bearers do to save the day that had me wondering why they didn't just do it sooner). This is still a pretty good book - lots of 40k novels unfortunately have less than great endings, and judged against some of the ones I've read, this one is just a mild letdown - but I can't really say more without giving the whole plot away. Having come this far, it's nice to see everything get wrapped up. Dark Creed's not quite as good as the second book in the omnibus, but thanks to the cracking first half is better than the first.
Grade: B+
The omnibus closes out with a extra short story called "Torment" that wraps up the fate of one of the series main characters. It's not really nessessary reading, but it's a nice little bonus. Overall, this omnibus is pretty easy to recommend - $10 for three pretty good full-sized novels is nothing to sneeze at.
Overall grade: A-
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
"China Marches West"
China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia (Peter C. Perdue)
When you read as much history as I do, you tend to start looking for the parts that are glossed over. A visit to your local bookstore will show shelves overflowing with World War 2, but finding a good book about the history of central Asia from the 1600s to the 1800s as the Russians, Chinese, and Mongols struggle for supremacy is a rare find. China Marches West can be a little intimidating, both because of its sheer size and scholarly tone (about as rip-roaring as it gets is on page 342 where we're told "We now turn to the material details of agrarian production"). The book demands your full attention, but in return it's quite interesting. The first half of the book is a narrative history of, well, you can probably tell from the title, with the second half being a more in-depth breakdown covering anything you could possibly want to know about trade and agricultural practices on the frontier. The second half is drier, and I admit I did start skipping a fair amount of pages, but it's weird how fascinating reading about Chinese military granaries can be.
Grade: B+
When you read as much history as I do, you tend to start looking for the parts that are glossed over. A visit to your local bookstore will show shelves overflowing with World War 2, but finding a good book about the history of central Asia from the 1600s to the 1800s as the Russians, Chinese, and Mongols struggle for supremacy is a rare find. China Marches West can be a little intimidating, both because of its sheer size and scholarly tone (about as rip-roaring as it gets is on page 342 where we're told "We now turn to the material details of agrarian production"). The book demands your full attention, but in return it's quite interesting. The first half of the book is a narrative history of, well, you can probably tell from the title, with the second half being a more in-depth breakdown covering anything you could possibly want to know about trade and agricultural practices on the frontier. The second half is drier, and I admit I did start skipping a fair amount of pages, but it's weird how fascinating reading about Chinese military granaries can be.
Grade: B+
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
"Our Friends Beneath the Sands"
Our Friends Beneath the Sands: The French Foreign Legion in France's Colonial Conquests 1870-1935 (Martin Windrow)
I got pretty much what I expected with this book - like Windrow's The Last Valley, this is a massive brick of a book overflowing with information. I liked this book pretty well, but it shares the previous book's flaws, namely that the endless details of which military organization each battalion, squad, etc. belongs to can get a little tiring. The book also suffers from a common historical pitfall the other book didn't in that it just reaches a stop line and ends without a climax, and honestly I felt like the end of the book was more interesting as the legion beings experimenting with cars and trucks instead of camels. These are mostly minor issues, though, and the Legion's history in Indochina and Morocco is quite interesting, even if the book never quite raises to the level of excellence from the author's previous work.
Grade: B+
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
"The Mists of Avalon"
The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
Let's take a nice break from massive, nerdy history books to read a massive, nerdy women's studies retelling of the Arthurian legend. (I'm not kidding about how massive it is - the parts just dealing with Arthur's mother is enough text to have been a full-sized novel by itself.)
Where viewing the story through the eyes of the female characters didn't really work for The Penelopiad, it works wonderfully here, breathing new life into the old, tired story. The male characters stay offscreen unless what they're doing effects the women, so the book's real hero is Morgaine, with the villian being played by Geunievere. Gwen here seems to have severe agroaphobia along with the intellect and emotional maturity of a five year old - in other words, she comes off as a perpetually terrified, charmless, child-like, dumb weirdo. Arthur doesn't come off that much better, and neither does Lancelot, come to think of it. I think part of the problem - and this is so wide-spread that it even effects Morgaine - is that the main cast at times acts forehead-slappingly out of character. This seems to be a result of the story having to hew more or less to the original myth. It's annoying, but I suppose in the end a good tradeoff for how well the end result turns out. Even though the book runs over 800 pages, it really only drags when we're following Gwen around being dumb and scared, and these stretches are a drop in the ocean (albeit parts I recommend skipping anyway). Highly recommended.
Grade: A
Let's take a nice break from massive, nerdy history books to read a massive, nerdy women's studies retelling of the Arthurian legend. (I'm not kidding about how massive it is - the parts just dealing with Arthur's mother is enough text to have been a full-sized novel by itself.)
Where viewing the story through the eyes of the female characters didn't really work for The Penelopiad, it works wonderfully here, breathing new life into the old, tired story. The male characters stay offscreen unless what they're doing effects the women, so the book's real hero is Morgaine, with the villian being played by Geunievere. Gwen here seems to have severe agroaphobia along with the intellect and emotional maturity of a five year old - in other words, she comes off as a perpetually terrified, charmless, child-like, dumb weirdo. Arthur doesn't come off that much better, and neither does Lancelot, come to think of it. I think part of the problem - and this is so wide-spread that it even effects Morgaine - is that the main cast at times acts forehead-slappingly out of character. This seems to be a result of the story having to hew more or less to the original myth. It's annoying, but I suppose in the end a good tradeoff for how well the end result turns out. Even though the book runs over 800 pages, it really only drags when we're following Gwen around being dumb and scared, and these stretches are a drop in the ocean (albeit parts I recommend skipping anyway). Highly recommended.
Grade: A
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
A Clash of Kings
A Clash of Kings (book 2 of A Song of Ubiquity and 25% off at Target)
George R. R. Martin
As I had said in the previous review, this book was better in hindsight having made it through the second book, which I found to be a vast improvement. Which was true. And now, having finished the third one, I can say, jeez, I dunno.
In any event, it's a great improvement over Game of Thrones, in that the intrigue is more interesting, and there's a hell of a lot more action, which certainly helps make this one the best I've read in the series so far.
Good:
ACTION. Jeez, and how. Yes, this book is talky, but you can't say that shit doesn't happen in it.
Different characters. Davos Seaworth's chapters especially are interesting reads, bringing new perspective to the story, especially as one of the few people in the book not constantly under oligarchic pressure from their noble blood and kin. It's also nice to see some characters formerly sitting out the story in the background get the spotlight for once as well.
Better characterization. Catelyn Stark actually gets some dimensions, and this book is all the better for it. Her sorrow and frustrations were one of the most well written parts of the book I thought, even if they were a bit un-subtle. Arya Stark's chapters got a lot more interesting as well, and it was nice to see her given more to do other than mope about not wanting to act like a lady.
Bad:
Drags at points. This is an improvement over Game of Thrones, but, honestly, starts to get worse again in the next book in the series (review forthcoming.) Again, I often would sigh to myself that another Sansa chapter was coming up, or the real offender this time, Danerys Targaryen, whose story really has yet to interest me very much even three books into the story. Obviously it's a slow build with her, but jeez, this is pushing it for me. The most improved award goes to the aforementioned Arya, whose chapters got pretty compelling. Sadly, Jon Snow's chapters, which, after his initial "okay, sigh, he's getting into trouble again" phase, got quite interesting, seemed to slow back down into literal slow, plodding marches through the snow.
The dialogue isn't great. Tyrion Lannister seemed wittier in the first book, to me. At least no one was given the wind again. But, geez, Danerys has some hokey lines.
Grade: A- (this will drop back to reality for the next book.)
George R. R. Martin
As I had said in the previous review, this book was better in hindsight having made it through the second book, which I found to be a vast improvement. Which was true. And now, having finished the third one, I can say, jeez, I dunno.
In any event, it's a great improvement over Game of Thrones, in that the intrigue is more interesting, and there's a hell of a lot more action, which certainly helps make this one the best I've read in the series so far.
Good:
ACTION. Jeez, and how. Yes, this book is talky, but you can't say that shit doesn't happen in it.
Different characters. Davos Seaworth's chapters especially are interesting reads, bringing new perspective to the story, especially as one of the few people in the book not constantly under oligarchic pressure from their noble blood and kin. It's also nice to see some characters formerly sitting out the story in the background get the spotlight for once as well.
Better characterization. Catelyn Stark actually gets some dimensions, and this book is all the better for it. Her sorrow and frustrations were one of the most well written parts of the book I thought, even if they were a bit un-subtle. Arya Stark's chapters got a lot more interesting as well, and it was nice to see her given more to do other than mope about not wanting to act like a lady.
Bad:
Drags at points. This is an improvement over Game of Thrones, but, honestly, starts to get worse again in the next book in the series (review forthcoming.) Again, I often would sigh to myself that another Sansa chapter was coming up, or the real offender this time, Danerys Targaryen, whose story really has yet to interest me very much even three books into the story. Obviously it's a slow build with her, but jeez, this is pushing it for me. The most improved award goes to the aforementioned Arya, whose chapters got pretty compelling. Sadly, Jon Snow's chapters, which, after his initial "okay, sigh, he's getting into trouble again" phase, got quite interesting, seemed to slow back down into literal slow, plodding marches through the snow.
The dialogue isn't great. Tyrion Lannister seemed wittier in the first book, to me. At least no one was given the wind again. But, geez, Danerys has some hokey lines.
Grade: A- (this will drop back to reality for the next book.)
Monday, July 16, 2012
Game of Thrones
Game of Thrones
George R. R. Martin
I had a hairdresser ask me how I could have possibly put this book down and start reading other books when I had trouble getting into it at first. Apparently your mileage may vary with this, was the lesson I got.
So, yes, obviously, I had trouble getting into this book. It doesn't help that it has slightly fewer characters than a Suikoden game. I have to say, watching an episode or two of the TV series helped. I've only seen one or two episodes of the TV series, though. It helped put a face to the at first endless parade of new characters being introduced, and afterwards I was ready to give the book another go (and apparently putting aside all hope of ever finishing the Iron Warriors omnibus.)
There's a dramatis personae at the back of the book, which I didn't notice was there until I was done with the book. It would have helped immensely to know it was there. Or if it had been printed at the front, so I could have known whom the Westeros equivalent of Hetman of Genome Brigade 321 Gilead was.
I've already finished the second book, which addresses at least some of my complaints about the first book, which is largely the lack of characterization or character development. It's much improved in A Clash of Kings, but throughout Game of Thrones, I felt confined by some of the characters, especially since the whole story is divided into chapters as seen by specific characters. I can't say how many times I skipped ahead in a Sansa chapter to see who would be next out of frustration with Sansa being frustrated. The only characters that actually seem to grow throughout the book are Arya Stark and Jon Snow, both of whom only seem to grow when they resign themselves to being stuck with life having dealt them a shitty hand and can't mulligan it.
Another frustration is some major characters never have a "chapter," and spend a lot of time "off camera," leaving me, two books in, wondering just what kind of character some people actually are, since we only see them through other characters reporting far-away actions and reminiscing about how great/terrible they are.
Overall, once you get over the initial hump, the book glides along on all cylinders, and the court intrigue and medieval combat actually becomes gripping and compelling, in spite of the oft too archetypal heroes and villains. (Most of whom eventually improve anyway.)
Grade: B+
George R. R. Martin
I had a hairdresser ask me how I could have possibly put this book down and start reading other books when I had trouble getting into it at first. Apparently your mileage may vary with this, was the lesson I got.
So, yes, obviously, I had trouble getting into this book. It doesn't help that it has slightly fewer characters than a Suikoden game. I have to say, watching an episode or two of the TV series helped. I've only seen one or two episodes of the TV series, though. It helped put a face to the at first endless parade of new characters being introduced, and afterwards I was ready to give the book another go (and apparently putting aside all hope of ever finishing the Iron Warriors omnibus.)
There's a dramatis personae at the back of the book, which I didn't notice was there until I was done with the book. It would have helped immensely to know it was there. Or if it had been printed at the front, so I could have known whom the Westeros equivalent of Hetman of Genome Brigade 321 Gilead was.
I've already finished the second book, which addresses at least some of my complaints about the first book, which is largely the lack of characterization or character development. It's much improved in A Clash of Kings, but throughout Game of Thrones, I felt confined by some of the characters, especially since the whole story is divided into chapters as seen by specific characters. I can't say how many times I skipped ahead in a Sansa chapter to see who would be next out of frustration with Sansa being frustrated. The only characters that actually seem to grow throughout the book are Arya Stark and Jon Snow, both of whom only seem to grow when they resign themselves to being stuck with life having dealt them a shitty hand and can't mulligan it.
Another frustration is some major characters never have a "chapter," and spend a lot of time "off camera," leaving me, two books in, wondering just what kind of character some people actually are, since we only see them through other characters reporting far-away actions and reminiscing about how great/terrible they are.
Overall, once you get over the initial hump, the book glides along on all cylinders, and the court intrigue and medieval combat actually becomes gripping and compelling, in spite of the oft too archetypal heroes and villains. (Most of whom eventually improve anyway.)
Grade: B+
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