The Kids’ thoughts on the Hobbit

We finished reading Tolkien’s The Hobbit this week – the first full-length book I’ve read to the kids.  It was a the obvious choice, as this was also the first book my Mom read to me.  It’s been a while since I’ve read that book and several things stand out after so many years.  Tolkien wrote in  long, descriptive, balanced sentences.  Very nice to read aloud.  The sense of place and history, the sheer amount of description is palpable in The Hobbit.  Of course this has become one of the prevailing themes of fantasy fiction, so no surprise there.  Finally, Bilbo is just a great character.  And now onto the girls’ thoughts as recorded be me with a few questions here and there…

One favorite part is when Bilbo went to talk to Smaug.  He saw the weak spot by getting Smaug to roll over by telling riddles.  Bilbo was pretty brave there.  I was afraid Bilbo might be found by Smaug, and he’d attack him and eat him.  I thought this was the scariest part.  Instead he just got a little burnt.

Books: Shadow’s Edge

…by Brent Weeks

Shadow’s Edge is the second book in the Night Angel trilogy, which chronicles the struggles of Kylar Stern, assassin, Logan Gyre, aspirant-King, Vi, another assassin, and others against the sadistic Godking, Garoth.  The Godking’s forces successfully invaded Cenaria at the close of Book 1, Into the Shadows (see review), bringing a lot death (and presumed death), mayhem, and misunderstanding to the major characters.  Kylar’s mentor, master assassin (or ‘wetboy’ as Weeks has unfortunately designated killers with magical talents) Durzo Blint is gone, and Kylar soon swears off killing to pursue his childhood love, Elene.  This means leaving the city and fleeing in search of a more normal life.

Unbeknownst to Kylar, his best friend Logan is not dead but rather imprisoned in the Hole, which is the most brutal dungeon in the land, filled with the rapists and cannibals.  Logan has to survive down there without revealing his identity and completely losing his humanity.

When the Sa’kage (the city’s vast underworld crime syndicate) soon learn they can’t bargain with the brutal Godking, they begin to oppose him and help form the resistance.   For that they need Kylar, who has now absorbed an ancient magical forces called the ka’kari and has become nearly immortal, and they need an heir to the throne – Logan.  A fairly straightforward plot that still manages to get bogged down for nearly half the book.  Some of the subplots turn out to be far more interesting – at least until the book’s climax.

Books: The Way of Shadows

…by Brent Weeks

Sometimes you just want some good old fashioned sword-hacking, shadow-stalking, mage-fire hurling type fantasy.  Plenty of action, high-school level romance, badass villains, and , familiar archetypes…  In The Way of Shadows (Book 1 in the Night Angel trilogy),  this is precisely what you get.

The novel starts with young Azoth, an orphaned street beggar, eavesdropping on the troubles of one Durzo Blint, the best and baddest magically enhanced assassin (weeks uses the term, ‘wetboy’ – a questionable choice) in all of Cenaria.  This scene leads to Azoth’s attempt to apprentice himself to Durzo as a way out of the gutter.  Azoth has enough challenges what with scraping enough pennies together to eat and pay his guild dues to a Fagin-like outfit, and he’s watching out for his friends Jarl and Doll Girl to boot.  To make matters worse, Azoth, like all orphan heroes, is inexplicably brave, and stands up for his friends in the face of the bigger older bullying Rat.  Rat responds by buggering Jarl and cutting Doll Girl (this book pulls few punches), and Azoth seeks out Durzo in an attempt to help his friends out of their predicament and take some vengeance.

Of course Durzo agrees to take on this new apprentice, but only if Azoth can prove himself by killing Rat.  Then it’s on.

Books: In the Eye of Heaven

…by David Keck

In the Eye of Heaven is high fantasy with a good dose of grit and grime.  Set in a mythical medieval Europeanish land, where the oaths of kings and dukes really do tie them to the land, the book recounts the tale of Durand of the Col, a young squire and second son set to inherit a small backwoods holding where he will serve as his father’s bannerman.  But then that holding’s true heir shows up after fifteen years missing, and Durand finds himself without prospects.  To make matters worse, he’s being stalked by an otherworldly power who seems insistent on offering advice and marking Durand for a different path.

You really can’t blame Durand for panicking and riding off without his sword.  He soon falls in with a wandering bard and embarks upon a plan to attach himself to some noble as a knight-in-arms and earn his keep with honor.  Of course it’s never quite that easy.

In the Book Hopper

Looking at the recent content, it seems we’ve been lax in postings about books, reading, and scifi goodness.  This will soon be rectified.  I can explain: I decided to go back an reread Ray Feist’s Magician (which is a big-ass book) to see how it compared to my teenaged memories of the novel.  Not surprising, but it definitely seemed a lot more awesome to my fifteen year old self.  I also read The Ballad of Billy Badass and the Rose of Turkestan by William Sanders around Christmas: a fun if somewhat dated nuclear sci-fi yarn.

I’ve been reading some comics — expect something on Ed Brubaker’s Sleeper soon — and catching up on some short fiction with Weird Tales and other miscellany.

Right now I’m about to finish Laurell K. Hamilton’s Narcissus in Chains, which the wife read and recommended, and then it’s on to Neal Asher’s Skinner, David Keck’s In the Eye of Heaven, John Barnes’ Gaudeamus, Steve Erikson’s House of Chains (yes!), and probably Tobias Buckell’s Sly Mongoose in no particular order.  Yeah, that should keep me busy for awhile.  I’m a little bit obsessive about my reading, and of course always reserve the right to sneak something else in that catches my eye, but expect to see more book posts in coming months.

Books: YBFH 2007

The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2007, edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link, and Gavin J. Grant.

This series has long been hailed as vital reading for connoisseurs of short speculative fiction.  The 2007 edition, which is the twentieth in the series, headlines Joyce Carol Oates, M. Rickert, and Gene Wolfe, and clocks in at more than 250,000 words (452 pages).  I am glad to report I enjoyed most of the stories in this volume and only failed to finish a handful*.

Any time you’re reading a Year’s Best compilation, what you’re really getting is the best according to the series’ editors.  In Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror this is doubly so as these collections are published before the annual awards are announced in the summer.  In this case we have Datlow, former editor of Omni and Sci Fiction (the late lamented original sci-fi/fantasy webzine hosted at scifi.com; if I ever meet the shiftless corporate boob who cancelled Sci Fiction, it’s on…), and we have Link and Grant, who run Small Beer Press, publishers of the zine, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet and other stuff.  These are excellent editors and true professionals, no doubt about it, but that doesn’t mean we can’t question a few of their choices.

Review: Shaman’s Crossing & Forest Mage

by Robin Hobb, published by Eos

The last few years, I’ve made a practice of not reading books in a particular series in succession.  Part of this is my own growing sense of dissatisfaction with sci-fi/fantasy tendencies to stretch out the narrative to sell more books (see Jordan, Robert and Martin, George R. R.) and part of it is my own peculiar sense of fairness.  There are a lot of books and only so much time for reading.  If I like a series I’ll come back to it months or years later.

So when I picked up Shaman’s Crossing, Book 1 in the Soldier Son Trilogy, I figured I’d read the first book, decide on its merits, and then decide whether to return to Hobb’s latest fantasy world for round two.  Instead I found myself at the store buying Forest Mage the very day I finished Book 1.

A ringing endorsement?  Not so fast…

The Portal: Now Online

…at The Harrow.  It took some doing to get this short story out there.  First it was accepted under condition of revision by a relaunch of ‘Amazing Stories’ a few years ago, and then the editor quit before my revision, after which the magazine soon ceased publication.  Several other editors liked the story enough to tell me so, but either couldn’t quite get past the narrator’s voice or found other reasons to pass on it.  Bias against gamers within the Fantasy genre?  Possibly.  Too long for some markets?  Certainly.  Hard to pin down within genre convention?  Doubtless.

I remember working the first draft — I wanted to write from the perspective of how a true geek squad might really deal with the paranormal if it suddenly appeared before them.  Hopefully that comes across.  So click here (or on the banner below) to check out The Portal. If it’s too long for a single sitting, bookmark it and come back later.  And while you’re over at The Harrow, check out some of the other fine stories…