Storm Front by Jim Butcher (Orbit Books)

Firstly, before I really put this novel in the review machine, I want you to know that this review will turn out slighty shorter they’re used. Couple of reasons a) The book is light, entertaining stuff but not really meant as a high profile work of SFF, so analysing the various details of the prose, themes etc would not yield incredible insights in the book b) I am kind of experimenting with the shorter format, see if I can retain the quality but reduce the time you’ve take to read it as a whole (this means I will keep the summary shorter, but my actual review will be mostly of the same lenght c) I have limited time online these days, ‘regular life’ is kicking in a higher gear as we speak and although I still plan to review consistently, I have other business to take care of as well. I do have managed to squeeze reading this book in between. It is, after giving it some thought, exactly the type of book that is easily to read between work related activities or just any activities that can categorized under the notion ‘regular life’. That might well appeal to a lot of people who have not that much time for reading to spare.
Storm Front by Jim Butcher is the first novel of a long ‘casebook’ series “The Dresden Files” that is going to span a total of around the 20 books (will be capped off with an Apocalyptic Trilogy) revolving around the character Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, Chicago’s first (and only) Wizard P.I. So far nine installments of the Dresden Files have been released, with the tenth volume “Small favor” coming in April 2008. Jim Butcher began writing in the early 90’s, soon after he decided he wanted to publish his novels. In 2000 he finally struck up a deal with ROC fantasy and his first ‘Storm Front’ (the one we will be taking a further look into) was brought to the SFF scene. The series was so popular that the Sci-Fi channel picked it up as a TV series and broadcasted one season of the Dresden Files. After the twelfth and last episode of the season had been aired back in April of this year, Sci-Fi announced that it would cancel the show; so the success of the TV series was short-lived.

Storm Front is like I said the first ‘Harry Dresden’ casebook set in a “alternate” Chicago where magic is real (so magic realism) but only a few actually believe in it; it’s a first-person tale told by an irascible wizard named Harry Dresden, who regularly gives the magical establishment indigestion — and the police, the same. Harry’s regular job is that of a P.D. a private detective but he works closely with the police department of Chicago. Because when something special happens – something that is related to magical activities, they bring in Harry Dresden. At the start of this novel, the wizard is brought in on a grisly double murder commited with black magic (breaking the first rule of magic, “one shall not kill another with magic”). Seeing dollar signs, Harry is eager to dive deeper into the mysterious murder case but he does not realise that there is a lot more on stake. It is in fact, a gamble with lives at stake – even his own because the black magician behind the murder does not take it kindly that there is a wizard messing up business. And that is when things start to get… interesting. You see, magic it can get a guy killed.

As I said at the start of this review, Storm Front is meant as a light, entertaining work and it does succeed at that. It is that type of ‘witty’ novel, full of humor where you can’t help but laugh. Especially the first part -in which the general storyline of the book and the most featured characters of the novel are introduced, is great fun. Harry Dresden is a great character and despite his clumsiness – or maybe because of his clumsiness very likeable. He is well fleshed out and a round character, an interesting personality and when he has to kick buts Jim Butchers to keep him under control. Why is the latter important you ask? Well, I think it is an area where a lot of authors seem to go awry with keeping their main character in check. It would not be the first time that I read a novel where the main character ’suddenly’ finds a secret resource of power within himself, that he can tap into and defeat the bad guy(s) that way. Not the case here, the final showdown was very well thought out and realistic (although, in a way predictable but I did not mind that too much); that’s all I ask for when reading a novel of this sort. However, apart from Harry, the rest of the cast was not all that convincing realistic; the characterisation of any other than Harry seems to suffer from the first-person perspective. This does not include Mister (Harry’s cat) and Bob (a blue air spirit trapped in a skull), who were hilarious at times. It is actually these small details and remarks hidden in the dialogues that make Storm Front so much fun.
The prose was not mind blowing, but pretty much your average writing and I did not encounter any errors or inconsistencies in the prose. So that’s a plus. The style added to the overall pace of the novel (I am sure you can finish the effort in 4,5 hours or less) but was not that special either. I felt that at some point the plotline was a tad too much ‘bent’ (ie. all the stuff coming down at once on the shoulders of Harry), the ending was rushed a bit. In only a couple of pages Butcher’s notifies us of the results of other events plus the fate of the characters involved and then quickly slams the book shut. It was kind of a cliffhanger ending. Also, about two-third of the story some things began to feel a bit repetitive and tiresome, as if the story was some sort of loop of events happening one at the time.

Nonetheless, Jim Butcher succeeded in bringing an entertaining, light and witty novel to the felt, not mindblowing SFF but very likeable and hilarious at times. I do suspect that some things will begin to feel a bit repetitive at times, even more after nine novels. For now, I would rate this effort:

Seven out of Ten

New feature

Fear not, is not a total ‘revamp’ of my website, it is still the same ‘ol template (personally I think the three column template is great, what do you think?) and I am still going to do what I like to do the most; reviewing SFF. So what is new? Well, after some feedback a couple people noted the (lack) of links to outside sources like amazon.com. I fixed that in all my posts and now the images on the left topside of each review actually link to amazon.com! How convenient, eh? You read something here that gets you all excited for that book and with one mouse click you’re on amazon and start ordering that stuff immediately. In addition, the “What I am reading” widget on the right side and the “Recently Bought” widget on the left side link to amazon.com sources as well. So a lot of linkage all around.
Also the lack of links to author sources, like their homepages was noted – but I am not entirely sure if this would make much difference. Would it be more convenient for you, if I would link to the author I am reviewing a book of – or would it not make any difference?

I am thinking of turning this into a feedback post so if you have something you like or don’t like about my blog, be honest and tell me about it. I am always looking to improve my blog, be it in terms of interface, accessibility or quality of the writing/reviews.

The Charnel Prince by Greg Keyes (Del Rey)

It was actually a while ago since I picked up an effort by Greg Keyes, I posted my review of the Briar King (here) on July the 20 so that is more than month. Back then I wrote that “this [The Briar King] was pretty good transition from one series to another and very good fantasy effort” and with that in mind I picked up the second installment (out of the four) of Keyes’ Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone saga. Generally, this saga seems have escaped the attention of a lot fans in the genre. In fact, Time Out dubbed this saga “the best reinvention of the big fantasy series since George R.R. Martin”. I am not so sure if this is the best reinvention or whether the big fantasy series are really in need of a reinvention, but these novels certainly have the potential to be a big fantasy series. If only they would get the attention of all the fantasy readers out there, but that’s a matter of marketing. The Charnel Prince was released in August 2004, a year after the Briar King was released and Greg Keyes seemed to settle more into writing fantasy. The short summary of the situation at the start of this novel and the introduction of the most important characters I am about to give you, could contain some Briar King spoilers, so if you have not read this first book do yourself a favor and skip this upcoming part. Just below the summary I will give you my thoughts on this novel, so I would recommend moving on to those musings.

Since the awakening of the legendary Briar King, many different types of evil breeds roam the once peaceful King’s Forest and the countryside. A season of darkness has fallen upon the Kingdom of Crotheny. In the capital of Crotheny, Eslen, Queen Mother Muriele is stalked by many men proposing marriage, trying to take the kingdom and the reign away from her. It seems like there is nobody she can trust with her burden, as treachery is ever present. Only two of her children remain alive, ’saint-blessed’ Charles barely able to rule the Kingdom at such a young age and Anne, fled from the assassins bent on destroying her family. Anne, in company of her maid Austra and the two Vitellian dessrata Cazio and z’Acatto are desperately trying to find their way back to Eslen, but it is a dangerous and long road. However, Neil MeqVren Queen Muriele’s most trusted knight has set out on a quest to find the daughter lost and guide her safely back to the walls of Elsen. Little does he know he is going to have to fight his way through the ranks of evil men that are chasing princess Anne all the way to Crotheny.
Meanwhile back in Eslen, King’s Holter Aspar White, accompanied by his love Winna and the monk Stephen Darrige set on a journey back in the forest to destroy the Briar King. Yet he is about to discover that nothing as a straight forward as expected when confronting this king of the forest.
In additional to this cast, we meet up with Leoff, a young composer and self-professed coward, who comes embroiled in the horror of a town’s destruction. Motivated by these shocking events, he sets out to unravel the intrigues at the court of Queen Muriele and lend her his aid.

I was not very impressed by this effort, it actually felt “more of the same”. That in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, but I was a bit disappointed by the overall quality and the fact that Keyes had not really improved. They were a couple of things I did like though, but as I said earlier on I am having my doubts that this is the best reinvention of big fantasy series since George R.R. Martin’s debut. Certainly, the ingredients are all there but Greg Keyes just has to put it all in a nice mix.
The thing I liked most was the way he incorporated different types of dialects in the dialogues and prose. We have ‘Vitellian’ which seems to be some sort of Italian type of language or maybe Spanish, we have ‘Hanzish’ which is more of a German, Saxon type of language while people in Crotheny speak English. These linguistic differences added to the world building overall, at the least distinguishing one culture from another. Apart from that, the landscape and government established in the countries seems to differ as well, all leading to a fleshed out world. It is not a very engaging world; we all have seen that pseudo medieval setting before but because of Keyes’ eye for detail in the surroundings, it is still working out very well. The prose, as I have noted before, is one of the strenghts of Greg Keyes as a storyteller and indeed he succeeds in The Charnel Prince. The thing is, buried underneath the simple words written down on paper there seems to be a constant, natural flow in his writing making it easier to immerse in his story. Rich and lavishly written prose certainly does welcome you to do so.

Now for the things I did not really like or put me off. First, the storyline. I cannot go in detail without spoiling the events occurring in The Charnel Prince but I felt it was ‘tweaked’ too much, as some of the characters were too. It was almost like Greg Keyes said to himself “well, I need these characters to arrive there on the map, in order to continue broad my scheme of events, so what do I need?” “Allright, let me put somebody on their road to speed up the process or build some suspense”. I am sick and tired of people getting knocked out in a forest or alongside a road and then finding themselves in some room of a ‘friend’ who accidentally found them and brought them to safety! That’s just too unrealistic if repeated more than once, it is not like I go around collecting unconsicious people from the side of the road all the time. Or when in mortal danger, you just happen to meet a friend who can keep you save and just also happens to be trained by an order of assassins. The chance of finding someone like that, when in those conditions…! It is far more realistic that you would run into some dumb farmer who is not even able to protect his own cattle from being slaughtered by knights (would it come to that). That is what I mean with the word ‘tweaked’, it seems that in some instances it is too much twisted in order to let the main cast of characters arrive where they should be and in the condition they should be. Kind of a shame really, because unlike George R.R. Martin people have been comparing him to, Keyes has no intentions of getting his main cast killed along the way as it stands now in this second novel. And this does affect the suspense he is so slowly trying to build up towards the ending.
The latest addition to the cast, Leoff was more of a plot device than a real character too, I felt. Especially a shame because he had some much potential to start with to turn into an interesting person; a self-professed coward is, after all, a nice change in a world filled with warriors and knights fighting for good and evil. But much as the same with some elements in the plotline, he was more of a device in order to progress the storyline and overhear certain things adding to intrigue than a real fleshed out character in its own right. Luckily, Greg Keyes has too more installments left to improve on this.
The rest of the characters are still fleshed out enough for you to empathise with them, but the character development of the cast goes slowly (but steady, I’ve admit). In fact, the whole pace of the novel downright slow, it picks up momentum for the last 150 odd pages but by then you have already read through 450 of them.
One of the other things that did bother me, was that neither of the characters was entirely ‘gray’, all of the POV’s are ‘good’ and (generally) Sefry, magic beings, the Church (corrupt more or less), followers of the Briar King were on the evil side of the conflict. Funny thing is, only the Briar King was the one I am having trouble figuring out on whose side he is and I look forward reading more about his presence. Once a character turns into something that can be both doing rightous things but then acts in a way one could deem evil that makes him alltogether the more interesting. Yet this clear seperation of good versus evil seems to be unavoidable looking at the themes Keyes’ has tackled in his novels.

So concluding, this book will appeal to readers of traditional fantasy and those who took a liking to the Briar King as it more or less follows the same formula. I can imagine some people might be bothered less with the ‘tweaking’ of the plot by just taking it as the natural turn and twist of the story. The prose of Greg Keyes still manages to impress me after two novels, as it is rich and lavishy written. The pace of the novel is quite slow and barely managed to draw me in, but enough to consider picking up part three of the Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone saga, The Blood Knight. I would rate this effort:

Six and a half out of Ten

The Born Queen Coverart revealed

Amazon.com just put up the coverart for the final and fourth book of the Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone saga by Greg Keyes. I have to say that it looks exceptionally beautiful and really fits with the other artwork of the other three volumes.

Meanwhile, I am working my way through the Charnel Prince and have about 450/600 pages left so expect a review today!

It’s the year.. 2000

That is not completely true, we’re still firmly set in the year 2007. Yet I feel I have something to celebrate; yesterday I passed the total of 2000 page views! Still have difficulty to believe it because when I registered this blog less than two months ago, I never thought that I was able to write stuff that generated 2000 views in a short time. And we are not even counting RSS reads here (frankly I have no idea how many people have my blog in their rss feed reader, but let me know!).

Oh, and here is the proof:

(that best day ever stat is the result of Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist linking to my blog that day)

Next up, 10.000 page views!

My Holy Grail of Literature – on blogging and reviewing

There seems a couple of blogs raising questions about blogging and reviewing lately, this got me thinking about my basic blogging philosophy as I would like to call it. Let me first say this, I am fan of the Science Fiction and Fantasy genre, a big time fan. Simply put I love reading, especially if it takes me somewhere that sparks my imagination. You can’t really compare the ’size’ of your imagination to that of other people, but I have figured in these couple of years that if we all have an equal sized imagination- then I seem to use mine a LOT more than most people. Sometimes it flies and hovers round my head like some giant-ass cloud. It is impenetrable. What I am also guilty of is day dreaming, sometimes I even day dream while reading. Hell, I can be one of a bad guy. But as I said, the ‘fantastic’ is one my passions. This means I do dedicate many hours in week feeding that passion – if I wasn’t, why would I call it a passion anyway. Now internet and message boards come into the big picture. I love them as well, sometimes I like to think of them as one big breeding ground of recommendations for you to snatch up from the threads. Of course, it provides much more. Most important really, the first time I got in touch with some of them I found people who were as passionate about reading and fantasy as I was. And let me tell you one thing, it is great hang around people who are passionate about things – no matter what. Sometimes it can lead to a whole slur of negativity, but overall it is enlightening. Really. When I dug deeper in the genres I loved most (partly through reading all kinds of things and messages at these boards, partly by seeking out all the recommendations I could find), I was actually humbled. Humbled because I realised what kind of world there was out there – and still is – waiting for me to discover. Humbled because I thought I’d seen most of it already, but realised it was a tiny fracture of what the literature had to offer. Humbled because they were people who had at least read ten or twenty times as many novels in SFF in their spare time as I had done. And they still do. I can’t and won’t fool you into believing I am one the most experienced reader around here. Sure, I have seen my fair share of novels already, but it’s still that tiny fracture of the universe. The only the thing I can do is offer a honest opinion of how I perceived the individual piece of writing and apply my critical mindset to it. This leads me gradually to the ‘on-reviewing’ part, but let me first finish my ‘message board’ story.
After going through that first humbling experience, a urge took hold of me that can only described as ‘looking for the Holy Grail’. It’s almost like a fever, but I am pretty convinced it not contagious, most of my family do not read that much – nobody reads fantasy here anyway. But while looking for my Holy Grail of literature (which I have not found yet, and never will – it’s the journey that makes it worth it, not the gold at the end of the rainbow) I discovered the existence of blogs – or more precisely, fan-based blogs full of tiny pieces of the precious Holy Grail! Can you imagine my excitement? I could barely contain it. Even more, some of these guys who had read so much more maintained their own blogs. I am not sure how much time I spend on some of these blogs after first discovering them, but I would reckon it was way too much time. Then I figured out how to use a feed reader, so I could cope with all the new posts and was not reloading the pages every damn hour a day. That went on for nearly half a year, then something started to itch. No matter how great and interesting these blogs were, I felt I had something to say too, to add to the whole blogosphere (great word). I tried to write a couple reviews (pre-Gravel Pit) to see if I was actually capable of writing down some interesting musings – judged it was good enough (back then) and gave it a go. I have not really looked back ever since, but I have thought a couple of times about the basic philosophy for this blog. Thing I would like to achieve.

I like to write reviews a bit casually. It is like a ‘from a fan for the fan’ deal. I don’t pretend to be any professional reviewer with the grades to match, I don’t get paid for it. That being said, I do not hold any grudge against professional reviews or reviewers, I just think that most of the more valuable recommendations coming straight from the fan-based blogs are much more worth my time. So I read their reviews.
Now I write my reviews mainly because I like to read and I think it is fun to share my thoughts on a book. That alone is enough to keep me going till the end of time – because it is a passion. Also I write reviews because I like to think I am give some thing back to the genre, by exposing the works of author who I think deserve all the attention they get. I do not write reviews because of the free reviewing copies I might get from publishers. The fact that I get books for free sometimes, does not affect my judgement. If I think a book is crap, I say it and explain thoroughly why. If I think a book is great, I say it and explain thoroughly why. If I would not do that, my reviews would be pretty shitty. And that’s a thing to avoid for sure. Up until now, I have not really done any giveaways, not that I do not like to do them, but I have just never been approached by publisher with that thing in mind so far. Giveaways are a great way for getting more exposure for a specific author, but there’s downside. You have to be careful not to “sell-out”, because before you know it, your little weblog turns into nothing more than a promoting space for all different kinds of publishers. When that sort of things happens, you loose one important thing, the credibility of your opinion. And if have no credibility, then why would the opinion you offer have value to me? Just speaking hypothetically here. Would that I ever discover that my reviews have no credibility, I would pull the plug immediately. A wordpress blog can be deleted quite easily and vanish into oblivion. So giveaways are great, I really mean it, I would love to do them, but I will not let it affect my credibility, because that’s what most important to me.

Now you know what is driving me, why I do these blog reviews. The way I see it blogging is all about enthusiasm and dedication – and with that in mind, I blog away into time.

Any feedback or thoughts on the subjects I touched here, are appreciated. Congratulations on reading through my ramblings here by the way.

Already Dead by Charlie Huston (Orbit Books)

If somebody asked me to summarize the experience of reading Already Dead by the popular author Charlie Huston in just one sentence, I would probably say it is like watching the Sin City movie with its grittiness and (morbid) humor and From Dusk to Dawn back-to-back while on some speed. I have not done that myself, before you ask, but I imagine it would be like that. At least both of them have Quentin Tarantino in it, that’s saying a lot. However saying that does not give Charlie Huston’s effort enough credit, credit he clearly deserves all. So now better put it this way, if you like the a for mentioned movies, Already Dead is just made for you! And it will blow your head off, quite literary. Got your attention now? Hell yeah, fuck it, let’s meet up with that guy Joe Pitt.

Already Dead is the first of the Joe Pitt books, a series of books spanning five novels revolving around the vampire and (kind of) detective Joe Pitt. He is one of those guys who keep themselves moving – already dead – by sucking up the blood of people that surround them. Because see- Joe has been infected with the Vyrus, which turned him instead in a vampyre. Saying that is kind of fucked up, now that would be an understatement. Because, you know, there’s a little problem. That Vyrus just happens to need that damn blood to keep all the functions in the body running straight. And when it’s denied that – well then, simply put.. Hell breaks loose. And you do not want to be near that, when that happens. Except we want, us readers.
As the story kicks off, Joe Pitt is hunting down some shamblers, some random goths you have been infected with the bacteria that turns on some lust for, well.. brains. So we are talking zombies here. Or as the Society would like me to put it, VOZ’s. Victim of Zombification. And that does not make these shamblers very smart, because they are about to mess with Joe. After the messing around, Joe discovers some bite marks in the necks of now completely dead corpses. One more thing leading him on a trail to the carrier of that filthy bacteria spreading around in his neighborhood. But who the fuck wants to spread a fucking zombie disease around? Why? Joe has the find out. Even more as things get more messed up, when one the biggest, meanest vampyre clans get involved, the Coalition. And their representative, Dexter Predo, is one hell of a nasty bastard to deal with. Especially since his status of independency, Joe doesn’t give a shit about being part of the Coalition, the Society or the Enclave, is threatened to be teared down. So to keep things his way, Joe has the dance to the man’s piping for the moment and fulfills the errand they hand over to him. The daughter of a prominent New York family has gone missing, and her recent fascination for vampyres makes Joe Pitt the ideal man for the job. Damned if Joe knows things are going to be fucked, he’s determined to get the bottom of it.

Now as you probably have already figured out, this is by no means your average Interview with the Vampire story, vampires struggling with their immortal life dying poetic deaths. No this the raw, hard-boiled action in New York downtown. Welcome to the real world. That being said, there is a lot of positive things to say about this novel.
When we have flipped over the very first page, there’s already one thing we notice – the style of the prose. It is gritty, right down the bone and exactly what you want when picking up a hard-boiled book like this. Not many fancy descriptions, but very action oriented. ‘Fast’ paced is not even the right word, it’s more like adrenaline rushing. And to get back at the Anne Rice comparison, in the first few pages Joe Pitt already uttered the word fuck more than we probably will ever encounter in all Rice’s bibliography. Personally, I loved it all. It did not feel like the author was trying to hard to be cool with cool characters. The book is actually written in the present tense, which kind of surprised me at first. I guess I’m more ‘attuned’ to the past tense, a common feature in fantasy works nowadays, but this all worked out quite well. You hardly notice it after a few pages, because Charlie Huston is so busy blowing your socks off. Because like the prose, the action is raw and uncut. Combine that with the pace and you have a novel that is capable of keeping you on the edge of your seat all the time. And I mean it, this is a real page-turner. The length of the story (around the 280 pages) is long enough; would that Huston had stretched it a little longer I think I would have admitted to a feeling of satiation. The plotline is thin, not many subplots involved for that matter and is neither very complex nor engaging. It is safe to conclude that this read is – in that aspect – not too pretentious. Then again, it does not need to be, because the entertainment value of this books makes up for anything you might find less engaging. If you treat it that way, there is really no possible way you could get disappointed.
The thing I found lacking the most was the characterization of the cast – other than Joe Pitt. Even for a reader like me, who does not read too much crime related novels and more of the fantasy/science fiction works in his spare time, it was not too difficult to detect the different archetypes. Vampires from the gangs like the Society and the Coalition could well be all the same in terms of personality. Only the Enclave clan was the exception on the rule but that was more because of their typical philosophy on vampire life than outstanding characters. In addition, Evie (supposedly the girl closest to Joe Pitt) was used too much as a device to show that Joe had still a streak of humanity. Then again, we have Joe – who is quickly charging up the ranks of my most favorite characters – on who Charlie Huston did an excellent job giving him as a unique personality, creating depth without overusing emotional issues and let him just plainly kick the asses of other characters. Something he is born to do.

So like I said, treat this novel as a fun, engaging and astoundingly entertaining read and I can guarantee you that you will not be disappointed. Joe Pitt seriously kicks the asses of most other vampires that I have encountered before in this genre. What’s even better that the next novel, No Dominion, has been released already over in the US and the UK, so no need to wait. The third one, aptly titled Half The Blood Of Brooklyn, will released in december of this year. Huston promised us that it would make ‘perfect reading for the holidays’. Rating this book is going to be one tough nut to crack, mainly because I find it so hard to compare to other works I have read this year. I can’t decide whether this a solid eight or is creeping towards the nine out of ten. I do think there is some room for improvement regarding the plotlines and characterizations, so I decided to rate this book:

Eight/ Eight and a half out of Ten

Crystal Rain by Tobias S. Buckell (Tor Fantasy)

I got this novel actually because the author announced on his blog that he had some review copies of Ragamuffin for the grabs and I emailed him asking if he coincidentally had one of Crystal Rain too, as I had not read his debut. I was lucky and I was supplied with one to read. When I received the book in package from the US, it was even signed, a hardcover edition with a really gorgeous cover up close! Can you imagine how pleased I was to be able to read this debut this way, thus I cleared some space in my reading pile and dived right in.
My first impression was that Crystal Rain combines an interesting mix of post-Apocalypse elements, old school adventures and Caribbean roots all in one, delightfully refreshing package. Tobias S Buckell could really be dubbed the (Caribbean) Jules Verne of our modern age!

The story is set in the world Nanagada, a planet somewhat similar to Earth, where humans of all different cultures have settled after migrating from our mother planet. Yet there the habitants are caught up in an ancient struggle of the two distinct powerful alien species, the Teotl and Loa – and are losing that struggle. In a last and final effort the wormhole used for intergalactic access to the planet is destroyed by the humans in order to prevent aliens from further infecting Nanagada. This is done by activating a weapon that in turn completely shut downs all the advanced technology on the planet. Civilization has too start all over. Little do they know that a few of the Teotl who have managed to survive, are thriving on the planet and breeding a race (the Azteca) meant to conquer the humans and the Loa in the process.
About two hundred years later, we catch up with John deBrun, resident of the peaceful village Brungstun, who has lost all memories of the life has lead before he washed up a shore twenty odd years before. Although he has made numerous adventurous efforts, travelling all the way to Capital City and up deep into the mysterious, icy North, to find out more about his past, the details elude him still. In the aftermath of the journey North he decides to settle in Brungstun, only separated by the Wicked Highs from the Azteca lands, and builds up a family life with his wife, Shanta and his son Jerome. Just when things are starting to look good for John, everything goes horribly awry like a bolt from the blue. Nanagada is faced with the invasion of hordes of Azteca warriors and priests looking for new blood and hearts to sacrifice to their blood lusting gods and the only mysterious artifact, the Ma Wi Jung, that might be able to save them is in frozen deep in the Northern regions. Only John deBrun knows its precise coordinates and has the keys to the artifact, even if he does not know why or how.

Like I said, Buckell combines an interesting mix of different elements blended in one novel, I should however also note the steampunk fantasy elements that are present, airships are the last echo of an advanced technological past. This all to give you impression of what to expect when picking up this novel. It provides us with an extraordinary fresh background that is exciting to explore and Buckell’s Caribbean roots really shine during our first few glances at this world. The worldbuilding was one of the things that I enjoyed the most by far; Nanagada is an original, fleshed out world covered by mostly jungle (so far as we know). Forget about deserts, endless plains or brooding swamps, the jungle that is where the real action is at! The Azteca, or should I say the Aztec, especially appealed to me. It was my first time encountering these Latin-American cultures in SFF, but it felt like an instant hit. Although we only got a few glimpses through the Azteca turned mongoose Oaxyctl of this strange culture on the other side of the Wicked Highs mountains, it still added to the worldbuilding and the skirmishes of the humans and Azteca in the past managed to contribute a real ’sense’ of a history on the planet.
The chapters were kept almost peculiar short, sometimes revolving around just one meaningful scene and but this in turn resulted in an action oriented plot. The prose was very distinct as well, Buckell is admirably able to say so much with so little words and that speaks for him as a storyteller. It took me a couple of pages to get used to the style of dialogue, the sort of dialect, but when I did it almost felt natural. The prose provides us in fact with just as much information as is needed and when needed, but there remains plenty of it left for our own imagination – something I love especially in a setting like this.
The characters John deBrun and Pepper, his mysterious companion who appears to know a lot about John’s past, were I felt the most done right in terms of characterization. I should mention John’s son Jerome as well ( although only present in a couple of chapters), because I really liked the way Buckell handled the (childish) perception of the world by that kid in the chapters from his perspective. Apart from that, most of the other characters were used sadly too much as plot devices or were not too much fleshed out to feel like real living personalities. It was not so much that I did or could not empathize with them; I just think that the two were far more superior in depth and personality. Especially John’s amnesia and his struggle to find out provide us that depth.
The thing that bothered me the most were the pacing problems, increasing towards the end. Especially the last thirty – forty odd pages felt somewhat rushed, just as if Tobias Buckell wanted to make sure his novel ended well within the four hundred pages mark. The journey North by ship was a bit dragged out for my liking, even more if you compare it to the action oriented pace in which John and Oaxyctl travel through the jungle to Capital City. I think in that area there is still some room for improvement, but one mustn’t forget that this is a debut novel – a good one at that.

So rounding things up, I can only conclude that this a very good effort of a promising writer, who well could supply us with some interesting, refreshing works in the near future. For all you guys who are looking for the more refreshing approach of SFF, look no further! Tobias S. Buckell is your man! Speaking of which, he has already released his second book in Juny 2007, Ragamuffin. I will certainly give it a go as well, as the story is picked up where it left off in Crystal Rain. This one is really hard to rate, I am somewhat thinking around a solid seven and a half mark up to the eight out of ten, so that is it going to be for now:

Seven and a half/Eight out of Ten

“The Changing of the Guard” series of articles

This is developing in quite a chain of responding posts. For all you you have missed all it, it went like this:
Over at SFFworld, Aidan Moher (owner of A Dribble of Ink) struck a deal with the guys there, to publish three articles on “Changing of the Guard”, articles in which the most notable newcomers in fantasy would be featured. These can read here part 1 and and Aidan published them over at his blog here part 1 and here part 2. The third is already in the making.
Now these article, especially the first one, was received with some mixed feelings over at SFFworld. Personally I think the two articles are great and interesting, although the titles maybe adds to the confusion, since I think we are not really talking of changing of the guard, more like adding more guards to the staff!
But now, Pat of the well known Fantasy Hotlist has jumped on the bandwagon, and has added his two cents or dollars more like, over at his blog. Now that makes up for interesting reading. In response Aidan posted his reaction over at his blog, which gives a bit more insight in the whole articles. That was not the only response as Larry, OF-Blog reviewer, added his two dollars over at his blog. Having read all the stuff written by some of the well known bloggers in the fantasy blogosphere, things are increasingly getting more interesting. Be sure to check out all the links (yeah, I know they are a lot, but it’s well worth your time). Oh, and don’t forget to check out my review of Twilight Falling just below, since you arrived here anyway. ;)

Update of Friday, the 17th of August: Andrew Wheeler just added his two cents as well! Go browse here if you want to find out!

Twilight Falling by Paul S Kemp (Wizards of the Coast)

Let me first state that Twilight Falling is actually part of a trilogy and is based in a so-called shared world, the Forgotten Realms setting in this matter. The Forgotten Realms setting originally started off as a Dungeon & Dragons campaign, a fantasy roleplaying game. The popularity of the Drizzt book by R.A. Salvatore set in the same universe as the D&D campaign actually boosted this success. After that initial success many different authors of the Wizards of the Coast brand tried their hand on writing stories mostly set on the continent Faerûn, where this story by Paul S Kemp takes place as well. For all of you that wonder, if have not read so much of the Forgotten Realms novels, apart from the first two Drizzt books (Homeland and Exile). The two Drizzt novels also took place under the ground, the Menzoberran setting and not so much on the surface like this novel, so this is my first time of really immerging myself in this shared world setting. This also means that I am not yet fully capable of judging how much of the elements used in the books are actually ‘Forgotten Realms cliches’ or are generally overused in the series. Therefore when I will review this work later on, I try to take this work as an individual piece of writing, part of three books that just happens to have a shared world setting rather than a work part of the entire Forgotten Realms heritage.
For all you who have not heard of Paul S Kemp before, he lives in Grosse Point, Michigan with his wife and two sons (twins), a dog and four cats! He is a graduate of the University of Michigan – Dearborn and the University of Michigan law school. When his mind is not wandering in the Forgotten Realms worlds, he practices corporate law in Detroit. If you wish to encounter him on fantasy message boards from time to time, you can catch him over fantasybookspot.com (link to the left side of your screen) or you can catch him over at his livejournal blog (link to the right side of your screen filled under ‘author blogs’). Right enough author pimping, let us explore this piece of work a bit deeper!

Twilight Falling is the tale of Erevis Cale, former assassin and wanted man. After a clash with a demon from the other world, Cale has only his new found devotion to Mask, patron of thieves and shadows, to hold on to. He serves as a butler in the house hold of the Uskevren nobles, but after evil forces in search of a mysterious artifact violate his home, he reverts to his old ways and has but one thing on his mind. Revenge. Yet the forces are too powerful to take own all alone, so Cale partners up with Jak, his halfling friend, and Riven, (former) rival and fellow assassin. Together the three must prevent that the artifact falls into the hands of Vraggen, a shadow adept and his band of mercenaries, because he plans to gain immortality by using the sphere to summon a Fane of Shadow. This Fane of Shadow only manifests itself infrequently on random places, but within lies great powers if one is to gain access to them.

Now I know this sounds like your typical dark fantasy storyline, but Paul S Kemp has enough twists and turns up his sleeve to make this all very interesting enough. In fact, the story is so fast paced, with nearly no soft spots, that it is keeping you as a reader on the edge of your seat all the time. The plot is full of action, featuring most notably the interesting confrontations of Erevis and his friends versus Vraggen and his band. Especially these scenes I found where the most fascinating, because that is where the author excels. The short but vicious dialogues and the particular choice of words getting the reader right back in the action all add to the suspense. The set up is not too pretentious, no overly long descrition of characters, their surroundings or multiple storylines supposedly adding to the vast scope, this is a story told straight to your face. There are some minor flaws discernable, mainly that the story is sometimes a bit too linear for my liking and thus making it in some instances a bit predictable. On the flipside this also speeds the pace considerably, because there are but two sides of the conflict. Also, in some scenes the presence of magic was a bit overused resulting in what almost felt like the use of a deus ex machina. The ‘evil side’ of the conflict, Vraggen and his mercenaries where not too challenging to read about, not very original in their ‘evilness’. This unlike Erevis Cale, who was refreshingly well written for a protagonist and the main ‘hero’ of the story. He is sort of the gray character, struggling between doing what his principles tell him to do and doing what is sometimes necessary to reach the goals he set himself. The inner struggle I found was particular interesting and added to the depth of the character. Also, his new found devotion to the mysterious patron Mask and the sort of rivalry between Erevis and Riven for his god’s favor plays a minor part, but exciting part in the plot. I would reckon we will learn more of it as the storyline progresses.

Overall, I think the positive points I mentioned really did make up for the minor flaws of the novel. The plot is packed full of action, more than enough to keep you interested right till the end. It is a bit of a linear, unpretentious read but nonetheless exceedingly fun to read. You could do much worse than picking up this installment of Paul S Kemp. In addition, Twilight Falling is a short novel around the 300 pages in paperback format, which means you can easily finish it in six hours of reading. After reading this I would not be surprised if Paul S Kemp is to be considered one of the top fantasy authors of the Wizard of the Coasts brand. If you want to read a bit more of Erevis Cale’s background, you could pick up The Halls of Stormweather, which goes more into detail of Erevis’ past or you could just move on to Dawn of Night, part two of the Erevis Cale trilogy! I know I will. I would rate this effort a solid:

Eight out of Ten