Epic

Ok so I have FINALLY started to catch up on my reading.  After apx 200 hours spent on an ambulance or in a fire station I desperately needed the reading time.  One of the books that got me through the epic shift of crazy was Epic: Legends of Fantasy edited by John Joseph Adams.  It is a short story collection featuring authors who have set these stories in their previously written epic, sweeping worlds and it hit the spot. Here are a few of my favorite.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

 Homecoming by Robin Hobb - I was totally stoked to see the first story was by one of my current favorite authors AND set in my favorite world that this author writes in.  The story is a pre-qual to her Rain Wilds world and gives readers of her books a bit of a glimpse into how this harsh land was settled.  The author brings her signature in depth characters and an amazing ability to paint a world that feels real and complete with out over explaining things.

The Alchemist by Paolo Bacciglupi - This was a complete story with a beginning, middle and end...which is usually very hard to do in a short story format.  The story is about a man who risks everything to save his small family.  When he comes up with a solution to save his world, it is taken by the government and used to control what is left of the population.  The world was inventive and complete, the characters detailed and realistic and the story was both entertaining and nuanced.  I loved every page of this story and am now inspired to pick up a book by this guy as I have never read him before...I love it when that happens.

The Road to Levinshire by Patrick Rothfuss - This story set in a world I now want to go read about is both sad and very very good.  It shows what happens when people make assumptions, especially about whole groups of people.  There is trauma, violence and hopefully a change of thinking when a man goes through some pretty extreme measures to change peoples perspective on pre conceived notions.  This is a story of ideas, which I always find the short story format is perfect for.  This is another author I am now going to look up.

Bound Man by Mary Robinette Kowal - Two different worlds and two different times define this story.  A warrior woman is called from her time and world against her will by a man who considers her a god.  She goes through many emotions trying to figure out why everything happened the way it did.  I love stories like this that essentially turn inside out on themselves.  The contrast between the two characters, what they knew and how they felt about the current situation made for plenty to think about and was a fantastic read.

The Mystery Knight by George R. R. Martin - At this point I am sure the majority of fantasy fans have at least heard of The Song of Ice and Fire series and this entry into that universe is pretty much perfect.  It sets the story in a bit of history of the world of the Seven Kingdoms, but it is not required for a person to have read the series to enjoy it.  It is the quintessential jousting tournament/wedding/knights tale that seems to be the basis for what one would consider "classical" fantasy and it delivers every bit of castlely goodness one could want.

One of my favorite things about this collection was actually the introduction that FINALLY summed up what it is that I love about epic fantasy...seriously go read it.  The only real flaw I could come up with is that several of these stories...while they can be read and enjoyed by anybody...probably are most fully appreciated if the reader has read other books that set up the world the stories are set in...does that make any sense at all?  Anyways, this collection lived up to it's promise of EPIC.  I loved the stories set in the worlds I know and now have a couple of new authors to look up.  I give this collection 7 out of 10 demonic swords and recommend it to anybody who loves a well built world and epic fantasy!  Happy Reading Everybody!

World Story Character

I'm sure I've done a similar post before, but bear with me.  In my eternal quest to try and describe to other people what I like in a book, I think I have narrowed it down to three essential things; World building, story and character.

World Building - For me this is huge, a book that makes me believe in the world I am reading is 50% there in getting me to love the book/series.  This tends to be more essential in books set in fictional worlds, or alternate worlds, but to some degree it is important regardless of the book.  The only time I will give world building a pass is in short stories 'cause they tend to be more about the story and/or character.  A world with parameter's, rules, space, traditions, history, and structure make a place in my head I can go to, even when I am not reading the book.  I find a lot of the books I have the most issues are the ones that skip over plausible world building for the sake of a concept.

Story - A good story is essential to a good book.  I love original stories, twists on old stories and to be honest I even love an old tried and true story as long as it is written well.  With story my only request is that it be well written, to me this means a clear story that goes somewhere, one that does not rely on completely unrealistic happenstances to resolve a sticky issue, and one that does not abruptly end in a haze of sudden departure from the rest of the book.  The stories I have the most trouble with are the ones that over describe everything, ones that meander to the point your not sure what is going on, and ones that rely on a randomly introduced element to wrap things up.  I love surprises, twist endings, and a really solid story.

Character - I love a good character.  I have finished many a book that is not the best based solely on the strength of at least one of it's characters.  In a lot of my older books, my favorite characters tend to be side characters or the villains.  The main characters in these books tend to be fairly straight forward good guys without to many interesting tidbits, but the side character are pretty cool.  Modern books (or at least the ones I like to read) tend to have a wider variety of characters, making the leads more flawed and diverse and utilizing various types of relationships to further define their characters.  I don't mind stereotypical characters as much as some people do, as long as the characters act according to who they are (does that make sense?).  My biggest character pet peeve is when the character acts one way through out the whole book, and then makes some weirdly random decision for no other reason then to further the story.

All three of these things are not needed to make a readable book. Most books can usually hit at least one of these criteria to an acceptable degree.  Good books get two of these and on the rare occasion the best books manage to incorporate all three.   In fact several of my favorite books usually get only two of these taken care of really well.  Oddly enough concept is one of the things I find non-essential in books, I will take a well written, tried and true, solid story over a wildly original, yet poorly executed concept.  Too many times I find world building, story and character development is sacrificed to try and get a concept across.  So there you have it, when I am trying to describe what I love in a book, it is gonna be one or more of these three things.

What is the most important component of a book for you?  Are their important components that I missed?  Are you sick of me trying to continually find the words to describe my feelings on books?

I Have Purple Hair

So the title of this post actually has absolutist nothing to do with the post, but I couldn't think of a good title, so there you go (Oh but I actually do now have purple hair and it is AWESOME!).   I have FINALLY finished reading Jack Glass by Adam Roberts.  It took me a while to get through it, not because it was bad (it was excellent), but because it has to be one of the densest (in a good way) books I have read in a long time.  What the heck do I mean? you may ask...well read on and I will tell you.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

This will not be a detailed synopsis as all of the myriad details are too hard to keep straight in just a couple of paragraphs, but I will try and give you enough to get the gist of the book.  This is a hard core Science Fiction book broken up into three parts, which I shall go through one by one. We learn right off the bat that the main character in this book, Jack Glass is responsible for all the murders that we will read about...we just don't know how or why.  Our job is to read and try and figure these two questions out.
Part I-In the Box

This is the weirdest of all three parts, it has a much different feel then the rest of the book, but I will get to that in a moment.  In the future, certain prisoners receive an 11 year prison term in which a group called the Gongsi use the prisoners to hollow out and make habitable various asteroids.  A team of seven prisoners and a minimum of survival gear are placed in a small hollow and sealed in.  They then have 11 years to try and survive while making the place habitable and salable.  At the end of 11 years the Gongsi will come and pick up any survivors and they will be free to go.  The seven that are placed in this particular asteroid include the notorious Jack Glass who has been accidentally misidentified as a lesser criminal.  Much scientific theory, economic perusal and of course prison stuff occur through out this story.  The seven men carve out a menial living before starting to turn on each other.  In the end Jack kills the remaining prisoners with a glass knife (hence the name Jack Glass) and ingeniously uses the bodies to make himself a sort of morbid space suit to escape in.  I know this sounds sick and twisted (and in some ways it is) but it is mostly fascinating.
Part II-The FTL Murders
This is a whoddunit type of story in which we are introduced to the future of the Argent clan, the teenage sisters Diana and Eve.  The girls, along with their bodyguards, servants, and tutor Iago have all come to Earth to get used to gravity before Diana's big 16th birthday party.  The girls and their crew live in what they call upland in zero-g so Earths gravity is very very oppressive and debilitating.  Right off the bat a servant is murdered and Diana (who loves to solve mystery's) is put in charge of solving the case (with the sanctioned help of the local police)  We go through several clues and Diana deduces who the killer is in a fairly straight forward manner.  This however is just a small piece of a larger mystery as she soon discovers.  Her and her sister are attacked by the Ulanovs (who are the ruling family) in a bid to take them down before they can start a revolution...I know a bit confusing.  Diana discovers that the murder of the servant and the subsequent solving of the case was actually a set up by her tutor Iago (who is of course Jack Glass in disguise) as a birthday present/test to see if she was ready to lead her family.  Diana decides to trust Iago and runs away with him and the servant Sapho (who was the murderer, but had good cause because the murder victim was trying to rape her).  They head out to the bubble towns of space to hide with the trillions of people who inhabit them.
Part III-The Impossible Gun
This is a more direct continuation of the second story in which Diana, Iago (Jack Glass) and Sapho tell a story backwards.  We start by Jack and Diana bringing a robot to a friend to ensure that the data on it is not corrupted.  After they verify it's completeness they take us back to why the information is so important.  Jack takes the two girls to his own bubble home for safe keeping.  On the way he tells Diana that they have located her sister Eve and that she is safe, Diana is even able to talk with via encrypted channels.  They

arrive at Jacks supposedly unfindable home bubble and proceed to try and formulate a plan.  Alas they are found by a police cruiser carrying the famous police man Bar-le-duc who wants to bring in Jack Glass and gain the reward.  Jack makes a deal witnessed by the above mentioned robot to come peacefully if he lets Diana and Sapho go.  Bar-le-duc agrees and comes down to the bubble to get Jack.  While this exchange happens Bar-le-duc gets himself vaporized by some unknown super weapon.  This sets off a closed room mystery...which the solution to is kind of cheating, but still ends up ok.   We find out that Eva (Diana's sister)is the one who orchestrated the whole downfall of the clan in return for being named head of the Argent clan.  The story ends with Jack declaring his love for Diana as his reason for being willing to trade himself for her freedom.  Diana gently reply's that she does not return his love, and goes on her way.  The servant Sapho stays with Jack and is the one who writes his story.  The End.

I realize that this bare bones synopsis seems a little chintzy, but it is really the best I can do.  I have read other reviews of this book and I am not the only one who is having trouble putting into words my feelings on it.  I loved it, it was rich and dense and at time humorous,  and at times gory and at times horrifying and at times well almost everything.  The author amazingly puts together an old time whodunit type story with a truly hard core Science Fiction story with a bit of a love story a political story and an incredible ability to build this future world.  I kept thinking I was going to get bored with it because it is a heavy read, which is to say there are some very advanced scientific, economic and political concepts liberally sprinkled through out the book, but the author always manages to mix it in with a very readable story.  There were several times where I had to stop and put the book down to digest and think through some concepts introduced because the more I

thought about them the better sense they made and would make my poor little brain go down so many cool rabbit trails.  The author also makes several nods to a ton of different books and authors that add even more flavor to this already full book. I am so used to zipping through books in a couple days it was really nice to read a book that took some effort (in a good way), that I actually had to do some thinking and take my time.  I was initially worried that this "critically acclaimed" book would turn out to be a pretentious slog, but I was so wonderfully surprised.  In my little opinion, this is how your write a smart book, this book does not talk down to the reader, does not expect the reader to have a Phd in astrophysics, nor does it over simplify or ignore laws of physics.  I know this is a super all over the place ramble, but this book was just really awesome in a completely indescribable way.  This book is not for everybody, if you are looking for a light beach read, or a quick space opera this is not the book you are looking for.  This is a book if you are looking to be a wee bit challenged, or want to feel smart, or are just looking for a great SciFi book, then go pick this one up.  I give it 8 out of 10 FTL drives.
What was the last book you were surprised by?  How do you describe a book that seems one thing but once you ready is something completely different? How much do you wish I could write a coherent post?

Words And Worlds

I have been in the middle of several books for a while now and was just thinking what it is that makes me fall in love with a book.  I love books that immerse you into their world, when I get into a book and look up and it is hours later and I don't know where I am, that my friends is a good book.  Many things go into making a book unputdownable (I should make my own dictionary of my reading words).  Plot, characterization, sheer horror at  the unimaginable mess the author is making (seriously bad books can be perversely entertaining, but more on that in another post).  One thing to me that can sometimes trump almost everything else is world building.  No matter what genre you are writing in, building a world a reader can mentally inhabit is key.  Here are just a few of book/series that can make me believe I am somewhere else.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship of Her Own Making-This book is just spectacular in it's world building.  Not only because the author is not afraid to use big words, but because of the sheer imagination behind it. The problem that many authors fall into when trying to make a imaginary world of this scale is that they get overly descriptive, but since words are an actual part of this stunning world, it works to its advantage.  I know for a fact that the author did a fantastic job on creating a world people can get into when my two young nephews, to whom I was reading parts of it too, started incorporating pieces of the fairy world into their games.  The world in this book, even just a few pages here and their made enough impression on these guys that they kept it in their heads.  This is a book I go back to whenever I want to go back to that place where I lived when I was a little kid, you know the one where anything is possible and you can think of an explanation for anything.

The Harper Hall Trilogy- Any book set in the Pern series...heck any book written by Anne McCaffrey in general has the most amazing ability to make your forget that these places are not real.  The Harper Hall trilogy in particular has always fully immersed me into this weirdly non-magical yet entirely fantastical, but also sci-fi world.  My favorite part about the world building in the Harper Hall books is that it gives you a glimpse of everyday life.  Instead of telling us every detail about this world, you learn about customs, rituals, food, jobs, family units, language and all that just through watching these people live a normal life.  By the time I was done with these books, I had a hard time looking around me in the "real" world and realizing that the one I had just finished reading about, did not actually exist.

The Night Circus-This book was effective for almost the exact opposite reason that the Pern books are.  This book was as fantastical as they come.  The author used an unusual technique of blending pure descriptive passages of the various circus acts and places with little personal vignettes and the occasional crossing of the two.  The real power in these descriptive passages was two-fold.  One, it felt more like you were being shown these amazing acts and attractions instead of just a rote recitation. Two, more then just words seemed to be used, I could actually smell the slight burn of the carmel used in the carmel corn, I could see my breath in the Ice Garden,  I wanted to see how high I could climb in the Cloud attraction. I could feel the texture of the fabrics, feel the heat from the central bonfire, hear the birdsong more then just reading, it was experiencing the words.  The way this was written really engaged you to use all of your senses, making it a shock when you finally came up for air that you were not actually there.  All of this was so fantastical that I knew it could never really exist without magic, but still...

Harry Potter Series-The strength of world building in this insanely popular series comes from the way J.K. Rowling uses three perspectives to show us this combo fantasy/contemporary world.  We get to see the wizarding world through Harry's eyes, and as he has never been a part of it, or even knew of it's existence it gives the reader a chance to learn along with him.  Our own dreary world that us readers think we know so well is shown through Ron's perspective, showing us as Muggles and even pointing out a type of "magic" that the wizarding world does not possess (think electricity and cars).  Then we have Hermione who is kind of the translator between both worlds, she was raised a mundane Muggle, but has known and studied the wizarding world.  She is our link between these two different worlds and helps Harry and Ron and subsequently the reader learn all about, well pretty much everything in a way that makes everything so very very very real.

Stardust-Here is another book that contrasts our world with a fantastical parallel one. Neil Gaiman to me has always had a way with filling his fantasy world with the most amazing details.  This book in particular has some great little gems.  To me the best part was the description of the Fair on the other side of The Wall.  I have not wanted to just wander around a place so bad in a long time.  This is a place you feel like you could explore forever and not once be bored.  Utilizing a wide variety of places, from a Victorian village, to a flying ship (I need me one of those so bad!) to an a palace on top of a mountain.  This world of Stormhold will constantly surprise and delight you.  I have read the book as both a plain paperback and as an illustrated book (by Charles Vess) both of them are wonderful and while the illustrations are amazing and awesome and I love them, they are not needed to complete the world the author has created.

I could go on and on, I can think of several other books and authors who do just as good a job with world building, but I want to go finish what I am reading now, so maybe I will do a follow-up post later with some of my other favorite worlds.

Which book/series/author do you think does the best job in creating a world?  How essential is a well-built world to your reading enjoyment?  Do you ever spend more time thinking about the world you just left in the book then you do your real life?  

A Thorny Problem

I am not one hundred percent sure why I picked up Champion of the Rose this time around.  I know why I had it in my stack, I had read a couple of reviews that had some intriguing concepts in it, but for some reason I did not expect to like it that much.  Shows how much I know because I really enjoyed this book.  I was in desperate need of a true fantasy book with magic and elves and all that good stuff and this fit the bill in an unexpected way.  It is full of magic and the Fair Folk, but there is so much more to this world then fairy tale trope.

The story is about Soren who has been chosen to be the Champion of the current ruling monarch...the only problem is that there is no King or Queen, and has not been in close to 200 years.  In Tor Darest the fictional country where our story is set, the set-up is a bit unusual.  The beginnings of the country started when the Queen of the Fae gifted the land that became Darest to Domina Rathen a powerful mage who in turn placed a powerful enchantment over her whole future lineage and the country itself.  The enchantment manifested in the form of The Rathen Rose and it's job was to pick a person who was most suitable to
become whatever the current ruler needed most, protector, lover, advisor, parental figure, it varied from ruler to ruler.  The Rathen Rose would do whatever it could to protect the Rathen line.  Eventually the Rathen line died out and the country has been held by the Reagent's who while powerful mages themselves can never wield the true power that a Rathen can.  This is the state of the kingdom when a blooming rose is discovered on the vine for the first time in centuries and Soren sets of to find her king or queen.  She eventually stumbles upon a man called Strake who it turns out has been caught in some sort of time phase thingy which eventually makes some sort of sense and has now returned 200 years later.  On their way back to the palace the Rose takes over both Soren and Strake and forces them into an act which results in Soren being impregnated with Strake's child.  This understandably causes no end of tension between the two, with Strake not able to separate Soren from the Rose that perpetrated this pretty awful act.  Meanwhile a killer from the past seems to have followed Strake through time and is now

hunting him again.  Soren and Strake return to the palace and immediately try to set things to right.  Many court games are played, and Strake tries to find a way to end the enchantment of the Rose.  Unfortunately they discover that any move against the Rose would probably end in Soren and her unborn child's death so they decide to try and find a different way.  Meanwhile they hunt and try and find out more about this mysterious killer who can appear and disappear, who uses razor claws to dismember victims and who has the appearance of a you Fae boy.  A council of the Fair and Humans is called and surprisingly we get some straight forward answers...which I will not reveal (don't you love how sometimes I spoil everything, and others I make you go read for yourself, I'm fickle that way) and all seems to be going right...until an assassination attempt on Strakes life from a very unlikely source happens (which actually did take me by surprise which was cool).  This provokes the Rose into taking over Soren again and she has had enough of being controlled.  She convinces Strake that they need to destroy the enchantment once and for all so that nobody else including their unborn child can be controlled.  The ending is quick and I will let you read it for yourself.

OK so this sounds like a pretty typical fantasyish story and it is, but there are a couple things the author did that I really liked.  The main thing was the world she built felt very complete.  There were traditions, religions,  taboos, commerce, festivals everything that a society of that time period would have...with what I think is an awesome twist.  Genders are completely...hmmm I'm not quit sure how to put it...fluid is the only word I can think of.  The author treats both genders completely equally, not giving dominance to males or females and relationships in the world are fluid as well, with both genders loving across all boundaries equally,
male/female, male/male, female/female.  It is not unusual for a person to be with a male lover and then later a female in fact tri-bonding is a common way for two females and a male or two males and a female who all love each other equally to form a type of family and enable the birth of children.  The best part was that this was not a big deal at all, it is just the way things are, nobody is gay or lesbian or bi, they just love each other regardless. Now I know this is not every body's cup of tea, which is totally valid, I just thought it made this world even more unique and different from our own, just one more way to not make it Medieval England with faeries.  I also like how the author played with our assumptions and would turn even little things around on you in the blink of an eye.  I personally did not care for the ending, it happened very quickly and a little to neatly/happily ever after for my taste.  It was like she thought she might write a sequel so she did not answer every question (which is fine), but she wasn't sure if she would get around to it so she gave it a complete ending just in case.  This is one of my pet peeves is when you read this great book and then the last 20 pages are just a quick "oh crap I have to finish this somehow um yeah here ya go".  The author also has a couple of favorite words that get old very

quickly (seriously if somebody shutters their eyes one more time!) and the reconciliation between Strake and Soren was a little quick/forced but other then that I enjoyed it.  I have heard a lot of mixed opinions on the event at the beginning of the book the leads to Soren's impregnation and a lot of people have called it a rape that the Rose forced Soren to do to Strake, but when I read it, it seemed the Rose took over both parties and the reason it was marginally worse for Strake (even though it was Soren who has to carry, give birth and raise a a baby) was that he could struggle enough against the Rose to be more aware of what was happening, while Soren was completely blanked out by the Rose.  Read it for yourself and let me know what you think on that particular matter.  Over all I would recommend this book for the over 15 crowd, I found it thought provoking and fairly well written and well worth the read.  I will be looking for another book from this author to see if she continues writing in this thoughtful manner.

What do you think of forced pairings as a plot device?  How do you feel about gender fluidity on worlds that are not supposed to be Earth?  Are you starting to get why I call these ramblings?