Adrian Collins's Blog, page 213

REVIEW: Dispel Illusion by Mark Lawrence

“Sometimes being wrong is the right answer.” That’s a great lead on the blurb for this book, and only makes sense after the experience has completed. Dispel Illusion is the third and final installation of the Impossible Times trilogy, and it truly brings everything full circle.

I reviewed Book One, One Word Kill and Book Two, Limited Wish last year at Grimdark Magazine. I was blown away by how Lawrence pulled me into the story and kept surprising me throughout. Book Three is no different, and I simply had to read it and line it up on the site behind the others.

Dispel Illusion takes us and our characters some six years forward from where we left off in Limited Wish. No, we haven’t shifted in time; that’s just how long it’s passed since the conclusion of Book Two. Our heroes have all “grown up” and started careers, though they still get together periodically to play their Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Mia is the Dungeon Master. John and Simon are the stalwart companions to our main protagonist, Nick, who is also once again the narrator of our tale.

Nick’s cancer seems to be gone. The time hammer used in Book Two seems to have “fixed” the timeline and they’ve avoided paradox. Nick and Mia are together, with the teen angst which plagued them at the beginning of their relationship lost in the past. Nick is working in a science lab, continuing on his quest to invent time travel, as his future self came back to tell him he would.

All’s great, or so it seems at first. But we soon learn that Nick and his friends are closing in on the time where it all started, or will start. Mia’s future accident, which prompted Nick to go “back” to fix her, is coming. There are many things that have to happen before they get there, such as creating a way to actually travel back in time.

Then a major discovery happens, and Nick is called in. A breakthrough in suspending time and moving forward has them all excited. Then his sponsor reveals a hidden cavern where more than a hundred people are suspended in time, presumably on their way “back” in time. What does all this mean? Nick has to puzzle that out, and with the help of his close friends, make sure everything stays on course.

This book shifts a little more than the first two, in that while we start out in 1992, we soon get point of view chapters from years down the line, 2009 and 2011. It’s all coming together, and the events of these different years tie it up as we connect the dots. As with the first two books, our party’s D&D adventures run parallel, with yet another new theme being applied in the game and translating beautifully into the present/past/future narratives. Dispel Illusion is a powerful spell in D&D, much more complicated in its application than its name implies. But as things often are, the name of the spell is also the function. Nick just has to decide when to use it, when to break through the perceptions of what is real and work out the implications of knowing the truth.

I won’t give away how it all comes together, but I was pulled in even more as the story unfolded and these different storylines came to one. Things aren’t always as they seem, and Lawrence is a master at obfuscating and then dropping the reveal with perfect timing. Dispel Illusion was every bit as satisfying as the first two books in the series and brought the trilogy to the perfect spot to complete a grand story as they link together over time. Of course, time.

Buy Limited Wish by Mark Lawrence

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REVIEW: Child of the Night Guild by Andy Peloquin

Young adult novels and grimdark are not something I normally associate. However, teenagers love grimdark. It is where a large percentage of us fantasy fans start questioning our assumptions about good guys, bad guys, and the way the world works. Indeed, my own teenage years started my love with the genre through games like Vampire: The Masquerade and Warhammer 40K. I bring this up because Child of the Night Guild is both a YA novel as well as grimdark.

Viola (later Seven and Ilanna) is a young girl sold by her debt-ridden father to the local criminal syndicate in the port city of Praamis. The Night Guild takes these children and educates them in the professional arts of assassination, burglary, pick-pocketing, and other skills. The training is so demanding that by the end of it they are equal parts criminal as well as ninja. I really liked this as it explains how a classic Dungeons and Dragons thief might be created.

Viola’s transformation is something that includes a strong character arc as she shreds her previous attachments. She has a romanticized view of her father and family that gradually slips away as she comes to blame him for her situation. Ilanna hates the Night Guild and wants to extricate herself from it but by the time she finally has the chance, it dawns on her that there’s nothing waiting for her outside of it nor does she have anything in common with “regular” citizens.

Ilanna’s journey is really a kind of inverse version of Harry Potter’s as she grows from an idealistic and kind-hearted young woman to a ruthless cynic that hates her peers as well as looks out for herself. Ilanna never loses the reader’s sympathies, though sometimes you wish she’d just learn to accept her circumstances versus always trying to look for a way out of the guild.

The characters are well-realized and well-written with almost all of them having different dreams that have become sublimated to their guild’s service. While set in a fantasy setting with a massive underground tunnel network to house the Night Guild, this is Low Fantasy with no sign of magic being a real thing. This helps keep the world grounded and when Ilanna suffers injuries, they often take weeks of healing as well as leave lasting scars.

We get a sense of what the Night Guild’s members are about. They are divided by houses with some of them specializing in murder and others in thievery. Andy Peloquin avoids painting the assassins as the bad guys and the thieves as the good guys. Each of the members are individuals and some hate Ilanna while others are protective of her but none of this necessarily correlates to her feelings. It keeps things surprising and the fates of a few took me by surprise as they broke the “rules” of most Young Adult fiction.

Child of the Night Guild is an introduction to a new world and something that I immediately set out to read the second volume of. The focus on the characterization, moral ambiguity of the setting, and grittiness is something that turns what could have been a straight coming of age novel into something special. I think grimdark fans looking for an afternoon’s read could do a lot worse than picking this one up. Andy Peloquin, I predict, is going to become known as one of the better indie dark fantasy writers out there.

Buy Child of the Night Guild by Andy Peloquin

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REVIEW: Home Fires by Gene Wolfe

Whatever dystopias the late Gene Wolfe may have written, it is perhaps fairer to say that he was more invested in investigating the state of the personality of his characters. We may track this in his novel of 2010, Home Fires.

A young man (Skip Grison) and a young woman (Chelle Blue) marry (‘Contract’), then she goes off to war on another planet, knowing the time dilation will mean that what were months for her will be years for him. Unlike a similar premise in Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War, this is all part of the plan: she will come back to a rich husband; he will have a beautiful young wife.

The book picks up on the action as Chelle is due to return to earth, though we see the events of the plot almost exclusively from the point of view of Skip, who is now a wealthy lawyer of forty-nine years.

There are two forces behind the developing plot. The first is the motivations of Skip and Chelle and their tumultuous reunion. The reader is probably unsurprised stories of a veteran returning inevitably changed by war. But Skip has secrets of his own and his perspective conceals as much as it reveals.

The second lies in the world of Home Fires – which has many of the trappings of technological and social progress seen in something like Star Trek. Bullet trains are an ordinary fact of life. Cruises take place on fibreglass sailing ships. Healthcare appears to be both universal and free. Marriages seem to have been replaced by contracts. The United States has been replaced by the North American Union; the currency is the Nora; Hispanic culture seems to have a higher profile than the modern day US. Gun control laws also appear to be stricter.

This background – and Skip’s view of it as a criminal lawyer – is oddly isolated from the action of the plot itself, which is set largely aboard a cruise ship. The separation of the cast from many of the workings of society echoes the unfamiliarity of the veteran with civilian life – as well as regulating the quantity of exposition the reader must consume. Like Chelle, we are reliant on Skip for our understanding of the world and our place in this society.

Yet by the end of the book it is clear that Skip is used to creating defences for the accused – has he been defending himself all along, spinning a trail of motivated reasoning? It’s difficult to know, but dipping inside the world of slick lawyers, isolated veterans and futuristic tall ships is subtly and pervasively unsettling.

I can thoroughly recommend Home Fires, both in its own right and as an entry point for the works of Gene Wolfe.

Buy Home Fires by Gene Wolfe

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An Interview with Alicia Wanstall-Burke

G’day Grimmies! I’m here today with one of my favorite Aussies—Alicia Wanstall-Burke.

Now, if you aren’t familiar with Alicia’s work—it’s ok.  She is still fairly new to the scene; however, she has been stirring more than a little buzz with her book Blood of Heirs which is a current SPFBO (Self Published Fantasy Blog Off) finalist. Book two (which until recently I thought was called Legacy of Goats, I kid, I kid—oops, did it again. OK, I’m done) Legacy of Ghosts was just recently released and has been well reviewed.

[TS] Alicia, thanks for stopping by!

[AWB] Hey mate! No worries!

[TS] First off, congrats on making the finals of the SPFBO.  I think the last few years the Aussie women have been really making their mark on the fantasy scene.  I’ve been a big fan of Lian Hearn (Across the Nightingale Floor) since like forever, but I’ve enjoyed watching the likes of you, Sam Hawke, and Devin Madson lighting up the scene.

Do you think that living in the unique environment that Australia offers lends itself to the kind of thinking necessary to write darker fantasy, and why or why not?

[AWB] Short answer—yes, absolutely! Australia is inherently terrifying, even to people who live there. We also get a bit of a kick out of scaring the pants off our foreign friends, but that’s how you know we love you! I’d say the worst thing about the place is the isolation. No one can hear you scream out there. Then there’s the landscape, the animals, the weather—all completely uncontrollable and untamable. They almost become a character of their own in the narrative of home. The other thing is, there isn’t a great deal of fantasy in the mainstream (that I know of) that uses Australia as the foundation for its worldbuilding, so it tends to stand out as strange and otherworldly, which again can be scary in and of itself. I haven’t even mentioned the spider and the drop bears and the snakes yet…

[TS] As you recently moved to the UK, I have to ask:  How does the writing scene differ from Australia to England? And what is the craziest thing that you have encountered that you are having trouble wrapping your head around?

[AWB] Writers in Australia are horribly isolated 90% of the time, which is probably a good thing. Large concentrations of Australian writers tend to cause damage to the fabric of space-time. I lived in Central Queensland, in a town about two hours drive from the nearest coast, 12 hours drive from the nearest capital city, and that’s not even that isolated compared to where some people live. What it means is that we hang out with other Aussie authors on social media, then end up meeting in, I don’t know, Dublin at a WorldCon (hey, Sam and Devin!). Industry contacts tend to be based in the US and the UK too, and for self-publishers there are all sorts of bullshit restrictions within Amazon that we have to navigate.

As for completely mental things in the UK, I’ve almost mastered driving here (these people are deadly behind the wheel), but the fucking seagulls here are HUGE! And vicious! I’ve met sharks that are more polite than these pale, hook-beaked Pteranodons.

[TS] What would you say is the most influential fantasy book written in the last 10 years, and why?

[AWB] Depends if you’re looking at global impact or just within our little genre pocket. I’m going to go with a cliché and say that A Song of Ice and Fire is my pick, but let me try and explain. The books are one thing (some of them falling outside the ten-year time frame), but the show was something else entirely. Say what you will about the creative choices made there and the long release periods between books, but the series as a whole took our genre and shoved it all the way down the mainstream’s throat.

For the longest time, I could only describe my books as being ‘like’ The Lord of the Rings—it was the only fantasy most people I knew could relate to and it wasn’t a very accurate comparison. Every now and then I would meet someone who had read an author I knew, but in my world that was rare. Meeting someone who read for fun was rare! But now we’ve got fantasy and sci-fi stepping out of the dungeon and into the light; comic book heroes, dragon riding queens and sword-wielding witchers are now part and parcel of the everyday. I could go to work and talk about the latest ep of The Expanse or Altered Carbon. Ten or twenty years ago, that just wasn’t a thing, and for me, the real ground swell began when Game of Thrones broke down the door, and that meant SFF books became something a wider audience was interested in.

[TS] Everyone has different reasons for writing, and the writers’ goals vary just as much. What writing goals have you set for yourself?

[AWB] I’d like to get this trilogy done and dusted by the end of 2020! I’m really excited about the projects I have lined up after that, starting with The Smuggler’s Daughter. I love stepping out and doing something I haven’t tried before, but I have to finish one project before I can start another! My brain will collapse into a steaming pile of goop otherwise.

[TS] In Blood of Heirs, you have established some pretty young protagonists—12 year old Lidan and mid-teens Ran. Was your intent all along to write a coming of age type of story or did it just work out that way?

Do you feel that the use of child-age characters taps into the reader’s own perceived vulnerabilities? 

[AWB] I knew this was going to be a story about young people who are on one path only to find themselves crashing down to another, but the question was where to start telling it. I could have kicked off where Legacy of Ghosts starts, but I would have spent half the book in backstory, explaining things that happened four years before, and that wasn’t what I wanted to do. So, we ended up with Blood of Heirs telling the story from the beginning, with two reasonably young characters in some rather adult situations.

I’ve had people tell me Lidan and Ran seem too old for their numerical age, but I could easily point to examples of young protagonists in more well-known books who seem older than their age. Expectations and ideas of childhood have changed vastly in the past century or so, and what a medieval teenager would have dealt with is vastly different to what we expect of teens now. The very concept of the ‘teenager’ didn’t even come into existence until the first half of the 20th century—before that you were a child, then you were an adult, and history is littered with examples of young people doing extraordinary things. Fantasy straddles this divide between what was and what is, and we need to accept that this will make us question what we are comfortable with, especially for those of us with kids ourselves!

[TS] In Blood of Heirs, you use separate storylines for the two main characters and maintain separation between the two for pretty much the whole story. How do you feel that adds to the story, and do you think it takes anything away from it, whether intentionally or unintentionally?

[AWB] Ah see this is tricky, because it shows where my planning went in the bin and the story took over! The ending of Blood of Heirs was supposed to be its halfway point, but the story needed more time. So, I set fire to the plan (mostly) and I let it be what it needed to be. Some people have baulked at the parallel POV story lines, but it gives the characters time to grow before they are drawn together by time and circumstances in Legacy of Ghosts.

[TS] What direction do you see the fantasy scene going to in the near future? Which way would you like to see it go?

[AWB] I’m really enjoying the move away from Euro-centric, northern hemisphere settings and the growth of character diversity. I grew up reading stories where female characters were either non-existent, a love interest holding a male character back from his destiny, or a seductress the male hero had to escape. Female-centered fantasy was usually overly romantic, which I lost interest in during my twenties. Now I get to read fantasy with a diverse array of genders, backgrounds, relationships and cultures in the cast, and this is a good thing!

I’m also loving the changes in the way traditional and indie publishing interact. Not so long ago, self-publishing meant you had signed your own professional death warrant. You were never going to be taken seriously, and your book would be forever consigned to the swamp reserved for vanity publications. These days readers, agents and publishers are paying attention to the indie scene more and more, accepting that indie titles aren’t merely the ‘leftovers’, but a place where some real gems lay hidden. If we can keep this up, continuing to bring the two sides of the industry together, then I think publishing has an exciting future!

[TS] What is your opinion on the grimdark sub-genre, and do you see the growing of a grimdark sub-genre as a positive or negative for fantasy as a whole?

[AWB] I love it! I know it’s not everyone’s bag, and it’s not easily defined, but that’s ok. And it frustrates some people that it’s hard to put a finger on exactly what grimdark is. One person’s grim and dark might be vanilla ice cream to someone else, and it’s about the same with horror. I can get creeped out watching an episode of Doctor Who, while my friends will happily sit through hours of horror movies or books. On the flipside I’ve seen reviews for grimdark books that warn off people who may have a delicate constitution, while I’m left wondering if we’re reading the same thing! At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you ‘get’ what grimdark is or not. If you like it, read it. If you don’t, go find your jam. We don’t need to understand something or have defined boundaries on it to enjoy it.

[TS] Have you written a character that you would consider the most like you as a person?  Also, if you lived in that world what do you think you would be doing there?

[AWB] Each of my characters has a part of me in them—sometimes the parts I dislike the most, and other times parts of me I wish were stronger or more present. Lidan’s mother comes from a very dark part of my soul, a place of desperation and rage. Lidan and Ran’s anxieties and insecurities are born of my own, but they also show resilience and strength in ways I wish I could. For one thing, both of their bodies work properly! Mine is in need of a full refit, a new hardware install and the software is getting well out of date.

[TS] What can we expect in the future from you?

[AWB] I mentioned before that after the release of Empire of Shadows I’ll be working on the first book of Salt and Stone, The Smuggler’s Daughter, and I’m really looking forward to where that story will go. It’s anyone’s guess when pirates, spies, single mums, war-mongering empresses, and criminal kingpins are at each other’s throats for control of the Syod Archipelago and the future of the Free Nations of Coraidin.

[TS] Alicia, thanks so much for taking the time to talk!

[AWB] Thanks for having me around and letting me ramble!

Check out GdM’s review of Blood of Heirs here.

Buy Blood of Heirs by Alicia Wanstall-Burke

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REVIEW: The Obsidian Tower by Melissa Caruso

I received an uncorrected proof copy of The Obsidian Tower in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Melissa Caruso and Orbit Books.

“There are two kinds of magic.

There is the kind that lifts you up and fills you with wonder, saving you when all is lost or opening doors to new worlds of possibility. And there is the kind that wrecks you, that shatters you, bitter in your mouth and jagged in your hand, breaking everything you touch.

Mine was the second kind.”

It’s no secret that I am a huge fan of Caruso’s debut trilogy Swords and Fire, with The Unbound Empire being one of my favourite novels of 2019. The Obsidian Tower, the first entry in the Rooks and Ruin series, was a book that I had to pick up as soon as I was given the chance.

Like Caruso’s previous trilogy, The Obsidian Tower is set in the world of Eruvia. The action takes place at least 150 years after the events of Swords and Fire and follows Exalted Ryxander in the first-person perspective. Ryx resides in Morgrain and is the granddaughter of the powerful and immortal Witch Lord, The Lady of Owls. Ryx is a vivomancer but her magic is flawed and so twisted that it is dangerous. Anyone she touches dies, which, to her dismay, has happened a few times. At twenty-one years old, her role is to look after the castle in Gloamingard and at the beginning of the narrative, she is hosting a conference with neighbouring Alevar and the Serene Empire. Her castle is full of nooks, crannies, and secret passages, many of which seem only known to Ryx, as well as being host to a mysterious tower with a magical door which must not be unsealed. What lies behind that door is hugely important to the story, as are the attendees of the meeting, and a team of magic problem-solvers known as the Rookery.

“Guard the tower, ward the stone

Find your answers writ in bone

Keep your trust through wits or war:

Nothing must unseal the Door.”

Caruso is a terrific writer who weaves fascinating and intricate fantasy tales that are heavily focused on magic and politics. In The Obsidian Tower Caruso also introduces mystery elements to the mix which fit perfectly with her style. Returning to Eruvia again was a great experience which underlines the fact that I get completely engrossed with Caruso’s work. It would be easy for a newcomer to pick up this novel without having read any of the author’s previous work. I would say my enjoyment was heightened by an extra 5-10% because I was already familiar with the way the magic works, the past relationships of the Serene Empire and Vaskandar, and the technology of the world. That being said, for first-time readers, everything that they need to know for this story is explained fresh and well here too, such as how the magic works, what the Chimeras are, the powers of the Witch Lords of Vaskandar, and the relationship between the Serene Empire’s Falcons and Falconers, etc…

The Obsidian Tower is brimming with many well-crafted and colourful characters presented through Ryx’s eyes. My personal favourites were the formidable ruler of Morgrain The Lady of Owls, the mysterious Severin, the envoy from the neighbouring Alevar, the talking fox-like Chimera and castle guardian Whisper, and the loveable oddballs that make up the Rookery. Ryx’s deeply personal portrayal was intriguing to follow. It as interesting to walk in the shoes of someone who is unable to touch, feel, or love through fear of harming others. At this point, I don’t think she is quite sure of her sexuality. We go on quite a journey with Ryx here. A personal journey as the events themselves are restricted to taking place in and around Morgrain. Eruvia is a huge world and I am sure we will travel to many of its areas in the upcoming Rooks and Ruin books. It’s also worth noting that The Obsidian Tower features a gender-neutral character and LGBT emotions too.

The Obsidian Tower is an entertaining, well-written, and expertly-paced novel with incredible magic schemes and a great cast of characters. What is behind the magical door and in the titular obsidian tower and how will it affect Ryx, the Rookery, and Eruvia? I guess you’ll have to read the novel to find out. The Obsidian Tower is a highly recommended read, as is Caruso’s previous trilogy.

Buy The Obsidian Tower by Melissa Caruso

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5 Grimdark Books that Won’t Suspend Your Idea of Truth, Reality, or Science

Scientists are human beings too, and like all humans we want to add narratives to our data and experiments. Despite the temptation to influence, such desires must be resisted. Even if the human condition pushes us to proselytize, good science cannot be simultaneously political. It is more natural to do these things than to stick to the bare, comfortless truth. No soundbite, story or narrative.

As a geophysicist, I eventually understood that scientific writing must not contain a narrative no matter how tempting it is to add one. For decades I denied myself the pleasure and manipulative power of telling a good story about the data I analyzed. Even as I worked as a scientist, I wanted to rebel and tell a story that was not fully constrained by the data alone. So once I retired, I became an author.

Being finally unleashed to make things up, I realized that I should not leave all my hard-earned scientific knowledge behind. While good science must avoid all narrative, good narrative must contain something true. Thematic truth is fundamental to any story, however, modern readers demand something more. Good fiction must feel real. The evolution of the fantasy genre is a good example of this.

Suspension of disbelief came easy in the early days when D&D playing readers were happy to finally have a few stories written for them. Wizards could just use “spells” and be called “mages” and that was enough. But readers are more sophisticated now. We live in grimmer, less naive times, and readers demand that their stories reflect it. Fantasy characters must show a grittier, truer, darker side of the human condition, and the magic system must feel real. The grimdark subgenre of fantasy epitomizes this evolution.

My favorite grimdark books have magic systems that tie into some other truth necessary to their stories. These magic systems are often subtle, devilishly original, minimalized, or so tied into the themes, character and conflict of the story that skeptical readers accept rather than reject them.

Here are My Top 5 Grimdark Books that Won’t Suspend Your Idea of Truth, Reality, or Science.

Magic, Science and Theme

Dynamicist, by Lee Hunt, is about a group of people who attend the New School, hoping to change the world. The magic system of Dynamicist is based on real-life signal and inverse theory. It is original, has tremendously fantastic elements and is also so self-consistent and grounded in science that readers won’t fight to suspend their disbelief. For those who struggled to believe that a twig and Latin could do much of anything, Dynamicist’s use of physics and mathematics will make a lot more sense. 

But even science has limitations. Dynamicist’s physical realism also contains a metaphor to the trilogy’s thematic issue, that change is difficult and unpredictable. We all want to change the world but what are the chances we won’t cock it up?

Magic and Cosmologic Consistency

The Curse of Chalion (CoC), by Lois McMaster Bujold has probably never appeared in any other list of grimdark books. Ever. CoC is fantastically written and should not be missed by anyone who hates suspending their disbelief but loves a good story. The magic system in CoC at first appears non-existent, but as the story goes on the supernatural is revealed instead to be exceedingly subtle and entirely related to the cosmological system of Bujold’s world. No reader will question Bujold’s magic system, it is simply too natural to the ways in which her wonderful world works.

The plot involves politics, corruption and the forced marriage of a young princess to a manipulative and evil family. Bujold’s ending may be the best ending in all of fantasy, and it is entirely supported by her parsimonious magic system and the nature of her broken hero.

Magic and Character

The First Law Trilogy, (FLT), by Joe Abercrombie set the standard for grimdark. His trilogy can boast of stunning violence, parsimonious magic and most of all, incredible characters. In Abercrombie’s FLT, the magic system conforms with the cynical characters who wield it. Abercrombie barely has to define a frightening magic system that is a product of bald political power and the sociopathic men who use it. The First of the Magi, Bayez, is a man of infinitesimal sympathies and limitless political cunning. FLT’s magic system is realistic not for what it is, but by how it is used and by the nature of its user.

Magic and What Makes Us Human

Red Sister by Mark Lawrence is about a little girl with magical claws who attends a convent and makes blood come out of people. Magic in Red Sister is primarily genetic, deriving from the differences in four different subspecies of the humans who landed on the cold, dying world of Abeth. Each of these tribes had a powerful genetic gift: speed, size, or two flavors of power derived from touching the underlying truth of the world. The last two talents are the most magical, but Lawrence weaves them seamlessly into his story, tieing them to his theme that despite the differences between his peoples, their connection to each other is the most important thing of all. The magic system at once highlights the genetic and religious differences in people and reinforces that they are all connected.

Magic and Understanding

The Name of the Wind (NoW) by Patrick Rothfuss succeeds where many would have failed. NoW enjoys a pervasive use of magic, enough to threaten many modern readers’ suspension of disbelief, but Rothfuss avoids doing so. There is a grittiness to his telling of the story that helps, a sense that life in his world is anything but a fantasy. The most powerful magic in NoW has to do with knowing the “name” for a thing, which is another way of asserting a deep intuitive understanding for it. Rothfuss’s naming ties into an archetypical fantasy that we are actually capable of understanding a complex world and render it simple.

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REVIEW: The Pale Horseman by Bernard Cornwell

The Pale Horseman is the excellent continuation of Uhtred of Bebbanburg’s story. Set between 876 – 878 AD, Uhtred is now in his early 20’s, having proven himself as a man and a warrior. He’s fought in a shield wall, killed Ubba in one on one combat, and has sworn an oath to the Saxon king Alfred. Uhtred believes life revolves around fighting, women, ale, and creating a reputation. Uhtred has a reputation now, but it is not always glowing as he is as misunderstood as he is feared. He’s a complex lead character that I can’t get enough of following. He’s half Saxon and half Danish, however, his loyalties lie with the Saxon’s here, although he is extremely fond of his brother and friend, the Danish Earl Ragnar, and I loved the page time that they shared together.

“When I was twenty I considered myself a full-grown man. I had fathered a child, fought in the shield wall, and was loath to take advice from anyone.”

Following The Last Kingdom’s climactic battle with the Danes at Cynuit, Uhtred wishes to return to his family and his estate instead of returning to King Alfred with Ubba’s war axe and banner to claim the victory and the spoils that come with it. In Uhtred’s absence, the slimy lord Odda the Younger claims to have led the Saxons to their victory and to have bested Ubba himself. When Uhtred returns to Winchester he is shocked to see that there has been no mention of his extremely influential input to the events of the battle. Uhtred’s longtime friend Father Beocca was not even aware that Uhtred had escaped from being a hostage of Guthrum. Odda’s weaving of events to paint himself in a perfect light, the fact he glosses over Uhtred’s importance completely, and that none of Odda’s followers are willing to contradict him even though they know the truth of the matter, really pisses Uhtred off. Uhtred expresses his dissatisfaction as only a man as headstrong as the lord of Bebbanburg can and unsheaths his sword in the King’s chamber in the presence of all the men of influence in Wessex. Uhtred should have received a hero’s welcome but what he gets is anything but, planting a seed of loathing and an atmosphere of discord.

“We make much in this life if we are able. We make children and wealth and amass land and build halls and assemble armies and give great feasts, but only one thing survives us. Reputation. I could not walk away.”

Uhtred’s dream is to take back his rightful home of Bebbanburg where his uncle unlawfully sits as Ealderman. He realises that by following Alfred and giving his blood, sweat, and tears to the monarch isn’t going to make him the silver to raise an army to complete his objective. So, alongside the gruff warrior Leofric, Uhtred and some followers decide to take one of the King’s ships, to dress it up as a Viking raider, and to do some raiding themselves under the disguise of being Danes.

During The Pale Horseman, there are expertly crafted battles, skirmishes and duels that are gripping to read about. We are introduced to fine new characters such as the lord of war Svein, the Shadow Queen Iseult, and the loyal but dim warrior Steopa. My personal favourites from the first novel such as Leofric and Young Ragnar shine here too although in some cases have limited page time. Characters relations change and develop finely through Uhtred’s unique, honest, and extremely personal first-person perspective. I trust and understand Uhtred’s opinions and plans however reckless they seem or provoking they are to the church of the crown.

The Pale Horseman was more of the same of what I adored in The Last Kingdom, however, if all of the novels in this series are so similar then I can see myself getting a bit bored about halfway through the series. I hope that doesn’t happen and that Cornwell continues to present exciting, action-packed historical fiction during the next stages of Uhtred’s life whilst keeping it fresh and interesting enough to keep me intrigued. A huge positive for these novels, so far, is that at around 300-400 pages, I am able to race through them in a couple of days. I have Lords of the North already loaded on my Kindle and am ready to start reading that today to rejoin Uhtred in the front row of the shield wall. Fate is inexorable.

“The fear came then. The shield wall is a terrible place. It is where a warrior makes his reputation, and reputation is dear to us. Reputation is honour, but to gain that honour a man must stand in the shield wall where death runs rampant. I had been in the shield wall at Cynuit and I knew the smell of death, the stink of it, the uncertainty of survival, the horror of the axes and swords and spears, and I feared it. And it was coming.”

Buy The Pale Horseman by Bernard Cornwell

 

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REVIEW: By Force Alone by Lavie Tidhar

Published in March of this year in the UK, Lavie Tidhar’s By Force Alone is a period-set mashup of Arthurian myth. This Arthur is brash, young, and power-hungry, expanding his influence out from a small band of men based in London. His ambition ruffles the feathers of many, and he ends up betrayed. Throughout the story we meet many characters familiar from Arthurian myth, such as Merlin, Kay, Guinevere or Gawain, with all of them having their own spin put on them. Classic elements of the myth such as the sword in the stone, the holy grail and the lady in the lake pop up too.

As the afterword shows, Lavie Tidhar has clearly done his research when it comes to medieval sources on Arthurian legends. He explains how the folktale of this legendary king grew into somewhat of a basis for fanfiction, and By Force Alone is his contribution to this ever-growing corpus. As someone who has a background in medieval studies, I can definitely validate this take – I think it’s versatile nature is one of my very favourite things about Arthurian myth.

However, if I’m being honest, I struggled a lot to get through this book, although I had been looking forward to reading it – it took me almost three months to finish it. It is fast paced, and the language used is rather crass and modern, breaking the illusion for me. Among other things, there is a fair amount of swearing, using terms that are commonly used in everyday conversation today. This led to a disconnect between story and characters, and I was unable to immerse myself in the novel. While I do not usually mind authors taking creative license with historical source material, having dialogue that is clearly twenty-first century in a book set in the early medieval period does not work for me. I do see this being a personal preference, and I’m sure that By Force Alone will be a book that is great for a different type of reader!

One of the things I did like about By Force Alone is the introduction of Guinevere and her companions, who, rather than being a hapless princess as she is often portrayed as, has her own agency. They are somewhat of a band of travelling mercenaries of their own, entering the story through choice and not due to marital machinations, which is refreshing. Generally, most of the characters in the book will be familiar to the reader from medieval Arthuriana, although not necessarily in this version. Many characteristics are exaggerated, and the fast pacing leads to little focus on individual characters and their growth, which for me meant that I lacked a sense of who they were as people outside of their immediate actions. They remained superficial, and I was unable to see much discernible character development over the course of the story.

I regret that I am not able to be more unequivocally positive about this book. Nevertheless, I am very grateful to Head of Zeus and Netgalley for providing me with an advance copy of By Force Alone in exchange for an honest review.

Buy By Force Alone by Lavie Tidhar

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REVIEW: Of Mice and Minestrone by Joe R. Lansdale

Thank you to the fine folks at Tachyon Publications for providing a review copy of Joe Landsdale’s Of Mice and Minestrone.

I have read several Joe R. Lansdale stories over the years, but it’s only recently that I’ve been making a conscious effort to seek out his work. I have reviewed his new documentary, All Hail the Popcorn King for Grimdark Magazine, and I’ve also reviewed an earlier collection, Driving to Geronimo’s Grave: and Other Stories at my personal blog for NetGalley.

While Lansdale’s work is as varied as the regions of Texas, there is one common link through all of it: his brilliant storytelling. I had only dabbled in the world of Hap and Leonard before this, but it’s safe to say that after reading this collection, I’m hooked, and will be reading more of these stories sooner rather than later.

Established fans of Hap Collins and Leonard Pine will love these stories, which go back to their youth as their friendship was just getting started. It is also a great place to introduce new readers, as it gives a great taste of their background in the 1960s of East Texas, as well as a snapshot into the dynamic friendship between the two.

Five stories make up this collection:

“The Kitchen”, where we are introduced to another very important element of these stories, food. Not just any food, but the East Texas Southern cooking that serves as the foundation for all that is to come with these characters.

“Of Mice and Minestrone”, the title story where we see a young Hap Collins as he’s faced with some disturbing social issues of the time.

‘The Watering Shed”, a tale that shows that just because our heroes can go into a seedy backwoods bar, it doesn’t mean that they should.

“Sparring Partner”, the longest story in the collection, deals with an illegal boxing ring that’s about as safe an environment as the Watering Shed.

“The Sabine is High”, where our two main characters just want to hang out and go fishing.

This book is a remarkable study of friendship, as Hap and Leonard are faced with several challenges of their times and geographic setting. The late 1960s were a time of Vietnam, racism, and the old South good ole boy system where women were treated as property. Hap and Leonard weren’t defined by these issues, however, and had a strong sense of right and wrong which motivated their decisions.

I was actually born in the southern part of the East Texas region where these stories are set, and though my family moved away when I was quite young, I remember several occasions where we went back to visit family. These stories struck home for me and stirred up some of these memories. Starting out the collection with “The Kitchen” brought back those experiences of the family gatherings, and the food we had. This was a great way to settle in and get comfortable, before striking out with Hap and Leonard to face the challenges presented by the other stories in the book.

An extra bonus to these stories is the section at the back of the book, where recipes are included of the main foods experienced in the stories themselves. This section was written by Lansdale’s daughter Kasey, and she did a great job of providing entertaining recipe notes in Hap’s narrative voice. This was a great addition to the stories, giving them a little extra flavor. My arteries might just have hardened a little bit after reading these…

Buy Of Mice and Minestrone by Joe R. Lansdale

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An Interview with Luke Arnold

Many people know actor Luke Arnold from the Starz TV show Black Sails where he plays the character, John Silver. But, to add to his extensive acting credits is his debut novel, The Last Smile in Sunder City. The first novel of the Fetch Phillips Archives series. If you haven’t had a chance to check out Sunder City, you should fix that ASAP. (Our review can be found here.) Sunder City is a little bit of fantasy, a little bit Sam Spade, and a whole lot of good writing. GdM got the opportunity to sit down with Luke and talk to him a bit about his writing, and what is happening in the future for Fetch Phillips.

Hi Luke. Thank you for agreeing to chat with me a bit about your writing, life, and The Last Smile in Sunder City. 

My absolute pleasure. Thanks for having me.

For the uninitiated, could you tell me a little about yourself and how you got into writing Sunder City? Have you always been a writer?

I’ve been working as an actor for most of my adult life. When I started out, all my creative paths were intertwined. I’d write things, act in them, direct them, and collaborate with anyone on anything. Then I was lucky enough to have some success in the acting world, most notably on a show called Black Sails, and gave that all of my focus for a few years. After that wrapped up, it felt like it was time to dig back into my own writing, so I put away some time and punched out the first draft.

I know with acting, you must pull character creation and visualization from a creative space. How does that differ from character creation when writing novels? 

In some ways, they couldn’t be more opposite. When you act on film, you really have to trust everyone around you and hope that you’re in safe hands. You work off someone else’s material on a set that someone else built, in a costume that someone else made, while you listen to direction and hand your performance over to an editor at the end of it. It’s about doing your homework, preparing properly, and then committing to this brief window of time when you try to be in the moment and deliver a performance worth capturing.

With a novel, you are the entire crew, and the window lasts as long as you need it to. For the most part, there is no collaboration, no outside input, nobody rocking up with a ready-made set or a beautiful coat to put on one of your characters. For better or worse, it’s all you.

To be honest, being able to bounce back and forth between the two makes me enjoy each of them even more.

The Last Smile in Sunder City was a remarkable story. I loved how the story is told through a series of interactions, both now and in the past. It was a compelling narrative device in describing how a character can change once crossing a pivotal moment in their lives. In Fetch’s case, it was the before and after the Coda. Did you plan for the story to be told in this fashion, or did the story change organically as you wrote it? 

When I started writing this story, it was only the present-day part of the story: a man-for-hire searching for a Vampire in a broken fantasy world. I thought maybe I would do a bunch of these short cases, stick them together, and then do an origin story one day.

I shared the story with some friends in the publishing world and while they really liked it, they informed me that collections of short stories are nearly impossible to sell, and suggested that a novel would be a better path. Thankfully, I took their advice.

I think the scars of that process can still be seen on this story, but I kind of like that. It’s the same thing that happened to Raymond Chandler (my biggest influence when it comes to this book). Chandler wrote short stories for a magazine called Black Mask. Most of his novels were an amalgamation of those shorter stories, tied together and padded out.

My second book, Dead Man in a Ditch, is more tightly constructed, but for the first story about a hopeless, wandering gumshoe who only begins to find his way, I think the creative journey added to the tone.

How did you create the after Coda world? What was the inspiration?

A lot of the pre-Coda world (the magical time) was planned out before I started. I tracked the beginning of magic and thought about how it would seep into the world and create versions of all the magical creatures we’re familiar with. But in the post-Coda, a lot of it comes to life as I take Fetch around the city and see who he stumbles across. Rather than being inspired by any particular time or place in history, it’s more about a feeling. A bit of guilt. A touch of depression. A regular spoonful of self-loathing. Sometimes it’s about growing up. Sometimes it’s about living in the aftermath of mistakes. It all depends on where Fetch’s mind is at. He’s always struggling with some internal dilemma, and I love to make him bump into the perfect creature that will make things even worse.

Are you a big fantasy and science fiction reader? Which books have you been inspired by?

I’ve always been a big reader, but I only dabbled in fantasy before this. I’ve been doing my best to catch up over the last few years. Most of the fantasy worlds that influenced me would have come from video games, anime, and film. I’ve been going through Final Fantasy 7 recently (remake, and replaying the original), and realized that it probably influenced Sunder City more than any book.

There’s plenty of Pratchett in my world, and I’ve stolen fantasy creatures from everywhere, but you’ll find more elements of Humphry Bogart than Hobbits.

One of the take-aways I had From The Last Smile in Sunder City was even under all the dark, the ominous, the despair, under the constant struggle to live, there is always a small shiny kernel of hope. As a reader, I am drawn to stories that have this; it helps me connect and want more as a reader. Was this always the intention?

Sure. I love playing with the expectations we have of fantasy characters versus what we expect of ourselves. In worlds with magic spells, evil villains, and ancient prophesies, we want our heroes to find the special sword, kill the baddie, and restore peace to the land. When you’re younger, our world seems so different to the ones in books that it feels like escapism. But as you get older, you realise that there are actually these looming threats coming to destroy the us and villains who cause suffering for their own gain, but the bit that we struggle with (at least I do) is what we can do about it. Could we be better? Does anything we do matter? Or could we wake up tomorrow and actually make a difference?

I don’t know how to fix the world (yet) but I do know that a shared moment with a close friend or a perfect cup of coffee will help me get up tomorrow and keep searching.

Can you tell me a bit about Dead Man in a Ditch? 

The first book hints that the magic might not be completely gone for good. Of course, Fetch isn’t ready to believe that, but word has gotten out. Folks start arriving at Fetch’s door, asking him to find a way to fix things. That includes the police department, who invites Fetch to a crime scene where a guy’s face has been blown apart by a fireball.

With the stage set by the first book, Dead Man in a Ditch makes some big moves forward, though the shadows from the past are still hanging around.

Finally, I always like to end on a light-hearted question. The Dinner Party question. If you could have dinner and conversation with three figures from real life, alive or dead, or fiction, who would they be and why?

Jim Henson. I think Sesame Street is the most important television show ever made and everything Jim brought into the world has made it a better place. Maybe I’d get to learn a couple of things but maybe I’d just get to spend a couple of hours in his presence.

David Bowie (Similar reasons to Henson, really) and Nina Simone (because she seemed really disappointed at Montreux that Bowie wasn’t there, so I’d die to see them hanging out). And there would be a piano tucked in the corner, as if by accident, but I’d never ask anyone to play (until the second bottle of wine, when I absolutely would).

I know they’re all creative, but then I would at least have a chance of joining in the conversation. If it was Nelson Mandela, Marie Curie and Martin Luther King, I’d be outed as an imbecile immediately.

Buy The Last Smile in Sunder City by Luke Arnold

Pre-order Dead Man in a Ditch by Luke Arnold

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