Mark Reece's Blog - Posts Tagged "fantasy"

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I loved this book. A group consisting of Maurice, a talking cat, numerous intelligent rats, and a boy named Keith, have a scam in which they go from town to town in Discworld, tricking the inhabitants into thinking that there is a plague of rats, before Keith plays his flute to lead the rats away, for a fee. However, after agreeing to carry out a final scam, they reach a town where there are no rats and something seems wrong.

The novel is often silly, fun, and funny. The rats all have names that they've read from food containers, such as 'Dangerous Beans', and the book employs the 'intelligence animal' trope that looks at human societies from the perspective of outsiders to poke fun at hypocrisies and irrationality. Maurice's observations are constantly wry and amusing, particularly about 'the government'.

However, the novel is simultaneously very sophisticated. For example, each chapter starts with a quote from the rats' culture, a children's book about a rabbit going on an adventure, which they have found and taken to be true. This seems to serve as a satire of nationalist founding myths, or perhaps religion. The end of the book contains an extended passage about conflict resolution between different groups that is both humorous and profound.

Both the characters and the writing are memorable, including Malicia, a girl who relates everything to stories she's read, and a rival rat piper who who is arrogant and bullying. Managing the changes of tone, while maintaining the standards of writing, is what makes this an impressive and interesting book.



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Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A fantastic book, I enjoyed this from start to finish. The novel is set in a world where 'breath'- loosely speaking, human life force- can be transferred from person to person. Having lots of breath enables one to carry out incredible feats, such as bringing the dead back to life. A conflict has arisen because two kingdoms have very different philosophies about how breath should be utilized. Idris decries most uses of breath and promotes an austere religion that eschews colour. By contrast, the kingdom of Hallandren is brash and colourful, making use of breath in a variety of ways, most notably, by creating a class of 'returned'- people who have come back from the dead to form the ruling class. These 'gods' need to be fed with the breath of the populace to retain their strength.

The set up is very good and is incorporated neatly into a world that is otherwise recognizable, ruled by absolute monarchs. However, what makes the novel is the characterization, which is excellent. The story is based around two Idrian princesses who go to Hallandren and have to quickly adapt to its customs. Siri is youthful and wayward. She is sent to Hallandren by her father as part of a treaty commitment to prevent war between the two kingdoms. She is required to marry the 'god king' of Hallandren and bear him a child. Her elder sister, Vivenna, was supposed to go in her place, although her father swapped which daughter he sent out of personal preference. At the start of the book, she is a devout follower of her religion and is disdainful of Hallandren. When her sister is sent away, she follows her to launch a rescue attempt, and is soon associating with an assortment of mercenaries and other dubious characters.

As the perspective is told from characters from Idris, the first chapters indicate that Hallandren is being set up as a supernaturally evil place. However, as the princesses proceed on their journeys, Idris starts to feel like a despotic, theocratic, state, and they question their previous lives in different ways. The shift is very subtle and well done. The sisters have to develop personally too, Siri gradually becoming more responsible and Vivenna having to make compromises to her beliefs in order to survive. Despite the fantasy setting, the novel has strong elements of realism.

The politics of the book are also well done. The Hallandren gods live a luxurious lifestyle and have little to do other than scheme, and there are also many other factions with complex agendas. The princesses have little idea of what they are getting into, despite Vivenna having been trained to understand Hallandren culture since she was a young child. The political machinations drive the plot, and are often unexpected and thrilling.

I'm looking forward to reading more books set in this world.



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The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I enjoyed this novel and will definitely read more of the series. The story is set in a society dominated by the 'Lord Ruler' and a small number of aristocratic families. The majority of the population are comprised of the 'Skaa', who carry out manual labour and are subject to terrible mistreatment. They seem to form an underclass based on social position, although there are hints of a racial difference.

A small number of people have a power known as 'allomancy', which involves ingesting different types of metals, each of which gives the user a type of power. For example, using tin gives the user enhanced senses. An even more select group, known as mistborn, can use multiple metals, and those skilled in doing so are very powerful.

Although the Skaa are highly repressed, a small number of them become either resistance fighters or part of thieving gangs. The final empire concerns the actions of one of these gangs, which joins with the revolutionaries to attempt to overthrow the state (known as 'The Final Empire'). The leader of the group is called Kelsier- a powerful mistborn, and includes Vin, a Skaa thief who has been subject to abuse for most of her life.

The final empire is a long novel that doesn't feel long. Sanderson has a strength for characterization; despite the number of people within the Skaa gang, some of whom play a minor role in the story, all are memorable, and the conflict between them is meaningful. Furthermore, there is skillful world building; the fantastical nature of the allomancy premise is well incorporated into the world, with a lot of memorable details, such as the soldiers trained to fight allomancers who do not wear metal, to avoid the material being used against them.

I thought there was a weakness in the overall plot, which comprised of two parts. Firstly, that the allomancy power was limited to a small number of people was never explained, giving the novel a superhero film feel at times. Not only did an explanation feel required, but it made the social class structure a little odd, as surely those members of the aristocracy with allomancy powers would be an elite within an elite in a more formal way. Secondly, the idea of a group of super heroes creating a social revolution didn't make much sense. Except perhaps in wartime, successful social movements, let alone revolutions, aren't created and directed by small bands of conspirators. Those types of movements are routinely crushed by oppressive states, such as that depicted in The final empire, undermining the coherence of the plot in places. It seemed very unlikely that the law enforcement didn't have far better levels of surveillance and informants, for example.

All of that being said, the quality of the writing, and the evocative, interesting setting, still made this a book well worth reading, and its sequels too.



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The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I enjoyed this second book in the mistborn series. The lord ruler, who commanded the world with his almost divine power, was killed at the end of the first book, and the second book deals with the consequent fallout, in which various factions vie for power, including the crew of thieves involved in the revolution described in the first novel.

'Allomancers', who can ingest metals to gain a series of extraordinary powers, such as enhanced strength and sensory perception, play a major part in this world. This has a tendency to dominate the plot to a greater extent that I would like, as the powers described are so strong that some characters can fight armies almost single handedly, which has the potential to make other plot points irrelevant. Nevertheless, the author does a good job of keeping the story focused on the political aspects of the novel, describing the instability caused by the collapse of a dictatorship. Despite the fantasy setting, this feels realistic.

Although a long book, it is very well written and readable, meaning that I finished it in a small number of sittings. The characters are vibrant and memorable, despite there being many of them. I'm very likely to read the remaining four books in the series.



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The Conan Chronicles: Volume 1: The People of the Black Circle by Robert E. Howard

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The Conan Chronicles is a book that is often enjoyable to read despite being poorly written. Admittedly, the stories were not intended to form part of a collection; nevertheless, it is striking how repetitive the descriptive language is. Conan has smoldering blue eyes, and moves like a panther or wolf; this is repeated every few pages. Much of the characterization is also very weak. Every woman in this world, regardless of their circumstances, is waiting for Conan to arrive, where they clutch his strong arms and he 'carries them as easily as a child'. There was often a Mills and Boon feel to the romances.

There is also a strain of race science thinking that permeates the stories in a way that is striking now that that way of thinking is no longer prevalent. The author often refers to the fantasy peoples in the story as 'ape like', and gives florid descriptions of racial degeneration in a way that often becomes intrusive.

All of that being said, the stories are fast paced and have a folksy charm. The world is mysterious enough for Conan's adventures to hold an interest, despite his limitations as a character. In fact, I thought the best stories were those where he had a marginal presence. For example, in 'The God in the bowl', Conan is a murder suspect and does little other than grunt while the investigation is taking place. That story worked well because Conan has little inner life and little in the way of interesting motivation. However, as a plot device, he is often entertaining, particularly where powerful people try to use him to their advantage, only to become unstuck when he fights his way out of the traps set for him.

Although there was no obvious chronology within the stories, they were themed around his earlier life as an adventurer. I'm interested to see whether there is any development of the character in the latter stories, where, it is heavily hinted, he becomes a king.



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The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The hero of ages is a strong end to the first mistborn series, and I thought it was of equal quality to the earlier books, although different in tone. In this novel, the characters are now in positions of power, with very different problems from the first book in the series, when they were rebels, thieves, and dilettante aristocrats.

The strength of this book, as with earlier entries in the series, was in the characterization and pacing, which make it constantly enjoyable to read. The split narrative, with the chapters alternating between various interconnected stories, worked well. There is always something interesting happening and the character's voices are firmly established by this point in the series. It was also very useful to have a summary of the backdrop of the world as a reference point at the end of the book, should one have forgotten part of how the world works.

The weaknesses of the novel lay in the more reflective sections. The observations of Elend Venture, now emperor, are rarely more intricate than 'being a ruler is hard than thinking about being a ruler' and there is a strong emphasis on determining whether or not he is a 'good man', something that seems irrelevant given the world ending events going on around him. Furthermore, the comments on philosophy of religion are repetitive and often trite, largely based on characters thinking 'it is important to have faith'.

The nature of the metal powers in this series means that the characters are effectively superheroes; I preferred the type of system he derived in 'Warbreaker', which didn't rely on that kind of backdrop. Overall though, this was a strong end to the trilogy, and I'll certainly read more of Sanderson.



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The Eye of the Bedlam Bride by Matt Dinniman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I'm still enjoying this series, although I thought this entry was weaker than some of the previous books. The descriptions of the card mechanics were too long and not very interesting, whereas the meta plot, which is fundamental to driving the series, seemed underdeveloped, with new characters and events introduced in an epilogue that felt as if they should have been central to the story. I wonder whether the latter books of the series would have worked better if the narrative had switched between the dungeon dwellers and alien characters.

The word 'atop' is overused in an amusing way. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to the next book in the series.



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Empire of the Ants by Bernard Werber

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


The narrative of this novel is split between the family and associates of entomologist Edmond Wells, who are trying to understand his recent death, and a number of ants in a colony, told from their perspective, who are trying to understand a 'secret weapon' used by their enemies.

Although the book's structure had a lot of potential, there were a lot of problems with the execution. Firstly, the human characters were poorly written, constantly acting in ways that are entirely implausible. For example, there is an instance where several people have gone missing in a cellar, presumed dead, including several police officers, and the police respond by putting a sign over the cellar warning against entering it. They are apparently happy to do nothing further about the situation and also allow the house to remain occupied(!) Wells is apparently a scientist, but devotes his time writing an encyclopedia containing mystical passages, which his colleagues are very interesting in finding/stealing, for no obvious reason.

The ant passages are better written and tell a story that is compelling enough to get the end of the book, but the ant characters are highly anthropomorphized, with psychologies and motivations including subterfuge that ultimately makes the book very silly, and demonstrate a lack of imagination. Admittedly, it would be difficult to write from the perspective of an ant, requiring a form of narration that does not depend on inner monologue (for example). Instead, the ants in the book are little humans who live in a close knit society and have a strong sense of smell.

Of course, stories can be told from the perspective of anthropomorphized non-human animals to make a satirical point. However, the main theme of this book is that ants have a social structure that has equal worth to that of human societies. This makes the complete lack of effort to imagine the world from the perspective of ants to be both incongruous and unsatisfying. This problem becomes most acute at the conclusion of the book, when humans and ants communicate with each other. The ants are revealed to have the same concepts as humans about the world, meaning that humans can chat with them in the same way that a human would talk to another human who spoke a different language. At this point, the central theme of the novel has been lost, to be replaced with a vague and trite message about being nice to other species. This is a shame, as the original idea was good enough to deserve an intelligence treatment.



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Sourcery by Terry Pratchett

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was one of the weaker Terry Pratchett books I've read, although it was often still enjoyable. The wizards depicted in the book are isolated and conservative hedonists and occasional scholars, spending their time in their tower. However, when a sorcerer is born, he wants to introduce much stronger magic into Discworld and make the wizards the new ruling class.

Pratchett's jaunty humour grated a little at times, as I felt there was too little plot or characterization, meaning that every scene felt like the setup to a pun. This made the novel seem forced in places, and I never cared much about what was going to happen. That being said, there were enough vivid descriptions and witty turns of phrases to prevent the book from becoming dull.



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Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I enjoyed this novel overall, although I thought that several of the plot points didn't cohere. The idea of 'personified death doesn't want to do its job anymore' has been done elsewhere (most notably in Saramago's Death with interruptions), although curiously, the amount of scenes involving Death seemed small given its centrality to the plot. Pratchett seemed to want to focus on the more lighthearted sequences.

The novel concerns the consequences that result when people are unable to die, including a magical build-up of energy personified by Windle Poons, a wizard whose existence seems more vital after he died.

The humour often felt forced, with the author too heavily reliant on puns and whimsy, when the setup itself provided ample opportunity for comedy. Moreover, the plot too often relied on exposition after long sequences with little relevance to the rest of the story. I enjoyed, and often looked forward to, the scenes involving Death, as that character was more vividly portrayed and interesting than the other characters.

Pratchett had a curious tendency to explain character's actions by referring to their inherent nature; wizards and bogeymen are said to act as they do because they are wizards and bogeymen. I sometimes wondered whether anything more should be read into this other than a pun, which is why I would have liked the story to be more Death focused. As it was, the story was sometimes enjoyable, although felt somewhat shallow.



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