Beth Tabler's Blog, page 168
September 1, 2022
Television Review – Rings of Power Season 1 -E1 & E2
THE RINGS OF POWER is fine, specifically 1×1 “A Shadow of the Past” and 1×2 “Adrift”, are fine. This is something that I feel is both damning as well as an argument against all the criticism the show has unfairly received before it has even begun. The show is breathtakingly beautiful, the soundtrack is extremely enchanting, and the characters are entertaining as well as competently acted. However, for those hoping to be transported back to JRR Tolkien’s Middle Earth, the show basically feels like about a faithful an adaptation as a Middle Earth themed MMORPG.
Part of this was inevitable as the adaptation of the Second Age of Middle Earth is going to be primarily new material. We’ve already got the fantastic Lord of the Rings movies and the not-so fantastic The Hobbit movies. However, here, this is just creating original stories based around the rough outline of events that J.R.R Tolkien sketched as backstory. The Silmarillion is a fantastic book, but I’ve never quite believed it could be faithfully adapted.
Even in the first five minutes, the lore violations start piling up. Galadriel talks about how the light of Valinor was taken by Morgoth (so far so good), only for her to then say that she went to fight the Great Enemy on Middle Earth. Which, no she didn’t. We skip over Feanor, the Kinslaying, and a huge chunk of the backstory between. Beren and Luthien is also not given a mention, which seems another egregious time-skip since we have another human/elf love match in the show.
We also basically skip the entirety of the fact that Galadriel didn’t believe Morgoth could be defeated by force of arms (which he couldn’t) and depict her and the elves defeating him. Which, of course, is nonsense because Morgoth is defeated by the Valar and no mention of the literal archangels is made in the series. It’s a rather conspicuous absence given they utterly wreck Middle Earth defeating Tolkien’s version of Sauron.
Instead, the show is primarily focused on Galadriel attempting to avenge her brother that was slain by Sauron and her Knight Templar-esque dedication to tracking the Dark Lord down to kill him. This isn’t entirely inaccurate, three of Galadriel’s brothers did in fact die during the battle against Morgoth’s forces. However, none of the other elves believe Sauron is still a threat and the show is about how, surprise, Galadriel is right, and the monster is coming back.
Much has been made of Galadriel being depicted as a warrior woman as well as the show having a more ethnically diverse collection of elves, hobbits, and dwarves. The latter doesn’t bother me at all and I’m not going to waste wind on it. The former is only annoying because Galadriel is a SORCERESS, and it feels like she’s taking a major power downgrade in stabbing things versus blasting them with her evil destroying light.
Indeed, the more the show tries to act like this is JRR Tolkien’s work versus something that they’ve wholly invented, the more the show stumbles. They could have based this show around Isildur, they could have based this show around Beren and Luthien, and they could have done a series of Silmarillion movies. Instead, this is a wholly original as well as competently done fantasy series that is pretending it was by the master.
I feel it’s less faithful than Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor and I like those games, but they are really inaccurate. Oh, and Sauron returns to Middle Earth via a comet. There, he’s adopted by a bunch of rural Hobbit farmers. No, I don’t know why Sauron is Superman now. Maybe it’s not Sauron, maybe it’s Gandalf, but that would be a millennium early.
There’s some genuinely good parts like any part involving dwarves. The dwarves in this show are the most animated, entertaining, and energetic characters. Also, whenever the show interrupts its ponderous narration to do some actual action scenes. Mind you, a Tolkien adaptation should never be defined by its action, but it says something that this works best when it is.
The original characters are fine, the plotting is fine, and the show is fine. However, it’s also something that doesn’t feel like an authentically Tolkien work. It feels like very well-done Middle Earth fanfiction and I feel like that’s probably all it ever could be with the Second Age premise. I’ll probably keep watching it but it’s not must-see TV like certain other fantasy shows I’m watching.
RINGS OF POWER•RINGS OF POWER•RINGS OF POWER•RINGS OF POWER•RINGS OF POWER•RINGS OF POWER•RINGS OF POWER•RINGS OF POWER•
The post Television Review – Rings of Power Season 1 -E1 & E2 appeared first on BEFOREWEGOBLOG.
Game Review – Middle Earth Shadow of War
MIDDLE EARTH: SHADOW OF WAR is the sequel to the highly popular and enjoyable MIDDLE EARTH: SHADOW OF MORDOR. It was a somewhat blasphemous and fascinating take on the classic Tolkien Legendarium, having its protagonist seek to use necromancy as well as other dark magic to fight the Dark Lord with his own power. You know, the one thing that is constantly warned against by Tolkien as self-defeating but we kind of would be curious as to how it would go.
Since this is a direct sequel, a brief recap is warranted: Talion is a Ranger of the North without the powerful blood of Numenor running through his veins. After a sneak attack by Sauron’s forces, he ends up being possessed by the elven smith Celebrimbor. Talion manages to do a good deal of damage to Sauron’s war machine but the realization that the Dark Lord is just getting started is enough to get him to convince Celebrimbor to make a new ring.
The game starts immediately after Talion sneaks into Mount Doom and proceeds to smith himself a ring with Celebrimbor’s help. I would have actually enjoyed sneaking into Mount Doom and am a bit disappointed that Talion didn’t have to do so. Either way, Celebrimbor pours his life force into the New Ring (along with yours) but has it almost immediately stolen. This is meant to explain why Talion goes from an orc-slaying badass Ringwraith to a complete weakling again but also actually fits the fact the Rings of Power can never be trusted.
Unfortunately, this is also where the story starts to go completely off the rails and never quite gets back on them. Specifically, the New Ring is stolen by Sexy Shelob. Yes, the giant spider who almost ate Frodo. Apparently, she can assume a form that can best be described as “Morrigan from Dragon Age in an evening dress.”
Much has already been made of this bizarre lore change, somewhat akin to Godzilla becoming a hot Japanese school girl, but I could meet them halfway on this. Plenty of mythological creatures assume the form of sexy women to eat people because ancient peoples had serious issues with misogyny: vampires, sirens, succubi, kelpies, deer women, and so on. It’s just Shelob doesn’t have her one characterization trait and instead works as a kind of anti-Galadriel, putting Talion on the road to destroying Sauron. Because, apparently they used to date.
Oh sweet Eru.
No.
Seriously, you have no idea how badly you must screw with the lore to get me to not support more pale raven-haired witches in fiction. Not saying it’s a fetish but it’s a fetish. Anywho, Talion has to use his unholy powers, diminished as they are, to try to help protect Minis Ithil from an invasion of orcs. I mean, technically the citadel should have fallen a thousand years before, but this Sauron is just getting started.
Talion meets a cute pint-sized Eowyn named Idril, her Haradrim captain, and father before asking, “Could I please have your palantir because the ghost in my head wants it before Sauron gets it?” This goes poorly and becomes a bickering conflict between Talion wanting to save lives and Celebrimbor seeking absolute power to defeat Sauron.
The story is pretty complex and spread across multiple zones of Mordor. Some of the ideas are quite interesting as you apparently meet an Ent-Wife (or their patron Maia), you have to deal with a cult of necromancers, contend with a Balrog waking up, and finally have the Nazgul introduced since Sauron is well and truly tired of Talion/Celebrimbor’s bullshit.
Frankly, some of these would have made pretty good games themselves and I kind of think it’d have been hilarious if instead of Sexy Shelob, they’d made Durin’s Bane be the beautiful woman who stole Celebrimbor’s ring. That would have been ridiculous but not necessarily lore breaking. Who says the Balrog can’t be female? Plus, as a Maia, the idea they can assume a human form goes with the territory. She’d probably be a redhead, though.
Sadly, the weird lore breaking gets even worse as the game goes on as we find out the identities of the Nazgul like Helm Hammerhand, Isildur, and a group of Chinese-themed twin sisters (DLC only). There’s also a guy who was clearly meant to be Al-Pharazon but they changed his name, which is about the only smart move they did. This is just silly because the people who know who these people are don’t want to see them stuck with entirely different characters. It’s like revealing Darth Revan’s true identity was Luke Skywalker all along. Even if you explain that he was transported back in time via a wormhole, that doesn’t make it less stupid.
Unfortunately, as silly as the world-building is and the game’s inability to commit to any of its interesting ideas (I’d happily play an entire game of Talion versus a Balrog), the storytelling is by far the best part of the game. The gameplay is decent but the attempt to make it a much-larger open world game and introduce base management elements doesn’t really improve it. The previous game benefited fantastically from the Nemesis System where artificially generated orcs are used to harass Talion, but this has a lot more predetermined ones that are less interesting. There’s also a lot more of them so by the time you’ve killed your 50th Captain, you’re kind of sick of them.
Perhaps the most egregious of trying to push the gamers into unnecessary time-wasting content is that to get the “true” ending, you must do ten sieges of your bases by Sauron’s forces. Sieges are not particularly enjoyable, and these are lacking in any form of story. It’s just time-wasting busy work for a short cutscene that should have been at the end of the game anyway.
I feel like the game doesn’t make use of its set pieces very well, either. You have an entire mission chain in the area around Mount Doom and you never get to go inside but for the New Ring forging scene. The New Ring’s powers are also not particularly well-defined with mind-control being an ability you had in the previous game. I feel like when introducing something like a new Ring of Power, you need to be a little more grandiose in your ambitions. There was more to complain about the game, like loot boxes, but, thankfully, the developers removed those.
In conclusion, Middle Earth: Shadow of War suffers from the fact that they wanted to appeal to the broadest audience possible and that meant making some very big compromises in the lore. I like the original characters for the most part and wouldn’t have had a problem if they had just made Sexy Shelob into another previously unknown fallen Maia. It’s already fanfic with Talion and company, that doesn’t mean it has to be bad fanfic. It’s still a lot of fun playing this game, branding orcs and mind-controlling them, but it’s not as fun as its predecessor due to the slog as well as attempts to push the sieges as a main gameplay element.
Shadow of War•Shadow of War•Shadow of War•Shadow of War•Shadow of War•Shadow of War•Shadow of War•Shadow of War•
The post Game Review – Middle Earth Shadow of War appeared first on BEFOREWEGOBLOG.
Review – Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons by Ben Riggs
Dungeons and Dragons and its parent company in the Eighties, TSR, had a fascinating story that has mostly been shared around by gamers at cons as well as word of mouth for decades. This isn’t the story of the Satanic Panic that both vilified gamers and drove sales through the roof. No, this is a story of the internal politicking that led to the rise of TSR as a corporate entity under Gary Gygax, his loss of the company to Lorraine Williams, and how it was ultimately acquired by Wizards of the Coast before becoming yet another corporate culture.
Generally, popular wisdom holds Gary Gygax as blameless and portrays Lorraine Williams as the villain who stole his company but Ben Riggs has a very different sort of take on things. Indeed, his portrayal of Lorraine Williams makes her every bit as endearingly quirky as the rest of TSR’s creatives. Gary Gygax was a creative genius but a poor businessman according this book, spending boatloads of money on bizarre projects like trying to take a shipwreck from the bottom of a lake as well as a hard-R Dungeons and Dragons movie when they were presently marketing it to kids.
Lorraine Williams was an excellent businesswoman, by contrast, but not as interested in the creative side of things and attempted to keep her distance in the company from employees. Which was bizarre given its tiny size and enthusiastic love of the material. She was also obsessed with the Buck Rogers IP and erroneously believed it would be a massive success. Later, she would attempt to move out of the tabletop roleplaying game business into paperback publishing because they were selling far more of those than they were of games. This, as you could imagine, didn’t go over well with all of the obsessive gamers within.
The book is full of fascinating details and, to be frank, dirt on the history of TSR as well as it’s parents. There’s some genuinely scandalous revelations about the people involved as well as the treatment of employees. Margaret Weis, mother of Dragonlance, made only $30,000 a year while being the best-selling author who was actually keeping the company afloat. Gary Gygax was cut out of a massive portion of his profits that he was entitled to. Random House, of all people, was cheated by TSR when the latter tried to give them a massive amount of product no one was buying (Dragonstrike) in order to get a huge check.
The depiction of TSR in the book is a company that was populated by rabid fans working primarily for their love of the product that didn’t really adjust too well to being an actual business. A lot of bizarre and insane mistakes were made but no one is a true villain. Many people were underpaid (Ed Greenwood was given about $2000 dollars for the Forgotten Realms’ rights and even then only a courtesy) but everyone seemed to love what they were doing until they suddenly weren’t doing it because of mismanagement.
Really, if anyone comes off as a hero of this, it is the most unexpected one in Peter Adkinson. He not only bought TSR despite the company was five million dollars in debt but paid off all of their individual artists, including Gygax. He also was willing to buy the company despite the fact Lorraine Williams had a personal detestation of him that seems to have originated in her belief that Wizards of the Coast was their biggest rival despite them not making tabletop RPGs.
The writing is crisp and humorous, often highlighting the absurdities of the situation without making much in the way of direct judgement. It is an unflattering but not condemnatory depiction of TSR and would make a great basis for a Mad Men or The Pirates of Silicon Valley-esque drama. I strongly recommend this as a easy-to-read introduction into the history of Dungeons and Dragons.
Buy from Amazon
Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons•Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons•Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons•Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons•Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons•Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons•Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons•Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons•
The post Review – Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons by Ben Riggs appeared first on BEFOREWEGOBLOG.
5 Stories of Fantasy and The Wild West
The weird western is a genre-bending and defying area of books that blends the swagger of a classic western novel with the imagination of a fantasy or science fiction book. Pop culture-wise, the weird western reminds me of Malcome Reynolds from Firefly. He was a six-shot revolver-toting man without a home who roamed the universe instead of the deserts of the west US. Firefly is a bit on the proverbial nose when describing a Weird Western. Books from this genre don’t necessarily need someone toting a revolver.
Instead, the books have an overall feel of the wild west mythos.
Sarah Chorn’s Of Honey and Wildfires combines aspects of the old west: railroads, horses, outlaws, and mining with Shine. A substance that flows from the Earth that is a blessing as much as a curse.
Stephen King’s The Gunslinger is arguably said to have kicked off the weird west genre. It is about a man named Roland of Gilead, The Last Gunslinger. “He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which frighteningly mirrors our own, Roland pursues The Man in Black, encounters an alluring woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the Kid from Earth called Jake.”
The Gunslinger also has one of the most evocative opening lines of any novel I have read. “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”
The Last Stand of Mary Good Crow by Rachel Aaron is described as “Deadwood meets The Lord of the Rings in this Epic Fantasy of the West!” And while The Last Stand of Mary Good Crow is not as dark as The Gunslinger, it is also steeped in the feeling of the wild west. It also includes crystals that sing and the incredible powers that the crystals have when harnessed.
His Ragged Company includes sand golems, shootouts, a town marshall, and a little backwater place called Blackpeak, Texas. “Hunted by a cadre of sandshades and hounded by sinister spellcraft, Elias Faust may be the only bag of skin defiant enough to keep Blackpeak from being destroyed. To outlast the Magnate’s disciples, he’ll need to shoot straighter, run faster, and live longer…even if it means sacrificing a part of himself to do just that.”
Bloodrush by fantasy author Ben Galley takes place in a weird western fantasy set in an alternate 1867. A “dusty frontier town of Fell Falls, there is no silverware, no servants, no plush velvet nor towering spires. Only dust, danger and the railway.” It includes magic, Faeries, things that bite, and a boy trying to survive.
1.Of Honey and WildfiresBy Sarah Chorn
“Of Honey and Wildfires is cut from the very same sort of cloth as Krystle Matar’s Legacy of The Brightwash (though Wildfires far predates it), but is a much quicker read, though no less emotionally devastating. So if you enjoy deep dives into the very crevices of the human soul with the trappings of light fantasy, make sure Sarah Chorn’s Of Honey and Wildfires is on your list – not to mention the two sequels. You won’t regret it.”
Of Honey and Wildfires
From the moment the first settler dug a well and struck a lode of shine, the world changed. Now, everything revolves around that magical oil.
What began as a simple scouting expedition becomes a life-changing ordeal for Arlen Esco. The son of a powerful mogul, Arlen is kidnapped and forced to confront uncomfortable truths his father has kept hidden. In his hands lies a decision that will determine the fate of everyone he loves—and impact the lives of every person in Shine Territory.
The daughter of an infamous saboteur and outlaw, Cassandra has her own dangerous secrets to protect. When the lives of those she loves are threatened, she realizes that she is uniquely placed to change the balance of power in Shine Territory once and for all.
Secrets breed more secrets. Somehow, Arlen and Cassandra must find their own truths in the middle of a garden of lies.
Buy from Amazon
2.The GunslingerBy Stephen King
“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.
The desert was the apotheosis of all deserts, huge, standing to the sky for what looked like eternity in all directions. It was white and blinding and waterless and without feature save for the faint, cloudy haze of the mountains which sketched themselves on the horizon and the devil-grass which brought sweet dreams, nightmares, death. An occasional tombstone sign pointed the way, for once the drifted track that cut its way through the thick crust of alkali had been a highway. Coaches and buckas had followed it. The world had moved on since then. The world had emptied.”
About The Gunslinger
In the first book of this brilliant series, Stephen King introduces readers to one of his most enigmatic heroes, Roland of Gilead, The Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which frighteningly mirrors our own, Roland pursues The Man in Black, encounters an alluring woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the Kid from Earth called Jake. Both grippingly realistic and eerily dreamlike, The Gunslinger leaves readers eagerly awaiting the next chapter.
Buy from Amazon
3.The Last Stand of Mary Good Crowby Rachel Aaron
“By midday, though, everyone was up and riled, and the heat made folks mean. There was a reason men dueled at noon.”
About The Last Stand of Mary Good Crow
Deadwood meets The Lord of the Rings in this Epic Fantasy of the West!
Hungry darkness, haunted guns, tunnels that move like snakes—the crystal mines of Medicine Rocks, Montana are a place only the bravest and greediest dare. Discovered in 1866, the miraculous rock known as crystal quickly rose to become the most expensive substance on the planet, driving thousands to break the treaties and invade the sacred buffalo lands of the Sioux. But mining crystal risks more than an arrow in the chest. The beautiful rock has a voice of its own. A voice that twists minds and calls unnatural powers.
A voice that turns men into monsters.
Mary Good Crow hears it. Half white, half Lakota, rejected by both, she’s forged a new life guiding would-be miners through the treacherous caves. To her ears, the crystal sings a beautiful song, one the men she guides would gladly burn her as a witch for hearing. So, when an heiress from Boston arrives with a proposition that could change her life, Mary agrees to push deeper into the caves than she’s ever dared.
But there are secrets buried in the Deep Caves that even Mary doesn’t know. The farther she goes, the closer she gets to the voice that’s been calling her all this time. A voice that could change the bloody story of the West, or destroy it all.
Buy from Amazon
4.His Ragged Companyby Rance D. Denton
“It’s going to be difficult to express how much I adored this book, but I’m going to try my best.
You guys.
This book.”
About His Ragged Company
A pissed-off warlock with a taste for revenge.
An army of sand-golems with fistfuls of magic.
A wishing well with a mind of its own.
No wonder Blackpeak, Texas never got its spot on the map.
Town marshal Elias Faust thinks that he can make any problem go away if he throws enough lead at it. The living’s easy for a lawman. Bloody, but easy – that is, until Magnate Gregdon arrives with his undead syndicate to tear the town of Blackpeak, Texas apart.
When a shootout with a pair of outlaws goes sideways, Elias Faust accidentally draws the Magnate’s attention. As if dealing with arcane sorcery, reanimated corpses, and the Magnate’s personal vendetta aren’t enough, Faust finds himself at the center of a power-struggle for Blackpeak’s eldritch secrets.
Suddenly, staying alive just got a lot more complicated.
Hunted by a cadre of sandshades and hounded by sinister spellcraft, Elias Faust may be the only bag of skin defiant enough to keep Blackpeak from being destroyed. To outlast the Magnate’s disciples, he’ll need to shoot straighter, run faster, and live longer…even if it means sacrificing a part of himself to do just that.
Buy from Amazon
5.Bloodrushby Ben Galley
“What do you think of when we talk of magic?”
Merino scratched his head. “Rabbits in hata. Doves. Cards,” he said.
“Now, that’s magic. What about magick, with a k?”
“I would say you have atrocious spelling.”
About Bloodrush
When Prime Lord Hark is found in a pool of his own blood, his only son Merion Hark finds his world turned upside down and inside out. The Prime Lord’s last will and testament forces Merion west across the Iron Ocean, to the very brink of the Endless Land and all civilisation. To a place they call Wyoming.
In the dusty frontier town of Fell Falls, there is no silverware, no servants, no plush velvet nor towering spires. Only dust, danger and the railway. Merion has only one ally to help him escape the torturous heat and unravel the mystery of his father’s murder: a faerie warrior named Rhin, and a twelve inch-tall outcast of the fae realm.
Revenge and redemption are never easy. There are dark forces at work in Fell Falls, and not just the railwraiths, brigands or the savages. Secrets lurk in Merion’s bloodline. Secrets that will redefine the young Hark, and open up a whole world of magic buried by empire and industry.
Buy from Amazon
The post 5 Stories of Fantasy and The Wild West appeared first on BEFOREWEGOBLOG.
August 31, 2022
Review – Griots: A Sword and Soul Anthology by Milton J. Davis
As with all anthologies, some of the stories really worked for me and others were a miss. The concept of Sword and Soul as a genre is wonderful, and I’m glad Davis included a section in the beginning of the book that explained its origins and the motivations behind its creation. Though the definition given in Griots is more fleshed out, the bare bones definition is, “Sword and Soul is Sword and Sorcery and epic fantasy based on African history, culture and traditions.”
I loved the setting of all of the tales, and the deities/gods that were present were refreshingly different and vividly realized. It certainly felt like I had a new rich world to dive into, and I want more of that. However, the cohesiveness of the collection left me a little confused. Some of the stories read very YA and skewed much younger, but then others in the collection were very decidedly not for younger audiences. I understand the desire to showcase multiple types of voices and writing styles of Black authors, but as a whole, the anthology felt a bit fractured.
Some of the standout stories for me were:
Skin Magic by P Djeli Clark (not a huge surprise as I love their Dead Djinn series already):
A man has ink that writhes under his skin, but unless he can learn to harness the power he wields, it may just ruin him.
The Belly of the Crocodile by Minister Faust:
A very interesting piece of writing told from the perspective of an antagonist; a villain origin story of sorts.
The Three Faced one by Charles R Saunders:
Fantastically written story of a god-touched hero as he stumbles across a conflict between two groups in a forgotten corner of the world. Is this simply human nature at work, or is there a supernatural element to this dispute?
While my overall rating for this is still a 3, the stories I enjoyed, I REALLY enjoyed. So I’m definitely going to be checking out the individual work of those authors as well as reading the Anthology that was released after this one: Griots – Sisters of the Spear.
Buy from Amazon
Griots: A Sword and Soul Anthology•Griots: A Sword and Soul Anthology•Griots: A Sword and Soul Anthology•Griots: A Sword and Soul Anthology•Griots: A Sword and Soul Anthology•Griots: A Sword and Soul Anthology•Griots: A Sword and Soul Anthology•Griots: A Sword and Soul Anthology•
The post Review – Griots: A Sword and Soul Anthology by Milton J. Davis appeared first on BEFOREWEGOBLOG.
August 30, 2022
Review – His Ragged Company by Rance D. Denton
What it’s about:A pissed-off warlock with a taste for revenge.
An army of sand-golems with fistfuls of magic.
A wishing well with a mind of its own.
No wonder Blackpeak, Texas never got its spot on the map.
Town marshal Elias Faust thinks that he can make any problem go away if he throws enough lead at it. The living’s easy for a lawman. Bloody, but easy – that is, until Magnate Gregdon arrives with his undead syndicate to tear the town of Blackpeak, Texas apart.
When a shootout with a pair of outlaws goes sideways, Elias Faust accidentally draws the Magnate’s attention. As if dealing with arcane sorcery, reanimated corpses, and the Magnate’s personal vendetta aren’t enough, Faust finds himself at the center of a power-struggle for Blackpeak’s eldritch secrets.
Suddenly, staying alive just got a lot more complicated.
Hunted by a cadre of sandshades and hounded by sinister spellcraft, Elias Faust may be the only bag of skin defiant enough to keep Blackpeak from being destroyed. To outlast the Magnate’s disciples, he’ll need to shoot straighter, run faster, and live longer…even if it means sacrificing a part of himself to do just that.
My ThoughtsIt’s going to be difficult to express how much I adored this book, but I’m going to try my best.
You guys.
This book.
Okay let me first say that yes, Rance is my friend, but I tried to keep how much I like his face separate from how much I like his book. I didn’t tell him I was reading it at first so he would be blissfully oblivious if His Ragged Company didn’t work for me and he would never have to know if I set it aside. But sure enough the book sucked me in and chewed me up and spit me out and the next thing I knew I was screaming at him in his DMs about how much I loved every brutal minute of it.
I started HRC on ebook and Rance drops you into some action and shouts “HAVE FUN” while riding off into the sunset. We meet Elias Faust dealing with some sheeeit (that’s now his narrator pronounces the word shit and I stg it’s the best thing about the audiobook) and it takes a minute for the reader to catch the rhythm of the mad canter that the narrative is pulling, but then just when the reader thinks they don’t know what’s what, the narrative takes a deep breath and gives us time to catch us.
At first, it’s not immediately clear that HRC is fantasy, as it takes place in Texas. (Is Blackpeak a real town? I don’t know. I don’t think so?) The first trials and tribulations faced by our trigger happy Marshal Faust seem mundane (albeit deliciously, unflinchingly violent) so maybe it’s just a Western, right?
Wrong.
Something dreadful and ominous in building in the background. Things are happening that begin to catch Faust’s attention. Folks are talking about a Magnate and strange things are happening. Some reviews criticize HRC for feeling like a series of connected short stories, but I think that’s the magic of Rance’s narrative. He draws us in with something familiar—a Western—and then slowly begins to fold in the unfamiliar, the fantasy. Sand zombies, all-powerful beings, a girl made of gold, the Well. He takes a very human and (dare I say) common story of a hard-as-nails lawman in a small town, and shakes that story down to its very foundation, reassembling it into something that transcends the sum total of the stories he told.
Rance’s characters are in turn delightful, heart-breaking, and enraging in all the right places. (Poor Curtis.) His violence hits as hard as Peggy Winters does. His book is not for the faint of heart. Something happened to Faust’s fingers and it made me CRINGE:
“You’d be surprised how much you need index fingers.”
But boy let me tell you I loved every horrible minute of it. AND THE SMACK TALK BETWEEN THE CHARACTERS truly it is the highlight of Rance’s style. I had to go digging around through my highlights and this one made me snort-laugh even though I don’t even remember the context:
“Out here you’re just a cold turd with bad aim and nuts the size of a jack-rabbit’s eyeball.”
I would absolutely recommend His Ragged Company to anyone who likes Western vibes, “OH SHIT” magic, violence that makes your fingers ache, slow-burn storytelling that packs a bloody punch, a painful introspection about the impact of killing, and a character that forces you to confront what love is (is it something beautiful? or something selfish?), and character work that shines in the grey parts of morality. The darkness of the violence is superbly balanced by the irreverent humor of all the characters, and the surprisingly loyalty between them.
And if you’re an audiobook listener like me, definitely scoop this one up on Audible. John Pirhalla lives and breathes all the vibes I crave from a Western setting. Sheeit, it’s a damn good time.
Check Out Some of Our Other ReviewsReview – A Drowned Kingdom by PL Stuart
Review – The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison
Buy from Amazon
His Ragged Company•His Ragged Company•His Ragged Company•His Ragged Company•His Ragged Company•His Ragged Company•His Ragged Company•His Ragged Company•
The post Review – His Ragged Company by Rance D. Denton appeared first on BEFOREWEGOBLOG.
August 29, 2022
House of the Dragon – 1×02 “The Rogue Prince”
HOUSE OF THE DRAGON 1×02 “THE ROGUE PRINCE” is, as the title indicates, the second episode of the House of the Dragon series from HBO. The prequel to Game of Thrones, it is a chronicle of the Dance of the Dragons civil war detailed in George R.R. Martin’s Fire and Blood. I very much was excited for this episode and started writing my review as soon as I finished watching it for the second time. Why twice? Because one view isn’t enough.
The first thing that I must comment on is the fact that the new opener is fantastic with a drizzle of blood moving through King Viserys’ model of Old Valyria. It’s a sign that everything is going to be even more ominous and nasty than Game of Thrones. The theme music is the same from Game of Thrones, which is a bit like reusing the Star Wars theme. Yes, it’s not original but it’s hard to top perfection.
This is an action-less episode as it instead focuses on King Viserys and his choice to wed a new bride after the death of his beloved Aemma Arryn. Unfortunately, the best candidate for him to wed is the twelve-year-old daughter of Corys Velaryon. This is something that no one else seems to have a problem with while Viserys, to his credit, is viscerally disgusted by the prospect of.
Unfortunately, Viserys doesn’t win any points with the fact he is willing to marry a girl his daughter’s age. I think with things like the recent Baptist Church, Utah Church, and Matt Gaetz scandals that this is unfortunately topical and shouldn’t remotely be topical.
I also lost a lot of respect for Corys for the exact same thing that Otto Hightower was doing (i.e. pimping his daughter) except even worse due to her age. Mind you, Viserys should have tried to heal the rift by marrying Rhaenyra to Laenor, his son, or at least made a betrothal with them. Rhaenyra as a married monarch is something that would be less controversial among the Lords of Westeros.
Viserys trying to stand up for himself by marrying an actual woman and yet playing into Ser Otto’s hands is an interesting character beat. It shows that he wants to be powerful but he’s really a puppet and desperate for Otto’s approval. The fact that “I cannot permit you to go” from Otto WORKS when Viserys is about to confront his brother is something no Targaryen or king should have tolerated.
Speaking of which, the next major plot point is Daemon Targaryen attempting to get his brother’s attention by stealing a dragon egg, taking over Dragonstone, and claiming he plans to marry a second wife in violation of the Faith. It fails spectacularly and only avoids becoming a massacre of the King’s Hand and his guard due to the timely intervention of Rhaenyra. It’s also a clear sign to Otto that she’s not the meek puppet her father is and is unsuitable as a potential monarch for the same reason that Daemon isn’t: they won’t be his pawns.
I truly believe Ser Otto didn’t think Rhaenyra would rule or attempt to assert her authority. In retrospect, it’s clear they’re going with the idea that Ser Otto believed she’d be another Viserys he could control assuming that she became queen before Viserys married his daughter. The fact she asserts herself as much as she does sets the stages for his betrayal–with the Kingsguard, her speaking up, and of course her rescuing him on dragonback.
Really, I liked that Otto Hightower was within minutes of being killed by Daemon and all of his men when the dragon blasted them because, of course, Otto wouldn’t back down. It’s a sign that Otto isn’t nearly as intelligent as he thinks he is outside of his comfort zone. He’s so used to being the King (rather than the Hand of the King) that he utterly underestimated how far Daemon would go. It was a nice, “Power is power.”
I think I like Alicent’s character arc here as she’s being forced into the scheming role by her father but is clearly anxiety ridden and terrified of all the repercussions that might hit her. I actually kind of think this is a valid take on her character from the books because we think of the scheming Cersei-like Alicent a lot but we don’t think of her, “kindly nurse Alicent who used to read to Old King Joe.” Still, she doesn’t want to marry Viserys but is being forced to seduce him in sweet ways that amount to faking interest in his Warhammer 40K models.
I enjoyed the fact that I got to hear some more dialogue from Mysaria, Daemon’s mistress, but it is done in a terrible “Essos” accent that I think really distracts from the actress’ performance. Still, it’s nice to have any Smallfolk or commoner’s perspective on these sorts of things. I also like how she points out that Daemon’s antics won’t get him killed but might get her killed.
In conclusion, this is a solid episode, but I think the lack of humor and action is a bit of an issue. We could have used a more humorous set of characters to provide levity to the storyline. The fact that so much is spent on child brides and build-up for the inevitable Dance of the Dragons is also a bit of an issue. I can’t help but wonder if they might have been better served by starting with the beginning of the conflict with all of this as backstory.
THE ROGUE PRINCE•THE ROGUE PRINCE•THE ROGUE PRINCE•THE ROGUE PRINCE•THE ROGUE PRINCE•THE ROGUE PRINCE•THE ROGUE PRINCE•THE ROGUE PRINCE•
The post House of the Dragon – 1×02 “The Rogue Prince” appeared first on BEFOREWEGOBLOG.
Review – A Drowned Kingdom by PL Stuart
Some fantasy authors like to start off their books with a propulsive, action packed prologue or first chapter that grips you by the throat and doesn’t let go. Other authors start low key and atmospheric that gives you a sense of the churning magmatic story, building and rising to a crescendoing eruption. P. L. Stuart’s A Drowned Kingdom falls under the latter and is all the more absorbing and impactful because of it.
A Drowned Kingdom is book one of The Drowned Kingdom Saga and follows the Second Prince of Atalantyx, Othrun who must lead his exiled people across the Shimmering Sea in search of a new home on a mysterious continent inhabited by pagan worshippers, mages and contend with the bitter rivalry between clans.
The first thing I want to talk about is P. L. Stuart’s prose. He writes with such elegance and poetical poise that I found myself immersed and enveloped by his words which caused me to take care in my reading, consuming the world he was creating. I studied Classical Studies many years back and we had to take a critical look at such works as the letters of Pliny the Elder, a Roman author and the letters of Cicero, a Roman philosopher and political theorist. A Drowned Kingdom is written in the first person by Second Prince Othrun, framed in a narrative much like a chronicle and I could just imagine archaeologists or historians unearthing these big tomes of the exodus of Othrun and his people, much like reading Pliny or Cicero. It felt like a story told rather than read.
This immersive first person narrative also helps to create a deeply rich and textured history and culture that feels essential and personal to the exiled Atalanteans. Their heritage and their belief in the Single God is critical to their everyday lives and their hope of finding a new home. Stuart presents religion and faith in such an authentic and fascinating way, particularly the clash between monotheistic and polytheistic beliefs of the Atalanteans and the pagan clans of the continent. Prince Othrun, as he attempts to build alliances to rebuild his kingdom, starts to learn more about the power of the pagan beliefs and his inner struggles with his own faith is critical to his character’s arc.
A Drowned Kingdom is very much a character driven story and as such, as mentioned at the beginning, this is a slow burn novel. Stuart allows us to inhabit the world with the characters, get to know their strengths, their flaws, their fears and motivations. Political machinations, divided loyalties and family power are at the heart of the first part of the book before we move on to asking questions about a civilisations survival, rebuilding a fallen kingdom and maintaining its legacy. Prince Othrun is a man of many strengths, but also a flawed man. He is at times elitist and dismissive of other beliefs other than his own and much of the book explores his own questioning.
The framed narrative or first person narrative is one of my favourite mode of storytelling, though I know it isn’t for everyone, so I would always put that at the forefront of recommending this book to anyone. Two of my favourite authors write this way, Patrick Rothfuss and Christopher Ruocchio. P. L. Stuart now ranks with those guys for me. A Drowned Kingdom is a breath-taking piece of fantasy. Absorbing, contemplative and wrought with pain and hope, Stuart has created a stunning world that I can’t wait to return too and inhabit again with these brilliantly realised characters. An easy 5/5.
*Both PL Stuart and Luke Winch are a part of BWGB; this does not affect the reviewing of PL’s book.
Buy from Amazon
A Drowned Kingdom•A Drowned Kingdom•A Drowned Kingdom•A Drowned Kingdom•A Drowned Kingdom•A Drowned Kingdom•A Drowned Kingdom•A Drowned Kingdom•
The post Review – A Drowned Kingdom by PL Stuart appeared first on BEFOREWEGOBLOG.
August 28, 2022
#SPFBO8 Semi-Finalist Review – BAKER THIEF by Claudie Arseneault
I endorse “Baker Thief” to move forward to the semi-finals round in Before We Go Blog for SPFBO 8.
I have provided an honest review of this book below for purposes of the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO) Number 8 competition in which this book is entered, and assigned to Before We Go Blog for judging. My next SPFBO read was the steampunk fantasy/sci-fi “Baker Thief” by Claudie Arsenault. This was a fantastic, fun, thoughtful novel that combined superpowers, witches, non-romantic love, police procedural, semi-dark fantasy with a cozy fantasy feel, and some of the most positive inclusion and diverse representation I have read in any fantasy book. Let me qualify this review by saying I am cisgender, heterosexual male, therefore, I am not a member of the LGBTQIA2S+ community, though I consider myself an ally of that community. I beg indulgence in my analysis here, as I likely will be inadequate or inaccurate in appropriately capturing all the elements in this book related to LGBTQIA2S+. Please forgive me, in advance. I will do my best to do justice in this regard. The book centres around the primary characters of Claude and Claire, and Adéle, their intensifying relationship. Claude and Claire are the genderfluid, aromantic owner of the Croissant-toi, a lovely pastry shop that delights its loyal customers with tasty, comforting food and a warm, caring atmosphere. They utilize the “he/him” pronouns as Claude, while Claire uses the “she/her” pronouns. But Claude and Claire are hiding a secret lifestyle, as a burglar by night. The reason for the nighttime thievery? Claude and Claire discover that their city’s utility company is engaged in a reprehensible practice, and aim to stop it. The city is – by force – corralling those residents who are magic-users, draining them of their life force, and tapping into that life force as a means of a substitute for hydro-electric power in the city. The conduit for this new power obtained are bright red gems called exocores, which contain the essence of the magic-users inside. Claude and Claire are also a magic-user. The brave and good-hearted Claude and Claire elect to steal the exocores to prevent this horrible exploitation, and save their magic-user brethren. So by day, while Claude bakes treats and lifts the spirits of his clientele, by night Claire prowls the rooftops of the city, stealing exocores. Then everything changes when Claude and Claire’s beloved twin sister, a magic-user herself, vanishes, making their crusade to save the city’s mages a lot more personal. Meanwhile, Adéle is a police officer, who has relocated to the city where Claude and Claire live. Nervous about fitting in with her new service, just prior to her first day on the job, she is the victim of Claire’s theft. Adéle is perturbed that she has her own exocore stolen by the jovial, nonchalant, but capable thief, puzzled by Claire’s demeanour, and frustrated by her inability to immediately thwart the thief. Adéle vows to track down Claire and bring her to justice, impressing her new colleagues in the process, and redeeming herself from the embarrassment of letting Claire get the upper hand. Little does Adéle realize that the personable and charismatic baker Claude whom Adéle is developing feelings for, and pondering dating, is also Claire, her nemesis. But when Adéle uncovers the true nature of Claude and Claire’s secret vigilante activities, will she be on the side of the law, or the side of what’s right? And what about her burgeoning feelings for them? And theirs for her? The characters in this book were stupendous, and the job that Arsenault did with characterization is marvellous. As someone in law enforcement, I really gravitated towards Adéle’s character, the issues she faced balancing her morals with her duty, some of the challenges of working as a police officer within police culture (which has many positives, however definitely has many concerns, including a propensity to become toxic). She is also very human, with a physical challenge in asthma, and many human frailties. I love when a peak behind the tough and outwardly invincible exterior of coppers reveals their very mortal and highly vulnerable side. Claude and Claire were also fantastic. I was reminded of the duality in all of us, through Claude and Claire’s gender fluidity. People are complex and made of many different sides, where even the opposite characteristics can be contained in one person. Claire is saucy, flamboyant, brilliant, enchanting, while Claude is witty, reserved, gentle, charismatic. While I wanted a bit more out of the supplementary characters being fleshed out, the protagonists were so strong that it did not detract from my overall enjoyment, however slightly from the overall score. Still, I adored the fact that there were characters with prosthetics, disabled characters, characters with mental health concerns. The depictions were well-rounded and amazingly representative, if not sometimes left somewhat less explored to the depth that I would have desired. The themes in the book are poignant. Aresenault takes the dilemma of an aromantic character and a demisexual character trying to sort out the boundaries, context, unique needs, comfort zones, and challenges of their relationship, and I found it extremely compelling. Arsenault illustrated that non-romantic love can be just as interesting as non-romantic love, and actually takes many of the common tropes associated with romantic love and flip some readers’ expectations, brilliantly. The author also pulls no punches about the difficulties of dealing with having to identify with a gender that one does not feel they belong to. There is assuredly some darkness to the book, including human experimentation, genocide, police violence, with perseuction, usury, even torture and murder of the witches. However, in the queer-normative society, not Utopian by any means, it is free of queer persecution. This was a refreshing take in terms of worldbuilding. Yet the darkness is presented in such a contrastingly humour, light style and flavour, the book often feels very much, as alluded to in the beginning of this review, like cozy fantasy, as opposed to dark urban fare. And oh, that worldbuilding, which had me at being analogous with Quebec. As a Canadian who has visited and fallen in love particularly with Quebec City, upon which I believe the main setting is based, I could literally taste and smell the cuisine, feel the cobblestones beneath my feet, and drink in the sights while reading this book. Replete with the colloquialisms of Francophone society, the witticisms, even French-inspired neopronouns, this world had me captivated, and I loved spending every minute immersed in it. Love for this book truly snuck up on me, and by the quarter way point, I was fully invested, and absolutely enamoured with it. The diverting themes, the trope subversion, the allosexual aromantic representation, the levity, wit, and light-hearted touch balanced with the darker themes, were so skillfully done. The trans, ace and aro spectrum characters, the enchanting and familiarly comforting setting, the mystery and police thriller elements, everything hit me in the feels. I endorse “Baker Thief” to move forward to the semi-finals round in Before We Go Blog for SPFBO 8. If I consider a book a five-star read, those are the books I will be recommending to be put forward for advancement to either a quarter-final, semi-final, or final round of SPFBO within Before We Go Blog. For “Baker Thief,” my score is 4.50, rounded up to 5 out of 5 stars. Check Out Some of Our Other Reviews#SPFBO8 Review and Cut – The Empire’s Lion by Nathan Tudor
#SPFBO8 Review and Cut – The Night Comes Alive by Ross Hughes
Buy from Amazon
Baker thief•Baker thief•Baker thief•Baker thief•Baker thief•Baker thief•Baker thief•Baker thief•
The post #SPFBO8 Semi-Finalist Review – BAKER THIEF by Claudie Arseneault appeared first on BEFOREWEGOBLOG.
August 27, 2022
Review – The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison
THE GRIEF OF STONES by Katherine Addison is the third installment of The Goblin Emperor series as well as the second in The Cemetaries of Amalo series. Confusing? Well, it shouldn’t be. All three books are set in the same universe, but this is only the second installment of the adventures of Thara Celehar, Witness for the Dead. It is his job to talk to the dead and give them justice if they have any lingering regrets.
Thara Celehar has been continuing his work in the city of Amalo when he finds himself recruited for yet another murder investigation. In this case, a beloved noblewoman heavily involved in the education of young girls has died mysteriously, and an autopsy confirms it was poisoning. Thara soon finds himself investigating a school for young girls, the insidious new technology called photography, and more.
I think The Grief of Stones is slightly better than Witness for the Dead because we introduce Thara Celehar’s apprentice, Velhiro Tomasaran, who is a young widow that has recently come into her own power to communicate with the dead. She provides a much needed contrast to Thara’s stoic and conflict-adverse nature. She’s not even that emotional but Thara is so introverted that she still comes off as a refreshing change of pace.
I like how Katherine Addison continues to build her strange fantasy steampunk world. We discover, for example, the profession of photographer is considered an unseemly one. This is because everyone assumes every photographer is a pornographer and pervert. It is a thoroughly disreputable profession despite the fact that it has a large interest from older noble women who use it for other things (presumably).
I actually really enjoyed the investigation into photography, particularly lurid photography, because the scandal of having posed for pornography is a rarely-used trope in fantasy for obvious reasons. The fact Thane Celehar has almost no opinion on the subject due to his own complicated relationship to obscenity laws (correction: he’s got many opinions but they’re “safe, sane, and consensual and it’s none of my business”) makes for an interesting take as well.
This continues to be an entertaining and fascinating occult mystery series with Thara using his ability to speak with the dead as well as investigative techniques to track down numerous problems. There’s also a number of fun subversions like our protagonist not even having to talk to the corpse since the murderer knows he’s cooked the moment that a Witness for the Dead is brought in.
Amalo feels like an authentic city with all of its sleaze, class differences, racial tension, and more. I wouldn’t say its realistic but I believed in the characters despite the fact they have a massive haunted hill that includes a tomb with a lich in it. Still, it’s rapidly becoming one of my favorite settings and while I’d prefer to follow the Goblin Emperor, Maia, I’m willing to stick with Celehar for the time being.
Review – The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison
Buy from Amazon
the grief of stones•the grief of stones•the grief of stones•the grief of stones•the grief of stones•the grief of stones•the grief of stones•the grief of stones•
The post Review – The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison appeared first on BEFOREWEGOBLOG.
