Jonathan Moeller's Blog, page 329

A THRONE OF BONES, by Vox Day

I didn’t have much time to work over the Christmas holidays, which I suppose is the point of the Christmas holidays. But I did have quite a bit of time to read. So let’s have some book reviews!

A THRONE OF BONES, by Vox Day, is one of the more ambitious epic fantasy novels I have read. To understand how this book works, consider these three historical periods:

-The Roman Republic at about 148 BC or so (or about 91 BC, right at the start of the Social War), after the final defeat of Carthage, when the acquisition of provinces and an empire corroded Rome’s senatorial oligarchy.

-The high medieval Catholic Church at the height of its intellectual and spiritual vigor. Say about 1250 AD or so, roughly the time of Thomas Aquinas and Roger Bacon and Albertus Magnus and Robert Grossteste.

-Early modern France, perhaps about the time of Louis XI the Spider King, when the French king wielded vast power, but could still be challenged by unruly noblemen.

Now collapse these three time periods into one, add goblins and elves and sorcery, and you’ll have the setting of A THRONE OF BONES. So you have republican-era Roman legions fighting goblin tribes on the frontier, only to return in haste to Rome when the Pope is murdered by a sorcerer, while French knights battle against a race of werewolves.

The plot centers around the Sacred Republic of Amorr (which is, of course, “Roma” spelled backwards with an extra R) and an impending civil war between several factions of Amorran noble families, along with the peculiar circumstances around the death of the Sanctiff, the head of the Church. Meanwhile, the King of Savondir (the fantasy version of late medieval France) receives an appeal from the Dalarn, a Viking-like culture from the northern isles. They’re about to be wiped out by invaders, and desperately seek to settle in the King’s lands. Elsewhere a huge horde of orcs prepares to invade the Amorran lands, and there are are rumblings that an ancient shadow war between a mysterious group of immortal sorcerers is about to come into the open.

I enjoyed the historical verisimilitude of the novel, especially the depiction of the Amorran republican legions. (It is in my opinion a bit fallacious to argue for historical “realism” in fantasy novels – if a book has characters that can shoot lightning bolts from their fingers, the writer have taken realism out back to be shot. Historical verisimilitude is then the best the writer can reach for, then, something I’ve done myself.)  In that vein, battle scenes are very well done. Additionally, none of the characters are caricatures. All of the nobles involved in, say, the Amorran civil war, have completely understandable motives for their actions, and none of the (human) characters are villainous so much as they hold incompatible views of how the world should work.

The author deliberately wrote the book in response to the moral nihilism of many contemporary epic fantasy novels. Many elements, in particular the civil war between noble families, seems to owe its inspiration to George R.R. Martin’s A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE (though SONG was based on the War of the Roses, and A THRONE OF BONES seems based on the Social War of the Roman Republic.) The character of Corvus, for example, seems similar to Ned Stark in SONG, and like Ned Stark, makes a honorable but nonetheless stupid decision that has long-reaching bad consequences. Additionally, the character of Severa is quite similar to Cersei Lannister. All that said, the author tells his own story, and Severa is a more interesting character than Cersei (who seems to have, by the latest volume of SONG, been transformed into the permanent bearer of the Idiot Ball).

In the end, I enjoyed the book and recommend it, though with a caution that someone thoroughly familiar with Roman history would enjoy the book more (a glossary of characters, many of whom have very similar names and are interrelated, would be welcome, along with perhaps a glossary of terms for readers who are unsure of the difference between a praetor, a propraetor, and a quaestor), and that I will reserve final judgment until the last volume of the series comes out.

As a final note, this book proves one of my favorite points – that -self-publishing ebooks will lead to far more diverse and rich literature. (The book has a paper edition, but I am certain the ebook will vastly outsell it during the lifetime of the book.) Yes, the book was published through a small press, but the author just as easily could have put it out himself. To put it bluntly, this is an excellent book, but not one that would have been placed with a large publisher, partly because of its complexity, and partly because the author’s personal politics (which don’t turn up in the book) are sharply at odds with the mushy SWPL-ism of most editors at large publishers. Ebooks give writers the ability to reach an audience previously only enjoyed by the 0.1% of writers published by large houses.

-JM

a sixth excerpt from SOUL OF SKULLS

Happy New Year, everyone! Let’s have another excerpt from SOUL OF SKULLS:

“See,” said the bandit, “this is my road, and there’s a toll for passing through. We’ll take your horses, and that fine armor and sword of yours.” His eyes flicked over Mazael’s armor of dragon scales and Lion’s golden pommel. “And any food you have, too. Then you can go peacefully on your way. Wouldn’t want…”

“Stop talking,” said Mazael.

The armored bandit blinked in surprise.

Mazael dropped from the saddle. Fighting from horseback would be useless in the thick trees. He reached up, pulled his shield down from the saddle, and slid it onto his left arm.

The bandit laughed. “Now, I can appreciate gallantry, but surely you don’t mean to fight! We have you outnumbered twenty to…”

“I said,” said Mazael, “to stop talking. I will give you exactly one chance to save your life. Those peasants you robbed a few hours ago? You will return their goods, and then leave your life of banditry. Otherwise I’m going to kill you all.”

The armored bandit’s mask of jollity vanished in a moment, and Mazael heard the creak of drawn bowstrings.

“You think you can lord over us?” snarled the bandit. “You know what I’ll do? I’ll take that fancy sword and ram it so far up your arse you’ll taste steel. And then we’ll take your daughter, right in front of you, and make you watch as we…”

Molly’s derisive laugh drowned out the bandit’s threats.

“You?” she said. “Please. Your heart would give out from exertion long before you finished.”

Some of the waiting archers laughed.

“Kill them all!” roared the armored bandit, lifting his spiked axe…

-JM

writing plans for 2013

I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions. If you want to do something big and grand, I urge you to start it now, immediately, without delay. Otherwise you’ll end up like the people in this commercial. (Ironically, I saw this commercial while running on the treadmill at the gym.)

New Year’s Resolutions aside, this is what I would like, Lord willing, to accomplish writing-wise in 2013:

-Finish the DEMONSOULED series. I’m in the final phases of SOUL OF SKULLS, which should come out in January or February. After that, there’s one book left to write – SOUL OF SWORDS. Hopefully I can get that done sometime in the summer.

-Continue THE GHOSTS series. As soon as I finish SOUL OF SKULLS, it’s time to start the  next GHOSTS book, GHOST IN THE FORGE. I’d like to have that done by the end of April, after which I want to start SOUL of SWORDS.

-Start a new series. After I finish SOUL OF SWORDS, I would like to write the first book in a new series. More thoughts on that later.

-Do a novel in THE THIRD SOUL series. I’ve been at a loss on how to continue the series, but the other night (while on the treadmill, appropriately enough) an idea came to me. I haven’t been able to figure out how to continue Rachaelis’s and Corthain’s character arcs. So the answer is to do a novel with new characters in the same setting, which would then link up with Rachaelis’s and Corthain’s plotline in the next installment. More information on this to come.

-Another GHOSTS book after GHOST IN THE FORGE. I’ll probably write that in in fall of 2013, and I haven’t decided on a title yet. I’m not sure what’s going to happen in that book, since I have to write GHOST IN THE FORGE first.

-Expand into paper books. It occurred to me in December that I had missed an opportunity by not having paper books available. People don’t buy ebooks as gifts. They buy ebooks for themselves. They do, however, buy paper books as gifts. So by 2013′s holiday season, I wanted to have at least some of my novels available in paper form. Consequently, I’ve been teaching myself CreateSpace. I suspect like ebook formatting, the first one is the hardest, and after that it’s easier because you have a template from which to work.

Anyway, those are the writing goals that will take priority in 2013. The stuff below is what I’d like to do, if there’s time:

-More short stories. I used to write a lot of short fiction, but it’s fallen by the wayside in the last few years. But my book series take place in this big rambling fictional universes, and there’s a lot of room for short stories in them. So if there’s time, I’d like to do some $0.99 short stories in the DEMONSOULED, THE GHOSTS, and THE THIRD SOUL settings.

-Additional tech books. But probably not until the second half of 2012, since I want to focus on fiction until SOUL OF SWORDS is done.

And that is what I would like to accomplish, writing-wise, in 2013.

-JM

THE TOWER OF ENDLESS WORLDS – now free on Amazon UK

THE TOWER OF ENDLESS WORLDS, the first volume of my urban fantasy series, is now available for free on Amazon UK. Follow the link to get it!

It’s also available for free on the new Nook UK site, if you’re in the UK and got a Nook for Christmas.

-JM

a free Android Office Suite for 12/26

As of this writing, Office Suite Professional 6 is free on the Amazon App Store.

Writing on a tablet with a Bluetooth keyboard is not, in my opinion, a super-great experience. That said, there are people who love it, and it’s useful if you need to concentrate because multitasking (and therefore goofing off) is harder on a tablet than on a full PC. I will sometimes do shorter pieces on a tablet, and I like Office Suite Professional a great deal, because of all the Android word processors I have tried, Office Suite Professional is so far the only one to include a word count.

So if you have an Android tablet or phone and you want to do some word processing on it, hit the above link right now and get it while it’s still free.

-JM

SOUL OF SKULLS – the cover art

Cover image copyright Nejron | Dreamstime.com

Now that Christmas is past us, here’s the cover art for SOUL OF SKULLS.

I’ve been making good progress on the book lately, and it looks like a late January release is likely. Stay tuned!

-JM

free Christmas ebooks for your new Kindle, Kindle Fire HD, Nook HD, iPad, iPad Mini, iPod Touch, Kobo Arc, and every other sort of ereader and tablet

It’s Christmas, and you might have been fortunate enough to get an iPad or a Kindle Fire or a Nook HD or some other form of tablet or ereader. If you did, you probably want to fill it up with content. And if you do, I’ve got four free ebooks for you:

DEMONSOULED is the first novel of my DEMONSOULED series, sword-and-sorcery tales chronicling the adventures of the knight Mazael Cravenlock as he wages war against serpent men, inhuman invaders, dragons, and other creatures. I’ve written five books in this series, with a sixth one coming out early in 2013. You can get DEMONSOULED for free at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Nook UK, iTunes, and Smashwords, and also at Amazon.co.uk.

CHILD OF THE GHOSTS is the first book of my THE GHOSTS series, about the adventures of Caina Amalas, an elite spy and assassin who fights rogue sorcerers, slave traders, corrupt lords, and anyone else who threatens to overthrow the Empire of Nighmar.  There are five books in the series, with the sixth book planned for spring 2013. CHILD OF THE GHOSTS is available for free at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Nook UK, iTunes, and Smashwords, and also at Amazon.co.uk.

THE TESTING is the first novella in “The Third Soul” series, about Rachaelis Morulan, an apprentice mage in the corrupt Conclave of Araspan. It’s free at Amazon, Amazon UK,Barnes & Noble, Nook UK, iTunes, and Smashwords.

THE TOWER OF ENDLESS WORLDS is the first book in an urban fantasy series about an evil wizard from a high medieval fantasy world and an evil politician from Chicago. The politician gives the wizard guns to conquer his world, and the wizard teaches the politician black magic to dominate the political scene. Get it for free at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Nook UK,  iTunes, and Smashwords.

Happy reading!

SOUL OF SKULLS – a fifth excerpt

Let’s have one final SOUL OF SKULLS excerpt before Christmas. This one introduces Caraster, one of the new villains in the book:

He expected Gerald to react with anger at the insults, but Lord Malden’s youngest son remained icy calm. “And butchering people at random is better?”

“Not random!” shouted Caraster. “No, not random. I will find the nobles. I will find the merchants. I will find the lying, sniveling priests. I will find everyone who is rich, everyone who has more than his neighbor. Then I shall kill them all, and take their stolen wealth and give it to the poor. I will rear raise a new order on the ashes of the world, a world where there are no wealthy men, where no one shall go without bread.”

“A fine dream,” said Gerald. “But you seek to make the world clean by washing it in blood. That, in the end, will lead only to more blood.”

“You say that because you are corrupt,” said Caraster, “because you cannot see the purity of the new world I will fashion. I will cleanse the world of all evil – and I shall kill you and all your family.”

Needless to say, you would not want a Christmas card from Caraster.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

-JM

Reader Question Day #49 – new characters in GHOST IN THE FORGE

Note that this week’s Reader Question Day contains some spoilers for GHOST IN THE STONE.

Stefanie asks:

Hi, I was wondering if you’re planning on adding any new characters in Ghost in the Forge. Are any old characters going to come back? (Besides Kylon, we all know he has to come back) My friend and I love your books, even though shes way further behind then I am.

Thanks!

Kylon is definitely going to come back. The POV in GHOST IN THE FORGE will rotate between Caina, Corvalis, and Kylon.

Other old characters may come back. I haven’t decided which ones yet, since I haven’t finished writing the outline. I know how GHOST IN THE FORGE will begin, and how it will end, but I’m still a bit vague on the middle. So it hasn’t been entirely finalized yet (and, honestly, it won’t be finalized until I hit the PUBLISH button – I made some tweaks to the last scene between Caina and Corvalis literally twenty minutes before I put the book up.)

There will be some new characters, and a few of them will be connected to Corvalis. He had quite an eventful life before he met Caina, and did make some friends, along with some enemies. So some of them will seek him out.

Also, Caina has the Moroaica’s soul riding around inside her skull, and the Moroaica had a lot of enemies. Some of them might decide that the best way to get rid of the Moroaica is to deal with Caina.

Additionally, a few characters that have only been mentioned by name, like the First Magus, or Yaramzod the Black of Anshan, will appear for the first time, since some of the world’s most powerful sorcerers will gather in one place for reasons explained below.

Whats Caina’s next adventure?

Caina’s next adventure will be GHOST IN THE FORGE.

GHOST IN THE STONE will open up with Halfdan contacting Caina, immediately after the resolution of events in Cyrioch. The Masked Ones, a college of sorcerers ruling over the neutral city of Catecharon, claim to have created a weapon of sorcery so powerful that it will bring victory to whichever nation wields it.

And for some reason, the Masked Ones are offering this weapon to the highest bidder.

Caina is sent to make sure that the weapon goes to the Empire…or, better yet, that it is destroyed in an “accident.”

Also, I suspect people will want to know what happened after the last scene in the last chapter of GHOST IN THE STONE. So we’ll deal with that as well.

-JM

The End of Earth and Sky, by Tom Simon

Tom Simon has a new book out, THE END OF EARTH AND SKY. You might recall Mr. Simon as the author of the excellent LORD TALON’S REVENGE, which I reviewed back in August. I have picked up THE END OF EARTH AND SKY (and will probably read it while traveling over the next few weeks), and if your budget allows it, I urge you to do the same.

(If you’re an Amazon Prime member, the book will be free to borrow for the next three months.)

-JM