Alex C. Telander's Blog, page 77
July 13, 2012
“The Warded Man” by Peter V. Brett (Del Rey, 2009)
The first book in Peter V. Brett’s debut series, The Demon Cycle, does a number of things all great epic fantasy books should do to grab readers and never let them go. He has created an interesting world that feels both familiar and yet new and different at the same time. He uses a magic system that is both easily understandable and quite simple, but also incredibly cool. He creates an enemy that is constant and seemingly unrelenting. He has a relatively large cast that he keeps clear and separated, so readers know who is who. Finally, he packs a lot of action and story and character development into the first book to keep readers hungry for the next books in the five-book series.
The Warded Man begins with simple beginnings, as most epic fantasies do, and while the theme of this series is that of the hero archetype that just about any fantasy reader is already familiar with, to shake things up a little, Brett introduces three potential heroes to be. This is a world of demons, which rise up at sunset each night — wood demons, fire demons, rock demons — they exist in most forms, collectively known as corelings, since they rise up at nightfall from the earth, proceeding to wreak havoc, destruction and death on the people of this world. The only thing that can stop them are wards: specific wards of protection to keep them at bay; if they have been correctly done, there is a flare of magic and the demon can get no closer, but if the ward is covered or partially rubbed out, it becomes an open doorway for the demon to enter and kill. The origin and history of these demons is revealed from various viewpoints, though it is not exactly certain where they came from or why this happened; what is known is that each night at sundown everyone needs to be behind the wards, or there will be bodies to clean up at dawn.
Our titular main character is Arlen, a young boy who lives in a simple town that trains its people how to draw wards. Arlen is more skilled than most, with the incredible ability to draw the wards in exactly the right way to grant full protection; he also has many of them memorized, and is a quick learner. After a devastating demon attack leaves his mother almost dead, when Arlen had to rescue her while his father just stared in horror, helpless with fear, she eventually dies and the boy can no longer look the father in the face. He flees in search of the messenger, a man of a particular order who travels the lands to deliver mail and messages, but are also trained in the ways of wards to protect themselves on the roads at night against the demons. Arlen has his own learning experience that is the first part of his long and dangerous quest to become the scary but powerful person known as “the warded man.”
There is Leesha, who is a young, beautiful girl looking to wed the man of her dreams, even though she is just thirteen. But in this harsh world, one’s life expectancy is incredibly short with the demons coming every night, so having every girl becoming a woman when her cycle begins makes sense for the survival of the people and its propagation. In various cities, women who bear children become known as Mothers, important people in society, as producing offspring is a powerful advantage in a world that has untold dead each and every night. When Leesha is shamed by the lies of her man to be she becomes apprenticed to a medicine woman and herb gather, and begins to learn the important power of healing and helping the sick, making her one of the most powerful people in this world.
Finally there is Rojer, who barely survives as a young child from a devastating demon attack that leaves his family dead. Rescued and raised by a jongleur — those who entertain and tell stories to the peoples to brighten their days and give hope to their nights — he learns these arts of simple magic tricks and music, though he is a terrible singer. And yet becoming a master of the violin, he begins to dazzle the audiences, while the jongleur who raised him takes more to drinking and becomes jealous of him. It is as Rojer continues his learning quest to become a master jongleur known throughout the world that he discovers his music playing has unique properties and effects on the demons when he plays to them.
Perhaps the one weak point in the book is the religion, which seems a simple Christian-based one that could’ve been turned into something different and more interesting; and some of the other peoples of the world bare harsh resemblances to our own in too similar ways. Nevertheless, these relatively minor failings are greatly made up for in this brilliant new piece of epic fantasy that deserves to be shelved with the likes of Patrick Rothfuss’ Name of the Wind, Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy, and even George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series. It is epic fantasy at its best that takes you away to a strong, believable fantasy world and doesn’t let you leave until you’ve read the last page.
Originally written on March 20, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.
To purchase a copy of The Warded Man from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.
July 12, 2012
“The Wind Through the Keyhole” by Stephen King (Scribner, 2012)
To the delight of many fans across the globe, Stephen King returns to his familiar Mid-World in this new Dark Tower tale with The Wind Through the Keyhole. King has fun here, with the book set between the fourth volume, Wizard and Glass and the fifth, Wolves of the Calla, as he tells a story within a story within a story.
Roland and his ka-tet are on their way once again, getting ever closer to the Dark Tower. He has told his story of his first love, Susanna, and how he lost her. Now they are crossing into new terrain when they see Oy, Jake’s billy bumbler, acting very strange, spinning in circles. Fortunately, Roland knows what this portents: the coming of a devastating storm known as a starkblast, which will ravage and instantly kill anyone exposed to its wrath. The group travels quickly to an abandoned town and manages to get safe inside the one stone building just in time, with a big roaring fire as the mighty storm hits. Knowing they will be stuck inside for a while, Roland begins to tell the first of two tales.
He tells the story of the “Skin-Man,” he who can change into any animal shape he chooses, who has been devastating a town, killing its people in horrific numbers. Young gunslingers, he and Jamie DeCurry are charged to go to Debaria and stop this evil thing. The two find themselves in deeper, deadlier waters than they expected, as they put the pieces of the mystery together and narrow down who this skin-man might be. Roland befriends a young lad named Bill Streeter, who has lost his parents to this monster. As the two find themselves hanging out in a jail cell for a while, waiting for others to return, Roland begins his second tale, telling it to young Bill, in the story of “The Wind Through the Keyhole.”
It is a story Roland was told by his mother when he was a child, of Tim Stoutheart, and how he lost his wonderful father and despaired as his mother married a man he didn’t trust. Soon the man takes to drinking and beating on his mother. Using a piece of magic delivered by the taxman who bears more than a striking resemblance to a well-known black magic wizard, he learns what this supposed best friend of his late father truly is and plans his revenge. It is a tale to inspire and give courage to those who need it most.
Whether you’re well-versed with the Dark Tower series or not, King openly admits at the beginning that you don’t need to be to enjoy The Wind Through the Keyhole. He gives a brief page of summary to catch a new reader up and then sets them free on his stories. And for those who love this series, while you won’t necessarily get the same enjoyment out of it as you might a lengthy Dark Tower volume, this book is certainly entertaining and enchanting in its way, and deserves to be added to the shelf with the other volumes of the epic series.
Originally written on May 18, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.
To purchase a copy of The Wind Through the Keyhole from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.
July 11, 2012
Bookbanter Column: Get Lost in a Good Fantasy Series, Part 1: The Mistborn Trilogy on Forces of Geek
Finding a good epic fantasy series to read can sometimes be a troublesome thing. There are a number of them out there that go on for a number of books, ranging from the trilogies to five-book series to ten-book series and beyond. I’ve tried a number of them myself, and it can be hard to assess whether any of them stand up to say the holy trinity trilogy of The Lord of the Rings.
A number of them start out strong, and then eventually devolve into redundancy and boredom, such as Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time, while others just lose their way after the first three books; Song of Ice and Fire, I’m looking at you. Now, these are just my opinions, and I know there are many many readers who would disagree with me, but there is one particular trilogy I know most epic fantasy fans can agree is excellent from start to finish, and that is Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy.
The series has in fact continues sell very well and is so popular that an RPG is now in development for it. And while the trilogy is complete with The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension and The Hero of Ages, Sanderson has announced that he’s not done with the world by any means and has plans to write two further trilogies set within this world, though further in the future, a good example of which is his recently released Alloy of Law.
What can be best said about the series, other than the fascinating world, the interesting and complex characters, and the riveting plots, is that the magic system is simply mind-blowing.
July 10, 2012
Book News: Book Report for the Week of July 10
Book Report for the Week of July 10
Texas Walmart Becomes a Library: A closed down 124,500 square feet Walmart store has now been converted into a new public library.
Amazon to Acquire Dorchester: Amazon is planning to acquire the flailing publisher Dorchester, with plans to pay back royalties and release ebook versions of Dorchester’s authors’ books.
Why Ebooks are Not Like Print Books: Bestselling author Charles Stross lays down the strong merits of ebooks over print books.
Tolkien’s Top Ten Tips for Writers: Learn what good writing means from the genius behind Lord of the Rings.
July 9, 2012
Faces of Publishing: An Interview with Paula Guran, Editor with Prime Books
Paula Guran is senior editor for Prime Books. She edited the Juno fantasy imprint for six years from its small press inception through its incarnation as an imprint of Simon & Schuster’s Pocket Books. Guran is the editor of the annual Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror series of anthologies and editor of numerous other anthologies including Best New Paranormal Romance, Zombies: The Recent Dead, Vampires: The Recent Undead, Halloween, New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird, Brave New Love, and Witches: Wicked Wild & Wonderful. In an earlier life, she produced the pioneering weekly email newsletter DarkEcho (winning two Bram Stoker Awards, an International Horror Guild Award Award, and a World Fantasy Award nomination) and edited Horror Garage magazine (earning another IHG Award and a second World Fantasy nomination). Guran has contributed reviews, interviews, and articles to numerous professional publications and edited/produced for OMNI Online and Universal Studios HorrorOnline. She reviewed regularly for Publishers Weekly for over a decade, was review editor for Fantasy, a columnist for Cemetery Dance, and a consulting editor for CFQ (Cinemafantastique). She also served as nonfiction editor for Weird Tales. Guran’s also done a great deal of other various and sundry work in speculative fiction including editing magazines, agenting, publicity, teaching, and publishing. She lives in Akron, Ohio.
Alex C. Telander: When did you know you wanted to become an editor?
Paula Guran: I pretended to edit a little newspaper when I was just a kid, so I guess that was the first time I thought about it. Then I became the editor of the school newspaper in junior high and continued to edit throughout high school. Maybe if some people are natural writers, there are natural editors? I was burned out on journalism and writing in general by college. In college I discovered directing and technical theatre—scene design, lighting, that sort of thing – so that became my creative outlet and my first career. I didn’t go near writing or editing for a very long time after that. Much later, after I got into genre, I knew that was my ultimate goal.
June 28, 2012
“Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman” by Haruki Murakami (Knopf, 2006)
There are essentially three types of Haruki Murakami fans: those who enjoy his novels, those who enjoy his short stories, and those who enjoy both. I enjoy both, perhaps his novels a little more. For those looking to see what this great author has to offer with his talent, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman provides twenty-four examples of this, each story feeling special and unique.
In the first story, of the same name as the collection, a half-deaf character experiences this strange world through his own filtered way, as the blind willow trees provide pollen that fly and burrow inside a woman’s ear; the story is poetic and moving. In “The Mirror,” a man looks into a mirror to find someone else standing there, someone he doesn’t completely recognize, only to later discover there never was a mirror. “The Shinagawa Monkey” tells the unusual story of a woman who has lost her name and the steps she takes to find it again and why she ultimately lost it.
Readers will be whisked away and become lost in these many enchanting tales of the unusual and in some instances, bizarre, but they will see the truly great talent of Haruki Murakami, and discover why so many people the world over have become timeless fans of his works.
Originally written on May 18, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.
To purchase a copy of Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.
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June 26, 2012
Book News: Book Report for Week of June 25 on Forces of Geek
Past Our Bedtime for Rock Bottom Remainders
On June 22 and 23 this past week in LA, the unusual band made up of bestselling authors like Stephen King, Amy Tan, and Dave Barry, known as the Rock Bottom Remainders played their last two shows.
West Coast Destinations for Book Lovers
Taking a trip to the West Coast and wondering which bookstores are worth visiting?
Dimple Records Opening New Bookstore
The small chain, Dimple Records, which specializes in new and used CDs, DVDs, vinyl and video games will be branching out into books later this summer when it opens it first new and used bookstore in Sacramento, CA. Shelf Awareness has a short piece on this, as well as a full article from the Sacramento Bee. And I’m one of the guys working there!
Ebook Lending with Penguin
The publishing giant Penguin Putnam has entered into an agreement with New York City libraries and 3M to make ebooks available for lending.
June 25, 2012
BookBanter Column: “The Long Read” on Forces of Geek
Books come in all shapes and sizes and most importantly, in various lengths. A variety of authors write and publish a variety books with a variety of page numbers. Some are small and seemingly pathetic 200-page novellas, some are your average 300-400 page-turners, and then there are those special authors that like to write those 800-1000 page behemoths. Now, mind you, books will vary in length depending on genre: children’s books will usually be within that 200-page mark, young adult pushes it to 300 (unless you’re Harry Potter!), mysteries tend to be in the 300-400 page range, and a number of fantasy authors like to write those really long ones.
This column is about those special heavy tomes.
In the last couple of years there have been a number of these long books published by a variety of authors in various genres, and I’ve read a fair number of them and they’ve all been pretty good.
So if you’re looking for that long 800-1000 pager to get sucked into, check out the titles below.
June 20, 2012
Dimple Records to Open Bookstore
After interviewing with the Sacramento Bee newspaper last week, it was great to see the first big article on the new bookstore for Dimple Records:
Dimple Records to Open First Stand-Alone Bookstore on Arden Way
Thousands gathered in New York last week for the annual BookExpo, the largest publishing industry event of the year. As independent booksellers congratulated themselves on the surprisingly rosy outlook for their market niche, Dimple Records staff in Sacramento sorted inventory and moved racks into an Arden Way storefront that will house the first stand-alone bookstore in the local chain’s 38-year history.
The store will open this summer across the parking lot from Dimple’s music, DVD and gaming center – one of seven in the Sacramento region owned and operated by the Radakovitz family. Like the other Dimple sites, the bookstore will contain a mix of new and used merchandise, with a heavy emphasis on customer trade-ins for cash or in-store credit.
[CONTINUE READING . . .]
June 19, 2012
Book News: Book Report for the Week of June 18 on Forces of Geek
The Best Paces for Bookstore Browsing
From Peter Greenberg comes a fascinating list of the best bookstores around the world for book browsing. While it may involve some serious travel, some of these bookstores will become your home away from home.
Pynchon Goes Digital
The renowned author Thomas Pynchon is one of the last authors to refuse to have his books, such as Gravity’s Rainbow and Mason & Dixon, has finally made an agreement with Penguin Putnam to release his books in ebook format.
Terry Goodkind is Self-Publishing
Bestselling author Terry Goodkind, renowned for his Sword of Truth epic fantasy series, will be self-publishing his next novel, The First Confessor.
New Sanderson Book
Bestselling author Brandon Sanderson has signed a publishing deal with Gollancz books in partnership with Delacorte Press in the US to release his first young adult book in a new series. The first book will be called Steelheart, with a planned release date of August 2013.
