Eric Lewis's Blog, page 5

Cleaning up a M1866 French Chassepot Bayonet

I recently ordered a French M1866 Chassepot rifle bayonet from 1873 off ebay. The rifle was an early modern style breechloader, and the bayonet was slid over the barrel and a slot on the grip locked it into place. I love the curved yataghan style blade, and in fact I’ve decided to write the character Linet in my second book to carry a short sword of this style.

These are not rare or expensive, so I thought it would be a fun little thing to try to clean up. It actually wasn’t in bad shape when I got it, with mostly surface oxidation on the blade and typical tarnish on the brass grip. The tough part was the guard/barrel lug attachment, which I guess was iron and quite rusted. I only took one “before” picture because I’m impatient like that, but there were several on the listing:

         

After working on it with 800 grit sandpaper (and occasionally 250 with extreme care) and oil, a mini-dremel tool with polishing compound and polishing bits made of hard and soft rubber and wire brushes I cleaned it up considerably. There are still some pits of rust that I don’t think I can get out without grinding deep into the metal. I didn’t have any brass polish, so I read that you can make your own using vinegar, salt, water and flour to make it into a paste. Well I didn’t have any flour either. I did have mustard, however! It’s similarly acidic and is already a paste, and I’ve used mustard in the past to do quick and dirty etches onto steel. So I slathered some horseradish mustard and salt onto the grip, let it sit for an hour, then scrubbed it off. Rinse and repeat a few times, and it’s shiny.

Final results:

   

   

 

You can also clearly read the stamp of the manufacturer Manufacture d’Armes de Saint-Étienne and date of July 1873:

I haven’t done anything with the scabbard, but it’s in very good condition as well, just a bit rusty near the tip. This was an easy and enjoyable project, and it shows how with a little effort these bayonets can be brought to serviceable condition. I don’t think I would want to try this with anything more expensive for fear of damaging an antique, at least not without a lot more patience and gentler techniques.

 

The Heron Kings earns a Publishers Weekly Starred Review. Congratulations, you found the hidden text! This was just to repeat the keyphrase & improve the SEO score. No secret knowledge or prize to be gained here. Sorry.

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The Heron Kings earns a Publishers Weekly Starred Review

This week I learned (thanks to Mage’s Almanac) that the trade publication Publishers Weekly gave The Heron Kings a very nice starred review. I’m told by people familiar with the industry that this is a good thing to have, indicating books of “exceptional merit.” I don’t know about that, but apparently booksellers and even film producers watch these lists for products to promote. Plus I got a nice little blurb I can quote!

I was initially a little concerned that it’s only one star, but evidently it’s not a rating thing- a reviewed book either gets a star or it doesn’t. So that’s good. I hope this means the book will sell more copies and earn out its (very small) advance, maybe even make a little pizza money on the side. Imagine that.

One thing that amused me from this review is that they picked up on the fact that it was always supposed to be an ensemble cast. Ulnoth, Corren and Alessia were going to be a kind of Luke-Han-Leia type trio, even though I was forced by convention to pitch it to agents and publishers with only one main character and to cut out several additional POVs. They always go on about how they want “fresh,” “new,” “original” ideas, but really they want safe formulae. One hero, one villain, one POV, three-act structure, hero’s journey, fatal flaw, these are things I know!  Maybe if this causes the book to sell well I can do the second one more how I like. Maybe.

Update: The book is also now one of PW’s Books of the Week for the week of its release!

 

The Heron Kings earns a Publishers Weekly Starred Review. Congratulations, you found the hidden text! This was just to repeat the keyphrase & improve the SEO score. No secret knowledge or prize to be gained here. Sorry.

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Blood of Assassins by RJ Barker

Not enough bone to make a ship out of, but coyote skull insisted on being in the picture.

 

It’s embarrassing how long it’s taken me to get around to this. RJ Barker is well into his second series and here I am still on the first one. It’s part laziness, part other things getting in the way. But in a way that’s fitting, because in Blood of Assassins, the beautifully-written sequel to Age of Assassins, we return to Maniyadoc after much time away, and much has changed. But some things haven’t.

The assassin Girton Club-Foot’s moody teenager of the first book has given way to a sullen young man who has seen too much ugliness in the world to be shocked at it, and one question Blood of Assassins seems to ask is, is there still a chance to change things for the better? Can people change? Girton and his master Merela Karn return to the lands of their old friend Rufra to find him fighting old enemies tooth and nail not only for his crown, but for newer, fairer ways for the people. When his master is critically poisoned and clinging to the edge of life, Girton is drafted to investigate the possibility of a spy in their midst mostly on his own. But his own prejudices and inability to let go of the past lead him to dangerous assumptions. Meanwhile the magic in him continues to grow more powerful and less controllable, and he must struggle to conceal it. It even has begun to speak to him, tempting him with tantalizingly easy solutions to problems. Amusingly I was reminded of Black Philip from the 2015 horror film “The Witch.” Wouldst thou like to live deliciously???

Blood of Assassins deftly avoids the common issue of second books wherein we get neither the building of a new world with new characters nor an epic conclusion to a series. In this case, the kingdom has been so ravaged by war and change as to be almost unrecognizable to the main protagonist. Even Girton himself has given up his elegant blades for a heavy warhammer as his weapon, a not-so-subtle clue to the state of his spirit. Many returning characters are different, and we are left feeling appropriately set adrift in a world we should know, but don’t really.

Although this a fantasy, like the one before it it’s really a mystery that happens to be set in a fantasy world. And like many mysteries we are introduced to the cast of suspects rather early on in rapid succession, so the reader may struggle to keep them all straight at first. They are all developed later, though, so it gets easier. Girton himself, I assume intentionally, can be difficult to like at times. He is impulsive and quick to anger, and often makes foolish decisions. He is not a good judge of character and makes many mistakes with terrible consequences. He does have a few cathartic moments of self-awareness, but like a momentarily reformed alcoholic, you wonder whether it’ll stick for very long. He’s certainly no Sherlock Holmes, and neither is he an unstoppable Mary Sue, which would be an easy trap to fall into with a powerful assassin-warrior-sorcerer, even one with a club foot. A driving force for the story is whether he’ll be able to put right what he’s done wrong, which works very well.

In addition to fantasy and mystery, there is also a feeling of Shakespearean tragedy about the whole thing, helped along by Barker’s at times poetic and heart-wrenching prose. Things often go bad simply because people just don’t communicate well with each other, like a slow motion trainwreck that one just can’t look away from. In this Blood of Assassins is the quintessential “second act” book where we hope the character has reached and passed his low point, but fear maybe not. The book is also more character-driven than the first, and at times it feels the plot is serving the characters rather than the other way around. I’ll leave it to the reader to decide whether that’s a positive, but I suspect that question will depend on which of the supporting characters return for the third installment. I did feel the pacing slowed a bit in the middle parts, though the battle scenes did help to remedy this.

I very much liked the shrugging off of Merela for much of the book. There is a heavy sense that Girton must get out from under his master’s wings, not only to grow as a person but to survive. His inability to really relate to anyone but his “s/mother” is a clear hindrance to him, and needing her to literally cut his flesh to keep his magic at bay is telling.

I was about to write that I feel the ending came too quickly, with little of the big reveals held until the very end. Then I went back to check to make sure this was right only to find I had simply plowed through the last hundred pages in a short time, and it only seemed that way! That might be the best recommendation I make make, and I already have the third and final entry in the series, King of Assassins, queued up. Then on to The Bone Ships!

 

Review of Age of Assassins

RJ Barker’s website: RJBarker.com

 

Pairs well with: Elysian Night Owl Pumpkin Ale

 

Well it’s that time of year again, when IPA hounds wrinkle their noses and complain about pumpkin ales for three months. I enjoy them when they come out, and by the time I get sick of them the season’s passed. Night Owl from Elysian Brewing actually stands a bit above the rest with its balanced, rounded taste. It pours hazy orange with medium carbonation and only a slight head that dissipates quickly. It carries pumpkin and spice aromas, obviously, and the same flavors. But it’s not heavy or cloying as some pumpkin ales can be. There’s no bitterness, with only 18 IBU. The typical cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, ginger and allspice is balanced but not overpowered by brown sugar sweetness. It also has lots of actual pumpkin (“150 pounds of pumpkin in each batch!” says the marketing) flavor throughout and especially on its long finish. This is not just a PSL with 6.7% ABV. It’s unfiltered, but the sediment is undetectable except by eye, and doesn’t detract from the flavor. This fall beer fits well with Girton’s tired, dying world, and in both cases the flavor lingers long after you’re done with it.

 

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Got my ARC of The Heron Kings!

 

I received the Advance Review Copy of The Heron Kings in the mail the other day. It’s weird, I always dreamed of physically holding my book in my hands for the first time, and this is…kinda that? It’s not anywhere near the final version–it’s full of typos and placeholder marks and the like. More like a prototype of the book. Still exciting, though. Between going over this and writing the intro to Tricks of the Blade, I probably won’t be making any progress on novel #2 this weekend.

So, about the cover. Yeah. I wasn’t really involved in the production of it, until the very end. The publisher sent me a late revision, which wasn’t quite what I had in mind. It was almost identical to this one, but the background was a kind of bright red-orange, and it had a different title font. I had an immediate, negative emotional reaction to it, and went a little bonkers begging my editor to change it. Embarrassing, really.

Luckily they were willing to make a few changes (on a weekend, no less) that in my opinion vastly improved it. I suggested that title font they ended up using, which is nice. But my agent said it reminded him of the old Twilight Zone title, and now I can’t unsee it. Thanks a lot, Nathan! Nah, just kidding. It’s much better to my eyes, and I’m grateful they were willing to make changes that they had absolutely no obligation to make. As an author, especially a debut author at the very bottom of the totem pole, you really have no authority over things like that, so finding a publisher who’s willing to work with you is a nice treat.

Going through the text, I realized a few things that I never did when reading on a screen. I use a lot of ellipses, a lot of interjection em dashes, a lot of dialogue and dialect. I mean I kind of knew these things, but it didn’t really hit me how much until reading it on paper. This is the part, I guess, where I start to panic, worry that my book really isn’t very good at all, and this is all just some big mistake that cannot possibly end well.  Scientists with advanced degrees are usually very well acquainted with impostor syndrome, and get pretty good at dismissing it after a time. But this is an entirely different area of endeavor, and I can’t shake the terrible fear that I’m in way over my head.

I managed to blow through the text in a day and a half, being pretty familiar with it. I noted 42 43 typos or errors within its 97,000 or so words. Not too shabby, considering the multiple wringers it’s been through. The cover lists it as publishing in April 2020, so we still have a bit of a ways to go. I hope you’ll come along with me to see the end, and maybe the beginning of an entirely new adventure…

 

 

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The Hod King by Josiah Bancroft

I knew this hat would come in handy one day.

 

The Hod King is the third of a projected four-book series by self-published sensation Josiah Bancroft. I won’t bother with the setup because hey, it’s the third book. If you’re reading this you should know it already!

This volume begins with Senlin taking on the Sphinx’s assignment to investigate the threat to the Tower posed by the brewing hod insurgency and the increasingly unreliable Wakemen. He is explicitly told not to attempt contact with his missing wife Marya, who is now—willingly or not—the wife of a powerful duke in the ringdom of Pelphia. Does anyone really believe he’ll obey that order? While Senlin poses as a bureaucrat from another ringdom, Edith and the crew take a powerful airship to infiltrate Pelphia in a more ostentatious manner, acting as emissaries of the Sphinx in order to hobnob with Pelphian nobility and retrieve one of the vital Ogier paintings. They eventually uncover a dangerous movement pledged to the eponymous Hod King.

Bancroft’s prose is as fluid as ever, with narratives that sweep the reader along like rushing rapids, and many pages can pass before you realize the sun went down hours ago. The story expands in scope from the previous book as much as that one did from the first, and Senlin’s quest to find Marya fades, somewhat sadly, into the background as more serious threats emerge. We learn more about the nature of the Tower, and exactly why the Sphinx is so insistent on finally putting ancient plans into action. There is a bit less navel-gazing from Senlin in this volume, as he seems to have accepted his transformation into a more gray character, letting the plot progress more evenly. Yet he still must wrestle with his promise to the Sphinx and his absolute, visceral need to reunite with his wife. Thanks to this there’s more than one gut-punching scene worthy of Joe Abercrombie with its cruel turns of luck. I won’t spoil the ending except to say that there’s a sort of flipping of circumstances that is very satisfying, if only it hadn’t taken five hundred pages to get to it. We also see the return of one or two characters I never expected, adding a constant sense of tension to scenes that otherwise might drag out. I was struck by Bancroft’s ability to inspire investment in minor characters that receive comparatively little word count, although conversely there are some that get the most attention that I wanted to move on from.

I greatly enjoyed the first quarter of the book that focuses mostly on Senlin. This part began to recapture the sense of adventure from Senlin Ascends, which saw him have to use his intelligence and cunning to get by, but as usual always stumble because his lingering naivete leads him to miscalculation and bigger troubles. He comes tantalizingly close to achieving several different goals, only to see it all snatched away in some manner or other. In later sections that return to his POV he is shown to have become satisfyingly capable and crafty, and seems to have threaded that always difficult needle of being a fierce rogue when necessary but somehow always remaining morally grounded and consistent.

Unfortunately this is all stopped in its tracks in the middle sections of the book. Senlin is quickly made a side character in his own story. Much of the book focuses on characters that I am not nearly as invested in, and I found myself hoping for the end of the chapter to come sooner. Voleta complaining about not wanting to go to a party should take a few pages, not multiple chapters. The pace slows considerably as the characters are moved around like pieces on a game board to slowly advance the plot. Pelphia is not a terribly interesting ringdom after a few chapters, and the casual cruelty of its vapid ruling class isn’t quite as shocking after what’s come before. I don’t mind the multiple POV style, in fact I tend to prefer it. But the jumping back and forth in time can be confusing, and kills the sense of novelty and progression that was such a vital component in the first book.

Finally there is—and I suppose it was pretty much inevitable at this point—a bit of a female supremacist thread running through the whole thing. Predictably, the female characters are all strong, smart and witty while most of the men are dumb and/or bad. There are more than a few stereotypical “oh, we poor, poor women and those horrible nasty men” whining rants that are just oh so tired. Like, really? Are we still doing this? I don’t know if it’s white-knighting or delusion, or which of those would be worse, but I’m becoming less and less willing to overlook this kind of casual sexism in books. Grow up, people aren’t that one-dimensional, unless they’re taught to be.

I think The Hod King is exquisitely written by a master author, and I’d say its few faults may stem from the success of the earlier volumes. When authors become very successful, editors tend to stop editing and just publish whatever they’re sent. This longer work needed some TLC from a red pen, and I don’t blame Bancroft for this. Senlin Ascends was famously self-published of course, but perhaps Orbit thought they’d scoop up a cash cow that they’d have to put no effort into maintaining. But everyone needs a good editor. I will certainly finish the series with the as-yet untitled fourth book, and I sincerely hope Bancroft brings back everything that made me love Senlin Ascends in the first place.

For those who seem to have trouble distinguishing between quantitative and qualitative evaluations, this is a POSITIVE review. Four stars on Amazon and Goodreads. Though I may be a bit effusive in the one or two things that really annoyed me, on balance it is 95% an exceedingly good book that you should definitely read. Sheesh.

Review of Senlin Ascends

Review of Arm of the Sphinx

Josiah Bancroft’s website: TheBooksOfBabel.com

 

Pairs well with: Sierra Nevada & Bitburger Brewery Oktoberfest 2019

 

It’s getting harder and harder to draw some kind of tenuous connection between the book I review and the beer. Spicy beer for spicy characters? Man, I’m getting lazy! Oh well. I’m not sure if Sierra Nevada counts as a macrobrew or not, but this particular beer is apparently a collaboration with German brewery Bitburger for an Oktoberfest/Märzen festbier. Yep, it’s that time of year again already. This is a pretty light-bodied but not lightweight beer at 6% ABV and 22 IBU. It’s got that typical hint of autumn spicy tingle in it, though it suits the lingering warmth of September. The bready aroma is followed by caramel and grain flavors, pretty malt-forward though not too heavy, and only the barest hint of citrus hops. The sweetness tends to overpower because of this. It’s an average to good example of Märzen lager that satisfies without overpowering you with spices. Don’t complain– in the coming months things are going to get pumpkiny…

 

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Priest of Lies by Peter McLean

Swapped out the sword on my desk with a new antique.

 

In my review of Peter McLean’s first book in this series, Priest of Bones, I said I kind of hated Tomas Piety. I still do, and his “wife” even more so, but this time around I feel much more satisfied with how things go for him and his band of criminals. What was simply set up and implied in the last book is brilliantly paid off here, with interest.

The first book covered gang leader Tomas Piety’s return from war to retake his rackets in the industrial city of Ellinburg from other syndicates, only to get pulled into a darker cold war between a foreign power fronting as a rival gang and the Queen’s Men, the crown’s shadowy enforcers. Priest of Lies begins a few months after the end of Bones, where five hundred more or less innocent people were immolated by the Queen’s Men to keep the city of Ellinburg out of the hands of the foreigners. The mood is set right away, with Tomas in a deep despondence. When outwardly it seems he should be at the height of his power, he is in fact being used as a puppet in the same way he himself uses others. The architect of the massacre has forced Tomas into a sham marriage while ordering him about like a common hired thug. Oh, the irony.

There is a brief expository reintroduction to the story and its characters, just enough to remind you what’s going on in case it’s been awhile. There is some humor at the start with a parody of a nagging wife but with vastly more dangerous implications. Tomas cannot enjoy his victory but must continue to battle the foreign-backed gang under the guise of taking even more territory. When his wife/handler insists on gathering up anyone gifted with magical abilities to use in the fight, the plot thickens and they are called to the capital city, where Tomas confronts new enemies in a society whose rules he doesn’t understand.

This book is a little bit less Peaky Blinders and a little more Godfather Part 2 compared to the last one. It shows in graphic detail the notion that the higher up you go, the crookeder it becomes (I know that’s from Part 3, whatever, it has its moments). The legitimate rulers are no better than the gangsters, and in many ways much worse. I get the same sense in some parts of Michael Corleone at his lowest, when grand plans come back to haunt him and he begins to suspect his closest allies. In this at least, there is some satisfaction.

I love series that slowly grow in scale like this. I know it’s a vestigial adherence to video games with their stepwise questlines and boss fight progression, but the sense of growth is so satisfying, and it’s used to great effect here. You go from the provincial city, now to the capital, then to…what? How high will the lowly crime boss rise? What will he turn into and how many innocent people will pay the price for it? The short, action-packed chapters keep the pace barreling along to the final (meat) explosive conclusion, but I felt they could be longer in some places, just to give the reader a breather. The voice is clear but very affected, and one might start to get tired of the constant refrains of “to my mind” and “years to him.” But I know that’s intentional. These are the thoughts of an intelligent but classically uneducated man.

In grimdark fiction you got no call to expect good guys, only bad and worse. But one thing I absolutely hate, can’t stand is unacknowledged hypocrisy. In this volume, McLean throws me a bone or two, and at least a few chickens come home to roost, and the truth that violence never truly comes without consequence is laid bare. The attempts to humanize Ailsa fail for me, but importantly, not for Tomas, though he acknowledges the cognitive dissonance in his feelings. Speaking of which, McLean’s depiction of PTSD is something the reader won’t soon forget, and adds a searing layer of realism over the whole saga and this volume in particular.

I won’t spoil the ending, but I can say I felt completely vindicated in my opinion of Piety, and I will definitely read on when the next volume comes out, if only to see if he gets his fucking comeuppance.

Review of Priest of Bones

Peter McLean’s website: Talonwraith.com

 

Pairs well with: Perrin Black Ale

 

I’ve been wanting to talk about this one for awhile. If you read my other reviews you’ll see that I prefer the dark stuff. But even I can get tired of all the heavy stouts and porters during the summer months. Here is the antidote. Perrin Black Ale (5.8% ABV, 25 IBU) has those malty, chocolatey, coffee flavors but in a very light body. It drinks like a blonde or even pale ale, with only the barest hints of hops detectable and not too much carbonation. The color is thus very deceptive. The aroma is slightly bready but again very light, almost undetectable with a head that doesn’t linger. This beer goes down easy with the flavors I love but without the stomach punch I usually have to take to pay for it. It’s not quite sessionable, but it holds up over the day if called upon to do so. This is what “great taste, less filling” is really like. Like Tomas Piety, it appears to be something it not quite is, so it goes well with Priest of Lies.

 

 

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Model 1855 French Infantry Officer’s Sword

I ordered my second ever antique sword recently, and it finally arrived! It’s a Model 1855 French Infantry Officer’s Sword. Here’s an album:

Model 1855 French Infantry Officer’s Sword

This is a very light sword, weighing only 1 pound 9 ounces. The center of gravity is about five inches out, as you can see by the stand I have it balanced on. The hilt is of brass like all those of the period, and the grip is probably horn but possibly wood. There was likely a wire wrap around the grip ribs but it’s gone now. The blade is in pretty good condition, with only a bit of inactive rust along the length. The only thing about it I don’t like is that the knucklebow is loose, with more than 1mm of movement. But at least the grip is tight to the blade. It came with a scabbard, but I don’t think it was ever issued, since it’s more than blunt, it has a round edge. There’s no spine along the back, it’s as thin as the front edge almost. It has the original leather washer and it fits tightly in the scabbard. I might try to fix it so the hilt doesn’t wobble since I didn’t pay enough that I worry about its resale value. A nice little sword, though. The originals are always so elegant compared to their modern reproductions, even with the wear of centuries.

 

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Arm of the Sphinx by Josiah Bancroft

…wait, is that a spider?

Arm of the Sphinx is the second, much more firmly steampunk installment in Josiah Bancroft’s brilliant Books of Babel series, and represents a kind of inflection point in Thomas Senlin’s journey. What began as a quest to find his lost wife Marya among the vast, labyrinthine Tower of Babel has wrought changes in him that he doesn’t like, but will not let deter him. After escaping the ruthless Commissioner Pound and other baddies, Senlin and his small crew of misfits take up their new cover identities as airship pirates in order to gain access to the ringdom of Pelphia, where Marya is likely located.

During this attempt, the crew must make contact with a supposed revolutionary, dodging pirate coves clinging to the Tower like barnacles, cannonfire from all directions, and swarms of massive spiders. The cost of this audience requires Senlin to turn to true piracy, robbing almost-innocent people to gather sufficient loot. When the powerful clockwork arm of his first mate (whom we’ve met previously) breaks down during all this action, they must seek out repairs from the enigmatic, almost mythical entity near the top of the Tower known as the Sphinx who, it is warned, will extract a heavy toll for such services.

The plot also further reveals the origins of the Tower, if it even is a Tower at all. Senlin’s ability to make enemies everywhere he goes and yet still persevere draws the eye of the Sphinx, who decides he could be quite a useful asset in an ancient scheme to put the true purpose of the Tower in motion. And we finally get to find out what that freaking painting is all about!

Any further discussion of the plot would be spoilers, but the main issues dealt with in this volume are how far Senlin will go to achieve his goal, what it will do to him, and what kind of person will his wife find even if he does. I was reminded of a line from Boardwalk Empire—“You can’t be half a gangster anymore”—which well describes Senlin’s attempt to walk a line as a not-quite-pirate until things get serious. There’s really no such thing as—sorry Scott Lynch—a “gentleman bastard,” they’re just bastards, and Senlin’s acknowledgment of this is a defeat as well as a moment of growth for him. Yet, his determination not to become a permanent villain despite these admitted failings keeps him from descending into a hateable character. These notions were touched on in the first book but are front and center here. The arcs of the secondary characters are also explored, and you get the sense of a true fellowship that has formed among the crew.

It’s always tough being a middle book in an epic, and it shows a bit here. We no longer have the initial wonder of being introduced to the Tower and it’s denizens, we don’t need as much world-building, nor do we get the excitement of the final climax. Middle books often have the grunt work of moving the plot along. In this, Arm of the Sphinx excels admirably, although overall the pacing is slower. I think Bancroft knows this, as the book tries to compensate by opening with an action scene that illustrates what our characters have been up to since we last saw them. But just as Senlin becomes colder and more methodical in his planning, with less confused scrambling about, we also get a lot more navel-gazing and philosophizing that might contrast with what readers of Senlin Ascends might expect. It does pick up more in the second half, however. Another thing to watch for is the shifting POVs, where the previous book remained only in the head of Senlin. I have no problem with this style, but some readers might be thrown off a bit.

On the other hand, this book continues Bancroft’s sneaky trick of ending each chapter with, if not a cliffhanger, at least some turn or revelation that makes you want to read on, sometimes well into the night. There are a bit fewer different ringdoms with their own weird ways, but there are some, and each just whets the appetite to know what lies in the one above, and above that, and above that, etc. We do get to briefly see the very top of the Tower, but it’s a strange and enigmatic scene that leaves the reader scratching their head and thirsty to learn more about it later.

Overall, I get the sense of bread dough rising in this book, where what began as Senlin’s own personal quest takes its time to expand into something much more epic and dangerous, and which will be baked into a delicious, buttery loaf in the next books. I guess I shouldn’t write reviews when I’m hungry. In some ways, though not really plotwise, it reminds me of Dune Messiah, which serves as a bridge between the self-contained adventure of Dune to the wider saga that comes after. Next stop is The Hod King, which I already have in hand.

P.S. On a really nerdy note, I love that on the cover, the hand of the arm has an engraved outline of the seal of the Sumerian sun god Shamash, for this book about a Tower of Babel in a land called Sumer.

Review of Senlin Ascends

Josiah Bancroft’s website: TheBooksOfBabel.com

 

Pairs well with: Big Lake Brewing Captain’s Porter

 

Local craft brews can often be hit or miss because the main cachet is the local part. The perceived value add of artisinality (?) is often used to justify the price premium, so you can encounter truly awesome, innovative beers as well as boring ones with little to distinguish them. Big Lake Brewing Captain’s Porter is a middle of the road example that is neither of these, but is a satisfying choice for those of us still resisting the tidal waves of summer IPAs. This 6.5% ABV, 41 IBU porter is well balanced with toasted malt and some nice cola, nut, and smoke flavors but also some underlying herbal bitterness on the finish. It’s not nearly as thick as one might expect (or fear), with a head that evaporates quickly. It won’t knock your socks off, but neither is it a disappointment. Senlin spends most of Arm of the Sphinx as an airship captain also trying to find middle paths, so this porter seems appropriate.

 

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