Tome of the Undergates (Aeons' Gate, #1) in Fantasy-Faction.com

Jul 26, 2011 Marc Aplin rated it really liked it

I first heard of ‘Tome of the Undergates’ via Twitter. I had seen the rather interesting ‘@SamSykesSwears’ tweeter shouting out about Fantasy and generally interacting with users and causing a bit of chaos. I must admit, I actually hadn’t heard of the book until I clicked this ‘@SamSykesSwears’ profile button and found that he was in-fact an author.

I quickly read the synthesis of his book:

‘The name never uttered without scorn, they are long loathed for their knowledge of nothing beyond violence I first heard of ‘Tome of the Undergates’ via Twitter. I had seen the rather interesting ‘@SamSykesSwears’ tweeter shouting out about Fantasy and generally interacting with users and causing a bit of chaos. I must admit, I actually hadn’t heard of the book until I clicked this ‘@SamSykesSwears’ profile button and found that he was in-fact an author.

I quickly read the synthesis of his book:

‘The name never uttered without scorn, they are long loathed for their knowledge of nothing beyond violence and greed and their utter disregard for human life, least of all their own.

And Lenk, a young man with a sword in his hand and a voice in his head, counts them as his closest company.

Charged with retrieving the Tome of the Undergates, a written key to a world long forgotten by mankind and home to creatures determined to return, Lenk is sent after ancient evangelical demons, psychotic warrior women and abominations lost to myth. Against them, he has but two weapons: a piece of steel and five companions as eager to kill each other as they are to help him.

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Seemed like my kind of thing and over the weeks I grew to enjoy the Tweets that came over Twitter so I picked it up. I’m pretty glad I did because whether or not it will be to every-ones tastes or not – it is certainly doing something fairly unique and there is nothing else like it out there.

Essentially ‘Adventurers’ are based on our easily recognisable ‘Fantasy Party’. We have the swordsman, the thief, the ranger, the priestess and the Dragonman. They have been sent on a mission to retrieve an object and in order to retrieve it they are going to have to kill pirates, demons and generally realise their destinies.

But wait... this doesn’t sound very unique right? Well no... I think that is the beauty of the book and Sam Sykes as an author. He doesn’t try to make the ‘fantasy’ side of things different. OK, we know what Fantasy is... Sykes could create new races and new settings and things like that, but he doesn’t for good reason. Within about 10 pages you feel sufficiently orientated. You know roughly who does what and the kind of story you would expect.

So... the uniqueness... it’s all in ‘the voice’. Sam Sykes writes like almost nobody else. I guess if I had to liken him to someone it would be Joe Abercrombie, but even that is a fairly thin comparison. The third person narrative in Tomes of the Undergates is done in what is called ‘Third Person – Free Indirect Discourse’. Basically the story is told in third person perspective but through the language and mind of the character the narration is focusing on. This in itself even is not that new – but the constant and rapid shift from character to character is. One minute you could be in a Priest’s head – then the next a Frogman’s as he is slain and the next you could find yourself with the main character looking at the death of the Frogman from the perspective of an outsider. It is at time dizzying, but in an enjoyable way and a way you will quickly come to appreciate.

The next element of ‘uniqueness’ I’d like to focus on is the argumentative characters. Most often we see minor arguments of characters in novels, but essentially they agree and go together or separate and do their own thing. The characters in Tomes are far more realistic than that... like friends / colleagues of everyday life, they bicker, they argue and tend to hate each other throughout most of the day. A few people in the blogging community have commented that this arguing made the book hard to read – but I think in the main part it adds to the style and enjoyable nature of the book. The arguments tend to be amusing and the outcomes move the story / relationships between the characters forwards.

So... the story? Is it worth reading? I must say that it is. Although I think the ending to the story could be guessed upon reading the back of the book (Five adventurers set out on a quest to retrieve a Holy item!) I think readers will be happy with the in-betweens. There is an amazingly well done 200 page skirmish – that shifts between a certain win to a certain defeat and back again and again. There are meetings with beings that extend beyond our comprehension. And generally the characters do develop. In-fact, I think that the last 100 pages of the book show that this story has a lot, lot more to it. Sam Sykes reveals a few hidden secrets to the story that will no doubt be very, very important in any following volumes.

I would like to explain now why I think Sam Sykes is someone to watch out for. For me, I think there is a lot, lot more of Sam to come. This book is probably only going to be embraced by a set group of people. I see Sam Sykes has written a book that he wanted to write – something he would have liked to read. Because I’m quite a similar age, have similar interests (women, epic battles, pirates, cool demons, fantasy races, gritty battle talk and banter) – I love it. Generally I have described the many fantasies of a fantasy fan and Tomes will meet the traditional / D&D fanboys head on. The majority of people I have seen slate the book have been people who were expecting a huge and epic story with multiple threads and complicated back stories, etc. Sam Sykes himself will tell you ‘Tomes of the Undergates’ is what it is. It is a cool adventure book!

That being said; the description in Sam’s book, the narrative style and the single ‘emotional scene’ that quite frankly nearly had me in tears (I don’t cry... ever!!!) shows that Sam Sykes is a fantastic writer and capable of doing pretty much whatever he wants. I think Tome of the Undergates would be a very, very good book to pick up today and a promise of even greater things to come.
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Apr 16, 2010 Liviu rated it did not like it

Shelves: read_2010, 2010_release_read, genre-fantasy

There are books that are so bad to be funny, but this one while as bad as I've read in a long time is not that funny; if you like potty humor and enjoy a paragraph describing the potty habits of various characters and deep ruminations like "potty habits never change", or if you like juvenile humor going back and forth in the middle of supposedly tough fights, maybe you should try this one, but otherwise steer clear; I had high expectations when the book was announced but the reviews I saw kind o ...more

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Apr 14, 2011 Blodeuedd Finland rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

My thoughts:

This was one big book of fights, I will tell you that at once. What a gang, I honestly thought they would kill someone in their own group, but it was also very amusing to read. I am taking a step back to explain.

Lenk is the leader, a young man with a sword and a voice in his head. What is going on? Is he loosing it? He started to really intrigue me after a while and when it ended I did want more of him. Other interesting characters include; Kataria, a warrior woman who hates humans a My thoughts:

This was one big book of fights, I will tell you that at once. What a gang, I honestly thought they would kill someone in their own group, but it was also very amusing to read. I am taking a step back to explain.

Lenk is the leader, a young man with a sword and a voice in his head. What is going on? Is he loosing it? He started to really intrigue me after a while and when it ended I did want more of him. Other interesting characters include; Kataria, a warrior woman who hates humans and calls them monkeys. There is also some tension between her and Lenk, either they will kill each other or get it on. And I sure hope it will be the latter. Another one of the adventures (they are even worse thought of than mercenaries, so bad people here), is Gariath, a dragon man who can crush a man's skull with his foot. There is also a wizard, a skulking rogue and woman named Asper who is a healer and who follows them to learn to use her craft. There you have, a mismatched crew who only wants money, while some wants money and to kill. But they are so strange that you have to like them.

The whole book starts with an almost 200 pages long battle, yes I am not joking. I do confess that it was hard at times to get into the book because of this long battle, but there was always something there making me continue. And the more I read the more I got into this book. Because he always manages to surprise me, there are frogmen, purple women, and screaming mermaids. Always something interesting.

As for the story it's about the hunt for the tome that has been stolen. This book can open a gate and demons will get out and tear the world asunder. They must get it back and while doing it they will meet a lot of dangers, a lot of fights, creepy demons, and a lot of great tension since they all get so angry. And that is a good thing.

Conclusion:

Interesting fantasy that is not afraid to try something strange. It will surprise you and make you wonder. And at the end you will want more if you are as curious as I am. It might not end with a total cliffhanger, but the world is by no means saved.

Rating:

Interesting

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Jul 28, 2011 Chris Davis rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy

Yes, you are reading this correctly. I am doing a review on something non-Flashpoint related. It happens occasionally. Many of you may know Sam Sykes from Twitter and if you aren’t following him on there then you really should be. The guy is hilarious and he really is himself on there and not just the “author personality” promoting his own work. Although I guess from being so amusing on Twitter he will end up promoting his own work, but that is hardly his fault. Anyway, despite my love for the g Yes, you are reading this correctly. I am doing a review on something non-Flashpoint related. It happens occasionally. Many of you may know Sam Sykes from Twitter and if you aren’t following him on there then you really should be. The guy is hilarious and he really is himself on there and not just the “author personality” promoting his own work. Although I guess from being so amusing on Twitter he will end up promoting his own work, but that is hardly his fault. Anyway, despite my love for the guy, this review is not all positive. In fact, I dwell on a lot of the parts of the book I don’t like. However when all is said and done the main thing to know is that I want to read the next book. I think there is a lot of potential here and that is my honest opinion, not swayed by any desire to be nice to Sykes.

This book is the story of a band of adventurers on the quest for a book (the titular “tome”). If that sounds kind of old school, then that is because it is, and I like it for that. Adventurers are explained as being the lowest of the low, below even mercenaries, and that is evidenced in the actions and attitudes of the adventurers. Early on in the story it is made very clear that they do not like or care for each other and this is a constant theme of the book.

First up we have Lent, the Team Leader of the gang. He is probably the best character, because he is a least moderately civil and actually puts some thought into his actions. He is also assisted by a strange voice in his head. There is also Kataria who is a shict. We don’t know a great deal about that race, but they sound a lot like elves with their abilities with a bow. Another character I enjoyed was Dread, who is a wizard in a world where the powers of magic are vastly limited by their unfortunate side effects. Other characters I found less interesting were Danos, a rogue who just tries to avoid getting killed, Asper, a priest/healer, and Gariath, a very angry dragonman.

The book starts in an interesting way. For about 120 pages we have one long battle scene set on the sea. That may sound like an incredibly long battle, but it is broken up with other bits of discussion and it actually works quite well. Following this the main quest starts and I won’t spoil any of that for you.

I am going to sound incredibly negative now, but this review will tell you all you need to know if I discuss what I didn’t like about it. First up, the characters. I liked some of them, but not all. The constant bickering and their hatred for each other got a little annoying. Some of the banter was great, and I am ok with them not liking each other. But wanting to kill each other? That just felt like too much and I never really believed it. My other character problem is that there was some interesting stuff that we should have seen more about. I wanted to know more about Dread and his magic. How do the Shict fit into the world? What is Lenk’s background? Other characters I wanted to know less about. I though Gariath was a huge bore, and really had a negative impact on the book and my immersion in the world.

Next up on the negative list is the world building. The book takes place almost entirely at sea or on islands. We know nothing about how similar, or not, this world is to our own. We are supposed to be shocked and surprised at the Frogmen. Indeed, if one turned up at my door, I no doubt would be. But this is a world with dragonmen. A frogman seems almost socially acceptable in comparison. I was also unsure about the Longfaces. I think they are fairly unknown, but why is that? Do they hide away? Are they more or less numerous than the Shict? I really needed more information on the world to enjoy this book more and immerse myself in the world like I do with the best fantasy novels.

Last main negative point is the the writing during action scenes. When there is not much going on, some of the writing is excellent. Sykes excels at conversations between characters, however when things heat up I constantly found myself getting confused and lost. New enemies seemed to be introduced with little description. I would not know the size of power of things faced in battle and this was really a big problem for me. I appreciate books that don’t get bogged down in minute details, but this was a little too far in the other direction for me. I think Sykes just needs to slow down put himself in the mindset of someone who can’t read his mind and know what he is thinking.

After all these criticisms, you may be wondering why on earth I want to read the next book. Well, first off, there is a good story here and I want to see how in continues. Next, I am hoping that some of the things I mentioned above will be better in the next book. Sykes wrote this one over a period of 10 or so years and you can tell. It is disjointed and hard to follow. He is still a very young author, and will improve a lot in my opinion. Lastly, it is a nice break from more serious (dare I say pretentious) novels.

I am rating this one average, because I think you really need to be into this genre to get much out of the book. I would recommend some fantasy books to people who don’t normally read that genre, but not this one.

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Sep 05, 2011 Jennie Ivins rated it it was amazing

On a ship in the ocean, bound for a faraway place, in search of an ancient magical gateway, a group of adventurers fight off a band of evil pirates and encounter a creature too terrible to exist in our world or theirs. In the ensuing battle with said beasty, an ancient tome is stolen and our heroes go boldly off to reclaim it! Well maybe not boldly, but they do go.

Who are these adventurers you ask? Well our heroic group consists of Lenk a young swordsman and the leader of the group, Kataria the On a ship in the ocean, bound for a faraway place, in search of an ancient magical gateway, a group of adventurers fight off a band of evil pirates and encounter a creature too terrible to exist in our world or theirs. In the ensuing battle with said beasty, an ancient tome is stolen and our heroes go boldly off to reclaim it! Well maybe not boldly, but they do go.

Who are these adventurers you ask? Well our heroic group consists of Lenk a young swordsman and the leader of the group, Kataria the elf-like shict an expert archer and tracker, Asper a priestess of Talanas the Healer, Dreadaeleon the wizard, Denaos a thief, and rounding out the party is Gariath the dragonman.

This might sound to you like a typical sword and sorcery novel or possibly even the plot of a Dungeons and Dragons one-shot campaign; however, nothing could be further from the truth.

If you’ve read any of my past reviews, you’ll notice that this one has a different format then the others. In my normal reviews, I try to write a three to four paragraph summary of the plot, roughly equivalent to what I would expect to see on the back of the book, then move on to how I liked or disliked the story. But this book stumped me. I couldn’t do a straight summary of the plot. All the ones I started looked just like the first couple of paragraphs above and made the story sound dull and flat. For weeks, I would go back and retry, looking at different angles, using different formats, but nothing sounded as good as the story actually was.

I’m happy to say I’ve finally figured out why. The story in Tome of the Undergates is not unique. The setup, the main plot, and even the villains’ motivations, are what you would call standard fantasy fare. Trying to make it sound otherwise just didn’t work. So what is it about this book that sets it apart and makes it something I would fully recommend you read? It’s the voices.

Both the author’s prose and the characters themselves have, without a doubt, some of the most unique voices I’ve ever read. The prose of the story is in one breath comical and humorous and in the next deep and solemn. And where the story may seem to be a rather typical adventure it is really a journey of lost souls, seeking meaning in a world where none of them truly belong. The plot of this book is really just a steady current that carries our heroes through their turbulent lives; forcing them to either go with the flow or stand against it, choosing their own fates instead of letting them be decided by others. There are also a lot of pee jokes. Hey, I said it was unique.

Each character while being a very typical trope was also a real person (or creature), not just a cardboard cutout glued flat to the page. Lenk, the fighter, is a true adventurer following wherever his path takes him and haunted (literally) by a past that set him on that path. Kataria is what the rest of the world would call a savage, yet she follows Lenk, partly to discover what it is about humans that make them so hated by her people and partly for reasons she doesn’t understand. Asper is trying to be true to her faith even while doubts of its validity continually bombard her. Gariath is an enigma and probably the deepest character in the story, but I don’t want to spoil too much and I think you get the idea. By the end of the story, each character is a fully fleshed out person (or humanoid) with just enough of their personal story left untold that you want to keep reading after the book is finished.

So the characters are all troubled souls, clinging to each other for support, right? No actually, they hate each other. They fight constantly, verbally and physically. Most don’t care if the rest live or die, as long as the others’ deaths don’t affect them personally. The dialog between them is one of my favorite parts of the book. Their snarkiness reminds me of the days all my guy friends invade my house and verbally beat on one another while playing games over chips and highly caffeinated soda.

For me this book works on so many different levels, it’s just too hard to explain it without giving too much away. And now I’m sure I’m beginning to sound little fangirlish, so let me step back and tell you what I didn’t like about the book. I could tell even before I finished, that this story would not be for everyone. I do think the beginning was a bit slow, and if you don’t like the fact that the characters are constantly arguing then the first part might be hard to get through. I also didn’t like the fact that the point of view switched back and forth between characters without any warning. That made it a little hard to follow in a couple spots, but once you get the feel of the writing, it does get easier to keep track of whose point of view you’re in.

Okay, so what do I think overall? Well, overall, I think the book was excellent. It really had everything I look for in a fantasy novel: a good (if simple) story, excellent characters, funny dialog, great prose, and a lot more heart than you’d expect from a book with this many fart jokes. And I as soon as I can get my hands on the sequel I am definitely picking it up.

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Jul 31, 2011 Ken rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, fantasy-faction-book-club

Tome of the Undergates is my August book club read with Fantasy Faction. Before I go into details, I have to say that this isn't the kind of Fantasy novel that people are used to. To really get into this book, you have to understand who Sam Sykes is. If you're not already following him on Twitter at @SamSykesSwears then you really should. The energy and outrageous humour that you see in his tweets are clearly present in this book.

The book begins with a sea battle that lasts a quarter of the boo Tome of the Undergates is my August book club read with Fantasy Faction. Before I go into details, I have to say that this isn't the kind of Fantasy novel that people are used to. To really get into this book, you have to understand who Sam Sykes is. If you're not already following him on Twitter at @SamSykesSwears then you really should. The energy and outrageous humour that you see in his tweets are clearly present in this book.

The book begins with a sea battle that lasts a quarter of the book, by far the longest battle scene I've ever read. During this sea battle, the adventurers are introduced. In other stories, readers learn about the characters when they were still young or through deeds that they performed. However Sykes introduces the adventurers in this book by having them constantly argue with each other. It's a different way of introducing the thinking and the believes of the characters to the reader but at times it just became too much and hindered the movement of the plot. I had difficulty remember who's who at certain points as it kept jumping between battle scenes and arguments.

Things began to pick up pace after this as the adventurers are tasked with the responsibility of retrieving the tome from the demons. The fight scenes are vividly described and visceral. At the same time the bantering between the characters become more bearable and I actually find myself enjoying the exchanges. Strangely this part reminds me of my time in boarding school. We had a wide range of characters just like the book and despite how much we might have liked or disliked each other, we were stuck on the same boat so to speak and can't get rid of each other.

I thought that towards the end of the book the quick pace would continue and the book would end with a cliffhanger but the energy that we found earlier died down instead. Despite this, there are some really great writing in the last few scenes that make you forgive the change of direction and makes you rethink if the natures of the characters.

The book is a little rough and pace uneven but when the book is good, it is really good and the series show a lot of promise. I'm sure the story will become tighter as Sykes hones his craft and gain more experience as a writer. I understand the criticisms this book receives and that it may not suit everyone's tastes but if you are looking for something different then do give this book a try! I'm dying to find out who is that voice in Lenk's head, what's up with Asper's arm and what will happen to the rest of the gang.

3.5 Stars

(Reposted from http://www.paperlessreading.com/2011/08/tome-of-undergates-by-sam-sykes.html) ...more

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