Ghost Story

Ghost Story
Dresden Files #13
Jim Butcher

Meet Harry Dresden, Chicago's first (and only) Wizard PI. Turns out the 'everyday' world is full of strange and magical things - and most of them don't play well with humans. That's where Harry comes in. But he's forgotten his own golden rule: magic - it can get a guy killed. Which didn't help when he clashed with unknown assailants with his murder in mind. And though Harry's continued existence is now in some doubt, this doesn't mean he can rest in peace. Trapped in a realm that's not quite here, yet not quite anywhere else, Harry learns that three of his loved ones are in danger. Only by discovering his assailant's identity can he save his friends, bring criminal elements to justice, and move on himself. It would just be easier if he knew who was at risk. And had a (working) crystal ball. And access to magic. Instead, he is unable to interact with the physical world - invisible to all but a select magical few. He's also not the only silent presence roaming Chicago's alleys. Hell, he put some there himself. Now, they're looking for payback.

For the first time in a long time I finished a book in one day. (There are minor spoilers for previous books in this blog post).


Yay me!


Unfortunately it means I am now probably going to have to wait something like 18 months for the next Dresden Files novel :( At least this book didn't end on the cliffhanger that Changes was.


Butcher continues his masterful job of building a world in which magic lives and breathes. The fallout from the destruction of the Red Court has caused as much upheaval in the world as the war they fought with the White Council. New dark forces are battling for the territory the red Court has left behind and Butcher weaves  intrigue and possibility onto this canvas with breathtaking excitement. Although I am getting a little tired of the endless battles - just a little.  


I'm not going to talk about the book - you get all you need to know about the plot from the blurb. What I love about Butcher's world is how real the magic feels. Its not unsubstantial, it is incredibly solid and I would dearly love to get my hands on his notes.


The Sidhe play a part again - namely Dresden's faerie godmother - and I am in awe at how he makes them so alien and so convincingly powerful.


I desperately want to play in Dresden's world lol.


So looking forward to the next book. 

Expanse

Now I am not a big reader of science fiction but  I was very keen to get my hands on LEVIATHAN WAKES.

I'm not entirely sure why - I have never really connected with Daniel Abrahams fantasy work and I have never read anything by Ty. Yet I still wanted to read it.

And I am very glad I did.

LEVIATHAN WAKES (Expanse #01)

James S. A. Corey

Trade Paperback $27.99

Humanity has colonized the planets - interstellar travel is still beyond our reach, but the solar system has become a dense network of colonies. When Captain Jim Holden's ice miner stumbles across a derelict, abandoned ship, he uncovers a secret that threatens to throw the entire system into war.

Part adventure, part detective story and all space opera. Leviathan Wakes is a rip-roaring tale of the near future, and while most of the technology they use/reference has the novelty of being understandable there are definite suggestions that the tech will be going far future in the next book. Humanity has colonized the solar system but the stars are still out of reach.  There are strong tensions between Earth, Mars and the Belt and someone carefully plucked the strings to ignite those tensions into all out war. Leviathan Wakes is a faced paced tale with strong characterization and plot. Book two has already gone to the top of my wishlist.

The Long Quiet

Agh!

How slack have I been? No posts in like forever.

Well... I've been very busy.

I've been hosting signings with Fiona McIntosh, Jennifer Fallon, Kristin Cashore and having coffee with Robin Hobb... haha, I'm such a name dropper ;)

Not mention hanging out at the Aurealis Awards!

We have also moved the store back into the mother-ship. This has been a trial all on its own - and it is on going.

But what have I been reading you ask? As well you might I suppose. I've not been reading much of anything that has truly grabbed me (although I have been reading). I have discovered in the course of my frustration over the lack of books to gush about that I am a reader of epic fantasy, I don't read simply for the sake of story.

Epic fantasy is what I like, it's what I love, and I get bored (not always) and very critical of work that doesn't fit that mold - which is completely unfair on the book and author. So rather than be scathing about those books I will simply put them aside as 'not for me'.

I've also been working on the second draft of my own epic - not as much as I'd like unfortunately. Don't you hate how life gets in the way of things? I would dearly love to be the type of author who can lose themselves in writing, who can find solace in their work. Unfortunately I am not that type of writer at all.

While I love having written the act of writing is very much work and not at all a comfort when I am experiencing emotional distress. Woe is me.

Anyway.

To distract myself I have been engaging in 'comfort reading' - which involves re-reading The Song of Ice and Fire by GRRM - and in playing WoW.

Any other WoW players out there? An old guild mate and I have relaunched our old guild STORM - we were once raiders and while Av is still raiding I am not. STORM this time around is going to be a social guild and a refuge (for me) from my own preoccupation with 'things'.

We are a very small guild at present, but if any of you readers out there play Alliance, or want to roll it on the Khaz'goroth US server you are very welcome to come join us *g*

You can check out the guild website here.

Yes I will get back to book reviewing (and writing news) soon. I promise- in the meantime I am sure I have more old fav reviews in the 'archives' I can dig out for you.

More Game of Thrones

I'm so excited I almost wet my pants!

Epic Fanasty - we need more of it

Thank the gods.

At last a new Epic Fantasy has been published (or will be shortly) - I really really miss new Epic Fantasy's, the trend these days seems to be 'gritty' and 'dark', leaning more towards 'reality' - if that's what I wanted I'd read fiction - and those books that are just fantasy with nothing particularly epic about them.

That's not to say that I don't enjoy the grittier side of fantasy - or that Orullian's debut doesn't have some dark moments - but I cut my teeth on the likes of Jordan and Brooks, and not many books are offering that type of world-building or storytelling these days.

THE UNREMEMBERED is BIG, it has depth and power, and (as in the vein of Janny Wurts) Orullian's prose is the sort that where you would do well to pay attention to every line because the even the smallest phrase can have the greatest meaning.

This is a very promising debut and I look forward to the next book in the series!

And check out the short story Peter has going on youtube - it's awesome!

What I've Been Reading

So, I finished The Twilight Herald for a second time this past week - and I must say I enjoyed it much more than I had Stormcaller. I still had issues with Lloyds lack of what I can only call explaination. I know you find a lot of writers these days going for minimal 'info-dump' and that's great, but even authors like Erikson who land you smack-bang in the middle of events with little point of reference pepper their work with event landmarks that give the reader something to buikd a picture with. The use of a glossary would be good here - at least Lloyd does use a character list which I found myself referring to quite often as I read to recall just who particular characters were. That's not something I find myself doing often as I read (usually). But that being said Twilight Herald is a dark and broody novel, Lloyds dialogue is fantastic and Zhia Vukotic is one of the best characters I've ever read.

I am now reading The Unremembered by Peter Orullian - the great folk at Tor sent me through an ARC - and yes I am reading this even though I have in my hands The Crippled God by Steven Erikson. That will come next but as I beging writing the second draft of my 'epic' it might take me longer than I'd like to get through it.

But of course the most exciting news to pass my desk this week is that Janny Wurts has handed in the manuscript of the latest volume of The Wars of Light and Shadow to her editior at HarperColins in the UK (thanks to Laneth for the heads up! - I really need to pay more attention to her forums /sigh). Now I shall begin to bombard my contacts there with emails to get a copy for review - I can't wait!

A Balancing Act

The Dragon's Path, first book in the Dagger and Coin series by Daniel Abraham, is worthy edition to the shelves of any reader of fantasy fiction.

Abraham has created an epic landscape on which to set his tale. It is a world, as many you would find in fantasy, that is rich with culture and history and has a lot of potential for future volumes. 

Unfortunately as I feared (and wrote of in my last post) this is not a book I can gush about because while Abrahams writing is good it just doesn't grab me. I can't explain it anymore than that. I know that I can be very picky, and I know from working in a genre specialist bookstore that there are lots of readers out there who will love this book, but it only worked for me partly - and I dare say not the way the author probably intended.

One of the things I have come to understand about this story is that while it is epic fantasy it is not an epic fantasy that is an adventure. It is more a political and economic fantasy.

And this is fine. In fact the story following Cithrin and the Medea Bank was my favorite of the lot.

But I can't help feeling that Abraham's has erred to much on the side of caution in writing what is a more 'mainstream' fantasy (a great evil looming in the distance that threatens to take over the world) and trying to keep it - as so many authors are wont to do these - different. So much so that while he uses the looming threat as a prologue and an epilogue we have 400 odd pages in between to forget about it - rendering that plot point moot, because by the then I no longer cared, nor did it create any suspense for me as to 'what might happen next?' The looming threat became window dressing - regardless of the fact that Geder goes looking for a secret weapon lost in the mountains (that we readers can link to the mountains in the prologue) in the last eighty pages of his storyline. I was much more involved in Cithrin's story - which at the end of the book I have no clue as to how it might fit into a sequel that could possibly focus more on the 'rising darkness' - or 'dark forces' that are referenced in the blurb.

I went into this book with the idea that it would be more the type of fantasy that grabs me than The Long Price was (and btw - I loved the world of the TLP, its culture and its history - it was the kind of world that, in my mind, popped the way Kelewan did when Feist allowed Wurts to play at the Great Game in the Empire trilogy, but it never got off the ground).  And Dragon's Path was more traditional fantasy (read europeanish setting), but only on the surface. That makes it more accessible than The Long Price and yeah it has dragons, but that was about it.

The thing Abraham's does really well is characters and economics. In fact it is because of Cithrin and her journey building a bank (interestingly enough it was Amat Kyaan's story in TLP that interested me the most also) that I will pick up book two - because I want to read what happens next!