Happy Birthday A Fantasy Reader

A Fantasy Reader is one year old!!! On April 15th 2009 I started this great hobby and after 27 reviews so far, 127 posts and some kick ass moments, I'm still delighted to contribute to the fantasy literature blogosphere.

What is this meaning for the blog? Well as you can see I switched the template. The original Notebook template was great looking in my opinion, but I grew just a bit tired and I wanted to get better readability. I hope this sleeker theme will be appreciated. I'm really open to comments! I'm still working on some visual problems...

Aside from the obvious, I will clean up the list of labels. I think that this many labels is not very useful. I will reduce the list of labels (20 or so) to something like covers, polls, reviews, gaming digression, news, etc... I also want to add more kick ass moments to my list but only by reading new uncommon and funny scenes will I achieve that. The map index will continue to be updated and I will try to make more interviews, one not being a great number. I had a good start with Stephen Deas but aside from a little lack of time, the two following interviews I sent to authors were never answered... at least I'm still waiting.

Finally, I will update the blogroll, add a list of author website (with the help of a third column) and I may add my views about movies and more gaming disgressions if it turns out to be well received.

Thanks everyone!!!

A round of covers

In the last weeks, 4 new interesting covers for upcoming or already available books were unveiled.

First up, to stay on topic with last night post, is the cover art for the second novel in the Inheritance Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin, The Broken Kingdoms. The artwork was first posted on Aidan's blog at A Dribble of Ink. This cover is simply an evolution of the cover for the first book. I liked the first one and Cliff Nielsen did a good job again. Lauren Panepinto mentioned on Aidan's blog that this is not the final work. Enjoy :

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Next on the list is the UK cover (Gollancz) for the eagerly awaited novel The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson, the first book of the Stormlight Archives series. I already posted the US cover here and I have to say that this new one is not looking great in comparison. I didn't like the colors for the US artwork but I just find the UK cover ugly. Thanks to Adam at The Wertzone for showing us.

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Finally, Tor unveiled the new covers for the Psalm of Isaak series by Ken Scholes. Chris McGrath is behind the new art (he's the artist behind the new First Law covers for Abercombie's series, here). I like those a lot, way better that the original ones even though we haven't seen the cover for Lamentation. By the way, this is the first time we get to take a look at the cover for Antiphon, the next book in store for Scholes. Kudos to Mad Hatter.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms review

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is Nora K. Jemisin first novel. Prior to this release, she used to write short fiction. The second book in the Inheritance Trilogy is named The Broken Kingdoms and is coming out in fall 2010. The working title for the third and final book is Kingdom of Gods.

Yeine Darre is the granddaughter of Dekarta, the ruler of Sky, a city build by subjugated gods as the center of power for the hundred thousand kingdoms. After the mysterious death of her mother, she is summoned to be named as heir to the Arameri rule. Her two cousins, Scimina and Relad will scheme to keep themselves ahead of the crowd while she tries to find out what happened to her mother and what led to her homecoming. She will discover that everyone has a secret agenda and that she's the master piece behind all the manipulations.

Primarily, the element that stands out from this read is the choice of narrative mode. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is written in a first person perspective. To add even more to the relationship between the reader and the central protagonist, it feels like if we are reading someone personal journal instead of the tale simply being reported by the narrator. Hence, I found myself feeling really close to Yeine in the end and it was probably the author goal to do so; achievement completed successfully.

Mixed up with the story of the rulership of Sky, is the investigation by Yeine to find out what happened to her mother. This is also a significant part of the narration and it makes us care even more about this young lady. During that search, she will find out that the situation involves something even bigger than her small universe, where gods are used as weapons and very practical servants.

Mythology, and more particularly the gods, is at the heart of the story. The interaction between the hero and the gods (or their avatars) creates a beautiful opportunity for the author, enabling her to abundantly give us details on the creation of the world and the past of the various nations. The use of the latter is skilfully done, and since those are submitted to the Arameri family (descendants of first priestess of Itempas, the Bright Lord), originality is achieved.

Among these gods, I liked Sieh who is the incarnation of youth but especially Nahadoth, the first of the gods. Even if we only skim the surface with him since our only source of information is what Yeine perceives, he is still the most compelling character. Underneath his shadowy and nonchalant attitude (he's the Nightlord), there's a complicated being longing for his past life with his siblings. The relation that eventually develops between this mythical entity and Yeine, which at the beginning seemed far from probable, finally becomes very plausible.

Although the environment in which the story proceeds is circumscribed around the city of Sky, I would say that all the elements necessary for worldbuilding in such a novel are present. The inhabitants are almost alien in this magical place. Nevertheless, I almost had a feeling of science fiction and not fantasy during my reading. As regards to the magic system, in addition to the gods and their powers, there exists some kind of sorcery in the markings done by scriveners, writers of the god language. In any way, this is not really essential with to the tale told here.

By the way, I have to admit that I realized I had not read a book written by a woman since Robin Hobb. A shame I think, but it was not intentional. Good thing I picked up this one, nice debut. The only problem I found about the follow-up to this novel would be a spoiler. Let me simply say the second book can't be anything like this one...

Technically, I think the Orbit cover by Cliff Nielsen is perfect for the book, I wouldn't change anything about it. The paperback edition of the novel is 398 pages. There's no map in the book but in this case that was not necessary as much of the action takes place on Sky. There's an appendix with a couple of useful information at the end.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms review score :

Characterization............. 8.5 /10
World building............... 7.5 / 10
Magic system................. 7 / 10
Story.............................. 8 / 10
Writing........................... 8.5 / 10

Overall (not an average) 8 / 10

Enjoy!

N.K. Jemisin page

A Crown of Swords ebook cover art

The seventh cover art for the ebook editions of The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan was unveiled today by Tor (here). The scene chosen for A Crown of Swords is the saving of Nynaeve by Lan. The artist chosen for the work is Mélanie Delon (her website).

I like the final rendering, the style and the colors. However, I'm not sure I depicted those two like this in my mind. Lan had a more severe and "tempered" facial in my opinion. Anyway, that will always be the case with rendering of characters. Anyway, kind of cool but the best for me among the seven covers we have seen so far, although I really like Harriet idea and choices. Keep them coming!

This ebook will be available on April 20th.

You can see the first six ebook covers here :

The Eye of the World
The Great Hunt
The Dragon Reborn
The Shadow Rising
The Fires of Heaven
Lord of Chaos

A Darkness Forged in Fire review

A Darkness Forged in Fire is the first fantasy novel by author Chris Evans. The second opus of The Iron Elves series is named The Light of Burning Shadows and was released in July 2009 (ADFiF in July 2008). Mr. Evans is a military historian (with an interest mostly in the First World War) and it shows abundantly in his writing.

Konowa Swiftdragon was banished. The former commander of the Iron Elves is in exile after killing a malevolent elvish viceroy, hireling to the Shadow Monarch, who was persecuting the elfkynan people. When the Red Star falls back from the sky to return to the land, the elfkynan witch Visyna seeks back Konowa to help the Prince of the Calahrian empire reform the Iron Elves. The new contingent, composed of misfits and rookies, among them the frail Alwyn and his friend the dwarf Yimt, tries to reach Luuguth Jor and the star before the minions of the Shadow Monarch.

A Darkness Forged in Fire is a trek. A walk through the dangerous countryside by a bunch of soldiers who encounters unique monsters along the way. I think Evans wanted to show us the life of soldiers on the road and how camaraderie is built. In this, we are far away from the Malazans (and the Black Company from what I gather) but the book has its moments, taking its originality in the mix of musket (hence the Iron Elves), wooden bows, original beasties and medieval warfare. A howitzer firing of shielded mages? Can be kind of cool (and it is on some occasions), but underneath it all, there's a simple straightforward story and some thin characters.

What I enjoyed the most in this novel is some of the minor players. Konowa is the main hero and principal PoV of the story and I think that he doesn't really lives up to the task. Moreover, his love story is awfully predictable. The secondary characters are way more interesting. Even though he's a bit too much stereotypical as a dwarf, Yimt is really entertaining. His combination with Alwyn the frail rookie who wears spectacles adds much needed humor and "emotion" to the serious story. Yimt will remain memorable with statements as : "my aunt hairy chest".

About the other protagonists, there's one more that steal the show, Rallie. She's a cigar smoking Imperial Weekly Herald scribe with a pelican as a pet, some witty remarks, hidden magical talents and a knack for understanding people. The old lady even managed to remake the old saying from Lord Lytton's Richelieu play : "The quill is mightier than the musket!".

Storywise, we face a pure evil monarch without a tangible agenda, two of her henchman that are easily coerced into becoming bad guys, a mythical fallen star, "naturally" good elves and some dubious marked ones. These last are marked by the Shadow Monarch, but it doesn't add much to their struggle through life. In this, the novel is a bit of a disappointment. There's not much worldbuilding aside from the military setting but there's a promise of more in the future of the series. By the way, the magic system is something you have to assume.

The writing was correct. Nothing felt wrong and nothing is fabulous. Although there's a scene where someone who is drowning is saved by a soldier jumping on his chest.... What the hell??? Putting all of this together, I'm not sure I'll read the second book soon.

Since I listened to the audiobook, a word about the narration. I listened to about half the Wheel of Time books and read the rest of them. Michael Kramer was the narrator, and I have to say that it's one of my favorites. Kudos again for this piece of work.

Technically, I think the cover art by Mary Austin Speaker (Pocket) serves the book right. The hardcover edition of the novel is 432 pages and the audiobook is 15 hrs and 17 min. You can take a look at the map here.

A Darkness Forged in Fire review score :

Characterization............. 7.5 /10
World building............... 6.5 / 10
Magic system................. 6 / 10
Story.............................. 6 / 10
Writing........................... 7 / 10

Overall (not an average) 6.5 / 10

Chris Evans page