Wake of the Bloody Angel review

Wake of the Bloody Angel is the fourth novel starring the famous (at least I hope he's becoming more and more so) sword jockey Eddie LaCrosse by author Alex Bledsoe.  This sword and mystery novel, available on July 3rd, will be followed by at least one more tale for the devoted ex-mercenary turned detective.

Twenty years ago, a barmaid in a harbor town fell for a young sailor who turned pirate to make his fortune. But what truly became of Black Edward Tew remains a mystery—one that has just fallen into the lap of freelance sword jockey Eddie LaCrosse. 

For years, Eddie has kept his office above Angelina’s tavern, so when Angelina herself asks him to find out what happened to the dashing pirate who stole her heart, he can hardly say no—even though the trail is two decades old. Some say Black Edward and his ship, The Bloody Angel, went to bottom of the sea, taking with it a king’s fortune in treasure. Others say he rules a wealthy, secret pirate kingdom. And a few believe he still sails under a ghostly flag with a crew of the damned. 

To find the truth, and earn his twenty-five gold pieces a day, Eddie must take to sea in the company of a former pirate queen in search of the infamous Black Edward Tew…and his even more legendary treasure.

LaCrosse last adventure was Dark Jenny where the tale of King Arthur and Excalibur was revisited.  Previously, Eddie also tackled a horse queen and a dragon and this time he's going out to sea for some pirate hunt­ing. As with the sword jockey prior entries, a common trope is used for the background.  Accordingly, what makes this interesting you might ask?  Well, if you have already read some LaCrosse novels, you know by now that where Eddie's concerned, the usual and boring is thrown overboard (I couldn't help myself).  If Wake of the Bloody Angel is you first taste of Bledsoe's Fantasy adventures, you will realize soon enough that a typical setting is only a mean to an end, that end being a mysterious, action packed and humor flavored experience.

One of the things I like about the author's work with Eddie is the way he always interweave the story with the protagonist's past.  Usually it's mostly his own and sometimes it's a look back at the accounts behind his friends backgrounds. Layer by layer, we find out more about his compelling life story, what shaped the fellow.  This time, it's Angelina's turn to hire his services.  However, she doesn't have a huge part in this story.  Eddie's sidekick for Wake of the Bloody Angel is Jane Argo, another sword jockey who previously earned her living as a Captain.  If I could have imagined our beloved hero as a woman, Jane would have been close to the bullseye. So, try to visualize Eddie going on a job with his feminine counterpart and then spice her up a bit.  Isn't it sweet?  That's a great idea and it's well executed.

Then, there's the actual setting; a ship being challenging to use as a main locale.  The guy's storyline, still written with a narrative form the first person perspective, has his share of ground covering to do to elucidate this mystery but most of the time, his search will happen on the sea. People who dislike seafaring in Fantasy may be put off by this.  The characters surrounding him have to be even more captivating to keep close quarters interesting. Jane's one and Eddie even gets to have a trainee but the author has to go through the boundaries of reality to come up with some fresh company. Hopefully, weird encounters galvanize the tale, which tended to lag occasionally.

The story has some moments that can be anticipated but the element of surprise and puzzlement is always present, not as a big bang but as small encounters or enigmas where Eddie's wits and brawn skills find good uses.  Add to this several kick ass moments, a well-researched pirate/ship theme (from what I can perceive as a non-initiate) and plenty of occasions for Eddie to be mutilated, one of the man's trademarks, and you're in for a treat. It's almost too bad that some characters clearly fall into stereotypical pirate fashion or that some dialogues fall short but isn't it the way we like the sea rover crowd?

Eddie wouldn't be the fascinating hero he is without much soul-searching, luck, hard choices and faith in himself and his friends/collaborators. The tale of Wake of Bloody Angel facilitates his work in order to achieve it. The mystery at the heart of the book doesn't bring the best denouement in term of detective work, but it creates more emotional foundations making Eddie's world much more vivid, even at a somewhat slower pace than the last books.

In a past review, I wrote this about LaCrosse:

What I liked about Eddie in the first two novels (as I mentioned in the reviews) was his skepticism, gruffness, loyalty, altruism, vulnerability, insecurity and kick-ass fighting abilities.

For a fourth time, Alex Bledsoe succeeded in creating an exciting tale where Eddie stays true to his nature, even if he's getting older.  With four accomplished book to his credit, the Eddie LaCrosse series should become more notable and find its way onto more readers' hands.  This last opus may not be the best of the lot (I think that The Sword Edged Blonde will be hard to beat) but it's a fast read that you have to pick up.

Technically, I have to admit that the cover (Tor) represent what it ought to, but still, a photo realistic cover is kind of tricky since it can mess up with the representation of the character we have made up in our mind. The paperback edition of the novel stands at 352 pages. Here again, no map is included. While it's not mandatory to the series, in this particular instance, it would have been appreciated.

Wake of the Bloody Angel review score :

Characterization............. 8.5 /10
World building............... 7.5 / 10
Magic system................. N / A
Story.............................. 8.5 / 10
Writing...........................  8.5 / 10

Overall (not an average) 8.5 / 10

Enjoy!

The Sword edged blonde review

Burn me deadly review

Dark Jenny review

Alex Bledsoe page

New poll - VIOLENCE!!!

Let's talk about the last poll first.  The topic was very hypothetical and I asked you which beloved series should get a follow-up.  I gave you a list of series that won't be getting a follow-up or will probably not. It was simply a question for the sake of dreamy rambling. Here are the results:

None, completed is completed - 26.8%

The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson - 16.49%

The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan (and Brandon Sanderson) - 12.37%

The Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks - 12.37%

The First Law by Joe Abercrombie - 11.34%

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien - 8.25%

The Chronicles of the Black Company by Glen Cook - 7.22%

Other - 5.15%

It seems that even in a hypothetical situation, completed should stay completed.  I understand the feeling but still, from the series that got the most votes, for the Malazan series, our wishes may be answered in the future!

***

Back in February, I asked if you liked your Fantasy gritty.  The answer came up with a staggering 87% of yeses.  However, this topic can be explored further, bloodily so! Obviously, violence is not the only aspect of grittiness.  Moreover, I think that it's more difficult to skilfully make use of violence in Fantasy than making a book 'feel' gritty.

Crudeness in battle depictions, detailed graphic violence, rape and harmful sex, cold-blooded murder, gallons of blood. gruesome torture...  it seems that this has become one of the core elements of gritty fantasy, dark Fantasy and slowly it's even becoming of the traits of the modern popular epic Fantasy.

It's not always used in the interest of the story, mostly so if it clearly feels gratuitous, but for some authors like George R.R. Martin, Steven Erikson, Joe Abercrombie, Richard Morgan, Glen Cook or newcomers Mark Lawrence and Jeff Salyards, it's an important tool of the trade.

As for myself, I don't mind some violence.  I can't say that I'm a real fan of it or that it's necessary in every situation that makes it possible but it can be an asset. Some situations and settings almost ask for it.  However, the line between violent and simply disgusting can be tricky to draw on.

After so many years of watching violence in movies, TV shows and in videogames, I have grown accustomed to some of it but not completely numb to it.  When reading, I think that my visual imagination has some intrinsic filter, which I'm glad for.  When watching some scenes in the Game of Thrones TV show for example, more specifically the torture scenes like the one with the bucket and rat, I would have preferred a less direct representation.  I prefer to let my imagination grasp what is going without too much detail.  But when reading books, I don't think I ever felt that way.

There are many great Fantasy books that don't use violence openly.  They are proofs that you can write epic Fantasy without being gruesome.  In the end though, violence usually become a great factor to consider to get gossip going.  Talk about it, that's what is important.

What I'm asking you is:

Is there too much graphic violence in Fantasy?

- Yes

- No

Feel free to comment!!! :)

Ebooks sales ahead of hardcovers

Ebooks finally surpassed the revenues of hardcovers in the first quarter of 2012.  I wouldn't have though that it would be so soon.  The AAP (Association of American Publishers) posted a report indicating that sales of adult ebooks (no children/young adult in this statistic) reached $282.3 million versus $229.6 million for adult hardcover sales.  With hardcover cost being higher than the ebook format, the number of ebooks sold in that period must quite high but still, mass market paperback are at the top with $299.6 million.

Back in December 2010, 52% of the respondent of the poll I did on the blog said that they were not or would not read ebooks, mostly because of the loss of physical feeling...

Here's a wrap up of the growth:

"Total Trade net revenue grew by +27.1% vs January 2011. Growth was reflected across Adult, Children’s/Young Adult and Religious categories. While Children’s/Young Adult physical format Hardcover and Paperback both saw strong double-digit growth (68.9% and 61.9% respectively), AAP’s first monthly data on Children’s/YA eBooks showed a massive +475.1% increase from 2011 to 2012. Some publishers have attributed this to the availability of more options for devices aimed at those demographics as well as a number of popular new releases."

Erikson's The Wurms of Blearmouth covers

The Wurms of Blearmouth is Steven Erikson next novella in the Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach novella series.  It will be released in June 2012 (yes, this month!!!) by PS Publishing and still the blurb so far is simply:

Steven Erikson’s new Bauchelain and Korbal Broach novella, The Wurms of Blearmouth, follows on from where The Lees of Laughter's End left off.

I hope it stands up to the previous novellas which were really entertaining reads, a must for the Malazan fans and the newcomers to Erikson universe. Here's the cover art for the hardcover edition and the signed splicased edition:

Kick ass moment #13

I finished reading the fourth Eddie LaCrosse book but I can't post the review yet... have to wait closer to the release. However, there was two passages that made me grin, nice little moments I'd like to share:

***

[...]

And then the source of the disturbance appeared.
“Shit!” I yelled. I’d walked right into the same goddamned
trap again. On the plus side, I had learned where Wendell Marteen
got the idea. So I wasn’t a total failure as a sword jockey.
Maybe instead of Clift’s noble quote, that would be my epitaph:
Not a total failure.

***

[...]

“Sometimes. Good night, Mrs. Talbot.”
“Good night. You two going to keep it down now that you’ve
had your welcome home meet- and- greet?”
“Not likely.”
“Well, make her scream once in my honor, then.”
“No, that was me,” I said.
She cackled.
I went inside, stretched out beside Liz, and kissed her bare
shoulder. She snuggled back against me. Eventually I fell asleep.
When I awoke, I knew what I had to do.

***

Kick ass moments #12
Index

Anthony Huso's Black Bottle excerpt

Tor.com posted an excerpt for Antony Huso's next novel (out in August), the follow-up to the fantastic debut The Last Page, Black Bottle.

A glimpse from chapter 1 (here's the link for the full extract):

Love and warmth and family portraits were gone. Taelin had said good-bye to all of her friends. She walked resolutely, powered on disdain and a small cold brightness between her breasts.

 

Her journey stretched out behind her like a continental seam. She had struggled to get here, clawing out of the south, away from her father, across Eh’Muhrûk Muht¹ and up through the raw drizzle of the Country of Mirayhr. Her most recent complication had been the bone-jarring twenty-one miles between Clefthollow and the spot where her chemiostatic car had whined to a halt in deep mud. She had left her driver two miles back with half-fare, opting to slog alone with her only suitcase through freezing rain. Now, at last, she stood within eyeshot of this dismal country’s heart: the capital of the Duchy of Stonehold. Huge walls appeared from the weather, hammer and tongs, strung with vapor and steam, like pig iron pulled from its first bath.

 

1 P: Great Cloud Rift.

 

Glaring at the towers, Taelin lifted her crimson-lensed goggles back from her eyes and let them snap into brunette shadow. So this is the top of the world? she thought. This is the barbaric Naneman stronghold no one dares touch?

 

Stonehold had been founded by criminals. In 700 S.K. Felldin Barâk had pardoned several thousand Naneman murderers on condition they explore and settle the north. The ruffians’ progeny had sunk deep into the mountains, turned their backs on the south and—eight hundred years ago, give or take—declared their independence. This cold, rugged land subsisted on fisheries and metholinate gas and a modest export of caviar and other luxury goods. She would have struggled to find it on a map until last year.

 

Now, being here, wrapped in winter, awash in the legendary ferocity of this place, a chill deeper than weather sank into Taelin. This was what she was up against.

 

She remembered the day, the place she had been sitting, and the cool

 prickle that had traveled across her forearms when she had heard that the diplomatic vessel Baasha One had been shot down over the Valley of Nifol. That was the summer before last, when the world had changed and the whole south had erupted into a hive of buzzing opinions. It was the day that had brought the Duchy of Stonehold to her attention.

 

The short, horrible story was that the victims of the crash had been picked over by northerners. Everyone in Pandragor was appalled. Taelin had shared a national sense of disgust.

 

Then it had leaked that solvitriol blueprints had been in Baasha One’s wreckage. Solvitriol secrets had fallen into the barbarians’ hands!

 

The papers had kept the drama going, an entire summer of real-life cloak and dagger. Taelin had to admit that despite her fear over Stonehold’s solvitriol program, the daily news had offered a kind of terrible entertainment. Shame had followed her to the newsstand every day where she indulged in Pandragonian accounts of her country’s diplomats: arrested in the far north. The saga of accusations, interrogations and executions had lasted for several weeks. Everyone had assumed that Pandragor would get involved.

 

Her father had told her that was precisely the articles’ purpose: to whip up public sentiment. Pandragor was going to throw the gauntlet down right in the middle of Stonehold’s brewing civil war.

 

And it had almost happened.

 

But one day, all the propaganda, all the support drummed up by the press had fallen flat when a Pandragonian airship full of diplomats had gone down under Stonehavian guns. Not the guns of Caliph Howl, the High King that Pandragor opposed, but the guns of Saergaeth Brindlestr4m the provincial leader Pandragor had been backing.

 

When the very arm that the emperor had been sponsoring stabbed him in the back, what else could Pandragor do? Emperor Jünn1 had backed down. He had said in an address that the south would, “let the North sort out the North.”

A round of covers

Several new covers surfaced on the web recently. Here you go!

***

Bantam unveiled the cover art for their edition of Steven Erikson's Forge of Darkness.  I think that I still prefer the cover from the Tor edition.

***

Next up is the cover for the second novel by David Tallerman, following Giant Thief, Crown Thief: 

***

The US cover for Robert V.S. Redick's Night of the Swarm.  I also posted the UK cover which I still prefer:

***

And to conclude, the final cover art for The Blinding Knife (here was the tentative cover) by Brent Weeks:

May procurements and audiobooks

May has passed and I can share my new procurements, arcs and point out the new audiobooks available.

***

I got the e-arc for Wake of the Bloody Angel by Alex Bledsoe, the fourth Eddie LaCrosse book which I'm really enjoying so far (the review will be posted when the release date get nearer) and The Hammer and the Blade by Paul S. Kemp.

In physical form, I received these:

Scourge of the Betrayer went immediately to the top of my reading pile!

And finally, if you are an audiobook listener, you can treat your ears with the following Fantasy books released in May:

Brayan's Gold by Peter V. Brett
Magister Trilogy by C.S. Friedman
Rise of Empire by Michael J. Sullivan
The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin
Giant Thief by David Tallerman

June releases

Another great trio of books caught my attention this month in Fantasy releases.  I'm mostly eager for Hulick's follow-up to my best debut of 2011 (Among Thieves review), Sworn in Steel. UPDATE: However it seems like we will all be waiting for it, Hulick confirmed that the book is delayed and Amazon is wrong...

The following books are also released in June:

The Spirit War by Rachel Aaron - June 5 (The Legend of Eli Monpress book 4)

False Covenant by Ari Marmell - June 26 (A Widdershins Adventure book 2)

And from the 2012 releases list I posted in January, The Skybound Sea by Sam Sykes should be out in November, Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch has moved to 2013 and The Red Knight by Miles Cameron (aka The Black Captain) will be out in September.

***

Sworn in Steel

Douglas Hulick

UPDATE: June 5th (delayed, no official date yet)

It’s been three months since Drothe killed a legend, burned down a portion of the imperial capital, and unexpectedly elevated himself into the ranks of the criminal elite. Now, as the newest Gray Prince in the underworld, he’s learning just how good he used to have it.  

With barely the beginnings of an organization to his name, Drothe is already being called out by other Gray Princes. And to make matters worse, when one dies, all signs point to Drothe as wielding the knife. As members of the Kin begin choosing sides – mostly against him – for what looks to be another impending war, Drothe is approached by a man who not only has the solution to Drothe’s most pressing problem, but an offer of redemption. The only problem is the offer isn’t for him.  

Now Drothe finds himself on the way to the Despotate of Djan, the empire’s long-standing enemy, with an offer to make and a price on his head. And the grains of sand in the hour glass are running out, fast . . .

***

The Shadowed Sun

N.K. Jemisin

June 7th

Gujaareh, the city of dreams, suffers under the imperial rule of the Kisuati Protectorate. A city where the only law was peace now knows violence and oppression. And nightmares: a mysterious and deadly plague haunts the citizens of Gujaareh, dooming the infected to die screaming in their sleep. Trapped between dark dreams and cruel overlords, the people yearn to rise up -- but Gujaareh has known peace for too long. 

Someone must show them the way. 

Hope lies with two outcasts: the first woman ever allowed to join the dream goddess'' priesthood, and an exiled prince who longs to reclaim his birthright. Together, they must resist the Kisuati occupation and uncover the source of the killing dreams... before Gujaareh is lost forever

***

The Hammer and the Blade
Paul S. Kemp
June 26th

A pair of down-at-heel treasure hunters and incorrigible rogues. Egil is a priest, happy to deliver moral correction with his pair of massive hammers. Nix is a sneak-thief; there’s no lock he cannot open, no serving girl he cannot charm. Between them, they always have one eye open for a chance to make money – the other eye, of course, is on the nearest exit.  Nix’s idea? 

Kill a demon.

Steal the treasure.

Retire to a life of luxury. 

Sounds easy when you put it like that. 

Unfortunately for Egil and Nix, when the demon they kill has friends in high places, retirement is not an option.