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| 9789895334445
| 4.83
| 18
| unknown
| Jul 19, 2022
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it was amazing
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4.5 - 5 stars Apologies, but I am going to start this review with a digression into the recent history of TTRPGs (tabletop role playing games) at least 4.5 - 5 stars Apologies, but I am going to start this review with a digression into the recent history of TTRPGs (tabletop role playing games) at least as I know it, but I promise you that an actual book review is forthcoming. In the past few years, I have been re-discovering my love for TTRPGs and of course started with the granddaddy of them all, Dungeons & Dragons (in its 5e form). While I found it refreshing, I soon found myself looking into other, more archaic, forms of gaming that were more reminiscent of my cloudy, and no doubt inaccurate, memories of the halcyon days of my youth. This ultimately resulted in a deep dive into OSR & NSR games (such as OSE, Cairn, Into the Odd, and Electric Bastionland). The OSR (either ‘Old School Revival’, or ‘Old School Renaissance’ depending on who you ask), has been around for a while and can generally be broken into two ‘factions’ (doesn’t every human interest have to fragment into such things?) who have a different application for the 'R' in OSR: the ‘revival’ people who want to recreate old-school games from the 70’s and 80’s and which has resulted in the creation of many “retro-clones”, or re-writing of old rules (such as Labyrinth Lord, OSRIC, or Swords & Wizardry) and which, I think, had its apotheosis in the creation of Old School Essentials (the aforementioned OSE) which is basically a cleaned up version of B/X D&D from the 80s. The other ‘faction’ leans into the ‘renaissance’ idea and is more concerned with emulating play styles and ideology from older RPGs, not simply with re-creating their exact rule sets. This renaissance ideology has itself spawned yet another acronym: NSR, or ‘New School Revolution’ which still takes some inspiration from older gaming styles, but desires to separate itself from certain ideologies, personalities, and politics that its adherents find problematic in the OSR and from a gaming perspective can perhaps be most closely associated with the mantra “rulings not rules” (meaning that it’s more important to have a way to adjudicate things at the table as opposed to requiring a specific rule for every possible thing that could occur, thus leaning to more rules-lite, as opposed to ‘crunchy’ more simulationist, systems). Sorry…I know this is too much RPG esoterica for a book review, but I couldn’t help myself. Suffice it to say that it’s been an interesting journey that has been both fruitful and enjoyable and has exposed me to many games, and ideas, I would otherwise have never found. As is perhaps implied in my short precis of some of the varied schools of thought in TTRPGs it is a varied community divided by politics, philosophies, and preferences, but also chock full of talented creators writing modules, setting books, game systems, world generators, and pretty much anything else that might be useful in a TTRPG and I have to admit that I think, so far at least, The Vaults of Vaarn is one of the most impressive products I’ve come across. Given that The Vaults of Vaarn was originally published as three game zines that were later collected into the deluxe volume that I read it’s not surprising that it is something of an amalgam of several things: part game system, part setting splat book, and part world generator. Regardless of this somewhat chimerical nature it’s pretty much all goodness. The author, Leo Hunt, lists Dune, The Book of the New Sun, and the works of Moebius as some of his primary inspirations so it’s right up my alley. The quality of the volume is excellent and it’s a real pleasure to read. We start with a short intro that notes the game’s inspirations and genre conventions with a very succinct one page intro to the world. This is followed by a mere three pages for the rules (which are largely derived from Knave, another OSR game) which highlights its ‘rules-lite’ roots, and a single page for the steps of character creation. The rest of the book is an expansion on the weird and wonderful world of Vaarn in which these characters will adventure. We are given five character ancestries to draw from (true-kin humans, synth or robotic beings, the new beast group of uplifted animals, the weird mycomorphs which are fungi/revenant hybrids, and cacogens or mutated humans), mystical gifts and cybernetic enhancements, as well as ‘exotica’ or lost artifacts of the ancients, which can bestow power and advancement. The book is full of wonderful tables to allow the game master to randomly generate NPCs, places, dungeons, encounters, factions, and locations. Every section is interspersed with intriguing tidbits of knowledge that sharpen our vision of the world of Vaarn while still allowing the greatest amount of freedom possible for each game master to build their own version of this strange far-future, post-apocalyptic world (there is no 'true canon' in Vaarn). There are so many things to love here. I love how the primary currency isn’t gold, but water, which makes sense given the fact that Vaarn is a vast blue desert in far-future Urth (hello, Gene Wolfe reference). I love that we get the building blocks for a great main urban centre, Gnomon, filled with factions, locations, secrets and conflict, to give us a flavour of what makes this place tick, but there are still plenty of tables to allowing for the generation of one's own factions, districts, characters, and buildings. We get a small dungeon (or as they are labelled here, Vault), a bestiary of wonderfully weird creatures, and several locations of interest that not only allow you to populate your version of Vaarn’s desert, but to have a template for how such things are done. It’s really quite great and I am smitten. So, why 4.5 instead of 5 stars? There was really only one thing that I wasn’t a huge fan of: the fact that the gameplay chassis of Vaarn is Knave. It’s not a bad system, but even though it's rules-lite I still think it’s more crunchy than is necessary. That’s okay though, I’ll just work on converting it to Cairn or something more up my alley…all that reading into the myriad of games systems in the OSR has paid off, and one of the key ideologies I've taken away is that hacking is not only permitted, but preferred. I’m really going to try and make Vaarn my own. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 22, 2024
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Mar 23, 2024
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Mar 22, 2024
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Hardcover
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| 1937007863
| 9781937007867
| 1937007863
| 4.27
| 19,975
| Oct 02, 2012
| Oct 02, 2012
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really liked it
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3.5 – 4 stars I was expecting one thing when I started this book and so was somewhat surprised when I discovered something a little different. From hav 3.5 – 4 stars I was expecting one thing when I started this book and so was somewhat surprised when I discovered something a little different. From having heard a few things about this book I was expecting a grim and gritty dark horror of the supernatural and the Black Death…and it was that, but it also had a strain of hope, and even what I might call faith, running through it that surprised me. I thought it would be a nihilistic grim-dark paean to the evil of the world but found something a bit more nuanced than that. Buehlman does a good job juggling a number of different genres: historical fiction, fantasy, horror & post-apocalyptic, and creating something cohesive from them all. The horror elements were an interesting blend of Lovecraftian cosmic horror mixed with traditional Judeo-Christian elements and a sizeable smattering of good old human evil. The historical fiction rang true to me and didn’t come across as modern people playing anachronistic dress-up, and I am always intrigued by non-zombie post-apocalypse stories that take place not in the future, but the past. We begin in the company of Thomas, a former knight & now brigand, as he makes his way through a France ravaged by the Black Death and his haunted past and even more haunting present conspire to bring out the worst in his soul. A chance (or so they call it) meeting with a young girl proves to be a turning point for Thomas and we follow their picaresque journeys across the wasteland the world has become towards a goal of which neither of them are quite certain. I really enjoyed this one and while I’m still considering my final opinion on the ending, the more I think about it the more I think that it was both appropriate and unexpected in good ways. ...more |
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1
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Nov 22, 2023
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Dec 07, 2023
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Nov 22, 2023
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Hardcover
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| 0345504968
| 9780345504968
| 0345504968
| 4.04
| 212,162
| Jun 08, 2010
| Jun 08, 2010
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really liked it
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After purposely avoiding this one when it was first published due to a less than sanguine attitude towards the hype, as well as a general malaise rega
After purposely avoiding this one when it was first published due to a less than sanguine attitude towards the hype, as well as a general malaise regarding vampires, I subsequently picked it up and have to say I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Cronin sets up an intriguing tale of the apocalypse by way of pseudo-scientific vampires brought about by man’s hubris in regards to ill-advised experiments and the use of that pesky knowledge that he was not meant to know. It’s a long book (another factor in my initial lack of desire to pick it up) but this has the benefit of allowing Cronin to cover both the ‘before times’ of our own world leading up to the apocalypse along with a parallel storyline (that takes up the bulk of the novel) of the after-effects about a hundred years on. While this was, in my opinion, a good thing I must admit that the story did seem a bit longer than it perhaps needed to be, and I think some elements could probably have been compressed or omitted to help it move along a bit faster. Cronin straddles the line between fantasy and science fiction in his vampire tale. I had originally thought that the pseudo-science origin of the vampires would dominate, and while I’d say it does remain the primary element of their origin, there is an odd mystical/fantasy aspect to them as well, especially in pretty much everything that surrounds the figure of (view spoiler)[Amy (hide spoiler)], who seems to fulfill the role of pre-ordained saviour and whose ‘specialness’ pre-dates their connection to the scientific reason for the other ‘virals’ (as Cronin coins his vampires, due to the source of their metamorphosis). Overall, I’d say this mingling was mostly effective, but I was still left with some questions in the back of my mind about what exactly we were supposed to think about the bigger picture…I mean what was up with the zoo scene? Despite this ambiguity I’d still say that I really liked his take on vampires here. They were truly a frightening creation, and even though they did glow they had nothing of Edward Cullen about them. The semi-human/semi-animal hive-mind creatures that Cronin created were an exciting take on the classic monster, using many of the well-known tropes, but changing them in ways that I thought worked really well. I think it also helped that for most of the story the creatures were very much in the background, thus maintaining their mystery and terror with only occasional glimpses of them to whet the reader’s appetite. The characters that were front and center in the story were generally well done and interesting despite falling into some typical archetypes. I quite liked Agent Wolgast and most of the cast from the pre-apocalypse section so it’s too bad that this was the shortest part of the book. That’s not to say that the characters from the post-apocalypse were bad, but I must admit that I wasn’t too intrigued by Peter Jaxon, the ostensible main character of these sections (though I didn’t actively dislike him either), and in general I thought a number of the more ‘minor’ characters in this section could have been given more time at Peter’s expense without too much loss to the story. That leaves Amy, the enigmatic character who I suppose can be considered the true center of the story. I mostly liked her, and I think this is primarily because despite her central importance to the plot overall, she was very much a background figure, mysterious to both the reader and the other characters. I think was a good move on Cronin’s part since I’m not too sure if Amy as a protagonist would have worked very well. ...more |
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1
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Nov 21, 2021
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Dec 05, 2021
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Nov 03, 2021
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Hardcover
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| 0671496662
| 9780671496661
| 0671496662
| 4.23
| 9,189
| Jan 1983
| Nov 01, 1983
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it was amazing
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This 5-star rating is more for the series as a whole than for the single volume itself (it’s definitely very good, but I think I may still like The Sw
This 5-star rating is more for the series as a whole than for the single volume itself (it’s definitely very good, but I think I may still like The Sword of the Lictor better). There still remains of course the ‘coda’ volume to the series , The Urth of the New Sun, which truly resolves many of the major issues that are still left open ended for both Severian and the planet Urth itself upon the conclusion of _Citadel_, but I have to admit that I can now more clearly see how volume four is in many ways a true conclusion to the initial story of Severian. _Urth_ goes on to give us an extra glimpse that indeed carries forward from where Severian left off, but it really does cover something of a different phase of his life. I’d still say reading the first four books of the New Sun series without reading the final coda would be a loss, but I guess I can just get behind those that see this as a ‘four books plus one’ series as opposed to a straight five book series…does that make any sense? Well, it’s Gene Wolfe, so maybe it doesn’t matter whether it does or not. Looking back it’s hard for me to believe that this book is only 330 pages given everything that Wolfe packs into it, but as with the other volumes this one is packed to the gills with important events. The main thrust of them all, however, revolves around Severian’s final approach to the great war that has been overshadowing the story, and his world, from the beginning. In the background of the story of Severian’s growth and adventures, and caught up within it, is the global conflict between the people of the Commonwealth (under their sole ruler the Autarch) against the people to the north, the Ascians, who we learn live under the sway of the mysterious extraterrestrial giants Erebus and Abaia. Severian finally comes across one of the avowed objects of his journey since he first realized he carried the Claw of the Conciliator when he finds himself cared for in a field hospital run by the Order of the Pelerines on the edge of the front lines. He also gets the chance to see one of his Commonwealth’s enemies first-hand in the form of an injured Ascian soldier who shows just how much the people of the north have been twisted by their extraterrestrial masters. Severian then indulges in several adventures involving time travel, apocalyptic visions, and the visceral experience of battle amongst a group of mercenaries to which he joins himself. Ultimately the former torturer finds himself brought face to face with his ultimate fate which proves to be inexorably tied to the fate of the dying world of Urth as the great powers of the planet all seem to converge upon him. Old enemies are confronted as well as old friends, and it is not always clear at first which is which. In the end Severian comes into his seat of power, an event promised from the first page of the story, and we see the full weight of the mantle which has been thrust upon him. Surprisingly for Wolfe many of the loose ends of the story are tied up (even though there are admittedly still many questions left unanswered) and we begin to see the entire story in a new light as these revelations bring context to many of the seemingly unrelated events of Severian’s life. If you’ve followed Severian thus far then I think you’ll be satisified with the culmination of his growth from torturer’s apprentice to master of his world and can only be pleased that there’s still one volume to go that just might (if Gene Wolfe is feeling particularly generous) answer a few of the questions that are still waiting for answers. ...more |
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3
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Jan 11, 2019
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Jan 24, 2019
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Jan 11, 2019
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Paperback
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| 0671631934
| 9780671631932
| 0671631934
| 4.20
| 10,816
| Jan 1982
| 1981
|
it was amazing
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_Sword of the Lictor_ has proven to be my favourite volume so far in my re-read of the New Sun series. Some obvious reasons are some really great mome
_Sword of the Lictor_ has proven to be my favourite volume so far in my re-read of the New Sun series. Some obvious reasons are some really great moments, such as the disturbing scene with the Alzabo in which we discover the true nature of the creature from which a key ingredient of Severian’s ghoulish banquet with Vodalus was derived, and the biblical debate with Typhon on the mountaintop (which has obvious resonance for any readers of the subsequent Long Sun series). Severian continues to develop further and further from his identification with the Guild of the Torturers, at least internally. It’s true that he freely uses that identity to aid him in his journeys when this association might at all benefit him, but we begin to see more and more instances of Severian acting in a way that the young torturer of earlier volumes would likely not even have considered let alone performed…though it is important to keep in mind that there may be an underlying reason for this aside from any purely individual personal growth Severian is undergoing. The story begins in Thrax, Severian’s final destination throughout the previous books (with, yet again, a significant distance in space and time from the climax of the previous volume with no answers to its unresolved mysteries in sight). Undertaking the role of Lictor (or executioner and head jailer) of the provincial town we see Severian inhabiting a role of real political power fully invested in his role as torturer (ironically at the very time that he is beginning to grow out of it). It is everything that he had once dreamed might be possible for himself, but the bloom is definitely off the rose for him now. A few of the mysteries that have been dogging Severian, and the reader, are at least partially explained, while others are of course introduced or left to grow even bigger as we begin to get a wider picture of Urth and the complex powers and influences that play upon it. There’s really a heck of a lot going on in this book even when just looked at from a plot/action perspective (which isn’t always the case with Wolfe), nevermind the obvious layers of allusion, implication, and metaphor that exist alongside these events. With the hope of avoiding as many spoilers as possible I think I can at least note that we have: Severian as official torturer turned fugitive, a physical battle with wild alien beasts and a much more cerebral one with a band of purported sorcerers, a contest both moral and physical with a truly satanic ruler from the deep past, and his capture by old friends who prove to be foes culminating in yet another battle that has great repercussions for Severian as holder of the relic known as the Claw of the Conciliator. The book ends on much less of a cliff-hanger than the previous two volumes and we seem to be at a new stage for Severian as he must now look beyond his previous goals of simply reaching Thrax, or finding his place as an exiled torturer, and see what lies ahead as the true goal to which the many mysterious events of his life have been pushing him. I really enjoyed this one and am anxious to see how volume 4 fares. ...more |
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3
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Dec 26, 2018
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Jan 10, 2019
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Dec 26, 2018
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Hardcover
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| 0671416162
| 9780671416164
| 0671416162
| 3.99
| 14,784
| 1981
| Feb 01, 1982
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really liked it
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So, we ended the last volume on a cliffhanger and start the next in a completely different place with no idea what happened. Sounds like a Wolfe novel
So, we ended the last volume on a cliffhanger and start the next in a completely different place with no idea what happened. Sounds like a Wolfe novel all right, don’t get too comfortable. We find ourselves in the village of Saltus, some miles north of the gate in the great Wall of Nessus where we last saw our ‘hero’ and his friends. Severian is riding a bit of a high and considers himself something of a celebrity as he is about to 'ply his art' at the behest of the leading magistrate as part of the local fair that is occurring. The unfortunate victims of justice include a woman accused of murdering her husband and child, a cattle thief, and a man said to be a compatriot of the famed rebel Vodalus. Severian has lost touch with all of his companions due to the still mysterious disturbance we witnessed at the gate with the exception of the sailor Jonas, a man he only met at the end of the last volume. The two have become friends in the intervening time and Jonas proves to be a man as mysterious as he is likeable. Severian himself continues to be as ambiguous a protagonist as ever as we witness the way in which he revels in his role of executioner, and wonder at the truth of his statements as inconsistencies begin to creep into his narrative. Is his eidetic memory truly as faultless as Severian claims, and even if it is does Severian want to tell us the whole truth of his life? We’ll be pondering the answers to those questions for the duration and no two readers are likely to come to the same conclusions. There are some memorable scenes in this volume including the battle with a throng of bestial man-apes, the winding halls of the hidden House Absolute where the Autarch centres his rule & his mysterious vizier Father Inire performs his esoteric experiments, and a meeting with the forest outlaw Vodalus who invites Severian to a very special dinner, the effects of which will fundamentally change the young torturer forever. We also come to see the titular ‘claw of the conciliator’ display its powers more openly through the unlikely hands of Severian and see him reunited with both old friends and foes as he continues travelling north on the road to Thrax. Be prepared: the ending of this volume is as mysterious as that for the one which proceeded it, and equally left unresolved should you persevere in following Severian on his difficult road. ...more |
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3
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Dec 14, 2018
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Dec 24, 2018
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Dec 14, 2018
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Paperback
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| 0671540661
| 9780671540661
| 0671540661
| 3.83
| 29,454
| May 1980
| Jun 03, 1984
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really liked it
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As much as I find myself confounded by Wolfe’s method (or is it madness?) in writing I always find myself coming back to his works and finding in them
As much as I find myself confounded by Wolfe’s method (or is it madness?) in writing I always find myself coming back to his works and finding in them enjoyment that is somewhat unique. Upon reflection I think that perhaps “enjoyment” is not quite the right word, though I am struggling to find the mot juste whatever it may be. Perhaps satisfaction? (Admittedly mixed with a fair measure of frustration.) Anyway…my point is that for however difficult I may find Wolfe, and however unfriendly to the casual reader he may be, I still find myself drawn to certain of his books even if I may only be getting a pale shadow of what they supposedly offer to the careful reader (of which group I am admittedly not always a member) and my continual sense that the story would have been so much better if he had just given up some of his game playing and written a more straight-forward text. So why am I drawn back to Wolfe time and again despite having such ambiguous feelings about him? In re-reading _The Shadow of the Torturer_ and considering it a bit more I think that I may have hit upon something. I would not, if pressed by someone making the point, tend to class Wolfe with the great world-building authors like Tolkien, Herbert, and Tappan-Wright. His worlds are by no means shoddy or thin, but I think the very puzzle-like nature at the centre of his writing tends to make me think of it as less immersive than the works of those other authors. Unlike them, where I feel myself slipping into a fully imagined secondary world, I find myself constantly being brought out of Wolfe’s story/world simply by virtue of the fact that I need to stop every few paragraphs to digest what has happened and see if there is anything I am missing, or even simply (as in the New Sun books) to parse the very words he has used. Reflecting upon this fact further, however, has led me to the conclusion that his work is incredibly suggestive at the same time as it is frustrating: there is a definite double edge to Wolfe’s fiction. In essence you must learn to accept the one aspect if you are going to love the other as they are two sides of the same coin. The reality of his worlds comes more from allusion than from immersion. All of the things he doesn’t say, or all of the images that are merely hints on the edge of sight, both, it could be argued, speak to the nature of reality as we actually experience it and give us the sense of larger vistas in the background (those mountains descried only in the distance as Tolkien so aptly put it). It’s still a frustrating experience, but I’m growing to appreciate it more, or at least learning how to accept it. This time I came somewhat armed to the text (it’s my third go after all and I figured I deserved the added ammunition). In addition to having two previous reads of the novel under my belt (not, I must sadly admit, something that made me feel too much more confident in my approach to the story), I decided to peruse Michael Andre-Driussi’s _Lexicon Urthus_ and also listened to the ‘Alzabo Soup’ podcast covering the books. They were each very useful, both in regards to Wolfe's archaic vocabulary and in helping to parse some of the more obscure moments in the text where implications are made that are not immediately obvious. I also found that on a subsequent read of the book the reader is better armed to pick up those oh-so-casual references that Wolfe makes to important facts or details that only become apparent when you know the full shape of the story to come. Wolfe is a master at seeding the beginning of his stories with important details that you don’t know are important at the time, but that you (or at least I) forget all about when they become important clues later…see what I mean? Frustrating! Still, as I’ve noted Wolfe’s post-apocalyptic world is fascinating as it is slowly revelaed to the reader in the words of Severian, our narrator and protagonist. The apprentice torturer isn’t the most sympathetic (or reliable) of characters (a Wolfe hallmark), but he is definitely interesting, and the people and world that begin to come to life as Severian slowly unravels the tale of his life from exile to monarch are fascinating. I won’t go into any further details on the plot line, save to say that we follow the growth (I hesitate to say maturation) of Severian as he follows the old tropes of falling in love, rebelling against his upbringing, and setting out to discover the wider world in a way that is anything but typical. Ready for a post-apocalyptic head-trip with an unsympathetic and unreliable narrator in a far-future world on the edge of further collapse...or perhaps re-birth? Then dip your toes in the waters of the mighty river Gyoll…what’s the worst that could happen? ...more |
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3
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Dec 05, 2018
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Dec 13, 2018
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Dec 05, 2018
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Paperback
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| 142647461X
| 9781426474613
| 142647461X
| 3.08
| 827
| 1885
| Jan 30, 2007
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it was ok
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2 - 2.5 stars I would classify Richard Jefferies’ _After London_ as part of a somewhat obscure subset of post-apocalyptic fiction I like to call ‘post- 2 - 2.5 stars I would classify Richard Jefferies’ _After London_ as part of a somewhat obscure subset of post-apocalyptic fiction I like to call ‘post-apocalyptic pastoral’ along with books like Edgar Pangborn’s Davy, Richard Cowper’s The Road to Corlay, and John Crowley’s Engine Summer. Unlike the norm with post-apocalyptic fiction the world is not dominated by a radioactive wasteland, or rife with twisted mutants or lumbering zombies, and while life may be hard when compared to our own it often does not display the level of nasty and brutish shortness more common in other examples of the genre at large. To be sure our advanced society has fallen and life has reverted to a much simpler mode (usually, as is the case in this volume, one approximating the Middle Ages), but this reversion to simplicity is often seen as an improvement, or at least is not denigrated as a curse. The book itself is divided into two main sections. The first, “The Relapse into Barbarism”, is narrated from the point of view of a scholar of the latter days, and is partially a history of the fall of civilization (though there is so little in the way of information that calling this a history is really a bit of a misnomer), and is in greater part an enumeration of the flora, fauna, and tribes of mankind that have since survived and overrun a newly ruralized England. Given Jefferies’ position as a nature writer, and even perhaps something of an early environmentalist, it is not surprising that his lingering descriptions of the reclamation of the world by nature dominate this section. Indeed the details of what actually prompted the fall of the Victorian era society of ‘the Ancients’ is never fully explained (aside from some tantalizing references to a tradition that a ‘dark body’ passed by the earth, or even implications that climate change and flooding may have prompted it) and in some ways his insistence on the utter destruction of nearly all traces of the old world doesn’t quite mesh with the lack of any known apocalyptic event (even one only vaguely remembered at a great distance). It is not surprising then that I’ve seen it argued that this book isn’t really an example of post-apocalyptic fiction and that the set-up is merely a veneer to which a Victorian adventure story has been applied. Indeed as the main story narrative develops in the second half of the novel, “Wild England”, it begins to seem that the entire apocalyptic set-up does little more than allow the author to set his adventure in a pseudo-medieval world, so one does begin to wonder why he didn’t just set it in the actual Middle Ages instead? Once the second part of the story comes to what might be considered the epicentre of the fall, the site of the lost city of London itself, I think the post-apocalyptic element of the story becomes important for what Jefferies wanted to accomplish and shows itself to be more than simply a veneer. Indeed the title “After London” homes in on what might be considered the underlying conceit of the novel and the entire reason for this to be post-apocalyptic at all. We see here Jefferies’ distaste for the modern city-based civilization of his day and his yearning for a ‘simpler’ life dominated by nature rather than human society (though the latter still looms large in the world and is as fraught with problems and corruption as ever). Indeed while Jefferies presents what he perhaps considers to be a ‘better’ mode of human life in that it is largely agrarian it is far from an idyllic arcadia of man in union with nature. This is a world where man is at odds with both nature and his fellow man, though as always it is in the latter conflict where the greatest evil lies. Our protagonist Felix is a scion of the noble house of Aquila which has fallen on hard times and is out of favour with the court. Restless with the apparent lack of opportunity to improve his prospects due to the oppressive constraints placed on him by his rigid society, Felix decides to leave his home and make a voyage upon the great inland lake that now dominates the centre of England in the hopes of finding his fortune and winning the hand of his great love Aurora. So far so medieval romance, especially as his first adventure puts him in the army camp of a venal prince besieging a nearby town. The camp itself is dominated by the unruly display of posturing knights and degradation of the servant class and Felix’s hopes of advancement are ultimately dashed by the ignorance of those around him. When Felix flees this example of human depravity, even in the midst of what passes for ‘civilization’ in this world, he ends up voyaging into a world much more familiar to readers of post-apocalyptic fiction. Stumbling upon the site of fallen London Felix finds a landscape that is no longer the lush riot of nature that has dominated the world thus far and we see something that reminded me of nothing so much as a post-nuclear wasteland. The earth itself is dead, some portions hard as iron, others crumbling as though made of rotten wood. Emanations from the ground produce a toxic miasma the hangs over everything and we even see human remains whose depiction astonishingly reminded me of the after-images of a nuclear blast. Not strange at all for the genre in general, but quite strange when one recalls that even the inkling of nuclear fallout couldn’t have been anywhere in Jefferies’ mind and this is all simply the result of the decay of the ancient city and its pollutants (exhibiting Jefferies’ distaste for both the physical and moral corruption of urban society). Felix manages to escape from this poisonous wasteland and eventually stumbles upon a society of primitive shepherds to whom his somewhat more advanced knowledge, and especially his ability to ward off their gipsy enemies with the long bow (a weapon unknown to them), win him a place of leadership amongst them that may bring about the realization of all of his hopes and dreams. The story then ends incredibly abruptly as Felix begins his return journey to find his love in the hopes of bringing her back with him and I was left to wonder if Jefferies had died while writing the story (he hadn’t), or planned a direct sequel (no inkling of this that I was able to discover). Ultimately it was a pleasant enough story, though somewhat frustrating and even haphazard in the inconsistencies that appear to exist between the set-up and ultimate execution. ...more |
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1
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Dec 2016
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Dec 20, 2016
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Dec 01, 2016
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Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1555977170
| 9781555977177
| 1555977170
| 4.01
| 3,293
| Apr 2014
| Sep 01, 2015
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really liked it
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3.5 – 4 stars When we think of post-apocalyptic fiction we tend to think specifically of science fiction (or at least I know I do). Our vision is usual 3.5 – 4 stars When we think of post-apocalyptic fiction we tend to think specifically of science fiction (or at least I know I do). Our vision is usually either of a near-future survival thriller about the fall of current human civilization into ruin (most often as the result of a nuclear holocaust, an ecological disaster, or more recently due to those pesky zombies), or of the far-future as we witness the after-effects on a society that has fallen into utter barbarity and ruin. We tend to see the apocalypse, understandably, as truly world-ending on a global scale wherein the entirety of human civilization has been laid waste, but what about an apocalypse that is more restricted in its geographical extent? What about one that impacts ‘only’ a single nation or a culture? What about an apocalypse that happens not in the future or near-present, but one that lies in the distant past? We think, or hope, of apocalypses (apocalypsi?) as rare events, something so inconceivable that it could only happen when the blue moon shines, but when we broaden our definitions just a little and look beyond only those events that shatter the globe and also turn our vision from the future to the past we may start to see a world that was riddled with apocalypses; a world where cultures thrived and died on a regular basis. It would seem that in many ways the apocalypse has been a fact of life for humanity since our infancy. Countries, cultures, whole civilizations were destroyed as a matter of course throughout most of human history and Paul Kingsnorth’s _The Wake_ is a tale of one such apocalypse. 1066 is a famous year. Even those ignorant of many ‘major’ historical events likely know that this was the year that William (alternately ‘the Bastard’ and ‘the Conqueror’) of Normandy invaded England and defeated then-king Harold Godwinson and subjugated a people. This subjugation was particularly harsh, even in an age known for the harshness of war, and ultimately involved the destruction (or was it a transmutation?) of a people through the decimation of their language, their rights, and, ultimately for many, of their lives. The Anglo-Saxon culture that then held sway (admittedly itself a race of conquerors on the island) was overcome by the culture of France and a way of life was seemingly decimated almost overnight. Landowners lost their rights and privileges to a crown with new and far-reaching powers; speakers of the Anglo-Saxon tongue found themselves ruled by a people that neither knew, nor cared to know, their language or ways; nearly the entire ruling class was decimated and those beneath them learned that even the yoke they once bore was perhaps not so bad a thing when compared to the new one. What is less well known is that there was, for several years, a guerilla war waged on the Norman invaders by some of the remaining Saxon population. This war, while ultimately fruitless, was the last hope of many for retaining their way of life and it is the story of one such rebel that we are told in Kingsnorth’s novel. One thing to note before this review goes any further is that Kingsnorth has basically created his own language in this novel and it could be a stumbling block for some. He calls this language a “shadow tongue” since it is a fabricated version of English that incorporates many Old English words and grammatical structures in an attempt to incorporate a sense of verisimilitude with the era in which the story takes place without actually writing it in Old English. It could thus be compared to what Russell Hoban did in Riddley Walker, though I would argue that this is a bit easier to slide into (esp. if you have any background in basic OE syntax and vocabulary). There is also a helpful glossary at the back of the book for some of the more opaque words and terms used in the text. I think, as with Hoban’s use of an invented language, Kingsnorth’s experiment is not merely a gimmick and ultimately succeeds. I find far too often that historical fiction fails due to being little more than modern characters dressed up in historical drag. I wouldn’t say that attempting to recreate a dead language in a way that can (mostly) be read by modern audiences is the sole solution to this problem, but in this case it definitely went a long way towards immersing the reader into what is effectively a different world, and certainly a different mindset. When we have to meet the narrator on his own terms due to the language used we are forced to leave many of our preconceptions at the door. Of course the fact that I have at least a smattering of Old English definitely helped me in acclimating myself fairly quickly, but I would strongly encourage any readers, even without this background, to still put in the effort. Once you’ve picked up the gauntlet dropped by Kingsnorth I think you’ll find that after a few chapters the words that were previously giving you headaches start to roll naturally off the tongue. We open on the eve of the Norman invasion and are introduced to Buccmaster of Holland (a region of eastern England, not the Netherlands) our stalwart narrator and a “socman a man of the wapentac [who] has three oxgangs” which ultimately translates to “an important man of influence and means beholden to none” (a fact of which he is eager to remind us every chance he gets). Buccmaster tells us his tale of tragedy and woe as he recalls the day that everything started to go wrong and all of the events that followed in its wake. It was, as is usually the case, a day much like any other aside from the fact that he witnessed an omen, a strange bird in the sky, that led him to believe that changes were in the air. His feeble attempts at warning others fall on deaf ears and we soon learn that Buccmaster is an atavism amongst his own people, a man of the old ways as taught to him by his grandfather who has rejected the “hwit crist” and the wave of change that has already come and significantly changed the traditions and beliefs of his people. As a result he is not only something of an outcast and recluse in his own small community, but also already in a position of bemoaning the lost past of his people even before the great apocalypse that will truly decimate his culture has arrived. It is interesting to note that despite the tragedies that we come to see befall Buccmaster: the loss of his position, the burning of his home, the disappearance and probable death of his sons, the rape and murder of his wife, Buccmaster never becomes a sympathetic character. He is a man, we quickly come to realize, who is neither likeable nor trustworthy. His words always serve a specific purpose - his own perceived best interest – and while it seems fairly clear (to me at least) that he is not deceiving us on purpose it is equally clear that his entire perception of reality and the events that go on around him are skewed. Ironically it is his own words that betray him. As we hear the constant justifications, the repeated assurances of his own worth, power, and rightness, the continual complaints about the wrongs to which he has been subjected (by both his enemies and his friends) we begin to question Buccmaster’s grasp on reality. As Buccmaster falls further and further from his position of relative comfort and influence, or as obstacles to his unquestioned authority arise, we start to hear the voices in his head. These voices whisper to him that the old gods have returned and hand-picked Buccmaster himself to bring back their ancient ways to his people and overcome the invaders. Unable to accept that he is no more than an outcast and outlaw living like a beast in the forest, Buccmaster must instead see himself as the ordained saviour of his people and their ancient way of life. You might wonder how book with a main character whose catalogue of faults and crimes matches that of Buccmaster could be readable, let alone enjoyable, but I found _The Wake_ to be both. Buccmaster is no saint, he’s not even a likeable sinner, but his story of loss, decline, and madness is a compelling one. As we are given more and more glimpses of both past and present events and the story of his life begins to unpeel like the skin of a rotting onion we start to see the full tragedy of Buccmaster’s life and understand that the last greatest calamity of the overthrow and destruction of his people was simply the final nail in the coffin - the last straw in a long line of sins, disappointments and defeats. It sounds an utterly gloomy tale, and while it certainly isn’t full of a lot of chuckles, I still found it to be compelling and not so much depressing as harrowing. The apocalypse of the Norman invasion may have left the globe at large much as it had been before it occurred – changes in regime happen every day after all – but it was no less world-ending for that to the people that lived through it and came out the other side into a world, a reality, which they could no longer understand. _The Wake_ is a fine piece of historical fiction that not only incorporates a truly intriguing narrative technique and linguistic structure, but also proves to be a powerful meditation on loss, culture, and the ways we define ourselves as both individuals and members of a wider community. Definitely recommended, though not for the faint of heart. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 27, 2015
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Nov 13, 2015
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Oct 07, 2015
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Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0230766749
| 9780230766747
| 0230766749
| 3.75
| 712
| Sep 01, 2012
| Sep 13, 2012
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liked it
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3.5 stars Ok, first of all what the hell is up with that cover? In what world is Moses Todd supposed to look like a refugee from a paranormal romance s 3.5 stars Ok, first of all what the hell is up with that cover? In what world is Moses Todd supposed to look like a refugee from a paranormal romance series airing on the CW? Not in mine, that’s for sure. Alright, now that that’s off my chest we can continue. What we have here is the sequel/prequel to Bell’s initial foray into the zombie apocalypse The Reapers Are the Angels. This time around we follow former secondary characters Moses Todd and his brother in their rambles across a ravaged America prior to their meeting with Temple from the first book. As I implied in my review of Reapers Moses was really more of an antagonist to Temple than a villain, so seeing him fleshed out further here didn’t come across as either: a) a betrayal of the character’s nature or b) a picture of a completely unsympathetic anti-hero. Bell was even able to make Moses’ brother Abraham, not much more than a vile snake in the first book, at least have explanations for his character and behaviour that made sense and turned him into something more approximating a human being. In addition to these two characters, and a varied assortment of post-apocalyptic survivor misfits in supporting roles, we have the new character of ‘The Vestal’ something of a throw-back to Temple in that she is a strong female able to take care of herself, though different in that she is no warrior, but rather one who deploys the more traditional feminine charms in her defense along with a unique condition that makes her survival in zombie-world easier than it is for most. Once again we have a road-trip/quest (I wonder whether other types of story are possible/interesting in the zombie apocalypse context?) with the delivery of a person somewhere as the end goal. This time it is up to the brothers Todd to deliver the Vestal to an enclave of civilization in Colorado in order for the powers that be to find out what makes her tick. Once again we have a detailed meditation on the character of the shattered landscape of America with a view to the kind of individuals that are able to thrive, or at least endure, as survivors in a blighted world. It’s interesting to see brought into even sharper focus that fact that the walking dead aren't even the biggest problem for this world. They are almost laughable in the ease with which they can be avoided (unless you're caught off-guard or cornered by sheer numbers), and as usual it is the humans who survive from whom there is the most to fear. Bell has an interesting way, yet again, of ruminating on the fact that the zombies aren’t really evil, perhaps they aren’t even an unholy plague, they’re just another set of obstacles in life that one either contends with or is consumed by (literally in this case). Once again we have the lilting Southern Gothic voice that tinges the text with biblical and oratorical significance and that is very pleasant to read. There’s a lot of “once agains” there, and they’re not completely meant to be derogatory. The story is a good one and I enjoy Bell’s writing enough that I don’t mind “more of the same” in this world. I’m not sure if Moses is as successful a central character as Temple was though, and I think I preferred his much more ambiguous characterization in the first novel. It’s interesting to once again see someone who actually fits in better in this wasted world than he ever did before the fall, though unlike Temple he was not born into the apocalypse and thus can have moments of regret for what has been lost, at least on the personal if not the societal level. The search for purpose is a theme that looms large in both books, though even the attaining of purpose isn’t always enough to keep one sane. In Moses we see a man driven by two things: the need to protect his corrupt brother from the lawful retribution of the world at large, and the need to follow a personal code to the exclusion of all else, even good sense or happiness. Without the code Moses is just a drifter prey to illusions brought on by emotion and desire, though he doesn’t seem to appreciate that he may have built his purpose on illusions of his own. All in all I liked the tale and if you’re a fan of the zombie apocalypse you should like this one. Bell mixes some philosophical musings and lyrical prose in with his blood-spattered gore and harsh violence so there’s more than just an edge of your seat adventure to be gotten from the book. I don’t think it’s quite as successful as the first volume, though I’m not quite sure why. Still, a truly enjoyable read when all is said and done. ...more |
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1
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Mar 2013
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Mar 05, 2013
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Mar 01, 2013
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0805092439
| 9780805092431
| 0805092439
| 3.89
| 12,151
| Aug 03, 2010
| Aug 03, 2010
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really liked it
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3.5 – 4 stars Well, I gotta say I didn't expect that ending. _The Reapers are the Angels_ is my first foray into the très au courant genre of zombie apo 3.5 – 4 stars Well, I gotta say I didn't expect that ending. _The Reapers are the Angels_ is my first foray into the très au courant genre of zombie apocalypse. It was a fortunate choice and I can only hope I enjoy other forays into the genre as much. One thing I can say is that it’s definitely a real page-turner . The story of Temple, the young bad-ass action-grrl born into a world after the rise of the undead, is compelling and engrossing and has definitely got velocity. Temple herself is interesting, a strangely positive girl despite the darkness of her past and the violence of both her world and her deeper character. She's a strange oxymoron, an optimist who seethes under the surface with supressed rage. I suppose she could be seen as yet another product of the Buffy/Katniss/whatever-action-grrl-of-the-moment template, but I thought she generally came across as being much more real than that stereotype would imply. She may be a warrior princess of sorts, but Temple has a certain naïve charm that sets her apart and she rarely goes looking for trouble, though of course it often finds her. Temple is also interesting in that she was born into the world of the apocalypse, so the status quo doesn’t disturb her in the same way as it does the survivors from the old time. She doesn’t see the world as a punishment and a curse, but rather as a gift. She sees the hand of God in everything and even the fact of the shambling dead is a miracle when you look at it from the right angle. It’s an interesting perspective however off-the-wall it might seem. The other major element of the novel is its prose. The southern twang that nearly drips off the page is a joy to read and makes the novel seem, on the one hand, very literary. Yet there was another element to it that kept breaking through in the back of my mind and which occasionally broke the spell of the prose itself: this is also a novel that very much reads as though it were written with the cinematic version strongly in mind. At times it is almost like a movie treatment for the soon-to-be-produced vehicle starring the next Jennifer Lawrence as Temple (maybe Chloe Moretz? She’s young enough and certainly her stint as Hitgirl in ‘Kickass’ gives her some of the required experience in extreme violence). This isn’t exactly a bad thing, I guess, and the author is welcome to any income he can derive from his work, but it was a little distracting sometimes to think “ah yes, I can just see the dollar signs in the author’s eyes as he wrote this scene just for the big screen.” Unfair of me maybe, I don’t know, but it was a feeling I definitely got from time to time while reading. That said, this is still a great novel to read and it’s simply filled with the poetic palaver of the South so mellifluous to Northern ears. Aside from being both a quest road-trip and the story of a young girl (who’s really more of an adult in all but the most literal temporal sense) coping with her past as she faces her future it is also, as others have pointed out, definitely a story about the American landscape. It’s a blasted and decayed landscape, but one where the character of its past still shines through in what remains. Ironically it seems to be those who are most willing to let go of this geographical memory that are most likely to succeed in this new world as opposed to the hopeless dreamers trying to claw their way back to the world of civilization and who pretend that their little enclaves of the old world are anything other than a fantasy. I’ll conclude by saying that Alden Bell also did a great job of building up his characters and even those who had little more than a walk-on were generally interesting and unique. A shout-out has to go to Moses Todd one of the better villains (or perhaps I really ought to call him an antagonist) I’ve come across in awhile. He’s nearly as compelling as Temple and seeing the two of them together was nearly always a treat. I’m surprised to see this listed as book one in a series, but I’m willing to go along with Bell in his further forays across the twisted landscape of undead America. Also posted at Shelf Inflicted ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Feb 26, 2013
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Feb 28, 2013
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Feb 12, 2013
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Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 067183584X
| 9780671835842
| 067183584X
| 3.76
| 1,547
| Sep 1971
| Mar 01, 1981
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liked it
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None
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Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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not set
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Mar 14, 2012
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Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1596871229
| 9781596871229
| 1596871229
| 3.97
| 4,713
| 1953
| Apr 08, 2003
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liked it
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3 – 3.5 stars Hundreds of thousands of years ago (millions of years after our own benighted age) the Earth suffered a tragic loss in battle with beings 3 – 3.5 stars Hundreds of thousands of years ago (millions of years after our own benighted age) the Earth suffered a tragic loss in battle with beings known only as "the Invaders" and the apparently last remnant of humanity sits behind the majestic walls of the final human city: Diaspar. Here they while away their immortal days, a society of lotus eaters tended by the greatest machines ever conceived by humankind, living in pleasure, but also fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of the wasteland outside their walls, fear of the future. From time to time there has arisen among them a mind not founded on this culture of fear and indifference, but rather one prone to curiosity, courage and insight. Such a mind belongs to Alvin of Loronei, the last child to be born in the city of immortals, and a young man who thirsts for knowledge and adventure. Clarke crafts an exciting, and lyrically written, dying earth story in which young Alvin must overcome the obstacles of his own people and face even greater challenges in the wider world. Ultimately the fate of humanity and its future (should it have one) will rest on his decisions. I don’t want to give too much away and spoil the story, for much of the enjoyment comes from learning the truths, and falsehoods, of Alvin’s world through his own investigations. Suffice it to say that there is much humanity of the final eras has to learn about itself and its history and Alvin’s actions are likely to spell either a great new era in their development, or the final sputtering out of their dying life force. I have never read anything by Arthur C. Clarke, but didn’t expect this. My impression was that he was a much more ‘hard sf’ kind of writer, more interested in true science and plausible extrapolations of it, but here we have a lyrically written fable of humanity’s far-future days of decline. True, elements of science (or super-science) are important to the story, but they don’t outweigh the emotional elements of the tale, which are really what carry it forward. There is also a significant smattering of pseudo-science elements that I found interesting. I enjoyed the story, but sometimes Alvin seemed a little too competent (perhaps a smattering of the John Cambellesque hero here?) and I’m not sure if I ever believed he wouldn’t overcome the obstacles placed before him, but the future history Clarke has painted for mankind is an interesting one and this is definitely a worthy entry into one of my favourite sub-genres of sci-fi. ...more |
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1
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Jun 16, 2012
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Jun 20, 2012
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Jan 12, 2012
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Paperback
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| 3.93
| 56,098
| 1955
| 1984
|
really liked it
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None
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Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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not set
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Sep 23, 2011
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Paperback
| |||||||||||||||||
| 0671612131
| 9780671612139
| 0671612131
| 3.78
| 201
| Jun 1978
| Mar 1986
|
really liked it
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Was I not included on the memo that mentioned this guy? How have I never heard of him? Whatever the case may be, Richard Cowper (aka John Middleton Mu
Was I not included on the memo that mentioned this guy? How have I never heard of him? Whatever the case may be, Richard Cowper (aka John Middleton Murry, Jr.) is a fine writer. My edition of this book includes both the title novel and the novella "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" which introduces us to the world and specific circumstances that will drive the conflict of the novel. This is a story in the post-apocalyptic pastoral vein, a sub-set of the genre that I am finding is a lot more common than I had a first realized. It includes such works as Crowley's _Engine Summer_, Pangborn's _Davy_, Jefferies' _After London_ and others. In essence we see the world long after a disaster of some kind has laid waste to our society, but while the horror of that event is not diminished, the resulting world is often seen as the chance to start again and perhaps correct the mistakes of the past (or alternately relive them if the tragic mode is adopted). The apocalypse has, in effect, allowed us to start again with a more or less blank slate and thus there is a pervading optimism underneath the implied pessimism of the genre. This story is a lyrically told one whose major themes are religious. The Church has remained as one of (if not the only) power centres of the old world left to fill the vacuum as it did in the days of Rome's fall. The world itself shares close ties with an idealized medieval one and in the introductory novella we meet the young piper Thomas and his Uncle Peter, an itinerant storyteller taking his nephew to be schooled in the Church. On the way he discovers his nephew's almost magical talent with the pipes and decides to use their journey as a chance to make some quick coin...his stories accompanied by the boy's music. They soon become a sensation, but the boy's piping proves to be more than it seems and it soon awakens a religious fervor in those who hear it and are awaiting the arrival of the enigmatic "White Bird". The boy ultimately becomes a martyred saviour figure and his uncle the first of his apostles, carrying his gospel to the world. The novel itself opens with the fledgling religion in open opposition to the established church and one of its adherents (a Kinsman) attempting to evade the authorities in a quest to reach the last surviving founder of his sect as he carries a relic to be safeguarded. We follow his journey and also see the lives of the people he meets, both good and bad, as they become a part of his tale. Despite the religious nature and themes of the story it is never proselytizing or glibly allegorical. Cowper is simply telling a story of the numinous as it interacts with people and comes into contention with established authority. I found the tale to be a compelling one, well told in a lyrical style that was a joy to read. The introduction of a past/future time travel element, as people from our time (just before the great flood that drowns the world) interact with those in the future in a mix of implied re-births and paranormal experimentation, was probably not necessary, but still not overly intrusive. I'd recommend this book and look forward to finding others in this series (called the "White Bird of Kinship" trilogy) as well as other unrelated books by the same author. ...more |
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1
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Aug 10, 2011
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Aug 24, 2011
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Aug 10, 2011
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Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0345308417
| 9780345308412
| 0345308417
| 4.06
| 1,341
| 1973
| Apr 12, 1983
|
it was ok
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2.5 stars I really wanted to give this book a higher rating. There’s a lot here to love and Lanier has a very fertile imagination: Psychic Canadian war 2.5 stars I really wanted to give this book a higher rating. There’s a lot here to love and Lanier has a very fertile imagination: Psychic Canadian warrior-priest? Check; also psychic Moose destrier? Check; psychic mutant bear pal and assorted demi-human mutant creatures? Check; travelogue through post-apocalyptic North America? Check. It's like the coolest campaign of Gamma World ever that you never got to play as a kid. I fondly recall seeing the far-out Darrell K. Sweet cover on this book during nearly every trip I took to the library as a kid. I always looked at it wistfully, wanting to dive into an adventure so obviously cool, but my own snobbishness kept me away. Well, I finally broke down and took the plunge. Unfortunately it appears that some of my snobbishness may have been justified. The first part of the book carried me along with the narrative at a fairly quick pace and despite the somewhat clunky prose and more! Exclamation! Marks! than you! can shake! a stick! at!!!! (maybe William Shatner should read the audio version) I was certainly entertained. Somewhere around ¾ of the way through, though, I completely ran out of steam and aside from a few pages here and there I left the book unread for months. I really wanted to finish this book, though, and it did improve somewhat towards the end. Lanier’s post-apocalyptic North America has some interesting locales: from the expansive pine forests of the north to the miasmic swamps and irradiated buried cities of the south, all of them populated by the mutated descendants of our modern wildlife as well as the ‘Leemutes’, or semi-intelligent human-animal hybrids, most of which are under the control of the nefarious Unclean Brotherhood. Amongst this colourful background Lanier gives us many memorable scenes, especially Hiero's psychic battle with the Dweller in the Mist, his various confrontations with the pompous leaders of the Unclean, and the final confrontation with a living hive-mind fungal-slime. I’m a bit of a sucker for stories with PSI-elements as well, so I enjoyed the psychic aspects of the book: whether it was Hiero’s scrying of the future with the aid of his trusty bag of symbols, his inner battles with other intelligences, or the possession of an animal’s eyes to see the wider landscape. That being said, the prose really didn’t do the story any favours and despite the intriguing aspects of Lanier’s story I found myself slowed down at many points in the narrative and moving on to other things from time to time, so it took me quite awhile to finish this. Hiero is also a very simplistic hero (the pun certainly isn’t my fault) who is basically almost always right, his enemies always wrong…there’s very little room for any grey in this world. My biggest stumbling blocks, though, were the stilted prose mentioned above and the superfluous romance subplot that added nothing to the story and was cringe-inducing in its puerility and simplicity. Overall there is a lot of awesome here, buried in bad prose and simplistic plotting. ...more |
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1
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Jul 30, 2011
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Jan 08, 2012
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Jul 30, 2011
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Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 002035620X
| 9780020356202
| 002035620X
| 3.66
| 595
| 1964
| Oct 1990
|
really liked it
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3.5 - A post-apocalyptic pastoral with episodes of sublimity and a pervading air of gentle humanism that make the picaresque tale of Davy's growth fro
3.5 - A post-apocalyptic pastoral with episodes of sublimity and a pervading air of gentle humanism that make the picaresque tale of Davy's growth from childhood to manhood a compelling one. Some of the moments are a bit too cute, but ultimately they don't take away from the power of the story overall.
...more
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Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 27, 2011
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Aug 05, 2011
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Jul 27, 2011
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Mass Market Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0330266454
| 9780330266451
| 0330266454
| 4.02
| 8,147
| 1980
| 1982
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it was amazing
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_Riddley Walker_ is the book that put Russell Hoban on the map (inasmuch as he is on the map…he is criminally neglected as an author) and will likely
_Riddley Walker_ is the book that put Russell Hoban on the map (inasmuch as he is on the map…he is criminally neglected as an author) and will likely be the one work for which he will be remembered (sadly he passed away in late 2011). So far I have read three other Hoban novels and while I have thoroughly enjoyed all of them I must admit that I think this one is his very best. Many, upon reading the first page, will dismiss the book as “gimmicky” (I am growing to hate that term as applied to books) due to the style in which Hoban writes. Admittedly his language isn’t easy to slip right into given that he has created his own broken, not quite phonetic, future version of English that is further complicated for many readers by being based on the Kentish dialect. Thus we have as our introduction to Riddley and his world: On my naming day when I come 12 I gone front spear and kilt a wyld boar he parbly ben the las wyld pig on the Bundel Downs any how there hadnt ben none for a long time befor him nor I aint looking to see none agen.That’s definitely one of the easier passages and things get more complicated when words and phrases are elided or significantly changed when they refer to things from the deep past (our present), and concepts that people in Riddley’s day don’t fully comprehend or whose meaning has changed in their time. Still, for me _Riddley Walker_ is probably the non plus ultra of post-apocalyptic fiction. Sure there are many others out there that are excellent, and I have by no means read in the genre exhaustively (I still have to read classics like The Death of Grass and Earth Abides), but there is something about Hoban’s work that seems to define the genre for me. His ability to capture a world that is at the same time horrifying and homely, a world that shows humanity utterly changed and yet exactly the same as we’ve always been is superlative. Our hero, the eponymous Riddley Walker, is a young boy just coming of age at a moment when his world stands at a crossroads, change is either going to sweep humanity forward or back into the dustbin of history. Riddley truly is the crux of the novel (both thematically through the role he plays in the plot and stylistically given that the narrative is his own first-person account), the centre around which it revolves and also the primary element upon which it succeeds or fails for the reader. For me his character is an unqualified success. He is an everyman who harbours within himself unknown potential. He is a realist not given to self-delusion and yet in him is a belief in the human spirit, a sense of the positive, that is uplifting without being cloying. Through Riddley we are given an effective melding of hopelessness and hopefulness: a picture of a world steeped in melancholy and loss that may be the dying gasp of humanity or its first step forward out of the ashes. Riddley's world is a grey one, painted in the broad strokes of grizzled rain, decaying edifices of the past, and a hard life of scrounging amidst the muck and ruins in search of the bare necessities of survival. Despite this bleak setting Hoban still presents us with a fully realized world of warmth, humanity, danger, and loss. It is obviously a post-apocalyptic world that stands on the far edge of the fall: the ‘Bad Time’ of fire and destruction is now only a distant legend (as is the world that preceded it), as opposed to those ‘survivalist’ post-apocalyptic books that take place while the horror of loss and oblivion is still a fresh wound. As is to be expected Riddley’s world is not an easy one. He lives in an Iron Age society in an England that had been bombed back to the Stone Age and is slowly clawing its way back up the ladder. The old ways are starting to die out as the nomadic, foraging lifestyle is gradually being replaced by the more settled life of farming. The old tales and stories of our own lost time are perpetuated primarily through the existence of a modified Punch and Judy show. This puppet show is a government-sponsored propaganda machine wherein the main character is Eusa (a degraded and highly modified version of St. Eustace), a stand-in for the perpetrators of Armageddon, in which old knowledge and new superstition are mixed together to create a truly unique experience. Through the Eusa Show and the legends it spawned we come to see the hum drum aspects of our own age both through the eyes of wonder and awe, a sort of golden age when giants walked the earth, and through the lens of condemnation: how could those so wise have been so foolish? How could the god-like beings humans had once been have allowed Armageddon to have occurred? ”O what we ben! And what we come to!” laments Riddley at one point. These people are keenly aware of their loss. Whether it is through fluid medium of stories and legends or the more concrete witness of the ruins of burnt out cities and the hulks of dead machines, the ghost of the past lives on in Riddley’s present and is carried on the backs of those that remain as both a reminder and a deadly weight. Government lackeys travel from place to place and perform their ‘Eusa Shows’ based on a memorized approved text, usually in order to give a government spin on recent events and enforce the accepted truths of what has been and what will be. In the midst of this endless round of ‘business as usual’ there is beginning to grow a renewed interest in the “cleverness” of the old ways and knowledge, especially that which revolves around power and destruction (known in Riddley’s vernacular as the “1 Little 1” and the ”1 Big 1”)…it’s a common theme in this type of literature: the human fascination with the worst side of our nature that seems inevitably to lead us to commit the same horrible mistakes time and time again no matter how harsh the lessons taught us (see Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz for another example of this; these two books would actually make for a good paired reading). You can get jus as dead from a kick in the head as you can from the 1 Littl 1 but its tha natur of it gets people as cited. I mean your foot is all ways on the end of your leg innit. So if youre going to kick some 1 to death it aint all that thrilling is it. This other tho youve got to have the Nos. of the mixter then youve got to fynd your gready mints then youve got to do the mixing of the mixter and youve got to say the fissional seakerts of the act befor you kil some body its all that chemistery and fizzics of it you see. Its some thing new. Which ever way you look at it I dont think Aunty and her red eyed rat be too far from us. Of course the huge stumbling block for this book is obvious, it jumps out at you once you flip to the first page: the language itself. Is this degraded form of English nothing more than a gimmick? There will I suppose always be those for whom the answer is “yes”, but for me that isn’t the case…or at least it could have been simply a gimmick if it didn’t work, if there wasn’t more to the text than a degraded phonetic spelling. Luckily the language is built around a great story with much thoughtfulness on the human condition and human nature. Who are we and why do we act as we do? What does it mean to be human at all? Why do we live, and what is the purpose of our seemingly unimportant little lives? How do we connect with each other, and what are the things in life that are truly worth cultivating? How much of our life is determined and how much is freely chosen? All of these questions and more are asked in the text and while precious few answers may be given the possibilities that are presented give much food for thought. The language also allows the required distance between our world and this one of the far off future to be built and emphasized. Perhaps most importantly it allows us to zero in on what matters as we are forced to pay close attention not only to what is said, but how it is said. The strangeness of the language forces you to look at the familiar in a new way, to see things with new eyes as you work your way towards an understanding of what exactly is being discussed or viewed. Finally it also lets us inhabit the mind of our narrator and protagonist Riddley (as well as his world) in a uniquely engaging way. This book is one of my favourites and it is highly recommended. The labour expended in reading it will be amply repaid as we go “roading thru that rainy dark” with Riddley Walker. Also posted at Shelf Inflicted ...more |
Notes are private!
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2
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Sep 17, 2012
not set
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Sep 26, 2012
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Jul 11, 2011
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Paperback
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| 0819563366
| 9780819563361
| 0819563366
| 3.55
| 5,822
| 1967
| Jul 15, 1998
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liked it
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None
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Jun 27, 2011
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| 0312890184
| 9780312890186
| 0312890184
| 4.34
| 13,063
| Oct 15, 1994
| Oct 15, 1994
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it was amazing
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_Sword & Citadel_, the latter half of the four (sort of) book cycle ‘The Book of the New Sun’ definitely represents the superior half of the series. C
_Sword & Citadel_, the latter half of the four (sort of) book cycle ‘The Book of the New Sun’ definitely represents the superior half of the series. Comprised of _Sword of the Lictor_ (the best volume in my opinion) and _Citadel of the Autarch_ (a very close second), we follow Severian the Journeyman torturer as he continues to back his way into the throne of the Autarch, coming face to face with the harsh realities of war and the strange dying world in which he lives. As was the case with the previous volume, this will be less a review than a series of random thoughts about the book I had during this re-read. Front and center in these two volumes (especially Citadel) is Wolfe’s obvious obsession with the nature and importance of storytelling. This is most obviously apparent in the story-telling contest at the lazaret, perhaps the central thematic element of _Citadel_, but Wolfe’s musings on story (as heard through Severian’s voice) are everywhere. I couldn’t help but see Wolfe slying poking fun at both his critics and his champions with the following quotes: “After a moment, Foila said, “He means you should not judge by the content of the stories, but by how well each was told. I’m not sure I agree with that- still, there may be something in it.” “I do not agree,” Hallvard grumbled. “Those who listen soon tire of storyteller tricks. The best telling is the plainest.”” “And third, I learned once again what a many-sided thing is the telling of any tale. None, surely, could be plainer than the Ascian’s, yet what did it mean?”Indeed, what could it mean? With Wolfe isn’t that just the question? Finally, I couldn’t help but think of the many aficionados of convoluted Wolfe puzzles and the endless quest for the ‘correct’ solution to his many literary mysteries when I read Severian’s words at the end of _Sword of the Lictor_: “I found (and find) this suggestion as rational as it is repellent, and it represents for me all that monomaniacal fabric of argument, so tightly woven that not even the tiniest objection or spark of light can escape its net, in which human minds become enmeshed whenever the subject is one in which no appeal to fact is possible.”The diatribes of Wolfe scholarship can indeed, to me at least, seem like a black hole sucking in all words and thoughts that would dare approach them. All that aside you know what sticks with me this time? The fact that (view spoiler)[the lazaret got vaporized and all those great characters were killed. I mean…fuck. (hide spoiler)] It may seem a small thing in the grander scope of the world-war playing itself out on Wolfe’s dying earth, but that one act, along with the horror of the Ascians who are endlessly pushed against the Autarch’s forces by eldritch powers beyond their ken, really brought home to me the horrors of war more than any vivid battle scene or act of visible violence. I’m starting to see the power of some things happening off-page, a habit of Wolfe’s that I’ve often bemoaned. I also think that I may be coming to appreciate Wolfe’s main characters much more than I ever have through my re-readings of his work (they have always seemed to pale next to the many vivid secondary characters that walk beside them, often for the shortest time). Heck, I may even grow to find Patera Silk less annoying some day! That said, I still think Wolfe does his most deft character work with the secondary ones. I mean we all agree that Jonas is probably everyone’s favourite right? And Agia? Man, she’s one compelling femme fatale. Could anyone forget Hethor the craziest, and most poetic, violence-junkie to ever step off a cosmic galleon? My ultimate case in point here, though, would be Foila, Melito, Hallvard, and Loyal to the Group of Seventeen from the aforementioned story-telling contest in the lazaret of the Pelerines. They at first seem like characters we’re more than likely to forget after we’ve left the book. I mean it can certainly be argued that they don’t move the plot forward in any significant way, and their stories can even seem like little more than padding, a distraction added by Wolfe, but what they tell us of the world Severian inhabits, and the vivid life of rounded characters they present through their few words and actions in the story, are compelling as hell. Far from taking us away from the story, one could argue that they are the very center of it, an expression of the ways in which stories define who and what we are, and further expressions of Wolfe’s obsession with the idea and reality of storytelling (see above). This idea is, I would argue, central to this volume (it is indeed the very essence of Severian’s act of writing his memoirs) and something that explicitly pops up throughout. I think this time I will give the coda volume, _Urth of the New Sun_, a pass. It used to be one of my favourite volumes of the New Sun series, but I am starting to agree with those that see it as an unnecessary adjunct (though one that does provide a lot more spicy details and almost direct answers than is Wolfe’s usual wont). That’s not to say I’ll never read it again, and I reserve the right to change my mind about it (as I seem to do from time to time when it comes to Wolfe), but for now I may move on the Long Sun…or maybe something else to cleanse the palate. ...more |
Notes are private!
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Aug 15, 2023
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Aug 31, 2023
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Mar 17, 2011
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my rating |
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| 4.83
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it was amazing
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Mar 23, 2024
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Mar 22, 2024
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| 4.27
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really liked it
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Dec 07, 2023
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Nov 22, 2023
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| 4.04
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really liked it
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Dec 05, 2021
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Nov 03, 2021
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| 4.23
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it was amazing
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Jan 24, 2019
not set
not set
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Jan 11, 2019
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| 4.20
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it was amazing
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Jan 10, 2019
not set
not set
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Dec 26, 2018
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| 3.99
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really liked it
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Dec 24, 2018
not set
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Dec 14, 2018
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| 3.83
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really liked it
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Dec 13, 2018
not set
not set
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Dec 05, 2018
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| 3.08
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it was ok
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Dec 20, 2016
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Dec 01, 2016
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| 4.01
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really liked it
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Nov 13, 2015
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Oct 07, 2015
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| 3.75
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liked it
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Mar 05, 2013
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Mar 01, 2013
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| 3.89
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really liked it
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Feb 28, 2013
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Feb 12, 2013
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| 3.76
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liked it
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not set
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Mar 14, 2012
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| 3.97
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liked it
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Jun 20, 2012
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Jan 12, 2012
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| 3.93
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really liked it
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not set
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Sep 23, 2011
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| 3.78
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really liked it
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Aug 24, 2011
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Aug 10, 2011
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| 4.06
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it was ok
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Jan 08, 2012
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Jul 30, 2011
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| 3.66
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really liked it
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Aug 05, 2011
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Jul 27, 2011
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| 4.02
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it was amazing
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Sep 26, 2012
not set
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Jul 11, 2011
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| 3.55
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liked it
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not set
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Jun 27, 2011
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| 4.34
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it was amazing
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Aug 31, 2023
not set
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Mar 17, 2011
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