And the trilogy draws to a close. Half a War did exactly what I expect out of the conclusion of a series. It brings all the story lines to an end. It And the trilogy draws to a close. Half a War did exactly what I expect out of the conclusion of a series. It brings all the story lines to an end. It answers questions. It feels satisfying.
Like the other books in the series, Half a War focuses on a new character. In this case, the young Princess Skara. Her grandfather's kingdom, Throvenland, is caught up in the war between Gettland and the High King. Very early in the book, her grandfather is slain and, penniless and without support, she finds herself begging for aide from her land's nominal allies. Throughout the book Skara uses her wits and her femininity to win over allies and followers. By the end of the book she is without a doubt the major force in the Shattered Seas. And it all feels genuine. Let's hear it for a strong woman who truly has an iron will and a heart of gold.
Again, like the other books, Yarvi plays a prominent role - as does Thorn. Yarvi increasingly slips into his role as Father Yarvi, the Minister. And in this role he increasingly channels another of Abercrombie's characters - Inquisitor Glotka from The First Law. Yarvi is a softer version given the YA nature of these books, but he is brutal and devious. He manipulates things behind the curtain and leaves a trail of dead bodies and toppled kingdoms in his wake.
Finally, the story also, I think, brought to a close the mystery of the Elves. When Yarvi journeys into Strokholm to retrieve Elf weapons it is clear that the story takes place in a post-apocalyptic Earth - probably the Baltic sea. (Take a look at the map: http://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2015/...). There is the mannequin that they encountered. The radiation sickness of the crew. The pills that the companions took. And the weapons themselves.
The weapons turn the tide of the war, completely destroying the massive host that the army that the High King built. And with the army destroyed, Yarvi finally gets his revenge against the two people that killed his father. Nicely done.
I violated a cardinal rule of reviewing. Work was busting my ass so I didn't get around to reviewing this book for way too long. I read it. It was preI violated a cardinal rule of reviewing. Work was busting my ass so I didn't get around to reviewing this book for way too long. I read it. It was pretty darn good, but there were parts I kinda sorta didn't care for. Specifically what those were, I'm not 100% sure any longer. it was, however, a solid three star book. I remember that much.
Solidly sci-fi, the book picks up right on the heels of book 2. After several years of kicking humanity's ass, the Lankies have their over-sized boot placed firmly on the Solar System. Mars and its 20+ million colonists are dead - or close to dead. Human outposts and communications are either destroyed or isolated. It this system on the brink, Andrew Grayson and the forced of the North American Commonweath in deseprate alliance wit the Sino-Russian Confederation make a last ditch attempt to hold off the Lankies lest Earth itself be destroyed.
What is cool about the series is the very cynical bent it takes. The elites running the various human governments, rather than unite and defeat the enemy instead turn tail and flee. Leaving billions of men, women and children to die at the hands of the Lankies, the elites instead take the remnants of the fleet and flee. What a bunch of ass-hats. But the sad part is I kind of suspect that is exactly what they would do, you know, for the people.
Three starts out of five for vague, undefined reasons. A fun book, but not epic....more
Lines of Departure picks up approximately five years after the events of the first book in the series, Terms of Enlistment. And those five years were Lines of Departure picks up approximately five years after the events of the first book in the series, Terms of Enlistment. And those five years were not good to humanity. About half of Earth's precious colonies have been wiped out by the relentless, unfathomable Lankies. Meanwhile, on Earth the domestic situation is growing increasingly dire. With every resource being thrown at the military, already meager rations are cut. The colony lottery is stopped. The pressure valves are gone and unrest boils over in the urban megaplexes.
Andrew Grayson has a front row seat to all of this, or rather the reader following Grayson does. He is a combat specialist, charged with ground target acquisition. When this involves fighting back against the Lankies, he likes what he does. He stoically accepts the fact that he might die. But if he must die, this is a cause worth dying for. By contrast, when he is fighting the Sino-Russian Alliance, it seems like an enormous waste. An alien race is exterminating humanity and all we can do is fight amongst ourselves? His reservations grow even deeper when he sees the death and pain military action causes in innocent civilians. This all comes to a head when he and a unit of disgruntled soldiers are sent to an icy planet on the edge of the settled worlds.
One of the things that I like about this series is the author's vision. In the first book, I was captured by his dystopian vision of the future. That vision is still there; however, what really struck me are the Lankies - the seldom seen, seldom encountered but utterly terrifying alien race. Unlike many science fiction stories out there that assume a roughly equivalent technology, there is no contest here. The Lankies are far superior to humans. They can terraform planets in weeks, not decades. We can't even scratch their star ships. Compounding this power differential is the utterly alien mentality of the Lankies. They are casually snuffing out humanity, like we would eliminate an inconvenient ant hill or hornet's nest. Pretty cool stuff.
Three and a half stars rounded up to four. I like the direction that this series is headed and look forward to #3....more
This is another one of those books that I had somehow picked up. I really have no idea how it wound up in my kindle's slush pile of unread books. (To This is another one of those books that I had somehow picked up. I really have no idea how it wound up in my kindle's slush pile of unread books. (To be fair, I have a bit of an Amazon problem). Regardless, I picked it up. I was in the mood for something else. From the cover it looked like another 'ships of the line in space' type of book emphasizing desperate ship-to-ship battles in the cold depths of space. I was wrong. Dead wrong. And expectations were well exceeded.
Terms of Enlistment follows Andrew Grayson into the North American Commonwealth armed forces. Born in one of the massive slums in the Boston metroplex, the military offers the poor and the desperate (roughly 90% of the population) a ticket out. In the military, he'll eat real food, get a chance to go off world, and - after his 5-year enlistment period - he can cash out and buy a nice little place in the suburbs. So far so good, I'm interested.
The story follows Grayson through basic training and then to his first assignment - into the Territorial Army. Andrew becomes a grunt, occasionally fighting the Sino-Russians, but more often than not suppressing civil disobedience in domestic slums. That's right; the military of the not-so distant future spends more time crushing domestic trouble than protecting the people. With a steady diet of bland, more or less manufactured food, and no (or few) jobs, the people in the slums have little hope. And people without hope have nothing to lose. Riots are frequent and deadly - as Grayson learns when he is injured in a giant Detroit riot that is more or less street to street urban warfare. Injured, and accused of using excessive force, Grayson transfers to the Navy.
My interest had begun to wane at this point and then the other shoe dropped. And good golly Miss Molly, what a shoe that was! This book had been rocking along at a steady, solid three stars and then everything changes. Suddenly I was riveted. Several things went through my mind. The first was WTF is going on? The second was appreciation for the author's creativity and the direction of the story. I like surprises and this one surprised me. I thought the book was plodding along in one direction and then *pow* it completely changes. And it changes in a way that makes sense and fits within the author's world.
On the note of world building, I was also impressed with the author's dark and frankly dystopian view of the future. With the world's population measuring 30 billion, the world is not a warm and fuzzy place. Large swathes of the population exist in depressing urban slums that more closely resemble prisons than housing units. The police and the military are feared rather than loved or respected. The environment is in terrible shape and people often wear masks to filter out the pollution. Only the truly wealthy have a semblance of a nice, rural life. And the states of the world do not sit around, hold hands and sing songs together. The world roughly resembles Orwell's 1984, with massive states locked into a shadowy conflict with one another. It's a dark place.
Four stars out of five. Lots of points for originality and catching me off guard. If you enjoy some military science-fiction, this is well worth the read....more
1984 is one of those books that everyone has heard about and has some basic knowledge of the story. The world is divided between three oppressive tota1984 is one of those books that everyone has heard about and has some basic knowledge of the story. The world is divided between three oppressive totalitarian powers locked in perpetual war. The people of these states (including what was once Britain) are oppressed and kept in line by the Thought Police. And, at the top of the heap, is the Party and Big Brother. Having never read the book before, I was pleasantly surprised by how much more there is to the book.
Orwell's story is more than a dark vision of the future. It is fundamentally a tragic love story. Winston is a lowly Party member working to rewrite history. He leads a plodding, mundane existence, when he commits a crime. He falls in love. He meets and arranges for a secret rendezvous with Julie, a young woman and activist in the Party's Junior Anti-Sex League. Despite knowing that their relationship violates so many Party rules, the two engage in a torrid affair. Violating one rule leads them to violate another. It also makes Winston question the Party and see it for what it is. He and Julia allow themselves to be drawn into a shadowy resistance movement.
All of this comes to a head when they are arrested by the Thought Police and shuttled away to the dungeons of the Ministry of Love. It is here that the Party breaks Winston down. Rather than kill him outright, they want to rehabilitate him. They want to squeeze every last every bit of resistance out of him. They want Winston to give every last bit of resistance up. This plays through to the very end where Winston has managed to keep a last shred of himself through weeks and weeks of mental and physical torture. Only at the end does he truly give up his all to the Party. And he realizes that he is broken too. He willingly - eagerly - sacrifices the last bits of himself to the Party.
That final breaking of Winston is what makes the book work. Orwell's dark, dystopian vision of the future is truly disturbing - but it works. It is a vision of an oppressive regime that seeks to mold the very language to encourage goodthink and restrict crimethink. "Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten." (Kind of like your average college campus!)
The book does have some flaws. The initial introduction to the world is excellent, with much of the world introduced gradually. There is much showing and not so much telling. Unfortunately, this soon breaks down once Julia and Winston hook up. There is a long stretch where Winston is reading from a book of the opposition's political philosophy. Ugh. Boring. I confess that I skimmed through some of these pages. Fortunately, at the end the book does pull it together with a pretty mind-blowing ending.
Three and a half stars rounded up to four. Worth the read....more
I knew next to nothing about this book other than it was lighting up Goodreads with very positive reviews. I decided to give it a shot. It is the storI knew next to nothing about this book other than it was lighting up Goodreads with very positive reviews. I decided to give it a shot. It is the story of a very special little girl, Melanie, and her flight from a government compound after it collapses. It is also my vote for best book of 2014.
This book avoids all of the zombie apocalypse ruts that make survival horror (sometimes) a bit of a chore to read. Yes, there are rogue bands of survivors who are, in many ways, worse than the infected, but for me they kind of blended in with the general menace of the infected. The real threat was close to the chest. The doctors wanted to cut open Melanie's head. They wanted to dissect her. And all this sweet little blonde girl wanted to do was be with Miss Justineau, her teacher. Her only problem is that Melanie, Miss Justineau, a couple of soldiers and the doctor are trapped together by circumstances in their escape. And this creates a delicious tension. She's trapped with them, and they, in turn, are trapped with her. I won't say more because the story is so good and I don't want to ruin it.
The book also has a bit of a mind-blower in it that reminded me of the 6th sense when Bruce Willis' character finally realizes that he is dead. Part of it is Melanie coming to terms with who she is, and who the adults are, who is important to her, and how far trust should be extended. Then, at the very end of the book, Melanie's life comes full circle - only things are reversed.
I really can't do this book justice other than to say it is a must read. Go out, pick up a copy, download it, whatever. Just read it.
I picked up Double Dead with great expectations. I was very impressed with the Miriam Black stories. The premise of this book was hard to beat. A vampI picked up Double Dead with great expectations. I was very impressed with the Miriam Black stories. The premise of this book was hard to beat. A vampire wakes up from a multi-year slumber only to find that the world he had known was consumed by the zombie apocalypse – and he can’t feed off of the shambling corpses. Now, he must go from hunter to shepherd in order to preserve his own food supply. Awesome, right?
The problem with Double Dead is not the premise. Just looking at this book in terms of premise, Double Dead is off the charts: 6 or 7 out of 5. But books are more than just premise. Books are story-line, character development, world building and much, much more. And Double Dead fails on just about every other aspect other than premise. In fact, the premise was so great it made every other failing seem somehow more tragic.
When you build a fantasy world it has to make sense. Pieces need to fall together neatly, cleanly. In the world of Double Dead there are pockets of survivors. Ok. That makes sense. In a zombie apocalypse it is likely that plucky bands of survivors would band together and create ‘clean’ zones. In Double Dead one of these pockets has been carved out by Juggalos. Yes. Juggalos. Fanatic fans of the Insane Clown Posse have somehow managed to scrape enough organization together to basically secure and maintain a ‘clean zone.’ I wasn’t buying it. (Full disclosure, I am not a Juggalo. I don’t know a Juggalo or that much about them. That being said, I don’t see them holding off the zombie hordes.)
The whole world building thing is shattered even further by the accidental creation of the ‘hunters’ – super vampire/zombie hybrids. These uber-rotters were created when ordinary zombies took a bite out of the vampire. When the zombie bug cross-pollinated with the vampire bug bad things happened. Sure. That makes sense. But why wasn’t Coburn affected? If exposure to his blood messed up ordinary rotters, why didn’t exposure to the zombie bug affect the vampire? I don’t know, but, fundamentally, the author was selling something that I was just not buying. (And this doesn’t even touch the cannibals hanging out in an Illinois Walmart!)
To wrap things up, I found the character development lacking. All of the characters felt cardboard to me – even Coburn. This was especially disappointing considering how awesome Miriam Black is in the author’s other books.
A disappointing two and a half stars. I’m going to round it up to three based on the potential and how good the Miriam Black books were. ...more
I struggle with how to describe this book. There are many good science fiction/fantasy books out there; however, there are very few that make you thinI struggle with how to describe this book. There are many good science fiction/fantasy books out there; however, there are very few that make you think about quantum physics, artificial intelligence, religion, and the meaning of reality itself. Emperor of Thorns does all that.
The author's prime achievement in this series is world building. It is an impossibly deep yet fabulously simple world. And in this final volume the veil is finally lifted and we understand the nature of the world that Jorg lives in. Within this world the author further ties together three major struggles - one for the Imperial seat, one against the dead king, and one against an unexpected and impossibly powerful foe. All three of these are centered around Jorg and brought to a close.
Emperor of Thorns is also the redemption of Jorg Ancrath. In the first volume he is little more than a bloody sociopath. In this final volume Jorg finally develops into a character that is empathetic and deserving of the reader's sympathies. Jorg, quite simply, learns to love. That there are some things that may not be sacrificed and some things that must be sacrificed. I only wish that he had not been such a complete sociopath in the first volume. (I had actually started the first volume once before but found him too foul a character to read the whole book. Thankfully I picked it back up.)
4.5 stars rounded up to 5. There are ways that the book could have been improved but that's true of just about everything. I'm giving it the extra 1/2 point on the sheer awesomeness of the world. If you haven't read this series, you should....more
Jorg is back for more in King of Thorns. He has avenged himself on the people most responsible for the brutal murder of his mother and brother. In theJorg is back for more in King of Thorns. He has avenged himself on the people most responsible for the brutal murder of his mother and brother. In the process he won himself a Kingdom (albeit small). In King of Thorns the story continues.
This time Jorg is fighting against all odds (and against the natural human instinct to survive, compromise and in general get along) to retain that Kingdom. The charismatic Prince of Arrow seems destined to re-unite the Empire and end the Hundred War. Only Jorg doesn't want to play along. He manufactures an impressive victory against a far greater foe.
I liked the book, but I wanted more. King of Thorns, at its heart, feels like a transitional book to me. In Prince of Thorns we are introduced to Jorg and his world. In King of Thorns he starts to crystalize ... the arc of his story clarifies and we know where it leads. We just have to get through this book to get there, presumably in Emperor of Thorns. A transitional book is okay. In the middle of a series it is kind of expected.
Being in a transitional book is okay given the world that Mark Lawrence has created. It is refreshing and unique - or at least it feels that way. The blend of ancient super technology ill-understood and indistinguishable from magic side by side with actual magic is neat. Additionally, there is the whole vein of the Dead King that really starts to emerge in this book. This world keeps me going. The story keeps peeling away layers and revealing more bit-by-bit. And I love it. I am trying to race ahead and make connections even as I read.
So why only three stars? The problem is Jorg. He is not really all that nice of a character. He is ... intriguing, but I really want to find something redeemable in him. He does mature a bit, but ... Jorg is still, well, kind of a sociopath. He believes that human affection ties you down and makes you weak. I guess that is one way of living, but it doesn't make him very sympathetic. I felt more sorry for the Prince of Arrow. Another minor gripe is the constant jumping around between characters (Jorg and Katherine) and time periods (now and years prior). These jumps help illuminate parts of the story - and help explain why Jorg is so messed up - but they also require a certain amount of gear shifting on the part of the reader - or at least they did for me.
Still, all-in-all, a fun book and worth wading through....more
There are many stories about the outbreak of the impending zombie apocalypse. Tales of those first, terrible days when the horror of the outbreak striThere are many stories about the outbreak of the impending zombie apocalypse. Tales of those first, terrible days when the horror of the outbreak strikes home. Rot and Ruin, in a pleasant surprise, breaks the mold on zombie stories. It picks up the story fifteen or so years after that first night. The initial chaos is gone. Humanity has figured out how to deal with the undead. They are slow. They are stupid. They are clumsy. While still a terrible threat, they are manageable.
It is in this setting that the story of Benny Imura unfolds. Benny is a fifteen year old kid who is trying to find his place in the fenced in town of Mountainside. Like all kids, at fifteen he must find gainful employment or his rations will be cut. Benny bounces from one to the other before discovering that he has no other alternative than to apprentice with his brother, Tom. Benny can't stand his brother because all he remembers is that his brother ran with him, leaving his mother to his already zombified father.
Tom is a bit of a bounty hunter. A man who brings closure to families by putting their undead loved ones to rest. And this is where the author separates himself from the other zombie apocalypse books out there. Tom teaches his brother that the zombies are more than the shambling undead. They were people once. They had lives and hopes and dreams. They had families. Tom humanizes the undead. And it is effective. Because they are so slow and so stupid and so clumsy, I felt sorry for them. They have no chance against humans who know what they are doing.
Folded over this whole story is a mystery - the mystery of the Lost Girl. On First Night, one of the residents of Mountainside helped a little girl and her sister escape the undead. Benny catches wind of the story and begins digging into it. It turns out that his brother has seen and even spoken to the Lost Girl. Who is she? Why won't she come into town? and why is she killing men? This mystery and the story of the Lost Girl set this book apart. Yes, the living are the real enemy and the undead are simply a danger to be endured - like a storm - but Rot and Ruin takes a new turn on this overdone story line. The story is the mystery - not the overdone story line.
In the end, just a great story - a great story for kids or adults. Four and a half stars rounded down to four. There were a few niggling things that detracted from the whole for me. First, the story started slowly. I did not truly immerse myself into the story until maybe a third of the way in. Next, there were more than a couple of points where I just said "come on!" to myself. There is no way that a certain character wielding a sword could survive certain things. These negatives, however, shouldn't detract from what is a pretty darn good little story. Highly recommend.
When my mom and my wife's book-club both recommend a book it's usually a bad sign. So I started this book a little apprehensively. Wow. Was I pleasantWhen my mom and my wife's book-club both recommend a book it's usually a bad sign. So I started this book a little apprehensively. Wow. Was I pleasantly surprised. Wool delivers.
I give the book a solid 4.5 stars, rounded down to 4. The book was almost too intense. There were parts of the story where I wanted to set the book down and stop reading because it was making me too anxious. (Those of you fortunate enough to have read this book know the parts I am talking about).
So why does Wool work? First, the writing and story telling are top notch. The author creates a living, breathing, and entirely plausible world. One in which the reader (and the characters) are trying to piece together exactly what the heck is going on. But it's hard because the wool has been pulled over our eyes. Hehe.
My only knock on the book and the story is that it can be a tad depressing. It is a dark, dystopian story. Deeply sympathetic people are abused and driven to despair. There is hope at the end, but you have to slog through quite a bit of darkness to reach it.
Long story short, I highly, highly recommend. Of course, having said that, I am in no immediate hurry to read the next volumes. I needed a break from Howey's world....more
On finishing Prince of Thorns I felt dirty. And not good dirty like I had spent a long day gardening or doing yard work, but bad dirty. I felt as if IOn finishing Prince of Thorns I felt dirty. And not good dirty like I had spent a long day gardening or doing yard work, but bad dirty. I felt as if I had bathed in blood or worse. Oddly enough (or perhaps more disturbingly) I liked it.
Prince of Thorns is the story of Jorg Ancrath, heir to a kingdom. Jorg is a disturbed young man. At the age of nine or ten he witnesses the brutal rape and murder of his mother and the casual dispatching of his younger brother. To make matters worse, his father refuses to muster the armies to avenge his mother. Against the odds Jorg survives. He survives, changed. The presumably sweet young man is no more. Jorg is twisted by his ordeal and lives only to wreak vengeance on a cruel and uncaring world.
What follows is a brutal, grim and often disturbing journey through Jorg's world. There were times that I wondered if I would finish the book, and then I hit a certain point where the author's world came into clear focus. I suddenly understood the world and how it came to be. This was one of the better parts of the story. Everything fell into place all at once and I found myself intrigued and ripping through the pages.
Four stars after some reflection. It was a tad dark, but I think after a very long week it was exactly what I was looking for in a book - something dark and brooding - something that rolls over a landscape like a storm. If you do pick up the book be forewarned that it is a pretty bloody and grim tale....more
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