The Knight of Swords by Micheal Moorcock

The Knight of Swords

by Micheal Moorcock

Last week I called Stan Sakai a legend and I stand by that. Today we are talking about someone whom is a greater legend in a lot of ways. Micheal Moorcock, born in 1939 and got his start in the industry at the tender age of 17. Before he even finished high school he was editing pulp magazines. In the 1960s, as the editor of the New Worlds magazine he became a leading figure in New Wave Science Fiction. Like a lot of things in the 1960s, New Wave fiction was incredibly experimental and often started by rejecting the traditional that came before it. In this case New Wave authors rejected a lot of the traditions and starting points of pulp science fiction, seeing it as juvenile, stodgy and poorly written. While I'm personally a fan of a lot of pulp science fiction (Barsoom forever!)... They weren't entirely wrong. Pulp had started at this point to go a bit stale and formulaic, to be honest... Science Fiction needed the kick in the pants. It also brought in a number of new writers, and a good part of that number of those writers were women. While in the United States the New Wave was more diffuse, in the United Kingdom Moorcock used his editorship to build New Worlds into something of a fortress for the movement. To quote Judith Merril, a science fiction writer of the time

"galactic wars went out; drugs came in; there were fewer encounters with aliens, more in the bedroom. Experimentation in prose styles became one of the orders of the day, and the baleful influence of William Burroughs often threatened to gain the upper hand."

It is somewhat ironic to note that today Burroughs is very much considered a pulp writer but such is life. During the 1960s Moorcock would from time to time write under the name James Colvin, which as far as I can determine is the start of his extensive use of the initials JC (you may note that those are also the initials of Jesus Christ,Mr. Moorcock certainly did and even won a Nebula award in a science fiction story about a historical christ of sorts in Behold the Man). Mr. Moorcock would also win awards for literately works he wrote such as Mother London, King of the City (and others you may see in this review series in the future). In short even without his fantasy work, this is a towering titan of a writer, who is still at work today but it is his fantasy work that brings him to this review series today.

In the 1960s and 1970s, fantasy (even more then today) stood under the immense shadow of Professor JRR Tolkien. It was a overarching and far reaching influence in the United States, so imagine the weight of it in the nation of his birth. One where a number of critics, writers and readers could have even attended lectures given by the man. Mr. Moorcock himself had met Professor Tolkien and had mentioned that he found the Professor a likable man, he did not have such kind things to say about Tolkien's work. Calling it infantile, conservative and boring, Mr. Moorcock set out in the 1970s to do what just about every critic of a successful fiction is told to do. He went and wrote his own fantasy. In 1961 an albino, drug addicted, cursed bomb carting an evil soul eating black sword was lobbed into the fantasy genre. As you might have guessed I'm talking about Elric of Menibone, a character and a story that take a hold in fantasy in ways no one would have really guessed when it was published. Elric is a member of an elder race but with none of the grace of Tolkien's elves. He's is frail and must use drugs to maintain his physical health. He is addicted to using the power of his Black Sword Strombringer (a weapon that is frankly more iconic in fantasy then anything Tolkien came up with). He is flawed, Byronic hero with a tendency to get the people closest to him killed. If anything he resembles the bad guys in earlier works more then does the heroes. Elric much like Mr. Moorcock was an intense product and expression of his times and as with the New Wave science fiction... It was needed.

Mr. Moorcock's influence can be felt in American and British fantasy to this very day. If you're a warhammer fan? You have been enjoying the indirect results of his work, as Mr. Moorcock's work often turned around the conflicts of Chaos and Law (Games Workshop even uses the same symbol for Chaos that Mr. Moorcock coined, the 8 pointed arrows). Fictional works within the old warhammer fantasy universe (I'm not discuss this, this is a book review series, not a wargame series) like Malus Darkblade pretty much follow the path that Mr. Moorcock burned into the jungle for them. Along with this Mr. Moorcock helped popularized and expand dark fantasy and other expressions of the genre.

So what is my stance on Mr. Moorcock? I am opposed to many of his criticism on Professor Tolkien and fantasy in general. I am opposed to many of Mr. Moorcock's philosophical and political stances (he describes himself as an anarchist, I have many things to say about anarchy and none of them kind). I will also state that I there are fans of Mr. Moorcock that I absolutely cannot stand, they are type that make a moral stance out of what kind of fantasy writers you like to read, while looking for a boost on their high horses so they decry Tolkien fans as Crypto Fascists. To be blunt, people who say to paraphrase a friend of my “Have no other meaning for the word Fascist expect things I don't like.” I find such things pretentious and frankly tiresome. Tolkien's work is certainly conservative but fascist? This is a man who decried Fascism from day 1, not all right wingers are fascist, ladies and gentlemen anymore then all left wingers are communists. That said I will defend the quality and value of most of Mr. Moorcock's work to the death. Those of us who are fans of science fiction and fantasy owe Mr. Moorcock and his fellows a debt, his experimentation, his willingness to overthrow prior rules in the pursuit of a story and his willingness to tell tragedies helped expand and enrich the genres even to this day and beyond. Now that I've beaten the point into the ground... Let me discuss the actual book.

The Knight of Swords is a book in the Eternal Champion multiverse, basically a heroic character fated to exist in many times and places while waging a war to keep Law and Chaos in balance. Because if one side actually wins out over the other then everything goes batshit and the universe might actually end and we can't have that, all of our stuff is here after all. Elric is the most famous Incarnation of the Eternal Champion but the main character of this story is Corum Jhaelen Irsei, who while not being Elric certainly does rhythm with the albino. Corum is a young noblemen of the Vadhagh, an elder race that once feuded heavily with another race the Nhadragh but has since sunk into … Well I'll be blunt the Vadhagh are sinking into slow extinction. They live in small isolated family (by small I mean in groups of under a dozen) groups in castles with little to no contact with other family groups. Societies don't work this way! I've complained about this before but... Look you got at least have enough mixing that the younger members can find mates otherwise you're going to slowly decline into oblivion. The Vadhagh don't get that chance though, they are messily and violently wiped out by a younger, savage race. The race of humanity or as we're called in the book Mabden. Prince Corum is essentially the last of his race, as his family and every other Vadhagh he can find has been wiped out, victims of the barbarism of a younger race that operates out of hate, fear and the urging of dark powers. Corum tries to fight this tide but pays a heavy cost for it.

Corum starts on a journey of vengeance wanting nothing else but to kill the people who killed his people no matter what it costs him but he's turned aside when he is delivered to a Castle of civilized Mabden to recover. These Mabden had figured out the basics of civilization earlier then most and created a fairly decent society however the castle had been cut off from the rest of it's civilization. It's there he runs into Rhalina, the widowed ruler of the Castle who basically throws herself at Corum within 5 minutes of meeting him. As romances go... It's not one. I'm not terribly fond of Rhalina as a character. Her job seems to basically get kidnapped and held captive to force Corum to go on quests. She also faints a lots. Eowyn, she is not, hell she isn't even Lois Lane in this book. It's when she is kidnapped by a demi-god sorcerer that Corum gets busy with the main quest of the story.

In that quest he'll be sent off to a variety of impossible lands and meet strange barely possible people. This is honestly the part of the book I like best. I have to admit to being a sucker for a quest and Corum's is a dozy, being sent off to confront a god. Given magical artifacts to make up for his injuries at the hand of the previously mentioned savages Corum finds himself confronting a world wracked by a major change. It's a world where one age is ending and another one is beginning and he has to learn why the wheel has turned. In doing so he finds himself being educated as to the nature of the conflict that he has been enlisted to and informed that he's part of it now whether he likes it or not. Corum most certainly does not like it but he does what he needs to.

The story is rather straight forward and somewhat basic by today's standards but told with fantastical settings and peoples to provide the needed dash and color to make this work. Corum himself is fairly understandable character, as a person I certainly prefer him over Elric but he's well... Kinda dry in some respects. I've read the Elric and other books by Micheal Moorcock so I know what's he capable of and honestly that's reflected in my grade. The Knight of Swords gets a C+, better then average and certainly worth reading (at under 200 pages it shouldn't take you long) but compered to his other work? I mean I enjoyed it but the Elric novels took a lot of the same themes and ideas and frankly explored them better and with more depth. Additionally I feel the work hasn't aged very well. I'll admit I'm being biased on that and I intend to come back with some of Mr. Moorcock's better work in the near future.

That said, next week Baker returns with the White Luck Warrior.   

The Usagi Yojimbo Saga Book 5 by Stan Sakai

The Usagi Yojimbo Saga Book 5

By Stan Sakai

“I will be doing this forever; I love Usagi,”

Stan Sakai Newspaper Interview 2011

Ah, Stan Sakai, the myth, the legend. Born in Kyoto, Japan in 1953, he is a 3^rd generation Japanese American who currently resides in California. Mr. Sakai has worked on Spiderman with Stan Lee doing the lettering for the newspaper comic strip for 25 years (Stan Lee has a picture of Stan's daughter in his office, Mr. Sakai's son personally received a box full of signed works by Lee when Sakai mentioned how big of a fan he was). He got his start lettering comics (most notably Groo the Wanderer), before moving on to write and illustrate his own comic the Adventurers of Nilsen Groundthumper and Hermy (a medieval comic). It wasn't until 1984 that he hit gold however, Sakai was plotting out a comic book series that would be based on the life and times of Miyamoto Musashi a swordsmen from Japanese history... No wait that's underselling it, with a record of 60 duels undefeated, being the founder of the sword style called Niten ryu and writer of the Book of Five Rings, Musashi is an enduring figure in Japanese culture and in pop culture. He was a character in fictional tales before he died and his life has been so mythologized that it is impossible to separate fact from fancy. You can kinda of consider him a Japanese Robin Hood or Jessie James, a person who has been romanticized so heavily that who he actually was... Kinda ceased matter in a cultural sense really. In lot of ways the character of Musashi is vastly more important to Japanese culture then the actual person, but that character simply couldn't exist, nor would that character be as enduring or far reaching in his influence if it wasn't for the real person that he was based on it. It's an unending fascinating thing to examine and consider but... This is a book review so I'll just leave the thought there for you the reader to chew on. Anyways all of that considered it's no surprise Mr. Sakai turned to Musashi for inspiration. That's not what would make Sakai in my opinion (let's be honest my opinion is not humble) immortal. It was the combination of that inspiration with a random chance doodle he made. That of an anthropomorphized rabbit samurai with his ears in a top knot. The image took a hold of Mr. Sakai and the series quickly found itself in an anthropomorphized fantasy version of 1700s Japan.

Mr. Sakai started the comic series Usagi Yojimbo in 1984 and here we are 32 years later and not only the series still running strong but it is still considered a series with quality art, characters and story telling that both children and adults can enjoy. This is nothing short of amazing considering that we have series who couldn't keep that up for a 1/10^th of that time! The series has won 5 Eisner awards and a Parent's Choice Awards. The series has been translated into 14 different languages officially (I am told there are many unofficial translations in Russian and Chinese but cannot confirm at the time of this review). Ironically one of the languages that it hasn't been translated into and one place that Usagi isn't very popular is... Japan. Even then, this is a successful series by any metric. I've been a fan of the series for years and I've been meaning to review these books for awhile now.

I'm reviewing the Saga collection which collects several graphic novels worthy of the series together often bringing together entire story lines into a single book. Book 5 takes place after Usagi ends his travels with his son Jotaro having decided not to tell him that he is his father (while Jotaro in turns decides not to tell Usagi that he is his son, both of them believing the other to be ignorant of the relation.). Emotionally exhausted by this Usagi decides to head to the Geishu province under the rule of Lord Noriyuko who counts Usagi as a welcome friend. Perhaps more importantly to Usgai though, it's also the home of Lord Noriyuko's vassal and guardian the lady samurai Tomoe. Interestingly, Lady Tomoe is actually based on a historical personage, the lady samurai Tomoe Gozen. She was a fighter for the Mimamoto clan in the Genpai war (which was in the 1180s, some time before the Japan of Usgai which is likely in the 1700s). Reputed to be beautiful, intelligent and deadly in archery and sword who met with an uncertain fate in history. The Tomoe in our story certainly lives up to her namesake with several characters talking about her looks but more importantly she's one of the few characters capable of fighting Usgai to a draw with a sword and a able to think quickly on her feet.

These are all good things because most of the book isn't about Usagi, it's about her. Thankfully Tomoe can carry a book or two, although Usagi is still a major part of the events (it is his series after all). The book examines her origins, how she achieved her position and gives us more insight into her family. We get to meet a relative of Tomoe's, Nokiro who was raised along side Tomoe. Nokiro is also an incredibly skilled swords woman but much crueler and darker in personality. Nicknamed the Blood Princess, she serves in a lot of ways as a mirror to Tomoe, perhaps showing what could have happened if she had let her anger (justified anger to be fair) at the way she was treated for being woman overcome all her other traits. We also get some hints of what the future may hold for Tomoe and for Usagi as well.

This was a welcome change of pace as the last book was taken up with a fair amount of Usagi's adventurers with Jotaro. While I really did enjoy the mentor-student relationship between father and son (and I drew a lot of amusement from the fact that both believe the other ignorant of the relationship), after awhile you kinda want to see Usagi in a more equal relationship. We get that with Usagi and Tomoe, who are both equals and treat each as such. Both respect the talents and skills of the other and is willing to listen to their opinion without being threatened by those same skills. Usagi is perfectly willing to follow Tomoe's lead without feeling his masculinity is undercut, while Tomoe is willing to do the same without needing to worry that Usagi is dismissing her because of her gender. It's a clean, healthy relationship that I am continually delighted to read. Plus either one of them can murder a small army on their own so when they get together? You didn't bring enough men to pull these two down. There are not enough men to bring these two down if they're at the top of their game. This book, is more then happy to prove it.

Stan Sakai has written other works but it is likely that Usagi Yojimbo is the work that will outlast him, even though I personally wish him decades more good health and joy. This book continues to uphold the high standards that the Usagi Yojimbo series is respected for and has earned. I certainly needed this after the crap that was No Game No Life! Book 5 of the Usagi Saga by Stan Sakai gets an A.


Next week, I venture into dark British fantasy to review a book by a man, who like Tolkien, is inescapable when discussing English Fantasy. See you then.

No Game No Life by Yuu Kamiya

No Game No Life

by Yuu Kamiya

No Game No Life is the 4^th novel worked on by Yuu Kamiya (which is a pen name), a Japanese-Brazilian illustrator-writer. He first started working in 2006 on E.A.R.T.H (which I couldn't find anything about). No Game No Life was published in 2013 and was recently made into anime. It was recommended to me by someone I knew in the Barnes and Noble... Which I'm really regretting. Oh man am I regretting reading this book. Let me get started here.

No Game No Life tells us the story of Sora and Shiro, a brother and sister who are both maladjusted genius who are incapable of dealing with people. Sora, the brother is 18 years old, very smart (he speaks 6 languages for example) and incredibly capable of reading people and getting inside their heads especially while playing a game against them. So of course he can't figure out social interactions and can't understand people... Wait... That doesn't seem right does it? Yet the novel keeps insisting that Sora is a genius who within minutes of meeting people can climb into their heads and figure out how to rattle them or string them along in a sense of security but can't figure out what kind of behaviors would seem weird. Yep, it's that kind of novel. I could let this slide but frankly not only does Sora annoy the piss out of me but the book has an unnerving obsession with his sexuality. Mentioning repeatedly that's he a virgin and can't figure out how to get a girlfriend (although given how he treats the other female led it's no wonder to me). I'll expand on this stuff later.

Shiro, the 11 year old younger sister is basically an autistic super genius (she speaks 18 languages and does calculus in her head) who just can't really connect to people expect her brother. Honestly I have less of a problem with Shiro expect for the fact that she's not really a character, she's a plot device. She just tamely follows along with her brother's plots and ideas, every now and again muttering that he's an idiot and stepping in to solve problems for him on command because super genius. She displays next to no real agency in of herself and frankly speaking as an older brother I found her docileness odd and hard to believe. Of course when she does express a goal of her own near the end of the book... I found myself wishing she had stayed a plot device.

Now both of these kids start out as utter and complete shut ins living in the same room in Japan. The story states that they've been abandoned by their parents (who pays their rent then? Where do they get money for their phones and tablets and solar chargers and... sigh you know what never mind) and they spend their time playing games until they pass out and eating instant food. They also pose as the same person going by the handle “ “ aka Gamer Blank (seriously how would that be a thing?) which honestly strikes me as bit of cheating there but not important. After being challenged via email to a game by a mysterious individual and winning they are transported to a strange new world that operates under different rules and is filled with strange places and stranger people. Being transported to a strange new place where your gifts are of more benefit to you is pretty much a staple of planetary romance and the whisked away fantasy genre so it's fairly normal here. Let's talk a bit about the world.

The sibs are transported to a world that had been locked in a endless series of violent race conflicts between various fantasy races until a new god managed to grab the top seat and changed the rules. The new god issues 9 (well 10 but the 10^th rule is frankly not in effect) which boil down to basically all bodily harm, war and such are utterly forbidden and all conflicts are to be settled by games. Games are played according to rules agreed upon by the players for stakes and wagers that the players agree to. Any game or wager is permitted as long as everyone playing agrees to it and if you're caught cheating, you lose. So basically try any violence and god himself will strike you down, but you can solve your issues with a great round of Parcheesi if you like. Course this does leave a massive hole in the rules, what if I just don't play? I mean, let's say I walk into the store, grab an apple and walk out, you tell I have to pay for it and I say nope. The cops come and... Do what? Physical violence has been forbidden! You can't arrest me! I can just walk away! What are you going to do tackle me? All Bodily Harm is forbidden! Basic property rights cannot be enforced (on the flip side murder is now impossible so there's that at least). Hell we have a bandit scene where bandits wait by the road and challenged people to games and I'm left asking why anyone would bother? You just walk right pass the bandits because they can't stop you! I mean if they blocked off part of the road maybe? But then it would be charging a toll. You can't say that no one can refuse to play because in the story one race is mentioned as simply refusing to play any games at all and others suggest that route for humans. It's tempting because well...

At this point humans are at the bottom of the ladder with just one city state to call their own. See there's a problem with the rules. It doesn't count as cheating unless you get caught, you might be thinking okay fine so what? Every other race on the planet expect humans can use magic. Humans cannot even perceive someone using it. We can't directly interact with it at all and we're completely blind to it. Which means anyone who isn't human just has to use magic to cheat and their human opponent is completely boned. So the Kings of Humanity and by extension humanity have been having their asses to handed to them. Which is where the 3^rd character of this story comes in and where things really start to go downhill, the granddaughter of the last king of the humanity, Stephanie..

She shows up losing a game (after Shiro tells her the other person is cheating her) and hunting down the sibs to find out how they knew. Now I had figured her for the love interest/guide a character who is a native of the strange new world and would be able to explain and guide our main characters through the social and physical laws of the place. This venerable role stretches at least as far back as the Princess of Mars by Burroughs in modern fiction (that's only if I stick to the planetary romance genre of course). That would however require that anyone else be allowed to know things besides the diamond duo! So instead I have the sibs who have been on this planet for a whole 3 days explaining to Stephanie how her own fucking planet works! Never you fucking mind that as a member of the royal family one of her biggest jobs would have been to learn this system as it's part and parcel of having the ability to rule in the first place! Especially when you consider that Stephanie has no cousins, no siblings and her parents are incredibly absent making her the de facto heir to her grandfather! But No! No one else is allowed to have any talent or understanding of how anything works besides our “heroes” because if they're not the only ones allowed to know things how are we suppose to realize they're geniuses?!? So pretty much... In order to make our protagonists cool and smart... We have to make everyone else a mouth breathing idiot barely able to tie their shoes without accidentally hanging themselves (although to be fair some of the characters may be trying to escape this story through the sweet release of death!). I cannot stress how much I utterly and completely loath this style of building up a character. It's bloody easy to look like a genius when you surround yourself with idiots guys. You want to impress me? Surround yourself with smart people and make yourself look like a genius. That's awesome and interesting, this? Is middle school antics. Of course the way I just outlined is hard and making everyone an idiot is easy.

That's the worse of it though. See Sora tells Stephanie gleefully that he'll gladly explain all his super awesome secrets and skills (in 3 easy to read lessons!) if she can beat him in a game. He even explains how to beat him in the game (rock, paper, scissors, I swear you have this chance to revel in all manner of exotic and strange games and what games do I get in this story? Poker, Chess and Rock, Paper Scissors... Really... I just... Ugh!). On the flip side Stephanie has to promise to do him a little favor. She of course double and triple thinks herself into failure BECAUSE DOING ANYTHING ELSE WOULD MEAN SORA CAN'T BE AWESOME! Of course Sora announces that his little favor is that she has to fall in love with him. Which leads to the part that is frankly a little nauseating to me. See Stephanie now has no choice but to fall in love with Sora against her will (which okay, that happens, people find themselves loving people they don't want to or shouldn't and you can write about that) and is fully aware that this is being forced on her. It's a horrific situation if you think about it, part of your personality and desires are being rewritten by an outside force and you can't do anything about it... Because you lost a child's game. You could do a lot with this, depending on the kind of story you want to tell, you can emphasize or try to de-emphasize the horror of the situation as you see fit but there's a lot of potential here. It is of course wasted as the story uses this for cheap laughs and pandering titillation. It's not even funny either, just cringe worthy as Stephanie is assaulted (first they do? Start groping her chest... Classy!) forced into fetish outfits and at one point is flat out told that her purpose in life is to provide well... Huh... Let me call it “viewing material.” Not only is this rather disgusting (If would be fine if she knew what was going on and wanted to but she can't say no! She wants to say no but she can't!) but it's a criminal misuse of a character. Instead of her having her own arch and desires stemming from her background and interacting with the main characters on that ground, she is forced into well... Slavery! Utterly subordinate and unable to even really protest her humiliation and reduction to a thing and well... This wouldn't happen if Stephanie was Steve. Look, I'm not a feminist but even I have to protest this! Everyone has the right to control over their own body and who can touch it! This isn't a gender thing that's just basic shit! I shouldn't even have to discuss this in a damn book review blog what is your fucking malfunction!?! To have your main character do this and it's not even discussed or considered as something he shouldn't be doing? I'm not saying your protagonists shouldn't ever do fucked up shit but... Look, I read a book called Malus Darkblade once about a dark elf that murders his entire family and it was at least treated as a fucked up thing to do! Even has pandering fetish material this is just cringe worthy and clumsy at best and utterly disgusting at worse. Surely we can do better then this? Right? Please?

Add in wooden, tell don't show writing, really ham handed dialogue (I would love to blame this on the translation team but Log Horizon did a much better job and No Game No Life had corporate backing from day one, while Log Horizon started as some guy's fiction on word press basically) characterization ranging from lazy to eye rolling and Oh right, the big reveal at the end that Sora and Shiro aren't really blood related and Shiro muttering about how she just needs 7 more years (UGH! Fuck you people that's not how sibling relationships work! We've done studies on this! Christ is being an only child that fucking bad that you come up with this shit?). I ain't even going into that issue, I'm just going to say I almost tossed the book in the trash right there but then some poor innocent might find it and try to read it! Add in large holes in the world building that I could let slide if you were telling a decent story (Harry Potter's world building has a number of holes to, but you what it has over this book? Engaging characters I like and care about and a story that was enjoyable to read!). As it stands I pray for the trees that were killed to make paper for this book, for their sacrifice was in vain! Between the offensiveness and the sheer wasted potential what can I say? A lot honestly I could for another 3 pages but I think you get the point gentle reader, remember my suffering!

We had a good streak this year but it's over folks! This book? THIS SO CALLED BOOK!?! No Game No Life by Yuu Kamiya gets a D-! Making it our new lowest book yet beating out Touched by an Alien, which I found merely bad and overwrought as opposed to this which is terrible on every level I care to consider it on and offensive in the bargain. If you're considering punishing someone try making them read this but don't be surprised if they don't speak to you for a couple weeks!

Oh this was suppose to be something nice and light after reading Stover! Fuck this I'm reading about Rabbit Samurai! Next week, a long eared Ronin arrives! Thank God for Stan Sakai!  

Blade of Tyshalle by Matthew Stover

Blade of Tyshalle

by Matthew Stover

"How many of you want to be my friend?"
Caine page 505

Blade of Tyshalle is the second book in the Acts of Caine series, if you haven't read the first book “Heroes Die” I would recommend you go read it first because there are going to be spoilers for that book in this review. Okay, let's do this.

Blade of Tyshalle opens with a story from Hari Michealson's days of training to be an actor. We learn that he originally was slated to be a mage, due to his size and slight build, but well... Basically? He brawled his way into the combat school where they focused more on murdering people with your bare hands and what not. Which honestly was a better fit for him anyways. We also learn about what may have been his first friend Kris Hansen. That peek into the past turns out to be important because this book ends up much like Heroes Die being rather philosophical in nature... Interestingly enough, to me anyways, Stover's books are philosophical not in spite of the ultra violence present in the book or the rather stark and pared down outlook of it's protagonists but because of those reasons the story and the characters within it find themselves asking some important questions... Including our main character, despite his constant claims of how that is not in his nature. I find myself constantly comparing this to Baker's (Prince of Nothing) books and while I think Baker's books are maybe deeper and likely better written... I would reread Mr. Stover's books first because frankly... I like the people in Stover's books more, even when they drive to distraction.

If I can be forgiven the reference, the Vorlon and Shadow questions (if you don't know, go watch Babylon 5) make an appearance in this book, although other questions also appear. “What do you want?” makes an overt appearance. You see the climax of Heroes Die had a profound effect on Overworld, kick starting two new religions into gear. The overt and popular one is the church of Mal'elKoth (who trapped on Earth now calls himself Tan'elKoth) which has adopted a lot of trappings that frankly are a bit to familiar to me (an organized church of Bishops answering to a Primarch who is also a temporal ruler?) and a religion that most of it's followers proclaim is more of a philosophy called Cainism. Cainism's questions are simple but can be rather profound. What do you want and what will you do to get it? It's followers openly state that rules do not matter to them, expect when they allow them to matter and that the world is about what you want and what you will and will not do. As you can guess the ruling powers do not care for that at all. It is interesting to note that Cainist are for the most part rather law abiding individuals (not all of them but most) but it's the church of Mal'elKoth who has taken over the rule of the Empire and that church has declared Caine to be the Enemy of God. Which means anyone who declares for Cainism is about as popular as a leper in an orgy.

Meanwhile back on Earth, Hari Michealson despite having almost all his wishes granted (got his wife back, got a cool kid, Dad's out of jail, he's running the studio, can't really walk due to his spine being severed at the climax of the last book) is utterly depressed and miserable. He and Shanna are trying their damnest but their marriage is at best kludging along. He hates the job, he's worked for so long to get. He can't figure out how to sit down and talk to his wife and hammer out the problems in his marriage. I'm going to be honest this one frustrates me the most. Not because I don't think it shouldn't be there but because I just want to reach into the book drag Hari and Shanna by their ears to an escape proof room and not let them out until they stop making vague word noises at each and actually talk to one another. I'm not going to claim to be Mr. Successful Relationships here (No, I'm not discussing my dating record and I don't care if you like it) but one thing I've notice? If you cannot really and honestly talk to your Significant Other about what's bother you? Your relationship is crippled, I don't mean in the still perfectly functional as a person way, I mean in the utterly fucked up this car only has two wheels and the steering wheel is on fire way. I'm basically awkwardly flailing at the statement that you should make the effort to talk and listen (I don't mean yap and wait your turn to yap, I mean really talk and really listen) to your loved one if you want it to work. That said Shanna and Hari are keeping their marriage a going concern by sheer manic determination and an honest desire to make it work. They just suck at it.

The Vorlon question “Who are you?” does not make an overt appearance but it is frankly central to the plot. You see, it's the question each of the characters has to answer along with the questions of the Cainist. The answers of Hari Michealson, Tan'elKoth, Pallas Ril, Hanno the Scythe and others to these questions are the axis on which the plot turns and that plot will determine the ultimate fate of Earth and Overworld. I'll throw in my own statement on these questions here (reviewers privilege folks, you can to toss out commentary even if no one asks you to). All of these questions are interlinked to the point that you cannot answer one without answering the others. They gotta answer these questions fast to because the powers that be of Earth have decided to stop playing around with Overworld. See, they've started slowly and covertly colonizing Overworld but slow and covert is just not hitting the spot. So they're going to make their colonization a necessity. They're going to release the plague that almost ended life on Earth on Overworld. A modified version of rabies that dehydrates it's victim and drives them into homicidal paranoia. It's highly infectious and when enough people have it... Their society literally tears itself apart. Hari and Shanna along with others on Overworld and Earth race to stop this biological doomsday from coming to past while all around them dark but all to human forces conspire to not only stop them but utterly destroy them and everyone they love. Especially their daughter Faith. At the risk of slight spoiler here, while everyone in the story has to answer who they are, what do they want and what will they do to get it... The person's whose answer turns out to be most important isn't Hari, or Pallas Ril but a figure that has been sitting in the background of both this and the last story. I won't say who but I will say I found his answers to be the most... Human.

Another argument that takes place in this book is what does it mean to be human? In a lot of fantasy works the bad guys signal their badness by rejecting their humanity. Declaring themselves above it and better then humanity. In this book the bad guys declare themselves the most human people of all and put themselves forwards as in some ways literal avatar's of humanity. Mr. Stover's talent is on full display here because I can't decide if he agrees with this argument or if it's just something the bad guys are advancing to give them intellectual cover for their sheer disregard of life itself. I am going to state my own firm disagreement that the bad guys represent human nature in it's complete state. Oh I'll grant they represent parts of human nature, the need for control, the disregard of the price other people have to pay for our actions, the selfish unending hunger that flat out doesn't care about anything but sating it's desires. I didn't need Mr. Stover's books to point that part of human nature to me. In the Marines a friend of mine nicknamed that part of us “The Monkey,” it's the part of you that encourages you to take that last cookie even if your buddy hasn't had one yet, to fuck over that other guy at work for the promotion. The Monkey wants. That's what it does and from it comes greed, ambition, desire and a host of goods and ills. But the Monkey is not the whole of human nature, not even close. The willingness to take a hit for another person, to buy food for someone because they're hungry, to give to charity and bleed for a common goal is also a part of who are as much as the damn Monkey and that part is well represented in this book also. Repeatedly we'll see people sacrifice for their loves ones, for people they just met, for people they don't know and won't ever know. Hell we see it in the person of Hari Michealson, who would be the first people to tell us he's no hero and he gives no fuck about saving people he don't know. I would argue it's the clash between our selfless instincts and our selfish instincts that what it means to be human comes out. How we answer the questions after all is as important as what our answers are sometimes.

At this point I've likely made the book sound like some moody meditation on dusty philosophical and boring. Well this book is a lot of things but it isn't boring. We got fights, be it duels between men, between gods or between gods and men. We also got combat on larger scales and dying by the truck load. We even got us a bit of an old fashion war here. Our characters may be struggling to answering bone deep questions of identity and desire but they're testing and refining their answers by breaking bones and shedding blood. We also got plots and intrigue, as wheels within wheels turn to trap and save our characters and the whole plot can twist on a single friendship or conversation. You'll see battle between technology and magic, divine and man, brawn and brain. In short this book is 800 pages but thankfully none of them are wasted and unlike some Stover doesn't just keep repeating himself (you know who you are! YOU KNOW!). I will note for the record one thing that Stover did that offended me, I'm prepared to forgive but I ain't letting it pass without comment. Mr. Stover... Your jumped up secret police wanna be riot cops ain't combat troops and if your upper Caste knuckleheads think they are... Then they got the military sense of peacock on crack and they damn lucky there are no competing societies on Earth. With real combat troops. Who would love to to brawl it out with Soapie.

My outraged sense of dignity for front line troops aside, I really enjoyed Mr. Stover's book even when I was violently disagreeing with it. That's take a lot of talent and work and I think Mr. Stover deserves praise and recognition for that. So because it earned it, I'm giving Blade of Tyshalle an A. Matthew Stover is batting a thousand so far and let's hope it stays that way. Still... Man... That was dark and dense and is the kind of book that sits like a lump turkey in your gut. I'm gonna need something... Lighter next.   

Seedbearing Prince Part II by Davaun Sanders

Seedbearing Prince II

By Davaun Sanders

So let me start this with the grand tradition of disclaimers. Mr. Sanders is a friend of mine from work and he is aware that I am reviewing his works, in fact he might be reading this right now (Hey, man hope it's good feedback). We no longer work in the same department but none the less. That said everything in this review is my honest opinion and nothing but.

Now for those of you who don't remember or didn't read the review of the first book (you should read the first book and my review!) the Seedbearing Prince takes place in the World Belt, a collection of worlds linked by an asteroid field that is dense enough to travel through spiderman style. Our main character Dayn Ro'Halan is a farm boy who is working and planning to become one of the people who spend their lives traveling through the field of rocks and strange creatures adapted to this existence with nothing but a special suit, some grappling line and breathing gear. This is spiked when when he thwarts an attack on his world by a group of black armored monsters in the form of men known as Voidwalkers. Attack to mild a word though, they are literally trying to kill an entire world when Dayn trips over them, stops the attack and recovers a Seed, an artifact of immense power that bonds to Dayn. The Ring, a floating super fortress and extra-national organization of scientist and warriors found about Dayn and talked him on going on a tour of the Belt (the collection of worlds linked by asteroids) to drum up unity and raise awareness that the Voidwalkers are real. A Defender (a ring special forces soldier basically) named Nassir goes with him as well as a Preceptor (scientist) named Lurec go with him for advice and protection. This trip didn't go as planned. While Dayn was able to do a fair piece of good out there, he also got captured by the Voidwalkers in a massive attack on a city world named Montollos. In fact he got slammed into the belly of dread creature named a Fleshweep, which can hold it's captives for decades and there is almost no escape.

I was honestly less then happy that the first book ended in a cliffhanger. It didn't help that when I got Seedbearing Prince II it was about 200 pages which had me asking if this could have been combined with the first book. I haven't talked to Mr. Sanders about that, so that might be a publishing issue (this happens for example David Eddings planned the Belgariad as a trilogy only to be told to make it five books). On the flip side, the tone of the story shifts here fairly dramatically. In a single book that might have caused some serious whiplash, we go from a young man discovering the wider universe about him in all it's dangers and glories to... Well.. Fair warning here folks, Dayn takes it on the chin repeatedly here. So I'm going to go ahead and let this go, so there will be deduction for splitting the story here. Because of the change of the story we're being told here. The characters and setting remain consistent here I want to note, the change comes in a shift of tone and emphases. The shift is smooth enough that I'm willing to allow it and the story remains interesting and takes us to new places and shows us a lot of new exciting things.

Dayn is no longer on a journey to learn about what's going around him. He's learning how to survival in an hostile environment full of people who want to kill him or worse. He has to learn fast about the nature of his enemies and the extent of the cruelty they are capable and he spends a good part of the book in a captivity of sorts. Let's throw on top of that the fact that he is developing strange abilities and perceptions due to his exposure and bonding to the seed artifact. He has to learn what these abilities are and what his limits are while being taunted and tormented by monsters. Because the Voidwalkers have a plan for Dayn. If they can't kill or destroy him, they'll twist and use him. Dayn doesn't take this laying down though, he's going to escape even if it kills every Voidwalker in the base with him or utterly wrecks him in the process and it just might. We learn a bit about the Voidwalkers, including how the Fleshweeps are made (that's right made), in process that suggest to me that the Voidwalkers have never heard of an ethics committee (my bros and ladies in the bio or medical sciences know exactly what I'm talking about here). Additionally we get to see the Voidwalkers interact with each other and with people who aren't Voidwalkers and... Look, I'm calling them monsters for a reason. They create monsters that slowly break down prisoners over years in their bellies for war mounts. That's completely unnecessary! There's no real purpose to that beyond sadism as far as I can figure. Their favored attack is a mental assault that the people of the world belt refer to as the Thrall. It's an attack on your mind that can shred your very sanity. While they've created mental disciplines to ward off the worse effects of the Thrall, it can stop even Defenders. Add in the fact that the Voidwalkers refer to the people of the world belt as degenerates. With their more advanced capabilities and their extreme tendencies towards cruelty it's very much the pot and kettle. It does kind of remind me of Munteerers Moon, a novel by David Weber where the bad guys also refereed to regular people as degenerates despite behaving in an utter barbarous manner. To be honest though comparing the Voidwalkers to the barbarians of history is an insult to such people as the Mongols and the Huns. While Mongols and Huns acted in terrible ways, there were at least damn good reasons for their behavior. While from the Voidwalkers all I'm seeing is savage, terrible sadism and spite! They have their own world, which has more space and resources then the people of the world belt! They have more advanced capabilities and the their self chosen enemies can't hope to threaten them meaningfully. So I am at an utter lost to explain their actions. I really hope the next book sheds on some light on why the Voidwalkers insist on acting like monsters without even the merest drop of decency or humanity.

Meanwhile Lurec and Nassir find themselves with more then a little work to do on their own. They have the seed, even if they lost Dayn and they need to make sure it doesn't fall into the hands of the enemy. They also have to evade the government of the world they're on. Montollos is a very wealthy, powerful world that chafes at the influence and restraints of the ring and would be more then happy to “barrow” the seed for themselves. Once they escape Montollos they have to decide whether or not to try to rescue Dayn or just make a break for it and take the Seed to safety. Like Dayn, they'll find themselves doing things they would never have imagined doing as they are pushed harder and harder. Additionally we get to see more of the flora and fauna of the torrent (the name of the debris field) which I find very interesting, it's an entire ecosystem that is incredibly dangerous but endlessly fascinating. Course back on the ring, we find trouble brewing. We meet Nassir's wife, a lady who came up with the idea of trying to tame Rage Hawks (giant hawks that hunt monsters in the torrent for food!) as war mounts so she could ride into battle on a bird that can tear apart sheets of metal. She's unhappy that her husband has gone missing and intends to gather up a squad of manics on giant crazy hawks that attack metal ships and go look for him. Frankly this explains a lot of Nassir's attitude last book to me. If I had to leave a lady that awesome behind to guard a pair of naive manics? I'd be grumpy to. Hell, I might even be surly. She's also getting sucked into some intrigue as factions within the ring are setting up for a power play, as even within a fortress that is suppose to devoted to unity has people willing to break everything apart so they can get a bigger piece.

We also get a stunning reveal into the origin and nature of the setting, some of which I thought I saw coming but a lot of which I'll admit caught me off guard. I'm not going to spoil it or discuss those reveals in this review due to my long standing anti-spoilers policy. That said I did like how the reveal was handled and was made into an experience. The information is revealed not by lecture but by showing us by the method of giving one of the characters (Who? Not telling!) a series of flashbacks so s/he experiences the events first hand. We learn that the Voidwalkers have been a blight to the people of the worlds for a very, very long time and again many of their actions seem completely nonsensical to me. Driven only by sadism. We get to see the origins of the worlds themselves and the origins of the Ring, the Defenders, the Preceptors, all of it. It's a wild ride that let's us take a look at the past of the setting without bogging us down in a lecture or sticking it in the back of the book in an appendix. Furthermore the reveal of this history is serves a purpose in the story, to help undo the mental and emotional damage that a character as suffered and to enlighten him as to why he must fight. It's always important to know why you're fighting and to have a decent idea what victory looks like after all.

The book is short and in some ways is a continuation of the first book. That said the tonal shift and the change in goals and plans of the character help the book to translate into it's own separate story from the first book which was a worry of mine when I first opened it up. The pace is good, the story is tight and no page is wasted (which is a good thing because it doesn't have any pages to waste). Mr. Sanders delivers a twist on the setting that I didn't see coming but works in well with what was reveled in the first book. That said, I am left with a hell of a lot of questions mostly as to why the Voidwalkers do what they do. As it stands, they seem almost nonsensical as a culture, a people or a political entity being devoted to just pure sadism and tormenting the people of the world belt for... Reasons. Of course this is balanced out that we only really see them through Dayn and his companions eyes and they only see the Voidwalkers when they show up to fight or torment them. Still I'm hoping for more revelations in the next book and to find out more about the setting. This book has kept me interested and pushing for more. So because of that I am giving The Seedbearing Prince part II a A-.

Join me next time for more Acts of Caine.   

Sidebar II: Harper Lee

Sidebar II:

Harper Lee

This Friday, a woman of 89 years old passed away. She was buried today in a private ceremony in her home town of Monroeville, Alabama with only few people in attendance. This is not because her passing was little noted or remarked but because of the private nature of the woman. Her birth name was Nelle Harper Lee, I and all of those who will read this I think, knew her simply as Harper Lee, the woman who wrote To Kill A Mockingbird. She was born in Monroeville in 1926 but like a lot of kids born in small towns did not stay. She left to seek her fortune in New York City and in 1957 turned in the manuscript for To Set A Watchmen. The editor who received it didn't care for the manuscript but in her own words “[T]he spark of the true writer flashed in every line", so she set about getting a book that she would like from Ms. Lee. That book took several years and if you'll excuse me being snobbish about it would be the only book Ms. Lee would write. That book, set in a small southern town set ablaze (metaphorically) by the accusation that a white woman had been raped and beaten by a black man, was released in July of 1960. It became an instant best seller, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961 and 39 years after it was published in the year of our Lord 1999 was voted best novel of the century in Library Journal (the largest trade publication for Librarians, which I frankly assume means most of the voters in the poll would have been Librarians). In 2006, British Librarians rated the book as one every adult should read. This book was as you well know “To Kill a Mockingbird”

"I never expected any sort of success with 'Mockingbird.'I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers but, at the same time, I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement. Public encouragement. I hoped for a little, as I said, but I got rather a whole lot, and in some ways this was just about as frightening as the quick, merciful death I'd expected." Harper Lee on To Kill a Mockingbird's success

While she would help childhood friend (and also famous writer) Truman Capote on some of his books, including the based on real life crime thriller “In Cold Blood.” She never wrote a book again, even “To Set a Watchmen” is based on the first draft that she wrote before Mockingbird but if you're only going to write one book, Mockingbird is a hell of a choice for that book. I like a lot of us I read the book in class in high school. Unlike a lot of things I did in high school, I'm actually grateful that they made us do it. I am not going to turn this into a review of Mockingbird, there is simply nothing that I can say that can add to what has already been discussed. That said I felt I should say something when the writer of something so amazing passes from us. I will talk a bit about how the book effected me, at the time I, being a rather dense high school student in a lot of ways had blithely assumed that racism was pretty much done in the United States. I was fairly sure that by the time I was 30 that racism would be something we read about in old books and saw in old movies. When you're done laughing your ass off, I will remind you I wasn't even old enough to drink yet at the time. So when we started reading the book, I was sure it was a nice book but with nothing really relevant to say to modern society. I was wrong (not just about the racism thing, although I was certainly wrong about that). Even laying aside the stone cold look at what racism does to people and the how those effects can cause incredible harm beyond even the immediate effects. There's the rather cutting look at class (no one gave a shit that Mayella Ewell was an abused child trapped in poverty and pain, until someone thought to blame a black man), and more... Frankly the book is a brutal look at society in some ways and all the more brutal in that this is not a polemic. We aren't told, look at how horrible these people are, they are racists and therefore evil. Instead we're shown people who range from good to indifferent, noble to at the very least trying, engaging in terrible behavior because of their beliefs in race, gender or class.

That's not what stayed with me though if we're going to be honest. It's the moment outside of the courtroom when Dill and Scout have fled due to Dill being upset and they are comforted by Dolphus Raymond, a white land owner who spurned white society to the point of living with and having children with a black woman (he didn't marry but that's because the book is set in the south during the depression, interracial marriage was illegal in the south at that time). The town has pretty much dismissed Raymond as a mangy drunk who doesn't know what he's doing. However we find out it's not booze he's drinking, but Coca Cola when he gives Dill some to drink to calm him down. He more or less just let's the town believe him to be a drunk so he can be left alone to live his life. That stuck with me for a lot of reasons, that I'll keep to myself but there you go. I

Harper Lee may have only written one book, compared to some writers who have written dozens, or even more... That might not seem like a lot. But sometimes? Sometimes... Sometimes one book is enough. We should all be so lucky has to leave something like “To Kill a Mockingbird” behind. Rest Well Ms. Lee and thank you.

Abhorsen by Garth Nix

Abhorsen

by Garth Nix

This is the third book in the Old Kingdom series and the end of the trilogy. In this book the myriad plots and army of the Necromancer Hedge converge and the heroes roll their dice to try and stop the no shit end of the world. Now usually I don't like end of the world plots. They're overdone and I have a really hard time buying anyone actually ending the world. No seriously think about it. What possible benefit do you get from ending the world? There's no good loot, no one to boss around, you can't even gloat to anyone because they're all dead! I get wanting to take over the world. I get building a doomsday device as a last ditch defense against the heroes or villains (I live in a country that did it! What else would you call our nuclear weapon stockpile?). But making ending the world plan A? I mean even the vampires on Buffy admitted that they were just trying to look tough for the girls when they talked about it. That said, Hedge, our wonderful, genius, psychopath of a villain pulls it off and makes me believe that he would do it and gives me plenty of reason as to why. Better, he does it in 20 words or less. To be blunt about it, Hedge is motivated by a very human fear and his determination to

Hedge remains one of my favorite villains (it's not his personality here, it's his sheer effectiveness) in this review series, which is interesting because we don't really spend a lot of time with him. We don't know his origins, we don't know the roots of his motives, but in the end... We really don't have to. His fear is a human one, Hedge is motivated by a desire to avoid death at all cost. What pushes him beyond the bounds of human behavior is the fact that he doesn't care for any other living being in the entire universe. Because of that, he doesn't care if everyone has to pay the price just as long as he can avoid going pass the 9^th gate of death (I'll get to this). I don't know how much of Hedge's operations are a result of Nix's service in the Australian Army Reserve and are just dumb luck but I got to state again I am very impressed. Hedge's consistently chooses tactics that split his enemies forces, isolates enemies in places he is strong and they are weak and keeps them reacting rather then launching their own plans or having the time to consider their tactics in depth. Throw in his willingness to confront his enemies head on without support, although to be fair he never confronts the strongest of his enemies (Sabriel) one on one instead choosing to use minions for that. Seriously, the NCO's who taught me tactics in the Marines would have to give grudging approval to Hedge's operations here. Hell the good guys have an entire family of people who can look into the future and he's still managing to get them on the ropes and preserve my suspension of disbelief. Anyways, all of this forces Sam and Lirael to undertake rather risky and dangerous moves to counter him.

What are Sam and Lirael up to you ask? Well they're going to have go places no one has gone and survived to dodge the armies of the dead that Hedge sent after them. At the same time they have to deal with the possibility of betrayal from within as events leave Mogget's loyalty (which is never really all that firm in the first place let's be honest) in question. We see a lot more of Disreputable Dog, who remains a big favorite of mine and we get to explore just what the hell Mogget and Disreputable Dog really are and what they know. Mogget's true nature could have been better hinted at and foreshadowed, I mean there are clues in the book, but not in the last two. Which makes me wonder if this is something Mr. Nix's just came up with in the last book. The Disreputable Dog's grant reveal wasn't that great of a shock to me, but well... It's been clear since she showed up that she wasn't just some random dog spirit. I got to be honest, I would really like to see more stories set with Lirael and Disreputable Dog going on adventurers. Maybe some short stories set in her days of clearing the Library of monsters?

We also get to learn more about free magic and get to see more of Death, including the fabled 9^th gate of Death, beyond which there is no return. I thought the 9^th gate was rather well done. As always I like the voyages into Death. Given some questions I got I feel I have to clarify things though. Death is not the after life, but rather the border between the afterlife and life itself. People and things who refuse to accept their deaths hang around here trying to get back into life. Necromancers can go into Death to recruit or destroy these spirits. Death is divided into 9 parts or wards, separated by gates, the more gates you pass the closer you get to the afterlife. The deeper you go into Death, the greater the pull to just go all the way and go into the afterlife. Death itself has a water theme, with that pull is shown as the current of water. This ties back in a clever way to the weaknesses of the dead, for example because Death is spiritually a river that moves you towards the afterlife, the Dead cannot cross running water (I wonder how the ocean effects them on that? In the first book we saw the just being on the sea really weakened Free Magic... Hmmm). I've said it before and I'll say it again, I really liked that. The whole magic system is really interesting and I would like to learn more.

We get to see Lirael, who only learned that she was the Abhorsen in waiting at the end of the last book really get into her necromanctic duties and we get to see Sam really settle into his own role. I got to admit I like Sam more in this book then in Lirael. I suppose freed of the expectation of becoming a necromancer allowed him to grow into a fairly good person and someone who can pull his weight in a quest to save the world. Which is a good thing because that's what he's on. In fact towards the end of the book he gets a pretty cool moment of awesome where he confronts his fear with literally nothing but his will and a set of blowpipes. Yes, you read that right and it's amazing. Lirael herself learns to make peace with the fact that she won't ever get to foresee the future like the rest of her family but that her own gifts (such as looking into the past) are just as important. We also get to spend some time with Nick, Sam's friend from Brit... I mean Ancelstierre of course! He is from an important political family so his being hijacked by an evil spirit and used by Hedge to give him cover to set up forces in Ancelstierre is kind of... Bloody hindering awkward problem. Despite being possessed by something older then our species, Nick manages to put up a good fight though and tries his damnest to contribute to team good guy. You really can't ask for much more then that. Ancelstierre is having it's own problems with a bloody coup kicking off the book resulting in distracting the military and civil authorities at the worse possible time! Which adds to the sheer oh crap factor I feel

The book also tries to hint at the idea of Lirael and Nick hooking up together but I didn't really feel the chemistry beyond Lirael running into a boy her own age that she could talk to and she wasn't related to. To be fair I wasn't completely sold on Sabriel and Touchstone as a couple either. Either Mr. Nix isn't that great at this, or I'm fairly dense on these matters. I will leave that decision up to my readers, course y'all will have to read this series before you can really discuss if I'm missing hint's that Mr. Nix is dropping. Isn't that just a pity?

Most of this story is a desperate race against time to stop Hedge from completing his mission, it works fairly well, although from time to time the characters seem to forget that they're racing against the clock. I also found Disreputable Dog's increasingly strange unwillingness to explain the threat to Lirael kinda infuriating. Is it really that hard to just tell them what's going on and not tap dance around the point? Is there some sort of magical spirit by-law that states you can never actually just tell people things but you have to lead them around until they find the information by other means? Most of the book manages to maintain a level of urgency and desperation that hovers on the edge of despair. You can't even blame them either as Hedge seems to have a plan B, C and D just to delay them another 5 minutes. Lucky for everyone that Lirael has learned to be quick on her feet and Sam is pretty damn relentless. It's a close run fight right down to the last chapter as they confront Hedge, his chief servant Chlorr and Hedge's master itself and I enjoyed it.

That said the book isn't perfect. Like I said I have a problem buying the romantic relationships that Mr. Nix is displaying. Additionally I needed more foreshadowing to buy Mogget's true nature. I mean it holds up when I think about it and poke at it... But this is something you build up a little more to. I'm the kind of guy who likes it when the reveal comes and I go “Of Course! Everything fits together now!” instead of “Wait... What? Where did that come from?” I also would have liked to spend more time with the characters. Like the first book Sabriel, I feel like Mr. Nix doesn't give us enough time with the characters and let us get to know them. That's offset by the amount of character work put into Lirael (although more work was put into Lirael then Sam but you can't have everything). Basically I guess I'm asking for another 50 pages that would just be character stuff for myself. I shouldn't carp to much about, at least Mr. Nix can bloody well finish a story and tell it well under a 1000 pages (That's right! I'm looking at you Sanderson! Way of Kings did not need to be that damn long! I read Mistborn, I know you can tell a story without rambling on like that!). In fact I kinda feel Abhorsen was cut off from Lirael for reasons of length as they really do tell separate parts of a single story. At least this one didn't end on a cliff hanger though.

Everything considered though? I really liked this book, Lirael remains a favorite character that I hope to see more of and the book let Sam do the growing up he needed to address my issues with him. It also gave me thrilling heroics, incredible magic and a battle to save the world. It manages to make me believe that someone would choose to end the world for selfish and in the end pointless reasons. Because of these reasons Abhorsen gets an A. I really encourage everyone to give this series a shot.

Next week, we go back to independent books, as I need to find out what happened to a certain Seedbearing Prince who got himself shoved into the belly of the beast. Literally.