The Magicians By Lev Grossman

The Magicians

  By Lev Grossman

Published in 2009 by Viking Press (which is owned by Penguin Random House), The Magicians is a fantasy novel by Lev Grossman. Let me talk about him for a minute. Mr. Grossman comes from a talented family, his twin brother (Austin Grossman) is a video game designer and novelist, his sister Bathsheba is a noted sculptor and his father is a poet while his mother is a novelist herself. Mr. Grossman himself started out in journalism (as a number of the writers who show up on this series seem to do) where he's written for the New York Times, Salon, Village Voice, Wired, and the Wall Street Journal. He also wrote one of the first reviews of the Twilight series; yes the one with the sparkling vampires. So he was well versed in writing when he turned his hand to novels. His first novel Warp was published in 1997 about an aimless 20 something in Brooklyn. His second novel Codex was published in 2004. The Magicians and its follow up books are the most well received of his creations.

The Magicians is set in the modern day with the main character being Quentin Coldwater. Quentin is a genius, one of those kids whose gifts in certain subjects seem to have no limits but he's miserable. His parents have basically adopted an attitude of benign neglect towards him and his two best friends have paired up. This really sucks for him because one of them, the girl named Julia? He has a crush on her but she doesn't feel that way for him. At the beginning of the book they're all lining up for an interview into Princeton but things get off track. The interviewer dies and due to a couple events, Quentin instead finds himself testing for an entirely different school; a school where he's not gonna learn chemistry or Hindi or Western History. Nope, Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy as you might have guessed from the title, teaches fucking magic. It's one of the greatest schools of magic in the world and the only magic school in North America. In fact Quentin is one of only 20 kids who get in. Everyone else who fails the exam? They’re supposed to get their memories wiped out and sent off to live in blissful ignorance of the opportunity they screwed up.

Brakebills is more like a real school than Hogwarts, the school work is difficult and boring, the teachers run the gamut from interesting and helpful to so unhelpful you think they're malevolent, but never unprofessional. It's a very realistic way school in it's own way, with the students given a lot of time to themselves since they're all high school graduates. Which makes a certain amount of sense. Magic in The Magicians is hard, finicky and requires a lot of concentration and attention to detail. The consequences for making a mistake can be pretty bad. In fact there are some magical works where making a mistake means lethal consequences... If you're lucky. If you're unlucky you'll attract the wrong kind of attention and learn real fast that humans are not on the top of this totem pole. If you're really unlucky you'll find yourself being moved up that totem pole and I don't mean as a promotion. Mr. Grossman doesn't spend a lot of time detailing how his magical system works beyond communicating that is incredibly complicated, complex, and somewhat tedious. On the flip side if memorizing 900 pages of grammar and moon cycles is all it takes to create a tardis in my backpack then so be it.

While at Brakebills Quentin falls in with the Physical kids (Magicians are broken down into specializations called disciplines, which in turn are lumped into groups which turn into student cliques) and... man these kids need some mentors! We got Eliot who is from a rural Christian family, bullied as a child for being gay and a semi-functioning alcoholic due to familial rejection. We have Janet, who is in love with Eliot and angry at the entire planet. We’ve got Josh, whose magical power and ability wax and wane randomly and he can barely pass Brakebills. We have Alice, who is smarter than Quentin and more responsible due to growing up in a dysfunctional magical family and losing her brother to a magic spell gone wrong, despite this she is, frankly, dumb enough to jump into bed with Quentin... no one's perfect I guess. We also have the in-and-out again character of Penny; a wannabe punk who is pretty anti-social and serves as kind of competitor for Quentin. Honestly he's the most like Quentin out of all the characters and I frankly dislike him for that. All these kids are carrying weights that any reasonable and interested adult could have helped them come to terms with. Which, you know might be a priority since we are handing them the keys to reshape reality to their whim? Maybe? Anyone? Frankly, if this is the kind of attention given to growing magicians, it's a wonder they haven't shattered the planet yet. That said, Brakebills has a higher survival rate than Hogwarts so maybe I'm judging them too harshly (send your kid to Brakebills! 30% more likely to survive here then other magical schools!). I also really wish we spent more time on these characters, as they’re all more interesting then our main character. There was a point when I was 2/3rds of the way into the story asking myself: why is Quentin the main character and not Alice or Eliot or even Josh? All of them are fighting much harder battles against greater burdens.

I suppose this does tie into the main theme of the Magicians book.  Which is power by itself doesn’t really solve anything.  None of these people are made happier by their access to power and easy wealth.  It doesn’t make them better, smarter or wiser people.  If anything it just seems to increase the avenues for self destruction and delusion.  It’s an interesting choice of theme for the book and runs counter to a number of other such books where learning magic and gaining the power it grants does solve your problems.  Although in their defense I will point out that usually means tripping into new, bigger problems.  Here, while there is a monster or 10 lurking out in the darkness waiting to do bad things to our protagonists, their biggest problem and greatest danger is their own flaws and weakness… And the shit they do to each other because of those flaws of course.  The biggest problem preventing me from fully appreciating this theme and others however, is the main character himself.   

I refer to of course Quentin himself, who has the least issues out of all these kids but manages to be the biggest jackass of them all. Quentin's issue is that he can't stop feeling sorry for himself and just grow up. It's not until after he graduates Brakebills that he really gets stuck in my craw though. That when he decides despite being a genius, with the very stuff of the universe at his fingertips, being able to go anywhere and do anything he wants? He's gonna squat in New York City and get drunk and high every night with Eliot. I can understand Eliot's chemical dependency here, which frankly is a cry for help more then anything but Quentin? He is just being childish and letting himself rot. People like that frustrate me to no end. I'm not a genius, nor am I naturally gifted, most of us aren't and that's honestly likely a good thing. It teaches us to work and strive for what we want and to value our achievements, I think. Or perhaps I'm just clawing for silver linings, you decide my good reader! Quentin having gifts that most us can only dream of and options that are almost infinite, sees fit to whine and mope about his rather mundane and frankly solvable issues. If your life is in a rut you don't need magic to fix it, you need the willingness to break out of the rut. If your relationship is rocky, you need to sit down with your loved one and talk out your problems, maybe go to a professional for counseling. But Quentin of course can't do any of that because it's not self destructive enough. If you're like me, you'll want to smack him in the mouth by page 25 and by page 50 you want to grab him by the ear and force him to start growing up but at this point I think I hit old man screaming about those damn kids levels so I'll stop here.

Another major plot point is the not-so-imaginary land of Fillory, which Quentin is quietly obsessed about (in fact every magical kid seems to have read and been fan of this series... Huh). The Fillory series was written by a gent by the name of Christopher Plover who detailed the adventures of the Chatwick kids next door going to another world and coming back. The novel series was unfinished however due to the untimely death of the writer. So imagine everyone's shock when not only is this magical land real, but there's a way to get there. However, the land of Fillory has been through some rather harsh changes and isn't the same place as the books anymore. The guardian gods of the land are missing and the people are at odds and terrified of the various dark evils that now roam free without check. I have mixed feelings about Fillory because while it's a rather awesome set up, Mr. Grossman seems to also want to make it some type of sarcastic retort to Narnia and other child fantasy worlds. On the one hand, the image of a smoking birch tree in a bar with a bear who drinks peach schnapps is great and I love it. On the other hand taking swings at Narnia is rather silly. Yes, it was unreal and very black and white... Narnia is a Christian Children's Story! If you walk into a story like that expecting shades of gray, you're going to be disappointed. I'm also disappointed that Fillory was honestly a place where we spent very little time. I could have done with less New York City and less of Quentin going home. That said I'm willing to be forgiving as this book is covering over 5 years. Fillory however, does shine when you realize... this is a real place that's suffering a dark age, their gods have disappeared, they have no real rulers and their greatest hope is that 4 people from another planet will come along and pick up some crowns. That's pretty dark when your hope is that a band of aliens will take power and deliver you from elder beings who lurk in the darkness outside your window. Mr. Grossman doesn't shy away from this and is clearly working to make Fillory stand on it's own. So while I don't approve of his jabs, I feel them forgivable as we all have moments of weakness, but spending more time here and less in the mundane world would have real helpful in giving Fillory legs of it's own.

There's very little whimsy in The Magicians, although there are moments of wonder. Clearly drawing it's inspiration from a wide variety of fiction but putting his own stamp on it Mr. Grossman presents us his idea of what a hidden world would look like. This setting does however owe a heavy debt to the works that come before it and it shows in the writing. That's not a terrible thing but it is something to keep in mind. Still it is a world with wonders and delights to sate any desire but it can only be as great as the eyes that view it. This becomes a weak point for the story as the eyes we see it through are Quentin's and he is bound and determined to suck out all the joy. Honestly Quentin is my biggest complaint in this story. I cannot bring myself to like him and there are points where the story becomes somewhat bogged down with his constant childishness. That said there are hints of a much better person in Quentin, for example at the end of the book he accepts his mistakes and does his best to atone for them when it turns out he can't fix them. He overdoes it of course but at least he tried. The book is very well written, with great supporting characters who deserve more time and an interesting setting. As a result I am giving The Magicians a B. It's miles better than average yes, but between the main character and the heavy debt the setting owes and never quite gets away from, it still needs some work I think. That said if Quentin Coldwater doesn't make you want to chew someone's face off then it's easily a B+, bluntly this book comes down to how well you can tolerate the main character.

This review edited by Dr. Ben Allen.

Log Horizon V By Mamare Touno

Log Horizon V

By Mamare Touno

Does anybody know what time is it?  Why festival time of course!  I mean when you've established a government, created an economy, won a war and made peace with the neighbors?  Why wouldn't you throw a party? And that is what the 5th installment of the Log Horizon series focuses on, the first Autumn Festival of Akiba and the consequences there of.  In case you haven't read the reviews on the last 4 books, let me cover the basics. The game of Elder Tales is the most popular MMO in the world, using a fantasy setting on a half sized world map, it's played in almost every nation on the planet.  So when the creators of Elder Tales announces a new expansion, people flock to be online during the release.  This turns unfortunate as everyone who was online for the release wakes up to find themselves within the world of Elder Tales.  It gets even stranger as the world becomes real, with the NPCs during into real people with their own feelings, thoughts, and desires.  Lucky for our heroes, everyone who did trasition over did so with their in game abilities and gear, meaning that they still have access to all their firepower and the ability to respawn.  That doesn't make battle any the less terrifying, or death any less painful however.  As 30,000 people hovered on the brink of despair and panic, our hero Shiroe uses his brains and his friends and every other resource he can to get everyone organized and give them a reason to keep going on with their lives.  Shiroe ain't the only person pursuing his goals in this brand new world however and not all of these people are as benevolent as he is.

The book opens with the Autumn festival about the begin and that means marketplaces, special foods, events and parties!  It also means manuevers of the romantic kind.  Honestly these days I tend to wince when I run across romantic plot lines.  Most writers simply don't seem to do them well, or engage in some really cringe worthy relationships (If I started listing authors who did that, we'd be here all day, feel free to insert your favorite one here and we'll keep moving).  There are the special snowflakes that do both of course, but thankfully Mamare Touno avoids that despite playing with fire.  I'll get to that in a moment but first I want to talk about the actual conflict the book.  Which is a group of People of the Earth (the natives of the world who were NPCs when this thing was a video game) are deliberately trying to cause a fuss in the festival as a sort of underhanded social/economic attack.  Shiroe needs to marshal his allies and organize them while not letting the regular adventurers and People of the Earth know that this is even happening to maintain confidence in the government and ensure that the festival goes off without a hitch.  Additionally he has to make sure that their best ally the Princess Raynesia doesn't get hit in this attack either, which may be easier said than done.  It's in this bit that I run one of the reasons I enjoy reading works from other nations, because it's always so interesting to see how people see themselves as opposed to how you see them.  For example when Shiroe notes that trying to undermine confidence in the government is a silly tactic because gosh darn it the adventurers are all Japanese and as such are to cynical to have any such confidence... Well I almost laughed my head off.

Like most of my readers, I'm an American but as a Marine I spent time in Japan (specifically Okinawa which has some cultural differences from the rest of Japan but is fairly culturally Japanese... (Just think the differences between say Florida and Louisiana as an example).  By my standards the Japanese had an extreme high trust (one could say nearly disturbingly high) trust in their government, then again I'm from right north of Texas, where a number of citizens lose their minds when a routine military exercise occurs...  You know what? Let me get back to the romance plot…

A big subplot of this novel is a love triangle of sorts, in where Akatsuki and Minori have started competing for Shiroe's attention and love.  This of course leads to a lot embarrassment and confusion for Shiroe, who doesn't seem to have learned to decline things gracefully or deal with awkward social situations.  I have to admit I'm not huge fan of this sub plot, partially because I'm honestly kind of done with love triangles.  Let's be honest most of them are poorly done, take up to much time and used as a cheap way to inject unneeded drama into a plot (I'm looking at you, just about every bloody X Men writer ever who thought I wanted a poorly done soap opera in my superhero comic!).  It doesn't help that some writers seem to think they're a requirement for any group with more then 2 girls or 3 guys.  This love triangle is made extra awkward by the fact that Minori isn't even in high school and Shiroe and Akatsuki are both graduate students (or were before being transported to a medieval fantasy world).  Thankfully, Mr. Touno never lets it get creepy, Minori's feelings for Shiroe are a to be blunt about it a student crush on a gifted and kind teacher.  Shiroe for his own part makes it clear by the end of the book that while he sees Minori as a protege and gifted student and... that's it.  Of course Shiroe's relationship with Akatsuki remains stalled due to both of them having the social skills of drunken mice, not to mention that Shiroe is dense enough to qualify as some new type of black hole.  I got to be honest and say it's kinda aggravating.  Can we just have two people be attracted to each other and then have one of them ask the other one out?  Not every time, but you know... Try it out once!  Just to see if we like it?

Lastly we have new villain revealed at the end of the story that Shiroe of course already knows about.  This really flopped for me, not the new villain who is an adventurer not unlike Shiroe who pulled her own adventurer city together, organized a government and made peace with the locals.  It's just Shiroe knows all about her and her city without having made any efforts on screen.  It's a cheap way to make him look smart without giving the reader a chance to follow along and it's very tell don't show.  Additionally not a lot of time is devoted to what should be a major reveal.  So there's not a development going on here either.  I found it disappointing.

Log Horizon Volume V is an alright book, but it doesn't deliver on being a slice of life or on being a good transition from one plot arc to the next.  In fact it's frankly the weakest novel in the series so far.  That said it isn't terrible and avoids a lot of the major pit falls of it's genre and plots here.  It just doesn't do anything beyond dodge those pitfalls and give us a lack luster transition.  Because of that Log Horizon Volume V by Mamare Touno gets a C.  There are worse ways to kill an hour or two but there are also a lot better.  

Maker Space By KB Spangler

Maker Space

By KB Spangler

Maker Space is the second Rachael Pen novel set in the universe of the web comic of A Girl and Her Fed.  Luckily you don’t need to know anything about the web comic to enjoy the novels as the premise behind the books can be summed up pretty quickly.  In the aftermath of 9/11, a wealthy industrialist, who interestingly enough became a Senator, donated a special kind of tech.  An implant that allows whoever is implanted to access and exercise a level of control over all sorts of information technology.  It also allows for instantaneous communication between people who are so implanted.  Five hunred men and women from across the federal services were implanted, the idea being that this would allow for greater coordination between federal organizations.  It didn’t go well and those men and women were left to quietly sink into madness.  Until one agent found a way to control the implant and regained his life and then helped others regain theirs.  Over a hundred agents died before that happened and some of them?  They had help in dying.  The agents quickly decided that going public was not just their moral responsibility but their best defense.  

Racheal Peng, an American born Chinese gay woman and Army vet, in the wake of this revelation was assigned as liaison to the Washington DC Metro Police and was promptly ostracized by the cops as a fed-freak until she helped solve a murder case.  That got her a promotion, a raise, the respect of her peers and co-workers, and a hell of a rep to live up to.  In this story Peng learns that getting a reputation for success often means you have to live with the expectations that it brings.  Which is that everyone expects you to keep secceeding.  Even if everyone else is failing.  

When the biggest terrorist strike since 9/11 happens right down the street killing an entire street full of people in broad daylight (seriously there’s only one survivor from the attack and he’s maimed for life), she’s going to have her hands full.  Because there are no suspects, no motive and damn few clues that she can find in the rubble and ruins of way-to-many people’s lives.  Worse, as the panic and anger builds, she has to deal with the fact that a lot of folks are thinking that this attack was an in-house job.  By which I mean they think the attack was carried out by the US government.  She needs to find those clues, figure out the motive, and catch the bombers before the concerned citizens of DC and perhaps the whole country decide that this was done to them by their own government and become a screaming mob.  Worst of all, Agent Peng also has to deal with the fact that the technology to do this is commonplace, easy to find and can’t be controlled.

These two things are kind of at the heart of the novel.  The increasing distrust (both for good and bad reasons) of the government mixed in with the fact that the information and technology to do incredibly bad things at increasingly large scales is becoming more and more commonplace as well as harder and harder to control.  We the People find ourselves at the mercy of the most unbalanced among us, while dependent on the protection of a government that seems at time completely uninterested in actually protecting us and untrustworthy when it does.  While I personally do not believe the situation is as bad as it seems (because believe it or not I believe that the government is still made up of people who are trying to help more than people looking to lord it over others) I can understand why people feel that way.  All I can really do is point to the facts that tell us that violence is actually at a very low point in human history whether it be crime or warfare (There’s a book about this that I am actually going to review this year). I’ll admit that’s no assurance that it will stay that though.

All of that said this is not a bleak or despairing book, but a rather hopeful one all things considered.  Part of that is our introduction to the Maker Community, a group of young (and not so young) nerds who are committed to making things that help rather than harm and have created a working code to ensure they stay in those bounds.  It’s even better when you realize this group is based on real people across the entire country who live this ideal out to the best of their ability everyday.  Part of it is the fact that the book shows us people trying to help one another even in the middle of a riot.  While the novel gives us no easy solutions to the issues here, it also points out that if we continue to work together and remember that we are not enemies, then we can find a solution. It will take time, it will take effort but a solution will be found.

For that matter, this book is actually pretty bullish on technology, mostly in the person of Agent Peng who makes a valid if somewhat military centric counterpoint.  Because of social media, enlisted men and women can talk and air concerns at a speed and over distances unconceivable in prior times.  This means that the brass cannot simply ignore those concerns or bulldoze through the protests of the enlisted.  I'm sure that someone will come along and blubber about military discipline but my rejoinder is that maintaining discipline is not an excuse for lies, cover ups, and the use of rank as a club to silence real concerns and doubts.  As it is the enlisted men and women who do the actually fighting and work, not the politicians at home and not even the generals and other upper rank officers who lead them, they have every right to expect those concerns and criticisms to be meet in a thoughtful, honest and mature manner.  If we are expected to fight, sweat, and bleed for a cause, we should after all have a right to a full accounting.  Agent Peng frames this mostly in the context of crimes committed in the armed forces because she was a member of the military investigation branch (The Criminal Investigation Command, CID).  I will note that one thing that isn't covered is the perverse negative incentive that unit commanders find themselves saddled with.  See Officers and Senior NCOs get promoted if their unit does well and is generally clean.  A unit where someone was murdered or raped by another member of that unit is not doing well and is not clean, regardless of the circumstances.  So if CID finds one of your troops or god forbid one of your leaders is guilty, you can kiss your chances of promotion in many cases goodbye.  Even if you had nothing to do with it.   Now, there are a great many honest Captains, Gunnery Sgts and more who take the hit because it's the right thing to do or because it's their duty to their troops.  They get punished.  There are also those who work to block or slow investigations, if they are successful, they are rewarded.  I think most of my readers are clever enough to figure out where this leads in many cases. The great strides in communication and recording technology has made covering things up harder. This is a benefit not only to people who have been victimized but to everyone.  

 The book also brought up the benefits that technology can bring through the makers and the agents.  If the downside is the mass spread of often dangerous knowledge, that's also the upside as we are shown people using that knowledge to toil (often with little reward) for the betterment of their fellow human beings.  They are not presented as saints, having their own odd quirks and hazing rituals, but as people trying to make good and beautiful things for others.  This has the benefit of ringing a lot more truthful than an urban monastery of saintly tech wizards.  I have had some limited experience with the maker community here in Phoenix myself and I can tell you on the main, they tend to be good people with a strong desire to create.  So the book manages to convey a good experience on a small but driven and hopefully growing community.  The villains are themselves not painted in black, but as real people pushed to extremes by events beyond their control and by reasons that are all too heartbreakingly human.  Despite the fact that their actions were inexcusable and frankly mass murder... I found myself feeling sorry for the poor bastards.  More than I ever thought I would anyways.  Ms. Spangler seems to have a gift for showing us that even the people who do terrible things are still people.

I am glad that I picked up the second book in this series and I find myself being pulled to the 3rd (expect a review on that book to before too long at this rate.  Ms. Spangler used her novel to paint a picture with a great many different shades of gray that manages to avoid becoming a depressing slog through grim darkness.  That's a hard line to walk but she does it by reminding her reader that while there are always downsides to technology and changes, there are almost always upsides as well.  She also reminds us that no matter the changes we go through, there will still be good people out there trying to use whatever they can to make things a little better.  Maker Space by KB Spangler gets an A.

Genghis Khan By Dr. Frank Mclynn

Genghis Khan

By Dr. Frank Mclynn

Trying to write a comprehensive biography of someone like Genghis Khan may not be the very definition of “doomed to failure” but it's likely as close a metaphor as any.  While the Great Khan's life isn't in the dimly lit ancient past from which few contemporary works survive, he grew up on the bloody steppes surrounded by people who in some cases were unaware that learning to read or write was even an option!  The Mongols and their various related peoples were in face so lacking when it came to written works that when they started their imperial enterprise... they adopted Uighur script and just paid a bunch of Uighur scribes to do the actual writing (well, until they had a bunch of conquered Chinese scribes to do it).   What this boils down to is a lot of Genghis' early life and the life of his parents is based on oral tradition, an oral tradition that is frankly going to be geared towards the glorification of the most powerful and important Mongol man to have ever existed.  Some might argue that I'm overstating things when I say important or that I am granting some type of approval.  Let me state for the record that being important doesn't make you good or righteous.  It just means that you have an undeniable impact on many lives around you and it's undeniable that Genghis Khan did.  A note for the review, Genghis is not the guy's name.  I am aware of that.  I know his real name is Temujin, but the majority of my readers are way more familiar with the title Genghis then they are with the given name.  So I will be referring to the Great Khan by his title and not his given name for this review.  

All of that said, Frank Mclynn while openly admitting to the difficulties of the project jumps into it with both feet. Dr. Mclynn is a British professional writer and you would be correct in guessing that this isn't his first time at bat.  He has been writing biographies and histories since 1981.  So, longer than most of the people I know (and a number of you reading this I would guess) have been alive, basically.  Among the biographies he's written are ones of Napoleon, Marcus Aurelius, and Carl Jung so he's had a lot of practice at this.  Dr. Mclynn is also an academic, having been educated at Wadham College, Oxford, and the University of London.  He's also been a research fellow (this is basically a position where they pay you to research things, independently or under the supervision of a Professor for a specific subject, often called a post doc) at St. Anthony's college, Oxford from 1987 to 1988.  From 1996 to 2000 he was a visiting professor in the department of literature at the University of Strathclyde.  His last academic post was at Goldsmith College of London when he served as professorial fellow from 2000 to 2002.  Afterward he retired from academic life to write full time.  This is his latest book having been released in 2015.  

Dr. Mclynn starts by focusing on Genghis' father, who was a mongol chieftain, but not a conventional one.  Instead of leading a group bound by family and clan ties, Genghis' father led a group of freebooters who were bound to him by personal loyalty, his own charisma and shares of loot given to them.  While Genghis was very young when his father was killed by his enemies, I think it's pretty clear that his father's style of leadership was deeply imprinted on him.  I'll come back to this, but the first point the book makes that isn't often bandied about is that Genghis not only defied the conventional mores of his society but was the son of a man who made a career doing so.  The book also spends time with Genghis' mother, who was the person who did the most to raise him.  Now we don't have a lot of information on this time period. Although Dr. Mclynn does draw from a source I didn't even know existed, the “secret history” of the Mongol court, written at the behest of the Mongol Khans after their conquests had brought them into the big leagues.  This is an interesting thing to find out that the Mongol elites commissioned their own written history and suggests that the sons and grandsons of the Great Khan were trying very hard to ensure their and their people's place in history.  However for the most part the secret history appeared to be the writing down of oral traditions and it very much has a political bias in making the Mongol ruling class look good, and Genghis specifically look amazing.  Dr. Mclynn will point that out repeatedly in the book and show where there are holes in the narrative and where different accounts don't match up.  Which is a point in the book's favor, as Dr. Mclynn does help the reader grasp the idea that the sources, even those written over 600 years ago often have their own agenda's and axes to grind and you need to keep that in mind and double check things when you can and yes, that includes this review series.  These reviews after all are nothing more then my opinion.  

One thing that every source does agree on is that Genghis was hard to control, even at a young age.  An example given in this book (and every other bloody word I've read about Genghis) is Ghengis’ murder of his older brother over a fish.  One thing that sets Dr. Mclynn apart from other authors is his providing context to the story.  The first thing is that Mongols did not typically fish in those days, in fact it seems that Mongols had a large number of hang ups over water.  This would be illustrated later in the laws made by the Mongols (such as never bathing in running water... this could not have helped their smell).  Next, we learn that Genghis' brother at this point had made a habit of poaching food that Genghis had caught and eating it himself.  Another tid bit is that we learn this was his eldest half brother, his father's son from another wife and a political competitor for what little inherence they could get.  With this information, the act of Genghis killing his older brother over a fish becomes less a berserk act of rage and more a calculated act to remove a competitor who had repeatedly tormented him.  A calculated murder that Genghis carried out at the age of about thirteen.  

It's the providing of context for Genghis' actions and showing the culture that Genghis was operating in that allows Dr. Mclynn to paint a full picture of Genghis Khan: a man who emerged from the margins of his culture and through the use of charisma, political horse trading (sometimes literally), and loyalty bonds as much as through the use of military power and cold blooded ruthlessness, to unite his culture.  It's clear that Genghis was driven by ambition, greed and rage but there is also a man who is concerned about his people and wanting to elevate them from a pack of barbarians on the edge of the civilized world to the rulers of all who live.  I don't suggest that Genghis was soft hearted or nice; his method of elevating his people did involve the killing, enslavement, and maiming of millions of others to the point of near genocide in some nations after all.  What's also interesting is that instead of a thoughtless barbarian who was lucky (this was the characterization of Genghis in some parts of my childhood) we actually see a thoughtful man who carefully and prudently plans his wars. Genghis paid close attention to logistics (a number of would be conquerors could have stood to learn that lesson) and to casualties.  After uniting the Mongols for example, he spent years gathering information about Jin China, the empire that ruled the northern half of that nation, and embarked on a number of lesser campaigns to secure his flanks and rear before committing to that titanic struggle.  Dr. Mclynn takes us through these campaigns and the logic behind them and shows us the long build up and information gathering that took place before any major efforts.  So it becomes clear that Genghis while woefully uneducated was not a man who disdained education or careful thinking before action.  This honestly helps explains a great deal of his success, as there are dozens if not hundreds of would be steppe conquers who came before and after Genghis and did not achieve a tenth of what he did. This book really does carry the idea that Genghis was something different even compared to other nomadic warlords.

We also take a good long look at Genghis' sons and at Genghis' favorite generals.  Another aspect that's overlooked is the fact that Genghis may have assembled the best team of cavalry generals in history.  Some of these guys I think even merit their own books, such as Jebe or Subutai.  The story of Jebe alone is like something out of a fantasy novel.  Jebe was a warrior in a rival tribe during Genghis' war to unite the steppes, in fact Jebe was one of the guys who came the closest to killing Genghis by shooting him in the neck with an arrow.  When Genghis recovered and won the war, he asked who had shot him, and showing the kind of bravery that thrills storytellers, Jebe stepped forward and admitted to it.  Genghis took the guy into his household and later made him a general. Jebe would make history by leading one of the longest and most massive cavalry raids in history; leading a force all the way around the Caspian Sea and into the Kievan Rus.  Subutai ran away from home at the age of 14 to join Genghis' army.  A commoner, he was able to rise to the rank of general.  During his service he would command over 20 campaigns, conquer over 32 different nations and fight and win 65 battles.  For those of you without a military background, that's pretty much like being the Michael Phelps of warfare.  Among those campaigns were the Mongol attacks into Poland and Hungary, events which traumatized those nations for over a century.

The book is thick at over 500 pages and full of information.  If there is one flaw here however, it would be Dr. Mclynn's need to insert French phrases every 20 pages or so.  Which frankly smacks of showing off and slows everything down when you need to either plug things into Google translate to figure out what the author is trying to tell you or abandon figuring out the meaning of the sentence entirely.  Some might argue that I shouldn't hold this as a flaw but I'm going to be blunt.  Dr. Mclynn in his own foreword calls the book a popular history.  If you're going to write for us plebeian masses, you should stick to the language we actually speak.  I've met enough average Englishmen to know that they're not all fluent in French so this really feels like Dr. Mclynn is trying to show off how educated he is, which is a redundant effort when he has written books like this.  This also seems to be recurring flaw in some sections of academia unfortunately, which in my view has the effect of limiting the spread of knowledge and information which is frankly sad as it should be their goal to do the exact opposite.  But that's not the point of this work.  

Genghis Khan is a great historical work that gives anyone interested in reading not an understanding of the accomplishments of Genghis Khan but of the people who made those accomplishments possible and the environment in which they took place.  If you're interested in Asia or Central Asia, if you're interested in Genghis Khan, or if you want to take a look at one of the most successful campaigns of conquest in history go ahead and pick up this book.  Genghis Khan by Dr. Frank Mclynn gets an -A because I really only have one major complaint with it.  

On that note, it is time to go on our yearly vacation, I and hopefully my editor will be back January 13th.  Until then, be safe, have fun and enjoy the eggnog!  See you in 2017!

This review edited by Dr. Ben Allen

The Martian By Andy Weir

The Martian

By Andy Weir

The Martian was a story rejected by several literary agents (meaning it never even got to the publishers), so Mr. Weir decided to post it as a serial on his web site back in 2011.  It grew popular enough that a number of people requested he post the entire thing up as a novel on Kindle.  Mr. Weir did so, charging people the grand total of 99 cents.  The Martian exploded onto the Kindle Bestseller list, selling 35,000 copies in 3 months.  This finally got the attention of publishing companies, the hardcopy publishing rights were bought by Crown (a subsidiary of Random Publishing House, the world's biggest publishing company) for about $100,000 in 2013.  By 2014 The Martian had hit the New York best seller list.  In 2015, the film directed by Ridley Scott premiered, but we're just going to focus on the novel.  This makes The Martian one of these stories that can only happen in the internet age as in 1987 this story would have ended with its’ rejection by those agents (I wonder how many of them are having second thoughts?).  While the internet has brought us a lot of rather awful things, it's also brought us some really awesome stuff like this and you know... Let people thousands of miles away from each other talk directly to each other and get to know each other but let's not focus on minor things.

Andy Weir himself is kind of a nerd's nerd.  Born in 1972, he is the only child of accelerator physicist father and electrical engineer mother, who grew up reading Asimov and Clarke.  He started working as a computer programer at the age of 15 and ended up working on Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (on the unlikely chance he reads this, thanks for that Mr. Weir, I liked that game).  He began writing in his 20s, creating webcomics and short stories.  His most famous short story 'The Egg' has been translated into 30 different languages and been turned into a short film (not bad for a story with two speaking parts).  It's a very interesting story that can make you think, but I'm not going to go into it other than to encourage you to track it down and read it.  The Martian is his first full length published novel (his first novel “Theft of Pride” was never published but can be downloaded from his website) and was incredibly researched with Weir doing research into orbital mechanics, planetary conditions, and of course... Botany.  He is currently reported to be working on a second hard science story set on the moon from his home in California.  

But let's focus on the story in front of us.  The Martian focuses on Mark Watney, Mark is an astronaut and a scientist and in the year 2035 had the honor of being one of very few people to set foot on Mars; which is awesome.  Mark however is going to be setting a few other firsts whether he likes it or not.  Like first man to be injured on Mars or perhaps more important to the story, first guy to be ever left behind on a NASA mission.  See, while on their mission to Mars, a bit of storm kicked up and threatened to wreck their ride home.  So they were ordered to get themselves in the rocket and get off Mars.  On their way to the ship however, Watney got hit and got hit bad.  So bad, that even his space suit thought he was dead.  To be fair, he likely would have died if not a combination of Mars atmosphere and his suit not letting him bleed out.  So instead of dying, he was just knocked out in the middle of a dust storm, which lead to him being left behind.  On Mars, Mark seems to be the kind of guy who finds a 100 dollar bill on the sidewalk and gets hit by a car while picking it up honestly.  While we don't actually see the scene until a ways into the book, it is stolen by Commander Melissa Lewis.  Commander Lewis goes all out to find Mark and is only defeated by a combination of zero visibility and the fact that her ride off Mars is about to be pushed over by high winds.  Nor does she risk the crew, sending them onto the ship, when the first search fails and continuing to search solo to the very last minute.  

While the book is incredibly focused on Mark Watney and his struggle not to be killed by Mars, it doesn't neglect other characters.  The crew of the Ares III, while not given nearly as much time as Watney are given enough time for us to see them as people.  Additionally they are given their own roles and decisions that make them heroic characters in their own right.  Whether it be plotting the first mutiny in space (there are so many firsts in this book), or creating bombs to use as braking mechanisms.  The lengths they go to and the efforts they put forth to rescue Mark are pretty amazing and would make them worthy of being the center of their own novel.  I feel the most for Commander Lewis out of this group, because I'll be frank, after losing Watney and her follow up actions to rescue him... she's never going to be allowed to command space mission ever again.  That's not mentioned in the book but NASA is a government agency and well, that's how they work.  Watney is utterly fearless in his defense of her (because she made the right call) but odds are she's stuck planetside.  There's also a decent amount of attention paid to the NASA ground team, as they frantically work on ways to keep Watney alive and to bring him home.  There's a lot of attention to detail and the non-Watney parts of the books show that this was a team effort involving thousands of people at times across a number of nations, including the People's Republic of China (usually a rival of the United States) coming together in a common effort to save a man's life.  

But the meat and potatoes (heh) of the book is Watney's struggle to avoid becoming the first man to die on another planet.  Mars cuts this man no breaks, seriously this book could have been titled Mark Watney vs Mars.  Unlike more fantasy oriented stories where a man is lost on Mars (or perhaps Barsoom), the Martian environment grants him no favors.  Forget worrying about food or water, there's no air to breath except what he can make for himself.  Of course he actually does have to worry about food and water on top of that.  That said he does have some luck; given the hurried nature of the withdrawal, all of NASA's stuff got left behind!  So that means he has a fully stocked habitat made of canvas, with an oxygenator and water generation system.  He also has all the rations that the team would have eaten during the mission!  Which he will have eaten his way through in several hundred days.  Luckily for Watney, he's a botanist, and since NASA believes having only one job and not being cross-trained within an inch of your life and sanity is a sin worthy of the lowest circle of hell, he's also been trained in engineering.  I like how there is an actual freak out where Watney screams and howls that he's fucked and doomed and so on and so forth.  It makes him human.  I also like that after a good night's sleep and a decent breakfast, he puts his big boy pants on and commits to fighting for every resource, every advantage and every second of life he can.  Watney's will to survive and to do whatever it takes to live is his biggest and best advantage in this battle, because it doesn't matter what learning you have, or what tools you have at your disposal if you don't have the will to put it use.  Watney displays that will in spades, but does so in a believable fashion.  Engaging in black humor, moments of despair and worry but above all refusing to give up until he's actually dead.  That's admirable.  

This book also shows a conflict that I haven't really covered that often in this review series.  That of man vs nature, most of the books I've reviewed have been man vs man (or man vs magic thingy but details).  Honestly I usually prefer that kind of struggle.  There's a certain depth that can only be acquired when two different intelligent beings are locked in a struggle in my opinion.  That said, there are definitely things that can be done with man vs nature here that you cannot do with other struggles and it's a good idea to step back and appreciate just how dangerous “nature” can be.  That can be a foreign idea to us in the first world sometimes.  At least until a tornado hits, or an earthquake happens... or a firestorm engulfs an entire town.  A reminder of just how frail we are against the universe is sometimes necessary, as is the showing of how far we’ve come in mastering our surroundings and how far we can go in mastering environments that nature never intended for us to experience.  Mr. Weir using Mark Watney as a demonstration of these two ideas shows a great talent for communicating and showcasing both at once, which I find impressive. It's very easy for a story to stray over the line into navel gazing, maudlin moaning over the frailty of human life or stumble over into a boastful squeal of triumph of the will over nature itself.  Instead Mr. Weir treads the line very well, letting us feel awe and fear at the sheer danger that the alien land of Mars represents, while displaying the determination and strength that allow Watney to survive against all odds in that environment.

The biggest weakness of the book is the format in my opinion.  It's mostly done in a series of first person journal entries from Watney's point of view but doesn't let us really get to know the main character except what he chooses to write.  We know he's a credit to the space program, very intelligent and determined and from Chicago but... not much more.   I suppose that's a benefit in some ways.  I don't know anything about Watney's political views, or his thoughts on religion, I'm not even sure what his hobbies are... I just know that he really hates disco and is the best damn botanist on Mars.  Which helps make room for the readers to project onto him and make him over a bit in the reader's image.  This isn't always a bad thing but I do find myself biased against it (blame Stephenie Meyer, who in my opinion abused the technique).  I do hope in the future that Mr. Weir opts to go a little deeper on his character work.  There's not much in the way of action here either, that said the book isn't what I would call boring by a long shot, but I am also left wondering how Mr. Weir would handle writing a more traditional action scene.  Ah well, maybe next book.

The Martian is, despite my caviling, a great read.  If you have even a vague interest in science or in the space program, hell if you enjoy stories like Robinson Crusoe, this book will have something for you.  I'm giving The Martian by Andy Wier a -A.  Go read it and watch the movie.  You'll have fun.

Our yearly hiatus approaches!  But first!  We will ride forth from the Steppes and crush the thrones of the world beneath our feet!  We will shake the pillars of heaven and reorder the earth!  We will go forth with Genghis Khan!

This review Edited by Dr. Ben Allen

Goldenhand by Garth Nix

Goldenhand

by Garth Nix

So here we are, back in the Old Kingdom.  The nation that holds back the pure chaos of free magic and necromancy with a combination of charter magic and state sanctioned necromancers called Abhorsens.  Let me break that down a little for people who never read Mr, Nix's series or have missed the reviews I've done on the other three books.  The world of the Old Kingdom is awash in a dangerous magic called free magic; while usable to humans it is a corrupting and twisting influence.  There are also creatures completely made up of free magic with their own desires which are often (but not always, free magic creatures are unpredictable) dangerous to... pretty much all life as we understand it.  Necromancy is the most dangerous form of free magic, it involves reaching or travelling into death (which is a supernatural place as well as a state of being) to pull out spirits who refuse to move on and control theml often by stuffing them into bodies to do their necromancer’s bidding.  Sometimes however, a spirit or a necromancer becomes something infinitely more scary then even a free magic spirit: a greater dead.  A spirit that has refused the call to pass and eaten so much life and gained so much power that is not even recognizable as a human being anymore nor does it think or act as one.  

Lirael returns as the main protagonist of the story, she is a shy girl who left her home in a glacier full of her future-seeing relatives to become someone who can gaze into the past and a necromancer. Not just that but an Abhorsen.  As a student of Sabriel (the current Queen and head Abhorsen) she serves to keep free magic creatures and the Dead (and those who would wake them) under control and at bay.  This book takes place some time after Abhorsen, where Lirael averted the literal end of the world.  It's a good thing she's had time to rest because while this new threat is a bit smaller in scale (being only the possible end of civilization) it's still nothing to sneer at.  The Lirael in this book has clearly grown into her powers and position.  While she's still shy and a bit of an introvert (there's nothing wrong with being an introvert mind you), she is way more comfortable asserting herself.  Especially on important matters and willing to fight to be taken seriously.  Which is a lucky thing because it's time to go home again.  Not only is she going to have to return to her childhood home, but she is going to receive a message from someone in her past, someone she has a lot of baggage with and she's going to have to untangle some emotional issues... while in a crisis situation.  Lirael is not allowed to do anything at a relaxed speed.

See, this book incorporates the events of the short story of Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case, which I read but didn't review because... It's a short story.  Nicholas Sayre is also a returning character from prior books (he got most of his screen time so to speak in Abhorsen) a friend of Prince Sam of the Old Kingdom he's actually from Ancelstierre, or as I like to call it, most certainly not England!  Magic doesn't work in most of  Ancelstierre. Between the two kingdoms is a massive wall made of charter magic which helps regulate the flow.  On the flip side, nothing machine-made survives in the Old Kingdom (Nicholas learns this when his clothes flat out rot off his back in a few hours).  There is however a borderland between the two nations where both technology and magic can work... Imperfectly and inconsistently.  Because of this, relationships between the two nations are often... full of misunderstandings.  Because of this, Nicholas kind of got himself possessed by a spirit of free magic older than the world itself and almost ended existence.  Luckily Lirael and friends were there to prevent this but there were lastingly... aftereffects.   Nicholas found himself filled to the brim with free magic, this is bad (see corrupting and twisting effects) to prevent this a charter mark was placed on him (people who can do charter magic have a magic marking on their forehead).  It was supposed to be a simple seal but it's turned into something more.  Nicholas's charter mark and his connection to the charter isn't sealing away the free magic but appears to be almost filtering it, turning Nicholas into a walking, talking source of charter magic.  This suggests all sorts of interesting things about the relationship between charter magic and free magic (especially when we know free magic came first, and charter magic was an intentional creation).  It also serves a handy role in the story because Lirael is going to have to go outside of the Old Kingdom to deal with a threat.  

The threat is Chlorr of the Mask returning.  Honestly she's frankly a step down as a villain from Hedge.  Which is ironic because Mr. Nix's has put a lot more effort into Chlorr, even writing her a prequel novel which I believe was supposed to set her up as a tragic villain but had the opposite effect on me.  Let me put this way, imagine you run into someone who despite having good intentions made a series of increasingly bad choices and ruined their lives.  You would consider that tragic.  Now imagine that same person given an opportunity to rebuild that life turns around and makes the same series of choices.  You could be excused for throwing up your hands and calling them an idiot.  That's Chlorr. So instead of being excited that she has returned, I find myself sighing and asking if maybe Mr. Nix would be better off not exploring his villains to much?  Ironically Chlorr gets very little screen time and so serves almost as a plot device within the story instead of a character. Which doesn't help me feel the tragedy here, if anything it makes Chlorr feel like a rather standard dark lady (man, I miss Hedge!). This is easily Mr. Nix's biggest misstep in the book.

Still there's plenty to make up for that.  There's Ferin, a new character who opens a whole new window on the world of the Old Kingdom.  Ferin is not from the Old Kingdom, she is from the north of the Kingdom, from a wild land full of barbarian tribes where Free Magic runs wild and the Charter is fairly unknown.  Ferin gives us a fascinating window into what the other cultures of the world of the Old Kingdom do to survive. The different tribes, from Ferin's own mountain tribe to various horse tribes on the rolling steppe have had to adopt their own tactics and strategies for dealing with free magic creatures and users without the protection of the charter.  Often by using chained free magic sorcerers or imprisoned free magic creatures, giving us a whole new set of golems and such to marvel at.  On top of this, they have to deal with the fact that they were conquered by Chlorr.  As far as dark overlords... Dark overladies go, Chlorr isn't that demanding.  She just demands that every tribe raise one of their children to be trained from birth to be a possible vessel for her spirit.  Basically if her current body dies or grows weak, she destroys it and hijacks a new one.  Because of this Ferin doesn't even have a name, it's a nickname that comes from the mispronouncing of her tribe’s word for offering.  Her tribe would rather not have to sacrifice one of their own children every generation in exchange for not being wiped out to the last babe however, so when a certain Abhorsen's mother leaves them a message to be delivered at a certain day to my favorite necromancer, Ferin jumps on that job.  Ferin herself is an interesting character in that she is someone who is very used to magic and weird shit but is not someone from the Old Kingdom, which gives us another fresh pair of eyes to examine this from.  She's also pretty awesome in her own right having no magic powers, few weapons beyond her own grit and courage and still being willing to brawl it out with free magic golems and necromancers.  I'm hoping to see more of her.  In fact, this book leaves me wanting to know more about the world beyond the Old Kingdom's borders.  If this is what lies to the north of the Old Kingdom, what is over the sea exactly hmm?

Another fun spot is the relationship between Nick and Lirael, which honestly is a lot better done for me then the relationship between Sabriel and Touchstone in the first book.  These two kids are a bit awkward but not painfully so.  Additionally Mr. Nix doesn't keep this dance going on to long, there are no wacky misunderstandings or characters refusing to admit how they feel to each other for painfully overwrought reasons (take notes fantasy writers, dragging it out too long is a pain in the ass).  Instead we get two kids, one of whom is painfully shy and the other worried of frightening the other off, talking to each other like adults and realizing their feelings are shared.  It helps that there was a private dinner with some really nice wine (make a note of that everyone, not just the writers).  It's a relationship that evolves well and believably and works on a professional level since Nicholas is a now a moving power source.  I'm honestly interested in seeing more exploration of that idea.  It's also through this relationship that we learn more about the Charter and its interaction with free magic.  It's the implications that are really interesting though.  With revelations given in Abhorsen in regards to the origin of the Charter (that it was willfully designed and created by magical creatures wanting to place free magic under some control for safety’s sake) and how Nicholas' charter mark interacts with his internal free magic.  I am left thinking that the Charter stones that power Charter magic all across the Old Kingdom aren't power generators after all but instead are filtration systems.  Filtering free magic through the marks of the charter to create a form of magic safe for life as we know it.  I'll be honest this just a theory but I think it’s a sound one and getting more information to prove or disprove it should be interesting.  

The battles in the book are well done, especially Ferin's running battle against the free magic sorcerers, nomadic warriors, and worse trying to stop her from reaching Lirael with her message.  A number of minor characters are introduced and very well written here to give the struggle additional meaning and let us see the view from the ground as it were (not everyone is an Abhorsen or a Royal after all).  However the last battles, while engaging and interesting are... rushed.  It feels like Mr. Nix was running out of steam when he hit the climax and didn't spend as much time on the end battles and confrontations that he should have.  They're still fairly well done just bloodlessly so. Part of this may be that I am just rather hard to please when it comes to writing violence.  I want to believe it and most modern writers don't have the experience to do that.  It's hard to write something you've never done after all, especially when some of your readers have.  Additionally this is not a good place to join the Old Kingdom.  You'll need to have at least read Lirael and Abhorsen to really understand the characters relations to each other.  Anyways, I found Goldenhand an engaging and fun read but with noticeable flaws, you're not going to find a classic villain here but you will find a good story with good characters here and you know... that is enough.  Goldenhand by Garth Nix gets a B.  

Next week… The blog that became a best selling novel, the novel that became a best selling film, the film that got our asses back to mars.  Next week The Martian!

This review edited by Dr. Ben Allen.