Caine's Law By Matthew Stover

Caine's Law 

By Matthew Stover

“What if you could take back the worst thing you ever did?” 

Caine page 24 

Hey folks, our regular editor Dr. Allen couldn’t make it this week so we have special guest editor, please welcome Mr. Davis, science teacher, trained in marine biology and the wrangling of small mammals. Hey all Mr. Davis here, like Frigid said your usual editor is away on other business so I’ll be taking the reins. Don’t worry you get the same level of quality in service but with 40% less communist propaganda.

It's been years since we covered Caine Black Knife. So let me start from the top, Matthew Stover was born in 1962 in the United States. He attended Danville high school graduating in 1979 and then graduated from Drake University in 1983. He studied the Degerberg Blend, a style of combined martial arts that is based somewhat on Jeet Kune Do. His earliest novel I can find is the bronze age fantasy Iron Dawn and the first book of the Caine Series, Heroes Die were released in 1997. He would also write a large number of Star Wars novels (including the novelization of Return of the Sith) and dozens of short stories. He also wrote a Flash Gordon novel, entitled the Real Flash Gordon that was unfortunately blocked from publication by the gentlemen who holds the rights on the grounds of it being “unwholesome.” I'll just note for the record that I think we're all missing out and we could have seen a novel that brought Flash Gordon screaming into the 21st century. That's the kind of timidness that kills characters. The novel we're actually taking a look at today is Caine's Law, however. The most recent and as things stand most likely final installment of the story of Hari Michaelson aka Caine, it was published in 2012 by Del Ray Books, which is owned by Ballantine Books which is in turn owned by (say it all together) Random House.

Before we pitch in, let me do a quick recap of the worlds here. Caine (I'm just going to refer to him as Caine for simplicity's sake, although like anyone in his business he has a wealth of other names) is an Actor from a future Earth. Here the world has been unified under a world government that has created a massively restrictive caste system and enforces it by rewriting history, making political and social dissent illegal and breaking the critics of the system as cruelly and publicly as possible. It also keeps the masses distracted via massive entertainments and other diversions, Caine is part of that. See Actors in this Earth don't make movies and plays. That's too blasé and safe for this society. Actors are people fitted with cybernetic gear to record everything they sense, through all their senses, while the Actors provide a sub-vocal narrative that is picked up and recorded by those same cybernetics. These people are sent to an entirely different world, called Overworld, where magic works, there are elves, dragons and worse. There they have bloody, violent adventures which are then edited, packaged and released in everything from virtual reality experiences where you practically experience what the Actor experiences or less immediate experiences that you can watch on a screen with your friends. Of course, while this is an entertainment for you, it's real bloody life for the Actor and many of them can expect to die in the saddle. Suddenly if they're lucky, but if not... Well there's a market for Actor dies an incredibly slow painful death while you watch entertainments as well. (I understand how there is a market for SOME activities to have the full sensory experience, but I’m just imagining if you have it set on a high level of physical sensation when out of nowhere you have some monster chewing on your face. Man i’m guessing netflix and chill could have some really great “date gone wrong” stories from this.) Much like our modern day Actors have varying levels of stardom with starlets and C levels and superstars who can bring a city to a standstill just by showing up. Caine isn't just a superstar, he's basically the superstar. Like Brad Pit smashed together with a Special Forces operator. The guy whose adventures are in the top 10, with billions of followers hanging off his gestures and words but due to the Caste society he's in and the sheer level of control that the Studio maintains, he's basically a dangerous but pampered pet. At least on Earth. On Overworld, he's Caine, a famous and terrifying assassin who has killed kings and paupers with equal disdain. Of course, the people of Overworld aren't entirely ignorant of the aliens in their midst. In their society Actors are the worst type of demons and Earth a wretched hell full of suffering souls dependent on the whims of indifferent and conceited monsters. They aren't entirely wrong about Earth honestly and given the actions of some Actors it's not surprising how they view them. I should also mention that Overworld and Earth actually have a long intertwined history but since finding out the scope and length of that history is part of reading the series, all I'll say is that it's no accident that our legends and myths feature things that are native to Overworld and it's no accident that there are humans on both worlds.


Caine's Law picks up right where Caine Black Knife (the book before Caine's Law) left off so I would recommend reading them back to back. Caine Black Knife gave us a look at Caine's beginnings and how to reach the heights of popularity that he did... He committed a genocide. Maybe I'm a terrible person but it's hard for me to judge Caine to harshly on this, given the Black Knife tribe of Orgilloi (basically orcs) had essentially chased Caine and his party down and proceeded to torture them to death until Caine pulled off his win. This was also the Black Knifes standard procedure, they would raid their neighbors, kill, rape, torture and enslave and would have kept doing it until someone stopped them. However, Caine has been feeling a bit of guilt over this, because frankly his escape and revenge weren't clean ones and he ended up not only basically destroying the Black Knife nation but being the cause of death for a lot of their children. Children who hadn't killed, raped or tortured anyone. So I can understand the guilt. This is also wrapped in the relationship that Caine has with Orbek, a Black Knife survivor who adopted him and who Caine in turn adopted as a younger brother. Because of this relationship, Caine learns that the majority of the survivors have been basically enslaved by a human theocracy and that the males can only get decent jobs and lives by submitting to castration. Frankly, the Black Knives may have been dangerous and wrong but this treatment is just as bad if not worse since the Black Knives can't really fight back anymore. When Orbek decides to address this and Caine tries to save his life, Caine ends up on Earth and is forced into a bad deal. From which our entire story flows.

While Mr. Stover has often experimented with non-linear storytelling, using flashbacks for example to tell related stories set in different times, he embraces the metaphysical fully in this book. As we are sent careening across different times and places of Caine's life as he works to pull off one last trick. To try and make a good bargain from a bad one, Caine moves across time and space to try and tilt history and the universe just enough to in his own words, take back the worse thing he's ever done. With Caine, there's a lot of prior actions competing for that title. To be fair that's not the only thing he's trying to do, as always Caine is trying to maintain the safety and well being of his friends and family. It's interesting to see how this self-professed monster is mostly only moved to violence to keep the people he loves safe, isn't it? He's also quick to enlist others into this quest by offering them the same reward and to be fair it's a hell of a pitch. I don't have anything that I've done that would be considered in the same league, hell even the same sport as Caine does but if he cornered me on the street and convinced me that it could be done? I'd be willing to do quite a bit and give a lot to get it done. Take a moment to ask yourself what you would do if you could make it so that the worst thing you ever did... Just never happened. So you can imagine what Caine, someone who starts his “what I’m willing to do” list with murder and maiming is willing to do. He's going to need every ally he can find though, because not only does he have to pull off a number of wild capers against angry priests, elvish lords and worse, he might be attracting attention from the divine. If you're doing something the gods don't want done, you gotta do it fast after all. Let's talk about some of these folks.

The most pivotal is likely the Horse Witch, a woman or something that looks like one, who travels with a feral herd of horses. Now I don't mean wild, I mean feral, as every horse was an abused animal that escaped it's situation to find shelter with the herd and with the Horse Witch. This is not a human-friendly herd, not necessarily hostile but it's made real clear that these horses are done tolerating abuse from humanity or anyone else. The Horse Witch herself is an interesting character that the book takes time and effort to unwrap for the reader, and her growing and developing relationship with Caine ends up forming a pole for the story to move around. This is true in a literary and metaphorical sense, as the story only makes sense when you fully grasp who the Horse Witch is, what her relationship to Caine is and how important and life-altering that is for him. Now, this isn't a Caine redeemed by the love of a woman story, banish that idea right now. Caine already tried that with his relationship with his first wife and in a realistic fashion, it failed quite miserably. Instead, this is Caine, with the help of someone who cares for him, not their idealized version of him but him the actual person learning to come to terms with himself and forgive himself his mistakes and learn to stop punishing himself. The Horse Witch is strangely well equipped for this as forgiveness and permission are her greatest powers. If you're wondering what that means, I'm going to tell you to read the book. What I will say is that Caine's journey in this book is a reflection of his internal journey which adds another layer to a story that already has a number of them. We also get a look at a real professional assassin, a gentleman by the name of Tanner from the same organization as Caine, he serves as a foil, ally, and snarker to Caine. Tanner kinda ended up being my favorite character in the book. He's not entirely sure what's going on, but he's gonna do his job and try to have some fun along the way, usually at Caine's expense. He can also get away with it because he's at least as good at hurting people as Caine is and younger so he doesn't have the same fear of Caine most men in his position would have. We also have returning characters but going over them would be spoilers so I'll invite you to take a look for yourself.

The book isn't entirely perfect, while Caine faces a lot of obstacles and near death events. Including finding himself almost getting the whipping of his life from a high-class elvish drug dealer and whore, who also happens to be a runaway prince. There's also a scene that I will laugh at until I die, where Caine finds out that an old enemy of his has a death cult devoted to him. Caine is morally appalled of course, but he's also offended that he isn't transgressive enough for some people considering all the ultra-violence and social upheaval he's committed in his life. It's kinda humanizing in a way. As usual, the violence is bone-jarringly real and full of consequences, people are crippled and maimed, our hero takes repeated injuries that slow him down and trip him up. That said, there's not much in the way of organized opposition from the various cosmic forces that the characters keep warning about us and seeing some would have increased the stakes and tension in the books. I do have to repeat for the reader that this book isn't told in an entirely linear fashion and the story becomes an exercise in piecing together clues from Caine's remarks and actions just what he is trying to do. Odds are since I didn't read the series in a single go that I missed a clue or three but frankly if you're paying attention and willing to do the mental footwork you can work it out pretty quickly. That said this book is not for lazy readers or for readers who are looking for straightforward simple storytelling. You definitely need to have read the prior books and expend some mental effort on this one. I'm not going to penalize the book for that though, since in all honestly reading a book or three that makes you expend some effort to figure things out isn't that bad for you. In fact, it might be good for you. (yes it is good for you, active reading skills are lacking in modern society and most people experience a sharp decline in technical reading ability after they leave academic settings. Being able to read and predict outcomes as well as interpret information that is talked about but not directly handed to you is a skill that many industrial psychologists have identified as an indicator of success in almost any profession.) I suppose this is me telling you to read your bloody veggies along with your junk food but there you go. I'm giving Caine's Law an A-, it's inventive, complex and provides a satisfying ending to the Caine saga. I just think it's unfortunate that we're not likely to see more books from Mr. Stover, since this is also the most recent book of his I can find, but you can't have everything.

 If you enjoyed this week's review consider joining us at https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads, where for a dollar a month, you can vote on what books come up for review.  Next week, we look at Champion of Mars by Guy Haley and after that, we kick off World War II month.  Until then, Keep Reading.

Blue text is your editor Mr. Davis
Black text is your reviewer Garvin Anders

The Fell Sword By Miles Cameron

The Fell Sword 

By Miles Cameron

It was only in March that I covered The Red Knight, the first novel in The Traitor Son Cycle. So I don't think we need to retread ground on who Miles Cameron is or on the subject of Orbit books. So let me just say that The Fell Sword was published in 2013 and move on.

The Fell Sword opens with our merry company of sell-swords heading into the Empire of Morea, an ancient state that has fallen on hard times. To make things even more complicated, their employer the Emperor is taken hostage by the most powerful noblemen before they get there. Which means their new job is to rescue the guy who hired them and win a civil war against the best army the Morean Empire has to offer. As a cherry on top? The Empire is broke and most of its soldiers haven't been paid in years. So if they want any native support they'll have to pay for it out of their own pockets and hope to make good later. That said, you can't win high stakes if you don't play high stakes and Gabriel, aka the Red Knight and leader of our crew of cutthroats intends to win big. He's not without resources, after all, he is flush with coin after winning a legendary siege in the last book and has the loyalty of a crew of veteran and highly trained killers with a wide variety of skills, is himself a skilled fighter and spellcaster and has a powerful wizard riding along in the back of his head. To counter this, the Imperial Princess they're supposedly working for might be plotting against him, the loyalty of mercenaries is prone to fickleness and he has a powerful wizard riding along in the back of his head (Faust! WAAAAAH You’ve doomed every one of us! Yes that was in the tune of a certain song by Queen.). Why is that an asset and a problem? Well, imagine you have someone who lost their body in your head. They have decades of experience and skill on you and they're perfectly willing to help but they always want to be in the driver's seat. It's not that they don't trust you but they've done this so many times before so why not just get out of the way and let them do it? How long before it's their body and you're the passenger in the back of your own head? That’s something that Gabriel has to balance against the fact that his passenger is literally the most skilled wizard for hundreds of miles around and the only one who can outstrip him for sure isn't human anymore (He is so screwed).

Which leads me to story-line number two in this book, Thorn, the antagonist from the last book has survived and is rebuilding his forces. What he's rebuilding his forces for and why isn't entirely clear because Thorn isn't who he was in the last book. While his power is growing, it's coming at the cost of him coming under the influence of an unknown outside power (I need to sing the Faust song again…). What this power wants is somewhat vague but it's clear that one of its intermediate goals is the end of human civilization as we know it (Well it’s good to have goals. I mean, if that’s its mid-term goal I’d be interested to learn what its long-term goals are.), so it's likely that it's ultimate goal isn't anything good (Are you sure about that? I mean, maybe this human civilization just needs to go, or needs to change somehow? What if their magic feeds off the lifeforce of another universe?{The bad guy uses human souls to power some of his magic. I’m pretty sure he’s not doing this for sustainability reasons}Oh. Never mind. Standard Faustian Bargain then, pretty sure the demonic underworld has standard forms for the contracts...). Along the way though Thorn would like to punish the allies that deserted him which leads us to the third and fourth story-line in this book. Both of them having to do with former allies of Thorn realizing that they aren't done yet with this former man turned demi-god. The first one revolves around an escaped slave who joined a tribe of humans who live in the Wild, the Sossag. The Wild is a land outside of human civilization inhabited by various races, some monstrous and others less so but most willing to hunt and eat humans the same way we do deer. Despite that, some human clans and tribes live very well in the wild. One such example the Sossag are very similar to some tribes of American natives who lived in the Northeast. They live in fortified villages, farm and hunt; and have governing power divided between male and female assemblies. Born with the name Peter, he instead takes on a Sossag name, marries a Sossag woman and works to blend into the tribe and live in peace. However, thanks to Thorn he isn't getting his wish and may just lose his best friend and adopted brother to this new storm. Meanwhile the Jacks, a band of anti-monarchy radicals who barely escaped the end of the last book with their lives find themselves trapped in the Wild (Be strong comrades! Be strong!). With their supplies running out and surrounded by creatures that view them the same way most of us view Thanksgiving turkeys, they're forced to make their own bargains with the powers of the Wild. However, Thorn hasn't forgotten the Jacks either and is preparing to target them along with the Sossag for his revenge.

Meanwhile, back in Alba, the north of the realm struggles to rebuild, central to this is Sir John and Amicia. Sir John was an older knight who had let himself go a bit before the events of the first book but got himself back into fighting trim real fast. He's left as the ranking knight in the North and pushes himself and everyone else to try and keep the lands clear of creatures of the Wild and protect the survivors and new settlers coming in. Amicia is a nun, who is also in love with our main character the Red Knight and is loved by him but won't let herself do anything about it because of her vows. Which is a plot point I like, most modern stories would have Amicia just toss her vows out the window but Amicia means her vows and intents to keep them (Your reviewer and the editor have somewhat different ideas about such things, clearly.). It helps that she's also a sorceress of massive power and growing skill so there aren't many people who can force her to do anything she doesn't want to (You go girl!). Unfortunately, the keeping of her vows leads to one of the people that could bend her, The Red Knight's mother. The woman who wanted her eldest boy to become the bane of humanity but was such an awful person that he decided to become a somewhat heroic figure out of spite. She's also one of the most powerful sorceresses in the world, a politically powerful noblewoman and her husband is one of the greatest warlords in North Alba. I bet you thought your in-laws were tough right? Both Amicia and Sir John are going to have to walk into the heart of their power however to keep the trade lanes alive, because if they don't their town and home withers on the vine.

Further south and deeper in Alba life is still not a bed of roses. The Queen Desiderata is coming under increasing political and social attack. You see, in the last book a small army of knights from Galle - a nation across the sea on the continent where the Wild is but a fading memory - came to Alba under the leadership of Jean de Vrailly. Jean de Vrailly considers himself the greatest knight alive, something a lot of people would dispute but Jean is definitely in the top 1% of best killers alive so disagreeing with him is hazardous. While Thorn might be more dangerous, I honestly loath Jean de Vrailly a lot more. Mr. Cameron is very effective at writing him as a heavy-handed bully armored in a sense of self-righteousness that makes you just beg to have someone slam a hammer into his face (That is what a spike and a hammer are for while he sleeps. Killing someone while their back is turned or they are asleep is the safest way. Such sayeth anti-saint Elim Garak). The Gallish knights were certainly useful when the armies of the Wild were kicking in the gates but now, there's no enemy to point them at and they're ambitious. Jean believes that the crown of Alba has been promised to him by the Lord Almighty and the Queen is one of the obstacles in his path. So he spreads rumors that the Queen has been incredibly unfaithful to the King. Now historically a lot of Queens have been less than faithful to the Kings they've been wed to, but it's incredibly dangerous for that to become a public accusation. Part of this is because bearing the royal heir is a large part of her political duties. Which is an issue because most of the kingdom believes that the King was cursed to be sterile (and he deserved that curse and more bluntly) and the Queen is pregnant. The Queen isn't without friends or powers of her own though, her own magical abilities are growing stronger by the day and that strength has attracted the attention of something old and vast but at least somewhat benevolent. The King, however, instead of standing with the wife who has given him no cause to complain has sent most of the native knights who would defend her off on various missions giving the Galles a freer hand then they would have otherwise. The Queen and her ladies aren't the only ones feeling this, however, nor is Jean de Vrailly acting on his own. The common people of the realm find themselves beset by toughs who ape the Galles, which in this case means going around armed and trying to bully people into letting them do whatever they want via threats of violence. Facing off against them are the armed bands of the various Guilds and the apprentices of various trades as they find themselves under pressure to be more accommodating to the foreign knights.

Jean de Vrailly is just the tip of the wedge here. The King of Galle and his ministers see the chance to reduce Alba to a puppet state or colony and are prepared to pull out all the stops to make it happen. Whether it be through economic warfare by making counterfeit Alban coins that are made from debased metal or hiring their own mercenary army to head into the North of the Wilds and build a base from which to assault North Alba. They have a mercenary army led by a man with his own colorful nickname, the Black Knight: a man whose earned his nickname by having no level he won't stoop to win and now he's loose on the same continent as all the characters we already know and love and looking to make life harder for them. It's like we don't even need Thorn to burn down half of human civilization here. I should note that there are plenty of sympathetic characters from Galle, such as Jean's cousin who is constantly trying to restrain his worse impulses to Clarisse de Sarte, a young woman who has the misfortune to catch the eye of the King of Galle, a man whose gifts do not match his ambitions, to put it mildly. Actually I do have to note that we run into three male monarchs here, the Emperor of Morea, the King of Alba and the King of Galle and all of them are men who are not up to the task of ruling in a time of crisis, and are at the helm of nations experiencing several crises all at once (Such is the peril of hereditary monarchy). Which leaves me wondering... Just how long has whatever is using Thorn been active and just what the hell has it been up to? Because, gentle readers, once is an accident, twice is happenstance but three times is enemy action and we have a wealth of enemies here. That said there is hope in the fact that each of these monarchs has a more capable Queen or Princess around and we’ve got one hell of a bastard aiming himself at all of the enemies of man.

I enjoyed The Fell Sword a lot but was also somewhat frustrated with it. As you guessed from this review there is a lot going on in this book, to the point that 600 pages barely feels like enough and I'm left feeling that there wasn't enough space given to the Morean plot. There was a lot of intrigue and scheming that was left off panel so to speak, and the relationship between the Morean characters and the Alban characters really could have used more space and attention. Those relations aren’t badly written just feeling a bit sparse. Additionally a lot of the plots in these books feel more like set up for the next book (or the one after that) which I don't mind as Mr. Cameron does make an effort to put a good amount of pay off in this book for at least half the storylines, but when the book is this crowded I am left asking if this was the best use of pages? For example, I feel like the story-line featuring the Gallish court could have been moved to the next book and I was left unsure what the point of the story-line featuring Amicia and Sir John was; it didn't feel connected to much of anything going on in this book. Additionally, I'm not sure the story-line with the Jacks was necessary at all. Granted, Mr. Cameron is the writer and I’m just the reviewer but we’re still staring at 600 plus pages here. All the story-lines are well written and honestly, a less talented writer would have been thrilled to have just one of them to hang a good novel off of. I suppose it's telling that my biggest complaint is that it feels like Mr. Cameron is trying to cram three really good novels into a single one but there is it. I do feel that it hampered the pace and robbed space from all the story-lines. I suppose I'll just have to hope that Mr. Cameron starts merging plotlines soon because he does seem to be building up to something amazing and he certainly does have the talent and skill to pull it off in my opinion. However, this continues the problems I had with The Red Knight (although I still recommend both books). So I am giving The Fell Sword by Miles Cameron a B+. I remain hopeful that this series will break into A territory though.

Join us next week as we finally wrap up the Acts of Caine series with Caine's Law by Matthew Stover.  Keep Reading!

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Red text is your editor Dr. Ben Allen
Black text is your reviewer Garvin Anders

GI Joe: Classics Vol I By Larry Hama

GI Joe: Classics Vol I

By Larry Hama 

So imagine you're a Hasbro executive in the early 1980s and Kenner, a rival toy company just handed your company the profit beating of its life with it's Star Wars action figures. I mean the company isn't in any real danger but this is eating into your market share and the boss just told you that the bonuses are now on the line (which puts your cocaine hot tubbing weekends in serious danger [Oh man! I’ll only be able to use ONE my my private jets and snort five eightballs from the asses as eight high-end hookers instead of two trips on different private jets and double the hookers and blow! Noooo!]). You got this product line, GI Joe, it was big in the 1960s but the Vietnam War has left the market for military toys kinda small. So what do you do? Apparently what you do is call a comic book company and rebuild from the ground up, changing the size of the toys, the backstory (not that there was much before), everything (The other thing you’ll do is pressure the government to change the law so you can put unlimited adverts in children’s programming and then use that to create an entire TV show that is basically one giant advertisement.) The company they called was Marvel, who in turn called in Larry Hama.

Larry Hama was born in 1949 in New York, a third generation Asian American raised in Queens. He grew up in his own words “playing Kodokan Judo as a kid” and later studied Kyudo (Japanese Archery) and Laido, which is a Japanese form of swordsmanship focused on using smooth controlled motions to draw your sword, cut your opponent, clean the blood from the sword and return the sword to the scabbard. He was also very passionate about art and that led him to study at Manhattan's High School of Art and Design, where at the age of 16 he sold his first comic to the fantasy film magazine Castle of Frankenstein. After graduation, he worked drawing shoes (Back in the hoary days of yore when an artist could earn a living…) for a catalog until serving in the Army Corps of Engineers in 1969 to 1971, where he became a firearm and explosive expert (As you well know, demolition is an art, and a science.). Afterward, he would find himself active in New York's Asian community and moved into the comic world, where he did some work at Marvel before landing as an editor for DC. While at DC he worked on Wonder Woman, Mister Miracle, Super Friends, and the Warlord. Around 1977 or 1978 he created Bucky O Hare. In 1980 he returned to Marvel (where he met his wife Carol) and worked on the comic The 'Nam and Wolverine. He also started working up a pitch for a spin-off of the Nick Fury comics, Fury Force. Fury Force would have been a daring special mission force battling the evil forces of Hydra. Instead, he got tapped to write GI Joe, and collaborated with Archer Goodwin to come up with Cobra to play the villains to the Joe’s Heroics. Ironically Hasbro was worried about selling bad guys (those bad guys became 40% of their sales) and about selling toys based on girl joes (also had no problems selling those) (It’s almost like sexist bullshit is bullshit.) Hama and Marvel stuck to their guns however and we're all better off. Hama's introduction of female characters who were motivated, tough and not willing to be defined by their male co-troops brought in a remarkably high female readership. Under Mr. Hama's leadership, a diverse cast also made up the GI Joe team members which in a lot of ways would support its longevity and this comic had legs. It ran from 1982 to 1994 with 155 issues, 147 were written by Hama, 2 were co-written by him and one was penciled by him. By 1985 it was Marvel's top subscription title and received 1200 fan letters a week. It was also credited with bringing in legions of new comic book readers as GI Joe was their introduction to the comic medium. Now a lot of this was Mr. Hama being willing to ignore the cartoon (given it didn't start until 1985, he kinda had to) and other sources. Additionally, Hasbro was willing to give them a large degree of latitude and Mr. Hama was writing the profile for each character's toys as well. This is just as well as Mr. Hama did not shy away from confronting and tackling the issues of military life or the contradictions of being in an organization that preaches ideals of honor and duty while asking its members to do often very dark deeds. Because let me be blunt, war is full of dark deeds even if you don't break a single law of war. The laws of war aren't there to prevent horrible things from happening, just to make sure that they're horrible things everyone else can live with (Well… almost everyone…That’s kinda where the horrible things come in. Unless the war gets really bad and “almost everyone” becomes a bit more relative.). Mr. Hama's own experience in returning from Vietnam also makes an impact here. In the GI Joe comics, you'll find little glory or jingoism but you will find a considered look at what being a soldier, sailor, marine, or airmen means. Even if it's dressed up in colorful outfits and takes place between stories of punching everything from terrorist, mutants, and manic robots (Are they really Manic? I mean, that’s a psychiatric symptom. Do the robots have prolonged periods of euphoria, hyperactivity, grandiose delusions, and poor impulse control?{I don't know ask Megatron or Starscream}). What's interesting is that while GI Joe might be Mr. Hama’s most lasting contribution to the world, it's not what he was aiming for. He originally wanted to write comics featuring more anthropomorphic creatures, like ducks. He's mentioned that his greatest ambition is to write for Scoorge McDuck and I dearly hope someone gives him a shot.

The first graphic novel collects issues 1 through 10, there's not really an overarching plotline connecting the issues but the stories all interconnect and feed off of each other. The series starts off in media res, not giving us an origin for Cobra or for the Joe Team but does introduce us to characters like Snake Eyes, Scarlett, Duke, Cobra Commander, Dr. Venom, and Baroness. At this point, we really only see the basic Cobra troopers and the Baroness serving as Cobra Commander's right-hand woman (Dr. Venom staying safely in his lab [As is good and proper. We academics ought not risk ourselves on the field of battle! What are you mad? The only ones who should do that are the Applied Computational Demonologists and Combat Epistemologists who might be necessary if creatures with Too Many Tentacles And Mouths rise from the vasty deep to eat our brains]) and the GI Joe team is a very small group barely more than a squad in size. The unit's very existence is top secret with the troops posting as the motor transport element of the Chaplin's assistance school, in Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island. A little fun fact, Fort Wadsworth was a real military base until 1995, it's currently part of a National Recreation Area. Their secret base the Pit is hidden underground and the Joes have to conduct their mission in secret keeping that information even from other soldiers in the base. The comics mainly focus on the Joes while on missions and show that while they are mostly operating against Cobra, they are used for a variety of other missions. That said we start to get a sense of who these Joes are, even if some of the more colorful characters haven't shown up yet. They are sent on missions such as rescuing a Doctor who was in the middle of decrying the US Military when Cobra kidnapped her, investigating the disappearance of a US science station, and even going into Afghanistan for their first confrontation with the Soviet Oktober Guard; the USSR's own top-secret special missions unit. In what might be considered a story ahead of its time, there's even a mission where the Joes have to infiltrate a militia unit that might be looking to not just survive World War III, but start it (Weirdly prescient that one…). We also see Mr. Hama's willingness to set out the not-so-glamorous side of military service, long hours doing boring work like cleaning weapons or being sent out on missions to serve as a glorified decoy without even realizing that everything you're doing is a feint (Afterall, G.I. Joe was written as a toy advertisement, not a military recruitment tool). I'd just like to point out that Stalker's reaction to that is very realistic. We do manage to get some sense of the Joes as people, Clutch is a fast driving maniac who is a womanizing pig. Breaker is a huge computer nerd. Stalker is a man who enjoys being out in the wild and will take pictures as readily as he will take headshots (I’ll be seeing you, you won’t see me; with my telephoto in the night. It’s only right. Put Cobra in the gunner’s sight, bombs in the night, Recon-Scouts foreveeeeeer). Scarlett is a driven and motivated woman willing to take on the entire planet just to make people take her seriously. As a group or individuals, the Joes will be sent all across the planet to counter threats to the United States and its allies and hopefully advance the cause of freedom and democracy... Even if it's indirectly by preventing Cobra Commander from killing those ideals. Each issue gets its own mission with the focus being on different characters and different interactions. For me, the most colorful interactions were between Stalker and the Oktober Guard or Clutch and Scarlett. Frankly, Clutch is lucky that Scarlett was under military discipline, otherwise, they would never find his body (And nothing of value would be lost? {Well, he is a really good driver, but it is a big military gotta be at least one other guy or girl who can drive that well.}). If your main exposure to the Joes and Cobra before this was the cartoon, you're gonna find this a little confusing. My best advice is to forget that the cartoon even exists (Good advice for everyone, really).

Cobra hasn't quite reached it's fully realized form here, however. Most of the Cobra cast hasn't been brought into the story yet and there are elements that feel out of place to a reader looking back from decades in the future. Such as the quasi-fascist and not-so-quasi salutes that the troops use (there's a panel of Baroness giving a full out Nazi salute in the background for example) and a semi-deification of Cobra Commander that has the rank and file willing to go to their deaths on his orders. I can't say that this Cobra is unrecognizable however, it's clearly a matter of time and experimentation for Mr. Hama to fully express the unique brand of crazy evil that Cobra is. However, it does suffer from a lack of characters on team bad guy and not much explanation of just what Cobra is trying to do beyond “We're bad guys, we wanna rule the world.” We also get a number of nonaligned characters, my favorite being Kwinn, who is called an Eskimo but is actually an Inuit mercenary (I should note that the modern-day Inuit consider Eskimo a slur and ask that term a slur and ask that we don't use it anymore, that is how he is referred to in the book, which to be fair was written in 1982. So no hate to Mr. Hama here, but this will be the last time we refer to Kwinn as anything but an Inuit) who always fulfills his contract and has his own odd but understandable morality. He's the first character to actually really pull off a win against the Joes (of course he shows up in the second issue). Which brings up the interesting fact that the Joes don't pull off a 100% win rate in their own comic, or even in their first 10 issues which aides in it feeling realistic. Kwinn has an interesting character arc in the GI Joes series, but it's only his introduction that happens here so we'll have to wait till further reviews to cover it.

The comic is also full of the military slang and jargon of the period, which had changed drastically by the time I got into uniform. That said the terms are always defined clearly in the issue when they are used and Mr. Hama avoids going too far into the weeds I think. Keeping in mind that this comic is meant to sell toys, Mr. Hama also makes a point to give the gear and vehicles that the Joes were using space to shine as well, so you do have to put up with Steeler the tanker waxing poetic about the MOBAT, the Joes tank. That said I've run into tankers who actually do that, so it's not that out of place (I mean, we both know Military Hardware Nerds who do this and some of them never served. So of course the actual tankers are gonna do it). Plus I imagine any tanker who gets inducted into a special mission team would have to be fairly obsessed with his vehicle. This comic isn't for everyone if you flatout have no interest in anything military you're going to hate it, on the flip side if you're only mildly indifferent the character interactions and arcs have a strong chance of pulling you in. The character relationships are still being worked on here but you can see the roots that are going to grow into strong trees that will bear up one of the longer lasting series in comic history. I do fully recommend that you give the comic a try unless the very idea of the subject matter turns you off completely. I'm giving GI Joe Vol I a B+, mainly due to the fact that Cobra needs more time to develop and if we're going, to be honest, I know how much better this series is gonna get. Especially once we get Destro and Roadblock rocking across this battlefield.

This review was brought to you by our patrons.  If you would like to vote to see what reviews hit the website then join us at https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads.  Next week Join us for The Fell Sword by Miles Cameron, the sequel to The Red Knight.  As always Keep Reading. 

In the Red Text you had your editor Dr. Ben "only plays a recon scout on tv" Allen
In the Black Text you had your reviewer Garvin Anders. 

Bloody Rose By Nicholas Eames

Bloody Rose

By Nicholas Eames

I reviewed Mr. Eames first work Kings of the Wyld just last year in December, so I'm not going to rehash too much here. Kings of the Wyld was Mr. Eames first novel and he knocked it right out of the park, delivering us a world where adventuring heroes, called mercenaries because they heroed for money, were treated like rock stars and their bands were discussed and viewed in much the same way we view rock bands. One can certainly understand why when you see how the older characters describe the state of the world: where Centaurs hunted human children on the outskirts of villages, where any sound in the night might be a creature coming to tear apart your house apart to get to you and your family... Where the girl you love might be taken right in front of you by a wyvern one night not even fifty feet from your home. In such a world any man willing to fight creatures the size of a person's home with nothing but brass balls and steel swords probably should be treated like a damn rock star. Especially if he survives and goes out to do it again. Of course, it wasn't that kind of world when Kings of the Wyld took place and you can't even really see that kind of world in Bloody Rose. Which in a way is a monument to the mercenaries of the past generation, they fought so hard that there was no longer a need for them. However, society still wants it's hard fighting hard-partying rock stars and there is always a stream of young dreamers willing to provide just that.

By the time we get to Bloody Rose's day, mercenaries fight in arenas battling enslaved and tormented monsters for the entertainment of increasingly bloodthirsty crowds (Gross). Those free monsters who survive must exist in the hidden cracks and margins of human society or end up sword fodder for a weekend's spectacle. Where monster races once fought to erase human habitation and destroy human civilization (and possibly cause our extinction), now monsters gather into hordes out of the simple realization that if they don't wreak destruction on humanity... They won't survive humanity. I suppose I could shrug and say this is the end result of picking a fight with a species out of your weight class; after all, most of these creatures wouldn't have a damn drop of pity if the shoe were on the other limb. But, I have to admit that Mr. Eames does a good job of pulling empathy out of his readers for creatures who would consider them nothing more than a good source of protein. It's one thing to kill something because it's hunting you and your loved ones. It's another thing to drag it kicking and screaming out of it's home and start tormenting it, before killing it to provide cheap entertainment (which is also something that wouldn't happen if the shoe was on the other limb). Which is what a lot of mercenaries have become. Where once going on Tour was slang for hitting the borders of human civilization and fighting back the savage wilderness step by bloody step, it's now slang for going from city to city to slug it out in arenas as freelance gladiators against half starved and abused monsters. While mercenaries are still hard-boiled killers, you can still be killed by a half-starved and abused hydra, after all, they aren't everything their forefathers were. Or at least most of them aren't.

Bloody Rose and her band Fable are bound and determined to be everything that Saga (her father Golden Gabriel's band in the last book) was and more. However, they're hampered by the fact that the monsters that her father built his legend on are mostly gone - mostly because he killed them - and fighting in the arena is the best she can do. The stomach-churning cherry on top of all of this is the fact that the story she's best known for, is how she was rescued by her Father and his band in their last wild ride. When you desperately want people to consider you a hero, it burns when your biggest story is the one where you're cast as a damsel in distress. Especially since she didn't spend that time cooped in a tower moaning about her inevitable death but took command of an entire city and fought out a siege against an overwhelming force for months. Of course, none of the songs mention that. Another factor in this is that Gabriel wasn't that great a Father, grand gestures aside, and Rose damn well knows it. So their relationship has a lot of baggage, which to be honest is going to come standard with any parent-child relationship. The blunt fact is you don't have a life long relationship with someone, especially one as close as parent and child without getting some carry on luggage here and there even in the healthiest relationship. This wasn't the healthiest of relationships, this was a Dad who never got over his glory days and often drank to much and a wild child who could barely be restrained because at least that way someone was paying attention to her. Then we have her bandmates. Bruin is a shape-shifting shaman whose destructive self-image is tearing himself apart (HAHAHA! Shape shifter with self-image issues. How droll!). Cura is a summoner who’d rather weaponize her fears and tragedies than deal with them in any way shape or form. Freecloud is Rose's Druin lover who will follow Rose anywhere and grew up so starved of contact he cannot figure out how to put up healthy boundaries in his relationship (Rose isn't a terrible partner, being faithful, loyal and attentive to his physical well-being but she isn't a stellar one, often unthinking riding roughshod over his emotional well being in pursuit of outdoing dear old Dad). Interestingly enough all of these issues have roots in their family and parentage, I would say more but it would be spoilers. Frankly Fable, like any legendary rock band, is a mental and emotional hot mess looking to boil over into some 3rd party’s face if it can get paid for it. That's not even touching our viewpoint character.

Our viewpoint character is a young lady named Tam, a 17-year-old girl who is deeply afraid that she will spend the rest of her life living with her Father serving drinks to mercenaries in a bar run by retired mercenaries. She's the daughter of a retired mercenary, whose Mother was a bard. Now bards didn't loom large in the last book because Saga couldn't keep a bard alive if the fate of the world depended on it. Bards are people who are both members of a mercenary band and not members because their job isn't to fight, it's to watch. A Bard is supposed to observe everything that a band does and then immortalize it in song and story, making them a combination of reporter and hypeman. Tam's mother was a great bard and unfortunately is a dead bard (Mustn’t make 3rd edition jokes…). Tam has lived her whole life with her Father working overtime to keep her from being like her Mother. So, of course, she has gone out of her way to be like her Mother and when a chance to join Fable comes along? She jumps on it with both feet. The difference between Tam and the other members of Fable is that her relationship with her parents is more or less a healthy one, if haunted by the fact that one of her parents died a violent death in the very profession she dreams of joining. So it never occurs to Tam to want anything but to follow in her Mother's footsteps. She does that by joining Fable and joining their half-insane pursuit of fame and glory because they believe if they can truly do something legendary, something beyond anything else that no one else as done... Then they can finally know peace. So when a noblewoman on the edge of civilization offers them enough money to sate a Dragon's greed to kill a monster that no one believes even exists... They leap on it, calling it one last job. Because it's better to go fight something called the Dragoneater (!) than sit down and confront your psychological issues (I'm just gonna comment these men and women would fit right into your average Marine Unit and leave that on the table for y'all). With Tam being our viewpoint character, we are forced to confront all these issues from the outside and watch as they are peeled open by events outside of the band's control. So often we're left with events that Tam doesn't know the full significance of but can only communicate to us, which does leave a lot in the reader's hands. This is directly opposite of the last book where Clay knew the significance of pretty much every event and the context behind it. Here instead of being introduced to the narrator's old friends, we're meeting them alongside Tam and learning as she does.

The last book was about brotherhood and coming to terms with your life, and the people in it. This book is about confronting your parental issues and learning to grow past the baggage and the trauma of your childhood. It’s about learning to accept the flaws in your parents and seeing them as either the good people who screwed up or the terrible people you don't owe anything to (Well shucks, I could write multiple volumes on that). There are both kind of parents in this book, which makes it deeply true to life despite the magic and fantastical monsters and deeds running loose. It's also about growing past your parents, which is something that is easier said than done. Most people think that means surpassing them on some physical level like Rose does. I honestly disagree with that, I think it means learning to live your life with your own goals and achievements as your measuring stick without locking yourself into some kind of frantic battle to surpass them or gain their approval. That doesn't mean you stop loving your parents (But it *can* mean that), but it does mean you stop making them the center of your existence. The characters in this book grapple with achieving that by pulling together and providing the support they each need... While having massive wild parties and murdering things with their bare hands and magic powers. Of course, that's not the only thing going on here, there's also the plot of Tam and her new friends realizing that they might be the monsters here. As someone finally starts asking ‘what glory is there in killing captives in a cage?’. Is this the only way that humanity and monster races can interact? Of course there's also a massive horde of creatures looking to burn human civilization back to the roots so they can get some breathing room and the slow realization amongst the band that there's something even darker and more dangerous than a creature nicknamed Dragoneater out there. Something that's back because the sins of your fathers will be visited on you and when your Father is Golden Gabe, well that's a lot of sins coming over for a meet and greet so buckle in.

I have to admit I am really into this book because of just how much is going on in it. Each of the characters here is on their own rather fraught personal journey while their civilization shudders on the edge of an explosion. Each journey has its own consequences and payoffs some of these journeys end in screaming, blood, and confrontation and some of these journeys end quietly in the middle of the night with quiet but heavy conversations. Meanwhile, the larger events wrap and intertwine with these smaller events as they feed off of one another. Also, there is an amazing amount of brutal violence, weird amazing creatures that only fantasy can give you and epic world-ending battles and confrontation. Mr. Eames has convinced me that he has a really bright future in the writing world and I look forward to seeing more from him. Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames gets an A. Go to take a look, trust me.

Next week, our patreon pick for May is the first unanimous pick by our patrons. If you’d like to vote for books to be reviewed, add to the recommendation pile or even put a book right up at the front of the line, consider joining us as https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads a dollar a month gets you a vote. That said, next week join us for GI Joe Vol I by Larry Hama brought to us by Marvel Comics. That’s right folks, I’m going all the way back because the voting public asked for it. Until then, Keep Reading.

Red text is your editor Dr. Ben Allen

Black text is your reviewer Garvin Anders.

Lord of Light Roger Zelazny

Lord of Light

Roger Zelazny

Roger Zelazny was born in 1937 in Cleveland Ohio, he was the only child of Joseph Zelazny and Josephine Sweet. Joseph Zelazny immigrated from Poland and worked as a pattern maker for a typewriter company, Josephine was a homemaker. Mr. Zelazny started reading early and his first published works were poems in his high school literary magazine, which he also edited. While in high school he submitted stories for publication to science fiction magazines but only one story was ever accepted; this discouraged him a bit so he focused on his poetry, After graduating high school, he enrolled in Western Reserve University in Cleveland, originally he studied psychology but switched eventually to English and graduated with his BA in 1959. While he was there, he won the Finlay Foster Poetry Prize, twice. He then headed to graduate school at Colombia University, where he would study Elizabethan and Jacobean drama (Jacobean drama refers to works written during the reign of the British King James I, who took the throne after Queen Elizabeth). He would also serve a term in the Ohio National Guard. He received his Master's degree in 1962 and sold two short stories as well as started work as a claims agent in the Social Security Administration, writing part-time. He married his fiance after delaying the wedding due to an auto crash but the strain of the accident and the death of his father in the same year led to the marriage falling apart and they separated in 1965, Mr. Zelazny moved on and married Judith Callahan in September 1966. She was the mother of their three children and they remained married (although separated) until his death due to colon cancer in 1995. Mr. Zelazny was a major writer throughout the 1960s and 70s, mostly known for the fantasy series Lords of Amber, he also wrote a long list of science fiction and other works. He won the Nebula three times (Nominated fourteen times) and the Hugo six times (also nominated fourteen times), as well as two Locus Awards, a Prix tour Apollo Award (a French science fiction award), two Seiun Awards (Japanese) and two Balrog Awards (which ended in 1985). The book we're reviewing today is actually Mr. Zelazny's third novel and a Hugo award winner, Lord of Light. Published in 1967 by Doubleday publishing, which is today owned by Penguin Random House (which means, you guessed it, owned by Random House).

Lord of Light takes place in the far future on a distant planet where the remnants of humanity have found themselves surrounded by hostile alien species and unable to leave. Deciding to fight it out to the last alien creature, members of the crew undergo strange treatments to create various physical and mental powers to give them an edge over the strange beings they must confront and oust in order to secure a future for humanity. These people also find a style of immortality when they are able to transfer their minds to new bodies and find that their powers transfer right along with them and over time grow even stronger. The people who underwent the procedures to gain these powers find become warlords, then monarchs, and finally gods; as humanity slowly reverts to a dark age existence. This was encouraged by a faction among the new gods who claim it's safer and healthier for everyone to let all memory of vanished Earth and its technology fade away, proclaiming that due to their mind transfer technology people can live for generations and eventually gain the wisdom to be trusted with such power. Meanwhile the gods (who have taken the names and some of the physical appearances of Hindu gods in the meantime) will of course take up the hard burden of policing humanity, deciding who gets to move up the ladder towards godhood and of course living in their own post-scarcity utopian city of heaven and if some folks get “promoted” faster and it seems odd that some of them are really attractive folks that caught a god or goddess' eye? Not to worry all part of the plan. If it seems that people who question this system end up spending centuries in the bodies of beasts or worse actually dying... Well doesn't that mean it's best not to question? You do want to get to heaven after all... Don't you? Have faith, maintain your Karma and obey the priests (who have access to high technology in disguise, the better to serve the gods), paradise will come to you in time. Of course, there were those among the gods who didn't agree with this social order. A faction called Accelerationists wanted to share the knowledge and technology that the gods hoarded with the people in order to improve their knowledge and lives and, you know, let the average person enjoy such dangerous wonders as indoor plumbing, printed books, and electricity. Then again, I suppose if you're hiding knowledge, the printing press is the most dangerous thing in the world to you. They first tried to debate but lost against the temptations of keeping an entire world as a personal game reserve and whorehouse. They tried to fight but were all swiftly rounded up, crushed and quietly done away with. Well, almost all... There's always one isn't there? I'm gonna quote the first lines of the novel because there is no better introduction to our main character.

“His followers called him Mahasamatman and said he was a god. He preferred to drop the Mah- and the -atman, however, and called himself Sam. He never claimed to be a god. But then, he never claimed not to be a god. Circumstances being what they were, neither admission could be of any benefit. Silence though, could.”

Sam is an immortal on a mission: he's gonna break the stranglehold his fellow transhumans have on this world by any means necessary. Because until he does that, humanity is locked in the existence of drudgery and mindless obedience to beings who’ve honestly outlived their purpose. To do this, he will plot, lie, cheat, murder and... Refound Buddhism. Which honestly makes sense, as the gods control people through their hope of a better reincarnation and created an entire system of social and cultural controls to reinforce that hope. The only way to really counter that is to undermine the whole thing, Buddhism among other things suggests that maybe being endlessly reincarnated isn't that grand of a thing and what you should pursue is a spiritual union with the universe which means a surrender of yourself and individuality. By creating a counter-culture that rejects the preachings of the dominant religion, Sam lays the ideological and cultural groundwork for resistance to the gods. It's not enough to oppose something, after all, you need to create an alternative. This creates an interesting paradox, an unenlightened man who preaches enlightenment. A man who is living a lie embracing and spreading a doctrine of Holiness. While the gods oppose this spiritual awakening in their midst, they can't kill it because it is rooted in the flaws and contradictions of their own system. The only way to get rid of Buddhism here would be to reform the system to the point of rendering the protests moot. Which for many of the gods would defeat the whole point of having the system in the first place. But if you don't then you run the risk of things getting out of control and losing anyway. Of course, this isn't Sam's only string on the bow; there are other forces lurking at the edges of the world who disagree with the established order. Survivors of the alien races that contested them in the first place for example, or members of the group who left a lot earlier. There are even those among the gods who are dissatisfied with the way things are going for reasons both petty and sublime. Throughout all of this is Sam, working every seam and weak point in the regime, questing for every ally and advantage, because before things can get any better, first they’ve got to change.

The plot of the novel unfolds in seven interlinked stories that tell the origin of Sam's resistance; his creation of Buddhism on an alien world; and the ultimate fate of his attempts to change his world for the better. These stories cover a long stretch of time, as you could imagine when talking about an immortal engaged in a long grim twilight struggle. There is also a host of recurring supporting characters and antagonists. Interestingly enough, we are never given a full first-hand look at the brutal wars that gave rise to this in the first place. We do not see the desperate battles against creatures who only exist as electromagnetic patterns, or beings able to attack our very minds just by existing. We don't see the discussion and thinking that lead to people subjecting themselves to experiments to gain the powers and tools needed to fight such beings or the relationships that were built and fueled by such conflicts. Instead, we only see the breakdown and existence of a degenerate world order designed to keep those same warriors in charge. This creates a mythic background to the story in front of us, as we only know those deeds through myth and hazy memory, they become mythical tales that create the pantheon that Sam struggles against. This also leaves us trying to work out the history behind the personal relationships between the gods, Sam and the gods, and everyone else. Because Sam is also in the situation where the only peers he has, the only people who really understand him... Are the people he's trying to overthrow. By leaving so much unsaid, Mr. Zalazny also injects a heavy air of mystery into the novel which helps to draw the reader in. Especially to the motives of supporting characters, who I won't ruin here, you'll have to read the novel yourself.

Another element that caught my interest was the idea of trans or post-humans rising themselves up as gods. Let me explain what I mean by transhuman and posthuman. Transhumans are individuals who through the use of advanced technology have transformed themselves into better versions of human, being smarter, stronger, more resistant to injury and disease, and having a longer life. These people are still recognizably human and meaningful interaction is still possible with them. They would have human desires, needs, and goals. A posthuman is a being either created by humans or once a human that has transformed by technology into something that is honestly no longer human and in many opinions beyond humanity. The most common examples of posthumans in fiction tend to either be artificial intelligences who grow so powerful that humans become like monkeys before them or individuals who “evolve” into energy beings or advanced examples of life and then usually leave. A posthuman isn't recognizably human anymore and may be more alien than anything else we can imagine honestly. Lord of Light is the oldest book I've run into so far to use the idea of transhumans acting as gods, other examples include Ben Bova's Orion series, Safehold by David Weber, God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert, Illium by Dan Simmons and many more. It's a plot element I find honestly kind of interesting as it opens up the story to themes about what one should expect from a religion, or what exactly makes a divine presence. Being that this was written in 1967, you shouldn’t expect too many modern transhuman themes in it, although some of the timeless ones are there mostly in what kind of challenges an immortal may face over a long period of life.

My biggest complaint with Lord of Light is that there isn't more of it. There's easily enough story in this one novel for a trilogy or so. Much is left vague or passed over that could have been expanded on. As it stands the novel serves as a show of the highlights of Sam's long battle to free mankind from it's latest group of tyrants. There's just so much more that could have been shown here and a lot of the story that is left entirely to the reader's imagination. Additionally, there are chunks of the story that are told instead of shown. They're cleverly told in a way that shows additional parts of the plot and the world, usually using the character to relay information in a way that tells us a lot about them but I still would have been liked to have been shown this. That said it's an interesting story that held my attention rather effortlessly and offered me a lot to think about. Lord of Light certainly earned it Hugo's award and still remains a relevant read today over 50 years after it was published. I'm giving Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny an A- and an encouragement to any science fiction or fantasy fan to give it a spin.

First I want to say happy Passover and happy Easter to all my readers. I hope you and your families have a good holiday.  If you enjoyed this week's review, consider joining us at our patreon at https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads, for a dollar a month you can vote on what books get reviewed that month and more.  Next week join us for the sequel of Kings of the Wyld, as we take a look at Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames!  By all means, comment and share but above all Keep Reading.  

Lamplighter By D. M Cornish

Lamplighter

By D. M Cornish

Lamplighter is the second novel in the Monster Blood Tattoo series by D.M Cornish. It was originally slated for publication in 2007 but for reasons I was unable to uncover was pushed back to 2008. Once published it was nominated for the 2008 Aurealis Award for Best Young Adult Novel. I covered the first book last year in October so I won't retread ground but if you're interested in learning about D.M Cornish or the publication of the series, I'll leave a link to the last review. Right now, let us turn to the novel in question.

Lamplighter takes place on the Half-Continent, where the greatest and most powerful nation is the Haacobin Empire. The Empire is a state that is caught between a feudal past and a the idea of a modern, rational state, where semi-independent city states, duchies and princedoms all feud and claim ancient rights; emerging technologies and strange alchemical learning have led to the development of new devices and enhancements to the human body and to human industry. However, humanity is also locked into conflict with Monsters, creatures that are neither natural beasts or humans. Many of them are sapient although none of them appear to have created a tool using civilization. Most monsters appear to view humans has only a fairly chatty food source. Add in greater strength, speed, usually an array of natural weapons and the ability to work together in large numbers when they feel like it and you begin to question how humanity even survived long enough to reach the city building stage. On top of this, it seems the Monsters have some sort of effect on the land itself. Lands that are heavily populated by Monsters developed a phenomenon called the Threwd, in which people feel an awareness in the land itself. Usually, a hostile one that in powerful instances can drive humans mad with fear and paranoia. Because of the dangers real and imagined humanity, for the most part, has reacted with a xenophobic rage towards monster kind, working to clear them from whatever lands humanity possesses. To be honest I can see how that developed when you have a situation where entire families are disappearing in the night and are afflicted with a constant low-grade dread while you're simply trying to maintain a farm... You're not going to very open to the idea of peaceful co-existence or to the people who suggest it may be possible.

In this grim but changing world Rossamund Bookchild, a child of unknown family and origin strives to find his place and to form his own beliefs about the world around him. The last book, Foundling covered Rossamunds journey from his childhood home to the fortress of Winstermill to begin his career as an imperial lamplighter. This book covers his training and first posting as a Lamplighter. Let's explain what that is first. Most of the Empire is held together by imperial waterways which are faster and safer to travel, as rivers are fairly easy to keep monster free by the use of dams and canals and other such things. However not everywhere is reachable by river and there are only so many boats to go around. So tying together the rest of the Empire is a system of Imperial Highways, in an effort to make them safer for the poor souls who must travel them and they are lit by great lamps using Bloom, a type of plant that glows in the dark. Lamplighters tend the lamps, lighting them at sunset and by caring for the Bloom and mechanism of the lamps themselves during the day. They also serve as road-guards garrisoning small forts and strongholds across the Empire to try and maintain some level of safety for overland travelers. It's a harsh, lonely life at times and given that many of them are stationed in out of the way places where Monsters can set upon them without warning, it's a way of life with a high amount of casualties. Which at least means there's always openings for new blood I suppose.

Of course Rossamund's adventurers in the first book led to him arriving a bit late and gaining the nickname of Mister Come Lately (at least it isn't something about him having a girl's name) along with him being one of the smaller apprentices in his platoon means he's starting with a pretty steep uphill climb here. To make matters worse Rossamund finds himself being pulled into the murky world of politics, as factionalism within the Lamplighters ranks rears its nasty head. The newly appointed Master of Clerks is pushing to expand his power throughout the ranks and has brought with him a slew of supporters such as the surgeon Grotius Swill. As Rossamund finds evidence that Swill might be involved in forbidden dark arts, such as the creation of Reaver Men (artificial monsters made using the parts of human corpses for the most part), he now has to fend off powerful enemies in an arena he has neither the education or experience to operate in. Further complicating his life is the arrival of Threnody, a young lady from the clave Right of the Pacific Dove, who has decided to become the first woman lamplighter.

Let me talk about what the Right of the Pacific Dove is before I discuss the young lady herself. Throughout the Empire, there are all female societies known as Calendars, who provide fighters and social services. They do things like protect the poor from monsters, provide protection to women who need to flee their homes and campaign for social justice. They're known for dressing colorfully and running about doing heroic deeds. Threnody has the misfortune of being the only child of the August (the leader) of this group of Calendars and as such her Mother has mapped out and planned her entire life for her. As you can guess that means Threnody's biggest concern is thwarting her Mother's will as much as humanly possible and fighting for every choice she can get. She hasn't been doing so well on that front. She was forced to undergo the surgeries to become a Lahzar, which is a human being who has been enhanced to fight monsters. In Threnody's case, she was made into a Wit, which is someone who has the ability to send out mind scrambling signals which can put down men and Monsters. Of course, she's not very good at it yet and there tends to be a bit of friendly fire when she gets involved. Given how new she is at it and the fact that her body is still adjusting from the experience of having foreign organs shoved into it to give her superpowers, well it would be a miracle if she wasn't a bit lacking in control. Threnody is a very bitter and at times self-important young woman and honestly, I can understand why she isn't given control over her own body but is treated as a mere extension of her Mother's will. Her mother leads a society that preaches greater justice and rights for individuals; and while that hypocrisy is never directly confronted in the book, it hovers over Threnody's character like a cloak and dictates a lot of her responses to the world around her. She is told she is better and more important than others and has a duty to fight for their safety and rights. Because she isn't just a young woman but the heir to a title and the future leader of a society of fighters. However, she is constantly prevented from exercising the very things that she is pressured to provide other people and that isn't going to make for a sweet personality. Threnody has however managed to win the right to join the lamplighters and thus escape a bit from her Mother's authority and in the doing become friends with Rossamund. Threnody isn't the only lady taking an interest in Rossamund however as Europe the Lahzar with the ability to toss around electricity is also hanging about looking to convince Rossamund to leave the lamplighters and come work for her. Europe's role in this story is changed from her last appearance, as she works to provide mentoring and protection to Rossamund despite his belonging to a group that holds her at arms distance.

Foundling, the first book in the series was about Rossamund leaving his childhood home and learning how to function in an adult world that is dangerous and a lot grayer then he expected. Lamplighter is about Rossamund learning how to function as a young man among his fellows and how to operate within society. For most of the book, Rossamund is learning how to fit into the society of the lamplighters and be a good contributing member of that society. Even if he doesn't agree with all the opinions of that society, because his experiences have taught him to have empathy for the Monsters that Mankind is locked into battle with. That empathy is what causes conflict with him and the lamplighter society at large because honestly, the lamplighters can't really afford empathy for Monsters in most situations. At the same time, their xenophobia is creating enemies that they don't need. What I like about this, is that the conflict isn't that humanity just needs to learn to accept Monsters and stop being scared of them. There is a real and good reason to be afraid of the things sniffing at your locked and armored door in the dead of night and offering your hand to any monster can lead to that limb being torn off. I do think the best end would be to find a way for at least some Monsters and humanity to live in peace but I'll admit I'm not very sure how you could accomplish that. Both sides need space to live and their ways of life are so dramatically opposed. Mr. Cornish does a good job of presenting this conflict from the ground up and letting his readers make their own judgments, while also presenting a depth of worldbuilding and character development that can stand toe to toe with such writers as Bakker, Cameron, Leckie or even the old heavyweights like Tolkien or Howard. I have to admit I find myself both looking forward to the last book and disappointed that Mr. Cornish has only written one more novel in this world. Lamplighter by DM Cornish gets an A.

Next week, we reach back to the past to review Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny.  This book was also selected by my supporters on Patreon, if you would like to help choose future reviews or even make suggestions, then join us at https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads where a vote for what books I'll review next book only cost a 1$. As always I also welcome your comments below and of course, Keep Reading.

You can also catch my review of Foundling here.  http://frigidreads.blogspot.com/2018/10/foundling-by-dm-cornish.html

Heaven Sword & Dragon Sabre Vol I By Louis Cha/Jin Yong and Wing Shing Ma

Heaven Sword & Dragon Sabre Vol I

By Louis Cha/Jin Yong and Wing Shing Ma

Louis Cha who used the pen name Jin Yong was born in 1924 in Haining, Zhejiang in the Republic of China. He was born with the name of Zha Liangyong of the Zha clan of Haining and could claim a number of known scholars and poets in his ancestry. An avid reader of wuxia and classical Chinese literature even as a young man he got into conflict with the authorities to the point of being expelled from school for denouncing the Nationalist Government as autocratic. Despite this, he would graduate high school in 1943. In the early 50s, his father was arrested by the Communist government in the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries and put to death (he would be declared innocent in the 1980s... posthumously). Mr. Cha found himself in then-British-ruled Hong Kong working for the New Evening Post as a deputy editor. There he started working on his first novel in 1955 and quit his job to work as a scriptwriter and scenarist director for Great Wall Movies Enterprises Lt and Phoenix Film Company. In 1959, he founded the newspaper Ming Pao and served as its editor in chief, at the same time writing serialized novels and editorials to the tune of 10,000 Chinese characters a day. Which frankly makes me light headed just thinking of it. Mr. Cha would write 15 novels that are to this day wildly popular in the Chinese speaking world; they have been made into movies, tv shows, radio dramas, and graphic novels. Louis Cha would pass away in October of 2018 and has been compared to JRR Tolkien, George RR Martin and JK Rowling for his influence on Chinese fiction in general and wuxia specifically (as for what wuxia is, all I'm gonna say is we are going to get into that later this year, stay tuned!)

In fact, the subject of this review is a graphic novel. The novel of Heaven Sword & Dragon Sabre (for the record I'm told this is a mistranslation and it should be Heavenly relying Sword but Heaven Sword is catchier so we're sticking with that) which was adapted into this graphic novel by Wing Shing Ma, a Hong Kong artist born in 1961. He quit school in 1975 to focus on his art and well, it paid off. Wing Shing Ma is known for series such as Chinese Hero, Two Extremes, and Black Leopard. He would release this in the late 1990s with the English translations being released in the early 2000s.

Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre is actually the third part of the trilogy but stands well enough on its own that you can follow the story without needing to read the prior two books. Which is good because I haven't. I grabbed this one because it was mistakenly labeled as a stand-alone and I didn't do enough prior research. The novel is set in a fantasy version of China where martial art training can unlock a person's inner power (or Chi as it commonly referred to) allowing them to do fantastical feats that aren't physically possible. Which is a good thing for our main characters because they're going to need every feat they can pull. Let's talk about them a bit.

Jay Shan is the Fifth Brother of the Wu-Tang Clan (no, not that one) a martial arts school founded by a man who achieved a spiritual awakening and taught his insights to seven students. It's on their master's 90th birthday when they discover their 3rd brother has been wounded horribly perhaps even to the point of death. With few clues and fewer options, the brothers of the Wu-Tang Clan split up to search for what happened to their Third Brother and why. Jay Shan quickly finds himself wrapped up in a series of events that center around the Dragon Sabre, a legendary sword that can cut stone and steel as if they were paper and if the wielder can unlock the swords secrets, they can rule the world. His lead into this story is Sue Ying, the daughter of the leader of the Sky Eagle Clan. Ying is an interesting figure in her own right; as Shan finds her by tracking the back trail of his injured brother and finding out that someone had hired a group of bodyguards to bring him to the Wu-Tang Clan's stronghold after he had been injured but had murdered that group when they failed. That was Sue, who also murdered a pair of monks for trying to stop her but not before getting tagged with a trio of poisoned needles. Oh, she also did all that while disguised as Shan; so now everyone thinks he's a maniacal monk-murderer. What really caught my attention here was the fact that she was dying of poison, with Shan wanting to heal her but she refuses on the grounds that Shan needs to apologize for scolding her for committing cold-blooded murder and admit she was right to do so. I've seen some gutsy power moves in my day but this is a new one. I don't think I've run into ‘I won't let you save my life until you validate my life choices and apologize for doubting me’ before. Especially pulling that with someone you basically framed for your crimes? I'm flat out impressed. She's gonna need that gall and audacity to deal with their antagonist though.

Zhune Shai, who rejoices in the title of King of Gold Lion, is a man of singular purpose. Many years ago, his master who goes by Vigor Fist of Kun betrayed him and killed Shai's entire family. As is entirely expected of you in a wuxia story (or most fantasy stories honestly, to be fair blood feuds and cycles of revenge are simply what happens in societies without effective law enforcement or government) Shai embarked on a quest of revenge to kill his old master and if he has to make a mountain of bodies to get to his old master, well so much the worse for everyone else then. I've always found the wild disregard for innocent bystanders somewhat interesting in a way. Since it was someone else slaughtering an innocent that started it in the first place. You'd think at least one character would stop and go ‘No, killing unrelated 3rd parties whose only real sin is being in the wrong place and time literally makes me just as bad or worst than the person I am trying to avenge myself on’, but they don’t. Shai, however, does have that pointed out to him by a Monk on his first rampage, who tries to extract a promise from Shai to stop the killing on the grounds that while what Vigor Fist of Kun did was terrible and wrong, we have to start somewhere in putting an end to blood feuds and murder. So while Shai does try to limit his bloody vengeance, he's perfectly happy to look for a reason to kill someone if it's convenient for him. Given that this is a wuxia story in fantasy China, there's a lot of terrible people to kill. Shai's goal is to hunt down the legendary Dragon Sabre, which is the one thing that might give him the edge over his master and allow to finally reap his vengeance.  He also wants to make sure there are no witnesses to him getting ahold of the Dragon Sabre because learning how to use such a weapon takes time and he'd rather that Vigor Fist didn't come looking for him before he was ready.  I kinda like that since that's a touch of realism to the fantastic here.  A sword that can cut through anything is going be a little different in its use then a normal sword. Both Ying and Shan get dragged into this while trying to hammer out just what their relationship is and suddenly they have the pressure of not being murdered on top of that.  Despite that, they do work well together.

The first volume of Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre is more of a prologue than an opening chapter but it's an interesting one. The story does show it's age in the translation and plot progression, however. Within pages, I could tell I was reading a story that was at least older than I was and while that doesn't bother me, a modern reader may want to keep that in mind. The art is really well done in a style that is colorful and detailed enough to keep the reader's interest. It makes a good tale for anyone who enjoys martial arts stories or just enjoys stories with larger than life colorful characters. That said, there is a pacing issue as the story is a bit in a hurry and could have used more time to establish the relationship between Jay Shan and Sue Ying.  There's also the fact that you rather keenly feel the fact that this is part of a larger story.  In it's defense, the graphic novel does manage to tell a complete story with a beginning, middle and end.  That said I'm giving Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre Vol I by Louis Cha and Wing Shing Ma a B.

This review was brought you by my supporters at Patreon, having won our monthly poll. If you would like to help choose future reviews or even make suggestions, then join us at https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads where a vote for what books I'll review next only cost a 1$ a month. As always I also welcome your comments below and of course, Keep Reading.