"The Blade Itself" Joe Abercrombie

Joe Abercrombie is another UK fantasy writer.  Pure chance.  A quick search revealed that he has about 5 books published in the world of this novel, but this is the first book of a trilogy, while the other two stand alone.

What's important to know about this work?  Well, this is another fantasy writer who does not pull punches when it comes to writing about nasty stuff, there is mayhem, gore, torture, abuse, more torture and the odd bit of idiocy all contained inside the pages of this novel, and its great.  The characters are interesting, they are different, and the threads that they weave are very engaging as the story emerges.  It comes to a nice climax at the same time of making you say, what happens next. This is not one of those completely original works in terms of content and story arc,  it is in fact high fantasy, but it is extremely well written, engaging and coherent. Like I said in the last review on J V Jones, Joe Abercrombie gives bits and pieces, that all somehow hang together, that hint at the whole and the full picture, without saying too much.  You can see that the full story will keep you turning pages, but first you need to buy the next in the series.  Thinking about this, this was why I liked the Belgariad by David Eddings when I was young.  The problem, to my mind, that he had with everything else he ever did afterwards was that you knew exactly where it was going.  Joe Abercrombie does not make that mistake.

I am pleased with this find and will read anything else by Joe I can get my hands on.  I love the genre and I love the style.  Bring it on Joe.

 

'A Cavern Of Black Ice'- J. V. Jones

Now they do say that you should never judge a book by its cover, and in this case it is certainly true.  J. V Jones has begun a very readable, yet dark, series here, but it is not one that involves half naked women riding around on horses.  There is a lot of horse riding and fighting (it is epic fantasy after all), but where it is set it is cold.  There is frostbite to worry about. The wind could kill you.  The protagonist that is the subject of the cover is pretty well covered up and not riding around in leather.

The art work aside I really enjoyed this book, once I got past the gruesomeness of some of the writing, it is by the way not for the faint hearted.  From the very beginning there are some stomach turning moments that do not even make sense until much later on and may appear to be gratuitous.  This novel though is about courage, courage to go with your own morals rather than those of the people around you.  Courage to keep going, to keep hanging on.  In particular I like the young clan warrior Raif, who in leaving his clan behind expresses more what it means to be clan.

She does an absolutely super job of hinting at a big picture behind it all, drops some enigmatic details, develops some background characters, without really giving any of it away.  This first book does not end on a cliff hanger per se, but it does leave you wondering where it is going.  I will definitely keep reading the series anxious to find out what happens.

A last important point is that the author, a rather attractive lady, is my age and comes from Liverpool in the UK, where I had the great misfortune to mispend a lot of my youth.  Which makes it entirely likely that I totally failed to chat her up at some point in the past in some seedy and disreputable bar.  It is not true to say that good things do not come out of Liverpool, but it is true to say that once they get out, they stay out.  I think I will add her to my list.

Eve Forward, "Animist"

Eve Forward was born in 1972, which makes her 38, probably.  So to my mind she is a young writer, at the start of her career.  Animist reads like the first book in a series, but from what I read online I think she wrote a trilogy, with but one book so far in print.  The tale told is actually a fairly simple one, a young man goes out into the world to make his fortune at the conclusion of his training at the animist college, he has some adventures.  Animists are it seems people with a natural inclination for magic, whatever that is, who instead of developing earth shattering powers develop a bond with an animal that then allows them to see magic being performed, and communicate empathically with their familiar.  This means that the training mainly consists of animal husbandry and meditation with a shovel.

This book does not follow any standard tracks as it wends its way forward, pardon the pun.  Alex, the youthful Animist, does not develop earth shattering powers and instead only manages to form a bond with a rat, which will cause him lots of problems if he does not learn how to 'separate', as rats are not long lived. He has adventures, but they are mostly of the bumbling kind rater than cast in the heroic mould.  He is however a moral person, who strives to help those people around him.  It is this youthful morality and innocence, and the filter that this provides to the world as viewed in the narrative, that makes the book a fairly enjoyable read.   The book is often funny, but only in a light way, the book is not dark or complex and is instead written in a similar style to the works L E Modesitt Jr.  I will definitely read Villains by Necessity, her other fantasy novel, when I get a chance.