Freakangels

Asa young man I loved comics, but I would never, ever spend my money on them.  I read too fast and there was never enough meat to make it worth it.  So I read other peoples, when I got the chance, but mainly stuck to books.  Web-comics though gave me a chance to get into the medium again, and this comic is a fine example of why you should be reading web based comics.

The story is a Science Fiction classic, a modern take on John Wyndham's Midwich Cuckoos.  Twelve young people have incredible mental powers and have basically destroyed England.  What follows is an in depth look at what they are and how they got there.  I absolutely do not want to go into any details because this piece is so good that you should read it for yourself, but I can give you a few reasons why.

First the artwork is stunning, and stands together wonderfully as a whole thing.  Second, they do not try to explain it.  At no point is there any explanation of why they have the powers they have.  None.  Instead the authors just deal with the events.  The history, without trying to explain it to the reader.  The reader just takes it in and moves on.  Third, the story is basically a human story, even though it is about super-humans, and so the we fall into it in the same way as we might fall into the story of Batman, or Spiderman.  It is the human side to the story that makes the superhuman interesting.

Like all good web-comics this one comes in print, and I am eager to get hold of it.  Unlike the other books I have reviewed I have yet to support the authors with a purchase.  So if my recommendation means anything, check it out yourself online, and buy your own copy.

I have actually read many books by Card over the years, and enjoyed a lot of them.  not all, but a lot.  The classic Card story, the one that really pushed him over the edge into sci-fi/fantasy stardom was Ender's Game, a must read science fiction, though the sequels start to pale very quickly.

Lost Gate was a new universe to me and was one of those books that you just inhale.  The basic premise was genius.  A beautiful idea.  And then Card wove a story within it.  Unfortunately it was not a story without flaws.

So what is this glorious idea that sucked me in?  he tried to do something that many writers have tried to do in the past, and often succeeded.  he tried to explain it all.  By all I mean History, religion, where we came from.  This is what Greg Bear does brilliantly in the Infinity Concerto and Serpent Mage, two of the best books ever written. Cards explanation idea is almost as good.  This is it. Gods were real.  All our stories of Gods getting involved, fathering children on poor innocent girls and leaving them with a little demi-god, all real.  But something happened that made them less than they were, and so no longer Gods the families have spent the last 1400 years spinning their wheels and dreaming of lost power.

What made them gods in the past was moving through something Card called a great gate from their home world to Earth, basically the Bifrost Bridge.  But no-one has travelled a great gate since Loki, the last gate wizard and member of the North family of Gods closed them all.  This story is the story of Daniel, the latest gate wizard to be born and his fight to survive, and to open a great gate.

Where does the story fall down?  Over explanation.  Card has done this before, he likes the quasi science of something so much he goes into too many details and really tries to explain it because maybe, it is real to him.  The problem is it just doesn't work.  In fantasy it is a god idea to know how stuff works in the world you envisage, but leave it mysterious and let the story hinge on the characters, and their oh so very human tales, rather than the intricacies of a magic system.

Card is still worth reading, hell I own most of his books, but in most of the stuff he does he moves from dazzling brilliance to humdrum.  But the magic is still there.

Douglas Adams "The Salmon of Doubt"

Its been ages since I posted anything, I have been far too busy, and indeed not reading anywhere near enough,but that is sadly no excuse.......  I actually first came across Douglas Adams when very young, listening to the radio series, the now famous "Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy".  I really do not need to say how shockingly good it is do I?  Anyway, as you may know he died tragically young, when he still had a lot to contribute to society. So, for me he is not a new voice, but up until reading the Salmon of Doubt I had never really heard him with his philosophers hat on.  I had only ever experienced the comic novelist.  So in many ways it was a new experience.
The Salmon of Doubt has a lot of content, comments on Adams from illustrious friends, pithy remarks, throw away one liners, funny stories and anecdotes, and some very deep, very illuminating discussions on, well life the universe and everything really.  I have not yet got to the section which contains the unfinished Dirk Gently novel, so I haven't even read it yet, but I am raving about it already.
If you like science, if you like wit, it you like or at least like being baffled by technology, you will like Douglas Adams.  Sadly reading, actually listening as I got the audiobook for the car, to him his htoughts made me feel profoundly unlucky because I never actually had the chance to sit down with him and steal one of his biscuits(In Joke).

Joel Rosenberg "Paladins"`

I had never heard of Joel and picked this up on the off chance at a second hand book store.  I just looked him up, to find he passed away a month ago after writing approximately twenty novels.

The basic premise is actually quite cool.  Imagine a parallel universe where the divergent point is Arthurian England. Imagine an England several centuries later still where Morgana La Fey is still at large and in charge with the heir of Mordred on the throne.

The story uses this magnificent idea as a a backdrop as it follows the adventures of a group of knights in the Mediterranean who have stumbled upon a powerful weapon, in the shape of a ensouled sword, discovered by a fisherman who died for his efforts upon touching the cursed blade.

The story in the beginning and the middle is excellent.  Some interesting characters are introduced as the story unfolds and the craftsmanship of the writing is also very good.  I think however it falls down a little at the end, perhaps for want of a bit more time and editing.  Overall though it was an intriguing and engaging read and I will search out more of this fellows work.  Enjoy it if you get a chance.

"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.