Saturday 11 May 2013

The Killing Moon - N. K. Jemisin

RATING: FOUR STARS 

Gujaareh is a city that knows true peace. There is almost no crime, virtually any ailment or injury can be cured via dream magic, and its people flourish under a deep spiritual understanding. It is Gatherers that enforce this peace – agents of the dream goddess who root out and destroy those deemed to be corrupt.

But not all is it seems. Rumours of war are beginning to circulate and evidence of corruption in Gujaareh is mounting. But, worse still, bodies of people who have died in horrific agony are beginning to appear all around the city. Gather Ehiru knows of only one such creature that can kill in such a manner – a Reaper - and understands that it falls to him and his apprentice to slay it and restore balance to Gujaareh. What Ehiru does not know, however, is that the secretes they will uncover while hunting the monster could quickly prove to be the doom of all. 

The Good 
One of the things I particularly liked about The Killing Moon was its Ancient Egyptian setting. By basing the book’s culture on the Egyptians, rather than feudal Europe like most fantasy novels do, N. K. Jemisin has managed to give The Killing Moon a unique feel that made it very interesting to read. This, along with her vivid descriptions and superb character development, really allowed me to immerse myself in her story. 

Another thing that I liked about The Killing Moon was its simple and well explained storyline. In fact, throughout the book the events and factors that influence Ehiru’s (and the other characters) decisions are clearly laid out. This is makes it easy to follow their progress througout the story and helps the book to read lightly as a whole. This is something I found particularly refreshing since I've been focusing on reading big series’ recently that drip feed information over a few books! 

The Bad 
The only issue I had with The Killing Moon was with a series of intermissions that Jemisin spaces throughout the novel, which do little to add to the plotline. An unknown character is speaking in these intermissions, who is apparently telling a story to another unknown person. I found that these breaks became slightly annoying after a while because they had little to do with the events unfolding in book. Saying that some of them were actually quite interesting, but I thought that overall, they detracted from the story and just seemed a little pointless. 

My Thoughts 
I enjoyed The Killing Moon though, and found that it had a fresher feel to it than many of the fantasies I've read lately. The book was a good length, so didn't take too long to read, and I have to say that I’ll be finishing the duology off with its sequel (The Shadowed Sun) fairly soon. I was impressed with it guys – you should definitely give The Killing Moon a go!

Tuesday 7 May 2013

The Mirror of the Moon - Travis Simmons

RATING: FOUR STARS 

Forming the second instalment of The Revenant Wyrd Saga, The Mirror of the Moon continues telling the story of Jovian, Angelica and Joya Neferis as they journey to rescue their sister, Amber, from the evil sorceress that has abducted her. The path they walk is every bit as perilous as that already behind them, and they must find strengths inside them that they never knew they had as they struggle to overcome the dark forces that seek to hinder them. 

Still led by Grace, a mysterious woman who seems to have a path fraught with dark secrets, the party soon begins to realise that the events that unfolding them involve more than just their sister’s life: the Well of Wyrding has been breached, tainting the magical ‘lifeblood’ of the world with evil; an army human-hating dwarves is stirring; the feared necromancer is rising; and the identity of the Mask has yet to be determined.

The Good 
As with its predecessor, The Bonds of Blood, Travis Simmons writes The Mirror of the Moon with a flair of imagination that few can rival. Throughout the book, he weaves a rich tapestry of the world surrounding the Neferis children and their escorts, building the cultures of those they meet to create a very realistic setting. This level of detail greatly added to my enjoyment of the book, placing their adventures into a developed context that I found really helped to reinforce the stakes of their adventure. 

The Bad 
One of the only problems I had while reading The Mirror of the Moon was that its pace often dropped. This is largely due to the vast distances covered on their adventure, which means that Simmons regularly had to move the characters away from a place before I felt it was 'right' for them to leave. As result, there are many passages of journeying that are well written, but are rather lacking in excitement! 

My Thoughts 
Overall though, I really enjoyed reading The Mirror of the Moon and think that Simmons has done another fantastic job. The Revenant Wyrd Saga is definitely a series that fantasy lovers should add to their reading lists!

Wednesday 1 May 2013

The Dragon Keeper - Robin Hobb

RATING: FOUR STARS 

The dragons of old have all but disappeared, and only the mighty Tintaglia remains to save her race. As the last queen, it is her duty to ensure that dragons survive in the world and she knows that she must help the diminishing handful of serpents to reach their cocooning grounds before the last of them perishes into memory. But even with the help of the rain wilders—mutated humans that live in acidic swamplands—she knows that the serpents have little change of emerging as dragons. They are too old, having spent far too long in the oceans where their bodies have grown weak and their minds have become warped. 

And so, when the young dragons emerge from their cocoons with monstrous deformities, they are abandoned by Tintaglia and the rainwilders must devise their own plan to deal with them. They know that they cannot hunt to sate the appetites of a pack of hungry dragons for long, and soon reach the decision to chaperone them to their fabled city of Kelsingra. It is hoped that here, the dragons will be safe and more of the lost secrets of the fabled Elderlings will be found. 

The Good 
One of the main things that impressed me about The Dragon Keeper was how realistic its characters were. And, after reading the book, I would say that Robin Hobb has a remarkable talent for developing characters in a very short space of time. This meant that before long, the people I was reading about began to feel like old friends in my imagination and I was really able to identify with them. Obviously, this greatly added to my enjoyment of the book and Hobb has certainly avoided the trap that many authors fall into where they mar a perfectly good story by creating a cast of bland characters. 

Another thing that I thought was great about the book was Hobb’s novel take on dragons. Rather than conforming to the standardised mythology of fire-breathing lizards, Hobb has altered her dragons to effectively create a new animal. Hobb’s dragons actually spit acid instead of fire, and have a complex life-cycle that involves them being born in the ocean as serpents and then metamorphosing into dragons like caterpillars do into butterflies. In addition to this, Hobb has also given her dragons a complex culture and bold personalities that really helps to bring their species/characters to life. 

The Bad 
Although The Dragon Keeper is light-hearted and very well written, I was surprised by how little actually happened in it in terms of events. At 553 pages, the book is not unusually long for fantasy, but much of the prose is just scene-setting and discussions that develop Trader culture. Don’t get me wrong, this is interesting to a degree and Hobb does an excellent job of using it to create a diverse world, but it slows the pace of the book down and much of the first half of the novel is actually pretty unnecessary. In my opinion, The Dragon Keeper could have lived up to its potential in terms of excitement much more if Hobb had condensed the waffle—leaving a book that is still culturally rich, but is much more exciting too. 

Another problem with The Dragon Keeper, which I guess is linked to its rather unnecessary length, is that it does not make for light reading. In fact, I frequently had to make sure that I had plenty of free time ahead of me before I even dared to open its pages! This is largely due to how Hobb writes—using very long chapters with few line breaks. In fact, the 553 pages of the book are split into just 17 chapters! Though I understand that, in all fairness, this criticism might just be me being overly fussy, I like to stop reading a book in natural breaks rather than putting it down midway through a passage like I often had to do! 

My Thoughts 
Overall though, I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Dragon Keeper and will certainly be continuing to read The Rain Wild Chronicles with Dragon Haven (its next instalment). The book is unarguably very imaginative and has a ‘fresh’ air about it that many works of fantasty lack. Due to this, I would certainly recommend it to any fan of the genre. (Although to be frank, I can see some ‘die hard’ dragon fans having an issue with Hobb’s interpretation of the animals that might put you off the book).