Release Date of Ridley Scott's 'The Martian' Is Announced!

The Martian by Andy Weir is one of my favourite books ever and is firmly placed on my Shelf of Fame. It's not just me who has recognised its quality and the book was actually voted the best science fiction novel of 2014 in the Goodreads Choice Awards! Without going into too much detail, which can be read in my review, the story outlines the struggles of Mark Watney when he is stranded alone on Mars. Presumed dead by his ship-mates, NASA and the peoples of Earth, Watney must use the scant resources available to him to produce food, water, oxygen and, ultimately, find a way to send a message back home . . .

You can understand then why I was excited to learn that Ridley Scott had taken an interest in the book when he announced that he would be adapting The Martian into a feature-length movie staring Matt Damon as Mark Watney. The book will undoubtedly adapt well to a film and it's original release date of March 2016 has recently been moved forward to 25th Novemeber 2015! This is a huge announcement for science fiction fans and Scott's The Martian will probably be one of the biggest sci fi films of the year! If you don't believe me, there's plenty of time to grab a copy of the book and see for yourself before the film is released!

Scott has now released the official trailer for the movie, along with two teaser trailers to wet our appetites:

Messenger's Legacy - Peter V. Brett

RATING: THREE STARS

Peter V. Brett continues The Demon Cycle and the story Mudboy (which was first published in Unfettered in 2013). Messenger's Legacy is set just after the events of The Daylight War and introduces a new character to the series, Briar Damaj. Born as a son of two people's, Briar Damaj is only a child when a tragic accident sees his family killed in a vicious Coreling attack. But rather than accept the help of his village, Briar flees into the wilderness and makes his home amidst a refuse dump where he must hone his physical and mental skills if he hopes to survive the demons that hunt there . . .

The Good
Messenger's Legacy provides an interesting insight into one of the series new characters and develops his background well, using the fact he personally knows Ragan, Arlen's mentor, to help develop his history in the story, rather than just introducing him as a random person. As well as this, Brett uses the story to reveal more about demon behaviour and introduces some new ways of fighting them in circumstances where warded weapons are not available.

The Bad
Sadly, Messenger's Legacy isn't quite as exciting as the other intermediary novellas Brett has written for The Demon Cycle and I would have liked to have read more about Arlen's past than anything (as in The Great Bazaar and Brayan's Gold). The story is lacking the same excitement seen in the others and, since many of the characters are new, it's hard to engage with them in the same way because the story isn't long enough for them to be developed fully.

My Thoughts
Messenger's Legacy is an interesting introduction for who is clearly going to be a prominent character in the later books of The Demon Cycle. It's definitely worth a read for any fan of the series and has really wet my appetite for The Skull Throne, which is due to be released on 9th April 2015 in the UK!

The Crimson Sword - Eldon Thompson

RATING: THREE STARS

Although King Sorl has driven Alson into the dust financially, it was a quiet and peaceful place. Jarom loved his life as the Farson of Diln and relished in the responsibilities of protecting his village. But the peace and tranquillity Jarom loves is shattered when an evil wizard invades Alson and lays siege to Kyrnwall. Even as the wizard's mercenaries raid and plunder the surrounding countryside, Jarom is charged with a great mission and, along with Allion, his best friend, heads to Kuuria to beg help from their aged emperor.

Yet things do not plan and a terrible evil has woken from its two thousand year slumber. A demon queen, forgotten by the ages, sees only weakness in the island continent of Pentania and decides the Age of Man is all but over. Her armies of dragonspawn ride out to bring the continent to its knees and Jarom knows that only one thing has the power to stop her - the fabled Crimson Sword, one of the great talismans the Ceilhigh Avatars used to forge the world . . .

The Good
Eldon Thompson has managed to create a story that is full of peril and adventure, which reads like cheesy, old-school fantasy (despite being written in the 2000's). I really enjoyed this 'feel' to the book and it was nice to read about a hero embarking on an epic quest to slay evil and save his home. The small size of Thompson's map also helps because it cuts down on the long, arduous travelling that fills many works of fantasy, allowing him to greatly increase the pace of the story so it's pretty much non-stop action all of the way through!

The Bad
I'm not going to say that The Crimson Sword is a bad book and I certainly enjoying reading it, but it did have a few problems that detracted from my enjoyment of the story. The first, and probably the worst one of these, was with Jarom, one of the main protagonists. Jarom's character was very passive, thoughtful and forgiving, which didn't really fit with him becoming a great hero and vicious warrior. Despite all that was happening to Pentania, he never really got angry about it and his motives for trying to save it were pretty much just to be noble and fulfil what he perceived to be his destiny. I found this slightly odd and didn't really think it was believable - anybody would be raging if their country has been assailed by armies of darkness that are going about slaughtering people and burning settlements to the ground!

The second issue I had with the novel was with its villains, who were very stereotypical. Thompson frequently had them being evil just for the sake of being evil, which authors such as George R. R. Martin have made me sceptical about by showing me that evil actions are usually committed due to a person acting in their own self interests rather than to harm people. In addition to this, all of his antagonists were frequently described as 'smirking,' 'sneering' and 'snickering.' This got old quite fast and I don't really think these expressions are ever much use in trying to portray wickedness in a character. No matter how evil someone is, would they really smirk after they've burnt down a village and slaughtered it's inhabitants? Would they really snicker when people are captured to be fed alive to dragonspawn? Sadly, I think this easily avoidable mistake made the story's antagonists pretty bland and unremarkable.

My Thoughts
Eldon Thompson has really let his imagination go wild when writing The Crimson Sword and has created an epic story where light faces darkness. The novel is fast-paced, exciting and I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for an immersing read. I can't wait to continue Jarom's adventures in the next book in The Legend of Asahiel, The Obsidian Key!

GRRM Releases Another Excerpt From 'The Winds of Winter'

George R. R. Martin has just released a new excerpt from his upcoming novel, The Winds of Winter, the next instalment of his popular and critically acclaimed series, A Song of Ice and Fire. Although this isn't quite as exciting as announcing a release date for the book, it's certainly interesting and provides a good teaser for the widely anticipated sequel.

The excerpt, which can be read on his website, features the Lady Alayne as the PoV character, who is apparently being forced into a political marriage. For obvious reasons, I don't know enough about the plot to speculate on this too much, but Lord Petyr Baelish is involved in the scene so the arrangement can't be good for Alayne! Anyway, never mind what I think and read the excerpt for yourself - afterall, it's only a click away!

A Crown of Swords - Robert Jordan

RATING: FIVE STARS

Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, is not a man to be trifled with as he grapples with madness and bears the weight of the world upon his shoulders. He has taken Tear, Cairhien and Andor, uniting their peoples and armies beneath his banners. Now he turns his attention to Illian and Sammael, the Forsaken who has taken up residence there. Rand has made his plans and it is time to for them to be put into motion. His armies of Aiel, knights, footsoldiers and Asha'man bear down on the city, either to their ruin of that of the forces of darkness , , ,

Even as Rand declares his latest war, Elayne of House Trakand continues her search for the Bowl of the Winds. The climate is only getting hotter and lands which should be seeing the first of winter's snows are arid and barren. Crops and forests are dying and, soon, the cities and free folk of the world will begin to starve. Along with Mat, Aviendha and Nynaeve, she continues her search for the relic in Arad Doman, a dangerous city that is ruled by knives and those skilled enough to wield them. But the city is on the coast and that itself brings other dangers. Eyes of ambition and conquest are turning there; the Seanchan are not defeated lightly.

The Good
Robert Jordan has continued to develop the tension from the previous book and he finally allows it to come to a head in A Crown of Swords. We get to read about Rand's plan to destroy Sammael and the break the hold he has over Illian in action! I think this has been a long time coming because Rand has spent the last few books holed up in the cities he had already taken. This did subtract from the excitement of The Wheel of Time a bit and it was nice to see the story pick up again!

Jordan has also begun to develop some of things that have only been mentioned so far, such as stasis boxes and the infamous gholam that even the Forsaken fear! He has introduced new characters of terrifying power that I think will help to heighten the danger of later books, mainly because the story's protagonists have become so powerful now that the Forsaken and Trollocks pose very little threat to them.

The Bad
Once again, I feel that the book was a little too long and it was very padded out with mundane matters that Jordan could have quite easily compressed without taking too much from the story. There are a lot of scenes where Rand is just stalking about one of his various palaces and the problems between Perrin and Faile and beginning to baffle me a bit since I can't really see where they are stemming from anymore, which has got slightly annoying! The story would have been faster and a bit more exciting without some of these scenes, but that's the only problem I had with the book really.

My Thoughts
Despite it's flaws, which aren't really major issues, A Crown of Swords is a superb book and Jordan has outdone himself once again! I found the book very difficult to put down and it was a real Godsend for some of the more boring physics lectures I was stuck in at university! I thoroughly recommend The Wheel of Time to any fan of epic fantasy and can't wait to continue the story in The Path of Daggers!

The True Cleverness of Harry Potter

Some authors are cleverer than others and although people often notice this, with it being evident in works like Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings, some series seem to be overlooked. One such series is Harry Potter and I recently read an article online that outlined 21 cases where J. K. Rowling had been exceedingly clever. She had made clear predictions about events that would happen later in the series and even revealed things about certain characters.

The article (which can be read here) is extremely interesting and is definitely worth a read by all of the Harry Potter fans out there!

Stardust - Neil Gaiman

RATING: FIVE STARS

Tristran Thorn is just an average boy from the Victorian-English village of Wall, which has an unparalleled history with Faerie - a world of magic and fantastical beings that most consider unnatural. Wall is aptly name for the great escarpments of stone that enclose it, but its once solid defences now contain a hole. Through this hole is a meadow and, through this meadow, is something else - a world that is filled with magic and things too strange to understand. It is through his hole and into this world, that Tristran must pass through on his search for the fallen star that will win the hand of his one true love . . .

The Good
Stardust is best described as a charming, light-hearted fairy tale that is written for adults, rather than children. Neil Gaiman has really shown why he is so acclaimed as a writer and I felt myself myself drawn into his strange story right from the first few pages. It is heart-warming and bold, being full of emotion and imagination as it tells Tristan's story in a way that makes the book extremely hard to put down!

I really felt for all of Gaiman's characters while I was reading the book and found myself routing for Tristan and the fallen star more and more as they make a whole host friends and allies during their adventure, Even the story's villains were relatable since none of them turned out to be truly evil and sought the fallen star in a world that was as vivid as it was strange.

The Bad
Honestly, I had nothing to fault with Stardust and really enjoyed reading it. That being said, the novella won't be for everyone: it is slightly strange, written in a polite, quirky manner and isn't about the classic struggle between good and evil as most works of fantasy are. Instead, it's a pleasant fairy tale about a young man who sets out on a quest to find a fallen star for the woman he loves. There is very little fighting and epic dialogue, which may not appeal to readers who are looking for an action-packed book filled with swords and evil on a terrifying scale.

My Thoughts
I am huge fan of 'heavy' fantasy like The Wheel of Time and The Lord of the Rings, and really enjoy books with heroes that struggle through adversity to fight for good beyond all call of reason. But there is something about Stardust that I really liked and it was one of the most heart-warming books I have read in a long time. Instead of great battles, the book is a story of love, greed and redemption. Gaiman really has done a fantastic job in writing it and I recommend that you give it a go. I have no doubt that this story will stay with me for a long, long time, even though I've finished it and moved onto books.