I lucked out with the Powder Mage Trilogy. I didn't start listening to them until after all three had been published, so I can read them whenever I want. It's pretty convenient. I'm pacing myself a little bit so I don't get completely saturated with the series and start to dislike it for that reason rather than any fault in the books themselves. Anyway, here goes.
Title: The Crimson Campaign
Author: Brian McClellan
Format: Audio
A month or so after the finish of the first book, we return to our characters. Tamas has joined the front, ready to lead his army to another crushing victory over the Kez. He plans a ambush with his two elite battalions only to find all his plans no long matter due to a new type of warden. Instead of destroying the Kez he and his battalions are force to flee across enemy territory to try to reenter Adro before the Kez destroy everything in their path. Taniel, the god-killer, has resorted to keeping himself in a constantly drugged state to try to forget the past few months, but once his father goes missing Taniel is called back to the front as the last hope of the Adran army. Meanwhile, Inspector Adamat has only two goals left in his life: to find his wife and child and to make Lord Vetas pay. Of course nothing is ever so easy. There are traitor's and double crossings and every sort of machination imaginable. Then there's always the question of: is it even possible to kill a god?
This is a good series. I enjoy the premise, the characters are entertaining, and the plot is complex but followable. One thing that many fantasy novels struggle with is the suspension of disbelief. An author must determine how far they can take characters and ideas without having their readers through their hands up in frustration and say "this is too much." McClellan has walked this line perfectly so far, invoking gods, guns, and magic, while making the reader not only believe that all of this is possible in his world, but that it all makes sense. I worry with a development near the end of the book that he may be starting to cross that line, but we shall see what happens in the Autumn Republic.
This book is slightly weaker than the previous book. The main reason I can cite is that the start of the book did drag a little bit. We knew the characters already, but it still took a while to catch up with what had happened since the previous book and to establish where each character would go. Once the story took off, it was fantastic, but it took McClellan just a little too much time to get there. The other potential flaw I've found is McClellan usage of female characters. There are many, and luckily their femininity is not their defining characteristic, but few are truly center stage. Nila, a character returning from the first book, is the only female whose perspective we see are given. Sadly she is also the least interesting and most frustrating female we've been exposed too. It is unfortunate that she is the most visible example when there are many better options to choose from.
That aside, I still think the book is great. One of my favorite aspects is that McClellan took the opportunity to expand, both geographically and in terms of characters. Rather than remaining in Adro and the mountains we get to explore Kez, Additionally we meet a host of new characters. Some are mentioned only briefly to help move the plot, but there are many more who are well thought out and intriguing, and I hope to learn more of them. A philosophy I hold to in writing is to never treat a character as if they are secondary or unimportant. They should have a story that they are the main character in. We may not get to see this story, but it stills adds a logic and reality to the characters motives and actions. McClellan embraces this concept and so we have a plethora of relatable figures.
Anyone who liked the first one will also enjoy this one. Of course, read them in order.
8/10
Showing posts with label characters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label characters. Show all posts
Thursday, April 9, 2015
Monday, March 16, 2015
Needful Things
Stephen King is one of the best known authors of our time. His works have been adapted for television and movies, many of which are well respected and even award winning. He attacks various topics from innumerable directions. I had read the first two books in the Dark Tower series and had given up, but I'd heard from many that those were different from his other work, so, when I saw Needful Things at a used book sale I decided to give it a try.
Title: Needful Things
Author: Stephen King
Format: Book
Time to Finish: 34 days
I read the introduction and first chapter and was hooked. The stories revolves around the small town of Castle Rock, Maine, where a new business has opened. It is called Needful Things, and sells exactly what you're looking for, but at a price. Part of the price is to play a trick on someone else, but the tricks, seemingly innocent at first become more and more dastardly and harmful. Soon the town is in chaos and watching it all is Mr. Gaunt, the proprietor of this new shop.
The solid premise, and King's writing is good enough to not distract most readers from the content. He's the problem with the book: being hooked for the first twenty pages does not guarantee you will devour the 630. I, in fact, did not. About 250 pages into the story I was ready to be done with the book, but was too stubborn to completely give up on it. I can read a 700 pages book and enjoy every word (A Song of Ice and Fire, King Killer Chronicles, Acacia) because often those books are developing a few characters very well, allowing them to endear themselves to the reader. In this doorstop of a novel, King spends his pages creating brief caricatures so that...SPOILERS...he could kill them a few minutes later. It's extremely tiresome and makes it so that you could not care less what actually happens to most of the characters. Creating a character 500 pages in for the sole purpose of killing some one and/or dying is lazy and meaningless to the story at large. The reader becomes so jaded about these people and their forced in stories that they are wont to roll their eyes and moan, "not another one." The multitude of undeveloped killable characters means that there is no emotional investment, and without that, readers start to wonder why they even bother. For me it was stubbornness, others may just worship Stephen King. Regardless, I'd say give this book a pass. It's not scary, creepy, or horrifying, but most tragically, it's not even interesting.
3/10
Title: Needful Things
Author: Stephen King
Format: Book
Time to Finish: 34 days
I read the introduction and first chapter and was hooked. The stories revolves around the small town of Castle Rock, Maine, where a new business has opened. It is called Needful Things, and sells exactly what you're looking for, but at a price. Part of the price is to play a trick on someone else, but the tricks, seemingly innocent at first become more and more dastardly and harmful. Soon the town is in chaos and watching it all is Mr. Gaunt, the proprietor of this new shop.
The solid premise, and King's writing is good enough to not distract most readers from the content. He's the problem with the book: being hooked for the first twenty pages does not guarantee you will devour the 630. I, in fact, did not. About 250 pages into the story I was ready to be done with the book, but was too stubborn to completely give up on it. I can read a 700 pages book and enjoy every word (A Song of Ice and Fire, King Killer Chronicles, Acacia) because often those books are developing a few characters very well, allowing them to endear themselves to the reader. In this doorstop of a novel, King spends his pages creating brief caricatures so that...SPOILERS...he could kill them a few minutes later. It's extremely tiresome and makes it so that you could not care less what actually happens to most of the characters. Creating a character 500 pages in for the sole purpose of killing some one and/or dying is lazy and meaningless to the story at large. The reader becomes so jaded about these people and their forced in stories that they are wont to roll their eyes and moan, "not another one." The multitude of undeveloped killable characters means that there is no emotional investment, and without that, readers start to wonder why they even bother. For me it was stubbornness, others may just worship Stephen King. Regardless, I'd say give this book a pass. It's not scary, creepy, or horrifying, but most tragically, it's not even interesting.
3/10
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Monster Hunter International
I listened to this book a few years ago, and noticed that the most recent book in the series had been getting some press. I was in between books, so I figured that I'd give it another listen.
Title: Monster Hunter International
Author: Larry Correia
Format: Audio
Time to Finish: 12 days
The book follows Owen Pitt, an accountant, whose boss transforms into a werewolf and attacks him. He barely survives the encounter and is recruited to join MHI, Monster Hunters International. They are a group of skilled monster hunters for hire. It turns out that monsters are not only real, there are a lot of them and there's good money to be made hunting them. The big enemies for this story is a powerful being known as the Cursed One, who has bent a number of master vampires to his will. It's up to a reluctant alliance between government monster hunters and MHI to stop him before he fulfills his prophecy to "breaks time" and ends the world.
Oof, this story does not hold up to a second reading. In all honesty, I only finished because I wanted an opportunity to write my first negative review.
That said, I actually gave some thought to why this book seemed terrible this time around and came to a few conclusions. The first is that this book is pure gun porn. Correia was a fire arms instructor before becoming an author, and I think it's safe to say he's a bit of a gun nut. This becomes apparent very early on with intimate, loving descriptions of every firearm imaginable. It's kind of cool at first, but for those who do not believe guns are man's greatest invention, the weapon worship becomes tiresome. The book would likely be forty pages shorter without that content.
The second thing I realized is that this the book equivalent of a B-movie. Not a good B-movie that borders on becoming a quality movie, just a story of simple characters doing very predictable things. As one would expect, it's chock full of corny lines and over the top action scenes, but there's very little substance or heart to the story. This didn't seem like a problem, especially as early on the book is a bit tongue in cheek about how ridiculous some of it is. Sadly, as the story progresses this self-effacing sense of humor disappears and all we're left with is a cheesy plot taking itself much too seriously.
Probably the worst aspect is the characters themselves. Rather than deep, meaningful individuals, none of them has any depth. Instead we are left with caricatures and mediocre ones at that. The women are beautiful the men are defined by one feature and the goodguy always gets the girl. We know all these things to be true, so there's no sense of risk or urgency at any point of the story.
Don't get me wrong, parts of the story were fun and enjoyable, those just didn't do close to enough to salvage the book.
4/10
Title: Monster Hunter International
Author: Larry Correia
Format: Audio
Time to Finish: 12 days
The book follows Owen Pitt, an accountant, whose boss transforms into a werewolf and attacks him. He barely survives the encounter and is recruited to join MHI, Monster Hunters International. They are a group of skilled monster hunters for hire. It turns out that monsters are not only real, there are a lot of them and there's good money to be made hunting them. The big enemies for this story is a powerful being known as the Cursed One, who has bent a number of master vampires to his will. It's up to a reluctant alliance between government monster hunters and MHI to stop him before he fulfills his prophecy to "breaks time" and ends the world.
Oof, this story does not hold up to a second reading. In all honesty, I only finished because I wanted an opportunity to write my first negative review.
That said, I actually gave some thought to why this book seemed terrible this time around and came to a few conclusions. The first is that this book is pure gun porn. Correia was a fire arms instructor before becoming an author, and I think it's safe to say he's a bit of a gun nut. This becomes apparent very early on with intimate, loving descriptions of every firearm imaginable. It's kind of cool at first, but for those who do not believe guns are man's greatest invention, the weapon worship becomes tiresome. The book would likely be forty pages shorter without that content.
The second thing I realized is that this the book equivalent of a B-movie. Not a good B-movie that borders on becoming a quality movie, just a story of simple characters doing very predictable things. As one would expect, it's chock full of corny lines and over the top action scenes, but there's very little substance or heart to the story. This didn't seem like a problem, especially as early on the book is a bit tongue in cheek about how ridiculous some of it is. Sadly, as the story progresses this self-effacing sense of humor disappears and all we're left with is a cheesy plot taking itself much too seriously.
Probably the worst aspect is the characters themselves. Rather than deep, meaningful individuals, none of them has any depth. Instead we are left with caricatures and mediocre ones at that. The women are beautiful the men are defined by one feature and the goodguy always gets the girl. We know all these things to be true, so there's no sense of risk or urgency at any point of the story.
Don't get me wrong, parts of the story were fun and enjoyable, those just didn't do close to enough to salvage the book.
4/10
Monday, March 9, 2015
Promise of Blood
I started reading this book because a Goodreads book club I am in assigned it for March. Of course no one has commented on it other than me saying I liked the beginning. Hopefully as the month progresses I'll get to talk about it more.
Title: Promise of Blood
Author: Brian McClellan
Format: Audiobook
Time to Finish: 6 days
This is a very good book, without a doubt the best I've encountered for some time. The book is set in a magical fantasy realm in a region known as the Nine. The Nine refer to the Nine Kingdoms of the area, each of which is ruled by a king and his Privileged Cabal (privileged is the word for magician). The nine is also symbolic as the kingdoms were created by the Nine Gods, whose church is a major power in their own right with millions followers. One of the Nine, the kingdom of Andro, is ruled by a weak king, and the powdermage (Powermages are another sort of magician who use gunpowder to fuel their magic) Field Marshal Tamas organizes a coup. Sadly, no character can be trusted and soon what should have been a quick bloody coup has repercussions beyond anyone's wildest imagination.
The story primarily follows three characters. The first of these is Tamas as he tries to rule his new kingdom and keep the peace. The second is Taniel, Tamas' son, as he is tasked with killing a mysterious privileged whose power is beyond anything he comprehends. The third is Adamat, a retired police officer asked by Tamas to investigate the meaning of the dying words of Royal Cabal.
The setting and technology are similar of that to of late 1800's with non-automatic guns galore.
It's hard to explain why this book stands out from many other fantasy series. The magic is certainly unique and entertaining, especially after the reader learns exactly how it all works. And the book is well written, with moments of comedy, action, and suspense all interwoven into a fun and compelling narrative.
Probably the most important aspect of this story, and I would argue of any story, is the characters. McClellan creates three men all of whom have a military background, and two of whom are powdermages. It would be easy for the characters to all seem exactly the same, but that is not the case. Instead they are individually fleshed out and their personal motivations are separate and equally compelling. While there are similarities, each has his own strong identity and is likeable enough to make the reader care about him and his story.
All in all, this is a great book about magic, religion, revenge, honor, and everything in between. Any fan of fantasy, especially those who like guns and war will love this book.
9/10
Title: Promise of Blood
Author: Brian McClellan
Format: Audiobook
Time to Finish: 6 days
This is a very good book, without a doubt the best I've encountered for some time. The book is set in a magical fantasy realm in a region known as the Nine. The Nine refer to the Nine Kingdoms of the area, each of which is ruled by a king and his Privileged Cabal (privileged is the word for magician). The nine is also symbolic as the kingdoms were created by the Nine Gods, whose church is a major power in their own right with millions followers. One of the Nine, the kingdom of Andro, is ruled by a weak king, and the powdermage (Powermages are another sort of magician who use gunpowder to fuel their magic) Field Marshal Tamas organizes a coup. Sadly, no character can be trusted and soon what should have been a quick bloody coup has repercussions beyond anyone's wildest imagination.
The story primarily follows three characters. The first of these is Tamas as he tries to rule his new kingdom and keep the peace. The second is Taniel, Tamas' son, as he is tasked with killing a mysterious privileged whose power is beyond anything he comprehends. The third is Adamat, a retired police officer asked by Tamas to investigate the meaning of the dying words of Royal Cabal.
The setting and technology are similar of that to of late 1800's with non-automatic guns galore.
It's hard to explain why this book stands out from many other fantasy series. The magic is certainly unique and entertaining, especially after the reader learns exactly how it all works. And the book is well written, with moments of comedy, action, and suspense all interwoven into a fun and compelling narrative.
Probably the most important aspect of this story, and I would argue of any story, is the characters. McClellan creates three men all of whom have a military background, and two of whom are powdermages. It would be easy for the characters to all seem exactly the same, but that is not the case. Instead they are individually fleshed out and their personal motivations are separate and equally compelling. While there are similarities, each has his own strong identity and is likeable enough to make the reader care about him and his story.
All in all, this is a great book about magic, religion, revenge, honor, and everything in between. Any fan of fantasy, especially those who like guns and war will love this book.
9/10
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