4th December, 2007
More Books
Been busy with things. Not too busy to read, but too busy to write (and not feeling very creative to boot). Nevertheless, I soldier on.
Shaman’s Crossing and Forest Mage by Robin Hobb
These books contain what is perhaps a parable, although it remains to be seen how the series will wrap up. Essentially, Hobb has created a Puritanical society hell-bent on ‘civilizing’ a race of nature communing “savages”. I’m not sure if she is basing her story on events that occurred centuries ago or if there is the intent of a modern-day warning - maybe both, who knows. What I do know is that the world and its characters are fleshed out well as is typical of her writing, although there isn’t as much in the story to really pull you in like I felt with the Liveship Traders trilogy. That being said, I found that the second book, Forest Mage, was more enjoyable than the first, Shaman’s Crossing. Decent reading if you liked her previous works.
Shaman’s Crossing: 3.5/5 gogs. Forest Mage 4/5 gogs.
Dread Empire’s Fall: The Praxis by Walter Jon Williams.
Hmm. Another military sci-fi series that is heavy on the action and not so heavy on the character development. Definitely better than the drivel put out by Jack Campbell, but not even close to the efforts of David Drake in his Hammer’s Slammers series (which are quite good, btw, you should check them out if you haven’t already). A decent read, but nothing special. I’ll probably grab the next book in the series.
3/5 gogs.
Bright of the Sky by Kay Kenyon.
A bit of a slow starter, this sci-fi novel ended with a lot of promise for what may come in future installments of the Entire and the Rose series (this is book one). A bit of a mixed bag as far as characters go, the book takes place in two parallel universes: “our” future universe and the “Entire” universe. The majority of the book takes place within the Entire and the characters found within are pretty well-rounded for the most part. Where the book falls short is in our own universe (The Rose), not much time is spent here and the characters suffer because of it. We’ll have to wait and see how future volumes turn out.
3.8/5 gogs.
The Blood Knight by Greg Keyes.
The third book in the Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series.
Switching back to fantasy… Thus far, this book has been the weakest of the series, yet still strong in its entirety. The ending seemed a bit rushed, but I found the book to be satisfactory overall. This is a pretty good epic fantasy series to check out if you’re into that sort of thing.
3.8/5 gogs.
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