15th April, 2008
Middling to Pretty Darn Good
Cowl by Neal Asher.
I’ve turned into a bit of a Neal Asher fanboy lately. At least until I read Cowl. A stand-alone novel that takes place on Earth and deals with time travel. How to sum it up. Hmm. Oh, I know: yawn. Typically, time travel books aren’t my bag and this novel is certainly no exception. Tepid plot, boring characters; thankfully the book is relatively short (the trade paperback copy I read was around 300 pages). I’m still planning on checking out the rest of the Ian Cormac saga and the Spatterjay duo, but if you’re looking for another good Neal Asher read, this isn’t the place for you.
2.5/5 gogs.
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.
Mr. Lynch brings us a fantasy setting based around a group of thieves, the first book of (I think) a trilogy. The first part of the book was very enjoyable and featured some outstanding characters (The Thiefmaker and the Eyeless Priest) who unfortunately don’t play much of a role as the book progresses. The entire novel is essentially the tale of a grand heist blended with a tall tale (think Ocean’s Eleven), but comes out pretty readable. While it’s a bit difficult at times, swinging from less-than-serious hijinks to deadly serious scenes and back, I was fairly happy with it as a whole.
4/5 gogs.
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie.
Another rather good book by a new author. I’m not sure if there’s something in the water, but there seems to have been a definite spike in the number of good fantasy writers coming out lately. And this is the first book in a trilogy as well. I are happy.
Going from the blurbs on the book jacket, I was half-expecting Joe Abercrombie to be the next R.A. Salvatore – not that Salvatore is a horrible writer, but come on, one can only read so many descriptions of sword fights before getting a bit limp on the subject. Anyway, lucky for us, Abercrombie is not the second coming of Salvatore. Rejoice! He does write some engaging action scenes, but he has plenty else to offer the reader. Some really great characters, a world that, while still a little sparse at the moment, continues to be filled in as his tale continues and plenty of engaging writing. Oh, and did I mention his writing was engaging? Good. My only real complaint is his use of onomatopoeia (which Webster’s confirms as the correct spelling – go go useless trivia mind!) in his action scenes. Particularly, spelling out how someone grunts: “‘Gragh’, so-and-so grunted.” I don’t want to know how the author thinks the character should sound when grunting, I want that left up to my own imagination. I do hope that he discontinues this practice in his next book.
4.2/5 gogs (I would have rated it higher if not for the grunts. Those moments really annoyed the shit out of me.)
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