Cover Art Assumptions

I’ve been quite about the cover art for many months now, and this post isn’t going to end that quite (I’ve just been busy and uninspired). But, Jeff VanderMeer has an interesting post about cover art assumptions (perhaps exercise is a better word than post). It was fun and I look forward to seeing how things play out.

A Nice Reviews Index

Jeff over at the Fantasy Book News and Reviews blog has changed focus from the typical SFF-blog to more of a repository of information, specifically blog reviews. Apparently fatherhood has taken away most of his reading time (something I understand well with a 3½ month-old baby at home). So, he has a developed nice index that of authors and their books with links to reviews in the blogosphere. It’s still a work in progress, but it already looks good. The result will be something of a one-stop place to find out about a perspective book and author – hopefully he’ll be able to expand beyond fan-based blogs and build his index to include e-zines and other accessible places with SFF reviews.

Review: Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

I’ve had my eye on Brandon Sanderson for a while as an author that I want to read. When it was announced that he would complete Robert Jordan’s final Wheel of Time book, A Memory of Light, I finally got around to getting a hold of his Mistborn books. It remains to be seen how successful Sanderson will be with Jordan’s legacy, but Mistborn: The Final Empire is fantasy that gets it right.

Imagine a world where a prophesized hero rises from obscurity in opposition to a great destructive force. Now imagine said hero, victorious against the known threat, falls victim to a darkness, inviting 1000 years of brutal rule by an immortal dark lord. Imagine a world where the good guy lost.

Humanity subsists under the yoke of the Lord Ruler with a majority of the people forced into slavery. While numerically superior, these ‘skaa’ have been so long oppressed that hope itself is little more than a myth. Even the brutal nobility who lease the skaa from the Lord Ruler are subject to the Lord Ruler’s tyranny by enforcers of a dangerous bureaucracy under theocratic rule.

Vin, a talented skaa thief, barely survives a horrid existence in the slums of the empire’s central city. Kelsior, rumored Survivor of Hathsin, the inspirational leader of a successful team of high-society thieves and a powerful allomancer, has a new plan. His seemingly impossible plan is to rouse the skaa and overthrow the empire and its powerful, immortal Lord Ruler.

Sanderson really nails the characterization in this. Vin and Kelsior get the most screen time and development, yet even the minor characters are presented as whole. Even the cliché caricatures seem alive. Most authors can get one character right, a few can do more, but in fantasy its rare when the minor characters have soul.

The writing generally provides a fun, even quick feel about it that serves the story well. Descriptions are not overdone and info-dumps cleverly integrated. However the narrative flow stumbles at times. Third person perspective is the utilized point of view, and Sanderson concentrates on a few characters. Problems arise when he feels the need to show us more, introducing new and unexpected points of view very late into the story. A bit more seasoning will hopefully give him the tools to avoid such slips in the future.

One aspect of Sanderson’s world that appeals to me in particular is the magic system. Certain metals and their alloys have ‘magical’ powers when ‘burned’ by allomancers, also known as mistings. Most have the ability to burn just one metal, a rare few can use them all – the mistborn. As a geologist, any magic system with such a geologic foundation is going to get thumbs up from me.

Mistborn: The Final Empire is a story of hope in a hopeless world, the story of trust, of rising up, of sacrifice, and corruption. Its religious implications offer some of the most interesting thematic elements. A sage-like secondary character collects the memories of religions long lost to the Lord Ruler’s tyranny. Kelsior seeks inspiration from these extinct but not yet forgotten beliefs, Vin struggles with the point. While this might have been my favorite aspect of the book, it’s also the greatest unrealized potential. I wish there was more.

Mistborn: The Final Empire is the first book in Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy, but can easily be read as a stand-alone book. There is a clear beginning, middle, and end – things are mostly tied up at the conclusion, but the characters and the world will move on and have possibly greater things to do in the future – a future I plan to follow in Mistborn: The Well of Ascension and forthcoming book 3, Mistborn: The Hero of Ages. I highly recommend this for fans and potential fans of epic fantasy. 7.5/10

Related Posts: Review of The Well of Ascension, Review of The Hero of Ages, Review of The Mistborn Trilogy

Reap the Boredom

Near complete boredom combined with an inability to become motivated to do the actual work I should be at the moment have lead me the writing of this post that does little on its own, instead pointing to interesting discussion elsewhere.

The discussion of interest is this one over at Westeros where a question to simply rank 5 of the newer and more talked about (at least in certain circles) authors in epic fantasy. The authors under the gun are Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch, Patrick Rothfuss, Daniel Abraham, and Brian Ruckley.

I find this fascinating both because I have read and enjoyed 4 of the 5 authors (and interviewed 3 of the 5) and by the omission of (insert the author you feel should have been included) along side the demographic similarity of the 5.

I’m usually pretty bad with ranking pretty much anything, but in this case, there is a natural rank as I’ve felt about the books I’ve read from these authors.

1. Joe Abercrombie (my review)
   
2. Patrick Rothfuss (my review)
   
3. Scott Lynch (my review)
   
4. Brian Ruckley (my review)

I haven’t read anything by Daniel Abraham yet, but I do have a book on The Stack that I hope to get to in the next couple of months.

In my boredom, I decided to graph the results of the discussion so far (yes, I’m that bored and that geeky). When an author got ranked #1, I gave him 5 pts, #2 got 4, #3 got 3, #4 got 2, and 5 got 1. If someone hadn’t read the author no points were awarded, but it is noted. There were roughly 43 votes as I’m writing this and curiously all had read Abercrombie and Lynch, about a quarter had not read Rothfuss or Ruckley, and about a third haven’t read Abraham. The graph is below.

To give some perspective, if all 16 people who haven’t yet read Abraham gave him a 5, his score would jump to 145 – which is still about 13 points less than Abercrombie (though there would be a corresponding drop of 1 point in Abercrombie’s score for this to be the case, so it would put Abraham on top by 3 points). I mention this to give a bit of an idea of just how far out front Abercrombie is in this little discussion.

Another interesting aspect is the count of #1 votes - Abercrombie received 29 votes for number 1, which blew away everyone else. Lynch received 10 and Abraham 5. Neither Rothfuss nor Ruckley had a single number 1 vote in this informal pole/discussion.

I can’t wait to see what this does to Joe’s ego :D.

Review: The Traitor by Michael Cisco

Several ‘best of 2007’ lists include The Traitor by Michael Cisco and Jeff VanderMeer has said that Cisco is criminally underrated. This (along with the relatively modest page count of 152) really captured my interest, so I eagerly read The Traitor soon after purchasing a copy.

With first person narration, The Traitor tells the story of rare-named Nophtha, a soul-eater and member of a despised religious sect who works for an oppressive Empire. Noptha gives us some relative background and then jumps to his following of the dangerously eccentric soul-burner, Wite, a hunted fugitive and murderer.

Cisco fully realizes Noptha through his stark, repetitive, and even dull narration that maintains a poetic rhythm. Nophtha dances a line from justifying his actions to near insults of the reader and their inability to understand. The narration slowly builds to the end, where it becomes almost a manifesto of Wite’s, as written by Nophtha.

Ok, so here’s the real deal – Cisco is impressive with what he does; this is damn good writing. BUT, I did not like this book at all. As skillfully as The Traitor is presented, I simply could not get into it – this book bored me to no end.

You see one of the big reasons that I read is for entertainment. This isn’t the only reason, nor does it preclude me from appreciating a book for aspects that aren’t entertaining. Nothing about The Traitor entertained me. With all the wonderful realization of Cisco’s prose, it was dense, dull, and utterly uninteresting to me. By the time I reached the end of the book, where the crescendo should have me eagerly anticipating the climax and the perfect last line of the book, I didn’t care at all. I was left with joy that I had finished – that I no longer had to read this book.

Cisco is a writer who admits to challenging his readers – you have to bring something (perhaps as much as he brought himself) with you when reading his work. Some people will respond to this style of writing, some will not. I don’t shy away from a challenge in my reading (it’s one of the reasons why I happily chose to read The Traitor in the first place), but in this instance I was rewarded with a book that I did not appreciate.

I expect that many of you will enjoy The Traitor, even though it did not work for me at all. If it were a longer book, I’m certain I would not have bothered to finish. I wanted to like this book, and it probably deserves a better explanation as to why I didn’t like it, but this will have to suffice – I just found the book dull and completely uninteresting. Approach this book with caution; it’s not an easy read. My choice to stick to my rating system often caused difficulty and this book is one where I wish I had at least a two-score system that could adequately reflect the skill and success that Cisco does achieve with The Traitor as well as my complete aversion to it. 5/10

Review: The Lees of Laughter’s End by Steven Erikson

(n) lees: the sediment (dregs) from fermentation of an alcoholic beverage; the solid element which precipitates at the end of the fermentation; cells of dead yeast, pulp of berries and, in red wines, pips and grape-skin.

The Lees of Laughter’s End is the third published novella (second chronologically) by Steven Erikson that follows the horrifically strange and powerful duo, Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, and their inept manservant, Emmacipor Reese (known to the sailors as Mancy the Luckless). These novels take Erikson’s typical dark, gallows humor and turn it more sardonic and even absurd as these two enigmatic mages (at least one of which is psychotic) attract powerfully strange events.

Laughter’s End is a swath of ocean within Erikson’s Malazan world where nightmares come to life – it’s the place the huge and monstrous dhenrabi go to mate, where sharks that would dwarf Jaws both feed and flee the spoils. It’s a place where spirits of the dead have the power to rise, to become solid elements – particularly spirits bound to the iron nails ships are constructed from.

The Suncurl is a ship traveling The Wastes on its way from Lamentable Moll to the southern coast of Genebakis. The captain knows nothing of sailing and is accompanied by three deserter soldiers and a drunken first mate (who actually knows a bit sailing) as they flee Stratum for unknown reasons. In Lamentable Moll they took on a new crew and three passengers – Bauchelain, Korbal Broach, and Mancy the Luckless.

The Lees of Laughter’s End begins as the Suncurl is about to enter Laughter’s End and the horrors it will awaken. A creature new to Erikson readers – a lich – is raised and terrorizes the crew while Korbal Broach goes fishing with some interesting bait and lets his ‘child’ out its cage to ‘play’ with the lich – things begin to get bloody. Who will be the lees of this fermented mess?

Erikson has gift with names that is unmatched in The Lees of Laughter’s End and adds to the perfectly dark and sardonic prose. Gust Hubb, Birds Mottle, and Heck Urse are deserter soldiers who along with the rest of crew are subjected to a horrific chain of events, made comic in its random, pointlessness absurdity. First mate Ably Druther does indeed ‘druther’ ably and eventually meets an appropriate end. Briv the Cook’s helper, Briv the Carpenter’s helper, and Briv the rope braider inspire a running ‘who’s on first’ routine culminating in a scene with all three in the same place, epitomizing the dark and absurd hilarity of the novella.

Erikson’s novellas are great examples of short fantasy that could be accessible to any audience, but will be most appreciated by those familiar with his Malazan series. The price and limited nature of their release makes them difficult to come-by for the average reader, but if you have means or opportunity, I recommend take it – Erikson’s writing is better in short form than long and the humor is perfect for a mind like mine. The Lees of Laughter’s End easily equals Blood Follows and The Healthy Dead. 8/10

Related Posts: Interview with Steven Erikson, Reaper's Gale review, The Bonehunters review, Return of the Crimson Guard review, Crack'd Pot Trail Review

Review: Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan

In Altered Carbon, the debut novel by Richard K. Morgan, cyberpunk grows up, has a seedy affair at a whorehouse in ‘licktown’ and hires a private investigator to investigate its own murder. After that, things get nasty.

Altered Carbon introduces us to Morgan’s recurring hero, Takeshi Kovacs, an ex-military Special Forces officer (known as Envoys) with specialized training and conditioning making him both more and less than human. Kovacs has become something of a private investigator with a dislike of authority and law and a complicated moral code – just like any other hard-boiled private dick you’ve read about. The difference is in the setting – humankind has spread throughout the galaxy and conquered death through the use of direct digital download of person’s consciousness into a cortical stack implanted at the base of the brain that can transferred to a new body as needed (if you can afford it).

In Altered Carbon Kovacs is hired by a rich, powerful and long-lived man on Old Earth to determine if his client was murdered or committed suicide (death and the like can get a bit complicated when a backup consciousness can be stored).The resulting chain of events is typical of hard-boiled, noir stories – there’s a love interest or two (with somewhat graphic description), ass-kicking, past catching up, trouble with cops, trouble with organized crime, visits to whorehouses, drugs, sex, guns, knives, lasers, etc. All is told in colorful language, vivid description and around a twenty-fifth century setting reflective of our world but sufficiently advanced to be fascinating.

In many ways this is a ‘man’s book’ – there are lots of witty dialogue, ass-kicking fights, some gratuitous sex, and women are generally objectified while being limited to overly sexualized characters (admittedly, some of them do kick ass) – of course the guys are rarely caste in a very positive light either. This is a book that won’t appeal to all, and will likely find its biggest audience bearing a Y chromosome.

Kovacs is well characterized in the gritty-gray zone one would expect. He is dark, dangerous and comes with a scarred past that hasn’t healed completely. With his slightly psychopathic tendencies (the slight part is debatable), death and destruction is never all that far away.

I found Altered Carbon to be an immensely enjoyable and fun book to read without the usual stumbles first-time authors usually make. It’s a dark and dangerous world – definitely not a place you want to talk to your mother about. I can’t wait to read the further adventures of Kovacs in Broken Angels and Woken Furies. 8/10

D.A. by Connie Willis

I just posted my review of Connie Willis’ short story D.A. over at Fantasybookspot. This was a quick fun read in the usual beautiful package from Subterranean Press.

Oh and Happy New Year! *grumbles about being another year older now*

Review: Firefly Rain by Richard Dansky

Firefly Rain by Richard Dansky launches the new Wizards of the Coast Discoveries imprint featuring original speculative fiction works that cover a wide range of subjects. I stepped outside of my typical reading habits for this one – Firefly Rain is more horror-suspense and southern-gothic (or snowbird gothic as Dansky himself describes it) than the typical SFF I read. In many ways this is an enjoyable step back in time for me since I read a lot more within the horror genre (mostly Stephen King and Dean Koontz) when I was younger.

Jacob Logan is returning home and the vacant house and empty land deep in the Carolina countryside are the last place he wants to be. His last visit was to bury his mother along side his father and he hopes this visit will be equally brief. Jacob immediately notices a few oddities as his luck turns even worse – things just don’t feel right. Encounters with Carl, the particularly surly groundskeeper and equally surly local cops only add to his worries has he struggles with the ghosts of his past.

Firefly Rain takes two of the more common horror tropes – estranged relations with family and the creepy small town – and writes a really decent story with them (well, there’s a third common trope but I’ll leave that out here). It reads fast and the descriptive prose captures the dark and threatening mood of the story well while interjecting just the right amount of humor at the right times. Dansky really shines in his portrayal of the small southern town with friendly hospitality laced with a distrust of outsiders and a sharp word for superior-minded city-folk.

Told in a first-person point of view, a lot of time is spent getting into the mind of Jacob. As a result, Jacob’s character is presented well, though it left me wanting more. The estranged relationship with his parents lies at the heart of things, but we are never given very convincing reasons why. I suppose it could be viewed positively that Dansky didn’t feel the need to go over the top and throw all sorts of horrifying abuses at Jacob’s childhood, but I did find myself questioning why things seemed so bad to Jacob.

With the concentration on Jacob, the supporting cast is regulated to little more than caricatures that manage to serve their roles well. In an all-too predictable way, every person we are introduced to has an eventual role to play. It could be considered efficiency, but it rubbed me a bit wrong in the ‘everybody really is out to get me’ kind of way.

The plot moves forward adequately, with the best parts of the book coming in the more descriptive aspects. At times you could feel the oppressive wet heat of the south and the lightening-quick change of weather that a storm can bring. It had me remembering the ominous feeling you can get when visiting that distant relative in the country and their creepy old house – where my city car gets stuck on the road or a flat tire in the mud.

Firefly Rain was a quick and refreshing change of pace from my usual fair. I enjoyed it quite a bit in spite a couple flaws and have no trouble recommending it to most any audience. It’s a decent debut for Wizards of the Coast Discoveries and I look forward to seeing what comes next. 7/10

Review: Shadowbridge by Gregory Frost

As I struggled to figure out just where to start this review, I continually found myself thinking on how some other people have reacted to Shadowbridge by Gregory Frost. In this world of on-line reviews, Shadowbridge has so far provoked a wide-range of reactions. Patrick St.-Denis couldn’t even finish the book while Jay Tomio singles it out as one of the best of the year. I read the whole book, so I obviously thought more of it than Pat did, but I can’t claim to have enjoyed it enough to be throwing it on any best-of lists…yet.

Shadowbridge is a story about stories and a world’s greatest story-teller in particular. It’s a world made up of endless bridges, with each of the countless spans a magical world unto its own – related to and inspired by other spans, yet unique. A young woman, Leodora, is developing into the world’s greatest storyteller, surpassing even the father she never knew. She runs from the tyranny of her past, seeking to know and tell all the world’s myths through her shadow-puppetry while reconciling with a lack of knowledge of the past.

Literally and thematically, Shadowbridge is a world of bridges. Jay delves into this more eloquently and completely than I could hope to, so I won’t go into much detail. Suffice to say that this is a book of bridges – the characters are bridges, the world is made of bridges, the focus is on the bridge, the change, the journey, but and the beginning and end of these bridges may be as important as the bridges themselves.

The plot itself is a rather strait-forward example of a young orphaned woman escaping her past under the guidance of a paternal figure who knew her parents. There are the expected hints of mysterious and sinister events in her parents’ lives that appear to be catching up with Leodora and her companions. She is the abused orphan who finds greatness and appears to be the key to a much larger plot. While my description of the framing arc is less than flattering, it is both serviceable and interesting – told with skill allows for deeper revelations of our storyteller’s stories.

The prose is economically poetic in its frame of stories within stories. Just as The Old Man and the Sea is not just about a man fishing in a boat, the myths, legends, stories of Shadowbridge offer much more than initially meets the eye, often of a decidedly disturbing nature. It’s the thematic depth of these stories and their interlacing with the over-arcing plot that highlight the ambitions and strengths of Shadowbridge.

Frost approaches his worldbuilding from a different angle – through the myths of the people and Leodora’s stories while honoring the relative ignorance and mystery of his main characters. This approach contrasts with the typical epic fantasy with its pages of detail and various methods of infodumping. It is refreshing to see a well-written fantasy book at only 272 pages– of course this is a duology that easily could have been published as a single volume, which is annoying to a paying audience.

Surficially, Shadowbridge is seemingly strait-forward and even plain in its execution, though it’s told with skillful and poetic prose. It’s the depth beyond the surface that provides a hint of genius and a sense of powerful understanding. The problem is that Shadowbridge is not complete – for the time being, it’s a bridge to nowhere. The concluding sequel, Lord Tophet, will be published in summer ’08 and should bring a conclusion to a potentially great story. I won’t anoint Shadowbridge with either greatness or mediocrity until I can see how Frost brings it all together – however, the potential is vast. For that reason, this book is particularly tough to rate – it deserves a good rating with skill of its telling and wonderful set-up it provides, but it is incomplete without its second half. Therefore, it gets something of a cop-out at 7.5 – it could be over 8, but if the concluding volume doesn’t produce, Shadowbridge will suffer for it.

Related Posts: Review of Lord Tophet

Year in Review – 2007

It’s been a great year of reading. I did not read as much as I’d have liked – I expect by year’s end I’ll number just short of 40 books read this year. Out of those 40 or so books, most have been books I’d happily recommend, but there’s always a desire to single out the year’s best. Below are my top 11 for 2007 – why 11, because I like it better than 10 (top 11 for 2006). These are presented in no particular order and I’ve starred 2007 releases – enjoy!

Neth Space’s Top 11 Reads for 2007

Bangkok Tattoo by John Burdett (review). The second adventure of Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep of the Royal Thai Police provides a unique view on so many aspects of western culture from the east. I simply love these stories – I also really enjoyed *Bangkok Haunts (review).

Vellum by Hal Duncan (review). Started in 2006 and finished in 2007, this book is numerically speaking, the highest rated book I’ve read since starting this blog. The language is beautiful in ways that genre books rarely show and story can be powerfully evocative.

*Mainspring by Jay Lake (review). This book debuted with mixed reviews and widely different interpretations – some have seen religious allegory (both positive and negative) and others something else entirely. It is a unique vision of a steampunk earth with God’s creation obvious to all. I include this book because it made me think – possibly more so than any other book I read this year – and that is a powerful thing.

*The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie (review). I simply love this first book of The First Law trilogy. It is epic fantasy that does very little that is new or original – but, it’s all about the execution. Abercrombie laughs at maps and detailed world building while putting all his emphasis on the characters – and they are great characters. It’s written with more wit than most writers use in their entire career.

*The Metatemporal Detective by Michael Moorcock (review). These are the collected stories of Moorcock’s detective Seaton Bregg and his nemesis through the multiverse, Count Zenith. It’s an homage to pulp mysteries of the past, often presented with biting satire, and full of fun for those who have been following Moorcock’s multiverse (and perfectly safe for those who, like me, haven’t). Moorcock is a master writer that any lover of books should read.

*The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (review). This book debuted to huge amounts of buzz and tremendous support from its publisher – it deserves every bit of it in my opinion. It’s a wonderfully told story that engages the reader in a way that few books do.

*Feast of Souls by C.S. (Celia) Friedman (review). Another first book of a new trilogy (three of these recommendations are), and another great introduction. Friedman has been at this for a while and delivers a wonderful set-up with an intriguing magic system and a gritty take on gender relations (yes, I used the word gritty – just not where you typically see it these days).

*New Amsterdam by Elizabeth Bear (review). A wonderfully told mosaic novel set in an Elizabethan, steampunk world. Framed with Sherlockian mysteries, New Amsterdam is a character study of two courtesans and their master, an immortal and two mortals, two men and woman, two respected investigators and a youth – it all depends on the point of view.

*Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling (review). A completed series is a wonderful thing – and this is probably the most anticipated series completion in human history. I was amazed to Rowling deal with this unprecedented level of pressure and deliver what I consider to be a great conclusion to her landmark a series.

*The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski (review). Polish master fantasist Sapkowski delivers a powerful mosaic introducing his protagonist of the Witcher Saga. Image fairy tales retold from the distinctive point of view of the Slavic world – you’re only part of the way there.

Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock (review). This World Fantasy Award-winning novel has justifiably become a classic of fantasy literature. Evoking a deep, primal reaction from within the reader, I cannot recommend this book enough.

* Released in 2007

Mind Melded

The folks over at SF Signal have a long-running feature – The Mind Meld – where they pose a single question to a group of invited participants in the SFF world. Somehow I was chosen as one of the bloggers in a group including editors and authors. It was a lot of fun and I encourage you all to go read – some of the answers might just surprise you. Participants include David G. Hartwell, James Patrick Kelly, John Joseph Adams, Paul Raven, Alan Beatts, Niall Harrison, and Larry of the OF Blog of the Fallen.

The question posed was

From your point of view, how has the proliferation of online book reviews affected the publishing world?

Some of excerpts include

Online reviewing at this point is a hopeful mess…
-David Hartwell

Everyone wants something different from a book …and the anarchic economics of internet publishing mean that all those needs can be supplied in proportion to demand.
-Paul Raven

At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter what publishers, booksellers, authors or reviewers think of a book.
-Alan Beatts

…when was the last time you saw Gary Wolfe reviewing Steven Erikson or Kate Elliott?
-Niall Harrison

…it may mean a sort of Darwinian fight in the near future to see which blogs are best qualified…
-Larry of OF Blog of the Fallen

How about that for a self-serving, pretentious answer?
-Ken of Neth Space

Isn’t it great to see quotes taken out of context?

Brandon Sanderson to Finish Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time

Via SFScope

Tor has announced in Publisher’s Weekly that Brandon Sanderson will finish A Memory of Light, the final book in Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series.

Tor Books announced today that novelist Brandon Sanderson has been chosen to finish writing the final novel in Robert Jordan’s bestselling Wheel of Time fantasy series. Jordan—described by some as Tolkien’s heir—died Sept. 16 from a rare blood disease. The new novel, A Memory of Light, will be the 12th and final book in the fantasy series which has sold more than 14 million copies in North America and more than 30 million copies worldwide. The last four books in the series were all #1 New York Times bestsellers.
(full article)

Sanderson mentions it on his blog as well and points to discussion on his forum. He is also interviewed about it on Dragonmount. I imagine, it’ll see quite a bit of discussion soon enough. For me, it means the book wasn’t in as good of shape as I had hoped, but with Jordan’s fight with illness, it was colossal effort for him to do what he did manage. I figured if anybody other than Jordan’s wife (also his editor) or assistant got the job it would be Sanderson – mainly because he wanted the job (or seemed to anyway).

Rating Trends

In all honesty, I’m not a big fan of giving numeric ratings in reviews even though I have chosen to do so. There are so many factors that go into what makes a book good, bad, week, strong…that it is really unfair to sum it all up in a single number between 0 and 10. Just look at the books I’ve reviewed and rated – two books that are vastly different will score the same.

All that complaining aside, ratings do provide some useful information for some people. And they allow for me to geek out and look at things through a statistical lens. The chart below shows the distribution of ratings for the 78 books and series I’ve reviewed since starting this blog. It’s interesting to see some of the trends that are evident.


As I’ve described elsewhere, I have some general guidelines as to what the ratings mean and I’ve included them on the above chart. Simply said, below 5 is bad, between 5 and 7.5 is good with some reservations, and above 7.5 is great. Since I ultimately choose the books I read, and I only rarely read a book that I’m not already pretty sure I’ll enjoy, the ratings are skewed significantly toward the good and great end of things. But looking at the data trends makes me think that a better division of the ratings might be what’s shown in the chart below. While I’ll still aim to rate as I always have, I think that I’ll have to keep this distribution in mind as it just might more accurately reflect my feelings.


Anyway, I hope that people out there might actually find all this interesting – I know I did.

Review: Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock

World Fantasy Award (1985) winning Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock represents a departure from the traditional epic fantasy of its day with elements of science fiction and historical fiction while imbuing an atmosphere all its own. Defying easy categorization, it explores the mythos of humanity in a setting eerily recognizable and reminiscent of something more primal in origin.

Steve Huxley returns from the Second World War to his home in rural England, located at the edge of an untouched, wild wood that has long fascinated his family. His father, a source of familial strife due to his obsession with the wood, has died while Steve was away at war. Christian, Steve’s older brother, has since explored his father’s research into the wood and become more like his father than Steve could have imagined.

The Rhyope Wood is the source of a mysterious energy that creates people and creatures out of the myths of humankind (called mythagos) – particularly myths of British soil like Robin Hood, King Arthur and others long lost from modern memory. Through the proximity of the family home to the Rhyope, the wood’s influence brings obsession, love, pain and death, and ultimately inspires a journey into its ancient, haunted heart where the mythagos have myths of their own.

From the start of Mythago Wood Holdstock reaches into the primal heart of the reader, drawing them into his imagined ghost wood filled with myths remembered and not. The wood itself becomes a dominating character bringing about the realization of just how powerful of a force primeval forests were in ancient times. As someone who traces the majority of their ancestry to that part of the world, there is a sense of this coming being of my past – these mythagos are my own.

Having inspired such a deep connection remarkably early in the book, Holdstock proceeds to tell an inspired tale – a modern myth all its own. Solitary Steve reflects often and subtly on the familial rivalry dominating his past and present while he is seemingly destined to love one of the forest’s mythagos, as did his father and brother before him. The resulting modern sibling rivalry follows the path of myth, as ancient as the myth they both pursue.

Much can be taken from the many of the aspects of Mythago Wood – in some ways it reads as a series of myths, tales, and parables framed by more myths, tales, and parables. Questions are presented, rather than asked and reflected upon more than answered. Contemplation is the result – hopefully lacking the compulsive quality of the book’s characters.

The haunting beauty of Mythago Wood is wonderfully realized as it penetrates to primeval heart of the Britain. The World Fantasy Award it won is well deserved and this timeless tale is as relevant today as it was 20 years ago. 8/10