Review: The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan and finished by Brandon Sanderson

Note on Spoilers: Nothing in this review is what I would consider a spoiler. Plot specific details are not revealed, however larger arcs are briefly discussed.

 

Setting out to write a review for a series can be daunting. When the series is fourteen books long (not counting one prequel), published over a period of 20 years, counts millions of sales, and invokes a huge range of very passionate opinions, it is even harder to review. But in large part because of the impact that this series has had on my personally over the past 19 years, I am attempting to write this daunting review, in the process opening up personal feelings, tackling some of the controversies of the series, embracing my love for the series, it’s meaning for me, and trying to not let that blind me to its weaknesses.

  

Please humor me while go back to the beginning – not the first book in the series, The Eye of the World (Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon), and not the prequel, New Spring, but the beginning of my relationship with The Wheel of Time. I’ve always been a reader, though in my youth my reading was dominated by the likes of Stephen King, spy thrillers from Clive Cussler and similar authors, Michael Crichton, and other popular fiction writers of the 80s and 90s. I was not what I would consider a big fantasy or science fiction reader, though I was exposed to some the concepts through King, Crichton, and even a Weis and Hickman trilogy. It was through the recommendation of a few of my cousins that I picked up the first Wheel of Time book in the fall of 1994, my freshman year of college. I devoured it. I burned up my meager student budget buying all the other books in the series that were available. Then I read them again. And again…

 

 

I begin my review of the series in this way for a few reasons. First, I think it’s critical to know that I am a fan, a fan who has been reading the series for almost 20 years, a fan who has re-read these books many times, a fan who regularly listens to the audiobooks for the series, a fan who has spent countless hours discussing these books in on-line forums, a fan who eventually started blogging about his love of SFF books as a result of the journey began on the first page of The Eye of the World. However, it’s also critical to understand the context of when the series began, for while it will in many ways be timeless, it is also very much a product when it was published. The early 1990s was a time when much of fantasy was dominated by clones of Tolkien, a time when fantasy was heroic, good versus evil, and not well balanced in such things as diversity and gender (there were plenty of exceptions, however these were the general trends). The Wheel of Time began by embracing the tropes of its time and then responding to them. However the series appears now, at the time of its beginning, it was something new.
 

 

At its core, The Wheel of Time is about a young man (Rand al’Thor) who destined to save the world and his journey to fulfill prophesy. Rand begins as a humble sheepherder in an isolated corner of a pastoral fantasy world that has many reflections of our own. Rand is ignorant of the wider world, scared and thrown in way over his head. The fellowship that flees a horrifying raid of monsters out of myth and nightmare include Rand, 2 of his boyhood friends, his nearly betrothed love, a village leader, a bard, a Gandalf-like ‘wizard’ and her warrior companion.

 

 

In this intentionally familiar beginning, Jordan begins to respond to the fantasy that has come before. Women hold a place of power in society and this is a world where the ‘original sin’ was committed at the hands of men. The characters reflect often (too often really) how adventure is nothing like it is in the stories and how heroes never go through what they do (such as sleeping in a haystack). And the points of view shift – they build slowly from a small handful in the first book, to many dozens of widely varying points of view throughout the series, though the largest focus remains on the core group that was present in the beginning. And, as tough as it is to see as such now, Jordan’s approach to epic fantasy was subtly subversive of most of the fantasy from the 1980s and earlier. It really was something new and fresh, less conservative and it did push boundaries.
 

 

One way in which The Wheel of Time played a large role in fundamentally changing epic fantasy is its length. The trilogy is sacred in fantasy, even to this day, but longer series are still quite common. Much of this is attributable to the success first attained by The Wheel of Time. And the length of the series is both one of its greatest strengths and greatest weaknesses. Through 14 books Jordan immerses the read in the world he creates. He shows the build up to an apocalyptical battle from many points of view and directions. The traditional fantasy fan who can’t get enough of such secondary worlds is rewarded by the depth of detail, the wide coverage and multitude of personalities involved. Other readers who prefer writing that is tight and focused, without a wasted world will suffer through the length. I fall in the middle, seeing and appreciating both sides. The fan craves more, more resolution, more focus on the numerous side plots. While other parts of me wish the books had received a heavy dose of editing and that the series was completed in half as many books (or even fewer).

 

 

 

With the length and breadth of the series, Jordan is arguably the first major fantasy author to suffer the tangle of multiple points of view. It is a trap that many fantasy authors have fallen into. It becomes a snowball growing as more points of view necessitate even more. Then the plot rambles through subplot after subplot and bringing it all back together is difficult in the very least. Some plots suffer through dragging on and on while others are forced into brevity that confuses matters. And the series grows longer, often lacking the resolution that fans crave. The Wheel of Time exemplifies these issues – and some fans love and defend the result to the end. Some readers never get through the middle of the series.

 

 

It’s tough to pick a bigger lightening rod than gender issues in The Wheel of Time. I’ll be honest, one of the things that first attracted me to the series was the portrayal of the female characters – they were real, they were not objects, and they mattered. Back in the early 1990s when I began this series, that felt new, different and refreshing to me. However, now 20 years older, a bit wiser, and a lot less ignorant, I see many of the problems in Jordan’s characterization of women. Let’s face it, the writing in The Wheel of Time suggests that Jordan has an unhealthy obsession with spanking, a warped perception of what makes women strong, a typically pornographic and juvenile view of lesbian sex, and an unrealized dream of having 3 girlfriends who are cool with that. There are issues where women are punished with rape and men not at all. But, there are women in leadership, there are women in combat, and women exist as much more than an object for men.

 

 

I believe that much of Jordan’s portrayal of women comes from being raised in the South where women of his generation often show the world one personality and release another behind closed doors. I also believe that much of the backlash that the series receives toward its female characters has been the result of young men having a dislike of women telling male characters what they should do. But, that doesn’t absolve the fact that there are some fascinating (and often horrific) gender implications throughout these books. Though it’s also good to remember that as terrible as some the gender implications are, these books were still a step forward when they first came out. In many ways the gender relations in The Wheel of Time reflect our society well – a mix of significant progress with clear examples of there still being a long way to go.

 

 

One of the most fascinating aspects of the series is Jordan’s interweaving of myth and legend throughout. In many ways the series is an exploration of the archetypes that exist across many societies worldwide where Jordan takes all the myths and legends of a huge number of societies and traditions and plays a giant game of ‘telephone’ with them before placing them back into his creation. Most readers will notice the most blatant examples of this (particularly with Arthurian myth), but it goes very deep to levels that only a few scholars (and really hard core fans) ever could appreciate.

 

 

Related to the underlying use of myth and legend to create his characters, Jordan also plays with the idea of prophesy and even predestination in his world. Prophesy is real, widespread, true and metaphorical in Jordan’s world. Rand knows that he is destined to both save the world and destroy it. He knows he will go insane and die. And we follow his journey toward and into insanity. We see how he falls into the trap of fulfilling prophesy because he knows he must. But we also are left wandering about what those prophesies mean – some are never fulfilled, some were fulfilled in ways that are not recognizable. And throughout I see a trickster at heart playing the reader with their preconceptions and what they know prophesy must mean.

 

 

Through 14 books Jordan touches on many other themes and ideas. Whether it be those discussed above, communications, lack of trust, posttraumatic stress disorder, or the exploration of a destined hero slowly becoming batshit insane. These books can be read on many levels that often become quite fascinating the deeper one explores, particularly in direction of myth and legend. Though in the last few years, it’s Jordan’s explorations of politics and political machinations that have become the most interesting parts of the books to me, even though they are quite often derided as being an over-written distraction.

 

 

Another positive product of the relatively large cast of key characters is that it gives almost every reader someone to relate to. I was 18 when I first began the series, so I was immediately relating to the Rand, Perrin and Mat, who were all about that age. As I’ve grown older, the older characters often hold more weight with me, with the younger seeming to be full of the flaws of youth. Few books offer such a variety of characters to relate to and it’s been fascinating to me to see how my relationships with those characters have matured over the past 20 years.

 

 

Much, much more can be said on various aspects of the series. Flawed characters, flawed writing, editing, portrayal of the ‘bad guys’, long baths and the washing of silk… But this is not the place for it, especially since I’ve already rambled on in this review nearly as badly as Jordan. Suffice to say, that these books do have a little bit of everything in them – and that’s the good and the bad.

 

 

However, I cannot close out the review before some discussion on the fate of Jordan himself. Tragically, he died of a rare blood disease before the series could be finished. The final three books were completed by Brandon Sanderson with the help of Jordan’s widow (also his editor) and his assistants. Again, much can be written on how Sanderson’s writing compares with Jordan’s and how the series finished. The series did finish according to Jordan’s wishes (which were dictated from his deathbed), but it was in Sanderson’s style – or at least the style Sanderson adopted to be consistent with the rest of The Wheel of Time, without seeming to exactly imitate Jordan’s style (which probably would have been a spectacular failure). But in general, Sanderson’s writing lacked the subtlety of Jordan’s, some of the characters were never captured quite right (particularly where humor was involved), and some the side plots suffered. However, the writing was often tighter, the pacing more consistent, and the end goal more directly achieved through both thematic and plot arcs. Some fans liked Sanderson’s approach better, and others will never forgive him for finishing the series. Again, I fall in between, but I will say that I think Sanderson handled things nobly and humbly as he succeeded in a near-impossible task. I’m glad someone finished the series and I think that Sanderson was the right choice for the job.

 

 

The characters of The Wheel of Time have been my companions for the past 20 years and I expect to revisit them regularly in the future. I’ve had a huge amount invested in these books and a large influence on my life. Through the series I’ve laughed and cried. I’ve shouted at the absurdity of things and thrown a book across the room. I’ve cringed and I’ve quietly put the books aside to compose myself. I’ve eagerly waited and waited for the next book in the series like a kid on Christmas Eve. I’ve debated, cursed, argued, and had drinks with fellow fans. For me no other set of fiction has had a bigger impact on my life. It is the best and worst of fantasy. I can only thank Jordan, Sanderson, and all of the many, many others who have worked to make this series what it is.

Mini-Review: Between Two Thorns by Emma Newman

A while back I was looking for four things in my next book to read: 1) something relatively quick and light to read, 2) something written by a woman (I haven’t read many books written by women so far this year, so I wanted to mix it up), 3) something that was not being widely read and reviewed by other bloggers I tend to follow, and 4) something that was on my e-reader. Between Two Thorns by Emma Newman (Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon) fit the bill on all accounts, and was especially appealing because I seem to like urban fantasy set in Britain and I’ve travelled to and enjoyed my stay in Bath, which is the primary setting for the book.

 

Between Two Thorns is clever in its basic construct – it mashes Regency Fantasy with the modern world as it mixes Fae with Humans. It also surprises in that it doesn’t turn out to be indistinguishable from paranormal romance, as it lacks a traditionally structured romantic plot, though I’d happily argue that the plot is definitely the set up for just such a romance.

 

In its execution, Between Two Thorns is a bit less successful. The writing at times feels clunky, and I quickly became annoyed that Newman steadfastly follows the rule that every chapter must end with a cliffhanger. When combined with just a few too many points of view and converging plots, the pacing of the book really suffers at times. It also fails to be all that original – the set up is fun and interesting, but it’s still just another story about a young woman breaking out of gender-based roles in society. Yes, that is a valuable topic, and yes it was done well in the book, but Between Two Thorns fails to distinguish itself from numerous other urban fantasy stories that set out to do the same thing.

 

In the end, the book was more enjoyable than tedious and it certainly met my criteria of light and quick. I have a copy of the second book of the Split Worlds trilogy, Any Other Name (Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon), and I haven’t yet decided if I’ll read it or not. I can see this book working very well for some, but is perhaps just a bit too ‘meh’ for me to have much more to say.

 

Reflections

Right now, I feel that I’m at a crossroads, perhaps a fork in the road, or even a simple dead end. This blog has been around since early 2006 and I’ve been a part of on-line fandom in one way or another since the late 1990s. But I’m worn out and questioning whether or not to continue.

 

First, let me say, this is not a post to say I’m shutting this blog down or that I’m quitting reviewing. I don’t plan to do either, but I am considering both options. This is not a post where I’m seeking attention and an ego massage from those saying how great I am and that I should stay around – frankly, I doubt many would notice if I closed shop (hell, it’s been 2 months since I posted my last review). From the beginning I’ve simply blogged what I feel like blogging about, and today it’s my mid-blog crisis.

 

I won’t belabor how busy my life is with work, family, social, and other commitments. How I simply don’t have the time and energy for perusing much outside of the immediate. Though to be entirely frank, watching my son play t-ball is simply way more appealing and way more important in my life. But it’s more than that.

 

Others have blogged lately about the evolution of blogging and reviewing and where it’s been and where it’s come to. Again, I can’t be bothered to link those right now, but Tobias Buckell and Larry Nolen are two come to mind, not that I’ve had time to read either (bets on me eventually linking them anyway?). The main thing is that blogging has begun to affect my reading in what I consider a negative way. In the past blogging has been a very positive influence – it’s made me a much more critical and informed reader and it’s lead me to books that I likely wouldn’t have found otherwise. But now it leads me away from the books I want to read.

 

Blogging, or at least the clique (or tribe) of bloggers that I’m generally apart of, has become a bit too insular in many ways. Everyone seemingly reads the same stuff. A book comes along, I’m excited and think it’ll be great – but then I see that 4 other bloggers read it before I did and have already reviewed it. Suddenly, I’m not as interested – simply because the book has gotten quite a bit of coverage and I don’t want to just blog about the same thing as everyone else. No longer am I choosing books because I want to read them, but because of how much coverage other bloggers are giving them.

 

I can’t keep up with bloggers that have the time and energy to read and review way more than I do. Much less keep ahead of them. And what’s worse, I hate that I’ve come to think in that way.

 

This is not what I read for and it’s draining the energy out of me. I’m tired of it and fuck it, I’m not going to read that way anymore.

 

Reviewing is the same way. Search out the oldest review on this site, then read the last one I published. In my mind the contrast is striking. I’ve come a long way. My standards have as well. If I write a review I need to put a lot of thought into, and make it a ‘proper’ review (though I’ve always defined proper in my own way). Long gone are the days of simply saying what I feel about a book. I’m not sure yet, but I think I’m done with that as well. While I think I’ll always write occasional long, in-depth reviews, right now I’m just interested in less than 400 words about what I think. Gone will be in-depth explanations, clever openings and closings, plot summary, etc.

 

What now? Hell, I don’t know. For a while anyway I doubt I’ll post anymore than once or twice a month. I don’t know how many of those will be reviews, mini-reviews or whatever. I think there will be fairly regular and long periods where I’m generally absent. And those may be punctuated by periods where I do 4 or 5 posts in a week. We’ll see.

 

But for now, I’ve got a t-ball game to go to. 

Update

So, I only managed 1 post in April. Hopefully May will be better, though life is just crazy. Work is as busy as ever, which is a good thing, though it doesn't leave much time for blogging. I'll probably do some travelling for work in the next few months which could cut things back even more. And the usual personal/family challenges have kept me away as well. But I do hope to get more than 1 post in May. In the very least I'll do a post for book that I'm being published in because I do like talking about myself.  I've got 3 reviews partially written and hopefully one or two of them will be posted this week.

 

Anyway, below are the books I've received in the last couple of months.

Books Received: February 27 - May 3, 2013

Night Shade Books - What Now?

So, news has broken that Night Shade Books is in serious trouble. They are looking to sell all of their assets to avoid bankruptcy and at least get some of the owed for their authors. This is a good summary, follow other links (mainly in comments) from there. I'm not going into the details because I don't know them and a some searching on the web will provide. But I do find it unfortunate in large part because Night Shade has published some really good stuff over the past few years and I hate to see that go away.

 

So, I did some poking around. You CAN still buy books published by Night Shade. There are still physical books at places like Amazon and B&N, and probably your local Indie books seller as well. You can also still buy digital copies of the books - I just bought And Blue Skies From Pain by Stina Leicht (Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon) - my first electronic book from a local Indie store through KOBO for what it's worth. I assume dead tree books will be there until they all sell. I assume digital books will be available until the legal limbo of a sale of assets or bankruptcy. So, the take home message is if you want to support the authors of Night Shade, or if you've been meaning to buy one of their books, or if you're looking for some good books, now is the time to buy them since they are still available. NOTE: I would not suggest preordering books that aren't published yet, as I doubt we'll see them for a long time and probably not from Night Shade.

 

Anyway, below are links to reviews I've written for books published by Night Shade (at least since I began tracking that a few years ago). Go get some good books and support some very worried authors!

 

• Of Blood and Honey by Stina Leicht
• Fast Ships, Black Sails edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
• Never Knew Another by J.M. McDermott
• The Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer
• Dancing With Bears by Michael Swanwick

EDIT: And, I think it's probably a good idea to consider stripping the DRM from any Night Shade ebooks you own at this point. Who knows what will happen in accessing those books once Night Shade enters legal limbo from a buyout or bankruptcy. Ebooks have been locked in other publishing bankruptcy proceedings. FYI - Baen Books sells all Night Shade books with no DRM.

Review: The Folly of the World by Jesse Bullington

For some reason I still manage to be surprised when the book I’m reading tends to fit in with whatever conversation is currently going on in the SFF-intranets world. The conversation of the moment is all about grimdark, the term that seems to have emerged to describe the ‘gritty’ fantasy that maybe even could be called its own sub-genre (here are a few links to get you started on the discussion). But, I’m not going to quibble about the definition of grimdark, how appropriate it is attach the label to author X or Y’s books, or any of that. But, the book I am here to discuss – The Folly of the World by Jesse Bullington (Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon) – arguably falls right in with the new kid dressed all in black at the back of the genre party who is buy angrily staring down everyone while (s)he trims his/her fingernails with a large knife.

 

The Folly of the World was wholly unexpected for me – I had heard good things about Bullington’s writing, but really didn’t know anything about it when I started the book (I hadn’t even read the back cover). So, it took me quite a while to figure out how felt about the book – honestly it took until after I finished reading it. The first thing that literally slaps the reader in the face is the very coarse language of the book, particularly in the first half. In the context of the book, it works, though it is above and beyond the coarseness of 99% of the books in fantasy. The dialogue is harsh, ugly and offensive. The descriptions are dark, evocative and unpleasant. And there are graphic descriptions of sex – man on man sex – that is needfully violent rather than sensual and loving.

 

After adjusting to the ruthless writing style I began to wander just where this novel was going. First, it’s not epic fantasy or even second world fantasy. It’s really much more historical fiction, or gothic horror (if gothic horror can apply to a setting in medieval Holland), with only the barest hints of the supernatural. In fact, I have no idea if there really is any supernatural element in the novel – and it doesn’t matter. The hints serve to increase the horror, set the mood, and relentlessly drive home the inevitable and hopeless end – or at least the perception of an inevitable and hopeless end.

 

Throughout this review I’ve used words like ruthless, horror, relentless, hopeless, harsh, coarse, dark, and …grimdark. The world is violent. There is death. There are battles. Horrible things are said and done. One could choose to describe things as tragic, and they wouldn’t be wrong, though I think folly is the better choice as the title itself clearly alludes to. The story shown, the actions and thoughts undertaken are often far too absurd to be anything but folly. The story at its heart is about a bastard seeking his noble birthright. Or perhaps it’s two highwaymen working a con to become noble. Or maybe it’s a rags to riches story. As expected, things don’t go as planned, but one of those cons does become noble, a peasant is lifted to the heights of society, and the fall from the edge is precipitous.

 

The view that Bullington chooses to tell his story through is important. The two conmen I mention above are front and center, though the real story is that of a peasant girl who is literally bought and paid for to help them recover a lost object. These three make up a motley trio representing the worst of the worst in society and genre alike. The two men are homosexual lovers, one is a bastard and the other is severely mentally ill. Both are killers. One will do and say anything to achieve his goals while the other is madly unpredictable. The girl is an uneducated peasant sold into service. She is harsh, violent, and a survivor. Horrible things happen – yet the girl is never raped and remains ‘pure’ through to the very end. It’s all gritty, dark and grim. There are very real conflicts, there is betrayal and death. Characters are wounded and they rise and fall from tragic archetypes to simple folly, though the usual, the obvious, doesn’t happen. There is much that can be said to all this – Bullington’s writing is layered with thematic depth and historical context. And frankly, I didn’t get it (at least not all of it). I typically consider that a good thing as it shows the book has deeper context and meaning than can be easily gained. And for that context, I recommend reading Indrapramit Das’s review over at Strange Horizons, it goes farther and deeper than I could ever hope to.

 

So far this review has meandered, only hinted at plot and character, and gained and lost momentum. In this, it mirrors The Folly of the World. The Folly of the World starts out fast, slows in the middle, only to pick up pace again toward the end. In all honesty, I almost did not finish this book. I kept waiting to see where the book was going, when that twist would occur. One twist occurred, and the second I kept waiting for felt like it never happened. Yes there were events and happens of importance to the story, but not at the level I was expecting (or hoping for?). With less than a hundred pages until the end I put the book down and seriously questioned whether I should bother continuing. I wish I could say that I felt that I had to know the end, but really I only continued because I felt that I had put in a lot of time already and just a bit more to finish it off made sense. I simply didn’t care – the title indicates that it’s the folly of the World, perhaps indicating a story of great significance to the world itself. It’s not. In fact it’s barely even significant in the dusty forgotten historical context it’s presented in. It’s only significant to the actual characters of the book.

 

Upon reflection I think this fits with the book. The book is folly, it’s the folly of humanity. It’s about unexpected love and dedication. It shows that what is important and significant varies greatly by perspective. It’s a book that the reader must love to hate and hate to love. It’s a book that works best when one can’t decide if it should be finished or not. That’s the folly of the book as well as the story within.

 

Did I enjoy The Folly of the World? That’s an answer I’m still searching for, but overall I think I can only say marginally. Do I appreciate The Folly of the World? Yes, Yes, YES. What Bullington does in this book is masterful, especially in the context of the conversation occurring in genre right now around grimdark, what it is and what, if any, value it brings. It’s a harsh truth, it’s a lot of harsh truths, it’s folly, it’s no easy journey to take, and not everyone will finish it. This only increases the ultimate value, if not necessarily its overall appeal.

Author Gender and Review Blogs x2

Last week I wrote this post, where I point to this post that shows some statistics for SFF Review blogs about how many male authors are reviewed vs. female authors and compares those results with the gender of the bloggers. It's a good post and it's an important thing to remember, so I once again encourage all to read it.

 

Today I was bored, or more correctly procrastinating. So, I wanted to look at things a big differently. Basically, I looked at all the books I've received digitally and physically over the past 6 months or so and I noted the gender of the author. Now, this is not a good sample in that some of these books were requested, though the vast majority are not. Some of the digital books were purchased rather than provided, and with the digital books I often do more selecting rather than simply receiving. Also, there is some overlap where I have both digital and physical copies of books. None of those factors were controlled for, but I think that it doesn't take away from the overall numbers that certainly prove interesting.

 

In the last 6 months I've received 79 digital books and 103 physical books, for a total of 182 books.

 

Digital Books:

Total = 79

Male Author = 51

Female Author = 28

Percent Male = 65%

Percent Female = 35%

 

Physical Books:

Total = 103

Male Author = 77

Female Author = 26

Percent Male = 75%

Percent Female = 25%

 

All Books:

Total = 182

Male Author = 128

Female Author = 54

Percent Male = 70%

Percent Female = 30%

 

There are some interesting trends to note - the books that publishers choose to physically send me are overwhelmingly male authored, and more so than the digital books that I take a more active role in selecting. But, looking at the numbers here, it's not surprising that I read more male authors than female authors (last year I read about 65%-35% male to female authors). I'd have to work pretty hard to do otherwise. Now, obviously that statement comes with a lot caveats and such and does not take into account the hundreds of books I have at home to select from and such, but I still think it's not a coincidence.

 

Of course, if I read more male authors than female authors, it only makes sense for publishers to send me more books written by men, doesn't it? So, we come to a chicken/egg issue - do I read more male authors because that's what is sent to me, or do I get sent more male authors because I read more male authors? Sure, the answer is way more complicated, but I still think it's an important issue to look at.

 

But anyway, I think the take-home point should be this. If a goal is to get more reviews for SFF books authored by women, particularly for the case of male reviewers, then the problem become clear. No improvement will be made if the publishing machine (publicists, authors, editors, etc.) sends out books as they do now with 75% of them being authored by men and only 25% authored by women.

Author Gender and SFF Review Blogs

Lady Business has done a study of author gender and SFF review blogs again for 2012, as she did for 2011, though this time her sampling methods are more statistically robust and should paint a more representative picture of the state of things. The results are not surprising or mind boggling - if you are a male reviewer, you almost certainly review way more books authored by men then women. If you are a female reviewer, you are more likely to review a near equal number or more women authors than male authors. The numbers are striking and telling. Unfortunately it's the same old story.

 

And, yes, my blog was included in the study, and yes, my blog mirrors the overall trends. According to her numbers, 35% of the authors I reviewed were female (which is at least better than the average of 25% percent female authors for male reviewers). And just as a general FYI, for the 7+-year life of this blog - I've only reviewed about 20% female authors versus 80% male (so, the numbers show that my awareness of the issue is leading to change - which is good).

Anyway, I suggest that you read her post and think on it. It's an important issue and she does a great job of showing why. Especially if you are a male reader/reviewer - think on it.

Review: The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman

The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman (Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon) defies easy classification. On one hand it is a standard sort of second-world fantasy that somewhat fits the definition of epic fantasy– though the standard quest is shared by 2 enemies and manages to sweep up an innocent bystander. On another hand, it’s a sort of fantasy western with a modern take on Manifest Destiny-style attitudes, unchecked development, indigenous rights, etc., and with the inclusion of machine-based technology, The Half-Made World is made for slapping the __punk label to it, though I’ve most often seen cyberpunk or steampunk thrown about, which is a bit disappointing as I’d expect it to be more of westernpunk, petropunk, six-shooterpunk, or some other more creative punkness attribute. But most often The Half-Made World is considered Weird, or perhaps Weird Western. I can’t help but agree that the weird label fits it best, though I must admit that it chafes a bit that I’ve decided to utilize labels to frame start of this review.

 

In The Half-Made World physical laws don’t really exist to same extent as in most second-world fantasy, instead Gilman builds his world based on thematic laws. The world is only half-made, and the world only becomes made when ‘Western’-style development occurs, when humans expand their control of the world, and the world is most fully made once control moves from the hardy (and unsophisticated) pioneers of the frontier to the full order of the Line. The world is less made, or even un-made where humans haven’t yet penetrated, where the Folk (think indigenous people) exist with their indefinable magic and symbiosis with the land. Opposing the order of the Line is not the disorder of the un-made, but the near-nihilistic (or perhaps anarchistic or libertarian) Order of the Gun.

 

It’s in this worldbuilding that Gilman really shines – yes, this is a wonderfully built world in the sense of second-world fantasy, but it’s also thematic building. Gilman makes the worldbuilding so much more than just a setting, but a literary exercise in its own right. And at the same time, he playfully subverts himself – for his fully-realized and built world, is only ‘half-made’. The resisting force to order, is the Order of the Gun. This playful use of language to subvert the expected and even what Gilman is attempting to achieve, occurs throughout the book, but is perhaps most recognizable in the first half or so.

 

Balancing the study on worldbuilding is a study on character, with three focus points, and arguably a fourth. Liv is the equivalent of psychologist focusing on madness who unexpectedly (and irrationally?) journeys west for an opportunity of study. Of course, she is recovering from her own mental illness and has an unrealized addiction to opium. Creedmore is a charming, charismatic, and deadly Agent of the Gun. He fills the role of anti-hero as at times he has an apparent heart of gold, yet he kills with abandon, destruction follows his path, selfishness rules whenever possible, and yet he’s always beholden to his the spirit-like force of the Gun and their agenda. Lowery is member of the Line, he is order, he is conformity, he is the face of the unstoppable force. He struggles with self and the paranoia of completely controlled environment. The wild-west doesn’t just unsettle him and the Line, but is its antithesis. A fourth character is the focus of the quest – The General. The General is mad and damaged beyond repair from the forever war waged by the Line. The General also is in possession of the MacGuffin – something that the Line and the Gun both need to win their ever-ongoing fight and both need to keep out of the hands of their bitter enemy. This knowledge is buried inside his madness.

 

This character study is not as fully built as the world in terms of the thematic laws that govern Gilman’s creation, though it’s strong enough to support a balance. And it throws into view, something I haven’t really discussed yet – plot. Yes, there is a plot. The plot is strong enough to drive the story, motivate the characters and survive the world, yet it’s arguably not the point. Perhaps the plot is the actual MacGuffin here, I’m not sure. It sort of makes me want wonder what M. John Harrison would think of it all – after all, this book is either a giant ‘FU’ to Harrison’s views on fantasy and genre, or it’s the logical next step. It’s probably both, and it’s a bit weird as well, which generally makes his sort rather pleased. But I digress.

 

Since The Half-Made World was originally released in 2010, there are quite a few reviews and other reactions that can be found. After looking through a few I noticed that the ending is often panned, or at least highlighted as a relative low point in the book, with almost every one working in the ‘clever’ half-made ending (or similar) comment. I can sort of see why, though I think mostly it’s simply that people want an ending to be a resolution rather than the beginning of yet another adventure. However, remembering that the building blocks behind the world, the characters and even the plot are truly thematic blocks, I think that the ‘half-made ending’ can only be considered entirely appropriate. Though perhaps it functions as a third MacGuffin to which I can only react with maniacal giggling. Anyway, it’s worth noting that The Half-Made World is not a stand-alone and the sequel, The Rise of Ransom City (Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon), is available, so hopefully the half-made ending will now just be an enticement to continue on that much sooner.

 

Gilman is an author I’ve been hearing good things about for a number of years now, and The Half-Made World has shown me why. It encompasses much of what it means to be genre, yet subverts the stereotype by thematically building everything such that everything has meaning – and the craft that it takes to make it all work is impressive. And work it does – The Half-Made World can function as a fun, fantastically weird western and as a stylistic novel with great thematic depth to be delved, parsed, examined, and even re-made. In that, the appeal is wide and this book should be widely read. So what are waiting for … punk!?

 

The Usual Update

Wow, it's been weeks since my last post. I suppose that's mostly the result of how crazy busy I've been, but then I'm always crazy busy. I've been doing some travel for work and I've got some more travel coming. Then Spring Break for the kids. Then...who knows, I just hope it's good news rather than bad. And I hope congress pulls their heads out of their asses and does their job so my wife doesn't go on furlough. But I digress.

 

Things will continue to be quite around here. I still owe reviews on The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman (Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon) and Someplace to be Flying by Charles de Lint (Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon) . And now I'm reading The Folly of the World by Jesse Bullington (Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon)  - this one is so far not what I expected. I think that's a good thing, as it's my first Bullington book, the style is a bit different from the typical SFF novel. Certainly night and day compared to the book I read immediately before by de Lint.

 

Anyway, I may find time this week to wrap up a review and I may not. Time will tell and the next book review will be written and posted when it's ready. I've long ago gotten past the need to post as regularly as 'they' say I should.

 

I'll leave with the books I've received over the last month or so. As usual, it doesn't count the electronic copies I've gotten, which are near as many (with a few duplicates). Ciao!

Books Received: January 24 - February 26, 2013

7 is the New 40

 

Well, yesterday was the 7-year 'blogday' for Neth Space, so this is the obligatory blog post celebrating just how great my blog is. In all seriousness, it has been a great run and I plan to move forward and see where the blog takes over the next few years.

 

OK, carry on. Back to doing things far less imporant that this blog post.

Sort-of Review: Fortress Frontier by Myke Cole

After reading Myke Cole’s debut, Shadow Ops: Control Point (my review, Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon) in 2012, the sequel, Shadow Ops: Fortress Frontier (Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon) immediately became a must-read for me. However I can’t help but notice that everyone else seems to think as highly of Cole as I do – a quick check of blogs that I follow will find that most have reviewed Fortress Frontier already. And generally, I agree with what they say – it’s a great book. It’s an improvement over Control Point, and the new protagonist is one I like a lot better. The world is bigger, the adventure more epic, and the depth of thought is still there. I called Shadow Ops this generation’s The Forever War, and with the sequel, these books really are a story for the current generation, one that struggles with the might of the government, the threat of terrorism, and the loss of freedom. These books make me think.

 

But, the review saturation had sapped my enthusiasm for writing a review. I couldn’t find anything new to add to the conversation. Yep, Cole is awesome, the book is awesome, go read it. Do I really need to say it too?

 

So, I’ve thought about things and then my contribution to the conversation finally clicked into place. I imagine I was somewhat inspired by this review over at Tor.com. There is a short discussion of criticism of the book, which stands out because of the relative lack of them in reviews for Fortress Frontier. The discussion mentions that Cole’s world is a man’s world with relatively few female characters (dare I use the word ‘token’?). Well, that’s not my focus here, but it’s certainly worth noting and discussing in its own right.

 

A common thread through all of those reviews I’ve mentioned above is that they like the protagonist (Colonel Bookbinder) that Cole focuses on in Fortress Frontier a lot better than the protagonist (Oscar) from Shadow Ops. I share this feeling – I enjoyed Bookbinder much more. If you go back and search out reviews of Shadow Ops, the biggest criticism that you’re going to come across is a dislike for Oscar. Take another look at all these reviews I’m mentioning – they are written by white people*. Take a look at Bookbinder (white) and Oscar (black). Now, there are lots of reasons why I think Bookbinder is a character that more can relate to. There are lots of examples of Cole simply improving as a writer. But I’m not going to talk about any of them. I’m simply going to point this out – the near-universal opinion that Bookbinder is a more enjoyable protagonist than Oscar is essentially has a direct correlation to race.

 

Tell me I imagining things. Tell me that it’s a coincidence and not real (after all, remember, I’m a white guy who likes Bookbinder a lot more as well). But, the more I think on it, the more troubled I am about it.

 

And do you know what? This is just one way that Myke Cole’s books have got me thinking. It may not be what he intended (or hell, maybe it is), but it’s there. And it’s yet another reason why people should read his books. In my review of Control Point I compared Cole with Haldeman. I’ll make another comparison now (and I try to never make comparisons in reviews, but I’ve got to mix things up too) – Myke Cole is the most exciting SFF author to come along since Joe Abercrombie. And considering all the great authors that have entered the scene over the past few years, that’s high praise.

 

*Admittedly, just how many SFF review bloggers out there aren’t white?