Rip the tapestry off the wall, curl up with it in the big leather wingback next to the stone fireplace and send your valet out off to fetch some spiced wine, Robin Hobb’s “The Farseer: Assassin’s Apprentice” is epic fantasy that demands reading, and you won’t be putting this book down until you finish. A young lad of six is dropped off at a distant keep where the king’s two sons are in residence on a diplomatic mission. The boy’s maternal grandfather tells the gate guard the boy is Prince Chivalry’s get, and Prince Chivalry can feed and care for him from now on. The lad is passed off to Burrich, Chivalry’s man and royal stable master, and FitzChivalry Farseer’s story begins.
Published in 1995, Robin Hobb’s book is one of the new-style epic fantasies I missed during my hiatus from genre fiction. Like most, I started with Tolkien and C.S. Lewis when I was but a wee lad. But fantasy is not respected fiction in most corners of this world, so I left my lush realms of dragons and hobbits and elves and orcs for “drier” literary climes. After years of slogging through modern literary fiction, I gave up. It was largely depressing, overly serious, no fun! What Robin Hobb has crafted here is fun, and hopeful, and beautifully lush and well crafted. I am sad I missed out on this series when it came out, but I am thrilled there is now a back catalog of books in this world I can roll through without waiting for the next to be published.
The story centers on young Fitz. For those who don’t know, as I didn’t, Fitz is an old term referring to someone’s offspring, especially the illegitimate offspring of royalty. Our young Fitz is born the wrong side of the sheets to Prince Chivalry, King in waiting. The Farseer’s have a history of bestowing names which reflect the trait of the person. In days gone by, the child was tied to the name with magic, but now it is more likely the power of suggestion which forms the trait in the person. Chivalry is absolutely chivalrous. When confronted with Fitz’s existence, he abdicates his claim to his father’s throne and retires to a quiet country life with his wife, the lady Patience. Fitz is left at Buckkeep, royal home of the Farseer’s, in the care of Burrich.
To nearly everyone at the Keep, Fitz is an outcast. Only King Shrewd sees some use for the boy and arranges for his training with the mysterious Chade. Fitz is to learn the skills of Diplomacy of the Knife. A series of adventures and misadventures set off from there leading the reader deeper into Hobb’s wonderfully crafted world. The reader is introduced to the Skill and the Wit, this realm’s magical abilities, along with Fitz. We follow along as he explores the Keep town’s docks and taverns. We watch as political intrigues are plotted and played out. And we wonder at the enigmatic Fool and his cryptic messages. There is nary a misstep along the way to an exciting and suspense-filled climax that leaves the reader begging for more.
Hobb’s world of the six duchies is filled with battles large and small, soulless wanderers and Red Ship Raiders, and cruelties and kindnesses when you least expect them. She manages to bring to life this realm in a very tactile way, leaving the reader with the smells of the sea and the stable lingering in the living room. The characters practically jump off the page and demand your attention. In short, this is the best fantasy I have read since Terry Brooks’ Shannara series. No tweeny vampires, no boy who lived, this is grown up fantasy of the very best sort.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Nightwatch by Sergei Luyanenko, translated by Andrew Bromfield (2006)
The Others, magical beings who exist side by side with the normals in the real world, are locked in a struggle to preserve the balance between light and dark. We enter the world of the Moscow branch of the Light side Others, the Nightwatch, with Anton, a lower powered magician and sys-admin who has been forced into field work in the battle against his will. Assigned to find a renegade vampire who has been "poaching" humans without a liscence, he finds instead a beautiful young woman under a very powerful curse, and our ride through the Moscow cityscape begins.
Lukyanenko's book promises great urban fantasy from the very get go, and aside from a few over long sections of internal dialoge in which the lead character Anton contemplates the nature of good and evil and freedom and humanity, it delivers on this promise. The book is arranged in three sections, each comprising a complete story while moving forward the action with some defacto fastforwarding. But actual action is a bit lacking. The stories are all mysteries of a sort, with the higher ups of the watches, night and day, weaving convoluted plots against each other in an attempt to gain a decisive upper hand in Moscow and the world. The Nightwatch of the title is the force of light, watching the night against the dark forces. The Daywatch is as you would suspect, the forces of dark. The battle they wage is very reminescent of the Cold War standoff between the US and USSR, with much plotting and little overt action taken.
In many ways, this book feels different from your average urban fantasy fair. There is little sex, and all of that is off-screen. There is a "twilight" world, parallel and overlaying the real world, in which the Others can operate for periods of time. It is a grey world, muted and dim, which is reflected in the tone of the book. I'm not sure, but I suspect it is a reflection of the realities of life in post-Soviet Russia.
I enjoyed Luyanenko's take on vampires most of all. Normally I'm not a fan of the blood sucker tropes, but here you find a group of people living on blood from bloodbanks, making a living working a job, and occasionally receiving a permit to hunt and take a specific human as food. All of this plays into the conflict of the Light Ones. How can these creatures who prey on humans be allowed to exist? How can one justify the choices one is forced into to perpetuate a truce. How can one live with the knowledge of evil, whilst restraining from all out battle with the same. This sort of moral dilemma builds the bulk of the three stories found here.
On final analysis, I truely enjoyed this book. It was a bit refreshing to find a viewpoint so far from my everyday North American life. The characters are well built and engaging. There is enough action to move the book along, although the pace does fall flat in a few places. It is a book I would recommend to anyone who enjoys the urban fantasy type of story, but if you're into thrillers you may want to take a pass.
Lukyanenko's book promises great urban fantasy from the very get go, and aside from a few over long sections of internal dialoge in which the lead character Anton contemplates the nature of good and evil and freedom and humanity, it delivers on this promise. The book is arranged in three sections, each comprising a complete story while moving forward the action with some defacto fastforwarding. But actual action is a bit lacking. The stories are all mysteries of a sort, with the higher ups of the watches, night and day, weaving convoluted plots against each other in an attempt to gain a decisive upper hand in Moscow and the world. The Nightwatch of the title is the force of light, watching the night against the dark forces. The Daywatch is as you would suspect, the forces of dark. The battle they wage is very reminescent of the Cold War standoff between the US and USSR, with much plotting and little overt action taken.
In many ways, this book feels different from your average urban fantasy fair. There is little sex, and all of that is off-screen. There is a "twilight" world, parallel and overlaying the real world, in which the Others can operate for periods of time. It is a grey world, muted and dim, which is reflected in the tone of the book. I'm not sure, but I suspect it is a reflection of the realities of life in post-Soviet Russia.
I enjoyed Luyanenko's take on vampires most of all. Normally I'm not a fan of the blood sucker tropes, but here you find a group of people living on blood from bloodbanks, making a living working a job, and occasionally receiving a permit to hunt and take a specific human as food. All of this plays into the conflict of the Light Ones. How can these creatures who prey on humans be allowed to exist? How can one justify the choices one is forced into to perpetuate a truce. How can one live with the knowledge of evil, whilst restraining from all out battle with the same. This sort of moral dilemma builds the bulk of the three stories found here.
On final analysis, I truely enjoyed this book. It was a bit refreshing to find a viewpoint so far from my everyday North American life. The characters are well built and engaging. There is enough action to move the book along, although the pace does fall flat in a few places. It is a book I would recommend to anyone who enjoys the urban fantasy type of story, but if you're into thrillers you may want to take a pass.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984)
Dirty, gritty, dark, futuristic and dated. These are just a few words which come to mind in describing William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer. Published in 1984, this is the foundational work of the movement known as cyberpunk, a genre mixing noir, doom, gloom, underworld activities, and extreme technological advances. In other words, great fun!
Neuromancer starts off following Case, a burned out (literally) cyber-deck cowboy, as he commits slow suicide via drug use and bad black market dealings in Chiba City outside of future Tokyo. Case used to be an up and comer entering cyberspace and stealing data for the highest bidder, but was caught stealing a little extra on the side for his last employer, who then fried his synapses to keep him from ever cowboying-up again. It’s that kind of world Gibson creates; harsh, filled with easy drugs and easy death. Into this slow motion self-destruction steps Armitage and Molly, boss man and razor-girl respectively, offering Case a new lease on life in exchange for making a mystery run through cyber-space for them. What can a boy do but accept.
The ensuing action leads from Chiba to “The Sprawl”, also known as the Boston-Atlanta metroplex, to Straylight in outer space. Through it all, Gibson drives the action with staccato rhythm and razor sharp description. The world he builds feels not just real, but unavoidable, even 25 years on from its first publishing. This part caper, part mystery, part thriller will envelope the reader with the sights and sounds of a possible future and leave them wanting more.
This reading of Neuromancer was my second. I first read it around 1986 and was confounded by the technology Gibson invented. I feel the 25 years of technological advances in the real world has served to make this novel more coherent and understandable. Some details have not aged well, others have actually come to pass out in the world, but the bulk of the story is still as relevant and entertaining as ever. And of course Gibson’s prose is that of a master. He places the reader squarely on Case’s shoulder and lets the world play out to perfection. His sense of where technology was headed is spot on. The corporate culture Gibson describes has as much poignancy today as ever, and the juxtaposition of the new world powers represented in Chiba vs. the old European powers represented in Straylight still give one pause for thought.
If there is a criticism I have of the novel now as it enters its middle age, it is of its pessimistic views of the world and the lack of compassion. The most compassionate character is an A/I, but then perhaps Gibson was trying to tell us something. In a future which promises overpopulation, easy (but not cheap) human modifications, and rampant crime, Gibson shows us a humanity making itself more machine-like and machines struggling to become more human, creating a tension which cannot go unresolved. Thankfully, Gibson continues his exploration of this topic in the next 2 (or five depending on how you wish to look at it) novels.
All in all, if you know what The Singularity is, or are a fan of directly hooking your brain into a computer, then this is a book for you. Go now and read it. You won’t be disappointed. If you think a hot-wired female bodyguard with mirrored lenses surgically implanted into her cheeks and chemically enhanced reflexes sounds dumb, run away and run away quickly, you will not enjoy this. But I sure did. I can’t wait for another 25 years to go by so I can read it again and see if it is still holding up as well as it is now.
Neuromancer starts off following Case, a burned out (literally) cyber-deck cowboy, as he commits slow suicide via drug use and bad black market dealings in Chiba City outside of future Tokyo. Case used to be an up and comer entering cyberspace and stealing data for the highest bidder, but was caught stealing a little extra on the side for his last employer, who then fried his synapses to keep him from ever cowboying-up again. It’s that kind of world Gibson creates; harsh, filled with easy drugs and easy death. Into this slow motion self-destruction steps Armitage and Molly, boss man and razor-girl respectively, offering Case a new lease on life in exchange for making a mystery run through cyber-space for them. What can a boy do but accept.
The ensuing action leads from Chiba to “The Sprawl”, also known as the Boston-Atlanta metroplex, to Straylight in outer space. Through it all, Gibson drives the action with staccato rhythm and razor sharp description. The world he builds feels not just real, but unavoidable, even 25 years on from its first publishing. This part caper, part mystery, part thriller will envelope the reader with the sights and sounds of a possible future and leave them wanting more.
This reading of Neuromancer was my second. I first read it around 1986 and was confounded by the technology Gibson invented. I feel the 25 years of technological advances in the real world has served to make this novel more coherent and understandable. Some details have not aged well, others have actually come to pass out in the world, but the bulk of the story is still as relevant and entertaining as ever. And of course Gibson’s prose is that of a master. He places the reader squarely on Case’s shoulder and lets the world play out to perfection. His sense of where technology was headed is spot on. The corporate culture Gibson describes has as much poignancy today as ever, and the juxtaposition of the new world powers represented in Chiba vs. the old European powers represented in Straylight still give one pause for thought.
If there is a criticism I have of the novel now as it enters its middle age, it is of its pessimistic views of the world and the lack of compassion. The most compassionate character is an A/I, but then perhaps Gibson was trying to tell us something. In a future which promises overpopulation, easy (but not cheap) human modifications, and rampant crime, Gibson shows us a humanity making itself more machine-like and machines struggling to become more human, creating a tension which cannot go unresolved. Thankfully, Gibson continues his exploration of this topic in the next 2 (or five depending on how you wish to look at it) novels.
All in all, if you know what The Singularity is, or are a fan of directly hooking your brain into a computer, then this is a book for you. Go now and read it. You won’t be disappointed. If you think a hot-wired female bodyguard with mirrored lenses surgically implanted into her cheeks and chemically enhanced reflexes sounds dumb, run away and run away quickly, you will not enjoy this. But I sure did. I can’t wait for another 25 years to go by so I can read it again and see if it is still holding up as well as it is now.
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