Here's something a little different. Rather than just reviewing the latest book I've bought (old or new), I have decided to do some reviews on major works that have made a big impact on me over the years. After wondering whether to start at the beginning or the end, I decided mixing them up may be the best way to go. I start off with a more recent work of epic fantasy that has been a major critical success in recent times, with the author going from being unheard of to mentioned in the same breath as Erikson, Kay and Martin in just three years. This, then, is The Prince of Nothing Trilogy.
The Prince of Nothing is a series that also forms the opening three books of a much longer sequence (at least seven volumes in length) called The Second Apocalypse. As the title hints, the books revolve around - once again - the return of an ancient evil to a world that no longer believes in it. However, Scott Bakker writes in a manner far more reminiscent of Frank Hertbert than say Robert Jordan, mixing philosophical ruminations with explosive action sequences and machivellian politicking.
The setting is Earwa, a continent which resembles Europe in the Hellenistic era, although the technological level is more reminiscent of the Crusades. The new Sharia of the Thousand Temples of Inrithism has called a Holy War against the heathen Fanim, vowing to drive them out of the Holy City of Shimeh and recover it for the Faithful. The Nansur Emperor, Ikurei Xerius III, is determined to mould the Holy War to his design.The plot of the Holy War is essentially that of the First Crusade transported to a much colder and more brutal secondary world. The Prince of Nothing is a somewhat pitiless series. Like George RR Martin, Bakker has no qualms about killing major characters or showing the ugly, horrific side of war. Enormous battles, particularly in the second volume, are described with enormous skill, but they aren't the focus of the trilogy. Instead, the focus is squarely on the characters.Ansurimbor Kellhus is the Prince of Nothing of the title. A member of an
ancient and forgotten order called the Dunyain, Kellhus is a master manipulator of human thought and emotion, able to bend people's wills to his design by knowing their histories: what has come before determines what follows. This aids him on his quest to find his father, Moenghus, who long ago fled to Shimeh and 'went native', to the Dunyain's disgust. Along the way, however, Kellhus discovers that the evil Consult, the powerful force that served the No-God in the First Apocalypse two thousand years earlier, has returned. The non-human Consult and their skin-spies stand outside Kellhus' experience and knowledge, representing a challenge he cannot ignore.
The other main principal character is Drusas Achamian, a member of the Mandate. The Mandate knows that the Consult and the No-God will return and have stood guard against them for millennia, but their order is mocked throughout the Three Seas. Only their knowledge and mastery of the Gnosis, the most powerful form of sorcerery known to mankind, ensures their survival in the face of jealous rivals such as the Scarlet Spires or the Nansuri Saik. Like all members of the Mandate, Achamian, or Akka, is visited each night by terrible nightmares of the First Apocalypse, a warning left behind by their founder Seswatha so that may never forget their duty. Achamian's lover, the prostitute Esemenet, is another key character. Although her significance is perhaps unclear at the start of the series, she eventually moves into a key position and she is one of our main POVs on events in the series.
Cnaiur is a Scylvendi barbarian warlord, chieftain of the Utemot and a warrior beyond compare. The self-proclaimed 'most violent of all men' is haunted by memories of Ansurimbor Moenghus, who passed through the Scylvendi lands decades earlier, and for the chance to destroy Moenghus he eagerly sides with Kellhus and the Holy War. Meanwhile, Ikurei Conphas, nephew of the Nansuri Emperor and one of the most gifted generals alive, battles to seize control of the Holy War and direct it on the course his uncle has chosen.
The Prince of Nothing is not a fluffy epic fantasy full of farm boys saving the world and virtuous princesses cooped up in their towers. It is dark and it is often brutal. There are rays of light penetrating the gloom - moments of good humour and fellowship - but these are few and far between. Yet it is compellingly readable. Bakker has a superb prose style, easy to follow yet packed with information that rewards careful reading and re-reading. In this sense he is very similar to Frank Herbert, and indeed The Prince of Nothing often feels like an epic fantasy version of Dune, reinforced by the fictional quotations that open each chapter and the absolutely massive glossary that makes up nearly a fifth of the third volume. Bakker is interested in philosophy (indeed, his masters' degree in the field was put on hold whilst he worked on this trilogy) and this comes through in the books, with characters frequently pondering the nature of life, of war and of thought. The shadow of Nietzsche lies heavily on the books in particular. Whilst it never overwhelms the plot (the philosophical interludes are delivered in bite-sized chunks rather than massive info-dumps), some may find that this slows down the proceedings. I can say I didn't, and tore through all three books in a matter of days.
The Darkness That Comes Before opens proceedings well, but it is a somewhat slower book that introduces the concepts and the characters. The main focus of the book is on the build-up to the Holy War, on the political strife between the kingdoms contributing to the crusade and on Akka's discovery of the first evidence in two millennia that the Consult is on the move. There is a huge, fascinating battle sequence that establishes key character motivations and relationships for later events in the trilogy, but generally this is a set-up book, as first volumes usually are.
The Warrior-Prophet is the story of the Holy War as a third of a million soldiers traipse south through burning deserts and across dry rivers, their eyes fixed on distant Shimeh. Akka and Esme come to the fore in this book as the battle for control of the Holy War rages amongst the higher echelons and, almost hidden from view, Kellhus slowly weaves himself a new identity and purpose. Whilst The Darkness That Comes Before was a powerful work, The Warrior-Prophet is an astonishing one, eliminating many of the first book's minor problems (the slower pace, the slightly longer musing on philosophy) and delivering an avalanche of intrigue and action. Individually, it is one of the best fantasy novels published in the last decade.
The Thousandfold Thought sees the Holy War finally arrive at Shimeh and begin the final battle against the Fanim. As the action unfolds outside the city's walls, Cnaiur and Kellhus must seek out Moenghus and learn the final revelation of the Thousandfold Thought, a secret which puts Kellhus on a very different road to the one he was pursuing before. Whilst Bakker successfully and somewhat elegantly resolves the story of the Holy War, the stories of our main characters is very much left open. For that reason the book suffers somewhat, although this problem will fade when the next part of the overall sequence is released.
The Prince of Nothing is a major, key work of modern fantasy that deserves to be read by all with an interest in the genre. It divides opinion massively between those who think it is too cold, too brutal and too dark to read, and those who think it borders on genius. I quite happily fall into the latter category.
The Darkness That Comes Before (2003, ****) is published by Orbit in the UK, Overlook in the US and Penguin in Canada.
The Warrior-Prophet (2004, *****): UK, US, Canada.
The Thousandfold Thought (2005, ****): UK, US, Canada.
Alternate reviews and interviews with the author can be found on the SFFWorld website located here. Sandstorm Reviews has covered the first book here. Nethspace has covered the whole trilogy here. Hope I Didn't Give Away the Ending covered the trilogy here as well.
British editions linked to are mass-market paperbacks. US editions are trade paperbacks only. The Canadian editions are mass-market paperbacks apart from The Thousandfold Thought, which is only available in trade at present.
Scott Bakker has since completed work on an SF thriller named Neuropath, which is looking for a publisher. The Great Ordeal, Book 1 of The Aspect-Emperor, will be published in May 2008 in the UK, picking up the storyline twenty years after the events of The Thousandfold Thought. It is already my most anticipated book of 2008.
Sunshine is the seventh movie to be directed by Danny Boyle, whose debut film Shallow Grave was a cult hit before he hit the big time with Trainspotting. He was lured to Hollywood to make A Life Less Ordinary and the The Beach, but their mixed critical success saw him return to Britain to make the extremely successful 28 Days Later (a sequel, 28 Weeks Later, is out next month with Boyle as producer). Sunshine continues the collaboration between Boyle and writer Alex Garland, which began with The Beach and continued in 28 Days Later. Although Boyle's previous films had dabbled with SF ideas and fantastical dream sequences and imagery, Sunshine is his first out-and-out SF movie.
Fifty years into the future, the Sun is dying. For reasons never fully explained, the Sun is growing colder and the Earth has been plunged into an ice age. And things are getting worse. With mankind threatened with extinction, a young scientist named Capa has built a 'stellar bomb' which he hopes will kick-start the Sun back into operation again. The ship designed to deliver the bomb, Icarus I, is lost on its first attempt, so a second bomb and a second ship, Icarus II, are comissioned. However, the creation of this bomb depletes Earth's store of heavy elements. If this mission fails, humanity dies.The film's plot initially feels uncomfortably like that of the The Core from a few years ago (a movie that falls squarely into the 'so bad it's hilarious' school of film-making), but Boyle is too far a skilled and canny director to simply write an SF action movie. The science throughout the film is pretty robust: the Icarus II has a massive solar shield to prevent it being incinerated as it gets close to the Sun, whilst the stellar bomb itself is built on quantum principles that seem reasonably sound (although it also comes across as being vastly more sophisticated and advanced than any other future tech in the movie). This fidelity gives the opening part of the movie the feel of 2001: A Space Odyssey, especially the sequences set in airlocks which recall the Pod Bay of Discovery. There's even a very nice direct tribute to the film when a bunch of monoliths turn up when you least expect them. There's also an obvious homage to Silent Running and possibly even a few nods to Event Horizon (a more-successful-than-not SF/horror hybrid from ten years ago).Whilst 2001 was somewhat sterile, Sunshine is - forgive the pun - much warmer. The characters are introduced quite deftly and are an interesting bunch. Chris Evans (no, not that one, UK readers) is shown to be a better actor than perhaps his performance in The Fantastic Four hinted at, whilst Cillian Murphy is as excellent and intense as ever. Michelle Yeoh also delivers a fine performance whilst Hiroyuki Sanada (previously best known for nearly decapitating Tom Cruise during the making of The Last Samurai) displays immense gravitas as Captain Kaneda. Clifford Curtis gives some particularly interesting depth to the ironically eccentric psychiatrist Searle. The other characters are somewhat less well-developed, but their lack of screen time means this isn't too important.As the movie continues, Boyle deftly provides large amounts of misdirection to the audience. Is the computer going to go mad and kill everyone, as with 2001? Is there a supernatural event going on, as with Event Horizon? Is there a stowaway on board? Are aliens involved? The audience is constantly left thinking and theorising, even as the movie dismisses one possibility only to open up another. At the same time, Boyle delivers some stunning imagery. A simple shot of Mercury passing across the face of the Sun becomes, with the help of a remarkable soundtrack, a moment of some beauty, whilst a dangerous EVA mission to repair some fried solar-reflection panels features some astonishing physical and CGI work. In fact, the effects throughout the movie are incredible. Those used to George Lucas delivering thirty thousand rapid-fire shots of CGI overload will probably find Sunshine's use of long, stately effects shots with the action based on real-life physics most refreshing, and far more impressive. This film also features one of the most disturbing scenes I've seen in a film for some time, with Boyle making inventive use of near-subliminal imagery. It only lasts a few minutes but is more disturbing by itself than most entire horror movies. Look out for it when the characters explore a dust-shrouded environment.There is a slight problem with the ending of the movie. An entire subplot that unfolds in the last twenty minutes or so of the film feels very badly like a studio note about how to make the finale more exciting. It sticks out like a sore thumb, although Boyle makes as good a fist of it as he can, and the final few shots of the movie make up for it.Sunshine (****) is an excellent SF movie which combines scientific fidelity with decent character-building and delivers an atmosphere that is at times quite eerie. The film focuses on the theme of death, but not necessarily as something to be feared, which is an interesting and successful directorial choice. The ending is perhaps misguided in conception, but Boyle just about manages to pull it off. This is a film that needs to be seen on the big screen, as its scale is immense and overwhelming at times. The movie is on general release in the United Kingdom at present and will be released in the United States in September 2007.
After its weak opening six-episode arc, Lost returned from its extended break to run interrupted all the way through the end of the season. We're now halfway through this second run and it seems like a good time to assess the show once more.
Lost has, against all the odds and predictions, made something of a return to form in these latest episodes. The producers have seemingly decided to concentrate once more on showing as much of the cast as possible each week, with seperate plots and subplots giving more of the cast time in the limelight. This has had some ramifications (the supposedly long-running Paulo and Nikki subplot was curtailed and ended rather abruptly in the episode Expose) but overall has worked quite well. The characters feel more connected and the somewhat lightweight subplots back on the beach have contrasted nicely with the claustraphobia of the Others' storyline.
First out of the box was Not in Portland, the conclusion to the story arc that had Kate, Sawyer and Jack as prisoners of the Others for the first part of the season. The producers made a major mistake in not transmitting this with the first batch of episodes, as it would have provided satisfying closure to the mini-arc that opened the season rather than left us hanging on the rather insipid cliffhanger provided by I Do. Nevertheless, Not in Portland was a good episode which provided some decent backstory for Juliet and got Sawyer and Kate out of that damned prison.
Flashes Before Your Eyes is an odd episode, seemingly breaking one of Lost's fundamental rules by having one of our characters travel in time. The opening and conclusion of the episode are fine, although the dramatic final revelation lacks bite (on a show that is as profligate with its heroes' lives as Lost is, hinting that Charlie - not the most essential character on the show anyway - may soon die is not that interesting). The heroic effort to recreate London in Hawaii deserves some respect, but the basic errors that creep in are still irritating (few English pubs in London have a massive Union Jack over the bar and the mis-spelling of posters and signs with American words is just plain sloppy). The story itself is interesting and Desmond remains one of the most compelling characters on the show, but overall the episode felt somewhat lacklustre and didn't really feel like an episode of Lost at all.
Stranger in a Strange Land is yet another Jack flashback. A very weird and somewhat surrealistic tone to the episode actually works quite well, but the problem is that the mystery the show reveals - what is the significance of Jack's tattoos? - is a mystery that is far more interesting to the writers than the fans.
Tricia Tanaka is Dead is far more impressive. It's quite a funny episode (highlight: the meteor destroying Hurley's restaurant) with a somewhat whimsical plotline, whilst remembering to keep the main plotline chugging along in the background (Kate recruiting a band of asskickers to go rescue Jack). Plus the fate of the dog, Vincent, is revealed, which was of some significance for a large chunk of the audience.
Enter 77 is a bit of a fan-pleasing episode, as we see the Flame Station and some important backstory to the Others and the DHARMA Initiative is revealed. Sayid's backstory is a bit irrelevant, but Naveen Andrews turns in an excellent performance as usual. However, they really need to keep Locke away from computer terminals.
Par Avion showcases a much-guessed but previously unconfirmed connection between two of the major characters and also features the goriest death in the series to date, even if the Sonic Fence feels like something from the Command and Conquer games. Locke's increasingly bizarrre behaviour is also made more apparent, and the cliffhanger is quite mystifying. Unusually for Lost, we get some answers relatively quickly. The Man From Tallahassee answers probably one of the single most mused-over questions in the show - how did Locke end up in the wheelchair? - and features a very nice, large explosion. Inbetween there are some great acting and writing moments and the final shot of the episode is pretty bizarre, although apparently it won't be expanded upon until episode 19 (due to actor availability, I guess).
Expose is a mixed episode, focusing on the backstory to the somewhat tedious Nikki and Paulo, although apparently this is their last appearance on the show. Recreating the plane crash was quite impressive and seeing some characters again who've met their ends on the show is enjoyable, but some plot points seem unlikely (Paulo and Nikki knew about the drugs plane, the Pearl Station, Ben and Juliet weeks before anyone else did?) and the ending is just disturbing. The episode is saved by lots of loose ends being tied up and by some pretty funny dialogue, not to mention a brief appearance by Billy Dee 'Lando Calrissian' Williams as himself.
Left Behind is very much a transitional episode, clearing up the loose threads of the Others' storyline and putting our heroes back together again. Some impressive visuals (especially finding out what that slightly preposterous Sonic Fence is really for) and at least one major question being addressed (what is the connection between the Others and the Monster?), if not answered, leads to an enjoyable episode, especially when combined with Sawyer's subplot back on the beach. The flashback was somewhat pointless, but happily did not outstay its welcome.
307: Not in Portland ****
308: Flashes Before Your Eyes ***
309: Stranger in a Strange Land ***
310: Tricia Tanka is Dead ****
311: Enter 77 ****
312: Par Avion ****
313: The Man From Tallahassee ****
314: Expose ***
315: Left Behind ****
Forthcoming: One of Them (11/04/07), Catch-22 (18/04/07), D.O.C. (25/04/07), The Brig (02/05/07), The Man Behind the Curtain (09/05/07), Greatest Hits (16/05/07), untitled 2-hour Season 3 finale (23/05/07)
Andrzej Sapkowski is apparently the biggest fantasy author in his native Poland, best-known for his character Geralt, a 'witcher' who tracks down and eliminates monsters for cash. Although his books have been translated into several other European languages, The Last Wish marks his debut in English, with a translation by Danusia Stok.
The Last Wish (published in Poland in 1992) is the first book featuring Geralt, preceding Sword of Destiny (1993) which has not been published in English yet. Presumably this is because the first three Geralt books are stand-alone volumes that do not require knowledge of the others. There is an additional Geralt story in another anthology, Something Ends, Something Begins (2000). There is also a five-novel sequence featuring Geralt entitled The Blood of the Elves (1994-99), which Gollancz will be publishing in English translation from August 2008 onwards.Enough of the publishing context, what of the book? The Last Wish is a mosaic novel consisting of several short stories linked by a framing sequence. After Geralt is injured in battle, he recuperates in a temple and has flashbacks to recent events in his life. The stories themselves vary in tone but the quality is pretty consistent. There's an undercurrent of whimsical humour in the stories that is very reminiscent of Jack Vance. Like Vance, Sapkowski successfully creates a world where his characters feel totally at home. This world is a mix of the traditional D&D landscape of elves, dwarves and evil wizards, and of fairy tales. In this manner the stories' tone and atmosphere is very similar to that of Vance's superb Lyonesse Trilogy, although Sapkowski is not as continuously and unrelentingly funny as Vance; he also lacks Vance's gift for intricate wordplay. That said, when the book is funny it's very funny indeed. The comic highlight comes when Geralt and his sometimes travelling troubadour companion Dandillion are confronted by some kind of bizarre goat-man entity whose preferred method of combat is to pelt attackers with iron balls. Under strict instructions not to kill anything in the area, Geralt has to engage the goat-man in a particularly preposterous wrestling match. Sapkowski also employs Vance's melancholy aspect, such as Geralt's musings on a world where the fantastical is dying and the mundane is taking over. And, in a hint that this is our world in some remote epoch (shades of The Dying Earth), there are also hints in the book that changes in the Sun are causing many of the problems in the world.The translation is first-rate, or as far as I can tell, neither being able to read or speak Polish. There's occasional awkward moments (the noble Hereward's rank changes from Prince to Duke at random; sometimes words are repeated very close together) but the stories come through feeling very fresh and energetic. Sapkowski is very good at creating interesting, imaginative characters with unusual levels of depth to them, not least Geralt, whom people are consistently underestimating. Early stories feel slightly repetitive, with Geralt unleashing bloody mayhem to win the day, but in the second half of the book there is a shift in tone with Geralt employing more imaginative methods to overcome the obstacles in his path. There is a great deal left unsaid in the stories in the book: we see the start of Geralt's relationship with the sorceress Yennefer but not its later development, and have to put together what happened with the help of Geralt's thought processes in the framing story. This helps give the book a feeling of greater immersiveness, although the knowledge that there are seven other books featuring these characters perhaps merely means that more events take place in the other volumes clearing up these questions.The Last Wish (****) is an enjoyable book full of stories both melancholy and comic. The book will be published in the UK by Gollancz on 19 April 2007 in hardcover and trade paperback. No US version appears to be forthcoming at this time. Gollancz will publish Blood of the Elves, the first novel in the series of the same name in August 2008. In September 2007 a PC roleplaying game based on the character of Geralt will appear, entitled The Witcher. The developers have a website here.
EDIT: As I have been informed by several Polish commentators, my original story order was incorrect, so this has now been fixed. Thanks!
EDIT: Pat from Pat's Fantasy Hotlist has reviewed the US edition here and was somewhat cooler about it than I was. Check it out!
Before They Are Hanged is the second book in The First Law Trilogy and the sequel to The Blade Itself, which I reviewed favourably here. In this middle volume of the sequence, Before They Are Hanged picks up the storylines left dangling from the first novel and develops them further. As with the first book, this volume often feels like a 'standard' fantasy novel with lots of standard tropes in use, but Abercrombie successfully continues to put a subversive spin on events which keeps things fresh and interesting.
There are three main plot threads in the book. In the Northlands, the Union Army prepares to face the forces under Beothed. They have enlisted the aid of Threetrees and his band of cutthroats and warriors, but Marshal Burr and Colonel West find their hands full with just keeping their feuding generals from each others throats and babysitting the preening, useless Prince Ladisla.Meanwhile, in the South, the city of Dagoska falls under siege from the army of the Gurkhal Empire. Inquisitor Glokta, in the city to investigate the disappearance of his predecessor, finds himself orchestrating the defence of the city against a vast and powerful foe, but finds himself making alliances with suspect forces in order to ensure the city's survival.In the West, Bayaz and his band of unlikely companions continue their journey to the edge of the Circle of the World, to recover a weapon of tremendous power. Their journey will take them through the fallen remnants of the Old Empire, an ancient city and a towering mountain range before their goal can be achieved.Abercrombie's story rattles along at a fair old pace. With the characters introduced, there is no more need for scene-setting and the plot explodes with vigour. More happens in this 450-page novel than some writers struggle to squeeze into an 800-page tome, and it's all invigorating, page-turning stuff. There's a lightness of touch and plenty of humour in the writing which makes reading the book all the more pleasurable. The characters become more interesting, with Glokta particularly becoming a morally ambiguous person whom the author gives real character to, his decisive ruthlessness coming as quite a shock in some parts of the book. Meanwhile, in other parts of the story other characters undertake unexpected transformations. Meeting other people who know Bayaz forces from earlier in the world's history force the reader to reconsider their opinion of him, whilst another character undergoes a startling personality transformation which is kept quietly in the background, hinting at some darker force moving in the storyline which will be explored further in the final book of the series.
The only criticism that comes to mind is, once again, the lack of a map. This is even more of a problem in the second novel as much vaster areas of territory are covered. One of the problems of not having a map in the book is revealed by the fact that, until an offhand comment made in this volume, I was unaware that Midderland (the Union homeland and location of its capital, Adua) was an island. A second, even more minor problem is that a skirmish in an ancient, ruined city threatens to feel like the use of one standard fantasy idea too many. Luckily, Abercrombie's writing is strong enough to avoid this problem, especially as it provides some of the most memorable imagery in the novel.
Before They Are Hanged (****) is published by Gollancz in the UK in trade paperback and hardcover. A US edition from Pyr will follow, probably in 2008. The final book is entitled The Last Argument of Kings and is tentatively slated for publication on 1 March 2008.
Like many, I have found this season of Battlestar Galactica to be pretty disappointing. After a strong start that gave us some of the best episodes in the entire series, things seemed to deflate a lot. The writers didn't really seem to know where to go next with the story, putting Baltar on the basestar and then not really using him much, whilst the Galactica crew seemed to lurch from one bland crisis-of-the-week episode to the next. Now the season has concluded with four episodes which have been more interesting, whilst still not constituting a true return to form.
Maelstrom was heavily pre-hyped as the most shocking episode ever in the show's history. Mostly a character piece, it focused on Starbuck and her background, who's been startlingly under-used in Season 3. Her oft-mentioned destiny plays a key role in the episode, and some interesting minor details that first turned up way back at the start of Season 2 were used to further her storyline in an intriguing manner. Unlike most of the rest of the episodes this year, Maelstrom was pretty well-written, with no ham-fisted editing to wreck the pace of the episode. The ending had been spoiled months in advance, but even so it was pretty startling stuff, even if there was something very suspicious about it. Nevertheless, some strong acting and superlative CGI rounded off a worthwhile episode.
The Son Also Rises examines the aftermath of the startling episode before it and addresses the development of the fleet's nascent legal system in the face of Baltar's forthcoming trial. For an episode many feared would degenerate into BSG Law, it actually turned out to be quite good. Pretty much the entire episode lives or dies on Mark Shepard's performance as the lawyer Lampkin, and he delivers an outstanding portrayal with some exceptional dialogue of the kind this show used to deliver weekly, but has tailed off in the latest season.
The two-part episode Crossroads is a somewhat unusual season finale. Whilst the trial of Baltar delivers some good acting and some strong dialogue, it hardly seems the stuff of the major dramatic paradigm shifts that BSG excels in its season and mid-season cliffhangers. However, what at first seems to be a minor subplot about Colonel Tigh cracking up due to stress and guilt over his wife's death suddenly turns out to be of critical importance to the series. The final twenty minutes of the second part are pretty dramatic, jaw-dropping stuff which I'm pretty certain will leave half the audience convinced BSG has lost the plot for good, and the other half confirmed in their belief that this is the best show on television. Whilst I found the finale to be excellent, both of the big revelations at the end seem to be filled with plot holes of varying degrees, and it will be interesting to see how these are resolved. I'm also uncertain about the last show of the finale, which uses some slightly dodgy CGI and over-the-top music in a manner more befitting The Matrix than the show's normal realistic approach. However, the finale still achieves its goals of raising questions the audience will be desperate to learn the answers to, although we'll have a long wait for Season 4 to find out.
317: Maelstrom ****
318: The Son Also Rises ****
319: Crossroads, Part 1 ****
320: Crossroads, Part 2 ****
Forthcoming: a Battlestar Galactica TV movie based around the story of the Pegasus will air in the autumn of 2007. Season 4 will debut in January 2008. Season 3 continues on Sky One in the UK for the next several weeks and will be released on DVD in August 2007.
This time last year a certain buzz was building up around the debut novel by a new American fantasy author named Scott Lynch. The Lies of Locke Lamora was preceded by an enormous amount of pre-release publicity on both sides of the Atlantic and attracted glowing reviews (a notable exception being an irate critic who claimed that anyone who liked the book had been bribed, leading to a lengthy and somewhat amusing blog-war, but that's by the by). Red Seas Under Red Skies is the eagerly awaited sequel, and the second novel in The Gentleman Bastard sequence.
Two years have passed since the events of The Lies of Locke Lamora. Locke Lamora and Jean Tannen are now residents of the city-state of Tal Verrar where, as you may expect, they are running another extremely elaborate long con, this time designed to rid the wealthy owner of the Sinspire of his worldly goods. As in Lies, events beyond their control intervene and, after a long and complicated chain of events, they find themselves at sea commanding a pirate vessel, despite the fact they know next to nothing about sailing. As readers of Lies may be able to tell, the result is an extremely densely-plotted story of cons-within-cons, double crosses, reversals and betrayals, with Lynch adding some new strings to his bow by describing some of the finest fantasy naval action since Paul Kearney's excellent Monarchies of God series. Oh, and cat-lovers may find themselves enjoying this book quite a lot.It would be very easy to simply do a 'flight sim expansion pack review', which essentially boils down to, "If you enjoyed the original, you'll enjoy this." Simply put, Red Seas contains pretty much the same type of storytelling, the same attitude and the same humour as Lies. However, the book is in many ways an improvement. The city-state of Tal Verrar, with its Elderglass reefs and sculpted islands, is a rival to Camorr in atmosphere and detail, although the book spends less time in its city than Lies does. The smaller towns that are visited in the book are similarly brought to life vividly, as is the pirate haven of Port Prodigal, and Lynch hits the right note in describing the ships in the book as miniature travelling societies, each with their own quirks and memorable characters. The biggest success in the novel, and a critical one for the continued success of the series overall, is the deepening of the friendship between Locke and Jean, moving from the simple, well-founded loyalty shown in Lies to a much more complex game of give-and-take between the two. However, Lynch also brings in some exquisitely-portrayed new characters, several of whom even manage to survive the carnage of the story; Lynch's George RR Martin-style ability to kill off characters just after he's made you deeply emotionally invested in them is somewhat more restrained this time around, but that just makes it hurt more when he does it. There's also a lot of pipe-laying going on for future books in the series. New enemies are made, old enemies are touched upon, new allies are acquired and new mysteries are introduced, but Red Seas remains at heart a resolutely stand-alone novel. Reading Lies is certainly recommended, but is not essential to enjoy the story.
Turning to the negative, there are a few niggles which did concern me whilst reading the book, although these are of a somewhat trivial nature. I must confess that whilst reading the novel I felt the first third or so of the story was essentially a retelling of Lies with the names changed: the Gentleman Bastards plan a con, things seem to be going their way, complications ensue (of a similar nature) and they have to use their ingenuity to win free. However, the second our heroes hit the sea the story transforms into a somewhat different tale, and fears that Lynch is repeating himself are eliminated. Still, some readers may feel that the start of the book is over-familiar. This is going to be even more of a problem for those who read Lies and Red Seas back to back. On the other hand, some may feel the opening of the book being similar to the first one is no more of a problem than, say, the start of each Bond movie following a similar formula. Also, as with Lies, Red Seas is based in part around the subversion of traditional fantasy tropes, which makes it slightly more noticeable when the book employs these tropes without any development of them (the extremely fortuitous escape of a character from certain death at the end of the novel may actually be bordering on cliche). Again, those seeking to enjoy the story for what it is will probably take little notice of this. Finally, a fairly mystifying subplot is resolved in a rather unsatisfactory manner at the end of the book, and the events in the finale are dependent on several characters we only meet a few chapters before the end, when they could have been established much earlier. Readers of Lies may also feel that the opening chapters do not deliver on their promise that the events of Lies will tie directly into the storyline of the novel. None of these problems are critical by any means, but they are slight irritations marring an otherwise superb story.
Elsewhere, Lynch improves on areas that in Lies were found wanting. Those who found the numerous flashbacks in Lies distracting will also be relieved to know that the flashbacks are much less numerous in Red Seas, are more directly tied to the main storyline and pretty much disappear about halfway in the volume. Thus Red Seas is much better paced than Lies and, despite being longer, actually feels like a shorter, faster-paced read. By the way, the page-counts on Amazon.co.uk seem to be way off on this novel: my advance copy is 650 pages of text of roughly the same size and spacing as the release trade paperback edition of Lies.Red Seas Under Red Skies (****), despite a few rough edges, is a marked improvement on The Lies of Locke Lamora (itself a fine debut) and confirms Scott Lynch's place as one of the foremost new fantasy authors on the block. The novel will be published in the UK on 21 June by Gollancz in both hardcover and trade paperback editions. The US edition will by published by Bantam on 31 July in hardcover. Sandstorm Reviews have a typically less rambling review than mine at this location. The author also has a website here. Book 3 of The Gentleman Bastard sequence will be entitled The Republic of Thieves and should be out in mid-2008. I look forward to it immensely.
The year is 2107. A century from now, the United States no longer exists. Religious and political strife has torn the country into three nations: the high-tech, rich Pacific Rim; the God-fearing, ultra-right-wing Republic (aka 'Jesusland'); and the liberal, UN-aligned North Atlantic Union. China is now the world's dominant economic superpower, whilst Europe and India's political and economic might continues to expand. After (another) lengthy period of war and turmoil, the Middle-East is relatively quiet. On Mars mankind's efforts to tame the Red Planet continue unabated. Forty years earlier, genetically-engineered supermen known as 'thirteens' were created to serve as unstoppable soldiers. But, in the wake of America's collapse, they are now feared and hunted. A few thirteens serve the UN, hunting down their fellows, but most have fled to Mars, or turned to crime.
Carl Marsalis is a black man in every sense of the word: a thirteen, a 'twist' who genetic pattern is based on that of the ultimate human alpha-males who became extinct twenty thousand years ago. Whilst most of the world doesn't pay a second glance at his skin colour, in the increasingly regressive Republic it is a target for prejudice and hatred. Luckily, Marsalis is more than capable of looking after himself. When his usual employers hang him out to dry after he is thrown in a Florida prison, he takes up an offer from the Martian colonial office: to hunt down another thirteen who has come back from Mars and embarked on a bloody and apparently senseless killing spree.Black Man is the fifth novel by British SF author Richard Morgan. It is set in the same universe as his Takeshi Kovacs series (Altered Carbon, Broken Angels and Woken Furies), but roughly 400 years earlier. It is a totally stand-alone work: you may glean a few insights from having read the Kovacs books first (particularly the source of the increasingly advanced technology that is being shipped back from Mars), but the book stands up by itself. Which is just as well, as it is by far his finest book to date and sets the bar improbably high for all other science fiction released in 2007.
The book has been retitled Thirteen (or Th1rte3n according to the cover) for the American market and it's easy to see why. This is an incendiary novel that absolutely pulls no punches and takes no prisoners. Morgan analyses the problems he sees in the USA's political and sociological make-up and uses them skillfully to tear the country apart. Not since Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy have I seen an author so convincingly show what can happen to a nation, to a mass of people, and how they develop. As an SF book relegated to the darker corners of bookshops, it's likely that the book will escape widespread scrutiny, but I can imagine this book being banned and then burned in certain parts of the American South, which it is not particularly flattering to (although the rest of the human race doesn't exactly come off lightly either). Morgan has said previously that he doesn't pay as much attention to his backdrops as he does to his characters and plots, but in Black Man the worldbuilding is exemplery. The San Francisco of Altered Carbon could feel somewhat cold and sterile at times, but the same city in Black Man is a vivid, three-dimensional place which fairly leaps of the page, as does 22nd Century New York, Miami and the other key locations in the novel.The thriller element of the story is compelling. Morgan knows how to set up an intricate web of intrigue and mystery and when to make new revelations and bring in new characters. The world that Marsalis inhabits is a murky one of dubious loyalties and betrayals, through which a classic noir story unfolds (albeit a noir story with moments of extreme ultraviolence, a pretty explicit sex scene and a lot of swearing). Unlike the Kovacs novels, Black Man is told in the third person and there are several key POV characters as well as Marsalis, particularly the Martian colonial office agent Svegi Ertekin and her partner, Tom Norton. All are expertly drawn and deconstructed by the author. Marsalis himself is a fascinating character and hopefully Morgan will one day write books further exploring him further.Black Man (*****) is everything modern SF should be: edgy, intelligent, compelling and deep. It is without hesitation I give it the first five-starred review of a book since I started this blog. The novel will be published in hardcover in the UK by Gollancz on 17 May and in hardcover in the USA by Del Rey on 26 June. The author has a website at this location. Sandstorm Reviews has an excellent (and far more concise) review of the novel here.
It is the year 2427. The place is the Glitter Band, ten thousand space habitats circling the planet Yellowstone, the golden heart of human space where a multitude of different cultures meet and trade, and a waystop for huge lighthuggers as they slowly traverse the distances between the stars at speeds just below that of light. This is the universe of Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds' critically-acclaimed gothic space opera which has now extended across five novels, two novellas and a short story collection. The Prefect is a stand-alone addition to this excellently-realised future history, taking place approximately a century before the events of Chasm City and Revelation Space itself.
Whilst the planet Yellowstone and its biggest settlement, Chasm City, deal with their own affairs, it falls to the prefects of Panoply to police the vast Glitter Band and its 100 million citizens, who practice the ultimate form of democracy, Demarchism. Every minute dozens of decisions, large and small, are put to the public vote and the people of the Glitter Band spend much of their time engrossed in politics, employing a form of VR known as Abstraction to talk to one another, or choosing to lose themselves in fantastical reflections of the real world. The greatest crime in the Glitter Band is an attempt to deny the will of the people. Voting fraud is a heinous perversion, one which the prefects exist to prevent at all costs.An apparently routine case of voting fraud leads Tom Dreyfus and his team into a labyrinthe web of plots and conspiracies that threatens to destroy their very way of life. And, as this is a mystery novel, to say any more of the plot would threaten to indulge in spoilers. Suffice to say that the links between The Prefect and the other Revelation Space novels are subtle and numerous. The Prefect in fact occupies a position within its larger series framework similar to the position Steven Erikson's novel Midnight Tides occupies in his Malazan Book of the Fallen sequence: generally a standalone novel, but with equal arguments in favour of reading the book before the others (events in the other novels are clarified by information provided in The Prefect) or afterwards (when the reader understands exactly what will become of this society in the future).Reynolds is on good form here, although arguably he fails to recapture the immediacy of his finest work, Chasm City. The Prefect is a somewhat more straightforward novel. Although there are several startling, late revelations and plot twists, the reader is in possession of most of the facts reasonably early in the book. Tom Dreyfus also remains a somewhat less complex protagonist then regular Reynolds readers may be used to, but as usual the author has a few aces up his sleeve which force the reader to reassess the character during the novel's conclusion.In The Prefect Alastair Reynolds executes an enjoyable and extremely fast-paced return to the universe that made his name. The story develops nicely and explodes into a furious page-turning pace in its second half that barely lets up. At the same time Reynolds' ability to conjure up vivid imagery remains intact (one plotline is not for the squeamish or for anyone with a fear of knives), as does his assured grasp of his universe and the remarkable cultures and ideas that make it up. The book is not without its flaws - in particular, those who have already read Absolution Gap and know of Reynolds' fondness for ambiguous endings may be better-prepared for the conclusion than others - and there is perhaps a feeling that we are being set up for a sequel at the end, but these are fairly minor concerns. The Prefect is Reynolds' best novel since at least Redemption Ark, and is an engrossing read.The Prefect (****) will be published by Gollancz in the United Kingdom in hardcover on 2 April 2007. The author has a website at this location.
Before updating what's new with me and SF&F, a brief pause of respect at the news that Leigh Eddings has passed away. The wife of fantasy author David Eddings, Leigh was the co-author with her husband on all of his fantasy novels, uncredited up until the 1995 release of Belgarath the Sorcerer before she got a joint credit with him on their later novels. All-in-all, she co-wrote twenty-two books with her husband. Leigh passed away at the age of 69 on 28 February following a series of strokes. Condolences to her family.After that subdued note, I received my first-ever review copies of books from Gollancz today, courtesy of Simon Spanton. Many thanks to Pat of Pat's Fantasy Hotlist who put them in touch with me. The books in question are:Selling Out by Justina Robson (Book 2 of the Quantum Gravity series, the sequel to Keeping It Real)Black Man by Richard Morgan (a new standalone novel from the author of Altered Carbon)The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski (a highly-recommended novel by a leading Polish fantasist)The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds (a new standlone SF novel set in the Revelation Space universe)I think The Prefect will be the first book I check out, on the grounds that his last Revelation Space stand-alone novel was the masterful Chasm City. I think I'll have to pick up Keeping It Real as well before trying Selling Out.
Here's something a little different. Rather than just reviewing the latest book I've bought (old or new), I have decided to do some reviews on major works that have made a big impact on me over the years. After wondering whether to start at the beginning or the end, I decided mixing them up may be the best way to go. I start off with a more recent work of epic fantasy that has been a major critical success in recent times, with the author going from being unheard of to mentioned in the same breath as Erikson, Kay and Martin in just three years. This, then, is The Prince of Nothing Trilogy.
ancient and forgotten order called the Dunyain, Kellhus is a master manipulator of human thought and emotion, able to bend people's wills to his design by knowing their histories: what has come before determines what follows. This aids him on his quest to find his father, Moenghus, who long ago fled to Shimeh and 'went native', to the Dunyain's disgust. Along the way, however, Kellhus discovers that the evil Consult, the powerful force that served the No-God in the First Apocalypse two thousand years earlier, has returned. The non-human Consult and their skin-spies stand outside Kellhus' experience and knowledge, representing a challenge he cannot ignore.
