1. Chronicles of the Black Company by Glenn Cook

Omnibus of 3 novels. Military fantasy. Really cool characters.

7/10

2. The Blade Itself (The First Law: Book One) by Joe Abercrombie

Book one of Joe Abercrombies excellent series. Dark, Gritty. Loren Ninefingers is a memorable character.  Hes more brutal than al’Lan Mandragoran or Roland of Gilead, but hes also funnier. Pretty Badass character.

8/10

3. Before They Are Hanged (The First Law: Book Two) by Joe Abercrombie

Book Two of Joe Abercombies series. I enjoyed this one just as much as the first. Its hard to believe I was sympathizing with these characters as nasty as they were.

8/10

4. Last Argument of Kings (First Law: Book Three) by Joe Abercrombie

This dissapointed me. I didnt like how the series ended at all. I did not like what the wizard turned out to be. I did not like the very cynical ending.Im astonished at how many people thought this was the best book of the series. I thought it was by far the most disappointing.

6/10

5. Neuromancer by William Gibson

Is there really anything left to be said about this visionary book? Its not really my genre but still an excellent book.

8/10

6. Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

This is one of the most imaginative magic systems I have ever read. Brandon Sanderson does that so well, between Mistborn, Elantris and Warbreaker he has given us three unique systems that are comprehensive. Thats an amazing accomplishment.

9/10

7.  Wolfblade (The Hythrun Chronicles: Wolfblade Trilogy, Book 1) by Jennifer Fallon

Jennifer Fallon is the best author I came across in 2009 that I hadnt read before. I ripped through the Wolfblade series. This one is the story of young Marla Wolfblade, the Princes sister, and how she holds her family and country together.

9/10

8. Something from the Nightside (Nightside, Book 1) by Simon Green

An urban fantasy noir. There is an alternate reality London and our hero needs to save someone who was kidnapped. I remember the book as funny and interesting enough that I got the second one. But I never got to reading the second book.

6.5/10

9. The Night Watch (Watch, Book 1) by Sergei Lukyanenko

Another Urban Fantasy, I really enjoyed this book, the idea of the Night Watch and the Day Watch and what Twilight meant.

8.5/10

10. The Novice (The Black Magician Trilogy, Book 2) by Trudi Canavan

Second book of the series. Deals with how an orphan girl deals with going to magical school. If it sounds a little like Hary Potter thats cause it is. I enjoyed it but it wasnt the most original book I had ever read.

7/10

11. The High Lord (The Black Magician Trilogy, Book 3) by Trudi Canavan

A vast improvement on the derivative previous book of the series.We get out of the schooland the city for that matter and start getting into the more interesting back story of Akkarin, and why he has Sonea learning what she is.

8.5/10

12. Elantris by Brandon Sanderson

What a book! Seriously read this now if you havent yet. Its one of the most imaginative fantasy books Ive read. The hero is discovered one morning with a Leprosy type disease that has magical roots. He is dumped inside an abandoned city/fortress with others like him. And it takes off from there.

9.5/10

13. Brisingr by Christopher Paolini

I thought Eragon was a good but flawed book. Yeah it had similarities with Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and Dragon Rider and Wizard of Earthsea and any number of classics. But it worked. The second book did not. And this one is a steaming pile of crap. I cant believe I actually finished it. I honestly dont know if I will finish this when the last book comes out. I probably will but not because I want to but because I have a niece and a nephew who are big fans and I would want to be able to talk about the book with them.

3/10

14. The Way of Shadows (The Night Angel Trilogy) by Brent Weeks

Excellent Trilogy from a new author. I thought it was an interesting idea to have the first 3 books available one after the other in the course of a few months. They also had a crazy ebook sale where I wound up buying the first ebook for something like $2. Its not a book for kids there are some seriously disturbing themes, but the action sequences in the book are incredible.

8.5/10

15. Shadow’s Edge (Night Angel Trilogy, Book 2) by Brent Weeks

Second book of the trilogy which introduced us to Kylar Stern and Durzo Blint. The world expands quite a bit in this book. Not as good as the first but still pretty damn good.

7.5/10

16. Beyond the Shadows (The Night Angel Trilogy) by Brent Weeks

Spectacular end to a very good series. Brent Weeks does a great job expanding on the Universe he created. Very satisfying Epic Trilogy.

9/10

17. Warrior (The Hythrun Chronicles: Wolfblade Trilogy, Book 2) by Jennifer Fallon

Another strong book by Jennifer Fallon. Here we meet Damin Wolfblade, Marlas son and Crown Prince of the land. Very fun book, Damin is an awesome character.

8.5/10

18. Warlord: Book Six of the Hythrun Chronicles by Jennifer Fallon

Last book of the Wolfblade trilogy and it does not dissapoint.Damin grows up and kicks all kinds of ass.

8.5/10

19. Medalon (The Hythrun Chronicles: Demon Child Trilogy, Book 1)

Another Trilogy from Jennifer Fallon.  A fun romp with politics, war gods and all the rest you would expect. A minor quibble is that there are some continuity issues between the Woflbalde Trilogy and the previous Demon Child trilogy. Nt too surprising considering the Wolfblade trilogy takes place before the Demon Child one even though it was written later, but there are some spots where you go hmm… thats not right.

8.5/10

20.  Treason Keep (The Hythrun Chronicles: Demon Child Trilogy, Book 2)

Second book and things really start moving here. Damin Wolfblade is back from the Woldblade trilogy. Also assuming a lot of importance in this book is the daughter of Hablet Adina.

9/10

21. Harshini (The Hythrun Chronicles: Demon Child Trilogy, Book 3)

The weakest of the Jennifer Fallon books I read this year. It wasnt bad per se, it just focussed on wrapping things up. There wasnt that much that was surprising here, which is not what Fallons style is.

7.5/10

22. The Lion of Senet (The Second Sons Trilogy, Book 1)

23. Eye of the Labyrinth (The Second Sons Trilogy, Book 2)

24. Lord of the Shadows (The Second Sons Trilogy, Book 3)

This is Jennifer Fallons best trilogy. What an outstanding cast of characters. The trilogy as a whole deals with the Second Sons of (mostly)Noble houses and the pains they go through to make their mark on the world. I dont think there is even a little magic in this book so if thats how you define fantasy you wont be happy. What we do get is an incredible world and an incredible story with memorable characters and some truly badass moments.

9/10

Ok. So thats about halfway there. I’ll get the rest up in the next few days.

What the jacket says:

“Springtime in Styria.  And that means war.

There have been nineteen years of blood.  The ruthless Grand Duke Orso is locked in a vicious struggle with the squabbling League of Eight, and between them they have bled the land white.  While armies march, heads roll, and cities burn, behind the scenes bankers, priests and older, darker powers play a deadly game to choose who will be king.

War may be hell, but for Monza Murcatto, the Snake of Talins, the most feared and famous mercenary in Duke Orso’s employ, it’s a damn good way of making money too.  Her victories have made her popular – a shade too popular for her employers taste.  Betrayed, thrown down a mountain and left for dead, Murcatto’s reward is a broken body and a burning hunger for vengeance.  Whatever the cost, seven men must die.

Her allies include Styria’s least reliable drunkard, Styria’s most treacherous poisoner, a mass-murderer obsessed with numbers and a barbarian who just wants to do the right thing.  Her enemies number the better half of the nation.  And that’s all before the most dangerous man in the world is dispatched to hunt her down and finish the job Duke Orso started…

Springtime in Styria.  And that means revenge.”

What it’s about: The story is about revenge. Plain and simple. It’s brutal and bloody with one or two funny bits, but overall pretty serious. It reads easily, I’ll give the book that and though it was tagged as fantasy – there is very little fantasy in the story. There is also no underlying – big picture – plot. The entire story revolves around Monza’s quest for vengeance. Towards the end of the book I got bored with it, though I wanted to see the ending.The writing is not bad at all and there is certainly potential to take the world created here further and to enrich and colour the story of Styria.

Rating: It’s not a bad story and if you are in the mood for some gore and a relatively mindless afternoon of fun then I’d recommend it. Be warned though: the characters were a bit 2d for me with little to no real development in any of them.

What’s better: If you want blood and gore and vengeance the Malazan Book of the Fallen is probably your best bet.

Re-read: I won’t re-read this book any time soon if ever.

Here goes:

Like many many others I was a little apprehensive about this book coming out.  I’m a huge Robert Jordan fan and I like Brandon Sanderson quite a bit too, but was a little uneasy with how the styles would mix. I am glad to say that my fears were unfounded. Sanderson mentions at the start of the book how he isn’t going to try and imitate RJ, but rather tell the story of RJs characters in his own voice. He succeeds. Despite some quibbles this was an extremely satisfying volume of the Wheel of Time.

Click through for a fuller plot review that includes spoilers for The Gathering Storm

The book has 2 main storylines and a number of minor ones. Let’s tackle the main ones first.

Rand al’Thor dominates this book. Even though he is the Dragon Reborn and everything in the story comes back to him he hasnt had so much screen time since Lord of Chaos where we saw him starting down the road that reaches its conclusion here. It started with Aes Sedai trying to manipulate him in the aftermath of Moirraines death and reaches its culmination when Semhirage uses the Male A’dam to capture him. Rands “hardening” reaches such an insane pitch in this book that for large chunks of the book he is unlikeable. In earlier books when he would do something kind of nasty, his thoughts during his own POV’s would redeem him. This time his thoughts just make him scarier. There are 2 scenes in particular which bring this out for me, and it’s not a surprise that they both occur with Nynaeve. The first scene is when Nynaeve and Rand have a talk after she sniffs out the torturers apprentice who had been compelled by Graendal. He questions why everyone thinks he is stupid and doesn’t realize what he is turning into, he knows and has decided that’s the only way he is going to win, and he is willing to pay the price. The other scene is the way he kills Graendal. Brilliantly coldblooded. And there is no way Rand al’Thor does that, no matter what the provocation, before Semhirage tries to takes him prisoner.

The scene with Tam at the end had a different feel to me. There was a degree of desperation there, not just cold bloodedness. It was the alcoholic/drug addict hitting rock bottom. He has only two choices here, either completely give up on his humanity or bring it back, which he does in a wonderfully written final chapter.

The other major plotline was Egwene’s fight in the White Tower. She is such an awesome character. I have always like Egwene (except in the Path of Daggers, and it wasnt her I disliked so much as reading about the rest of the Rebel Aes Sedai). The way she takes Elaida apart, gets the sitters to listen to her, reunites the Tower and kicks all kinds of Seanchan ass, she is now the character I’d like to read most after Mat.

The minor storyline of Verin was super satisfying as well. Shes always been one of the best Aes Sedai characters and she comes through big time in this book as well. I am glad the hidden Ajah thing is over once and for all. That was a theory that was very tempting though it made no sense. The dedication of Verin is astounding. 70 years in the Black Ajah intent on Double crossing them at the end. That takes something. So not only is she this brilliantly distracted character, she is bad ass enough to take on the Back by herself.

Sheriam being Black and her quick execution was a lot less satisfying.

I thought Gawyn was still a moron, but at least now he is a slightly more curious moron.

The Perrin sections seemed solid but unspectacular.

Elaida I am 99% convinced now has been touched by Fain/Mashdar. Theres something similar in the way she is acting now and Mat was acting when he had the dagger.

Speaking of Fain… Where the hell is he? I think he was last seen in Winters Heart.

Cadsuane got a little annoying in this book, so did the Wise Ones.

No Sea Folk POV’s … Thank the light

The only minor quibble I had with the book was Mats character. I didn’t have a huge problem with it the way people complaining on tor.com and dragonmount.com did. But it was definitely off. The way I see it though the Mat chapters weren’t strictly necessary, but I would imagine that if he didn’t appear in the book the howls would be a lot more strident. And I think the quality of this book more than earns Brandon Sanderson the patience to see what he can do with Mat when he actually has something more substantial to do(Get to the Finns already!!!).

As much as I enjoyed this book I am not quite sure where I would rank it in the Wheel of Time. The Shadow Rising and Lord of Chaos were definitely superior. Path of Daggers and Crossroads of Twilight were definitely inferior. Woo hoo!! Reread!

First off let me get the negatives out of the way.

One or two phrases were clearly Sanderson and imo didn’t fit into the WoT milieu. ‘Backfired’…seriously? The second thing was the “Voice” of Mat. I didn’t like it. His interactions with Talmanes were reminiscent of Laurel and Hardy and not what I had come to expect of the characters.

And that ladies and gentlemen were the only things from a prose pov that I didn’t like.

The cover art is truly horrible, but we all knew that already.

Now, on to the good stuff:

Where to start? As mentioned I thought the Prologue was brilliant, Chapter 1 terrible and Chapter 2 fantastic. From there you go on a rollercoaster ride that only stops on page 677 or so. Damn good stuff.

So here is my review:

-          Aviendha’s arc feels a little stretched out and I think the “meaningless test till you tell us to piss off” thing has been done before, but overall not too bad.

-          Take a bow Jordanson – You have made Gawyn start to redeem himself. The man can hold a sword and does so on three occasions that were cool, and he got a good talking to from my fave Great Captain which made him start to realize he was acting like a tool.

-          Siuan and Bryne are cool and heartwarming and I enjoyed their onscreen banter.

-          Ituralde is cool as well and I loved the scene with him and Turan the Seanchan general. That moment was epic and showed that some men still hold to their honour in the last days of man.

-          Perrin and Mat get token screen time, most of which are placeholders with especially the coolest part of Perrin’s story being his meeting with Galad which we only know about because Rand sees it in a vision. As mentioned Mat’s voice bothered me as did his sojourn to the ‘village of the cheese making damned’. It carried no plot and was a nod to pop culture that I could have done without. His meeting up with Verin was cool and I am itching to know wtf is in that letter!

-          I would have liked more screen time for Min, but she does kick ass in one paragraph by being sharper than an uppity Aes Sedai.  She also manages to see what all the other people that want to guide Rand fails to see.

-          I liked how Nynaeve was written. Her interior conflicts and desires were done well, as was her sleuthing in Bandar Eban. If not for her I think the Borderlands would be in deep shit. I hope they find out how close they came to being utterly fubar’ed.

-          Hey Hurin. Sucky reunion.  Hope we see you again soon.

-           Tuon’s new name sucks ass. We have Toyota Fortuners here in SA and that is all I can think off when I read about her name. Tuon Fortuna(r) – she’ll go anywhere. Except to peace with the DR. WTF? Idiot girl although kudos to withstand the greatest ta’veren since Hawking, wait…what?

-          I missed Lan and Moirraine. And Padan Fain.

-          Verin: What.The.Fuck?! I did not see that coming. Yeah I speculated once or twice that she might be Black, she could lie I thought and used Compulsion, but really…you could see from her POV that she was in Rand’s camp. Huh? Going over to the Shadow to study the DO. WHAT?! To Study…The DO. That was awesome. That is what a spy should be. How damn cool is that?! Thomas wanting to redeem himself is just as cool and to be a double agent for 70 years? And then find an AS loophole in the oath she swore to the DO…dude James Bond can suck it. What does she need Mat to do…aaaaarrrrgggghhhh….do we really have to wait a year to find out?

-          The purging of the BA was downplayed and I’m not really sure why. I would have liked to see more of Sheriam’s interrogation and execution. Oh well.

-          Cadsuane is a tool. After this book she has jumped to number 3 in my hate list just behind Aram and Elaida. Suvva is a good damane. LOL. Seriously though Cadsuane is a bully. I didn’t realize that was why I disliked her until Tam pointed it out. She is more concerned about remaining unbeaten than she is about the fate of the world. Huh? Grow up oldest living AS.

-          Speaking of which: Semirhage breaks after one spanking? I didn’t break after a spanking and I got a couple. One spank = eat off floor? That was poor imo though I did like that humiliation could break her.  If you want to see how someone could be broken through humiliation watch Battlestar Galactica. It was much better done in there.

-          Tam remains awesome. He also reminds me of my grandfather who recently passed away so yeah, teary moment with him reuniting with Rand.

-          Which brings us to Rand and Egwene. The two characters that are made of aweome.

Egwene’s: struggle to unite the Tower was epic. I loved reading every word and it’s been a long time since I enjoyed reading about AS.  Her political movements and clever playing of the AS was awesome to read. Her becoming a stronger and wiser character was cool as well. Two moments stand out – being beaten by Elaida without so much as a whimper and then her being the hammer of justice against the Seanchan was EPIC. Gave me goosebumps reading those scenes. “You will be my damane” BOOM – roasted.

The Seanchan ninjas were a letdown.

Rand: well…he is the most badass hero to walk the plane of any fantasy world. Ever. His descent to madness was terrifying and believable. Semirhage capturing him and then making him start killing Min was terrible. Beautifully written though. I was screaming in my head for Rand to stop. His coldness after that and his terrible way of looking at the world without a shred of emotion evoked deep feelings of fear and sympathy in me. I love Rand, always have, after this book – always will.

Wiping out a fortress to kill a Forsaken. Hell yes! Wanting to kill the Seanchan by himself. Awesome. His eventual redemption and return(?) to sanity – beautifully done. I liked the soft climax we were given. It wasn’t earth shattering, but it was done beautifully. Is Lews Therin gone, was he ever there? I still don’t know.

What I do know is that it is going to be difficult waiting another year for the next one. But thank you Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson for being Epic writers of a the best fantasy series ever written.

His Majesty’s Dragon

Summary: Temeraire by Naomi Novik is a combination of Fantasy and Historical Fiction. The book follows Captain Laurence and Temeraire, his dragon, whose egg he captures from a French Ship. Laurence is forced to give up his Naval career and join the aviators, who have a reputation as a rough bunch, set apart from the rest of the military. The consensus from people he knows is that he has had to make a dreadful sacrifice for King and Country, but as Laurence comes to know Temeraire, he not only comes to terms with his changed circumstance, he dives in whole heartedly.

Thoughts: I enjoyed the book a lot, already ordered the Book 2 in the series(though I have gotten Mistborn Book 3, and The Alchemyst Book 2 on the To Read pile). Both Capt. Laurence and Temeraire are interesting characters. Laurence’s reactions to events that are inconceivable in the time and place are what really makes him such an admirable character. He meets a Dragon who is his instructor, he finds out women in the aviators are captains too, his reaction to a fellow captain who neglects his dragon, all of these sequences inform his character, and its a tremendous character. He is moral, but not unbending, he is a proper prig, but only till he is comfortable with someone. Temeraire the dragon on the other hand is more like our typical fantasy hero, who is uniquely gifted(at least in the western world), picks up things very quickly, asks the questions about society at large, that normally a fantasy hero asks, such as why do they fight for duty, an has mysterious powers that come into play at a very convenient time. He could easily be Belgarion, Rand al’Thor or Paul Atreides.

Another aspect of the book that really makes it compelling is the time period. The Napoleonic Wars are the perfect setting for this story. It gives us the British Army Officer with the stiff upper lip, who is in constant danger because of the tense times, but comes through in grand fashion.

One final point. This book is incredibly visual, and its tough to imagine the scale at which these dragons are imagined. Some of the lager dragons are as high as a 10 story building, and require huge crews to be able to fight. They are used as messengers, bombers, transports, fighters, or all at the same time. I really enjoyed the similarities between the way fighting and working on a dragon is similar to fighting and working on a ship. I’ve never read the Aubrey-Maturin Series(Master and Commander with Russel Crowe was based on them) but am now pretty keen to look through those.

Cross posted to doshiamit.net