Silver Serpent (Absent Gods book 1)

Silver Serpent
by David Debord

I enjoyed this book.

It seems like the book went really quickly and I barely got to know anyone. This can be a good sign though, a sign of an epic fantasy with a Plan. I do wish I had waited until there were more books released, because I can’t wait to find out what happens, and learn more about the characters.

This book reminded me a little of EON: Dragoneye Reborn in that it features a female character who bucks the trend, and also has a lot of exciting sword fights.

The book features a prophecy – but it is not an omnipresent prophecy that drives all the action. Instead, it is more like a myth that everyone has heard about, and that the main characters have taken to heart as a quest they have to puzzle through.

There are a few times when things seem to happen for no reason other than to advance the plot. Notably, the section where: they stop in some random village, but then it turns out the village is a Key Site mentioned in the prophecy, so they kill a monster that was threatening the villagers, and in return the villagers give them some Key Gifts that turn out to unlock the path to the quest item. That section of the book seems to rush just as fast as my run-on sentence did, left me feeling like the whole episode was just to move things along.

There are times also where the book feels a little too direct in telling the characters emotions. The author will reiterate an obvious emotion, “She was jealous” “He was angry” “He was embarrassed”, when the emotion was already clear from the character’s behavior.

However, on the whole, the character development is fine and the pacing is quick but not too hurried. There is a lot of action, and the characters seem deeper than what is revealed in this first book. Looking forward to Book 2.

First Law trilogy – The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged, Last Argument of Kings

The Blade Itself (book 1 of the First Law trilogy)
Before They Are Hanged (book 2)
Last Argument of Kings (book 3)
by Joe Abercrombie

Got mixed feelings about this dark, violent, bitter fantasy saga.

The cast of characters includes:
Glokta – a self-pitying and brutal victim-turned-torturer
Logen – a berserker with a bloody past who wants to be a good man at heart
Jezal – an arrogant prick who becomes a pawn
Ferro – a half-mad ex-slave girl bent on revenge
Bayaz – a manipulative powerful centuries-old wizard
West – a soldier and an average guy, in the wrong place at the wrong time

An empire with a dysfunctionally corrupt government finds itself fighting a war on two fronts – both its neighbors have decided to invade. Despite these outside threats, internal corruption still threatens to collapse the empire from the inside out, and an ancient magic order is taking advantage of… well, everyone… in order to fuel an age-old feud. The above characters find themselves tangled in various parts of this mess, and they do what they can to deal with it.

I read the whole trilogy, but looking back, I didn’t like it all that much. It has a bleak sense of humor. The plot is somewhat meandering – the second book features a lengthy quest during which the characters fail to bond with each other or change at all, then they don’t find the quest item, and just turn around and go home again – and much of the action seems a little senseless. The characters have little motivation for doing anything, other than that they all feel like they don’t have a choice. It’s like a prophecy story – only instead of getting a prophecy you just get mass depression.

By the end of the book, once everyone’s true nature is revealed, no one is likable in the least – and no one gets any happy ending either. The third book is mostly watching characters you don’t like anymore have the worst luck in life, sigh, and then fall right back to the same old cycle of meaningless violence and scheming.

So I guess the trilogy has a strong theme at least.

True Professionalism

True Professionalism
by David H. Maister

I thought that this book would extend the concept of professionalism out of its traditional realm and into the world of business. But I was dismayed to find that professionalism as Maister thinks of it doesn’t apply to me… because I work for a corporation. Maister sees a “professional” as someone who provides a service to a client, and who could work as a sole practitioner. His book seems to be mostly geared towards lawyers and consultants, and more specifically law firms or consulting firms.

Also, it often seems like, because I work for a corporation, with no real expectation of autonomy, I already by default have the skills he claims professionals so badly need – like the ability to work as part of a team or to accept management.

Half of the book is spent implying that professionals (or possibly people overall) are unable to be internally motivated to excellence, and repeatedly insisting that the only way to make them perform at a high level is to have an external force demand that they do so, and strictly enforce those demands. He describes such a policy as “intolerant” and uses this word A LOT. He further suggests that professionals should want and accept this, because they too should realize that they can’t achieve excellence on their own.
It is a little offensive, and I would imagine that such a firm taking such a faithless approach would have great success among the average, but would drive away the best.

The other half of the book, strangely, implies that actually you can’t change people that much, and should adjust your firm to contain only people who share the same standards and values.

This book is sometimes called inspiring and perhaps that is because Maister suggests that a fulfilling professional career is in fact possible (even though many may feel like it’s “just a job”). And he does offer some decent, albeit obvious, advice about how to get there (think about times in your work when you were happy, or clients that you liked, and then DO THAT – find more of that kind of work, or that kind of client).

Overall I thought this book was quite muddled, with mediocre advice presented in a poorly organized way.

Note about the Kindle edition: this book has a lot of lists, and about half of the lists are incorrectly formatted in the Kindle edition (they appear as a long run-on block of text instead of a bullet list). Also, this book in print form has quotes from the main text set off in little side boxes meant to emphasize important ideas. In the Kindle edition there are no boxes; instead the quotes are just repeated in line in bold text, producing a weird effect of redundancy.

Imagination First

Not sure why I picked this book up, as it really sounds like the type of thing I’d hate. A handbook about how to be more imaginative and spontaneous? Yuck! Anyhow, I got it. I read it. I wanted to put it down after reading the first few pages (the world’s problems only exist because we can’t IMAGINE solutions??). But I didn’t. I kept reading. And you know what? It got better. In the end I actually kind of liked it.

I liked that the authors really tried to make their topic approachable, legitimate, and useful. I started to like the book when the authors explained their thoughts on the differences between imagination, creativity, and innovation. And I liked their Lincoln Center Institute list of “Capacities for Imaginative Learning”:  I think it’s a good start at the ground-rules of … how to think. (You can see this list at the LCI website here (PDF): Ten Capacities.)

And while I thought their initial “grabber” statements (about how so many major problems could be tackled with a little imagination) were far-fetched, I did think that their discussion about how imagination is the foundation of the American advantage was valuable and a useful lesson.

Some of the 28 practices seemed ridiculous, or at least, the way they were discussed was ridiculous – too vague and “spacey”. But some of them were interesting, and yielded interesting exercises that actually made me think. For instance, I liked the practice called “Mix Your Metaphors” that included an exercise: taking a common metaphor like “____ is a gift” and substituting uncommon things in the blank. “Could you imagine an argument being a gift?” the book asks. The point of the exercise is to think about the way you think.

One thing to note is that the book is very strongly geared towards American readers. The authors imply that “we” need to work on our imaginations in order to beat out foreign  countries like China. Foreigners might feel like they are not included in this same “we” as the authors.

Wit’ch Star

Wi’tch Star
book 5 of the Banned and the Banished
by James Clemens

The final book, at last.

The Kindle edition for this book also starts in the wrong place, and as this the last book, the forewords (and afterwords) are critical. Go to “Location 1″ (instead of “Beginning”) to make sure you read everything.

This book was all right. The pacing was good and there was a lot of exciting action. We get some new heroes, ones who have a sense of humor (this actually helps the book a lot). Many of the characters’ had their personalities and relationships developed a lot in this book, to become believable and round.

Unfortunately, the key relationship (Elena and Er’ril) did NOT really develop believably. The extent of the development was as follows:
“You’re really 15, and I’m really 500! It just seems weird”
“But I’ve grown up so much in the past year! Look at all the burdens I’ve had to bear! Really, I’m an adult”
“Uh okay well all my worries are alleviated now, let’s have sex”
Bet you’re wondering right now… does she get a level up here? Some kind of new sex’fire? Well, sort of. All her magick is blood magick – she usually uses a dagger to cut her palms to release the power. (Don’t worry, using the magic heals the cuts.) After her first tryst, she is trapped and can’t reach her dagger. Luckily, her lover reminds her that he just took her virginity, leaving her bleeding. Awesome! She can reach her power again, saves them all. (I laugh, but I’m actually all right with this plot point, makes perfect sense in line of the story.)

In general though, this book just felt like it was over-reaching. It was an enjoyable fantasy story, but most of the most important loose ends were not dealt with very smoothly. The ending(s) were particularly disappointing.

Elena receives a dire prophecy from the spirit of her ancestor, the first ever wit’ch. She is told that she will face a choice to save the world… but that EITHER choice will spell doom for everyone. Supposedly she must look to her heart to find the third way.

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER ——-

In the end, they are a little too late: the heart of the Land has already been damaged, and the imprisoned god has gone mad from centuries of torment. In fact, Elena’s patron goddess has to destroy her brother god because his madness is irreparable. To do this, she must merge with him, and their opposite energies will nullify each other… but will release an extreme amount of magickal power. Elena, connected to the goddess, will be the channel for this power, and must decide what to do with it. Choice 1: She can absorb it, becoming a god herself. However, this won’t fix the damage to the heart of the Land, and magick (and possibly all life) will slowly decay. Choice 2: She can channel it into the Land, recharging the heart. However, the power is so great that this would overload the Land; everything and everyone she knows would be obliterated and life would begin anew. Crappy choice, just as prophesied. But seems like there’s several ways out, right? What does the third way of her heart turn out to be?
She uses the power to forge a “wit’ch star” in the heavens that is tied by a filament of magick to the planet, that slowly feeds magick to the Land. Now, elementals and other races/people who currently have great magick power will still lose their power because of the damage to the Land’s heart. BUT, the wit’ch star will feed a little bit of magick to EVERYONE. Everyone will have an equal (albeit smaller) amount of magick. Yay! Equality! And she gets to return as a normal girl to lead a normal life with her lover.

This all just made no sense to me.

The final afterword is also a big disappointment. Apparently the reason the story of Elena is such a subversive threat to society is….. it tells people that they’re EQUAL. The class system would be destroyed!
Maybe this would make sense if I wasn’t a human on Earth, where my own race (even though none of us is distinguished by magick and everyone knows it) has a long long history of creating and enforcing class systems. How come the leading classes of Alasea can’t just claim “noble blood” or “divine mandate” or whatever like humans do.

Squire’s Quest

Squire’s Quest
by Gerald Morris

I really liked this book. I thought it had a great sense of humor. I loved the linguistic humor and the jokes that were a little “bawdy” without being dirty. This book was really funny. It also had a lot of respect for its target audience, which lately seems rare in YA novels.

Squire’s Quest is an Arthurian retelling. The protagonist is an invented character, Terence, who accompanies and observes the classical Arthurian heroes, as well as having some adventures of his own. The traditional characters he encounters are re-imagined to give most of them more realistic and human personalities. Terence also is a solid, human character.

The plot has several stories loosely intertwined, like several incidents in Terence’s lives and the lives of those around him. They seem somewhat unrelated, but they are tied together by a theme of lies and their consequences. “Do you imagine that there is anyone who does not live a lie?” asks Dinadan, the poet knight, Terence’s friend and another keen observer.

The main plot of the book is based on the story of Cliges and Fenice, which is not an especially well-known King Arthur legend. Cliges and Fenice fall in love, even though Fenice is betrothed to another – actually, more than one other. Thus, wars are started and people are killed for the sake of love. In Squire’s Quest, the author draws attention to the popularity at the time of Arthurian romances – stories about forbidden loves that glorified suffering and even dying for one’s love. He implies that Cliges and Fenice were influenced by these stories and let the fictional tales guide their behavior instead of morals or reason. (The author includes an endnote explaining this legend and his inspiration, and the endnote is worth reading.)

One passage in the book illustrates the main theme:

“[This tragedy of Cliges] is like the final scene in a play by Sophocles.”
“Did he write about fools?” asks Terence bitterly.
“No, but he does write about lies.”

The observant YA reader will also find the story relevant, as the response of Cliges and Fenice to the tales of romance can be compared to the modern issue of media influence on society. (Think TV causing women to dream of having an unrealistic ‘Sex and the City’ life. Or people blaming video games for teaching kids bad behavior. Etc.)

Squire’s Quest is actually the 9th book in a series of “Squire’s Tales”; however, I thought the book could stand alone. Past events are occasionally mentioned, but in a way that made me feel like the characters have pasts (just like real people do), not in a way that made me feel like I’d missed a book.

I am definitely interested in reading the other books in the series though!

-TL, September 2009

Brooklyn

Brooklyn
by Colm Toibin

Brooklyn is a novel about a young Irish woman who moves to Brooklyn in the 1950’s.

This book wasn’t really fun to read, but looking back, I did like it. The writing is not complicated, and simply tells the story of the woman’s life in Brooklyn for a few years. She has roommates, a job, lots of people who want to give her advice. She starts a romance that she isn’t completely sure about. She goes to night classes, and she has a mother and sister back in Ireland who she loves but feels tied to. Overall, it’s a story about an ordinary girl with an ordinary life.

Even though the writing is simple, each scene is evocative and detailed. The characters also are very realistic, though by the same token they are often not easy to like. Themes are present but subtle; for instance, the protagonist observes bias of many sorts in society around her, and must also confront it in herself.

The author has a real talent – the ability to make the ordinary seem important, the plain seem meaningful and relevant.

-TL, September 2009

Wit’ch Gate

Wit’ch Gate
Book 4 of The Banned and the Banished
by James Clemens

Um. Well. So I bought the fourth book after all. There are only five! I’m like more than half way done!

Anyhow, the fourth book, Wit’ch Gate, is better than the third. Actually, it is pretty all right. It benefits from a simple, clear, and reasonably self-contained plot. The heroes learn that there are Dark Gates that are the source of the Dark Lord’s power. The gates are also shackles binding one of the world’s gods, the brother of the goddess who is responsible for the wit’ch Elena’s powers. The goddess compels Elena to destroy the gates. Furthermore, the Dark Lord is using the power of the gates to suck magic from the Land itself, twisting it to ill purposes. This has dire implications for almost all the heroes, most of which come from races of elementals, who are dependent on the Land’s magic for their own powers and survival. So, the heroes form three parties to go off to different parts of the world to search and destroy the gates. Then, they JUST DO IT.Everyone is so focused on completing the quest that there is little time left over for ridiculous antics or whining.
Also, a lot of people die. Rather, each party must make extreme sacrifices in order to achieve their goals. Half of the original heroes sacrifice themselves to help the wit’ch in her mission. One entire race of people is nearly destroyed, leaving a hero one of the last of his kind. However, new heroes are gained. We learn more about the identity of the Dark Lord.

One thing to note: The Kindle version skips you to Chapter 1 when you open the book (that is, Chapter 1 is marked as “the beginning” for the purposes of Kindle’s “go to beginning” function). However, Chapter 1 is NOT the start of the book’s content. There are two forewords that are important to read. One is an fictional author’s foreword, written by the character who is telling Elena’s story. The other is yet another envelope, a fictional publisher’s note, written by a character who is distributing the fictional author’s work for use by his students; this character warns that Elena’s story is a threat to society and must be studied with utmost care. The previous three books have these forewords also. The content hasn’t been referenced yet in the story, but I think it will be critical.

Coldfire Trilogy

The Coldfire Trilogy
1. Black Sun Rising
2. When True Night Falls
3. Crown of Shadows
by C.S. Friedman

Nov 2009

Another trilogy in which the protagonist must join forces with an unlikely ally.

The setting is the planet Erna, currently home to human colonists, the last survivors from Earth. They have been living there for a thousand years but have lost all their original technology and most of their histories. The planet is full of a wild magic called the fae, which feeds on human emotion. For instance, human fears spawn nightmare creatures that roam the land terrorizing people. Human expectations change the course of evolution among native species. Humans have developed a society that manipulates the fae to supplant their lost technologies, working from a tenet that the fae respects sacrifice – greater sacrifices yield greater power and control. Religions have arisen that feature fae-spawned gods. However, our protagonist is a warrior priest of a different religion, one that opposes use of the fae.

But when the fae start to become more hostile, he must fight the threat and quest for a solution – to do so, he must use the fae, and also ally himself with not only friends, but also enemies.

The world is particularly creative and interesting, and the characters are interesting too -  however, the books are long and a little redundant. Our protagonist spends a really unreasonable amount of time arguing with himself about whether he can trust his unlikely ally and whether he should. I liked these books a lot, but I did wish they were a little tighter.

Star Trek (2009 Movie)

Saw this on blu-ray DVD with the boyfriend.

Star Trek was a good movie. I’m really not that familiar with any of the original series and movies, though I do know roughly who the main characters were. So I didn’t have much to compare it to, but I did like the movie. The story was interesting and the pacing was good. Plenty of action and sense of humor. I liked the characters and the portrayal of the relationship between Spock and Kirk. I think if I knew the original material better, I might actually appreciate it more.