Review of Erikson’s Forge of Darkness

Steven Erikson made his reputation with the ten volume series on the Malazan Empire and, since that is some three million words long, all of which I have read, not to mention several collections of short fiction, it seems I have read more by him than I have read of any other author. That I then immediately bought and began reading this current book, which starts a trilogy set a quarter of a million years before the action starts in the main series, indicates that I am one of Erikson’s many fans.

Read the full review here.

Review of Carpenter’s Hanged for the Few

An earnest party of travelers is engaged to find a mysterious holy city on behalf of a bloodthirsty and menacing tyrant – but despite the horrible external threats of fierce lizardmen, crazed ideologues and the nightmarish bedevilments of the past, it may be that the internal threats of mistrust, suspicion, and mutual intolerance are actually the more dangerous enemies.

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Review of Esslemont’s Stonewielder

After ten lengthy (sometimes very lengthy) novels about the Malazan Empire and its contemporaries by collaborator Steven Erikson and two more by the current author, not to mention various short stories and novellas, one might begin to wonder both how much more of the world is yet to reveal and, also, how long can the reader’s interest in it all be sustained? The answer to both these questions is that there is clearly a lot more to come.

Read the full review here.

Review of Erikson’s Crack’d Pot Trail

In the second book of tales about the vile necromancers Bauchelain and Korbal Broach (who actually make only a very fleeting appearance in this book), Steven Erikson has written a very funny novella satirizing the world of art and criticism, as well as subverting various elements of the genre of fantasy in which he sets his work.

Read the full review here.

Review of Stross’s The Fuller Memorandum

 

Horrors from beyond space and time continue to stalk the universe, irrespective of whether anyone else really wants them to and with indeed blithe indifference to the desires of humans, cultists, civilians and Laundry operatives. Fortunately for the sanity of humanity, the way into our perception of the universe is long and tangled and requires such things as chanting, the stars being right, blood sacrifices and advanced algorithmic calculations in the field of combat epistemology. The bad news, of course, is that all of these once very onerous requirements are now easily available via a laptop computer or even a smart phone – the Necronom-Ipod, perhaps.

Read the full review here.

Review of Erikson’s First Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach

Steven Erikson has outlined episodes of the history of his Malazan Empire over the course of ten often quite lengthy and always complex and multi-dimensional novels – all of which I have reviewed for this site and all of which I have enjoyed immensely. Among the thousands of pages and millions of words are scenes that evoke nearly all human emotions – yet one aspect seems often to be ignored (perhaps by myself as much as anyone else) is the humour that supports the stories of grim squaddies facing almost certain death with only the unknown and probably repulsive magic of a hedge wizard to help them.

Read the full review here.

Review of Pehov’s Shadow Prowler

About half way through this book, I was thinking in admiring terms of the bravery of the author in including an extensive episode in which the protagonist (the master thief Harold) investigates the closed to the outside world blighted area within the city walls in a way that reminded me slightly of the wonderful Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky brothers, which I have also reviewed at this website.

Read the full review here.

Review of Tad Williams: Shadowplay

Although I try, on the whole, to avoid reading books that are parts of series out of order, I picked up this one (which is the second of four, to date) by mistake, thinking that it was a standalone or the first book. It was my fault – it is clearly enough marked. Anyway, as a result I put off reading it for a while but, eventually, I got around to it. My first impressions were quite favourable in that the events were not that difficult to follow: there are young twins, one male and one female, whose father the king has been captured by an evil bunch of usurpers (the Tollys) and they have been separated so as to go on their individual adventures. Some good people remain in the world but most people are bad, in one way or another.

Read the full review here.

Review of Erikson’s The Crippled God

As I have been reading the last few episodes of the monumental ten-volume (and large volumes at that) Tales of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, of which The Crippled God is the last, I have reflected more than once how enjoyable it would be if I had time to sit down and read all of them from beginning to end at whatever pace I chose. There are nearly ten thousand pages of this epic and, I imagine, something like four or five million words all in all.

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Review of Anderson’s The Broken Sword

It is the Dark Ages and the influence of the White Christ is spreading slowly to the northern lands of Britain and Scandinavia and those even further north lands of the gods and the giants (Jotun). Only three things can defeat the gods, so it is said: time, love and the White Christ. Inevitably, then, the twilight of the gods is in the offing, although there are still plenty of moves to make before all the immortals and the creatures of faerie can shuffle off to their final home in Valhalla or wherever else the attenuated, exhausted supernatural beings will end their existence.

Read the full review here.