It's been a slow year. Largely due, I would guess to my massively more involved role as a journalist this year and the time I'd usally devot to reading, on the bus or in the evenings, my significant other has been distracting me with television and other children's pursuits.
It also marks a sad and bizarre turn of events where I've wound up beginning and ending the year with a novels, not only from the same author but sequential titles in a series. Mr Goodkind has much to answer for, especially in providing the only real historic fantasy I've delved into these last twelve months. No Hobbits or Rings, no Pernian Dragons nor Wheels of time in 2008.
This year... do better boy.
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Bloodtide - Melvin Burgess
I read this on a recommendation, and to be honest, I was faintly amused by the beginning, having all the usual teen-fantasy bricks to build a generic fantasy from: Wise kingly leader, his misbehaving twin children, an arranged marriage and half-human beasts.
Which is why I was pleasantly surprised when the Norse mystery and romance began to permeate. Sadly it was all but non-existant for most of the remainder of the dull plot.
Having created an interesting universe and some characters to use, Burgess promptly hamstrings them, (one literally, one metaphorically) and then proceeds to fill the story with the a series of misplaced and badly written chapters from the point of view of half-human creatures, none of which can decide if they belong in a childs book or an adults.
Which really is the first major problem, Burgess doesn't know what this book is about or who it's meant for. It's far too graphic and bleak for young teens or children and too childish and simple for the older ones and adults. For example, after vividly describing two men being eaten alive by a giant pig-mutant, he follows this up by having monologues from a semi-porcine woman who peppers even her own thoughts with words that inexplicably begin or end with 'oinky'. Presumably in case we forget she is part pig.
The next problem is that the story covers several years, and despite being quite long spends countless pages repeating the same information, most of which revolves around the character's inaction and ambivalence, and virtually no time mentioning the far more interesting events. Instead most often he skips ahead a few months or years and doesn't mention what's been happening. In a long novel with many characters this might work, but in a short one with barely a handful of a cast this becomes downright iritating as it saps what little interest remains after the promise of the beginning.
Which is why I was pleasantly surprised when the Norse mystery and romance began to permeate. Sadly it was all but non-existant for most of the remainder of the dull plot.
Having created an interesting universe and some characters to use, Burgess promptly hamstrings them, (one literally, one metaphorically) and then proceeds to fill the story with the a series of misplaced and badly written chapters from the point of view of half-human creatures, none of which can decide if they belong in a childs book or an adults.
Which really is the first major problem, Burgess doesn't know what this book is about or who it's meant for. It's far too graphic and bleak for young teens or children and too childish and simple for the older ones and adults. For example, after vividly describing two men being eaten alive by a giant pig-mutant, he follows this up by having monologues from a semi-porcine woman who peppers even her own thoughts with words that inexplicably begin or end with 'oinky'. Presumably in case we forget she is part pig.
The next problem is that the story covers several years, and despite being quite long spends countless pages repeating the same information, most of which revolves around the character's inaction and ambivalence, and virtually no time mentioning the far more interesting events. Instead most often he skips ahead a few months or years and doesn't mention what's been happening. In a long novel with many characters this might work, but in a short one with barely a handful of a cast this becomes downright iritating as it saps what little interest remains after the promise of the beginning.
Friday, February 09, 2007
Gods and Generals - Jeff Shaara
Gods and Generals:
Jeff Shaara made a bold move by stepping into his father's footsteps and transforming the Pulitzer prize-winning historical novel The Killer Angels into the centerpiece of a what has now come to be regarded as the quintessential fictional account of the American Civil War. The Trilogy stands as a triptych in every sense, with each part holding sway over a piece of history unique unto itself in the depth of humanity found and the profundity of the effect it had upon the formation of the Nation born from that War.
Gods is a slow building lullaby to the ebbing innocence and naivety of a generation seeing fulfilled the true extents of man's inhumanity to man. Charting the origins of the conflict very loosely, through he eyes of a blizzard of the men who would go on to shape the coming events and never again see the world with the same eyes again. The leisurely pace lets us discover the identities and motivations behind the souls only briefly sketched in Killer Angels. In doing so, we are able to see the onset of hostilities through a brilliantly realised rendition of the period's mindset, unfettered by modern reasoning and latter day revisionism.
General Lee is of course presented in much the same manner as he was in Shaara's Father's work; but with a much keener sense of the likelihood of failure. Perhaps this is simply a result of the wide study, rather than Shaara's craft; but the effect is to rid him of the slightly befuddled old man we were presented with at the close of The Killer Angels. Similarly, Chamberlain benefits greatly from the more seasoned personality on show, which befits his status and rank on the battlefields. Only 'Stonewall' Jackson; a newcomer to the narrative, comes with a fully clean slate, allowing Shaara to stretch his wings and let loose an entirely original characterisation. Bitterly stoic and driven by a religious fervour that is as unflinching as his own will. Through these new eyes and those of Hancock, that we truly gain insight into the socio-economic implications of the conflict and its effect upon the landowners of the South and the farmers of the Potomac. As younger, married men, born of action, their tales are the bones around this story, to which Lee clings as the meat and Chamberlain the wine.
Jeff Shaara made a bold move by stepping into his father's footsteps and transforming the Pulitzer prize-winning historical novel The Killer Angels into the centerpiece of a what has now come to be regarded as the quintessential fictional account of the American Civil War. The Trilogy stands as a triptych in every sense, with each part holding sway over a piece of history unique unto itself in the depth of humanity found and the profundity of the effect it had upon the formation of the Nation born from that War.
Gods is a slow building lullaby to the ebbing innocence and naivety of a generation seeing fulfilled the true extents of man's inhumanity to man. Charting the origins of the conflict very loosely, through he eyes of a blizzard of the men who would go on to shape the coming events and never again see the world with the same eyes again. The leisurely pace lets us discover the identities and motivations behind the souls only briefly sketched in Killer Angels. In doing so, we are able to see the onset of hostilities through a brilliantly realised rendition of the period's mindset, unfettered by modern reasoning and latter day revisionism.
General Lee is of course presented in much the same manner as he was in Shaara's Father's work; but with a much keener sense of the likelihood of failure. Perhaps this is simply a result of the wide study, rather than Shaara's craft; but the effect is to rid him of the slightly befuddled old man we were presented with at the close of The Killer Angels. Similarly, Chamberlain benefits greatly from the more seasoned personality on show, which befits his status and rank on the battlefields. Only 'Stonewall' Jackson; a newcomer to the narrative, comes with a fully clean slate, allowing Shaara to stretch his wings and let loose an entirely original characterisation. Bitterly stoic and driven by a religious fervour that is as unflinching as his own will. Through these new eyes and those of Hancock, that we truly gain insight into the socio-economic implications of the conflict and its effect upon the landowners of the South and the farmers of the Potomac. As younger, married men, born of action, their tales are the bones around this story, to which Lee clings as the meat and Chamberlain the wine.
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