Browsed by
Tag: books

Review: The Adventures of Sasha Witchblood by Rose Bailey

Review: The Adventures of Sasha Witchblood by Rose Bailey

Comments 0 Comment

The Adventures of Sasha Witchblood by Rose Bailey

Overall Rating: ***** (5 stars)

The Adventures of Sasha Witchblood is a collection of dark fantasy stories, published in two (rather short) volumes: The Sugar House and Stars of the North. The author, Rose Bailey, has an extensive curriculum vitae in the tabletop and computer game industries. This collection draws inspiration from both the pulp-magazine fantasy of Robert E. Howard and the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm . . . but it then turns both on their heads. The result is an oddly compelling set of stories.

Sasha Witchblood is an adventurer, a brute, and occasionally a murderer. She’s not quite human, marked by the blood of a famous ancestor who was more ogre than woman. Like one of her literary cousins, Conan the Cimmerian, Sasha gets into adventures, doing her best to survive them and make a little profit along the way. Again like Conan, Sasha is not a very sympathetic character – she’s too cynical and selfish for that. Although she does have a personal code that can be relied upon. Usually.

The world she lives in looks like something Robert E. Howard might have come up with as well. Ms. Bailey uses Howard’s frequent trick, borrowing from real-world history while putting her own speculative slant on it. The result is recognizable as a late-medieval Earth, but one that has been under siege by the forces of dark magic for a long time. Cities and kingdoms have been obliterated by monstrous hordes, by encroaching forests, or by never-ending winter. It’s a tough place, and only someone as case-hardened as Sasha seems likely to succeed in it.

What adventures does Sasha find herself in? The reader will probably recognize some of them: the story of Hansel and Gretel, the story of Little Red Riding Hood, the story of Sleeping Beauty, the story of Snow White. On the other hand, none of these stories are quite as the Brothers Grimm told them. We’re in the territory of the original folktales, which were often bloody and dark and decidedly not for children. It’s not always clear which character is the monster and which the hero, if indeed any of them can be called heroes.

The reader should be aware that these are not novels. Each story in the collection can stand on its own, and in fact they’re only roughly presented in the chronological order of Sasha’s career. There’s no overarching plotline to be resolved by the end of the second volume. Better to read these stories the way one might read Robert Howard’s tales, each a dark and disturbing glimpse into Sasha’s world.

Sasha’s stories are carefully composed and well written, with clean prose and very few copy-editing problems. These two volumes should work well for anyone who might enjoy a dark fantasy take on popular fairy tales, or a different slant on the fantasy of the pulp era, or both. Highly recommended.

Review: The Trigon Disunity by Michael P. Kube-McDowell

Review: The Trigon Disunity by Michael P. Kube-McDowell

Comments 0 Comment

The Trigon Disunity by Michael P. Kube-McDowell

Overall Rating: ***** (5 stars)

The Trigon Disunity is a science-fiction trilogy, composed of Michael P. Kube-McDowell’s first three novels, originally published in the mid-1980s. The trilogy has recently been republished by Phoenix Pick, in new editions that also collect some of the short fiction Mr. Kube-McDowell wrote in the same setting. The result is a very readable collection of stories, depicting humanity’s first expansion to the stars. However, there’s more than meets the eye. These stories are not just about exploration, they’re about the consequences of human folly, and about our ability to transcend that folly.

The Trigon Disunity is centered around three novels.

Emprise, the first novel, begins on Earth after an almost-total collapse of high-technology civilization in the late twentieth century.

Allen Chandliss was once a radio astronomer, before civilization fell and scientists became hunted outcasts across much of the world. Now he lives alone in the Idaho outback, raising his own food and going into the nearest town once in a while to trade. Yet he hasn’t given up on science, still listening to the radio noise from the sky with cobbled-together equipment. Ironically, it’s Chandliss who first detects unambiguous evidence of a signal from extra-terrestrial intelligence.

What follows turns out badly for Chandliss, but it gives a few of the shattered world’s leaders the motivation they need to improve human fortunes. The story of this “emprise” sets the tone for the entire trilogy. It’s a story of human resilience and achievement, but at every step it’s also a story of flawed human individuals, forced to make critical decisions with no assurance of a good outcome.

The second novel, Enigma, is set several centuries later, while human beings explore the stars of the solar neighborhood. In the process, they uncover several mysteries, calling into question everything they think they know about human origins and the place of intelligent life in the universe.

The third novel, Empery, is set a few centuries later yet, at a time when humans respond to their discoveries with fear and paranoia. The human worlds are faced with a decision: whether to continue exploring the galaxy in peace, or whether to set up an “empery” (empire) that meets its challenges with force.

It may be somewhat misleading to call this series of novels a trilogy. With one prominent exception, no major characters appear in more than one story. Each novel (and each attached short story) carries a different theme. These are largely disconnected narratives, a three-part or “trigon disunity” that nevertheless lays out a coherent and well-developed future history.

One attractive feature of this series is its careful attention to real-world astronomy and astrophysics. This is reasonably hard SF, part of the “one big lie” school that assumes faster-than-light travel is possible but is careful to set restrictive rules for its use. Mr. Kube-McDowell makes good use of what was known at the time about the nearby stars, and he keeps the sheer scale of interstellar space in mind as well.

Mr. Kube-McDowell also exhibits deep insight into the flaws of human character, and of human bureaucracies and political systems. None of his characters, not even his protagonists, are heroes or saints. They behave irrationally, they succumb to delusions, they indulge their ambitions at the expense of others, they abuse their authority. They make horrible mistakes (and pay for them). Yet the overall arc of the trilogy is upward, a proposal that even imperfect human beings can accomplish great things.

I first read The Trigon Disunity over thirty years ago, on its initial publication. Time and experience have led me to appreciate this new edition all the more. It’s a collection well worth reading, raising questions that are well worth considering long after each book is finished. Highly recommended.

Review: Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles by Jürgen Hubert

Review: Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles by Jürgen Hubert

Comments 1 comment

Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles: Commentaries on German Folklore by Jürgen Hubert

Overall Rating: ***** (5 stars)

Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles is a collection of tales from German folklore, many of them derived from German-language collections that have never before been translated. It’s an entertaining and potentially very useful reference for a branch of European folklore unfamiliar to an English-speaking audience.

Full disclosure: The compiler and translator of these tales, Jürgen Hubert, is an acquaintance of long standing, although he and I have no professional relationship and I have received no compensation for this review.

Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles collects a little over 150 narratives, most of them fairly short. These tales have all been drawn from various 19th Century collections of German folklore that have come into the public domain. Dr. Hubert has translated these stories into English, in most cases for the first time, and he also offers some commentary on each.

The breadth of this project can be gathered from the book’s subject headings. There are tales here about the Devil and the Wild Hunt, maidens and crones, saints and sinners. Charlemagne makes several appearances, as does Frederick Barbarossa. There is a bewildering array of monsters, including several kinds of dragon, werewolves, dwarves, giants, “pressure spirits,” and the title-mentioned evil black poodles. Every story carries its own magic and presents its own mysteries. Sometimes the tales go far beyond any simple “fairy tale” and venture into almost Fortean weirdness. Often, the translator seems just as bemused as we are at the results!

Americans, even those of us of German descent, tend to forget how much linguistic and cultural diversity there is in the Old Country. In the early modern era from which these tales derive, there was no such thing as Germany. There was only a stretch of Central Europe, home to different German dialects, diverse religious practices, several non-German ethnic minorities, and little or no political unity. The tales in this collection demonstrate all of this rich diversity. Dr. Hubert helps put all of this in context by providing the geographic framework for each story: where it was told, what villages or towns were nearby, and what features of the landscape are prominent. One of the appendices even indexes the tales by geographic location.

The collection has considerable entertainment value, and it provides plenty of insight into European folklore. Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles might also serve as a valuable source for authors, game designers, or other creatives who wish to investigate the distinctive folklore and fantasy of German culture. Dr. Hubert has specifically supported such application by placing his translations under a Creative Commons license. The book is also extensively footnoted, with appendices on relevant customs and the German language to help the reader interpret the material.

I thoroughly enjoyed Sunken Castes, Evil Poodles, and found a great deal of inspiration in it for my own work. Highly recommended for anyone interested in folklore, faerie tales, or stories of high weirdness.

Review: Code of the Communer, by Kai Greenwood

Review: Code of the Communer, by Kai Greenwood

Comments 0 Comment

Code of the Communer (Book One of Shadows in the Wildwood) by Kai Greenwood

Overall Rating: **** (4 stars)

Code of the Communer is the first book of what appears likely to be a series titled Shadows in the Wildwood, by Kai Greenwood. I found it to be a flawed but still very readable work of dark fantasy, set in a world much like our own about ten thousand years ago.

Code of the Communer has several viewpoint characters, but the core of the narrative follows Caida and Fingle, young-adult siblings belonging to a hunter-gatherer people who call themselves simply the “Ten Tribes.” Despite her youth, Caida is a “communer,” a shaman-like leader. Her authority derives from her ability to commune with the godlike patron of the Ten Tribes, a spirit called the Long Walker.

Unfortunately, the Ten Tribes have come under intense pressure from a more sedentary people called “the Settlers,” and are no longer able to follow their ancient nomadic lifestyle. At the beginning of the story, Caida’s band have suffered from several violent confrontations with the Settlers. As far as they know, they may be the last survivors of the Ten Tribes.

Despite her private doubts, Caida leads her people northward. They cross a narrow sea to reach a land called Maerida, where the ancestors of the Ten Tribes may have originated. Her tribe tries to return to their old way of life in the new land, but they quickly learn that their ancestors had very good reasons for abandoning Maerida. What follows is a story of human folly, natural terrors, and competing gods that had me turning pages to the end.

The setting for the Shadows in the Wildwood intrigued me. It’s clear that the geography is loosely inspired by our own world at the end of the last glacial age. Caida’s people begin in what we might recognize as central France, and Maerida clearly resembles Britain (complete with the presence of wide coastal marshlands, still connecting it to the continent). Characters openly refer to an ice age that is still retreating. At this point it appears to me that the geography and human cultures of the novel are only inspired by European prehistory, but the resemblances were strong enough to keep my inner world-builder interested.

In fact, the world-building in Code of the Communer is probably its strongest feature. Kai Greenwood clearly belongs to the “show, don’t tell” school of fantasy writing. The reader is thrown into the world without a compass from the very first lines of the story, and the mysteries of the world are a strong incentive to keep reading. Many of those mysteries are still outstanding at the end of this first novel, which encourages me to look for the next books in the series.

That being said, Code of the Communer could have used the attention of an editor before publication. The level of copy-editing errors, odd word choices, and inconsistent prose style is just high enough that I was pulled out of the story at multiple points. I’ve seen far worse, but a writer of Kai Greenwood’s obvious talent would be well served by a bit of editorial assistance.

Overall, I enjoyed Code of the Communer, had no trouble getting through the story, and am eager to read more. Recommended for anyone who might enjoy a dark-fantasy tale inspired by human prehistory.

Growing the TBR Pile

Growing the TBR Pile

Comments 0 Comment

Last month, I got started on my new project of reviewing self-published science fiction and fantasy. I will admit to having ulterior motives there – I have work of my own that needs attention – but it’s also worth doing for its own sake.

I got started with the first three volumes of Gordon Doherty’s Empires of Bronze series, which I certainly enjoyed. Then the question arose: how to find more books for the TBR (To Be Reviewed) pile? I’m not widely known as a reviewer yet, since I’ve just started to put myself forward as such. I could always browse Amazon’s virtual shelves at random, but that’s no fun.

So I ended up doing the obvious thing: I posted a query to Reddit.

I now have a list of twenty self-published fantasy novels to choose from, already recommended by at least one reader. That should keep me going for the remainder of the calendar year, long enough to build up a back catalog of six to eight reviews that I can point to as proof that I’m serious about this. Hopefully, by then I’ll be getting the occasional request directly from other authors, and that will keep the ball rolling.

(If you have a self-published novel you’d like me to review, have a look at the Review Policy link in the menu bar, and drop me a line.)

In the meantime, I have a bunch of new novels to browse through and read, which is the fun part of this venture. Look for some more reviews to appear in this space over the next couple of weeks.

Review: Thunder at Kadesh, by Gordon Doherty

Review: Thunder at Kadesh, by Gordon Doherty

Comments 1 comment

Thunder at Kadesh (Book Three of Empires of Bronze) by Gordon Doherty

Overall Rating: ***** (5 stars)

Thunder at Kadesh is the third (and at this writing, last) volume of Empires of Bronze, Gordon Doherty’s ongoing historical fiction series set in the ancient Hittite Empire. In this volume, Mr. Doherty has produced a powerful rendition of the earliest well-documented military campaign in human history.

Thunder at Kadesh continues to follow Prince Hattu, the younger brother of the Hittite king Muwatalli II. In the years since the previous story, Hattu has become case-hardened by a life of violence and loss. Now the war he has long dreaded is about to begin: an epic conflict against New Kingdom Egypt under its new Pharaoh Ramesses II (one day to be known to history as “Ramesses the Great”).

Ramesses intends to destroy the Hittite kingdom, and he may have the army he needs to do that. On the other hand, under Hattu’s leadership, the Hittites have spent years building up their own army, including innovations in tactics and technology. They gather all of their allies – including some well-known names from their vassal-kingdom of Troy – and march to meet Ramesses.

As always, Mr. Doherty’s careful research pays off here. He has done a careful study of the Kadesh campaign, and of the critical battle itself, based on the most recent research in several disciplines. This novel offers plausible solutions to some of its outstanding mysteries, while still telling a suspenseful story of military struggle and sacrifice.

The plot of Thunder at Kadesh is a bit tighter and more believable than that of previous volumes of the series. The stakes of the conflict are clear, as are the identity and motives of the antagonists. Prince Hattu and his supporting characters deal with their challenges with intelligence, determination, and iron discipline. Even the villains of the piece are more nuanced and well-developed than we’ve seen so far. Only at the very end of the story is there a sudden reversal, setting up a conflict for the volumes to come. As I’ve come to expect from this self-published series, the production is of very high quality, with very few copy-editing errors.

Readers should be aware, of course, that the story is set in a brutal and violent time, focusing on one of the greatest battles of the ancient world. Descriptions of violence are common and very explicit.

I thoroughly enjoyed Thunder at Kadesh and am looking forward to the next books in the series.  Strongly recommended for readers who might enjoy an action-packed war story set in ancient times.

Review: Dawn of War, by Gordon Doherty

Review: Dawn of War, by Gordon Doherty

Comments 0 Comment

Dawn of War (Book Two of Empires of Bronze) by Gordon Doherty

Overall Rating: **** (4 stars)

Dawn of War is the second book of the Empires of Bronze series, Gordon Doherty’s venture into writing historical fiction set in the ancient Hittite Empire of the late Bronze Age. Mr. Doherty has produced another gritty adventure story here, worthwhile for any reader interested in action-adventure in the ancient world.

Dawn of War continues to follow Prince Hattu, the younger brother of King Muwatalli II. After the events of Son of Ishtar, Hattu has earned the respect of his fellow soldiers and the trust of his royal brother, and he is now a successful general in the Hittite army. Unfortunately, the kingdom faces a serious challenge from the one world power strong enough to threaten its destruction. New Kingdom Egypt, under its aggressive Pharaoh Seti, is pressing down on the Hittite vassal states in Retenu (Cannan and Syria). A war seems inevitable, one which will change the fate of empires.

If Son of Ishtar was a “boot camp” story, Dawn of War is a “Special Forces” story, about a military detachment operating far behind enemy lines. Hoping to head off the war everyone expects, Hattu and his men take on a mission despite extreme odds. They must deal with betrayal, the forces of indifferent nature, and combat against far superior foes in order to survive. It’s not clear until almost the very end of the story whether they can attain any victories at all.

One of Mr. Doherty’s strengths is his careful research, his ability to tease incomplete knowledge about his period into a full and compelling narrative. He also writes superb battle scenes, bloody and violent but always clear and full of suspense. Dawn of War does not disappoint on either score. For a self-published novel, the production is high quality, with very few copy-editing errors.

Mr. Doherty’s plotting continues to show a touch of weakness, with lead characters who often seem oblivious to plot twists the reader can see well in advance. Dawn of War also renders its antagonists almost cartoonish in their wickedness. The Egyptian characters are often thoroughly vile, yet even they are outdone by a certain group of hill-tribesmen with a familiar name. Readers should not expect complex or nuanced antagonists here.

In any case, I had no trouble getting through the story, enjoyed it from start to finish, and reached the end wanting more. Recommended for anyone who enjoys an action-packed adventure story set in ancient times.

Review: Son of Ishtar, by Gordon Doherty

Review: Son of Ishtar, by Gordon Doherty

Comments 1 comment

Son of Ishtar (Book One of Empires of Bronze) by Gordon Doherty

Overall Rating: **** (4 stars)

Son of Ishtar is the first of a planned series of six books, with the overall title of Empires of Bronze. As one might expect, the setting is the late Bronze Age, specifically the realm known to us as the “Hittite Empire.” The Hittites are less well-known to a modern audience than, say, New Kingdom Egypt, but archaeology has managed to uncover a wealth of detail about this enigmatic culture. Gordon Doherty spins a rollicking adventure tale out of those details.

Son of Ishtar is a coming-of-age story about Prince Hattu, born about 1315 BCE as the fourth son of King Mursili II of the Hittite Empire. Suffering from ill health and childhood tragedy, young Prince Hattu seems to lack promise, overshadowed by his domineering father and his robust older brother, Prince Muwa. Struggling to earn respect, Hattu insists on being trained as a Hittite soldier, subjecting himself to the trials of a fierce Bronze Age boot camp. Winning over his fellow trainees, going with them to his first military campaign, he sets himself on the path that will one day lead him to the Hittite throne.

Readers will want to be aware that this is a story about a brutal and violent time. The combat scenes, in particular, are downright Homeric – recalling how lovingly the Iliad describes violent injury and death at every turn. Ethnic hatred and slavery are common to the period. There’s plenty of earthy dialogue and some implied sex as well.

I was very favorably impressed by Son of Ishtar. The production is very high quality, with clean prose and a minimum of editing mishaps. Gordon Doherty has done meticulous research, and it shows. I’m familiar with the period myself – in fact, I suspect Mr. Doherty and I have read some of the same sources – and I spotted a lot of authentic detail. Not to mention a great deal of foreshadowing, by way of a prophecy of the goddess Ishtar, of events to come. Later books in the series seem likely to cover some of the most important episodes of this critical period.

The story itself is suspenseful, and the battle scenes had me on the edge of my seat more than once. The identity of the “hidden” villain is possibly a little too obvious to the reader; I found myself grumbling at the characters once in a while for their obliviousness. Even so, I had no trouble getting through the story and reached the end wanting more. Recommended for anyone who enjoys a solid adventure story set in ancient times.

Status Report (9 January 2019)

Status Report (9 January 2019)

Comments 0 Comment

Just a quick post today. I’ve been home from the office with a bit of intestinal crud for the past couple of days, which has not exactly been conducive to getting any writing done either. Still, I’ve managed to get another two or three kilowords down on Twice-Crowned since the weekend. I’m not at all happy with the text as it stands – I’ve got more loose plot threads lying on the floor than you can shake a stick at – but better to get the story roughed out in full, and then go back and start polishing and trimming. The overall shape of the story is working out fine.

I should call out a source that’s been remarkably useful, and will probably continue to be so: a book titled The Seer in Ancient Greece, by Michael Atiyah Flower, published 2008 by the University of California Press. Although my protagonist is not at all a typical Hellene of her time, it’s very good to have a solid understanding of what other manteis did in the real world, and how they interacted with the society and culture around them. Somewhat specialized, but highly recommended if you have an interest in classical Hellenic religious thought.

Watching this blog for the past few days has been a bit surprising. Today has been the busiest day the blog has seen since I reinstated it back in April, and I cannot for the life of me figure out why. For some reason, I’ve suddenly been getting dozens of hits from Facebook, which is odd since I don’t cross-post and don’t even maintain an active account there. Haven’t a clue as to where the hits are coming from, either, and neither Google nor Facebook’s native search engine have been of any help. Not that I’m complaining, to be sure. Still, a small request to any readers who might be coming this way from Facebook: could you leave a comment on this post to indicate where the link is coming from? I’m kind of curious what’s up with that.

Tomorrow, with any luck, I’ll be back on an even keel health-wise and ready to get back to the office. The writing that needs to be done there is piling up too.