As I prepare to embark on a novel-writing adventure, I should tell you about my recent novel-reading adventure. And by “adventure” I mean “week-long slog.”

So there’s this castle near the barrier/border between the lands of normal folks and the lands of the fairie-folk. The king’s been kidnapped, and through a series of circumstances power is thrust into the hands of twin royal siblings, Barrick and Briony. One’s a petulant, moody sort with a weak constitution. The other’s a hot-tempered, moody sort with a yen for crossdressing. There are other characters (and charicatures) running around, but the story centers on those two. Oh, and a halfling— um, Funderling named Chert. And… oh, nevermind. I’m not here to run through the list of principal characters who inhabit Southmarch. We’d be here all afternoon.

Meanwhile, a continent or so away, we meet a young lady who gets sucked up into palace intrigue as the newest of a horde of wives of a pharaonic despot sort of ruler. Periodically the book takes little side trips to check on her miserable existence. One assumes that in later volumes she’ll become, you know, important or some-such.

I’ll sum up: Lots of bad things happen. In fact, very few good things happen. People die, often in creepy and/or grisly fashion. Betrayals and intrigue abound. Dark magicks are employed. There’s not much in the way of humor, and there’s an incredible weight of plot setup that, one again assumes, will pay off in the later books. There’s no cliffhanger ending (though until the last few chapters I was convinced there would be), and in fact this book manages to end satisfactorily instead of just abruptly cutting off. Mind you, it’s one of those “now all the pieces are in motion for the next volume” endings, but it could’ve been worse.

Did I enjoy it? Well enough to keep reading it every night or so, but when I hit the end I was relieved rather than antsy for the next book. That’s not what we call “a good sign.” Oh, it’s well written, and the characters are fairly well fleshed out, and at the end I got the feeling that the plot from there on out will be rather interesting… but getting to that point took some doing. “Tedious” is one word that comes to mind.

Your mileage may vary, but my basic recommendation is to wait for it in paperback and pick it up only if you’re committed to the fantasy genre and really need a complex bit of work to sink your teeth into.

Shadowmarch website

A few years ago I picked up a little paperback titled Pawn of Prophecy. I enjoyed the characterization, I liked the handling of what could have been an overdone plot (the quest for the powerful bauble), and I loved the dialog. Many books later, I cherish the Belgariad and Malloreon series as some of my favorite light fantasy reading. I also enjoy the Elenium and Tamuli trilogies, though at a lesser degree and for different reasons.

It was with a certain amount of trepidation that I approached the reading of The Redemption Of Althalus, a one-off fantasy work representing the latest efforts by the Eddings pair. So how is Althalus, you ask? In a word, underwhelming. If you want more words, I’d simply say, “Go read the Tamuli instead.” Or even better, “Go read the Belgariad instead.”

Here’s the book summary: Wisecracking thief pairs up with sensual overbearing goddess, collects motley crew of lesser heroes to handily defeat ill-defined enemy forces, continually engaging in occasionally-witty banter and unsurprising character revelations. Oh yeah, they have nearly total freedom to move in time and space. And the climax of the story is a kind of insane Mobius strip finale that wraps up so very tidily that you wonder what the hell all the fuss was about in the first place.

If you’ve read previous Eddings material, you’ll recognize almost everything in this book, and you’ll actually resent what little has been added. It’s as though they deliberately took the weakest parts of the earlier works and melded them with a truly offensive Plot Device. Okay, so the interpersonal stuff is at least as fun to read as anything else they’ve done, but it simply cannot carry an otherwise lifeless story.

I suppose we should all be thankful that they only wrote one book in this new world. I’d have been truly angry to have finished a trilogy full of this nonsense.

If you’ve read my review of Nimisha’s Ship, you’re probably aware of my distaste for the direction Anne McCaffrey has taken in some of her more recent novels. I approached the reading of Skies with a certain amount of trepidation.

I’m pleased to say that this book does not suffer from many of the problems that have plagued her other recent works. The things that happen, even if they are a bit “out there,” do make sense within the bounds of the known world of Pern. In fact, almost everything in the novel is built upon various elements of earlier Pern novels like All The Weyrs, Dolphins and even the mostly-damnable Masterharper. It seems as though Pern really is her native element, and she moves as beautifully through it now as she has at her best moments in years past.

The key romance in the novel is telegraphed from the get-go, but if you’re a regular McCaffrey reader you know that this has always been her style. The primary conflicts are more or less based on previous events, so having read the full series is generally a good idea. What’s interesting is that it isn’t actually necessary, since background data is presented in such a way that it makes sense even to non-fans, but it also does a wonderful job of evoking the relevant part of the previous work in just the right way. I was often pleasantly surprised at how well one reference or another was handled.

Overall, I recommend this novel to anyone, long-time fan or no, who likes a pleasant mixture of adventure, science, fantasy and romance. It obviously helps to be somewhat familiar with at least the original Dragonriders series, if not fully versed in the series entire. I think that a non-fan could get the gist of the story and enjoy it on its own merits, however.

It’s out in paperback now, so pick it up and give it a read.

(Note: This is a reposting from my previous journal database.)

It’s my first media review, and I have to pick on one of my all-time favorite authors. This woman helped convince me that the written word is one of the most inspiring and wonderful tools humans have ever created. When I start having delusions of adequacy, when I begin again to dream of being An Author… she is among my key inspirations.

She, being one Anne McCaffrey, is also getting on in years. No, I’m not being ageist, but it’s the only explanation I have for the gradual shift in her writing. She used to have more grit and fire in her plots and characterizations. She used not to be so afraid to punish the bad guys. My wife and I both noticed this in the last couple of Talents novels (“Pegasus In Space” and “The Tower And The Hive”), and the kid gloves are still firmly tied in place for “Nimisha’s Ship.”

Lest you think I didn’t like the book, please allow me to say that it’s a pleasant read. It’s nearly a whole new continuity, unless you happen to have stumbled across “The Coelura” some time back. There are some slightly different things she’s trying to accomplish in this novel. Some of them succeed admirably, others are just kind of silly. So long as you’re willing to check your cynicism at the door, you should get a kick out of this novel.

Sadly, that’s my biggest problem. At some point in the story, the Big Bad Villain And Company are completely written out. Echoes of “The Tower And The Hive” haunt these pages… A Villain whose name starts with the letter V is introduced, sort of, allowed to thrash around a bit in random paragraphs, and then is simply discarded in a bit of ancillary dialog later on. “Oh, him? He got his. Now, moving right along…”

There’s another key part of the later novel that readers of the “Rowan” series of books will probably recognize, but I won’t give away here. You’ll either love it or groan in misery. I did both.

All told, it’s nice light reading for all that it skips lightly through years’ worth of events in the lives of a handful of people we don’t really get to know all that well. Everything’s tidied up in a neat package at the end, aww gee isn’t that nice?

In the end, if you like the romantic happy side of McCaffrey’s work you should adore “Nimisha’s Ship.” If you were hoping for something with a little more meat on its bones, I don’t really know what to suggest other than maybe to go borrow some of her earlier books from the library. Ye gods, I sure hope that “Skies Of Pern” doesn’t disappoint me the way that the last Pegasus and Rowan books did, and the way this one did as well.

(Note: Yes, “Skies” is out but I have to wait for the paperback. You can’t really be in that big of a hurry for me to write another Media review, can you? Maybe you should seek professional help.)