Graham Joyce - Memoirs of a Master Forger

I first heard about Memoirs of a Master Forger when the title appeared a few times while I was rounding up our ultimate best of 2008 list. The reviews were all extremely positive, so I decided to give it a go. Judging by its cover, I figured that MoaMF will be set, say, in 18th century, with elements of either steampunk or fantasy. Well … I was wrong. When they say ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’, they say it for a reason.

Memoirs of a Master Forger is a story of a man named William Heaney, whose name is also being used by the author of the book. He is a random person from 21st century and his life isn’t going exactly as he’d imagined. His wife left him for a TV chef, his son is growing up into a snobbish brat, his job is boring and the forgery his friend Stinx is working on is hardly going well – the latter because Stinx’s woman has just left him and despite it being the third time in a row, Stinx still seeks refuge in drink.

Will is not really the master forger mentioned in the title, although the memoirs are undoubtedly his. He is just the guy who sells forgeries when Stinx completes them. Ok, he does write poems for another friend, Jaz, but since they are, in his own words, really bad poetry, I don’t think it counts. Will’s main characteristics are donating money to a local homeless shelter and the ability to see demons, the latter obviously being enough to put this book under ‘fantasy’ section. The demons are only mentioned in an offhand manner, though, and are most probably just a metaphor for human suffering.

I guess this is the reason why I was pretty disappointed with Memoirs of a Master Forger. It’s got little to do with forgeries – the only forgery beside the really bad poetry is a Jane Austen first edition that seems like a minor, unimportant side plot and mostly just another thing that does not go as planned. It’s not about demons, either, even though there was some promise to that, but the narrative is simply not unreliable enough to be of intrigue.

The book follows a typical formula where the setting is a contemporary society and the main character is a random person with whom the reader can easily identify. He is not entirely average, though, because average is uninteresting and nobody wants to read about that. He has his flaws, but still clearly a nice guy. His life is not completely dull for the same reasons the protagonist is not entirely average. Whatever happens, be it good or bad, is just uncommon enough to be interesting but could easily happen to the reader as well. Following the formula, the ending can be either a happy one (reader: ‘oh, the world is a nice place after all’) or a somber one (reader: ‘huh, I shall reflect upon this’). I notice books follow this formula fairly often; it seems to be very popular in contemporary fiction, probably because the reader can easily picture himself in main character’s shoes. Aside from the obvious benefits, this also carries the ‘something extraordinary could happen to you as well’ message, which, I think, is something readers generally like. While this formula does not necessarily predicate a lack of writing skills (on the contrary – a skilled writer can, with a few variations, convert this formula into a very good novel) it can often lead to an otherwise mediocre novel becoming a success.

And, of course, Memoirs of a Master Forger has a happy ending where every wrong is righted and everything is just swell. There is no bitter aftertaste or feeling that it could all be undone any second now. The problems are all solved and the general feeling is that everyone will be happier from that point on. No fears, no doubts, just fields of shiny happiness. Blergh.

Don’t get me wrong, Memoirs of a Master Forger is a nice enough story written in a flowing style, but I really don’t see what’s so great about it. The forgery/demons bit is original enough, but I just couldn’t shake the feeling that the narrator could be a bit more unpredictable, the characters less generic and the plot more than just a path to happy ending. All in all – average.

Trin

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I guess I'll never manage to do something on time, but late is still better than never. This review is a bit old, but I hope you'll enjoy it nevertheless :)

And ... we're back.

As I promised in my April post, RoSF will update regularly again, beginning with next week. There will be at least one review per week, possibly more. Hope you will enjoy them and spread the word that we're back from the dead. :)

Until next week,

Trin

Snippy Snippets: "The Separation" by Christoper Priest

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"The Separation" by CHRISTOPER PRIEST is a prime example of great and mind-boggling alternative history fiction. You get caught up in a story narrated by two identical twins through their journals and a few external publications on the lives of the two. The story is about the lives of Jack (the bomber pilot) and Joe L. Sawyer (the pacifist ambulance driver) during the WWII England. They have a love-hate relationship and they are both in love with the same woman. The war and their personal differences separate them, but as we follow their journal entries and external ("objective") facts are introduced along the way via newspaper articles and other official publications, we realize that a lot of the information we picked up along the way really contradicts itself. Priest does not spoon-feed the reader with the right answers, but leaves you to juggle with your thoughts and come up with a reasonable explanation for what was really going on. The writing is superb as well. A great page-turner even though the book offers limited action. If you want a breezy read full of adventure this probably isn't it, but what it offers is high quality drama, a well-written and highly enjoyable prose (the red herrings and the conflicting facts are masterfully woven into the fable so they don't disrupt the flow of the novel at all), and a sharp mind to connect the dots at the end to come up with an answer for the factual discrepancies. A great, heartily recommended read! Somewhere in between 4/5 and 4.5/5.

- Thrinidir -

Not dead (yet)

Thrinidir linked me this today and while I'm not really thrilled about it, I'm not really surprised either. After all, it's been more than 4 months since our last update here on RoSF.

My plan at the end of 2009 was to take a short break, say, for two to three months. I planned to resurrect the blog sometime in March, maybe early April, and try to update regularly - at least once in every two weeks, preferably more often. Truth is, I still have no more time than I had in December. I have about five or six reviews written and waiting, I just never seem to find the time to type them (or, more often, I simply forget about them). I also have about 7 exams coming up and am juggling my time between college and hobbies.

Thrinidir has been pretty much WoW-oriented for the past year or so, which basically means that regarding this blog, I'm mostly on my own. This makes keeping this blog up much less fun and at the same time that much harder. While I enjoy reviewing, I don't really want to keep a blog that updates once in a month and a half. I want to do this properly, and right now, I need more time for that (or another pair of hands to help me, but that's unlikely).

So, just so you know: RoSF is not dead, just hibernating :) I will begin to regularly update it again once I pass most of my exams for this year, which will be somewhere around end of June/beginning of July.

Until then, have fun :)

Trin

Dan Simmons - Drood (Book Review)

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"DROOD" (Amazon: UK, US)
by DAN SIMMONS
Format: Paperback, 816/784 pages
Publisher: Quercus / Little, Brown and Company (Feb 2009, first edition)

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Last summer, I've written a post regarding books we like and how hard it can be to review them – can you remain objective? Should you remain objective? Drood is one of such books and I can't really decide whether I'm infatuated with it or it really is that good.

"Drood", like "The Terror", is neither fantasy nor science fiction – it's historical fiction, but unlike " The Terror", "Drood" concentrates more on 'historical' than on 'fiction'. Our narrator is Wilkie Collins, who introduces us to his life as a writer, one of Charles Dickens' closest friends and a member of 19th century's London upper class.

"Drood" presents Dickens and Collins in the time when they were both already established writers, praised all over England, neither of them short on money or company. Their lives, as well as everyone involved, are subject to their various whims and thus often a fine source of gossip; while Dickens dismissed his wife and forbid her to enter his house again, Collins is unmarried but has two lovers who don't know about each other. While both authors readily cooperate, they just as readily dismiss each other's work as petty, unimaginative or just plain bad writing. The older they get, the wider the gap between them becomes – with a little help from the mysterious Mr. Drood, whose past and skills obsess Dickens.

In most reviews of "Drood" I've read, people mostly complain about "Drood" being too long and mostly just Dickens' biography. Neither of these bothered me. I actually enjoyed how SIMMONS took his time and 'spent' many pages to create a perfect atmosphere and explain the background of the story. Admittedly, this was probably a bit easier for him than if he set his story in a fictional place, because a lot is known about 19th century London and its upper class, but it still takes a certain amount of skill to present it as intriguing and engrossing as SIMMONS did. "Drood" hardly reads as a history textbook or a biography, more as a work of pure fiction. One of the possible reasons to why its length didn't really bother me might lie in the fact that I've recently read a lot of first-part-of-the-series novels, and they rarely left me satisfied because they centered more on action, offering an immediate, but not lasting satisfaction, and less on explanation and wholeness – there is enough time for the latter in one of the sequels. "Drood," though, is a standalone novel, and as such has to offer some explanation, background and so on.

As for the biography part of criticism – well, I can't really say, since in all those years I spent in school, we only mentioned Dickens a couple of times. And when I say mentioned, I mean exactly that – we listed his name along with other writers of his era, but we never got further than that. We never had to read any of his works, and I never knew that Wilkie Collins existed. Because of that, reading "Drood" was in a way like watching a great documentary; biography was just a logical part of the book and I found it more interesting than boring.

As mentioned, SIMMONS takes a step forward from "The Terror" here; by introducing an unreliable narrator, he successfully manages to blur the line between facts and fiction and thus piquing reader's interest. The book starts as a tale of two 19th century writers' everyday life, but slowly evolves into a gripping and unexpected tale, full of suspense. Highly recommended.

~Trin~

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I'm totally out of practice, guys. I don't remember the last time I read so little. I've read maybe 10-20 books since June, which is just SAD. I have written 2 (unfinished) reviews. Sucks to be me, I guess?

Six feet under...and digging my way back out

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So what have I been up to the last couple of months that I haven't been blogging? Nothing much really. I'm stuck in a rut and I'm slowly digging my way back out of the mire. Even though I've been procrastrinating on an exponential level I still haven't been completely idle where reading is concerned - I've been close enough to stone cold idle though - and while I don't have the drive or the energy to write full-blown reviews let me give you a quick recap of what I've read lately and what are my thoughts on the books.

After I've reviewed DAVID LUIS EDELMAN's "Infoquake", that was way back in June, I've tackled (for the 7th time now) the mind-boggling saga Malazan Book of the Fallen. "Reaper's Gale" is not the best book in the series, but it is still a substantial effort by the fantasy powerhouse that goes by the name STEVEN ERIKSON. I'm not going into the details, so if you are unfamiliar with the series you can go and catch up on some of the older reviews I've written ("Midnight Tides" is actually the opening review for this site; at that time I was still learning the ropes of how and what to write so it is most definitely too long and unfocused, but it went a lot of effort into writing it). "Reaper's Gale" is, in my opinion, a weaker work than the initial four novels, but feels tighter and more focused than both"Midnight Tides" and "The Bonehunters". Malazan Book of the Fallen definitely remains a hallmark of modern fantasy, and "Reaper's Gale" only solidifys this notion.

After the hefty Malazan novel I had a taste for something smaller in volume, but not necessarily lighter of content. I found what I was looking for with URSULA K. LeGUIN's "The Dispossessed". It's no secret that I'm a fan of her work. "The Left Hand of Darkness" was a terrific work of fiction and one of my favourite reads of all time and while I wasn't as enthused with "The Lathe of Heaven" -- another of her masterworks -- "The Disspossesed" reminded me of LeGUIN's lucid insights into the human condition and her brilliant characterization skills. The ending was lukewarm in comparison with the rest of the novel, but a very strong work of fiction on overall, totally deserving of the Masterwork title and all the awards it got back in the day. Highly recommended.

"Heroes Die" and "The Blade of Tyshalle" by MATTHEW WOODRING STOVER are certainly works of fiction that I shouldn't have postponed reading for so long. STOVER -- a close example to PAUL KEARNEY in this particular case -- is another gem of fantasy literature who deserves more widespread recognition (and audience). He has a devoted following among the genre fans, which comes as a no surprise to me, but his works never cut it as deep into the mainstream as have titles from some lesser authors. His Star Wars novels, namely "Traitor", "Shatterpoint" and "Revenge of the Sith", are considered among the best works that were written in this particular shared world, but again, author's renown usually rises and falls with the original work he writes...which brings us to THE ACTS OF CAINE. The Acts of Caine are, by this moment, an unfinished fantasy series that consist of the following novels: "Heroes Die" (1997), "Blade of Tyshalle" (2001) and "Caine Black Knife" (2005, Act of Atonement: Book One). Book Two of the Act of Atonement, "His Father's Fist", is forthcoming. There is a rumor of more books about Caine to be written and he has recently signed a deal to write a novelization of a popular "God of War" videogame (Kraitos, the character you play in the game, has Caine written on it forehead really), but I digress. Caine is Badass, period. Following Caine's story is an absolute joy ride, but what makes these books good aren't the inventively portrayed acts of distilled bone-crushing violence, but the fact that you care about Caine and what happens to him. STOVER is a smart writer and his characterization is quite on the spot. Where STOVER fails in "Heroes Die" is the pretty straightforward plot and the feeling that he could expand on the world-building (the ideas are good, but the author rarely deviates from the fast moving plot and Caine's story), which makes the book a bit "provincial". But all this doesn't lessen my opinion of the novel, since STOVER addresses all the shortcomings of book one in "Blade of Tyshalle" and disperses all the doubts I had that Acts of Caine won't meet the high expectations I had about them. Truly remarkable.

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I have no idea what I'll read next, but I'll let myself be surprised and I hope I'll be able to write a review or two in the near future and brake this stupor I've gotten myself into. Until the next good book is read...
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~ ThRiNiDiR ~

Richelle Mead - Thorn Queen (Book Review)

"THORN QUEEN" (Amazon: UK, US)
by RICHELLE MEAD
Format: Paperback, 480/384 pages
Publisher: Bantam Books / Zebra Books (August 2009)

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About a year ago, I read and reviewed the first book of Dark Swan series, Storm Born, which came as a pleasant surprise. Naturally, I was excited to hear that the sequel was coming out this year and when I got the book, I started reading it as soon as I could find some time. Sadly, I have to say that it wasn't worth it.

The beginning once again introduces us to Eugenie's everyday (which I found pretty nice since I'd forgotten most of what has happened in the first book). This time around, Eugenie spends most of her days in Otherworld, since she is now the Thorn Queen there. Her country, being magical, has changed to suit her, but the inhabitants of Thorn Land have some hard time adapting to the climate changes. Eugenie is distraught and wants to help them, but by doing so, she has to put her talents to use, learn some more magic and decide on where her loyalties lie.

The plot is promising and pretty well-written, even if it seems that we've heard it all before. It's too bad that Mead doesn't leave it at that, but instead proceeds to throw in the element of paranormal romance – quite a lot of it. It seemed as if every chapter ended with a long scene of Eugenie and Kiyo having wild, rough sex. These love scenes are not even good, and after reading two or three of them, I simply started skipping them, because they were all the same. It was pretty annoying, not to mention being a really obvious filler for when Mead got out of ideas or simply wanted to prolong the book (without the sex scenes, it would've been shorter for at least a half) – I can't even say that she wanted to spice things up a bit, because it was all so utterly boring.

The humour, which I enjoyed quite a lot in the first book, has now faltered as well; in Thorn Queen, dialogues seem watered down and uninteresting. I admit I was under a lot of stress at the time of reading this book, so that might have influenced my views a bit, but I still think the fault lies mostly in Mead's writing. There was some lack of research on her part that did nothing to improve things – I could hardly laugh at Ladyxmara72 (a girl who met Eugenie in person and insisted on being addressed with her World of Warcraft character name), when I find it almost common knowledge that WoW characters can't have numbers in their names. It's a very silly, not to say sloppy mistake, but it destroyed that character for me, rendering her completely unconvincing. You can't submerge yourself into plot that way, not when such mistakes make you aware that the characters are just a product of an author that did not do her research well enough and don't, by any chance, resemble real people. And I always thought geeks were the easiest characters to write, because there are so many stereotypes about them that are actually true in plenty of cases. Meh.

Thorn Queen is a huge step backwards from what we've seen in Storm Born. The plot is all but put on the sidetrack and the whole book mostly revolves about Eugenie's sexual life, when it should be the other way around. Thus, Thorn Queen firmly sets itself into the sub-genre of paranormal romance, and will probably appeal to fans of Twilight and the like. Too bad, really – the plot had much potential, but has become more of an excuse for sex scenes.
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~Trin~

Back

Just so you know - we're back. Or at least I am. :) I'm currently in UK (in Hay-on-Wye until 17th and then in London), relaxing and book-hunting, and I feel ready to get RoSF running again, so there will be new reviews soon. Yay. :)

2009 Hugo Award Winners

2009 Hugo Award Winners were presented at Anticipation, the 67th World Science Fiction Convention, in Montréal, which was held from August 6-10, 2009.

The Winners:

• Best Novel: The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury UK)

• Best Novella: “The Erdmann Nexus”, Nancy Kress (Asimov’s Oct/Nov 2008)

• Best Novelette: “Shoggoths in Bloom”, Elizabeth Bear (Asimov’s Mar 2008)

• Best Short Story: “Exhalation”, Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two)

• The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer: David Anthony Durham

• Best Related Book: Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded: A Decade of Whatever, 1998-2008, John Scalzi (Subterranean Press)

• Best Graphic Story: Girl Genius, Volume 8: Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones, Written by Kaja & Phil Foglio, art by Phil Foglio, colors by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)

• Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: WALL-E Andrew Stanton & Pete Docter, story; Andrew Stanton & Jim Reardon, screenplay; Andrew Stanton, director (Pixar/Walt Disney)

• Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Joss Whedon, & Zack Whedon, & Jed Whedon, & Maurissa Tancharoen, writers; Joss Whedon, director (Mutant Enemy)

• Best Editor Short Form: Ellen Datlow
• Best Editor Long Form: David G. Hartwell
• Best Professional Artist: Donato Giancola

• Best Semiprozine: Weird Tales, edited by Ann VanderMeer & Stephen H. Segal
• Best Fanzine: Electric Velocipede edited by John Klima
• Best Fan Writer: Cheryl Morgan
• Best Fan Artist: Frank Wu

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Congratulations to all the winners!

source: The Hugo Awards

So, why is there nothing new?

After I had to write a post like this last year, I honestly hoped I won't have to do it again. I don't know what is with those summers, but they seem to be our weakest point - last year, we were simply lazy, and this year we're too busy to write anything.

First of all, Thrinidir has regular job now, and although it's only a half-time one, he still has less spare time than usual. I had a summer job up until yesterday, an annoying, tiresome and badly paid thing, but I couldn't afford to drop it since this year nobody seems to want a student for a summer job. Every time I called a potential employer, there were cca 30 other girls who also wanted the same job. You can imagine that I was pretty happy when my mother made me a lecture about how I really need to pass all of my remaining exams (no shit, Sherlock) and offered to pay me whatever money I would otherwise earn with the aforementioned job. It's not the ideal solution (I hate to financially depend on my mother), but right now, I'm too happy about never having to return to that annoying job to care.

The second thing is that we (me and Thrinidir, that is) decided to move in together. It was a quite sudden decision, and we didn't have much time to find an apartment (until the end of August, because then I'd have to sign my student room lease), so you can imagine we were quite busy in the last few weeks. I promised to myself that I'd write an update for RoSF, explaining everything, when we find an apartment and sign the lease. We did that on Wednesday and I've been writing this ever since, because I found out that there is so much to an apartment than just finding it - we still had to paint the walls (and it took us 4 days, preparations included, while we were so sure it will take a day or maybe two) and now we have to decide what to bring with us and what to leave behind. There is probably not enough room for all of our books, let alone all of our things. But it's our apartment and I'm really happy about it, especially now it's all clad in bright colors.

There are my upcoming exams as well. Two of them should present no problem, but there's a third one which is a pain and the main reason why I haven't been able to relax all summer (ie. July). There is also an extra one which is supposed to be easy and will serve as a boost for my grades, because the criteria for my scholarship all of the sudden went sky high. The exams are also the reason why there were no reviews from me in June (except for the Blood of Ambrose one). All in all, the sooner I get rid of those damn exams, the happier I'll be.

I think that's mostly it. It's the first year I've been too busy to spend at least one weekend at sea, I've read all of 2 books in the whole month and I feel really, really bad about not updating RoSF. I just wanted to explain why there are no new reviews and when to expect them (when I'm through with my exams, so this can be either September or October). Sorry, folks. I'll do my best not to keep you waiting for too long.

~Trin~

David Gunn's "Death's Head" - Giveaway contest winners!

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Thanks to all of the participants who entered the competition, but the books are going to only two persons, and they are...

Suzana Confalonieri, Italy
and Luka Finžgar, Slovenia

The books are going to be shipped as soon as possible and the date of arrival depends only on how fast the guys on the post work :). I'd again like to thank the good people at Transworld, who made this giveaway possible and to the rest of you, better luck next time!

Until another good book finds its reader...

Sarah Rees Brennan - Sorcerer and Stone (Free Fiction)

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I reviewed SARAH REES BRENNAN's debut, "The Demon Lexicon", back in March, and found it an appealing YA novel. She has now come up with an idea for promoting her book with gifts and free fiction - a short story entitled Sorcerer and Stone (I haven't decided yet whether the title, as well as some other things, is a deliberate reference to Harry Potter or not), which tells the background of one of the characters in "The Demon's Lexicon". You can read the short story here.