Gardner Dozois (ed.) - Galileo's Children: Tales Of Science vs. Superstition (Book Review)

"Galileo's Children"
edited by: Gardner Dozois
hardcover, 343 pages
publisher: PYR (imprint from Prometheus Books)

Galileo Galilei is best known for his sotto-voce defiance of the inquisition. This, one of the most famous quotes in history - "Eppur si muove" (but still, it does move) - is without doubt apocryphal. The sentiment was surely present, but Galileo was a cautious man, well aware of the fate that befall Giordano Bruno. Some would say that so much of his fame comes from good PR, which made of him a martyr of reason, others look on his work at the fields of physics, mathematic, astronomy and philosophy and see in him a true man of science and ratio (which includes self-preservation, of course) and say without a doubt that he is a true father of (modern) science.

That being said, it is a little wonder, that his name that was chosen for the title of anthology of SF stories that PYR published in 2005, and his tale made the frame in which stories had to fit to be included. But Galileo is not the only great name that found its way on the cover of the 343 pages long book. PYR has left the selection of stories to the veteran of anthologies - Gardner Dozois and he proved that he wasn't named best professional editor for fifteen times in vain. Looking back over the last half a century he selected the stories which in his eyes best encompassed the conflict between the opposites of science and superstition, often written by authors with names as well known as his. Anthology includes thirteen tales:

• The Stars Below (1974) by Ursula K. LeGuin
• The Will of God (1991) by Keith Roberts
• The Way of Cross and Dragon (1979) by George R.R. Martin
• The Pope of the Chimps (1982) by Robert Silverberg
• The World is a Sphere (1973) by Edgar Pangborn
• Written in Blood (1999) by Chris Lawson
• Falling Star (2004) by Brendan DuBois
• Three Hearings on the Existence of Snakes in the Human Bloodstream (1997) by James Alan Gardner
• The Star (1955) by Arthur C. Clarke
• The Last Homosexual (1996) by Paul Park
• The Man Who Walked Home (1972) by James Tiptree Jr.
• When the Old Gods Die (1995) by Mike Resnick
• Oracle (2000) by Greg Egan

As said, the main theme is the conflict between ratio of science and the intolerance, misapplication of facts, glorification of ignorance and use of all these in propagation of fear and ever increasing control found in every culture known to man. It will not come as a big surprise that the main "bad guy" that embody most of these in many of the tales is (organized) religion. With rampant fundamentalism on all the continents, screaming for return to one kind of so called "true values" or another and seeing science as the root of all evil, that is easy to understand, but nonetheless sometimes hard to swallow. In a way I found it odd. I agree with such a view of the situation, but when faced with such an en-masse fingerpointing I can not help myself but to think over some darker aspects of science.

I love short stories and novelettes. In some ways I consider them the true form of the genre that had lately put quantity over the "idea", which was the yardstick of a tale for better part of the century. Within these still lives that simple, playful "What if..." which, sometimes written softer, other harder and sometimes just for fun, is always a pleasure to read. Then again, perhaps in part such a feeling comes from my Slavic soul, with its romantically fatalistic individuality (LOL). I do hope you will not think worse of me if I confess that for me Clark's 'The Star' with it's simple but profound dilemma and many subtle points still shines most brightly (pun intended) among all of these tales. But if you were to ask me which I liked the least, I could not answer you, because all of the stories are great.

Those among you, that look first at the numbers of Fruitcakes, than at the cover and only then decide whether to read the review, by now probably wonder how come, with all the praise, there are only four (and a half) of our beloved maced barbarians beneath the text? For two reasons, and I have already hinted at both:

• When one thinks about it, it is obvious that the tales were selected for a certain quality. Dozois's introduction offers explanation enough, but nonetheless I got the feeling that the book lacks a tiny bit of balance. There is a prominent "we are in the right" feeling which I found a tad irritating. This, I suppose, also explains the vague but nagging feeling of deja-vu that follows you through the book. It is also true that this impression can be easily avoided, simply by reading one story at a time.
  

• The oldest among the tales was first published in 1955 and only three of them are less than a decade old. This assures us a quality of writing, that is true. Not because new authors would write worse than those decades ago, but because any such tale had already stood and survived the judgment of time and change of generations. This fact will on the one hand without a doubt put this anthology on many of 'must have' lists, but on the other it also represents a weakness of a sort. If one is a veteran reader of anthologies and publications that run such form of SF tales (or, in many cases had just read through award winning tales) he had already read most, if not all, of chosen tales.

So, as said (damn, I think this is the highest mark I've ever bestowed on this blog):

Well folks it's been a while, beeing the end of a school year and all. But now (or really soon) I'm back among the ranks of unemployed, so I suppose we'll be reading more of each other. THX for the wait (especially to ThRiNiDiR, for not skinning me alive, since I've been promising him this piece for the better part of three months). And a BIG "thank you!" to PYR.

John Scalzi - Old Man's War (Book Review)

----

"Old Man's War" (Amazon: UK, USA)
by John Scalzi
Format: Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: TOR Books

-

---"Then Maggie turned, faced the planet that would kill her, and like the good professor of Eastern religions that she used to be, she composed jisei, the death poem, in the haiku form.

-----Do not mourn me, friends
-----I fall as a shooting star
-----Into the next life

---She sent it and the last moments of her life to the rest of us, and then she died, hurtling brightly across the Temperance night sky.

---She was my friend. Briefly, she was my lover. She was braver than I ever would have been in the moment of death. And I bet she was a hell of a shooting star."---(pg.163,164)

-

~~~

-
My pile of unread books is not getting any smaller, if anything it's growing bigger on a weekly basis, since I like to buy books faster than I can read them. That's o.k. though, because I like a vast array of books to choose from. When I was deciding what to read next, I was consciously looking for a short, entertaining and fast paced SF novel, as opposed to the sprawling fantasy epics I've been reading lately (e.g. "The Bonehunters"); and you know what, "Old Man's War" turned out to be all that and more.
-
"Old Man's War" is the Hugo Award nominated debut effort (it lost to "Spin" by Robert Charles Wilson in 2006) from the veteran blogger (Whatever) and the prestigious John W. Campbell Award winning author in the category for Best New Writer in 2006, John Scalzi. The novel garnered much praise and was later serialized/followed by "The Ghost Brigades" in 2006 and "The Last Colony" in 2007, but that is a story for another time...
-
The main premise (catch) behind the story of "Old Man's War" is -- as the title already implies -- how to make old people useful again for the society. The story is told through the eyes of John Perry, a 75 year old geezer, who enlists into Colonial Defense Forces for the same reason as many of the 75 year olds do - the prospect of getting young again. The fear of dying is stronger than all the moral and religious objections that one might have had towards army servitude and all that goes with it when young and full of ideals. We then follow his journey towards the training facility, the whole process of "rejuvenation" and all the consequences this corporeal change brings to a couple of thousand people with very alienated relationship towards their bodies; forming of new friendships (the clique of "Old Farts", as they name themselves) and finally John's participation in intergalactic war where the race of men battles myriad of diverse and rapacious alien races for the right of colonization and expansion. What makes all this work on a whole another level is John's personality and his view on events as the they unfold. He is a thoughtful and very likable protagonist with a great sense of humor (subtle and witty, not the all over the place hilarious).
-
The conscripts exchange witty banter throughout the novel and this makes for a very refreshing read. Characterization, or rather the main protagonist, is without a doubt the biggest strength of the novel, before all other aspects - such as style, elements of "hard science", plotting or the lackluster worldbuilding. What I found a bit strange is that the the "old" people act, think and feel no different than a 25 year old person would; but I've also heard that people often feel young (and even immature) regardless to their advanced age and a life time of experience, so this minor gripe of mine might not really be a real problem of plausibility. Some of the side characters feel somewhat flat and one-sided though. For example, one of the side characters' most notable trait is his rampant appetite (or at least this is the only thing I've remembered him after) and Scalzi later on "offs" him by having some strange, sentient slime mold jump into his mouth and down his throat, suffocating him.
-
The world that Scalzi creates does not awe the reader, but although the worldbuilding doesn't play a major role in the narrative it still serves it well and compliments the plot and characterization, so that it leaves more than enough room for character interplay. Some of the body modifications and enhancements that the soldiers receive are pretty cool - something that every athlete (SmartBlood^TM, green skin, HardArm^TM) or whiz kid (BrainPal^TM - an internal computer, incorporated into your body) would kill for, but it's really nothing that hasn't been done before. The universe is large and dangerous, inhabited by (mostly) belligerent alien races that kill, eat each other and contend for scarce resources and inhabitable living space. This pessimistic world-view and the harshness of the struggle is covered up well with lighter elements, such as John Perry's witty musings and the bantering dialogues between characters. Scalzi actually makes good use of info-dumps (tell, rather than show), but they are low on tech-speech, relevant and unobtrusive to the narrative. He makes this approach work for him and that's what matters the most.
-
As I've already mentioned, the dialogue is really effective in its companionable nature and keeps you turning the pages as much as the fast-paced, economical narrative and the likable protagonist. "Old Man's War" is an extremely likable military sf novel; a younger, more playful version of "The Forever War" by Joe Haldeman (review), with a more sympathetic hero and ultimately more enjoyable story, but it also has a lesser degree of scientific detail and societal speculation. So while "Old Man's War" offers nothing exceptionally new or mind-blowing to the genre it nonetheless kept me well within the comfort zone and this counts for a lot in my book, since I am not easily entertained for, oh, I don't know...it's been a while now (the old Grumpy syndrome, I know :)). Recommended? Hell yeah.
-
-
-
If you want a second opinion visit A Dribble of Ink, where Aidan posted his thoughts on the book just a couple of days ago.

-
~Thrinidir~

Stephenie Meyer - Twilight (Book Review)

-

-

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer is currently one of the most popular books around here. All of a sudden, every girl who used to rave about Harry Potter (and, in some instances even about the pervy HP fan fiction) and is now a bit older started hyping Twilight. They even call it their 'brand of heroin'. Before now, whenever I talked with my girlfriends, they peppered me with disbelief...

"You haven't read it yet? OMG!".

Not to mention the usual...

"That Edward guy, he's so hot! <3."

So what was I to do but go and buy the damned thing? If nothing else, I got it cheap and it has a really nice cover. (Maybe it's even nice enough for one of Thrinidir's "Eye Candy Covers" articles?)
-
The first thing I noticed when I started reading was that Twilight is not a fantasy book by any means - or at least, not in any conventional way. The plot is as simple, predictable and straightforward as with any of the stories that have a high-school girl which moves to a new town for a central protagonist. Isabella (Bella) has to deal deal with a major change - she moves from a big city (Phoenix, Arizona) to a small rural town (Forks) in the middle of nowhere to live with her father. She has no friends upon arrival and she feels miserable about it - we are all familiar with this narrative setting. However, the book had an exceptionally beautiful prose from the start on, so I kept reading despite the prosaic themes (and without a hint of any 'epic' elements, that I got used to expect when picking up a book labeled as fantasy). That said, Meyer's prose is probably the best feature of Twilight - no matter how implausible, predictable or just plain silly things are, the author still knows how to make them interesting to read about. It is a big and important bonus to the book.
-
If I haven't made it clear enough before - Twilight is a book intended for girls (I'd say teenage girls, but Twilight is well-liked by older and presumably more mature women as well), especially for those who prefer an engaging and a beautifully told story above the quality of its contents. I wouldn't recommend this book for guys and those individuals who don't appreciate romance for what it is and what it can offer. Why?
-
Twilight is almost completely without any discernible plot or action scenes, even the fangirls admit that. What little plot there is it revolves around a typical high-school romance, and the sole fantastical element I could find were the vampires (that's what determines this novel as urban fantasy, right?). Our protagonist is a seventeen-year-old Isabella Swan and she has to deal with the common problems of a teenager, the most prominent are (1)how to fit in and (2)being in love (awakened sexuality and every nuances that come with it). The real catch comes with the latter - Bella is in love with a vampire, the gorgeous Edward, and their problem is how to handle their relationship so not awaken Edward's desire for blood. Otherwise, everything evolves mostly around Bella's feelings and, of course, how incredibly sexy Edward is.
-
Believe it or not, Meyer manages to pull the lackluster story through with flying colors. The plot itself is virtually unexisting and it hurts to think about it, but the ever-popular love theme and a sublime writing style are obviously the things that do the trick here. Nevertheless, this doesn't change the fact that the whole thing is still nothing more than an entertaining goodnight story that bursts with romantic sentiments - but it somehow manages to avoid being completely cheesy and it keeps you turning the pages. Twilight does not do deep revelations or hidden meanings, but it offers a great example of what can be done with abundance of style and a good idea of what to offer to your audience (a dazzling beauty & the beast vampire relationship).
-
I have to admit that I enjoyed the book, but I don't think I'll read the sequels. They only reiterate what has been done here, or so I've heard, and while it was interesting this time, it would probably annoy the hell out of me the second time around. I've had my share of Edward and Isabella; I'll leave the sequels and re-reading to fans and those who have nothing better to read.
-
To sum it all up, I'd recommend this book to girls who enjoy a stylish, hip and easy read that teems with (c)overt sexual tension. It's a very involving book and it hits the exactly right spots of its core audience, but otherwise has no literary merit whatsoever.
-
-
-

-
-
-
-
~ Trin ~

Glen Cook - The Tyranny of the Night (Book Review)

Sha-lug, the slave soliders in the Kaifate of al-Minphet have only two choices – to do, or to die. For that they were bought and for that they were raised. Bringing mummies to the court of Gordimer the Lion, through the Holly Land around the Wells of Irhian was just one the missions that Else found himself doing of late. When a bogon, instrumentality of the night so powerful it could almost be considered a deity, turns up, he deals with it. The new invention, a falcon – blackpowder cannon – loaded with silver coins puts an end to the creature. It also puts Else in a centre of attention he's not even aware of, for how could a mere mortal kill even an almost deity. There's another's attention that he's much more aware of. Else is getting more and more sure that Gordimer, once a slave warrior himself, is trying to get rid of him. When he returns to the Kaif's court at al-Qarn another mission awaits him. To go alone and spy in Brothe, the heart of the of infidels, to see if another crusade for the Wells of Irhian, the Holy Land of Pramans and Chaldarean alike, is brewing.

The description above tries to catch the essence of the beginning of the main story, or perhaps better main character, that we follow through the larger part of the book. And just to make the things clear – all of this happens on the two thirds of the first fifty pages of the book.

Every short description of the book would do it injustice. Glen Cook liberally uses European High Middle Ages, blending together: crusades, pope (and antipope), Jews, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and the King of Spain, Janissaries, ruling noble families of Rome caught in everlasting cloak and dagger games for papacy, corruption of the medieval Catholic Church, catharism and it's centre the Languedoc and last, but not least the Vikings and their pantheon. Now add to that the gods, or perhaps the demons, for this is the land where EVERY god truly exists. The strong ones may not meddle in the affairs of mortals, gorging on magic and prayers, but the small ones are an ever present threat which man had learned to live with, and sometimes tame.

All of that has to be told, put in place and woven in the story, and each of these aspects has a different, new name! If you don't have at least a general idea of European medieval history or if you aren't a careful, composed and systematic reader the first hundred, hundred and fifty pages can easily overwhelm you.

So I suppose the main question is: "Is the rest of the book worth the bother?"

In my opinion: yes. But for objectivity's sake I must in the same breath add that I'm Cook's fan. Well, time used to read a book is always well spent, and I think Cook will have a pleasant surprise or two in store for you. He is well practiced storyteller even if some of his books are not to be counted among the top in the genre. His characters are always realistic – they eat, they shit and they f**k and sometimes die doing one of those things. And above all they tend to be cynical to the extreme. In his books there is little place for idealism, but always for great ideas. If for no other reason to show what people do with them.

The Tyranny of the Night, the first book in the series The Instrumentalities of the Night is a rather old book. It was published three years ago - in 2005. The second volume of, I think, trilogy: Lord of the Silent Kingdom was published in the beginning of 2007, and mass paperback just a few months ago. Hopefully I will get my hands on one of those soon.

On this blog we have a habit of ending every review, with some kind of numerical appraisal. For the life of me I couldn't make an objective one, so form me this book gets a big, blue:

N/A

(And if you aren’t satisfied you can always go read the book yourself.)

- BlindMan -

Steven Erikson - Blood Follows (Book Review)

I have to admit that the Malazan series is still on my waiting list. I don't know any of the characters, I have no idea even of what it is all about, but Thrinidir gave me Blood Follows to read nonetheless, saying I needn't know anything about previous Erikson's works to enjoy it. Since it is 'only' a novella and therefore not taking much time to read, I gave it a try.

The first thing I've noticed was that the plot flows smoothly throughout the book. Emancipor Reese - married to a woman who gives off an impression that Xanthippe was her kind grandmother, having two kids who are probably not of his own seed and on top of that being followed by a severe case of bad luck - is a character you can't help but sympathise with, even though you never really get attached to him. With his employers getting constantly killed – many of those in odd ways, he can't help but to fruitlessly search for a new job over and over again. This time around, the gods may be finally smiling upon him, since he managed to apply for a job and get it, all in the same evening, and on top of that, he does it while being dead drunk.

Sgt.Guld is another POV character, conducting his duty as a kind of detective, trying to solve the mysterious murders haunting the city of Lamentable Moll. Erikson, however, avoids the traditional trope of a detective and rather depicts Guld as a cross–over between a guard, an examiner and a simply curious subject.

Erikson's style clearly shows competence, skill and experience, not to mention a rich vocabulary (well, to be perfectly honest, it almost feels like Erikson is showing it off a bit in the beginning, using as many unusual words as possible, and as a non-native speaker, I had some problems with that – but it is a small gripe that can be easily ignored by reading the meaning of the words out of the context).

As I've already mentioned before, the world of Malazan is not only unknown, but also a riddle to me – as well as to most of you who are familiar with it (or so I've heard), therefore I felt a bit lost at particular moments, with all the secondary characters parading about. With the plot tugging at you to keep reading, the unfamiliarity with the universe, however, represents just a minor distraction. But regaring the pacing and the plot not everything is perfect, as I found the quick uncoiling of the story at the end quite dissapointing, since the beginning and the middle part seemed to offer more. I guess I'll have to read the main series to discover the potential hidden behind this novel. To sum it up: for a reader, who has never read any of the Malazan books, many questions regarding not the story itself, but the characters and wider setting, stay undisclosed. A few pieces of the puzzle fall together in the last few pages, but the picture that it offers is not entirely satisfying.

The novella gives an overall impression of a mix of horror, fantasy and detective fiction, an easy read but interesting nonetheless. The plot includes some bizzare, extraordinary (but nonetheless compelling) characters and a lot of subtle sparks of humour. The reading experience is probably different for those who've read the series (and thus know some of the characters in Blood Follows at least briefly), but this novella makes a worthy reading either way.

3,5/5 (reviewer)

3,5/5 (Thrinidir)

-Trin-

Steven Erikson - Midnight Tides (Book Review)

Steven Erikson, a name well renowned in the realm of fantasy fiction, is often remarked to be sitting on the proverbial throne of contemporary fantasy, keeping company with such authors as George R.R. Martin and Scott Bakker. This is of course debatable, but in my opinion the sheer scope of his work remains unprecedented - truly epic in every sense of the word.

Midnight Tides, the fifth entry into the epic fantasy series bearing the name of Malazan Book Of The Fallen and it in no way closes any of the hanging plot threads from previous installments. They seem to be entirely abandoned for the page-length of this book, and myriad of new questions are raised, since the events in the book occur on an entirely new continent (if you are familiar with the series you should already be acquainted with The Central Malazan Empire, Seven Cities Continent and Genabackis), where the Kingdom of Lether and the tribal nation of Tiste Edur clash arms for what seems to be a simple conquest and hoarding of riches but in the end it turns out that the stakes were higher, much higher, and the meddling of gods becomes imminent.

Erikson’s world is vast, divergent and populated with heterogeneous cultures, but somehow it feels unduly stale compared to Middle Earth, Westeros and some of the other more vividly animated worlds. Don’t get me wrong, his world-building is colossal and imaginative, but somehow lacks a certain flare – even the densely populated city of Letheras sometimes feels empty and devoid, with small exception of our protagonists and a few sidekicks. There is another odd thing that I’ve sensed about the world: I have a feeling that it is not thoroughly alive, but only lived at specific moments. I rarely got immersed into the atmosphere of the world, even though I am not a huge fan of info dumps and descriptive narrative, so I never even expected it from him. Where Erikson truly excels is myth-creation, may it be strictly religious, or more broadly cultural. Concerning those elements, his world is lush, complex, exotic and what is most important – quite unique. Here Erikson’s anthropological prowess comes to the fore.

Pantheon is complexly built and in MT there are some familiar (Mael and Ossric) and some new deities (Scabandari Bloodeye, Silchas Ruin etc.) that rear their (ugly) heads into the game, most prominently at the end, when the convergence occurs and the big players uncover their agenda. Gods in Malazan universe somewhat resemble those of the Greek pantheon, as they posses quite human qualities and are as flawed, they meddle in mundane affairs, are quite uncaring of peoples wants, form alliances and play power-games behind the screen if possible and out in the open, if not. The Crippled God and his agenda is the most notable connection with the previous books. This figure might as well represent Satan, Loki or any other negative god-figure in our world. The religious system is closely connected with magic, and priests are as likely to pray as to delve into more arcane arts – most probably both. We get a closer look at the Deck of Holds, previously only hinted at and described as a natural predecessor of the Deck of Dragons. There is also a brief explanation of what warrens are actually supposed to be and what is their connection to magic. Hovewer the explanation is highly subjective, unclosed from the perspective of a mage of The Crimson Guard, thus being just another partial view of a vast and complex system of magic.

Some of the themes that Erikson tackles resonate with those from the previous books: convergence, question of fate and the battle of free will vs. predetermination,… The main plotline is built around a certain prophecy, which is at once vague as well as ever-present. The diverse cast of characters bemoan, give in, honor or belie the prophecy/fate.

MT also mirrors the contemporary world in a way that the previous installments never have. The characters live out and debate about similar themes that are closely related to those of modern imperialism and capitalism: greed, self-centeredness, money as a new religion, loss of identity, corruption, enslavement, racism, globalization, dreams of grandeur, materialism, power of bureaucracy, exploitation, social inequity etc.

Regarding the plot there are few if any threads that are carried over from previous books in the series and those links that exist, are temporally mixed (the events of MT precede those of HoC) and spatially displaced (events take place on an entirely new continent). The story seems less erratic - the narrative flows smooth, but at the end of the book the reader is not only left in the dark with regards to previous loose ends, MT actually opens many new questions. I cannot help but wonder if Erikson has it all figured out, or he wanders in proverbial dark a bit himself. Nevertheless, his storytelling ability remains impeccable, making the reader temporarily uncaring of the baffling and enigmatic story. In MT we have two complementary storylines; first one concerns itself with the Tiste Edur (the shadow-folk and brethren to Tiste Andi and Tiste Liosan) and their rise to power; and the second explores the crumbling Kingdom of Lether – mostly the events in its capital city, Letheras. As already stated above, what binds those two storylines together is the convergence (of powers) and an ancient prophecy of an empire rising, which turns out quite differently than how it was interpreted in the beginning.

As much as I wanted to like MT, I must admit that I was a bit disappointed with the book. I cannot exactly pinpoint what bothered me in the beginning and in the middle of the book, but they turned out a bit pale compared to the second and the third book. But that does not account for the ending, which was the best that Erikson wrote up until MT. It was less rushed, not so feverish and more elaborated than his previous finishing chapters. If I had to choose, than this would be the most notable improvement I’ve noticed about Erikson’s writing.

The single character we’ve seen before is the enigmatic Trull Sengar and we get to learn a fragrance of the story that delivered him to such dire straits as those in which he found himself at the beginning of HoC. As much as I like larger than life hero types Erikson actually manages to over-saturate the pages with such men and women, and so the feeling of awe diminishes notably. What I also longed for is the totally kick ass dialogue that embellished his previous work. The tendency of every (side)character to turn into philosopher once in a while is a bit stretched too, since the most profound thoughts are delivered from simple mercenaries and slaves as well as scholars and gentry. Most of the cast also feel trapped by their past and take the future for pregiven. I’m sad to say, but most of the characters are not that memorable, they lack the emotional intensity of those in DG and the supreme nonchalance of those in MoI. I would also wish for more insight into the character of Trull’s brothers (especially Fear and Binadas). Some side-characters felt a bit paper thin (Mayen, Feather Witch, Binadas, Hejun, Rissarh, Shand, Shurq Ellale and others). The balance between magic and weaponry is still not redressed completely – magic is too powerful. I can also see why Erikson wanted to included lowborn characters, unlike Martin, but they do not behave like uneducated peasantry from middle ages, do they?

Erikson’s is a competent linguist and has a definite knack for humor, but which often feels strained and falls flat with repetitive sex jokes in MT (at least for my taste; “when hell freezes over” was a nice one though:) ). This is unfortunate, since he rather excels at parody in his novellas about Bauchelain & Korbal Broach (a couple of necromancers we get to meet in MoI). The humor is more prominent than ever before as well, with the exception of the novellas I’ve mentioned (I believe Trin is writing a review for one of them).

In the end, whatever my complaints, Erikson’s creativity remains prodigious, he shows no sign of ever slowing down and his vigor and imagination are in full span. As ingenious of storyteller as he is, the dialogue sometimes turns overly didactic (delegating his his worldview to the reader); nevertheless, the sheer power of the story makes me almost forget about this. I admit that I’m nitpicking…but Erikson deserves the critics – in a positive way. His work draws circles around the work of the majority of other fantasy writers; and my criticism is good natured, wishing for him to improve.

Erikson’s books serve to help us escape reality, but sometimes this escape can be liberating, opening new horizons, instead of hiding us from responsibilities of the real world. Good fiction always does, and by my standards, Midnight Tides is good fiction:
-
3.5+/5

-
-
- Thrinidir -