Frigid reads: book review thread

[Josh]

Long as you don't mind sex, cursing, violence, drugs and of course... Rock and Roll.

Was this written just for me?

[Cynical Cat]

Long as you don't mind sex, cursing, violence, drugs and of course... Rock and Roll.

Was this written just for me?

Don't be silly. I was written for me.

[frigidmagi]

Ancillary Justice
By Ann Leckie

Ancillary Justice is the first novel by Ann Leckie. Ms. Leckie started writing Ancillary Justice after the birth of her children as a way to stave off boredom while being a homemaker. In fact she hammered out the first draft for National Writing Month (Which is November folks!). After attending a workshop under Octavia Estelle Butler she hammered on it for 6 years until she produced a novel that won the Hugo award, the Nebula award, the Arthur C Clarke and the BSFA award... So you know all in all not bad for 6 years of work. For comparison, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone? Took Rowling 7 years, there are worse ways to spend nearly a decade.

I've been told by some folks that this book is the great liberal hype or hope depending on whose talking. Honestly I don't see it. While it's true the main culture in the book doesn't have gender... Let me expand. The Radch don't have a concept of gender, it's completely gone in their language. This doesn't make them a liberal society however! Just a very different one. The Radch are human, but humans thousands in the future in a very different environments then humans live in now. In general I disapprove of layering our political system on different times and places. The current liberal/conservative divides are artifacts of our time and situation and do not apply to Republican Rome or Imperial China for example and they don't apply to Radch. That said, they are a militant, aggressive, xenophobic and incredibly authoritarian power. I think very few people would approve of the society presented in this book. The fact that we have such a society and it is filled with sympathetic and likable characters that you find yourself rooting for is a testament to Ms. Leckie's writing abilities. Let me talk a little about them.

Justice of Toren One Esk, is a person, but she is not human. She is instead an ancillary, a dead body implanted with cybernetics and inhabited by an A.I. Calling her undead might be a stretch but we're not reaching far here. These AI's until recently were one of the main weapons in the Radch's war of eternal expansion. There are 3 kinds of ships. The Swords, the large powerful ships. The Mercies, the smaller warships. The Justices which are troop carriers, traditionally those troops are ancillaries, lead by a small group of human officers. Each of the ancillaries are organized into companies led by a small group of human lieutenants. One Esk (as I will refer to her for the rest of the review) was one such body. She used to be a part of the Radch war machine, conquering planets in the name of the Radch as part of a vast multi-body creature. Now she's alone outside of Radch on a mission of revenge. She knows who to blame for her many, many loses and she is going to make those responsible pay. One Esk is our viewpoint character with the entire book being told through her narration. She's an introspective and calm narrator without being emotionless or so up her butt that you want to scream at her. She is entirely relatable without becoming to human, basically staying just inhuman enough that you are aware of seeing humanity through an outsider's view. By human standards she's very cool and somewhat distant. I don't mean that she's emotionless just that her expression of emotion is very controlled and contained (with some exceptions) and the emotions she does feel are not necessarily the emotions a human being would feel. Despite being in a human body, One Esk feels alien. In many ways she could be compared creature out of nightmare. An eternal intelligence wrapped in a human body... That was murdered for her use. Because the state she served found that better then dealing with the problems of human soldiers. To be fair to One Esk, she's not nightmarish but rather easy to respect and even like. Which in a way feeds into the horror of the situation for me but that's not the focus of the book.

Captain Seivarden Vendaii is our second character, an officer from One Esk's past. She was an Lt on Justice of Toren in the past... The long distant past of a 1000 years, which is a long time for people even in the far future. After being promoted to her own ship. Captain Vendaii's ship was lost in battle. Captain Vendaii escaped the destruction but laid in stasis for nearly a millennium and awoke to found her perfect culture the best culture in the galaxy as far she was concerned, altered and changed. She didn't have a good reaction to it. One Esk finds her outside the Radch and for reasons she doesn't understand decides to save Vendaii's life. The interesting thing is that One Esk doesn't really like Captain Vendaii but for reasons she can't explain often moves to protect and better Vendaii's lot. I've pointed out relationships like this (Rabbit and Mbele from Glowgems for Profit come to mind) in the past. Usually it's done to humanize a character that audiences would have problems dealing with, instead in this case Vendaii helps us to see the difference between the past Radch and the present Radch. One Esk helps us understand why the differences matter. The interactions between them also help shine a deeper light into Radch culture itself which is massively interesting to me.

Let me address the Radch here because the culture is very much a character as well as a background for the story. It's a totalitarian, militant, classist, xenophobic and it was expansionist until recent events... Events that pretty much set One Esk on her path. It's also a very ritualized stable society with things changing so little that a person from a thousand years ago can show up and still have a good idea of what is going on and still talk to everyone. That's bloody amazing when you consider that someone brought from 1000 years ago to today wouldn't even be able to communicate effectively with us in a lot of ways. Certainly not in English! The Radch culture is divided into Houses that are constantly competing for wealth, power and status. Much of this is conducted through the gathering of clients for both personal and family status as well as attaining prestigious posts and doing glorious deeds. Most of these deeds were done in the annexations, where the Radch would show up in their mighty AI run ships and declare that your world was now part of Radch space, (you lucky dog you). By the way, if you try to fight we will kill you and everyone you love. The Radch would co-opt the local elites and bring them into the Rach culturally letting them become clients of already established houses (in time they would create their own Houses of course and so the game continues). The Radch religion is a polytheist one, with gods being the focal points of universal and moral forces that the Radch believe in. These gods are not very anthropomorphized and the Radch deal with them mostly through the throwing of omens and the giving of sacrifices. If you're thinking to yourself that there are some Romans influences in the mix, you would be right. But Ms. Leckie manages to create a society with Roman inspirations that doesn't feel like Rome transplanted into space. Just a culture that shares some commonalities with Rome. Some differences are that positions are given via the results of a series of tests call the Aptitudes (although it's suggested that for most of Radch history that family ties played a deep role in your score). The lack of gender (everyone is refereed to as She, One Esk has trouble even grasping the concept of gender) and the very complex set of manners. Such as an insistence on wearing gloves at all times in public (people running around without gloves are practically treated as if they showed up naked) as well as obsession for tea. Add in a rather post modern disregard for Judeo-Christian sexual ethics as well and the fact that you are always being observed by AI's no matter where you go... This leaves you with a very alien society with complex rules and mores. As you might guess I really, really like reading about this culture. Not because I would want to live there (oh God No!) but because it's so different and isn't just a re-skinned British Kingdom/French Republic/United States of American In Space! Given my Anthropologist training and enjoyment of learning about other people's cultures, Ms. Leckie might as well be feeding me the world's best Italian food laced with cocaine.

I also have to praise Ms Leckie for her delivery. No long dry paragraphs of characters musing over details they already know, no statements of “As you know John,” nothing that clunky. Observations of Radch culture are delivered to us in bite sized chunks by One Esk as observations on events occurring or comparisons between the modern era and Captain's Vendaii's time. All in all it was well done to string out these observations and revelations through out the book and make them part of the plot... Instead of just splattering giant paragraphs of exposition everywhere (You Know Who You Who Are! YOU KNOW!).

I should mention the government before I turn to other topics. The Radch are governed by one mind. One mind, with thousands upon thousands of bodies. This group mind goes by Anaander Mianaai. She is everywhere, all AI's report to her, since those AI's see almost everything (including your vital signs by the way), Anaander Mianaai sees almost everything. There are no checks or balances on Anaander Mianaai, her word is law and nothing but her word is law. She decides everything on every issue. She is ultimately responsible for every decision and policy in Radch space. While the great Houses may make their opinions and possibly, maybe sway her through good argument or logic. In the end it is Anaander Mianaai that commands and the Radch who obey. I would just like to say that Saron himself didn't have dominion this absolute over Mordor. This is utterly and completely terrifying on almost every level for me. I do have to give Ms. Leckie points for not shying away from the logical implications of this either. She does not try to soften the blow or whitewash what this means. But this book also does ask an important question about this style of government. A style of government that has been the dream of a wide variety of people, on the right and left wing. I won't spoil the question because frankly discovering it is part of the joy of the story.

There is some violence here but it's very rarefied. One Esk doesn't have the same emotions or perceptions as we do towards violence or most external stimuli. So while the violence is well described and written... It lacks a visceral feel and is often the least gripping parts of the book. I can't help but wonder if that's by design. Not to get snobbish here, but often it seems that people who haven't really experienced violence (and I don't mean a playground fight) have trouble really getting the feel of it on the page. Of course I'm sure that there are hundreds if not thousands of writers out there who managed now that I've put such a statement on to paper. Still if that's the case, I think Ms. Leckie found a good work around by filtering through One Esk, making the violence ring considering the alien mind it's being filtering though. We're also left with a lot of questions of how Radch life actually works (I mean... How does starting a family work if you don't have a concept of gender or separate sexes? What's going on here?).

As you might of guess, I'm going to state very strongly that Ancillary Justice has earned it's rewards and it's acclaim. As for my part I am giving Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie an A. It's right up there with Bridge of Birds or the Judging Eye for me and you haven't read it. I must urge you to seek this book out and give it spin. I don't think you'll be disappointed.


Next week, Thieves Profit.

[frigidmagi]

Thieves Profit
By Doctor Bruce Davis

So this is the 3rd review I've done for Doc Davis' books and most of you likely know the deal by now, but I will continue with the disclaimers. I am a friend of Doc's oldest son (and his daughter-in-law) and I've know Doc Davis for years. He even sold me these books at Phoenix Comic Con (at a discount!), autographed and with an agreement that I would review them. I should note that I am always grateful to the Davis family for their friendship. Now that we have the mushy stuff out of the way, on to the review!

Thieves Profit is the sequel to Glowgems for Profit, the story of Zack Mbele a freelance captain of a re-purposed Martian Interceptor looking to stay in the black in several senses of the phrase. I found Mbele a rather difficult character to deal with last book, not because he was poorly written but because I flat out didn't like the guy. He did after all turn on a paying passenger because Cleo Jones made some puppy dog eyes at him. While I do like pretty ladies, thinking with your pants when dealing a women you know will kill people for money is not only immoral but frankly stupid. I found myself liking Cleopatra Jones more then him and I wasn't sure what side she was on! If it wasn't for his relationship with Rabbit I would have written him off entirely and that would have made the book hard for me to read. That said Cleo wasn't even close to my favorite character, that honor was split between Rabbit and Deuce (poor, loyal Deuce who doesn't get enough time in the spotlight).

That said, I finished Thieves Profit with a lot more understanding for Mbele and I found I even liked him a bit better. Mbele still comes off as a scummier Malcolm Reynolds to me but the differences between the men are deeply strengthened for the better. I should note before I go any further that I am a big fire fly fan, I loved the series (ironically introduced to me by my friends in the Davis family among others), saw the movie in theaters twice, played the RPG... I can keep going but I'll stop here. Doc takes a Mbele a man with some similarities to Captain Reynolds (born in the colonies, joined a rebellion, lost his war) but creates deep differences in their histories and personalities. Mbele was directly betrayed by those he went to war for, his Glorious People's Revolution purged him, threw him into prison and experimented on him. As much as he hates the Earth Federal Government... He owes it his life, his freedom and more. So he pushes and tells himself that morality is dead, while acting at times in a strangely moral manner (granted a very unorthodox morality I can't agree with but still!). Captain Mbele doesn't like himself but can't bring himself to truly grapple with his issues. This book helped me get that about Mbele and with that understanding came a lot more sympathy for Captain Mbele and his actions. I can understand what it's like to wake up look into mirror, realize you're not sure you like the person looking back at you and have no damn idea what to do about it. I would still never trust the man and I would say until he can bring himself to confront his issues and determine a solution... He won't get much better.

Thieves Profit takes place a couple of years after Glomgem's for Profit. They're still flying the Profit, a refitted Martian Warship made into a fast small merchant ship. Cleopatra Jones and Captain Mbele got married... And divorced. Despite that they're still both living on the Profit with Cleopatra becoming half owner of the ship. I got to take time out here and ask if Captain Mbele had a shit lawyer or something? Because he owned the ship before Cleo showed up and hired her on as part of the crew. I'm not sure how that entitles her to half the ship? Maybe I'm missing something here? Or maybe Martian Divorce Law was written by those eval feminist lawyers that the MRAs keep warning me about? Doesn't matter. When the story begins Mbele is of course working a con for a big score, which... Of course fails and leaves him in front of someone much more powerful and wealthy. Mr. Wu, the son of man who got rich off of mining asteroids and means to stay rich. Mr. Wu wants him to do a job. Just go out into space and grab a single box off a freighter as quietly and quickly as possible. Here's the catch, Mr. Wu, has bought out the loan on the Profit. If Mbele fails the job? He loses the ship (which is both his home and his business). If he pulls the job off? The loan is paid off in full with a little extra besides. Of course there's a deadline and of course there's complications, such as having to rescue Rabbit from an assassin and as a result being grounded by an AI judge (Having AI law enforcers and judges seems to be near a theme in Doc Davis' work...). Captain Mbele is going to have to figure out how to pirate cargo without leaving the port or how to leave port without anyone realizing or getting blown up for piracy. Add in a heap of interpersonal persons between him and Cleo, him and Deuce and Deuce and Rabbit, as well as friends and love ones in trouble and well... It's not shaping up to be a good time for Captain Mbele is it?

We do get to learn more about Deuce, we learn that he has a step brother and about his mother. We even learn that he was fairly close to his step brother and his wife. We learn where he was when Captain Mbele was carted out to jail, which helps explain why Deuce didn't try to break him out. We still however don't know why Deuce is still so insanely loyal to Captain Mbele. I mean it certainly isn't for his sparkling personality or great leadership abilities. I'm actually hoping that if there's a 3rd book it'll help answer these questions for me. Because Deuce is still something of a cipher. He does however play a much bigger part in this book then he did last book and we learn a lot more about him. So I'm fairly happy.

Rabbit doesn't get a lot of character exploration in this book, but he was a heavy focus in the last one. So you know... Fair's fair. He does get to pull of hacker shenanigans but those actions don't take a lot of page time, although we see that Rabbit's paranoia hasn't improved over the years as he continues to insist on living in as close to a fortress as he can find and maintain. It doesn't seem to help much though in this story.

Cleopatra Jones spends a lot of the story off camera so to speak, with much of her time in the story interacting with Captain Mbele. I've been told this is suppose to be a toxic relationship, but I'm honestly not seeing that. Before they hooked up Captain Mbele was a drunk, who abused drugs to escape his past and his problems with the experimental nanofibers stretched across his nervous system. This book we don't see a trace of any drug or alcohol abuse on the part of the good Captain and we're very aware that Cleo disapproves of such things. So in least one small thing we know that the relationship has been possibly good for one of the parties involved. That said, this is in no way shape or form a healthy relationship. For one thing, they are constantly lying to each other and trying to trick each other. Both parties are willing to engage in manipulation on several levels to try and get the other to do what they want. At no point do we see Captain Mbele or Cleopatra Jones consider sitting down and discussing their positions like adults. I can't claim to be a relationship expert beyond having made a bucket load of mistakes but I have learned that if you're in a relationship where lies, emotional string pulling and misdirection happen a lot more often then basic conservation? Your relationship is broken and it may be time to consider leaving. Neither one of these two are innocent here and frankly I have to wonder if they're capable of a healthy romantic relationship on any level. I'm certainly not seeing any evidence of that here.

I also want to note that I think it's a shame that Cleopatra Jones basically gets framed in the story through her romantic relationship with Captain Mbele, as it colors every interaction we the readers have with her. Don't get me wrong here, Cleo is written to be as much a person as Captain Mbele. She's not his trophy, his plus one or anything along that lines. She's shown to be intelligent, professional, capable and like everyone else on this ship (expect maybe Deuce) incredibly flawed as a human being. In this book we'll see her outsmart herself pretty good for example. I'm really hoping if Doc Davis' comes back to this series, he'll spend some time on Cleo's origins or give her a side story. Same goes for Deuce. I'd really like a story where Cleo and Deuce team up to find a disappeared Rabbit and Captain Mbele!

We also have the Red Dragons returning to play on team bad guy, which I enjoy because the image of a Welsh drug gang as the terror of outer space is never getting old. More front and center is a mysterious assassin who keeps showing up to cause pain and discontent for the crew. I would tell you more about this guy but... Well you'll have to read the book. That said Mr. Wu is our main big bad and very central to the plot, despite not showing up very often. Not only does the plot turn on Captain Mbele trying to figure out just how to do this job without dying or ending up in a jail cell but on him constantly trying to dig up something... Anything he can use on the rich manic threatening to take away his ship and home. We also get to see just how insane Captain Mbele can be as each revelation has more and more people telling him to break off and take up something safer to do with his time... Like boxing rabid tigers maybe... Only for Mbele to double down. It's another clue to Captain Mbele's mental state where he can't back down and just can't shut his mouth. Not only does he have to insist on taking actions that increase his chances of getting kill but he has to talk shit to everyone while he does it. Frankly it's no wonder that he doesn't get a lot of repeat customers. I'm trying to figure out how he gets decent references honestly.

I'm still a bigger fan of... Everyone else on the ship then Captain Mbele but I do find myself better disposed towards him, which is a good thing. If you enjoyed Firefly, or you like the Han Solo who shot first (which is of course the ONLY HAN SOLO AND EVERYTHING ELSE YOU HEARD IS A FILTHY LIE!) you'll like this book. If you're like me and you need to be able to sympathize with your protagonists, you'll like this book better then Glowgems for Profit (although you should still read that!). Thieves Profit gets a B+.

Next week we return to graphic novels with the award winning Artesia

[frigidmagi]

Artesia by Mark Smylie

Artesia, named after the main character is the creation of Mark Smylie. Before writing Artesia he was mostly known for interior art work on a number of RPG source books (two of which Faith and Pantheons and the Complete Warrior I think I have knocking around somewhere in the depths of the library). Arteisa's first issue was printed in 1999 by Sirius Entertainment, Smylie would later found his own publishing company which would mainly publish Artesia related stories (although other independent comics would be published by the company, Archaia Studios Press). Mr. Smylie is still releasing works set in the world of Artesia most recently a novel that I hope to have appearing in this review series once I get through all the graphic novels. This graphic novel debuted with a pretty big splash winning a fairly long list of awards, such as Foreword Magazine's Gold Award Winner for Best Graphic Novel of 2003, Broken Frontier 2004 Paper Screen Gem for Fantasy and more. So let's sit down and take a look at this shall we? The graphic novel comes with a great appendix that made interesting reading but I'm going to stick with what was actually presented in the story.

Artesia is a fantasy graphic novel that takes place in a solid and lushly detailed world. Background details about the cultures and peoples of the world abound and it is a fascinating one. Although I could do without the Christianity expy (Why does everyone turn us into Sun worshipers? Why!?!) bit. We have the native goddess of the highlands, which feel like an actual pagan religion! Alot of fantasy novels, don't do this, at best they repackage 21st century Wicca (to those who are Wiccans I mean no offense but 21st century Wicca is not the paganism of the dark ages or the ancient world) at worse, it's liberal Catholicism with polytheism layered on top. In Artesia, the religion is wild, raw and has the kind of edge that people living in a very untamed and violent world would demand. It is very much part of the world as well. We see through the main character's eyes spirits coming to take the souls of the dead. We see goddesses roaming the earth without much care for mortals. We see animal sacrifice and other rituals that were actually part of ancient pagan religions. I really like how Mr. Smylie made it feel like a religion that could have been practiced by our ancestors. Although I was rolling my eyes at the religious conflict that is touched upon in this novel. We have one side a goddess worshiping religion where there seem to be few if any male deities (this is despite men occupying the majority of the important political and military roles but I'll let it slide). On the other side we have a male dominated sun worshiping cult that worships male deities and seems to loathe the idea of powerful women. It's honestly a kinda lazy division that I hope Mr. Smylie fixes in later books. That said the work put in the main religion displayed in the book is amazing. As is the character's reaction, which feel more elder days then modern. Gods and goddesses aren't just revered but also feared. There's one interaction where our main character trembles in the presence of a goddess and can't bring herself to even look upon her. I liked that, that the divine wasn't turn into a drinking buddy but was presented as an awesome, powerful and while a begneinbenign force, also an incredibly dangerous one.

The politics are not deeply delved into but are fairly believable and competently handled. We have the highlands, a land divided into a series of pocket kingdoms that are always feuding with each other for land, power, glory, who looks prettier in the latest fashion, etc. The kings rule from grim stone citadels and send out companies of men with pikes and halberds led by mounted officers to duke it out. They are loosely allied with a confederation called the Midlands and beyond them is an Empire. The Empire is a dangerous foreign enemy who is believed to want to conquer the world. They're also the home of the sun worshipers. Interestingly enough they are given an Arabic spin, with rulers being called Sultans and Emirs (their Emperor is immortal but somehow unable to rule, as one character puts “lost in the gray dream”). Giving them a Christian, Arabic feel that I kinda like if simply because it's different. When the characters discuss this, there is a sense of history, a weight of many prior events shaping their views and relationships with these foreign powers. There isn't a lot of time spent on this as the focus is on events taking place in the highlands, where our main character faces a number of problems. Let's talk about her for bit.

Her name is Artesia, she's a warrior, a priestess (possibly a witch) and a concubine for a man named Branimar. She's also very nice to look at, but side issue. Neither she nor Branimar are from the highlands but through the dint of their personal talents and skills have risen to high offices. Artesia seems to have done most of Branimar's fighting and the very beginning of the book shows us why as we see a short battle where Artesia proves herself to be a very skilled two legged murder machine. We're shown a lot of her individual skill of combat in the book and the loyalty her company has for her. Although I'm not entirely sure if the basis for their loyalty is anything besides her sheer badassness. While several characters make a big point at her tactical skills, that's not really shown here (maybe in Vol II?). Her skill in magic is shown however, as is her command over 3 rather alarming familiar spirits who show a connections to the goddesses of war. There are number of conflicts swirling around Artesia, first is her conflict with Branimar, they don't have a close relationship and fall out with each other in the first chapter (he converts to the Sun worshiping religion). Another conflict is one she seems to have with other women who don't approve of her choice of taking up arms and a military career. She is berated for abandoning a woman's arts and magic (if she's abandoned any magic I'm not seeing any sign of it), to which she'll reply she's abandoned nothing but decided to follow her own path.

Which leads to another conflict, which is with the memory of her mother. From what the graphic novel tells us, her mother was also a woman with a lot of magic power who was burned at the stake as a witch. Artesia repeatedly states that she knows that her mother would be disappointed in her path and that does seem to wear on her, not a lot but a little. Artesia is shown in this book to be a very intelligent, brave, headstrong woman, who from what I can tell is carrying a grudge or five. Considering that the grudge might be about having to watch her mother die a terrible death and having to run for life to the highlands... That's probably pretty good grounds for a grudge or five. An interesting note here, Artesia doesn't seem to be able to have close friendships with men, all of her close friendships are with women and she seems distant even with her own brother. Let me be clear she doesn't hate men and has perfectly good working relationships with her male Lt's. She is even attracted to men. She just doesn't seem to consider having a friendship with a man to be something that is worth the effort. It's an interesting reflection of a number of male protagonists who have in the past displayed the same attitude but towards women. I've known people of both genders with this stance in real life and all I can say is while everyone should be free to decide such matters for themselves... If you decide you can't be friends with an entire gender you're cutting yourself from really good people, no matter which gender it is.

Moving on...

I can't talk to much about secondary characters in this graphic novel. The antagonists go down fairly quickly so we don't get much of a sense of them, most of the male Lt's all blur together for me and outside of that, no one else gets a lot of time to display any real deep characterization. This book is relentlessly focused on Artesia. She's a pretty decent character to focus on all things considered. I'm hoping in the next 3 volumes to see other characters expanded on honestly.

As for the art, it is damn pretty! The battle scenes are so nice you might want to hang them on your walls. The characters are well drawn and inked. I was very impressed. I liked the equipment the troops showed which was clearly based on late medieval/early renaissance period arms and armor. Most of the women in this book wore armor that wasn't any different from the men! Artesia's armor is... Okay. Her torso is fully covered by her armor as are her arms but her armpits are very exposed. I got the feeling that Mr. Smylie didn't know that people didn't wear armor over bare skin (because it's very clear Artesia is) which frankly means after a battle she should be chaffing so badly that she needs medical attention. Her upper legs are also very exposed. It's restrained compared to the standard Red Sonya get up and sexy in it's own right, but if I was in charge of her gear I would shake my head and send her back to the armory to get some padding and upper leg protection but I'm honestly quibbling there. There is also a lot of smut in this book. Do not get this for a child! It's equal opportunity smut with both male and female nudity but it's still smut. In this case it's a little embarrassing for me as I am not trying to review only smutty graphic novels (this isn't a porn by any means but between this and Rat Queens...) thankfully for my birthday I've picked up something to break that streak.

Artesia get's an A-. A well crafted main character and world along with it's art carry this story pretty far. Hopefully future installments will give us additional characters and deeper looks into the world itself.

Next week, our first light novel. Which light novel? Well let me ask, are you ready for the punchline?

[frigidmagi]

Log Horizon I
By Mamare Touno

Let me start by explaining just what a light novel is. Light novels are in a way an evolution of the pulp market in Japan (it truly fascinates me how close and how different Japanese and American culture gets at times). Like in the United States, a lot of fantasy and science fiction started as stories told in series in cheap magazines (the name comes from the fact that they were printed on cheap wood pulp paper to hold down costs). In the US the most successful pulp magazines (such as Ace, Dell and Avon for example) transitioned over to printing paperback novels. In Japan around the 1970s, the pulp magazines started taking up a more anime style (adding anime illustrations in the front and end of every chapter on featured stories) over time more illustrations were added. Cue the internet and legions of writers slapping up their fiction (be it fan fiction or otherwise) for public reading and well!

Today light novels are huge business in Japan. They're short, about 40 to 50,000 words long, usually very focused on teenagers, have dense publishing schedules and are often long sprawling series. Japanese publishing companies spare no expense hunting down the newest talent, holding contests that span the country (the largest had 6,500 submissions in 2013), the winner gets a cash prize and their novel published usually. Alot of light novels are quickly adapted to other formats as well, becoming animes (Sword Art Online started as a light novel for example, so did Spice and Wolf!), manga and live actions films. It's a big business, with the light novel industry clearing over 30 billion Yen in 2009. In a lot of ways they're the Young Adult novels of Japan. Unfortunately their also compariable in quality (Jason please stop screaming it'll be okay) in a lot of ways.

Log Horizon is a light novel that started on the internet. Written by a young man who goes by Mamare Touno, a native of Tokyo (listing the Bokutou Shitamachi area actually), he started writing Log Horizon in April of 2010, and it was picked up for publishing in 2011. Since then the novels have been translated into English, there have been 4 manga series and 2 seasons of an anime. Which is where I come in. I first ran into Log Horizon after telling a buddy how dissatisfied I was with Sword Art Online (my little brother likes it for good reasons, I dislike it for better reasons of course) while liking the idea of it. He suggested I try Log Horizon, which had just been released on Crunchy-roll (an streaming website where you can watch animes for free!). He told me the anime was alright but the novel was better (as anyone ever said the movie/television series was better then the novel?). After watching 4 episodes... Well I thought the anime was pretty damn good, so I really wanted to find this novel. Wondering around Barnes and Nobles on Veteran's Day trying to walk off a free burger and having a pocket full of birthday money (look I have a job, but other people's money just spends soooo much nicer) I spotted Log Horizon Volume I and I dived on it like a Martyr on a grenade. So let's babble about the story here.

Log Horizon is the story about a very large group (tens of thousands) of Japanese gamers who found themselves taken from Earth to the world of Elder Tale, which on Earth happens to be the most popular, longest running, badass Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game around. One moment they were playing the game, the next moment they were standing there in the bodies of their game characters. Our main character is Shiroe, a grad student who is really good at breaking down and solving problems. He plays an enchanter, a magical support class, with good buffs and debuffs, but otherwise crap combat abilities. Despite this he's well known for his strategic abilities and while he likes people, his inability to really get them tends to led to him keeping most people at arms length. Part of the problem for Shiroe is he's never sure if anyone who approaches him in the game is doing so out of friendship or just wants to get access to his knowledge and skills. Because of this he's a bit stand offish and because he's stand offish people tend to stay away from him... Unless they've decided they can get something from him. Causing a bit of a feed back loop honestly.

The novel is told from his point of view has he grapples with his situation and it's implications and starts to ask... Just what the hell are we suppose to do here? How are we going to deal with each other? This is important as everyone has the skills and abilities of their game character... And game mechanics have transferred over to the extent that our players can't die! So you have tens of thousands of people with a huge ability for violence and they incapable of dying. What exactly do you do in this situation? There are also the more personal questions, like who can I trust? What am I going to do? What role am I going to play here? Shiroe spends the book trying to figure out just where it is he fits into in this new world and what he is suppose to do in it. Of course he's not the only one doing this.

His two closest companions are Naotsugu and Akatsuki who are two very different people. Naotsugu is one of his oldest buddies in the game. We all know someone like Naotsugu I think. A generally good guy, who fairly dependable and rock steady. As a reflection of this, he plays a tank class by the name of Guardian. Guardians are melee fighters with decent offensive attacks, but they really shine using their defensive stats and abilities. He's cheerful in the face of danger and despair and covers his discomfort with jokes. In Naotsugu's case he uses dirty humor. Often joking about woman's underwear (I honestly begin to wonder about this insistence in anime that having a panties fetish is normal) as a way to shrug off discomfort. Some might insist that Naotsugu is honestly a lech but given his behavior with real women... I don't see it. In any case, he's not a creeper or anything in my view. Just a guy who perhaps uses dirty jokes a bit to often when he's feeling off balance and let's be fair, being dropped into a completely different world in a different body will leave anyone uncomfortable. Course if you want uncomfortable, you have to look at Akatsuki. Akatsuki is a girl whose character was male. This is actually a thing called cross gaming and is actually considered fairly normal as far as I know. That said it's more typical for a guy to cross game as a female character, although I'm told a number of ladies cross-game to avoid harassment. Which I find kinda sad honestly. My position is everyone should be able to play the games they like without people bothering them or worse because of their race, gender... Or anything else really. I mean striking back against a greifer is okay, but constantly bugging a girl for topless pics is not. Sorry, let me get back to the review. Akatsuki played as a male assassin who was about a foot or so taller then her in real life. I got the sense from the book that the height was the important thing here. Akatsuki is often treated by people who don't know her very well as a child, because of her height mostly, but also because of her gender and her looks. She's a very pretty girl, but pretty in a young looking way. As a result for her life is a struggle for someone to take her seriously! Which is also a problem I'm told many women in games have (I say I am told because honestly guys, I'm not a woman and I'm not going to claim I know what it's like to be one). Now assassins aren't just a stealth class, they're also a hardcore damage class. Akatsuki is the biggest damage dealer of the 3 of our main characters, which means frankly anyone who doesn't take her seriously in a fight... Well dies. Lucky for them, this is a world where if an adventurer dies, they just wake up in a temple, but dying still hurts like a bitch.

We actually meet Akatsuki in the book as she goes hunting for and finds Shiroe. See, she woke up trapped in a man's body that was taller and heavier then the one she was born with and it was causing her no small amount of problems. She remembered that Shiroe had a potion that would allow a player to change the appearance and gender of their character, hence her urgent need to find him. While Shiroe is happy to give her the potion, she feels that she can't let this pass without repayment. So she swears to serve Shiroe as his faithful ninja. Which brings us to the final trait of her's I want to address. Akatsuki is a role player, that is someone who is playing a character in the game separate from themselves in real life. To boil it down further, she was pretending that she wasn't playing a game. The fact that she keeps at it, by declaring Shiroe her liege and herself as his ninja suggests this is a bit of coping mechanism on her part.

We also meet some close allies of Shiroe's the Crescent Moon Guild. The Crescent Moon Guild is a mid-sized and mid-leveled support guild. Not focused on anyone thing but on supporting it's members. It's leader Marielle and her XO Henrietta are two capable women who find themselves looking after about 20 people who are not only much lower level then they and Shiroe are (Mari, Henrietta, Shiroe, Noatsugo and Akatsuki had all been at the level cap of 90 before signing on to play the new expansion, most of the players aren't that high) but having to do so in a very stressful and chaotic environment. The plot begins to take off when Shiroe steps forward to help rescue a member of the guild who is trapped in another city which being taken over by a guild of people who have... Well gone bad frankly. I won't go to much into it because frankly you should read it yourself.

Log Horizon present a story that when you boil it down is over a 100 years old, what if a person or group of people were transported from our world into a new world that operated under different physical and social rules? What would they do? What kind of people would they become. Added into this is the mystery of just what kind of world have they been transported into? Are they in the game? In a world that just resembles the game? Or was the game just a window into this world? Frankly it's a more mature telling of this kind of thing then works like Sword Art Online and isn't afraid to look at diverse issues from social order, to politics, to the sheer slow effect of having nothing to eat that doesn't taste like wet rice crackers and how that tears away at your ability to get up in the morning and get to living. As you might have gathered, I like Log Horizon a lot and I like Shiroe a great deal. For all the shit he gets he's constantly willing to bend his talents and efforts to just help people in any way he can and that counts for a lot with me. Log Horizon volume I gets a B from me. The plot just isn't quiet there to get it pass that level but frankly it's got nothing to be embarrassed about. I would recommend it anyone.

Next week, we leap back into Nonfiction when I review Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horowitz,

[frigidmagi]

Confederates in the Attic
by Tony Horowitz

Confederates in the Attic was published in 1998 by writer and journalist Tony Horowitz. It was his third published book. In this book Mr. Horowitz moves across the old American South (the southern states that are east of the Mississippi river and south of D.C.) looking at the contemporary attitudes and memories the people of those states had of the civil war. He started this journey when he and his Australian wife (Geraldine Brooks) moved to Virginia and a chance encounter re-sparked a boyhood passion for the civil war. Because of this he will travel across Virginia, the Carolina's, Alabama, Georgia and more speaking to members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, store keepers, mayors, school teachers, activists, tour guides, park rangers, a convicted shooter, reenactors, widows, factory workers and more. Let me first talk a bit about Mr. Horowitz.

Mr. Horowitz was born in Washington D.C, his mother wrote books for children and young adults. Mr. Horowitz himself would go on to write a number of books himself after getting a masters from Colombia University in journalism (he did his undergraduate studies at Brown University getting a history degree). He would work on 3 continents in journalism and married his wife Ms. Brooks in France in 1984, they remain married. Ms. Brooks herself is a very accomplished writer (one of her books March, is actually set in the American Civil War) from Australia. Given this, it is perhaps no surprise that Mr. Horowitz himself is a very skilled and prolific writer. Mr. Horowitz and Ms. Brook remain married to this day (In the unlikely event either one of you read this review, I'd like to extend my congratulations on maintaining your marriage) and have two sons, at least one of which was born during the writing of the book.

The book begins by setting up Mr. Horowitz's personal connection to the civil war, the memory of his great grandfather studying books of the civil war pouring over photos and art with a magnifying glass. This was interesting as his great grandfather was a immigrant to the United States. He wasn't here when the war was fought, he didn't have any family that was involved. Yet, for reasons lost to time he study and peered into the past at that war. He also passed on that interest to his great grandchild who developed a childhood obsession leading to the painting of a giant mural of a civil war battle across the walls of his bedroom. Among other things... He of course moved away form it for a time in his teens and early adulthood but moving to Virginia with his wife re sparked the interest in him. Which brings us to the writing of this book.

A major part of the book is Mr. Horowitz's experiences with a sub-set of the reenactor community who refer to themselves as Hardcore Reenactors, referring to the others as “Farbs.” We all know people like this, willing to utterly devote themselves to an interest on a level that makes you think this might be less then healthy. In this case the Hardcore's devotion is such that it becomes the central theme of their life, dictating their diet (keeping on intensely low calorie diets so they can look just like the half starved Confederate soldiers) to their dress in the field (nothing that was invented after 1860 is allowed, not even for underwear) and their supplies (Mr. Horowitz wasn't even allowed to bring a bag of applies because they were bred into existence in the 1880s) and their sleeping arrangements (they were only allowed to bring 1 blanket a piece and slept in all in a huddle, spooning for warmth.). This introduces us to one of the recurring characters in this book, Robert Lee Hodge, hardest of the hardcore. Made all the better for being a real person (because no one would believe a fictional character like this!). Mr. Hodge even graces the front of the book, giving a full force Confederate scowl. He's a man utterly obsessed with capturing the feeling of being in the civil war of making some common experience with those men who 150 years ago marched under the banners of Union or Confederacy. To that end he is willing to experience and inflict on himself hardship after hardship, go on pursuits for cotton and wool or just manic hunts for just the right button. To be honest, it's hard for me not to respect the sheer amount of work and effort someone like Mr. Hodges puts into this. It is certainly no mere hobby or diversion for him. We see this when Mr. Hodges leads Mr. Horowitz through a whirlwind tour of civil war sites and battlefields, that he calls a wargasm. Where they move from site to site sleeping on battlefields, eating on the run and constantly looking for the next hit. The parts with Mr. Hodge are in my opinion the best parts of the book and certainly the funniest and most light hearted.

There are parts of the book that aren't so light hearted I'm sad to say. Throughout the book we meet members of various organizations (for example the United Daughters of the Confederacy) whose goal in life is to rewrite history. Frankly this annoys me to no end, look I get it, no one likes to be cast as the bad guy and it's true that in the United States that the southern redneck is one of the few whipping boys that it's acceptable to represent in broadly stereotyped and negative ways. That gets tiresome. That's no excuse to rewrite history to try and erase or minimize the crimes of the past. All to often in this book, we see white southerners cheerfully chirp about how it wasn't about slavery when the south left and you know slavery wasn't all that bad anyhow (one is forced to note that they say this where black southerners might hear it). Let me note for the record anyone that reads this reviews and announces that I need a history lesson has best have their ducks all in a row because bluntly on this subject? If you come at me half cocked you ain't gonna be giving lessons, you gonna be getting one. Let me be blunt here, I find this behavior outrageous. I find it at best to be display of ignorance, often willful and at worse an utterly dishonest attempt to expunge problematic history so to make life a bit easier. Saying it's cowardly and dishonest is bluntly the nicest thing I can say about behavior.

For that matter parts of this are downright depressing to read. The fact that while legal segregation might have ended, social and economic segregation remain. Mr. Horowitz notes that when it comes to the Confederacy (or for that matter remembering the work of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr) rarely if ever do the white or black citizens of the south mix. Although recent news about pushes for desegregation (for example we have integrated proms being organized and held by the students themselves recently) are heartening, the fact that is necessary in the 21st century is in itself something that brings an unwelcome feeling. This book drives home the point that the American south (and if we're going to be honest the entire nation to a certain extent) is home to two societies that despite sharing the same land for centuries have different histories, different views, desires and needs. To bring in more bad news these two societies are still really bad at communicating with each other. On both sides we see everyone is defensive, hurt and frankly so very angry about the past and the pain that has been inflicted that any attempt to simply talk to each other gets tangled up into a series of perceived attacks and defenses that cannot be lower. I don't have a solution for this frankly. Realistically no one does, I'm sure a lot of people will say “Oh it's easy they just need to do X” or “They just need to start Y” but the phrase easier said then done comes to mind. Mr. Horowitz does visit several public schools (and to my horror I find that a number of states are trying to sweep the entire war under the mat, some dictating that funds be concentrated on American history after 1890) and finds little to fuel hope there. While children start off ignoring race, by the time they hit high school all the white kids sit on one side and all the black kids on another. I'm trying to avoid bringing up modern events in this review as this is a book review and not a political soap box but frankly it's in this behavior that we see the seeds of many of the tragedies that have boiled up. You don't have to like or agree with the modern movements, but I think it would behoove us all to realize that if African Americans felt that they were being treated fairly by the system, then we wouldn't have these protests and conflicts today. I'm not saying they're completely right, or that everything they do is good. Just that there's a legitimate compliant that has to be addressed if we're going to move forward as a society and we can't be dismissive of it. That's all I'm going to say on that.

That said, there are confrontations with African American activists as well, Mr. Horowitz is Jewish and when he meets a lady from Selma who is willing to support Louis Farrakhan sparks fly quickly. Which is what you should expect if you're willing to throw your support behind someone who publicly suggests that Hitler was a great guy. Frankly I don't have anything nice to say about Mr. Farrakhan (which I'm sure he's perfectly okay with) and going to much into it would derail the review so I'll stop here.

Confederates in the Attic makes for hard reading at times. This isn't the fault of Mr. Horowitz who at least tries to be fair and allow everyone their say. There are parts that are really enjoyable, there are parts that are deeply informative and there are parts that are just damn sad. Sometimes there are parts that are all of these at once. Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horowitz gets an -A, I think we could all use a read of this book and to think on it for awhile.

That said... Next week?

You Will Know the Power of the Dark Side!

[frigidmagi]

Darth Vader
Written by Kieron Gillen
Art by Salvador Larroca

“We do not suffer failure.” Darth Vader

There are standards. Standards by which you measure and weigh things to see if they are worthy or will be found wanting. Even for villains and antagonists. Standards like Magneto, Sauron and Darth Vader. When I was but a tiny lad, watching Star Wars for the first time, Vader immediately got my attention. He was massive, dark, implacable and relentless. He seemed more a force of nature in a black suit then a man. When he beat the crap out of poor Luke in Empire Strikes Back, I believed every moment of it because Vader Was Unstoppable. I mean Han even shot him and Vader didn't even seemed annoyed. A blaster shot didn't even slow him down! Of course Luke, who was no where near as cool and cunning as Han Solo (look I like Luke, he's cool but we're talking Han Solo here) was just meat to the grinder. Of course you could bring up Luke's win in Return of the Jedi, which is fair, but let me ask you, when our favorite Jedi was on the ground bawling due to having an entire lighting storm frying his ass... Who did he need to pull out the win? Daddy Vader himself of course. The man who won the war for Luke single handed.

So you can understand why the prequels hurt? I mean it was kind of a gut shot. The kind of injury that rots and leaves you suffering a slow lingering death full of pain and humiliation. I was expecting Anakin Skywalker to be a hardcore kind of guy, a hero maybe. Instead, well, the Anakin in the movies didn't sell me on any idea expect that Obi Wan really needed to find someone to be a parent to the boy. Maybe I expected to much? Maybe my standards were to high? Either way the result was for a period of time I was put off Darth Vader, his appeal had been tarnished a bit. Of course I could still take refuge in the movies but well I think we all know how the human mind works. Doubts and concerns have a way of worming their way in. So when I heard there was a Vader comic, I was kind of on the fence about it. I really wanted more awesome stuff about Vader... But other attempts to look at him had been kind of... Underwhelming.

The Dread Lords of the Mouse however do not tolerate failure and are not as forgiving as the House of Lucas. Summoning a creative staff from deep within the pens of Marvel, such as British born, veteran comic book writer Kieron Gillen. He started his work in 2003 and hit the big time in 2006, since then he's written for Uncanny X-Men, Young Avengers, Thor and Iron Man. He wrote an issue for Avengers vs X-Men but everyone makes mistakes. The other half of this team Salvador Larroca is also a long time Marvel Veteran. Born in Spain way back in the 1960s, if I were to list all the comics he's done art for I wouldn't have space to review the actual graphic novel that brings us here today.

The comic begins after A New Hope but before The Empire Strikes back. The Death Star is a very expensive cloud of dust orbiting Yavin and Vader is the sole survivor of the greatest military disaster in the Empire's short history. The Emperor makes it clear who he's blaming for this and it ain't the dead guys. So Vader, insulted, degraded and dismissed is sent back out to the trenches to make good. Having a bucket list of problems and diminishing resources Vader decides what he needs to do two things, one, start murdering his problems. Which he does with ruthless aplomb. Two, subcontract the problems he can't murder. There are a couple of ways to do this, either by hiring outside help or by recruiting new personal, Vader opts for both of course. Hiring bounty hunters to deal with a couple problems and recruiting others to deal with yet other problems. Which brings us to the other major characters in this graphic novel.

Dr. Aphra is one of the new recruits, a rogue archaeologist and lover of old weapon systems, she makes her living by hunting down old super weapons or abandoned weapons tech, updating it and selling it to the highest bidder. This also means she will break into high security vaults and areas in order to loot these systems as she believes “It Should Be In an Armory!” She's very talkative compared to Vader, which I find a good thing. It helps maintain Vader as a laconic brooding presence while giving us some humor to keep the mood from getting sour. Dr. Aphra also provides the two other members of Vader's Adventuring party Triple 0 for example is a protocol droid who has a sideline in torture and interrogation. He also has a nasty habit of draining his masters of their blood for shits and giggles. He's very snarky and a bit snide which makes his interactions with Darth Vader really fun. His counterpart is BT-1 who can pass as an astromech but is actually an assassin droid. Whoever made it seems to have made what I like to call the Gandhi mistake, after the Gandhi in the civilization game (if you don't know, there's a reason why veteran civ players will tell you to kill Gandhi before the fucker gets nukes). See, BT-1 was designed an in advanced weapons lab and right after he was turned on? He kinda killed everyone in the lab. Needless to say Dr. Aphra is incredibly excited about turning him on. She's that kind of girl.

With his adventuring group Vader confronts the conspiracies and schemes within the Empire that threaten his position and power. It's interesting that in this comic we never see Vader going head to head with the Rebels (that's left to the other Star Wars comic). Instead he's fighting pirates, robbing from aliens, threatening Jabba the Hutt, and fighting and killing other imperials. Vader doesn't seem to consider the Rebellion his main threat in this book instead being much more worried about other imperials and backstabbing from the Emperor. To be fair, Emperor Palpatine has a much better record in killing Apprentice Sith (ask Count Dooku) then the Rebellion does at this point and it is in the nature of the Sith to brutally murder each other at the drop of a light saber (hence why we have the rule of two in the first place!). The book never lectures us about this or points this out though. We are left to simply read and consider as it makes very clear the backstabbing untrustworthy nature of the Sith Regime, where it's rulers and elites must spend time and resources against each other just to make sure they can do their jobs without... Dying. Maybe I'm naive but that's kind of a flaw in the organization if I got worry just as much about the people on my side as the people who are suppose to be shooting at me. Maybe being in the United States Marines Corp spoiled me. I mean yeah I had personality conflicts and people I didn't like but I never had to ask myself, hey if we get attacked is the Lcpl there going to shoot the enemy or me? Darth Vader does and his solution to this problem is to destroy everyone that he can't be sure of. But in the Empire, just who can you be sure of? It's no accident that he had to go outside of the Empire for trustworthy henchme... Henchwo... Henchpeople?

All that said, Darth Vader is definitely back in true form! He's amoral at best, he's relentless, pitiless, massive and unstoppable. More Machine then Man! He is the villain protagonists we want, the one we need and the one we deserve! The book avoids trying to sell on the idea that Vader isn't a villain. Instead the book says, yeah Vader's a bad guy but hey, there's a lot of bad guys in this Galaxy. The writing is worthy, the art is worthy and the opponents are type I can't wait to see fall beneath his lightsaber! That said, the graphic novel doesn't really resolve this story, it's half of the story and a lot of set up. Which I suppose is a problem in serial story telling. I'm a big believer that a graphic novel should tell a complete story and I feel the ending left me hanging a bit. Of course I'm very eager to see what happens next and I will be bringing you a review of Darth Vader Volume 2! If you're a Star Wars fan, if you want to see more of the real Darth Vader or if you enjoy a good (bad?) villain protagonists who doesn't engage in any moral waffling or gray areas... Then you too should come to know the power of the Dark Side. Darth Vader gets a B+ as I have A New Hope but the Empire hasn't struck yet .

Next week we sound the bells with Sabriel by Garth Nix.

[frigidmagi]

Sabriel
By Garth Nix

Sabriel was written in 1995 by Garth Nix, right when I was in high school and devouring fantasy books at an absurd rate. Strangely enough though... I had never heard of it. In fact it wasn't my buddy Russell mentioned the book to me almost 20 years after it had been published that I found out about it. Russell would then go on to buy the first 3 books in the series for me as a Birthday gift. So I'd like to take a minute to say thank you to him for that. Now to the book!

Sabriel is named after the title character, a young lady graduating from Wyverley College, an all girls school (that is not an actual college, it's a boarding school in the British fashion). It's an unremarkable upper class institution, expect for one thing, it's very close to the wall. What's the wall you ask? It is the barrier separating Ancelstierre (the nation the school is in) from the Old Kingdom. See, Ancelstierre is pretty much like early 20th century England. There's a class structure but it's a fairly modern capitalist one as opposed to a feudal one. There are cars, but they are rare. Soldiers carry bolt action rifles and have machine guns. The further away from the wall, the less powerful magic is until it stops working at all and you find yourself in a world that would seem very filmilarfamiliar to us. The Old Kingdom on the other hand... Is a place where magic works and technology doesn't. It is a wild, savage place where authority is breaking down under the assault of dead. Where the armies of the dead and those who command them are gnawing away at the very fabric of life and few can stop them.

There are some few obstacles in their way. To explain let me discuss the magic presented in this book. There are 3 kinds. Charter magic is the magic of order and law, created by the memorizing and utterances of certain symbols. Charter Mages are marked with symbols on their foreheads. Furthermore magical devices called Charter stones are set up at town and villages to help strengthen and protect Charter Magic and the people who depend on it (which is pretty much everyone). That said it's a fairly free form magic. It works by combining different symbols to produce various effects. The more symbols you know, the more combinations and the more you can do. It's the kind of magic where it makes sense for it's users to be constantly in a book. Which I appreciate.

Free Magic is dangerous and often practiced by nonhuman creatures who are for the most part very hostile to humanity. Last is necromancy, which just in case this is your first exposure to this stable of fantasy, is magic concerning the summoning, creation and control of the (un)dead. The necromancy in this book is presented very interestingly. First of all necromancers have the ability to enter death, which is divided into 9 parts with gates. The first ward of death is a giant rushing river that washes the dead deeper into death. All the wards of death have a water theme more less and those without ability or a whole lot of willpower get washed deeper into death until they past the 9th gate from which there is return. This actually explains a few of the weakness of the dead, for example they can't cross running water. Nor can they stand natural sunlight. So the dead tend to attack at night or on days where the sun cannot be seen. In the old kingdom no one is happy about cloudy days.

Additionally every necromancer uses bells as a tool to control the dead (the phrase undead doesn't appear in this book which is interesting). The bells are stored very carefully as it is the sound they make that produces the magic (I assume that I could produce magic by ringing these bells just really screwed up magic). They tend to be worn across the chest wrapped and stoppered to prevent accidental ringing. Each bell has a different effect (one compels obedience, another sleep, another kills everything that hears it, including the ringer... It is not a popular bell) and has to be ring in a certain way and pattern to control the effect. I'll admit I find it fascinating the use of sound in the magic system. Nix isn't the first to do this. Mercedes Lackey liked to use music in her magic systems for example, while Christopher Stasheff really liked using poetry and rhymes in his magic. This is the first time I've run into bells however or anything comparable though. I'll admit part of the fascination is due to my upbringing. My parents are deaf so music was not something I encountered regularly until I was a teen. Even then it was my little sister who really introduced me to stuff. So all things musical seem rather exotic to me honestly. I mean if I wrote a magic system it would likely depend more on gestures (or well... sign language) and will then the spoken word or song. It would certainly never occur to me without outside prompting to make musical instruments an important part of it.

Ahem, the book yes. The main obstacle to ye olde forces of darkness is the Abhorsen, who is well... The state necromancer. His/her job isn't to raise the dead but put them back and make sure they stay put back! To this end the Abhorsen is allowed to use charter magic, various magic items and of course necromancy. It is a family job, being passed down through the family line. In this case the current Abhorsen is the father of our main character Sabriel. Let me talk about her for a minute here.

Sabriel as I mentioned at the opening of the story is attending an all girls boarding school in Ancelstierre. That said she was born in the Old Kingdom but the Abhorsen felt it best that she grow up away from the Old Kingdom. This may have to do with the fact that the Old Kingdom is going full on Dark Ages Mad Max on us. Sabriel is unaware of this. While educated in Charter Magic and Necromancy by her father in secret, I found the idea that he appears to her every month to teach her things really interesting as well. She has friends and a vague idea of going to university with them to expand upon her future just like a normal girl. All of this is put on hold however when a dead creatures appears with a message from dear old Dad. That message? “HELP!”

This finds Sabriel inheriting the office of the Abhorsen much earlier then anyone would have liked and without much time for on the job learning. Now to be fair to dear old Dad (yes, I'm sticking to that!) he also sent his gear. His magic sword (and badge of office), his books and his bells. Sabriel is now let loose on a mission to find out what happen to her father, where he is and to rescue him. To do that she has to get into the Old Kingdom, a place she hasn't been since she was a toddler, figure out who she can trust and where she can find clues. She's not without resources here, she has all the knowledge her father gave her and she is able to locate some companions. To boil it down, she's got the tools, she's got the talent but her intell on the ground is nonexistent and she's more then a little blind to the situation.

The first of these is the slightly untrustworthy and rather magical Mogget. Mogget is currently a talking cat, who has been bound to serve the Abhorsen but does have his own agenda. That said his actions are limited due to a magical collar on his neck that only the Abhorsen can remove. It's generally a bad idea to do so however. Mogget is a bit of a smart ass, but he's fairly funny in a laid back sardonic kind of way. There's also Touchstone, who unlike Mogget is human but is hiding a lot. He's a fairly impressive in a number of ways, although there are a number of times where like Sabriel I want to smack him in the mouth and tell him to stop being a jackass. In this case his jackassery comes in the form of to much bowing and scraping. Which drives Sabriel half insane. Opposing them is an army of the dead and necromancers, arrayed under a mysterious villain who had been working to undermine peace, law and order in the Old Kingdom for a very long time now. By the time Sabriel shows up this enemy seems to have all but won. His armies and minions are lurking everywhere including in the very places of power of the Old Kingdom, they are breaking Charter stones (which is done using a very dark ritual which requires killing a Charter Mage and using their fresh blood) and gathering larger and larger armies of the dead. Things look very dark and our hopes ride on a freshly graduated school girl of 18, a magical cat-thingy and a guy who even tell us his real name. It's enough to make you want to invest in a boathouse.

The mostly takes place in the Old Kingdom, but with enough scenes in Ancelstierre to increase the alien strangeness of the Old Kingdom. As a setting itself the Old Kingdom harkens back more to the old sword and sorcery settings then Lord of the Rings. There are no elves, there are no orcs, dwarves or trolls. There are creatures and spirits born of magic, wicked magic users who thrown away the very idea of restraint and a few men and women who fight them using magic and blade. I... Really like this book.

It's not perfect of course. Sabriel and Touchstone could have used more time together, more basic interaction really. The book itself moves a break neck pace, which leaves me wanting more as I feel I didn't get to see to much of the characters. Honestly the characters are fairly well done but I feel like there should have been more character work laced into this book. Ah well. Sabriel by Garth Nix's get an B+. I really enjoyed this book and wish more people knew about it.

Next week, Son of the Black Sword.

[frigidmagi]

Son of the Black Sword
by Larry Correia

Okay, let me grasp the bull by the horns. I've discussed my stance on some things Mr. Correia is/was involved with. I'm not doing it again, and my opinion has not changed. If you're interested go take a look at the first and so far only sidebar I've posted. While I have differences of opinion with Mr. Correia politically, there are also things I agree with him over. That said I don't think such things are relevant in a discussion about his books. So on to the book!

This is the second book of Mr. Correia's I'll have reviewed here, unlike the last one, this book is the first in a series! So unlike Monster Hunter Nemesis a reader doesn't need knowledge from half a dozen prior books to really appreciate what's going on. It's not that I'm against long series mind you, but I do feel that the industry seems hell bent on turning every story into a 7 to 12 book series... Which is unnecessary. Some stories do need that kind of space to tell their tales, but a number of series really went longer then they should of (Wheel of Time is the poster boy of this to me. That's right! I said it!). But I digress.

Unlike the other two series of Mr. Correia's that I've read. Son of the Black Sword is a more or less straight fantasy. Being a fantasy taking place on another world, we of course have... Backstory! In this case long ago, the Gods went to War and cast Demons out of heaven. Unfortunately the aim of the Gods leaves a lot to be desired as those Demons landed on the world of men. Unprepared and unwarned the Demons were able to cause widespread destruction and chaos, and basically brought about the downfall of civilization, as demons tend to do. The gods realizing that this little oops was on them sent a great hero to save mankind, his name was Ramrowan and he united mankind, taught them magic and created the weapons they needed to kill demons. Under his divine leadership they fought back and drove the demons literally into the sea. The Demons however were not destroyed, instead they remain in the sea, lurking, waiting and at times attacking the land seeking weakness. So they may once again throw down the works of mankind and bring ruin. To ensure that this would never happen, the sons and daughters of Ramrowan were made into kings and priests. The 1% if you will. Over the generations, they grew degenerate, venial and cruel. Until unable to bear their unjust rule anymore, the people rose up, killing many of the Kings and Priests and forcing their relatives into a subservience. Mankind then established The Law, creating a stable society that had a place for everyone and put everyone in their place and ensured that a watch would be kept on the sea... Or did they?

The society that rules the continent of Lok, which due to the ocean being a demon infested death trap is completely cut off from the outside world, is an harsh, demanding one. A complex Caste system sprawls over the land, locking men and women into social roles dictated by birth. The Castes themselves have internal ranks and hierarchies as well. A man (or woman) can move up the ranks of their Caste, but they can never hope to move beyond that. Political administration and power is handled by Great Houses ruled by noble families served by military families, fed by farming families, with goods and services provided by merchant families. Meanwhile the dirty, painful disgusting jobs are handled by the untouchables. A group of people who are literally lower then slaves, slaves usually being war captives or debtors, who unlike the untouchables can be freed. The system itself is maintained by a number of organizations who exist outside the control of the Great Houses. The Judges, who hear and decide the law. The Inquisitors who seek for those who would subvert or corrupt the law. The Protectors, who fight and kill those who would openly defy the law and also fight and kill outside threats to society (like Demons). Protectors are able to do this because they are magic super soldiers! Just think of them as an order of psychotic Captain America's who live like warrior monks and have no problems tearing people apart with their bare hands. The deal with the Protectors is pretty simple, very young men are sent to train by their Great Houses. They are made into the best two legged killing machines possible and given strength, speed and stamina beyond the limits of normal men. They are unleashed against the enemies of Order and Law. If they survive 20 years of this, they can be promoted into high office within the Order of Protectors... Or they can go home. Most never face that choice.

Our main character and his best buddy are actually Protectors. Ashok Vadal, who is the son of the black sword in the title (I'll get to the magic sword in a minute) and his bestest best friend (to be honest from what I can tell his only friend) Devedas. Ashok Vadal has survived 20 years in the service by being the most dangerous man on the continent. He's aided in achieving this status by his magic sword, Angruvadal the Black Sword of the title. Angruvadal gifts Ashok with the battle memories and reflexes of all it's past wielders, meaning that he always knows what the right counter move or the best tactic in a fight is. Add this to his Protector given speed and strength and fighting him is really a messy method of suicide. Angruvadal isn't unique, as there are a number of black swords out there and they all grant their users such abilities. However each sword chooses it's wielder and if someone who the sword doesn't approve of tries to pick up the sword... Well, honestly folks it might be better to go tug the tail of a cobra or something. What really makes Ashok special though, is his utter and complete devotion to the Law. Serving the Law is everything to him, fulfilling his proper duty and station are what give his life meaning. He literally cannot conceive of another life and even if he could, he wouldn't want to. He is what everyone thinks they want a perfect law enforcer to be (trust me. Y'all don't really want that though). Which may be why he reacts so violently when he finds out everything he thought he was and everything about his past... Is a damn lie. Ashok's refusal to go with the lie and his refusal to let anyone keep it buried or well, to let the people who profited it... Live... Adds fuel to the fire of a crisis already shaking the foundations of his society (the untouchables have had enough of your shit sir and they got a prophet to lead them this time). In a lot of ways Ashok's character is comparable to Master Sergeant Sage, from Mel Odom's Master Sergeant. Only instead of me being bored out of my mind because Sage isn't real person, Correia goes with the fact that real people aren't like this and asks “What would it take to make a person like that?” What answer did he come up with you ask? An atrocity so vile that despite the fact that I'm not sure that I like Ashok...

I was cheering him on when he hacked an old lady to death for what she did to him to make him the perfect wielder of the Black Sword. It's a revelation I found disturbing because, frankly I think if it could be done there are people who would support doing it to police and soldiers and in doing so would take away large parts of our humanity and autonomy. Not to get political on you folks, but my experience has been that there are people on the left and on the right who would gleefully scrape away the free will and independence of every Marine, Soldier, Police Officer, Sailor and so on in order to achieve their goals. Some of those goals are even noble but speaking as a man with 4 years in the Marine, I find the sheer gleeful disregard of my own personal right to rule my own mind unnerving as it seems some folk are perfectly okay with viewing us as less then human because we decided to wear a uniform. But enough of that. Let me talk about Devedas.

Devedas is the son of a Black Sword wielder, he grew up being trained to take his father's place so when the sword shattered (when the wielder does something that the sword finds disgraceful, it breaks and usually the wielder dies soon after if not on the spot) his family is disgraced and cast out of power and he joins the Protectors because... Well he doesn't have any other options. He's loyal, cunning, smart, brave and ambitious. In another book, he would be our main character! He's also deeply jealous of Ashok because... He has everything Devedas wants. He has done his level best to master his jealous of his friend when the truth comes out... It's the final straw. Devedas washes his hands of Ashok and goes to become leader of the Protectors. Which in an interesting twist means that he's the one who is confronts and for most of the book is doing the most to oppose the villain of the story. The villain being Grand Inquisitor Omand.

As we all know, being an Inquisitor is a bad sign in fantasy fiction. Omand lives up to this being a vile, double faced, monster of a human being that someone should have drowned in a pond before he reached adulthood. I hate Omand's guts all the more because... I agree with his premise. Our Grand Inquisitor argues that the Great Houses have to much power. To many lives and resources are wasted in their petty conflicts and border wars. Additionally despite the best efforts of the Judges, Inquisitors and Protectors, the Great Houses often twist or bend the Law to their own advantage with the leading families being more concerned with their privileges then their duties. He's not wrong, but his solution is to create a centralized state (ruled by him of course) via methods that place him firmly alongside people like Pol Pot! His solution is worse then the problem! It's akin to fixing broken legs by cutting off everything below the waist! The cherry of what in the hell is wrong with you on this you are a terrible person sundae is the fact that... I think Omand knows this and just does not care because this method ensures that he'll be in charge when the dust settles. Which makes him even worse!

Ashok, Devedas and Omand form 3 factions moving through larger events that the other characters find themselves falling into. My two favorites being Thera and Rada, both of them are women, but that's all they really have in common. Thera is an outlaw and criminal because she can't keep to her place. Because of that she is officially done with your shit. She's blunt, outspoken, clever, sneaky and always pushing at Ashok and letting him know firmly what an idiot he is. Which I approve of. She's also rather talented with knives which while a traditional choice for women characters, makes perfect sense. She's a criminal who legally isn't suppose to own any weapons, any weapons she does own is going to have to be easy to hide, easy to obtain and be cheap enough that you can afford to lose it. Knives fit that rather well. Rada on the other hand is an upper class woman, her father is the chief of the libertarians, who function as the record keepers, researchers and general scholars for the central government. All Rada wants to be left alone to do a good job with her books and provide complete untampered with information to the Judges who ask for it. She doesn't have any problems jumping into bed with Devedas mind you and isn't militantly anti-social, it's just she would be perfectly happy if all these political manics just left her and her books alone damn it! But when they do drag her kicking and screaming out of her book stacks, she is going to do her level best to do the right thing. I like Rada honestly and I can completely sympathize with where she's coming from. Devedas also doesn't have a problem jumping into bed with Rada, which shows he has good taste in woman at least.

Unfortunately, I spend a lot less time then I would like with characters like Rada and Thera and more with Ashok, who I'm not sure I like. I'm sympathetic to his inner turmoil but his stubborn death grip on what he knows to be merely be someone else rearranging his life grates on me. Maybe he has no choice in the matter but it gets damn annoying and I find myself wishing Thera would hit him over the head with a rock and hopeful knock the stupid out. At this point I'm going to have throw my hands up and declare that protagonists that grate on people are Mr. Correia's specialty. Ashok is also damn passive throughout a lot of the book, leaving a lot of work to Rada and Devedas. The Caste System is pervasive through the book, but honestly we're left with no voices to really make an argument for it. The book takes the position that Caste systems are bad, which I agree with but... Seriously have someone make a good argument for it if it's going to be something everyone agrees with. Additionally the book ends on a bloody cliff hanger which frustrated me greatly. It's not a huge cliff so to speak but still... Tell a complete story in a single book guys! That doesn't mean you can't have plot threads that continue through more then one book but each book should be a story in it's own right! Still, despite this Son of the Black Sword by Larry Correia lands at a B-, hopefully the sequel won't have a cliffhanger.

Announcement! I am going on a holiday break as I am leaving my home in Phoenix for awhile to visit my parents in Oklahoma. As such the reviews are on January 15th with Heroes Die. What else can you expect to see? Empire of the Summer Moon, Lirael, the Dinosaur Lords, Seedbearing Prince II and more! Thank you for reading! I Will Return!

[frigidmagi]

Heroes Die
Matthew Woodring Stover

I was aware of Heroes Die for years but was never really tempted to pick up the book. Honestly the blurb didn't really tempt me, it just looked like ultra violence for the sake of ultra violence in paperback form. Well, a trusted friend (the one who suggested Prince of Nothing to me) said I should give it another look... So.. I did. I'm actually glad I did, let's get started. Heroes Die was published in 1998, making it almost old enough to graduate high school! It was third novel of Stover's published, the first two (Iron Dawn and Jericho Moon) were set in the bronze age covering a trio of mercenaries doing mercenary things from what I understand. Mr. Stover himself is a fairly eclectic person, born in 1962 and having worked a wide range of professions from stage actor, waiter, short order cook, telemarketer (no wonder he has a good grasp on the dark side of human nature) and more. He's also studied a board number of martial arts which shows through in his books. Stover is also a pretty big sci-fi and fantasy fan with references to Heinlein, Moorcock and others hidden quietly and not so quietly in this book.

Let's talk about this book, there are two settings both are kind of grim but the setting on Earth is a grim dystopian nightmare labeled “everything you hate.” Earth society has been homogenized and united under a single government of the corporation, by the corporation and for the corporation. Society has been converted into a Caste system, where your job defines who you are, where you live and what you are allowed to do. Hell more then that, what you can wear in public, what you can say, who you can touch, all dictated by your Caste. For example if I was a member of the laborer caste, I wouldn't be allowed to do these book reviews because that's academic work and thus forbidden to me. This is backed up by a high tech security state with surveillance, rewards for snitches and an intruding level of government control you thought you would never see outside of the wet dreams of people like Hitler and Stalin. The top 1% of the Leisure caste lives lives of ease and comfort surrounded by wealth and privilege. The growing majority of people in the Labor Caste live in slums. Now you can get yourself into a higher Caste, but you're going to ass kiss and bribe your way into it. Which means it's pretty much impossible for people at the bottom. Cocaine is legal, only if you're in the upper caste though meaning our our main character uses it bribe lower caste people quite often (this is actually pretty standard behavior). Jail is something you bribe your way into, otherwise your punishment is likely to be converted into a worker. A lobotomized cyborg who follows orders doing work to dangerous or dirty even for Laborers until you die. This system is maintained by outlawing the knowledge of alternatives, books by Jefferson, Smith, Voltaire, Locke and even fictional works by men like Heinlein are outlawed (I almost feel like Stover asked “Would frigid like this book? Banned it is!). Even quoting someone like Kennedy can get you in deep shit. The other thing keeping a lid on this system is the carefully nurtured and cared for obsession the population has with Actors.

Actors are men and women from all walks of life who volunteer for a dangerous job. If you are an Actor you will be trained, you will be conditioned, you will be modified and sent to another world. A world known as Overworld. Overworld exists in another universe with physical laws that match the basic fantasy universes we all know and love. There are a number of humanoid races, Trolls, Ogres, Elves, Dwarves that kind of thing (although Stover adds a twist in that those names are are human slurs for the races in question), there are gods that gift some of their more devoted followers with amazing powers and of course there's magic power that people can use to throw around lighting and fireballs and animate dead bodies to do their will. Overworld is a wild, dirty, dangerous place, even the cities are full of people and creatures that will kill you for standing in the wrong place and then sell your dead body to a wizard to zombify for cheap labor. Frankly I would rather live on Overworld the rest of my life then spend more then 10 minutes in Stovers earth where I would have to live in terror of the nearly omnipresent security state deciding to punish me for knowing to much or saying the wrong thing to the wrong person. Anyways, Actors are trained to survive and blend into the populations of Overworld and go on grand, bloody violent adventurers. As dictated by the studios and their own abilities, they play the role of heroes or villains, assassins or paladins. Saving lives, or ending them. Building up nations or tearing them down... For the entertainment of the masses on Earth. It is not without risk to the Actor however, they can be hurt, crippled or even killed. Despite the fact that the studio can save the Actor, if it will increase the sales of their adventures... The Studio will let them die. The implants in their heads not only record all of their actions, but their emotions and to a degree their thoughts as well. Hell you can not only watch your favorite actor battle platoons of Trolls to the death but if you're rich enough, you pay for a VR rig that will let you experience it as if you were the Actor yourself! The adventurers of the Actors have become the main form of entertainment on Earth, the circus that the shadowy rulers of Earth use to keep the populace sedated. The people of Overworld are unaware that their lives are being used in this fashion but they are aware that Actors exist and consider them a form of demon. They also consider Earth to be a kind of hell. Frankly... I don't think they're completely wrong to feel so.

Hither comes the greatest of the Actors, Hiri Michealson, known throughout both worlds as Caine. Caine is warrior that in a world of arch wizards and blade masters prefers the use of his bare hands in killing and in comparison everyone else is unarmed. He has killed kings, wizards, warlords, gang leaders, warriors and soldiers of every race and type. Hiri Michealson is an Actor from the worse Labor Slums on Earth. Having clawed his way up from the bottom using nothing but his hands and his willingness to kill and maim. He is wealthy, famous and adored by the public. He is a miserable slave. He is a slave to the studio, who dictates his goals and his behavior on Earth and Overworld. He is a slave to his past and everything he has had to do to get here. He is a slave to his patron Vilo, a member of the Businessman Caste, who can order his private life to the point of dictating his martial status. He is a slave to his own mind, that repeatedly tells him he has no choice in who and what he can be. All of this makes him a living indictment of the culture that birthed him. It wasn't enough to strip away any chance of advancement other then through murder. It wasn't enough to reduce him to privileged property. No, he had to be reduced to a state of self induced helplessness, where he believes he can't be anything else!

rankly however that's not what makes him miserable. What makes him miserable that he's a divorced man. His wife a fellow Actor (the book doesn't use the word Actress) left him. Shanna, or Pallas Ril is also an Actor. Shanna is more heroic in mold then Hiri is, working constantly as a hero to help and save people. She also left him because in the end she couldn't accept what he was or why. I don't say that to condemn her, how many of us would be comfortable sleeping with a hitman after all? The problem of course being that Hiri is still in love with her. Which gives the studio a pretty good lever to use on him. Due to a strange magical effect, Shanna has been cut off from the studio. She's not transmitting so no one knows where she is. Additionally they can't bring her back. If they don't find her before a certain amount of time passes, she'll die. That's something Hiri would give anything to prevent and his handlers know that. So the deal is simple. We'll let you save your wife, as long as you kill someone for us. As long as Caine kills the new Emperor and Demigod Ma'elKoth.

Ma'elKoth is the primary antagonists in this book, and you know I should be able to call him a villain. He traffics with powers best left alone. He murders and tortures his political enemies using the fear of Actors for a phony witch hunt. He puts himself as a god! Pushing people to worship him! I'll admit that one sticks in my American Christian craw. More then it should really given that he's living in a fantasy universe where someone powerful enough might just be able to boost himself to godhood. I think on a personal level Ma'elKoth is a rather horrid person in a lot of ways but... While being willing to sacrifice his followers, he clearly cares about them. Even going so far as to care for the families of his fallen followers. His intentions are in a way noble, he desires to put an end to human infighting to ensure that humanity survives and thrives on Overworld, given that it's surrounded by competitor species, many of whom are rather dangerous and savage... He's not wrong to think that unity might be the best way forward. Frankly he's not wrong in suggesting that he's the best person to bring about this unity, because I don't see anyone else even trying. Ma'elKoth while not an Actor does have some experience with Earth and he does point out that... Actors have caused wars, brought chaos, torn countries and wiped out cities. They have murdered, raped and maimed. For what? Money? Power? Ideology? No. They do it to entertain people. That's... well.. It's fucked up. Compared to the Earth government, at least Ma'elKoth wants to lead his people into a better and brighter future where even the least of them will benefit. He might be a son of a bitch, but at least he in theory stands for something beyond his own power and pleasure. That said he has shit hiring practices as shown by his selection of Berne.

Berne! I hate this sick twisted asshole with all my heart. I don't love to hate him, like I do some villains. I just hate him. He's an utter depraved sociopath that is frankly a hollow mockery of a human being. Berne in a lot of ways I think is in this story to reinforce Hiri's humanity. Yeah, Caine is basically an assassin and in some ways a thug, but he tries not to hurt anyone he doesn't really have to. In some cases he even dials down the damage and pain to do so, putting himself in danger. Berne? Revels in doing the most pain and damage he can do. It's not enough to kill you if he can torture you, it's not enough to torture you if he can rape you. It's not enough to do just one of those if he can do a combination of them. He serves as Ma'elKoth's chief enforcer and priest, leading both the cult and the secret police force known as the Cats. I spend the entire book hoping beyond hope for his sudden and violent murder. Preferably at the hands of Caine. Interestingly enough that's what Hiri is hoping for to! As Berne and Caine have a long, blood soaked, bitter history the kind that only two men who have no fucks about violence can have. I'll take Caine anyday of the week through. He might be a violent assassin, but I know he won't kill me because we ran out of soap or he's feeling twitchy. I can also count on Caine not to sexually assault people for shits and giggles or run off to violently beat people because he's had a bad day. Sometimes it's the little things that make you prefer one person over another.

Hiri Michealson has to fight his own studio, he has to fight Ma'elKoth police forces and soldiers. He has to come face to face with a Demigod and figure out how to outwit and out fight a man who can go toe to toe with gods. He has to fight Berne. He has to fight the relationship issues between him and Shanna. Excluding the issues with his wife, all of these fights are violent in a lot of ways. There is enough violent and murder in this book to make a 1980's action star queasy and start to consider pacifism. Part of that is because the book does not shy away from the consequences and implications of that violent. It's not clean, it's not boxed away, it's everywhere and splashing into all aspects of Hiri's life whether he likes it or not. That's a real and raw treatment on the matter of violence that a lot of books and movies lack. But again not the real fight in this book. The real fight in this book is Michealson against himself. Because until he realizes that the limits that he imposes on himself are not real, that the chains he wrapped around himself can be removed... He can't possibly hope to defeat the legion of external enemies around him. He can't hope to save the one thing that matters to him, the life and happiness of his wife. This book is savage which I expected. It's also thoughtful in some ways which I didn't expect. Don't get me wrong this isn't some deep philosophical work on the meaning of life but it does examine the issues of violence and their effects on people and how often our biggest enemies are the ones inside our own heads. I find myself shockingly giving Heroes Die by Matthew Woodring Stover an A. If you can stand going to some dark places and getting some grit in your teeth? Read this book. You'll be surprised how glad you are that you did.

[Cynical Cat]

Oh yeah! Who knows the good stuff? Oh yeah! Who recommends the truly high grade shit?

I deserve all the head skritches. ALL. THE. HEAD. SKRITCHES.

[frigidmagi]

Lirael
by Garth Nix

Finally the reviews have returned to the Old Kingdom! Lirael is the sequel to Sabriel, taking place about two or so decades after the first book. Within that time Sabreil and Touchstone have gotten married, Touchstone has claimed the throne and they have had children. They've also worked very hard to make the Old Kingdom, a place where Sabreil seemed unable to go 20 feet without attracting some undead ravening monster, into a place where people... You know... Live. I kinda wished we could have seen some of that, but I'm also sure it would have gotten repetitive after while. You know find undead monster, sally forth, force undead monster back into death, repeat. Maybe in a short story or two in the future?

But honestly they've been pretty successful in transforming the Old Kingdom from a fear ridden hell pit into a fairly pleasant place to raise your family (if you hate electricity anyways). The Capital no longer is an armed camp living under siege. Trade and Travel are now normal events that don't end in screaming and bloodshed. The network of charter stones has been mostly repaired. Allowing for villages and farms to be rebuilt. In turn allowing for the people of the Old Kingdom to live lives that are not defined by unending terror of undead monsters creeping about in the dark. It's not all sunshine and roses though as Sabriel having become the Abhorsen (the state Necromancer), is often running from one trouble spot to the next trying to root out the remaining die hard Free Magic sorcerers and necromancers who seek to undo all their work. In short through with a lot of work and a bit of luck Sabriel and Touchstone have created a fairly decent kingdom from the wreckage we saw in the last book but there's still a lot of work to be done.

The Necromancer Hedge hates this with every fiber of his wicked being (in case you're wondering... Yes, I did enjoy writing that). He plots to undo these hard won gains of the royal family by digging up some long forgotten evil and... Well basically killing everyone really. I actually kinda like Hedge, despite his omnicidial urges. As much I can like a psychopathic, mass murdering asshole anyways. He's clever, patient and while he clearly prefers to send someone else to do the dirty jobs... He ain't afraid to jump on to the front lines and do his own killing. He's also smart enough to develop connections south of the wall, making political allies in merry old Eng... I mean Ancelstierre!

Actually that's only part of what makes Hedge an interesting villain, as it's part of his adoption of insurgent tactics to fight the royal family. Hedge's pursuit of outside allies in his struggle to return a reign of terror and death to the Old Kingdom is a common tactic of successful insurgencies and rebellions. See private organizations be they terrorists like the IRA and Al Qeaeda or more conventional rebellions like the Continental Army or Garibaldi's Redshirts can rarely match the resources and power of a state. There are ways around this but the easiest way is to get your own state sponsor to help you make up the difference. Whether it be Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom of France, the USSR or the USA, a competing state government can provide you with supplies, weapons and money which you need to wage a war, putting you on a more even footing with your enemies. The second part that Hedge has put into play is creating a safe zone where your enemies can't or won't go. This gives you a place to plan, train and refit. Granted training his army isn't an issue for Hedge because he's a bloody Necromancer and his armies are made up of undead monsters and dead spirits stuffed into fresh corpses. Hedge's safe zone is a region called Red Lake where the power of the royal family does not extend and the Clayr (I'll get to them) can't see into. I don't know if Mr. Nix did this on purpose but if he did, he deserves praise for applying fairly modern tactical studies to magical fantasy and making it work with aplomb!

Hedge has also rather cold bloody marked out the biggest obstacles to his plan and works very hard to remove or completely eliminate them. Those obstacles being the Royal Family with Touchstone as the King and focus of the Charter Magic network and Sabriel as queen and Abhorsen... And their youngest child, a boy who is considered the Abhorsen in training. Deciding to avoid direct confrontation with the Royal Adults instead using minions and politics to divert them and tire them out. Hedge elects to go after the boy himself, the Price Sameth, aka Sam and he finds himself running into Lirael, who is our main character (graciously sharing the book with Sameth in my opinion) and is our main view point character. Let me talk about her a bit.

I know I rambled on about Hedge but this book is about Lirael. The book opens with her growing up into a young lady and deeply grieved with that fact. Why would this bother her? Because she is a daughter of the Clayr, a mystical family known for their ability to see the future. They generally develop this ability at the onset of their teen years and Lirael... Hasn't. It doesn't help that Lirael never met her mother, who disappeared shortly after Lirael's birth. Additionally the Clayr raise their children in communal fashion, which while it has it's virtues, ensures that Lirael never gets the attention she kinda needs to reassure her that she is actually a member of the family. Instead she's just kind of left knocking about the childern's dorms feeling sorry for herself as each one of her friends graduates into a life she can't understand and leaves her behind. On top of this is the fact that Lirael has problems socializing and she doesn't look like the rest of her family. They're all ice blondes and she has hair dark as midnight. You know, I am somewhat sympathetic to Lirael, I mean I often feel kinda on the outside of groups due to various things (I found later this can be a common feeling among hearing children of deaf parents or the children whose parents are from one culture but raising them in another) but you know... At least I never any doubts as to whether or not my family loved me and considered me one of their own. Frankly that's a terrible fate I wouldn't wish on anyone.

Thankfully we're not left with her moping about for long as a pair of her cousins realizes that leaving a teenage girl with nothing to do but think about how she doesn't fit in and how her own family feels like a pack of strangers just isn't healthy (you know for people who can see the future sometimes..). So they get her a job in the Clayr's magical library (I'm really kind of jealous of magic libraries in general, but this one is also a museum and at times a zoo... People who can see the future really do get the best shit don't they?). It's here that Lirael really gets moving as she starts learning magic in a big way, fighting monsters (turns out the magic library isn't really safe and these people sent a 14 year old to work in it!) and summons the Disreputable Dog. The Disreputable Dog is a creature of magic that seems to contain some of the essence of canines, of course being magical she is smarter then actual dogs being able to talk, fight and do magic on her own. I honestly love her, she serves as Lirael's friend, teacher and even mother figure from time to time. She even teaches Lirael and by extension us more about the nature and Lirael has the most complete arc of the characters in this book, going from a lost, depressed child to a young women with hard won powers and abilities willing to take great risks to solve problems by the time of the book's end when she is 19. Sameth on the other hand...

We met Sameth as he finishes his last year of school in Ancelstierre on the other side of the wall. This seems to be becoming a family tradition for the Royals, since Sabriel and Sameth's older sister were also educated in Ancelstierre. We don't actually get to see him in school (to be fair we didn't really see Sabriel in school either) since he gets in trouble on a bus ride back from his very last cricket match (sooo English) and well... Sameth did his damnest but he didn't really cover himself in glory. Much like Lirael, his first brush with danger was almost his last and he basically had to run for it. Here there's a difference though, Lirael gathered resources and got herself a mentor, by whom I mean Disreputable Dog, went back and made herself awesome! Sameth... Well it turns out confrontation isn't really his thing. Which is awkward because he's suppose to inherent the title of Abhorsen, a job that is well... Pretty much all about confrontation really!

Which bring us to a problem. I think Lirael is pretty awesome and she easily makes the first string on my own personal monster killing team picks (if you don't have one... Man what are you doing with your life?). It's not that she's perfect, she's has bouts of insecurity, is cripplingly shy and uncertain to the point of being terrified of conservation in social situations but she is able with the help of her mentor push through her weaknesses and do what needs to be done. Sameth... Can't bring himself to admit his problem out loud and ask for help when surrounded by people who want to help him. I get being afraid of disappointing your parents but really. That said I am being rough on a guy who was nearly murdered, while within Death itself (that has to be more terrifying then almost being murdered in the normal world). I'm pretty sure that's got to least leave mental or emotional scars! Part of the blame does have to go to his parents, who honestly are fairly absent. Which no slight on them, since if they ignore a call from work, thousands of people can die in horrifying ways unleashing unspeakable horrors on the world. That kinda means you can't ever turn off the phone to the office really. Still I have to think that if Sameath had a mentor like Lireal did... He be able to confront his fears. That said it's not that Sameth is a coward here! He puts himself repeatedly at considerable physical and mental risks to protect and help others. He sneaks away from his family to help a friend in peril. He is able to outwit enemies and make basic plans, so he isn't an idiot either. He's clearly not just some trembling child who just needs to be taken care of. Which makes a lot of his behavior even more frustrating! There are times when I want to reach into the book and shake him until the rattling forces his brain to actually boot up and engage. It's just that when the objects of his phobia and PTSD are thrown out there he locks up and turns into a gibbering wreck. I understand this and I can sympathize but look I'll be blunt. Speaking as a vet, if you're suffering something like PTSD, Depression or a fear so deep you can't even begin to function around it? Get help. Please. There's no shame in that. Your friends and your family will be thankful. Let me get back to the review.

I liked Lireal more than I did Sabriel. I liked the character's more, I like the villain more, I was excited by the revelations on the nature of charter magic and it's relation to free magic. As well as insights into the origin of the Old Kingdom itself. I enjoyed Lirael's story arc and really enjoyed reading about her travails and triumphs. Sameath I'm less thrilled by but I'm hoping he'll shape up. That said... The book ends on a cliff hanger. Again. I'm going to get a complex like this guys. That said, the cliffhanger is my only real complaint. So Lirael by Garth Nix gets an -A. It's a great book and I think everyone will enjoy it. Just get it's sequel Abhorsen before you crack it open. Speaking of which Abhorsen will be with us soon but first, Vader Returns! See you next week!

[frigidmagi]

Darth Vader II Shadows and Secrets
Writer: Kieron Gillen, Artist: Salvador Larroca

“I do not consider eliminating a few rebels a matter that requires comment” Darth Vader

When we last left Vader, he had secured a secret robot factory for him, an evil adventurer team to do his bidding, a group of people gunning for his job and massive amounts of oversight on his activities. If you ask me for a growing Dark Lord there can be nothing more frustrating then over sight. Competition and young rivals are to be expected, comes with the territory really. If nothing else a cadre of young men, women, aliens... cyborg... things? All lusting after your position should be considered a sign of success and growth, after all no one plots to take over your position if the heroes are at the door and the empire is crumbling around your ears right (well you would think that but history keeps telling me people are not as rational as I would like...)? But over sight? That means your boss doesn't trust you and is thinking of shining a light on just what it is you're doing on Friday night. Which as any Dark Lord will tell you is a nightmare, I mean Dark Side bosses are not entirely known for approving of personal side projects using official resources and Vaders got... Well he's doesn't want anyone looking too close let's put that way.

One of those side projects is his obsession with finding the man who blew up the Death Star, Luke Skywalker. However, finding people costs money and when you have to turn in daily expense reports, squeezing out the budget to find a highly mobile rebel becomes... Troublesome. So Darth Vader decides if he can't use imperial resources to finance his search, well then he'll steal some imperial resources. As the Emperor has sicced him on a number of crime lords in the Outer Rim (not incidentally doing Jabba the Hut a solid in the process), there's a lot of seized ill gotten gains to be stolen. As a side note there's a brief conservation between Vader and an representative of Jabba's that I really enjoyed. You could just about see the contempt and disgust rolling off Vader that he has to cut deals with the lackey of a Hutt Crime boss. He signed up to bring order to the galaxy after all, not be a government sanctioned hatchetman in underword wars after all. Still his dislike doesn't stop him from arranging his own thievery using Aphra as his point woman to hire himself a dirty crew of adventurers to steal a literal fortune. Unfortunately that money had already been made part of the naval budget (don't you just hate when that happens) so they assign a crack crew to find the thieves and get the money back. This crack team is to be lead by Inspector Thanoth... And by Darth Vader himself.

Let me talk about Inspector Thanoth for moment as he's pretty much the only new character with any real screen time (well there are the bounty hunters but they were kinda here and gone). I really like the guy, first off there's his really awesome distinct look, backing that up though is a character who is calm, calculating and actually pretty smart. Lastly he's the kinda of imperial you need to keep the regime going. He's the guy who believes that the Empire is the best shot for setting up a stable galaxy where people can actually live their lives without worrying about raiders or war or whatever the fuck it is this week that is going to bring civilization down. The best part is that he never says any of this! There are no tiresome speeches or sermons about how the Empire is civilization or Order is barely holding back Chaos and blah, blah, blah, we've all heard this speech 10 million times now! No, Thanoth acts like he believes it, he acts honestly, loyally and intelligently to uphold a vile, brutal war machine of a regime that is grinding billions beneath it's white armored boots. Characters like Thanoth are vital if you want to show how something like the Empire can function. Because if it's all backbiting psychopaths held in check by the Empire then the rebels don't need to conduct any military operations. They can simply sit back and let the Imperials tear each other apart. Darth Vader clearly likes the man (well, as much as he likes anyone) while holding many of his rivals and superiors in contempt.

Which is kind of funny because Vader continues to consider the rebels a secondary problem compared to his Imperial rivals. Now I will say this, Vader is shown trying to keep causalities among Imperial footsoliders and enlisted men to a minimum (he seems to prefer killing officers frankly... Which I find myself strangely okay with). This isn't to say he ignores the rebels but he's clearly unconcerned with them. For example he lures a Rebel cell to a moon and murders all of them simply to cover his tracks against other Imperial agents. He roots out clues to the location of another cell to cover for Aphra capers across the galaxy. However even that is secondary to his obsession of finding Luke Skywalker to that end he repeatedly proves he'll move planets and void, betray anyone and even let anyone live to fulfill that objective.

As for our other recurring characters, we learn a bit more about Aphra, a woman who honestly seems to enjoy repeatedly putting her life at risk and seeing how close she can get to the lightsaber's edge. I suppose that's what I should expect from a woman (or anyone really) who is excited to work with Darth Vader. I mean he's a lot of things but a good boss ain't one of them. We get this through a conservation where she revels that she's got her own broken past and loses due to the clone wars. Which helps remind us that these big epic splashy scenes we love in the movies... In real life they would come with some pretty harsh price tags. I'm not saying you shouldn't enjoy those scenes, this is fiction after all but maybe chew on what might be going on in the background of those epic moments from time to time.

Mr. Gillen's writing remains damn good and Mr. Larroca's art is wonderful to behold. They brought a good variety of characters to the Star Wars universe that help expand the breath and depth of Star Wars. While telling a hell of an interesting story about Darth Vader and the people around him. Shadows and Secrets achieves an A easily. Which makes sense as after all... The Mouse does not tolerate failure. Next week we dive into more serious subject matter with a nonfiction work Empire of the Summer Moon. See ya then.

[Cynical Cat]

White Luck Warrior and Blade of Tyshall please.

[frigidmagi]

Empire of the Summer Moon
By S.C. Gwynne

Empire of the Summer Moon was published in 2010, it quickly began to rack up awards and honorable mentions, winning the Christian Science Monitor's best book of the year award, the Texas book award and the Oklahoma book award, it was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. It was the second book published by S.C. Gwynne. Mr. Gwynee is a journalist with a history degree from Princeton University and a Masters in Writing from John Hopkins University. During his career he wrote for Time (spending 12 years at the magazine), the New York Times, the Boston Globe and many other papers. He also served as an executive editor for the Texas Monthly where he wrote a number of high profile pieces from 2000 to 2008. Basically he's done a lot of writing and lot of it has been good. Let me move on to the book.

The Empire of the Summer Moon is both the history of the Comanche tribe of native Americans and an examination of the fate of members of a 19th century settler family who become deeply tied with the fate of the Comanches, the family of the Parkers. Most especially of Cynthia Ann Parker and of her children. Cynthia's story starts with the raid on her family's settlement that shattered her birth family began one of the more famous stories of the frontier. The extended family of the Parkers had settled at the very edge of settled land and their farms and homes were on the border of the empire of the Comanche (stretching from across the southern great plains where the Comanche held some of the riches buffalo ranges, empire is the right word here) and as such had made themselves vulnerable. The Comanche attacked, they would kill most of the adult men, torturing to death a number of them. The women and children were kidnapped, the adult women would be gang raped, tortured and if they were lucky enslaved, most of them would be murdered. The children however would be adopted into the Comanche tribe, given to women who had either lost children or seemed unable to have their own and treated equally with any native born Comanche. Right away Mr. Gwynne makes it clear that this book will not romanticize anyone (he describes the early Texas Rangers as bands of dirty, savage, illiterates who had mostly signed up for a chance to kill someone) and pull no punches in telling us what exactly was going on the frontier in the 1800s. He doesn't balk from telling us specifically what the crimes committed by whites or natives were and who the victims were.

To be honest I frankly appreciated it. My own views were formed in Oklahoma where I not only in history class read accounts by white settlers but by natives. In my own case I was exposed to history from the Cherokee side of things. Among other things their war with the Kiowa (strangely enough they show up in this book as the closest allies of the Comanche's) when they were basically exiled to Oklahoma and no one bothered to tell the Kiowa that Washington D.C had given the Cherokee land that the Kiowa considered theirs. For that matter I had even learned about the traditional battles between the Cherokee and the Iroquois, although for obvious reasons my education focused on things that happened after the Trail of Tears. What I'm saying is I already had a vague grip on the idea that this book mercilessly pushes home. The native tribes were not innocents who never fought a war before the white men showed up. Nor were the whites a uniformed band of monsters who relentlessly plotted to see every native wiped from the Earth. They were people, with all the virtues and vices inherent to being people. Now I do not desire to pretend that the United States was pure and unsullied in it's treatment of the native people's of North America and neither does this book. The many massacres and atrocities visited upon the natives at the hands of the United States Government, or more often by private citizens of the United States who could not be bothered to extend even the most basic rights to native men and women are not glossed over. Instead of the actions of both sides are given context and shown to be what they were, the actions of human beings who were both acting and reacting within specific events and contexts. If we're ever going to be better and not repeat the mistakes of the past, it's important that we look at the past and come to grips with the context and motivations of the people living in those eras and not view them as simple angels or monsters. Even for groups of people that it's hard to do that for, like the Comanche.

Before the arrival of white men in North America, the Comanche were a simple people of little note. They were a stone age people, who had not reached the advancements of the Aztecs or the Mississippi mound builders. Instead they skulked ignored by their neighbors on hunting grounds no one else wanted in the high empty plains of North America. They would have likely been one of the forgotten peoples of history expect for one thing, just one thing. The Spanish allowed horses to run wild on the American plains. The horse breeds that the Spanish brought were perfectly adapted to the plains of the North America (which frankly horses had been native to anyways before going extinct, possibly by over hunting by the natives ironically enough). According to Mr. Gwynne we can't be entirely sure when the Comanche meet the first horse but we know it had to be in the 1600s. Because by 1709, the effects were in full bloom. The Comanche hit the tribes and the Spanish colonizers of the southwest like a hammer through glass, chasing the Apache out of their home range and utterly wrecking Spanish plans for New Mexico and Texas. Written annuals of the time show them to be merciless. Even after chasing the Apache out of the territory they wanted, they would raid, burn and murder their way through Apache lands whenever they got the chance. One of the things I got out of this is that the Comanche's could fairly be compared to the tribes of steppe nomads that arose in Central Asia who often became the terrors of surrounding civilizations. I'm fairly sure that farmers in Northern Mexico at the time (the Comanche would raid Northern Mexico killing thousands of people a year until nearly the 1890s) and the various native tribes who struggled with the Comanche would agree with me.

Despite his lack of military training, Mr. Gwynne manages to explain why the Comanche were able to commit such feats of military dominance despite lacking any large scale organizational skills or any real social complexity (the Comanche never advanced beyond organizing at the band level, their raiding bands were basically ad hoc volunteer organizations held together by the force of personality of the man who called the raid). Actually to be fair that lack of social complexity worked in their favor. Without any tribal authority, there are no targets for decapitation strikes, being nomads traveling in small bands, there are no economic or political centers to hit. Hell, the Comanche had no organized religious beliefs meaning there were no sacred sites to take and hold and force the Comanche to fight on your terms. Fighting a society like the Comanche with the tactics that the Spanish and later the Americans had developed in the 1700s and the first half of the 1800s is like fighting a lake with a fork, hit as hard as you want, you ain't doing any damage. It was impossible to bring the Comanche into a large scale traditional battle. To the Comanche, war was a series of raids on lightly or undefended targets where you stole cattle and horses, kidnapped children and women and killed everyone else. On top of this the Comanche had some really hardcore tactical advantages. One was their unmatched horsemanship, at this point everyone else in North America was in the habit of riding into combat and dismounting to fight. This worked fine against the native tribes in central Mexico and the eastern United States, but the Comanche fought in a style more comparable to the Mongols or the Huns. They fought on horse back with bow and arrow and were often able ride rings around their adversities be they native or white. Their bows were much better adapted for this style of warfare than the single shot rifles or muskets being used, having a higher rate of fire and at the ranges the battles were taking place at, were more accurate. To be blunt it wasn't until the invention of the 6 shot revolver and repeating carbine in the late 1800s that the Comanche lost the firepower advantage. It was after they lost their tactical advantages that the US military was able to solve the strategic problem that Comanche posed. Although there was a lot of help from the private sector (the mass slaughter of buffalo destroyed the Comanche logistical base for example).

Woven into this is tales of the Parker family, mostly the women who survived the deadly raid, like Cynthia Ann Parker who would adapt fully into Comanche society and give birth to their last great war chief Quanah Parker, who was the first and last Tribal Chief of Comanche. The book traces his life as well as his mother's and his aunt's Rebecca Plummer. Rebecca was an adult when the Comanche attacked her settlement and the Comanche were not as gentle towards her as they were her niece Cynthia Ann, Ms. Plummer would survive 21 months in slavery and would write about her ordeal at the hands of the Comanche. She would die of illness after finally being reunited with her family and her husband. Cynthia who was 9 when she was taken would marry a Comanche chief and become culturally fully Comanche (frankly I suspect some Stockholm syndrome in some of these situations, as Cynthia and other captives would watch their adult relatives be gang raped, tortured and murdered before being turned over to childless couples who would treat them rather well). Quanah on the other hand would lead the last great war between the Comanche and the Americans, the campaigns between him and the American General who finally broke the Comanche, General Mackenzie, or as the Comanche called him, Bad Hand (he lost 3 fingers in the civil war). The book spends a fair amount of time on General Mackenzie who is a rather obscure figure in American history despite his accomplishments and digs into the relations between him and Quanah in war and peace. The book also details Quanah's life after the war's end where he becomes a figure greatly respected by white and natives alike. Dying a influential and politically relevant figure. I gloss over this because I believe you should read this for yourselves.

Empire of the Summer Moon provides an solid look into the history and lives of a rather neglected tribe in American History. As well as giving us a stark, unrelentingly and fairly factual look at the lives on the frontiers and the people living them. If you're interested in American history, the Indian wars or just looking to read an interesting history book, you got one here. That said, while not graphic or explicit the book is rather blunt and plain spoken about the violence and evil that both groups inflicting on each other and bystanders. I think we could use more of that. I'm giving Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne an A.

I have to admit the year is going pretty well so far, no major disappointments in the book department. Now that I've typed those words, have I jinxed myself? Will the streak continue? Find out next week when I cover the graphic novel, Autumn Lands Vol I and after that Abhorsen by Garth Nix. See you then.

[LadyTevar]

Damn you Frigid, damn you to all nine hells. You had to go review the Darth Vader graphic novel. And then the SECOND novel.

Which is why in the last 24hrs I have spent $40 getting both graphic novels on Kindle, and then running to the local comic shop to get "Vader Down", which is not in graphic novel form yet, and then had to run to the local Books-a-Million to get the ONE comic that the comic shop was sold out of (Darth Vader #14, part 4 of Vader Down).
THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT THAT I HAVE BOUGHT MY FIRST STAR WARS COMICS SINCE 1985!!!!!!!!

But OMG was it worth it.

Darth Vader: Vader Down Review

As Frigid has so nicely pointed out, the Dark Lords of Disney have been quite generous with the Darth Vader comics, allowing only the best and brightest to work on it. In the prior graphic novels, this allows us to see the politics and double dealing fostered by the Emperor to keep Vader in line. In Shadows and Secrets, Vader learned he had a son, Luke Skywalker, and that the boy was currently on Vrogas Vos searching for a lost Jedi Temple. Vader, intent on capturing his son before his rivals, left Doctor Aphra and her murderous droids behind to deal with the matter himself.

Just one little problem. Skywalker isn't alone on the planet. Vrogas Vos is actually a fully functional Rebel Base.

The artists and writers Disney gathered are finally allowed the chance to toss politics out the window and start with the killing spree. The Rebels have three Squadrons of X-Wings. They had a troop couplement of infantry and tanks. They have a backup battalion led by Leia herself (with Solo and Chewie along for the ride) once word gets out that Darth Vader was on Vrosgar Vos.

Vader has his TIE, his Lightsaber, and the Force. (Aphra and the murder-bots show up after Leia's Battalion lands)

Oh, the humanity.

This is payout for the last two novels, a 6-part action flick that racks up a body count of epic proportions. Vader is shown as a full Sith Lord at the height of his power, a literal Force of nature sweeping the flotsam aside as he searches for his son. Luke, on the other hand, demonstrates that the Skywalker Luck moves in many mysterious ways, while Han and Chewie meet Black Krataan. But, we have R2 v/s Beetee; Triple-0 v/s Threepio; and General Karbin sprungs the trap.
The artwork is brutal. The dialogue is still just as brilliant and laced with dark humor. I wish I could tell you more, but that will get into Spoilers. You'll have to let Fridge read it for more details.

[frigidmagi]

The Autumnlands I: Tooth and Claw
Written by Kurt Busiek
Art by Benjamin Dewey

“You're on the wrong side.” Seven Scars leader of the Bison
“Maybe, but this is the side I'm on.” The Champion

I had dropped by a local comic shop a few weeks ago, wanting to see if they had any word on when the 3rd volume of Rat Queens would be published (they did not) and spotted Autumnlands on the shelves. Now I am somewhat disconnected in some ways, so I hadn't heard of the series before seeing the cover. A cover where a dude was duking it out with a pair of humanoid Bison, surrounded by screaming anthromorphized creatures! That's a good way to get my attention, present the what makes your setting interesting front and center (side note, while I certainly enjoy pictures of pretty ladies, that's not going to get my attention for your comic, the shelves are way over saturated with that). I wanted to know what the hell was going on here. So I picked the graphic novel.

The Autumnlands is a fantasy comic published by Image comics, written by Kurt Busiek. Mr. Busiek was born in 1960 in Boston. His parents disapproved of comics, so he didn't start reading them until he was 14, when he was pretty much hooked. He would start writing comics professionally straight out of college in 1982 and went on to a rather decent career, being among other things the creator of the Thunderbolts (which he deserves a lot of praise for I think) and creating and writing Astro City, if you haven't heard of that series, you should look it up. I won't get into here expect to say that it won a lot of awards and well... Earned those awards. Needless to say Mr. Busiek himself has won a number of awards and as you can guess continues to work in comics. Benjamin Dewey the artist is younger then Mr. Busiek but has himself a rather good career in comics as well. He was born in Ohio, to a father who worked in a number of Art halls and museums. It's no surprise given this that he is trained as a painter, which shows to good effect in the book. He's also worked on a large number of comics. Honestly I like his style of art, it was detailed and stylized in a distinctive way that made the art recognizable and easy on the eyes.

The Autumnlands takes in a world inhabited by anthromorphic animals, some of them using magic are able to live in floating cities in a society of plenty and peace. Others without access to that magic have to live on the ground, for the most part making their living by gathering raw materials for the people on the floating cities. The cities are multi-ethnic with many varieties of animal people living in relative harmony while the ground dwelling animal folks seem to live in single species tribes. The relationship between wealthy city dweller and poor ground dweller is an uneasy one filled with suspicion and distrust. The ground tribes resent the city dwellers wealth and privilege and the city dwellers are firmly aware that if the ground dwellers would murder them all in their sleep due to frankly ill treatment which is demonstrated in the comic to good effect. This becomes the main conflict in the book but not the main problem if you'll allow me to expand.

The floating cities have a problem, they're running out of magic. This is bad because everything they got runs on magic. Basically when they run out of magic, civilization will collapse and most everyone will die. Another big problem is no one really has any idea what to do about it. Well, someone does have an idea of what to do, but the idea is insane. You see magic as a definite origin point, when a mythological figure called the great champion released magic into the world in the midst of a great battle with an evil wizard (although how can you have a wizard in premagic times? I think this myth has plot holes). So the wizard Gharta (who is a warthog) has a plan, craft a spell that reaches back into that misty past and yank the champion to the present and have him do whatever he did again to re-release magic into the world. Which is a rather insane plan, but well compared to the other options thrown on the table has the benefit of actually being a plan. Of course, Gharta is instantly told by the leader of her government (a bald eagle named Tallon) that this is extra heresy and therefore illegal (the comic gives us the image of a bald eagle screaming “THIS IS FORBIDDEN” at a warthog and I love it, I'm going to find that image on the internet and use it for something!). I kinda roll my eyes at this, you have an advanced magical society and something is forbidden without discussion because “the gods don't want us to?” There isn't even a priest caste here, whose coming up with these rules, why are they coming up with these rules, who is benefiting from these rules? Besides me I mean.

Well Gharta decides to do it anyways and convinces a group of wizards to help her. They gather on the smallest floating city and conduct their heresy and... Everything goes pear shaped! Well more like splattered egg shape, as the spell does pull in the champion into the present day... But also causes the city to crash, killing a large number of the population and smiting it's ruin upon the rock. The local ground dwellers, a bison tribe that has been much put upon by this very city sees this and thinks this is a great time to get some revenge. By killing all the survivors and looting the remains of the city. Into this fight comes stumbling the great champion, the creature claimed by every beast tribe, the founder of civilization, the father of magic... And he's a naked human who is pissed off and has no idea what the fuck everyone is babbling about. This is where the story begins.

I won't spoil the rest of it expect to say I enjoyed the story, the champion was an interesting guy who took a different route from most of the guy stranded in strange new world stories. He doesn't try to take charge or get involved in the local politics. His biggest interest is to keep a bunch of helpless people from being butchered. We don't learn much about him but what we do see is interesting. But the fact that he is human and from their past leaves us with a lot of questions. If humans existed in the past, why don't they exist now? Why do the animal people have no memory of humans? Where did magic actually come from? The internal conflicts are honestly less well done. I was left wondering how a certain warthog ever managed to be in charge of anything and kinda rolling my eyes at the secondary villain who is given no real redeeming traits what so ever. Seriously he isn't even all that intelligent frankly so I'm left asking how he gets away with so much shit? No one ever seems to call him on his shit and you think someone who had a lot of experience leading groups in extreme situations could have and been smart enough to realize it was necessary.

The book itself can be a bit gory, with a good amount of blood and dead people and full frontal male nudity on the champion for a page or two so this is not a book you want to share with children. While I was left unimpressed with the secondary villain and the political parts of the book, the rest of it was interesting and I was left wanting to know more about our main character and this strange new world. The Autumnlands by Kurt Busike and Benjamin Dewey gets a B-. It's an interesting world and main character but a lot of the conflicts could have been done and the secondary characters needed better fleshing out. Next week we return to the Old Kingdom.

[frigidmagi]

Abhorsen
by Garth Nix

This is the third book in the Old Kingdom series and the end of the trilogy. In this book the myriad plots and army of the Necromancer Hedge converge and the heroes roll their dice to try and stop the no shit end of the world. Now usually I don't like end of the world plots. They're overdone and I have a really hard time buying anyone actually ending the world. No seriously think about it. What possible benefit do you get from ending the world? There's no good loot, no one to boss around, you can't even gloat to anyone because they're all dead! I get wanting to take over the world. I get building a doomsday device as a last ditch defense against the heroes or villains (I live in a country that did it! What else would you call our nuclear weapon stockpile?). But making ending the world plan A? I mean even the vampires on Buffy admitted that they were just trying to look tough for the girls when they talked about it. That said, Hedge, our wonderful, genius, psychopath of a villain pulls it off and makes me believe that he would do it and gives me plenty of reason as to why. Better, he does it in 20 words or less. To be blunt about it, Hedge is motivated by a very human fear and his determination to

Hedge remains one of my favorite villains (it's not his personality here, it's his sheer effectiveness) in this review series, which is interesting because we don't really spend a lot of time with him. We don't know his origins, we don't know the roots of his motives, but in the end... We really don't have to. His fear is a human one, Hedge is motivated by a desire to avoid death at all cost. What pushes him beyond the bounds of human behavior is the fact that he doesn't care for any other living being in the entire universe. Because of that, he doesn't care if everyone has to pay the price just as long as he can avoid going pass the 9th gate of death (I'll get to this). I don't know how much of Hedge's operations are a result of Nix's service in the Australian Army Reserve and are just dumb luck but I got to state again I am very impressed. Hedge's consistently chooses tactics that split his enemies forces, isolates enemies in places he is strong and they are weak and keeps them reacting rather then launching their own plans or having the time to consider their tactics in depth. Throw in his willingness to confront his enemies head on without support, although to be fair he never confronts the strongest of his enemies (Sabriel) one on one instead choosing to use minions for that. Seriously, the NCO's who taught me tactics in the Marines would have to give grudging approval to Hedge's operations here. Hell the good guys have an entire family of people who can look into the future and he's still managing to get them on the ropes and preserve my suspension of disbelief. Anyways, all of this forces Sam and Lirael to undertake rather risky and dangerous moves to counter him.

What are Sam and Lirael up to you ask? Well they're going to have go places no one has gone and survived to dodge the armies of the dead that Hedge sent after them. At the same time they have to deal with the possibility of betrayal from within as events leave Mogget's loyalty (which is never really all that firm in the first place let's be honest) in question. We see a lot more of Disreputable Dog, who remains a big favorite of mine and we get to explore just what the hell Mogget and Disreputable Dog really are and what they know. Mogget's true nature could have been better hinted at and foreshadowed, I mean there are clues in the book, but not in the last two. Which makes me wonder if this is something Mr. Nix's just came up with in the last book. The Disreputable Dog's grant reveal wasn't that great of a shock to me, but well... It's been clear since she showed up that she wasn't just some random dog spirit. I got to be honest, I would really like to see more stories set with Lirael and Disreputable Dog going on adventurers. Maybe some short stories set in her days of clearing the Library of monsters?

We also get to learn more about free magic and get to see more of Death, including the fabled 9th gate of Death, beyond which there is no return. I thought the 9th gate was rather well done. As always I like the voyages into Death. Given some questions I got I feel I have to clarify things though. Death is not the after life, but rather the border between the afterlife and life itself. People and things who refuse to accept their deaths hang around here trying to get back into life. Necromancers can go into Death to recruit or destroy these spirits. Death is divided into 9 parts or wards, separated by gates, the more gates you pass the closer you get to the afterlife. The deeper you go into Death, the greater the pull to just go all the way and go into the afterlife. Death itself has a water theme, with that pull is shown as the current of water. This ties back in a clever way to the weaknesses of the dead, for example because Death is spiritually a river that moves you towards the afterlife, the Dead cannot cross running water (I wonder how the ocean effects them on that? In the first book we saw the just being on the sea really weakened Free Magic... Hmmm). I've said it before and I'll say it again, I really liked that. The whole magic system is really interesting and I would like to learn more.

We get to see Lirael, who only learned that she was the Abhorsen in waiting at the end of the last book really get into her necromanctic duties and we get to see Sam really settle into his own role. I got to admit I like Sam more in this book then in Lirael. I suppose freed of the expectation of becoming a necromancer allowed him to grow into a fairly good person and someone who can pull his weight in a quest to save the world. Which is a good thing because that's what he's on. In fact towards the end of the book he gets a pretty cool moment of awesome where he confronts his fear with literally nothing but his will and a set of blowpipes. Yes, you read that right and it's amazing. Lirael herself learns to make peace with the fact that she won't ever get to foresee the future like the rest of her family but that her own gifts (such as looking into the past) are just as important. We also get to spend some time with Nick, Sam's friend from Brit... I mean Ancelstierre of course! He is from an important political family so his being hijacked by an evil spirit and used by Hedge to give him cover to set up forces in Ancelstierre is kind of... Bloody hindering awkward problem. Despite being possessed by something older then our species, Nick manages to put up a good fight though and tries his damnest to contribute to team good guy. You really can't ask for much more then that. Ancelstierre is having it's own problems with a bloody coup kicking off the book resulting in distracting the military and civil authorities at the worse possible time! Which adds to the sheer oh crap factor I feel

The book also tries to hint at the idea of Lirael and Nick hooking up together but I didn't really feel the chemistry beyond Lirael running into a boy her own age that she could talk to and she wasn't related to. To be fair I wasn't completely sold on Sabriel and Touchstone as a couple either. Either Mr. Nix isn't that great at this, or I'm fairly dense on these matters. I will leave that decision up to my readers, course y'all will have to read this series before you can really discuss if I'm missing hint's that Mr. Nix is dropping. Isn't that just a pity?

Most of this story is a desperate race against time to stop Hedge from completing his mission, it works fairly well, although from time to time the characters seem to forget that they're racing against the clock. I also found Disreputable Dog's increasingly strange unwillingness to explain the threat to Lirael kinda infuriating. Is it really that hard to just tell them what's going on and not tap dance around the point? Is there some sort of magical spirit by-law that states you can never actually just tell people things but you have to lead them around until they find the information by other means? Most of the book manages to maintain a level of urgency and desperation that hovers on the edge of despair. You can't even blame them either as Hedge seems to have a plan B, C and D just to delay them another 5 minutes. Lucky for everyone that Lirael has learned to be quick on her feet and Sam is pretty damn relentless. It's a close run fight right down to the last chapter as they confront Hedge, his chief servant Chlorr and Hedge's master itself and I enjoyed it.

That said the book isn't perfect. Like I said I have a problem buying the romantic relationships that Mr. Nix is displaying. Additionally I needed more foreshadowing to buy Mogget's true nature. I mean it holds up when I think about it and poke at it... But this is something you build up a little more to. I'm the kind of guy who likes it when the reveal comes and I go “Of Course! Everything fits together now!” instead of “Wait... What? Where did that come from?” I also would have liked to spend more time with the characters. Like the first book Sabriel, I feel like Mr. Nix doesn't give us enough time with the characters and let us get to know them. That's offset by the amount of character work put into Lirael (although more work was put into Lirael then Sam but you can't have everything). Basically I guess I'm asking for another 50 pages that would just be character stuff for myself. I shouldn't carp to much about, at least Mr. Nix can bloody well finish a story and tell it well under a 1000 pages (That's right! I'm looking at you Sanderson! Way of Kings did not need to be that damn long! I read Mistborn, I know you can tell a story without rambling on like that!). In fact I kinda feel Abhorsen was cut off from Lirael for reasons of length as they really do tell separate parts of a single story. At least this one didn't end on a cliff hanger though.

Everything considered though? I really liked this book, Lirael remains a favorite character that I hope to see more of and the book let Sam do the growing up he needed to address my issues with him. It also gave me thrilling heroics, incredible magic and a battle to save the world. It manages to make me believe that someone would choose to end the world for selfish and in the end pointless reasons. Because of these reasons Abhorsen gets an A. I really encourage everyone to give this series a shot.

Next week, we go back to independent books, as I need to find out what happened to a certain Seedbearing Prince who got himself shoved into the belly of the beast. Literally.

[frigidmagi]

Harper Lee, the writer of To Kill A Mockingbird passed away today. She was 89. I will likely be doing a sidebar on this later.

[frigidmagi]

Sidebar II:
Harper Lee

This Friday, a woman of 89 years old passed away. She was buried today in a private ceremony in her home town of Monroeville, Alabama with only few people in attendance. This is not because her passing was little noted or remarked but because of the private nature of the woman. Her birth name was Nelle Harper Lee, I and all of those who will read this I think, knew her simply as Harper Lee, the woman who wrote To Kill A Mockingbird. She was born in Monroeville in 1926 but like a lot of kids born in small towns did not stay. She left to seek her fortune in New York City and in 1957 turned in the manuscript for To Set A Watchmen. The editor who received it didn't care for the manuscript but in her own words “[T]he spark of the true writer flashed in every line", so she set about getting a book that she would like from Ms. Lee. That book took several years and if you'll excuse me being snobbish about it would be the only book Ms. Lee would write. That book, set in a small southern town set ablaze (metaphorically) by the accusation that a white woman had been raped and beaten by a black man, was released in July of 1960. It became an instant best seller, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961 and 39 years after it was published in the year of our Lord 1999 was voted best novel of the century in Library Journal (the largest trade publication for Librarians, which I frankly assume means most of the voters in the poll would have been Librarians). In 2006, British Librarians rated the book as one every adult should read. This book was as you well know “To Kill a Mockingbird”

"I never expected any sort of success with 'Mockingbird.'I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers but, at the same time, I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement. Public encouragement. I hoped for a little, as I said, but I got rather a whole lot, and in some ways this was just about as frightening as the quick, merciful death I'd expected." Harper Lee on To Kill a Mockingbird's success

While she would help childhood friend (and also famous writer) Truman Capote on some of his books, including the based on real life crime thriller “In Cold Blood.” She never wrote a book again, even “To Set a Watchmen” is based on the first draft that she wrote before Mockingbird but if you're only going to write one book, Mockingbird is a hell of a choice for that book. I like a lot of us I read the book in class in high school. Unlike a lot of things I did in high school, I'm actually grateful that they made us do it. I am not going to turn this into a review of Mockingbird, there is simply nothing that I can say that can add to what has already been discussed. That said I felt I should say something when the writer of something so amazing passes from us. I will talk a bit about how the book effected me, at the time I, being a rather dense high school student in a lot of ways had blithely assumed that racism was pretty much done in the United States. I was fairly sure that by the time I was 30 that racism would be something we read about in old books and saw in old movies. When you're done laughing your ass off, I will remind you I wasn't even old enough to drink yet at the time. So when we started reading the book, I was sure it was a nice book but with nothing really relevant to say to modern society. I was wrong (not just about the racism thing, although I was certainly wrong about that). Even laying aside the stone cold look at what racism does to people and the how those effects can cause incredible harm beyond even the immediate effects. There's the rather cutting look at class (no one gave a shit that Mayella Ewell was an abused child trapped in poverty and pain, until someone thought to blame a black man), and more... Frankly the book is a brutal look at society in some ways and all the more brutal in that this is not a polemic. We aren't told, look at how horrible these people are, they are racists and therefore evil. Instead we're shown people who range from good to indifferent, noble to at the very least trying, engaging in terrible behavior because of their beliefs in race, gender or class.

That's not what stayed with me though if we're going to be honest. It's the moment outside of the courtroom when Dill and Scout have fled due to Dill being upset and they are comforted by Dolphus Raymond, a white land owner who spurned white society to the point of living with and having children with a black woman (he didn't marry but that's because the book is set in the south during the depression, interracial marriage was illegal in the south at that time). The town has pretty much dismissed Raymond as a mangy drunk who doesn't know what he's doing. However we find out it's not booze he's drinking, but Coca Cola when he gives Dill some to drink to calm him down. He more or less just let's the town believe him to be a drunk so he can be left alone to live his life. That stuck with me for a lot of reasons, that I'll keep to myself but there you go. I

Harper Lee may have only written one book, compared to some writers who have written dozens, or even more... That might not seem like a lot. But sometimes? Sometimes... Sometimes one book is enough. We should all be so lucky has to leave something like “To Kill a Mockingbird” behind. Rest Well Ms. Lee and thank you.

[frigidmagi]

Seedbearing Prince II
By Davaun Sanders

So let me start this with the grand tradition of disclaimers. Mr. Sanders is a friend of mine from work and he is aware that I am reviewing his works, in fact he might be reading this right now (Hey, man hope it's good feedback). We no longer work in the same department but none the less. That said everything in this review is my honest opinion and nothing but.

Now for those of you who don't remember or didn't read the review of the first book (you should read the first book and my review!) the Seedbearing Prince takes place in the World Belt, a collection of worlds linked by an asteroid field that is dense enough to travel through spiderman style. Our main character Dayn Ro'Halan is a farm boy who is working and planning to become one of the people who spend their lives traveling through the field of rocks and strange creatures adapted to this existence with nothing but a special suit, some grappling line and breathing gear. This is spiked when when he thwarts an attack on his world by a group of black armored monsters in the form of men known as Voidwalkers. Attack to mild a word though, they are literally trying to kill an entire world when Dayn trips over them, stops the attack and recovers a Seed, an artifact of immense power that bonds to Dayn. The Ring, a floating super fortress and extra-national organization of scientist and warriors found about Dayn and talked him on going on a tour of the Belt (the collection of worlds linked by asteroids) to drum up unity and raise awareness that the Voidwalkers are real. A Defender (a ring special forces soldier basically) named Nassir goes with him as well as a Preceptor (scientist) named Lurec go with him for advice and protection. This trip didn't go as planned. While Dayn was able to do a fair piece of good out there, he also got captured by the Voidwalkers in a massive attack on a city world named Montollos. In fact he got slammed into the belly of dread creature named a Fleshweep, which can hold it's captives for decades and there is almost no escape.

I was honestly less then happy that the first book ended in a cliffhanger. It didn't help that when I got Seedbearing Prince II it was about 200 pages which had me asking if this could have been combined with the first book. I haven't talked to Mr. Sanders about that, so that might be a publishing issue (this happens for example David Eddings planned the Belgariad as a trilogy only to be told to make it five books). On the flip side, the tone of the story shifts here fairly dramatically. In a single book that might have caused some serious whiplash, we go from a young man discovering the wider universe about him in all it's dangers and glories to... Well.. Fair warning here folks, Dayn takes it on the chin repeatedly here. So I'm going to go ahead and let this go, so there will be deduction for splitting the story here. Because of the change of the story we're being told here. The characters and setting remain consistent here I want to note, the change comes in a shift of tone and emphases. The shift is smooth enough that I'm willing to allow it and the story remains interesting and takes us to new places and shows us a lot of new exciting things.

Dayn is no longer on a journey to learn about what's going around him. He's learning how to survival in an hostile environment full of people who want to kill him or worse. He has to learn fast about the nature of his enemies and the extent of the cruelty they are capable and he spends a good part of the book in a captivity of sorts. Let's throw on top of that the fact that he is developing strange abilities and perceptions due to his exposure and bonding to the seed artifact. He has to learn what these abilities are and what his limits are while being taunted and tormented by monsters. Because the Voidwalkers have a plan for Dayn. If they can't kill or destroy him, they'll twist and use him. Dayn doesn't take this laying down though, he's going to escape even if it kills every Voidwalker in the base with him or utterly wrecks him in the process and it just might. We learn a bit about the Voidwalkers, including how the Fleshweeps are made (that's right made), in process that suggest to me that the Voidwalkers have never heard of an ethics committee (my bros and ladies in the bio or medical sciences know exactly what I'm talking about here). Additionally we get to see the Voidwalkers interact with each other and with people who aren't Voidwalkers and... Look, I'm calling them monsters for a reason. They create monsters that slowly break down prisoners over years in their bellies for war mounts. That's completely unnecessary! There's no real purpose to that beyond sadism as far as I can figure. Their favored attack is a mental assault that the people of the world belt refer to as the Thrall. It's an attack on your mind that can shred your very sanity. While they've created mental disciplines to ward off the worse effects of the Thrall, it can stop even Defenders. Add in the fact that the Voidwalkers refer to the people of the world belt as degenerates. With their more advanced capabilities and their extreme tendencies towards cruelty it's very much the pot and kettle. It does kind of remind me of Munteerers Moon, a novel by David Weber where the bad guys also refereed to regular people as degenerates despite behaving in an utter barbarous manner. To be honest though comparing the Voidwalkers to the barbarians of history is an insult to such people as the Mongols and the Huns. While Mongols and Huns acted in terrible ways, there were at least damn good reasons for their behavior. While from the Voidwalkers all I'm seeing is savage, terrible sadism and spite! They have their own world, which has more space and resources then the people of the world belt! They have more advanced capabilities and the their self chosen enemies can't hope to threaten them meaningfully. So I am at an utter lost to explain their actions. I really hope the next book sheds on some light on why the Voidwalkers insist on acting like monsters without even the merest drop of decency or humanity.

Meanwhile Lurec and Nassir find themselves with more then a little work to do on their own. They have the seed, even if they lost Dayn and they need to make sure it doesn't fall into the hands of the enemy. They also have to evade the government of the world they're on. Montollos is a very wealthy, powerful world that chafes at the influence and restraints of the ring and would be more then happy to “barrow” the seed for themselves. Once they escape Montollos they have to decide whether or not to try to rescue Dayn or just make a break for it and take the Seed to safety. Like Dayn, they'll find themselves doing things they would never have imagined doing as they are pushed harder and harder. Additionally we get to see more of the flora and fauna of the torrent (the name of the debris field) which I find very interesting, it's an entire ecosystem that is incredibly dangerous but endlessly fascinating. Course back on the ring, we find trouble brewing. We meet Nassir's wife, a lady who came up with the idea of trying to tame Rage Hawks (giant hawks that hunt monsters in the torrent for food!) as war mounts so she could ride into battle on a bird that can tear apart sheets of metal. She's unhappy that her husband has gone missing and intends to gather up a squad of manics on giant crazy hawks that attack metal ships and go look for him. Frankly this explains a lot of Nassir's attitude last book to me. If I had to leave a lady that awesome behind to guard a pair of naive manics? I'd be grumpy to. Hell, I might even be surly. She's also getting sucked into some intrigue as factions within the ring are setting up for a power play, as even within a fortress that is suppose to devoted to unity has people willing to break everything apart so they can get a bigger piece.

We also get a stunning reveal into the origin and nature of the setting, some of which I thought I saw coming but a lot of which I'll admit caught me off guard. I'm not going to spoil it or discuss those reveals in this review due to my long standing anti-spoilers policy. That said I did like how the reveal was handled and was made into an experience. The information is revealed not by lecture but by showing us by the method of giving one of the characters (Who? Not telling!) a series of flashbacks so s/he experiences the events first hand. We learn that the Voidwalkers have been a blight to the people of the worlds for a very, very long time and again many of their actions seem completely nonsensical to me. Driven only by sadism. We get to see the origins of the worlds themselves and the origins of the Ring, the Defenders, the Preceptors, all of it. It's a wild ride that let's us take a look at the past of the setting without bogging us down in a lecture or sticking it in the back of the book in an appendix. Furthermore the reveal of this history is serves a purpose in the story, to help undo the mental and emotional damage that a character as suffered and to enlighten him as to why he must fight. It's always important to know why you're fighting and to have a decent idea what victory looks like after all.

The book is short and in some ways is a continuation of the first book. That said the tonal shift and the change in goals and plans of the character help the book to translate into it's own separate story from the first book which was a worry of mine when I first opened it up. The pace is good, the story is tight and no page is wasted (which is a good thing because it doesn't have any pages to waste). Mr. Sanders delivers a twist on the setting that I didn't see coming but works in well with what was reveled in the first book. That said, I am left with a hell of a lot of questions mostly as to why the Voidwalkers do what they do. As it stands, they seem almost nonsensical as a culture, a people or a political entity being devoted to just pure sadism and tormenting the people of the world belt for... Reasons. Of course this is balanced out that we only really see them through Dayn and his companions eyes and they only see the Voidwalkers when they show up to fight or torment them. Still I'm hoping for more revelations in the next book and to find out more about the setting. This book has kept me interested and pushing for more. So because of that I am giving The Seedbearing Prince part II a A-.

Join me next time for more Acts of Caine.

[frigidmagi]

Blade of Tyshalle
by Matthew Stover

"How many of you want to be my friend?"
Caine page 505

Blade of Tyshalle is the second book in the Acts of Caine series, if you haven't read the first book “Heroes Die” I would recommend you go read it first because there are going to be spoilers for that book in this review. Okay, let's do this.

Blade of Tyshalle opens with a story from Hari Michealson's days of training to be an actor. We learn that he originally was slated to be a mage, due to his size and slight build, but well... Basically? He brawled his way into the combat school where they focused more on murdering people with your bare hands and what not. Which honestly was a better fit for him anyways. We also learn about what may have been his first friend Kris Hansen. That peek into the past turns out to be important because this book ends up much like Heroes Die being rather philosophical in nature... Interestingly enough, to me anyways, Stover's books are philosophical not in spite of the ultra violence present in the book or the rather stark and pared down outlook of it's protagonists but because of those reasons the story and the characters within it find themselves asking some important questions... Including our main character, despite his constant claims of how that is not in his nature. I find myself constantly comparing this to Baker's (Prince of Nothing) books and while I think Baker's books are maybe deeper and likely better written... I would reread Mr. Stover's books first because frankly... I like the people in Stover's books more, even when they drive to distraction.

If I can be forgiven the reference, the Vorlon and Shadow questions (if you don't know, go watch Babylon 5) make an appearance in this book, although other questions also appear. “What do you want?” makes an overt appearance. You see the climax of Heroes Die had a profound effect on Overworld, kick starting two new religions into gear. The overt and popular one is the church of Mal'elKoth (who trapped on Earth now calls himself Tan'elKoth) which has adopted a lot of trappings that frankly are a bit to familiar to me (an organized church of Bishops answering to a Primarch who is also a temporal ruler?) and a religion that most of it's followers proclaim is more of a philosophy called Cainism. Cainism's questions are simple but can be rather profound. What do you want and what will you do to get it? It's followers openly state that rules do not matter to them, expect when they allow them to matter and that the world is about what you want and what you will and will not do. As you can guess the ruling powers do not care for that at all. It is interesting to note that Cainist are for the most part rather law abiding individuals (not all of them but most) but it's the church of Mal'elKoth who has taken over the rule of the Empire and that church has declared Caine to be the Enemy of God. Which means anyone who declares for Cainism is about as popular as a leper in an orgy.

Meanwhile back on Earth, Hari Michealson despite having almost all his wishes granted (got his wife back, got a cool kid, Dad's out of jail, he's running the studio, can't really walk due to his spine being severed at the climax of the last book) is utterly depressed and miserable. He and Shanna are trying their damnest but their marriage is at best kludging along. He hates the job, he's worked for so long to get. He can't figure out how to sit down and talk to his wife and hammer out the problems in his marriage. I'm going to be honest this one frustrates me the most. Not because I don't think it shouldn't be there but because I just want to reach into the book drag Hari and Shanna by their ears to an escape proof room and not let them out until they stop making vague word noises at each and actually talk to one another. I'm not going to claim to be Mr. Successful Relationships here (No, I'm not discussing my dating record and I don't care if you like it) but one thing I've notice? If you cannot really and honestly talk to your Significant Other about what's bother you? Your relationship is crippled, I don't mean in the still perfectly functional as a person way, I mean in the utterly fucked up this car only has two wheels and the steering wheel is on fire way. I'm basically awkwardly flailing at the statement that you should make the effort to talk and listen (I don't mean yap and wait your turn to yap, I mean really talk and really listen) to your loved one if you want it to work. That said Shanna and Hari are keeping their marriage a going concern by sheer manic determination and an honest desire to make it work. They just suck at it.

The Vorlon question “Who are you?” does not make an overt appearance but it is frankly central to the plot. You see, it's the question each of the characters has to answer along with the questions of the Cainist. The answers of Hari Michealson, Tan'elKoth, Pallas Ril, Hanno the Scythe and others to these questions are the axis on which the plot turns and that plot will determine the ultimate fate of Earth and Overworld. I'll throw in my own statement on these questions here (reviewers privilege folks, you can to toss out commentary even if no one asks you to). All of these questions are interlinked to the point that you cannot answer one without answering the others. They gotta answer these questions fast to because the powers that be of Earth have decided to stop playing around with Overworld. See, they've started slowly and covertly colonizing Overworld but slow and covert is just not hitting the spot. So they're going to make their colonization a necessity. They're going to release the plague that almost ended life on Earth on Overworld. A modified version of rabies that dehydrates it's victim and drives them into homicidal paranoia. It's highly infectious and when enough people have it... Their society literally tears itself apart. Hari and Shanna along with others on Overworld and Earth race to stop this biological doomsday from coming to past while all around them dark but all to human forces conspire to not only stop them but utterly destroy them and everyone they love. Especially their daughter Faith. At the risk of slight spoiler here, while everyone in the story has to answer who they are, what do they want and what will they do to get it... The person's whose answer turns out to be most important isn't Hari, or Pallas Ril but a figure that has been sitting in the background of both this and the last story. I won't say who but I will say I found his answers to be the most... Human.

Another argument that takes place in this book is what does it mean to be human? In a lot of fantasy works the bad guys signal their badness by rejecting their humanity. Declaring themselves above it and better then humanity. In this book the bad guys declare themselves the most human people of all and put themselves forwards as in some ways literal avatar's of humanity. Mr. Stover's talent is on full display here because I can't decide if he agrees with this argument or if it's just something the bad guys are advancing to give them intellectual cover for their sheer disregard of life itself. I am going to state my own firm disagreement that the bad guys represent human nature in it's complete state. Oh I'll grant they represent parts of human nature, the need for control, the disregard of the price other people have to pay for our actions, the selfish unending hunger that flat out doesn't care about anything but sating it's desires. I didn't need Mr. Stover's books to point that part of human nature to me. In the Marines a friend of mine nicknamed that part of us “The Monkey,” it's the part of you that encourages you to take that last cookie even if your buddy hasn't had one yet, to fuck over that other guy at work for the promotion. The Monkey wants. That's what it does and from it comes greed, ambition, desire and a host of goods and ills. But the Monkey is not the whole of human nature, not even close. The willingness to take a hit for another person, to buy food for someone because they're hungry, to give to charity and bleed for a common goal is also a part of who are as much as the damn Monkey and that part is well represented in this book also. Repeatedly we'll see people sacrifice for their loves ones, for people they just met, for people they don't know and won't ever know. Hell we see it in the person of Hari Michealson, who would be the first people to tell us he's no hero and he gives no fuck about saving people he don't know. I would argue it's the clash between our selfless instincts and our selfish instincts that what it means to be human comes out. How we answer the questions after all is as important as what our answers are sometimes.

At this point I've likely made the book sound like some moody meditation on dusty philosophical and boring. Well this book is a lot of things but it isn't boring. We got fights, be it duels between men, between gods or between gods and men. We also got combat on larger scales and dying by the truck load. We even got us a bit of an old fashion war here. Our characters may be struggling to answering bone deep questions of identity and desire but they're testing and refining their answers by breaking bones and shedding blood. We also got plots and intrigue, as wheels within wheels turn to trap and save our characters and the whole plot can twist on a single friendship or conversation. You'll see battle between technology and magic, divine and man, brawn and brain. In short this book is 800 pages but thankfully none of them are wasted and unlike some Stover doesn't just keep repeating himself (you know who you are! YOU KNOW!). I will note for the record one thing that Stover did that offended me, I'm prepared to forgive but I ain't letting it pass without comment. Mr. Stover... Your jumped up secret police wanna be riot cops ain't combat troops and if your upper Caste knuckleheads think they are... Then they got the military sense of peacock on crack and they damn lucky there are no competing societies on Earth. With real combat troops. Who would love to to brawl it out with Soapie.

My outraged sense of dignity for front line troops aside, I really enjoyed Mr. Stover's book even when I was violently disagreeing with it. That's take a lot of talent and work and I think Mr. Stover deserves praise and recognition for that. So because it earned it, I'm giving Blade of Tyshalle an A. Matthew Stover is batting a thousand so far and let's hope it stays that way. Still... Man... That was dark and dense and is the kind of book that sits like a lump turkey in your gut. I'm gonna need something... Lighter next.

[Cynical Cat]

Well they're aren't any competing society's on Earth. Soapie hasn't had competition for longer than Hari's father has been alive. So yeah, not so good at this military stuff even if Soapie can shoot. I'm glad you noticed the parallel's with Bakker's writing. I enjoy them both (obviously, since I recommended them) but I'm also glad that they are quite different writers. I don't think you'll find Caine Black Knife a disappointment.

Also, a recommendation to throw onto the pile:

Lev Grossman's The Magicians. It's the one with the entrance exam to the university that teaches people real magic that changes as you write it and has questions like "confine the rabbit that you just drew" while the drawing is wandering the page and "invent a new language and explain it's grammar and structure".

[frigidmagi]

No Game No Life
by Yuu Kamiya

No Game No Life is the 4th novel worked on by Yuu Kamiya (which is a pen name), a Japanese-Brazilian illustrator-writer. He first started working in 2006 on E.A.R.T.H (which I couldn't find anything about). No Game No Life was published in 2013 and was recently made into anime. It was recommended to me by someone I knew in the Barnes and Noble... Which I'm really regretting. Oh man am I regretting reading this book. Let me get started here.

No Game No Life tells us the story of Sora and Shiro, a brother and sister who are both maladjusted genius who are incapable of dealing with people. Sora, the brother is 18 years old, very smart (he speaks 6 languages for example) and incredibly capable of reading people and getting inside their heads especially while playing a game against them. So of course he can't figure out social interactions and can't understand people... Wait... That doesn't seem right does it? Yet the novel keeps insisting that Sora is a genius who within minutes of meeting people can climb into their heads and figure out how to rattle them or string them along in a sense of security but can't figure out what kind of behaviors would seem weird. Yep, it's that kind of novel. I could let this slide but frankly not only does Sora annoy the piss out of me but the book has an unnerving obsession with his sexuality. Mentioning repeatedly that's he a virgin and can't figure out how to get a girlfriend (although given how he treats the other female led it's no wonder to me). I'll expand on this stuff later.

Shiro, the 11 year old younger sister is basically an autistic super genius (she speaks 18 languages and does calculus in her head) who just can't really connect to people expect her brother. Honestly I have less of a problem with Shiro expect for the fact that she's not really a character, she's a plot device. She just tamely follows along with her brother's plots and ideas, every now and again muttering that he's an idiot and stepping in to solve problems for him on command because super genius. She displays next to no real agency in of herself and frankly speaking as an older brother I found her docileness odd and hard to believe. Of course when she does express a goal of her own near the end of the book... I found myself wishing she had stayed a plot device.

Now both of these kids start out as utter and complete shut ins living in the same room in Japan. The story states that they've been abandoned by their parents (who pays their rent then? Where do they get money for their phones and tablets and solar chargers and... sigh you know what never mind) and they spend their time playing games until they pass out and eating instant food. They also pose as the same person going by the handle “ “ aka Gamer Blank (seriously how would that be a thing?) which honestly strikes me as bit of cheating there but not important. After being challenged via email to a game by a mysterious individual and winning they are transported to a strange new world that operates under different rules and is filled with strange places and stranger people. Being transported to a strange new place where your gifts are of more benefit to you is pretty much a staple of planetary romance and the whisked away fantasy genre so it's fairly normal here. Let's talk a bit about the world.

The sibs are transported to a world that had been locked in a endless series of violent race conflicts between various fantasy races until a new god managed to grab the top seat and changed the rules. The new god issues 9 (well 10 but the 10th rule is frankly not in effect) which boil down to basically all bodily harm, war and such are utterly forbidden and all conflicts are to be settled by games. Games are played according to rules agreed upon by the players for stakes and wagers that the players agree to. Any game or wager is permitted as long as everyone playing agrees to it and if you're caught cheating, you lose. So basically try any violence and god himself will strike you down, but you can solve your issues with a great round of Parcheesi if you like. Course this does leave a massive hole in the rules, what if I just don't play? I mean, let's say I walk into the store, grab an apple and walk out, you tell I have to pay for it and I say nope. The cops come and... Do what? Physical violence has been forbidden! You can't arrest me! I can just walk away! What are you going to do tackle me? All Bodily Harm is forbidden! Basic property rights cannot be enforced (on the flip side murder is now impossible so there's that at least). Hell we have a bandit scene where bandits wait by the road and challenged people to games and I'm left asking why anyone would bother? You just walk right pass the bandits because they can't stop you! I mean if they blocked off part of the road maybe? But then it would be charging a toll. You can't say that no one can refuse to play because in the story one race is mentioned as simply refusing to play any games at all and others suggest that route for humans. It's tempting because well...

At this point humans are at the bottom of the ladder with just one city state to call their own. See there's a problem with the rules. It doesn't count as cheating unless you get caught, you might be thinking okay fine so what? Every other race on the planet expect humans can use magic. Humans cannot even perceive someone using it. We can't directly interact with it at all and we're completely blind to it. Which means anyone who isn't human just has to use magic to cheat and their human opponent is completely boned. So the Kings of Humanity and by extension humanity have been having their asses to handed to them. Which is where the 3rd character of this story comes in and where things really start to go downhill, the granddaughter of the last king of the humanity, Stephanie..

She shows up losing a game (after Shiro tells her the other person is cheating her) and hunting down the sibs to find out how they knew. Now I had figured her for the love interest/guide a character who is a native of the strange new world and would be able to explain and guide our main characters through the social and physical laws of the place. This venerable role stretches at least as far back as the Princess of Mars by Burroughs in modern fiction (that's only if I stick to the planetary romance genre of course). That would however require that anyone else be allowed to know things besides the diamond duo! So instead I have the sibs who have been on this planet for a whole 3 days explaining to Stephanie how her own fucking planet works! Never you fucking mind that as a member of the royal family one of her biggest jobs would have been to learn this system as it's part and parcel of having the ability to rule in the first place! Especially when you consider that Stephanie has no cousins, no siblings and her parents are incredibly absent making her the de facto heir to her grandfather! But No! No one else is allowed to have any talent or understanding of how anything works besides our “heroes” because if they're not the only ones allowed to know things how are we suppose to realize they're geniuses?!? So pretty much... In order to make our protagonists cool and smart... We have to make everyone else a mouth breathing idiot barely able to tie their shoes without accidentally hanging themselves (although to be fair some of the characters may be trying to escape this story through the sweet release of death!). I cannot stress how much I utterly and completely loath this style of building up a character. It's bloody easy to look like a genius when you surround yourself with idiots guys. You want to impress me? Surround yourself with smart people and make yourself look like a genius. That's awesome and interesting, this? Is middle school antics. Of course the way I just outlined is hard and making everyone an idiot is easy.

That's the worse of it though. See Sora tells Stephanie gleefully that he'll gladly explain all his super awesome secrets and skills (in 3 easy to read lessons!) if she can beat him in a game. He even explains how to beat him in the game (rock, paper, scissors, I swear you have this chance to revel in all manner of exotic and strange games and what games do I get in this story? Poker, Chess and Rock, Paper Scissors... Really... I just... Ugh!). On the flip side Stephanie has to promise to do him a little favor. She of course double and triple thinks herself into failure BECAUSE DOING ANYTHING ELSE WOULD MEAN SORA CAN'T BE AWESOME! Of course Sora announces that his little favor is that she has to fall in love with him. Which leads to the part that is frankly a little nauseating to me. See Stephanie now has no choice but to fall in love with Sora against her will (which okay, that happens, people find themselves loving people they don't want to or shouldn't and you can write about that) and is fully aware that this is being forced on her. It's a horrific situation if you think about it, part of your personality and desires are being rewritten by an outside force and you can't do anything about it... Because you lost a child's game. You could do a lot with this, depending on the kind of story you want to tell, you can emphasize or try to de-emphasize the horror of the situation as you see fit but there's a lot of potential here. It is of course wasted as the story uses this for cheap laughs and pandering titillation. It's not even funny either, just cringe worthy as Stephanie is assaulted (first they do? Start groping her chest... Classy!) forced into fetish outfits and at one point is flat out told that her purpose in life is to provide well... Huh... Let me call it “viewing material.” Not only is this rather disgusting (If would be fine if she knew what was going on and wanted to but she can't say no! She wants to say no but she can't!) but it's a criminal misuse of a character. Instead of her having her own arch and desires stemming from her background and interacting with the main characters on that ground, she is forced into well... Slavery! Utterly subordinate and unable to even really protest her humiliation and reduction to a thing and well... This wouldn't happen if Stephanie was Steve. Look, I'm not a feminist but even I have to protest this! Everyone has the right to control over their own body and who can touch it! This isn't a gender thing that's just basic shit! I shouldn't even have to discuss this in a damn book review blog what is your fucking malfunction!?! To have your main character do this and it's not even discussed or considered as something he shouldn't be doing? I'm not saying your protagonists shouldn't ever do fucked up shit but... Look, I read a book called Malus Darkblade once about a dark elf that murders his entire family and it was at least treated as a fucked up thing to do! Even has pandering fetish material this is just cringe worthy and clumsy at best and utterly disgusting at worse. Surely we can do better then this? Right? Please?

Add in wooden, tell don't show writing, really ham handed dialogue (I would love to blame this on the translation team but Log Horizon did a much better job and No Game No Life had corporate backing from day one, while Log Horizon started as some guy's fiction on word press basically) characterization ranging from lazy to eye rolling and Oh right, the big reveal at the end that Sora and Shiro aren't really blood related and Shiro muttering about how she just needs 7 more years (UGH! Fuck you people that's not how sibling relationships work! We've done studies on this! Christ is being an only child that fucking bad that you come up with this shit?). I ain't even going into that issue, I'm just going to say I almost tossed the book in the trash right there but then some poor innocent might find it and try to read it! Add in large holes in the world building that I could let slide if you were telling a decent story (Harry Potter's world building has a number of holes to, but you what it has over this book? Engaging characters I like and care about and a story that was enjoyable to read!). As it stands I pray for the trees that were killed to make paper for this book, for their sacrifice was in vain! Between the offensiveness and the sheer wasted potential what can I say? A lot honestly I could for another 3 pages but I think you get the point gentle reader, remember my suffering!

We had a good streak this year but it's over folks! This book? THIS SO CALLED BOOK!?! No Game No Life by Yuu Kamiya gets a D-! Making it our new lowest book yet beating out Touched by an Alien, which I found merely bad and overwrought as opposed to this which is terrible on every level I care to consider it on and offensive in the bargain. If you're considering punishing someone try making them read this but don't be surprised if they don't speak to you for a couple weeks!

Oh this was suppose to be something nice and light after reading Stover! Fuck this I'm reading about Rabbit Samurai! Next week, a long eared Ronin arrives! Thank God for Stan Sakai!