Nearly one year ago I reviewed the second book in Joe Abercrombie’s First Law series, Before They Are Hanged, calling the writing misogynist. I more or less expected no one to pay attention to my blatherings on the internet, but Mr. Abercrombie wrote up a response. If he hadn’t, I doubt anyone would have noticed. I’ve just now finished the last book in the First Law trilogy, and my feelings about Abercrombie’s writing are just that much more solidified. He’s a talented, engrossing writer, who really pisses me off in how his writing treats women.

For those who don’t like being spoiled, run away now. I may liberally spoil this book and will start revealing plot details of the previous books in the series next paragraph.

At the end of the previous book, a mismatched band of questers returned to Adua, the capital of the Union, having failed to retrieve the Seed at the far end of the world. In the north the Union battles with Bethod, King of the Northmen. And in the south the Gurkish empire prepares to invade. The King is old and frail and has no heirs.

There are essentially three major plots in this book. The war against Bethod in the north is the first. Thought dead by the Northmen since near the beginning of the first book, Logen Ninefingers returns from the quest to join the fight. The plan is to head up a narrow valley to a fortress in the hills, luring Bethod behind them. Then, after a period the Union forces will follow Bethod and squeeze him between the two. The plan goes awry though when Lord Marshal Burr (head of the Union army) dies, and the two generals in charge let their rivalry prevent them from finishing Burr’s plan.

Plot two is a whole bunch of smaller plots. It’s all the politicking and backstabbing going on in the capital leading up to the death (by old age possibly) of the King. The Inquisition led by Arch Lector Sult is opposed by High Justice Marovia. The various lords contend with each other. The Magus Bayaz has his fingers in everything. Most of this plotting goes on around Superior Sand dan Glokta, who I thought was the most interesting character. He’s part of the Inquisition, the institution that investigates threats against the King and the empire. It’s just what you might think it is. Torture. Confessions. Witchhunts. Etc. The point is not really to find the truth, but rather to keep an iron hand on the empire’s subjects when necessary.

In the middle, the King dies and the Bayaz’ machinations put Jezal dan Luthar into the throne. He’s the fop who went on the quest with Bayaz, along with Ferro Maljinn, Logen Ninefingers, and a couple others. In other words, he’s now a puppet king for Bayaz.

The last major plot is the conflict between Bayaz and … the bad wizard of the south whose name I forget which I’m not going to bother to try to find. See, Mr. Bad Wizard has engineered the Gurkish empire to invade the Union so his Hundred Words (minions who have broken the First Law and so can’t be killed) can get their hands on Bayaz.

To spoil it all, Collem West (the intrepid Colonel from the previous books) becomes Lord Marshal just in time to save the Northmen from Bethod. Then they all head back to Adua to fight the invading Gurkish. Glokta is torn between allegiance to Sult (who wants Jezal out of the king’s throne) and bankers to whom he owes money (who want Jezal as king for stability) but decides to go against Sult in the end. Jezal isn’t much of a king at first, but starts to assert his authority against Bayaz and others. The army returns just in time to route the Gurkish, Bayaz stumbles on the Seed and uses it to destroy the Hundred Words, and the Union is preserved.

And then there’s 90+ pages of wrap-up. Which is where I got well and truly pissed off. Throughout the book, again there are only three female characters who get much print. Ferro Maljinn plays mostly a bit part this time around. Ardee West by now is a drunk and bitter woman who carries on an affair with the soon to be king Jezal. And lastly we meet Queen Terez about halfway through, an arranged marriage to cement an alliance between Jezal and the subject kingdom Styria. She doesn’t much like Jezal, but she’s a dutiful daughter. After the wedding though, she can barely stand to be in the same room with her husband.

What pissed me off is the plot in the wrap-up where Glokta engineers the rape of the Queen. Glokta is at this point now the Arch Lector of the Inquisition. No heir means succession problems, so Glokta throws Terez’ lesbian lover into the prison to get Terez to fuck her husband and produce an heir.

Oh, it fits with the story all right. No one escapes unscathed from Abercrombie’s story. Glokta is a heartless bastard. The point was already driven home many many times to the point it was almost monotonous. I’m in pain. I’m a cripple. I don’t give a shit what happens to others cause of what happened to me! Over and over and over again Glokta does truly despicable things. Topping it off with rape. I fail to see what that added on top of everything else. It seemed particularly gratuitous. Particularly with the following paragraph:

Glokta found that he was almost smiling as he watched the ugly scene. I may be crippled, and hideous, and in constant pain, but the humiliation of beautiful women is one pleasure I can still enjoy. I do it now with threats and violence, instead of with soft words and entreaties, but still. Almost as much fun as it ever was.

Glokta isn’t portrayed as a hero. But he is portrayed as necessary for the preservation of order. I get that Abercrombie is trying to create a ruthless world of grey, where no one is good, where everyone has huge character faults. He took it one step too far for me.

Which is a shame, because Abercrombie is a really good writer. His characters are different. He got me to understand the characters’ motivations like few writers have been able to. Less unique perhaps, but no less talented for it, is his ability to put together an extremely complex plot where everything makes sense. I hope his skill isn’t tied only to worlds of extreme violence and, I’ll put to electrons again, misogyny. Because I won’t be reading any more of his books set in this world, nor any where he uses the same schtick. The writing may be good, but it goes against my morals. No Best Served Cold for me.

A few other blogged reviews:

• Neth Space
• Adventures in Reading
• BillWardWriter.com

Title: Last Argument of Kings
Author: Joe Abercrombie
Series: The First Law; 3
Imprint / publisher: Pyr / Prometheus
Format: Paperback
Length: 636 p.
Publication date: August 2008
ISBN-13: 978-1-59102-690-7

Today’s Sunday Salon is brought to you by two cups of black currant tea, one mug of French press coffee, and Joe Abercrombie.

One little detail before I get on with my thoughts on the book. The title is a misnomer. Only one person gets hanged in the book. There is no they involved on the recipient end of the hanging. He’s sold you a bill of goods. Okay, done with the spoilering.

Before They Are Hanged is the second book in Joe Abercrombie’s debut fantasy series, The First Law. I say debut because that means he’s up for some prize at the World Science Fiction Convention and he’s been campaigning to get it. I’m not a member and don’t vote. After going to NorWesCon one year, I shall be staying away from any event where fandom dresses in costume. Never again. But I digress.

Continuing the series, Before They Are Hanged is three stories in one. Unlike the first book, there’s only a bit of interaction between the plots. One plot concerns First of the Magi, Bayuz, and his band of intrepid and mismatched explorers as they journey to the edge of the world to find the Seed, the remnant of the underworld which can be used as a great weapon. Bayuz intends to use it against Khalul, the prophet of the Gurkish south continent who has incited his followers to revert to ancient evil ways. This story is told from the perspectives of Jezal dan Luthar, an overconfident arrogant sword-wielding nobleman, Logen The Bloody Nine Nine-Fingers, a brutish and brutal expatriate Northman, and untrusting Ferro Malthiss, former slave, whore, and angry killer of the Gurkish. Sub-plot number one is mainly a tale of will they grow up and get along, this malcontent band as they travel westward across the old continent.

Tale number two concerns Sand dan Glokta, now Superior of the King’s Inquisition of Dagoska. Dagoska is a city situated on a lonely peninsula on the southern continent, separated and far from the Kingdom’s main territory. He’s been given a King’s Writ to take charge of the city, not just the inquisition, and defend it against the Gurkish Empire which threatens to take Dagoska. Not only do they have an army, the Gurkish Empire also owns traitors on the Dagoska ruling council. Who best to find a traitor than the Inquisition??

And story number three is the kingdom’s fight against the Northmen led by Bethod, newly installed as their first king. This one is told from the point of view of Colonel West, a commoner with a commission in the army, a truly unusual circumstance. Other folks that get the story told from their eyes are a band of Northmen exiles led by Rudd Threetrees, former opponent and companion of Logen Nine-Fingers. Wily and battle-hardened, their aid may be all that keeps the army from being routed by the cunning Bethod.

Abercrombie’s strength is his characters. There are fewer points of view in the second installment, which makes for better continuity. Those on the journey west with Bayuz are fun, but we’ve seen their like in many fantasy tales before. They are a bit less interesting than I wanted, Nine-Fingers in particular. In book one I remember him as extremely world-weary, almost having lost his will to live. He’s gained some of that back, and comes across as the reticent wise veteran here. I have a big complaint about Ferro that I’ll get to later. I liked Jezal dan Luthar though. Again, fairly stock archetype, but Abercrombie does a great job of taking us from the arrogant young nobleman to the wiser soldier at the end. There’s no one magic point where the transformation occurs, and he retains parts of his youthful ways even to the end. He’s done pretty well.

Sand dan Glokta gets to show a bit more human side this outing. We’ve always known he’s a self-aware torturer. He knows he’s doing bad things, and he does them anyway. That’s always been the beauty of Glokta’s character. It makes him even more monstrous than the pain-loving Practicals in his employ. Glokta doesn’t do these things because he must, but because it’s his job and he’s good at it. He has a conscience, a slight one, but ignores it. It’s a tightrope for a character, but it makes him a good anti-hero. One I became invested in, despite what he does. I read somewhere that there is a non-series book to be set in this world. It wouldn’t be too bad a book to tell Glokta’s story, though there’s a lot of danger there since it would be a prequel.

I’m going to skip the soldiers in the north. They were well done, but I just don’t have much to say about them.

I do have something to say about the female characters in the book though. The word that comes to mind when I think about them is misogynistic. I know it’s a loaded word to throw out there, but I can’t think of anything else. The vast majority of the characters in the book are male. Contrast that with Lois McMaster Bujold’s Paladin of Souls which I didn’t like all that much, but which included many female characters. I can think of only four in this book, three of them minor. The one to get the second most screen time is Cathil, who serves little purpose except as a semen receptacle. One of the big parts of Ferro’s character is similar, she’s a former slave/prostitute who must shut out a life of being used sexually and uses that to fuel her rage. Female character three is West’s sister Ardee. While not a bimbo, she spends the entire book waiting for her male saviors. Practical Vitari is a pain-loving torturer list her co-workers. But, minor and unimportant spoiler here, she’s revealed to have a soft spot for her multiple children. All four women defined by very stereotypical attributes. An argument can be made that anything modeled on Medieval times should follow Medieval culture, a very patriarchal one. But if we get to build a fantastic world, one with majic and invented geographies and societies created from the mind, could we not discard the typical female roles for a while? I know it’s too late for Last Argument of Kings, as that book is probably already on the shelves in England.

I do like the book, even if not as much as the first in the series. The westward journeying folks got tiresome. But the war in the north was a decent page-turner. Abercrombie kept the action moving. And Sand dan Glokta down in Dagoska is riveting read. I didn’t know how either plot would turn out. I half-expected the army to lose one or both wars and see the kingdom overrun. You’ll have to read to find out. But usually you read those kinds of stories and get an immediate feeling that while the babyfaces will have a rough go of it, there’s no way they can lose except temporarily. That would be the end of the story. David Anthony Durham’s Acacia has that quality. When his empire falls early, you know the second half of the book is going to be all about how they regain it. Abercrombie puts you in the place of peopel who deserve some to lose, and you don’t feel as if there’s some great comeback necessarily coming, because the protagonists aren’t by their nature the right kind of people.

Despite the negatives, which you can blame on me being a burned up shell of a man, I recommend the book after you’ve read the The Blade Itself. Joe Abercrombie has talent.

Late-breaking addition: Joe Abercrombie’s response.

Title: Before they are hanged
Author: Joe Abercrombie
Series: The first law; 2
Imprint / publisher: Pyr / Prometheus (originally Gollancz in the U.K.)
Format: Paperback
Length: 539 p.
Publication date: March 2008
ISBN-10: 1-59102-641-5
ISBN-13: 978-1-59102-641-9
LC classification: PR6101.B49 B45 2008

I really want to like this book. In a lot of ways I do like this book. However, before I do like this book let’s go back to I hate fantasy! and check a few things. Length: 671 pages in the A.R.C. Series: Check! With an abrupt transition at the end of this book. Elitism: Not really. Not in book one at least. One plus for this book at least. Prophesy: In spades! Medieval: Oh yeah! Rural idyll: In a couple of places, but also a few places of hard work and open sewers. Ponderous: Not quite to the limit that Tolkien established, but this book is up there.

Looks like Russell Kirkpatrick hit a home run on five out of seven at bats. Gonna be pretty tough for me to like it. In fact, I highly doubt I will read the remaining books in the series The Fire of Heaven. This was just too much of a slog.

There are some strong points though. Kirkpatrick’s non-fantasy background is in map-making. He’s got a couple of atlases under his belt even. According to his web site, he spent a significant chunk of time working out the map of the Faltha (the name of the part of the world where this story takes place) before he really set in to writing the story. It shows. Most fantasy books have a map. Most of those maps are little more than napkin sketches from the author dressed up by a professional artist. Kirkpatrick’s maps look like National Geographic topographical maps. Unfortunately, the most detailed maps are of the North March of Firanes, the starting point for the quest of the Company. Within but a few chapters, they’ve left that behind. I have an Advance Readers Copy, so I hope that the final version covers the other area much better. I don’t hold out much hope though, because even Kirkpatrick’s web site doesn’t have a map of Withwestra, which is where these folks spend perhaps 1/3 of the book. It’s a testament to either Kirkpatrick’s map making skills or my desire for maps that I wish these were there.

Okay, time for the capsule synopsis for Across the Face of the World. Mahnum is a Trader. This means he has the skills to travel from town to town seeking profits in often unfamiliar and hostile places. Brought out of retirement by the king of Firanes (one of the sixteen kingdoms of Faltha), Mahnum travels to Bhrudwo, land of Faltha’s ancient but lately only legendary enemies. He’s to find out if something is up. There is! And so Mahnum returns to his home of Loulea with Bhrudwo soldiers in hot pursuit. There they recapture him (and his wife) and burn down Mahnum’s house, leaving his sons Hal and Leith to die in the fire. But they don’t! Assembling a motley small Company to challenge the soldiers, Hal the cripple and Leith the barely adolescent follow several days behind. Their quest: catch up to the soldiers, free their parents, capture a Bhrudwan (killing the others), and transport him to Instruere the de facto capital of Faltha to warn the kingdoms of the impending invasion. They will add members to the Company along the way, making it even more motley, and lose a few too.

I liked the five characters who started off in Loulea. Hal the older adopted son, a cripple, but wise beyond his years. Leith the confused adolescent. Kurr the farmer who is also a member of the Falthan version of the Freemasons. The Haufuth of Loulea, the fat village headman who actually has some leadership capability. And lastly, Stella, Leith’s unrequited love interest who stumbles on the other four as they prepare to leave and is taken with to protect the secrecy of their quest. I didn’t really like many of the other characters however. They never seemed to have much depth to them.

Much like Tolkien’s work seems like an excuse for Tolkien to force his readers to learn songs and poems in languages that Tolkien himself made up, a lot of Across the Face of the World seems merely an excuse to describe geography. The geography is impressive, but it leaves the story pretty flat and derivative of a billion other swords and sorcery fantasy novels.

Title: Across he face of the world
Author: Russell Kirkpatrick
Cover artist: Steve Stone
Series: The fire of heaven ; 1
Imprint / publisher: Orbit / Hachette
Format: Advance readers copy (Mass market paperback)
Length: 701 p. (includes glossary and maps)
Publication date: January 2008
ISBN-10: 0-316-00341-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-316-00341-4

I think this installment in the Chronicles of Narnia is my least favorite of the series. The reason? While the entire series is chock full of Christian allegory, for the most part the Narnia stories are parables similar to Aesop’s. But this volume dispenses with allegory almost completely. Before, Lewis’ tales had morals to them. Christian morals, of course. The Last Battle is a retelling the the Christian end times with the name Aslan substituted for God.

Shift is a talking Ape and Puzzle is a talking Donkey who live in the Lantern Waste on the west side of Narnia. One day they happen upon an old lion skin. Shift, being a clever and also duplicitous ape, convinces Puzzle to wear the hide. And then Shift starts manipulating the other animals around by telling them that Aslan has returned. Not that Aslan will talk to them. Shift does the talking. Aslan only makes appearances (in dim light no less). Shift also makes an alliance with a small force of Calormen who provide the muscle to push around anyone who disagrees in return for getting a pretty good deal on slaves and goods.

Tirian is King of Narnia. Investigating reports of Aslan’s return, he sees the Calormenes killing talking Trees. Inflamed, he kills two of them before quickly running off with his Unicorn mount. But since Tirian didn’t warn the men, he feels dishonorable so he returns and surrenders himself to the enemy. Shortly thereafter he realizes that Aslan is a fraud. He prays mightily for Aslan to send people from England to help him, and out of nowhere pop Eustace Scrubb and Jill Pole, who were in my next least favorite Narnia book The Silver Chair. They free Rilian, and they all make their escape. Several more times Rilian returns to the camp of the false Aslan, making off with Puzzle in one trip.

Here’s where things just get tedious. Shift and the Calormenes tell a tale of an ass wearing a lion skin. So no one will believe Rilian when he tells the true story that Shift was responsible for the ruse. Meanwhile the Calormenes, mostly unbelievers, spread a fable that their god Tash and Aslan are one and the same. Two different names for the same god. They start calling him Tashlan, though none of them believe in it at all. Some Dwarfs are freed, but rather than siding up with Rilian, they go into business for themselves: The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs. The Dwarfs attack whichever side looks like it’s winning. Meanwhile other forces of Calormen sack Cair Paravel. Narnia looks finished.

And then both Aslan and Tash make appearances.

The not so subtle moral? The end times are near; don’t believe in false gods. In addition, while Lewis uses whimsical language (ahhh the Brits love their whimsy) throughout as he did on the rest of the series, the utter seriousness of the blunt force lumber of a moral and god-talk completely overwhelm any possible fun. It’s Armageddon, Narnia-style.

Title: The last battle
Author: C. S. Lewis (Clive Staples Lewis)
Illustrator: Pauline Baynes
Author: Roger Hane
Series: The chronicles of narnia; 7
Imprint / publisher: Collier / Macmillan
Format: Mass market paperback
Length: 184 p.
Publication date: 1970
ISBN-10: 0-02-044210-6
LC classification: PZ8.L48 Las2

This year, I vowed to read more current and classic science fiction and fantasy, in order to up my familiarity with the speculative fiction genre. I’ve read pretty extensively in S.F., though not as much in recent years. But fantasy? As my September rant indicates, I’ve been turned off by the genre for a while. While working at Ye Olde Major Chain Store last year, one of my fellow booksellers raved about Bujold. I was skeptical because her covers look very much like your average sword & sorcery feudal society fantasy. But I’m nothing if not open-minded (no really! I swear it!) so I decided to buy one of her books and try it. I picked Paladin of Souls because it won both the Hugo and Nebula awards. I figure it’s got to be decent at least.

Well, now I’ve finished the book. And I was right. It is decent. I wouldn’t vote Paladin of Souls as best of the year as the S.F.W.A. and the con-goers have, but pretty good. Still too heavy into the swords and sorcery for my tastes. But a decent read.

The synopsis is that Royina (e.g., royal mother) Ista dy Chalion decides to throw off her social chains and head west on a pilgrimage from her prison-of-sorts, the court of Valenda. However, while on the road her party encounters a demon possessed bear. One of her attendants, Foix, kills the bear, thus inheriting the demon. Meaning to ensure his recovery, the group heads toward a major city with a temple that might be able to cure him. But… along the way a raiding party from the border princedom Jokona, escaping from it’s own defeat, takes Ista and others hostage. Thus, her entire pilgrimage is detoured to the border town of Porifors when she’s freed and captured several times. The Jokonans have a plot involving demons, but the gods have a use for Ista.

I really like Ista. She’s the kind of protagonist that makes sense. She hates being forced into her society role, and has the strength of character to lead a party even if it contains other strong characters. She has doubts about her ability, but doesn’t shirk from danger because of it. She’s someone who will fight the good fight, even if she doesn’t like the role being thrust on her. In fact, most of the female characters are strong, capable people. At least that’s an improvement on the feudal society they inhabit.

I think the book could have been shorter. The story had a fast/slow/fast/slow alternating pace to it throughout. After every encounter where something happened, everyone would stop, ponder, and discuss the ramifications. Then they would make plans for their next move, however ill-fated or unseeing of the future they might be. When they moved again, the action would commence and it would always have some sort of wrench thrown into the cogs. Start. Stop. Start. Stop.

Title: Paladin of souls
Author: Lois McMaster Bujold
Award: Hugo award
Award: Nebula award
Imprint / publisher: HarperTorch / HarperCollins
Format: Mass market paperback
Length: 470 p.
Publication date: May 2005
ISBN-10: 0-380-81861-2
ISBN-13: 978-0-380-81861-7
Subject: Queens — Fiction
LC classification: PS3552.U397 P355 2003

I think this installment in the Chronicles of Narnia is the funnest to read of all the books.

It’s a prequel to The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe. Polly Plummer lives in a row house in London when Digory Kirke comes to live next door. Soon they are exploring the attic and a passageway that lets them drop into the upper floor of any of the houses in their row. And they do, except not into the house they expect. Rather than an empty one several doors down, they accidentally drop into the forbidden study of Digory’s uncle Andrew Ketterley, with whom Digory stays. Rather than let them go, the pathetically maniacal Uncle Andrew forces a ring onto Polly and she promptly disappears. It’s all part of his experiments in magic, and he doesn’t want to experiment on himself. Rather than strand Polly in another world, Digory puts return rings into his pocket and grabs another ring to take him out of the world himself.

The two children find themselves in an in between place. They are in a forest with pools of water spaces around them. Some experimenting and they figure out if they put on a yellow ring and jump into a pool, it takes them to a world. A green ring returns them up from the pool back to the in between place. Rather than return right away, they decide to see what kind of worlds they can explore. The first is eerily quiet. There’s a large deserted palace. Until Digory rings a bell that is. After that a statue-like Queen comes to life. Rather than submit to an uprising of the people, the Queen uttered a magical word that killed everyone and destroyed the world, then put herself into a frozen state until someone released her. That person being Digory. She’s not very nice. The children try to escape, but by grabbing Polly’s hair, the witch manages to tag along to the in between place when the children grab the green rings.

Various and sundry adventures later, the children along with many other tag-alongs show up in the world that will become Narnia as Aslan is bringing it to life.

Unlike a couple other of the Narnia books, this one doesn’t have quite the overbearing moralizing. It’s pretty much a ripoff of the Christian creation story, even to the point of having an apple tree that gives eternal youth and infinite knowledge. No serpent though. It’s fun because it’s got a madcap zaniness that isn’t really present in the other books. All of the series have the fish out of water element, but in this case he really explores the concept. In particular, the Witch Queen of Charn gets to spend some time in Earth as we might have known it at the turn of the century, and Uncle Andrew gets to meet the newly formed world of Narnia. Both with hilarious results. Plus there are other bits of fun like watching a lantern grow in the forest when a metal bar is dropped in the ground. With the magic of a new young world, pretty much anything placed in the ground can grow.

Title: The magician’s nephew
Author: C. S. Lewis (Clive Staples Lewis)
Cover artist: Roger Hane
Illustrator: Pauline Baynes
Series: The chronicles of Narnia ; 6
Imprint / publisher: Collier / Macmillan
Format: Mass market paperback
Length: 186 p.
Publication date: 1970
ISBN-10: 0-02-044230-0

Three and a half months after the big release I finally get around to reading the final Harry Potter installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Despite the length of the book, I think I’ll make this a short review, because I just don’t feel up to writing all that much about this kind of fluff.

The synopsis: This time Harry and friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger have gone on the run rather than re-enroll for their last year at Hogwarts. Voldemort and his Death Eaters have infiltrated the government and basically run everything. They have a plan to destroy the Horcruxes that contain pieces of the soul of Voldemort. Can they find them and destroy them before Voldemort finds and destroys them?

Good stuff: The main good thing about the book though is it’s fun. The pacing is better than some of her early books. They always got dull during the parts covering the middle of the school year. With one issue, I really liked the battle for Hogwarts, as well as the scenes of breaking into Gringotts. A nice touch was having the teachers at Hogwarts use spells we haven’t heard of (getting to do practical magic for I think the first time in the series), as if they actually know more than the limited amount that Harry has seen. I liked what Rowling did with Severus Snape too. though it didn’t come as a surprise to me.

Bad stuff: Good god haven’t Ronald Weasley and Harry stopped having stupid fights yet? I’ve seen this part too many times already. Same thing with Harry and his I know better than everyone else schemes. You’d think they’d have learned by now. I’m very disappointed that magic spells are portrayed as slow-moving dodge-able laser beams. Perhaps Rowling wrote up the workings of magic before, but I didn’t notice it. If she did, I apologize for not ranting on that one already. The explanation for the interactions between the Horcruxes, the Deathly Hallows, Harry, and Voldemort in the ending got too intricate for me to want to follow. So I didn’t and skipped those paragraphs. I understood the wand explanations, but how that played out in the final battle just seemed contrived.

On the whole, a decent read.

Title: Harry Potter and the deathly hallows
Author: J. K. Rowling
Illustrator: Mary GrandPré
Series: Harry Potter ; 7
Imprint / publisher: Arthur A. Levine / Scholastic
Format: Hardcover
Length: 784 p.
Publication date: July 2007
ISBN-10: 0-545-01022-5
ISBN-13: 978-0-545-01022-1
Subject: Wizards — Fiction
Subject: Magic — Fiction
Subject: Coming of age — Fiction
Subject: England — Fiction
LC classification: PZ7.R79835 Hak 2007

I’ve been mentoring students at Chief Sealth High School going on my third year. Every year starts off with what Community For Youth (the sponsoring organization for the mentorship program) calls the launch course. For freshman and first year mentors, it’s a 3½ day retreat on the grounds of a summer camp, away from the city. One of the activities we did that first year was to run a mile every morning. A few of the students were athletes, but most were not. Running a mile was a big deal. Quite a few completed it in 8 to 10 minutes, and some took as long as 17. The catch was, everyone was rated on how much they improved over the 3 mornings. The first two days, the prospective mentors ran with the students, and we were to improve our times as well.

But the last day, the staff pulled us aside. We had a different task the final day. Rather than try to improve our own times, we were to help motivate the students to improve their times. We could do that however we chose. Some ran with students. Other stood along side and shouted encouragement. Being substantially older and substantially more out-of-shape, I could not keep up with any but the worst runners over the course of the mile. So I positioned myself about a quarter mile from the end and ran back with a student, pushing each to do better. Then I would return a way from the end again and complete the same portion of the course with another student. I don’t know if any of them did better with my encouragement and coaching than they would have without it, but several claimed it helped.

This all came to mind as I read C. S. Lewis’ The Horse And His Boy, the fifth book in the Chronicles of Narnia. Our main character is Shasta, a fair-haired fishermen’s apprentice in the land of the dark-skinned Calormenes, south of Narnia. One evening a Calormen noble spending the night offers Shasta’s master a sum to take Shasta as his servant. Visions of riches in his head, the fisherman readily agrees. However, Shasta overhears the conversation and becomes distraight.

Outside in the stables where Shasta is sleeping that night (being summarily kicked out for the night so the noble can sleep indoors), the noble’s horse unexpectedly talks to Shasta. Bree is a Narnian horse, a Talking Horse, unbeknownst to his owner. Of course, he should be a free Narnian horse rather than a war horse for a Calormen. Seeing an opportunity, he and Shasta hatch an escape plan to return to Narnia, where Shasta is likely from as well, seeing as his skin-color doesn’t match that of his Calormen neighbors.

And so they escape during the night, and begin a long journey to Narnia through Tashbaan (the capital of Calormen) and Archenland, the Narnia-friendly country on the border between the Calormen empire and the land of fauns and Talking Beasts to the north. Along the way, they pick up a similarly escaping Hwin (another Talking Horse trapped in the south) and her rider, Aravis. While not Narnian, Aravis does not wish to be married off to an elderly noble, running away to the North herself to escape. In Tashbaan, the travelers learn of a planned Calormen invasion of Narnia, and their journey becomes doubly important as they must warn their desired home of the danger. Will they beat the invading force to the fortresses of Archenland and Narnia?

The God-analogue in Narnia, the lion Aslan, makes his expected appearance in this tale. Several times in fact. At several points, Shasta and his companions hear the lion’s roar behind them. Not knowing the legend of Aslan, nor even if they had would they think to connect it with their pursuer, they simply believe a wild beast has given chase and will devour them if they falter.

Anyway, I thought of the morning run in the launch course as I read this book.

Title: The horse and his boy
Author: C. S. Lewis (Clive Staples Lewis)
Cover artist: Roger Hane
Illustrator: Pauline Baynes
Series: The chronicles of Narnia ; 5
Imprint / publisher: Collier / Macmillan
Format: Mass market paperback
Length: 217 p.
Publication date: 1970
ISBN-10: 0-02-044200-9

Well, I thought this was a pretty good fantasy novel. High praise from me, considering that I generally tend to dislike a lot of fantasy writing. Joe Abercrombie outdoes lots of his fellow genre writers, but I do have a few knocks against the book. But it’s definitely good enough to get me to want to read the second book in the series Before They Are Hanged when Pyr puts it out. The Blade Itself comes out officially on September 4th I think, but it’s available now on Amazon. I got my ARC winning a contest over at Fantasy Book Critic (one of these days I should look into seeing whether any publishers will do giveaways here…). It’s the first Pyr book I’ve enjoyed. A number of their other books have been so promising, but still have fallen short. I suppose it’s tough to break the hold that Tor seems to have on the speculative fiction genre reading market.

One of the things that I tend to dislike about a lot of fantasy is its focus on the elite: nobles, wizards, and bright pure fairy-elves (or conversely on their evil counterparts). Rarely does fantasy seem to have as it’s main characters regular people. Abercrombie’s book does not focus on the greatest of the land (with one exception). Logen Ninefingers is a fallen soldier, discarded by the King of the Northmen, barely eking out a life in the lands north of the Northmen. Jezal dan Luthar is of noble blood, but he’s barely more than a fop. Supremely selfish and constantly congratulating himself on his bloodlines, Jezal will likely get his ass kicked in the upcoming fencing Games due to lack of effort. Sand dan Glokta is a former winner of the same games, but was captured in a war with the Gurkish empire to the south and later returned a tortured and broken man. No longer revered on his return, he’s taken a position with the King’s Inquisition, which is exactly what you think it is.

There are other characters, but Abercrombie focuses on these guys. In fact, the first time a chapter came from the point of view of someone else, I thought it was pretty jarring. The characters aren’t exactly likable, but they aren’t quite anti-heroes either. Following Glokta’s progress as he tortures confessions from the Inquisitions enemies, I actually identified with him and wanted him to succeed. That’s hard to do. It takes some good character writing to accomplish that. I think part of the key is that none of these characters have evil motives. Much like a hard-boiled noir detective, they simply do what they do.

One irritant though is that lack of motive. I will say right up front, that this book has no conclusion. That’s not always a bad thing in series fantasy writing. I know several people who prefer long series which no conclusion until the end. I don’t like it, but I can put up with it for good writing. I’d prefer my series to be separate yet intertwined stories. This is not a story in itself. It is the first part of one. But it would have been so much more nice if Abercrombie had started giving an inkling of the purpose that these character would be put to sometimes in the first hundred or two pages instead of page 470+ (out of 539). This is all back story. Even at the end, we don’t know what the purpose is for the band. We have but a glimpse. If it wasn’t for such good characters and some pretty decent writing, I’d have given up for that.

I’ve noted before that I do not like random, unexplained pieces in the stories I read. But neither do I like over-explained or awkwardly exposed points either. The Blade Itself contains a great example of how to do this right. One of the main characters is Jezal dan Luthar. When he’s introduced, he’s training to be in a big martial contest. Other characters who briefly make appearances are named Coster dan Kault, Hersel dan Meed, and Rush dan Thuel. Not everyone has dan in their name though. Here’s how the meaning for this is revealed:

I’m not sure that I like being the subject of your bet, said Jezal sharply.

I’m not sure I give give a damn.

This is serious.

No it isn’t! she snapped. For my brother it was serious, he had to do it! No one even notices you if you don’t have a dan in your name, and who’d know better than me? You’re the only person who’s given me the time of day since I got here, and then only because Collem made you. I’ve precious little money and no blood at all, and that makes me less than nothing to the likes of you. The men ignore me and the women cut me dead. I’ve got nothing here, nothing and no one, and you think you’ve got the hard life? Please! …

In most other books, the narrator will tell the reader that dan is a marker of nobility. Or the main character will think to himself, My family is noble! We’ve had dan in our name for 35 generations! during a soliloquy while he’s sitting at the dinner table, contemplating when he’ll take over as head of household from his father. Or something else bland, dry and obvious within three pages of being the first character introduced with dan in the name. This outburst comes on page 187 (my copy) after Jezal has been riding his privilege upbringing for a number of chapters. A minor unexplained item, exposed well. This is great writing. It’s only on the rare occasion in this book that any character monologues to reveal a major plot or setting point.

Title: The blade itself
Author: Joe Abercrombie
Series: The first law ; 1
Imprint / publisher: Pyr / Prometheus
Format: Advance readers copy
Length: 539 p.
Publication date: September 2007
ISBN-10: 1-59102-594-X
ISBN-13: 978-1-59102-594-8
LC classification: PR6101.B49 B57 2007

When I think about the Chronicles of Narnia, I think mostly of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe or The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, or possibly Prince Caspian. I don’t remember the later books as well as the earlier ones. And it’s just as well, because on reading this I recall how dreadfully boring The Silver Chair is.

The story is simple. Eustace Scrubb, he of the unfortunate name from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and Jill Pole are the picked on kids at The Experimental School in England. Rushing through the brush to escape their tormentors, they step through a door and into the world of Narnia. Unlike the previous stories where the transplantees must figure out what their purpose in Narnia is, in The Silver Chair they drop immediately into Aslan’s end of the world. There Aslan gives the two children a quest, then transports them on his breath to Narnia. Their quest is to rescue Prince Rilian, the heir to King Caspian’s throne. He disappeared a decade earlier while seeking to avenge the death of his mother by offing the serpent that killer her. Numerous knights sent in search of him have also disappeared.

The obviousness of everything in The Silver Chair is annoying. First, the quest is given at the beginning and is boring: search for the prince, have some adventures, bring him back. The moral is also pushed so much harder than in previous books. Aslan gives the children four Signs (or commands). The children repeatedly forget them and do not follow them when they should. Bad things happen as a result. Follow the directions of authority, particularly those of Jesus, or pay the consequences!

Title: The silver chair
Author: C. S. Lewis (Clive Staples Lewis)
Cover artist: Roger Hane
Illustrator: Pauline Baynes
Series: The chronicles of Narnia ; 4
Imprint / publisher: Collier / Macmillan
Format: Mass market paperback
Length: 217 p.
Publication date: 1970
ISBN-10: 0-02-044250-5
LC classification: PZ7.L58474 Si 2005