I didn't do a lot of reading in January, considering that I'm on holiday and (theoretically) have a lot of time on my hands. Though then again, perhaps it makes sense - I haven't been commuting very much, and that was when I used to get a lot of my reading done. At any rate, while it didn't feel like I spent a lot of time reading, I'm still very much on track as far as the target goes.
January's Books:
- Assassin's Quest, Robin Hobb.
- The Black Company, Glen Cook
- Shadows Linger, Glen Cook
- The White Rose, Glen Cook
- Threshold, Sara Douglass
Why yes, I am a tragic fantasy nerd. Thank you for asking!
Assassins Quest: First off, the context: this is the final book in the Farseer Trilogy. I'd read the previous two while travelling around Europe, so only had the final one to knock off in the New Year. This was a re-read too - I've read these books twice before. That said, it probably won't come as much of a surprise when I say that I love this series quite, quite madly. I don't go in for picking favourites, but they would definitely feature on any 'top 5' list that I were forced to concoct. Hands down one of my all-time favourite fantasy series.
This is probably the point where I should explain why I love this book and its fellows so much (shouldn't be too difficult since I'm always trying to convince everyone I know to read them - I was doing in last night in fact). The books have a lot of strengths, but I think that the standout for me is the characterisation. This has to have been one of the first series I read where (dare I risk falling forever into the dark pit of into ten-year-old lingo) I actually liked the protagonists and wanted "the bad guys" to "lose". I have to admit, when I read a lot of books it's actually the reverse that I'm feeling - especially within the fantasy genre, where all too often the 'hero' characters are either one-dimensional or fleshed out in such a cliched way that it makes me want to roll my eyes five times per chapter. Not the case here. When I read this book for the first time I learned to love the characters dearly, and that hasn't changed on rereading.
The plot is excellent as well - it doesn't read like somebody's Dungeons and Dragons game, for a start. It manages to develop in a way that is intriguing without becoming hopelessly convoluted as too many books in the genre tend to do (I hate having to constantly flick back several chapters as I read just to refresh my memory as to who this person was, or what happened in this particular place, etc). It's well paced, goes on for just the right length, and comes to a satisfying conclusion.
I'm not going to sit down and give a number/star rating for the books I read this year, nor do I think I'd even be capable of such a thing. It's just going to come down to whether or not I would recommend them. In this case: a thousand times 'yes'. If you like fantasy, you should read these books (as long as you don't mind them raising your standards much higher from that point onwards), and if you're one of the people who rolls their eyes at the genre and thinks that it's all about elves, magic swords, fireballs and poor writing (you know who you are), you should read these books to see just how wrong that opinion can be. Okay, I'm going to shut up now.
The Black Company series: These three books are the first part of an ongoing series - plucked randomly off the bookshop shelves on a whim just before I headed off on holidays. I do not normally do this. Though it might sound odd coming out of the mouth of someone who in fact owns hundreds of books, I'm enough of a broke student that I don't tend to buy books when I haven't read anything by the author before - or at least not unless they come highly recommended by someone whose opinion I trust. That's what libraries are for - and if I really like a book, often I'll buy it after having read the library copy. Anyway, I bucked the trend for these books, and I'm glad that I did, because I enjoyed them quite a lot.
The plot basically follows a mercenary army, and I found it refreshing because like the previous book discussed, it breaks out of the fantasy mould quite a lot, albeit more through the characters and the way that the story is told than through the actual plot. The banter and other interaction between the characters was what made this one for me - it was a pleasure to read, and felt a lot more realistic than in other books. I found myself feeling affection more for the ways that the characters interacted with each other than for who they actually were - that sounds like a criticism but it isn't.
The plot was good too - it kept me and my short attention span reading, and that's saying something. Speaking of said attention span: it appreciated the way that the chapters of the last two books were quite short. In general really, these books do not waste time. Things happen and they happen quickly, with not a lot of dawdling around in between, so if you're into action, these are great. I also got a laugh out of the way that the author tackled the issue of morality in the story (through the main character's musings on the topic) without getting too bogged down and preachy about it. I also loved the weird, deadpan humour.
In summary: I'd definitely recommend this one, though not to everyone - it's probably somewhat of an acquired taste, due to its style, sense of humour and at times somewhat "blokey" nature. It was right down my alley, though.
Threshold: I just finished this one this morning (yes, I know that it's February now, but I started it in January so I'm counting it here), so it's still fresh in my mind, and because of that, I'll probably go on for longer than I should about it. I should probably start off by saying that of all of the books I read last month, I got through this one far and away the fastest, even though it was not the shortest, and I didn't have any more time on my hands than I had when I read the others. I had less in fact. But that's the kind of writer that Sara Douglass (another one of my all time favourite fantasy writers) is: her books are totally compulsive. Perfect binge reading fodder. I have an incredibly short attention span at times, yet I simply cannot put her books down.
There's a bit of a story behind this one actually. Without getting too bogged down into the rest of the author's books, the plots of Threshold, Beyond the Hanging Wall (another stand-alone book), and two of her other trilogies, all form the origin of the series that she is working on at the moment (does that sentence make grammatical sense? Don't ask me!). I had read all of the other books, and indeed also what had been written of the current series, but I had never read Threshold. I'd passed it a few times in the library, flicked my eyes over the blurb and felt a bit ambivalent about it. Another time I was tossing up between it and Beyond the Hanging Wall - I went with the latter because I thought it sounded more interesting. Last year I was in the bookshop and I must have felt wealthy, since I decided to invest in a copy, figuring I'd get to it eventually. And then it sat on my shelf for a few months while I read other things. But a few days ago I finally picked it up, thinking that it was finally time. Threshold and Anna - together at last. I have to say I loved it.
The thing that I like so much about Sara Douglass' books, aside from their aforementioned addictiveness, is that they're so easy to read in every other sense of the word as well. I don't want to say that they're simplistic, because plot-wise they aren't, but it almost feels as if they are because they're written so clearly. You don't need to puzzle over what the hell is going on, or struggle to recall the relevance of some earlier event/person to which the author keeps alluding: everything makes sense at the right time, there's no confusion, and you can just sit back and enjoy watching the story pan out in front of you. I guess if you like demanding books this might not be quite your cup of tea, but it works for me. This was pure and simple and vivid and wonderful, with no wasted words.
The characterisation was good too. I wasn't head-over-heels thrilled with the main character (that's not to say I didn't like her - I just didn't adore her madly), but I liked all the others. I found some of the character development a little abrupt in some ways, but that's probably because I've just come off the back of reading a bunch of trilogies, where the writers have had three books to drag these things out torturously slowly. It didn't bother me too much, anyway - even if the characters weren't as complex as some I'd encountered lately, I liked them better anyway, so it didn't matter!
Lastly, I very much enjoyed reading a satisfying stand-alone fantasy book. It had definitely been a while. Sometimes I tend to veer away from them because I find them so unsatisfying, in terms of both plot and character, but this was definitely not the case here. I got everything I needed from a story, but in one book instead of three, four, six, etc. Lovely. Only problem is that now I want to reread all of her other related books again, which is going to make the rest of this challenge a little repetitive for all those watching at home... Oh well...
Would I recommend it? Short answer: yes. Once again, it might not be everyone's cup of tea, especially if you like your books intellectually taxing, or if you tend to go in for multi-book series. And it wasn't particularly revolutionary in a lot of ways. But I found everything I want in entertainment right here - no question.
Incidentally, the only down side to all of this is that after finishing the book I remembered that I hadn't checked in at the author's website in a while. I did so, and found out that she's spent the last few months fighting ovarian cancer (at which point I spent a few moments feeling thoroughly guilty that I hadn't read the site earlier - man, but the internet does weird things to your conscience). Now I'm having to sit very firmly on my hands to curb the overwhelming impulse of my not-so-inner obsessive knitter to make her a hat. Because that's a normal reaction upon finding out that someone you greatly admire is ill...
And now I'm definitely going to shut up. Jeez - this post is enormous! I had been intending to do a monthly review of the books I was reading, but looking over this I'm now thinking that perhaps fornightly might make for more managable blog posts! Oh, and yes, I know that the reviews here are all positive. No, it isn't odd. Is it so weird that I pick books that I think I'll like? Don't worry - I definitely don't like everything that I read. Hopefully there'll be a scathing review at some point in the future...
*raising her hand from the back of the room*
ReplyDeleteMaybe review one book at a time?
I get in my fantasy nerd moods now and then, but presently I find myself in a harsh reality mood.