Review of Tongues of Serpents – Book 6 of the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik

I’ve followed this delightful series in which the Napoleonic wars are conducted with fighting dragons. However in this sixth book – does Novik manage to sustain the freshness and quirky charm of the first books?

Convicted of treason despite their heroic defence against Napolean’s invasion of Britain, Temeraire and Laurence – stripped of rank and standing – have been transported to the prison colony at New South Wales. With them travel three dragon eggs intended to help establish a covert in the colony, and destined to be handed over to second-rate undesirable officers willing to accept so remote an assignment.

But instead of leaving behind the political entanglements of the war, Laurence and Temeraire sail into a hornet’s nest of fresh corruption. The young Australian colony has been thrown into turmoil after the overthrow of the military governor, one William Bligh – formerly Captain Bligh, late of the HMS Bounty.

I really enjoyed this change of scene. Temeraire is a wonderful character who has steadily developed throughout the series and quickly pulls me into his various adventures with his singular dragon viewpoint. As I wasn’t attracted to the series through any particular knowledge of the Napoleonic campaigns, Novik’s necessary tweaks to fit her storyline with the historical facts don’t particularly disturb me. Neither was I worried that Temeraire was no longer fighting Napoleon – Novik’s tour of her version of the world is sufficiently engaging that I am perfectly relaxed about exploring it along with the protagonists. However, I did wonder if Laurence would have struggled more with the brutal reality of the penal colony. While I’m sure he would have coped physically with the hardship, I did think that he would have found the sense of his disgrace would have chafed – especially considering the circumstances that led to their transportation.

I liked Novik’s depiction of the Australian outback during Temeraire’s exploration of the continent. Her deft use of some of the Australian myths to produce some challenges to the dragons along the way manages to provide plenty of narrative tension, along with the surprises that await the expedition when they finally reach the other side of the continent.

All in all, I feel that Tongues of Serpentsis an entertaining addition to the series which I certainly wouldn’t characterise as a placeholder, and I’m looking to getting hold of Crucible of Gold, the next instalment.
8/10

Review of The Last Family in England by Matt Haig

After reading The Radleys, I picked this offering off the library shelves thinking that I’d appreciate an amusing, smart read at the start of 2012. Hm. Well that didn’t work out…

Prince is an earnest young dog, striving hard to live up to the tenets of The Labrador Pact (Remain Loyal to Your Human Masters, Serve and Protect Your Family at Any Cost). Other dogs, led by the Springer Spaniels, have revolted. Their slogans are ‘Dogs for Dogs, not for Humans’ and ‘Pleasure not Duty’. Mentored by an elderly Labrador called Henry, Prince takes his responsibilities seriously, and as things in the Hunter family begin to go badly awry – marital breakdown, rowdy teenage parties, attempted suicide – his responsibilities threaten to overwhelm him. And down in the park it’s even worse. Henry has disappeared: Falstaff the Springer Spaniel wants to lead Prince astray… What will he do next?

I got sucked in by the comedic cover and Jeanette Winterson’s description that the book is fabulous and moving and funny and strange. And – yes – she’s absolutely right, it’s all of those things. It’s also poignantly sad.

Haig writes in first person viewpoint as Prince, the idealistic youngster, straining every nerve to live up to the lofty ideals of the Labrador Pact. His depiction of the world from a dog’s view with the emphasis on scents, hearing and decoding human body language certainly allowed me to suspend my disbelief for the duration of the book, which is crucial to the success of the story. And there’s plenty going on – we see a slice of family life just before the Hunter’s world starts to spiral away into crisis mode.

Haig holds the tension masterfully, allowing the series of secrets that rock Prince’s world to surface, one after the other. Nothing is as it seems. Prince finds himself surrounded by mounting difficulties at home; Henry is no longer around to give him advice and Falstaff’s carefree joie de vivre becomes ever more tempting… Even the family cat advises him to step back, not to get too involved in human affairs. But Prince is still driven on by his sense of duty.

This isn’t a long read. Each chapter is only a couple of pages long and event move along at a breathless clip. The language is pared down and the short, simple sentences allow a great deal to be packed into the modest word count and it can easily be read in a single sitting, if you so wish. As with The Radleys, the action is interspersed with extracts from a how-to manual – in this case it is The Labrador Pact that Prince has learnt by heart. The denouement isn’t a shock, Haig has heavily foreshadowed it, but I was surprised at the final twist which adds an extra slice of sadness to the ending.

The simple writing style is deceptive – Haig is dealing with some hefty issues in this slight book. At what point does loyalty become a lethal liability? Is unrealistic idealism a dangerous luxury in a world where cynical selfishness appears to be the norm? Because, of course, this book is actually nothing at all to do with dogs – it is about choosing how to live your life. Are you going to bounce through like a Springer Spaniel, carefully avoiding any commitment? Or shoulder responsibilities even if they buckle you in the process? Even those of us who have knocked about the world for a while should sometimes take the time to reconsider their choices – and I personally think that this should be required reading for every teenager in the land.
10/10

Review of The Summoner – Book 1 of Chronicles of the Necromancer by Gail Z. Martin

The world of Prince Martris Drayke is thrown into sudden chaos when his brother murders their father and seizes the throne. Forced to flee, with only a handful of loyal colleagues to support him, Martris must seek retribution and restore his father’s honor. But if the living are arrayed against him, Martris must learn to harness his burgeoning magical powers to call on a different set of allies: the ranks of the dead.

This fantasy tale, released in 2007, is a solidly crafted piece of work in a highly recognisable world. The hero, Tris, is suitably likeable and upset after the death of his family. His companions include a hardened mercenary who is also loyal; a boyhood friend who becomes increasingly nervous at his increasing power; a court bard and in amongst their adventures, they manage to scoop up a princess on the run. Nothing original, there.

But Tris is an emerging necromancer whose source of power comes from his links with his dead grandmother. However, his brother’s wicked sorcerer is blocking his path to his dead family and he is tormented by images of his sister’s ghost imprisoned and unable to escape – unless he can build sufficient power to challenge the master necromancer whose power seems overwhelming…

As with all the better S & S, the magical element isn’t merely an additional weapon to be flicked around at the end of a wand. It is dangerous and quite capable of wiping out the magical user, along with all his followers if he can’t very quickly get the hang of how to harness it.

I’m not going to promise you an original world of complex characters that lodge in your head and won’t let you go… Neither will I claim that this is the greatest addition to the canon – that said, all the reviews I’ve read about the series have claimed that it goes on getting better in the subsequent books. However, in The Summoner the characters develop as the adventures stack up, the magic does have an interesting twist and Martin writes engrossing magical action and keeps the narrative pace moving at a good clip. All in all, an enjoyable read for fans of this sub-genre.
8/10

Review of Worldstorm by James Lovegrove

Elder Ayn doesn’t really know why the Worldstorm comes to wreak devastation on the world any more than the next man. But, being a previsionary, he does know the exact time and nature of his death. He will be murdered and he will do nothing to prevent the killing blow.  Elder Ayn also knows why he has left the splendid academic isolation of Stonehaven and gone out into the world. He knows where his quest will take him. But he’s not about to tell his scribe, Khollo.

And meanwhile the world’s order is breaking down. In the country of Jarraine, war is brewing between the Earth and Fire Inclined, between people who can shake the ground with a fist or pull fire out of the air with a simple thought. A storm is coming.

This being Lovegrove, the classic Fantasy template is tweaked more than a tad – so before you roll your eyes at the clichéd old Quest plotline that emerges from this intriguing world, I’ll reassure you that Lovegrove is a far too talented and original writer to fall into this overused trope without knowing exactly he’s doing. Elder Ayn is definitely the main character in this tale – again – a spin on the setup that has our plucky young hero mentored by a wise, all-knowing scholar/wizard who supports him because said scholar’s Second Sight has divined that this particular individual is crucial to the success of the mission… Ayn is driven by his previsionary powers to collect up Yashu and Gregory, the other two protagonists and is so convinced that he has the answer to the problem of the Worldstorm, that he also decides to hire Khollo for his powers of absolute recall to record the trip for posterity – as he also knows it will end in his murder.

Needless to say, the journey is uncomfortable and, at times, dangerous. But no one other than Yashu and Gregory will suffice – and I’m betting right now, that scenario of staple Fantasy fare is sounding very familiar.

Lovegrove depicts a fascinating conundrum surrounding these superhumans – Ayn is able to deceive Yashu and her lie-detecting skills by simply avoiding telling an outright falsehood. And increasingly, as we hear Ayn’s self-important justifications regarding his interference in Yashu and Gregory’s already difficult lives, the reader is encouraged to wonder about the extent of Ayn’s previsionary powers. Just how much of this adventure is fuelled by his drive to leave his mark on the world? We are left in no doubt of his drive, knowledge and supreme self-confidence – but how much of his belief that the Worldstorm is caused by the rise of humanity’s extra powers is based on his ability to see into the future, rather than the need to find evidence to fit his favourite theory?

Ayn is the classic unreliable narrator – and, as the plot unfolds, we begin to realise that Khollo also has his own agenda. Indeed, the interaction between Ayn and Khollo gives rise to most of the humour in the book – which is also counter-balanced by some of the graphic action scenes during the battle. I’m conscious that so far, I’ve managed to give the impression that this is a rather dry book concentrating on the characters’ motivations and Lovegrove’s subversion of the classic Fantasy tale. However, the staple of said Fantasy tale is adventure and Worldstorm provides it in spades – right down to the evil villain whose selfishness morphs into obsessive madness. The plot whips along at a clip, only slowing for Ayn’s narration to Khollo – which is just fine. Ayn is a wonderful character whose moods ranging from complacent smugness to grumpy annoyance leap off the page.

Any niggles? Well, when Lovegrove switches viewpoint several times, he reprises some of the events in the new point of view. Given that he’s already successfully established the characters along with their differences and conflict points, all this serves to do is silt up the narrative pace and undermine the importance of the one or two occasions when this ploy is actually necessary near the end of the book.

Apart from that, this book is an utter joy. Lovegrove is an intelligent, perceptive writer who delivers a cracking adventure, and (mostly) assumes that his readership can cope without having all the dots joined up. My one sorrow is that this is a stand-alone book as the world is a wonderful one with so much further potential.
9/10

Review of EBOOK Snuff – Book 39 of the Discworld series

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a policeman taking a holiday would barely have had time to open his suitcase before he finds his first corpse. And Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is on holiday in the pleasant and innocent countryside, but not for him a mere body in the wardrobe, but many, many bodies and an ancient crime more terrible than murder.
He is out of his jurisdiction, out of his depth, out of bacon sandwiches, occasionally snookered and occasionally out of his mind, but not out of guile. Where there is a crime there must be a finding, there must be a chase and there must be a punishment. They say that in the end all sins are forgiven. But not quite all…

For those of you who may have only recently landed on the planet and therefore haven’t yet picked up a Discworld novel, my strong piece of advice is not to continue reading Snuff, but do yourselves a huge favour and – no, you don’t have to go right back to the very start of this hilarious and wonderfully inventive world, although I would recommend it – but do at least read Guards, Guards!, Night Watch and Thud! before tucking into Snuff. I don’t suggest for one moment that you’ll spend the novel floundering around in a morass of incomprehension if you do skip these books – Pratchett is far too accomplished to lock any of his books so tightly into the overarching world – but you certainly will gain more if you understand and know more about this complicated protagonist.
As for the rest of us, the question has to be – does this book tick the boxes? Do we find ourselves sucked into Pratchett’s imaginative invention, and seared by Vimes’s simmering anger against injustice?

Well, one of the major characters that normally features in Discworld novels is missing. Vimes has been frog-marched off to the country estate with his family to get a much-needed break and introduce Young Sam to the countryside. So Ankh-Morpok isn’t the vivid backdrop to this book and we have Vimes’s rather bemused and amusing reaction to country life as the setting to all the action. Pratchett makes up for this hole by giving us slices of humour in Vimes’s jaundiced reactions.  However, the humour turns into something more sombre when Vimes finds himself confronted with a goblin settlement on his land and begins to discover just how downtrodden and persecuted they are. The tale is delivered with Pratchett’s customary slick handling of narrative tension and I found myself – despite my best intention to really savour the book – zipping through it to find what happens next.

What Snuff doesn’t do, is give us any further major insights into Vimes as a character. We learn a bit more about Young Sam, as a boy of six and Pratchett gives us more details about yet another species in the Discworld genus – goblins. As ever, those details are both poignant and hilarious – vintage Pratchett, in fact. However, by the end of the book I got the sense that we were witnessing the beginning of Vimes learning to like himself just a little bit more.  Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the storyline which was both enjoyably familiar and yet different enough to hold my interest.  The frantic journey along a storm-swollen river in an oxen powered cargo boat is one of the standout Discworld action scenes, in my opinion. And as a committed Pratchett fan, I found Snuff right up there as one of the stronger offerings in the Discworld series.
9/10

Review of Cold Magic – Book 1 of The Spiritwalker Trilogy by Kate Elliott

This offering is the first of Kate Elliott’s latest world – and if you’re a fantasy fan you’ll know that she is one of the leading talents in the field. She is excellent at providing interesting, multi-layered worlds and is also adept at producing satisfying complex characters – a combination that doesn’t always go together. However, there is a major shift in this series – Elliott tells the story in Cold Magic in first person POV throughout. Up to now, she has shown herself very capable of fielding a large cast of characters without overwhelming her readers or losing any momentum. Can she manage to convey the full richness of her world through this single character’s viewpoint?

As they approach adulthood, Cat Barahal and her cousin Bee think they understand the society they live in and their place within it. At a select academy they study new airship technologies and the dawning Industrial Revolution, but magical forces still rule. And the cousins are about to discover the full ruthlessness of this rule.

Drawn into a labyrinth of politics involving blood and old feuds, Cat is forced to marry a Cold Mage. As she is carried away to live a new life, fresh dangers threaten her every move and secrets form a language she cannot read. At least, not yet.  But both cousins carry their own hidden gifts and these will shape great changes to come. For in the depths of this treacherous world, the Wild Hunt stirs in darkness and dragons are waking from their sleep.

And, make no mistake, this is a rich and interesting world. Elliott herself describes it as “An Afro-Celtic post-Roman icepunk Regency fantasy adventure with airships, Phoenician spies, the intelligent descendents of troodons, and a dash of steampunk whose gas lamps can be easily doused by the touch of a powerful cold mage.”  So do we gain a sense of the full layered intricacy of this world through Cat’s eyes? The answer has to be – no, we don’t. Not even after reading the second book in the series, Cold Fire, do I get a sense that I’ve done more than graze the surface of this fascinating world. Am I bothered? Not, particularly, no. This might be a world that Elliott may well revisit with another series – the trolls, actually descended from dinosaurs, only play a walk-on part in this Cat-centred adventure and I’d love to read more about them. But even if Elliott doesn’t decide to use this world again, I’m still not going to lose much sleep over it. If she chooses to roll out a world of this richness and then only play in a corner of it, that’s hardly going to impact on my reading pleasure – unless she doesn’t produce a sufficiently interesting storyline with a convincingly complex cast of characters. And she does.

For starters, Cat is completely believable as a twenty year old. I get more than a tad fed up with ‘young’ characters who when confronted with difficult situations suddenly produce the wisdom and finesse of a fifty-something. Cat is impetuous, a bit of an airhead who loves teasing her cousin, and is very interested in clothes. Always. The driving relationship within this book is her attachment with Bee, her cousin and best friend. The romantic storyline is a lot stronger in Cold Fire, where Cat’s relationship with Andevai, her husband, is examined in more detail – along with the unfolding plotline about exactly who is her father.

Like Elliott’s world, this tale is something of a mash-up. There are elements easily recognisable from epic Fantasy – a power struggle involving scary magic users and super-talented individuals with a Destiny; but there is also a fairly strong romantic element and some of Cat’s character traits wouldn’t be out of place in an urban fantasy. However, one of the main engines driving the book is the political unrest coming from the bottom up – the fact that the population are increasingly unhappy at the way the Mages have stepped into the power vacuum left once the Romans retreated, which has echoes of Julia E. McKenna’s Lescari Revolution series. This is a sign that the Fantasy genre is all grown up and fully mature, when its most capable authors are able to play these sorts of games with the sub-genres. I’m really hoping the fans will prove to be as flexible.

A thoroughly enjoyable read by an accomplished writer at the height of her powers, I’m very much looking forward to reading the last book in the series and recommend you track down this gem.
10/10

Review of Heart of the Mirage – Book 1 of The Mirage Makers by Glenda Larke

This is the first book in a fantasy trilogy that fans of Kate Elliott and Trudi Canavan shouldn’t miss.

Stolen from her people as a child and raised as a citizen of the Tyranian Empire, Ligea Gayed is the obvious choice to despatch to her homeland, occupied Kardiastan, with orders to root out a rebel conspiracy. At first, she devotes herself to her new assignment with zeal. Adopted daughter of the Empire’s greatest general, and possessing a fearsome reputation within the ruthless Imperial spy network known as the Brotherhood, Ligea views herself as a loyal servant of Tyrans. But blood will out, and with each day she spends among her parents’ people, her disciplined self-image crumbles a little. And there are secrets in Kardiastan, secrets that will inevitably force Ligea to choose between her upbringing and her birthright.

Yeah, I know… it does sound rather familiar – but Larke’s fine writing and takes the classic heroine-with-a-hidden-but-special-past scenario and gives it a fresh immediacy in her outstanding character Ligea. I’m a sucker for a spiky, three-dimensional protagonist with plenty of flaws – and Ligea has plenty of them as she describes her privileged life as a high ranking member of the feared Brotherhood. The first person narrative grabbed me and drew me into the story, which zips along at an impressive pace while giving a strong sense of first Tyran society and then the constrasting situation in Kardiastan. The world building is deftly done, without any tedious info dumping, as we follow Ligea’s journey through two different worlds. While I saw some of the plotpoints coming, there are plenty of unexpected twists that kept me turning the pages as the narrative tension continues ramping up right to the conclusion. I was pleased to note that while there are a number of dangling plotlines waiting to be tied up in the two subsequent books, the storyline in this first instalment was brought to an entirely satisfactory ending. It always peeves me to get all the way to the end of a novel in a multi-book series and find that I have to wait till the next volume before a main plot point is resolved.

The flashes of humour – not particularly prevalent in this particular sub-genre – were also enjoyable as Brand, Ligea’s stroppy slave, stomps along in her wake giving plenty of unwanted advice. Themes running through this book won’t come as a shock to high fantasy fans – the tension between might and right; how to handle great power; the importance of free will.

Any niggles? Well, I do have a problem with the name of Tyr – and its inhabitants, the Tyrans. While obviously based upon Roman society, with slavery as the cornerstone of its society, I do think that Larke should have trusted her readers a bit more to recognise the faultlines in such a society without leading us by the nose in using such a blatantly unsubtle name. It slightly irked me throughout the book that all Tyrans needed was the addition of one letter to turn their name into tyrants… It’s the sort of device I’d expect from someone a lot less gifted and able than Larke. But other than that, I found the book a thoroughly enjoyable, engrossing read and have already started on the sequel, The Shadow of Tyr.
8/10

Review of Among Thieves – A Tale of the Kin by Douglas Hulick

I get a bit blasé about claims that a new writer is ‘the best thing since Scott Lynch/Brent Weeks/Joe Abercrombie’ – all of which have been said about Douglas Hulick, who has been heaped with praise for his debut novel Among Thieves.

Ildrecca is a dangerous city, if you don’t know what you’re doing. It takes a canny hand and a wary eye to run these streets and survive. Fortunately, Drothe has both. He has been a member of the Kin for years, rubbing elbows with thieves and murderers from the dirtiest of alleys to the finest of neighbourhoods. Working for a crime lord, he finds and takes care of trouble inside his boss’s organisation – while smuggling relics on the side.

But when his boss orders Drothe to track down whoever is leaning on his organisation’s people, he stumbles upon a much bigger mystery. There’s a book, a relic any number of deadly people seem to be looking for – a book that just might bring down emperors and shatter the criminal underworld. A book now inconveniently in Drothe’s hands…

Hulick certainly went with the notion of starting this tale of nefarious dealings with a bang – a torture scene where his protagonist is the torturer. It’s a big risk. And a testament to Hulick’s writing skill that despite such a start, I ended up thoroughly liking Drothe, who turns out to be a dependable chap – in a squirrelly, sneaking back-handed way…. The story is told in first person viewpoint. As well as getting to know Drothe’s interestingly complex character, we also are treated to a front row seat as this Nose is pitchforked into the middle of a plot with more twists than a corkscrew.

Hulick’s other strength is his depiction of the world. Ildrecca is wonderfully described, particularly the revolting slum that is Ten Ways. This is a complex world, with plenty of politics and religion, along with a magic called glimmer. However, we learn of it in manageable slices as the plot whips along – there’s no dreary two-page exposition. I also love the way that some of Drothe’s assumptions are completely undercut by the end of the book. In addition to Drothe, there is an entertaining cast of characters – as this is apparently the start of a series, I’m looking forward to seeing more of Christiana, Drothe’s enigmatic sister, who has managed to marry into nobility.

An aspect of the book that I particularly enjoyed, was Hulick’s use of language. This is something, in my opinion, not enough fantasy/science fiction authors consider sufficiently. It always grates with me when I hear a 20th century idiom roll off the tongue of an otherworldly wizard, or a posthuman character travelling faster-than-light. Hulick addresses this issue with his Cant. There are those readers who profess to have found it off-putting and claim that it got in the way of the story. I’m scratching my head over that one. Once I got into the rhythm of the writing, I found that I rarely had to stop and think about exactly what was being said – and if I did, surely it isn’t necessarily a major problem? If he’d made the whole language completely impenetrable, I could see why readers might have grounds for protesting, but in the act of picking up a book I expect to engage with it. As a reader, I do prefer an author who presupposes that I am intelligent and capable of joining up some of the dots myself.

The fight scenes are well handled – although if I’ve got a grizzle, there’s probably a couple too many for my taste – however that said, I’m aware that solid fans of this sub-genre really appreciate all the dashing and slashing with sharp, pointy weapons. And the major twist at the end was one I really didn’t see coming. All in all, for once I find myself nodding at the favourable comparisons with Lynch, Weeks et al… In fact, chaps, I think you’ll need to look to your laurels. If this series fulfils its promise – I can see newcomer Hulick being a real contender.
10/10

Review of Imager – Book 1 of The Imager Portfolio by L.E. Modesitt, Jr

When I came across this relatively new fantasy series by Modesitt, I decided to hunt down the first book.  After all, anything written by this experienced and prolific author is always worth checking out – and this one is certainly worth the effort.

Although Rhennthyl is the son of a leading wool merchant in L’Excelsis, the capital of Solidar and the most powerful nation on Terahnar, he has spent years becoming a journeyman artist. He is skilled and diligent enough to be considered for the status of master artisan – in another two years. In a single moment, Rhenn’s entire life is transformed when his master patron is killed in a flash fire and Rhenn discovers he is an imager – one of the few in the entire world of Terahnar who possess the power to visualize things and make them real.

Now he must leave his family and join the Collegium of Imagisle, where because of their powers (including the ability to do accidental magic even while asleep) and because they are both feared and vulnerable, imagers live separately from the rest of society. In this new life, Rhenn discovers that all too many of the ‘truths’ he knew were nothing of the sort and that every day brings a new threat to his life. He makes a powerful enemy while righting a wrong and begins to learn to live a life doing magic in secret.

This is an intriguing, layered world that closely resembles the Renaissance period in its technology and cut-throat attitude to other states and religions. Politically, Solidar is powerful but isolated by its religious belief that Naming a deity is well on the way to blasphemy – but the dealbreaker is Solidar’s tolerance of imagers. As Rhenn learns more during his highly specialised training, he discovers that Solidar’s supremacy comes at a very high price…

I’ve read grumbles about the relatively slow pacing of the storyline – however I didn’t find this a problem.  Modesitt’s strength is establishing textured, believable worlds where his characters can discuss and critique their experiences of different forms of governance. This is grown up fantasy – where notions of tolerance versus enlightened dictatorship, colliding religious views, and the consequences of power and its abuse can all be examined.

However this book isn’t a philosophical musing on politics and religion – it’s a fantasy adventure about a powerful magic-user who is coming to terms with what he is capable of doing. And once more, Modesitt gives us a demonstration of how to construct a magical system. Imagers don’t live in the city of L’Excelsis – it’s too dangerous. They cannot even have a normal married life, because when they fall asleep, they cannot control their dreams… I love the world. I love the way that Modesitt builds the layers and complexity throughout the book without compromising the pace and narrative tension.

Any niggles? Well, we access the whole book in Rhenn’s first person viewpoint, and while he is a well defined character, I would have preferred to have seen a bit more angst when he finally walks away from the ashes of his career as an artist. His initial time at the Collegium seemed a bit too smooth. I also feel that he deals with some of the events with great coolness and resourcefulness – and I’d like to see him flounder, showing more vulnerability and horror at the situations with which he is having to cope. Having said that, set against the overall quality of this first book in the series, it isn’t a major flaw – and I’m sure Modesitt has plenty of nasty experiences in store for Rhenn in future. One thing I do know – I’ll be hunting down the second book in the series to find out exactly what happened, next. If you enjoy intelligent, well written high fantasy with interesting things to say about the human condition in amongst all the mayhem and magic, then I’d advise you to look out a copy of Imager – you’re in for a treat.
9/10

Review of Wise Man’s Fear – Book 2 of The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss

While a number of people have been staggering around with George R.R. Martin’s monster A Dance With Dragons, I’ve been risking my tender back by tackling another brick-sized tome – the sequel to The Name of the Wind.

I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during the day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep. My name is Kvothe. You may have heard of me.

The man was lost. The myth remained. Kvothe – the dragon-slayer, the renowned swordsman, the most feared, famed and notorious wizard the world has ever seen – vanished without warning and without trace. And even now, when he has been found, when darkness is rising in the corners of the world, he will not return. But his story lives on and, for the first time, Kvothe is going to tell it…

It is the second day of the Chronicler’s visit to the small country tavern where our hero has tucked himself away, with his loyal Fae companion, Bast. The second day when he continues to tell his own life story – the true version… Or is it? Kvothe is the classic unreliable narrator, several times admitting that he has a habit of embellishing his reputation. At the start of this very long narration, we return to the University where we last left him battling enemies and pernicious poverty. To be honest, I started the book with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. I’m not a fan of overblown ‘epic’ fantasies – to the extent that I abandoned Martin’s epic halfway through the third volume and I’m not the slightest bit tempted to give it another go.

However, it didn’t take long before I was once more caught up by Kvothe’s charm to relax and let the Rothfuss magic do its stuff. He is a remarkable writer. At a thousand pages, this doorstop should be a lot stodgier and boring than it is. We have Kvothe’s recollection of a multi-talented, vibrantly youthful version of himself interspersed by a number of interruptions, where a poignant counterpoint is the burned out innkeeper, whose motivation in telling his tale seems to be to setting the record straight before his death. Or is it? Bast, his concerned companion, is still something of a puzzle – although we get a strong sense that he isn’t what he appears to be… The central theme of what makes a reputation and the nature of fame – a classic for fantasy fiction – is approached with intelligence, while the world is a masterpiece of interesting details that ensure it is convincingly complex.

Kvothe’s character is so full of charm – so vitally alive – he leaps off the page and into my heart. The odd anomalies and the disturbing gap between the young Kvothe and the exhausted, older version have still not been explained. Any grizzles? Well, I do feel the adventure with Felurian was a tad longer than it should have been – but I didn’t skip any of it and I’ll bet you cannot guess what the wise man’s fear is…

Despite this one niggle, I’m not knocking off a point. This fantasy tale has – for me – the X factor. I know that I’ll be remembering this story long after many others have faded into the abyss of my shocking memory.
10/10