Review on The Ghost King by R. A. Salvatore

"The Spellplague has come to Faerûn. The Weave is unwinding. Magic has gone mad."

This novel was released October 6th, 2009. It is the 3rd and final installment of the Transitions series, the latest of all the chronological sets following in the footsteps of Drizzt Do'Urden, the Drow Ranger and the Companions of Mithral Hall. Cover art is by Todd Lockwood.


The series sets up to this point in time in chronological order to the sequence of events are as follows:

The Dark Elf Trilogy

• Homeland(1990)
• Exile(1990)
• Sojourn(1991)

The Icewind Dale Trilogy

• The Crystal Shard(1988)
• Streams of Silver(1989)
• The Halfling's Gem(1990)

Legacy of the Drow

• The Legacy(1992)
• Starless Night(1993)
• Siege of Darkness(1994)
• Passage to Dawn(1996)

Paths to Darkness

• The Silent Blade(1998)
• The Spine of the World(1999)
• Servant of the Shard(2000)
• Sea of Swords(2001)

The Hunter's Blades Trilogy

• The Thousand Orcs(2002)
• The Lone Drow(2003)
• The Two Swords(2004)

Transitions

• The Orc King(2007)
• The Pirate King(2008)
• The Ghost King(2009)

These stories are awesome! They are mature, well-written, flavorful, inspiring and contain something for everyone. There are chronologically 19 novels before The Ghost King involving the excerpts of Drizzt Do'Urden and Companions. There are also mutiple (which I have spared from listing here) sets that are side-related, catching up on circumstances with many more of the popular characters. Fortunately, the novels don't betray themselves by relying heavily on past content (see: Robert Jordan) insofar as they move on amidst the lives of the Companions of Mithral Hall with detail of the recent past and minor running familiarizations to keep the reader both refreshed and up to par with the current content. In short, yes you could just pick the first book of any series up and read it having only read, say, the first six installments chronologically in the sets without too much confusion. But why would you want to?

R. A. Salvatore is native to Massachusetts and went to college at Fitchburg for communications and then English. He is regularly a NY Times best-selling author and has sold more than 10,000,000 copies. Salvatore also personally wrote the story for the PS2, Xbox and PC video game Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone, edited a four story novel set for PC online game Everquest and designed the banter for the Quake III bots. Currently he is the Creative Director of 38 Studios, formerly Green Monster Games, along with Curt Shilling and Todd McFarlane.

R. A. Salvatore's writing style is a strong, well-rounded version of all that can be found in the great writers of our time, likely because he is also very well-read. As with most writers of the fantasy genre, Salvatore juggles between multiple climactic events all taking place during the context of one or more great objectives to overcome. Environment is well-described but not overemployed, struggle and mystery are constant but not overburdening, and characters are scintillating with reaction. Salvatore's most unique style is found within combat, actually having structured the dynamics and timing of everything that must occur within both realistic logic of relativity and fantastical connotations. That may sound complicated, the gist would be in that characters are not in some grey area of imagined triumph or loss amidst undescribable chaos where only what was written is to be finitely occurring. Also, the choices are related to Wizards of the Coast's Forgotten Realms content and must stay within those 'guidelines'.

The Ghost King is a puzzle piece fitted exactly in the conjunction of all Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons and Dragons and Forgotten Realms content. The PC game expansion pack Neverwinter Nights 2: The Mask of the Betrayer might ring a bell (good game by the way), or any reference to the Spellplague may also. All magic fibers have been torn asunder rendering deathly irony to what once were the most powerful entities on Faerûn. The realm of shadow is pouring into the prime material plane, with legion armies of otherworldly force spewing forth in contortions of rampage.

The Ghost King himself is partly the reincarnation of Crenshinibon, the crystal shard. That is the same crystal shard as mentioned in The Crystal Shard and Servant to the Shard. It is an ancient artifact millenia old that seeks revenge on those surviving who have spited it. The Spellplague, an unraveling and weirding of all magic context, has caused its previously detonated energy to form new substance. The Ghost King is possibly the most severe, colossal and heart-wrenching culmination of events that Salvatore could have designed.

Review on The Books of the South by Glen Cook

"In a moment he was adrift in the whale's belly, floating through the flames, watching the dark fire-eater. Only because it had fed so gluttonously had the windwhale not yet been consumed by a holocaust."


Sorry, was I supposed to write something? I thought we should simply gaze mesmerized, awestruck by the completely intimidating cover art. No? Well here's a closer look for now, and in the future I'll likely be forging a more personal review on the artist, Raymond Swanland, as well.

The world as it knows it has been saved from the infernal clutches of the Dominator. The Black Company is back, revived from almost total annihilation. Croaker has become the Captain and the new recruits are a statuesque caste of fearless Spartans exhuming unreachable prowess. Yes, this will do quite nicely.

The Books of the South: Tales of the Black Company(2008) is a trilogy of novels, directly trailing content subsequent to the The White Rose(1985)'s climactic last showdown. Singularly, the books are quite short, somewhere in the neighborhood of a low 200+ page count. What that equals in word count may better fit the more concise definition of a novella. While it may seem like we're being short-changed by Mr. Cook, it is quite the contrary. Not only were two published within the same year, he also published multiple other paperbacks for his P.I. Garret series within the same period of time. That's a busy guy! The titles are: Shadow Games(1989), Dreams of Steel(1990), and The Silver Spike(1989).

With the curtain call of the previous trilogy, all was seemingly well. It is not so. Newly introduced forces struggle for power and survival near the edge of the decipherable globe, only to reveal sinister revenge plots from yesteryear's devilish enemies; a creeping certain doom spreading in every imaginable context.

The same war tactics are held in use. By method they are consistently varied, by formula they are not; a typical zig then zag approach to the quick and doubly lethal kill. The environmentally illustrated medieval cutscene leaves the reader with a greater perception and clearer focus on what hasn't been studied inclusively before, though it may very well be the same picture. Glen Cook has further provided a flowing, well characterized depiction of an enduring, harsher reality containing few, if any, unnecessary drags. Cook will lack somewhat in description, allowing a more complete, vital and energetic read.

Potential themes are: love and loss, the importance of knowing one's own ancestry, sibling rivalry, patience being a virtue and letting the enemy come to you.

Croaker, Lady and Philodendron Case are the main annalists (narrators), depending on the when and where of the action taking place. Each narrator displays their own particular traits, with significant differences in how they feel, think and act during any given situation. For example: Croaker is analytic, cynical and calmly in command; Lady is brutally efficient and cunning but often represses her own needs; and lastly, Philodendron is well-rounded and extremely skilled in combat but must follow others to make the best use of his own versatility. The additional descriptive contours provide a more 'kaleidoscopic' view. Instead of an avalanche of useless information, Cook instead further conveys a constant self-increased dynamic, a widened passive sense of imagination and perception.

Every author is trying to publish works that encompass their own perogative, essentially writing the way they always wanted to read. It doesn't always come out that way. Many writers discard their initial attempts as being rubbish, feeling helpless and unable to construe it in the vision of the target audience. From this perspective and at this point in the timeline of The Black Company, I believe Cook has built a great foundation and grown it in a remarkable way. Undoubtedly, an exciting step in this evolution of story.

Review on Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

"'You're no help,' he told the lime. This was unfair. It was only a lime; there was nothing special about it at all. It was doing the best it could."


Both American Gods(2001) and Anansi Boys(2005), respective chronologically in timeline, are within the same contextual universe. Compé Anansi, also a part of Gaiman's novel American Gods, is a mythological trickster god hailing from West African and Carribean folklore. He is represented by the spider aspect. In Anansi Boys, he is referred to as Mr. Nancy (a pseudo-homonym of Anansi), and the infamous spider god is dead.

Anansi Boys won the Locus, Mythopoeic, YALSA Alex, and British Fantasy Awards in 2006. The novel was also adapted into a radio play for the BBC World Service in 2007.

Main characters include: "Fat Charlie" Nancy, Anansi's son; Roise Noah, Charles' Fiancée; Mr. Nancy, Charlie's father; Mrs. Nancy, Charlie's mother; Callyanne Higgler, Charlie's childhood neighbor; Grahame Coats, Charlie's boss, also named Basil Finnegan and Roger Bronstein; Louella Dunwiddy, the childhood neighbor who made Spider go away; Mrs. Bustamonte and Mrs. Noles, childhood neighbors; Spider, Charlie's brother he never knew he had; Maeve and Morris Livingstone, tw of Grahame Coats' clients; Daisy Day, a police detective; Eutheria Noah, Rosie's widowed mother; Benjamin and Clarissa Higgler, hotel concierge and mâitre d'.

The gods featured are: Compé Anansi, Lion, Elephant, Python, Stoat, Tiger, Hyena, Monkey, Rhinoceros, Crocodile, Bird Woman, Dragon, Rabbit and Scorpion.

To best explain the story, first it must be mentioned that all the stories were Tiger's, and then they belonged to Anansi, 'earned' through his 'hard work'. Through the stories Anansi tells, reality will bend this way and that to create a miracle. The gods are able to call upon these miracles to further their intentions, additionally fueled by their mythological characteristics. Fat Charlie and Spider are from the same Anansi bloodline, meaning they may have inherent godly power but are also entirely different people.

As befitting the mystical world which miracles are pulled out of thin air by walking deities exercising their divine right, the sense of perception is distorted far out of proportion. Despite any inconsistencies, the reader may comfortably follow the complex and rhythmic design Gaiman has masterfully paved, one breadcrumb at a time. Complaints founded through flaws in logic, normality or direction are easily carried off by an overwhelming interest to discover what actually happens. Gaiman possesses that rare quality in his writing, capable of deflecting the edge of sharp criticism. Yeah, I could rip it to shreds (like serious Tiger might), but as the next paragraph and the next after that go on, I realize I've only been humming to the same tune (like so many others).

There are distinct themes of good versus evil, naturalistic harmony, the pen being mightier, and respecting one's elders. Symbolically, the atmosphere is chock full of contextual clues. The novel has a strong recurrance of both coincidence and justice. This book is a quick read, a fun adventure and a tasteful insight of spiritually guided foolishness. My only warning being that you may have to forcefully restrict yourself from the use of clichés after being introduced to Grahame Coats. Just... don't say I didn't warn you.

Review on Songs of the Dying Earth, anthology in tribute to Jack Vance

"Hand over the nose."


This 22-story anthology, of 21 shorts and one novella, is based in Jack Vance's Dying Earth. The authors of this compilation are reknowned, distinguished for their talent and all have at least one thing in common. They grew up reading Jack Vance's novels and aspired to the greatness with which he penned a universe.

My first questions, having not been introduced to Vance: Why have some of my favorite authors all written under the same cover? Who is Jack Vance? Why is there so much acclaim, from authors I've enjoyed, for someone I've never heard of?

This man's work is like a cleverly disguised niche. Within lies the font from which the genre of science fiction itself sprang. The contents of the anthology are as follows:

The introduction is by Dean Koontz.

"The True Vintage of Erzuine Thale" by Robert Silverberg
"Grolion of Almery" by Matthew Hughes
"The Copsy Door" by Terry Dowling
"Caulk the Witch Doctor" by Liz Williams
"Inescapable" by Mike Resnick
"Abrizonde" by Walter Jon Williams
"The Traditions of Karzh" by Paula Volsky
"The Final Quest of the Wizard Sarnod" by Jeff Vandermeer
"The Green Bird" by Kage Baker
"The Last Golden Thread" by Phyllis Eisenstein
"An Incident in Uskvesk" by Elizabeth Moon
"Sylgarmo's Proclamation" by Lucius Shepard
"The Lamentably Comical Tragedy (or The Laughably Tragic Comedy) of Lixal Laqavee" by Tad Williams
"Guyal the Curator" by John C Wright
"The Good Magician" by Glen Cook
"The Return of the Fire Witch" by Elizabeth Hand
"The Collegeum of Mauge" by Byron Tetrick
"Evillo the Uncunning" by Tanith Lee
The Guiding Nose of Ulfant Banderoz by Dan Simmons
"Frogskin Cap" by Howard Waldrop
"A Night at the Tarn House" by George R R Martin
"An Invocation of Curiosity" by Neil Gaiman

Yes, that is quite a sum of authors, awards, material and collaboration. Likewise, it would be drastically probable to suffer a lower quality stigma of material as the result of such a large production. Songs of the Dying Earth(2009) connects freely with the timelines of Vance's previous writings. Such is not the case. The penalty more likely was, however, licensing fees and sign-on bonuses. This hardcover has two versions. Face value being clocked in at $125 and $300 for limited and collector's editions, respectively. Harrowing.

Every author includes a preface to their section of the compendium, as well as a miniature biography depicting the circumstances under which Jack Vance's collection entered their lives. Illustrations provided are of an impressive texture and match well the grandiose schema of which the writer has engineered their tale.

Aside from cost, mitigated by a trip to your local library, only a single downside remains detriment. Songs of the Dying Earth is like stop-and-go city traffic. A short story, fueled with the purpose of each writer's imagination must hurtle itself in turn to a final red-light destination, so that you may wait to start up again for the next. A veritable wealth of income awaits you after each session's commute.

Review on Stardust by Neil Gaiman

“You can't cross the wall. Nobody crosses the wall.”


Stardust(1999) is the colloborative result of authors Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess.

The novel originally stems from the same titled DC graphic novel series published in 1997. Stardust(graphic novel) received the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Awards for Favorite Limited Series for 1998 and 1999, with the collected edition for the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favorite Reprint Graphic Album for 1999.

Stardust(novel), in 1999, was awarded The Mythopoetric Fantasty Award for Adult Literature by the Mythopoeic Society and was also nominated for the Locus Award. In 2000, it received the Alex Award from the American Library Association, as one of the "top ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults".

The storyline has also been similarly converted to motion picture, released in 2007, as Stardust(film).

Stardust has a little of it all, in more than just its very broad publication spectrum. Neil Gaiman is a wonder worker with a fantastical touch, blending the humble disposition of Great Britain, beginning in 1839, with the mythical land of Faerie. Henry Draper would have just photographed the Moon, and Charles Dickens was serializing the novel Oliver Twist. Faerie is a land sustained of a more magical significance, where all manner of places that have been forced off the map by "explorers and the brave going out and proving it wasn't there" must go. What definably separates the two is the town of Wall.

Notable characters are: Tristran Thorn, the main protagonist, who is half-faerie; Yvaine, a fallen star; Dunstan Thorn, Tristran’s father; Victoria Forester, whom Tristran is infatuated with; The Lord of Stormhold; Lord Primus, first son of The Lord of Stormhold; Lord Tertius, third of Stormhold; Lord Septimus, seventh of Stormhold; Lady Una, Tristran’s mother; Madame Semele/Ditchwater Sal, a peddling witch; Morwanneg, a witch-queen, one of the Lilim intent on devouring the heart of the fallen star in the preservation of her immortality.

It is a fact, Gaiman has a gift for writing a faerie tale. Reading through any novel he has thus penned, I would be greatly surprised if, within the first 50 pages, there were not at least one element that has already left every reader in its wake wistfully wishing for the silly, beautiful treasures of their wildest imaginations. It could seem overboard, but reading the story, there you are.

Stardust is primarily categorized as fantasy but can pass, arguably, as romance novel. I am personally not a fan of romantic fantasy, for what I consider to be 'good reason' but is more along the lines of preference. By no means does it touch close to being the gushy, steamy, inclusive of genericized Fabio-esque cover art paperback we all know and fear, but it is a world where the setting must be a start to finish faerie tale for the adult audience.

How confusing is that? A world with all the rules broken connected to the average unknowing shmoe's hoedinger hobble trying to raise their livestock. The only time villagefolk allow themselves to wander beyond the wall, located at Wall, is once every nine years for the May Day festival. The supernatural are to be exchanged monetarily, and that is always where the trouble must start. Isn't it? Maybe its where all our problems get solved.

I'd say to get lost reading and figure it out, but you might choose to never come back. I do recommend this title, though by all means it is atmospherically aloof.

Review on Chronicles of the Black Company by Glen Cook

"There are strangers on the plain, Croaker."

Comprised of three novels, the Chronicles of the Black Company is the collection of: The Black Company(May 1984), Shadows Linger(October 1984), and The White Rose(April 1985) are what is referred to in the series as The Books of the North.

Adventures within this new world introduce a tumultuous landscape inheritant of constant turmoil; sorcerous power gone mad amidst a medieval-generation's walk of life. Survival of the fittest is in no question a viable theme, emphasized in realistic scope through Cook's astounding grasp of military culture hailing back to his years in the U.S. Navy. Other themes include the honor among thieves, the choice between two or more evils, and the meaning of what a day-to-day grind becomes while under the palpable shadow of death.

Central characters of the outfit include: Croaker, doctor and annalist; The Captain, commander of the Black Company; The Lieutenant, second in command; Silent, Goblin, One-Eye and Tom-tom, wizards of a valuable strength; Elmo, the sergeant; Otto and Hagop, veterans; Raven, newly recruited; and Darling, a young, mute and deaf girl.

Cook's imagination is reminiscent of the greats of science fiction and fantasy literature. Intrinsically concise, these stories are a relatively quick read while also disallowing skipping lines. Much of the character development is typically brief, swaggering, and shrouded in questions unanswerable without knowing what may never be literally explained. The main narrator, Croaker, both the company's primary physician and historian, is privy to specialized information but must also maintain a certain persona of objectivity in the midst of his own insatiable curiosity.

Perhaps what Cook emphasizes best is that no man is truly good or evil. Though being medically trained and more ethically rooted, Croaker tends to gloss over the inhumanities and morality of his companions. He admits their faults within a constant strife they must all endure. Without exceptional circumstance, no man leaves alive. The Black Company is not a group of butchers or men with no conscience, they are necessarily unrestrained and brutal in their no-nonsense tactics.

The plot, characters, setting and theme are difficult to find fault in; every concept is refreshingly new, yet relationally familiar. What the trilogy may seem to lack in description has been replaced by a fixation to each page's constant momentum. Likely, this is due to Cook's writing style of allowing his imagination to run rampant while remaining both linear and uncharted. For a naturally combative, colorfully entertaining, and conceptually straightforward read, I highly recommend this.