Tuesday, February 17, 2004
The Windsingers, The Limbreth Gate, and The Luck of the Wheels by Megan Lindholm.
Yes, I have become a lazy git already and am hence reviewing three books at once. In my defense they are the last three books of a quartet and all relatively small at under 400 pages, and I've been sick.
Enough of excuses.
For a quartet all these books have a very stand-aloneish feel. The main characters stay the same, and I supppose if you read them out of order you would miss some of the character development, but essentially the stories are completely independent.
I am not going to bother with a run down of the storylines, the blurbs at the back of the book invariably do a much superior job. What I do want to concentrate on is my overall impressions.
I found myself enjoying the books more as I went on, and they all finished in a much more satisfactory manner than did number one. The Luck of The Wheels actually kept me up past midnight last night to get it finished. The characters become more comfortable as the story goes along, but I cant help feeling that the author has failed slightly here when it took so long before I felt a connection with the characters. The dyanmic between the two characters, Ki and Vandien, never seems real. I cared about them as individuals, but the supposed bond between them never felt right. The bond was meant to be different, they love each other, but keep no bonds and often travel separately for months. I think it was an effort to prevent cliches, but I dont think it worked.
The writing is consistently good. Very good. Outstanding even. The series is worth it just for this. I keep the slightly disappointed feel of finishing a group of good books that could have been great. Definitely worth checking out, especially if you can get your hands on the entire series.
Enough of excuses.
For a quartet all these books have a very stand-aloneish feel. The main characters stay the same, and I supppose if you read them out of order you would miss some of the character development, but essentially the stories are completely independent.
I am not going to bother with a run down of the storylines, the blurbs at the back of the book invariably do a much superior job. What I do want to concentrate on is my overall impressions.
I found myself enjoying the books more as I went on, and they all finished in a much more satisfactory manner than did number one. The Luck of The Wheels actually kept me up past midnight last night to get it finished. The characters become more comfortable as the story goes along, but I cant help feeling that the author has failed slightly here when it took so long before I felt a connection with the characters. The dyanmic between the two characters, Ki and Vandien, never seems real. I cared about them as individuals, but the supposed bond between them never felt right. The bond was meant to be different, they love each other, but keep no bonds and often travel separately for months. I think it was an effort to prevent cliches, but I dont think it worked.
The writing is consistently good. Very good. Outstanding even. The series is worth it just for this. I keep the slightly disappointed feel of finishing a group of good books that could have been great. Definitely worth checking out, especially if you can get your hands on the entire series.
Tuesday, February 03, 2004
Harpy's Flight - Megan Lindholm (aka Robin Hobb)
Harpy's Flight is the first book of the Ki and Vandien Quartet. I picked up the entire quartet relatively cheaply on eBay some time ago. Again it is a rather old novel, first published in 1983.
I have started taking the occasional note as I read to try and jog my memory about what I thought of the book. When I put this down I felt vaguely disappointed as it didn't really seem to go anywhere. The characters became dull, and the interaction between the two main characters was wooden. But digging up a note from when I started the book I find this -
"Ahhh, good fantasy. I love it. The easy flow of well written prose. Nothing flowery, but smooth, sharp, succinct and easy to read. Flows through your mind like a smooth single malt across your tongue. And like a good single malt I find myself reveling. Placing the book down beside me, closing my eyes, looking to the sky and repeating the mantra - 'how good is this.' "
So I will say that this was well written, but momentum slowed considerably after the introduction. The action slows and seems to almost stop, and the apparent danger of the major character completely failed to move me. I was also back in my element after quite a long while of reading different things and may have got a little overexcited :)
The book is told from the point of view of Ki, a young female Romani (gypsy) whose husband and children are brutally murdered by Harpies. In a memorable opening scene Ki takes her revenge by slaying the Harpy family, but leaves one male behind. The Harpy's are a sentient race, one of many in the world of the novel's setting, and are in fact worshipped by some human's including Ki's husband's family.
Following the death of her family Ki continues their tradition of trading goods from a wagon. Battling painful memories she attempts to transport a shipment of jewels over almost impassable icy mountains. Here she meets Vandien, who initially tries to steal her horses but is quickly welcomed into her company. The sole remaining Harpy tracks them down, and what may have been intended to be the climax of the book peters out lamely. A confusing confrontation with the Sisters (a mysteriously life-like rock outcropping) later and the book finishes.
So what the writing and the introduction promised, the plot, characterisation and ending quickly stole away.
I have begun the second book in the quartet in the hope that the story improves, and should have the review up shortly. I think the first book was saved in part by its relative brevity. It is particularly disappointing to read a book by an author who obviously has so much talent (ie Hugo and Nebula nominations for her short fic, and her more recognisable novels as Robin Hobb), and yet fails to deliver a compelling story. I do however retain high hopes for the rest of the series.
I have started taking the occasional note as I read to try and jog my memory about what I thought of the book. When I put this down I felt vaguely disappointed as it didn't really seem to go anywhere. The characters became dull, and the interaction between the two main characters was wooden. But digging up a note from when I started the book I find this -
"Ahhh, good fantasy. I love it. The easy flow of well written prose. Nothing flowery, but smooth, sharp, succinct and easy to read. Flows through your mind like a smooth single malt across your tongue. And like a good single malt I find myself reveling. Placing the book down beside me, closing my eyes, looking to the sky and repeating the mantra - 'how good is this.' "
So I will say that this was well written, but momentum slowed considerably after the introduction. The action slows and seems to almost stop, and the apparent danger of the major character completely failed to move me. I was also back in my element after quite a long while of reading different things and may have got a little overexcited :)
The book is told from the point of view of Ki, a young female Romani (gypsy) whose husband and children are brutally murdered by Harpies. In a memorable opening scene Ki takes her revenge by slaying the Harpy family, but leaves one male behind. The Harpy's are a sentient race, one of many in the world of the novel's setting, and are in fact worshipped by some human's including Ki's husband's family.
Following the death of her family Ki continues their tradition of trading goods from a wagon. Battling painful memories she attempts to transport a shipment of jewels over almost impassable icy mountains. Here she meets Vandien, who initially tries to steal her horses but is quickly welcomed into her company. The sole remaining Harpy tracks them down, and what may have been intended to be the climax of the book peters out lamely. A confusing confrontation with the Sisters (a mysteriously life-like rock outcropping) later and the book finishes.
So what the writing and the introduction promised, the plot, characterisation and ending quickly stole away.
I have begun the second book in the quartet in the hope that the story improves, and should have the review up shortly. I think the first book was saved in part by its relative brevity. It is particularly disappointing to read a book by an author who obviously has so much talent (ie Hugo and Nebula nominations for her short fic, and her more recognisable novels as Robin Hobb), and yet fails to deliver a compelling story. I do however retain high hopes for the rest of the series.
