The Prestige

Christopher Priest's The Prestige is a mysterious thriller set in the late 19th century England, at a time when the popularity of magicians was on the rise. The heart of the story is the rivalry between two magicians, a rivalry that lasts their whole lives and expands to affect their professional careers. The form of the book is that of memoirs written by the two magicians and their descendants in the present day.

In the opening, a young man named Nicholas Borden tells about how he has always felt he had a twin brother out there somewhere. He could sense his brother even though he had always known that he was a single child and all evidence of his birth showed that he had no siblings. When he is sent on assignment as a journalist, he meets a woman named Kate Angier who tells him that she has information about his past. He learns that his great grandfather was Alfred Borden and her great grandfather was Rupert Angier, and that the two men had had a great rivalry over a hundred years earlier.

The story follows in Alfred Borden's memoir. Borden is the son of a cabinet maker and learns the family trade, which helps him make devices for his magical acts. He is an acute student of the art of magic. He assumes the stage name Le Professeur de Magie. Borden discovers that there are unsavory magicians who are holding seances and using magic tricks to fool bereaved families. He sneaks into one such seance and disrupts it, exposing the medium as a fraud. The medium is Rupert Angier, and this starts the bitter feud that will entangle their careers. With the clever use of the form, we do not discover until we read Angier's account why the episode had enraged him so much.

Borden's big trick for his finale is The Transported Man. It is an act where he closes himself into a large cabinet and then immediately steps out of one across the stage. When Angier sees it, he cannot figure it out, and this drives him to distraction. Angier is a premier showman, but he cannot always figure out how magic tricks work, depending on the help of others. The conflict between the two men drives the story, particularly Angier's obsession with Borden's secret.

Angier's memoir follows Borden's, and we learn the other side of the picture. Angier's family is wealthy, though his older brother stands to inherit the estate. He tells of his attempts to disrupt Borden's shows due to his anger, but also his fascination with Borden's tricks. The obsession leads to an affair and the breakup of his marriage. When his mistress tires of him, she tells him she will leave him but give him one last gift, the secret of Borden's trick. When she hands him the note, it has one word on it: Tesla. Thus Angier goes to America to entreat Nikola Tesla to help him create a great trick to match Borden's.

The theme of twins is a critical part of the novel. In addition to Nicholas, there is the question of Alfred Borden's secret. Is Borden's magic trick so all encompassing that he has changed his whole life to make it succeed? And when Angier receives his magic device, there comes the haunting effects of doubling that he must deal with. (I have seen the movie and it is great; though the book is a little different it is also great.) The mystery deepens and gets darker throughout the memoirs. It is truly haunting when you realize what Angier means by the prestige materials. The final section, narrated by Nicholas as he descends to the Angier crypt, is chilling even as it ties his life to that of his ancestor. The mystery of the magicians' secrets makes for an exciting story. A-

A Storm of Swords

A Storm of Swords is the third book in George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series. The story follows the characters from the previous two books and adds some new ones. The first chapter is from the point of view of Jaime Lannister, the kingslayer and kings guardsman who is a captive of the lady knight Brienne. Brienne has been charged by Lady Catelyn with taking Jaime to King’s Landing to exchange him for her daughters, but Jaime doesn’t make it easy on her. Despite Jaime’s needling of Brienne, a more human side of him emerges. In flashbacks we see his decision to kill King Aerys and the forces that shaped him. Through the course of the book he comes to appear more honorable, even returning to rescue Brienne rather than leave her to the men who released him.

One of the themes running through the book is the constant changing of fortunes. Jaime is a clear example, going from captive at the beginning of the story to captain of the kings guard at the end. It’s also true of Jon Snow. Jon is one of the black cloaks guarding the wall, or as the wildlings call them, the crows. Jon has to prove himself to the wildlings and convince them that he has turned against the black cloaks, but he faces many who do not trust him. The wildling girl Ygritte takes his side, going so far as to seduce him to show the others that he is one of them. But when they cross the wall to threaten the north of the kingdom, Jon escapes to warn his brothers at the wall. But even when he helps fight off thousands of wildlings with only a few men, he finds that the lords who arrive to help do not trust him either. Over and over he is forced to prove himself.

Much of the plot revolves around the events in King’s Landing and in particular the young King Joffrey. Sansa Stark is still there though she is out of favor and seeking a way to escape. Tywin Lannister, the head of House Lannister and Joffrey’s grandfather, and the effective ruler of the kingdom, orders his son Tyrion to marry Sansa and secure a claim to House Stark. Tyrion, the imp, dutifully obeys his father but can’t bring himself to consummate the marriage. Instead he continues to see his concubine Shea. He knows that no matter how kind is he to Sansa she will always hate him as a Lannister. Tywin is his usual sarcastic and resourceful self. He has also suffered a reversal, with his father taking over as Hand of the king. He is put in charge of the treasury but discovers it is a thankless and untenable task.

There are many times when a character’s fate takes a reversal from the beginning of a chapter to the end. This is most evident with Arya Stark. The book starts with her trying to reach her mother Lady Catelyn. She is with her friend Gendry, but they part ways, and every time she thinks she’s getting closer she finds herself further away. A scene where the Hound catches up with her is one of the most chilling.

The only story line that doesn’t see a reversal of fortune directly is that of Daenarys, the queen in exile. She uses her dragons, her wits, and her loyal servants to amass power and make her way back to Westeros where she intends to conquer the kingdom and rule again. Though there is one reversal when she discovers the truth of a prophesy that says she will be betrayed three times.

This is the best book of the series so far. There are so many plot twists and reversals that it’s hard to remember where things started. There are new characters and forces introduced. The Others, the ghostly undead who terrorize the north, make their way towards the wall. A mystical knight who supposedly can’t be killed roams the western part of the kingdom and makes trouble for the king. King Stannis and his witch use dark magic to see the future. There are plots and more plots. And we learn about the characters’ motivations and backgrounds, making the new ones and old ones more human. It is definitely a fun read. A

The Magician King

The Magician King is the followup to Lev Grossman's The Magicians. Where The Magicians was a dark coming of age story about young people learning how to use magical powers, this book is about a search for a quest and the discovery of something more. It's also a parallel story about an even darker coming of age.

Quentin is king of Fillory, the magical land he and his friends found in the previous story. He rules with his friend Julia from high school, and his friends Janet and Eliot from Brakebills, the school of magic they graduated from. Ruling over this small tranquil land is pretty boring, so the four of them have decided to go on a quest. Since they are looking for a questing beast, it's more of a metaquest, a quest for a quest. When Quentin makes one choice and one of their servants dies, they rethink their plans.

The book is also the story of how Julia learned magic. Rejected from Brakebills, she went on a dark journey that took her into the hidden underworld of magic. She found secret magic houses and magician mentors. She invents her own spells and discovers an ultrasecret group of magicians who lead her on the ultimate search for power.

Bored, Quentin decides to visit the outermost island in Fillory's realm. After having a ship outfitted, he and Julia travel there to find it nearly deserted. But he hears about a magic key that is on an island even farther out, and finally decides to seek it. But when he and Julia find the key, they are thrust into an unwanted quest: suddenly they find themselves back in the real world.

With both of them confused and upset, Julia takes the lead. She uses her wild magic and her underworld connections to find a way back to Fillory. They retrace her steps to learning magic and Quentin learns some of what she had to go through to get where she is. On the way they discover clues to the real quest, and start to put them together. It turns out that Julia's past is one of the keys, as well as one of Quentin's friends from school.

This story has several layers. One layer is Julia's magical education and how it compares to Quentin's. Another layer is the unexpected nature of the quest. One quest leads to another until the real quest is revealed, and it turns out to be a threat to the existence of Fillory itself. Another aspect is Quentin's malcontent with life in Fillory and always expecting something more interesting. The irony is not only does he find it, he is rejected from Fillory altogether. It's great reading about Julia and contrasting her history to Quentin's. The story has plenty of twists to keep the reader interested (even beyond the mild spoilers here). While the previous book has its dark spots, this one has a darker thread running through it. The ending is bittersweet, and apparently final. But Quentin is just good enough and just complex enough to want to read another story about him. A

The Broken Kingdoms

N. K. Jemisin's The Broken Kingdoms is the sequel to The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. The story takes place a few years after the events of the previous book. Oree is a blind artist in the city of Sky, the large tree where the ruling Arameri live in the top. Oree lives in the lower, poorer, section where she makes a living selling her artwork to the tourists who visit the area. While she is blind, she has the ability to see magic, an ability that she keeps secret.

Oree discovers the body of a dead god in a nearby alley one day. Since the change in Arameri leadership, the minor gods have been free to roam the city and the rest of the country. However there are factions that are not so happy with the new order of society. The formerly dominant religious order resents its loss of power.

Oree makes another discovery when she finds a strange man in her trash bin. When she sees him glowing in the sunlight she names in Shiny. Shiny is dark, quiet, and moody. She suspects he is more than he seems. Her suspicions are confirmed when he is killed but comes back to life. Oree and Shiny have come under the attention of some people in the guard force. Oree has also gained the attention of a secretive group who is against the current power structure. It turns out that Oree is special and may be quite valuable. This makes her quite vulnerable, since she is nearly powerless to escape when she is captured.

The story turns dark when Oree's lover, a lesser god, is murdered. She becomes familiar with the power structure of the city and learns Shiny's true identity, which she must keep a secret. Shiny's plight is tied to the events of the previous book and the history of the world. Oree's goal is not just to survive but to keep herself from being used as a weapon and stop the murders of the gods.

The author describes the story adroitly from Oree's point of view. The reader gets a sense of her vulnerability as a blind woman, yet she also has flashes of sight which are sometimes enjoyable and sometimes troubling. The events of the first book are the background to this book as the story is expanded. There are enough players to make the plot interesting and mysterious, and questions keep popping up. Oree's world is populated by many new godlings, some benevolent, some not, and some just mysterious. The story is fun and interesting, and a nice followup to the first book. A-

Rereading The Hobbit

There are very few books that I ever reread. I guess there are just so many new books to read out there that a book has to be very special for me to reread it. I have read J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy several times, most recently as the movies were released. And while I read The Hobbit then too, I knew it would be exciting to read it to my children in anticipation of the first Hobbit movie being released this winter.

I won't go into a synopsis here since the story is very popular and there are summaries elsewhere. Instead I will go with my biggest impressions and things that I noticed this time around.

The most interesting facet is the character of Gandalf. The wizard serves several purposes. His first task is of bringing together Bilbo and the dwarves. Gandalf sees something in Bilbo that he thinks would make him a good adventurer (a Tookish element). After fulfilling his role as instigator, he then becomes the helper, showing the party the way and helping them out of sticky situations like with the trolls. Gandalf is absent when the troll encounter begins, allowing the party to get into trouble, but arrives just in time to save everyone. Later he serves as an intermediary between the dwarves and Elrond, and later with Beorn. He helps the dwarves get out of trouble with the goblins, but only uses a small amount of magic: enough to kill the goblin chief but not enough to completely remove the threat.

Gandalf's importance becomes most evident with his absence. When he leaves the party at the entrance to Mirkwood, Bilbo is enabled to step up and help the dwarves out of trouble. This is a common element in myths and legends. The special helper character must step away from the story and stop helping the hero to allow the hero to find his potential. (I am also reminded of Curious George, who was always separated from the man with the yellow hat in order to get in trouble.) In Mirkwood Bilbo's character arc goes way up and he start to see himself not only as a solid member of the party but as their savior.

Bilbo's importance reaches its peak when they reach the Lonely Mountain and he sneaks inside and talks to Smaug. Once he enters the mountain, the plot follows directly via a cause and effect chain. The final events of the story leading up to the death of Smaug and the final battle are plotted very neatly. My kids enjoyed the parts with the dragon and enjoyed following Bilbo through his adventures. My favorite part is still Mirkwood, especially the time when the dwarves are imprisoned and Bilbo must help them escape. I'm not sure whether this is my favorite because of Bilbo's ascendance as I described above, or because Mirkwood is dark and dangerous and the escape from the elves so ingenious. Still, as a whole the story is just a good on the third or fourth reading, through a child's eyes or through an adult's eyes. A

The Magicians

In The Magicians, Lev Grossman has created something more than your standard coming of age/school of magic/magical land story. The protagonist is a teenager named Quentin who is a typical specimen of the breed. He is anxious for his future and moody, and despises his parents due to their general lack of interest in his life. Yet Quentin is obsessed with magic and the magic world of Fillory from books that he has adored since childhood. Quentin goes to a college interview but finds the interviewer dead of an apparent heart attack. A paramedic who arrives insists he take the envelop on the man's desk and Quentin is astonished to discover that it contains the manuscript for a supposed long lost sixth novel to the Fillory series. But even more astonishing is that he soon finds himself transported to a magical school Brakebills where he is given a series of admittance tests along with other candidates. For the final test, he surprises himself by conjuring magic and he is admitted to the school.

Quentin's parents are spelled to not worry about the strange unknown school that he enrolls in. Quentin's separation from his parents is a bit abrupt and severe, but I take it as symbolic of what all teenagers long to do. The break enables him to focus on his studies and rarely return home. He becomes friends with a girl named Alice who is also a very intelligent overachiever. Indeed all the students at the school are geniuses and overachievers. There's a strong competition between all of them. He and Alice are promoted to the next class ahead of schedule, providing some friction to a boy named Penny who didn't make the cut. They start hanging out with others who have the same focus in physical magic, a boy named Eliot and a girl named Janet. Janet and Eliot's cynicism and hedonism infect Alice and Quentin.

The story takes a dark turn when Quentin tries to play a trick on a teacher and ends up letting a strange and powerful spirit take over the classroom while the teacher and the students are frozen for most of a day. The spirit takes the form of a man in a suit with a branch in front of his face. His presence strikes fear into the students. Quentin feels guilty about his transgression and especially that one of the students died, but he doesn't confess that he may have enabled the spirit to transgress into this dimension.

One of the fun things about this novel is that each character is distinct with his or her own agenda. Janet is the headstrong one with contempt for the school administration. Eliot is the hedonist. Alice sometimes broods and has a dark secret. Quentin is both drawn to them and sometimes fearful of them. This gives the story a complex and grainy feel.

When Quentin and his friends graduate they are aimless for a good time, in the tradition of many young adults, even magicians apparently. But suddenly Penny approaches the group with a big surprise, he has found a magical button that will enable them to travel to Fillory. The whole group is excited. Quentin especially is determined to play out his fantasies and have an adventure in the magical land. The group jumps into Fillory, but not before a pair of betrayals sets a dark tone to the adventure. What they find in Fillory surprises them all.

This book is very enjoyable to read. It takes several different subjects each of which could support a story in its own right. Quentin is a typical broody teenager yet we immediately identify with him. We want him to go to Brakebills and learn magic; to fall for Alice; to explore Fillory and find answers to the questions left open by the last book. The travels through Fillory are fraught with perils of a magical land as well as the torment of the group falling apart with infighting. Quentin discovers that even though he has reached his childhood dreams there are dark elements that can ensure he will never be happy again. A-

The Night Circus

The circus has a special place in film and fiction as a place where magical things occur. I am reminded of the recent shows The Cape and especially the last season of Heroes, where a circus full of people with special powers transports magically to different locations. The circus in The Night Circus also appears suddenly in spots where it wasn't the night before. This circus shows its patrons magical wonders that they can't find anywhere else.

The story revolves around a young man and young woman engaged in a long term magical competition at the turn of the Twentieth Century. The competition is grand but mysterious--the two do not even understand how they are to win. At first they do not even know who the other competitor is. When her mother dies, Celia Bowen goes to be with her father, the magician Hector Bowen, also know as Prospero the Enchanter. Prospero immediately sees the magical gift in her. He contacts his longtime rival to arrange setting up the competition. The rival, known as the man in the grey suit, goes to an orphanage to find a boy. When the children are older, their father/mentor has each of them put on a ring that binds them together as it dissolves into their fingers.

Over the years Celia and Marco gain knowledge of magic. Celia masters the manipulation of matter and Marco becomes a master of illusion. Celia is invited to join Le Cirque Des Reves. The Cirque contains wonders that can't be found anywhere else. Celia comes to be a dominant part of the circus as her inventions keep the circus itself going. Marco directs the circus from afar as the assistant to the director, yet his influence grows in secret. It is Marco who first realizes that Celia is his opponent, yet he cannot work against her since he starts to fall in love with her.

This story treads the fine line between mysterious and confusing. The narrative is enjoyable, even though the conflict is largely implicit and behind the scenes. There is some intrigue and a death or two; the secret forces behind the circus want to stay hidden as the circus takes on a life of its own. While the characterization is strongest with the two opponents, the other characters are lifelike and some rise to influence the story in unexpected ways. The writing infuses the circus with a dreamlike mystery. Different people see different parts of it and it changes with the influx of new performers. I found the story enjoyable even though at times it was underwhelming and I found myself wondering if there should be more. In a way it is like the circus, providing surreal entertainment to create awe. B+

Throne of the Crescent Moon

Arabian themes have become popular lately. Books like Habibi and movies like The Prince of Persia have used Arabian settings, drawing on a rich culture of mystery and fantasy. In Throne of the Crescent Moon, Saladin Ahmed uses the background of deserts and cities, demons and demon hunters, dervishes and dark magics. He creates a fantastic tale full of adventure.

The centerpiece is the city of Dhamsawaat, an ancient city where all sorts of merchants meet to do trade. There are vast riches in the city but also a large population of poor people. The city is run by the Khalif, a corrupt ruler who only cares about extracting wealth from his people. The demoralized citizens have found a hero in the Falcon Prince, a daring master thief who has led attacks on the Khalif's property to turn it over to the poor. In all this chaos, Adoulla Makhslood is a ghul hunter who has been hunting ghuls and other demons for decades. Adoulla is not just rough around the edges, he is rough all around. He is a cynical older man with a past, and he is one of the few men left who knows how to battle ghuls and use magic to dispel them.

Dhamsawaat is reminiscent of Lankhmar, and Adoulla has his counterpart in Raseed, a dervish. Raseed is straight-laced and devout, devoted to his single god and his holy book. He is a master swordsman, apprenticed to Adoulla to assist him in vanquishing evil. The plot starts when Adoulla is requested to help a young boy whose family has been slain by ghuls. When the he and Raseed travel to the nearby village to deal with the evil beings, they are attacked by more than they expected. Fortunately they are saved by a lion. Zamia is a shape-shifting warrior whose band was slain by ghuls. Like Raseed, she is devoted to her way and determined to get revenge for her family.

Zamia joins the two ghul hunters when they realize that a powerful magus must be creating all the ghuls. Before they can find any more information they are attacked by a shadowy being calling itself Mouw Awa. Only Zamia is able to fend it off but she is wounded in the attack. Adoulla's house is destroyed by fire in the attack, and he grieves for it and all the books lost inside. Here we see Adoulla as more than a demon hunter; he has a love of knowledge and a deep history of arcane lore. He is also devoted to his calling despite all his setbacks, driven to protect the people of the land from the ghuls as only he can.

The three get help from Adoulla's friends, a couple who know about mystic healing and spells. Together the five of them create a plan of attack. They struggle against the Khalif, religious fanatics, the Falcon Prince, hidden texts, hidden magics, and their own squabbles. They encourage each other to continue, not knowing where the fight will take them. The story is full of exciting fights and daring escapes. The dangers are what one would expect in an adventure story. The characters are interesting and different enough to cause friction and make the plot more complex. There's an intriguing mystery somewhere behind the events, and the story getting there is a lot of fun. B+

Orcs

I've had a copy of Stan Nicholls' novel Orcs on my bookshelf for over a year waiting me to finally pick it up and read it. When I was about ready to go on vacation and needed something to read I picked it up and started it. The book is a fantasy where orcs--the standard stock bad guys--are the central characters. This is an interesting conceit, a twist on common tropes. Yet, I feel like it would have been done better by another author.

The first chapter starts out strong, with an exciting battle scene. The orc leader is Stryke, captain of the orc warband called the Wolverines. His sergeants are Coilla, a female; Jup, a dwarf; Haskeer, an argumentative orc; and Alfray, a wizened old warrior and healer. Jup is a mercenary, selling his services to the warband. He and Haskeer are always arguing and trading insults. There are about twenty other grunts who don't figure much into the plot. The group works for Queen Jennesta, a caricature of an evil character. She is completely greedy and selfish and cares nothing about her minions. She thinks nothing of having her leaders killed for not fulfilling the tasks she assigns them. She is part human and struggles for domination over her sisters and the land.

Stryke and the others take an artifact and head back to Jennesta, but are attacked by a band of kobolds. They fight them off but the kobolds escape with the artifact. Knowing that to return to Jennesat empty-handed is a death sentence, they go after the kobolds. They manage to sneak into camp and retrieve the artifact and rescue an ancient gremlin. The gremlin tells them that the magical item, which they refer to as a "star" due to its shiny gem-like quality, is one of many that are sought after for their power. After surviving an attack from a rival orc leader sent to bring him back, Stryke decides to go after the remaining stars.

There are many battles throughout the book, but they end up feeling all the same. The orcs are strong and great warriors; they cut down their enemies without breaking a sweat. There is really no suspense as to the outcome of each battle. It made me wonder how there could be any balance in this world if orcs could overpower everybody. They even infiltrate an underground troll kingdom and kill most of the trolls and steal their star. The one time it was interesting is when Coilla is tracking Haskeer after he starts hearing music and steals the two stars they have. Coilla is captured by three bounty hunters who decide they can get more money by selling her to slave traders. The orcs track them to the slave traders and for a moment it feels like they are trapped. Yet they get away with barely a scratch again.

The world is full of a potpourri of fantasy creatures, from centaurs to dragons to nayads. In this sense it felt like Narnia. Yet it doesn't have the heart of a good fantasy world. The only character with any real depth is Stryke. He is thoughtful and concerned about the world at large. He begins soon after finding the first star to have visions of an ideal world where orcs live in harmony with one another, without humans or other races to harass them. These visions start to infect Stryke with a sort of idealism, and he becomes driven to find all the stars and unite them, even though he has no understanding of the power. It all feels a bit strange and empty, as if the plot must keep moving so Stryke is forced to make inexplicable decisions.

I was hoping for an interesting story that told of brotherhood and duty, and I did not get it. The plot and characters are too simplistic to really enjoy. The one big plus of the book is the dark humor, though sometimes even that gets old. I found Jennesta to not only be unlikable, but unbelievable. Stryke's interactions with the warband, and their interactions with the other races, are mostly formulaic. Perhaps someday someone will write a great book about orcs, but this isn't it. C

Stone of Tears

Stone of Tears is the sequel to Wizard's First Rule. It is the second book in Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. The book begins where the first book ends. Richard Rahl, the wizard Zedd, and Kahlan are in the People's Palace, having defeated Darken Rahl. Yet they are not able to rest because they are soon attacked by an evil creature called a skrin, a powerful creature from the underworld. In defeating Darken Rahl, they have left open a rift to the underworld. Richard comes to understand that only he has the power to close the rift and save the world.

Richard and Kahlan travel to the Mud People to return one of their children, and there Richard insists on doing the ritual to speak with the ancestors, in order to get advice on how to close the rift. However, he falls victim to the wizard's second rule, which says that in deciding on an action, one may make the situation worse through unintended consequences. Too late, Richard realizes that his father Darken Rahl is his direct ancestor, so he has called him from beyond the veil. Darken Rahl marks Richard with a black handprint on his chest, which Richard bears as a constand reminder of his father's evil.

The plot starts to take shape when Richard and Kahlan are visited by three women who are from the Sisters of the Light. The Sisters claim that the headaches that Richard is suffering will kill him unless they put a collar on him and take him away to teach him how to control his magic. Kahlan, convinced by Denna's ghost that only this can save his life, persuades Richard to take the collar and go away with Sister Verna. Richard, though he complies, is bitter about Kahlan sending him away and is convinced that she no longer loves him. This break affects him for the rest of the book. It will take most of the novel for him to realize that Kahlan acted out of love. The way he realizes this is by adopting a gar after killing its mother, and being forced to send it away to keep it from being killed by civilized people. However this whole subplot feels a little forced, and Richard comes to his epiphany too easily.

With Richard being taken away, Kahlan takes three escorts with her to Aydindril, the seat of power for the Midlands. There she intends to help maintain peace in the land in her duties as the highest leader and peacemaker. However they do not get far before they encounter a city that has been laid waste and all its inhabitants killed. Here the author provides gruesome scenes of the viciousness of the attackers. We gain insight in Kahlan as she witnesses the devastation and must make a decision whether to continue to Aydindril to see to her duties, or help a small army of young men pursue vengeance against a stronger force. The overwhelming nature of the slaughter provokes her into action, and so the story takes another turn. Kahlan becomes a cunning leader, but also faces personal challenges, including a sudden betrayal. The betrayal is a true plot twist that changes the arc of the story.

The middle third of the book follows Richard as Sister Verna leads him to the palace where the Sisters of the Light train young wizards. Suspense builds as we we learn more about the Sisters, particularly with scenes of intrigue at the palace they are approaching. The contrast between the scenes of Kahlan's action and Richard's slow acculumation of knowledge and power blend together well. As Richard grows in knowledge he still has trouble controling his magic, and we wonder if he will be able to deal with whatever is in store for him. At their destination, Richard is still unhappy without Kahlan and determined to leave. This determination drives his actions in the last third of the story, where he becomes more confident and slowly starts to master his power. He learns that he has a power that has not been seen in three thousand years, making him a powerful and dangerous wizard. As he has accepted his role as the Seeker, he must accept the gift of magic.

Unfortunately after several hundred pages, the last few chapters feel rushed. Whereas the first novel was slow in the beginning and grew slowly to a crescendo, this installment is a little more spotty. There is a lot packed into the novel, and it's nice to see more of the world Goodkind has created. The resolution feels a little to easy after all the work building up to it. There is a nice twist at the end regarding Kahlan's fate, a prophecy that Richard tries to prevent.

The story revolves around the two main characters, their love for each other, and their attempts to reunite after forcing to be separated. They are drawn each other and this drives the story, each wanting to make the other's love worthwhile. Kahlan is the destination that Richard is always seeking, and he is her drive to succeed. The trope of the young wizard coming to accept his power is a little overdone, but I think the author does a pretty good job of building on it. It can be tiring to hear Richard deny his power or refuse to come to terms with it, yet in the end it makes a nice story. B+

Wizard's First Rule

Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule is the first book of a high fantasy epic. The lands of D'Hara and the Midlands are ruled by Darken Rahl, a ruthless wizard bent on controlling the entire population. Rahl's goal is to open one of the three magic boxes that will give him ultimate power, but if he chooses wrong, either he will die or all humanity will die.

Richard Cypher is a woods guide in Westland, a land separated from Midlands by a magic veil. Richard knows nothing about Rahl but learns quickly when he helps a beautiful young woman named Kahlan escape from four assassins. For the first half of the story Richard is ignorant of Kahlan's powers and why Rahl would want to have her killed. Kahlan is the last surviving woman in a line of Confessors, who have the power to bring a person under their complete control. As such, she is a big threat to Rahl.

The story unfolds as Richard and Kahlan search for the third hidden magic book, to keep it from Rahl before the first day of winter. All the fantasy tropes are there. There's Zedd, an old man and friend of Richard who turns out to be a wizard with much knowledge of Rahl. There's the constant traveling from one goal to another as they get clues to the box's location. There's the helpers give the clues. There's a magic sword that is both boon and bane to the person who wields it. Richard can channel the sword using his anger, but he must be careful not to let it overwhelm him. The story is done well enough to keep the reader interested for the first two thirds of the book.

It is the last third that gets exciting. Richard and Kahlan's relationship grows even as they keep secrets from each other. They are caught in a trap between love and duty. But when Richard is captured by a mysterious woman the story takes a big twist. Richard must face new levels of physical pain with only the memory of Kahlan to sustain him. He is broken down and rebuilt as a slave, willing to do Rahl's bidding. The depths that Richard experiences and how he survives is the real center of the story.

The first several hundred pages are readable but nothing extraordinary for a fantasy novel. Outside of the complex relationship between Richard and Kahlan, it is full of moderately inventive fantasy plot. But the story gets fascinating with Richard's capture and transformation. There is a truly interesting plot development when he meets Kahlan and Zedd for the first time after his capture. The conflict between Rahl and the protectors of the world is crystallized perfectly in the last chapters. It is a fulfilling story. A-

The Sorcerer's House

The Sorcerer's House is a fantasy novel by Gene Wolfe that was released in early 2010. It features many elements familiar to Wolfe's readers: a first person narrator who is somewhat unreliable; mysterious forces that the characters must come to understand; partially human creatures; the faerie world; and at least one temptress.

The novel is a series of letters written by and to Baxter Dunn, or Bax. Bax is recently out of prison for defrauding his twin brother George and is trying to find a way to establish himself in the small town of Medicine Man. He squats in an abandoned home but discovers that he is named the new owner of the home. He is not sure of the fact himself but doesn't want to question is new luck. The house has two salient features: the rooms seem to multiply and he is always finding new parts of the house. Also, there seem to be other squatters or homeless inhabiting some rooms. He runs into a teenage boy named Emlyn in one room who is looking for a device he dropped while running from Bax--the triannulus is a sorcerous device that can help you receive what you ask it for. After Bax returns it he discovers that it works almost too well, when he keeps receiving money. In fact he learns he is also the heir to a valuable plot of land near the river.

The townspeople warn Bax of the mysterious events surrounding the house and its former owner. He is helped by Doris, a real estate agent who falls for him, and a police officer named Kate. He soon discovers a fox who can turn into a woman, a werewolf, an old man who seeks to be his butler, and Emlyn's twin brother. With the revelation that Emlyn has a twin, there is a parallel with Bax and George that begins to color the events. George is a background figure for most of the story but his existence is an influence on all the action, especially as Bax is writing most of his letters to George. While Bax declares that George is the good brother and he is the bad brother, their actions seem to contradict his belief.

As the story progresses, Bax puts together the pieces of who the former owner was (hint: it was a sorcerer) and how he came to be in its possession. Different elements start to come together, though some mysteries are red herrings. The triannulus, which had so much potential turns out not to be used later at all, though the antique car in the garage comes to have significance. The end brings the questions to a satisfying end, though I was a little disappointed at some of the loose ends. And while the epistolary format works quite well for the story, what is lacking is George's point of view. He seems like a caricature, and has a barely credible turnaround in the last pages which is unfortunately not described or explained very well. Even though it is nice to have parts where the reader must read between the lines or furnish some imagination, this could have been developed more. It also would have been nice to read more about the house, though its presence is felt even when the characters are far away. Otherwise the story is a lot of fun, wild but not too dark, full of mysterious characters and places. B+

Rides a Dread Legion

Rides a Dread Legion is the first book by Raymond E. Feist I've read. It is the first book in the Demonwar Saga, however I discovered while reading it that it draws heavily on Feist's previous series. There are constant references to characters long dead and battles decades old. While this gives the novel some depth, some of the references feel superfluous and irrelevant.

The Clan of the Seven Stars are a race of elves who are being slaughtered by armies of demons that overwhelm their worlds. They are making a last stand on their last world but have discovered a world through a portal that they believe to be their ancient home. Gulamendis is an elf who is treated as an outcast because he works with demon magic, and others are suspicious that such a magician is the cause of the demon attacks. Gulamendis travels to Elvandar, where he finds a large settlement of elves who stayed on the home world, Midkemia. While awed by the beauty and power he finds there, he knows that his people will see all the other peoples of the home world as subjects for their dominion.

Amirantha is a human magic user in Midkemia who makes a living by conjuring demons and banishing them for a fee. When one of the demons he conjures turns out to be too much for him, he realizes his brother is trying to kill him. He determines to tell someone of authority about this, and ends up on an island of magician school. Pug, the leader of the magicians, is an old man who had been in a big fight with Amirantha's other evil brother. Sandreena, a Knight-Adamant and former lover of Amirantha, arrives on the island to give her testimony about a band of thieves she encountered and the magic users with them who conjured a demon. It is clear that there is an interlacing of histories here, and nearly everyone is tied to everyone else in some way.

While Pug and his son travel through a portal to another world for research, Gulamendis returns to where his people are coming through their portal to make a homestead to retreat to. Tomas, the Warleader of Elvandar, flies a golden dragon to the homestead to make peace overtures to the returning elven people. Meanwhile, Amirantha and Sandreena and some other magicians try to stop Amirantha's brother, but end up caught in an ambush.

The book suffers from a feeling that it is largely exposition and building up to something. The events at the end are a tragedy that strikes the group, but it is clear that this is just the beginning of a larger story. The novel doesn't stand up well as a single story. I know that trilogies are tricky, especially trying to make each installment satisfying as a complete story while building towards something else. This worked very well with the Fire Logic series.

While the history of the world felt complex, otherwise it felt shallow. I didn't get much of a sense of the cultures of the world. The observations of Gulamendis as he enters Elvandar are a strong point. Most of the characters are drawn one dimensionally, with the exception of Sandreena and Gulamendis, and to an extent Amirantha. I wonder if the author was relying too much on a history that he would expect his readers to remember. The book has good potential but it doesn't quite live up to expectations. C+

Return to Lankhmar

Return to Lankhmar is Fritz Leiber's third installment in the Lankhmar series. It consists of two previously published books: The Swords of Lankhmar, a short novel, and Swords and Ice Magic, a collection of short stories.

It was refreshing to read a novel-length adventure of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Leiber excels in the short format, and I was a little unsure whether he could pull off a longer story. But The Swords of Lankhmar is an exciting story from end to end. It starts with the two rogues taking a job as guards on a flotilla taking loads of grain in payment to Movarl of the Eight Cities for removing the sea of pirates. The mission is complicated by a young lady named Hisvet and her dark slave girl Frix. Hisvet is transporting twelve white rats as an additional gift to the foreign ruler. In fact, it soon becomes an issue whether there are eleven rats or twelve in the cages, after one of the ships in the flotilla sinks amid a swarm of rats--one of them white. Both Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser fall under the sway of the alluring Hisvet. Hisvet's father Hisven arrives to lead the rats to their takeover of the ship, but the rats are foiled by a traveler from another world.

Even after they see the rest of the grain safely transported to its destination, things continue to go wrong. Hisvet and Hisven have hurried back to Lankhmar's ruler Glipkerio with stories of how they saved the ships from the rats. The Gray Mouser has to play a careful game with Glipkerio and Hisvet and the rats. After taking a potion given to him by his magical mentor, he shrinks to rat size and must navigate the rat underworld to figure out what is going on in Lankhmar. After avoiding trouble over and over, he finally is backed into a corner when Fafhrd returns at the last moment to save him. I enjoyed the trouble that the Gray Mouser gets in and out of, and Fafhrd's long trek from the Eight Cities to help him. It's a great adventure with alluring characters in tough situations.

The stories in Swords and Ice Magic start off short and get longer. One of the memorable ones is "Under the Thumbs of the Gods", which has the adventuresome pair encountering a vision with all of their lost loves, courtesy of the gods who feel miffed. The last two stories form a pair. "The Frost Monstreme" provides two women from the Rime Isle who claim that their island is soon to be attacked by the Mingols. They offer gold to Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser to each bring twelve barbarians or thieves to the island in three months. As the fateful day approaches, the two men sail their ships through a great fog, not realizing that a powerful spirit is plotting evil and conniving to get them to fight each other.

The final story is a "Rime Isle", about the two adventurers' struggle to protect the island against the invading Mingols. But first they have to deal with a town full of folk wary of them, two wayward gods, a vast whirlpool, and the invisible flyers from Stardock. Fafhrd must deal with the women of Stardock when his past comes to haunt him. The Gray Mouser finds himself in the strange situation of being a leader of men, when he's used to being a loner and somewhat of an outcast at that. But he excels in his role, including in a hilarious scene when he blacks out and can't remember what he said in his speech to rally the villagers.

Leiber is playful in his fun plots. He's not afraid to bring in a strange element from outside the story, or sometimes two or three. Finding Odin on Rime Isle is both a pleasant surprise but also just part of the story. And in many ways Loki and the Gray Mouser are two parts of the same element. I enjoyed the first half of the book more than the second part, though both were fun. B+

Ill Met in Lankhmar

It is rare that I reread a book. I think mostly there are so many good books that I want to read out there that I generally don't make time to read something that I've read before. I suppose there are few books that are so great that they stick in my mind and are interesting enough to warrant a second look. One exception is the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which I read twice as a teenager and again when the movies were released. Since I started this blog, the only book I've reread is Arthur C. Clarke's The Hammer of God, and that one was so unmemorable that I had totally forgotten I'd read it before until I was half way through it.

I read Fritz Leiber's Ill Met in Lankhmar years ago and immediately loved it. I never got around to getting the next three books in the series, I just added them to my wish list and thought about ordering them every now and then. When my sister gave me the next three books for Christmas (thanks Erin!) I decided I had better reread the first book before reading the rest. It was just as good the second time around.

The world of Lankhmar is a fantastic world full of thieves and sorcerers, adventures and treasures. Leiber's two heroes are Fafhrd, the tall lanky swordsman from the northern Cold Waste, and the Gray Mouser, the wizard's adept turned adventurer. The book is a series of stories about their adventures together, starting with each character's seminal story of how they left their homes and traveled to Lankhmar, the biggest, richest, most decadent city in the world of Nehwon. The action really gets started with the story "Ill Met in Lankhmar", where the two adventurers meet in a dark alley while pursuing the same booty off the same two thieves. They go on to carouse with their girls and several jugs of wine, but the night ends badly when they end up facing down the Theives' Guild and their sorcerer.

There are more fantastic and exciting stories. A fun one is "The Jewels in the Forest", about a scrap of writing that leads the two to an old stone house in a forest which hides an unseen danger. My favorite the first time I read the book was "The Howling Tower", where the two come across the titular tower and the Mouser must face an old wizard and his stories of ghosts in order to save his friend from a ghastly end. This time around I greatly enjoyed "Thieves' House", in which the two adventurers must sneak back into the Thieves' Guild in order to capture a prized treasure. As in many of the stories, they end up with little to show for their troubles.

Leiber's stories are well plotted and they always keep the reader guessing. The situations the characters end up in are exciting, and there's always some twist or surprise that comes along. Often there's a sense of dread or foreboding that fills the characters. This passage, from "The Bleak Shore" sets the tone for the rest of the story. A mysterious stranger in a pub speaks to the two:

'... Now I have heard tell that death sometimes calls to a man in a voice only he can hear. Then he must rise and leave his friends and go to whatever place death shall bid him, and there meet his doom. Has death ever called to you in such a fashion?'

Fafhrd might have laughed, but did not. The Mouser had a witty rejoinder on the tip of his tongue, but instead he heard himself saying: 'In what words might death call?'

'That would depend,' said the small man. 'He might look at two such as you and say the Bleak Shore. Nothing more than that. The Bleak Shore. And when he said it three times you would have to go.'

This time Fafhrd tried to laugh, but the laugh never came.

The two thieves are excellent companions and well drawn characters for such stories. They have their own foibles and at times quarrel with one another. Even when they are driven by others, their own personalities shine through. And the city of Lankhmar and the world it's in have their own personalities. Every story adds to the feeling of Lankhmar's tangibility. This was a book well worth rereading. A