Unforunately, I haven’t had that much time lately and am a little behind. I’ve still been reading when I can, though – right after The Name of the Wind, I read The Telling by Ursula K. Le Guin and now I am reading The Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit, the first book in the Wraeththu trilogy by Storm Constantine. I’ll have to get a review of The Telling up here soon.
Wraeththu was highly recommended by a friend and thus far it is quite compelling.
If you haven’t heard by now, The Name of the Wind is the much-hyped fantasy debut by Patrick Rothfuss and Day One of a trilogy called The Kingkiller Chronicle. I heard so much about this book that I was afraid it wouldn’t live up to my expectations, but it certainly did.
The book covers the first day of a three-day long story as related by the main character Kvothe to Chronicler. Kvothe grew up in a troupe of travelling actors and musicians, which allows him to meet an Arcanist who piques his interest in studying at the University. When he is older, Kvothe is accepted at the University, where he excels at his studies yet manages to get into enough mischief to upset some of his professors and make his life rather difficult.
The story is exceptionally engaging and well-written – after suffering through so many badly written debut novels, I found it very hard to believe that this was Rothfuss’s first novel. Honestly, it was better written than a lot of novels, regardless of whether or not the author has had a lot of practice. The words just flowed off the page and Rothfuss did an excellent job of giving detail without overwhelming readers with too much.
The character of Kvothe is rather well done. For a while, I was afraid he was going to turn out to be one of those perfect characters that annoyed me since he was so exceptionally brilliant. However, he still had some flaws (such as recklessness and failure to think before speaking/acting) and since he had to work at least somewhat to gain what knowledge he did have, it was believable. He may have picked things up fast, but you do hear about people who are like that sometimes.
Another high point of this novel were some of the humorous conversations between Kvothe and his friends. It wasn’t overdone, but it was certainly necessary once in a while since our story was not always happy (and hearing them talk about their professors reminded me of a few of mine).
I also really enjoyed how fantasy was parodied in this book. Once in a while, it would seem to be heading toward some sort of cliche, and then things would turn out differently than I had expected.
There really is not much bad I can say about this book. The only problem I had with it was that there were a couple of points where the story seemed to be moving a little slowly, but neither of those times lasted for very long.
The hints in the book to what’s coming up in the next book certainly piqued my interest, and I can’t wait for the second part of the trilogy to come out!
8.5/10
I just wanted to correct the dates I had earlier for the third Sword of Shadows book by J.V. Jones. She recently said on her journal that A Sword from Red Ice will be out in both the U.S. and the UK this October.
I realized that when I made the list of forthcoming books the other day, I forgot about a couple of books that are out in Canada and the UK that I’ve really been looking forward to seeing here in the U.S. since I’ve heard good things about both. It still makes me wish I were British sometimes – they even got Fool’s Fate by Robin Hobb first when it came out and she’s an American author.
Winterbirth, #1 The Godless World by Brian Ruckley
Amazon US (available September 10)
Amazon Canada
Amazon UK
The Blade Itself, #1 The First Law by Joe Abercrombie
Amazon US (available September 30 – although some copies are available through other sellers now)
Amazon Canada
Amazon UK
Here are some fantasy/scifi books that are fairly new or forthcoming this year. This is based only on what I’ve seen available on Amazon since I have no special insider knowledge about what is coming out, but Amazon is usually fairly reliable. Looking at this list makes me wish I were British, they get all the good books first!
New Books
Midnight Tides, #5 Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson
Amazon US
Amazon Canada
Amazon UK
Note: This is new to the U.S. only, since we get these books later than everyone else. I’m hoping we’ll be caught up soon, though, since I noticed we’re getting the 6th book The Bonehunters in September of this year.
Flesh and Spirit, #1 The Lighthouse Duet by Carol Berg
Amazon US
Amazon Canada
Amazon UK
Brasyl by Ian McDonald
Amazon US
Amazon Canada
Amazon UK
Reaper’s Gale, #7 Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson
Amazon Canada (available June 26)
Amazon UK
Forthcoming
Night of Knives: A Novel of the Malazan Empire by Ian Cameron Esslemont
Amazon Canada (available July 24)
Amazon UK (available June 4)
Black Man/Thirteen (U.S. title) by Richard Morgan
Amazon US (available June 26)
Amazon Canada (available July 1)
Amazon UK (available July 21)
Red Seas Under Red Skies, #2 Gentleman Bastards by Scott Lynch
Amazon US (available July 31)
Amazon Canada (available August 1)
Amazon UK (available June 21)
The Hanging Mountains, #3 Book of the Cataclysm by Sean Williams
Amazon US (available June 5, although seems to be in stock)
Amazon Canada (available July 10)
Amazon UK (available June 5, although seems to be in stock)
Renegade’s Magic, #2 Soldier Son Trilogy by Robin Hobb
Amazon UK (available July 2)
Kushiel’s Justice, #5 Kushiel’s Legacy by Jacqueline Carey
Amazon US (available June 14)
Amazon Canada (available June 14)
Amazon UK (available June 14)
The Well of Ascension, #2 Mistborn by Brian Sanderson
Amazon US (available August 21)
Amazon Canada (available August 21)
Amazon UK (available August 21)
The Dreaming Void, #1 Void trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton
Amazon US (available March 25, 2008)
Amazon Canada (available August 3)
Amazon UK (available August 3)
Spook Country by William Gibson
Amazon US (available August 7)
Amazon Canada (available August 7)
Amazon UK (available August 2)
Making Money, Discworld by Terry Pratchett
Amazon US (available October 1)
Amazon Canada (available October 2)
Amazon UK (available September 24)
Empire of Ivory, #4 Temeraire by Naomi Novik
Amazon US (available September 25)
Amazon Canada (available September 25)
Amazon UK (available November 25)
A Sword from Red Ice, #3 Sword of Shadows by J.V. Jones
Amazon UK (available October)
The Bonehunters, #6 Malazan Book of the Fallen
Amazon US (available September 18)
Amazon Canada
Amazon UK
Scarlet, #2 King Raven trilogy by Stephen Lawhead
Amazon US (available September 4)
Amazon Canada (available September 4)
Amazon UK (available August 23)
Confessor, Chainfire Trilogy Part 3, #11 Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind
Amazon US (available November 13)
Amazon Canada (available November 13)
Amazon UK (available November 19)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, #7 Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
Amazon US (available July 21)
Amazon Canada (available July 21)
Amazon UK (available July 21)
Going Postal, one of the newer Discworld books by Terry Pratchett (the newest with the exception of Thud!), stars a new character by the (real) name of Moist von Lipwig. Moist, a con artist whose description reminded me a lot of Locke Lamora, is on death row under his assumed name of Alfred Spangler. To his surprise, Moist finds himself in Patrician Vetinari’s office instead of in Death’s domain after his hanging. Vetinari gives him a choice: he can either die or he can run Ankh-Morpork’s Post Office.
So Moist becomes the Postmaster, and he changes to the Post Office for the better with the invention of stamps. He finds himself in competition with the head of Ankh-Morporks clacks system, which is reminiscent of the modern email system – generally faster and better but also more technical and down for maintenance a lot.
As is the case with a lot of the newer Discworld books, Going Postal is more serious – which isn’t to say it’s completely serious but it’s a lot less zany than some of the older books. There has been a definite change of tone in the books, starting around Night Watch. Pratchett seems to be moving away from some of the older characters like Rincewind and the witches and focusing more on introducing newer characters and writing about the City Watch. That’s not necessarily a bad thing since the City Watch includes some of the better characters and the witches and Rincewind were not as interesting (although there are certain books about them that were quite good). I do miss some of the zaniness that I remember from older books such as Guards! Guards!, however.
Despite it’s somewhat more serious tone, Going Postal is still a very enjoyable book which introduces a very fun new character with Moist von Lipwig (who I hear Pratchett is going to use in his next book, Making Money, which comes out this fall).
7/10
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