Review - Avempartha

Michael J. Sullivan

Michael J. Sullivan's The Crown Conspiracy (review here) was one of the most pleasantly surprising books I've read so far this year. Eschewing the recent trends in fantasy toward the lengthy, gritty, and dark, the first book in the Riyria Revelations brought the genre back to its roots and contained far more traditional elements, like wizards, kings, dwarves, and elves. But far from being a clichéd Tolkien rip off, The Crown Conspiracy felt refreshingly original in some ways and is perhaps most properly viewed as a distillation of the fantasy genre into its best components: no unnecessarily complicated invented languages, no attempts to be extravagantly original at the expense of the story; just great characters, an original story, humor and drama in the appropriate measures, and just the right amount of worldbuilding. I was predictably excited about reading the sequel, Avempartha.

The book opens with a young woman tracking down Hadrian and Royce and imploring them to travel to her village to help slay the terror that has been killing off villagers one by one in the night. When they oblige, they find out that in order to accomplish their mission, they're going to have to get into the ancient Elven tower of Avempartha, which is no small task, to secure a uniquely effective weapon. As if this weren't enough, they soon have to contend with a host of visitors whose actions may have a significant effect on the future of Elan.

Avempartha is every bit as enjoyable as its predecessor was, and is in some respects even better. The primary reason for this is the extra dose of worldbuilding (and to a lesser extent political intrigue) Mr. Sullivan has included in this tale. We learn a lot more about the history of the land and of the relationship between humans and elves that has shaped the world of Elan. In addition to being interesting because of how it affects the story being told in the book, this also contributes a lot to the reader's interest in the series as a whole. It is this aspect that makes me truly anticipate the next book in the series, Nyphron Rising.

My only complaint about the book is a minor one and is almost identical to a small quibble I had with The Crown Conspiracy. Specifically, there is a moment where one of the characters defends himself in a way that implies that he has become a master swordsman in a relatively short period of time. Asking the reader to believe this is asking too much, but it's a small thing when measured against what Mr. Sullivan has accomplished in this book.

Mr. Sullivan continues to impress. In Royce and Hadrian he has created some of the best characters the genre has seen in some time, and in Avempartha he shows that he knows what to do with them. These books should be in every bookstore and I really hope that they are someday. The Riyria Revelations prove that the fantasy genre is nowhere near exhausted and that there is as much treasure to be mined in its traditional forms as there are in the newer varieties.

Rating: 9/10

The True First

Avempartha was first published by Ridan Publishing in March of 2009.

Book I Couldn't Finish - The Glister

John Burnside

I really wanted to like The Glister by John Burnside.

I had never read anything by him before and the premise sounded promising: five boys have disappeared from Innertown, an isolated town whose most dominating feature is the closed and dilapidated chemical plant that has left illness, death, poison, poverty, and violence in its wake. The book appeared to me as though it would mix elements of the horror, mystery, and thriller genres.

Unfortunately, it didn't really do anything. The entire point of the portion of the book that I read (I got about 75% of the way through) seems to be to describe the devastation wrought by the closure of the plant and the greedy interests behind it. I get it, but that just isn't enough to build a book around.

This is really unfortunate because Mr. Burnside's prose is amazingly good. Perhaps I'll try one of his other books one day...

Review - Canticle

Ken Scholes

For the second review in a row, I'm going to have to go against accepted wisdom and review a book months before it's published. In my defense, the reason for this unorthodox departure is that I got the chance to read Canticle by Ken Scholes and I simply couldn't pass up the opportunity. Canticle is the second in his Psalms of Isaak series, and I was pretty impressed with the first book, Lamentation, when I reviewed it a few months ago (review here).

Canticle picks up almost a year after its predecessor left off. As the story opens, many are gathering in what looks to be become the center of the new world, the Ninefold Forest, for a feast to celebrate the arrival of Lord Rudolfo's first child. Unfortunately for those in attendance, the festivities are abruptly interrupted by assassins and many of the guests are killed (I normally try to avoid spoilers but this turn of events is mentioned on the back of the book itself). Mr. Scholes thus begins Canticle with a bang and the action is propelled forward at lightning speed for the rest of the book.

Structurally, Canticle and Lamentation are very similar. Both books contain a number of separate storylines that are told from the perspective of point-of-view characters in relatively short increments and as a general matter the style and tone of both books are nearly identical. In fact, more so than many other multi-volume works of fantasy, the books that make up The Psalms of Isaak really do tell a single story; so much so that I would have to strongly advise against reading Canticle without first reading Lamentation, despite the laudable lengths to which Mr. Scholes goes to inform the reader of Canticle about the events that happened in Lamentation.

Despite their similarities, Canticle is unquestionably a better book than Lamentation for the simple reason that all of the unfolding storylines get drastically more interesting in Canticle, especially the Vlad Li Tam storyline. This is true to such an extent that Canticle left me feeling like Mr. Scholes must have been holding back in Lamentation. The truth, of course, is that Lamentation merely laid the foundation for Canticle, and we'll probably be saying something similar when Antiphon, the next book in the series, is released.

Even though Canticle is an even better effort than its predecessor, it is not perfect. In my opinion the story still suffers from the one problem I had with Lamentation, which was a lack of worldbuilding. Here, I'm not talking about worldbuilding in the sense of mountains of superfluous history and unnecessarily detailed visual descriptions, I'm talking about the level of description that is the bare minimum needed to provide a context to the plot and characters sufficient to allow the reader to understand them at a fundamental level; to take their true measure, so to speak. The Vlad Li Tam story is a perfect example of what I'm talking about: Mr. Scholes does an excellent job of fleshing out Vlad's character and the Vlad Li Tam storyline is one of the best; but practically all I know about where he came from is the name of the place and the fact that his family was a powerful banking family. This limits the extent to which I, as a reader, can come to know the character of Vlad Li Tam. Feel free to ignore me in this regard, though, as no one else has had a similar criticism as far as I know.

If you enjoyed Lamentation, you're going to love Canticle. Mr. Scholes ramps up every aspect of the story in this latest book and simultaneously lays the groundwork for what will surely be excellent future installments. While Mr. Scholes has long been in the upper echelon of short story writers, with Canticle he definitively proves that he is here to stay as a novelist as well.

Rating: 8/10

The True First

Canticle will be published in October of this year by Tor.

Review - The Kill Crew

Joseph D'Lacey

I've been hearing about the work of horror writer Joseph D'Lacey for some time now. His name is often mentioned in the same breath as friend and fellow author Bill Hussey's is, and the works of both men are published by Beautiful Book's excellent Bloody Books imprint. Sadly, neither's work is generally available in the United States. In what is hopefully a harbinger of change on this front, Mr. D'Lacey's forthcoming novella, The Kill Crew, will be published by California-based Stonegarden Publishing. When I got an opportunity to review The Kill Crew I decided that now was as good a time as any to familiarize myself with Mr. D'Lacey's work.

The Kill Crew tells the story of a diminishing number of people trying to survive in the wake of an unknown apocalyptic event that turned the remainder of the population into zombie-like people called "Commuters." The unaffected survivors, including the main protagonist, Sheri, live in the buildings occupying a single city block, which they've dubbed "the Station." At night, those who are chosen in the lottery to be one of the seven members of that night's "kill crew" go out on patrol to hunt Commuters. While everyone is required to put his or her name in this lottery at some point, people like Sheri volunteer more than others.

This premise sounded pretty routine to me when I first heard it and so I wasn't expecting too much from this novella. The first few pages--told in the first person by hard ass Sheri--seemed to confirm the appropriateness of my low expectations and suggested that this would be a fairly boring read. Surprisingly, though, by the time I finished The Kill Crew, it had become one of the best books I've read this year.

The reason I liked it so much is because it works on so many different levels. As an initial matter, it works in the fundamental sense that it is a thoroughly interesting story. While there's plenty of zombie killing goodness of the sort you would expect in a book like this, a number of things distinguish it from other post-apocalyptic tales I've read. The most salient aspect of the story's early pages is its focus on the psychological isolation of the survivors rather than the cataclysmic event itself. Mr. D'Lacey does a great job of conveying a sense of the despair of the Station's occupants as they struggle to understand what's happened to the world, try to convince themselves that hunting Commuters is a worthwhile pursuit, and fight the ever present siren call of suicide. Other aspects of the story that distinguish it from similar works are the nature of the malady affecting the Commuters as well as its focus in the later pages on the relationship between Sheri, her despicable boyfriend of convenience, Ike, and the emotionally damaged eleven year old girl, Trixie.

The second level at which The Kill Crew operates is the emotional. That may sound like a silly thing to say in a review of a work about zombie-killing survivalists, but it's worth mentioning because it's another aspect of the book that sets it apart from similar works and makes it more than your ordinary zombie story. As alluded to previously, one of the ways that Mr. D'Lacey explores characters' emotions and dilemmas is through the relationship between Sheri, Ike, and Trixie. Each has both internal and external struggles and these lend the story a dynamic that is both interesting in and of itself and serves to flesh out the characters' personalities and dilemmas. Beyond this, however, Mr. D'Lacey also succeeds in infusing each place with its own emotional tenor. When in the Station, the reader feels the isolation of being stuck there. Similarly, when outside of the Station, the reader can feel the increased sense of freedom even while the feeling of terror at being in the realm of the Commuters is present. In other words, the reader feels what the characters feel--the silences, the hollowness, and the fear that haunts these people--and this adds a whole new dimension to the story.

In my opinion, however, by far the most interesting thing about The Kill Crew is the nature of the malady afflicting the Commuters. I don't want to spoil it for anyone so I'll speak in general terms, but suffice it to say that one way to interpret the significance of the Commuter's affliction is to view it as nature reasserting itself against the unnatural way of life lived by pre-Apocalypse society. When viewed in this way, the holdouts in the Station become the unnatural anomaly, not the Commuters. This same theme is contained in many of the subplots that occur throughout the story and it is this dimension that really makes The Kill Crew stand out.

The Kill Crew exceeded every single one of my expectations. Within its mere 80 pages, Mr. D'Lacey has proven himself to be a master of writing complex, multidimensional horror stories that simultaneously scare us and make us think. I wish that more horror was like this. I will definitely be reading his other works. I've had a copy of The Garbage Man sitting around unread for a while and I will also have to track down a copy of his debut novel, Meat.

Rating: 10/10

The True First

The Kill Crew will be published by Stonegarden Publishing on August 10, 2009. You all will have to forgive me for posting this review before the release of the book, a practice that goes against accepted wisdom.

On a related note, I have to take this opportunity to bemoan the lack of availability of what will surely be a prized collectible in years to come. Recently, Bill Hussey, Mathew F. Riley, and Mr. D'Lacey released a signed, limited edition chapbook of original short stories to those who attended their tour. Sadly, however, this book was not made available for sale and was nowhere available outside of Great Britain. Unforgivable, Sirs!

SFJ Is One Year Old Today!

I'm happy and proud to announce that Speculative Fiction Junkie is one year old today! In the past year I've read some amazing books and met a lot of great friends--fellow bloggers, readers, authors, and publicists--and I want to say thank you to everyone for making this such a rewarding experience!