More on George R. R. Martin

First off, if you haven't already, go and read my rambling post about Martin I did earlier this year.

Back? Good.

Well folks, despite my passion and absolute conviction for not wanting to read Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire, I gave in, and read the first three books. Yes yes, get your gloating out of the way, but let me at least give you some semblance of an explanation. I watched, re-watched, and then watched the first two seasons of the HBO series and on a whim downloaded the audio book of A Game of Thrones. Really, it was the audio book that did me in, it was so good. Now I'm not talking about the story here, I'm talking about the brilliant reading of Roy Dotrice. In fact here's this:

Isn't that fantastic? Seriously. I'm not too familiar with audio books, I've listened to I Am Legend and one or two others in my time, but this is the first one that really captured me. I certainly read faster than the audio book, but I actually chose to listen instead of reading to myself and, indeed, I didn't even listen to the radio in my car during the time I was listening/reading to the series.

In any case, there's one other important factor to consider before I get into the meat of this post: I stopped at book three. This is because of the HBO series, I will continue to watch the show, but I know if I get too far ahead I won't be able to experience it to the fullest. I must also say, that HBO did a hell of a job, yes they did change this or that, and yes it doesn't follow the books exactly, but I think it's certainly one of the best out there especially with the last jaunt in epic fantasy that television tried to adapt: Terry Goodkinds The Sword of Truth. Gah, don't even get me started on that piece of work.

The result of this little journey for me is that my feelings really haven't changed all that much. Martin is a fantastic storyteller, but he ruins it with the episodic nature of his style and even with a brilliant narration by Dotrice, I could not get past the feeling that he just didn't think us readers would understand. It could be that that's how he needs to keep track of things, but I highly doubt it considering his brilliant short stories and other works. Aside from that, though, they were everything I imagined they would be. They filled out story lines and drew a much richer picture than any visual medium could have, indeed, the show feels more complete and the feeling of a vague sense of inside jokes is gone now that I understand the characters storylines and histories better.

All that being said, some of his actual writing quirks were highly irritating. I won't go into all of them because it's been a couple months since I finished and honestly they're all pretty minor, but the one that really bothered me while reading was his use (and over use) of  "Ser". At first I thought "okay, this is a more historically accurate term and he's just bludgeoning us with his knowledge and pointing out our error in using 'Sir'". But no, my friends, he really is just using it to show off and actually he's using it incorrectly as far as I'm concerned. While the honorific "Ser" is indeed a Middle English term, it was only used in place of "Sir" as a gender neutral alternative. Looking at the etymology of "Sir" we see that it is a shortened version of "Sire" in which case "Ser" just doesn't work. But, lets give him a pass on that and focus in on the fact that it is used as a gender neutral alternative; reading the books one of the things that stood out to me was his lack of female knights which would be an appropriate usage of the term, indeed if he was trying to avoid the whole "only men can be Sir" feminist trap, why on earth did he make his female have less social standing than the male characters? Is it because that's more historically accurate? Sure, but then why even bother with the gender neutral word "Ser"? Because he wanted to be a pretentious asshat, that's why. I certainly understand the usage if you're going to make your male and female characters equal, but it's utterly useless if you're not and only serves to jar the reader every time Ser so and so comes up, which is rather often. He could have pulled off the use of Ser had he really wanted to, which is the frustrating part. His female characters are strong, coniving, and every bit as powerful as their male counterparts, but any powerful woman was dubbed a Lady and the closest we come to a female knight is Brienne of Tarth and Martin makes sure we know on every other page that she is most certainly not a knight and thus will never be called Ser.

Blah. Like I said there were a few things that bothered me, the most jarring of which was Ser and of course the writing style, but all that being said it is an amazing series and well worth the read. Just don't get your hopes up that the next book will be out any time soon and instead just enjoy the HBO series.

Oh I guess I should mention one thing everyone else seems to be bothered by which is his killing off of characters. Meh, Martin wrote (is writing) a highly realistic world and doesn't baby his main characters which seems to bother a lot of people. Generally in a fantasy novel, the main characters are immune to the hardships of everyone else, not so in Martin's world, and honestly, that's good. It's refreshing to fear for your favorite character and while some deaths are far from glorious, the fact that people can die from disease, a stray arrow, or just dumb luck adds a little something to his story. Sure, it's not for everyone, but it's always good to remember that the medieval times were far from easy, even for kings and heroes.

So while I won't recommend people go out and read the books, they are something to keep your eye on and if the show is not enough, check 'em out to fill in some backstory, but be wary, he's old.

Concerning George R. R. Martin

                           

Let me preface this post with this: I have not read A Game of Thrones by Mr. Martin nor do I plan to. Now that being said some of you will dismiss what I'm about to say out of hand, but alas!

I know Martin is a great storyteller because I've read one or two of his short stories and I've seen some of the shows he's written scripts for, but one thing has always bothered me about A Game of Thrones (hereafter GoT): the way he starts each and every chapter with the character the chapter is concerning. Now at first I thought it was a rather novel way of dealing with complex multi-character story arcs, and it is, but the more I think about it and now the more I see it being mimicked by other authors (more on that later) the less I like it. Indeed after I met Mr. Martin:

I've decided it isn't so much a clever solution to a problem some authors have, but a rather pretentious outlook on his readers. Don't get me wrong here, I've seen the HBO adaptation of GoT and spoken to more than a fair share of people about the books and series as a whole, and I know it's complex and multi-layered, but come on! Lord of the Rings, Dune, Feists Riftwar Cycle, and many, others have complex multi-character stories. Instead of holding our hands through each chapter and then announcing "Okay reader, I know you're enthralled and into what we just read, but I'm going to go ahead and change perspective.. I know it'll be hard to get used to, but here's the character we're going to be dealing with, I promise you'll be okay after a few pages." they just change perspective and move on. Most authors do this because they have faith in their readers and more importantly they don't have an over-hyped sense of self worth. I hear your groaning from here "but all authors are a little pompous" and this is true, but my impression of Martin is that he feels himself a Geek God who's stories are so complex and rich that there is just no possible way for us little readers to understand without some sort of hint as to what's going on. Furthermore,  his absolute unwillingness to bend from his style hurts GoT more than it helps. By writing each chapter completely separate from the one prior and the one following it, he's losing out on crucial developments. Sometimes a character or perspective needs more than one chapter to fully develop that portion of the plot and that's okay! The frustrating thing about this point is that he knows this, Martin wrote the big battle episode of Season 2 which only dealt with what was happening at Kings Landing, why? Because there was so much going on and so much that needed to be said, that the only feasible way to get everything across was to dedicate an entire episode to this one perspective.

The other downside to this writing style is that it is very episodic in nature and plot points end up not fitting together as well. From those I've spoken to one common theme that has come across is Martin's frustrating ability to end many chapters (and books for that matter) in horrifying cliffhangers and then not bothering to return to that character for several chapters. Sure this works well at keeping your readers engaged, but doing it too often is frustrating and has made some people skip ahead just to make sure that character appears again. This leads me to one last thing I would like to discuss, and that is, of course, time between books. This has been discussed, argued, defended, and re-argued over and over so I won't waste much time on it, but I'll  just throw my two cents in.

Indeed let me direct everyone's attention to Neil Gaiman's blog that includes one of my favorite quotes "George R. R. Martin is not your bitch". Gaiman is brilliant and, in the end, absolutely right. As frustrating as waiting for a book can be, there is still nothing saying how an author must spend his time. Oh it sucks to see on their twitter, facebook, or blog that they're twiddling their thumbs or writing something non-series related, but if it bothers you so much, don't read their non-published works. I don't completely agree, of course, there is, at least in my opinion, some sort of unspoken rule that states that you shouldn't say something, even in passing, if you aren't going to try your damnedst to do it. If, like Martin, you know you're going to be writing short stories, working on scripts, and otherwise dicking around, you probably shouldn't say "oh hey guys this'll be out sometime in the near future". The real thing I want to mention about the whole scandal, and oh my god have I heard enough bitching from Martin fanboys to call this a scandal, is that there are much better ways to deal with your fans than Martin has. Patrick Rothfuss, for example, has taken his time in writing his trilogy, and while the times in between books haven't been nearly the same scope as Martin, they've been long enough to get people bitching. Instead of disgruntled with his fans, Pat has been very transparent on his blog. Shit happened in his life, he stopped writing, wrote a blog about it with an apology, and took some time to himself. What happened? Every single one of the comments were sympathetic and every one of his fans' hearts went out to him. Hell, he'll write on his blog that he's just not having a good week and hasn't written a scrap, and that's okay. Like any relationship, and yes the author/reader does constitute as a relationship in my book, communication is the key. For me, if I know you're working on it or why you aren't working on it, then take your time. I'd certainly read a well polished product than some rushed piece of shit, but the key is to talk to us, let us know what's going on. We don't need a huge explanation nor do we technically even deserve an explanation, but it'll keep us satisfied, and honestly reading Pats blogs have been fun and given me an insight to one of my favorite authors that I wouldn't otherwise have. Sure book three doesn't even have a tentative release date, but he's still posting and working, so he can take his time. Oh and cause I have to promote him, here's his blog: Patrick Rothfuss Author Extraordinaire.

Going back to Martin's style, a rather horrifying thing has started to emerge based on his success.. people are copying him. Indeed the whole reason for this blog is because of this silly phenomenon. Like I said, I have no plans to read GoT until it's finished (this is because I think he may die before he finishes and I don't wanna get blue balled) so his pompous hand holding hasn't had any effect on me or my reading experience, til now. Here in Albuquerque Martin and some other local authors including Daniel Abrahams, Melinda Snodgrass, Walter Jon Williams, and others have a writing group. Indeed it's more than just a writing group, they roleplay together and generally get into mischief. This is where Martin has screwed with me. Daniel Abrahams and Ty Franck (Martin's assistant) collaborated on one of the best space operas I've read called  Leviathan Wakes and guess what?

They totally pulled the "lets name the character at the start of each chapter". This didn't bother me at first, but then I was reading the second book in one of Melinda Snodgrass' ongoing series called The Edge of Ruin and lo and behold she did the same thing! This is when it really bothered me though because in the first book Snodgrass didn't do it, she just had normal perspective changes, but book two she started copying Martin, except half assed. You see Snodgrass doesn't really utilize many characters, indeed she has one main character and then occasionally she'll switch to another just to develop the plot. What she ended up doing was only naming the main characters chapters. The character, named Richard, has the main bulk of the book, but all of his chapters start with "Richard", but NONE of the other characters do. So we'll switch to a whole new, different character with no heads up, but then when it's Richards turn we're suddenly pulled back with that crap. Not only does this serve zero purpose, but it was annoying as all hell. Her story is not nearly complex enough to warrant naming the character, nor does it really work all that well when you only have one main character and a host of side characters. 

Both examples come from authors directly associated with Martin so my hope is that it is merely a local trend, but given the success of Martin and now Abrahams and Franck, I would not be surprised if authors, editors, and publishers started leaning toward this style. Authors.. we're not stupid, we don't need and holding, and no matter how complex you think your stories are, we can follow along with the plot. Furthermore, please, please just give the character his due time, don't try and keep it split up, instead if a character needs two, or three, or however many chapters to further the plot, give it to them!

Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick

Damn, it's already nearly the end of April and I have yet to update my blog! Well I won't make any excuses and, well, here I am now! So as many of you know my work, which has silly policies in place making it a termination offense to mention their name at all, has filed for Chapter 11. Is this the end of the bookstore? Nah, not by a long shot. This just means that the heads of the company have not been doing their job and now are scrambling to get things back together which I think they may be able to do. In any case, I still have a job and will hopefully have a job for quite a while yet. Enough sillyness! Perhaps I should be writing a blog about the magnificent Patrick Rothfuss or about the mesmerizing stories of the Wraeththu, but to be perfectly honest, those are just too big right now so instead let's talk about the fun debut novel by Douglas Hulick Among Thieves:

Kickass cover isn't it? I've said this before, but that old saying "don't judge a book by its cover" is sometimes just flat out wrong. For example, I would never have picked up Brent Weeks or Alastair Reynolds if it wasn't for their amazing cover art. Although, sometimes there are books that have such atrocious cover that, even if the content is excellent inside, I just cannot bring myself to read it. Alas, that is a blog for another time. Part of the reason I randomly picked Among Thieves was because it looked like good old fashion fun and that is exactly what it was too! Before I go on let me quote Brent Weeks:

"Among Thieves is an unalloyed pleasure: a fast moving, funny, twisting tale in an evocative setting with great characters. The kind of story that reminds you why you love to read. This book may just give you that feeling you had the first time you read Rothfuss or Abercrombie: Oh hell yeah, there's new talent in the game. Read this book. No really, read this book."

I can't fully agree with this description because Patrick Rothfuss is on a whole different level than Hulick, but I will say that he does remind you of why you love to read. You see, it feels like the Fantasy realm has plenty of High Fantasy and Epic Fantasy and such, but where are the anti-hero's? Where are the Han Solos and Mal Reynolds in fantasy? Oh they're there, but they're usually poorly written or straight copies of Han. This was part of the reason I loved Brent Weeks so much, his Night Angel Trilogy showed us the dark side of fantasy, it showed us that not everything is elves prancing through the forest, but there is a rich, unexplored underworld that far too many authors ignore. Weeks focused on assassins, Hulick on just about everything else! We are introduced to Drothe just as he's finishing up torturing a rat and from there we learn he is one of the many Kin, aka the criminal underworld of the Empire. Each of the Kin belongs to a different boss and does different things from the simplest purse cutters to the elite Blade's who are the paid assassins of this particular world. Our man Drothe is what is called a Nose, he sifts through the rumors and separates fact from fiction from the masses on the street, the closest I can get to describe his particular occupation is that of a spy, but it doesn't quite cut it. Hulick introduces everything that's needed for a solid fantasy, a great magic system, distinctly believable characters, some of the most accurate sword and weapon play I've had the pleasure to read, and a world that is almost endless number of stories and ends perfectly, leaving you wanting more, but without the horrifying cliffhangers many authors seem to think is best when writing a series.

Certainly, Among Thieves is not a literary masterpiece the likes of Tolkien or Rothfuss, but at the same time I don't think a book focusing on the underworld should be written in such a way. Honestly, the reason I love science fiction and fantasy is because a book can be written in any style without having to be held to silly standards that were set a hundred years ago. Fantasy has that unique talent for being fun without having to analyze every single word and every single theme, you just read for the pure joy of reading and Hulick does this flawlessly. It does have its faults, as all debut books do, but the pace and action of the story leave you flying through pages well into the night like an addict. On the whole I truly believe that Hulick has written a refreshing addition to the fantasy world and I look forward to future tales.

Ry Recommends II

This blog as been on my mind for a while now, but until recently I haven't had the motivation to actually do it. I've kept a list of book's I wanted to put in here, but that's as far as I got. In my first recommendation blog, I listed them all alphabetically, which was a good tactic, but after giving it some thought I think it would be best to do it by genre and then alphabetically within each little group. This mainly spawns from the fact that there are a couple specific sub-genres I want to talk about. Without further ado:

Fantasy:

• The Magicians by Lev Grossman ~ I already posted a review of this one some time ago, but I feel it is my duty to mention again just based on the level of badassness involved with this novel. Check out the review for more info, but this is one everyone needs to read.
  
  
• The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss ~ I have been putting off doing any sort of review for this book for some time because I've had the hope that he'd actually put out the rest of the trilogy. Alas, since it's been nearly two years since this book came out, I think I'll do something small now. I will write a full review when I re-read it, but for now what I can say is that this is by far one of the best fantasy novels to come out in years. In fact, I cannot believe the pure luck that was involved when I picked up this book. It was the end of March, I had a Hastings gift certificate for $25 burning a hole in my pocket (this was pre-borders, I don't think I've bought a book from Hastings in ages), so I was wondering around, just kind of looking. I noticed the cover of this book first off, to hell with the old saying "don't judge a book by its cover", because had it not caught my eye I wouldn't have picked it up til much later. In any case, The Name of the Wind was on a display of featured, new hardbacks, the thing that caught me was the fact that it was the only fantasy book to have made it on this little display, which is rare in and of itself. So I picked it up and proceeded to read the cover slip. Honestly, I didn't know what to expect, but I was intrigued and after having spent a good thirty minutes in there, I made the hasty decision to give it a shot. After all, it wasn't really my money anyway. Like I said, I am so freaking lucky I did because when I got home I entered a world of magic and intrigue the likes of which I have seen but rarely. Tolkien, Feist, and maybe one or two others write to this caliber, but Rothfuss is brand new! This was his first ever book and it was fantastic! I can't give too many details only because I read it quite a while back and they're becoming vague, but what I can say is that Kvothe (pronounced like quothe 'sept with the K) is one of the most fascinating characters I have encountered. Essentially, Kvothe has gone into hiding from his glorious past, but at the start of the book he is found by a man who reveals that he knows Kvothe and wishes to hear his story and from there begins the miraculous story of Kvothe's life. It has everything, romance, heartbreak, action, mystery, and every other emotion that can be described and on top of it all, it is one of the most well written books I've seen! Oh and the author is a complete badass! First go pick up The Name of the Wind, then read it from start to finish (it's that hard to put down), and then go to Patrick's Blog to get the latest news and updates concerning book two. I am absolutely serious, if you like fantasy at all, hell even if you don't, go read this book. Update: The release date has finally been announced and set in stone, March 1^st, 2011!
  

Fiction:

• The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
  by Carson McCullers ~ Ah, I still remember walking through Borders with Kimberley just kind of looking around. I don't dislike Fiction/Literature per say, but it isn't something I read very much on my own. Indeed, the majority of the Fiction/Lit books I've read have been for school or recommended to me by friends. The same is true for McCullers book, as we were wandering, me with my big pile of sci-fi/fantasy, she remembers one of her friends really enjoying the book. I pick it up, scoff a little, but in the end I give in. Boy am I glad I did too! The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is one of those rare masterpieces that absolutely touch the heart and soul. The even more amazing thing about this novel is the fact that it was McCullers debut work and not only hit the best seller chart in 1940, but was named one of Time's greatest books 1923-2005. The story follows a deaf man named John Singer and the four seemingly average people he befriends. At first it seems like a story about Singer himself, and a good portion of the novel does follow him in particular, but you quickly get the sense that these average people each have their own demons and events that shape their lives. The characters each have so much depth and appeal that I am doing them a grave injustice in my descriptions, but trust me, they're each unique and utterly familiar: Mick Kelly the young, tom boyish girl; Biff Brannon the owner of Singers favorite restaurant; Doctor Benedict Copeland the idealistic, small town black doctor; and Jake Blount the alcoholic who can't seem to keep himself out of trouble. The story in and of itself is a so simple that there is now real way for me to give much detail without ruining it, but it is a masterful work of character study and hit's even the most cynical deep in the heart. Whether you read sci-fi/fantasy, mystery, or even non-fiction, I think The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is a must read.
  
  
• Dismantled by Jennifer McMahon ~ This book was one I didn't have much faith in at first, but not 20 pages in and I was hooked I have always noticed McMahon on the shelf because she has a habit of putting really, really creepy little girls on her covers, indeed I had picked up several of her books just out of curiosity. It wasn't until I read the back of Dismantled though that I decided to take the plunge. It seemed like a pretty interesting story, well written, and something both Kimberley and I would enjoy, little did I know that it was spectacular. Dismantled was haunting in a way that I've never experienced before. Even after thinking about the book for a few weeks, I still cannot put my finger on it adequately. It wasn't horror, no, far from it, but at the same time it was.. well, haunting is the perfect word for it. Unfortunately, due to the fairly mysterious nature of the book I can't say much, but I can say that Dismantled will take you on a roller coaster ride of emotion, chills, and finally you'll be blindsided by an ending that explains all, but leaves you wondering too.
  
  
• The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón ~ Oh dear I can't stress this one enough, obviously, by far one of the best novels I have had the good graces to read. Definitely a top ten!
  

Horror:

• It by Stephen King ~ This is probably the first and last time you'll hear me say this, but I was wrong back in August when I wrote about L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth. I quote:
  
  "First and foremost I believe that you have to be very pompous and pretentious in order to write a book that is over a thousand pages. There is just too much story for one book. Period. No matter how good you are at writing, no matter how good you think you may be at storytelling, you cannot write a satisfactory story that is over a thousand pages. You just can't. There is just too much story and by not splitting it up into a sequel or trilogy, you lose valuable plot and world building options."
  
  Stephen Kings It comes out to be a beastly 1104 pages long and I have to submit that it was damn good! Perhaps Hubbard really was really just a wretched storyteller or maybe it was the type of story, but in any case I had a blast reading It the whole way through. Not only was the story good, but it was horribly creepy! Scary may not be the right word, but damn did I have a hell of a time trying to read it in the wee hours of the night. I started the books with the movie adaptation floating around my head—if you're a horror junky the theatrical version of It is probably one of the best horror movies ever made (amazing I know)—and while the movie was indeed great, this book was amazing. The character development, the progression of the plot, and even the rather large time gap proved to me, once again, just how much of a master King is. Perhaps in a full-fledged post I can go into the amount of detail that this book really needs, but really if you're in the mood for something scary and have lots of time on your hands Stephen King's It is quite possibly one of the best horror novels I've yet to read.
  
  
• The Stand by Stephen King ~ Now that I've read several books over a thousand pages in length I know for a fact that L. Ron Hubbard is just a terrible author. Sure his story was okay, but like I said in the full post, it could have been done in 300-500 pages at most. In any case, Stephen King has blown my mind again! As I read more of him, well his early stuff anyway, I've come to realize just how lucky we are to have such a prolific author writing in our generation. Not only does King address social issues in a way that's actually interesting to read about, but he wraps it all up into some of the creepiest stories ever. The Stand is only different in that regard, it is creepy, but for completely different reasons, this is more Nineteen Eighty Four creepy in the sense it could actually happen. Ringing in at 1168 pages, The Stand is the classic post-apocalyptic book, while the sub-genre has been around since the '40's, King is a must read! I suppose it would be more accurate to call this one a horror-fantasy, but at the same time the major theme of the book is the character study rather than the looming good versus evil battle. The characters are written in such a way that you cannot help but find yourself in all of them, the good and, horrifyingly, the evil. The only true downside I can see with The Stand is that it is somewhat dated, so some of the pop culture references were lost on me, but seeing as the story is about the end of the world as we know it, those pop references become vaguer and vaguer, and eventually lose all meaning as society tries to re-create itself. If you have even an inkling of interest in the post-apocalyptic sub-genre this is definitely a must read, especially since many of the later books in the field reference King heavily.
  

Mystery / Thriller

• Soul Runner by Jon Guenther ~ Kimberley introduced me to this author who just so happens to be one of her coworkers and although there are some major flaws, they have nothing to do with his writing as a whole. In fact, one of the reasons I've decided to add this book to the list is because, while I'm definitely not religious, I was able to look past that and see a rather intriguing story. The story follows Dr. Abram "Bram" Aronsfeld an ex-Hasidic Jew who also happens to be what is called a "Soul Runner". Around the world there are still places that reject Christianity and the job of a "Soul Runner" is to travel to these hostile countries and literally save Christians being persecuted there. The story has some great action scenes and honestly the idea is one that is somewhat new to me. I've always looked at Christianity as the persecutor not the persecutee and it was really fascinating to see the roles reversed. A fair warning though, every page, at least, has some sort of quote from the bible or Bram praising the lord, plus it seems that every other character Bram meets he converts into Christianity and "saves their soul". Hence the reason I had some major trouble with this book. Religious themes aside, the idea behind Soul Runner is a unique and fascinating one full of adventure and thrills. Think of it as a kinda religious spy novel. Worth picking up if you can ignore (or if you're into) the religion part.
  
  
• Tyrannosaur Canyon by Douglass Preston ~ This is another one I have already written about, but one that I feel needs mentioning again!
  

Non-Fiction:
The Paranormal -
Over the last year I've read several paranormal books analyzed in the realm of science and journalism. I love myth and the whole metaphysical stuff, but the books I'm going to mention below will meet the approval of even the most skeptical. Plus, they were a good old fashion fun.

• The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson ~ Okay, well this one may not hold up to all the skeptics out there, but Jon Ronson did an excellent job with his investigations. The major problem with The Men Who Stare at Goats is the fact that it is damn hard to get any sort of useful information out of government and military personnel. Sure, many of the people Ronson interviewed were more than willing to talk, but they were all so... vague that many people probably have a hard time not dismissing such claims as mere conspiracy theories. It's true, many of the points Ronson was suggesting are... strange... but I can't quite dismiss it. Years and years ago I read a biography called Psychic Warrior written by David Morehouse detailed many of the same ideas presented by Ronson. It is really hard to say which side if the fence I fall on here because while I cannot dismiss the number of people who back up these claims, it's just hard for me to imagine a five star general trying, over and over, to walk through his office wall (only to smack his face in it time and time again). But at the same time if indeed such amazing feats were possible why wouldn't the military and government try and research it? It puts a whole new spin on war, if you have soldiers that can walk through any and all defensive structures and then proceed to drop you with just a look, who would mess with that army? Not to mention just the very application of remote viewing--meaning purposefully going out of body to real world, real time locations--in the spying world is tremendous. Whether or not they succeeded? Well that's up for debate. Even if they had, knowing our government, they wouldn't bother telling us no matter the civilian applications. All in all, though, Ronson does a damn good job breaking down a major claim, into more manageable and, at the same time, believable chunks. This one is definitely worth a read, but it should definitely be taken with a grain of salt and an open mind. Plus, of all the conspiracy type books out there, Ronson has an amazing sense of humor which makes The Men Who Stare at Goats amazingly readable.
  
  
• The Science of Vampires by Katherine M. Ramsland ~ Oh my long lasting love of vampires has finally panned out to more than just the fiction/horror shelves. I, first and foremost, have to applaud Katherine Ramsland's sheer force of will, vampire myths and tales have been around since the Egyptians, and just plodding through all that information takes more sanity than I even have. Anyone who may question the actual science of this book need only to look at Ramslands credentials: a masters degree in Forensic Psychology, another masters degree in Clinical Psychology, and on top of that a PhD in Philosophy—yes, yes, it's not science, but what PhD biologist would lower their pompous selves down to study vampires or the supernatural?--plus she's worked with FBI profilers to boot. So armed with her already vast academic knowledge and an almost obsessive eye for research, Ramsland takes apart each of the main myths associated with vampires. For example, she theorizes just how an actual entity might be able to consume pure blood with no ill effects, explores conditions which might explain why vampires cannot come out during the day, as well as takes a stab at what profiling a vampire's personality, and, of course, explores the question of whether or not vampires use their reproductive organs--Sorry Cullen fans their junk is for show only--as well as vampire sexuality in general. On top of all this research she interviews forensic experts as well as people who associate with the so called vampire sub-culture. This may not be of interest to any of the new vampire fans (those that only like vampires because of Stephanie Meyer) both because it came out in 2002 as well as she stays with the more traditional vampiric roles. In fact I believe she would agree in saying that vampires do not glitter, sparkle, or go to high school over and over again. What she does do is introduce and attempt to explain the myths behind vampires in a logical, scientific manner, which in the realm of vampires is a breath of fresh air. Anyone who is interested in many of the traditional myths behind vampires and would like to explore a more scientific route than that of speculative metaphysics should check out Katherine Ramslands The Science of Vampires. For those that are interested in less "out there" concepts Ramsland also has a host of books in the True Crime CSI realm as well which I'll vouch for.
  
  
• Spook by Mary Roach ~ Mary Roach, you will never cease to amaze me in your brilliance, you hooked me in with your wry humor and solid facts in Stiff, and now you appeal to my paranormal side with Spook, not to mention I have Bonk just waiting on my shelf. In Spook Mary Roach approaches the idea of the afterlife, not from the religious or theoretical point of view, but from the scientific "I need hard facts damn it" view. Roach approaches the vast field of the afterlife in several ways: Historically she looks at the major fascination with séances back in the early 1900s, culturally she dives into the different theories behind the afterlife including the Indian reincarnation (this is an excellent part of the book because she actually travels to India to follow a doctor studying reincarnated kids), she jumps across the pond and attends a psychic school in order to learn how to communicate with the dead, and then even goes on to explore medical doctors attempting to get evidence for near death experiences. She does all of this with a hilarious sense of humor and a hard headed determination for facts. Whether or not you are interested at all with the paranormal or you're an avid psychic looking for ways to prove yourself, Mary Roach hits the mark with Spook.
  
  
• Witch in the Waiting Room by Robert Bobrow ~ This one was especially fun to read because I have a crazy goal of becoming a doctor someday, well a psychiatrist, but still. Basically what Dr. Bobrow did was go through hundreds and hundreds of academic journals for paranormal type stuff. We're talking ghosts, reincarnation, near death experiences, the whole lot! I was actually rather surprised with the sheer amount of material he found, especially seeing as this is coming from academic journals known to be very, well, academic and anti-paranormal. The other great thing about The Witch in the Waiting Room is the very fact that Robert Bobrow is an M.D. and has been practicing medicine for over thirty years, so he knows his shit! This is really, really important when it comes to the writing because, as most college students know, academic journals are generally written in a not very user friendly way, especially medical ones. Dr. Bobrow takes these journals and gives a nice summery in layman terms, but with enough professionalism for the reader to know he's experienced in the field. Dr. Bobrows book is excellent for those super skeptics out there because it uses only peer-reviewed journals and has all the citation information listed in the back. Not to mention, as is common knowledge, doctors are generally really well respected when it comes to facts and scientific credibility, so medical journals are some of the harder journals to get published in. You'll honestly be surprised at some of the fascinating material doctors have been writing about for years, and if they believe in this stuff, is it so hard for you to as well? I should stress, though, that this is merely a brief look into the paranormal; if you consider yourself an "expert" in this sort of stuff you may find things here that you already know. Plus, because there are so many different concepts looked at in this book it does not go as in depth as some out there would like, but it is a great introduction to the paranormal based on fact rather than Sylvia Browne / David Icke "fact".
  

Science Fiction:
Cyberpunk –
I discovered cyberpunk over two years ago when one of my managers introduced me to the book Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson and it didn't take long for me to become hooked. Essentially cyberpunk is described as combining "high tech and low life" (again thank you wiki) and more than likely the only exposure most people have had with it are through the Matrix Trilogy. Sadly, the Matrix can only be considered cyberpunk in the most general of ways, fringe cyberpunk if you will. You get the idea though, hackers have become the rulers of a somewhat post-apocalyptic somewhat dystopian future and the internet, well the internet has become a beastie all its own. Alas, it is horribly hard to describe in terms that make people actually want to check it out, so I'll just move on with the books and let you decide from there.

• Hardwired by Walter Jon Williams ~ Of all the cyberpunk books I read over last winter break this was my least favorite, but just the fact that it is on this list means that it was still something special. Williams is, as I found out, a somewhat local author here in Albuquerque, indeed he is in a writing group with Melinda Snodgrass, George R. R. Martin, and S. M. Stirling so he has an amazing group to throw ideas at. The only thing I did not like about Hardwired was the southwest-ness of it, growing up here I have no love for cowboys or adobe or any of the stuff that many from the east find so alluring, but I can still recognize that many do. Hell, much of the American mythology is based upon the Cowboy and the frontier. Setting that aside, Hardwired was cyber-military-punk so a lot of the book focused on the military applications of the cybernetics. In the case of Hardwired, the main character, named Cowboy -.-, is an outlaw smuggling goods across the country which as divided into city states. This is done by piloting panzers, but not the panzers of our grandparents, but catlike vehicles that run across the landscape. The piloting is done by jacking into the panzer itself which gives you the ability to "see" what the panzer sees and "feel" what the panzer feels. There is a tremendously well written story behind this theme, a very anti-corporation/government story! Cyberpunk generally focuses around the personal applications of technology whereas Hardwired strays somewhat and focuses more on outlaw/military application. Definitely worth the read, especially if you've blown threw other cyberpunks and would like to see different applications of such technology.
  
  
• Neuromancer by William Gibson ~ Wow, just trying to write about this book is daunting. It isn't very long, but holy shit! William Gibson is the inventor of cyberpunk and Neuromancer is the most quintessential cyberpunk novel ever written. Many science fiction books written after, many movies, and much of pop culture has been influenced by William Gibson, he almost singlehandedly invented what we think of as the internet today, and insanely he didn't know a thing about computers! Technically the Neuromancer is a trilogy, but even if you don't read the other two, but Neuromancer is essential to any sort of literary list. If you're just curious about what cyberpunk is, but don't want to have to sort through everything that's out there, or even the other books on this list, pick up Neuromancer because, really, everything that came after is heavily, heavily, influenced by this piece of work. If that doesn't sway you to read it then know this: it won the "triple crown" of sci-fi awards in its day, The Nebula Award, The Phillip K. Dick Award, and The Hugo Award. In other words, the top three science fiction honors a book can ever receive, most are lucky to even get one! The plot is complex and beyond my ability to summarize in the way this book deserves, so instead, just go buy it.
  
  
• Schismatrix Plus by Bruce Sterling ~ I picked up this book based solely on Alastair Reynolds insane props:
  

  "I owe an equally obvious debt to Bruce Sterling, whose 'Shaper/Mechanist' sequence blew my mind on several levels. Sterling's future history, even though it consists of only a single novel and a handful of stories, still feels utterly plausible to me twenty years after I first encountered it. Part of me wishes Sterling would write more 'Shaper/Mechanist' stories; another part of me admires him precisely for not doing so. Read Schismatrix if you haven't already done so: it will melt your face."
  

  That is exactly what it did too, melt my face. I still remember when I finished it, I honestly sat there for 30 minutes utterly stunned by what I had just read. This isn't typical cyberpunk either, but it was written a year after Nueromancer and was also one of the books that has heavily influenced and defined what cyberpunk has become. Schismatrix Plus is everything ever written about the 'Shaper/Mechanist' Universe. It includes every short story as well as the full length novel Schismatrix, what's more is that it is all arranged in the way the Sterling intended it to be read. It is difficult, abstract, and intense beyond anything I could have imagined, but when you finish, you will utterly agree with Reynolds description.
  

• The Takashi Kovaks Novels by Richard K. Morgan ~ Ah, one of the only modern day authors to still write classic cyberpunk! I discovered Morgans' novels while reading a list of the best cyberpunk novels and anything that is listed alongside Gibson and Stephenson is worth checking out in my book. The 'first' book in the series is Altered Carbon. I put first in quotes because while all three novels are technically related (same main character, same universe, same tech), they have very little relation besides that. Indeed, each of the three novels explores three different types of cyberpunk. Altered Carbon, my favorite of the three, is the classic cyberpunk format, part mystery, part anti-government, part dystopian, but all intense. Broken Angels, the second book written, is of the more militaristic style of Hardwired and yet it also resembles modern day sci-fi, but still fundamentally cyberpunk. And the third, Woken Furies, is a mash up of everything, military, cyberpunk, hard sci-fi, soft sci-fi, and everything in-between! I found this approach amazing because you got to see the technology introduced in Altered Carbon in very diverse circumstances, whereas with books like Neuromancer and Snow Crash, you could see other uses than the novel outlines, but not clearly. The main tech found in this universe is the ability to store your entire personality within a cortical stack which allows you to "re-sleeve" into a new body with all your memories and personality intact. This alone has such intense connotations that I am amazed at just the pure possibilities of such a technology; studies on gender, identity, death, life, love, everything! Morgan explores all of these themes flawlessly in his three books and creates the classic cyberpunk antihero, Takashi Kovaks! You love him, you hate him, you wish you could be him! I feel like Morgan has picked up the mantle from the classics listed above and turned it on its head, exploring themes Gibson could only dream about, creating technology Stephenson would be in awe of, and military action that Williams would be proud of. While cyberpunk may be a niche genre liked by a few hardcore fans, Richard K. Morgan makes it accessible to every science fiction fan and introduces cyberpunk to a generation that may overlook it just based on the fact that cyberpunk was a huge movement in the '80s before slowly dying out in the '90s.
  

Overall though Cyberpunk is one of my absolute favorite genres, it combines amazing dystopian themes without being dated, it has just enough action to make it realistic without overdoing it, it rings true for the future, in some ways more than many other science fiction does, and creates characters that are realistic in a way that shows us that ideas such as "good" and "bad" are merely within the continuum of humanity.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Oh there is so much to say about this book! Where do I even start?!

There are, however, some prerequisites needed for you to fully enjoy this book. The first is you have to have read The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis, if not in its entirety, then at the very least more than The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, and most assuredly NOT the movies. Second, you should be familiar with the Harry Potter franchise, in this case the movies or the books are fine. Third, you have to be an avid reader of fantasy, understand it's many cliches in and out, and be somewhat open minded about them. Fourth, I gotta say that you have to be at least over the age of 16 but I'd college experience is highly recommended.

Now before you get ahead of yourselves and go bitching to me about how I'm trying to censure you, read that first sentence again "...for you to fully enjoy this book". Hell, you could not know who CS Lewis or Harry Potter are, never read a fantasy book in your life , and be 12 and I'll bet you might still enjoy this book. You certainly won't catch a lot of the little things, but the writing is solid, and the story is well laid out.

Anyway, this book was unexpected for me. I have a list going of books that I see around my work that interest me and that eventually I need to read, usually I just pick the next book off that list and read that at work, but here I found myself drawn to it. Maybe it was the title--I'm a sucker for magicians anything--maybe it was the fact that one of our competitors broke the laydown date and got us to sell it three days early, or maybe it was the intense endorsement by Martin

"These days any novel about young sorcerers at wizard school inevitably invites comparison to Harry Potter. Lev Grossman meets the challenge head on ... and very successfully. The Magicians is to Harry Potter as a shot of Irish whiskey is to a glass of weak tea."

whatever the reason I read the jacket and dived in.

As I've said on more than one occasion I'm not a fan of book reports, I don't like spoilers, nor do am I very good at summarizing so I'm just gonna talk about what I felt about it. The old adage "Imitation is the highest form of flattery" is so extraordinarily accurate in this case that whoever came up with it must have known this book was coming out. What I mean is this: Grossman has essentially recreated Narnia, mated it with Hogwarts, and thrown in some Tolkien genes. He's said in several interviews that he was absolutely in love with Narnia as a child and wanted to recreate it as an adult with more adult themes, especially the idea of fantasy wearing away as you grow up. He did this with a masterful touch, his characters are nihilistic college kids who essentially have everything, brains, magic, love, etc. but want more. How real is that? We all grow up with these fantasies of changing the world, of how cool and amazing being an adult will be, the absolute kickass-ness of being in college, but what happens? We find out that it all actually kinda sucks. We end up going to college, but within a month the novelty wears off and we're once again in a class room learning about things that we don't care about. Being an adult? Yeah, no kid ever thinks of responsibility or if they do it's in a naive way. Paying bills, having relationships, school, work, social life, everything that goes along with being an adult seems neat, sure, but then it happens and it's just.. blah. We look around after 5 years, 10 years, 40 years, and what have we done with ourselves? Nothing. We work or go to school (both usually), we go home, we eat, we sleep, but there's no real magic to any of it. What happens to that feeling we all get in our stomach about the future? Those butterflies that say everything is going to be amazing tomorrow? They get blindsided by reality. They don't exist. We began to question why we're here, what we're doing with ourselves, whats the point of it all; fall into drugs, alcohol, sex, and depression. This is what being an adult is. It's not magical animals talking to you, fantastic voyages and adventures, it's not fair maidens or evil villains, life is just life. No more. No less. Lev Grossman takes this idea, this horrible realization and puts it in a world where some of those things actually exist. What happens? The characters STILL aren't happy, they're still depressed, they're still nihilistic, and essentially they're still unhappy. What Grossman accomplishes is perhaps one of the best social satires of our generation. The generation of tomorrow, the generation of selfishness, the generation of why.

He's right too. We read fantasy to escape the world, we read it to go some place where things are happy, full of adventure and meaning, but really, would we even be happy there? Is it even possible for us to be happy or even satisfied with anything? He takes Narnia, Hogwarts, and Middle Earth and shows us that, no, we won't ever be happy. Sure it sounds dark, it sounds awful, but it's realistic. It may be exaggerated, most things are after all, but he hit the nail on the head. Us 20 somethings are so dissatisfied with everything that we're losing sight of what really matters. The people we love, our friends, our family, husbands, wives, and kids. We spend so much time trying to be better, trying to find something more, escaping from our own worlds that we lose that which gives our lives the meaning they desperately need. The Magicians is quite the eye opener, at least it was for me. I'm exactly what he described with his book, I have the exact same mentality of these kids, and honestly.. it was both horrifying and hilarious all at the same time. Absurd even.

The best part about it, though, was the fact that unlike dusty old fiction books, The Magicians was stupendously entertaining. Even if you don't read for themes, for so called "deeper meanings", you'll have a hell of a time trying to put his down. The characters are fantastic, you love them, you hate them, and most importantly you connect with them. The world is familiar, both in the sense of the "real world" and that of a Narnia-esqe settings, and the plot is well thought out and well executed. Although some may feel that his almost blatant plagiarism is a turn off, I found that combined with his message it was done not out of malice, but out of love for those works he was so inspired by. Some may think he was just taking Narnia and adding to it for his own monetary gains, but I would have to disagree. Sure there are huge, HUGE similarities between Fillory and Narnia, things are fundamentally different. At times I was a little put off, sure, but looking back on it now after a few books and a month of pondering, I was put off by the realistic tones of the story. I picked up the book, looked at the fantasy label, and assumed it would be just another great happy-go-lucky piece of work, that was quickly shattered. He not only made fun of my mentality, as well he should have, but also that of every fantasy author out there, of every college student, of every person, he managed to criticize things we all have in common in such a way as to make us love and hate him. Some people just criticize, like myself, and people hate them.. but Lev Grossman does what every satirist dreams about, actually accomplishes his criticisms of live, love, and human nature, in a way that people LOVE. It's brilliant!

I'll say this though, it's not for those that are looking for the same old fantasy. It's not for those who like tame stories, or those looking for certain things, it's for those that are almost fed up with the Fantasy cliches, fed up with people, fed up with life. It'll bring you around, lemme tell ya, but like all things it has to be taken with a grain of salt, and an open mind.

On the Science Fiction / Fantasy Series

In my last post I spoke briefly about too much story, but what does that mean exactly? Well I've been thinking about this for a while now and I've decided that generally speaking for an author to fully accomplish a sci-fi or fantasy story, it needs to be part of a series. What kind of series you say? Well that depends largely on the authors story, but I think as a very general--there are plenty of exceptions--rule it is safe to say a trilogy works best of all.

The Trilogy

The idea of a trilogy has been around ages and ages in the fantasy world, but it didn't really hit home until Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings is perhaps one of the best series in all of fiction, which includes the silly "Literature" category with Steinbeck, Hawthorn, and other such "Literature" authors. The reason a trilogy works far better in a science fiction or fantasy series is because the author must create an entire world with its very own unique histories, languages, kingdoms, and other such fascinating things. In a "literature" book the hardest part of writing is practically done for you! All you have to do is say "it was 1945, Germany had just fallen! Jake, the onetime Nazi hot shot, is on the run." BAM! That's the entire setting you need to talk about. Sure, you'll talk about the scenery, maybe a sunset here, a dog there, but really everyone knows what earth is like, everyone knows what happened in WWII, everyone knows Germany is in Europe and Europe is across the ocean from the United States. What exactly is there for you to create? A plot, sure, but that's all you're going to be doing; developing characters, developing a plot, and throwing a twist now and then. Sure there are some amazing novels out there that are like this, but my point is that it's easier than creating a whole world of different races, histories, and evil. This is one of the reasons classic literature, like Steinbeck, cannot be compared to any sort of science fiction or fantasy book. Not that they're both hard to write, which they are in their own ways, but the differences make it impossible to even look at the pros and cons of each style. No one will disagree if you say Tolkien was a fantastic author, but it's when you try and compare Tolkien and Steinbeck that you run into problems. This creation of a setting is what makes a trilogy the best for science fiction and fantasy.

Hubbards problem was he tried too hard to fit absolutely everything into one book. Some people can do it, Elantris by Brandon Sanderson is an excellent self contained novel, but others are just too ambitions. The first book in a trilogy sets the tone, it gives the reader a chance to stick his toes into the water, get acquainted with just where they are. The author generally introduces the setting by giving a history of the world/universe, introduces the main characters and their own personal histories within the major world history, and introduces the plot. It doesn't seem like much, but it's a lot more than you realize. Personally I love knowing the ins and outs of this fantasy world; its government, economics, wars, races, languages, and all that other stuff that is generally taken for granted in literature. In order to do this you cannot write it like a history book, people don't like to read textbooks, the best way is to do this in bits and pieces. I've found that a prologue does the job quite well, you're introduced to the land and its history, and then to the main character. From there the author will usually jump through time and into the present (for that character) and as the character goes on his journey/quest/voyage we learn more about the world as we go along. Sadly this makes for a perfect cliché because the easiest way to give the maximum amount of information through the characters journey is to have the character from a small town. Yeah, this has lead to the farm boy, fisherman, hobbit, or generally "innocent" character finding his way through the big, scary, complex world through interaction. It's really not a bad way to go in my opinion, but it certainly gets old after a while.

After the author has done all his introductions and sent his character on his quest it is time for the sequel. The sequel or middle book in a trilogy is generally, at least in my opinion, the driest of the three because it's all plot/character development.
LotR: The Two Towers,
Shadows Edge, The Ring, and
Redemption Ark
are but a few examples of sequel books that don't live up to the trilogies as a whole. The reason for this stems from the fact that as the middle book they have a lot to live up to and yet have less interesting things to talk about. From my experiences the middle child of a trilogy is mainly there to bulk up the plot, enhance the character and world histories, and lead up to a stunning conclusion. Because of this they never get the chance to really shine! By this point in writing an author generally knows it's going to be a trilogy and so immediately they're jumping to the conclusion in their heads, but are stopped by the fact they have a lot of plot and build up to do. Don't get me wrong, there are some absolutely amazing sequel books out there--Green Mars, and pretty much all of Raymond E. Feists trilogies are solid the whole way through--but a lot of times the author just gets ahead of themselves and doesn't put as much effort into the second book as they do in the first or third.

As for the third, well, that's where the magic happens.. usually. By this point in the series you're in love with the characters, the world, and the plot, you're just begging the author to finish up and tie up all those loose ends to form a fantastic ending. Well 9 times out of 10 they deliver. My theory is this; all the good books out there aren't written for the fans, for the author's wife, for anyone, all the very best works are written for the author. This usually means that the last book is a work of pure genius! As much as we the reader feel attached to the story and want it to go on, the author is a million times more into it and that translates right into the book. Where they were hesitant in the first, clearing up details in the second, they are letting loose with their creative talent in the final chapter of their trilogy. Just look at some of them out there, Return of the King (obviously), Absolution Gap, and Beyond the Shadows are all fantastic! Unfortunately, because the author is a lot of times writing for his or herself, the fans can be let down by this third novel. In as much as they want us to be happy, they want to be happy, and generally--especially with high profile undertakings--the conclusions sought by the fans, are not what the author delivers. Sure they'll deliver an epic, a masterpiece; a piece of art, but sometimes the execution isn't all that it should be. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows is, even though it's not a trilogy, a more than perfect example. In fact, I would wager to say that the ending to that book almost ruined the entire series for me. This is partly due to hype, popularity, and poor writing style. It's a sad fact that really shitty books tend to be best sellers, and let's face it J.K. Rowling is not the best author out there, so even though she created a cult phenomenon, she didn't have the experience to finish it off properly and the whole series suffered for it. This happens a lot with novice authors, but hey you have to get out there sometime, you gotta write that book, and you gotta just suck up the bad reviews because there's always a critic out there. In any case, the third and final book in a trilogy is where the real fireworks are; by this point the author has established enough of a setting that they can throw the reader on twists and turns and betrayals, which usually leads to epic books!

This is why, in my humble opinion, a trilogy is by far the best formula for a science fiction or fantasy story.

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A Side Note

Even as I wrote that last sentence I knew I wasn't done with this post. Indeed, I have to mention that although I do really think the trilogy is the best means to achieve a fantasies creative end, there are other ways. First of all it is possible, like I mentioned, to write a fully self contained fantasy novel, hey, you can write a damn good one even, but it takes a lot of skill some authors don't have. Along the same lines you can write a stunning duology, which also takes a great deal of skill, but allows for more room to play. Karen Miller's Kingmaker Kingbreaker duology is the best example I can come up with off the top of my head. I was a little worried at first, this was her first step into the non-licensed fantasy world (she's written a couple books in the Star Wars Universe) and as such I wasn't sure if she could pull it off. Oh how she did! It has just the right amount of world, religion, and character building for the reader to completely become immersed in and on top of that she has a damn good plot. Sadly the duology isn't a very popular media for authors, I think because they get so into it that they end up with a trilogy, but when it's done well I think it can rival that of a trilogy in some aspects. Those generally tend to be if you're writing a less complex world/story than that of LotR, smaller map, fewer characters/races, smaller timescale as a whole, which can be refreshing. As much as a love the appendices of LotR, sometimes it's nice to relax in a less complex world. Of course you can always go bigger with a quartet or even a quintet, but then you're moving into the realm of an epic.

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On Epics

So your story is too deep for a novel, duology, or a trilogy huh? Well then my friend, you're writing an epic! We've all seen them, we all love them, the epic series are those that flow through multiple volumes over multiple time frames. Think Frank Herbert, Raymond E. Feist, Terry Goodkind, Robert Jordan, and George R.R. Martin, these are the big wigs. These are the ones that will blow your mind over and over and over again, that will keep people talking for years, these are the ones that go down in the history books! Naturally there is a higher degree of error here, Terry Goodkind lost it toward the end by injecting his story with Ayn Rands philosophy, Robert Jordan died, and Martin, well Martin just won't release the next book in the series. But hey, all that aside, and these are some of the best books out there. The interesting thing I find with these is that although the worlds are that much more detailed than trilogies and the other forms, they aren't as detailed as one would expect, usually these epics are super plot heavy or, on the contrary, follow several different plots all in the same universe. The Enderverse is an amazing combination of both, Orson Scott Card delivers an amazingly detailed complex plot over several books, and then flawlessly jumps thousands of years and yet still keeps the magic. Herbert did the same with the Dune series, writing a fantastic plot before jumping thousands of years and pulling out a new plot tied to the old. *sigh* Dune is just the definition of epic--not the silly gamer definition either--but the old school Odyssey epic!

Perhaps my favorite form of epic is that of an established universe with many branches. Think of it this way, you have a trilogy that makes up the trunk of a tree--we're talking redwood trunk here--that establishes this stunning universe with hundreds of thousands of story possibilities, and then the author ads some creative water and BAM! You have on your hands a tree so full of stories, characters, love, and grief that it almost brings a tear to your eye. This is my favorite style of fantasy/science fiction because you fall in love with the main trilogy, the main universe, the main characters, but instead of dragging on the plot *cough GOODKIND cough*, they end their trilogy and branch off in their newly formed realm. Isaac Asimov did this, though I've only read the Foundation trilogy, to an extent Tolkien did this with his follow up books The Silmarillion, The Unfinished Tales and other such works*, but the two authors that have done this the best are Raymond E. Feist and Alastair Reynolds.

Feist is an interesting case, his series is based off that of a single duology, though first published as one novel, and then proceeds to follow the main characters and the main characters children, and then their children. All the while keeping a few of what I like to call uber-characters throughout the entire time span. Pug, Tomas, and Marcos the Black all make appearances in the books even though they're set decades in the future. This may sound silly, but it's explained perfectly, don't trust me go read it! But the best part is how Feist incorporates the stories of his first books and turns them into legends in the later books. Battles you read in the first books all morph into something more as the years go by, mere mortal characters become god-like kings, and villains turn into the stories used to scare kids at night. I can't even give do justice to Feist, all I can say for sure is that you need to read it! Fantasy

Reynolds, on the other hand, is more of the tree-like epic writer I mentioned earlier. His Revelation Space Trilogy is by far one of the most amazing things I have ever read and it only gets better! Included in that one, because it falls under the same time-line ish, is Chasm City a standalone novel that introduced me to this style of writing; basically what Reynolds did was create this fantastic universe (and I do mean universe literally), write a jaw dropping trilogy in that universe, and then proceed to write other stories, novels, and novellas within that universe. All the while Reynolds is developing and changing and enhancing this universe to the point that if he wanted to, he could only write books set there for the rest of his life and never run out of stories. I really didn't even realize the scope of this until I picked up Galactic North which is a collection of eight short stories and novellas, all independent and utterly amazing within their own right. Shortly after that I picked up Diamond Dogs Turquoise Rain, two novellas that completely blew my mind! And since then I've read four or five of his short stories within sci-fi anthologies! The possibilities are endless for this series and like Feist, some of the things you witnessed in the original trilogy turn up again in fan pleasing ways!

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You know I set out to kind of outline my favorite style of sci-fi/fantasy, but it turns out I can't narrow it down. I adore Herbert, Feist, and Reynolds for their epic masterpieces, but at the same time Tolkien will always have a special place in my heart with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and even smaller than that I've read countless novels and short stories that will always be remembered as fantastic. It really all comes down to the story in the end. Some are just meant to be many books, others are meant to be a 20 page short story, but all of them—with a few exceptions of course—are amazing. It's true, just looking at my bookcase I obviously prefer longer story arcs than shorter ones, but I think part of the reason is because I've been lucky enough to read only the best of the best! I know people that have read a longer story arc, hated it, and will never pick up anything more than a trilogy, but I also know people that refuse to read anything other than the super long stories. Each style has its own pros and cons, its ups and downs, it's good and bad, but hey, that's what makes sci-fi/fantasy such a dynamic genre! Nowhere else can you find such a wide range of reading options as in the sci-fi/fantasy realm, indeed nowhere else will you find all in one place more worlds, universes, and characters than a trip into the sci-fi/fantasy section. I love literature, I love mystery/thriller, and I'm enjoying non-fiction more and more, but nothing will be as close to my heart as science fiction and fantasy are.

The Edge of Reason by Melinda Snodgrass

Since my "to read" bookshelf has 16 titles I don't honestly know why I keep buying books. It's an addiction, it has to be! In any case even though I knew I had all those titles on my shelf I still wondered into Page One with a couple bucks in cash. It's to the point that I know what I want to read, but don't want to start it because it's a series. I have all sorts of series to read already so I really don't want to start another one, well that's not true, I do want to start them all of them, but the fact is I don't have time to read them! So I go in, meander about for 20 minutes before heading to the little counter for help--I know me a worker at my own bookstore needing help. So I ask the guy there who was the person that knew the most about sci-fi/fantasy--it turns out it was him--and ask him the most difficult question I get asked: "I need a great fantasy or sci-fi that is a single novel, not a series, not stand alone in a universe, but a single fully contained novel." Trust me on this, this question is a whore and loaded to all hell because everyone knows the best aspects of sci-fi/fantasy are their epic series, see Tolkien, Goodkind, Herbert, and Feist just to name a few. His face betrays exactly what I said above in a grimace, I can't blame him, but then I added the fact that I've read a whole hell of a lot already so it might be tougher than usual. We headed over to the section and as we walked he tossed a couple no brainers at me: Crichton, Bradbury, Heinlein, and Dick. All the ones he mentioned I had read save for a Phillip K. Dick whom I was not in the mood for. Then he asked a question that threw me off "how do you feel about religion?" Whew that was one thing I didn't expect at all! I shrug and give him the most non-offensive answer I could while still being true with myself "Eh I'm not a fan, it's all kinda a joke to me." Again this guy throws me off and he laughs and says "I've got a book you have to read!" Here I was thinking he was gonna set me up with a religious themed fantasy--gag--instead he shows me a local author named Melinda Snodgrass who just came out with a new book called The Edge of Reason.

The quote on the cover from George R.R. Martin reads:
"Will delight thinkers--and outrage true believers--of all stripes"

He tells me, basically, that she bashes every major world religion AND governments. Say no more my friend, say no more! Unfortunately for them it was new so I decided to hold off and pick it up with my discount at my work, but in the meantime another guy overhears us who was on break and brings up L. Ron Hubbards book Battlefield Earth. Yikes, Hubbard, really? Whole load of crazy right there. They both assure me that this one was pre-psycho lets start a religion Hubbard and I also remembered that my uncle read most of his pre-crazy books as well and like them, so for 2 bucks I picked it up. I haven't started it yet, but it should be.. an interesting experience to say the least. Hopefully I can keep my bias out of it and just try and enjoy it as a good piece of sci-fi. I'll let you guys know.

So crazy cult leaders aside, this book was amazingly entertaining! Before I go into the plot and symbolism's of the book I have to get some dumb things out of the way. Now I have no right to criticize anyone on their writing, grammar, or mechanics since I suck horribly at all three, but as a reader I have certain expectations of the authors I read. I expect that, as a professional, you won't have too many silly typos/misspellings, I expect that if this isn't your first book that your plots aren't as see through as a third graders, and I expect that your sentence structure and syntax are much more complex than that of a middle schooler. Ms. Snodgrass does a good job with most of the stuff, but I felt myself getting distracted by a rather way of talking. It wasn't horribly confusing just a couple points needed to be re-read so I was comfortable with what I read, there were some silly mistakes here and there, probably due to her editor being lazy over her, and the biggest down to her book was the fact that she kinda gave everything away within the first 100 pages. The grammar and poor editing aside, seeing an author tell all about a plot and the characters so early in a book is a major turn off. There were a couple surprises in the end, and obviously this one is a start of a series so the end itself was rather eh. By the way I took this book because the rest of the series isn't out so I have time to read my other stuff! Generally though aside from some flattish characters--whom I expect will be developed more further in the series--and a plot given away like a drunk virgin, it was a good book.

Like I've said before I'm not going to write a book report for you guys, if you're intrigued by it go pick it up! The thing that made me the happiest was the fact that she grouped ALL of the religious together, she wasn't picking on one over the other, she came right out and said that the entire idea of religions is stupid. Not only that, she made religion and their "gods" into evil creatures using superstition and stagnation to enslave mankind. Indeed one of the major characters is named Cross and he's guess who? Jesus Christ! But really he's a powerful "old one" whom has been converted to the side of reason and logic. The kickass thing about Cross that Ms. Snodgrass uses to attack religions even more is this: He's a schizophrenic! That's right, he's been here since we evolved and based on the cultural view of wherever he is he becomes either Jesus for Christians, Yehoshua for the Jews, and Allah for the Muslims. So not only are these stupid religious people fighting each other under THE SAME GOD, but they're being controlled and enslaved by every "god" throughout human history. She addresses one of the major things I have a problem with in Christianity which is the fact that in the Old Testament God was an asshole. He killed us, punished us, made us suffer, and overall enjoyed it, this is, she explains, because that's how these creatures thrive ff human suffering. Until one of the other major characters comes in and changes the view of a spiteful angry god into that one of compassion these creatures used holy wars and all those awful things that happened to become stronger. Christians always tend to play off those atrocities as God "testing us", but in reality they were doing it for their own pleasure. Oh man she did it so eloquently and so masterfully that I totally let most of her almost poor writing go and gave her a 7/10 on my list. Another theme that played a smaller role in the book was that of corruption and how if you have enough money you could be the most evil, vile person on the world and get away with anything. It also addressed aspects of homophobia, race, and family.

If you're iffy on religion or hell even if you are religious I think it's a great book to pick up! She's a lot meaner than, say, Christopher Moore's Lamb, but there are things Snodgrass brings up that need to be addressed. Hell it got a good review by the great George R.R. Martin that alone should compel any fantasy fan to pick this up!

Passion: Tree Houses

As I was cleaning up my store this evening I stumbled upon this amazing book in one of the home sections. It's called Treehouse Living and it brought up emotions in me that I haven't felt since I was a kid!
Naturally I stopped what I was doing and started flipping through it, and guys, this is one of the most gorgeous books I have ever seen! Perhaps it's just me, but I can't think of anything more amazing that being so.. intertwined with nature as a treehouse! Ever since I was a child I've wanted a treehouse, unfortunately living here in New Mexico makes it rather difficult to build one. I have seen a couple pretty neat ones around town, but it's almost impossible to find the proper tree for the designs I have floating in my head, it's just too dry! In any case this book made me think about them again and god damn I swear here and now that when I'm older and richer I will build myself one. I know what you're thinking, "Ryan you're the most not carpentry/building manly man ever" and it's true, but I will do whatever it takes to full fill this dream. I'll even overcome my mild fear of heights and dangle from a tree to build this. I know I'm probably going to need someone there who actually knows what the hell their doing, but I think it would be really gratifying to build my own! I suck at drawing so I haven't tried to draw one in a really long time, but maybe I'll start playing with sketches--hahaha doodles more likely--look at a few books like the one above and try and get an idea of what I want.

Like I said I've always loved the idea of treehouses even now I don't know why exactly. They've always seemed magical to me probably because my favorite mythical creature is the elf and in every amazing fantasy the elves live in forests and have cities in the trees. From Tolkiens Lothlórien to Feists Elvandor, fantasy has always blown my imagination away with it's elven cities.. the peacefulness, the calmness, the pure magic of it all has always captured my heart. Granted realistically I can't really expect to have a treehouse even comparable to those of Lothlórien or Elvandor, I think I can make something really cool!

Lothlórien

So naturally I came home and got online to check out what cool designs I could find and sadly there aren't any very good pictures out there. I did find a few that are really pretty, but I may just have to purchase that book at some point and upload the pics, or maybe I'll take some shots with my phone next time I'm working. For now, here's some cool treehouses I found! If you know of any please link them for me!

This one is the same as on the front of the book, except in winter obviously

This one I absolutely adore!

The same as above, from the front! Tell me that isn't AMAZING! Gah!

This one is kinda rickety, but it's still gorgeous

Another amazing one, I think I want mine higher though!

This is another really cool design!

Another thing I can say without a doubt is that I want it to have a spiral staircase up and around the trunk like the first one! This is more than likely because of the fantasy visuals I have in my head, but I also think it looks so freaking cool! I'll have to see what I can do about finding pics of some of the ones in that book. More than likely I'm already breaking some sort of copyright so whatever ya know? Not like I'm making money off 'em!

Thoughts on the Deepgate Codex

One of the things my English professor said we could write about in our journals--the journal being a class assignment due with each paper--was to keep a log of all the books read and some thoughts on each book. Alas, I already have a log of books, but looking back on some of them now I find myself unable to remember as much as I would like about each one. I remember back when I started keeping track of my books that it might be kinda cool to jot down this or that about each one, but ended up never doing so. I figured "eh I'll remember them well enough" and I guess I do, but sometimes you read a book and it unlocks this hidden emotion or lets loose this wild train of thought that is worth keeping on paper. I know this is true because I still look back on my Thoughts on Dune post with wonder and awe, because now I believe I would have lost some of the feelings I had after reading those books. Of course it's a rare book that evokes such emotion as Frank Herbert's Dune, but hey, I'm not brain dead when I'm reading and I am rather easily intrigued. So hence commences my mini review/thoughts on the various books I read. No worries my loyal readers, I will continue to post the entire list that I read, cause I know you care so much, but I think this will only supplement that list. Perhaps it will even give some of you out there a good book to read! Not to mention it will get me to post more than a couple times a month, now it'll be a few times a month!

The Deepgate Codex by Alan Campbell is a fantasy trilogy that a classmate recommended I read. Usually I don't go pick up every book someone recommends to me, I mean I work in a bookstore, I'd be even more broke than I am now if I did. Not to mention the fact that generally speaking when someone has told me to read this or that I'll pick it up only to find it's not quite what I'm into. I'm not being stingy, but I guess I do have somewhat particular tastes when it comes to books, especially sci-fi/fantasy. For whatever reason, though, I headed to Page One on my break and happened to spy the first book in the series entitled Scar Night. One of my biggest weaknesses when it comes to books is the price, this is a serious issue at my work since I get a full third off everything, and used books are even worse. So there I am, standing in Page one, looking at the back of Scar Night: My first thoughts were eh, it's about angels and hell not my cup of fantasy tea, but then I look down. $3.50. Honestly, how can I pass up a recommended book for three dollars and fifty sense. I mean that's half price! So I gave in partly because it was recommended, partly because of the price and partly because I was out of fantasy books at my house.

I'm not going to bother trying to explain the plot; I have found I fail miserably when I do so. Instead let me just say that it was... interesting. There's a bit of a hesitation there only because it was vastly different than any of my usual fantasy. I tend to steer clear of anything having to do with angels and I also avoid fantasy books set too far in history. I like my classic sword wielding no electricity or guns fantasies; I'll take elves with long bows over humans with any sort of technology any day. Scar Night was a little two close to comfort on both counts. The main character is an angel named Dill who lives in a strangely technological city, but not quite. The city is called Deepgate is suspended over, what I imagined anyway, a seemingly bottomless pit by chains and ropes. It took me a long time to fully visualize just what the city looked like, not Campbells fault he has an amazing way of describing things, but because the city itself was so vastly different than anything I've ever encountered. In any case I believe that was part of the reason I finished the book. The world itself is vast and complex with fully a fully developed, deliciously dark religion; a strong, vibrant history; and an amazing cast of well developed antiheroes; all of which made me eager to learn more. So I soldiered on even though I dislike angels and religion based plots and I'm glad I did.

Certainly the first book left a lot to the imagination, unfinished subplots, vanishing characters, and a rather anticlimactic climax. This is do, at least partly, to Scar Night being Campbells first book, but also because he has a very unique style. He manages to follow several different characters, but only partly, often times not talking about one set for chapters and chapter before jumping right back in. The other thing I think that held Scar Night back was the fact that it seemed to be written almost as a filler for the other books. The plot was good, the characters were great like I said, but it felt to me like the second book in a trilogy which tends to be the most dry, plot oriented. Which was why I was almost afraid to pick up his second book, Iron Angel, but did seeing as I got it for free with a coupon. Iron Angel is miles apart from its predecessor in almost all areas, but the thing that got me really interested in it was his ideas on hell, gods, and angels.

A lot of authors tend to stick to the Christian version of hell, a place of torment, pain, and fire, but Campbell totally recreated it and shattered my ideas on what hell could be. Basically what happened was, like Lucifer being cast from heaven, the main god threw her sons out of heaven barring the gates and entrapping them on earth. The most powerful one was torn to pieces and scattered across the maze, Campbells hell. So when you die your soul gets sent to the maze of blood. Once inside your soul takes up occupation in the form of a house, castle, fortress or whatever else lies hidden in there. You're conscience during all of it, and indeed you feel whatever your home feels: when you walk around you feel your own footsteps as if you were walking over yourself, you can also create anything and everything you wish by mere though. Though, he explains later, humans have a difficult time grasping this and often live in shacks of their own despair. Outside of these soul ghettos are rivers of blood, a sky of black, and demons controlled by a king. Since souls are so easily suggestible this self proclaimed king of hell sends his minions out to break apart the soul houses and forcibly extract the souls living there. From there he can create monstrous demons, buildings, walls, doors, and any other thing he wishes from these souls--I might add that the process of changing into one of this kings creations is horribly painful--through this he creates a vast army. Flash back to the land of the living and we learn that the fallen angels are no better than this king, they're corrupt, power hungry, vengeful angels who's goal is to enslave mankind to build an army in which to storm back into heaven.

This whole idea that the gods are evil and the devils are evil, but yet fighting each other with mankind in between is fascinating. On the one hand you have the deceitful angel demigods who trick mankind into serving them and later giving up their soul and blood for power, and on the other you have the cruel king of hell who forcibly, through pain and suffering, steals souls for his own selfish goals. So you have this war going on between these fallen angels and this vicious king both of which are trying to enslave the human race for their own good. Unfortunately for our human heroes they are unaware of these fallen gods darker purpose. I haven't finished the series yet, I just finished Iron Angel yesterday and will be reading God of Clocks at work, so I don't entirely know what's going to happen. In any case, though, I love the idea that if you go to hell you have complete control over your surroundings, seeing as it's just a manifestation of your soul, but yet still suffer. It's an interesting idea that I'd like to explore further, but for now I'm going to end this here and maybe edit in some more notes when I finish God of Clocks. Definitely some interesting insights on what hell could be, who are we to know after all? If you're interested in hell, heaven, angels, and human nature all wrapped up in one I would definitely pick up this trilogy.

Another thing I would like to note is that by writing about this I almost feel compelled to give it a higher rating in my personal list. I'm not sure if it's just because I'm reliving the better parts of each of the books as I think about them, or because in writing about them I somehow gain a higher regard for them. More on this when I finish another book though.