Cascoly Books - Cascoly Science Fiction Reviews |
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This is the fifth, and last, book in an un-named fantasy epic. The first four are:
I've not read the first four, and this doesn't seem a good way to approach this book. The author makes efforts to make this book as stand-alone as possible, with descriptions constantly of what has gone before, with the main character (one Lerris) musing on the implications. The first chapter is full of this, with three lines of 'current time' events interspersed with paragraphs of reflection on past events. This doesn't really work in this case. I've seen it work before for someone who hasn't read the other books, but I suspect it is always tedious if you have read the others, particularly if you have read them recently. Why more authors don't do a separate "What has gone before" section at the beginning (such as Julian May does in the Saga of the Exiles) is beyond me. The reflections and such don't really fill in very much of the important events in the large from the previous books. They do quite well at explaining the emotions and reasoning of Lerris, but don't explain what's really going on in the world, even as he understands it. Beyond that quibble, the style of the book is rather irritating. the viewpoint changes from the standard "third person past-tense omnipotent narrator" to "first person past tense narrator" to "third person present tense narrator". This is fairly consistent between the various threads making up the book - Lerris' story is told in first person, general events in third person past, and events surrounding a particular powerful group is told in third person present. I don't think it adds much to the book, however, serving to distract rather than enhance one's enjoyment. The main problem is this switch to present tense narrative, which is different enough to jar one out of involvement in the book, and reduce the suspension of disbelief. The author has some excellent ideas behind this narrative jumble, both in terms of story and character. Lerris is a complex character, and many of the other main characters are well-drawn. Lerris is torn between desire to be a powerful Mage, to be an excellent craftsman, a good consort to his partner, and many other things besides, as all real people are. The story mixes magic and science quite well, explaining the magical basis for science and something of a scientific basis for the magic. He doesn't pull any punches out of the end, either. This is not your average identi-kit fantasy quest where the hero wins out and everyone lives happily ever after. The end is logical and believable given the build-up. No gods appearing out of the machine saving the day, but the heroes saving the day with effort and sacrifice. A touch too much emphasis is spent on Lerris' day-to-day trials and tribulations for my taste, although that is simply a matter of taste. The general emphasis on his day-to-day life interspersed by great deeds done under external and internal pressures is a refreshing change from heroes and derring-do with little attention to money, relationships, social issues etc. On balance, good ideas, moderately poor execution. If you're interested, read the series as a whole, though, and don't start part-way through. Despite being (I think) a series of five separate stories, each after the first probably depends on too much history to be truly stand-alone. |
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This is the fifth and final book in the Gap series. It is not suitable for stand-alone reading. The set of five books comprises a single short novel as the first book, which can be read stand-alone, followed by four much larger works telling a single story, directly following on from the first book. Books two, three and four each end on cliff-hangers, and it has taken Donaldson more than two years more than the original estimate to finish the series. The total series is one of the longest works telling a single story ever published, being over 2500 pages in length. Donaldson's work arouses strong feelings in most people. Whether they like or dislike his work, few people who have read it are blase about it. His work in general deals with main characters who are flawed, strange, and even quite often downright repulsive. His work is rarely called horror, although many of the scenes in book one of this series (The Gap into Conflict: The Real Story) are pretty graphic and nasty. The writing of the Gap books is much tighter than the Covenant books, despite the length of the series. The Gap series centres on three character: Morn Hyland, Angus Thermopyle and Nick Succorso. Each of these is damaged psychologically. Morn's damage is the centrepiece of the first book. By the time of the last book, Nick is out of the story, and both Morn and Angus are coming to terms with their damaged psyches. His earlier Covenant books are all about the strengthen gained by someone overcoming flaws in the physical and psychological make-up. Mordant's Need was also about the need for problems to be solved by those who see them, and not left for everyone else (who may not see them) to solve. Both of these themes are enlarged upon in the Gap series, with Angus Thermopyle's struggle to release himself from the memory of the abuse he suffered as a child finally bearing fruit, and Warden Dios risking his life to solve a problem few others could see, and almost no-one else could solve. The Gap into Ruin doesn't disappoint as the culmination of such a long and complex story. As with the other four, the only problem with the book is Donaldson's attempts to make it hard science fiction rather than allowing it to be Space Opera at it's best and grandest. Every time he tries to explain the physics of what is going on, there is a flaw in his arguments which somewhat shakes the suspension of disbelief. His characters and ability to tell a moving story overcome this admirably, but it is a distraction from an otherwise excellent conclusion to an otherwise excellent series. Characters die, of course, and it is one of Donaldson's strengths that the characters deaths affect the reader so much. Death can be necessary and noble, or it can be mean and unimportant, sometimes it can be both, as a noble act turns sour because of the flaws of the person. Anyone who has read as far as no. 4 will undoubtedly want to finish the series, if only to avoid being left at a cliff-hanger. For those who may have stopped earlier in the series, I recommend continuing to the end. |
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Weiss, Perrin | |
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Knights of the Black Earth |
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This series is actually a follow-up to the Star of the Guardians series authored solely by Margaret Weis. It would appear that some of the characters are common, but not having read the Star of the Guardians series, I can't be sure. This is a fairly standard piece of pseudo-military Space Opera set in a quasi-feudal Galactic Empire. A threat to the throne is averted by the central characters (a group of mercenaries with the typically macho but pointless name of Mag Force 7) who do some dubious things along the way, but by saving the day from a (provable) threat, and by having the right sort of strings to pull, they end up with medals and commendations rather than execution orders for their trouble. The characters are fun enough, consisting of a bunch of caricatures and archetypes. The bad guys are a bunch of raving fanatics bent on mastery of the Galaxy by terrorism, and there are enough plot twists and mis-directions to keep things interesting. Not the best bit of pseudo-military space opera I've read read, but far from being the worst, too. If this is your sort of thing then you won't go wrong here, but it's nothing especial to write home about. The sequel is Robot Blues |
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This hefty tome, weighing in at 582 pages, is really two novels with similar themes interleaved with each other. There is a plot connection but it's not really vital. The shorter of the two is about three people exiled from the conquered country of Levan by an oppressive regime of invaders. One is a thief, justly exiled though he still has cause for complaint against the invaders, since if they find out about his powers of prophetic dreaming they will burn him at the stake. One reason he's a thief is to avoid their notice in honest employment. The other two are a serving girl, exiled for resisting rape at the hands of an officer of the invaders, and a gentleman exiled for murder: he killed a man who challenged him to a duel. They are exiled to the newly opened continent of Salvation. Following the normal sort of adventures they finally reach some measure of safety. The other, longer, novel is about a group of 'barbarians', reminiscent of barbarian horse tribes from Conan to Robert Adams. They have five clans, two of which are at odds all the way through the book. Initially, a member of the 'good' tribe is exiled with his wife for killing someone who abducted and raped her. The killing was committed under a religiously enforced truce, and only the crimes of the dead man mitigate the death sentence to exile. Later, everyone from this world becomes an exile or dies. There is some discontinuity within this part of the story: the 'evil' clan's magician (another prophetic dreamer) has some strange prophetic dreams offering 'Saruman's bargain' essentially. Despite appearing to take up this offer he and the clan chief do not seem to go through with the bargain. The barbarian tribes and the neighbouring dwarfs are well-characterised, and the two worlds are well-described. There are odd niggles about the procession of the plot however, the main one being the discontinuity mentioned above. As with previous works by Wells, I find his writing to be a touch dry, the emotion is mostly lacking. In fact, the strongest emotions invoked by the book are anger at the injustices that result in the exile of the main characters. The other main problem is Wells' choice of names. He has a particular fondness for y's in his names: one of the main characters is called Davyd; forgivable. Later, we come across two minor characters who are only there to be killed off, Danyael and Rogyr. This is a touch overdone. On the whole, this is a moderately good novel, with little scope for a direct sequel (a rarity these days), although he might re-use the world again. Not quite on a par with his earlier 'Kingdoms' trilogy, but an absorbing read generally. And just to make me a liar, the sequel is Exile's Challenge |
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Well, I wrote about the first volume, Exiles's Children "On the whole, this is a moderately good novel, with little scope for a direct sequel (a rarity these days), although he might re-use the world again." To prove me wrong, Mr Wells has come up with the second volume. While the first book appeared to end quite satisfactorily, it is quite obvious that the two books consist of one story. Thef irst is about two sets of characters who only meet in the last few pages. This follow-up is what happens to them together, and how everything ties in and ties up. This is not a book to be read on its own. It starts immediately after the first one ends, and makes no real effort at a rehash. This is a plus: too many books contain a first chapter which tries to both recapitulate the plot and start the new story off. I much prefer writers who ignore this competely, as Wells does. Exile's Challenge lives up to the first book very well. The progression of the plot from the denouement of the first into further conflicts and a final resolution is a nice flowing piece. The characters continue to be believable, and the plot flows from them, not the other way around. We see how Flysse, Arcole and Davyd are taken in by the Matawayeand become part of their people. Davyd's dreaming talent ensures him a place, but not an easy one. Captain Tomas Var, one of the Autarchy's Officer's from the first novel, comes into his own as the focus of the non-matawaye side of the story, though this time, he and the rest meet up before the last chapter. The parallels with the conquest of the Native American tribes by the Europeans is very apparent in Exile's Challenge, although Wells turns it into a more peaceful joining than was the case in history. This is reminiscent of the way Guay Gavriel Kay has taken a tragic part of our own history in his recent fiction and re-written it into a more satisfactory mould. The Matawaye are recognisably in the Native American mould, but different enough that they come alive in the world they are set, rather than seeming like tropical plants transferred to Siberia. The Breakers, the extremely nasty horde from the first book, make a repeat showing. These are bad guys who get up in the morning and think "God, I'm evil! Yeah!", but Wells manages to pull it of quite well. This sort of fantasy bad guy often seems less than lifelike, but here they are believable --- mostly. Where they came from, and where they expected to go next was and remains a mystery, but some of their justifications are there - some similarities with the White Witch from Narnia come to mind in their roles as avengers of sins. In short, another solid novel. Worth a look, though seek out Exile's Children |
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Automated Alice |
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Reality is for People Who Can't Handle...Automated Alice. Jeff Noon is a new British writer whose first novel, Vurt, won the coveted Arthur Clarke Award in 1994. His latest book is a 'trequel' to Lewis Carroll (Rev Charles Dodgson)'s books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Alice's Adventures Through the Looking Glass. This one could be subtitled Alice's Adventure's Through the Clock's Workings. Throughout the book, Noon has captured Carroll's style nicely: the limited vocabulary of the standard parts of the text together with made-up words describing the fantastical elements. This is Alice Meets Gibson, however, and this is not just YAAB - Yet Another Alice Book. There are themes of reality and fiction and the relationship between then two apparent. Noon mixes Lewis Carroll himself with the real Alice Liddel (the little girl on whom Carroll's fictional Alice is based) with the Alice from the other books and a new, in-between, automated Alice, a terbot-charged now-lifesize doll in a romp around an alternate 1998 Manchester filled with punnish characters. Noon shies away from nothing, even hinting at the less-than-salutory possibilities of Carrol's fascination with pre-pubescent girls, all within the world-view of a Victorian six-year-old. An invisible cat called Quark, and a parrot improbably called Whippoorwill guide a confused Alice through a murder mystery, a dreamscape worthy of Carroll, and some strange thoughts on the nature of the Universe of Fiction. Noon is one of the most imaginative writers currently producing SF in the UK, and his work should not be missed.
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