Review of The Iron Druid Chronicles, books 1-3, by Kevin Hearne
book 1 – Hounded
book 2 – Hexed
book 3 – Hammered

Kevin Hearne is a new writer on the paranormal/urban fantasy scene and he brings a refreshing new angle to this heavily trod genre of late with his marvelously conceived main character, Atticus O’Sullivan, a 2100-year old druid living in present day Tempe, Arizona.  Celtic myth and legend have always intrigued the hell out of me.  After spotting the catchy covers for Hounded, Hexed, and Hammered while browsing at Barnes and Noble, and then reading their enticing jackets, I was hooked.  I went with the audio versions, and I’m glad I did.  Narrator Luke Daniels did a terrific job of handling a diverse cast of characters.  One of the most endearing of these is Atticus’s dog, an Irish wolfhound named Oberon.  He reminded me a bit of Scooby-Doo.  Atticus and Oberon are able to communicate mentally which often results in very amusing dialogue between the two.  It’s also a great advantage for coordinating efforts when facing off with their enemies.

The Iron Druid Chronicles gets its name from an iron amulet that Atticus crafted over the centuries and bound to his aura.  It serves as a ward against hostile magic directed at him.  It also has a number of charms enabling reflex-like speed to do things like boost strength or see thru magic glamours (he calls this one his faerie specs).

As the last druid of his kind, Atticus has a load of other awesome abilities at his disposal.  For example, he’s able to draw energy from contact with the Earth to increase his speed and strength, never tire out while running, and rapidly heal himself as necessary.  He can shape-shift, call on elemental beings for favors, and create bindings between living things and natural materials.  In addition to his magic talents, Atticus can fight with all the skill and savage intensity of a Celtic hero of old with the benefit of 2000 years of martial experience.  He isn’t an immortal like Highlander Connor MacLeod though; he’s simply stopped the aging process at the tender age of 21.  His secret is a special tea he developed with his druidic herbal knowledge called Immortali-Tea.  He sounds like a real badass but Atticus actually exudes an amiable sweet boyish manner and his quick-witted mind has adapted well to the culture of the current times as he has transitioned from one period into the next.

The narrative of the books is almost entirely in first person from Atticus’s point of view, so it proceeds in an easy to follow conversational manner.  To partake in the character development and understand the intertwining behind the various major conflicts which tumble from one book into the next, the books should definitely be read in their published order.  Hearne does a fine job of revealing bits and pieces of Atticus’s past, explaining his system of magic, and filling out the structure and expanse of the world as the narrative moves ahead.  There’s a whole mess of supernatural beings running around in Hearne’s world; he doesn’t stop with the Tuatha De Danann of Celtic myth.  Figures from several other ethnic pantheons and cultural traditions are pulled from and sometimes re-imagined in a new light.  It seems a bit overcrowded and chaotic.  Fortunately, many of these Old World gods are content to stay in their own plane of existence with little if any intrusion into present day human affairs.  Others, namely those of the paranormal variety, coexist with humans.  They generally try not to draw too much attention to themselves but not to the extent of denying their basic nature.  Included are the usual suspects:  werewolves, vampires, witches, and demons.

Atticus keeps a law firm on retainer to help him finesse his way out of hard to explain situations that his druidic activities sometimes get him into (like when wolfhound DNA is found in the wounds of a recently slain park ranger near his home).  The firm is run by Gunnar Magnusson, alpha of a pack of werewolves that have claimed Tempe as their territory.  Gunnar is a real Viking, reputed to have come across to North America with Erik the Red.  Atticus usually deals with Hal Hauk though, Gunnar’s second, or another associate, Leif Helgarson, an ancient Icelandic vampire.  Hearne explains the unusual association of the vampire and the werewolf pack as a result of having a common enemy, Thor.

In Hounded, Atticus is roused from his laid back decade long seclusion as the proprietor of a new age book shop in Tempe.  Rather than cut and run, he decides to make a stand vs. Aenghus Óg, a Celtic god who’s been hunting him ever since Atticus made off with Aenghus’s favorite magic sword centuries ago.  Minions sent by Aenghus and meddling by other Celtic deities keep Atticus busy.  Ultimately, he and Aenghus go mano a mano.

In Hexed, Atticus must confront the aftershocks stemming from his fight with Aenghus Óg.  A couple of nasty demons got loose during the battle.  It also attracted the attention of other supernatural beings who perceive Atticus as a real threat or want to ally with him and use him for their own selfish ends.  A group of Bacchants (worshipers of Bacchus, Roman god of Wine and Ecstasy) from Vegas invade and a coven of German witches known as the Hexen are drawn in as well.  The Hexen have crossed paths with Atticus before (they partnered with the Nazi’s during WWII) and are eager to bring him down this time.  Meanwhile, Atticus agrees to take on an apprentice, Granuaile, has a romp with The Morrigan, the Celtic goddess of death, and manages to continue eluding the police who link him to a number of strange goings-on.

In Hammered, Atticus journeys to Asgard, realm of the Norse gods, after having finally given in to his vampire friend Leif Helgarson’s long standing call to help him kill Thor.  Yes, really.  Talk about turning a popular heroic icon on its head, lol.  Apparently – despite his celebrated stature as a champion of goodness and vanquisher of evil – Thor is one hell of a gigantic douche-bag.  An assassination squad is assembled to take him down.  Each member of the squad tells a sob story of Thor’s treachery which lends a degree of justification for their dire plan.  Unfortunately, I didn’t buy into any of it at all.  The image of Thor as a capricious trickster was – to me – preposterous.  It would’ve been completely plausible if Hearne instead had used Loki for this role.  Thor might be a crass oaf at times, but he has a good heart and he just plain kicks ass.  To completely invert his standing as Hearne does was asking too much.  Not only that, the actual fighting lacked tension, so the story sort of fell flat.  There were other lesser problems too.  Atticus has a bar chat with Jesus that was corny and out of place.  A number of pop-culture references and analogies were clunky and distracting.  Granuaile has but a brief appearance early on which was a shame since there is ripe material to build on with her.  If anything, I think Hammered should’ve had a hefty number of pages spent on Granuaile’s continued training and Atticus’s relationship with her.

Needless to say, Hammered wasn’t quite on par with the first two books.  Aside from shortcomings noted already, I think the basic problem was Hearne tried to shove in and juggle too many other diverse mythic elements and the result was an eclectic mishmash with little hint of the original druid flavor that is the standout strength of this series.  I’ll keep reading because I love the character concept of Atticus.  I just hope the main story gets back on track.  The next installment, Tricked, is due out April 24, 2012.  Reportedly, more books will follow.

Hounded 8/10
Hexed 7/10
Hammered 6/10

The Iron Druid Chronicles (so far…)
7/10

Review of Firebird by Jack McDevitt

note:  I experienced this in audiobook format, narrated by Jennifer van Dyck.

I came across Firebird while browsing some recent sci fi picks on Audible.com.  Mainly, I wanted to get a taste of what sci fi writers are writing about lately.  The genre seems to be in a bit of a decline in popularity compared to fantasy and paranormal, which is rather surprising if you consider all the fascinating sci fi ripe things happening lately, such as:  the Kepler telescope’s numerous new planet discoveries in the “Goldilocks” temperature zone (which suggests liquid water and the possibility of life), CERN’s recent OPERA experiment with its mind-blowing evidence that neutrinos travel faster than light, discoveries of “rogue” planets that wander the galaxy (perhaps outnumbering the stars) and Y-dwarf stars that are cool enough to touch; not to mention stunning and rather scary new observations of black-holes in action.  The jacket for Firebird described a mystery about vanishing interstellar space yachts and I couldn’t resist a look.  I picked up a couple other recently published sci fi books as well for a fair sampling but Firebird looked to be the most interesting so I started with that.

Firebird is actually the 6th installment in McDevitt’s Alex Benedict series, though it is the first one I’ve read and my first exposure to anything by McDevitt.  Alex and his female associate, Chase Kolpath, are basically a couple of antiquities dealers and finders of lost artifacts – a futuristic tomb-raider team.  They live in the far future, approximately 9000 years hence, on a planet called Rimway.  Earth has long since expanded into star systems throughout the galaxy and interstellar travel is accomplished by hyperspace jumps.  I was curious about what sort of drive system was allowing the jumps but this level of detail was skipped over.  McDevitt puts his story far enough into the future that such things are treated as ordinary and accepted.  The story starts off with Chase and Alex beginning an investigation into the mysterious disappearance of a famous physicist named Christopher Robin some 40 years earlier.  He had some controversial theories about alternate multiple universes and black holes and some conspiracy related to that surrounds his disappearance/death.  Alex wants to dig around in Chris’s past a bit to stir up interest (and therefore prices) for Chris’s personal items.  Before his disappearance, Chris was doing experiments with a number of old space yachts.  Apparently, he was on to solving the long running mystery of lost space vessels that reappear and then fade out of existence again.  A few such sitings even described passengers pounding on the windows.

The investigation leads Chase and Alex to a dangerous planet called Villaneuva.  When first colonized thousands of years ago, Villaneuva quickly grew into an extremely popular spot based on its lush climate (think Flotsam Paradise in The Fifth Element).  However, a huge intra-stellar dust cloud passed through Villaneuva’s star system and despite plenty of advance warning, the bulk of the inhabitants decided to stay and ride it out.  Idiots.  Sadly for them, a cold darkness descended on the world and lasted 300 years.  After the cloud finally passed, the Artificial Intelligence units (bots and boxes) on the lifeless world looked for a way off.  But the planet was shunned.  Pretty soon these AIs – or most of them anyway – with nothing really to do, started going stir-crazy.  Later attempts to land on Villaneuva were met with intense hostility.  All this transpired 7000 years ago.  Apparently, the AIs are still there and more hostile than ever.  A search for Chris Robins’ notebook drives Chase and Alex to venture onto Villaneuva and risk dealing with these hostile AIs.

The story was well-paced and accessible.  Some sci fi writers tend to use too much technical detail and explanations of “projected science” that muddle a good story, but McDevitt handled this aspect well.  Unraveling the mystery surrounding the missing ships kept me turning the pages.  McDevitt also successfully interweaved the secondary Villaneuva story that asks the question on whether AI can advance into truly sentient life.  Should AIs be treated like real persons and have rights?  It’s a question that’s certainly been explored before, but McDevitt’s handling of it was even more engaging than the primary story.

I tend to enjoy good character development over plot.  McDevitt seems to focus more on plot in Firebird.  As a result, Alex and Chase came off as sort of mechanical to me.  It was hard to become emotionally invested in either one since McDevitt doesn’t really delve into their psyche’s.  Most of the narrative is from Chase’s PoV, but she never gets past her immediate thoughts and reactions.  Now, it may simply be that this is the 6th book in a series featuring well established characters?  Perhaps they’ve already been fully fleshed out and colored?  Or maybe McDevitt just doesn’t do a lot of character development?  In Firebird, Charlie, an AI box, had more personality than Alex.  Chase wasn’t much better – she actually seemed a bit aloof.

Overall, Firebird was a nicely constructed futuristic mystery and the ending was undeniably satisfying.  It glassed up my eyes and made me smile.  Despite my impression of shallow characterizations, McDevitt certainly seems a very capable writer in the genre and tells a good story.  I’m curious enough to read more of his work and I’ll surely have to start with the first book in the Alex and Chase series.

7/10

Review of The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

note:  I experienced this in audiobook form, read by Nick Podehl

The Name of the Wind is a deeply engaging debut novel, from new fantasist Patrick Rothfuss.  It is rather unique in that most of the story is told in first person by the main character, Kvothe, to a scribe known as Chronicler (his actual name is Devan).  Kvothe has assumed a new name and taken up a quiet life as an Innkeep in a small town presumably to escape from a notorious past.  He seems content in his mundane new life but also rather depressed.  In fact, he’s described as “a man who is waiting to die” in the Prologue.  Though he’s isolated himself from the world at large, stories involving Kvothe’s past adventures have caught up with him and the retellings have become largely distorted and unnerving.  He looks upon Chronicler as his means to set the stories straight.  But while Chronicler is anxious to get to the juicy bits, Kvothe says it’s important to start from the very beginning to truly understand how he earned his renowned reputation.  And so the story begins.  Wind is actually the first in a trilogy of books and as such has the secondary title – The Kingkiller Chronicle: Day One – referring to Kvothe’s first day of honest re-telling to Chronicler.  When asked about the story’s scope, Rothfuss writes:

“This story started with Kvothe’s character. I knew it was going to be about him from the very beginning. In some ways it’s the simplest story possible: it’s the story of a man’s life. It’s the myth of the Hero seen from backstage. It’s about the exploration and revelation of a world, but it’s also about Kvothe’s desire to uncover the truth hidden underneath the stories in his world. The story is a lot of things, I guess. As you can tell, I’m not very good at describing it. I always tell people, “If I could sum it up in 50 words, I wouldn’t have needed to write a whole novel about it.”  I didn’t plan it as a trilogy though. I just wrote it and it got to be so long that it had to be broken up into pieces. There were three natural breaking points in the story… Hence the Trilogy.”  — from 10 Second Interview – A Few Words with Patrick Rothfuss on Amazon.com

The world Rothfuss paints is easy to slip into.  It doesn’t differ much from the familiar late-Medieval/European Renaissance/Elizabethan era type setting found in so many other books in the fantasy genre.  What gives it a special flavor though is its strange history which involves an elder race and a terrible centuries long conflict called the Creation War.  There’s a tragic love story involving some powerful beings followed by terrible repercussions and betrayals.  Dark remnants of this strange past may be encroaching on the present.  We meet one in the form of scrael, badger-sized spiders of living stone, that attack Chronicler shortly after he chances upon Kvothe at a campfire one night.  The mystery behind their emergence brings a whole new level of eeriness to the story that really draws you in.  We also meet Bast, who’s described as Kvothe’s student, but seems more like a demon-familiar and a hanger-on from the glory days.

Kvothe’s driving motivation is revealed early as he relates his life story.  While still a boy, Kvothe’s parents are murdered by a group of demonic beings known as the Chandrian led by a shadow-wrapped figure named Haliax.  Kvothe is told his parents were murdered for “singing entirely the wrong sort of songs.”  Kvothe’s life is spared for reasons unclear, but the experience totally alters him.  He sinks into depression and survives only by soothing his heart with music.  Yet, he does not succumb to melancholy for long.  The pain of his loss is tremendous, but he is driven from the abyss by a fierce desire to understand why his parents were murdered so casually.  Who were these demons?  Kvothe makes it his life mission to solve the mystery.

Kvothe possesses a beautiful mind.  Not only does he excel at music, but he has a natural gift for solving challenging problems and a bottomless thirst for knowledge.  He endeavors to master the secrets of the physical world and to delve beyond it and learn magic of the sort in story and song.  He comes across as arrogant but never snotty or snooty.  He’s just extremely intelligent.  Kvothe started his education on the road with his parents’ thespian troupe.  A road companion named Abenthy took him under his wing and began to teach him the basics of Sympathy which whetted Kvothe’s appetite to learn magic.  Sympathy relates to creating bindings or links between things on a metaphysical level to accomplish astonishing feats like starting a fire from a distance.  It’s an interesting system and Rothfuss leads us into it gradually and as thoughtfully as if we were learning it too.

Ultimately, what Kvothe truly wants is to learn the magic of Naming, so he can control the wind, call down fire and lightning, and split stone like the storied magician of yore, Taborlin the Great.  After the death of Kvothe’s parents and a brief period spent living as a grubby shoeless urchin, Kvothe sees an opportunity to advance his mission by entering a prestigious University that stands across the river from the town of Imre.  He wheedles his way in by impressing the school masters with his brilliant mind.  Kvothe proceeds to develop his skills and expand his knowledge and he meets some interesting people, friend and foe alike.  At this point, the story almost bears resemblance to Harry Potter and Hogwarts.  Though I think Kvothe’s origin and world seems quite a bit more believable.  The idea of masters who each specialize in some specific area of arcane knowledge is not new but Rothfuss does a fine job of presenting it in an utterly convincing way.  Memories of a long ago read book by Lyndon Hardy titled Master of the Five Magics also came back to me, though again, I think Rothfuss presented his material in a fresh way and much more convincingly.

While Kvothe does not suffer from a lack of wits, he fights a continual battle with poverty.  And while he gets his foot in the door at the University, he must struggle for ways to earn borrow or steal the coin he needs to keep up with tuition and expenses.  He’s also quite prideful and loathe to accept any charity or borrow from his friends.  Eventually, he does go to a moneylender for aid, takes advantage of his musical talents to give himself a means of support, and takes on some physical work as well.  Aside from his quest for knowledge, he is very interested in the University because of it’s fabulously vast library.  He believes he will find answers to a thousand questions concerning the demons who killed his parents hidden some where in its ancient tomes.

Kvothe crosses paths with a number of intriguing young women, a few of whom offer compelling love interests.  The first is the moneylender named Devi who turns out to be the most interesting of the lot; the second is a student named Fela who serves as a Scriv, someone who works in the University library’s protected archives – a place that Kvothe desperately wants to get into; and finally, there is a singer named Denna who appears to live off the support of one gentleman sponsor to the next as suits her whim.  While not described as a whore, Denna unfortunately fits that profile to a tee and is by far the most annoying and aggravating woman who enters Kvothe’s tale.  Of course this means Kvothe develops the strongest liking for Denna, and he suffers for it immensely.  It’s not really Denna’s fault.  Kvothe simply is a bumbling idiot when it comes to relationships with women.  Kvothe’s puppy-love pursuit of Denna is a bit like chasing after a goal that keeps turning a corner and getting away.  I really hope the agony doesn’t persist into the next book.  Devi seems like a much better match for him.

Kvothe performs some impressive heroics in the story which foretell bigger things to come.  He seems rather brash and fearless about it and he pays the price accordingly.  Still, you can’t help but cheer for him.  By the end of Chronicler’s first day of scribing, I was longing to learn what happens next.  The book didn’t end there, though.  The narrative switches back to third person and the present.  A strange visitor happens into the Waystone Inn that night which continues the sense of eerie wonder and dread that began with the scrael attack.  Something sinister is after Kvothe.  Also, more than ever, we want to know why Kvothe’s holed up and living a simpleton’s life and not out battling dark forces with all his learned skills and natural ability.  What happened to Denna, Fela, and Devi?  Did Kvothe pair up with any of them?  Is Bast one of the Amyr?

Originally published in 2007, Wind is a hefty piece of work but well worth reading.  The writing itself is extremely good and flows nicely.  Straightforward, just the right amount of description, and completely accessible.  On the downside, it seemed filtered or tamed down for a younger audience, similar to Brandon Sanderson’s style.  The next book, The Wise Man’s Fear – The Kingkiller Chronicle:  Day Two – is more weighty still, but the immersive first-person narrative should make it go down smoothly.  Kvothe’s life-story is deeply realized, full of emotions, conflicts, and heroics.  I will definitely keep reading.

8/10

Review of The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

I bought the mass market paperback of Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora a couple of years ago but I just never got around to reading it.  Originally published in 2006 to critical acclaim as the best debut novel in years, I feel late to the party.  After feasting on Joe Abercrombie’s books, Lamora bubbled to the surface again.  Praise for Lynch’s work on Abercrombie’s blog only nudged me all the more.  As has become my habit, I left the paperback alone and experienced Lamora in audiobook form.  Lo and behold, Michael Page (who did Abercrombie’s last two books), performed as narrator and was outstanding once again.

Lamora definitely lived up to all the hype and Lynch has cemented himself for me as a fabulous new writer to follow in the fantasy genre.

The story takes place almost entirely within the island city of Camorr which seems to be modeled after Venice with its canals, architecture, names, and climate.  The descriptions of the alien Elderglass, the alchemical inventions, and strange cross-bred plants and fruits were a nice flourish.  Lynch does a fine job of invoking all of our senses.  Camorr has just survived an outbreak of the Black Whisper plague in the Catchfire district and there’s lots of orphans running around some of whom end up under the guardianship of a man called the Thiefmaker.  The orphans he gathers up make their home in an old graveyard called Shades’ Hill, which has been turned into a sort of ant mound of tunnels between various burial vaults and family crypts.  Here they are tutored in the ways of thieving and then are sent out on jobs and special tasks to earn their keep.  A scrawny boy named Locke Lamora finds his way into the group but quickly proves to be quite the troublemaker.

“HE BROKE the Secret Peace the first night I had him, the cheeky little bastard.”

Locke develops an uncanny skill for “teasing” – creating distractions or staging ruses aimed at fooling people out of their coin or creating opportunities for an accomplice to do so.  Soon the other young thieves would rather watch him work than do any of their own.  After Locke takes the initiative to loot a whole tavern by causing a Black Whisper scare which leads to a fire and rousing of the Duke’s Ghouls (the quarantine guard), the Thiefmaker is eager to be rid of him.

“Nobody has ever been hungry for stealing like this boy.  He steals too much.”

The Thiefmaker takes Locke to the nearby temple district and sells him to Father Chains, a blind priest of Perelandro (one of the gods in Lynch’s world, known as “Lord of the Overlooked”).  The temple of Perelandro is actually a front for one of crime-boss Barsavi’s elite thieving gangs.  Lamora joins a few other orphans taken in by Father Chains who then sets them all on a path of broad learning to reach their full thieving potential.  Their little family comes to be known as The Gentlemen Bastards.

The meat of the story takes place some 15 years later and centers around an extremely elaborate con known as the Don Salvara Game.  However, at various points in the story, there are interlude chapters which return us to Locke’s youth and help to fill in the full depth of his character as well as that of his companions.  The most interesting of these is Jean Tannen.  If Locke is the brains of their gang, Jean is the muscle.  A younger member of the gang named Bug, befuddled by all the layers of thieving within Camorr society, wonders “so that makes us… robbers of robbers?”

Locke’s  answer:  “think of what we do as a sort of… secret tax on nobles with more money than prudence.”

The Don Salvara Game was incredibly well-conceived and entertaining.  But things go awry and the gang finds themselves caught in someone else’s game, a game of revenge.  The story takes on a much more serious tone then and takes some gruesome turns.  This became the most engrossing part of the story as Locke fights to outwit the Gray King.  In Locke, I think Lynch really dispels the idea that there is no honor among thieves.

Overall, The Lies of Locke Lamora was a fantastic read.  There really aren’t any flaws to speak of but there were some minor things I thought could have been done slightly better.  First, the Salvara’s – Lorenzo and Sofia – seemed like a really nice couple.  I actually sympathized with them as the ruse played out.  I don’t know that this effect was intended.  Maybe Lynch could have made them a bit more dislikeable?  Second, Locke seemed a tad too wimpy.  Why not give him skill with a rapier or throwing knives?  Third, there is scant romance.  Lynch hints at a love interest in Locke’s past with one Sabetha but not much is revealed.  And while there’s the possibility of real romance with Nazca, Barsavi’s fiesty daughter, Lynch steers away from it.  Lynch plans to write a total of seven books about the adventures of the Gentlemen Bastards.  The next one is calling to me, Red Seas Under Red Skies.

9/10

Review of The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie

note:  I experienced this is audiobook form, read superbly by Michael Page.

The Heroes is Joe Abercrombie’s second standalone novel set in the same world as his excellent First Law Trilogy.  It takes place 8 years after the supposed death of Logen Ninefingers at the hands of Black Dow who then took Logen’s place as King of the Northmen.  The Union wasn’t too pleased about that, since Logen had just promised to hold the Northmen clans to their side of the Whiteflow River and even to offer military support when called upon.  Black Dow’s reputation for being unpredictable was unsettling to say the least.  The Union would rather that a different man was leading the Northmen.  Aided by Logen’s friend, Dogman, and a group of other Northmen sworn to him, the Union is compelled to remove Black Dow from his throne.  He isn’t giving it up so easily though.  Pockets of fighting break out along the vast border but there is little progress made on either side.  After dragging on for years, the Union army is no closer to its goal.  While it has the advantage in numbers, it’s spread out in three divisions.  Black Dow has the higher ground and always seems to be a step ahead.  The campaign has grown costly and the Union has other problems rearing up, including a new threat from Styria in the east, apparently now in cahoots with Kahlul and the Gurkish.

The wizard Bayaz shows up at a meeting of the Union army’s leadership as they are going over fresh battle plans.  He basically gives an ultimatum that the Northern war be brought to a swift and decisive close.  While he doesn’t want to concern himself with details, he brings some “inventions” to lend a helping hand.  Meanwhile, in Black Dow’s camp, the war-chiefs are gathered discussing their own strategy.  We meet a freakish giant of a man named Stranger-Come-Knocking, who is eager to join the fight with a host of his savages behind him.  He styles himself as the greatest warrior in the world.  Caul Shivers, featured in Best Served Cold, counts himself among Dow’s supporters too and has come to be known as his dog.  He’s even more dark and creepy than he was in Best Served Cold.  And then there’s Prince Calder who wants the Northern throne for himself – though he wouldn’t say so to Black Dow’s face.

Forces on each side converge near the town of Osrung on a hill crowned by ancient statues, a place called The Heroes.  Over a span of three bloody days, the two sides clash to decide the fate of the North.

The story is related mainly through three principal characters although there are some other viewpoint characters that fill in.  The first of these is Curnden Craw, a respected Northman leading a dozen warriors for Black Dow.  Craw exemplifies the role of an honorable seasoned warrior.  While he sometimes ruminates on the dark business of war, he doesn’t let that deter him from following his orders.  The other Northmen call him a straight edge.  Second, there is Prince Calder, the younger of Bethod’s two sons.  What he lacks in martial prowess he makes up for in guile.  He wants his father’s throne back for himself.  Finally, there is Bremer dan Gorst, master swordsman and former member of King Jezal’s esteemed Knights of the Body.  Ever since his disgrace in Cardotti’s House of Leisure in Sipani in Best Served Cold and subsequent removal from his high station, he has been a tortured man.  He is sent to the Northern war as “a royal observer”.  He yearns to redeem himself.  Finree, the daughter of Lord Marshal Kroy (who leads the Union army), also gets a fair amount of page time.  She desperately wants to elevate the standing of her husband, Colonel Harod dan Brock.  That’s tough to do, given that Brock’s father was exiled as a traitor.  These and other characters make it pretty clear that there is no right or wrong side to the conflict, no good or bad guys.  It all depends on your point of view.

The story is action packed and hard edged, however I was hoping for at least a couple confrontations that never occurred.  In particular, a re-match between Gorst and Shivers was sadly missing.  I felt that Abercrombie sort of chickened out on that one, not wanting to kill off either character maybe?  Gorst’s inner monologues were funny and sort of reminiscent of Glokta from First Law but sometimes he seemed unbelievably extreme in his self-pity.  My hopes for him kept me engaged though.

Calder with his blithe confidence, charm, and intrigues emerged as the most enjoyable character.  You can’t help but admire a man that uses his wit to master a situation.  Some of his jibes were hilarious.

Shivers, my favorite from Cold, really got tossed into secondary status, which was a disappointment.  With that metal eye and gravelish voice, he seems more monster than man now.  You get a sense of ferocious strength and fury smouldering just below the surface.

Heroes is very much a “low” fantasy, focused on characters facing real problems.  There’s not any awesome magic being thrown around to turn the course of events.  Still, I couldn’t help but think Bayaz and Kahlul (via Ishri) were making puppets of everyone to fight their own personal war.  A direct confrontation between those two would have been cool.  Maybe in the next book.

Overall, The Heroes was immersive and entertaining.  Limited in scope (which was intentional) but I rather enjoyed taking in the continued development of Abercrombie’s world.  I look forward to more and I really hope he brings back the Bloody-Nine so he can kick the shit out of Stranger-Come-Knocking.

8/10

Review of Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie

note:  I experienced this in audiobook form.  Initially, I was disappointed that Steven Pacey wasn’t narrating but Michael Page proved to be a superb voice talent as well.

Best Served Cold takes place in the same world as Abercrombie’s outstanding debut The First Law Trilogy.  A few secondary characters from First Law show up in more prominent roles and some of its leading ones are mentioned in context.  The main character of Cold, Monzcarro Murcatto (more often simply Monza), is entirely new though.
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First, some backstory:  Monza and her brother Benna awake one night to the sound of bandits breaking in the door of their farm house.  They slip out a window and hide in the woods.  Frustrated by the lack of coin to be found, the bandits burn their crop leaving them destitute.  Not knowing which way to turn but outraged by the injustice done them, Monza (with younger Benna in tow) joins a posse to hunt down the bandits.  She discovers she has a taste for killing.  This then ushers in a bloody mercenary’s life where Monza and Benna rise in fame and fortune and soon they’re leading their own large and illustrious band of swords.

The story of Cold begins with the Murcattos paying a visit to Duke Orso of Styria, supposedly to discuss their next assignment.  But they are betrayed.  Soon after they’re escorted into the Duke’s study, a wire is drawn tight against Monza’s throat while she’s held fast from behind and forced to watch Benna’s murder.  Her hand is caught under the wire and denies her own would-be killer.  She manages to escape his embrace but a second assassin stabs her in the ribs and the two wrestle on the floor.  Just when it looks like she might gain the advantage, the strangler returns and stomps repeatedly on her sword-hand turning it into a hideous mess.  Finally, Monza is tossed over the balcony down a mountainside to be finished off on the rocks below.  She survives – barely – cushioned by her brother’s corpse.  A mysterious stranger finds her and puts her back together – or as best he can anyway.  When she regains consciousness, Monza is overcome with grief over her dead brother and a burning hunger for payback.  Barely able to stand, she breaks out of the stranger’s dungeon lab on a dark and stormy night… like Frankenstein’s monster.

Supported by a monetary stash gathered over a decade’s worth of leading mercenaries in nobles’ squabbles across the land, Monza embarks on a mission to kill the Duke and the six other men present in his study on that fateful day.  The story proceeds fairly straightforwardly from there as she maneuvers and puzzles her way to bringing her vengeance down on these men.  Easier said than done.

On the surface, the whole business sounds rather off-putting.  Thankfully, a good deal of fun and intrigue is supplied by a handful of wicked henchmen that Monza employs to help see her plan through.  Among them:  two Poisoners (Morveer and his apprentice Day), a convict obsessed with numbers named Friendly, and three familiar faces from First Law – Vitari (the blade-on-a-chain red-head Practical), the hardy Northman named Shivers, and the flamboyant spirits-loving Nicomo Cosca, Monza’s former Captain and mentor.  They all distrust one another and at any moment could come to blows yet somehow they manage to work together… for a while.  As in First Law, Abercrombie delves into all their heads and does an amazing job of developing each of their psyches.  Cosca provided a great deal of comic relief while Shivers provided a great deal of pathos.

At first, I was sympathetic to Monza’s quest for vengeance, but some of the men she killed I felt didn’t rightly deserve their fate.  In addition, as more of Monza’s past came to light and new conflicts and underhanded gambits played out, I began to squirm and climb up the wall in disgust.

Monza’s cold resolve wavers a little as the death toll rises beyond her control and the lines blur between friend and foe.  But she can’t settle on leaving her quest unfinished, no matter who or what stands in her way.  I found it difficult to stay connected with Monza’s motivation as the deaths were counted off.  She didn’t seem to be fueled by anger or passion so much as simply a matter of principal.

Shivers emerged as my favorite character.  He was easy to identify with, despite his flaws.  At the least, he was more sympathetic than Monza.  I understand that he reappears in Abercrombie’s next book – The Heroes.

There were some enjoyable plot twists toward the end of the book.  However, one was a little cheesy.  An overpowered being conveniently drops into a climactic scene and alters the outcome of a fight.  I believe this was done to show the influence of bigger outside forces at play within Abercrombie’s world, but I felt cheated out of a great climax.  The ending wasn’t bad really, it’s just that I was expecting a different twist.

Abercrombie revealed that strong influences for Best Served Cold came from the Lee Marvin film Point Blank (which was later remade into Mel Gibson’s Payback) and the colorful history of the Condottieri from Renaissance Italy.  It’s also not hard to see parallels to Tarantino’s Kill Bill or the more recent revenge flick Faster with tough guy Dwayne Johnson.

Overall, Best Served Cold was a rousing good read loaded with visceral action and sprinkled with dark humor.

8/10