(Fanboy) Review: Lamentation by Ken Scholes

If you follow fantasy review blogs or fantasy forums, you have probably heard the buzz about this book. It seems I began to hear rumblings about this book back in December, and it piqued my curiosity. Then I read that there were robots in the story, and it was almost enough to push this book off my list (at least until the mmpb was published). Boy am I glad I gave this book a shot. It was awesome!

The book opens with the destruction of the largest city (and home of the main religion) getting absolutely destroyed. The first chapter is basically a description of how the main viewpoint characters witness the fall of the city. I thought this was amazingly well done, and rather powerful. After reading chapter 1, I knew I couldn't stop reading until the book was finished. And when it was finished, I was sad that I will have to wait for the next one. I wanted nothing more than to jump IMMEDIATELY into book 2 (the good news is that it is due out in the fall, I believe).

The story is told from the POV of 5 main characters. Each POV character gets their own heading within a chapter, and each chapter contains at least 3 of the POV charactes. At times, the POV sections can be short, and other times they are a bit longer. But on average, I would guess that we switch POV every 3-6 pages. I loved these quick hits. While it sounds like the book would jump around quite a bit, it is so well done that it just works. It kept the story moving quickly, though honestly there wasn't a slow moment in the story anyway.

While there is a threat of war to raise tension throughout most of the book, that really isn't the main focus of the story. It is really about the characters, and the interactions among them. There are literally layers and layers of political manueverings, personal manipulations, religious plots, and just about everything else that comes about from simple human to human contact. There were just so many plots among the different characters that to give any away would spoil your reading. Suffice it to say, throughout the book, new revelations are made, but each revelation only raises more questions. Every time I thought I had something figured out, there was just enough of a twist to keep me guessing about the further implications of what was just revealed.

I haven't discussed the plot in detail, but you can get that from other reviews. I am mostly trying to convey the idea that this story revolves around 3 things: characters, politics, and religion. If you are into stories that do those things well, you MUST give this book a shot. To me, it is pretty astounding to think that this is the author's first book. It feels more mature and well realized than many authors who have been writing for years.

To wrap up, all I can say is that the positive buzz you have heard for this book is true. I know it is only February, but I think this will go down as my best debut of 2009. In fact, I would be willing to bet this book makes my top 5 of 2009. I hope to read 30-40 more books this year, but I am going to be hard pressed to find another book more enjoyable than this one. I can't tell you how many times I stopped reading for a minute to just admire what the author was doing. I know at this point I sound like a fanboy, but honestly, this book deserves it. For me, and what I look for when I read, this was just about perfect. Awesome stuff, and I can't wait for book 2.

So..forgive this review that was a bit light on content this time. But I was just so giddy while reading this one, that I can't seem to step back from it to really critique it (basically I enjoyed the book so much I can't objectively review it. Not a valid way to write a review, but here you are). My review was going to be a simple "This book is excellent. Quit wasting time reading this post and buy it already". But, I wasn't sure a review that short would go over well, so I decided to elaborate a bit more. (and full disclosure, this was not an arc..i bought this copy in Borders the day of release).