Today in Fantasy: October 20, 2009

FBNR Stuff:

I'm afraid I have to say that my big review index will not be updated going forward. I know I have kicked this around a bit, but recent events have made me change my mind. Updating the index is a VERY manual process. Keeping it up to date with new entries takes time, and updating older entries takes extra time I just don't have. For example, since the index started, Fantasy Book Spot has changed domains twice: to Bookspot Central, and now BSCReview. edifanob sent me the updated links, but i never got around to updating them, so the old FBS links are broken. Also, several blogs i initially followed are no longer active, making those links potential issues. And with Tia and John changing their sites in he last week, it just ends up being too costly in terms of time to keep the old links updated (and valid). So, I'm not blaming John or Tia for this, its just a symptom of how quickly blogs change, and its too time consuming to keep up with all of them. While I have the time (and desire) to add new reviews, continuously needing to modify old ones is beyond me. My new template does have a Search function, so all the links I add in my Today in Fantasy posts are searchable..meaning you can still search the site for book reviews. I will keep the index on the blog for at least the rest of the year.

Reviews:

Right off the bat, the thing we love most about these books is the description. Jones description is something to be marveled and enjoyed. We have never read a book where the setting is so realized and tangible. The book takes place in an extremely cold region and there were times that we literally shivered ("I was in the pool!" Please tell us you know this reference...) reading it because J.V. Jones wrote the scene so well we could picture ourselves there. This is a sign of a fantastic writer.

link: Elitist Book Reviews: A Cavern of Black Ice by J.V. Jones

I loved the world with its brightly colored monster animals, the story itself, the way the story unfolded and all the different plots tied together (some were predictable but there were a few I didn't see coming), and the various characters.

link: Fantasy Cafe: Review of Fire by Kristin Cashore

Overall, Robert V.S. Redick’s “The Rats and the Ruling Sea” possesses all of the same outstanding qualities that impressed me in “The Red Wolf Conspiracy”, while fixing most of the problems that plagued the first volume of The Chathrand Voyage Trilogy. In particular, the book manages to maintain a high level of excellence from the very beginning all the way to the engrossing finish. The end result is a vast improvement over its predecessor and easily one of the best fantasy novels of the year...

link: Fantasy Book Critic: “The Rats and the Ruling Sea” by Robert V.S. Redick (Reviewed by Robert Thompson) (Interesting. Robert had the same problems that I did with the last 100 pages of Red Wolf, so the fact that he likes this one better gives me hope. Though I thought Liviu might have been less impressed with Rats. Still on the fence about whether to import this early from Book Depository)

Jamie and Claire aren’t going to fade into the background just yet, however; they’re both still healthy and spry and getting into all sorts of trouble, and still going at it like randy teenagers whenever the opportunity presents itself (I will admit to mentally editing them back down to their Outlander-era ages whenever they were Doin’ It. Plus, there was a rather lengthy discussion on the frequency of red vs. gray hairs above vs. below Jamie’s neck that I just really, really didn’t need. Aaanyways.)

link: Diana Gabaldon – An Echo in the Bone « Fyrefly’s Book Blog (How could I not quote that part of the review?)

But what makes Wurts story unusual is not her plot, characters, or setting. It is the novel’s construction that makes this story unique. Though there are 18 sections within the story, there are actually many more chapters within the section. This may not seem so unusual, but Wurts does not follow the standard format of three sections, chapters, and then sections within chapters so common among novels. By having so many sections, each with several chapters within it, Wurts creates a different reading experience. Additionally, each section is led by three short paragraphs that keep different subplots moving.

link: Book Review: The Curse of the Mistwraith by Janny Wurts | Grasping for the Wind

Small Gods is where Pratchett got it right. The entire book, from its first page to its last, is a lengthy, sustained and inordinately clever examination of religion, fundamentalism and blind faith and their conflict with reason, argument and science. And you barely notice, because the story itself is extremely taut, well-told and brilliantly characterised with Pratchett's occasional bursts of silliness kept to a minimum in favour of flashes of wry and at times angry humour. Small Gods is a book that Richard Dawkins would kill to have written, and done so in such a manner that even the most God-bothering evangelical would have still been riveted to it.

link: The Wertzone: Wertzone Classics: Small Gods by Terry Pratchett

There's really only one negative thing I can say about these books, and it's more of a warning than an actual knock against them. If you're not a fan of a very heavy narrative voice, these are probably not up your alley. They're in first person, written as though Alcatraz were chronicling his story, and he isn't afraid to step in and chat about random things in the middle of his story. It's all done well, and very effectively from a comedy standpoint, but it's very over the top.

link: The Intelli-Gent Reviews:: Alcatraz versus the Knights of Crystallia by Brandon Sanderson

Oh, this one was really, really good. It’s the same fun mixture of romance and fantasy and mystery and chick-lit as the rest of the series, but it comes together much more smoothly here. I liked that Harris continues to expand the borders of her supernatural world; we get our first glimpse of witches and fairies, as well as more information on how weres and shifters work

link: Charlaine Harris – Dead to the World « Fyrefly’s Book Blog

There is also a slight lack of believability to some of the magic acts accomplished in the book … at times it can seem like whenever the characters are in true danger, they can call upon the gods or their own (sometimes hidden) personal resources for a universal panacea.

link: The Wandering Fire by Guy Gavriel Kay: Keeping the Door Review