It seems every year a debut fantasy novels electrifies the speculative fiction community. Scott Lynch opened a planned seven volume series (The Gentleman Bastard Sequence) with The Lies of Locke Lamora, which arrived in a perfect storm of buzz, excitement, and positive reviews. So did Scott Lynch’s debut live up to the hype, and with the benefit of hindsight, does it compare favorably to other impressive fantasy debuts? I would say yes and no; unlike many reviewers, my reaction to The Lies of Locke Lamora was decidedly mixed. [...]
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Jeff Vandermeer’s City of Saints and Madmen is a sometimes bewildering collection of works related to the fictional city of Ambergris. Almost immediately, it becomes apparent that this is not your typical fantasy; instead, Vandermeer’s literature is a bizarre amalgamation of fantasy, horror, and postmodern literary techniques. [...] Guy Gavriel Kay, a Canadian author with a dozen published manuscripts under his belt, has established himself as an author of “historical fiction,” or at least that’s the description often given to his novels. Tigana, set in a fictionalized version of medieval Italy, continues this [...] Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy thunders to a conclusion with the lengthy (the trade paperback edition I purchased was almost 800 pages) Mistborn: The Hero of Ages. Even from the opening paragraphs of the first novel, Sanderson established that the Mistborn series was going to be a work of fantasy to remember: the first two installments in the trilogy were well written, entertaining, and surprisingly thought-provoking (see my earlier reviews of The Final Empire and The Well of [...] Brandon Sanderson’s sequel to Mistborn: The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension has big shoes to fill. The first novel in the Mistborn trilogy was a fun, exciting, and meticulously written fantasy tale that documented a thieving crew’s attempt to overthrow their tyrannical government, led by the near-omnipotent Lord Ruler. Without spoiling too much of the story from the first novel, their plan was more successful than they could have anticipated, leaving the surprised crew-members as the leaders of an uncertain kingdom… [...] Mistborn: The Final Empire is the first novel of Brandon Sanderson’s freshly completed Mistborn trilogy. Sanderson is probably most famous, at the moment, for being the author chosen to finish Robert Jordan’s mammoth Wheel of Time series, but he has been extremely busy over the last few [...] In The Child Thief: A Novel, Brom, perhaps best known for his work as an artist for role-playing games and collectible card games (Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering), retells the story of Peter Pan with a dark and modern twist. Recycling a classic fairy tale with an updated perspective is certainly nothing [...] Joe Abercrombie has returned with his latest work, a stand-alone novel (something almost rare in the world of fantasy) loosely set in the world he established in The First Law trilogy. Obviously, Best Served Cold is returning to a favorite theme of Abercrombie’s: [...] Joe Abercrombie’s refreshing and exciting The First Law trilogy is finally drawing to a close, and it leads off with Paul Gauguin’s: “Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge.” Last Argument of Kings may be about many things, but revenge is an anchoring [...] “We should forgive our enemies, but not before they are hanged.” Heinrich Heine’s choice words on revenge and war are the first to greet the reader when beginning the journey into Joe Abercrombie’s excellent second book in the First Law trilogy, Before They Are [...] |
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