Tag: Fantasy Page 14 of 43

DETAILS:
Publisher: Solaris (US), Rebellion Publishing (UK)
Publication Date: June 7, 2022 (US), June 9, 2022 (UK)
Format: eARC
Length: 400 pg.
Read Date: April 28- May 2, 2022

What’s The Knave of Secrets About?

Valen Quinol has pretty modest ambitions—he’s not looking to become rich or famous or anything, he’s seeking stability and comfort. He wants to open a casino with his wife, he just needs to get the money to do that. Earlier in his life, he went to wizarding school and left in a pretty noteworthy fashion, when it was clear that his scholarly ambitions were going to be thwarted. So he turned to the only thing he knew he could support himself with—gambling. And sure, in addition to being a pretty savvy gamesman, he became pretty skillful in ways to rig games.

Valen’s wife, a friend who left school with him—Teneriève—and another friend work with him now—traveling around from casino to casino, from tavern to inn, etc. making enough money to support themselves, and maybe put a little away.

After the reader meets the crew, a local ganglord pays Valen and Margo a visit to hire/threaten them into doing a job for him. Valen typically shuns his work, but this one comes with some tantalizing bait—Valen will be given the buy-in for a local tournament and can keep the money he earns. All he has to do is make sure one competitor walks losing everything they came to play with. If he turns this down, well, there’ll be a duel in his future. And Valen’s a cardsharp, not a fighter. It will not go well for him.

Because this isn’t that kind of Fantasy novel, Valen and his talents go with the less violent option. What Valen doesn’t realize—and his sponsor doesn’t either—what the defeat of his target is going to kick off and drag them all into.

Espionage, murder, political intrigue, societal upheaval—and the imminent possibility of a world war. All because of a game of chance.

We get to watch Valen and his crew (partially) realize what they’ve instigated, as well as getting points of view of several of the major players in the fallout.

Teneriève

Teneriève is one of the more interesting characters in the novel—she’s from a group that’s essentially an analogue to the Roma, and faces hostility and discrimination everywhere she goes. Valen’s crew are the only family she’s known since leaving home, but even then, she doesn’t feel secure—not because of anything they do/think, but because of her own issues.

Her story arc doesn’t go the way you think it will initially, and I’m glad it didn’t. Her story definitely doesn’t get wrapped up in a tidy bow. She could probably serve as the central character in a follow-up novel because there’s a lot to her that could be explored. I also really appreciated while the Roma-esque nature of her background informs her actions and attitudes, her story isn’t all about that identity.

Quick tip: As good as the other storylines are, pay special attention to her scenes, they’re better (and frequently more frustrating and rewarding) than the rest.

Something that Just Occurred to Me

Before I hit Publish, I was struck by the thought that this is one of the most PG-13 Fantasy novels I’ve read in a dog’s age that wasn’t targeted at an MG audience. Maybe even PG (but a couple of the deaths probably shove it into the PG-13 world).

I don’t know that this is a plus or a minus in some readers’ minds, but I thought it was noteworthy—who writes like that anymore?

So, what did I think about The Knave of Secrets?

I’ll tell you this upfront: I was not in the right frame of mind for this book when I started it. A novel with a new magic system, an involved history, a complicated (but not convoluted) political situation, and gambling—and people cheating at gambling. So you’ve got to understand the new games pretty well to visualize not just how to play, but how to cheat. Frankly, that’s a lot of work.

Now, that’s not unusual for a Fantasy novel—and I’m not complaining. I’m just saying that when I started this book I didn’t have the mental energy to dive in, and I really wasn’t in the mood for it. So when I say that before the halfway point Livingston had me very engaged and invested in the plot and characters, that’s saying something.

Livingston has done his homework and has created a very rich world here, we get to see some of it, but probably not all of it. Whether or not this is true, he really gives the sense that he knows all of the ins and outs of the history of these nations going back centuries—and (most importantly) has resisted the impulse to dump it all on the reader. Instead, he gives us just what we need to ground the story and character actions. Give me a book that hints at worldbuilding any day over a book that reads like a history textbook (however interesting the history may be).

All the marketing for this mentions The Lies of Locke Lamora, and insofar as the book centers on a specialized form of criminals fleecing the rich, sure, I can get behind it. But this has a very different flavor and feel than Lynch’s novel. Some marketing mentions The Mask of Mirrors—and that feels a bit more on point. Other comparisons involve Casino Royale—beyond the gambling, I don’t know if that’s appropriate or not, I fell asleep each of the four times I started that flick. The political intrigue of this makes it more like The Mask of Mirrors or the less bloody and sexy parts of A Song of Ice and Fire. I don’t point this out (just) to criticize the marketing materials, just to help expectations—don’t go into this novel to meet the next Gentleman Bastards, go into it for a new and distinct kind of Fantasy novel.

Despite not being in the right headspace for The Knave of Secrets and going into it with wrong expectations, I ended up pretty impressed with this novel and would definitely recommend this to a wide audience. It’s a satisfying read that will leave you wanting to know more about this world and most of these characters.

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

My thanks to The Write Reads for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials (including the novel via NetGalley and Rebellion/Solaris) they provided.

BOOK SPOTLIGHT: The Knave of Secrets by Alex Livingston

By HCNewton

On May 4, 2022

In Book Tour, Fantasy, Fiction

I’m very pleased today to welcome The Write Reads Blog Tour for Alex Livingston’s The Knave of Secrets. Later today, and I won’t guess when, I’ll be posting my take on the novel and you should definitely take a look at the feed for https://twitter.com/WriteReadsTours to see what other bloggers have to say about the book. But first, let’s get to know a little bit about it.

Book Details:

Title: The Knave of Secrets by Alex Livingston
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Rebellion Publishing
Release date: June 7, 2022 (US), June 9, 2022 (UK)
Format: Paperback/Ebook/Audiobook
Length: 400 pages

About the Book:

A twisty tale of magicians, con artists and card games, where secrets are traded and gambled like coin, for fans of The Lies of Locke Lamora and The Mask of Mirrors.

Never stake more than you can afford to lose.

When failed magician turned cardsharp Valen Quinol is given the chance to play in the Forbearance Game—the invitation-only tournament where players gamble with secrets—he can’t resist. Or refuse, for that matter, according to the petty gangster sponsoring his seat at the table. Valen beats the man he was sent to play, and wins the most valuable secret ever staked in the history of the tournament.

Now Valen and his motley crew are being hunted by thieves, gangsters, spies and wizards, all with their own reasons for wanting what’s in that envelope. It’s a game of nations where Valen doesn’t know all the rules or who all the players are, and can’t see all the moves. But he does know if the secret falls into the wrong hands, it could plunge the whole world into war…

Book Links:

Amazon ~ Goodreads

About the Author:

Alex Livingston grew up in various quiet New England towns before moving to Buffalo, NY to study English at Canisius College. He writes SFF prose and interactive fiction. Alex is married and lives in an old house with his brilliant wife and a pile of aged videogame systems.

My thanks to The Write Reads for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials they provided.

Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by K.J. Parker: A Curmudgeon to the Rescue?

By HCNewton

On April 29, 2022

In Fantasy, Fiction

Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

by K.J. Parker

DETAILS:
Series: The Siege, #1
Publisher: Orbit
Publication Date: April 8, 2019
Format: Paperback
Length:  350 pg.
Read Date: April 20-25, 2022

According to the books (there’s an extensive literature on the subject) there are fifteen ways to defend a walled city. You can try one of them, and if that doesn’t work—

Indeed. But the books were written for generals, kings, emperors; better luck next time, and we have plenty more cities where that one came from. And, to be fair, each of the fifteen ways is practical and sensible, provided you’ve got an adequate garrison, and sufficient supplies and materiel, and a competent staff of trained officers making up a properly constituted chain of command.

What the books don’t tell you is, there’s a sixteenth way. You can use it when you’ve got nothing; no stuff, no men and nobody to lead them. Apart from that, it’s got nothing to recommend it whatsoever.

Fine, I thought. Let’s give it a go.

What’s Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City About?

Orhan is a colonel in charge of a company of engineers—and a very good one. He knows what it takes to work the system to equip his engineers with what they need (and if it takes forgery of official documents and bribery to get people to do their jobs, so be it). Then in the field, he gets his men to do what they need to do.

As his company returns from some bridge building and repair work, they start to suspect something is afoot (okay, more than that, but I’m trying to keep it vague) and they hustle back to “the City.” Once there, they discover that one mistake after another has been made and upon the engineers’ return, Orhan is the highest-ranking military officer in the City—and therefore, he’s solely responsible for defending the capital of the Robur empire.

Whoops.

Now, Orhan may not be the hero that the City deserves (although he might be), but is he the hero the City needs?

Orhan

This is one of those books where your enjoyment of the book is going to be wholly dependent on your opinion of the narrator/protagonist. If you enjoy his voice and are entertained by the idiomatic way he goes about his work, you’re going to have a good time reading this. If you read a few pages of this book and aren’t taken with him—do yourself a favor and move on.

He has almost no social skills and seems to thrive on offending those in power and authority (when he bothers to care about his social skills, that is). He’s confident-bordering-on-arrogant, misogynistic (although I think it’s more applied misanthropy than anything else), quick thinking, decisive, and too clever for his own good. This will strike some readers as off-putting, and would be in a real person, but it works in this fictional world.

Really, at the end of the day, it’s all about solving problems—give him a problem and he’ll come up with a solution, and everything else isn’t that important. It leaves a few bruised egos and ruffled feathers in his wake—but he gets the job done.

But man, the way he tells a story and his attitude throughout really works for me—I read those first few pages and knew we were going to be friends.

A Series?

I don’t see how this functions as the beginning of a trilogy without hurting the last couple of pages—I don’t know if this was intended to be the start of a series, or if that came later. If it was supposed to spawn a sequel all along, I misread the last chapter or two.

I really don’t think Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City needs more books to tell this story, but what do I know? Parker (and his alter-ego) have written so many books that they clearly understand story, so I assume that I’m wrong on this point—and he’s very likely doing something I don’t expect.

While I want to see how wrong I am, the fact that this works so well as a stand-alone makes me disinclined to jump on the sequel. I don’t need more in this story, as fun as it probably is.

So, what did I think about Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City?

“We’ve been ingenious, resourceful and inventive, and we haven’t let ourselves be hindered by outmoded or irrelevant ways of thinking. It’s a shame, really, because nobody will ever know how clever we were.”

The fact that the narrator lives long enough to leave a record suggests that his second-in-command is wrong in his evaluation of their chances—at least some will survive (and Orhan mentions that a few times). But still, you know that a besieged city doesn’t have a lot going for it, and reading about the siege should be grim going. And it is at times, but that doesn’t stop this from being a fun fantasy read—almost all of that is due to the narrative voice, this isn’t a comedy by any means. But it is frequently funny.

This really struck me as similar to what Sand dan Glokta went through in defending the city of Dagoska. However many his faults, Orhan is no Glotka—he’s not as vicious, he really doesn’t torture anyone, and he’s not as limited by his own injuries. But there is something about the two characters that are similar. Orhan also reminds me of R. Wilson Rogers from Zieja’s Epic Failure series—an engineer who knows how to get things done in the Armed Forces (by manipulating the system) who is thrust into a leadership role at a critical time. Orhan really is the overlapping area in the Venn diagram of Glotka and Rogers, the more I think of it.

Several of the characters could be drawn better—but they really don’t need to be, we get enough depth to understand them, but not much more. It fits with Orhan’s character—he sees most of them as tools to use in solving his problems. You don’t spend a lot of time thinking about your hammer’s backstory. He does understand, and helps the readers to understand, the more important figures in the story. In most books, I’d criticize the lack of depth, but in this one, it actually fits.

There are a few battle scenes, but not to the extent you would get in similar books—Orhan and his men aren’t fighters by trade, they’re builders. So even the fight scenes are different than what you’re used to. I’m all for variety—especially variety that fits with the story.

There’s a whole lot going for this book, and little to complain about—for a fun, fairly quick, fantasy read, give Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City a shot.

3.5 Stars
This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

Opening Lines: Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by K.J. Parker

By HCNewton

On April 22, 2022

In Fantasy, Fiction, News/Misc., Opening Lines, Quotations

We all know we’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover (yet, publishing companies spend big bucks on cover design/art). But, the opening sentence(s)/paragraph(s) are fair game. So, when I stumble on a good opening (or remember one and pull it off the shelves), I like to throw it up here. This one grabbed me with the voice, the perspective, and the attitude. If Parker can maintain this, I’m in for a great time.

from Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by K.J. Parker:

I was in Classis on business. I needed sixty miles of second-grade four-inch hemp rope—I build pontoon bridges—and all the military rope in the empire goes through Classis. What you’re supposed to do is put in a requisition to Divisional Supply, who send it on to Central Supply, who send it on to the Treasurer General, who approves it and sends it back to Divisional Supply, who send it on to Central Supply, who forward it to Classis, where the quartermaster says, sorry, we have no rope. Or you can hire a clever forger in Herennis to cut you an exact copy of the treasury seal, which you use to stamp your requisition, which you then take personally to the office of the deputy quartermaster in Classis, where there’s a senior clerk who’d have done time in the slate quarries if you hadn’t pulled certain documents out of the file a few years back. Of course, you burned the documents as soon as you took them, but he doesn’t know that. And that’s how you get sixty miles of rope in this man’s army.

Opening Lines Logo

Constance Verity Destroys the Universe by A. Lee Martinez: Saying Good-Bye to this Hero

By HCNewton

On April 13, 2022

In A. Lee Martinez, Constance Verity, Fantasy, Science Fiction

Constance Verity Destroys the Universe

by A. Lee Martinez

DETAILS:
Series: Constance Verity, #3
Publisher: Gallery / Saga Press
Publication Date: March 7, 2022
Format: Hardcover
Length: 290 pg    
Read Date: April 6-8, 2022

She pushed a chair into a corner of the room not visible from the street and sat. There was a feel to her life. Danger didn’t usually feel this dangerous. Danger was just background noise. But this was a lot of people trying to kill her. More than normal.

What’s Constance Verity Destroys the Universe About?

This book starts off with Constance Verity doing something almost unbelievable for her—normal things. She attends a dinner party to celebrate her best friend’s/sidekick’s upcoming wedding, she spends a day hanging out with her fiancé at a park and museum—sure, there’s a duel with an alien in there, as well as dealing with an international crisis, etc. But for Connie, that’s pretty sedate.

Then things stop happening—no death rays, mad scientists, pan-dimensional threats—not even a kitten stuck in a tree. It’s unnerving to all who know her well. On the plus side, Tia and Hiro’s wedding should go off without an interruption, right? And it does—the reception, however…

When things start happening again, there’s a distressing trend—people from all over the universe and time show up because they’ve been told that Constance Verity is going to destroy the universe, and they’re going to stop her. The assassins are plentiful enough that Connie’s getting nervous—so she does what she can to keep her loved ones safe and then sets out to see why people are saying she’s going to destroy the universe. All she’s ever done is save it, why would she change?

A Plethora of Ideas

Connie had a problem with Nebraska. And that problem was that it was too close to Kansas.

Kansas, where dark gods waited to rise from their forgotten tombs and bring about the extinction of mankind.

Kansas, where all time travel led to a black void where a pale, wizened figure would greet you, playing a banjo and singing endless choruses of “Achy Breaky Heart.”

Kansas, where Connie had come the closest to death on more than one occasion.

Kansas, her kryptonite.

In a sentence or two—or five brief paragraphs in the above quotation—Martinez is able to tell a whole story—or at least hint at one. Most of these little stories could be fodder for a novella or a novel, but in this trilogy, they’re given anywhere from a sentence fragment to a page. And then he moves on to something else so the plot can be advanced.

Every A. Lee Martinez novel has a surfeit of ideas that come flying at you, that’s nothing new. But I think in these Constance Verity novels that he’s outdone himself. Martinez treats these all as throw-away remarks, with no real investment of time on the reader’s part. But it has to be the kind of thing that would drive your average novelist to exhaustion just trying to come up with them all.

You get just a taste of a fantastic adventure or death-defying feat that Connie’s pulled off (frequently with Tia at her side) in these. You add enough of these together and you really start to see all the things that Constance has done and you understand how much is riding on her successes and how she’s become a legendary figure throughout the universe.

Sorry, Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus*

It probably says something about the way my brain works that my favorite writing on Free Will vs. Determinism comes from Science Fiction—particularly those prone to a comedic tone. Okay, it says a lot about me, but that’s for another time.

Constance Verity Destroys the Universe plays with those ideas a lot—even knowing (after being told repeatedly from reliable sources) that she’s going to destroy the Universe, Connie refuses to believe it and flat out says she won’t. This idea is treated with derision by some (rightly) and supported and echoed by others (also, rightly). The mostly retired demigoddess of destiny that has moved into Connie’s apartment building cannot muster up the desire to weigh in on this, and of anyone, you’d think she’d have a lot to say about it.

I’m not saying that I think Martinez has penned a well-developed treatise on the idea in the middle of this SF/Fantasy Action novel—I’m just saying he has a lot of fun playing with the idea and that anyone who enjoys that sort of thing will find the Free Will vs. Determinism discussion a tasty side dish to accompany the SF/Fantasy entree.

* Okay, not really sorry.

So, what did I think about Constance Verity Destroys the Universe?

“I don’t have a lot of other leads, and if there’s one thing I know, it’s that when in doubt, point myself toward the nearest adventure and let it work itself out.”

I hate that this volume is the end of the road for this trilogy—but I’m not sure what else he could accomplish in this world. When the series started, Connie was an adventurer/savior-of-the-universe wanting a normal life and being unable to; and we wrap up things up with her finding her own brand of normal, which she’ll be able to enjoy if she survives the assassination attempts and doesn’t destroy the universe. That’s a pretty decent arc.

I think I like the arc that her side-kick/best friend Tia goes on a smidge better, but that might be because Tia’s a bit more relatable to those of us not burdened with cosmic destiny. Either way, it’s a good run.

The ending of this is perfect on several levels—exactly how a novel (or a series) like this should end.

Could you read this apart from the other two novels? Yeah, I suppose. But I don’t think it’d be a great stand-alone, but you could get away with it. Why you’d want to, I don’t know—the first two books in the series are a blast.

On Twitter and his blog, Martinez will insist that he doesn’t write humor or comedy, that he’s not that satirical. I’m not so sure, but let’s take him at his word. His SF/Fantasy adventures (this one and all his others) are so funny that you can see why people would make that mistake. But when you ignore the humor, you get a very satisfying SF/Fantasy story that takes tropes and themes you’re very familiar with and presents them to you in a way that makes you see them with fresh eyes and frequently makes you re-evaluate the trope/theme to come at it with a new appreciation. If you happen to chuckle along the way, consider that a bonus.

Obviously, I recommend Constance Verity Destroys the Universe to you—and everything else Martinez has penned. Thank me later (if you remember to).

4 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

REPOSTING JUST ‘CUZ: Constance Verity Saves the World by A. Lee Martinez: Connie Verity is trying to have it all — a personal life while saving the world on a regular basis

By HCNewton

On April 12, 2022

In A. Lee Martinez, Constance Verity, Fiction, Science Fiction

Like I said earlier, I’m not having any success with my post about the third book in this series. So I’m reposting what I said about the previous two books to 1: To Have something to post today, and B. To hopefully use this as a way to get my brain in gear.

Constance Verity Saves the World

by A. Lee Martinez
Series: Constance Verity, #2

Trade Paperback, 385 pg.
Saga Press , 2018<br/
Read: August 18 – 20, 2018

“It’s a problem I have. When you’re ten years old and dangling from a cliff while rabid hyenas circle below, you learn to be stubborn. You can’t quit, because quitting isn’t an option. You dig your fingernails and pray that root doesn’t come loose. And if it does, you plan how best to fend off hyenas when all you have is a Pez dispenser and a priceless diamond in your pocket. I fight. It’s what I do. It’s how I survive. When people turn and run, I go forward. It’s kept me alive so far, but it’s skewed how I look at things.

“Somebody tells me I can’t do something, I want to do it more. Want isn’t a strong enough word. I need to do it. Give me that big red button labeled DO NOT PUSH in bright neon letters, and I’ll push it every time.”

Having fought for the ability to have a normal life in The Last Adventure of Constance Verity Connie’s out to try to have one. Which is harder than saving the world a few times a week. She’s still saving the world regularly, as well as having all sorts of adventures. She’s trying to settle down with her boyfriend Byron the accountant, while relying on her best friend/sidekick Tia some more (all the while, Tia is trying to strengthen her relationship with her ninja-thief boyfriend, Hiro). There are evil geniuses, aliens, robots, and vampires living in her condo — all of them behaving themselves, thank you very much.

One of the activities that takes most of Connie’s time right now is trying to help out an old friend cleanup the supercriminal organization that he’s in charge of now that his mother has apparently died. There’s a lot of rogue agents, assassins and experiments that need cleaning up if the organization is going to be come a legitimate force for good — or at least not a force for evil and chaos in the world. Connie’s tempted to spend more time doing that than she should, to the detriment of her relationship with Byron. Thankfully, Tia’s there to help keep her priorities in order. Hopefully, that’ll be enough.

You ever find yourself eating something — say, some cake — and you’re not sure if it’s too rich, if the frosting is too sweet? And then you realize how stupid you sound? Wondering if the cake is too good? Well, that’s the experience I had with this (and, I’m pretty sure with the previous Constance Verity book) — where there too many quips? Too many (seemingly) random ideas, aliens, evil masterminds, robots, henchmen of a variety of stripes, strange occurrences? What a stupid thing to ask. Yeah, there’s a lot going on, but it actually doesn’t get to the overload status. It may come close, but it stays on the right side. It’s like asking if there are too many animated personages in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, if there are too many Easter Eggs in whatever your Super-Hero movie of choice is. No, there’s not — there’s a lot of good things that are fun. Shut up and enjoy.

Really, that’s the worst thing I can say about the book — occasionally, there are too many fun things happening. The pacing is great, the characters are rich, lively, and well-developed (including many of those only around for a page or so), you’ll laugh, you’ll be moved, you might even have a thought provoked. It’s just a charming book set in a delightful world.

Do not make the mistake of thinking this is a romp, just a free-wheeling ball of fun, snark and self-referential humor. It’s an A. Lee Martinez book, so yeah, there’s a lot of that — but laying underneath that is a good story, some interesting ideas about relationships, about trust, about fate. A whole lot of other things, too, I’m sure, but let’s stick with those. Too many people will read this, focus on the “fun” stuff and will miss the very thoughtful portions — it’s Martinez’ strength and weakness that it’s so easy to do with his works. There’s nothing wrong with a silly adventure story, and there’s nothing wrong with a book that’s about something. But when you have a novel that’s both — you should pay attention to both.

I knew Martinez could write a series if he wanted to — I had no idea what it was going to look like when he did. I’m glad I got the chance to find out. Constance Verity Saves the World is equal to its predecessor in every way that it doesn’t outdo The Last Adventure of Constance Verity — which is no mean feat. It’s fun, the characters are better defined and have grown some, and there’s never a dull moment. Constance Verity, the caretaker of the universe, the Legendary Snurkab, possibly the only woman with more titles than Daenerys Targaryen, is a character you need to get to know. Her sidekick Tia is, too. I cannot wait to see what the two of them do next.

—–

4 Stars

REPOSTING JUST ‘CUZ: The Last Adventure of Constance Verity by A. Lee Martinez

By HCNewton

On April 12, 2022

In A. Lee Martinez, Constance Verity, Fiction, Science Fiction

I’ve spent a couple of hours trying to say something about the third book in this trilogy, but haven’t come up with more than “this is good.” So I’m going to repost this (and then what I said about Book 2 later on) while I go back to the drawing board.

The Last Adventure of Constance Verity

by A. Lee Martinez
Series: Constance Verity, #1

Hardcover, 384 pg.
Saga Press, 2016

Read: September 8 -12, 2016

“I didn’t think you believed in jinxes,” said Tia.

Connie didn’t.

But she wasn’t so sure that jinxes didn’t believe in her, and they’d had a long, long time to build a grudge.

I go in to a Martinez book assuming I’ll like it, this one took less time than usual for me to know I liked it. Lines like that are just part of why.

Thanks to a gift from a fairy godmother, since she was 7, Constance Verity has been saving the world as she goes on unbelievable adventure after unbelievable adventure — she travels the galaxy, time, alternate realities and all over (and under) the Earth. She’s run into demons, aliens, wizards, killer robots, mad scientists and many more threats — and overcome them all. A couple of decades later, she’s starting to think that she’s missing out on something despite all the excitement. She’s missing out on being ordinary.

Haven’t you saved the world on multiple occasions?”

“That’s what people tell me, but I’m beginning to think that the world isn’t as fragile as all that. The universe got along just fine for billions of years without me. I don’t think it needs me to save it. I think it all works out about the same in the end. Sometimes, I like to think of myself with a dead-end job that I dislike, a husband who is letting himself go, and some ungrateful kids I take to soccer practice. It sounds dreary, but at least it would be my life.”

Connie doesn’t stop to consider if she’s really cut out for ordinary, but if anyone can rise to the challenge of normality, it’s Constance Verity.

So she and her ~~sidekick~~ best-friend, Tia, head out to get that normal life for her. Step 1: Kill her fairly godmother.

I really don’t know what to say about the book beyond this without getting into more details than I ought. I guess I could say a few things about character. Connie is a great character, for someone who’s lived a superhuman life, she’s really human. Tia is incredible — wise, funny, caring, a real good friend. The relationship between the two is almost perfect.

This is a typical Martinez — a strange combination of loony and thoughtful. You can laugh and then be struck by a profound thought within a couple of pages. This is a fun adventure (a handful, really), and a bit of a commentary on heroes, villains, tropes and themes in SF stories (particularly the pulp-ier variety).

This is the first installment in a series — which is something Martinez hasn’t done before — I have no clue how he’ll pull this off, the book ends like I’d expect a Martinez stand-alone to end, so I have no idea how he’s going to follow this up. But I cannot wait to see.

—–

4 Stars

The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True by Sean Gibson: A Hilarious Fantasy Filled with Adventure and Shenanigans. Definitely Shenanigans.

By HCNewton

On March 14, 2022

In Fantasy, Fiction, Humor

The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True

by Sean Gibson

DETAILS:
Publisher: The Parliament House
Publication Date: December 10, 2020
Format: Kindle Edition
Length: 358 pg.
Read Date: March 10-12, 2022

I am, if not the most well-known bard in Erithea (yet), arguably the most talented, and unarguably the cleverest. I also wouldn’t quibble if you suggested that I’m the most beautiful, but that’s just because I’m very agreeable (and beautiful)…

Decades ago, I was sworn to secrecy regarding the true story of the great and terrible “Dragonia,” but recent developments have released me from that promise, and so I can finally tell the tale.

What’s The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True About?

This is that true story about Dragonia, told alongside the “official” account so the reader can see how the details were adjusted and tweaked to create the story everyone knows.

The town (or village, depending on who you ask) of Skendrick is being terrorized by a dragon—crops are being ruined, trade is disrupted, and the town is about to fall apart. Desperate, they put out a call for adventurers to come and kill the dragon. But they get no takers—so they go to Plan B. The villagers (or townspeople) pool their meager resources to hire a bard. This bard is to compose a song to make the attempt to kill the dragon sound appealing enough—and its treasure (which may or may not actually exist) enticing enough—to get a band of adventurers to come.

This is where Heloise comes in. She takes the gig and soon gets a new and yet unaccomplished band of adventurers to take up the call to action. I don’t want to get into describing the group, you want to meet them in the book.

They encounter difficulties from without and within; nasty, malodorous geography; orcs and other creatures; and, well, the dragon.

Heloise the Bard

“You’re not half as funny as you think you are, as I suspect you have a very high opinion of yourself.”

“My opinion of myself is in direct proportion to my amazingness,” I said sweetly.

The half-elf, Heloise the Bard is our narrator—as you can tell from the quotations above, she has a fairly high opinion of herself and her abilities. She’s also rather impressed with her hair and certain other physical attributes. Probably her greatest skill is self-promotion.

She decides to accompany the adventurers, to chronicle their journey and the outcome of their clash with the dragon. Her wit and quick thinking prove valuable to their effort and her particular set of skills make all the difference.

She is a hoot. It’d be easy for Heloise to be an annoying, over-the-top character, but somehow Gibson keeps her as an entertaining, over-the-top character. I’ve been trying to come up with a character to compare her to, and I’m failing. Maybe she’s the Fantasy version of Evanovich’s Lula, except Heloise has the skills that Lula thinks she has. Maybe she’s the equivalent of High Fidelity‘s Barry. Somewhere in the Venn Diagram featuring Fantasy, Lula, and Barry, I guess.

She appears in a couple of other books by Gibson, and I’m eager to spend some more time with her.

The Humor

The section could easily be merged with the previous one because the humor displayed in the book is primarily Heloise’s. The jokes are pretty much non-stop—even in the middle of fight scenes, or when death is nigh. The danger is still present, and the combat (and so on) is as deadly as it would be in another book—it’s just surrounded by laughs.

It didn’t take me long before I’d highlighted too many lines to quote—not that it stopped me from going on. My notes on this one are ridiculous. I kept chuckling throughout the reading. I probably would’ve finished the book in 2/3 the time, if reacting to the jokes didn’t make me stop reading for a moment.

If you’ve read The Tales of Pell, you’ve got a good idea for the pace of the jokes—and tone of the book, too.

There’s slapstick, there’s scatological humor, a great Meatloaf (the singer) line, some fantastic bursts of alliteration for the sake of a laugh, some general silliness, clever dialogue, and…honestly, I’m having a hard time thinking of a kind of humor that’s not in there. There’s a running gag (that I’ve alluded to) throughout about whether Skendrick is a town or a village—I can’t tell you how often it’s brought up. And the joke works every time—I should’ve gotten sick of it, and I never did. I don’t know how Gibson pulled that off, but that alone is the mark of a fantastic humor writer.

In addition to The Tales of Pell, if you’ve enjoyed Christopher Healy, Dave Barry, K.R.R. Lockhaven, Peter David, Scott Meyer, Joe Zieja, Jim C. Hines’ Jig the Goblin series, or John Scalzi—you’re going to dig the humor here. And if you dig the humor, you’re going to really enjoy the book. It’s that simple.

So, what did I think about The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True?

You know by this point that one of my main goals in telling this story is to show that the adventuring life isn’t all it’s thought to be. It’s mostly boring, frustrating, dangerous (though not excitingly dangerous), smelly (dear gods, so smelly), and not particularly lucrative. Occasionally, however, it’s exactly how the songs make it sound, and in those moments, it’s easy to see why people—even smart, capable people like Nadi—would devote their lives to doing something so irrational. Let the record show that entering a dragon’s lair for the first time is one of those moments, and it’s fair to say that each member of our intrepid band experienced more than a frisson of excitement as we crept across that threshold.

I think it’s pretty clear that I had a blast with this book, but I should probably make that explicit. I had a blast reading this book.

I think I should not that this is not a book to read if you’re in a “find out what happened and get to the end of the story” frame of mind. This is a “enjoy the trip, not the destination”/”stop and smell the roses” kind of book. The destination/what happens is fully satisfying, but the getting-there is so much better.

In addition to the jokes and the dragon, there is a running commentary on what “the adventuring life” is like outside of the glamorous or exciting bits. A lot of fantasy novels will show bits of it, but not enough of them do—and most don’t do it this way. For example, The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True contains more description of various odors than every 99% of the fantasy novels I’ve read by a significant factor. If this were a scratch and sniff book…well, I can’t imagine anyone would stock it—you just don’t want that in your warehouse/store. Sure, it’s silly talking about realism in a book featuring orcs, halflings, elves, etc.—but this factor does ground the book and give it a seriousness (for lack of a better term) that makes this more than a collection of jokes.

This is the funniest book I’ve read in 2022, and I can’t imagine it’ll face much competition. It’s got it all, go get your hands on it.

4 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

The Friday 56 for 3/11/22: The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True by Sean Gibson

By HCNewton

On March 11, 2022

In Currently Reading, Fantasy, News/Misc., Quotations, The Friday 56

This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
Find a snippet, short and sweet.
Post it

from Page 56 of:
The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True

The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True by Sean Gibson

If this were a performance and I were describing Borden, I’d probably call it tranquil and idyllic, but those are really just polite ways of saying boring and filled with lazy people, and since I don’t need to be polite here, I’ll say this: Borden is a boring place full of lazy, and frequently chauvinistic, people….

Suffice it to say, Borden’s not exactly a star-making destination for bards on the rise, but it does consistently offer gigs with solid pay, so if I’m in the region, I make it a point to stop over for a night or two. Around the time the people of Skendrick were so desperately seeking assistance with their little dragon problem, I was in the middle of a two-night stint at Big Bob’s, the nicest tavern in Borden, which is a little bit like saying it’s the least drunk sailor in a dockside bar. Still, the disappointingly regular-sized Robert, the proprietor and namesake of the establishment, didn’t ogle me, paid performers well, and at least had a decent selection of ales, so it was my preferred stop when I was in Borden.

Dead Man in a Ditch (Audiobook) by Luke Arnold: A Murdered Elf, An Old Friend, and a Hint of Magic

By HCNewton

On February 21, 2022

In Audiobook, Fantasy, Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

Dead Man in a Ditch

by Luke Arnold

DETAILS:
Series: The Fetch Phillips Archives, #2
Publisher: Orbit
Publication Date: October 9, 2020
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length:  11 hrs., 51 min.
Read Date: February 11-15, 2022

What’s Dead Man in a Ditch About?

Fetch, Man for Hire, has two clients/cases this time out.

First, the police want his help—they have a corpse that appears to have been killed by magic. They’re not broadcasting this idea, but that’s the best theory they have. They figure this is more up Fetch’s alley than theirs, they can’t officially hire him, but they’ll make sure that there’s a solid reward ready for him if he can bring them answers.

The other case involves an older elf—her husband is missing, and is probably dead. She wants Fetch to figure out who killed him—even better, if Fetch can tell her why there are debt collectors from the wrong side of the tracks sniffing around…

There’s not a lot of overlap in these cases, beyond the suggestion that there’s still a little magic in the world, despite what everyone knows/assumes. Maybe this time Fetch will find the thing everyone wants.

Too On the Nose

There’s a lot of material that’s a commentary on the presence, use, and abuse of guns in the real world. Arnold was not subtle at all—I’m not saying he should’ve been, but it would’ve been a bit easier to take if he had. I really don’t like authors taking a moment to do a PSA for whatever their cause is in the middle of a book.

Now, if they can work it in subtly? I don’t mind, in fact, I’m frequently impressed by it (whether or not I agree with them). But this was a tad too blatant for me.

The Narration

There’s got to be an advantage in narrating the audiobook for your own novel—you know how the strange names are pronounced already, you know exactly what tone is called for in each scene, and so on. On the other hand, you probably have to resist the impulse to do one more edit on each passage.

If you happen to be a pretty experienced actor, that has to be all the better.

Basically, I’m saying that Arnold is a perfect narrator for this and he did a bang-up job of it.

So, what did I think about Dead Man in a Ditch?

I thought I liked this novel more than the first in the series—I actually still do, but I’m rating this lower (I would like to ask 2020 me a couple of questions). Focusing on the present, even if the past looms large over the present, allows Fetch’s cases to mean more and be developed in a better, fuller sense.

I’m intrigued by the direction that Fetch seemed to be headed at the end here (although, I kind of thought that’s where he was headed already), but let’s never mind that.

I loved Fetch’s inner monologues, the voice is fantastic and I could listen/read it all day. I’m not quite as on board with the story—it’s good, just slow. Still, I’m glad I listened to this, and expect most fantasy/PI fans will be, too—particularly if they’re fans of both genres.

I’m just going to repeat what I said last time, because it still applies (maybe more than last time). Do I recommend this book? Oh yeah. You’ll probably like it more than I did (I’m a little worried about hitting “publish” on this, as I know I’m one of the less enthusiastic readers of this). And even if you don’t, you’ll be just as impressed as I am with Arnold’s imagination and skill.

3.5 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.