Shieldwall

Despite my lack of painting I have managed some reading. Playing SAGA has reinvigourated my interest in the Dark Ages. I found Bernard Cornwells "The Last Kingdom" and read it really quickly. It is fairly light reading but very interesting. It explores the history of England accurately enough for the period and most importantly descibes the style of warfare excellently. The word shield-wall is used way to often but I guess that has to be expected. I liked how the religious life and its conflict with paganism is brought up. It is one of the conflicts of the main character.

The story follows Uthred, a dispossed noble of Northumbria, as he lives with the Danish invaders of his homeland and then journeys to Wessex. Wessex is the last kingdom of the Saxons and Uthred is torn between his heritage and his loyalty to the Danish. This is well exploited and provides some good internal conflict. The story really shines however when it gets to the battles. Bernard Cornwell describes these really well and you get some feeling of the massive pressure of the shield-walls and how the warriors there, almost face to face, struggle and die. So if you are looking for something good to read without overy complex plotting then I recommend this book. It is especially good as an audio-book.

A Pilgrims Tale

This is a great book. I read it a long time ago, back in the nineties I guess and I loved it then. I always try to keep up with whatever Dan Simmons publishes but I don't often get to go back and read his older stuff. I amanged to get myself a copy of this recently and I devoured it. I think it is fairly loosely based on the structure of the Canterbury Tales in that it is the collected and interwoven tales of a group of pilgrims on the road. It is set in an almost dystopian future where mankind has travelled and colonised the stars. The fractionalism that existed on old Earth still exists to an extent although most of the planets belong to the homogeneous hegemony. The pilgrims are all tied somehow to a small backwater colony of Hyperion and this book tells of those ties in the form of each travellers tales. The book doesn't answer many of the questions it poses however. For that you need to read the second canto The Fall of Hyperion. I really like the structure as it does allow you to digest the book in smaller doses if you want. It also reels you in as the pacing is well constructed. So no spoilers here, just my recommendation. If you enjoy Science Fiction and haven't read this yet you are in for a treat. If you are considering dipping your toe into the genre then this is a good place to start.

A Ripping Good Yarn

I have been revisiting some of the books of my childhood recently. I read Magician years ago, probably about seventeen years ago or so. I loved it then and I read everything that was available from Feist at that time. I guess I wasn't as critical then as I am now so I thought it would be good to rejudge what I thought was an excellent book. Having read the book again I can say that I like Magician and I think the author describes why best: "it is a ripping good yarn". It isn't amazingly well written. The plot meanders somewhat and consists of far too much serendipity. The events are explained by the actions of Macros the Black, who is a rather vague Deus ex Machina. In later books Feist fixes this problem by providing far more details than we get here about the mysterious wizard. Looking only this book however and not knowing what happens later really reveals that Macros is a lazy character contrived simply to further the plot. The other characters are a journey through stereotypes. Orphans destined for great power, awkward boys turning to become great warriors are the meat and potatoes of the book. However there is a reason that these types of characters are stereotypes, people enjoy reading about them. Feist excels at creating a world, infact two worlds in this book. The story explores both of these and their interactions. This for me is what shines in this series and the later ones.

I would still recommend any who enjoy fantasy to read the book. A lot of what has been written by others since draws on this book for inspiration. So if you are in the mood for some light fantasy and a good story you won't go wrong wih this one.

Master and Commander

Wow time flies, I can't believe it is already over halfway through September. I haven't done a book review here for a long long time and this is because I have (and still am) been reading Patrick O Brian's Aubery - Maturin series. Its twenty one books in total and I just got over the halfway hump. I have to say this is probably the most rewarding series I have ever read. I really haven't come across anything quite so refined before. The language is excellent and I have found myself in wikitionary quite often trying to find out what to wear a ship or the weathergage means. Thankfully I haven't as yet started using nautical terms in my day to day speech. Anyway the series describes perfectly the nautical life of the early nineteenth century. It does this in staggering detail that can seem overwhelming. The narrative however has an excellent device in the doctor. As a Landman he needs to have everything explained to him and this covers all the most important details. Even after the eleven books I have read this is still the case. Having wiktionary close at hand is always helpful however as some of the words are not explained. These are most often non nautical terms such as cove that come up quite often. The books don't just concentrate on the Navy but also on the unfortunate times that Captains were without a ship and must survive the landsharks.

So I don't want to reveal too much of the books just yet and I want to keep my final review for when I have finished the full series. However I can recommend that you pick them up, you won't be able to put them down!

The Blade Itself

I just finished reading The First Law series over the last few days. I was recommended the first book by a friend. It was so good I had ordered the next two before I finished reading it. It is low fantasy in general with few monsters and a little bit of magic. Which generally makes for a better fantasy book in my opinion. I still have about twenty pages to finish on the third book but the story has wrapped up. The setting is nicely evoked and well described. It is also fairly original in some ways though the cliché of the frozen north filled with Vikings and the south being a desert filled with Persians are once again here. The north is described well and the culture is also given a good description throughout the series so despite it being much the same as other books it is fine. Very little action happens in the south so not much attention is paid to it. The charcter development was pretty good for the most part and the characters themselves are interesting.

The second and third books continue the story and have excellent pacing. I was particularly impressed by the build up towards the battles in the second book. The character development is a little forced during this book for one character but thats only a minor thing and it didn't effect my enjoyment of the story. So now I just need to decide what I read next... not an easy prospect as nothing jumps out at me. At least Steven Erikksons final book in the Malazan series is done and released. Once it gets a little cheaper I will pick it up.

The Black Company

I finally finished reading the entire series of the Black Company novels by Glen Cook. These have finally been released in four omnibus editions meaning that they are much easier to get your hands on. I got into them on the recommendation of Steven Erikkson, author of the Malazan books of the fallen. In his foreword he mentions Glen's books often so I picked up the first one shown here. This is a strange blend of fantasy and warfare. The author focuses very much on the lives of the soldiers rather than on descriptive text. Often locations are given a very cursory description while the blisters on the feet of the marching soldiers are given more space! Still this makes for some very interesting reading and is definitely removed from the standard fantasy tropes. In fact the fantasy is kept to a minimum and while there is ever present magic in the world there are no races of Elves, Dwarves or even Orks. There are monsters mentioned from time to time but to me at least it was never clear if these were created via magic or an actual race in the world.

The entire series deals with the Black Company, a ruthless band of mercenaries, with a long past. Exactly what their past is and what they did in history is one of the main subjects of the series and as they travel the author reveals more snippets of this. This is generally more prevalent in the later books than the early ones. The first book deals with a war where the mercenary band find themselves eventually fighting on both sides of the action.

The later books in the series discuss how the fortunes of the Black Company wax and wane and it finds them moving southwards into lands styled heavily after the Indian subcontinent. This again provides some really interesting backdrops for the action. While some more descriptions of this land would be great we are left with not much. The religions are discussed sporadically but in enough detail to satisfy. The Thuggi cult, Hindus and Buddhists all get transfer in some forms to this setting. Even Physical locations such as the Khyber Pass and Afgahnistan are transposed. They are altered enough though to be enjoyable and you won't immediately identify everything.

Inspiration

I am re-reading Elric of Melnibone at the moment. I read this book a long long time ago! I think I must have been around twelve when I bought it. I remember it being tiny, the book couldn't have been more than two hundred pages. It was the only book I could find at the time about Elric and I yearned to read more. Finally I remembered these books a few weeks ago. I am not sure why. I have vague memories of seeing them for sale second hand recently but not buying them because they were an incomplete set. This edition is number eight despite the fact that it starts with the first book in the series. I haven't quite figured it out but I suspect it is due to prequels. The prose isn't great. I have only read the first book completely and it was generally fine. The second book, Fortress of the Pearl, is terrible. I am not sure if it is a style issue or if it is actually bad. I guess it is style as the books have been popular. I am trying to get through the second book in the hope that the third is better. Now while the prose is bad the story is good and remarkable for having been written in the sixties(?). It is only recently that fantasy for me has matured as a genre and yet within this book I find wonderful ideas.

This book is one of the main inspirations for Games Workshop during the creation of the Warhammer Universe as far as I remember. The high elves are easiest on some levels to identify. Melnibone, home of Elric, is very similar to Ulthuan. The Dragon Princes are a direct idea taken. The gods of law and chaos were once a feature of Warhammer but the gods of law such as Soltan have more or less been ignored. I remember only one reference in recent books. The fifth god of Chaos Malal appeared somewhere in the Elric saga and was removed from the GW pantheon due to copyright issues. A lot of the seminal ideas of Chaos stem from these books and even John Blanche derived a lot of inspirations from the word within. I look forward to reading more and hopefully finding the hidden gems!

Gone to the dogs

This book is suprisingly good! I have spent far too much time over the weekend reading rather than painting! The army guilt has set in. I find that having the army out on display makes me feel like I have to paint it. It lurks in the corner of my mind saying "You must paint me, put the book down". I did make some good progress however! I had seven Chaos Hounds painted from before. As I want a regiment of twelve now I have to add five in. I don't quite know why twelve would be good... If every regiment is getting larger though why not these guys too? Anyway its actually pretty tough to match the colours between the two sets. I did it okay and I will have pictures up later in the week. The details still need to be done. These shouldn't take too long to do. After that I am not sure. I might do some Chaos Knights. I think I will replace on of the regiments of Warriors with a Knight Regiment. Its a lot easier to paint for one thing! Five large cavalry models versus twenty foot models. The points are roughly the same too. It would free up a few points for Marks of Chaos. I rally want to get the Mark of Tzeentch onto my Warriors along with the Blasted Standard. That makes them really durable as I am assuming they will be target number one in competitive games.

Back to the book, I have just picked up a few of the Dresden Files books. Stormfront is the only one I have read so far. Its pretty good. Nothing to really challenge as an enduring classic but very entertaining. The author is clear and descriptive. He doesn't spend too long drawing out every detail but still gets the atmosphere across. The book is about a gumshoe detective wizard in modern Chicago. I can imagine the series is a little like a Monster of the Week. The titles of the later books indicate Werewolves, Ghosts and Faeries in that order. Hopefully it isn't that much of a formula. I read the first book in a evening, something I normally reserve for really exciting books. So to keep it somewhat short, check it out Stormfront is good!

At least I am reading!

My hobby has been suffering of late! I am very busy at the moment between going back to Ireland for a weekend and looking for work. At least with all the travels I am getting a lot of reading done. My flight on Friday was delayed by two hours so I really got caught up in the book while waiting. Currently I am reading Toll the Hounds part of the wonderful Malazan series by Stephen Erikkson. I am almost at the end and I have enjoyed the book a lot. The authors style has changed a bit from his earlier books with a lot more narrative introspection but the action still delivers. I read the first five books in the series one after another while long distance commuting a number of years ago. Then I had to wait for the rest of the series to come out. In the meantime I was busy travelling the world! Once I got back a lot of time had passed and it was difficult to get back into the series. I had forgotten a lot of the characters and events. I could even be wrong about the evolution of style but my memory tells me that the writing was more concise and focused (but not better) in the earlier books. Dust of Dreams is already out. It claims to be the penultimate book in the series. I hope so as I do like my storeis to eventually finish!

I picked up Drood today. It is what I will read while waiting for Dust of Dreams to come out in a better format. I really like Dan Simmons and have read all his Sci-Fi books so far. I found this in the Crime section of Thalia books in Hamburg. I am not quite sure if it is in the right place but I bought it anyway. I hope he follows his usual wonderful style that have made Hyperion and Olympos some of my favorite books. I recommend them highly especially if you have any interest in either the poetry of John Keats or in Homer's ancient writings. On another note the latest in the Wheel of Time series has been released. Seemingly it has gone from a single tome to three books. I hope they will be good and that the series does end eventually! I will await the publishing of all three before I restart that series. The initial reviews from friends have said that it is at least promising and that the styles of the authors compliment each other well.

I am hoping to get right back on track with the painting soon. Tomorrow may be a relaxing day and if so I will be breaking out the brushes and attempting to finish some test marauders I have been doing. I noticed in the almost local Games Store that a Crom the Conqueror model was still on sale. I believe that he is now out of production? I bought him anyway as I wanted to get a nice collection of characters for the army. I am already trying to dream up how I will convert him. Oh and the weather in Hamburg is terrible at the moment!