King of the Nerds!!!

Wow.  Some major world shattering changes in the final pages of Toll the Hounds amidst a entertaining and tense action packed series of confrontations.  It’s difficult to discuss everything sans spoilers it but the slow build-up of the novel pays off in big ways.  Major changes in the Malazan world are going to really shake up events in the final chapters of the series and I shudder to think what kind of final confrontation Erikson will pull off.

That being said some of the viewpoints in the novel don’t feel quite as fleshed out as they could be and I’m not quite sure what they contributed to the overall plot of the novel.  There is an underlying theme of redemption throughout most of the book and most of the character’s whose head’s we dip into reflect that.  This is reinforced by the final confrontations in the book which, by and large, resolve each character’s own external and internal conflicts in regards to redemption; except in the case of a select few who seem to get left by the wayside.  If you’ve been reading the series so far this won’t stop you now but it was a little frustrating to see characters that I like make little progress in terms of character.  But that is the nature of such a large and diverse cast.

On a related note I think the Dramatis Personae needs some better organization and a return of a glossary/Deck of Dragons listing from earlier books would certainly be appreciated.

That being said this was one hell of a ride and I find myself continually and increasingly impressed with Erikson’s skill as a writer.  I can thing of few, if any, authors that can manage so many viewpoints at once with such a deft hand.  Erikson, unfortunatley, tends to be overlooked in US; which is a shame.  I don’t know where to point the blame for that.  Erikson deserves to, and in my mind does, stand shoulder to shoulder with the respected “greats” of the fantasy genre.

Damn shame I have to wait another year for Dust of Dreams.  At least I’ll have Return of the Crimson Guard (Esslemont’s Malazan novel) and The Lees at Laugher’s End (Erikson’s third Bochalain and Broach novella set in the Malazan world) to tide me over in the mean time.

I am more or less three quarters through Toll the Hounds the eigth volume in Erikson’s massive Malazan Book of the Fallen series.  I find that I need to start organizing my thoughts a bit earlier on this book than in previous efforts.  Never the most concise with words Erikson reaches new heights of verbosity and while the text never feels bloated the entire novel groans and creeks under the ponderous weight of each sentence (see what I did there!).  I find myself both in awe and staggered by the sheer scope of Erikson’s tale, especially the story contained in this latest volume, and yet find myself hesitant to ascribe accolades to the work therein.

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The Well of Ascension

Brandon Sanderson

Tor Books, 2007

Wow.  If I truly felt that were sufficient I’d stop there.  The second book in Sanderson’ Mistborn series takes everything from the first book, The Final Empire, and improves on it; and then some.  This book is half-again as long as the first one (816 pages in mass-market vs. Final Empire’s 676) and it took me half as long to read it.  Where The Final Empire had issues with pacing the Well of Ascension managed to keep me gripped from start to finish.

This novel opens up where the last one finished, though a bit later.  With an army sitting outside the Walls of Luthadel and our heroes scrambling to deal with that threat while Vin remains haunted by the dead Lord Ruler’s final worlds.  Elsewhere Sazed uncovers secret’s about the mysterious Hero of Ages while investigating whether or not the mists that shroud the land at night are striking during the day.  The slick plotting of the politically sections of the novel is equally exciting as the mystery of the more epic magical elements and both are glued together by Sanderson’s skill at characterization.

The truth of it is, at least for me, is that the human elements drew me into the novel almost more so than the epic aspects of the plot.  Sure there are the requisite big things happening (war, major magical threat) but it’s the development of the character’s within that setting that is truly fascinating.  The way Vin and Elend struggle with their identities, while potentially overbearing, is handled with a subtlety and care by Mr. Sanderson that is truly remarkable.  Both character’s are introspective without veering into outright whininess and are plagued with conflicts, both external and internal, that manages to keep their self-examination both interesting and exciting.

Vin, in particular, is thrown into the spotlight by a new character Zane.  Zane is a very obvious foil for Vin but again is an interesting character in his own right.  He is what Vin might have become without the influence of her friends and left alone on the streets.  There is a lonliness to the Mistborn, a sense of being outside of things, that draws Vin to Zane and creates a complex emotional tension between the characters.  What makes it even more exciting is that we, the reader, know (whereas Vin doesn’t) the inner workings of Zane’s twisted mind.  It’s like watching two cars on a colision course with no way to intervene.

Sanderson throws you a curveball late in the novel in regards to Zane that makes the whole thing even more entertaining and amps up the mystery behind the character.  As before: RAFO.

Sazed stands out again in this book and is yet another character struggling to find his place in the world.  He is discontent with his role as Keeper, spreading knowledge to the freed skaa, and feels there is unresolved business at hand.  Like Vin he is contrasted with the introduction of Tindwyl another Keeper; who seems content in spreading her stored knowledge.   Their differences and interactions, a subtle pushing and pulling between their emotional attraction and mutual frustrations with one another, helps to better define each as a person.

Which in that end is what all the relationships in this novel reveal.  Whether it be the subtle tension of Vin’s attraction to Zane and her love for Elend, the complex emotional interplay between Sazed and Tindwyl, or the relationship of all of Kelsier’s crew to one another, it is their interactions and feelings toward one another that help define them as characters.  Reinforcing the weight of the emotional conflict in the novel we actually get some minor POV from Breeze, the allomancer who is in expert at Soothing emotions whose comments reinforce the importance of relationships and emotion to each of the characters in the novel.

All of which has nothing to do with the politiking and mystery of the novel; I’m not saying that it is somehow inferior to characterization only that the characters serve as the impetus of the novel.  Late revelations in the novel about the Hero of Ages makes for some truly compelling reading and really whets the appetite for the third book, approriatley enough, The Hero of Ages.  The fight scenes that use allomantic magic are still as exciting as ever with some startling twists that elevate them above and beyond what was seen in The Final Empire.  Combine this with Sanderson’s deft plotting, masterful pacing, and superior characterization and you get one hell of a ride.  Highly recommended for fantasy lovers of all stripes.

Mistborn: the Final Empire

Brandon Sanderson

Tor, 2006

While I read and enjoyed Brandon Sanderson’s first novel Elantris I had not been in a huge hurry to pick up and read his Mistborn books.  Then it was announced last year that Mr. Robert Jordan picked Sanderson as his successor; the man left to finish up what the late great Jordan did not have time to finish himself.  So have followed Sanderson’s blog for bit as he reread the Wheel of Time series I decided it was about time I gave the Mistborn books a try.  While Sanderson’s position finishing Wheel of Time brought me to this book/series that will be the last time I mention that aspect of his writing.  This book deserves to stand on its own.

I’m going to start with pacing since, as co-workers pointed out to me, I took more time reading this book than I have recent others.  The pacing isn’t slow but it isn’t fast either.  One might best describe it as deliberate.  The book builds momentum at a steady pace and, while this serves a definite purpose, never feels contrived.  My most recent foray’s into fantasy this last year have been the likes of Scott Lynch and Joe Abercrombie and I admit that the kinetic focus of those earlier reads made falling back into the more measured pace of other fantasy a major adjustment on my part.  Do parts of the novel seem to drag?  Occasionally, yes but I was always drawn forward by the blurbs.

Using bits of fictional non-fiction to enhance a fantasy world is no new trick, but Sanderson manages to take that to the next level.  The pre-chapter blurbs here are essential to the story here and at the same time serve as a look into the pre-history of the world as the reader sees it.  Now I hesitate when discussing these blurbs a bit because as I was reading there were times when I felt that the story being told there was more interesting than the story being told in the main narrative.  In hindsight, the book finished, I can see that there is a greater parallel between these two stories than is readily seen when first starting the book.  In truth this deeper relationship between both narratives is rather masterful but that fact only becomes apparent towards the end of the novel.

In truth perhaps deliberate is a good word for the novel as a whole.  Sanderson’s use of pacing and character serve a very specific purpose especially as they pertain to Kelsier.  In the opening chapter Sanderson pulls a bit of a magic trick calling out Kelsier as the main character, then introducing the true main character a bit later.  In truth, while he is central to the novel, he is more a foil (though a fleshed out, three dimensional foil) for the true main character: Vin.  Kelsier’s characterization goes further as well as Sanderson goes out of his way to make him an uncomfortable figure.  Kelsier is like Han Solo, except where Han only shot first once Kelsier continues to shoot first for the majority of the novel.  Throw in his deliberate manipulation of people and events around him and he isn’t a very likable character.  Which, if he were the hero of our story, would likely cause a lot of people to throw in the towel and put the book aside. However, the discomfiture the reader feels as a result of Kelsier’s character is echoed by the characters that surround him.  Kelsier isn’t a character you really “get” until towards the end of the novel.  His motives are seemingly clear yet, through that lense of discomfort and distrust, Sanderson manages to make the reader (and the other characters in the novel) question Kelsier and what exactly he is all about.

That raw edge the Kelsier has, despite his apparent joviality, serves as interesting juxtaposition to the paranoia and distrust of street-urchin Vin.  As I sad earlier Kelsier serves as a kind of foil for Vin who, despite her hard upbringing on the streets, manages to come off as the more innocent of the two regardless.  Despite her initial distrust and constant paranoia she lacks that level of cold hatred and violence that practically oozes of Kelsier in his darkest moments.

If fascinating characters weren’t enough Sanderson went ahead and crafted a fascinating magic system to enhance his world.  Based off the properties of certain metals it is perhaps the most unique magic system I’ve seen in a fantasy.  It is simple in a sense but the means through which Sanderson has his characters use it displays a level of depth that belies those first impressions.  I won’t ruin it for you; to quote a certain other author: RAFO.

In the end Mistborn: The Final Empire is a great read that I recommend to all fans of fantasy.  Like some of the more recent author’s in the genre Sanderson plays with the accepted fantasy tropes in an interesting way; creating not only a brilliant story but causing the reader to think about values, power, and responsibility.  It was so good in fact that rather than read the copy of Neuromancer that’s sitting on my desk I opted to go for the second Mistborn book, The Well of Ascension, instead.  Book two is something like half again as long as the first which I have to read in a week since Amazon.co.uk  informed that Toll the Hounds is on its way.

Also, if you’re really enjoying the book I recommend visiting the author’s blog where he has annotated every chapter of books 1 and 2!

The 4th Edition Monster Manual rocks!  I’ve seen some complaints from other reviewers but I’m saying right now that I love it.  Like the PHB the Monster Manual cuts out the chaff, leaving a non-nonsense affair full of crunchy monster goodness.  If you were to take the AD&D Monstrous Manual strip away the lengthy fluff descriptions and replace the remaining whitespace with actual monster stats you’d get what we have here.

As a result, this book is exactly what it says it is.  A book of monsters.  Between this and the PHB we begin to see the overall design philosophy that guided the content for each of these books.  The PHB is the main book, it has all the rules on how to play at all levels of play (in 3.x rules were split between the PHB and the DMG).  The Monster Manual is a toolbox for DMs, a bag of tricks if you will, with the additional benefit of providing some optional races for PCs.  Last the DMG is the book about the game; the nuts and bolts of design and implementation and some general D&D philosophy to aid newer players in crafting their own personal play style.

What does that mean for this book in particular?  Well how about this: want to make a monster?  Too bad!  Not in here buddy.  While the book has a glossary defining certain terms it doesn’t have info on advancing monsters, or creating new ones.  This is a manual of monsters pure and simple.  That other stuff, being the province of the Dungeon Master, is by necessity in the Dungeon Master’s Guide.  To that I say amen!  Even the glossary is pared down to a bare minimum.  Where the 3.5 glossary read like a chapter in and of itself, with lengthy descriptions of types and sub-types and other nebulous things, the 4e glossary reads like…well…a glossary.  Short sentences define each term with no lengthy descriptions cluttering up the page space.

I’d have to look a bit closer but it looks to me like WotC did there best to never split a monster over two pages that weren’t both facing.  This is a huge boon as it means not having to flip a page to read the same stat block/ability.  The concise, easy to read stat block for 4e also helps in this.  Even complex monsters like Big T (a.k.a the tarrasque) and dragons take something like 3/4 a page length in their the eldest, and therefore most complex, variant.  True to their promise 4e contains fully statted dragons of each age level for the 5 chromatic colors (no metallics here); a huge welcome change from all the build-a-dragons in 3.x.

Like classes from the PHB all monsters fill a specific role.  They don’t use the same striker, controller, leader, defender breakdown that PC classes but each typically are an analog of one the forementioned roles.  Monster roles include artillery (ranged combatants), brutes (big beefy hitters), controllers (buff other enemies), and soldiers (front line fighters with a high defense and decent attacks.  There are other roles as well like the skirmisher and the lurker each of which seems to play with striker PC role if different ways.  One of my favorite abilities of a lurker (the exact monster escape me at the moment) is a garotte wire that lets the monster make a grab to start strangling a PC, maintaining the grab without the PC escaping for several rounds automatically drops the PC to 0 hp.  The same monster has additional ability that lets it use the grabbed PC as a body shied!  Absolutely fun, devious stuff for a DM to use; maybe not against the beefy fighter, but an unsupecting Wizard?  Ouch.

There are two meta-roles: the minion and the solo monster.  All minions have 1 hp and deal a flat number of damage (no rolling), they’re designed to keep PCs occupies while remaining at least a marginal threat.  They’re a cool concept designed to make even low-level PCs feel powerful.  Solo beasties, like dragons, defy the general encounter principle of equal or higher monster to PC ratio by pitting the PCs against a single opponent.  Solo opponents are fun and pretty brutal; as anyone who played in the White Dragon encounter on Game Day can attest.

This is another great edition to Fourth Edition that cleans up the sprawl of the previous edition.  It does come at the cost of fluff, which I admit I do miss, but the greater gain in terms of mechanical depth is well worth that loss.  This book has some recycled art which I think is kind of dumb; especially when it’s old art for the iconic drow; come on Wizards!  You really telling me you couldn’t spring for another piece of drow art?  There has to be tons of better art laying around the office that could have been used in place of the 3.x drow warrior art!  A minor complaint, but a silly design choice given the overhaul of the system at large.  If you plan on DMing, or want a leg up on your potential opponents, than pick up this puck and take a look.

Do two interviews really constitute an explosion?  I don’t know.  But given my excitement for the forthcoming Toll the Hounds, and my general enjoyment of all things Steven Erikson, my enthusiasm is rather abundant.

Jay Tomio of The Bodhisvatta has an interview over at FantasyBookSpot while Fantasy Book Critic has another interview over at his site.

So read up and get excited about Toll the Hounds.

D&D fans should might be interested in the Tomio interview, where Erikson mentions the early genesis of the Malazan world as a homemade campaign setting for his AD&D game, and talks about his first gaming experience.

Continuing my compulsory round-up of advance reviews of Richard K. Morgan’s The Steel Remains, nets me the first “meh” review over at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist.  I’m not sure I agree with some of his points, in particular his opinion that Morgan’s strongest point is character.  I think that Morgan is equally strong in his actions scenes. The chaos and violence sown by Kovacs in Altered Carbon stay with me to this day, and the action set-piece with the nano-monster from Broken Angels was pretty thrilling stuff.  Regardless, the review is worth a look, and as a video game player I’m well versed in tempering expectations and questioning the hype machine.

Opening note:  “bad” is a relative term here and likely inappropriate.  “Less good” or “not quite as awesome” might be better.

The Good:

UPDATE:  Forgot about the no penalties thing!  All defenses are modified by 1 of 2 possible stats.  You choose which at character creation.  Have a lumbering fighter with low dex?  No problem, simple add your strength to AC instead of dexterity!  A wizard smarter than she is nimble?  No problem, use intelligence to determine your reflex defense in place of dexterity.  Again this all serves towards the general trend of defining your character by what the CAN do rather than by what he/she CAN’T do.

Save for opening chapter the PHB lacks fluff and is super crunchy.  Not different from previous editions, but reads more like a Manual than other editions.  Essentially this lets the player learn the game before settling into a campaign, and leaves the DM free to craft the environment and atmosphere of the campaign world.  I’ve always felt that established campaign worlds have a lot of baggage for a DM to manage, by sketching only the barest outlines of a game world WotC leaves things wide open from a creative standpoint.  Of course this leaves later, non-essential, supplements to add flavor and fluff to the campaign world.  For those who love their established settings late 3.x saw WotC place emphasis on the Player’s Guide to [insert Campaign Setting]; a trend I like and a trend that will continue with September’s Player’s Guide to the Forgotten Realms.  The separation of Player info and DM info is a good thing and a published guide for Players certainly takes some of the onus off of the DM for conveying the mountain of information often needed to introduce a new campaign setting.

Read on for more…..

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With 4th Edition upon us I’ll be taking a close look at the Player’s Handbook with slightly less intense looks at the Dungeon Master’s Guide and the Monster Manual.  My review will be broken into two parts (as if the title wasn’t an indicator) a fairly laborious Overview of the PHB and some of the major changes followed by a somewhate less laborious commentary on what has me crazy excited and what I’m not a huge fan of (Hint: the latter is a tiny list).  So read on for an introduction to 4th Edition.

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Swordmage by Richard Baker

Wizards of the Coast, 2008.

Swordmage is the first book set in the 4th Edition Forgotten Realms and there are some changes to the landscape we’re familiar with.  Most noticable, and most hotly debated on the forums around the interwebs, is the death of Mystra and the collapse of the Weave.  Apparently this resulted in the creation of Changelands (areas where other realities, planes?, poke through into our own) and the Spellplague.  I won’t say yay or nay whether this destroys/ruins the realms we know and love but it certainly makes for a darker more dangerous landscape; not necessarily a bad thing.  I will whole heartedly approve of the return of the sun god Amaunator who I’ve been a fan of since he crossed paths with my Bhaalspawn way back in Baldur’s Gate 2.  All that is merely background stuff and doesn’t impact the flow of the novel too much.

The plot of Swordmage follows Geran Hulmaster who, surprise surprise, fights wielding a blade with one hand and arcane magics with the other.  After a disastrous duel Geran, a human, is exiled from the elven city of Myth Drannor.  We catch up with as he returns home, his halfling friend and business partner Hamil in town, to investigate the murder of a boyhood friend.  Once home he finds trouble and danger in just about every corner; from undead to political strife.

Geran is a bit of do-gooder of almost paladin like proportions.  Sticking up for friends, family and those he sees as done wrong, but with a penchant for brooding over his exile from Myth Drannor and the loss of his elven love.  Which is where I have a problem.  You see, in the aforementioned duel Geran maims his opponent surprising everyone, including himself, in the process.  My first thought was magical compulsion, but nothing is said about it and the event isn’t even explored after the opening chapter.  We never see any sort of “dark side” in Geran and his confusion over events transfer far too easily to the reader.  The fact that he accepts what happened in the duel rather then questions lends a certain flatness to the character that keeps him several notches below the Realms ‘greats’.  He’s not a bad character but he is a bit to shiny for my tastes.  On the other hand I liked Hamil a lot.  Not necessarily an original character but well drawn.  His love of children, his attempted wooing of women (even those more than twice his height), and his dry humor all meshed to create an entertaining read.

I think the novel spread itself a little thin in the plot department.  We have Geran trying to solve his friends murder and navigate the political quagmire at home in the process he is investigating barrows that were broken into and encountering a powerful lich.  Side by side with that we have a Warlock Knight of Vassa uniting the monstrous denizens of the north to open up trade and, perhaps, for other nefarious purposes.  Both plots leave little room to both get aquainted with the new Realms and the new characters but I have to admit that the explosion of colliding plots in the novel’s climax made for some thrilling reading.

As the first part of a series this is an interesting novel.  The action seems fairly self-contained with only two real dangling plot threads left to continue the series.  Both of which, appropriately enough, come together in the novel’s final pages a fact which actually has me anticipating the next novel.  As far as introduction to the new Realms I wish Wizards had maybe gone a different route.  The packed plot and considerable action leave little time to stop and look around, with only scant details about what has changed in the Realms having been shared it leaves one wanting a little bit more.  It looks like most of the details will end up in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting; a fact that leaves those who prefer the novels (i.e. me) starved for information.

Mediocre characterization and the almost bloated plot are elevated by an exciting extended action sequence in the novels final chapters.  A solid C+, recommended with some reservations but still likely to appeal to hardcore Realms fans.