Fantasy Debut

The Sellsword by Cam Banks

2008-07-25T19:40:00.006-04:00

The Sellsword by Cam Banks
Mass Market Paperback
Wizards of the Coast
Excerpt (zipfile)

I am an unapologetic Dragonlance fan, so when a "publicist/consort" (read: his wife. It took me a while to get that) got in touch with me about reviewing a new Dragonlance series, I said "sure." The name of the series is Tracy Hickman Presents The Anvil of Time. This is Volume One.

Dragonlance is the object of derision by some people, and that's ok. I understand what they have to criticize. However, I also believe that the Weis and Hickman team came up with some wonderful characters. In my opinion, that was (is?) their strength, along with their knack for both comic and touching scenes. (Who could ever forget the wicker dragon? And the two death scenes?). I could go on at length, but I won't. (Translation: I deleted a bunch of pointless ramblings at this point.)

The Sellsword has many recognizable themes for the seasoned Dragonlance reader. The gods are present, albeit for the most part unnamed, as are the dragons and evil dragon highlords. There are three major characters: the sellsword named Vanderjack, a gnome fighter named Theodenes, and a decidedly ugly young woman named Gredchen. There is also a dragon highmaster named Rivven and a wizard named Cazuvel. Of course, he's a Black Robe wizard, and even if you've never read Dragonlance, you can probably guess what that means. And as is typical with Dragonlance novels, the point of view wanders from character to character.

The novel got off to a rocky start for me. Every time things got moving with Vanderjack, the plot came to a screeching halt to dwell on either Rivven or Cazuvel. I would have been happier with more Vanderjack scenes and far fewer Rivven scenes. I suppose this turns out to be a good thing, because I enjoyed reading about Vanderjack, but whenever I came to a Rivven scene, I found the novel all too easy to set aside. Which, I believe, is why it took me so long to read it. And one very drawn-out battle scene reminded me too much of random encounters in D&D.

However, the book hinted at depth in the form of Gredchen, whom Vanderjack was beginning to find somewhat attractive despite her twisted features. I wanted to see how things turned out with Vanderjack and Gredchen, so that's what saw me through to the end. I enjoyed Theo as well, and I was glad that the author saw fit to omit the usual mode of gnome speech, whichwouldgosomethinglikethis. (Perhaps Theo had adapted to humanity's slower pace.) Theo is not your usual gnome; he has a lifequest to invent the perfect weapon. And although the weapon seems unwieldly for a gnome to carry, it has enough gadgets and features that he may have succeeded in his quest.

I enjoyed the ending and Vanderjack's resourcefulness in taking on two deadly enemies simultaenously. Vanderjack has a magic sword readily identifiable to any D&D player, but I really enjoyed the slant that the author put on this sword, and how he tied it seamlessly to the mythology of Dragonlance. There is a certain scene in the very end where the sword met its final destiny, and I thought it was very well done.

I do have one major criticism, and it has nothing to do with the author. Vanderjack is black. So why does the cover feature a man with pasty white skin? I thought the cover was well-done otherwise.

All in all, I found The Sellsword a satisfying and fun romp. If you enjoyed the Dragonlance world, or a sword-and-sorcery fantasy that in general aims toward a young adult crowd, you probably will enjoy it as well.

Sex and its Consequences in Times Past

2008-07-22T19:43:00.011-04:00

We tend to forget, in these modern times, just what a big deal sex was in days gone by. Really, our attitudes toward sex are rather unnatural. In centuries (or even decades) past, unless a woman knew herself to be barren, the spectre of pregnancy always hung over her head and if she was wise, she constrained her behavior. For a man, the threat of a "shotgun wedding" or some other form of compelled marriage was very real. Both sexes had incentives to sexually behave themselves.

But of course, people do not always behave. And consequently, bastards abounded. You only need look at novels written in times past to discover what the consequences could be of a single steamy night of passion.

Tess of the d'Urbervilles is a great story about a fallen woman. Alec d'Urberville either seduces or rapes Tess (Hardy isn't really clear, but I think he raped her), and she gets pregnant. Her child doesn't survive long, but still she feels it necessary to live in another area in order to escape her shattered reputation. When she remarries and tries to come clean with her husband on her wedding night, all hell breaks loose. Alex's action affected her entire life.

In Les Miserables, Fantine is another unwed mother. She has an adorable little daughter, Cosette, upon whom she dotes. However, since she is an unwed mother, she has a difficult time finding a respectable occupation. She comes up with this plan to leave her daughter with the Thénardiers while she finds work in another town. She manages to keep her secret for a while, but the Thénardiers keep demanding more and more money to pay for non-existent medical problems until she is driven to prostitution anyway.

In The Scarlet Letter, Hester has a child through an adulterous relationship. Because she is clearly an adulteress (her husband is missing), she must wear the A and she is pressured to name the child's father. It's been some years since I read this one, but I remember it as a real page-turner; much more so than I expected.

All of the above novels are tragedies, with unhappy endings for the mothers. I enjoy reading novels written in centuries gone by because it is so interesting to learn about the way attitudes have changed from then to now.

I enjoy a fantasy that deals with sex realistically. Authors, please don't put modern-day sexual attitudes in novels that take place in the past UNLESS, like today, there is a viable system of birth control.

In The Deed of Paksenarrion, there was a viable system of birth control; however the heroine was asexual. Go figure.

In Master and Fool, the third book of The Book of Words, Melli gets married and has one encounter with her husband before he is murdered. And once was enough.

In Destiny by Elizabeth Haydon, Rhapsody has an encounter with Ashe. However, when she begins to doubt that it was Ashe after all, she lives in terror of being pregnant with a demonic child.

In The Book of Joby, a single encounter between Joby and Laura left her pregnant.

In Dragonlance, there was lots of sex, but very few pregnancies. And the one pregnancy that did occur was with a married couple.

In His Majesty's Dragon, Laurence has sex with one of his fellow aviators, but there is no mention of the possibility of her getting pregnant. We don't know her actual age--just that she's about Laurence's age--but we had no reason to presume that she was too old to be fertile.

Most of the time, there is little sex in fantasies because sex is not usually what fantasies are all about. Most of the romances in fantasies are just that--romances without sex. They're love stories. I love a good love story, but in my opinion, once you bring sex into the mix, you shatter all that great romantic tension. Drag it out for as long as possible. It's a great way to keep the pages turning.

* * *

On a totally unrealted note, I admit to some spectacular laziness as far as this blog is concerned. Please don't give up on me! It's brutally hot in Florida this time of year, and I just feel icky. After all, these are the dog days of summer. All I want to do when I get home is chill out, and it's hard to chill out on the computer. I'm almost done reading a novel that's turned out to be a pleasant surprise, so I hope to be able to post on that by Thursday.

In the meantime, as ever, I'll answer comments. What novels can you think of that handled sex and its consequences in a realistic way?

A Dearth of Debuts

2008-07-21T20:00:00.001-04:00

Wow; I'm not finding as many debuts these days. And don't even ask how my reading's going. How about a few shout-outs instead?

The Antick Musings of G.B.H Hornswogger, Gent. is a skiffy blog with the longest subtitle I've ever seen. The gentleman in question, Andrew Wheeler, is a publishing professional.
VampireWire has linked to several of my posts lately, so I thought I'd return the favor. At VampireWire, Marta covers paranormal books, movies and television.
WJ Fantasy Reviews has been in my Google Reader so long that I"m a bit surprised (and embarassed) that I haven't given it a shout before now. WJ is the Wearied Juggler, and has a nicely laid-out blog.
I've recently learned what a Bodhisattva is while researching what the Dalai Lama is (don't ask) and no, it isn't a made-up word. The Tomio runs this blog that is affiliated with FantasyBookSpot and Heliotrope magazine.
Minnette Meador is an author who I announced a few months ago. She has a wicked-cool Shelfari bookshelf that almost has me tempted to check out Shelfari. She also is a fellow Backspacer!
Blood of the Muse as a beautifully put-together blog with lots of nice wigets, including one that echoes a snippet of every post I put up. It's worth checking out--very nicely done.
Another author I showcased back in January, Robert V.S. Redick, has added Fantasy Debut to his blogroll. He didn't have a blog back then, but he's started one recently.
Adam Whitehead's The Wertzone has been on my blogroll for quite a while. He's one of the must-read "old school" bloggers who's been around since way back when in 2006. Hey, in the blogging world, that's an eternity!

And I wanted to give a special plug to a new-to-me blogger whose excellence in blogging I've noticed recently. Calico Reaction has a great review format with one of the best rating systems I've come across. I've been tempted to rip it off, but I have restrained myself. Shara's been running this blog since 2005, so this practically makes her a blogging goddess. Check it out!

Debut Showcase: Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse

2008-07-21T04:36:00.000-04:00

Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse (Amazon UK, Canada)
Victor Gischler (blog)
Touchstone
Trade Paperback
Excerpt

Blurb:

Mortimer Tate was a recently divorced insurance salesman when he holed up in a cave on top of a mountain in Tennessee and rode out the end of the world. Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse begins nine years later, when he emerges into a bizarre landscape filled with hollow reminders of an America that no longer exists. The highways are lined with abandoned automobiles; electricity is generated by indentured servants pedaling stationary bicycles. What little civilization remains revolves around Joey Armageddon's Sassy A-Go-Go strip clubs, where the beer is cold, the lap dancers are hot, and the bouncers are armed with M16s.

Accompanied by his cowboy sidekick Buffalo Bill, the gorgeous stripper Sheila, and the mountain man Ted, Mortimer journeys to the lost city of Atlanta -- and a showdown that might determine the fate of humanity.

The author is making his SF debut with this one; he had previously written "hard-boiled" crime novels with titles like Gun Monkeys and Suicide Squeeze. This one looks hard-boiled and slightly zany. I was unable to find a website for the author, so I only included a link to his blog.

Belated Return

2008-07-18T19:43:00.002-04:00

We enjoyed our visit with my parents so much that we extended our vacation by one day. Then, when I got back, I was too lazy to blog.

With all the visiting and socializing, I hardly got any reading done at all. I brought Mirrored Heavens and The Sellsword with me, but I was too busy to read very much. Since we went through all our spending money for this pay period, I'll have lots of time to read this weekend. It's about time. I've done shockingly little reading these days.

What is it about going away that makes you get a jump in traffic? I would have thought the opposite would have happened . . . unless my absence makes this place more popular? My Google Reader shows ten more subscribers and my Technorati shows some shout-outs that I'll reciprocate in a Blogrolling post later in the weekend. It appears that my sheme of prewritting blog posts and letting Blogger post them on a schedule worked well.

I really ought to put up a vacation picture or two. Maybe I'll have the energy to do so tomorrow. Perhaps I'll even put up a mystery photo.

Product Review: Neo by AlphaSmart

2008-07-15T18:00:00.001-04:00

(Apologizes to those of you who have already seen this review, posted elsewhere.)

I wrote this review on a nifty little device called the Neo by AlphaSmart. What on earth is it? It's kind of like a word processor, except it's laptop-sized. It's designed for one purpose--the entry of text. Well, maybe two purposes, if you add the transmission of the text to and from a computer to its function as well.

Think of it as a $219 no-frills laptop. It's wonderful if you need a way to write away from your computer, but you don't want to spend the money on a fragile laptop.

I discovered the Neo via Kelly Gay, who is happily using her own Neo as well (and who calls it her "precious"). It allows me to write in the La-z-boy. No more sitting hunched over my computer all night after spending all day hunched over my computer at work. I actually prefer writing this way. My husband is going to get awful lonely in the computer room.

The Neo is tough. Supposedly, it will withstand being dropped, and I believe them. The thing is made of hard plastic. It has a 700 hour battery life. That's right, 700 hours. On 3 alkaline AA batteries. I haven't even put a dent in the battery life.

The file system is a bit strange, but it's quick to get used to. There are eight file positions, each accessed by the push of a button. To get to this file, I push the "file 5" button. That's it. And it remembers where I was when I last entered text. Not even Microsoft Word does that. As soon as you enter the text, it's saved.

You can have any number of files at each position by giving them a name. I have not named my files so far; when I'm done with them, I simply upload them to my computer and clear the version on the Neo.

The drawbacks? There is absolutely no formatting, except tabs. Also, each file has a hard limit. I found that I need not bother transferring files that have more than 8000 or so words. Otherwise, I don't have room to actually work in the file, which holds about 10000 words, max. You can adjust this maximum file size, but so far I have not bothered. 8000 words seems a comfortably large chunk for me to work with.

It reminds me of the word processors of the 80s, except it transfers files instead of typing them out right away. It emulates all the same key combinations that Windows uses, so you can still copy with Ctrl-C and paste with Ctrl-V. There's nothing like a mouse or a touchpad; navigation is done entirely through keys.

There is another version called the Dana, which blends the Neo with a full-featured PDA, including a touch-screen. However, it seemed to have more functionality than I needed and I really wanted the toughness of the Neo.

Ok, now I'm going to upload this into Blogger and write about that experience. Ciao for now . . .

Done. I plugged the Neo into my computer using the USB cable, and hit the "send" button on the Neo. It typed the file directly into this Blogger window. That's actually a slow way to send files; I usually just use the software that came with the Neo to just send the whole file as a chunk. But it's kinda cool to watch it type the text onto the screen.

It is NOT a laptop replacement, nor does it attempt to emulate a laptop in any way. It is simply a text entry and storage tool. Those of you in the market for a laptop, should go ahead and buy one. I was not in the market for a laptop. I wanted a replacement for my pen and notebook, which this tool suited admirably.

This is not a new product. When I posted my review on the Backspace writer's community (bksp.org), a bunch of writers--some published novelists--sounded off on how much they loved their Neo. However, it's new for me, so I wanted to share it with the rest of you, because I know so many of you write in one form or another.

It's easy. It's fun. I'm taking it on vacation with me. I think every writer should have one. Check it out.

Debut Showcase: Island of Eternal Love

2008-07-13T16:00:00.003-04:00

The Island of Eternal Love (Amazon USA, UK, Canada)
by Daina Chaviano (book trailer)
Hardcover
Riverhead (Penguin)

Blurb:
Cecilia is alone in a city that haunts her. Life in Miami evokes memories of Cuba: a scent in the breeze like the sea at the Malecón; the beat of a clave recalls island evenings when couples danced to forgotten rhythms. Far from her family, her history, and her home, Cecilia seeks refuge in a bar in Little Havana, where a mysterious old woman’s fascinating tale keeps her returning night after night.

It is a story of three families from opposite corners of the world—from Africa, Spain, and China—that spans more than a century. Within it, a Chinese widow seeks protection for her daughter in her family’s idols; an African slave brings the rhythms of her birth to an enchanted island; and a curse dances before the female descendants of a charmed Spanish matriarch, forming the mythic origins of one family’s indestructible bond. The connection strengthens with each generation into a legendary, unbreakable love. Under the story’s heady sway, Cecilia begins to discover the source of the elusive shadows that plague her and, along with it, a link to the past she cannot shake.

This isn't your traditional fantasy, but it had supernatural elements so I thought I'd give it some coverage. This is also not a traditional debut, since the author has been published since the '80s in the Spanish language.

I'm posting this in absentia--I'm on a short vacation, but hopefully I'll get a couple posts scheduled to keep you reading while I'm gone. I should be blogging again on Thursday, but until then I'll try to pop in and read comments from time to time.

Debut Showcase: A Darkness Forged in Fire

2008-07-11T19:59:00.000-04:00

A Darkness Forged in Fire
by Chris Evans (website, blog)
Pocket
Hardcover

Blurb:
Konowa Swift Dragon, former commander of the Empire's elite Iron Elves, is looked upon as anything but ordinary. He's murdered a Viceroy, been court-martialed, seen his beloved regiment disbanded, and finally been banished in disgrace to the one place he despises the most -- the forest.

Now, all he wants is to be left alone with his misery...but for Konowa, nothing is ever that simple. The mysterious and alluring Visyna Tekoy, the highborn daughter of an elfkynan governor, seeks him out in the dangerous wild with a royal decree that he resume his commission as an officer in Her Majesty's Imperial Army, effective immediately.

For in the east, a falling Red Star heralds the return of a magic long vanished from the earth. Rebellion grows within the Empire as a frantic race to reach the Star unfolds. It is a chance for Konowa to redeem himself -- even if the entire affair appears doomed to be a suicide mission...

and that the soldiers recruited for the task are not at all what he expects. And worse, his key adversary in the perilous race for the Star is the dreaded Shadow Monarch -- a legendary elf-witch whose machinations for absolute domination spread deeper than Konowa could ever imagine....

Iron and Elves have a tradition of not mixing very well in fantasy literature, so this one appears to be a new twist. However, it also seems to be gritty, and I don't seem to be having much luck reading gritty fantasy lately. Gritty science fiction I can enjoy in quite heavy doses, but for some reason, gritty fantasy is not working for me these days.

What about the rest of you? Sound interesting?

An Interview with Elizabeth C. Bunce!

2008-07-09T19:55:00.001-04:00

I announced A Curse as Dark as Gold several months ago, and it's one of those books that have stayed on my to-read list, only to be crowded out by books sent by various authors and publishers. I went ahead and asked Elizabeth C. Bunce for an interview anyway, because a number of you seemed really interested in her novel. She kindly consented to answer any follow-up questions that I may have after I do read her novel.

In the meantime, she's given us all some wonderful teasers below!

Please tell us a little bit about A CURSE DARK AS GOLD and about your inspiration for this novel.
My inspiration for this novel was, of course, the fairy tale "Rumpelstiltskin," particularly the miller's daughter and the concept of spinning straw into gold. As a fairy tale enthusiast, I was fascinated that a story about the power of names has an anonymous heroine. And as a needlewoman, I was instinctively drawn to gold thread. My interest in history led me to the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution, and those three ideas, somehow, were a natural fit.

Tell us about your favorite scene in A CURSE DARK AS GOLD.
I'm not sure I have a favorite scene, but there are some moments I'm particularly fond of: Charlotte and Randall at the tenterfields, Harte falling from the ladder, the big reveal at the crossroads, Uncle Wheeler's last scene. I think the reasons these spring to mind for me is because they came out almost exactly as I'd envisioned them, in the first draft, and that's always satisfying--to see a key moment almost write itself.

What about any scene that may have given you trouble?
The scene that gave me the most trouble actually didn't make it into the final book. I originally had Charlotte and Randall meet at a very ill-fated dinner party, where everyone was on their absolute worst behavior. I must have written six or seven different versions of the scene, and something about it just never worked. It was a fun scene--lots of awkward conversation, outrageous snobbery from Uncle Wheeler, and scandalous commentary from Rosie--but it involved several characters who were cut from the final story, and it just became cumbersome. So when I finally decided to axe it, it was actually with relief (although my mother did wonder what had become of it when she read the published book!).

Have you completed any other novels besides A CURSE DARK AS GOLD? If so, can we expect to see any of them in print?
CURSE was actually the second novel I finished. The first is another retelling that may or may not ever see the light of day. I've just sold two more books to Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic, and the first of those, currently called STARCROSSED, will be published in the fall of 2010.

Please share with us the story of how A CURSE DARK AS GOLD came to be published.
I belong to a wonderful critique group called Juvenile Writers of Kansas City. In 2004, we held our first big conference, where I met my agent, Erin Murphy. Inspired by the conference scene, I started looking for other such opportunities, and learned of an event near my parents' new home in Arizona. When I researched the faculty, I found a wonderful interview with Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine Books editor Cheryl Klein, talking about a book she'd edited, Kate Constable's wonderful THE SINGER OF ALL SONGS. I had really enjoyed that novel, so I read a little more closely... and when Cheryl said SINGER reminded her of her favorite childhood novel--MY favorite childhood novel!--I thought there was a really good chance she'd connect with my work (and even if she didn't, Arizona's a lovely place to be in November). As it happened, I was right! It took me several more months to finish the novel and get it to Cheryl, and the rest you know.

Please tell us about when you first realized that you are a storyteller, and about any authors who may have inspired you.
I've always told myself stories about imaginary people--when I was in third or fourth grade I drew a series of goofy picture books about best friends (both girls) named Stanley and Pickle Relish (I don't know). When I was about twelve, though, I started wondering why I still had so many odd companions populating my thoughts--hadn't most kids grown out of their imaginary friends long ago? But I couldn't shake them, and I finally put the pieces together when I was a sophomore in high school, and realized that the books that I loved were written by real people, as a job, and that I could do that, too. That was the moment I got really serious about my writing, and started studying my favorite authors for craft, particularly authors who wrote really lush fantasy with an incredible voice, like Peter S. Beagle and Robin McKinley.

Do you have anything else you would like to add?

Thank you so much for this opportunity! I hope your readers enjoyed it.

And Now, a Song!

2008-07-09T06:06:00.000-04:00

I seem have helped inspire a song!

Page 123

Really, I don't know whether to be insulted or flattered. No, I'm just kidding; of course I'm not insulted. The guy wrote a hilarious song and it's worth listening to. His site is called Sci Fi Songs. I think he has a future in music!

Historical Debut: His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik

2008-07-06T05:57:00.002-04:00

I've been looking forward to reading HIS MAJESTY'S DRAGON by Naomi Novik (blog) for a long time. As a longtime reader of fantasy, I am familiar with the concept of a dragon bonding to his or her rider. Two of the most famous novels of this microgenre are, of course, Dragonriders of Pern and Eragon. I remember reading Dragonriders and being so completely blown away by the ending that I just had to go back and reread it right away. HIS MAJESTY'S DRAGON didn't quite reach that height of enjoyment, but it came very close.

Captain Will Laurence of the HMS Reliant has just captured a French vessel. He is rather irked at the enemy captain for putting up what he thought of as an unnecessarily stiff resistance . . . until he sees what is in the hold of the enemy ship. It's a dragon's egg, carefully packed and hardening fast. And a hardening shell means it's about to hatch.

Laurence cannot risk the dragon ending up feral. It must bond to someone. The ship's officers draw straws to determine who is going to bond to the creature. They make their pick, but the dragon has another idea. He picks Laurence. He asks Laurence for a name and Laurence--completely unprepared--names it Temeraire after "a noble dreadnought which he had seen launched, many years before . . ."

It turns out to be an unusual name for a dragon, since they generally have grandiose Roman names such as Maximus, Levitas and even Excidium. There are many other differences between Navy and aviator life, several of which I have a bit of a quibble.

As an Air Force veteran, I have a bit of experience in being a member of the most casual of the armed forces, but I cannot imagine it having been so casual that neglect of even the appearance of my jet (I was an aircraft mechanic) would have been tolerated. It had to be wiped down after every flight. A significant storyline depends on one of Laurence's fellow officers neglecting his dragon to the extent that the poor dragon had sores under his harness. Such neglect always reflects poorly upon the commanding officer, but in this case, the commander's reputation didn't appear to suffer because of the junior officer's neglect.

Other than this and one or two other quibbles not worth mentioning, this novel is superb. Temeraire was an engaging character. Laurence was almost motherly to Temeraire and even called him "My dear." The major relationship explored here is between Laurence and Temeraire. I loved the surprises toward the end. Novik prepared the reader so well for the biggest surprise that I could not think of it as a deus ex machina, since it made such perfect sense. My favorite characters are probably predictable: Jane (Excidium's rider) and her daughter "Roland", along with Maximus's rider, the rather overweight Berkley.

Things I wish had been explored? I wish I could have seen a feral dragon. I'd like to know why dragons bond at all with humans. The thing that took me most aback--that dragons can talk right out of the shell--was nicely explained. But I wanted more.

I suppose that's what the future volumes are for!

Happy Day!

2008-07-04T08:18:00.000-04:00

For all my fellow Americans who stop by today, happy Independence Day! Go off and be merry. Our air conditioning is broken. I'm sure we'll be paying top dollar to have it repaired on Independence Day.

I probably won't bother posting anything for the rest of the weekend. However, we're having a great discussion on the next post down on books we could not finish. We'd love to have you chime in.

Two Difficult Reads

2008-07-02T19:00:00.001-04:00

I seem to be suffering from a summer slowdown, not only in blog posts but in reading in general. I've started a whole bunch of books lately but have not finished any. I'm furthest along with His Majesty's Dragon by Niomi Novik--which I've loved every bit as much as I thought I would--and I expect to post a review in a few days.

This is sort of a reverse review. I'm seeking your input. I've had trouble getting into two novels. If you've read either of these books, I'd to know what you thought. I've had both books for months.

In the Eye of Heaven by David Keck
I'm still interested in this book. The blurb hooked me quite nicely, but I'm having trouble getting through the opening chapters. I find the dialog a bit cryptic and I've reread sections while trying to understand what's going on. I generally enjoy knight stories so I really wanted to read this one. If you've read it, I'm past the point where Durand has his visitation by the Traveler (which I read twice just to make sure I understood) and he has left home and met up with a wandering bard named Heremund. If you read it, what did you think? I've read some reviews out there among blogs I frequent, and they appear to be mixed.

Seekers of the Chalice by Brian Cullen
I'm afraid that despite an engaging cover, this novel is not holding my attention. I cannot be interested in recovering the chalice and I don't feel any interest in Cumac, the main protagonist. An elf-girl named Fedlem has joined him, apparently in the nick of time. I'm not finding any reviews out there, outside of a couple Amazon reviews--certainly not any reviews among the blogs I frequent, or even that can be found via Google. Because it has not received much attention I was interested in reading it, but it's becoming a bit of a chore. Has anyone tried to read this? Or tried to?

I hate not finishing books, so I'll probably pick them up and try again at some point, especially if I get a recommendation here. However, I have a lot of book competing for my attention these days.

Have you tried to read any books lately, and failed?

Debut Showcase Round-Up

2008-06-29T15:14:00.007-04:00

I got a bit behind in debut announcements over the past two weeks and I spent an hour at Fantasy Book Critic last week getting caught up (thanks, Robert!). I'll be handling my debut showcases in batches on the weekend for the next few weeks, as a summer slowdown. I expect a nifty little device to be delivered next week that will free up some of my evening time. However, after that it will be the Fourth of July, and the weekend after that I'll be on vacation.

Promise of the Wolves
by Dorothy Hearst
Hardcover
Simon and Schuster

Blurb:
What is the promise of the Wolf? Never consort with humans. Never kill a human unprovoked. Never allow a mixed-blood wolf to live. At least that’s what the wolves of the Wide Valley believe. Until a young wolf dares to break the rules–and forever alters the relationship between wolves and the humans who share their world.

This is the story of such a wolf. Born of a forbidden mixed-blood litter and an outcast after her mother is banished, Kaala is determined to earn a place in the Swift River pack. But her world is turned upside down when she saves a human girl from drowning. Risking expulsion from their pack and exile from the Wide Valley, Kaala and her young packmates being to hunt with the humans and thus discover the long-hidden bond between the two clans. But when war between wolves and humans threatens, Kaala learns the lies behind the wolf’s promise. Lies that force her to choose between safety for herself and her friends and the survival of her pack–and perhaps of all wolf- and humankind.

Set 14,000 years ago, Promise of the Wolves takes us to a land where time is counted in phases of the moon, distance is measured in wolflengths, and direction by the scent of the nearest trail. Years of research into the world of wolves combines with mythical tale-telling to present a fantastical adventure set in a world filled with lore.

Wow; another prehistory novel. This sounds fascinating. I can see myself reading this one.

Gordath Wood
by Patrice Sarath
Mass Market Paperback
Ace Books
Excerpt

Blurb:
Something strange is happening in Gordath Wood, the old woods surrounding a training stable called Hunter’s Chase. The police think Lynn Romano and Kate Mossland have been murdered, but what actually occurred is much stranger. They’ve gone through a hole between worlds, into a medieval society at war. In a world that doesn’t ordinarily have use for women, the danger is great—good thing Lynn and Kate aren’t your ordinary women.

I wish this blurb were more descriptive. It appears to have a parallel story--the investigation about their disappearance and their trip to the older world. Portal novels are always fun.

Havemercy
by Jaida Jones + Danielle Bennett
Hardcover
Spectra

Blurb:
Thanks to its elite Dragon Corps, the capital city of Volstov has all but won the hundred years’ war with its neighboring enemy, the Ke-Han. The renegade airmen who fly the corps’s mechanical, magic-fueled dragons are Volstov’s greatest weapon. But now one of its more unruly members is at the center of the city’s rumor mill, causing a distraction that may turn the tide of victory.

With Volstov immersed in a scandal that may have international repercussions, the Ke-Han devise an ingenious plan of attack. To counter the threat, four ill-assorted heroes must converge to save the kingdom they love: an exiled magician, a naive country boy, a young student—and the unpredictable ace airman who flies the city’s fiercest dragon, Havemercy.

But on the eve of battle, these courageous men will face something that could make the most formidable of warriors hesitate, the most powerful of magicians weak, and the most unlikely of men allies in their quest to rise against it....

This blurb is also a bit vague, but that's ok because it's getting so much attention that all you need do is Google it and you'll see a bunch of reviews, including these.

The Debut Graduates of June

2008-06-26T05:31:00.016-04:00

Now that I've been doing this for a year, there are more debut graduates to cover every month. I found four for this month. Here's a little snippet on each of them:

A Fire in the North by David Bilsborough

This author lives in a tiny village in Java, and therefore maintains no Internet presence (he discusses it here). His first novel, The Wanderer's Tale, came out a year ago Here's the blurb for his second novel, which Tor provided to me as a review copy:

Five hundred years ago a huge force defeated an evil, supernaturally powerful tyrant who terrorized and ravaged those who cowered under his lash. Now, terrible news from the north suggests that someone or some thing is once again preying upon the northern lands, threatening to once again darken the lives of those whose forebears still remember the horrific past.Now, a small, motley band faces a daunting challenge. Led by a brave warrior and a visionary priest, they have finally reached the land to the north. They have seen wonders and endured terrifying experiences, barely escaping from a dizzying series of perils, magical and otherwise. But the direst perils lie before them as they approach the evil that has risen again, its dread power terrorizing and enslaving all who oppose it. Finally, the Wanderer, fated to face the ultimate test, will confront his destiny. A world and its trembling masses await the outcome.

Escapement by Jay Lake

Jay Lake has published a slew (and I do mean a slew) of short stories, and his debut, Mainspring, was warmly received last year. I have not read it yet, but it's one of those that I'd like to read because it sounds so imaginative. Here's the blurb for the next book:

In his novel Mainspring, Lake created an enormous canvas for storytelling with his hundred mile high Equatorial Wall that holds up the great Gears of the Earth. Now in Escapement, he explores more of that territory. Paolina Barthes is a young woman of remarkable intellectual ability – a genius on the level of Isaac Newton. But she has grown up in isolation, in a small village of shipwreck survivors, on the Wall in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. She knows little of the world, but she knows that England rules it, and must be the home of people who possess the learning that she so desperately wants. And so she sets off to make her way off the Wall, not knowing that she will bring her astounding, unschooled talent for sorcery to the attention of those deadly factions who would use or kill her for it.

The Cold Minds by Kristin Landon

I read Kristin's debut, The Hidden Worlds, last year, plus I interviewed her. I found it almost impossible to put down and somewhat disturbing. It is the type of novel that compels you in spite of yourself. I plan to snatch up this sequel sometime soon.

After Earth's destruction by ruthless machine intelligences known as the Cold Minds, the remnants of the human race fled to the Hidden Worlds. Now, after six centuries of safety, the horrors of the past have returned to finish the extermination. Renegade jump pilot Iain sen Paolo and Linnea Kiaho know that the Cold Minds have found humanity again. To fight back, they need to recruit jump pilots. But the secretive Pilot Masters guard their knowledge—and their ships—jealously. They refuse to admit that the Cold Minds have returned or that anyone not of their number could possess the ability to fly a jump ship. Now, Linnea must prove the Pilot Masters wrong. On the run and desperately searching for allies to oppose the Cold Minds, Linnea and Iain face near-impossible odds. But they know that somehow, some way, they must succeed—or humanity itself will become extinct.…

Spectre by Phaedra Weldon

Phaedra Weldon's Wraith was one of the first debuts that I announced. Back then, she didn't have a web presence, but now she has a nice website with links to her blog and a MySpace page. Turn up the sound! Here's the blurb for Spectre:

Zoë Martinique has the extraordinary ability to travel outside her body at will. When she is drawn into an investigation of a series of bizarre murders, in which the victims are missing body parts, Zoë hopes to help her boyfriend, Atlanta homicide detective Daniel Frasier, stop the killer— one she’s sure is from the darkest levels of the astral plane—without letting him find out about her special abilities.Then danger strikes close to home when Zoë’s mother disappears, and Zoë must use all the powers at her command to save her—even though Zoë knows that, in doing so, she may make herself into something no longer entirely human.

An Interview with Marissa Doyle!

2008-06-24T17:39:00.003-04:00

Marissa Doyle's Bewitching Season is truly one of the most exciting debuts I've read this year. It's fun; it's adorable and it appeals to the teenager who still lurks within me. I act like a nineteen-year old groupie on Marissa's outstanding blog, NinteenTeen, commenting on almost every post. I was delighted when Marissa agreed to answer some questions.

Please tell us a little bit about BEWITCHING SEASON and about your inspiration for this novel.

Bewitching Season came from a fortuitous intersection between a writing prompt exercise and the book I happened to be reading at the moment. The book was a biography of Queen Victoria, and the exercise was in a writing group where we were asked to write the beginning of a story starting with the words, "Oh my god, you killed him!" I got a mental picture of a girl in long skirts wringing her hands over the motionless form of a boy on a rug in front of her...and decided she'd been practicing magic on her little brother. The idea of two young witches rescuing Princess Victoria from the thoroughly unpleasant Sir John Conroy quickly followed...the cool part was taking events that actually happened (the unpleasant Sir John part--he tried his nastiest best to force Victoria to promise him a position as her Private Secretary) and take them a step off the path into fantasy (what if Sir John had resorted to magic to achieve his ends?)

Tell us about your favorite scene in BEWITCHING SEASON.

Hmm. I'm not sure that I have any one favorite scene, but I did have the most fun writing the scenes between Persy and Lochinvar. I love writing dialogue, and I loved writing about these two very shy people who were so wrapped up in their insecurities that they couldn't see how the other felt. There was a fair amount of channeling from my own horribly shy teenhood there, in case you hadn't sort of guessed. :)

What about any scene that may have given you trouble?

Writing about magic in a post-Harry Potter world is a huge challenge, because HP has turned into the gold standard for magic in fiction and it's become impossible to escape comparison. I tried to base my magic in these books on traditional English and Wiccan rites and rituals, but also to make it conform to a nineteenth century world. So for example, Persy and Pen always do their spell-casting in Latin because using a foreign language helps them focus their internal magical energies...and Latin seemed to them to be the most suitable language (French was far too frivolous feeling, and they didn't know enough German)...because those were the languages a well-educated young woman in 1837 might most likely know.

Please tell us how you researched BEWITCHING SEASON. Did you have a lot of background knowledge beforehand, or did you research as necessary while you wrote?

I have an academic background in history and historical archaeology, and have been a history geek since seeing "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" on Masterpiece Theatre when I was about nine. So I already knew the broad history quite well--but I wanted this book to be as historically accurate as possible. That meant lots of micro-research on things like clothes (what colors and styles were "in" for spring 1837?) and food and shops and the minutiae of being presented at court and so on...which was huge fun to learn about and try to get across to readers without bogging down in too much detail.

Have you completed any other novels besides BEWITCHING SEASON? If so, can we expect to see any of them in print?

Well, I have two completed books that will never, ever see the light of day because they're so horrible--but that's okay because they're where I learned to write. I think every author probably has a couple of those. They're not a total loss because I've taken the plot from one of them and totally re-written it as a YA which I do hope will be published some day. I've also got two completed adult contemporary fantasies, but right now my agent and I are holding off on trying to sell them while we concentrate on contracted books. The companion to Bewitching Season, tentatively named Twice Bewitched (that might change...not yet sure) will be out next spring, and a third book is in the works (no date yet)--sort of a prequel, as it features Persy and Pen's mother as the main character's best friend.

Please share with us the story of how BEWITCHING SEASON came to be published.

It's pretty boring, really--I completed the book, entered it in a few Romance Writers of America-sponsored contests to get some feedback on it, and started querying agents with it. I signed with Emily Sylvan Kim of Prospect Agency in October 2005, and she sold Bewitching Season and Twice Bewitched a couple of months later. What was sort of funny was that for a long time I had no idea it was a YA--I just thought I was writing romance until a judge from one of those contests said, "This book sounds like YA." It was a HUGE "light-bulb" moment for me because it permitted me to focus as much on my heroine's journey as on her romance.

I understand that the next novel, TWICE BEWITCHED, focuses on Penelope. How many books do you envision in this series? Do we get to read a novel from Lorelei's point of view (please, oh please)?

I've got two more plotted--one that I mentioned above, which takes place twenty years before Bewitching Season during the Napoleonic Wars, and another set a few years after Bewitching Season that features Charles as the main character and in which Lorrie plays a prominent role. The prequel story is what I'm working on right now, and I'm back to having fun weaving history and magic together. The Charles story has a more fantasy plot, and I'm putting it off a bit until I feel I can do justice to writing a male main character POV, which I haven't yet done.

I love your blog, NineteenTeen, and I find it refreshing in that it seeks to educate as well as promote books. What inspired you to start such a fascinating blog?

I think blogging for authors is a great idea--it can get your name out and keep your readers hooked between your books. But when I decided to take the blog plunge I didn't want to do just another writer blog...so many of them are TMI navel-gazing or all-promotion-all-the-time, and I didn't want to add to their number. So it occurred to me that I could put my history-geekishness to good use and blog about history as a way to use all the cool bits and factoids I turn up while researching my stories and as a way to educate readers in a fun way about the world my stories are set in. I asked my dear friend Regina Scott to co-host it with me as I probably wouldn't have had the discipline to maintain it alone--she's published 17 Regency romances so she's as history-geekoid as I am, and her first historical YA, La Petite Four, just came out at the end of May from Razorbill. We have fun talking about odd bits of history and trying to show our readers how different and yet how similar life in the 19th century could be to our time.

Do you have anything else you would like to add?

Only that I love to hear from readers and am happy to talk about history and writing and books whenever possible! Thank you for letting me do that here. :)

The Disappearing Post

2008-06-24T17:35:00.002-04:00

Grr.

A few weeks ago, I put up a half-finished post for The Mall of Cthulhu and scheduled it for future publication without realizing I did so. Therefore, a week or so later, a bunch of you got a very unprofessional, unfinished post in your news reader. As soon as I realized it was up, I "unpublished" it. Well, I published it again on Sunday--completed this time--and those of you who subscribe via feed readers never knew it because it never republished on the feed.

Here's the disappearing post. Check it out. This debut looks like another good one.

Debut Showcase: The Mall of Cthulhu

2008-06-22T17:22:00.000-04:00

The Mall of Cthulhu (Amazon USA, UK, Canada)
by Seamus Cooper
Trade Paperback
Night Shade Books
Excerpt

Blurb:
A decade ago, college student Laura Harker was saved from a fate worse than death at the hands (and fangs) of a centuries-old vampire priestess and her Satanic minions. Her rescuer, an awkward, geeky folklore student named Teddy, single-handedly slew the undead occupants of the Omega Alpha sorority house, spurred into heroic action by fate itself, inexorably intertwining his and Laura's destinies.

After navigating her way through law school, Laura is now a junior FBI agent assigned to the Bureau's Boston office. Unfortunately, she finds her job involves more paperwork than adventure. Ted, on the other hand, has spent the past decade perfecting the ultimate latte, and works as a barista in a nearby corporate chain coffeehouse named for a character in Moby Dick.

When Ted stumbles onto a group of Cthulhu cultists planning to awaken the Old Ones through mystic incantations culled from the fabled Necronomicon, calling forth eldritch horrors into an unsuspecting world. He and Laura must spring into action, traveling from Boston to the seemingly-peaceful suburbs of Providence and beyond, all the way to the sanity-shattering non-Euclidian alleyways and towers of dread R'lyeh itself, in order to prevent an innocent shopping center from turning into... The Mall of Cthulhu.

Ok, when you know how to spell "Cthulhu" without looking, you are a hopeless geek. And yes, I know what an Old One is, and what the Necronomicon is (but I still need to look to spell that one). In short, this looks like fun. And the "corporate chain coffeehouse named for a character in Moby Dick" just cracks me up. If you've read Moby Dick, you know who I mean. If not, look on your nearest street corner.

Memes and Things

2008-06-21T06:46:00.004-04:00

Since I've been tagged twice (by Aidan and Kristen), I figure I'd better respond to this meme. Plus it's a great excuse to put up another odds-n-ends post.

I'm supposed to go to the nearest book, turn to page 123 and copy the fifth sentence. All my books here at my desk are nonfiction, and they sort of surround my head in my corner cube. The absolute closest one is Nolo's IEP Guide: Learning Disabilities. I'd rather not use that one, so I'm venturing away from my desk . . . ok, here's The Sellsword by Cam Banks.

"Theodenes had named it Star, but it was not a saber-toothed tiger kitten."

It doesn't make much sense out of context.

As for tagging, it seems that I'm one of the last to jump onto this meme bandwagon in my blog circle, so if you want to be tagged, consider yourself tagged.

* * *

I'm going to take a new approach to debut showcases, and hopefully, you'll be able to see my first installment later this weekend. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do; I just know that I'm going to handle them over the weekend. My weeknights are too action-packed (I prefer that term to "hectic") to do debut research during the week.

* * *

I added used copies of Naomi Novik's His Majesty's Dragon and Karen Miller's The Innocent Mage to my stack. There are a few hardcovers that I'd like to review, and I may break down and request review copies for them. They are The Mirrored Heavens by David J. Williams and A Curse as Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce.

* * *

That's about it for today. It's been a kind of lazy week, and the weekend promises to be the same. I'm going to get a new purse, though. That's kind of exciting, isn't it? Even a Wal-Mart purse?

Debut Graduate: The Stars Down Under

2008-06-19T17:58:00.000-04:00

THE STARS DOWN UNDER by Sandra McDonald (blog) takes a mystical turn in the universe she created in her first novel, The Outback Stars. Her world was never excessively gritty, but now it is venturing into the realm of space fantasy. What do I mean by space fantasy? Think Star Wars.

However, I could be mistaken. After all, according to Arthur C. Clarke, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." What seems like magic now could very well turn out to have a rational science-fictiony explanation in the third volume in this series.

In The Outback Stars, the point-of-view started with Jodenny Scott and shifted between her and Terry Myell. This technique carried on into THE STARS DOWN UNDER, but while Jodenny had the starring role in book 1, Terry gets his turn in the spotlight in book 2. They are both assigned to the same military installation, this one planetside. Terry is assigned to Supply School, where he runs into some problems because he has declined to undergo "chief initiation", which is where new Chiefs--which is a military rank--are hazed. This hazing is not required, but military traditions can sometime seem like a requirement, and Terry's fellow Chiefs resent his uninitiated status.

In the meantime, a team of explorers has gotten lost in the network of teleportation spheres that Terry and Jodenny explored in the first novel. And now the spheres won't work at all. The would-be rescuers want Jodenny and Terry to try to trigger the spheres, because they were the last ones to use it. After some significant cajoling, first Jodenny tries, then Terry.

The spheres work for Terry. The space marines whip out a set of prewritten military orders that command Terry to go with them, and he must leave Jodenny behind. While searching the worlds for the lost team, Terry has a series of adventures, and the story turns into what I term a space fantasy. Often, the reader is uncertain if what he is experiencing is a dream or reality. Terry undergoes a series of trials that make any Chief initiation look like the pranks of high school boys.

And as an alien species threatens Earth, it becomes clear that Terry has become some sort of chosen one.

There were a few things that I was hoping to see in this novel that I am still waiting for. One is the final disposition of Chiba, the Chief who gave Jodenny such grief in the first novel, and who got lost in the spheres. I doubt the author forgot him, but it looks like I'll have to wait until book three to find out what happened with him. I'm sure he survived, and that he's up to no good.

Another is an explanation of the Debasement of Earth. All I really know is that Earth was Debased through pollution and wars, but there is no specific history. Plus, Earth doesn't seem particularly uninhabitable. Unpleasant, yes--unlivable, not that I could tell.

As a reader, I also wanted to know some of the reasons that some of the characters had for their motivations. Usually, we only know that the character decided to do X. Even if it was a difficult decision, we don't get into the character's heads much. I actually enjoy reading about how a character angsts over a decision.

I also am curious about why Terry was chosen. My suspicion--and I have no insider knowledge--is that he has some sort of mental ability that makes him a natural choice. The plot has hinted at some sort of higher ability throughout both books, so I'm interested to see how this pans out.

The novel kept my attention thoroughout, and I set aside several other novels because this novel did a better job holding my attention. McDonald excels at chapter breaks. Just when Terry is getting into some hairy situation, we switch over to Jodenny, but that turns out to be ok because Jodenny ran into her own set of adventures.

Don't go into this novel expecting gritty military science fiction. However, I hesitate to call it
soft, either. This is the second novel of a trilogy, and like most such novels, there's a lot of plot development with more questions than answers by the end, leaving you itching for the next volume.

This novel is available in hardcover.

The Name of the Wind - Opening Chapters

2008-06-17T19:56:00.005-04:00

I want to do a "featured debut" of THE NAME OF THE WIND, but not until I'm deeper into it. It is 722 pages and I know it's going to take a while for me to read it. So when I'm about halfway through, I'll make my little widget and throw up all the usual links.

Patrick Rothfuss backs into his novel like a slow-moving semi tractor trailer. The book is large and ponderous, and it moves that way. It even seems to emit a warning that says, "Adventure ahead! Just be patient!" It starts with an innkeeper named Kote, who quickly demonstrates that he is no ordinary innkeeper. He has an apprentice of sorts, named Bast, who appears to know all (or most) of Kote's secrets. Of course, we know from the cover blurb that Kote is really Kvothe, but none of this is revealed to the reader yet.

Lots of things happen while you get this sense of waiting for the story to begin. Chronicler--who is referred to by his title--encounters a band of thieves on his way to Newarre. In the meantime, Kote decides to mount his old sword on the wall of his inn. Then Kote goes out and does battle with a band of demonic spiders--singlehandedly--while at the same time, rescuing Chronicler from the same spiders. Kote takes him home and stitches him up, at which time Chronicler proposes that Kote tells him his story.

They bicker over the specifics of how long it will take to tell the story like two merchants haggling. Eventually, Kote gets his way--it will take three days. Hence the subtitle of the novel, The Kingkiller Chronicle: Day One. By the time Kvothe finally starts the story, you are at the end of Chapter Seven, on page 57.

Wow. This was essentially a 57 page prologue. At this point, the narrative switches from third person to first person.

I know from reading other reviews and interviews that it took Rothfuss a long time to sell this novel. According to the bio on his website, the novel was "rejected by roughly every agent in the known universe." The novel starts out terrific, yet it is not one of those openings that grabs the reader by the throat and doesn't let go. Anyone whose been around this blog for a while knows that I don't necessarily prefer fast-paced novels. I enjoyed Across the Face of the World, which moved about as slowly as the novel's title suggests. When I'm reading a long novel, I expect to be kept enthralled for at least a week. You know how it is when you go to a movie and you enjoy it so much that you don't want it to end? That's the sort of reading experience I want from a long novel.

But a pace this slow seems exceptional. On another blog, I jumped into a discussion about a novel that I often mention here, The Once and Future King by T. H. White. My blog buddy wondered if White would have been able to publish his novel in today's publishing world. THE NAME OF THE WIND proves that he probably could have--but it may have taken a great deal of effort. And judging from how well the novel's doing, I have a lot of company in my enjoyment of slower-paced novels.

I'm sure I'll have more to say about the pace in future installments.

Game Review: Morrowind

2008-06-14T06:22:00.003-04:00

As promised, here's my just-for-fun review of the computer role playing game, Morrowind.

My computer role playing game experience goes back as far as my reading of fantasy fiction. My first-ever computer RPG was Ultima 5. When I get a computer game I like, I tend to stick with it for years. I loved and still occasionally enjoy Fallout (the first one, not the second one), which came out in 1997 and Arcanum, which came out in 2001. Fallout is an odd little game. It's based on 1950s nuclear apocalyptic novels, yet is set far in the future. Arcanum is perfectly described by its tagline: Of Steamworks and Magik Obscura. Steampunk. Great fun.

Fallout is the closest I've seen to perfection in a computer role playing game. The dungeons aren't too big (a flaw in all the Ultimas and in Arcanum) plus your character gets to run around wearing leather and shooting guns. And it has an engaging storyline.

Morrowind, which came out in 2002, comes close to the ideal achieved in Fallout, but it doesn't quite get there. It's biggest flaw is its conversation system, which is essentially a souped-up version of the badly-flawed conversation in Daggerfall, which is Morrowind's predecessor. However the game gets high marks from me for almost everything else.

Graphics. When I first purchased the game, it ran with no problem on both of our computers, neither of which were state-of-art at the time. I was very pleased when I purchased the game, because it didn't require all the latest and greatest stuff. I don't have the same praise for its successor, Oblivion.

Even so, the graphics are beautiful. I don't tend to require a lot out of graphics in my computer games, which is why I still enjoy Fallout. I'm more interested in the story and the interaction with the characters.

It's great fun to take your character for a swim, battling undersea foes while you are down there. It's even more fun to fly over the city and look down. And the city graphics are simply stunning--especially in towns like Pelagiad and Caldera.

Customizability. The faces are almost all universally ugly. I don't know what they were thinking. The hair tends to stick out in all directions and unless you go for the darkest or lightest colors, it has odd stripes. Since I tend to play warriors, I am only too happy to cover the entire mess up with a wicked looking helm.

You can customize your character to play any "class" you can dream up. Some are highly playable, some will quickly get you killed.

My favorite race is the Redguard, which is a dark-skinned human race. Redguards are incredibly tough and make great warriors. I also like playing Imperials when I'm looking to play a bard or a pilgrim, because they get personality bonuses. I never play elves because I have no interest in magic-using characters, but there are a bunch of elf options, from light to dark. You can also play a lizard character.

Story. The quests are great. Everywhere you go, someone wants to give you a quest. Some are very difficult and require you to hoof it across great distances. Not all involve bloodshed. Currently, my character has a quest to defeat another warrior in songs and poetry. The only trouble with that quest is I have to travel to the most dangerous part of the game in order to get there. I'm en route now.

There is an overarching storyline, which you can begin any time you want. In my current game, I have not yet begun it. I'm having too much fun advancing in the Imperial Legion and House Redoran.

Gameplay. Travel can be a bit slow. You can opt to use travel services, like Stilt Striders, ships or magic portal spells. But if there are no services to get to a destination, your only option is to walk. In Daggerfall, you were able to "fast travel" to any destination by simply entering the destination at a prompt. No such option in Morrowind, but the game geography is much smaller than Daggerfall.

Besides, if you were to fast travel, you would miss out on all the great stuff along the way. The roads are littered with adventure, including caves, tombs and mysterious "sixth house bases."

Otherwise, the gameplay is excellent. You can be as good or as evil as you want and still follow the main quest. You can become a vampire if you want, and then search for a cure. As your reputation goes up and down, people react to you accordingly. Right now, whenever my character enters the Mage's Guild, she is told that she is "almost a legend in these parts."

It can be a bit troublesome to remember all the quests. There is a journal, but there isn't a place in the journal that shows you all the active quests. If great spans of time elapse between gameplay sessions, its a bit difficult to catch up.

Role-Playing. As I stated above, I really don't like the conversation system in Morrowind. Everyone says the same thing about particular subjects. Each character has different subject options, but if you ask everyone about the same things, you will get the same paragraphs over and over. Certain key character have the ability to actually engage in dialog, but they are quite limited.

There is no opportunity to assemble a group of followers, or even to recruit a sidekick. The best you can do is have someone accompany you briefly on a specific quest. Games like Fallout and Arcanum provide excellent abilities to marshal a following.

Endgame. I can't tell you. I never play these game to the finish. They take way too many hours, hours that I never have. This is why I never play online games, either. I play these games every once in a while, just for a few hours of fun.

You can still find "Game of the Year" editions of Morrowind at places like Wal-Mart and Target for a measly 20 dollars. If you purchase a Game of the Year edition, I recommend that you only install Morrowind, not the other two episodes, which are Tribunal and Bloodmoon. Install those when you finish playing Morrowind or are looking for a change of scenery. They significantly change the game in Morrowind, and you probably don't want that at first.

Morrowind is a hugely entertaining and playable game, and I highly recommend it.

Brain Dead

2008-06-12T19:53:00.003-04:00

I have been so out of my element this week. I'm a client-server programmer stuck in a TN3270 world. As in IBM mainframes. CICS screens and other assorted horrors, like transactions. In the UNIX world, we called them daemons. It was so much more fun.

I've been stuck in a training class all week. (The very term "training class" is redundant, I might add.) And to make it worse, I'm not even training on the programming end of things. I'm training in a 30 year old end user CICS application. No getting into the guts of CICS (whatever that stands for), which might have been mildly interesting. No, I'm training in how to use the actual application.

My mind is fried. It's like its being rewired, or rather, reprogrammed. I'm used to doing GUI design--figuring out whether the best approach should be to use a combo box, a list box or a group or radio buttons. Trying to anticipate and prevent user errors from ever occurring in the first place. And now I'm learning how to use an application where you select a field by placing an X next to it. (Why X? X isn't necessarily easy to type and it's awfully far from the Enter key, which you must press after you press the X. But I have spared you that rant by deleting it after I wrote it.)

Anyway, for these reasons, I'm going to give my brain a break tonight by playing an older game called Morrowind. And maybe on Saturday, I'll give the game a review, just for fun.

Debut Showcase: The Inferior

2008-06-11T05:16:00.005-04:00

THE INFERIOR (USA, UK)
by Peadar Ó Guilín (website, blog)
Hardcover
David Fickling Books (Random House)
Excerpt (pdf)

STOPMOUTH AND HIS family know of no other life than the daily battle to survive. To live, they must hunt rival species, or negotiate flesh-trade with those who crave meat of the freshest human kind. It is a savage, desperate existence. And for Stopmouth, considered slowwitted hunt-fodder by his tribe, the future looks especially bleak. But then, on the day he is callously betrayed by his brother, a strange and beautiful woman falls from the sky. It is a moment that will change his destiny, and that of all humanity, forever.

Some debut novels get a lot of pre-publication hype, and this is one of them. A Google search nets reviews and articles everywhere. However, if this novel is as good as Chris (the Book Swede) says it is, then it appears to be well-deserved. (Chris also did an interview.) The first chapter opens with the best hook I've seen in a long time.