Book Review: Before They are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie

((... The woman who rose to greet Glokta as he entered did not seem out of place in the magnificent surroundings. Not in the slightest.

"I am Carlot dan Eider," she said, smiling easily and holding her hands out to him as though to an old friend, "Magister of the Guild of Spicers."

Glokta was impressed, he had to admit. If only by her stomach. Not even the slightest sign of horror. She greets me as though I were not a disfigured, twitching, twisted ruin. She greets me as though I looked as fine as she does.

She wore a long gown in the style of the South: blue silk, trimmed with silver, it shimmered around her in the cool breeze through the high windows. Jewels of daunting value flashed on her fingers, on her wrists, round her throat. Glokta detected a strange scent as she came closer. Sweet. Like the spice that has made her so very rich, perhaps. The effect was far from wasted on him. I am still a man, after all. Just less so than I used to be.

"I must apologise for my attire, but Kantic garments are so much more comfortable in the heat. I have become quite accustomed to them during my years here."

Her apologising for her appearance is like a genius apologising for his stupidity. "Don't mention it." Glokta bowed as low as he could, given the uselessness of his leg and the sharp pain in his back. "Superior Glokta, at your service."

"We are most glad to have you with us. We have all been greatly concerned since the disappearance of your predecessor, Superior Davoust." Some of you, I expect, have been less concerned than others.

"I hope to shed some light on the matter."

"We all hope you will." She took Glokta's elbow with an effortless confidence. "Please allow me to make the introductions."

Glokta refused to be moved. "Thank you, Magister, but I believe I can make my own." He shuffled across to the table under his own power, such as it was. "You must be General Vissbruck, charged with the city's defense." The General was in his middle forties, running slightly to baldness, sweating abundantly in an elaborate uniform, buttoned all the way to the neck in spite of the heat. I remember you. You were in Gurkhul, in the war. A Major in the King's Own, and well known for being an ass. It seems you have done well, at least, as asses generally do. ...))

~Excerpt from Before They are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie

I have become quite a fan of Joe Abercrombie over the last year. After his debut, The Blade Itself, it became clear that Abercrombie was an author with an unusual voice and terrific talent. But I took my time reading this book and deciding what I would put in my review. The reason I did this is because there has been so much glowing admiration for the series that I wanted to make sure that I was looking at the book honestly and not letting my opinions be swayed by what others were saying.

For the most part I would still say this is an awesome series and I am really looking forward to the conclusion-- which is hear is fantastic. But once the novelty of Abercrombie's writing style wore off, I found that "Before They are Hanged" didn't quite grab my attention as quickly as "The Blade Itself."

If you haven't read anything by Abercrombie before, you should know, his style is very blunt. His characters never "make love," they "f**k." Always. I don't have a particular problem with that. In fact there are a lot of reasons why his characters are rough around the edges. Many of them are blunt because they have led rough lives and suffered a great deal. The only quibble I would have with his particular brand of bluntness is that almost all of his characters approach the world in the same way. Whether it be a woman of a middling upbringing or a seasoned warrior, they all tend to speak with the same lack of subtlety.

In "Before They are Hanged," the characters are the thing. I wasn't fully hooked until half-way through the book because there wasn't as much movement as I was expecting, but there was a lot of character development. Each book, so far, has been divided up into chapters that focus primarily on one-- or one group-- of characters. At the end of the first book several of the main characters met up and formed the kind of traditional "band of adventurers" that you'll find in many fantasy books, though Abercrombie's group is anything but typical.

Unlike most merry bands, such as in "The Lord of the Rings," this group doesn't particularly like or trust each other. The only character that makes any attempt to pull the group together is Logen Ninefingers. Logen is a legendary "named" man from the North known as "The Bloody Nine." He's a natural born leader and knows that it takes time to develop trust between people and he does his best to pull the suspicious group together, though they resist his attempts every inch of the way. Bayaz is the mage of the group, though his magic is as likely to harm as it is to help. He's one angry mage too, not at all the sage leader who tries to motivate the group. Jezal dan Luthar is an arrogant young soldier who is assigned to the group despite his lack of battle experience. Because of his ignorance, he looks down on the group, but he also shows the most growth along the journey. Ferro Maljin is brought in because she is of an ancient blood that makes her useful to Bayaz. She grew up as a slave and resists Logen until the bitter end, though she does thaw somewhat.

Sand dan Glokta, another character whose story weaves throughout the book, is my favorite character of Abercrombie's so far. He's sort of the soul of the series as far as I'm concerned. Horribly maimed when he was taken prisoner and tortured by the Gurkhish as a young man, he has, surprisingly, become a senior member of the inquisition-- and a torturer-- himself. Glokta always has a wry dialogue going on in his head, like the excerpt above, and I love the way his character is written. What could be an extremely unsympathetic character ends up being both compassionate and brutally realistic. He absolutely held the book together for me while I was trying to get into the rhythm of the story. I wanted to know what he was going to do, and especially what he was thinking. In "Before They are Hanged" Glokta is sent to the South to try and hold on to a city that is being attacked by the Gurkhish and find out what happened to his predecessor; another member of the inquisition who has mysteriously vanished. Glokta, never sure if he is being sent into a situation that is destined for failure, approaches everything with suspicion and humor. He is probably one of the best characters in fiction ever created.

The last main story throughout the book belongs to Colonel West and the Northmen who were once companions of Logen Ninefingers. West ends up being assigned to Prince Ladisla as sort of a babysitter. The kingdom of Angland is also being attacked on their Northern front by the Northern leader Bethod. Prince Ladisla, a cosseted, useless Prince, is sent to defend an area that is believed to be out of the way and West is sent to keep an eye on him. A group of Northmen who used to fight for Bethod have decided to join West's group after deciding they cannot side with Bethod anymore. Ladisla and his court followers are singularly useless and his character is pretty much the cliché of the pampered Prince. Not unexpectedly, the group finds themselves in the middle of a major battle and West, just barely, manages to save the Prince with the help of the Northmen. After that, it's a struggle for survival as they try to make their way through the Northern forces to safety.

Abercrombie is a talented writer and the book is way better than your average fantasy in my opinion. The only reason I had a few nits to pick with this book is because I found myself wanting a little more shades of gray when it came to the characterizations. I do think Abercrombie is an astute student of the human psyche and his characters do go through a lot of change in this book. But there were times when the catalysts felt a bit heavy handed to me. Also, the blunt speech of the characters, which was new and refreshing in the first book, lost a bit of impact in this one. I found myself craving a little bit of tact as time went on.

I also want to throw my two cents in on a criticism that came up in another review of "Before They are Hanged." One reviewer thought Abercrombie's book was slightly misogynistic, but I disagree. The world Abercrombie has created is a rough one and the women in the book go through their fair share of hard times. But if you weigh the characterizations in the book, I think the men don't fare any better than the women. The men are given their fair share of stupid moments and frankly, I think Terry Goodkind is far less kind to women than Abercrombie. All of the characters here, male and female alike, have heroic and foolish moments.

Despite a few critiques, I still think "Before They are Hanged" is a superior book in an outstanding series. Abercrombie has style that I have never really seen before. It's a kind of no-holds-barred, in-your-face fantasy epic that takes all the typical fantasy tropes and says I'm not going to do what you think I'm going to do, and you're gonna like it.

And you know what Joe, I really really do like it.

Help Me Interview a Bestselling Author

Shadow Mountain Publishing, the publishing house that puts out the bestselling series Fablehaven by Brandon Mull, is allowing me to interview Mull for this blog.

I don't do a whole lot of interviews myself. Several of the interviews on my site have been done by my contributors, for which I am very grateful. One of the reasons I don't do that many interviews is because I fear becoming too repetitious. I'm afraid I will always be asking questions like, "how did you come up with the idea for your book?" or "How long did it take you to write it?" As you can see, I'm not always the most original person.

Interviewing Mull offers me a unique opportunity though. I don't read too much youth fiction, though I am always looking for books that my kids can read. And so I'd like to show my appreciation to a man who writes an entertaining series that also avoids being too explicit or scary for young kids.

So I'd like to ask him some good questions, instead of the same, formulaic ones I usually ask. In this, I ask your help. If you were doing an interview with a bestselling (currently top 10 on the New York Times Children's Series Book List) children's book author, what would you ask?

Of course, I expect many people who read this are likely fans of Mull already. He is, after all, a bestselling author. Or did I mention that already? So if you are a fan of Brandon Mull, please insert your two cents and let me know what you'd like to ask Brandon.

Thanks!

Winner! Playing With Fire by Katie MacAlister

I have randomly picked a winner for a copy of Katie MacAlister's "Playing With Fire" and the winner is:

April Harvey

Congratulations April!

For all you short story lovers, keep an eye out. I plan on putting up another grab-bag of short story books for giveaway soon.

"Dark Maiden" by Norma Lehr

Title: "Dark Maiden"
Author: Norma Lehr
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Juno books

“Dark Maiden” by Norma Lehr is an intriguing new read, which can be finished in one breath at its length of 224 pages and the reader is left energized by everything that happens. The pacing of the novel is lightning fast and action seems to fill every page. The book itself goes along the lines of paranormal romance and urban fantasy, settling for the title paranormal suspense.

Sheila Miller is a devastated mother after losing her only child Timmy to crib death. However she is convinced that her baby was killed by an Asian woman, a theory, which is met with wide skepticism from the people around her. Upon moving out from San Francisco and into the suburbs in order to handle stress things go out of control. People close to Sheila and her family start to die in mysterious ways, huge grey foxes are spotted and the personal drama that marked Sheila’s life is threatening to repeat itself. Amongst this chaos Sheila manages to fall in love with Chad, who has come to reopen the mine on the property she lives in. when all of the events point towards and ancient fox demon, which has desire in a magical stone lost in the mine, Sheila doesn’t sound so crazy after all.

What I personally found as great strength in this book is that Normal Lehr delves into the pool of Chinese mythology, even though today the supernatural genre favors vampires and usual shapeshifters. There is a great diversity of motives and elements used from the mentioned fox demons that change into maidens and their lore, reincarnation and love that has lasted for centuries to even dragons and magical amulets with mystic properties. Sheila herself seems to break the paranormal canons as she appears vulnerable and clueless to what happens with her, which is quite the opposite from headstrong and confident women that know what lurks in the shadows.

The whole story is shown through the points of view of a large cast of characters as they have to deal with different situations all connected with the fox demon. While this creates a wonderful sensation of watching a movie, I would have liked to see the story develop through the tighter core of main characters. As other criticism I would also point that I would have liked to see the story expand through another 100 to 150 pages. This is a really great story and I wished it would go on, so that more of the paranormal motives could be intertwined further into the story and into each other and help interconnect the characters better, but in the end I think that “Dark Maiden” deserves attention.

I stole this from Realms of Speculative Fiction

What Is Your Battle Cry?

Sprinting along the freeway, brandishing two hardened pitas, cometh Sqt! And she gives a bloodthirsty roar: "I'm going to beat you so painfully, your timbers will shiver!"

Find out! Enter username: Are you a girl, or a guy ?

created by beatings : powered by monkeys

Magazine Review: F & SF, July 2008

When I saw the chance to get a free issue of F & SF for review I jumped on it. Why? Because it was free and also because this is one of the most popular speculative fiction magazines out there. It also gave me the opportunity to read it, since I have not had a chance to do so in the past.
The July 2008 issue of F & SF is a pretty solid issue of short fiction (with some non-fiction tossed into the mix). I've never heard of the fiction authors in this issue, but I can see that many of them have quite a lot of talent. Michael Blumlein's "The Roberts" is a really deep look into the complicated relationships between humans and manufactured "clones" and the longest story of this issue. Then there is Albert E. Cowdrey's "Poison Victory" (dealing with an alternate history in which Germany wins WW2 and the price of that war on the Russians and Germans alike), Matthew Hughes' "Fullbrim's Finding" (a story of the mentality of someone searching for the answers to the vast universe and what is found), Scott Dalrymple's "Enfant Terrible" (parasites, children, and the people that hunt them), James L. Cambias' "The Dinosaur Train" (the circus is in town, and it includes real life dinos!), Lisa Goldstein's "Reader's Guide" (a story I didn't read because I couldn't stand the format), and a variety of non-fiction work dealing with movies, books, etc.
For the most part the issue is well stocked with good short fiction. With the exception of the story I didn't read I can't say I was disappointed with anything about the magazine. "Poison Victory" is my favorite story. I found it to be rather intriguing even though the general concept has been done before. Maybe it's because I'm a WW2 buff myself, but it was fascinating and well written. I was concerned about the story at first, mostly because I get very weary about reusing cliched ideas, but it turned out to work really well. It made me consider the heavy load some people must have been forced to bear when it came to the atrocities and horrors of WW2. "The Dinosaur Train" and "The Roberts" are also great stories, although I think the latter was a little too long. I enjoyed "The Dinosaur Train", but it was sort of from the perspective of humor rather than taking it very seriously. Still, it was well written and kept me interested from start to finish. The other stories ("Fullbrim's Finding" and "Enfant Terrible") were pretty good reads, but they didn't impress me as much as Cowdrey's. My biggest issue with "Enfant Terrible" is that it is in second person and while I trudged through it and overall enjoyed the story, it generally annoyed me for the same reason that Robert J. Sawyer doesn't like second person (You walked around the corner. No I didn't). In the case of "Fullbrim's Finding" I found that the story itself was good, but I wasn't very engaged. I didn't dislike the story, though.
Overall the fiction is very good and I enjoyed reading the entire issue (minus the one story I didn't read). The non-fiction was entertaining and I did get a kick out of the review of Jumper by Kathi Maio, which made comparisons between the book and the movie that, while not influential on the fact that I enjoyed the film, did make me think about the film on a deeper level. Generally speaking the non-fiction shouldn't be the high point of a magazine of this nature. It wasn't, but at the same time it was enjoyable and at least applied to the F & SF label.
Style-wise the magazine is well put together. It's a digest format, so we're not talking glossy pages or anything of that nature (it doesn't need it, by the way, since the fiction should speak for itself and shouldn't need glossy pages and flashy pictures). The cover is actually rather intriguing, though I can't think of which story it goes to (maybe "The Roberts", although it doesn't seem like it fits for that either). I do have to give some props to F & SF for not doing what Analog does that I hate: columns for stories. Columns in a digest size medium tend to hurt my eyes if I read for too long that way. Only the non-fiction pieces were in columns, which made things very easy for me. Also, the advertisements should be noted. I've read a lot of magazines that have adverts and some times there are adverts that really don't belong. F & SF attempts to prevent that by choosing very tasteful and actually interesting ads that had me actually looking at them. There is even a little sort of classifieds section where you can go to hunt down old out of print books, etc.
So, the end result of this little review is that I really liked the magazine. Having read the issue gives me a good impression of the kinds of things they publish, which makes my life a little easier when it comes to submitting my own work. I also had the chance to read some great stories by some authors I will be paying attention to in the future. The short story isn't dead yet. It's still got life. Read the magazine if you don't believe me.

Fablehaven 3: Grip of the Shadow Plague by Brandon Mull

The passage grew narrower until they all had to turn sideways to proceed. Then suddenly it widened into a spacious cavern. Warren halted and motioned for the others to do likewise.

"Chokepods?" Dougan asked.
"You won't believe how many," Warren said. "Come forward slowly. Don't fully emerge from the cover of the passageway."

The others crept forward until they all had a view of the congested cavern. Thousands of bulbs floated in the air. Mottled with the shades of cinnamon, brown and black, they were mostly spherical, though the tops looked a bit pinched. Their texture was fibrous, like cornhusks. The smallest were the size of softballs, the largest more like beach balls. All remained in constant motion, drifting lazily until they floated close together, in which case they gently repelled one another.

"What are they?" Kendra asked.
"If you touch them, they burst, releasing a highly toxic gas," Dougan explained. "The gas can get into your system through respiration or even just contact with your skin. You'll die almost instantly, and the toxin will gradually liquefy you. Eventually your remains will vaporize into fumes that can be absorbed the the other chokepods."

"If one of us even touches a small chokepod, everyone in the cavern will perish...."

~Excerpt from Fablehaven: The Grip of the Shadow Plague by Brandon Mull. Shadow Mountain Publishing


I don't read a lot of children's fiction for myself but I do like to pick up books that I think will appeal to kids. Every once in awhile I find a series that appeals to everyone and I definitely think Fablehaven belongs in that group.

I read and reviewed the first book in the Fablehaven series a while back and I was a little hard on the book. But after reading this third installment I may have to go back and re-read the first one and rethink my position.

The series is about Kendra and Seth, siblings who visit their grandparents every year and help as caretakers of Fablehaven. Fablehaven is a magical sanctuary and only by drinking the milk of a magical cow are humans able to see the creatures who inhabit the sanctuary. Fablehaven is one of five sanctuaries for magical creatures in existence and they have come under attack by the Society of the Evening Star, who would like to infiltrate the preserves and steal artifacts of great power. If they succeed, the magical preserves will fall.

In "The Grip of the Shadow Plague," the third book of the series, creatures of light are mysteriously turning dark. Normally benign creatures, like the tiny nipsies and the beautiful fairies that fly around the preserve, have become evil and they have begun infecting other creatures that live in the preserve. Seth is the first to discover this as Kendra has been sent off to join The Knights of Dawn, a group that was formed to protect the magic artifacts hidden on all the sanctuaries.

Seth, who has been impulsive and irresponsible in the past, shows a lot of growth in this book. Trying very hard to be responsible and find out what is causing the plague, Seth even resorts to reading, something he all too often teased Kendra about in the past. But like always, Seth still is quite the young adventurer and gets into plenty of trouble, but I really liked the evolution of Seth in this book.

Kendra also has quite a few adventures on her own this time. First, being inducted into the Knights of Dawn, and then going to another preserve and facing a dragon in search of another artifact; all the while trying to keep her actions secret from members of the Society of the Evening Star-- who may have members who have infiltrated the Knights of Dawn at the highest levels.

When I read the first book of the series, my main complaint was that Seth was too impulsive and that there were never really any permanent consequences to anything he did. But in hindsight, I may have been too hard. This is a book for kids and it is magical, and the world of Fablehaven is wonderfully realized. Also Mull had done a fantastic job of developing Fablehaven into a much larger, more detailed world. Seth and Kendra have matured quite a bit since the first book and they're characters I truly enjoy now.

I can no longer say that there are not serious consequences anymore. This time, when characters are faced dangerous situations, they don't always survive. And though I complained about this aspect in the past, this time I have to say I think Mull handles it particularly well. Like J. K. Rowling did in Harry Potter as the series progressed, characters do die in Fablehaven. But Mull does a good job of not making it too scary for younger kids.

What truly makes this series shine though are the magical creatures in the preserve. There are fairies, nipsies, centaurs, satyrs, nymphs, naiads, dragons, demons and so much more. Every time you turn a page there is something new to experience. In fact, I enjoyed this so much I am going to start reading the series to my daughter. It's time she expanded her world beyond Captain Underpants.