ixoy's reading log

ixoy

Finished "Traitor's Gate" by Kate Elliott, the final book in her Crossroads trilogy. Had been a while since I read book two (partly why I decided to finally finish it) but I didn't have much trouble getting back to grips with the plot.

.. Which wouldn't have mattered too much because there's not much plot there. An awful lot of time is spent with nothing really happening, and various characters moving around. Over the course of an 800+ page novel it becomes quite tiresome. There's little sense of threat despite a massive invading army and the seemingly unstoppable Guardians are rendered utterly ineffectively. I struggled to ever get involved and the characters themselves weren't enough to raise my interest.
There are hints of interesting things here - slavery, the idea that power corrupts and towards the end there's the potential for something that would have been a nice change but it never really got expanded upon.
Maybe the rest of the series was this weak, maybe my tastes have changed, or just it could be a weak finish. Not a recommended series and I don't see myself returning to Kate Elliott any time soon.

ixoy

Read "Bioshock Infinite: Mind in Revolt" by Ken Levine and Joe Fielder. Not much more than a short story comprising interviews with one of the protagonists from the game it would not stand alone outside of it. Still fun for a quick read to give a bit of background to Daisy's mind set.

ixoy

Finished "Welcome to Promise City" by Greg Cox. It's set in the universe of "The 4400" TV series, taking place after the end of its fourth (and final) season.

It was straight forward enough, even if I had forgotten a lot of the details of the show (including some characters...). Cox did a decent job of giving a quick bit of background to them and his story unfolded naturally from the cliff hangers left by the show. Being a novel he crammed in more detail than an episode could handle but it still felt like it could have been broadly done on TV and left me nostalgic for the show. I guess, for a TV tie in, that's pretty much exactly what you need. Won't make you a fan but will make you miss the show if you were one.

ixoy

Also just finished "Shadowheart" by Tad Williams, the fourth book in his "Shadowmarch" series.

It's a satisfying conclusion to a series that I've read over far too many years (meaning I've forgotten a number of character arcs). Plot arcs do converge to a final show down and the resolution does work. Oddly enough the culmination is at about 80% of the way through the book meaning the final pieces are just wrapping up the remnants. Some people quibbled that they didn't get closure even with this but I don't expect neat endings in fantasy epics so it didn't bother me.

Like any such books, an editor is often needed but absent. It could have been shorter, probably should have been (768 pages). It never bored me but perhaps a few less battle scenes would have helped and sped up the pace a bit.

All in all though happy with the series. It's not up there with "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn" and it feels somewhat of a bloated idea of his work in "War of the Flowers" but if you're a fan of the author it's a worthy enough series.

ixoy

Finished "Promises Broken" by David Mack, the sequel to Greg Cox's "Promise City" telling the further story of "The 4400" following its cancellation.

I didn't quite enjoy this one as much as the previous, some of which I can point at David Mack's writing style. Unable to pinpoint it down exactly but it felt clunky at times. I also didn't get the feeling that he knew the series that well but was writing to order.

The plot itself upped the scales of conflict a lot, probably beyond the confines of the TV show's budget. It rounded off a number of arcs although, with the very last chapter, started a new one (the last chapter probably best avoided then if you want closure).

Not a bad set of books for those who followed the show but hardly essential reading either.

ixoy

Finished "Words of Radiance" by Brandon Sanderson, his 1088-page potential killer volume in his "Stormlight Archive" series.
Really enjoyed this - probably Sanderson's best novel yet. Writing's more polished than his previous work and the world he's built has some neat ideas. Characterisation is good (albeit not as strong as other fantasy authors out there) but they're likeable and they develop nicely over the course of the book.
He's got a very good eye for action and some of the magic-fuelled scenes are particularly well done.
Despite its length the book never dragged and it did what it needed to: left me wanting more. Very much worth reading.

ixoy

Finished "The Flames of Shadam Khoreh" by Bradley P. Beaulieu, the final book in his "Lays of Anuskaya" series.

The final book was set away from his Russian-influenced lands into ones with a slightly more Arabian flavour. It worked well still, refreshing again from the European-saturation found often elsewhere. The magical elements of the world - think Elemental spirits - was very worthy. It was also very core to the plot trying to save the world from rifts that opened (essentially) to the spirit world The book, and series, built to a very satisfying conclusion tying up many plot elements and characters.

Maybe the weakest element are some of the characters - they're very serious and, while they do develop, I found them a little hard to engage with at times. No major flaw but perhaps it's what holds me back from giving it a 5* rating as opposed to a strong 4*.

As a whole, I recommend the series to anyone who wants an interesting, and original, fantasy series by a new, and deserving, author.