When it comes to building a memorable, visionary city the gold standard (for me) is China Mieville’s New Crobuzon.  However, I must say, Scott Lynch’s Camorr though quite different delivered on many of the same levels.  Lynch showed us a city with an odd peace with crime so long as the nobility was not touched. In that city, thieves were trained as children to make money for other thieves, with a taste all going to the boss of crime, Bavarsi.

Locke Lamora was the best of these thieves.  He and the Gentleman Bastards flaunted the secret peace and willingly stole from nobility…not with knives or guns but with their intelligence and training. Throughout the story, complications arise and the Gentleman Bastards get involved in something far outside their own making.

The Lies of Locke Lamora is a tale of deception, revenge, and frightfully dark magic set in a hostile, dark, and violent world.  Lynch’s tale moves quickly for the 700-plus pages, and in the end, the payoff is certainly worth the journey.  The Lies of Locke Lamora is the first in a seven-part series (only two others written so far), however, it is also reasonably self-contained so that you can be content just reading this one (though I’d imagine you’ll want to move forward after).

Felan’s Rescue is now available on Audiobook!

Felan’s Rescue is now available in Ebook form (and Kindle Unlimited), Hardback, and Paperback!

I hope you’re not sick of Joe Abercrombie yet, because my top 15 Science Fiction and Fantasy novels are filled with his brilliant work.  The Heroes is Abercrombie’s fifth book and he continues to offer one page-turner after another. While I thought the First Law Trilogy had some faults, its world-building and character development were exceptional, and that world-building pays huge dividends in his two subsequent stand-alone novels (both of which take place in the same Universe after the events of First Law).

The Heroes is the story of a three-day Battle. The entire novel covers a span of a mere 5 days, and yet the character development, plot twists, and turns, and battle scenes all stand out to make an exceptional, page-turning read. One particular chapter in the middle of the book called “Casualties” may be the best battle sequence I have ever read. In that chapter, Abercrombie paints vivid pictures of the violent war raging all around and does so in a completely fresh, unique style. What is amazing about the chapter is that it really did not even involve the main characters.

I absolutely loved Best Served Cold and did not know if this could possibly meet that level.  But I think it did in a completely different way. The stories are so different yet connected. Though the novel is a stand-alone in the sense that the plot is completely self-contained, you are doing yourself a disservice if you do not read Abercrombie’s work in order. It’s all good and events/world-building from prior novels only add to the gravity of many scenes in this novel. Read Joe Abercrombie, read The Heroes…excellent novel.

Felan’s Rescue is now available on Audiobook!

Felan’s Rescue is now available in Ebook form (and Kindle Unlimited), Hardback, and Paperback!

A rare trilogy where I find each book to be equally great and unique in its own way.  Abercrombie has been great from the beginning, but he’s also come a long way since The First Law trilogy.  For me, this is better.  Not only that, this is my all time favorite trilogy.  It’s that damn good. 

A Little Hatred

The return to the Circle of the World did not disappoint at all. The characters were compelling as always. I grew particularly fond of the Crown Prince Orso, Rikke and Savine dan Glotka. There is plenty of action, much of which Abercrombie brings in new and unique ways. The segment in the middle of the novel in Valbeck is one of the best Abercrombie has written and like nothing I’ve read before in fantasy. Many of the characters come together brilliantly at the end and leave us wanting to know what happens next. A great novel in its own right, A Little Hatred does an amazing job setting up the stakes of what is to come.

The Trouble with Peace

The Trouble With Peace is another Abercrombie fantasy masterpiece. Nobody in fantasy combines compelling characters with a completely unique take on the traditional genre better than Joe. This was a great continuation of the Age of Madness trilogy that also managed to stand on its own. It’s a story of conspiracy and rebellion involving the great characters at the center of A Little Hatred. This series can hold up on its own, separate from his other work in the universe, but there are plenty of little treats for those of us that have read everything that came before. I think my favorite scene in the novel involved a trip to Sipani for a conversation with the son of a main character from a prior novel. Of course, it’s hard to pick a favorite scene. They are all good. I laughed throughout and was on the edge of my seat, never wanting to put the book away. Read this book…and if you haven’t read Abercrombie before, get to it

The Wisdom of Crowds

The Age of Madness trilogy is better than First Law. Hell, it’s better than any trilogy I have ever read and there’s a good argument it’s the best fantasy series I’ve ever read. The Wisdom of Crowds is the perfect conclusion to the Age of Madness, with Abercrombie hitting on all cylinders.

Abercrombie packed so much character development in these three novels. We feel the weight of the events of all three and their effect on each character. I believe Abercrombie’s Circle of the World novels should be read in order because of all the little connections to history the reader gets to appreciate when he or she does, but this trilogy absolutely stands on its own and for me stands apart from the First Law trilogy that came before it.

First Law was a unique twist on the hero’s journey and the quest to save the world, with Bayaz playing a role I really hadn’t seen before in Fantasy. However, in the Age of Madness, Abercrombie has managed to find completely new, unique avenues from which to explore a fantasy world. The fragility of the monarchy as the world modernizes is an incredible thread to explore and Abercrombie does so deftly, with fascinating characters and beautiful, brutal, action sequences. The result is a stunning and fully engaging concluding novel to the best fantasy trilogy I have ever read

Felan’s Rescue is now available on Audiobook!

Felan’s Rescue is now available in Ebook form (and Kindle Unlimited), Hardback, and Paperback!

Ender’s Game was the book that made me fall in love with Science Fiction.  I read it in 8^th grade and wasted no time plowing into its sequel, Speaker for the Dead.  It was so different from Ender’s Game.  Though the universe was bigger, the story was smaller.  We were focused on a little colony, a biological threat, and one messed up family.  If you were looking for the excellent military science fiction we saw in Ender’s Game, you may have been disappointed.  I wasn’t.  Speaker for the Dead was close to perfect. 

There is so much going on in Speaker for the Dead.  Ender is looking for a home for the Hive Queen.  Novinha is trying to save her family from a danger she doesn’t understand and from biological threat she understands quite well.  A catholic colony is in charge of relations with a primitive alien species called Pequeninos, who populates most of the planet.  However, the restrictions on how they can study the Pequeninos make understanding them nearly impossible.  And Ender is brought to the planet to also speak the death of a family’s alcoholic, abusive father. 

Ender’s arrival on Lusitania is a constant disruption.  He is respective of conventions, but he also ignores many of them.  His purposeful disruption stirs the colony, the family, and relations with the primitive aliens.  Ender’s compassion and brilliance come through on the page in nearly every scene.  He has come such a long way since Ender’s Game, still living with the pain of who he is, but using his understanding of humanity for the better.  He is an open mind, seeking to open the minds of others. 

Ender’s line to the Pequenino, Human, regarding how humans think, quite literally became a cornerstone in how I see the world.  “Human’s question all our beliefs, except the ones we truly believe, and those we never think to question.”  I often challenge myself now, asking why I think the way I do.  At the time I was a Christian because I was raised Christian in a mostly Christian community.  I was a conservative/libertarian child for the same reason.  Were those beliefs really driven by evidence?  I constantly question why I believe certain things even today. 

Ender and this kind of profound, empathetic, point of view coming from an author who has gone on the traffic in too much hate, with little empathy for many, has complicated my feelings on the author and his work.  But in the end, I can’t shake the joy I had reading Speaker for the Dead and the life lessons I took away from the novel.  It’s funny, it’s touching, it has interesting ideas, a great premise, and delivers on so many levels.  It remains one of my all-time favorite books.  

Felan’s Rescue is now available on Audiobook!

Felan’s Rescue is now available in Ebook form (and Kindle Unlimited), Hardback, and Paperback!

How many authors take the 5th book in the series and go to a completely new part of the world, with an entirely new slate of characters, almost ignoring what had been going on in books 1 through 4? You would think that could be frustrating, but it works brilliantly in Midnight Tides, my second favorite Malazan novel.  Remarkably, Erikson manages to keep every book in this series fairly self-contained despite everything clearly building to something extraordinary. That is especially true of this book.

I loved this book from beginning to end. As with Memories of Ice, the prologue was particularly epic. Then we move forward to the story of Trull Senger and the Tiste Edur. Trull is about the only returning character and one I cared little about in House of Chains, but his story and that of the Tiste Edur was great. Their conflict with the Lethari Empire make up the bulk of the book and within the Lethari Empire we get some of the best characters Erikson has brought us. Tehol and Bugg made me laugh nearly every time they were on the page and the humor of their scenes was only part of the joy they brought.

I hate giving away too many plot points, but the influence of the Crippled God looms large in this story in completely interesting and appropriate ways.  This series just gets better and better. It is so different than everything else I have read, so much going on and still so much to see.  I cannot recommend this series enough.

Felan’s Rescue is now available on Audiobook!

Felan’s Rescue is now available in Ebook form (and Kindle Unlimited), Hardback, and Paperback!

This is the midpoint of The Expanse and while it’s unfair to say this was the peak because the rest of the series is so great, I absolutely believe it’s the best book in the series. It’s very different from the other books as we see the crew scatter, get point of view chapters from each of the crew members and we focus far more on the politics and varying interests in the system.

The Naomi chapters are the heart of the story and are consistently excellent. I also really enjoyed getting some focus on Alex and the return of Bobbie Draper. Amos’s chapters at times felt separate and a completely different book, but they were still well done. Part of that is I enjoy Amos as a character so much. The last half of the novel is constant tension. By the end of the novel so much has changed within the system and plenty of future tension looms for the rest of the series. I can’t recommend this series enough to people.

Felan’s Rescue is now available on Audiobook!

Felan’s Rescue is now available in Ebook form (and Kindle Unlimited), Hardback, and Paperback!

Before Game of Thrones, I was always hesitant to delve into the world of epic fantasy. So often these series go on with no end in sight and I liked my novels to be largely self-contained. Iain M. Banks for example is great about writing Culture novels that wrap up in each book so that one does not feel the need to press on right away. However, George R. R. Martin opened up a whole new world of novels that I would later read because Game of Thrones was an invigorating read from beginning to end.

There are a ton of characters to keep up with as Martin shifts from chapter to chapter to the perspective of 11 different characters (and there are other main ones whose stories we do not follow as directly), but the shifts are easy and I found myself getting a feel for all of these characters shockingly quickly. I like how Martin kept the magic to the fringe in this book, you can sense it is there, that it will play a part down the road, but he is dealing with the internal conflict of civilized world. Martin is natural with his dialogue and gives us plenty of tension throughout the story. One is often guessing where different characters loyalties truly lie. 

There’s not much more to say about Game of Thrones.  It’s one of the biggest properties in fantasy, with the most impactful show of the last decade.  This started it all, and if you haven’t read it yet…do yourself a favor and pick it up. 

Felan’s Rescue is now available on Audiobook!

Felan’s Rescue is now available in Ebook form (and Kindle Unlimited), Hardback, and Paperback!

“The Deliverator belongs to an elite order, a hallowed sub-category. He’s got esprit up to here….The Deliverator’s car has enough potential energy packed into its batteries to fire a pound of bacon into the Asteroid Belt. Unlike a bimbo box or a Burb beater, the Deliverator’s car unloads that power through gaping, gleaming, polished sphincters. When the Deliverator puts the hammer down, shit happens.”

Come on…that opening segment is damn near perfect.  Talk about a freaking cool book. From page one this story grabs you and never let’s go. Though slightly dated in that these events are supposed to take place in the early 21st century, Stephenson’s thoughts on the development of computer technology seem at least mildly prophetic. Stephenson describes a United States where privatization has gone to its fullest extent. The government owns and runs nothing. Law is kept by whatever private agency you can find protection under. It’s a rough world.

In that world Hiro Protagonist is the deliverator. He delivers pizzas for the mafia. He carries with him a gun and two swords. He’s also a hacker and intelligence gatherer (gathering intelligence for money). This story is of his intelligence gathering with regards to a plot which would drastically change how the world operates, both the metaverse (in the computer) and outside world. His partner is a 15-year-old blond girl who also happens to be a dynamite skateboard courier named Y.T, To me Y.T. is the highlight of the book. The middle of this book has some large information dumps which take up some time, but the coolness of the rest makes up for it. You are sure to enjoy this book.

Felan’s Rescue is now available on Audiobook!

Felan’s Rescue is now available in Ebook form (and Kindle Unlimited), Hardback, and Paperback!

If you want beautiful prose, it’s hard to imagine better than Rothfuss.  Rothfuss grabs you from the get-go with a gorgeous prologue, as he describes the absolute silence at the Waystone Inn.  Throughout this meandering, coming-of-age, tale that beautiful writing never relents.  This is a truly gorgeous book.

The story begins at the Waystone Inn ran by the story’s protagonist, Kvothe. Kvothe was a legend but now spends his days hiding away working at his Inn. He is recognized by a chronicler whose life he saves and is convinced to tell his life story.

The Name of the Wind then largely deals with Kvothe as a young man 14-16 range. We learn of how Kvothe is introduced to magic and how he excels at the University that specializes in it. I think the physics of how magic works in Rothfuss’s world is fascinating and unique.  Everything about the world has been meticulously thought out by Rothfuss.

Much of how this story will eventually play out is known (or at least we think we know). We know from Kvothe some of the great feats he has accomplished (or at least the legends about him), we know he is going to become a legend, we know he is going to fade into a secluded life. So, this is about the journey and the journey is full of fun scenes, memorable characters, mistakes, risks, and humor.  We’re waiting on one last novel in this series.  The wait hasn’t been short, but the journey has been worth it. 

Felan’s Rescue is now available on Audiobook!

Felan’s Rescue is now available in Ebook form (and Kindle Unlimited), Hardback, and Paperback!

10 Books, 11,000+ pages and 3,325,000 words. Malazan Book of the Fallen was a colossal undertaking but it delivered over and over again. The Crippled God was a fittingly epic conclusion to an unapparelled epic series. The book delivered so many incredible sequences throughout with its trademark humor, action, and philosophy. So many of my favorite characters received fitting send-offs and Erikson wrapped everything up in a satisfactory fashion.

If you’re this far into the series, there aren’t many plot points I need to rehash. Hell, all of this is set up by Dust of Dreams. Everyone has a good idea of the stakes of what is to come. The emotional climaxes of this novel are spectacular, and the action is as good as ever. So, instead of a typical summary, let me conclude the series with some rankings:

Ranking of Novels:
(The Elite)
1. Memories of Ice
2. Midnight Tides
3. The Crippled God
4. The Bonehunters
5. Deadhouse Gates

My initial ranking had The Bonehunters ahead of The Crippled God.  I ended up giving The Crippled God the edge because of the incredible accomplishment of finishing up a 10-book series in such a satisfying manner. 

(Excellent but Flawed)
6. Reaper’s Gale
7. Dust of Dreams
8. House of Chains
9. Gardens of the Moon

(Slow but incredible climax)
10. Toll the Hounds

Favorite Characters:
1. Tehol
2. Hellian
3. Pores
4. Cottillion
5. Apsalar
6. Bugg
7. Itkovian
8. Mappo
9. Tavore Paran
10. Karsa Orlong

Best Prologue: Memories of Ice

Best segments:
1. The Bonehunters at Y’ghatan, The Bonehunters
2. The Siege of Capustan, MoI
3. Outside Aren, DHG
4. Rhulad’s rebirth, MoI
5. The Climax of the Crippled God

Favorite Moments:
1. Tehol’s letter to Byrs. CG
2. Gruntle rallies the soldiers in Capustan, MoI
3. Iktovian’s embrace of the T’lan Imass, MoI
4. Kalam chooses to flea with Tavor, The Bonehunters
5. Stormy tackles Sinn off the stairs, Gesler fights Sister Reverences, CG