Book reivew: "Century of the Soldier" by Paul Kearney

Well, it is almost three weeks ago that I have read this omnibus, "Century of the Soldier", which comprises last three books from "Monarchies of God" series by Paul Kearney, but I've been too busy to make a post about it. Good think I took some notes, because I would be lost what to write.

I have read the first omnibus, "Hawkwood and the Kings" almost a year ago and had a good experience with it, which I described in the post. Again, in "Century of the Soldier", it is hard to make a short description because these are actually three books, and the last one happening almost 20 years after the middle one. But I will make a presumption that you have read the first two books. In essence, there are two main lines. In the east we have Corfe, as one main character, with bunch of other characters, fighting against the Merduks who are once again massively invading Torunna. In the West, we follow events in Henbrion, King Abeleyn's fight to reconquer his throne, helped by wizard Golophin, and return of captain Hawkwood from the far West. And the last book combines these two plots in one, where our heroes fight against the might of the Second Empire, a militaristic theocracy empowered by magic (Dweomer) and werewolves (among other things).

There are several things that differentiate this series from other. There is much sex, especially at the beginning of the first book in this omnibus. Even though I remember some of it from first omnibus, it definitely wasn't so bold. But I was much more surprised by brutal and graphical description of was violence, especially Merduk's rape and plunder through Torunna. Battle scenes are also pretty graphical. Kearney sometimes use trick Erikson often uses: talking through perspective of unimportant character that is later not even mentioned again.

I also liked how Kearney doesn't follow the tropes. We have an uncommon romance between younger man who is one of main characters, and (much) older woman. When I think about it, all love and marital relationships in these books are, well, not very healthy. There is also much of nice ambiguous morale - Golophin and others have to choose the side; Corfe and his love to his "daughter"...

Another specialty of this series is its magic system, Dweomer, but also its coexistence with gunpowder and cannons. Nothing much new compared to first two books, but this is a solid part for Kearney. This is not a classical fantasy - it is a historical fantasy but with a nice touch of magic, maybe akin to Guy Gavriel Kay's books.

What is not a solid part of Kearney is his narration, which is very sterile. In these three books I failed to make any connections to characters, so even when they make unexpected decisions (like Bardolin) or even die (and Kearney is not afraid of killing main characters, which will become more evident later), I just don't care. There was no real spark to interest me in fate of people.

I like Corfe's part in first books (there's no Hawkwood in first book), and things got pretty heated up in second book (which I like better). But pace is too fast in occasions and changes come to abrupt, which results in sudden and not-so-solid resolutions. I would have appreciated it more if the pace was consistent throughout the books.

There are very non-cheerful book - even when they are winning, our characters are not happy. Also, there is virtually no humor (except if you count Murad) and bantering between soldiers is bad (which I really take it as serious flaw).

All in all, "Monarchies of God" have some good points: interesting setting and unique magic system, realistic and gritty tone, complexity. "Century of the Soldier" has all this virtues, but I will remember it more by its flaws: not making any connection to characters and strange pace. Even though the overall impression of the series is more good than bad, I don't believe I will buy anything more by Paul Kearney - there is much more solid things out there.

Book review: "The Half-Made World" by Felix Gilman

As can be seen on this blog, I am mostly dedicated to fantasy series, the longer the better. But I've been tried to broaden my horizon, so I occasionally buy some stand-alone novel, or even SF or something borderline. I first noticed "The Half-Made World" by Felix Gilman on Tor.com, the main fantasy and SF blog that I follow. It sounded interesting, so I put it on my wishlist and bought it few months ago, but read it only last week. My idea about it was as some blend between steam-punk and western.

"The Half-Made World" is set in a very interesting setting. In history and technology level it is akin to 19th century America, but geographically is very different. The East ("the Old East", I think it is referenced somewhere) is more similar to England: a land of peaceful prosperity, colleges and law. The West, divided from East by a large mounting range, has been "discovered" few centuries ago. Before, it was "uncreated" land, a chaos. Now the line of creation is traveling further west, so land between is being settled. It is full of small towns and coalitions, except the two major forces. The Line is ruled by Engines, strong "spirits" embodied in train-like machines, that rule its vast land and people as a perfect machine or bureaucracy: every part of it is replaceable and only a number on paper. The Gun is its complete opposite. It is also ruled by spirits, but these are wild spirits than possess a body of a gun. These guns are carried by the Agents of the Gun, and they give them superhuman abilities like vision in dark, superb sense of smell, great strength, endurance, and healing abilities. But there is a catch - Gun can force Agent to do his will, and since most of the Agents are individualist (meaning criminals, gamblers and other shady men and women), inevitably there comes a conflict between the Agent and Gun that rides him. Usual Agent's activities are kidnapping  blackmail and often murdering of innocent people (not mentioning killing the Linesmen), this chafes to even hardened criminal sooner or later. Just for a record, the Line and the Gun has been in state of constant war almost since Founding of first colonies in West.

In such world, we follow three main characters. Liv, or formally Dr. Lysvet Alverhuysen, is a professor on celebrated Koenigswald Academy in East, after recent death of her (much older) husband, embarks on a journey to West, to work in the House of Dolorous, a mental hospital for victims of war in West. John Creedmore is aged agent of the Gun, inactive for few years, spending his time with gambling and seducing young women (his specialty). Lowry, a relatively high-positioned member on army of the Line (meaning he is placed on top floor, in a small room with no windows - no distraction for his important work) is an ambitious Linesman (which he has to hide, because the system don't allow ambition), almost fanatical in his fight against the Gun. Creedmore and and Lowry are tasked with the same mission: to retrieve the supposedly death General Enver, founder of the Red Republic, the only entity that ever had some success in resisting both the Gun and the Line, who possibly has the weapon capable of destroying both the Line and the Gun. His current occupation and location: a patient in the House of Dolorous.

The book has a very interesting start and you are immediately drawn into its setting. At first, I was reminded to Susanna Clarke's "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell", because of initial Liv's POV, but later I realized it is much more similar to China Miéville's New Crobuzon setting. Far from being its plagiarism, but it has the same feel. It is needless to say that I got hooked up after first three chapters.

Gilman makes his main characters also very interesting. You first feel for them, but as you read you start realizing that they are far from perfect. Lowry is conformist and fanatic, Liv is too-innocent and too above-all (pretentious even), while Creedmore is nice, but actually without conscience. Also, I was very surprised with death of one of the characters toward end of the book.

There is one part of setting that I forgot to mention in introduction: the Hillfolk. They are people of the unmade world, something like very thin Neanderthals. They are enslaved by people in West who use them for menial work. I found the part when Creedmore meets one of their shamans very interesting. For several reasons (connection with the dessert, the river, the old history), they reminded me much on Steven Erikson and his Eres'al.

The plot is interesting, but in some parts it is a bit predictable. For example, I found their first journey into unmade lands exactly as I expected. But in general, the book is interesting and I hope to learn more of its setting and character. Which I will be able, since there is sort of sequel, "The Rise of Ransom City".

All in all, "The Half-Made World" was a very interesting and exciting read. It was nice plot, very good characters and really excellent and original setting. I would recommend it to anybody, but especially to fans of China Miéville.

Book review: "Hawkwood and the Kings" by Paul Kearney

I have encountered "Monarchies of God" series by Paul Kearney in a some review at SFsite.com some time ago, although I forgot most of the details. I had some vague impression of Hawkwood being a mercenary leader in Middle-Age based Europe with existence of magic. When Amazon.com started pumping my recommendation with historical fantasy books because I had "Hawkwood and the Kings" in my wish list, my interest somewhat dropped. But the series still had good reviews, there was some recommendation by Steven Erikson (I don't usually care about front-cover generic recommendations) and it was pretty short (only two omnibuses), I decided to give it a try.

I first planned to do two reviews, one for each books in the omnibus ("Hawkwood's Voyage" and "The Heretic Kings"), but when I started reading the second book, I realized that there is no real distinction between them - the plot goes on immediately. This is actually one book split in two (or more probable, five) chunks.

It is pretty hard to comprise the story of "Hawkwood and the Kings" in one paragraph. Even though these books are very short (416 pages for the whole omnibus), there is a lot of going on. These books are clearly based on 15th and 16th century Europe, during the Turkish Invasions and discovery of American continent. We have several unconnected plot lines viewed from different POVs that make a pretty detailed picture of the setting and the plot. But this is not a historical fiction - history is different, geography, mentality... And of course, this is the setting that contains things like magic, Thaumaturgies Guild, werewolves, homonculus... I again have to repeat that there is really much "meat" in plot for such short books.

A titular character of the first book, Richard Hawkwood, is a moderately successful sea-captain in Kingdom of Abrusio (based on Spain). He gets coerced (almost blackmailed) by a nobleman Murado to captain the voyage whose mission is to find the "West Continent" revealed in a sea-log in possession of Murado. But he doesn't know that this log reveals several prior voyages which all ended bad for those involved, and most of them included some connection to magic. To make their situation worse, King Abeley (another POV characters) forces them to pick a special cast of colonist: Dweomer folk (licensed Guild mages, herbal women, shapeshifters, soothsayers...) who recently got in problems when Ramusian Church (depicted upon Catholic Church) started a series of witch-hunts and prosecutions, most of them ending in burnings. Unofficial leader of this contingent of colonist becomes Bardoling, a capable but unassuming mage and ex-soldier, whose main wish is to protect his young associate, werewolf Griella. Young King Abeley is trying to do the most he can to protect his people, remove the yoke of Church from his government and at the same time help his fellow monarchs in the east who are being invaded by Merduks. Other characters include Corfe (deserting offices, flying from fall of Aekir after its capture by Merduks), Heria (his wife, captured by Merduks), Gollophin (mage adviser of King Abeley), Albrect (older librarian in Church capital of Chabrion, in possession of some interesting documents), Merduk Sultan and other... This is just a synopsis of the first book - I could not describe that of the second one without revealing spoilers; and anyway, as I said, these two books can be read as one.

Prime characteristic of this book, connected to its shortness, is its fast pace. There is really much going on; we have short chapters, each with few shifts of POV in between. So these books successfully grip your attention, if you are into this. At the beginning I was reminded much to Guy Gavriel Kay, especially to "The Lions of Al-Rassan" (one of my favorite books). But later differences start kicking in, and this becomes very distinctive book. I had some problems in the very beginning with warming up to this book, because it uses much of "naval talk" (I don't even want to start listing these words), and I am not into this kind of books (especially not in pirates). But as things start shifting to other focuses, I made the necessary adjustment and enjoyed the book. One of the best attributes of this book was its attention to politics - I really like this focus in books. And of course, it was not presented from just one side, so you have to weight your preferences on your own.

There are much characters in these book, too much to describe them in details. But each one is well written, with his/hers own agenda. These characters are sometimes on conflicting sides, and I really like when writer forces us to think about the sided on our own, instead preparing everything for reader by making a clear distinction on good and bad side. They are all complex, possessing multiple sides to their personality and you will not have any problem remembering who is who. But characters are also included in the biggest objection I had with Kearney's writing - and that is the lack of empathy and connection to characters. They are interesting, but hey all stay pretty remote and reader is somehow not included in their suffering. Also, one could complain about the lack of female characters in this book.

Writing is pretty good, except too much sailor-talk in several instances. It sounds like Kearney really looked into details he wrote about: sailing, guns, society... He focuses more on dialog and plot advancing than on descriptions of surrounding - but when he does, it is done properly. There is some humor in these books, arising mostly from the witticism of the characters, but the tone in overall is mostly darker. This is, I think, a book that can be enjoyed be various types of readers - they are short, but full of details; they are fast, but complex.

All in all, "Hawkwood and the Kings" is one very good book, especially if you like history-based books with lots of details and interesting plot. My biggest objection is its shortness, but I definitely plan to read and enjoy the second omnibus "Century of the Soldier".

Book review: "The City and the City" by China Miéville

I was recently visiting a local bookstore, and they have been having this 3-for-2 action for some time which I wanted to take advantage of. I had two books picked and planned to pick the third in spur of the moment. It turned out there wasn't any books I had considered before (and had on my wishlist) so I (somewhat unwillingly) bought "The City and the City" by China Miéville.

So far I have read only one his book, "Perdido Street Station", which I liked immensely. It is some mix of urban fantasy, science fiction and steam punk, happening in a fictional world of Bas-Lag and a city of New Crobuzon. There are two more books set in this same setting. Anyway, my point is that although I liked this book so much and had heard some really good things about Miéville (reviews of his books are continuously great), I decided not to buy his books because they are not long epic fantasy series (which is my preferred genre). My money and, much more important, my time are limited; and although I would like to read more, 3-5 books a month is currently my standard. Sadly, I don't see it becoming higher in future.

Back to the book in question. This is a very unique book and revealing much about the plot or setting would unquestionably spoil it. You will just have to believe me and multitude of other reviewers that Miéville's books are worth reading.

Basically, this is a regular thriller. It starts and ends with an investigation of a murder. Its main character is a police inspector; we have some hard-core police investigation, which later in a book grows an international conspiracy and acquires cooperation with not-so-friendly neighboring country. I am sure everybody read such books and seen movies with this generic description.

What makes this book so special is the setting. At first, it is a common one: fictional country and its capital city, somewhere in middle-east Europe (not exactly in Central Europe, but not under Russian influence either). As you start reading, everything will first look normal. But since this is a book by Chine Miéville, you expect that things will be anything but normal. So you continue and find nothing amiss, except some descriptions and names that you can't really grasp, but that don't look really unexplainable. And then, somewhere close to page 100 (and keep in mind this is a 400 pages book), it hits you in all its uniqueness and strangeness!!! And your only option then is to continue reading until you finish it...

As I said, the story is quite commonplace and so is the main character, inspector Borlú. A middle year's police inspector, smart and experienced. Somewhat smarter and more dignified that his peers, but not so much to make him a loner. The story is in first-person view and Borlú is a very good narrator. I would say he is also a common-place main character, except his compassion hidden behind a strong facade. This is especially seen in a scene later in the book, when he participates in more-brutal-than-usual police interrogation.

I liked how Miéville incorporated real-world references and details here: slow internet, movie references, real companies... Sometimes the city in the book looked quite similar to the capital of my own country, Zagreb. Although I don't think of Zagreb as romantic as the city in the book is seen - but that is probably because I am used to it.

Although I found this book great, it is not flawless. Setting is very well imagined and quite shocking at first, but the sense of shock gradually fades as you get used to it. This becomes more present as you close toward the end of the book, when all is explained and some more mysterious elements disappear. Maybe if few things were lest unexplained, a sense of wonder would remain stronger. But the story itself has enough twists to keep you interested.

Never minding this small objection, "The City and the City" is one of the best books I have read in several years, really intriguing and original. It is relatively short and it definitely doesn't belong solely to fantasy genre, so I would recommend it to everybody. As for myself, I plan to read Miéville's other works.

Anime review: "Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail"

I have had "Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail" in wish-list since it came out more than half a year ago, but I couldn't find a decent sub to watch it. I finally watched it for almost two weeks ago, now, but didn't have the time to write the review.

I find it very difficult to write this post. First, this is a OVA with five episode, 35 minutes each - not even a full season. Second, it is a third season - those who watched first two will know what to expect, and those who didn't should first watch these two. Third, I watched the second season quite some time ago (four years, ago! I just realized!), so I can't say I remember all the details of plot. Anyway, I intend to keep this short...

In this third instance of "Black Lagoon" we are dealing with only "one case". Roberta, maid of now dead drug-lord Lovelace from Venezuela is coming to Roanapur to exact her revenge. Since Roberta is most deadly person ever to come to Roanapur, a place already full with deadly people, this agitates current powers in the city: ex-Soviet criminal syndicate, Chinese Triada, Italian Mafia, Columbian Cartel, and everybody else. To this boiling cauldron comes young Garcia Lovelace, son of previous head of familly, to ask Rock, the most un-deadly person in the whole city, to stop Roberta...

"Black Lagoon" tries to win the audience with several highlights: great colors, animation and design of characters (especially women, who are mostly young, beautiful and big-breasted), intense action both, gritty and sometimes shocking humor. This is classical example of the genre "girls with guns" But its biggest advantage in my opinion is the "honor between crooks" concept, You know, blood-crazy killers, drug-dealers and smugglers who would probably sell their mother, who nevertheless subject to some unwritten honor code or greater good - in this case their home-city of Roanapur.

This "season" follows the tone of the second one - more serious and darker that the first one, which was mostly flamboyant action. Story is quite good, although in the end it becomes a bit too convoluted. It involves many of the characters from previous instances. I am not sure, but I think there is some gap between this one and last episodes. Also, I would like to see what relationship between Rock and Revy will come to.

Serious continues being visual and audio impressive as before. I especially liked the ending "song", which was a great version of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home".

All in all, "Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail" is a solid continuation of a good series. Those who liked first two seasons, especially the second, will pretty much like this one. And those who haven't should watch one of the classics. If anything, this season persuaded me to read the manga in near future.

Anime review: "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood"

It turned out this was one more of my false predictions, but I am very satisfied with it, because this version of "Fullmetal Alchemist" is one of the best anime I have stumbled on so . Definitely among first ten, at least!

Original FMA was one of the first anime I watched. It was impossible to avoid it at that time. Wherever I looked for recommendations, it was somewhere at the top. Also, comments were full of people discussing whether it was the best or only good. So I of course had to watch it. I quite liked it but I was one the side of those who deemed it only very good. It had some nice premise, good characters and was quite fun, but at that time I was watching only the greatest hits of that time ("Ghost in the Shell", "Berserk", "Cowboy Bebop", "Elfen Lied", "Claymore"...), it some somehow drowned in the mass of other good or great anime. I watched it, marked it as fine and moved on to another stuff completely releasing it out of my mind.

So, when couple of years ago they started releasing FMA:B, which was some alternate version of the same anime (or better said, different adaptation of the same manga) I wasn't exactly thrilled. My thoughts were somewhere on this track: "Oh no, another attempt to suck money with unoriginal idea. They probably just remastered old episodes, added some fillers and now are trying to sell it to new kids who were too young to watch the original". You know, the arrogant mindset of self-proclaimed connoisseur. Normally, I immediately decided not to watch it, since there are better, original anime for me to "waste" my time on.

But then I saw it won a really big bunch of awards. Also, I noticed it has a quite good rating on AniDB. Information that finally tipped me over was when I read somewhere that what I though was original FMA, was actually made much before original manga ended, so they had to make up the ending. On the other hand, FMA:B was supposed to be much closer to manga, which is always a plus in my book.

After I started watching it I was a bit disappointed because first few episodes are identical in regard to plot. Sure, animation is a bit modern and prettier, and characters looked a bit more serious and deeper, but these are not reasons good enough for me to re-watch 64 episodes. Then, were surfaced few details that confused me and made me unsure of my memory. Then, they introduced a few characters that I was pretty sure weren't present in FMA. And then, they went in completely different direction... Of course, by that time I was already hooked up and JUST COULDN'T STOP WATCHING... I think I watched some 30 episodes in two days; the rest I was forced to schedule more evenly on several more days.

"Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood" features a very nicely setting. It is mostly based on first years of 20th century, somewhere around or after the First World War: guns are predominant, but soldiers still carry and use swords; there are many horses, but there are also cars. There are two distinguishing differences. The important one is the use of alchemy. It is in results similar to magic, but it is also based on science, it has many restrictions and it is not so widespread. The rules are not very strictly said and one could find inconsistencies if one would like, but it is nevertheless imagined so good that you don't feel the need to dismantle it; a perfectly guessed balance. The other thing is the use of automails, artificial metal prosthetic limbs, based on steampunk or something like that. Even though the anime could work perfectly without it, and I believe a reason for introducing it were either author personal preferences or desire to comply to bigger audience, it is also very nicely imagined and fits in plot and characters quite tightly. Setting is concentrated in land of Amestris, remotely based on that time Germany: led by Fuhrer President, militaristic and expansionistic.

The story is centered on two young alchemist, brothers Edward and Alphonse (15 and 13 years old, or something like that). After death of their mother from illness, being already abandoned by their father (who is at the beginning shown only as alchemist) they perform one of the greatest taboos of alchemy (also one of the hardest feats) and try to resurrect their mother. For that, they fail and meet the Truth; they are also punished, Edward with taking of his right arm, and Alphonse by taking of his whole body. Edward manages to bring back his brothers soul and affix to an empty armor suit, but they both suffer tremendously. When army learns about their exploits, it offers Edward to become a State Alchemist. Different to regular ones, they immediately receive a rank in army equal to colonel (I think), and more importantly, they have access to funds and extensive data for research; drawback is that they can be called to duty and forced to become human weapons during the war. Because of this they are called "dogs of military".

We join the Elric brothers during they search for Philosopher stone, a mythical substance that supposedly can help alchemist to ignore the laws of alchemy (like that one against raising of the dead or one that states they you can get something only for equal amount of matter/energy). It is only expected that not everybody would use this only for good purposes. And of course, it is an old maxim that power spoils the people... Through their adventure we are introduced to the army, which plays a bit part in politics of Amestris, to other alchemist, to the big enemy and so on. Plot is not a typical one-level, straightforward shounen story. The main story-line is from Edward's and Alphone's POV, but we have a large portions told from members of the army (Roy Mustang, Armstrong siblings, King Bradley...) and even from the "evil" side. There is of course lots of action and fighting, but this is not primary an action anime. I think that equal or even more importance was given to mystery, strategy and politics. I think that FMA had much more focus on action that it is the case for FMA:B. As I said, alchemy plays a great role, but more so on highest level, as plot device (ultimate ritual, sacrifice, etc.) that in everyday happenings. I think that there are lots of episode where alchemy doesn't even happen, or has no influence. It can be definitely said that I liked the plot: it was complex, consistent and quite surprising. This last statement is especially true if you watched FMA before; FMA:B takes you to a completely different direction and does it so in such a great way.

Third thing why this series is so good (other being the setting and plot) are the characters. There is quite large cast, but you won't have any troubles remembering who is who (although I must admit that I didn't even tried to remember the army ranking). Every character has depth and is very believable. I must especially emphasize the fact that even though the Elric brothers are main characters, not everything revolves around them. Other characters interact with them, but they also have their own agendas and don't wait for them at all. Also, not every other character's action is caused by them. For example, Roy Mustang (who is let's say in charge of Elric Brothers) actually interact with them only minimally in the run of show; he has its own plans and even though is willing to use them when they are available, you get the feeling that he would do thing even without them. All characters grow during the running of the show, which is always great. Especial compliments should go to the bad guys. They are pictured as regular flat bad-guys early at the beginning, but we spend much time with them and realize there is much more to them than only bluster and "evil". The destiny of Envy (one of most important bad guys) was one of the most emotional parts of whole series. They are also quite well and originally designed.

I could continue with complimenting it much longer, but I've been trying to give everything an objective review, so I should always mention flaws. Thankfully, there are no major ones, only a few minor. In my opinion, second part of the anime is a bit rushed. I haven't read manga so I don't know how closely did anime follow it (I read somewhere that it is very close), but I believe that additional 10 episodes would even more increase its quality. This is indirect praise, because it is not often that some anime can keep the same level of intrigue and interest for 64 episodes! Also, although I noticed it only later, in some episodes that ending song didn't mean that episode was finished so I missed some material (not much, but sometimes important). I also noticed that the author made all his female characters pretty and well endowed. It is not a real objection, just a remark that even with such a good anime the author or production staff felt they need additional (cheap) tricks to win audience.

Since I recently watched last episode of Harry Potter, I noticed several similar between these two. They are both pieces intended primary for younger audience, but enjoyable by adults with no problems. Harry Potter has magic, Fullmetal Alchemist has alchemy. Both have a large cast, and so on. Privately, I think that FMA:B is better that HP and I hope it will be at least as successful in anime as HP was in movies and books.

Well, to finish this review, I can only say that you should watch this great anime. Sure, there will be those who won't like it. There was an interesting poll on AniDB page for "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood" with question "Best anime ever?". Although I don't believe that everybody would say yes (neither would I), but I think that majority of people would answer "No, but should be in top ten!". So watch it!