The Gypsy Morph

Author – Terry Brooks

Hardcover
Pages: 416 pages
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: August 26, 2008
ISBN-10: 0345484142
ISBN-13: 978-0345484147

For the sake of full transparency, I would just like my readers to know that I am a moderator at the Official Terry Brooks forum, but that this fact had no impact on the opinions found in the review below.

Terry Brooks is one of my favourite authors. For this reason, I feel it’s important to hold him to a high standard, a higher standard, perhaps, than other writers. I was disappointed in his previous trilogy, The High Druid of Shannara, and wasn’t afraid to express this disappointment – the writing was too lean, too manufactured. Brooks had the formula for writing that type of story down pat and it felt so.

All of my concerns, however, were washed away by the next two novels Brooks produced, Armageddon’s Children and The Elves of Cintra. These novels, the first and second novels in The Genesis of Shannara trilogy, acted as a bridge between Brooks’ ultra-successful Shannara series and his under-the-radar-but-totally-amazing Word and Void trilogy, an Urban Fantasy. The staid and by-the-numbers approach found in The High Druid of Shannara was suddenly replaced by a visceral, imaginative take on a post-apocalytpic Earth with humans struggling for survival amongst a world of mutants and demons. Reading the first volumes in The Genesis of Shannara trilogy brought back memories of what drew me to Brooks in the first place.

Then along came The Gypsy Morph, the final volume in the trilogy, and something was lost. That’s not to say The Gypsy Morph isn’t a decent book, it’s still one of the best efforts Brooks has put out in the last several years, but it just isn’t on the level of its two predecessors. So what’s the problem?
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David B. Coe, author of The LonTobyn Chronicle and the Winds of the Forelands series, has an interesting post on writing and finding your own pace.

It’s short and to the point, but certainly worth taking a look at for everyone out there who, like me, are aspiring writers. The whole thing can be found HERE.

Though mostly a literature blog, I’m always willing to bend the rules a little bit around A Dribble of Ink and this is one of those instances. I’m just so damn excited not to mention anything!

From Blizzard Entertainment, the same guys who crafted Starcraft, and a little game you might have heard of called World of Warcraft, comes the official announcement of the long rumoured Diablo III.

From the official web site:

And two videos via Gamevideos:

All I can say is… there goes another 100 hours of my life.

There is no current release date set.

My first edition of I Ask You went over better than I had anticipated, with a lot of great input from my readers. That one was focused around interviews and it’s had a direct impact on how I approach my interviews.

To that end, I thought it was about time for another edition. This time I wanted to tackle a subject that has seen a fair bit of discussion over the past several weeks around the ‘net: Reviews.

Some things to think about: How much plot synopsis do you like? Do you like in depth literary reviews full of quotations, passages from the novel, solid examples? Or more off the cuff reviews? Who are some of your favourite reviewers? Whose reviews do you not enjoy a whole lot?

When I approach Brian Ruckley, author of the acclaimed Winterbirth (REVIEW) and the newly released Bloodheir, a couple of weeks ago about an interview, he suggested we buck the system a bit and go
for a more conversational tone. We wanted to tackle some things that you haven’t read in all the other interviews you’ve seen with Ruckley and hopefully have some fun in the meantime.

In the end, Brian and I managed to put together what is probably one of my favourite interviews to appear on A Dribble of Ink. If you’re interested in learning more about Brian and his novels, you can check out his web site HERE. You can also read my first interview with Brian HERE.

Break out the popcorn, this is a long one! Let me know what you think of the new format.

The Interview

Alright Brian, let’s get the easy question out of the way. Why should readers give a damn about your upcoming release Bloodheir?

    Well I imagine those predisposed to give a damn (to whom I am, of course, inordinately grateful) already do so, and don’t need me to tell them why they should. As far as everyone else is concerned … what can I say? Although perfection remains, unsurprisingly, out of reach, I think I’m improving as a writer, bit by little bit. It’s got one or two plot developments that I really don’t believe many reasonable readers will have seen coming (plus, of course, one or two that they probably will…). And it’s got another lovely cover, just like Winterbirth did, so it’ll look grand on your bookshelf. Come to that, it’ll look great anywhere, so even if you’re only in the market for a cool-looking doorstop, it should fit the bill nicely.
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As many of you have probably noticed, I’ve been fooling around with adding a Twitter badge to the front page of A Dribble of Ink.

What is Twitter, you ask?

Well, Twitter’s like a blog after seventeen double shot espressos. Meant for small, quick and numerous updates, Twitter allows people to keep in touch with friends – what they’re doing/thinking/wanting/hating/asking/etc…. – the guys on Penny Arcade put together a hilarious comic about it HERE.

More than just a personal too for friends, however, Twitter’s a great way for media outlets, like this blog here, to give their readers a little behind-the-scenes look at what’s going on. Through twitter you’ll be able to find out about upcoming content I’m preparing, tidbits about what I’m up to at the moment, facts about the blog (like Neil Gaiman causes a huge spike in traffic, and more.

You can follow me through the badge at the top of A Dribble of Ink’s homepage, or you can do it directly through Twitter HERE. You can even subscribe to it through your favourite RSS reader!

Hopefully this brings another fun level of interaction to A Dribble of Ink!

Bloody Larry. As if the controversial ringmaster of the OF Blog of the Fallen, wasn’t already the bane of my existence, he’s gone ahead and tagged me in one of those internet memes that people either love or hate. But, no matter my feelings on them, I can never resist the opportunity to take part. The meme this time around is:

My Book: Riding the Unicorn by Paul Kearney.

Yep, that’s it. A one word sentence. What are the odds. Thank you, Mr. Kearney, for saving me some pride on this day.

Tagged:

- The Book Swede
- Grasping for the Wind
- Speculative Horizons
- Fantasy Debut
- Jumpdrives and Cantrips

P.S. I’m kidding about Larry, he rocks my world, even if we are polar opposites in taste!

Old Man’s War

Author – John Scalzi

Paperback
Pages: 320 pages
Publisher: Tor Science Fiction
Release Date: December 9 2004
ISBN-10: 0765348276
ISBN-13: 978-0765348272

Hooks, perhaps more than anything, are key to a debut novel’s success and John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War has a great one. A really great one. Old people joining an intergalactic war? Count me intrigued. In the tradition of such Science Fiction classics as Heinlien’s Starship Troopers and Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War, Old Man’s War follows the journey of one young old recruit as he enlists in the army and, at the ripe old age of 75, begins life anew.

If you’ve read and enjoyed those aforementioned novels, you’re sure to enjoy Scalzi’s attempt. In fact, I’d be willing to say that it stands up to those two classics in terms of quality. The thing that sets Old Man’s War apart, in my opinion, is simply the fact that it’s the most recently written. Where most of the technology in Starship Troopers and some of the technology in The Forever War feels dated, Scalzi’s vision of the future feels bleeding edge and a natural evolution of the world we live in now, 50 years after Starship Troopers was first written.
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SFX Magazine, a well known UK publication focused on Science Fiction and Fantasy literature, recently published a list of the top 100 authors, as voted on by their readers. Thanks to Adam from The Wertzone for the heads-up!

The top ten looks like this:

I think this is the first mass-market list that doesn’t have Tolkien at number one, which is interesting itself. I’m glad to see Neil Gaiman so high, and it’s quite impressive to see George R.R. Martin topping the list as the highest non-British author. It’s also interesting to see how many of those authors don’t write epic fantasy; those types of authors usually tend to top lists like this.

The full list is found after the jump.
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Hmm, this is an interesting turn of events. Tobias Buckell, author of the upcoming Sly Mongoose, has been hinting at his current project for a while now, reffering to it as the ubiquitous ‘Project X.’ Well, thanks to Luke Smith over at bungie.net (the official web site for Halo developers Bungie) the beans have been spilled.

I’m not really one for tie-in novels, and I’m not even really all that familiar with Halo (despite being an avid videogamer), but Buckell’s writing is so damn good that I’m at least intrigued by this.

Buckell himself comments on the news HERE.

Robert, over at Fantasy Book Critic, just posted an interesting interview with Steven Erikson, author of the mighty Malazan Book of the Fallen. Among general questions about the series and tidbits about the upcoming novel, Toll the Hounds, Robert asks Erikson about what’s coming after he’s done with the ten volume Malazan series. Here’s what he had to say:

Hmm… two trilogies? Could one of those be an exploration of the Ascendants’ pasts that I hinted about a few months ago?

Ragamuffin

Author – Tobias Buckell

Paperback
Pages: 320 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: June 12 2007
ISBN-10: 0765315076
ISBN-13: 978-0765315076

So began my review of Tobias Buckell’s debut novel, Crystal Rain and I’ll be damned if it doesn’t hold true for the sequel. A novel under his belt and another candle on his birthday cake means Buckell only improved as a writer and that shows clearly in Ragamuffin, which is without a doubt a better novel in every sense than Crystal Rain – which was a damn fine novel in its own right.
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Well, the ink has dried and it’s official, Solaris Books will be publishing a two-volume omnibus of Paul Kearney’s The Monarchies of God

Kearney had this to say on his official forum:

I’ve been speaking with Mark Newton, Paul’s publicist at Solaris, and it’s clear that they really believe that Kearney can be one of the top authors in the field. If anything, The Monarchies of God was probably ahead of its time when published several years ago and should thrive in this new fantasy environment that’s seen the success of authors such as Erikson, Abercrombie, and Morgan.

I’ve been holding off on reading this series for a while now (ever since the omnibus rumours first started floating around) and I can’t wait to get my grubby little hands on this!

The Born Queen

Author – Greg Keyes

Hardcover
Page Count: 464 pages pages
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: March 25, 2008
ISBN-10: 0345440692
ISBN-13: 978-0345440693

Greg Keyes is the most underread author in epic fantasy.

There, I said it.

His most recent work, a four volume cycle called The Kingdom of Thorn and Bone sets the bar for how to write a multi-volume epic fantasy without all the bloat that plagues so many other series. Keyes manages to tell an engaging, fully realized story and bring it all to a satisfying close by just the fourth book, The Born Queen.

Where Keyes excels is in the characters he crafts. Taking familiar archetypes – The Princess, The Woodsman, The Scholar, The Cocky Swordsman – he strips them down to the barest essentials and then reinvents them. The Princess, for once, is likeable; The Woodsman is an unconventional ladies man; The Scholar ends up kicking some ass; The Cocky Swordsman is most honorable and self sacrificing. When we were first introduced to the characters in The Briar King, I had trouble seeing what the big deal was – I had seen all this before. But by the end of that first volume I understood, and that was only the beginning of where those characters would take me.

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Hey everyone,

Just wanted to let you all know that I switched my RSS feeds over to Feedburner, so if things get wonky just try readding my blog to your RSS reader.