Grasping for the Wind

Book Review: Key of Stars by Bruce Cordell

John Ottinger III — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:01:00 +0000

Genre: Shared World, Sword and Sorcery, Heroic Fantasy
Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Publication Date: September 7, 2010
ISBN-10: 0786956283
ISBN-13: 978-0786956289
Author Website: Bruce R. Cordell

Key of Stars is the concluding volume in Bruce R. Cordell’s Abolethic Sovereignty trilogy, set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of Dungeons and Dragons. In this tale, Cordell completes the story begun in Plague of Spells, and even brings in key elements from the stand-alone novel Stardeep.

Raidon Kane and companions have survived the rise of the Eldest and the Abolethic city called Xxiphu. But the heroes, except for former Dreamheart captive Anusha, have no interest in doing anything about the aboleth’s presence in Faerun. But when the Lord of Bats, Japheth’s nemesis, turns Anusha’s merchant family home into a battleground, everyone realizes that they must do something to stop the eladrin Malyanna and her servitors, including the Lord of Bats, before she can find the Key of Stars and release the primeval, malevolent aboleths upon Faerie and all Toril.

Sound complicated? You don’t know the half of it. Cordell has a very large cast of characters, multiple special weapons (Dreamheart, the sword Angul, the Cerulean Sign, the Key of Stars, Japheth’s cloak) and so many disparate plotlines that at times it can be difficult to follow. This necessitates having read the first three books, and reading the prequel, Stardeep, while not necessary, will help in understanding the story a lot. The meta-narrative is easy enough to understand. A party of characters must stop an ancient evil, older even than the gods, from conquering the world. But there are many sideplots and character narratives to weave in as well. There is Japheth and Anusha’s love story, Captain Thoster’s discovery of his fishy heritage, Raidon Kane’s attempt to be at peace with himself and the loss of his adopted daughter as well as finding his own long-lost mother, Malyanna’s servant Taal – a monk like Raidon – who is at two minds about his service, and the Lord of Bats vendetta against Japheth, to name a few. It is overwhelming, and I think that is the one significant drawback to this novel. Though a Dramatis Personae at the end of the book helps a little, ultimately there are so many different motivations and plotlines crammed into 337 pages, that the reader is easily lost, and it forces Cordell to only skim the surface of the characters in terms of development. It is Cordell’s first trilogy, and so I think he made the mistake of leaving too much open-ended in the first two books, so was forced to finish them all in the third book, making it feel crammed.

That being said, Cordell does other things very well. For one, this is the only series so far that has feet on both sides of timeline of the Spell Plague, and it is representative of the significant changes this event had on the stories of the Forgotten Realms. Cordell is showcasing the move from a more classical, Western medieval style of talespinning where religion, magic, etc. holds sway to the newer presentation, which is darker, lacks much of a religious component, and has a greater focus on human endeavor through effort rather than magical helps. Like much of current fantasy, the Realms is moving away from Tolkien replicants to darker narratives that are reminiscent of Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch, or James Enge. Cordell is bridging that gap nicely with this series, as we see the death of gods and magic’s influence in Toril, and a move toward human initiative and ingenuity. So thematically, Key of Stars and its prequels represents the dramatic shift fictionally that took place in the 4th edition rulebooks for Dungeons and Dragons.

Stylistically, Cordell has improved, though I found myself disliking his use of repetition when switching character perspectives. He will switch perspectives from one character to the next, and by way of lead-in relate the events that just happened through the eyes of the new character perspective. As a reader, I found it unhelpful. I did wonder how Cordell was going to bring together all the disparate and far-flung elements of his first two novels for a conclusion, but I think he did that very well in the only logical conclusion and exciting conclusion that would satisfy all the buildup.

However, Cordell’s fight and battle scenes, which were always pretty good, have improved even more. They are eventful, well-described, and entertaining. Although such thorough description of the fights does leave the setting description sometimes lacking, it is a fair trade for the most part. Readers are still given quite enough information to imagine the setting, and I wouldn’t trade some of these hand to hand combat scenes for the drier setting details.

All in all, I found that Key of Stars was thematically interesting, a bit overloaded with disparate plotlines, but that it is eventful enough and entertaining enough that its flaws are easily overlooked. The readers it is best suited for are readers who have been long-time fans of the Realms or Cordell in particular, and who have read the first two novels in the trilogy, possibly also Stardeep. I don’t find that unless you are either a player in the Forgotten Realms setting or a long-time reader that this is a good entrance point to the Realms, though if you want to see the direction the 4th edition is heading, this is an excellent story to highlight it. Ultimately, though I have some quibbles with the book, Key of Stars was still highly engaging, thoroughly entertaining, and so Realms changing that to miss out on it is to miss out on the extraordinary birth of a new era in the Forgotten Realms.

Geek Media Round-Up: September 7, 2010

PipeDreamer Grey — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 13:45:45 +0000

Art

12 concept images from the new Dune movie you’ll never see
Forbidden Planet crams 600 Hanna-Barbera Characters into one infographic.
Mikko Vartio designs Evil Movie Corporations Websites, including Rekall, Weyland-Yutani, and Tyrell.

Film

Cracked points out 6 Things Movie Characters Always Seem to Forget.
Want to understand Inception? Read the screenplay!

Internet

The Economist ponders the future of the internet.
It’s astonishing how quickly 4Chan identified the puppy-killing woman.
Only in Japan, Real Men Go to a Hotel With Virtual Girlfriends: “Some devoted fans will go so far as to pay twice the rate—most hotels in Japan charge per guest not per room—to indulge the fantasy that they are not there alone. A night’s stay, at most, can cost $500″

Literature

Interview: The Guardian interviews Terry Pratchett.
Interview: The New York Times profiles Charles Yu, author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe.
Interview: Viceland Today interviews William Gibson.
Interview: Walker of Worlds interviews Peter F Hamilton of the Void trilogy.
Ben Bova: It’s only science fiction until technology catches up.
On Tor.com, Patrick Garcon is writing lively essays on Victorian fantasy illustration, from the Pre-Raphaelites to Orientalism.

Science

The oldest living things in the world are over 2000 years old. Some are hundreds of thousands of years old and still going. Rachel Sussman explains.
Rabbit Rest: Can Lab-grown Human Skin Replace Animals in Toxicity Testing?: Scientific American.

Television

Interview: The Australian profiles Joss Whedon.
Art Nation has featured a segment on Buffy being a Guilty Pleasure.
Here’s The Dollhouse promo we never saw.
MSNBC claims Women Want More Shows Like Buffy.
Rolling Stone looks forward to the season’s best characters and most memorable scene-stealers… most notably, Dr. Sheldon Cooper.
SFX remembers the best forgotten theme songs of genre television.

Geek Media Round-Up: September 6, 2010

PipeDreamer Grey — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 13:30:06 +0000

Art

The Geek Art Gallery offers a picture of a Serenity Only Parking Sign.
Steampunk Mr. Potato Head
Steve Thomas is selling these Lord of the Rings-inspired sports logos on Zazzle.
Wired profiles the stunning Vintage Circuit Board Furniture of Theo Kameck.

Comics

20 Facts about Marvel Comics Facts, an Infographic.

Cross-Media

io9 explains Ten tropes you’ll find in science fiction – over and over again.

Film

19 upcoming superhero movies you need to know about.
Furious Fanboys remembers the 20 of the Creepiest Kids in Movies.
Here’s an infographic laying out the Box Office Success of Steven Spielberg.
Will audiences boo Machete in border states? Here’s why they might.

Internet

Will geeks inherit the earth?

Literature

Interview: The Falcata Time interviews Mike Shevdon, author of the soon to be released horror novel Road to Bedlam: Courts of the Feyre.
Interview: Salon Futura has posted a video interview with China Miéville.
Interview: Whatever offers a few words from Jennifer Ouellette, author of the excellent math book The Calculus Diaries.
News: 35 million books downloaded via iTunes
News: Dan Brown tops Oxfam’s ‘least wanted’
Does a book’s popularity guarantee its movie’s success?
The Huffington Post offers a list of The Best Books On Writing Books.
Print or Pixels? Publishers Strive to Advance Both
Reminder: You Don’t Own Your Ebooks; Amazon Locks Customer Out And Doesn’t Respond To Help Requests
Suite101 names Five Galactic Civilizations from Science Fiction Books.
What Do Hobbits, Robots, and Yahoos Have In Common? They’re Famous Authors’ Made Up Words.
Your Library is Dying. But should you care?

Science

I’m hoping that this sign is a joke, but something tells me that it isn’t.
Stephen Hawking suggests universe created itself from nothing.
Ten pearls of wisdom from Stephen Hawking.

Technology

Television

Interview: Jane Espenson talks about writing for Torchwood.
News: George Takei To Appear on ‘Big Bang Theory’
News: The last two unaired episodes of Better Off Ted are available on Netflix.
io9 counts down the Greatest geek moments from the 2010 Emmys.

Video Games

The Dorklyst has posted The 10 Greatest World of Warcraft Videos on the Internet.
Game-addicted man scores rare win over software lawyers.

Writing

Alma Alexander makes 10 Authorial Confessions.
Tobias Buckell offers advice on How to pick the idea for your first novel.

Giveaway: Night of the Living Dead Trekkies + POSTER!

John Ottinger III — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 16:01:07 +0000

Thanks to Quirk Books, I have one copy of Night of the Living Dead Trekkies by Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall, plus a poster of the front cover, to give away to one lucky winner!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Check them out on Facebook.

This sci-fi/zombie/comedy/adventure follows a group of rag-tag Trekkies getting together for the fifth annual GulfCon (billed as the “largest Starfleet Convention in the western Gulf Coast region”).

Our heroes are dressed in homemade uniforms and armed with prop phasers-but soon find themselves defending their hotel and convention center against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Suddenly, all of their useless knowledge about particle physics and old Star Trek episodes has genuine real-world applications! And while hotel employees and regular civilians are dying left and right, our Trekkies summon strength and courage by emulating their favorite starship-voyaging characters.

Packed with hundreds of gags referencing Star Trek, Star Wars, comic books, and fan conventions, Night of the Living Trekkies reads like the strange lovechild of Galaxy Quest and Dawn of the Dead. Journey to the final frontier of zombie science-fiction satire!

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
KEVIN DAVID ANDERSON and SAM STALL are lifelong Trekkies. Mr. Anderson lives in California and Mr. Stall lives in Indianapolis.

TO WIN:
1. Drawing is open to residents in US and Canada only.
2. You must submit your entry before midnight GMT September 24, 2010.
3. To enter, just place a comment in the comment field below (email required). One winner will be chosen at random and emailed for their snail mail address.

Passion and Pleasure

Patrick Hester — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 16:01:34 +0000

I saw a tweet that someone was going to be rereading the Malazan books by Canadian author Steven Erikson in anticipation of the forthcoming book in the series, The Crippled God. Five years ago, this wouldn’t have even pinged on my radar, but when I read that today, I kind of had to pause.

You are talking about rereading what, 9 books in the series? And these are not quick reads – they are fairly thick tomes, so dedicating the time to reread them all is no small undertaking ad quite the time investment.

Five years ago I probably would’ve done the same thing. Heck, I DID do the same thing – Not with Malazan, but with other series like the Wheel of Time and the Sword of Truth, for example. Today, even contemplating rereading those massive books gives me the willies. I mean, I have a ton of books sitting on my night stand waiting to be read for the first time, so committing the time to reread stuff to prep for the new book coming out? Isn’t that what WikiPedia is for now?

Don’t get me wrong, I understand pleasure and passion; the book industry (among others) relies on it, on passionate fans who cannot wait for the latest, greatest book in their most favorite series to come along (Mockingjay, for example?), but I think there comes a point where there’s just too many other things you could be reading, new worlds you could be experiencing rather than going back to reread nine or ten books in a series just to get ready for the next one.

I admit that I have reread certain books for pleasure. The Lord of the Rings is an excellent example of this, as is The Hobbit. There was a time, probably a ten to fifteen year period from high school on, when I would crack at least one of those books open once a year and read through it. For someone who wants to write scifi and fantasy, rereading these classics is akin to training with Yoda.

I even reread the Wheel of Time books. Once. Now, I either skim the last book or check WikiPedia (or the most excellent Wheel of Time FAQ) when there’s a new book coming out, just to refresh my mind on where things were left and what’s going on. I also got over the Sword of Truth series – pretty much stopped reading or being interested in it around Faith of the Fallen – which is a whole other post.

Today, I don’t think I have that same, intense, ravenous hunger and need to reread any book. To be honest, finding a book that I haven’t yet read that invokes that kind of need to read (we call these page turners, folks) is getting harder and harder. Maybe that’s just something that softens over time as we get older – I don’t know. Maybe I’m crazy weird off the norm here, but there it is.

What do you think? What series makes you salivate when you think about it? What series must you reread before the new installment comes out – and more importantly – why?

@atfmb

So I like pillows…

John Ottinger III — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 16:48:07 +0000

Been a while since Darra made an appearance. But I think she just wants you to put the camera down. And walk away. Slowly.

So I like pillows. What are you gonna do about it?

Geek Media Round-Up: September 3, 2010

PipeDreamer Grey — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:00:17 +0000

Art

18 Creative Calendar Designs
It was only a matter of time before the Large Hadron Collider opened that portal to Hell like in Doom. Good game, Earth. We had a good run.

Comics

Digital comics were originally viewed with a wary eye by the American comics industry, the rise of mobile devices has started to turn a few publisher’s heads. We may look back and see 2010 as the year digital comics reached the tipping point.

Film

Blastr remembers 5 big-budget sci-fi films that actually got their science right.
CinemaBlend names 5 Classic Action Movies Better With Machete.
Cracked names The 7 Most Irritating Characters From Otherwise Great Movies.

Literature

Interview: Angela Slatter discusses short fiction with Book Life.
Interview: Laura Resnick, author of Unsympathetic Magic, talks with Kate Baker.
Interview: Redstone Science Fiction interviews Mary Robinette Kowal, author of Shades of Milk and Honey.
Interview: TorForge talks with Twilight Forever Rising’s Lena Meydan.
News: Suzanne Collins Sells 450,000 Copies of Mockingjay
Cory Doctorow talks Proprietary Interest.
io9 offers A syllabus and book list for novice students of science fiction literature.
Was the Discovery Channel Gunman inspired by a book?

Science

World’s first ‘tree cathedral’ takes root in Italy The remarkable work designed by Italian environment artist Giuliano Mauri, who died last year, has been completed after months of work and presented as one of the initiatives marking the International Year of Biodiversity.

Television

News: Too good to be true: Neil Gaiman’s Sandman Television Series in Development.
Conan announces his new show’s name
GeekDad demonstrates how to play the Firefly theme on guitar.

Writing

Worlds in a Grain of Sand offers advice on Opposing Viewpoints.

Free Fiction: Arkfall by Carolyn Ives Gilman

John Ottinger III — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:34:00 +0000

Phoenix Picks’ September’s Free EBook is Carolyn Ives Gilman’s outstanding novella, Arkfall.

Arkfall was nominated for the Nebula this year (but lost out to The Women of Nell Gwynne’s by Kage Baker).

Carolyn Gilman is a not a prolific author, but nearly everything she writes get outstanding reviews. Her novel Halfway Human is an outstanding study of gender issues and her novellette, The Honeycrafters won the Nebula in 1993.

Stephen Leigh, who’s book Dark Water’s Embrace was our free ebook of the month for August is a fan of her works as well.

The Coupon Code for September is 9991426. Instructions and download link at: www.PPickings.com.

The new book will be available from September 2 (not September 1) through September 30th.

Book Review: The Stainless Steel Rat Returns by Harry Harrison

John Ottinger III — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:01:00 +0000

Genre: Space Adventure
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication Date: August 3, 2010
ISBN-10: 0765324415
ISBN-13: 978-0765324412
Author Website: Harry Harrison

Having never read any of the Stainless Steel Rat stories by Harry Harrison, I was pleased when Tor decided to send me a copy of the newest tale of space adventurer Jim diGriz. Ten years in the making, The Stainless Steel Rat Returns carries a lot of “baggage” in that readers have certain expectations of this long running series, and new readers may have come to expect a certain type of sophistication from SF which is not readily apparent in this story. But, if a reader approaches the tale knowing that it is both homage, pastiche, and member of classic SF from the 50s and 60s, the reader can really come to enjoy the tale immensely.

For myself, I sat down to read the book at 7pm on a Tuesday, and finished it at 11pm that same night. Partly this is because I am a fast reader, but the truth is, Harrison’s novel is designed to be read quickly. The organization of the novel, though not delineated this way, can be broken up into four short stories with a meta-narrative tying them all together. Each of the four stories is set on a different planet, in which diGriz and crew get into various scrapes. Overlying all of this is the problem of diGriz’s country bumpkin family, which suddenly appears on his doorstep (the first scene of the novel) expecting diGriz to use his accumulated wealth from working for the Special Corps of the interplanetary government (and his life of crime) to help them resettle on a new planet, along with their large, dangerous, and ill-smelling porcuswine herd.

diGriz’s efforts to resettle his extended family provide humor and impetus for the Stainless Steel Rat to leave his life of luxury, along with his wife Angelina, and set off for the stars in a sabotaged rust bucket of a spaceship. diGriz careens from one problem to the next, solving them all with wit and audacity and a large dose of alcohol. It’s wonderfully entertaining. Short, clipped sentences, a focus on dialogue to the near exclusion of all else, and writing from the first person perspective of DiGriz, allows Harrison to revive the old sense of wonder and entrancement that populated the early days of SF. Like Poul Anderson or Andre Norton, these stories have a hefty focus on interplanetary exploration, on creating new worlds, and populating them with various manifestations of humanity for the purpose of wonder. Harrison also adds a nice dollop of satire to the mix to give the story its own flavor.

Readers who do not like classical SF, with its patina of hope and adventure, are not likely to like this tale. The plotline is simple in construction, wastes no time on character building, nor has any sort of operatic quality to it. Character building is kept at a minimum. Harrison prefers instead to relate a tale of action, usually precipitated by some impossible problem that only the genius of diGriz can solve. This novel reads like a short story from the glory days of pulp magazines, and unless a reader enjoys that style of narrative, then they are unlikely to like anything about this tale.

It is a tale of problems, their solutions, and the subsequent problem raised by that solution. The story cycles like this over and over, which some readers may find repetitious, even annoying. I did at first, never having read Harrison’s work before, and it took a little while to see what Harrison was doing in terms of writing style, but once I did, I was engrossed. If all Stainless Steel Rat stories are like this one, Harrison may have just found a new convert.

If readers enjoy Poul Anderson’s Nicholas Van Rijn or David Falkayn tales, Asimov’s Galactic Empire trilogy, Andre Norton’s The Sioux Spaceman, or the more recent The Sheriff of Yrnameer by Michael Rubens, then The Stainless Steel Rat Returns is going to be right up their alley. This is an adventure tale, pure and simple, not concerned with illuminating social ills (though it does a little) or hard science (though it has a little here too), but rather just relating the rollercoaster ride of a thrilling voyage, fraught with peril and improbable solutions. Highly recommended for fans of classic SF from the so called “Golden Age”, those looking for adventurous SF, or those that want more positive outlook in an era where darkly introspective SF seems to be the norm.

Geek Media Round-Up: September 2, 2010

PipeDreamer Grey — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:00:43 +0000

Art

Around 2,000 people flocked to see Banksy’s Portrait of an Artist as part of an exhibition by cutting edge Bristol-based collective Crazy Fools in The Library, in Upper Street, Islington (London).
Comic Alliance offers a gallery of Business Cards from Fictional Comics Companies.
Star Wars comparison chart, tattooed Han Solo, and more by Chris Bishop.
Star Wars Prints by Andy Helms

Comics

Annie Gala weighs in on The Great Debate: Bruce Wayne vs. Dick Grayson.
Comics Still King at Baltimore Comic-Con.

Cross-Media

Furious Fanboys lists 5 Ridiculously Improbable Moments in Science Fiction.

Film

News: Kick-Ass 2 has been greenlit, according to Mark Millar.
News: Thanks to the discovery of the 25 minutes of lost footage unearthed in an Argentine museum, the sci-fi classic “Metropolis” has been put back together the way the director intended.
Film.com imagines what the Pitch Meeting for M. Night Shyamalan’s Devil might have looked like.

Internet

News: Seth Green producing online interactive reality show.
Google’s Earth by William Gibson

Literature

Interview: Boston.com has an absolutely fascinating interview with Andrew Pettegree, author of The Book in the Renaissance. The parallels between printers’ problems at the time and the publishing industry today are legion.
Interview: Game of Cages author Harry Connolly talks with Kate Baker.
Interview: Suvudu On Air interviews Charles Yu, author of the recently released novel, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe.
Escape, Resonance, and Recovery: Traversing the Values of Fantasy at SFWA.

Science

Ye cannae change the laws of physics. Or can you?

Technology

Television

Get your Serenity Architectural Cutaway Set now.
Science Fantasy Universe lists The Ten Worst Aliens in Star Trek History.

Writing

T.N. Tobias explains that Story Emerges from Simplicity and Clarity.