Ex Libris: January Books, Part 2

On the other hand, I managed to (literally) finish four books for this month: Glen Cook's The Tyranny of Night; Karen Traviss' Triple Zero; Christopher Priest's The Prestige; and the Rich Horton-edited best of short stories collection, Best Fantasy 2006 (something I won't review until I finish reading all of the 2005 collections).

I've been a long-time fan of Cook's military fantasy, ever since I first picked up a book about The Black Company. So when I heard Cook had started a new series after finishing the last time, I immediately picked it up. Cook's specialty is the grim-and-gritty kind of fantasy with this new book being no exception. Alas, that's the only thing similar between the previous and present series.

The world of the warrior Else Tage is bloody and brutal as kingdoms fight each other over religious and political differences. It also doesn't help that there are creature of magic in a war of no quarter against the religious churches. So when Else does the unimaginable-- kill one such creature-- he gets duly rewarded by being sent on a mission of espionage into an enemy kingdom.

Unfortunately, in this book, it seemed that Cook was following more in the footsteps of other epic fantasists like George R. R. Martin, Steven Erikson and Scott Bakker by powering up the political factor of his books. Whereas The Black Company books was the story of the grunts or the ordinary soldier trying to survive, this book was about the movers and the shakers of the world trying to out-maneuver each other. This left, in my opinion, Else in the rather unavoidable position of reacting rather than acting in the events.

If not for the major battle at the end of the story, I would almost say I got bored reading this-- which is sad, considering I thought before that Cook could do no wrong (something my heart still doesn't want to believe).

Weirdly enough, I also consider Traviss in a 'must-check-out' category despite not having read any of her stuff due to her quite erudite and witty presence online. So when I found a copy of her Star Wars Republic Commando work, Hard Target, I was willing read a SW book just to check her out. Though this is not her original work, Traviss has quite a sharp eye and manages to write about the possible pitfalls of having soldiers cloned and bred only for war. Likewise, she knows her military and political angles and applies this in her stories. You might say that Traviss is the 'feminine' or 'female' military writer... er, whatever that is.

But though I found that first dip in the water enjoyable enough, I was a bit put-off with its sequel. Whereas the first book detailed a squad of Republic Commando clones (Omega Squad) trying to take out a Separatist base in a far-off forested planet, the latest book has the same squad taking on terrorists in the capital city of the Republic, Coruscant. Overall, I would say the book was still good but I felt that the protagonists were in no danger no matter the gambits played. One could say that as military special forces-- even those in the future-- these men are supposed to be really good; however, where's the reader's empathy there?

Still, this may not be the fault of Traviss per se as she is working in someone else's universe (i.e. George Lucas), I'm not sure. Something to think about...

Lastly, I wanted to read Priest's book before the movie came out here. Life doesn't work that way though: I managed to finish the book but I never got around to watching the movie.

And an interesting book it was. I came into this one without having any idea what it was except that it was about a rivalry between two magicians in turn-of-the century London and that it was highly regarded, having won a couple of awards. In any case, this should give me a chance to post that quote again:

Every great magic trick consists of three acts.

The first act is called "The Pledge"; The magician shows you something ordinary, but of course... it probably isn't.

The second act is called "The Turn"; The magician makes his ordinary some thing do something extraordinary.

Now if you're looking for the secret... you won't find it, that's why there's a third act called, "The Prestige"; this is the part with the twists and turns, where lives hang in the balance, and you see something shocking you've never seen before.

Priest's book is actually one giant elaborate magic trick: as the story begins, he shows you what is, turns it around to show something else, and then-- with a flick of the wrist-- twists it around again to the oohs and ahhs of the audience. To say more, of course, is akin to a magician revealing the secret trick so I won't go into here. Suffice to say, the movie is definitely different from the book but its essence remains the same.

Personally though, there were times when I found the book at bit dry (they're British, what do you expect?) and the middle was a bit dragging (so where are we going with all of this?). However, I thought that it was worth my reading time. In other words, I may not be jumping up and down in joy over it but I would recommend it.

I know that's an odd declaration but despite not being too excited over finishing it, it does share a space in the Favored Bookshelf. Given a year or two, I'll probably have a definite opinion on this one.

Up next: what's in the mail! (Books obviously...)