Barry's Bloody Books

Disquiet Gods by Christopher Ruocchio

Well that took a few turns that I wasn’t expecting.

We’re six books in so I don’t really want to get into too many details on plot. There’s another big time jump here, two hundred years, and Hadrian is starting to feel old at this stage. He’s basically checked himself out, given up on the visions from the Quiet and wants to live what’s left of his life in peace. Of course there’s not much of a book there so when an Imperial pardon comes his way, there’s a condition attached that will drag him back into the larger events of the galaxy.

So this is another book where a lot actually happens plot wise. We’ve three distinct sections; the first on the planet of Sabratha where we learn lots more about the Watchers. Then there is the part back on Forum where some major events occur that really took me by surprise, and then the final part with the Latarrians and Vorgossos.

Again this is hard to talk about with spoilers but I was a little thrown by some of the blatant religious overtones that are starting to come to the fore. They were always there of course but I was surprised by how in your face they’ve become. I’m not against this at all, I just wasn’t expecting it. It’s all still fascinating and I’m always a sucker for grand cosmic themes juxtaposed to the more mundane political and action sequences, it’s a heady combination. I’m also a fan of the Kharn Sagara character and all that entails and I loved where the author went with that.

Another brilliant book being honest though it did end a little abruptly. We know where this is going to be end, we were told in the first few pages of the first book, but it is fascinating to find out how we get there and there have already been so many things that I wasn’t expecting at all. I am excited to delve into the last book (which is a beast) and find out how events really play out.

5 stars

Ashes of Man by Christopher Ruocchio

A slower paced book but still a great read.

For the first time between books there is no time jump and we start off exactly where we finished at the end of Kingdoms of Death. Hadrian and Valka are still recovering from what happened but they are inevitably drawn back into the Empire and the ongoing conflict. Hadrian is still traumatised but when the emperor himself needs his help then of course he answers.

This is really the second part of the previous book as I believe the author had to break them up as it would be have been too big a book otherwise. Again this was a discomforting read in that what Hadrian went through, and to a lesser extent Valka, has almost completely broken him and he is not recovering from it quickly. A lot of the book is him coming to terms with it and trying to carry on essentially. This may sound like it’s not the most interesting premise but honestly it was great in that I appreciated that what they went through was not treated lightly and there were consequences, I sometimes find that in scifi/fantasy that trauma can be almost skipped over in service of plot moving forward.

That’s not to say there was no other plot or action. There were great moments in relation to the Extras and their alliance with the Cielcin which I imagine is going to have further consequences. And then there was the whole end of the book with the emperor and an event which I felt had been signalled from the start of the book but was still a bit of a gut punch. Everything is progressing nicely but I do wonder how certain plot points are going to play out, as you have a rough idea of where things are going due to the style of narration.

These books are truly over the top but I do mean that as a compliment as I’m loving all the moments of high drama and melodrama that constantly occurs. It could put people off but if you’ve read this far you may as well continue.

5 stars

Kingdoms of Death by Christopher Ruocchio

That was one of the bleakest books I’ve ever read, still in shock.

Hadrian and Valka have been in ‘exile’ for their own safety for almost a hundred years after the events at Berenike. However he is tasked by the Emperor himself to travel as an ambassador to the Lothrian Commonwealth, another human empire, to help with the war against the Cielcin. Events there however will lead down a very dark path.

I’m not going to say too much about plot as it would truly spoiler events but man this was a hard read. The first third of the book was straight-forward enough, and I enjoyed reading about the Lothrian empire, which is basically socialism/communism taken to the nth level and seems a pretty horrific place for the ordinary worker. However things take a dark turn from then on to almost the end of the book.

This is not the most messed up thing I’ve read (I’ve read R. Scott Bakkers books), but it was the length of the event as such that caught me by surprise, and the fact that just as I thought things were going to get better they got even worse. It was appropriate that the last part was just the initial recovery (not full) as someone doesn’t get over something like that quickly, if at all. Now it wasn’t just full on, there were interludes where there was talk and we definitely got the lore expanded and have more of an idea of what’s really at stake here. I loved all of that and it was definitely needed. However whatever lingering sympathies I may have had towards the Cielcin and the idea of peace was truly shattered here.

This was a hard read but also still utterly captivating. I’m loving this series and I hope the author can keep it going for the last three books. I believe that this and the next book were originally supposed to the one and after finishing it does kind of make sense, even though there was a satisfying end here. Roll on book five….

5 stars

The Path of Daggers by Robert Jordan

The plot is good but takes too long to get to it.

We’re on book eight of fourteen now so I don’t really want to go into too many details plot wise. It’s a strange structure to this book. We get a few chapters from each main POV which takes up most of the book and these are predominantly setup. We then then get rotating chapters at the end where stuff actually happens.

This is generally considered the real start of the ‘slog’ and I do understand where people are coming from. It’s not bad now that all the books are out but I do remember when this was released and when I finished I was like ‘it this it?’, and knowing I had longer to wait for the next one after yearly releases. It’s not bad per se, it’s just that Jordan’s penchant for description is really let rip from here, and you have endless pages of some random character’s dress and expression. There’s so many named characters that there feels like very little actual plot.

It’s a pity because the actual plot is not bad. We have Egwene scheming to get real power. We have the culmination of Elayne and Nynaeve with the bowl of the winds, Rand and the Seanchan and quite a lot of interactions with the Black Tower. This stuff is all good but it takes so long to get anywhere that it’s not quite as impactful as it could have been.

There are still some great moments though; Avienda unravelling a weaving, Egwene and the meeting with the Hall, Rand with Cadsuane, Rand with the battle against the Seanchan (especially the last part), Rand with Fedwin. I also loved (in a sad way) the talk of the Ash’a’man and knowing the fate that awaits them.

On a side note, I finished the second half of this book by audio and I really dislike the male narrator. His voices are awful with a lot of what feels like a hollywood ‘Oirish’ accent. The female narrator is good though. Hopefully he’ll become more bearable in the next book.

3.5 stars rounded down.

Waybound by Will Wight

A very satisfying end to a great series.

I won’t go into any plot details as this is the last book but let’s just say that it was everything I had hoped for. There was even more progression, epic battles and nice moments between the characters. I’m still shocked at where characters are now compared to where we first met them.

The only one wee part I felt was a little anti-climatic was the whole Abidan plot. It went out with a bit of a whimper and if I’m honest the whole thing felt almost unnecessary apart from a few moments. I would have taken a star away if I hadn’t enjoyed everything else so much.

In contrast one part I really loved was that the afterwards was really drawn out. One of my pet peeves is when you have the final battle/encounter or whatever of the whole series and then it ends like five pages afterwards. I feel like I don’t get proper resolution. There’s another three or more (long) chapters in Lord of the Rings after the ring is destroyed so I was happy that the author gave me a proper long drawn out afterwards which is only appropriate after reading a twelve book series. More authors should take note.

Another thing to note about the author is that I received the first eleven books of this series for free over the years from random giveaways on r/fantasy. It is incredibly generous of him but kindness does pay off, I’ve loved it all so much that I’ve gone and bought all twelve books in hardback. Honestly I cannot wait to read this series again with the knowledge of where it goes. It was hard not to dive right back in but I’ll have to show some patience and wait at least a year anyway. Honestly I cannot recommend this series enough from the amount of pleasure it’s given me, I hadn’t been that excited to read a whole series for a long time.

5 stars

Dreadgod by Will Wight

Another escalation in the stakes which I wasn’t sure was possible.

The Dreadgods are fully awake and Lindon, Yerin and co. are making it a mission to stop them forever. Lindon now knows the link between them and the Monarchs and so knows that it is only a matter of time before they are clashing with Monarchs too and so wants to get all his friends prepared.

So I (not so) patiently waited for my hard copies of the last two books to arrive and I’m glad I did. Sometimes a little wait whets the appetite so I was well ready to dive right back into the world of Cradle.

I’ll be honest saying that I missed Eithan a lot in this one, he’s in it a bit but not too much at all. Lindon really steps up here and it’s very clear that he’s well outpaced all the others, even Yerin which I still find surprising. He’s progressed so much, and in such crazy ways that from other angles, and if you didn’t know the thought processes going on, he could be considered the villain of the series. He is kind of terrifying in places and you really wouldn’t want him to be your enemy.

However the whole gang move on in this one, and it’s great to see Little Blue and Orthos still around and getting scary in their own right. I like that it’s insights to oneself that move things along rather than just power. The action is of course as epic as ever and the stakes continue to rise. Very much looking forward to the final volume.

5 stars

Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky

An interesting premise but I struggled with the main character.

Our main protagonist, Professor Arton Daghdev has been sent to the planet Kiln for offences against the Mandate on Earth. He’s considered a revolutionary and so is sent on a one way journey where he will spend the rest of his life as labour on the alien planet. Once there he finds out that there is evidence of alien intelligence on the planet in the distant past as well as copious amounts of strange life. Here his revolutionary principles will come against the will to survive.

It’s a strange book, two novels in one in some ways. There is the whole revolutionary part which in my mind seems full of cliches and is a bit superficial maybe? It’s an interesting premise to set nineteenth/twentieth century style revolutions under a dictatorship regime on a penal colony on another planet, but I’m just not sure it works. The science fiction part shows the author’s signature style of imaginative scientific principles, in this case species symbiosis, and is very interesting but again there’s not enough page space given to it and so it also seems fairly superficial.

It doesn’t help that I found our main POV very annoying. The book is narrated by him in this glib tone that I found very off-putting in relation to what was actually happening. The rest of the characters were a little one dimensional except for the commander of the camp who I thought was given an interesting dichotomy; the pure party man but with an enquiring mind.

The scifi element grows as the book progresses and moves to an almost horror style but with the tone it just doesn’t have the relevant impact it might have had. I did enjoy it but probably it’s been the least enjoyable of the author’s books that I’ve read.

3.5 stars rounded down

Bloodstone by David Gemmell

After years of living a life of peace, the Jerusalem Man is back after a terrible tragedy befalls him. The world is very different with a civilisation of a sort emerging under the religious leadership of the Deacon. However corruption is rife and there is a much bigger threat soon to emerge.

Nothing too different here from the first two, though the symmetry in how everything links is very satisfying. There’s a bit of a cop out at the start with how we get the ‘Jerusalem Man’ back again but that’s fairly minor. I still really dislike Amaziga, the double standards she shows really annoy me, and I’d argue she’s worse here. It was good to have Beth still play a part and I enjoyed how things ended up between her and Jon, seemed very realistic.

The writing again is terse but well formed and the author can still create a memorable character with a sentence or two. The world is still fascinating and is a great mix of western and the magical. Things do get a bit over the top towards the end but again I didn’t mind it. This is a really great trilogy, nice and fast paced but with still enough time to get to know characters and the world and I think it holds up well considering that this book itself is over thirty years old.

4 stars

Never Let Me Go by Kazou Ishiguro

An incredibly sad and disquieting book.

Kathy is a carer, looking after ‘donors’ as they recuperate. However she is coming to an end of her time doing this and so reminisces about her childhood in a grand children’s home called Hailsham and her friendships there, particularly with best friends Ruth and Tommy.

It’s such a strange book. As you’re reading you find it’s all just small details, very well realised though, on the spoken and unspoken interactions between a group of kids and young adults in the main. It’s interesting and well written, but there’s nothing too crazy going on. Honestly it’s so well observed about the interactions that I found myself becoming annoyed with how petty and selfish they all are, basically like all kids trying to find themselves. However there is always that sense of something wrong hanging over everything. All the talk of donating and caring, about how nobody really talks about life after school too much. Then there’s also the art and the mysterious gallery that the best stuff is sent to. It’s only after a while that you understand what a great tragedy the whole book is.

As I’ve mentioned, the story itself is low key and honestly a bit of a misnomer being classified as science fiction. Technically it is but only very loosely. It’s a case study on characters and they are so well realised. Ruth is infuriating in the main but it is well done how she is still somewhat sympathetic. I think you’re meant to like Kathy and Tommy more, and though Tommy stays pretty likeable throughout, you do realise that Kathy is not purely the innocent and injured party. But what of course makes everything more bittersweet is knowing how it all ends which you know very early, you just don’t know how.

It’s a great book, very thought provoking (I’m still thinking about it a lot), and I can see why it was so popular. I believe there was a film based off of it and I would really like to see that soon. Well recommended but if you’re expecting pure scifi you will disappointed.

4.5 stars rounded up.

The Last Guardian by David Gemmell

Another quick and enjoyable read.

Jon Shannow is drawn by the rumour of a city behind a wall that has the sword of God floating above it, thinking it might be Jerusalem. Also in the distant past in the cities of Atlantis, a man speaks out against the King and sets in motion events that will have an apocalyptic effect on the earth.

This is a direct continuation of the last book. In my previous review I’d mentioned that these were all essentially standalones but honestly I think I misremembered how tightly they’re linked. The first could stand by itself but to enjoy and understand this you would really have needed to read the first book.

Jon is still on his mission but he’s getting older and is tired of the constant travel, and the death and danger that surrounds him. When he meets Beth, on her own mission to find somewhere to settle and raise her kids in peace, and she challenges his mindset, which forms a core part of the story here. There’s also a lot of thoughts on faith and what it means to different people. I’m always surprised by the amount of depth and ruminations on different aspects of life that Gemmell got into these short books that are essentially sword and sorcery.

The characters are great again, Beth and Nu add a real poignancy to the story and I think I enjoy Shannow more now as I’m getting older myself now too. There’s still the wild west feel to the books but the world does feel like it’s progressing. I am also impressed by how all the different timelines came together in the end, very satisfying. Looking forward to the concluding part.

4.5 stars rounded down