2024 Reading Recap

I thought it would be fun to look back at what I read last year in fantasy. 2024 was a bit of a disappointment because I only read five things: four books and a short story. This was down from the nine I read in 2023. I'm happy with what I read, but wish it had been more. Oh well, there's always this year.

Convergence by Craig Alanson, read by R.C. Bray.

This was free on Audible, and wanting to read (or rather, listen) to urban fantasy that wasn't Dresden Files, I decided to give it a try.

It was fine. The story is about Kazimir Wolf, a guy who's also possibly the only wizard in the world just as magic starts to make its return. because of this, he finds himself constantly on the run from people trying to capture or kill him. He's soon joined a talking golden retriever named Duke who is possessed by an ancient Babylonian wizard, and two warriors from the middle ages: Markius from Egypt, and Giselle from France. On top of this, Kaz has to deal with an impending event called the Convergence that could spell doom for the world.

I had two main problems with Convergence. First, it dragged on for too long. The audiobook is only 16 hours, but it honestly felt longer because the plot moved at about fast as a glacier. Alanson spent too much time writing funny scenes with Kaz and Duke that didn't serve any purpose whatsoever. Second, the bad guys were practically a footnote. They appeared in a couple of brief scenes in the first half, then disappeared until near the end. It was the same for these two other characters who were nominally supposed to be trying to find Kaz to help and protect him, but worse: they made a brief appearance in the first half and likewise didn't pop back up until the end. If Alanson had cut out some of the needless fluff and wrote more scenes featuring those aforementioned other characters, I would have enjoyed this a lot more.

Having said that, I do plan on reading or listening to the second book in the series, Dragonslayer.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

Redemption's Blade by Adrian Tchaikovsky, read by Nicola Barber.

I loved this story. Redemption's Blade is about what happens after the evil dark lord is defeated and it's not a happily ever after. Celestaine is one of a band of heroes who managed to kill the evil demigod known as the Kinslayer and put an end to his war of conquest and annihilation. That was ten years ago and the world is still reeling from the devastation. Now, she's on a quest to undo an evil the Kinslayer inflicted on one of the many races he conquered and has to contend with the aftermath of the war.

This was a good fantasy story and I enjoyed seeing a fairly realistic portrayal of what a fantasy world would look like after a massive and destructive war.

Rating: 9 out of 10.

Goblins & Greatcoats by Travis Baldree.

This was a fun short story that Subterranean Press released for free on their website. It's set in the same world as Baldree's Legends & Latte series. In this, a little goblin named Zyll arrives at an inn one rainy night and has to solve a murder. Nothing much I can add to this other than to say that I really liked it.

Rating: 10 out of 10.

The Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark.

A very interesting novella set in an alternate timeline where America is still divided by the Civil War (which is a frozen conflict IIRC), and Haiti is a regional, if not a world power with its own fleet of airships. The main character is Creeper, who's a young thief in an independent New Orleans who wants to join the crew of the airship Midnight Robber. To do this, she shares information with the Robber's captain, Ann-Marie about a kidnapped Haitian scientist who possesses knowledge of a weapon that could kill thousands if it falls in the wrong hands. At the same time, Creeper has to deal with an African goddess in her head.

I enjoyed this and wouldn't mind revisiting the world if Clark ever writes sequels.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny, read by Matt Godfrey.

I read, or rather, listened to this as part of a book club. The book is set over the course of the 31 days of October as a varied group of characters in Victorian era England prepare for a ritual event at the end of the month. All of them are supposed to be famous historical figures and fictional characters, which quickly becomes clear. What makes this story interesting is that it's told from the POV of Snuff, a dog belonging to one of the players, Jack, as he goes about his duties and interacts with the animal companions of the other players. Another interesting bit is that a lot of the book's fans will read one chapter a day for the entire month o October. I didn't because I was listening to the audiobook, but I may try it next October.

I enjoyed listening to this book. Zelazny doesn't miss.

Rating: 9 out of 10.

Blood Song by Anthony Ryan.

As you can see above, I didn't read or listen to much in the way of epic fantasy, but I did manage to fit one in. Blood Song tells the story of Vaelin Al Sorna, a man who was forced to join an order of warrior monks as a child and eventually grew to be a renowned champion of his kingdom. The book is set up with a framing device that a captive Vaelin is sent to fight another kingdom's champion and die. He's accompanied on the journey by a historian who wants to record his life story, which Vaelin relates. It's a tale of love, grief, pain, triumph, and tragedy.

I really dug Blood Song and plan to continue the Raven's Shadow series this year.

Rating: 9 out of 10.

And that brings us to the end of the recap. Like I said, I'm not happy with how few fantasy stories I read, but I plan on at least doubling the number this year. Hopefully, I'll do more than that.

In which I make another visit to Midkemia: I read Magician: Apprentice for the third time

 

And I still love it. I think if I were to ever make a list of my favorite fantasy novels, both Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master would be at the top of the list. I will never tire of visiting Pug, Arutha, Tomas, Kulgan, and the rest. I'm not going to review the book here, because I've already written my thoughts on this book before, which you can read here and here.

Suffice to say, I immediately picked up Magician: Master and I'm aiming to finish it before the end of the month. After that, I'll take a break before starting on Silverthorn and finally round it out with A Darkness at Sethanon. I'm going to make a concerted effort this time to continue the series. I didn't last time around because the time jump between ADS and Princes of the Blood was hard to get used to and I think I should have taken a break between the two.

Did you know reading fantasy books is cool? 👀

 I sure as hell hope it is, because I read five of them last month! Yes, that's right, your erstwhile blogger launched a bold attack on his fantasy reading slump in May and read five novels!

But in all seriousness, it was fantastic and I'm so glad that I did. I'm not quite prepared to declare the slump defeated, but I'm definitely getting there.

So, what did I read? I plan on trying to write individual reviews for each one, but here's a rundown:

The Black Prism by Brent Weeks: I started reading this last year, got about 50% through it before the slump struck me down, so I didn't pick it back up until towards the end of April, at which point I blew through it in a matter of days. Will be buying the second book in the series this year, hopefully.

The Sword-Edged Blonde by Alex Bledsoe: Same situation as above. I wanted something shorter to read about TBP, so I grabbed my tablet and restarted this from the beginning. I'm a solid fan for the Eddie LaCrosse series.

The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne: Found a copy in my favorite used bookstore and seeing how other fantasy readers (especially on booktube) were raving about it, cracked this bad boy open. I'm glad I did and needless to say, I'll be reading The Hunger of the Gods this year.

Green Rider by Kristen Britain: A fun read. Definitely meant to be an establishing book for the series.

A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham: Another booktube influence. Those folks generally don't miss, so their opinions carry some weight with me when I'm deciding what to read. It was an odd book with an interesting culture, so I plan on reading at least the second book in The Long Price Quartet.

So, there you have it. Five books in one month. I've always added to the total for the year by finishing the second book in Roger Zelazny's Amber series, The Guns of Avalon.

Looks like I've got a lot of series on my plate, but I'm not complaining.

I read fantasy? #fakenews

But wait, it isn't, for I have indeed been reading fantasy fiction! True, it's just one book out of the fifteen books I've read so far this year, but hey, it's a start. So what did I read? A classic.

Yes, the first book in Roger Zelany's classic Chronicles of Amber series. What drove me to read this was two things: First, Daniel Greene included Nine Princes in Amber in a video of books that he wanted to read this year and that planted the seed. While I've read classic fantasy before, NPIA didn't really catch my interest for some reason. Seeing someone include it in their TBR in a YouTube video was evidently enough to do so. The second thing is that my favorite used bookstore happened to have a copy and I felt like it was worth the $2.50 to at least see if it was something I wanted to read. And it was.

So how was it? It was fine. I liked the way Zelany mixed the real world with a wholly fantastical one. I didn't expect it to go where it did in the last part, but I liked that it did. I plan or hope to read the next book in the series, provided I can find a copy.

I do feel like I'm starting to recover from this slump I'm in. I've been reading The Black Prism, which I need to get back to soon. My hope is that I can read at least four or five more fantasy novels before the end of the year. Far from what I've read in the past, but it's something.

Obviously, I bought more fantasy books

 Because when you're in a never ending slump, that's the sensible thing to do.

A Goodwill find and an impulse buy.

Found at a used bookstore that I've fallen in love with. I've never been heavy on urban fantasy outside of the like four Dresden Files novels I've read, but I'm willing to give this a try.

Bought this on Google's ebook store for like $.99 and read in fairly quickly. It was good enough to make me want to buy more of Parker's books.

Bought at a new-ish bookstore in town. I've reading it off and on and I'm going to make a concerted effort on this one.

Bought at same store as above. Lemme just quote you the opening:

In the myriadic year of our Lord - the ten thousandth year of the King Undying, the kindly Prince of Death! - Gideon Nav packed her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and she escaped from the House of the Ninth.

I'm hyped to read this one.

Another used bookstore purchase. Thought I'd take a chance on it.

Another new one. I've read it before, but wanted a copy of my own.

Does anything stand out for you? Read any of these before?

Review: Devlin's Justice is an only okay ending to the Sword of Change trilogy (SPOILERS)

Click the links to read my reviews for the first two books, Devlin's Luck and Devlin's Honor.

First off, let's talk about that cover. The only thing accurate about the cover (besides the title, author's name and such, obviously) is the Sword of Light, which matches the description of it in Devlin's Honor. Everything else isn't remotely accurate, including the blurb. "His own magic"? Aside from the Geas spell that binds him to his duties as Chosen One, Devlin has no magic whatsoever. I feel like whoever did the cover didn't read the book beforehand. But that's just the cover, let's talk about the book itself.

It's only okay. Going by the blurb on the back of the book, I was expecting a lot of excitement, drama, and adventure. Unfortunately, expectations slammed into reality like a race car into a wall at 190 miles per hour. Devlin's Justice felt rushed, as if Ms. Bray was just trying to get the thing done and out the door or she was trying to meet a specific word or page count. As a result, a lot of meat was left on the bone. There were so many ways the story could have been expanded or enhanced and none of them were used.

Before I go on, let me tell you what happens in this book. Devlin is returning to Kingsholm after successfully retrieving the Sword of Light in the previous book. Upon returning, he's betrayed by King Olafur of Jorsk and handed over to the Selvarat Empire as part of their deal to send "aid" to help the Kingdom of Jorsk stave off an invasion by an unknown enemy, along with like a third of the kingdom itself as it turns out. So Devlin spends a good chunk of the book imprisoned and tortured by the main antagonist while his friends believe him dead and struggle to find a way to save the kingdom from both the Selvarats (who, "shocker", are the unknown enemy) and the king himself. Four of them - Drakken, Stephen, Didrik, and Oluva - are forced to escape the city and go in search of Devlin once they discover that he is in fact still alive. Devlin eventually escapes, joins up with the others and the rest of the book is them leading a guerrilla campaign against the occupying Selvarat forces and setting things to right.

All of that sounds exciting, but as I said, a lot of meat was left on the bone and what we got instead didn't live up to the potential. For example, there's never an explanation given for why King Olafur did anything he did. Yes, he was led to believe that there was a major threat to the kingdom and yes he had a big legacy to live up to, but betraying Devlin and giving away a huge chunk of the kingdom for aid just doesn't make any sense and there was no indication that he was being manipulated by the Prince Arnauld, the main antagonist of the series or anybody else for that matter. It also doesn't explain his slide into despotism which is both sharp and sudden.

There are other examples I could point out but I don't want this post to run too long, so we'll leave off them. The other thing that I found disappointing is the lack of a big finish. I was expecting to see Devlin and Arnauld face off in a big fight, but it never happened. It was a letdown given that Arnauld was the mind-sorcerer that had been plaguing Devlin since the first book. Instead, he's brushed off like some mid-level villain and we're denied the payoff that should have been.

The ending was also lackluster as it felt rushed. Olafur commits suicide just before Devlin arrives back at Kingsholm to confront him and Devlin names himself regent until Olafur's daughter is old enough to rule in her own right. He also marries Stephen's sister which comes straight out of left field and makes about as much sense as Olafur's actions. Devlin also secures the independence of his homeland of Duncaer which I liked.

All in all, I found Devlin's Justice a letdown. It had a lot of potential that was largely squandered. I would rank it as the weakest of the trilogy.

Rating: 5/10.

So I might own a first edition of Tad Williams' The Dragonbone Chair I guess?

I found a hardcover of the book at a Goodwill last month and just started reading it today and one of the things I noticed immediately is the year of publication listed is 1988 and no other dates or markings that would indicate that it's a reprint or anything. It also has Tailchaser's Song as Williams' only book published up to that point. The inside flap of the dust jacket says "Book Club Edition", so that probably disproves it as a first edition. A relief and preference, honestly, because I don't like the idea of owning first editions of classic SF&F series or really books in general.

THE SLUMP GOT WORSE

As some of you might recall, 2017 was not a great year for my fantasy genre reading with all of five books read that entire year.  I was hopeful that the slump was just a fluke and 2018 would be the year I bounced back.

Dear reader, IT GOT WORSE. I'll finish this year with all of three fantasy novels under my belt. Three, as in more than two and less than four. Yikes. So what were the three books?

The Fifth Season was a fantastic book and easily one of the best fantasy novels I've ever read. The hype surrounding this book is real, folks.

A sure sign that I love a book is when I re-read it. I don't think I'll ever get tired of doing so.

I've seen this series recommended on the interwebs and I decided to take the plunge. While I felt that the part of the book with Sonea hiding out from the eponymous Magician's Guild was stretched a bit too long, I could not put this book down and the trilogy is definitely on my "to read" list for next year.

Having said that, I have been reading different novels over the past year. More like sampling, really. One of those books is Raymond E. Feist's newest work, King of Ashes. It's different from the Riftwar books I've read. It feels more, I don't know, up to date?  It's much more violent and adult than what the Riftwar trilogy felt like.

Brandon Sanderson is another writer I've been checking out. Warbreaker looks interesting and I want to give Mistborn another shot. The Way of Kings is daunting because of it's sheer size, but I'm willing to give it a try.

I'm currently reading The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley. Different in some ways, familiar in others, both mixed in a way that's appealing.

2018 has been a pretty crappy year in general and so all I can is here's to a much better 2019.

My fantasy book collection isn't great, but it doesn't exactly suck either

I've been taking pictures of my various bookshelves lately and thought I'd share the ones of my fantasy books.

 I got the cabinet itself by swapping with one of my parents.

 It's worth noting that this isn't the whole entire shebang. I could only fit so many in the cabinet, so I had to be choosy with what went in it and I chose books that I'm planning on reading if not this year, then the next. The ones that didn't make it are probably going to end up boxed up with the rest in the closet.

I think it's a nice collection, though. It shows where my tastes in the fantasy genre lay which is mostly in the more standard and maybe "generic" territories. I also favor books that aren't doorstoppers. That one Sanderson book is giving me the stink eye, but it's true otherwise.

Holy moly guacamole: Forgotten Realms edition

I got myself a nice little book haul at a thrift store yesterday. I was scanning through their book section when I stumbled upon books 6-16 of The Harpers series, what I think might be the original paperbacks of The Icewind Dale Trilogy, and a book from The Lost Gods series called Tymora's Luck. The whole lot, sixteen books in total, cost me nearly twelve dollars, but I figured it was worth it. For the most part, the books are in surprisingly good condition. The exception was The Crystal Shard. It had something stuck to the cover that I'm cleaning off.

I'll take pictures of them at some point and post them here.

Revisiting The Belgariad (again)

First, an apology for the lack of updating on this blog. Sadly, my fantasy reading slump from last year has carried over to this one and at this point, I'm prepared to upgrade it from a slump to a drought. N.K. Jemisin's excellent The Fifth Season is the only fantasy book I've read this year to completion. I made a worthy effort with Robin Hobb's Royal Assassin, but even that couldn't hold my attention. Strangely, the fantasy genre is the only thing affected, as I've no problem reading SF and other genres.

So I've decided to go back to basics and start afresh by reading (or re-re-reading in this case) some classics of the genre, which brings us to my current book, Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings.

This would be my second read through and much like the prior two times, I'm enjoying it. Indeed, I'm almost finished with it and I only started it the other day! I don't know what I'll read after PoP. Queen of Sorcery, the second book in The Belgariad would be an obvious next step but I'm not sure if I want to jump straight to it. I could finally sit down and read The Sword of Shannara or venture to the Underdark with the first Drizzt book, Homeland. The Last Wish would be another choice, but might be too "new" be the kind of classic I want to read right now. The whole idea is to ease my way back into reading the fantasy genre, basically.

2017 was not a very good year

And that's putting it mildly. I read like a demon last year with a grand total of thirty books by year's end, but the number of those books that were in my beloved fantasy genre number...five. YEAH. I was fine everywhere else, especially on the SF front where fully half of that thirty was science fiction, and the rest being mysteries, thrillers, and classic lit. I can only describe it as a drought and pretty severe one at that. How bad? There's a five month gap between the second and third books. Yikes.

Here's the list:

1. Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb.

Loved it and can't wait to read Royal Assassin this year.

2. His Majesty's Dragon - Naomi Novik.

Surprised me because I thought the premise - dragon-based air forces during the Napoleonic Wars - was more than a bit silly, but it turned out to be a highly enjoyable and fun book.

3. The Baker's Boy - J.V. Jones.

It was okay. It bothered me that the eponymous Baker's Boy (I forget his name) and Melisandre (I think that's how her name is spelled) didn't play much of a role in the book's plot. All of the action revolved around a few other characters and that's fine, but the boy and Meli were all but irrelevant.

4. Devlin's Luck - Patricia Bray.

One of those books that you don't think will be all that good because of the cover but turns out to be very good. Loved it.

5. Devlin's Honor - Bray.

Honestly, this was weaker compared to Devlin's Luck, but it wasn't bad. It felt more like one of those filler episodes that TV shows do sometimes. Having said that, I didn't regret reading it.

So there you have it, five books in twelve months. I have no idea why I hit such a dry spell, but it happened and I'm going to try and get around it. I'm currently reading The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin and should finish that by the end of next week, so that will hopefully get the motor running. After that, I don't know. I'm looking at The Warded Man (which I started reading last year, but never finished it) or maybe The Witcher series. Hopefully last year was just a fluke.

Devlin's Luck (The Sword of Change #1) by Patricia Bray (spoilers)

This year has been a tough one for reading fantasy. I've spent most of 2017 in a slump that for some strange reason, only dulled my interest in fantasy fiction with almost every attempt to jump back into it turned into a route. Thankfully, I've finally managed to break the slump, thanks in no small part to Devlin's Luck, the first book in Patricia Bray's The Sword of Change trilogy. I'd seen the book on the shelf at the local public library several times, but always ignored it because of the slump. Then about two weeks ago, I had the sudden impulse to take it home and damn near devoured it I would have torn through it like dysentery in a medieval army camp if not for the fact that I was reading a Jules Verne book at the same time, but once I was finished with that, I turned my full attention to this tome and finished it off in double time.

So what is Devlin's Luck about? It's a story of a man broken by tragedy who desires nothing more than to make amends for a past tragedy and die with dignity. At the beginning of the book, Devlin arrives in Kingsholm, the capital of the Kingdom of Jorsk, to take the office of Chosen One. It's a bit hard to explain what the Chosen One is, but essentially, they're the kingdom's official problem solver. If something needs to be investigated, for example, the Chosen One could be dispatched to do it. The same goes with quests and any situation that may require their services. The position itself was quite prestigious in days past, being equal to King's Champion and subservient only to the ruling monarch.

But those days are long gone. By the time Devlin arrives to take the oath, the office has declined into largely a ceremonial position so undesirable that the kingdom has to offer ten gold disks¹ in order to get anyone to take the job. Why? The office is seen as certain death because all of Devlin's immediate predecessors have lasted less than a year, each typically dying during or after their first quest.

And that's exactly why Devlin wants the job. As I said, Devlin is a man broken by tragedy. I don't count it as a spoiler since you find it out pretty early, but Dev's grief stems from his wife, their daughter, his brother and his son being killed by creatures called banecats. Even though he avenged them by hunting down and killing the banecats, he still blames himself both for their deaths and not being there to defend them. By the time he recovered from fighting the banecats and returned to civilization, he found himself named kinslayer by his sister-in-law and forsaken by all of his kin, a major thing in his people's culture. He goes into exile shortly thereafter and literally walks all the way to Kingsholm to become the Chosen One.

2016 has been a pretty good year for fantasy reading

I decided today to do a tally of all the fantasy books I've read this year and I'm sitting at 11 right now. That's not bad, considering that I've read 24 books this year so far and that's a significant increase over what I read last year. Here's the list:

Stardust - Neil Gaiman
Storm Front - Jim Butcher
A Darker Shade of Magic - V.E. Schwab
Arrows of the Queen - Mercedes Lackey
He Drank, and Saw the Spider - Alex Bledsoe
Magician: Apprentice - Raymond E. Feist
Magician: Master - Raymond E. Feist
Silverthorn - Raymond E. Feist
A Darkness at Sethanon - Raymond E. Feist
Arrow's Flight - Mercedes Lackey
Arrow's Fall - Mercedes Lackey

I'm pretty happy with this list. I know that some of them aren't considered "top shelf" in quality and that there are other books and series out there that run circles around them, but I love every one of these books. Stardust is probably my favorite of the lot. I didn't think I would like the Arrows books because the main character starts out as a timid thirteen year old girl, but I was wrong.

I don't know if I'll be reading any more this year. I'm in a bit of a slump, which sucks because I wanted to read Emperor of Thorns. Well, there's always next year.

And two more books fall

When we last left our hero, he had just finished reading Silverthorn. But what happened after that? Some say he was assailed by a group of kobolds and bugbears. Others say he was eaten by grues, while still others claim that he was last seen riding into the sunset on the back of an owlbear.

And none of these are correct. The last one would have been pretty friggin' awesome, though. No, after finishing Silverthorn, I took a short respite from fantasy and read two sci-fi novels: Ender's Game (actually a re-read) and Parable of the Sower. I returned after that and dived straight into A Darkness at Sethanon and Arrow's Flight.

A Darkness at Sethanon is the fourth in the Riftwar Cycle and the final in the Riftwar Saga. The plot focuses on the story arc began in Silverthorn with the rise of Murmandamus, a moredhel warleader of a massive Brotherhood of the Dark Path army and probably a greater threat to the Kingdom than even the Tsurani were in the first two books, and the extra-dimensional threat of The Enemy, which we also learn the origin of. Actually, I'd imagine most people figured out what The Enemy is before this book; I had at least an inkling of it in Magician: Master.

I would say that A Darkness might be better than Silverthorn. It had a lot more action and the fortress-city of Armengar and its siege was honestly one of the coolest things I've ever read in a fantasy book. I'll write up a separate post for A Darkness later on because it deserves its own post.

I got an itch while reading A Darkness in Sethanon. An itch that only Arrow's Flight, the second book in the Heralds of Valdemar series could scratch. I had been planning to read it at some point, but the itch didn't make itself known until about two weeks ago.

It was so, so worth it. The Valdemar series is quickly becoming one of my favorite and I will read the books until I cannot stand them anymore. Whereas Arrows of the Queen dealt with Talia being chosen as a Herald and her life at the Collegium with all of it's hardships, perils, and adventure, Arrow's Flight focuses on her internship. She spends a year and a half riding a circuit through the Northern sector of the Kingdom of Valdemar, learning to do what a Herald does and all of the ups and downs that come with the job.

This book was honestly heartbreaking and I'm not going to lie, I got teary-eyed a few times because of all of the torment Talia goes through. There's also a lot of great moments that made me laugh and generally it was a short, but worthwhile read. Like A Darkness, I'll be writing a stand alone post for Arrow's Flight...once I finish the one I started on Arrows of the Queen. So in about 20-30 years.

So what am I reading now? Well, funny thing is that I had planned on taking another short break so that I could focus on Flag in Exile (Honor Harrington #5) and start to go through the literal shit ton of books I bought at a library book sale and Barnes & Noble recently (more on those later). That's what I had planned. My brain had other ideas and I'm not reading, among other things, A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. My reading habits are both random and vexing.

Another Riftwar book bites the dust (spoilers)

Boy howdy, am I ever on a roll! I kept forgetting to post about it, but I started Silverthorn almost immediately after finishing Magician: Master and finished it just the other day.

A poisoned bolt has struck down the Princess Anita on the day of her wedding to the Prince Arutha of Krondor.

To save his beloved, Arutha sets out in search of the mystic herb called Silverthorn that grows only in the dark and forbidding Northlands, home to the moredhel, the deadly Dark Elves.

Accompanied by a mercenary, a minstrel, and a clever young thief, he will confront an ancient evil and do battle with the dark powers that threaten the enchanted realm of Midkemia.

So how was it? Better than what I had been lead to believe. I actually owned a copy at one point, but got rid of it because I had read some posts on the blogosphere about how it wasn't worth reading and I was easily swayed. I regret that now because Silverthorn was pretty good.

Some thoughts:

Jimmy the Hand is one of the best characters in the entire series, 'nuff said.

I liked how Arutha's quest for the eponymous Silverthorn didn't start until like sometime after page 100. Up until then, the story focuses on him, Jimmy the Hand, and the others trying to flush out the conspiracy against Arutha before his wedding to Anita. The build up towards the assassination attempt and Arutha's quest was exciting and intense and added a lot of emotional weight to what happens to Anita.

Moving on from Magician: Master

I finished Magician: Master on Wednesday and I'm still surprised by how fast I blew through it. While four days isn't a speed record for me, I'm still happy. What's more impressive is how much of the book I read in a relatively short amount of time: 324 pages in the span of about 24 hours, give or take. 125 on Tuesday and 199 on Wednesday.

As for the re-read, it was about as good as the one for Magician: Apprentice. Like I said in the previous post, there were plot details that I'd forgotten or had rearranged in my memory so the end result was that I got the same amount of enjoyment out of Master as I did the first time around. I basically forgot about damn near every character in the Kelewan plot line along with the plot itself!

The all too brief exploration of Tsurani and their culture is definitely one of my favorite parts of the book. Their culture is so different from the standard "European Middle Ages" setting of The Kingdom of the Isles and I'm honestly impressed that Feist somehow combined aspects of different real world cultures - Feudal Japan, China during the Sung Dynasty, pre-Columbian Aztecs, and even the Zulu - into a cohesive entity. That's some nice worldbuilding there.

If you want, you can read what I had to say about Magician: Master the first time I read it.

Finished my re-read of Magician: Apprentice last night (spoilers)

And I can honestly say that I enjoyed it as much as I did the first time. I think the re-read benefited greatly from the four years since I read Apprentice the first time. I had forgotten large chunks of the plot and certain events got switched around in my memory. Like, I thought that Pug's capture had happened at the very end, but it doesn't. Instead, he ceases to be the main POV character for the rest of the book and the POV switches over to Tomas, Arutha, Carline, Martin, and briefly a Tsurani. I think this was a very clever way of ensuring that readers would continue reading the entire book back when it was just Magician. It actually becomes an even better hook after the book was split into Apprentice and Master because you're almost compelled as the reader to immediately pick up Master just to see what's become of Pug. The ploy is still effective after a re-read because I'm just about to jump into the next book today!

But yeah, Magician: Master ought to be as good as I remember it. One of the things I'm looking forward to is revisiting Kelawan and the Tsurani culture. Feist says he mixed together elements of Feudal Japan, Sung Dynasty era China, Zulu, and Aztec cultures and it's a major difference from Midkemia, which is the typical European fantasy setting. It's a nice change up and I'm planning on reading the Empire Trilogy (set entirely on Kelawan) later this year, after I finish with the Riftwar Saga.

I'll probably post some of my favorite bits from Magician: Apprentice later today.

Re-visiting Midkemia

So for whatever reason I decided to do a re-read of Raymond E. Feist's Magician: Apprentice, the first (half) book in the Riftwar Saga. I originally read it and it's sequel (second half), Magician: Master back in 2012 and boy, did I ever need a refresher. Like, I'm reading Apprentice and there are just huge, huge chunks of the plot that I simply forgot. I remember important events, but not what happens between them.

An oddity about Magician: Apprentice is that it's only the first part of a book. Both it and Magician: Master are actually a single book call simply Magician, but when it was published in the U.S., it was split into two parts for whatever reason. I'm guessing it was due to size and printing big ass doorstoppers back in the day wasn't optimal. If that's the reason, then it shows how far both book making and the fantasy genre has come because the two halves combined would probably total less than a thousand pages, or one Wheel of Time book. Easily less than a Sanderson. Easily.

Holy crap, that is some damn flawless Geralt (from Witcher) cosplay!

I am legitimately awestruck by this Aelirenn's skills and dedication.

My Geraltina of Rivia (and Ciri as a bonus)

Absolutely amazing. Just amazing.