We’ve got boatloads of fun this week, from reviews of books by Brandon Sanderson, Daniel Abraham, and Mercedes Lackey, to a chat with David Anthony Durham. Tack on the top 25 Babes of DragonCon and a revolution in online gaming, and you’re going to be a busy bee this week.
From Sanderson to Jordan to Hobb, we’ve got a few interesting reviews this week. The review of The Dragon Keeper over at Elitist is particularly harsh. I’m going to have to read this book to form my own opinion, because after just reading Ship of Magic, its hard to believe that Hobb could swing so far from one extreme to the other.
We’ve got two new entries this week, the first being a debut from sixteen year old author Cayla Kluver. The second, Full Moon Rising, is yet another vampire/werewolf book making its way into the top five.
The Time Traveler’s Wife holding strong at number one for the third week straight. Hobb stays in the fifth slot, and Harris, Stevenson and Keyes play a little musical chairs.
The books from the number one and two positions remain (The Time Traveler’s Wife, and Assassin’s Apprentice), with The Briar King, The Brass Bed, and Queen of the Orcs: King’s Property all making first appearances in the Amazon top five.
The Time Traveler’s Wife catapults into first from fifth last week. Robin Hobb’s Assassin’s Apprentice stays strong in the number two slot, and the rest of the top five are the same batch, just rearranged slightly.
Its interesting that Margaret Lindholm’s first novel published under the pen name Robin Hobb, from 1995, is maintaining such a strong showing in Amazon’s top five. No doubt caused by popularity of recent books, readers are feeling compelled to go back to the start of the 9 books preceding the forthcoming The Dragon Keeper. I chose to start with the middle trilogy, since I’ve heard its the strongest of the three trilogies. Have you read any other books by Robin Hobb? Leave a comment, it doesn’t require signing up.
The fantasy book world is all a buzz with Joe Abercrombie’s latest novel, Best Served Cold. Abercrombie even grabbed commentary from the great one, George R.R. Martin, which is like giving your book’s marketing campaign a shot of nitrous. Vroom vroom!
Before you read the review of Robin Hobb’s most recent publication, Dragon Keeper, beware: it contains spoilers for the previous nine books. I found out the hard way, and let the author know how I felt in the comments section.
What are your feelings on reviews that give away plot details? Do you prefer reviews with plot summaries, or would you rather have a review detail all the aspects possible about the book without giving away any of the story? Let me know!
Ship of Magic made my list originally as a recommendation by George R.R. Martin on his “Not a Blog” where he listed a bunch of authors to enjoy while awaiting the release of the fifth novel in the Song of Ice & Fire series, A Dance with Dragons. We’re still waiting, and I’m still reading recommended books off his list. I’m glad to say, that with Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb, I’ve been turned on to a fantastic author I had not previously read. My initial impression was, like I’m sure a lot of first impressions about Ship of Magic are, that the author would have to pull off something really special in order for me to believe a book about talking ships. Ship of Magic offers a completely unique and original idea (something pretty hard to come by in fantasy fiction these days), and delivers it in a way that is not only believable, but really cuts straight to the deeper topic of relationships.
These characters are believable. Tough for some authors to accomplish with humans, Hobb takes typically inanimate objects and breaths life into them. Life that is similar in some ways to human, but is intricate in its subtle differences. The variety of characters is enjoyable, and Hobb takes the perspective of the few main characters (including non-humans), as well as some of the secondary characters, which creates an enjoyable blend of viewpoints. Not as vast as some of George R.R. Martin’s works, where he can go for entire novels skipping characters, Hobb’s cast of characters is a wonderful balance. Some of my favorite insights came from the character Wintrow, a teenage Priest of Sa in training, and his teacher’s lessons:
“Wintrow,” he chided softly. ”Refuse the anxiety. When you borrow trouble against what might be, you neglect the moment you have now to enjoy. The man who worries about what will next be happening to him loses this moment in dread of the next, and poisons the next with pre-judgement.”
Or his conversations with Vivacia, the Vestrit family liveship:
“This is blasphemy,” Wintrow said fervently.
“Is it? Then how do you explain it? All the ugliness and viciousness that is the province of humanity, whence comes it?”
“Not from Sa. From ignorance of Sa. From separation from Sa. Time and again I have seen children brought to the monastery, boys and girls with not hint as to why they are there. Angry and afraid, many of them, at being sent forth from their homes at such a tender age. Within weeks, they blossom, they open to Sa’s light and glory. In every single child, there is at least a spark of it. Not all stay; some are sent home, not all are suited to a life of service. But all of them are suited to being creations of light and thought and love. All of them.”
“Mm,” the ship mused. ”Wintrow, it is good to hear you speak as yourself again.”
Hobb does a fantastic job of moving the point of view from a young, frivolous, barely thirteen year old girl, to her grandmother, the matriarch of the family. There is a healthy cast of pirates, and a few quintessential pirate novel plot points that I won’t get into in this review.
Moving from one character to the next gives the novel a dextrous pace, with the reader never feeling the need to progress the story at either a slower or quicker speed. The book mainly takes place in port towns, or on the open sea. The characters range from once-wealthy families who own liveships, to a great mixture of pirates and sea serpents, to a mysterious society of folk who live up the Rain Wild river. Hobb has actually focused on this society of people for her most recent series, The Rain Wild Chronicles, the first novel of which, Dragon Keeper, was recently released in the UK, and is slated for release in the US in January 2010. I’d recommend starting with the Liveship Traders books, and working your way to toward the new series.
Ship of Magic is definitely an adult novel, with multiple adult-oriented themes running through it, so reader beware. I’m going to take a break from this genre with my next read, The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle.
To be able to take an idea as far fetched as living ships (and other wooden objects) and pull it off as well as Hobb does truly is a testament to her talent for writing creative fantasy literature. The flair with which she builds the characters and world around this central idea in Ship of Magic is the cement in a foundation of an expanding mansion epic fantasy novels. I would highly recommend Ship of Magic as a starting point to Hobb’s world of fantasy books.
by Audrey Niffenegger
by Charlaine Harris
by Robin Hobb
by Jennifer Stevenson
by Greg Keyes
by Morgan Howell
by Stephenie Meyer
by Naomi Novik
, was recently released in the UK, and is slated for release in the US in January 2010. I’d recommend starting with the Liveship Traders books, and working your way to toward the new series.