The Shattered Sun is a hard book to pin down. The copy describes it as an 鈥渆pic sword-and-sorcery . . . fantasy.鈥� It is, technically, an epic fantasy.The Shattered Sun is a hard book to pin down. The copy describes it as an 鈥渆pic sword-and-sorcery . . . fantasy.鈥� It is, technically, an epic fantasy. The trilogy concerns potentially world-ending matters. The third book, after all, opens with the sun extinguished by the revived Twins. But the story still manages to feel small for an epic fantasy, focusing on a handful of characters and taking place in limited locations. On the other hand, I wouldn鈥檛 say it is sword and sorcery. I think the term they should be looking for is 鈥済rimdark.鈥� But the Bound Gods books don鈥檛 necessarily satisfy the grimdark penchant for gore. But they are dark and handle moral ambiguity in a much more thoughtful way than the average grimdark.
More to the point, the Bound Gods books aren鈥檛 plot-centric enough to be sword and sorcery. The strength of the series has always been Dunne鈥檚 writing and her characterization. Long lulls between the action is neither necessary to nor sufficient for characterization, but Dunne uses them inordinately well for it. Ultimately, though, a fantasy trilogy comes down to plot, and the Bound Gods trilogy is marred by a weak finish.
How many series feature their strongest climax not in the final book, or even in the first book, but instead in the second book?
The end of the second book sets up the plot of the third. The Fallen successfully revived the demigod Twins, and the Twins immediately extinguished the sun. But doing so left them weakened, and the sun isn鈥檛 exactly extinguished. An eternal night has begun, but the air remains warm and crops even grow. There is a window of opportunity to defeat the Twins before they regain their full power.
The Shattered Sun benefits from bringing (almost) all of the characters from the first two books together. I particularly missed Scal in the second book, and he plays more of a prominent role here, now wielding the powers that will get him dubbed 鈥淣ightbreaker.鈥� But he is almost more of a plot device than a character.
I mentioned above that the Bound Gods books handle moral ambiguity more thoughtfully than the average grimdark. Grimdark tends to just paint the protagonist as also awful, which is both lazy and unsatisfying. Dunne does something more interesting. Doing things for the right reasons can lead to doing great wrong, as Kieron learns (although he will get his chance at redemption). Self-interest can lead to doing the right thing, as we see with Joros.
The ending, though, mars the book, and the entire series really. It was a bit too cheap, not well setup, and it left me with one big, looming question (and not in a good way).
Disclosure: Harper Voyager sent me a review copy of The Shattered Sun.
Merged review:
The Shattered Sun is a hard book to pin down. The copy describes it as an 鈥渆pic sword-and-sorcery . . . fantasy.鈥� It is, technically, an epic fantasy. The trilogy concerns potentially world-ending matters. The third book, after all, opens with the sun extinguished by the revived Twins. But the story still manages to feel small for an epic fantasy, focusing on a handful of characters and taking place in limited locations. On the other hand, I wouldn鈥檛 say it is sword and sorcery. I think the term they should be looking for is 鈥済rimdark.鈥� But the Bound Gods books don鈥檛 necessarily satisfy the grimdark penchant for gore. But they are dark and handle moral ambiguity in a much more thoughtful way than the average grimdark.
More to the point, the Bound Gods books aren鈥檛 plot-centric enough to be sword and sorcery. The strength of the series has always been Dunne鈥檚 writing and her characterization. Long lulls between the action is neither necessary to nor sufficient for characterization, but Dunne uses them inordinately well for it. Ultimately, though, a fantasy trilogy comes down to plot, and the Bound Gods trilogy is marred by a weak finish.
How many series feature their strongest climax not in the final book, or even in the first book, but instead in the second book?
The end of the second book sets up the plot of the third. The Fallen successfully revived the demigod Twins, and the Twins immediately extinguished the sun. But doing so left them weakened, and the sun isn鈥檛 exactly extinguished. An eternal night has begun, but the air remains warm and crops even grow. There is a window of opportunity to defeat the Twins before they regain their full power.
The Shattered Sun benefits from bringing (almost) all of the characters from the first two books together. I particularly missed Scal in the second book, and he plays more of a prominent role here, now wielding the powers that will get him dubbed 鈥淣ightbreaker.鈥� But he is almost more of a plot device than a character.
I mentioned above that the Bound Gods books handle moral ambiguity more thoughtfully than the average grimdark. Grimdark tends to just paint the protagonist as also awful, which is both lazy and unsatisfying. Dunne does something more interesting. Doing things for the right reasons can lead to doing great wrong, as Kieron learns (although he will get his chance at redemption). Self-interest can lead to doing the right thing, as we see with Joros.
The ending, though, mars the book, and the entire series really. It was a bit too cheap, not well setup, and it left me with one big, looming question (and not in a good way).
Disclosure: Harper Voyager sent me a review copy of The Shattered Sun....more
Raymond Turner has a problem. The New Orleans-based private investigator crawled into a bottle when his wife died and has only crawled out with considRaymond Turner has a problem. The New Orleans-based private investigator crawled into a bottle when his wife died and has only crawled out with considerable effort and grace on the part of his partner.
The town of Comanche, Texas has a problem. Over one hundred and thirty-five years ago several townspeople killed the Piney Woods Kid and desecrated his corpse. Now the ghost of the Piney Woods Kid is exacting his revenge on the descendants of those townspeople, haunting the grounds of the historic depot where his body was dismembered鈥攏ewly renovated and opened as a diner by the town mayor.
Fortunately, the mayor鈥檚 wife is Turner鈥檚 sister. Turner鈥檚 chance for redemption is Comanche鈥檚 chance for salvation.
Turner, his partner LeBlanc, and McDowell, the psychic they frequently consult with, decamp New Orleans for west Texas. They aren鈥檛 licensed in Texas and won鈥檛 be able to collect a fee, but when family calls you have to go. Things won鈥檛 be easy, though. They have a strong-willed, independent-minded group of Comanche residents to worry about. C.W. Roark, the mayor and owner of the depot, isn鈥檛 interested in anything that might scare tourists away from the upcoming Pow Wow or that involves the brother who did his wife so wrong. And then there is the small problem that a real ghost is the last explanation they are going to consider.
At some point, though, you have to believe your own lying eyes. And how else do you explain wounds that look just like bullet wounds but leave no external damage or, for that matter, any bullets.
There is a big cast of characters to keep track of, but even the minor characters are a highlight of the book. Turner dealing with his own pain and the lure of the bottle while getting back on the P.I. horse is at the heart of the book, but everyone has their own story.
The Piney Woods Kid is creepy enough, I suppose, but Riley doesn鈥檛 lean on the horror aspects. In the end, it is going to come down to a big set piece with lots of gunfire (as befits a neo-Western setting, I suppose). It may not be to your taste, but I certainly enjoyed it.
Only a few stylistic choices detract from the book. Characters (and there are a goodly number of them) are inconsistently referred to by first or last name across dialogue and non-dialogue, sometimes making it more difficult than necessary to keep track of everyone. Riley鈥檚 use of the term 鈥淟atinx鈥� is incongruous. A strong sense of place is a hallmark of country noir. Using a term used by 3% of U.S. Hispanics, and probably no one in Comanche itself, disassociates the book from its setting. Finally, Riley鈥檚 choice to forego quotation marks isn鈥檛 distracting or confusing, but it also doesn鈥檛 enhance the storytelling (if you want to emulate Cormac McCarthy, more than dropping some punctuation is necessary).
Disclosure: I received a complimentary, advance copy of Comanche through the Amazon Vine program.
Merged review:
Raymond Turner has a problem. The New Orleans-based private investigator crawled into a bottle when his wife died and has only crawled out with considerable effort and grace on the part of his partner.
The town of Comanche, Texas has a problem. Over one hundred and thirty-five years ago several townspeople killed the Piney Woods Kid and desecrated his corpse. Now the ghost of the Piney Woods Kid is exacting his revenge on the descendants of those townspeople, haunting the grounds of the historic depot where his body was dismembered鈥攏ewly renovated and opened as a diner by the town mayor.
Fortunately, the mayor鈥檚 wife is Turner鈥檚 sister. Turner鈥檚 chance for redemption is Comanche鈥檚 chance for salvation.
Turner, his partner LeBlanc, and McDowell, the psychic they frequently consult with, decamp New Orleans for west Texas. They aren鈥檛 licensed in Texas and won鈥檛 be able to collect a fee, but when family calls you have to go. Things won鈥檛 be easy, though. They have a strong-willed, independent-minded group of Comanche residents to worry about. C.W. Roark, the mayor and owner of the depot, isn鈥檛 interested in anything that might scare tourists away from the upcoming Pow Wow or that involves the brother who did his wife so wrong. And then there is the small problem that a real ghost is the last explanation they are going to consider.
At some point, though, you have to believe your own lying eyes. And how else do you explain wounds that look just like bullet wounds but leave no external damage or, for that matter, any bullets.
There is a big cast of characters to keep track of, but even the minor characters are a highlight of the book. Turner dealing with his own pain and the lure of the bottle while getting back on the P.I. horse is at the heart of the book, but everyone has their own story.
The Piney Woods Kid is creepy enough, I suppose, but Riley doesn鈥檛 lean on the horror aspects. In the end, it is going to come down to a big set piece with lots of gunfire (as befits a neo-Western setting, I suppose). It may not be to your taste, but I certainly enjoyed it.
Only a few stylistic choices detract from the book. Characters (and there are a goodly number of them) are inconsistently referred to by first or last name across dialogue and non-dialogue, sometimes making it more difficult than necessary to keep track of everyone. Riley鈥檚 use of the term 鈥淟atinx鈥� is incongruous. A strong sense of place is a hallmark of country noir. Using a term used by 3% of U.S. Hispanics, and probably no one in Comanche itself, disassociates the book from its setting. Finally, Riley鈥檚 choice to forego quotation marks isn鈥檛 distracting or confusing, but it also doesn鈥檛 enhance the storytelling (if you want to emulate Cormac McCarthy, more than dropping some punctuation is necessary).
Disclosure: I received a complimentary, advance copy of Comanche through the Amazon Vine program....more
I don鈥檛 read a lot of Young Adult fiction. I never have, although weirdly I read more now as a, ah, less young adult than I did as an actual young aduI don鈥檛 read a lot of Young Adult fiction. I never have, although weirdly I read more now as a, ah, less young adult than I did as an actual young adult. And like everyone else, I caught a bit of a bug for YA Dysopia from the Hunger Games, but that didn鈥檛 last long. And I must confess that the description didn鈥檛 grab me (this is becoming an increasing problem; I wind up reviewing a fair number of books I like much more than I expected from the copy, books I probably wouldn鈥檛 have read but for the blog). But Flynn directly solicited me, and I was very impressed by his efforts to do self-publication right, with professional editing and cover art. So I took a chance.
I am very glad that I did.
Frankly, though, looking back on it that looks like good copy. It鈥檚 a fair description of the book, and it鈥檚 easy to get excited about it when I know just how well Flynn handles each element.
Arika and Narrah take equal billing. I鈥檓 just glad to not see another love triangle, but a deep sibling bond is something we don鈥檛 see enough of in speculative fiction. Arika and Narrah have been together since birth, linked by blood, the deprivations of post-apocalyptic life, and a telepathic bond, the 鈥淧ath.鈥� The Path gets blocked, in full or in part, though, when Arika goes through her Changing. Arika and Narrah really know and care about each other, and their visceral reaction to losing the Path emphasizes this.
The Changeland is the sort of thing that has been done before鈥攊t reminds me a lot of both Tel鈥橝ran鈥橰hiod and the test to become Accepted from The Wheel of Time鈥攂ut Flynn does it about as well as I鈥檝e ever seen it done. It allows us to see both pre-Great Madness Australia and the onset of the Great Madness through the eyes of characters who never knew anything but the world after the Great Madness. And it allows a supremely creepy introduction of the Anteater, whose name doesn鈥檛 sound so silly when he鈥檚 a disembodied voice comparing humans to ants.
鈥淗ere in the Changeland, I live among these towers. Termite mounds鈥攆ull of millions of flying ants. Thousands of little packets of life consumed to keep the one life of the anteater going. Wherever they hide, he gets them. Thousands of deaths for one life. That creature that feeds on life is me. The Anteater.鈥�
And coming out of the Changeland is no picnic either, because sometimes children come out as Ferals or, worse, Sleeper Ferals who wait and seem normal and wait and then slaughter a few people from the settlement. And Arika and Narrah live in a particularly superstitious settlement.
The Changing does come with some benefits. If you don鈥檛 come out a Feral, if you survive at all (as with Tel鈥橝ran鈥橰hiod, wounds there are wounds in the real world), if you survive suspicious neighbors, then you come out of it with psychic powers. At the risk of LIGHT SPOILERS, Arika gains to psychosomatic ability to gain the powers of animals. She doesn鈥檛 actually physically change but she thinks she does and that鈥檚 enough. And no this doesn鈥檛 make much sense but it鈥檚 cool. And Flynn takes full advantage of the Australian bestiary. Narrah, on the other hand, gets the ability to read computer files by touch, which would be lame if I didn鈥檛 have a f___ed up external hard drive that could use some recovering.
It鈥檚 hard to call this anything other than fantasy, but it has a logic to it and works in service to the story. The cause of the Great Madness is frighteningly plausible, in degree if not in kind. That the survivors all had something 鈥渄ifferent鈥� about their minds is a nice touch. It effects who they are in the new world. The alcoholic jumps at his second chance. The woman who couldn鈥檛 protect the family who took care of her when she couldn鈥檛 take care of herself gathers a new family around her. People who were severely mentally disabled are tabula rasa. Presumably many of those who survived are psychopaths who help make life in the new world particularly nasty, brutish, and short.
Some quick action, a couple good hooks, and the story is off to the races.
This is definitely a YA book, and Flynn keeps his sentences simple to the point of distraction, but he occasionally throws in a nice flourish.
鈥淚t had been raining that day and the forest was dark. He could still smell the strong eucalyptus scent rising off the huge karri trees that stood like crying gods dripping tears on the little lost humans far below.鈥�
We need to see more self-published fiction like Children of the Different.
Merged review:
I don鈥檛 read a lot of Young Adult fiction. I never have, although weirdly I read more now as a, ah, less young adult than I did as an actual young adult. And like everyone else, I caught a bit of a bug for YA Dysopia from the Hunger Games, but that didn鈥檛 last long. And I must confess that the description didn鈥檛 grab me (this is becoming an increasing problem; I wind up reviewing a fair number of books I like much more than I expected from the copy, books I probably wouldn鈥檛 have read but for the blog). But Flynn directly solicited me, and I was very impressed by his efforts to do self-publication right, with professional editing and cover art. So I took a chance.
I am very glad that I did.
Frankly, though, looking back on it that looks like good copy. It鈥檚 a fair description of the book, and it鈥檚 easy to get excited about it when I know just how well Flynn handles each element.
Arika and Narrah take equal billing. I鈥檓 just glad to not see another love triangle, but a deep sibling bond is something we don鈥檛 see enough of in speculative fiction. Arika and Narrah have been together since birth, linked by blood, the deprivations of post-apocalyptic life, and a telepathic bond, the 鈥淧ath.鈥� The Path gets blocked, in full or in part, though, when Arika goes through her Changing. Arika and Narrah really know and care about each other, and their visceral reaction to losing the Path emphasizes this.
The Changeland is the sort of thing that has been done before鈥攊t reminds me a lot of both Tel鈥橝ran鈥橰hiod and the test to become Accepted from The Wheel of Time鈥攂ut Flynn does it about as well as I鈥檝e ever seen it done. It allows us to see both pre-Great Madness Australia and the onset of the Great Madness through the eyes of characters who never knew anything but the world after the Great Madness. And it allows a supremely creepy introduction of the Anteater, whose name doesn鈥檛 sound so silly when he鈥檚 a disembodied voice comparing humans to ants.
鈥淗ere in the Changeland, I live among these towers. Termite mounds鈥攆ull of millions of flying ants. Thousands of little packets of life consumed to keep the one life of the anteater going. Wherever they hide, he gets them. Thousands of deaths for one life. That creature that feeds on life is me. The Anteater.鈥�
And coming out of the Changeland is no picnic either, because sometimes children come out as Ferals or, worse, Sleeper Ferals who wait and seem normal and wait and then slaughter a few people from the settlement. And Arika and Narrah live in a particularly superstitious settlement.
The Changing does come with some benefits. If you don鈥檛 come out a Feral, if you survive at all (as with Tel鈥橝ran鈥橰hiod, wounds there are wounds in the real world), if you survive suspicious neighbors, then you come out of it with psychic powers. At the risk of LIGHT SPOILERS, Arika gains to psychosomatic ability to gain the powers of animals. She doesn鈥檛 actually physically change but she thinks she does and that鈥檚 enough. And no this doesn鈥檛 make much sense but it鈥檚 cool. And Flynn takes full advantage of the Australian bestiary. Narrah, on the other hand, gets the ability to read computer files by touch, which would be lame if I didn鈥檛 have a f___ed up external hard drive that could use some recovering.
It鈥檚 hard to call this anything other than fantasy, but it has a logic to it and works in service to the story. The cause of the Great Madness is frighteningly plausible, in degree if not in kind. That the survivors all had something 鈥渄ifferent鈥� about their minds is a nice touch. It effects who they are in the new world. The alcoholic jumps at his second chance. The woman who couldn鈥檛 protect the family who took care of her when she couldn鈥檛 take care of herself gathers a new family around her. People who were severely mentally disabled are tabula rasa. Presumably many of those who survived are psychopaths who help make life in the new world particularly nasty, brutish, and short.
Some quick action, a couple good hooks, and the story is off to the races.
This is definitely a YA book, and Flynn keeps his sentences simple to the point of distraction, but he occasionally throws in a nice flourish.
鈥淚t had been raining that day and the forest was dark. He could still smell the strong eucalyptus scent rising off the huge karri trees that stood like crying gods dripping tears on the little lost humans far below.鈥�
We need to see more self-published fiction like Children of the Different....more
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