Cover Art for the collector's edition of Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself

Not Subterranean's best effort, but the cover still looks gorgeous enough to make me sad that I don't have that kind of money...

Starcraft II Frustration

So, Wings of Liberty is out. I went to the midnight launch in my local Game Stop, being a fan of the original Starcraft. It was fun and all, but then I got home and tried installing the game. Nope. Can't. Need online connection, and I don't have one, cause I just moved in a new apartment. Went to the closest Wi-Fi hotspot (five minutes walk) at 2 am. Managed to begin installation. Went back home. Continued installing, but then I tried to play. Nope. Can't. Need online connection. To play Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty, you have to be on-line, and it doesn't matter if you want to play single or multiplayer. So basically, that means that while pirates all over the world have been enjoying the game for more than a day now, I can't play it, even though I payed for it. And that is why I hope PC gaming dies in agony, and will never touch a PC game if I ever have the choice.

Bastards...

Malazan: The early books - Seven Cities

The second novel in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series makes a sharp turn away from the story of the Empire's invasion in Genabackis. The reason - believe it or not - is that Memories of Ice's draft got lost in a computer crash and Erikson was so frustrated, that he wrote an entirely new book before returning to his original storyline. Whatever the reasons, the model of jumping to different storylines between books turned out to be successful, so there's no reason to complain.

Deadhouse Gates is situated in the desert continent of Seven Cities. The birthplace of humanity, and home to the First Empire of man, it was also the first to fall under the expanding Malazan Empire's rule. But now a rebellion rises - the Whirlwind, led by the prophetess Sha'ik who resides in the holy desert of Raraku. As the occupied territories fall one by one, the Seventh Army, under the command of the legendary Malazan Fist Coltaine, begins a daring journey across the continent to get fifty thousand refugees to the safety of the Imperial Seven Cities capital of Aren - a march that will later be known as the Chain of Dogs. Amidst the chaos of the Whirlwind, the ancient and powerful half-Jaghut Icarium travels on the Path of Hands to find clues to a past he does not remember.

Meanwhile the Empire's nobility is being culled by the Empress to prevent the noble families from gaining too much power. Many are killed, but others, like the young Felisin Paran - sister to the Bridgeburners' commander Ganoes and the Empress' Adjunct Tavore - are sent to the mines of Otataral island, to dig for the sorcery-negating substance. The cull sends Felisin on a journey that would change the course of events on the opposite side of the world.

Deadhouse Gates is arguably the best book in the series so far (and considering the significant decline in quality in later installments that is not likely to change). The three intertwining stories of the Chain of Dogs, Icarium's journey and Felisin's adventures create an epic tapestry rich with the ancient history hidden under the sands of Seven Cities, and revelations concerning both the Empire's origins and the bigger powers that play a part in the apocalyptic events of the rebellion. It also marks an amazing improvement in terms of style. Erikson's prose - at times clumsy and clunky in Gardens of the Moon - suddenly blooms into a rich and mature writing that will hold for the next four books, before starting to degenerate into the verbose heaviness of the last few installments.

10/10




While Deadhouse Gates is possibly the most stand-alone part in the series, it is still only a step in the development of the myriad story-lines that are meant to converge at the ending of the series. Thus comes House of Chains, book 4 of the Malazan Book of the Fallen. After the events of the Whirlwind and the Chain of Dogs, the Empire sends Adjunct Tavore Paran and the Fourteenth Army to venture into the heart of Holy Raraku and confront Sha'ik herself.

Meanwhile, from the northern mountains on the continent of Genabackis, a man like no other arrives into the world. Karsa Orlong is Teblor - a race of giants, descended from the legendary ancient Toblakai. He sets on a journey that will change not only his life, but the fate of the entire world.

House of Chains develops both the Seven Cities stories and that of the Crippled God's ascension, after he was introduced in Memories of Ice. Although a lot of important events occur, it is less self-contained than the previous two novels. Erikson's introduction of Karsa is also controversial, because for the first time a single-character story-line takes a quarter of the book without ever switching to a different character.

It is still a solid book though, and closes nicely the Whirlwind line, even if a few loose ends are left for book 6, The Bonehunters. It also introduces the series' most notorious character, and sets the scene for the third and final big story-line of the Malazan Book of the Fallen.

8.5/10


Next: Malazan: The early books - Lether

SF Masterworks - The List

So, this list has been circulating the net for a while now (together with its Fantasy Masterworks twin which I will not post here because I'm ashamed of how little I've read from it). It originated as part of the SFFM Reading Project but bloggers outside of the contributors post it too. So, anyway, bold means "read" and italic means "owned but not read".


I - Dune - Frank Herbert
II - The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
III - The Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick
IV - The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester
V - A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller, Jr.
VI - Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke
VII - The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein
VIII - Ringworld - Larry Niven
IX - The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
X - The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham

1 - The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
2 - I Am Legend - Richard Matheson
3 - Cities in Flight - James Blish
4 - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick
5 - The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester
6 - Babel-17 - Samuel R. Delany
7 - Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny
8 - The Fifth Head of Cerberus - Gene Wolfe
9 - Gateway - Frederik Pohl
10 - The Rediscovery of Man - Cordwainer Smith

11 - Last and First Men - Olaf Stapledon
12 - Earth Abides - George R. Stewart
13 - Martian Time-Slip - Philip K. Dick
14 - The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester
15 - Stand on Zanzibar - John Brunner
16 - The Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin
17 - The Drowned World - J. G. Ballard
18 - The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut
19 - Emphyrio - Jack Vance
20 - A Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dick

21 - Star Maker - Olaf Stapledon
22 - Behold the Man - Michael Moorcock
23 - The Book of Skulls - Robert Silverberg
24 - The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds - H. G. Wells
25 - Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
26 - Ubik - Philip K. Dick
27 - Timescape - Gregory Benford
28 - More Than Human - Theodore Sturgeon
29 - Man Plus - Frederik Pohl
30 - A Case of Conscience - James Blish

31 - The Centauri Device - M. John Harrison
32 - Dr. Bloodmoney - Philip K. Dick
33 - Non-Stop - Brian Aldiss
34 - The Fountains of Paradise - Arthur C. Clarke
35 - Pavane - Keith Roberts
36 - Now Wait for Last Year - Philip K. Dick
37 - Nova - Samuel R. Delany
38 - The First Men in the Moon - H. G. Wells
39 - The City and the Stars - Arthur C. Clarke
40 - Blood Music - Greg Bear

41 - Jem - Frederik Pohl
42 - Bring the Jubilee - Ward Moore
43 - VALIS - Philip K. Dick
44 - The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula K. Le Guin
45 - The Complete Roderick - John Sladek
46 - Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said - Philip K. Dick
47 - The Invisible Man - H. G. Wells
48 - Grass - Sheri S. Tepper
49 - A Fall of Moondust - Arthur C. Clarke
50 - Eon - Greg Bear

51 - The Shrinking Man - Richard Matheson
52 - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - Philip K. Dick
53 - The Dancers at the End of Time - Michael Moorcock
54 - The Space Merchants - Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth
55 - Time Out of Joint - Philip K. Dick
56 - Downward to the Earth - Robert Silverberg
57 - The Simulacra - Philip K. Dick
58 - The Penultimate Truth - Philip K. Dick
59 - Dying Inside - Robert Silverberg
60 - Ringworld - Larry Niven

61 - The Child Garden - Geoff Ryman
62 - Mission of Gravity - Hal Clement
63 - A Maze of Death - Philip K. Dick
64 - Tau Zero - Poul Anderson
65 - Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke
66 - Life During Wartime - Lucius Shepard
67 - Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang - Kate Wilhelm
68 - Roadside Picnic - Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
69 - Dark Benediction - Walter M. Miller, Jr.
70 - Mockingbird - Walter Tevis

71 - Dune - Frank Herbert
72 - The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein
73 - The Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick
74 - Inverted World - Christopher Priest
75 - Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
76 - The Island of Dr. Moreau - H.G. Wells
77 - Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke
78 - The Time Machine - H.G. Wells
79 - Dhalgren - Samuel Delany (July 2010)
80 - Helliconia - Brian Aldiss (August 2010)

81 - Food of the Gods - H.G. Wells (Sept. 2010)
82 - The Body Snatchers - Jack Finney (Oct. 2010)
83 - The Female Man - Joanna Russ (Nov. 2010)
84 - Arslan - M.J. Engh (Dec. 2010)

I write like...

I write like
Cory Doctorow

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I write like
Johathan Swift

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I write like
H. P. Lovecraft

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I was pointed to this hilarious site. I obviously write like Cory Doctorow or Jonathan Swift (if anyone finds a common denominator between the two, please let me know!) when it comes to fiction. My reviews however seem to be influenced by one Howard Lovecraft... Like I said, hilarious! Try it!

Movies: Inception

Let me start by saying that - yes - Inception is, without a shadow of doubt, the movie of the summer. It is also the movie of the year, unless some tremendous surprise occurs, which I find highly unlikely. It is also something unprecedented - a movie with all the markings of a summer blockbuster, which is none the less based on a very complicated idea and presents an intelligent treatment of it.

The story is set in our time, but with a twist: the technology exist to enter and construct other people's dreams. Specially trained thieves called Extractors use it for industrial espionage, and there are those whose subconscious is trained to resist them. Cobb (DiCaprio) is the best Extractor in the world. A man with troubled past and loose grasp on reality, he is running from a powerful corporation after botching a job, when he receives a proposition that could potentially untangle the mess he's made of his life. But the new assignment is the complete opposite of what he does - instead of extracting an idea, he is hired to make an Inception - to plant a new idea into the mind of the subject.

Inception is a mind-twisting ride in the spirit of Philip K. Dick, and one which - just like Dick's best novels - leaves a lot of room for interpretation, especially where its ambiguous finale is concerned. Nolan's treatment of his own script is cold and almost clinical, while characters outside Cobb are given very little development (presumably on purpose). Still, there is none that rings hollow - from pragmatic and cautious Point Man Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and sarcastic easygoing Forger Eames (Tom Hardy) to caring and curious Architect Ariadne (Ellen Page) they are all believable and well constructed, not to mention that all the actors are supreme in their roles.

Visually, the movie is a blast. Unfortunately, the physics-defying fun is nowhere near as much as we could've hoped for, and really, most of it was on the trailers. Still, the cold blue-gray-brown palette that permeates the whole of Inception builds a powerful atmosphere, and some of the locations - like Cobb and Mal's limbo city for example - are mind-blowing.

Inception being what it is - a summer blockbuster - it is chock-full of greatly varied action. There are car-chases, and there are shootings, fist-fights and zero-gravity grappling. There is even a Call of Duty-esque snowy mountain war sequence.

But the movie's greatest strength remains its script. The story is never boring, never slows down and never fails to present a new element. The ending feels almost a cliffhanger, until you realize that Inception has been feeding you a steady stream of clues since the very start. That makes for an exciting second viewing, and - the script being the perfect construct that it is - a third one that is just as good.

I hate the "if you watch/read one thing this year" line, but this is a rare case where it is actually appropriate. Because in the unnaturally weak Summer season that we've had this year, Inception is the only movie worth watching. And if you are even a little into SF, there is no way you're going to miss it. My advice is only this - watch carefully, listen carefully... and then do it all over again!

10/10

The Malazan Book of the Fallen is oficially done!

Via Facebook:

GASP! That would be me, coming up for air. How long was I down there? About twenty years, from conception to completion. The Malazan Book of the Fallen is done. Sure, editing and all that crap to follow. But ... done. I don't know who I am. Who am I again? What planet is this? Three months of butterflies ... maybe this double whiskey will fix that. Hmm. No. Delayed reaction going on here.

Congratulations to Steve! It's a major achievement finishing a series of such magnitude in such a short time. SOME authors should take note...

The Crippled God is expected on 20 Jan 2011 in the UK, and on 22 Feb 2011 in Canada (and possibly the US).

I have joined the SFFM Reading Project...

...and thought I'd mention it here. Today I posted my first review there, of Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light. For everyone interested, just click on either the link for the review itself, or on the picture for the blog.

Fantasy Masterworks: Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury

Something Wicked This Way Comes was my first contact with Bradbury, and it was a mindblast! The powerful story of archetypes and conviction that has inspired not a few of Steven King's books, and the beautiful and colorful prose of the novel enchanted me in a way that very few authors have ever managed.

The story is set in a small Midwestern town. One October, a mysterious traveling carnival arrives, filled with strange attractions and stranger performers. And as the carnival's dark promises of secret desires turn to madness and despair, the lives of two 13-year old boys change forever.

The beauty of Something Wicked This Way Comes is contained in its contrasts. Will Halloway is born a minute before midnight on October 30. Blond and blue-eyed, he is careful and timid. Jim Nightshade on the other hand - born a minute after midnight on October 31 - is his exact opposite. With his chestnut hair and dark eyes, brooding and always "looking at his shadow", he is ever getting into trouble. Perhaps it is this duality that accounts for the boys' friendship. It is also another beautiful contrast that Jim's brashness is what makes him the weak one in the story, while Will's timidity hides greater strength.

The monstrous performers of Mr. Dark's carnival are among the most vivid images of nightmarish dementia I've seen in any type of fantasy, not in small part due to Bradbury's amazing descriptions. The scene of the Wax Witch's flight in a balloon held by her breaths, as she touches people's dreams in search for the boys, brands itself deep into the imagination, and won't let go long after you've put the book down. And it is but one example of the powerful imagery that occurs many times throughout the book.

In the end, Something Wicked This Way Comes is a story of growing up and coming of age, of overcoming the greatest obstacles - your own desires and self-doubts - and of finding strength in what makes us human, against a power that would steal your dreams and turn them to nightmares. The book has mythic resonance, despite its "YA" setup and small-town setting, and in its wake one feels maybe a little stronger, as if the reader, and not the characters, has overcome the obstacles of Mr. Dark's traveling carnival. It is a beautifully written and imagined novel, and an attestation to the genius of Ray Bradbury's writing. I can not recommend it enough!

10/10

Cover Art for Michael Moorcock's Elric: Swords and Roses

An awesome cover! Some of the previous ones have been hit and miss, but Volume 6 is spot on. Michael Moorcock's multiverse is something I've long wanted to try out, but I still haven't. I am buying the Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melnibone volumes as they come out. Maybe I should think about actually reading them now...