Review of Shards
Nov. 1st, 2015 05:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHey,
So being laid up in the hospital does mean you can get some reading done. In particular, I whipped through King of Shards by Matthew Kressel. It's the start of a fantasy trilogy that leans on kabbalistic underpinnings vs. European ones. I should mention that is just starts from there, but doesn't sort of fall down a Hermetic magic-hole.
The basic gist is that there are thousands of shards, previous attempts at Creation that have been scattered hither and yon. Earth and it's universe represents the Creator getting it right. The Earth is full of the waters of life which overflow and splash down to the various shards and provide them with the energy to keep them going, but life is pretty brutal in most of the shards.
Further, the Earth is supported by The Pillars of Earth, the Lamed Vav, thirty-six righteous people whose goodness keeps the Earth intact and stable. If you can remove enough of those pillars, the Earth will crack open and the Shards will all be flooded away.
Daniel Fisher is one of the Lamed Vav, although, like most, he doesn't know it. He's about to get married when a giant dog-man bursts into his ceremony and shoves him through to the shard world of Gehinnon. The dog man is a demon who goes by several names, but Caleb is pretty much what most people know him as. Caleb, as a demon is fighting off Mashit, his former lover, who's on a tear to try and yank the Pillars out and destroy the Earth.
Meanwhile, on Gehinnon, Rana works as a mason building grand architecture for the city of Azru on the edge of the rolling sea of sand. She discovers a giant white dog and a strange man in her workshop and it's off to the races for the trio. They need to find a powerful witch, find a way back to Earth and stop Mashit's plan.
Well...Caleb has a few other ideas.
Anyway, I thought this was a pretty good book with a lot of fresh, interesting ideas, but Daniel, the Pillar of the Earth, was pretty much a token. True, he didn't know who/what he was and in some respects he's sort of the princess to be saved (so a nice gender reversal there), but except for one bit near the end, he doesn't exhibit a lot of agency or decision-making. Frankly, the demon was a lot more interesting (and to be fair, aren't most bad guys?).
I'm not sure if I'll be following up on this one. It works best when people are outside Earth, but Daniel needs to sort of stay put by the end of this first book. We'll see.
I have also been listening to a couple of audio books. I worked my way through Quarter Share by Nathan Lowell. Imagine an age of sail book about a young crewman on a clipper ship but set in the far future. That's pretty much what you get. Ishmael Horatio Wong (yeah...that's his name) lives on a corporation planet when his mom is killed in an accident. Through various legal chicaneries, Wong is going to be penniless and deported. So he signs up for a menial job on a trading vessel.
What follows is not rollicking adventure, but really...just him doing his job, getting to know his crew and finding his place. Maybe a bit like Dickens or Horatio Alger, but with less moralizing and more slice-of-life. I'm pretty sure I'd never actually plunk down cash and read this book, but it is very soothing to listen too and quite pleasant while out driving. In particular, if you're a fan of the Traveller RPG, then this is completely up your alley.
So yeah, his books are all in free podcast format and you can look it up on iTunes or whatever.
later
Tom
So being laid up in the hospital does mean you can get some reading done. In particular, I whipped through King of Shards by Matthew Kressel. It's the start of a fantasy trilogy that leans on kabbalistic underpinnings vs. European ones. I should mention that is just starts from there, but doesn't sort of fall down a Hermetic magic-hole.
The basic gist is that there are thousands of shards, previous attempts at Creation that have been scattered hither and yon. Earth and it's universe represents the Creator getting it right. The Earth is full of the waters of life which overflow and splash down to the various shards and provide them with the energy to keep them going, but life is pretty brutal in most of the shards.
Further, the Earth is supported by The Pillars of Earth, the Lamed Vav, thirty-six righteous people whose goodness keeps the Earth intact and stable. If you can remove enough of those pillars, the Earth will crack open and the Shards will all be flooded away.
Daniel Fisher is one of the Lamed Vav, although, like most, he doesn't know it. He's about to get married when a giant dog-man bursts into his ceremony and shoves him through to the shard world of Gehinnon. The dog man is a demon who goes by several names, but Caleb is pretty much what most people know him as. Caleb, as a demon is fighting off Mashit, his former lover, who's on a tear to try and yank the Pillars out and destroy the Earth.
Meanwhile, on Gehinnon, Rana works as a mason building grand architecture for the city of Azru on the edge of the rolling sea of sand. She discovers a giant white dog and a strange man in her workshop and it's off to the races for the trio. They need to find a powerful witch, find a way back to Earth and stop Mashit's plan.
Well...Caleb has a few other ideas.
Anyway, I thought this was a pretty good book with a lot of fresh, interesting ideas, but Daniel, the Pillar of the Earth, was pretty much a token. True, he didn't know who/what he was and in some respects he's sort of the princess to be saved (so a nice gender reversal there), but except for one bit near the end, he doesn't exhibit a lot of agency or decision-making. Frankly, the demon was a lot more interesting (and to be fair, aren't most bad guys?).
I'm not sure if I'll be following up on this one. It works best when people are outside Earth, but Daniel needs to sort of stay put by the end of this first book. We'll see.
I have also been listening to a couple of audio books. I worked my way through Quarter Share by Nathan Lowell. Imagine an age of sail book about a young crewman on a clipper ship but set in the far future. That's pretty much what you get. Ishmael Horatio Wong (yeah...that's his name) lives on a corporation planet when his mom is killed in an accident. Through various legal chicaneries, Wong is going to be penniless and deported. So he signs up for a menial job on a trading vessel.
What follows is not rollicking adventure, but really...just him doing his job, getting to know his crew and finding his place. Maybe a bit like Dickens or Horatio Alger, but with less moralizing and more slice-of-life. I'm pretty sure I'd never actually plunk down cash and read this book, but it is very soothing to listen too and quite pleasant while out driving. In particular, if you're a fan of the Traveller RPG, then this is completely up your alley.
So yeah, his books are all in free podcast format and you can look it up on iTunes or whatever.
later
Tom
no subject
Date: 2015-11-03 03:27 am (UTC)Glad you have good reading.
no subject
Date: 2015-11-03 01:12 pm (UTC)See previous two posts of mine. I'm back home now. Also, I heard something about you being in the hospital lately?
Later
Tom