Something Barrowed Something Reviewed

Hey,

So it was a slow March for reading but April has picked up quite a bit.

So let's start with The Barrow by Mark Smylie. Mr. Smylie is a comic book writer and artist most famous for his Artesia series and is the founder of Archaia Entertainment that publishes his stuff (along with a bunch of other series, most famously Mouse Guard). Those CEO duties have taken him away from his creative work and this novel is a sort of prequel to the comic books although no real knowledge of those books is required.

The story follows a group of adventurous grave robbers who discover an ancient map leading to a lich-king's tomb and the fabulous sword buried with him. In their attempts to decode the map, something goes horribly wrong and the map is transferred to the skin of a noble woman who must now be carried along as they attempt to plunder the tomb marked out on her body. Although it's a bit of an ensamble piece, the bulk of the narration follows Stepjan Black-Heart, royal cartographer, minor noble from the hill kingdoms, spymaster, magic-user and general man of mystery. He has the ability to read the ancient text of the map. Following along with him are Erim, a woman disguised as a man to better ply her trade of street tough and Gilgwyr, an ambitious mob boss.

Everything about this book should've been right up my alley. Ne'er do-wells on a treasure plundering expedition with colorful characters working together when they're not trying to stab each other in the back. But this book was just a complete slog. I'm not sure why exactly. There was plenty of action but nothing really pulled me along and they spend a lot of time just getting ready to go out on their expedition and only in the last third or quarter of the book do they deal with what they're actually there to do. There's at least one plot point that is lampshaded like Tiffany but they never just come out and explain that character's motivation until very late in the book. Also, the world of Artesia is very intricately detailed and maybe there's a bit too much background stuff that gets in the way.

Also, the sex. In Artesia, there are sex scenes and I think they're quite well done. In The Barrow you've got sex scenes -- consensual, non-consensual, and ritual -- straight, gay and other -- and all of them...just don't work. They're not hot enough, they go on too long or not long enough. It was either a missed opportunity or one that should've been missed, I can't really tell.

Anyway, a long slogging book and I finished it and it kept throwing out sparks of promise but never quite worked out.

After that I got a new Kindle.

Briefly, let's talk about the new Kindle Paperwhite -- I really like it. The book has a built-in back-light so you can read it in the dark or in bright sunshine. The touch controls work really well (although left-handers might prefer a different arrangement of touch-zones I don't know if that's configurable). It's super-small, super-light and is extremely readable. So in no time at all, I finished two more books.

The first one was The Unwilling Warlord by Lawrence Watt-Evans. Does pretty much what it says on the tin -- Sterran is just a small-time gambler with a hint of magic when a group of foreigners show up and declare that he is the new warlord of their tiny country across the sea. With no time to protest, Sterran is bundled up, given a crash course in the local language and dragged to Semma. There he learns that he's now in charge of a threadbare army and the two larger nations Semma has been playing off against each other have wised up and will be marching on them in a few months. Sterran can't win with what he has, but if he can convince the king to allow him to use magic, maybe he can hire a few wizards to turn the tides.

I liked this book. Short chapters really clipped along and drew me in. Sterran's difficulty with the unfamiliar language of his new employers is handled very deftly so that it's something you see him struggle with but doesn't become this tedious one-note joke it might otherwise become.

It's no great piece of literature but it would make for diverting reading on a plane flight or at the beach.

Following up on the theme of "thrust into greatness", I just finished The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. Maia is the youngest, and least-liked child of the Elvish Emperor. Born to the Emperor's fourth wife, a goblin woman, Maia doesn't look like regal Elvish aristocracy and is banished to a far off hunting lodge along with his disgraced cousin. Then a freak accident wipes out everyone ahead of him and Maia finds himself thrust to the pinnacle of power.

Maia hasn't exactly been trained for this and it's a race to figure out how to use his new found power before everyone around him carves it up for themselves. I rather liked this book. It's sort of like a fantasy version of The West Wing. We learn along with Maia how the court is set up and the various levers of power he has to pull (and placate). Maia wishes to do the best he can for his people, but not everyone appreciates a half-goblin ruler.

There's not a lot of action or swordplay and even the politics and intrigues are restrained, but it all comes together nicely and Maia is an interesting character to follow. It's a sub-genre I'd like to see more of. The only real knock on this book is that everyone has titles and honorifics and there are made up elvish words for "Sir" and "Lady" (there's a pronunciation guide at the back) so it can be a little hard to follow who is in a given scene. It's not awful, but it did force me to stop and go "wait, who's that again?".

Still, it was an interesting book and a fun read. Check it out.

later
Tom