Review: Cold Days by Jim Butcher

Let's play a game, shall we, loyal readers big and small? Well, big at least, because it's a drinking game and I in no way condone underage drinking. The game is simple, pick up the latest Jim Butcher book, Cold Days, and take a drink or a shot every time a character makes a pop-culture reference. As a bonus round for all those hard-core readers/drinking game players, take two drinks or shots every time a character makes a reference to Star Wars. Keep in mind this is a buddy game: because I guarantee that after about fifty pages or so into the book, you're going to need a buddy to call 911 and report a case of massive alcohol poisoning.

That little bit of fun aside I can tell you with the utmost sincerity that I was super excited to read the new Jim Butcher book. I've been a big fan of his since I first got his book as a gift from a friend I no longer remember their name. I've read every book in the Dresden Files except his short stories (I have a massive distrust of short stories in a series of novels, but that's for another time) and even read his Alera Codex novels, which were supremely well done. I even watched the short lived TV series on Scify staring Paul Blackthorn.

I love Jim Butcher's books so much, that it was actually disappointing to read the newest book. I think in a way I was just ready for the books to be finished when Changes came around. Butcher spent so much time mutilating his characters life that I kind of want Harry Dresden to get a break and maybe relax in Cancun for a few days to recover. Ghost stories, the book before this one, also had a very final feeling to it, it being the book where Harry Dresden solves his own murder and in a sense gets closure over his death, only to be brought back in the new book. After everything that Dresden has been through, I think it's kind of reached a downward slope and it can only get worse from there.

Cold Days has reached a certain point of plot that makes it really hard to single one point out among the clutter. The book jacket makes a bit point of Dresden working for Mab, Fae Queen of air and darkness, and how he has to kill an immortal, but honestly, it's only a passing fad that lasts the first fifty pages or so and the last four or five chapters. The middle is a cluster of past enemies I don't remember and never gave much thought about, a lot of story about his destiny and fate as a Wizard, and a lot of back story into what's been happening to three of the main characters since the bullet first hit.

On the whole, the writing was excellent, and Jim Butcher remains a terrific storyteller, but I think as far as the Dresden Files go, they have already climaxed and are just waiting for a cigarette before they can quietly put their clothes on and sneak out before anyone realizes they are gone.

Review: Spirit's End by Rachel Aaron

Ah, after so long a hiatus doing...well you will just have to wait to find out what I've been up to since my last review (and no I'm not done with it, I'm just taking a bit of a siesta from it,) it's good to be back in the saddle working with what I love: reading and writing and generally making a nuisance of myself. I've put off reviewing the last two books I read for many different reasons, but two of them stand out the strongest. One, both authors I love dearly and want to do justice to their work. And two, I had to come up with truly critical things to say while overcoming the first issue.

Now anyone who's read my work knows that I am strongly in favor of being brutally honest and saying exactly what I thing about the work from a, well just say, deconstructing point of view. I want to know why people did what they did. I want to know why the author said something truly inane (see Mark Lawrence's Prince of Thorns review for that) or why a writer emphasizes such nonsensical facts (See Daniel Abraham/M.L.N. Hanover's work for details on why emphasizing a name can be redundant.) The problem with these two books I am going to be reviewing this month is that they are by good authors, who made rather obvious story flaws to my eye, but I like the authors so much I want to censor myself to say how good the books are, and that's just not me.

So, seeing as this is a new year, I think I've taken enough time from my readers, and it is time to batten down the hatches, trim the sails, and say what I've been struggling to say since before Christmas, starting with Spirit's End by Rachel Aaron.

For anyone who doesn't know, Spirit's End is the final book in the Legend of Eli Monpress series. The series takes place in a world where spirits live in everything: trees, water, air, mountains, etc. and there are people out in the world who can communicate with them. Eli is one such person, and uses his abilities to become the greatest thief the world has ever known, with the biggest bounty. Joining him on his crusade, are two people: Josef, the greatest swordsman with the greatest awakened blade of all time, and Nico, a woman with a demon-seed in her that gives her great strength, and the ability to travel through shadows.

In the final book, I would like to give a short summary of what the plot entails, but I can't. I don't mean I morally can't, or that I just can't find the words. I literally can't give a summary of the book, and that brings my to my first gripe. There is no cohesive plot. Now I know, a lot of writers are of the opinion that you should write from your characters actions, not from a stationary plot, but here is a brief description of the book. "Oh, I need to do something. I want to do this! You can't do that...Well what can I do? What do you think you should do? I know! What? I'm not going to tell you, I'm just going to do it." Almost every major event where you think, well now they finally have what they need to do, the author decides that that would be too easy. It all sounds like an interesting plot twist, I know, but it actually becomes rather trying when you read thirty pages of dialogue and inner monologue only to find out everything you just read has nothing to do with whats going to happen. There were times while I was reading that I had to stop, set the book down, and shout up at the heavens, asking why I just wasted half an hour reading something that wasn't important enough to the characters, let alone the reader.

Now I have reviewed one of Rachel's previous books, Spirit War, and most of my gripes from the last book still stand. There are characters that were referenced that I hadn't read about in three books and didn't remember who they were anymore. In addition to this, there was a poor editing job done on the book. There were several times that a character named Den was credited for something that happened in books previous to Spirit War when he wasn't even around. I know who she meant, but I still was confused enough to have to ask the author on Twitter if she had mentioned him in past books and I had just missed them. Note to reader: if you are reading the book and get confused, she meant to say Sted, not Den.

On a positive note, this book is actually a credit to Eli Monpress. In my last Rachel Aaron review, I commented that it was lacking in actually developing her title character. All the other characters were so much more interesting with better back stories and more developed personalities. Eli has always been so two dimensional. His reasons for doing things are petty and self gratifying, and every time we get a true glimpse at his character, he snatches it back like a rug under your feet. This time, we get a little more reason for why he does what he does, but in my opinion, it might have been too little, too late. Eli has this issue with wanting to be noticed, wanting to prove his worth, but honestly, the fact that he has no will to sacrifice any of his needs (which, while being important to him, seem gaudy to me) makes him seem kind of selfish and wishy washy. It all gave the feeling that the other two characters, Josef and Nico, really held the story aloft.

Now Rachel Aaron has said that this book is the final story in the series, and there have been several jokes made about how people have messaged her saying that they can't wait for the next book. This just reminds me of an old writers adage: There is no good way to end a series. No book series will ever have a satisfactory ending because readers always want more. If you kill off your character then people will complain that they shouldn't have died and that the story can be picked up by a secondary protagonist. If you leave them alive, then of course there are going to be more adventures for them to go on, regardless of the fact that the main villain is dead or gone. Readers, here is my only word of advice: if the author ended the series, its because either they didn't want to write anymore of it, or they don't have anywhere to go from that point. No amount of shrieking is going to convince an author to pull a story out of a hat for your amusement. They probably want to make something new and exciting.

Now as far as people thinking there is going to be another book, I can understand that. Spirit's end had a definite feeling of being unfinished. What's going to happen to Sarah and Banage? The Spirit Court has a lot of work to do, what are they going to do? Eli is still at large and wants his bounty even higher. There are new and exciting things going on in the world for him to take advantage of. In my humble opinion, I do believe that Rachel Aaron could do another book, based on the fact that at the beginning of each book there is a chapter giving a brief view of the characters life in the past. There are so many stories that could be given: how did Miranda become Banage's apprentice? How did Eli and Josef meet? How did Nico become a demonseed? Do we have a prequel book to expect from Aaron? I think that would be an excellent prospect.

My last gripe before I go on to my final opinion is something that I brought up in my last writing piece. I was reading through Spirit's End, enjoying the ending, when - oh my god, Nico is blonde?! When did that happen? I read through the book, and there was not one detailed description of the characters really after The Spirit Thief. The only real description is that Josef is muscular with a lot of scars, and that Nico is young with a black cloak. There is almost no description about Eli except when he takes off his shirt to show his burn scar. Other than that, I have no idea what these characters look like. I know it's pretty petty to expect a good description in every book, but I have nothing to go on for these characters.

I would recommend Spirit's End to people who are very into the series, and I would recommend a good read through from beginning to end to people who have not read it before, just make sure you don't take too long of a break between books. But the one question I do have for Rachel Aaron is this: When can we expect the next Legend of Eli Monpress book?

On Writing: Character Writing Over the Long Haul

As we start going further into the New Year, I thought it would be nice to do a new On Writing piece. I looked through all of the books I've read, even considering doing a "Worst Read of 2012", but the books I've read have varied not just in the years they were published, but also in themes and overall feelings from books. Looking at the three bookshelves I have scattered (soon to be four thanks to a very thoughtful Christmas gifter,) looking at all the covers, the thought finally came to me. And after reading the final book by Rachel Aaron, it couldn't have been more obvious.

In the Legend of Eli Monpress books by Rachel Aaron, there are four main characters. There is Eli Monpress, the greatest thief in the world who can speak to spirits where others can't. There's Josef Leichten, a spirit-deaf warrior with the strongest sword in the world. There's Nico, a child like woman with a demonseed in her that makes her powerful. And then there is Miranda Lyonette, a spiritualist with the backing of powerful spirits. All of these characters are extremely interesting, each with their own innate stories and flaws. That's all well and good, but the problem with all of this is this: I don't know what any of these characters look like.

Now I've looked to make sure, and the only time the characters are ever given an in depth visual description is in the first book when they are introduced. Other than that, the most they ever say about them is that Nico is small with a black cloak, Josef is tall and powerful with a bunch of knives, and that Miranda wears a bunch of rings. After reading the books over the course of the last two years, I don't remember what these characters look like, and that is a void in the characterization in my opinion.

I know it might sound like I'm picking on Rachel Aaron, but I assure you, this is a broad generalization about a plethora of books in the fantasy genre. While reading Jim Butcher's Cold Days, the latest in the Harry Dresden series, I found myself being reminded about scars the character has accumulated that I don't even remember, and honestly, if it weren't for the more than consistent cover art depicting the character himself, I wouldn't know what he looks like either.

It seems that writers are picking the bad habit of taking the most iconic of looks that summarize their characters and leaving the rest up to imagination for readers. Now i know, reading is about using your imagination, but there's a template we're supposed to work from. Nobody expects a long, power-rangers-esq scene where a character is described, but there's a moment when you have to look at your work and think, "Do I even know what this character looks like anymore?"

Review: In the House of the Wicked by Thomas E. Sniegoski

Well it's three weeks late but here it is, the review of Thomas E. Sniegoski's latest book, In the House of the Wicked. In the House of the Wicked is the fifth book in the Remy Chandler series, one of my favorite Urban Fantasy series in publication. Anyone who reads my blog knows that I have a soft spot for the Urban series of fantasy books, and my favorites tend to be those involving detectives because things always have a habit of rounding out. There is the perfect mixture of mystery without too many unintentional plot holes, and the characters are always more relateable.

For those of you who don't know, Remy Chandler is an Angel of the Heavenly Host Seraphim who split with heaven after the war with Lucifer. He's spent centuries among humans, trying to pass himself as one and live as we do. For the majority of the plot of the series, Remy has been working as a Private Detective in Boston, solving mundane and supernatural cases for various human and preternatural characters. Most of the characters involved in the story are taken directly from Christian mythos, including Lazarus, Samson and Delilah, Adam and Eve, and of course, Lucifer. All of the characters have been given a modern and/or unique twist.

In the House of the Wicked's cover blurb barely scratches the surface of the actual plot of the book, which is typical of Urban Fantasy novels in general. Almost all paranormal detective series in the market have a typical opening that covers aproximately 1/100th of what the book actually is about. I jokingly relate them to the old Ernest movies, where the main character goes out to do something mundane and ends up in some kind of trouble. "Harry Dresden goes out for coffee", or "Remy Chandler goes to walk his dog."

In his recent story, Remy Chandler is just coming to terms with really accepting his angelic nature after suppressing it for so long, when it's discovered that his young friend, Ashley, has disappeared from college. After promising the distraught family that he will look into things, he discovers that Ashely has disappeared under less than ordinary circumstances, and that it might have something to do with his secret. On the opposite side of things, a secret Kabal of sorcerers is fighting a war in the shadows (somewhat literal in some cases) which might lead to the end of life as we know it.

I love Sniegoski's work. His writing is always clear and crisp with the right pacing to make the books interesting without splitting from the unusual to just plain weird. While reading the book I only found one slightly gaping plot hole which I wouldn't have noticed if I weren't such an anal-retentive show off, and the only gripe I had about the format of the book was so petty it might have been a lemon missing from my ice tea I didn't want to begin with.

I have to give kudos to Mr. Sniegoski first off. All of the characters in his previous books have had something to do with biblical evil. Demons, Lucifer, Delilah, etc. And while there is nothing wrong with that in the least, they have all kind of type-cast Remy as fighting a one-on-one war with Heaven's enemies. The latest enemies in the Remy-verse are monsters, yes, but they are humans first and foremost. Now don't get me wrong, I like that Remy is the saving humanity from the enemies of Heaven that might destroy us, but I like a well-rounded hero who can walk, talk, and chew bubblegum at the same time as he is kicking butt.

In this book, we get a good look at a new character, or old if you like, who, Thomas Sniegoski has said on twitter, will play a big part in his upcoming books. The character's name is Squire, and he is a hobgoblin living in a world of shadows. The character is a former hero, or associate of heroes at least, and he is vulgar on a level that made me actually stop mid-sentence the check again. The writing actually felt different than the rest of the text, he just felt that out of place. When I questioned Mr. Sniegoski about this, he confirmed that, yes; Squire is a character from a previous series he wrote with author Christopher Golden, The Menagerie. Now I genuinely like Squire, and to be honest, if you find yourself skipping over his "chapters" in the book, he grows on you. A bit like a skin-tag, or a non-cancerous mole. But my perspective on bringing characters from other series into a new one half-way through the storyline is a bit like meeting an old frat buddy halfway through a date. Just because you like your friend doesn't mean your date will appreciate you talking about old hazing rituals over crab cakes. In Squires case, though it works pretty well, and I look forward to seeing more of him in later books.

Now on to my own minor gripe, and lets just get it out of the way so that I can fawn over the book more. Thomas Sniegoski's books always have a multitude of perspectives, ranging from Remy to the main villain, even to Remy's dog Marlowe. I've always tolerated the perspective shifts in his previous works because they always round out and make sense to what’s going on. In this newest book, it's pretty much the same, but the perspective shifts were done in such rapid succession that it was almost dizzying. One "chapter" was about a page or two before shifting to something happening during World War II and after. Back and forth so frequently that I felt like I was in a Monty Python sketch shouting out "Get one with it!" Things slowed down after about fifty pages or so and got to the main story, but even so.

I would suggest the Remy Chandler books to any fans of good Urban Fantasy, or detective novels in general. Start with A Kiss Before the Apocalypse and go from there and enjoy a good romp through the world of Heaven and the supernatural corners of Earth. Just don't ask why a certain bartender know things he shouldn't, it would just confuse you.

Review: The Paladin Prophecy by Mark Frost

I know I've complained over the past few reviews about picking out bad books, but to be honest, just because I don't like a particular book, doesn't mean that it has no merit. It's only when I read a truly terrible book that my blood gets boiling and I begin to pull out the cannons and really prepare to wage war and that's only happened two times: I'll let my faithful readers decide what books those were. When I pick up a book, I generally know within the first chapter if it's my kind of book, a genre of fantasy I can really get into, but it takes much longer for me to figure out if it's a GOOD book. A book I'm not into I will put back on my shelf and save for when I find someone who may make a good owner for. A bad book, I read through all the way so that I can share my findings here.]

The Paladin Prophecy by Mark Frost was just that kind of bad book that I enjoy having come across my desk so that, like a finicky food critic, I can discuss the exact flavor of which I hated it.

The Paladin Prophecy is a book written by Mark Frost, a man I had no idea existed because he's famous for two things. The first is that he co-created a tv show called Twin Peaks that lasted for two seasons. I won't go into the show, because I never watched it, but apparently it was about an FBI agent solving a murder. He also co-wrote the Fantastic Four movies....but after watched the second movie, I'm not sure that that's anything to brag about.

The second thing he's famous for is writing a few books that I looked up, that seem to be based off a character of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and are a bit like mysteries. I take this of note because The Paladin Prophecy from what I've seen, this book is the first that Frost has done in the genre of Sci-fi/Fantasy and that places him firmly in my jurisdiction.

The Paladin Prophecy is about a boy named Will West who has lived his whole life trying to be ordinary. His parents, who have moved him around a lot throughout the years, have instructed him to never stand out and show how special he is. One day, Will finds out that he scored off the charts on a nationwide test and that he's been accepted to a prestigious school for geniuses. That same day, Will's parents get captured by a mysterious group of men and Will is forced to run away across the country to save himself.

I usually never use the term Sci-fi/Fantasy, because it's my belief that with very few exceptions they would never be mixed. But The Paladin Prophecy can't seem to make up its mind what genre it wants to be. On the one hand it has all the feeling of a fantasy with special powers and prophecies as well as holy knights, but on the other there are definite ESP/telekinetic moments as well as the fact that almost everything in the story is technology moments. It was definitely a feeling of "Keep your chocolate out of my peanut butter" kind of things that only got more convoluted as things went by. Halfway through the book, the story went from being about a kid who might be genetically enhanced to some kind of Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew/Scooby Doo crap where Will and his new friends at school decide to solve a mystery. I'm a big fan of the creative process, but The Paladin Prophecy had all the feel of a man who has three genres on a table and can't decide which to do so he just does them all.

The writing itself was generic and I kept flashing back on several other stories I've read over the years, Harry Potter being the most prominent obviously. Also, a big pet peeve of mine over the course of the book were THE RULES. Will's dad has created a list of rules throughout his life and Will has taken to them like a rich man to the country club guidelines. Every few page (sometimes even more frequently) a rule will pop up in big caps letting Will decide how he should act. There were two problems with this, the biggest part being the flow of the book. Having little rules of thumb pop up in the middle of the page was distracting and ruined the flow as much as having someone bang pots in the kitchen might and were almost as bad as Little-Did-They-Know moments. I don't know why Frost thought that these things were important enough to build a theme about because he could just as easily have made his character do the right thing rather than have it be his dad who drilled him over the years to memorize it. It all comes down to this: do you want a character who knows how to do the right thing on his own, or do you want a man with a parrot screeching in your ear every five minutes reminding you of a catechism that applies to just this kind of situation.

That brings me to the second problem with the rules. While the book approaches them as rules, most of them aren't even that. Don't get me wrong: while "Don't draw attention to yourself" might pass off for a rule, "There is no such thing as a coincidence" is not. It's sound advice, but for the most part, the rules of the book just pass off advice and common colloquialisms as a rule of life. It had all the air of a man who quotes famous people from history and tries to convince you that he said it first. Frost even has the gall to add the rules at the end of the book as if people are going to really want to remember that one rule that he said a few chapters off but can't remember. Here's a clue: they're in CAPS, I think they're fairly easy to find.

Not an easy segue way, but that brings me to the characters. For the most part, there were a lot of unique characters in the story, and each of them had a part to play, but it had a very cluttered feeling to them. Each character was introduced piece by piece throughout the story, and then quickly dismissed for the next, giving the feel of a group of attention-grabbing beauty queens on a tv show who are terrified they might get voted off. Almost every kind of stereotype was used. The shrimpy nerd, the smart bitchy one, the rich girl and the guy that should the white boy that needs to learn proper English. Once again, I had two problems with the characters. The first was a Hispanic taxi driver named Nando: he was so obviously stereotyped throughout the story that I can't help but feel it was a little racist. Nando has a billy-goat beard, barbed wire tattoos, and says things like "a'ight", "holmes" and "esse". While I know that some people say these things, some of them hispanic, a lot of it is just broad generalization. Most of the time Nando is portrayed as being this dumb gofer who helps out Will for some reason or other. The other character problem for me is that Frost seems to think that Samoan's are some kind of master race. The entire security force for the new school Will goes to is comprised of Samoans and the reason given for this is that they are: "huge and agile and strong enough to tear a bus apart with their bare hands" as well as "friendly, trustworthy, and incorruptible". I'm sorry, I actually had to stop there. While I will never say that those things aren't true about a person, saying it out loud is like saying Klingon's all stink and that munchkins all like lollypops. I think you get what I mean.

As far as the writing goes, I have a big problem with the fact that Will seems to just include himself in a group whenever he feels threatened. At one point he’s talking about people wanting to kill him and tells his roommates "We" have to do something and they just accept it as true as if they've known him longer than a hundred pages. At one point they even go down to talk to a man who just tried to kill him as if he’s just going to stand there and go "Oh yeah, sorry about that, my bad". A lot of the conclusions Will comes up with are completely unfounded because there was no real linearity to him discovering it, once again concreting my disdain for urban fantasy not involving a detective.

Which brings me to my last point to make before I stop my spewing of literary rage, and I think this is a big part. Will gets noticed by this school because he scored exceptionally high on a test. This would generally paint Will as being smarter that the average bear, but it's never shown. Not once does Will actually do anything moderately intelligent. This isn't to say that he is "stupid", though at some points in the book I had to stop reading and shake my book like an African lion trying to break a zebras neck, but he never actually shows that he's intelligent. This holds true for the other characters in the book. While they all have special skill, most of them have nothing to do with intelligence really. It all had a feeling of convenience: Will needed to be discovered by the school so that he could go and learn about other things. This was a common theme throughout the book: Will is constantly discovering the things he can do just when he has a problem, or help comes at the exact moment when he needs it, or there is a RULE that applies to just that situation. A story can be built around a lot of things, but having them built around convenience is the biggest Deus ex Machina crap that you can do and it's just lazy writing to boot.

While I can't deny that The Paladin Prophecy by Mark Frost had an interesting premise, I have to say that I don't believe Frost has enough expertise in the field of Fantasy to do the story justice. I think that every author at some point should take an expedition out into the world of mages and beasts, but I think Frost might have taken his first step too soon. He shouldn't be pitied or shown the way back, but I do think he should be pat on the head, scooted to the corner and given a cookie while the big boys get to work. Personally, I just feel the book had “bad book” stamped over every page like the world’s most travelled passport, and I don’t suggest it to anyone. A lot of these things can be marked off by claiming the book is targeted for young adults, but that’s a crap excuse. Young Adult writers should be held to a higher standard than adult writers in my opinion.