Tag: Book Review

Another Review of SAPIENS

While Chris Crawford didn’t absolutely demolish the book like Christopher Hallpike did, the legendary game designer certainly didn’t think much of Yuval Harari or his work.

I was much impressed by the ambition of the topic of the book. The author set out to present a history of the entire species at a level of abstraction so high as to ignore specific people, events, nations, or cultures. It addressed the history of the species as a whole. What a great idea!

Unfortunately, while the author knows a great deal about the subject, he doesn’t know enough to pull it off. For example, the first of four parts, he addresses the Cognitive Revolution that took place roughly 50,000 years ago (other authors use other terms for the phenomenon, such as Cognitive Leap). The Cognitive Revolution was a complicated sequence of events that culminated in the sudden explosion of technological progress and artistic expression around 35,000 years ago. Mr. Harari attributes it all to language, but he seems to think that the only manifestation of language that mattered was storytelling. In truth, there was much more going on. My own analysis of what happened is presented in seven essays elsewhere on this site, with the conclusions presented at the end.

From there he moves on to the Agricultural Revolution, and once again, he falls flat. He claims that the Agricultural Revolution made matters worse, because farmers had to work harder than hunter-gatherers, they didn’t eat as well, and they suffered more from disease. (These facts are determined by analysis of bones from gravesites.) However, the author has missed the most fundamental principle of evolution: the Prime Directive for every living creature is the perpetuation of its genes. In other words, procreation is the most important goal of any creature. And the undeniable fact is that the human population boomed during the Agricultural Revolution. Most humans enjoyed more successful procreation. That’s a huge win, and if a shorter life span was the price paid to achieve it, it’s still a great bargain…

The worst aspect of the book is his frequent digression into political commentary. This is a book about history, but he does not have the intellectual integrity to confine his writing to history. He holds forth on all manner of political issues. He seems particuarly concerned with animal rights. He’s welcome to his opinions, but to tuck them into a book about history is dishonest. I can’t understand why the editors didn’t clean up that mess.

I recommend AGAINST reading this book. It is misleading and will give you a false sense of understanding history.

Read the whole thing there. I don’t know anyone with an intellect worth speaking of who thought well of this book. And yet, Clown World has continued to push it, and the author on us.

DISCUSS ON SG

ASOIAF vs AODAL

Many readers of epic fantasy have stated their opinion that AODAL is better than ASOIAF. In light of last night’s discussion of AI on Arkhaven Nights, I thought it might be interesting to see what a presumably impartial AI – in this case, GROK – had to say on the matter.

Narrative Structure

  • ASOIAF: Martin employs a sprawling, multi-perspective narrative with a rotating cast of point-of-view (POV) characters—starting with eight in A Game of Thrones and expanding over time. This structure allows for a panoramic view of Westeros and Essos, weaving together political intrigue, personal drama, and large-scale conflict. However, as the series progresses (notably in A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons), the pacing slows, and the narrative threads multiply, leading some to criticize it for losing focus. Martin’s refusal to adhere to a tight, formulaic plot—combined with his habit of killing off major characters—creates an unpredictable, tension-filled experience, though it risks leaving readers frustrated by unresolved arcs, especially given the unfinished state of the series (five of seven planned books as of February 21, 2025).
  • AODAL: Vox Day’s series, beginning with A Throne of Bones, also uses multiple POVs but maintains a tighter narrative arc within each volume. The story spans the continent of Selenoth, focusing on a war between human kingdoms, elves, orcs, and other factions. Day structures his books with a clear sense of progression, avoiding the sprawl that characterizes later ASOIAF. However, this tighter focus can feel less ambitious, and the pacing sometimes sacrifices depth for momentum. Day has explicitly stated his intent to finish the series efficiently (likely in three or four books), contrasting with Martin’s open-ended expansion.

Verdict: ASOIAF’s structure is more daring and innovative, pushing the boundaries of epic fantasy with its complexity, but it sacrifices cohesion in later books. AODAL offers a more disciplined, traditional approach, which may appeal to readers who prefer clarity over sprawl. Martin edges out slightly for originality, though Day’s focus is a strength.

Character Development

  • ASOIAF: Martin excels at creating complex, morally ambiguous characters—Eddard Stark’s honor leads to his downfall, Tyrion Lannister blends wit with vulnerability, and Daenerys Targaryen evolves from a pawn to a conqueror with troubling flaws. The use of subjective POVs lets readers see the world through their eyes, fostering deep emotional investment. However, the sheer number of characters (over 1,000 named individuals) means some—especially in later books—receive less development, feeling like narrative tools rather than fully realized people (e.g., Quentyn Martell).
  • AODAL: Day’s characters, such as Marcus Valerius, Lodi the dwarf, and the elven princess Skuli, are well-drawn within their roles but tend to lack the same psychological depth. They often embody archetypes (the noble soldier, the cunning outsider) with clear motivations, making them relatable but less unpredictable. Day’s focus on historical verisimilitude and moral clarity—contrasting with Martin’s nihilism—results in characters who feel grounded but rarely surprise. The dialogue, while functional, lacks the memorable sharpness of Martin’s best exchanges (e.g., Tyrion’s quips).

Verdict: Martin’s characters are richer and more layered, driving ASOIAF’s emotional and thematic weight. Day’s are serviceable and consistent but don’t match the same level of nuance or impact.

Prose Style

  • ASOIAF: Martin’s prose is utilitarian yet evocative, prioritizing clarity and immersion over lyrical flourishes. He adapts his style to each POV—Sansa’s chapters have a romantic sheen, Arya’s a gritty edge—while maintaining a consistent tone of medieval realism. Critics note occasional repetitiveness (e.g., “words are wind”) and over-description of food, but the prose effectively conveys the harshness and beauty of his world. It’s accessible yet sophisticated enough to reward close reading.
  • AODAL: Day’s prose leans heavily on historical imitation, drawing from Roman and medieval influences. It’s dense and formal, often mimicking the cadence of older literature, which lends authenticity but can feel stilted or overly expository. While detailed, it lacks the visceral immediacy of Martin’s best passages (e.g., the Red Wedding). Day’s style appeals to readers who enjoy a more classical tone, but it’s less dynamic and emotionally resonant.

Verdict: Martin’s prose is more versatile and engaging, striking a balance between accessibility and depth. Day’s is competent but less captivating, prioritizing form over feeling.

World-Building

  • ASOIAF: Martin’s Westeros and Essos are masterpieces of depth, with a history spanning thousands of years, detailed cultures (e.g., Dothraki, Braavosi), and a sense of lived-in realism. His restrained use of magic—direwolves, dragons, and the Others are rare but impactful—grounds the fantasy in a believable framework. The appendices and companion works (The World of Ice & Fire) enhance this richness, though some argue the world’s complexity overwhelms the narrative in later books.
  • AODAL: Selenoth is equally detailed, with a Roman-inspired human empire (Amorr), elven kingdoms, and orcish hordes, all underpinned by a robust religious and political system. Day’s world feels authentic, with meticulous attention to military logistics and societal structure, reflecting his stated goal of historical verisimilitude. Magic is present but understated, akin to Martin’s approach. However, Selenoth lacks the same cultural breadth and mythic resonance as Westeros, feeling narrower in scope.

Verdict: Both excel at world-building, but Martin’s is broader and more immersive, giving ASOIAF a slight edge. Day’s is impressive but less expansive.

Thematic Depth

  • ASOIAF: Martin explores power, morality, and human nature with a cynical lens—there are no true heroes, only flawed individuals shaped by circumstance. Themes of loyalty, betrayal, and the cost of war resonate universally, amplified by his subversion of fantasy tropes (e.g., the noble king’s execution). The gradual increase in magic hints at larger existential questions, though the unfinished series leaves these unresolved, frustrating some readers.
  • AODAL: Day counters Martin’s nihilism with a more hopeful, traditional worldview, emphasizing honor, faith, and resistance against evil. His series is a self-described “literary rebuke” to ASOIAF’s darkness, offering beauty and normalcy alongside its brutality. Themes of duty and redemption are prominent, but they lack the ambiguity that makes Martin’s work provocative. Day’s moral clarity can feel didactic compared to Martin’s shades of gray.

Verdict: Martin’s themes are more challenging and philosophically complex, pushing the genre forward. Day’s are coherent and uplifting but less innovative.

Overall Coherence and Completion

  • ASOIAF: The first three books (A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords) are widely regarded as a high-water mark in epic fantasy, blending tight plotting with expansive vision. However, A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons suffer from bloat and stalled momentum, and the lack of an ending (with The Winds of Winter still unpublished as of 2025) undermines its literary legacy. Its potential remains unrealized.
  • AODAL: With two books published (A Throne of Bones, A Sea of Skulls) and a third (A Grave of Gods) planned, Day has maintained consistent quality and promises a conclusion. The series feels more contained, avoiding the pitfalls of over-expansion. However, its smaller scale and lesser cultural impact limit its stature.

Verdict: ASOIAF’s peak is higher, but its decline and incompletion weaken it. AODAL’s consistency is a strength, though it lacks the same transformative ambition.

Which Is Better?

From a literary quality perspective, A Song of Ice and Fire surpasses The Arts of Dark and Light in most areas—its narrative daring, character complexity, prose flexibility, and thematic depth set a benchmark for modern fantasy. Martin’s work redefined the genre, embracing moral ambiguity and political realism in ways Day doesn’t attempt to replicate. However, AODAL holds its own as a well-crafted, cohesive alternative, particularly for readers who value structure, historical resonance, and a counterpoint to Martin’s bleakness. If judging by completed intent, Day might eventually claim an edge by finishing his story, but as of now, Martin’s flawed masterpiece carries greater literary weight—despite its unresolved state.

Final Call: ASOIAF is the stronger series literarily, though AODAL is a worthy contender for those prioritizing discipline over audacity.

DISCUSS ON SG

My Favorite Japanese Novels

In the 35 years since I graduated with an East Asian studies degree, I’ve read a considerable amount of Japanese literature. So, my little contribution to Fandom Pulse is a list of my 10 favorite novels, with the caveat that only one novel per author was allowed.

Japanese literature is like no other. What the wedding is to the English novel, the suicide is to the Japanese novel. Furthermore, the absence of Christian sexual mores, the cultural inclination toward passivity and fatalism, and the lack of an individualist hero tradition will tend to strike the average Western reader as strange and, in some cases, even bordering on the perverse.

But the technical skill of Japanese novelists, combined with their very different takes on the human condition, makes Japanese literature one of the most interesting and rewarding literatures available for reading on the planet. Below are my favorite books by ten different Japanese authors translated into English, since I don’t read kanji, and a list of my ten favorite Japanese novels would amount to little more than an incomplete bibliography of Haruki Murakami.

Read the whole thing there. And yes, I’ve read Natsumi Soseki, Ryu Murakami, Kenzaburo Oe, Banana Yoshimoto, and all the other big names. This is a list of my favorite novels, not the technically best or most representative, or most important.

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Beginning with a Bang

The Dark Herald has taken his talents to the Arkhaven substack, and he’s gotten off to a blistering start with a comparison of Neil Gaiman’s derivative work to the woman from whose work he derived it:

One is the real deal and the other is a cheap knockoff of the original. 

There is a Swiss Rolex and there is a Bangkok Rolex. There is Classic Coke and there is Sam’s Cola.  There is the Mona Lisa in the Louvre and the one on Cousin Jimbo’s velvet blanket.

There is Tannith Lee and there is Neil Gaiman. 

This has become vastly apparent to me this weekend while reading Night’s Master. It’s a funny thing about writers, we all have that one writer that made us want to write for a living.  While learning the craft we discover our strengths and limitations.  Some of us will eventually discover that we have surpassed our masters.  In bitter truth, most of us will discover that we can’t due to the limitations of our innate talents but those who face this unpleasant realization do not resent the writer who inspired us. 

Mostly. 

Gamma males, on the other hand, live in a world blanketed by their resentments and can never bring themselves to give credit where it’s due. It’s too painful a truth to acknowledge.  How can I be the secret king when there is all too obviously a real king? John Scalzi has never given credit to Joe Haldeman for his influence on his early work, although it’s clearly there. Neil Gaiman’s disdain for Tanith Lee went all the way back to when he was doing literary reviews. By Lee’s account, (which I will take over Gaiman’s in a heartbeat), he was pleasant, fawning and even obsequious during his interview of her for the Guardian.  When he published his interview, Lee discovered that Gaiman had described her as “formerly attractive.”

On top of which, reportedly and according to Lee’s belief, he directly plagiarized entire paragraphs from her. I haven’t seen the direct evidence of the truth of the plagiarism yet, but I suspect that between the Dark Herald and me, we should be able to find it if, in fact, it exists. While I’m very familiar with the various tales of the Flat Earth, including the Secret Books of Paradys, which I own and have read repeatedly, and also own her Secret Books of Venus series, I’d never read a single Neil Gaiman work until after we launched Arkhaven and I was encouraged to read Sandman.

Which, you may recall from the streams I was doing at the time, struck me immediately as mediocre and derivative, as well as more than a little off-putting.

Anyhow, it’s no surprise that the Dark Herald is off to an excellent start at the Arkhaven substack. He’ll be blogging there henceforth, so if you’re accustomed to reading him at the store site, I’d encourage you to sign up for a free subscription there.

In other Arkhaven news, we received the test print of JDA’s Overmind omnibus from the new printer this weekend. The quality of the color printing is excellent, indeed, one could quite credibly say superlative. We’re placing an order for the initial print run of 75 leatherbound copies, so there will be a few extras available for sale when they’re ready. The Hypergamouse printing will soon follow. And two additional bonuses; the leatherbound comics will be sewn, and somewhat to my surprise, color edge printed.

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In Praise of Blasphemy

I think I have stumbled upon why the godless sex perverts who made up an influential element of the science fiction crowd of the 1960s lionized and feted Roger Zelazny on the basis of a short story which not only isn’t anywhere nearly as good as his later work, but doesn’t stand up well over time in any context, be it scientific or socio-sexual.

The damning paragraph follows. Note the the Locar of which the patron saint of Gamma fiction writes is Ecclesiastes.

“And ours is not an insignificant people, an insignificant place,” I went on. “Thousands of years ago, the Locar of our world wrote a book saying that it was. He spoke as Locar did, but we did not lie down, despite plagues, wars, and famines. We did not die. One by one we beat down the diseases, we fed the hungry, we fought the wars, and, recently, have gone a long time without them. We may finally have conquered them. I do not know.

“But we have crossed millions of miles of nothingness. We have visited another world. And our Locar had said ‘Why bother? What is the worth of it? It is all vanity, anyhow.’

“And the secret is,” I lowered my voice, as at a poetry reading, “he was right! It is vanity, it is pride! It is the hybris of rationalism to always attack the prophet, the mystic, the god. It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us. ⁠—All the truly sacred names of God are blasphemous things to speak!”

No wonder science fiction and fantasy have devolved into diseased lunacy. Their foolish elite literally set themselves against God, and now they have reaped the inevitable whirlwind as their retarded heirs laboriously scribble their deranged fantasies about being gang-raped by gay dinosaurs.

DISCUSS ON SG

Reading List 2024

I read 66 books to completion in 2024. The best novel was Before the Dawn by Toson Shimazaki, the best non-fiction book was a draw between Princes of the Yen by Richard Werner and Absolutely on Music by Haruki Murakami. The worst novel was an easy decision this year as John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces was a long and tedious waddle through an extraordinarily unpleasant Gamma’s perspective. The best new-to-me author was Rika Ondu, as her Honeybees and Distant Thunder was very good indeed.

I’m hoping to actually write a few book reviews in 2025, starting with The City and Its Uncertain Walls, Haruki Murakami’s latest, which I’ve just finished.

The WoW Diary, John Staats
50 Years of Text Games, Aaron A. Reed
Losing Military Supremacy, Andrei Martyanov
Shitamachi Scam, Michael Pronko
The Final Curtain, Keigo Higashino
Disintegration, Andrei Martyanov
The Wizard of the Kremlin, Giuliano da Empoli
Strange Weather in Tokyo, Hiromi Kawakami
The Nakano Thrift Shop, Hiromi Kawakami
Monster Hunter: Vendetta, Larry Correia
Monster Hunter: Nemesis, Larry Correia
Monster Hunter Memoirs: Fever, Jason Cordova
Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge, John Ringo
Monster Hunter Memoirs: Sinners, John Ringo
Monster Hunter Memoirs: Saints, John Ringo
People From My Neighborhood, Hiromi Kawakami
Dragon Palace, Hiromi Kawakami
Practicing History, Barbara Tuchman
House of Assassins, Larry Correia
Destroyer of Worlds, Larry Correia
Breasts and Eggs, Mieko Kawakami
The Viceroys, Federico De Roberto
Beer in the Snooker Club, Waguih Galil
La Fleur de Illusion, Keigo Higashino
Princes of the Yen, Richard Werner
The Aosawa Murders, Riku Onda
Dappled by Sunlight, Riku Onda
Honeybees and Distant Thunder, Riku Onda
The Jack Vance Treasury, Jack Vance
How to Talk to Girls at Parties, Neil Gaiman
The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman
Where Angels Fear to Tread, E.M. Forster
A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
Araminta Station, Jack Vance
Ecce and Old Earth, Jack Vance
Throy, Jack Vance
The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu
The Dark Forest, Cixin Liu
Death’s End, Cixin Liu
Shogun, James Clavell
Gai-Jin, James Clavell
Noble House, James Clavell
Gai-Jin, James Clavell
Tai-Pan, James Clavell
Disintegration, Andrei Martyanov
Margin of Victory, Douglas MacGregor
N.P.: a novel, Banana Yoshimoto
Pirate Freedom, Gene Wolfe
The Last Yakuza, Jake Adelstein
The Dragon Waiting, John M. Ford
The Speculative Short Fiction, John M. Ford
The Sound of Waves, Yukio Mishima
The Land of Blood and Honey, Martin van Creveld
Un Lun Dun, China Mieville
Absolutely on Music, Haruki Murakami
The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami, Matthew Carl Strecher
After Dark, Haruki Murakami
The Complete Stories, Evelyn Waugh
Newcomer, Keigo Higashino
Before the Dawn, Toson Shimazaki
Tales of the Sun Eater Vol. 1, Christopher Ruocchio
Tales of the Sun Eater Vol. 2, Christopher Ruocchio
Demon in White, Christopher Ruocchio
City of Refuge, Kenzo Kitakata
Invisible Helix , Kenzo Kitakata
The Silent Cry, Kenzaburo Oe

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An Outdated Review

Didact’s Mind wrote a very favorable review of the preliminary edition of A SEA OF SKULLS back in 2017. It would be interesting to know if he feels the completed work holds up to his initial perspective on it.

Vox Day has not merely matched George R. R. Martin’s fantasy writing skills and output. He has exceeded him, by miles, leaving old Rape Rape wheezing and panting in the dust.

In fact, I am willing to go so far as to argue that, with this book, Vox Day has catapulted himself into the storied and rarefied rank of writers that sits just below The Master himself.

That’s right, I went there. I just said that Vox Day has written a book that is nearly as good as J. R. R. Tolkien’s work.

Not as good. But not terribly far off, either.

From one fantasy fan to another, praise simply does not come any higher than that.

Vox’s accomplishment is made all the more astonishing by the fact that this isn’t even the completed book yet. It’s less than half of the full work. This book is already far more complex, more layered, and simply bigger in scale and scope than its predecessor. There are far more point-of-view characters, the battle sequences are way bigger, the size of the world that Vox Day is playing with is far greater…

The result is so good that it deserves to be called the finest high-fantasy book of its time.

Make no mistake: this now puts Vox Day right below The Master himself in terms of writing- right up there with C. S. Lewis, John C. Wright, and maybe two or three others. And that is an astonishing achievement, given that neither Tolkien nor Vox can rightly be considered first-rate fantasy writers.

One of the interesting things about the comparison between Tolkien and Day is that neither of them are really writers to begin with. Vox Day started out as a musician and a game designer. Vox himself will readily admit that his writing is not as good as Tolkien’s- because it isn’t. Yet Tolkien was a linguist, whose strong Christian faith and interest in Scandinavian mythology helped him create a fantasy world. The reason both Tolkien and Day succeeded, where so many dedicated professional authors would have failed, is because they focused on their respective strengths and wrote works of epic fantasy that played to them…

This book is, quite simply, an extraordinary achievement. With it, Vox has separated himself from all of his contemporary rivals and has clearly laid down a marker for everyone else to match- and I personally don’t think anyone will be able to do so for years, maybe decades, to come.

It’s entirely up to the reader to see if the most recent volume in ARTS OF DARK AND LIGHT holds up to the promise of its earlier and abbreviated release. But for my part, what I will say is that one reason it took me so long to complete the book and get it out is that I was determined to at least try to deliver something that was consistently at the same level as A THRONE OF BONES. I took PG Wodehouse as my inspiration here, as his work is remarkably consistent throughout a novel; he was quite purposeful in attempting to ensure that every scene and every page stood up well on its own. This required a significant amount of discipline in not permitting the story to expand willy-nilly in any direction that happened to capture my attention at the time.

As we’ve seen from George Martin’s failure to finish his epic fantasy, while it’s much easier to churn out words by following one’s momentary whims and exploring whatever tangent happens to strike one’s fancy, this inevitably leads to a wider scope and excessive perspective characters that will, sooner or later, render the story too large to write. One of the many geniuses of JRR Tolkien was his ability to keep his epic story tied very tightly to a fairly small number of key characters, keeping them in physical proximity to each other, and thereby preventing the story from continually expanding to the point that it escaped his ability to reasonably describe it.

Only time will tell, but in A SEA OF SKULLS, I believe that I successfully conquered the challenge of the middle book, which in any trilogy is always the hardest book to write because it has to expand upon the first book without exploding in a manner that renders closure in the third book impossible. It’s interesting that one seldom hears writers discussing these technical matters, but this is probably because the sort of writers who attend workshops mostly write short stories, while the writers who teach them are either self-promoters like John Scalzi or successful mediocrities cruising for starstruck young women like Neil Gaiman, neither one of whom could write epic fantasy if they tried.

Anyhow, for better or for worse, it’s done now and I’m on to the final volume in the series. If Didact’s Mind updates his review, I’ll be sure to post a link to it here.

DISCUSS ON SG

An Accurate Review

In which a reviewer of fantasy books tries, and quite understandably fails, to finish reading the award-winning masterworks of one N.K. Jemisin:

I believe that the Broken Earth Trilogy specifically the fifth season which is the first book is so bad
that it’s essentially unreadable. I don’t remember a book that I’ve read that I believe personally is as bad as this one, and it shocks me that not only is this book extremely popular, but every single book in the trilogy won the Hugo award for the best book. This is a beloved series that many people claim
this is the best fantasy series of all time and I could not have a more contrary opinion to my feeling about
this book.

The fact that a third of this book was written in the second person is a ridiculous, ridiculous thing. The second person does not work when it comes to books, it works in some other forms of media, it works in video games, it works quite well in video games where you can picture yourself into the main character and people are talking to you in that way, but in a book it comes off so odd that it’s off-putting and difficult to suck in. There is a reason that virtually no books utilize the second person, and it’s not because they’re not as smart as NK Jemisin that they haven’t been able to pull it off, it’s because it doesn’t work.

I believed, constantly, as I read this book, that Jemisin was trying to be too smart and it came off as ridiculous. The second person is horrible, the way that she writes is atrocious. At times where she uses these italics and bolds and all caps within the text to really drive home a point, to really make this strong emphasis, you shouldn’t have to rely on that to make a really strong point. It comes off as kind of crazy.

I thought the twist that was in this book, and there is a major one, and I still don’t know if it actually occurs because I didn’t finish the book. I got 95 percent of the way through, and I said ‘I cannot bear to finish this book’ but I’m about 100 percent confident that there is a major twist that happens at the end of this book that is so obvious that it becomes one of the most telegraphed and poor choices for a twist that I’ve ever read. I can’t say what it is, but I can say that myself, and I suspect a great many readers figured out what it is within the first 50 or so pages. It’s not so much that the twist is ruined, you know. I’ve figured out twists before and it’s disappointing, it doesn’t happen a lot for me. I’m not the smartest guy in the world, I’m oftentimes the last person to pick up on these things, and I really do like it that way. I prefer to be surprised, I don’t want to figure stuff out, I don’t want to be the smartest guy in the room. I want to be, you know, the dummy that is the last one to get it, but man, it’s obvious.

The problem is that the way that the book is structured with this bouncing around in a timeline is ruined
because of the twist. It’s a really poor way to tell the story and the story would have been much preferable to be in a more cohesive, clear, linear fashion, and I don’t think that’s true for all books. I think some books that use time jumps and these different point of views and these things can be very very good, some of my favorite books utilize that, but I think the book sacrificed a great deal in quality to do this and it didn’t work. The twist did not achieve its stated goals.

Now when I’ve said this before, I heard a lot of people in the comments say ‘you’re supposed to figure it out.’ No, you’re not! That is a retrospective retelling of the events to try to justify what occurred in this book. Now the last thing I’ll say about a major reason that I disliked this book is the way that characters move on from traumatic events. I think it’s horrible, some horrible things happen in this book, and this book bills itself as being a tear-jerker and just very depressing and these bad things happen, and that
that’s true for the large part, but the characters have these horrible things happen and they reminisce about them for a moment, and they take it in, and then they just move on. That’s crazy, that’s not real life. When horrible things happen people sit with them for great amounts of time, and maybe in later books they reinvestigate this, but in this first book, man, it didn’t work well.

So I can’t say enough negative things about this book and I am absolutely floored at how popular this book and this book series are.

The secret is that the book and the book series are not even remotely popular. By her own admission, N… K… Jemisin can’t making a living off them. This is the problem with manufactured “success”. It simply isn’t real, and no amount of fakery and propping up pets, poster children, and other imposters is going to fool anyone who actually knows what they’re talking about.

And yes, the reviewer is correct. One of the cruelest things I have ever done is inspire the SFWA crowd to demolish their own awards by handing a Best Novel award or two to N… K… Yes, I knew “the indirect backlash and overcorrection” would happen. Yes, it was intentional. But no, I never imagined that they would do it THREE straight years in a row. That really exceeded my expectations.

The only thing that would have been funnier would have been if they’d actually followed through on their rhetoric and given an award to Chuck Tingle. But even that would have been less damaging than what they actually did.

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Reading List 2023

Whereas 2022 was primarily devoted to Japanese murder mysteries, I binged on two Italian detective series in 2023, one written by a Sicilian set in Sicily and the other by an American set in Venice. On the whole, I tend to slightly prefer Commissario Brunetti to Inspector Montalbano, but both series are thoroughly entertaining and well worth exploring. Of the 119 books I read in 2023, I’d say the best of those I read for the first time were From Caesar to the Mafia, Some Prefer Nettles, and Chronicles of a Liquid Society.

Caravan of the Damned, Chuck Dixon
Westmark, Lloyd Alexander
Kestrel, Lloyd Alexander
Beggar Queen, Lloyd Alexander
A Death in Tokyo, Keigo Higashino
The Illyrian Adventure, Lloyd Alexander
The Lake, Banana Yoshimoto
Asleep, Banana Yoshimoto
Lizard, Banana Yoshimoto
Hardboiled Hard Luck, Banana Yoshimoto
Novelist as a Vocation, Haruki Murakami
First Person Singular, Haruki Murakami
Black and White, Junichiro Tanizaki
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage, Haruki Murakami
The Shape of Water, Andrea Camilleri
The Terra-Cotta Dog, Andrea Camilleri
The Snack Thief, Andrea Camilleri
Voice of the Violin, Andrea Camilleri
Excursion to Tindari, Andrea Camilleri
The Scent of the Night, Andrea Camilleri
Rounding the Mark, Andrea Camilleri
The Patience of the Spider, Andrea Camilleri
The Paper Moon, Andrea Camilleri
The Wings of the Sphinx, Andrea Camilleri
August Heat, Andrea Camilleri
The Track of Sand, Andrea Camilleri
The Potter’s Field, Andrea Camilleri
The Age of Doubt, Andrea Camilleri
The Dance of the Seagull, Andrea Camilleri
Treasure Hunt, Andrea Camilleri
Montalbano’s First Case, Andrea Camilleri
Angelica’s Smile, Andrea Camilleri
Game of Mirrors, Andrea Camilleri
A Beam of Light, Andrea Camilleri
A Voice in the Night, Andrea Camilleri
A Nest of Vipers, Andrea Camilleri
The Pyramid of Mud, Andrea Camilleri
Death at Sea, Andrea Camilleri
The Overnight Kidnapper, Andrea Camilleri
The Other End of the Line, Andrea Camilleri
The Safety Net, Andrea Camilleri
The Sicilian Method, Andrea Camilleri
The Cook of the Halcyon, Andrea Camilleri
Studies in Napoleonic Warfare, Charles Oman
Forbidden Colors, Yukio Mishima
The Jungle Grows Back, Robert Kagan
The Return of History and the End of Dreams, Robert Kagan
Quantum of Nightmares, Charles Stross
The Pit of the Blind God, Chuck Dixon
People of the Lie, M. Scott Peck
Death at La Fenice, Donna Leone
Death in a Strange Country, Donna Leone
The Anonymous Venetian, Donna Leone
Venetian Reckoning, Donna Leone
Acqua Alta, Donna Leone
The Death of Faith, Donna Leone
A Noble Radiance, Donna Leone
Fatal Remedies, Donna Leone
Friends in High Places, Donna Leone
A Sea of Troubles, Donna Leone
Wilful Behaviour, Donna Leone
Uniform Justice, Donna Leone
Doctored Evidence, Donna Leone
Blood from a Stone, Donna Leone
Through a Glass, Darkly, Donna Leone
Suffer the Little Children, Donna Leone
The Girl of His Dreams, Donna Leone
About Face, Donna Leone
A Question of Belief, Donna Leone
Drawing Conclusions, Donna Leone
Beastly Things, Donna Leone
The Golden Egg, Donna Leone
By its Cover, Donna Leone
Falling in Love, Donna Leone
The Waters of Eternal Youth, Donna Leone
Earthly Remains, Donna Leone
The Temptation of Forgiveness, Donna Leone
Unto Us a Son Is Given, Donna Leone
Trace Elements, Donna Leone
Transient Desires, Donna Leone
Intervention, Julian May
Jack the Bodiless, Julian May
Diamond Mask, Julian May
Magnificat, Julian May
Marshal of Victory, Giorgy Zhukov
Present Dangers, Robert Kagan, ed.
The Long Goodbye, Raymond Chandler
The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler
The High Window, Raymond Chandler
The Lady in the Lake, Raymond Chandler
The Little Sister, Raymond Chandler
Farewell, My Lovely, Raymond Chandler
Stupefying Stories 24, Rampant Loon
T, Haruki Murakami
Dead-End Memories, Banana Yoshimoto
The Last Train, Michael Pronko
The Moving Blade, Michael Pronko
Tokyo Traffic, Michael Pronko
Tokyo Zangyo, Michael Pronko
Azabu Getaway, Michael Pronko
Some Prefer Nettles, Junchiro Tanizaki
Red Roofs and Other Stories, Junchiro Tanizaki
Longing and Other Stories, Junchiro Tanizaki
A Cat, a Man, and Two Women, Junchiro Tanizaki
Levon’s Time, Chuck Dixon
Levon’s Home, Chuck Dixon
Season of Skulls, Charles Stross
From Caesar to the Mafia, Luigi Barzini
Things That Happened Before the Earthquake, Chiara Barzini
Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
A Night in the Lonesome October, Roger Zelazny
Between Planets, Robert Heinlein
Red Planet, Robert Heinlein
Tunnel in the Sky, Robert Heinlein
Margin of Victory, Douglas MacGregor
Pirate Freedom, Gene Wolfe
Equal Danger, Leonardo Sciascia
An Italian Education, Tim Parks
Chronicles of a Liquid Society, Umberto Eco

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Mailvox: a brief review of ASOS

AD writes the first review of the complete A SEA OF SKULLS.

I’ve finished A Sea of Skulls. Bought it, set out to read a chapter a night…which became two, and then three, and by the time I reached about the 1/3 point, I put the whole world on hold and finished it in two days.

As usual, your writing skill and style are impeccable–entertaining and engaging. For every plot thread closed you’ve managed to dangle three more…though, I think the next book will have to crack the planet and drain an ocean to top this ending.

Thoroughly enjoyable. I appreciated how the races have their own issues that so perfectly mirror modern ones, and enjoyed working out the foreign words from context. And I remain impressed by your skills–you managed to take a thoroughly repulsive Orc, turn him into a viewpoint character, and make him understandable, if not necessarily empathetic. I was convinced he was going to join Skuli any minute when he was ordered to throw himself onto the shield wall.

And, speaking of Skuli, his last quest was excellent. Here’s to the next book–unless, of course, you retire to the tropics and dump the whole thing into the lap of Brandon Sanderson.

I think Brandon Sanderson is too busy counting his crowdfunding money these days to be available to finish off anyone else’s epic fantasy series. So, I’ll just have to finish it myself.

UPDATE: The Didact graciously named A SEA OF SKULLS one of his best books of 2023:

Has he stuck the landing with the full version of Book 2?

Mostly, yes, he has.

ASOS has a few flaws to it, most of which relate to the difficulties in keeping the various plot-lines straight. You may have to go back and read the first book again to understand all the machinations behind the Amorran side of things – it has, after all, been eleven years since the first book saw the light of day, and quite a lot has happened since then.

The biggest flaw with the book has to be the ending, which definitely feels rushed and more than a little forced. I get the distinct impression that OBADSDL(PBUH) found himself getting lost in the details and realised this giant door-stopper of a book was getting really crazy – the full book will probably clock in at around 914 (!!!!!) pages, and that is a monumental text by any measure.

None of this changes a fundamental fact:

This is one of the best high fantasy books ever written.

High praise indeed. And while I never object to any reader’s impressions – they are simply what they are – in the interests of accuracy I will point out that the endings were neither rushed nor forced from my perspective, as they were always bound to take the various shapes they did by virtue of the character perspective limits. Remember, I’m not George Martin, and while I don’t do outlines, I do strictly limit how many characters get their own perspective and how many sections they get apiece. So, I always know roughly how much space I have with which to work in order to get to the close I have in mind.

You may notice that the word and page counts are almost identical to ATOB. That’s not an accident. And AGOG will be the same.

This isn’t to say one can’t reasonably criticize the particular sections of the story on which I choose to concentrate the detail. Perhaps it would be better if the middles were shorter and the ends longer. My choices are almost certainly suboptimal in some senses, and some characters get less “camera time” while others get more than various readers would prefer.

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