Onefinemess

Proven Guilty (Dresden Files #8)
by: Jim Butcher

I think I mentioned in my last review how the series had hit another roadmark with the last book, and it’s good to see that Butcher hasn’t slipped on the quality level yet.  I wasn’t particularly intrigued by the main plot’s setting – a horror convention under attack from movie monsters – but the rest of the story pulled me in.

In a way, this is a sequel to Winter Knight, as it deals heavily with the Faerie of Butcher’s  world: a minor alliance between two enemies, a brief visit with Dresden’s stepmother (we find out a little of what’s happened to her) and series portents of bad things to come from the Winter side of things.

The war between the White Council (Hah!  I typed “white tower” first… man, that next Wheel of Time book can’t come fast enough!)  & the vampires continues, and heavy losses are taken on the good guys side.  From this angle we also gets some more hints about the traitor – nothing definitive yet BUT it seems that it the guilty party was pretty laid out near the end.  Of course there’s nothing to say it’s not a red herring (but not a red heron, those are damn hard to catch!), or misdirection from beasties within the plot.   Then again, it seems like the best option as far as a source of conflict goes… so we’ll see.

We also check back in with the Carpenters, get a lot of background on Charity in particular and pick up another regular cast member.  Little bits and clues about whatever Thomas is up to, but nothing concrete yet.  I’m pretty sure the next book is about him… one of the next two anyway.

So yeah, if you like the  others blah blah, it’s still keeping up the quality, pushing towards greatness.

FOUR STARS

The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
by: Michael Moorcock

On the other hand – a classic.  Not to mention I scored a 1976 1st edition for $2.50.  Seriously?  Hey, I’m not gonna complain.  I wish old Philip Dick stuff was this cheap though.  Man.  I guess if they ever make an Elric movie…

Alright so wow this continues to be an education in pulp fantasy.  I think I would have enjoyed this a lot more in 6th or 7th grade, as wow was shit basic.  It’s hard to even call it a book, as there’s not really one plot that runs through the whole thing – it’s basically 3 separate stories about Elric.  The uniting factor is that they all involve being on a boat in water… or something, and the end of one leads him directly to the beginning of the other.  Except that he can’t really remember the first two?  Or can he?

The characterization is so thin you’d be hard pressed to hit it with a stream of urine.  Things move so fast that what would seriously take an entire 400 page modern fantasy novel happens in 60 pages.  It’s kind of crazy: Elric goes somewhere and fights some shit, then crazy shit happens with merging personalities aaaaaaand we’re done.

The world itself is interesting, but still a bit vague.  I’d appreciate one of those now-ubiquitous world maps that usually occupy the first few pages of any current fantasy.  So, I can’t call it “good” by modern standards, and the “entertainment” value is just not the same – I’m enjoying it more as an example of bygone days than as an actual novel.  Still, the world is peripherally compelling; I definitely want to know what’s up with the champion incarnations and the whole lords of law v. chaos thing.  So, of course I’ll keep reading.  Besides, it’s not like it takes me more than a few lunch breaks to finish one of these.

If you’re into retro, direct as hell, fantasy, you might enjoy this.  But, in that case, odds are you’ve already read these books.

TWO STARS

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This entry was posted by onefinemess on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 at 4:47 pm and is filed under Book Review, Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.