A Book Review: Malice by John Gwynne (The Faithful and the Fallen #1)

Last week, I read an epic fantasy novel. It was about: A prophecy, a war of good vs. evil, a chosen one, a young hero's coming of age, and the story is set in a pseudo medieval European (Celtic) world. 

So many tropes! 

Was I reading a classic fantasy novel from 1980s? Nope, the book was written in 2012, and despite its many tropes, this novel delivered a refreshing story that exceeded my expectations. This book is called Malice, written by John Gwynne, and it is the first novel to a quartet named The Faithful and the Fallen.

Synopsis:

Step into The Banished Lands, a dark continent echoing with a history torn asunder by violence and a great war. It was a history where armies of men and giants crossed swords and bloodied the battlefield crimson red. The struggles ended long ago with a defeat for the the giants. The lands, however, remain deeply wounded from the memories of war.

A new tide of threat is rising once again; on the edge of its wave rides harrowing news - sightings of great wyrms, stones that weep blood, and giants stirring in the heart of a shadowy forest. These signs bear an ill omen, and with it marches the coming of a war to end all wars, where the faithful and the fallen shall wage one final battle to settle the course of history, once and for all. Our story began, with a 14 year old boy called Corban, the son of a black smith from the humble fortress of Dun Carreg...

My thoughts on this book:

Malice is a character driven novel. Gwynne narrated this epic tale from the views of 8 or 9 characters, and their stories are styled in 3^rd person POV chapters. This is a narrating method similar to George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. Length wise, Malice counts to 640 pages, but Gwynne wrote these POV chapters economically, and every chapter in this book averaged from 5 to 10 pages. The chapters in Malice are quite short, but the story beats at a very good pace, and the chapters transitioned smoothly from one to the next. This is largely a credit to Gwynne's writings, full of suspense, where every chapter ended at a cliff hanger. Consequently, the book encourages you to keep reading it. When I was reading this book, I could not put it down. I kept turning the pages because I needed to know what would happen to these characters.

Speaking of characters; while Malice is a story about good vs evil, but no character in this book is a caricature. Instead, Malice depicted every single character with a stroke of well rounded portrayal, and these characters feel real. Every character in this book, even the characters who are fighting on the “wrong” side, is vulnerable, has a believable motive, and wrestles with self doubts. You will root for some characters, especially those characters fighting for the “wrong” side but sincerely believing their course is right. You will be hoping, these characters will see the evidence that their side is “wrong” and then change side. It suffices to say, Malice has one of the best characterizations I've encountered in the realm of fantasy fictions.

Some readers put Malice in the genre of grimdark fantasy. But I am not sure “grimdark” is a fitting description to be placed upon this book. In my opinion, while Malice is violent and gritty, but it is not necessarily grim and dark. This book takes tropes from the classical fantasy literature and did something interesting to it. Yes, Malice still tells you a story about courage and bravery, where hope is always moving in the background. But Malice also tells a believable story about how, out of a deep belief that their course is right, good people can be investing their heroics and qualities in the “wrong” side instead. I think this is the most fascinating and refreshing aspect about Malice. To my mind, Malice runs in the vein of David Gemmell's works and I believe it should be placed in the genre of heroic fantasy.

With Malice, John Gwynne made his debut as a fantasy author. This is an impressive book. It gripped me, from the start to the finish, with its memorable characters and vividly depicted battle scenes. As I am writing this review, I am already 60% into the sequel, Valor, and I am loving every page of it. If you like reading epic and heoric fantasy novels, then I strongly recommend this new gem to you.  

A Book Review: The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett (Discworld #22)

Consider this: Jump on a time machine, travel to the past and kill your parents before they met, does that mean you would have never existed? But if that is the case, then how could you step into the time machine at the first place? Since you exist, it follows logically that the past cannot be changed.

But what if someone else also step into the past, and set the event to the way it is? That is possible, but it still means an event has to somehow be the way IT IS, so it remains that the past cannot be changed.

Ok ok, but what if anything you do has been history all along, so after you killed your parents in the past, you somehow emerge back in the future and prevent yourself from entering the time machine, thus creating a self existing loop? That is also possible, but without your parents, how did you come to exist at the first place? The paradox remains!

Is your brain hurting yet? There are, perhaps more complex proposals to solve the time traveling paradox; but it suffices to say, writing a story about time travel must be very hard! Under this light, I believe the best way to appreciate a time travel story, is to NOT think about it too hard. Instead, just enjoy the story for what it is and see what the author is trying to tell you.

Well, I lied. There is another way to appreciate the aspect of time travel in a story – That is, Sir Terry's way, the Discworld way, where everything is a parody designed to tickle your funny bone. Indeed, in The Last Continent, the 22^nd Discworld novel, readers reunite with the cowardly wizzard Rincewind (spelt with double Zs), and his eccentric colleagues from the Unseen University. This round, we set foot on a time travel adventure in a continent called XXXX that bears a shocking resemblance to my home, Australia.

Synopsis:

What would be the impact to the future, if someone travels to the past and somehow influenced a turning point in evolution? Let the academics from the Unseen University demonstrate to you, the full weight of consequence and causality. This is what happened:

Rincewind is missing in action. He was last seen on Counterweight continent aiding a political uprising. Where is he now? On a continent called XXXX, drinking its famous beer and making friend with a dwarf called Mad. Back at home in Ankh Morpork, however, Rincewind is needed urgently. So his eccentric, wizardly colleagues set out on a quest to recover him, by magical transportation of course!

But traveling by magic is unreliable. After a mishap, instead of emerging on XXXX, the Rincewind-retrieval team arrived at a time billions of years in the past, and they met a deity who was in the process of creating things.... you get the picture? But hey, I tell you what? No worries!

My thoughts about this book:

The Last Continent divides its story into two parts. The first part follows the adventure of Rincwind on Continent XXXX (or, Australia). The second part tracks the misadventures of Unseen University academics, in the past. This book is very funny, from Mad Max to the Australian beer XXXX, this installment of Discworld made a festival of humor by parodying the popular culture related to Australia.

Furthermore, The Last Continent also poked fun at the Grandfather paradox, and I particularly enjoyed this humor. I don't think it is meant to be taken seriously, but to my mind though, it does raise a few very interesting questions: If there is a creator who exists outside of time, and the world runs according to the creator's design and plan, then did the creator always have these ideas? If so, then did the creator have the power to choose alternative options? On the contrary, if these ideas came to into existence, then when did it happen and where did it come from? Gentle readers, I leave these questions for you to explore, as food for thought.

Anyway, philosophical musing aside, The Last Continent is one of the funniest installments in Discworld. I was chuckling along from the first page to the last. But in my opinion, this book just doesn't shine as brightly when it is sitting next to the best Discworld novels, such as Small Gods, and any of the books from the City Watch and Death series. Why? Because the plot in The Last Continent doesn't make sense. As I mentioned earlier, this book divides itself into two, major story lines. But these two stories didn't connect properly to drive a cohesive narration. While these two story threads did come together in the final act, but the mash felt forced and rough. When I closed this book, I was left slightly confused about what happened at the end of the book. I guess the major theme in all Rincewind books is its randomness, because Rincewind represents uncertainty. But maybe The Last Continent just took it one step too far. The result? As a reader, I struggled to make sense of the plot.

All this goes to say, while the humors in this book did tickle my funny bone and I found it an entertaining read, but by Discworld standard, this one is average and the story was a bit confusing. Fans of Discworld would want to check it out anyway, because on any given day, Rincewind's adventure in Australia... hmm... I mean, XXXX, is likely to make you smile toothy grins. But you just need to step into this story and be prepared to deal with a little bit of randomness and abstraction.

Until the next time, happy reading!

A Book Review: Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett (Discworld #17)

"May you live in interesting times", is an English expression, and it is meant to be a translation of an ALLEGED Chinese curse.

Being a bi-lingual person, I have never heard of this expression in Mandarin Chinese. Dr. Wikipedia came to the rescue, where it detailed: "The nearest related Chinese expression is 寧為太平犬，莫做亂離人. It translates to "Better be a dog in a peaceful time, than be a human in a warring period".

Ah ha! Now it makes sense. I am indeed aware of this Chinese expression. But this expression is not a curse! No, this expression is proverbial. "Huh? How can one be better off as a dog (or a slave) than being an independent, human?"

Well, if you are a commoner, then the expression makes sense.

Why? Because it seems no matter who is in charge or who is trying to take charge, they don't seem to care what commoners need anyway. Therefore, given that pattern, I would rather have peace than a violent revolution.

So that is the meaning for the expression. Sir Terry Pratchett, took this expression and made it a title for the 17^th Discworld novel, its name - Interesting Times. This is a satricial fantasy novel, but it also explores, in a most witty and powerful way, topics such as revolution, east-west cultural difference, and oppressive government regimes.

Synopsis:

High walls tower over Agatean Empire, the oldest, and the most fortified kingdom on Discworld. Lying on his sick bed, the emperor of this ancient realm is about to draw his final breath. Meanwhile, as a pack of hungry wolves, ambitious warlords gather from the four winds at the captical city, eyeing the throne of power, soon to be vacant.

Civil war, however, is not the sole concern for the empire. For the air smells of revolution. It is triggered by a little book called What I did on My Holidays, and it is penned by Twoflower, who is Discworld's first tourist. So there you have it – 1) warlords fighting over the throne in a civil war, and 2) Workers uniting to ignite a revolution. It suffices to say, the prospects facing the empire spells doom and disaster. So who can avert the empire's course to doom?

The answer is a wizard! All they need is a wizard, and a wizard they shall get. Under the shining sun, a wizard magically appeared at the heart of the empire. On his pointy hat spelled the word, wizzard, with double "Z". His name is Rincewind, the worst wizard in the history of the Disc.

How is a failed wizard going to help in this situation? Worry not, the thing that stands between "fated to doom", and doom, is not competence, but uncertainty. And Rincewind IS uncertainty.

My thoughts on this book:

Discworld occupies a special place in my heart. In 2 years, I read more than 23 Discworld novels and I liked all of them. Discworld has multiple sub-series, and my favorite sub-series features the Ankh Morpork City Watch, it is a series of detective stories. Meanwhile, my least favorite sub-series of Discworld, are those novels featuring the failed wizard, Rincewind. Look, I like the characters in Rincewind series, but I found these books are just too random, and the narratives too incohesive, to my taste. But last week, my opinion about Rincewind series took a 180 degrees turn, when I read Interesting Times.

For a starter, the narratives in Interesting Times are cohesive. Almost every scene in this book added something to the plot. This also means, Interesting Times is a lot easier to read, and less confusing, than the previous Discworld books about Rincewind. Furthermore, while the book is not separated into chapters, but the story moved at a fast pace and it was a pleasure to read it.

Interesting Times also brought back beloved characters from Rincewind cycle. Aside from Rincewind himself, characters such as Cohen the Barbarian, Twoflower, and the Luggage, all returned in this book. I particularly liked Cohen the Barbarian and his Silver Horde. In this book, Cohen and the Silver Horde are a group of aging barbarian heroes who are plotting to usurp the imperial throne, and these guys are funny! Sir Terry parodied the archetypical barbarian heroes of the fantasy troupe. The dialogues and the potrayals for these guys are designed to tickle your funny bone, and by Crom they are hiliarious! I laughed the whole way throughout this book and I want to read more about Cohen the Barbarian and his band of silver headed (or balding) heros.

What made Discworld novels so human and so humorous, is Sir Terry's razor sharp observation of our world. He often dressed real problems in our world in satires and presented them from the viewpoints of the small folks, common people like you and me. His satires are witty, but he also approached it in a big-hearted way. When Sir Terry wrote Interesting Times, he was probably at the height of his literary prowess, and in this book he tackled themes such as oppressive governments, revolution, cultural differences and politics.

This book explored many themes and I will not do this book justice by discussing each and every theme here. Instead, I would recommend that you read this book for yourself. But I will say this, one theme particularly stood out and grabbed my attention, and I believe it rings true because we can see its pattern in most political systems recorded in the human history: When people become dissatisfied with a government, they put the popular uprising in power, in the hope of bringing changes. But very often, after the government is replaced by a new one, people suddenly find themselves ruled by "the government" again. It seems that those in charge (or trying to take charge), either forgets quickly, or just never cared about what is it that the common people need at the first place. Do you agree with this point? I leave my gentle readers to check out this book, and then consider it as a food for thought.

Interesting Times, this is a great book. Not only did this book entertain me and made me laugh, but it also provided food for thoughts. It is good to be back in Discworld and I want to read this book again in the near future. I highly recommend Interesting Times to veterans of the Disc. Meanwhile, if you have yet to set foot on Sir Terry's fantastic world that stands on the back of a giant star turtle, then make haste to a library or a bookstore and pick up a Discworld novel.