Reviews by Steven

The next time you run across Lou Anders from Pyr SF&F, buy him a drink. In fact, buy him two, he won’t mind. Then, ask him where you can find James Barclay so you can buy that gentleman a drink as well. In Lou’s on-going crusade to bring the US great fantasy titles from the Brits, he brings us James Barclay’s DAWNTHIEF (Amazon), and in doing so takes us on and honest-to-goodness adventure.

Do you remember a few reviews back where we reviewed WINTERBIRTH? (Amazon) Do you remember how upset we were with the comparisons people had been drawing between it and David Gemmell’s work? (Amazon) Well, we are pleased to tell you that Barclay’s DAWNTHIEF is truly worthy of the comparison to the works of the late Gemmell. In fact, we are quite sure Gemmell would be more than proud of Barclay’s work, and the reception it is bound to receive here in the US.
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Since DUST OF DREAMS (Amazon) is coming to the US soon, we thought we would go back to the series’ roots to both introduce newcomers and invigorate the old-timers. GARDENS OF THE MOON by Steven Erikson (Amazon) is not a simple novel–in fact this novel has, arguably, the steepest learning curve of any fantasy novel to date. This review will be a tad longer than usual, but it deserves nothing less.

GARDENS OF THE MOON is the first tale in Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen series. Currently we have eight novels released in the series (with the ninth out in the UK now–yeah, yeah, we are waiting for our import copy), three short stories, and two other novels written by Erikson’s co-creator of this vibrantly imagined world, Ian Cameron Esslemont. We tell you this so you will understand the investment of time, should you start this series. The best part of all of this? Erikson doesn’t make us wait half a decade between his encyclopedia-sized tomes (you know who we are talking about). A book a year is the pace Erikson has set, which is downright awesome.
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We often wondered if the reason Scalzi was nominated for various Hugo awards was due to his insane amount of blogging (why do you think we started this site, eh?). Last year, his novel THE LAST COLONY (Amazon) was nominated for the prestigious 2008 Hugo Award. He didn’t win, and initially we thought, “Guess we were right, as always.”

The thing is, we read THE LAST COLONY, and realized that he should have won in that field of competition.

Scalzi will be the first one to tell you that he was more than happy to even be nominated, and that the other authors were very deserving of their nominations. Sure, we thought the other 2008 Hugo nominated novels were great, but THE LAST COLONY should have won.
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We will leave you for the weekend with our review of this stand-alone novel by Joe Abercrombie set in First Law Trilogy universe.

There are few books we have looked forward to more, after finishing THE LAST ARGUMENT OF KINGS (Amazon), than Abercrombie’s next. So when we first heard word of BEST SERVED COLD (Amazon) we could barely contain our excitement. In other words, Steve ran around squealing like a 15-year-old girl and clapping excitedly.
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How about a requested review from one of our readers?

Have you ever watched the movie 28 DAYS LATER? (Amazon) The basic plot is that a virus gets loose among the population of England. This virus turns people into rage-crazed zombies, whose blood, when given to a non-exposed person, turns them into a zombie within 30 seconds. Essentially, in the movie, we see the initial release of the virus, and then we cut to 28 days later (get it?) and the aftermath of the spread of the virus.
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Have you met Dexter Morgan? Surely you have watched the Showtime series based on his character, or even better, read the absurdly entertaining novels by Jeff Lindsay?

If you answered “no” to any of those questions, you have problems.

It’s time everyone met Dexter, a blood-spatter specialist who works for the Miami Police Department. He is good at his job. He has a girlfriend. His tries to take care of his sister (also in the Miami P.D.).

Dexter Morgan is also a serial killer.
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“The world breeds no heroes now.”

This line from the novel WINTERBIRTH (Amazon) by Brian Ruckley sums up our main observation after reading the novel. WINTERBIRTH is marketed as both Epic Fantasy and Heroic Fantasy. What does that mean? Well, for starters, it means we have heroes in some sort of capacity. It also means we should have blood and battle… and in high quantities. Epic Fantasy usually involves some sort of epic quest, or a huge, all-engrossing plot that the heroes must stop. Heroic Fantasy means we have heroic and tragic last-stands.
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What’s this? Two reviews in one day? Well this one was a special request from some fans, and we were more than happy to oblige.

It’s time we shared the hate…

There are few things in life that we don’t understand. Why do people clip their finger and toe-nails in public? Why are Utah drivers incapable of using their turn signal? Why do people think Megan Fox can actually act? But mostly, we don’t understand ONE MAJOR THING:

When ON EARTH did sparkles on a VAMPIRE become cool? We just each threw up a little. Steve more than a little actually. It was gross. It was like an emetic taste test here.
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There is this guy named Brandon Sanderson, and if you read fantasy with any regularity, you know who he is. If you don’t know who he is, you should really read more. Seriously. Not only is he the talent in epic fantasy, he is finishing the WHEEL OF TIME for the late Robert Jordan. Sanderson is a gifted author, and WARBREAKER (Amazon), his newest novel, shows why.

Color (as in dyes, etc) is power. A person’s breath let’s them breathe life to inanimate objects. A talking sword that begs to kill things. Sound like an intriguing magic system? It should. Sanderson has made quite a name for himself by inventing unique and enjoyable magic systems. WARBREAKER essentially starts with the wrong, untrained daughter of a king being sent to another country to prevent a war from breaking. A great start to a great novel.
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Welcome to another completely superior review by us guys here at Elitist Book Reviews. The chosen book this time around is THE BLADE ITSELF by Joe Abercrombie (Amazon).

THE BLADE ITSELF is a refreshing first novel in what we would call a dark fantasy trilogy. Abercrombie gives us a cast of characters that that have even more attitude than we do–no easy feat. Included in this cast we have a crippled torturer as a main character. Tell us, how often do we get to see a torturer as a main PoV in epic fantasy now days?

Awesome.
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