Posts tagged with "Friends of Ours" :: Page 3

Oh man. I don’t even hardly know where to begin. It seems like only yesterday that Pyr’s Lou Anders was talking up this new series he had acquired. It all started with Tom Lloyd‘s THE STORMCALLER, and Lou Anders was telling everyone who would listen that it was the start of a series that would please all those rabid Steven Erikson fans. Being one of those Erikson fans myself, I was intrigued. I personally picked it up based solely on Anders’ description.

Fast-forward several years later, and here we are with the fifth and final novel in The Twilight Reign. THE DUSK WATCHMAN (Amazon). I had the privilege of reading this novel quite a while ago, and it’s been absolute agony not having anyone to talk with about it. I was going to wait for the US release of the novel to write up this review, but I just can’t do it. Not enough willpower.

I’m just too dang excited to tell you what I think of this novel, and the series as a whole.
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It’s that time of the year again folks. That magical time signaling the announcement of another book release from the reigning champion of urban fantasy. May I humbly present to you MONSTER HUNTER LEGION (Amazon), fourth book of the New York Times Best-Selling series written by pulp fiction juggernaut Larry Correia.

Disclaimer: Larry Correia is my favorite author. I am a Monster Hunter/Grimnoir Chronicles fanboy. This does not, however, mean that I will ever give Larry a free pass when it comes to a review. I am a critic first and foremost and I do not believe in coddling authors. That said, MONSTER HUNTER LEGION is Larry’s most flawless book to date. Not my favorite of his novels, mind you, but certainly the most complete and substantial.
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When I want to treat myself to a good book, or when I desperately need to forget a terrible novel that makes me want to give up on literature entirely, I find that I turn to a very, very small selection of authors.

James Barclay is pretty close to the top of that list.

You see, I know that when I pick up a Barclay novel, I won’t be disappointed. Reading Barclay is like having your favorite steak, cooked to perfection. The first book in his Elves Trilogy, ONCE WALKED WITH GODS (Amazon), is the kind of book where I can forget I’m a critic. I just get to sit down, dig in, and enjoy the hell out of it.
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Dan Wells has had quite the run. The John Cleaver series — starting with I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER (EBR Review) — was a fantastic blend of Horror and Fantasy with a YA tone (although it wasn’t really marketed as YA in the US). His novel PARTIALS (EBR Review) has been getting some really strong reviews. So I was pretty excited when I got my hands on an ARC of his latest work, THE HOLLOW CITY (Amazon).

I’d heard him describe the basics: a story told from the point of view of a paranoid schizophrenic, Michael Shipman. A man who literally can’t tell what’s fantasy and what’s reality. He’s seeing faceless men, and is convinced they’re trying to kill him. But no one else can see them, and he hasn’t been taking his medication in months. To make things worse, there’s been a serial killer at work in the area. Someone’s been killing people and essentially destroying their faces, and Michael is a prime suspect.
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I don’t often read YA, but when I do, I read Dan Wells. His writing is just so accessible to younger and older readers alike. So when he approached me a year ago about reading a draft of his newest novel, a dystopian SF titled PARTIALS (Amazon), I jumped at the chance.
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James Barclay. You know the name. You know that his Raven novels made him one of my favorite authors. If you live in the US, finally getting his novels has been a welcome breath of fresh air. That’s all great and dandy, but there is something we in the US are missing that our UK buddies still have exclusive.

The Ascendants of Estorea.
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If you are a fan of Larry Correia‘s work, you’ve had a sweet year. MONSTER HUNTER ALPHA (EBR Review). DEAD SIX (EBR Review). HARD MAGIC (EBR Review). Yeah… that’s some good reading. You know from my reviews that I have liked all of these books. But of all of them, HARD MAGIC is the one that grabbed my attention. It marked the start of a terrific Alternate History Urban Fantasy Dieselpunk Science Fiction Fantasy novel. For the sake of having a usable category, I call it Urban Fantasy.

Anyway…
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Admit it. Once upon a time you read Tom Clancy too. There’s no shame in that admission. Clancy had some awesome stuff…you know, before he just seemed to lose his touch. CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER. WITHOUT REMORSE. Yeah. Awesome. But here’s the thing, there came a point where the story took a back seat to Clancy showing off how much he knew about the technical aspects of everything military related. If you go on for a full chapter talking about how a bullet works, and then don’t do anything with that chunk of pages, you’re doing it wrong in my opinion. It’s about the story. It’s about the characters.

Tom Clancy went away well before he wrote TEETH OF THE TIGER (I still shudder), and there wasn’t really anyone who captured my imagination the same way.

This is the part where a lesser reviewer would say, “Until now!” I refuse to say that.
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DEMONSTORM (EBR Review) was the end of the Legends of the Raven series. Main characters died horrible and glorious deaths. As readers we all shed a collective tear (or twenty) at the sacrifices the characters made. But then James Barclay wrote another end to the series with RAVENSOUL. I mean, really, what’s a guy to think? There wasn’t really any room to add onto this story. It was done.

Or so I thought.
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Everyone has prejudices. I don’t care who you are or what your background is, we all have things that just irk us to no end. As a reviewer it can be difficult sometimes to put those prejudices aside, to try and read a work based on it’s merit alone and ignore everything else. I have a secret for you readers. I’m not a fan of the latest Dune books put out by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson. I haven’t read them, but I have read the original Dune and it’s one of my favorite books ever. I don’t like the new books because it feels like they are trampling on something sacred to me. Who are they to tell me what else happened in the Dune universe. Only one person has that right. Frank Herbert. And since he is dead we are just going to have to content ourselves on what he left for us. Now I know, Brian Herbert is Frank’s son and maybe they even have some old notes and things. I don’t care. It still feels wrong and I don’t like it (plus the other reviewers here at EBR all assure me that the new Dune novels are freaking terrible).
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