Reading Books

[tacticslion]

So, recently, I've been enjoying Glen Cook, specifically, his Instrumentalities of the Night series, even more specifically, Lord of the Silent Kingdom.

It's quite good! I'd previously enjoyed The Tyranny of the Night several years back, and I'd like to add Surrender to the Will of the Night, and Working the Gods' Mischief to my library at some point.

It's effectively a re-imagining of (and renaming of) the 13th Century world around the Mediterranean... if said world was infested with night monsters spawned from peoples conscious and unconscious terrors, genuine wells of power that sorcerers can use to create more, and all the myths and fairy-tales of all people everywhere were, in fact, real, because of these things (and also most active during the night time).

To sum the books up in a spoiler-free kind of way (well, spoiler-free beyond the first, like, two chapters): a Praman* soldier-slave Else Tage, on a raid for mummies ordered by his chief of Sorcerers**, faces down a foe, a surprise manifestation from a minor Instrumentality of the Night*** (let's call it a "Baron"). Using a new device called a "falcon"^ and his quick wits as a soldier, he loads the thing with silver and iron and successfully manages to kill Baron. Eventually, he gets back home, but barely has a chance to see his wife and son before the Marshal - effective ruler of the local Praman kingdom/empire/country - sends him as a spy north into the Brothen**** lands with an impossible mission: make it so that the Brothen Crusade against the Praman lands doesn't do real or lasting damage. And so Else Tage takes a new name and heads into the corrupt heart of the western world... and those two events haunt him ever since, including a plot to assassinate him that was initiated two hundred years before he was born.

Oh, yeah. And Else Tage has absolutely no talent whatsoever with the Night.

It's... good. If there was one flaw with the writing, though, it's that a couple of the auxiliary "protagonist"-type characters^^ seem to come to the "right thinking" (as seems defined by the author) on (this world's) religion for no real discernible reason. It's not a major flaw, but since we're not with them consistently to see where that idea came from, the fact that they are suddenly making those presumptions is a little jarring, especially since most everything else flows extremely well.

It's a very dense book, highly political, and sure to potentially ruffle feathers if you're at all religious... presuming you don't accept the premise that "this world is fundamentally extremely different from my own, no matter what the apparent similarities". There's some thinly-veiled criticism of ancient religious and social elements, true, and a general tend for the author to "prefer" certain religious principles and ideologies over others. But it's still well-written, and enjoyable.

Anyway, I over-all recommend it.

* Think a generic, loosely-similar Arabic/Islamic reinterpretation
** Yes, they have those, yes, it's against all religious law, yes, everyone does.
*** This is basically the source of all religious/mythical/etc thinking in this world. There are "Wells of Power", and whatnot, but if it's supernatural, it'll be an Instrumentality of the Night, or related to one or more of the Instrumentalities in some way. The Instrumentalities are shaped by collective faith and reasoning... and nightmares and emotions... so, you know, not really good things, at large.
**** Think a generic, loosely-similar European/Roman Catholic reinterpretation.
^ It's a cannon. I don't know why "Falcon" was chosen. I'd have called it a Dog, or Lion, or something, but they went with "Falcon", so...
^^ The book shifts to certain characters' viewpoints and you're generally presumed to side with said characters. I tend to, over-all.

NOTE ON FAITHS AND PEOPLESNOTE ON FAITHS AND PEOPLES: I've yet to see any sort of genuine Messiah figure mentioned, however, or anything similar to Eucharistic Rites or Mass. There does seem to be a "Founder Figure" named "Aaron", but I'm left unsure of how similar he is to anything Christian. There's also a group similar to Jews (Deves) and other major faiths of the time. I have not seen anything directly related to genuine Islam, either, other than the literally broadest strokes possible to paint in (Monotheism, similar social set-up, historical inheritance of religious ideology from the Deves, etc), and the primary similarity to Brothe and Christianity comes from the combination monotheism and hierarchy based in Brothe (a clear Rome-analog). There is one faith I'm really unsure of, called the Dainshaus, which seems to be the greatest form of divergence from real-world anything, which the Deves supposedly inherited their monotheistic ideas from. I'm honestly not sure which real-world religious/social/racial/etc group, if any, this relates to - certainly not the dualistic Zoroastrianism, as the Dainshaus are, from what I can tell, just as fiercely monotheistic as the others... so, I dunno. Certainly nothing listed under the Abrahamic faiths, and nothing I know of ancient Sumerian, Chaldean, Canaanite, or the like would fit. Not the Egyptian Aten, either. My guess is that it's just a purposefully fake "cruel progenitor" religion for the monotheistic faiths to follow for the purposes of story flow.

In any event, while the faiths and ideologies are obviously related to the faiths I mention above, they are, at best, loose and vague imitations thereof. I'm reasonably certain, based on elements mentioned within Lord of the Silent Kingdom, that there was never a Messiah/God-Incarnate figure, for example, for the "Christian-like" religion to attach itself to. So don't let that bother you.

[Lumenskir]

Just went through a "talking about the arts" phase. I highly recommend Alan Sepinwall's The Revolution Was Televised if you're into an examination of the Golden Age of television on a show by show basis. Film After Film by J. Hoberman is also great, if a lot more academic, in how it looks at how cinema changed and reflected the times post-9/11 and the Bush wars.

As to fiction, I finally got around to reading House of Leaves when I stumbled onto a gift card. It's about as good as everyone says, although I thought it sort of petered out by the end. Which, since I was actually freaked out by the middle, might have been the point since it serves as an effective cool down that lets you actually walk around your house once you're done.

Gone Girl is a must read for everyone who has eyes. Best female character of the decade so far. Just try not to read a lot of details about the plot, it's best experienced like Cabin in the Woods where you know the basic setup (here, that a wife disappears suddenly, which causes a lot of emotional upset for her husband) but nothing beyond that.

[Magus]

I've been meaning to read Glen Cook, but his Black Company series really didn't move me to buy it. I'll have to look at Instrumentalities of the Night.

While we are fantasying up in here, I've been rereading A Storm of Swords alongside the third season of Game of Thrones.

Also I've been reading Guy Gavriel Kay's latest, River of Stars. It's a sort-of sequel to Under Heaven (it's set in the same pseudo-China as Under Heaven, but a few hundred years later). I just haven't had the time to really sit down and delve into it, though, but so far it seems to be concerning itself with an analog of Zhou Tong, what with the main character being preternaturally skilled as an archer.

My only real complaint is that elements of the last book are missing. I wanted to hear more about the Kanlin monks (an analog of the Shaolin monks), but the world map doesn't even have Stone Drum Mountain on it. I guess he's going in a different direction with the story.

Otherwise I'm very pleased with it. Kay never disappoints, it seems.

Oh, and I got a paperback copy of The Wise Man's Fear in the mail a couple of days ago. I loved The Name of the Wind. I think Rothfuss is one of the most promising new fantasy authors I've read in years.

[Azisien]

I recently finished A Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson. I started it about two years ago and only had one six-month hiatus, and I reached the final book just as it was released. I don't actually recommend the series, but damn it felt good to get to the conclusion for characters that I had, for better or worse, grown rather attached to after fourteen 800-1000 page books.

Then I immediately started A Song of Ice and Fire, since I am late getting on that bandwagon, and I'm anal about knowing all the little details and extras versus just watching the TV show like 90% of folk. I'm working my way through Storm of Swords right now, and so far the series completely lives up to the hype.

Alongside that I am reading Escape from Camp 14, as mentioned in the Korea thread.

I picked up some actual medieval history books to delve into as well, since all the fantasy I've been reading has me curious about the real world equivalents. I got two books on strategic warfare, one book on medieval cruelty and torture, and one book on castles and other fortifications, and The Prince, since I probably shouldn't ignore the political side of things too much, and it came highly recommended.