An Ember in the Ashes--TBR

Over at Bitten By Books, Rachel Smith is running a poll about reading reviews. Do you read them, are you influenced by them? I realized that I almost never read reviews. For me, it's all about the title. That's what attracts me first. I really enjoy fantasies with fanciful titles that aren't "twee." I hate twee. I also hate whimsical. Which brings me to covers--the second reason I'll pick up a book. I love cozy mysteries and I also love urban fantasy and PNR. But if I see one of those silly chicklit covers that look like they borrowed their graphics from the animated opening credits of the old Bewitched series, I click away. (I will make an exception for Dakota Cassidy's books, which are aewsome!)

Sabaa Tahir's An Ember in the Ashes is a book that caught my eye long before I heard the hype about it. I tend to be pretty impervious to hype. (I work in Hollywood and before that I worked for magazines and no pitch letter ever began, "This is a mediocre idea with limited audience potential.") I was immediately interested because epic fantasy is so dominated by male writers. I yield to no reader in my admiration for Brent Weeks' Night Angel books but I keep wondering if there's a woman out there writing the same kind of fantasy. (And don't talk to me about that epic fantasy about the girl who is chosen to be a prostitute for people who like to inflict pain. Yes, sacred prostitution served up with exquisite world building It has hundreds of reviews and if I found my daughter reading it, I'd be appalled.)
But Tahir's fantasy is based on ancient Rome and it comes with blurbs and enthusiastic quotes from the trade and popular press. It looks like it has large dollops of romance in there too. Well, who doesn't like romance? it was published today and I'm off to buy my copy.

Friday Fantasy Fiction--Review of Brent Weeks' Way of Shadows

I used to read a LOT of fantasy in my teens and twenties and I hoovered through all the multi-book sagas and story cycles out there. I was a big fan of Susan Cooper's books, and Guy Gavriel Kay and the Deryni Chronicles. I especially loved Robin McKinley's Beauty and Patricia McKillip's novels. And Anne McCaffrey--loved the Dragonriders series. Somewhere along the way, though, all the books started to feel the same. Maybe it was because a client hired me to read all five thousand Dragonlance books and synopsize them.  Whatever it was, I pretty much stopped reading the genre for years.  And then I read Brent Weeks' Night Angel: The Way of  Shadows.  The timing was perfect. I'd just geeked out on the first season of Game of Thrones and was ready for something complex and compelling to get me through to the second season.  (I made the decision not to read the books because I don't want to know what's coming.  If I'd known what was going to happen to Ned Stark, I'm not sure I could have watched.)
I thought Night Angel was fantastic and was very happy to discover that ... there are more books in the series. In fact, the complete trilogy is now available.  If you love densely plotted stories of fantasy, you will love this series. Here's my review:

Night Angel:  Way of the Shadows is a richly textured, multi-layered fantasy crowded with characters who have substance and cast shadows. It is a coming of age story played out against a backdrop of politics and magic, The first of Brent Weeks’ epic story cycle, it compares favorably to George R. R. Martin’s “Song of Fire and Ice” books in terms of complexity and world-building.

The relationship between an orphan “guild rat” and a master assassin named Durzo Blint is at the heart of the story, but both Durzo and the boy have lives that connect to a web of other people.  Durzo warns his apprentice that “love is a noose,” but by the time they meet, it’s already too late for the boy to heed the warning.

This is an epic story filled with darkness and cruelty but also stuffed with terrific characters, great friendships, large themes and genuine emotion. The early chapters are especially grim, and almost unbearable at times, but also familiar to us—the fantastical extension of Dickens’ version of poverty.  This world is not sentimental and those who escape the pull of the Warrens are grateful for their reprieve.

The world-building here is outstanding, on a par with Frank Herbert’s Dune or J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth, or the afore-mentioned George R. R. Martin’s Seven Kingdoms.  There is very real magic here, with “talents” that range across many different disciplines and mages that must hide their magic. There are places where a fan of the genre can almost identify the author’s influences (because they’re the classic books every fan has read) and he hits all the tropes and memes out there.  Which is not a bad thing. 

This is a “Chosen One” story, filled with humble beginnings and magical artifacts, and impossible loves, and politics both personal and grand. The chance for betrayal is everywhere and not necessarily because those doing the betraying are traitors.