This week, I'm delivering in your inbox books on sale, another book review written by yours truly, and dulcis in fundo, great news for me.
My short story, The Halden Army, had been chose by the podcast Nobody Reads Short Stories. Broadcasting is scheduled live on Monday April 5 at 6 PM Pacific Time. If you can't watch it live, don't fret. They have a YouTube channel where you'll be able to watch it whenever you can.
Here's the YouTube channel of NRSS.
Let's start the book avalanche with acclaimed author E. M. Swift-Hook and the publication of the last book of the Fortune's Fools triple trilogy.
It has been a journey - and quite a few folk here have been with me on it, but all journeys have A Necessary End and Fortune's Fools reaches that this month.
So to celebrate the journey -which has been five years since the first volume was published and many before that in the writing - and to lead up to the launch of the last of the nine books, I will be sharing stuff on this thread.
Check back now and then as there might be free books, extracts and other things that might interest anyone who enjoys, or would like to be introduced to, the dark space opera galactic voyage that Fortune's Fools became...
Siouca is a member of the advanced Wanderer civilisation. What does Siouca want?
The quest to unlock the secrets of interstellar travel leads a Roranian crew on an epic journey across space. Saved by a dying machine-lect, stranded in a failing ship, faced with an ultimate choice. Were they too eager in their attempts to reach the stars
The fractious Primals are the ancient, all-powerful rulers of the Creatites. Their origins are shrouded in mystery although Storytellers recite their legends. Tallic has recently been granted special abilities by the Barrier Primal that most other Creatites could only dream of, although he has an unexpected encounter with an intruder that changes everything.
What secrets have the Primals kept hidden since time began?
Nurilm resides within a decaying temple. One day, she chances upon forbidden knowledge about an enigmatic entity called the ‘Collector’, and an unthinkable battle waged long ago in which the Primals were united.
What does it all mean? And how is it all connected?
One thing is for certain. Siouca is coming.
Find Siouca Remembers by James Murdo here.
I am at the end of my resources. The Alliance has confiscated everything of value and conscripted or mindwiped most of my crew. I am being taxed again. It is the third time this month. There is no way I can earn enough credits to satisfy the Alliance tax collectors, and they know it. They are watching my ship, making sure that what is left of my crew and I can't escape. The next time the Alliance boards my ship will be the last. I need to find a way to escape them, and cross the border into the Coalition of Free Worlds.
We will become exiles, never able to return home. It doesn't matter. I have no desire to return to the Alliance. It is up to me to restore my family’s wealth and get revenge against the government for what they are doing to my friends and family.
Nathaniel Roberts is unaware that the Alliance is breaking a century-old treaty in preparation for war. The Alliance isn't alone, they have formed a pact with the Crimson Tide—a pirate organization. Captain Roberts won't be facing one enemy, he will be facing at least two. He will have to fight both while trying to make a new home for his crew.
Find Xiles by Jay Toney here.
Review of the week.
The Last Arguments of Kings is the third and last instalment of the First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. It’s a book packed with battles. There’s war in the north, war in the capital, war everywhere.
Superior Glokta is back in Adua, the capital, where he has to deal with more political intrigues than ever before.
West is forced to take the lead by the circumstances and doesn’t get too battered in the first part of the book.
Logen is Logen and being back in the north he can only do harm.
Ferro is in Adua with the First of the Magi to fulfil her destiny, but how can she after the flop in book two? Well, I had a feeling about how this would happen and I was right. After all, there wasn’t any other option, and I say this from an author’s point of view.
And last, of all there’s Jedzal. He’s back in Adua too and back with Ardee. Poor, sweet, always drunk Ardee. What he does, I can’t tell. He doesn’t end up as he imagined, for sure, but given that he’s my least favourite character, I think he deserves everything that happens to him
As usual, I loved Glokta’s timeline almost to the end. Almost because I had some expectations. The way his story ends was anticlimactic to me. After a certain scene in book one, I had pictured the ending as it is and then I said to myself, nah, it can’t be. Then I forgot because so many things happen in between.
Like I said above, I wasn’t surprised either by Jedzal’s insignificant existence.
As for Logen, he wasn’t a bad character, except when he was. I still don’t know what to think about this character. There were moments when he was enjoyable but most of the times I was just bored with his berserk scenes.
I can’t comment much about West without spoiling his timeline. It left me with a bittersweet taste in the mouth, but I suppose it’s inevitable in a grimdark fantasy.
And finally Ferro. She stays true to the last. Again, she’s not given too much space in the story, but none of the female characters is. Perhaps it's for the best. It’s not easy to properly write a character of a gender different from yours. I’m curious to see if the author experimented more in this sense with more recent books.
There's something else I didn't like: the sex. There is an explicit sex scene in this book, and one in book two.
I confess I wasn't impressed at all. I'm not bigoted, I've read erotica and steamy romance, although they aren't my favourite genres. Of course sex scenes in those kind of books are a must, but in a grimdark fantasy book and out of the blue they really make no sense to me.
An experiment of the author? Or just a ruse to sell, because sex always sells a lot? If that's the case, he didn't need it. either way, I didn't appreciate them. Unlike A Song of Ice and Fire, there's no character like Cersei Lannister here. Therefore, there was really no need to throw in pricks at random.
All in all, I recommend this trilogy to those who like grimdark stories with gritty humour and battles, many battles, too many battles. All well pictured.
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