Posts Tagged ‘faeries and fairies and assorted fey’

Well, if you do believe I have any prejudice against epics, I hope you’ll accept this review as an example of why I am just a man who thinks there’s room for pretty much more of everything. Because with The Way of Kings, you could accuse Mister Sanderson of pretty much anything except for creating a small book. Because this is big.
Damn big.
Mammoth big.
It is the John Holmes of fantasy novels.

There’s something a little refreshingly nostalgic about Jon Sprunk’s debut novel. It reminded me of pulp fantasy novels in which your hero enters the novel mid-fight then fights himself through the book and ends up wandering off into the sunset with a promise to the girl that “I’ll be back.” Arnie style. The plot centres [...]

Power and Majesty is a strange novel. In many ways I haven’t seen anything like this in a while. While I’ve certainly seen many books which try to incorporate the whole Fey thing, with fairies and the like, these days they’re confined to the realms of urban fantasy. Such as 61 Nails, which I reviewed recently. You don’t often read traditional fantasy novels using fairies in this manner. It usually comes off a little too cheesy, as fairies are, well, not very scary and just too Tinkerbell to be effective as good guy heroes. Let’s face it, they’re sidekicks. And not good ones at that.

It’s a mighty novel, drawing upon a fascinating world which seems to expand even further with each page. Once more we follow the lives of its hero, Pazel Pathkendle as he continues to struggle with both his gift and the bizarre situation in which it’s very hard to know who’s the bigger enemy on the ship. What I find most interesting about this series is that it is so unconventional. The characters are moving forward from location A to location B, for sure, but where normally they’d either be pursuing the enemy, or being pursued by the enemy, they are instead moving along on the same ship. Their close proximity lends itself more to intrigue and psychological warfare than actual physical fights. This is what makes the series so absorbing.

Brom’s style is easy to read, and the magical world he has created, while based on the original tales, is firmly altered into something somewhat darker and more mysterious in its magic. It’s edgy, down to the pixies and their vicious pointed teeth. I found nothing disappointing in this novel, and I’m not a fan of “revisiting” older tales. I hate remakes in general in terms of movies, and am usually against the idea of authors picking up a dead writer’s pen (Brendan Sanderson excepted). So, to be so stuck on the edge of my seat while reading this was just a surprise and a pleasure.

I have to say I wasn’t overly convinced by the beginning. I like a book to rush into the meat of itself, but our main character, Niall, is not only a little too accepting, he just doesn’t bother with denial and just leaps into everything with a good old English shrug. And perhaps a sausage for breakfast.

What? I’m not human? Jolly good. Soldier on.