Posts Tagged ‘tom lloyd’

Now, looking at Ebooks, there’s a big difference between the price of a paper book and an ebook. I work in a bookshop, so I know the price of a paper book, and I know too that most customers do the big whinge about them being “too expensive” which is a load of shite, because they haven’t changed price in over ten years and there’s not many things you can say which remain static in price for so long in a world of increasing inflation and financial woe. But customers seem to want their books for $5.00 (Australian dollars) and anything else is far too expensive. Ebooks, they all tell me, is the new way. Cheap, easy, and discardable. No secondhand bookshops required.

But I can’t help it. Let me rant some more – this guy is just plain weird! These days it’s so rare to find someone so eager to mess with what has been proven to be the most functional and safe way to write a fantasy novel. That is:
a: Hero is a farmboy.
b: Hero gets taught badass uber magic killing sword thingy by uber mage and uber swordsmen.
c: Hero sneaks to badguy’s lair.
d: *shrug*
e: Win! Get married to sexy princess.

Some more characters get backgrounded, and it is intriguing to note that the evil Lord Styrax and his cronies get more booktime and in many ways you’re left wondering if he’s even slightly evil at all. He just seems another guy trying to make it big in a world of war. He doesn’t seem like such a bad guy at all. In fact, I kind of like the guy.

The finale is worth waiting for, but I am a little disappointed by the blurring of the characters in this book. Where Isak was the obvious focus of the first novel, he pretty much gets backgrounded for most of the novel and his character is fast becoming a little too “Rand” for me (in a bad sense) – with all his friends being focussed on making sure he’s got a “heart” and can “smile sometimes.” The powerful figure of the first novel is forgotten as he seems to be more a man who can sometimes whip out the goods to get stuff done, but isn’t anywhere near as thrillingly unpredictable and freakishly psychopathic as the first book. He’s turned over a new leaf and is too fast becoming a nice guy you might want to sit around and have a beer with.

The plot is simple, and nothing overtly different. There’s a strapping young lad with uber powers. A hidden mysterious dude who’s watching him. A wise and just king (though possessing a bit of a homicidal streak just to give you pause for thought). A bad evil dude wandering around flexing his stuff and readying for a big showdown. Dark gods, daemons (with the “a”), elves (who read a lot like Feist’s Dragonlords), and some small collection of references to assorted mythological creatures in some form or another. The collection of heroic friends surrounding the hero, too, are nothing less than the usual assortment of heroic friends you could possibly relate quite easily to any number of fantasy novels you’ve read already. Ho-Hum, I hear you say – read that one before.

I have a bunch of new reviews coming soon for many October release books. I’ll be taking a look at Jon Sprunk’s Shadow’s Son, which I’m looking forward to as I love that rogue-centred fantasy as you all know. The following blurb for it promises much, too; Treachery and corruption lurk at the end of [...]