The Black Prism – Brent WeeksSadly, I found this almost impossible to get into, unlike the previous trilogy and it felt like a real, hard slog to get to the end. The problem wasn’t the plot or the characters – I was immersed in those right from page one, as with the first trilogy. But, here, I found the rules/elements of the universe we were in almost impossible to understand and the things which had worked so well for the previous trilogy – like references being dropped in about people and past events which weren’t explained until much later in the book – just added to the confusion. Whereas, I really enjoyed that aspect of Week’s writing in his previous trilogy, here, I found I wanted explanations ASAP and was increasingly frustrated when I didn’t get them.
Ah, well…can’t win them all. Reading this though, reminded me that I have a small pile of ‘next book in the series’ on my Kindle by some of my top five favourite fantasy authors. So I’m going to treat myself to working through those next.
The Wolf’s Hour – Robert McCammonDecades ago, when I first read this one, it was the first horror novel I’d ever read that made the werewolf a hero instead of an unthinking, monstrous villain. At the behest of his king, who is well aware of his ‘talents’, Michael Gallatin infiltrates Nazi-occupied France on a spy/sabotage mission. Interspersed with this story, the tale of how he was made into a werewolf as a boy and his early life spent learning how to survive with his pack in the Russian forests is given to us in flashbacks. One of the great werewolf novels of our age, imo.
The observant among you will have noticed TWH isn't a fantasy novel. I started the second in the Locke Lamora series first, but, hoo boy, even though I'm enjoying it, I'm finding it such a hard slog to get through.
Firstly, it's a real book and a thick one. It's killing my wrist holding it up as I read.
And, secondly, the print is tiny. I had to give up and read something on the Kindle in between, just for the respite.
The Lady of the Rivers – Philippa GregoryI’ve read enough now to know that I’m never going to be the greatest fan of PG’s historical fiction. This one – the story of the events leading up to the War of the Roses from the perspective of Jacquetta of Luxemburg - like the others, spent way too much time repeating the same minor events over and over. So we have our heroine declaring she is pregnant to her husband for the 10th time and they reaffirm their love for each other. Our hero bids farewell to his wife for the 7th time before sailing away to war or siege… And whilst these events are factual – this couple had 16 children! – I don’t think we need to be told about them in exactly the same way every single time.
But the lives of these real characters were intriguing enough to make me read to the end, so I don’t suppose you can call it a complete failure. And I can always appreciate the focus on some of the extraordinary women whose heroism is often overlooked by history in favour of the prominent men of the period. Jacquetta must have been a formidable woman indeed.
LabRat
