Fantasy

Upcoming: “Blood Song” by Anthony Ryan (Ace)

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Anthony Ryan’s Blood Song was originally self-published, but Penguin snapped it up in 2012. I know a few other reviewers have already read the novel, and general consensus seems to be that it’s one to watch.

An epic fantasy exploring themes of conflict, loyalty and religious faith.

We have fought battles that left more than a hundred corpses on the ground and not a word of it has ever been set down. The Order fights, but often it fights in shadow, without glory or reward. We have no banners.

Vaelin Al Sorna’s life changes forever the day his father abandons him at the gates of the Sixth Order, a secretive military arm of the Faith. Together with his fellow initiates, Vaelin undertakes a brutal training regime – where the price of failure is often death. Under the tutelage of the Order’s masters, he learns how to forge a blade, survive the wilds and kill a man quickly and quietly.

Now his new skills will be put to the test. War is coming. Vaelin is the Sixth Order’s deadliest weapon and the Realm’s only hope. He must draw upon the very essence of his strength and cunning if he is to survive the coming conflict. Yet as the world teeters on the edge of chaos, Vaelin will learn that the truth can cut deeper than any sword.

Blood Song, the first book in Ryan’s Raven’s Shadow series, will be published by Ace Books in July 2013 in the US.

UPDATE: Rather quietly, it was announced that Orbit has bought publishing rights for the UK. The novel will be released as an eBook in April, and a Hardcover later in July. The UK artwork has been added to the top of the post, on the right.

“God’s War” by Kameron Hurley (Night Shade/Del Rey UK)

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The start of a new, unconventional SF trilogy

Nyx had already been to hell. One prayer more or less wouldn’t make any difference…

On a ravaged, contaminated world, a centuries-old holy war rages, fought by a bloody mix of mercenaries, magicians, and conscripted soldiers. Though the origins of the war are shady and complex, there’s one thing everybody agrees on…

There’s not a chance in hell of ending it.

Nyx is a former government assassin who makes a living cutting off heads for cash. But when a dubious deal between her government and an alien gene pirate goes bad, Nyx’s ugly past makes her the top pick for a covert recovery. The head they want her to bring home could end the war – but at what price?

The world is about to find out.

This is an unconventional, highly original and enjoyable debut sci-fi novel. I took my sweet time getting to it, for reasons I cannot fathom, but since its release in 2010 it’s received a lot of positive coverage from around the blogosphere. And now I know why. It’s not going to be to everyone’s taste, but it’s tightly written, well-constructed (for the most part), and… well, bonkers. I enjoyed this.

It also has one of the greatest, make-you-sit-up-and-take-note first sentences: “Nyx sold her womb somewhere between Punjai and Faleen, on the edge of the desert.”

The short Part One is a rapid-fire, near-riotous introduction to Nasheenian society and our main protagonist, Nyx. She is a somewhat troublesome, sometime rogue “bel dame” (a sanctioned bounty hunter and enforcer, I suppose). She’s been doing work on the side, which she really shouldn’t, and her sisters do not take kindly to this. We get a few hints of her past, but not too many until very near the end. She is caught, punished and imprisoned. Then we jump forward about seven years, and Nyx has moved on from her bel dame past and is working as a bounty hunter with a motley crew of violent and eccentric misfits.

The story is pretty grim, overall. The two main nations featured are at war with each other, and have been for quite some time. The two sides are constantly experimenting with new and innovative ways of causing mass-murder, often utilising the novel’s greatest creating: the bug-related bio-tech. (This is why the term “bugpunk” has been coined, and you’ll quickly see how suitable it is.) Nyx can be brutal (emotionally and physically) to those close to her. She’s reckless, cavalier, and self-destructive. Rhys, her pet magician (and the second ‘main’ character), is long-suffering, but they have a really interesting dynamic. They embody everything about each other’s culture that they don’t like, and yet they are drawn to each other nevertheless, and have created a mutually beneficial arrangement that seems to suit them both.

Hurley’s characters are pleasantly diverse, and I liked the imbalance towards more female characters. (Nasheenian society is matriarchal.) I enjoyed the way Hurley wrote them all, and I think she’s created a great society and world with which to keep writing in and for fans to keep reading (there are two more books in the series). Rasheeda, in particular, is creepy as all get out. And bonkers. The inclusion of shape-shifters was interesting, too (all that mucous must be a bit of a bitch, though…). The characters are interesting, three-dimensional and felt distinct from each other. I particularly liked Nyx’s crew, who created a dysfunctional family to follow. Rhys was a great character, and I liked all of his P.O.V. chapters. He’s a good lens through which we learn of the Nasheenian matriarchal society and the differences between that and his own, highly conservative Chenjan culture.

Bugs! Let’s get back to the bugs for a moment. They are everywhere and in almost everything: medicine (needles have eyes, because they seem to be specially engineered creatures), magicians control them for various means (healing, torture, light, espionage, security and surveillance, communications, etc.), and even some weapons have biological components. “Bio-tech”, in other words, on this world, is really “bug-tech”. Maybe my favourite things about this were the “bakkies”, which seem to be semi-organic (at least) buggies or cars. It’s all very weird, but detailed and very well-devised and realised on the page. Hurley never delves too deeply into how it all works – she gives us just enough to know what to picture, and then gets on with the story. Once the book ended, though, I felt like I had a pretty clear picture of how it all worked and fit together. Very cool.

Elements from early on in the novel are tied up quite nicely by the end (there’s a nice circle to the narrative). As a first novel, there is of course a lot of world-building going on, almost all of it very good and often fascinating, intricate. This can sometimes feel like it’s taking over the story, however: relegating the bounty hunt (or “note”, as it’s referred to on this world) to a near-peripheral status. I didn’t mind so much, as I enjoy reading about the world and its various societies. That being said, there were definite times when I had to remind myself that there was a narrative running through this, and it wasn’t just an exercise in imaginative social and cultural creation. This makes the end a little bit busy, in my opinion, although I will accept that I was distracted by the world-building, so I may have missed a couple of salient points from early on.

The writing is very good. I was willingly pulled on through the story, and read it relatively quickly.

Ultimately, I really enjoyed God’s War and, while flawed, I can certainly see how it has grabbed the attention of a number of discerning SFF fans. As I said, it’s unconventional, but it also draws from a lot of SFF traditions and plays around with almost all of them in new and interesting ways. Highly original, it really is about time God’s War was picked up by a UK publisher – which it now has been, by Del Rey UK (who are proving to have a pleasingly eclectic taste in titles).

Definitely recommended. I’ll be reading Infidel quite soon, followed shortly thereafter that by Rapture (both of which I already have from the US).

Interview with CHANDLER KLANG SMITH

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Continuing my slow meander through Canadian publisher ChiZine’s stable of interesting and quirky authors, I bring you today a Q&A with Chandler Klang Smith, author of Goldenland Past Dark…

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Chandler Klang Smith?

I’m a novelist, an insatiable reader, an incurable daydreamer, a Midwestern transplant to New York City, and a graduate of Bennington College and the MFA Creative Writing program at Columbia University. I like carnivals, lost toys, forgotten Americana, and fairy tales with unhappy endings.

I thought we’d start with your fiction: Your latest novel, Goldenland Past Dark, was recently published by ChiZine. How would you introduce the novel to a potential reader?

Goldenland Past Dark tells the story of Webern Bell, a stunted hunchback, and his love affair with the circus, a show that gives him an outlet for creative expression. His bizarre childhood and struggles in young adulthood have given him tons of emotional material from the past, which he explores through haunting clown acts that come to him in dreams. But when reality confronts him – in the form of murder, heartbreak, and professional betrayal – he retreats so deeply into his fantasy world that he may never be able to find his way back out.

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What inspired you to write the novel? And where do you draw your inspiration from in general?

My process with this book was unusual: I started out writing a collection of linked short stories about Webern’s childhood. But by the time I got to his adolescence, I realized that the real action began with his travels performing on the road; everything that preceded it had just been backstory. In general, my inspiration for a particular project comes from an image or set of images that I return to obsessively until I figure out what they mean. I do a lot of freewriting to try to access where in my subconscious that fascination is coming from.

How were you introduced to genre fiction? What’s your opinion of the genre today, and where do you see your work fitting into it?

I’m extremely resistant to characterizing fiction as “genre” or “literary.” Every subject or way of writing comes with certain expectations attached, and the job of the writer is to defy and exceed those expectations constantly. At least that’s what I try to do. At the AWP Conference this year, I saw author Benjamin Percy on a panel about literary writers tackling “popular” forms, and he addressed this issue better than I ever could. He said that writers try to set up all these little fences between categories, but for him the only fence is twenty feet high, electrified and topped with razor wire, between good writing and bad. I couldn’t agree more.

How do you enjoy being a writer and working within the publishing industry?

It’s challenging working in publishing when you’re a writer yourself, because you’re constantly confronted with the sobering realities of the marketplace. So much of the industry is about rejection: agents reject potential clients, editors reject agent’s submissions, customers and critics reject published novels. It has been helpful, though, because I’m now aware of just how important it is to grab and hold a reader’s attention from page one on.

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When did you realize you wanted to be an author, and what was your first foray into writing? Do you still look back on it fondly?

I think I first realized I wanted to be a writer in sixth grade; before that I’d wanted to be a Muppeteer. Anyway, around that time, I embarked on my first major project, a very pretentious road novel about three middle schoolers running away from home in a stolen car and having a lot of long philosophical conversations on the way. I’d probably cringe if I read it now, but I suppose it was a good sign that I was so ambitious, despite having no idea what I was doing. Some things never change, I guess…

What other projects are you working on, and what do you have currently in the pipeline?

Right now, I’m working on my second novel, about a futuristic parallel universe version of New York City that’s under attack by fire breathing dragons. You can read a short excerpt from it here.

That sounds awesome…

What are you reading at the moment (fiction, non-fiction)?

White Noise by Don DeLillo.

What’s something readers might be surprised to learn about you?

Despite my interest in stage magic and clowning, I’m just about the clumsiest person on earth. I can’t even juggle.

What are you most looking forward to in the next twelve months?

I’m hoping to finish that aforementioned second novel. Keep your fingers crossed for me, as I’m a pretty slow writer!

Guest Post: “Libraries and Civilization” by Jo Walton (& Giveaway!)

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Walton-AmongOthersUKIn 2004, I went to the World Science Fiction Convention in Boston, and after the con I went with some friends to see the Mary Baker Eddy Library and its amazing Mapparium, It’s a globe made entirely of stained glass which you can walk inside – it has room for maybe a dozen people. It has amazing acoustics, which the guide encouraged us to test. People were doing various things, and I did my standard thing I do when asked to “say something”, Keats “On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer”. I’ve been using it for mic tests for years. Inside the globe it sounded wonderful, even more wonderful than usual, because of the acoustics and because of being surrounded by the glowing glass world. It’s a sonnet about the amazing wonderful power of reading. In it, Keats is all excited about having read Chapman’s translation of Homer. He compares reading it to finding a new planet and even to discovering the Pacific.

Walton-AmongOthersThat’s how I feel about reading too, reading opens up marvellous exciting new vistas, reading can take you to other worlds and give you experiences you couldn’t ever have imagined.

And it’s also how I feel about libraries. Libraries are where they keep all the books, where you can find books even if you don’t have any money, where you can have new worlds open up to you even if you’re a kid whose parents don’t care about books. Fund your libraries for a better tomorrow.

Among Others is a fantasy novel about the power of reading science fiction, and the power of finding other people to talk to about the books you care about. It’s about a young science fiction reader who has fantasy problems – she has to deal with magic and witches and fairies with their own agenda… but she has books and libraries, so she knows everything will be all right.

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GIVEAWAY! (Worldwide!)

Pretty simple, really – there are three copies of Among Others up for grabs. All you have to do is email your name and address to:

civilian.reader[at]hotmail[dot]co.uk

I will select the winners on Monday 25th March, 2013, and contact them via email and also in the comments thread, below.

Review: BEFORE THEY ARE HANGED by Joe Abercrombie (Gollancz/Pyr)

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AbercrombieJ-FL2-BeforeTheyAreHangedUK1The awesome, second novel in the First Law trilogy

Bitter and merciless war is coming to the frozen north. It’s bloody and dangerous and the Union army, split by politics and hamstrung by incompetence, is utterly unprepared for the slaughter that’s coming. Lacking experience, training, and in some cases even weapons the army is scarcely equipped to repel Bethod’s scouts, let alone the cream of his forces.

In the heat-ravaged south the Gurkish are massing to assault the city of Dagoska, defended by Inquisitor Glokta. The city is braced for the inevitable defeat and massacre to come, preparations are made to make the Gurkish pay for every inch of land… but a plot is festering to hand the city to its beseigers without a fight, and the previous Inquisitor of Dagoska vanished without trace. Threatened from within and without the city, Glokta needs answers, and he needs them soon.

And to the east a small band of malefactors travel to the edge of the world to reclaim a device from history – a Seed, hidden for generations – with tremendous destructive potential. A device which could put a end to war, to the army of Eaters in the South, to the invasion of Shanka from the North – but only if it can be found, and only if its power can be controlled…

I am a relative newcomer to Joe Abercrombie’s First Law series. Despite buying (and subsequently losing) all of his novels. I read the first book, The Blade Itself, and while I enjoyed it a great deal, I didn’t quite see the genius that so many of my friends and fellow reviewers saw. Then I read Before They Are Hanged. NOW I get it. This is a fantastic book, that had me hooked from the first page onwards. Joe Abercrombie is, frankly, a fantasy genius. Continue reading →

Upcoming: “The Tyrant’s Law” by Daniel Abraham (Orbit)

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Abraham-D&C-3-TheTyrantsLawDan Abraham is one of my favourite authors. Despite the very odd (and annoying) fact that his books are so often books I Save For Later… Anyway, The Tyrant’s Law is the third book in Abraham’s current fantasy series, The Dagger & the Coin, which began with the excellent The Dragon’s Path and was followed by the as-yet-unread-by-me The King’s Blood.

The great war cannot be stopped.

The tyrant Geder Palliako had led his nation to war, but every victory has called forth another conflict. Now the greater war spreads out before him, and he is bent on bringing peace. No matter how many people he has to kill to do it.

Cithrin bel Sarcour, rogue banker of the Medean Bank, has returned to the fold. Her apprenticeship has placed her in the path of war, but the greater dangers are the ones in her past and in her soul.

Widowed and disgraced at the heart of the Empire, Clara Kalliam has become a loyal traitor, defending her nation against itself. And in the shadows of the world, Captain Marcus Wester tracks an ancient secret that will change the war in ways not even he can forsee.

The Tryant’s Law will be published in the US and UK by Orbit, in May 2013.

Upcoming: “Riyria Chronicles” by Michael Sullivan (Orbit)

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Later this year, Orbit are publishing two more novels set in Michael Sullivan’s Riyria fantasy world. The two books are set before Theft of Swords and the Riyria Revelations series, but do not have to be read first – they fill in some details that are alluded to in the first series (which also includes Rise of Empire and Heir of Novron).

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First up is The Crown Tower, which chronicles Royce and Hadrian’s first job together:

Two men who hate each other. One impossible mission. A Legend in the making.

A warrior with nothing to fight for is paired with a thieving assassin with nothing to lose. Together they must steal a treasure that no one can reach. The Crown Tower is the impregnable remains of the grandest fortress ever built and home to the realm’s most valuable possessions. But it isn’t gold or jewels the old wizard is after, and this prize can only be obtained by the combined talents of two remarkable men. Now if Arcadias can just keep Hadrian and Royce from killing each other, they just might succeed.

And secondly, The Rose and the Thorn, in which we see the soon-to-be-legendary “Riyria” starting to take shape:

Two thieves want answers. Riyria is born.

For more than a year Royce Melborn has tried to forget Gwen DeLancy, the woman who saved him and his partner Hadrian Blackwater from certain death. Unable to get her out of his mind, the two thieves return to Medford but receive a very different reception – Gwen refuses to see them. The victim of abuse by a powerful noble, she suspects that Royce will ignore any danger in his desire for revenge. By turning the thieves away, Gwen hopes to once more protect them. What she doesn’t realize is what the two are capable of – but she’s about to find out.

The Crown Tower will be published in August 2013, with The Rose and the Thorn following in September 2013. I’m really looking forward to these.

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Riyria Revelations: The Viscount and the Witch, Theft of Swords, Rise of Empire, Heir of Novron

Also on CR: Interview with Michael Sullivan, Guest Post (Heroic vs. Gritty Fantasy)

Upcoming: “Drakenfeld” by Mark Charan Newton (Tor)

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Longtime readers of the blog will know that I am a big fan of Mark Charan Newton’s work. His debut series, Legends of the Red Sun, just got better and better with each new book, until the brilliant conclusion in The Broken Isles. Today, Mark unveiled the artwork for his next novel, Drakenfeld:

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I think we can all agree that it’s very eye-catching. The novel is the first in a new series, and sounds pretty fantastic. Here’s the synopsis:

“I am Lucan Drakenfeld, second son of Calludian, Officer of the Sun Chamber and peace keeper. Although sometimes it seems I am the only person who wishes to keep it …”

The monarchies of the Royal Vispasian Union have been bound together for two hundred years with treaties and laws maintained and enforced by the powerful Sun Chamber. As a result, a long harmony has existed, nations have flourished, and civil wars are a thing of the past. But corruption, deprivation and murder will always find a way to thrive…

Upon receiving news of his father’s death and recalled to his home city of Tryum, Drakenfeld is soon embroiled in a mystifying case. King Licintius’ sister, Lacanta, has been found brutally murdered during a night of festivities – her beaten and bloody body discovered in a locked temple. Despite hundreds of revellers, no one saw anything. With rumours of dark spirits and political assassination, Drakenfeld soon has his work cut out for him trying to separate superstition from certainty.

With his assistant, Leana, he embarks on the biggest and most complex investigation of his career, revisiting the ancient streets of his past, tracking down leads, interviewing suspects and making new enemies in his search for the truth.

His determination to find the killer soon makes him a target, as the underworld of Tryum focuses on this new threat to their power…

Drakenfeld will be published in the UK by Tor in October 2013. Which is also the month that Scott Lynch’s Republic of Thieves is being published. So, it’ll be one of the best months ever…

More on CR: Reviews of The Nights of Villjamur, City of Ruins, The Book of Transformations, The Broken Isles; Interview with Mark (2011) & Catch-Up Interview (2012)

Gotrek & Felix: “The Reckoning” by Jordan Ellinger (Black Library)

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Ellinger-G&F-TheReckoningA Novella from the Upcoming Gotrek & Felix: Lost Tales

Gotrek and Felix: unsung heroes of the Empire, or nothing more than common thieves and murderers? The truth perhaps lies somewhere in between, and depends entirely upon whom you ask… Summoned back to Barak Varr by the outraged King Grundadrakk, the pair discover that a terrible crime has been committed – the dwarfen hold’s Book of Grudges has been stolen, right out of its sealed vault. Given that his own name appears upon its fading pages, Gotrek is honour-bound to join an expedition to recover the ancient tome. How far will the trail lead, and just what manner of individual would seek to rob the dwarfs of their vengeful legacy

I’m not a fan of buying novellas individually if they will be released later in a collected anthology, but when The Reckoning was released, I really fancied a short dip back into the Warhammer setting with my two favourite characters. And luckily, this story is really rather good.

To be honest, The Reckoning didn’t start too well, as the captain of the Dorabella was given a bit of a cliché accent. (The Dorabella is the ship on which our heroes are fleeing a mob intent on capturing them for… something they may or may not have done.) The story is set twenty years since the Window Tax Riots in Altdorf, the event that resulted in Gotrek and Felix’s first encounter – and, as can happen from time-to-time, after much alcohol resulted in Felix pledging to write Gotrek’s epic.

A group of heavily armoured Dwarfs attack the Dorabella, board it and apprehend our much-put-upon heroes. Apparently, Gotrek committed a crime before leaving Barak Varr (which he visited on his way to the Slayer Shrine to make his oath).

The best thing about this novella is the amount of detail it adds to Gotrek’s back-story. We learn a little more of his life pre-slayerdom. For example, I don’t remember knowing before this that he was a master engineer (it’s entirely possible I just forgot – there have been quite a lot of novels, now…).

“Where are we going?”

Gotrek’s single eye glittered. “To Barak Varr. I want to see for myself how these fools let someone into my vault.”

After examining the vault, Gotrek, Felix and their Dwarven captors recognise that there’s something else entirely going on, and so they descend into the tunnels below Barak Varr. As is so often the case with Gotrek and Felix, they are in pursuit of the mischievous and malicious Skaven, who have apparently stolen something very dear to the Dwarfs. We don’t really get to know the new dwarf characters as well as I would have liked, but it is by no means much of a problem – the action comes fast and often, and the story moves along at a good clip. The Skaven they are after are also an interesting, Goulding-Gotrek&Felix-LostTalesunique bunch, and I think Ellinger’s done a great job writing a new spin on the neverending war between the rat-kin and Dwarfs. (I won’t spoil what it is, but it’s well-written and executed.)

The Reckoning reminded me of the early Gotrek & Felix short stories, and particularly those found in Trollslayer. The atmosphere, the tight prose, and the sword-axe-and-sorcery fun. It was, therefore, very enjoyable and a most welcome addition to the series.

Overall, then, this is a really good novella, and I’m now really looking forward to reading the other three in Gotrek & Felix: The Lost Tales, which will be published in August 2013. I really don’t know why I’m still taking so long to read Josh Reynolds’s Gotrek & Felix: Road of Skulls novel… (Soon!)

DNF: “Assassin’s Apprentice” by Robin Hobb (Voyager)

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Hobb-1-AssasinsApprenticeUKA genre classic. A very disappointed first-time reader.

Young Fitz is the bastard son of the noble Prince Chivalry, raised in the shadow of the royal court by his father’s gruff stableman. He is treated like an outcast by all the royalty except the devious King Shrewd, who has him secretly tutored in the arts of the assassin. For in Fitz’s blood runs the magic Skill – and the darker knowledge of a child raised with the stable hounds and rejected by his family. As barbarous raiders ravage the coasts, Fitz is growing to manhood. Soon he will face his first dangerous, soul-shattering mission. And though some regard him as a threat to the throne, he may just be the key to the survival of the kingdom.

I bought Assassin’s Apprentice for my Kindle quite a while ago. But, whenever I’ve thought about reading the first book in Hobb’s Farseer trilogy, I have been distracted by some newer, shinier book. After reading the first chapter at work last year (I was allowed! It was for work!), I finally got on with it, and started reading it properly. What I found left me cold and unimpressed. In the end, after a particularly bad chapter, I had to quit. In the end, I only managed to read the first 20% of the novel.

If I didn’t finish the book, how can I justify reviewing it? Well, think of this more as a disappointed grumble, or a sad lament, rather than a scathing review. While Hobb’s prose is really good to begin with – I thought the first chapter was sometimes quite lyrical, actually, and really grabbed my attention – things just got rapidly worse the more I read. I never found myself gripped or enthralled by the story, and the only character that elicited even a modicum of emotion was a puppy. Whose part in the novel is not lengthy…

Perhaps because I have read so many novels by authors who cite Hobb as an inspiration, Assassin’s Apprentice felt derivative and slightly boring: A bastard son, delivered to the royal seat. Nobody knows what to do with him. He grows up with the “common folk”. He’s a little odd, with some strange and forbidden talents. He goes through a training montage. Then the King takes notice of him. He gets better rooms. He’s to be trained as a member of the slightly-less-common-folk. Truncated training/settling in montage. Oh, but then, he is to become an assassin! How exciting. Then there’s some Drama. And then I stopped reading.

Perhaps the early mention of a “Lord and Lady of Withywoods” should have been my first indication that this may not exactly be my cup of tea. It was rather twee, I thought, but decided to press on nevertheless. But the whole novel is on the twee side. Yes, Hobb’s prose is precise and well-crafted throughout, but this may be one of the first novels that could not be saved by being well-written. The naming convention is simplistic and just grated. There is a slightly archaic detachment to the style, as well as the language (though, nothing compared to the silliness I found in a Katherine Kerr novel I dipped in to last year). It made it difficult to really get stuck into the story.

Moving on. We are treated (after a whole raft of waffle) to this rather excellent explanation of what Fitz is going to learn from Chade, the King’s current master assassin:

“It’s murder, more or less. Killing people. The fine art of diplomatic assassination. Or blinding, or deafening. Or a weakening of the limbs, or a paralysis or a debilitating cough or impotency. Or early senility, or insanity or… but it doesn’t matter. It’s all been my trade. And it will be yours, if you agree. Just know, from the beginning, that I’m going to be teaching you how to kill people. For your king. Not in the showy way Hod is teaching you, not on the battlefield where others see and cheer you on. No. I’ll be teaching you the nasty, furtive, polite ways to kill people. You’ll either develop a taste for it, or not. That isn’t something I’m in charge of. But I’ll make sure you know how. And I’ll make sure of one other thing, for that was the stipulation I made with King Shrewd: that you know what you are learning, as I never did when I was your age. So. I’m to teach you to be an assassin. Is that all right with you, boy?”

This is followed shortly thereafter by perhaps the most irritating “montage” paragraph of Fitz’s training:

“In spring of that year, I treated the wine cups of a visiting delegation from the Bingtown traders so that they became much more intoxicated than they had intended. Later that same month, I concealed one puppet from a visiting puppeteer’s troupe, so that he had to present the Incidence of the Matching Cups, a light-hearted little folk tale instead of the lengthy historical drama he had planned for the evening. At the High-Summer Feast, I added a certain herb to a serving-girl’s afternoon pot of tea, so that she and three of her friends were stricken with loose bowels and could not wait the tables that night. In the autumn I tied a thread around the fetlock of a visiting noble’s horse, to give the animal a temporary limp that convinced the noble to remain at Buckkeep two days longer than he had planned.”

What delightful whimsy…! It doesn’t take a genius to see that they are all tests, but apparently Fitz was unclear about this.

If that wasn’t bad enough, I then came upon the Melodrama people had mentioned. Some people on Twitter told me that they accepted that “the melodrama doesn’t work for everyone”… When is melodrama ever accepted in a novel that isn’t farce? Anyway, irrespective of that, Fitz’s mood veers from a prim-and-proper detachment (“I grew to look forward to my dark-time encounters with Chade”) to Melodrama.

At one point, Fitz once again exhibits an utter lack of common sense of intelligence. He refuses to lift something from the King’s bedchamber, after ordered to by Chade explains:

“What are you saying, boy? That I’m asking you to betray your king? Don’t be an idiot. This is just a simple little test, my way of measuring you and showing Shrewd himself what you’ve learned, and you balk at it. And try to cover your cowardice by prattling about loyalty. Boy, you shame me. I thought you had more backbone than this, or I’d never have begun teaching you.”

A fine, if stiffly-written response from the teacher, and one that should be obvious to all intelligent would-be-assassins-in-training. Then Chade brusquely dismisses Fitz, and…

“Chade!” I began in horror. His words had left me reeling. He pulled away from me, and I felt my small world rocking around me as his voice went on coldly. … Never had Chade spoken to me so. I could not recall that he had even raised his voice to me. I stared, almost without comprehension, at the thin pock-scarred arm that protruded from the sleeve of his robe, at the long finger that pointed so disdainfully toward the door and the stairs. As I rose, I felt physically sick. I reeled, and had to catch hold of a chair as I passed. But I went, doing as he told me, unable to think of anything else to do. Chade, who had become the central pillar of my world, who had made me believe I was something of value, was taking it all away. Not just his approval, but our time together, my sense that I was going to be something in my lifetime.

True, this is not the most melodramatic moment I’ve ever read, but it did not bode well, and when added to everything else, I just couldn’t go on.

From what I read, and I recognise that it was only the first fifth of the novel (more than 100 pages), I sadly found nothing to make this book stand out, and certainly nothing to explain why it is so beloved of so very many fantasy fans and authors. I’ve read much, much better novels, especially from contemporary fantasy authors – and I’m not talking about the “grimdark” authors, either (which I think I can safely say write more to my tastes): Kate Elliott, Patrick Rothfuss, Helen Lowe, Scott Lynch, Amanda Downum, and even Elspeth Cooper (whose debut was a tad shaky at points)* have all done this sort of fantasy better. And the sub-genre of Fantasy Assassins? Brent Weeks’s superb Night Angel Trilogy and Jon Sprunk’s Shadow trilogy (which I really need to finish) do this so much better. Because, you know, they didn’t feel like they were written in the tone of The Famous Five Muck About In A Castle… With Swords. Hell, I think I’ve read better fantasy from some of Black Library’s lesser writers.

So, tell me: What did I miss with Assassin’s Apprentice? It’s rare that a book that is loved by the fan-base at large falls utterly flat for me. Is it just a nostalgia thing? Should I try to read this again?

* Don’t get me started on Gair’s sudden, miraculous magical proficiency…