Customer Reviews

Kindling

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

...to what seems to be another multi-part series. Now usually, I avoid series like the plague until they're finished (who wants to wait four years between books?), but this one snared my interest.

Now, while I agree with the reviewer below and his critique of Harriet Klausner (speed-reading is not a virtue, my dear), Kindling is by no means an awful book. In fact, it's quite good.

The plot (at least in this first book) is fairly standard: brave young heroes must Band Together To Fight Evil. But what makes this book sing is the setting and the character development.

The descriptions of this alternate fantasy Earth, where evil sorcery rests uneasily side-by-side with early 20th-century technology, are outstanding. Farren's imagery is great, and his prose is lyrical. Sure, Kindling is by no means 'realistic' alternate history, but I don't believe that was Farren's intention in the first place, as should be evident by his sly references to 'that family of moonshiners and horse theives, the Bush family'. It is first and foremost a fun story.

The characters are very accessible and well-realized, I thought. We are not hit over the head with endless pages of needless backstory; instead, Farren jumps right into the story, only working in backstory where appropriate. Instead, he dwells more on how the characters are reacting to current events. Their motivations and actions are clear and understandable; their thoughts and hopes are realistic and elicit sympathy.

I knocked half a star off my review simply because I now have to wait some indeterminate period of time before the sequel comes out. :( The other half a star was deducted because of the font size - I don't know what was going through the minds of the folks at Tor, but a 400+ page book should never be typeset in 8-point letters. Very hard on the eyes.

Don't let the negative reviews fool you - this is a very good book.

The reviewer, Mr. Weaver, is right on the money.
The review by AHR is unnecessarily negative.
It appears AHR simply expected one thing and got another and this caused frustration.
AHR is correct in that the setting is sort of a mish-mash of technology and pop-culture references.
But as Weaver points out, this is not a bad thing.
I found it charming, interesting and original.
I didn't think it was done too over the top, and I don't think it detracted from the main story about the protagonists.
There are MANY books and gaming genres that are a similar mish-mash and they've done well. And in the end, we have to remember this IS science-FICTION and the author has the freedom to use whatever elements he chooses to get the story across.
All of that said, I did find a problem with the way the author's own verbose speaking style bled over unrealistically into some of the characters. For example, Bonnie - essentially a teenage farmgirl - suddenly rips off monologues that are lengthy, detailed, articulate, complex, and full of lexicon that no farm-girl would have. This happened with other characters as well when the narrative descriptions would sound VERY much like the dialogue of other characters. It just made it sound more like the author himself was speaking THROUGH the characters instead of observing the characters and letting them speak for themselves.

The only other review posted, by "Harriet Klausner", is evidently by someone who read the jacket notes or the Booklist comments but plainly did not actually read the book.

"Kindling" is a miserable mish-mash, and the person who recommended it to me is going to have to pay. He said it was an alternate history, but it's the worst kind. Farren threw a bunch of stuff in a blender, hit puree, and this mush with mystery nuggets is what came out. It's set in a world where there apparently is no Christianity or Jewry, but people instead either worship the "goddess" or some evil gods, Aksur and Ignir (apparently lifted from Zoroastrianism?) and Zhaithan. But despite all that, it's somehow set in a world where North America has a Virginia, a Richmond, an Albany, etc. Oh, and a prime minister named Jack Kennedy. How clever! Not. Farren at least avoids trying to explain how such a ludicrous history happened.

The characters are not particularly well drawn, and some of the so-called heroes are not people I would care to meet or associate with. The "Lady" from Albany worries on one page she might be raped, but a couple pages later she is willingly having sex with one of the "evil" Mosul officers. The sex slave Jesamine is a least honest about what she is. The two male protagonists are just sort of there: the kid from Virginia is an unformed kid. The soldier from Hispania might have been interesting if given more play but he seems to get the fewest pages.

And the bad guys being "fully developed antagonists"? Hardly. It's 2/3 of the way into the book before any one of them gets more than a page or two of time, and the sister and brother evil mages of Zhaitan turn out to be cardboard baddies that could have been lifted from any fantasy with requisite bad dialog.

And the plot, well, who knows. Not much happens until past halfway, then it ramps up to a quick climax. And then whimpers out to a final paragraph which says "TO BE CONTINUED".

Bleah. I'm amazed this book was published by Tor. Their editors are better than this.

Don't usually give bad review but this book list of quotes from the SF Chron, Lib Journal, Kirkus and Booklist so differ from what I expected I can only assume it was cut, past and ... all the way with the reviews.
On top of characters you could care less about and predictable everything it use a weird tiny font that wouldn't do justice to a ad slapped on your windshield at a strip mall.
Well as you can see I at least covered the best points of the book.
bleh a real Plan 9

Weary of his abusive stepfather Herman Kretch, Argo Weaver considers killing him while he sleeps before fleeing his East Virginia home prior to the Mosul occupying force arresting him. Concerned over leaving his mother and two sisters without protection from the oppressors, instead of murdering him he lets Kretch live while the teen flees to the north for the freedoms of the beleaguered Kingdom of Albany.

Albany aristocrat Cordelia Blakeney is more fashion conscious as she paid a seamstress to alter her military uniform to make it look just right as befitting a Lady in the Royal Women's Auxiliary. When she rides a dirigible with a lover that crashes, she is caught by the forces of Teutonic Colonel Phaal, ally of the Mosul. In camp she meets Phaal's sex slave Jessamine. Meanwhile crossing the ocean from Spain is Raphael Vega, a draftee whose unit is expected to make a suicide run in the first Mosul invasion of Albany. These four must become the magical The Four to counter the supernatural allies of the Mosuls or the last vestiges of freedom will be trampled.

This exciting alternate history fantasy is filled with adventure, four delightful protagonists, fully developed antagonists, and numerous humorous takes on the late twentieth century real bombastic rich and famous people. The story line is action packed even when Mick Farren introduces the quartet of champions as each has a "destined" path towards one another to merge in battle against supernatural foes. Though the climax leaves too many threads dangling ending with fantasy readers' most dreaded phrase: "to be continued", fans will appreciate this strong tale.

Harriet Klausner

Only reason he did not get 5 stars...every once in a while character names would be switched in mid-scene, jarring you out of what is going on while you try to figure out who is actually present. Otherwise, an engrossing book with and unusual take on alternate history.

The modern names just add a little in joke to what is going on.

The guy below me pretty much said what I was about to say. Well, anyway, this book sucks. Avoid at all costs.