Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, if you give it time, November 1, 2007
Brian Ruckley's Winterbirth is a good standard adventure fantasy. What it lacks in innovation, it makes up for in able storytelling. The heroes are likable and the villains are formidable. Although it starts sloooow, the pace accelerates by page 150. At times, the chase scenes are memorably breathless. I would compare the novel to David Durham's Acacia because both novels feature two cultures--one revenging past treatment, the other defending its border--battling for the same territory. (Acacia is probably the better novel.)
I think that the author wants to eschew a clear-cut good versus evil story; however Kanin and Wain are too grim for the Bloods of the Black Road to seem like anything other than bad guys. Ruckley does a better job of humanizing Aeglyss; although he is a cliché, I suspect he will be the most interesting character of the series.
The premise of a godless world is intriguing, but it does not impact the world in a significant way. I think that the absence of the gods should be felt more in the story. The author tries to personalize his world by calling elves "Kyrinin" and magic "The Shared," but his efforts at distinction are mostly weak. Despite the author's debt to Tolkien (Inurian could be Gandalf's long-lost twin), thankfully nothing resembling Orcs make an appearance. Ruckley provides a lot of history and background, some of it unnecessary. For example, if Whreinin and Saolin are not in the story, why mention them?
I applaud the author on his treatment of Anyara. Some authors seem to revel in depravity, especially when women are targets (Robert Newcomb's The Fifth Sorceress comes to mind), but Ruckley exhibits commendable restraint. In general, he avoids gore and gratuity, which bodes well for the series.
While Ruckley won't write George R.R. Martin out of a job, he's a good enough writer. I'll read what he writes next.
|
|
|
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Too much blah amidst the woohoo, December 6, 2007
It would be easy to characterize Winterbirth as akin to historical fiction, but really it reads more like a novelization of history, ala 1776, rather than just a novel. Fantasy setting aside, like a historical novel, the book is one of events more than characters. The cover states, "It is a World of Ice, It is a World of Blood, It is a Godless World." That's pretty much what the book is about - the world.
The first many pages are dedicated entirely to background - we witness a variety of events that take place in the long ago, but that have shaped in a significant way the `present' in which most of the book takes place. These sections provide context for the events that come later, and in this way make the world seem more realized than is typical for a fantasy genre story. Give author Brian Ruckley credit, he knows his world and its history.
However, like one often finds in an academic's attempt to make history interesting, you find two things missing: One, a focus on a specific dramatic tension, and two, the gritty details. A variety of moving pieces play out their parts in Winterbirth, none really taking primacy. To be sure, each constituency represented in the book has its own demons, its own goals, its own agendas. However, to paraphrase the characters in `The Incredibles', when everyone is special, nobody is. Winterbirth _is_ like real life that way - but frankly, there's a reason more people read novels than histories. When I mention details, I don't merely mean the details of the events taking place, but detail of the characters, detail of the environment. Human beings sense smell, taste, touch, sight, and sound. Each of these senses should be engaged by the author to bring the reader into the tale, but Mr. Ruckley rarely engages more than three of these. As a result, I often felt as though I were looking down on a series of events - almost like a chessboard - rather than looking through the eyes of the characters.
This is, in fact, where Winterbirth fails to live up to the example set by the likes of George RR Martin's works - `real' seeming series of events, multiple characters of moral complexity - but in GRRM you truly sit behind the eyeballs of each character and so become very invested in what happens to them. Mr. Ruckley never quite achieves that intimacy.
Add to these challenges a significant number of pages dedicated to events with no apparent bearing on the current story, and what might have been an exciting read at times becomes a total slog. Meaning, "It was tough to slog through some of those pages."
Assuming Mr. Ruckley continues his series in the vein of Winterbirth, it would be a neat trick someday to see someone write a `historical fiction' treatment of what, as I said, comes across more like a novelization of history. If one were to pair down about 3/5 of what is here, and then expanded with brutal and gory detail what is left, I think you'd have a 5 star tale. The world and its events presented here are certainly exciting, it's just a pity they're not written that way.
There are many things worse than Winterbirth on the fantasy genre bookshelves. I'll buy the second book in the series - but I will do so with a certain amount of trepidation. If I feel the same way about that one I do this one, I'll stop there.
If you haven't read Winterbirth, I would wait until some reviews of the second are posted and make your decision to purchase at that time.
|
|
|
16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fun read while you wait for GRRM to finish his next, September 1, 2007
I had read a couple of glowing reviews for this book, so I went into it with high expectations. Wow, was I ever glad to buy this book instead of the new Preston/Child book I was pondering (Pendergast can wait!). Sometimes when a fantasy novel starts out with a mythology of its own it casts a long shadow that is impossible to live up to. Not so with Winterbirth. From the first I was sucked into the plight of refugees fleeing and gradually leaving the trappings of their old lives behind; think settlers on the way west dumping pianos, silverware, corsets, etc.
My only complaint is the binding. This was a long book and with the soft cover, I don't think it will last through repeated readings (I will probably read this again). I don't know why publishers choose this kind of binding, must be cheaper, oh well.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Brian Ruckley
by Joe Abercrombie
by Joe Abercrombie
by Joe Abercrombie
by Joe Abercrombie
