Review of The King's Blood by Daniel Abraham

The Dragon’s Path, first book in Daniel Abraham’s The Dagger & the Coin series, was a slow burn. Perhaps too slow, the novel took its time, building a foundation of characters and setting for the four books to come, that may have put off would-be readers. It wasn’t until roughly the two-thirds’ point that the plot’s gears started to bite into one another, and the wider picture started to come into focus. Building off this, the second book in the series, The King’s Blood (2012), carries the momentum forward into a novel that is likely more to the liking of readers with a preference for pace and conflict.

The King’s Blood returns to the viewpoints of the same handful of characters. Geder, now regent to the king, continues his arcane studies under the watchful eye of the spider cult, all the while watching over Astor, heir to the kingdom. Ever faithful and honorable, Dawson attempts to clean up the mess of the failed assassination attempt, even as he sees King Simeon’s health failing. And Cithrin, despite her rise in power in the Medean bank, is now subject to a new line of notary authority, a line that is entirely to her disliking, forcing her to find creative ways of getting done the things done that she knows are good for her and the bank.

Review of The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Emily St. John Mandel’s 2015 Station Eleven was a hit. Science fiction by definition but more humanist in aim than the majority of work that fits under that umbrella, Mandel earned herself a number of fans on the “other side”, despite that her first three novels didn’t ping the “squids in space” radar. Wisely taking a five-year break to let the hype cool down, Mandel returns in 2020 with the novel The Glass Hotel. While likewise technically genre (the reader can discover how), again, Mandel has focused her energy on the people who populate her story, and the layers that make them human.

Character study in the era of corporate fraud, The Glass Hotel is set primarily in the early Oughts, and looks at a few branches of relationships—family, friends, spouses, etc. living through a major, Enron-esque corporate scandal. Foremost on the screen, but only by a few frames, is a young woman named Vincent. Raised in atypical circumstances on a remote British Columbia island accessible to mainland only by boat, she reels, seemingly throughout her life, from the unexpected death of her mother when she was a young teen. Children to a broken marriage, her brother Paul relieves his existential angst through narcotics.

Review of Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold

Lois McMaster Bujold’s Curse of Chalion was for me one of those perfectly plotted novels. Characters, scenes, and situations are introduced at proper moments, the pieces shift and evolve in natural ways, characters retained enough realism to suspend disbelief, and the whole story reaches a climax that is satisfying, organic, and yet surprising in a way that puts a bow on the whole package. Not precisely a once in a lifetime novel, I nevertheless went into the follow up novel, Paladin of Souls (2003) with tempered expectations. It’s good I did.

Paladin of Souls is an off-shoot from Curse of Chalion, not a sequel. Taking Ista, Iselle’s mother from Chalion), it follows her on what begins as a religious pilgrimage, but becomes a journey like she never expected. Longing to escape the stifling of court formality, Ista organizes an incognito trip to the temple of her god, the Bastard. She invites a free-spirited courier named Liss and a priest to be her companions, and sets out on the road. The group do not get far, however, before disaster strikes. Plans cut off at the knees, Ista finds herself at Castle Porifors and the heart of a uncanny mystery. Dark magic straining at the edges of their world, Ista must trust her own dark powers and instincts to help those who helped her.

Review of Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey

Through four books in Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham’s Expanse series, if anything is clear it’s that the duo are able to produce consistently quality storylines and characters that evolve in interesting, entertaining ways inherent to the pseudo-realism of the setting. I keep waiting for them to slip up, but pleasantly have had to keep waiting. Unfortunately, the wait is over.

Nemesis Games (2015) is not a cliff. Franck and Abraham have not figuratively or literally lost the plot in the fifth installment of their series. Holden still does what Holden does. The protomolecule still hovers at the edge of complete understanding. And the Earth, Mars, and the Belt still feint, bluff, and stab at one another, occasionally drawing blood. And, if pushed, I would say the book tills new ground in the fact it splits the crew of the Roccinante up, forcing them to cope with various situations as individuals, thus avoiding the chance that the series slips fully into episodic mode: what role do Holden and crew play in this week’s saving of the galaxy??? Tune in to find out…

Review of Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey

One of the things Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham’s Expanse series of novels to date have done very well is to highlight the internal human conflicts which may or may not lead to physical violence. I wanted to write the words “racial tension” instead of “internal human conflicts”, but it’s a difficult thing to say given the fact the setting is in fact one big milieu of race. Belter, Martian, Terran—geographical lines not skin color are the social lines which have foremost segregated humanity on its march toward the stars, and attempts at coming to terms with a universe in which humanity is not the only sentient life. Emphasizing these social lines in a tightly confined, inhospitable setting is the Expanse’s fourth novel, Cibola Burn (2014).

According to wikipedia, Cibola is the Spanish name of the first region conquered by Vasquez on his bloody march across the Americas in search of gold. A portentous name for a novel, indeed the plot that plays out features a small but technologically advanced group arriving on the scene of a larger group of primitives. In Expanse terms, this equates to a UN scientific expedition, complete with a small security force, arriving on one of the new planets the protomolecule ring has given humanity access to and finding a small group of Belter squatters there mining lithium. Conflict erupting quickly on Inis/New Terra, James Holden (and crew, natch) are called in to mediate the situation as diplomats. Terrorist elements among the Belters and an antagonistic security leader ensuring tensions stay at peak, Holden has his work cut out for him. But pushing matters over the edge is that alien structures on the desert planet, thought long abandoned, appear to be showing signs of life.

Review of The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham

Daniel Abraham’s Long Price quartet, kicked off in 2006 by A Shadow in Summer, is a good, solid but perhaps not exceptional fantasy series that did not receive the attention it deserved. The plotting fast and loose and never quite as balanced as one would hope, Abraham nevertheless showed he had a good grip on character and character dynamics in telling the generational story of two men with differing yet common directions in life. Possessing a spin on djinns and using a unique method of communication, the series is still able to poke its nose above the herd (and remains worth a read today). But when looking where to aim his writing ship after the Long Price, it would seem Abraham looked to more familiar territory, or, as is most likely the case, unfamiliar but realistic territory. 2011’s The Dragon’s Path kicks off the quintuplet of The Dagger and the Coin series.

Reading more like historical fiction in a fictional setting than the epic fantasy one typically associates with the genre label the book possesses, The Dragon’s Path feels very realistic. If the place names were real, and the settings described as Medieval, readers could easily put themselves into an Earth scene years ago. Kings, vassals, wars, courtiers, knights, retinues, etc., the panoply (har har) of Medieval life is conveyed in representative terms—but not grimdark (i.e. excessive wallowing in the dystopia of Europe’s past).

Review of Abaddon's Gate by James S.A. Corey

If there is anything Ty Franck and James Corey have done superbly in the Expanse series of novels to date, it is to maintain a strong sense of momentum through each of the plots. Plot devices that a lot of other writers would introduce at the beginning then string out throughout the narrative into a climax are dealt with at midway points, leaving the remainder of story to evolve in surprising ways through a new series of surprising devices and scenes. This results in stories which not only move briskly but unexpectedly, as well as entertainingly given that each subsequent revelation has been made to fit organically with the wider setting and character arcs. The series remains space opera to the core, but if anything is extremely well plotted space opera—to date. Let’s see if 2013’s Abaddon’s Gate, third novel in the series, keeps the engines burning. (Yeah, I know, bad pun. Sorry.)

Picking up events more than a year after Caliban’s War, Holden and crew traverse the system, running odd contracts. Things are going profitably for the crew when a notice arrives that the Martians want the Roccinante back. In the meantime, Julie Mao’s sister Clarissa has been plotting revenge on Holden for the losses he caused her father and family. Posing as a mechanic aboard a system ship, she spends her savings putting in place a plan that will see the tough but fair captain, dead. Bull de Baca is security officer aboard the Seung Un, formerly known as the Nauvoo. Wary of Captain Ashford’s ability to command, de Baca nevertheless goes about his business, removing the riff-raff from among the ship’s population directly—sometimes through airlocks. And lastly is Anna Volodov. A Methodist minister, she has been invited along with a host of other religious representatives aboard the Seung Un for a trip of a lifetime. It isn’t long, however, before her skills as confidante and soother of souls is needed in the face of disaster.

Review of Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey

Shorter review: if you enjoyed Leviathan Wakes, you’ll definitely enjoy Caliban’s War (unless you are a space opera connoisseur, sensitive to the slightest details that affect a universe—but even then...)

Longer review: If anything, author duo Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck’s second entry in The Expanse series Caliban’s Wake (2012) shows the success of the first novel was not a fluke. Like Leviathan Wakes, Caliban’s War is the perfect genre beach read. Story purpose is always clear, yet often moves in organic yet unpredictable ways. The characters are on the right side of 2D, making their plight relatable. And the plotting between the character viewpoints never allows the narrative to slow, even when there isn’t any direct conflict on screen.

But Caliban’s War is not a repeat of Leviathan Wakes. It takes the characters from Leviathan (specifically Holden and crew), plucks a couple key characters from what was the background of Leviathan, puts them front and center, then evolves the wider setting to its next logical point in a story that is an equally entertaining, page-turning read.

Review of Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

Space opera, oh space opera, thy lights are so delightful. Space opera, oh space opera, thy popularity so frightful. The market shines with endless sales, bestsellers that never pale… In fact, we are literally one century into the space opera phenomenon (one-tenth of a millennium giggles the nerd). And it shows no signs of slowing. The latest star atop the Christmas tree? James S.A. Corey’s (pseudonym of author combo Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) Expanse series, of which the first volume is Leviathan Wakes (2011).

Readers dropped into the action and not released until the final page turns, Leviathan Wakes begins in situ with a woman’s desperate situation. Captured by what she thinks are space pirates, she can only listen from her jail cell aboard ship as her fellow crew are tortured and killed. But when all goes silent, the woman is forced to escape her makeshift cell. What she encounters is perplexing. A distress beacon drawing a nearby ice hauler, captained by James Holden, to the scene, what he discovers is even more confusing. No time to ponder the situation, an attack occurs that sees Holden having to drastically reevaluate his situation—the polite way of saying run for his life with a handful of fellow crew. And the hunt is on. Holden desperate to survive and relate to the rest of the civilized solar system what he found, the group who attacked are just as desperate to stop him to ensure their nefarious plans can go off as planned. The implications eventually discovered to run deep, will human life in the solar system survive?

Hopefully crack doesn't kill...

Due to coronavirus, and the increased time at home (read: lots of work in the garden that I probably should have done over the past several years but haven’t until now), I have been devouring the Expanse universe, more precisely works by Daniel Abraham. Four novels, three short stories, and two television seasons of The Expanse in four weeks, plus a novel in The Dagger & the Coin universe. I think it’s fair to say it’s an addiction. (I’m currently in the middle of the fifth Expanse novel…) A wonderful balance between character and plot (i.e. it’s highly entertaining without being too condescending in its treatment of dialogue, behavior, culture, internal monologue, etc.), it’s the perfect half-minded reading while trimming hedges, spreading fertilizer, turning over the compost pile, raking winter’s leftover dead leaves and twigs, staining the kids’ treehouse, making minor repairs to the shed, firing up the lawnmower, removing weeds, clipping water sprouts, getting bicycles ready for winter, priming the lawnmower, building raised garden beds, kicking birds out of the kitchen ventilator, cutting grass, tilling soil, planting vegetables…

…this is all a warning—a way of saying there are a number of reviews upcoming that are all from the mind of Daniel Abraham, and for the Expanse works, the mind of Ty Franck, also. Hopefully crack doesn’t kill. The exercise in the garden should at least give me a fighting chance.