The digital convert

I am currently suffering from an escalating problem. On bowing shelves, under the bed, beside the bed, at the foot of the bed, in my wardrobe, under my shoes, above my clothes, beneath my clothes, in my drawers, between my DVDs, my book collection is growing. It has gotten to the point where when I finish a book I chuck it over my shoulder into to cascading pile of my latest reads that lines the back of my bed like an abandoned game of dominos. As a hoarder by nature I live in genuine fear that I am one day going to be one of those old ladies who builds secondary corridors out of old reading material. I will be forced to spend a large portion of my day navigating the expanding maze of epic fantasy just to reach my settee in time to shout at Noel Edmond’s Deal or No Deal (somebody has to).

In my darkest moments, I think of the multiplying collection of cats I’ll have lost amongst the stacks who have given up all hope of rescue and have taken to building their homes out of my collection of ‘90s James Herberts, which they’re slowly but surely teaching themselves to read. It’ll be like The Rats, but with cats. The Cats. I’m going to be found with my arm gnawed off, buried beneath a pile of Robin Hobbs, my only legacy the army of felines that have evolved enough to survive nuclear apocalypse.

The real issue is that I can’t throw books away. It would be like throwing your first child away, just because you’ve had another. It just isn’t done.

My other problem is that I know the solution, and it isn’t one I am particularly happy with. I should convert to digital. Buy an eReader. Get over the printed word.

If I put so much value in the physical copy, if I really class myself as a lover of beautiful covers, clever designs, the tactile reading experience, the smell of a page, then why is my ever-growing collection living rough in its haphazard piles?

I’m either going to have to give up and buy a cat now so I can practice losing it, or suck it up and become a digital convert. It's me or the books.

book review: Robin Hobb's The Dragon Keeper

See this review in a much more exciting place - the Voyager Blog. Go on, you know you want to. Or stick around, read the rest of my stuff, whatever.

Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings series of books so far include The Farseer, Liveship Traders and The Tawny Man trilogies, and continues with The Rain Wild Chronicles, which are also set in this alternative European Medieval world.

Published in 2009, The Dragon Keeper is the first title in the Chronicles and follows almost immediately on from the events that occurred in the first three trilogies. Set in a time of fragile peace the story mostly takes place in the Rain Wilds where the residents bear physical afflictions from life there and the towns and cities are built high in the trees that line the riverbank.

The dragon Tintaglia has fulfilled the agreement she signed with the Trader cities and protected them against the invading Chalcedeans, so it’s now time for the Traders to complete their end of the deal. They are to help the ailing serpents migrate up the Rain Wild River in order for them to hatch from their cocoons into dragons. But the serpents were too old and emerged from their cases too soon, and the few that have survived are stunted dragons, unable to fend for themselves and costing the Trading cities a fortune to take care of.

When Tintaglia herself abandons the weak creatures after finding a surviving male dragon, the people of the Rain Wilds are left wondering whether to break their agreement. They are only too eager to comply when the dragons manipulate them into planning a trip up river to the legendary Elderling City of Kelsinger, which exists in their hazy ancestral memories.

As usual, Hobb expertly builds the narrative from varying points of view. Thymara, a sixteen-year-old girl who has black claws and scaling on her skin, is one of the dragon keepers that the ruthless Rain Wild Council enlists to travel the unchartered waters of the Rain Wild River. Alise Finbok is escaping from Bingtown and a loveless marriage in the hopes of using her knowledge of dragons to become an established scholar. Captain Leftrin owns the liveship Tarman that will transport them all through the shallow, acidic waters of the Rain Wild River to the dragons’ homeland.

For fans of the previous books it will feel like coming home; a home populated by liveships and dragons, obviously. Any newcomers (although it’s highly recommended that you start with the phenomenal Farseer trilogy) will be treated to a fully-fledged world with its own rules, people, politics and magic.

What makes The Dragon Keeper unique is that it doesn’t build to your typical climatic final scene; it doesn’t need to. Its power lies in the way Hobb deftly and gently manipulates her readers into making assumptions of her characters, before just as deftly shattering that preconception. One such character is Sedric, Alise’s aid on her journey to the Wilds and close friend of her cruel husband, Hest. His hidden agenda overshadows the events in the book, and yet he obviously cares for Alise and the reader can’t help but emphasise with him. There’s no good or bad in the Hobb-iverse. Each of her characters, human and dragon alike, go on a journey of self-discovery – in this case quite literally – which is filled with hardship, heartbreak and love, and emerge changed, whether for better or good.

Writing under the Hobb pseudonym allows contemporary fantasy author Megan Lindholm to indulge in descriptive passages and linger on the fine details, which for the newcomer may seem daunting. But these tomes are an indulgence worth taking time over. The varying narratives and viewpoints allow for the reader to see something from all angles. The tree city of Cassarick is heart-wrenchingly beautiful, as described by Thymara, dizzyingly alien to Alise and disdained as barren by Sintara and the rest of the stunted dragons. The fine detail is never wasted and you know every line, every word spoken adds meaning to the story as a whole. Hobb is a masterful character author, and she painstakingly creates complex characters so believable they could walk off the page, complete with Rain Wild scaling.

The Dragon Keeper is Hobb on form. There are several jumps forward in time but this stops early on and the book settles into a smooth, well-oiled narrative. An amazing read in its own right, it also sets the course for the following title, Dragon Haven, in which the hidden agendas, conflicting motives and forbidden love interests established in this title must come to a head.

bite me: the week in bite-sized chunks

Amazon: Tad Williams and Christopher Paolini have been in conversation on Amazon this week. This is mainly news to me because Paolini is no longer the self-published 16-year-old first-time writer who penned Eragon and is now an actual grown up. This makes me feel old. I loved this conversation because it’s two SFF writers eking out each others’ opinions on Fantasy writing and what it means to them. Here’s a snippet of Paolini’s thoughts on why SFF resonates so keenly with readers today and why it will continue to as long as humans don’t spontaneously mutate:
‘Fantasy is the oldest form of literature; the very first stories that humans told while crouched around campfires were stories about gods and monsters and tragic mistakes and heroic feats. Even now, those topics still resonate with us on a primal level, which is one reason I think fantasy will remain popular with readers as long as humans are still human.’

Del Ray: Every Friday Del Ray Spectra post 50 pages of one of their titles up on their home site, Suvudu. This week it’s the turn of Terry Brooks’ Urban Fantasy Running With The Demon, which is a departure from his usual elves and swords Fantasy (warning: ‘elves and swords Fantasy’ does not accurately represent of all of Brooks’ work to date). Anyway, I’m not sure how much credence could possibly come from a geek who uses this word, but this is amazingly cool of Del Ray to give these tasters, and on a Friday too (the perfect day for tasters). They started this on 15th October and the excerpt for every title they’ve done this for is still available. They also welcome comments and requests for specific titles so it’s well worth an interactive look, especially if you’ve been considering purchasing Star Wars fiction as it’s good to be sure it’s worthwhile.

The Black Library: A straight-to-DVD film of Warhammer 40k is being released on Monday 29th November, the aptly named Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 movie. The first film stemming from over twenty years of material, SFX magazine have given it 2.5 stars for being a ‘difficult film to love’.

Voyager: back from their holidays and encouraging readers to bookmark their author Peter V. Brett’s blog and showcasing some truly lovely, minimalist reissuing of Megan Lindholm’s backlist using Jackie Morris’ beautiful artwork to match alter-ego Robin Hobb’s covers. Since returning from holiday, Assistant Editor Amy McCulloch has sent me a Hobb book to review for their blog, The Dragon Keeper, Book One of The Rain Wild Chronicles. This is despite the fact that the reviews so far that I’ve put up here have been negative in parts (and lacking in parts), indicating that they put their readers first above their own wellbeing. At first glance, on a purely visual level, Morris’ artwork alone is enticing, although the metallic covers bizarrely put me in mind of the silver pogs I used to collect at primary school (seriously, what are pogs?).

bite me: the week in bite-sized chunks

SF Signal: I’ve been enjoying this week’s Mind Meld. They’ve been discussing what fantasy books or series are better than LOTR. Personally I find Tolkien to be more sprawling and languorous than an Ent family reunion, so for me it’s a bit of a balm to see other authors being recommended. Mine would be most things, but primarily Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, George R. R. Martin’s The Song of Ice and Fire series and Robin Hobb’s (getting on for) 12-title-epic, starting with The Farseer Trilogy. Based on one recommendation, I’ve picked up a copy of T. H. White’s compilation The Once and Future King, which I suspect will provide more of a thorough telling of the tale than the BBC’s thoughtful and compelling take on Arthurian legend, Merlin (tragically, I actually love this series).

Angry Robot Books: I’m really excited about this publisher and if you’re a blogger you can join their Robot Army for free eBooks or hardcopies. Launched in 2009, Angry Robot Books state that they are a ‘global imprint dedicated to the best in modern adult science fiction, fantasy and everything in-between.’ So far I’m a failed recruit but my next book to review is going to be the new UK Science Fiction release Amortals by Matt Forbeck (who has 8-year-old quadruplets, Fact Fans). Apart from Douglas Adams I haven’t read any SF, and this seems a pretty good (free) place to start.

Neil Gaiman: It was the House on the Rock weekend over Halloween, so above is a lovely picture of Gaiman on the World’s Largest Carousel. For a slideshow of photos from the weekend, go to the Huffington Post and indulge in full geek-out session of wishing you had been there. I would have ridden the zebra. Hopefully he’ll blog about it this week.

Roc (Penguin USA): Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files short story collection Side Jobs is out now in the USA , which includes two novellas from Thomas' and Murphey's POV. I wish I knew how to order a new copy of this title from Roc because I lust after Chris McGrath's artwork. See Butcher talk about his short stories (which he describes as ‘trying to have a knife fight in a phone booth’) and his short hair at the NYCC here.