Life

I recently finished the book American Gods by Neil Gaiman. The version I read was the 10th Anniversary Edition which is the authors preferred text. Overall I enjoyed the book and it’s different take mythology and religion in a fantasy setting. I can see how this book might have influenced some authors over the past ten years. One word of caution is that this book is not suitable for younger or sensitive readers. The book contains profanity and descriptions of nudity/sexual acts and violence. Some of my favorite elements of the book are:

1. It doesn’t answer everything. Some books have major unintentional plot holes… this book is not one of them. I’m just saying it doesn’t explain every plot point and the reader is left with minor questions and this is a good thing. Since the book deals with mythology and the supernatural I enjoy that everything is not explained enough to steal the magic from it.

2. The book is gritty. I don’t mean that the pages are dirty. I’m referring to the fact that element’s of real life aren’t skipped over. Hunger, thirst, pain and mundane stuff like needing to piss are parts of the book. It’s also nice that magic doesn’t solve everything while still being an element.

3. The “hero” of the story isn’t perfect. The protagonist starts off in a jail but is actually a “good” person comparatively. Shadow has many qualities the reader is brought to admire but the guy still screws up on occasion.

4. The book describes some real life crazy places. The House on the Rock and Rock City are both real places. At first I had thought they were complete inventions of Neil Gaiman’s mind. It’s often amusing to have real places used in story’s like this.

I’ve tried to share a few things without putting spoilers in there. If you have read the book, please tell me what you think of it?

I recently finished The Deed of Paksenarrion which is an omnibus collection of the books Sheepfarmer’s Daughter, Divided Allegiance and Oath of Gold by Elizabeth Moon. The entire collection of books is 1501 pages long which averages to around 500 pages per book. The book length seems to be about average for the fantasy genre. I feel these books have several elements that make it stick out from others.

1. Strong female protagonist
While other books do have female protagonists, they are not well represented in traditional fantasy. I feel this is changing in more recent in fantasy literature and I feel this book gets a female protagonist “right”.

2. Get’s the concept of Paladins
While Paladin’s appear in other fantasy literature I feel this is the first book that I have read that really makes the Paladin more than a two dimensional set piece for the story. On the same note I feel the concept of fantasy world religion is mush better developed in this book than some others I have read.

3. Mercenary life as an aspect of fantasy
The first portion of the book starts very low magic with life as a mercenary. It later increases the magic level of the book but I appreciate the grittiness of mundane military life portrayed in the book.

4. At some points this book goes full D&D
Sure there the elements of Paladins, Clerics and deities that resemble Saint Cuthbert but the parts that got me was the parts that go full dungeon crawl. If you have played a fantasy table top game before, you will recognize when this happens. If you haven’t and you like this book, you might give table top role playing a try.

On a side note, why did the cover artist put Paks in plate armor with breasts? She wore boiled leather and chain mail through most of the book. I guess that just proves that cover artists often don’t read the books.

Overall I enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to others. I’m glad my friend Scott Kesilis recommended it to me.

I had the opportunity to read quite a few books in 2013. I’m going to list the books I read by author.

By Jim Butcher
Cold Days
I Was A Teenage Bigfoot
Bigfoot on Campus
B is for Bigfoot

 

By Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
New Spring
The Eye of the World
The Great Hunt
The Dragon Reborn
The Shadow Rising
The Fires of Heaven
Lord of Chaos
A Crown of Swords
The Path of Daggers
Winter’s Heart
Crossroads of Twilight
Knife of Dreams
The Gathering Storm
Towers of Midnight
A Memory of Light

By Orson Scott Card
Ender’s Game
Ender’s Shadow
Shadow Puppets
Shadow of the Giant
Ender in Exile
Shadows in Flight
Speaker for the Dead
Xenocide
Children of the Mind

By John Scalzi
Old Man’s War

 

 

 

By Glen Cook
The Black Company
Shadows Linger
The White Rose
Shadow Games
Dreams of Steel

 

By Harold G. Moore
We were Soldiers Once and Young

 

 

By George Orwell
1984