Review: Keepers of Arden (The Brothers volume 1), by LK Evans

I finished this a little while ago, but lacking a computer at the time couldn't write the review.

The Keepers of Arden tells the tale of two brothers, Wilhelm (the elder) and Salvarias. Wilhelm's a good egg through and through, whereas his brother is a much more mixed bag (were it not for his elder brother's unconditional love one suspects Salvarias would be rather evil). Evil seeks to claim Salvarias, and sometimes uses his affection for Wilhelm against him.

The first half of the book focuses almost entirely on the two brothers, and adopts an episodic approach to their early lives. It works very well, helping to establish the relationship they have between themselves and with others. I shan't spoil it, but the way the story goes you can see why Salvarias in particular relies upon his elder brother, and how the return of that esteem affects him.

In the second half more secondary characters are introduced and the stage starts to shift from their home city to various locations. I feel a few more shades of grey or weak spots would have helped to flesh out the new characters (reminds me a bit of how I felt about the first Mistborn book's secondary cast, actually). There's some nice character progression for Salvarias, who becomes more independent.

There's an old school feel to the story. I'm not sure why, but it slightly reminds me of things like Outlaws of the Marsh, or even the more recent The Masterof Izindi. Anyway, old school is a good thing, in my (well LK Evan's) book.

There are no elves or dwarves, but instead a range of different, original creatures, and a mythology based around long-dead gods. The lore isn't thrust under your nose and slapped in your face, and is gradually revealed in a way that feels natural.

I felt that greater moral ambiguity would have helped things. Salvarias has a good dose and Wilhelm none (which is fine, that's Wilhelm's way), but more elsewhere would have been an improvement (this was a conscious choice by the author, I think, rather than cocking up an effort at more moral greyness).

Salvarias was clearly the best character. He got more little eccentricities (counting to himself, the puzzle box, lavender etc) and the most moral ambiguity of anyone. There's also an air that he might turn into a complete psychopath if Wilhelm got killed, or that he could drift inexorably towards evildoing. It's a good element of uncertainty.

Overall, I enjoyed The Keepers of Arden, and those who enjoy old school fantasy should give it a look.

Thaddeus

Review: The Ace of Skulls, by Chris Wooding

The Ace of Skulls is the fourth and final book in The Tales of the Ketty Jay.

Every time I buy a new Ketty Jay story it’s an enjoyable read. After the first they’ve been a cross between the comfortable familiarity of old slippers and a surprise as I remember just how entertaining they are.

The Ace of Skulls continues and concludes the adventures of Captain Darian Frey and his crew of assorted misfits and oddities. Civil war has gripped Vardia as religious fanatics fight the old order for dominance. Frey is determined to keep out of the war, but the war is determined to make him and his crew part of it.

He finds himself hopelessly entangled in the struggle for Vardia’s destiny, whilst conflicting loyalties and misfortune threaten to tear apart his crew. Patriotism versus pragmatism and loves lost and found weigh in the scales and the ultimate result of the war depends on Frey and his crew.

I read this much more quickly than expected, and really enjoyed it. The story’s packed with twists and turns, the character development of the crew continues (I’d strongly advise getting Retribution Falls, the first book, and then The Black Lung Captain and The Iron Jackal before this).

As usual, the writing style’s lively, engaging and fast-paced. The crew enables a large number of POVs, and it’s particularly good to see how they’ve changed (or not) over the course of the four books.

Although I’d love to read more Tales of the Ketty Jay, I agree with Chris Wooding’s reasoning (click here to read it). It’s easy for a series to just go on for too long. As it stands, I recommend each of the four books and the series as a whole. I love grimdark as much as the next man, but sometimes it’s nice to have a light-hearted rollicking adventure, particularly one with such an interesting world and collection of characters as the Tales of the Ketty Jay.

Thaddeus

Early Thoughts on Kingdom Come: Deliverance

There’s only one dead cert videogame for me this year: Dragon Age Inquisition. But, there’s another which has caught my eye (pencilled in for 2015).

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is an RPG billed as “Dungeons and no dragons”. It aims to be a highly realistic game set in medieval Europe, with landscapes and castles based heavily on reality. Similarly, the clothing and combat is designed to be as accurate as possible.

The game’s development has been backed by a private investor, but when no major publisher would back it the makers went to Kickstarter. Thankfully, their target was reached and the game is planned to be released for PC and the most recent consoles in 2015.

The initial dialogue is fairly Shakespearean. It’s not impenetrable, and I rather like it, but it seems they’re likely to modernise it a bit. If you want to hear what it’s like, the dialogue’s part of the hour or so streamed here:

Clothing seems highly customisable, with 16 slots for various bits and pieces (including neckwear and rings). It’s reminiscent of Dragon’s Dogma, which had some good layering and armour that looked good right from the start. Unlike Dragon’s Dogma, I don’t think silk underwear will be available.

Combat involves six areas to be targeted (body, head and the limbs) with timing being useful for parrying (opens the enemy up to attack). It sounds like fights will be less common than in many RPGs, and more serious.

As well as fighting, cooking, alchemy (not in the magical Skyrim way, but in the way people actually tried to use it), fishing and forging/improving your weapons and armour will all be possible.

The world will be open, and you can ride horses. It sounds like they’re going for a first person version of what Red Dead Redemption did (ie making the horse control like a horse rather than a four-legged car). It’ll also have some limited intelligence, so you won’t be able to make it charge off a cliff.

I really like the look of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, and it’s slightly surprising and depressing no major publisher would back it. If it can live up to expectations it will sell by the cartload. I hope it does, and that way we might end up with more such games.

Thaddeus

Blurbs

The blurb is the description of a book you see on retail websites (and sometimes on the back of the book or, if it’s hardback, the inside of the dust jacket). They’re often fairly short (200-400 words or so), and they’re also something of a bugger to write.

A blurb should aim to set out the premise of a story and make the prospective reader interested in how it gets resolved. Personally, I consider (roughly) the first three chapters to not count as far as spoilers go (if it’s in the sample zone then it’s hardly giving away the ending).

Readers need to get a feel for the story, but if you give away too much then you risk spoiling it, or just making the reader feel as though they don’t need to read it because they know how it’ll go (in the same way someone who knows how a film ends may be less inclined to watch it than someone who does not).

From a writing perspective, it varies a bit according to whether the story is about a protagonist, or whether it’s about a world with a fairly large cast (Game of Thrones being a prime example). If you tried to write a blurb for Game of Thrones focusing on a protagonist you’d either pick one and give a misleading picture (because Ned Stark, Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister and so on could all claim that role) or end up with a mega-blurb of a dozen characters.

So, if it’s about a wide-scale/global issue (sticking with Game of Thrones, this would be the war) then write about that: who will prevail in the Seven Kingdoms? If it’s about a single character’s struggle (in Bane of Souls this would be Horst, a young man who gets effectively conscripted by mages in a foreign city just as the city is being terrorised by a serial killer who likes knocking off mages) then focus on that.

Sometimes a three paragraph approach can work well. The first paragraph has a hook (I remember Better Than Life [a Red Dwarf book] having “Rimmer has a problem. He’s dead. But that’s not the problem.”), the second fleshes out the premise, and the third leaves a dangling question, possibly with an ellipsis…

As well as the description, blurbs sometimes include quotes from authors and reviewers of the book, or possibly previous books. If you happen to get George RR Martin saying your book’s brilliant, it’s not a bad idea to let other people know this.

If the book’s part of a series it’s also a good idea to let people know in the blurb. That way they won’t accidentally buy part 2 first and struggle to get into it.

It’s a good idea to read the blurbs of other books in your genre and see how they do things. See what you like, what you don’t, and the sort of approach that would work for your book.

I find blurbs pretty tricky to get right. Perhaps this is because, when searching for books to read, I pay minimal attention to them. But some people do consider the blurb and weigh it heavily when deciding whether to try a book or not, so it’s important to try and get it right.

Thaddeus