- Half A King, Joe Abercrombie.
- The Rhesus Chart, Charles Stross.
- The Book of Life, Deborah Harkness
I enjoyed all three of them, though not uncritically.
Of the three, Joe Abercrombie is the best writer and Half A King probably the best written. Unlike his previous novels, however, this is a Young Adult novel and isn't as rich a reading experience as, for example, The Heroes, which is a tour-de-force in its own terms and also technically, with its shifting POVs during the battle sequences. It will be interesting to see what consequences the economy of the prose Abercrombie deploys in Half A King has on his writing once he returns to the world of the adult novel. This one has a nice -and very dark- ending, though.
Charlie Stross is usually entertaining and the Laundry series particularly so. I was worried beforehand because his last published novel, Neptune's Brood, was the first book by him that I have put down unfinished. I know from his blog and Twitter feed that he is prolific and bursting with ideas. My worry has been that in his productivity he is losing some quality control. Although I enjoyed The Rhesus Chart, that worry has not entirely left me and I sometimes thought that it could have done with a further revision to focus it a little more. A decent read but beginners to the Laundry should start with The Atrocity Archives and work forwards.
Deborah Harkness is a relative newcomer to writing fiction, but had the fortune to make her debut with an international best-seller, A Discovery of Witches. In a formal sense I think she is probably the weakest of the three as a writer insofar she is still learning her craft. She could learn a lot about the economy of effective prose from Abercrombie. And yet, of the three, The Book of Life was the book which I most enjoyed reading: a page-turner that kept me engaged to the end. It is also the one that I am most likely to read again.
Of the three, Joe Abercrombie is the best writer and Half A King probably the best written. Unlike his previous novels, however, this is a Young Adult novel and isn't as rich a reading experience as, for example, The Heroes, which is a tour-de-force in its own terms and also technically, with its shifting POVs during the battle sequences. It will be interesting to see what consequences the economy of the prose Abercrombie deploys in Half A King has on his writing once he returns to the world of the adult novel. This one has a nice -and very dark- ending, though.
Charlie Stross is usually entertaining and the Laundry series particularly so. I was worried beforehand because his last published novel, Neptune's Brood, was the first book by him that I have put down unfinished. I know from his blog and Twitter feed that he is prolific and bursting with ideas. My worry has been that in his productivity he is losing some quality control. Although I enjoyed The Rhesus Chart, that worry has not entirely left me and I sometimes thought that it could have done with a further revision to focus it a little more. A decent read but beginners to the Laundry should start with The Atrocity Archives and work forwards.
Deborah Harkness is a relative newcomer to writing fiction, but had the fortune to make her debut with an international best-seller, A Discovery of Witches. In a formal sense I think she is probably the weakest of the three as a writer insofar she is still learning her craft. She could learn a lot about the economy of effective prose from Abercrombie. And yet, of the three, The Book of Life was the book which I most enjoyed reading: a page-turner that kept me engaged to the end. It is also the one that I am most likely to read again.
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