This review originally appeared on Goodreads on October 17, 2021.

The Disfavored Hero

By Jessica Amanda Salmonson – Ace Books – January 1, 1981

Review by Robin Marx

While I found the idea of a female samurai sword & sorcery protagonist appealing, I was a bit let down by the book itself.

The book starts off strong. Tomoe finds herself under the sway of an evil not-Chinese sorcerer, who compels her to join a demon horde and slaughter thousands of her former master’s warriors. She manages to free herself from this magical influence, but the damage is done: her master is slain and her honor as a samurai besmirched. She goes off on a journey to restore her good name.

Unfortunately, the book that follows is largely directionless and disjointed. It’s more of a sequence of events than a cohesive narrative. Tomoe is afflicted by a curse early on in the story that gets resolved about halfway through the story, and the book concludes with a duel with the shogun’s champion, who she encounters early on (not that there’s much of a dramatic build towards this duel, or a sense of inevitability), but there’s not really a driving plot. Tomoe wanders and experiences strange events involving magic and monsters.

The decision to set the book in an alternate world is a strange one. I suppose setting the story in “Naipon” rather than Nippon offers some cover for inaccuracies and allows license to do a “good bits version” of historical Japan. But Tomoe is a historical (if mythologized) figure and real world locations and religions are used, rather than fictionalized substitutes. Real Japanese terms appear frequently throughout, if occasionally misspelled or misused. Characters sometimes have names that would be unpronounceable in Japanese (“Noyimo”), and the western first name-last name order is used. I wished Salmonson had committed to either sticking close to the real Japan or taking a much freer hand with the source material. Her “Naipon” seems like a frustrating half-measure.

Published in 1981, this book is notable for using a non-Western fantasy setting and for having a lesbian heroine, but the plot wasn’t especially engaging.

★★☆☆☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Fantasy #SwordAndSorcery #Japan #TheDisfavoredHero #JessicaAmandaSalmonson #TomoeGozen

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on August 5, 2015.

Gentlemen of the Road

By Michael Chabon – Ballantine Books – October 30, 2007

Review by Robin Marx

Impishly nicknamed “Jews with Swords” by its author, Gentlemen of the Road is a historical adventure tale about a pair of rogues—a giant African soldier named Amram and a German physician/fencer named Zelikman—and their journey through the (largely unfamiliar to me and apparently scantly chronicled) city-states of Khazaria.

Pleasingly reminiscent of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, Amram and Zelikman are introduced in a very amusing fashion that immediately familiarizes the reader with the most salient aspects of their personalities. They overcome their baser instincts to grudgingly become involved in what looks like a simple escort mission, only to find their task rapidly balloon in importance, until they end up having an inadvertent and significant political impact on the region.

While this book is dedicated to Michael Moorcock, to me it felt more like a swashbuckling yarn in the tradition of Robert E. Howard or Harold Lamb. The narrative travels along at a brisk pace with no wasted verbiage, and characters are mostly rendered in broad, archetypal strokes. The episodic format (the novel was originally serialized in the New York Times Magazine) and monochrome illustrations by the excellent Gary Gianni (who also handled the Del Rey Conan and Solomon Kane books, etc.) also contributed greatly to the pulp adventure appeal.

My only complaint with the book is that there isn't more of it. I would love to read more of the “Gentlemen's” adventures, but with his “literary” pedigree Chabon is probably loath to be perceived as repeating himself. Indeed, parts of the included Afterword seem a bit like a defense of him writing the story in the first place, saying effectively “Yeah, I mostly write New Yorker-style slice-of-life stories, but adventure tales are also really great!” Personally, I'd rather see him continue to experiment with genre rather than write any more “Jewish writer has marital struggles” stories, but it remains to be seen when he'll release his next “fun” novel.

★★★★☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Literature #HistoricalFiction #Adventure #GentlemenOfTheRoad #MichaelChabon

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on March 21, 2013.

Gardens of the Moon

By Steven Erikson – Tor Books – January 10, 2005

Review by Robin Marx

“Interesting” probably best summarizes this book. This was an incredibly dense, frustrating read, but it was interesting enough that I was compelled to stick with it. Although I still think there are some pretty major issues with this book, I'm glad I completed it.

This is not a very reader-friendly book. Erikson doesn't make much of an effort to clue the reader in on what's going on, and a lot of the story relies on reading between the lines. Every character has their own hidden agendas, and its even trickier when all their intrigues are taking place in a brick-sized “cast of thousands” style epic fantasy. At its worst, it's almost comical, with a number of scenes where unidentified characters meet with named (but completely new) characters, mumble some mysterious portents, and then leaves. After finishing each chapter I read the corresponding section on the TOR website's re-read series, that helped me grasp some of the more opaque bits. I'm usually a pretty fast reader, but I crawled through this book.

Fortunately, the second half of the book is much more engaging than the first. The action became a bit easier to follow, although I'd be lying if I said I didn't have trouble keeping track of all the characters introduced after the move to Darujhistan. As can be expected in the first volume in a lengthy series, this book mainly serves to get the ball rolling. However, enough happens that it still feels like this book has its own plot arc, with a beginning, middle, and end. In the second half, Erikson cuts back a bit on the bricklaying and finally starts to have some fun with things, presenting some pretty exciting scenes. This served as the dessert to the first half of the book's interminable vegetable buffet. The conclusion really opened things up, making me excited about where the series is headed. It was nice that there was some reward for muddling through, I wasn't sure any was forthcoming.

This book (and apparently the series as a whole, from what I've read) is reminiscent of Glen Cook's Black Company and Dread Empire series. The scale is epic, and focuses on both the primary movers and shakers as well as a more humble group of soldiers. Also like Cook's stories, the tone is a tad on the grim side, with lots of moral ambiguity and a lack of a clear delineation between good and evil. That suits me just fine, but some fantasy readers prefer lighter fare. Those readers aren't going to like this book.

Fans of the series praise the author's mason-like plot-building skills, where vague hints and throwaway lines get a big pay-off later on, often in subsequent volumes. That's fine, I respect cleverness and attention to detail, but there's something to be said for readability. Reviews for this book seem to be pretty polarized, with unsatisfied readers who couldn't get through it and others that struggled with this volume, but came to appreciate it a great deal more after reading the rest of the series. I'm hoping I'll be able to join the ranks of the second group of readers, since the ambitious scope of this series is appealing. I like the direction hinted at towards the end of the book, and I've purchased the second volume in the series. However, I think I'm going to read something less challenging for the next book or two.

★★★☆☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Fantasy #EpicFantasy #StevenErikson #GardensOfTheMoon #MalazanBookOfTheFallen

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on April 17, 2019.

The Ritual

By Adam Nevill – Pan Publishing – May 28, 2011

Review by Robin Marx

The Ritual tells the story of four friends from college who have attempted to revive their camaraderie via a camping trip in the Swedish wilderness. They overestimate their stamina, however, and when two of their number are hobbled by injuries, they elect to take a “shortcut” back towards town through an ancient forest. They soon encounter strange noises and disturbing relics, and realize they are being stalked by something powerful and stealthy, capable of eviscerating a grown man and flinging him up into the tree branches.

I greatly enjoyed the 2017 movie adaptation of The Ritual, but wished that more had been revealed, and that the finale had been less rushed. I picked up the novel hoping for more of what I enjoyed in the movie, and this book certainly delivered.

Despite the surprisingly fast pace of the book, a great deal of attention is paid to establishing an oppressive, ominous atmosphere. The reader is made to feel a great deal of empathy for the exhausted and injured hikers lost in the primeval Nordic wood. Tempers flare and nerves fray as the gravity of their situation becomes clear.

While much of the film is a close adaptation of the book, the two works diverge considerably when the protagonist encounters the local residents of the wilderness. The movie plays it safe with a fairly conventional evil cult, while the book heads in a much more interesting and original direction. (To me, anyway; apparently it's somewhat controversial to some other readers.)

Despite its bleakness, I was unable to put this book down. It was a horror novel of a grueling kind not often seen. The protagonist is pushed to extremes, suffering a laundry list of injuries coupled with incredible mental strain. His struggle and slipping sanity are incredibly effectively rendered on the page, resulting in the most engaging horror novel I've read in a number of years.

★★★★☆

#ReviewArchive #BookReview #Horror #FolkHorror #TheRitual #AdamNevill

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on August 27, 2019.

The Book of Cthulhu

Edited by Ross E. Lockhart – Night Shade Books – September 1, 2011

Review by Robin Marx

This is an uncommonly strong anthology of recent(ish) Cthulhu Mythos stories. Anthologies of this nature often fall prey to Lovecraft pastiche, but for the most part the stories here offer fresh and imaginative takes on the source material and span a wide variety of time periods.

While the average quality is high, a number of stories stand out in particular. Although I had read it before, “A Colder War” by Charles Stross remains a masterful melding of Cold War paranoia with the Mythos. “The Men from Porlock” by Laird Barron and “The Crawling Sky” by Joe R. Lansdale are particularly creepy and effective tales of rural folk encountering the otherworldly. “Fat Face” by Michael Shea offers a fun update of a classic Lovecraftian creature.

Lovecraft has attracted a great deal of negative attention in recent years for his vehement racism, to the extent that some argue that he should be excluded from the horror/science fiction canon. I think that would be a terrible shame, however, as a number of writers have combined Lovecraftian inspiration with more palatable views on race. “Shoggoths in Bloom” by Elizabeth Bear and “Jeroboam Henley’s Debt” by Charles Saunders are both very Lovecraftian stories that benefit greatly by centering race and starring black protagonists. Outside of this anthology, a number of other recent stories and novels have worked with a Lovecraftian foundation while dealing with race-related issues to good effect.

Overall, this is an easy book to recommend to Lovecraft fans curious about recent Mythos-related fiction.

★★★★☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Horror #CosmicHorror #CthulhuMythos #HPLovecraft #RossELockheart #TheBookOfCthulhu

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on November 4, 2015.

Lords of Dyscrasia

By S.E. Lindberg – IGNIS Publishing – July 7, 2011

Review by Robin Marx

While Lords of Dyscrasia benefits from an extremely original setting and intense, driving action, my enjoyment was hindered by some storytelling issues.

The premise is an interesting one. We're introduced to Endenken Lysis, who rules an unusual tribe afflicted with Dyscrasia, an imbalance of the humors that has resulted in a long history of birth defects and mutations within the society. An epic struggle results when Endenken refuses to play his preordained role in a mystic ritual, instead coming to the aid of a fleeing woman from the outside. Complications ensue and Endenken soon finds himself undead and infused with necromantic magic, caught in a struggle between two ancient divinities.

Rather than high or low fantasy, the book has a particularly mythic feel. There's not much introspection or even dialogue, the bulk of it focuses on the epic deeds of larger than life figures (most undead). The downside to this approach is that it felt like the characters were ciphers. Apart from the immediate aim (e.g., “strike down this enemy”), their overall goals or motives were frequently hard to ascertain.

The setting was very fresh and interesting (some of it reminded me of Tanith Lee, minus the eroticism but with the gruesome dialed to maximum), but likewise rendered in broad strokes. This is seen frequently in the sword & sorcery sub genre, where intriguing names and concepts are touched upon but usually not elaborated in detail. While this is a perfectly valid storytelling approach, the amount of setting-specific jargon in the text left me feeling confused for much of the book. While it was possible to “go with the flow” for most of the narrative, I think the reliance on insufficiently explained terms kept the central plot (including a betrayal by a supporting character) from having the intended impact. When you have two opposing characters spouting bewildering dialog at each other, it's difficult to appreciate the stakes underlying their conflict.

Surprisingly, the book concluded with a detailed glossary and dramatis personae. Tucked away in the back of the ebook, this appendix obviously did me no good while reading the story, but it did manage to clear away a lot of the confusion lingering after the narrative ended. While it would have been nice to know about this glossary before reading the book (the Table of Contents only—unhelpfully—marks this section as an “Index”), it would have been even better if this background had been better incorporated into the text itself as terms are introduced.

Finally, while the action scenes are plentiful and exciting (a blade that slices through bone while leaving flesh intact; how cool is that?), there's an almost comical over-reliance on exclamation points in the second half of the book. The prose was strong enough to stand on its own, the constant exclamation points felt like having somebody poking me at the movie theater, saying “This is the cool part!” every few moments. I can see that it's cool, no need to jab me.

While the storytelling issues hindered my enjoyment of the book, I respect its ambition, originality, and exciting action a great deal. Parts confused and frustrated me, but I was never bored. I think most of my issues can be chalked up to a first-time novelist finding his footing, and look forward to reading the second Dyscrasia novel.

★★★☆☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Fantasy #DarkFantasy #SwordAndSorcery #LordsOfDyscrasia #SELindberg #DyscrasiaFiction

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on November 6, 2013.

The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All

By Laird Barron – Night Shade Books – April 2, 2013

Review by Robin Marx

The best stories in this collection could be labeled “rustic horror.” Many of them take place in the Pacific Northwest, in the deepest forests and shadowy valleys. The protagonists are often rough and tumble men who are nevertheless set on edge by a variety of creepy occurrences. Imagine Jack London writing spooky stories and you'd be on the right track.

While the rustic horror stories are great, the ones set in more modern and more urban locales were much less engaging. These stories tended to be longer and also more obscure (probably with the intent of creating a phantasmagorical atmosphere), which made matters worse.

One thing I found interesting was the use of Old Scratch himself, the Devil, as the prime supernatural threat in many of the tales. While this might seem cliched to some, I actually found it delightfully retro, reminding me of the “Satanic Panic” stories from the 70s and 80s. There's some Lovecraft homage in here too, but more an appreciative acknowledgement than slavish devotion.

While I didn't love every story in this volume, I came away with a strong interest in Laird Barron's work. Recommended for horror fans, especially those who enjoy the classics of the genre and rural settings.

★★★☆☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Horror #CosmicHorror #LairdBarron #TheBeautifulThingThatAwaitsUsAll

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on January 6, 2014.

Sword Sisters: A Red Reaper Novel

By Tara Cardinal & Alex Bledsoe – Rogue Blades Entertainment – December 11, 2013

Review by Robin Marx

I enjoyed this book, but it had some issues.

Penned with established author Alex Bledsoe, this novel apparently serves as a prequel to actor/screenwriter Tara Cardinal's indie film The Red Reaper. I haven't seen the movie, and as a result when I finished the book I felt a bit like I has missed out on something. It wasn't that the setting and characters were poorly explained, it was rather the opposite; the first third of the book details a very interesting premise and, unfortunately, the main plot only ever engages with a fraction of that rich background.

Sword Sisters tells the story of Aella, a human-demon hybrid Reaper. In the novel world's past, demons invaded from beyond, preying on humanity. Products of forced interbreeding with human women, the second generation of Reapers turned against their progenitors, fighting back the demons and freeing humanity. Since then, the supernaturally resilient and semi-immortal Reapers act as humanity's guardians, remaining largely apart from mankind in an effort to let them control their own destiny.

Aella in particular is—wait for it—the Chosen One of prophecy. The product of the union between the leader of the demons and a gifted Teller Witch, she is fated to become the Red Reaper, last of her kind and the most powerful of all, destined to combine the Reapers' physicality with Teller Witch magic. As a child, Aella is betrayed by her mother in exchange for magical power, handed over to the demons to endure years of abuse and torture in their realm.

Despite the over-reliance of prophecy in the fantasy genre, this is all very interesting stuff. However, the story that follows is much smaller in scale. We meet Aella as a snotty teenager, rebelling against her mentors at the Reaper monastery at which she lives. Annoyed by one instructor in particular, she cuts class and heads off into the woods, where she encounters a human village girl about to sacrificed to a cave-dwelling god. Ambivalent about humanity, Aella is still compelled to come to the girl's aid, an impulsive act that has unforeseen consequences.

The story that follows is fun and action-packed, with an interesting twist near the end, but I kept expecting it to ramp up into something bigger, and it never did. Is Aella truly fated to become the Red Reaper? Will the demons return for a final confrontation? We don't find out in this book. Maybe the movie tells that story? The cover says that this is “A” Red Reaper Novel, perhaps there are more to follow? I can't help feeling that this book wouldn't have been better served if less emphasis and page count had been placed on Aella's destiny in the beginning of the book. As it stands we're left with a fun, fairly localized sword & sorcery adventure burdened with epic fantasy framing that turns out to be mostly irrelevant to the tale we're presented with.

I also wonder if the book couldn't have been better pitched as a Young Adult novel. Despite the mature and confident-looking swordswoman on the awesome cover art, the book is really a Coming of Age story with a 16 year old protagonist. Younger readers may find Aella a more relatable character than Rogue Blades Entertainment's usual audience of crusty Conan fans.

The prose is mostly well-written and evocative, and the story progresses at a fast clip. Dialogue and characterization were a little clunky, however. For someone who spent an eternity being molested and tortured by demons, Aella seems remarkably stable, exhibiting no real mental health problems beyond typical teenage rebelliousness and mild trust issues. The novel is written in the first person, and Aella's tone is flip and thoroughly modern. While I don't insist fantasy characters limit themselves to Ren Faire speech, it takes me out of the story a bit when one character is told not to “freak out” when confronted with a monster and when supposedly formidable opponents are labeled “Ass-Face Number One and Number Two.” The most cringe-worthy is when Aella proclaims that she has “come to kick demon ass and chew gum tree leaves, and I'm all out of gum tree leaves.” A They Live/Rowdy Roddy Piper reference, really?

Editing was top-notch, with Rogue Blade Entertainment providing a higher quality ebook than many larger publishers. Again, the cover art is fantastic.

Some complaints aside, I would be interested in seeing more Red Reaper stories. Overlooking producer Uwe Boll's association, I'd be willing to give the movie a shot, and there is a lot of potential for future adventures starring Aella. I'd have no problem recommending this book to a teen Hunger Games fan, provided they can cope with the (“off-screen”) rape-filled Reaper background.

★★★☆☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Fantasy #SwordAndSorcery #TaraCardinal #AlexBledsoe #SwordSisters

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on January 25, 2018.

Helen's Daimones

By S.E. Lindberg – IGNIS Publishing – September 23, 2017

Review by Robin Marx

Promoted as a gateway to Lindberg's Dyscrasia setting, this novella is a prequel to the second novel in the series, Spawn of Dyscrasia. While this is certainly the most approachable installment, and I would go so far as to say it's an essential part of the series, it shares some of the previous books' issues.

The highlights of this volume are the same as in the other installments: the vivid description and sheer imagination on display. Though far from the first post-apocalyptic fantasy setting, the world portrayed here is a unique one, unlikely to be confused with any other. The blasted wasteland and its bizarre, mutated inhabitants are described with a loving eye to detail. The mythic atmosphere of the original Lords of Dyscrasia has also given way to a richly gothic one.

The originality of the setting remains a double-edged sword, however. Because the world and characters presented differ so much from more conventional settings, the reader is left without many recognizable touchstones. The world is mostly dead, and populated with mutants, traumatized orphans, and a handful of godlike beings, mostly living in a largely-subterranean tomb city. Sharon is the closest thing the series has seen to a regular human viewpoint character, but this story mainly focused on the less conventional visionary wild child Helen, with large stretches devoted to the (always fascinating, yet inscrutable) Lord Lysis and Doctor Grave.

Without any normal people to relate to, the reader is left slightly alienated from the setting and its inhabitants. “What do these people eat?” is a question I had for most of the book, and one that was answered in the final pages of the novella. They eat tree nuts filled with mutant insect larvae. While I've got to admit that's pretty metal as far as setting details go, it's not an experience I share, and therefore yet another thing that separates me from the people I'm reading about.

That being said, Helen's Daimones provides some much-appreciated background to Spawn of Dyscrasia, and I wish it had been available before I read that book. It definitely provides a gentle introduction and enhancement to Spawn of Dyscrasia, but because so much depends on the events of Lords of Dyscrasia it's difficult to recommend this book as a “gateway” to the series as a whole. This novella refers to those events repeatedly, acting as a welcome refresher course for people who HAVE read Lords of Dyscrasia, but if you're completely new to the series I wouldn't recommend starting here. If you don't already have a vague idea of what a “larvalwyrmen” is, this novella isn't going to educate you.

That being said, the storytelling is the clearest of any of the series installments to date. If you enjoyed Lords of Dyscrasia and appreciate Lindberg's fiercely original and sometimes opaque brand of vivid weirdness, definitely pick this up, ideally before reading Spawn of Dyscrasia.

★★★★☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Fantasy #DarkFantasy #SwordAndSorcery #HelensDaimons #SELindberg #DyscrasiaFiction

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on September 23, 2021.

Survivor Song

By Paul Tremblay – William Morrow – July 7, 2020

Review by Robin Marx

A virus sweeps America. Quarantines are in place. Hospitals are overrun, and the staff are concerned about insufficient Personal Protective Equipment. Vaccines are starting to be distributed, but far right elements of the population hinder efforts, fearing the “deep state” and/or foreign nations.

This is the setting of Survivor Song, a world that’s...pretty close to our current one. Instead of a novel coronavirus, the virus in the novel is a “super rabies” capable of spreading from animals to humans, turning them into berserk and belligerent infection vectors akin to the rage zombies from the movie 28 Days Later.

While this book was written before the COVID-19 outbreak, it turned out to be rather prescient. In interviews, Tremblay has acknowledged that, if anything, he underplayed how the pandemic would be exacerbated by the more ignorant right-wing portion of the population. Reading this book more than 18 months into the pandemic, I tend to agree.

Survivor Song focuses on Natalie, a heavily pregnant woman. When her husband is killed by a rabid intruder and she’s bitten on the arm during the struggle, she meets up with her pediatrician friend Ramola and the two of them embark on a dangerous quest for medical treatment.

This book was a fast-paced, gripping read. It was tense throughout. I also enjoyed the small scale of the story. It didn’t deal with the pandemic as a whole, it focused on this one pregnant woman and her friend. “Immediacy” is the one word that most sums up this novel for me.

However, despite the high personal stakes of the premise, the emotional dimension of the story mostly fell flat for me. Throughout the book, Natalie records voice messages for a baby she becomes increasingly convinced she won’t survive to raise. While normally this would be tear-jerking stuff, even as a parent I wasn’t affected in the way the author intended. This side of the story felt too obvious and familiar, perhaps. Instead, the conclusion of the plot thread involving Josh and Luis, two teenage boys that apparently appeared in a Tremblay book I have not yet read, left me more moved than anything involving the main characters. Tremblay’s A Head Full of Ghosts did a better job of reaching me emotionally, I think.

While my heart strings were left more or less un-tugged, this book was a propulsive and exciting read. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone struggling during the coronavirus pandemic, however, as under the current circumstances this book lacks much in the way of escapism.

★★★☆☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Horror #SurvivorSong #PaulTremblay