Benjamin J Newland

Salute the Dark by Adrian Tchaikovsky


I was nervous about this book. The last one was fine (book #3, Blood of the Mantis), but too short, which left me feeling a bit uninterested. I started this one feeling the same: worried about the short length and having a hard time getting pulled into the many, many different plot strands.

Turns out, the only thing wrong with books #3 and #4 in this series is that they should have been the same book. I don't know if it was an author decision or a publisher decision or what, but from my perspective as a reader this series is a trilogy, not a quartet, and books #3 and #4 belong in one volume. Salute the Dark naturally completes all the plot threads in Blood of the Mantis, giving it the proper narrative shape of crisis and climax.

Having finished the series (though I imagine the author intends more, this novel completes at least the first major story; though future possibilities are hinted at, much of the story is concluded) I can now heartily endorse the whole thing, I'm just warning you to make sure book #4 is on hand before you finish book #3, and to pretend they're just the one novel conveniently split for ease of carrying, or something.

I particularly enjoyed the bittersweet endings in this volume. I don't like depressing books, but I'm also a little too jaded to really enjoy the novels in which absolutely everything comes right in the end. Salute the Dark struck the proper balance between victory and sacrifice for my tastes.

Thanks Mr. Tchaikovsky! I look forward to more of your work.

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Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch


AMAZING! Damn, the hardest thing about reading this book is knowing the wait for the next one will be long. Sometimes I try to wait until an author has finished an entire series before starting it (I've got four fat novels by Tad Williams on my self, unopened) but if you suffer from a similar predilection don't let it ruin your experience with this novel. Lynch's website claims that there will be seven of these "Gentlemen Bastard" novels, and I welcome them all, but the first two (#1 was The Lies of Locke Lamora) stand alone well enough. Or perhaps I should say that, even though the two main characters carried over from book 1 to book 2, I never felt like I needed to go back and review book 1 to catch a reference in book 2.

The world Lynch has created is wonderful. A precursor civilization gives the cities a fascinating depth and structure while not impinging on the plot as of yet. There's enough alchemy and artifice that the novels don't feel like over-done sword and sorcery fantasy, while still stopping well short of the steam-punk genre. The guild of thieves element from the first novel remains in this one, including the excellent use of religious devotion to season that part of the story. Red Seas adds the further element of piracy, and does it compellingly.

If you're looking for an original voice in fantasy, do yourself a favor and check out this novel. Unless you haven't read Lies, in which case read that one first.

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Blood of the Mantis by Adrian Tchaikovsky


The third book in this series and my only complaint is that it was so short! It felt like an episode of television more than a novel, picking up where the previous installment left off and then ending without a great deal of conclusion-y bits.

I liked the atmosphere of the thing especially. It was primarily set in a foreign port city. In fact, now that I type that I'm realizing that it reminded me a great deal of Casablanca, not in terms of plot obviously, but in the sense that most of the action happens in a supposedly neutral exotic location while a larger war swirls around.

I'm still very much fascinated by the insect-affiliation and "art" powers, as well as by the unique shape of the steam-tech elements. Bring on book four!

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