Vox Day

Finished this recently and I have to say that it was much better than I had expected. I've read some of the author's previous fiction. While he has always told a good story, the prose was somewhat clunky at times. It is apparent that the author is getting better at his craft and it shows with AToB. It does start slowly, but rapidly sets the hook and picks up the pace. The setting is interesting, juxtaposing Roman republic style state and Church with a feudal european-style kingdom in a fantasy setting, and having a workable and interesting history and mythology to go with it. I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of fleshing-out detail in the world building of Selenoth.

One thing I particularly enjoyed was the author's take on that fantasy staple: Elves. The author explores the question of what would a society of materialist, quasi-immortal beings converge on...and arrives at something refreshingly different than the ethereal, beatific elves of Tolkien's Middle Earth.

Another item I thought very well done was the setup and description of the battle scenes: some of the best low-level descriptions I have read, major points for verisimilitude here on an emotional level. One scene in particular involving the hand-to-hand clash between legions had a tense claustrophobic feel that took me back to memories of combat exercises and training when I was in the military.

I read exhaustively for work, so when I get to read non-fiction, I read strictly for entertainment, not for enlightenment, political hand-holding, or anything other than escape from the commonplace. By that measure I very much enjoyed AToB. For something like this I give 4 stars...(5 stars would be for something on the order of Middle Earth) Selenoth gladly gets 4 stars and a spot on my "buy the sequel in dead-tree format" shelf.



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The difficult sequel

It is always difficult to make a sequel to a great book, so it was with trepidation that I started reading this tome. It was a hard slog at times, this book seems mostly concerned with setting up the epic conflict that will be resolved in future books, so we are introduced to a dizzying array of new characters and locations, but nothing of note happens. The plot hasn't advanced much since the last book. I get the idea of setting up an epic universe, but for a book of this size, it would be nice to get more than just setup for the next book. Also dearly missing from this book was the intense political/personal drama from Amorr that we saw in the last book. All the new characters that were introduced in this book were not developed enough to care about them, and all the characters that carried over from the last have been spread out all over the world, only interacting with their followers and a bunch of undeveloped, two-dimensional characters. Here's to hoping the next book will be more futtering, less foreplay.… (más)

Much like George R. R. Martin's “A Song of Ice and Fire”, this book is hard on the reader at first. The dizzying array of point-of-view characters, combined with the confusing roman names and titles, makes it hard to get started, but once you do, the grand and intricate plot keeps the pages turning, and while a few things are a bit too predictable or stereotypical, the author managed to keep me guessing and being surprised by the twists and turns throughout.

In comparison with “A Song of Ice and Fire”, the characters are a lot more likable and realistic, but on the whole, the reading experience is similarly grand and inspiring, although Vox Day's pacing is a lot more intense than GRRM, and that makes it easier to get through a tome of this size.… (más)