I’ve been reading like a fiend. I’m not sure why I am burying my nose in the books now more than I have been for the last several months. I think at least in part it’s due to the fact that the hockey playoffs and NBA playoffs are on, and I tend to put them on at night and then watch the game while reading. It’s funny, I can sense from the tone of the commentator’s voices when I need to look up to catch the big plays. Anyway I’ve read quite a few books. In no particular order:

Tim Powers Forsake the Sky
I knew going into this one that this was Power’s first book so I had rather low expectations. I basically got what I expected. Nonetheless, despite the rather clumsy plot, the shallow characters and the hard to accept environs the plot takes place in, the book is still sort of a fun read, and it’s a short one. I finished it during a friday night-saturday afternoon marathon. The story follows the adventures of a swashbuckling young man in a universe where galactic civilization is on the wane and a quasi-fuedal society is taking over. Barely escaping an attack that takes the life of his father, the protagonist ends up falling in with an underground alliance of thieves and ultimately leading a planetary rebellion that deposes the ducal seat. If you’ve read Dumas or Sabatini and are jonesing for more along those lines, you might enjoy this book. Otherwise, despite occasional flashes of fun derring do, I would avoid this one. As I’ve mentioned before though, Power’s other later works are excellent.

Jack Vance Tales of the Dying Earth

How on earth did I miss Jack Vance when I was growing up and absorbing all the sci fi and fantasy I could lay my hands on? He’s been writing since the 50’s and I thought I had read almost everyone from that period. Anyway I ran across a usenet discussion of how influential Vance was on the original creators of Dungeons and Dragons. This piqued my interest so I picked up the book to check it out. This is classic stuff here. The cover makes it look like a science fiction tale, but its really closest in spirit to a Moorcock book, both in terms of style and material. Ancient Sorcerers, interdimensional travel, demons trapped iin gemstones, a protagonist who accidentally barbecues the totality of the universe and eats it for lunch, continent spanning adventures, ancient artifacts with awesome powers, this book has it all. Cugel, the central character, is one of the most entertaining protagonists I’ve ever read. I swear my friend Mark must have read these books and used Cugel as his inspiration for his character Martose. Greedy and self centered, Cugel nonetheless has a certain sense of justice and a grim wit that will leave you grinning as he makes his way through the fractured and dangerous lands of the dying earth. I wholeheartedly recommend this one, especially to those of you while like the older school fantasies of Moorcock. One word of warning though, Vance writes in a spare, formal style that’ no longer in favor these days. It’s a bit of an adjustment to read and some may find it difficult to follow compared to the more conversational style of writing prevalant today. Anyway, two thumbs up nonetheless, especially for Andrew.

China Mieville The Scar.

Man. What a disappointment. I so completely loved Perdido Street Station, which the Scar is a sequel too. It has the same style, it’s set in the same world, its full of the same wonderfully over the top steampunk trappings that I liked so much in the first book. The main problem is the central story this time. The first book’s dream eating giant moths were legitimately terrifying and Isaac’s quest to free the city of New Crobuzon from their predations was engrossing. This time around the central character is not a sympathetic one, the closest thing I can equate her to is Thomas Covenant – you wanted to reach into the book and smack them around and tell them to stop snivelling and get on with it. Additionally, without giving too much of the plot away, the central quest just wasn’t as interesting – sketched out in an outline its much grander and has an epic scope that the first book didn’t, but the devil’s in the details and the actual adventure is just rather….flat. I did like that we’re provided with an explanation for why the world of Baas Laag is populated with such a diverse array of species and fantastic geography. Cactus people? Fish the size of a hawaiin island? Enchanted pistols, hex slinging hedge wizards, geophysicists, a city of undead ruled by liches and plaugued with vampires begging for a pint of blood? How did they all come to co-exist in the same ecology? The answer is actually rather clever and sets interesting potentials for further books. I just hope the next ones have better plots and more engaging central characters. One last note – to the book’s credit, Doul and his possibility sword were both pretty cool.