fantasy – Page 3 – Triple Take

The Sharing Knife: Horizon by Lois McMaster Bujold: B-

From the front flap:
In a world where malicesâ€”remnants of ancient magicâ€”can erupt with life-destroying power, only soldier-sorcerer Lakewalkers have mastered the ability to kill them. But Lakewalkers keep their uncanny secrets and themselves from the farmers they protect, so when patroller Dag Redwing Hickory rescued farmer girl Fawn Bluefield, neither expected to fall in love, join their lives in marriage, or defy both their kin to seek new solutions to the perilous split between their peoples.

Fawn and Dag see that their world is changing, and the traditional Lakewalker practices cannot hold every malice at bay forever. Yet for all the customs that the couple has challenged thus far, they will soon be confronted by a crisis exceeding their worst imaginings, one that threatens their Lakewalker and farmer followers alike. Now the pair must answer in earnest the question they’ve grappled with since they killed their first malice together: when the old traditions fail disastrously, can their untried new ways stand against their world’s deadliest foe?
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J’s Take on The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

I read this quite awhile ago now. Probably about two months ago. I can still remember a fair bit about it though, which means it must’ve been pretty good. Or at least memorable. (And fortunately I did cheat and write a small review of it on Goodreads, so that refreshed my memory.)

The plot doesn’t fit into a typical kind of plot. It’s not a quest. It’s not coming of age. It’s not any one thing I can particularly point to. Basically Yeine is summoned the kingdom/city/palace of Sky by her grandfather. He names her an heir, but she’s not the only one. So she’s in competition with her cousins, neither of whom are very nice people. And it turns out her family, the ruling family, has some gods locked up and kept as slaves.

It’s the characters that really sell this book. I can like and admire Yeine. The dark god Nahadoth is pretty darned cool. And the child god Sieh is just lovable and awesome. They are people (gods) that I want to get to know more about and spend more time with. Which is a good thing, because this is a trilogy!
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The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 1 by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill: B-

From the front flap:
London, 1898. The Victorian Era draws to a close and the twentieth century approaches. It is a time of great change and an age of stagnation, a period of chaste order and ignoble chaos. It is an era in need of champions.

Allan Quatermain, Captain Nemo, Hawley Griffin, Dr. Henry Jekyll, Mr. Edward Hyde, and Mina Murray are those champions and together they comprise the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Recruited by the enigmatic Campion Bond, under orders from the mysterious “M,” these six adventurers are pressed into service by their empire in its time of need. Now they must face the nefarious Doctor and his vile plan for world domination. But things are not entirely as they seem; other factors, cryptic and corpuscular, are also at play. A remarkable drama ensues.
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The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (N.K. Jemisin)

The Plot
After the death of her mother, Yeine is summoned to the capital of the world, the city of Sky where her grandfather rules. She finds herself installed as his heir — one of several who might inherit his position — and thrown into a situation where the politics only get murkier the more she finds out. She attempts to stay alive while she pursues her own agenda, to find out who murdered her mother.
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J’s Take on The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill and some other people has a really good premise. England? In the 1800s? Well-known fictional characters forming a band of super-agents for the British government? What’s not to like?

Unfortunately, the execution leaves much, much, much, MUCH to be desired. I recall being intrigued by the movie, and liking it fairly well. Though it did have problems, even if I can’t now necessarily put my finger on the problems. Well, the comic/graphic novel has a lot of problems.

Plot: Wilhelmina Murray (whoever she is) takes on the mission of assembling a team. First she tracks down Quartermain (whoever he is.. I gather some sort of long-lived, possibly immortal, dead? adventurer dude) and together with Captain Nemo, they get Dr. Jekyll and the Invisible Man. Then they set out to find some substance called ‘cavorite’ that’s some anti-gravity substance. And if they don’t retrieve it, the evil Chinese will take over the world. Or something.
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