The Pirate King / R.A. Salvatore

The Pirate King

category: fantasy, action, author:

R.A. Salvatore

book 2 of Forgotten Realms: Transitions
original copyright 2009

read in March 2012

Agamedes' opinion: 6 out of 10: read to pass the time

You know how it is, the gradual build-up to the big battle at the end of the book... Individual conflicts, mysterious rumours, subtle treacheries... With all matters being settled or made clear in the open war of the final chapters...

Well...

Not in The Pirate King.

By half way through the book, the major battle has been fought. Yet that battle is -- as it turns out -- just one "small" step on the way to the "transition" to the reign of the Pirate King. All my preconceived notions have been shattered!

On the other hand, this is a story of the regular heroes of Forgotten Realms, Drizzt and his minor side-kick Regis. Okay, I like them. But I'm not desperate to read about What Drizzt and Regis Did Next.

On the third hand, I am continually amazed at the ability of Forgotten Realms authors to create new and interesting adventures with a limited number of star characters. As a part of a major history -- told as a personal and entertaining story -- The Pirate King does well.

Not as well, in my opinion, as The Orc King. Perhaps I just enjoy a book with a happier ending... Sure, plenty of people do survive The Pirate King. The ending is mostly satisfactory. The book's role as a part of a very long history, however, means that a lot of potential conflict will be left unresolved. At least, unresolved in this book.

The Orc King ended with a new status quo which could encourage peace. The Pirate King ends with a new status quo which will encourage fighting and war. Life -- and conflict -- goes on, in the world of Forgotten Realms.

Drizzt and Regis are just two of a small group of heroes who regularly adventure together. One other member of the group appears for a few chapters... Apparently, he is on his way to becoming a super-hero. Apart from that, the plot maintains a tight focus. People do appear from earlier books but only as part of the main plot. The series of books may form a grand and broad saga; each book is a self-contained story.

If you are a fan of the Forgotten Realms then Pirate is essential reading. If you are not familiar with these realms, well, it's still an enjoyable book to read.

---

Really, I have to mention the fighting styles...

Not the actual fight descriptions, which Salvatore does quite well. But the style...

Pirate is a Dungeons and Dragons novel; it says so on the back cover. World of Warcraft is a dungeons and dragons computer game. And yes, the fighting styles are so very similar... Fireballs, ice cones, elementals, mage shields, it's all there.

Not surprising, really, this similarity.

Still, it makes me smile :-)

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

PissWeakly: the Index

Snuff / Terry Pratchett

Snuff

category: fantasy, author:

Terry Pratchett

book 39 of Discworld
original copyright 2011

read in March 2012

Agamedes' opinion: 7 out of 10: well worth reading

Goodness me, I must have missed a few episodes of Discworld! Commander Vimes is now almost superhuman... Certainly treated as superhuman by all who deal with him. And he converses with mysterious supernatural powers who are able to give evidence of evil-doing...

In the style of several later(?) Discworld books, Snuff also lays on the social commentary, just a bit too thick. Well, far too thick. Earlier books seemed to show, this book tells you of the less-than-perfect ways of the world.

That said, Snuff is still an enjoyable book. Not the best of the series. Not the worst, either.

If you're a Discworld fan, Snuff will continue your addiction.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

PissWeakly: the Index

A Princess of Mars / Edgar Rice Burroughs

A Princess of Mars

category: fantasy, space opera, author:

Edgar Rice Burroughs

book 1 of Barsoom
original copyright 1913

read in March 2012 (and before, quite a few years ago)

Agamedes' opinion: 7 out of 10: well worth reading

When I read the pre-release publicity blurb for the movie John Carter I thought, has the director ever read the book?! So, I thought, time to re-read, A Princess of Mars.

Now I have still not seen the movie. But there are some stories that have come back from those who have...

First, an apology to the screen-writers: Okay, the story is introduced by (supposedly) Burroughs himself. Perhaps, grasping at straws, my memory had been affected by details from the book:

"My first recollection of Captain Carter is... just prior to the opening of the civil war" (from the Foreword). "I was then a child of but five years." So the Burroughs of the Foreword would be about nineteen years old when Edgar Rice Burroughs was born...

What we have, is the standard, "I found a manuscript..." approach with the less standard "and 'I' am the author..." If you see what I mean:-)

Still, when I heard that ERB himself could be dragged into a sequel movie, I groaned. Yet, perhaps, that Foreword does leave room for later authorial engagement in the action. So. I apologise.

Then there's the leaping.

Look, it's just the lighter gravity on Barsoom! Not super-powers, just Earthly strength -- of a very fit man -- on a lighter planet.

One hundred and fifty feet horizontal, thirty feet high. That's about it. Fifty metres along, ten metres up. It's jumping, not flying. No big thing.

Did the movie cover the Martian telepathy? Now that is almost a super-power. Except that every Barsoomian can do the same... A very ordinary super-power.

But enough of the movie... I write about books!

And this book is a lot of fun.

Ridiculously over-the-top, supremely violent, very lightly plotted, fun.

A series of adventures, loosely tied together into a flimsy plot.

Which -- and I'm sorry to harp back to the movie -- which could explain why the movie is, apparently, rather hard to follow.

John Carter arrives... mysteriously... on Mars. Fights and wins the respect of a tribe of green men. Fights and escapes from a different batch of green men. Meets and makes friends with a red man, then more red men from a different city. Realises that the second lot of red men are threatening the only woman in the book, so Carter battles the second lot of red men. Before escaping, to save a green man in the middle of a battle between the two green tribes that he had met earlier. Leads half the green men (the winners of the battle) back to sack red city one (with the help of red men), then to break the siege at red city two.

Upon which he marries the princess, lives for ten years in wedded bliss interspersed with incredible battles. Is the only person who can single-handedly save Barsoom -- which he may or may not have done... Only to be snatched back to Earth, even before his and the princess' heir and egg has hatched... Oh dear, how sad.

There... you try to put all that into a coherent movie script!

Oh, and a further comment on the movie "adaptation": I look at the cover of my book. And think, Why did the movie over-dress its stars?

And finally, a story which I rather like. True or not...

The book is called, A Princess of Mars. The hero is John Carter. The movie was to be called, "John Carter: A Princess of Mars". Focus groups found that no boy would go to a movie with "Princess" in the title. So the name would be, "John Carter of Mars". Except that further focus groups found that no girl would go to a movie with "Mars" in the title... So we get, "John Carter".

Which is a pity, really.

Since no-one knew who John Carter was.

Argh! forget the movie! Get the book, and enjoy some space opera fun.

---

PS: Look, you do know who Edgar Rice Burroughs is, don't you? He wrote Tarzan... And he wrote the Barsoom series, set on Mars, and the Venus series. (Martians call their planet Barsoom. Venusians call their planet Amtor.)

Burroughs wrote a whole lot of books. Tarzan, Barsoom and Amtor have similarities: intelligent, tough, heroic man in strange environments, battling hordes of very alien creatures. (Even Tarzan found some amazingly alien creatures in the depths of the jungles of Africa.) Hero fights with sword and fists. Usually against insuperable odds... which turn out to be less-than-insuperable after all. Hero is motivated by honour, decency and a drive to save the heroine, sometimes for another man.

Burroughs' books are packed with action, packed with imagination and loaded with an enormous variety of good tribes and bad tribes, where at least one member of the bad tribe turns out to be good after all.

If you like one, you'll like them all.

I have not read them all. So far, I have enjoyed every Burroughs book that I have read.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

PissWeakly: the Index

Saucer / Stephen Coonts

Saucer

category: science fiction, author:

Stephen Coonts

book 1 of Saucer
original copyright 2002

read in March 2012

Agamedes' opinion: 7 out of 10: well worth reading

If you want an enjoyable book, a book to fill a few pleasant hours, then Saucer is well worth reading. It's an enjoyable romp, with not too much deep meaning.

Modest but exceptionally talented hero finds super-powered toy, finds girl, fights to keep toy, then to keep toy from baddies. Fights to get girl. Gets help from talented relatives and a good scientist.

There are the evil baddies and the heroic goodies. A few neutral characters in the middle, for variety. Several of the neutrals are simple stereotypes, not quite caricatures, introduced in two dimensions as required by the lightweight plot.

Two ideas do stand out:

The author does seem to have a cynical view of politicians. Sure, I've developed a hearty cynicism regarding the motives of politicians, but it took me many years to develop. Are young adults already ready for that view?

And then there's the theory of planetary settlement; the difficulty of maintaining a high level of technological civilisation on a newly-settled planet. I'd never heard this particular view before. And when I read the idea in Saucer I thought, Yes, that seems such a reasonable concept... Thank you, Coonts, for a new idea!

Saucer is a wish-fulfilment fantasy for late teen boys and young adult men. The sort where only you can save the world and, yes, you may even get the older woman... An experienced older woman! Almost thirty!

Yep, it's a young man's wish-fulfilment fantasy adventure. Also suitable for older men who want to read a book just to enjoy it.

Possibly not a good choice of book for a girl or a woman. The heroine is beautiful and clever. She can kick butt in a crisis. But she still requires saving by the young hero.

So we have fun, adventure, a small level of teenage humour. Plus -- and I hope I'm not spoiling the plot -- a flying saucer...

A book to be read and enjoyed, then put back on the shelf with hardly a second thought.

Good, harmless, fun.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

PissWeakly: the Index

Snow Crash / Neal Stephenson

Snow Crash

category: science fiction, author:

Neal Stephenson

original copyright 1992

read in March 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 8 out of 10: really quite good

I don't like near-future science fiction. It tends to be predictive, message-heavy and wrong. That said...

Snow Crash is near-future science fiction. And I thoroughly enjoyed it!

So what's right with Snow Crash?

Okay, it's set in the near future. Although... possibly... in 1992 the author thought that the "near future" of this book would be 2012. Okay, it's predictive. Snow Crash takes some scientific ideas -- including ideas from social science -- and... sort of... predicts the future. Really, though, it is more exaggeration than prediction...

Take these current day situations. Extend them ad absurdum, to their ridiculous limits. This is not prediction -- it is comic absurdity. And a lot of fun.

Okay, there's also a lot of violence. Cartoonish violence. There are no laws and might is the accepted way of establishing right. Yet there is a pleasant innocence about the whole book.

The hero chops -- kills -- people with his sword, though he doesn't enjoy it. He only chops evil people, only in self defense, it is an accepted response to severe physical threats. No worse than Road Runner, really... Which is an unfortunate comparison. Because I really dislike Road Runner.

At the end of the book, the hero has saved the day and -- more importantly -- he has given up his slacker ways, in order to set up his own business, doing the work at which he excels. (Not the sword fighting; the other work at which he excels.)

The heroine also has a career change just past the end of the book. Well, it seems clear that if there is a book two, she will be promoted to a position from which she is expected to take over the business. Unfortunately, "the business" is the mafia.

Another aspect of this book's acceptance of violence: the mafia is an accepted business group, with a willingness to kill and maim. Cartoonish, again. Yet it seems to me to be too close to the public "family support" image behind which the mafia has long attempted to hide.

Ah well.

I'm almost ashamed to say, I enjoyed the book. The violence, the willingness to do violence, the ever-present threat of violence, are all a part of the fun of this book. In fact, they are all essential parts of the fun.

With that touch of innocence: neither hero nor heroine are ever in danger of being seriously harmed in the making of this book.

In an author's footnote, Stephenson reveals that Snow Crash started life as an illustrated novel. Yes, I can definitely see that: the plot is comic book, through and through. With far more detail, fun, depth of character than could be packed into even the best of illustrated novels.

Snow Crash is also, a book for young adults. Anyone else can enjoy it. It's just that the violence is not really suitable for children. And the computer themes and lack of, well, deep meaning and reference to reality, may be unsuitable for older, more cynical adults who have lost their love of fun.

Don't buy Snow Crash for your children. Nor for your aged parents. But don't worry if they read it. And don't be surprised if they thoroughly enjoy it.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

PissWeakly: the Index