I finished two books recently.
Reamde. Just a big, fat, beautiful book.
Seriously, it's not science-fiction, and it's not fantasy. It's not even of a speculative nature. What it is, is his (Stephenson's) most accessible, most mainstream work to date. It's just a straight-up story that doesn't get all bogged down in trying to be too literary, or too technologically geeky. It may be a little too long and Stephenson may seem a little long-winded at times early on, but honestly... it
all comes into play eventually. There really are no wasted words in this 1000 pager. And contrary to what many people criticize him for... it has an
ending. And that ending is wrapped up as pretty as you please with a ribbon and a bow and even a "thanks for reading" denouement. It's got humor, action and thrills. I'm not going to say it's my all-time favorite by him, but it's vying for a position near to it.
I hope more people recognize it for the achievement it is, but I have a feeling (with no knowledge of what the early reviews have been like) that it may be seen as a "sell-out" to some of his die-hard fans. I hope I'm wrong (and I'm sure someone will inform me if I am).
I'll leave you with this snippet that is representative of the nature of the conversation that tends to occur in corporate "meetings" in
Reamde. A corporation responsible for a wildly popular online fantasy rpg game similar to World of Warcraft:
Quote:
"A Weirding Ward costs about one gold piece per linear meter," C-plus said, referring to a type of invisible force-field barrier that could be erected by sufficiently powerful sorcerers.
"Cheaper if you harvest the Filamentous Cobwebs yourself," Richard retorted, referring to the primary ingredient needed to cast a Weirding Ward.
"Not as easy as you make it sound, given that the Caves of Ut'tharn just got placed under a Ban of Execration," countered Corvallis, referring, respectively, to the best place to gather Filamentous Cobwebs and a powerful priestly spell.
"Who did that? Sorry, I haven’t been keeping up the last couple of days..."
"The High Pontiff of the Glades of Enthorion."
"Sounds Earthtone to me."
"You got it."
"Some kind of strategic move in the Wor?"
"I’m not privy to the High Pontiff’s innermost thoughts."
"Anyway," Richard said, "that Ban wouldn’t prevent Earthtones from getting in there, if they were exempted from the Ban by a Frond of Peace that had been consecrated by the said Pontiff."
"I forgot about the Frond of Peace loophole," said Corvallis, crestfallen.
"It’s okay, you’re new here."
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I also finished Mazarkis Williams' debut
The Emperor's Knife. It was deliciously
alien. Many people have attempted the Arabian Night's type of fantasy... and I've enjoyed a lot of them. But usually the characters of those books come across as mainly Western in behavior and thought--the authors just dress those Westerners in turbans, hand them a scimitar and plop them in a Desert/on the Steppes.
Not so with the Emperor's Knife.
The author* here has succeeded in creating a truly unfamiliar culture and then introduces it to the reader as the story unfolds. For that, I applaud
the author.*
Unfortunately, the first part of the novel seemed quite unfocused and a bit hard to follow (not too complicated, just a bit schizophrenic and unclear) and by the time
the author* finds a rhythm at about the halfway mark, the ending seems to come rushing at the reader. So while I
liked it, it had pacing problems that kept me from
really liking it. I was intrigued and impressed by some of the passages and concepts (a magical plague with symbolic ties to a popular game of the empire for instance). So I'll probably try something by
the author* in the future... that is... as soon as she steps out from behind this silly gender obfuscating persona someone dreamed up that forces reviewers and interviewers to keep constantly saying; "the author* this, the author* that"...
*
