[sakeido]

I read some good books over the holidays, and figured I would review them here.

The Bonehunters
The 6th volume in the Malazan series by Steven Erikkson. Like any epic fantasy novel spanning 1,200 pages, this one starts out well, and weaves a number of different plot threads quite well at first. However, the book's main conflict is resolved about 500 pages in and the next stretch has little resolution. It also suffers from the Wheel of Time effect, which is when a character is introduced, talked about for much of the first portion of the book - so much so you think them the main character - and then mysteriously is relegated to supporting player status for the whole second half of the book. It would be Bottle the Squad Mage in this case. The other recurring characters of the series, like Fiddler, Karsa Orlong and Kalam, continue in their badassery while the story of Icarium develops just a tiny little bit when Mappo Trell is replaced.
On the whole, I still read the book, but am continually frustrated by Erikson not writing a good ending to one of these freakin things since Deadhouse Gates.
Three out of five stars

His Dark Materials omnibus
The whole Golden Compass series rolled into one 950 page volume. Bloody good book. I enjoyed it thoroughly from start to finish. While it was written at a young adult level, and features mostly unflowery language, it has a surprising amount of violence for a book intended for kids. We're talking dismemberment of main characters here. The story is interesting, the characters are engaging (Lord Asriel is a legendary badass), the worlds travelled are fascinating, and the grand scheme of the story (a massive plot to kill God) is wicked. While I would have preferred each book to have been 400 densely packed pages each with more ornate language, they were still fantastic books as is. The Subtle Knife - the middle volume - is the briefest and weakest of the three, ending so suddenly with such a barely notable climax I was completely shocked at how incongruous it seemed compared to the Golden Compass and the Amber Spyglass.
For that reason, I recommend the omnibus, since each book flows into the next with little interruption and with some nice extra blurbs that flesh out the story quite well with very few words. I especially liked the ones that came after the Amber Spyglass as sort of a two paragraph epilogue that supplemented the beautifully orchestrated ending.
Five out of five - a modern classic and far superior to Harry Potter IMO

The Pillars of the Earth
An Oprah's Book Club bestseller and an epic novel that is clearly intended for public consumption. Its got it all - gratituous sex, big paper cutout characters, well tied off plot threads, well sized plot arcs... despite the novels 900+ pages I ripped through it in two days because I found little merit in savoring every word like I did with His Dark Materials or the Bonehunters. His wording is clunky and obvious, his descriptions of environments and cathedrals overlong and ineffective, but his economy pays off when it comes to creating vivid character images, suggesting just enough for the stereotypes to fill in something like the sneering face of William Hamleigh or the patience of Prior Phillip. It is not a masterpiece of literature by any means. The characters undergo little development, something I would think is a holdover from the author's primary job of writing a new thriller novel annually, and the story's ultimate resolution can be seen from about page 200 onwards, although he does make a bold move with regards to one major character (killing him outright quite early in the story). Really, I read it - and quickly!! - but in retrospect did not enjoy it overmuch. It is a better book than the Bonehunters because it actually ends and always has something on the boil or coming to a head, but is still not a great book by any means.
3.5 stars out of 5

[ogisha007]

Yeah, the His Dark Materials trilogy is very nice. Read it sometime ago, but I started reading it again 'cause I stormed through it too fast and forgot too much