I just finished reading Steven Erikson’s book “Toll the Hounds.”

I am going to come right out and say it I found this book to be painful. I’m not a fast reader at the best of times, and Erikson is a challenging read, but he’s such a good writer that he’s worth the effort one has to put in. Usually. And maybe that’s the case this time as well, but I honestly didn’t start enjoying this book until I was 700 pages into it. For a 800+ page book this is a lot to slog through to get to the good stuff. I probably would have quit reading it it wasn’t the 8th in a series, if I didn’t already have momentum behind me. I do have a sense of accomplishment. I’m glad it’s done. Irony has me looking forward to the next one, but mostly in the hopes that it’s a better and quicker read!

There’s only two more left. Once I have them all I’ll probably take another run at the series, read them in order, but I am already dreading the day I wrap back around to the 8th book!

I really am reading this book:

Marsbound

Joe Haldeman

I got a review copy of it and am slogging through it. I am not a fast reader at the best of times, and I have less time to dedicate to reading than I once had.

I’m liking the book just fine so far, but it has some major problems. I have a hard time when any man uses a barely post-adolescent woman as the POV character. Yeah, I’m sexist, but seldom is this done in a way that makes me believe the character. Haldeman is one of my favorite authors though, so I’ll trust him to pull it off.

The other major handicap this book suffers from is that it’s too easy to compare to this one:

Podkayne of Mars

Robert A. Heinlein

And it suffers for the comparison. And if you’ve never read either, I am guessing even Haldeman would tell you to start with Podkayne.

This all said, I have been enjoying it so far. Some of the more obvious plot elements aren’t being developed as fast as I would like, and there is some mystery that I want revealed, but that’s what makes a book good. I’ll write more once I am finished.

I am a bit overwhelmed by Erikson’s books. They are big to start with. 800 pages (with no pictures even) is always intimidating. Add in the fact that he just drops you into the middle of a complex universe with more characters than a Slater phone book and it’s easy to lose track of plot threads. I’m currently reading the above book, and his new one is out in September. I also have a novella of his waiting in the wings. I am tempted to restart this series from the beginning, hoping to finish before the next book is out, but considering how slowly I read these things, I doubt I’d manage to.

I’m also guessing the girlfriend is getting sick of hearing about these books. It’s like my obsession with House. At least for the first two seasons all she had to keep track of was, The Boss, The Black Guy, The Australian Guy, The Hottie, and The Best Friend. But I digress.

I am not a fast reader. And Erikson is a dense writer. Sometimes an important plot development is handled in what appears to be a throw-away line. And sometimes conflict is too dark or too intense to take in all in one sitting. I know for a fact that certain parts of these books will be more demanding on a reread, since I will know how they resolve. But some will be a lot easier, since this time through I will know why were spending 100 pages with a character I couldn’t care a rat’s ass about.

The Malazan books are unique as far as I know. No other series, that I have read, has managed to maintain quality over this many books. I know some people point to Martin or Jordan, but I have yet to read either of those, so if I am wrong, I apologize. Usually in any genre series the books kinda die out after the third. To me that is where Erikson finds his stride, with most books being better than the previous. I can’t wait for “Toll the Hounds.” In the meantime, I just need to decide it I want to spend the next 8 months in the Malazan world.

Let’s see, what’s the kindest thing I can say about “Night of Knives?” Well, it doesn’t suck. What’s the meanest thing? Well, Esslemont is no Erikson. If that last statement doesn’t make sense to you, chances are you shouldn’t be seeking out this book anyway, but let me try to explain. About 10 years ago Steven Erikson wrote a book called “Gardens of the Moon” based on a world he created with Ian C. Esselmont. This book was pretty far and above your average genre fantasy, and can be had for little to nothing used on Amazon (just click the link).

I love fantasy, read a lot of it, but I get tired of the tropes and cliches inherent in any genre fiction. I only bought this book because it had a cover blurb by Glen Cook on it. If you like Cook’s “Black Company” or “Dread Empire” books, then you will love Erickson’s, since a lot of it feels, if not ripped off, then at least polished and repackaged with a fresh take, but I figure if Cook doesn’t mind, why should I? Especially since Erikson does Cook better than Cook (sorry, Glen, I still love you). Anyway, enough of Erikson, back to the book at hand.

In this co-created world apparently it was planned, from the beginning, for both these authors to publish books in the Malazan universe (they had previously collaborated on unrelated projects). I think it was a good for Erikson’s career that Esslemont took so long to bring his book to the table. It dilutes the brand, but again, I figure if Erikson doesn’t mind, why should I? (Or maybe he can’t do anything about it.)  But this isn’t really being fair. Erikson’s take on the Malazan Empire specifically and his writing in general raise the bar damn high. I can think of few people who even come close. I am told George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” books may come close. Well, sorry, Esslemont doesn’t come close.

But again, expecting him to isn’t being fair. It’s a different type of book. It’s not the the complex sweeping epic that Erikson has been banging out. It’s not a huge cast of characters and historical events. It takes place over the course of one night and tells in detail a specific pivotal event in the Malazan history. It does not try to be more than what it is. A tale of a young girl, who may be more than she appears, caught up in events beyond her control. Reading “Knight of Knives” before you embark on the more ambitious Erikson books will only serve to ruin parts of those books, but I did find this a quick entertaining read, and it did illuminate some of the events that take place in the other books. I’m just a bit unclear if I actually needed this, since I think I’d had cooler ideas about how these events had to have shaken out than Esslemont. The fight scenes in this book are decent, the characters interesting, the plot pretty cool, but the execution is a bit clumsy (probably like this post).

Am I glad I read it? Sure. Would I recommend it? Sure, to die-hard fans of the Malazan books, I would indeed, since I do consider this to be cannon. I just know in my heart of hearts (I have two), that Erikson would have told the same story much better and taken twice as many pages to do it. Will I buy any other Esselmont Malazan books? Yes. You do what you think is right.

I had to order my copy through Amazon.ca, and it looks like I got the last copy in existence, but from a quick web search it does look like there are official plans to publish it in the US.

I’ve been thinking about a project where I plan to take clear glass jars and fill them with baby doll parts, or little doll faces, or something (I am not quite sure what). This is just something that has been bouncing around at the back of my mind for some time. Yes, I do spend time thinking things like, “Wouldn’t babies in jars look cool with weird liquids and such surrounding them?” I wouldn’t go so far as to call this art, but I think a creepy little series of these items would be cool and great conversation pieces. So obviously, when I saw the cover to Joe Havasy’s little chapbook called “Misanthropic Cavalcade,” I knew I had to order one.

I also have to admit, I don’t read very carefully, so my first thought when I saw “A Massive Compendium containing 11 stories…” was how in the hell can someone get 11 stories into a chapbook? Well, the answer to that is obvious. These are cartoons, not text. I would have been upset with this, since I was really thinking I’d get text stories, but I have three reasons why I’m not:

1. I only have myself to blame for being illiteraated.
2. The comics are damn cool!
3. I forget what the third reason was.

These comics, for the most part, accurately reflect my own sense of humor (or lack of). I have a soft spot for any Donnie Darko references. Or Cartoon Network references, or hell, even a simple zombie nod makes me smile. I also dig any work that is self-referential, but that’s just my kick.

From his etsy.com description: “16 cartoons printed in DIY black and white, perfect for your local coffee table.” By which he means photocopied, but this worked for me. Part of the charm. I found it cool he individualized mine, but writing a short message and autograph on the cover, thereby completely destroying the resale value unless he commits some high profile crime, in which case I’ll make a mint. Yes, I am considering this an investment, since by judging from these comics, it’s only a matter of time!

See: http://www.joehavasyillustration.com/
See: etsy.com

Keywords:  books and zines, mayhem, robots, crabs, funny, death, cute, cartoon, zine, comic
Materials:  xerox, staples, paper