recent read; The Iron Company

The Iron Company by Chris Wraight

I like to knock off a Warhammer novel now and then. This was a good one, focusing on the engineers. Ironblood, an alcoholic washout, is granted forced into a commission to command an artillery company. The army is going to war with local rebels. The rebels have holed up in a near impregnable fortress. Ironblood convinces an old comrade to join the effort. And a dwarf with his own agenda joins in, as well.

Trials and tribulations await. Bloodshed, too. Cannons, and machines, and madmen who consider engineering no better than sorcery. Lots of elements in the story that Wraight blends well.

I enjoyed it.

recent read; Honourkeeper by Nick Kyme

For a while, Black Library kept intriguing me with back cover synopses and I was buying them like crazy. I made myself stop, but I still have a shelf full. It occurred to me it had been a long time since I read a Warhammer, so I picked one.

Irascible dwarfs almost always get my attention in fantasy works. I went with Nick Kyme's Honourkeeper, the third title in a loose trilogy concerning dwarfs in the world of Warhammer.

In the ancient days of the Old World, long before the time of men, the dwarfs and elves are at the height of their prosperity. As King Bagrik of the dwarfs and Prince Ithalred of the elves forge a trade pact, a vast horde of northmen attacks the elf settlement. When King Bagrik's son is slain, the dwarfs join forces with the elves, eager for vengeance. Can the dwarfs and the elves put aside their differences long enough to prevail over foe?

Much like its predecessor, Oathbreaker, this novel delivers on the sweeping battlefields, amazing dwarf halls, aloof elves, bloody Northmen of Chaos. I really liked the dwarf queen. There is also drama and intrigue between the two races - elves and dwarfs. They are attempting for forge a trade alliance, but they get along about as well as oil and water from the start.

I enjoyed this one.

Anecdote of reading and napping

Just a fun anecdote.

Borders dropped their prices this weekend 30%-50% off.

I went to the store again and brought my 2-yr old to get her out of the house for a while.

She fell asleep right as we pulled into our home driveway.

She almost never naps. I couldn't waste the opportunity.

That's the great thing about book shopping. I was able to adapt.

I read a tale from one of my new books in the front seat, she slept in the back for forty minutes.

Then she woke up, and we went inside. :)

(I bought another Warhammer anthology, Death & Dishonour and The King's Gold by Arturo Perez-Reverte (another Captain Alatriste novel.))

Book buying

Another long weekend flew by, and the month is nearly closing. Time for a post! ;)

Nothing much here. I want to increase my reading amount this year, but February has been a tight month on my time. I started, and I am still reading, Eric Brighteyes by H. Rider Haggard.

Friday, I had an afternoon free (1/2 day vacation to burn) so I treated myself to book shopping. I went to an independent book seller in my area - a huge warehouse with thousands of books, The New England Mobile Book Fair - which is neither mobile, nor a fair (they are open year round.)



It's a great place, with new books. Sometimes, though, it's as good as a used book store because you might find something out-of-print hidden away. Once I stumbled on a mint, unsold, Conan of the Isles. It must have been there for twenty years before I grabbed it.

Of course, as time goes by, such finds are less likely. But, on Friday, I stumbled on a handful of Saberhagen's Lost Swords novels. No idea where they've been hiding - I guess somewhere in the back, though, being a warehouse, most stuff is out on the shelves. Very happy to acquire those. Also bought a couple of more Warhammer novels, and finally Robert E. Howard's Sword Woman (the new Del Rey edition.)



The business is up for sale (the family owning it would like to retire and move on.) They've been at it 54 years. Everyone hopes someone buys and keeps their model and makes no changes to the store. It's a real treasure, especially in this time of dwindling brick-and-mortar stores.

I decided to curb my spending and left the four TOR re-issues of Moorcock's Hawkmoon on the shelf. I was very tempted, and they are nice. But they are thin books and even with the illustrations the cover price $13.99 seems steep. Lots of folks have said they enjoy these more than Elric, and I am very tempted to read them. But I think I'll just keep an eye out for used editions. The tales have been through a few different publishers.

After all that, Friday night I received the official "your local Borders store is closing" email. 20% off starting Saturday, so I went and bought yet more books. This time, some Dr Seuss for my daughter, a Warhammer omnibus and two titles by A. Lee Martinez, (In the Company of Ogres, The Automatic Detective.) I haven't read Martinez, but I've heard good things about these books. I'm usually not one for comedic fantasy, but these sound like I would enjoy them.



As usual, I now need to find room to squeeze these titles on my bookcases, and find time to read them all!

January reads

Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian.

The opening novel of O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series, adventures in the Age of Sail.

I had enjoyed the movie adaptation, Master & Commander: Far Side of the World. I'd heard this series praised many times, so I thought I'd give it a read.

Maybe I'm too used to reading action but I slogged through 129 pgs before it got interesting with the first naval battle.

I was expecting more of a direct action series like Cornwell's Sharpe.

While I admire O'Brian's research and documentation of the naval life, there was so much age-of-sail naval jargon that it seemed more like reading a foreign language than elucidation.

I also feel like he dropped a bunch of sly historical jokes and puns that went right over my head. I felt at times that I was reading a "dramedy."

I guess it's just me. I didn't enjoy this novel very much. I might return to the series - perhaps skip to Far Side of the World - but it will be awhile.

Someday I'd like to read another Age of Sail novel as point of comparison; Forester's Horatio Hornblower or Kent's Bolitho novels, perhaps.

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Meantime, I took a break from the Age of Sail and delved back into Warhammer with...


Oathbreaker by Nick Kyme.

I just wanted a quick read with violence and action, and Kyme delivered. This novel is about dwarfs (In Warhammer, the plural of "dwarf" is "dwarfs", not "dwarves". Why they insist on this affectation, I don't know.) Dwarfs bashing goblin, orc and skaven heads, and who could want more?

Taking an inspiration from Lord of the Rings, no doubt - imagine if Gimli pulled together a small army of dwarves to retake Moria and you get the plot for this novel. Some of the visuals of the dwarf halls seem to come right from some of the Moria CGI work in the movie adaptation of Fellowship of the Ring.

Uthor, an ambititous dwarf, makes an oath to retake Karak Varn, after the great dwarf hold is taken by skaven (bipedal, intelligent, evil rat men of the Warhammer universe.) Though we are introduced to other dwarf characters, I read this novel quickly and some of the characters blurred for me. This novel is the second of three that form a loose trilogy about the dwarfs as a Warhammer race. We are shown various facets of dwarf society - the merchants, the stone workers, the engineers, the slayers, etc.

In the end, it is more about the dwarfs than any single dwarf. But, that's okay.

It was a fun romp, a quick read and that's all the entertainment I was looking for.

Just an FYI; in the novel trilogy, Oathbreaker is proceeded by Grudgebearer by Gav Thorpe and followed by another Nick Kyme novel, Honourkeeper. Given that they do not feature the same characters, ordering doesn't really matter.

In Black Library fashion, all three will be collected in an omnibus later this year, simply entitled Dwarfs.

October reads

I managed to get a bit of reading done recently.


Rage of the Behemoth

Heroic fantasy, geared more toward the sub-genre of sword-&-sorcery, with a theme of giant monsters and those who combat them.

Many people have been saying this, and I’ll say it too – this is a great anthology. If you enjoy heroic fantasy and sword-&-sorcery, Jason M. Waltz has pulled together a wonderful collection here. I won’t bother going into standouts, of which there are many, versus lesser tales. The balance on whole is very strong. If you enjoy Andrew Offutt’s Swords Against Darkness series, then Rage of the Behemoth is right up your alley.

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Doctor Who: Prisoner of the Daleks

It had been a long time since I’d read a Doctor Who novel, and this was my first read of the new hardcover tie-ins with the new series. This novel features the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant’s character) and, naturally, his old enemies, the Daleks. Yes, the Daleks were all wiped out, but like any good time-traveling aliens, they keep altering histories allowing the Doctor to stumble into their past. Or something – time travel is fuzzy, as even the Doctor would testify.

This was a fun read, and a fast read that moved along at a quick clip, as with the pacing of the updated series. If you like the series and/or Dalek stories, this one should be added to your library. Nice Dalek scheming, gains and counter-gains, and Dalek dialog rendered in its own Dalek font. All good stuff.

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Dragonslayer

The epic doom of Gotrek, berserker ‘Slayer’ dwarf continues with human Felix Jaeger at his side. This time out, the duo faces a deadly dragon along with a host of other dangers, including orcs and bandits.

This was solid entry for both the Gotrek and Felix series and Warhammer. A tight tale in and of itself, it also opens threads into bigger things in future novels (such as an impending invasion of the hordes of Chaos.) I liked the lighter use of goofy humor in this one compared to some of the previous entries, though it feels like Warhammer dwarf tales should be read while consuming ale to truly appreciate the effect.

Dear Black Library (open letter)

Dear Black Library,

You can stop now. Really. I just don't have time to follow two universes with multiple self-contained series. I have other books to read. I have too many of your books on my shelf unread, as it is.

Really. Please stop with the interesting cover blurbs and the eye catching art on the new stuff.

Please.

Also, please stop dropping all these damn good-looking omnibuses on me. It's bad enough I'm interested in your new titles. Then you turn around and create opportunities for me to 'catch up' with reasonably priced, three-for-one omnibuses of previous titles which triples my to-be-read pile in an instant.

Insidious.

Then to top it all off, you provide incredible cover art that makes me drool. It is very hard not to buy an omnibus like the Witch Hunter series. I already have the novels, but then you add a bonus story! Please stop.

Now you've gone and done this. And even though I have these novels, well, ... that cover. If there's a bonus story in this one, all is lost.



Damn.

Mathias Thulmann

Taking a break from fatherhood and work to discuss Mathias Thulmann, Witch Hunter of the Empire (of the Warhammer novels.)

There are three novels, and I am reading the second one now, Witch Finder. They are great fun, and if you like Solomon Kane, they are worth checking out. They are like reading a Hammer horror movie from their heyday.




As they often do, the Black Library are reissuing all three novels in an omnibus edition; due in November. The edition will include two previous short stories and a brand new tale. I guess that's kind of like a band releasing a greatest hits album with a single new track to entice fans to buy a collection they already own.

But, it is a sweet cover...