Breaking Dawn

The final volume in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn, is perhaps the most well written of the four volumes. As I noted previously, Eclipse was a major step up in quality from the first two novels and Breaking Dawn is just a little bit further along. Perhaps this is because there is a whole section dedicated to Jacob’s POV. It could also be that Bella finally gets what she wants, or it could be that Meyer finally learned something from her editors.

That being said there are still some major issues here. The premise of this novel is, to be honest, pretty wacky. Bella finally gives in to marriage, but holds out on getting turned because she wants to have sex with Edward before she is overcome by newborn bloodlust. The result of this is Edward being all angsty after he basically beats Bella during sex, oh and she somehow gets knocked up too.

This of course leads to all sorts of drama involving Edward wanting to protect Bella, Bella wanting to keep the baby, and Jacob and company getting all uppity over how this may or may not break the “treaty.” The first half of the novel, in which Bella’s pregnancy takes place is pretty out there, and I again ask where does Meyer even come up with this stuff?

However, once you get past all that and to the second half of the novel things improve. The storyline in the latter half of the book is actually decent, and does bring the saga to an decent end. This is not to say it couldn’t have been a lot better, because Meyer is clearly not operating in the same mode as the better writers of this era. I will only say that in my opinion she could have made some choices that would have actually given the saga some real credibility. Instead she chose to take the easy route.

Is this the end of Twilight? I am not sure, the Bella and Edward story is pretty well closed out, but I believe there is still material that could be built on. However, would it be Twilight without Bella and Edward? Probably not.

Breaking Dawn could have been bad, and it could have been better. I think overall Eclipse is probably the best novel of the four. The writing is marginally better in Breaking Dawn, but the story arc of Eclipse is stronger. Breaking Dawn does bring the story to a good conclusion and it is a much better book than either Twilight or New Moon. I give it a 3/5.

Hammered

Elizabeth Bear’s Hammered is the first novel in the Jenny Casey Trilogy. This story takes place in the late 2060’s and much has changed between now and then. The US has lost power and influence and Canada has become a global power. Jenny Casey is retired from the Canadian Army.

During Casey’s service she was shot down and survived the crash with severe injuries. Due to these injuries she became one of the first people to have cybernetic implants, her left arm and her left eye, along with cybernetics in her spine. This happened over twenty years prior to the events of the novel, and as a result Casey is in great amounts of pain and the cybernetics are reaching the end of their life.

Casey has retired to Hartford Connecticut. There she has befriended a local warlord, Razorface, and a local cop. The novel begins with Razorface bringing Casey one of his underlings who has apparently overdosed on military issue speed. Later it is discovered that this was an intentionally released batch of tainted drugs.

It is very apparent that this is the first volume in a preplanned trilogy. The majority of the novel amounts to setup for later events. Due in part to the drugs, and also to her failing cybernetics, Casey is drawn back into the Army and a situation she really wants nothing to do with. Also key to the plot are the development of space faring vessels (retro-engineered from alien craft found on Mars) and the potential development of an actual Artificial Intelligence.

The major action in the storyline is so minimal that if one were to take it out of the larger framework it would almost be laughable. Very few of the characters that seem hugely important at the start of the novel are even involved by the end. This is a novel where the reader really does not have any clue what is developing until it happens.

Despite the fact that this novel seems to consist mostly of world building and arranging the characters and knowledge for following two novels, it actually works. The story is enjoyable if not completely a page turner. You want to know where everything is leading. Each character has so many personal machinations amidst the greater intrigue that paying attention at all times is key.

Hammered is far from your average sci-fi novel. It is more about intrigue and manipulating people and places than any sort of action or adventure. Bear has definitely put together the pieces needed for an epic adventure to be played out in the following books. Hopefully they don’t disappoint. I give this novel a 3.5/5.

Kell's Legend

Andy Remic successfully blends steampunk and high fantasy in Kell's Legend(Book 1 of The Clockwork Vampire Trilogy). Upon first entering the world the sense is much like that of any other fantasy novel. It is only as the novel evolves that the reader learns the true nature of the setting. This adds something of a mystery esthetic to the novel as well.

Kell, the titular character, is an old bear of a man. At the start of the novel Kell is living in a city basically incognito in order to be near his granddaughter. Suddenly the city is attacked by a merciless army of albinos, aided by creatures straight out of a horror novel. Kell manages to escape with his granddaughter and two other unlikely companions and flees in an attempt to warn the king in time to avert disaster.

As the story unfolds other monsters are unveiled. In fact this leads to one of the novel's weak points. Near the middle of the novel Remic has a tendency to put the characters in mortal danger, only to have them “rescued” by the arrival of some bigger badder monster who is subsequently distracted by the other monster. This tactic has been overused for many years, it may work once, but definitely not twice as is the case in this novel.

Along with Kell we get the viewpoint of Anu, a vachine (vampire machine), who is hiding her “impurity” in order to maintain her status in society (and her life). It is through Anu that we learn most about the vachine. These are a hybrid of human with clockwork machinery, and require “blood-oil” a magical distillation of human blood in order to keep their clockwork ticking. The vachine also have a strict religious society based heavily on fear and power.

As the story develops we learn much more about Kell’s past, and his “bloodbonded” weapon Ilanna. At the same time we are learning about the real reasons behind the invasion, and the political intrigue and machinations both within the vachine society and in Kell’s land. Further history and magic within the world are hinted at as the story develops rapidly.

Despite the fact that on the surface this is a hero adventure story not much different from the early days of Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms, Kell’s Legend manages to be relevant and enjoyable today. The Kell storyline is very high fantasy, it is the larger picture of the world that is important here. The idea of the vachine are a brilliant reimagining of both steampunk ideas and vampires. With these creatures set in a world that Remic obviously has so much as yet unrevealed history for there is nowhere to go but up.

Kell’s Legend is a fast paced read. There are multiple points of view and unlike some cases, each time you return to each POV you are happy to be coming back. There are no “filler” POV’s, each is relevant and brings important information to the table. Even though I had an issue with Remic’s use of salvation by introducing a new big baddie I very much enjoyed this novel. I give it a 4/5.

Kell's Legend is published by Angry Robot Books and is currently available in the UK and Australia. It will be available in the US and Canada in May 2010.

Good Omens

Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman wrote Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch in the late 1980’s. This was long before they were Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, and it was a task they took on of their own accord. In this novel, the reader can see the beginnings of what was to come with each of these authors.

This is the tale of the coming apocalypse, ostensibly at the hands of the son of Satan, one Adam Young. Unfortunately for Satan his main minion on Earth, Crowley, and Crowley’s more celestial counterpart Aziraphale, don’t really want to give up life on Earth. Due to this, and the ineptitude of human help, the success of the ineffable plan is very much at risk.

Good Omens is a novel peopled by many colorful characters (really with these two authors at the helm one would expect nothing less). Beyond Crowley and Aziraphale we find such illustrious characters as Witchfinder Sergeant Shadwell with his obsession with the number of nipples everyone possesses (clearly an indication of your inner witchiness), Madam Tracy, Anathema Device, Newton Pulsifer, and of course Agnes Nutter herself.

One minor detractor to the brilliance of this novel is the fact that Gaiman and Pratchett repeatedly introduce characters whose only function is to provide a viewpoint on the action for a few paragraphs. After these flash in the pan characters have served this purpose they are never heard from again. While this is effective, I question whether or not this device would have been used had this book been written later in Pratchett and Gaiman's careers.

Any veteran reader of Pratchett and/or Gaiman will know just how witty and sarcastic this novel is, even without turning the first page. For instance, the Four Riders of the Apocalypse are loose in the world. Plague has been replaced by Pollution because Plague couldn’t handle the pressure after the discovery of the effectiveness of Penicillin. Famine is hugely successful in producing a line of “food” that tastes just like the real thing, but has no actual useable calories or nutrition, thus a person can gorge to the point of gluttony and still die of starvation. War is a retired arms dealer, and now the preeminent war journalist of the time, and Death is, of course, Death.

We can find some comparisons between the Discworld and the Earth of Good Omens. Death here is much more old school Death than our old friend from the Discworld, but you can chalk that up to his presence on Earth instead of in the Discworld. In one scene if you don’t blink you can even catch a glimpse of the Earth version of C.M.O.T Dibbler.

We as readers are lucky that Gaiman and Pratchett collaborated way back when before they became who they are today and had time for such a thing. This is a brilliant work that foreshadowed what was to come for each of them. Despite its few flaws it is a work well worth reading. I give it a 4.5/5.

All Together Dead

Charlaine Harris’ seventh Sookie Stackhouse novel, All Together Dead, ties up some long running plotlines in a neat little package. For several novels now the reader has been hearing of the impending Vampire Summit. Sookie is required to appear at the summit in order to snoop on other humans. Ensuring that they are not attempting to do anything underhanded in regards to Queen Sophie-Anne.

This event was originally intended to happen in New Orleans, but after Katrina hit it was moved to Rhodes. Along with the loss of the conference Sophie-Anne has lost a lot of power and money due both to Katrina and the death of her husband, the King of Arkansas. In fact at the summit Sophie-Anne is on trial for this death.

To make things even more exciting the security at the conference is exceedingly suspect during the daylight hours. No one but Sookie seems concerned about this, and she has grave misgivings. Also present at the conference are Quinn (he’s managing all the special events) and Barry (the other telepath that Sookie discovered in Living Dead in Dallas).

Since Sookie doesn’t often see Barry she takes this opportunity to practice her telepathic powers with him. Together they discover more about their abilities, and weird people out by having conversations entirely in their minds. Also Sookie finally finds out information about Quinn’s past and figures out why even vampires seem to hold Quinn in high regard.

This seems to be a pivotal moment in the series. Harris brings together several long running story arcs and closes them out. By the end Sookie has a totally different perspective than at any time in previous novels. It will be interesting to see where Harris goes next. Since this novel resolves so many long standing items it is one of the better books in the series. I give it a 4/5.