Recently read: The Golden Compass and The Black Company

[viktor_haag]

These are two re-reads, and they resulted in mixed feelings.

The Golden Compass
This book is the first in the well known "His Dark Materials" series by Philip Pullman, written for a young adult readership. Pullman is a good writer, and it shows in this book. The off-centre alternate world setting is deftly presented, the gradually un-folding storyline is revealed to the reader at a pace coincident with the young protagonist. The second time around, the allegorical elements of the background became more evident, especially near the end, but still, the story never felt like a metaphysical travelogue. One of the complaints people have levelled at this series is that Pullman's characters are not immediately engaging, and after the re-read, I have to agree. One secret to Rowling's success is her ability to invite her readers to really care about her characters, and this is not something Pullman seems particularly skilled at. Ergo, there is a reserve and a distance about this book. But in the other aspects, Pullman is skilled enough to keep you going. His pacing is good, his setting well constructed, his plot reasonably done. Oddly enough, while ostensibly written as a young adult novel, I'm not sure that (because of the reserved tone) it will actually be all that interesting to its target audience; rather, I think it's more attractive to older readers who are patient and don't always need an immediately thrilling empathy with the protagonists.

The Black Company
As Steve Erikson (I believe) has commented, people may not have noticed, but Glen Cook changed modern fantasy. The keystone of Cook's oeuvre is his series of books about The Black Company, a bunch of talented, bad-ass, yet human mercenary sell-swords with a storied history caught up in a world (and reality) shattering stormcloud of strife. Cook's background is imaginative and his approach is (was) novel: his characters talk and act like seedy modern-age soldiers, despite the epic fantasy setting. But I still find his books hard to connect to. I find the modern character approach a bit of a barrier to immersion, actually, and Cook's setting and action descriptions I find strangely impenetrable. This did not change with my re-read of this book (actually, I think it may be my third go through). Unlike Erikson (whose style owes a huge debt to Cook, and acknowledges it), there's something just un-engaging about Cook's books. At times I feel like I'm reading them for medicinal purposes, and I'm getting a bit too long in the tooth to continue doing that. I'm not sure I will continue or finish this series: it may take much willpower. But Cook does not lack for imagination -- if the things that I find hard to engage with in his books don't bother you as a reader, then you really should treat this series as essential to your fantasy bookshelf as Tolkein, Leiber's Fafhrd and Grey Mouser books, Wolfe's Book Of The New Sun, etc. (And now, almost certainly, Erikson's Malazan Empire books.)

Comments

[jkahane.livejournal.com]

Insofar as The Golden Compass is concerned, I think you have to remember that a lot of the folks who read the Harry Potter series are now older, too, so perhaps Pullman's work will appeal to them. Only time will tell, and sales of the books after the first movie comes out. :)

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Yep, good point. Frankly, I like Pullman and Nix better than Rowling. But it's hard to deny that Rowling has that ineffable knack of writing characters that make them immediately accessible to the reader (rather like Stephen King).

[jkahane.livejournal.com]

I find myself in agreement with you about the Pullman and the Nix, as opposed to the Rowling. Both the His Dark Materials and Abhorsen series were more oriented towards older readers than the Potter series, so that may have been the appeal to me. Rowling's stuff definitely had the appeal to readers on this side of the Pond, for sure.

[maliszew.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on Cook. I so want to enjoy these books, but, for some reason, they never connect with me. I have the exact problem you have: they're just impenetrable and un-engaging, even though I wish otherwise.

[mneme]

Cook's definitely got some odd writing weaknesses, despite the strengths of his books (though the Garett novels seem not to suffer from this problem, unlike the Black Company, the Dread Empire, and his more recent Insturmentalities series).

What's up with the Erikson novels? I've never glanced through them.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Erikson's writing is in the vein of military fantasy like Glen Cook. His world building is excellent and the background in the novels is deep and has the tone of veracity. Supposed to be a series of ten books, so far six (seven?) are available. 'Gardens of the Moon' is the first, available from TOR in the US. It's quite good, but you need to stick with it past about the first 100 to 150 pages. The author doesn't do any handholding, so he just dumps you into this complex background with tons of characters and leaves you to sink or swim.