The Quest

Well the trip went fine. Las Vegas seems to be much the same as always; the crowds a little thinner than I've seen before though, probably due to the economy. I had quite a bit of time to read though and completed both books I brought along. The first was The Quest, by Wilbur Smith. As I mentioned before, this is the fourth and perhaps final volume of his ancient Egyptian series, which began with the excellent The River God followed by The Seventh Scroll and Warlock. Many folks have commented on the declining quality of this series and I see that, as well, to some extent. The first book was just so outstanding (it's in my top 10 list of all time great reads) that some deterioration was inevitable. This book seems to have received some brutal reviews though.

The book continues the story of Taita, a "long-liver" sage who sets off to solve and set right a series of plagues that are hitting the Nile Valley. Turns out the source is the evil "God" Eos. The cat and mouse confrontation between these two form the basis of the novel. Another major plot thread is the reincarnation of Taita's true love from the first book in the series. Since Taita is an enoch from way back, the author finds a way to have his manhood regrown through a process akin to using stem cells. I'll admit to this whole sub plot being extremely convenient for the main characters, a bit too contrived for my taste.

I think many people have problems with this book because it is not what they are expecting. This entire series is billed as "historical fiction" and the first book certainly seemed to be so but that moniker has long since worn off. The series has transposed into fantasy, pure and simple. The title itself is indicative of the genre and there are numerous examples of true magic throughout the book: pillars turning into faces that give directions, Taita turning invisible at will or mind travelling over great distances to give messages to others. Whatever historical accuracy might exist here is beside the point. Also, this is a fairly erotic novel with numerous sexual innuendos and some downright graphic sex scenes in it. This is my 6th Wilbur Smith book and although he does put in quite a few erotic encounters I think this is his rawest novel so far of the ones I've read.

I've pointed out some of the negative aspects of this novel, but there are positive points also, particularly if you don't mind the fantasy aspects. The story itself flows well and urges the reader to keep turning pages to see what happens next. The author has a way of allowing the reader in to his characters' minds making it realistic despite the very nature of the fantasy involved. And it's a downright fun book to read. A grand adventure full of danger, excitement, pitfalls, triumphs, and a good, satisfying ending. There is a definite end but should the author wish to continue the series, there is room for it to keep going. If he does, I will continue along with him.

More tomorrow on the second book from my trip.

Warlock

Today, I completed the reading of Warlock, the third book in Wilbur Smith's ancient Egyptian tetrology. It is a relatively lengthy book coming in at 735 paperback pages and so it took me a while to finish it. But I used some of my precious morning reading time for the past two days to supplement my normal reading hours in order to get it done. That sounds bad...like I was hoping for it to be over with. That's not at all the case because I really like these characters as well as Wilbur Smith's writing.

This book, chronologically, is a direct follow-up to the first book in the series, River God which ranks among my all time favorite historical novels. The second book of the series, The Seventh Scroll actually takes place in the present day and concerns some archeologists/anthroplogists that become embroiled in a mysterious adventure dealing with the events of the first novel. So now, here in the third novel, the author returns to the era of Taita, his protagonist of River God, attempting to recreate the magic (and the hugely popular reviews) of that book. So the question is...did he achieve that? Was he able to garner the forces of whatever muse inspired him that other time?

Pretty close. This isn't the super shining star that was River God but it is a shining star none the less. I think there are two main differences between the two novels that led this novel to be inferior to the first. One is that it isn't the first. Had this one been the first of a series or a stand-alone novel it might well have been held to the same high esteem. But since we have River God to which to compare it, it loses a little bit in the originality department. But not much I have to say. The prose is equally well done and the pace of the novel is spot on. It reads easily like a quick novel despite it's length. There were only a couple of spots where I wished events would speed up. The plot itself is not unique, basically a story of bad guys usurping power from the rightful good guys and how the good guys make things right and come back into power. But since the good guy's army is always outnumbered, he and his allies must use intelligence to find ways to win battles. It sort of reminded me of "Braveheart" in the numbers of ways outnumbered armies can find cool ways to win.

The other main difference that makes this novel slightly inferior to River God is that it is told in third person point of view. This is probably necessary because this time Taita is not always where the action is occurring. We have multiple major characters all over Egypt making it impossible for 1st person POV. But the author loses the intimacy that comes with 1st person POV. In River God we really know the character of Taita and come to understand his foibles as well as his matter-of-fact superiority to those around him. We know his thoughts when he acts as puppet master whereas in this book, he seems more aloof and somehow, less interesting. There are times, especially during the climactic scenes near the end where he is hardly involved.

All in all I enjoyed this book as a darn good read despite the inevitable comparisons I had to make to an actual masterpiece. The next, and I think last book in this series is The Quest which has not received good reviews although I will be reading it for sure. Perhaps the author went to the well one too many times? I'll let you know.

I also finished the next short story in Stephen King's Skeleton Crew collection, "The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands." First published in 1982 in the horror anthology "Shadows 4", it is a story told by an elderly man about a poker game he once played that included a man that would not shake hands with anybody else. After that man wins a big hand, the loser enthusiastically shakes his hand in congratulations, causing the horror that ensues. Turns out there was a curse placed on him by an Indian shaman which results in his touch causing death to any living thing. This was an interesting story, more for the way Mr King crafted it rather than for the plot itself. It seemed almost Lovecraftian in style, the words painting the suspense and the mystery for what turned out to be a relatively straight forward story.

Next up: Daughter of Kura by Debra Austin, another Amazon Vine pre-publication offering.

The Seventh Scroll

We made it back from our Spring Break trip. It was a lot of driving and we did have to delay a day to dodge a blizzard but all in all it was a good time. And since there are now 4 drivers in our family, I got quite a bit of time to read :)

All told I read about 1200 pages during the 6 days. The first book actually took most of the time due to its length. The Seventh Scroll, by Wilbur Smith is the follow-up to River God and as you may recall from my January blog entry, River God was one of the best historical novels I had read in a long time. The Seventh Scroll was meant to be read after River God but it is not exactly a sequel. It actually takes place in the present day with a couple of archeologist types who are out to discover the hidden tombs that were depicted in the first book. What an intriguing concept! What we got to live through before is now seen through the eyes of history, including all the distortions of history that are bound to happen. Afterall, what we assume to be true through archeological research isn't necessarily the way it really happened.

The author does another intriguing thing in this book. He inserts himself into his own fiction, having a main character refer to Wilbur Smith as having authored the fictional River God from information uncovered in the first 6 scrolls found in the tomb. Of course it is the 7th scroll that the characters are after in this second book. This leads to some funny moments as the two main protagonists argue about just how accurate Wilbur Smith was in the first book; one of them goes so far as to dismiss Mr Smith as a hack writer who changes the historical record in order to include more sex and violence. It's a twisted loop whereby an author actually negatively critques his own work...I guess you have to be pretty secure in your own writing career to do that. Regardless, it works wonderfully here.

The book itself was only slightly less enjoyable than the first. When you get right down to it, this is a pretty straight forward adventure/treasure hunting story along the likes of "Romancing the Stone". But Wilbur Smith is an outstanding writer who has a knack for making you read just a little more and then still more despite any deadlines you may have to deal with. You know the two main characters will hook up by the end but its not predictable how that happens. The dangerous scenes in the book are really dangerous and the suspense is spot on. As for historical accuracy...everything sure seemed to be accurate based on my limited knowledge of ancient Egypt and my trip to that country a few years ago. I hadn't planned on reading this series this year but now I am already looking forward to the third book, Warlock, where we get to return to the ancient times and see what happens next!

However, that would have to wait as I had other books with me on the trip. More about that in the next post.

The New Year 2009

I'm a little late getting started with my journal this year. I wanted to start the year with a sure-fire hit and so I chose Wilbur Smith's River God. I had read a couple of his other books in past years: Birds of Prey and Monsoon so I knew it would at least be a fun book to read. I wasn't disappointed! It was a great read, a real page turner. This one is the best Wilbur Smith novel I have read yet. It is also the first of his ancient Egypt series so I look forward to others.

From there I went to my fantasy pile. By far the largest genre in my "to-be-read" pile is fantasy so I tend to read more fantasy than any other genre in an effort to catch up. I chose the first book in Naomi Novik's series about dragons fighting in the Napolenonic era, His Majesty's Dragon. I have looked forward to this for over a year; it gets a lot of good press in the forums I visit. I was also a bit worried because it comes close to what my own novel is to be like, at least the concept of dragons fighting alongside humans in a military setting. But after completing Ms Novik's novel I feel comfortable that mine will be sufficiently different. But I did enjoy reading the novel. Good character development and a very interesting plot and setting. I believe the first three novels of her series were all published at the same time so I am wondering if they were originally one novel and the publisher chose to publish them seperately. I know that sort of thing happens. However, this first book was well paced with a definite climax and ending so perhaps that is not the case at all.

I always have other books going as well, reading them over a much longer time period (several weeks or even a month or two). My morning reading (what I read before going to work each day) is All My Best by George Bush. This is a collection of letters by my country's 41st President that covers his life. I received this as a gift about 7 or 8 years ago and it just never seemed to fit what I like to read. But I am enjoying it more than I suspected I would and it fits well into my morning reading time slot when I can only devote 20 minutes or so to reading. This morning's reading saw George end his tenure as chairman of the RNC during the Watergate era and become the US liaison to China.

I also read "while otherwise engaged", also known as WOE reading. I hate to waste time doing anything and so I choose to read while doing my business in the ol' water closet. I tend to read classics this way (because I might not ever get to them otherwise) and in the past have read such greats as The Jungle, The House of Seven Gables, The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes, The Complete Works of O. Henry, The Phantom of the Opera, Catch-22, and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. This isn't really a testament to how much time I spend on the john but to my age (mid 40's). But I do read non classical stuff WOE and currently my WOE reading consists of Joy Hakim's American History set, The History of US, aimed at young adults. We had our home schooled children read these so I felt I ought to as well. I normally read one volume a year WOE and I am up the Civil War volume (6 or 7 I believe).

That all brings me to my current main title selection, a science fiction entry in the Babylon 5 universe. But this post is quite long enough already so I will put that in the next post. Besides, it's lunch time and I'm getting hungry!