Category: Reviewed

The Book of Deacon — Joseph R. Lallo

By 5t4n5

The Book of Deacon -- Joseph R. LalloAlthough this is the fifth book in The Book of Deacon series, this is where the story truly begins.

In this book we follow the journey of a young woman, Myranda, as she gets all mixed up in the game between The Chosen and the D’Karon: it’s quite a journey.

It’s also a bit of an info dump, in that this is where we learn, through Myranda’s journey, how magic works in this world.   But it’s not a tedious info dump, the info is blended seamlessly into the story and everything just flows along at a really good pace and you never get any down time.

And we also end up back at Entwell during this story and discover what became of our sweet little fairy Ayna, and also get to know a few more of the characters there: which is always good.   There’s even a cute little baby dragon, and we all like dragons, especially cute little baby ones.   Joseph always throws a cute little beasty thing into his stories and they do make for a lot of fun.

This was my second reading of The Book of Deacon Anthology and it’s actually better than i remember it.   It really is one of the best fantasy series out there IMHO.   If you like fantasy, or are fantasy curious, then this series is a great one to read.

Joseph’s Page

#fantasy #josephrlallo

The Rules of the Game — Joseph Lallo

By 5t4n5

The Rules of the Game -- Joseph LalloCurrently the fourth story in The Book of Deacon series.

When i first read The Book of Deacon several years ago, this short story wasn’t available and the difference is very noticeable when you go straight into The Book of Deacon from this short: it’s a much better beginning.   So, IMHO, a must read for anyone before starting The Book of Deacon.

As with The Rise of the Red Shadow this story also tells us of one of the Chosen prior to the events in the main story.   It also does dragons really well, and any book that does dragons really well is a great book.   We liked this one very much.

There are two ways i know to get a copy, one is to sign up to Joseph’s newsletter and you’ll get it for free, the other is by buying the Lone Wolf Anthology.

Joseph’s Page

#fantasy #josephrlallo

Entwell Origins: Ayna — Joseph R. Lallo

By 5t4n5

Entwell Origins: Ayna -- Joseph R. LalloThe 3rd book in The Book of Deacon series is a little novella about a fairy named Ayna.

It covers a few aspects of Entwell that aren’t dealt with in the main story: like how fairies are captured and used as compasses to guide people through The Cave of the Beast.   Mostly, it does this through a young fairy named Ayna who has different ideas on what a fairy should aspire to once they reach Entwell.

I read the copy in The Book of Deacon Anthology and while it’s a nice little story i felt this had a few too many typos which become detracting at times.   Maybe someone needs to go back and correct all these little annoying errors and put out an update.   But, for now, it’s still worth a read to add a bit more to ones knowledge of Entwell and its inhabitants.

Joseph’s Page

#fantasy #josephrlallo

Seeking the Shadow — Joseph R. Lallo

By 5t4n5

Seeking the Shadow -- Joseph R. LalloThe second book in The Book of Deacon series.

This little short follows on directly after The Rise of the Red Shadow.   Someone is hunting Lain — again — and is closing in rapidly.

A really good little short.   Not really necessary to enjoy the main series, but absolutely essential if you enjoy the main series.

Joseph’s Page

#fantasy #josephrlallo

The Rise of the Red Shadow — Joseph R. Lallo

By 5t4n5

The Rise of the Red Shadow -- Joseph R. LalloAt the time of writing this is the very first book in The Book of Deacon series, and what a book.

Essentially, it’s just an introduction to one of the series’ main characters, Lain, aka, The Red Shadow.

Lain is a kind of human/fox hybrid creature known as a Malthrope: which is where all his problems begin.   Malthropes are feared, hated, despised, distrusted and hunted to near extinction by almost everyone, and it’s only by pure chance that Lain is not killed when he is captured as a kit after his mother is killed.   But it’s a chance with a rather serious problem: he’s only being kept alive as a slave until he’s big enough for his tail to reach to the required length for his owner to claim the bounty on it.   And if that’s not enough, as a slave he is forced to work with the other slaves who all hate, distrust and despise him and are more than eager to let him know — apart from one old blind slave who seems to have different ideas about him.

Although this is only an introduction to Lain, it’s over 400 pages long and is a complete story in its own right; so if all you want is a taster for the rest of the series, it’s a great book to taste.

Action packed, lots of other great characters coming in and out of the story, twists and turns, engrossing, enjoyable.   Lain is a character you really want to root for.

This book can also be found in The Book of Deacon Anthology.

Joseph’s Page

#fantasy #josephrlallo

Indra Station — Joseph R. Lallo

By 5t4n5

Indra Station -- Joseph R. LalloAnother long awaited book in the Big Sigma series has been read and finished.   I say “long awaited” like it’s been years since i read book 4 when it’s only been a few months, but a few months feels like a few years because i love this series so much.

Did it match the expectations?   Now that’s the question with this book.

From the very beginning of Big Sigma the whole series has been a whole lot of fun, and i’ve always felt that Joseph was having a lot of fun writing it, and that’s what i’ve come to expect.   But this book is different.   It’s still a good, enjoyable and engaging read, but it’s just not the fun filled Big Sigma that we’re used to, and i think it’s for a good reason.   Sometimes in a big story like this there has to come a moment or two of important decisions for one of our favourite likeable/loveable characters where things that have been simmering away for too long are now getting overcooked and need eating.   So Lex books the best, most expensive and exclusive restaurant on Operlo for dinner with Michella and the chaos and shenanigans begin: pushing the boundaries of what’s believable and what’s ridiculous but never quite crossing them, while at the same time giving us really wonderful characters to enjoy that are so good you kind of widen those boundaries just because.   And that’s what makes this such a great series of books: a writer that is not only willing to push your boundaries to make such exciting and enjoyable stories but is also able to give you such great characters that you’re willing to widen your boundaries as well.

And that ending!   Joseph got called a few choice words last night when i finished this book.   As Nick Patel would say, “Not many writers have the ‘fortitude’ to end a book like that.”

And that brings me back full circle.   It’s the ending that makes sense of this book, what it’s all been buiding up to and why it doesn’t have that usual Big Sigma vibe to it.

And it certainly leaves one wondering just where this story is going to go from here.   I, for one, can’t wait to find out and i’m certainly left looking forward eagerly to book 6?   Ooooh yeah!

And as soon as i finished this i engaged the “Infinite Improbability Drive” in “The Pile” and it chose The Crescents, which means that i now have to read the whole of The Book of Deacon series.   You see, even the “Infinite Improbability Drive” really likes Joseph’s books — can’t get a better recommendation than that.

Joseph’s Page

#scifi #josephrlallo

Woken Furies — Richard Morgan

By 5t4n5

Woken Furies -- Richard MorganAnd so, after the fantastic, Altered Carbon, followed up by the enthralling, but not quite as good, Broken Angels, i had decided not to expect anything from this book other than a couple more incredible sex scenes like the first two books had.

And i was still left utterly disappointed.

The sex scenes in this book are like Richard just couldn’t be bothered.   The incredible, imaginative stuff of the first two books had gone and in its place was just crude basic crap with the word “cunt” used far too often like Richard was a 4 year old who just learned a naughty word and is trying to impress all his friends with it.   Really, that’s what it was like.   It’s like someone else wrote half of this book.

It’s not like the great ideas and a good story that were in the first two books weren’t there any more, they were, and that aspect of it was just as good and just as enthralling.   It’s just the telling of it and the writing of it felt totally different.

I felt a bit of this in book two, compared to book one, and this third book continues the downward trajectory.

Did the editor get changed?   Because whoever edited this book needs sacking.   You really have to stop and pause while you work through conversations trying to decide if someone’s thinking or speaking or whatever because the punctuation is completely missing.

Too many faults in a really good story.   What could have been an amazing book is left to be bearable to read once and i can’t ever see myself reading this trilogy ever again.

Richard’s Page

#scifi #cyberpunk #richardmorgan

Broken Angels — Richard Morgan

By 5t4n5

Broken Angels -- Richard MorganAfter the fantastic, Altered Carbon, it was straight into this, the second book in the trilogy.   And after Altered Carbon i had exceptionally high hopes for this book, which, admittedly, one should maybe not do, but one can but hope.   Did it meet the expectations?

Not quite.

But i certainly wasn’t disappointed.   Like Altered Carbon, it kept me turning the pages, but whereas Altered Carbon is set on Earth, Broken Angels is set on a planet far, far away.   And it’s that one single difference that, for me at least, lets this book down a tiny, tiny bit.   I just didn’t feel involved any more because it’s so far out from the world as i know it that it doesn’t capture me like a book set on Earth does.

Normally, one doesn’t notice these things.   Usually, a sci-fi trilogy is set solely on other planets in a different time with lots of the same characters re-appearing, and it all just flows nicely and feels complete within itself.   But this jump from a story based mostly on Earth, with towns and places that we can all relate to, to being based completely on another planet, far, far away, with only one common character, is like reading something that’s not a trilogy any more.

Having said that though, it’s still a good book.   But it’s just not the flowing trilogy that i had hoped for and expected from the first book.   As the saying goes:

“Expectation is the mother of all fuck ups”

Yeah, maybe i shouldn’t have expected that, and to be fair, this book does point out that if you don’t have any expectations and then you will be ready to deal with anything.

Anyways, now i’m not expecting anything with the third book, Woken Furies — which i’ve started reading immediately after finishing Broken Angels — but more of Takeshi Kovacs running amok while killing lots of people, causing lots of mayhem and thinking lots of philosophical points to justify doing so along the way.   And he’s already doing that in the first 10 pages.

Although, maybe i lied.   I do expect a couple more rampant sex scenes written into it and i’ll be quite disappointed if they’re not there.   Both the first two books have had 2 very descriptive and very inventive sex scenes, so this book had better do as well.

All in all though, to sum it up, a very good read if you like lots of death, mayhem, corporate villains, with some highly descriptive sex scenes thrown in.   Oh, and i almost forgot, there’s even some Martians as well — yeah, like real Martians.

Richard’s Page

#scifi #cyberpunk #richardmorgan

Life Of Pi — Yann Martel

By 5t4n5

Life Of Pi -- Yann MartelWhat an utter mess the film made of this incredible book.

I’m not sure i’ve ever been hit by such a powerful and moving ending in any book i’ve ever read as much as the one in this. I’m ever so glad i didn’t watch that crappy film first, it would have totally ruined the book experience.

If you consider what people thought of the nazis turning books into flame and smoke, then what should we think of people who take great literature and turn it into 2 dimensional shit?

I’ll write a proper review of this book when i re-read it in a few years time: i need to let my experience of the film get washed out good and proper before i go back to the book.

I do hope the people that made that 2 dimensional shit out of this wonderful book come across this page.

Coz this is for you . . .

Yann’s Page

#yannmartel