This is the second of Hobb’s “Liveship Traders” trilogy, following Ship of Magic. In that volume we discovered the city of Bingtown, which perches on the Cursed Shore near the mouth of the Rain Wild River. We also discovered the Bingtown “liveships”, ships made of rare wizardwood from up the Rain Wild River that with time actually come to life and can speak and move for themselves. (The face of a liveship is its figurehead, naturally.) We met a range of people, including Althea Vestrit, who was cheated of command of the liveship Vivacia and wishes to regain it; her nephew Wintrow, priest-in-training, who is forced against his will to travel with Vivacia; his sister, Malta, who is young, callow, melodramatic, ignorant, and rash; and Kennit, a pirate captain who wishes to be a pirate king.

We also met the mad liveship Paragon, who twice set out with a full crew and returned later (years later, in one case) capsized and empty. When he returned the second time, his face hewn with an axe so that he could no longer see, his owners beached him. For many years, Paragon has been chained above the high watermark so that he can never float again.

Now Kennit has taken Vivacia, and Althea’s only chance to recover her is to restore mad Paragon to service. Meanwhile, war is brewing with Chalced…and very odd things are happening far up the Rain Wild River.

In general, I like this book rather better than its predecessor; we actually begin to learn a few things about the origin of the liveships and a number of other mysteries, and at this point in the story arc the more childish of the principal characters have gained a pleasant taste of maturity. I confess that I picked up the third book in the trilogy, Ship of Destiny, no more than an hour after laying this one down.

As a side note, the author’s biography points out something I hadn’t previously noticed: Hobb has also written under the pen name “Megan Lindholm”, including one book (The Gypsy) with Steven Brust.

This is the third of Norton’s “Witch World” novels, at least according to one publication scheme, and it has an entirely different flavor than its predecessors.

Across the ocean from Estcarp lie the dales of High Halleck. The dalesmen have just concluded a war against the Hounds of Alizon, Estcarp’s neighbors and enemies; they have done so with the help of fell warriors called the Were-Riders, and now it is time for repayment. Thirteen virgins of the Dales must willingly go with the Were-Riders as brides, never to return to High Halleck.

The story is told from the viewpoint of one of the chosen thirteen, a young lady named Gillan. Gillan is an orphan of the war; and it soon becomes clear that her parents were of Estcarp, for she has strange powers (powers she wisely keeps hidden), and can see the Were-Riders as they are, rather than as they seem. This leads her into great danger.

The difference in tone between this book and its predecessors is vast. The narration is first-person rather than third, with the result that our immersion in Norton’s world is enhanced. The tale is told purely as a fantasy, rather than as an uncomfortable mixture of fantasy and science fiction. Most important, Gillan’s voice is much richer than the flat, transparent third-person prose of the Simon Tregarth books.

I don’t know where these three books lie in Norton’s overall output, but it appears that between the second and third something clicked.

This is the second of the Norton’s “Witch World” books, and it has
precisely the same strengths and flaws as its predecessor, being
essentially the second half of one complete story: the battle of the
people of Estcarp against men of Kolder. Like Simon Tregarth, our hero,
the men of Kolder are from another world; and like Tregarth, their
home world is one of science, indeed, one where science is greatly
advanced over that of Earth. Tregarth’s knowledge of science gives him
an edge, and with the help of his wife, Jaelithe, and the mind powers
they share, the Kolder-men are eventually destroyed.

It’s not a bad tale–certainly it kept me turning pages–but it feels
rather dated. The “super-science” of the Kolder-men hasn’t worn well,
and their very name, “Kolder”, i.e., “colder”, is a little too obvious.
The result is a tale that seems plenty deep and satisfying as one reads
it, but appears much less substantial on later reflection. It’s a tale
well-told, but there’s something lacking. Or is there? I’m really not
sure. All I can say is, there’s something of substance there while I’m
reading it, but it fades away with the dawn.

Captain Yips has some interesting reflections on the effects of modern communications technology on the plot of C.S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength.

My (brief) review of Robin Hobb’s Golden Fool has garnered some comments from Michael Cleverly, including some comparisons with other books. As it has scrolled off the main page, I’m linking to it here, just in case anyone else would like to participate in the discussion.

Recently my brother challenged me to give Andre Norton another try, as a lot of her stuff is back in print. And I have, and I’ve been reasonably surprised–there’s more to her work than I had remembered. More embarassingly, it’s become clear that the reason I didn’t like some of her books on first attempt is that I was too young (and too impatient) to appreciate them. Now, the series for which Norton is best known is her “Witch World” series; my siblings had a number of books from the series, including the present title, and though I had tried to read it several times I never got very far. The blurb was interesting–a man from our world, a fugitive, is transported to a strange land in another universe, a land of magic and witches. But somehow the book itself never grabbed me.

Whilst visiting Portland last fall, with all of the riches of Powells Books spread before me, I decided it was time to give Witch World and its sequels another try.

Simon Tregarth, soldier of fortune, is being hunted by some men who have betrayed him. Expecting to be taken at any time, he stops for one last fine meal–and is contacted by a man who offers him a chance to escape, forever. If he will but sit on an ancient stone, the Siege Perilous, it will transport him to another world…and not to any world, but to the world where he will best fit in. He arrives in a desolate location in time to save a young women from the fangs of the Hounds of Alizon. She, it develops, is one of the nameless witches of the land of Estcarp. He adopts her land as his own, and devotes his skill at warcraft to defending Estcarp from its many enemies.

There’s more here than I remembered, and less than I had hoped. Norton is a consummate storyteller, and writes with a spare and lean voice in which every word tells. It’s easy to see why I didn’t like the book as a kid; I was a voracious reader, but I see now that I wasn’t a good reader. I surfed along the top of the paragraphs, catching the gist of the story and leaving behind everything that didn’t advance the plot–or that didn’t fit my preconceptions of what the book was supposed to be about. You can’t read Norton like that; she doesn’t tell you twice, and she doesn’t rub your nose in what’s going on. You must read her prose carefully, or you’ll miss things.

That said, I found the book to be rather pedestrian–if it’s better in the small details than I remembered, it’s by no means her best. Still, I liked it well enough to return to Powells and pick up three more from the series. More on those another time.

This, yet another installment in the ever-expanding saga of Recluce, is the immediate sequel to Wellspring of Chaos, which I reviewed last year.

It’s a typical entry in the series: order wizard discovers his powers as he fights (nearly single-handedly) an increasingly nasty series of battles with chaos wizards, vanquishing all of them in his own peculiar style. It is, alas, a well-worn formula. The book (with its predecessor) stands out from the rest of the series in two ways: it’s set in a part of the world we’ve not seen before, and our hero’s order magic is rather different than that of any of Modesitt’s previous heroes.

In short–it’s an enjoyable enough tale if you’ve enjoyed the rest of the series, but there are few surprises here.

Julie D. looked up the first lines of some of her favorite books, and wrote down the ones that grabbed her. Judging by the many books on the list that I’ve read and enjoyed, I might have to go find some of the ones on the list I’ve never heard of.