Goodreads Bookshelf
Book Reviews: Darwin's Radio and Ships of Merior
(As a side note, I have no idea why the Amazon thing isn't working for me, but it isn't. When I search Amazon through Blog-City, nothing comes up. So I had to do this manually, and it doesn't look right at all. Beats me why.)
While doing some driving around, I listened to the audio book of Greg Bear's Darwin's Radio, a bit of sci fi that I've had on my shelf for some years but never got around to reading. Well, it was a fine way to pass the time.
Here we have a collision of scientific worlds. A rogue archealogist finds a pair of neanderthal bodies high in the alps... along with a homo sapiens child... which seems to be theirs. Meanwhile, a strange virus emerges from deep within our own genes, causing women to have miscarriages followed by strange immaculate conceptions... which end in horribly disfigured still births. What's going on?
Well, that's the mystery at the center of the book. The characters are a pretty good cast all in all, well written. The plot's pretty good, with some twists, although the basic "answer" to the questions seems fairly transparent and straightforward. Still, I was glad I'd read it when I was done with it. Solid read.
Okay, I know this looks funky, in that my entry title claimed to review Ships of Merior by Janny Wurts, but the cover I'm showing is for Warhost of Vastmark. But I can explain! You see, other than the title, this is what my copy looked like. From the library, I had an older edition, in hardcover, that actually combined Ships of Merior and Warhost of Vastmark into one book, called Ships of Merior (confusing enough for you?).
In any case, these two novels are the follow-up to Curse of the Mistwraith, which I read back in August, when it was being discussed on the Fantasy Book Club on Goodreads. The author, Janny Wurts, did a great job leading the discussion and talking about her writing, and after hearing her talk about the origin of the ideas for the novels, it sounded like exactly the kind of fantasy I myself would want to write, so it should be exactly what I'd want to read, right? And yet, there was something about Curse of the Mistwraith that wasn't satisfying to me, and I think a large part of it was stylistic. I felt like it got better as it went along, and combining that with what Wurts had said about her series,I decided to hang in for at least one more book.
Which inadvertantly turned out to be two books, but that was fine since it was quite good. The first book centered around half-brother princes born into an ancient feud between their family's (on their fathers' sides--they share a mother). The half-brothers end up sent through a magical gate into another world, where they hold the key to defeating a centuries-long evil that affliced the land, the Mistwraith. To do so, they must put aside their differences to combine their innate magical gifts against the Mistwraith.
I don't want to give too much away, but thanks to the titular curse, the two princes end up embroiled in a centuries-long feud. This volume continues their feud. Lysaer, the Prince of Light, is committed to his vision of justice, which demands that his half-brother Arithon die for what Lysaer perceives to be his crimes and depravity. Arithon, Master of Shadows, wants nothing to do with the feud, so he works to avoid his half-brother and his armies.
All in all, a very good story, with strong characters, some of whom are ultimately able to change and grow, while others never can.