Review: Night School

Night School by Lee Child
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Back in time we go, to Reacher's army days, when he packs more than a toothbrush and actually has a couple of friends. The real question is: does he kick ass? (Duh.)

We feel no qualms about his violence this time because he's punching neo-Nazis and terrorists from the Middle East before they can get their hands on - gasp! - the McGuffin. Reacher's part of a team, which is a little out of the ordinary, but twenty-one books into the series it's understandable to want some fresh blood.

Co-starring with Reacher is Sgt. Neagley, who is Reacher's perfect foil. She's beautiful, but dresses plainly. (Reacher has no time for vanity.) She's brilliant, but still asks him obvious questions. (Reacher loves explaining his logic.) She's dangerous, but hangs back until she's needed. (Reacher gets to inflict most of the damage.) She's desperately attracted to him, but she has a phobia of physical contact. (Reacher loves a woman so unattainable that he can still hook up with the second-tier love interest.)

The books are self-aware of their hypermasculinity, in the same vein as a Schwarzenegger flick, and they provide the same popcorn excitement. No danger or stakes are real, but it's well written and engaging.

View all my reviews

Review: Midnight Tides

Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A jump back in time takes a break from the dizzying action of the series thus far. (How many times have I used "dizzying" to describe these books?) Erikson dashes two cultures against each other - the warlike, forest-dwelling Tiste Edur, and the materialistic city-dwelling Letherii. And, in a surprising twist, he's cracking jokes all over the place.

Of course, the plot isn't that simple. Both sides have power struggles, intrigues, romances, revolutions, resurrections, not to mention many uses of the word "gelid". (Like, a ton of times.) And for the first time, the books get truly funny.

Erikson has toyed with humour before. Soldiers crack morbid jokes to each other, and sometimes plans go unexpectedly awry, but it's always been a drop in the ocean of the Serious Military Campaign or the Gruelling Epic Journey. The city of Lether, on the other hand, is closer to Terry Pratchett's madcap Ankh-Morpork than anything we've seen to this point. (I can't recommend Pratchett's Guards! Guards! or Men at Arms highly enough as a perfect antidote if Malazan ever gets too depressing - he's the Monty Python of fantasy.)

Over the course of Midnight Tides, the bigger picture of the Malazan story line is woven in, and, knowing some of the future, you can see the ripples spreading out across history. One of my favourites of the series so far.

View all my reviews

Review: House of Chains

House of Chains by Steven Erikson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If you've made it this far in the Malazan series, it's hard not to see the recurring pattern. A proliferation of plots at the beginning, some of which will come hurtling back together in an epic power struggle in the last act, some of which will remain mysterious and lurking in the background. There's a big cast, you forget some of them, you get some of them confused, but it all comes out in the wash eventually.

House of Chains was a weak link in this saga. Erikson's cast is so numerous that I didn't have the time to really get to know any of them. So many players are gods, ascendants, geniuses that the human motivations a reader can identify with most easily are subservient to greater purposes, destinies, and obsessions.

It seems like Erikson's general thesis is that while gods and demigods may wield great power, they cannot control, or even predict, the minds of mortals. The best moments in the Malazan books are where those opposing sides run into each other and everything runs amok. The weakest moments are when these sides seem to be running peaceably parallel, and it feels most like all the characters are being moved through the motions of Erikson's meticulous plot without any control over it.

The opening section of House of Chains was probably the most electric storytelling so far in the series. It follows a single plot line, and it's refreshing to see Erikson follow one thread for long enough to invest us in a character, even if the character is morally repugnant. This character's evolution, and the reader's changing perspective of him, is the most compelling through line of this book.

The entire multiverse in which these books take place was first designed as a setting for Dungeons & Dragons, and Erikson has said that many plot elements, including the climax of the entire series (don't tell me!) were in fact played out in the game. The books come alive when we see the chaos of real human decision making, which is the heart of D&D, and they stultify when Erikson the Dungeon Master is railroading his players through the byzantine intrigues he's dreamed up.

In total, and with the exception of the opening rampage, House of Chains is an unsatisfying session at the gaming table, where the players didn't get to be themselves. That being said, the characters and plots have sufficiently hooked me that I no longer have any choice but to continue the series. It will take more than one weak installment to put me off now.

View all my reviews

Review: Killing Floor

Killing Floor by Lee Child
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In this, the first Lee Child book, Jack Reacher is born from a Greyhound bus into middle America, where he seems doomed to wander until Child gets bored. They're all easy to read, fast paced books, and if I were one to quibble at some fantastical coincidences of plot or paper thin supporting characters, I probably wouldn't have much good to say.

Even as a fan of these books, however, Killing Floor's female lead is exceptionally cringeworthy. She's the bold lady cop on the local force until Reacher shows up, at which point she reveals that all she wants is a man to protect her. Following a minor dustup at the police station, she even collapses into Reacher's arms, telling him to "just hold me." Oh please.

(The recurring character of 'strong woman who melts in Reacher's presence' is the most unsatisfying part of most Lee Child books. I haven't read Never Go Back, but I watched the movie and Cobie Smulders is refreshingly no-nonsense. Is that character from the text, or is that from a savvier Hollywood writing team?)

The action, on the other hand, brings a handful of memorable set pieces. Child's spare prose moves quickly and he evokes menace with simple images. How about: men getting out of a panel van at night, wearing plastic suits and carrying power tools.

It's a fun book, but don't make it your first Reacher. Read when you're already feeling indulgent in the franchise.

View all my reviews