Fantasy Book Review

With the beginning of a new year come resolutions, gym memberships, budgets and more. But, honestly, none of that really matters in the face of some of the books that are coming this year. So here’s a small taste of what is coming in 2010 from some of fantasy’s best, and why I’m looking forward to them.

When I am asked to pick my favourite Terry Pratchett book, The Fifth Elephant is always on my mind as a contender. Granted, it’s a contender insomuch as the Rock would be versus Ali, but it’s still in there! There are books that follow that outshine this book, but only in the way that one star outshines a slightly smaller star.

The Elenium consists of six books and The Diamond Throne is the first book in this series. David Eddings is an author who is both loved and criticized in seemingly equal measure but no-one can deny that he writes enjoyable fantasy tales. The Elenium continues in the next volume, The Ruby Knight.

I’ve made it clear that the earlier Discworld books by Terry Pratchett aren’t as good as the latter. But when does “early” become “latter”? It happens with book number twenty, Hogfather, and continues into the twenty first novel, and the fourth City Watch story, Jingo.

Hatcher McCord is an evening newscaster who has found himself in Hell and is struggling to explain his bad fortune. He's far from the only one to suffer this fate - in fact, he's surrounded by an outrageous cast of characters, including William Shakespeare, Humphrey Bogart, Richard M. Nixon, Jezebel, Judas Iscariot, Pope Boniface VIII, J. Edgar Hoover, and a panoply of present-day figures who will soon be in Hell. The question may be not who is in Hell but who isn't

The Exodus Gate is a sometimes tough but ultimately gratifying read, a book that Fantasy Book Review recommends for lovers of thoughtful-fantasy. It is also a book with an ending that is near-prophetic, written as it was before the world’s economic meltdown.

It’s no secret that Terry Pratchett is probably one of my favourite authors. Ever since dad made me read Mort I’ve read pretty much every book he’s written in the Discworld, and a few others. I quickly found though, as I read on, that one of my favourite character veins was the Night Watch series of books, starting with Guards! Guards!

In the third instalment of Terry Pratchett’s City Watch storyline, and the nineteenth novel overall in his Discworld universe, Pratchett introduces yet more ethnic groups into the City Watch and provides us with the most unlikely of replacements for Ankh-Morpork’s Patrician.

1152 and the Templar Order face a new threat. The Templar Order fiercely guards the Holy Land, though the idealism that brought the Order to victory over five decades earlier is fading, as King Stephen fights a vicious civil war against Henry Fitzempress in England. When Raymond, Count of Tripoli, is brutally murdered a ferocious massacre ensues. Robert de Payens and Philip Mayele are sent to negotiate with the Man in the Mountain, whose sect, The Assassins, is believed responsible for the murder. The two envoys return with disturbing news: the assassination is the work of a rogue coven within the Order itself who are now headed to England. Its leader will use anything, even black magic, to defeat those who stand in his way – including the King himself…

When you read a second book of a series, it’s really the do-or-die book. It’ll either be great, draw you in and promise you that they’ll all be of a similar quality or higher, or it will be less than the original and suggest you shouldn’t pick up the third.

When two great authors get together you’re likely to get something special. Right? No, not really. In fact, if we’re being honest with ourselves, more often than not instead of combining the best of both authors, collaboration will more often than not combine the worst of both authors.