Friday, December 14, 2012
Spotlight on The SFF/Fantasy Novel to Beat in 2013 - "The Daylight War" by Peter Brett (with comments by Liviu Suciu)
A few days ago I did a post about the books of 2013 and mentioned how I already have read the "2013 book to beat" in Jean Marie Blas de Robles' masterpiece "Where Tigers Are at Home".
Well, now I have finished another novel that catapulted to the "sff/fantasy novel to beat" in 2013, namely The Daylight War by Peter Brett.
I posted some partly coherent thoughts with no real spoilers on Goodreads as I want to reread the novel at leisure in the next few days, while of course a full coherent review will come closer to publication day and these are the highlights:
"The Daylight War on the other hand just smoothly continues the action from The Desert Spear and
carries it to a great though quite abrupt ending point that begs the
next book asap - I would not say it is really a cliffhanger as, well
that would be telling but there is a literal cliff involved, and the
author has options regarding the ending, but there is no real closure
here as it was to a large extent in TDS...
Anyway, all the favorite characters from TDS return and have a lot of pages , while here the back story of Inevera is told (which of course should not be a surprise considering the cover) as the extra in addition to the push ahead; the real nasty corelings start making an appearance as "the stock" - the way they call humans - got again smart a bit too fast by their reckoning in only 300 hundred of years from the last cull as they see it, though the largest part of the book is about Jardir and Arlen directly as finally Arlen accepts his destiny, and indirectly through all the supporting characters and the mixing of cultures through alliance, trade and marriage.
...........
I want to emphasize that in this book all the promise of the earlier volumes gets fulfilled as the author delivers the "real deal", with the only downside being that we want and need the next book asap... "
Note: to make sure the title of the post is not confusing, I would note that I tend to look at the top books of the year from a few perspectives - top all around novel, top mainstream vs top sff and then top fantasy vs top sf, though of course there are only 3 books involved.
For example in 2012, my top all around and top mainstream is The Secret Keeper, top sff and top fantasy is Sharps and top sf is The Hydrogen Sonata, in 2011, top all around and top mainstream was Parallel Stories, top sff and top sf was The Clockwork Rocket and top fantasy was ADWD, while in 2010, top all around, top sff and top sf was Surface Detail, top mainstream was The Invisible Bridge and top fantasy was The Scarab Path.
And for the interested, for 2013 the top sf so far is Best of All Possible Worlds but I do not expect it to stay there as books by Adam Roberts, Paul McAuley, Christopher Priest, Greg Egan and Alastair Reynolds are the current candidates, in fantasy, Warmaster's Gate and maybe Cold Steel are the main competition for The Daylight War, though of course if KJ Parker, IM Banks, Brent Weeks have books out next year that would change.
As mainstream goes, I have no clue what will really appeal to me in 2013 beyond the known novels from Christian Cameron.
Anyway, all the favorite characters from TDS return and have a lot of pages , while here the back story of Inevera is told (which of course should not be a surprise considering the cover) as the extra in addition to the push ahead; the real nasty corelings start making an appearance as "the stock" - the way they call humans - got again smart a bit too fast by their reckoning in only 300 hundred of years from the last cull as they see it, though the largest part of the book is about Jardir and Arlen directly as finally Arlen accepts his destiny, and indirectly through all the supporting characters and the mixing of cultures through alliance, trade and marriage.
...........
I want to emphasize that in this book all the promise of the earlier volumes gets fulfilled as the author delivers the "real deal", with the only downside being that we want and need the next book asap... "
Note: to make sure the title of the post is not confusing, I would note that I tend to look at the top books of the year from a few perspectives - top all around novel, top mainstream vs top sff and then top fantasy vs top sf, though of course there are only 3 books involved.
For example in 2012, my top all around and top mainstream is The Secret Keeper, top sff and top fantasy is Sharps and top sf is The Hydrogen Sonata, in 2011, top all around and top mainstream was Parallel Stories, top sff and top sf was The Clockwork Rocket and top fantasy was ADWD, while in 2010, top all around, top sff and top sf was Surface Detail, top mainstream was The Invisible Bridge and top fantasy was The Scarab Path.
And for the interested, for 2013 the top sf so far is Best of All Possible Worlds but I do not expect it to stay there as books by Adam Roberts, Paul McAuley, Christopher Priest, Greg Egan and Alastair Reynolds are the current candidates, in fantasy, Warmaster's Gate and maybe Cold Steel are the main competition for The Daylight War, though of course if KJ Parker, IM Banks, Brent Weeks have books out next year that would change.
As mainstream goes, I have no clue what will really appeal to me in 2013 beyond the known novels from Christian Cameron.
10:51 AM | 
Posted by
Liviu |
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12 comments:
Ahhh Liviu, the last book I read is usually my favorite too! :-)
Well not really as I've read a fair amount of say 2013 books that while i liked, I knew they have no chance of being the top.
In fantasy barring a Kj Parker novel (as a new Brent weeks is really unlikely, as is the next book from Anthony Ryan), I do not expect anything to top this one until War Master's Gate - there are a fair number of interesting debuts and the new Daniel Abraham for example as well as Antiagon Fire and while I expect the latter 2 to make my top 25, I do not think they have a chance to top this one
In mainstream I have doubts there will be a book in 2013 to top the Blas de Robles book
In sf it is wide open as none of the 2 2013 sf books that I read so far and made my top 25 stands a chance against one of those mentioned plus a few more with an outside chance like Marauder...
On the other hand it is true that more recent books tend to have a more powerful impression, but I go back and look at the yearly lists once in a while and while the top 25 may vary as time goes, the top 3-5 tends to stay constant as those books got there for a reason
hey Liviu what book is Marauder? See this is a series I've kind of overlooked, fighting the demons thing just didn't seem all that big a deal, but I didn't know you liked this series this much. Think I should give it a try? I been in a fantasy slump, man. The second book sounds cooler then the first.
Marauder is a space opera standalone novel in the Shoal universe (much later after Empire of Light) from Gary Gibson - the title is from his website as Locus has another one
I was really surprised by how much I liked The Painted Man (US is warded man but I read the Uk edition); that book is spread over a longish time and may seem a little scattered but The Desert Spear and The Daylight war which are back to back and in a short period of time (plus back-story) are just awesome together and as mentioned volume 4 is just huge now
Yeah I gotta thank you again, Liviu, You got me excited about another book/series, man. lol
Oh ok, the new Gibson that's cool, I been putting off my read of Stealing Light, I haven't been on a good reading regimen lately.
So, Does it have lots of cool warrior dudes and sexy women? lol
The story is starting to sound a lot cooler now.
Well Jardir of Krasia, a desert Islamic like culture who is one of the two main heroes as main mover of action together with his former blood brother Arlen of Thesa, the sort of European medieval like culture - has something like 14 wives and 52 children though of course Inevera, his main wife and a powerful magician on her own who actually shaped his destiny from childhood is in control; so yes, lots of intriguing women...
Yeah sounds good, Thanks Liviu. How many are supposed to be in the series?
5 afaik but of course plans can change
5 planned huh? yeah I don't think I've ever heard how many were planned in this one. Yeah I think I might have made a mistake in overlooking this one....Like I misjudged the Chathrand books, and I fell in love with them. So nthe last Chathrand was pretty good, when's that review gonna be up?
as Night of the Swarm goes, hopefully this year, but at latest in January before the publication date
Glad to hear that The Daylight War is very good!
Did you mention a new Reynolds book in 2013? Do you mean a sequel to Blue Remembered Earth?
Anything new from my fave author Richard Morgan planned?
yes, Reynolds, Alastair • On the Steel Breeze (2nd Poseidon's Children) is tbp in June by Gollancz, US publication later
Dark Defiles (Land fit for Heroes 3) is 2014 - there are a few excerpts on the author site and the series with Ringil et co will be 4 it seems