05-20-2008, 05:02 PM
OK, finished book #3 "Last Argument of Kings".
It rocks.
This could be termed the "Anti-Fantasy" trilogy. The classic 2-D characters that populate the genre are all here at first glance, but the subsequent books reveal ambivalence, greed, uncertainty, raciscm, substance-abuse, self-loathing, self-deception, inhuman arrogance, unlikely redemption, tainted success, gradually evolving the characters into complex humans and resolving the various crises in ways that satisfy, frustrate, and leave you sad at the same time.
It is what can happen to a genre work when it is written by someone who knows it inside and out, but also know human foibles and can actually write interacting, evolving, characters. Various shades of anti-heroes and anti-villains. It's all gray, and not at all pretty.
It rocks.
This could be termed the "Anti-Fantasy" trilogy. The classic 2-D characters that populate the genre are all here at first glance, but the subsequent books reveal ambivalence, greed, uncertainty, raciscm, substance-abuse, self-loathing, self-deception, inhuman arrogance, unlikely redemption, tainted success, gradually evolving the characters into complex humans and resolving the various crises in ways that satisfy, frustrate, and leave you sad at the same time.
It is what can happen to a genre work when it is written by someone who knows it inside and out, but also know human foibles and can actually write interacting, evolving, characters. Various shades of anti-heroes and anti-villains. It's all gray, and not at all pretty.
In the Tudor Period, Fencing Masters were classified in the Vagrancy Laws along with Actors, Gypsys, Vagabonds, Sturdy Rogues, and the owners of performing bears.