Hippoi Athanatoi

In 1993, Janny Wurts released The Curse of the Mistwraith, the first book of The Wars of Light and Shadow. This year, in May, the 11th and final volume – Song of the Mysteries – was published. One of the most ambitious fantasy epics begun in the 90’s had finally reached its conclusion. And that kicked my butt into action.

You see, this series had long been a source of some discomfort for me, as I am ashamed to say it was lingering unfinished on my shelf. Unless I misrecall, I picked up the first book soon after its publication and was very much taken with the concept. And, lets face it, with Arithon. Temperamental and high-strung pirate/bard/mage who unfairly gets pinned as evil and who has a penchant for getting people loyal to him killed even though he tries his best to sacrifice himself for them – what’s not to like? Now that I’ve revisited the series, the influences from Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond are very plain to see.

Alas, despite the fact that I was very much hooked from the start, I did not make it all the way initially. I read books two and three as they were published, but the four-year wait between book four and five meant that I forgot too much of the intricate plot and while I think I started book five I never finished it.

Several things contributed to this. Had it been some years earlier when this little break between books happened, I would still have had the habit of rereading books regularly, but at this time there was such a wealth of fantasy to choose from that I rarely reread things any longer. In particular, after 1997 I became deeply invested in A Song of Ice and Fire and it took up a lot of my time as a reader and as a fan.

Additionally, now that I have matured as a reader I can see that the writing in The Wars of Light and Shadow is fairly challenging. Its lush, detail-rich (some would say flowery and I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing) and sometimes quite opaque. It reminds me, now that I have the whole picture, of both Dorothy Dunnett and Stephen R. Donaldson. You do not want to rush your reading, it is so easy to miss vital details. And, at the same time, the plot and the desire to know what happens may drive you to want to do so. That was certainly a dilemma for me, even during in this reread, especially during Arch III.

Because yes, right before we went on vacation I decided that I simply had to know how this story ended. And no, I wasn’t just going to read summaries on a wiki, which meant diving right back in at the beginning with The Curse of the Mistwraith to reread the books I had read before and then going on to read the rest of the series.

This is more of an overview of my impression of each book and the series as a whole rather than a review, but there are definitely spoilers.

Guess who started this post a couple of months ago and didn’t finish until today? While, of course, reading even more that I want to review in yet another future post. ;)

My reading pace for 2024 looked good at the start, but then it slowed down markedly as I filled my schedule with way too many dog trainings and dog shows. Those re-reads I didn’t finish last year are still hanging around, though I certainly made room in my schedule for Mark Lawrence’s The Book that Broke the World, which will get its own post eventually. I also ended up picking up a Kindle reader when my Surface Go decided to die on me, so I’ve had a bit of an adjustment period. Its definitely much nicer to read on, though its not great for browsing for new books.

Some of the books I want to comment on I finished before the end of last year, but I might as well get properly caught up. I don’t remember the precise order, but lets start with The Tainted Cup, first in a new series by Robert Jackson Bennett.

Bennett has previously written two fantasy trilogies which definitely fall into the category of avoiding the classic fantasy mold. The Divine Cities features a society that one could call late 19th- or early 20th-century, though the world is in no way our own. A nation that once was the leading power thanks to its gods, has been reduced to a colonial outpost of the new world order following the death of said gods. Except, maybe not all of them are dead.  And in The Founders Trilogy Bennett creates a world where magic is a powerful technology. The scope of this trilogy feels smaller at first but quickly grows into a world-changing epic. Again, its a relatively “modern” society by standard fantasy measures, yet with strong fantastical elements.

The Tainted Cup, first in the Shadow of the Leviathan series, also features a setting that one might compare to the late 19th century, especially as it also draws a fair bit of inspiration from the literary partnership of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. It starts out as a murder mystery in a distinctly alien setting, and then the plot expands to hint at the larger threats to the world. I’ve seen it described as Sherlock Holmes meets Attack on Titan and while I had to quiz Elio about Attack on Titan, that does seem like a pretty good description.

As in his previous books, Bennett crafts a very alien world that you will definitely be intrigued by if you like unusual world-building. He also has a great sense of pacing and crafts interesting characters that aren’t your typical fantasy protagonists. The latter can be both good and bad in my book, since some authors try too hard to be different and sometimes you want that feeling of recognition, but the way Bennett does it works well for me.

Someone who (for me, anyway) falls into the category of trying a little too hard to make the characters stand out from the fantasy norms (unfortunately, I could almost see the author ticking off various “woke” checkboxes) is Hannah Kaner in Godkiller and its sequel Sunbringer. I first tried an excerpt of the first book and was intrigued but not entirely hooked. As I hit my reading binge earlier in the year, I went back to it and found myself sticking with it despite not really warming up to the initial protagonist. The premise of the world, a medieval-inspired setting where gods have been outlawed and are being hunted and killed, and the core plot of the story was enough to keep me invested. And after a while, a young girl with an intriguing companion is introduced, which makes for a nice change in the character dynamics. 

The ending includes some interesting plot twists and after finishing I went straight into the second book in the series, Sunbringer. It does a fine job of broadening the scope of the story and weaving together various plot strands featuring the different protagonists, as well as complicating the picture of the relationship between gods and men in the setting. I am certainly looking forward to the final book.

In a completely different wheelhouse altogether, and happily playing with all kinds of tropes, is Empire of the Damned, the second book in Jay Kristoff’s Empire of the Vampire series. Just like the first book it is lush and bloody, with purposefully baroque prose (drinking blood seems to have the side effect of making you speak in ‘thees’ and ‘thous’) and plenty of over-the-top characters. Gabriel de León continues to tell his story to his vampire captors, though partway through the telling a new narrator enters the picture and the two strands of the story are slowly woven together to reveal the fate of Dior LaChance, the Holy Grail.

Getting too attached to characters continues to be a terrible idea, as Gabriel is bad news for almost everyone that gets close to him, in one way or another. But even expecting that things will go badly, Kristoff still manages to twist the knife an extra turn or two on quite a few occasions. There are also some twists revealed in regards to world-building and the occult elements at the heart of the story that I quite delighted in; they felt like just the sort of twists you’d get in a gothic horror story. I am both dreading and looking forward to the final volume, the setup at the end promises more twists (and more heartache).

I’ve been slacking as a reader for quite a few years now. It used to be that I read a large stack of books each summer, a smaller one for my birthday and another good-sized stack for Christmas, plus quite a few books in-between too. But then something happened and months could pass without me reading a single book. Having more hobbies has certainly played a part, as has resorting to idly browsing social media instead of reading when I’ve had shorter stretches of free time. And, last but not least, I’ve had a harder time finding books that appeal to me. I attribute this both to some change in my tastes and, primarily, a shift in the genre.

There’s a lot of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance out there these days, genres that I am not very keen on. And while I like some romance in my fantasy, today there’s a lot of formulaic stuff that is more romance with a touch of fantasy (aka the cringingly named “Romantasy” genre). I feel like in the last decade or two, fantasy has drifted towards either more romantic or more grimdark, losing the middle ground that I used to enjoy.

Add to that an increasing number of books that appear designed to tick as many woke checkboxes as possible and be so sensitive and scared of possibly causing offense that they become utterly bland.

That said, the rereading spree that I started in 2021 with Robert Jordan and Stephen R. Donaldson did a lot to get me back on track with my reading, if not my reviewing. Maybe 2024 will be the year for that?

Gerald Tarrant, the Hunter, from the Coldfire trilogy.

In All the Seas of the World, Kay returns once more to his most frequently revisited alternate history setting, where the stories often touch upon the tensions between the followers of the three major religions: the Asharites, the Jaddites and the Kindath. I have not consciously reflected on this before, but when reading this book, I started thinking more about the choice of having these three religions be celestial, worshipping the stars, the sun and the two moons, respectively. To me, it heightens the tragedy and futility inherent in religious conflicts that their objects of worship are essentially the same things, seen in the same sky.

My discovery of The Wheel of Time preceded my introduction to the Internet with at most a year. As such, it was the first Fantasy series that I ended up experiencing in part through various on-line communities, something which paved the way for my later involvement in the A Song of Ice and Fire fandom. In fact, and this is something I have written about before, Westeros.org would not have existed if it was not for The Wheel of Time. In part because Elio and I would not have met and in part because we modelled some of our early contributions to the fandom on existing Wheel of Time-resources. And before we lost ourselves in Westeros, we spent countless hours on Wheel of Time roleplaying games, arguing lore minutiae.

As you might guess from this, and from my opinion of the later seasons of Game of Thrones, I am a nitpicky book purist. However, I will make an attempt to discuss the first three episodes of The Wheel of Time both as an adaptation and as “just” a TV show. But it is always an impossible task to completely separate an adaptation from its source material, because the very fact that it is an adaptation is an integral part of its existence.

I’ve had a bit of a pleasant problem of late. I’ve read some books that I have really wanted to write about…if it wasn’t for the fact that I had more things to read that I couldn’t stop myself from starting.

It began with an unintended reread of the first two of Stephen R. Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant chronicles. I was going to look something up in Lord Foul’s Bane and ended up reading it and the rest of the first chronicle in short order. And then I figured I might as well read the second chronicle too, since I had never read them all in close succession. It made for a great reading experience and gave me a much clearer understanding of the development of Covenants dilemma(s) and why he made different choices at the end of each chronicle. I had planned to continue to the last chronicle as well, but I needed a little breather and during that some other books snuck in and said “hey, read us!”. So, we’ll see when I get to it given the lost momentum.

I do want to heartily recommend giving the Covenant books a try. There may be a dark lord and various other well-known fantasy elements, but the writing is nothing like any other fantasy out there. And if you can’t stand Covenant because you think he’s a horrible person, then you have no empathy whatsoever. The mental agony that he is in is crushing. I do very much understand if someone can’t stand being in his head because of that, because you’re basically in the head of a drowning person that is utterly convinced that if he grabs the rope tossed to him things will actually get much, much worse.

But, if Donaldson is a little too dark and dreary for you, I’ve got some more cheerful recommendations too.

7 years ago, a dog was born that changed my life. All dogs do, one way or another, but not always this much. I wrote about this before, but I keep coming back to it. Breeze came into my life as I had begun taking anti-depressants in the wake of Ringo’s illness and started to become more able to do things with my life. That meant that the 6.5 years we shared were some of the most fulfilling of my life. We travelled to shows all over Sweden (and a few in Norway) with him and I became friends with some wonderful people thanks to him. At the same time, The World of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones gave us the opportunity to travel abroad more than I had ever done before. That was not because of Breeze, but in my mind he became deeply associated with this very happy time in my life.

Back in the early days of the Internet, I remember following some SF/F newsgroups and being utterly baffled by how so many grown women—authors, no less!—would spend a lot of time discussing a show with a really silly name. Why are these adults fans of what sounds like a cheesy show for, at best, teenagers, I wondered. So did Elio, when I told him.

Then I happened to catch part of an episode of said show, being rerun during the day. Something caught my attention and I felt like maybe we should try watching it, but it took a while before I suggested it to Elio. After all, we’d laughed about how silly it must be. But eventually we swallowed our pride and gave it a go.

That show was Buffy the Vampire Slayer and ever since then we’ve been huge fans of Joss Whedon. So when we first heard of The Nevers we were thrilled that there’d be a new Whedon show.

A review of Rule of Wolves or of the Shadow and Bone adaptation? Why not both, and a bit more on the side?

I read Shadow and Bone and the rest of the initial Grisha trilogy from Leigh Bardugo fairly soon after it came out. I do have a weakness for entertaining YA fantasy and that’s exactly how I would describe it. It is definitely a bit tropey and formulaic at times, but the writing is solid and the world different enough to feel fresh. I also have a distinct weakness for a first-person narrative and Bardugo delivers that as well, with a heroine who is interesting and has a sense of humour without being the usual “strong” female character who is sassy and kick-ass all the time. My main complaint after finishing the series was that the one formula of the YA fantasy I can do without is the tease of the female character almost hooking up with the villain/bad boy. I think it could have been quite interesting if Alina had not learned of the Darkling’s evil intentions until they were getting ready to deal with the Fold. Or at the very least somewhat later; I realise that the plot still needs her to spare the stag. I liked the overall setup of Alina’s relationship with Mal, with the good friendship and the seemingly unrequited love, but as his own character he didn’t quite come to life for me which meant that the romantic relationship felt a bit flat. What I enjoyed most about the series as a whole was probably Alina’s relationship with her power, going from suppressing it to wanting more of it and ultimately losing it all.

Guess what? The site redo stalled again, go figure. But at least I got a lot further this time. Now I am stuck pondering whether Reviews should just be folded in under this blog or if it makes sense to have proper reviews of single books, single episodes, etc separated out. Or perhaps I should just simplify the structure of the reviews so they work for covering a whole book series, a season of a show, etc.

But for now, I’ve been itching to comment on a few things that I’ve read and watched lately; Mark Lawrence’s The Girl and the Mountain (or more accurately, almost everything by Mark Lawrence), Leigh Bardugo’s Rule of Wolves as well as the adaptation of Shadow and Bone and The Nevers. I had planned on just one post, but its already growing at an alarming rate so lets do it one thing at a time.

6 years ago today, Ringo passed away. It feels like a lifetime ago and in many ways it is because together Ringo and Breeze changed my life almost completely. And now they are both gone, which my brain on some level still refuses to take in.

We learned of Ringo’s cancer towards the end of 2013. That, together with my mother’s advancing illness, sent my stress and depression spiralling out of control. I went to a doctor for the first time in many years, thinking that my blood pressure was through the roof and/or that I was about to have a heart attack the way my heart was racing. It was “just” a panic attack and severe anxiety, but it did convince me to start taking anti-depressants, which I had resisted for…well, decades.

I didn’t know it then, but it was the beginning of a very different phase of my life. In 2014, our book was published and we welcomed home Breeze, and both these events would have far-reaching consequences. The book through its amazing success and the many interviews, trips abroad and other wild experiences that it led to. And Breeze…well, without Breeze I would not have made so many new friends or become so involved in the Boxer Club through dog shows, training for working dog trials and just living a life with a boxer at the heart of it. We may have had dogs since I was quite young, but my life had never be so completely arranged around a dog as it became with Breeze.

Almost two and a half months now since the beginning of the year and Breeze’s passing. I can think about him without that horribly sharp pang of pain, but often I flash back to that first seizure on our walk. The cold sweat that immediately gripped me as my brain assumed the worst. It always does, but this time it was right. Just like it was right when Ringo started limping for no obvious reason. Of course, I have no doubt been wrong several times as well. But with Breeze…its odd, I don’t know if it was because of the surgeries for his knees and the cancer scare last autumn (that one turned out to be nothing, though), but for the last year or two I felt this almost painfully strong attachment to him. I’d often hug him in that way you do when you’re scared of losing something, as if you could hold on by hugging. I’d also feel scared that I was too happy, that things were too perfect now that I had Elio, two wonderful dogs and a horse. I am sure everyone gets these feelings, but I often get stuck in them. Well, that’s depression and incurable pessimism for you, when you feel good you are always waiting for something to go wrong.

Back to an old favourite today, a lesson blog. Writing something every time I ride became a chore even before I bought Barka (yes, that happened while blog was on hiatus, in early 2019), but it is still a good idea to occasionally write down my thoughts after a lesson. 2021 has started both well and not so well in terms of my riding. On the plus side is a happy, healthy horse (fingers crossed and all that) and the fact that I’ve had a chance to ride for Sten Åstedt every 14 days. Normally, I get a lesson for him once a month but twice now I have filled in for other regulars. Today was one such instance, we’ve had a mass of snow over night and those who needed to transport their horses to the arena couldn’t make it.

Less good is that I have been plagued by nerves. The cold weather is beautiful and lovely, but it can make the horses just a little frisky. To be honest, Barka is just a little more forward than usual and a little more alert, but when something gets on my mind, it stays there. I’ve found riding in the arena particularly difficult and that’s a bit curious because it used to be I felt much safer there than in the outdoor paddock. But what I have realised is that my fears have changed over the years. With Barka, I am much less worried about losing control over her (that was always my big fear before), but I am still worried about things happening that might scare her. Outside, I can keep an eye on my surroundings. Inside the arena, I never know when there will be a sudden sound outside the door. So its about control, but control of the environment around me rather than the horse.

It has been a while since I wrote anything here. Over 3.5 years, in fact. I’ve posted plenty to Otherworldly, but nothing about dogs, horses, books, mu*ing or life in general. For some of it, I’ve used Facebook instead. For the rest, I’ve had the occasional urge to post but found myself frustrated by the need to redesign and restructure the site. The site just ended up being an awkward reminder of the fact that I wasn’t able to muster the energy to work on it properly. I keep having things get only partially finished because of my depression and then I get even more depressed because I have half-finished things lying around.

But sometimes things happen that make me care less about my little obsessions and hang-ups. On January 1st this year, our beloved Breeze passed away at only 6.5 years of age. Out of the blue he started suffering seizures on the 31st of December and the next day we learned that he had a large brain tumour and that nothing could be done for him.

My heart is still in pieces and I miss his beautiful face and his large, comforting presence every moment of every day. He was not an easy dog but he was a wonderful dog.

I posted this on Facebook already, but this blog needs some love too, so I thought I might as well include both the post and the video of the event in question.