The Riddle

Title: The Riddle
Series: The Chronicles of Pellinor #2
Author: Alison Croggon
Pages: 512 (paperback)
Published: May 2nd 2005
Published by: Walker Books

Maerad is a girl with a tragic and bitter past, but her powers grow stronger by the day. Now she and her mentor Cadvan, pursued by both the Light and the Dark, are seeking the Riddle of the Treesong. This mysterious Riddle holds the key to restoring peace to her ravaged kingdom and defeating the enemies she is fated to battle. But what is the true nature of those enemies, and of the Riddle? And is Maerad herself the greatest riddle of all?

Maerad is a former slave, freed from her life of thraldom by the magic-wielding Bard Cadvan. He is now her mentor, and together they are trying to solve to riddle of the Treesong, hard when no one even really knows what it is or where to find it. In this, the second part of the Chronicles of Pellinor, we see them traverse vast plains, huge mountain ranges and cross the frigid north all in the search for information, following hints and half-clues.

This book pretty much immediately picks up where The Gift leaves off. Maerad and Cadvan are making their way to Thorold, seeking to escape the wrath of Enkir, and most of the first chapter is the typical 'this is what happened in the last book' reminders. It's a bit cumbersome, but the story soon reasserts itself, and it was nice seeing Maerad especially settle into being a School: for one thing, it wasn't just her and Cadvan riding around in the wilderness. While this is where most of the action takes places, I enjoy seeing the different cultures which Croggon has created in this world, and as far as I can work out the Throldians seem to be something akin to Italian. Loud, boisterous, but passionate and utterly dedicated to those they care about.

And is is here that Maerad finally begins to find herself as a person. She grows into who she is, shielded here somewhat from the dangers that have pursued her thus far. She grows in different ways through the rest of the story, but it was nice to see her just being a young girl here. I've got to say I don't really like the way in which this growth is achieved by the author later in the book. A different device was used than often, and while the events following it make sense, I wish that the trigger could have been different because for me it didn't really seem to sit with Maerad's character as I knew her. Though maybe that was the point. Her past plays a huge part in the way things turn out, and her thought process does make logical sense, I just didn't really like it. It is in this book that she finds her strength, and learns to rely on herself and her own abilities.

We get to see more of Barding in this book, but still not huge amounts. The 'magic' side of things isn't really that prevalent in any of the books, but I think this one especially. Yeah, it's important and plays its part, but there are some books where the characters use it left, right and centre and I sometimes would have liked to see a little bit more. You're told Maerad is learning High Magery, but are given only one example and I would have liked to hear more about the things which are accomplishable with The Gift.

Though the story is a little slow to start with, there are still bits and pieces of things going on, whether it's The Nameless One making his presence felt, Maered accidentally causing chaos with her abilities or things nudging them forward in the quest. It does get going properly eventually, but for me it just wasn't as good as the first book.

I Am Legend

Title: I Am Legend
Author: Richard Matheson
Pages: 162 (paperback)
Published: 1954
Published by: Orion Publishing Group

Robert Neville has witnessed the end of the world. The world's population has been obliterated by a vampire virus, though Neville has somehow survived. As he toils to make sense of it all and protect himself against the hounding vampires who seek out his life force, Neville embarks on a series of projects to discover the source of the plague and hopefully put an end to the vampires.

First things first: this is nothing like the film. At all. They've taken the very very basic plot premise and done with it what they wanted. And the central character's name: Robert Neville. Pretty much everything else is different. The ending in particular, but I'm just going to ignore that.

Now, I love the film. Will Smith is one of the few actors who can pull off that amount of screen time alone. But he isn't really the Robert Neville we meet at the start of the story. True, he is more like the man he grows into, but even then there are differences.

Robert Neville at the start of the book is a broken man. Living alone, surrounded by vampires determined to drink his blood every night. His humanity is clear, and his flawed nature. He cares for his teeth rigorously because he is his own dentist, yet he drinks and smokes copiously. He fastidiously cares about his car, yet sometimes goes days without repairing his house from the damage caused by nightly attacks.

We see him surviving and nothing more. Indeed, barely that at times.

But things happen which make him start thinking again. There are quite a lot of biological terms and stuff thrown around in some parts which I won't even pretend to have followed a lot of the time (biology not being my strong point), but it was interesting watching him develop an interest in something.

The conclusions he come to are different and intriguing, and there is a rather amazing twist at the end which is something different from anything I've ever read before. This book is a 'Masterworks' without a doubt.

Kinesis

 Title: Kinesis
Author: Ethan Spier
Pages: 238 (ebook)

When two men break into Leonard Samson’s house, beat him unconscious and murder his six-year-old son, the police arrive to a gruesome scene. But they are shocked to find the mutilated bodies of the two intruders in the front room of Leonard’s house, while he waits in the kitchen with the surviving members of his family.

Clarissa Chapman is a DCI of Psychokinetic Investigations, a new area of police work, instigated after the first genuine case of psychokinesis was discovered, some fifteen years earlier. The Samson case is brought to her attention due to the strange way in which the two intruders were killed. She suspects Leonard Samson is a Kinetic.

All Kinetics are blessed with a gift to move objects with only the power of their mind. But it is also a horrific curse. Within a few years of discovering their ability, they all develop violent insanity and, for this reason, are locked away in specially designed prisons for the benefit of public safety.

After discovering that the authorities suspect him of being a Kinetic, Leonard Samson runs; unaware that the police are not the only ones pursuing him. 

As the days pass by, Clarissa becomes increasingly aware that certain aspects of the Samson case just do not add up...

Leonard Samson is a man on the run for a crime he didn't commit, that he says he was physically impossible of committing because he isn't a PK - someone with telekinetic powers. This book follows him trying to escape the law; Amir Sohal, the bounty hunter, and Clarissa Chapman, the police officer, who are looking for him; and Sean Hagan, an escaped PK convict who is looking for revenge on the woman who caught him.

The beginning of this book was a little bit amazing. I made the mistake of starting to read it on the train, and I'm sure the first two chapters would have had me in tears if I'd been reading it at home. It's heart-wrenching and a bit horrifying, but not too graphic. It throws you in at the deep end emotively, and you can't help but feel for the family you're introduced to in the midst of disaster. The first third as a whole is fast moving and intriguing, though unfortunately the pace isn't kept up and it slows rather after this.

Set in the near future, this is a world where psychokinesis (PK) was discovered to exist around the turn of the millennium. But there is a horrible twist, for those who develop this ability also develop incredibly violent tendencies and go mad, usually within a couple of years of the onset. We're told of some of the early incidences and research in mega info-dumps. Like, pages and pages long. It's disguised as extracts from a text book one of the characters is reading, but not very well. And it's not that exciting. I'm sure there must have been better and cleaner ways of getting the information across. Between this and the slowing of the story itself the middle section of the story struggles.

And unfortunately, there is the same problem with the back stories of the characters. We are entering into people's lives often halfway through some major stuff going on, and all the information is just chucked at us, not even with it being told to someone else - it's literally just...there.

The four central characters are quite good - their motives make sense and they usually make logical decisions. Some of the secondary characters less so, but the story wouldn't move forward so well otherwise. Still, Leonard and Clarissa are the only two you really get any sort of a feel for past the immediate. Amir is all about the hunt, and Sean is all about revenge. That is what they are in the story: nothing else. Leonard you get to know a little, and you can't help but feel sorry for him from the off, whilst you learn about Clarissa's life and all the things she is trying to deal with on top of her job. And from the ending of this book, you know it's only going to get worse from this point in.

You don't really get to see much of the actual PK power in action - understandably, since most people who have are crazy by the time we meet them! - which is a shame, because what you do see is well written and quite realistic. It's something people have to work for, and they don't just crook a finger and send houses flying about. It exhausts them, and can have serious physical affects.

And it was interesting seeing the social effects of the discovery of PK and the mental problems it eventually causes. People with this ability are shunned, and locked up in a high security prison as soon as they are discovered. The ethics of this is obviously questionable, for obviously most of those imprisoned haven't actually done anything wrong at the point they are locked up: does knowing that they are going to become violent give the government the right to lock them up in that way? It would have been interesting to see how the laws about this were brought about, and whether there was anybody fighting this.

The end of this book was very good, and there was a nice, though slightly sad, ending sequence and an intriguing epilogue. I'm assuming it's a series from the ending, and I'll probably keep an eye out for the next one, for although I'm not all that attached to the any of the characters I'm kinda interested to see where the story goes, what the consequences are, and to see some more of this world.

The Gift

Title: The Gift [or The Naming]

Series: The Chronicles of Pellinor #1

Author: Alison Croggon

Pages: 494 (paperback)

Published: May 3rd 2004

Published by: Walker Books

Maerad is a slave in a desperate and unforgiving settlement, taken there as a child when her family is destroyed in war. She is unaware that she possesses a powerful gift, a gift that marks her as a member of the School of Pellinor. It is only when she is discovered by Cadvan, one of the great Bards of Lirigon, that her true heritage and extraordinary destiny unfolds. Now she and her teacher, Cadvan, must survive a punishing and uncertain journey through a time and place where the dark forces they battle with stem from the deepest recesses of other-worldly terror.

Maerad is a slave, in the middle of nowhere, knowing little of anything. Least of all her own history, her own family. That is until Cadvan stumbles into her life and whisks her off into a world of danger, adventure, and all manner of other things. She discovers she is a powerful Bard, the spell-casters of Annar and the Seven Kingdoms, coming into her power just at the second coming of the Nameless One.

First things first: I love this book. I read it for the first time when I was sixteen and loved it then. I'm re-reading it for like the fifth time now, and I still love it. Though there may be a bit of a 'rose-tinted-glasses' thing going on. But I'm quite happy with that! I've re-read it this time because I was tired of reading new things; I wanted a series I can get lost in, and this does it so well.

Because you can just get pulled into this world, this story. There's always something happening, always some new mystery being hinted at, always some new danger to be escaped. Yes it's an epic fantasy so there is the inevitable fact that weeks of the time covered in the book are spent by Maerad and Cadvan riding around Annar, but these parts are largely skipped over, and those that aren't are used to showing something, whether it be moving the story forwards or showing you more of the intricate world Alison Croggon has built.

Maerad is the central character, and you see her bloom in the first chapters, and grow through the remainder of the story. but she doesn't completely change. The impact of a childhood spent as a slave in a remote corner of the world under a harsh man has obviously had its impact, and while she does overcome some of this, she still has plenty of problems. She doesn't feel like she fits in, and she doesn't always feel comfortable around people. Though, there are several characters which she grows rather attached to rather quickly. I know it's a book and they don't have time to wait around for stuff to develop really, but it does happen a bit too much.

Cadvan is Maerad's dour and taciturn rescuer. You don't really get to know him, but only because of the way the character is rather than any failing in the writing, and by the end of the book you understand his reticence completely. But he's still awesome. He has this whole fire and ice thing going on, he can be quite reticent around people (though warm and friendly in the right situation), but you really would not want to get on the wrong side of him. And in my head he's David Tennant, which is never a bad thing.

There have been some negative comments saying this book is too like Lord of the Rings, but Tolkien is the father of modern fantasy, and I can't imagine there are many epic fantasy books about that you can't find his influence in. Yes, there are some things that are very similar - the two that stand out being that both have fortressed 9-tiered cities built around a cliff (Minas Tirith and Norloch) and a Dark Lord making a second attempt at power - but the substance of the story is vastly different, and keeps you reading. Which is all that really matters.