Malazan Book of the Fallen

I finally finished The Crippled God tonight. 

I have to say, this is the greatest epic fantasy series I've read.  The incredible detail brought to the cultures, the larger than life characters and situations, and the epic convergences just come together to make an absolutely incredible series.  Obviously I'm flush with just finishing it, but I'm totally blown away by how well it comes together in the end.  This series is really a testament to how much can be done with a bunch of hard work and talent.

Erikson and Esslemont have created easily the most thought-out, fleshed-out, and "designed" fantasy world I've ever read about.  That alone is worthy of praise, but within that world, they created a host of characters that are sympathetic, likeable, and three dimensional.  Characters you can root for and cry with and be impressed by.  They set up amazing convergences of events that bring together exactly who the reader wants brought together, and rarely do the convergences disappoint.

The Malazan book of the fallen, a 10 book series by Steven Erikson is the "mainline" plot in the universe so far.  It follows Marines from the Malazan Empire as they have adventures on all the continents of the world.  In doing so they come across many cultures and races.  Each culture and race is a fully fleshed out culture as one would expect from an Anthropologist/Archaeologist.  The series is full of heroes and oddly has very, very few villians as Erikson is fond of changing viewpoints on the reader to get the "other take" on the actions of a previous novel or chapter. 

Erikson and Esslemont have mentioned that they hate tropes and cliches, and the book does neatly avoid most fantasy cliches, not quite all, but I don't want to spoil anything.

Anyway now that it's done and it's had a satisfying conclusion, I have to fully recommend Malazan book of the falllen to anyone who likes epic fantasy, it's the very best.  There is, however, a caveat.  The first book is incredibly confusing as the reader is thrust directly in the middle of the action.  To make matters worse, the second book takes place on a different continent and contains very few characters that appear in the first book.  By the third book the nature of the series starts to take shape and you're back with well-known characters again, and at that point, I think the series hits its stride, though, I do think the first two books are good, they just happen to be much better when rereading the series.

Fantsy Fans:  Go read this series, by the end you will not regret it.

I would talk more about specifics, but I fear spoilers for those who haven't read it, if you have read it and you want to talk about it, drop me a line.

Changing Titles

I've changed the title on my blog, which used to be called pinonoir to books on a CD.  I wanted to start blogging about wine specifically and I thought the pinonoir name just works better for wine than it does for nerdy stuff.  Books on a CD refers to how CDs used to be advertised as "it can store thousand and thousands of books", plus I post about books, and computers and stuff so I thought it just fit.

The Golden Age of Fantasy; a Representative Year

I’ve talked about this time being The Golden Age of Fantasy to a few people, and this year, I think, possibly shows it off better than any in recent memory.

First off let me defend the idea that this is The Golden Age of Fantasy. Ever since Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Robert E Howard defined the genre in the first half of the 20th century, there have been fantasy books.  Of course there were similar works before that, but I’m talking about what the modern reader considers to be “fantasy” books started with that group of authors, particularly Tolkien.  There have been high periods and low periods, many storied authors have taken a crack at it, with mixed results. 

Then, to my mind, in the late 80’s, early 90s, Robert Jordan took a huge swing at breaking open the genre by attempting to write The Ultimate Fantasy Epic, sticking in every trope, treading every worn path, and, to my mind, trying to give the fantasy reader exactly what he or she wants.  A huge epic yarn sprawling an enormous world with a real sense of depth and history spanning a dozen cultures in as many cities.  An intrepid set of heroes, a mysterious prophecy. All the ingredients for an incredible fantasy epic.  Unfortunately he didn’t live to finish it, and his work is only now being wrapped up by a new fantasy writer. 

But what a shot he took.  The first few books captured my imagination in a way nothing besides Tolkien had really done in a fantasy setting.

And I think I wasn’t the only one whose imagination was captured. 

So for me, The Wheel of Time marks the beginning of this new golden age. 

It wasn’t alone of course, there were other authors working at the same time or just before who were breaking new ground and trying new things, but as near as I can tell, and obviously this is very arguable, a real torrent of great fantasy followed the Wheel of Time.

For me, the Next Great Series, was A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin.  Where Jordan was hitting the tropes by the numbers, Martin was using them to trick his readers and blindside them with outrageous occurrences.  This series wasn’t about worldbuilding and magic, it was about politics and characterization, and in some was, about just plain fantastic writing.  Unfortunately the writing seems to have stalled to some degree with the preponderance of plot threads too much for Martin to manage.  Let’s hope he makes his way out of it because I suspect there’s an incredible conclusion waiting for us.

The next great series to come to my attention is actually a bit older and it’s called Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams.  I found it a bit tough to get into, but quite rewarding once I’d managed to work my way through it.  I don’t have a ton to say about it, but I found the conclusion pretty satisfying.

At this point I have to mention the next great fantasy series that came to my attention, and it’s fame and popularity probably eclipses anything else I’ve written about.  It could practically define The Golden Age of Fantasy by itself.  Of course I’m talking about the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, which is finished and satisfying and magical and fantastic and unexpectedly adult and overall just a wonderful series. 

After those, I was exposed to The Malazan book of the Fallen, an absolutely increidble exercise in worldbuilding by Steven Erikson, an anthropologist by trade and Ian Cameron Esslemont, an archeologist.  The story, as near as I can tell, is that Erikson and Esslemont were RPG gamers and created their own RPG universe together and ended up writing a screenplay in their universe that never got picked up and led to them each deciding to write a series of novels.  However it came about, the Malazan universe is rich and rewarding full of incredible detail and fantastic characterization.  Very tough to get into, with a few baffling books at the beginning, but well worth the investment by the end. The last book in the first Malazan series has just come out and I’m currently reading it when I’m not writing ridiculously long blog posts.

After these huge series, I was exposed to Joe Abercrombie’s first law series, a darkly funny take on what can basically described as a twisted Dungeons and Dragons party (trust me It’s good).  Scott Lynch’s Gentleman Bastard cycle, which has a fantastic book  (The Lies of Locke Lamora) and, what must be described as a sophomore slump Red Seas Under Red Skies.  Still good but not as good as Lies.  Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series, not to mention individual works like Warbreaker and Elantris.  Great ideas built into solid books.  And last but not least, Patrick Rothfuss’ Kingkiller Chronicles, which are so far both fantastic books: The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s Fear.

There are even more authors I’d put on a tier below those guys that are still worth checking out, but I’m running out of time.  Needless to say, I’ve got fantasy novel recommendations in spades so don’t be afraid to hit me up for one. 

As for this year, so far, what IS DEFINITELY out or coming out:

New Ian Cameron Esslemont, Stonewielder.  Good, but not as good as Return of the Crimson Guard.

New Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man’s Fear.  Fantastic, highly recommended.

New Steven Erikson, The Crippled God, finale of the original Malazan series, and so far, pretty damn good.

Joe Abercrombie, The Heroes, another dark hilarious jaunt.

What is PROMISED:

Dance of Dragons, by George RR Martin, FINALLY the next Song of Ice and Fire Book.

The Republic of Thieves, by Scott Lynch, new Gentlemen Bastards Book.

Mistborn: The alloy of Law, a new Brandon Sanderson set in the mistborn universe.

Ghost Story, new Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher.  Modern Fantasy, but Fantasy nonetheless.

And that’s all I can think of right now.  It’s been a long day. 

Still, an INCREDIBLE year for fantasy!

The “Post PC” world

The other day I was reading engadget and there was an article about how Apple is “making its own rules” or “way ahead” or something in the “post PC world”.  And I got pretty annoyed.  I didn’t really read the article as much as skim it, but it was standard tech blog Apple fan love, and that crap is really starting to get on my nerves.

Obviously, I work for Microsoft, so it’s not like I’m not biased, I’m hugely biased.  I think Microsoft is a great company that’s doing some really great things in a lot of spaces.  I like my Windows Phone, love my X box, and I love Windows 7.   I think Azure’s got a lot of potential, and I’m basically guzzling the Kool Aid.  So I am biased, and I can recognize that.

Even with my pro-Microsoft bias, I can tell that Apple has used their unique position to craft some incredibly amazing products.  They are one of the best consumer electronics hardware companies in the world, and a world class software maker to boot.  The iPhone is a triumph of simplicity and design, married to nearly the perfect amount of usability.  The iPad seems completely unassailable at this time in the consumer market.  There is basically no competition for it because none of Apple’s competitors can pull of the hardware and software together to create such a beautiful device.  The iPad 2 doubles down on the sexy at less than a centimeter thick! 

But…

A Post PC world? 

Really?

Because of a tablet?

The problem with that statement is that the iPad doesn’t replace anything.  It’s a great device, to be sure, but you need a PC to really get the most out of it.  And all of the tasks you’ve been doing on PCs for the past 25 years, you actually still need a PC to do. 

The iPad is fundamentally a fantastic consumption device.  You wouldn’t want to write a novel on an iPad, though I suppose it could be done.  You wouldn’t want to edit a film on an iPad, or manage a spreadsheet.  You wouldn’t really even want to post to facebook on an iPad given a choice.  Furthermore, it doesn’t even seem apple has any plans to make it a great content creation device with their overall eschewing of pen based input.  So how does an iPad create a post PC world? 

I will grant you that the iPad does replace one PC in many people’s homes.  The venerable “surf the internet while watching TV” netbook.  So it replaces a secondary or tertiary computer.  Hardly a “post PC world”.

And why does this bother me so much?  I mean it’s some dumb article on a tech blog.  It bothers me because I feel like this concept has captured the imagination of financial analysts and investors the world over, and it’s constantly damaging my company’s stock.  For basically no reason.

I will admit that Microsoft doesn’t have the prowess to build a product the way Apple does.  It’s just not at the core of what Microsoft does as a company.  Microsoft is a software company and Apple is largely a hardware company.  Apple does hardware very, very well.  Microsoft attempts to find partners who do hardware very, very well when we can, and in rare cases we build our own. We’re not going to be showing off sexy new devices every 2 years, but we do have a solid software and business foundation that will last for years and has already allowed us to expand into several billion dollar businesses. 

Maybe one day investors will notice.

I’m not saying Apple’s stock doesn’t deserve to do well.  I’m not even saying that Apple shouldn’t be more valuable than Microsoft.  I just can’t imagine how many more hugely profitable businesses Microsoft can build and never have the stock go up.  It seems like there’s literally nothing we can do to get people to invest in us, mainly due to the “exciting new tech product” of the day, despite that it could be a flash in the pan and in no way threatens Microsoft’s core businesses.

All you iPad owners who want to flame me, for some reason, flame away, but make sure you do it on your iPad, right after you’re done writing your novel, or carefully editing your photos, or modeling a 3d character, or writing some code, or doing some taxes.