Xuya Universe Short Fiction by Aliette de Bodard (Part 2)

Last year I wrote a bit about two short stories by Aliette de Bodard set in her fascinating Xuya universe. In this time line the Chinese discovered the Americas before the Europeans did, which lead to a dramatically different history from the one we know. De Bodard offers the beginnings of a chronology on her website. I recently stumbled across another two stories that are available for free online. The Jaguar House, In Shadow and Shipmaker were both nominated for prestigious awards. These two stories weren't, but in terms of quality I'd say there is very little between them.

Butterfly, Falling at Dawn

The word count for this story is about 9,000 and it was first published in November 2008 in Interzone 219. Recently, it has been reissued by International Speculative Fiction, a site that has started publishing short science fiction from outside the English language world. I definitely need to have a closer look at their other stories some time. A PDF of Butterfly, Falling at Dawn can be found here.

In the time line it is set 2006, about 20 years after The Jaguar House, In Shadow and has some clear references to the conflict described in that story. With a crime at the heart of it, superficially the story has more in common with The Lost Xuyan Bride though. The story about Magistrate Hua Ma, a woman of Mexica descent, working for Xuya (Chinese) law enforcement. She is sent to investigate an apparent murder of a Mexica hologram designer. The lives of the investigator and the victim turn out to have certain similarities. It is a case that brings up all sorts of uncomfortably memories about her own youth in the Mexica empire and the events of the civil war that made her turn away from her nation.

There are two distinct layers to this story. One is of course the finding the murderer, which turns out to be reasonably straightforward. The real attraction of this story is in the more personal side to the case. It is written in the first person and with each discovery about the life of the victim, Hua Ma is reminded of what happened to her family after she moved into Xuya territory. She has buried herself in her new life but finds out it is not so easy to leave a past one behind. Or even wise. I guess some people do learn from other people's mistakes.

I have read several stories by de Bodard where characters struggle with cultural differences or find themselves in a culture that is not they one the grew up in. Perhaps this choice of theme not entirely surprising given her own background. These stories always contain a lot of details about where these cultures differ, clash or overlap. Given that de Bodard has had to extrapolate from limited historical material what a modern Mexica culture would look like, it is quite a feat of both imagination and research. Her attention to detail regarding these different cultures and the way the are seamlessly woven into the story is something that set her stories apart.

Shipbirth

The second story is set in the future. De Bodard doesn't mention a year but sometime in the next century seems reasonable. It was first published in Asimov's in February 2011 and was nominated for the Nebula Award in 2012 which has recently been awarded to Ken Liu's The Paper Menagerie. The word count is about 6,400 and it can be downloaded as epub or mobi, or read online at the author's website .

Shipbirth takes into space, aboard a Mexica spaceship that is about to be completed by the birth of a mind. This crucial part of the ship allows it to travel through space. The minds are carried by volunteers and giving birth to one is a risky and very dangerous to both the mind and the woman carrying it. Aicoimi is a physician overseeing one of these births. Minds always make him uneasy and this particular quickening, as the birth of a mind and its joining with the ship is referred to, turns out to be particularly haunting.

This story is quite a different creature than Butterfly, Falling at Dawn. Much more ambiguous. Where the previous story leads you to the answer, this story raises questions. One of the things that struck me about the story is how the atmosphere is both similar and very different from Shipmaker, which is set on board a similar spaceship, only built for the Chinese fleet. De Bodard somehow manages to give these ships a very different feel. The loneliness of space is present in both but the Mexica ship feels much more like a living (somewhat scary) creature, where the Chinese feels more harmoniously designed.

Aicoimi is a complex character. When we meet him he is male but that was not always the case and throughout the story he moves up and down the spectrum of masculine and feminine thoughts and behaviours, constantly aware of society's conventions and stereotypes and constantly linking it to choices and actions. De Bodard stuffs a lot of his past in this story. Memories of his youth, as a young girl witnessing death, his military career for which he changed his gender and the revulsion that makes him turn to his current profession. The author works in a these aspects (birth and war) in the Aztec deities mentioned in the story as well. It is a detail but it pays to read up on the deities she mentions. It is one of the details that shows how much care and skill went into this story. It's a story that keeps the reader on their toes. Not as straightforward as the first story but certainly the one that stayed with me longer. I wonder if de Bodard is going to do more stories in the space age Xuya setting.

The Xuya universe is still largely unexplored and offers all kinds of interesting possibilities. I have immensely enjoyed the five stories I've read so far and I am looking forward to more. There is at least one story that I am aware of that I haven't read yet. I'll also keep an eye out for that one so perhaps there will be a part 3.

Blue Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson

In my attempt to read and review all of Kim Stanley Robinson's novels I  have progressed to the third book in his Mars trilogy. Blue Mars (1996) was nominated for a whole bunch of awards won Robinson a Hugo and the Locus Award in 1997. It is  special to me, partly because it is the first novel by Robinson I've read. The book captivated me so much that I didn't even realize it was  the third book until I was halfway through. I bought it in the late 1990s  when I was studying environmental science in Etten-Leur. The town had one bookstore worthy of the name with only a very small English language section. Nevertheless, it fed my emerging speculative fiction addiction  admirably. Robinson's book just looked at me right across the store. The novel hits on so many aspects of what I was trying to learn at that  time that it is no real surprise I liked it so much. Soon after, I  picked up the other two novels and I have been reading anything by  Robinson I can get my hands on since. This is the fourth time (I think) that I have read Blue Mars and the novel still impresses me. As the  final part in the Mars trilogy it probably won't be considered his  greatest work but it was certainly convincing enough to hook me. I am  already looking forward to reading his latest novel 2321, which was released in May and is said  to have certain thematic links with the Mars trilogy.

The  revolution has succeeded, Mars is now de facto independent of Earth. That certainly doesn't mean their troubles are over. Earth vastness,  resources and enormous population loom over the fragile environment of  the red planet. Internally Martian society faces challenges as well. The  population is fractured into a large number for radically different  groups, all with their own values, philosophies and goals, some of which  clash violently. A new way to govern such a diverse group of people will  have to be devised. The great social and scientific experiment that the  colonization of Mars has become continues and the First Hundred, now  diminished to a much smaller number, are at the centre of these  development. In a solar system here longevity and population growth  threaten to overtake technological development and the carrying capacity  of Earth, Mars aims to be an example of what humanity can do to overcome  these challenges.

I guess Blue Mars is not as spectacular as the early exploration of the planet in Red Mars (1992) or the revolution and  war that take place in Green Mars (1993). The novel opens with the last  skirmishes of the revolution but soon we are drawn into the process of  developing a political structure that can handle both the unique physical environment as well as the varied values and philosophies of the population. Not all readers will appreciate this section but for me it showcases Robinson's view very well. There is a sense of optimism in these negotiations, a frantic energy and a will to succeed, that defies the huge problems humanity is faced with. Climate change, overpopulation and generations of people who live well into their third century all contribute to a picture that could easily overwhelm even the most optimistic individual. As the Martians coble together a new constitution out of radical but tried Earth methods and new Martian ideas. One that is designed to leave people as much freedom as possibly while at the same time strictly regulating societies environmental impact and guarding against economic oppression. No easy task and the result is obviously not flawless, as we'll find out later in the book. Still, Robinson beliefs it can be done and in this sections, his optimism, mostly relayed by Art, just leaps off the pages. Although Nadia would no doubt tell us it is a tyranny of a different sort.

Although the Red-Green debate seems to have come out in favour of the Green side, the planet is being irrevocably changed especially at the lower altitudes, the tension between these two visions is still present. Both Ann and Sax get a point of view section and I remember Ann's in particular hitting me hard the first time I read it. One of the downsides of studying environmental science is that you start seeing signs of humanity's influence of the landscape everywhere. In the Netherlands there is no escape from this anywhere. Even landscapes that are protected for their ecological diversity or rare environmental conditions are usually brought about some kind of carefully managed use of the land. The ideal that environmental policy strives for around here is to return to the state of the land in the 1850s, when ecological diversity was at a peak. It was also a time when just about every scrap of land, no matter how marginal, was being used for something. In other words, there is no natural landscape left around here. Humanity's influence is inescapable. Which is something like how Ann experiences Mars. Change and human influence can be found everywhere on the planet if one knows what to look for. Ann's cause is hopeless but it still hit a chord with me.

It seems Sax is beginning to see this as well. While he is still in favour of terraforming, and sees the beauty of this emerging, liveable environment everywhere, he feels the need for a synthesis of these two views as well as a reconciliation between these two iconic characters personally. There is an awful lot going on in these novels, but when you get right down to it, the Green-Red debate forms the backbone of the story. Not everybody is going to agree with this vision and the utopian society that emerges in Robinson's book. In fact, the novels prompted Brian W. Aldiss in collaboration with physicist Sir Roger Penrose to write White Mars (1999), a novel that takes quite a different approach (and appears to be very much out of print). Robinson's future is believably messy but the compressed time line and extended lives of the main characters take away something of the realism I guess. By the end of this novel the First Hundred are well into their third century.

This advanced age is the topic of one of Sax' most fascinating sections though. Robinson goes back to an idea he used in his 1984 novel Icehenge and explores memory problems in the extremely long lived. Sax of course takes the scientific approach to combating the increasing problem of whole trains of thought just blanking out completely. Robinson goes into quite a bit of detail on the structure and workings of the brain, which in the 23rd century is still a bit of a mystery. These books are saturated with Robinson's love for the scientific process but no section shows it better than Sax researching his memory problems. The fact that he keeps loosing useful thoughts and he can't seem to record them as he goes add a bit of urgency and frustration to his efforts and made me wonder how much of a verbal process thinking really is.

I guess you could say this book is a bit more introvert than the previous novels. There is homesick Michel finally returning the Provence after a century on Mars, Ann dealing with the loss of the pure Martian landscape, Maya slowly loosing her grip on her mental problems, Sax deeply withdrawn in his science and Nirgal trying to figure out what a revolutionary is supposed to do after a successful revolution. They all show us facets of the newly developing Martian culture but each somehow feels like a bit of an outsider. Not a problem Zoya Boone, John's great-granddaughter has to deal with. She is the fresh new face of a part of Martian society and the Accelerando, a time of great expansion and scientific progress, as a whole. Nihilistic and hedonistic are terms often used to describe her. In a way she is naive as well. Though her eyes we explore what goes on elsewhere in the solar system in a kind of tour reminiscent of the one portrayed in The Memory of Whiteness (1985). The Mercurial rolling city named Terminator appears in both books and I understand it shows up in 2312 as well. Blue Mars my well turn out to be the lynch pin of Robinson's output. There are plenty of links between his books despite the fact that they don't fit into one larger universe or time line.

As a novel, I don't think Blue Mars works particularly well. Where Red Mars and Green Mars each had more of an overarching story to keep all the different points of view together. For most of the book, which covers almost a century, Blue Mars does not have this kind of tension. The threat of Earth, while always present, appears to be distant to most Martians, many of whom are much more concerned with their own planet. We get to see bits and pieces of the time line and various other places in the solar system but there doesn't seem to be a unifying factor that welds all this separate stories together. When the eventual showdown with Earth finally comes, it almost feels as an afterthought. The novel is carried by the strength of Robinson's ideas, the breath of the topics discussed and the fascinating descriptions of increasingly green Martian environments. For the reader who expects a bit more plot and action this novel may be a bit of a let down.

For me personally it is a fascinating book though. I loved just about every aspect of it when I first read it and my rereads have not diminished this love. No matter how many more books I'll read on the subject, the Mars trilogy will probably remain the definitive work on the colonization of Mars for me. The scale of the story, the diversity of Robinson's scientific, political and social influences and his fascinating characters make these novels some of the most captivating science fiction I've ever read. Sure, there are plenty of elements to criticize in these novels, and in my reviews I've named a few of those. That doesn't take away anything from the fact that these books are a monumental achievement in science fiction. A superb attempt to combine hard science fiction with social and religious elements, insert some optimism into the genre and expand the ecological themes which, up to this point, had been pretty rare in science fiction. Blue Mars is a fitting end to the project that will no doubt turn out to be the one Robinson will be most remembered for. I can't think of a book that impacted me as deeply as this novel has. In other words, you should read it.

Book Details
Title: Blue Mars
Author: Kim Stanley Robinson
Publisher: Voyager
Pages: 787
Year: 1996
Language: English
Format: Mass Market Paperback
ISBN: 0-586-21391-0
First published: 1996

D.N.F. Dragon Touched by E.W. Scott

I'm a bit surprised by this to be honest, the last time I failed to finish a book was more than two years ago when I attempted to read De dagen van het Hert by Liliana Bodoc. After that I finished all books I started until this one. That's probably some 150 books.

I still have a hard time putting my finger on what makes me unable to finish this book. I have read books that were very poor indeed, books that simply bored me, and books I ended up detesting and finished all of them. What makes this awkward is that unlike Bodoc's book, I received Dragon Touched as a review copy. Fortunately the author took it well. She showed some real grace and diplomacy in the e-mail conversation we've had and that is something that ought to be mentioned.

Since I haven't finished I am not going to do a review on the book. As far as I can tell it isn't badly written, I guess it just didn't manage to hold my attention. There are a few people who did write full reviews of this book so I am going to refer you to the opinions of two ladies who's judgement I trust.
Mieneke's review can be found on the A Fantastical Librarian blog, while Fantasy Bytes offers her opinion here. Both these blogs are well worth reading so have a good look around while you are there.

I will be back next week with a review of Kim Stanley Robinson's Blue Mars which I hope to finish tonight.

Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins

If there are any people left on the planet who haven't read The Hunger Games I'm not sure were they are hiding. I must have been the last one to read it (although I did manage before seeing the movie). As with many books that are surrounded by that much hype, it didn't quite live up to its reputation but it was a decent enough read. I've been hearing mixed things about the next two volumes in this trilogy though, so I've put reading the second book off for a bit. My girlfriend brought her copy of Catching Fire from Norway this week so I guess there are no more excuses. Like The Hunger Games, the second volume is a quick read. It was not nearly as engaging as the first book though. I've begun to suspect that this is one of the series one should only read the first part of.

After their dual victory in the Hunger Games, Katniss and Peeta try to settle in the victor's village in district twelve. With her winnings Katniss tries to help as many people as possible but things have changed. As much as she wants to, there is no slipping back into her old life. Something that is underlined by president Snow himself, when he shows up to tell her what is expected of her in the tour of the districts the winners are supposed to make after their victory. Her defiance of the Capital has seriously undermined his authority. In many of the districts discontent is obvious and rebellion is simmering right under the surface. On a more personal level, Katniss seems unable to fix her relationship with Gale. The constant pressure of having to keep up the star crossed lovers charade with Peeta is weighing heavily on Gale. An explosive situation on all levels.

For a large part of the novel, Katniss is dealing with the fall out of her performance in the Hunger Games. As the effects of her defiance ripple though the districts, Katniss has plenty of time to consider her position. It makes Catching Fire a lot slower than the first book, especially in the opening chapters. I guess Katniss is finding out why winners of the Hunger Games rarely are able to settle back in any kind of normal life. With guilt over there acts or mere survival pursuing them, the knowledge of the truth behind the Games and the Capital's power weighing on them and the estrangement from their friends and families setting them apart, more than one victor has fled into destructive lifestyles or substance abuse. Katniss feels it, she is restless, as discontent as the districts appear to be, and it makes her a bit of a whiny character. In fact, she is so absorbed in her own misery that she misses quite a bit of what goes on around her.

Like the first volume, Catching Fire is written in the first person and the present tense. It took me a couple of chapters to get back into this unusual style. More than in The Hunger Games, I feel Collins is running into the limitations of a first person narrative. She is playing her part, sometimes sees glimpses of the effect her actions have on the population, but mostly she is kept in the dark. Behind the facade of the Capital's unquestionable power a lot is going on. Public opinion sways, resistance is growing and violence erupts all out of sight. Katniss certainly faces her own challenges but I didn't think her part of the story the most interesting development in the book. While the interesting stuff is happening out of sight, the reader works their way though a novel that is part dark reflection on events from the first book and part repetition of the Hunger Games ritual.

Once again, I was struck by the sheer unlikeliness of the way the Capital expresses its power over its subjects. In Catching Fire we gear up to the 75th edition and even with the problems with this show of power obviously exposed in the last Games, they insist on an even more brutal version this time around. President Snow feels his power has been undermined by Katniss' refusal to kill Peeta and his ultimate answer to this problem is putting her in the same position again, which makes very little sense to me. I guess the outcome is more or less predictable.  Where in The Hunger Games you have a pretty good feeling of where the story is heading, there is still the puzzle of how Katniss will manage to get there. In Catching Fire, Katniss lets others find the solutions for her. Collins foreshadows a lot of events in the final chapters adequately and manages to avoid a true deus ex machina ending, but it is far from the strongest finale I have read. It absolutely pales in comparison to how she managed in the first novel.

I guess you could say I wasn't very impressed with this novel. It advances Katniss' struggle with the Capitol a little but not is a way that is very exciting to read about. Katniss herself is far from the admirable and capable young woman she has shown herself to be in the first volume and manages to be in the centre of the action with absolutely no idea what is going on. Fortunately Catching Fire is a quick read or I would have been seriously tempted to put the book down and read something else. No doubt there are readers who will devour this book with equal enthusiasms as the previous one, and dive right into the third book in the series, I'm afraid such devotion is not for me. I think I will borrow my girlfriend's copy of Mockingjay as well. I am mildly curious about the final showdown between Katniss and president Snow, but not enough to actually buy a copy.

Book Details
Title: Catching Fire
Author: Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic
Pages: 472
Year: 2009
Language: English
Format: Mass Market Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-407109-36-7
First published: 2009

The Drowned Cities - Paolo Bacigalupi

After the huge success of The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi entered the world of young adult fiction. I read his first effort in that genre, Ship Breaker, a year ago. It was a more straightforward adventure than The Windup Girl but it had all the environmental themes that show up in most of Bacigalupi's fiction rolled into the narrative. Not many writers display the environmental awareness that shows up in Bacigalupi's work and given my education in that field, I always feel drawn to that kind of story. Even without the other elements that makes Bacigalupi's work interesting, I'd read read anything he's write just for that. Fortunately for the readers who don't share my preferences, Bacigalupi is a very good author in other respects as well. The Drowned Cities is a novel that appeals to the adult reader as well. To the point where I wondered if he shouldn't have written this as an adult novel to begin with.

The novel is set in a future Washington D.C. The USA has lost it's spot as most powerful nation in the world and climate change has dramatically altered the coastline. After a failed Chinese attempt at peace keeping, Washington is currently fought over by a number of factions, all hoping to gain control over the former capital as a first step to reunifying the country. To finance their war, they scavenge the city and sell their findings to a number of large corporations always hungry for the world's scarce resources. The communities around the war zone are regularly harvested for fresh recruits, usually children, and slave labour. In this world, Mahlia, a young girl of mixed Chinese American origin grows up. Given the resentment still carried against the Chinese peacekeepers, she is not exactly popular. Even the community she lives in, barely accepts her. The only reason she is allowed to stay is that the only man who could pass for a doctor has taken her on as his assistant. Mahlia runs into deep trouble when patients from opposing factions appear on their doorstep.

The Drowned Cities is connected to Ship Breaker but except for one character who shows up in both novels and a few minor references there is no connection between the stories. It is perfectly possible to read one without having read the other. The details of the world are the same though. Bacigalupi throws in a lot of references to climate change, genetic engineering, biological warfare and scarcity of resources (in particular oil). It is not as obvious as in his work for adults, and not discussed in as much detail, but many of the developments are similar to what happened to the world in the Windup stories (although it they are not set in the same world). Some of the things that have happened to this future Washington have roots in the great, and usually undressed, environmental problems the world faces. You can accept these as a give and ignore this background in favour of a good action story, but for the reader looking for more, there is a whole layer of highly relevant environmental and political issues to sink your teeth in.

I did think the novel was very violent. Apparently the young adult genre leans towards darker tales, with violent acts discussed more explicitly than would have been fitting a few years ago. The war Bacigalupi describes is as barbaric as the reports that have come in from various parts of Africa in recent years. Torture, mutilation and the use for children (often under the influence of some substance of other) are all accepted practices in this war and that doesn't even include the deployment of genetically engineered soldiers. America, it turns out, is not above a bit of brutality when push comes to shove. Ironically, the only pacifist character in the novel is a Muslim. I wonder how many young readers will catch that bit of social commentary. I don't think Bacigalupi gets too graphic, but with Mahlia spending much of the novel one step away from rape, death or mutilation, this book is not suitable for very young readers.  

Bacigalupi's exploration of the fallen capital of a once great nation can seem a bit depressing but the motivation of the characters to put themselves in danger is all too human. The various militias may have the guns but that doesn't mean people will put up with anything. Mahlia is a girl who realizes the word has little to offer her. She doesn't shy away from violence and is not afraid to take rash action and it is her rashness that drives the story. More than once her decisions are questionable but her loyalty to her one remaining friend touches those around her. One thing that Bacigalupi did very well is show the reader how limited her view of the world is. She knows it is a large place but circumstances are such, that places beyond the immediate vicinity are shrouded in rumour and hearsay. Or perhaps we should call it the fog of war. Her world is a strange mix of fading Chinese civilization, remnants of past American glory and sheer survival instinct. Not an easy place to stick to the ideals of her rescuer and teacher in the arts of healing.

The Drowned Cities is a noticeably darker book than Ship Breaker. Although Nailer lives in a hard world and has to put his life on the line more than once, it is not the bullet riddled mess Mahlia finds herself in. I also felt Bacigalupi added much more in the way of deeper layers into this story, making it more challenging than his previous effort. With a few different choices, Bacigalupi could have turned this into an adult novel. I'm not sure it would have been better that way, but it was certainly possible. I'm not sure which one of the two I like better. When I was in the right age group, I probably would have said Ship Breaker. Right now, I appreciate a lot of the things Bacigalupi did in this story more than I would have back then. One thing is for sure, Bacigalupi doesn't underestimate his audience. I think I am going to have to revisit his brilliant collection Pump Six and Other Stories, just to tide me over until the next novel. Be it a YA one of an Adult novel, I'll read anything this man writes.

Book Details
Title: The Drowned Cities
Author: Paolo Bacigalupi
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Pages: 437
Year: 2012
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-316-05624-3
First published: 2012

The Wind's Twelve Quarters - Ursula K. Le Guin

The Wind's Twelve Quarters is Le Guin's first collection of short fiction and was published in 1975. Quite unusual for a single author short science fiction collection, it is still in print decades after it has been first published. It is generally regarded as the strongest of her collections of short fiction. Not having read the others, I don't have an opinion on that but I did think The Wind's Twelve Quarters is a bit of a mixed bag. It contains a total of seventeen stories, presented more or less in the order they were published in and cover the period between her first publication in 1962 and 1974, by which time she had published some of her best know and most critically acclaimed novels. Le Guin chose this order so the reader could experience her growth as an author. In that respect the collection certainly succeeds. The later stories are much stronger than the earlier ones. Most of the stories have a short introduction by Le Guin about the inspiration for the story and the editorial changes compared to the original magazine publications. A fair number of stories in the collection are what Le Guin calls psychomyths.These stories are hard to pin down but they are independent of setting and often have a surreal quality to them. Le Guin herself puts it like this:

...more or less surrealistic tales, which share with fantasy the quality of taking place outside any history, outside of time, in that region of the living mind which - without invoking any consideration of immortality - seems to be without spatial or temporal limits at all.

Le Guin on psychomyths - Foreword

Most of the stories that are not tied to her novels seem to fall into this category. Quite a few of the stories are linked to her novels though. There are Earthsea stories in this collection as well as stories set in the Hainish universe and even a story tied to her novel The Dispossessed (1974). The opening story, Selmy's Necklace (1964), is essentially the prologue of Le Guin's first novel, Roccanon's World (1966). It is set in her Hainish future history and in some ways, reminded me a lot of some of Poul Anderson's Technic Civilization stories. It is seen mostly form the point of view of a member of a less technically advanced race trying to retrieve an heirloom that that was lost decades ago. She doesn't properly comprehend the consequences of her request to be allowed to visit the aliens but to the reader the tragedy that is unfolding is quite clear. A science fiction story written in language that is more often found in fantasy. This story clearly shows why Le Guin usually doesn't make too rigorous a distinction between the two.

The second story is April in Paris (1962) is the earliest story in the collection and Le Guin's first sale. I can't say I liked it much. I guess you could say it is a time travel story. I thought it was pretty predictable with more than a bit wish fulfilment in it. Le Guin then moves on to a story that is also a bit predictable but conceptually more interesting. The Masters (1963) deals with a man who is brought up in a very strict guild like environment where things have always been done a certain way and where deviating from this way, or trying to improve upon it, is heresy. He can't resist the lure of progress though. There is another story that is thematically related to this one in the collection. The Masters is very dark, full of despair. Stylistically probably not the strongest piece but certainly an interesting one. The Darkness Box (1963), like The Masters is a piece that can be considered a fantasy or perhaps an early psychomyth. It's a story with a sense of inevitably about it, of pointless repetition. Not a story that makes one feel happy although one of the characters sees things differently.

The Word of Unbinding and The Rule of Names (both 1964) are Le Guin's first Earthsea stories. I haven't read any of the Earthsea novels so putting them into the perspective of the whole series is going to be a bit difficult. I think they lay the groundwork for the system of magic found in the Earthsea novels. A system that appears to be quite sophisticated judging from these few pages. The stories are uncut fantasy, the only ones in this collection. I will have to read one of the Earthsea novels to be sure but I think I prefer Le Guin's science fiction. Still, Earthsea is on the to read list.  

Winter's King (1969) is another story tied to one of Le Guin's novels. It is set on the same planet as The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), a novel in the Hainish cycle that is also on my to read list. The version in this collection has been changed to fit the novel more closely and features the wintry world of Gethen. Le Guin plays with titles and particular pronouns to underline the androgyny or the inhabitants. The story itself is one of mind control and a King struggling to do what is best for the kingdom. It certainly makes me curious about the novel. Gethen seems like an intriguing place and the way gender appears to play no role in society opens up all kinds of interesting possibilities. Something that struck me about this story is how, like in Selmy's Necklace, Le Guin presents a technologically less advanced society in a science fiction story. Some readers would say there is a hint of fantasy in this story.

The Good Trip (1970) is a story that is probably contemporary. As the title suggests it is about drug use among other things. The trip makes it quite a strange story full of weird cognitive leaps and odd situations. Le Guin didn't seem to be opposed to people experimenting with LSD at the time, which was no doubt frowned upon. She does mention in the introduction that she feels that "people who expand their consciousness by living instead of taking chemicals usually come back with much more interesting reports of where they've been." Now there is a bit of wisdom for you.

Nine Lives (1969) is one of the longer pieces of the collection and is a classic science fiction story. One that explores the possibilities of a new technology, in this case cloning. Le Guin studies the bond between genetically identical individuals, who shared most of their formative years and education and have been brought up to function as a team. The idea is disturbing on many levels. These people are a product, designed to outperform ordinary humans but also to be so self sufficient that without each other, they'd be lost. In a way, it is a barrier to get ideas of their own, which of course Le Guin can't help but challenge. As with the best science fiction stories, this one contains plenty of food for thought.

The next story, Things (1970) is another psychomyth. I guess you could say it is about a man who has to take the last leap. It is beautifully written but personally I think it doesn't quite take that many words to convey the message. Le Guin creates quite an elaborate setting. One which would have been exploring in more detail, but Le Guin takes the story in another direction and much of the setting ends up being only marginally relevant to the story. This one was a miss for me. The collection continues with A Trip to the Head (also 1970). All I have to say about this, is that it went right over my head. I guess Le Guin's writing is too intelligent for me sometimes.

What follows is the story with the most beautiful title in the collection. Vaster Than Empires and More Slow (1970) is a story in the Hainish Cycle, covering the lonely journey of a ship of explorers. Given the nature space travel at relativistic speeds, they give up everything they've known to go on this journey. Something not everybody is willing to do. The crew consists of misfits, people who have nothing to loose and the occasional completely dysfunctional character. A recipe for trouble and indeed, the first planet they survey, puts them to the test. This again is pretty straight forward science fiction, with perhaps a touch of horror. Or suspense if you will. I liked it a lot but it is not outstanding.

The Stars Below (1973) explores in a bit more depth, one of the themes we also encountered in The Masters. Scientific curiosity clashes with custom or religion and ends in violence. Where The Masters deals with the event itself, this story shows us the aftermath. An astronomer who's instruments were destroyed hiding in an abandoned mine from his tormentors. It is a tragedy, even when he finds something to replace his interest in the stars. A moving story. I thought it was one of the better ones in the collection.

The collection continues with another science fiction story that is unrelated to a novel. The Fields of Vision (1973) about a group of astronauts who discover a strange city, for lack of a better word, on Mars that messes with their perceptions. One of them does not survive the trip back, the other two have lasting problems with their sense of hearing and sight. Their adjustment to this situation takes very different routes. I liked how Le Guin linked our perceptions with religious experiences in this story, and how much our brain relies on what our senses tell us. Most people trust what their senses tell them without question. In this story the characters know the input they are receiving is somehow changed. The author depicts this as quite a scary experience.

The next story is a very short, to the point science fiction story in which the main character is a tree. Direction of the Road (1974) is a highlight in the collection for me, a brilliant little story about relativity. It would spoil the story to say anything about the plot but is such a strange reversal of how we think of the world works, that I just had to read this story again right after I finished it. If I had to pick a favourite, this story might well be it.

For The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (1974), Le Guin received a Hugo Award as well as a nomination for the Locus Award. It is another psychomyth, perhaps the one closest to the loose definition Le Guin put in the foreword to this collection. The story is very abstract in a way, no details on the setting, the author basically tells us to imagine our own, or characters are given. The story revolves around a scapegoat, one who is necessary to keep the rest of society happy. Once again a disturbing thought. One, as the story points out, not everybody can live with.

The final story of the collection is also one of the strongest ones. The Day Before the Revolution (1974) won a Nebula and a Locus award and was nominated for a Hugo. The story is tied to the novel The Dispossessed, a novel that I still consider to be one of the best in science fiction. It's main character is Odo, who is a historical figure in the novel, the inspiration for the anarchistic society on Anarres. She may be honoured after her death, the life of a revolutionary is not easy. The story shows us an ageing Odo, full of grief and a premonition of death. The subtitle of The Dispossessed is An Ambiguous Utopia and this story is another expression of it. Odo achieved a lot but at a high price. I love the final paragraph of this story. As far as I am concerned, it should have won that Hugo too.  

The Wind's Twelve Quarter ends on a high, that is for sure. Some of the stories in this collection are no doubt among the best Le Guin as produced. All things considered, it isn't one of those very rare collections that manage a consistently high quality though. It is a collection that shows Le Guin's style, themes and development as a writer however. With links to her most important works and some award winning stories, perhaps it is not so strange this collection has been in print for more than three decades. I would not recommend someone with an interest in Le Guin's work to start here, it is probably better to have read a few novels first, but for the real fan it is definitely a must read.

Book Details
Title: The Wind's Twelve Quarters
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Pages: 303
Year: 2004
Language: English
Format: Mass Market paperback
ISBN: 978-0-06-091434-9
First published: 1975

Harpy's Flight - Megan Lindholm

Harpy's Flight (1983) is Megan Lindholm's first novel and the first of a series of four starring the characters Ki and Vandien. I understand that at one time, Lindholm had plans to write more but that never happened. Given the success of Lindholm's other pen name Robin Hobb, I very much doubt it ever will. Although not quite as popular as the Hobb novels, most of the Lindholm books are still available. The only one I haven't been able to get my hands on yet is Cloven Hooves (1991). The Ki and Vandien books have recently been translated into Dutch. Not entirely sure how well they did but I thought it was interesting to see the publisher gamble like that. Lindholm novels are very different in style and tone from Hobb novels. I love both the epic fantasy of Hobb and the more diverse output of Lindholm but that is certainly not true for all readers.

Ki is out for revenge. A pair of Harpies have taken her husband and two young children and despite the fact that they can easily take her as well, she is determined to make them feel her loss. Against all odds, Ki survives the climb to the Hapries' lair and the ensuing fight. She is left to pick up the pieces of her life but with one Harpy dead, three eggs ruined and a second Harpy mutilated, her actions are bound to come back to her. Ki has made enemies. Just how far reaching the consequences are, becomes clear when she visits the family of her late husband Sven to share the horrific news with them.

The opening scene of this novel is an extremely powerful one. Lindholm tosses the reader right into the mids of the whirlwind of emotions that is Ki. Grief, pain and vengefulness just leap off the pages and setting the tone for the rest of the novel. Lindholm's writing my be different from Hobb's but there is one thing they share. They make their characters suffer. This is a reread for me, I read this novel for the first time in 2002, and ten years on, it surprised me how tragic the story really is. Ki is battered and bruised, tired and above all empty. Revenge, after all, will not bring back the ones she loved.

Lindholm tells her story out of chronological order. She opens with the earliest part of the story but after that, it mostly Ki thinking back on events after her encounter with the Harpies while struggling to put her life back together. In these flashbacks, a story that started out as revenge and a hunt, becomes one of a major clash of cultural differences. Ki's origins remain partly unexplored in this novel, but she grew up among the Romni, a Gipsy-like people. Her husband stems from a farming community with much closer ties to the land they work and very different rituals regarding death and the loss of loved ones.

In this first novel the world Ki lives in is not fleshed out yet. Lindholm hints at the many sentient races that inhabit the world but only Humans and Harpies are important to this story. Two other races make a brief appearance. The interactions between all these races is important to the series though. In this first volume the dubious relationship between the predatory Harpies and the Human farmers that worship them takes center stage and adds another dark tone to what is already a quite depressing story. The tensions created by Ki's arrival in the farming community are what really drew me in though. Revenge alone, would not have been enough to carry the story.

I haven't mentioned Vandien thus far and although the series is named after him, Ki is the main character in this story. Vandien has a history of his own, some of which is revealed in this novel, but mostly he is there to make Ki think about things she would rather avoid. More than once he goads her into revealing things about herself she would rather not discuss. He makes her reconsider the course of her life and as far as Ki is concerned, this is a mixed blessing. It is the beginning of a complicated relationship between them. I guess that is another thing that Hobb and Lindholm have in common. The characterization is always impressive.

In some ways you can tell this novel is an early work. Lindholm switched quite abruptly between the present of the story and a flashback or dream (or both). The novel clearly lacks a bit of refinement there. I also thought the way Lindholm presents the individual members of Sven's family is a bit confusing at times. Most of these people have some part to play in the tragedy that unfolds there but some appear pretty much without introduction or just the barest hint of one. It is not bad enough to really distract from the story but there is certainly a bit of room for improvement there. If I remember correctly, Lindholm does just that in the later parts of this series.

Harpy's Flight is not Lindholm's best novel but it is still an impressive read. The emptiness Ki experiences after the loss of her family and the violence she unleashes on their killers is heartbreaking. Whatever the technical flaws of this novel, on an emotional level is works very well. It is very clear that there is a lot more to discover about this world in the later three volumes. I think I saw a few more imperfections in the novel the second time around but I am still glad to have my copy of the second volume, The Windsingers, on hand.

Book Details
Title: Harpy's Flight
Author: Megan Lindholm
Publisher: Voyager
Pages: 312
Year: 2002
Language: English
Format: Mass Market paperback
ISBN: 0-00-711252-1
First published: 1983

The Dragon in the Sea - Frank Herbert

Past time to make some more progress on my project to read and review all of Frank Herbert's books not set in the Dune universe. The Dragon in the Sea is Herbert's first novel. It first appeared as Under Pressure in serialized form in Astounding in 1955 and 1956. A slightly reworked novel version appeared in 1956. To make matters confusing, there are also novel editions with the title Under Pressure and in 1961 someone thought it was a bright idea to rename the novel 21st Century Sub. I sincerely hope they fired whoever was responsible for that disaster. My copy is the 2008 Tor reprint with the original title, which I snatched up and read just as soon as it became available. The Dragon in the Sea was quite well received back then and it always remained a bit of a mystery why Herbert struggled for another ten years before his career as a writer really took off with the publication of Dune in 1965. His published work in the years between these two releases consist of a handful of short stories. The Dragon in the Sea is usually considered one of Herbert's better novels, an opinion I share completely.

In the mid 21st century, the world is locked in a never ending war between the West and the East. With oil resources becoming increasingly scarce, the west have developed a technique to steal oil from the Eastern Powers using nuclear powered submarines leeching oil from existing wells and dragging it back to the west in huge bags referred to as slugs. The submarines play a cat and mouse game with the enemy and right now they are loosing. Of the last twenty ships sent out, none returned. It is up to psychologist John Ramsey to find out why. He is to join the crew of one of the subs to monitor events. To put even more pressure on the mission, one of his crew members is suspected of being in infiltrator and the captain's mental stability is questioned. Four men in the confined space of a submarine, cut off from the outside world and surrounded by enemies and the hostile environment of the deep sea. Ramsey is under pressure indeed.

Although the conflict between East and West didn't quite last as long as Herbert imagined (mind, he never once refers to communism in the book), it is a prophetic work in some ways. Scarcity of resources such as oil is not something that turned up too often in science fiction back then. The consequences of a serious lack of oil would not be felt in the west until the oil crisis of 1973 and the theory of Peak Oil, proposed by M. King Hubbert, was published in the same year as the novel. Although the theme of dependence on a single, increasingly scarce resource does occur in other novels, I've never found a link between Peak Oil and Herbert's novels. It would have been interesting to find out what he thought of it.

The concept behind the story may be fascinating, the novel shows it's age in the details. The submarine for instance, which would have been stacked with all kinds of digital technology from one end to the other these days, seems to be filled with 1950s technology. Everything is controlled manually, with old fashioned meters, valves and electronics. It runs at a depth that not many subs could take even these days, but other than that, it didn't strike me as particularly 21st century. There is a fair bit of technobbable in the book about how the submarine works but most of it serves to emphasize the pressure the crew experiences.

Psychological pressure is the main theme of the novel I suppose. Herbert describes a world where tensions run high but no real release can be offered. Being stalked by an enemy you can't see, in a vessel from which there is no escape. Submarines are a claustrophobe's nightmare and more than one novel has made use of that particular fact. The Dragon in the Sea takes that theme into a direction I haven't come across before. It examines the adaptations of the crew that allow them to operate in such an environment. Again a theme that Herbert would use in later books. Adaptations to pressure in The Dragon in the Sea, the adaptations to the highly toxic environment on Dosadi or the presence of spice and the absence of water on Dune, they are all driving human development or sometimes human evolution into realms that we can scarcely imagine. Herbert's belief in what the human mind can accomplish with the right pressures and motivations show in most of his work but The Dragon in the Sea is a particularly fine example.

Herbert had many interests and psychology is one of them. In this novel it is almost as apparent as in The Santaroga Barrier (1968), which deals with the effect of a mind altering substance on an isolated population. I must admit I'm not familiar enough with the field to point out Herbert's influences here. He names Jung, there is probably some Freud as well and I would be very surprised if there were not a few more. There is an obvious link between psychology and religion in this book, again an element that will show up in his later work. The title is a reference to the bible, Isaiah 27:1 to be exact, and religion comes up more than once as the thing that holds the crew together and offers a way of dealing with the unceasing pressure the men are under. It's role in keeping the crew operating is examined from a psychological point of view and Herbert points out the links between the two in various places. The psychology is definitely the most complex part of the story. One may wonder how well the theories that are the inspiration of the novel hold up these days, they do make for a very good story.

Herbert's first novel shows a lot of elements that he would return to in his later work. It is not as complex or conceptually rich as Dune or The Dosadi Experiment but it is certainly a novel that is still well worth reading. It's fairly short but very intense and more action packed than many of his later novels. Quite a few later novels by Herbert don't hold up as well as The Dragon in the Sea does. If anything I like it even better after this reread. There are a few books by Herbert I would rate higher but not many. One warning though, if you do decide to read it try not to think too much of the unfortunate choice of name for the Captain. Herbert really could not have known.

Book Details
Title: The Dragon in the Sea
Author: Frank Herbert
Publisher: Tor
Pages: 268
Year: 2008
Language: English
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-7653-1774-2
First published: 1956

City of Dragons - Robin Hobb

Robin Hobb is one of those Fantasy authors I started reading when I had just started to explore the genre. The Farseer trilogy had just been translated in Dutch back then and Hobb was (and sill is) quite popular over here. I have read everything she has published in the mean time and dug up most of her novels written under the name Megan Lindholm as well. The Realm of the Elderlings remains her best know creation though, and Hobb is returning to it with the second set of two books in the Rain Wild Chronicles. It has happened a number of times that Hobb's work has appeared in Dutch translation before it came out in English. City of Dragons was published in September 2011 and Blood of Dragons, which will not appear in English until early 2013, followed in December. I understand that there are minor textual differences between the English and the Dutch edition because of later changes to the English manuscript. It still makes you wonder why on earth the US and UK publishers are sitting on those books for that long. Despite being sorely tempted to just get the translation, I waited for the English hardcover. I guess we'll have to see if I can hold out another nine months for Blood of Dragons.

City of Dragons picks up our desperate group of dragon keepers a few months after the end of Dragon Haven. They have found their promised land, the Elderling city of Kelsingra, but are cut off from it by the Rain Wilds river, swollen with the winter rains. Poorly equipped and barely able to feed the dragons, their only real chance of survival is for their ship the Tarman to return to Carrick and claim their reward. In the Rain Wild cities and Bingtown in the mean time, things remain unsettled. The aging and heirless Duke of Chalced is still determined to find the dragon parts he thinks he needs to prolong his life. Blackmail, torture, deceit and murder are acceptable means in his opinion. When rumors of the discovery of an unexplored Elderling city reach the civilized world, greed enters into the mix as well. The dragons and their keepers are going to change the world forever.

The previous two books in this (sub) series, Dragon Keeper and Dragon Haven, where originally one long novel that got so big the publisher decided to split the novel in two. Back then I felt the way they went about that didn't really do those books any favours. The rewriting made it even longer, probably more so than the story justified. With City of Dragons and Blood of Dragons a similar decision has been made. I get the feeling the decision to split the novel in two was made a bit earlier on though. The finale of this first book feels a bit less forced, as if Hobb knew early on what she was writing towards in terms of the overarching conflict the book covers, rather than looking for a good place to split the novel. That being said, the ending does involve a number of cliffhangers and some of the characters that are the focus of much of the book seem to be much less present later on in the novel. With a more than eight months still to go before the second part is available, the more impatient reader may want to put this book away for a bit.

Hobb mostly works with the cast she established in the first two volumes of the Rain Wild Chronicles. She uses multiple points of view to describe scenes in Bingtown, the Rain Wilds, Kelsingra and Chalced. I still marginally favour the first person point of view Hobb used in the Farseer and Tawny Man trilogies but I guess that is a matter of taste. For the story Hobb is trying to tell, multiple points of view are certainly necessary. It is becoming as politically complex as the Liveship Traders trilogy. The return of the dragons have destabilized the communities of the Rain Wilds and Bingtown. It is a development that has a human component as well of course. After gaining independence from Jamalia, Bingtown will now have to establish itself as a nation. It is a time of opportunity, a development that brings in lots of new people who do not share the history of hard work and countess setbacks on the Cursed Shore. There are social tensions everywhere in this book. Slavery, sexism and discrimination are major themes in the novel which makes it a fascinating read.

As usual, Hobb pays a lot of attention to her characters. They are detailed, three dimensional, each with a clear motivation, their own hopes, fears and challenges. Not all of them are equally likable of course and I felt that especially in the less sympathetic characters, Hobb tended to overemphasize their negative traits a bit. Hest in particular is set up to be the bad guy, with elaborate plans that will make life difficult for his wife Alise and his former lover Sedric that are very unlikely to go anywhere. I absolutely loved Malta's determination in this novel though, and Leftrin's efforts to keep from being overwhelmed by all the responsibility he feels towards his crew, the expedition, Alise and his ship. Leftrin is almost the embodiment of everything that is going on in the society he is part of. Old customs and certainties being eroded by the force of all these new developments.

The dragons themselves receive their share of attention too of course. They are still a bunch of arrogant creatures. Hobb does well making them at them interesting characters and completely inhuman at the same time. The conflict between their ancestral memories of what they should be and how they once were treated and the bleak reality of their situation. Stunted in their growth by the poor conditions in which they hatched and the minimal care they have received since, life is a struggle for them and it rankles. Sintara in particular feels she ought to be a queen of the sky as well as the muddy land around the river and it makes her decidedly unpleasant. Especially since her keeper Thymara is much more occupied with her own personal problems. The dynamic between these two is another strong feat of characterization in the novel. The way their relationship will develop is something for the next book I suppose. Both the absence of Tintaglia and Thymara's distractions pose challenges to their relationship. Neither seems to fully realize how much they need each other yet. A definite note of tragedy in the novel. But then, Hobb has always been a writer who lets her characters suffer.

As you may have gathered, I enjoyed reading this novel a lot. Despite the fact that it is not a complete story, City of Dragons worked very well for me on several levels. It is Hobb like the fans will probably like to see her. It is not surprising in terms of settings of themes but very well told, with Hobb's characteristic attention to detail and character. Some readers will think Hobb is taking her time putting the pieces in place for the finale of the series. For me, that was one of the aspects I enjoyed most. Hobb explores the tensions in society in detail without compromising on the development of her characters and that is something not all fantasy manages as effortlessly as this novel does.  I think I will ignore the Dutch translation and wait for the English edition of Blood of Dragons but Hobb certainly hasn't made it easy for me.

Book Details
Title: City of Dragons
Author: Robin Hobb
Publisher: Voyager
Pages: 425
Year: 2012
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-00-727380-5
First published: 2012

The Healthy Dead - Steven Erikson

The Healthy Dead is the second in a series of novellas on the necromancers Krobal Broach and Bauchelain. The are set in the same world as Erikson's ten volume fantasy series the Malazan Book of the Fallen. So far, Erikson has published four, with a fifth expected later this year. The Healthy Dead is the second in publication order, but the third chronologically, with the third novella, The Lees of Laughters End, set between Blood Follows and this novella. Once again I've read the edition published by Night Shade Books, which has a cover and several interior illustrations by Mike Dringenberg. The Healthy Dead is my favourite of the three I have read so far (I own a copy of Crack'd Pot Trail and hope to read it later this year). It is the finest example of the satirical element in  Erikson's writing.

After the events that forced their premature departure from Lamentable Moll, Korbal Broach and Bauchelain, accompanied by the unfortunate servant Emancipor Rees are still on the run from their pursuers. They have reached the remote city of Quaint, which at first glance offers little the small company may want and Bauchelain is tempted to circle the city and try to gain some more distance between them and their pursuers. Then, one of the city's inhabitants approaches them with a plea for help. A challenge Bauchelain can't resist. The city is ruled by a king who in his desire to do good, has banned just about everything that can kill. A very dangerous development if it were to spread. You see, a desire for goodness leads to the end of civilization.

In this novella Erikson ask the reader the question why so many people seem to prefer regimes that are not actually out for the wellbeing of their subjects. It has been a well known phenomenon that large groups of people long for a return to dictatorial regimes when a democratic political system doesn't turn out to be as perfect as the brochure promised. In this case the city of Quaint have come to realize that their king's ruthless enforcement of healthy living practices, makes life more complicated than they bargained for. The eloquent Bauchelain explains it in Yoda-like fashion early on in the novella, a gimmick that Erikson will repeat a number of times in the text.

"Ah, Mister Reese, I gather you still do not understand the threat this king poses to such creatures as you and I."

"Well, frankly, no, I don't, Master. As you say."

"I must perforce make the linkage plain, of sufficient simplicity to permit your uneducated mind to grasp all manner of significance. Desire for goodness, Mister Reese, leads to earnestness. Earnestness in turn leads to sanctimonious self-righteousness, which breeds intolerance, upon which harsh judgement quickly follows, yielding dire punishment, inflicting general terror an paranoia,eventually culminating in revolt, leading to chaos, then dissolution and thus, the end of civilization."

Bauchelain explaining to Reese why the situation in Quaint is so dangerous.

Quite simple really. And while he's at it, Erikson lampoons political correctness and diet gurus.

Erikson continues the story with a series of bizarre scenes in which the cities cult of healthy living is  examined. It is portrayed as a society where nothing is left to individual responsibility and where infractions are harshly punished. Those who died clean, healthy deaths - usually from ailments of the bowels after their diet has been reduced to mostly grass, excluding everything that could be considered a vice or in any way unhealthy -  are venerated and proudly displayed. Erikson has never been afraid of describing the grisly details of life and death in detail, and in this story he managed to combine the horrific with the comical. Casual acceptance of some horror and outrage at others contrast in strange ways and completely over the top situation occur with frighting regularity. A situation that echoes the relationship between Reese and his masters.

One of the things I like most about these novellas is that it forces Erikson to be more concise. The restrictions in length force him to focus and in this novella it works very well. Where Blood Follows feels a bit rushed at the end, this novella feels exactly long enough. Quite an achievement for a man who also produces sprawling 300,000 words novels almost like clockwork. The Healthy Dead  just ticks all the boxes for me, I think it is a little gem. And the best thing is that you can read these novellas without having the read the ten huge volumes of the main series. It is a great way to sample Erikson's writing. I can't wait to see where Erikson is taking the story of the two necromancers and their unfortunate manservant.

Book Details
Title: The Healthy Dead
Author: Steven Erikson
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Pages: 128
Year: 2005
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 1-597800-06-6
First published: 2004