Blood River Down

That was the title of the book I finished last night. I still cannot figure it out. The main character Gideon Sunday is an ex-football player out of work and somewhat depressed. Then one evening he opens his pantry and discovers the back wall has been replaced by an idyllic meadow. Though he is curious and looks all around eventually he decides to close the door and go to bed. It is only after a woman and then a large creature come through that (after killing the creature with a baseball bat) he is persuaded to go through.

Starting with Sunday's reluctance to go through the opening there were certainly elements often missing from fantasy quest novels, so the book wasn't completely bad. But some things are still inexplicable such as the presence of electricity in the other world and the simplicity of the society found there. Characters are interesting, but at times I found myself wondering what their motivation was, especially one that kept hatching the most insane plans. At one point Gideon is in a weapons shop and sees modern rifles side by side with swords, maces, and other medieval weapons. He is told that rifles are only for hunting animals as you don't need to give them the sporting chance that men deserve.

I believe that part of my confusion has been relieved since I discovered last night that the book is the first of a trilogy. I'm in no rush to procure the novels, but I'll keep the idea on a back burner. Part of the reason I wanted to finish this book was to see how things end and to see if my questions would be answered!

The books I purchased last night were all by Tad Williams and David Weber (at Weber's site you'll see the book of his I bought described on the front page). David Weber I've been a fan of ever since I discovered his Honor Harrington series (I know I've blogged about them here, but I don't want to search for links right now). I've been watching Baen's site for a while now and just realized that the book I was waiting for was out. In Fury Born contains a prequel to an early book of his that I have (but haven't read) as well as an expanded version of that book. The book looked good, so I decided to wait until this version was released to read the story. I'm enjoying it so far. The only problem is that it has about twenty chapters more than the first Williams book I bought so I need to go a ways solo before I can start reading them in tandem.

Last year my first tandem reading project was with Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn and Stephen R. Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. Both are very enjoyable fantasy, though MST more traditional than Covenant. I knew that Williams had published a sci-fi series after MST, but I was waiting for the release of his new fantasy series. Normally I don't like to start a series before it is done, but I've made some exceptions--for Weber because so many are out, and now for Williams' Shadowmarch. I've only just started the book, but I'm already enjoying it. The only problem I can forsee is having to wait a year or more for the next book! ;-)

I also picked up Williams' Otherland series. I've read a bit about these, and I'm still not sure what they are. They are sci-fi, but nothing so ordinary as unadorned space combat. The character covered in the prologue of the first volume is a soldier in World War I's trenches. I think there might be something of VR involved in the series premise, but I don't want to refresh my memory on potential spoilers. At this point I simply want to read the books (once I'm done with Shadowmarch and In Fury Born). Today I work late so before I head into work I'm trying to get caught up in the Weber book so I can read in tandem on my breaks.

~Matt