One of the reasons I've been quiet on here this month is that I've been busy writing reviews for other venues. Chief among these (at least terms of wordcount...) is my piece about last year's shortlist for the David Gemmell Legend Award, a popular-vote prize for epic fantasy. The first part of it - about the ones that I was, well, less keen on - went up this morning at Strange Horizons:
What do they mean by “in the spirit of David Gemmell”? According to the same web page, what they are looking for is something that grabs the reader immediately, with pace (“you know, books that you're STILL reading at three in the morning!”), characters to root for, and convincing world-building. Stories, in other words, that take hold and won't let go until the final page - the reason we all started reading fantasy in the first place.
Quality of prose goes unmentioned, but I'm afraid it won't in this review; writing that makes me want to stab my own eyes out tends to interfere with my desire to still be reading at three in the morning. I'm fussy like that.
The first part is here, and the second here.
~~Nic
I very much enjoyed the review so far, and was particularly interested to read your opinion of Brandon Sanderson. I recall reviewing his first novel, Elantris, back in the days of Emerald City and have been surprised at his storming success since then.
Posted by: Victoria | Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 01:59 PM
That write-up of the shortlist is dynamite. I'm always glad to read pieces that remove books from my pile. I especially loved your comments on Marillier; they were entirely too funny.
Posted by: Zahra | Wednesday, February 03, 2010 at 06:49 PM