Empire in Black and Gold (Tor, 2008)
January 29th, 2012 § 2 Comments
Well colour me disappointed. I hardly read any fantasy nowadays (the last one was The Song of Ice and Fire but George Martin is taking his time finishing the series I just don’t give a damn anymore) mainly because I think the genre has been played out. The medieval European setting, the Dark Lord, the orphan boy/girl destined to save the land with a big ass sword, the motley crew of friends to help him/her. Yeah, it’s been done. But occasionally boredom hits the soul and I think, “what the heck, let’s read some fantasy today” only to have the book crush my hopes like a salivating wolf crushing the neck of an injured raccoon. Empire in Black and Gold is such a book.
This book was the debut for Brit author Adrian Tchaikovsky and he has since written at least six books in the ‘Shadows of the Apt’ series. I won’t be there to enjoy the ride. You want to know what this book is about? Go read about it at the Fantasy Book Critic blog. I dropped it like a hot potato after it failed the 50 page rule. After 50 pages, I still didn’t care about the impending crisis faced by the protagonist. After 50 pages, I still didn’t care about any of the characters introduced in the second chapter who probably would play major roles in the story. And after 50 pages I still didn’t care about the concept of the insect totems most of the characters had which gave them special abilities (Ant-kinden can operate in a hive mentality, Wasp-kinden can fly, that kind of thing). That concept seemed interesting until one is reminded that it’s been done by another author in another fantasy series (Steven Erikson, Malazan Book of the Fallen if you must know). This book has 600+ pages and the first 50 could not grab my attention? To the reject pile it went.
Is the fantasy genre today strictly for teens and young adults? Aren’t there any written for jaded, approaching middle-age dads like me? I want to be challenged, intrigued, entertained, grabbed by the collars and refused any reprieve until I’ve finished reading the story. The closest is Martin’s series I mentioned above but I dislike reading an ongoing series whose author is taking his time to finish (and no, I’m not going to watch the HBO adaptation). The only ones I have enjoyed were written over 50-60 years ago. Robert Howard’s Conan the Barbarian and Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser adventures remain favourites among fantasy fans. And of course JRR Tolkien but that’s a given.
But today’s fantasy novels? BAH!
I blogged about you today…check it out!
http://dianeagain.blogspot.com/2012/01/my-dearest-beloved-blogs.html
I’m currently in the process of writing a fantasy novel and (if I get published) I truly hope I can change up the genre a bit and recapture that old spark that fantasy once had (and still has, in places). I completely agree with this article. The genre needs something fresh.