Geek of Oz

It's difficult to discuss Joe Abercrombie's excellent The First Law series without treading on George R.R. Martin's toes via the expected Game of Thrones comparison. It's true that both writers adopt the term 'grimdark' in similar ways, presenting European-influenced medieval fantasy that's light on the magic and heavy on the shock-value gore festivals. It's also true that both sets of narratives are sprawling exercises in superlative worldbuilding, where stories can be told at the farthest points of the world and still feel like they're all interconnected. Also, both authors really like their swearing characters. I would, however, argue that Abercrombie has this realm of writing locked down far better than Martin does. Most of that's because Abercrombie has a penchant for well-drawn and investing characters, while Martin relies a lot more on plot movement and external circumstance to shape our understanding of the main characters. Pit someo...

There is a fine line between objective and subjective criticism. Some reviewers can tell you the difficulty in maintaining professional distance when critically analysing something, especially if that something provokes the kind of absolute joy or abject loathing that keeps someone like me motivated to write. It's a difficulty I run into when reviewing Emperor of the Eight Islands , Lian Hearn's first book in the prequel to her acclaimed Tales of the Otori series. As a novel, there are a few points where Hearn falls short. As a story, I was completely in love with it, meaning those shortcomings weren't as noticeable. Set 300 years before Across the Nightingale Floor , two rival clans are battling for control of the Lotus Throne. A young man, nearly killed by his lord uncle, is revived as a new man named Shikanoko by a mystical sage. An ancient and mysterious woman gives birth to five supernatural children from five different fathers. After a devastating earthquake and...

Part of the problem I've always had with Star Wars: Episode I  is its inability to live up to its potential. It'd be easy to love or hate a film that's entirely awesome or terrible, but dealing with one which lies somewhere in the middle is a little tougher. The trailers and marketing made it seem like a spellbinding sojourn into the prehistory of popular culture's most beloved space opera franchise, showing a vibrant world before Darth Vader's Empire. Then the final film came out, and all those gorgeous visuals and intriguing characters were wasted, not given the space they needed to develop into something iconic or matching the potential implied by the trailers. Whatever else you could call it, Episode I  was, in every sense of the word, a letdown. I could say the same of Down Station , a quasi-modern-day fantasy with a premise that's almost entirely squandered on lacking characters and a wafer-thin plot. It's a shame, because the book's premise and ...

It's getting to the point where I almost can't write reviews about Brandon Sanderson's work anymore. Even the slightly riskier of his recent narrative ventures - like the experimental Legion: Skin Deep  - end up paying rich dividends, to say nothing of his thoroughly entertaining doorstopper material in The Stormlight Archive. There's only so many ways a reviewer can praise an author's work before it almost becomes a find-and-replace with the newer book's title on the old review. Like with last year's Shadows of Self , we've been spoiled with yet another exciting, layered, thought-provoking and just plain fun  entry in the Mistborn series. The Bands of Mourning  picks up six months after Shadows , with Wax still reeling from the last book's devastating emotional gut punch. He's yanked from his attempted convalescence by the kandra, who've discovered the possible whereabouts of the most powerful weapon in Mistborn history - the titular Band...

 "I want the next one." That's what I said immediately after finishing Ryan Graudin's latest, stellar effort. I want the next book, right now, in my hands, please. Ok, that might be a bit of a strong opening. Let me back up. Wolf By Wolf tells an alternate history story where the Nazis win World War II, folding in aspects of Inglourious Basterds , The Hunger Games and, fittingly, The Motorcycle Diaries. Yael is a young Jewish girl who, years earlier, suffered genetic experiments at the hands of a crazy German scientist. The experiments left her with the ability to shapeshift into anyone she sees, enabling her a quick escape to join the resistance against Hitler's new, glorious nation of Germania. After witnessing a young German woman bluff her way into a mens-only cross-continent motorcycle race, then subsequently win it and get the chance to dance with the reclusive and paranoid Hitler at the victory celebration, Yael and the resistance forge a plan: mimi...

Ever had an imaginary friend? Stephen Leeds has several, but they're not quite imaginary. Working as a contractor for tough jobs whilst evading eager journalists and psychologists in a house built for forty, Leeds - known colloquially as "Legion" - has it tough. Mostly because he has a strange kind of multiple personality disorder; different parts of his mind - or "aspects" - spin off and form separate people, which he can then see as hallucinations. The aspects have distinct personalities and backstories, formed fully in his brain either whenever he requires a certain skill, or when the aspects just feel like it. His mental state is so fragile that he has to imagine his aspects as real people, otherwise he'll go completely crazy rather than just partially. That makes him perfect for a job hunting a stolen corpse that contains the secret to human DNA memory storage, right? Despite being a humungous Brandon Sanderson fan, I'd never checked out the o...

Alice in Wonderland is quite possibly the most famous children's book in existence. That's a pretty bold statement in a world where stories like the Narnia books and the Harry Potter series exist, but I'd argue Alice is to kids' stories what The Lord of the Rings is to fantasy. It's one of the archetypal books, still beloved today and constantly reinterpreted. The hallowed status afforded Alice in Wonderland therefore makes reading a book like After Alice quite difficult. To link to Lord of the Rings again, it's almost equivocal to some people's complaints about last year's Shadow of Mordor ; introducing a newly-framed story in an existing one that's well-regarded and part of the genre's DNA? Or, moreover, using that new story to try and deconstruct part of the old one? You're either very brave or as mad as a hatter; given where After Alice takes place, you're probably the latter. The premise is simple; not long after Alic...

  DISCLAIMER: While there don't appear to be any explicit references to future events, it is possible that aspects of Aftermath are intended to foreshadow developments in Episode VII: The Force Awakens this December. Also, given the lack of pictures from the book (since this is, y'know, a novel), the in-text images will be stills released for The Force Awakens instead.  The short version, for those not wishing anything in-depth, is that I liked Aftermath. Quite a bit. However, those wishing to remain clean of any possible spoilerage should tread lightly in this review with a POSSIBLE MILD SPOILER WARNING . ____________________________________________________________________________ When it comes to Star Wars , I'm a massive fan of the books. In addition to all the Old Republic and Prequel Trilogy stories like Outbound Flight and The Rise of Darth Vader , I bought a lot of the old post- Return of the Jedi Expanded Universe novels back in the day. More tha...

Recently released on paperback and reviewed by us here at Geek of Oz, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and, suffice it to say, this is the kind of novel that only a true geek could write. In my own words, Ernest Cline is the Gandalf to my Frodo, the Merlin to my Arthur or the Doc Brown to my McFly. What I'm trying to say is that through his debut novel, it is immediately evident that he is some kind of magical pop-culture warlock who presumably has an eidetic memory. Thankfully for me, Mr Cline pulled over his DeLorean mid road trip for just long enough to answer a few questions!