Post by Sneltrekker on May 4, 2006 15:28:13 GMT
www.jamesclemens.com
Two books I read lately were book 1 and book 2 of the Banned and the Banished series by this author.
Apparently the English titles are Wit'ch Fire and Wit'ch Storm. In Dutch they're translated as Book of Fire and Book of Storms literally. (het boek der vuur, het boek der stormen)
I thought they were quite good. However, there's actually only two notable things to say about the books.
First of all, the writer uses a ton of existing themes. For example, the dark lord communicates through the vision of a huge dark eye (Sauron anyone?). Another standard fantasy deal is the heroes.
The heroes are: The last survivor of a race of nymphs; a human warrior who was a prince in the old kingdom before the dark lord conquered the world, but then got cursed with immortality and is still alive now centuries later; a teenage girl who can use the magic of Chi, while it is believe no woman could ever control Chi, and Chi even stopped blessing men with it's gift 500 years ago; a troll who was banished from his clan because he was a halfbreed and murdered a clanmember; two shapeshifters who lost the power to change their shape at will and left their clan because of that; a mountain man who left his clan when a demon killed a child of the clan, he vowed never to return until every of the demons fell to his axe, problem, the demons are invulnerable to normal iron weapons.
And a few others.
Basically the standard story of people that don't fit into their society, old magics that were said to have disappeared centuries ago reappearing, and a big upcoming war against the forces of darkness.
The second thing I really noticed, and the one thing that makes it stand out really, is that every now and then the writer becomes quite gory and graphical. For example, when the dark lord contacts one of his female servants he describes how she pisses on the floor out of fear, and a bit later describes how a colony of tarantulas enter her womb from between her legs.
Is it a good series of books? I'm not certain yet.
It's standard fantasy, with the only difference being in the gorey details. I'd say, if you like books like LotR, Wheel of Time, etc, and don't mind reading through a bunch of stereotypes, it is good.
But they definately are not -MUST- read books.
Two books I read lately were book 1 and book 2 of the Banned and the Banished series by this author.
Apparently the English titles are Wit'ch Fire and Wit'ch Storm. In Dutch they're translated as Book of Fire and Book of Storms literally. (het boek der vuur, het boek der stormen)
I thought they were quite good. However, there's actually only two notable things to say about the books.
First of all, the writer uses a ton of existing themes. For example, the dark lord communicates through the vision of a huge dark eye (Sauron anyone?). Another standard fantasy deal is the heroes.
The heroes are: The last survivor of a race of nymphs; a human warrior who was a prince in the old kingdom before the dark lord conquered the world, but then got cursed with immortality and is still alive now centuries later; a teenage girl who can use the magic of Chi, while it is believe no woman could ever control Chi, and Chi even stopped blessing men with it's gift 500 years ago; a troll who was banished from his clan because he was a halfbreed and murdered a clanmember; two shapeshifters who lost the power to change their shape at will and left their clan because of that; a mountain man who left his clan when a demon killed a child of the clan, he vowed never to return until every of the demons fell to his axe, problem, the demons are invulnerable to normal iron weapons.
And a few others.
Basically the standard story of people that don't fit into their society, old magics that were said to have disappeared centuries ago reappearing, and a big upcoming war against the forces of darkness.
The second thing I really noticed, and the one thing that makes it stand out really, is that every now and then the writer becomes quite gory and graphical. For example, when the dark lord contacts one of his female servants he describes how she pisses on the floor out of fear, and a bit later describes how a colony of tarantulas enter her womb from between her legs.
Is it a good series of books? I'm not certain yet.
It's standard fantasy, with the only difference being in the gorey details. I'd say, if you like books like LotR, Wheel of Time, etc, and don't mind reading through a bunch of stereotypes, it is good.
But they definately are not -MUST- read books.
)
