If
anyone cares about my absence the past week, I went to beautiful Berks County in Pennsylvania. It's
increasingly good to get away from the Rock (Staten Island) and
breathe less car pollution. I was able to catch up on some
planned reading for future reviews so I got that going for me too. On the way home we took a detour and visited the Brandywine Battlefield. Good times.
I'm
definitely coming to the party late in regards to the swords and sorcery writing of
Black Gate's managing editor, Howard
Andrew Jones. Last summer, when I started making this blog
a real and regular thing Jones' first novel about the scholar
Dabir and swordsman Asim, "The
Desert of Souls", was getting very favorable notices across
the fantasy ghettos of the blogosphere and equally good reviews in the wider world. It had favorable blurbs from some of my favorite writers like Glen Cook. So what took me till
now to actually read any of his work? I mean S&S
adventure set during the Abbasid
Caliphate and in spectacular, ancient Mosul sounds pretty
dang exciting, doesn't it?
Well,
a big reason is, I'm cheap (the other reasons are that I have a lot of
stuff on the to-be-read pile and I'm lazy). It's a large
component of why I buy used (and non-collectible) copies of of books
and e-books. When I buy e-books, I can't help but want them to
be cheaper than what I'd pay for a hard copy. When a publisher
sets a price above Amazon's ceiling of $9.99 I need to know what I'm
getting is going to be worth my money. "Desert of Souls"
was selling for $12.99 (with the sequel, "The
Bones of the Old Ones", available for pre-order, they've
dropped it to $9.99) I imagine you're saying out loud right
now, "C''mon, it's only a couple of bucks, ya' tightwad!"
You're right, I know that. I also want authors like Jones
to make as much money as they can so they can keep going creating
tales of adventure so people like me can keep reading them. But
I'm cheap and I don't make the sorts of impulse book buys as I did
even five years ago. Since I hadn't read anything by him I just
couldn't bring myself to press that 1-click purchase button.
Well,
in this modern age the publishers have tools at their disposal to
lure the likes penny-pinching readers like me into their ink-stained
clutches. They offer us deals too good to refuse by making
shorter works or collections available for low prices to let you see
if you have a taste for someone's writing. In Jones' case
it's "The
Waters of Eternity" for all of $2.99. It collects most of the short
stories about Dabir and Asim along with the first chapter of "The
Desert of Souls". One was left out because it forms part
of "The Desert of Souls", one to be included in a Rogue
Blades collection, and the third, the first he wrote, "An
Audience with the King" is apparently too goofy (his word) for
inclusion.
So,
with all that blathering said, last week I finally took the couple of
hours I needed to read "The Waters of Eternity". It's good, roots S&S with plenty of action, monsters, and
colorful settings. The heroes are Dabir, a scholar of great intellect and reputation as well as confidant and agent of the caliph, Harun
al-Rashid, and Asim, a swordsman of skill and cunning. Asim also serves as the
narrator of the book's six stories.
The
book opens with Asim looking back to his
youth and his friendship with Dabir. It also establishes the "story-ness" of the book. These are tales being told to an audience. Asim describes with
pride the way he once held audiences enthralled with his recounting
of his and Dabir's adventures. To ensure that memories of those
times don't vanish with his death he has finally taken to writing
them down. They're written as if being told to us while sitting around
at his feet. In the afterword Jones states the stories are
presented as Asim might have told them, not in chronological order.
Asim's voice is strong, giving us his thoughts and insights
into Dabir's actions. Jones provides just enough description
of places and people to keep us from getting lost
in the unknown place the early Islamic but still maintain an exotic
aura.
The
stories themselves are the small adventures of the heroes while not
out "racing to the world's far corners to save the caliphate".
Some, like the opener "The Thief of Hearts" and "The
Slayer's Tread", are monster tales. The former also
introduces the reader to Dabir's detective talents as he follows the
clues left at a horrific murder scene back to the crime's origins and
perpetrator. Most of the remaining stories, "Sight of
Vengeance", "Servant of Iblis" and "Marked Man"
in particular, are also detective tales. Like Watson,
Asim stands in for the reader, walking a step or two behind,
following Dabir as he follows the clues to a solution. Along
the way are alchemists, ghouls, wicked Greeks and missing organs. In
other words, good stuff.
"The
Waters of Eternity" is the most surprising and moving story. To
save a governor's dying daughter, Dabir and Asim accompany a troop of
soldiers on an arduous search of the waters of the title. Reputed
to be a spring capable of healing and sustaining life Dabir
reluctantly agrees. The trek is, as predicted, terrible and it
encompasses conflict and dark discoveries. I was as startled at
how the story unfolded as was Asim.
This
is really good historical fantasy storytelling written in a vibrant,
straight ahead manner. In this age of Tolkien-clones and sad,
grimdark worlds, Jones gives us his own take on a classic type of
adventure duo in a glittering world of caliphs, viziers, efrits and
ghouls. His clear love and knowledge of the culture and its
people prevents Dabir and Asim from being mere cardboard characters
flitting about in a world of the worst cliches of Orientalism. The
stories left me hungry for more, curious about how the companions
first met Acteon the Greek or came to serve the caliph. The
stories are swift and surefooted and the mysteries are engrossing.
Dabir and Asim would fit quite well into an anthology edited by
Lin Carter or Andrew Offutt.
Based
on these stories I'm a fan. As I started writing this review I
finally clicked that 1-click button and downloaded "The Desert
of Souls" and later I'll be buying "The Bones of the Old
Ones". I keep saying, it really is a great time to be a
fan of S&S.
