Brisingr continues where the last book, Eldest, left off. The Varden has started their assault on the Empire, the elves are marching to war, and the dwarves are discussing who will be their next king.

Amidst all of this, we follow Eragon, and his cousin, Roarn, one a dragonrider learning what it truly means to be one, the other a soldier and leader to be. They both struggle with their horror of killing, and wonder what makes their taking of lives just.

We learn how the dwarves select their new king, gain an insight in how the Gods function, learn about the positive sides of Eragons parents, and the truth of Murtaughs multiple hearts.

All in all, this is a very good continuation of the series, I got the book on Saturday around 12ish, and did not put the book away until I had finished reading it.

It has my heartiest recommendation.

So how does Feist manage to write yet another well written, interesting and hard to put down? Character buildup. A new book invariably presents one or more new characters, and often kills a few of the ones introduced in earlier books, and this book is no exception. And it comes with a very healthy recommendation from me.

There are two main subplots in this book, one closing the Dasati saga, the other most likely setting the stage for Feists next cycle. As the Dasati God threathens Kelwan and the Tsuranni people, the heart of Midkemia itself might also be threathened from another side. One even the Valheru failed to vanquish.

While the series was a bit halting after book seven or eight, this final book closes all loose threads and give a good and fitting conclusion to this series.

With the Order army sieging the People’s Palace of the D’Haran Empire, Richard, Seeker of Truth, Father Rahl of the D’Haran Empire and Warwizard is a captive of the Order army. But they know not his real identity. Kahlan and another close ally of Richard are also captives in the same camp, and with the Wizards Keep failing, things look bleak, and humanity is poised to go into the great abyss, with magic gone from the world forever.

Goodkind incorporates every minor character from all the other books to ensure everything is ended, and while things may look very bleak for the forces of good at times, they will eventually prevail. (And anyone not expecting that has been reading books I really want the names of )

All in all, it is a well written book, I could hardly lay it down until I had read it all, and I recommend it, and the Sword of Truth series.

For six hundred years, Bars Wall has kept the country of Lur safe from the evil lurking outside, and the magical Doranen and the non-magical Olken have lived togeter in prosperity in a land where the weather always is kept under controll by the King of the Land, a Doranen also titles the WeatherMaker.

Asher is a fishermans son, youngest of seven, he leaves his village to find prosperity in the capital so that he might return and let his father retire, and the two of them move away from his brothers, whom Asher never liked, nor they him. However, when by an accidental happening, Asher saves the horse of the prince of the realm, he is thrown into high-politics, an area usually reserved for the Doranen.

What the Doranen and most of the Olken has forgotten, is that the Olken had magic of their own, a more subtle magic attuned to the land. And the day Barls Wall was made, an Olken prophecised that a time would come when the wall would crumble, the evil force outside attack them, and only an Olken mage, titled the Innocent Mage, would be able to save the Kingdom.

As Asher befriends the prince and king alike, little does he know that the Olken organisation known only as the circle, has identified him as the Innocent Mage.

Being a low-magic story in a high-magic land, these are two captivating and interesting books. Well worth the time needed to read them, and hard to lay down until they have been read. I fully do recommend them.

If you have not read this series, I would recommend starting with Curse of the Mistwraith and working your way through the various storyarcs.

In this last book of the Alliance of Light storyarc, Arithon must recover from the ordeal which allowed him to slay every living member of the Kralovir necromancer cult. While Janny attempts to portray him as the terrorist, it can no longer be much doubt that he is infact the major protagonist and hero, classically flawed, but that just makes the story better. Having survived the Maze of Kewar and the Kralovir cult, Arithon has found temporary mastery of Desh’tiere’s curse, while it is stronger than ever in his half-brother, Lysaer.

With Alestron under siege, and the wild lands of Shand threatened, everything hangs in the balance. The cult of Light, Lysaer and his cath’dein, Arithon and Elaira, the brothers S’Brydion, the Fellowship of Seven and the Koriani order all have their goals and players in the game, but who will win, that is yet to be decided.

The Koriani strive to break the compact, allowing humanity to use Athera like any other planet in their history, while the fellowship maintains the edict of the great dragons. Arithon, as Athera’s masterbard remains in the center of the struggle. The only mortal able to wield the power of the Paravians and the land, ruled by compassion, he seeks a way to rid the land of Desh’tiere’s curse, and in the end, his actions might be the salvation of everyone, even Lysaer. However, the Koriani order is fanning the flames of strife, and all may yet be sundered.

This is a well written ending of the third storyarc in the Wars of Light and Shadow. I eagerly await the fourth and fifth arcs, once Janny Wurts get them written and published.

There is talks about a new movie about Conan, as well as the upcoming Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures from Norwegian MMO developer FunCom.

But back to the Conan short stories. While written while the genre known as Fantasy was in its infancy, in the pre-Tolkien era, there was still a large market for so-called “Weird Stories”. Most of these have fallen into the abyss of forgottenment, but the works of authors such as Howard and Lovecraft live on. And the Conan stories have aged well.

Set in our fictional past, in what Howard called the Hyborean age, Conan is a barbarian, a Cimmerian which are the unknowing descendants of the people of Atlantis. Conan travels throughout most of the known world, being both pirate, corsair, kozzak, guardsman, leader of the Royal guard and finally king of Aquilonia.

The stories are set in a more mature environment than most of fantasy post-Tolkien, but they are well written, the environment living and breathing, and well worth a read.

I picked up Geomancer while waiting for the train yesterday, and I almost failed to put it down once I started to read it.

On a world called Santhenar, where humanity combines “magic” with mechanics, humanity is battling against an enemy known as the Laryinx. Both sides can wield the so called “Greater Art”, but in different ways. Humanity uses it sparingly, but amongst other things, it is used to power their clankers, great eight-legged warmachines central to the war against the Laryinx.

The Larinx are creatures born of the void, while mankind fled to Santhenar escaping another enemy. However, mankind is slowly loosing the war, to an extent where females biggest priority in life is birthing new children.

The primary antagonist is Tiaan, born of the birthing factories, with no family history in a culture were history is everything, now an artisan apprentice of great potential.

As her competitor for the master title of crafter renders her almost mad, doomed to a life in the birthing factories, Tiaan escapes, and with the help of an old friend, gets ahold of a crystal whose power could literally turn the fate of the war.

As friends and enemies alike help and try to find her, she still belives herself a fugitive.

I truly recommend this book. The plot is well thought out, the characters flawed and interesting, and most importantly, a book which is hard to put down. I eagerly await the chance to start reading the next book in the series, named Tetrarch.

The Dreaming Void is no different. Set 1500 years after the events of the Commonwealth Saga (The Starflier and Judas Unchained), the Commonwealth has expanded and been divided. While the inner phase 1 and phase 2 planets which we know so well from the Commonwealth Saga has begin their evolution towards post-physical existance. Phase 3 through 5 planets are now known as the External Worlds of the Greater Commonwealth.

Many humans have left their bodies behind, and uploaded their entire conciousness into ANA, in many ways the successor to the AI known as the SI, allowing the human mind to roam more freely, but still bound to the near physicality of the ANA itself. The inner planets of the Commonwealth is now what is known as Higher Culture planets, where capitalism itself has been abolished, and the humans take more responsibility for everything, while readying themselves to upload into ANA.

The External Worlds are not yet ready to upload, and wish to carry on their physical lives.

However, the Commonwealth has found something known as the Void at the center of the Galaxy. Slowly devouring the galaxy like a black hole, it is something more. There are people living behind it, both human and alien. A cult known as the Living Dream believe Utopia to be found in there. Other aliens, including the Raiel, believe the Void to be the end of the galaxy.

When the Living Dream wants to launch a pilgrimage into the Void, forces are set in motion greater than the pilgrims may imagine. Both alien and ANA factions oppose them, and some ANA factions support them while others again remain neutral.

A great read worth reading. I am looking forward to the next installment of this trilogy.

While I won’t post any spoilers (OK one, Voldemort looses again, but come on, if you did not enticipate that one, you really need to read a lot more books )

The series has become increasingly darker, both in theme and in writing, and I guess some of it is a mark of Rowlings increasing maturity as a writer. The Deathly Hallows is perhaps the darkest one yet, but still, in its own way hopefull. Gone is the safety of Privet Drive, gone is the safety of Hogwarts, and gone is even the safety of the larger magical community.

The storytelling is quite breathtaking, I could hardly lay down the book after I picked it up, and all the small plots seeded throughout the six previous books start to come together. And all is not alltogether dark either, as the end comes near, so comes the time for remorse and redemption.

While I have loved the Harry Potter series and would have prefered it to go on, the Deathly Hallows is a worthy ending to the series. I would not categorize it as a childrens book in the same way that the first one was, this is a more mature book, still enjoyable for those young ones who got on the train from the first book on.

The maturity level of the series has grown along with Harry Potter, it has been a long journey, it has been an interesting journey, and it has been an emotional journey.

But all things must come to an end, and I do not foresee any further books in the series, except perhaps a reference book to tie up some loose ends and lost plots.

The second and last book in the story started by Pandora’s Star, this is a very good book.

The plotlines which had divided in Pandora’s Star are starting to converge, the dialogue interesting and the characters intriguing. Overall the author has done a very fine job.

Synopsis:
In the aftermath of the initial attack launched by the prime entity known as MorningLightMountain, parts of the leadership of the Commonwealth realizes that the Guardians of Selfhood must have been right. The alien known as the StarFlier exists, and it appears to be guiding the Commonwealth and MorningLightMountain to a war of mutual extinction.
Alliances unthinkable before the attack is formed between the Guardians and a small group of the Commonwealth leadership. The Sheldon family have their own starship and weapons program unknown to the rest of the Commonwealth, and it might just be the salvation of mankind. But can they stop the StarFlier in time?

The society in this book reminds me of the Hyperion series and the initial interplanetary society based on a different gate principle. But unlike Hyperion, society has not yet come to a stall, it is still vibrant, still expanding, and the base of the expansion is the virtual immortality granted to mankind through rejuvenation and the growing of clones based on memory implants taken from the dead.

Still, such a society cannot grow forever. Would it turn into the stale, dying society pictured in the two first books of the Hyperion series when they run out of planets to colonize?