Not quite another trip to Krondor

Title of this post is because, while the name of the book is Krondor: The Betrayal very little of it takes place in the city of Krondor. Most of it is situated in the outlands of the Western Kingdom. Betrayal is the first book of the Legacy sub series of Riftwar. The second book I talked about in the previous post and I enjoyed it so I figured to get the other books in the set. While Squire James is also one of the main characters in this book he shares more of the spotlight in this one with a much larger cast of characters. There is his friend, and fellow squire, Locklear, A Dark Elf chieftain Gorath, Owyn, a younger son of lesser nobility studying to be a magician, Pug, the pre-eminent magician of his time and the character who seems to have started the whole over arcing cycle and Patrus, a highly entertaining old coot and lesser magician.

The book starts with the coming of Gorath, a moredhel or dark elf, to a town on the Northern Borders of the Western Kingdom from the icy lands north of the mountains where most of his race has been forced due to the coming of humans. Needless to say the moredhel aren’t really fond of humans and due to a war or two between them, or at least where they were on opposite sides, most humans aren’t exactly willing to clasp them to their bosoms. That being said Gorath has decided to make common cause with the humans to save his people from what he considers a bigger danger and so comes out of the North bearing a warning for the Prince of Krondor. He comes across Squire Locklear of the Royal Court, who has been banished to the godforsaken locality to serve the local noble because of some dalliance with the wrong woman. Locklear decides that getting Gorath to the prince is worth risking his wrath at leaving the exile decreed for him. And off we go on another adventure in the Kingdom of the Isles. BTW, although there is a Kingdom of the Isles with a king and other nobles to go with it, it seems, at least in these books, that most of the fighting is done by the Western half of the kingdom and its ruling prince. The Eastern half seems to sit on its ass a lot. The book covers the various travels and travails of the squires, magicians and Gorath in one set of groups or another as they combat the danger that the moredhel saw threatening his folk and the humans. As in Assassins the adventure, and story, are fairly straightforward though Feist throws in a few twists and turns you might not see coming.

One wonders if Betrayal originally started out to be the beginning of a new sub series. It stands on its own even more than Assassins does as there is no previous story to refer back to the way Assassins sometimes does other than general references to the cycle as a whole and there is no lead in to future stories as there is at the end of Assassins. It makes a good start if one would like to start any of Feist’s books as it has a satisfactory conclusion and one wouldn’t know it was part of a series if one didn’t know any better.

All in all another good book by Feist and enough to have me looking for other books in the Riftwar Cycle as I have already ordered the third book of this subset, Krondor: Tear of the Gods. Right now I have my eye on the Serpent War saga, a set of 4 books set in Riftwar universe. Really would like to read the original Riftwar saga but still searching for a fairly good copy of the first novel, Magician. Seems that either there aren’t a whole lot of them around or people don’t wish to part with them.

Beginning to think that the stroke was a bigger problem than I thought it would be. Having not done much reading for over a year just because of the sheer difficulty of it with an arm that wouldn’t grip a book properly and having a lot of time on my hands owing to being without gainful employment because of it, I am back to reading with a vengeance. I always was a big reader but my forays to the bookstore occurred a couple times a year at which times I would load up on a hundred or so dollars worth of books, mainly paperbacks with the occasional hardback. When I started collecting I usually saved my money for purchasing early books, hardcover, of those authors I enjoyed and was collecting, some of which were not cheap, and spending my time doing a lot of rereading of books I had. Now, with time on my hands and the discovery of a few new authors I enjoy, my book collection is again expanding rapidly. For example Mr. Feist has published approximately 30 novels in the Riftwar cycle. I have 2 at present which means another 28 books, give or take, will be heading for my shelves depending on various factors. Not to mention there are still some books by those authors I am already collecting that I still do not have. Some, such as Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonflight and Dragonquest I may never own due to scarcity and cost, though I do have a signed copy of White Dragon. Others though are within my means, or were not too long ago, if I can just find the right copy. Be that as it may I seem to be buying books at a far greater pace than ever before and if I’m not careful I may soon be buried in them.

Hokay, enough for now. I hope my humble opinion was of some use to someone somewhere. I try not to go too far about the plot or scenes in the book as so not to spoil anything for the potential reader. If I should ever go too far just slap me. Thanks for the listen.

A trip to Krondor

Finished another book the other day, Krondor: The Assassins, a fantasy novel by Raymond Feist. Actually I finished 3 books but the other two were rereads. I picked up this book years ago on the bargain shelf when I couldn’t find anything else worth reading and it looked like something I might be interested in. However it took a number of false starts before I finally got into it. The dust jacket isn’t exactly designed to catch your eye as it is just a field of red with the title on it. Actually there is a background of two crossed swords but they don’t exactly jump out at you. Could have been one reason it subconsciously prejudiced me, dull looking dj, dull book. Finally decided to give it another go and I found I enjoyed it.

Assassins is the second book of Feist’s Riftwar Legacy series, itself a sub series of his Riftwar novels. Actually Riftwar is a series of three books but it was the beginning of the whole shebang which amounts to about 20 or so novels in a bunch of sub series all taking place with the same background. In addition the Riftwar Legacy books are based on a computer game which in turn was based on the original series. I hate starting a series in the middle but considering the problems I had starting this book I wasn’t rushing out to buy the first one so I guess I had to live with it. Wasn’t too bad as the story can stand on its own. There is some back story to it in the first book, indeed in all the previous books dealing with Riftwar, but except for references here and there in the story and a bit of a lead in to the rest of the series at the end you can read this on its own though you probably won’t. This is actually a good thing because, while three books have been published, five books seem to have been planned but due to some kind of dispute between Mr. Feist and the game company the last two might never be published. I hate when I get left hanging.


As I mentioned in my earlier review of Parker here is another author whose strong suit is characters and he has a raft of them. Only time I’ve seen such a large list of characters sharing the stage has been in shared universe type books where different authors set their own characters amid those of other authors. Here one man is responsible for them all. The main protagonist of Assassins is Squire James, aka Jimmy the Hand, a thief who has risen to Court rank somewhere in previous books. It is set mainly in the city of Krondor, the capital city of the Western half of the Kingdom of the Isles, which in turn is set on the world of Midkemia. Being a fantasy there are magicians, royalty, mercenaries, elves, trolls, thieves, assassins and so on and so forth all over the place. Assassins, as the name says, deals mainly with the fact that someone, or something, is wiping out a good portion of certain classes of citizens in the city of Krondor. The prince of the city, having a number of other problems on his hands, needs to find out who is responsible and why and puts the problem in the capable hands of Squire James, who once roamed the disreputable highways of the city’s underworld as the young thief Jimmy the Hand. This is a mixed blessing for while James knows his way around and still has the abilities and contacts from his former way of life; he also has a death mark upon him from the Thief’s Guild for breaking faith with them when he joined the royal Court. Of course the Guild has some problems of its own as they are one of the groups the killers are picking off. Complicating matters on the other side of the scale, the prince, in addition to the problems in his city, has some visiting nobility from another kingdom who seem bent on pursuing dangerous pastimes. So the story follows James as he winds his way through the sewers and over the rooftops of Krondor as he tries to solve the mystery of the whys and wherefores of the city’s killings and the adventures of his friend William who has just become a member of the Prince’s guard and is given the mission of protecting the visiting nobility, no small task.

Feist writes a straightforward, easy to read story. While his world may have as many different races and religions as Tolkein’s he doesn’t carry the development of the mythos to the extremes Tolkein did. You don’t need all the appendices and concordances to get all the nuances in his stories. While reading his books in some kind of order would probably give a bit more understanding he does explain enough in the stories themselves to get you by with what you need to know without going into excessive back story. I found myself reading the novel in about 2 days which might translate to 3-5 days for the average Joe given that I am a fairly fast reader who doesn’t need to worry about getting up for work in the morning. I mention that because Feist knows how to keep your attention so that you really don’t wish to put the book down even at the end of a chapter and so I went a bit later in to the night than I really wished to. So if you are in to fantasy novels I can recommend Raymond Feist’s Krondor The Assassins though you might want to start with Krondor The Betrayal, the first book in the sub series. As I enjoyed Assassins I went and found me copies of the other two books in the series and am in the middle of the first one now. The third one I ordered but it seems the store had sold their copy so had to do some searching for another one. These are first editions of the hardcovers as I am a bit of a collector of authors I enjoy. Paperback copies are readily available online.

If my opinion of the book helps I’m glad to have been of service. Thanks for the listen.

PS

While I didn't get my threefer at last night's BL game I did get 5th which put a few more points on the scoreboard.

Book report

Just finished reading Split Image by Robert B. Parker. Regret it’s going to be one of the last of his I will read as Mr. Parker passed on in January. Think there is one more Spenser novel in the pipeline for later this year and there are still 2 or 3 of his early ones I don’t have but it looks like finis for another of my favorite authors. Another sign you are growing old is when the authors you have enjoyed for 30-40 years start disappearing. Going to have to start looking for some new ones to follow.

Split Image was the 9th Jesse Stone novel. For those who don’t follow, Jesse Stone was an L.A. homicide cop whose ex-wife drove him to drink and he wound up as a police chief in a small coast Mass. Town. Lotta crime for such a small town. The book is enjoyable as are all of Parker’s works but it’s not one of his best. It’s not one I would recommend that a newcomer to his works start with.

Parker is not a convoluted plotter such as Agatha Christie or Dick Francis. His strength is in how his stories flow along and especially in his characterizations and in his characters interactions with each other. His most notable creations, Spenser and Hawk have some of the best patter going between them I have read. That being said I think the plot here is a bit weaker than usual. In fact there are two plots here because it seems that Parker was on the path towards combining the characters from two of his series, Stone and Sunny Randall, a Boston P.I. She had her own series of about 6 books but there hasn’t been one lately and while she has appeared in the Jesse Stone books before she takes up a large part of this one. So while the book is about the same length as the others there are two plots running and except for the interaction of the characters, they’re sleeping together, there is no real link to the stories. Basically it’s like two novellas combined to form a novel.

All that being said it’s still a good read if you like Parker and I think almost anyone would like Parker if they start somewhere else. If they start here they may think him a bit weak and just brush him off. Any of the Spenser books would be a good start or if interested in Stone the first one, Night Passage gives the basic back story. Parker reads fairly straightforward, no pausing to try and remember some small thing that happened way back in the first chapter or trying to figure out 6 degrees of relationships. I stumbled across him one day when I was bored and the store had nothing that that tickled my fancy. I took a chance on a Spenser novel of Parker’s called Potshot and I’m glad I did. Started me reading, and then collecting his books. A shame there won’t be many more too enjoy.

On that note I’ll wrap this up and thank you for listening. Keep reading

Some quickies

Just some fast and furious nuggets.

Sitting here playing some poker and looking over the blogs I’ve not been reading and notice that I’m not the only one who has taken a hiatus from writing. Either that links to those sites have been broken. Going to have to check to see if some folks actually quit or if they just upgraded their sites.

Reading about Mastodon Weekend. Shows how much I’ve aged and what the stroke took out of me. Time was I would think nothing of hopping in the car and driving through the night. Only thing to stop me would have been thoughts of work. Now there is no work to hold me back but as much as I would love to make the trip I’m not sure I want to make that drive alone. This from a guy who used to travel to Chicago by car by his lonesome a couple times a year. Not that I can’t make this trip, just the fact that I’m even thinking and rethinking it worries me. I’m getting old, no two ways about it.

Back at the limit at Cake. My hot streak seems to have ended today. The suckouts are coming fast and furious. Got guys not only calling me but raising with nothing but then catching on the river. Had one guy cap every round with a K-Q off against my set of tens and hit the gutter ball on the river. I could have done the same thing a few times but I’ve got the sense to bail when I have squat. Of course the squat turned into the nuts by river time. Looks like the bear is having a nice lunch.

I’ve got to get my library database finished. Seems I just wasted money on a book I already have. Was reading the summary and knew I hadn’t read it before so I ordered it. Got here today and I went to enter it in the database and lo and behold, it’s already listed. Purchase date on it is the week right before the stroke. Must have been in a batch of books I bought just before the stroke and never got around to reading. They were some of the first I tried to catalog a couple months back when I first started the project and then I packed them away to get them out of my bedroom. O well, only an EBay purchase for about $5-6 including shipping. Just as well too as I’m not really happy about the purchase. Book not quite up to the description Not real bad, just not something I would add to my collection unless it was a scarce commodity, which this one isn’t. More fodder for the e-store if I ever go that route.

Speaking of libraries, I was reading in their latest newsletter that they offer different kinds of classes and training, both classes and one on one session, through volunteers. Thinking I might go down and offer my services with computers. Not the greatest teacher on a group starting from scratch basis, not really patient enough, but if someone has an idea of what they want to do I can usually explain that to them. So maybe I’ll head down and see if they can use my services. Who knows, may make some useful contacts.

Well, time to get some things done before the poker league game tonight so I guess this trip to the land of boredom is over for now. Thanks for the listen.

Should I open a library

Been spending the last couple weeks cataloging the personal library. Something I’ve been wanting to do for years and occasionally actually started but never continued with. Lets face it data entry is boring as hell but with time on my hands I decided to use such time to start practice working with Access, when I thought I might still be able to reenter the IT world, and to try and get a listing of my books as I lose track of what I have at times. I also hope to use it as a stepping stone to inventorying all items of value in the house in case of disaster striking the premises. My movie collection is almost as big as my book one though not as valuable. Need to design some new tables and forms for that though,

Always been a reader and discovered the world of paperbacks in a big way in my high school years. Still have a lot of those books around, though a number of them wound up destroyed during a move back home after college. In college I discovered that hardbacks last longer and book club editions weren’t that expensive. Somewhere along the line though I started collecting and found out that book club editions or BCE as they can be termed don’t really have much value except as reading material, so I moved into acquiring American first editions of the authors I liked, mainly in sf and mystery. All this is to explain the cataloging job. One, I have a lot of books and two, I need to keep track because I don’t really need to spend money on copies of something that is already in the collection or, if I am going to buy another copy, to make sure it is an upgrade to the one I have. Hence my brand new database and my project.

So far I’ve entered 380 books and haven’t really even started on the shelves yet. These are the ones just lying around in the den or the living room or wherever. The bedroom has yielded over 100 volumes alone. When the weather breaks and allows me to enter and sort through my shed I know there are 3-4 Rubbermaid containers out there containing paperbacks. Ever since the debacle of my return from college I no longer use cardboard to store books. Looking at some of the prices my old paperbacks from back in my high school days are fetching these days (no remarks about sheer age adding to the value either) that episode cost me a pretty penny in investment value in addition to the reading material. Not that I ever thought in terms of paperbacks becoming worth money. Just found that out as I was cataloging and decided to see what it would take to replace some missing volumes in the series I once collected. Found one sf/fantasy series I used to read in high school and college selling for $800 to $1000 for the complete 26 book set in firsts. This for a bunch of paperbacks that cost from $.75 to $2.95 when they came out. Guess what I’m sitting on? Yup, all 26 of them, first printings and most in mint condition. Problem is can I bear to part with them? Collectors just hate to sell unless it’s a duplicate copy of something.

Another reason for the cataloging is that I have been thinking of opening up an e store dealing in books. As I’m not going to be able to return to work in the foreseeable future, if ever, I’m going to need something to give me some income so it’s either enhance my poker skills tremendously or think of something else. Since books and computers are the things I know best the e store seems to be the path to investigate. Anyone with any knowledge or insights to this endeavor please feel free to comment. Any and all advice highly appreciated. We’ll see how this works out. Actually owning a bookstore always had been a dream of mine but in those days it was the B&M type. Who knows, there is still a chance. Would love to have something to pass on to my daughter as her love of books rivals mine.

Speaking of books and my daughter, I was digging around in an old magazine rack last night and came across a book whose disappearance has puzzled me for at least 10 years. It’s a copy of H. Beam Piper’s The Fuzzy Papers that I got through the Science Fiction Book Club way back in my college years. I have always enjoyed Piper’s work and I went looking for this one way back when. It interested me at the time as it works on many levels. It’s a nice, good read which is the main thing. Piper was a good story teller and his tales are good even if you don’t like material with messages in them. It can be cute enough for kids, in fact I think they have brought out an illustrated kid’s version of the story. I mean with a character called Little Fuzzy with all its connotations how can it not appeal to kids? This is the reason I went searching for it years ago. I came across the dust jacket lying in a drawer and thought that it would have been an interesting story to read to my daughter when she was younger. I went searching, figuring that book had to be somewhere but never could find it even though I would go looking every couple of months. Finally it works on the adult level of being a story involving an issue that might not be exactly black and white and that how one sees something may depend entirely on where one is standing and how shifting one’s viewpoint can help understand where the other guy is coming from and possibly reach an accord with them rather than bashing each other’s brains out. Daughter is now too old to sit in my lap and have me read to her but hopefully she’ll read and enjoy it on her own now that I’ve unearthed it. Now I just have to figure out where I put the damned dust jacket.

Well we’ve gotten wordy as usual but we have nothing but time on our hands these days so it don’t bother me and hope it doesn’t bother you either. Of course if it does you’ll probably just ignore me anyway. Enjoy or not but Thanks for the visit

Ramblings about poker, strokes and reading

Playing the Mookie tonight. Had a ride to a live RPT game but didn’t feel like getting dressed. Game started off fast and went downhill. Opened with A-Q in MP but had a raise and reraise in front so gave it up. So far I got nothing else. Hanging around with half a stack or less for most of the game. Seem to catch a hand at just the right time to stay alive. Other than that, nada. Few times I did catch something no one else did and I got some blinds or min pots. Ah well, such is the game. Should have gone to bed, therapy in the am.

Speaking of therapy got some good news, bad news the other day while there. First, the therapist says that she thinks my progress is faster than she usually sees. Altho it’s hard to believe, at least in my mind, I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt and believe her. Bad news, it seems that total recovery, including all the internal damage could take up to a year after I think I’ve recovered fully. I do notice that certain small things are just coming back in my leg even tho the strength and balance have seemed almost totally back for a week or so. More like muscle control issues rather than strength, ones like being able to clench certain muscles.

Was going to play the Dookie also but decided not to. Too tired. Finally got the rest of the plants in the ground today. Place was a sea of mud and it was cold and windy but it got done. Me on shovel, nephew on post hole digger and father on hoe backfilling and we knocked it out. Thought we were finished at 2 dozen holes but got a bargain. Seems the nursery sent 4 extra plants. Today that was a bargain I really didn’t need, hands were cold. Big cup of hot chocolate spiked with some coconut rum helped afterwards. Some of the bushes had some live growth on them even tho the leaves had finally fallen off them so hopefully they will survive.

Time to start on a new subject, one of my favorite ones, books. Decided to start on this for a couple of reasons. One, I’m a voracious reader and book collector and hope to be again. Right now it’s tough to read since holding a newspaper and books one handed is a bitch.

Two, just before the stroke happened I had just ordered a number of books, some of them just collector’s editions of books I already have or have read in paperback. Others were new material I haven’t had the chance to read. Added to them are two graphic novels I just ordered. Except for certain special editions of these concerning certain series I collected in my youth I hadn’t really been a purchaser of graphic novels before. Not a snob, I got my start reading comics in the mid 60s and my daughter has discovered the joy of manga and while I buy them for her I take advantage of the fact they are lying around the house and read them myself. It’s just that I always enjoyed comics for the stories more so than for the art and when they went to a quarter from twelve cents and I realized that I could buy paperbacks like Conan for 50 cents and get a lot more story comics fell by the wayside in favor of books. I have however, been reintroduced to the love of comics. This week I got, as I said, two graphic novels. One was basically a compendium of some of the comics of my youth, a volume which is basically nothing more than reprints of Dr. Strange comics from back in the day. I loved Dr. Strange. Only regret is that the prints are in B&W. One of the things about the Doc were the psychedelic colors use to represent the spirit world in those comics. If I find the stories as enjoyable as I remember I may have to search out the hardbound versions that are out there. They aren’t cheap but they are in color and on better paper. The other book is Watchman. I have heard a lot about this series but never read it but while looking at something else I noticed the series has been compiled into a hardbound edition. So I thought I would check it out. This book is not a child’s comic with a lot of issues that were very relevant when it was written back in the 80’s. Started reading it earlier tonight. May write more about it when I am finished. May write about other books when I start buying and reading again. As I said, reading is a passion.

Third, I was reading Astin’s blog earlier and he mentioned he should read more, that he enjoyed it but that he just didn’t do it enough. I left a comment urging him to do it. Reading is something I will encourage in anyone, no matter what they read. Massaging words in your mind only improves your mental abilities. It’s one of the reasons I buy my daughter the manga. It may not be the classics but it encourages her to read. As I said, I started on comic books myself and graduated to heavier things. Another thing is that he said he enjoyed it. I also enjoy it and temporarily am not really able to enjoy it. It bothers me that I can’t but at least my problem is only temporary, this time. While in rehab I met a woman who seemed no worse off than I physically. While I was killing some time reading, before I realized how frustrating it was one armed, she told me I was lucky to be able to use my time reading. Her stroke had damaged a portion of her brain that left her unable to read. While the effect could be temporary she can’t be sure and even if so there is no telling how long it will be before the ability returns. What I am trying to say is, if you enjoy something, make time to do it. You never know when the ability to do so may vanish. And if you don’t already do so, read. It’s good for the mind and the soul.

OK, somewhere amidst the 4th or 5th paragraph I got knocked out and should have gone to bed but I was up on my reading soapbox and decided to try and finish. So enough boredom for tonight so I’ll step down from it and say thanks for tuning in.