Heroisk Fantasy | FantasyBøger

Er Anthony Ryan den nye Patrick Rothfuss?

Fantasybøger, Heroisk Fantasy, High Fantasy, Nyheder, Sword and Sorcery 4 Responses »

Jan 212013

Anthony Ryan. Fantasys nye sort?
Hvis man skal tro dette indlæg på Fantasy Book Critic, så er Anthony Ryan den nyeste helteskikkelse på fantasy scenen. I 2012 debuterede han med bogen Blood Song, der har fået mere end almindeligt varme ord med på vejen – bl.a. i omtalte indlæg.

Blood Song af Anthony Ryan er første bind i fantasy serien Raven’s Shadow og handler om krigeren Vaelin Al Sorna, der fra sin barndom er blevet trænet til at slå ihjel for en religiøs orden med navnet “The Sixth Order”. Vaelins løbebane får ham viklet ind i en uretfærdig krig, og han må forsøge at skille sort fra hvidt, mens han samtidig forsøger at opklare en gåde, der kan afgøre et kongeriges fremtid. Det ser med andre ord ud til, at der bliver slået klassiske fantasy temaer an i Blood Song. Og det ser også ud til, at disse temaer fremstilles af en sikker hånd med stort overskud. Bl.a. hedder det sig inde på Fantasy Book Critic at:

This was simply the best book I’ve read in this year by a long way and as far as debuts go, it stands proudly among those by Scott Lynch and Patrick Rothfuss. The book has a narrative structure that is similar to The Name Of The Wind and also a protagonist whose talents propel him in his military school setting. However that’s not the only shining point, there are several mysteries that are present in the story and the world settings and not to mention there’s also the devious narrative voice that makes it hard for the reader to decide on the veracity of the tale being narrated. Lastly I think Anthony Ryan might be the next best thing to come out of the Indie market and hopefully time will tell if he will be the successor to David Gemmell’s rich fantasy legacy.

David Gemmell var en stor mester inden for heroisk fantasy, og hvis Anthony Ryan formår at kombinere den genre med lidt mere dybde i karaktererne og nogle plots, der er mere detaljerede end vanligt, kan jeg sagtens forstå, hvorfor han kan udråbes til den nye Patrick Rothfuss. Jeg skal i hvert fald stifte bekendtskab med Blood Song og i det hele taget serien Raven’s Shadow ved selvsyn. Men det ser ud til, at jeg må anskaffe mig en Kindle (eller en anden ebogslæser) først. I hvert fald hvis jeg skal købe den på Amazon. Hmm …

Joe Abercrombie: Red Country

Fantasybøger, Heroisk Fantasy 2 Responses »

Dec 282012

Red Country af Joe Abercrombie er noget så uklassisk som en blanding af fantasy og western
Jeg har tidligere anmeldt The First Law af Joe Abercrombie her på bloggen og hyldet ham for hans eminente kynisme og evne til at få sin læser til at holde af i grunden ganske uelskværdige karakterer. Ifølge denne anmeldelse tager han dette trademark endnu et skridt videre i Red Country. Ifølge anmeldelsen på ovennævnte link lykkes det for Abercrombie af skabe en grå og støvet western setting, hvori guldfeberen raser. Ind i denne setting kaster han så en ung pige med et stort behov for hævn samt viljen og evnerne til at udføre den. På den måde findes westernelementerne ikke kun i settingen, men også i motivet: hævn. Enhver, der har set mere end én westernfilm, ved, at hævnmotivet er en stærk drivkraft inden for genren. Selvom Red Country i følge anmeldelsen på ovennævnte link ikke er helt på højde med så meget andet fantasy af Joe Abercrombie får den alligevel 8 ud af 10 stjerner og en varm anbefaling med på vejen. Og det er nok for mig. Western og scifi fungerede fantastisk i Firefly. Jeg skal læse den!

Her er bagsideteksten fra Red Country

They burned her home.

They stole her brother and sister.

But vengeance is following.

Shy South hoped to bury her bloody past and ride away smiling, but she’ll have to sharpen up some bad old ways to get her family back, and she’s not a woman to flinch from what needs doing. She sets off in pursuit with only a pair of oxen and her cowardly old stepfather Lamb for company. But it turns out Lamb’s buried a bloody past of his own, and out in the lawless Far Country, the past never stays buried.

Their journey will take them across the barren plains to a frontier town gripped by gold fever, through feud, duel and massacre, high into the unmapped mountains to a reckoning with the Ghosts. Even worse, it will force them into alliance with Nicomo Cosca, infamous soldier of fortune, and his feckless lawyer Temple, two men no one should ever have to trust. . .

Paul Kearney – Macht trilogien

Fantasybøger, Heroisk Fantasy, High Fantasy, Værd at tjekke ud 4 Responses »

Mar 112012

Coveret fra tredje bind. Jeg er ret vild med de dystre penselstrøg.

For de af jer, der følger lidt med herinde, er det nok ikke nogen hemmelighed, at jeg godt kan lide min fantasy dyster og gritty. Det kan dog indimellem være lidt vanskeligt at finde nye fantasy bøger af tilstrækkelig rå og brutal kaliber, uden at karaktertegningen og historiens og universets originalitet går tabt, men nu tror jeg rent faktisk, at det er lykkedes mig at finde en fantasyserie, hvor det lige præcis lykkes at kombinere disse elementer med en knaldhård storyline og et præcist og barberet sprog. Jeg faldt nemlig over en anmeldelse af Paul Kearneys Macht trilogi, hvor det bliver slået fast med modbydeligt rustne syvtommersøm, at her er der tale om fantasy, som formår at kombinere in-your-face-realistisk action med udfoldede karakterskildringer og en slutning, der ikke er ubetinget lykkelig. Det lyder i mine ører temmelig lovende, så lige så snart jeg får tid, skal jeg helt sikkert have fat i Paul Kearneys Macht-trilogi. Serien omfatter følgende titler:

The Ten Thousand (2008)
Corvus (2010)
Kings of Morning (2012)

Her er et uddrag af ovennævnte anmeldelse:

In this way it is very similar to Deadhouse Gates. A long journey filled with constant threat of attack and several battles leave the survivors at the end of the book well short of the number that entered. Life is cheap here, and Kearney writes his characters in and out of the story with little regard for their heroism or the reader’s attachment.

This does not mean that Kearney did not care himself for the characters, for why are they there if he did not? But he knows how to write a realistic venture by fourteen thousand mercenaries and the likelihood that all fourteen thousand, or even the handpicked dozen or so that get point of view time with the reader, will make it to the end unscathed and alive.

Right up until the end of the book Kearney is given opportunity time and time again to write a happy ending, but doggedly refuses all the way. By the end I was left heartbroken and angry, frustrated that the characters that I had grown so attached to in such a short amount of time were being left literally by the wayside. I understand why, it’s realistic and what would happen, but I didn’t want it to happen. I loved them too much.

Throne of the Crescent Moon af Saladin Ahmed

Fantasybøger, Heroisk Fantasy, Nyheder No Responses »

Jan 122012

Den femte februar 2012 udkommer en ny fantasy bog med titlen Throne of the Crescent Moon. Forfatteren, Saladin Ahmed, er debutant inden for fantasygenren, men har flere udgivelser bag sig i form af både fiktion og fakta. Saladin Ahmed er muslim i modsætning til de fleste andre fantasy forfattere, hvilket er interessant, da den verden, han har skabt i Throne of the Crescent Moon er muslimsk inspireret. Det burde give ham en edge over de ellers normalt kristne fantasy forfattere, når det kommer til at afbillede en muslimsk inspirereret verden (i den forbindelse kommer jeg i øvrigt til at tænke på Korset og halvmånen af Judith Tarr, som jeg læste som helt ung).

Ifølge en anmeldelse af Throne of the Crescent Moon (anmeldt før udgivelsen), som jeg fandt inde på Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, er der tale om en tilbagevenden til 80′ernes sword and sorcery, hvor heltene er ukomplicerede, og plottet i mindre grad drejer sig om hele verdens undergang end om heltens personlige kamp for hæder og ære – eller måske bare om heltens kamp for ikke at kede sig ihjel i fredstid. Der er altid lidt diskussion om genredefinitionerne, og sword and sorcery er nok den genre, jeg normalt plejer at kalde heroisk fantasy (måske dog med lidt mere romance indover). Under alle omstændigheder har jeg valgt at rubricere Throne of the Crescent Moon under heroisk fantasy her på bloggen. Jeg er ikke sikker på, at jeg selv skal læse bogen, idet jeg personligt foretrækker high fantasy-genrens mere udfoldede og nuancerede verden og karakterer. Men hvis I som jeg er børn af firsernes fantasy eller bare godt kan lide en godt fortalt actionhistorie, så kunne det jo være, at det var noget for jer. Her er beskrivelsen fra inde fra Amazon:

From Saladin Ahmed, finalist for the Nebula and Campbell Awards, comes one of the year’s most anticipated fantasy debuts, THRONE OF THE CRESCENT MOON, a fantasy adventure with all the magic of The Arabian Nights.

The Crescent Moon Kingdoms, land of djenn and ghuls, holy warriors and heretics, Khalifs and killers, is at the boiling point of a power struggle between the iron-fisted Khalif and the mysterious master thief known as the Falcon Prince. In the midst of this brewing rebellion a series of brutal supernatural murders strikes at the heart of the Kingdoms. It is up to a handful of heroes to learn the truth behind these killings:

Doctor Adoulla Makhslood, “The last real ghul hunter in the great city of Dhamsawaat,” just wants a quiet cup of tea. Three score and more years old, he has grown weary of hunting monsters and saving lives, and is more than ready to retire from his dangerous and demanding vocation. But when an old flame’s family is murdered, Adoulla is drawn back to the hunter’s path.

Raseed bas Raseed, Adoulla’s young assistant, a hidebound holy warrior whose prowess is matched only by his piety, is eager to deliver God’s justice. But even as Raseed’s sword is tested by ghuls and manjackals, his soul is tested when he and Adoulla cross paths with the tribeswoman Zamia.

Zamia Badawi, Protector of the Band, has been gifted with the near-mythical power of the Lion-Shape, but shunned by her people for daring to take up a man’s title. She lives only to avenge her father’s death. Until she learns that Adoulla and his allies also hunt her father’s killer. Until she meets Raseed.

When they learn that the murders and the Falcon Prince’s brewing revolution are connected, the companions must race against time–and struggle against their own misgivings–to save the life of a vicious despot. In so doing they discover a plot for the Throne of the Crescent Moon that threatens to turn Dhamsawaat, and the world itself, into a blood-soaked ruin.