New Steven Erikson Cover

This book is going to be awesome. I can't wait. The cover looks pretty nice as well.

Shadow Ops Challenge Coin

Look what came in the mail yesterday:

I find it quite ironic that the signed copy and Challenge Coin showed up on the same day that I posted my review of the book.

The Challenge coin is a thing of beauty. It seems it's a military tradition, and with Mr. Cole's military history it adds something awesome to the fans. He swops them for other challenge coins over on his website, so if you have something similar contact him. It now has a prized place on my bookcase.

Shadow Ops: Control Point - Myke Cole

The Blurb: Army Officer. Fugitive. Sorcerer.

Across the country and in every nation, people are waking up with mag­ical tal­ents. Untrained and pan­icked, they summon storms, raise the dead, and set every­thing they touch ablaze.

Army officer Oscar Britton sees the worst of it. A lieu­tenant attached to the military’s Super­nat­ural Oper­a­tions Corps, his mis­sion is to bring order to a world gone mad. Then he abruptly man­i­fests a rare and pro­hib­ited mag­ical power, transforming him overnight from government agent to public enemy number one.

The SOC knows how to handle this kind of sit­u­a­tion: hunt him down–and take him out. Driven into an under­ground shadow world, Britton is about to learn that magic has changed all the rules he’s ever known, and that his life isn’t the only thing he’s fighting for.

I've been hearing rumours about this book since about August 2011. And those rumours were all good. So, naturally, I had to buy it. The first problem I encountered was that it hasn't being released in South Africa yet. Off to Amazon I went and lo and behold, since the book isn't being released in my local market, I can't buy the e-book. Now that was a bit of a problem, but not insurmountable. I scrounged around and ordered one from Exclusive Books, our biggest local book seller who bought a copy directly from the US publishers. Then, to put the cherry on the cake, I won a copy on Peter V. Brett's website the next day. So I have a feeling I own the only two copies in South Africa. Well, I will as soon as the signed copy shows up!

Now my first impressions of the book. I like the cover.  It sets you up for the whole novel, namely  magic use in the modern USA military. It's not cheesy, and it looks good against all the hooded men covers we have these days. The magic in the military is certainly the basic outline, but it isn't the whole story, not by a long shot. 

People have started randomly manifesting magical abilities for no apparent reason. These abilities are quite specific, if you can fly you cannot use fire etc, and thus these new magic users are divided into different Schools. Now, since this started happening, a few laws has been passed in the USA. If you manifest, you join the Army or you die. 

I can honestly see that happening in real life. 

Some magical abilities are permitted. Most are prohibited, by order of some committee somewhere most probably. The prohibition isn't really explained, and that irritated me a little bit. But, since you are in the Military, you do as you are told, it made sense that it was left out. 

The novel starts with a fight. The Supernatural Operations Corps gets a call to to a school where two kids are using unauthorised magic to destroy their school, with their classmates still in it of course. They go in support of a Aeromancer - means he can fly and play with lightning - who was sent in to take them out. It took me a little while to get into the rhythm and the language used, since Military is littered with acronyms and slang. And most of the characters are quite robotic to start off with, since you have to follow the rulesand regulations in the Military. Once I got into the groove it was a fun, fast paced book.

Our main dude, Britton, who is a helicopter pilot for the SOC, manifests in a forbidden school just after the incident and all hell breaks loose for the rest of the novel. I'm not going to go into it, since I do not want to spoil the story, but there are enough fight scenes, explosions and action present for two Michael Bay movies. And they are done bloody well.

The whole story is about the US military, but some mention of the rest of the world would have been nice. There's a passing reference that the rest of the world also have magic, but not how it is regulated or if it's as militarized as the poor guys in the USA. Hopefully it gets explored in the later books. 

The characters really grew on me as the story progressed. They evolved as characters, being influenced by those around them as well as what they go through. The choices they make are explained and make sense, and they all have their own unique voices, which made me invested in their stories, which is one of the signs of a good book.

The concept behind the book is thought out well. It's implemented well. There is a load of murder and mayhem, but since this is a fantasy about magicians in the military, it's to be expected. The action is delivered in a brilliant way. Fast paced and chaotic, with the military training leading our characters to act calm and collected during all the action. 

As a debut novel, it's a gem. It's unique. It's bloody, gritty and gory. Myke Cole delivered on the promises of all those rumours, and then some.

8/10

King of Thorns fragment

Here's another teaser from Mark Lawrence.


"Martel Harris, twenty-three, sword blow. Blue Moon Valley, west of the Haunt. 


 Son of Martel and Hela, born above the Falling Angel’s barroom, Crath City, Ancrath. 


 Find something worth following and stick to it, son. Martel took his father’s advice along with his name, and both served him well. He followed into the Forest Watch, followed the Forest Watch into the Renar Highlands. He followed the son as he had the father. Just don’t put a foot wrong. Another gem of Harris the Elder’s wisdom. Martel put a foot wrong in Blue Moon Valley. You can’t follow on a turned ankle. He drew his sword and chose his spot amidst the broken rock. Kenna and Justin tried to stay with him. The first time anyone ever tried to follow Martel Harris. He saw them off with curses and threats. A tear ran hot on his cheek in the coldness of the wind. He watched the men of Arrow over the bright line of his blade. “I may have followed, but I wasn’t led.”"

Avengers!

Now I do not usually post movie stuff on here, but bloody hell this looks as if it's going to be bloody good!


The Avengers!

King of Thorns - Fragments part 4

Publised on Mr. Lawrence's blog:


"Brother Makin has high ideals. If he kept to them, we would be enemies. If he nursed his failure, we would not be friends."


Makin was one of my favourites in Prince of Thorns. I can't wait!

The ocean replenishes the soul, as does Harry Dresden

So I'm back from a too short holiday on the South Coast of Kwazulu Natal. Five days  just aren't enough to get a good laze going. It was well deserved and helped recharge my batteries.

We went to San Lameer, a private resort with beautiful houses, beach and cocktails.

That picture is from Wikipedia, since my wife and I are terrible at remembering to take pictures. Whole holidays will live forever in my mind with no photographic proof. That is just to give you an idea of the beauty of it all.

I lost 22 golf balls over 18 holes, a new personal record. My dad thought it hilarious. It was quite frustrating, but I do enjoy trying to play golf for some or other weird reason.

After scaring all local wildlife with my wayward shots, I decided a book or two needs to be read in order for it to count as a holiday. Off to a local small bookshop we went, and they had a sale. On that sale, they had this:

I've heard good things about Mr Butcher and Harry Dresden, and since it was on sale, I bought it. This was my first Harry Dresden novel and certainly not my last. I polished off Changes and immediately bought the first book, Storm Front as well as Fool Moon. I'm enjoying them too much to write reviews just yet, but they will be on the way next week. The magic, the dialogue, demons and the urban setting is done beautifully.