The Black Company

Good Monday to all! This past week I was ridden in bed with a nasty flu bug, but it was an n interesting week nonetheless. On to this week’s post!

First of all, I want to thank each an every one of you for reading this blog and for putting up with the numerous requests to read and to check out my other links. It has been an interesting week because I have now written some articles and some creative writing work for different sites to be published and I have been lucky enough to have been published indeed. Your support, your likes, your views will become an important part of my writing portfolio and for that, I thank you again! You have also put up with an unending stream of Fantasy books lists, I promise that changes are in order on that front, and will try to write about other interesting stuff.

Today, I am inaugurating a rating system that will represent how much I liked a book, a movie, a TV series, etc… The Golden Chocobos Rating will consist of a scale going from zero to five Chocobos, where zero is the lowest rating, and five is the highest.

Reading.

Well, this week I picked up the pace, I had not been reading enough and my soul was suffering for it. (Yes, I still have a soul). I read two books:

Glen Cook’s The Black Company, book 1 of the Books of the North Trilogy

Wonderful change of pace for me, regarding fantasy series; this book is not your garden variety fantasy and is not very accessible in terms of readability. The Black Company is a book that tells the story of a mercenary band called the Black Company, it is a feared and respected band, and their rich history is kept in the voluminous Annals of the Company. You will follow the adventures of the Company and its colorful members: One Eye, Goblin, Elmo, The Captain, Raven and Croaker, the latter being the one the story focuses on. It will detail the battle raging all over the world, and the shaky alliance between the Company and their mysterious employer, or backer, one of the fabled Taken, as they make their way into the bowels of the kingdom.

It is very well written and the pace is relentless. The characters are well built and the relationship between them, although strained, becomes an important part of how the Company survives.

I give it 3.5 Golden Chocobos.

Laurell K. Hamilton’s Bullet, Book 19 of the Anita Blake series

WOW! This book is really good. Of all the 19 books I have read so far, this is the one I enjoyed the most. It is fast paced, action packed but the story and the circumstances surrounding the story finally, at least in my mind, begin to move forward. I had felt that even though the books as single units were entertaining, the story had grown stagnant and predictable. Anita’s changes, gains in power and her choice of lovers had become the focal point of the story, not the threats that surrounded them. In this book, the threats are more real and the consequences are deadly. Anita’s choices are hard and they truly affect her, her change into one of the monsters is still a work in progress. However, there are still some issues, not exactly within the book but with the series. Why does every single cop in charge of investigations are pig headed bigots that hate woman. In particular, they hate Anita? Why? I have read the same discussion 100 times before, the same lines, the same innuendos, the same reactions…it is tiresome.

I give it 2 Golden Chocobos.

Reading

I am reading Bullet, book 20 of the Anita Blake series, Shadows Linger, book 2 of the Books of the North Trilogy, Pattern Recognition, Cyberpunk for the literary club, and, after writing one thousand fantasy books lists and reviews (again I thank you for your patience), I will now revisit the Dragonlance Universe, beginning with the Legend of Huma.

Writing

I am writing a lot, probably more than I have written in my life. The experience of writing articles for online content has been much more difficult that what I though at first, but it has been rewarding as well. It has been tiresome, but a great way to practice and write, which is why I was placed on this world to begin with. This has led me to write X’s Game, a Steampunk short story and it is almost done, and also continue to write the Druid’s Grove. The latter will become the first novel I have ever finished, and although it is still raw and a first draft after all, the guidelines for finishing it, the foundations, would already be there, and that is exciting. I am thinking that after X and the Grove, it will be time to write about another project I have labeled Children of the Sea. Too many ideas, so little time!

Movies

I want to see Green Lantern and Captain America; hopefully I will have time this week to do so. Are they any good?

Well, an update will be ready on Thursday, and hopefully, other articles will linked as well.

Have a great week!