Tag Archives: Megan Lindholm

The Inheritance and Other Stories by Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm

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Synopsis:
A set of stories by two authors sharing one body: edgy sci fi by Megan Lindholm and longer fantasy by Robin Hobb.

Review:
I really enjoyed almost all of the stories in The Inheritance. I liked returning to the Rain Wilds in Hobb’s stories, especially because these stories were longer. But the Lindholm stories have an edge to them that I miss in Hobb’s works, and I yearn to see more of that anger and complexity in the Six Duchies stories.

This is definitely a must-read for any Hobb/Lindholm fan, and a good introduction to anyone who wants to check either of them out. (And by the way, they are the same person!)

Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb (The Farseer Trilogy, Book 1)

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Synopsis:
The bastard son of a prince gets training in the art of deception, eavesdropping, and murder, while failing to master the royal Skill, a sort of telepathy that is the Six Duchies chief weapon against the Red Ship Raiders, who harry the coast leaving only zombies in their wake.

Review:
This is my second read of Assassin’s Apprentice, and it’s been an odd experience. Actually, I listened to the audiobook version, and while I enjoyed the narrator’s performance I was disappointed to find Robin Hobb’s prose to be a little clunkier than I remembered. I got a little tired of “rueful” smiles and people replying “mildly.” The story felt lighter than I remember, too, though I could see the seeds planted for the threads I know the later story will encompass. It was thrilling to see mention of the Rain Wilds, given how largely they figure in later books. I am hoping the rest in the series hold up better.

Wolf’s Brother by Megan Lindholm

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Synopsis:
As a group of reindeer herdspeople approach their summer grounds, simmering tensions and unspoken accusations bubble up with murderous results.

Review:
Wolf’s Brother is the completion of the story begun in The Reindeer People, and I was more than satisfied with the resolution.

While the book’s setting recalls Clan of the Cave Bear, the story itself focuses around what could be considered a murder mystery, and the genre-blending is what really kept me turning pages. Megan Lindholm brings the action to a thrilling climax that might be a bit too jam-packed, but I was invested in the journey of the characters so it worked for me.

I really hope that these two books come back in print. They deserve a wider audience.

The Reindeer People by Megan Lindholm

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Synopsis:
An outcast healer and her shaman-bewitched son become caught up in the politics and intrigue among a group of reindeer herdsman.

Review:
The Reindeer People is only the first part of the story, and ends on a most incomplete note, so I’m glad that I’ve got Wolf’s Brother on hand to start immediately. I really hate that publishers do this–I’d much rather read one long book than wait for a second installment.

This is one of Megan Lindholm/Robin Hobb’s earliest works, and in it you can see the seeds of the greater writer she will become. The prose is confident and assured, and her characters satisfyingly flawed. While the book got off to a slow start, I was glad I stuck with it.

The world here is ancient, though not quite primitive. The characters have intellect if not sophistication, and the aforementioned politics and intrigue are complex, from a psychological perspective. Tillu is not Lindholm’s greatest heroine, but I’m warming up to her.

Wizard of the Pigeons by Megan Lindholm

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Synopsis:
A real, live wizard cloaks his magic in the trappings of homelessness on the streets of modern-day Seattle, as a dark evil stalks him and threatens to destroy him.

Review:
Wizard of the Pigeons really needs to come back into print. It’s a wonderful character study filled with subtlety, ambiguity, and plain old-fashioned good storytelling.

Wizard lives on the streets, but his homelessness is just a disguise for his powerful magic. He is able to Know the truth about people and tell them the words they need to hear to effect positive change in their lives. A dark force seems to be stalking him and threatening him by tempting him to break the rules of his magic, and all of Seattle may fall if he gives in.

This is not a straightforward urban fantasy; nothing is as it seems. Everyone, not just wise Cassie, is some kind of shapeshifter, either literally or metaphorically, and Lindholm explores every facet of that concept to wonderful effect. The book is thought-provoking and doesn’t yield its secrets easily, and the fantasy elements aren’t meant to be taken at face value. If you can get your hands on a copy, you’re in for a real treat.

Renegade’s Magic by Robin Hobb

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Synopsis:
Soldier Son Nevare’s adventures culminate in a battle within his divided self for mastery of his body in defiance of the magic.

Review:
When last we saw Nevare, he was grossly fat and resigned to a life on the outside. A Soldier Son of modest ambition, Nevare’s soul was cleft in two during a battle with the tree goddess Lisana. Now, in Renegade’s Magic, the trilogy’s conclusion, Nevare finds himself trapped, with his Speck alter-ego having taken control of his body in order to wield the magic against Nevare’s own people.

For most of the book, Nevare is a disembodied self, helplessly observing as “Soldier’s Boy” grows fat on magic and rises in power as a Great One. He rues the choices he made to alienate himself from his family and from the woman he loves. Soldier’s Boy loves Lisana, the woman whom Nevare holds responsible for his destruction. And so he finds himself torn between his passion for Lisana and his hatred of Soldier’s Boy, and fears for the day when he will be unable to resist merging with Soldier’s Boy.

The internal nature of the narrative kept me from fully engaging with the story, oddly enough. I never saw Nevare as an agent in the story; rather, he was an observer to someone else’s story. The technique itself was well executed, but despite Hobb’s considerable skills I don’t think she transcended the gimmick’s inherent limitations. Ultimately I felt that the trilogy didn’t end with the level of majesty I’ve come to expect from her work.

Even so, Robin Hobb on a bad day beats the pants off of many other writers at their best. I’m already itching to reread her Six Duchies trilogies, and hope to get my hands on more of the out of print Megan Lindholm works.

Highlights (Booking Through Thursday)

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From Booking Through Thursday:

It’s an old question, but a good one . . . What were your favorite books this year?

List as many as you like … fiction, non-fiction, mystery, romance, science-fiction, business, travel, cookbooks … whatever the category. But, really, we’re all dying to know. What books were the highlight of your reading year in 2007?

It was a good year, reading-wise. Here are my highlights, with links to my reviews.

The Ghost Writer by John Harwood

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

Private Demons: The Life of Shirley Jackson by Judy Oppenheimer

The Cross (Kristin Lavransdatter 3) by Sigrid Undset

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (translated by Joel Carmichael)

Judgment in Stone by Ruth Rendell

And a few series:

Dave Duncan’s A Man of His Word and A Handful of Men

Megan Lindholm’s Ki and Vandien Quartet

The Fair Folk edited by Marvin Kaye

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Synopsis:
An anthology of short stories about elves.

Review:
The Fair Folk was put together in 2005 by the Science Fiction Book Club, and consists of stories written about elves and their kin from some luminaries in the field. I enjoyed each one immensely, differing as they do in style and tone.

“UOUS” by Tanith Lee takes the familiar “three wishes” story and turns it on its head. An unhappy Cinderalla-esque young woman calls out three wishes, conjuring a fairy who is more than happy to comply with her request. However, thanks the the usual caveat to be careful how you wish for something, Lois finds herself on the giving, not receiving, end of the wishes. Lee employs an engaging first-person point of view filled with dry humor and wry wit.

“Grace Notes” by Megan Lindholm employs a contemporary setting to tell the story of an urban man visited by a brownie, a housecleaning sprite who can’t be eradicated unless given clothing. Think JK Rowling’s house elves. At first glance, it hardly seems likely that one would want to kick out someone who happily cleans your apartment and cooks you dinner, but Lindholm’s protagonist finds himself wishing for a way out–and unable to come up with the right gift.

Kim Newman, the author of “The Gypsies in the Wood,” is a new author to me. His story is set in Victorian England, and reminded me very much of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. The story revolves around the abduction of two children, both of whom were returned to their family. However, the boy came back many years older than he should have been, and the girl came back without memories of certain family traditions. Those predisposed to believe in such things suspect that changelings are involved, but it’s not until a grisly murder in a funhouse designed to be the land of Faerie that the investigation is brought to a close.

“The Kelpie” by Patricia McKillip is set amongst a circle of artists patterned after the Pre-Raphaelites. I loved the story McKillip crafted, rife with jealousies and intrigue and artistic inspiration. The kelpie, or sea-horse, doesn’t take center stage; rather, it’s a catalyst for the love story at the tale’s heart.

Craig Shaw Gardner’s “An Embarrassment of Elves” and Jane Yolen and Midori Snyder’s “Except the Queen” left me cold. The first is a comedy, and that’s a mode I have very little patience with when married to fantasy. The latter is told through letters written between two disgraced fairy sisters. The writing was beautiful, but I just couldn’t get into the story.

The anthology closes with a glossary of different types of elves. The Fair Folk is a great collection with anyone who has an interest in folklore.

Luck of the Wheels by Megan Lindholm

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Synopsis:
Gypsy teamster Ki agrees to ferry a most disagreeable boy to another town, and discovers a world of trouble when she and her companions find themselves in the middle of an uprising.

Review:
Luck of the Wheels, the fourth and final installment in the Ki and Vandien Quartet, is the best Lindholm I’ve read so far. Here, she pushes her protagonists as far as they can be pushed, taking the kinds of story risks that make her books so accomplished. She’s not afraid to enact events upon her characters that change them fundamentally, and she recognizes that our pain and suffering changes us in fundamental ways. Healing doesn’t mean erasure. Continue reading →

The Limbreth Gate by Megan Lindholm

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Synopsis:
A gypsy woman is drawn into a shadow world to fulfill the destiny created for her when she was briefly kidnapped as a child.

Review:
The Limbreth Gate is the third installment in Megan Lindholm’s Ki and Vandien Quartet, and is perhaps the most conventional of her books. The plotline is a familiar one–a shadow world opens up, sucking the main characters in–and while Lindholm doesn’t exactly take it to new heights, she does deliver a solid, well-written, suspenseful fantasy tale. Continue reading →