The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison

The Tomb of Dragons is the third book in The Cemeteries of Amalo series (fifth overall), and after two fairly gloomy books, Thara Celehar is finally showing signs of recovering from the tragedy of his past of sending his lover to death with his witnessing. The beginning isn’t auspicious though. Having lost his ability to speak with the death, he’s at loss for what he’s supposed to do now.

The purpose comes from his unique sponsor, the Archprelate, who tasks him with sorting out a cemetery that hasn’t been functioning for fifty years. What seems like an administrative task turns out to be an uncontrollable mess that has begun decades ago. But Thara Celehar is good at cleaning up messes.

His mentee Velhiro Tomasaran also keeps him busy. She’s now given the full status of the Witness for the Dead, but she’s never investigated on behalf of a murdered person before, and constantly relies on Thara for advice. It’s an odd murder, with seemingly no suspects, as the victim didn’t have time to notice they were being killed. Only one memory guiding Tomasaran, she slowly unravels a conspiracy.

Thara’s main story begins when he’s kidnapped and forcefully transported into a mine where the miners say a ghoul of a dragon remains, killing the workers. But the joke’s on them, because he can’t speak with the dead anymore and can’t banish ghouls, so he’s left for dead. But he’s not alone; his god, Ulis, seems to have a purpose for him and so he’s saved. What he learns is that 192 dragons were brutally killed in the mines, with one of them remaining as a guardian. She wants him to witness for them, and he accepts.

But the mining company is powerful, its tentacles reaching everywhere in the society. Thara has only one option: pleading with the emperor. Good thing he knows him personally. But it brings the ire of the company on him. After an attempt on his life, he agrees with his friends that he needs a guard.

Enter Captain Hanu Olgarezh. He’s caught Thara’s eye early in the book, but as Thara isn’t used to being interested in anyone except his dead lover, he doesn’t really pay attention. But now that they spend a long winter together, the pain inside him begins to ease and he starts to hope that the captain might be interested in him too.

He opens with his other friends too. Instead of pushing everyone away so he wouldn’t be a nuisance, he accepts their help and interest in him. That especially applies to Iäna Pel-Thenhior, the opera director who I thought would be the long-term romantic interest (not that I entirely agreed). But the two have an open conversation and it turns out Iäna isn’t even interested in men, nor is Thara interested in him. You could’ve fooled me.

The emperor gives his ruling on the Tomb of Dragons and the matter should be settled. But the mining company isn’t about to give up on having their revenge on Thara. He can’t stay in Amalo, a fate he and his friends had discussed of so they know he’s not abandoning them.

And he’s not alone in his exile. Captain Olgarezh is with him and eager for adventures. He’s an old soldier with his own troubled past and perfect for Thara. The book ends with the two on the run, and I very much hope there will be many books of them sorting out troubles for the Archprelate all over the empire.

This was a great book. It wasn’t as heart-wrenching or scary as the earlier books, but I loved the healing arc Thara was on here. The world is as brilliantly rich and complicated as ever, with only a surface showing to the readers. The reader has no idea what people are talking about half the time, but it’s always very interesting. With a world like this and a character as wonderful as Thara, there’s material for exploring for many books to come.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Orb of Cairado by Katherine Addison: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

The Orb of Cairado by Katherine Addison

The Orb of Cairado wasn’t on my reading list for this month, solely because I didn’t know it existed. It came out at the end of January and I’d completely managed to miss all mentions of it beforehand whilst waiting for The Tomb of Dragons to be published in March. It’s book 1.1 in The Chronicles of Osreth series, aka The Goblin Emperor world, a novella that takes place at the same time as the first book.

The explosion of airship Wisdom of Choharo that kills the emperor at the beginning of The Goblin Emperor also kills its captain Mara Lilana, the best friend since their childhood of Ulcetha Zhorvena. His widow finds a random map in an envelope addressed to Ulcetha, who after a brief bemusement realises it’s the first clue of a mystery.

Ulcetha is a former historian second class at the University of Cairado, but he was accused of stealing a priceless artefact and was thrown out of academia. Mara’s clues lead him to where the artefact had been hiding all these years, which only leads to another puzzle: how did Mara know it’s there when he’s not an academic nor knows anyone in academia.

Ulcetha also faces the dilemma of returning the artefact so that he’s not accused of stealing it again. The historian first class he contacts is very helpful though. The artefact is a map to The Orb of Cairado, a relic of great importance, and together they travel to unearth it and a treasure buried with it. As a reward, Ulcetha gets his academic position back.

But the original mystery won’t leave him alone. Who stole the artefact in the first place? Because it could only have been one of his fellow historians. Finding the answer changes his life forever.

This was an amazing novella in a sense that events that could’ve easily filled a full-length book took place during nine chapters and about a hundred pages, effortlessly and without rushing. It has a satisfying three act structure, and nothing was lacking, information or descriptions. The mystery was perhaps easily solved, once Ulcetha put his mind to it, and key witnesses didn’t waste anyone’s time by denying knowledge, but even that came across as the way it should be. And while the thief was easy to guess, I for one didn’t foresee the answer to how Mara had known about it.

Ulcetha was like all the main characters in this series, an underdog trodden by life, but kind, resilient, and just (even if he worked as a forger). In a world of elves and goblins, it would’ve been nice to know which one he was (or I missed the clues), but in the end it was more important to know that he wasn’t an aristocrat like the other historians, the reason they so willingly believed he was the thief. The ending sets him on a new path. Maybe we encounter him later again. I would like that.

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart starts The Drowning Empire trilogy. It takes place in a country that consists of several islands which float around a sea in a set pattern, coming closer and retreating, as well as moving slowly around, which affects the weather. For several years there’s been a dry season. The book starts as the rainy season is about to begin.

The empire is ruled by the Emperor who has secluded himself in a palace on the Imperial island, not seeing envoys from other islands or visiting himself. His sole attention is on constructs, creations he builds from different animal parts and then animates with bone shard magic to use as spies, guards, and civil servants. Some are more intelligent, some are less so, depending on how many shards they have. According to him, the constructs are the only defence against an ancient enemy that hasn’t been seen in centuries.

Each citizen is required to donate a bone shard from their scull as children. When their shard is in use, the construct uses the donors’ life energy, depleting and eventually killing them. People hate it and a rebellion is rising against the Emperor and the practice.

There were several point of view characters. Two of them, Lin and Jovis, were told in first person, with bigger roles in the story, and the others in third.

Lin is the Emperor’s daughter. She suffers from amnesia caused by an illness she also has no memory of, but she’s eager to learn her father’s magic to become the next emperor. But he hoards the secret, making impossible demands of her for the knowledge, so she sets out to learn it by herself, stealing her father’s keys to a secret library. And then she uncovers a secret about her father and herself that upends her entire world and puts her on the path to overthrow the Emperor. Lin wasn’t entirely likeable character, but I ended up rooting for her anyway.

Jovis is a smuggler searching for his wife who was stolen from their home years ago. He’s sailing from island to island, looking for clues. But every time he thinks he’s on her trail, something happens to derail him. People keep asking him to smuggle their children away from the shard ceremony, and little by little, he finds himself entangled in the rebellion against the Emperor.

He has a companion, Mephi, a creature he saved from the sea. He can speak, and he possesses magic that gives Jovis incredible strength, fighting skills, and other special abilities as long as they’re near each other. Together, they end up helping the rebels to overthrow an island governor in exchange for information about Jovis’s wife. But when the time comes to go find her, he chooses to go after the Emperor instead. Jovis and Mephi were my favourite characters. Jovis was a bit grumpy but with Mephi he slowly thaws.

Then there were the governor’s daughter Phalue and her girlfriend Ranami. The latter is involved in the shard rebellion, and she coaxes and emotionally blackmails Phalue into going against her father. They weren’t really my favourites, but Phalue had a decent and believable growth arc.

Finally Sand, a woman who lives in a desert island, repeating her daily routines with no recollection of who she is or how she’s ended up there. But then an accident jolts her out of her haze, and she starts gaining her memories, only to learn the same shocking truth as Lin did, with the same conclusion: she must rise against the Emperor.

This was an excellent book. The world was interesting and the magic truly unique. The characters had believable storylines, and the chapters were short, keeping the pace fast. I didn’t see the twist coming, even though in hindsight it’s self-evident, so that was well done. The larger uprising against the emperor, and a possible return of the ancient enemy is yet to come, but the second book will concentrate on those. That will be next on my reading list.

 

The Mask of Mirrors by M.A. Carrick: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

The Mask of Mirrors by M.A. Carrick

M.A. Carrick is a pseudonym for authors Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms, and The Mask of Mirrors is their first book together. It’s high fantasy set in a world with magic, and it starts the Rook and Rose series. I received a free review copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The book is written by two anthropologists and it shows. Tremendous work has gone to creating a world with hundreds of details ranging from directions (earthwise/sunwise) and times of day (sun hours and earth hours) to rules of card games and duels. The various peoples living in the city of Nadežra have their unique cultures with different clothing, deities and even funeral habits, from nobility to street gangs. None of it is explained to the reader; there are no info dumps and the reader is left to learn everything as they go. Mostly it works well—much of it is intuitive and none of it is vital for following the story—but there was so much of it that it was exhausting at times. There is a map and a glossary, but they’re not very easy to use in an ebook.

Nadežra is a city ruled by conquerors, and the peace between the ruling (white) people and the (Romani-type) tribes whose holy town is occupied, is tenuous at best. No one is happy with the situation, and there are elements on both sides that have decided to do something about it—at the same time.

In the middle of this arrives Ren with her sister Tess. They are former street urchins who have escaped from their cruel gang lord several years earlier, and have now returned to Nadežra with a bold plan to infiltrate a noble family and get rich. It’s a long con based on Ren’s skills at pretence and lying and her knowledge about the family she’s about to dupe.

Things start very well and Ren makes a splash in the society. But in order to maintain her con, she is drawn into the affairs of nobility and crime lords alike. The only way out is forward and Ren isn’t about to give up. Not even when she realises that the entire city is at risk and she might be the person to destroy it.

The book is divided into four parts. The first two are mostly a set-up for the latter two, and they are very slow to read. There’s a lot going on, but no plot to follow. The narrative doesn’t carry the reader forward, and it’s difficult to figure out what is important to pay attention to. The chapters don’t have an action-sequence pattern, and often when a chapter ends with a call to action, nothing comes of it, or the action happens where the reader cannot see, making them feel let down. This applies to all the point of view characters. They show up at random intervals to do something that seems random, or their chapters exist only to introduce the character. Tess, for example, doesn’t have a plot-influencing role, but she has her own chapters.

This changes after the half point. The latter two parts have a coherent plot that sweeps the reader with it and doesn’t let go. Ren discovers several schemes to destroy the city, and instead of working on her con, she finds herself trying to save Nadežra. The reader is kept guessing to the end if and how she might be able to do it.

This is a book that relies very much on Ren’s character. She’s a survivor who is willing to do pretty much anything to keep herself and Tess safe. Her morals are questionable from the start, but she changes along the way. The con becomes less important after she comes to like the people she’s trying to dupe, and saving the town becomes a priority over the con—though she’s also doing it to save herself.

There are several other characters too, none of which are easy to get a hang of. Are they good or bad, love-interests or backstabbers, and will they play any role in the final? Some people that we spend a lot of time with in the first half disappear completely, making them a waste of reader’s time, and we never get to know the baddies. But the characters with their POV chapters are all interesting, with secrets that aren’t revealed in this first book—but at least we learn the biggest one, the identity of the Rook. I would’ve been really annoyed if I’d had to wait for that any longer than I did.

All in all, this was a very mixed reading experience. I was ready to give up several times during the first half, as the story didn’t seem to go anywhere. But then I read the latter half in two days. And I’m glad I persevered, as the pay-off was satisfying, and there were a couple of interesting twists saved for the last. It just didn’t need the almost seven hundred pages to get there. Ren ends up in a new place in life and it’ll be interesting to read where she’ll take her con from here.

 

The Kingdom of Liars by Nick Martell: review

3/5 stars on Goodreads

The Kingdom of Liars by Nick Martell

My second NetGalley pick is The Kingdom of Liars by Nick Martell, the first book in The Legacy of Mercenary King series. It’s high fantasy with magic and warring kingdoms, and it had great potential. Unfortunately that didn’t manifest.

The book starts with the main character being sentenced to death for treason and then recounts the events that led to that point. Michael Kingman is a son of a man convicted for killing a prince and his life leads him to be convicted for killing the king. Michael is the hero of the book, so the reader can’t help hoping that the events that seem inevitably to lead him to his doom might be something else after all. With ‘kingdom of liars’ in the title, I presumed an unreliable narrator and a slow unravelling of the truth. That wasn’t what I got.

This was a good book, but also an odd one with something constantly slightly off. Even though the frame of the story, Michael’s quest to prove his father’s innocence and inevitable doom, was given at the beginning, that’s not the sole direction the book took. For the first half there was another story happening too, a rebellion against the king, which competed for attention with the main story, with not enough room given to either story-line. The latter mainly consisted of events that distracted Michael from his quest and added nothing to the main story or had an impact on it. On the latter half of the book that story-line was discarded after an annoying cop-out, which improved the plot considerably.

In addition to two plots, there were two sets of secondary characters that were identical to one another. There were two poor, mistreated boys with little brothers that Michael felt responsible for, but who didn’t seem to be friends with one another, as if Michael led two separate lives. Their actions had no impact on the plot, but they served to distract Michael, i.e. added to the word count. Then there were two women who knew Michael of old, but of whom he had no recollection. Their identities were withheld to the last moment, giving the reader a notion that they would be important for Michael’s life and the main plot, but that didn’t turn out to be the case. And then there were two women from law enforcement/military who were interchangeable too and had no meaningful impact on the plot.

I don’t know why the editor of the book allowed two parallel plots with two sets of characters to happen. Even if the rebel plot were a setting for the next book, it could’ve been handled as background noise with the focus more sharply on the main plot. There was enough going on with that one to fill a book.

Michael wasn’t a likeable character. He was selfish and childish, and he didn’t much care who he hurt with his quest for truth—until after the fact. Then he rushed in to make things better, putting the main plot on hold and/or in jeopardy. His memory was faulty due to magic, but when he did regain his memories, they didn’t offer any sort of revelation that their absence had hinted at. He wasn’t the agent of his story. He was pushed around by events outside his control; he spends the entire book trying to gain access to the king, only to be denied his goal; required a deus ex machina salvation, and didn’t manage to achieve what he set out to do in the beginning, thus robbing the book of a proper conclusion. It was left for the next book, but with the rebellion and the sudden turn in his life orchestrated outside the plot, there would’ve been enough material even without postponing it too.

There’s a lot happening to the secondary characters behind the scenes that mainly come off as ‘what the hell’. Trey, a poor slum dweller, is auctioning himself off to become a soldier at one point and the next he is in the inner circle of the prince, only to become a rebel. How did that happen? No one even questions it. The mercenary Dark has an issue with his father, but when they finally face, they don’t even recognise one another. Was it all in Michael’s head? Michael’s older brother is being allowed to marry into the most important family in the country and no one bats an eye, even though Michael has to support himself as a thief and is constantly being harassed for his past. The princess is missing and then she’s not, but isn’t anyone important for the plot despite all the build-up, and then she’s absent again. A lot more thought should’ve gone into all these characters. Now they seem like spur-of-the-moment inventions.

The world is fairly interesting, but its special features are mainly props. The use of magic causes memory loss that accumulates, but none of the main characters suffer from it. It’s used as a plot device, as Michael sets out to find the king’s memories, i.e. his journal that might tell the truth about his father, but in the end that doesn’t happen. Every magic wielder remembers Michael even if he doesn’t remember them. And then there’s the broken moon that has pieces falling from it, but that doesn’t drive the plot either, so I wasn’t entirely sure what its point was, other than distraction.

This was a good book, but not a great one. The author clearly didn’t know what kind of book he was writing until at the end. With a sharper focus it would’ve been a much better book and a more enjoyable read. I hope the next one will fix that.

Books I hope to read in 2019

It’s been five years since I’ve posted on this blog, and I think it’s time to revive it. I haven’t stopped reading, or reviewing books; I just published the reviews on my other blog, Susanna Writes. I’m not entirely sure writing two blogs is sensible, but I’m about to give it a go—again—anyway. It’s one of those things that make sense at the beginning of a new year. So here goes.

It’s been my habit for the past couple of years to write a list of books that I hope to read at the beginning of the year. There are so many books being published, that it’s hard to keep track of them all. With a list, I’ll at least remember the most interesting ones. So far, I haven’t once read everything on the list, as I keep reading outside it, but it’s worked well otherwise. If you want to know what I read last year, here’s a post I wrote on my other blog (although, in hindsight, I should probably have published it on this one).

This year, I pledged to read sixty books in Goodreads Reading Challenge, meaning that I should read five books a month. For the past two years, I’ve read fifty-five books a year, so I’m not entirely hopeful that I’ll be able to do it, but it won’t be for the lack of reading if I don’t.

The list for 2019 has sixty-nine books. Fifteen are transfers from the previous list, eight of which were already on the list before that one. Only the books that I really think I want to read, even if I didn’t find time for them before, made it to this year’s list too. Thirteen books are published this year, and they mostly belong to ongoing series by my favourite authors. The rest are mostly books that I already own, but haven’t got around reading, or belong to series that I haven’t managed to catch up with yet. I even went through my Kindle to see what gems I had hidden there, and added them on the list.

My list is heavy on urban fantasy and fantasy: thirty UF books and nineteen fantasy books. That pretty much reflects my reading habits in general. Everything else is genre fiction too; it’s seldom that I read literary fiction these days. There are ten sci-fi books that I want to read, but only one contemporary romance, which is odd, considering that I write them myself, but those tend to be the books that I add on my list as I come across them. Here are some of the books that I’m especially eager to read this year, in no particular order.

Summoned to the Thirteenth Grave by Darynda Jones. This is the last book in her Charley Davidson UF series of a grim reaper that I absolutely love, so it’s with part eagerness and part dread that I wait for it to come out. The publication date is January 15, so not long to wait anymore. And then it will be over. Forever.

Vicious and Vengeful by V.E. Schwab. I love everything she writes, and I expect to find these two books exciting too. I got the first as a birthday present last year, but then waited to read it until I had the second book too, which I got for a Christmas present. So those go to the top of my reading pile.

Wolf Rain by Nalini Singh is the latest in her long Psy-Changeling paranormal romance series. There hasn’t been a weak book yet, so when it comes out in June, I’ll be reading it instantly. And she’ll probably publish other books this year too that aren’t on my list, and I’ll be reading all of them too. This one doesn’t have a cover yet.

The Savior by J.R. Ward is another auto-buy. It’s the book seventeen in her Black Dagger Brotherhood UF series of vampire warriors, and each book has been excellent. She’s publishing other books this year too, and all will go on my list. The first of those is Prisoner of Night, which is set in the same BDB world, and is published next week.

The Wicked King by Holly Black is the second book in her Folk of the Air series of fairies and humans living among them, and it’s published January 8. The first book was exciting, and I expect the follow up to live up to its predecessor.

Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone is a space opera published in June. I’d hoped there would be a new Craft Sequence book, because the next one can’t come fast enough, but I’m sure this will be great too. Another book by him that I’m waiting for, written with Amal El-Mohtar, is This is How You Lose the Time War that comes out in July. I’m not exactly sure what genre that one belongs to, but it has everything, spies, time-travel, and love.

Brave the Tempest by Karen Chance is the latest in Cassandra Palmer UF series. It’s been too long since the previous book and this one can’t come fast enough. Until then, I can return to her UF world with Siren’s Song, a shorter story, which doesn’t have a publication date yet, but should come out soon.

That’s just a small sample of what’s to come. I also look forward to reading Atlas Alone by Emma Newman, fourth book in her Planetfall series, Exit Strategy and Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells, which belong to her Murderbot Diaries series, and Raven Tower, the new Ann Leckie book. And, truly, all books on my list are those that I want to read. It’s just that occasionally I have to prioritise.

The first book of the year has been selected already too. That’s The Mortal Word by Genevieve Cogman. It’s the fifth book in her Invisible Library series, and so far it’s very good. I’ll write a review once I’m finished. Until then, let me know what you’ll be reading this year.

An embarrassment of riches

I’ve managed to read quite a few books to date and many of them have been interesting enough to earn at least a mention in this blog. Luckily, I don’t remember half of them. One would think it makes the task of selecting what to write about somewhat easier. It doesn’t. For this week’s post I had at least three books I thought would make interesting read and I couldn't decide which one to start with. So, in the end, I didn’t choose any of them but went with something completely different instead.

The reason for my change of heart was an interview with Sir Terry Pratchett that appeared on the Guardian today. I didn't really need another post about fantasy, but the timing was too good to ignore. And let's face it, I would have written about his books sooner or later anyway. So Discworld it is.

The problem is, again, choosing just one book. There are almost forty books in the Discworld series already, most of which I’ve liked well enough to read more than once. I’ve been reading them for so long that I don’t remember when I first encountered them or which book I started with. Thinking hard the whole day, I’ve narrowed it down to Guards! Guards! and Wyrd Sisters. Either one of them could have been the first, though with all honesty, it could have been any of the books translated to my language to that date (early nineties, perhaps). After the first book, I read everything that had already been translated, which wasn't much. So, Discworld books have the honour of being the first books I've read in English. I simply couldn't wait for them to be made available in my language. They didn't make an easy reading, the unique concepts alone made them challenging, but but the books were a good incentive to learn.

Guards! Guards! and Wyrd Sisters are both good books to write about. Funny and exciting – and very different from one another – they are the first introductions to what later became the staple in the books: the City Watch of Ankh-Morpork and the eccentric but loveable witches of the rural Lancre, one of the countries of Discworld. Both have been my favourites from the beginning; I’ve never been truly taken with the wizards of the Unseen University that feature in about fourth of the books.

So what’s the appeal then? What makes a series so interesting that a young girl would start reading books in a foreign language? They’re very funny and witty, for starters. Of course, when I was younger the satire seemed sharper than it does these days, but they still make me chuckle. Discworld itself is a very interesting creation and has got better over the years. Ankh-Morpork, especially, has grown to incredible proportions, getting more bizarre yet likeable with every book.

But the absolutely best thing about the books is their characters. They’re warm-hearted, likeable, witty and clever, often all in one package. Even the villains tend to be sympathetic and often turn out to be more than meets the eye. The hapless Rincewind usually wins the day in the end, if only by accident; Granny Weatherwax is such a formidable character that you simply have to like her; and Sam Vimes, the Commander of the City Watch is, at heart, a grumpy old cop, no matter who he is married to or what his title is these days. On top of that, there are all the comical or whimsical characters, like Corporal Nobbs who most likely is a human, and the Librarian of the Unseen University who no longer is a human.

The same characters return a book after a book and they evolve too. Discworld may be a caricature of our world, but people inhabiting it are more than that. They feel very real to the reader and I, for one, return to the books after all these years simply to find out what’s going on in their lives.

For a while, now, every new Discworld novel has been touted as the last. The next one, that will be published this fall, isn’t an exception, but I really wish it won’t be the end. Because I’m not done with Discworld and it's wonderful people yet. 

There isn't a proper Discworld movie yet, but there are a couple of TV series and animations. They're all nice, but not terribly exciting. Here's an episode of the animated Wyrd Sisters:

A magical character

This Monday, April 8th, was the International Raistlin Majere Day. I didn't celebrate, mainly because I wasn't aware such day existed and found about it too late to take part. I'm not entirely sure how I would have celebrated, but at least I could have written this blog post on that day. Though, with all honesty, I'm not sure how widely known the day is even among those who know who Raistlin Majere is; I was only able to find a couple of bloggers mentioning it with any regularity.

Raistlin Majere is, of course, a major character in Dragonlance, a shared universe consisting of games and books, most of which are written by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis. He is a powerful wizard with a compelling and complicated character and a body ruined by strong magic. He was also the reason why I found Dragonlance books so compelling.

I’ve never been interested in gaming so for me, Dragonlance is solely about books. Dragonlance Chronicles, a trilogy that starts with Dragons of Autumn Twilight (1984), is the first proper fantasy series that I read. I must have been twelve or so, because the second trilogy, Dragonlance Legends, had already been published, but I remember I had to wait for the Test of Twins, the last book in the Legends, to be translated to my language – an agony.

Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

Since it was the first foray into high fantasy for me, I wasn’t encumbered with the notions of what ought to be and what had already been done in fantasy. Everything was new and exciting for me, elves, dwarves and dragons alike. Magic, especially, was a wonderful new concept and no one was better at it than Raistlin.

There are some characters that stay with you through life. Raistlin Majere is one of those for me. He is a conflicted and complicated person, one that keeps you guessing whether he is good or bad, and hoping against hope that he would end up on the right side. And just when you think he has made the right decision, he does something that yanks the rug from underneath you, pushing you off balance once again; a difficult character for a twelve-year-old to comprehend properly. Other characters in the series are more straightforward – good or bad – but not him. And that is probably the reason for his staying power, the reason why there is a day dedicated for him and not for the other characters.

It’s been closer to thirty years since I read the books, but when I watched an animated movie of the Dragons of Autumn Twilight a while back, Raistlin immediately returned to me. And I realised I had missed him. Or if not him, a character like him, someone complicated and interesting. Someone who is never what you expect him to be. Someone magical. There should be more of those around.


Here's a trailer for the animated Dragonlance movie. It's not terribly good, but then again, neither is the movie.