This simple little book is a great pleasure to read. A very fitting way to end 2006 and prepare myself for 2007 by reintroducing my mind and heart to the truly important things in life. A small book filled with vast wisdom, it offers short anecdotes and truisms, quotes and vital concepts we so easily forget. Not on purpose, never on purpose. But just because . . .

These thoughts are prefaced by a poignant comparison of what, exactly, a day may mean to each of us, the difference between adult and child. An elderly man holds the journal of his once six-year-old son in one hand, in the other his own, and reviews entries logged the same day:

“Wasted the whole day fishing with Jimmy. Didn’t catch a thing.”

“Went fishing with my dad. Best day of my life.” (p.12-13)

I have two daughters who will hopefully benefit from my reading this book, but they are not the only ones. While it has been geared to strengthen parent-child relationships, the ideas expressed within work just as well in my relationship with my wife. I encourage you to pick up a copy of this book, read it, leave it out where everyone can see it, and read it as often as your eye falls upon it. For only practice will further such traits as these:

“What happens in the changing life of your child today will never be repeated. . . . You simply have to be there.” (p.22)

“Don’t put your children off, even if you’re tired. Don’t squelch the moment, even if it’s inconvenient. . . . Tomorrow they may not be asking for you.” (p.25)

“. . . refuse to force her to perform as though all of life were an Olympic event.” (p.39)

“The measure of real success is one you cannot spend . . . it’s the way your child describes you when speaking to a friend.” (p.77)

“A child can never be better than what his parents think of him. — Marcelene Cox” (p.90)

“Children are living messages we send to a time we will not see.” (p.101)

“A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms.” (p.108)

Would I recommend To A Child LOVE Is Spelled T-I-M-E: What A Child Really Needs From You by Mac Anderson & Lance Wubbels to my friends? Wholeheartedly YES!

Heeee’s ba-a-a-ack!

And with quite the resounding tale! R.A. Salvatore regains his powerful writing form with this third installment of The Sellswords, staring the conniving drow Jarlaxle and the human assassin Artemis Entreri. Fans of the characters and the series rejoice, for we can all stop wondering ‘What About Bob?’

With the exception of Part III’s slightly unbalanced conclusion and the unnecessary inclusion of Drizzt’s whining journal entries, this book qualifies as one of Salvatore’s better efforts. After skipping character study in the entire Book II of The Sellswords series, Salvatore utilizes it extensively here, exploring not only the personal life, motivation and growth of our two star characters but also surprising us with the examination of a third. Almost everything Book II lacked is present in Book III. Throw in Salvatore’s (standard) superb fight scenes, action sequences and just plain fun characters and we have a wonderfully refreshing fantasy.

Salvatore announces his return at the get-go with a striking beginning placing us straight within Entreri’s soul. He immediately follows this with a signature action scene staring one of his most obnoxious characters, Athrogate. Both of these scenes serve notice upon the reader: Salvatore is writing with a vengeance.

Despite the complaints voiced in Amazon reviews, this book far surpasses the quality of the last. There is no let down in action, no lacking of exciting description. There are fiercer internal struggles and harder-edged external battles. There are some more adult-aimed concepts than is normal in this series but nothing — nothing — along the lines of GRRM or the complexities of character found in Erikson’s works. This story is a well-done analysis of Entreri with terrific delving into his past and psyche. It even provides good insight into Jaraxle and the changes his own manipulations and games have effected upon him. But, while Athrogate has grown on me to the point where I now like him, if all he’s become by story end is Jaraxle’s latest foil and Entreri’s stand-in I will be quite disappointed.

There are few negatives to this work, but they are noteworthy. All three sections of Drizzt’s ‘thoughts’ were intrusions that totally pulled me from the tale, especially his four page rant to begin Part II (In fact, this actually came across as Salvatore’s own none-too-disguised commentary on governmental leadership). Many readers have tired of hearing Drizzt’s whine in his own books so why they are included in books he’s not even present in is beyond me.

Then there is the abrupt shift in setting, character, even perspective that begins Part III. It takes several scenes for Salvatore’s writing to even out before it feels like we have achieved the same narrative flow we had prior to the break. Part of this is due to an abominably edited section roughly 50 pages long about two-thirds of the way into the book and leading right into this section. There are missing words — even one whole sentence — misused words and almost verbatim lines throughout this section. Fortunately the story and writing recovers from both of these self-inflicted harms and ends strongly, even setting up the continuing adventures of all three characters — and a host of secondary characters and plots with potential stories of their own.

Despite this slightly off-kilter ending, I enjoyed this book. I especially relished moving deeper into the minds and souls of two great fantasy characters that I’ve fondly traveled many trails with. This book also boasts, in my opinion, one of the best and most fitting covers ever to adorn a fantasy novel. Would I recommend Road of the Patriarch by R.A. Salvatore to my friends? Bob has redeemed himself in my eyes — YES!

House of Chains, fourth in the mighty epic that is A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, finally begins to show us the meat of the ten-book saga. If you consider that every story (no matter how long it may be) must have a beginning, a middle, and an end, Erikson has entered his mid-story with this novel. This has dutifully slowed the pace down and brought us the least of the first four books.

I struggled with that word least. I didn’t like other choices — worst, slowest, weakest. Neither is the book the least important, the least informative, the least well-written. It’s none of those, and yet a bit of each must be present, for it is the least exciting of the quartet. The least desirable. And that is what I mean by placing least there as my adjective of choice.

This is a 1,021 page paperback, for goodness’ sakes! At about 300 words per page, that’s 306,000 plus words. Many trilogies don’t even reach 300,000. And this is the fourth of ten similar-length books. At some point the series was bound to slow down, even drag a bit — the beginning of this book is that point. The novel is broken into four books, each roughly the length of ‘normal’ novels. Book One “Faces in the Rock” is a 230-page character introduction. An introduction, actually, to a character we’d met in Deadhouse Gates — two novels ago. At the point in time we finally catch up to where we had originally met this individual, Book One ends and we move on to Book Two, where we reunite with the Malazans and a few other characters we already know. This is the point at which House of Chains kicks it into gear.

Don’t get me wrong — “Faces in the Rock” is quite interesting and could make a good novel all on its own – in any other series, by any other author. But here? Here, it felt like Erikson was including all his character notes on this one individual. No other character in all of his books thus far has received such a quantity of description as this one, yet several others are still more three-dimensional and have deeper personalities. In addition, there is almost nothing to like about this character for the vast majority of these 230 pages, resulting in an unbridged distancing between the reader and him. Though the remaining three sections are filled with action and story progressions of characters readers have already connected with, I don’t think the rest of the novel recovers from its slow and somewhat disparate start.

I must also comment on some writing inconsistencies throughout this novel. First, the use of character size. I’m rather unsure as to how tall this first character is, as he is repeatedly described in giant-like ways, rides 26-hand horses, fights giant dogs on equal footing — yet enters human establishments with only the duck of his head and even fits into the attics of human households without difficulty. This inconsistency troubled me in several parts, further removing me from the story. Then there is the repeated use of some descriptors, such as the many ‘hooded’ or ‘lidded’ eyes and looks scattered around the pages until almost everyone was doing it. And thirdly, there was a lot of expostitional expounding on a multitude of topics through the useful but never-ending prattling of a primary character. It really began to grate on me after repeated use.

So this was by far the most difficult of the Malazan books for me to get into – yet not a bad book by any means. There are several very interesting interactions with Cotillion that I especially liked and, as usual, new characters and new information and further twists to entice any reader. Of course, readers will also find Erikson’s astute observations garnered by his vast archaeological and anthropological experiences, such as the beautiful statement about ‘civilized’ peoples amidst a discussion between two members of different elder races on page 331:

“With ever greater frequency [humans] annihilate themselves, for success breeds contempt for those very qualities that purchased it.”

In my opinion, though, this is the first book in A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen that cannot be read as a standalone novel and definitely should not be anyone’s introduction to the series. Would I recommend House of Chains by Steven Erikson to my friends? Yes, to the Malazan faithful, and highly recommend all readers to begin the series soon!

I am very glad I finally got to read this book. I’m extremely happy that this is not my first contact with Malaz and the Book of the Fallen, however. Ian Cameron Esslemont (ICE) may have helped create the terrifically complex world, races, deities, magics, and histories of The Malazan Book of the Fallen but he most definitely is not Steven Erikson. And this book, though obviously about a locale and people and characters Malazan readers know and love, is not The Malazan Book of the Fallen.

It begins with an intriguing prologue — yes, I read them! — but Chapter 1 was a bit of a chore to get into. Esslemont likes big words. Very big, uncommon words that mean very simple, common things. I know a lot of words and I can understand many more based upon their usage and the context in which I come across them. It is unusual for me to have to look up a word while reading an entire novel. I had to look up seven words in this less than 300-page book — three of them in the first two pages of Chapter One. To say I was discouraged is to put it mildly. I was also disappointed by several editing errors in spelling and word form throughout the book. Yet I persevered because I love the world of Malazan Erikson has presented to me thus far and I wanted to know about the events referenced in this book. I had to read it, just as any faithful follower of Malazan does. It was a test of understanding and endurance that, quality-wise did not satisfy, but content-wise did.

Erikson and Esslemont’s world is filled with large, powerful entities that are constantly vying for more power. There is never enough of it available despite there being more power in this series than in any three other series I can think of off the top of my head. Magical superior beings, gods, ascendants and ancient races populate so much of this world it’s the little people who are scarcer than polar bears lost on a Pacific island. (Why does this sound so familiar . . . ?) These are some of the coolest characters in all of fantasy and I cannot get enough of them or this world. Erikson’s Memories of Ice is one of my all-time favorite books! Now, back to Night of Knives.

This story occurs in one night, set pre-Gardens of the Moon. In a less-than-24-hour period, many of the events that shape much of the stories Erikson has already penned take place. Steve provides an introduction that explains the personal history of the two friends creating and writing in their shared world. Many characters and events belong respectively to each author, and this one belonged to ICE. It contains the anticipated subterfuge and machinations of many minds, layers upon layers of deceptions perpetrated by battling races, warrens, gods, mages, soldiers, usurpers and defenders common to the Book of the Fallen. This book holds, or at least hints at, the secrets behind some of the powers.

The story involves several characters known to Malazan readers and introduces several more, only a few of whom matter. Kiska is one of the protagonists and the most well-developed character ICE writes; I am dissatisfied with his other protagonist, Temper. Temper is often simply too unbelievable, and I am forced to question his motivations in several instances and his willingness to make commitments or assume duties that just don’t seem to mesh well with the man. This is sadly disappointing as well, for Temper heavily reminds me of some other larger-than-life characters — Druss (David Gemmell’s great character) and Gruntle from (you guessed it) Erikson’s Memories of Ice.

I also do not like the last page of this story. While all else in the book contributes to the drama and essence of the Malazan conflicts (including allusions to the slim hold a certain two characters have on a certain warren — nice touch!), the end contributes a totally unnecessary, unwanted, new conflict. One that doesn’t fit anything written to date and doesn’t coincide with all the information provided in advance on ICE’s highly anticipated sequel, Return of the Crimson Guard. The last half page actually read more like science fiction with its attempt to explore why one race committed certain actions in direct counterpoint to another. It seemed rather awkward to suddenly present this analytical look at race relationships in a manner normally reserved for science fiction’s rants when the issue hadn’t been raised previously.

Oh well. I liked learning the background information and reading the continuation of the story and world I love, but I didn’t like the writing much. Malazan fans need to read it; non-Malazan readers should not, cannot, begin their relationship with this world and series through this book. I do highly recommend The Malazan Book of the Fallen tales though! Would I recommend Night of Knives: A Novel of Malaz by Ian Cameron Esslemont to my friends? To Malazan fans, Yes