Winterbirth by Brian Ruckley

[Happy Ent]

But damn, if something doesn't pick up, soon, I am going to exact a terrible vengeance on all who recommended this book, starting with Happy Ent (typically my Elm-in-Arms when it comes to verbiage). Somebody is gonna get pruned.

Bring it on. Let's see what those claws can do!

As to the book: What can I say? At least it has no vampires.

[The Iceman of the North]

Xray, hopefully it gets better towards the end. I had a rough time with this book as well, but ended up liking it.

[Xray the Enforcer]

Bring it on. Let's see what those claws can do!

As to the book: What can I say? At least it has no vampires.

*wonders if she should be using the stabbing claw, the cavitation-inducing whacking claw, or the buzz-claw*

Seriously, though, I've not given up yet. I might have to wait for weekends, though, when my mind isn't stuffed with work worries. Some books are like that for me (Erikson is another -- sometimes I just don't have the patience to keep that many characters and their motivations straight in my mind.)

[Xray the Enforcer]

Typo: surely you meant 'foliage'?

I'm carnivorous, so he can keep that rabbit food to himself. Shrimp Needs Meat.

[Happy Ent]

*wonders if she should be using the stabbing claw, the cavitation-inducing whacking claw, or the buzz-claw*

Three claws? Absorbed a twin? Xray the Monstrous?

[Xray the Enforcer]

Three claws? Absorbed a twin? Xray the Monstrous?

After a terrible industrial accident, I am now part-cybernetic shrimp, and my left claw has a variety of removable attachments. Wait 'til you see my Maximillian rotating blade chopper in action.

[Happy Ent]

After a terrible industrial accident, I am now part-cybernetic shrimp, [...]

Incidentally, I just started reading Mieville (*). You are Remade. Must have been a really wicked crime.

(*) Shitshitshit! It's great! Why did nobody tell me?

[duchess of malfi]

About halfway through and really enjoying it. Took a hundred or so pages to really get going, but lots of action since then. As others have said previously in this thread, the Bloods remind me of Scottish clans in their structure , and the "elves" actually make me think of woodland tribes of Native Americans a lot more than they do classic Tolkienien elves. The halfbloods are perhaps the most intriguing to me, and hope to learn a lot more about them in the second half of the book and in the second and third volumes of the trilogy.

It is interesting seeing both sides of the war, and all of the political maneuvering going on behind the scenes.

It is obvious that no character will be safe to the end. Any or all of them could die by the end of the third book.

This might be a late addition to my "best reads of the year" list.

[Shevchyk]

Going to have to agree there - WB really does take a certain amount of time to really get the narrative up and running. Enough time is certainly given to politiking and the like. I'd have liked there to have been a bit more detail in terms of the people, the place, some local descriptions, etc. Some prefer a certain level of sparsity (what Stephenson calls the "cult of brevity") but I am not one of those readers. But then, there are sequels, so: hurrah!

And I notice: there is a map! Somewhere, Simon Spanton is seething.

[Werthead]

Just picked this up but am torn between reading it in the near future or waiting for Bloodheir to come out so I can read both together.

[ThRiNiDiR]

Brian Ruckley - Winterbirth (link)

In many ways, Winterbirth, author’s debut and the first part of The Godless World trilogy, is just another standard epic fantasy, bursting with clichés. It includes:

- Good Guys of moderate nobility, who do nothing wrong at all and would like to enjoy their lives in blissful inactivity they are privileged with. Instead, they have to send half of their armed forces south, because the Internal Foes (who happen to be the country's sovereign, his right hand and some of the other high-positioned nobility) are being selfish bastards. And as if that wasn't enough, the External Foes come and ruin their lives further. But there is no question about the Good Guys being as righteous and proud as it gets – they will fight until the very (bitter) end.

- Internal Foes, who are not enemies in the traditional sense of the word, but represent the unwanted governance over the Good Guys. Their greed and ambition makes them forget their ancient enemies and instead, they take on the idea of conquering the rich and fertile south. Their motivation is based on their spoiled and misled nature.

- External Foes, who are actually outcasts from the past. They reside in the frozen North and they start the war by brutally slaying the innocent populace of Glas Valley – but, it is the only way to get back the land that was taken from them. There’s no thing like home, even though it’s littered with corpses and ruin.

- The 'hero' of the story, who is, in fact, a mere youth without any unusual powers and/or knowledge (but of notable bravery). He is in fact just a run-away from the war, being protected by a motley crew assembled with various outcasts, but who are surprisingly, not trying to put up revenge. At least not until the war is done with.

I could continue, but it would be of no use, because even though Winterbirth is filled with clichés like these (mentioned above), it can be and is (in overall) quite an enjoying read, once you get past the first hundred pages or so – the interesting part starts with the celebration at the beginning of the winter, called Winterbirth (where the book got its name from).

Why, you ask?

Winterbirth is Brian Ruckley's debut, and even though his writing style is good (far from outstanding, but I noticed no bigger flaws that would put me off), his lack of experience becomes painfully obvious when it comes to names.

There are 12 different Bloods (allegory for noble families), an excruciating number of different places and even more significant count of people –Ruckley mentions all of them casually during the beginning chapters, scribing them into every description and naming every minor character until the reader gets completely lost and is tempted to start skipping names altogether. Which is a shame, since there could be many pleasant 'Ah, I remember that one!' moments when the story evolves further on. But since, at least at the very beginning, every single person, from maidservants to simple by-passers, is named in full (usually one has two first and two last names), and every road has its origin and end-destination mentioned, usually crossing some river or another and passing through various (un)important cities (which are often even named alike – Kolglas, Koldihrve, Kolkyre, for an instance), a reader can't really be blamed if (s)he gets lost in all the name throwing-about. But we can get past that, since Winterbirth is Ruckley’s debut and at least another two Godless World books are on horizon – he probably just made a mistake by being too eager to explain everything at once.

Luckily, the feeling more or less passes after the story grabs hold and starts to pull. There are less names saturating the pages (which is somewhat logical, since there are less insignificant characters contending for our attention), and the story picks up with intensity. Winterbirth is not the 'I can't put it down' type of book, but it is definitely an interesting enough easy-read, just waiting to be munched over on vacations, when bored or when in need of a light-fantasy fare. There are no convulted conspiracies or secrets (yet?) to spice up the story, so there is no need to memorize all the things that look as they might be of some importance. Winterbirth is a pretty straightforward tale and the plot can be pretty predictable for an experienced reader. And while Winterbirth does not deliver any great surprises or twists, I nevertheless found it to be a worthy free-time consumer.

For those interested, there is a bit of history of the world itself included, and Ruckley includes some serious world-building; sometimes a bit tedious, at least at the beginning (endless descriptions with endless names included), but this tendency calms down to an enjoyable, raise it to a more anjoyable level and perhaps make it more memorable than it is. And while certainly it is not the kind of book you put on your bookshelf and forget about it, it is neither a guaranteed re-reading material, nor it is meant to be included on your favourites list. It is a pretty straight-forward classic fantasy epic, and that is all you are going to get... an interesting plot and easy enough read, but definitely not an essential one. There’s one thing though … I believe that the sequel might be better. Ruckley, after all, still has time to develop his promising skill and correct the deficiencies that are currently separating Winterbirth from being a really memorable read.

3/5

-Trin-

[Gold Storm]

I finished Winterbirth a little while back, it did start a little slow and the new world toke some time to get used to; however, once I got into the book I really enjoyed it. His world is different than the regular fantasy world and his characters are a little more darker. I also like how nobody thinks they are doing anything wrong. The villains and the good guys think that they are right. Most people act this way.

[Werthead]

I think my review accords with Thinidir's.

Admittedly, I've come late to this party. Winterbirth, Book 1 of The Godless World Trilogy, was released at the end of 2006 and picked up some good press that put Ruckley firmly in the 'new wave' of epic fantasy writers alongside the likes of Abercrombie, Lynch, Rothfuss and Durham. With the second volume, Bloodheir, due in May, it seemed like a good time to catch up and see if this book warrants the acclaim.

The setting is the northern valleys of a continent riven by war. Centuries ago, the gods abandoned the world after a bloody war between two of the dominant races, the Huanin (humans) and Kyrinin (elves, with a few twists), and a third, the Wherinin (shapeshifters). The civilised human nations of the north-west fell apart in the aftermath of the war and the Bloods, tribes of warriors, arose in their stead. Among the Bloods a heresy took root, the Black Road, which states that the gods are merely awaiting for all of humankind to be united under the faith before they return. For their heresy, the Bloods of the Black Road were pushed back beyond the northern mountains and a guard set upon their return. But, after several centuries, the watch has grown lax and the Black Road has found new allies...

The set-up is pretty traditional for an epic fantasy. The Bloods of the Black Road, as perhaps can be predicted, launch a devastating invasion of the lands of the True Bloods, starting with the northern tribe of the Lannis-Haig. This family is almost wiped out save two members, Orisin and his sister Anyara, and their flight from the invasion over a towering mountain range is the principal driving force behind the narrative. Around this are an intriguing array of subplots revealing dissent within the Black Road, the political machinations of the most powerful True Blood warlord which is as great a threat to the Lannis-Haigs as their northern enemies; and the emergence of Aeglyss, the most powerful sorcerer seen in centuries.

The writing is pretty lean - Ruckley's writing is not as rich as Rothfuss nor as immediately striking as Abercrombie and Lynch - and Ruckley succeeds in transmitting a lot of information to the reader fairly quickly. There is a lot of groundwork to establish and unfortunately this requires moments of heavy-handed exposition or info-dumping, but once these are out of the way the story proceeds satisfyingly. None of the characters are particularly original, with Orisian falling into the 'young man doubtful of his ability who comes good in the end' archetype a little too predictably. On the other hand, Aeglyss is a very interesting antagonist and I suspect he will come to dominate the future volumes as a threatening force far greater than that of the Black Road. Winterbirth works well, with its action-adventure story forming a decent spine around which the political intrigue among and between the True Bloods and the Black Road is established and explored. On the other hand, it could be argued that the central narrative is rather slight for the book's length and the narrative is slowed by the groundwork being laid for future volumes. Also, the characters' names are very similar to one another, causing momentary confusion (and occasional flicking to the character list, which is never a good sign).

Winterbirth (***) is a solid, enjoyable debut novel which left me interested enough to pick up the sequel, Bloodheir, when it is published in May. The book is available now from Orbit in the UK and USA.

[IheartTesla]

Yes, this is a pretty standard epic fantasy book. Not that such books cant be entertaining reads, but they suffer by comparision with other books coming out at the same time. At the very least, could the clan chiefs not be called Thanes? That makes the similarity with medieval Europe just a bit too blatant in my opinion.

Still halfway through the book.

[Rhom]

There's a relatively interesting interview with Brian Ruckley over on Mania.com. Most of it seems to be stuff I've seen him comment on in various other places, but there's a couple of new gems in there as well.

The interview talks about how bloody the world is, at one point even throwing in a 300 reference. I guess I just don't get that comparison, in my memory I don't remember Winterbirth being any worse in the realism department than Martin or Abercrombie. Lynch's violence tends towards the near cartoonish in some ways. So I guess I didn't see this book as overly graphic, just maybe more realistic.

I hadn't heard much commentary on the title of the third book, but he addresses it here.

What can we expect from the second volume in the series, Bloodheir, and does the concluding tome have a title yet?

Bloodheir basically picks up from exactly where Winterbirth left off, and my standard answer when someone asks what happens is: ‘Things get worse for just about everyone involved.’ Which is a fairly accurate summary. Some new characters are introduced, some old characters meet unfortunate ends, and it starts to become a bit clearer just how much danger the whole world might be in.

Barring unforeseen developments of major proportions, the third and final book will be called Fall of Thanes. Which is, as titles go, also a grim portent of things to come, I suppose.

The interviewer and Ruckley also comment on the series definitively being a trilogy. They talk like there is no possibility whatsoever of it being extended beyond that. I find it interesting; if I am not misremembering (thank you Roger Clemons) Martin intended on ASoIaF to be a trilogy and Jordan planned on WoT being a sextet. So what is it that allows some authors to stick to an early outline and complete their works as originally planned and others either underestimate the scope entirely (Martin) or lose complete and total control of their world (Jordan)?

I'm looking forward to reading Bloodheir in June. The first book started slowly and I trudged through reading it, but when I was done I was left with a sense that I really liked it. If the same momentum continues through the trilogy, I think I'll enjoy it quite a bit.

[Happy Ent]

I find it interesting; if I am not misremembering (thank you Roger Clemons) Martin intended on ASoIaF to be a trilogy [...]

But not after he started writing. His original idea (as far as I know) was to have a first book that covered the events up to and including the Red Wedding. So as Game of Thrones began to take form, he naturally had to abandon that plan.

It's not as if GRRM still planned to write only three books when Game was already out.

[Calibandar]

So what is it that allows some authors to stick to an early outline and complete their works as originally planned and others either underestimate the scope entirely (Martin) or lose complete and total control of their world (Jordan)?

I think a couple of factors contribute to that.

1) Scale. Ruckley and for instance Abercrombie do not have the huge scale in terms of worldbuilding size, characters and number of different plotlines. It's all fairly comprehensible and managable to read and easier to keep tabs on for a writer.

2) History. These newer writers know of the backlash that they get if they extend their series. They get asked about their series' length and release dates in every interview. They know it is a hot topic, and try to contain their series. Authors such as Jordan and Martin that you mentioned did not contend with this ( during the first few books).

You see a lot of writers who go beyond trilogies struggle big time.

[Relic]

I'm about 100 pages in (this be the US tp) and I'm struggling a bit. Now, remembering that TDTCB bored me shitless, witless, and beyond tears, the first time I tried to read it (had to make it all the way to Achamian before that turned around), I'm sticking this one out. But damn, if something doesn't pick up, soon, I am going to exact a terrible vengeance on all who recommended this book, starting with Happy Ent (typically my Elm-in-Arms when it comes to verbiage). Somebody is gonna get pruned.

ETA: Just to be clear, it may be that this isn't the right book for this particular time in my life. Simultaneously producing two magazines does no wonders for my evening concentration skills. So that's likely a factor.

I couldnt get more than 150 pages into this stinker...

[Lord Baelish]

I managed to finish it (I paid good money for it, after all), but I doubt I'm going to get the second book. The plot was painfully predictable, the characters were dull and unoriginal, and the main character, Orisian, was just a walking cliché machine. There were a few interesting ideas about the other races, and Aeglyss looked like he might have a good story, but I'm not prepared to wade through another turgid book of crap to follow one character.

[Dark Wolf]

I've finished "Winterbirth" and I like it. I'm looking forward for the next novels in the series. I posted my review of the novel on my blog.