Book Reviews 2012: Martha Wells

I discovered a new fantasy author while touring a used bookstore, Martha Wells.  I've since bought everything of hers I can get my hands on.

The Books of Raksura, Martha Wells
The Cloud Roads (The Books of the Raksura)
The Serpent Sea (The Books of the Raksura)
The Siren Depths (The Books of the Raksura)
I rate them as 5/5 all the way across.  The series chronicles the adventures of a clan of "Raksura", sentient fantasy creatures (people?) in a realm of other sentient fantasy creatures.  There was some magic here, but it was fairly subdued, and mostly taken for granted.  The series was mostly about the cultural differences of the various peoples, and one misfit's attempt to assimilate, with some villains and adventure thrown in for fun.


The Books of Ile-Rien, Martha Wells
The Wizard Hunters (The Fall of Ile-Rein: Book 1)
The Ships of Air (The Fall of Ile-Rein: Book 2)
The Gate of Gods (The Fall of Ile-Rein: Book 3)
The Death of the Necromancer
The Element of Fire
Also 5/5 all the way across.  The first three books are trilogy, set in a fantasy world that has 1900's era technology (ie simple cars and air ships, electric lights, but not much else) and well-established schools of magic and sorcery.  The country of Ile-Rien finds itself fighting a war, and the characters set off in search of a powerful magic to defeat their enemies.  The world that she creates here has enough depth to it that I found even the back stories enthralling.

The last two books are stand-alone novels set in the same world but during earlier time periods.  They have some familiar characters, but were essentially distant back-stories for the events in the trilogy.


Wheel of the Infinite, Martha Wells
Also 5/5.  At a high level, this book follows the main characters as the restore balance to the "Deep Magics" that govern the world (my term, not hers).  Magic is assumed everywhere, but not actually exhibited much by the characters.  I thought this one was a little more adventure driven, with a little bit of deeper issues thrown in, and much less cultural focused than most of Wells' other works.


City of Bones, Martha Wells
I rate this at 4/5.  City of Bones was a set in a post-apocalyptic world with survivors struggling to survive.  The male lead (named Khat) carried this book in my opinion.  He was another cultural misfit trying to survive in a foreign city, honest enough to be endearing and with enough character flaws to get himself into trouble.  The world was interesting and all, but I found him fascinating.

Khat kind of reminded me of a more interesting version of the male-lead from the Ile-Rien trilogy.  And the overall crisis the characters solve felt a lot like the one in Wheel of the Infinite by the end.  So that's mainly why I rate this as only a 4/5.  But the book might stand better on it's own if you hadn't have just read her other books. :-D


And that's all the motivation I have for the evening, so I'll stick to one author for now.