“The Winds of Khalakovo” by Bradley P. Beaulieu (Reviewed by Robert Thompson)

Official Bradley P. Beaulieu Website
Order “The Winds of Khalakovo” HERE
Read the First Fifteen Chapters HERE (ePub) or HERE (PDF)
Watch the Book Trailer HERE

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Bradley P. Beaulieu is a winner of the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Award, while his short story, “In the Eyes of the Empress’s Cat”, was voted a Notable Story in the 2006 Million Writers Award. Other stories have appeared in Realms of Fantasy Magazine, Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show, Writers of the Future 20, and several anthologies from DAW Books. The Winds of Khalakovo is his first novel.

PLOT SUMMARY: Among inhospitable and unforgiving seas stands Khalakovo, a mountainous archipelago of seven islands, its prominent eyrie stretching a thousand feet into the sky. Serviced by windships bearing goods and dignitaries, Khalakovo's eyrie stands at the crossroads of world trade. But all is not well in Khalakovo. Conflict has erupted between the ruling Landed, the indigenous Aramahn, and the fanatical Maharraht, and a wasting disease has grown rampant over the past decade. Now, Khalakovo is to play host to the Nine Dukes, a meeting which will weigh heavily upon Khalakovo's future.

When an elemental spirit attacks an incoming windship, murdering the Grand Duke and his retinue, Prince Nikandr, heir to the scepter of Khalakovo, is tasked with finding the child prodigy believed to be behind the summoning. However, Nikandr discovers that the boy is an autistic savant who may hold the key to lifting the blight that has been sweeping the islands. Can the Dukes, thirsty for revenge, be held at bay? Can Khalakovo be saved? The elusive answer drifts upon the Winds of Khalakovo...

FORMAT/INFO: The Winds of Khalakovo is 464 pages long divided over two Parts and sixty-seven numbered chapters. Also includes a Dramatis Personae and maps of the Grand Duchy of Anuskaya and the Duchy of Khalakovo. Narration is in the third person via Prince Nikandr Iaroslov Khalakovo; his lover, the Aramahn Rehada Ulan al Shineshka; and Nikandr’s betrothed, Princess Atiana Radieva Vostroma. The Winds of Khalakovo is somewhat self-contained, concluding the novel’s major storylines, but it is the first of three planned books in The Lays of Anuskaya series. April 2011 marks the Trade Paperback publication of The Winds of Khalakovo via Night Shade. Cover art provided by Adam Paquette.

ANALYSIS: It’s hard to come up with anything original anymore, especially in epic fantasy, but Bradley P. Beaulieu makes a valiant effort in his debut novel, The Winds of Khalakovo.

What immediately distinguishes The Winds of Khalakovo is the setting, which features a Grand Duchy heavily influenced by Czarist Russia, complete with Russian names, Russian language (nyet, da, nischka), Russian clothing (cherkesska, ushanka), Russian military (streltsi, sotnik, desyatnik), Russian weapons (berdische axes, shashkas) and Russian traditions. Besides the Russian influence, there’s also an Arabian flavor with the monk-like Aramahn—the archipelago’s native people—who also possess Buddhist qualities like their belief in reincarnation, while the elementals (earth, air, fire, water, and the raw stuff of life) the Aramahn are able to control seem inspired by Greek mythology and Hinduism. Windships, soulstones—stones given at birth that hold the essence of a person’s life—firearms (muskets, cannons, flintlock pistols) and those who can navigate the aether are thrown into the mix as well, creating a fantasy world that may seem familiar because of its individual components, but is unique and refreshing because of the unconventional combination.

Woven into this fabulous milieu is a story made up of intriguing court politics (arranged marriages, coups, war and betrayal among the duchies), moving personal drama (tangled love triangles, dying from an incurable wasting disease), relevant topical issues (food shortages/riots caused by the blight, the Maharraht religious splinter group), and sweeping adventure involving a boy caught between the spiritual & physical realms of Adhiya & Erahm, and a rift in the aether that could destroy the world. Much the way he did with the novel’s setting, Bradley P. Beaulieu takes a bunch of familiar elements and combines them in such a way to create a story that feels new and exciting. This feeling is aided in part by brisk pacing and unpredictable plot developments, like the novel’s tragic and unhappy ending.

The real key to the story’s success though, is with the three main characters: Prince Nikandr Iaroslov Khalakovo; his lover, the Aramahn whore Rehada Ulan al Shineshka; and Nikandr’s betrothed, Princess Atiana Radieva Vostroma. Nikandr is arguably the novel’s most important character because of his unique connection to the boy Nasim who lies at the center of all the book’s major plotlines—the wasting disease, the blight, the rift, the war, etc.—but Rehada and Atiana are more interesting. Rehada because of the revenge she harbors for her daughter, the love she feels for Nikandr even though he represents what she hates, and the dangerous tightrope she walks between Maharraht/Aramahn philosophy, while Atiana intrigues because of her ability to navigate the aether, the difficult choices she has to make between her family and Nikandr’s, and the complicated relationship she develops with her rival, Rehada. All three characters though possess likable personalities, evolve realistically over the course of the novel, and help anchor the story’s more fantastic moments with compelling intimate concerns.

Negatively, supporting characters are one-dimensional; action scenes are sometimes clumsily executed, requiring additional rereads to fully grasp what happened; and the world-building is thin with only a few sentences devoted to concepts like the Aramahn & Maharraht, hezhan (elementals), the aether, soulstones, Adhiya/Erahm, etc., making it difficult to understand things that are integral to the novel. Like an Aramahn’s bond with a hezhan, the different kinds of hezhan, the purpose of soulstones, why only certain people can navigate the aether, and so on. Plus, Nasim’s history and connection with Ghayavand, Muqallad, Sariya, Nikandr and the Maharraht could have been explained much better, especially considering the boy’s importance.

For the most part though, I was impressed by the skill and creativity displayed by Bradley P. Beaulieu in his debut. In particular, I enjoyed the author’s accessible writing style, was drawn to his compelling main characters, and found the novel’s unique setting and unpredictable story refreshing and exciting. In short, Bradley P. Beaulieu is another terrific addition to the Night Shade lineup, while The Winds of Khalakovo is one of the year’s better fantasy debuts...

"1636:The Saxon Uprising" by Eric Flint + 163* Series Overview (Reviewed by Liviu Suciu)

Official Eric Flint Website
Order "1636: The Saxon Uprising" HERE or HERE (ebook)
Read "1632" and "1633" free at the Baen Free Library
Read Most of the 163* series free at the unofficial but approved Baen CD Repository


INTRODUCTION: The 163* series has debuted quietly in 2000 with the standalone 1632, a book that nobody expected to take off in the huge way it did, spanning a series that consists of 7 mainstream novels, 4 side (sort-of) novels, 2 main anthologies with a third upcoming in July and 30+ Grantville Gazettes, a mostly electronic journal dedicated to the series and consisting of both fiction and non-fiction.

While Eric Flint is the creator of the series and keeps general control, quite a few people contributed to the universe in the Gazettes and Anthologies, while some of the novels have been co-authored with David Weber (1633, 1634 The Baltic War) and Virginia de Marce (1634 The Bavarian Crisis and 1635 The Dreeson Incident) in the mainstream series that consists so far of 1632, these four and the one big volume split into parts: 1635: The Eastern Front and 1636: the Saxon Uprising.

The side novels (some are structured as a collection of related series following one another to achieve the unity of a novel) have also various authors but are less important and of varying degrees of quality and interest, so I will focus on the mainstream story threads here. Before discussing the series, I would like to add that this thread that follows the major characters is also treated in some of the Ring of Fire I and II anthologies, but the necessary backstory is recounted in the 7 novels above which form the backbone of the series and are as superb as anything in sff today.

If the series would consist only of those 7 plus the aforementioned stories, it would rank as a co-#1 ongoing sff series for me alongside the Honorverse and Safehold, but the generally lower quality of the side novels and the amateurishness of many Gazette stories takes it down a little. Eric Flint often mentions the experimental nature of the 163* project including all those amateur contributions, so it depends on how you look at things - as a sf series for the ages, keeping it to the 7 so far mainstream novels and related stories would have been much better, but as a fictional recreation of a different 17th century the experiment is quite interesting.

In the following overview, I will present only the "big picture" that results from the first 5 main books (1632, 1633, 1634 The Baltic War, 1634 The Bavarian Crisis, 1635 The Dreeson Incident). In this way you can jump directly to 1635: The Eastern War and its second half 1636: The Saxon Uprising and follow the action there. If you plan to read the series from the beginning, be aware that what comes below will have massive spoilers for the first 3 books especially.

SERIES OVERVIEW: The fundamental premise of the 163* series is that a cosmic event - The Ring of Fire - exchanged a small portion of modern day West Virginia, USA containing the mining town of Grantville and its nearby surroundings, cca 1999-2000, with an equivalent portion in 1631 Germany. This was due to accidental space-time manipulations by ultra-advanced human race offshoots from the far future and resulted in the split of the historical line at that date so now we have a new universe with an Earth that was the historical 1631 one plus the up-time Americans and the physical stuff that came through with Grantville, while "our regular" universe continues on its way from 2000 on...

This is as good as an explanation for the series premise as it gets and from now on we are plunged in the middle of the action which will see a complete remake of the 17th century history as we know it...

At the time Germany was in the middle of the terrible 30 Year War (1618-1648 our timeline), the most devastating continental war until Napoleon and for Germany until WW2 actually - and in 1632 and 1633 we see how Grantville survives and then thrives by accepting as more-or-less equals and mixing with all "down-timers" that appreciate its tolerance and 20th century values, leveraging its technology and allying with the most enlightened local king, the Lutheran Gustav Adolf of Sweden, to essentially create a modern federal German state that will later be named The United States of Europe (USE) under the Swedish (now) Emperor and essentially bring peace to Germany and ending the 30 Years War "early" in 1633 with several crushing defeats of the catholic Imperial armies of Spain and Austria.

But Gustav Adolf's patron, the powerful Cardinal Richelieu of France - who despite being a high ranking prelate of the Catholic Church was the main financier of the Protestant cause in the 30 Years War as prime minister of a France that had as goals breaking the (Spanish and Austrian) Hapsburg "encirclement" of France and keeping Germany weak and disunited - is deeply unhappy with all of that as per the second goal above, so he manipulates all of Gustav Adolf's many enemies into the league of Ostende (catholic France and their avowed enemies the Spanish, protestant England and Denmark and various smaller fish) which starts hostilities by a spectacular smashing of - USE allies - Dutch naval power by treachery.

However the USE did not sat idly and created a modern volunteer army and a powerful ironclad navy and in 1634 The Baltic War, the USE navy destroys the allied fleets of Spain, England and Denmark, while its army smashes the French in battle leading to a peace congress in Copenhagen 1634 that enshrines Gustav Adolf as the most powerful monarch of Europe with a triple crown of Sweden (more or less absolute king), USE (constitutional Emperor) and the Scandinavian States (Emperor and suzerain).

In England an imprisoned Oliver Cromwell (everyone has read the histories of the future so took measures accordingly) escapes from the Tower with American help and is ready to start the English revolution some years early, in France, Richelieu has to use his only modern surviving troops under young Turenne to face the challenge to his power from the treacherous king's brother Gaston and Spain's success in the Netherlands ironically leads to a break of all the Low Countries from the Spanish rule under a Hapsburg prince true but with strong protestant support and leading to the creation of another powerful buffer state, a reborn Burgundy of yore.

In the meantime, former enemy general Wallenstein (who read the future histories too and saw his assassination on his boss, the Austrian Hapsburg Emperor's orders and obviously did not appreciate it) made allies with the USE and carved an independent Bohemia with capital at Prague and started expanding into the east with USE support in return for religious tolerance and the end of serfdom.

So this is the big picture at the beginning of the duology 1635: The Eastern Front and 1636: The Saxon Uprising when Gustav Adolf decides to deal with some of his treacherous former allies in Saxony and Brandenburg (Prussia), theoretically part of the federal USE but who tacitly supported the Ostende League.

Unfortunately, Gustav Adolf has a thing with the Polish king too - a cousin of the same Vasa family, with the two lines having deeply felt grudges against each other - while the progressive Fourth of July Party has just lost the USE election of 1635 to the Conservatives and the new PM is busy playing politics. Against strong up-timer (American) opposition, Gustav Adolf is ready to invade Poland at the head of the powerful USE German army, despite that Poland was the only major European power that did not meddle into Germany during the Thirty Years war.

However, the Polish-Ukrainian Commonwealth of the time is a huge if ramshackle state and defeating it is a different kettle of fish than smashing a concentrated opposing army on the field of battle as many would-be conquerors found out when marching into the vastness of Eastern Europe...

So of course the invasion of Poland starts to go wrong soon and the resulting events combined with the clear lines of conflict in the USE between the ultra-conservative nobility and the progressives inspired by American ideals - conflict that was mostly subdued when the USE fought for its life against the Ostende League but which now after the decisive victory is coming to the forefront and of which the issues of citizenship eligibility/voting rights and established church are the main focal points - create the backdrop against which the dramatic events of "1636:The Saxon Uprising" take place.

ANALYSIS: The 163* series is such a big time favorite of mine for three main reasons. The most important ones are the superb cast of characters and the pitch perfect integration of the Grantville brought modern elements into the 17th century we know from history and the consequent creation of a coherent and very interesting alt-history path. I discussed the second point extensively above, though I will add that the research that goes into the books - a lot of which is published in the non-fiction part of the Grantville gazettes - is staggering as it covers all aspects of 17th century life, from religion, social mores, politics, to technology, science and art.

Almost anyone who is known from the period appears at least as a cameo and personages like Rubens - artist and diplomat - play a pretty major role here and there. In recent volumes there is a clear trend towards a fusion of the modern technology and scientific knowledge brought by Grantville with available 17th century methods of production and of course the speculations incline towards massive use of steam power - internal combustion engines are just too dependent on modern infrastructure - hydraulic computers - semiconductors dependence on the whole infrastructure of today is even clearer - and other "what ifs" of technological history that have been relegated to footnotes or hobbyist interest by the path our civilization has taken.

Let's move now to the characters and in 1636: The Saxon Uprising most of the major favorites appear and play important roles, while many of the rest have at least a cameo. First and foremost of course it is Mike Stearns - the former union leader who took charge of Grantville after the Ring of Fire, defeated and then co-opted his political adversary, in-law and ex-CEO John Simpson, so insuring that Grantville became the seed for the United States of Europe not for a racist apartheid state in which the American up-timers lord over the German down-timers, became Gustav Adolf's valuable ally, first prime minister of the USE until his recent electoral defeat upon which he accepted a major-general commission in the USE army and started learning the ways of war guided by a superb handpicked staff and his former semi-pro boxing instincts...

Then of course his wife, the highly educated Rebecca Stearns nee Abrabanel of the renowned 17th century Jewish international finance family, former secretary of state of the USE and current leader of the Fourth of July Party - the main progressive party of the USE as the name indicates. Mike and Rebecca are also the proud parents of 3 children, with the adopted three year old Barry just stealing the show whenever he appears (aka the little boy who would have become Baruch Spinoza in our timeline and whom the Jews of Amsterdam had expelled for heresy as a baby handing him to Becky when she was helping the besieged city before the peace - as mentioned, everyone read the future histories...).

Also playing a huge role in the novel is the leading revolutionary of the day Gretchen Richter, who has seen a large part of her family massacred in the war by mercenaries and was forced to become a "camp follower" of one of their leaders to protect the survivors and whose quick seduction of and marriage with young Jeff Higgins - currently the CO of the "Hangman" Regiment in Mike's division - was the first test of how Grantville will co-exist with the local people and gave us such memorable scenes in 1632.

And let us not forget the 9 year old Christina of Sweden, heir of the triple crown , her betrothed Ulrik, prince of Denmark and their retinue - the Norwegian adventurer Baldur and the up-time German-American Caroline who became by chance Kristina's governess and surrogate mother as well as being the future Countess of Narnia as Kristina's whim was approved by an amused father...

Other main players in the books are Colonel Hand the cousin of the currently incapacitated Gustav Adolf, while from the villains Prime Minister Wettin gets a better role than I expected, though the Swedish Chancellor Oxiensterna is shown considerably stupider than he seemed - though of course the rush of events can make anyone lose it.

In bit-roles, Mad Max - aka Maximilian of Bavaria who makes such an entertaining villain in the Bavarian Crisis and whose turn is next as we are promised in the last pages of the book and the brutish Swedish General Baner are also superb in all their scenes, while there is a chilling moment with the young Sultan Murad just fresh from conquering Baghdad with his Janissaries and his aerial blimp fleet, announcing to the cheering soldiers the march on Vienna and the West in the spring...

Of course the above just scratches the surface of a huge cast and for more details you can check the Wikipedia page of the series where 80 characters, fictional and historical, have biographical sketches though the cast of the series is considerably larger considering the Gazettes.

The book is also very entertainingly written with so many moments that make one laugh out loud, with action galore, but also with tragedy, suspense and the occasional heartbreak. Just to name some random scenes that show the breadth of the action - Kristina and her retinue cooking at the Magdeburg "Freedom Arches" for cheering crowds or blithely announcing "I am having a party at the castle, everyone is invited" to the consternation of the "brass" aka Rebecca, Ulrik, mayor Gehricke - Magdeburg is the USE capital and a modern rebuilt city after its 1631 sack by the Catholic Imperial armies - or Mike sending a telegram to General Baner that starts like:

"To Johan Banér, general in command of the Swedish army besieging Dresden
From Michael Stearns, major general in command of the USE Army Third Division
Your assault on Dresden is illegal, immoral, treasonous, and ungodly.",

message that is followed on the next page by:

"Banér was not a particularly large man, but he was quite powerful. That blow and the ones that followed with the leg of the shattered stool that remained in his fist were enough to reduce the desk to firewood.“I’ll ***** kill him!"

All in all "1636:The Saxon Uprising" (A++ together with its first half 1635: The Eastern War) show why the 163* epic series has been so successful, but it also contains a powerful message about freedom, equality, progress and how hard is to bottle them when unexpected events open the door, message that is quite relevant today...

New 6 inch black patent leather high heel sandals

My new black patent Pleaser Women's Domina-402 pumps

Here are some first photos of my new 6 inch (15.25 cm) high heels in black patent leather. I just took them out of the box and made some photos for you so that you can see in what kind of shoes you can expect some photos of me soon. I have already similar shoes from Pleaser which are one of my favorite pumps. Really love this kind of shoes very high, stylish and have an ankle strap.
I have to apologize for not updating my high heels and stockings blog for about 3 weeks. But it was the begining of another semester at university for me - which is always a very very busy time.
As soon as the weather is a bit better you'll see some outdoor high heels pics of me. Really can't wait until its warm enough to wear all my nice sandals again.
Many thanks to loveoffashion.com who sponsored this amazing heels!!!
Greetings & Kisses
- Yours high heeled Vivian

Welcome to the new Fantasy Book Critic!!!

It’s been over four years since I first started Fantasy Book Critic. Since then, the website has grown and evolved in ways that I never imagined. For one, what began as an outlet for a single person’s opinions is now a venue for many different voices. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg :) Considering all of the changes that the website has undergone over the years, we decided it was time to come up with a new look. Something a little more sleeker and more organized, but still unmistakably Fantasy Book Critic.

So thanks to Anton, the awesome designer from GameSiteTemplates, Cindy, Liviu, Mihir and everyone else involved in the template’s installation and indexing FBC’s content, we are proud to introduce the new Fantasy Book Critic!

To ensure greater organization, the new website now offers links to individual pages indexing Fantasy Book Critic’s vast amount of content, including Book Reviews, Interviews, Monthly Spotlights and much more. We’ve also introduced a new feature: a comprehensive list of Upcoming Book Releases that extends from April 2011 all the way through December 2011 and beyond. FBC’s contact information and Review Policy can be found under the Contact Us section, while details about the website and the individuals who make up Fantasy Book Critic can be found in the About Us section. Finally, we are in the process of updating our Blogroll so if you have a website/blog that you would like us to add, please leave a comment below or email us HERE.

From all of us here at FBC, we hope you enjoy the new Fantasy Book Critic. Thank you for your support and much love & respect...

“The Dragon’s Path” by Daniel Abraham (Reviewed by Robert Thompson and Liviu Suciu)

Official Daniel Abraham Website
Order “The Dragon’s Path” HERE (US) + HERE (UK)
Read An Excerpt HERE
Read Reviews via A Dribble of Ink + The Wertzone
Read A Dribble of Ink's Interview with Daniel Abraham HERE

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Daniel Abraham has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Awards, and was awarded the International Horror Guild Award. His bibliography includes The Long Price Quartet, Hunter’s Run (w/ Gardner Dozois and George R. R. Martin), the short story collection Leviathan Wept and Other Stories, the Wild Cards: The Hard Call comic book miniseries, and The Black Sun’s Daughter urban fantasy series written as MLN Hanover. Upcoming releases include Leviathan Wakes (w/Ty Frank) under the pen name James S. A. Corey, and the comic book adaptation of GRRM’s A Song of Ice & Fire.

PLOT SUMMARY: Summer is the season of war in the Free Cities.

Captain Marcus Wester wants to get out before the fighting starts. His hero days are behind him and simple caravan duty is better than getting pressed into service by the local gentry. Even a small war can get you killed. But a captain needs men to lead—and his have been summarily arrested and recruited for their swords.

Cithrin Bel Sarcour has a job to do—move the wealth of a nation across a war zone. An orphan raised by the Medean Bank, she is their last hope of keeping the bank’s wealth out of the hands of the invaders. But she’s just a girl and knows little of caravans, war, and danger. She knows money and she knows secrets, but will that be enough to save her in the coming months?

Geder Palliako, the heir of the Viscount of Rivenhalm, is more interested in philosophy than swordplay. He is a poor excuse for a soldier and little more than a pawn in the games of war and politics. But not even he knows what he will become after the fires of battle. Hero or villain? Small men have achieved greater things and Geder is no small man.

Falling pebbles can start a landslide. What should have been a small summer spat between gentlemen is spiraling out of control. Dark forces are at work, fanning the flames that will sweep the entire region onto The Dragon’s Path—the path of war...

CLASSIFICATION: Influenced by the likes of Alexandre Dumas, George R. R. Martin, Joss Whedon, J.R.R. Tolkien, and J. Michael Straczynski among others, The Dagger and the Coin is Daniel Abraham’s take on traditional epic fantasy. Regarding The Dragon’s Path specifically, the novel brought to mind elements of GRRM’s A Song of Ice & Fire, Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Shadows of the Apt, and Abraham’s very own Long Price Quartet, minus the melodrama and Oriental-flavored setting.

FORMAT/INFO: The Dragon’s Path is 592 pages long divided over a Prologue, an Entr'acte, and forty-five chapters with each chapter designated by the name of a main character. Also includes a Map, an Interview with Daniel Abraham, and an excerpt from The King’s Blood, the second volume in The Dagger and the Coin. Narration is in the third person via Captain Marcus Wester; Geder Palliako; Cithrin Bel Sarcour; Dawson Kalliam, the Baron of Osterling Fells; Dawson’s wife, Clara Annalie Kalliam; and the Apostate. The Dragon’s Path is the first volume in The Dagger and the Coin—a projected five-volume series. April 7, 2011/April 21, 2011 marks the North American/UK Trade Paperback publication of The Dragon’s Path via Orbit Books.

ROBERT'S ANALYSIS: There are many reasons why I’m such a huge fan of Daniel Abraham’s writing, but the quality I most admire about the author is his versatility. Fantasy, science fiction, superheroes, urban fantasy, multi-volume series, standalone novels, short fiction, collaborations with other authors, shared worlds, mosaic novels, comic books . . . Daniel Abraham has taken on all of these different formats and subgenres and done so successfully. Daniel Abraham can now add traditional epic fantasy to his resume with The Dagger and the Coin, a promising new series kicked off by The Dragon’s Path...

In The Dragon’s Path, Daniel Abraham introduces readers to a secondary world once ruled by dragons, but is now populated by thirteen different races of humanity: Firstblood, Cinnae, Tralgu, Southling, Timzinae, Yemmu, Haunadam, Dartinae, Kurtadam, Jasuru, Raushadam, Haaverkin and the Drowned. Unfortunately, world-building was never one of Daniel Abraham’s strong suits, and it continues to be a weakness in The Dragon’s Path, especially regarding the thirteen races of humanity. At first, I was intrigued by the different races and hoped they would bring something new to the table the way Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Insect-Kinden does in the Shadows of the Apt. However, so little information is provided about the races over the course of the novel that I never even got a sense of how these races differed from one another apart from superficial traits—the Cinnae are “reed-thin” and “snow-pale”; the Tralgu have “hound-like ears”; Kurtadam possess “oily, bead-adorned fur”; Jasuru are “bronze-scaled” with pointed teeth; Timzinae are “chitinous”; the Yemmu have jaw tusks; Dartinae are “glow-eyed” and “hairless”; etc.—let alone finding anything that actually added value or uniqueness to the book. Thankfully, Daniel Abraham has posted a taxonomy on the different races HERE which is much more informational, although it would have been better if the information had been included in the novel itself.

Compounding the world-building problem is the novel’s lack of history, religion, mythology, etc. You would think with thirteen races to choose from, The Dragon’s Path would be rich with diverse cultures, religious beliefs and myths, but that’s not the case. Not only does the author focus primarily on Firstbloods—the clay “from which all humanity arose”—but the kingdom of Antea with its nobles and court politics is disappointingly familiar, while religion, history and mythology hardly factor in the novel at all. There’s also very little magic in the book, which I’m okay with except what magic can be found in The Dragon’s Path is unimaginative and a little boring—being able to determine truth from lies and bending a person’s will in a manner akin to the Force.

World-building issues aside, there’s a lot to like about The Dragon’s Path starting with the characters. At first glance, Captain Marcus Wester, Geder Palliako, Cithrin Bel Sarcour and Dawson Kalliam seem like conventional fantasy stereotypes—there’s the veteran soldier haunted by his past, the pudgy noble ridiculed for his incompetence and the “roundness of his belly”, the young orphan who is coming of age, and the loyal noble who believes in traditionalism—but there’s much more to these characters than initial appearances. Especially Geder and Cithrin, the two most fascinating individuals in the novel. The former because of his unpredictability and the dangerous tightrope he walks between good and evil. The latter because of her unique skills as a banker and the trials endured on her journey to adulthood. And both of them because of their remarkable transformations from the characters introduced at the beginning of the book to the very different individuals found at the end of the novel.

Clara Annalie Kalliam, Dawson Kalliam’s wife, is another fascinating character even though she only has two chapters in the book, but hopefully she will receive more face time in the sequel. On the opposite side of the coin, Marcus Wester and Dawson Kalliam are the novel’s weakest characters, offering the least amount of growth and development, but even they have their redeeming qualities. Marcus for example, has a very complicated, but intriguing relationship with Cithrin, while Dawson is portrayed as a good guy even though his traditional beliefs seem outdated and misguided. Then there’s the Apostate who is largely a mystery, but factors heavily in the book as a supporting character. The rest of the supporting cast is shallow and one-dimensional, but my biggest complaint is how all of the main characters are Firstbloods apart from the half-Cinnae Cithrin. As a whole though, characterization is definitely an area of strength in The Dragon’s Path, much the way it was in Daniel Abraham’s The Long Price Quartet.

Story-wise, The Dragon’s Path is full of recognizable fantasy tropes like a caravan, bandits, an acting troupe, a girl disguised as a boy, king’s hunts, duels, a seer, prophecy, coups, etc., while the politics and intrigue of Antea’s court reminded me of GRRM’s A Song of Ice & Fire. Yet for all of its familiarity, the story is still a compelling one, highlighted by unpredictable twists and interesting subplots like the one involving Cithrin, the Medean Bank and economics. At the same time, the story is stamped with Daniel Abraham’s own unique personality—methodical pacing, the swift passage of time, drama emphasized over action, self-contained subplots—all elements that can be found in the author’s Long Price Quartet. The bigger picture meanwhile remains a mystery after The Dragon’s Path is over, but no doubt it will involve the spider goddess, the Apostate and the Medean Bank. Hopefully it will also involve more of the thirteen races of humanity, and perhaps even the dragons—or at least their legacy—will have a larger role to play in future volumes.

As far as the writing, Daniel Abraham’s prose is more straightforward and less elegant than it was in The Long Price Quartet, but the author’s performance overall remains skilled and polished, led of course by Abraham’s characterization and clever plotting.

In the end, The Dragon’s Path may suffer from shallow world-building and concepts that are underutilized like the thirteen different races of humanity, but because of main characters who are interesting and well-developed and a story that consistently surprises despite its familiarity, The Dragon’s Path is a very solid start to Daniel Abraham’s new fantasy series, The Dagger and the Coin. A series that I believe possesses the potential to appeal to a wide range of readers, including fans of traditional epic fantasy, fantasy that challenges the genre's conventions, and Daniel Abraham’s own particular brand of fantasy. From a personal standpoint, I did not find The Dragon’s Path as engrossing as A Shadow In Summer, the opening volume in Daniel Abraham’s The Long Price Quartet. However, considering how much The Long Price Quartet improved as the series progressed, I’m confident that The Dagger and the Coin will follow a similar trajectory, and excitedly look forward to experiencing the rest of Daniel Abraham’s ambitious new saga as it unfolds...

LIVIU'S ANALYSIS: While previously I have enjoyed some of Daniel Abraham's short fiction, I am not a fan of The Long Price Quartet, so I had a mixed feeling about The Dragon’s Path when it was announced - an extremely tempting premise, but what if the author's style just does not match my taste at novel length?

Happily, I really loved The Dragon’s Path and the book quickly vaulted to my ongoing Top 25 2011 novels list and so far it is the only new fantasy series to do so.

The Dragon’s Path is traditional fantasy as best as it gets for me : nothing that we have not seen before as content goes, but pitch perfect execution, vivid characters that we get to know and love during the course of the book and ones we are eager to spend more time with, beautiful writing, action, intrigue and well thought world building with great expansion potential.

The book is also tightly written so despite its almost 600 pages, it does not feel long and I strongly regretted when I turned the last page - the review copy I got has the traditional Orbit "goodies" from the finished product including an interview with the author and an extract from the next book and I just lapped that up and was really sad that I won't get to read the next installment for a while.

The structure of the novel is discussed above with four main threads following Cithrin, Marcus Wester, Geder Palliako and Dawson Kalliam, while several other characters play important roles too, most notably Dawson' wife Clara, the master showman Kit who leads a performing troupe that will have its destiny intertwined with our heroes and Marcus' sidekick, his Tralgu faithful companion Yardem Hane, but the cast of the novel is large and varied as befits an epic.

The younger heroes, Geder and Cithrin who are set to be the main drivers of the action - however unwittingly - combine both expected traits: destined, try and achieve hard things despite the odds against them, with some unusual ones:

Geder is not in that great physical shape to start with, he is both the "nerd" and the lowest ranking noble of his small circle and the butt of the jokes for both reasons, not to speak of his secret interest in "speculative fiction" that sparks derision from his peers and superiors, but which of course will prove important as the story progresses.

Growing up as the ward of an important banker, Cithrin is manipulative and in love with numbers and with finance, so she is determined to have her own trading house which again is not quite what usual fantasy heroines who tend to be princesses or magicians desire...

Of the older heroes, Marcus is probably the most stock - the silent strong type with a tragic past, a cynical but generally accurate view of life and who finds himself doing the "right thing" despite all. While in The Dragon’s Path, Marcus is outshined by Cithrin and Geder, I expect him to play an increasingly important role as the series goes on.

Dawson on the other hand is an unapologetic ultra-conservative noble with clear ideas about his well deserved importance in life, ready to commit what is essentially treason to further his class' interests against the upstart "new men" who compete for the king's influence by among other things daring to promote the interests of the common people... And the author' skill is such that what in other books would be the quintessential villain who opposes progress, turns out here to be an interesting character who also fights the "good fight" in his own way, however ideologically wrong it reads for us modern readers from a democratic age.

The Dragon’s Path world building discussed above by Robert at greater length is actually very good in my opinion - sure it is not yet spelled out in full detail, but there is enough to give a clear impression of what's what and to achieve a sense of the big picture, while of course leaving a lot of scope for expansion in latter installments. To me this is ideal since one of the things I dislike about fantasy series is predictability and conversely one of the things I appreciate the most is finding out new unsuspected things about the universe in cause and here we just scratch its surface, so this is another reason the next book is such a huge asap.

Overall The Dragon’s Path (A++) is a first superb installment in a series that has established itself already in my top level of current ongoing fantasy series and moreover one I easily see becoming one of my top-top if the promise implied here continues to be fulfilled.