With so many books out there in the world there must be a balance between the good writers and the bad writers, right? Wrong. Most of the bad writers are unpublished and continue to be unpublished, granted even a good writer has a point in their life where they are unpublished. Once a writer gets a book published, they are more likely to get a second book published, if only because they had a first novel published and that opens doors. So published authors tend to be better writers, all the editors weeding out the hopeless ones. But, does that mean all the authors with three or more books under their belt are all good writers? Maybe. Certainly, not all writers are the same calibre, but they must be good, because people are buying their books and publishers are getting them printed, right? Nope. Some people will read anything.
Take me for example I have purchased nine novels, two three book trilogies and three stand alone stories, from K J Parker and I have read seven of them. And he is a good writer and a good story teller but the books are terrible. Apparently I will read anything. He writes in a style that is guaranteed never to be mimicked in Hollywood. His story endings are unconventional and the conclusions are not what I want to read about all the time.
The first series I read was a story about a soldier who woke up in a ditch on a battlefield with no memory, he was also the only one alive. No memory, but pure instinct flowed through his veins and he was a very good killer. The first book he travels the land trying to make a living and find out who he is, but everyone is afraid of him or treat him with great reverence, but refuse to help him or tell him who he is, so the mystery continues. The second book he finds his childhood memories and tries to continue his life, but every time he starts something it all goes horribly wrong. It is as if he is a dark version of king Midas, everything he touches dies. In the last book he tries to discover what he did in his adult years and his curse continues to track him down as if he is a plague carrier. He tries to be good, but every action leads to more misfortune. When he finally discovers he he really is, empires have fallen, his families lay slain and everyone hates him.
The second series revolves around an old cavalry man who is trying to save a city from destruction from a hoard of barbarians. The series follows a similar plot line, different except every step forward involves a step backwards. Sometimes a hundred steps backwards. This series is actually about a magic spell that goes horribly wrong by being horribly nonspecific and the people trying to fix it after it was said. Again everyone dies. Would it kill him to write a good ending?
I mean that. The novels are well researched, the writer even made a couple siege engines to see how they worked and the details about constructing swords, bows and armour are incredible. The plots unfold magically, but the endings suck fresh raw sewage.
Most recently I read, The Company. Six boys head off to military college and then to war and come back heroes. Well five come back. Okay, four come back and then the last one comes back years later to reunite them in a chance to retire in happiness. The venture is simple head off to a deserted military post and start a farm. Every chapter begins with a little bit of history about the war and the people involved. The story unfolds very well. By the end of the first few chapters, hero worship of the characters, is the sort of emotion that I feel. The company was a special unit called a Linebreaker. It is explained early on. Soldiers wear armour, it protects them from getting hurt, bur the weapon of choice in this land is a pike. A pike is eighteen feet long (6m), the blade is about a foot long and it looks like a long spear. The formation that is used is like a Greek Phalanx. There are six rows of men, each has a pike, each manholes his pike straight out creating and overlapping spear wall six pikes deep. The men are in close formation, shoulder to shoulder back to front with the each person. As two armies come together, each first rank dies as they are each speared with six pikes and it gets very bloody indeed. Linebreakers are soldiers who are tasked with running ahead of this formation and trying to disrupt the enemy formation. They do this by ducking under the line of pikes, pushing the pikes aside, cutting the pike heads off as the approach or by simply jumping over them, all in a bid to kill and disrupt the enemy formation; to break holes through their lines that can be exploited. That it is said is the easy part. The hard part is getting away from your own troops as the exploit the hole that you are standing in, six rows of pikes aimed at your back rushing forward. They said that a good Linebreaker lives on average a couple battles, A Company, lasted through seven years of war. Bad things happen to them they survive, then hidden secrets conspire to tear them apart.
Just once I would like a happy ending.
Maybe I should read the other two books, perhaps there is one in one of them …
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