Robots 2-4, Spirit thief & the Warded Man.

The weird thing about writing for me is that I can't do it if I am reading.  If you read me or if you look at the contents you will see I have not been writing much; I have been reading.  I read the first books of the robot series and the first of the last, it was only after I read that last one that I realized there was another one to come. Isaac Asimov was a good writer for his time, the forties and the Fifties when he wrote his first books, the writing had ideas and the story was secondary, the characters were abrupt and raw like the crime writing of those times.  But after twenty odd years Asimov came back to his character that made his career and wrote another story that took place just after the second and we get to see how Asimov's writing had improved.  Gone was a lot of the wood.  Wood meaning that character was not stiff and blunt like a club, oh he was still a fifties style detective, but he had depth…and sex.  The book was longer too and it was good reading, better than the books that allowed him to write and get his work published by his name alone.  Now I just have to find the next book at my favourite bookstore in Big Smoke, Pheonix-Bakka.

I read a easy to read book too.  To be clear I mean that the language was easy and the flow was gentle and easy but that means that it was well written enough to feel comfortable when I read.  It was called the Spirit Thief, by Rachel Aaron.  There are sequels and I will be looking for them ASAP.  In this world there are two types of mages, the bad mages who dominate spirits and bend their wills according to they suit the mage's desires and there are good mages who make bargains with spirits for aid in exchange for part of the mage's spirit.  And then there is the protagonist who treats spirits as people and talks to them and does things for the spirits and that spirits do things for him because they like him, genuinely.  This is a pantheistic world where there are spirits in everything and the size of the object and the nature of the object lends traits and power to the said spirit.  Some mages want to get fame and power and want people to worship them because of their power.  Others just want to be famous for having the biggest price on their head and kidnap great kings and release them on the condition that they raise the price on their head and nothing more.  Sounds silly eh, but it was a fun read.

The Warded Man.  I read this about a month ago, before the Robot series and it is still in my head.  In a land that was like our is now, with a past that included demons that preyed on the people.  The people defeated the Demons and they then forgot…and some things should not be forgot.  The demons came back and now it is a thousand years later people are fighting back but humanity is losing.  They have wards, symbols that are like magic that protect against the demons but Every time that wards fail, people die.  Every generation is smaller than the generation before and as the generations shrink the knowledge of the past dwindles and morality declines.  This is a story that follows three people raised in different parts of the land each holds a key to the past and a desire to change the tide in the perpetual war that people have stopped fighting and seem to be just waiting to die.  They have the key to inspire and and to lead the rest into a safe future.  Their are many loose ends from this first novel and I am anxious to read the second book, so much so that I might forgo a Terry Pratchett novel to get back to this story…good thing there isn't one though because I am not anxious to see if it is true.  It is by Peter V Brett, small typeset with many pages . . ..