Frank Tuttle (1)

An ice cream sundae of fantasy reads; sweet, flavored with familiarity, a variety of pleasing textures. Tuttle has created a heroine I wish I could have found at fourteen, a more self-reliant one than Aerin in [b:The Blue Sword|407813|The Blue Sword (Damar, #1)|Robin McKinley|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1286927812s/407813.jpg|2321296]--no kidnapping or aging paramour warrior kings necessary. Meralda is an eighteen-year-old mage who uses logic, math, courage and persistence show more when confronting an array of challenges, both human and occult.

Meralda is the youngest mage and the first woman to be appointed to the post of Royal Thaumaturge in the kingdom of Tirlin. The king has given her an almost impossible job, to (re)move the shadow of the seven-hundred year-old mages' Tower that will be shading his historic speech to the Accords. This is the year the Accords are held in Tirlin, a ceremonial and political event that occurs every five years. Unfortunately, there's a number of life-changing surprises in store.

As usual, I enjoyed the writing style. Tuttle builds an interesting world without information overload, allowing plotting and characterization to flourish over lengthy descriptions of scenery or sewerworks. I particularly enjoy his subtle development of atmosphere, ranging from exhausting marathon research sessions to sunny days in the park, to the intimidating puzzle of the Tower. Initial scenes in the Tower were particularly ominous:

"But here, in the windowless belly of the Tower, she felt as if it were the smallest hour of the longest, darkest night. 'It's quiet, all of a sudden,' said Tervis, in a whisper. 'Isn't it?'"

"Meralda played the lamp around the hall. Shadows flew. Some, she thought, more slowly than others."

The humor is delightful, varying from absurd (the plant's epithets are fun), to overt banter, to subtle world details (such as mention of a former history text "Trout and Windig's A History of Tirlin and Erya and Environs, With Generous Illustrations Throughout.") Meralda's wizardly familiar is a potted dandyleaf plant who provides sarcasm and concern in equal amounts:
"I'll stay right where I am. It's a good place in which to worry oneself sick. Lots of room to drop leaves and shrivel."

The Guards' Captain also has a number of fun lines, particularly in his wry assessment of character:
"'You do love surprises, as I recall.' Meralda half-turned as she climbed and lifted an eyebrow at the captain. 'I detest surprises,' she said. 'Quite right,' said the captain. 'My mistake.'"

Characters are nicely done and have individuality even in brief appearances. There's the honorable, fatherly Captain, a coachman with a tendency to swear, a pair of former mentors and court wizards pretending to dodder around in the background, a pair of twin guardsmen assigned to Meralda and more. I appreciate--oh, how do I appreciate--that Tuttle doesn't describe Meralda's body anywhere in the first third of the book. Pardon me, but as I've read several otherwise decent writers making this mistake (Daniel O'Malley, The Rook), I think it's also worth noting when one gets it right. Although he mentions her brown eyes and fly-away hair, we really have limited physical description, with a similar minimal time spent on clothes. Don't misunderstand; Tuttle gives enough description to build a sense of a Victorian-like time period with slightly less cumbersome fashion (my historian friends, correct me if needed), but it is not chick-lit-esque with detailed descriptions of her boots, bodice or speshul necklace/hairpiece with mystical powers. She does, in fact, have a black bag:
"She frowned suddenly. 'I've got a bagful of sorcerous implements sufficient to fell the west wing, but I don't have a hairbrush.'"

You have to love a fantasy heroine that wields fierce math skills:
"'Mathematics,' she said, rising. 'The biggest part of magic. Not the stuff of epic legends, I know, but the stuff of magic nonetheless.'" Can you believe she mentions trigonometry?

Perhaps my one quibble--because there's always one, that's just the kind of person I am--is that despite being a fantasy world, the Yang seem oh-so-very Chinese-based, which creates a dissonance between comparing the fantasy version with the real one and testing for accuracy. My world of advice would have been to pick one; either make it rooted in real or not, because otherwise world building comes into question and distances the reader from story.

Despite that, the second read held up very well. I was no less captivated by the story, wanting to finish again before writing the review. Had I been fifteen, I would have loved this unreservedly. It reminds me of [b:The Raven Ring|169881|The Raven Ring (Lyra, #5)|Patricia C. Wrede|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1312021929s/169881.jpg|164042] in its focused, independent heroine armed with common sense, determination and fearlessness. But despite a mildly jaundiced eye, this was an extremely enjoyable read. I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a straightforward fantasy complete with happy ending, and wouldn't hesitate to gift this to my niece, and when the next Meralda book is released, I'll be buying it as well.

Four and a half stars.

Cross posted at http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2013/09/14/all-the-paths-of-shadow-or-a-path-to-d... show less

One of my favorite urban/fantasy series. Tuttle remains sadly unknown, I think due to problems with publishing deals (and might I point out that our current fan favorite, Martha Wells, had her own career terribly marred by same), but don’t let that fool you. The novels he puts out are gems far above the normal small publisher works, not unsurprising for someone who has taught college-level writing as his main gig. Markhat is his main character of this series and clearly had his roots in show more fantasy private-eye noir, something along Glen Cook’s [b:Sweet Silver Blues|400878|Sweet Silver Blues (Garrett P.I., #1)|Glen Cook|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1297624038l/400878._SY75_.jpg|1394270] or Butcher’s Harry Dresden. As the series progressed, like Dresden, Markhat has found himself pulled into supernatural politics, but unlike Dresden, he remains a fair non-believer in the meta. Its a nice take which helps anchor the series in the original private-eye–excuse me, Finder–premise.

In this, the eighth book, give or take (early ones are novellas and order irrelevant), events have him headed to the far territories out West to help secure a town on behalf of Mama Hog, sometime friend and local seer. Mama is, as always, playing a long game, but what she can’t foresee is that the train taking Markhat west will become the site of a murder and Markhat will be conscripted into investigating. And that will be only the start.

“Quite the tragedy.”
“Quite,” I said. “So the grieving widow escaped with nothing but her life, the clothes on her back, and, of course, the Krait fortune.”

On reflection, what may be the biggest barrier for this series for people that haven’t picked this up is that it clearly doesn’t sit in the new urban-fantasy land, despite what I think of as a time-period, urban fantasy feel, and that’s where it most echoes Cook. There’s some ambiguous world-building; Tuttle is plainly of the en media res school and tells you as much as you need to know, and for some who like their explanations cleared laid out (no matter how illogical they turn out to be), that’s never comfortable. (For the rest of us, it nicely avoids that dreaded ‘as you know, Bob’ phenomenon). So there are vampires and trolls, which do end up being explained through the course of the series, but Markhat has trouble believing in Mama Hog’s supposed seer powers. It really does feel much like our own world (circa 1800) despite the non-human elements.

“Change which comes too quickly,” muttered Slim, speaking the words slowly and carefully. “My people have a word for this thing. We call it um.” He made a wet grumbling deep in his chest. “We have no love for it.”
“We just call it life,” I said. “Love it or loathe it, it’s all we’ve got.”

There’s a ever-present sense of mild humor to the series, particularly from Markhat’s skepticism. Dialogue is snappy. Just the right amount of description means it is atmospheric without being lost in purple prose. There’s loads of equality here, which is enjoyable, and the guest characters from the train are vivid despite brief appearances.

Anyway, eighth book and all that means don’t pick this up here. There is the feel of finality about it, a bringing the gang together, that means it just won’t be as appreciated if you haven’t read more of the series (not that Tuttle builds to a penultimate finish in most things. Just that the roles won’t be as meaningful). There is, for instance, a hasty marriage, a Troll encounter, and a spirit-walk, all of which will have more layered meaning if you’ve encountered these characters elsewhere.

“Because Mama might forgive and Mama might forget but I don’t just hold grudges. I breed and train and raise them like prize racehorses.””

Speaking of, perhaps that’s a weakness in this story; there isn’t a lot of back story on each character. We jump right into the action and it keeps rolling. I loved the focus on the mystery and the events surrounding the train ride–in this, it reminded me of the decidedly non-fantastical [b:Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect|167006698|Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect (Ernest Cunningham, #2)|Benjamin Stevenson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1692905897l/167006698._SY75_.jpg|99200233]. Dialogue is snappy, resolution is super-fast; all of it, in fact, feels as much like a roller-coaster more than a train ride. No leisurely window-gazing here. And yet, if Tuttle had taken longer with it, perhaps beefed it out more, it could have been an entry point for newbies to the series. I, for instance, had trouble remembering why a character changed names, although Tuttle helpfully reminded me of the old one. Still, I loved it, and it’ll give you a good reason to go read the rest of the series. For me, it’ll be a reason to go back and re-read more. show less

I've mentally divided this book up into the first two thirds or so, which I loved, and the last third, which was a bit of a disappointment.

I'll begin by writing about the first two thirds. That part of Hold the Dark was really good, and, I think, played a big part in helping to break the mild case of reader's block that had been weighing me down. As usual, I enjoyed Tuttle's sense of humor and Markhat's “voice.” The mystery was interesting, and I wanted to see if Markhat could manage to show more find Martha in time to save her from being killed. For once, Mama Hog was hobbled, unable to even drop cryptic-but-helpful hints. Markhat was pretty much on his own, and it made for some fun reading.

So did the introduction of a couple new characters. I'm not sure if the Corpsemaster will ever pop up again in this series, but I thought he was wonderfully horrifying to read about. And also nauseating. I kind of liked how much he freaked Markhat out. Darla, too, was a lot of fun, although for different reasons. I laughed a good bit when she took advantage her workplace's magical mojo to mess with Markhat's head a little. She was very sharp and reminded me of Terry Pratchett's Adora Belle Dearheart (Going Postal). The bit in the prologue, which stated that she had died, intrigued me, because I knew from reading descriptions of some of the later Markhat stories that she was going to be a recurring character. How was that going to work out? Was she going to be transformed into a vampire? I desperately wanted to know.

Unfortunately, what had started off as (so far) one of the strongest works in the Markhat series sort of fell apart when Markhat and Darla began dating. Darla had struck me as the sort of woman who'd make Markhat work for every bit of her time and attention. I figured it would take them until at least the next book before they started dating, and, in the meantime, I could look forward to lots of fantastic, clever, flirty conversation. Instead, they fell into a lovey dovey relationship incredibly quickly.

This, I soon learned, was meant to help the story along – it gave Markhat a reason to wallow in manpain after Darla died, thereby pushing him to do stupid things he might not have done if he and Darla had still been in the “attracted to each other, but still feeling things out” stage of their relationship. While I, the reader, felt like I was only just starting to get to know Darla, Markhat was so grief-filled that he was willing to plunge into the depths of magical darkness. I was not impressed, and the way Darla “saved” Markhat was another annoyance.

I really loved the first two thirds of this book, so my disappointment when the relationship between Markhat and Darla was fumbled so badly was pretty huge. I would definitely still recommend this series overall – Markhat is so much fun – but I hope that his and Darla's relationship becomes less gag-worthy later in the series. Darn it, I want Darla to be as awesome as it seemed like she was going to be when she was first introduced.

Other Comments:
- “Evis Prestley” as a character name? Really? If this was done as a joke, it's one of the few times Tuttle's humor has not worked for me – I just could not take the character seriously. I wish he'd been named something else.

(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

I downloaded this for my Kindle not knowing what to expect. It just sounded like an interesting book. I really ended up enjoying this book a lot. It is a very classic fantasy tale with a lot of humor woven throughout.

Wistril and his apprentice, Kern, live in Castle Kauph and in general just want to be left alone to their studies. In these three stories about Wistril, that is just not meant to be. The three stories included are Wistril Besieged,
Wistril Afloat, and Wistril Betrothed. In each show more story Wistril shows that brain always triumphs over brawn and comes up with humorous solutions to rather difficult situations.

I thoroughly enjoyed these stories. Wistril is a pretentious, yet caring and hilarious wizard. He constantly surprises the reader with his crazy solutions to problems. Kern is a very competent apprentice who weaves tons of hilarious sarcasm throughout the novel. Wistril is sworn, as a white wizard, to never harm with his magic and this adds an interesting twist to things.

Tuttle has a very readable writing style that I really enjoyed. He develops wonderfully quirky characters. These stories really have a classic kind of tongue-in-cheek dungeon crawling humor to them. I was pleasantly surprised and very amused.

Overall I absolutely loved this book. I immediately went online and got a couple more of Tuttle's Kindle books. If you love classic fantasy with a humorous twist you have to check out this book. show less