Lawrence Watt-Evans

What a delightful find!! As I first began to read, I thought, uh oh. Hard to explain why, but within a short time I realized this was the way the character, Valder, a foot soldier/scout in the Eshthan army really IS. Valder is matter-of-fact, kind, quiet, observant, highly intelligent, unassuming, and above all sensible. He gets trapped behind enemy lines (in a war gone on so long everyone has forgotten the reason for it) and comes across an old wizard while being chased by the enemy. The show more wizard, very annoyed (his home gets wrecked) gets rid of Valder by enchanting a sword . . . only . . . it doesn't turn out quite right. Not only that but I soon realized that while W-E riffs off of memes, he does so in an entirely original way. Valder's 'signature' conviction is 'there is a way out of every predicament'.

The book gets 5 stars not for being great literature because (I mostly reserve that for four stars, actually unless - - ) I.could.not.put.it.down and I was inwardly laughing constantly. Not witty like Pratchett, but wonderfully tongue-in-cheek. ***** show less

Another entertaining tale -- this time we have 21 or so year old Sterren, an erstwhile gambler in the city of Eshthar of the Spices, who finds out that through his papa he is the 9th Warlord of the tiny kingdom of Semma in the realm of the Small Kingdoms. They want him to come save them from two other kingdoms who have united and are planning to invade. He doesn't want to go, but he realizes that he must (or be tied up and taken) so he goes. Besides the language problems--even in the tiniest show more kingdom people speak their own language and spurn the idea of learning anyone elses'-- the king is an ass, the soldiers are lazy louts, and noblemen are as common as fleas. He decides he needs some folk who can practice magic and convinces the unwilling Semmans to let him hire some but that brings a host of new problems, in particular a warlock, Vond . . . if Valder's mantra was "there is always another way" (in the previous novel--see>86 above) Sterren's is "I can always leave" and yet, he doesn't, for one reason or another he sticks around. Couldn't.put.it.down. so ***** stars. show less

Lawrence Watt-Evans surprised me with this one. I usually prefer his light fantasy novels, although his rare forays into science fiction, cyberpunk/mystery, and even horror have usually been quite good. But Vika's Avenger is something a bit new for him: science fiction, but with a sense of depth and a richness of culture that put the book into that relatively rare category of SF with a fantasy feel to it (I'd put Zelazny's Lord of Light in the same category, and also Silverberg's Majipoor show more series). In its richness it's a bit reminiscent of his Among the Powers (previously titled Denner's Wreck) and Nightside City along with the sequel Realms of Light).

I really liked this one! It got harder and harder to put it down as I read. As with his best books, the protagonist is actually intelligent - not perfect, and certainly he makes mistakes, but for the most part he's bright and sensible. And those attributes pay off. In many genre books the protagonist misses the obvious, or does stupid things because otherwise there wouldn't be enough of a plot to pad out the book to a saleable length. That's not the case with Tulzik in Vika's Avenger. He's a believably bright and decent young man with a purpose.

And I have to praise the setting. The city of Ragbaan and its inhabitants are engaging, exotic, and rich, with tantilizing depths and hints of mystery: wonderfully complex, but not so complex as to be off-putting or confusing. I want to read more about Ragbaan, and given the care that Watt-Evans has lavished on this one, I strongly suspect that he'll write more stories set there. I hope he does.

As for the story itself, it's a very pleasing combination of SF, fantasy, and mystery. It's not dark, although I wouldn't categorize it as light, either. It's just one of those extremely well-written books that carries you along and makes you wish there was more when you get to the end. I'll be reading it again. show less

It's late, so this will be relatively brief (for me, that is - which means it will probably be one of the longer reviews here on GoodReads).

Lawrence Watt-Evans' Ethshar books are the preeminent modern light fantasy series. They're eminently readable, and particularly enjoyable because most of them feature intelligent, reasonable, fundamentally decent protagonists who take sensible precautions, make intelligent choices, and cope with the unexpected logically - although not necessarily with show more superhuman perfection.

That's what makes the Ethshar books so refreshing: they're about people who are about as intelligent as most fantasy readers, I think. Or as intelligent as I am, anyway. :D

Whereas most modern genre fiction either features "heroes" who constantly miss the obvious in order to bloat the plot and page count to forest-killing proportions, or else have characters who are so annoyingly perfect and flawless that they have all the excitement of a particularly dull 1950s Superman comic.

It's nice to read books about people using their brains to deal with interesting problems that don't necessarily involve Saving the World. And it's a pleasure to read about people who make reasonable moral choices.

But the main protagonist in The Blood of a Dragon is something of an exception to that rule (as is Tabaea the Thief from [b:The Spell of the Black Dagger|390245|The Spell of the Black Dagger (Legends of Ethshar)|Lawrence Watt-Evans|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51P2st4HteL._SL75_.jpg|379858]). Dumery of Shiphaven is spoiled, paranoid, self-centered, doesn't think ahead, and repeatedly demonstrates both bad judgment and a surprisingly questionable morality. He only ends up succeeding because of pure luck (and, perhaps, stubbornness), and that's very unusual for an Ethshar protagonist.

To make up for that, we also have Teneria of Fishertown, a very sensible witch-apprentice. Her encounter with Adar the warlock is gripping, with fascinating implications for the world of Ethshar - implications which will, I suspect, be addressed in the forthcoming Ethshar novel The Unwelcome Warlock.

But Dumery? He's a jerk. Oh, there's a paragraph or two where he has a mild moral crisis over his behavior, and regrets his acts. But it felt to me as if Watt-Evans was almost forcing the character in that direction; it didn't ring quite true.

So although this is quite an enjoyable read, it's not the best of the Ethshar series - and it's definitely not a good introduction to Ethshar. I'd strongly suggest starting with [b:The Misenchanted Sword|317497|The Misenchanted Sword|Lawrence Watt-Evans|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173720863s/317497.jpg|1761917] and proceeding in order of publication, if you can.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention: the book has a spriggan. It's one of the funnier spriggans, too - and they're all funny. I don't know what it is about spriggans, but they always make me laugh and tug my heartstrings! show less