Vox Day

This rich, intensely detailed drama of a continent under seige by four fractally dynamic superfactions - two supernatural, two temporal - puts to shame the vast majority of 20th century epic fantasy. Only the Tolkiens' dual life works are ahead of the Arts of Dark and Light series (and Day is the only one still working on his!). Only Eddison's The Worm Ourboros is a somewhat close second to Sea of Skulls.

Dante's Divine Comedy is superior only in style, and that is only in its best show more translations or original Italian, but it is too rooted in the occult to as clearly illustrate the false beauty and counterfeit nature of evil quite as well as Sea of Skulls does.

The book also quite casually metatextually attacks the strengths of George R.R. Martin, Joe Abercrombie, Robert Zelazny and other champions of epic and martial fantasy. A Sea of Skulls exposes the various hamartiae of epic fiction while disarming them: the author eschews narrow quest plots, perspective bloat, theater-violence, character-death as plot editor, and every other "trick" to writing 1000-page epics. Instead, Day writes what he sees in his mind, and his mind is an encyclopedia of Selenothian history and prophetic vision.

There are cosmological flaws in the storytelling: at points it feels as if as if the world as described is anachronistically globular, and has some sense of a post-Copernican worldview. Perhaps this is intentional: the continent is indeed under tremendous flux, but this sense doesn't quite feel as cohesive as, say, the unspoken social expectations of the various cultures in conflict. Sea of Skulls is slow to reveal its mysteries and secrets, but it doesn't cheat - the hints are well structured, purposeful and timely, if well hidden.

Most remarkable is the profound empathy Sea of Skulls has for its invaders, monsters, evil-doers and innocents alike. It leaves all judgment to God and to the reader, and in doing so, is perhaps the most just fantasy novel I have ever read. show less

Though not necessary, I wish I had read this before I read ‘Throne of Bones’. The background would had made the epic fantasy richer for me. This was a quick and enjoyable afternoon read. We follow a young nobleman from an important family, Marcus Valerius. We learn early that Marcus Valerius is a rising scholar in the Church and though young he is intelligent, loyal and devout. He is sent on an mission to the Eleven kingdom as part of the Church’s delegation. He is there to observe and show more give his thoughts upon his return on whether or not the Elves posse an immortal soul.

The book is well written and exciting. If you are familiar with the old theological writings of the past you will have a greater enjoyment reading this. I can assure you that no such knowledge is needed to enjoy this novel. I like that each chapter starts with a Latin question which are written correctly and are addressed in said chapter.

The book is complete and at the end includes Marcus Valerius’ report, Summa Elvetica, and an additional information. I do hope that Vox Day continues the theological/philosophy series to its final conclusion. Do not take this out of context, the book is a complete book with a good ending, but I can see that this was a preamble. show less

Finished this recently and I have to say that it was much better than I had expected. I've read some of the author's previous fiction. While he has always told a good story, the prose was somewhat clunky at times. It is apparent that the author is getting better at his craft and it shows with AToB. It does start slowly, but rapidly sets the hook and picks up the pace. The setting is interesting, juxtaposing Roman republic style state and Church with a feudal european-style kingdom in a show more fantasy setting, and having a workable and interesting history and mythology to go with it. I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of fleshing-out detail in the world building of Selenoth.

One thing I particularly enjoyed was the author's take on that fantasy staple: Elves. The author explores the question of what would a society of materialist, quasi-immortal beings converge on...and arrives at something refreshingly different than the ethereal, beatific elves of Tolkien's Middle Earth.

Another item I thought very well done was the setup and description of the battle scenes: some of the best low-level descriptions I have read, major points for verisimilitude here on an emotional level. One scene in particular involving the hand-to-hand clash between legions had a tense claustrophobic feel that took me back to memories of combat exercises and training when I was in the military.

I read exhaustively for work, so when I get to read non-fiction, I read strictly for entertainment, not for enlightenment, political hand-holding, or anything other than escape from the commonplace. By that measure I very much enjoyed AToB. For something like this I give 4 stars...(5 stars would be for something on the order of Middle Earth) Selenoth gladly gets 4 stars and a spot on my "buy the sequel in dead-tree format" shelf. show less

Vox Day is in love with EPIC FANTASY NAMES. The Waste of Kurs-magog. Arbhadis, Night’s Mistress. The chapter house of the Ordo Sancti Dioscuri. So much filler. So talky.

The heathens come to God's monks, and are won over by the sheer amazingness of scripture and convert. Even when the heathens are magical elves and the monks are the boringest ever. They hang out, help travelers and the poor (with a dab of economic teaching thrown in for free), pray, and copy manuscripts. I know monks aren't show more necessarily exciting in real life, but if you're going to put them in your story, have them be more than the most obsequious people ever.

"Therefore no incorruptible thing sometimes is, and sometimes is not, whereas everything which has a beginning does not exist prior to its existence." WTF DOES THIS EVEN MEAN??

SPOILER! All the monks are red shirts. Vox Day kills them all off and my reaction is THANK FUCKING GOD! show less