Lyrec

Lyrec is a fantasy adventure novel first published by Ace Books in 1984, and now available as an ebook through a writer's collective, Quolibet books. I was provided it through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers' program, and read it using the Kobo app on my phone.

What appealed to me when I saw it among the handful of Early Reviewer titles available to my country was its seeming resemblance to Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories, one of my favourite fantasy series. Sadly it arrived on my phone about the same time as Haruki Murakami's 1Q84, which I'd been waiting to read for months. So Lyrec had to wait a while. Then I went on a bit of a 'classics' kick, and Lyrec definitely didn't fit in with that. No.

Comparing Lyrec to the show more Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series would be fairly unkind to Lyrec, as Leiber was one of those handful of geniuses who choose to work in genre fiction. Other readers of this kind of thing may not be as particular as I am about prose style. Lyrec's might at best be called 'workmanlike'. It never sings, but then few books do -- but sometimes it scrapes its fingernails on the blackboard. A good editor might have made a difference. There are scenes, especially early on, that slowly die amid long elaborate impenetrable descriptions of 'glowy magic' that make you think the author probably had a clear and beautiful vision of what was going on, and that this vision was a lot like an early 80s fantasy or science fiction movie. But this vision doesn't make it off the page. Perhaps a genius could make such scenes come alive, but the author of this book, as of most books, was not a genius. Perhaps it's also unfair that I review it after mainly reading geniuses for months before and after. These scenes serve as a good lesson to the novice writer about the importance of writing for your medium: don't write something that would look good on the cinema screen, because you don't have one; better to modify your vision to something that reads well than to try and fail to capture the incommunicable.

I've put off reviewing Lyrec for months after finishing it, partly through laziness, partly through busyness, and partly because I've doubted I can give it a 'fair' review. I like fantasy as a genre, but I've mainly read the best stuff, the top 1%. Lovecraft, Leiber, Howard, C.L. Moore, Eddison, Tolkien, Moorcock, Zelazny, Wolfe, Donaldson, Pratchett, Murakami. It doesn't quite seem fair to measure an 'ordinary' genre writer against these titans, as I've read very little of the ordinary stuff, like this, that constitutes most of the genre, and I plan to keep it that way. But now, sixteen weeks later, finally the guilt of having received a free book on the understanding that I would review it has prompted me to put fingers to keyboard.

After the first few leaden chapters I put the book down for a while, but when I picked it up again I warmed to it. There's a definite sense of improvement as it goes along, and characters who come to life and do surprising things. It's kind of fun. There's a sense of growth across it, enough that I wouldn't be surprised to learn the author has written much better books since. show less

This just does not work for me. There's too many stories stuck together randomly, the "hero" is uninteresting and the cat even less so (he's supposed to be comic relief, I guess, but the whole thing is silly so that doesn't work either). I think I got far enough that I saw where all the threads will attach, but I was completely uninterested in following them along. And the fact that every kill is described (and sometimes re-described several times) in full gory detail was the final straw. Poooor Lyrec is a pacifist but a really good killer. And the auctorial fiat allowed by the magic trick of extracting information from everyone's mind...oh, come on. Sorry, no. I quit in the middle, and I do that very seldom.

It starts like a lot of fantasy; there's stuff going on here, then some unrelated stuff over here, another bunch of unrelated stuff over there... and while I know it'll come together eventually, it feels like I'm putting in a lot of effort chasing a goose through molasses and not enjoying myself in the meantime.

I might have been able to stick with this book better if it had unique elements, but it doesn't. It may have been more readable with better editing, too. If just one character had interested me enough to wonder what might happen next, I would be a happier reader.

An entertaining if sometimes disjointed fantasy tale. The author used a bit too much exposition to begin with before the characters were really allowed to speak and get the story going. There were repeated moments of someone clunky exposition that interrupted the story. Additionally, in the Kindle version at least, there were numerous typos and errors (about 1-2 a chapter), that were sometimes distracting and interruptive in that it took a couple readings to understand the sentence.

That said, I still enjoyed the book and looked forward to reading it each night. The dialogue was generally pretty entertaining, and helped carry the plot forward better than some of the exposition or sometimes clunky action scenes.

The concept was very show more original, not something I'd encountered before. That said, I think people who are less familiar with the fantasy genre may struggle with this story, partly because of the speed with which it is told. The book was quickly paced, which was refreshing when compared to 800-1000 page epics. However, I think replacing some of the exposition with slower, more detailed character and world development would have helped the book. show less

I had a hard time starting this book. The book didn't ever really grab me and leave me unable to put it down, Not only was the beginning slow, but there were other points where the book just didn't quite flow for me. It gave me too much back story for some parts and not enough explanation for others. It didn't lay a framework and then flesh it out as part of the dialog and action so much as give me bites of background in chunks dropped in the middle of the current story.

The high point for me was the dialog between characters and the relationship between the two main characters. The humor and life of the story lived there. Many of the other important characters seemed a little too flat for my taste...but the main characters had enough show more life that I kept reading.

Another positive is that the book had ideas I hadn't seen too often in other books. The novelty of some of the concepts is another thing that continued my interest despite the difficulty in flowing with the story.

Overall, the book was okay. Not one that I'd be likely to read and reread, but one that I read once and generally enjoyed. I don't regret having read it and while I wouldn't rave about it to a friend...I wouldn't warn them away from reading it either. show less

I absolutely enjoyed this book. The characters and pacing were wonderful and I found myself anxious on their behalf during the reading. The only reason that I did not give this book 5 stars was because some of the early descriptions were a little vague. I found it hard to visualize the events of the first chapters. Also, the ending felt a bit rushed. After enjoying the story for so long, I felt slightly cheated that it was wrapped up so quickly and easily. Those were minor points though and I would highly recommend this book to my friends that enjoy fantasy action novels.

Lyrec, by Gregory Frost, is your average fantasy based, overcoming evil to win the day and save the damsel in distress novel. While not as compelling as George R.R. Martin, or Terry Brooks, it serves as a legitimate bit of escape from everyday life. To be warned, this book is not one to be read for a little bit of mindless entertainment. The author shifts the storytelling through several different viewpoints. These viewpoints do not merge until past the midpoint of the novel, so keeping the lines straight requires a bit of effort.

In addition to the standard fantasy elements, the author blends in science fiction. The main protagonists are two trans-dimensional beings from a parallel universe that have taken on the form of an over-sized show more human and a cat. They go through various worlds and universes, chasing a destroyer of worlds. This addition of the sci-fi aspect was just jarring enough to keep me from getting interested in the story. Don’t get me wrong, I also enjoy science fiction. It is just for my taste, the two did not merge well in this tale.

I have always loathed the use of invented words in stories for the sole purpose of informing the reader “this place is different.” I’m a little more forgiving in science fiction when it is done to explain away technology. Mr. Frost uses this tactic several times, including for a drink, and a berry, where any real-world substitution would have been fine. Thankfully, the book would sometimes put these term in italics to let the reader know this is not a real word. However, this is not consistent and had led me to several fruitless searches in order to try and find the definition to words that did not exist.

After the first few chapters, I began to keep a dictionary on hand in order to look up various words that did not look familiar. There were always a few per chapter. Some, to my discovery, were indeed fabricated. Others were quite esoteric. My argument is not that Frost used words uncommon in everyday speech, but that when these words were used, they often stuck out and did not seem to flow with the rest of the text.

Honestly, if I did not have to read this book for early reviewers, I would have set it down after Chapter Two. It wasn’t that it was a bad book, just that it wasn’t a very good book. At no point could I get into it. I (as well as many other people) have limited time to read, and this is one I would not have spent my reading while I have three bookcases of unread books I am trying to work my way through, nevermind the books I have accrued on my Kindle. Although after looking at reviews of other works by Frost, and other reviews of Lyrec, others seemed to have enjoyed him. Perhaps it is just not my cup of tea. show less