Review: A Shadow in Summer, by Daniel Abraham

When reading blogs you will mention after a while that there are authors without much hype but always mentioned that they are worth to read. For me it seems Daniel Abraham is one of these authors. Since I read Keeping An Eye On... Daniel Abraham over at Stomping on Yeti I know the time has come to read A Shadow in Summer (2006) [US] [UK], which is the first book in the The Long Price Quartet series.
It seems I own an older copy of the book because my copy carries a blurb from George R.R. Martin on the front cover:

"A thoroughly engrossing debut novel from a major new fantasist."

I found this remarkable for a debut novel.
And now let's discover whether the book deserves this praise or not.

The Setup

The world of The Long Price Quartet series is called The World. Most parts of The World are controlled by The Cities of the Khaiem. They are like city states - think of the Hanseatic League. Saraykeht is one these city-states. A powerful center of economic and trade. The power depends on a captive spirit named Seedless. He is an Andat and bound to the poet-sorcerer Heshai - lifelong. As in our world power attracts begrudger. The city-stae of Galt and the Andat Seedless conspire together against Saraykeht. But it is nearly impossible to take in account all factors. Two students of the Dai-kvo poet school and an apprentice of a trading house don't behave like expected....

My Take in Brief

Do you know this feeling? You read a book and you really enjoyed it. And you want to share your joy with other people in form of a review. You take a pen and a white sheet of paper and ........ nothing happens. It seems someone is stealing every thought, every sentence, every word, every syllable, every letter, everything..........
Finally you stop and think tomorrow is another day. Next day it happens again. And next day again. All of a sudden only one day left to write the review. There is no pressure to do it but you want it. You know the words are somewhere in your mind - locked. Where is the key? First traces of desperation and frustration and then you listen to a song .......(Thank you Bona!)

I'm neither a poet nor an Andat. I don't live in Saraykeht but due to DanielAbraham's subtle and expressive depiction I felt as familiar and foreign at the same time as when I visit my favorite town London. I have been caught up by the mesmerizing atmosphere.

Mr Abraham is a terrific puppet master. He leads his characters with hidden strings. As familiar and foreign as the world are the characters. Each of the main characters has an own history and develops emotionally and sophisticated during the narration. The use of poses and gestures to emphasize the spoken word and/or to transmit secret or subliminal messages is a brilliant idea and fits perfect. And that is important because the story is driven by duels of intellect and word. That doesn't mean that there is an absence of violence.
Story wise we find love, loyalty, betrayal, revenge and a touch philosophy. It seems the story is simple. But like a flower it burgeons slowly but surely.

All in all it is a remarkable debut which doesn't look like a debut. A Shadow in Summer is a great example that fantasy can be so multifarious. A more subtle, sensitive, emotional novel which unperceived casts a spell over you. It is obviously not a book for everyone. I would not go as far as to say that it is fantasy for highbrows.
But if ink, pen and words are your preferred weapons.........

A Shadow in Summer is the second book I read in 2010. And believe it or not it is definitely a candidate for my top reads in 2010. That is eerie. How will this end? Anyway I need to read A Betrayal in Winter soon.
Highly recommended.

Bona Fide's Book Oracle

What is Bona Fide's Book Oracle? To keep it short. It is a palaver about the reviewed book held by ediFanoB and his alter ego Bona Fide. And I am the keeper of the minutes. Now read my minutes.

Bona: "All that we see or seem, Is but a dream within a dream." Fide: "Hey I know this." Bona: "Really?" Fide: "Yes, yes. It is from A Dream Within A Dream by Edgar Allan Poe [text]." Bona: "Do you remember the song by The Alan Parsons Project?" Fide: "Of course. And it fits perfectly to A Shadow in Summer." Bona: "That's why I chose it." Fide: "You saved Bona Fide's day! Then our work is done for today!" Bona: "Lazy bastard! Before you go tell me in one word what you think about A Shadow in Summer." Fide: "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" Bona: "Whaaaaaat?" Fide: "I can try to repeat it. Superbcomplexsensitivegorgeousemotionalgracefulintriguingsubtlelyrical" Bona: "Are you having me on?" Fide:"No. Definitely no. I don't know any better word to describe A Shadow in Summer. But can you tell me who should read A Shadow in Summer?" Bona: "I'm sorry to say but it is not a book for every one. If you are looking for coarse language, vivid violence, licentious sex, epic battle scenes then you should .............................. DEFINITELY READ AN OTHER BOOK!!!" Fide: "I have nothing to add. Hey, keeper of the minutes. That's a tough nut to crack. Make the most of our onomatopoeia."

I'm the keeper of the minutes. A Shadow in Summer is Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and Superbcomplexsensitivegorgeousemotionalgracefulintriguingsubtlelyrical.

My Favorite Quote

"I don't want to do what I don't want to do!" [Itani, p. 70]

More Daniel Abraham

For more information about the author you can use following links: Daniel Abraham official website, Daniel Abraham LiveJournal,

More Long Price Quartet

A Shadow in Summer is the first book in the The Long Price Quartet series. The whole series consist of
A Shadow in Summer (2006) [US] [UK], A Betrayal in Winter (2007) [US] [UK],
An Autumn War (2008) [US] [UK], The Price of Spring (2009) [US] [UK]

In case you prefer less books you should take in account the two omnibus which each contain two novels:
Shadow and Betrayal (2008) [US] [UK], A Seasons of War (2010) [US] [UK],

Origin of the copy

I bought the copy of A Shadow in Summer which I read and used for this review.

Review - Malice by Chris Wooding

Chris Wooding has been getting lots of love lately with such books as Storm Thief, The Fade, and Retribution Falls (all on my massive To-Read pile) and when I found out that his latest, Malice, was a mixture of a comic book and novel, I couldn't resist.

My copy of Malice was actually won from SciFiGuy, which is also the same place I first heard about the novel.

Published in 2009, Malice is an age 12+ novel that really appeals to the inner kid in all of us and, I have to say I, had a great time reading it even though I like to call myself an adult.

The Setup

Seth is just your average kid, with possibly an above average sense of right and wrong. When your friend's in trouble, there's no backing out. You have to help no matter what ... especially if he's been trapped inside an evil comic book with no way of escape.

At least his best friend, Kady, is there when the going gets tough, except that she (and everyone else for that matter) refuse to believe that a comic book could do such a thing. That's at least until Seth performs the ritual, calls out "Tall Jake, take me away!" the required six times and disappears the very next day. Now everything's depending on her.

My Take in Brief

I don't think this story would have been nearly as good if it weren't for the comic panels spread throughout the book. It played perfectly into the story. You'd have this creepy sense of dread and the next page would be completely black with a snippet of sentence. Or the action is mounting and on the next page you actually see the creepy monsters and machines that inhabit the world of Malice with the kids running away. (note of clarification: on average it's about 30 to 50 pages of written word to about 10 pages of comics)

This was a great idea and a fun book to read. Malice really fulfills all expectations and then some. Not only could I not put the book down, but I honestly started to feel like Malice was an actual place. I only have a few gripes in that sometimes it was hard to follow the action in comics. The style works, but it can be difficult in some of the panels.

Another thing is that this is only the beginning of the story and it ends very much in the middle of some key events.

When Should You Read This?

For me, reading is very much a mood thing. Sometimes I've got to read something medieval while other times I need something urban. I like to add this section so you know when this book will fit in. If you are in the mood for some fun, which doesn't overtax you by any means, then Malice might be for you.

I would recommend Malice to anyone who wants to feel like a kid again, but still gets creeped out looking over your shoulder for Tall Jake to come get you. And if you have kids, they'd probably love this too.

I also look forward to the next installment, Havoc, coming out soon.

Ratings and Links

Amazon: 4/5

B&N: 4.67/5

My Rating 4/5 (loved it, buy it if this piqued your interest)

Another Malice Review

Malice (2009) [US][UK]

Welcome Bryce!

Michael and I have the great pleasure to announce our newest contributing member, Bryce Lee aka Seak! Bryce has agreed to share a weekly review with our readers and an op-ed every now and then, so look forward to some exciting new posts starting tomorrow.

For those of you who aren't in the know, Bryce runs The Stamp and is an active member on a number of spec fic forums. More importantly, he is pregnant, so a hearty round of congratulations are in order.

Enough of my meager introduction, lets let Brice speak for himself.

1) How in the name of creation do you find time to read and review so much while going to Law School? Would you say that reviewing is your priority, as it should be?!

Well first off, that's a great question, one I've been asking myself for the last 6 months or so. And one that my classmates cannot even begin to understand. I definitely know where my priorities are, but most of it is about time management. They always say the busiest people get the most done. I know, a very perspicacious statement.

At first I had a really hard time separating reading for fun and reading for school. School reading ends up being at least 50 or so pages a day (on an easy one), which takes a while and hurts my brain. Luckily I've been able to separate that from pleasure reading. Plus, I don't watch much TV. When you're watching the top 100 list of richest celebrity dog-walkers, it's time to turn the thing off and that's what I finally convinced myself to do.

2) What brought you to spec fic and reviewing in particular, notably starting your own blog?

This probably started in elementary school where I found the Chronicles of Narnia and blazed through the whole series. Reading waned for a while until I read The Lord of the Rings in High School and was blown away. I had no idea you could get that attached to characters in a book. Insert another relatively long break from reading and in my sophomore year of college one of my best friends at the time (Go Matt!) had piles and piles of fantasy books. He turned me on to Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince trilogy and I've been addicted ever since.This is probably more than you ever wanted to know.

Reading A Song of Ice and Fire got me looking on the internet for updates where I found SFFWorld and Westeros forums and in 2008 I finally joined up. After a little over a year of that, I started to feel like an expert on the subject (I know, feeling like and being are two completely different things). People in book stores would tell me, "Did you know A Game of Thrones is going to be a movie?" I'd be like, well well, let me stretch my genre muscles and correct your heinous misstatement. Hence the beginning of my own blog.

3) Desert island, a book, and you. Choose.

Should I do a cop-out and say Lord of the Rings *pushes glasses up higher* because they are really just one book. Non cop-out answer would be A Game of Thrones. Love it.

4) Any things that really tick you off in/about the genre?

Trolling. Genre discussion is awesome. Like-minded people discussing the things they love is a great thing and we can all benefit from it. I even think it's been a big help with law school trying to come up with defenses and arguments about certain subjects. But it can be brought down by people taking things personally and attacking others for no reason other than their own hurt feelings.

5) Do you write as well as read?

I have an "outline" of my novel that I update with all my latest ideas and it's definitely a dream. Will it ever see realization? Who knows. Like Scott Lynch, I tend to bury everything down deep and I think it would be the hardest thing in the world to have anyone critique me. Props to all authors who do so day in and day out.

6) How do you deal with the topic of ebooks?

To be honest, I've enjoyed a few ebooks in the last year and each one has been great. The only real problem is that when they're on my computer, I tend to get distracted really easily. I should really just disconnect from the internet, but I have to know. Tell me I'm popular!! Love me! Ok, it's not really that bad, but it's an addiction.

7) Tell us a secret about yourself you have never told anyone. You can take the 5th if you need to...

This is more of a thing that no one on the interwebs knows about me. I used to be a swimmer in High School and college. I've even raced Michael Phelps. J kidding, but I have raced Aaron Piersol and he smoked me. Now I've reformed my ways and only work out mentally, hence my huge gut.

8) How awesome are your reviews going to be?

Oh, you just wait. I'd check the wall behind you after you read my reviews because they just might blow your mind.

9) Anything you want to add?

I told this to Alec a few weeks before he asked me to collaborate, but Only the Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy has seriously become my favorite blog in the last few months or so. So much information in the Weekly Round-ups, awesome reviews, hilariously encouraged snarky comments, and great giveaways. They weren't joking when they said only the best. Thanks for this opportunity everyone, I'll try not to let you down.

Also...

(Bryce, apparently Google Images thinks you are a dog...)

Winners: Best Served Cold & Boneshaker

The year 2009 seems so far away already yet it is really only a book or two ago. I count time in books for those of you that don't know, which tends to make things interesting at work... Back on topic to announce the winner of our Best of '09: Boneshaker and Best Served Cold Giveaway.

-- drum roll --

Congratulations to Neville T. from South Africa on a well deserved win after cashing in his bonus entries. It goes to show that snark pays ladies and gents.

This week's giveaway is Drood, by Dan Simmons, so make sure to check that out for another awesome read - Michael has rated it very highly in his review. The giveaway has some special requirements, so make sure to read the rules...