swingbeat 1/26: Acacia by David Anthony Durham
Wow, quite a while since posting :). Since George R. R. Martin is kind of on hiatus now (just realized I didn't blog for a LONG time).
I picked up this book when I saw it in the library - my favorite Teriyaki place is Acacia Teriyaki :). I read the back cover and noticed there were lots of comparisons to George R. R. Martin!!! Plus I jsut read the GRRM website, and he recommended this author to read :).
This book is an epic fantasy story (part 1 of 3 [hopefully]), about a king who gets assassinated and the effects on the country, conquerors, and his four children. Durham, the author, is a black man, one of few writing in this genre. This book is heavily intertwined with themese of drugs and slavery, something I'm sure he must have given lots of thought to. His world-building skills is close to being on par with Martin and Frank Herbert, and his prose is flowing, and I was able to read this 570+ page hardcover in a few days. The characters are very believable, although there were some actions that I felt were done simply to move the plot along. Finally, the pace was good - no dragging out actions in order to lengthen the story (I call it the "Lost" syndrome :) ).
Recommended. In a nice cozy chair.
posted by Jay at 3:20 AM
5 Comments:
nice posting! ...so, how violent was it? (if at all?) sounds like a promising read, but i've got a fairly low (i.e. child's level) tolerance...
welcome back, Jay! you've already read more books than I have. :)
haha! thanks!
what? this is my first book :).
Violent? Funny, I can't even remember now. But I guess it was pretty violent, cuz there were deaths in it :)
hm, ok, mebbe it'll be a little too adult for me. sigh. if only i had a higher threshold for this stuff...
I just finished reading this book as well and really enjoyed it. It has a similar feel to Martin's books with the storyline of the children fighting to regain their kingdom, the subtle uses of magic, no character is safe, etc. I did like the pacing of this novel better than Martin's. It moves much more quickly -- there are parts of Martin's novels that tend to drag due to lengthy description and exposition, though Martin is still my favorite fantasy author. Even with this faster pacing, Durham is still able to create strong, meaningful characters, with a few surprises thrown in.
Steven
http://steventill.com
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