Chris WillrichCritiques
Auteur de The Scroll of Years
Critiques
So: three stars because I think this is a case of mammoth "just not for me", rather than the work being flawed.
Note: I received The Scroll of Years from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
The Scroll of Years by Chris Willrich (Gaunt and Bone #1)
Published by Pyr on Sept. 24th, 2013
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Length: 270 pages
How I got my copy: Publisher
Persimmon Gaunt and Imago Bone are a romantic couple and partners in crime. Persimmon is a poet from a well-to-do family, who found herself looking for adventure, while Imago is a thief in his ninth decade who is double-cursed, and his body has not aged in nearly seventy years. Together, their services and wanderlust have taken them into places better left unseen, and against odds best not spoken about. Now, they find themselves looking to get away, to the edge of the world, with Persimmon pregnant with their child, and the most feared duo of assassins hot on their trail. However, all is never what it seems, and a sordid adventure-complete with magic scrolls, gangs of thieves, and dragons both eastern and western-is at hand.
Strengths:
The writing of The Scroll of Years is of course ridiculously difficult to explain because it has such a poetic and beautiful tone to it. Gaunt is a poet, so whenever she or Bone (who she has trained to describe scouting results poetically) is speaking, the dialogue is just lovely. However, the whole book is written in a very classic bardic tone. Gah, it’s just really pretty okay?!
The Scroll of Years introduces TWO very cool fantasy worlds >.>. Two you ask? Well you’ll just have to see, but it is awesome.
Besides the fun of Gaunt and Bone, there are many secondary characters in The Scroll of Years that add comic relief, their own personal plot lines, and a broader view of the world. I enjoyed the focus shifting between many of these characters since it really conveys just how epic this series is going to be. Big things are brewing!
The plot of The Scroll of Years is of course delightfully complicated, with quite a few different groups with complicated motives. I enjoyed the greyness that is introduced because of these vying goals, where I as the reader couldn’t actually decide which group was “good/correct” and which was “bad/wrong” in their desired outcomes. I look forward to finding out more about each of the factions introduced!
Weaknesses:
So there is a short story at the end of the edition of The Scroll of Years that I read which is actually a prequel short story. I really really would have preferred it be before the main text since it puts a lot of background into context. I honestly felt like I was missing something during part of The Scroll of Years and it was explained in the short story. Do yourself a favor and flip to the back to read that first!
The Scroll of Years has lovely writing, but that ended up making some sentences rather awkward to the point that I was pretty sure there was a typo or two because I just couldn’t sort out what the sentence was supposed to say.
Also due to the poetic writing tone of The Scroll of Years, I felt strangely removed from the characters and their plights at times. Instead of feeling like Gaunt is the big sister I never realized I was missing (how I feel about most adult female characters >.>), she’s still just a character in a book to me. It’s a bit difficult for me to sort out why this is exactly, but I think it has to do with the particular tone of the writing. I’m really curious as to whether any of you who have read the Scroll of Years got a similar feeling!
Summary:
The Scroll of Years is an excellently fresh fantasy that dives into a new world with charming characters and beautiful writing. I can tell this series is going to be a fan favorite (it kind of already is, I’m so behind, haha), and I’m excited to see where it goes. I do definitely recommend reading the prequel short story first so that you can better understand references, but I still really enjoyed The Scroll of Years!
They must have pissed off someone in high places because there are some pretty wicked assassins after this couple and they’ve got to stay several steps ahead especially considering Persimmon Gaunt is pregnant! I don’t even remember the last time where I read a book where one of the lead characters is pregnant! It made for some interesting situations.
It took me 43 pages to get sucked into The Scroll of Years - mostly because the writing style is something I had to adjust to. But once the teenage characters Next-One-A-Boy and Flybait come on the seen I was hooked. Next-One-A-Boy is most definitely a girl and she doesn’t want anyone to forget it. Resourceful and determined, she left home and doesn’t ever plan on going back. So how does a young girl survive on her own? Why by joining up with the local bandits of course!
Nor did she believe in flying-carpet fairies, goldfish people, love and justice, and other stories for babies. She did believe in magic, however, just as she believed in corruption and unfairness and all other things that could have you eating mud or becoming it. – pg 43
Now, Flybait was really the one that stole my heart. He was scrappy, just a touch bit of a coward but definitely all heart. I never knew what was going to come out of this kids mouth!
“Sorry, Flybait,” said a big man with an axe.
“Hey, don’t worry, Feng,” said Flybait. “Mind if I scream and raise a fuss?”
“I don’t mind,” said the big man, “as long as you hold still.” – pg 116
Really it was Next-One-A-Boy and Flybait that had me loving this book more than anything. I think perhaps its because I felt we got to know them throughout the story whereas with Guant and Bone I think we were expected to be acquainted with them already. This might in part be due to Gaunt and Bone originally being the leads in several short stories by this author before debuting in here in their first novel.
Regardless, when you threw this group together this book was an amazing combination of heartache, discovery, life lessons and hope. Oh yes and did I mention funny?
Soon two screaming thieves were charging the bandits with an axe bigger than either of them. The weapon had not been designed as a pole arm, but it was in such a manner that Bone and Flybait rushed the knot of foes. Distracted by the wulin woman leaping from stalactite to stalactite, the outlaws were unprepared for an attack of such poetic stupidity. – pg 117
Definitely give The Scroll of Years a try – its a short read weighing in at less than 300 pages but still hefty enough in quality content to satisfy even the most voracious fantasy reader.
While The Silk Map is the follow up to The Scroll of Years, it can most definitely be enjoyed on its own. I can’t stop marveling at the ease with which the author can throw his readers into the middle of a situation but still manage to convey all the complexities and nuances in the relationships between his characters. In fact, the Scroll of Years was not the first time Gaunt and Bone appeared either; they had been starring in their own short fiction adventures for more than a decade now, but not having read those stories before tackling this series did not hinder me at all. Chris Willrich quite simply has a talent of writing extremely convincing characters, and upon picking up these books you can immediately feel the weight of the history behind Gaunt and Bone, partners in crime and partners in love.
But like all couples, they’ve had their differences and hit their rough spots. The story picks up once again in the faraway land of Ancient China-inspired Qiangguo, where Gaunt and Bone had taken asylum from their enemies. Gaunt had given birth to their son in the first book, but in order to save him from the clutches of evil forces, she and Bone had had no choice but to lock their child away in a pocket dimension within a magical scroll. Now that scroll has been lost, and together with their allies, our two protagonists must find a way to recover it and rescue their son trapped inside.
Their journey leads them to the make a bargain with the Great Sage Monkey, a demi-god who knows of a way to retrieve the scroll. In exchange for her help, the minor deity asks that Gaunt and Bone seek the mystical land of Xembala and bring back the great treasure of the Iron Moths, that impossibly valuable material they produce called ironsilk. Their quest will involve traveling along the Braid of Spice, a fictional trade route that will lead them into the west.
Chris Willrich describes in the acknowledgements how this story was in part inspired by the history and tales of the Silk Road, which should already tell you what a gorgeous book this is. In antiquity, this route served as a bridge between the East and West, connecting people from all walks of life. The Silk Map brings to life a version of that diverse setting in its own unparalleled way, blending a rich combination of fantasy and myth with elements from that ancient culture.
Written beautifully in a literary and almost formal style, the prose is also something to be sipped and savored. I liked that there’s actually a lot of humor woven into the dialogue, sometimes hidden in sly references and wordplay, and if you blink you might miss it. While it’s true this made me take longer to finish the book, it is by no means a slow read. The Silk Map is a tale of adventure at its heart, and there is plenty of action and swashbuckling fight scenes interspersed with the quieter moments where you can sit back and enjoy as a character spins a yarn. Like The Scroll of Years, this book features poems and other stories within the larger narrative, often used to explain or expand upon the plot. Willrich’s writing style perfectly complements the speculative quality of these anecdotes, reminiscent of folklore and the legends told in the Far East Asian tradition.
For me, the highlight of The Silk Map had to be the interplay between Gaunt and Bone. Their relationship so far has been a journey as harrowing as the quest they have embarked upon to find their son. Their love will be checked, tested, and probed over the course of this novel and how they each come to terms with the conflict is as important as the other aspects in the plot, though no one can doubt Bone’s devotion to his partner, and of course, Gaunt shows us why it would be a mistake to underestimate the lengths a mother would go to for her child.
Interested in an Asian-themed fantasy or looking for a more subtle, elegant touch to your sword and sorcery without sacrificing the heroic element and adventure? Check out these books. The heady and sometimes dreamlike mix of history and mythology also make them an excellent choice.
Gideon Gull is attending bard school, but it's also secretly a spy school, training up bards for intelligence work. When a magical fog starts driving peopl crazy, Gull reunites with his old flame and some fellow bards to solve the mystery.
The first thing that leapt out at me with this book was the prose, but unfortunately not in a positive way. In an effort to lend the book a suitably bardic tone, Willrich writes with a flowery overstated style, heavy on metaphors that break the flow and possess questionable efficacy. He also seems to struggle incorporating dialogue with action; the book veers wildly between the two at times, and the dialogue was quite... odd in parts. At points, it flows very naturally, but at others it seemed stilted and forced. It felt almost performative - what someone *thinks* they would say, rather than what they would actually say.
It doesn't help that the book has somewhat of a stop-start plot, very episodic and also quite predictable. The druid sections work best but are featured only a little. The villain is immediately guessable and the conclusion foregone.
It's a shame as there are parts of the book that work, but they are sporadic and it's just too inconsistent. I don't know how much of this is down to the setting (the Harry Potter like bard/spy school really is a bit much, as is the vast and powerful array of spells that *students* have), but Willrich seems like a writer who needs to write a few more books to get up to scratch.
I've long been hoping that some gutsy publisher would buck the trend and print a compilation of Willrich's Gaunt and Bone tales to sprinkle some dreamlike fable amidst our worldly fantasy fiction. Instead, this Gaunt and Bone novel arrives. Even better. The fantasy fiction shelves need to be stocked with more books like this one.
Willrich injects The Scroll of Years with the same gorgeous prose of his short fiction but still manages to move the story along at a steady clip. It rises to a pulse-pounding pace in delightfully entertaining moments of action and at times slows to a trickle to allow the reader to ponder a bit of philosophy. But it never stalls. The landscape--described in precise, exquisite detail--is a character in itself (literally and figuratively) the dialogue is witty and insightful. Through all of this, Willrich weaves his signature threads of antithesis and paradox. There's enough depth and beauty here to make subsequent readings just as entertaining as the first.
He packs this all into about 260 pages, which is impressive, but this may have detracted from the overall story a bit only because it prevents the inclusion of more background about the characters. Gaunt and Bone, and some of the secondary characters as well, have fascinating pasts that readers can only glimpse. This is at once tantalizing and frustrating. Readers well acquainted with Gaunt and Bone will not be deterred, but those meeting the characters for the first time may miss out a little on what makes them so compelling.
I do hope this absence will urge them to read the next installment, The Silk Map, to learn more. I've already pre-ordered my copy (and I'm still holding out hope for that Gaunt and Bone short story compilation).
A dynamic dual and partners in crime, Gaunt and Bone are also lovers expecting their first child. Caught up in some trouble with Night Auditor assassins at the beginning of this book, the pair flee across the ocean to Qiangguo, a land very much inspired by ancient Imperial China. To protect themselves from enemies and other factions who already have designs on their unborn child, they will need all the help they can get, and allies apparently can come from the most unexpected of places.
There is much to be said about Chris Willrich's ability to make me feel so connected to his main protagonists, since I have not read the short stories and The Scroll of Years is my first introduction to Gaunt and Bone. Already, the two are in love and starting a family, which offers a very interesting kind of dynamic you usually don't find when picking up the first book of a series. It's not often that one gets a chance to read a fantasy novel from the perspective of a couple of parents-to-be, after all.
Quite frankly, it gave me positive feelings towards this book and its main characters right away, especially since the emotional nuances are always so close to surface whenever Gaunt or Bone find themselves in a quandary. On a personal level, Persimmon Gaunt's experiences as an expectant woman and then a new mother were humorous at times, and tugged at my heartstrings at others. Overall, these characters have a lot of depth and are just written so well.
The world in which the story takes place is also beautifully crafted, achieved without overt info-dumping. I have a great interest in Far East traditions, and to my delight the author has taken some Chinese myths and legends and incorporated them into this story, also creating some of his own at times to add to the richness of Qiangguo. Clearly, a lot of care was taken to blend fantasy, history, and his own research and knowledge, as evidenced by some of the stories and poetry found in this book, and even by simple things like the name given to this land of the Heavenwalls ("Qiang" meaning "Wall", "Guo" meaning "Nation").
The writing is also something I feel I have to remark upon, because the prose is definitely not of a typical style. Even so, this makes it no less beautiful or impressive in my eyes. It did take me a lot longer than expected to read this book, but only because Chris Willrich's style was something I felt really needed to be taken in slowly and savored. Because a certain level of attention is required to do so, this might make The Scroll of Years a difficult book to get into, but stick with it and you'll be rewarded by many subtle surprises in the writing. For example, I for one was not expecting much humor in this novel, but there were actually quite a few funny moments that came out of nowhere and made me laugh out loud.
All in all, I can safely say I cannot remember the last time I came across a book like this. Highly recommended for readers of fantasy who love a good action-adventure tale, especially those who might be on the lookout for something a bit different with an elegant and subtle touch.
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What happens when an advanced civilization rescues a child from the room? Who are they to judge. Who judges them and who judges the judges........
Predictable but for details. And a bit, well, self-congratulatory.½