Photo de l'auteur

J. Steven York

Auteur de S.C.E.: Wildfire {omnibus}

21+ oeuvres 731 utilisateurs 8 critiques

A propos de l'auteur

J. Steven York J. Steven York is the author of the second Generation X novel, Generation X: Crossroads, as well as two nonfiction books, a zillion or so magazine articles, and a bunch of short fiction that has appeared in magazines such as Analog, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, afficher plus Tomorrow, Pulphouse, VB Tech and anthologies, including a novel-on-a-disk included with Sierra's Outpost 2 (1997) and Missionforce Cyberstorm (1996) set in Sierra's Starsiege combat robot universe. He lives in Lincoln City, Oregon, with his wife, romance writer and Star Trek author Christina F. York. They share their writers hovel with his collection of 400-plus toy robots. afficher moins

Séries

Œuvres de J. Steven York

S.C.E.: Wildfire {omnibus} (2004) 125 exemplaires
Cold Steel (2002) 116 exemplaires
Fortress of Lies (2004) 89 exemplaires
Crossroads (Generation X) (1998) 65 exemplaires
Generation X: Genogoths (2000) 49 exemplaires
Trial by Chaos (2006) 45 exemplaires
S.C.E.: Enigma Ship (2002) 41 exemplaires
Heretic of Set (2005) 34 exemplaires
The Venom of Luxur (2005) 30 exemplaires
S.C.E.: Spin (2004) 29 exemplaires
Scion of the Serpent (2005) 29 exemplaires
Hereje De Set (2007) 3 exemplaires

Oeuvres associées

If I Were An Evil Overlord (2007) — Contributeur — 165 exemplaires
Westward Weird (2012) — Contributeur — 123 exemplaires
Corps of Engineers: Creative Couplings (2007) — Contributeur — 87 exemplaires
L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Volume V (1989) — Contributeur — 62 exemplaires
Nanodreams (1995) — Contributeur — 55 exemplaires
The Trouble With Heroes (2009) — Contributeur — 47 exemplaires
Ultimate X-Men (1996) — Contributeur — 43 exemplaires
Front Lines (2008) — Contributeur — 23 exemplaires
Transformers: Legends (2004) — Contributeur — 21 exemplaires
Swordplay (2009) — Contributeur — 21 exemplaires

Étiqueté

Partage des connaissances

Nom légal
York, James Steven
Date de naissance
1957
Sexe
male
Nationalité
USA
Lieu de naissance
Alabama, USA
Organisations
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

Membres

Critiques

Enjoyed this set of stories, though it left the series on a bit of a cliff-hanger. Particularly liked Keith's "War Stories" as it gave a bit of background to these characters.
½
 
Signalé
SF_fan_mae | 1 autre critique | Jun 19, 2016 |
Yet another fantasy novel where everything is resolved by magic. Magic is so prevelant that one scene requires a location in a "no-magic" zone - but of course magic is needed there to resolve the conflict of that scene, so the no-magic zone includes a magic zone!

In book two, of course, Anok meets a priest who may as well have stepped out of an episode of Xena: Warrior Princess. It is Kaman Awi Urshé, the high priest of Set who somehow lacks arrogance, but comes across as an old, bumbling, cordial, tinkering busybody intent on learning modern science - like the old guy in The Scorpion King or the old teacher in Young Sherlock Holmes, the guys who can create anachronistic gun powder or airplanes. I have seen this type of character in so many movies/TV shows that he bored me from the get-go.

York's descriptions are wonderful, though. It is easy to read and easy to visualize. However, I was hoping for a stronger plot and stronger characters (Anok is supposed to be falling into darkness, but he isn't; and the supporting characters do nothing and add nothing to the storyline).
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
VincentDarlage | Jan 30, 2015 |
The book over-relies on recaps of prior events. Basically the structure is thus: Anok does something. Anok's friends worry about what Anok has done (recapping in the process). Anok's enemies ruminate about what Anok has done (giving yet another recap). Anok worries about what he has done in the past (any guesses what this provides? Yes, another recap), then Anok does something else, and the cycle goes on - recap after recap.

The structure of the trilogy, being so filled with constant recaps and reminders of what was read in the last chapter, gave the entire series the feeling of being "padded" in order to achieve a certain length.

This structure was evident in the prior books as well, but it seemed this one added another twist to the structure: In the midst of the recaps, the side characters all pondered their relative uselessness - as if the author suddenly realized his characters had no point and that he needed to get on the ball and give them something to do! Teferi actually is given magical powers from out of nowhere in order to make sure he could contribute in some way.

Magic does underly and solve everything in this series. Magic weapons, magic spells, magic items, magic gods and so on, good and evil. There are anti-magic serums and locations, "simple" spells (why are deflection spells always referred to as a "simple" spell in fantasy novels?), magic swords and magic dream-sticks. Even Fallon asks for a magic weapon at one point, realising she is useless to Anok (other than for sex) if she doesn't have magic.

The storylines are concluded by contrivance instead of by natural consequence of the characters' actions. Every plot line was tied up very neatly and without much effort on Anok's part. Instead of plots resoved by natural consequence of a charater's actions, the plots are resolved by the author in strings of nifty coincidences and revelations.

The novel would have been MUCH better if Anok had truly fallen into corruption. Sure he killed some cannibals and was guilty of arrogance, but he still was pretty nice to his friends.

What if Ramsa had not been distracted by some silly plot about usurping a god's power, but had been focused on corrupting Anok? Let's say Ramsa puts Anok into a situation where he must either kill a friend as a sacrifice or die himself.

If he had really fallen and killed Fallon in a ritual sacrifice, would Teferi have saved him? Would the "power of friendship" been strong enough to redeem Anok? Would Teferi want to redeem his friend after that? Would Anok be redeemable after such an atrocity? What if Ramsa had forced Anok to kill Teferi? Would Fallon have tried to save Anok afterwards? Would her feelings for Anok really have been strong enough to redeem him?

Would Anok have been redeemed? Or would the trilogy have ended with Anok's death when Teferi or Fallon kills him for being irredeemably corrupt? Or would one of them have shattered his neck, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down so that he would have the rest of his life to wail at what he did to deserve it?

Those would have been some hard questions that could not have been solved with magic. Those questions would have had me on the edge of my seat. Those questions would have given the trilogy a hard edge and some serious emotional impact.

As it was, Anok was still a pretty decent guy, obviously "savable" and the ending did not have one bit of emotional impact. Oh, they killed a god-snake. World saved from ridiculous Cobra Commander plot. Anok saved. Hurrah. Next book please, nothing more to think about here.
His descriptions of the setting, however, are excellent. He excels at description. It is easy to visualize what he writes, and that holds true for the third book as well as the other two. I do like the character of Ramsa, even though in this book he did a lot of stupid things - ultimately he was not brought low by Anok's greatness - he was brought down because he made a lot of blunders that allowed Anok to win.

One of the worst parts of the third Anok novel had to be when Teferi explains to the guards that Fallon is a barbarian whore with a sword and that they missed her on the first inspection because she had been enchanted to look like a brick. This is where the novel completely jumped the shark. After that, Teferi explains to the guard that he made the whole thing up about the brick/whore and that the guard should not report anything because it would make the guard look incompetent to be a guard. The guard buys it and lets them leave because guards are uniformly stupid in fantasy novels. I am not even sure why Fallon needed to be there, so this entire exchange could have been excised from the book. Why would the guard let Teferi go? It seems to me the guard would have run Teferi through and claimed the guy was trouble; the author missed a chance for a combat scene by making the guard act stupidly. Why would he let someone go who could actually get him in trouble at will? After killing Teferi, he could then search for Fallon and possibly get some sort of payoff for rooting out spies. Instead he lets Teferi go and ignores the fact that somewhere a barbarian woman with a sword is around. I hope the author makes his guards more realistic in future novels.

Chapter 16 has another shark-jumping moment (if that is possible): Anok runs across upraised shields like a frog on lily-pads (this novel has gone from bad to just down-right silly), then Ramsa casts a spell to end the fight - long after he should have cast it - yet the remaining men swear undying loyalty anyway.

One part, and correct me if I am wrong, seems to indicate a lack of research. The Zamboulan district of Kheshatta... Shouldn't that have been the Darfari district? The Zamboulans were not cannibals - the Darfari slaves of Zamboula were, yet the Zamboulans here file their teeth. It seems he combined Zamboulans, Hanuman worshippers and Darfari cannibals into one people.

I also noticed the author seems to confuse Kush and Kushite, using them both to refer to the people. He would say a Kushite warrior was a "Kush warrior," which sounds as strange to me as calling an Egyptian warrior an "Egypt warrior."

For example, on page 59, 60 & 61 of book 3, Ramsa calls Teferi a "Kush" or a "barbaric Kush" instead of a barbaric Kush-ite. Again, this is like calling someone a barbaric Egypt.

Also, on page 103, what is a Shemite Kush? Is he referring to the Aphaki?

The storylines are concluded by contrivance instead of by natural consequence of the characters' actions (For example, Teferi is handed his magic powers and Anok is practically handed his Mark of Set, which made him all-powerful - neither of them fought to attain either of those as a goal).

Even the plotline with the sister is handed to Anok. He doesn't have to piece together clues - he is taken straight to her and practically presented with her. That plotline then goes nowhere.

Anok did not even have to go looking for his father's killer - even that was handed to him!

Anok didn't even have to search for a way to kill the "god made flesh" - he was handed a magic sword out of nowhere (including a matching back harness like he used to wear)!

Every plot line was tied up very neatly and without much effort on Anok's part. Instead of plots resoved by natural consequence of a charater's actions, the plots are resolved by the author in strings of nifty coincidences and revelations.
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
VincentDarlage | Jan 30, 2015 |
A Holiday Explained by J Steven York
Easter Bunny meets up with SC, Santa Claus and they go through some
things of their own holiday celebration.
Bunny asks about his schemes to get kids to ask for what he wants to
make them, tinsel tax, and kickbacks.
Really a story of how the chocolate Easter Bunny become hollow.
 
Signalé
jbarr5 | Jul 25, 2013 |

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Statistiques

Œuvres
21
Aussi par
12
Membres
731
Popularité
#34,741
Évaluation
½ 3.3
Critiques
8
ISBN
21
Langues
3

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