Shōgun – A tale filled with Samurai, Swashbucklers and Ninjas

For a standalone story, I didn’t expect the book to have such a sprawling storyline and a large set of characters for us to follow. Shōgun is an epic. Set in feudal Japan, it’s a fictional retelling of the political maneuvering of the daimyō Toranaga-sama (Tokugawa Ieyasu is his real-life counterpart) as he plots his rise to the status of Shogun of Japan. We watch this through the eyes of an English Sailor- John Blackthorne- who is loosely based on one of the only Western Samurai in Japan: William Adams. The plot follows his slow integration into society as he probes for a way back home, while he slowly gets embroiled into Toranaga’s schemes and plopped right into the middle of Japanese politics.

It’s become a standard trope to have an outsider witness a new culture/region, as he becomes a natural vehicle for exposition to be spouted towards. Naturally, it works well here though there’s a LOT of exposition as we peel through the different layers of ‘Eastern’ culture. There are a lot of areas that I’m sure aren’t historically accurate. In particular, I’m quite sceptical about the portrayal of seppuku in the book. Not with the action itself, but the frequency with which it’s committed. A little bit of leeway can be given for the purpose of enhancing the story though.
Another negative: the amount of time spent on Blackthorne-Mariko could have been reduced and still retain the same level of impact on the main plot. It was a chore to read through a lot of those sections.

The interplay between politics, religion and personal vendetta as the various factions played their pieces was enthralling: Local daimyos vying for power, the reach of the Church, Portugal and Spain having trouble with a possible Englishman taking over local trade, constant backstabbings and shifting loyalties. The characters and their personal ambitions make up a large chunk of why this book is such a quick read. Clavell managed to cram a lot into the book, even sparing some time to showcase the evolution of geishas. Oh, and yes. The book has ninjas.

Anyone suffering from a withdrawal of aSoIaF can jump right into this. I’m quite sad that we won’t be getting a chance to explore more from this Age through Clavell. But he covered the most important period right before the rise of the Last Shogun, so there isn’t a lot of interesting material remaining to cover.

Recommended Read: A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time #1)

For a series that is supposed to span 14 books, the first one is a tame start to the series. The book opens in a similar manner to The Fellowship of the Ring, a small town where something out of the ordinary occurs and someone wise to events occurring in the outside world decides to lead a party of seven on a mission. Oh and just like The Lord of the Rings, there are Orc-like creatures (Trollocs), something akin to a Nazgul (Myddrraal) and a Dark Lord. Jordan wanted the books to start similar to Tolkien’s epic before it diverged so I will give him the benefit of the doubt.

The positives:

Robert Jordan’s prose is truly remarkable. Throughout the journey, his writing makes it so easy to visualize every aspect of his world. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the various major cities or towns, the routes between them or the groves that they stop by. Each and every setting is fully realized and this adds a lot to the reading process. He also provides enough interesting pieces of information on other parts of the world such as Tar Valon, Illian, and Amador, which I am positive will be covered in the rest of the series.

A lot of fantasy authors forget to include interactions between everyday folk and the main cast. The fact that Jordan does this makes the whole story just a little bit more believable. The majority of the characters are regular farm people, and you cannot expect them to get through the journey without a little bit of help from people living in the world around. Getting a glimpse of how these people live their lives provides a richness to the world and makes you think how the character’s actions will affect these regular joes moving forward.

There quite a few factions that are established by the end of the book which gives me hope for the rest of the series. There are supporters of the Aes Sedai –women who can use the True Source and have a lot of political power- and their detractors The Children of the Light who frown on them. Supporters of the Dark One called Darkfriends who lurk around everywhere, the Warders and those who fight against the Blight in the North. A lot of different parties involved in the story.

Neutral:

Not enough has been established about the magic system for me to pass judgment. We are given the bare basics of the True Source, and how there are two components to it that can be drawn out. Then there is the Wheel of Time itself, that supposedly builds out patterns and dictates the actions of the world. Is a character destined for doom or glory in a series like this due to the actions of the Wheel? Can people influence the Wheel externally and change the course of history? A lot is made about the past, how the Dark One keeps defeating the Dragon -a prophesied hero of sorts- and how the Cycle might be different this time around. The book leaves us with enough questions and topics that need to be answered in future books.

Generic plot: You can’t go wrong with a standard Good vs Evil storyline. Then there’s the added conflict between the Children and the Aes Sedai in the backdrop as well. So there’s enough going on to keep you interested in the story.

Negatives:

Story Choices: The plot weighs down midway through as the characters get spread out and we get a chance to see a lot more of the world the story is set in. I am not a fan of world-building when it does nothing for the plot. For example, what was the point of Perrin Aybara meeting Elyas? It establishes a telepathic connection between Perrin and the wolves but it doesn’t move the story forward in any manner. We could have skipped Elyas and proceeded directly to the Travelers instead. There could be a payoff later on in the series, but when you examine a book on its own, the plot just gets bogged down by various little plot points such as this.

Characters: I think Brandon Sanderson has spoiled me for the worse. After reading so many of his books with a variety of interesting characters, all of Jordan’s characters seem pale by comparison. Almost all of them possess a single character trait, and very few have any character development at all. The only one that stood out to me was Thom Merillin. Thom is a traveling gleeman who goes about entertaining the masses with tricks, fireworks, music, and stories. He shows a lot of heart, does his best to help out the main cast, is plagued by mistakes from his past and is prone to being swayed by greed. He is neither overly smart nor is he an expert when it comes to self-defense. It’s a stretch, but I would rather see him in future books than some of the other characters in this book.

Lan is a Warden sworn to protect Morraine, who is an Aes Sedai working against the Dark One. He is the Marie Sue of the book, a typical combat expert/tracker/navigator who helps get the cast from point A to point B as safely as possible. His thing is to brood for most of the book.

Morraine Sedai has a lot of knowledge about the Wheel, the Dark One, his followers, and has access to the True Source (So, a lot of magic stuff like lightning bolts, smoke screens, and flames I think at one point). Her trait is to smirk at others who question her or ignore people for the most part.

Nynaeve is the village Wisdom -someone who heals people- and is a part of the Woman’s Circle in her village. Her trait is to scold people when she gets ticked off, or try to one-up Morraine.

Egwene. She wants to see the world and become an Aes Sedai like Morraine.

Now the three main characters.

Mat Cauthon- a whiny bitch (language, I know) who can’t shut up, likes to play pranks and is a general dumbass who cannot bother to think for even a second.

Perrin Aybara, the more well-developed of the lot, is the son of a smith, wields a mean old ax and has wolf powers.

Rand al Thor, son of a herder, has a heron marked sword, smarter than the Perrin and Mat, wants to do the right thing but isn’t qualified at all. He stumbles through the story for the most part. I don’t think I can blame him though since it seems like the Wheel has major plans for him, and a lot of what he ends up doing is out of his control.

Phew.

As you can see, there are a lot of characters in the first book alone. I wish a lot more time was spent developing these characters more thoroughly. Moments of consequence had a lesser impact when we did not get to see how certain characters react to their own actions. The three main leads were written to be everyday folks who become part of something larger without their approval. And I understand that they are inept to face the troubles that they come across in the story. But it wouldn’t be remiss to include a few redeeming qualities, especially for Mat who just seems to be written as someone who causes trouble for the rest of the gang. Nynaeve has a lot of potential beyond just scowling at Morraine. The first book in the series starts out in meekly, as its characters let it down. They have room to grow and improve and considering the dedicated fan base, the series should get better from here on out.

6/10

A Note on Reading

For all those who have studied under the CBSE system in India, we have a mandatory reading activity as a part of our English Syllabus. A prescribed book has to be read from which question-answers as well as short essays pop up in our final examination. Back when I was in school, the two books prescribed in 10^th and 11^th were The Invisible Man and The Canterville Ghost. A lot of science fiction and fantasy authors write a book with a greater theme at the back of their mind:

• The Lord of the Rings: Good always triumphs Evil, no matter how dire the situation.
• 1984 and The Animal Farm: What happens to society when power is vested in the wrong hands.
• A Song of Ice and Fire: Not everything is black and white, a lot of wrong is committed in the name of right, and vice versa.
• Dune, Fahrenheit 451 are a few others.

The Invisible Man and the Canterville Ghost fall within the same bracket. The Invisible Man teaches us how science can be used in the wrong manner under unsupervised guidance, which is a suitable topic to be broached for students studying in the 10^th grade.

It’s been pretty obvious that the average number of people who read books have been dropping quiet consistently over the past few years. Our schooling system believes they can counteract this decrease by making reading a mandatory part of their syllabus. The problem? Students are sly little fellows who will not stop looking for an easy way out. Most of my classmates just went through the chapter by chapter summaries on some reference websites along with some important questions regarding the themes of the book. Why bother reading the book at all if everything you need is available in a condensed form online?

We need to show students that there are incentives to be gained through reading, and that it’s not just some mental exercise to be carried out. Instead of prescribing a science fiction book with a slightly deeper meaning, why don’t we give them a book that provides them with answers in a straightforward manner:

How to Win Friends and Influence People- By Dale Carnegie.

A no-nonsense book which provides lessons that WILL ACTIVELY help students in their day to day interactions.

Each chapter in the book gives out a mantra to live life by, which are simple and easy to implement: Smile, don’t criticize or complain, give honest appreciation, learn to accept your own mistakes. It’s written in simple English, with a clear goal in mind. The book can be spread out across the two semesters so that the students do not find getting through it to be a burden. The simple language used won’t let their focus to waver, and the book has sufficient ‘’challenging words’’ in case that’s a criterion by which books are chosen as mandatory reading. The same reasons can be used to help adults get back into reading as well. The lessons taught in the book are bound to help out everyone in the long run, which is why this book NEEDS to be essential reading for higher level students.

Forcing students into reading isn’t the solution. Give them a good enough reason to read and soon they will be picking books out on their own.

 

Worm by Wildbow : Arcs (15-19) – Feed the Beast

Coil. The man who has been toying with everyone behind the scenes. Able to create parallel worlds in order to test out odds of success. Orchestrating a robbery to work as a distraction in order to get control of a valuable asset. Buying the Travellers with some sort of promise and using them to take control of the city. The Undersiders – Used as a tool to carry out most of his schemes. Ever since Taylor the rest of the gang learned about Dinah Alcott, he has been set up as someone to be taken down. Ever since the Nine got taken down, the number one priority for Taylor is to free Dinah at all costs. The disadvantage? Coil knows that Taylor needs to be eliminated, that she won’t back down until she gets what she wants.

A game of cat and mouse ensues, with Coil making his big move against the major players while pulling out all cards. In the chaos that follows he manages to take control of the Protectorate. With both the villains and heroes under his palm, Coil has become the most powerful man in the region. We know that Cauldron is depending on him for some outcome in the future. The Undersiders face off against Coil, with one team coming out on top over the other. The aftermath results in the release of a new S-Class threat. Noelle.

Echidna. Noelle. The Travellers and where they come from. The tragic story of how the team found themselves where they are right now. An all-out battle as an out of control Noelle unleashes havoc against the assembled heroes and villains. Dark secrets being spilled out. The final set of arcs have a nonstop barrage of action and revelations that are pumped out, and the writing becomes a bit too messy in a lot of places. Wildbow could hire a few editors to smoothen things out a bit, cutting out parts that seem needless.

The fall of the Protectorate seems almost imminent by the end of this round against ‘’Echidna-Noelle’’. How much more violence can Brockton Bay residents handle before people start giving up hope? Especially at the face of what has come out. Legend, Alexandria, Eidolon all having to own up to the wrongs they committed in the name of good.

From arc to arc, the scale at which the story is told keeps increasing, amping up the odds and introducing new characters effortlessly while offing a few major players along the way.

We need more people reading his works, and John C McCrae needs to start getting this published as soon as possible.

Worm by Wildbow (Arcs 9-14) -Hunt or be Hunted

Possibly the best set of arcs so far in the series. After the fallout from the Leviathan Attack, Wildbow gives us a glimpse into the life of the Wards, and how they have suffered after the loss of their teammates following the Endbringer attack. All of them are suffering in one form or the other, and two new additions have been made to the team in order to make up for the deaths of Gallant and Aegis.

The Undersiders finally let themselves loose, with Regent being allowed to make use of the full extent of his abilities as a Master 10 – being able to take control of any person he wants to, with certain restrictions. The team carries out an attack on the Protectorate headquarters to retrieve crucial information that Coil has asked for. We watch Rachel and Taylor’s friendship breaking down due to the reveal that Taylor had been working as a double agent, which leads to friction between them during the attack. Shadow Stalker finally receives her just desserts for the wrongs she committed as a civilian and as a ‘hero’.

Phew, now for the main plot. Following the Endbringer attack, the city isn’t in the best shape. Its been plagued with water and power shortages, transportation issues, local gangs ramping up crime as the Protectorate and Wards struggle to maintain any form of control over the city.

Well, one S-Class threat decides to pay Brockton Bay a visit- The Slaughterhouse Nine. They have been mentioned in passing before this, but holy crap do they get a banger of an introduction. With a set of interludes reserved for each of them, we get to see the Nine in the flesh for ourselves as we find out why they are regarded to be extremely dangerous individuals.

The Nine are in town to recruit a new member following the death of one of their members.

Mannequin -pursuing Colin- manages to inflict a kind of fear in us like never before in the series. Without even uttering a single word, he shows us how capable he is as he beats the disgraced hero- the one who nearly took down Leviathan- into submission.

Burnscar decimating Faultlines crew singlehandedly. Shatterbird taking down Hookwolfs splinter faction of the Empire. Bonesaw- probably the most psychotic and dangerous member of the group, a tinker with no moral compass- going after the purest member of the Protectorate, Panacea. Siberian- violent, feral and inhuman, picking Bitch, Regent by Cherish, Crawler choosing Noelle, one freak for another.

The visitors lay down some ground rules about how they are going to go about choosing their next member, a series of challenges that need to be completed by each of the candidates: complete them and live, otherwise be killed. The Undersiders manage to put in a clause in the rules: if more than 2 candidates survive the trials, The Nine leave Brockton Bay peacefully.

The remaining teams in Brockton Bay meet up to form an alliance of sorts against the Nine- including the Wards and other heroes. Everyone has one goal- off Jack Slash before he leaves Brockton Bay in order to prevent the end of the world scenario from taking place, as predicted by Dinah.

Right after the meeting, the Undersiders and Travellers get attacked by the Nine. The Nine leave them after revealing the above-stated rules. Knowing that both the Nine and Undersiders play a similar game- choosing their battles carefully, Skitter suggests going on the offensive, taking the Nine by surprise. It works for the most part as they escape with a captured Shatterbird and Cherish. Meanwhile, Skitter has to protect her territory from Mannequin, whom she manages to outwit using silk threads and some of her minions. The Nine keep on suffering losses until Grue gets captured and tortured by Bonesaw.

The Nine suffer from continuous losses with Siberians weakness being outed by the Undersiders. This results in a last-ditch attack by the Protectorate, targeting the Nine. By this point in time, only Siberian, Bonesaw and Jack Slash remain of the original 8 who visited the city. Due to the rules being broken by the heroes, Bonesaw unleashes a chemical attack against the city. Panacea messes up and disfigures Glory Girl completely, another hero bites the dust during the ensuing chaos and the last remaining members escape the city (with a new member joining them) accepting defeat. The coalition fails to kill Jack Slash and the world remains poised to end in 2 years time.

Grim times ahead for the capes of Brockton Bay. The arcs move at an absurd pace, and Wildbow manages to keep us hooked into the story, one plot point after the other. Amazing interludes and well-written arcs keep us invested. Grue and Regent are fleshed out a little bit more. Imp is a welcome new addition to the Undersiders, and Parian’s expanded role adds a fresh new breath into the story. The Nine added a new element to the story that moved it along beautifully. Bonesaw and Jack Slash proved to be interesting new characters who still have a key role to play in the arcs to follow.

Worm By Wildbow (Arcs 5-8): First of Three

At the end of the first set of arcs, the ABB turned out to be the primary antagonists going into this ”book”. Where we last left off, Bakuda goes on a rampage, the Undersiders are badly hurt and a series of bombs are set off killing civilians.

This results in a truce – the resident villain groups of Brockton Bay, the Undersiders, Empire Eighty-Eight, Faultline’s Crew, Coil’s Crew, The Travellers, and Skidmarks crew ( a little hazy about the groups present) all band up together to take on the ABB.

Task forces are formed with different teams being mixed together and they all coordinate attacks on different ABB operations. Kaiser, Newter, Fenja and Menja, Coil, Sundancer, Trickster are amongst the new set of characters introduced.

My gripe with the series so far has been this: any and all action sequences tend to be drawn out, and the two longest sequences so far fall in this set of arcs. When Kaiser and his task force head to take on an ABB operation, they encounter Lung and Oni Lee. Taylor is shown to use her powers in a unique manner in the ensuing sequence, but the sequence just drags on to eternity. Long story short, the ABB get taken down. All of the remaining villain groups start scrambling for control of new areas and try to make an impact in the absence of the ABB.

The Undersiders are asked by their employer to take on the Proctectorate at a function being held in the city. Another long, but gripping encounter occurs, with the threat of Taylor’s dual role as a spy almost coming out when she faces Armsmaster. Taking on Mini Militia, Battery and Armsmaster along with the Wards was never going to be an easy feat, but the Undersiders were creative enough to one-up them.

The third act has us being told who the employer is, and a few more revelations are made. Followed by an Endbringer attack on the city.

The Endbringers are seemingly unstoppable beings who target weakened cities. After the ABB attacks, the Endbringer Leviathan heads for Brockton Bay. Heroes and villains team up together to take the threat down. This makes for a nice dynamic as rivalries are put aside in order to stop Leviathan. New heroes introduced include: Legend, Alexandria, Eidolon, Narwhal etc. We are told at the start of the battle that one in four people end up dying while facing the endbringer, and Wildbow sticks to his words. Characters that we have been introduced to die in numbers, heroes and villains alike. The battle shows some heroes true colours, as they discard the rules and play dirty to try and take down the Endbringer, no matter the cost. We get treated to a glimpse of Scion and Eidolon- who is probably the 5th strongest parahuman- battling together. Scion, the first parahuman, still remains a mystery with not much info given about him so far.

The set of arcs give us a lot of insight into most of our characters. Strong interactions between Taylor, Rachel and Brian help us understand where these people come from and why they function, as they do. It forces us to ask whether these people can be considered to be villains, and whether some of the people who call themselves heroes have the right to do so. It’s a very grey and murky world, where some actions can be justified in the face of the events that take place.

The Endbringers and Case 53’s are amongst the two key plot points to follow as we know very little about them, and they begin to take center stage in future arcs.

This is a very hard series to review without getting into spoilers. I am going to keep trying to post reviews every few arcs.

Next arc, we have the fallout from the Endbringer attack and a visit from the Slaughterhouse Nine.

 

 

 

Worm-By Wildbow (Arcs 1-4) : The Undersiders

 

Since this is a looooong book, I am going to be reviewing it in parts. I am at Arc 13 right now, and it’s been a few weeks since I finished the first set of Arcs, so I am going to be a bit hazy on details.

 

Arcs 1-4

The Setup

I like to consider the first set of arcs as the book that sets up the entire world of Worm. We are introduced to our protagonist, Taylor. We are few weeks into the story ever since she first obtained her powers.

In the world of WORM, there exist beings known as Parahumans. These are people who have manifested unique powers after encountering trigger events-painful events that have taken place in their lives. We learn that the first set of parahumans came a few years ago, and that the current batch is the second generation of parahumans. Their power levels vary, with some being outrageously overpowered, to others having menial powers.

Taylor has gained powers that allow her to control insects and other small creatures, those that don’t have a complex nervous system. This allows her to hijack them and control them to her will. The most potent of these are spiders, wasps and so on, that are able to deliver venom into her opponents.

When we enter the story, we find out that she is a victim of bullying, and she wants to pursue a career as a superhero as an escape from the crap she takes from her civilian life. Well, her first encounter with a villain doesn’t go well and she ends up being mistaken as villain. Without going into too many details, we meet the main set of characters that we follow throughout the rest of the book- Grue, Bitch, Tattletale and Regent. Members of a supervillain team called The Undersiders. The book follows their antics and Taylors attempts at trying to be a person doing the wrong things for the right reasons.

We are introduced to the people on the other side, the ones who stand against the villains: The Protectorates and The Wards. These are the team of ”capes” who help take care of the villains and ensure that all hell doesn’t break loose in the city.

John C Mcrae writing style is simple and to the point. Characters are well written and the prose is easy to read. ARC 1 is probably the most tight-knit so far. He drops hints of characters that take up larger roles in future arcs, storylines that would expand and take greater narrative focus as the world expands to include more characters.

At first I was skeptical, thinking that the author would go a more kid-friendly route when writing about superheroes and villains. But its immensely gray world that he paints, where both heroes and villains go on to make morally ambiguous decisions that make us think about who is in the right and wrong in such a broken world.

Recurring villains include Bakuda, Oni Lee and Lung as these set of Arcs have the ABB, an Asian group, as the main set of antagonists that the Undersiders come up against.

Heroes include Panacea, Glory Girl, Armsmaster, Vista and a lot more who all play important roles in future arcs.

The series hasn’t been properly edited, so it might feel a little bit rough on the edges, with errors popping up here and there, but don’t let that stop you. It’s a tightly plotted novel, that keeps the readers constantly engaged.

 

Review of Beartown

Beartown. A town that seems to be teetering on the edge of survival. A town stripped of hope, save one. Hockey. 

In books such as these, there are a couple of ways in which an author can choose to introduce us, the reader, to the world that they have built. 

One, introduce a handful of viewpoint characters, around three or four, and keep rotating the POVs amongst them.

But in order to get us to embrace the situation the town is in. To show us how the lives of people across different classes in this town seem to depend on the sport, he goes another route. Show us the town through the eyes of almost every person possible. The rich and poor, old and young, drunk and sober and connect them through one common string: Hockey.

From the get-go Backman sets the book up by showing us how hockey has shaped the lives of people here in this small town. How they have been hardened by it. How the community has been instilled by the values and culture of the game. But I suspect that this wasn’t the case. Even when he started writing the book, the key arc that he wanted to tell would only set in halfway through. It takes a lot of courage doing that, as the book’s summary only hints at what the overarching narrative of the story truly is.

His ability to weave in two plotlines together seamlessly and deciding to not give an abrupt or rushed ending has to be commended. Social issues such as the one that has been highlighted by Fredrik might seem like a topic to just brush on. The amount of self-assuredness is shown by his ability to punch through and deliver a complete story, not leaving behind any loose threads.

He raises questions about how factors such as loyalty, trust, honesty, and conviction can have both a light and dark side. How anger clouds a person’s judgment and fuels hatred. So many questions are raised with a good measure of self-confidence in his ability to pull through in giving us answers. 

Beartown shows us how good of an author Backman has become, and is a separate entity when compared to his other famous novel A Man Called Ove.

Kudos to Fredrick for yet another book about stories with small settings and big impacts.