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3.31 AVERAGE
3.31 AVERAGE
Sam Sykes plays or has played D&D. I don’t know if this is true but I’m going to believe it anyway. While your average roleplayer might hope that their party of adventurers is something like the companions from Dragonlance, or Drizzt and his coterie, what they end up with is something more like the adventurers of Tome of the Undergates; a group whose only commonalities seems to be their contempt for one another and a willingness to kill just about anyone or anything. At least that is the case in any game I’ve played in or ran; which, if I think about it too hard, might say something more about me and my friends.
As Lenk, the nominal leader of the group in Tome of the Undergates, writes in the opening of the novel being an adventurer boils down to being the lowest of the low. Skyes casts adventuring as something one does when all other options are exhausted; a task undertaken by people who typically lack the moral fortitude for other work and whose personalities exist at the borderline of psychotic and beyond. There is a slight tongue-in-cheek quality to that portrayal, or at least a deadpan sell of the idea, that what the reader thinks they know about adventurers is completely and horribly wrong. Skyes takes that idea and runs with it. There is no-one in this novel that I would ever really want to know and their banter, near constant, oscillates between amusing and grating.
Tome of the Undergates is decidedly old school in its approach to fantasy. We learn next to nothing about the world it takes place in outside of what is integral to the characters and the action. Indeed having been reading Swords and Dark Magic of late I’d argue that Tome of the Undergates falls firmly into the Swords and Sorcery camp. The story itself centers around Lenk and a motley assortment of cantakerous and capricious individuals including Kataria (a savage vaguely elf-like creature who hates humans called a shict), Deneos (a human assassin who seems to hate just about everything except money and drink), Dreadaleon (whose massive intellect and dedication to magic places all other beneath him), Gariath (a dragonman who sees everything that isn’t a dragonman as less then himself and free for killing), and Asper a healer with some secrets of her own. This group is tasked with finding the titular Tome which is stolen at the start of the novel during a lengthy attack by pirates, fishmen, and a horrid demonic sea born abomination.
As somehwat mentioned above each of the characters has a secret or interesting facet to their personality: Kataria’s fascination with Lenk, Deneos’ past, Gariath being the last of his kind, Asper’s arm, Dread’s infatuation with Asper, and the fact the Lenk is seemingly possessed by a powerful spirit of some kind. Despite the Gollancz edition’s surprising 600+ pages the typeface is pretty large and the action so swift that most of these little facets get only a few moments to shine and those moments typically only occur during the course of the story and never really detour the plot. Individual secrets and haunted pasts asside Sykes’ spends a lot of page time examining the push and pull between Lenk and Kataria. He does a brilliant job in capturing the sexual tension between the two characters while keeping both characters and readers cognizant of the violent nature of their liftestyle and the years of hatred between shict and a human. That relationship is particularly important to Lenk and serves as a grounding post as the voice inside his head becomes increasingly dominant. Kataria is the more difficult case as her fascination with and attraction to Lenk is obvious but the reason why less so.
Of the others I gravitated most strongly towards Gariath and Asper. While Deneos gets some interesting moments and some hint at his history that I’d like to see explored Dreadaleon felt the most underdeveloped and walked closest to the cliche line. The same might be said for Gariath right up to a scene towards the end of the novel that was perhaps my favorite in the entire book that opened up new avenues to explore in the big dragonman. Asper is the biggest mystery of all. While readers get a hint early on that something is not quite right with the priestess it isn’t until late in the novel that the nature of that wrongness is revealed and the past tragedy that exposed it barely hinted at. I want to know the how and why of it; a sentiment that I can express for just about everyone and everything in Tome of the Undergates and a sentiment that will have be back for the next novel.
As I mentioned the unrelenting banter, and the lack of just about any redeeming qualities amongst both hero and villain can grow a bit wearying. The pace is something near frantic with barely a breath for something that isn’t a fight. Of courses it should be noted that this is a debut novel and the few moments in the novel, particularly towards the end when things did slow down, the man-to-man conversation between Deneos and Lenk, the Wilson-like stand-in for Lenk during a scene with Kataria, and Gariath’s scene towards the end are wonderful character moments that I’m hoping there are more of in future volumes. Tome of the Undergates is a novel I wanted to like more than I did and one I enjoyed probably a bit more than I ought to have. A fascinating debut with vibrant dialogue, colorful characters, and a penchant for violence and viscera that exceeds most genre novels on the market today Tome of the Undergates is a difficult novel to recommend. That being said if you’re curious about the novel I highly recommend you check out a sample as Skyes’ tone is consistent from start to finish; thankfully US publisher Pyr has one up here. I’ll be checking back with second book of the Aeon’s Gate series, whenever it arrives, see what happens next and if those final, deeper character moments carry through the bulk of the next narrative.
As Lenk, the nominal leader of the group in Tome of the Undergates, writes in the opening of the novel being an adventurer boils down to being the lowest of the low. Skyes casts adventuring as something one does when all other options are exhausted; a task undertaken by people who typically lack the moral fortitude for other work and whose personalities exist at the borderline of psychotic and beyond. There is a slight tongue-in-cheek quality to that portrayal, or at least a deadpan sell of the idea, that what the reader thinks they know about adventurers is completely and horribly wrong. Skyes takes that idea and runs with it. There is no-one in this novel that I would ever really want to know and their banter, near constant, oscillates between amusing and grating.
Tome of the Undergates is decidedly old school in its approach to fantasy. We learn next to nothing about the world it takes place in outside of what is integral to the characters and the action. Indeed having been reading Swords and Dark Magic of late I’d argue that Tome of the Undergates falls firmly into the Swords and Sorcery camp. The story itself centers around Lenk and a motley assortment of cantakerous and capricious individuals including Kataria (a savage vaguely elf-like creature who hates humans called a shict), Deneos (a human assassin who seems to hate just about everything except money and drink), Dreadaleon (whose massive intellect and dedication to magic places all other beneath him), Gariath (a dragonman who sees everything that isn’t a dragonman as less then himself and free for killing), and Asper a healer with some secrets of her own. This group is tasked with finding the titular Tome which is stolen at the start of the novel during a lengthy attack by pirates, fishmen, and a horrid demonic sea born abomination.
As somehwat mentioned above each of the characters has a secret or interesting facet to their personality: Kataria’s fascination with Lenk, Deneos’ past, Gariath being the last of his kind, Asper’s arm, Dread’s infatuation with Asper, and the fact the Lenk is seemingly possessed by a powerful spirit of some kind. Despite the Gollancz edition’s surprising 600+ pages the typeface is pretty large and the action so swift that most of these little facets get only a few moments to shine and those moments typically only occur during the course of the story and never really detour the plot. Individual secrets and haunted pasts asside Sykes’ spends a lot of page time examining the push and pull between Lenk and Kataria. He does a brilliant job in capturing the sexual tension between the two characters while keeping both characters and readers cognizant of the violent nature of their liftestyle and the years of hatred between shict and a human. That relationship is particularly important to Lenk and serves as a grounding post as the voice inside his head becomes increasingly dominant. Kataria is the more difficult case as her fascination with and attraction to Lenk is obvious but the reason why less so.
Of the others I gravitated most strongly towards Gariath and Asper. While Deneos gets some interesting moments and some hint at his history that I’d like to see explored Dreadaleon felt the most underdeveloped and walked closest to the cliche line. The same might be said for Gariath right up to a scene towards the end of the novel that was perhaps my favorite in the entire book that opened up new avenues to explore in the big dragonman. Asper is the biggest mystery of all. While readers get a hint early on that something is not quite right with the priestess it isn’t until late in the novel that the nature of that wrongness is revealed and the past tragedy that exposed it barely hinted at. I want to know the how and why of it; a sentiment that I can express for just about everyone and everything in Tome of the Undergates and a sentiment that will have be back for the next novel.
As I mentioned the unrelenting banter, and the lack of just about any redeeming qualities amongst both hero and villain can grow a bit wearying. The pace is something near frantic with barely a breath for something that isn’t a fight. Of courses it should be noted that this is a debut novel and the few moments in the novel, particularly towards the end when things did slow down, the man-to-man conversation between Deneos and Lenk, the Wilson-like stand-in for Lenk during a scene with Kataria, and Gariath’s scene towards the end are wonderful character moments that I’m hoping there are more of in future volumes. Tome of the Undergates is a novel I wanted to like more than I did and one I enjoyed probably a bit more than I ought to have. A fascinating debut with vibrant dialogue, colorful characters, and a penchant for violence and viscera that exceeds most genre novels on the market today Tome of the Undergates is a difficult novel to recommend. That being said if you’re curious about the novel I highly recommend you check out a sample as Skyes’ tone is consistent from start to finish; thankfully US publisher Pyr has one up here. I’ll be checking back with second book of the Aeon’s Gate series, whenever it arrives, see what happens next and if those final, deeper character moments carry through the bulk of the next narrative.
Sykes has invented a wild and wicked cast of characters, all of which have biting wit and dark backstories. I struggled with the world-building; I never got a handle on what the world is like. His descriptions skew artistic over realistic, so I found myself re-reading sections just to make sure I understood what was happening, or what a particular monster looked like. He excels at dialogue, however, and I recommend it to anyone looking for some top-notch wordplay.
I really wanted to like this book a lot. Started well, ended interestingly, but the middle of the book was basically boring. Pages of introspection and mental self flaggelation by all of the main characters. Hard work. I have book two lined up, but I need a bit of a rest first.
I wanted to like it. I really did want to, so let's start there.
Considering this is Sykes's first novel, it wasn't bad. Not great, but not bad. It reminded me of the Dragon Age books I used to read in high school: typical band of guys, a warrior, priest, elf-type. They go around having adventures and life happens to them in the process. All the earmarks of a good story, and if I were still in high school, I might have enjoyed it more.
There was too much...I don't want to say violence because I'm not opposed to violence in my fantasy novels. Some of the best ones are horribly violent. This book though...it felt, well, squishy. Violence I can handle, but all the gore was a bit much for me. True, gore comes with violence, but I really didn't need to be reminded that someone was walking over bodies and what that felt like. This is purely a personal opinion of mine, to be sure, and I give credit where credit is due: the book was very descriptive and the imagery was great. It just wasn't to my taste.
The plot was simple and I feel like if there weren't any fighting, there wouldn't be much of a book. More character development, more plot in general, more of the world they live in. Lots of fighting, but very little else. There was some tension between two characters (sexual tension), some hint at a relationship brewing, but we don't really see that develop. There is little to no delving into character motivations, and so I found it hard to relate to any particular character, which makes me not really care if one of them is hurt or might die.
So, all in all, it was a bit bland but the START was there.
Considering this is Sykes's first novel, it wasn't bad. Not great, but not bad. It reminded me of the Dragon Age books I used to read in high school: typical band of guys, a warrior, priest, elf-type. They go around having adventures and life happens to them in the process. All the earmarks of a good story, and if I were still in high school, I might have enjoyed it more.
There was too much...I don't want to say violence because I'm not opposed to violence in my fantasy novels. Some of the best ones are horribly violent. This book though...it felt, well, squishy. Violence I can handle, but all the gore was a bit much for me. True, gore comes with violence, but I really didn't need to be reminded that someone was walking over bodies and what that felt like. This is purely a personal opinion of mine, to be sure, and I give credit where credit is due: the book was very descriptive and the imagery was great. It just wasn't to my taste.
The plot was simple and I feel like if there weren't any fighting, there wouldn't be much of a book. More character development, more plot in general, more of the world they live in. Lots of fighting, but very little else. There was some tension between two characters (sexual tension), some hint at a relationship brewing, but we don't really see that develop. There is little to no delving into character motivations, and so I found it hard to relate to any particular character, which makes me not really care if one of them is hurt or might die.
So, all in all, it was a bit bland but the START was there.
6 adventurers, with an exponentially increasing amount of trouble and danger to deal with, only matched by their increasingly vicious squabbling amongst themselves. A gloriously off the wall take on fantasy, with nods to famous RPGs here and there, and not an elf or dwarf in sight...
This is the second time I've read this book? I think I hear what you're thinking, "Wow, this must be pretty good to be read twice!" Er. Maybe not. The first time I read this, I gave is one star. Then, about a year ago I joined Twitter and somewhere in there I started following Sam Sykes. He is a pretty entertaining guy, and his not-so-subliminal messages to buy his books kind of worked on me. Not to the point where I bought his book, but to the point where I gave this book a second chance.
I'm glad I did.
I think that the first time I read this, I had no clue what was going on. They're fighting a boat? Now they are on a beach? Now they're fighting again? Now they're fighting completely different guys? What? The second time I read this, I got it. I was helped by the fact that at some point since the first read I started playing Dungeons & Dragons. I got why there were jumps forward (because, who wants to read one more campfire/stew scene?) ridiculous fights (the more ridiculous and unreal, the more fun!), and why they had new enemies kind of out of nowhere (embiggens the plot). I got why there is so much discussion of bathroom habits and sex (these things are funny).This novel is a lot like reading a DM's hopes and dreams while he is planning a campaign.
I don't think you HAVE to play Dungeons & Dragons to enjoy this book, but in my experience it really helps.
I'm glad I did.
I think that the first time I read this, I had no clue what was going on. They're fighting a boat? Now they are on a beach? Now they're fighting again? Now they're fighting completely different guys? What? The second time I read this, I got it. I was helped by the fact that at some point since the first read I started playing Dungeons & Dragons. I got why there were jumps forward (because, who wants to read one more campfire/stew scene?) ridiculous fights (the more ridiculous and unreal, the more fun!), and why they had new enemies kind of out of nowhere (embiggens the plot). I got why there is so much discussion of bathroom habits and sex (these things are funny).This novel is a lot like reading a DM's hopes and dreams while he is planning a campaign.
I don't think you HAVE to play Dungeons & Dragons to enjoy this book, but in my experience it really helps.
I tried getting into this one, but neither the characters nor the battle were all that engaging to me.
While this is a book with a high body count and a lot of fighting and action. I knew that going in and it was enjoyable. What I did not expect was the extent to which the characters were given backstories and interesting motivations.
Some of the twists seemed a bit deus ex machina, with little prior set up. But overall,a very strong debut and I'll be looking for more books by this author.
Some of the twists seemed a bit deus ex machina, with little prior set up. But overall,a very strong debut and I'll be looking for more books by this author.
I'm still not entirely sure what I think of this book. There were some interesting characters, some attempts at subverting tropes, which was nice. Sometimes the dialogue was even genuinely funny. But it kind of gets bogged down in the author's attempts at florrid prose (which quite frequently resulted in mixed metaphors, particularly during battle scenes), and the book really failed at getting me to care about anyone or the world or the main conflict.
To give a proper review of this book, I need to provide two pieces of context.
First, a week before DragonCon 2017, I realized that I was excited about getting to meet Sam Sykes but hadn't read any of his books. In shame, I asked him for a recommendation of a book I could finish in a week. And so he directed me to An Affinity for Steel.
Second, I have in the past found myself struggling with traditional fantasy novels. And frankly, that raised some concerns for me about what I was about to read.
Cautiously, I proceeded to "Tome of the Undergates", the first of three books in the Affinity for Steel series. I found myself pleasantly surprised. The novel manages to balance humor and deconstruction of fantasy tropes well with attention to characters and progressive world building. It doesn't get too caught up in it's own grandiosity - there are no epic songs explaining detailed ancient history, chapter-long depictions of buffets, or arbitrarily complicated systems of titles and naming. But perhaps most importantly, it's fun. And you can tell that the author is having fun writing it ("With dexterity better befitting a murderous squirrel...").
The dialogue is one of the strongest points in the book. The characters voices - both internal and external - are well developed and distinct from one another. While grounded in traditional fantasy roles, they don't feel like mass produced copies. Even the most terse character - Gariath - has a well articulated perspective and worldview that's more than just "I'm an angry monster". By developing his character's voices, Sykes is able to craft interesting relationships between his characters, which in turn provide much of the real conflict in the story. There are some areas where the dialogue is a bit distracting - the pirates are weirdly articulate in comparison to the priests and captains - but these still provide a lot of fun to the reader.
My two criticisms of the book are in it's pacing and organization. At times it feels like we spend too much time without major plot progression. This particularly evident in the first part of the book, with a naval battle that feels like it never ends. The battle does do a good job setting up the characters and initial premise, but feels tedious at some points. When the story moves, it moves quickly, and so the developmental interludes feel a little sluggish. Regarding organization, I wish we'd been shown more of the loss that defines these characters early on. Readers might see these criticisms not so much as complaints as reassurance that there is a payoff for the slower moments.
Overall, Tome is a promising first entry. It takes the difficult task of setting up an extended world and conflicted characters while maintaining a sense of humor. I'll definitely be back for book number 2.
First, a week before DragonCon 2017, I realized that I was excited about getting to meet Sam Sykes but hadn't read any of his books. In shame, I asked him for a recommendation of a book I could finish in a week. And so he directed me to An Affinity for Steel.
Second, I have in the past found myself struggling with traditional fantasy novels. And frankly, that raised some concerns for me about what I was about to read.
Cautiously, I proceeded to "Tome of the Undergates", the first of three books in the Affinity for Steel series. I found myself pleasantly surprised. The novel manages to balance humor and deconstruction of fantasy tropes well with attention to characters and progressive world building. It doesn't get too caught up in it's own grandiosity - there are no epic songs explaining detailed ancient history, chapter-long depictions of buffets, or arbitrarily complicated systems of titles and naming. But perhaps most importantly, it's fun. And you can tell that the author is having fun writing it ("With dexterity better befitting a murderous squirrel...").
The dialogue is one of the strongest points in the book. The characters voices - both internal and external - are well developed and distinct from one another. While grounded in traditional fantasy roles, they don't feel like mass produced copies. Even the most terse character - Gariath - has a well articulated perspective and worldview that's more than just "I'm an angry monster". By developing his character's voices, Sykes is able to craft interesting relationships between his characters, which in turn provide much of the real conflict in the story. There are some areas where the dialogue is a bit distracting - the pirates are weirdly articulate in comparison to the priests and captains - but these still provide a lot of fun to the reader.
My two criticisms of the book are in it's pacing and organization. At times it feels like we spend too much time without major plot progression. This particularly evident in the first part of the book, with a naval battle that feels like it never ends. The battle does do a good job setting up the characters and initial premise, but feels tedious at some points. When the story moves, it moves quickly, and so the developmental interludes feel a little sluggish. Regarding organization, I wish we'd been shown more of the loss that defines these characters early on. Readers might see these criticisms not so much as complaints as reassurance that there is a payoff for the slower moments.
Overall, Tome is a promising first entry. It takes the difficult task of setting up an extended world and conflicted characters while maintaining a sense of humor. I'll definitely be back for book number 2.