Bloodwinter

Rating:
Summary: A Good Beginning
Review: "Bloodwinter" is one of the rarest of finds: a fantasy novel by an intelligent adult who treats his readers like intelligent adults. This book barely contains any magic prior to the very end, and instead focuses on the travails of a large cast of major characters. The story takes place in two rival countries, Eron and Ixti, both of which have recently been devastated by plague. We follow sets of characters in both countries as their lives are slowly drawn into the conflict. Deitz's worldbuilding is outstanding, and we get very detailed pictures of what life is like for people who live in these places.

Deitz also avoids a lot of fantasy tropes, such as wise old wizards or armies of orcs. Instead, he gives us a big slate of human characters, and what human characters they are! As with almost all good modern fantasy, Deitz has eschewed the standard 'evil overlord vs. reluctant hero' storyline and instead devised a complex and realistic political situation. In Eron, there is no inherited monarchy. Instead, the King is elected, and members of twenty-four different clans vie for control during the process. Deitz takes a sophisticated approach to characterization. The heroes all have their flaws and struggle with conflicting loyalties, while the villains are treated with a degree of sympathy.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Beginning
Review: "Bloodwinter" is one of the rarest of finds: a fantasy novel by an intelligent adult who treats his readers like intelligent adults. This book barely contains any magic prior to the very end, and instead focuses on the travails of a large cast of major characters. The story takes place in two rival countries, Eron and Ixti, both of which have recently been devastated by plague. We follow sets of characters in both countries as their lives are slowly drawn into the conflict. Deitz's worldbuilding is outstanding, and we get very detailed pictures of what life is like for people who live in these places.

Deitz also avoids a lot of fantasy tropes, such as wise old wizards or armies of orcs. Instead, he gives us a big slate of human characters, and what human characters they are! As with almost all good modern fantasy, Deitz has eschewed the standard 'evil overlord vs. reluctant hero' storyline and instead devised a complex and realistic political situation. In Eron, there is no inherited monarchy. Instead, the King is elected, and members of twenty-four different clans vie for control during the process. Deitz takes a sophisticated approach to characterization. The heroes all have their flaws and struggle with conflicting loyalties, while the villains are treated with a degree of sympathy.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Beginning
Review: "Bloodwinter" is one of the rarest of finds: a fantasy novel by an intelligent adult who treats his readers like intelligent adults. This book barely contains any magic prior to the very end, and instead focuses on the travails of a large cast of major characters. The story takes place in two rival countries, Eron and Ixti, both of which have recently been devastated by plague. We follow sets of characters in both countries as their lives are slowly drawn into the conflict. Deitz's worldbuilding is outstanding, and we get very detailed pictures of what life is like for people who live in these places.

Deitz also avoids a lot of fantasy tropes, such as wise old wizards or armies of orcs. Instead, he gives us a big slate of human characters, and what human characters they are! As with almost all good modern fantasy, Deitz has eschewed the standard 'evil overlord vs. reluctant hero' storyline and instead devised a complex and realistic political situation. In Eron, there is no inherited monarchy. Instead, the King is elected, and members of twenty-four different clans vie for control during the process. Deitz takes a sophisticated approach to characterization. The heroes all have their flaws and struggle with conflicting loyalties, while the villains are treated with a degree of sympathy.

Rating:
Summary: Mostly on the mark
Review: As a long time fan of Mr. Deitz, I anticipated this book to be more of a romp, and got a full-fledged novel instead. I think his writing has evolved and has matured - his characters are much more fully realized than in any of his other books. While some other readers have pointed out the amount of character detail and found it boring, I found that it layered on texture and depth to the overall story. Yes, it took me a while to grasp the clan structure and the familial relationships, but to me, that only lends it more credence as truly original fantasy. If it's so familiar that you know what the author is talking about by using simple shorthand (a technique used far too often in the world of fantasy writing), than it's not unique and stimulating.

Deitz has crafted a world and society that is dramatically different than typical fantasy worlds - magic doesn't exist, except within the realm of the Eight-Fold God. The political and religious repurcussions of the discovery that unfolds in the book are truly monumental and are worthy of the pages that Deitz spends writing about them.

There are a number of flaws, however. First off, his editor must not have been reading very carefully since he uses the phrase "for the nonce" about a dozen times. Since it's not a commonly used phrase, it sticks out like a sore thumb, and distracted me. Secondly, the pacing is really uneven. While I do care what happens to Kraxxi and Merryn, I was annoyed when we kept switching back and forth. I am still waiting to see how these characters meet back up with the main storyline, if they ever do.

The first quarter of the second book is really the ending of the first book. The first book ends abruptly, and I fortunately had the second at hand so I could continue on. Unlike his other collections, this one does not have a single story or adventure contained in a single volume. He seems to be taking lessions from Robert Jordan and the Wheel of Time series in that regard. Hopefully, unlike that collection, this will end in the number of books the author and publisher have promised.

Overall, I enjoyed the story and look forward to reading the rest.

Rating:
Summary: A good read, engaging and excellently developed.
Review: Bloodwinter has all of the elements of a good fantasy book. Warriers, reluctant magician (although this first book does not really ackowledge that), great odessey's, and enough subplots to keep the reader wondering what will happen next. After I was done with the book I wanted to purchase the next installment, which has not been published yet. My only complaints with the book are that some of the relationships do not ring very true, and that the author seems to pull rabbits out of a hat to either save characters or cause them problems.

Rating:
Summary: gripping and atmospheric
Review: bloodwinter is a imaginative and gripping fantasy epic that will take you chilly world of warring kingdoms,sentinent beasts and powerful magic.It is remiscence of the much superior caven of the black Ice by J.V. Jones.This novel gives us exotic winter world and some memorable characters and some atypical villians.No classic but decent entertainment.

Rating:
Summary: Bloodwinter needs a little... more.
Review: Bloodwinter is about a special gem found deep in a mine that conveys special ability (That much is on the back of the book) However, most of the book centered on the lives and interactions of the people who eventually come into contact with the gem, or wish to have the gem. Though this was interesting and it was good to see that Tom can develop personalities and socialism between his characters, I felt that it lacked in adventure substance. In some of Tom's other books, the entire substance of the story has been one great adventure after another: IE the David Sullivan series. Those are fantastic books, but leads you to expect something of the same from his new story. I will say I like his effort to create a new world and populate it with a religion and a people who are not really like anything else anywhere else, but in some ways the world seems a little too surreal and unrealistic in its aspirations. For the most part, the book was somewhat occasionally active in the: 'oh no! What is going to happen next to our favorite characters?' department, and it was definitely descriptive, but made me hope that there would be more things 'happening' in the next book that would increase the excitement quotient. I felt that this book was mainly a story to set everything up, giving us background into the life of its people, and the key players, while placing them all into a position that he wished them to be in so that he could start the 'real' story. This is only the beginning of what looks like could be a fairly long ordeal. He's not afraid to hurt his main characters, or make them look less than perfect. Though as I said, I felt that the emotional interactions between his characters seemed a bit unreal in regards to their personal relationships and the like.

Rating:
Summary: A whole new world for Tom Deitz
Review: David out, Eron and her people in in a wonderful new Chronicle by the man who made Georgia faeries cool. In Bloodwinter (released almost simultaneously with the terminus of his David Sullivan series)Deitz has created an interesting new backdrop in the fictitious world of Eron. His characters, as always, are richly textured, if often generous to a fault, and have absorbing, engaging relationships. More description of the hierarchy of the major peoples in the story would be nice, but all the pieces are there for the observant reader to uncover. Pacing, as mentioned before, is a problem (I have joked that the printer ommitted the last three chapters), but as with his other work, this only serves to leave the reader wanting more. (Another books of his that started a series actually have "capped" to nicely for my taste for one that was leaving that way clear for a sequel) All in all, one of, if not the best, of Deitz's books. The creation of a new "universe" rather than the expansion of existing ones is the true mark of his growth as a fantasy writer. Anthony and McCaffery, watch your back... Deitz has arrived.

Rating:
Summary: Hated It
Review: I absolutly loath this book. The charecters are boring, the setting is very typical, not at all unusual. The plot slowly moves along, like the author was just letting his fingers type, while talking to his buddy. In some parts, it reads as if sombody took a stick and poked it to speed things up a bit.

What was up with that three-some thing? Now, I know that most fantasy has some explicite sex in it, and I don't have a problem with it if it is hetrosexual, or even lesbian or two women on one man. But, come on, the two guys and lady doing weird things in the snow, well, it just kind of creeps me out. In George R.R. Martin's books there is plenty of sex, but normal, mainstream sex. God, I hope I never have to read a book as bad this again.

But, if you like this book, read Ricardo Pinto's 'The Chosen'. You'll love that.

Rating:
Summary: Great book, but ...
Review: I agree with nearly everything written about Bloodwinter. I found it very enjoyable, I could not put it down, etc., etc. I look forward to later vols. in the series. However, I do wish Mr. Deitz's editor would curb him of the habit of beginning so many sentences with "which." Which really annoys me. Which, I think, he did three sentences in a row at one point! Which is really awful. (Using "which" this way may be fine in dialogue, but not in narration, IMHO and all that).

I was also struck by his use of the word "evolve" to mean, apparently, nothing more than "it turned out"? On p. 281, Strynn finds a crumpled piece of paper: "a slip of paper, it evolved: a note from Avall ...."

He elaborately details Eronese society, but little is said of Ixti society. And as he often states that most Eronese do not believe in the gods, well, I then wondered why the priests still have so much power--seems odd to me.

Anyway, all in all, a very enjoyable book!