Thraxas

Rating:
Summary: Not too Picky and Want to be Entertained? Here Ya Go!
Review: I like this book and was sufficiently entertained to actually finish it. (If you knew me personally, you'd know that was high praise.) If you're looking for a rich fantasy world, noble deeds and thought provoking themes--forget it! This is just fun. Not "hilarious" like the cover says, but definitely amusing throughout. I liked the main character, Thraxas, and his own honest assessment of his character and physical state. (Who could completely hate a guy who insists that no one sleep on his couch because he may need it himself if he can't make it all the way to his bed?)
Generally, I despise anachronisms, but Martin Scott makes "modern" dective story superimposed on a fantasy background work for me.
You can usually sucker me into a novel if the characters are good. That is, the characters must HAVE character. I much prefer characters that tend toward the more sterotypical comic book types than those that are so "deep" they bore me to sleep.
This book doesn't take itself too seriously and is even handed. Martin Scott knows what he wants to accomplish and does it nicely.
Pick up Thraxas. You'll know in a few pages whether you'll like it or not.

Rating:
Summary: Not hilarious but exciting
Review: I read it in one rush - something I do not with many books.
As mostly the blurb blurts blurring words. Its not comedy but humorous and self-ironical sword & sorcery.
So if you look for a Terry Pratchett, Robert Rankin, Ester Friesner, Robert Asprin, Tom Holt or something like that - this book is none of that. But it's a little bit like Simon Green.

Rating:
Summary: Not hilarious but exciting
Review: I read it in one rush - something I do not with many books.
As mostly the blurb blurts blurring words. Its not comedy but humorous and self-ironical sword & sorcery.
So if you look for a Terry Pratchett, Robert Rankin, Ester Friesner, Robert Asprin, Tom Holt or something like that - this book is none of that. But it's a little bit like Simon Green.

Rating:
Summary: There's a New Fantasy Gumshoe in Town...
Review: I've always been interested in the minor fantasy sub-genre that deals with private investigators in magical settings. The big hitter in this category is Glen Cook with his Garrett series, but there have been other single entries where characters have had to play the role of detective (Sir Kay, for instance, in Phyllis Ann Carr's underrated "Idylls of the Queen", or the P.I. in the quirky Fred Ward movie "Cast A Deadly Spell").

"Thraxas" is the first novel in a British series that so far comprises three volumes. (This edition was originally published overseas as two separate books.) It relates the adventures of the titular hero, a disgraced and fallen former Senior Palace Investigator whose affinity for the bottle has seen him reduced to straitened circumstances. Now an overweight and middle-aged drunkard and glutton, he takes on cases from low-lifes and those who are really desperate.

The adventures take place in a small Roman-flavored corrupt city-state with a minor degree of magic. Dragons, elves, and fairies are about, and sorcerers abound, but only the most magically adept can carry around more than a couple of spells at a time, so matters are just as often settled by wit or steel as by enchantment.

The mystery in the first half of the book isn't altogether that great, but the one explored in the second half is rather more compelling. More interesting is Thraxas' sidekick, Makri, a young former gladiator who escaped from years of combat in the orcish slave pits and who now is diligently studying rhetoric and philosophy at the local equivalent of a community college. And who also likes to unleash massive havoc when helping out her friend in his investigations.

Because the two parts were originally published separately, there's a degree of repetition in the latter portion of the book, where the author has to remind us of things that took place in another book in the U.K. but that in the American edition occurred just a few pages ago. Also, he has an annoying habit of Capitalizing things that Don't need to Be capitalized. But aside from those quibbles, this is a solid work with a nice cast of characters and a light and droll tone. For fans of fantasy private eyes, this is well worth the price.

Rating:
Summary: Immensely entertaining series, with a lot of heart.
Review: The real name of the author of this series is
Martin Millar. You can go to http://www.thraxas.com/
to see what sort of fellow Thraxas is.
There are seven books in the series
so far, and the eighth is to be published in Spring 2005.
Each one seems better than the preceding to me.
This edition contains the first two.
The Thraxas stories have been translated into several
languages and have a worldwide following.
Unlike many science fiction and fantasy works, in these
stories you get to know the characters through their own
dialog and actions rather than second-hand through
descriptions. Anyway, Martin Millar is amazingly creative
and I eagerly await the next installment!

Rating:
Summary: A new fanatsy private eye for the massess???
Review: This is the first book I read about a private investigater in the fantasy genre. I was mildly entertained when I read it and I would never buy this book. Good thing I went to my local library. I found this book a bit odd, quorky, far-fetched & cartoonish at times. I found it strange that a fantasy book had alot of modern influences I thought was interesting and passed as believeable. For example, drug dealers that sold a drug called Dwa and Diplomatic Immunity for an Orc. The main character made it well known that he has a low self-image of himself. To top it off, he's over weight and in his late forties. Through out the book he was always hot and wanted a beer. It was hard to image Thraxas skillful using a sword against certain opponents that were faster that him. There were times I caught myself chuckle at certain parts. A good asset to the book was Thraxas's friend Makri. She was a young hot ex-gladiator wearing a bikini serving ale at the Avenging Axe most of the time. She wasn't a no brains all braun type of girl, basically she was both brains and braun. The 2nd part of the book Thraxas and the Warrior Monks was a bit more to my liking. I found it redundant that it recalled events from the first part of the book. Originally, there were sold as two seperates books. Honestly, I would never read this book again, but hey, I was entertained!!

Rating:
Summary: Thraxas
Review: Well now, this Thraxas fellow...what can I say about him, his allies, his enemies, his adventures? Not "Hilarious"; ignore any blurb you encounter that calls the Thraxas material "Hilarious". Martin Scott never displays the wit necessary to warrant that adjective. But he does combine magic and swordplay, fast pace and colourful description, character and setting, all to exciting effect. It's a shame the mystery content is a bit routine, compared to the skilled depiction of a fantasy realm that is slowly portioned out to the reader as the whirlwind plot is served up.

Thraxas is an out-of-practice, out-of-favour sorcerer, who has set himself up as a private eye. His various weaknesses--gambling, eating, beer-swilling--are offset by his incredible bravery in the face of impossible odds, his swordsmanship, and his fierce loyalty to his few close friends, especially gorgeous social outcast (she's a shocking mix of Orc, Elf, and Human) Makri, who is willing to stand up for women's rights, or Thraxas's safety, with a sword and axe. Together they take on corrupt politicians and clergy, warrior monks, the odd dragon, assassins and organized criminal fraternities--all while seeking to clear Thraxas's various clients of murder, and/or locate tempting spoils like gold or magic items.

Thraxas is always at the center of barely controlled chaos, taking on too many cases at once, becoming suspect of crimes himself, and running around the bustling city of Turai making enemies at the same rate he finds clues. Through it all, he emerges as a very likeable hero to cheer for--and as hinted before, author Martin Scott proves expert at fleshing out his fantasy realm wherever he gets the chance. No maps, but the geography, near and far, is keenly filled in. Meanwhile, Scott is far from being a descriptive author, but he manages to lay down a few trappings which, when repeated enough (stals, dwa, kuriya, thazis, leaf of the ledasa, Sabam, Sabap, and Sabav--all props and embellishments, many of them magical, the reader becomes familiar with quickly), provide texture for Thraxas's world.

This is not brilliant fantasy, mystery, or even humourous, writing. The clever repartee between characters causes a grin, not a belly-laugh, and the author's biggest trick seems to be having every character involved in the story suddenly show up at the same place, at the same time, trying to kill someone else while stealing something. But: the cloak-and-dagger stuff, which bursts into furious action even as it leads Thraxas and Makri towards sometimes obvious solutions to the innumerable crimes being solved, is the heart of the two tales presented in the book. And I had a fun time.

Rating:
Summary: Thraxas
Review: Well now, this Thraxas fellow...what can I say about him, his allies, his enemies, his adventures? Not "Hilarious"; ignore any blurb you encounter that calls the Thraxas material "Hilarious". Martin Scott never displays the wit necessary to warrant that adjective. But he does combine magic and swordplay, fast pace and colourful description, character and setting, all to exciting effect. It's a shame the mystery content is a bit routine, compared to the skilled depiction of a fantasy realm that is slowly portioned out to the reader as the whirlwind plot is served up.

Thraxas is an out-of-practice, out-of-favour sorcerer, who has set himself up as a private eye. His various weaknesses--gambling, eating, beer-swilling--are offset by his incredible bravery in the face of impossible odds, his swordsmanship, and his fierce loyalty to his few close friends, especially gorgeous social outcast (she's a shocking mix of Orc, Elf, and Human) Makri, who is willing to stand up for women's rights, or Thraxas's safety, with a sword and axe. Together they take on corrupt politicians and clergy, warrior monks, the odd dragon, assassins and organized criminal fraternities--all while seeking to clear Thraxas's various clients of murder, and/or locate tempting spoils like gold or magic items.

Thraxas is always at the center of barely controlled chaos, taking on too many cases at once, becoming suspect of crimes himself, and running around the bustling city of Turai making enemies at the same rate he finds clues. Through it all, he emerges as a very likeable hero to cheer for--and as hinted before, author Martin Scott proves expert at fleshing out his fantasy realm wherever he gets the chance. No maps, but the geography, near and far, is keenly filled in. Meanwhile, Scott is far from being a descriptive author, but he manages to lay down a few trappings which, when repeated enough (stals, dwa, kuriya, thazis, leaf of the ledasa, Sabam, Sabap, and Sabav--all props and embellishments, many of them magical, the reader becomes familiar with quickly), provide texture for Thraxas's world.

This is not brilliant fantasy, mystery, or even humourous, writing. The clever repartee between characters causes a grin, not a belly-laugh, and the author's biggest trick seems to be having every character involved in the story suddenly show up at the same place, at the same time, trying to kill someone else while stealing something. But: the cloak-and-dagger stuff, which bursts into furious action even as it leads Thraxas and Makri towards sometimes obvious solutions to the innumerable crimes being solved, is the heart of the two tales presented in the book. And I had a fun time.