The Anvil of the World

Rating:
Summary: Clever, and witty
Review: This book is a kind of tounge in cheek action story with the kind of humourous action and gratuitous sex that reminds me of James Bond in parts and the Pink Panther in others. Everything that happens is ridiculous, and the characters respond with enough humor to show that they know whats going on too.
The book is a set of three chorologicly sequenced storys with a buch of characters named Smith. Travel in a caravan and they start a hotel, with some interesting results.
The problem with this book is the fact that Baker adds in a environmental theme to the book that just doesn't work. Some parts of the anology are played obvouisly and way to often. But my bigger problem is that I just don't think that it was well made. For a satirical book to have impact on a seroius issue, it has to be aimed very accurately. Who are the greenie's in real life, and who are the children of the sun? Do techicialy minded people really breed like rabbits and are sexuly premucious? The anology looks okay from a distance but the details and sterotypes in the book simply don't hit home. If poeple want to see a good evormental analogy they should read Peter F. Hamilton, or L.E. Mossidett's science fiction.
What makes this more tragic is the fact that this anology drags down the last third of an otherwise very good book. I still recomend this book as a good read for a road trip, but its not must read fantasy.

Rating:
Summary: The trials of having a demon as a friend
Review: "We were just like any other family, except for a few things like Daddy's collection of heads and the fact that half the world wants us all dead." Lord Ermenwyr

Kage Baker is one of my favourite authors. Her books about the Company are not to be missed. How successful would she be at fantasy? If The Anvil of the World is anything to go by, she has nothing to worry about. With her trademark wit and punchy style fully in evidence, The Anvil of the World contains enough juicy goodness for even the most cynical palate.

The book is actually a collection of three linked novellas starring Smith (an alias), a man of many mysteries and an unknown past. A blood feud (the Children of the Sun are notorious for them) has forced him to become the caravan master in his cousin's business, and he's selected to lead one to the pleasure city of Salesh with some valuable cargo. Things don't quite go as planned. In the second story, Smith has started a hotel in Salesh with the staff from his caravan, and business is booming, especially during festival time when freedom is loose and the participants are looser. Unfortunately, a death in the hotel could cost him everything as the constable gives him just four days to present a murderer or the constable will shut down the hotel. The third story involves an expedition to rescue Lord Ermenwyr's sister. This becomes a mission of destiny for Smith, as it turns out he holds the fate of the entire world in his hands. One wrong decision will result in the death of everything.

Baker has a wonderful way with words, and The Anvil of the World is a breezy read. She is a master character-builder, knowing just how much detail to add to make you care about (or at least be entertained by) each person in the story. The two biggest characters are Smith and Lord Ermenwyr. Smith is a former assassin who's given it up because he was getting tired of killing. Now he just wants to be left alone to run his business. Ermenwyr is a decadent demonic half-breed who whines a lot and thinks he's going to die all the time. He's also immature and stubborn, causing Smith no end of grief. It's even worse when his family gets involved.

The world Baker has created is alive. While there are many races around, there are mainly two: The Children of the Sun (humans, basically) and the Yendri, a deeply spiritual people who abhor violence (though they're not above having others do it for them). The Children of the Sun have all the foibles that our own human race has, especially where ecology is concerned. In fact, that's one of the minor problems I have with the book, that the ecological message is heavy-handed at times, especially in the last story. One pitfall she avoids, however, is making the Yendri pure of heart. Many of them think they are, but Baker does a good job showing both the good and the bad side of them.

The best thing I can say about this book is that it's fun. While Ermenwyr is the source for most of the humour, everybody gets involved. Smith is the straight man for the most part, trying to deal with people trying to kill him or his companions. When he realizes that he is the key to whether or not the world is destroyed, he is suitable (and humorously) overwhelmed. Some of the events are absurd enough that they make the reader laugh even without character involvement. However absurd the events are, though, they are realistic in the world that Baker presents. I had no trouble suspending my disbelief for any of it.

One word of warning for those who wish to browse just one of the stories in the bookstore: The stories are not individually titled and there's no way to distinguish where one ends and another begins other than reading. Read the whole book, as it's well worth it. While each story stands on its own, they do read better as a whole, with events in one story influencing the next.

Other than the occasional blunt message as noted above, there really isn't anything noticeably wrong with The Anvil of the World. Baker has further cemented her place as one of the best authors of the genre, showing that she can handle fantasy just as well as science fiction.

David Roy

Rating:
Summary: High hopes ends in confusion.
Review: I guess I should have known better, right on the back of the book, a review by the Romantic Times which gave this book 4 and 1/2 stars. But surely there would be lots of action, after all, a reformed assasin, should have lots of people out to get him. And indeed, there is a good sprinkling of action throughout the book, but.......but, what about the plot? Reformed demons out to the save the world from enviromental disaster caused by estate development, and near the end there is something about the,"Key of Unmaking" and something that turns the protangonists arm blue with power. I've read this a few times, but I still don't know whats going on. Good Luck to you if you buy this book.

Rating:
Summary: FABULOUS READ & SUBTLE UNDERNEATH
Review: I just love Kage Baker's writing & it leaves me hungry for more. As I am not a big fantasy fan, I approached this book with some (wildly misplaced) trepidation. Baker does not copy one of the standard fantasy paradigms, and, instead, creates fully realized and truly unique world. However, what most impresses me is that, while feeling broadly humerous, almost slapstick on the surface, this book makes profound & subtle commentary about a variety of issues and does so without being preachy, judgment or even obvious. The only negative thing about is that the book seems like three (very long) short stories cobbled together, resulting in some jaggedness. Still it all melds together & Kage Baker at her ordinary (which this is definitely not) is better than many authors at their most polished.

Rating:
Summary: Give it time. This has a rocky start.
Review: If you start reading Kage Baker's first fantasy novel, The Anvil of the World, you may wonder why the book is so highly rated. That's because the weakest part is the first section. Perhaps it's because so many of the characters have something to hide, or at least some unspoken backstory that Baker feels she must reveal bit by bit, but it took me quite a while to warm up to the tale. In fact, she has so much to hold back about the main character, Smith, that she writes about him almost at arm's length, and I didn't really care what happened to the guy.

You might not, either, because the tone in the first part isn't especially smooth (at least compared to Baker's other works, nearly all of which I adore), and it wasn't until the second part (I should really call them several related novellas) that it finally hit me that, Oh! She's being *funny*! I was taking it all seriously, with perhaps a bit of lighthearted commentary. (I bet it'd all be a lot better on a second read. Or you might not have this problem, since you've been warned.)

But do bear with that rocky start, because once Baker finds her stride, she immediately proves why so many of her books earn 5-star ratings. While showing us the adventures of one Smith, an ex-assassin who's looking for a better life, she creates a believeable world with distinct races and plenty of conflict to cope with. Her portrayal of demons as, to some degree, technology indistinguishable from magic, is nothing short of great. And the book might be worthwhile for the Fatally Verbal Abuse duel.

Do read it. And if it seems hard going to begin with, plod on through. It gets better. LOTS better.

Rating:
Summary: A good foray into fantasy
Review: Kage Baker is known for her time travel series about the "Company" (Mendoza in Hollywood, In the Garden of Iden). While I just couldn't get started with those, I found Anvil of the World, her first foray into fantasy, fun to read and well written. It's an ensemble novel, created around a group of eccentric characters drawn together on a caravan ride. The strange religions of this world emerge as central to the plot. They include the Yendri, dreamy followers of a living god; the eminently practical Children of the Sun, who have an unfortunate lapse in their knowledge about birth control; and an unusual batch of conflicted demons, children of a demon king and the saintly living god. Baker's main character is a retired assassin and unassuming caravan trader, named only Smith, who appears to hold the fate of the world in his hands; fortunately, he has a healthy disrespect for the will of the gods.

The plot is lively, and Baker's writing style is witty and breezy, much less ponderous than her earlier writing. I hope she continues with fantasy.

Rating:
Summary: writer is smoking dope
Review: Obviosuly the "writer" who wrote this book was high. Its a good thing too, because that allowed her to just breezily float by the utter incompetence and irrationality of the plot. The brazen false advertising whore of a writer completely lied on the back cover of the book by using the word assasin. This book is NOT about assasins of any kind. It has one interesting feauture: a homosexual demon. That's it. The humorous elements are mild and completely underdeveloped. [...]

Rating:
Summary: uneven but promising, very funny in places
Review: The first thing that should be noted about Anvil of the World is that though it focuses on a very small group of characters and one main character throughout and follows them chronologically, this isn't really a novel. Unless it's one with some major transition problems. Rather, it's three novellas with some large gaps of time between the three different adventures. Like any collection of stories, then, Anvil tends to be a bit uneven.
The first story, which has the unenviable task of filling in the backstory--who are these people, why are they behaving as they do, what world is this and how does it function, tends to be the slowest-moving one and the weakest, though it isn't without its strong points. It's funny in places, suspenseful in others, and mostly holds your attention. If you find it lagging a bit, as I did, continue on, because both the pace and the writing pick up in the rest of the book, as does the humor, though it's already pretty evident from story one. Some reviewers compare the humor to Pratchett. Personally, those works never did much for me. I found these more along the lines of the Robert Asprin Myth series, which I found more enjoyable. While the humor is uneven, the not-so-funny parts are outweighed by the laugh-out-loud/read aloud to your neighbor parts.
The main character is well-drawn, with a mysterious past, a nicely-honed sort of taciturn narration and wonderful reactions. The other major character, a semi-demon, also grows on you, though his dialogue is at times a bit overdone (annoyingly so when it's meant to depict his childishness). The rest of the small group range in quality of characterization, with the matronly chef the strongest and sharpest, while others are a bit cliched or too sketchily drawn.
The world itself is a bit sketchy in the larger details, but where Baker shines anyway is in the small stuff: sharply humorous details with regard to clothing or festivals or food. It's easy to forgive the somewhat vague worldview with so much richness in the smaller details.
As mentioned, the first story, which follows the group as they form (for the first time) a caravan, has a lot of necessary exposition which tends to slow it down a bit. It still manages, however, to get in some excitement (various attacks on the caravan and other more personal ones) and suspense (what's causing the attacks, who among the caravan is the bad guy). The second story, more of a murder mystery, has a much better pace and consistent tone to it and adds to our understanding and liking of the characters (though the semi-demon's brother, even more childish, can be even more annoying in places) The third story maintains the quick pace and strong wit, but its attempt to deepen/broaden the tone meets with mixed success. The weakest part is the environmental analogy which would have worked fine had it not been so overdone in terms of frequency and obviousness.
Overall, though mixed, the book was a fast and enjoyable read, with the funniest parts truly laugh-out-loud funny, making it quite easy to forgive the not-so-funny parts or the weaker written areas. There is clearly room for a sequel, one that I'd certainly pick up without any qualms.

Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: The Kage Baker excels at creating societies and characters that have the complexity and compelling reality of today's news and yet are full of the exotic color and flair that marks the best speculative fiction. I found this to be full of fun, wit and comic irony. I would definitely recommend it, and hope she continues work in this series.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderfully warped sense of humor
Review: This is the first fantasy novel by Kage Baker, who is better known for her Company novels. It's a bit disjointed (it's based on three shorter novellas), but it shows much of Baker's characteristic deadpan, tongue-in-cheek humor.

One of the best things about "The Anvil of the World" is Baker's truly original take on world-building. The world in which Baker sets her story is not the typical sword and sorcery realm, nor is it the domain of urban fantasy. Instead, it's the Wild West and the Renaissance combined with a little unfettered Industrialism and an eco-conscious indigenous population. Add a retired assassin, a gourmet cook who's been around, a demon lord and his nursemaid, and a few religious terrorists, and you have the makings of a fun novel. I'll not go into the plot, since other reviewers have done that. Besides, any book that begins by describing a "golden city" that's so dusty that all its inhabitants suffer "from chronic emphysema," wheezing is "considered refined, and the social event of the year [is] the Festival of Respiratory Masks" is to be savored as much for its humor as its story.