Magical Realities
Aug. 30th, 2008 03:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mtvesselMay 2008
Storm Front - Jim Butcher - Orbit, 2005 / The Amulet of Samarkand - Jonathan Stroud - Corgi, 2004
* * * / * * * * *
I am going to review these two together because both feature magic and wizards in a contemporary setting, though otherwise they couldn't be more different. One is a straightforward grafting of magical imagery and rules onto the Philip Marlowe detective / thriller genre, competent but not very exciting. The other is a funny, dark, imaginative treat.
Storm Front stars Harry Dresden, a down-on-his-luck wizard who has set up as a paranormal investigator in Chicago. He has a friend / love interest in the police department called Karrin who involves him in a nasty double murder in which the victims' hearts have exploded out of their chests, a crime that the local mafia boss is keen to have hushed up. At the same time an attractive blonde called Monica hires him to find her missing husband.
With the exception of the exploding hearts, all this may seem like a very conventional sub-Marlowe setup, and indeed it is. There is nothing wrong with the writing style and the investigatory and magical conventions are competently handled (though Dresden's glitching effect on machinery only seems to happen when it suits the story), but the plotting is relentlessly predictable - there is only one person that the villain could possibly be, and the climax, though suitably dramatic, goes exactly the way that anyone moderately familiar with Hollywood writing formulae would predict. One gets the feeling that this was written with the film or television rights in mind rather than as an exercise in literature. The "As seen on Sky One" sticker on the front cover suggests that Butcher has achieved that aim at least.
The Amulet of Samarkand, by comparison, immediately subverts the conventions of fantasy literature by describing a summoning from the point of view of the summoned being. The entity concerned is Bartimaeus, a wonderfully mischievous, funny and boastful djinn who is one of the two viewpoint characters in the book. The other is his summoner, a twelve year old apprentice wizard called Nathaniel.
This set-up may sound like Harry Potter with demons, and in some respects that is a fair description. There is a logic to the magic - summoned creatures have a distinct hierarchy of marids, afrits, djinn, foliots and imps, for example - which Bartimaeus helpfully explains in Terry Pratchett-style footnotes. Like Rowling's opus, the setting is a contemporary Britain with a curiously old-fashioned feel, though without the implausible "muggle vs magical world" aspect - here magicians run the country, as you would expect when they have house-levelling afrits at their command.
The relationship between the main characters is also unusual. For a start, Bartimaeus wants to kill Nathaniel, which makes for a lively dynamic in the scenes between them. He is unable to do so, however, because Nathaniel is most definitely not the principled and slightly dim hero that Harry Potter is. In fact he has all the personal qualities of a successful summoner, both positive and negative. These serve him well as he and Bartimaeus become involved in the brutal machinations of some senior government wizards, chief among them the suave Simon Lovelace.
For the most part, Stroud shows an admirable respect for plot logic and a deft hand for memorable characterisation. There are a few places where credulity is strained - at one point Bartimaeus learns something about Nathaniel which you feel he really ought to have been able to use against him - but for the most part I had no difficulty suspending my disbelief. It helps that the story moves too quickly for the reader to start asking questions. Both goodies and baddies are intelligent and react to each other's moves, resulting in many twists and turns.
Like Storm Front the events of the climax are largely predictable, but in all other respects this is a far superior book and well deserves its bestseller status. The difference is in the thinking that has gone into the effect that magical powers would have on the world if they really existed. Harry Dresden's Chicago is recognisably our own - the existence of magicians has had not the slightest effect on its structure or development. By contrast, in the world of The Amulet of Samarkand, London is still the centre of a vibrant British Empire and its main opponents are the magicians of Prague. I think it may have helped that Stroud had the post-Harry Potter market in his sights and therefore had to construct a world that children would find plausible.
That said, the chief reason for reading the book is Bartimaeus, who has to be one of the most energetic and funny voices to have emerged in recent fiction. I would urge you to seek him out. Though make sure that your protective pentacle is properly completed first.
Storm Front - Jim Butcher - Orbit, 2005 / The Amulet of Samarkand - Jonathan Stroud - Corgi, 2004
* * * / * * * * *
I am going to review these two together because both feature magic and wizards in a contemporary setting, though otherwise they couldn't be more different. One is a straightforward grafting of magical imagery and rules onto the Philip Marlowe detective / thriller genre, competent but not very exciting. The other is a funny, dark, imaginative treat.
Storm Front stars Harry Dresden, a down-on-his-luck wizard who has set up as a paranormal investigator in Chicago. He has a friend / love interest in the police department called Karrin who involves him in a nasty double murder in which the victims' hearts have exploded out of their chests, a crime that the local mafia boss is keen to have hushed up. At the same time an attractive blonde called Monica hires him to find her missing husband.
With the exception of the exploding hearts, all this may seem like a very conventional sub-Marlowe setup, and indeed it is. There is nothing wrong with the writing style and the investigatory and magical conventions are competently handled (though Dresden's glitching effect on machinery only seems to happen when it suits the story), but the plotting is relentlessly predictable - there is only one person that the villain could possibly be, and the climax, though suitably dramatic, goes exactly the way that anyone moderately familiar with Hollywood writing formulae would predict. One gets the feeling that this was written with the film or television rights in mind rather than as an exercise in literature. The "As seen on Sky One" sticker on the front cover suggests that Butcher has achieved that aim at least.
The Amulet of Samarkand, by comparison, immediately subverts the conventions of fantasy literature by describing a summoning from the point of view of the summoned being. The entity concerned is Bartimaeus, a wonderfully mischievous, funny and boastful djinn who is one of the two viewpoint characters in the book. The other is his summoner, a twelve year old apprentice wizard called Nathaniel.
This set-up may sound like Harry Potter with demons, and in some respects that is a fair description. There is a logic to the magic - summoned creatures have a distinct hierarchy of marids, afrits, djinn, foliots and imps, for example - which Bartimaeus helpfully explains in Terry Pratchett-style footnotes. Like Rowling's opus, the setting is a contemporary Britain with a curiously old-fashioned feel, though without the implausible "muggle vs magical world" aspect - here magicians run the country, as you would expect when they have house-levelling afrits at their command.
The relationship between the main characters is also unusual. For a start, Bartimaeus wants to kill Nathaniel, which makes for a lively dynamic in the scenes between them. He is unable to do so, however, because Nathaniel is most definitely not the principled and slightly dim hero that Harry Potter is. In fact he has all the personal qualities of a successful summoner, both positive and negative. These serve him well as he and Bartimaeus become involved in the brutal machinations of some senior government wizards, chief among them the suave Simon Lovelace.
For the most part, Stroud shows an admirable respect for plot logic and a deft hand for memorable characterisation. There are a few places where credulity is strained - at one point Bartimaeus learns something about Nathaniel which you feel he really ought to have been able to use against him - but for the most part I had no difficulty suspending my disbelief. It helps that the story moves too quickly for the reader to start asking questions. Both goodies and baddies are intelligent and react to each other's moves, resulting in many twists and turns.
Like Storm Front the events of the climax are largely predictable, but in all other respects this is a far superior book and well deserves its bestseller status. The difference is in the thinking that has gone into the effect that magical powers would have on the world if they really existed. Harry Dresden's Chicago is recognisably our own - the existence of magicians has had not the slightest effect on its structure or development. By contrast, in the world of The Amulet of Samarkand, London is still the centre of a vibrant British Empire and its main opponents are the magicians of Prague. I think it may have helped that Stroud had the post-Harry Potter market in his sights and therefore had to construct a world that children would find plausible.
That said, the chief reason for reading the book is Bartimaeus, who has to be one of the most energetic and funny voices to have emerged in recent fiction. I would urge you to seek him out. Though make sure that your protective pentacle is properly completed first.
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The Red Wolf Conspiracy
Date: 2008-10-10 01:30 pm (UTC)