'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' by Jack Thorne, John Tiffany and J. K. Rowling(?)

Pages: 327
Goodreads, Amazon

The "Harry Potter" series holds a special place for me because it introduced me to the world of fantasy. I read the series quite late after all the books were released. I even ignored all the movies considering them as imbecile. Credit to a niece who challenged me to give the first book a try and then stop myself from reading the rest of the books. Like innumerable people across the globe, I was smitten by the wonderful world of Harry Potter.

The buzz around the new play in the Potter series was quite strong since last year. Of course, it would have been wonderful to watch the play especially since it featured actors besides the ones in the movies. However, since the play is currently playing only in UK, one had to take solace in the next best option - the play's screenplay. Having read the main series and having watched all the movies based on them, I bought the screenplay without reading about its reviews. 

The plot revolves around Harry Potter's son, Albus. It portrays Albus' pain of bearing the burden of expectations that the world has thrust upon him simply because he is the son of a famous hero. In his journey of finding his own identity, Albus comes across and befriends Draco Malfoy's son, Scorpius. While Albus is nothing like Harry when it comes to magic, Scorpius' personality is extremely different from that of his evil (until the previous book) father, Draco. The villainous touch to the plot is lent by Voldemort's daughter, Delphini. 

The plot relies heavily on time travel in order to take the readers and the characters back to the plots of the previous books. Like the characters in the main series, Albus and Scorpius are consistent at making mistakes, stick to love and friendship, and recover from their setbacks after receiving help from unexpected quarters. Finally, they also overcome their opponent and everything ends up being well. The added theme of children trying to find themselves by coming out of the shadows of their parents has been well portrayed. 

As the book is a screenplay (not sure what 'special rehearsal edition' is), it obviously doesn't read like an ordinary book. However, my main complaint is regarding the characters. While a play may not give the writers the liberty of developing characters as well as they'd like to, there was a distinct disconnect in this book from how the characters behaved in the main series. Especially, Ron was presented as a joker who is mocked by everybody. I found myself saying, "This is not something this character would say," several times. Though I have my set of complaints about the main series, this botheration about characters in this books, shows how well the previous books were written and presented in the movies. 

I'd like to forget this book quickly and let the special place of the main series remain intact with me. But will I miss the chance to watch the play? Book the best seats please. 

'Red Seas under Red Skies' by Scott Lynch

Goodreads, Amazon
Pages: 558

'Red Seas under Red Skies' is the second book of the Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastards series. [I have written about the first book 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' but it's in my writing journal and I'm too bored at the moment to transfer it here.]

The series is about thieves who want to win over the world through their many deceptions. The setting of the series reminds of the world and period of 'One Thousand and One Nights'. The world is all about ports, traders, rich people with palatial homes, and there's a little bit of magic amidst all the chaos. After the adventures of the first book, the group of thieves has been badly wounded and has been reduced to just two people - Locke and Jean.

The book begins two years after the events of its prequel. The prologue makes the reader jump right into action with Locke and Jean under an attack and Jean is about to betray Locke by crossing over to the attackers' side. Once the actual book begins, the narration alters between the present and the period of rift between the this book and its prequel.

'Red Seas under Red Skies' introduces us to new characters and a new place (the port of Tel Verrar) though villains from the prequel make scanty but important appearances. In the initial part of the book, Locke is unwilling to get back to his old deceptive ways and Jean tries measures, which are extreme but also adorable, to bring him back. Eventually, the duo gets into its groove and finds a new target for duping through many layers of masterful scheming - Requin, the shrewd and powerful owner of a gambling den. However, there's another dominant character in Tel Verrar, Maxilan Stragos, who knows a lot about the duo's past and threatens to harm them fatally unless they act according to his wishes.

In order to gain political points, Stragos makes Locke and Jean travel by sea, in their mission to become pirates and stir trouble in the region around Tel Verrar. After a hurried training through the lovable ex-seaman Caldris, Locke and Jean are pushed off in the sea. They come across the pirates Zamira Drakasha (who pirates around with her toddler kids in the tow) and her lady-lieutenant Ezri Delmastro. Loaded with lots of characters, witty lines, naval terms and interesting tricks, the plot proceeds towards a thrilling climax.

I had great fun reading this book. There are hardly any dull moment throughout the 600-odd pages. Locke is so funny especially when he gets angry that I'd love to be around the angry Scott Lynch. The many lies of Locke left me guessing about his true intentions throughout the book. The world creation is not very dense except while describing buildings. My imagination failed to keep up with the scenes intended to be created by the author. However, he must be credited for achieving the rare feat of having more than one major female character in a fantasy book.

My only complaint about the book was about the overdose of twists that Lynch supplies throughout. A few of them seem just too forced and, in order to accommodate them, he seems to take the characters out of their painfully built personalities. The tedium of traversing through the complications spiked towards the end of the book. This was entirely consistent with what I had experienced while reading 'The Lies of Locke Lamora'.

I'm totally in for reading the remaining (five?) books in the series but a Gentleman Bastards reading spree seems tiring. See you later, Locke. 

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

Pages: 1007

Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy

Goodreads, Amazon 

"The Way of Kings" is the first book in "The Stormlight Archive" series. This is the first Sanderson (who is well-known for completing Robert Jordan's epic series "Wheel of Time") book that I have read. At more than a thousand pages, it is a huge investment of time but I am glad that it turned out well worth the investment.

The book/series fits in the genre of fantasy (high fantasy at that). It will fancy anybody who is interested in deep character-development, elaborate world building and war-politics strategies.

The first three quarteres of the book are dedicated to world building and the plot moves at a tardy pace. The plot takes place in the world called Roshar which is not the most friendly place in the world. There are highstorms which make it impossible to venture out. The world itself is rocky thanks to the highstorms. The plants and animals have adapted to the highstorms. When the highstorms arrive, the plants hide in the crevices whereas the animals are huge and tough skinned.

The narrative is written from points of view of four characters - Szeth, Dalinar, Kaladin, and Shallan and guess what - none of these characters is a king.

Szeth is an assassin who is merely a weapon waiting to be used by his master. He is unquestioning in his approach and obeys anybody who possesses the Oathstone. Though he is extremely powerful and sorcerous in his fighting skills, his intentions behind accepting every order of his master are unclear. In a way, he is the beginner of the plot. He kills the Alethi king Gavilar quite early and kicks off an unending war between the Alethi and the Parshendi.

The most intriguing of these characters is Dalinar. He is the brother of King Gavilar who has been murdered for reasons unknown by Szeth, who is a professional assassin. Gavilar's son is now the king and Dalinar serves as his advisor and chief warrior. Dalinar plays the perfect imperfect character in the book - torn between his ideals and his duties - towards his king, towards his sons, and his feelings towards the ex-king's wife. He is also the warrior supreme. He can fight as his Thrill (the high energy) runs through his body while he runs through the enemy's army. Dalinar's visions add to his ageing woes and to the gossips among his ranks that he is losing his strength as well as his sanity. They (the visions) keep pulling him towards establishing peace rather than adding on fights and battles. The visions are from another world - probably from the Knight Radiants' age. The Knight Radiants are supposed to be these mythical ultra powerful warriors in the long past who have for some reason deserted humanity and are not protecting them anymore from "Voidbringers". This happens about 4,500 years before the main plot that begins with the assassination of Gavilar.

Kaladin is an ex-warrior who is now serving as a bridgeman (which is far worse than being a mere slave) in the camp of Sadeas (who is Dalinar's co-advisor to the present king). The description of bridgemen and their duties (which are mostly comprised of 'running' a bridge' and setting it across chasms) is extremely ornate. By the middle of the book, it was terribly saddening to read more about the woes of the bridgemen as each of their masters was hell bent on seeing them hurt in the worst possible way. The narrative also presents a point of view of the child Kaladin who was all set to be a surgeon under the tutelage of his father but destiny made him a spearman and finally a slave.

Shallan is a girl who is on a family-sent mission to steal a "Soulcaster" from the scholar Jasnah under the pretext of being her ward. Shallan is exceptionally talented at drawing. Jasnah herself is quite learned in her studies and is like a powerful wizard owing to possessing the "Soulcaster". Jasnah is also the daughter of the murdered ex-king Gavilar and sister of the current king. The interactions between Shallan and Jasnah make for an interesting read. Both the women are witty and have strong notions about religion, history, and philosophy. They also seem to have murky pasts and twists in their otherwise straightforward stories.

The book has many heavy fighting scenes. Pages and pages are dedicated to describing movements of Parshendi and Alethi forces. I must thank Steven Erikson and his "Malazan Book of the Fallen" series for teaching me to be patient with dense books. I have read that "The Stormlight Archive" series also has a span of ten books each of around thousand pages. The journey is going to be a long one and I am sure that I am going to enjoy it - especially because Sanderson seems to invest heavily in characters. The high fantasy nature of the plot makes all the events seem magical and worth a careful read. The subplots are interesting and the only parts that could be skipped are the very-descriptive fighting scenes since most of the central characters seem so highly talented that nothing seems to be threatening to them.

The way this book differed from most other fantasy books is how there was no major travels involved. Besides, there was no start contrast among the characters to distinguish evil from good. Overall, it was a wonderful read. I love how immense the scope of this plot is - there are going to be more characters, subplots, back stories and revelations. In the next book, I hope to see answers for Shallan's surprise plot revelation, what happens to Kaladin next, what is the story of the Wit, what happens to Szeth and other mysteries! As I usually do with high fantasy, I'll take a break and read something else before jumping on to the next book in the series.