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Something strange has been happening lately when I get near the end of a book. I fall asleep or at least get so sleepy that I have to stop reading. It has happened for each of the last four books I have read. It isn't a book quality thing. It isn't the time of day. It is just the last 30 pages of a book. I have no theory to offer.
After a brief doze, I read the last 30 pages of The Anvil of the World by Kage Baker tonight. Its hard to say anything about it simply because I have said it all before. Kage Baker can really write. Even with the plainest of premise, out comes an engaging, funny, well constructed tale. This book is a departure from The Company series into a more conventional fantasy setting. It follows the story of Smith - an ex-assassin trying to make a go of being a caravan leader and then a restaurant owner in a landscape with the usual mix of magical races, demons and dark lords (well one anyway). There are really three short novelettes joined together top make the story. It is told with a wry humour with somewhat of a post-modernist edge. It is this humour layered on top of a well told story that really makes Baker stand out as an author. How can a book this good put me to sleep - it can't be the book.
After a brief doze, I read the last 30 pages of The Anvil of the World by Kage Baker tonight. Its hard to say anything about it simply because I have said it all before. Kage Baker can really write. Even with the plainest of premise, out comes an engaging, funny, well constructed tale. This book is a departure from The Company series into a more conventional fantasy setting. It follows the story of Smith - an ex-assassin trying to make a go of being a caravan leader and then a restaurant owner in a landscape with the usual mix of magical races, demons and dark lords (well one anyway). There are really three short novelettes joined together top make the story. It is told with a wry humour with somewhat of a post-modernist edge. It is this humour layered on top of a well told story that really makes Baker stand out as an author. How can a book this good put me to sleep - it can't be the book.