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Jason R. Koivu

Författare till Beyond Barlow

4 verk 25 medlemmar 3 recensioner

Om författaren

Foto taget av: A photo of me taken by my wife at the Horse Brass Pub in Portland, OR.

Serier

Verk av Jason R. Koivu

Beyond Barlow (2017) 12 exemplar
Spritzerville,...Ohio? (2013) 7 exemplar
The Rue of Hope (2020) 3 exemplar
A Winter of Chains (2022) 3 exemplar

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Medlemmar

Recensioner

This book blurb attracted me to Jason R. Koivu's Beyond Barlow since I am a fan of Heraclix & Pomp. Turns out his summary is spot on.
"Somewhere between Huck Finn and Locke Lamora" -- Forrest Aguirre, author of Heraclix and Pomp

Beyond Barlow is Intellectual Grimdark: Readers typically differentiate stereotypical High Fantasy (elves, dwarves, wizards with pointy hats with a slant toward happy adventuring) vs Low Fantasy (more "realism" & "earthier" milieu, with a focus on humans defending trenches at the battlefront or crawling through crypts to save a maiden or rob a god). The latter encompasses sub-genres like Sword & Sorcery and the contemporary-named Grimdark.

Beyond Barlow has no explicit sorcery, and lies somewhere between medieval fiction and today's Grimdark. Yet it feels different, and this difference can be a plus or a detraction for readers. It all boils down to the conflict. Most adventures of Dark Fantasy tap into simple conflicts of Hero(ine) protagonists vs evil villains/creatures. Beyond Barlow works the more obtuse Hero vs. Self (or arguable Hero vs. Nature) conflict; this development can be slower to develop and more obtuse than the former.

The book follows Ford Barlow who is an impulsive, violent teenager who struggles to fit in with his family in a comfortable way. The story tracks his coming of age as he learns to kill in battle; he causes several brutal accidents leading to his departure from Barlow (his family's hamlet). He joins the Wayward Boys, and his teambuilding with the gang has all the hallmarks of Golding's Lord of the Flies.

Themes of "family matters" persist across every chapter; i.e., what does it means to belong to one? What is your role as a member? The opening chapter, for instance, has Ford going to battle with his dad, step-brother, and dog Stinky. At first, I thought this was a foundation for a Ford-vs-other-clan narrative, but subsequent chapters amplified Ford's feelings of mis-belonging.

Ford is continually haunted by visions of his father, a woodcutter. The following chapters focus on his bonding with a hand of thieves. Plenty of drama unfolds as the wanderlust boys survive by thieving food, braving cold winters, and looting crypts. The characters Runt and Ham echo Ford's relationship with his step-brother Leo; they were my favorite of the bunch.

Its uniqueness may also make this less accessible. Ford isn't really honorable (though he does mature a bit)... the situations he experiences are very grim, and without a clear villain, it leans toward intellectual fiction. The series continues with the sequel The Rue of Hope, which interestingly calls out magic. So we can speculate that the tone shifts towards dark Sword & Sorcery in the next installment.

Blurb for The Rue of Hope:
Murder in the streets. Murder in the houses of the holy. The violent deaths of prominent figures have the populous on edge. Now, amid fire and flood, the revolt is on. The castle is taken, the lord is on the run, and the city is crumbling. With society on the verge of collapse, impulsive street-fighter Ford Barlow finds himself in just as much turmoil. Not only is he juggling his own problems, but his slippery rogue friend is embroiled in a string of high-profile assassinations. Mercenary work for a mage meant to distance him from his troubles only highlights his selfish ways and drives him back into a crumbling world of scandal and betrayal. Magic, adventure and murder combine in this fantasy-mystery!
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
SELindberg | Jul 4, 2021 |
Poor. Just turgid writing that drags meanders and jumps about with very little actually happening. I usually like descriptive prose, and am a fan of many authors who have a slower writing style but this was a step too far. I believe it's second in a series, but I'm certainly not going to read the others, and it seemed quite understandable on it's own.

A day after finishing and it's made so little impression on me that I can't even remember our hero's name. He's a bit of an oaf anyway, and perhaps in the previous book he'd journeyed from some village in search of his mother and had an adventure with fairies. He's now in the big city, but out of work and out of luck. He's made a bit of living by fighting in taverns, but he's so inept he can't even throw a fight when it's in his own interest. Random friends and drinking acquaintances keep bailing him out of difficulty but it's very hard to understand how he knows these people who appear and then aren't seen again for vast swathes of the book. It takes more than half the book for the plot to progress beyond this, when he goes on an adventure with a newly met cousin. They're searching for a flower thought to embue the wearer with luck and prosperity. This quest makes little difference to oaf's prospects and he's eventually recruited into the guard only to mess that up too, and also casts away the only consistent characters we've had in his friend Evie. After that the city errupts into a coup and oaf finds out why some events occurred at the beginning of the book that he'd not observed.

There are all sorts of asides thrown into the writing, telling rather than showing the motivations of side characters, but oaf is oblivious to it all.

Just Avoid.
… (mer)
½
 
Flaggad
reading_fox | May 17, 2020 |
This was awesome!!!
It took me a little to like it cause at the start i did not get that wasn't a kids book lol, after reading the f word in it i turned the book and saw "for mature readers with immature minds".... Duh.... i felt so silly lol XD after that i really enjoyed this little book. I really hope to see more from this author, he nailed it with the character of Bernard.
 
Flaggad
Sarah.Hansrote | Feb 28, 2014 |

Statistik

Verk
4
Medlemmar
25
Popularitet
#508,561
Betyg
½ 3.5
Recensioner
3
ISBN
4