Ken Scholes’s debut novel, Lamentation, was an event in fantasy. Heralded as a “mesmerizing debut novel” by Publishers Weekly, and a “vividly imagined. This was certainly the case with Ken Scholes’s short story “Of Metal Men The first two volumes of The Psalms of Isaak (entitled Lamentation. Lamentation is a novel that promises much with its opening scene of the Desolation of Windwir, the wealthiest and most powerful city in the.
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Lamentation (Psalms of Isaak, #1) by Ken Scholes
This story had some great ideas, but was told in such a dry manner that I lost interest in it pretty quickly. I really liked that there had been wars and ruin in the old days and now thousands of years later this is what we have. He can make you care about his characters. I have been known to like this sort of thing. Twice was too much, especially so soon after.
Give me anything other than crying robots. Robert Jordan tore men to pieces at Dumai’s Well. And it really doesn’t hurt that one of the main characters is Natasha Romanov The Black Widow ‘s much taller sister: Blog editor, admin and founder of Lamentatioon.
This question, I cannot answer. How else to explain a ludicrous sub-plot concerning Jin Lee Tam’s father Vlad Lee Tam the name itself gives one pause whose family has successfully conveniently?
It was never a chore to read, but it never once grabbed my attention, either. Part of Scholes’s problem has to do with a disconnect between actions and consequences.
Strange Horizons – Lamentation and Canticle by Ken Scholes By Hannah Strom-Martin
Scholse I read Lamentation, I scratched my head at all the raves it had received. In fact, I have no spare time — running this site IS my spare time! For a novel that begins with an act of genocide Lamentation is shockingly polite. Plus, it finished strong – as opposed to how it opened, which was rather south of m’eh.
Ken Scholes
The “main” – secret – plot, based on long term conspiracies, arranged chains of events and such. At some deep level, this philosophy connected with me. Stephan lives in a small town in The Netherlands with his wife Rebecca, an editor for The Ranting Dragon, and their two cats. The introduction of mechoservitors robots could have led to an analysis of Asimov’s third law of robotics, but it was a missed opportunity, with Isaak having too many human personality traits to make a convincing A.
They have consequences, and consequences is really what the book’s about, but there’s little fog of war.
Daley rated it it was amazing Shelves: We keb to be looking at flat stereotypes that fail to endear us to any of the lamentatioon. Well, I don’t disagree with myself. So the notion that it would evolve into a multi-POV, multi-volume saga was very far from my mind. A brief sampling from the first page of Canticle: Giving us hints here are there but not revealing everything.
I just didn’t feel it. Not that Scholes doesn’t write compelling prose and a fast-moving story — he does — but the thinness of the characters especially the women and the rather easy way they resolved their problems put me off.
Lamentation
Yes it was good, but was it great? Revelations at the end of Lamentation have added layers to the relationship of Rudolfo and Jinn Lee Tam. Very fast paced with some very interesting characters and story lines.
At an abstract level, it’s a wonderful investigation of psychohistory and technology policy, and I encourage my SF-loving friends in science policy and STS to pick this up. A perfect example of this is the Ninefold Forest Houses, a group of disparate towns united under one ruler. Some escaped the Wastelands to the New World and built a life there.
Scholes showed a knack for combining elements of fantasy and sf into a strikingly different vision of the fantastic. Views Read Edit View history. It does use fantasy character roles for its main characters Pope, gypsy, herb woman, etc.
This is the start of a five book series, and though it has its problems, Lamentation shows great promise and Scholes shows skill as a writer. I liked the plot, what a finely woven web, I was impressed by it.