17 September 2007
David Anthony Durham – Acacia
Posted by Dirk under: books .
I liked this book. If you like George R.R. Martins “Game of Thrones” you’ll probably like this too. A 500 year old empire is brought down by invading hordes. The 4 royal children are sent into the wind to escape and mature. Nine years later they work towards getting their empire back. Often while reading this I was reminded of other books. The Game of Thrones was one, with the basic plot being what it is. Also, I though of Dune a time or two while reading about the Mist drug and the freakish trading guild that runs it. And the deadly Maseret dance made me think of Dune also, from it’s name (reminded me of the Bene Geserit) and the description of it made me think of Sting in the movie version, for some reason 🙂 Also, when I first read the description of the horde from the north, the Numreks, they sounded like they would fit right into one of Steven Erikson’s books.
The fight scenes are written well. Like GRRM, Durham doesn’t mind killing off a character or two. I’m not sure I like the way the book ended. I’m not saying it wasn’t written well, I just didn’t like it on a personal level 🙂
5 Comments so far...
David Anthony Durham Says:
18 September 2007 at 11:16 am.
Hey Dirk,
Glad you liked ACACIA, even if the ending didn’t do it for you. If you’re up for it, though, Book Two will pick up the story and perhaps set everything in context. It’ll be a while before this appears, though… Of course, I’ve got other books out there if you want to give me a second try before then!
Honestly, thanks for reading the book, liking it and saying so.
Best,
David.
Dirk Says:
18 September 2007 at 11:45 am.
I picked up Gabriel’s Story and Walk Through Darkness from the library. Looking forward to reading them soon.
My dislike for the ending was along the lines of the grandson in The Princess Bride…
Grandson: Hold it, hold it, Grandpa. Y-you read that wrong. She
doesn’t marry Humperdinck, she married Westley. I’m
just sure of it. After all that Westley did for her,
if she didn’t marry him, it wouldn’t be fair.
Grandfather:Well, who says life is fair? Where is that written?
Life isn’t always fair.
Grandson: I’m telling you, you’re messing up the story, now get
it right!
David Anthony Durham Says:
19 September 2007 at 3:49 pm.
You got me chuckling… especially because I watched The Princess Bride again quite recently. Love that movie!…
But I’m remaining pleased. I’d like to think that I have every opportunity to “get it right” with the forthcoming books. I’ve got plans, my friend, and if you stick around for the long haul you may find that by the end I’ve managed to not to mess it up. It may actually all look like I meant each piece of it for my own devilish reasons…
At least, that’s what I’m gunning for.
David.
Jakedog.org » Win a free copy of David Anthony Durham’s Acacia Says:
13 June 2008 at 11:05 am.
[…] I read it a last year and thought it was pretty swell. […]
Tom Robbins Says:
4 November 2008 at 11:47 pm.
Read the first Acacia Book, very good stuff, but the ending was almost as painfully untidy as real life – would really like to know when book two comes out so I can fall back into hopes of a dive back into the idealistic pool – its hot out here in reality.
Thanks David for the great writing…
Tom Robbins – Houston