Well, now I'm using the book reviewing as motivation to write a blog post - and I'll start with the books I have to return to the library the soonest.
No Present Like Time, by Steph Swainston
This book is actually a sequel to Swainston's previous (and I believe first) novel, titled "The Year of Our War", which I picked up because I liked the cover, and actually quite enjoyed. Although the books have the same setting and main characters, the stories aren't really connected.
The Fourlands have been waging a long war against these giant insects invading their world, which are actually pretty scary, from the very vivid description of how the insects maul and kill (this was mostly covered in the first book). In order to fight the Insect Horde, the Emperor San -his name is San, not that he's Japanese and they address him as Emperor-san, although wasn't San the name of Mononoke Hime? Maybe he is Japanese after all- anyway, the Emperor has gathered men and women who excel over all others in one ability that will be useful for protecting the Fourlands - such as the Archer, the Swordsman, the Sailor, etc. These people are called the Eszai and, along with their marriage partner, are bestowed immortality by the Emperor.
Our decidedly unheroic protagonist is Jant, a.k.a. Comet (which is how the Eszai holding the position of the Messenger is addressed). He's a hybrid of two peoples who hate each other, so he's the only one of his kind - even he doesn't know how it happened. Because of this, he's also the only person in the known world who can fly. He's frivolous, undisciplined, profane, a coward and (his biggest problem) a junkie. The other Eszai don't think much of him. And yet, I like him so much, because he tries so hard when it really counts. He's loyal to his friends and more ethical than a good number of the other Eszai. I don't really want to write about the plot of the novel because who really cares? I read the book because of Jant. The story's not what you'd call deep, the book is not for kids (for violence, coarse language and sexual content), and the writing style isn't so beautiful. It's a fluffy sort of book. But, well, there is Jant.
Wait, one more thing. This drug that Jant does, called Scolopendium, or Cat, has this strange property that if you take a bit more of it than is safe, it lets you "Shift" to this other place where beings from different worlds can mingle and take on forms different from their own... which makes me think that this is actually a cyberpunk novel. It's definitely not traditional fantasy - for example, Jant usually wears T-shirts; no doublet and hose for the denizens of this fantasy world.
I also suddenly realized that alot of the things in this novel has 2 or 3 names for it - maybe the writer is an anatomist.
