Now that I've given up on Gemmell, I've moved on to the rest of my To Be Read shelf.

Last night, I started A Secret Atlas, by Michael Stackpole.

We're meeting a lot of characters and everyone naturally has their own agenda and their own secrets, but I'm tracking it all so far. It's an interesting premise - the idea that you can develop a level of expertise in almost any pastime that so far surpasses the average that it actually allows you to achieve and use a kind of magic power. The idea that you can excel at some discipline to the point where the expertise creates a kind of feedback loop--sustaining not only your abilities but conferring long life.

It's new to me--and that's what I like in a fantasy world, concepts that are new to me. For instance, for the family the series is written around, they seem to have a genetic inclination toward cartography, and the best of those in the family achieve that magic level. (There's some phrase for it in the book but I don't remember it.) Like many contemporary fantasy authors, Stackpole is drawing from Eastern cultures to world-build, adapting both language and customs for his imaginary societies.

I've always rather liked that trend. It gives an interesting tinge of "the other" to the cultures while still retaining a recognizably human framework overall. I'm getting just a wee bit tired of it, but that's Gemmell's fault, for being clumsy (I do hold a grudge, don't I?), not Stackpole's.

This is the first in a series and the characters aren't quite as fully developed as I'd like, but I suspect Stackpole had to skimp on that to make room for the rapidly developing and apparently very complex plot he's working on, so I'm willing to hang in there for a while. In my experience, fantasy authors focus on fully-realized characters with complex and well-explored emotional lives, or focus on really complex worlds and plots -- but you rarely get both.

I have no doubt I'll get the sequel, Cartomancy, when I finish this one (Or before. Holiday gift certificates need to be spent!), just to see if he can keep up the pace.