"The Hotel Under the Sand" by Kage Baker (Spotlight Reviewed by Cindy Hannikman)

Visit Kage Baker's Website here
Order Hotel Under the Sand from amazon here
Read an excerpt of Hotel Under the Sand here

Introduction: Kage Baker is widely known for her series of books titled The Company, in which it follows time traveling immortals. She is also known for various other sci-fi/fantasy titles.

The Hotel Under the Sand came to my attention through the Cybil awards. I had shown some interest in reading House of the Stag which was written by Kage Baker back in 2008 but due to time still haven't gotten around to it. From the cover of the book I didn't really know what to expect except for a hotel under the sand. What I came to find out was that this book was that the real treat was inside.

Overview: A hundred years ago a man named Marquis de Lafayette Wenlocke had a vision of building a hotel out in the middle of nowhere. This hotel had a unique feature to it: it has the ability to stop time and allow those guests that wish to stay to stay forever without having any thoughts of time or getting back to the real world.

Unfortunately for Mr. Wenlocke the location that he choose wasn't the wisest location and a storm came, the day before the hotel was scheduled to open. In the wake of the storm the hotel was consumed by the sands that surrounded the hotel. Mr. Wenlocke went missing, and many of the workers of the hotel were able to get out and off the island safely.

Many years later, a storm has brought little Emma to the very island that this grand hotel was built and buried on. Through building a shelter for herself she has uncovered the long lost hotel. Emma is visited by a ghost of a former bellhop of the hotel that explains the past to her and what happened to the hotel.

While exploring the hotel Emma encounters a cook that has awoken from an enchanted sleep when the hotel was buried, and a pirate. Not only does Emma explore the hotel but she also embarks on a treasure hunt that helps her learn about herself.

Analysis: The Hotel Under the Sand on the outside is a very small book. At only 180 pages with illustrations it may appear to many people as just a book for younger readers but it's a gem for readers of all ages.

While many short books try to pack in as many details and action as possible and let character development slip, Hotel Under the Sand doesn't do that. The characters that appear in the book are charming and pull at the heart strings of the readers. Emma is a little girl that although lost is very polite, and intelligent. She may appear on the outside as one sided but for the amount of time given she is a very detailed character. Along with Emma is that of the bellhop, Winston. Readers learn the background story of how Winston became a bellhop and what resulted in his untimely death.

Along with the characters is that of the sense of wonder in the book. Readers explore along with Emma the island that the hotel is on, and even that of the hotel. Kage Baker does a wonderful job of describing everything as it comes along with just the right amount of detail to help visualize what is going on but not over detail so that is appears boring or dull.

As with many children books that are on the shorter side there is the downfall that readers (like myself) are left almost wanting more. While this is a self contained story and everything is resolved and wrapped up, there is the sense that I wish we could have stayed with more parts of the story for longer. For example, I loved Emma going through the hotel and would have liked to learn a little more about this and see her explore more areas. The areas that were explored were great I just wanted more!

There are some lovely illustrations done by Stephanie Pui-Mun, that are present within the book. Although not in color these pictures pop up at just the right moment and are wonderfully detailed. It helps build the imagery that I had imagined without doing all the work for me. Something I love about children's books.

Over all Hotel Under the Sand is one of those books that I truly believe could appeal to both kids and adults. The younger kids will have a great time exploring and learning, and Baker does a great job of writing at a level that most kids will understand and love, and not feel talked down to. While older readers, will find a charming and very heart grabbing story with this book, and also a very quick satisfying read. Kage Baker has done a wonderful job of producing a work that has an appeal to readers of all ages.

The Ambergris Week - Part 1: City of Saints and Madmen

Once upon a time, a man started to have weird dreams.

And stories sprang forth from his brow, as once wise Athena from the head of her father, mighty Zeus - or, in adapting the metaphor to a more postmodern setting, we could say that stories started seeping from his brain, oozing like slime from the bottom of undisturbed oceans where ancient squid gods lie asleep until their time to wake and rule Earth again has come.

These stories - the first, at least, but by no means the last - were collected in a book. The man was Jeff VanderMeer, and the book was City of Saints and Madmen.

Why such a convoluted, baroque post beginning, you ask? Because this is only fitting in approaching the review of a multi-faceted work. The stories of this book are reminiscent of Italo Calvino and Jorge Luis Borges. Vandermeer is an avid Borgesian: for what other reason the major bookstore in Ambergris would display the blind librarian name?

(In fact, there is a well-concocted explanation in the glossary, elegant as in all good written fiction: BORGES would be the juxtaposition of the first two syllables of the bookstore´s two founders and first owners, Bormund and Gestrand Kubtek.)

The book opens with an introduction by Grand Master Michael Moorcock, who guides us into the mysterious mind of Captain VanderMeer, acquaintance to the famous Duncan Shriek, according to writer Josef Conrad. Moorcock prepares us for what we are going to read: a tapestry of tales and visions, a rare treasure that we should admire for the "rare texture of the writing, the engaging vividness of his description and the quirks of his idiosyncratic mind which conducts its network of realities with celebratory panache."

And of what kind of realities this network consists?

The first reality (for we should consider all the stories here as being, or having been, real) is Dradin in Love. Upon seeing a young woman through the window of "Hoegbotton & Sons, Distributors", young monk Dradin Kashmir falls in love - and he must court this woman at all costs. Naturally, things aren´t so simple, and what begins as an innocent adventure slowly turns into a very dangerous rite of passage.

Dradin in Love is a story which takes us by the hand in awe - we already know where it is going to take us, and it not a pretty place, but we consent in going all the same, because we want to know how it is done. Such it is with magic, and Jeff Vandermeer plays with words as a magician with the tools of his trade. Vandermeer is in love with language, but he never drops the ball, that is, never in any moment he will sacrifice content for the sake of form alone.

The Hoegbotton Guide to the Early History of Ambergris is exactly what it purports to be: a guide. But not a guide like any other, for Ambergris is not a common city, and its writer is not any writer. We are talking of historian Duncan Shriek, an artiste, a man who shines more than the subjects he choose to write about. So reading this guide is already a travel in itself: upon reading it you become as acquainted with Shriek as with Ambergris. Don´t forget to read carefully the footnotes: they are infinitely more important than the text proper. Duncan Shriek has made a point of it, and he doesn´t let the reader forget it.

The Transformation of Martin Lake is another story of a confused young man, his ambitions and dreams and how everything can go wrong (and indeed does). Lake is a celebrated painter who lives in interesting times, under the iron rule of master composer-turned-dictator Voss Bender. Suddenly the news of Bender´s death shake Ambergris, and the city is torn apart between two major political factions: the Reds (who challenge Bender´s rule) and the Greens (who doesn´t believe Bender is dead, and state that he is returning soon to put an end to the chaos that took the city). Lake declares himself neutral, soon to discover nobody can be neutral in such matters and be forced to undertake a sinister deed he can´t run away from.

The story reads like a mix of Gothic novel and some of the Sardonic Tales of the French symbolist writer Villiers de L´Isle Adam, by his turn a fervent reader of Edgar Allan Poe. Martin Lake is a truly Gothic character, and the story is scary as hell, for it could happen to any of us - if we were careless painters and lived in Ambergris, that is.

The Strange Case of X is the story of an interrogation - a metalinguistical experience in which the author of a book called City of Saints and Madmen is confronted by someone (a policeman? A psychiatrist? we don´t know for sure) who questions him why does he think everything he wrote about in his book is real.

The second half of the book consists of a mosaic of stories that introduces the reader to the somber city of Ambergris (whose name carries in its sound something bittersweet in it, as if to remember us that everything has two sides, and after dusk comes dawn). It ends up being almost as big in size as the other stories, and here VanderMeer excels in his plurality of styles, bringing forth such different stories in scope and intention as In the short story The Hours After Death, the story-within-a-story structure of The Exchange, the essay King Squid, and the psychiatric-related letters from Dr. V. to Dr. Simpkin and X´s Notes, among many other stories (for they seem endless, though never tiresome).

The book ends with the enlightening Ambergris Glossary, which will help the reader until the end of the cycle, through the reading of both Shriek and Finch. (More on that on later posts, though.)

The final stories both explain and confound us. They are meant to do so, for the reader is also a visitor in Ambergris, and she/he must experience the same disorientation a real tourist would. Perhaps the same horror. Certainly the same wonder.


(This review was first posted in Post-Weird Thoughts)

2009 Booker Prize Winner "Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel (Reviewed by Liviu Suciu)

Hilary Mantel at Wikipedia
Order Wolf Hall Here
Watch the Author Reading an Excerpt

INTRODUCTION: This year's Man Booker shortlist about which I did an earlier post turned out to contain several books of great interest to me including the eventual winner.

"Wolf Hall" by H. Mantel is historical fiction with strong sff associational ties in superb world building and deep immersion in a distant but also familiar universe. I found myself in complete agreement with noted sff critic and writer Adam Roberts' claim about "Wolf Hall": "if Mantel had tossed in a dragon or two, she'd have been a shoo-in for the British Fantasy Award", so unbelievably good is the recreation of 16th century England here.

While Ms. Mantel has written quite a few novels prior to this one, the only one I have previously read is the extraordinary "A Place of Greater Safety" about the life of an young man and his closest two friends who just happen to play an unexpectedly important role in history. I read the 750+ page "A Place of Greater Safety" several times across the years since its US publication in the mid-90's, most recently after finishing "Wolf Hall" this October and while "Wolf Hall" is clearly more accomplished as fiction, "A Place of Greater Safety" is still the more interesting one for me.

"Wolf Hall" stands at a more modest 550+ pages but in another sff tradition it is just the first part of a planned duology that follows the life and career of Thomas Cromwell the (in)famous minister of Henry VIII and architect of the English Reformation. "Wolf Hall" follows Thomas from his very unpromising beginning as the abused son of a violent village blacksmith to his rise in Chancellor Wolsey service and later in the king's council.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: Since the Tudor era is not one of my main interests in history/historical fiction, I have waited for the US release and a chance to browse "Wolf Hall" before deciding if I want to read it. However the moment I opened it, I was hooked and I *had* to get it then and read from it in any free time I had. Because the novel is dense and relatively long, it took me several days to finish it, and while the last 100 pages are a bit too much of a filler for the next volume and should have been done in 50 maybe, the first 450 or so are almost perfect.

The novel alternates pov very frequently, switching from Thomas third person (usually denoted by "he") to various characters which are generally named ("Anne", "Wolsey") sometimes from paragraph to paragraph, so it requires constant attention.

The cast is panoramic though one surprise I had was the relative lack of centrality of Henry VIII, whom despite being the focus of so much of the attention of the characters, is present relatively less directly in the book, though some of the scenes with him are truly memorable.

Outside Thomas Cromwell who is an absolutely fascinating though still mysterious character - even after 550 pages - the main "historical" characters are Cardinal Wolsey and Anne Boleyn, while we get less than a flattering picture of the "sainted" Thomas More who is busy burning heretics and using any means to obtain the necessary proofs for that. After all in More's vision a promise or even an oath to a heretic is not binding...

In contrast Cromwell is pragmatic and wants to advance himself and England, while he protects as much as he can the protestant inclined theologians, booksellers and printers. Also the family life of the two is sharply contrasted again in a surprising way at least from the usual conventional story we "know"...

Anne is less fascinating than I expected though she is believable as holding Henry's interest for so long and finally getting her wish of becoming Queen with Cromwell's help, wish that of course means the split with Rome since the only way Henry can get a divorce from Catherine the aunt of the powerful king of Spain and "jailer" of the Pope is by essentially granting one himself.

This passage which in many ways is the crucial one of the book at least for the political/religious action shows Cromwell at his best in helping Henry take the necessary decisive step:

"‘But why now?’ Hen­ry says, rea­son­ably enough. ‘Why does he come back now? I have been king for twen­ty years.’

He bites back the temp­ta­tion to say, be­cause you are forty and he is telling you to grow up. How many times have you en­act­ed the sto­ries of Arthur – how many masques, how many pageants, how many com­pa­nies of play­ers with pa­per shields and wood­en swords? ‘Be­cause this is the vi­tal time,’ he says. ‘Be­cause now is the time to be­come the ruler you should be, and to be sole and supreme head of your king­dom. Ask La­dy Anne. She will tell you. She will say the same.’"

But "Wolf Hall" is not only about politics and religion; there is a lot about "regular" people and their life in the 1520-30's London and the action of the book takes place all over England with sojourns in Italy, France and the Low Countries too.

I will close this review with another quote, this time from the very beginning of the novel and showing Thomas' "people skill" again at his best, while we can infer quite a lot about the world of the novel from it too:

"He sees three el­der­ly Low­lan­ders strug­gling with their bun­dles and moves to help them. The pack­ages are soft and bulky, sam­ples of woollen cloth. A port of­fi­cer gives them trou­ble about their doc­uments, shout­ing in­to their faces. He lounges be­hind the clerk, pre­tend­ing to be a Low­land oaf, and tells the mer­chants by hold­ing up his fin­gers what he thinks a fair bribe. ‘Please,’ says one of them, in ef­fort­ful En­glish to the clerk, ‘will you take care of these En­glish coins for me? I find them sur­plus.’ Sud­den­ly the clerk is all smiles. The Low­lan­ders are all smiles; they would have paid much more. When they board they say, ‘The boy is with us.’

As they wait to cast off, they ask him his age. He says eigh­teen, but they laugh and say, child, you are nev­er. He of­fers them fif­teen, and they con­fer and de­cide that fif­teen will do; they think he's younger, but they don't want to shame him. They ask what's hap­pened to his face. There are sev­er­al things he could say but he se­lects the truth. He doesn't want them to think he's some failed rob­ber. They dis­cuss it among them­selves, and the one who can trans­late turns to him: ‘We are say­ing, the En­glish are cru­el to their chil­dren. And cold-​heart­ed. The child must stand if his fa­ther comes in the room. Al­ways the child should say very cor­rect­ly, “my fa­ther, sir”, and “madam my moth­er”.’"

Highly, highly recommended and while "The Children's Book" (FBC Rv) still holds the sweet spot as my favorite book of 2009, "Wolf Hall" is arguably the best novel I read this year

Flash News: FBC's co-editor Fabio Fernandes publishes another story

Fabio Fernandes, our co-editor here at Fantasy Book Critic has just published another story in Everyday Weirdness:

"Semiotic Smoke"

This story is a sfnal one set in posthuman times. Very interesting with a twist and a satisfying conclusion, all on one page (!), Fabio's new story expands his range. 

His earlier stories are indexed HERE.

Cindy, Liviu, Robert and Mihir congratulate Fabio on his achievement!!

Interview with Gary A. Ballard (Interviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)

Fantasy Book Critic was able to sit down and interview Gary A. Ballard. Gary A. Ballard is the author of Under the Amoral Bridge, the first in The Bridge Chronicles. Read FBC's review of Under the Amoral Bridge here.

We'd like to thank Gary A. Ballard for taking the time to interview with us.
Mihir would also like to thank Robert Thompson and Liviu Suciu for their help and inspiration with this interview.






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For the benefit of readers, could you tell us about yourself and why you chose to write?

Born and raised in Mississippi, I’ve been an avid reader for as long as I can remember. I blame my school teacher mom. One of my favorite places as a kid was the library, the other being the local newsstand where I bought comic books. Comics, science fiction and fantasy were my favorite things to read, and all of those escapist stories of these marvelous other places and other worlds that were bigger than life and bigger than the rural places where I grew up lit a fire in my head. I started banging out really bad stories at 11 – most of them sword and sorcery fantasy, real Dungeons & Dragons stuff, all because I wanted the D&D boxed set for Christmas. I would stare at that boxed set in the store and dream up stories. Then I’d type those stories out on an old electric typewriter we had sitting in the laundry room. I’d say my love of comics and my love of role-playing games kept me writing through my teen and college years.

What can you tell us about this book specifically and the Bridge chronicles?

About 15 years ago, I came up with a pen and paper roleplaying game, wrote up a whole backstory on the world and did some playtest sessions with some buddies. All along I had in the back of my mind a series of novels set in the world that would accompany the RPG. I had some good initial response, then went and tried to redesign the system and the new system just didn’t work. It was way too exploitable. I shelved the game but never stopped thinking about the novel. It was about that time I got involved in MMOG’s, specifically Everquest and Dark Age of Camelot. I ran a guild for about 2 ½ years and it’s amazing how much of my time that sucked up. I rarely wrote. It wasn’t until shortly after 9/11 that something snapped for me. I had turned 30 a few months earlier, the guild was successful but there were a ton of interpersonal clashes and drama. All that drama causes an unbelievably crazy amount of stress. I took a step back and realized that a lot of my existential angst was over the fact that I’d done nothing with this great idea for a novel. I quit the game, handed over leadership and started writing.

I finally finished that first novel and had it ready for publication in 2005. Two years of failed attempts to publish had me rewriting that novel, but again, I got no traction with publishers. Objectively, I can see now that it was way too long, there were too many main characters and it needed professional editing. It also isn't what I would consider a mass market work – at best it’s a niche book. Cyberpunk is a sub-genre of sci-fi which is in itself a niche genre – so I’m trying to sell a niche of a niche to a mass market audience. Finally in late 2007, I decided to try an experiment. Rather than butt my head against the typical publishing world ritual of writing a ton of short stories and having them published in magazines to build notoriety, I’d write a short novel and publish it serially on a blog. I’d use this novel as an advertisement for the original novel. The story was meant to be kind of a bridge. That’s literally how I came up with the main character’s name: he’s a bridge, the story is a bridge, I’ll call him Bridge. I’d tell the story of some of the world events that lead up to the “main” novel. But along the way, I found I really really like this character. Bridge is a complete bastard, but you can’t look away: you have to see what he does next. Once I finished the novel, I knew there were other stories that I wanted to tell in that universe, significant events in the world’s backstory . That’s where the next two novels in the Bridge Chronicles have come from – the second was just completed online this August and the third is being written now.

On your blog you have first serialized this novel & then done the same with the sequel to it, any particular reasons behind this creative endeavor?

My day job is in Internet marketing and as part of that, I’ve started using social media as a marketing platform. Putting the novel online first was a way to experiment with distribution channels, to see how a complete unknown could promote his work using the Internet almost exclusively. I believe the “freemium” business model has potential, i.e. giving something away to get a customer to pay in the future. A big-time established novelist can “pull a Radiohead” by allowing the customer to choose how much they want to pay (or if they want to pay at all) for a work. But can a guy like me do that? We’ll see. I like to give the people who might actually become fans of my work a little something no matter how they choose to experience it. With ads on the web site, if I can build up enough traffic, even the free version will one day pay me back – or I can sell the paperback/ebook and get paid more directly. I view the web site as “the director’s cut” version of the novel – it has extras that aren’t in print, like the GlobalPedia articles. The print version has the extra short story that doesn’t appear online.

How did you end up writing about The Bridge chronicles? What was the spark of inspiration behind it?

See the long answer above about how the Chronicles started. The spark of inspiration was really that idea of a bridging novel, to the point where the character was a bridge as well. Not just in how he makes a living, being “the bridge” between someone with a need and someone to fulfill that need, but also in bridging the reader from this point in time to the point in time of the original novel. He also bridges the reader over to the characters that make up that first novel. The cop character, Gina Danton, was one of the characters from the original novel, and she’ll have a bigger part in the third Bridge novel. Another character in Under the Amoral Bridge is a big part of the original novel as well.

On your blog you have also mentioned about your poor eyesight, how do you reconcile this with your writing?

Well, I’m exaggerating a bit – I’m not actually blind. I’m just so nearsighted I might as well be without my glasses. The only thing I need to reconcile is to wear my glasses when I write. I will say though that if there was one piece of future tech I’d want from the gear I write about, it’d be cybereyes. Everybody talks about flying cars as their measure for the future. Hell with that – as badly as most of the idiots on the road drive regular cars, do we really want to put them thousands of feet in the air with a z-axis to worry about? No, we do not. Give me cybereyes with telescopic vision and a HUD and I am there.

Your story, by blurb details, would fall in the "Cyberpunk" genre, what does it mean to you and do you agree whether your story should be listed under such.

Bridge is definitely cyberpunk. Cyberpunk is a great genre, it’s such a melding of disparate elements from other genres that you can tell a lot of great stories. I look at it as urban political drama with whacked out metal gear. It’s our everyday class struggle, the haves holding down the have nots but with the individual rediscovering their power in the face of oligarchic oppression through the strategic (or desperate) use of knowledge. It’s noir detective fiction with existential protagonists who skirt the edge of nihilistic depression fighting back against the inexorable strength of capitalistic muscle. Action movies, animation, comic books, pop culture, it all gets stirred up in this soup and juxtaposed against these greater philosophical questions about the abuse of technology and the depersonalization of modern life.

Who are your literary idols? What are some of your favourite books?

I read really slowly, unfortunately, so I don’t read as much as I like. But I’m always reading something. My cyberpunk inspirations are what I call the big 3: Gibson, Sterling and Stephenson. Snow Crash is just the business. My literary inspirations are diverse: Camus; Sartre; Kerouac, Burroughs and Ginsberg, the whole beat generation really. Babylon 5 had a big impact on me. John Woo action movies and the early work of Tarantino before he turned into a self-indulgent muppet. Guy Ritchie’s first two movies. The comic work of Eisner, Frank Miller, Alan Moore and Dave Sim. And of course, video games.

How would you describe this book or your writing style to get a potential reader enticed?

Under the Amoral Bridge is a political thriller set up against a cyberpunk future of a city owned by corporations. It's a fast-paced page-turner, with some subtle and not so subtle examinations of morality, democracy and the abuse of power. The protagonist is a witty, acerbic bastard, the kind of guy you want to punch in the face while being completely absorbed in every rotten thing he does.

What do you do when you are not writing or reading books, what are your other hobbies?

I play video games, mostly PC games like FPS and MMOG’s, and console sports games. And I watch a lot of TV – I maintain that Tivo is the single greatest invention since the television. I’m a huge sports fan: I watch as much football and soccer (go Liverpool!) as I can, with a bit of baseball, hockey and rugby mixed in.

What type of writer are you. An Outliner or a freewriter? And could you give us a glimpse of your writing style and schedule?

I’ve never been much of an outliner, though I’m trying to correct that a bit with the third book. Everyone I’ve ever heard give advice about how to write is to do so on a schedule, but I don’t necessarily work best that way. What I do is think about what I’m going to write – whenever I’ve an idle moment, whether it be while driving to work or walking the dogs, I’m thinking about scenes I’m going to be writing. I often will write phrases or bits of dialogue in my head way before I ever write them down. The final conversation between Bridge and Thames in the first novel was written at least 3 or 4 months before I ever got to that chapter. It just wasn’t written down. I take few notes, which means I probably won’t leave much work to be published posthumously. But when I get to the act of writing it down, I barrel through the novel in a linear fashion. I start with chapter 1 and go straight through. I don’t skip around. I usually know the beginning, the ending and a few important scenes and the rest I make up as I go along. My schedule is sporadic – since I work normal office hours at my day job, weekends are the best time for me to write. My Saturday morning is usually get up, walk the dogs, eat a bowl of cereal and watch a game of footie, then try to write at least one “chunk.” Since I’ve started serializing my work and hammered out about how long I want a reader to digest in one serial sitting, that chunk unit is variable but tends to come much easier.

How has the reader feedback been since you started serializing your books?

Slow to come. Finding readers is difficult without any sort of mainstream press exposure, but the ones I’ve found have responded positively.

What do you think of the cross-pollination today between different formats such as film, novels, comic books, television, et cetera? If given a chance to do the Bridge Chronicles in any other format which would be your first choice & why?

I’m all for cross-pollination. The way the publishing world is structured, writers make dick – even bestselling authors make pretty low margins per book. Without being a best seller with a sweetheart deal, a writer either has to write in copious amounts, or he has to merchandise the intellectual property. Even if a movie tanks, the writer is likely to make as much if not more from selling the movie rights than from selling books. That’s a horrible situation, but it is what it is. If the different mediums treat the original story with respect while altering the message for the medium, it’s all good. I would love to see a Bridge movie or TV show – one of my backburnered projects is to knock up a screenplay for Under the Amoral Bridge in case I ever get approached. I’d love to direct movies or TV, but it would take a special kind of crazy to give a neophyte like me that kind of control.

Since you are going the E-publishing way along with a lot many authors. How much do you feel will the publishing world is paying/not paying attention to this crucial format?

Like most of the traditional media, the publishing world has been glacially slow in responding to the possibilities of digital production. Something like the print-on-demand technology that I’m using with CreateSpace to produce my book would represent a revolution in the way books are sold if only the mainstream publishing world would get involved. But like any kind of legacy industry, it’s hard to argue with “we’ve made money like this for a hundred years.” A lot of heavy players make a lot of money from the way things are – much like our healthcare industry. Unfortunately, the status quo doesn’t really help the majority of authors. The “mid-list” novel has disappeared. The only people getting the press are established best sellers, celebrity tell-alls, nonfiction books with controversy attached or the rare media sensation. And if you self-publish, getting any media coverage at all is almost impossible. In fact, many agents, publishers and or media outlets won’t touch you with a ten-foot pole. It’s a shame – I understand there are lots of crazy cranks out there self-publishing their batshit insane manifestos, but there are good authors writing good material like me. I think the stigma of self-publishing is going to lessen over time as technologies like POD and the Internet gain favor, but the publishing world is going to have to see the dollars before it shifts its thinking in any sort of concerted way.

In your book and amongst many SF books there are various degrees of dystopian future shown with a spectacular rise in technology as well as human decadence, what do you think is the curious reason of this setup which is as much as an SF cliché as in the farmboy-prince cliché in fantasy?

Initially, I think the dystopian future settings could be chalked up to a bit of millennial fever – this idea that the world would end in the year 2000 lent everyone a sort of nihilistic fatalism. Combine that with the end of the Cold War in the ‘80’s and suddenly the zeitgeist is one of confusion. How does this new world work? Who are the players? Who is evil? Who is good? You take an event like the Cold War, with its ridiculous assumptions of this titanic struggle of monolithic entities embodying good and evil, and then you make people realize that it was all bullshit. There was no Evil Empire, just some folks over there who were a lot like us, with leaders that put ideology above the good of their people. And the culture starts to feel adrift, cut loose from its moorings. The 90’s brought another massive cultural upheaval with the rise of the Internet – and it causes the same kind of confused outlook on the world. People start to feel as if maybe the clock is slowly ticking down, we’re seeing the end of days. The normal individual feels dwarfed by all these massive changes that are out of their control. Technology intrudes on every aspect of our lives: we don’t bank anymore, we hit the ATM; we don’t look at the newspaper for movie times, we go online; we don’t send letters anymore, it’s all email; our company just got bought out by another faceless corporation AGAIN. All of that combines to make the individual feel smaller and smaller, less in control of his fate. And there is that fatalistic attitude, that inherent nihilism left over from 20th century culture that says “eventually, we’re going to wipe ourselves out.” So if the present is this bad now, how much worse can the future get? The future in the 50’s was all flying cars and silvery clothes – a shining future with disease wiped out. It very much mirrored the zeitgeist of the times, which was that the American Dream was alive and well and embodied by the Cleaver family. Of course, underneath all that conformist, optimistic prosperity, there was a brewing civil rights problem and the beat generation was feeling disaffected from the culture. Minorities and women were living in quiet desperation like second class citizens. The 60’s and 70’s woke us up. The future isn’t flying cars, it’s this scary dark place controlled by soulless corporations and uncaring, weakened governments. It makes a great setting for a plethora of stories, regardless of how far from reality it eventually turns out to be.

In your book you have also come up with a newer form of neural internet and body jacks could you expound on this technology as imagined by you. Could you discuss a bit more about the impact of technology on humanity?

The neural internet and interface jacks in Under is me taking the concepts from the RPG Cyberpunk 2020 and Stephenson’s Snow Crash and putting my own spin on them. I explain a bit more about that in the my GlobalPedia section on the web site: the cyberware (Click here) and the GlobalNet (Click here) articles. Those give a really good idea of how the tech works. There’s actually an underlying theme that’s going to be expanded on throughout both the Bridge series and the later books that I don’t want to spoil now. But suffice to say, the tech isn’t all it appears. But even in the beginning, even with Bridge, you see the dark side of this wonderful tech, how it affects the hackers physically, socially, emotionally, mentally. Bridge refuses to use the interface jack to its fullest potential, likening it to an addiction. Angela is really in some serious dire straits, barely coming out of the net to eat. These crèches are built to sustain the body for days, weeks on end, stimulating the muscles with electric shocks to fight atrophy, feeding the body intravenously. But even with that, it still takes a hellish toll. That’s going to become even more obvious as the series goes on. The people who dedicate themselves to this tech are addicted to it, and there are designer virtual drugs out there like Trip that enhance the experience, but often at a terrible price. I’m a firm believer in the judicious use of technology, despite being an unrepentant geek – just because you can build something doesn’t always mean you should. For instance, cell phones. Talk about a technology that is being overused and oversold. Yes, there are situations where everyone could use a cell phone. But 99% of the time, 99% of the people out there do not need one of these wedges of plastic stuck to their forehead. Sometimes, it’s nice to be out of pocket. That’s the kind of mentality I view the tech in the novels. It’s fantastic stuff, but beware the price, both the sticker price and the hidden cost.

How do you envision your future and what can readers expect from you?

For the near future, it’ll be all about the Bridge. The second novel, The Know Circuit is available in full online and I plan to package it up as a trade paperback as well in February, 2010. I’ve already written the first draft for the short story that’ll be included in that one. Here’s a spoiler: it involves Paulie. I love writing the Paulie character, he lets me get my English Guy Ritchie thug on. As I said, the third novel is in progress – as of last night, I’m about halfway through chapter 2. I plan on releasing it serially on the web just like the others starting in February. After that, I’ve got about five ideas for novels to pick from, including that original series in the same universe as Bridge. And I could certainly get an idea for another Bridge novel while writing this next one. Whether or not I continue to publish them on the web before self-publishing the paperback version depends on the success of this model.

“The Cardinal’s Blades” by Pierre Pevel (Reviewed by Robert Thompson)

Order “The Cardinal’s Blades” HERE

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Pierre Pevel, one of the foremost writers of modern French fantasy, is the author of seven novels including two award winners (2002 Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire and 2005 Prix Imaginales) for Best Novel. “The Cardinal’s Blades” is Pierre’s first novel to be translated into English.

PLOT SUMMARY: Paris, 1633. Louis XIII reigns over France . . . and Cardinal Richelieu governs the country. One of the most dangerous and most powerful men in Europe, Richelieu keeps a constant, sharp eye on the enemies of the Crown to avoid their assassination attempts, thwart their spies and avert their warmongering. But he's up against people who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals, even going so far as to forge alliances with France's oldest and deadliest enemies: Spain, and the Court of Dragons.

Faced with the growing threat from Spain, Richelieu summons Captain La Fargue, an exceptional swordsman, devoted officer and brilliant leader. If he's to turn aside the Black Claw's schemes, La Fargue and his legenday company of swashbucklers and rogues must be persuaded to once again risk their lives, fortunes and reputations for Richelieu, and for France.

It's the biggest challenge yet for the Cardinal's Blades, and they'll need to be sharp...

FORMAT/INFO: Page count is 384 pages divided over four Parts—each Part is then divided into numbered chapters—and an Epilogue. Also includes a couple maps of Paris. Narration is in the third person via numerous characters including Cardinal Richelieu, Captain La Fargue, Arnaud de Laincourt, Nicolas Marciac, Vicomtesse de Malicorne, Gagnière, Saint-Lucq, Leprat d’Orgueil, Almades, etc. “The Cardinal’s Blades” is the first book in a series, but reads as a self-contained story neatly wrapping up events. It also ends on a couple of minor cliffhangers that promises to be explored in future volumes. The second book in the series, “The Alchemist in the Shadows”, is tentatively slated for UK publication in 2010.

November 19, 2009 marks the UK Hardcover & Trade Paperback publication of “The Cardinal’s Blades” via Gollancz. The English version was translated by Tom Clegg. The original French version was published in 2007 by Braglonne.

ANALYSIS: If Alexandre Dumas had written a fantasy novel, it would probably look something like Pierre Pevel’s “The Cardinal’s Blades”, which takes Dumas' swashbuckling adventure, intrigue and historical setting, and adds dragons to the mix—think The Three Musketeers meets Naomi Novik’s Temeraire. A cool concept in theory, but does it work? Well, yes and no...

On the plus side, “The Cardinal’s Blades” is a lot of fun to read. The action, as promised, is non-stop, driven by short 3-4 page long chapters and multiple subplots; the intrigue is engaging and devious, full of little twists and turns with nearly every character in the book harboring a secret of some sort or hidden allegiance; the cast of characters is extensive, diverse and likeable; humor is light and enjoyable; and some familiar faces appear in the book including Cardinal Richelieu, Comte de Rochefort, and even Athos :) In short, “The Cardinal’s Blades” successfully captures the spirit of Alexandre Dumas, and should immediately appeal to anyone who is a fan of swashbuckling adventure.

Fantasy lovers however, are not quite as lucky. For while the historical, swashbuckling and intrigue aspects are handled beautifully, the fantasy elements in the book are drastically understated. Yes, there are dragons and magic in “The Cardinal’s Blades” in the form of the Black Claw order, wyverns (racial cousins of the dragons who serve mankind as winged mounts), half-bloods, dragonnets (used as pets or messengers), dracs (a race spawned by the dragons in order to serve them), the ranse disease (originated from dragons), and a Sphère d’ Áme (houses the soul of an Ancestral Dragon), but so little time is spent on fleshing out these elements—a few paragraphs here and there—that they feel more like garnish than an integral part of the novel. This problem also extends to the story which primarily focuses on the machinations between France, Spain, the Cardinal’s Blades and the Black Claw, as opposed to the greater threat in the Court of Dragons. Basically, if the author had spent as much time and effort on developing the fantasy parts of the novel as he did the rest of the book, then “The Cardinal’s Blades” would have been profoundly better.

Other problems with the book includes a plot that takes a long time to develop (nearly 180 pages before the Cardinal’s Blades are reformed and their mission revealed); the blunt manner in which the author spells out everything that is happening intrigue-wise, as if it would be too difficult for the reader to folllow—it’s not by the way; and the characterization, or lack thereof. Of the last, because there are so many characters in the novel and because the chapters are so short, very little character development is going on apart from establishing a few main traits: Marciac is roguish and a womanizer, Almades is serious and reserved, La Fargue is the grizzled leader, etc. As a result, it’s very hard to actually care about anyone in the book—they are mostly recognizable stock figures anyway—regardless of how fun their narratives may be. Finally, I found the prose to be surprisingly plain and economical, especially for an award-winning author, although that may be more due to the translation than Pierre Pevel’s actual writing style.

CONCLUSION: In the end, Pierre Pevel’s “The Cardinal’s Blades” is a fast and fun reading experience, but is plagued by a few fundamental problems and lacks the substance and depth to be anything more than a good summer read. It’s also a book that I believe will appeal more to fans of Alexandre Dumas, swashbuckling adventures, and alternate histories than those of epic fantasies. Fortunately, being a fan of Dumas myself as well as fantasy, I enjoyed reading “The Cardinal’s Blades” and look forward to continuing the series...

"Damnable" by Hank Schwaeble (Reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)

Visit Hank Schwaeble's Official Website Here
Read Fantasy Book Critic's Interview with Hank Here

AUTHOR & BOOK INFORMATION:

Hank Schwaeble is an attorney in Houston and is also a former Air Force officer working as a special agent in the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. He has also won the Bram Stoker award in 2009 for the anthology "Five Strokes to Midnight" along with Gary Braunbeck.

Damnable is Hank Schwaeble's debut novel and is being released in mass market paperback by Jove books, an imprint of Penguin books. The book is 26 chapters, with a prologue and epilogue.

BOOK OVERVIEW & ANALYSIS:

I happened upon this book while browsing through a catalogue. The book blurb that caught my eye describes the setting as that in New York City and having it involve an ex-military operative who has to search for his long lost brother. I knew that I wanted to check out this book further based on this description.

The setting of this story might seem a bit cliched and in some ways reminds me of the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child. However after reading the first couple of chapters I knew my perceived idea of this story was wrong and that this was something completely different an a little more violent then what I would have expected.

The story begins with a rather strange accident which sets of the beginning events of the novel. Within the first chapter readers are introduced to the main protagonist Jake Hatcher, who is currently in a military prison due to events that are unknown at the time. His release is facilitated due to events that have been told to readers in the prologue. Jake then goes on to meet up with his mother and tries to get an understanding of the events that have happened and are about to happen.

I would rather not reveal too much of what happens in the novel especially the beginning as it's all intricately connected and the plot line just builds up from there. The surprise of the novel seems to be an important part of the reading of this.

The majority of the chapters are told from Jake Hatcher's POV, however there are a few chapters where the POV shifts to include two other prominent characters who play an important part in the story. The characters, and the roles that they play, I believe will be a lot more beneficial to the readers if they find this out for themselves. There are a few one-off POVs from minor characters scattered throughout the story. This aspect of Hank Schwaeble's writing is very reminiscent of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child who often insert one-off POVs in between the main POVs.

The story is a amalgamation of horror and thriller as Hank Schwaeble does an admirable job of keeping the reader hooked with his easy and readable prose. He also does a very good job of relaying the action scenes and the story lines to the reader. No space is waster in reminiscing about anything that took place and all development of the storyline is forward, with no looking back. Another excellent job done by Schwaeble is that of taking all the story threads that are occurring in this novel and twisting them all into one at the end. This is something that can be appreciated as Schwaeble's writing style and story structure is very much like a seasoned author and many readers will not be able to tell that this is his debut novel.

Schwaeble has a nod to John Steinbeck and has inserted it into the plot in a very apropos manner. I thought this was a very interesting aspect of the novel and something that should have it's attention drawn to.

The character development within Damnable is unique unto itself. The main protagonist is not a cookie-cutter character and has many sides to him, some of which are shown in this story and some of them that are not told within the novel. I'm sure there are many readers like myself who would like to read and know more about Jake Hatcher, as he was able to draw readers in and frustrate them at time. I'd love to see more of this character in other books in the future.

Another character that has great development is that of the antagonist. The antagonist is not just all out crazy, instead Schwaeble does a great job of presenting the antagonists viewpoint and giving readers a rationale explanation of what is happening and what's behind all the events. I for one could understand the thought process and even sympathize with the "bad" guy because of this portrayal.

In the end, Hank Schwaeble just a fantastic job in writing his debut novel. He is a talents guy who is sure to light up the thriller scene with future books. This book is a must read for all thriller, horror and supernatural fiction fans. Hank Schwaeble's Damnable is by far the best debut thriller of 2009 for myself. Read Damnable and find out why for yourself!

A Lot of Contest Winners!

Ever wonder who won all those contests we offered in October? Well here's the lucky winners to some of the contests that were hosted here at Fantasy Book Critic. Thank you to everyone that entered, and to all those that allowed me to host a contest on the site!

Winners of the Midnight Guardian Contest
Lisa Richards (North Carolina), Janan Cheskis (Illinois), Reuben Hubbard (Canada), Peter Phram (California), Mike Spencer (Colorado), Sweta Barot (Virginia), Mishel Zabala (Virginia), Shalayna Woodly (Ohio), Dave Wyatt (Maryland), and William Bragg (Georgia)

Winner of the Hatter M: Mad With Wonder by Frank Beddor and Liz Cavalier Contest
Steven Wenzel (California)

Winners of the "Fangs" Giveaway:
Theresa Kamper (Illinois), Linda Henderson (Missouri), and Caren Feldman (Virginia)

Winners of the Set of Riyran Revolation books:
Megan Greene (Utah), and Mark Joseph (California)

"The New Dead" E-Card

2009 World Fantasy Award Winners

The winners of World Fantasy Award of 2009 were just announced, in the traditional banquet held at the World Fantasy Convention. Here they are, via Science Fiction Awards Watch (thanks to Larry Nolen for the heads-up):

• Lifetime Achievement: Ellen Asher & Jane Yolen
• Best Novel (tie): The Shadow Year, Jeffrey Ford (Morrow) & Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin; Knopf)
• Best Novella: “If Angels Fight”, Richard Bowes (F&SF 2/08)
• Best Short Story: “26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss”, Kij Johnson (Asimov’s 7/08)
• Best Anthology: Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy, Ekaterina Sedia, ed. (Senses Five Press)
• Best Collection: The Drowned Life, Jeffrey Ford (HarperPerennial)
• Best Artist: Shaun Tan
• Special Award – Professional: Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant (for Small Beer Press and Big Mouth House)
• Special Award – Non-Professional: Michael Walsh (for Howard Waldrop collections from Old Earth Books)

The judges for 2009 were: Jenny Blackford, Peter Heck, Ellen Klages, Chris Roberson & Delia Sherman.

The FBC team congratulates the winners.

Spotlight on November Books

This month Robert Thompson provided most of the book titles with additions by Cindy Hannikman, Liviu Suciu and Mihir Wanchoo. We are featuring 50 books.

The release dates are US unless marked otherwise and the books are first edition unless noted differently. The dates are on a best known basis so they are not guaranteed; same about the edition information. Since information sometimes is out of date even in the Amazon/Book Depository links we use for listings, books get delayed or sometimes even released earlier, we would truly appreciate if you would send us an email about any listing with incorrect information.

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“Finch” by Jeff VanderMeer. Release Date: November 3, 2009.

“The Battle of the Sun” by Jeanette Winterson. UK Release Date: November 2, 2009.

“Heart's Blood” by Juliet Marillier. Release Date: November 3, 2009.

“The Dragon Book” by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois. Release Date: November 3, 2009.

“Time Travelers Never Die” by Jack McDevitt. Release Date: November 3, 2009.

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“Elegy Beach” by Steven R. Boyett. Release Date: November 3, 2009.

“The Silver Mage” by Katharine Kerr. Release Date: November 3, 2009.

“Crimson” by Jordan Summers. Release Date: November 3, 2009.

“Magic in the Shadows” by Devon Monk. Release Date: November 3, 2009.

“The Trouble With Heroes” edited by Denise Little. Release Date: November 3, 2009.

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“Curse of the Spider King” by Wayne Thomas Batson. Release Date: November 3, 2009.

“Mirror Space” by Marianne de Pierres. UK Release Date: November 5, 2009.

“Acts of Violence” by Ryan David Jahn. UK Release Date: November 6, 2009.

“Under the Dome” by Stephen King. Release Date: November 10, 2009.

“Destroyer of Worlds” by Larry Niven & Edward M. Lerner. Release Date: November 10, 2009.

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“Mariposa” by Greg Bear. Release Date: November 10, 2009.

“The Atlantis Code” by Charles Brokaw. Release Date: November 10, 2009.

“Burn Me Deady” by Alex Bledsoe. Release Date: November 10, 2009.

“Wings of Creation” by Brenda Cooper. Release Date: November 10, 2009.

“The Shadowmask” by R.A. Salvatore and Geno Salvatore. Release Date: November 10, 2009.

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“A Young Man Without Magic” by Lawrence Watt-Evans. Release Date: November 10, 2009.

“The Magician of Hoad” by Margaret Mahy. Release Date: November 10, 2009.

“The Resurrection Fields” by Brian Keaney. Release Date: November 10, 2009.

“Full Circle” by Pamela Freeman. Release Date: November 12, 2009.

“The Cult of Osiris” by Andy McDermott. Release Date: November 12, 2009.

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“The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart” by Jesse Bullington. Release Date: November 16, 2009.

“Torch of Freedom” by David Weber & Eric Flint. Release Date: November 17, 2009.

“The Cardinal's Blades” by Pierre Pevel. UK Release Date: November 19, 2009.

“The Hidden Oasis” by Paul Sussman. UK Release Date: November 19, 2009.

“Breathless” by Dean Koontz. Release Date: November 24, 2009.

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“Pirate Latitudes” by Michael Crichton. Release Date: November 24, 2009.

“Carrion Comfort” by Dan Simmons. Release Date: November 24, 2009 (Reprint)

“The Elder Scrolls: The Infernal City” by Greg Keyes. Release Date: November 24, 2009.

“First Lord's Fury” by Jim Butcher. Release Date: November 24, 2009.

“Blood in the Water” by Juliet E. McKenna. Release Date: November 24, 2009.

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“Nightchild” by James Barclay. Release Date: November 24, 2009.

“The Silver Skull” by Mark Chadbourn. Release Date: November 24, 2009.

“The Devil's Alphabet” by Daryl Gregory. Release Date: November 24, 2009.

“Total Oblivion: More or Less” by Alan DeNiro. Release Date: November 24, 2009.

“Beyond the Wall of Time” by Russell Kirkpatrick. Release Date: November 24, 2009.

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“Hardcore” by Andy Remic. Release Date: November 24, 2009.

“The Battle of Devastation Reef” by Graham Sharp Paul. Release Date: November 24, 2009.

“Diving into the Wreck” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Release Date: November 24, 2009.

“Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty” by Raymond Benson. Release Date: November 24, 2009.

“Plague Zone” by Jeff Carlson. Release Date: November 24, 2009.

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“The Better Part of Darkness” by Kelly Gay. Release Date: November 24, 2009.

“Three Days to Dead” by Kelly Meding. Release Date: November 24, 2009.

“Unleashed” by John Levitt. Release Date: November 24, 2009.

“Delilah” by India Edghill. Release Date: November 24, 2009.

“Flesh Circus” by Lilith Saintcrow. Release Date: November 24, 2009.

"Cirque Du Freak" Book One in theThe Darren Shan Saga by Darren Shan (Reviewed by Cindy Hannikman)

Visit Darren Shan's Official Website Here
Enter the Cirque Du Freak Contest Here

Introduction: My local book store has has a display with all 12 books out ever since the movie trailers have hit the air waves. I was interested to see what all the fuss was about and I figured this was as good of time as any to check out the books.

Summary: Darren Shan has grown up in a world where "freak" shows have been banned due to the horrible conditions that the acts used to have to deal with. Although freak shows are illegal it is rumored that there is an underground freak show that travels around and performs every so often. If you are lucky enough you can get a secret poster that allows you to buy tickets to this event.

Darren's friend is one of those lucky people that by chance came across a poster advertising the "Cirque Du Freak". As a group the friends band together and pull together enough money to afford two tickets to this exclusive show.

While at the show Darren and his friend, Steve become enthralled with all the acts, which include the snake boy, a bearded lady, and a very poisonous spider known as Madam Octa who is controlled by a mysterious man named Mr. Crepsley. Something is very strange about Mr. Crepsley and Steve swears he's seen him somewhere else in which he wishes to confront him after the show.

Meanwhile, Darren has formed an obsession with Mr. Crepsley's pet spider and is forming ways in his head on how he can gain such a rare spider so that he can show off in front of his friends. The only solution to getting this rare spider is by stealing Mr. Crepsley's.

Who would have thought that by visiting an illegal freak show could change Darren's life so drastically?

Cirque Du Freak is the first of twelve books in the Darren Shan Saga. It is also the first book in the Vampire Blood Trilogy which is part of that twelve book set.

Analysis: Cirque Du Freak is filled with all those "horrors" that complete a decent YA read. Many readers will fondly remember the "Goosebumps" series by R. L. Stine. This series is a step up from Goosebumps, with a bit more graphic content and older characters.

The thing that I found out very quickly about Cirque Du Freak is that it's much more then about an illegal freak show. Instead that is just the event that gets the plot line going. Although sadly, in this book just when the events start rolling the book ends in an almost "to be continued" like fashion. This left me with an almost incomplete sense, I wanted to know more about what happens to Darren and how he is going to cope in the world. While it does leave off at an appropriate time, readers should expect all their questions to be answered.

One of the "flaws" that were present within this book were the characters. A lot of the characters came across as flat or uninteresting. Although the last one-fourth of the book really picked up the character of Darren. Part of the reason for this type of characterization could be that this was one of Darren Shan's first books published, so every author is allowed a little leeway to grow and change overtime. There is a definite change in the last few chapters and from reading some of Shan's later works the characters have improved so don't expect a miracle walking into the first book.

I did really enjoy Shan's portrayal of vampires in this book. So many vampires in YA books lately have been romantic and sparkly. They are almost like the teddy bears of the undead lately. Shan takes a different approach and brings them back to the scary, evil, not nice people that these creatures are supposed to be.

Another item to remember is that this is a YA horror book, so what adult readers might come to expect as horrifying and scary won't be present in here. However it's a step up from the talking dummies that appeared in Goosebumps, I have to admit the piano hand cutting did scare me when I was younger.

In the end this is a great series especially for boys because it has all those elements that I'm sure they are looking for in books. The chapters aren't overly long, so when reading and wanting to take a break you aren't glued for lengthy amounts of times. I'll anxiously go and devour the next book in the series! If you aren't going in expecting an adult horror book you just might be surprised with the experience that you'll have!