Fantasy Book Critic

More Details about "Worldsoul" by Liz Williams and "Empty Space" by M. John Harrison (by Liviu Suciu)

2012-03-09T11:01:00.006-05:00

The author of the wonderful sf novels with strong fantasy-nal elements, Bloodmind, Darkland, Winterstrike, Banner of Souls and of the UF series Inspector Chen returns this summer with Worldsoul, the start of a new series from Prime Books. While even on first rumors the book jumped on my list of highly awaited novels of 2012, the new details that surfaced recently and the book cover presented above, made it even more of a priority.

This is one of the "dark horse" novels of 2012 for me that could so blow me away to jump into my top five novel list, where epics and "weighty" novels of all kind usually tend to dwell, but mind blowing though shorter length sf tends also to appear.

"What if being a librarian was the most dangerous job in the world?

Worldsoul, a great city that forms a nexus point between Earth and the many dimensions known as the Liminality, is a place where old stories gather, where forgotten legends come to fade and die—or to flourish and rise again. Until recently, Worldsoul has been governed by the Skein, but they have gone missing and no one knows why. The city is also being attacked with lethal flower-bombs from unknown enemy. Mercy Fane and her fellow Librarians are doing their best to maintain the Library, but... things... keep breaking out of ancient texts and legends and escaping into the city. Mercy must pursue one such dangerous creature. She turns to Shadow, an alchemist, for aid, but Shadow—inadvertently possessed by an ifrit—has a perilous quest of her own to undertake"

A short comment from Liz Williams about the series can be found on her blog HERE:

"I have signed a 3 book deal with Prime Books. It's called Worldsoul and it's about a stolen library, an unstable monorail, several renegade sphinxes and much else besides. It's more fantasy than SF."

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After a change of title, the 3rd Kefauchi Tract novel by M. John Harrison after the still haunting "Light" and the somewhat less memorable, at least to date, "Nova Swing", will come out this summer as "Empty Space".

Time for a reread of Nova Swing and a browse through Light, but the blurb below is making this one a huge asap novel and an early candidate for top sff novel of the year, place that right now is held by In the Mouth of the Whale.

"EMPTY SPACE is a space adventure. We begin with the following dream: An alien research tool the size of a brown dwarf star hangs in the middle of nowhere, as a result of an attempt to place it equidistant from everything else in every possible universe. Somewhere in the fractal labyrinth beneath its surface, a woman lies on an allotropic carbon deck, a white paste of nanomachines oozing from the corner of her mouth. She is neither conscious nor unconscious, dead nor alive. There is something wrong with her cheekbones. At first you think she is changing from one thing into another -- perhaps it's a cat, perhaps it's something that only looks like one -- then you see that she is actually trying to be both things at once. She is waiting for you, she has been waiting for you for perhaps 10,000 years. She comes from the past, she comes from the future. She is about to speak-- EMPTY SPACE is a sequel to LIGHT and NOVA SWING, three strands presented in alternating chapters which will work their way separately back to this image of frozen transformation."

The author has a little more detail here:

"Pearlant was the working title. By the time I’d finished, I didn’t like it. No one else liked it either. I thought I’d call it Black Heart. Characters of mine have been drinking Black Heart Rum since “The Gift” in 1987, although they only got going in earnest in 2001. But Gollancz turned out to be publishing another novel called Black Heart in the same month. So I reverted to the working title for Light, which I always liked because space isn’t empty at all.

Empty Space is the third & final book in the Light setting. It suggests that I always had a plan, albeit of the usual mad, half-hidden kind. If you didn’t like Light because of the sex, don’t get Empty Space. If you didn’t like Light because of a perceived “coldness” don’t get Empty Space. If you can’t navigate yourself morally, politically & emotionally without three sentences of direction for every sentence that furthers the action, don’t get Empty Space."

"The Ruined City" by Paula Brandon (reviewed by Liviu Suciu)

2012-03-08T08:16:00.004-05:00

The Author at Wikipedia
Order The Ruined City HERE
Read FBC Review of The Traitor's Daughter

"Paula Brandon’s epic and captivating trilogy continues as magic and mystery wreak havoc with the very fabric of existence.

Reality is wavering. Soon its delicate balance will shift and an ancient force will return to overwhelm the Veiled Isles. Now those with the arcane talent forge an uneasy alliance in hopes that their combined abilities are enough to avert an eerie catastrophe. Yet it may be too late. The otherworldly change has begun. The streets of the city are rife with chaos, plague, and revolt. And it is here that Jianna Belandor, once a pampered daughter of privilege, returns to face new challenges.

The dead walk the streets. The docile amphibian slaves of humanity have taken up arms. Jianna’s home lies in ruins. Her only happiness resides in her growing attraction to Falaste Rione, a brilliant nomadic physician whose compassion and courage have led him to take dangerous risks. Jianna, stronger and more powerful than she knows, has a role to play in the unfolding destiny of her world. But a wave of madness is sweeping across the land, and time is running out—even for magic. "

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: "The Ruined City" is a direct sequel to "The Traitor's Daughter" and a typical middle series novel insofar things advance but nothing is really resolved. The book was still fun to read as style but the content was too standard this time so I found myself reading a few pages and then putting it down so I do not get too bored by what happens and then repeating this a few times, until I finished it maybe a month after I started it.

There are a few twists and the ending is quite interesting - it is similar to how the first novel ended so with a dramatic touch - but in typical middle book fashion, story-lines that split earlier and characters whose coming apart was a major part of the first volume, remain split this time and remain apart, but in a time sensitive switch of places which read just a little contrived.

I also found Aureste's change in focus and outlook somewhat unconvincing and all his storyline which is the big picture thread after all, seemed very "unreal" given the way the world building - occupation, constraints, even character relationships - has been presented earlier. In many ways he becomes a more interesting character true, but the whole change of focus in "let's forget everything and let's go save the world" - this without the occupiers otherwise portrayed as keeping a tight leash on the occupied seeming to notice or care - jarred to a large extent.

In contrast I found Jianna's storyline much more interesting and "natural" and her transformation from "smart but bookish, other worldly pampered girl" to a practical, let's do what is needed to survive and help my new found friends, continued apace, though like with the big picture issue nothing was really solved here.

The book and the series to date excels at portraying strong women who are determined to do what it takes to reach their goals, while Jianna is getting there and her character arc is quite fascinating and the reason I enjoyed the novel and I plan to read The Wanderers which presumably will end the trilogy, and this finale volume will decide how I will regard the series overall.

So to sum quickly, The Ruined City (recommended novel of 2012) focuses more on the big picture than I found desirable or interesting as the whole "ancient evil, world is in danger, let's go save it" seems to be so predictably done these days - and here it is no exception to a large extent - that it has become a reason to stop reading a book whose focus is there.

On the other hand the personal stories, especially Jianna's, are still fascinating and represent the strength of the author as she has shown us in her wonderful 1990 novels like Illusion. I really hope the last volume will be very strong there, though I fear to some extent that it will go the whole faux-drama of everything seeming lost until at the last minute the heroes save the world and everybody lives happily ever after while all the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed, which seems to be the way traditional fantasy series end these days. We'll see in July...

Fated by Benedict Jacka (Reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)

2012-03-07T00:01:00.009-05:00

Official Author Website

Read the first chapter HERE

Order the book HERE

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Benedict Jacka first thought of becoming a writer when at the age of eighteen he started writing a story in his school library. Since then he's graduated with a B.A. in philosophy from Cambridge, lived in China, and worked in various different occupations such as civil servant, bouncer and teacher before returning to London to study law. He’s also taken part in competitive ballroom dancing and martial arts. He currently lives in London.

OFFICIAL BLURB: Alex Verus is a diviner, able to see the future. This is impressive to most people but less so to other mages, who can do things like throw fire, disintegrate things, and fly. Right now Alex has a problem – a site’s been discovered containing an ancient and powerful relic, and lots of people are looking for a diviner to open it, including a trio of dark mages, a faction of the Council with an agenda of their own, and a shadowy figure out of Alex’s past, all of whom are looking to recruit, press-gang, or kill Alex, not necessarily in that order.

As if that’s not enough, Alex has to take care of his would-be apprentice, who has some connection to the relic which is making her a target as well . . . and who also just happens to carry a curse that’ll kill anyone who gets too close, assuming the mages hunting her don’t do it first. His allies are an air elemental with the memory of a goldfish and a creature living under Hampstead Heath that would make most people run screaming.

Sometimes seeing the future isn’t as fun as it sounds...

FORMAT/INFO: Fated is 295 pages long, divided over fifteen chapters. Narration is in the first-person solely via Alex Verus. Fated is the first book in the Alex Verus series.

February 28, 2012 marked the North American paperback and e-book publication of Fated via ACE books. The UK version was released in both paperback and e-book format on March 1, 2012 via Orbit.

ANALYSIS: Benedict Jacka’s debut has received quite some hype before its release and a blurb from Jim Butcher (coming from JB, this was something special as he currently blurbs biennially). All things considered this results in tremendous expectation to arise for a debut book. Anne Sowards also had mentioned Fated as one of the books to look out for in 2012 in her FBC interview. All things considered, I was very curious to see how the book would turn out to be.

Fated begins us with Alex Verus who is sitting in his magic charms shop called “Arcana Emporium” and divining the near future as that is his power. He receives a phone call from Luna who requests his help and after a quick divination, he decides to meet her. On his way however an old acquaintance comes to meet him to offer him a job of sorts wherein his divining powers are a requirement. The job offer pisses Alex off and he soon continues on his way to meet Luna. That’s when things start getting hairier as readers are given a clue about Luna’s unique problem and the thing she’s carrying. The actual plot begins and the readers are immersed into the world of Alex Verus wherein fate might not play that strong a role as it usually does.

The good part about this debut is that the story does its best to entrance the reader, beginning from its strong prose to the narrator’s distinct voice. The author unveils the story nicely and then doles out the world details very conveniently. The story is a straight forward one which though like most urban fantasies has a central mystery plot which slowly unfolds over the course of the book. The mystery aspect is a decent one and deals with a recovery of a certain object which requires the aid of divination magic. The overall prose is something which truly is the silver lining aspect of this story, here’s an example:

“In my little corner of the city, things aren’t so bad. So if there’s something you need help with, drop by the Arcana Emporium. Its easy enough to find of you try. You probably won’t take it seriously at first, but that’s okay. Seeing is believing, after all!”

The author very admirably showcases the world of the protagonist and his reticence to return to the world of magic of which he was a part of. The protagonist’s thoughts and views are nicely laid about for the reader to empathize with and with the first person narrative, the reader is thoroughly immersed in the character’s mind. The author in his lackadaisical way does conveys the protagonist’s weariness, the main character does have a sordid past which is only hinted at and has lead to certain situation in his present life. One of the many mysteries of this series is that the main character’s name is not his true one and that certainly adds an extra veneer of mystery to this tale. The action sequences are also decently paced through out the story and the climax of the story has quite a thriller feel to it and kudos to the author for delivering such a strong, action-packed finale.

Of the many things that were good about this book, there were a few which worked against it. On reading it, I'm a bit perplexed. On one hand this is a good debut with definite series potential however comparisons to Dresden files and expectations might sour the read for many a fan. I found quite a few similarities with the Dresden files namely:

(1) A solo protagonist who has a troubled and secretive past

(2) The presence of a magical organization from which the protagonist is estranged

(3) The protagonist’s dogged persistence which happens to save the day

(4) The protagonist’s magical ability which isn’t on par with the bad guy’s power but yet he never gives up

(5) The protagonist has his side character cast which goes on to help in many a way

These similarities while being common with many a book, are quite evident in this story, while in the Dresden files the humor quotient is significantly present. That is not the case with this book as the humor level is quite shallow. I felt that while I was reading a good story, it really didn’t do much to differentiate itself as a spectacular one. The story and settings are developed just to an appropriate level however it isn’t done to a level which will make it stand out. Thus overall the debut does a good job but it will have to do a lot more to separate itself from the UF gold standard series that is the Dresden Files. I'll definitely be picking up the next two books in the series Taken and Cursed to see where the author takes the story & protagonist.

CONCLUSION: Benedict Jacka’s debut is a good one and it remains to be seen how the series will progress. Most veteran urban fantasy readers will not find anything new over here and the author will have to do a lot more to differentiate himself and his work amidst the crowded sub-genre. Fated is a debut which will have its fans and detractors alike and now its up to the author to increase the former numbers by curbing the deficiencies in his debut.

"The Thief" by Fuminori Nakamura (Reviewed by Liviu Suciu)

2012-03-06T09:31:00.004-05:00

Order The Thief HERE

INTRODUCTION: The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura, translated by Satoko Izumo and Stephen Coates, is a modern crime/thriller novel with philosophical overtones which attracted my attention on two counts. It is written by a Japanese author (see HERE and HERE for two of my recent reviews of Japanese novels and of course 2011's top book of mine was 1Q84) and it is published by Soho Press which just put out the wonderful Andromeda Lax-Romano novel The Detour.

Even so, I hesitated before asking for a review copy as a crime novel is generally not much of interest to me (the genre is way too limited and I read tons in it years ago so essentially I consider it "done" for me unless a crime novel has another dimension like being very good sff or historical fiction first), but ultimately I saw some mentions/reviews that convinced me to give it a try and I am really happy I did so as The Thief delivered.

Note that the blurb below is not really accurate in some ways, though it indeed alludes to events in the novel.

"The Thief is a seasoned pickpocket. Anonymous in his tailored suit, he weaves in and out of Tokyo crowds, stealing wallets from strangers so smoothly sometimes he doesn’t even remember the snatch. Most people are just a blur to him, nameless faces from whom he chooses his victims. He has no family, no friends, no connections.... But he does have a past, which finally catches up with him when Ishikawa, his first partner, reappears in his life, and offers him a job he can’t refuse. It’s an easy job: tie up an old rich man, steal the contents of the safe. No one gets hurt. Only the day after the job does he learn that the old man was a prominent politician, and that he was brutally killed after the robbery. And now the Thief is caught in a tangle even he might not be able to escape."

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: When talking about The Thief there are three aspects I want to touch. The prose (and translation) which are just superb, the narrator's story, both present and flashback past, which is extremely compelling and the crime novel aspects which are both important - as in determining the trajectory of the book - and tangential - as in The Thief is not really about them - so the book is likely to appeal more to readers of literary fiction than to crime genre aficionados.

"When I was a kid, I often messed this up. In crowded shops, in other people’s houses, things I’d pick up furtively would slip from my fingers. Strangers’ possessions were like foreign objects that didn’t fit comfortably in my hands. They would tremble faintly, asserting their independence, and before I knew it they’d come alive and fall to the ground. The point of contact, which was intrinsically morally wrong, seemed to be rejecting me. And in the distance there was always the tower. Just a silhouette floating in the mist like some ancient daydream. But I don’t make mistakes like that these days. And naturally I don’t see the tower either."

The first paragraph of the novel shown above showcases the strengths of the novel as style and voice and it instantly hooked me on the book. While there is one short allusion to his "real" name, the narrator lives in a lonely world with few human contacts, though he weaves adroitly in and out Tokyo crowds and blends in milieus that are well off but also in those less so.

Trying to use his natural dexterity and make a living as a pickpocket targeting mostly "the rich" and "the unlikable" and "advance" the state of the art in stealing from others on the street, in stores or in the subway, our hero - who is well versed in the history of his "profession" - knows that being anonymous and having no ties is the ultimate key to surviving.

“There was also this eccentric who’d put a card with his own name on it in the wallet he’d lifted and then put it back. A famous American pickpocket called Dawson. And an amazing man, Angelillo, who’s estimated to have stolen a hundred thousand wallets..."

However he has still been strongly attracted by a few people, most notably the flamboyant thief/swindler Ishikawa, while the ghost of his former married girlfriend, the self-destructive Saeko, still haunts him, years after they parted. Combined with some powerful childhood's memories that still impinge on him today, the thief finds himself inexorably attracted to a somewhat pathetic mother and son couple who try - ineptly and sure to be caught without his intervention - to steal food from a supermarket and that may of course turn out to be his downfall by tying him to a place and people...

In structure, The Thief moves between the present that actually happens a good while after the events alluded in the blurb above, and the past, both personal as noted above and the hero's unwitting association to a sinister but powerful personage and the blurb robbery - this confused me a little and once I understood the chronology of the novel, I went back and reread the opening chapters which actually take on a little different complexion once you find out this or that later.

The Thief is a very fast moving novel and it actually accelerates the deeper you go into its page count, so at some point it becomes literally very hard to put down as you are so caught in the hero's story that you *must* find out what happens next. At least this happened to me and I had to finish the book despite being very late; in many ways this is the clearest proof of how well the novel works.

The downside to the above is that the story while hinting at deeper stuff - for example the tower in the paragraph quoted earlier - and having philosophical overtones on the nature of fate and free will, never really explores them much and of course the crime aspects are relatively thin. This last did not bother me in the least and actually I would even consider it a plus for the reasons noted in the introduction, but it is also worth noting so you know "what you get".

“The nobleman looked at the youth and thought that he would try to prescribe his entire future. The story of his life, his joys, his sorrows, even his death, he would decide it all. Like Abraham and Moses, who were always under God’s control."

With a superb and pitch-perfect ending, The Thief (highly recommended novel of 2012) has been an unexpected success for me and I intend to keep an eye for anything translated from the author's work as well as on the output of Soho Press.

GUEST POST: Ernst Dabel on his Upcoming Novel ALBINO...

2012-03-05T00:01:00.027-05:00

This April, Ernst J. Dabel will release his new novel, Albino—a self-published YA ebook with distribution through Sea Lion Books. To help promote Albino, Ernst J. Dabel himself had a few things to say about his new book:

"Many years ago, my brothers and I were driving back from a convention. We were all exhausted but in good spirits. We had listened to a lot of music, but now turned it off so we could discuss some of the things we could do to contribute to society. We went back and forth on many things, some things we only briefly touched upon them, while others we debated for many hours in hopes of discovering a new way of bringing a happy heart and a beaming smile to each one of our fans. Well one of the topics that came up was by my brother Les, who’s now my agent. He said to us that he knew something that he felt had never been written before.

I was of course very curious, because at the time, my dream of becoming an author had not blossomed yet, but had only been a tiny seed. And I was very eager to write something that others had not delved into yet. Woodland creatures, he told us, living in the forests, not dressed up in human clothes and weapons as most of the cartoons portrayed, but dressed in grass, leaves, bark, flowers and other things from the wild. Their weapons would be made of wood, bone and other natural things but not metal.

Before I could open my mouth to respond to his comment however, he stopped me. Maybe he saw the look on my face. Woodland creatures! All the stories about them were for little kids, adults, if they were not parents, were not interested in reading such things. I was ready to move on to the next topic when he told me it had to be about woodland creatures that adults would not mind reading about. Then Les smiled. My brain processed his words and then the light bulb went on and I smiled back at him. He knew exactly what I was thinking, and he reminded me that I had always told him how J.R.R. Tolkien had written about elves, dwarves, and other fantasies, which in his time, were considered fit only for kids and not for respectable adults, and had written a story that both young and old alike has fallen in love with over the years. Now he told me, I might as well take woodland creatures, which in my time, is considered fit only for kids and not respectable adults, and write a story that young and old alike would fall in love with.

I didn’t need to hear any more. I was sold on the idea and so I locked myself in my room and wrote Albino in three weeks, pouring my soul into the work. When I finally finished and looked in the mirror, I was like Tom Hanks from Castaway with the wild hair and unkempt beard, lol (grins). It was the most grueling three weeks of my entire life.

I found an article as I was writing this blog post and I wanted to share it:

J.R.R. Tolkien, claimed in another lecture a couple of years later, entitled “On Fairy-Stories,” that “there is no true end to any fairy-tale” (Monsters 153). As if to prove his point, Tolkien took the Beowulf tale and reworked it: first as a children's story called The Hobbit, published in 1937, and then as “a children's book for adults” (Stirling 15), i.e. The Lord of the Rings, in 1954-5. The critics were confounded, especially since adults read the latter work; again and again, it seemed. What's more, in a major British poll conducted by the Waterstones book chain and Channel 4 television several years before the millennium ended, “adults” voted the trilogy the book of the century. To add insult to injury, the Folio Society1 decided they would check what readers of “serious” books thought, and yet again Tolkien came out on top… (If you’d like to read the entire article you can find it HERE.)

Albino will also include various black and white illustrations. I believe they will give a sense of how vast and complex this world of Nothengarrd, which Albino stumbles into, really is. Separating east from west is a large river of hundreds of thousands of living snakes, which flows from north to south in an endless flow. Some characters, aside from Albino, include the raccoon Lutador and his mother Dominirendlutador who are both dressed in banana peels; the mouse king Brannherr dressed in the flower petals of a rose sitting on his wooden throne and all of his scions who also dress in various flower-petals; Velhaco, the vain mouse prince dressed in the wings of butterflies; the fire ant Unos and his generals from the hellish desert of Arido dressed in outfits made from mud; and many others.

In the end, Albino does to woodland creatures what Lord of the Rings did for fantasy back in Tolkien’s time. In other words Albino takes woodland creatures into a story that even adults would care to read ;)"

OFFICIAL ALBINO SYNOPSIS: The white mouse Albino always believed that he would live with the old farmer William Springer forever, eating Cheddar cheese and enjoying life at the farm. But after he is kidnapped by the street urchin Darl and violently thrown into a raging river to drown, he wakes up in the middle of a strange and mysterious forest and his life is changed forever as he finds himself in a world unlike anything he could ever imagine.

Aided by an odd crow, he begins an adventure filled with action, danger, and ultimately a final confrontation against his worst nightmares.

The ancient and cruel rats called the Ma’aldee are on the move, while the Spiritual Guardians of the Land whisper in fear and dread of the coming of Emperor Loucura, Lord of the Ma'aldee.

Only Albino has the power to save the Land...

ABOUT E.J. DABEL:

Ernst J. Dabel is the President and co-owner of Dabel Brothers Productions, a publishing company specializing in comics and graphic novels. Ernst’s company has adapted novels by major authors such as Dean Koontz, Laurell K. Hamilton, Jim Butcher, George R.R. Martin, Robert Jordan, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Orson Scott Card, Raymond E. Feist, R.A. Salvatore, Patricia Briggs, Robert Silverberg, Tad Williams, and others. Albino is his second novel after Pantheons.

The Limits of Fantasy Inspired by History: "The Kings of Morning" by Paul Kearney (by Liviu Suciu)

2012-03-04T10:41:00.003-05:00

After two wonderful reinterpretations of classical events - The Ten Thousand and Corvus - I was both having great expectations and great doubts about the logical conclusion of the series in "The Kings of Morning".

Expectations because I really like how Paul Kearney's writes and his Ten Thousand were the best in modern fiction (and I read a few other reinterpretations from Michael Curtis Ford and Valerio Manfredi), while Corvus managed to dispel my original doubts and create a Macht analog of Alexander and a unifying war that worked.

Doubts because as opposed to both Xenophon's campaign (The Ten Thousand) and Philip and Alexander Greek wars (Corvus), I read a ton about Alexander's Asian campaign and his successors wars for that matter, most notable recent such being God of War, the masterpiece of Christian Cameron, and the fantasy-nal reinterpretation of Alexander's aftermath by Jo Graham in Stealing Fire, part of her wonderful "Numinous World" series.

And the doubts proved founded since The Kings of Morning did not really work for me as it got too close to fraying my suspension of disbelief on two related counts. First the Alexander parallels are too pronounced here for the everybody lives happily ever after stuff and second The Kings of Morning gets very near war as escapism.

The author's skills can disguise a lot of the above, but ultimately this book lacked three dimensions and read too much as clear escapism Hollywood style; this may work in a pure fantasy setting, specially one that does not take itself too seriously, but here with the classical model, the book is found wanting and I could not help feeling that reading God of War and then reading The Kings of Morning is like reading a serious book for adults, followed by a simplified children's one on the same theme.

For good measure I reread Stealing Fire too just too see if/how a fantasy-nal novel can compare and I found it even better on second read with wonderful prose, three dimensional characters depth and subtlety, all which The Kings of Morning sadly lacked.

Overall, if you can take The Kings of Morning on its own, you may enjoy it more, but if the historical parallels dominate, the book is sadly lacking in comparison with what's out there.

Three Fall Titles of Huge Interest, I.M. Banks, J. C. Valtat and D. Weber (by Liviu Suciu)

2012-03-03T09:45:00.005-05:00

Iain M. Banks returns to the Culture (or at least that's the internet talk as I have not seen a book synopsis so far) in The Hydrogen Sonata. There is also a rumor that it will be a "big" book, longer than any of the previous Culture novels and of course it shot up to my top of the expected list.

As Use of Weapons at #6 is top sff on my all time favorite list (both as a book and a proxy for the Culture series of course) and Surface Detail and Transition have been top sf (and sff for that matter) of their years for me, it's clear why The Hydrogen Sonata is such a huge awaited novel.

Mr. Banks will soon have a non-sff (non-M) novel out, Stonemouth, but I never found his non-M books (I read 4-5 easily) that much on my taste as they are "very British" and such are always hit-and-miss with me as I grew up on French culture, etc...

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In October, Jean Christophe Valtat will have a new novel out called Luminous Chaos. I loved Aurorarama and the title above suggests a book in the same vein, possibly a sequel or same universe novel, so I got very interested when I heard about it.

We'll see of course and I am even more curious how a second novel coming with very high expectations will read as sometimes novels coming out of nowhere so to speak may seem even more impressive due to that.

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While not unexpected as David Weber has so far kept the one Safehold novel per year schedule, I was still happy to learn that the 6th Safehold novel is on track for September/October and it has as (tentative) title, Midst Toil and Tribulation. You can find the links to all the series reviews in the review of How Firm a Foundation.

This last Safehold novel - #5 to date - has been the weakest imho as the author started repeating himself a little too much without bringing enough new stuff. In general, Mr. Weber tends to repeat and rework stuff from series to series and even book to book, so you can see a few scenes and subplots in various guises, but usually he adds that extra twist or that new angle of looking at - the assassination attempt in By Heresies Distressed which also appears in the upcoming War Maid's Choice in a new guise after appearing first in Heirs of Empire in a different context for example, or the main battle in A Rising Thunder are two recent such examples that come to mind but there are quite a few in his 50+ books work - that the scenes in cause read fresh and exciting.

In How Firm a Foundation though the freshness lacked a little and I hope that Midst Toil and Tribulation will reinvigorate the series with some of those twists the author is justly famed for. I read some speculations and some author comments about the general thrust of MTAT and they are of course not surprising considering how HFAF ended, but there is enough space to twist and turn...

Scarecrow Returns by Matthew Reilly (Reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)

2012-03-02T00:01:00.012-05:00

Official Author Website

Read an excerpt HERE

Order the book HERE (US and UK)

Watch book trailer HERE

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Matthew Reilly was born and brought up in Sydney, Australia. He studied law at the University of New South Wales and wrote his first two books while being a student. He self published his first book which lead to his eventual publication by Pan Macmillan. He is a cricket aficionado as well as a movie memorabilia collector. One of his prize items is a DeLorean DMC-12 and other items from the Star Wars and Indian Jones franchises.

OFFICIAL BLURB: At an abandoned Soviet base in the Arctic, a battle to save all life on Earth is about to begin... It is a top-secret base known only as Dragon Island. A long-forgotten relic of the Cold War, it houses a weapon of terrible destructive force, a weapon that has just been re-activated...

When Dragon Island is seized by a brutal terrorist force calling itself the Army of Thieves, the fate of the world suddenly hangs in the balance. But there are no crack units close enough to get to Dragon island in time to stop them from setting off the weapon. Except, that is, for a small equipment-testing team up in the Arctic led by a Marine captain named Shane Schofield, call-sign SCARECROW.

It's not a strike team; just a handful of Marines and civilians. It's not equipped to attack a fortified island held by a small army. But it will go in anyway, because someone has to, THE ULTIMATE HERO IS BACK, FACING THE ULTIMATE ARMY OF VILLAINS!

FORMAT/INFO: Scarecrow Returns is 359 pages long, divided over seven section (Phases) and a prologue, each section is further divided into several small chapters for a rough final count of hundred-plus chapters. Narration is in the third-person via various characters such as Shane “Scarecrow” Schofield, Gunnery sergeant Gena “Mother” Newman, Dr. Vasily Ivanov, Jeff Hartigan, Veronique Champion, Hammerhead, Zack Weinberg, The Lord of Anarchy, David Fairfax, corporal Billy Thompson and a couple other characters. Scarecrow Returns is the fourth book in the Shane “Scarecrow” Schofield series.

January 3, 2012 marked the North American hardback and e-book publication of Scarecrow Returns via Simon and Schuster. The UK version was called Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves (See image below) and was published in both Hardcover and e-book format on February 2, 2012 via Orion

ANALYSIS: Matthew Reilly’s story to publication is one as wondrous as one of his books. Borrowing money from his parents to publish his debut book and then doing his own publicity and selling the book to local bookstores was quite a task. His book then caught the attention of a publishing persona and based on the potential seen in the book, lead to him being offered a two book contract. The first of those two books was Ice Station & since then Matthew Reilly has never looked back. I happened upon his books when I was starting out as a reader and was enamored by his adventure-laced, action-packed thrillers. However in the last few years, I was disheartened by his Jack West Junior thriller series and they remain the least liked among all his books with his fanbase. When he announced that his next book was going to be a return to his most beloved character, I was ecstatic and wanted to see whether he would be able to top the poignant finale of Scarecrow[3rd book].

I believe a bit of background is required before I begin the review, the first three Scarecrow books have taken place in such varied locations such as Antartica, Utah desert and pan-global race. The first book had Scarecrow saving his team, the second one his nation and third one the entire world. With such a progression and with certain events taking place in the third book, most fans felt that the series had come to its natural conclusion and it would require a herculean effort from the author to write a fourth book to continue the series. Often authors return to characters best left alone and the way this story starts, I got that feeling but before it could take root, Matthew spun his magic. Also on a side note this is book four and therefore not the ideal place to start reading the series as various ennui of the past books have been revealed.

The story begins with a series of reports detailing certain events that herald the ascent of the army of thieves. The scene quickly then shifts to a little known Arctic island called Dragon Island, wherein previous Russian cold war experiments have left a weapon of sorts which has been overtaken by the army and its deranged leader. Calling himself the Lord of Anarchy, their leader announces his intentions of rescaling the world’s current power scenario and activates the weapon which will detonate in a little over five hours. The team closest to dragon island is a civilian one lead by Shane Schofield who are testing some equipment. They are ordered to do whatever it takes to sabotage the detonation process. Thus begins the return of Scarecrow which will see him and his team fight foes on a magnitude beyond their imagination and stop a global genocide within five hours.

The book is a kind of fresh start for the main character and the author’s decision to have the action centered in another icy location (akin to the events of the first book) was a meaningful one. Also it was all the way to the other side of the pole and this time around, there are fewer recurring characters from the previous books. Matthew Reilly’s books are like popcorn blockbusters wherein there are a ton of action-packed sequences, cheesy one-liners, twisty plots and overall a fun feeling when you finish the book. Perhaps when it comes to these type of thrillers he has no equal. This book has his trademark signature sequences, wherein action and chaos unfolds over pages and the heroes manage to live by some insane idea which just has the right amount of luck and skill to make it work. The book’s plot doesn’t just have a single thread but consists of atleast three-four threads which continue to unfurl on their own and later on unite to form an exciting plot. For the returning reader there are various nods and connections to the previous books which continue to strengthen the cohesiveness of the overall series.

Previously on reading a couple of Matthew Reilly’s books, a reviewer had remarked that he doesn’t really give his characters any space to breathe or any time to grow as his books have frequent and gruesome character deaths. This characteristic is present this time around as well and what’s more there are quite a few deaths in this one. Perhaps the author has introduced a sense of seriousness with his choices in the third book and this time around also there are a few things by which the author reinforces his intentions. The biggest guessing game for the readers has been as to where and when Mother will bite the bullet and the author has certainly hinted at it in the past books and he continues that game over here as well but I’m not going to tell you what happens to her. Lastly this book is the most introspective of all the Scarecrow books for reasons which will be apparent to readers of the previous books and the author quite wonderfully plays on that thread showcasing a wounded & perhaps mentally unstable protagonist. This introspective element is also shined on a couple of other recurring characters however the main focus as always is Scarecrow.

With this book, the author showcases that his previous series was a not an indicator of him losing his touch, there’s plenty left in his imagination to wow his fans all over again. I must also point out a few things before I go on, these books have to be counted as pure entertainment, nothing more and nothing less! While Matthew’s writing talents have bought a smile to many a fan, his books have left plenty unsatisfied. Readers looking for a deep nuanced, character driven read will not find it here; these books are the equivalent of Michael Bay films if they had some semblance of a plot to go along with the action. You can expect simple comedy and the thrills associated with cliffhanger chapter endings but as always at the back of your mind, you know that the hero somehow makes it. Predictability of the plot is not to be taken for granted but predictability of the protagonist’s survival is a given. Characterization is also somewhat shallow as most characters can be easily divided into the good & evil camps, though the author springs a few surprises from time to time. This book has one of the most endearing non-human characters a robot called Bertie & I’m hoping readers will get to see more of Bertie in the future as well. Lastly for first time readers this book might not be the best place to start as a lot of surprises of the past three books are revealed but this is required to explain many a scenario and character interactions in the book.

CONCLUSION: Matthew Reilly triumphantly returns to the type of stories which have earned him fans on a global level, combining trademark action sequences with stereotypical dialogue but with a greater emotional quotient, Scarecrow Returns manages to give the readers an excellent read. Fans of his earlier books can be assured that they will find what they have been missing for the past few years and this book heralds a new direction for our favorite marine. Give Scarecrow Returns a read and discover why Matthew Reilly is the unmatched master of the most imaginative action-thrillers ever written.

Spotlight on March Books

2012-03-01T00:01:00.001-05:00

This month we are featuring 30 books. There are more than twice as many new sff and related releases this month in traditional publishing not to speak of the countless indies from Amazon and Smashwords but we are limiting ourselves to books that will be reviewed here or are similar with such. For the full schedule of March 2012 titles known to us, you can consult the Upcoming Releases page.

The release dates are US unless marked otherwise, though for books released in the UK and US in the same month but on different dates we use the earliest date without comment and they 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 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.

Sometimes a cover image is not available at the time of the post and also sometimes covers change unexpectedly so while we generally use the Amazon one when available and cross check with Google Images, the ultimate bookstore cover may be different.

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“Killing Ghost” by Christopher Ransom. Release Date: March 2012. Published by Cemetery Dance. (HF / US Debut).

“Intrusion” by Ken MacLeod. Release Date: March 1, 2012. Published by Orbit UK. (SF).

“The Best SF & Fantasy of the Year: Vol. 6” edited by Jonathan Strahan. Release Date: March 6, 2012. Published by Night Shade Books.

“A Rising Thunder” by David Weber. Release Date: March 6, 2012. Published by Baen. (SF).

“Intruder” by C.J. Cherryh. Release Date: March 6, 2012. Published by DAW. (SF).

“Bridge of Dreams” by Anne Bishop. Release Date: March 6, 2012. Published by Roc. (FAN).

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“The Drowning Girl” by Caitlin R. Kiernan. Release Date: March 6, 2012. Published by Roc. (FAN).

“Jane Carver of Waar” by Nathan Long. Release Date: March 6, 2012. Published by Night Shade Books. (SF).

“The Pillars of Hercules” by David Constantine. Release Date: March 6, 2012. Published by Night Shade Books. (FAN).

“And Blue Skies From Pain” by Stina Leicht. Release Date: March 6, 2012. Published by Night Shade Books. (FAN).

“Point and Shoot” by Duane Swierczynski. Release Date: March 7, 2012. Published by Mulholland Books. (MISC).

“Arcadia” by Lauren Grof. Release Date: March 13, 2012. Published by Voice (MISC).

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“Chrysanthe” by Yves Meynard. Release Date: March 13, 2012. Published by Tor. (FAN).

“Wide Open” by Deborah Coates. Release Date: March 13, 2012. Published by Tor. (FAN).

“The Games” by Ted Kosmatka. Release Date: March 13, 2012. Published by Del Rey. (SF).

“The Company of the Dead” by David Kowalski. Release Date: March 13, 2012. Published by Titan Books. (MISC).

“Hide Me Among The Graves” by Tim Powers. Release Date: March 13, 2012. Published by William Morrow. (MISC).
“The Vanishers” by Heidi Julavits. Release Date: March 13, 2012. Published by Doubleday. (MISC).

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“The Book of Lost Fragrances” by M.J. Rose. Release Date: March 13, 2012. Published by Atria. (MISC).
“Tyger, Tyger, Burning Bright” by Justine Saracen. Release Date: March 13, 2012. Published by Bold Strokes Books. (MISC).
“The Steel Seraglio” by Mike Carey, Linda Carey and Louise Carey. Release Date: March 13, 2012. Published by ChiZine Publications. (MISC).

“Son in Sorrow” by Meilin Miranda. Release Date: March 20, 2012. Published by Sans Culotte Press. (FAN).

“The Thief” by Fuminori Nakamura. Release Date: March 20, 2012. Published by Soho Books. (MISC).

“Edge of Dark Water” by Joe R. Lansdale. Release Date: March 25, 2012. Published by Mulholland Books. (MISC).

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“The Outcast Blade” by Jon Courtenay Grimwood. Release Date: March 26, 2012. Published by Orbit. (FAN).
“The Master of Heathcrest Hall” by Galen Beckett. Release Date: March 27, 2012. Published by Del Rey. (FAN).

“The Alchemist of Souls” by Anne Lyle. Release Date: March 27, 2012. Published by Angry Robot. (SF).

“Age of Aztec” by James Lovegrove. Release Date: March 27, 2012. Published by Solaris. (SF).

“A Game of Thrones: The Graphic Novel — Volume One” by Daniel Abraham, George R.R. Martin and Tommy Patterson. Release Date: March 27, 2012. Published by Bantam.

“Costume Not Included” by Matthew Hughes. Release Date: March 27, 2012. Published by Angry Robot. (UF).

More Detail about "The Black Opera" by Mary Gentle and "The Emerald Storm" by William Dietrich (by Liviu Suciu)

2012-02-29T00:01:00.007-05:00

One of the truly huge asap novels of the year, The Black Opera by Mary Gentle was expected by me in the second half of the year only to recently find out to my delight that Night Shade will publish it in May and of course from there, an advanced review copy found itself to my inbox yesterday.

I happily grabbed the (current) cover picture - note that it may change - since it's quite wonderful, while the book so far about 50+ pages in reads like the awesome novel I expected. Subtitled "a novel of Opera, Volcanoes, and the Mind of God", it is an alternate history taking place in the years following the Napoleonic wars but in an universe where music has magical power if it's sung with enough emotion like for example at Mass or at the Opera...

Here is the blurb that seems accurate:

"Naples, the 19th Century. In the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, holy music has power. Under the auspices of the Church, the Sung Mass can bring about actual miracles like healing the sick or raising the dead. But some believe that the musicodramma of grand opera can also work magic by channeling powerful emotions into something sublime. Now the Prince's Men, a secret society, hope to stage their own black opera to empower the Devil himself - and change Creation for the better! Conrad Scalese is a struggling librettist whose latest opera has landed him in trouble with the Holy Office of the Inquisition. Rescued by King Ferdinand II, Conrad finds himself recruited to write and stage a counter opera that will, hopefully, cancel out the apocalyptic threat of the black opera, provided the Prince's Men, and their spies and saboteurs, don't get to him first. And he only has six weeks to do it..."

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By popular demand though I guess contrary to his wishes (!), Ethan Gage is back in another adventure after the duology Napoleon's Pyramids/The Rosetta Key and the more-or-less standalone adventures The Dakota Cipher and The Barbary Pirates. Another May publication, this one made its way to my house only today and I had the opportunity to read just two pages, but they showed once again why I find these books irresistible.

Ethan Gage is feeling a little depressed as he explains to us why instead of retiring rich with his family to America, he has to climb up to a mountainous French prison to spring Toussaint L'Ouverture out of Napoleon's clutches. I predict another rip-roaring adventure with the usual combination of humor, sffnal touches and superb historical context and atmosphere.

I will present the blurb below, but if you are new to the series, I highly recommend to get acquainted with Ethan Gage from his first adventure when living the (low and) high life in the decadent 1798 Paris of the Directory, he is framed for murder because of something he won at cards, so he escapes as a member of the young up-and-coming general Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt. Of course Ethan's troubles are only beginning...

"In the fifth installment of master storyteller William Dietrich’s bestselling adventure series, the swashbuckling, battle-scarred hero Ethan Gage must race from the slopes of the Alps to the sultry tropics of the Caribbean to pursue a mysterious Spanish treasure as the fate of England—and of the world’s first successful slave revolt—hang desperately in the balance. The Emerald Storm is the action-packed historical masterpiece that Ethan Gage fans have long awaited. Fans of the Indiana Jones adventures, the Sharpe’s Rifles series, and the thrilling works of James Rollins, who himself calls Dietrich’s writing “adventure at its grandest,” will find The Emerald Storm a satisfying, sword-in-hand romp through history—and new readers will discover it as the perfect introduction to the breathtaking Ethan Gage Adventures."

The 2012 Arthur Clarke Submissions, Contest to Guess the Shortlist and Comments (by Liviu Suciu)

2012-02-27T09:45:00.007-05:00

As seen on Torque Control from which I c/p the list below, the submission list for the 2012 Arthur Clarke award has just been published - note that it is not a longlist in the accepted meaning of that term, just the list of what books publishers have submitted and were deemed eligible. This year's judges have to go through all these 60 novels and pick the six book shortlist.

In addition, Torque Control is running a "guess the shortlist" competition HERE. Opened until March 11 and requiring to pick what you believe the shortlist is going to be and a rationale for your choices, the competition offers as prize copies of all six shortlisted novels. More details are offered at the link above, while I am reproducing - with links to FBC reviews of the books in cause and a little better formatting that is trickier to add in an un-editable comment as opposed to an editable post - my entry in the contest as it encompasses my current thinking about the shortlist.

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Of the books listed, I opened 34 (edit: actually 35 on a recount) and read end to end 16, while of the rest 18 (actually 19) there are 3 or 4 (edit: actually more like 5-6) I plan to read as time goes by. I think the following six books will make the shortlist:

1.The Islanders – Christopher Priest
2. Embassytown – China Miéville
3. Osama – Lavie Tidhar
4. Bringer of Light – Jaine Fenn
5. Mr. Fox – Helen Oyeyemi
6. The Testament of Jessie Lamb – Jane Rogers

1,2. excellent books, but the authors almost guarantee the shortlist anyway

3. this one is among the ones I have and plan to read as I like Mr. Tidhar’s Bookman series, but irrespective of its merits, title, subject and international author almost guarantees it too

4. this one I rate a high chance as it’s essentially the only core-sf written by a woman in the list outside of the boring to dreadful Willis duology and the very mediocre Tepper; I have not yet read it as I was quite disappointed by book 3 after I really enjoyed books 1 and 2 and I am essentially waiting for book 5 to see if I continue or not with the series.

5 and 6 are more speculative guesses, but I think that gender parity/minority representation/mainstream works will bring those two in the list.

Loved the Jane Rogers novel and I would add it to my choice of a six book list though I disagreed with the heroine’s choices, while Mr. Fox is another one I have and plan to read but its “book in a book” subject is one that puts me off badly, so despite really loving White is for Witching and enjoying the few pages I browsed in this one, I have been putting it off for a while now.

Personally I would choose 1,2,6, Greg Egan, Adam Roberts and James “Corey”.

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Here is the submission list with a "rd" added to the books I read and an "op" to the ones I have but only opened. Actually in quite a few cases I read enough to make my mind about the books I marked as opened, but I did not turn all the pages as in the Willis mammoth disaster that would have been a complete waste of my time for example.

Of the rest, many are by authors or with subjects I have no interest in and only a few - most notably Michael Cisco's novel, though I bought a few of his previous novels and have been trying to enjoy them with no success so far - intriguing enough to take a look.

Embedded by Dan Abnett (Angry Robot) op
Dead of Veridon by Tim Akers (Solaris)op
The Departure by Neal Asher (Tor UK) rd
Novahead by Steve Aylett (Scar Garden)
Bronze Summer by Stephen Baxter (Gollancz) op
Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear (Gollancz) rd
The Kings of Eternity by Eric Brown (Solaris) rd
The Great Lover by Michael Cisco (Chomu Books)
Random Walk by Alexandra Claire (Gomer)
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (Orbit) rd
Sequence by Adrian Dawson (Last Passage)
The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan (Canongate)
The Clockwork Rocket by Greg Egan (Gollancz) rd
Gods of Manhattan by Al Ewing (Abaddon Books)
Bringer of Light by Jaine Fenn (Gollancz) op
Final Days by Gary Gibson (Tor UK) rd
Heaven’s Shadow by David S. Goyer&Michael Cassutt (Tor UK) op
The Fallen Blade by Jon Courtenay Grimwood (Orbit) rd
The Last Four Things by Paul Hoffman (Michael Joseph) rd
Dead Water by Simon Ings (Corvus)
The Ironclad Prophecy by Pat Kelleher (Abaddon Books)
11.22.63 by StephenKing (Hodder and Stoughton)
Shift by Tim Kring and Dale Peck (Bantam)
Cyber Circus by Kim Lakin-Smith (NewconPress) op
Echo City by Tim Lebbon (Orbit)
Nemonymous Nights by D.F. Lewis (Chomu Books)
The Age of Odin by JamesLovegrove (Solaris) op
Wake Up and Dream by Ian R. MacLeod (PS)
The End Specialist by Drew Magary (HarperVoyager)
Germline by T.C. McCarthy (Orbit) op
Savage City by Sophia McDougall (Gollancz)
Embassytown by China Miéville (Macmillan) rd
Equations of Life by Simon Morden (Orbit) rd
Mr Fox by Helen Oyeyemi (Picador) op
Hell Ship by Philip Palmer (Orbit) op
The Shadow of the Soul by Sarah Pinborough (Gollancz)
The Straight Razor Cure by Daniel Polansky (Hodder and Stoughton) rd
The Recollection by Gareth L. Powell (Solaris) rd
The Islanders by Christopher Priest (Gollancz) rd
Here Comes The Nice by Jeremy Reed (Chomu Books)
The Demi Monde: Winter by Rod Rees (Jo Fletcher Books)
by Light Alone by Adam Roberts (Gollancz) rd
Down to the Bone by Justina Robson (Gollancz)
The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers (Sandstone) rd
Regicide by Nicholas Royle (Solaris) op
Wonder by Robert J. Sawyer (Gollancz)
War in Heaven by Gavin Smith (Gollancz) op
Reamde by Neal Stephenson (Atlantic) op
Rule 34 by Charles Stross (Orbit)
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (Hodder and Stoughton)
The Waters Rising by Sherri S. Tepper (Gollancz) op
Osama by Lavie Tidhar (PS) op
Dust by Joan Frances Turner (Berkley UK)
The Noise Revealed by Ian Whates (Solaris) rd
Zone One by Colson Whitehead (Harvill Secker)
All Clear by Connie Willis (Gollancz) op
Blackout by Connie Willis (Gollancz) op
Son of Heaven by David Wingrove (Corvus) op
The Godless Boys by Naomi Wood (Picador)
The Iron Jackal by Chris Wooding (Gollancz) op

SERIES UPDATE: The Blood Gospel Series by James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell (By Mihir Wanchoo)

2012-02-27T00:01:00.017-05:00

Official James Rollins Website

Read FBC’s Review of “The Judas Strain”

Read FBC’s Review of “The Last Oracle”

Read FBC’s Review of “The Doomsday Key”

Read FBC’s Review of “The Devil Colony”

(Author photo credit: David Sylvian and Rebecca Cantrell)

I had first heard about the Blood Gospel series back in 2009 when it was first reported as a collaborative effort between James Rollins and Sarah Langan. There wasn't much information online to be found about it but the combination of thriller [James Rollins] and horror [Sarah Langan] writers made it something to watch out for.

However in the latter half of 2010, news trickled out that Sarah Langan was no longer a part of the project, details were still pretty sketchy however Amazon UK & Book Depository has quite a preliminary description for it:

"Deep beneath the Vatican lies the holy Necropolis and its miles of labyrinthine catacombs. These dark, open tombs mark the final refuge for persecuted Christians from the beginning years A.D. Here rest the bones of St. Peter, along with countless other Saints and martyrs of early Christendom. Though these men are gone, their good and evil deeds have not interred with their bones. Their secrets, forgotten through the millennia, are about to be discovered. Far beneath the holy Necropolis, buried in catacombs deeper, far deeper, than the Saints, is a dark, wet city where sunlight never filters. Here dwell a people whose very existence is a mystery as great as death itself: the Sect of the Sanguines. In the darkness, they watch and wait for their orders, knowing they must one day surface into daylight. In times of crisis, the Sect are sent far and wide as the Church's emissaries: to secure artifacts; to mediate dangerous negotiations, and to fight battles. Rarely do their opponents realize they've brushed against creatures both ancient and eternal. daylight. Their order is as old as Christ, and their mission just as cataclysmic..."

The Blood Gospel series is currently listed as a trilogy but I’m sure that there will be more books planned beyond a trilogy. I’m hoping that there will be more information revealed as we get nearer to the eventual release later this year. However one important piece of info was recently revealed by James Rollins in regards to his new collaborator, Rebecca Cantrell is the author who will be lending her talent to this project. I haven’t read any of her work but I’m going to play catch up with her books until the release of the first Blood Gospel book. She currently has a historical series set in 1930s Berlin featuring a character called Hannah Vogel. There are currently three books out and the fourth book in the series titled “A City of Broken Glass” will be released on July 17, 2012.

I can’t wait to read and glean more information about this exciting collaborative effort and so further news will be posted as it trickles in…

"Fire from the Sun" by John Derbyshire (Reviewed by Liviu Suciu)

2012-02-26T09:31:00.003-05:00

Official John Derbyshire Website
Order Fire from the Sun HERE

INTRODUCTION: John Derbyshire is a columnist for the leading conservative journal The National Review and the author of a remarkable popular math book The Prime Obssession, which deservedly brought him quite a lot of acclaim. If you have the smallest affinity and/or interest in math, Prime Obssession is one of those once in a decade gems that reads like a historical thriller, while exposing the reader to some very interesting "real" math that is still part of the current research frontiers.

In addition, he wrote another popular math book Unknown Quantity, which was quite good though it lacked the punch of Prime Obsession, and the novel Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream which I enjoyed some years ago.

Fire from the Sun was originally published through Xlibris some 12 years ago, but at three volumes with a total cost verging toward 100$ the print volumes were too expensive for me and like with The Transylvanian Trilogy I always kept an eye for an affordable choice.

Fast forward 2012 and the ebook revolution and the moment I saw Mr. Derbyshire putting an announcement in the NR Corner that he was offering the whole book for a very good price on the Amazon Kindle platform - with other platforms to come - I bought it on the spot and read it that evening and night as I stayed way, way too late to finish it, so engrossing it was.

In the words of the author:

"The novel is a romantic and historical epic painted on a very broad canvas. It follows the fortunes of two people, William Leung and Margaret Han, from the mid-1960s through to the early 1990s. They are childhood friends in a small town in southwestern China. Then the Great Cultural Revolution divides them, and they follow separate paths to success in the Western world: William as a Wall Street tycoon and Margaret as a singer of Italian opera.

The background of the story is recent Chinese history, bracketed by two great upheavals: the onset of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, and the student movement of 1989.

The book's action ranges all over China, from the lush valleys of the southwest to the frozen plains of Manchuria, from the garrison settlements of occupied Tibet to elite apartments in Beijing, from the easy-going corruption of 1970s Hong Kong to the wakening bustle of post-Mao Shanghai. It then moves on to the international opera circuit, the boardrooms of Wall Street, and the habitations of the rich in Manhattan and Long Island's East End.

The book has an appendix listing all the operas, arias, singers and operatic terms used in the text."

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: Fire from the Sun is a page turner and you will go through it in a flash despite its length since it is so engrossing that you want to find out what happens next, what twists and turns the author has reserved for the two main heroes and how the momentous events the two are connected with are seen by them and the extended supporting cast.

The prose is clear and straightforward, not unlike the regular NYT bestsellers - a recent book that has some similarity in prose and sweep with Fire from the Sun is Ken Follett's epic The Fall of Giants -and the attraction of the novel is not in its literary qualities but in the events seen through the eyes of the two main characters in alternating chunks of pages, with some convergence towards the end.

The emotional content is lost on occasion when major things happen or are revealed but the author's take on the events, mores, cultures through the eyes of the vast cast of secondary characters more than makes up for that, while the two main heroes have very distinctive voices which are treated quite differently in feel.

Starting in a provincial Chinese town in 1965, our main heroes - Weilin/William and Yuezhu/Margaret are 8 year olds that meet and become best friends (and feel the first stirrings of attraction without of course knowing what is it) at the town pool.

Weilin is from an "intellectual" family and his dad is a math professor at the local college, while they have books, vinyl records and other trappings of the educated of the time and place and the boy, only child, is very handsome, bright and quite interested in math and reading.

Yuezhu is from a politically correct family - her father is an army officer of peasant stock and firm revolutionary principles though even in the People's Army, careers rise and fall depending on whose commander's commander is ascending or descending. Yuezhu is beautiful, loves dancing and music and while she is not that interested in math she likes being around with Weilin and they keep meeting despite being at different schools; however Yuezhu is also in awe of her older half brother, a rebellious teen who becomes a main leader of the Red Guards when the Cultural Revolution is unleashed soon after.

The expected happens - Weilin's dad is "struggled" - denounced, publicly humiliated and then beaten to death - while colleagues and even close friends from the university forsake him and compete to have the loudest denunciations, Half Brother is among the leaders of the torturers and Yuezhou is in the "little red guards" cheering them up, while Weilin is forced to denounce his father and is ignored and humiliated by the girl to boot, so he develops a powerful hate for Yuezhu and her family, hate that will later have of course consequences.

Later their life continues on these opposite tracks - Weilin and his mother make the trek north to the wastelands of Chinese Siberia where she has some relatives and he seems to be condemned to a (probably short) life of material misery and intellectual poverty, while Yuezhou moves to Beijing a few years later when her father's faction in the military wins and he is promoted, and the girl becomes part of the elite schools of the capital, learns English and sees Nixon at a performance, while later is accepted at the prestigious Dance Academy just opened, part of the efforts to start bringing China in the modern world.

However, Weilin - handsome and all - makes easy friends with a local teen wheeler and dealer and later they decide to escape to Hong Kong of fable where Weilin's mom told him that she has an uncle.

And so the saga starts and we follow the two on tumultuous paths in many places from China, Tibet and Hong Kong to later the US and almost everywhere; their fortunes twist and turn, their paths cross though not necessarily in expected ways and the book just begs you to turn the pages.

Punctuated by wonderful Chinese stories that various characters use to make this or that point, Fire from the Sun (top 25 novel 0f 2012) is a truly panoramic and a wonderful and gripping read that will stay with you for a long while.

"A Rising Thunder" by David Weber (Reviewed by Liviu Suciu)

2012-02-25T00:01:00.020-05:00

Official David Weber Site/Forums
The Honorverse Wikipedia
Order A Rising Thunder HERE or HERE (ebook)
Read FBC's An Invitation to David Weber's Honorverse
Read FBC Review of At All Costs
Read FBC Review of Storm from the Shadow and Mission of Honor
Read FBC Interview with David Weber

INTRODUCTION: As mentioned a few times here, The Honorverse is my number one ongoing sff series and represented a number of firsts for me in terms of getting books in various formats (first hardcover bought in this country years ago, first earc, first edraft, while I read each book quite a few times and I can probably talk in detail about all at any time from memory ...) and A Rising Thunder kept this going as some minutiae discussion on the author's Honorverse forum and at the Baen Bar about the differences between the earc and the recently released final ebook version, made me buy this one too in addition to the earlier earc and of course I read it the same night which made the fourth full read of the book so far.

For people who are not that well versed in the Honorverse, you can read (for free) all the books to date in the series except for the last (5th) collection In Fire Forged and this present one from the Baen CD site on the Mission of Honor CD.

ANALYSIS: As known for some time A Rising Thunder is part of a bigger story arc - there was a split as the original ART became convoluted enough to intertwine all three main current fronts of the series so the author decided to keep the action generally separate in three different novels while focusing here on the Manticore/Core Solarian League confrontation and featuring the main classical players of the Honorverse - Honor herself, Elizabeth, the Havenite leaders, the Solarian masters etc. The Talbot sector, Mesa and the League's periphery will feature more extensively in the next two books which will be again concordant for a while, though the extent of that and conversely of the advancement of the story beyond the end of A Rising Thunder is unclear as of now.

The good news is that David Weber's solo one, tentatively titled Shadow of Freedom, is done but it is not yet clear how it will fit with the Eric Flint/David Weber collaboration that is still being written and so there is yet no decision on the order of those two. I expect the Mesa/Torch/League periphery Flint/Weber novel to go first in early 2013 and then Shadow of Freedom to go next in mid 2013 as next year is the 20th anniversary of the series debut and the author plans it to be big...

Even so and A Rising Thunder was a superb series installment for two related reasons. It was the first "fully into the unknown" move in the series after the 2005 At All Costs which is my favorite single series novel to date and arguably the best such. The following three parts huge installment (Storm from the Shadows, Torch of Freedom and Mission of Honor) had lots of great stuff but we (the dedicated fans) knew their rough outline and there were only a few surprises.

Here in A Rising Thunder there were at least two major surprises and some new stuff that is really promising for the future, while some tantalizing hints have been argued quite a lot on the forums since the earc has been released last winter. I also loved all the little interludes and they interspersed well with the main political and military developments, while the main battle of the novel was so well done by the author that it kept me tense throughout despite that the outcome was clearly predetermined by the balance of force and its twist at the end was foreshadowed long ago.

The second reason A Rising Thunder (novel # 17) worked so well was that it solidified the third transformation of the series, this time from military space opera to political space opera - the first transformation which started in Echoes of Honor (#8) and became fully fledged two books later in War of Honor (#10) was from local, one larger than life character and secondary cast action within a larger context, to multi front, multi character, global military space opera.

The canvas has becoming truly huge and the military developments so dominating that large scale battles have become 15 minute millions of casualties massacres, so the contest for the public opinion, the ability to bring together technological and scientific resources and the economic front have become more and more important, in other words politics and intrigue are now front and center.

From the "Mandarins" conclave, to the councils of the Grand Alliance and various other venues, public and private, the Honorverse's Galaxy with its thousands of worlds and trillions of humans is entering a period of turmoil and great upheaval after some 1500 years of relative stability and A Rising Thunder's panoramic view of the center stage shows clearly the beginning of this process.

There is one scene towards the end of the novel where two characters who are not particularly major movers and shakers - at least so far of course - discuss the events of the day in a calm, wonderful setting with the view of the great lake that borders on what is still humanity's capital city - scene that captures perfectly the "end of an era" mood of the novel.

"The two of them sat on benches across a small outdoor table from one another, eating their lunch as the warm summer sun spilled down across them. Lake Michigan’s waters stretched limitlessly towards the horizon below the restaurant perched on a two-hundredth-floor balcony of the Admiralty Building, and gaily colored sails and powerboats dotted that dark blue expanse as far as the eye could see."

All in all, A Rising Thunder (top 25 2012 novel) is a great installment that starts for good the new Honorverse direction with a bang and leaves me wanting more asap and combing the forums for any tidbits and snippets of the upcoming events, while confirming the status of the series as my #1 one.

GUEST POST: The Changing World of Eli Monpress by Rachel Aaron

2012-02-24T00:01:00.023-05:00

The Changing World of Eli Monpress

Hello, my name is Rachel Aaron, and I'm the author of the Legend of Eli Monpress, a light adventure fantasy series from Orbit Books about a charming, over-the-top thief and the trouble he gets himself into.

Or, at least, that's how it started.

Let me back up. When I first wrote The Spirit Thief (the first book in Eli's series and the novel that got me published), I had a very firm view of what I thought the series was about. In my mind, I saw a long running, episodic spectacle with each volume containing its own adventure and a large cast of characters that grew and deepened with each installment. Think any popular TV show ever and that's what I was shooting for.

But as I actually started writing the books, something changed. The story has a large ensemble cast of colorful and seedy people, all with their own objectives, but the soul of the books is Eli, my titular main character and the 'spirit' of this whole operation (har har har). On the surface, Eli seems very clear cut - he's charming and ridiculous and self assured, the very soul of a gentleman thief. But glib as he might play, Eli's past hides a lot of unpleasantness, so do the other characters', and as more of this history is dug up and dealt with, the books begin to get darker. Not bloodier or more sexual or more ruthless any of that other stuff “dark” has come to mean in fantasy, but more serious. More serious and, I like to think, much better.

I'd love to brag and say I planned it this way, but the truth is that the books getting more serious was a totally unintended and natural consequence of forcing my characters to deal with all the problems they'd been running from. They're still the same funny people who starred in the first caper, but even charming thieves have to suck it up and be a little serious when their backs are against the wall. Add to this a growing magical crisis in the world and an insane, all powerful being with an unhealthy fixation on our hero, and yeah, we're not just stealing kings anymore.

The Spirit Thief is a light adventure fantasy about a charming thief getting in a tight spot. The Spirit Rebellion, the second Eli book, is a light adventure about a charming thief who's now in much deeper and more dangerous waters. By book 3, The Spirit Eater, the sharks are definitely circling, and in The Spirit War, the fourth Eli book coming out in June, life is flat out going terribly for our hero. Of course, it's still Eli's story, so things can never get too dark. It's hard to get that serious when your main character is such an unrepentant optimist. Even so, when I finished Spirit's End, the fifth and final book due out in November, I didn't know if Eli was ever going to talk to me again.

These days, when people ask me what my series is about, I say it's an adventure fantasy starring a charming wizard thief that starts out light and fun and then gets more serious but no less fun. If the questioner hasn't walked away from me by that point, I direct them to the sample chapters on my website. It's kind of a cop-out, but trying to describe a series in a sentence is always a cop-out in one way or another.

Really, though, if you read the first chapter of Spirit Thief and like it, there's a very good chance you'll like the rest of the book too. And even though the series changes, I've found that people who like The Spirit Thief tend to like The Spirit Rebellion as well, and those who like Rebellion tend to love Spirit Eater. Looking at it that way, the trend toward seriousness seems to be a positive one, which is good, because the last two books only dig the hole deeper. Fortunately, Eli is always there to keep everyone from taking themselves too seriously. I hope you'll give the book a try and see for yourself.

(Photo Credit: Marshal Zeringue)

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Rachel Aaron lives in Athens, Georgia with her family. She has graduated from University of Georgia with a B.A. in English Literature. She has been an avid reader since her childhood and now has an ever-growing collection to show for it. She loves gaming, Manga comics & reality TV police shows. She also blogs on a semi-regular basis on the Magic Districts website along with a host of other authors.

Official Author Website

Read FBC Review of "The Spirit Thief"

Read FBC review of “The Spirit Rebellion”

Read FBC Review of “The Spirit Eater” and “Spirit’s Oath”

Read FBC’s Interview with Rachel Aaron

Click here to enter a worldwide giveaway of the Legend of Eli Monpress Omnibus edition by Rachel Aaron

Blood and Bullets by James R. Tuck w/ Bonus Review of "That Thing At The Zoo" (Reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)

2012-02-22T00:01:00.000-05:00

Official Author Website

Read an Excerpt HERE

Order the book HERE

AUTHOR INFORMATION: James R. Tuck was born and brought up in Georgia. His path to publication was strangely without an agent and solely due to his manuscript. He’s formerly worked as a bouncer and is a professional tattoo artist with more than 16 years of experience. He also runs his own tattoo parlor and resides in Georgia with his wife and pets. This is his debut novel.

OFFICIAL BLURB: He lives to kill monsters. He keeps his city safe. And his silver hollow-points and back-from-the-dead abilities help him take out any kind of supernatural threat. But now an immortal evil has this bad-ass bounty hunter dead in its sights. . .

Ever since a monster murdered his family, Deacon Chalk hunts any creature that preys on the innocent. So when a pretty vampire girl "hires" him to eliminate a fellow slayer, Deacon goes to warn him--and barely escapes a vampire ambush. Now he's got a way-inexperienced newbie hunter to protect and everything from bloodsuckers to cursed immortals on his trail. There's also a malevolent force controlling the living and the undead, hellbent on turning Deacon's greatest loss into the one weapon that could destroy him. . .

FORMAT/INFO: Blood and Bullets is 352 pages long divided over twenty-four numbered chapters. Narration is in the first-person solely via Deacon Chalk. Blood and Bullets is first book of the Deacon Chalk: Occult Bounty Hunter series.

February 1, 2012 marked the North American paperback and e-book publication of Blood and Bullets via Kensington Books.

ANALYSIS: James R. Tuck’s debut promised a lot of blood, mayhem and particularly dark corners in the urban fantasy world. I am usually a sucker for urban fantasy stories and if they are of the darker kind, then it just becomes that much easier for me to pick up those books. So it's with a similar kind of anticipation that I went into the first Deacon Chalk book.

The story is a very traditional urban fantasy with Deacon Chalk narrating the story, the opening chapter brings Deacon face to face with a child vampire and one who shares a bare resemblance to his lost daughter. Things aren't looking good for him but the vampire surprises him by asking for his protection. She is being hunted by a being called Nyteblade and seeks protection from the threat. This puts the vampire hunter into a quandary as his usual role does not have him turning protector for the very things he has sworn to hunt. Things however don’t end to the vampire’s benefit and Deacon is on his way to check up on Nyteblade. This is where’s the story actually picks up and the actual plot kicks in.

The book with its dark, haunted protagonist, grim settings and fast paced plotline seemed to be everything which qualifies as fun reads for me, but somehow this book didn't do nearly enough. I shall present both reasons as to why I both liked and disliked certain aspects in this book and then maybe I shall be able to decide where I stand in the overall conclusion to the book. The positive points to the book are its quick pace, excellent action packed sequences and plot compactness. Firstly the best thing about this book is its pace, beginning from the first chapter all the way to its explosive climax. The book never lets us down in this aspect and the reader will not feel bored as things are constantly happening on the page. The author’s flair for action sequences is certainly visible as Deacon Chalk is constantly going into or getting out of fights with vampires, their underlings and others sorts of things which tend to cross his path. Lastly the story is a compact one with a proper beginning and end as the author has very conveniently structured the plot so as to get the reader hooked for the sequel. Another cool feature which I read were some careful nods inserted to the creations of Laurell K. Hamilton, Jeaniene Frost, Supernatural TV series and a few others. This was just funny and a bit quirky to read about.

Now onto the parts that dragged the book down were its predictability, the main character’s multifaceted persona and two dimensional character cast. The biggest letdown for me was the character’s multifaceted persona, normally this would have been something to be counted as a positive however in this case the author has tried to make Deacon Chalk a man of many talents/sides. This perhaps worked against the book as the character does or says things which contradicts his own observations from earlier in the book. One example of such behavior is that the character constantly proclaims that he’s not looking for company to replace his dead wife but then alternately talks about the specific type of perfume he utilizes and how his appearance attracts the ladies. Another point was that this hunter is supposed to be a person whose sole obsession in life is to hunt down supernatural killers but alternatively he has time to note what presume and specific type of clothes he wears that accentuate his looks. The aforementioned reasons along with a couple other occurrences didn't gel with what the character kept on proclaiming. Usually I don’t get bothered by such trivial things however in this case I felt that the author was trying to paint Deacon as more than a man and this attempt translated into giving him more than one persona that ruined the read for me as the main character’s chatter made him seem more like a loudmouth than the real deal.

I will admit that this was purely my observational bias and maybe most readers will not be bothered by it however it stood in the way of me enjoying the book. The second downward point is that the plot’s nature is predictable not overtly but for regular readers of the urban fantasy genre, it won’t be hard to decipher where the overall plot might be heading. Thirdly the character cast which is introduced in this book seem very interesting however don’t get much time on screen to make their presence felt. They remain two dimensional sidekicks and this again detracted a bit from the overall read. I would like to think that since it’s the author’s debut that some of these points can be overlooked and perhaps in the future books the author might be able to fine tune the character so as to not seem overbearing. I look forward to those future endeavors because of the novella which I also read at the same time and which helped redeem the author’s cause.

CONCLUSION: Blood and Bullets is a quintessential urban fantasy book which promises to deliver like any Michael Bay film for readers who are looking for those sort of thrills. It however doesn't distinguish itself from the crowd and this is perhaps its greatest fallacy. It remains to be seen where this series heads in the future but for now Blood and Bullets wasn't a debut which particularly delivered on its blurb promises.

Order the Novella HERE

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: That Thing At The Zoo is a prequel novella set approximately six months before the events of Blood and Bullets. The story blurb is as follows: “Knowing his enemy is a rule Deacon Chalk swears by. But he's never seen anything like whatever is leaving the Atlanta Zoo's most dangerous predators bloodless, skinned, and hanging high in treetops. And he’s only got till sunrise to keep it from turning the entire city into a slaughterhouse. Now Deacon is in zoo lockdown with a handful of staffers to save. His zookeeper backup has more guts than monster-hunting experience. And the only chance Deacon has to run this thing to unholy ground is to risk unleashing his darkest, most uncontrollable instincts.”

The novella is about 80-odd pages long and is divided into eleven chapters. Akin to Blood and Bullets, this prequel story is also narrated by Deacon Chalk. The story premise focuses on the Atlanta zoo wherein someone or something is slaughtering the animals however the peculiar nature of the kill is what gets Deacon invited to the crime scene. Detective John Longyard knows about Deacon’s past and is a part of it; he also has some semblance of foresight into Deacon’s current goals. He brings Deacon to the zoo to solve the problem and that’s when the bedlam begins.

I really enjoyed reading this novella as it felt that the author’s strengths were maximized in this form of the story and there wasn’t enough space/time for the negatives to make an appearance. Once again the pace of the story is its highlight as the author quickly brings the reader up to speed and then lets things go haywire. Another positive feature is the horror edge to this story which is nicely nuanced by the zoo location, the author has managed to let his imagination take some weirdly creative turns which accentuate the story's darkness. The author also wisely utilizes the side character cast in this tale and therefore they get much more of a bigger role than in the debut novel.

After finishing this novella I was struck by two things, primarily that James R Tuck really nails down this novella idea mixing horror and thriller themes within the urban fantasy sub-genre and secondly this novella is much better than the actual book purely because the nature of the story does not let the author create the points which I noted in the review above that detracted from my reading experience. I would very much recommend this novella to readers who are looking for a quick thrill ride, with the hope that the author can recreate his form in the longer forms of his craft in the future as well.

WORLDWIDE GIVEAWAY: Win a SIGNED COPY of Rachel Aaron’s “The Legend Of Eli Monpress Omnibus”!!!

2012-02-20T00:01:00.024-05:00

Official Author Website

Read FBC Review of "The Spirit Thief"

Read FBC review of “The Spirit Rebellion”

Read FBC Review of “The Spirit Eater” and “Spirit’s Oath”

Read FBC’s Interview with Rachel Aaron

In support of the February 24, 2011 North American publication of Rachel Aaron’s “The Legend Of Eli Monpress Omnibus”—Fantasy Book Critic is giving away THREE SIGNED COPIES of “The Legend Of Eli Monpress Omnibus” courtesy of Rachel Aaron and Orbit Books!!! Each winner will also have the opportunity to get their copy personalized (if they want it so)!

To enter, please send an email to fbcgiveaway@gmail.com with your Name, Mailing Address, and the subject: ELI MONPRESS. Giveaway will run till 11:59 PM EST March 10, 2012. Thank you for entering and Good Luck!

GIVEAWAY RULES:

1) Open to Anyone WORLDWIDE.

2) Only One Entry Per Household (Multiple Entries Will Be Disqualified).

3) Must Enter Valid Email Address, Mailing Address + Name.

4) No Purchase Necessary.

5) Giveaway Will End On 11:59 PM EST March 10, 2012.

6) Winners Will Be Randomly Selected and Notified By Email.

7) Personal Information Will Only Be Used In Mailing Out the Prizes To the Winners.

"Hotel Iris" by Yoko Ogawa (Reviewed by Liviu Suciu)

2012-02-19T16:45:00.004-05:00

Yoko Ogawa at Wikipedia
Order Hotel Iris HERE

INTRODUCTION: I have heard of Yoko Ogawa in connection with her most famous novel, translated as The Housekeeper and the Professor. I got a copy of that one a few years ago when it was published here in the US though I have not read it yet, but recently I opened her newest (2010) English translation, Hotel Iris and I was hooked.

"In a crumbling seaside hotel on the coast of Japan, quiet seventeen-year-old Mari works the front desk as her mother tends to the off-season customers. When one night they are forced to expel a middle-aged man and a prostitute from their room, Mari finds herself drawn to the man's voice, in what will become the first gesture of a single long seduction. In spite of her provincial surroundings, and her cool but controlling mother, Mari is a sophisticated observer of human desire, and she sees in this man something she has long been looking for."

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: "Hotel Iris" is a short but very compelling first person novel. I think that its distinctive voice makes it so good - lonely, overworked and generally neglected teenager Mari whose widow mother uses as unpaid labor to run their hotel Iris in a Japanese holiday resort by the sea.

So not only was Mari forced to drop out of school a few years back, but she basically has very little time or money for herself and while her mother likes to groom her - after all an attractive face behind the counter brings is better for business than an ugly or unkempt one - she otherwise treats Mari mostly as "property".

"After Grandfather died, Mother made me quit school to help at the hotel. My day begins in the kitchen, getting ready for breakfast. I wash fruit, cut up ham and cheese, and arrange tubs of yogurt in a bowl of ice. As soon as I hear the first guests coming down, I grind the coffee beans and warm the bread. Then, at checkout time, I total the bills. I do all of this while saying as little as possible. Some of the guests try to make small talk, but I just smile back. I find it painful to speak to people I don’t know, and besides, Mother scolds me if I make a mistake with the cash register and the receipts are off."

There is a little backstory about Mari's father who died in an accident/drunken fight some years back at age 31 and whose memory Mari worships as he was the only really kind influence in her life, despite his bouts of drunkenness and fights with her mother.

Given the above, Mari seems to be an easy prey for an older man whom despite his sort of distinguished appearance is first seen when thrown out of the hotel for abusing a prostitute he brought there. Seeing him by chance some two weeks later when out on errand for her mother, Mari follows him and the two are drawn together as unlikely as it seems.

"Then one night my father didn’t come home at all. He was still missing the next day, and my mother scolded me for running out of the lobby again and again to see if he was coming down the street. His body was found late that night, his face so swollen and covered in blood that it was almost unrecognizable. After that, I stopped waiting.

There was nothing of great importance in the translator’s letters—the arrival of summer, his work, the progress of Marie’s romance, references to our walk on the cape—but I enjoyed his formal, slightly peculiar way of expressing himself.

The most important minutes of my day were those spent hidden behind the front desk, poring over his letters. I would cut open the envelope with great care, read the letter three or four times, and then refold it exactly along the creases he had made."

Things however are not that simple and while the man seems to be the classical sexual predator: older, widowed and with rumors of his wife's death being a murder, living by himself in an isolated house on a nearby island which is little populated etc etc, the story definitely does not go that route though it has its share of stuff that may seem twisted.

However, the language is never explicit and the book just flows on the page, while the tension builds page by page as the secret relationship of the two cannot stay secret for ever in such a small place and something will have to give...

Upcoming Baen Books of Interest (by Liviu Suciu)

2012-02-18T13:31:00.006-05:00

While A Rising Thunder - the lead March title - is almost here and is already in the 400's in the Amazon rank so almost guaranteeing a top spot on the bestseller lists in the March week of publication, the ebook is already out with my review to come next week, May-August each feature a major Baen book of interest, though the May one seems to be delayed for a while, while I have already read the July one and it is very good.

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May brings No Going Back which is Mark Van Name's 5th Jon & Lobo novel (#3 FBC Rv + discussion of earlier novels, #4 FBC Rv) and one I am really excited about as last year there was no series book and the retired super-soldier with secret powers/sentient spaceship combo has become a huge favorite of mine. This one seems to get into the deep secrets of Jon and the quarantine of his birth planet but I have a feeling Lobo will have its own surprises too.

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The 163* universe is going strong (as this is book #14) and while I have been mixed about the recent side stories and novels and I have not read the Grantville Gazette in a long time, I really enjoyed Bernie Zeppi's Russian saga in the stories from the Gazette, so I am looking forward to "his" novel, though I heard there will be some differences and some major surprises in 1636: The Kremlin Games, which is Baen's lead June title.

I reviewed the recent Eric Flint solo novel 1636: The Saxon Uprising that is part of the backbone of the series and provided an overview of the series to date and I am still a huge fan of the universe and of its main cast which is among the most memorable in recent sff. Most 163* should be available free on the Baen CD site in the Eric Flint CD's like the one for 1635: The Eastern Front.

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In July, David Weber finally proves that he can do pure (more or less as we still have a multiverse and logical magic) fantasy on the level of his superb sf.

Now Safehold is mostly epic fantasy with an AI wizard, but it is also very sfnal in ethos, so the Bazhell or War God's Own series of which War Maid's Choice (earc available to buy here) is #4 is considered his main foray in the genre.

The first three volumes are free on the various newer Baen DW CD's here and while I thought #1 and #2 were light, more humorous and definitely B-level fantasies, the 3rd book started becoming more serious, but it had a very incomplete feel despite resolving its main threads. Now, 8 years later in our universe and 7 in Bazhell's, War Maid's Choice takes the series to a high level of epic and completes the arc started in the 2004 Wind Rider's Oath. I have reviewed and talked about way too many DW books to link all here, so check our Review Index and my recent Empire of Man post.

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Finally in August, Queen of Wands is John Ringo's second foray in UF after the interesting and alternating funny and dark/tragic Princess of Wands of many years ago (you can read this and most Ringo books on his Baen CD's HERE).

Here I will include the blurb as I have not talked about this series so far, but I would like to mention that the middle part of Princess of Wands is just a masterpiece of UF dark humor, though of course some of the targets may not see it that way. Anyway the author kills his alterego too in addition to killing lots of the book persona of other writers and critics and his choice of villain (hint: another Baen writer that dabbled in long winded high fantasy) is also really funny in quite a few ways. I am really curious about Queen of Wands as UF is not my cup of tea while Mr. Ringo's recent offerings have also been away from my preferences.

"Soccer mom and demon fighter Barbara Everette is back in this intricately interwoven monster noir thriller, the sequel to bestselling Princess of Wands by eight times New York Times best-seller, John Ringo.

Barbara Everette has a problem. It seems Janea, Barbara’s assistant and The Foundation for Love and Universal Faith's best operative, has been thrown into a coma by some very nasty magic she’s stirred up. Barbara must track down the perpetrators and break the spell or Janea's soul will be forever lost on the astral plane. Oh, and if she can't break the spell, zombies will destroy all mankind.

Meanwhile, Janea, a high-dollar call girl, stripper and High Priestess of Freya when she isn’t fighting demons, must contend with a spiritual journey of her own. It’s a journey into Janea’s acceptance of herself in all her dimensions (and what dimensions they are!). Where to locate one’s true inner essence? At a science fiction convention, of course. But when rescuers pursue Janea into her vision of a geeky alternate reality, we find this is one science fiction convention where the Guest of Honor could turn out to be Death Himself.

Finally, the Christian soccer mom and the Norse priestess stripper face their greatest challenge ever when an ancient Old One rears Her ugly face, and the Mother of Darkness walks among us. Since this is one Mother who is quite immune to any conventional power, including nuclear weapons, it seems humanity’s only hope is God.

The question being: Is God willing to save humanity? Fortunately for the rest of us, Barbara and Janea are determined to fight to the last ounce of faith to find out."

"The Face of Another" by Kobo Abe ( a short review by Liviu Suciu)

2012-02-17T15:25:00.001-05:00

Kobo Abe at Wikipedia
Order The Face of Another HERE

INTRODUCTION: Originally published in Japan in 1964, and translated in English by John Saunders in 1966, The Face of Another has been reprinted in 2003 and released in electronic form in 2011. While before this one, I have read only Kobo Abe's most famous novel "The Woman in the Dunes" quite a few years ago, I have always kept (some of) the author's books nearby as they seemed to be precisely the kind of novel that appeals to me - "interesting" would be the short hand, though the author's style (and the translation of course) also needs to match my sensibilities. Here is the blurb:

"Like an elegantly chilling postscript to The Metamorphosis, this classic of postwar Japanese literature describes a bizarre physical transformation that exposes the duplicities of an entire world. The narrator is a scientist hideously deformed in a laboratory accident–a man who has lost his face and, with it, his connection to other people. Even his wife is now repulsed by him.

His only entry back into the world is to create a mask so perfect as to be undetectable. But soon he finds that such a mask is more than a disguise: it is an alternate self–a self that is capable of anything. A remorseless meditation on nature, identity and the social contract, The Face of Another is an intellectual horror story of the highest order."

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: The Face of Another is a difficult novel to talk about in a "review style" post and it is one of those books that really benefit from a deeper critical analysis that presumes one is familiar with it. Its main idea is simple - a scientist gets burned by liquid nitrogen and his face becomes ruined so he starts trying to get an artificial one as close as possible to lifelike; in the process he splits his identity in two - the "original" and the "mask" and they start to compete for the affections of his wife.

However the novel is much, much more than that, as it is a meditation on identity, on what it means to be human, on what visual impressions - including skin color for example - mean and how they ultimately shape our destiny.

"Of course, I intended to try. Rather than run aimlessly away, it would be best, I suppose, to face the situation squarely and get used to it once and for all. If I made nothing of it, then surely no one else would either. With this thought in mind, and of my own accord, I had made my face the subject of conversation at the Institute. I had compared myself, for example, to the masked monsters of television, deliberately exaggerated. I had stressed the advantages of seeing-without-being-seen—since my expression was inscrutable to others—and appeared amused by the whole thing. To accustom others to my face was the best short cut to getting used to it myself.

The stratagem seemed to work. I was then able to get along at the laboratory with no sense of constraint. There is more to those popular masked monsters, too, than appears; I began to understand why they turn up over and over again in comic books and on television. My mask itself—were it not for the scars underneath, spreading like webs—was comfortable enough. If covering our bodies with clothes represents a cultural step forward, there is no guarantee that in the future masks will not be taken equally for granted. Even now they are often used in important ceremonies and festivals. I do not quite know how to put it, but I wonder if a mask, being universal, enhances our relations with others more than does the naked face."

Structured as a three notebook tale told to his wife - and with lots of additional notes that have been added to the notebooks "later" and are generally written using italic, so adding to the sense of immediacy and authenticity - and a prologue that needs rereading at least once, when you get a feel for the book - the novel takes place in a Japanese city in the 1960's but outside of a few details - apartments, workplaces, transportation - and of course the available technology/knowledge about skin cells and the like, it is really timeless and place-less.

There are moments of utter brilliance and moments where you feel the book goes towards the deep end in self-pity and even madness; worth reading if only for the meditations on the subjects above - you will come with a deeper appreciation of how much our physical appearance defines us - but I found it a superb read overall and I highly recommend it.

Book 5 of the Superb Empire of Man series by John Ringo and David Weber is Finally in the Works (by Liviu Suciu)

2012-02-16T11:15:00.004-05:00

Read all four series books to date HERE.

A bit unexpected but quite an exciting tidbit has been reported in various places a few days ago.

John Ringo just had an announcement that he completed - finally, after years of constant bugging - the synopsis for the 5th Prince Roger (Empire of Man) novel which goes now to David Weber for tweaks/approval/etc and hopefully in 2-3 years we will have the book.

So I just reread the first 4 books (March Upcountry, March to the Sea, March to the Stars, We Few) and I remembered again how much I love this series - the combination of interstellar intrigue and space battles (first 100 pages of March Upcountry, last 100 pages of March to the Stars and all of We Few) and the action on the primitive planet of Marduk with the superb world building, fascinating cultures, crazy battles on land and on sea and dangerous fauna (March Upcountry from page 100 on till last 100 pages of March to the Stars).

I plan to have a review of the series here soon as incidentally I plan to review soon another David Weber series that has been moving again after an 8 years hiatus (Bazhell or War God's Own series where the 4th book, War Maid's Choice is due in July but available now to buy as an e-arc HERE).

But just as a hint why the Empire of Man series is so good, I would mention memorable characters and wrenching moments - in every book at least one "main" character dies and only a few survive from the almost 200 that are marooned on Marduk, while of course in We Few this continues, though also new important characters are introduced in each book.

While We Few ends on a great note and closes the arc of the first 4 novels decisively, as Mr. Ringo put it, our main hero Prince Roger "has promises to keep" from the previous books so it is time to fulfill them and of course there is the little matter of the civil war he inherits...

Anyway the first 4 books are free at the Baen CD place on any newer CD like the one for Mission of Honor and I am really looking forward to the next books whenever they will be out - I kind of doubted for a long time that there will be more and while I sure wanted that, the first 4 books have enough closure to keep me happy but now I am really excited as this series is on par with the best out there.

As Mr. Ringo puts it colorfully (see here):

"-I recently reread the series. When I got done I walked into the living room and growled at Miriam. 'These God Damned writers! How can they just LEAVE it that way! Roger has PROMISES TO KEEP! WHERE THE HELL IS THE SEQUEL!!!!?'"

The Spirit Eater by Rachel Aaron w/ bonus review of Spirit's Oath (Reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)

2012-02-15T00:01:00.014-05:00

Official Author Website

Read An Excerpt HERE

Order “The Spirit Eater” HERE

Read FBC Review of "The Spirit Thief"

Read FBC review of “The Spirit Rebellion”

Read FBC’s Interview with Rachel Aaron

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS: With the pressure on after his success in Gaol, Eli Monpress, professional thief and degenerate, decides it's time to lie low for a bit. Taking up residence in a tiny seaside village, Eli and his companions seize the chance for some fun and relaxation.

Nico, however, is finding it a bit hard. Plagued by a demon's voice in her head and feeling powerless, she only sees herself as a burden. Everyone's holiday comes to an untimely close, though, when Pele arrives to beg Eli's help for finding her missing father.

But there are larger plans afoot than even Eli can see, and the real danger, and the solution, may lie with one of his own and her forgotten past. If only Nico could remember whose side she's on…

CLASSIFICATION: The Legend of Eli Monpress is a classical fantasy series set in a medieval world of sorts; the style and settings of the story invoke tales popularized by Terry Brooks and David Eddings with a huge slice of Terry Pratchett.

FORMAT/INFO: The Spirit Eater is 422 pages long divided over twenty-two numbered chapters and a prologue. Narration is in the third person via many different characters such as Eli Monpress, Miranda Lyonette, Nico, Josef Liechten, Slorn, Benehime the Shepherdess, Alric of the League of Storms, Sted and a few other minor characters as well. December 1, 2010 marked the mass market and e-book publication via Orbit Books.

ANALYSIS: The Spirit Eater is the third book in the Legend of Eli Monpress series and one whose review is long overdue. I had read the book a few months after its release but somehow due to my own laziness never got around to posting the review. So today when Spirit’s Oath (prequel novella) is being released, I realized this would be a good chance to review both stories. In a quintet series this is book III, so to discuss its plot will mean that there will be spoilers for the first two books. I’ll try my best to avoid major spoilers so read ahead with caution and only if you have read the previous two books.

The book begins with an event occurring nearly two years before the events of the first book and like its predecessors, shines a light on a pivotal event featuring some of the main characters, in this case being Josef & Nico and this being their first meeting. The story then begins as Sted the ex-league swordsman is looking for revenge against Josef. He manages to track down Slorn for a better sword than the last one. His search reveals a bit more about Slorn’s past and then he ends up with more than he bargained for. Miranda Lyonette is back with the Spiritualist court with her name cleared from the events of the first book. She is then approached for by another faction of the court and soon is given more details about the going on in the courtly realms. Lastly there’s Eli, Josef & Nico who are approached by Pele to search for her father Slorn who has suddenly gone missing. All in all while Eli wants nothing but to lie low but his friendship with Slorn stands in the way of that sensible plan and then there are larger events afoot which involve the Shepherdess, the league of Storms, Demonseeds and the Demon of the dead mountain. This time around Eli is outmanned, outwitted and out of his reach when it comes to magic.

This book follows a crucial pattern like its predecessors and the focal point of this book is Nico. This is a bit of a giveaway from the title and after the events of the previous book, its high time the author decided to reveal more about her, her not-so-unique problem and the underlying problems of the world. This book also acts a wonderful transitionary volume for the series as its no longer a light hearted comedy like the first book and while it does retain all of its charm, humor & likability, it also takes a dark sheen over the plot. While many might think that the author is suddenly changing her plans and shifting gears, rest assured this is all part of the overall series scheme. The author had long ago revealed that she had planned the series arc before she started writing the books and each book would focus of a main character. This book focuses on the most endearing one among them.

The story has a lot of things going for it namely its pace and plot twists, while the reader’s grasp of the world is suitably widened. The main revelations in this story have to do with demons and demonseeds, and this was very especially tantalizing to read about. I was very curious after all what was revealed in the second book and so with this book I had high expectations which were suitably & generously met with. Characterization is similar to the first two books and while the character cast is increased, the author does her best to make the new characters as much interesting as the old ones. Humor has always been a highpoint for this series and with this book, it takes its first dip which I think has more to do with the plot matter. Its still funny but due to the darkness inherent within, it does not produce as many laugh-out-loud moments as say the first one. The plot line also encompasses some terrific SF edges to this fantasy story and I had asked the author about it in her interview and she replied by saying:

“The Shepherdess and the “what is going on with this world” questions are the big plot of the series, and the closer we get to the end, the bigger these problems get. They play a big roll in book 4 and book 5 pretty much is nothing but dealing with these problems because things are really going to hell.”

It’s very much evident from this book as to how screwed up things are and how much down hill the future seems to be. After reading all the revelations and plot hints for the future books, I can’t wait for June to get my hands on Spirit's War.

Drawbacks being similar to the first book are present in this one as well, the characters act a bit stereotypical and this perhaps will be the biggest flaw experienced by most veteran fantasy readers. Also the ending has a huge revelation for one character but it has a bit of "Deus ex Machina" feel to it which robs its sheen. This series however has been very clearly marketed for the type of fantasy it is and one can’t really complain in the third book that the reader didn’t know what type of book it was going to be.

CONCLUSION: Rachel Aaron’s series is progressively getting better with each book and with Spirit Eater, she not only ups the ante but also darkens the world of Eli Monpress in many a twisted way. Combining action, humor and plot twists to come up with an exciting story, the Spirit Eater is the best book of this series and now it remains to be seen how it all ends in the forthcoming books.

Order Spirit’s Oath HERE

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: Spirit’s Oath is a novella which acts as a prequel to the main series; It focuses on Miranda Lyonette and is set four years before the events of the first book. It's being released today as a "thank you" from the author & publisher to the fans of the series. The book features Miranda as a twenty year old who has just taken her spiritualist vows and also gotten hold of a wind spirit. Things however aren’t looking good for her when her family drags her back to her home and reveal what plans they have for her.

Her parents and younger sister don’t share her enthusiasm for her spiritualist duties and want to marry her off to a man, who wishes to enter the higher social circles and his marriage to Miranda will pave that way. What he doesn’t count is Miranda’s attitude and the presence of a certain ghosthound whom readers will recognize from the latter books. The tale is about nineteen thousand words but feels much longer than that due to the sheer excitement, which is packed into the story. Miranda’s stubbornness and her innate sense of justice is brought to the fore very strongly and this was an aspect which I enjoyed reading.

The book is a bit predictable due to the nature of all prequels, this is something that is very hard to avoid. This book is no stranger to such a theme however the author tries her best to make the eventual ride a pleasant one as much as possible. It is a book which thoroughly integrates Miranda’s past with her story in the future saga. I very much enjoyed this trip as it showcased the formation of the bond between her & Gin. I can’t wait to see where she ends up in the next book as in the end of the third book, her life takes a rather strange turn and she gets a new partner as well. Kudos to the author for giving the reader a short but vital look into the past of one of the main characters of the saga.

"Dark Eden" by Chris Beckett (Reviewed by Liviu Suciu)

2012-02-14T00:01:00.004-05:00

Official Chris Beckett Website
Order "Dark Eden" HERE

INTRODUCTION: I heard of Chris Beckett's work when The Turing Test collection won the prestigious Edge Hill Short Story prize in 2009. I immediately bought a copy of the collection and I read a few of the stories there. I generally enjoyed them and I plan to read all of them as time goes by, but they seem to work only in smaller doses for me maybe because they are quite concentrated.

However his previous two novels, Holy Machine and Marcher never really tempted me, so when Dark Eden was announced with the blurb below I was not sure either. Remembering vaguely that I read a story with the same title in The Turing Test, I checked the collection and sure enough the story Dark Eden is in there and it is precisely the tale of Angela and Tommy told through their two quite distinct voices in alternating parts. As I quite liked it and some reviews showering great praise on the novel appeared too, I decided to buy a copy for myself and try it immediately.

"You live in Eden. You are a member of the Family, one of 532 descendants of Angela and Tommy. You shelter beneath the light and warmth of the Forest's lantern trees, hunting woollybuck and harvesting tree candy. Beyond the forest lie the treeless mountains of the Snowy Dark and a cold so bitter and a night so profound that no man has ever crossed it. The Oldest among you recount legends of a world where light came from the sky, where men and women made boats that could cross between worlds. One day, the Oldest say, they will come back for you...."

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: In talking about Dark Eden, there are two different aspects that need to be considered, namely literary quality and sfnal scope. In short, Dark Eden is superb as a literary novel but something I've seen many times before as sf or (pre) historical fiction and not only that, but its scope is very limited since there is only so much you can do with a primitive society as sense of wonder and big picture - in other words the attributes that define high class sf - go.

After all, you are given a small grouping of people - no advanced tech to sustain too many or too hostile an environment and the tech base of the society is not able to tame said environment - relatively rigid rules which where justified once upon a time when survival was the first imperative, rules that lead to what the current younger generation perceive as stagnation, and the maverick hero/heroine who is set to change all that and in doing so breaks the social compact for better or for worse.

This is the sfnal structure of Dark Eden too and as mentioned I've read this so many times that in terms of the big picture there is not much to surprise and there is a clear logic of events that you can already guess from the blurb. The specific world building - planet in intergalactic space, with no sun but life, atmosphere and heat coming from underground volcanic activity - is interesting though and there is a lot of potential for complexity if the author chooses to develop this universe more.

If sfnally the novel is just good due to its limited scope, literary Dark Eden is superb. Its structure alternates narration mostly from John Redlantern and his girlfriend Tina Spiketree - they have 21 and respectively 16 of the 46 total chapters - with a few other characters with their own distinctive voices presenting their take on events at various points.

The rules and habits of the Eden society, their way of life, rituals, food gathering and hunting, mating, division into "normal" humans and the disfigured ones - as expected the descent of all 532 humans which live in Eden at the start of the book from Angela and Tommy has quite a few genetic negatives - are slowly revealed and the author balances action with world building and back story perfectly.

The transitions between chapters are very smooth and all characters that narrate even for only a chapter come alive. Of course as they have the bulk of the story John and Tina are the most nuanced and developed of all and we see their growth from a wondering but confused boy who is well liked by most women in the colony to a mature and determined leader in John's case:

"And in the back of my mind a little thought came to me that there were other worlds we could reach that weren’t hidden away in Starry Swirl, or through Hole-in-Sky, but here on ground, in Eden. They were the places where the woollybucks went, the places they came from."

and from a young girl who cherishes her "desirability" by men but does not really question her society and its way of life to one who discovers the courage to confront the "public opinion" and follow John in looking for a better life:

"John was interesting. I mean he looked nice, and I fancied him in that way, but what fascinated me most was the way he behaved. All that hunting trip he was trying to be different, trying not to be the same as all the other newhair guys. He went right up that icy ridge. He annoyed Old Roger and David by questioning the True Story."

So despite that almost everything that happens is predictable as it follows the logic described above, I was still captivated by the novel and turned the pages to see what happens with John, Tina and their growing band of followers.

While a standalone novel and with a very good ending that leaves open a lot of possibilities, I wish the author will return to Eden and tell us more about the fascinating human society he created there. Dark Eden is a highly recommended novel of 2012 and excellent literary sf that I can easily see shortlisted for both genre and mainstream prizes that appreciate writing style and "realistic" characters rather than sense of wonder and big picture speculations.

The Rook by Daniel O' Malley (Reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)

2012-02-13T00:01:00.010-05:00

Official Author website

Order The Rook HERE

Read the first four chapters HERE

Watch the Book trailer HERE

Read Suvudu interview with author HERE

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Dan O’Malley was born and brought up in Canberra, Australia. He then came to USA for his further studies and graduated from Michigan State University. He also earned a Master’s Degree in medieval history from Ohio State University. He currently works for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, writing press releases for government investigations of plane crashes and runaway boats and also acts a spokesperson. This is his debut novel.

OFFICIAL BLURB: “The body you are wearing used to be mine.” So begins the letter Myfanwy Thomas is holding when she awakes in a London park surrounded by bodies all wearing latex gloves. With no recollection of who she is, Myfanwy must follow the instructions her former self left behind to discover her identity and track down the agents who want to destroy her.

She soon learns that she is a Rook, a high-ranking member of a secret organization called the Checquy that battles the many supernatural forces at work in Britain. She also discovers that she possesses a rare, potentially deadly supernatural ability of her own.

In her quest to uncover which member of the Checquy betrayed her and why, Myfanwy encounters a person with four bodies, an aristocratic woman who can enter her dreams, a secret training facility where children are transformed into deadly fighters, and a conspiracy more vast than she ever could have imagined.

FORMAT/INFO: The Rook is 496 pages long divided over forty-three numbered chapters. Narration is in the third-person via the "new" Myfanwy Thompson and in first person via the form of letters by the "old" Myfanwy Thompson and an one-off third-person mini-chapter by Ingrid Woodhouse. The Rook is a standalone book however the author has plans for a sequel.

January 12, 2012 marked the North American hardback and e-book publication of The Rook via Little, Brown and Company.

ANALYSIS: Daniel O’ Malley’s The Rook is a debut which comes with high praise and lots of hype as well. When we received the review request, I read a couple of chapters and I was immediately hooked. This is the opening paragraph of the book and is an excellent hook for the book:

“Dear You,

The body you are wearing used to be mine. The scar on the inner left thigh is there because I fell out of a tree and impaled my leg at the age of nine. The filling in the far left tooth on the top is a result of my avoiding the dentist for four years. But you probably care little about this body’s past. After all, I’m writing this letter for you to read in the future. Perhaps you are wondering why anyone would do such a thing. The answer is both simple and complicated. The simple answer is because I knew it would be necessary. The complicated answer could take a little more time.”

The simple answer as well as the complicated one both takes a while to become apparent to the reader however the journey throughout until then is quite a pleasant one as I found it.

With that paragraph, the story of the Rook begins and introduces the reader to Myfanwy (rhymes with Tiffany) Thomas who has two black eyes, more-than-few bruises and absolutely no memory of who she is and how she got here (here being standing in the rain in a park in London). She however finds two letters in her jacket that inform her of her name and what she has to do next. She then slowly makes her way to a safe place but not before encountering a few of her pursuers and then discovers her powers. She discovers more about herself via the letters left by the original owner of the body. The basic premise of the book is the presence of the organization known as the Checquy, which has a hierarchal similar to that of a side of a chessboard. It’s this organization that Myfanwy is a member of and holds the position of a Rook. Thus the story follows Rook Thomas as she has to learn what her role in the organization entails, potentially stave off a supernatural invasion and discover who was the person that caused this predicament to her old self.

The book was a delight to read with its mix of the Jason Bourne-like identity crisis and the way the author unveils the world and history slowly. The author has elaborately alternated the storyline with chapters in the current timeline and the letters from the "old" Myfanwy thereby making the reader go through the same confusion, which avails the "new" Myfanwy. This aspect was a great move by the author and while it will remind many of one of the most famous amnesia-tinged stories (the Jason Bourne series by Robert Ludlum). Readers will have to keep in mind that this book is much lighter than the aforementioned series, the mystery aspect of the book's plot is very strong and is the main thread that propels the story. The eventual mystery is also resolved satisfactorily in the climax and then the author has inserted a nice twist to the story thereby hinting at a sequel as well as making sure that the readers get a savory ending.

Another aspect of the story that resonated with me was its understated comedy, the book doesn’t really go all out on the humor front but it has its moments of dry humor which will surprise the reader and keep them chuckling along. Consider this as a good example of the story’s humor quotient:

“ With the sort of power these new processes granted them, the members of the brotherhood were in the perfect position to seize power. In any other country, a massive, bloody war would have ensued. Horrors would have stalked the land, unholy amalgamations of flesh would have fought on the fields and the nights would have held new unspeakable terrors.

Fortunately this is Belgium we’re talking about!”

With a succinct sense of humor, the author manages to make this story from becoming too dreary. The magic system is also unveiled along with the world history in the form of anecdotes and letters; this was great to read, as it didn't feel too much like an info-dump. The characterization was particularly good as Myfanwy’s development is very nicely shown and to contrast with that the letters which showcase her older persona. Lastly the part which made this book stand out from me was that while its an urban fantasy book, it very nicely avoids the genre trappings by not featuring the usual type of supernatural creatures, romantic angle/triangle sub-plot, etc. All these factors made this debut a very fun one to read.

For factors going against it, the biggest part would be that the pacing is a bit on the slower side and while the story develops along nicely the pace of the story never transforms into the express variety. It takes a while to pick up and but once it does, it does hold its own all the way to the climax. Readers who want a fast sort of read might not get what they want. Another aspect which felt funny to me was the story felt to be grappling the twin genres of YA and adult, there were some sections which felt as if the tale was YA but then after a few pages some plot twist/turn would come up to disavow it of the YA tag. Maybe this was what the author intended and if so then it was a great mix of a story.

CONCLUSION: The Rook is a good debut showcasing the author’s skills as a writer and plotter. It’s a book that genuinely makes the reader invested in the story and its characters. I was most certainly entertained and bemused by its whimsical nature and overall mystery-laced plot. Give it a try if you are in the mood for a urban fantasy book without the usual genre trappings, definitely a debut to remember.

"The Map and the Territory" by Michel Houellebecq (Reviewed by Liviu Suciu)

2012-02-12T00:01:00.004-05:00

Michel Houellebecq at Wikipedia
Order The Map and the Territory HERE

INTRODUCTION:Michel Houellebecq is one of the most acclaimed and controversial French writers of today. With four major novels to date, all controversial in a way or another - though he has written other novels and novelettes, non-fiction including a book about HP Lovecraft, performed psychedelic rap and directed movies - and three Goncourt prize shortlists in 1998 for The Elementary Particles/Atomised, 2005 for The Possibility of an Island and 2010 (won) for The Map and the Territory he is hated, adulated and anything in-between...

While I read his sfnal The Elementary Particles some years back - I liked it but thought that as sf it was not that original - and his very controversial Platform (no comment as such are easily misinterpreted today by the thought control police, just read the book and make your own mind about it) pretty much on English language publication in 2002, I sort of forgot about his work until recently.

I got, read and was very impressed by The Possibility of an Island - very sfnal/review upcoming in a few weeks - but The Map and the Territory was a novel that hit it out the park for me so to speak and I will try to explain why next.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: The Map and the Territory starts with an epigraph that reflects the attitude of the author's alter ego in the book - named also Michel Houellebecq and described as the reclusive author of the novels above, rather than the outlook of the relatively energetic hero of the novel, painter and photographer Jed Martin.

"The world is weary of me,
And I am weary of it."

While the above epigraph could well reflect the philosophy of his earlier novels, especially of The Possibility of an Island, where the world ultimately becomes tired of humanity so to speak, The Map and the Territory is the tamest Houellebecq novel to date as content goes and the most ironical one, not least because of his self-portrait in the book. It is also "very French" and in turns both a love letter to France and an (occasionally scathing) critique.

The first part of the novel taking place in the early 2000's and in which we meet our hero Jed Martin, we find out a little about his past and in which he launches himself in the art world with photographs inspired by the Michelin maps of France, while both the title of the novel and the author's view of France as the ultimate tourist destination for whichever nationalities are on top, like the Englishmen and Americans of the 20th century or the Chinese and Indians of the 21st, are presented, is quite interesting but the true power of the novel resides in the middle part that takes place in the 2010's.

Through Jed Martin's paintings and the whole discussion and reaction to them, the author offers a sfnal like assessment of today's society; I disagree with quite a lot of what the author says here, but his perspective is coherent and I would say Balzacian though of course with 21st century realities and sensibilities.

"Two convinced supporters of the market economy; two resolute supporters also of the Democratic Party, and yet two opposing facets of capitalism, as different as a banker in Balzac could be from Verne’s engineer. The Conversation at Palo Alto, Houellebecq stressed in his conclusion, was far too modest a subtitle; instead, Jed Martin could have entitled his painting A Brief History of Capitalism, for that, indeed, is what it was."

The structure of these first two parts of the novel as a sort of biography/historical fiction told from the future about a 21st century artist is also very sfnal, while of course the epilogue carries the story to the 2040's and offers a glimpse of the future geopolitics in addition to continuing Jed Martin's saga.

"Even if today it is considered a historical curiosity, Houellebecq’s text—the first of this size devoted to Martin’s work—nonetheless contains some interesting intuitions. Beyond the variation of themes and techniques, he asserts for the first time the unity of the artist’s work, and discovers a deep logic in the fact that having devoted his formative years to hunting for the essence of the world’s manufactured products, he is interested, during the second half of his life, in their producers."

The third part of the book is contemporary and structured as a police investigation with all new characters, while Jed appears in a consulting role and despite the major change in focus and pace, this part works superbly because of its topic which I won't spoil though you will easily find out about if you read the blurb for example.

The Map and the Territory has lots of great tidbits, scenes and vignettes and the author uses Wikipedia for a lot of information - leading to nonsensical accusations of plagiarism as the use of public information in novels is a traditional one.

“What defines a man? What’s the question you first ask a man, when you want to find out about him? In some societies, you ask him first if he’s married, if he has children; in our society, we ask first what his profession is. It’s his place in the productive process, and not his status as reproducer, that above all defines Western man.”

Michel Houellebecq's usual themes - aging and death, sexuality and its loss with age, the conflict between generations - appear in droves but here they are more nuanced than in the stark The Possibility of an Island and balanced by a rounded "big picture" analysis of cultural/societal values.

The one niggle that stopped me from ranking The Map and the Territory as my #1 novel of the year to date was the ending from the epilogue which I found a bit dissonant with the rest; a little more ambiguity there would have made the novel even stronger imho.

Overall The Map and the Territory is a great novel well deserving of its Goncourt prize and a top 25 of mine in 2012. While not strictly speaking sfnal despite its taking place in the 1990-2040 period, I strongly recommend it for any sf lover as its big picture themes are very similar (and much better done imho) with the ones in near future sf.

Three Upcoming 2012 Fantasies of Great Interest, Galen Beckett, Beth Bernobich, Mark Newton (by Liviu Suciu)

2012-02-11T13:31:00.002-05:00

So far 2012 has been dominated by science fiction with a sprinkle of literary and historical fiction - out of 19 books I have read in 2012 and of 14 2012 releases read so far, only two have been fantasies - and based on my current interests this trend is sure to continue in the indefinite future, so for balance I thought of highlighting some upcoming fantasy novels I am really looking forward to, novels that I hope will find their way here sooner rather than later.

All are part of series and all previous novels in the respective series have been reviewed here, mostly by me, some by/with Robert, and all have been in my top 25 of their respective years.

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After two wonderful novels in The Magicians and Mrs. Quent and The House on Durrow Street, the saga of Ivy and of her family and friends comes to an end in The Master of Heathcrest Hall. Great atmosphere and superb characters in a combination of the classic and the modern, of the strange and the familiar.

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After the wonderful debut Passion Play, comes Queens' Hunt, the next chapter in the story of Ilse and her strange employer/mentor/lover Raul Kosenmark. I have been waiting for this novel for a while now as it has been delayed from its original 2011 release date and I am really eager to find out what happens next as the ending of Passion Play demanded the next installment asap!

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The Legends of the Red Sun saga also ends this year after three superb novels, Nights of Villjamur, City of Ruin and The Book of Transformations. While the ending of the third novel gave some hints where the story will go, I am really curious what surprises were prepared by Mark Newton for The Broken Isles!

The Flame Priest by Karen Azinger (Reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)

2012-02-10T00:01:00.011-05:00

Official Karen Azinger Website

Order “The Flame Priest” HERE

Read an extract HERE (Includes spoilers for the first book)

Read FBC’s review of The Steel Queen

Read FBC interview with Karen Azinger

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Before venturing into the field of writing, Karen Azinger spent over twenty years as an international business strategist, eventually becoming a vice-president for one of the world's largest natural resource companies. She's worked on developing the first gem-quality diamond mine in Canada's arctic, on coal seam gas power projects in Australia, and on petroleum projects around the world. Having lived in Australia for eight years she considers it to be her second home. She's also lived in Canada and spent a lot of time in the Canadian arctic. Eight years ago on a hike in the Colombia River Gorge she realized she had enough original ideas to finally write an epic fantasy, resulting in The Silk & Steel Saga.

OFFICIAL BLURB: Heralded by a red comet, the Mordant is Reborn. A thousand years of evil hidden beneath a young man’s face, the Mordant returns in the guise of his oldest enemy. Keen to regain his full powers, he weaves his way north, sowing a trail of death and deceit. Kath and her companions leave the monastery, chasing an elusive shadow across the kingdoms of Erdhe, but the dark divide has already begun. Allies are set against allies, tearing the kingdoms asunder.

A rebellion rises in Lanverness, threatening the queen’s life as well as her crown. Trapped within her own castle, the Spider Queen must out-wit the traitors led by her own blood, or surrender her kingdom to Darkness. Across the border, the Lord Raven builds a religion into a fanatical bonfire. A fiery frenzy grips Coronth, fanning the powers of the Flame Priest into a raging threat. The eternal battle of Light and Dark is joined, but few mortals understand the rules.

CLASSIFICATION: The Silk & Steel saga is an epic fantasy series in the vein of the twisted & action-packed stories by Stephen Deas and Jennifer Fallon.

FORMAT/INFO: The Flame Priest is 475 pages long divided over sixty-seven titled chapters and a prologue. Also includes a map and appendices for the kingdoms of Castlegard, Coronth, Lanverness, Navarre, the order of Kiralynn monks and The Deep Green. Narration is in the third-person, mostly via Katherine (The Imp), Liandra the Spider Queen, Blaine the Knight, Princess Jordan, Prince Justin, Steffan, the Mordant ,Samson the baker’s son and Prince Danly while the minor POVs include the knight marshall Osbourne, Micah, the Priestess, and Sir Tyrone. The Flame Priest is the second volume of The Silk & Steel Saga, which is projected to be five books long. The third book is currently titled The Skeleton King.

November 8, 2011 marked the Trade Paperback publication of The Flame Preist via Kiralynn Epics—an independent publisher created by the author. The lovely cover art is provided by Greg Bridges.

ANALYSIS: Sequels are hard to write and often doubly difficult to appease the readers. Writers always walk a tight rope when releasing their second books. I believe Karen Azinger must have also faced a similar conundrum and I wanted to see how she would fare and so when I got the opportunity to get my hands on the second book. I eagerly went ahead as I had enjoyed The Steel Queen and the way the book ended, made me want to read the second at the earliest.

The story begins with our heroes who have all gone through their individual trials by the end of the first book. Kath the imp princess is learning more about magic as she prepares to fight the forces of the dark lord. To add to her worries is the whereabouts of Jordan the princess of Navarre & sword sister to Kath. On the other hand her brother Prince Justin the musician is in Coronth trying to gauge how to appease the flames fanned by the flame priests. The goings are tough as he has no clue to the madness which prevails in the kingdom. His only tools are his music and songs but they hold a crucial power & shall it be enough to stem the tide of the flames? Queen Liandra is facing a red hand orchestrated attack on the reins of her monarchy and it does seem to be slipping from her hands. Her second son Danly is anxiously scheming to replace her as the true king. Steffan the Raven Lord is furthering his own plans by helping the flame priests however the Dark Lord has special plans for him. Lastly is the newest player in this game the reincarnated Mordant who is equally terrifying and plays his cards close to his chest. All these characters create a thick web of action, intrigue & emotions, by which the reader will be completely enamored by.

The author has to be lauded for her plotting skills which were nicely evident in the fist book but come to the fore exuberantly in this one. Throughout the story, twists are inserted for the reader to happen upon, some of which are predictable however the majority should definitely take the reader by surprise. The main plot is about transformation and this aspect is seen through all the character arcs. Be it the heroic ones or the villainous ones, they all are striving for reaching their goals and the tribulations they will face will either strengthen or smash them. Its up to the reader to discover who survives and who doesn't.

The pacing is another factor which helps as the book begins on a fast pace and then maintains its zest through out whilst going on to an terrific climax. The entire story almost never slows beginning from the first chapter all the way to the end. There’s always something happening in one chapter or the other. I noticed that the author carefully orchestrated this story so that the ebb and flow of action & emotions is constantly alternated and so every character faces danger at some time or the other. I found this aspect to be very similar to the thriller books by Jeffrey Deaver and this was quite an excellent point.

The character list is also expanded from the last book and while most of the previous POV characters make their return, it’s the presence of the new POVs which is truly the dark feature of this book. Namely the Mordant who is reborn and features across the breadth of the story, he was frequently mentioned in the first book however remained more like a shadowy presence but in this book manages to gain corporeal presence and makes his presence felt in all fields. His chapters as well as those of Stefan are the major negative POV chapters and are the most exciting ones to read. As the reader can read their thoughts and plans which affect several characters through out the story in major & minor ways. This was something which is usually not present in most fantasy books as we often see the actions of the negative characters but rarely see the thought process behind it.

I must also point out that one of the short stories in The Assassin’s Tear, deals with a major plot point in this book and so by reading the short story, the plot acquires depth. The book while having these positive facets still faces some old issues, namely that the predictability factor is never completely toned down and so most older fantasy readers will still be able to get a general idea about how and where the story might be going. The tropes which are utilized are most of the common fantasy ones and the author doesn't really bring anything new to the palate in those terms.

CONCLUSION: A lengthier, twisted & exciting sequel, The Flame Priest lives up to its blurb promise. Focusing on a large cast of characters, Karen Azinger masterfully manages the storyline and holds the reader’s interest with an engaging plot. The Flame Priest is a vastly improved book compared to its predecessor and as a sequel manages to overcome reader expectations convincingly. Give this series a try if you love classic epic fantasy tales with heroes, magic, battles & mayhem.

"The Detour" by Andromeda Lax-Romano (Reviewed by Liviu Suciu)

2012-02-09T00:01:00.008-05:00

Official Andromeda Romano-Lax Website
Order "The Detour" HERE

INTRODUCTION:Andromeda Romano-Lax is the author of The Spanish Bow, a novel about an underprivileged child prodigy who grows to be a famous cellist and mingle with the noble society, while in the process bringing to life some half century of Spanish history. I liked that book quite a lot when I read it on publication in 2008 and the only negative for me was that towards the end it started lacking balance and devolved into a succession of vignettes rather than a coherent tale.

Overall The Spanish Bow was an impressive debut and when I found out about The Detour from the Amazon Vine monthly catalog of all places, the book became an asap and I even got two advanced review copies, the print one from Vine and an e-version from Net Galley. Here is the blurb which while accurate enough does not quite reflect the richness and power of this novel:

"Ernst Vogler is twenty-four years old in 1938 when he is sent to Rome by his employer--the Third Reich's Sonderprojekt, which is collecting the great art of Europe and brining it to Germany for the Führer. Vogler is to collect a famous Classical Roman marble statue, The Discus Thrower, and get it to the German border, where it will be turned over to Gestapo custody. It is a simple, three-day job.

Things start to go wrong almost immediately. The Italian twin brothers who have been hired to escort Vogler to the border seem to have priorities besides the task at hand--wild romances, perhaps even criminal jobs on the side--and Vogler quickly loses control of the assignment. The twins set off on a dangerous detour and Vogler realizes he will be lucky to escape this venture with his life, let alone his job. With nothing left to lose, the young German gives himself up to the Italian adventure, to the surprising love and inevitable losses along the way.

The Detour is a bittersweet novel about artistic obsession, misplaced idealism, detours, and second chances, set along the beautiful back-roads of northern Italy on the eve of war."

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: The Detour is a gem of a novel and while I expected to like it, I really did not expect to be blown away by it and to be honest the first 50 pages or so while good do not reveal how just superb the novel becomes once the narrator starts his Italian trek with two dubious twin brothers and a highly prized classical statue in the back of a truck.

As noted above, the author's novelistic debut, The Spanish Bow, scattered a bit too much towards the end, while in The Detour the opposite stands true - after a slightly disorganized beginning which starts making more sense only later in the book, the book pulls its narrative threads together and it is just stunning: a personal tale of discovery, suspense and ultimately life affirming amid the signs of the impending apocalypse.

The narrator, a seeming "loser" still young at 34 in 1948 when he retraces his journey of 10 years ago, turns actually to be a very decent young man, however unheroic and outwardly shy, and that is much more than could be said about many people living in that period. A working class background and an embittered domineering father, coupled with his failure to become the "world class athlete" of said father's dream, leads young Ernst to a seemingly going nowhere life of temporary jobs, essentially being another "male body good for construction work and army training" in the Reich, until a quarrel with his father and a gesture due to that is misinterpreted.

So by chance Ernst gets noticed by the higher ups of the Reich and gets a job as "cultural adviser" - ie cataloging art that the Fuhrer and his acolytes plan to loot - actually as this is 1938, for now they have to buy it, but big scale looting will come soon enough - from abroad.

Ernst does not realize at the time what happened, but later when he is offered the job he takes it as "salvation", only of course his "naive, loser" attitude marks him as an easy prey for the run-of-the-mill gangsters who thought the Nazis were their ticket to their riches as fellow gangsters with a powerful state and police.

"As it turned out, one could have too much knowledge and experience in the arts to be the best match for certain kinds of employment. Someone older than me, who had worked in the field longer and under a different zeitgeist, would have developed many ideas and tolerances that were no longer acceptable. When I first started working in our office there had been several modern art curators among us, but invariably, their tastes became problematic. Perhaps they defended an artist, living or dead, or had certain ideas about embracing new possibilities, or weren’t sympathetic to the anti-modern “degenerate” exhibitions supported by the government."

As structure, The Detour seamlessly weaves its 1938 mostly Italian tale with the back story that is both poignant and reveals a lot about how the Reich happened and why "normal" people supported a bunch of gangsters led by a charismatic madman. In addition there are several chapters that take place in 1948 when Ernst narrates the tale while back for the first time in Italy since 1938. This structure reduces a little the tension about the fate of Ernst - after all we know he survived both his ill fated trip of 1938 and the war - but in return it offers a dual way of seeing the events of the novel and that pays off big time as the book goes on.

The writing is top notch with excellent narrative flow, action and drama, while the Italian countryside and its seeming timelessness and detachment from the dramatic world events of the time is pictured pitch perfect by the author. Add to this the interludes where Ernst muses about art and its role in society and you will get a sense of why the book succeeds so well as it brings quite a few disparate elements into a whole that is more than the sum of its parts.

A great ending - not unexpected but still excellent - and no wonder I really loved The Detour and ranked it a top 25 novel of mine for 2012!

Instrument of Evil & Judgment of Evil by Lori Lowthert (Reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)

2012-02-08T00:01:00.010-05:00

Official Author Website

Read an excerpt HERE

Order the Books HERE

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Lori A. Lowthert was born and brought up in Florida. She did her BS in biology from University of South Alabama and molecular biology from Princeton. She is a practicing psychiatrist and lives with her family in Connecticut. This is her debut.

ABOUT INSTRUMENT OF EVIL: Have you ever had a really big secret? Rebekah Johnson has one, and she's afraid to tell her new boyfriend, Scott. She's afraid if she tells him, he'll break up with her. Or turn her in to the police. Rebekah is a fledgling serial killer who's not quite ready to give up murder. Will she choose killing people or her relationship?

ABOUT JUDGMENT OF EVIL: Rebekah had vowed to stop killing for love, but she finds herself unable to stop. Scott still knows nothing about her secret life. She is happily attending graduate school when the unthinkable happens--she is arrested and charged for one of the murders she committed last year. She spends a few nights in jail before she goes in front of a judge, who sets the bail at an exorbitant $1 million. Her father and Scott are able to raise the necessary money and get her out on bail. She kills again, even when she is out on bail. Rebekah has hired an excellent criminal defense attorney, but she's afraid it won't be enough and she'll go back to jail.

CLASSIFICATION: The Evil series is a cross between the Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay and a coming-of-age storyline.

FORMAT/INFO: Instrument of Evil is 400 pages long divided over forty numbered chapters. Narration is in the first-person view focusing solely on Rebekah Johnson. October 8, 2011 marked the Paperback and e-book publication of Instrument of Evil by the author.

FORMAT/INFO: Judgment of Evil is 276 pages long divided over seventeen numbered chapters and a prologue. Narration is in the first-person view focusing solely again on Rebekah Johnson. November 25, 2011 marked the e-book publication of Judgment of Evil by the author.

ANALYSIS: Instrument of Evil is a debut which promises a look in to the making of a serial killer and to add to its credit the serial killer in question is also a female. With such a description I of course wanted to see how debutante author Lori Lowthert would handle the story and how different/similar it would be to the Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay.

The story begins in first person narrative with Rebekah remembering her childhood beginning at three, it’s from here the readers are shown an intimate look at her journey onto adulthood. It’s not with complete adversity but it’s not in the form you would think. Rebekah’s childhood is as normal as one can expect, however the reader is slowly shown her sociopathic tendencies which are not noticed by her parents. The reader is also privy to all her thoughts and actions and once she’s discovers the visceral thrill of taking a person’s life, that's when the reader discovers just how dangerous she will be.

The story then slowly but surely veers off into thriller territory from the growing up phase wherein we see Rebekah trying to perfect her technique, getting to know herself as a serial killer and selecting her victims. The author has very carefully given the reader a detailed outlook of her life and since the character is a developing sociopath. The reader’s sympathies might not entirely be with the protagonist but the author does her best to paint a compelling picture of a person who willing does morally reprehensible acts. This is the book’s greatest strength, the protagonist’s characterization which completely overshadows every one else. Not that the other characters are caricatures but they are also given their due stage presence. However they only come around when Rebekah decides to interact with them and thus their presence is actively controlled by the protagonist. The second point which works for this book is that the book eschews its thriller aspect for getting deeper into the overall life of the characters. This allows the author to completely flesh out the entire life story of the protagonist, showing us the smallest events as well as all the big kills leading onto the eventual climax which is a dual pronged strategy focusing on Rebekah’s personal and perverse life and thereby going on to an ending which is not easy to predict.

The second book then begins after the events of the climax of the first book and one of Rebekah’s kills has made her the prime suspect and to add to her troubles, her killer instincts have not dimmed by any degree. This is the main theme of book II whether Rebekah can learn to manage her own predatory instincts versus her feelings for Scott. This battle of her natures is fascinating to read about as many of her actions in the previous book come back to haunt her in this book and cause a further strain in her relationship with Scott. The book then races along to its climatic portion wherein she is faced with a different sort of an issue wherein she might have to decide what she eventually wants.

The second book is nearly half of the length of the first and this gives the book the edge over the first book wherein the story sometimes lost pace or seemed to lack focus as well. The sequel very specifically focuses on the thriller aspect of the story which was missing in the first book. The characterization again like the first book is top drawer stuff and with the tightly focused plot creates a story which is definitely hard to put down. Another positive aspect of the story is the unpredictability of the climax which is carried forward from the first book. The reader is never quite sure how the author aims to end the story and that helps tremendously in gauging the reader interest.

Both these books share a similar kind of negative feedback that is that the story is less of a thriller and more of a coming-of-age tale, wherein the protagonist instead of coming into her own as a person is slowly developing into a serial killer. Granted that Rebekah seems milder than most serial killers we have been exposed to like Hannibal Lecter, Patrick Bateman etc… If any she seems quite mild to even the female serial killers found in the massive serial killer saga by J.A. Konrath & Blake Crouch. What is slightly different about Rebekah is that she constantly fights her own nature not in entirety but she does consider her nature to be an aberration and she’s slowly trying to come to terms with it. Lastly both the books have this thriller semblance but it never completely ventures into thriller territory. It constantly flirts with the edges and then casually rolls over into a simpler story whilst constantly changing its path. Some readers might not necessarily enjoy this combination and therefore I would recommend that readers read the excerpts to get a feel of the story and then jump in.

CONCLUSION: The Evil series by Lori Lowthert is a fascinating but inadvertently uneven saga of a serial killer who while being a female is no less deadly than her male counterparts. The author definitely deserves to be applauded for taking on this story as her debut effort, perhaps in a few years her skills will get the requisite polish to match her ambitions and then the author will be someone to look out for.

Thoughts on "Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon" by Mark Hodder and "The Midnight Palace" by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (by Liviu Suciu)

2012-02-07T00:01:00.004-05:00

"It is 1863, but not the one it should be. Time has veered wildly off course, and moves are being made that will lead to a devastating world war. Prime Minister Lord Palmerston believes that by possessing the three Eyes of Naga he'll be able to manipulate events and avoid the war. He already has two of the stones, but he needs Sir Richard Francis Burton to recover the third. For the king's agent, it's a chance to return to the Mountains of the Moon to make a second attempt at locating the source of the Nile. But a rival expedition led by John Hanning Speke stands in his way, threatening a confrontation that could ignite the very war that Palmerston is trying to avoid!"

Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon is maybe the last Burton and Swinburne novel and while I talked at greater length about The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack and about The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man, I will present here some thoughts about this book and the series in general.

The two main characteristics of Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon are that in "the local" - chapter by chapter, adventure by adventure, scene by scene the book is just superb; great writing, Burton and the supporting characters excel, the pages are turning by themselves, the world building is detailed and believable, while the tech is pure steampunk fun.

However in the "global", the book almost falls into the solipsistic - the action of one or more characters can erase/change timelines i.e. have God powers i.e. solipsism - trap that tends to afflict time travel changing the past novels. The "I do this, puff a whole history is erased and a new history that no one but me is aware of, comes into being" is ultimately a major destroyer of suspension of disbelief and while Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon stops at the "cliff" so to speak, the whole is less than the sum of its parts.

The ending was superb though - balance of ambiguity and necessity - but while I would highly recommend the book and the series, it is not quite at a top 25 level for me.

Looking back at the three novels as a whole, I would say that while Spring Heeled Jack was a little uneven until the author found his voice and the right narrative balance between steampunk and Dickensian stuff, with again an awesome ending to raise its level, The Clockwork Man was almost pitch perfect as it balanced the major aspects - the whys of the different history, the influences from the future, steampunk, social narrative - with great characters, addictive turn page writing and another excellent ending. Expedition offers arguably even better writing and more tension but by trying to tie things up and "explain" them, it also veers to close to solipsism as mentioned above.

*****************************************************************

"Set in Calcutta in the 1930s, The Midnight Palace begins on a dark night when an English lieutenant fights to save newborn twins Ben and Sheere from an unthinkable threat. Despite monsoon-force rains and terrible danger lurking around every street corner, the young lieutenant manages to get them to safety, but not without losing his own life. . . .

Years later, on the eve of Ben and Sheere’s sixteenth birthday, the mysterious threat reenters their lives. This time, it may be impossible to escape. With the help of their brave friends, the twins will have to take a stand against the terror that watches them in the shadows of the night—and face the most frightening creature in the history of the City of Palaces."

The Midnight Palace is the second offering in Carlos Ruiz Zafon's YA series that appeared in Spain in the early 90's before The Shadow of the Wind made him a household name in the literate world. After the mediocre The Prince of the Mist which was very YA so it passed its expiration date for me a long time ago, The Midnight Palace has all the elements that made his three adult novels to date so extraordinary: narrative energy, inventiveness, great characters (even as sketches here) and twists and turns that make you turn the pages till the end.

In addition, the creepy descriptions that made the atmosphere of TSoW , The Angel's Game and The Prisoner of Heaven so awesome appear from the early pages and they are an integral part of why The Midnight Palace succeeds. Now the book is still YA, so we have relatively simplistic action and a generally predictable plot as the big picture goes, while the world building does not question the roles of our 16 year old heroes and heroines as main leads which is of course what tends to kill the suspension of disbelief for me as the world simply does not work like that - hence do not expect the layers and sophistication of the author's above mentioned adult novels.

If you want an introduction to the author and see what the fuss about his superb novels is, this book will do since it's short and fast. Recommended with the caveat that is still a YA novel so with all the implied limitations thereof.

"God of War" by Christian Cameron (Reviewed by Liviu Suciu)

2012-02-05T00:01:00.034-05:00

Official Christian Cameron Website
Order "God of War: The Epic Story of Alexander the Great" HERE

"The story of how Alexander the Great conquered the world - first crushing Greek resistance to Macedonian rule, then destroying the Persian Empire in three monumental battles, before marching into the unknown and final victory in India - is a truly epic tale that has mesmerised countless generations of listeners. He crammed more adventure into his thirty-three years than any other human being before or since, and now for the first time a novelist will tell the tale in a single suitably epic volume. The combination of Alexander's life story and Christian Cameron's unrivalled skills as an historian and storyteller will ensure that this will not only be the definitive version for many years to come, but also one of the most exciting historical epics ever written."

I am a big fan of Christian Cameron's "Classical Greek World" novels - there are two duologies so far in the Tyrant series of which I reviewed King of the Bosporus (the fourth novel and second dealing with the children of Kineas who is the main hero of the first two books) and two novels in the Long War series that takes place some 150-200 years earlier and feature Arimnestos of Plataea, hero of Marathon and ancestor of Kineas and his twins, Satyrus and Melitta.

So while expecting the fifth Tyrant novel (which should have been published in Jan/Feb) and the third Arimnestos one (due in the summer), I was a bit disappointed that Mr. Cameron published God of War which supposedly tells (again and after a ton of similar novels and a few popular movies) the story of Alexander.

However I read a review and realized that actually God of War is told by Ptolemy, king of Egypt and important secondary character of the Tyrant series to Satyrus about the time when the twins found refuge in Alexandria and I realized that actually this book ties in perfectly with the Tyrant series, so of course it became an asap and I got and read it immediately despite its almost 800 pages.

Kineas is quite important in the book though indeed the novel focuses on Ptolemy's life from childhood till the death of Alexander in Babylon in 323. As "legal" son of the richest Macedonian noble and rumoured that he was actually Philip's illegitimate son, so Alexander's step brother, Ptolemy is raised with the prince and becomes one of his principal advisers and later a main general of his armies, though he never attains the influence of Alexander's intimate friend Hephaestion.

Nicknamed "farm boy" for his forthrightness and occasional lack of sophistication, Ptolemy both loves and later almost worships Alexander, while also tries to keep him grounded. If Hephaestion told Alexander what he liked to hear, Ptolemy told him what he needed to hear. The unquestionable loyalty he showed during their early years and later during the difficult years of Alexander's marginalization by his father, made Ptolemy the only possible person who could tell hard truths to the increasingly "god like" king.

That made Ptolemy less than popular on occasion with the king, but his immense wealth and later his relationship with Thais, famous Athenian hetaira and unofficial spy-mistress of the Macedonians, his friendship with Kineas, the Athenian nobleman and cavalry commander and his camaraderie with his soldiers and officers compensated for that, though of course after the Persian conquest it became more and more dangerous to offer even the slightest hint of dissent to Alexander as numerous Macedonian noblemen and generals paid with their lives for that.

"‘What’s he thinking of?’ I asked Thaïs, who rode between me and Kineas.
Thaïs smiled. ‘He isn’t going to lay siege to it,’ she said. ‘He’s going to make love to it.’
She was at her most witty when she was enigmatic. So I smiled at her and kept my scouts moving."

So the novel spans about 20 years, starting with their early teen years at Pella and their study under Aristotle, though the bulk of it deals with Alexander's ascension and then his Persian conquest, while his last seven years after the burning of Persepolis in 330 are mostly summarized in the last hundred fifty or so of pages which are vignette like.

As this is a Christian Cameron novel, the world building is exceptional and the description of army life, marches and supplies is as exciting and thorough as the description of battles and sieges. While Alexander, "the God of War" is always the main focus of the big picture, Ptolemy and Thais are the main characters and their relationship from their first meeting in Athens to their quasi-marriage and lifelong partnership is the keystone of the novel and what raises this book above the many offerings on its subject.

As I tend to believe that the author's take on Alexander is as close to reality as it can be done, 2300+ years later and few original sources beyond the brute facts - details of which are still unknown and/or controversial - the novel worked very well from this point of view.

"I didn’t think he was insane – if he had ever been sane by the standards of normal men, he still was. But the enormous wound he’d taken and the drugs Philip must have put into him to keep him on his feet – by Apollo’s bow, I still look for any excuse to cover him. He ordered almost fifty thousand men and women killed between Tyre and Gaza, and for nothing. Everyone else had already submitted. There was no example to be made. And the killing of Batis went clean against his code – except that more and more frequently, he seemed to be set on the annihilation of all resistance, rather than the honourable combat and complex warrior friendships of the Iliad.It was a paradox – the kind on which Aristotle thrived – that Alexander seemed to want to create the world of the Iliad – a world of near-eternal war and heroism – and yet seemed to want to destroy all of his opponents so that they could not continue the struggle."

God of War is a top 25 novel of mine in 2012 and as a standalone page turner with so much great stuff and a modern retelling of an epic story that has stood as a model for such for all these 23 centuries, I think that anyone who loves epics should give it a try.

The Assassin's Tear by Karen Azinger (Reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)

2012-02-04T00:01:00.004-05:00

Official Karen Azinger Website

Order “The Assassin’s Tear” HERE

Read FBC Interview with Karen Azinger

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Before venturing into the field of writing,Karen Azinger spent over twenty years as an international business strategist, eventually becoming a vice-president for one of the world's largest natural resource companies. She's worked on developing the first gem-quality diamond mine in Canada's arctic, on coal seam gas power projects in Australia, and on petroleum projects around the world. Having lived in Australia for eight years she considers it to be her second home. She's also lived in Canada and spent a lot of time in the Canadian arctic. Eight years ago on a hike in the Colombia River Gorge she realized she had enough original ideas to finally write an epic fantasy, resulting in The Silk & Steel Saga.

PLOT SUMMARY: Explore the medieval kingdoms of Erdhe, raid the tomb of the first emperor of China, and unravel the enigma of Dark Space in this collection of fantasy and science fiction tales from the author of The Silk & Steel Saga. The two signature stories, Prophecy’s Twist and The Assassin’s Tear, are set in the fantasy realm of Erdhe. Prophecy’s Twist discovers the dark deceit that started the War of Wizards, forever changing the kingdoms of Erdhe. The Assassin’s Tear follows the exploits of a petty thief whose ambition leads him to the dark corners of the Mordant’s Citadel.

The Emperor’s Shadow is an international thriller in the style of Indiana Jones, combining the power of superstition with archaeology. A Man’s World is a post-apocalyptic adventure set in Australia where coal miners discover all the rules have changed. Pieces of the Truth is a time travel story where a young physicist discovers a forgotten truth. Snakes and Ladders has Lynn Gallant out to shatter the glass ceiling by taking a walk to the dark side of New Orleans. Lastly In The God Planet, universal dreams spark a religious frenzy, summoning humanoid kind to the riddle of Dark Space.

FORMAT/INFO: The Assassin’s Tear is 185 pages long divided over seven short stories and an introductory note. Narration is mostly in the third-person for almost all the stories and in first person for the largest one. The Assassin’s Tear is a collection of stories that have been written as an experiment by the author.

December 15, 2011 marked the Trade Paperback and e-book publication of The Assassin’s Tear via Kiralynn Epics—an independent publisher created by the author. Cover art is provided by Peggy Lowe.

ANALYSIS: Karen Azinger first came to my notice last year with her debut The Steel Queen. In the penultimate months of last year, I was alerted to her new short story collection The Assassin’s Tear which seemed like a nice mix. When the author requested a review, I readily agreed as I had enjoyed reading her debut offering and now I wanted to see how she would do with shorter side of fiction. The collection opens up with a nice Introductory note in which Karen does a fine job of telling the reader about the background of each story. I enjoyed knowing how one of the stories was inspired by a fan or that another one was inspired by the history channel and lastly one which spanned the use of three cards and the images they carried. Karen Azinger enthusiastically cracks open about each story and therefore it fires up the reader for the forthcoming stories.

The stories then begin with Prophecy’s twist which is set several hundreds of years ahead of the timeline established in the Steel Queen, these events are crucial to read for fans of the Silk & Steel saga as they detail an event which molds much of the magic happening in the saga. However for readers unknown to these books, this story will seem surprising as in it things happen rather quickly and then the story hurls along to its calamitous end. The story has some nice surprises set in its path and this sets the tone nicely for the opener. The next story is the titular story of the book and is one of the best ones as it focuses on a thief called Dolf who decides to take a shine to the Mordant’s castle. This story is set around the same time as the prologue of the first book The Steel Queen, however while the first book had its moments of darkness , this story is almost covered by darkness stretching to the atmosphere as well as to the thoughts of the protagonist. This was the best story of the book for me as it showcased surprises as well revealed some crucial pointers for the actual Erdhe series (thought they don’t bode well for the heroes in the series).

The third tale seems to be inspired by Indiana Jones as Doctor Zebastion Kole is the protagonist who is given a task and he must use his wits as well as the full extent of his knowledge to help his nation. A fun tale which pretty much acts as a lighter foil to the earlier ones and is one which reminded me a lot of thrillers by Matthew Reilly. A Man’s World is the next tale, which is a post apocalyptic one and one which is based on an interesting premise that is without the presence of women. A group of miners are the focus of this tale, and among them Danny & Burt are the protagonists of this story. The story is about the nature of mankind and how indomitable one's spirit can be. The next story is called Pieces of the Truth and is about time travel, while the tale has the protagonist Linus going back to meet a very important scientist. The ending of the story was a nice surprise and very much enriched this story for me.

Snakes and Ladders is the penultimate story that features various themes such as women’s status quo and exploring them via means of the urban fantasy sub-genre. An interesting piece and one, which sets up the next story The God Planet. This story is the biggest one of the collection and is the only one using the first person perspective. This story focuses on religion, human belief systems and the nature of androids, the author quite skillfully mines these aspects to give the readers some questions to ponder about.

Overall this was an interesting story collection that encompasses various genre pieces and enough ingenuity to keep the readers immersed in the worlds created. Karen Azinger’s prose really helps in the setting of each story and also manages to present a different mood to each piece as well. The only thing that draws a bit of gloss from these stories is that they are predictable to a certain degree and that perhaps is the main drawback about this collection.

CONCLUSION: Karen Azinger’s short story collection is definitely a good way for readers to get themselves acquainted with her work. Focusing on a wide array of themes as well as different genres, she manages to invest a certain amount of gravitas in each of her stories to make them an interesting bunch to read. Definitely recommended for fans of her debut and for all readers who want to read an eclectic collection and discover a new author in the process.

Thoughts on "Touch of Power" by Maria Snyder and "The Order of the Scales" by Stephen Deas (by Liviu Suciu)

2012-02-03T09:31:00.000-05:00

"Laying hands upon the injured and dying, Avry of Kazan absorbs their wounds and diseases into herself. But rather than being honored for her skills, she is hunted. Healers like Avry are accused of spreading the plague that has decimated the Fifteen Realms, leaving the survivors in a state of chaos.

Stressed and tired from hiding, Avry is abducted by a band of rogues who, shockingly, value her gift above the golden bounty offered for her capture. Their leader, an enigmatic captor-protector with powers of his own, is unequivocal in his demands: Avry must heal a plague-stricken prince—leader of a campaign against her people. As they traverse the daunting Nine Mountains, beset by mercenaries and magical dangers, Avry must decide who is worth healing and what is worth dying for. Because the price of peace may well be her life...".

"Touch of Power" is the first volume in the new Maria Snyder "Healer" series. Like in her previous very entertaining fantasy trilogies - Study and Glass - the novel is structured as the first person narration of a youngish but tested through trials etc, so the book is not YA, heroine with special powers.

While Avry is certainly different than Yelena or Opal, the overall feel of the novel is absolutely the same and so are its page turning qualities that made me go through the book very fast as I could not put it down.

The world building is different though and it is quite intriguing - 15 kinds of magic, magical healers/scientists possibly responsible for the devastation that engulfed it, power brokers with various ambitions and lack of scruples, the mysterious Death and Peace Lilies, etc - and much remains to be explored while the book ends at a good point.

If you loved her earlier series, you will love this, if not I do not think this will change your mind either. Fun, compelling and mostly familiar and predictable but with enough "newness" to avoid boring repetition and a highly recommended book of 2011 for me.

I plan to get and read the sequels asap since - as in the other 2 adult series of the author - the voice resonates very well, while the secondary characters - both the "heroes" and the "villains" are intriguing and I expect a few twists and turns as the story progresses.

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"Having survived Jehal's betrayal, former Queen Zafir is determined to take back control of the kingdom. To that end, she seizes Jehal's wife and son as hostages. Desperate to save his queen and his heir, Jehal makes a tentative peace with the dragons of the north, and prepares to fly against his enemies.

But as politics throw the realms of men into turmoil, a far greater danger threatens. The dragons are awakening from the spells cast upon them, and returning to their native fury. They are out for revenge. And that revenge will be brutal."

The Order of the Scales is the ending -at least of some of the threads since there will definitely more in the dragons storyline - of the trilogy started in the superb The Adamantine Palace and was followed by the pretty good but more traditional The King of the Crags.

Like its two predecessors, the novel moves fast and while it ends quite conclusively the general storyline mentioned in the blurb above and dealing with the conflicts and the jockeying for power of the Dragon Kings and Queens, the powerful finale of the novel is also a beginning and hints where the storyline will go next. There are quite a few twists and turns and I kept turning the pages and generally let the novel flow so I finished it fast.

What I love about the novel and the series overall is the "take no prisoners" attitude of the author and the fast paced narration; in this book like in The Adamantine Palace, the action is almost breathless and things happen and happen and happen; at 300+ pages I would say the narrative content is equal if not higher than in books twice its size.

Now of course this has some drawbacks too since the characters flash and go and while the main ones have clear personalities, others are just place holders, the world seems only sketched at times, but overall the "magic" of suspension of disbelief and immersion in a strange universe works very well and I am in for the duration.

One of my highly recommended novels of 2011 as I read it on UK publication last year in May, The Order of the Scales appears next week on February 7 here in the US. Of course I plan to get and read The Black Mausoleum on its UK publication this May/June too!

2011 Locus Recommended Reading List with Comments (by Liviu Suciu)

2012-02-02T10:45:00.006-05:00

On February 1st, Locus Online has released their 2011 Recommended Reading List which most likely will form the basis of the main list for the upcoming Locus Award which I consider one of the two major and relevant awards in the sff of today together with the more UK oriented Arthur Clarke one.

You can find the full list and the names of the contributors on Locus Online and I copy/pasted the choices in the three main categories of interest, SF novels, Fantasy novels and First novels. I will present them below with some comments.

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Novels – Science Fiction

Daybreak Zero, John Barnes (Ace)
Grail, Elizabeth Bear (Ballantine Spectra)
Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
The Clockwork Rocket, Greg Egan (Night Shade Books)
This Shared Dream, Kathleen Ann Goonan (Tor)
7th Sigma, Steven Gould (Tor)
Deadline, Mira Grant (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
Earthbound, Joe Haldeman (Ace)
11/22/63, Stephen King (Scribner; Hodder & Stoughton as 11.22.63)
Wake Up and Dream, Ian R. MacLeod (PS Publishing)
Firebird, Jack McDevitt (Ace)
Embassytown, China Miéville (Ballantine Del Rey; Macmillan)
All the Lives He Led, Frederik Pohl (Tor)
The Islanders, Christopher Priest (Gollancz)
Enigmatic Pilot: A Tall Tale Too True, Kris Saknussemm (Del Rey)
Heart of Iron, Ekaterina Sedia (Prime Books)
Rule 34, Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)
Dancing With Bears, Michael Swanwick (Night Shade Books)
The Children of the Sky, Vernor Vinge (Tor)
The Courier’s New Bicycle, Kim Westwood (Voyager Australia)
Zone One, Colson Whitehead (Doubleday; Harvill Secker)
Vortex, Robert Charles Wilson (Tor)
Home Fires, Gene Wolfe (Tor; PS)

COMMENTS

General: A great list with almost all the major sf novels of 2011 I thought were excellent or very good. In my list of 2011 highly recommended books you will find The Clockwork Rocket (my top sf of 2011 as we can consider 1Q84 to be "mainstream" for genre award purposes), Leviathan Wakes, Embassytown, The Islanders, Vortex, Home Fires all reviewed on FBC HERE.

Disagreements: Here, the two books I thought had some good stuff but were a little far from being on a top list were Firebird and Heart of Iron. I have no interest in most of the rest as I am not a fan of zombies, Stephen King, Charles Stross (outside of his crazy far future sf which was excellent, his near future and alt hist/fantasy are boring), Vernor Vinge, Joe Haldeman etc. The Ian McLeod would be of some interest but I have not seen a copy yet.

Notable Misses: Of the 2011 major sf novels the one missing here is By Light Alone by Adam Roberts. In addition I am strongly recommending the small press Dancing with Eternity by John Patrick Lowrie which quite surprisingly was my #2 sf novel of the year and # six overall.

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Novels – Fantasy

The Heroes, Joe Abercrombie (Gollancz; Orbit US)
The Dragon’s Path, Daniel Abraham (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
Heartless, Gail Carriger (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
The Fallen Blade, Jon Courtenay Grimwood (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
The Alchemists of Kush, Minister Faust (Narmer’s Palette)
Hidden Cities, Daniel Fox (Del Rey)
The Uncertain Places, Lisa Goldstein (Tachyon Publications)
Raising Stony Mayhall, Daryl Gregory (Del Rey)
The Magician King, Lev Grossman (Viking)
Redwood and Wildfire, Andrea Hairston (Aqueduct Press)
The Kingdom of Gods, N. K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
A Dance with Dragons, George R. R. Martin (Bantam; Harper Voyager UK)
The Cold Commands, Richard K. Morgan (Ballantine Del Rey; Gollancz)
Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D’Urbervilles, Kim Newman (Titan Books)
The Book of Transformations, Mark Charan Newton (Tor UK)
Mr. Fox, Helen Oyeyemi (Picador UK; Riverhead)
The Hammer, K. J. Parker (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
Snuff, Terry Pratchett (Harper; Doubleday UK)
Briarpatch, Tim Pratt (ChiZine Publications)
The River of Shadows, Robert V. S. Redick (Del Rey; Gollancz)
The Wise Man’s Fear, Patrick Rothfuss (DAW; Gollancz)
Deathless, Catherynne M. Valente (Tor)
The Folded World, Catherynne M. Valente (Night Shade Books)
Among Others, Jo Walton (Tor)
Mistification, Kaaron Warren (Angry Robot UK; Angry Robot US)

COMMENTS

General: A good list with some of the fantasy novels I thought were excellent or very good but with a lot of divergence from my tastes too . In my list of 2011 highly recommended books you will find A Dance with Dragons (my top fantasy of 2011), The Hammer, The River of Shadows, The Dragon's Path, The Book of Transformations, The Cold Commands, Heroes all reviewed on FBC HERE.

Disagreements: Here, the three books I thought had some good stuff but were a little far from being on a top list were The Fallen Blade, The Wise Man's Fear and The Uncertain Places. Kingdom of Gods and Mr. Fox are books I plan to read at some point, while in the rest I have no interest. I strongly disliked the first Magicians book by Lev Grossman which I thought quite poorly written as literary style goes, regardless of the fantasy-nal content and surprisingly I never got into the "Daniel Fox" series despite that I quite liked his fantasy series written under his real name, while Mystification just did not work out for me as style goes but others loved it...

Notable Misses: Major misses here are the novels by Kate Elliott, Jacqueline Carey, Carol Berg, Paula Brandon (aka Paula Volsky) and of course Adrian Tchaikovsky. In addition, I would strongly recommend Scholar by L.E. Modesitt and The Last Four Things by Paul Hoffman.

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First Novels

Debris, Jo Anderton (Angry Robot US; Angry Robot UK)
The Girl of Fire and Thorns, Rae Carson (Greenwillow; Gollancz as Fire and Thorns)
Ready Player One, Ernest Cline (Crown; Century)
God’s War, Kameron Hurley (Night Shade Books)
The Desert of Souls, Howard Andrew Jones (St. Martin’s)
Of Blood and Honey, Stina Leicht (Night Shade)
Soft Apocalypse, Will McIntosh (Night Shade Books)
The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern (Doubleday)
The Tiger’s Wife, Téa Obreht (Random House; Weidenfeld & Nicholson)
Low Town, Daniel Polansky (Doubleday; Hodder & Stoughton as Low Town: The Straight Razor Cure)
Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti, Genevieve Valentine (Prime Books)
Blood Red Road, Moira Young (McElderry; Marion Lloyd)
Seed, Rob Ziegler (Night Shade Books)

COMMENTS

General: This is the list with the fewest overlap with my preferences as I would recommend only Debris, The Night Circus and for literary style, The Tiger's Wife despite my objections to some of its content.

Disagreements: The only other books on the list I finished were Mechanique which I found ultimately mediocre despite some great moments and Low Town which I found just bad. I tried a few others like God's War, Seed and The Desert of Souls but they did not work for me though in all cases it was just a matter of style not matching my taste so I would recommend taking a look at our (FBC) reviews of some of those and Of Blood and Honey which were among Robert or Mihir's favorites.

Notable Misses: 2011 was not a great year for debuts imho as I found very little to compare with very strong preceding years. There was Dancing with Eternity mentioned above and the one major publisher miss from the list, All Men of Genius by Lev Rosen whose absence here surprises me a little bit as the book should have ticked all the right boxes for the Locus staff...