Blog, Jvstin Style

Books Read and Reviewed 2010 to Date(August 29th)

Italicized books are ones I received books from the author, or review copies.

24. Lucky 13, Sommer Marsden
23. Got a Minute, Alison Tyler
22. Torn: Erotica Ripped from the Seams, Alison Tyler
21. Empire in Black and Gold, Adrian Tchaikovsky
20. The Dreaming Void, Peter F Hamilton
19. Land of the Burning Sands, Rachel Neumeier
18. Allison's Wonderland, Alison Tyler
17. Fast Girls, Rachel Kramer Bussel
16. Lord of the Changing Winds, Rachel Neumeier
15. Much Fall of Blood, Eric Flint, Mercedes Lackey, Dave Freer
14. Stories, Edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio
13. Dragon Keeper, Robin Hobb
12. The Dream of Perpetual Motion, Dexter Palmer
11. Star Finder, Poul Anderson
10. The Van Rijn Method, Poul Anderson
9.Starfinder, John Marco
8. The River Kings Road, Liane Merciel
7. The Stepsister Scheme, Jim Hines
6. Prince of Storms, Kay Kenyon
5. Into the Looking Glass, John Ringo
4. The Quiet War, Paul McAuley
3. Servant of a Dark God, John Brown
2. Cursor's Fury, Jim Butcher
1. The Edge of Physics, Anil Ananthaswamy

Book Review 2010 #24: Lucky 13

One more anthology of Erotica, this time from one author...

Ms. Marsden's talents first came to my attention because of her frequent appearance in the anthologies edited by Alison Tyler. Again, and again, the name would crop up, always tied with a story that had strongly developed characters, were sizzling hot, and understood that the fastest way to arouse anyone of any gender or sexual orientation was to engage the organ everyone has in common--the brain.

In Lucky 13, Sommer gets a chance to show off her stuff in a solo context, bringing together thirteen of her stories for your pleasure:

Pause
Underpass
Confessions of a Sexpert #1: Sally Mae
Masturbation 101
Open All Night:Claire
Confessions of a Sexpert #2: Mr. Winkler
Fresh Meat
Mrs. Polenesi
She Looked Good In Ribbons
Paper or Plastic?
Kissing Me Sexy
Beautiful Rita
For Tonight

In this collection of thirteen stories, meet Noelle, whose infidelity will tug at your heart, as well as your arousal. The darkly powerful relationship between Jared and Brenda. The special customer service Lissa gets from Chad. The melancholy encounter between Alyssa and West in She Looked good in Ribbons, possibly my favorite story of the thirteen. The sizzling office threesome in Fresh Meat. And more.

As I expected, hot sex and well developed characters together have combined into a powerful collection of Sommer's work, and this serves as a good sampling of her oeuvre, style, and the buttons she likes to push. Like me, anyone who has encountered Sommer's work elsewhere will find more of her excellent work here, this time unalloyed by other writers. Sometimes, you want to devour just one writer's style and passion, and this anthology allows you to explore Ms. Marsden's work in that way.

Sometimes the thing's we're forced to wait for are the very best things. And sometimes, waiting is severely overrated. Try Sommer's work sooner, rather than later, and you will see what I mean.

Book Review 2010 #23: Got a Minute?

This has been a summer for erotica reviews, i suppose...

Short erotica sometimes gets a bad reputation.

Of course, much erotic fiction gets a bad reputation, but short stories are unfairly derided even within the genre as being "beat material". Poorly written, and nothing more than two people devoid of any character having mechanically described sex. This sort of stuff fills much of the internet; its not hard to find.

Wouldn't it be nice to read some short, short erotica that rises above that sordid reputation to something tastier, more arousing, and better written?

Although erotic novels build up the heat and passion between its characters over time, some days, you don't want to spend the time reading to build the heat, and just want to jump into the fire. Just like sometimes, you want to sample a flavor that accumulates in the mouth, and sometimes you want to try the habanero mango salsa and feel the sharp pain quickly.

In Got a Minute, edited by Alison Tyler, you can.

Got a Minute brings together over 50 stories to this task--write a short, short story, bring a hot situation to fruition quickly, and write it well.

Given those bounds, and given the stable of authors on tap here, its difficult not to find a sheaf of stories to like. Shanna Germain gives us a protagonist who tells you, in the second person, the best way to spank her.Rachel Kramer Bussel gives us two lovers, a banker and a lawyer, whose mouths devour each other's bodies deliciously in the summer heat. Bonnie Dee shows us how the dual acts of massage and painting toenails can lead to explosively erotic results.

IAnd if you don't like a particular kink or author, a new situation and author is just a minute away in this anthology, waiting for you to jump into another fiery furnace of erotic heat and desire.

Surprisingly, though, given the word count strictures, some of the stories go beyond a mere hot sexual situation and bring more interesting and unexpected things into the mix.

Inga Mahn's Backroom Sally, for instance, puts a delicious twist into the idea of a coin-operated sex machine. The editor herself,. Alison Tyler, manages to mingle a heartbreaking story of a past relationship into the current hot one in "No-Win Situation".

That's the greatest strength of the virtues of this anthology. Not the hot sexual situations that will fuel your imagination. Not the variety of authors with their points of view, writing styles, and ideas on display. No, its the sheer surprise and encapsulation of the unexpected in these stories that lift the sub-genre of short erotica from the sordid into the realm of erotic literature.

A truly tasting anthology that I reservedly recommend.

Book Review 2010 #22: Torn: Erotica Ripped from the Seams

Yes, another book (small) of erotica...

Torn: Erotica Ripped from the Seams

torn
verb:.
1. the past participle of tear.
that's torn it Brit slang an unexpected event or circumstance has upset one's plans
adj:
1. split or cut
2. divided or undecided, as in preference he was torn between staying and leaving

In Torn, Erotica Ripped from the Seams, erotic author and anthologist Alison Tyler brings together stories written by herself, and by recurring anthology partners and friends: Jax Baynard, Sommer Marsden, Sophia Valenti and Thomas Roche.

Each of the stories explores the concept of "torn" in different ways, both metaphorical and literal. We have torn clothes, people torn by indecision and circumstance, and everything in between. With such a broad topic the stories sometimes have only an indirect relationship to the theme, but this doesn't keep the stories from being arousing.

Sophia Valenti's story, Having it All, takes the concept of torn to mostly metaphorical levels, as we discover how Kate is torn between Patrick and Carson...and discovers she may not have to be so torn.

Sommer Marsden's More Holes than Jeans does involve actual torn jeans, and also a very hot threesome, as little Amy finds herself picked up by a very carnivorous husband and wife team.

Jax Baynard's Hill Country takes us to the northern panhandle of Texas, and how a metaphorical tear in a wife's trust in her husband is healed in the breach. Don't get me wrong: its a hot story about a stocking fetish...

Thomas Roche's Rip off my clothes takes it title to literal heights, in a very dirty, kinky dominance and submission story that pushes the boundaries of the anthology.

The anchor story, by Alison herself, introduces us to a writer whose lover takes tears in her jeans as a most delicious invitation to naughtiness.

My favorite story of the quintet is probably Sommer's. Both Amy and the Gundersons are interesting characters even as they have hot sex within their short story. I'd love to read more about what the latter get up to.

But, really, they are all good, original (no reprints here) and hot. Trust me: try them, you will like them

Book Review 2010 #21: Empire in Black and Gold

Next up, the start of a novel and original fantasy series.

It's an audacious idea that you might laugh at if I describe it in print. Here goes.

On a parallel world, giant insects grew to enormous size, threatening mammals, reptiles, and primitive humans in the process. In order to adapt to this threat, tribes of humans form mystical alliances with these giant insects, taking on their traits and abilities even while remaining human.

Thus is Shadows of the Apt, the start of a new series by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

This world is moving slowly into an age of science, as the apt (technologically able) varieties of the Kinden, the Beetle, Ant and Wasps have become ascendant over the magic and superstitious Mantis and Moth Kinden. So ascendant in fact, that the Wasp Empire has decided to conquer the world, with flying soldiers that can both fight well and use magical bursts of energy to attack (think Janet Van Dyne from the Marvel comics universe). The Wasps are intent on subjugating all of the Kinden, of every variety, to their yoke.

Opposing the Wasps, recognizing the threat for what it is, is an old Beetle college teacher who doubles as a spymaster, who has gathered and trained a diverse set of Kinden with the goal of using them to build a resistance to the city-state gobbling Wasps.

But the Wasps are onto Stenwold, and his young charges find themselves facing the might and danger that the Wasps represent far sooner than they expected...

I probably would not have picked up this book, with this gonzo (but brilliant premise) if I didn't trust the publisher. Prometheus/Pyr books has a reputation for a strong hand on the tiller, and if he was willing to bring the novel over from Britain to America and publish it, that gave me hope it was worthwhile. I am glad I picked it up on that basis.

Its hard to classify this novel. It's clearly fantasy, given the powers of the Kinden, but the burgeoning of rapidly developing technology (trains and even better, AIRSHIPS) give a steampunkish feel to this universe. And there is apparently fading but real magic in this world, too, as exemplified by the Moth Kinden.

More than the background stuff. The characters really shine. Human with insect like traits and proclivities, they are in the end still human, with human failings, foibles, motivations and personalities. From Stenwold Maker, college teacher and spymaster, to his coterie of family and proteges, and those they interact with in trying to oppose the Wasps, each character is well developed, has a story arc, and develops over the course of the story. And, the sign of a very good writer, Tchaikovsky manages to humanize the evil Wasps as well, providing characters on their side of the conflict with recognizable motivations and personalities, rather than faceless adversaries.

The novel simply works on a number of levels. Magic, technology, interesting characters and at the core--an original idea. We see a number of Kinden, and get mentions of several more. Characters embody, and transcend, those Kinden stereotypes.

I will pick up Dragonfly Falling, and continue to read of the Kinden.

Empire in Black and Gold (Shadows of the Apt 1)

Book Review 2010 #20: The Dreaming Void

Next up, the start of Peter F Hamilton's latest big fat series.

The 36th century is a good time to be a human.

No, really. Wormhole technology and rapid technological advancement has made humans a pretty big player on the galactic stage. Sure, there are post-singularity beings floating about here and there, and a few species which do things that we humans don't understand, and some pugnacious species as well. Still, its been 1200 years since a threat capable of taking on the whole of the human race has emerged.

But when a retired and missing dream-fueled religious prophet's followers decide to conduct a pilgrimage toward the mysterious center of the galaxy, where one of those powerful alien races have been keeping a vigil over a threat capable of devouring everything and everyone, the quiet peace that the human race is bound to end. Just what IS the Void in the center of the Galaxy, and what do the dreams suggesting that it is inhabited--by humans, mean? And what does it mean that an uncrowned successor to that prophet is now broadcasting more dreams of that strange realm? And with new fractures and fissures in the increasing divergent branches of humanity, how can the Commonwealth possibly coordinate a response this time?

It looks like Interesting Times are in store for the Human Race once more...

The Dreaming Void is set 1200 years after Peter F Hamilton's Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained. Set in a universe where anti-aging technology, combined with wormhole technology has led to a Commonwealth of worlds and cultures, Hamilton has extrapolated the already amazing universe depicted in those previous two novels and brought new and extended concepts, ideas and characters to his rich tapestry.

Even better, Hamilton has improved as a writer. Readers who have read the Pandora's Star duology, or the Reality Dysfunction trilogy knows that he writes sprawling, brawling large scale novels with lots of characters and word counts that push 1000 pages. The Dreaming Void clocked in just under 600 pages.

We meet plenty of new characters, as well as some old favorites who have survived all this time. Even in a conservative society such as the Commonwealth does not allow people to remain static over such time scales and Hamilton's increasingly deft characterization makes the evolution of the characters over that time believable.

It's Edeard's story, though, that is the real innovation in Hamilton's writing. An intensely personal story that could be considered magic (or at least psionics) in a quasi-medieval setting inside the Void, his story is intriguing and interesting--and very unlike anything I have read in a Hamilton novel before. I was pleasantly surprised.

That said, the standard virtues of a Hamilton novel are in full force here. Aside from Edeard's story, back in the main universe readers will encounter amazing technology, strange aliens, a variety of characters and settings, a wide scale view of an entire culture as the narrative proceeds apace. Hamilton writes some of the best Space Opera in the business and those talents are in full force in this book.

Hamilton has significantly and visibly improved as a writer with this series, and I look forward to picking up and reading the Temporal Void, the next book in this trilogy.

A final note: Do you need to have read Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained to read this book? I think, actually, that they provide value-added goodness but are not strictly necessary. I think a practiced SF reader can start here and be perfectly happy and follow what is happening and why with minimum problems.

The Dreaming Void (The Void Trilogy)

Book Review 2010 #19: Land of the Burning Sands

Land of the Burning Sands is the second book in Rachel Neumeier's new Griffin Mage Trilogy.

Sophomore books are hard.

You've written the first book, and now the freshness and newness of your stuff as a writer is gone. You have to come up with a second act, and have something new to say, and, worse improve on your previous book. If you are writing a series, especially a trilogy, and your sophomore book is the *middle* book in the trilogy, that is really putting yourself behind the eight ball. Even high class writers have trouble with middle books in trilogies.

Still, given the promise of the first book (Lord of the Changing Winds), I picked up this book with the hope that Neumeier would be able to carry the story and world forward well enough, even given the disadvantages and problems outlined above.

I need not have worried.

Land of the Burning Sands takes place, temporally, not long after the battle at the end of Lord of the Changing Winds. The focus, however, is no longer on Feiebriand, but rather on Casmantium, the antagonists of the first novel. We are introduced to Gereint, whose crime has made him a magically bound servant, and who has the opportunity to take advantage of the triumph of the Griffins in book one to work his way toward freedom. Along the way, he meets allies, a romantic interest (who is far more than just an ornament for the hero), and surprisingly, not as many Griffins as the first book...

But that last part is all right. This book is something different than the first. Rather than focusing on Kes and Kairaithin (the latter appears, but only in the climax of the book), this book focuses on Gereint, the Amnachurdan family, and Beguchren, the (now) last real cold mage left in the entire kingdom. We also see Lord Bertaud from Feiebriand, and the Arobern, but otherwise there is no overlap between the two books in terms of character scope. This second novel is a book that focuses tightly on these characters, as they react to the consequences of the battle of the first novel, and the Griffins desire to punish Casmantium by taking excessive advantage of their victory. Advantage enough to possibly destroy the kingdom entirely, or change it beyond recognition forever.

Without the problems of logistics and battles that I had in the first novel, many of the weaknesses that I found in the first novel simply are not an issue in this second book. This novel plays to Neumeier's strengths in a stronger way than the first novel did, although I don't think that this novel is really readable without reading the first. We get to see more and new magic, and like the first book, learn that when people in Neumeier's fantasy world come to terms with burgeoning magical power, they can literally move mountains. And characterization, a strength of the first novel, here, helps humanize and personalize the antagonists of the first novel, and puts them front and center as real human beings with their own concerns and problems. We learn just why the relations with Griffins are so strained, providing a dose of complexity to the relationship between the earth aspected humans and the air and fire oriented griffins.

I loved it. Neumeier has reduced and eroded my concerns about the first novel, broadened and filled in her world, and made me excited to see the conclusion to this unique trilogy.

I will definitely buy and read the third novel in this series. As for you, I suspect that if you read and enjoyed the first novel, you have already picked this up for your to-read pile. If you have not, I recommend reading Lord of the Changing Winds, first, to provide better context and impact for the events in this second Griffin Mage novel.

Lord of the Changing Winds (Griffin Mage Trilogy Book 1)

Land of the Burning Sands (Griffin Mage Trilogy Book 2)

Book Review 2010 #18: Allison's Wonderland

Another book i received for review, and yes, again, its erotica...

Once upon a time, at College, I came across a theory that was to me novel, audacious, and helped reinforce the idea that what I was going to learn in college was not just going to be more high school, but was a whole new type of learning.

That theory, as expounded by one of my professors, was simple. All fairy tales, she said, every single one, had at its bottom a sexual context. Some were cautionary tales, she said, tales meant to warn young women about the dangers of sex outside of marriage. Others were symbolic rites of passage, suggesting the transformation between girl and woman by means of various symbols. Others were meant to show the transfer of bonds between a girl and her father and a woman and her husband.

This old theory was firmly in mind as I began to read Allison's Wonderland, an anthology of erotic fiction based on fable, fairy tale, myth and legend. Readers of my reviews know that I am well and familiar with Ms. Tyler's previous work--both as an indefatigable anthologist and a writer of her own right. That work, in the main, however, has been kinky, sexy, hot contemporary erotica. Characters that you could meet walking down the street in Los Angeles, or encounter in a sawdust-floor bar in deepest Texas.

This anthology, on the other hand, is a little different.

Some of the stories in this collection, such asJanine Ashbless' Gold on Snow and Georgia E Jones' The Walking Wheel, are explictly set in a fairy tale or historical fantasy world. Others take the idea and theme of various stories and transform them into contemporary contexts, sometimes very much a tale sprinkled with magic. Charlie, in Portia Da Costa's Unveiling his Muse meets a fairy queen of his own creation.Sometimes, though, the only magic needed are the interactions of the protagonists (such as Ms. Tyler's own Rings on her Fingers.

All are most delicious and the quality of the tales are high--and hot Ms Tyler has many of her "Regulars" contribute stories--herself, of course, Kristina Lloyd, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Sommer Marsden, and others. Ms. Tyler has slaved away at getting a high quality of authors in the genre to contribute to the anthology.

There is a wide variety of fairy tale subjects to be found here, too. If you were afraid of reading ten variations on Red Riding Hood, relax, Ms. Tyler has carefully crafted an anthology of a wide variety of stories based on original fairy tale inspiration. She also has provided a wide variety of sexual themes, combinations, and kinks. What other anthology are you going to find an imaginary (or IS she?) lesbian dominatrix mermaid? Or a Greek God in an online chat room?

The stories and authors temper and tone are appealing, in general, to a wide variety of readers of this genre.
Readers of Ms. Tyler's other anthologies, especially, are going to be quite taken with this set of tales. Readers of the A. N. Roquelaure Beauty novels will be quite satisfied as well.

Really, there are few readers of erotic fiction who will not find something to their taste in Allison's Wonderland. So, why not take a trip down the rabbit hole, and find out where it leads you? You won't regret it.

Allison's Wonderland on Amazon.com

Liaden Expanding Universe Contest

Via Superagent Jennifer Jackson

Expanding Universe Contest at sharonleewriter.com

In celebration of the publication of Mouse and Dragon (The Liaden Universe), the thirteenth novel set in their Liaden Universe®, authors Sharon Lee and Steve Miller are holding an Expanding Universe Contest! Yes! No less than thirty-six electronic copies of The Dragon Variation will be given away.

The Dragon Variation (The Liaden Universe) is an omnibus edition of three Liaden Universe® novels -- Conflict of Honors, one of the first modern SFRomances; Local Custom, second place winner of the Prism Award for best Futuristic of 2002; and Scout's Progress, the first place winner of the Prism Award for best Futuristic of 2002, Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice for Best SF Novel of its year, and the prequel to Mouse and Dragon.

That's three complete novels under one cover. No prior knowledge of the Liaden Universe® required. Electronic! In Baen Books' DRM-free, multiplatform style. This omnibus can be read on your Kindle, your phone, your iPad, your desktop, or other ereader.

How The Contest Works:

*The Expanding Universe Contest is open to anyone -- and everyone! -- who has never, ever, cross-your-heart read a Liaden Universe® novel. (I'm not eligible for this contest, natch)

Visit the Contest website and submit your name, and where you heard about the contest. (That would be here!) From those who respond, 36 lucky winners will be chosen by drawing. If 36 or less people enter the contest, then everyone's a winner!

*Each winner will be asked to provide their email address for purposes of receiving the code that will allow them to download their prize.

*A list of winners -- with links to their websites, should they wish, and links to the website where they heard about the contest -- will be published in Sharon Lee's blog.

Small Print: The contest will end at midnight Eastern Daylight Time (4:00 a.m. GMT) Friday, July 16. A list of winners will be posted on Sharon Lee's blog on Saturday, July 17. It is the responsibility of the winners to contact Sharon Lee according to the instructions given with the winner's list. Prizes will be held for 12 days.

It's that simple. So! Those friends you wanted to get hooked on the Liaden Universe®? Point 'em this way. Been meaning to try this Liaden thing, but never got around to it? We're making it as easy for you as we can.

I like the Liaden stuff that I've read. Here's a chance for you to do so, too.

Book Review 2010 #17: Fast Girls

A book of erotica I received for reading and reviewing by the anthology, the prolific Rachel Kramer Bussel...

Fast Girls Erotica for Women"has a title that implies that the audience for the stories in this book is limited to women.

Don't be fooled.

This heterosexual man found the stories in this collection delicious and very much to my sensibilities and tastes.

Rachel Kramer Bussel has collected a set of stories here that are a treat for both genders and all orientations. The theme of the anthology
is women protagonists who take charge of their own sexuality and aren't afraid to employ it.

How can you say no to THAT?

The stories by and large do live up to the promise of the theme of the anthology. No shrinking violets, these, the female protagonists
enjoy sex, and the authors focus on all sorts of aspects of that desire and need, from the dominant, to the kinky to the submissive, to straight
forward lust.

As some of the other reviewers have mentioned, "Confessions of a Kinky Shopaholic" is one of the strongest stories in the set. Bussel herself
includes a sizzling hot story "Whore Complex" that is sharp and strong. "Panther" will make you rethink what you see when you see art sculpture. And what
guy wouldn't want to be the "Cute Boy" in D L King's "Let's Dance"?

Female readers who seek internal sexual fulfillment and empowerment can put themselves in the place of the protagonists. Male readers can delightfully imagine being on the other end of an encounter with Claire, Tracy, Evangeline (God, yes!) and all the others.

Admittedly, if you prefer your erotica to be of characters who are timid, tentative, even virginal, then this collection of erotica is not for you. This collection
of erotica is like a chipotle pepper--smoky, warm, sizzling, hot and daring for you to take a bite--if you dare!

Will you?

Fast Girls: Erotica for Women

Book Review 2010 #16: Lord of the Changing Winds

Next up, a book featuring my favorite mythological creature.

(Hint, its not dragons)

I love Griffins.

Sure, Dragons are awesome. Dragons are mighty. Dragons go with heroic fantasy as much as, say, treasure laden dungeons.

But Griffins...

Combine a lion, king of the beasts, with an eagle, king of the air. That's a potent combination. A combination that speaks to me in a way that the coldly reptilian eye of a dragon doesn't always manage. Too, Griffins are not as well developed as dragons. Everyone knows dragons breathe fire (except when they don't). Everyone knows they love riddles (except when they don't). Smaug is the classic, archetypal dragon.

Griffins aren't anywhere near as common, and so their natures are more of a blank slate...and thus room for a writer (or a GM) to invent as they like. I like seeing that potential fulfilled...and this latest read of mine makes it happen.

Lord of the Changing Winds is the first book in a new trilogy called "The Griffin Mage" by author Rachel Neumeier.

Set mainly in the country of Feierabiand, Lord of the Changing Winds is the story of Kes. A young healer in the backwater village of Minas Ford, her life, and the life of her country, are turned upside down by the arrival of large migrating band of Griffins. Why the Griffins have left their desert, what they want with Kes, and the machinations of the Kings of Ferierabiand and neighboring Casmantium are the Matter of this first novel.

This is Neumeier's first adult novel, and there are striking strengths, and, unfortunately, some glaring weaknesses that mar but do not completely spoil the reading experience.

Best of all is Neumeier's imagining of what Griffins are, and what they do. Their terraforming of the land around them into a beloved (to them) desert is a wonderful conceit and concept, and a strong rationale for why Griffins are usually found in places far isolated from man. The characterizations and emotional palettes of the characters, both human and Griffin, on all sides of the conflicts are strong. I felt myself wanting to know more about the Griffins, their culture, and the cultures of the two very different nations caught in the claws of the Griffins life.

The quality of the writing is very good. Neumeier describes the Griffins lovingly, with the words of someone who loves these creatures as much as I. Each of the Griffins we meet is an individual, in appearance as well as personality. Her writing description of environment goes best when she is describing the Griffins desert, and less so when the action takes us elsewhere.

The magic use in the novel was not strong enough for me to judge it. I need more data before I can decide whether it makes sense or not. I can see the lines of how it works, but I'd like to know more before I decide if I like it or not.

The weaknesses in the novel on the other hand have to do with the movement of people, and more especially armies. There is a phrase in military circles: "Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics."

As bad as it seems that armies fly around the map of Neumeier's world (and they do, I couldn't get a decent sense of scale), the worse part is the logistical trains. Neumeier does not seem to really have considered the logistics and supply chains needed to make the movement of these armies, especially at speed, practical and possible. From a 30,000 foot level. what the two armies are trying to do makes sense. But without a decent sense of scale, it seemed as realistic as wargaming in the video game Civilization IV. Happily, this is not as crucial to the enjoyment of the book as one might fear, but this lack of thought was disappointing.

So, would you, gentle reader, like this book? If your preference is for fantasy fiction with strong characterization and the use of a neglected mythological creature, the Lord of the Changing Winds might be your cup of tea.

If you prefer the military aspects of your fantasy reading to be more rigorous. you are going to be frustrated with swaths of this novel. Personally, I think the strengths and inventiveness and quality of the writing outweigh the negatives, and I have already make plans to buy and read the second novel in the series.

The Way of Kings

Although I am uninterested in his project to finish Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, I have enjoyed the one Brandon Sanderson novel I read (an ARC of Warbreaker in 2009).

I've heard news for a while of his latest project, The Stormlight Archive, a Steven Erikson style Decaology of novels. The first one ,The Way of Kings is coming at the end of August.

In the meantime, excerpts are showing up online, most notably on the TOR site.

I must admit, I am intrigued, even if my reading queue is too large as it is! (I'm behind on the Malazan series, for example...)

A short excerpt is below. More at TOR.

Kalak rounded a rocky stone ridge and stumbled to a stop before the body of a dying thunderclast. The enormous stone beast lay on its side, riblike protrusions from its chest broken and cracked. The monstrosity was vaguely skeletal in shape, with unnaturally long limbs that sprouted from granite shoulders. The eyes were deep red spots on the arrowhead face, as if created by a fire burning deep within the stone. They faded.

Even after all these centuries, seeing a thunderclast up close made Kalak shiver. The beast's hand was as long as a man was tall. He'd been killed by hands like those before, and it hadn't been pleasant.

Of course, dying rarely was.

He rounded the creature, picking his way more carefully across the battlefield. The plain was a place of misshapen rock and stone, natural pillars rising around him, bodies littering the ground. Few plants lived here. The stone ridges and mounds bore numerous scars. Some were shattered, blasted-out sections where Surgebinders had fought. Less frequently, he passed cracked, oddly shaped hollows where thunderclasts had ripped themselves free of the stone to join the fray.

Many of the bodies around him were human; many were not. Blood mixed. Red. Orange. Violet. Though none of the bodies around him stirred, an indistinct haze of sounds hung in the air. Moans of pain, cries of grief. They did not seem like the sounds of victory. Smoke curled from the occasional patches of growth or heaps of burning corpses. Even some sections of rock smoldered. The Dustbringers had done their work well.

But I survived, Kalak thought, hand to breast as he hastened to the meeting place. I actually survived this time.

That was dangerous. When he died, he was sent back, no choice. When he survived the Desolation, he was supposed to go back as well. Back to that place that he dreaded. Back to that place of pain and fire. What if he just decided . . . not to go?

Perilous thoughts, perhaps traitorous thoughts. He hastened on his way.

The place of meeting was in the shadow of a large rock formation, a spire rising into the sky. As always, the ten of them had decided upon it before the battle. The survivors would make their way here. Oddly, only one of the others was waiting for him. Jezrien. Had the other eight all died? It was possible. The battle had been so furious this time, one of the worst. The enemy was growing increasingly tenacious.

But no. Kalak frowned as he stepped up to the base of the spire. Seven magnificent swords stood proudly here, driven point-first into the stone ground. Each was a masterly work of art, flowing in design, inscribed with glyphs and patterns. He recognized each one. If their masters had died, the Blades would have vanished.

These Blades were weapons of power beyond even Shardblades. These were unique. Precious. Jezrien stood outside the ring of swords, looking eastward.

"Jezrien?"

The figure in white and blue glanced toward him. Even after all these centuries, Jezrien looked young, like a man barely into his thirtieth year. His short black beard was neatly trimmed, though his once-fine clothing was scorched and stained with blood. He folded his arms behind his back as he turned to Kalak.

"What is this, Jezrien?" Kalak asked. "Where are the others?"

"Departed." Jezrien's voice was calm, deep, regal. Though he hadn't worn a crown in centuries, his royal manner lingered. He always seemed to know what to do. "You might call it a miracle. Only one of us died this time."

"Talenel," Kalak said. His was the only Blade unaccounted for.

"Yes. He died holding that passage by the northern waterway."

Kalak nodded. Taln had a tendency to choose seemingly hopeless fights and win them. He also had a tendency to die in the process. He would be back now, in the place where they went between Desolations. The place of nightmares.

Kalak found himself shaking. When had he become so weak? "Jezrien, I can't return this time." Kalak whispered the words, stepping up and gripping the other man's arm. "I can't."

Kalak felt something within him break at the admission. How long had it been? Centuries, perhaps millennia, of torture. It was so hard to keep track. Those fires, those hooks, digging into his flesh anew each day. Searing the skin off his arm, then burning the fat, then driving to the bone. He could smell it. Almighty, he could smell it!

"Leave your sword," Jezrien said.

"What?"

Jezrien nodded to the ring of weapons. "I was chosen to wait for you. We weren't certain if you had survived. A . . . a decision has been made. It is time for the Oathpact to end."

Kalak felt a sharp stab of horror. "What will that do?"

"Ishar believes that so long as there is one of us still bound to the Oath-pact, it may be enough. There is a chance we might end the cycle of Desolations."

Kalak looked into the immortal king's eyes. Black smoke rose from a small patch to their left. Groans of the dying haunted them from behind. There, in Jezrien's eyes, Kalak saw anguish and grief. Perhaps even cowardice. This was a man hanging from a cliff by a thread.

Almighty above, Kalak thought. You're broken too, aren't you? They all were.

Kalak turned and walked to the side, where a low ridge overlooked part of the battlefield.

There were so many corpses, and among them walked the living. Men in primitive wraps, carry ing spears topped by bronze heads. Juxtaposed between them were others in gleaming plate armor. One group walked past, four men in their ragged tanned skins or shoddy leather joining a powerful figure in beautiful silver plate, amazingly intricate. Such a contrast. Jezrien stepped up beside him.

"They see us as divinities," Kalak whispered. "They rely upon us, Jezrien. We're all that they have."

"They have the Radiants. That will be enough."

Kalak shook his head. "He will not remain bound by this. The enemy. He will find a way around it. You know he will."

"Perhaps." The king of Heralds offered no further explanation.

"And Taln?" Kalak asked. The flesh burning. The fires. The pain over and over and over . . .

"Better that one man should suffer than ten," Jezrien whispered. He seemed so cold. Like a shadow caused by heat and light falling on someone honorable and true, casting this black imitation behind.

Jezrien walked back to the ring of swords. His own Blade formed in his hands, appearing from mist, wet with condensation. "It has been decided, Kalak. We will go our ways, and we will not seek out one another. Our Blades must be left. The Oathpact ends now." He lifted his sword and rammed it into the stone with the other seven.

Jezrien hesitated, looking at the sword, then bowed his head and turned away. As if ashamed. "We chose this burden willingly. Well, we can choose to drop it if we wish."

"What do we tell the people, Jezrien?" Kalak asked. "What will they say of this day?"

"It's simple," Jezrien said, walking away. "We tell them that they finally won. It's an easy enough lie. Who knows? Maybe it will turn out to be true."

Kalak watched Jezrien depart across the burned landscape. Finally, he summoned his own Blade and slammed it into the stone beside the other eight. He turned and walked in the direction opposite from Jezrien.

And yet, he could not help glancing back at the ring of swords and the single open spot. The place where the tenth sword should have gone.

The one of them who was lost. The one they had abandoned.

Forgive us, Kalak thought, then left.

"The love of men is a frigid thing, a mountain stream only three steps from the ice. We are his. Oh Stormfather . . . we are his. It is but a thousand days, and the Everstorm comes."

--Collected on the first day of the week Palah of the month Shash of the year 1171, thirty-one seconds before death. Subject was a darkeyed pregnant woman of middle years. The child did not survive.

4500 YEARS LATER

Szeth-son-son-Vallano, Truthless of Shinovar, wore white on the day he was to kill a king. The white clothing was a Parshendi tradition, foreign to him. But he did as his masters required and did not ask for an explanation.

He sat in a large stone room, baked by enormous firepits that cast a garish light upon the revelers, causing beads of sweat to form on their skin as they danced, and drank, and yelled, and sang, and clapped. Some fell to the ground red-faced, the revelry too much for them, their stomachs proving to be inferior wineskins. They looked as if they were dead, at least until their friends carried them out of the feast hall to waiting beds.

Szeth did not sway to the drums, drink the sapphire wine, or stand to dance. He sat on a bench at the back, a still servant in white robes. Few at the treaty-signing celebration noticed him. He was just a servant, and Shin were easy to ignore. Most out here in the East thought Szeth's kind were docile and harmless. They were generally right.

The drummers began a new rhythm. The beats shook Szeth like a quartet of thumping hearts, pumping waves of invisible blood through the room. Szeth's masters--who were dismissed as savages by those in more civilized kingdoms--sat at their own tables. They were men with skin of black marbled with red. Parshendi, they were named--cousins to the more docile servant peoples known as parshmen in most of the world. An oddity. They did not call themselves Parshendi; this was the Alethi name for them. It meant, roughly, "parshmen who can think." Neither side seemed to see that as an insult.

The Parshendi had brought the musicians. At first, the Alethi lighteyes had been hesitant. To them, drums were base instruments of the common, darkeyed people. But wine was the great assassin of both tradition and propriety, and now the Alethi elite danced with abandon.

Szeth stood and began to pick his way through the room. The revelry had lasted long; even the king had retired hours ago. But many still celebrated. As he walked, Szeth was forced to step around Dalinar Kholin--the king's own brother--who slumped drunken at a small table. The aging but powerfully built man kept waving away those who tried to encourage him to bed. Where was Jasnah, the king's daughter? Elhokar, the king's son and heir, sat at the high table, ruling the feast in his father's absence. He was in conversation with two men, a dark-skinned Azish man who had an odd patch of pale skin on his cheek and a thinner, Alethi-looking man who kept glancing over his shoulder.

The heir's feasting companions were unimportant. Szeth stayed far from the heir, skirting the sides of the room, passing the drummers. Musicspren zipped through the air around them, the tiny spirits taking the form of spinning translucent ribbons. As Szeth passed the drummers, they noted him. They would withdraw soon, along with all of the other Parshendi.

They did not seem off ended. They did not seem angry. And yet they were going to break their treaty of only a few hours. It made no sense. But Szeth did not ask questions.

At the edge of the room, he passed rows of unwavering azure lights that bulged out where wall met floor. They held sapphires infused with Stormlight. Profane. How could the men of these lands use something so sacred for mere illumination? Worse, the Alethi scholars were said to be close to creating new Shardblades. Szeth hoped that was just wishful boasting. For if it did happen, the world would be changed. Likely in a way that ended with people in all countries--from distant Thaylenah to towering Jah Keved--speaking Alethi to their children.

They were a grand people, these Alethi. Even drunk, there was a natural nobility to them. Tall and well made, the men dressed in dark silk coats that buttoned down the sides of the chest and were elaborately embroidered in silver or gold. Each one looked a general on the field.

The women were even more splendid. They wore grand silk dresses, tightly fitted, the bright colors a contrast to the dark tones favored by the men. The left sleeve of each dress was longer than the right one, covering the hand. Alethi had an odd sense of propriety.

Their pure black hair was pinned up atop their heads, either in intricate weavings of braids or in loose piles. It was often woven with gold ribbons or ornaments, along with gems that glowed with Stormlight. Beautiful. Profane, but beautiful.

Szeth left the feasting chamber behind. Just outside, he passed the doorway into the Beggars' Feast. It was an Alethi tradition, a room where some of the poorest men and women in the city were given a feast complementing that of the king and his guests. A man with a long grey and black beard slumped in the doorway, smiling foolishly--though whether from wine or a weak mind, Szeth could not tell.

"Have you seen me?" the man asked with slurred speech. He laughed, then began to speak in gibberish, reaching for a wineskin. So it was drink after all. Szeth brushed by, continuing past a line of statues depicting the Ten Heralds from ancient Vorin theology. Jezerezeh, Ishi, Kelek, Talenelat. He counted off each one, and realized there were only nine here. One was conspicuously missing. Why had Shalash's statue been removed? King Gavilar was said to be very devout in his Vorin worship. Too devout, by some people's standards.

The hallway here curved to the right, running around the perimeter of the domed palace. They were on the king's floor, two levels up, surrounded by rock walls, ceiling, and floor. That was profane. Stone was not to be trod upon. But what was he to do? He was Truthless. He did as his masters demanded.

Today, that included wearing white. Loose white trousers tied at the waist with a rope, and over them a filmy shirt with long sleeves, open at the front. White clothing for a killer was a tradition among the Parshendi. Although Szeth had not asked, his masters had explained why.

White to be bold. White to not blend into the night. White to give warning.

For if you were going to assassinate a man, he was entitled to see you coming.

Szeth turned right, taking the hallway directly toward the king's chambers. Torches burned on the walls, their light unsatisfying to him, a meal of thin broth after a long fast. Tiny flamespren danced around them, like insects made solely of congealed light. The torches were useless to him. He reached for his pouch and the spheres it contained, but then hesitated when he saw more of the blue lights ahead: a pair of Stormlight lamps hanging on the wall, brilliant sapphires glowing at their hearts. Szeth walked up to one of these, holding out his hand to cup it around the glass-shrouded gemstone.

"You there!" a voice called in Alethi. There were two guards at the intersection. Double guard, for there were savages abroad in Kholinar this night. True, those savages were supposed to be allies now. But alliances could be shallow things indeed.

This one wouldn't last the hour.

Szeth looked as the two guards approached. They carried spears; they weren't lighteyes, and were therefore forbidden the sword. Their painted red breastplates were ornate, however, as were their helms. They might be darkeyed, but they were high-ranking citizens with honored positions in the royal guard.

Stopping a few feet away, the guard at the front gestured with his spear. "Go on, now. This is no place for you." He had tan Alethi skin and a thin mustache that ran all the way around his mouth, becoming a beard at the bottom.

Szeth didn't move.

"Well?" the guard said. "What are you waiting for?"

Szeth breathed in deeply, drawing forth the Stormlight. It streamed into him, siphoned from the twin sapphire lamps on the walls, sucked in as if by his deep inhalation. The Stormlight raged inside of him, and the hallway suddenly grew darker, falling into shade like a hilltop cut off from the sun by a transient cloud.

Szeth could feel the Light's warmth, its fury, like a tempest that had been injected directly into his veins. The power of it was invigorating but dangerous. It pushed him to act. To move. To strike.

Holding his breath, he clung to the Stormlight. He could still feel it leaking out. Stormlight could be held for only a short time, a few minutes at most. It leaked away, the human body too porous a container. He had heard that the Voidbringers could hold it in perfectly. But, then, did they even exist? His punishment declared that they didn't. His honor demanded that they did.

Afire with holy energy, Szeth turned to the guards. They could see that he was leaking Stormlight, wisps of it curling from his skin like luminescent smoke. The lead guard squinted, frowning. Szeth was sure the man had never seen anything like it before. As far as he knew, Szeth had killed every stonewalker who had ever seen what he could do.

"What . . . what are you?" The guard's voice had lost its certainty. "Spirit or man?"

"What am I?" Szeth whispered, a bit of Light leaking from his lips as he looked past the man down the long hallway. "I'm . . . sorry."

Szeth blinked, Lashing himself to that distant point down the hallway. Stormlight raged from him in a flash, chilling his skin, and the ground immediately stopped pulling him downward. Instead, he was pulled toward that distant point--it was as if, to him, that direction had suddenly become down.

This was a Basic Lashing, first of his three kinds of Lashings. It gave him the ability to manipulate what ever force, spren, or god it was that held men to the ground. With this Lashing, he could bind people or objects to different surfaces or in different directions.

From Szeth's perspective, the hallway was now a deep shaft down which he was falling, and the two guards stood on one of the sides. They were shocked when Szeth's feet hit them, one for each face, throwing them over. Szeth shifted his view and Lashed himself to the floor. Light leaked from him. The floor of the hallway again became down, and he landed between the two guards, clothes crackling and dropping flakes of frost. He rose, beginning the process of summoning his Shardblade.

One of the guards fumbled for his spear. Szeth reached down, touching the soldier's shoulder while looking up. He focused on a point above him while willing the Light out of his body and into the guard, Lashing the poor man to the ceiling.

The guard yelped in shock as up became down for him. Light trailing from his form, he crashed into the ceiling and dropped his spear. It was not Lashed directly, and clattered back down to the floor near Szeth.

To kill. It was the greatest of sins. And yet here Szeth stood, Truthless, profanely walking on stones used for building. And it would not end. As Truthless, there was only one life he was forbidden to take.

And that was his own.

At the tenth beat of his heart, his Shardblade dropped into his waiting hand. It formed as if condensing from mist, water beading along the metal length. His Shardblade was long and thin, edged on both sides, smaller than most others. Szeth swept it out, carving a line in the stone floor and passing through the second guard's neck.

As always, the Shardblade killed oddly; though it cut easily through stone, steel, or anything inanimate, the metal fuzzed when it touched living skin. It traveled through the guard's neck without leaving a mark, but once it did, the man's eyes smoked and burned. They blackened, shriveling up in his head, and he slumped forward, dead. A Shardblade did not cut living flesh; it severed the soul itself.

Above, the first guard gasped. He'd managed to get to his feet, even though they were planted on the ceiling of the hallway. "Shardbearer!" he shouted. "A Shardbearer assaults the king's hall! To arms!"

Finally, Szeth thought. Szeth's use of Stormlight was unfamiliar to the guards, but they knew a Shardblade when they saw one.

Szeth bent down and picked up the spear that had fallen from above. As he did so, he released the breath he'd been holding since drawing in the Stormlight. It sustained him while he held it, but those two lanterns hadn't contained much of it, so he would need to breathe again soon. The Light began to leak away more quickly, now that he wasn't holding his breath.

Szeth set the spear's butt against the stone floor, then looked upward. The guard above stopped shouting, eyes opening wide as the tails of his shirt began to slip downward, the earth below reasserting its dominance. The Light steaming off his body dwindled.

He looked down at Szeth. Down at the spear tip pointing directly at his heart. Violet fearspren crawled out of the stone ceiling around him.

The Light ran out. The guard fell.

He screamed as he hit, the spear impaling him through the chest. Szeth let the spear fall away, carried to the ground with a muffled thump by the body twitching on its end. Shardblade in hand, he turned down a side corridor, following the map he'd memorized. He ducked around a corner and flattened himself against the wall just as a troop of guards reached the dead men. The newcomers began shouting immediately, continuing the alarm.

His instructions were clear. Kill the king, but be seen doing it. Let the Alethi know he was coming and what he was doing. Why? Why did the Parshendi agree to this treaty, only to send an assassin the very night of its signing?

More gemstones glowed on the walls of the hallway here. King Gavilar liked lavish display, and he couldn't know that he was leaving sources of power for Szeth to use in his Lashings. The things Szeth did hadn't been seen for millennia. Histories from those times were all but nonexistent, and the legends were horribly inaccurate.

Szeth peeked back out into the corridor. One of the guards at the intersection saw him, pointing and yelling. Szeth made sure they got a good look, then ducked away. He took a deep breath as he ran, drawing in Stormlight from the lanterns. His body came alive with it, and his speed increased, his muscles bursting with energy. Light became a storm inside of him; his blood thundered in his ears. It was terrible and wonderful at the same time.

Two corridors down, one to the side. He threw open the door of a storage room, then hesitated a moment--just long enough for a guard to round the corner and see him--before dashing into the room. Preparing for a Full Lashing, he raised his arm and commanded the Stormlight to pool there, causing the skin to burst alight with radiance. Then he flung his hand out toward the doorframe, spraying white luminescence across it like paint. He slammed the door just as the guards arrived.

The Stormlight held the door in the frame with the strength of a hundred arms. A Full Lashing bound objects together, holding them fast until the Stormlight ran out. It took longer to create--and drained Stormlight far more quickly--than a Basic Lashing. The door handle shook, and then the wood began to crack as the guards threw their weight against it, one man calling for an axe.

Szeth crossed the room in rapid strides, weaving around the shrouded furniture that had been stored here. It was of red cloth and deep expensive woods. He reached the far wall and--preparing himself for yet another blasphemy--he raised his Shardblade and slashed horizontally through the dark grey stone. The rock sliced easily; a Shardblade could cut any inanimate object. Two vertical slashes followed, then one across the bottom, cutting a large square block. He pressed his hand against it, willing Stormlight into the stone.

Behind him the room's door began to crack. He looked over his shoulder and focused on the shaking door, Lashing the block in that direction. Frost crystallized on his clothing--Lashing something so large required a great deal of Stormlight. The tempest within him stilled, like a storm reduced to a drizzle.

He stepped aside. The large stone block shuddered, sliding into the room. Normally, moving the block would have been impossible. Its own weight would have held it against the stones below. Yet now, that same weight pulled it free; for the block, the direction of the room's door was down. With a deep grinding sound, the block slid free of the wall and tumbled through the air, smashing furniture.

The soldiers finally broke through the door, staggering into the room just as the enormous block crashed into them.

Szeth turned his back on the terrible sound of the screams, the splintering of wood, the breaking of bones. He ducked and stepped through his new hole, entering the hallway outside.

He walked slowly, drawing Stormlight from the lamps he passed, siphoning it to him and stoking anew the tempest within. As the lamps dimmed, the corridor darkened. A thick wooden door stood at the end, and as he approached, small fearspren--shaped like globs of purple goo--began to wriggle from the masonry, pointing toward the doorway. They were drawn by the terror being felt on the other side.

Szeth pushed the door open, entering the last corridor leading to the king's chambers. Tall, red ceramic vases lined the pathway, and they were interspersed with nervous soldiers. They flanked a long, narrow rug. It was red, like a river of blood.

The spearmen in front didn't wait for him to get close. They broke into a trot, lifting their short throwing spears. Szeth slammed his hand to the side, pushing Stormlight into the doorframe, using the third and final type of Lashing, a Reverse Lashing. This one worked diff erently from the other two. It did not make the doorframe emit Stormlight; indeed, it seemed to pull nearby light into it, giving it a strange penumbra.

The spearmen threw, and Szeth stood still, hand on the doorframe. A Reverse Lashing required his constant touch, but took comparatively little Stormlight. During one, anything that approached him--particularly lighter objects--was instead pulled toward the Lashing itself.

The spears veered in the air, splitting around him and slamming into the wooden frame. As he felt them hit, Szeth leaped into the air and Lashed himself to the right wall, his feet hitting the stone with a slap.

He immediately re oriented his perspective. To his eyes, he wasn't standing on the wall, the soldiers were, the blood-red carpet streaming between them like a long tapestry. Szeth bolted down the hallway, striking with his Shardblade, shearing through the necks of two men who had thrown spears at him. Their eyes burned, and they collapsed.

The other guards in the hallway began to panic. Some tried to attack him, others yelled for more help, still others cringed away from him. The attackers had trouble--they were disoriented by the oddity of striking at someone who hung on the wall. Szeth cut down a few, then flipped into the air, tucking into a roll, and Lashed himself back to the floor.

He hit the ground in the midst of the soldiers. Completely surrounded, but holding a Shardblade.

According to legend, the Shardblades were first carried by the Knights Radiant uncounted ages ago. Gifts of their god, granted to allow them to fight horrors of rock and flame, dozens of feet tall, foes whose eyes burned with hatred. The Voidbringers. When your foe had skin as hard as stone itself, steel was useless. Something supernal was required.

Szeth rose from his crouch, loose white clothes rippling, jaw clenched against his sins. He struck out, his weapon flashing with reflected torchlight. Elegant, wide swings. Three of them, one after another. He could neither close his ears to the screams that followed nor avoid seeing the men fall. They dropped round him like toys knocked over by a child's careless kick. If the Blade touched a man's spine, he died, eyes burning. If it cut through the core of a limb, it killed that limb. One soldier stumbled away from Szeth, arm flopping uselessly on his shoulder. He would never be able to feel it or use it again.

Szeth lowered his Shardblade, standing among the cinder-eyed corpses. Here, in Alethkar, men often spoke of the legends--of mankind's hardwon victory over the Voidbringers. But when weapons created to fight nightmares were turned against common soldiers, the lives of men became cheap things indeed.

Szeth turned and continued on his way, slippered feet falling on the soft red rug. The Shardblade, as always, glistened silver and clean. When one killed with a Blade, there was no blood. That seemed like a sign. The Shardblade was just a tool; it could not be blamed for the murders.

The door at the end of the hallway burst open. Szeth froze as a small group of soldiers rushed out, ushering a man in regal robes, his head ducked as if to avoid arrows. The soldiers wore deep blue, the color of the King's Guard, and the corpses didn't make them stop and gawk. They were prepared for what a Shardbearer could do. They opened a side door and shoved their ward through, several leveling spears at Szeth as they backed out.

Another figure stepped from the king's quarters; he wore glistening blue armor made of smoothly interlocking plates. Unlike common plate armor, however, this armor had no leather or mail visible at the joints-- just smaller plates, fitting together with intricate precision. The armor was beautiful, the blue inlaid with golden bands around the edges of each piece of plate, the helm ornamented with three waves of small, hornlike wings.

Shardplate, the customary complement to a Shardblade. The newcomer carried a sword as well, an enormous Shardblade six feet long with a design along the blade like burning flames, a weapon of silvery metal that gleamed and almost seemed to glow. A weapon designed to slay dark gods, a larger counterpart to the one Szeth carried.

Szeth hesitated. He didn't recognize the armor; he had not been warned that he would be set at this task, and hadn't been given proper time to memorize the various suits of Plate or Blades owned by the Alethi. But a Shardbearer would have to be dealt with before he chased the king; he could not leave such a foe behind.

Besides, perhaps a Shardbearer could defeat him, kill him and end his miserable life. His Lashings wouldn't work directly on someone in Shardplate, and the armor would enhance the man, strengthen him. Szeth's honor would not allow him to betray his mission or seek death. But if that death occurred, he would welcome it.

The Shardbearer struck, and Szeth Lashed himself to the side of the hallway, leaping with a twist and landing on the wall. He danced backward, Blade held at the ready. The Shardbearer fell into an aggressive posture, using one of the swordplay stances favored here in the East. He moved far more nimbly than one would expect for a man in such bulky armor. Shardplate was special, as ancient and magical as the Blades it complemented.

The Shardbearer struck. Szeth skipped to the side and Lashed himself to the ceiling as the Shardbearer's Blade sliced into the wall. Feeling a thrill at the contest, Szeth dashed forward and attacked downward with an overhand blow, trying to hit the Shardbearer's helm. The man ducked, going down on one knee, letting Szeth's Blade cleave empty air.

Szeth leaped backward as the Shardbearer swung upward with his Blade, slicing into the ceiling. Szeth didn't own a set of Plate himself, and didn't care to. His Lashings interfered with the gemstones that powered Shardplate, and he had to choose one or the other.

As the Shardbearer turned, Szeth sprinted forward across the ceiling. As expected, the Shardbearer swung again, and Szeth leaped to the side, rolling. He came up from his roll and flipped, Lashing himself to the floor again. He spun to land on the ground behind the Shardbearer. He slammed his Blade into his opponent's open back.

Unfortunately, there was one major advantage Plate offered: It could block a Shardblade. Szeth's weapon hit solidly, causing a web of glowing lines to spread out across the back of the armor, and Stormlight began to leak free from them. Shardplate didn't dent or bend like common metal. Szeth would have to hit the Shardbearer in the same location at least once more to break through.

Szeth danced out of range as the Shardbearer swung in anger, trying to cut at Szeth's knees. The tempest within Szeth gave him many advantages-- including the ability to quickly recover from small wounds. But it would not restore limbs killed by a Shardblade.

He rounded the Shardbearer, then picked a moment and dashed forward. The Shardbearer swung again, but Szeth briefly Lashed himself to the ceiling for lift. He shot into the air, cresting over the swing, then immediately Lashed himself back to the floor. He struck as he landed, but the Shardbearer recovered quickly and executed a perfect follow-through stroke, coming within a finger of hitting Szeth.

The man was dangerously skilled with that Blade. Many Shardbearers depended too much on the power of their weapon and armor. This man was different.

Szeth jumped to the wall and struck at the Shardbearer with quick, terse attacks, like a snapping eel. The Shardbearer fended him off with wide, sweeping counters. His Blade's length kept Szeth at bay.

This is taking too long! Szeth thought. If the king slipped away into hiding, Szeth would fail in his mission no matter how many people he killed. He ducked in for another strike, but the Shardbearer forced him back. Each second this fight lasted was another for the king's escape.

It was time to be reckless. Szeth launched into the air, Lashing himself to the other end of the hallway and falling feet-first toward his adversary. The Shardbearer didn't hesitate to swing, but Szeth Lashed himself down at an angle, dropping immediately. The Shardblade swished through the air above him.

He landed in a crouch, using his momentum to throw himself forward, and swung at the Shardbearer's side, where the Plate had cracked. He hit with a powerful blow. That piece of the Plate shattered, bits of molten metal streaking away. The Shardbearer grunted, dropping to one knee, raising a hand to his side. Szeth raised a foot to the man's side and shoved him backward with a Stormlight-enhanced kick.

The heavy Shardbearer crashed into the door of the king's quarters, smashing it and falling partway into the room beyond. Szeth left him, ducking instead through the doorway to the right, following the way the king had gone. The hallway here had the same red carpet, and Stormlight lamps on the walls gave Szeth a chance to recharge the tempest within.

Energy blazed within him again, and he sped up. If he could get far enough ahead, he could deal with the king, then turn back to fight off the Shardbearer. It wouldn't be easy. A Full Lashing on a doorway wouldn't stop a Shardbearer, and that Plate would let the man run supernaturally fast. Szeth glanced over his shoulder.

The Shardbearer wasn't following. The man sat up in his armor, looking dazed. Szeth could just barely see him, sitting in the doorway, surrounded by broken bits of wood. Perhaps Szeth had wounded him more than he'd thought.

Or maybe . . .

Szeth froze. He thought of the ducked head of the man who'd been rushed out, face obscured. The Shardbearer still wasn't following. He was so skilled. It was said that few men could rival Gavilar Kholin's swordsmanship. Could it be?

Szeth turned and dashed back, trusting his instincts. As soon as the Shardbearer saw him, he climbed to his feet with alacrity. Szeth ran faster. What was the safest place for your king? In the hands of some guards, fleeing? Or protected in a suit of Shardplate, left behind, dismissed as a bodyguard?

Clever, Szeth thought as the formerly sluggish Shardbearer fell into another battle stance. Szeth attacked with renewed vigor, swinging his Blade in a flurry of strikes. The Shardbearer--the king--aggressively struck out with broad, sweeping blows. Szeth pulled away from one of these, feeling the wind of the weapon passing just inches before him. He timed his next move, then dashed forward, ducking underneath the king's follow-through.

The king, expecting another strike at his side, twisted with his arm held protectively to block the hole in his Plate. That gave Szeth the room to run past him and into the king's chambers.

The king spun around to follow, but Szeth ran through the lavishly furnished chamber, flinging out his hand, touching pieces of furniture he passed. He infused them with Stormlight, Lashing them to a point behind the king. The furniture tumbled as if the room had been turned on its side, couches, chairs, and tables dropping toward the surprised king. Gavilar made the mistake of chopping at them with his Shardblade. The weapon easily sheared through a large couch, but the pieces still crashed into him, making him stumble. A footstool hit him next, throwing him to the ground.

Gavilar rolled out of the way of the furniture and charged forward, Plate leaking streams of Light from the cracked sections. Szeth gathered himself, then leaped into the air, Lashing himself backward and to the right as the king arrived. He zipped out of the way of the king's blow, then Lashed himself forward with two Basic Lashings in a row. Stormlight flashed out of him, clothing freezing, as he was pulled toward the king at twice the speed of a normal fall.

The king's posture indicated surprise as Szeth lurched in midair, then spun toward him, swinging. He slammed his Blade into the king's helm, then immediately Lashed himself to the ceiling and fell upward, slamming into the stone roof above. He'd Lashed himself in too many directions too quickly, and his body had lost track, making it difficult to land gracefully. He stumbled back to his feet.

Below, the king stepped back, trying to get into position to swing up at Szeth. The man's helm was cracked, leaking Stormlight, and he stood protectively, defending the side with the broken plate. The king used a onehanded swing, reaching for the ceiling. Szeth immediately Lashed himself downward, judging that the king's attack would leave him unable to get his sword back in time.

Szeth underestimated his opponent. The king stepped into Szeth's attack, trusting his helm to absorb the blow. Just as Szeth hit the helm a second time--shattering it--Gavilar punched with his off hand, slamming his gauntleted fist into Szeth's face.

Blinding light flashed in Szeth's eyes, a counterpoint to the sudden agony that crashed across his face. Everything blurred, his vision fading.

Pain. So much pain!

He screamed, Stormlight leaving him in a rush, and he slammed back into something hard. The balcony doors. More pain broke out across his shoulders, as if someone had stabbed him with a hundred daggers, and he hit the ground and rolled to a stop, muscles trembling. The blow would have killed an ordinary man.

No time for pain. No time for pain. No time for pain!

He blinked, shaking his head, the world blurry and dark. Was he blind? No. It was dark outside. He was on the wooden balcony; the force of the blow had thrown him through the doors. Something was thumping. Heavy footfalls. The Shardbearer!

Szeth stumbled to his feet, vision swimming. Blood streamed from the side of his face, and Stormlight rose from his skin, blinding his left eye. The Light. It would heal him, if it could. His jaw felt unhinged. Broken? He'd dropped his Shardblade.

A lumbering shadow moved in front of him; the Shardbearer's armor had leaked enough Stormlight that the king was having trouble walking. But he was coming.

Szeth screamed, kneeling, infusing Stormlight into the wooden balcony, Lashing it downward. The air frosted around him. The tempest roared, traveling down his arms into the wood. He Lashed it downward, then did it again. He Lashed a fourth time as Gavilar stepped onto the balcony. It lurched under the extra weight. The wood cracked, straining.

The Shardbearer hesitated.

Szeth Lashed the balcony downward a fifth time. The balcony supports shattered and the entire structure broke free from the building. Szeth screamed through a broken jaw and used his final bit of Stormlight to Lash himself to the side of the building. He fell to the side, passing the shocked Shardbearer, then hit the wall and rolled.

The balcony dropped away, the king looking up with shock as he lost his footing. The fall was brief. In the moonlight, Szeth watched solemnly-- vision still fuzzy, blinded in one eye--as the structure crashed to the stone ground below. The wall of the palace trembled, and the crash of broken wood echoed from the nearby buildings.

Still standing on the side of the wall, Szeth groaned, climbing to his feet. He felt weak; he'd used up his Stormlight too quickly, straining his body. He stumbled down the side of the building, approaching the wreckage, barely able to remain standing.

The king was still moving. Shardplate would protect a man from such a fall, but a large length of bloodied wood stuck up through Gavilar's side, piercing him where Szeth had broken the Plate earlier. Szeth knelt down, inspecting the man's pain-wracked face. Strong features, square chin, black beard flecked with white, striking pale green eyes. Gavilar Kholin.

"I . . . expected you . . . to come," the king said between gasps.

Szeth reached underneath the front of the man's breastplate, tapping the straps there. They unfastened, and he pulled the front of the breastplate free, exposing the gemstones on its interior. Two had been cracked and burned out. Three still glowed. Numb, Szeth breathed in sharply, absorbing the Light.

The storm began to rage again. More Light rose from the side of his face, repairing his damaged skin and bones. The pain was still great; Stormlight healing was far from instantaneous. It would be hours before he recovered.

The king coughed. "You can tell . . . Thaidakar . . . that he's too late. . . ."

"I don't know who that is," Szeth said, standing, his words slurring from his broken jaw. He held his hand to the side, resummoning his Shardblade.

The king frowned. "Then who . . . ? Restares? Sadeas? I never thought . . ."

"My masters are the Parshendi," Szeth said. Ten heartbeats passed, and his Blade dropped into his hand, wet with condensation.

"The Parshendi? That makes no sense." Gavilar coughed, hand quivering, reaching toward his chest and fumbling at a pocket. He pulled out a small crystalline sphere tied to a chain. "You must take this. They must not get it." He seemed dazed. "Tell . . . tell my brother . . . he must find the most important words a man can say. . . ."

Gavilar fell still.

Szeth hesitated, then knelt down and took the sphere. It was odd, unlike any he'd seen before. Though it was completely dark, it seemed to glow somehow. With a light that was black.

The Parshendi? Gavilar had said. That makes no sense. "Nothing makes sense anymore," Szeth whispered, tucking the strange sphere away. "It's all unraveling. I am sorry, King of the Alethi. I doubt that you care. Not anymore, at least." He stood up. "At least you won't have to watch the world ending with the rest of us."

Beside the king's body, his Shardblade materialized from mist, clattering to the stones now that its master was dead. It was worth a fortune; kingdoms had fallen as men vied to possess a single Shardblade.

Shouts of alarm came from inside the palace. Szeth needed to go. But . . .

Tell my brother . . .

To Szeth's people, a dying request was sacred. He took the king's hand, dipping it in the man's own blood, then used it to scrawl on the wood, Brother. You must find the most important words a man can say.

With that, Szeth escaped into the night. He left the king's Shardblade; he had no use for it. The Blade Szeth already carried was curse enough.

Books Read 2010 to Date (June 6,2010)

Italicized books are ones I received books from the author, or review copies.

15. Much Fall of Blood, Eric Flint, Mercedes Lackey, Dave Freer
14. Stories, Edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio
13. Dragon Keeper, Robin Hobb
12. The Dream of Perpetual Motion, Dexter Palmer
11. Star Finder, Poul Anderson
10. The Van Rijn Method, Poul Anderson
9.Starfinder, John Marco
8. The River Kings Road, Liane Merciel
7. The Stepsister Scheme, Jim Hines
6. Prince of Storms, Kay Kenyon
5. Into the Looking Glass, John Ringo
4. The Quiet War, Paul McAuley
3. Servant of a Dark God, John Brown
2. Cursor's Fury, Jim Butcher
1. The Edge of Physics, Anil Ananthaswamy

Book Review 2010 #15: Much Fall of Blood

Another book from the Amazon Vine program...

Back in 2001, Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint and Dave Freer teamed up to create a new fantasy alternate history, The Shadow of the Lion. In this Heirs of Alexandria series, the Library of Alexandria never was burned, Christianity split along "Pauline" and "Petrine" lines. Oh, and magic works, and there are entities far older than man...and inimical to humans.

The first book had the Slavic demon god Chernobog as its main antagonist,threatening the city state of Venice.A sequel, a few years later, This Rough Magic, introduced a new antagonist, Countess Elizabeth Batholdy, better known in our universe as Countess Bathory, who bathed in the blood of young women in an attempt to stay young. In the Heirs Universe, with magic powers at her command, she is even more villainous and dangerous, most especially because she so carefully hides her villainy and plots within plots, and most dangerous magical connections.

I had thought the series dead, but much to my delight, the third novel in the series, Much Fall of Blood, continues the adventures of Prince Manfred of the Holy Roman Empire, Erik of Iceland and new allies and companions. This time, Manfred and Erik need to escort some diplomats across dangerous Balkan territory...

Batholdy is back and as treacherous as ever, Chernobog remains working behind the scenes, the Byzantines are feckless, King Emeric of Hungary is ambitious, and the complicated politics of this universe adds the Mongols and their successor states into the mix. And did I mention a certain "Drac" from Transylvania who turns up?

It's a delightful stew, in a most interesting and alternate early 16th century. There is always something interesting happening to the cast of characters, and there is character growth and development to suit fans of the series. We get resolution on plotlines going back to the last two novels in a satisfying manner, and there is plenty of room for sequels set in this universe.(There is one giant dangling plot line which is explicitly not resolved that suggests at least one more novel in the offing)

As always, though, you shouldn't start here. You should start with The Shadow of the Lion, and find for yourself why this is a rich fantasy alternate history that I am very glad that the three authors have decided to return their talents to exploring.

Book Review 2010 #14: Stories

The next book came via the Amazon Vine program.

Stories is an anthology composed by the profilic anthology Al Sarrantonio, along with fantasy writer Neil Gaiman. Bringing together talents ranging from Mr Gaiman himself to Tim Powers, Joyce Carol Oates, and chuck Palahnuik, its an impressive stable of authors for an all new anthology.

The mission of the anthology is to dissolve the artificial barrier between genre fiction and mainstream fiction. providing a suite of stories that straddle the borderland between the often walled kingdoms of fantasy, and the realms of contemporary literary fiction.

With such an impressive pedigree of writers, I started the anthology with high expectations. While I didn't think that the anthology would be the holy grail of a book that could help tear down that wall, I hoped that I could find good value for money in the stories.

Unfortunately, for me, this proved not to be the case.

I think that, for the most part, the authors in the anthology kept the stories *too* contemporary, shying away too much from genre conventions and trappings, in an effort to be more literary. Many of these stories would not be out of place in one of the many high school and college short stories anthologies that I read in English class. That's precisely the problem, and its a bug, not a feature, of the anthology. Oh, a number of the stories do not fall under this broad brush that I am painting. But for the most part, the stories remain too literary for their own good.

Let me not say that the quality of the stories is bad. They aren't--not even the ones which remain closest to the literary side of the no man's land between contemporary and genre fiction. But the stories, one after another, just felt like they didn't really fulfill the mission of the anthology to my expectations.

The lineup of the anthology is as follows:

Table of Contents

* Blood - Roddy Doyle
* Fossil-Figures - Joyce Carol Oates
* Wildfire in Manhattan - Joanne Harris
* The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains - Neil Gaiman
* Unbelief - Michael Marshall Smith
* The Stars are Falling - Joe R. Lansdale
* Juvenal Nyx - Walter Mosley
* The Knife - Richard Adams
* Weights and Measures - Jodi Picoult
* Goblin Lake - Michael Swanwick
* Mallon and Guru - Peter Straub
* Catch and Release - Lawrence Block
* Polka Dots and Moonbeams - Jeffrey Ford
* Loser - Chuck Palahniuk
* Samantha's Diary - Diane Wynne Jones
* Land of the Lost - Stewart O'Nan
* Leif in the Wind - Gene Wolfe
* Unwell - Carolyn Parkhurst
* A Life in Fictions - Kat Howard
* Let the Past Begin - Jonathan Carroll
* The Therapist - Jeffery Deaver
* Parallel Lines - Tim Powers
* The Cult of the Nose - Al Sarrantonio
* Human Intelligence - Kurt Anderson
* Stories - Michael Moorcock
* The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon - Elizabeth Hand
* The Devil on the Staircase - Joe Hill

Book Review 2010 #13: Dragon Keeper

Next up, Robin Hobb...

DRAGON HAVEN (RAIN WILDS CHRONICLES, NO 2)

In Dragon Keeper, Robin Hobb started a duology of novels set in her "Farseer" universe. After the events which allowed the Traders to become independent (as chronicled
in the Liveship novels), a group of dragon eggs, entrusted to the inhabitants of the dense and deadly Rain Wilds rainforest, have hatched into pale imitations of the dragon
Tintaglia, who laid them. A misfit group of keepers, hunters and dracophiles banded together to take the young proto-dragons deep into the Wilds in search of an ancient dragon
city.

Dragon Haven completes and concludes the story of those keepers, their dragons, and those with them, as the physical challenges of the deadly Rain Wilds, dissension amongst the
crew of the Tarman, and doubts about whether the mysterious dragon city of Kelsingra even exists anymore threaten the health and well being of not only the expedition, but all
of those associated with it.

Robin Hobb is one of the most acclaimed writers of "low fantasy" (fantasy without tremendous amounts of magic), and the conclusion to the Rain Wilds series, Dragon Haven, shows us why.

First, its all about the characters, especially female characters. Well drawn, complex, conflicted and most importantly, capable of change and growing, Hobbs characters continue the development they started in the first volume, and grow to meet the challenges they meet. Not only the young adults, Thymara, Tats, Rapskal and the other keepers. Not only the adults, too, Alise, Captain Leftrin, Sedric and the other adults. No, Hobb's deft hand extends to the dragons, as well. While dragons with personalities is not new in fantasy fiction, Hobb's still-growing dragons evolve and change over the course of the two novels, and more especially this one.

Second, the milieu of the Rain Wilds is vividly described and invoked in her writing. The Rain Wilds, with significant (and frightening) changes resembles the temperate rain forests of the Pacific Northwest that Ms. Hobb makes her home in, and that mise en scene, that sense of place, is wonderfully set before the reader. The Rain Wilds are a character as much as the human or dragon characters are. Unintentionally, perhaps, but the book has only reinforced my desire to see the area of the country that inspired the Rain Wilds.

Thirdly, the plot. Although the first book ended in medias res, and clearly as the first book of a duology, we receive a solid resolution to the plots of the first book. Even the keepers of the messenger birds, Erek and Detozi, whose messages have served as a window to the world beyond the Tarman, have a subtle and small plot of their own that resolves nicely. Although part of the resolution seems to come a bit out of the blue, I realized at the end that I had, indeed, missed a Chekhov's Gun Ms. Hobb had subtly placed earlier in the series.

Lastly, the inventiveness of Ms. Hobb's writing. Let me give you one example, her Dragons. Dragons are not quite as common as werewolves and vampires in novels these days, but a glance in the local F/SF section of the bookstore shows that Dragons have always been a big part of the Duchy of Fantasy. Hobb does not tread new ground; her dragons are new, and different, given their weaknesses, deformities and deficiencies that the dragons have been cursed with, and must overcome in order to become true dragons. I can't help but wonder what the young life of other fantasy dragons were like, now that Hobb has so expertly thought out and shown us the birth and development of young dragons in her world.

You couldn't and shouldn't read this book before reading Dragon Keeper. Fans of Hobb will have already bought this book, of course, and their loyalty to her writing is rewarded. Start with Dragon Keeper, and continue on with Dragon Haven, and I would bet good money that you will become a fan of Hobb's writing, too.

Highly Recommended.

2010 Nebula Winners!

For once, I haven't read any of the winners, although I have heard nothing but good things about The Windup Girl. (And it is a Hugo nominee, too, so it could potentially get both awards)

Congratulations to the winners of the 2010 Nebula Awards, presented this evening at a banquet in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Novel
The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade Books, September 2009)

Novella
The Women of Nell Gwynne's, by Kage Baker (Subterranean Press, June 2009)

Novelette
"Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast,"
by Eugie Foster (Interzone, February 2009)

Short Story
"Spar," by Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld, October 2009)

Ray Bradbury Award
District 9, by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell (Tri-Star, August 2009)

Andre Norton Award
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Valente (Catherynne M. Valente, June 2009)

Solstice Award (for impact on the field)
Tom Doherty, Terri Windling, and Donald Wolheim

Service to SFWA
Keith Stokes

Author Emeritus
Neil Barret Jr.

Book Habits Meme

Via Walker of Worlds blog

Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack?

I generally don't eat when I read, unless I am reading at the dinner table.

What is your favorite drink while reading?

Iced tea.

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?

Marking my books horrifies me. ;)

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open?

I use a variety of bookmarks, ranging from a simple grocery receipt to fancier bookmarks from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Fiction, nonfiction, or both?

I'd say 80-85% fiction, 15-20% non fiction.

Are you a person who tends to read to the end of a chapter, or can you stop anywhere?

I prefer to end on chapters, or at least at changes in POV or other breaks within a chapter.

Are you the type of person to throw a book across the room or on the floor if the author irritates you?

I've been tempted with a few books to throw them, but I respect books too much to do so. Even the bad ones.

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away?

If I can't get it from context, I will look it up as soon as I am able.

What are you currently reading?

An Arc of "Dragon Haven" by Robin Hobb. Low Fantasy, with serpents re-evolving into Dragons.

What is the last book you bought?

Empire in Black and Gold, Adrian Tchaikovsky

Are you the type of person that reads one book at a time, or can you read more than one?

I prefer to read one book at a time.

Do you have a favorite time/place to read?

I used to read on the express bus on the way to work. Now, I use my lunch break at work to read.

Do you prefer series books or stand alones?

Most of the authors I read seem to do series, so I wind up reading series.

Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over?

A lot of authors come to mind. I try to tailor my recommendations to the person.

How do you organize your books? (by genre, title, author's last name, etc.)

Organize books?? ;)

Book Review 2010 #12: The Dream of Perpetual Motion

My next book was kindly sent to me by a contact from MacMillan Books, and stands in the borderland between Literary fiction, and science fiction...

Hello Miranda.

The Tempest is one the most potent of Shakespeare's plays. The idea of the singular genius, living apart from the rest of humanity despite, or perhaps because of his unique gifts. An innocent, sheltered daughter of that genius, kept from the world. Caliban, who believes he is heir to Prospero's holdings and powers. Dark secrets. Hidden abilities. The conflict between the private and the public. The meaning of humanity.

Is it any wonder that it makes for strong meat for subsequent writers to use for their own fodder?

Dexter Palmer takes the story of the Tempest, and brings it into an alternate, steampunk infused early 20th century in The Dream of Perpetual Motion, a novel that lives in the borderland between science fiction and the world of literary fiction.

The world of The Dream of Perpetual Motion is a borderland too, as the gadgets and clockwork men of Prospero Taligent have transformed Xeroville into a wonderland of automation and automata. In this world, we follow the story of Harold Winslow. A chance encounter at a young age brings him forever into the orbit of the mysterious, reclusive Prospero Taligent, who never leaves his fortress and tower like skyscraper, and as importantly, into contact with his adopted daughter, Miranda. Twisted and sculpted by her father's idiosyncratic methods of raising her, the novel is also the story of how these two characters meet, part, grow, change and finally come to terms with each other.

"One world from you is all I want. Just speak one word, and we will begin. Name, rank and serial number, perhaps the misquoted lyrics from a popular song: anything will do. From there we'll move with slow, cautious steps to gentle verbal sparring, twice-told tales, descriptions of the scarred and darkest places of our old and worn-out souls..."

The novel is also the story of magic versus science and miracles versus technology. Again and again, the transformation of the world, through the agency of Prospero, into a world of gears and clockwork men is described as a fundamental change in the world itself. While the agent of Prospero in the Tempest is one of the magician in a world losing magic, In the Dream of Perpetual Motion, like the HBO series Carnivale, Prospero is hastening the end of wonder and the beginning of the age of reason and science.

The novel's virtues and strengths lie in the literary field more than the science fiction (to be specific, steampunk). The novel works as a literary study of Harold Winslow and his relationship with Prospero,Miranda (and briefly, Caliban). The automata, the fantastic gadgets, the amazing Zeppelin upon which Harold is imprisoned are really backdrop, stage, and setting for his story to unfold. The Dream of Perpetual Motion does not take the virtues of science fiction so much as it cloaks, shapes and colors its literary virtues in the trappings of gears and metal.

What this means is that the novel is designed for, and clearly works on the level of contemporary fiction with a steampunk cast to it. Readers not used to science fiction, but eager to read and enjoy literary fiction will have the opportunity to get a taste of the fantastic along with the character studies found in this book. Conversely, readers who prefer science fiction and fantasy who want to peek outside of the great kingdom of fantasy and science fiction literature into the republic of literary fiction might find a steampunk-dressed, Shakespeare-invoking novel such as this a passport to that foreign country.

Palmer clearly had fun writing this book, his first novel. In a tradition more suited to SF than literary fiction, he even tuckerizes himself into the book, a character with his name and profession appearing briefly at a party for the art of Harold's sister Astrid.

In summation, Palmer has created an interesting hybrid novel, one that will reward readers of both genres that it straddles. Perhaps not as a colossus, but certainly as a bridge between two realms of the written world that do not often talk to each other.

There is much more about the book, including a picture gallery, and other multimedia extensions of the book at the Macmillan website set up for the novel:

http://us.macmillan.com/thedreamofperpetualmotion

Book Review 2010 #10-11: The Van Rijn Method and David Falkayn Star Trader

Next up, two volumes collecting Poul Anderson's future history stories...

Poul Anderson was a treasure of the science fiction community.

Although his politics skewed strongly right, unlike many other authors of his ilk that I shall not name, his politics rarely got in the way of him telling a damned good story. Some of his best stories are in a loose future history that starts with the stories of "Merchants in Spaaace" and extend to Dominic Flandry, aka "James Bond in Spaaace."

The Van Rijn Method and David Falkayn: Star Trader are the first two volumes in a sequence collecting all of these stories. In these two books, you will meet the Falstaffian (in all senses of the word) Nicholas Van Rijn. Larger than life, Van Rijn is a crafty capitalist not beyond allowing his malapropisms to allow a competitor, be it human or alien, to "misunderestimate him", to his very good advantage. (being Indo-Dutch, English is his second language, and his mangling of English expressions is one of the delights of reading stories with him as a character). Also in these stories, Van Rijn's company takes on other traders, including the titular character of the second volume, David Falkayn. From the aristocratic planet Hermes, Falkayn is a good and true capitalist, although perhaps not as rapacious and overbearing as Van Rijn. He also brings a "nobles who do something" frisson to the mix, showing that teeth to the flesh capitalism can be tempered by other concerns as well. And this leaves out Adzel, a buddhist dragon. And Chee Lan, temper-driven, high strung member of Van Rijn's teams. And more.

Sure, the books are outdated in many respects. I winced every time a character lit a pipe, and while we have a sentient computer in a few of the stories, we don't seem to have anything resembling the Internet. Female characters are, for the most part, not as strongly defined as later and more recent writers might do. That's the prices you pay for reading stories written up to 40 years ago, after all. Those concerns aside, the virtues of Anderson's stories are eternal. Interesting situations, excellent worldbuilding, and compelling and well drawn (mostly male, again) characters. Anderson gets the details right, and cares about getting them right. He wrote the famous essay "On Thud and Blunder", which explains how much fantasy fiction then (and since, sadly) gets so very wrong. That sensibility is in much evidence here, as well.

The stories in these volumes are an excellent place for you to begin if you have never had the pleasure of sampling the works of one of Science Fiction's greatest authors.

Book Review 2010 #9: Starfinder

Next up, a new book I received from an author I read years ago...

Sometimes I read too broadly for my own good.

Years ago, I discovered a fantasy debut novel by the author John Marco, a novel by the name of the Jackal of Nar. Nice and gritty military fantasy that I liked enough to email the author about.

My interests and reading drifted, and I didn't follow up with his later works, and in point of fact John Marco slipped from my mind until I rediscovered his work. An email contest for a copy of his latest novel led me to obtaining a copy and reading where the author I had enjoyed a decade ago had gone in his writing.

Starfinder is very different than the military fantasy novels of his past.

Starfinder, aimed at a YA audience (although perfectly enjoyable by adults) is the story of Moth and Fiona. He's an orphan, the ward of an old knight, and dreams of flying in the skies even as he hears Leroux's stories of the Skylords, Faerie beyond a misty reach that laps against their mountain city home. She's the granddaughter of Rendor, military mind and creator of newfangled steampunk-ish flying machines called Dragonflies, as as well as a brand new, armed to the teeth airship, the Avatar.

When Leroux dies, willing and bidding Moth to enter the Reach and aid his avian companion, Lady Esme, to return to her true form in the process, Moth and Fiona find themselves on the run into the mists of Faerie, the Reach. As they flee, they are chased by Rendor, in his massive flying ship, and the Skylords themselves, seeking the unique magical gift that Moth now has in his possession, and only he can wield.

The Starfinder.

Part steampunk, Part YA, part borderland-of-Faerie novel, Starfinder is the sort of novel that adults will wish they had available to read when they were 12. Instead of the more conventional fantasy novel a la Harry Potter, the world of the Skylords is an amalgam of several fantasy and science fiction subgenres that provides a stew rich enough for adults such as myself to enjoy as well as children. Combine steampunk technology with a coming of age story, and a faerieland with dragons, centaurs, mermaids and more, and mix well. Very well, as it turns out.

Certainly, the plot and characters are somewhat simplified for a YA sensibility, to be sure. One shouldn't expect Joycean style characterization or Gene Wolfe-esque complications in a turgid plot in a novel aimed at teenagers, to be sure. With that aside, however, Marco has done a remarkable high-wire act in balancing these various concerns, and still producing a book that is enjoyable for older readers as well. There are strains and motifs of deeper and more complex themes layered in here in a way that hearkens back to his first novel.

It's clearly the first of a series as given it is subtitled "a skylords novel". I am looking forward to the subsequent volumes.

Book Review 2010 #8: The River Kings' Road

A book I received due to the graces of Amazon Vine...

An impious mercenary witnesses, and avoids an attack in a bordertown between two fractious medieval fantasy kingdoms, Langmyr, the site of the attack, and their implacable enemy, Oakharn. Also surviving the attack are a young woman, and the heir to the Oakharn lord killed in the massacre.

This sets the stage for a complex web of alliances, struggles and strivings, as forces not only on both sides move to investigate and take advantage of the attack, but powers from beyond Oakharn and Langmyr as well. Godtouched champions of good and light maneuver against each other, and those caught in the middle simply try to survive, and wait to see if this massacre will lead to yet another conflict on already blood-soaked ground.

Such is the fodder for River Kings' Road, a fantasy novel debut by Liane Merciel. The broad lines of the world and conflict she creates is nothing new for experienced fantasy readers. Medieval fantasy, magic based on devotion to one of a pantheon of deities, the basic trappings of a typical fantasy world. Digging a little deeper, the novel features a variety of multidimensional characters on a decidedly complex chessboard of groups seeking to quell or enflame, the fires of war and conflict between the two kingdoms. Merciel does a good job at the shades of gray between the the two characters who really are black and white. She also has clearly read and grokked the Anderson essay "On Thud and Blunder". She gets underpinnings right that many authors completely and utterly forget. Horses in her universe, for example, are *not* treated as motorcycles. The medieval feel of the world is pervasive and palpable. Faith has a role in this world that feels authentic and nuanced rather than "Crystal Dragon Jesus" .

My only major complaint is that it is not extremely original. I've read much fantasy like this before, of varying qualities, degrees and shadings. Its familiar territory. Kingdoms with ambitious vassals, sorceresses, paladins, and so forth.

Oh, and the novel really could have used a map and a glossary or concordance. While these two features in a fantasy novel are practically cliche by this point, when you have a novel geography and world, it is often useful for really getting a handle on who is where, where they are going, and how people are related to each other.

It's a decent debut, even if not groundshattering. Merciel has ideas here that I would like to have explored further, and I hope her novel does well enough that readers such as myself will have the opportunity to discover them.

Locus Award Nominees

Finalists for this year's Locus Awards have been announced. The prizes will be presented at the Science Fiction Awards Weekend in Seattle WA, June 25-27, 2010.

(I italicized the books and stories I've already read)

Science Fiction Novel

The Empress of Mars, by Kage Baker
Steal Across the Sky, by Nancy Kress
Boneshaker, by Cherie Priest
Galileo's Dream, by Kim Stanley Robinson
Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America, by Robert Charles Wilson

Fantasy Novel

The City & The City, by China Miéville
Unseen Academicals, by Terry Pratchett
Drood, by Dan Simmons
Palimpsest, by Catherynne M. Valente
Finch, by Jeff VanderMeer

First Novel

The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi
The Manual of Detection, by Jedediah Berry
Soulless, by Gail Carriger
Lamentation, by Ken Scholes
Norse Code, by Greg van Eekhout

Young-Adult Novel

The Hotel Under the Sand, by Kage Baker
Going Bovine, by Libba Bray
Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins
Liar, by Justine Larbalestier
Leviathan, by Scott Westerfeld

Novella

The Women of Nell Gwynne's, by Kage Baker
"Act One," by Nancy Kress
"Vishnu at the Cat Circus," by Ian McDonald
Shambling Towards Hiroshima, by James Morrow
"Palimpsest," by Charles Stross

Novelette

"By Moonlight," by Peter S. Beagle
"It Takes Two," by Nicola Griffith
"First Flight," by Mary Robinette Kowal
"Eros, Philia, Agape," by Rachel Swirsky
"The Island," by Peter Watts

Short Story

"The Pelican Bar," by Karen Joy Fowler
"An Invocation of Incuriosity," by Neil Gaiman
"Spar," by Kij Johnson
"Going Deep," by James Patrick Kelly
"Useless Things," by Maureen F. McHugh

Magazine

Analog
Asimov's
Clarkesworld
F&SF
Tor.com
Publisher

Baen
Night Shade
Pyr
Subterranean
Tor
Anthology

Lovecraft Unbound, edited by Ellen Datlow
The New Space Opera 2, edited by Gardner Dozois & Jonathan Strahan
The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Sixth Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois
Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honor of Jack Vance, edited by George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois
Eclipse Three, edited by Jonathan Strahan

Collection

We Never Talk About My Brother, by Peter S. Beagle
Cyberabad Days, by Ian McDonald
Wireless, by Charles Stross
The Best of Gene Wolfe, by Gene Wolfe
The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny: Volumes 1-6, by Roger Zelazny

Editor

Ellen Datlow
Gardner Dozois
David G. Hartwell
Jonathan Strahan
Gordon Van Gelder
Artist

Stephan Martinière
John Picacio
Shaun Tan
Charles Vess
Michael Whelan
Non-fiction/Art Book

Powers: Secret Histories, by John Berlyne
Spectrum 16: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, edited by Cathy & Arnie Fenner
Cheek by Jowl, by Ursula K. Le Guin
This is Me, Jack Vance! (Or, More Properly, This is "I"), by Jack Vance
Drawing Down the Moon: The Art of Charles Vess, by Charles Vess

Dexter Palmer's The Dream of Perpetual Motion

Dexter Palmer's The Dream of Perpetual Motion is a new literary steampunk novel.

St. Martin's Press and Palmer have decided on a multimodal push to promote their new author and book.

On the McMillan page, you will find a screensaver, art inspired by the book, background information, an audio excerpt, and much more. St. Martin's Press is seeking to spread word about the book in a number of ways.

That way includes me. As it so happens, gentle readers, a contact at McMillan/St. Martin's Press has asked me, and I have agreed, to read, review and discuss The Dream of Perpetual Motion. In point of fact, the book arrived yesterday.

As soon as I know what to think of the novel, you, gentle readers, will know as well.

2009-10 Hugo Nominees

Hugo Nominees for 2009/2010!

I find it amusing that a nominated work in the Novella and Novel category have the exact same title...

BEST NOVEL (699 nominating ballots)

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest (Tor)
The City & The City by China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan UK)
Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America by Robert Charles Wilson (Tor)
Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente (Bantam Spectra)
Wake by Robert J. Sawyer (Ace; Penguin; Gollancz; Analog)
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade)

BEST NOVELLA (375 nominating ballots)

"Act One" by Nancy Kress (Asimov's 3/09)
The God Engines by John Scalzi (Subterranean)
"Palimpsest" by Charles Stross (Wireless)
Shambling Towards Hiroshima by James Morrow (Tachyon)
"Vishnu at the Cat Circus" by Ian McDonald (Cyberabad Days)
The Women of Nell Gwynne's by Kage Baker (Subterranean)

BEST NOVELETTE (402 nominating ballots)

"Eros, Philia, Agape" by Rachel Swirsky (Tor.com 3/09)
"The Island" by Peter Watts (The New Space Opera 2)
"It Takes Two" by Nicola Griffith (Eclipse Three)
"One of Our Bastards is Missing" by Paul Cornell (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume Three)
"Overtime" by Charles Stross (Tor.com 12/09)
"Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast" by Eugie Foster (Interzone 2/09)

BEST SHORT STORY (432 nominating ballots)

"The Bride of Frankenstein" by Mike Resnick (Asimov's 12/09)
"Bridesicle" by Will McIntosh (Asimov's 1/09)
"The Moment" by Lawrence M. Schoen (Footprints)
"Non-Zero Probabilities" by N.K. Jemisin (Clarkesworld 9/09)
"Spar" by Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld 10/09)

BEST RELATED WORK (259 nominating ballots)

Canary Fever: Reviews by John Clute (Beccon)
Hope-In-The-Mist: The Extraordinary Career and Mysterious Life of Hope Mirrlees by Michael Swanwick (Temporary Culture)
The Inter-Galactic Playground: A Critical Study of Children's and Teens' Science Fiction by Farah Mendlesohn (McFarland)
On Joanna Russ edited by Farah Mendlesohn (Wesleyan)
The Secret Feminist Cabal: A Cultural History of SF Feminisms by Helen Merrick (Aqueduct)
This is Me, Jack Vance! (Or, More Properly, This is "I") by Jack Vance (Subterranean)

BEST GRAPHIC STORY (221 nominating ballots)

Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? Written by Neil Gaiman; Pencilled by Andy Kubert; Inked by Scott Williams (DC Comics)
Captain Britain And MI13. Volume 3: Vampire State Written by Paul Cornell; Pencilled by Leonard Kirk with Mike Collins, Adrian Alphona and Ardian Syaf (Marvel Comics)
Fables Vol 12: The Dark Ages Written by Bill Willingham; Pencilled by Mark Buckingham; Art by Peter Gross & Andrew Pepoy, Michael Allred, David Hahn; Colour by Lee Loughridge & Laura Allred; Letters by Todd Klein (Vertigo Comics)
Girl Genius, Volume 9: Agatha Heterodyne and the Heirs of the Storm Written by Kaja and Phil Foglio; Art by Phil Foglio; Colours by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
Schlock Mercenary: The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse Written and Illustrated by Howard Tayler

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION - LONG FORM (541 nominating ballots)

Avatar Screenplay and Directed by James Cameron (Twentieth Century Fox)
District 9 Screenplay by Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell; Directed by Neill Blomkamp (TriStar Pictures)
Moon Screenplay by Nathan Parker; Story by Duncan Jones; Directed by Duncan Jones (Liberty Films)
Star Trek Screenplay by Robert Orci & Alex Kurtzman; Directed by J.J. Abrams (Paramount)
Up Screenplay by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter; Story by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, & Thomas McCarthy; Directed by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter (Disney/Pixar)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION - SHORT FORM (282 nominating ballots)

Doctor Who: "The Next Doctor" Written by Russell T Davies; Directed by Andy Goddard (BBC Wales)
Doctor Who: "Planet of the Dead" Written by Russell T Davies & Gareth Roberts; Directed by James Strong (BBC Wales)
Doctor Who: "The Waters of Mars" Written by Russell T Davies & Phil Ford; Directed by Graeme Harper (BBC Wales)
Dollhouse: "Epitaph 1? Story by Joss Whedon; Written by Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon; Directed by David Solomon (Mutant Enemy)
FlashForward: "No More Good Days" Written by Brannon Braga & David S. Goyer; Directed by David S. Goyer; based on the novel by Robert J. Sawyer (ABC)

BEST EDITOR, LONG FORM (289 nominating ballots)

Lou Anders
Ginjer Buchanan
Liz Gorinsky
Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Juliet Ulman

BEST EDITOR, SHORT FORM (419 nominating ballots)

Ellen Datlow
Stanley Schmidt
Jonathan Strahan
Gordon Van Gelder
Sheila Williams

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST (327 nominating ballots)

Bob Eggleton
Stephan Martiniere
John Picacio
Daniel Dos Santos
Shaun Tan

BEST SEMIPROZINE (377 nominating ballots)

Ansible edited by David Langford
Clarkesworld edited by Neil Clarke, Sean Wallace, & Cheryl Morgan
Interzone edited by Andy Cox
Locus edited by Charles N. Brown, Kirsten Gong-Wong, & Liza Groen Trombi
Weird Tales edited by Ann VanderMeer & Stephen H. Segal

BEST FAN WRITER (319 nominating ballots)

Claire Brialey
Christopher J Garcia
James Nicoll
Lloyd Penney
Frederik Pohl

BEST FANZINE (298 nominating ballots)

Argentus edited by Steven H Silver
Banana Wings edited by Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer
CHALLENGER edited by Guy H. Lillian III
Drink Tank edited by Christopher J Garcia, with guest editor James Bacon
File 770 edited by Mike Glyer
StarShipSofa edited by Tony C. Smith

BEST FAN ARTIST (199 nominating ballots)

Brad W. Foster
Dave Howell
Sue Mason
Steve Stiles
Taral Wayne

THE JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER (NOT A HUGO AWARD) (356 nominating ballots)

Saladin Ahmed
Gail Carriger
Felix Gilman *
Seanan McGuire
Lezli Robyn *
* Second year of eligibility

Bracketology

Not quite a book review, but a pair of book recommendations for the March Madness season

The Final Four of Everything

and

The Enlightened Bracketologist: The Final Four of Everything

Mark Reiter knows what makes many of us tick in March. Even for those of us who don't really care about Basketball, there is something appealing about the idea of a bracketed tournament. The best of the best across the country compete head to head, looking to go to the next round. Upsets! Dark horses! Powerhouses! It's heady stuff.

Suvudu, for example, is doing brackets of "cage matches" between fantasy characters.

anyway, Mark Reiter takes these concept in his two books, The Enlightened Bracketologist: The Final Four of Everything and The Final Four of Everything. He takes on all sorts of subjects in these two books, setting up brackets and letting them duke it out. It would be enough if we had Reiter's opinions on, say, the best NY Athletes, but Reiter takes his concept to the next level and gets experts to do and fill out how the brackets will go. So, in the aforementioned example, he has sportswriter George Vecsey do brackets for the best NY athletes. (Babe Ruth wins out in the final against Jackie Robinson). Supreme Court reporter Adam Liptak takes on Supreme Court decisions. Time science editor Jeffrey Kluger does a set of brackets on astronauts. And so forth.

Both books are filled with delicious fun that encourage reading and debating at the dinner table, or wherever, and are eminently suited to the March Madness season.

How Do You Organize Your Library?

John Ottinger III @ Grasping for the Wind [http://www.graspingforthewind.com]: asks:

As an avid reader, you probably have scads and scads of books. How do you like to organize them? Category, title, author, ebooks only, or some mix thereof? Explain your organizational system for books, (or lack of it) and why it works for you.

Organization? What is this word of which you speak?

Seriously, I have too many books to really organize them well, given space limitations. This has been doubly true since moving in with My Friends the Olsons.

I do roughly classify and store them as follows:

Fiction: This is almost exclusively science fiction and fantasy, or stuff that is very close to it (e.g. Jorge Luis Borges, Lewis Carroll).

Roleplaying books: I have plenty of these, ranging from a first edition D&D DMG to the latest stuff from Evil Hat, Chad Underkoffler, and the Forge.

"Reference books": This is what I call non fiction that I like to dip in, and use ideas for games and writing and whatnot. Historical atlases, history books, a tarot book, a dictionary or two on mythology, and more. I also think of this as "browsing reading", stuff to be gleaned and glanced over at my leisure.

Book Review 2010 #7: The Stepsister Scheme

The next book is not quite so much as a "fractured" fairy tale, as a re-imagined one...

Jim Hines' The Stepsister Scheme is the first in a series of two (and at least a third in the pipeline books) that reimagine Fairy Tale princesses as more proactive heroines that are in no need of rescuing.

Or, to put it more flippantly, Disney Princesses meet Charlie's Angels.

The Stepsister Scheme introduces us to Danielle Whiteshore, Cinderella herself, newly married to Prince Armand (aka Prince Charming). Her new happy life as a Princess (and expecting a baby, no less) is short-lived, as her stepsisters, with unexpected abilities, kidnap Prince Armand for reasons unknown.

Fortunately for Danielle, that serving girl Talia is secretly working for the Queen, and is a Princess herself, better known in the stories as Sleeping Beauty. Even better, she is awfully good with weapons. And it turns out that the Queen has another Princess in her service, a certain dark haired Princess named Snow White. She has arcane powers, especially with mirrors.

Although Danielle cannot seemingly compete with this duo, she manages to get herself into their company on their mission to rescue Armand and figure out who or what is backing Danielle's stepsisters in this powerplay. Danielle proves to have powers and talents of her own, and takes possession of a weapon blessed by her mother, unusable by any save her. And thus, these three Princesses, armed and ready, set off to save a Prince.

The book is first and foremost a light, funny and fluffy take on the idea of Disney Princesses, turning them into action heroines. it is entertaining on that level alone, but the book does go further, giving interesting speculations on the nature of faeries, reinterpreting the fairy tales the Princesses spring from, and more. There is even a bit of unexpected and tragically unrequited love (that actually is important as a plot point).

Hines has clearly learned from his previous writing to make a readable and entertaining novel, whose sequels I definitely will seek out.

Book Review 2010 #6: Prince of Storms

My next book read is the last in a fabulous series by Kay Kenyon.

Prince of Storms is the fourth and final book in Kay Kenyon's The Rose and the Entire Quintet. Starting with Bright of the Sky,progressing through A World Too Near, and City without End, the Series has followed the travails of Titus Quinn. Quinn, a pilot whose accidental visit to the alternate universe of the Entire is used by the Minerva Corporaton to send him again, has grown from searching for his lost wife and daughter, to toppling the Tarig overlords of the Entire itself, and setting himself against his daughter.

Now, in the fourth volume of the series, the themes and stories of the Entire and the Rose quartet come to a head as the different visions of the future of the Entire, and the Rose (our universe) clash together. Quinn's desire to keep Earth and the Entire safe is set against his daughter Sen Ni (Sydney)'s desire to have the Entire survive at any and all costs. And then there is Geng De, the Navitar friend to Sydney who has a decidedly different view of what should happen to the Entire. And finally, there are the Jinda Ceb. Former eternal enemy of the Tarig, now that the Tarig are overthrown, and they are part of the Entire, what is THEIR vision of the future of the two universes?

In Prince of Storms, these larger issues are resolved, as well, and as always, set against the personal stories of Quinn, his daughter Sen Ni, his (first) wife Johanna, his Entire wife, Ji Anzi, and many others. Kenyon's big canvas and big questions are grand and epic, but her characters inhabit this complex pair of worlds.

I have to admit, the ending to this novel, and the fates of the characters are understandable, fitting, and logical, given the sequence of events. What they are decidedly not, however, are predictable given the start of the series. This is not a simple quartet where the hero simply journeys across the landscape, picks up companions, overthrows the dark lord, and rules happily ever after. Kenyon's writing, narrative and story are far more nuanced than that.

As always, one should not start here with this book, and I don't even think its realistically possible to fully enjoy this book without having read its predecessors. If you want wide canvas science fiction that is very much in the mold of planetary romance and epic fantasy, and with more than a dash of characters that will propel you through this landscape, I cannot recommend Kay Kenyon's The Rose and the Entire Quartet enough.

I have heard that Kenyon is going to turn from SF to more straightline fantasy for her next work. Thanks to the strength of writing and the enjoyment of reading the Rose and Entire Quartet, this reader will certainly follow her into those realms as well. Read the Rose and the Entire Quartet, and find out for yourself why.

Book Review 2010 #5: Into the Looking Glass

Next up...another try at reading John Ringo. Glutton for Punishment, me.

Never let it be said that I don't give people second chances. After my unhappiness with the story buzz-killing politics found when I read his The Tuloriad, I decided to try John Ringo, straight up, to see if another novel of his might have more of the good stuff and less of the thud and blunder.

And so I picked up Into the Looking Glass, a completely different series and world, and unlike the Tulorian, written without a co-author.

The set up and the basic scenario are interesting and clever: A high energy particle accident opens up potential gates to other worlds. Through these gates come contacts of several different kinds, including a malevolent force intent on turning the Earth into more territory for itself by an endless churning out of units that reminded me of the Zerg in Starcraft.

A ragtag group of soldiers, a "redneck physicist" and others fight to keep the aliens off of our turf, make contact with friendly aliens, and try to keep a situation spiraling out of control from going completely off of the rails.

I liked the basic premise as far as it went. The strength of the basic premise allowed me enough forward momentum to continue the book. Although implausible, I liked the "battletech" prototype technology employed against the hostile aliens.

However, the negative aspects of the book outweigh the positives.

After a good opening, the second half of the movie drags and loses momentum. Ringo also leaves a lot of dangling plot threads that seem more sloppiness than setting up a sequel. And the out-of-nowhere epilogue with trying to build a star drive is one of the worst tacked on last portions of a book I've read since Ender's Game. It almost seems like to me that Ringo was writing the book to frantically get the plot and scenario to the situation where we get that star drive, but the book is too short to make it plausible. It's a leap too far.

Character development is implausible. Our physicist hero goes from never firing a gun to being an expert in a shockingly short amount of time. Other characters are flat, wooden and without personality. Also, the government response to "tuffy", an extra-dimensional alien that may literally be a manifestation of God, is implausible, at best.

Female characters are another problem in this book. Sure, the novel mainly focuses on soldiers and a military response to it, but the number of significant female characters is thin on the ground. I expect better in a modern SF novel.

Now the politics. I dislike novels which turn into political tracts and grist for the mill to promote a political viewpoint rather than an actual story.Into the Looking Glass takes pot shots at liberals and the French. However, what he has to say about Arabs made my blood boil. The schadenfreude the author and the characters seem to have at the plight of those in the path of a Gate in the Middle East disgusted me.

"Any word on what we we're going to do?" Bill asked.

"Well, the Teams are sitting back, watching the tube and laughing in their beer." Miller answered. "The Ayrabs (sic) can't fight for shit. There's a lot of cultural reasons for it...Wait a year and there won't be enough mujaheddin left on earth to bury the bodies...The ragheads will also see,clearly, what the U.S. can do if it cares enough to send the very best. Nuclear weapons rising where the mullahs cannot ignore them."

If I want to re-read an alien invasion novel, I will read Pournelle and Niven's Footfall. There are two authors, no liberals they, who understand how to write an alien invasion novel, make it believable, and not take every opportunity to score political points.

Sorry, Mr. Ringo, I'm done trying to read your work. Good luck in your future endeavors.

RIP, William Tenn

The list of F/SF deaths gets tiresome, especially with the recent loss of Kage Baker.

Today, William Tenn (real name Philip Klass) passed away.

William Tenn was on only as a short story novels, his novels were less successful. Tenn's work was wickedly satirical in a way only matched in the SF field by C.L. Kornbluth.

My favorite Tenn stories:

The Brooklyn Project: Researchers send a probe back in time, insisting all the while that time and history cannot be changed, even as things get weirder and weirder in the present...

Eastward Ho!: After a nuclear war, Native American nations turn the tables on the United States.

The Liberation of Earth: Two different alien races come to Earth...and the Earth becomes a proxy space for their war.

Null-P: George Abnego, the most ordinary man in the US, becomes an unexpected symbol in a post-World War III age.

It Ends With a Flicker: Two different alternate histories seek to end the disaster that threatens humanity by changing the historical event that made it happen. Only...

And there are many others. Tenn had a gift for stories with a sting in the tail.

Now, I am tempted to pick up the NESFA Press volumes of his collected stories.

What am I reading now?

Via SF Signal and other places.

1. What Book Are You Reading Now?
2. Why did you choose it?
3. What's the best thing about it?
4. What's the worst thing about it?

1. Into the Looking Glass, John Ringo
2. I wanted to try Ringo again after a negative previous experience.
3. Competent protagonists that drive the narrative forward
4. The liberal-bashing politics is getting old, fast.

Book Review 2010 #4: The Quiet War

Next up on my book list is the author who previously penned one of my favorite SF series, ever.

Back in the 1990's, I went through a spurt of reading the novels of Paul McAuley. His SF aligned perfectly with my tastes, from Fairyland to Pasquale's Angel to the Confluence Trilogy, one of my favorite SF series of all time.

I didn't read his SF techno-thrillers, but I am very happy that he has now returned to straight main-line science fiction with The Quiet War.

The Quiet War is set in a solar system after "The Overturn", when the 20th and 21st century geopolitics and fossil fuel economy world have withered under devastating climate change and political upheaval The powers of the 23rd century on Earth are Greater Brazil, the European Union and the Pacific Community. Family-based Autocracy is the new politics, Gaia is the official religion and the powers on Earth work to try and repair the damage done by the near extinction-event.

Out in the Jovian and Saturnian moon systems, however, the Outers carry on with Democracy, experimentation, and innovation. The Outers explore the boundaries of what it means to be human, as they carve out lives in the bleak and dangerous landscape of moons such as Callisto, Rhea, and Titan.

These two visions cannot long remain out of conflict, even if seperated by millions of kilometers of space. The Quiet War tells the start of the story of that conflict, of the forces pushing for and against war, and, finally, the details of the "short, quiet war".

McAuley's return to Space Opera is a return to themes he has explored before, on a canvas that runs from Earth to Saturn. Gene-manipulated individuals, as in Fairyland here ,are in full flower, from the experimentation of the Outers to the "Daves", a set of clones created by Greater Brazil to be tools of war and espionage in the upcoming conflict. McAuley lingers lovingly over the terrain and milieu of the outer system.

His sense of description is more perfunctory on Earth, but it is when the setting of the story is set on one of the Moons that you can feel the joy of his writing in the depth and texture of these described worlds. I almost wanted to get a plane ticket for Brazilia so that I could get a shuttle for a ship to visit the Jovian moons.

Frankly, while I found Dr. Owen, Macy Minnot, Dave #8 and the other characters moderately interesting enough in the process of reading the novel, characters are not the strongest point of McAuley's writing. What has been strong in the past in his work, and what is strong is here, is the sensawunda of the ideas McAuley likes to throw around. It requires that sort of mindset to best enjoy McAuley's writing. Readers who rely on strong character based science fiction may not be the target audience for his work, especially this novel.

Finally, the Quiet War doesn't quite stand on its own, it feels a bit incomplete. Fortunately, the other half, the Gardens of the Sun, is coming out this spring. Since, despite the characterization problems, McAuley's space opera is still to my taste,I for one am definitely going to read it.

Frederik Pohl and Isaac Asimov

I'm surprised, in a good way, 90 year old Frederik Pohl has taken up blogging.

Even more delightful, he has recently been telling about his early life, as it intersected with none other than Isaac Asimov.

A must read for any science fiction fans.

http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2010/01/isaac/

http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2010/01/isaac-part-2/

Kage Baker, RIP

Via Jeff Vandermeer, and others, Kage Baker's fight with uterine cancer has been lost.

I've only read one of her novels, and didn't particularly care for it. Her work was well regarded. though, by friends, and others in the community. Therefore, I consider the failing to be mine, not hers, and now she will not write any more stories or novels for me to try and reassess my opinion of her work in a more positive light.

Rest in Peace.

Book Review 2010 #3: Servant of a Dark God

After the heat I generated on LJ and my facebook regarding politics, here we will have an entry that few will read, almost no one will comment on, and certainly will generate no fire or sizzle. A book review!

Disclaimer: I received this book via the Library Thing Early Reviewers program.

John Brown's Servant of a Dark God is a debut fantasy novel that spoils some of its very good elements with some frankly clumsy mistakes and misccues.

The fantasy world Brown posits a hierarchy of magical beings of which mankind sits at the bottom (although there are Gnostic hints this was once not the case) Magical power and talent is tightly and strictly controlled, and those who dare to use such magic are accused of "Slethery", that is to say, witchcraft. And yet there are those who practice and cultivate such arts in secret, both human and inhuman.

Servant of a Dark God focuses on a family in a land recently conquered by overseas invaders, and the dynamics of the rights of the overlord conquerors versus the native population adds to the complexity and depth of the world Brown has created. Characters have confused, divided and conflicting loyalties that shows a depth that many writers with far more experience than Brown never learn or bother to give to their characters and worlds. The magic and arcane aspects of the universe are a bit of a "jump in the deep end", but Brown's ideas are fresh and relatively unique and I liked learning more and more about how it actually worked.

Also, unlike the usual epic fantasy, this novel stays within and provides detail for a relatively narrow geographic area. There was no 1000 mile walks across the countryside. This is a local story, which is a nice change of pace from the usual novels of this type.

I would have highly enjoyed this novel, with all of these interesting elements, except for two major missteps.

First of all, the main character, Talen, was not one drawn well enough to be engaging and interesting enough for my taste. Brown manages to characterize and develop the secondary characters in a much better fashion than Talen, but since this is Talen's story, he gets the lion's share of the action and story. Worse, his story takes far too long to develop. It was a rough slog in the first third of the book, when one of the major mysteries of the novel was who stole Talen's work pants. I stuck it out, and matters improved, but my taste for Talen as a character was permanently ruined by a very weak opening.

Second, Brown is a little too complex and clever for his own good. The obfuscation in the novel can be thick and heavy, and while any writer must balance infodump with telling the reader nothing, I think Brown withheld too much information at certain points, to the determent of the narrative. While puzzling out some of this was a positive to reading the novel, in some cases, it only served as a millstone to the reader.

This book very nearly failed the "100 page test." By contrast, the last 100 pages of the novel were very good.

Overall, though, like some of the best from Sanderson, or Drake, the fantasy here is not of the cookie-cutter epic fantasy type that is eptiomized in the Tough Guide to Fantasyland. I am unsure if I want to continue with subsequent novels in the series, due to not warming up to Talen as a character, but I think I would be inclined to read other novels by this author otherwise in the future.

Book Review 2010 #2: Cursor's Fury

Next up, a return to Butcher's Codex Alera universe.

Cursor's Fury is third in the Codex Alera Series by Jim Butcher and continues the story of Tavi, the fury-less young man whose skill, intelligence and bravery have saved the Empire falling apart around him, twice.

In this third novel, noew that his school studies are behind him, Tavi is sent off to be an officer in the Legions, in specific a new Legion formed by the Gaius in a bid to try and create a force that will not be caught up in the tensions rising in his Empire.

However, the rise of a rebellion causes the Gaius to send Tavi's Legion out of the way--and, unwittingly, straight into the path of something even worse: An invasion of the canine, wolf like Canim. Tavi's Legion has been moved out of the way of the frying pan of the rebellion, into the fire of being the only force in the area between the Canim and a large chunk of the Empire.

In the meantime, as always, the story follows Tavi's Aunt Isana, Uncle Bernard and Bernard's lover (now wife) Amara as they are sent to try and counter the rebellion threat.

And just where is Tavi's "barbarian" friend, lover and possible lifemate Kitai in all this?

The Codex Alera universe grows and expands in this third novel, and a couple of characters actions, going back to the first novel, are reviewed and reinterpreted. And again, characters and the world change, develop and progress. Butcher has a real sense of moving events in this books--things do not merely happen only when characters are there to see it, and none of his characters are perfect. And the ending. Anyone can write a decent opening to a novel. Butcher, with the sting in the tail of this ending, proves he can end a book as forcefully as he begins one.

I am definitely looking forward to getting to and reading the next novel in one of the most entertaining epic fantasy series out there.

Butcher's novels may not be high literary fantasy in the sense of George R R Martin, but they provide "value for money" in terms of entertainment. And, in a mild digressive criticism of Mr. Martin, Butcher has shown little trouble in turning out novel after novel in this entertaining series.

Again, though, don't start here with this novel if you are new to the Codex Alera universe. Start with Furies of Calderon (Codex Alera, Book 1), and see for yourself.

Book Review 2010 #1: The Edge of Physics

Let's start off 2010 with some non fiction. I received The Edge of Physics as part of the Amazon Vine program.

The Edge of Physics: A Journey to Earth's Extremes to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe by Anil Ananthaswamy is not quite what it seems.

While the title promises a look at the bleeding edge of physics and cosmology, this book in actuality has a broader canvas. Anathaswamy, a journalist at the New Scientist, focuses on the places he goes and the people he meets on his journey to understand the experiments, equipment and the people associated with them.

High energy physics requires special conditions to have their detectors work. If you want to detect WIMPs, look for primordial antimatter, and try and find Higgs Bosons, you need special equipment, which just can't be built anywhere. In this book, Ananthaswamy chronicles his journeys to these often remote locations and talks with the people there. In the midst of this, the book is filled out (some might say padded) with a large number of digressions. In detailing his trip to Antarctica, for example, Ananthaswamy feels compelled to discuss the race to reach the South Pole first by Shackleton and Scott. It really has little to do with the physics experiments going on at Antarctica, and while its a fascinating bit of history, it is out of place as far as the title of the book is concerned.

This portion, and almost all of the other portions of the book read like travelogue, as Ananthaswamy details the effort he has to take in order to get to some of the more remote locations where the physics experiments are taking place, such as Lake Baikal, the Chilean Desert, South Africa, and the Soudan Underground Mine in Minnesota. Those far more interested in the physics are going to be annoyed by these portions of the book. For myself, I liked these digressions, and accepted them as part of the matrix of the book. I was fascinated by, for example, his journey to Lake Baikal. I didn't know much about the lake, and in reading this book I learned as much, if not more about the lake than about the neutrino detector submerged there.

It's a relatively conversational tone of a book, with no equations and not a lot of hard science. It's well edited and a very easy read. I think that the target audience for this book are those who have taken physics in high school, maybe some general science in College, but do not generally have a strong science background. My mother is has no special science background. and no post-secondary education I think she would be able to understand and enjoy this book.

Conversely, those who have physics degrees, and have a stake in the "cage match" that is going on between String Theory and Loop Quantum Gravity should stay far away from this book.Ananthaswamy does not "discuss the controversy", to coin a phrase. While the information on the experiments might be interesting to physics experts, the non physics portions of the book will probably not be to their taste.

If you are looking for a book on the level of Lee Smolin or Brian Greene, no matter which camp you support, then this book is definitely not your cup of tea and you probably will be frankly bored by large portions of this slim volume. If your interest is more broad, and your commitment to controversies in the field are not intense, then this relatively painless look at the field, and more especially, the people and places associated with high energy physics is entertaining and informative, even if (and for me especially because) it does contain a wide ranging view of the people and the places the physics takes place.

Final Book Tally 2009

A few days late, but this is my final list of books read in 2009:

57 Shadow Pavilion, Liz Williams
56 Dragon Keeper, Robin Hobb
55 Trading in Danger, Elizabeth Moon
54 Roadside Geology of Minnesota, Richard Ojakangas
53 Finch, Jeff Vandermeer
52 Unseen Alchemicals, Terry Pratchett
51 Precious Dragon, Liz Williams
50 Three Unbroken, Chris Roberson
49 Things We Didn't See Coming, Steven Amsterdam
48 The Very Best of Fantasy&Science Fiction, Gordon Van Gelder
47 The Tuloriad, John Ringo and Tom Kratman
46 Age of Misrule: World's End, Mark Chadbourn
45 Tales of the Road, Cathy Wurzer
44 The Edge of the World, Kevin J Anderson
43 Sun of Suns, Karl Schroeder
42 Fledgling, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
41 The Compleat Traveller in Black, John Brunner
40 River of Gods, Ian McDonald
39 Two Hawks from Earth, Philip J Farmer
38 The Pluto Files, Neil DeGrasse Tyson
37 Academ's Fury, Jim Butcher
36 Songs of the Dying Earth, Martin and Dozois, Editors
35 Judas Unchained, Peter F Hamilton
34 The Tourmaline, Paul Park
33 Poison Study, Maria Snyder
32 Furies of Calderon (audiobook), Jim Butcher
31 Other Earths, Nick Gevers and Jay Lake
30 The Revolution Business, Charles Stross
29 The Affinity Bridge, George Mann
28 Yellowstone's Treasures, Janet Chapple
27 Warbreaker, Brandon Sanderson
26 Naamah's Kiss, Jacqueline Carey
25 Midwinter, Matthew Sturges
24 Children of Chaos, David Duncan
23 Infoquake, David Louis Edelman
22 Empire of Ivory, Naomi Novik
21 All the Windwracked Stars, Elizabeth Bear
20 City Without End, Kay Kenyon
19 Mortal Coils, Eric Nylund
18 Santa Olivia, Jacqueline Carey
17 What Happened to the Indians, Terence Shannon
16 Kitty Goes to Hell, Carrie Vaughn
15 Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand, Carrie Vaughn
14 Drood, Dan Simmons
13. Kitty and the Silver Bullet, Carrie Vaughn
12. Kitty Takes a Holiday, Carrie Vaughn
11. Kitty Goes to Washington, Carrie Vaughn
10. Kitty and the Midnight Hour, Carrie Vaughn
9. History Revisted the Great Battles, Mike Resnick
8. The Planiverse, AK Dewdney
7. The Accidental Time Machine, Joe Haldeman
6 Fables #1: Legends in Exile, Bill Willingham
5. The Domino Men, Jonathan Barnes
4. Chariot, Arthur Cotterell
3. The Story of Mathematics, Ian Stewart
2. Pushing Ice, Alistair Reynolds
1. Gladiatrix, Russell Whitfield

Book Review 2009 #57: The Shadow Pavilion

The Shadow Pavilion: A Detective Inspector Chen Novel
is the fourth in Liz Williams Inspector Chen series.

Inspector Chen has been to Hell, dealt with a misguided invasion of Hell by Heaven, corporate takeovers in Hell, and even overseen the ascension of a new Emperor of Heaven.

What does "Snake Agent" Inspector Chen, his demon wife, his demon senechal partner (and new fiance!) and other allies do next?

Well, would you believe get caught in the machinations of demonesses and a demigod from a different Hell (a Hindu one!) as well as deal with an assassination attempt on the (new) Emperor of Heaven himself?

Shadow Pavilion is the fourth novel in Liz Williams' Inspector Chen series. Set in the early 21st century in the Chinese city Singapore Three, where the divine, demonic and real life intersect in very real ways. Not very assessable to those new to the series, Shadow Pavilion continues to expand the playground. While we have had hints there are other heavens and hells in the previous novels, but in Shadow Pavilion we not only meet denizens from them, but we actually have the characters travel to them. Williams does an excellent job making these new realms distinctly different than the bureaucratic-mad Chinese Hell, and the change in venue makes for an interesting contrast.

I enjoyed this volume in the series overall, as always. Inspector Chen and his world are clearly subjects that Ms. Williams has found a niche in writing in, and I look forward to subsequent novels.

My only complaint with this novel is its length. While the other novels are approximately the same short length, in this case, it feels like Williams was writing a bit to that length, rather than to the end point of a story. The pacing felt just a little bit off to me. This is not a serious flaw, but it is a noticeable one.

Recommended to fans of the series. For others, I suggest trying out Snake Agent to see if you like Williams brand of modern Chinese supernatural urban fantasy.

The Best Genre-Related Books/Films/Shows Consumed in 2009

Sf Signal has been asking luminaries in the SF field what they considered the best Genre Related books, films and shows they consumed in 2009. Note that the material does not necessarily need to have come out in 2009, they just have had to consume it.

Unlike Gaul, the Sfsignal article is divided into four parts:


http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2009/12/mind-meld-the-best-genre-related-booksfilmsshows-consumed-in-2009-part-1/

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2009/12/mind-meld-the-best-genre-related-booksfilmsshows-consumed-in-2009-part-2/

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2009/12/mind-meld-the-best-genre-related-booksfilmsshows-consumed-in-2009-part-3/

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2009/12/mind-meld-the-best-genre-related-booksfilmsshows-consumed-in-2009-part-4/

Behind the cut, my own choices!

Books:

I read over 50 books this year, many of them in the genre. The ones I liked best were:

Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honor of Jack Vance
There was no way that this tribute anthology to Vance's work would miss being on this list. A real treasure.

Furies of Calderon (Codex Alera, Book 1). I've come late to the Calderon party. I listened to the first book and a half of the Codex Alera series on vacation, read the remainder of the second book, and now am going to tackle book three. Epic Fantasy done right, and with more than a little Roman flavor.

Three Unbroken (Novel of Celestial Empire). I really like Chris Roberson's work, and this is the latest novel in his Celestial Empire universe, where China and the Aztecs duel over the planet Mars...

Films

It was a good year for SF films:

Star Trek (Single-Disc Edition). Star Trek is a reboot done right. Even with that darned overuse of lens flare, Star Trek lives again!

Back to the Future - The Complete Trilogy (Widescreen Edition). I picked this up this year. I recall being less than enthused, back in the day, with the third film. On this watch through, though, I have come around to its charms. And the first movie is a classic, period, full stop.

Up. I should be shot if I didn't include what might be the best Pixar movie yet.

Avatar: Sure, the story is weak, but the technical aspects of Avatar put it on this list. You must see this film and see what Cameron's use of technology has wrought. You simply must.

Shows:

Doctor Who: The Complete Fourth Series. The last fourth season of the Doctor, and how! From Pompeii to the Medusa Cascade, another trip of a lifetime, with a heartrending ending to boot.

Sanctuary: The Complete First Season. Although I didn't really like it at first, watching episodes at my friends house has warmed me to this series. And certainly, on cable, it has less of the tsuris that, say, Dollhouse has gotten itself into.

Doctor Who: The War Games (Story 50). This classic episode, the last of the Troughton era, was recently re-released on DVD. A perfect swan song for the Second Doctor, Zoe and Jamie.

Book Review 2009 #56: Dragon Keeper

NB: I received an ARC of this book as part of the Amazon Vine program

Life in the jungle filled Rain Wilds is tough. Whether you live in half-ruined Bingtown, recently rebuilding from a war with a long time adversary, or if you live deeper in the Rain Wilds, where buildings are built into the trees, and social position is based on how low to the ground you can manage to live, its a tough life. The fact that the river itself is somewhat acidic and inimical adds to the dangerous ground.

To this dangerous environment, add Dragons, hatched from Sea Serpent eggs, and protected by a bargain the egg layer has made with the Rain Wilds folk to care for the creatures. Mix in the fact that these dragons are stunted, malformed and some of them are nearly feral. These are far from your typical fantasy dragons!

Set in (as you might already have guessed) Hobb's Farseer world, Dragon Keeper is the story of these malformed dragons, offspring of the true dragon Tintaglia (who featured prominently in the Liveship Traders series). Malformed and stunted as they are, they are not the creatures anyone expects, and are a burden on the Rain Wilders. The Dragons seize a chance to get the Rain Wilders to get them out of each other's hair by sending them, with their keepers, upriver, in search of a legendary city from the prior Elderling civilization.

Dragon Keeper is also the story of two young and very different women. Thymara has the mutations and markings that make her a semi-outcast even amongst her people, and it is no wonder that she leaps at the chance to escape her home environment and join that expedition to repatriate the dragons further upriver. By comparison, Alise is a sheltered young woman, bound in a marriage that is literally only in name, whose study of scrolls and documents makes her, improbably, the foremost theoretical expert on Dragons and their former world. She, too, with both hands, leaps at the chance to escape her home life and join the expedition.

There are a small flock of secondary characters as well that mainly serve as relief and contrast to Alise and Thymara (although compared to many authors, they serve very well as defined characters).Sedric, secretary to Hest, and unwilling companion to Alise on her journey, is close as they come to being a third main character in the novel.

I've read a few of Hobb's novels before (and under her pen name Megan Lindholm as well). Like those previous novels, she provides solid characters, a well fleshed out and thought out world, and has captured the magic of "one more page, one more chapter" in her writing style, leading the reader on to continue the journey. In addition to cutting between the two main characters, the chapters also have the text of messages sent between bird keepers, which provides a third, objective view of some events and helps flesh out the world as really extending beyond the words on the page.

While I think reading some of the previous Farseer books (especially the Liveship Traders--there are Liveships in this novel, naturally) might be useful for understanding some events, since most of this book is set in the isolated backcountry, I think this book can serve as a gateway book to Hobb's work.

The only weakness to the book, and its endemic to a lot of fantasy these days, is that this is an unfinished story.This is the first in a duology and even as such, this first novel does not stand alone.

However, given the richness of the book, I will *definitely* be looking to getting and reading the second book when it comes out. I also need to fill in the backlog of books of Hobbs in the Farseer world I haven't read--Dragon Keeper helped remind me of the skill and craft in her worldbuilding and characters.

If you are looking for a low magic fantasy world with a different take on dragons, or if you are a previous fan of Hobb's Farseer world, I recommend Dragon Keeper to you.

Peter Watts and US Customs

Via many places, like Locus, Peter Watts own Blog, at Boing Boing, Making Light, and a growing list of other ocations, Canadian SF Author Peter Watts has had a nightmarish incident at the US-Canadian border crossing at Port Huron.

Along some other timeline, I did not get out of the car to ask what was going on. I did not repeat that question when refused an answer and told to get back into the vehicle. In that other timeline I was not punched in the face, pepper-sprayed, shit-kicked, handcuffed, thrown wet and half-naked into a holding cell for three fucking hours, thrown into an even colder jail cell overnight, arraigned, and charged with assaulting a federal officer, all without access to legal representation (although they did try to get me to waive my Miranda rights. Twice.). Nor was I finally dumped across the border in shirtsleeves: computer seized, flash drive confiscated, even my fucking paper notepad withheld until they could find someone among their number literate enough to distinguish between handwritten notes on story ideas and, I suppose, nefarious terrorist plots. I was not left without my jacket in the face of Ontario's first winter storm, after all buses and intercity shuttles had shut down for the night.

In some other universe I am warm and content and not looking at spending two years in jail for the crime of having been punched in the face.

He will need some shekels for his defense fund:
http://www.rifters.com/real/shorts.htm

Damn.

In April, readers will recall, I was stopped at US Customs after a one day trip into Canada from Grand Marais on my North Shore Expedition. I was questioned for over an hour, and my car was searched. I felt violated.

Now, I realize I was damned lucky. And in the world's greatest democracy, that's a horrible thing for me to say, all the more so because it is true.

The Death of Science Fiction, Part CLXIV

Fantasy author Mark Charan Newton has caused some stir with a blog entry on the evergreen subject of "the death of science fiction". Mark's thesis is that fantasy is in the process of supplanting SF for a number of reasons. Women are more voracious readers than men and they "don't read science fiction". Culture has caught up with SF, literary fiction is eating SF, and fantasy films have turned imaginations to fantasy rather than SF.

After that initial shot across the bow, he has gathered a number of responses. Philip Palmer thinks its tripe. Mark Chadbourn, who has written a fair amount of fantasy, responded as well. The Wertzone disagreed as well.

I bet there are others, too.

And Mr. Newton has responded to his critics.

Now, what do I think?

Well, my friend Scott and I have seen a distinct rise in "urban fantasy" the last few years, to the point where it dominates the SF bookshelves over its counterparts standard fantasy and science fiction. It seems everyday that I read about a SF author signing a book deal to do a fantasy novel or switching into the fantasy genre.

Outward appearances would suggest that Mr. Newton is correct. Fantasy is the future, and SF is in a dieback. I do think that we are in a cycle where fantasy (especially urban fantasy is ascendant. I am not convinced that this is a permanent state of affairs. In addition, I think there will always be a market for science fiction, a significant market. Granted, the types of SF may change, just as fantasy has shifted significantly toward urban fantasy, but I suspect that authors like Stross, Bear, and many others will have sufficient readers to keep the fire alive.

And I like fantasy. I may not be a fan of much urban fantasy, although I've discovered authors I do like. After reading a bunch of fantasy, sometimes I *have* to get immersed into some that "old time religion" that is science fiction.

RIP, Robert Holdstock

Via many, many places, including but not limited to Steven Silver, Robert Holdstock, author of Mythago Wood and many other novels, has passed away.

In my previous entry about the 6 best fantasy novels, I very nearly put Holdstock on my list of six, for his award winning Mythago Wood, a seminal fantasy novel about mythological fantasy in post WWII England.

Rest in Peace.

"What are the Greatest Fantasy Novels of All Time?"

Via i09.com, a link to The Magicians author Lev Grossman reveals that he has an article on The Week about the Greatest Fantasy Novels of All Time

He admits its an impossible question, but gives it a go anyway...

I will leave you to look at his article to find out why. Here, I want to talk about it and think out loud about what I think of the impossible question.

His list is as follows:
-- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
-- The Once and Future King by T.H. White
-- Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories
-- The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
-- Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
-- Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link

I can hear the groans already. But yes, its an impossible question. Grossman admits this.

So let's build a list from me, working from this.

Tolkien has to be on this list. Even if you believe that Moorcock "Epic Pooh" nonsense about Tolkien (and I *don't*), Tolkien is so seminal to the genre, that he has to be on a list of six.

Leiber's stories aren't a novel. Theoretically if I wanted to nitpick, Grossman is cheating a bit by including them. But I think they belong on here, too. Young whippersnappers who read Chris Evans or Richard Morgan or Enge or Erikson don't realize how much of a debt *they* owe to Leiber. So put Leiber on my list, too.

I am chucking White off of my list. I wasn't as swept away by it as Grossman was. I don't deny its fine work, but I wouldn't put it on my six.

What instead?

No hesitation. I will put on The Dying Earth, by Jack Vance. Vance is only now really being appreciated, even at the end of his career. The DE was a strong influence on Dungeons and Dragons (which in turn influenced many writers), and is a crackling good read. Songs of the Dying Earth, the anthology I read and reviewed some time ago, shows that a swath of authors have taken notes from Vance's work. So he gets on my List of Six.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

I didn't like this book as much as I thought I would. It might be a taste thing. I don't deny the craft and art, it just didn't work for me as well as I wish it would.

Instead, maybe because its her birthday, I am going to go with the Science Fantasy classic "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle. I know there are sequels I have never read, but I've always thought this one was full, complete and wonderful.

Magic for Beginners, Kelly Link

I haven't read this, to be honest. I can't really say if its worthy or not. Clearly, Grossman was looking for something recent and urban in tone for this slot.

As my friend Scott would say. "FINE!"

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I can hear your groans already. But this is the one that won the Hugo, this is where some of the awkwardness of the first novel or two falls away and she shows just why she's a billionaire. Sure, I know lots of other authors have mined this territory and you might even argue they do it better. But here, Rowling shows the talent she has in full.

Last from Grossman's list:
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

Well, this is not a bad choice. If I was lazy, I could say "Yes" and just go with it. I am going to decline to do that on the basis that two Inklings is one too many for this list, and in a contest between Lewis and Tolkien, Tolkien wins.

So we need one more book. Tricky.

Okay, I am doomed no matter what I pick. And I could pick so many authors. John Crowley? Steven Erikson? Terry Pratchett? Guy Gavriel Kay? Robert Holdstock? Julian May? Judith Tarr?

I will pick the Morgaine stories of C J Cherryh. Science Fantasy again, like L'Engle, and its arguably science fiction, but Morgaine feels like fantasy to me. The novels concern a time-traveling heroine, Morgaine, and her loyal companion Nhi Vanye i Chya. Her mission is to close gates between worlds which are too dangerous to be allowed to be kept open. In addition to Vanye, her constant companion is Changeling, a device in the shape of a sword that has a wormhole on its tip and can kill friend as easily as foe.

So My list, overall is as follows:

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories, Fritz Leiber
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Dying Earth, Jack Vance
A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline L'Engle
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling
The Tales of Morgaine, C J Cherryh

Lankhmar Book 1: Swords And Deviltry

The Lord of the Rings: 50th Anniversary, One Vol. Edition

Tales of the Dying Earth

A Wrinkle in Time

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5)

The Morgaine Saga (Daw Book Collectors)

I am extremely interested in what you think of Grossman's list, and of mine.

Rulebooks for Reading

Over on Gnome Stew, DNAPhil recently broached the subject of reading game rulebooks for ideas on plots, mechanics, and even just for recreation.

I do all three of these myself!

I find that rulebooks from one system can provide inspirations for other games that I run. As a long time Amber GM, a game that spans a multiverse, nearly any setting from any rulebook can be used as inspiration for a shadow or world. Much of the Dreamlands in my world have been inspired by a host of supplements and ideas. The Yithonghu, enemies from the dream world, were originally inspired by a GURPS Cabal creature. A port city in Weirmonken, Turku, was inspired partially by an Iron Kingdoms Port city.

Even beyond Amber, I borrow from other games. For example, The ruins of Serathis, from Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved world have shown up as a site in my face to face Exalted session. The magisterium, an ancient tower that was appearing only once every full moon, came from a session of In a Wicked Age that I played with the Indiegamers where that came up in the Oracles.

I fully expect to do more of this in the future. Beyond that, though, even if I never actually get to use or run them, I like to read RPG books for pleasure. Sometimes small things, ideas that I don't even explicitly remember, come from pleasurably reading a nice and detailed RPG supplement.

Book Review 2009 #55: Trading in Danger

Next up, my first foray into the Vatta universe...

Trading in Danger (Vatta's War)

Although I am a fan of space opera, I've improbably managed to avoid reading the novels of Elizabeth Moon until now.A friend finally convinced me to take the plunge, and begin here, with her first Vatta novel.

I am glad that I did.

Set in a space opera universe of FTL travel, ansibles for FTL communication, and a balkinized polity of trading planets, pirates, mercenary companies and more, Trading in Danger is the story of Kylara (Ky) Vatta. Unlike her trading oriented family, she's more interested in a military career. This career path goes off the rails in the first chapter of the book, as she is cashiered out of the military academy for what seemed to be an innocent attempt to help a fellow classmate.

Scandalous! Her family decides that a change of scenery and away from the media lights of her home planet of Slotter's Key. The Glennys Jones is one of the oldest ships in the Vatta trading fleet and due for scrap. Send Ky to captain the falling-apart ship for one last mission, with the end point of the mission having the ship being scrapped on a distant planet, and have her charter transportation back home for her and her crew. In the meantime, the scandal will have been forgotten

Simple, right?

Although she assiduously avoided joining the family business to this point, Ky cannot resist the chance to make some "trade and profit." And in the quest for that, winds up in an unfamiliar solar system that is just about ready to break out into civil war...

Moon is the sort of space opera writer that reminds me of Bujold in many ways. The technical details are plot oriented and relatively general in their details. Readers looking for lovingly thought out technical details of an FTL drive are going to be disappointed here. The technological details here serve character development and plot. And it is there, especially the character development, that Moon shines. Ky is a fully formed and envisioned three dimensional character, who has strengths, weaknesses, personality and who grows and changes in the course of the novel. Even when she does the wrong thing (for the right reasons), she is a sympathetic viewpoint character and Moon makes her the hard core of the novel. Her secondary characters are also well drawn as well, and contrast well against Ky, ranging from her family, to her crew, to those she tangles with in the course of her story.

The pacing is a bit slow as far as the action goes, its clear Moon is more interested in character development and starting the building of her world here than anything else. I was never precisely bored, but there are stretches that are less action packed than others. I also suspect that there might have been a larger book here that Moon decided to trim. Some subplots and ideas are mentioned and dropped in, but not fully explored. This may be a case of Chekov's Law, as applied to subsequent novels.

Speaking of subsequent novels, despite the relatively minor detractions, I definitely be looking to continue to read Ky's story in the subsequent novels in this series.

Coming to the SF Genre

Ecstatic Days on coming to the SF genres

As always, I have to give credit to my older brother, for inducting me into the secret society of SF readers. Martian Chronicles, I Robot, Heinlein, Zelazny, Vance...my brother taught me early and well. And I ate it all up and started seeking my own.

I do see Jeff's point. Since we lived in NYC, we had easy access to lots of written SF. If we had lived elsewhere, it would have been more difficult. By no means impossible. My friend Scott, who moved around a lot in the heartland, and did not like visual SF much, fell into the F/SF reader genre on his own thanks to the mercies of public libraries ranging from Georgia to Montana.

Disappointing endings to SF novels redux

You will recall my entry to John Ottinger's question "What is the worst/most disappointing end to a SF novel that I've read"?

John has collected a number of other responses to the question at Grasping for the Wind. Go and read it.

(Hint: One of the other interviewees ALSO picked Hamilton's the Night's Dawn Trilogy!)

Book Review 2009 #54: Roadside Geology of Minnesota

NB: Unemployment has *not* done wonders for my reading time.

Next up is the latest in the Roadside Geology series, in my adopted State no less.

Richard Ojakangas is a native Minnesotan whose life has been spent in learning about and teaching Minnesota's geological history. He taught at the U of M in Duluth for over 30 years, and is the author of Minnesota's Geology, which is probably the definitive geology book on the North Star State.

That book, however, is not quite meant for the casual reader (although its less imposing than many other books of the type). Minnesota has lacked a Roadside Geology style book for too long. After years without one, Ojakangas has finally written a book for the non-scientist, the latest in the Roadside Geology series, the Roadside Geology of Minnesota.

It's been worth the wait.

After an introduction to the geological history of Minnesota (as you might expect, the Pleistocene, with its glaciations, gets a lot of space) as well as some basic geology to get those who avoided the rock science in high school or college, the book divides into several sections based on Geography. (Northeastern, Northwestern/Central, Southwestern, Southeastern)In each section, Ojakangas gives a general overview of the Geology of that area followed by the meat of the book, Road Guides.

There are plenty of photographs, maps and diagrams to elucidate the text and keep travelers oriented as they visit the various highlighted sites. I learned about plenty of sites that were just off of my route in previous travels that I will definitely visit with book in tow. I had no idea, for instance, of a beautiful beach of rhyolite pebbles lies just 3 miles north of Gooseberry Falls. I'd never heard of Chimney Rock, a spire of sandstone a few miles off of US 61 on the way south from St. Paul. In addition, I have an appreciation for places and locales I have seen, now having a better geological context for them. The composition and nature of Barn Bluff in Red Wing, for instance. I had no idea there's a fault that has shifted the layers on one side of it!

Armchair amateur geologists who buy the Roadside series of volumes will not want to miss this latest volume.I most especially recommend this book, though, for any and all Minnesota travelers interested in the physical geology of the state to buy the book, read it, and then take it with you on your next road trip to, say, Gooseberry Falls, or Winona, or the Boundary Waters, or Pipestone. I certainly will!

What are the worst or most disappointing endings in science fiction/fantasy novels

John Ottinger asks:

What are the worst or most disappointing endings in science fiction/fantasy novels? Why?

I'm going to limit myself to just one...

My nomination, and it pains me to do it, because I like the novels so much otherwise, is Peter F Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy.

Big scale space opera, lots of cool technology, returned dead plaguing human space. Hamilton thinks big, writes big and loves the cast of thousands with viewpoint characters spread across a wide swath of locales and situations. Peter F Hamilton is a leading star of the "New Space Opera".

But the ending, Peter, the ending! The novels are let down badly by the denouement. The denouement of the trilogy is, unfortunately, a complete and literal deus ex machina. Joshua Calvert literally finds a lost God (a naked quantum singularity) to undo all of the damage (and change the nature of human space in the bargain). I felt cheated by this. After thousands of pages, the book ends like a bad medieval morality play.

I am very happy that subsequent novels from Hamilton have had much better endings, but this series just fails on that level. I wonder if Hamilton rewrote the novels today if he wouldn't be able to do it better. (He could hardly make it worse!)

Jo Walton on Kalvan

The indefatigable Jo Walton (herself an author of merit in her own right) has been blogging about favored novels on Tor.com (And really, you are missing out if you aren't subscribed to the feed).

Anyway, today, she talks about one of my favorites, Piper's Kalvan of Otherwhen. Pennsylvania Trooper Calvin Morrison gets accidentally shunted sidewise in time to another world where he really can be a hero thanks to his knowledge of gunpowder.

Walton makes excellent points about how a few things, culturally, don't work in modern sensibilities, but the rollicking story, narrative and characters (including a princess who is no wilting flower--I just love Rylla too) make the story a classic.

And its still in print on Amazon, so you don't even need to work that hard to find it.

The Complete Paratime (Ace Science Fiction)

Best Genre Endings

http://www.graspingforthewind.com/2009/11/02/inside-the-blogosphere-best-book-endings-in-the-genre/

The Indefatiguable John Ottinger over on Grasping for the wind has compiled some opinions on favorite best book endings in Fantasy and Science Fiction. Recent tsuris in my life did not allow me to participate in this round, but go ahead and read what other F&SF bloggers have to say. A warning though, this sort of thing is necessarily spoiler-driven.

Book Review 2009 #53: Finch

My next book is a return to the New Weird of Jeff Vandermeer

NB: I received an ARC of this book via the Amazon Vine Program

Jeff Vandermeer is the Hierophant of the the "New Weird", an avant-garde branch of modern fantasy that uses phantasmagorical imagery and horror in an often urban secondary fantasy world. China Mieville's Perdido Street Station may be the most commercially successful of this branch of fantasy, but Vandermeer has done more than any author (and editor) in forming the New Weird style of fantasy.

He started it in earnest with (deliberately confusing) two versions of City of Saints and Madmen, a collection of stories (and in the second iteration, stories and other miscellany) set in his secondary world of Ambergris. Next came Shriek, an Afterword, another book set in Ambergris, a more proper novel although with bizarre stylistic conventions.

And now there is Finch. Ambergris has changed from the time of Saints and Shriek. The Gray caps have risen, taking advantage of the civil war between two Houses to take the city for themselves, changing it in their fungal ways, and building some sort of secret project. Rebels scheme in and on the outskirts the ruined city. Ordinary people try to just survive an increasingly bizarre landscape. And just *what* are the Gray Caps going to do now??

Enter into this Finch. That's not his real name, and in a sense not his real identity, but that's the one he uses as a detective in employ of the Gray Caps and the Partials (the fungally transformed humans) who serve them. He claims he is not a detective, but it is what he does in this new order. What starts out as an investigation of a murder turns into a conspiracy and a tangled web of secrets and revelations that unwind not only Finch, but Ambergris itself.

While this is a more proper novel than many of his previous efforts (even more so than Shriek), the sensibilities and ideas explored in previous works are in full force here. Ambergris has fallen from its previous heights, a fuzzy, spore laden shell of its former self. The already weird Ambergris of previous novels is radically transformed in this novel. And as much as Finch, his fellow detectives, contacts, and lover, the city is a character.

Noir, horror, New Weird, phantasmagorical fantasy. Ambergris is one of the most vividly realized cities in modern fantasy. Its a place you wouldn't want to live, but its definitely a place that you will want to visit. While reading the previous volumes aren't strictly necessary, I think that a reader would be very much lost at sea if they haven't done so. But for those readers ready for a dose of the New Weird, laced with noir, and a detective mystery, Ambergris awaits you.It'll get under your skin, and transform you. In a good way. Promise.

Book Review 2009 #52: Unseen Academicals

My next book is another book-for-review deal, the latest Discworld book by the irrepressible Mr. Pratchett...

NB: I received a review copy of this book.

Football (Soccer to us Americans). Romeo and Juliet (with a dash of Cyrano de Bergerac). Secret pasts of characters. Cooking.

Such is the Matter of Unseen Academicals, the latest Discworld novel from Terry Pratchett. Centering on Unseen University, Pratchett takes us not only into the doings of the wizards there, but the "little people" who make the University work. We meet Glenda, head of the Night Kitchen and possibly one of the best cooks anywhere. We meet Trev Lively, son of the famous football player Dave Lively (who scored an unprecedented four goals in his career in the old and illegal version of football played on Discworld's streets). We meet Juliet, a fashion star waiting to be born from her humble beginnings in the kitchen. And we meet the mysterious Mr. Nutt, who is from Uberwald. He's a candle dribbler, but also amazingly educated for someone of his station. Oh, and he is a monster of unusual stripe...

How is it? Well, while I was entertained, UA is frankly, not as good as some of Pratchett's best novels. There are a few things here which are not as well integrated as other plotlines in the novel. Stuff that felt like they should be more important, or were going to be, but never quite came to fruition. I was expecting more out of them than we actually got. Its possible, due to my scattershot reading of Pratchett's work that there are some characterization issues that I am missing. Lord Vetinari feels different than he does in the novels I have read, for example.

On the other hand, a very good Pratchett as opposed to a first-rank Pratchett is still better than a lot of the dreck out there. And there are wonderful things in the novel that frankly made me laugh aloud while reading it. The footnote about the Explorer's Guild, for example. Or the offhand mentioned consequence of yet another strange addition to the Watch. The character growth of Ponder Stibbons, who is rapidly becoming a force within the University to rival Ridcully himself. Or the climatic game for that matter. (although there is an incident in the game involving how the Librarian is removed from goalkeeper that felt very wrong).

I have a large gap in unread Pratchett novels that was little handicap in reading this novel, and so I can unreservedly recommend this latest Discworld novel to readers of all levels of familiarity with Pratchett's work. Is it up to his highest standards? No. On the other hand, only very good Pratchett is still much better than much of the competition.

Books Read to Date 10/10/2009

Books Read this Year to Date (bolded books were ARCs or otherwise given in exchange for review)

51 Precious Dragon, Liz Williams
50 Three Unbroken, Chris Roberson
49 Things We Didn't See Coming, Steven Amsterdam
48 The Very Best of Fantasy&Science Fiction, Gordon Van Gelder
47 The Tuloriad, John Ringo and Tom Kratman
46 Age of Misrule: World's End, Mark Chadbourn
45 Tales of the Road, Cathy Wurzer
44 The Edge of the World, Kevin J Anderson
43 Sun of Suns, Karl Schroeder
42 Fledgling, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
41 The Compleat Traveller in Black, John Brunner
40 River of Gods, Ian McDonald
39 Two Hawks from Earth, Philip J Farmer
38 The Pluto Files, Neil DeGrasse Tyson
37 Academ's Fury, Jim Butcher
36 Songs of the Dying Earth, Martin and Dozois, Editors
35 Judas Unchained, Peter F Hamilton
34 The Tourmaline, Paul Park
33 Poison Study, Maria Snyder
32 Furies of Calderon (audiobook), Jim Butcher
31 Other Earths, Nick Gevers and Jay Lake
30 The Revolution Business, Charles Stross
29 The Affinity Bridge, George Mann
28 Yellowstone's Treasures, Janet Chapple
27 Warbreaker, Brandon Sanderson
26 Naamah's Kiss, Jacqueline Carey
25 Midwinter, Matthew Sturges
24 Children of Chaos, David Duncan
23 Infoquake, David Louis Edelman
22 Empire of Ivory, Naomi Novik
21 All the Windwracked Stars, Elizabeth Bear
20 City Without End, Kay Kenyon
19 Mortal Coils, Eric Nylund
18 Santa Olivia, Jacqueline Carey
17 What Happened to the Indians, Terence Shannon
16 Kitty Goes to Hell, Carrie Vaughn
15 Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand, Carrie Vaughn
14 Drood, Dan Simmons
13. Kitty and the Silver Bullet, Carrie Vaughn
12. Kitty Takes a Holiday, Carrie Vaughn
11. Kitty Goes to Washington, Carrie Vaughn
10. Kitty and the Midnight Hour, Carrie Vaughn
9. History Revisted the Great Battles, Mike Resnick
8. The Planiverse, AK Dewdney
7. The Accidental Time Machine, Joe Haldeman
6 Fables #1: Legends in Exile, Bill Willingham
5. The Domino Men, Jonathan Barnes
4. Chariot, Arthur Cotterell
3. The Story of Mathematics, Ian Stewart
2. Pushing Ice, Alistair Reynolds
1. Gladiatrix, Russell Whitfield

Book Review 2009 #51: Precious Dragon

Precious Dragon is third in the Inspector Chen series...

In this third volume in the Inspector Chen series, Liz Williams continues the stories of the strangest and most interesting police partner duo in fantasy or straight fiction--Inspector Chen and Seneschal Zhu Irzh. The one is a devotee of the goddess Kuan Yin working as a "Snake Agent" for the Singapore Three police force. His partner is a liaison from the Chinese Hells, and is, in fact, yes, a demon. Together they fight crime!

That may sound flippant, but by this third novel, Williams really starts making this pair work. Ostensibly, while the novel is about the titular character, who is a little boy who is far more than he appears, the novel positively sings and dances with delight when Chen and Zhu are back on screen. Be it Zhu's complicated relationship with his lover and his family, or Chen's attempts at trying to do the right thing in Earth AND in Hell, the buddy cop routine never fails to please.

I recently read a story by Williams in the Songs of the Dying Earth anthology and now, based on that, I can see that Vance is an inspiration for these characters, and some of the descriptive motifs and styles in these novels. The amazing "hell-bound train" is an image that has been indelibly burned into my memory.

Williams is also willing to avoid the reset button. Things have changed from the start of the first novel, and through the second, and the balance of things changes by the end of this one as well. Its an organic process of her world growing, developing and changing in a real way.

You shouldn't start here, of course. And the start of this novel is a little slow. But when the novel gets on all cylinders, Williams shows that she is an entertaining, engaging, and most talented fantasy novelist. I am looking forward, eagerly, for the next novel in her Inspector Chen series. After reading this, I am pretty sure you will, too.

Book Review 2009 #50: Three Unbroken

Next up, some good old fashioned AH SF set in Spaaace!

I mentioned in a review of The Dragon's Nine Sons that Roberson's marriage of AH science fiction with space opera in the off-planet stories of his Celestial Empire world is a tasty combination that pays dividends for the reason.

Set at about the same time as The Dragon's Nine Sons, Three Unbroken is another novel of the Chinese-Aztec war around Mars. While the Dragon's Nine Sons took its inspiration from "The Dirty Dozen", the inspiration for Three Unbroken is "Band of Brothers". In an afterword, Roberson confirms my suspicions that Ambrose's work was a major influence on this novel.

Three Unbroken tells the story of a trio of soldiers of the Chinese military forces: a female Indian bomber pilot, a Texan infantryman and a Manchu nobleman who becomes a commando. The novel follows their stories in the War against the Aztecs on Mars until the explosive (and given that this is based on WWII, very appropriate) finale.

The novel also takes physical and thematic inspiration from the I Ching. The novel is divided into 64 chapters, one for every line of the divination device. The ideas and concepts from the I Ching are reflected in the events of each chapter. While I am not an expert on the I Ching, I did see the parallels. Roberson does a good job of lining up the events to the I Ching lines without making it seem forced.

Overall, the novels show the development of the soldiers into masters of their arts. Sticking to the mostly low level viewpoint, instead of just the Grand Strategy, Roberson shows the individual soldier's point of view of war, and shows it well. We get some battle and action sequences for all three soldiers, too. Each of the soldiers is challenged, and learns that War is often a matter of not just grit and combat, but the Unexpected.

Once again, as I have said in other reviews of Roberson's work, while his work might not be as literary as some other SF writers, Roberson knows how to write entertaining and interesting science fiction. Roberson writes precisely the kind of SF that I want to spend my recreational time reading. Fans of his work will be quite satisfied with Three Unbroken and I think its a good (although The Dragon Nine Sons might be slightly better) way to get introduced to his Chinese Empire AH stories and novels.

Book Review 2009 #49: Things We Didn't See Coming

Another Review copy book, and this time a single author collection...

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher, Pantheon Books.

Steven Amsterdam is a native New Yorker working in Melbourne, Australia. Things we didn't see coming is this ex-pat's collection of linked short stories in an alternate history where things after Y2k went a little...wrong. A

The protagonist is never named either, and we follow him and the world for years after Y2k's troubles (and more troubles in the course of the stories) have led to a post-apocalyptic environment, with central authority alternatively inept and overly restrictive. The protagonist tries to make his way in a world far more mixed up than ours. Internal evidence suggests that about 25 years passes during the course of the stories.

Amsterdam's stories are a good example of mundane science fiction. The only real speculative element is the fact that this is an alternate history and future, where Y2k went far worse than in our world. Other than that, this fiction is purely literary in nature, style and tone.

I didn't quite find the style to my taste. It felt too minimalist, too narrow for my reading pleasure. Not enough speculation in the science fiction. From a dispassionate point of view, the stories are very well written and fit together well. Mundane SF fans as well as those who normally hate SF but want a small element of the speculative in their reading will highly enjoy Steven Amsterdam's collection.

Book Review 2009 #48: The Very Best of Fantasy&Science Fiction

I haven't read any short story anthologies in a while, and this is the first of two in a row...

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book through the kind offices of the Publicist of the publisher, Tachyon Publications.

The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction, edited by Gordon Van Gelder, is an anthology of stories across the eponymous magazine's 60 year history.

Although I am not a heavy reader of SF magazines (when I read SF stories, its usually in anthologies or collections), it is clear to me, immediately, that F&SF has had a wonderful history of publishing some of the best stories in SF history.

And a swath of those stories are ably collected by Mr. Van Gelder in this collection. The stories range in publication date from 1951 (Alfred Bester's Time and Third Avenue) to 2007 (Ted Chiang's story The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate).

Arranged in chronological order, the stories show the changes and evolution of the SF story with a high quality of selected stories throughout. Its not just a "most famous" story group either. While there are genre-famous stories like Flowers for Algernon, the Deathbird, and Harrison Bergeron, there are stories that are in that class, but much well less known. (Zelazny's This Moment of the Storm, for instance, or Peter Beagle's story sequel to the Last Unicorn, Two Hearts come to mind)

With that in mind, I devoured this book quickly and gleefully. I enjoyed the touchstones to the classics and old favorites, and discovering new (to me) stories as well. Gelder has done an top notch job.

Genres that forget their history are condemned to fail by that forgetting. Collections like this help the genre of SF keep in mind its roots and history. Any serious fan of science fiction would do well to dip their oars into this volume.

The lineup:

Of Time and Third Avenue, Alfred Bester
All Summer in a Day, Ray Bradbury
One Ordinary Day with Peanuts, Shirley Jackson
A touch of Strange, Theodore Sturgeon
Eastward, Ho!, William Tenn
Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes
Harrison Bergeron, Kurt Vonnegut
This Moment of the Storm, Roger Zelazny
The Electric Ant, Philip K Dick
The Deathbird, Harlan Ellison
The Women Men Don't See, James Tiptree Jr (Alice Sheldon)
I see You, Damon Knight
The Gunslinger, Stephen King
The Dark, Karen Joy Fowler
Buffalo, John Kessel
Solitude, Ursula K Le Guin
Mother Grasshopper, Michael Swanwick
macs, Terry Bisson
Creation, Jeffrey Ford
Other People, Neil Gaiman
Two Hearts, Peter S Beagle
Journey into the Kingdom, M Rickert
The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate, Ted Chiang

Book Review 2009 #47: The Tuloriad

My next book is an ARC and my first entry into the "Posleen" universe of John Ringo

Disclaimer: I received this book as an ARC from the Amazon Vine program.

The Tuloriad is an ancillary novel in the Legacy of Aldenata (Posleen) universe of Eric Flint. The Tuloriad was written in collaboration between Flint and Tom Kratman.

I only knew the basics of the Posleen universe and the premise before taking up this novel. In the Posleen series, alien races make first contact with man, in an effort to manipulate them as warriors against the galaxy-wide threat of the centauroid Posleen, an aggressive warrior species. The novels in the series, in its main lines and its side branches, explore the war between the Posleen and the humans, and other conflicts as well.

The Tuloriad is set after the Posleen have been evicted, with enormous damage, from their occupation of portions of the Earth.The novel follows two strands--a group of humans sent by the Pope to try and give the Posleen a human faith in order to try and civilize them, and a group of the Posleen fleeing after the disaster of the invasion of Earth.

While the military SF aspects of the book and some of the technological speculations and ideas are most interesting (high tech halberdiers for the win!), the rest of the novel is weak and underwritten. Although while I found the sentient embodied AI the most interesting single character, I didn't feel the human "mission" to the Posleen as interesting as the Posleen exodus thread. They were necessary to the finale, but otherwise could have been excised completely.

There was a good novel in here, or bits of one, but its hard to find.

The other problem with the novel is the afterword. Niven says that the technical term for someone who attributes the POV of a novel and its characters to its author is "idiot". However, the afterword makes it clear that the tone and themes of the novel is, indeed, a feature and not a bug.

There are novels and authors who manage to use their faith and religious beliefs in a positive and constructive way.

In this novel, and especially in its afterward, the authors instead use it like a bully club against anyone of divergent beliefs, Muslims and non-believers in particular. If I had read the afterword first, as I sometimes do, I would not have continued with the novel at all. Which is a shame because, despite the weaknesses I said above, there are a few things to find and enjoy in the novel and I would have missed them.

I find I have no desire to return to Ringo's Posleen universe, although I suspect devotees of the universe will enjoy this volume far more than I did.

Book Review 2009 #46: Age of Misrule: World's End

My next book is the first in a series that has come across the pond from Britain.

Mark Chadbourn, an author of 11 books, is a big deal over in Brtain. His books are now filtering over to America at last...

With Age of Misrule: World's End, Mark Chadbourn's oeuvre of Celtic gods and monsters returning, with catastrophic results, to the world, finally reaches U.S. Publication. Done in a handsome edition with great art by John Picacio, the book soon transports the reader into a world that starts off familiar.

Only at first.

We met a set of characters in-then contemporary Britain (the book was originally written in the 1990's). Jack, Ruth, Laura, Shavi, and Ryan slowly come together, under the mysterious guidance of Tom, as events slowly reveal that the old creatures and Gods of Celtic Mythology are not only real, but they are returning to the world to take their place in (mis)rule once again.

Technology starts to fail, and magic starts to rise again. But the return of magic and magical beings, and magical items is no good thing. And worse. the five characters have been signaled out by the forces of darkness for reasons the characters themselves do not at first understand.

Still, when a dragon firebombs a freeway in order to try and kill you, and the Wild Hunt comes after you to stop you from doing something that you yourself do not know, its time to, flaws and all, to try and be a hero. To try and make sense of a changing world, and better still, try and guide its change for the better.

The characters are three dimensional and none are cookie cutter protagonists or sad-sacks. Chadbourn's writing is both poignant in the stories of the character as well as describing vividly and engagingly the encounters and conflicts these characters face as they deal with the too-rapidly changing world.

Strong use and understanding of remixed mythology and Faerie (which reminded me, in a different vein, of Bear's Promethean Age novels). Excellent set pieces. Characters that grow, change and you learn to care about.

Forget derivative pablum fantasy. This is some of the good stuff. In Silverlock terms, its clear that Chadbourn has made a pilgrimage to Hippocrene and isn't afraid to write like it.

I've already bought the second book in the series. I think, after reading this one, you will too.

Book Review 2009 #45 : Tales of the Road

My next book is a travelogue by a MPR host.

Cathy Wurzer is well known to Minnesotans as a host of Minnesota Public Radio's Morning Edition, and is one of Minnesota's best journalists.

In this book, Tales of the Road, Highway 61, a companion to a PBS documentary of the same name (which I have not seen), Cathy Wurzer travels the quintessential highway in Minnesota, Highway 61.

Memorialized by Minnesota native Bob Dylan, Highway 61 stretches from the Canadian Border at Grand Portage and goes all the way to the Iowa border (although its re-signed as Interstate 35 for a good portion of its route). Wurzer takes us along this entire route, north to south, stopping at the famous locales, as well as the less heralded locations. Even more poignantly, like her visit to the tragic tale of rollingstone colony, only the site and a few ruins remain of one-interesting venues, attractions and historical sites.

This is where the power and strength of Wurzer's writing comes through best. Her stories about the famous Split Rock Lighthouse, Tobie's, and the Aerial Lift Bridge are strong writing, interesting and show good scholarship. Its her stories about the venues which are lost or are fading away, venues that, even though I have traveled much of Highway 61, I've never *heard* of, is where the strength of the book lies.

The next time this amateur photographer and transplant into Minnesota travels Highway 61, I will be taking this book along, so that I can find the sites and places, and stories that Wurzer has so ably brought to life.

Any Minnesotan, local or expat, would do well to have this book as part of their library.

Questions via Books Meme

From Andrew Wheeler

Using only books you have read this year (2009), cleverly answer these questions. Try not to repeat a book title.

Describe Yourself: The Compleat Traveller in Black

How do you feel: Pushing Ice

Describe where you currently live: Empire of Ivory

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: The Edge of the World

Your favorite form of transport: Mortal Coils

Your best friend is: Judas Unchained

You and your friends are: Children of Chaos

What's the weather like: Midwinter

Favourite time of day: Warbreaker

If your life was a: City without End

What is life to you: All the Windwracked Stars

Your fear: Academ's Fury

What is the best advice you have to give: Poison Study

Thought for the Day: Yellowstone's Treasures

How I would like to die: Naamah's Kiss

My soul's present condition: River of Gods
----------------

Book Review 2009 #44: The Edge of the World

My next book is Kevin J Anderson's first fantasy novel (as opposed to the numerous SF novels he has written).

Kevin J Anderson is well known in SF circles for his "Saga of Seven Suns" SF series, and more visibly, for his extensions of the Dune universe written by Frank Herbert's son Brian.

Here, in The Edge of the World, Kevin J Anderson tries something new--a fantasy novel. As it so happens this is the first novel of Anderson's I have read, and so I came into reading this novel unaware of first-hand knowledge of his writing styles and choices.

The Edge of the World is billed as the first of the "Terra Incognita" series, and is set in a very low magic (lower than even, say, George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones world) universe. The level of technology, aside from gunpowder, is pre-Renaissance, early Age of Exploration.

And therein hangs the hook for his story. Two squabbling nations divided by different interpretations of a common origin myth find themselves, by bad luck and coincidence, drawn into a protracted religious-political conflict. In the meantime, both nations strive to explore the world beyond the continent that houses both Tierra and Uraba. There is a third, smaller, religious group that lives in both lands and tries to get along in the midst of the war. Although I am sure Anderson did not intend it, I got a Guy Gavriel Kay vibe from the parallels between his three factions and the Kindath, Asharites, and Jaddites.

The book is divided into short chapters--over 110 in a 570 page volume. Plenty of POV characters in all three groups. Readers used to large casts and whiplash changes between POV characters will be familiar with the technique. Having weaned myself on Martin and Erikson, I didn't have a problem with the structure of the book. Too, many of the plot contrivances and coincidences seemed fine, if suitably tragic to continue to simmer and increase the conflict between the two nations. Characters show up and often die quickly, again, much like Martin and Erikson.

However, I felt a couple of the twists and turns in the tale seemed like needless cruelty and not important to the overall plot. I didn't see their point and it was somewhat offputting. Also, while Anderson mostly does a good job to show that both sides in the religious-political conflict are capable of atrocity and evil, the finger does seem a bit on the scales to one side, at least to my perception.

With those concerns aside, however, the Age of Exploration is an interesting time period in Earth's history, and Anderson captures it well in his fantasy universe. He's an accomplished writer, that comes across very well.

And aside from some of the plot concerns, I was more than well satisfied with character development, growth and change. Anderson paints on a pretty big blank map (a metaphor used in the book) and I do want to see how the map fills in, especially given the discoveries made by characters from both nations in the novel.

I am intrigued enough by the novel's strengths to want to continue to read the series, and perhaps eventually try his Saga of Seven Suns novels, too.

Book Review 2009 #43: Sun of Suns

My next book is a swashbuckling space opera in one of the most original BDOs (Big Damn Objects) in science fiction.

Imagine a balloon circling a distant star.

Imagine this balloon is thousands of miles in diameter.

Imagine that within this balloon there are societies clustered around fusion-powered miniature suns, all floating in the atmosphere within this balloon. Societies, polities, nations existing in low gravity who sail the skies on ships and bicycles of a mostly steampunk level of technology. A world of action, adventure, and swashbuckling goodness.

Welcome to Virga!

Sun of Suns introduces this audacious and awesome setting created by its author, Karl Schroeder (who I previously enjoyed his Lady of Mazes). Virga is sui generis as a setting, and Schroeder has carefully constructed his world to tell the kind of stories he wants. (There are good reasons why technology, aside from the fusion suns, technology is low, reasons that are revealed in the novel).

Clearly influenced by Dumas-like fiction, Sun of Suns is the first in a series of novels set in Virga. Sun of Suns tells the story of Hayden Griffin. His family was killed in an attempt to free his nation of Aerie from dominance by the nation of Slipstream, and he has sworn revenge and to continue his parents work to free Aerie. Events cause him, however, to join to an attempt by a small fleet from Slipstream to follow a map that may lead to a treasure beyond price that will give a decisive advantage over its own deadly rivals.Rivals that are no friends of Aerie, either...

Ships and bicycles that sail the skies. Nations and pirates. Sword duels and pistols. I am reminded of a lower tech milieu of the Disney movie Treasure Planet, except everything is contained within this balloon. We get hints of what the universe is like of this clearly artificial world, and are introduced to a character exiled from that outside world into Virga.

From Hayden Griffin's desire for revenge, to Admiral Fanning's quest for a decisive edge for Slipstream, to his wife,Venera Fanning, who has an obsession with a bullet wound from years ago, to the mysterious armorer from beyond Virga, Aubri McMallan, not only is the novel a rollicking adventure with flying ships, it also has larger-than-life characters appropriate to the setting.

My only complaint, perhaps is that Sun of Suns is a bit too short. Still, that only means that I will *definitely* be reading more of the three additional novels Schroeder has written in this amazing world.

If you are the type of fantasy and SF reader who enjoys Dumas-style action and adventure in addition to your SF fix, hoist sail and get thee a copy of Sun of Suns. You won't regret it.

Book Review 2009 #42: Fledgling

My next book is a book from the Amazon Vine Program...the latest Liaden novel.

For years, the team of Sharon Lee and Steve Miller have been turning out character-oriented science fiction in what is termed the "Liaden Universe", a future space opera universe where alien species and several factions of humanity jostle against each other. In such a universe, there is limitless room for characters and stories, and the writing team has been filling in that universe eagerly.

Fledgling is the latest effort in this vein and a bit different than some of their previous work. Fledgling takes the story of a character who shows up in I, Dare, Theo Waitley, and shows us her origins. While Delgado is not precisely an isolated world, its isolated from the culture of much of the rest of the galaxy by its restrictive, safety oriented society and local customs.

The reader is plunged into this world, and some parts of this work better than others. Some changes in language and diction felt too artificial to me, as if Miller and Lee wanted to use neologisms for common words, ideas and phrases in modern English. While the intent was to make this an alien world, some of them felt like they were using a new word for the sake of a new world.

Also, the character arcs of Theo's estranged parents does not work that well, either. While the revelation about the change in their relationship is written very well, what works less are other aspects of their personality. There are some flashbacks to their first meeting years ago, for example, but it doesn't feel as fully written as the main plot of the novel, and it seems to just end. I think I understand why they included it, but I think it might have been excised or truncated further without harming the novel. Also, in their individual arcs in the present time, Kamele and Kiladi don't come across quite as well as Theo does. They are not poorly drawn, just not as well developed.

What works better, especially once she leaves her world, is the character arc of Theo Waitley herself. The title, Fledgling, is telling. Theo starts off as a clumsy girl, and learns to spread her wings, in a more than metaphorical fashion. Especially once she leaves the stifling, stuffy world of Delgado, Theo's personality, skills and talents come into full flower. The latter portions of the novel that focus on her are the strongest parts of the entire book and make the previous portions of the novel worthwhile to read through to get to. This is the story that any and all Liaden fans will relish and enjoy.

I think the slowness and difficulties early in the novel are a bit offputting, but by the end of the novel, I was reasonably satisfied with the novel. Liaden fans will want to read this story to see Theo's backstory, of course. YA readers looking for a SF novel could do well here, too. I don't think that an adult reader of science fiction who wants an entry point into the Liaden novels are best served with this book, however.

Overall I recommend the book wholeheartedly to Liaden fans (who will not need my blessing to do so), and to a lesser degree to YA SF readers.

Neil Gaiman's Library

Neil Gaiman's Library

Now *this* is a personal library worthy and big enough to be in L-Space¹!

http://blog.shelfari.com/my_weblog/2009/09/neil.html#

¹Pratchett reference. Terry Pratchett, if anything, is not quoted often enough.

Book Review 2009 #41: The Compleat Traveller in Black

Let's turn away from politics and back into F/SF eh?

My next book is an oldie but a goodie: The Compleat Traveller in Black, by John Brunner.

Although I've read some of Brunner's SF, I had not heard of this book until I started playing the White Wolf RPG game Exalted. That book lists The Compleat Traveller in Black as an inspiration, and so, even though it is out of print, I was inspired to eventually find a copy of this book and read it.

It feels very much like some of Moorcock's Melnibonean work. The world is young, and still in many ways in the grip of the elder era of Chaos. The laws of science, logic and reason are still not in full evidence, with the laws of magic and chaos still trying to hold their ground.

Enter into this realm the Traveller in Black. The Compleat Traveller in Black collects a number of stories Brunner wrote about a mysterious figure who works for Order and reason. In Moorcock terms, he is a definite champion for Law. The traveler encounters forces of elemental chaos, and by actions both subtle and gross, by himself and through sometimes unwitting accomplices,works to impose reason on the world. He often does this by granting wishes. One to a customer, but the results are not often what the wisher expects. Sometimes, not even the Traveler himself is fully aware of the consequences of the wishes...

The stories have a unity of voice and vision even though they were written over a period of twenty years. The traveler is a character difficult to get to know, but we get an interesting portrait of him and the world he is helping fashion. We see through the stories how his actions shape the world around him, diminishing its magic, increasing its stability. And indeed, in the end, he creates a world that not only does not need him, but is positively opposed to his further existence.

I found this an interesting counterpoint to Vance's Dying Earth, set at the opposite end of time. I think the Dying Earth is a better realized milieu, overall, but certainly, many fantasy fans will enjoy this look at the morning of the world by Brunner.

Excessively cruel or sadistic author?

Okay. Is it just me, or is this needlessly cruel on the part of an author to their characters?

I will keep the names of the book, author and characters anonymous because I am still reading the book.

I've had problems with the novel thus far and what the author has done (despite some of the novel's strengths) but this made me wonder if I really like the novel or not.

What do you think:

King of a Kingdom, long a widower, sends for a bride from an outland province of his kingdom. She doesn't speak his dialect and is clearly going to be homesick. So, he decides to build a church in the style of this outland province to make her feel at home. As a sign of permanance, he decides to use iron nails rather than wooden dowels in the construction of the church and its furnishings.

The new wife is delighted, loves the place.

Five years later, while in the church, the wife is startled by her young son.She scratches her hand on one of those nails that hold the church together. She gets tetanus, sickens and dies.

You tell me: Excessively cruel, or just tragic?

SF/F Reviewers Linkup

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A

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a GREAT read
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things mean a lot
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Ubiquitous Absence
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

SF/F Reviewers Linkup Meme 2nd Ed.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

7 Foot Shelves
The Accidental Bard
A Boy Goes on a Journey
A Dribble Of Ink
Adventures in Reading
A Fantasy Reader
The Agony Column
A Hoyden's Look at Literature
A Journey of Books
All Booked Up
Alexia's Books and Such...
Andromeda Spaceways
The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.
Ask Daphne
ask nicola
Audiobook DJ
aurealisXpress
Australia Specfic In Focus
Author 2 Author
AzureScape

B

Barbara Martin
Babbling about Books
Bees (and Books) on the Knob
Best SF
Bewildering Stories
Bibliophile Stalker
Bibliosnark
Big Dumb Object
BillWardWriter.com
The Billion Light-Year Bookshelf
Bitten by Books
The Black Library Blog
Blog, Jvstin Style
Blood of the Muse
The Book Bind
Bookgeeks
Bookrastination
Booksies Blog
Bookslut
The Book Smugglers
Bookspotcentral
The Book Swede
Book View Cafe [Authors Group Blog]
Breeni Books

C

Cheaper Ironies [pro columnist]
Charlotte's Library
Circlet 2.0
Cheryl's Musings
Club Jade
Cranking Plot
Critical Mass
The Crotchety Old Fan

D

Daily Dose - Fantasy and Romance
Damien G. Walter
Danger Gal
It's Dark in the Dark
Dark Parables
Dark Wolf Fantasy Reviews
Darque Reviews
Dave Brendon's Fantasy and Sci-Fi Weblog
Dead Book Darling
Dear Author
The Deckled Edge
The Doctor is In...
Dragons, Heroes and Wizards
Drey's Library
The Discriminating Fangirl
Dusk Before the Dawn

E

Enter the Octopus
Erotic Horizon
Errant Dreams Reviews
Eve's Alexandria

F

Falcata Times
Fan News Denmark [in English]
Fantastic Reviews
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Fantasy Book Reviews and News
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Fantasy Magazine
Fantasy and Sci-fi Lovin' News and Reviews
Feminist SF - The Blog!
Feybound
Fiction is so Overrated
The Fix
The Foghorn Review
Follow that Raven
Forbidden Planet
Frances Writes
Free SF Reader
From a Sci-Fi Standpoint
From the Heart of Europe
Fruitless Recursion
Fundamentally Alien
The Future Fire

G

The Galaxy Express
Galleycat
Game Couch
The Gamer Rat
Garbled Signals
Genre Reviews
Genreville
Got Schephs
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Grasping for the Wind
a GREAT read
The Green Man Review
Gripping Books

H

Hasenpfeffer
Hero Complex
Highlander's Book Reviews
Horrorscope
The Hub Magazine
Hyperpat's Hyper Day

I

I Hope I Didn't Just Give Away The Ending
Ink and Keys
Ink and Paper
The Internet Review of Science Fiction
io9

J

Janicu's Book Blog
Jenn's Bookshelf
Jumpdrives and Cantrips

K

Kat Bryan's Corner
Keeping the Door
King of the Nerds

L

Lair of the Undead Rat
Largehearted Boy
Layers of Thought
League of Reluctant Adults
The Lensman's Children
Library Dad
Libri Touches
Literary Escapism
Literaturely Speaking
ludis inventio
Lundblog: Beautiful Letters

M

Mad Hatter's Bookshelf and Book Review
Mari's Midnight Garden
Mark Freeman's Journal
Mark Lord's Writing Blog
Marooned: Science Fiction Books on Mars
Martin's Booklog
MentatJack
Michele Lee's Book Love
Missions Unknown [Author and Artist Blog Devoted to SF/F/H in San Antonio]
The Mistress of Ancient Revelry
MIT Science Fiction Society
Monster Librarian
More Words, Deeper Hole
Mostly Harmless Books
Multi-Genre Fan
Musings from the Weirdside
My Favourite Books
My Overstuffed Bookshelf

N

Neth Space
The New Book Review
NextRead
Not Free SF Reader
Nuketown

O

OF Blog of the Fallen
The Old Bat's Belfry
ommadawn.dk
Only The Best SciFi/Fantasy
The Ostentatious Ogre
Outside of a Dog

P

Paranormality
Pat's Fantasy Hotlist
Patricia's Vampire Notes
The Persistence of Vision
Piaw's Blog
Pizza's Book Discussion
Poisoned Rationality
Popin's Lair
pornokitsch
Post-Weird Thoughts
Publisher's Weekly
Pussreboots: A Book Review a Day

Q

R

Ramblings of a Raconteur
Random Acts of Mediocrity
Ray Gun Revival
Realms of Speculative Fiction
Reading the Leaves
Review From Here
Reviewer X
Revolution SF
Rhiannon Hart
The Road Not Taken
Rob's Blog o' Stuff
Robots and Vamps

S

Sandstorm Reviews
Satisfying the Need to Read
Science Fiction and Fantasy Ethics
Science Fiction Times
ScifiChick
Sci-Fi Blog
SciFiGuy
Sci-Fi Fan Letter
The Sci-Fi Gene
Sci-Fi Songs [Musical Reviews]
SciFi Squad
Scifi UK Reviews
Sci Fi Wire
Self-Publishing Review
The Sequential Rat
Severian's Fantastic Worlds
SF Diplomat
SFFaudio
SFFMedia
SF Gospel
SFReader.com
SF Reviews.net
SF Revu
SF Safari
SFScope
SF Signal
SF Site
SFF World's Book Reviews
Silver Reviews
Simply Vamptastic
Slice of SciFi
Smart Bitches, Trashy Books
Solar Flare
Speculative Fiction
Speculative Fiction Junkie
Speculative Horizons
The Specusphere
Spinebreakers
Spiral Galaxy Reviews
Spontaneous Derivation
Sporadic Book Reviews
Stainless Steel Droppings
Starting Fresh
Stella Matutina
Stuff as Dreams are Made on...
The Sudden Curve
The Sword Review

T

Tangent Online
Tehani Wessely
Temple Library Reviews
Tez Says
things mean a lot
Tor.com [also a publisher]
True Science Fiction

U

Ubiquitous Absence
Un:Bound
undeadbydawn
Urban Fantasy Land

V

Vast and Cool and Unsympathetic
Variety SF
Veritas Omnia Vincula

W

Walker of Worlds
Wands and Worlds
Wanderings
Wendy Palmer: Reading and Writing Genre Books and ebooks
The Weirdside
The Wertzone
With Intent to Commit Horror
The Wizard of Duke Street
WJ Fantasy Reviews
The Word Nest
Wordsville
The World in a Satin Bag
WriteBlack
The Written World

X

Y

Young Adult Science Fiction

Z

Romanian

Cititor SF [with English Translation]

French

Elbakin.net
Mythologica

Chinese

Foundation of Krantas
The SF Commonwealth Office in Taiwan [with some English essays]
Yenchin's Lair

Danish

Interstellar
Ommadawn.dk
Scifisiden

Portuguese

Aguarras
Fernando Trevisan
Human 2.0
Life and Times of a Talkative Bookworm
Ponto De Convergencia
pós-estranho
Skavis

German

Fantasy Seiten
Fantasy Buch
Fantasy/SciFi Blog
Literaturschock
Welt der fantasy
Bibliotheka Phantastika
SF Basar
Phantastick News
X-zine
Buchwum
Phantastick Couch
Wetterspitze
Fantasy News
Fantasy Faszination
Fantasy Guide
Zwergen Reich
Fiction Fantasy

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Nasa List of Media on the ISS

A FOIA request has produced a list of the items that Nasa has stocked in terms of media available to the astronauts on the International Space Station:

http://www.governmentattic.org/docs/ISS_Media_2008.pdf

A fair amount of SF books along with the action movies are listed:

A Roll of the Dice, Catherine Asaro
The Apocalypse Troll, DAvid Weber
Barrayar, Lois Bujold

The Harry Potter movies
Star Wars
Star Gate SG_1, seasons 1-5

And more!

Go read the entire thing

Books Read to Date August 16,2009

Books Read this Year to Date (bolded books were ARCs or otherwise given in exchange for review)
40 River of Gods, Ian McDonald
39 Two Hawks from Earth, Philip J Farmer
38 The Pluto Files, Neil DeGrasse Tyson
37 Academ's Fury, Jim Butcher
36 Songs of the Dying Earth, Martin and Dozois, Editors

35 Judas Unchained, Peter F Hamilton
34 The Tourmaline, Paul Park
33 Poison Study, Maria Snyder
32 Furies of Calderon (audiobook), Jim Butcher
31 Other Earths, Nick Gevers and Jay Lake
30 The Revolution Business, Charles Stross
29 The Affinity Bridge, George Mann
28 Yellowstone's Treasures, Janet Chapple
27 Warbreaker, Brandon Sanderson
26 Naamah's Kiss, Jacqueline Carey
25 Midwinter, Matthew Sturges
24 Children of Chaos, David Duncan
23 Infoquake, David Louis Edelman
22 Empire of Ivory, Naomi Novik
21 All the Windwracked Stars, Elizabeth Bear
20 City Without End, Kay Kenyon
19 Mortal Coils, Eric Nylund
18 Santa Olivia, Jacqueline Carey
17 What Happened to the Indians, Terence Shannon
16 Kitty Goes to Hell, Carrie Vaughn
15 Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand, Carrie Vaughn
14 Drood, Dan Simmons
13. Kitty and the Silver Bullet, Carrie Vaughn
12. Kitty Takes a Holiday, Carrie Vaughn
11. Kitty Goes to Washington, Carrie Vaughn
10. Kitty and the Midnight Hour, Carrie Vaughn
9. History Revisted the Great Battles, Mike Resnick
8. The Planiverse, AK Dewdney
7. The Accidental Time Machine, Joe Haldeman
6 Fables #1: Legends in Exile, Bill Willingham
5. The Domino Men, Jonathan Barnes
4. Chariot, Arthur Cotterell
3. The Story of Mathematics, Ian Stewart
2. Pushing Ice, Alistair Reynolds
1. Gladiatrix, Russell Whitfield

Book Review 2009 #40: River of Gods

Next up is a novel of future India...

Nominated for the 2005 Hugo Award for best novel (losing to Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell), River of Gods is an ambitious look at 2047 India by Ian McDonald.

As India approaches its 100th birthday, it has balkanized into a number of semi independent nations. Technology runs high here, higher than in some parts of the world. Artificial Intelligences reach for above-human sentience even as "Krishna cops" try and prevent them from doing so. The lack of a monsoon for years has caused two of the nations to go to the brink of armed conflict. And in space, the Americans have discovered an asteroid is actually an alien artifact, seven billion years old, which inexplicably has a tie to several of the characters...

As I said, its an ambitious novel, with a large cast and a large canvas upon which McDonald draws. In an almost Bollywood like fashion, all of the plotlines and characters, disparate at first, eventually have their stories draw together.

McDonald pulls no punches and immerses the reader immediately in unfamiliar culture, terms, customs and societies. It takes a lot of work to keep up in this novel, but once the basics are down, the novel starts to sing. (This is definitely not a novel to give to a first time reader of science fiction). In point of fact, with its numerous characters at all sorts of social strata, its social commentary, and its vision of the future, the novel feels to me like McDonald's attempt to re-write Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar (but without the New Wave experimental narrative and textual techniques).

I don't think the novel quite lives up to its ambitions, and a few of the characters did not much appeal to me as much as the main plot did. However, the vision of India's future is wall-to-wall, engrossing and interesting. Throw in some snazzy technology, and even a bit of humor (I dare you not to laugh when you discover the fate of Bill Gates in this timeline)

Mcdonald has a collection of stories set in this world (Cyberdad Days) which, on the strength of this, and my enjoyment of it, I fully intend to buy and read.

Recommended.

Book Review 2009 #39: Two Hawks from Earth

A reprint of an old Philip J Farmer novel...

The scene is World War II. Native American Bomber Pilot Roger Two Hawks, off course on a mission to bomb the Ploesti oil fields in Rumania, has a mid air collision with a German plane over enemy territory. Along with Pat O'Brien, turret gunner, he is the only person to successfully manage to get a parachute open and descend to the countryside.

Hawks felt something odd just before the crash, however, and that oddness is reinforced when Hawks and O'Brien land. The people are all wrong, with technology distinctly primitive (~World War I era) by even backwater Rumanian standards. What's more, they speak a language that Hawks recognizes as a derivative of an Iroquois tongue.

Hawks, as a reader of science fiction and comic books has figured out what has happened. Somehow he and the gunner have wound up in a parallel history. One where the Siberian tribes that would have gone to America (only a chain of islands here), instead rolled west and vastly changed subsequent history. But events quickly sweep up Hawks along, as this world has a World War on a scale similar to his own going on...

Two Hawks from Earth is the story of Roger's quest to make his way through this world, and find a way to get back home. Along the way, his skills in this slightly technologically backward world are much in demand. And, of course, like any good adventure novel, there is always the love interest.

Some of the science (especially the ethnography) is outdated and flat out wrong. Given that, though, Two Hawks from Earth does what Farmer wrote very well--action and adventure, with a protagonist making his way in an unfamiliar world.

I read this book years ago in its bowdlerized and shortened edition (The Gate of Time) and I wondered if the re-read would hold up to my memories. I noticed the differences in the text, but the basic premise of the novel and the writing still held up for me.

I enjoyed it heavily. Fans of Farmer should not miss this reprint of a long-out-of-print novel, and fans of Alternate History novels will appreciate this as well. Its not a door stopper that people such as Turtledove put out, Farmer keeps the pace crackling and the novel and story never get dull.

Sometimes you can go back into your reading past and come away delighted again. I certainly was in this case.

2009 Book Review #38: The Pluto Files

My next book is a non fiction one from a "Villain" in the "Is Pluto a planet" debate.

Neil Degrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist with the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC. (he serves as director). He's a columnist for Natural History magazine, and already has a book of essays, Death by Black Hole, to his credit.

To lovers of the planet Pluto, however, he is a villain.

Although it took a NY Times columnist a year to bring the change to light, the new Rose Center for Earth and Space, under Tyson, kept Pluto out of the display of the main sequence of planets, putting it with the Kuiper belt objects instead. In effect, Pluto had been "demoted".

Once that article came out, however, the howls rose, and the IAU took up the question in full...

In The Pluto Files, Tyson tells the full story of Pluto, and his part in its rise and fall.

Tyson is not a self-aggrandizer, but he does have a central role in the drama and he fully documents his part in Pluto's story in the book. Along the way, he tells the story of Pluto's discovery, its debate among the IAU, and the ultimate designation given by the IAU. Plenty of digressions tie in the field of astronomy and astronomers, popular culture (including a certain Mouse's dog) and more.

I've previously read Tyson's work in Death by Black Hole, and he keeps that easy, accessible style for his work here. He may not have the skill of the late Stephen Jay Gould or Carl Sagan just yet, but those who only have a little science education should not be intimidated or put off by the subject.

I, myself, learned a lot of what happened "behind the scenes" in the debate on Pluto, and found the book educational as well as a pleasure to read. The book is relatively short for the price, which is about the only major thing I can say against the book.

Recommended.

2009 Hugo Winners

Special congratulations to Elizabeth Bear, who won best novelette for "Shoggoths in Bloom"! That's number two, my friend!

The rest of the winners:
The Winners of the 2009 Hugo Award have just been announced via The Hugo Awards Twitter feed:

* BEST NOVEL: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury)

* BEST NOVELLA: "The Erdmann Nexus" by Nancy Kress (Asimov's Oct/Nov 2008)

* BEST NOVELETTE: "Shoggoths in Bloom" by Elizabeth Bear (Asimov's Mar 2008)

* BEST SHORT STORY: "Exhalation" by Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two, also: audio version)

* BEST RELATED BOOK: Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded: A Decade of Whatever, 1998-2008 by John Scalzi (Subterranean Press)

* BEST GRAPHIC STORY: Girl Genius, Volume 8: "Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones" Written by Kaja & Phil Foglio, art by Phil Foglio, colors by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)

Book Review 2009 #37: Academ's Fury

This review is based on listening to about 3/5 of the book on the trip to Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks I took in June, and the remaining 2/5 that I read.

Academ's Fury is the second novel in the Codex Alera sequence by Jim Butcher. Although he is far more well known for the Dresden Files novels, here in the second book of the Codex Alera series, he starts to really show he can do epic fantasy too.

The novel takes place some time after the events of the first novel. Tavi, as promised in the conclusion of the first novel, is now a student at the Academy in the capital city, and serves Gaius Sextus, the ruler of Alera, as a page.

The political threats that ring Gaius threaten to draw Tavi in, especially given his relocation to the heart of the Empire. And then there is a mysterious rising of strange creatures in the north that threaten his uncle Bernard and his lover, the cursor Amara, and the Marat as well. And then there are the savage Canim, who through their Embassy are clearly up to something...

As ably as he showed the pastoral Calderon Valley, in this novel, the partial change of venue (although there are plenty of scenes in this novel too) to the city shows good worldbuilding, and a whole host of new characters, intrigues and venues.

The old characters grow and develop, too. Tavi, Kitai, Amara, Bernard and even Gaius are not set in stone, but grow and change. Come for the world building, stay for the characters and their personal stories.

The appetite that was whetted by listening to the first novel has only been fueled by this one. Readers of the first novel will definitely want to read this one. And, probably like me, will want to read the third one in short order.

Book Review 2009 #36: Songs of the Dying Earth

Long awaited by many people besides me is this tribute anthology to the Dying Earth stories of Jack Vance.

Edited by George R.R. Martin (who contributes a story as well) and Gardner Dozois, this anthology is another journey to the Dying Earth world created by Jack Vance.

Vance himself provides an introduction, and Dean Koontz provides an appreciation. But the heart and meat of the anthology are the stories.

Many of the authors do a remarkable job in capturing the essence of the Dying Earth. The language, the picaresque characters, the strange rambling adventures. Some of the stories feature characters from Vance's stories as main protagonists, others rely on those characters as plot devices, or even just as background color.

So how did they do?

Given the truism that anthologies can vary in the quality and interest stories and authors bring, I thought the quality of the stories was uniformly high. I was gratified that my high expectations were met by the authors and their stories. And the range of subjects and stories is high. Therein you will find more doings of Cugel (contradictory stories, if you wanted to try and take all of these stories as canonical), an architect who uses his skills to defend a castle, magicians large and small scrambling for power as the sun dies, and more, much more.

Dan Simmons has the only novella, the centerpiece of this anthology, The Guiding Nose of Ulfant Banderoz. It's one of the stronger stories in the volume. Like his digestion of Keats in the Hyperion novels, and the Iliad in Ilium, Simmons shows that he truly digests and does a good Dying Earth.

Besides his story, I particularly liked Wright's Guyal the Creator (continuing the character's story from the Vance story), Matthew Hughes' Grolion of Almery. (Hughes' own novels show his prior affection for homage to Vance), Paula Volsky's The Traditions of Karzh (showing how a would be wizard really gets his power) and Walter Jon William's Abrizonde (the aforementioned story about a hero architect).

But, really, few of the stories are poor, although I do wonder why Neil Gaiman felt the need to tie in the real world with the Dying Earth in his tale. I found that a bit atonal, even if its a decent story.

In any event, fans of the Dying Earth should not miss this anthology, especially given the list of authors and the love and care they have given the world of Messr. Vance.

The full list of stories:
The True Vintage of Erzuine Thale --Robert Silverberg
Grolion of Almery --Matthew Hughes
The Copsy Door --Terry Dowling
Caulk the Witch Doctor --Liz Williams
Inescapable --Mike Resnick
Abrizonde --Walter Jon Williams
The Traditions of Karzh --Paula Volsky
The Final Quest of the Wizard Sarnod --Jeff Vandermeer
The Green Bird --Kage Baker
The Last Golden Thread --Phyllis Eisenstein
An Incident in Uskvesk --Elizabeth Moon
Sylgarmo's Proclamation --Lucius Shepard
The Lamentably Comical Tragedy (or The Laughably Tragic Comedy) of Lixal Laqavee --Tad Williams
Guyal the Curator --John C Wright
The Good Magician --Glen Cook
The Return of the Fire Witch --Elizabeth Hand
The Collegeum of Mauge --Byron Tetrick
Evillo the Uncunning --Tanith Lee
The Guiding Nose of Ulfant Banderoz --Dan Simmons
Frogskin Cap --Howard Waldrop
A Night at the Tarn House --George R R Martin
An Invocation of Curiosity --Neil Gaiman

Prospero Lost Release Day

Today, my friend (and wife of author John C Wright) L Jagi Lamplighter () has the release of her debut fantasy novel, Prospero Lost. (And my copy from Amazon is on its way...)

I had the privilege and honor and reading joy of reading an ARC of the book back in December. Here is a republishing of that review to encourage you to try the book:

Shakespeare is a very common subject for fantasy. The fact that he has some fantasy within his own plays has proven inspirational to other authors using him and his works as inspiration for their own stories. I've read and am aware of a number of these. Sarah Hoyt's trilogy involving Shakespeare's interactions with Faerie. Elizabeth Willey's trio of novels had a Prospero as a sorcerer and estranged part of a world-spanning family, creating a land instead of exile on an island. My friend Elizabeth Bear has mined this territory in the back half of her Promethean Age novels (although she is as much a fan of Kit Marlowe as Shakespeare).

Into this field has waded L. Jagi Lamplighter. Her husband is John C. Wright, whose own style and tastes range from the Golden Age trilogy, through the Orphans of Chaos trilogy, to, of all things, a sequel to a Van Vogt novel. It would be a mistake to think, though, that Lamplighter's style and sensibilities are a clone of her husband.

No, what she has created in Prospero's Lost is quite different. Modern Day, Our Earth Fantasy is very common these days, but it seems that every other book in the F/SF section is a Vampire novel, one way or another. Fantasy is in ascendancy over Science Fiction, and Vampires are leading over other types of fantasy.

Thankfully for me, Prospero's Lost is a fantasy of a different type. It might be helpfully be classified as a Secret Arcane History. In Lamplighter's universe, there is a hierarchy of arcane beings with the detail and complexity of a Gnostic universe. The novel's heroine, Miranda, tangles and meets with demons, elves, elementals, magicians, and even Santa Claus (a depiction that reminded this reader of the Narnian version as much as traditional depictions). There are references to unicorns, angels, and other beings between Man and God. The universe is a Christian universe and Protestant-Catholic theology comes into the plot, however, Lamplighter effectively populates the spaces between Demons, Man, Angels and God. Most people in this world have no idea of these beings, of course. In that sense, I wonder if Lamplighter has read the RPG Nobilis for some inspiration on the complex mythology.

The story is the growth and development of Miranda.Devoted daughter of her father, Prospero, ageless and virginal, the disappearance of her father spurs her out, in true Hero fashion, from the comfort of her home to find her diasporatic siblings, in a quest to find (and save) her father. Along the way, in a fashion that reminded me a bit of Pratt and De Camp, we have an elemental modeled along the lines of a noir detective, a modern day Circe, an aging demon hunter, hell hounds, narrow escapes, adventures and Christmas Dinner at the House of Santa Claus. Flashbacks, that help establish the characters and their motivations. And the Three Shadowed Ones and the mystery of just what happened to the patriarch of the clan.

Okay, I've gotten this far without invoking Mr. Zelazny but I will now. Lamplighter is a fan of Zelazny (she cut her teeth on the ADRPG) and although these are new characters, on a Secret History Earth, the influence of Zelazny on this novel is similar to, say, the aforementioned Elizabeth Willey novels. The author clearly has read and loved Roger's work (like her husband does) and it has flavored this work (again, like John's Orphans of Chaos). It was a conscious effort on my part to decide that the Circe-like sister to Miranda "is definitely not Fiona after all". So don't come to this book looking explicitly for Jack of Shadows or Corwin analogues, but people who devour Zelazny's oeuvre will definitely appreciate Lamplighter's sensibilities and writing.

It's a first novel, so I expect the first-novel writing (which might also be a consequence of reading an ARC) to improve in subsequent novels. This book was a fitting and highly pleasurable way to end the year.

Watch for it.

Books Read to Date July 28,2009

Books Read this Year to Date (bolded books were ARCs or otherwise given in exchange for review)

35 Judas Unchained, Peter F Hamilton
34 The Tourmaline, Paul Park
33 Poison Study, Maria Snyder
32 Furies of Calderon (audiobook), Jim Butcher
31 Other Earths, Nick Gevers and Jay Lake
30 The Revolution Business, Charles Stross
29 The Affinity Bridge, George Mann
28 Yellowstone's Treasures, Janet Chapple
27 Warbreaker, Brandon Sanderson
26 Naamah's Kiss, Jacqueline Carey
25 Midwinter, Matthew Sturges
24 Children of Chaos, David Duncan
23 Infoquake, David Louis Edelman
22 Empire of Ivory, Naomi Novik
21 All the Windwracked Stars, Elizabeth Bear
20 City Without End, Kay Kenyon
19 Mortal Coils, Eric Nylund
18 Santa Olivia, Jacqueline Carey
17 What Happened to the Indians, Terence Shannon
16 Kitty Goes to Hell, Carrie Vaughn
15 Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand, Carrie Vaughn
14 Drood, Dan Simmons
13. Kitty and the Silver Bullet, Carrie Vaughn
12. Kitty Takes a Holiday, Carrie Vaughn
11. Kitty Goes to Washington, Carrie Vaughn
10. Kitty and the Midnight Hour, Carrie Vaughn
9. History Revisted the Great Battles, Mike Resnick
8. The Planiverse, AK Dewdney
7. The Accidental Time Machine, Joe Haldeman
6 Fables #1: Legends in Exile, Bill Willingham
5. The Domino Men, Jonathan Barnes
4. Chariot, Arthur Cotterell
3. The Story of Mathematics, Ian Stewart
2. Pushing Ice, Alistair Reynolds
1. Gladiatrix, Russell Whitfield

Book Review 2009 #35: Judas Unchained

Judas Unchained is the second of the Pandora's Star duology, by Peter F Hamilton.

In this second volume of the Pandora's Star duology, Hamilton really comes of age as a writer.

Don't get me wrong. Judas Unchained is in many respects the typical future space opera that Hamilton is known for. JU is set as a sequel to Pandora's Star, in a universe where wormhole technology and rejuvenation have led to a world where a commonwealth of planets are connected by trains and wormholes. And where an accidental release of an xenophobic alien species threatens to bring down the Commonwealth for good.

Beyond that, though, Hamilton shows an improvement and maturity on his writing from his previous efforts. Some of Hamilton's previous series and novels have suffered from a bit of a deux ex machina ending, as if he was unable to come up with answers within context to the major tsunami of tsuris sent his characters and worlds.

In JU, without giving too much away, the explicit chance that the readers might expect for that Deux ex machine ending actually turns out to be a red herring. The problems are resolved by humans and in a satisfactory manner.

The characters continue to develop and grow from the first novel, and finding out the ultimate fates of Paula Myo, Mellanie Rescorai, Ozzie, Captain Kime, and the galaxy of characters is a major driver. The novel crackles of energy.

I wouldn't start here, starting with Pandora's Star is a much better option. And once you devour that volume and come to this one, I promise you will be most satisfied, as I was.

Book Review 2009 #34: The Tourmaline

The Tourmaline is the second in the Roumania novels by Paul Park.

Not all alternate history is of the classic mold. You know the drill. Lee wins at Gettysburg, and the world is different because of it. Varus' legions aren't slaughtered by the Germanic tribes, and Rome continues on and on. The Spanish armada conquers England, and Shakespeare turns out to be a hero to the oppressed English.

The Roumania novels are definitely different. The first novel, a Princess of Roumania, started ordinarily enough, with Andromeda, Peter and Miranda slowly discovering that their modern day New England world was in fact, an illusion, an artiface. The real world is very different, where Roumania is a major power with magic at its command, and a vicious conflict between Germany and Roumania only part of the complicated politics.

The second novel takes up from the first and continues the stories of Miranda, Andromeda and Peter as they start to learn their real identities, and their destinies, in Roumania. Throw in one of the most complex and multi-sided antagonists I've read in fantasy, the Baroness Ceaucescu, a slow reveal of more of what this alternate "real" world is like, and mix well.

It's certainly not everyone's cup of tea. Its been a while since I read the first novel, and like when I read the first novel, it took me a while to get used to Park's dream-like style and characterizations. You really have to pay attention to the prose, and go with it, and even then, things aren't always crystal clear. And I am pretty sure its a feature, not a bug.

I certainly would never start the series with this book. But those who liked the first novel should and will likely enjoy the second.

Shorter Adam Roberts on the Hugos

Shorter Adam Roberts on the Hugos

Shorter Adam Roberts:

Dear Hugo voters and nominators:
Your taste sucks
No love,
Adam

It seems he is not a fan of the Star Trek movie reboot, either..

NY Times on Jack Vance

Maybe a little too late in his career, for my taste, but the NY Times has a recent article on Jack Vance. They do key on Songs of the Dying Earth, the tribute anthology that has been just released, and that I have been gushing about. The author of the article relies heavily on Chabon to help decipher the singular mr. Vance.

Some bits from the article:

Michael Chabon, whose distinguished literary reputation allows him to employ popular formulas without being labeled a genre writer, told me: "Jack Vance is the most painful case of all the writers I love who I feel don't get the credit they deserve. If 'The Last Castle' or 'The Dragon Masters' had the name Italo Calvino on it, or just a foreign name, it would be received as a profound meditation, but because he's Jack Vance and published in Amazing Whatever, there's this insurmountable barrier."

Right about now you might be thinking, Well, if Vance is as good as Simmons and Chabon and Rhoads say he is, and if he refused to give in to the demands of the genres in which he worked, then maybe he would have done better to try other forms that better rewarded his strengths -- isn't it a shame that he confined himself to adolescent genres in which his grown-up talents could not truly shine? But I think that question would be wrong in its assumptions: wrong about Vance, about genre and about what "adolescent" and "grown-up" mean when we talk about literary sensibility.

Chabon contrasted Vance with Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, British dons who shared a grandiose "impulse to synthesize a mythology for a culture. There's none of that in Vance. The engineer in him is always on view. They're always adventure stories, too, but they're also problem-solving puzzles. He sets up these what-ifs, like a syllogism. He has that logic-love like Poe, the Yankee engineering spirit, married to erudite love of pomp and pageantry. And he has an amazing ear and writes a beautiful sentence."

It's a pity Chabon didn't contribute to Songs, since its clear that he understands and loves Vance's work. He gets it.

Charles N Brown, RIP

As you have seen many places elsewhere if you are reading this here, Charles Brown, founder and editor of Locus, has died on his way back from Readercon.

I am not a F/SF writer and I am ambivalent on the best of days if I have the stones to be one. I came to Locus, first, because of its indispensable use to me as a fan, especially back in the 80's and 90's.

Locus, which I first started to read by buying copies at the Forbidden Planet in Manhattan, told me what books were coming, what authors were selling, what books were popular, what books were worth my time, and what books were winning awards. In the days before the Internets took off, that information was golden.

Nowadays, Locus is not as indispensible and solitary in conveying that sort of information, but I still find it useful, so much so that I fill out my Locus survey every year, and I've had a subscription for more than 10 years.

Rest in peace, Mr. Brown.

Songs of the Dying Earth Table of Contents

Now that I have the copy in my hands, I can report on the table of contents. I haven't seen anyone else do it yet, so I get to be first!

Songs of the Dying Earth TOC:

Thank You, Mr Vance --Dean Koontz
Preface --Jack Vance

The True Vintage of Erzuine Thale --Robert Silverberg
Grolion of Almery --Matthew Hughes
The Copsy Door --Terry Dowling
Caulk the Witch Doctor --Liz Williams
Inescapable --Mike Resnick
Abrizonde --Walter Jon Williams
The Traditions of Karzh --Paula Volsky
The Final Quest of the Wizard Sarnod --Jeff Vandermeer
The Green Bird --Kage Baker
The Last Golden Thread --Phyllis Eisenstein
An Incident in Uskvesk --Elizabeth Moon
Sylgarmo's Proclamation --Lucius Shepard
The Lamentably Comical Tragedy (or The Laughably Tragic Comedy) of Lixal Laqavee --Tad Williams
Guyal the Curator --John C Wright
The Good Magician --Glen Cook
The Return of the Fire Witch --Elizabeth Hand
The Collegeum of Mauge --Byron Tetrick
Evillo the Uncunning --Tanith Lee
The Guiding Nose of Ulfant Banderoz --Dan Simmons
Frogskin Cap --Howard Waldrop
A Night at the Tarn House --George R R Martin
An Invocation of Curiosity --Neil Gaiman

Songs of the Dying Earth

My copy of Songs of the Dying Earth, the Jack Vance Dying Earth Tribute Anthology, has arrived!

Book Review 2009 #33: Poison Study

Poison Study is the first in a series of fantasy novels by Maria Snyder.

About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace--and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.

Yelena, you see, has been chosen to be the Commander's new food taster. And the Commander has so very many enemies. As does Yelena...

Poison Study is the first in a trio of novels by Maria Snyder, telling the story of Yelena. Set in a fantasy kingdom which has recently been taken over in a puritanical military dictatorship which reminded me of Cromwell's England. Yelena's crime, the murder of one of the sons of the military officers, is not easily forgiven by the grieving father. In addition, that father has plans of his own for the future of Ixia. And what of the strange abilities that Yelena is slowly starting to manifest?

Poison Study is definitely a character driven book, focusing on the motivations, character, and growth of Yelena. As such, Snyder creates a complex, three dimensional protagonists with strengths, flaws, hopes and dreams that grows and changes throughout the novel. There are hints of some interesting world building going on here, too.

Its a solid, good novel, and I look forward to reading the remainder of the series.

Book Review 2009 #32: Furies of Calderon

Furies of Calderon is the first book in Jim Butcher's Codex Alera Series. I listened to this as an unabridged audiobook on my trip to Yellowstone and points beyond.

Jim Butcher is not only known for his Dresden Files novels. He also has a burgeoning series of novels set in a fantasy world with Romanesque overtones, where nearly everyone in the Empire has a bond with one or more elemental spirits called furies.

However, one young man, named Tavi, living in Calderon valley, is one of the few people in the Empire, perhaps the only one, who has no fury of his own.

And therein hangs a tale.

Tavi, and the Calderon valley he lives in becomes the focal point of struggles within and without of the Empire, as those who struggle to unseat the Emperor are willing to bargain with the Empire's enemies for a chance to make the Emperor seem unable to control his domain.

Our viewpoint characters are the aformentioned Tavi, sheepherder in the Valley, and Amara, a spy in the service of the Emperor. As their points of view converge, split and merge again, the book develops into a heady brew of intrigue, world building, action scenes, and an intriguing magic system in the nature of the furies.

My traveling companions and I entirely and wholehearted enjoyed the book, which sports good production values with the voices and narration. I will definitely be looking to reading or listening to further volumes in the series.

Lovers of Epic Fantasy will definitely like Butcher's take on the genre. Fans of Butcher's Dresden files novels will find this different in the sense of thematic matter, but will find his skills at characterization and world building honed in those novels well employed here.

Book Review 2009 #31: Other Earths

Other Earths is an anthology of alternate history stories, edited by Nick Gevers and Jay Lake.

Alternate history is one of my favorite subgenres in Science Fiction, and it is a subgenre that lends itself as well to the short story as to the novel. The sting in the tail in realizing just where the divergence lies in a story's world and how it lies changed with our own often works better in a short story than the expanse of a novel. An AH novel explores an alternate history at length; a story is about the sting in the tail.

So I read Other Earths, a collection of new AH stories, with eagerness. Edited by Jay Lake and Nick Gevers, Other Earths includes stories by authors well versed in the genre, including Stephen Baxter, Paul Park and Robert Charles Wilson.

Like all anthologies, though, anthologies can all too often be very uneven in their quality. The very variety of the authors presented here means, necessarily, stories with wildly divergent styles, aims, and themes. Paul Park's story, "A Family History", has an almost dream like quality to it that is very alike to his Roumania novels. It is very different than the rigorous "The Unblinking Eye" by Baxter, which is really a puzzle story wrapped in the trappings of an alternate history. Liz William's "Winterborn" adds an element of fantasy to the alternate history.

And so all of the stories range in this way. What this meant for me, though, and likely will mean for you is that while you will undoubtedly find stories here you will like, its just as certain there are stories in this set of 11 stories that you will dislike, perhaps intensely.

It is a good line up of authors in the book, however, and if you are at all interested in Alternate history, I do recommend the book to you.

Book Review 2009 #30: The Revolution Business

The Revolution Business is the fifth book in the Merchant Series books by Charles Stross.

The Merchant Prince series, about Miriam Beckstein, is the series that got me into the works of Charles Stross.

The Revolution Business is the fifth in this series. It follows off of the explosive ending to the fourth novel, where the machinations of several parties, ranging from the Clan to the U.S. Government, to the political enemies of the Clan in the Gruinmarkt, all fall against each other, inadvertently messing up each other.

Even more important is Miriam, our central character. In the novel, she quickly finds herself thrust into politics of the Family in a way that she could not imagine even in previous novels. Her previous efforts are nothing compared to the cut and thrust of politics now, in the wake of the deadly politics in the Gruinmarkt. And then there is the technological breakthrough of the US Government in terms of worldwalking, and the Clan's very personal approach to their feud with the US Government...

About the only fault I have in the novel is that we don't get enough of the third world, the New Britain world. It suffers a bit in comparison to events in our world and the Gruinmarkt. With that aside, though, this novel continues to build on the previous four novels of the series. Stross has managed this series, its worlds and assumptions, with enviable and undeniable skill. His skill in developing believable and complex characters, having them grow and change (and in some instances, kill them off) is admirable.

There is one more novel planned in the sequence, and Stross ends this book with an explosive cliffhanger that will make you want to read the sixth book all the more. I know that I certainly do!

Book Review 2009 #29: The Affinity Bridge

I received a copy of an ARC of George Mann's Steampunk novel The Affinity Bridge, as part of the Amazon Vine program.

The year is 1901.

A strange zombie plague threatens the low class areas of London. Zeppelins fill the skies, piloted by mechanical men. Queen Victoria, with medical help, is still on the British Throne. A mysterious, glowing policeman has been strangling people.

Welcome to the world of George Mann's The Affinity Bridge.

In this Victorian AH Steampunk world, meet Sir Maurice Newbury and his assistant Miss Veronica Hobbes. Agents of the Crown, its their job to deal with enemies and threats to England.

And do it proper British style, of course.

Its clear that there are dark things afoot. A mysterious zeppelin crash impels our two agents into a world of conspiracy, adventure, intrigue and even a bit of the New Weird. The book is not as aggressively set in that genre as other novels I have read as of late; The Affinity Bridge is much more a pure AH "steampunk novel"--with some twists.

The novel starts slowly as we start to get to know the characters. It's clear Newbury and Hobbes are relatively new to each other, as they are to us. However, the writing and characterization improve as we get to know Newbury, Hobbes, and the characters around them.

When it does hit on all cylinders, the novel feels a lot like those old Victorian novels, with all of the plots tying together in a neat fashion (perhaps too neat), hair-breadth escapes, and even a couple of pitched battles, and always time for British sensibility. The characters are neither cardboard nor two dimensional--both have flaws and aspects of their characters that they keep under wraps.

The tagline to this book is "A Newbury and Hobbes novel" which sounds to me that a sequel might be in the offing. Now that the characters and world are firmly established by the end of the Affinity Bridge, I'd read it.

Book Review 2009 #28: Yellowstone's Treasures

Yellowstone Treasures is a guidebook to Yellowstone National Park, written by Janet Chapple

In its third edition, Yellowstone Treasures is a comprehensive guide to Yellowstone National Park, written by Janet Chapple. Janet's father worked in Old Faithful Inn for four summers, giving his daughter a lifelong love of the park.

That love has translated into this guidebook.

I purchased the book in anticipation of a trip to Yellowstone, and on our recent trip to the west, my friends and I quickly discovered this book was illuminating, enlightening, and above all, essential to our travels.

My friend's daughter needed a bathroom, and quickly? Janet's system of describing everything along the roads of the park, down to mileposts, allowed me to easily tell them exactly where we were, and exactly how far it was to the nearest toilet. What's the name of that mountain? A quick look at the mileposts, drawing and maps almost always told us the answer.

In addition to the comprehensive and painstaking detail on the sights at each mile of the road, Janet provides opinions on the best things to see, cross references things by subjects, and provides a lot of the background on the park in asides in the book.

I found myself, as we were traveling along, reading aloud on subjects that Janet mentions. Where did the Firehole River get its name? Just who was Norris that Norris Geyser Basin is named for? Which of the sights in Mammoth are worth stopping to take a look at?

I had purchased an additional guide to Yellowstone, but everything my traveling companions and I could want to know or need to know about the area within Yellowstone was within the nearly 400 pages of this book. The next time my friends and I go back to the park, we certainly will be making use of Ms. Chapple's work.

If you are planning to visit Yellowstone National Park, I strongly advise you to get a copy of this book beforehand yourself and keep it on hand as you traverse the park. You will be extremely glad that you did.

This is the way to write a travel book on a National Park.

Highly Recommended.

Shared Worlds

Spreading across a couple of blogs and sites, and definitely worth checking out is Shared Worlds.

What real life places inspire fantasy and science fiction. Between the main Shared Worlds site which asks this of 5 authors (Elizabeth Hand, Nalo Hopkinson, Ursula Le Guin, China Miéville, and Michael Moorcock) and the SF Signal version which asks a bunch more writers ranging from Alan Dean Foster to James Enge, this is a nice knot of interesting stuff to look at.

So what about me? What do I think?

Well, not to choose any of the answers that the real published authors have already picked, the city I think of when I think of the genre is New York City.

Not just because its my hometown, of course, but, well, Television Tropes puts it best in their entry Big Applesauce.

Are aliens landing in UFOs? They'll land in Queens.

Is there a neighborhood full of world-class martial artists with superhuman powers? It's in New York's Chinatown.

Is there a magical gateway between worlds? It's in the Queens Midtown Tunnel. (Or in Central Park, or maybe in the subway tunnels, depending on the cuteness-darkness factor of the story being told).

Is a giant alien monster attacking? It's attacking Manhattan.

Is there a mysterious gigantic cavern hidden just beneath the earth's surface, wherein aliens once upon a time created all life on earth? It's underneath the Battery.

Is there only one person with the special gifts needed to save a distant planet or alternate dimension? He lives in Tribeca; not the SUV, but the place that surely everyone has heard of, 'cause New York is just that famous.

Is a prominent figure from religion or myth manifest once more and living in the world of humans? He's in Central Park.

An Ultimate Showdown Of Ultimate Destiny? Madison Square Garden's got front row seats.

Is your maternal grandmother visiting your home in Phoenix, Arizona? She's fluent only in Bronx-accented Yinglish.

Want to do a Reality Show focusing into the culinary field, or art, or dance or theatre? New York is the place to be, since people don't eat, paint, dance or act anywhere else.

What Tokyo Is The Center Of The Universe is to Anime and Japanese TV, Big Applesauce seems to be to American TV: the clichéd idea that anything that occurs in, or references, New York is automatically more interesting to the average American viewer than anything elsewhere. At the very least, like Tokyo, New York is where more than half of television's writers are, which makes it more interesting to the writers than anything elsewhere.

The rule seems to be that if a series or movie proposal does not require another setting (Kirks Rock, for instance), it should be set in New York. If an original, successful series is set in Las Vegas, its Spin Off will be more successful if set in New York. If you can't possibly get the show to happen in New York, have at least one main character and as many minor ones as possible be from New York, and continually harp on about how much better New York is.

The bias is especially obvious when characters speak about specific parts of New York casually, while the entirety of Middle America usually consists of about ten distinct places.

Everything is better served with Big Applesauce. And that especially includes Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Naamah's Kiss Contest Winners!

Well, the Naamah's Kiss Contest is over and we have five winners!

The winners are:

1. Amber DiTullio
2. Fiona Morales
3. Ray Laura
4. Scott Sink
5. Kimberly Bea

I have submitted your snail mail addresses to the publisher to send you your copy of Jacqueline Carey's novel.

Thank you to all of you who submitted entries and participated!

Book Review 2009 #27: Warbreaker

(NB: I received an ARC of this book as part of the Amazon Vine program)

Brandon Sanderson has slowly been building a reputation in fantasy circles, including the plum assignment and task of finishing the late Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. He has written a number of other novels as well.

Warbreaker, on the other hand, is the start of a new series for him, a new chance for his talents at secondary creation, of creating new mythologies and magic systems, "secondary world building", to get full rein.

Warbreaker is the story of five viewpoint characters: Two sisters, Vivenna and Siri, princesses from the backcountry that have separately found themselves in the city of T'telir. the city their family once ruled. Next there is the God King of this city and kingdom, Susebron. An old contract mandates that he must marry one of the princesses and yet for all his power is a virtual prisoner in his own palace. Then there is the newly minted god Lightsong, who doesn't like his job or even godhood much. Finally there is the mysterious Vasher who has obscure plans of his own.

Even more prominent than the characters is the magic system. In his fiction, Sanderson likes to play with different magic systems and pantheons. Magic here is based on a color-themed and informed power called Bio-Chroma. The Gods, too, also partake of this magic and its power, although in a slightly different way than ordinary practitioners of the magic art. Indeed, the nature of the Gods

Part of the joy of reading the novel is puzzling out the implications of the magic system, and how that influences characters and events.

I thought the plot and characters took a little while to really get rolling. (Although some secondary characters, a group of mercenaries that Vivenna meets, were excellent comic relief from the start) However, the final third of the novel hits on all cylinders and the promise shown earlier in the novel pays off in spades.

This novel was my first taste of Sanderson, and I think it will not be my last. I am sure that the growing ranks of his fans will be most pleased with Warbreaker.

The Bookstore in the Manure Tank

The Bookstore in the Manure Tank

Via the Newscut blog, a unique bookstore complex on a farm in east-central Wisconsin.

I need to make a trip to see this thing. It's a 5 hour drive one way, though, so what I am thinking is maybe a visit is in order when I finally make a trip to Chicago...

(I suppose my Chicago-area friends might find it easier to get to than me. Its in Princeton, Wisconsin).

Cover of the new Dominic Flandry Collection

Baen has been reissuing some of the late Poul Anderson's future history stories in a number of volumes. Good stuff, although somewhat a product of their times. I remember reading them fondly, back in the day.

However, I am not sure that this cover for this volume exactly conveys what the stories are about...

Young Flandry

The other covers have been far less racy, believe me.

Books Read to Date May 10,2009

Books Read this Year to Date (bolded books were ARCs or otherwise given in exchange for review)

26 Naamah's Kiss, Jacqueline Carey
25 Midwinter, Matthew Sturges
24 Children of Chaos, David Duncan
23 Infoquake, David Louis Edelman
22 Empire of Ivory, Naomi Novik
21 All the Windwracked Stars, Elizabeth Bear
20 City Without End, Kay Kenyon
19 Mortal Coils, Eric Nylund
18 Santa Olivia, Jacqueline Carey
17 What Happened to the Indians, Terence Shannon
16 Kitty Goes to Hell, Carrie Vaughn
15 Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand, Carrie Vaughn
14 Drood, Dan Simmons
13. Kitty and the Silver Bullet, Carrie Vaughn
12. Kitty Takes a Holiday, Carrie Vaughn
11. Kitty Goes to Washington, Carrie Vaughn
10. Kitty and the Midnight Hour, Carrie Vaughn
9. History Revisted the Great Battles, Mike Resnick
8. The Planiverse, AK Dewdney
7. The Accidental Time Machine, Joe Haldeman
6 Fables #1: Legends in Exile, Bill Willingham
5. The Domino Men, Jonathan Barnes
4. Chariot, Arthur Cotterell
3. The Story of Mathematics, Ian Stewart
2. Pushing Ice, Alistair Reynolds
1. Gladiatrix, Russell Whitfield

Book Review 2009 #26: Naamah's Kiss

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this novel from the Hatchett Group in exchange for writing a review.

With Naamah's Kiss, Jacqueline Carey, whose reputation has been largely based on the Kushiel world novels, returns to that world.

This time, Carey decides to jump forward in time a few generations, so that she can create a new situation, a new protagonist, and explore new parts of the world. While the Phedre Trilogy and the Imriel Trilogy shared a lot of the same characters and geo-political situation, Naamah's Kiss jumps forward three generations, to a granddaughter of Alais living amongst the Maghuin Dhonn in Alba.

Things have changed for Terre D'Ange. The top-of-the-world D'Angelines are being left in their self-important intrigues and idylls. A new continent has been discovered in the West, Terra Nova. There are emissaries from places as distant as Ch'in. And yet, the D'Angelines are leaving others to mostly reap the benefits of all of this.

And into this decadent version of Terre D'Ange will come our heroine, Moirin. Half Alban and half D'Angeline, we follow her early life as it grows from a solitary existence with her mother in the wilderness, to the meeting with a member of the Dalraida's family. The circle of her existence and her experiences grows as Moirin develops. The tension between the two halves of her life is a constant undercurrent as she undertakes a journey to Terre D'Ange, and into the court of the Queen herself. And then beyond...

And in all of this, she follows Elua's command as filtered through Naamah: Love as thou wilt.

Unlike the previous two sets of novels, the sexual relationships here are not wrapped around tastes in dominance and submission. As a scion of Naamah, Moirin offers herself as she is. For all of that, even without the dominance and submission issues, Moirin's sexual nature draws her into a number of contradictory, and sometimes tragic relationships. Carey comes through with the tragic aspects of Moirin's path in life, as well as growing the sweet innocence of her life into mature adulthood.

While the travelogue aspects of the novel are interesting as always, once again, Carey shows that the strongest part of her fiction is her characterization. We get to see Moirin grow as a character, with a fractally complex path of challenges, advances and retreats. Its not a smooth path of development, just like it isn't in life. Also, too, the secondary characters come alive, with agendas, dreams and thoughts of their own, which intersect with Moirin in complex ways.

It seems to me that Carey has learned a lot from her previous novels and has definitely grown as a writer since Kushiel's Dart, in a good way.

The novel does come up with an ending that could end Moirin's story, however I suspect there will be further volumes of her tale, and I would gladly read them.

I also think that this novel might work for those readers who might be curious as to the world of Terre D'Ange and do not find the D/s sexual situations of the other trilogies to be to their liking. There is plenty of sex (and yes there is violence) in this novel, and there is f/f content as well, but as a whole, its not as drenched as the other novels sometimes were.

In addition,with moving ahead three generations, this novel could work as an entry point to readers in the series. I still think that starting at the beginning is a good policy, but sort of like how Erikson's Midnight Tides, book five of the Malazan series, can serve as an alternate entree into that world, I think Naamah's Kiss can also serve in that manner.

Overall, I am very well satisfied with the novel. One criticism sticks out. Ms. Carey, I love the maps in your novels. (My love of maps of all kinds gets a thrill from those). What I think you also need at this point is a timeline of events and people. It took some puzzling to figure out what happened when, but I think your history is complex enough to need one for easy reference.

Have I even read SF/fantasy by white women or people of color?

In my ill advised blog post, ithiliana asked:

I doubt you and I'll be talking much, but I did want to challenge your
language, as well as note the fact that the only authors you can cite
are white men. Have you even read sf/fantasy by white women or people
of color?

Yes.

Books Read in 2009 written by women:
Empire of Ivory, Naomi Novik
All the Windwracked Stars, Elizabeth Bear
City Without End, Kay Kenyon
Santa Olivia, Jacqueline Carey
Kitty Goes to Hell, Carrie Vaughn
Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand, Carrie Vaughn
Kitty and the Silver Bullet, Carrie Vaughn
Kitty Takes a Holiday, Carrie Vaughn
Kitty Goes to Washington, Carrie Vaughn
Kitty and the Midnight Hour, Carrie Vaughn

Books Read in 2008 written by women:
Prospero Lost, L Jagi Lamplighter
Sharing Knife: Horizon, Lois M Bujold
Sharing Knife: Passage, Lois M Bujold
Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton
The Golden Key, Melanie Rawn, Jennifer Roberson and Kate Elliott
Kushiel's Justice, Jacqueline Carey
Whiskey and Water, Elizabeth Bear
Selling Out, Justina Robson
The Twisted Citadel, Sara Douglass
The Gate of Gods, Martha Wells
A World too Near, Kay Kenyon
Wolf Who Rules, Wen Spencer

Compared to the large number of books I read, not that good of a record.
I don't read enough SF or anything by women or authors of color, I admit it. I need to do better.

2008 Sidewise Award Nominees

You've probably seen this, but this is the list of the 2008 nominees for the Sidewise award for Alternate History.

Short Form

* "A Brief Guide to Other Histories," by Paul J. McAuley (Postscripts #15)
* "G-Men," by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Sideways in Crime, edited by Lou Anders, Solaris)
* "Night Bird Soaring," by T.L. Morganfield (Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Autumn/08)
* "The People's Machine," by Tobias Buckell (Sideways in Crime, edited by Lou Anders, Solaris)
* "Poison Victory," by Albert E. Cowdrey (F&SF, 07/08)
* "Sacrifice," by Mary Rosenblum (Sideways in Crime, edited by Lou Anders, Solaris)

Long Form

* The Affinity Bridge, by George Mann (Snowbooks/Tor, 2009)
* The Dragon's Nine Sons, by Chris Roberson (Solaris)
* Half a Crown, by Jo Walton (Tor)
* Nation, by Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins/Doubleday UK)
* Swiftly, by Adam Roberts (Gollancz)

The 2008 Sidewise Awards will be presented at Anticipation, the 67th Worldcon, to be held in Montreal, Canada from August 6-10, 2009. The Sidewise Awards for Alternate History were established in 1995 to recognize excellence in alternate history fiction.

The winners are selected from a panel of judges that currently includes Stephen Baxter,
Evelyn Leeper, Jim Rittenhouse, Stuart Shiffman, Kurt Sidaway, and Steven H Silver.

You will recall that I've already read and enjoyed two of the long form nominees, Nation, and The Dragon's Nine Sons.

Patricia Wrede's Thirteenth Child

I apologize for the offense taken in this post. It is clear that it has struck
a nerve in a way that I did not intend. I simply wanted to extend the questions raised
by The Thirteenth Child. I am *not* a troll.

The new visitors to my blog are welcome to stay, but I suspect that you will find, as most do, except for when I put my foot in my mouth, like in this instance, this is one of the most boring blogs in the history of the Internet.

Still, there are photos here, comments on movies, politics, and other things.

One commenter to this post asked a question:

I doubt you and I'll be talking much, but I did want to challenge your
language, as well as note the fact that the only authors you can cite
are white men. Have you even read sf/fantasy by white women or people
of color?

I will answer that question in another post. This one, in fact.

And that post, aside from this apology, will be the last I have to say on the subject.

http://www.skyseastone.net/jvstin/unjvst/007928.html

This is a reaction to the comments on this thread on Tor.com

Are all of these immoral?

Book Review 2009 #25: Midwinter

Next up is a first-novel by Matthew Sturges, Midwinter

Better known as co-author of the first volumes of the Fables comic series. (You will recall that I read Jack of Fables earlier this year), Matthew Sturges has turned his talents to novel writing.

Like his fellow Clockwork Storybook writer Chris Roberson, Sturges has produced a variation on the "Dirty Dozen" concept--prisoners given a chance at redemption by taking a one-way near-suicidal mission. Roberson set a Dirty Dozen in his "Chinese and Aztec" universe in The Dragon's Nine Sons.

Midwinter, Sturges effort, is similarly located in a place very different than our Earth--in Faerieland.

Midwinter is the story of Mauritaine. War hero, former Captain of the Royal Guard, he is in prison for a crime he didn't commit. He gets the chance at redemption at the low part of a 100 year cycle in the seasons--Midwinter. It seems that this occasion has cause for the Queen of the Seelie, Regina Titania, to offer a secret mission to him, and a few of his fellow prisoners. Survive, and their sentences will be commuted.

Not everyone is happy about this mission of course, especially Queen Titania's rival, Queen Mab of the Unseelie. As well as rivals to Mauritaine within the realm of the Seelie, and possibly within his own party...

The novel is both familiar and new in its treatment of Faerie and its inhabitants. The team has a variety of tropes, including a displaced human whose knowledge of technology and science seems useless in Faerie. At first.

We also have a couple of POVs from outside of the team, in both the Courts of Titania as well as Mab. Some of these POVs and characters are more compelling and well drawn than others.

I enjoyed the inventiveness of the premise (of winter coming to the land every century). I guessed the secret of the mission before it was revealed, but only just. And there are other delights in the world, like the strange Contested Lands, and the floating city that Mab calls her capital.

Overall, while I enjoyed the novel and was entertained, I do not think the novel quite hits on all cylinders. I do want to see how Sturges grows as a writer in subsequent novels. There is clear potential here that I would love to see in full bloom. So, if you can forgive a few faults in the novel, then you, too, just might enjoy Midwinter.

Book Review 2009 #24: Children of Chaos

It's been a while since I've read any of Dave Duncan. I decided to change that with the first of his Dodec duology, Children of Chaos.

Duncan takes a well worn formula, and adds a few twists and his own deft touch on characters in Children of Chaos, the first of the two Dodec fantasy novels.

The medieval fantasy world Dodecians believe they live on a twelve sided world (a note in the novel suggests that the truth will be revealed in the sequel and is more complex than this). This twelve sided fantasy world is looked over by 12 very active Gods (and one Anti-God), and boasts a variety of societies, one on each of the faces of the world.

As the action begins, the Florengian face has been overrun by the warriors from the neighboring Vigelian face, who have united their usually fractious society with the promise of conquest of another face of the world. To ensure the safety of the city of Celebre, four young hostages are taken from the family of the Doge, and brought to the Vigelian face and split apart.

Fifteen years later, with varying degrees of knowledge of their origins and heritage, these hostages are coming of age, drawing close to one of the Gods, and slowly discovering each other. In the midst of this and their own predicaments, the tenuous political peace on the Vigelian face brought by the promise of outside conquest is breaking down. It seems that the Celebres are destined to live in interesting times.

Thus is the story of Bernard, Orland, and Frena, mixed up with their relationships with their Gods, peers and each other unfolds. Duncan once again shows that he understands characters (and even female characters) very well. The characters are believable, sympathetic, and none of them are false one-note cardboard cutouts. There is an interesting theology and magic system (unique, although this sort of thing is common in Duncan's work), and I want to know more about the world beyond the two Faces that we see.

There is a sequel, Mother of Lies, that I do plan on getting and reading. I do appreciate that Duncan keeps his fantasy series to two or three at a maximum, rather than making them impenetrably interminable. In the meantime, I commend this volume to you.

Locus Award Finalists Announced

http://www.locusmag.com/News/2009/04/2009-locus-award-finalists.html

The top five finalists in each category of the 2009 Locus Awards have been announced. The Locus Awards will be presented during the Science Fiction Awards Weekend in Seattle WA, June 26-27, 2009.

Out of the finalists, I've read one of the novel finalists (City at the End of Time), two of the YA's (surprise!) (Little Brother and Nation), and one of the anthologies (Galactic Empires)

RIP, J.G. Ballard

SF New Wave author J.G. Ballard has passed away at the age of 78.

While I haven't and never did read a lot of his fiction, I did enjoy some of his work, and was puzzled by other pieces, which I didn't really get. "The Assassination of Kennedy considered as a downhill motor race", for example, is exactly what the title is, but its a phantasmagorical story. I much preferred "Billennium" and especially "Concentration City".

Rest in Peace, Mr. Ballard.

Book Review 2009 #23: Infoquake

My next novel is a first novel, from author David Louis Edelman and the first in the "Jump 225" Trilogy: Infoquake.

Bursting with ideas, set in an undefined medium term science fiction future, in some ways, Infoquake, a first novel by David Louis Edelman, is very much in the classic mode of science fiction. It also has strong elements of the corporate thriller, post-cyberpunk and even post-failed-singularity science fiction.

Oh, and it all takes in a hypercapitalist future.

Some several hundred years after some very bad history for humanity, the world of Infoquake is at once very familiar, with its undeniably human characters, and at the same time, has that alien future feeling that allows a SF reader to dive in and explore a futuristic world. The action centers around Natch. He runs a corporation which develops bio/logics, programs that can hack the human body, ones perceptions, abilities, strengths.

Flashbacks in the novel allow us to see how this ruthless and indefatigable competitor was molded into the character we see. Events bring Natch into contact with Margaret Surina, whose family and ancestors are very much responsible for the re-welding together of society after that bad history several centuries back. Margaret has some more and new revolutionary technology, but in this hypercapitalist cutthroat world, she turns to Natch as one of the few people she can trust to deploy and use this technology: Multireal.

And thus hangs a tale.

This world of human-altering software infuses and changes the nature of society, with Edelman following through the implications of how this sort of technology would alter society. We get to see several different types of technology at play here, as well, including a method of virtual porting to other places which makes Second Life look like a primitive toy.

There is a lot going on in this world, and its clear that Edelman had a lot of fun writing this book. There are the titular Infoquakes themselves, for example, the ultimate and deadly crash of the world's equivalent of the Internet, which complicate the plans Natch has set in motion. The novel leaves for sequels what these Infoquakes might actually be and what they mean. The corporate and economic politics in this world are timely. Like the best science fiction, it holds up a mirror to the present by showing an extreme version in the future.

It's difficult to sum up this complex world, but perhaps if I describe it as "Wall Street (the movie) meets Vernor Vinge", I can come close to capturing what the characters and the world is like.

I am surprised that this is Edelman's first novel. It's clear to me that he's been thinking about and working out this universe for quite some time (there are extensive appendices in the back of the novel).

This is definitely not a first novel for those who have never read SF before. Like an old tagline for a collection of Greg Egan's stories, Infoquake is "science fiction for science fiction fans." In a climate where fantasy seems ascendant over SF, and every other book in the F/SF section of the bookstore is yet another new first novel about werewolves/vampires/faeries/demons/ghosts/wendigos in the modern world, Infoquake is unabashedly straight up 200 proof science fiction.

I look forward to reading the second and third volumes of the trilogy. If anything, like when I read Charles Stross' Singularity Sky, I suspect that this first volume is really a novel that Edelman wrote so that he could get himself, and the reader, ready to read the *real* story that he wants to tell.

Book Review 2009 #22: Empire of Ivory

My Twenty Second book of 2009 is a return to Naomi Novik's tales of Temeraire and Captain Laurence in their alternate world/history of the Napoleonic wars with Dragons.

Empire of Ivory is the fourth novel in Novik's series, after His Majesty's Dragon, Throne of Jade and Black Powder War. Like all of the books in this series, the action follows fairly closely on the heels of the previous novel. And like all of the previous novels save the first, reading the novels that come before it is essential to understanding what is going on.

In a nutshell, this is an alternate world/alternate history set in a 19th century where men are learning to breed and tame dragons for use in the military. Napoleon is still threatening to conquer Europe and his machinations have, ironically, brought the egg of, and later the hatched egg of a powerful Chinese dragon, Temeraire, to the hands of the English, and the bonding of Temeraire to Captain Will Laurence. Formerly a naval officer, the novels, at their best, have explored his "culture shock" in the dragon corps.

In this fourth novel, after reverses on the continent against Napoleon's army, the English are licking their wounds and dreading a cross-Channel invasion when a new wrinkle and complication occurs--a strange, debilitating illness which is devastating the entire dragon corps of England. The loss of the dragons would leave England at the mercy of Napoleon's forces.

The only clue is that Temeraire had a brief illness of his own on his journey to China (in Throne of Jade), and recovered while in South Africa. And so, in the search for a cure to save England's dragons leads Temeraire and Laurence into the dark of Africa...

I think I mentioned in previous reviews that I felt that Throne of Jade and Black Powder War did not recapture the magic and deft touch that His Majesty's Dragon did. Novik seemed to take the wrong lessons from the success of that first novel, and so the second and third novels, while not bad novels, just didn't hit on all the cylinders the first one did.

This fourth novel, while still not quite capturing the magic of His Majesty's Dragon, seems to be more more in the vein of the first novel, and less of the problems of the second and third novels. The characters develop, we do get some travelogue, we get development of the history and politics of the world, and things occur. Pacing is good, and at 400 pages, the novel is of a goodly and not-padded length to tell the story it wants to tell.

And it ends with an obvious cliffhanger. The actions Laurence and Temeraire take at the end of the novel are shocking and surprising on face value, but they grow naturally from the events starting in the first novel. Novik does not break the character. Indeed, if the characters did not take their actions, that would have been a betrayal of their characters.

I enjoyed it, and look forward to the MMPB version of the fifth novel, Victory of Eagles.

Essential Fantasy Novels

On the heels of his SF list, Paul McAuley produces a work-in-progress of Fantasy Novels.

Once again, bolded is read, italicized is owned but unread.

Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus MARY SHELLEY 1818
Tales of Mystery and Imagination EDGAR ALLAN POE 1838
A Christmas Carol CHARLES DICKENS 1843Jane Eyre CHARLOTTE BRONTE 1847
The Hunting of the Snark LEWIS CARROLL 1876
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde ROBERT LOUIS STEPHENSON 1886
The Well At The World's End WILLIAM MORRIS 1896
Dracula BRAM STOKER 1897Ghost Stories of an Antiquary MR JAMES 1904
Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things LAFCADIO HEARN 1904
The Wind in the Willows KENNETH GRAHAME 1908
Jurgen JAMES BRANCH CABELL 1919
A Voyage to Arcturus DAVID LINDSAY 1920
The King of Elfland's Daughter LORD DUNSANY 1924
The Trial FRANZ KAFKA 1925
Lud-in-the-Mist HOPE MIRRLEES 1926
Orlando VIRGINIA WOOLF 1928
The Big Sleep RAYMOND CHANDLER 1939
The Outsider and Others HP LOVECRAFT 1939
Gormenghast MERVYN PEAKE 1946
Night's Black Agents FRITZ LEIBER JR 1947
The Sword of Rhiannon LEIGH BRACKETT 1953
Conan the Barbarian ROBERT E HOWARD collected 1954
The Lord of the Rings JRR TOLKIEN 1954-5
The Once and Future King TH WHITE 1958The Haunting of Hill House SHIRLEY JACKSON 1959
The Wierdstone of Brinsingamen ALAN GARNER 1960
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase JOAN AIKEN 1962
Something Wicked This Way Comes RAY BRADBURY 1963
The Book of Imaginary Beings JORGE LUIS BORGES 1967Ice ANA CAVAN 1967
One Hundred Years of Solitude GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ 1967
Earthsea URSULA LE GUIN 1968-1972
Jirel of Joiry CL MOORE collected 1969Grendel JOHN GARDNER 1971
The Pastel City M JOHN HARRISON 1971
Carrie STEPHEN KING 1974
Peace GENE WOLFE 1975
Gloriana, or the Unfulfill'd Queen MICHAEL MOORCOCK 1978
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories ANGELA CARTER 1979
Little, Big JOHN CROWLEY 1981
The Anubis Gates TIM POWERS 1983
The Colour of Magic TERRY PRATCHETT 1983
Mythago Wood ROBERT HOLDSTOCK 1984

48 Essential SF Novels

Via Andrew Wheeler
Paul McAuley recently listed the 48 books (from 1818 through 1984, for "not quite arbitrary reasons") that he considers essential.
As with the usual protocol with memes of this kind, titles in bold are books I've read, titles in italics are books I own but haven't read yet, and books struck through are books I completely disagree with.

Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus MARY SHELLEY 1818
Journey to the Centre of the Earth JULES VERNE 1863
After London RICHARD JEFFRIES 1885
The Time Machine HG WELLS 1895
The House on the Borderland WILLIAM HOPE HODGSON 1912
We YEVGENY ZAMIATIN 1924
Brave New World ALDOUS HUXLEY 1932
Star Maker OLAF STAPLEDON 1937
1984 GEORGE ORWELL 1949
I, Robot, ISAAC ASIMOV 1950
The Martian Chronicles RAY BRADBURY 1950
The Dying Earth JACK VANCE 1950
Childhood's End ARTHUR C CLARKE 1953
The Space Merchants CM KORNBLUTH & FREDERIK POHL 1953
Tiger! Tiger! ALFRED BESTER 1956
The Death of Grass JOHN CHRISTOPHER 1956
The Seedling Stars JAMES BLISH 1957
The Midwich Cuckoos JOHN WYNDHAM 1957
Starship Troopers ROBERT A HEINLEIN 1959
A Canticle for Liebowitz WALTER M MILLER JR 1959
Solaris STANSLAW LEM 1961
Hothouse BRIAN ALDISS 1962 (partially read a fraction of the work)
A Clockwork Orange ANTONY BURGESS 1962
Cat's Cradle KURT VONNEGUT JR 1963
Martian Time-Slip PHILIP K DICK 1964
Dune FRANK HERBERT 1965
The Crystal World JG BALLARD 1966
Flowers For Algernon DANIEL KEYES 1966
Lord of Light ROGER ZELAZNY 1967
Nova SAMUEL R DELANY 1968
Pavane KEITH ROBERTS 1968
The Left Hand of Darkness URSULA K LE GUIN 1969
Roadside Picnic ARKADY AND BORIS STRUGATSKI 1969
334 THOMAS M DISCH 1972
Dying Inside ROBERT SILVERBERG 1972
The Fifth Head of Cerberus GENE WOLFE 1972
Ten Thousand Light Years From Home JAMES TIPTREE JR 1973
The Forever War JOE HALDEMAN 1974
Inverted World CHRISTOPHER PRIEST 1974
The Female Man JOANNA RUSS 1975
Arslan MJ ENGH 1976
The Ophiuchi Hotline JOHN VARLEY 1977
The Final Programme MICHAEL MOORCOCK 1968
Kindred OCTAVIA BUTLER 1979
Engine Summer JOHN CROWLEY 1979
Timescape GREGORY BENFORD 1980
Neuromancer WILLIAM GIBSON 1984
Divine Endurance GWYNETH JONES 1984

Books Read to Date Apr 4, 2009

Books Read this Year to Date (bolded books were ARCs or otherwise given in exchange for review)
21 All the Windwracked Stars, Elizabeth Bear
20 City Without End, Kay Kenyon
19 Mortal Coils, Eric Nylund
18 Santa Olivia, Jacqueline Carey
17 What Happened to the Indians, Terence Shannon
16 Kitty Goes to Hell, Carrie Vaughn
15 Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand, Carrie Vaughn
14 Drood, Dan Simmons
13. Kitty and the Silver Bullet, Carrie Vaughn
12. Kitty Takes a Holiday, Carrie Vaughn
11. Kitty Goes to Washington, Carrie Vaughn
10. Kitty and the Midnight Hour, Carrie Vaughn
9. History Revisted the Great Battles, Mike Resnick
8. The Planiverse, AK Dewdney
7. The Accidental Time Machine, Joe Haldeman
6 Fables #1: Legends in Exile, Bill Willingham
5. The Domino Men, Jonathan Barnes
4. Chariot, Arthur Cotterell
3. The Story of Mathematics, Ian Stewart
2. Pushing Ice, Alistair Reynolds
1. Gladiatrix, Russell Whitfield

Book Review 2009 #21: All the Windwracked Stars

All the Windwracked Stars is a novel by Elizabeth Bear.

Elizabeth Bear is an audacious, difficult, and ultimately rewarding author. There are good reasons why she won a Campbell award, and a Hugo award. She's ambitious, writes characters who are all-too-human, and is very willing to take standard pieces of the F/SF genre, and rework them, remix myth and Story into it, and come out with books and stories that bite.

All the Windwracked Stars is the latest in that tradition. Informed and infused by Norse mythology, the novel begins with, paradoxically, a Ragnarok. We meet Muire, last of the Valkyrie, and Kasimir, the Valraven steed that bonds to her in the denouement of that final battle. Muire the Historian, to her shame, does not die as the rest of the Children of the Light do, and so lives on and on to see civilization, this time a human one, arise again on Valdyrgard. As you might expect, with a novel based so heavily on Norse stories, and given Bear's writing proclivities and style, the novel carries us headlong toward the inevitable fall of this human civilization.

It is between these two falls of civilizations that the meat of the novel and the Story take place. Muire still has her Valkyrie obligations, and it is in the unfolding of those obligations that Muire encounters an old enemy, and discovers the real reason why Eiledon, the last city, has managed to survive until the end under its implacable, mysterious ruler, the Technomancer.

Norse Myth and Mythology. Strange technology and a Last City set in blasted landscape. Complex characters muddling along as best they can. Muire seeks a chance at redemption, a strong and potent theme in the novel, reflected across the range of characters. And while it might not be a crackerjack straightforward plot, Bear hauntingly and memorably creates Valdyrgard and Eiledon and its denizens.

I've said in other reviews that Bear's work is probably not for everyone, or every SF reader. However, given that she is at the cutting edge of the newest generation of SF writers, if you want to see why the "young turks" of SF are doing with the genre, Bear is a strong choice for you to find that out. In an publishing age where Fantasy is ascendant over its technologically inclined brother, its refreshing, encouraging, and joyful to find a writer who does write fantasy (e.g. The Promethean age novels), but who is also willing to write darned good science fiction, with no apologies. And more importantly than just being willing to write science fiction, but to be very good at it.

Barq's Root Beer has a tagline: "Barq's Got Bite!". I would say, however, having read a number of her novels, and especially after reading this one, that "Bear's Got Bite!".

Book Review 2009 #20: City Without End

City Without End is the third in the "Entire and the Rose" quartet by Kay Kenyon.

City Without End picks up where the (to me) disappointing second novel, A World Too Near leaves off. Titus Quinn has lost his wife, but did not destroy all of the Entire with the nanotech given to him for that very purpose. Helice Maki is free to scheme and seek her own goals. Sydney, Titus' estranged daughter, is now known as Sen Ni, continues her secret insurgency against the Tarig overlords. And then there is Ji Anzi, Chalin native of the Entire, who has given her heart to the man from Earth, Titus Quinn. Her journey is the most expansive, and surprised me as to where it led...

And speaking of Earth, things on Earth for Titus' extended family grow ever dicier as the stakes continue to raise, as the brightest star in Earth's sky is extinguished in the Tarig's quest to keep the Entire alive...

New readers to the city, like in most series, should definitely not start here.

If the quartet can be thought of as a chess game, the first novel introduced (most of) the major participants, the board and the milieu and the opening moves. The second novel expanded on this, but in a way that I felt recapitulated some of the weaknesses in second, middle novels in series. It is in this third novel, though, that things really start to accelerate. Plans, gambits, plots and secrets all move in a well orchestrated and naturally-flowing order. There are surprises, reverses and reveals that bring back the strength of the first novel, and just possibly, exceed them.

The environment and the science fantasy environment, which I do not lightly compare to the late Philip J Farmer's World of Tiers is, for me the highlight of these novels. Kenyon adds a couple of wrinkles to this environment which I only lament that she could have shown *more* of. The Entire is a fully envisioned artificial world that is simultaneously a BDO (Big Dumb Object), a universe of its own, and an expansive canvas to set her story.

However, for those of you who rely on well drawn characters for your reading satisfaction, rest assured, the characters are well formed and human, with all of the contradictions and confused natures that humans have. There are precious few one-note or one-dimensional characters here

The end of the novel is not a cliffhanger, but it sets up the factions in both the Entire and the Rose (Earth) for what I hope will be a finale and capstone worthy of the remainder of the series.

I highly enjoyed City Without End and will without reservation, buy the fourth and final volume, in hardcover, when it comes out. As I have said elsewhere, do start with the first book. BRIGHT OF THE SKY, and immerse yourself into the Entire yourself.

Back to the Hugos

Author Sam Jordison, over on the Guardian, is slowly re-reading all of the Hugo Award winners. He most recently excoriated Fritz Leiber's The Wanderer as being unworthy of having won the award.

Jordison, from what I have seen and tell, is not a deep fan of SF, so his view is not "inside baseball" by any means.

The entries in this series are not apparently tagged consistently, the "Back to the Hugos" tag does not show all of the novels he has read. The overall Books Blog does seem to catch them all, although he is only one of the contributors.

As Cheryl Morgan, and Jonathan Strahan have recently discussed on Twitter, his reviews and views on classic SF is definitely worth your time and attention.

Book Review 2009 #19: Mortal Coils

Well, I am finally out of Advance Reader Copies (although I am always open to receiving more of them, dontcha know). So its back to my own reading pile, and a return to an author who hasn't written a non media tie in novel for a very long time.

Once upon a time there was a fantasy/sf author named Eric Nylund. He wrote a couple of intriguing novels, not the least because another beloved author, Roger Zelazny, was explicitly an inspiration in his writing. In point of fact, his novel Dry Water has a character who is a deceased author in New Mexico who seems very very much like the (then recently deceased) Roger Zelazny. And another of his novels was inspiring enough for me to borrow elements of it for a one shot at Ambercon.

Unfortunately the author did not sell well enough to avoid having to write endless media tie in novels, from Crimson skies to HALO. Now, though, after years in that wilderness, Eric Nylund is back with an original novel of his own...

Fiona and Eliot Post are two orphans on the cusp of their fifteenth birthday. Living with their grandmother in a strangely strict regimen of rules, their lives are relatively dull and uninteresting. The myriad non fiction books (fictional books are forbidden!) provide much of the entertainment and life for these homeschooled twins, whose only outside outlet is their work in a nearby pizza parlor.

Their fifteenth birthday, however, coincides with the discovery of them by outside powers, and the discovery by them that their parents are scions of competing supernaturally powered families. Now at the center of a custody fight between gods and demons, set on trials by the gods and tempted by the demons, Fiona and Eliot soon realize just how protected and safe their previous, constricted existence really was.

Wow.

The novel reminded me of L Jagi Lamplighter's Prospero's Lost. It's clear that both novels have read, and been influenced by Roger Zelazny. The tone and the worlds created, though, are somewhat different and I think a good analogy is to think of another pair of writers, C.S. Lewis and JRR Tolkien. With her explictly Christian framework to the mythology of her supernatural modern day universe, Lamplighter's Prospero's Lost is the C.S. Lewis in this formulation. Nylund's novel, on the other hand, does not have that explicit framework. In fact, the novel seems to suggest that the appearances of supernatural beings throughout history have all been members of the various families depicted and hinted at in this book. In this way, its a more, for lack of a better work, pagan formulation than Lamplighter's.

Turning aside from the comparison, the novel itself is replete with all sorts of delights. The twins are well drawn and have a complicated sibling relationship which I found believable and a delight. I particularly liked the vocabulary/reference game that the two play. Only having had years of non fiction volumes to read for recreation, the twins are perfectly comfortable in making obscure references. For example, early in the novel, Fiona refers to Eliot being sick by asking if he has Nagleria fowleri(a type of amoeba contracted in water).

Another delight in the novel is the footnotes. While he doesn't pepper the text with the frequency of, say, Jack Vance, the novel's text and narrative is replete and enriched by the occasional footnote which makes observations from what seems to be the future of the events depicted. This further enriches and complicates the world and its narrative in a way that helps suggest that the world "continues" beyond the borders of its pages. The Playground of the Imagination, as Larry Niven calls it.

The characters themselves, beyond the Twins, on both sides of their relations, are a host that are complicated, complex and completely well drawn. Not all of the Gods could be considered good by even the most charitable reading of the text, and not all of the Infernals can be considered completely and irredeemably evil.

The novel is clearly and explicitly the first in a series, and I do hope that the novel sells well enough that Mr. Nylund has the opportunity to write and publish more of the books. I definitely will be looking forward to reading the subsequent volumes. As I implied before, people like me, who love Zelazny are going to cotton to this novel very well. (Hey, it has a character named *Fiona* who winds up having supernatural abilities. How can you say no to that?!). Nylund, thankfully, has had his time in the wilderness of media-tie-in novels not go to waste. The writing is engaging, inventive and enthralling.

Highly Recommended.

Book Review 2009 #18: Santa Olivia

Disclaimer: I received this book as an ARC by the Hatchett book group.

Santa Olivia is the latest book by Jacqueline Carey, who is better known for, and much better known for the Sundering Duology, and much much better known for two Kushiel trilogies. While the former is a take on classic fantasy and the latter are milestone in dark, sensual fantasy, Santa Olivia is a completely different kettle of fish.

The press information provided to me describes Santa Olivia as Jacqueline Carey's take on comic book superheroes and the classic werewolf myth. However, what this novel is, I think, is far more nuanced and complex than that simple formulation.

The novel centers around Loup. Born in a future where a conflict and a disease has created such tensions between Mexico and the United States that a no man's land has sprung up between the two nations, Loup lives in the abject poverty and virtual prison that makes up the titular piece of land controlled by the U.S. Military. Born of a genetically engineered father, and a local for a mother, we follow Loup's life, from living with her mother and older half-brother, to her life as an orphan in the local church when she loses both of them.

Loup has a hard life in a hardscrabble world, but she does have her secret--the genetic heritage of her father. Her father's special gifts of strength, fearlessness, paranormal senses, and speed have been fully inherited in Loup. What first starts as a secret to be held tightly for fear of discovery by the military turns into a opportunity to exact justice, and later still, an opportunity to escape...

While Loup does take up the mantle of a disguised superhero, and hints and nuances (including the very name given to her) suggest werewolves as an inspiration for the genetic manipulations which inadvertently created Loup, this novel is much more than a novel about a werewolf-powered comic book superhero.

Carey's interest in Christian saints and iconography get play here in the identity that Loup takes in her retributive acts, the titular saint of the compound, Santa Olivia. The novel runs from before her birth to her ultimate escape and freedom, and so we follow her as she grows up, grows into her abilities and learns to use them as a symbol of hope and strength for herself, and for the people around her that she touches. There is a love story in the novel as well, and while the love story itself follows a relatively familiar pattern, the identities of the participants, and the development of the characters give it its own unique stamp.

I don't think that the novel quite works as well as I had hoped. There are an awful lot of loose ends left unanswered by the denouement (not ones that really would be answered in a sequel, either). It's difficult to do "near future" worldbuilding well, as any of the top lights in science fiction can tell you; Carey's worldbuilding is much more assured in her other novels than here. I never really bought the Macguffin that the head of the camp holds as a potential means of escape, although I recognize its dramatic necessity as a device to propel the characters, Loup included, a chimerical banner to chase after. I was also surprised at first at the coarseness of language of the characters of all ages. It took a shift of perception on my part to go from the beauty of courtly language in Terre D'Ange to the salty, expletive filled language of the residents of Santa Olivia.

Overall, though, on the balance, I am happy that Carey wrote the novel. Not only on its merits, which, upon reflection do outweigh its drawbacks, but because I am a firm believer in author diversification. I don't want Carey to write *only* endless Kushiel novels, just like I don't want Stross to only write Merchant Prince novels. I want authors that I like (and Carey certainly has her place in there) to do well--but I'd rather not have them turn into one-series wonders, with each successive volume in the series groaning under the weight of the previous ones. Writing different things, I think, is a good way for an author to remain fresh, inventive, and keep me coming back for more.

So, if you come to this novel hoping for a rocking comic book superhero who changes into a werewolf at night, you are going to be very, very disappointed. This is really a novel about a little girl, born in a cage, who grows, learns to love, and learns to be free. And in the process, she learns to be an inspiration for all of those around her.

2009 Hugo Nominations up

The Hugo Nominations for 2009 are up!

Nominations

A total of 799 nomination ballots were cast and the nominees are:

Best Novel
(639 Ballots / Bulletins)

* Anathem by Neal Stephenson (Morrow; Atlantic UK)
* The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury)
* Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (Tor) -- Free download
* Saturn's Children by Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit)
* Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi (Tor)

Best Novella
(337 Ballots / Bulletins)

* "The Erdmann Nexus" by Nancy Kress (Asimov's Oct/Nov 2008)
* "The Political Prisoner" by Charles Coleman Finlay (F&SF Aug 2008)
* "The Tear" by Ian McDonald (Galactic Empires)
* "True Names" by Benjamin Rosenbaum & Cory Doctorow (Fast Forward 2)
* "Truth" by Robert Reed (Asimov's Oct/Nov 2008)

Best Novelette
(373 Ballots / Bulletins)

* "Alastair Baffle's Emporium of Wonders" by Mike Resnick (Asimov's Jan 2008)
* "The Gambler" by Paolo Bacigalupi (Fast Forward 2) -- Read Online
* "Pride and Prometheus" by John Kessel (F&SF Jan 2008)
* "The Ray-Gun: A Love Story" by James Alan Gardner (Asimov's Feb 2008)
* "Shoggoths in Bloom" by Elizabeth Bear (Asimov's Mar 2008)
Best Short Story
(448 Ballots / Bulletins)

* "26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss" by Kij Johnson (Asimov's Jul 2008)
* "Article of Faith" by Mike Resnick (Baen's Universe Oct 2008)
* "Evil Robot Monkey" by Mary Robinette Kowal (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two)
* "Exhalation" by Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two)
* "From Babel's Fall'n Glory We Fled" by Michael Swanwick (Asimov's Feb 2008)

Best Related Book
(263 Ballots / Bulletins)

* Rhetorics of Fantasy by Farah Mendlesohn (Wesleyan University Press)
* Spectrum 15: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art by Cathy & Arnie Fenner, eds. (Underwood Books)
* The Vorkosigan Companion: The Universe of Lois McMaster Bujold by Lillian Stewart Carl & John Helfers, eds. (Baen)
* What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction by Paul Kincaid (Beccon Publications)
* Your Hate Mail Will be Graded: A Decade of Whatever, 1998-2008 by John Scalzi (Subterranean Press)

Best Graphic Story
(212 Ballots / Bulletins)

* The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle Written by Jim Butcher, art by Ardian Syaf (Del Rey/Dabel Brothers Publishing)
* Girl Genius, Volume 8: Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones Written by Kaja & Phil Foglio, art by Phil Foglio, colors by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
* Fables: War and Pieces Written by Bill Willingham, pencilled by Mark Buckingham, art by Steve Leialoha and Andrew Pepoy, color by Lee Loughridge, letters by Todd Klein (DC/Vertigo Comics)
* Schlock Mercenary: The Body Politic Story and art by Howard Tayler (The Tayler Corporation)
* Serenity: Better Days Written by Joss Whedon & Brett Matthews, art by Will Conrad, color by Michelle Madsen, cover by Jo Chen (Dark Horse Comics)
* Y: The Last Man, Volume 10: Whys and Wherefores Written/created by Brian K. Vaughan, pencilled/created by Pia Guerra, inked by Jose Marzan, Jr. (DC/Vertigo Comics)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
(436 Ballots / Bulletins)

* The Dark Knight Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer, story; Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, screenplay; based on characters created by Bob Kane; Christopher Nolan, director (Warner Brothers)
* Hellboy II: The Golden Army Guillermo del Toro & Mike Mignola, story; Guillermo del Toro, screenplay; based on the comic by Mike Mignola; Guillermo del Toro, director (Dark Horse, Universal)
* Iron Man Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby and Art Marcum & Matt Holloway, screenplay; based on characters created by Stan Lee & Don Heck & Larry Lieber & Jack Kirby; Jon Favreau, director (Paramount, Marvel Studios)
* METAtropolis by John Scalzi, ed. Written by: Elizabeth Bear, Jay Lake, Tobias Buckell and Karl Schroeder (Audible Inc)
* WALL-E Andrew Stanton & Pete Docter, story; Andrew Stanton & Jim Reardon, screenplay; Andrew Stanton, director (Pixar/Walt Disney)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
(336 Ballots / Bulletins)

* "The Constant" (Lost) Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof, writers; Jack Bender, director (Bad Robot, ABC studios)
* Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog Joss Whedon, & Zack Whedon, & Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen , writers; Joss Whedon, director (Mutant Enemy)
* "Revelations" (Battlestar Galactica) Bradley Thompson & David Weddle, writers; Michael Rymer, director (NBC Universal)
* "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead" (Doctor Who) Steven Moffat, writer; Euros Lyn, director (BBC Wales)
* "Turn Left" (Doctor Who) Russell T. Davies, writer; Graeme Harper, director (BBC Wales)

Best Editor, Short Form
(377 Ballots / Bulletins)

* Ellen Datlow
* Stanley Schmidt
* Jonathan Strahan
* Gordon Van Gelder
* Sheila Williams

Best Editor, Long Form
(273 Ballots / Bulletins)

* Lou Anders
* Ginjer Buchanan
* David G. Hartwell
* Beth Meacham
* Patrick Nielsen Hayden

Best Professional Artist
(334 Ballots / Bulletins)

* Daniel Dos Santos
* Bob Eggleton
* Donato Giancola
* John Picacio
* Shaun Tan

Best Semiprozine
(283 Ballots / Bulletins)

* Clarkesworld Magazine edited by Neil Clarke, Nick Mamatas & Sean Wallace
* Interzone edited by Andy Cox
* Locus edited by Charles N. Brown, Kirsten Gong-Wong, & Liza Groen Trombi
* The New York Review of Science Fiction edited by Kathryn Cramer, Kris Dikeman, David G. Hartwell, & Kevin J. Maroney
* Weird Tales edited by Ann VanderMeer & Stephen H. Segal

Best Fanzine
(257 Ballots / Bulletins)

* Argentus edited by Steven H Silver
* Banana Wings edited by Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer
* Challenger edited by Guy H. Lillian III
* The Drink Tank edited by Chris Garcia
* Electric Velocipede edited by John Klima
* File 770 edited by Mike Glyer

Best Fan Writer
(291 Ballots / Bulletins)

* Chris Garcia
* John Hertz
* Dave Langford
* Cheryl Morgan
* Steven H Silver

Best Fan Artist
(187 Ballots / Bulletins)

* Alan F. Beck
* Brad W. Foster
* Sue Mason
* Taral Wayne
* Frank Wu

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer
(288 Ballots / Bulletins)

* Aliette de Bodard*
* David Anthony Durham*
* Felix Gilman
* Tony Pi*
* Gord Sellar*
*(Second year of eligibility)

Congratulations to the nominees, especially those I am well acquainted with (Tony, Steven, Sarah Bear) and those to lesser degrees as well.

The novel category is especially strong this year.

I am *not* Harriet Klausner

Harriet Klausner is an infamous Amazon.com reviewer. She reads an improbable number of books per year, and her reviews are uniformly glowing, effusive and high rated. Its rare to find a review of hers that is below 4 stars. Her reviews are not really models of review and criticism (not that I am suggesting that mine are either) and really are useless in determining if you like a book.

I am no Harriet Klausner. The author of a book I recently reviewed here seemed unhappy with my mostly negative review. Readers of the reviews in this space will recall other novels that I have not liked, as well as novels that I have been effusive about. I try to be honest and straightforward with what I like or don't like about a movie or a book.

You may think I am blowing smoke, am misinformed, or even nyeh kuturni**. What I intend to be, and strive to be, is honest, good or bad.

**nyeh kuturni is Russian for "uncultured", a Russian insult that I first encountered in the writings of Robert Heinlein. Strangely enough, as of the writing of this entry, the phrase "nyeh kuturni" has as its top search result my blog, since I've used it before. It might mean that I am anglicizing the Russian wrong, more than anything. In any event, I've used the phrase ever since learning it from Heinlein.

I have recently been told by a commenter on my LJ that it might be better transliterated as nyekulturny or nyeh kulturny.

Book Review 2009 #17: What Happened to the Indians

Note: This book was provided to me by the author.Please note I have heavily spoiled the plot.

What Happened to the Indians is a science fiction novel by Terence Shannon.

The time is the near future. China has continued to rise as a superpower, and recently, in the time frame of the book has been testing a series of nuclear devices, in a clear challenge to the US. A new US President has taken office promising to clean up the messes of the past. And Unidentified Flying Objects start meddling in U.S. Affairs...

Starting with the crashing of a U.S. Fighter jet, the aliens continually escalate their actions, finally culminating with a demand for the rights to an obscure canyon in New Mexico. The President is faced with the horns of a dilemma--accede to the mysterious aliens demands, or resist, knowing that such resistance might be futile.

Thus the stage is set in What Happened to the Indians. The title derives from one of the characters assertions that the Native Americans would have been better off if they had met European colonists with deadly and implacable resistance. Since they did not do that, their fate with inferior technology was sealed.

The viewpoint character, Lt. Doyle, is a typical "average man who is catapulted into the councils of power". He rises to witness and participate in the deliberations and actions of the White House. While we do have other viewpoint characters, in scenes large and small, we continually return and refer to Doyle as our touchstone to what is happening.

While the writing is mostly adequate on a grammatical level, the rest of the aspects of the novel were, for me lacking.

Let's start with the politics. While I have read novels with political slants ranging from Doctorow, Stross and MacLeod on the left, to Niven, Pournelle and even L. Neil Smith, this novel in many respects come across as a political tract disguised as science fiction in a way only matched in my reading by Smith. Characters with a less than conservative and militaristic viewpoint are consistently proven wrong again, and again. Even Pournelle was and is willing to have centrists and even left of center people as positive characters in his books. Here, Democrats, unions, and pacifists are treated as wrongheaded and foolish at best, and actively dangerous to the health of the nation at worst.

Then there is the plot and world building. Even with the inclusion of a "Deleted scene" which the author provides, I could not simply buy the plot as given. Aliens land, specifically in the United States and begin making demands. The information control is far greater than any hope of reason. Leaks would emerge, but the general public only ever sees the smokescreen that the US Government uses to cover up the whole thing. I found this implausible.

Worse, the US Government's solution to the problem, to escalate a nuclear confrontation with China in the hopes that the aliens will decide to leave rather than let the Earth plunge into a nuclear winter, just didn't ring true. The aliens are clearly intelligent and have been studying the Earth for a long time. (They did pick the US, specifically, to make themselves known). I just couldn't buy that the aliens would pack up and leave the Earth entirely. Why not move their mysterious operations to another nation?

And while we talk about other nations, the only two countries mentioned are the US and China. Even as the US and China move toward DEFCON 2, we never, ever hear how other nations are reacting, and what they might do, as this escalation occurs. A nuclear escalation between India and Pakistan gets world headlines, reactions and actions. A nuclear escalation between the US and China? ALL of the nuclear powers would react. I am sure that even the "unannounced" nuclear powers like, say, Israel, would play a chip in that game. And yet, we hear nothing about it. Nothing. It is as if in this world, only the US and China exist.

Compared to this, I won't even develop in detail other problems I have--such as the U.S. deliberately attacking and sinking one of its vessels, with a loss of all hands, to manufacture this crisis, and subplots that go nowhere, including the unfortunate fate of a passenger jet airliner which is kidnapped by the aliens.

I do not recommend this novel to any readers. Sorry, Mr. Shannon.

Book Reviews 2009 #15-16: Two More Kitty Novels

Disclaimer: I received these two books from the publisher in exchange for reading and reviewing them.

Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand and Kitty Goes to Hell are the two newest Kitty Norville novels by Carrie Vaughn.

The two novels really work together as a whole. While the previous novels have followed on each other pretty closely, the story started in Dead Man's Hand really slides directly into Kitty Goes to Hell, and thus I review the two of them as a single unit.

Dead Man's Hand has Kitty and her fiance Ben decide to elope to Vegas in order to cut through the entanglement and suffocation of the plans for their marriage. While there, the pair discover that treading into the territory of other supernatural beings can be a dangerous business, and the pair make a powerful, ancient enemy. In Kitty Goes to Hell, their return to home ground in Denver is followed by an agent sent because of their actions in Vegas...

Now six books in, I am very pleased that the Kitty books have not succumbed to some of the excesses and problems that crop up in series like this. (I am looking at you, Laurell K Hamilton). Kitty as a character continues to grow, and the world continues to reveal, step by step, the secrets of the shadowy world that she has one foot in due to her lycanthropy.

There is also a growing theme of responsibility in the novels. Now as the alpha of her werewolf pack, and (getting there, to actually being) married, Kitty no longer can only think about herself. She has responsibility and duty to her pack, and this theme is played upon strongly, especially in the events in Kitty Goes to Hell. Kitty feels throughout these novels, and Vaughn makes the point without slamming the reader with it, that Kitty is NOT a "Werewolf", with a lack of human concerns. She's a woman with a disease, a disability, trying to make her way as best as she can.

It is this believeability humanity in Kitty's character that really keeps me reading the novels, as well as worldbuilding and good writing. Its Vaughn's strong suit. Kitty is not a wish-fulfillment character (oh, how cool would it be to have supernatural powers!).

It is for these reasons that I will continue to read the Kitty novels. And if you have any interest in contemporary supernatural urban fantasy, I urge you to try Kitty and the Midnight Hour. While the novels aren't hidebound and wrapped up in previous books, like any series, its usually best to begin at the beginning. Fans of Vaughn who have read the previous novels will definitely enjoy these latest two volumes in the life of Kitty Norville, radio talk show host/werewolf.

Book Review 2009 #14: Drood

Disclaimer: I received this copy of Drood for reading and reviewing thanks to the good graces of the Hachette Book Group.

Drood is the latest novel by Hugo Award winning author Dan Simmons.

Simmons is an extremely literate author whose literacy has influenced more than a few of his works. The Hyperion novels owe a lot to the Romantic Poets of the 19th century. His novella Muse of Fire puts a bright light on the best of what makes Shakespeare unforgetting. Ilium and Olympos take their inspiration from Homer. The Crook Factory takes on Hemingway.

And now with Drood, Simmons delves into Dickens.

A word of disclaimer here. As it so happens, a fact that I don't bandy about too much these days, I am related (although not a direct descendant) of Charles Dickens. I wouldn't say that I am obsessed with his work, but I made it my duty, as a relative, to read a good chunk of his oeuvre.

So, a novel about the last years of the life of Charles Dickens and how his uncompleted mystery novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood came to be was a natural for me to want to read.

The novel is narrated and entirely from the viewpoint of Wilkie Collins, a minor Victorian novelist who was a sometime collaborator, friend, and rival to Charles Dickens. At the time, he might have been a medium light, he is not well remembered today except by scholars. (His novel The Moonstone is actually probably one of the first detective novels, and is a clear inspiration for Arthur Conan Doyle's work).

Drood starts with Dickens relating to Collins the details of a horrible train accident, and an encounter with a mysterious, mystical figure called Drood. Collins interest in Drood, and his interest in Dickens' own interest in Drood forms the backbone of the novel. Interest turns to obsession, and finally to horror and madness.

Its a big work, nearly 800 pages, and Dickens' conceit in having Collins tell us the story leads to a number of effects. First of all, the novel reads like sprawling and turgid Victorian fiction. This book probably could have been half its size--but it would have been a very different book. Sprawling as it is, the book is not slow. We get a deep and abiding look into Collins mind and his world and tangled relationship with Dickens. Aside from the opening event, the novel does take its time in getting to the real meat of the Matter. An impatient reader might decide to give up before that happens.

Another thing to consider as a result of its size is that the novel impinges on the senses. Simmons does best and handles the passages when Collins descends into Undertown, or the opening set-piece of the train disaster, or any of the other ones when Simmons' ability to write horror and madness are in full effect. When Simmons deals with the more mundane aspects of Collins life, his effectiveness is knocked down just a tad.

Another thing to consider is that Collins is an extremely unreliable narrator. Given to opium addiction, and the aspects of mesmerism present in the book, the novel acts a bit like a puzzle in the same way that Gene Wolfe's novels often do. It is left to the reader to make judgments and decipher if what Collins is thinking, relating and observing are truly accurate. Simmons seems to give a definitive answer late in the novel--but its possible that revelation is, in itself, a ruse.

I have heard that Guillermo Del Toro (director of Pan's Labyrinth) is very interested in filming this novel. Given its garish and striking visuals, and set pieces that cry out for a director of Del Toro's abilities, I can see why the novel appeals to him.

As for me, in the end, I think the novel was a bit *too* turgid, but it certainly and admirably entertained this relation of Charles Dickens. If you are a fan of victorian fiction, or a fan of the darker novels of Dan Simmons, then Drood is definitely worth your time. This novel may not appeal if you only like Simmons' SF novels, or if the purple prose, pacing and stylistic conventions of Victorian novels are not to your liking.

Philip Jose Farmer, RIP

Via many places, including John Scalzi's blog.
Phillip Jose Farmer passed away last night at the age of 91.

I will fondly remember the Riverworld series, and even more so, the World of Tiers. I found the latter because Roger Zelazny cited them as a strong influence on the development of his Amber novels. They are fine novels in their own right.

If you haven't read Riverworld or the World of Tiers novels yet,you now have an excuse to go out and do so.

Books Read this Year to Date

13. Kitty and the Silver Bullet, Carrie Vaughn
12. Kitty Takes a Holiday, Carrie Vaughn
11. Kitty Goes to Washington, Carrie Vaughn
10. Kitty and the Midnight Hour, Carrie Vaughn
9. History Revisted the Great Battles, Mike Resnick
8. The Planiverse, AK Dewdney
7. The Accidental Time Machine, Joe Haldeman
6 Fables #1: Legends in Exile, Bill Willingham
5. The Domino Men, Jonathan Barnes
4. Chariot, Arthur Cotterell
3. The Story of Mathematics, Ian Stewart
2. Pushing Ice, Alistair Reynolds
1. Gladiatrix, Russell Whitfield

Book Reviews 2009 #10-13: Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Novels

Disclaimer: I received these four books (and two more, as yet unread) from the publisher in exchange for reading and reviewing them.

Kitty and the Midnight Hour, Kitty Goes to Washington, Kitty Takes a Holiday and Kitty and the Silver Bullet are the first four books in a series about a talk radio host who is a werewolf, written by Carrie Vaughn.

Kitty Norville's universe is one very similar to ours and very similar to other urban fantasy novels of this particular subgenre. Things do go bump in the night but (especially at the beginning of the series), their official existence kept from the public.

Kitty Norville is a Denver DJ who turns talk show host for a late night show dealing with vampires, werewolves and other things that go bump in the night. She's good at it, and she should be.

Kitty, you see, is secretly a member of the werewolf pack of Denver.

In the course of the four novels, Kitty's fan base grows, her existence as a werewolf (and the existence of these sorts of creatures in general) becomes known, and poor Kitty has to deal with all of these changes. Where Vaughn is the strongest and the novels sing is not necessarily in the metaphysical and magical implications of all of these creatures, but in the characterizations. Specifically, Kitty. Kitty Norville is a fully fleshed and formed character who lives and grows in these four novels in a believable and understandable way.

Too much of the oeuvre of urban fantasy novels border on smut fan fic (Laurell K Hamilton, I am looking at YOU) or are really just romance novels with a bit of paranormal feel, or are slap and dash rewritings or derivatives of White Wolf's World of Darkness. Vaughn manages to avoid these pitfalls. While these novels are not high art that will win Hugo Awards, the novels have enough heft for my taste. She doesn't go deeply into the origins and nature of the various supernatural creatures, but we do get slow and steady reveals of what the paranormal side of the world is like in Kitty's universe. It satisfied me.

The books are a quick and easy read that I devoured in a couple of days each on my commute. None of the books outstayed their welcome, and all were more than satisfactory in keeping me entertained.I enjoyed the four novels, and have two more recent ones to read in the near future, after a short break from Kitty and her world.

I recently complained that there was too much urban fantasy as opposed to science fiction and other kinds of fantasy.(and readers of this space will recall my negative experience with some of the urban fantasy out there). It's good to see that some of the tidal wave of urban fantasy is actually worth my time, and yours.

Book Review 2009 #9: History Revisited

A collection of Alternate History Short stories with companion essays by Historians.

History Revisited: The Great Battles
Edited by J David Markham and Mike Resnick

In concept, this is a great idea. Take some classic military oriented AH short stories: Southern Strategy by Michael Flynn. Must and Shall by Harry Turtledove. The Lucky Strike by Kim Stanley Robinson. Having some classic AH stories in one volume is a great idea in general. Then, each of these stories, pair them with an essay from a bonafide historian exploring the divergence, and its plausiblity.

Such are the lines that History Revisited are built upon. In practice, however, its a failure.

Uniformly, the essays by the historians are long, dull, and unimaginative. The historians mostly reject the scenarios posited by the science fiction writers, and in the worst offenders, seem to look down upon the very idea of the alternative. It is the exception, not the rule, when a historian actually likes the story that he has been paired with, rather than at best bemusement. This sort of condescension takes the wind out of reading the story, if one reads the paired essay immediately afterwards.

This, in my opinion makes the reading experience of the stories less pleasurable and it is for that reason that I don't really recommend this collection--unless you *like* to poke holes in Alternate Histories. If you read AH stories to see where Turtledove or Flynn "clearly got it wrong" and grouse about it, then this collection is definitely your cup of tea. If, instead, you enjoy AH stories on their own merits, you can either read the stories and skip the essays, or if you read the essays, I recommend you read them removed in time and space from the story itself. Otherwise, the pleasure of reading the stories will be diminished, as it was from me.

Book Review 2009 #8: The Planiverse

A book I read years ago, was awed by, and upon getting a new copy for Christmas and re-reading again, still blows me away.

The Planiverse: Computer Contact with a Two Dimensional World by AK Dewdney

The setting is a graduate program in the early 1980's. Computers are mainframes, time and resources are precious, and programs are primitive at best.

A group of students led by their professor decide to model a two dimensional world--with the deptyh and horizontal axis rather than the horizontal and vertical axes of Flatland. It starts as an exercise in pure physics, mathematics and computer science, until their model somehow connects to a real two-dimensional world, and an inhabitant, YNDRD, who can hear them in his mind.

And with YNDRD as our guide, we begin to learn about himself and the two dimensional Planiverse that makes his home...

Its a classic for good and many reasons. Dewdney's characters, with the exception of a little unnecessary and half-baked melodrama, are easily recognized academic types, jealous of their prize, and eager to learn more and more about the world they have inadvertently contacted. The Planiverse is a marvel of a gedankenexperiment--how could an inhabitable two-dimensional world exist and what would it be like? YNDRD goes on what is ultimately a spiritual quest (the novel can be thought of, really as a sufi story), and so we get to see a wide swath of his world, and learn about it, as he makes his journey.

Although the technology has changed over time, the novel can comfortably be thought of as taking place in the early 1980's rather than as a contemporary novel. Once upon a time, computers really were this primitive.

There are lots of asides and text boxes exploring some of the concepts touched upon, as well as appendices that give the Planiverse even more depth. It's an amazing book and definitely suited to those who would want to think about the implications and puzzle of a two-dimensional world. The narrative itself is pretty basic and straightforward--but the universe, man, is where this novel shines. Dewdney's conceit in making the novel at first seem like a first hand account of a real event gives it verisimilitude, and the level of detail, as said above, sells it.

Highly Recommended.

Book Review 2009 #7: The Accidental Time Machine

Next up? A somewhat of a throwback time travel SF novel from Joe "Forever War" Haldeman.

The Accidental Time Machine, by Joe Haldeman.

Coincidentally, I was recently talking about a Poul Anderson short story, "Flight to Forever", which has some resemblance to this novel.

The basic premise is similar with some twists. Matt, a grad student at MIT, accidental invents the eponymous time machine. Its only a one way device, and the "jumps" are logarithmically longer and longer, and so his journey quickly becomes a one way trip to the future, looking for a way to reverse the process and return to his own time.

Along the way, he discovers strange cultures, picks up a passenger, and finally manages to return to the past, but not in the way or manner that he expects.

So on the basics, its pretty similar to the story mentioned above. The concept as Haldeman executes it, though is a little more polished in the physics. Anderson's story was really a device for sending his protagonist through time. Haldeman takes some things into consideration that Anderson doesn't--for example the idea that the time machine's "landing location" might change through time thanks to the motion of celestial bodies.

Like Anderson's story, we wind up with some strange future societies that Matt and his inadvertent fellow passenger whom he picks up encounter. A religious theocracy, a society which seems to be Ebay writ large, and a post-Singularity beings are among the challenges that Matt faces as he jumps through time.

The novel is short, and aside from the religious theocracy and Matt's present (in the mid 21st century), we never really spend a lot of time getting to the nuts and bolts of the worlds. Haldeman could have spent endless pages on each of these stops, and in some cases, I would have liked to learn a little more about Matt's stops. Also, the ending is, frankly, a deus ex machina in an almost literal sense. There are also aspects to the narrative (the idea that there are multiple timelines, or multiple versions of Matt being sent back) that are mentioned in a few sentences and never really explored fully. Also, the explanation of just how the accidental time machine really worked is very much glossed over.

So I have to say that I was disappointed in the novel overall, which unfortunately (after Forever Peace) means that I've now read two novels by Haldeman that I don't like in comparison to one (Forever War). I suppose that he is going to now drop off on the list of authors that I will read, sad to say. The Accidental Time Machine is not a *bad* novel, but its, to use culinary terminology, definitely a little undercooked and the flavors didn't meld well. It was a disappointment.

Book Review 2009 #6: Fables: Legends in Exile #1

Next up, a graphic novel given to me as a gift last year, Fables: Legends in Exile.

Fables: Legends in Exile #1 collects the first five issues of Bill Willingham's Vertigo comic.

The high concept is a wonderful conceit--what if fairy tale characters, ranging from Snow White to Bluebeard, all lived, in secret, in New York City (and upstate New York in the case of the animals). Trying to avoid revealing their nature to the populace, they are a small community unto their own, and yet, unmistakably, expatriates in the Greatest City on Earth.

And what happens when one of these (implied) immortal characters is brutally killed, and the evidence points not to an ordinary New Yorker, but one of Fabletown's own denizens?

With this idea, great drawing and writing,and plenty of visual eye candy, Fables is an example of a good graphic novel which uses the full strengths of the form. Certainly one could have told this story in a straight novel format, but this is a case where seeing is believing. Snow White as a deputy Mayor. The Big Bad Wolf as a detective. Prince Charming as a schemer using his looks and charm to make his way in the world. These characters have pasts rooted in their fairy tales as well as previous relations between them in the expat community. We get the feeling that the characters have always been there, hidden, in New York. There is a continuity to their existence.

And much more awaits the reader. It all works so very well, and the murder puzzle is a fair one.

I look forward to at some point getting additional graphic novels of the series (something I need to do with a couple of others, like Sandman...). In the meantime, if you have any interest in fairy tale characters and in graphic novels (or love the former and want to try the latter), this is a graphic novel which is a painless way to try and enjoy the form. If you love Urban Fantasy, this volume is a must.

The only downside is that only 5 issues of the comic were collected in the volume. I read this almost *too* quickly.

Highly Recommended.

Locus Recommends You Read 2008 Things: The Meme

Via Andrew Wheeler

It's the usual rule: bold for things one has read, italics for things one has in a pile but hasn't read yet.

SF novels

Matter, Iain M. Banks (Orbit UK)
Flood, Stephen Baxter (Gollancz, Roc '09)
Weaver, Stephen Baxter (Gollancz, Ace)
City at the End of Time, Greg Bear (Gollancz, Del Rey)
Incandescence, Greg Egan (Gollancz, Night Shade)
January Dancer, Michael Flynn (Tor)
Marsbound, Joe Haldeman (Ace)
Spirit, Gwyneth Jones (Gollancz)
Escapement, Jay Lake (Tor)
Song of Time, Ian R. MacLeod (PS Publishing)
The Night Sessions, Ken MacLeod (Orbit)
The Quiet War, Paul McAuley (Gollancz)
The Company, K. J. Parker (Orbit)
House of Suns, Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz, Ace '09)
Pirate Sun, Karl Schroeder (Tor)
Anathem, Neal Stephenson (Atlantic UK, Morrow)
Saturn's Children, Charles Stross (Orbit, Ace)
Rolling Thunder, John Varley (Ace)
Half a Crown, Jo Walton (Tor)
Implied Spaces, Walter Jon Williams (Night Shade Books)

Fantasy novels

An Autumn War, Daniel Abraham (Tor)
The Love We Share Without Knowing, Christopher Barzak (Bantam)
The Knights of the Cornerstone, James P. Blaylock (Ace)
The Ghost in Love, Jonathan Carroll (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
The Island of Eternal Love, Daina Chaviano (Riverhead)
The Shadow Year, Jeffrey Ford (Morrow)
Shadowbridge/ Lord Tophet, Gregory Frost (Ballantine Del Rey)
The Memoirs of a Master Forger, William Heaney (Gollancz) ; as How to Make Friends with Demons, Graham Joyce (Night Shade Books '09)
Varanger, Cecelia Holland (Tor/Forge)
Lavinia, Ursula K. Le Guin (Harcourt)
The Bell at Sealey Head, Patricia A. McKillip (Ace)
The Hidden World, Paul Park (Tor)
The Engine's Child, Holly Phillips (Ballantine Del Rey)
The Enchantress of Florence, Salman Rushdie (Jonathan Cape)
The Alchemy of Stone, Ekaterina Sedia (Prime Books)
The Dragons of Babel, Michael Swanwick (Tor)
An Evil Guest, Gene Wolfe (Tor)

First novels

The Ninth Circle, Alex Bell (Gollancz)
The Painted Man, Peter V. Brett (HarperVoyager); as The Warded Man (Ballantine Del Rey)
A Curse as Dark as Gold, Elizabeth C. Bunce (Scholastic)
Graceling, Kristin Cashore (Harcourt)
Alive in Necropolis, Doug Dorst (Riverhead)
Thunderer, Felix Gilman (Bantam Spectra)
Black Ships, Jo Graham (Orbit US)
Pandemonium, Daryl Gregory (Ballantine Del Rey)
The Gone-Away World, Nick Harkaway (William Heinemann, Knopf)
Last Dragon, J.T. McDermott (Wizards of the Coast/Discoveries)
Singularity's Ring, Paul Melko (Tor)
The Long Look, Richard Parks (Five Star)
The Red Wolf Conspiracy, Robert V. S. Redick (Gollancz, Del Rey '09)
The Cabinet of Wonders, Marie Rutkoski (Farrar, Straus, Giroux)

Young Adult Books

City of Ashes, Cassandra Clare (Simon & Schuster/McElderry)
The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press)
Monster Blood Tattoo, Book Two: Lamplighter, D. M. Cornish (Putnam; Omnibus Books Australia)
Little Brother, Cory Doctorow (Tor)
The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins, Bloomsbury)
Eon: Dragoneye Reborn, Alison Goodman (Viking); as The Two Pearls of Wisdom (HarperCollins Australia)
Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan (Knopf)
How to Ditch Your Fairy, Justine Larbalestier (Bloomsbury USA)
Ink Exchange, Melissa Marr (HarperTeen)
Chalice, Robin McKinley (Putnam)
The Knife of Never Letting Go, Patrick Ness (Candlewick Press)
The Adoration of Jenna Fox, Mary E. Pearson (Henry Holt)
Nation, Terry Pratchett (Doubleday UK, HarperCollins)
Zoe's Tale, John Scalzi (Tor)
Flora's Dare, Ysabeau S. Wilce (Harcourt)

Collections

The Serial Garden: The Complete Armitage Family Stories, Joan Aiken (Small Beer Press/Big Mouth House)
Pump Six and Other Stories, Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade Books)
The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives, James P. Blaylock (Subterranean Press)
Works of Art, James Blish (NESFA Press)
The Wall of America, Thomas M. Disch (Tachyon Publications)
Dark Integers and Other Stories, Greg Egan (Subterranean Press)
The Drowned Life, Jeffrey Ford (HarperPerennial)
The Wreck of the Godspeed and Other Stories, James Patrick Kelly (Golden Gryphon Press)
The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories, John Kessel (Small Beer Press)
Nano Comes to Clifford Falls and Other Stories, Nancy Kress (Golden Gryphon Press)
Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters, John Langan (Prime Books)
Pretty Monsters, Kelly Link (Viking)
H.P. Lovecraft: The Fiction, H. P. Lovecraft (Barnes & Noble)
Binding Energy, Daniel Marcus (Elastic Press)
Ten Sigmas and Other Unlikelihoods, Paul Melko (Fairwood Press)
The Collected Short Fiction: Where Angels Fear / The Gods Perspire, Ken Rand (Fairwood Press)
The Ant King and Other Stories, Benjamin Rosenbaum (Small Beer Press)
Long Walks, Last Flights, and Other Strange Journeys, Ken Scholes (Fairwood Press)
Filter House, Nisi Shawl (Aqueduct Press)
The Autopsy and Other Tales, Michael Shea (Centipede Press)
The Best of Lucius Shepard, Lucius Shepard (Subterranean Press)
The Best of Michael Swanwick, Michael Swanwick (Subterranean Press)
Other Worlds, Better Lives, Howard Waldrop (Old Earth Books)
Crazy Love, Leslie What (Wordcraft of Oregon)
Gateway to Paradise: The Collected Stories of Jack Williamson, Volume Six, Jack Williamson (Haffner Press)

Anthologies - Original

Clockwork Phoenix, Mike Allen, ed. (Norilana Books)
Fast Forward 2, Lou Anders, ed. (Pyr)
Sideways in Crime, Lou Anders, ed. (Solaris)
Dreaming Again, Jack Dann, ed. (HarperCollins Australia; Eos)
The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Ballantine Del Rey)
Galactic Empires, Gardner Dozois, ed. (SFBC)
Extraordinary Engines: The Definitive Steampunk Anthology, Nick Gevers, ed. (Solaris)
A Book of Wizards, Marvin Kaye, ed. (SFBC)
The Solaris Book Of New Science Fiction Volume Two, George Mann, ed. (Solaris)
Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy, William Schafer, ed. (Subterranean Press)
Eclipse Two, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Night Shade Books)
The Starry Rift, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Viking)
Fast Ships, Black Sails, Ann VanderMeer & Jeff VanderMeer, eds. (Night Shade Books)
Celebration: 50 Years of the British Science Fiction Association, Ian Whates, ed. (NewCon Press)

Anthologies - Reprint

Wastelands, John Joseph Adams, ed. (Night Shade Books)
A Science Fiction Omnibus, Brian W. Aldiss, ed. (Penguin Modern Classics)
The Black Mirror and Other Stories: An Anthology of Science Fiction from Germany and Austria, Franz Rottensteiner, ed. (Wesleyan University Press)
Poe's Children: The New Horror, Peter Straub, ed. (Doubleday)
The New Weird, Ann VanderMeer & Jeff VanderMeer, eds. (Tachyon Publications)
Steampunk, Ann Vandermeer & Jeff VanderMeer, eds. (Tachyon Publications)

Anthologies - Best of the Year

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2008: Twenty-first Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link & Gavin Grant, eds. (St. Martin's Griffin)
The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin's)
Year's Best Fantasy 8, David G. Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer, eds. (Tachyon Publications)
Year's Best SF 13, David G. Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer, eds. (Eos)
Fantasy: The Best of the Year: 2008 Edition, Rich Horton, ed. (Prime Books)
Science Fiction: The Best of the Year: 2008 Edition, Rich Horton, ed. (Prime Books)
The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror: Volume Nineteen, Stephen Jones, ed. (Robinson; Running Press)
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Two, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Night Shade Books)

Non-Fiction

Lexicon Urthus: A Dictionary for the Urth Cycle, Second Edition, Michael Andre-Driussi (Sirius Fiction)
Miracles of Life, J. G. Ballard (HarperCollins/Fourth Estate UK)
An Unofficial Companion to the Novels of Terry Pratchett, Andrew M. Butler (Greenwood)
The Vorkosigan Companion: The Universe of Lois McMaster Bujold, Lillian Stewart Carl & Martin H. Greenberg (Baen)
H. Beam Piper: A Biography, John F. Carr (McFarland)
The Worlds of Jack Williamson: A Centennial Tribute 1908-2008, Stephen Haffner, ed. (Haffner Press)
Basil Copper: A Life in Books, Stephen Jones (PS Publishing)
What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction, Paul Kincaid (Beccon)
Anthony Boucher: A Biobibliography, Jeffrey Marks (McFarland)
Rhetorics of Fantasy, Farah Mendlesohn (Wesleyan University Press)
The Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia, Laura Miller (Little, Brown)
Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman, Hank Wagner, Christopher Golden & Stephen R. Bissette (St. Martin's Press)

Art Books

Spectrum 15: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, Cathy Fenner & Arnie Fenner, eds. (Underwood Books)
Paint or Pixel: The Digital Divide in Illustration Art, Jane Frank, ed. (NonStop Press)
P. Craig Russell, Coraline, Neil Gaiman, adapted and illustrated by P. Craig Russell (HarperCollins)
J. Allen St. John, The Paintings of J. Allen St. John: Grand Master of Fantasy, Stephen D. Korshak & J. David Spurlock (Vanguard)
Shaun Tan, Tales from Outer Suburbia (Allen & Unwin; Scholastic '09)
A Lovecraft Retrospective: Artists Inspired by H.P.L., Jerad Walters, ed. (Centipede Press)

Novellas

Or Else My Lady Keeps the Key, Kage Baker (Subterranean Press)
"The Overseer", Albert E. Cowdrey (F&SF 3/08)
The Word of God: Or, Holy Writ Rewritten, Thomas M. Disch (Tachyon Publications)
"The Political Prisoner", Charles Coleman Finlay (F&SF 8/08)
"Arkfall", Carolyn Ives Gilman (F&SF 9/08)
The Luminous Depths, David Herter (PS Publishing)
"Mystery Hill", Alex Irvine (F&SF 1/08)
"The Erdmann Nexus", Nancy Kress (Asimov's 10-11/08)
"Pretty Monsters", Kelly Link (Pretty Monsters)
"The Surfer, Kelly Link (The Starry Rift) "
"The Hob Carpet", Ian R. MacLeod (Asimov's 6/08)
"The Tear", Ian McDonald (Galactic Empires)
"Tenbrook of Mars", Dean McLaughlin (Analog 7-8/08)
Once Upon a Time in the North, Philip Pullman (Knopf)
"The Man with the Golden Balloon", Robert Reed (Galactic Empires)
"Truth", Robert Reed (Asimov's 10-11/08)
"True Names", Benjamin Rosenbaum & Cory Doctorow (Fast Forward 2)
"Wonjjang and the Madman of Pyongyang", Gord Sellar (Tesseracts Twelve)
"The Philosopher's Stone", Brian Stableford (Asimov's 7/08)

Novelettes

"The Gambler", Paolo Bacigalupi (Fast Forward 2)
"Pump Six", Paolo Bacigalupi (Pump Six and Other Stories)
"Tangible Light", J. Timothy Bagwell (Analog 1-2/08)
"Radio Station St. Jack", Neal Barrett, Jr. (Asimov's 8/08)
"The Ice War", Stephen Baxter (Asimov's 9/08)
"Turing's Apples", Stephen Baxter (Eclipse Two)
"The Rabbi's Hobby", Peter S. Beagle (Eclipse Two)
"The Tale of Junko and Sayuri", Peter Beagle (InterGalactic Medicine Show 7/08)
"Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel", Peter S. Beagle (Strange Roads)
"Shoggoths in Bloom", Elizabeth Bear (Asimov's 3/08)
"The Golden Octopus", Beth Bernobich (Postscripts Summer '08)
"If Angels Fight", Richard Bowes (F&SF 2/08)
"From the Clay of His Heart", John Brown (InterGalactic Medicine Show 4/08)
"Jimmy", Pat Cadigan (The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy)
"Catherine Drewe", Paul Cornell (Fast Forward 2)
Conversation Hearts, John Crowley (Subterranean Press)
"The Things that Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away", Cory Doctorow (Tor.com 8/08)
"Crystal Nights", Greg Egan (Interzone 4/08)
"Lost Continent", Greg Egan (The Starry Rift)
"The Ray-Gun: A Love Story", James Alan Gardner (Asimov's 2/08)
"Memory Dog", Kathleen Ann Goonan (Asimov's 4-5/08)
"Shining Armor", Dominic Green (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two)
"The Illustrated Biography of Lord Grimm", Daryl Gregory (Eclipse Two)
"Pride and Prometheus", John Kessel (F&SF 1/08)
"The Art of Alchemy", Ted Kosmatka (F&SF 6/08)
"Divining Light", Ted Kosmatka (Asimov's 8/08)
"Childrun", Marc Laidlaw (F&SF 8/08)
"Machine Maid", Margo Lanagan (Extraordinary Engines)
"The Woman", Tanith Lee (Clockwork Phoenix)
"The Magician's House", Meghan McCarron (Strange Horizons 7/08)
"An Eligible Boy", Ian McDonald (Fast Forward 2)
"The Dust Assassin", Ian McDonald (The Starry Rift)
"Special Economics", Maureen F. McHugh (The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy)
"Beyond the Sea Gate of the Scholar-Pirates of Sarsköe", Garth Nix (Fast Ships, Black Sails)
"Infestation", Garth Nix (The Starry Rift)
"Immortal Snake", Rachel Pollack (F&SF 5/08)
"The Hour of Babel", Tim Powers (Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy)
"Five Thrillers", Robert Reed (F&SF 4/08)
"Fury", Alastair Reynolds (Eclipse Two)
"The Star Surgeon's Apprentice", Alastair Reynolds (The Starry Rift) "
"The Egg Man", Mary Rosenblum (Asimov's 2/08)
"Sacrifice", Mary Rosenblum (Sideways in Crime)
"Days of Wonder", Geoff Ryman (F&SF 10-11/08)
"Lester Young and the Jupiter's Moons' Blues", Gord Sellar (Asimov's 7/08)
"Gift from a Spring", Delia Sherman (Realms of Fantasy 4/08)
"An Alien Heresy", S.P. Somtow (Asimov's 4-5/08)
"Following the Pharmers", Brian Stableford (Asimov's 3/08)
"The First Editions", James Stoddard (F&SF 4/08)

Short Stories

"Don't Go Fishing on Witches Day", Joan Aiken (The Serial Garden)
"Goblin Music", Joan Aiken (The Serial Garden)
"The Occultation", Laird Barron (Clockwork Phoenix)
"King Pelles the Sure", Peter S. Beagle (Strange Roads)
Boojum", Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette (Fast Ships, Black Sails)
"Private Eye", Terry Bisson (F&SF 10-11/08)
"Offworld Friends Are Best", Neal Blaikie (Greatest Uncommon Denominator Spring '08)
"The Man Who Built Heaven", Keith Brooke (Postscripts Summer '08)
"Balancing Accounts", James L. Cambias (F&SF 2/08)
"Exhalation", Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two)
"The Fooly", Terry Dowling (Dreaming Again)
"Truth Window: A Tale of the Bedlam Rose", Terry Dowling (Eclipse Two)
"Awskonomuk", Gregory Feeley (Otherworldly Maine)
"Daltharee", Jeffrey Ford (The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy)
"The Dismantled Invention of Fate", Jeffrey Ford (The Starry Rift) "
"The Dream of Reason", Jeffrey Ford (Extraordinary Engines)
"The Seventh Expression of the Robot General", Jeffrey Ford (Eclipse Two)
"Reader's Guide", Lisa Goldstein (F&SF 7/08)
"Glass", Daryl Gregory (Technology Review 11-12/08)
"26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss", Kij Johnson (Asimov's 7/08)
"The Voyage Out", Gwyneth Jones (Periphery)
"Evil Robot Monkey", Mary Robinette Kowal (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two)
"The Kindness of Strangers", Nancy Kress (Fast Forward 2)
"The Sky that Wraps the World Round, Past the Blue into the Black", Jay Lake (Clarkesworld 3/08)
"The Fifth Star in the Southern Cross", Margo Lanagan (Dreaming Again)
"The Goosle", Margo Lanagan (The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy)
"The Thought War", Paul McAuley (Postscripts Summer '08)
"[a ghost samba]", Ian McDonald (Postscripts Summer '08)
"Midnight Blue", Will McIntosh (Asimov's 9/08)
"Fallen Angel", Eugene Mirabelli (F&SF 12/08)
"Mars: A Traveler's Guide", Ruth Nestvold (F&SF 1/08)
"The Blood of Peter Francisco", Paul Park (Sideways in Crime)
"The Small Door", Holly Phillips (Fantasy 5/08)
"His Master's Voice", Hannu Rajaniemi (Interzone 10/08)
"The House Left Empty", Robert Reed (Asimov's 4-5/08)
"Fifty Dinosaurs", Robert Reed (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two)
"Traitor", M. Rickert (F&SF 5/08)
"Snatch Me Another", Mercurio D. Rivera (Abyss & Apex 1Q/08)
"The Film-makers of Mars", Geoff Ryman (Tor.com 12/08)
"Talk is Cheap", Geoff Ryman (Interzone 6/08)
"After the Coup", John Scalzi (Tor.com 7/08)
"Invisible Empire of Ascending Light", Ken Scholes (Eclipse Two)
"Ardent Clouds", Lucy Sussex (The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy)
"From Babel's Fall'n Glory We Fled", Michael Swanwick (Asimov's 2/08)
"The Scarecrow's Boy", Michael Swanwick (F&SF 10-11/08)
"Marrying the Sun", Rachel Swirsky (Fantasy 6/08)
"A Buyer's Guide to Maps of Antarctica", Catherynne M. Valente (Clarkesworld 5/08)
"Fixing Hanover", Jeff VanderMeer (Extraordinary Engines)
"The Eyes of God", Peter Watts (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two)
"Ass-Hat Magic Spider", Scott Westerfeld (The Starry Rift) "

Book Review 2009 #5: The Domino Men

A book I received under the auspices of Amazon Vine, The Domino Men is a fantasy/horror novel by Jonathan Barnes.

There have been a spate of what some have labeled "The New Weird" in fantasy and horror in the last few years. Authors like Jeff Vandermeer, China Mieville, and M John Harrison are the major figures in this movement, but this movement has influenced new authors, too.

Jonathan Barnes' work seems to fall into this bracket. The Domino Men is a novel set in the same world of his previous novel, The Somnambulist. The story ostensibly is the story of Henry Lamb, hapless file clerk (and former child TV star) in London who slowly is wrapped in the tendrils of an ancient conflict that involves his grandfather, the House of Windsor, and the fate of Earth.

The world is not quite the one we know, since the Crown Prince is named Arthur, and only has had one wife, without a single child.

And then there is the titular Domino Men, Hawker and Boon. They cut a swath of sadism and darkness in the novel that really is at an angle to the rest of the action. While they are important, they aren't central to the narrative.

And what a narrative? A Dark faustian bargain which "The Directorate" has been fighting for a century. Over the top hilarity is cheek and jowl with darkness and denigration. This jarring tone is carried throughout the novel and it gave me as a reader continual emotional whiplash.

The novel started off well enough, but as the novel progressed, I became dissatisfied with it. Lamb, like his name, is far, far too passive for a protagonist. He doesn't question his orders and is pushed around the chessboard like a hapless pawn. I couldn't identify with him, and only could pity him. In addition, midway through the novel, the first person past narrative was punctuated by a different first person narrator who shows us Arthur's perspective. While it becomes clear in the end why we should be privy to this narrative, I didn't feel it fit all that well with Lamb's story.

Finally, the ending ended my chances of walking away from the novel satisfied. Characters are brutally tortured and go through hell while London suffers cataclysmic upheaval.

Even for fans of the New Weird, there are far better and more rewarding novels than this one in that vein. It's not a terrible novel, but it could have been much better than it was executed.

Gaiman wins Newberry, Minnesota tries to claim him as one of their own

Author Neil Gaiman's spooky book wins Newbery honor

As you have seen elsewhere, Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book" has won the ALA's Newbery award, adding yet award to the ever lengthening list of awards won by one of the best F/SF authors of this generation.

What amuses me is the tendency and propensity for Minnesota to claim people as their own. I've noticed that MPR likes to do articles on actors and authors with what they call "Minnesota connections". (The Coen Brothers get a lot of love in this regard) Gaiman falls into this category--even though he really lives in Western Wisconsin.

Now, if I could somehow get local F/SF authors like Lois Bujold and Lyda Morehouse to the attention of MPR, maybe they could get some press for *their* books. The Wyrdsmiths (the Twin Cities Speculative Fiction Writers Group) has a nice little nest of authors, and before I even knew there was a group, I managed to read books by a number of them.

Book Review 2009 #4: Chariot

More history this time, this time the history of what was once the cutting edge in military technology.

Chariot, From Chariot to Tank, The Astounding Rise and Fall of the World's First War Machine, by Arthur Cotterell is a history of the chariot.

Between the domestication of the horse, and the use of stirrups and other techniques to make horse-riding warfare more practical, the primary uses of horses in warfare was by means of the chariot. Cotterell begins with the description of one of the major battles in the ancient world, the Egyptian-Hatti Battle of Kadesh in which 5000 chariots on both sides participated. From this basis, Cotterell describes the history of the use of the chariot in time and space from Rome all the way to China.

There is an enormous amount of detail in the book, but its marred by digressions, poor organization and badly formed repetitions. Cotterell mentions battles and places, only to return to them again and again. That would not be a problem, but there is no sense of building on what was already written, or an awareness that there is something new to be said in the narrative. He mentions battles, and then comes back to them again, talking about them as if we had not already read about it earlier in the novel. It was extremely frustrating to this reader.

I learned a lot from the novel, my conception of what good the chariot was and how it was used has expanded. I particularly appreciated that Cotterell did not restrict himself to the Middle East and Europe, as he extensively talks about the role of the chariot in India and China. Cotterell, in the typical haphazard fashion in this book, extends the mandate of the book beyond the war machine role of the chariot to discuss its use as symbol and mythological object ranging from Rome to China.

It's all a pity, though. I really wanted to like and recommend this book, but the disorganized writing and jumbled information just made this book a chore to read, rather than a joy. The scholarship and information is all there, but its more work than its worth, in my opinion, to reach and get it out.

Book Review 2009 #3: The Story of Mathematics

Next up in my reading is some non fiction, and what's more, Mathematics.

Mathematician and scientist Ian Stewart writes some popular books on the subject (I keep meaning to read his annotated Flatland). The Story of Mathematics is devoted to an overview and history of Mathematics, and what it was good for in the past and what its good for now.

With lots of sidebar digressions on figures and topics, this volume reminded me, in some respects, of my beloved "The Math Book" textbook that I recently found for sale again, used and purchased. The Story of Mathematics takes on Mathematical topics of increasing complexity and difficulty. Each topic is placed in context with how and why it was invented and developed.

So the volume begins with tallies and basic number systems, showing how tallies turned into Babylonian and Egyptian number systems. We progress through basic geometry, our own number system (with sidebars on things like the Mayan and Chinese systems), trigonometry, logarithms, algebraic geometry, number theory, calculus, differential equations, and all the way up to modern chaos theory.

In less than 300 pages, this means that no topic really is done in depth, a strength and a weakness. Similarly, too, the book remains at a high level overview strictly for non-mathematicians. This is not a volume by Eli Maor! In fact, the Mathematically trained might feel this is a bit dumbed down.

So, I believe that intelligent readers who are completely math-phobic and yet have an urge to know more about how it works and where it came from (without doing any math skull sweat) will be happiest with the book. Those fully trained in Mathematics might be frustrated at some of the lack of depth in topics (and probably would be happier with a volume on a more specific subject that they are interested in).

As for myself, I learned some things about fields of mathematics of which I am not very conversant. Stewart has a relatively easy style to follow, but its nothing special. As a production value, I do mention that to keep the volume under 300 pages, the print in the book is relatively small. Still, despite all of this, I enjoyed reading Stewart's Mathematical overview.

Guardian's Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels Everyone Must Read: The Meme

Via Sf Signal

Guardian has been running a series called 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read and has recently published their 124 science fiction and fantasy picks. (Links to intro. For the list, see Parts One, Two and Three.) They've also listed a couple of interesting articles: The Best Dystopias by Michael Moorcock, Imagined Worlds by Susanna Clarke, and Novels that predicted the future by Andrew Crumey.

As if I needed a reminder of how horribly under-read I am in the genre, I thought I'd note (in bold) which books out of this huge list I have read. Feel free to copy the list and do the same in the comments or on your own blog.

1. Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979)
2. Brian W Aldiss: Non-Stop (1958)
3. Isaac Asimov: Foundation (1951)
4. Margaret Atwood: The Blind Assassin (2000)
5. Paul Auster: In the Country of Last Things (1987)
6. Iain Banks: The Wasp Factory (1984)
7. Iain M Banks: Consider Phlebas (1987)
8. Clive Barker: Weaveworld (1987)
9. Nicola Barker: Darkmans (2007)
10. Stephen Baxter: The Time Ships (1995)
11. Greg Bear: Darwin's Radio (1999)
12. Alfred Bester: The Stars My Destination (1956)
13. Poppy Z Brite: Lost Souls (1992)
14. Algis Budrys: Rogue Moon (1960)
15. Mikhail Bulgakov: The Master and Margarita (1966)
16. Edward Bulwer-Lytton: The Coming Race (1871)
17. Anthony Burgess: A Clockwork Orange (1960)
18. Anthony Burgess: The End of the World News (1982)
19. Edgar Rice Burroughs: A Princess of Mars (1912)
20. William Burroughs: Naked Lunch (1959)
21. Octavia Butler: Kindred (1979)
22. Samuel Butler: Erewhon (1872)
23. Italo Calvino: The Baron in the Trees (1957)
24. Ramsey Campbell: The Influence (1988)
25. Lewis Carroll: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
26. Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871)
27. Angela Carter: Nights at the Circus (1984)
28. Michael Chabon: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (2000)
29. Arthur C Clarke: Childhood's End (1953)
30. GK Chesterton: The Man Who Was Thursday (1908)
31. Susanna Clarke: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (2004)
32. Michael G Coney: Hello Summer, Goodbye (1975)
33. Douglas Coupland: Girlfriend in a Coma (1998)
34. Mark Danielewski: House of Leaves (2000)
35. Marie Darrieussecq: Pig Tales (1996)
36. Samuel R Delaney: The Einstein Intersection (1967)
37. Philip K Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)
38. Philip K Dick: The Man in the High Castle (1962)
39. Umberto Eco: Foucault's Pendulum (1988)
40. Michel Faber: Under the Skin (2000)
41. John Fowles: The Magus (1966)
42. Neil Gaiman: American Gods (2001)
43. Alan Garner: Red Shift (1973)
44. William Gibson: Neuromancer (1984)
45. Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Herland (1915)
46. William Golding: Lord of the Flies (1954)
47. Joe Haldeman: The Forever War (1974)
48. M John Harrison: Light (2002)
49. Robert A Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)
50. Frank Herbert: Dune (1965)
51. Hermann Hesse: The Glass Bead Game (1943)
52. Russell Hoban: Riddley Walker (1980)
53. James Hogg: The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824)
54. Michel Houellebecq: Atomised (1998)
55. Aldous Huxley: Brave New World (1932)
56. Kazuo Ishiguro: The Unconsoled (1995)
57. Shirley Jackson: The Haunting of Hill House (1959)
58. Henry James: The Turn of the Screw (1898)
59. PD James: The Children of Men (1992)
60. Richard Jefferies: After London; Or, Wild England (1885)
61. Gwyneth Jones: Bold as Love (2001)
62. Franz Kafka: The Trial (1925)
63. Daniel Keyes: Flowers for Algernon (1966)
64. Stephen King: The Shining (1977)
65. Marghanita Laski: The Victorian Chaise-longue (1953)
66. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu: Uncle Silas (1864)
67. Stanislaw Lem: Solaris (1961)
68. Doris Lessing: Memoirs of a Survivor (1974)
69. David Lindsay: A Voyage to Arcturus (1920)
70. Ken MacLeod: The Night Sessions (2008)
71. Hilary Mantel: Beyond Black (2005)
72. Michael Marshall Smith: Only Forward (1994)
73. Richard Matheson: I Am Legend (1954)
74. Charles Maturin: Melmoth the Wanderer (1820)
75. Patrick McCabe: The Butcher Boy (1992)
76. Cormac McCarthy: The Road (2006)
77. Jed Mercurio: Ascent (2007)
78. China Miéville: The Scar (2002)
79. Andrew Miller: Ingenious Pain (1997)
80. Walter M Miller Jr: A Canticle for Leibowitz (1960)
81. David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas (2004)
82. Michael Moorcock: Mother London (1988)
83. William Morris: News From Nowhere (1890)
84. Toni Morrison: Beloved (1987)
85. Haruki Murakami: The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (1995)
86. Vladimir Nabokov: Ada or Ardor (1969)
87. Audrey Niffenegger: The Time Traveler's Wife (2003)
88. Larry Niven: Ringworld (1970)
89. Jeff Noon: Vurt (1993)
90. Flann O'Brien: The Third Policeman (1967)
91. Ben Okri: The Famished Road (1991)
92. Chuck Palahniuk: Fight Club (1996)
93. Thomas Love Peacock: Nightmare Abbey (1818)
94. Mervyn Peake: Titus Groan (1946)
95. John Cowper Powys: A Glastonbury Romance (1932)
96. Christopher Priest: The Prestige (1995)
97. François Rabelais: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532-34)
98. Ann Radcliffe: The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794)
99. Alastair Reynolds: Revelation Space (2000)
100. Kim Stanley Robinson: The Years of Rice and Salt (2002)
101. JK Rowling: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997)
102. Salman Rushdie: The Satanic Verses (1988)
103. Antoine de Sainte-Exupéry: The Little Prince (1943)
104. José Saramago: Blindness (1995)
105. Will Self: How the Dead Live (2000)
106. Mary Shelley: Frankenstein (1818)
107. Dan Simmons: Hyperion (1989)
108. Olaf Stapledon: Star Maker (1937)
109. Neal Stephenson: Snow Crash (1992)
110. Robert Louis Stevenson: The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)
111. Bram Stoker: Dracula (1897)
112. Rupert Thomson: The Insult (1996)
113. Mark Twain: A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court (1889)
114. Kurt Vonnegut: Sirens of Titan (1959)
115. Robert Walser: Institute Benjamenta (1909)
116. Sylvia Townsend Warner: Lolly Willowes (1926)
117. Sarah Waters: Affinity (1999)
118. HG Wells: The Time Machine (1895)
119. HG Wells: The War of the Worlds (1898)
120. TH White: The Sword in the Stone (1938)
121. Gene Wolfe: The Book of the New Sun (1980-83)
122. John Wyndham: Day of the Triffids (1951)
123. John Wyndham: The Midwich Cuckoos (1957)
124. Yevgeny Zamyatin: We (1924)

Another year of reading ARCs?

Last year was a record for me in terms of receiving, reading and reviewing advance reader copies of works. From books sent by friends and acquaintances, to Amazon Vine, to Library Thing Early Reviewers, and even signing up for Publishing company offers to read ARCS, ARCS were a big part of my 2008 reading.

To start off this year, there is a new wrinkle.

A representative from Hatchette books cold-contacted me with an offer to read and review a few of their upcoming titles.

I have accepted, and you will see the reviews of the books as soon as I finish reading them!

Maybe this will be another year of heavy ARC-reading for me.

Book Review 2009 #2: Pushing Ice

My second novel of the year is a return to good old Space Opera, Alastair Reynolds style: Pushing Ice

Unlike most of his space opera novels, Pushing Ice is set in a different universe than the one of the Inhibitors. This gives Reynolds the freedom of a new history and new ideas, but he keeps the high speed but not FTL travel that is a hallmark of much of his space opera.

The story begins as a frame story set some thousands of years in the future, on a distant planet. The polity gathered there have done so to honor the person they consider responsible for the existence of their civilization and progress, and a debate is to be had on just what is to be done to honor her.

The story then cuts back to that founder's story, in the 21st century solar system. Bella Lind operates the Rockhopper, a ship designed to mine comets for ice in the outer solar system. Its not the easiest work and job out there. And when the Saturnian moon Janus suddenly starts acting more like a high speed alien spacecraft than a moon, the Rockhopper is dispatched to try and rendevous with it before the moon leaves the solar system. However, events conspire so that the Rockhopper is caught and trapped in the moon's wake, for a long journey in store to the star Spica...

Interesting and plausible factions aboard the rockhopper. Neat use of technology of medium-term human, far-future human, and alien technology. There are even multiple BDO (Big Dumb Objects), with Janus, and the strange complex at Spica that the moon speeds toward. It's a classic space opera part with 21st century sensibilities, and Reynolds works hard to make it work.

Sure, his characterization skills aren't as strong as some authors, but Reynolds doesn't make them into complete cardboard cutouts--characters simply aren't his forte. (I can sympathize, believe me!) Reynolds does much better when he is playing with technology and ideas than with the faction leaders Bella and Svetlana, but one must admit that if this novel was written 20 or 30 years ago, its dead certain that these two characters would have been unavoidably male. I don't think that, even then, the characterization would have improved. The female characters never feel like they are "men in drag".

Still, sometimes for a F&SF reader, nothing less than space opera will do, and despite its relatively shallow faults, I was thoroughly and completely entertained and satisfied with the journey of the Rockhopper and its crew in Pushing Ice. Fans of Reynolds will enjoy this novel. If you haven't tried any of his Inhibitor novels, Pushing Ice works very well as a standalone introduction to Reynolds work and style.

Book Review 2009 #1: Gladiatrix

My first book read this year was an ARC via Amazon Vine: Gladiatrix, by Russell Whitfield.

Gladiatrix, by Russell Whitfield.

Lysandra is, or was, a mission Priestess of Athena from the fallen city-state of Sparta, in the reign of Domitian in the Roman Empire. Now, after a shipwreck, she is not only a slave, but is being trained as a female gladiator. Thus, she embodies eponymous title of the novel, along with a group of other women also condemned to the same fate.

Gladiatrix shows us her story, starting in medias res, revealing how she was captured, and follows her story as she rises in the stable, develops relationships with her fellow gladiatrices, and finally has a knock down, drag out final combat with her greatest rival, after the love of her life dies.

On the surface, the novel is well paced, exciting, the clash of blades, the savagery and power of life in the Roman world on display and seen through the eyes of an outsider who is now the lowest of the low. Casual readers will likely enjoy it for exactly those reasons.

For me, however, I found it wanting. I know too much.

I may not be a Classical scholar (and the author doesn't profess to be one either, just an interested amateur), but I found the novel and the heroine's actions and life highly improbable and worse, "written to cinema". Some of the pattern of the story follows, to an extent, part of the arc of the movie Gladiator, and not to its credit. I just couldn't buy, even with the fig leaf of an Athene priest hired and brought in to convince Lysandra, that a female spartan would ever, in the end, accept her fate enough to actually embrace her role as a gladiatrix. It broke the character that had been building--even if, I recognize, it was the only way to get the story forward. I think that the author simply wanted a female Spartan gladiator, even if large implausibilities were the only way to get there.

An additional cinematic and not-very-realistic addition in the plot is the love affair between Lysandra and Eirinawen. I never really bought it as more than the author wishing for Lysandra to have a homoerotic relationship with one of her fellow gladiatrices. It never felt natural to me to her character, or Eirinawen's, for that matter. Now, the consequences of the pursuit of that relationship, as it ties into Lysandra's rival Sorina, that I admit was handled much better. But I never really bought the creation of the relationship in the first place.

I almost wish that Whitfield had decided to write this novel in an invented world of his own. Perhaps with the freedom to make a Roman-like, rather than a strictly Roman Empire world, I would have been far more forgiving of the implausibilities of the characters and simply went along for the ride. As it was, I was in the end, underwhelmed.

Bujold's Sharing Knife novels--Fantasy with a Frontier touch?

http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=11083
I clearly haven't read enough (or any, really) Westerns.

In an appreciation of Bujold's Sharing Knife novels (which you will all remember that I've read all four, including the one not yet out as an ARC), the irrepressible Jo Walton points out on the Tor Blog:

I mentioned that they're written in the language and dialect of the Western. The words like "blight bogle," the placenames "West Blue," "Glassforge," "Lumpton Market" and the way the characters speak, especially Fawn, all contribute to this. This is the world of Davy Crockett if Davy Crockett had lived in a post-apocalyptic fantasy landscape.

I never noticed this before, but looking at the map of one of my copies, it makes a heck of a lot of sense. I haven't read enough Westerns to see it before, but now that she points it out--its obvious.

It also as Walton implies, shows Bujold's strength and ability to use unusual backgrounds in order to inspire her fantasy. (Chalion used medieval Spain for her cultural cues, something that aside from The Golden Key and The Lions of Al-Rassan, doesn't seem to be used much for inspiration in fantasy fiction.

Frontier America--well, aside from the Sharing Knife novels, what fantasy novels use that culture (and are NOT fantasy Westerns)? I can't think of any, except Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series. And even he sets his in an alternate America, rather than using Frontier America solely as a culture base.

Final Book Tally 2008

My final Book list from 2008.

51 Books, down from last year. 13 books were Advanced Reader Copies or books given in expectation of a review--from Amazon Vine, from Library Thing, and personally sent as well. It was a good year for expanding my horizons in that fashion.

As I said in the entry when I mentioned being chosen to participate in a Mind Meld, I may be a 5th rate blog, but a few people do come by here. I do hope you'll continue to come by in 2009 as I discuss books, science fiction, and a phethora of other subjects.

51 Prospero Lost, L Jagi Lamplighter
50 Champlain's Dream, David Fischer
49 The Universe Twister, Keith Laumner
48 City at the End of Time, Greg Bear
47 Sharing Knife: Horizon, Lois M Bujold
46 Sharing Knife: Passage, Lois M Bujold
45 Atlas of Lost Cities,Brenda Rosen
44 Adventures in Unhistory, Avram Davidson
43 Necropath, Eric Brown
42 After the Downfall, Harry Turtledove
41 Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton
40 The Golden Key, Melanie Rawn, Jennifer Roberson and Kate Elliott
39 From Colony to Superpower, George Herring
38 Kushiel's Justice, Jacqueline Carey
37 Nation, Terry Pratchett
36 Implied Spaces,Walter Jon Williams
35 Legacies, L.E. Modesitt
34 Whiskey and Water, Elizabeth Bear
33 Axis, Robert Charles Wilson
32 Selling Out, Justina Robson
31 The Shadows of God, Gregory Keyes
30 The Code Book, Simon Singh
29 The Last Dragon, J M Mcdermott
28 The Gist Hunter and Other Stories, Matthew Hughes
27 Majestrum, Matthew Hughes
26 Dzur, Steven Brust
25 Galactic Empires, Gardner Dozois (editor)
24 The Rosetta Key, William Dietrich
23 The Twisted Citadel, Sara Douglass
22 Little Brother, Cory Doctorow
21 The Martian General's Daughter, Theodore Judson
20 The Gate of Gods, Martha Wells
19 A World too Near, Kay Kenyon
18 In the Courts of the Crimson Kings, S.M. Stirling
17 Reaper's Gale, Steven Erikson
16 The Merchants War,Charles Stross
15 Silverlock, John Myers Myers
14 The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde
13 The Dragon's Nine Sons, Chris Roberson
12 A Shadow in Summer, Daniel Abraham
11 The Eternity Artifact, L.E. Modesitt
10 Wolf Who Rules, Wen Spencer
09 Hiding in the Mirror, Lawrence Krauss
08 The Stars my Destination, Alfred Bester
07 Opening Atlantis, Harry Turtledove
06 Death by Black Hole, Neil DeGrasse Tyson
05 Now in Theaters Everywhere, Kenneth Turan
04 Never Coming to a Theater Near You, Kenneth Turan
03 Plague Year, Jeff Carlson
02 Writers of the Future Volume XXIII, Algis Budrys (editor)
01 The Trojan War a new history, Barry Strauss

We are literate up here, you betcha

Most Literate Cities
Once again, bookworms in the Midwest and Pacific Northwest have beaten out Yankee types to reach the very top of a researcher's list of the most literate American cities.

Minneapolis and Seattle tied for the top ranking this year, based on local newspaper and magazine circulation, library data, online news readership, book purchases and resources, and educational attainment.

Here is the full Top 10 Most Literate list for 2008 (OK, there are 11 cities on the list) generated by Jack Miller, president of Central Connecticut State University:

Minneapolis (tied for 1st)
Seattle (tied for 1st)
Washington, D.C.
St. Paul, Minn.
San Francisco
Atlanta
Denver
Boston
St. Louis
Cincinnati (tied for 10th)
Portland, Ore. (tied for 10th)

You will note that each of the Twin Cities came in tied for first, and Number 4 on this list.

So, if you are a science fiction author, you could do worse than a book signing at one of our two F/SF bookstores! And if you want to support an Independent bookstore that isn't explicitly F/SF, we have a boatload of them, too.

We read up here, you betcha. Blame it on the snow. What else are you going to do when the temperature is 10 below, the wind is howling and your satellite connection is out?

Book Review 2008 #51: Prospero Lost

My Fifty first, and probably last book of the year, won't be available to the general public for several months (and I will talk more about it again as publication date approaches).

The author is L. Jagi Lamplighter and the book is Prospero Lost, first in a trilogy of novels, Prospero's Daughter.

Shakespeare is a very common subject for fantasy. The fact that he has some fantasy within his own plays has proven inspirational to other authors using him and his works as inspiration for their own stories. I've read and am aware of a number of these. Sarah Hoyt's trilogy involving Shakespeare's interactions with Faerie. Elizabeth Willey's trio of novels had a Prospero as a sorcerer and estranged part of a world-spanning family, creating a land instead of exile on an island. My friend Elizabeth Bear has mined this territory in the back half of her Promethean Age novels (although she is as much a fan of Kit Marlowe as Shakespeare).

Into this field has waded L. Jagi Lamplighter. Her husband is John C. Wright, whose own style and tastes range from the Golden Age trilogy, through the Orphans of Chaos trilogy, to, of all things, a sequel to a Van Vogt novel. It would be a mistake to think, though, that Lamplighter's style and sensibilities are a clone of her husband.

No, what she has created in Prospero's Lost is quite different. Modern Day, Our Earth Fantasy is very common these days, but it seems that every other book in the F/SF section is a Vampire novel, one way or another. Fantasy is in ascendancy over Science Fiction, and Vampires are leading over other types of fantasy.

Thankfully for me, Prospero's Lost is a fantasy of a different type. It might be helpfully be classified as a Secret Arcane History. In Lamplighter's universe, there is a hierarchy of arcane beings with the detail and complexity of a Gnostic universe. The novel's heroine, Miranda, tangles and meets with demons, elves, elementals, magicians, and even Santa Claus (a depiction that reminded this reader of the Narnian version as much as traditional depictions). There are references to unicorns, angels, and other beings between Man and God. The universe is a Christian universe and Protestant-Catholic theology comes into the plot, however, Lamplighter effectively populates the spaces between Demons, Man, Angels and God. Most people in this world have no idea of these beings, of course. In that sense, I wonder if Lamplighter has read the RPG Nobilis for some inspiration on the complex mythology.

The story is the growth and development of Miranda.Devoted daughter of her father, Prospero, ageless and virginal, the disappearance of her father spurs her out, in true Hero fashion, from the comfort of her home to find her diasporatic siblings, in a quest to find (and save) her father. Along the way, in a fashion that reminded me a bit of Pratt and De Camp, we have an elemental modeled along the lines of a noir detective, a modern day Circe, an aging demon hunter, hell hounds, narrow escapes, adventures and Christmas Dinner at the House of Santa Claus. Flashbacks, that help establish the characters and their motivations. And the Three Shadowed Ones and the mystery of just what happened to the patriarch of the clan.

Okay, I've gotten this far without invoking Mr. Zelazny but I will now. Lamplighter is a fan of Zelazny (she cut her teeth on the ADRPG) and although these are new characters, on a Secret History Earth, the influence of Zelazny on this novel is similar to, say, the aforementioned Elizabeth Willey novels. The author clearly has read and loved Roger's work (like her husband does) and it has flavored this work (again, like John's Orphans of Chaos). It was a conscious effort on my part to decide that the Circe-like sister to Miranda "is definitely not Fiona after all". So don't come to this book looking explicitly for Jack of Shadows or Corwin analogues, but people who devour Zelazny's oeuvre will definitely appreciate Lamplighter's sensibilities and writing.

It's a first novel, so I expect the first-novel writing (which might also be a consequence of reading an ARC) to improve in subsequent novels. This book was a fitting and highly pleasurable way to end the year.

Watch for it.

Mind Meld Participation

Mind Meld.

The fine folks at SF Signal occasionally do a little project they call "Mind Meld", when they ask SF authors and others questions on various topics. They've been doing a several part series on "The Best Genre Related Books/Films/Shows/Games Consumed In 2008".

In their latest installment, Part III, despite me being a fifth(sixth? nth?) rate blogger, they decided to ask, amongst other people, ME.

Go and read how I answered the question!

Book Review 2008 #50: Champlain's Dream

Another book given to me in exchange for a review (via Amazon Prime), Champlain's Dream is the history of the explorer Samuel De Champlain, written by Pulitzer Prize winning author David Hackett Fischer.

Now well known for his Pulitzer Prize winning history, Washington's Crossing, in Champlain's Dream, David Hackett Fischer tackles the father of New France, explorer and colonizer Samuel de Champlain.

Although the volume veers slightly toward hagiography (despite the author's protestations to the contrary), Champlain's Dream is an exhaustive and detailed look at Champlain and his world. Starting with the sociopolitical and religious milieu of southwestern France in the 16th century, and continuing through the book, Fischer gives us an education on the environment in which Champlain grew up. I learned more about 16th and 17th century in this one volume than I have in an entire college course on European history.

The detail on Champlain the man and his actions and history is also similarly compre