Books in the Mail (W/E 07/18/2009)

I get a lot of books for review from various publishers. I, unfortunately, can’t read everything I get so I like to at least acknowledge what comes into the house for review so I do these Sunday postings of Books in the Mail. Here’s this week’s version:

Nightchild (Chronicles of the Raven #3) by James Barclay (Pyr Trade Paperback 11/22/2009) – Third installment of The Chronicles of the Raven and again, set to release one month after the second book, which is set to release one month after the first. Nothing works better than shelf presence except maybe solid and entertaining writing/storytelling, which James Barclay has in spades:

The concluding volume of the Chronicles is an excellent capstone to a superb series of books. The Raven, again are faced with a world-shattering challenge. What makes this challenge even worse is that it is from their own ranks. The Nightchild refers to the daughter of Erienne and Denser, Lyanna. Lyanna is the prophesized uniting child of Magic, bringing the One magic back to Balaia, uniting the four colleges.

Five years have past since the events of Noonshade e and the Raven have gone their separate ways, finally following through on the promise to retire the made in the beginning of Dawnthief. It is one event in Dawnthief that sets everything in motion for Nightchild, the consummation of Denser and Erienne’s relationship.
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The Martian Chronicles: The Complete Edition by Ray Bradbury (Subterranean Press/PS Publishing [1] Limited and [2] Lettered Hardcover December 2009) – The Martian Chronicles is one of those hallmarks and IT books of Science Fiction I’ve (embarrassingly) never read. Luckily, Subterranean Press/PS Publishing decided to get together and co-publish a lavish, dense, and beautiful (based on the ARC) edition of these seminal stories in one massive volume inside a terrific cover by Edward Miller, sporting introductions by John Scalzi, Joe Hill, Richard Matheson and Mark Scott Zicree.

In the course of his long, illustrious career, Ray Bradbury has created some of the most memorable and enduring fiction of our time. While no one work can adequately represent the range and depth of his achievement, it may well be that The Martian Chronicles will come to stand as his most singular accomplishment. A visionary account of the first attempt to extend the human enterprise to another planet, this unique and resonant book is both a seminal work of science fiction and a permanent addition to modern popular culture.

The episodic saga begins during the “rocket summer” of 1999, when the first outbound ships depart for Mars, leaving the bleak Ohio winter behind. It ends, 27 years later, during a “million year picnic” which casts a harsh, reflective light on an entire civilization. Along the way, Bradbury introduces a gallery of distinctive characters, all of whom have powerful reasons for seeking a newer life. Some are actively escaping--from racism, from political and cultural repression, from the never-ending prospect of war. Some are actively searching--for adventure, for uncharted horizons, for a sense of spiritual renewal. Together, they create a frontier society as complex, varied, and tragically flawed as the one they left behind.

The result is a work of philosophical humanism filled with memorable scenes and indelible images. A wealthy settler builds a new “House of Usher” and wages bloody war against a dull and lifeless bureaucracy. Translucent “fire balloons” offer intricate lessons in matters of the spirit. A telepathic Martian helplessly absorbs the hopes, grief, and memories of the surrounding human populace. A solitary survivor creates an automated family to help keep loneliness at bay. Moments like these offer something deeper and grander than simple entertainment. As the author pointedly reminds us: “It is good to renew one’s wonder.” The Martian Chronicles accomplishes this task with wit, grace, and unselfconscious artistry. It will doubtless continue to do so for generations to come.

With more than 50 stories, essays, introductions and two full-length screenplays by Bradbury himself, The Martian Chronicles: the Definitive Edition is a volume for the permanent shelf, one which chronicles the evolution of Bradbury’s Mars from the original classic volume and beyond.

Alpha and Omega (Alpha and Omega/Mercedes Thompson) by Patricia Briggs (Subterranean Press Limited (1000 copies) Edition Hardcover Fall 2009) – Brigg’s thoughts on this novella, which was originally in the On the Prowl anthology and takes place in the same world as her Mercedes Thompson novels:

"Alpha and Omega" is Charles's story. Charles is one of those characters who comes on stage to fill out a scene -- or, in this case, to make the Montana pack feel like a "real" pack, one that doesn't just exist for the sake of a novel. But as I wrote a little about him I found out a lot more -- and since he didn't have a real role in the plot, I had to set him aside once he'd performed his alloted role. It would have bothered me more, but I knew that Moon Called was the first in a series so I figured I could use him later. When my editor called to ask me if I thought I could write a novella in Mercy's world -- I thought about it for a while, and decided to give Charles his chance upon the stage. I already had a plot -- he'd been sent to deal with one of the Chicago alphas in Moon Called. Even so, the story took me a little by surprise (which is a good thing). I didn't expect such a strong romance angle in this story, but I liked how it turned out. I hope you enjoy getting to know Charles as much as I did.

Chapterhouse: Dune by Frank Herbert (Tor (Hardcover 08/04/2009) – This would be the sixth and final Dune novel by Frank Herbert. Although I’ve read the first one a couple of times, I always wanted to go back and read the remaining book by Herbert. I’ve got some fill in to do before I get to this one, though. This edition is updated in that it contains an introduction by Brian Herbert, Frank’s son. Brian, for good or bad, has gone on to continue the Dune series with Kevin J. Anderson for 11 additional books (which is almost double what Frank wrote himself). Be that as it may, here’s what can be gleaned about Frank’s last book:

The desert planet Arrakis, called Dune, has been destroyed. Now, the Bene Gesserit, heirs to Dune’s power, have colonized a green world—and are tuning it into a desert, mile by scorched mile.

Chapterhouse Dune is the last book Frank Herbert wrote before his death: A stunning climax to the epic Dune legend that will live on forever.


The Grave Thief (Book #3 of The Twilight Reign) by Tom Lloyd (Pyr Trade Paperback September 2009) – These books have found an audience here in the US, I’m just not part of it.

Scree has been wiped from the face of the Land in a brutal demonstration of intent. While those responsible scatter to work on the next step in their plan, the stakes are raised - all the way to the heavens - as the Gods themselves enter the fray. Returning home to a nation divided by fanaticism, Lord Isak is haunted both by the consequences of his actions in Scree and by visions of his own impending death. As the full extent of Azaer's schemes become clearer, he realises prophecy and zealotry must play their part in his battle-plans if there is to be any chance of surviving the coming years. As a white-eye, Isak has had to embrace the darker parts of his own soul, but now the savage religious fervour sweeping his nation must also be accepted and turned to purpose, in the name of survival. With the battle lines vague and allegiances uncertain, the time for heartless decisions and ruthless action has come. Two figures oppose Isak and his allies: the greatest warrior in history, who dreams of empire and Godhood, and a newborn baby whose dreams have no limit.

Desolation Road by Ian McDonald (Pyr Trade Paperback July 2009) – Pyr continues to bring Ian McDonald’s work to US audiences in this re-issue of his 1998 debut novel, which seems a mix of steampunk and future SF. I loved River of Gods and have read some of his shorts.

On a partially terraformed Mars (comfortable temperature and atmosphere, although still mostly desert) a lone scientist is hunting a mysterious being across the desert, using a device best described as an anti-gravity sailboard for transportation. While taking a rest, he neglects to secure the board thoroughly and wakes up in time to see it blown away by the wind. Stranded in the desert, he is fortunate to discover an artificial oasis (created by a long-lost terraforming AI) near a line of railway. With all the necessities of life around him, he awaits rescue or company. Eventually, he is joined by other strays and castaways, and together they found the town of Desolation Road.

Although not a steampunk novel, much of the technology featured in the book, such as locomotives (albeit Fusion) and propellor-driven aircraft, appears to hearken back to Earth's near-history rather than to standard visions of the future. This gives the novel an atmosphere of anachronism and timelessness.

The Sheriff of Yrnameer: A Novel by Michael Rubens (Pantheon Hardcover 8/4/2009) – It isn’t very often you see a Stephen Colbert blurb on a book not by Stephen Colbert. That combined with the Douglas Adams-ish feel, push this book up a little bit for me. I received the ARC for this back in April and the finished/final book arrived this week in all its green and yellow glory. Rubens is a writer on The Daily Show staff.

Meet Cole: hapless space rogue, part-time smuggler, on a path to being full-time dead. His sidekick just stole his girlfriend. The galaxy's most hideous and feared bounty hunter wants to lay eggs in his brain. And the luxury space yacht Cole just hijacked turns out of be filled with interstellar do-gooders, one especially loathsome stowaway, and a cargo of freeze-dried orphans.

Reluctantly compelled to deliver these defenseless, fluidless children to safety, Cole gathers a misfit crew for a desperate journey to the far reaches of the galaxy. Their destination: the mysterious world of Yrnameer, the very last of the your-name-heres—planets without corporate sponsors. But little does Cole know that this legendary utopia is home to a murderous band of outlaws bent on destroying the planet's tiny, peaceful community.

Follow Cole's adventures through a delightfully absurd science-fiction universe, where the artificial intelligence is stupid, dust motes carry branding messages, and middle-management zombies have overrun a corporate training satellite. In the spirit of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett, The Sheriff of Yrnameer is sci-fi comedy at its best—mordant, raucously funny, and a thrilling page-turner.

Dragons and Dwarves:Novels of the Cleveland Portal by S. Andrew Swann (DAW Mass Market Paperback 08/04/2009) – As I was saying about two weeks ago regarding DAW in specific and Swann in particular, here’s one of those terrific backlist-author-omnibus editions containing two Urban/Epic Fantasy hybrids - The Dragons of the Cuyahoga and The Dwarves of Whiskey Island:

The Dragons of the Cuyahoga – A decade after the Portal opened a gate between Cleveland, Ohio and a universe of mages, elves, and dragons, reporter Kline Maxwell works the political beat for the Cleveland Pressand does his best to avoid “fuzzy gnome” stories.

However, when fifteen tons of dragon takes a nose-dive into the Cuyahoga River, killing the supposedly immortal creature, Kline finds himself drawn into the story against his will. Soon, he discovers that the dragon was not just any dragon, and the death was no accident.

Soon he is running from cops, elves and gargoyles— and finds himself wrapped in a web of intrigue that ranges from a network of underground mages, the mayor’s office, the port authority, the possibly-corrupt police Special Paranormal Unit, all the way to the federal government.

The Dwarves of Whiskey Island – Two years after investigating the high-profile death of a dragon for the Cleveland Press, reporter Kline Maxwell is safely back on the political beat. Then he receives a call from a dwarf claiming to have information on the suicide of a former city council president, a dwarf who quickly suffers a gruesome death. Soon Kline is again wrapped in a mystical conspiracy of wide-ranging implications.

And at the center of the conspiracy is an ancient evil that has taken an interest in Kline and his family. . .

Julian Comstock by Robert Charles Wilson

Robert Charles Wilson has written some of the best received science fiction over the past decade or so. His spectacular novel Spin won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2006. I also enjoyed Darwinia, which was nominated for the Hugo and Locus Award in 1999. His latest novel, Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America is at least as good as Spin, and quite possibly better. It hasn’t sunk in quite enough for me to determine that yet.

With that having been said, here’s the part of my review, which I posted yesterday:

The tone is very comfortable and Wilson’s prose is just wonderful to read and digest. The comfortable to which I’m referring is the tone is inasmuch as we the reader, through Adam’s positioning of words, know who Julian Comstock really is. Essentially, the feel of the novel is that we are taking a peek behind the curtain at how the real events transpired around a legendary and historical figure.

While not quite a post-apocalyptic tale, the novel is definitely the story of a nation (and one suspects of a world) struggling to rise through the mire of sin and decadence from its societal predecessor. The world isn’t a typically blasted landscape seen in post-apocalyptic fiction, rather Wilson has envisioned a regressed future. In many ways, this is an elegiac and depressing novel, but the pathos we hear through Adams voice lends an understated elegance and hope to the tale.

It isn’t through info dumps or anything obtrusive that the reader learns about the world at large, technology like cars and travel to the moon are viewed as nearly magical things of the past or fallacies of fantasy outright banished from collective thought. Wilson also manages to conjure the reality of the future world and layer the details very well through the characters thoughts, actions, and words.

Books in the Mail (W/E 07/11/2009)

Sundays mean posting about the review books I received the prior week, so here goes with a lot of stuff from the various Penguin imprints:

Enigma by C. F. Bentley (DAW Hardcover 08/04/2008) – Bentley is one of three pseudonyms, the other two being P.R. Frost and Irene Radford, and I haven’t read any of the three, but under each name, she writes slightly different fiction. Bentley is the name under which she writes Science Fiction and the book here is a sequel to Harmony

The follow-up to Harmony, from "a bright star in the outer space galaxy of science fiction."(Midwest Book Review)

The world of Harmony, along with its close-knit colony planets, has been isolated from the rest of the universe for many generations. Now, Harmony's High Priestess Sissy and Confederated Star System Agent Jake have traveled to space station Labyrinthe VII, otherwise known as The First Contact Café, where they hope to establish diplomatic relations between the Harmonic Empire and the wider universe. But when an alien ship crashes into the Harmony Diplomatic Wing of Labyrinthe VII, the precarious balance Sissy and Jake have established begins to dissolve.

Cape Storm (Weather Warden #) by Rachel Caine (Roc Mass Market Paperback 08/04/2009) – This here’s the eighth book in the popular series about people who control the weather. Caine is very prolific and has four or five series running at the moment.


Weather Warden Joanne Baldwin and her new husband, the Djinn David, are running from a malevolent hurricane bent on destroying her. Joined by an army of fellow Wardens and Djinn onboard a hijacked luxury liner, Joanne has lured the storm into furious pursuit. But even their combined magic may not be enough to stop it—nor the power-mad ex-Weather Warden controlling it...



The Kingdom Beyond the Waves by Stephen Hunt (Tor (Hardcover 07/21/2007) – Third book set in the universe Hunt created in The Court of the Air. Hunt, owner of SF Crowsnest has received some positive buzz about these steampunky books. Since this book in particular seems standalonish, I might jump into it.

Professor Amelia Harsh is obsessed with finding the lost civilization of Camlantis, a legendary city from pre-history that is said to have conquered hunger, war, and disease with the creation of the perfect pacifist society. Without official funding, Amelia is forced to accept an offer of patronage from Abraham Quest, the man she blames for her father’s bankruptcy and suicide. She hates him, but he has something that Amelia desperately wants--evidence that proves that Camlantis existed and that the Camlantean ruins are buried under one of the sea-like lakes that dot the murderous jungles of Liongeli.

Amelia will blackmail her old friend Commodore Black into ferrying her along a huge river on his ancient U-boat. With an untrusty crew of freed convicts, Quest’s force of fearsome female mercenaries on board, and a lunatic steamman acting as their guide, Amelia’s luck seems to be going from bad to worse. Her quest for the perfect society has a good chance of bringing her own world to the brink of destruction…

The Kingdom Beyond The Waves is Stephen Hunt’s third novel, set in the same universe as The Court of the Air. Amelia Harsh is a female Indiana Jones if there ever was one, and this novel is a rollicking steampunk adventure that will hook readers for one dynamite ride.


The Red Tree Cage by Caitlin R. Kiernan (Roc Trade Paperback 08/04/2009) – I’ve been wanting to read Kiernan for quite some time, and this book looks like a pretty good opportunity to do just that. She’s garnered some high praise and has worked with Neil Gaiman in the past.

Sarah Crowe left Atlanta, and the remnants of a tumultuous relationship, to live alone in an old house in rural Rhode Island. Within its walls she discovers an unfinished manuscript written by the house's former tenant—a parapsychologist obsessed with the ancient oak growing on a desolate corner of the property. And as the gnarled tree takes root in her imagination, Sarah risks her health and her sanity to unearth a revelation planted centuries ago...

The Magicians by Lev Grossman (Viking Hardcover 08/11 2009) – Lev Grossman is no stranger to fantasy and science fiction, he’s the book reviewer for Time magazine who dubbed George R.R. Martin “The American Tolkien” and runs the Nerd World blog for Time. The Magicians is his second novel and though it is explicitly fantasy in nature, it is being positioned with a great deal of mainstream appeal.

Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A senior in high school, he's still secretly preoccupied with a series of fantasy novels he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the craft of modern sorcery.

He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. Something is missing, though. Magic doesn't bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he dreamed it would. After graduation he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real. But the land of Quentin's fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he could have imagined. His childhood dream becomes a nightmare with a shocking truth at its heart.

At once psychologically piercing and magnificently absorbing, The Magicians boldly moves into uncharted literary territory, imagining magic as practiced by real people, with their capricious desires and volatile emotions. Lev Grossman creates an utterly original world in which good and evil aren't black and white, love and sex aren't simple or innocent, and power comes at a terrible price.

House of Windows by John Langan (NightShade Books Trade Paperback 08/15/2009) – I may have read a couple of Langan’s short stories, this is his (I think) debut novel.

From John Langan (Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters) comes House of Windows, a chilling novel in the tradition of Peter Straub, Joe Hill, and Laird Barron.

When a young writer finds himself cornered by a beautiful widow in the waning hours of a late-night cocktail party, he seeks at first to escape, to return to his wife and infant son, but the tale she weaves, of her missing husband, a renowned English professor, and her lost stepson, a soldier killed on a battlefield on the other side of the world, of phantasmal visions, a family curse, and a house... the Belvedere House, a striking mansion whose features suggest a face, hidden just out of view, draws him in, capturing him. What follows is a deeply psychological ghost story of memory and malediction, loss and remorse.


How to Make Friends with Demons by Graham Joyce (NightShade Books Hardcover 06/15/2009 / Trade Paperback 02/2010) – Joyce is a superb writer, what I’ve read by him, I enjoyed a great deal: The Tooth Fairy, Dreamside, and Dark Sister. Here’s what this one is about:

William Heaney is a man well acquainted with demons. Not his broken family - his wife has left him for a celebrity chef, his snobbish teenaged son despises him, and his daughter's new boyfriend resembles Nosferatu - nor his drinking problem, nor his unfulfilling government job, but real demons. For demons are real, and William has identified one thousand five hundred and sixty-seven smoky figures, dwelling on the shadowy fringes of human life, influencing our decisions with their sweet and poisoned voices. After a series of seemingly unconnected personal encounters - with a beautiful and captivating woman met in the company of an infuriating poet, a troubled and damaged veteran of Desert Storm with demons of his own, and an old school acquaintance with whom he shared a mystical occult ritual - William Heaney's life is thrown into a direction he does not fully comprehend. Past and present collide. Long-dormant choices and forgotten deceptions surface. Secrets threaten to become exposed. To weather the changes, William Heaney must learn one thing: how to make friends with demons.

Vanished (Greywalker #4) by Kat Richardson (Roc Hardcover 08/04/2009) – Fourth book in an Urban Fantasy series about a P.I. who was dead for a couple of minutes and can now see things. Richardson is a another fine example of Roc “promoting” an author to hardcover.

Harper Blaine was your average small-time P.I. until she died—for two minutes. Now Harper is a Greywalker—walking the line between the living world and the paranormal realm. And she's discovering that her new abilities are landing her in all sorts of "strange cases."

But for Harper, her own case may prove the most difficult to solve. Why did she—as opposed to others with near-death experiences—become a Greywalker? When Harper digs into her own past, she unearths some unpleasant truths about her father's early death as well as a mysterious puzzle. Forced by some very demanding vampires to take on an investigation in London, she soon discovers her present troubles in England are entangled with her dark past back in Seattle—and her ultimate destiny as a Greywalker.


Treason’s Shore (Inda #4) by Shrewood Smith (DAW Harddcover 08/04/2009) – I’ve been kind of intrigued by this set of books since the first volume was published a few years ago, I’ve seen good things about them and Smith has a pretty informative and interesting blog/LiveJournal. The series even has a dedicated Wiki. Here’s the blurbage:

Inda, fresh from his triumph on the battlefield against the Venn, takes his place beside King Evred as Harskialdna, the King's Shield. But the Venn are far from defeated and only Inda's fame is strong enough to inspire all the squabbling kingdoms to unite and raise a force mighty enough to protect the strait and repel the enemy. Evred has also ordered Inda to take over the strait once the battle is won, but Inda, a former pirate, knows that this is a very bad idea. Now Inda must choose between obeying his liege—or committing treason.

Lightbreaker (The Codex of Souls #1) by Mark Teppo (NightShade Books Mass Market Paperback 05/18/2009) – First time author Mark Teppo launches an intriguing Urban Fantasy that has already garnered some positive reviews. Teppo is the second or third of NightShade’s mass-market original authors.

Markham has returned to Seattle, searching for Katarina, the girl who, a decade ago, touched his soul, literally tearing it from his body. But what he discovers upon arriving is dark magick - of a most ancient and destructive kind!

An encounter with a desperate spirit, leaping destructively from host to host, sets Markham on the trail of secretive cabal of magicians seeking to punch a hole through heaven, extinguishing forever the divine spark. Armed with the Chorus, a phantasmal chain of human souls he wields as a weapon of will, Markham must engage in a magickal battle with earth-shattering stakes!

Markum must delve deep into his past, calling on every aspect of his occult training for there to be any hope of a future. But delve he must, for Markham is a veneficus, a spirit thief, the Lightbreaker...

Crystal Healer (Stardoc #9) by S.L. Viehl (Roc Mass Market Paperback 08/04/2009) – Viehl is an extremely prolific writer, with several current series under multiple pseudonyms, with the Stardoc series being her foot in Science Fiction

Genetically engineered interstellar surgeon Dr. Cherijo Torin, her husband Duncan Reever, and a handpicked crew journey to the planet oKia to locate a strange black mineral that is the source of an intergalactic epidemic. When one of the crew members becomes infected, his body slowly begins to crystallize. While Cherijo races to save the crew member, mercenaries arrive in the oKia system, wanting Cherijo's genes—and her near immortality. It will take all of her abilities to elude the mercenaries and discover the black crystal's secrets before it's too late.

Wake by Robert J. Sawyer - Reviewed

Robert J. Sawyer is one of the genre’s most recognized and decorated writers with a lot of his novels having either been nominated or receiving genre awards. I’ve read a couple of his books and enjoyed them (Factoring Humanity and Starplex) so I was pleased to receive a review copy of his latest. Sawyer’s one of those authors I enjoyed, but just never managed to pick up again. That said, I posted my review of that latest book Wake, the first novel in his new WWW trilogy yesterday. Ace is very much behind this book in a strong way, with a nice dedicated site to the series: http://wakewatchwonder.com/ and Rob (as he does for all of his books) has a nice page for the book on his Web site: http://www.sfwriter.com./exw1.htm.

Anyway, here’s the usual snippet from my review:

Wake centers on Caitlin Decter a young girl blind from birth. Despite this handicap and moving from Texas to Canada, she has adjusted pretty well and is able to browse the internet through a text-to-voice interface that reads the Web pages to her. One day, she receives a promising message about a new technology developed in Japan that might allow her to finally see. What she gets is not exactly the vision for which she hoped, for this procedure allows here to see the connections of the World Wide Web, which she comes to call her Websight. She begins to see something else though, something that respond, something that seemingly has free will and the ability to act on its own.

Books in the Mail (W/E 07/04/2009)

It's time for the usual Sunday post where I inform my faithful readers of the books that arrived on my doorstep/in front of my garage/in my mailbox the prior week. With the holiday, it was a pretty slow week. Here goes...

Zadayi Red by Caleb Fox (Tor Hardcover 07/07/2009) – A debut novel publishing in hardcover from Tor is a good sign for this Native American flavored fantasy.

A young Shaman of the Galayi people has had a powerful and frightening vision: it is of the Eagle Feather Cape, the gift of the Thunderbird, which is worn by the Seer of the People to see the future and gain the guidance of the gods. The cape is torn and bloody, and it will no longer bring visions to the Seer of the People. But the Shaman's vision also tells her of the cure: a child will be born to the People, a hero who will restore the cape and return the goodwill of the gods to the People.

Dahzi may be that hero, if he can survive the hatred of his grandfather. He was born after his mother’s death, as she fled from her father’s anger. But Dahzi carries the hope of all of his People, along with the power to become a great Chief. He will be tested--by his family, by his people, and by the Gods.

Zadayi Red is a magnificent retelling of a Cherokee legend. It brings to life an ancient people and a time of magic in a warm and intimate storyteller’s voice.

Not Less Than Gods (A novel of Company) by Kage Baker (Subterranean Press Signed/Numbered (limited to 474) Hardcover 12/17/2009) – Victorian Steampunky goodness from a writer who revels in such stories. This novel takes place in the same universe as Baker’s popular Company novels and stories.

On a dark evening in 1824, a lady is offered a ride home in the carriage of a dark and mysterious stranger and a boy is conceived, to the strains of Beethoven's brand-new setting to the Ode to Joy. Groomed from childhood to become a perfect British hero, young Edward Alton Bell-Fairfax proceeds uncertainly through public school, a career in the navy, mutiny and court-martial before discovering his true place in life. There is, in Whitehall, a comfortable and slightly shabby club called Redking's. Downstairs from Redking's, however, is concealed the London headquarters of the Gentlemen's Speculative Society... a centuries-old fraternity devoted to the development of what its members call Technologia. Their goal is to bring about a Utopian paradise of science, through the manipulation of men and governments. Edward, as one of their agents, sets off on an odyssey across 19th-century Europe, encountering on the way flying machines, self-propelled carriages, and an Underground Galvanic Railway... and learns that the Society, in its various disguises, is everywhere.

Griffin, Goodman, & Wooding reviewed at SFFWorld

We’ve got three, count ‘em THREE new reviews at SFFWorld for you this week. First up, our new reviewer Bridie Roman gave us a nice review of Alison Goodman’s The Two Pearls of Wisdom (aka Dragoneye: Reborn in the US:

Goodman’s strength in this book is the pace; where some writers would choose to show more of Eon’s training process and lessons, she has chosen to start the story the day before the ceremony in which the next Dragoneye apprentice is picked and this is something that she sticks with throughout the book. A lot of this choice may be due to the fact that Eon is forced to discover a lot of things on his own and so there is no need to show the lesson he attends but the action is always there. There are few moments in the book where there is little going on; the continual action forces you not only to read on but to pay attention. In a lot of books like this you might feel that you are missing out - that it is going too fast, but when I read this I felt that there was a good balance of action with information so it wasn’t a rough ride - it was smooth.

The second is a book that’s been generating quite a buzz on the intarwebs, Chris Woodiing’s
Retribution Falls which MarkY/Hobbit reviewed:

Retribution Falls is a rip-roaring full blown space-pirate adventure, SF with a touch of Fantasy, driven at a pace that scarcely leaves the reader time to deal with its implausibilities. It is a plot and character driven piece that opposes airships with machine guns, magic with science, betrayal with loyalty.

It’s also one of the best pieces of fun I’ve read in a long while.

The tale is thus: roguish Darian Frey, captain of the Ketty Jay, is down on his luck and looking for easy money to pay his debts. He is forced into a deal which involves him hijacking a cargo for magnate Gallian Thade from the Ace of Skulls. When it all goes badly wrong, Frey is forced to go on the run until he can clear his name, or find and kill the villains that caused Darian to mistakenly murder innocent people. Even if this means going against the might of the Coalition Navy and the Archduke’s personal elite, the Century Knights.

With him go his motley crew. An irregular rag-bag of misplaced individuals, their varied personalities reflect an interesting mix of traits and create much of the tension for the novel. These include the silent but loyal Murthian engineer, Silo; the ship’s cat, Slag; manic outflyer pilot Pinn and paranoid outflyer pilot Harkins; Grayther Crake, an aristocratic Daemonist whose loyalty to the captain is strained at the outset of this novel; the golem Bess, containing a daemon controlled by Crake; Malvery, the alcohol-dependent ship’s doctor, and the newest recruit, navigator Jez, with more to her than you might expect.

Last, and certainly not least, is Kate Griffin’s A Madness of Angels, a very entertaining Urban Fantasy that is a nice melding of what Urban Fantasy is today and what it was in the late 80s/early 90s:

Matthew Swift is a sorcerer who wakes up two years after being murdered, with a need to find his killer. Like many Urban Fantasies of today, Griffin utilizes first person narrative as Swift tells us his story as he experiences it. Early on; however, it becomes clear that Matthew Swift isn’t the only entity telling the reader the story of this novel. References to “we” and/or “us” are in spots that one would expect to see “me” or “I” making the true identity of this revived sorcerer hazy.

On one hand, the story can be seen as essentially a revenge story. Man dies, comes back to life and wants to payback the man who killed him. It’s the backdrop and inventive sense of mundane magic Griffin injects that sets it apart. Not that the magic is boring, but rather that things a non-sorcerer would consider mundane like telephone lines, a Bag Lady, rats, or subways can contain immense amounts of magic. This is what Griffin, by proxy of Swift, calls Urban Magic.

Books in the Mail (W/E 06/27/2009)

It’s Sunday, so here’s where I tell my faithful readers about the books I received for review during the previous week since I can’t possibly get to all of the books publishers send me.

All that said, this week was a good week, a bunch of books I plan on reading and others that look interesting, along with the two I've been wanting to see on US shelves for a while...

Bone Dance by Emma Bull (Tor/Orb Trade Paperback 07/02/2009) – Although I’ve never read anything by Emma Bull, many consider her one of the progenitors of Urban Fantasy. That is, not so much the books about modern day vampire hunters, but rather novels that take place in cities with an underlying magical current. This book was nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards in 1991 and is being reissued by Tor’s Orb imprint, which is often a sign of a very good book.

Sparrow’s my name. Trader. Deal-maker. Hustler, some call me. I work the Night Fair circuit, buying and selling pre-nuke videos from the world before. I know how to get a high price, especially on Big Bang collectibles. But the hottest ticket of all is information on the Horsemen—the mind-control weapons that tilted the balance in the war between the Americas. That’s the prize I’m after.

But it seems I’m having trouble controlling my own mind.

The Horsemen are coming.


By Blood We Live edited by John Joseph Adams (NightShade Books Hardcover 08/17/2009) – Adams is developing into a smart anthologist, publishing definitive anthologies like The Living Dead and Wastelands. Here, he turns his eye towards Vampires

From Dracula to Buffy the Vampire Slayer; from Castlevania to Tru Blood, the romance between popular culture and vampires hearkens back to humanity's darkest, deepest fears, flowing through our very blood, fears of death, and life, and insatiable hunger. And yet, there is an attraction, undeniable, to the vampire archetype, whether the pale European count, impeccably dressed and coldly masculine, yet strangely ambiguous, ready to sink his sharp teeth deep into his victims' necks, draining or converting them, or the vamp, the count's feminine counterpart, villain and victim in one, using her wiles and icy sexuality to corrupt man and woman alike... Edited by John Joseph Adams (Wastelands, The Living Dead), By Blood We Live gathers together the best vampire literature of the last three decades from many of today's most renowned authors of fantasy, speculative fiction, and horror, including Stephen King, Joe Hill, Garth Nix, Neil Gaiman, Kelley Armstrong, Ken Macleod, Harry Turtledove, Carrie Vaughn, and Tad Williams.

Darkest Hour (Age of Misrule 2) by Mark Chadbourn (Pyr Trade Paperback June 2009) – I started the first book, World's End the day before this, the second in the series arrived. It hooked me pretty quickly so I was thrilled to see the second one arrive, which I can jump into as soon as I finish the first one.

The eternal conflict between the Light and Dark once again blackens the skies and blights the land. On one side stand the Tuatha de Danaan, golden-skinned and beautiful, filled with all the might of angels. On the other are the Fomorii, monstrous devils hell-bent on destroying all human existence. And in the middle are the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons, determined to use the strange power that binds them to the land in a last, desperate attempt to save the human race. Church, Ruth, Ryan, Laura and Shavi have joined forces with Tom, a hero from the mists of time, to wage a guerrilla war against the iron rule of the gods. But they didn't count on things going from bad to worse ...this is the stunning continuation of a powerful fantasy saga by one of Britain's most acclaimed young writers.

Always Forever (Age of Misrule 3) by Mark Chadbourn (Pyr Trade Paperback July 2009) – Sure enough, the great folks at PYR sent the third book along with the second book in the same package, so no wait between volumes for me and little wait for readers who have already read the first volume. This is another case of a publisher smartly releasing a completed trilogy in three successive months (see Brent Weeks, Naomi Novik and Charles Coleman Finlay for other examples). It worked for Pyr since this third volume is already going to a second printing before hitting bookshelves.

The modern world has been transformed into a land of myth, a magical place where fabulous beasts soar on the air currents, a terrifying place where shape-shifting monsters stalk the cities. Mankind’s days appear numbered. Our only hope—the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons —are scattered and broken after a terrible defeat.

Their last chance may lie in the great court of the old gods, reached by an otherworldly ship filled with fantastical and frightening creatures. But if our champions fail, the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain will dawn, and the dark god Balor will usher in the eternal night.


An Empire Unacquainted with Defeat (A Chronicle of the Dread Empire) by Glen Cook (NightShade Books Hardcover 05/27 2009) – I read the first two omnibus editions NightShade published A Cruel Wind and A Fortress in Shadow

Glen Cook has been heralded as the godfather of modern heroic fantasy; his influence on the genre is unquestionable. But long before Garrett, P.I., before The Instrumentalities of the Night, before The Black Company, there was The Dread Empire... The Dread Empire, a gritty world of larger-than-life plots, nation-shattering conflict, maddening magic, strange creatures, and raw, flawed heroes, all shown through the filter of Cook's inimitable war-correspondent prose. The Dread Empire, spanning from the highest peaks of the Dragon's Teeth to the endless desert lands of Hammad al Nakir, from besieged Kavelin to mighty Shinshan, the Empire Unacquainted with Defeat, with its fearless, masked soldiers, known as the Demon Guard...



The Lees of Laughter's End (A Tale of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach/Malazan) by Steven Erikson (NightShade Books Hardcover 06/03/2009) – I’ve been slowly reading and catching up with Erikson’s massively enjoyable Malazan saga and this little tale is the third in a series of novellas focusing on minor characters to the overall saga.

West of Theft, on a vast stretch of ocean known as the Wastes, the free-ship Suncurl pilots its way along the Lees of Laughter's end, away from the city of Lamentable Moll. Aboard the ship, three passengers have become the subject of the crew's gossip: the luckless manservant Emancipor Reese, and his masters, the homicidal necromancers known as Bauchelain and Korbal Broach. But a bizarre force pursues them along the cursed sea-lane known as Laughter's End, even as an arcane thing awakens aboard the Suncurl. What secrets do the captain and her First Mate conceal from the rest of the crew? What lurks in the darkness of the ship's hold? And what of the eunuch's strange behavior... or his frightening offspring?

Princes of the Golden Cage by Nathalie Mallet (NightShade Books Mass Market Paperback 08/03/2007) – Art read and reviewed this book when it was first publishedback in 2007 and had some interesting things to say about it. She has the first chapter available for preview on her Web site.

Prince Amir lives in a lavish and beautiful cage. He lives in a palace with hundreds of his brothers, all barred by law from ever leaving the palace until he, or one of his brothers, becomes the next Sultan. Living under constant threat of death at the hands of his scheming brothers, Amir has chosen a life of solitude and study. His scholarly and alchemical pursuits bring him under suspicion when his brothers begin to die from seemingly supernatural means. Amir finds himself thrown together with his brother Erik, the son of a barbarian princess. Together they must discover the dark secret that is stalking the halls of their golden cage

The King’s Daughter by Nathalie Mallet (NightShade Books Mass Market Paperback 05/27/2009) – … and here’s the sequel to the above . Again, .Mallett has the first chapter available for preview on her Web site.

Far to the north of the hot desert land of Telfar lies the frozen kingdom of Sorvinka. Prince Amir has traveled there, leaving his sultanate in the hands of his half-brother Erik as he seeks to ask the king, the father of the beautiful Princess Eva, for her hand in marriage. But Sorvinka has grown dangerous during Princess Eva's absence, as she and Amir discover to their terror, when their force of guards and eunuchs is cut down by ruthless brigands. And upon their arrival, their welcome to Eva's family stronghold is as bitterly cold as the land itself. Accustomed to the golden cage of his upbringing, Prince Amir must navigate his way through the strange and cold-blooded customs of the Sorvinkans, and somehow find the truth behind the kidnapping of the king's youngest daughter, the Princess Aurora, by the Sorvinkan's traditional enemies, the neighboring Farrellians. But what can a stranger in a foreign land do?

Heldenhammer (Book One of the Sigmar Trilogy /Time of Legends) by Graham McNeill (The Black Library Mass Market Paperback 04/39/2009) – Although I haven’t read any Warhammer books, I’ve been seeing good things about them for quite a while, and McNeill in particular seems like one of the more respected writers in their stable. This book looks like a very good jumping in point for the universe ofWarhammer, which is one of the world’s most popular shared worlds.

It is a time of legends. The lands of the old World are wild and untamed, where the primitive tribes of men struggle for survival. In this time of peril, by virtue of his valorous deeds, a young man claims leadership of the Unberogen tribe. His name is Sigmar Heldenhammer, and his actions will change history forever. This is the story of how Sigmar rose to power, culminating in the Battle of Black Fire Pass, where men and dwarfs fought against the vast hordes of orcs in their quest to safeguard the future of the Empire.

Heldenhammer is the first in a ground–breaking new series bringing the history of the Warhammer world to life.

Wicked City: Black Guard by Hideyuki Kikuchi (Tor/Seven SeasP Paperback 09/29/2009) – This book looks pretty interesting – the author is the creator of the hugely, globally popular Vampire Hunter: D manga & anime series. Kikuchi is considered something like Japan's Stephen King or H.P. Lovecraft.

The classic anime Wicked City is based on a series of novels by master horror writer Hideyuki Kikuchi. Seven Seas is pleased to present these novels to the North American audience for the first time, featuring brand new cover art and interior illustrations by fan favorite illustrator Ayami Kojima, the concept artist for the Castlevania series of video games.

For centuries, a secret peace treaty has existed between Earth and The Black World, a parallel dimension populated by shape-changers who possess awesome supernatural powers. Now that pact is up for renewal and a militant faction from the Black World will do everything in its power to stop the treaty from being signed. The fate of the world rests on the shoulders of a pair of special agents, one a human, the other a shape-changer from the dark dimension. "

Wicked City "is an epic tale of supernatural horror and martial arts in ten volumes, in the vein of Vampire Hunter D.

Prohpets by Swann Reviewed + Al and George Talk

The Guardian published a follow up interview with Alastair Reynolds after breaking news that he received a £1m deal (just over $1.6M). (via SF Signal)

George breaks the silence. Sort of:

But I am making a small exception now because... well, I'm feeling rather jazzed right now, and for the first time in a very long while, I think I can see a glimmering that might just be a light at the end of the tunnel.

Bouncing back to Science Fiction after last week’s review, comes Prophets by S. Andrew Swann the first book in a new trilogy which itself is set in the same world as his The Hostile Takeover Trilogy and Moreau series. As the review indicates, I enjoyed the book. Below is a snapshot of the review:

Swann throws quite a few SF tropes into this novel – for starters, the novel is a Space Opera set 500 years into the future. You’ve also got genetically engineered humans and demi-humans, high-speed space travel, alien super-intelligences, and artificial intelligences. What’s more impressive is that he makes it work very well, with each element serving the next and the ones before it in a smooth and complimentary fashion.

The far future setting is well-thought out and ingeniously crafted. The sense of depth to the universe and some of the characters (particularly Nickolai and Tjaele Mosasa) further lends weight to the rich history of which Prophets shows just a snapshot. Swann could have easily overloaded the reader with infodump after infodump about his future history. As I’ve said about other writers who do what Swann did here, he filters in the details in a very balanced manner through his character’s conversations and internal thoughts.

Swann’s one of those DAW authors* who seems to churn out books regularly and to whom the publisher seems very loyal. For the trilogies he’s released with them, DAW published omnibus versions of their trilogies/series (The Hostile Takeover Trilogy and The Moreau Omnibus, as well as the forthcoming Dragons and Dwarves: Novels of the Cleveland Portal).



*DAW has done the same thing with authors like Marion Zimmer Bradley, C.J. Cherryh, Mickey Zucker Reichert, Jennifer Roberson, and John Zakour to name just a few.

So what am I saying? The fact that DAW is doing this is great for the authors since it keeps their stories in print. It’s great for readers since it makes it easier to ‘catch up’ with authors who have a backlist with whom said reader has recently been acquainted.

Alastair Reynolds lands £1m book deal

Nacked from Next Read


This is cool news, I've just started getting back into Reynolds with Pushing Ice, which I really like at about the halfway mark. The short fiction I've read from him has been excellent, he's won and been nominated for major awards and many consider him to be one of, if not, the standard bearer for the New Space Opera and British SF. I've got House of Suns on the to-read pile, plus Chasm City plus a couple of novellas issued by Subterranean Press.

Books in the Mail (W/E 06/20/2009)

This was a nice slow week of only two arrivals after a monster week last week..

Abyss: (Fate of the Jedi Book Three) by Troy Denning (LucasBooks Hardcover 08/18/2009) – This would be the third in the series of Expanded Universe novels under the Fate of the Jedi banner. I still haven’t read the Legacy of the Force series, but I do enjoy some of these Expanded Universe novels. Denning’s Star by Star was one of the stand out entries in The New Jedi Order series and the folks at LucasBooks/Del Rey/Star Wars seem to like him as well, since he’s written quite a few of the recent EU books.


Following a trail of clues across the galaxy, Luke Skywalker continues his quest to find the reasons behind Jacen Solo’s dark downfall and to win redemption for the Jedi Order. Sojourning among the mysterious Aing-Tii monks has left Luke and his son Ben with no real answers, only the suspicion that the revelations they seek lie in the forbidden reaches of the distant Maw Cluster. There, hidden from the galaxy in a labyrinth of black holes, dwell the Mind Walkers: those whose power to transcend their bodies and be one with the Force is as seductive and intoxicating as it is potentially fatal. But it may be Luke’s only path to the truth.

Meanwhile, on Coruscant, the war of wills between Galactic Alliance Chief of State Natasi Daala and the Jedi Order is escalating. Outraged over the carbonite freezing of young Jedi Knights Valin and Jysella Horn after their inexplicable mental breakdowns, the Jedi are determined to defy Daala’s martial tactics, override Council Master Kenth Hamner’s wavering leadership, and deal on their own terms with the epidemic of madness preying on their ranks. As Han and Leia Solo, along with their daughter Jaina, join the fight to protect more stricken Knights from arrest, Jedi healers race to find a cure for the rapidly spreading affliction. But none of them realize the blaster barrel is already swinging in their direction–and Chief Daala is about to pull the trigger.

Nor do Luke and Ben, deep in the Maw Cluster and pushing their Force abilities beyond known limits, realize how close they are–to the Sith strike squad bent on exterminating the Skywalkers, to a nexus of dark-side energy unprecedented in its power and its hunger, and to an explosive confrontation between opposing wielders of the Force from which only one Master–good or evil–can emerge alive.


Faust 2 by Faust Editors (Del Rey Manga Trade Paperback 06/23/2009) – Second anthology of Manga short stories .

A brilliant anthology featuring manga-inspired fiction from today’s best writers with artwork from top manga creators, including

“ECCO,” by Tatsuhiko Takimoto (illustrated by D.K): Is life nothing but a cruel joke? One young rebel decides to find out.

“Jagdtiger,” by Kouhei Kadono (illustrated by Ueda Hajime): She’s a combat-ready synthetic human with a dangerous flaw: a heart.

“Where the Wind Blows,” by Otsuichi (illustrated by Takeshi Obata): A newspaper from the future carries a very disturbing story for one particular woman: She will die by the hand of the man she loves.

“Magical Girl Risuka,” by NISIOISIN (illustrated by Kinu Nishimura): She’s a beautiful witch with magical powers that could change the world. And he’s the boy who will give her a reason to do it.

“Gray-Colored Diet Coke” by Yûya Satô: He’s nineteen, surrounded by morons, and desperate to escape his crummy part-time job. His best friend’s plan worked great, but surely suicide can’t be the only way out.