Jackal, Blackdog, and Dragons - New SFFWorld Reviews

Here we are, another Tuesday at the Blog o’ Stuff and that means some new reviews to mention that have recently been posted to SFFWorld.

Chris Wooding has been one of the more discussed writers at SFFWorld lately, and he’s just published The Iron Jackal, the third Tales of the Ketty Jay novel, which Mark liked a lot :

The heist occurs, though it is unexpectedly messier than anticipated. The artefact is taken and foolishly taken out of its transport case by Darian. A two-bladed sword, the object stabs Darian’s hand and gives him a ‘black spot’, something that, it is told, will kill him. As the tale unfolds, things get complicated for Darian and this has consequences for his motley crew.

If I had any complaints this time around, and I am struggling a little, really, it’s that this time around, more so than at any time previous, I’m noticing the joins a little more. The train heist is reminiscent of the Firefly TV episode The Train Job, the roof chase Jason Bourne, the Thief of Baghdad or Hitchcock’s Vertigo. It’s very well done, it’s clearly an homage, yet unlike previous books in the series, in places I’m getting that feeling of ‘been here before’. Though some of the events here are pretty much telegraphed before they happen, it’s like watching the inevitability of a car crash that keeps you reading.

Standalone fantasy novels, not part of any series, are a rare beast in the genre. That is just one element that makes K.V. Johansen’s Blackdog stand out from the crowd. I posted my review of Blackdog today, which I thought was impressive in its mythic resonance:

Where to begin? I suppose the world itself is good enough – Johansen has created a world that resonates with ancient powers and oozes with mythic resonance. I recall one of my college courses – World Mythology – and the text of world myths on the reading list. Johansen’s novel seems as if it could fit right in with those stories, though thankfully for us as readers she’s fleshed out the bones of the myth, added muscle, organs, and more life to the story to make a compelling novel. It should, then, come as no surprise Johansen’s academic background is Medieval Studies. The knowledge and passion, she has for ancient text comes through very well in the narrative energy of the story and world she created.

…

Johansen’s hook of showing a goddess coming into her maturity is slightly different in that her protagonist is not just an avatar, but the Goddess herself. That fascinating conceit and the requisite storytelling, characters and world-building back up that hook very nicely. Am I stating the stories are similar? No, not exactly, but the vein of myth coming to life and immensely powerful beings striding alongside the common man is similar. Where Johansen’s storytelling, characters and overall ‘feel’ of the novel finds the most similarity, for me, is in Glen Cook’s writing. The raw and almost primitive milieu reminded me a bit of Cook’s Darkwar.

Mark posted his review The Cardinal's Blades, the first in a series that has been called 'The Three Musketeers with dragons’:

The Cardinal’s Blades are the legendary group rumoured to have carried out secret missions on the cardinal’s behalf. Disbanded after some 'nasty business during the siege of La Rochelle’, Richelieu and the Crown have need of them again, as there are signs that the Black Claw, a dragon-led secret society, are up to no good, dealing in secret with France’s enemy, Spain. Led by the beautiful-blonde-looking Vicomtesse de Malicorne, the Black Claw are the Blades’ nemesis in this tale.

The first part of the novel therefore introduces us, in the third person, to the original members of the group, led by Captain LaFargue, as they are summoned to return to Paris. This means that we meet a motley group of superb swordsmen and women, all currently pursuing alternative lifestyles. We’re introduced to the characters that make up the band. These include Nicolas Marciac, who spends his time running up debts and duelling, living off the money he makes in such matters. Red spectacle-wearing Saint Lucq is a half-dragon, half human assassin. Arnaud de Laincourt is a Blade suspected of being a traitor to France. We have to add to this a strong heroine, Baroness Agnes de Vaudreuil. The weak point for me was the unfortunately named LePrat (who manages to get injured!) is a bit of a misstep, though clearly just one of those names that just translates badly internationally...

The Black Lung Captain by Chris Wooding

Chris Wooding is turning into what might be me favorite new-to-me author of 2011. This statement comes after I read his second Tales of the Ketty Jay novel The Black Lung Captain. The third one The Iron Jackal can’t get here soon enough.

Chris participated (along with Mark Lawrence and Liane Merciel) in the most recent Fantasy Authors roundtable discussion at SFFWorld.

Here's the usual excerpt of the review of The Black Lung Captain, with the cover linking to the review itself.

In this second novel charting the adventures of the crew of the Ketty Jay, about a year after the events of Retribution Falls … When another potential big score comes to Frey’s attention, he is compelled to lead his crew on the mission for what seems to be their biggest payday yet. The enigmatic Captain Grist comes to Frey in the hopes of convincing Frey to use Crake’s skills of daemonology to open a magicked door on a crashed airship from a distant land which could have a virtual Pandora’s box of riches and power on board. Grist has an archaeologist of sorts, think of a low-rent Indiana Jones, who knows where the ship containing this lodestone of these supposed untold riches may be.


Well, to say this is a thrilling ride is an understatement. As I said earlier, what makes the book so un-put-down-ably enjoyable is knowing these characters. The best scenes are those between Frey and Dracken, the words unsaid and the palpable tension between the two – how their past informs their ‘current’ interactions made for an extremely emotional ride. At times, I was reminded of the relationship between Shanna and Hari Michaelson in Matthew Stover’s superb Heroes Die. The past that informs Crake’s current situation is just as heart-wrenching, as is the inner conflict Jez is dealing with as she comes to accept what she is..

Books in the Mail (W/E 2011-07-09)

A couple from Pyr and most of the paperback releases from the Random House imprints.


The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling (Spectra, Trade Paperback 07/26/2011) – I read this years ago when it was on my reading list for my SF Literature course at Rutgers and I didn’t really connect with it at the time. Perhaps some time will allow me to give it another shot?.

The 20th anniversary edition of the classic steampunk novel with new commentary by the authors

1855: The Industrial Revolution is in full swing, powered by steam-driven cybernetic Engines. Charles Babbage perfects his Analytical Engine, and the computer age arrives a century ahead of its time. Three extraordinary characters race toward a rendezvous with the future: Sybil Gerard—fallen woman, politician’s tart, daughter of a Luddite agitator; Edward “Leviathan” Mallory—explorer and paleontologist; Laurence Oliphant—diplomat, mystic, and spy. Their adventure begins with the discovery of a box of punched Engine cards of unknown origin and purpose. Cards someone wants badly enough to kill for.

Part detective story, part historical thriller, The Difference Engine took the science fiction community by storm when it was first published twenty years ago. This special anniversary edition features an Introduction by Cory Doctorow and a collaborative essay from the authors looking back on their creation. Provocative, compelling, intensely imagined, this novel is poised to impress a whole new generation.

Seduce Me in Flames (Three Worlds Series #2) by Jacquelyn Frank (Ballantine, Mass Market Paperback 07/25/2011) – Second in a new series that seems to be a military science fiction interplanetary romance.


ICY RECEPTION Ambrea Vas Allay is the rightful heir to the throne of Allay. But when she is summoned home from exile, she discovers that her father, who had executed her mother, has died. Her young half-brother, controlled by their uncle, has taken power. Ambrea is torn by an impossible choice: renounce the crown or waste away in prison. The last thing she expects is to be liberated by a huge, tattooed Tarian—or to feel a searing passion for her mysterious rescuer.

SMOLDERING DECEPTION Rush “Ender” Blakely loves being part of the elite force of the Interplanetary Militia and the mission to save the princess Allay. But the tough Tarian hides a fiery secret—a blazing power that makes him literally too hot to handle. He must be crazy to carry a torch for this strong, beautiful princess—when any intimacy between them is bound to be explosive.

BLAZING INSURRECTION As Ambrea steels herself to take back the throne, does she dare entrust this scorching stranger with the fate of an empire—and, even more so, with her heart?

The Secret of Crickley Hall by James Herbert (Tor Trade Paperback 07/05/2011) – Herbert is an accomplished horror novelist, this is his take on the classic haunted house story

Would you stay in a haunted house for more than one night?

Would you live in a place where ghostly things keep happening? Where a cellar door you know you locked the night before is always open the following morning? Where hushed whimpering is heard? Where white shadows steal through the darkness? Where the presence of evil is all around you?

Would you? Should you?

The Caleighs did, but they had their reasons. They should have known better though. As the terror mounts, they begin to regret their decision. As the horror rises, they realize their very lives are at risk....and so is their sanity. For the secret of Crickley Hall is beyond all nightmares.

Sword of Fire and Sea (The Chaos Knight Book One) by Erin Hoffman (Pyr, Trade Paperback 06/19/2011) – This is Hoffman’s debut novel, the first of a series, but she’s designed quite a few video games and authored a fair number of short stories..


Three generations ago Captain Vidarian Rulorat's great-grandfather gave up an imperial commission to commit social catastrophe by marrying a fire priestess. For love, he unwittingly doomed his family to generations of a rare genetic disease that follows families who cross elemental boundaries. Now Vidarian, the last surviving member of the Rulorat family, struggles to uphold his family legacy, and finds himself chained to a task as a result of the bride price his great-grandfather paid: the Breakwater Agreement, a seventy-year-old alliance between his family and the High Temple of Kara'zul, domain of the fire priestesses.

The priestess Endera has called upon Vidarian to fulfill his family's obligation by transporting a young fire priestess named Ariadel to a water temple far to the south, through dangerous pirate-controlled territory. A journey perilous in the best of conditions is made more so by their pursuers: rogue telepathic magic-users called the Vkortha who will stop at nothing to recover Ariadel, who has witnessed their forbidden rites.

Together, Vidarian and Ariadel will navigate more than treacherous waters: Imperial intrigue, a world that has been slowly losing its magic for generations, secrets that the priestesshoods have kept for longer, the indifference of their elemental goddesses, gryphons—once thought mythical—now returning to the world, and their own labyrinthine family legacies. Vidarian finds himself at the intersection not only of the world's most volatile elements, but of colliding universes, and the ancient and alien powers that lurk between them.

Conan the Barbarian by Robert E. Howard (Del Rey Mass Market Paperback 07/26/2011) – Although Del Rey has reissued all the conan stories in nice trade paperbacks, they’ve taken a handful o the more famous by Howard and put them in this nifty mass market paperback just in time for the new film.
THE CLASSIC STORIES THAT INSPIRED THE BLOCKBUSTER FILM

Conan the Barbarian is one of the greatest fictional heroes ever created—a swordsman who cuts a swath across the lands of the Hyborian Age, annihilating powerful sorcerers, deadly creatures, and whole armies of ruthless foes. Today his name is synonymous with the epic battles of ancient times, but Conan originated in the early decades of the twentieth century with one of the founding fathers of fantasy, the visionary Robert E. Howard. The unforgettable stories collected here form a thrilling adventure, following Conan from his mercenary youth to his bloody conquests on the frontier and even the high seas. Bold and enduring, the legend of Conan the Barbarian continues to grow in popularity and influence.


Tattoo by Kirsten Imani Kasai (Del ReyTrade Paperback 07/26/2011) – Sequel to the author’s 2009 debut novel Ice Song

In an environmentally fragile world where human and animal genes combine, the rarest mutation of all—the Trader—can instantly switch genders. One such Trader—female Sorykah—is battling her male alter, Soryk, for dominance and the right to live a full life.

Sorykah has rescued her infant twins from mad Matuk the Collector. Her children are safe. Her journey, she believes, is over, but Matuk’s death has unleashed darker, more evil forces. Those forces—led by the Collector’s son—cast nets that stretch from the glittering capital of Neubonne to the murky depths below the frozen Sigue, where the ink of octameroons is harvested to make addictive, aphrodisiac tattoos. Bitter enemies trapped within a single skin, Sorykah and Soryk are soon drawn into a sinister web of death and deceit.


The Falling Machine (Society of Steam #1) by Andrew P. Mayer (Pyr Trade Paperback 07/11/2011) –First novel in what is being called a Steam Punk JLA, which is also Mayer’s debut novel. This is a great looking book that has the added benefit with a premise that sounds just as cool.

In 1880 women aren’t allowed to vote, much less dress up in a costume and fight crime...

But twenty-year-old socialite Sarah Stanton still dreams of becoming a hero. Her opportunity arrives in tragedy when the leader of the Society of Paragons, New York’s greatest team of gentlemen adventurers, is murdered right before her eyes. To uncover the truth behind the assassination, Sarah joins forces with the amazing mechanical man known as The Automaton. Together they unmask a conspiracy at the heart of the Paragons that reveals the world of heroes and high-society is built on a crumbling foundation of greed and lies. When Sarah comes face to face with the megalomaniacal villain behind the murder, she must discover if she has the courage to sacrifice her life of privilege and save her clockwork friend.

The Falling Machine (The Society of Steam, Book One) takes place in a Victorian New York powered by the discovery of Fortified Steam, a substance that allows ordinary men to wield extraordinary abilities and grants powers that can corrupt gentlemen of great moral strength. The secret behind this amazing substance is something that wicked brutes will gladly kill for and one that Sarah must try and protect, no matter what the cost.

Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human by Grant Morrison (Spiegal & Grau, Hardcover 07/19/2011) – Morrison is perhaps the most important and controversial comic book writer today, he’s revamped and injected different life into nearly every property. In everything he writes, what is consistent is his love for comic books shines through and I suppose that will be the case with this overview of the medium.

From one of the most acclaimed and profound writers in the world of comics comes a thrilling and provocative exploration of humankind’s great modern myth: the superhero

The first superhero comic ever published, Action Comics no. 1 in 1938, introduced the world to something both unprecedented and timeless: Superman, a caped god for the modern age. In a matter of years, the skies of the imaginary world were filled with strange mutants, aliens, and vigilantes: Batman, Wonder Woman, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and the X-Men—the list of names as familiar as our own. In less than a century, they’ve gone from not existing at all to being everywhere we look: on our movie and television screens, in our videogames and dreams. But what are they trying to tell us?

For Grant Morrison, arguably the greatest of contemporary chroniclers of the “superworld,” these heroes are powerful archetypes whose ongoing, decades-spanning story arcs reflect and predict the course of human existence: Through them we tell the story of ourselves, our troubled history, and our starry aspirations. In this exhilarating work of a lifetime, Morrison draws on art, science, mythology, and his own astonishing journeys through this shadow universe to provide the first true history of the superhero—why they matter, why they will always be with us, and what they tell us about who we are . . . and what we may yet become.


The Black Lung Captain (Tales of the Ketty Jay #2) by Chris Wooding (Spectra Trade Paperback 07/26/2011) – I absolutely loved Retribution Falls, the first book in this sequence, and Hobbit/Mark said the second one was even better. I’m considering this one a must read.

Chris Wooding, author of the thrilling novel Retribution Falls, returns to a fantastical world of spectacular sky battles and high-flying heroics for another epic adventure.

Deep in the heart of the Kurg rainforest lies a long-forgotten wreck. On board, behind a magically protected door, an elusive treasure awaits. Good thing Darian Frey, captain of the airship Ketty Jay, has the daemonist Crake on board. Crake is their best chance of getting that door open—if they can sober him up. For a prize this enticing, Frey is willing to brave the legendary monsters of the forbidding island and to ally himself with a partner who’s even less trustworthy than he is.

But what’s behind that door is not what any of the fortune hunters expect, any more than they anticipate their fiercest competitor for the treasure—a woman from Frey’s past who also happens to be the most feared pirate in the skies.

Books in the Mail (W/E 2011-06-25)

A handful of arrivals here at the ‘o Stuff, so what’s say we jump right into them?.

The Traitor’s Daughter by Paula Brandon (Spectra Trade Paperback 10/04/2011) –This could be a promising debut from fellow NJ native Paula Brandon, what with a very nice blurb from Jacqueline Carey. I don’t know the name of the trilogy nor does the author yet have a Web site so information, other than what is on BN.com, is somewhat scarce.

Here’s the beginning of a lush, epic, wholly original new trilogy that shines with magic, mystery, and captivating drama.

On the Veiled Isles, ominous signs are apparent to those with the talent to read them. The polarity of magic is wavering at its source, heralding a vast upheaval poised to alter the very balance of nature. Blissfully unaware of the cataclysmic events to come, Jianna Belandor, the beautiful, privileged daughter of a powerful Faerlonnish overlord, has only one concern: the journey to meet her prospective husband. But revolution is stirring as her own conquered people rise up against their oppressors, and Jianna is kidnapped and held captive at a rebel stronghold, insurance against what are perceived as her father’s crimes.

The resistance movement opens Jianna’s eyes―and her heart. Despite her belief in her father’s innocence, she is fascinated by the bold and charming nomadic physician and rebel sympathizer, Falaste Rione—who offers Jianna her only sanctuary in a cold and calculating web of intrigue. As plague and chaos grip the land, Jianna is pushed to the limits of her courage and resourcefulness, while virulent enemies discover that alliance is their only hope to save the human race.


Nagash: The Immortal (Warhammer Fantasy – Time of Legends) by Mike Lee (Black Library, Mass Market Paperback CD 8/4/2011) –Concluding volume in the saga of one of the Old World of Warhammer’s ancient eviles. .

In the tunnels of Nagashizzar, a new threat to the realm of the undead is rising. Nagash must call upon all his reserves of power to defeat the skaven assault and continue his unholy reign. But when Nagash realises he can use his enemy for his own nefarious needs, an uneasy alliance is struck and a vast, nightmarish army is formed. The necromancer launches his final attack on the lands of Nehekhara, sweeping all before him. Only one man dare stand in his way – Alcadizzar, a peerless warrior and the leader of a defiant force. Their confrontation will not just decide the fate of Nehekhara, but of all the Old World.


Kitty’s Big Trouble (Kitty Norville fantasy) by Carrie Vaughn (TorMass Market Paperback 06/28/2011) – One might say Vaughn has evolved into a well-oiled and respected writing machine, a publisher switch for this series showed no lightening up of her workload. I’ve only read the first of this series, so I’ve got a ton of catching up to do.

Kitty Norville is back and in more trouble than ever. Her recent run-in with werewolves traumatized by the horrors of war has made her start wondering how long the US government might have been covertly using werewolves in combat. Have any famous names in our own history might have actually been supernatural? She's got suspicions about William Tecumseh Sherman. Then an interview with the right vampire puts her on the trail of Wyatt Earp, vampire hunter.

But her investigations lead her to a clue about enigmatic vampire Roman and the mysterious Long Game played by vampires through the millennia. That, plus a call for help from a powerful vampire ally in San Francisco, suddenly puts Kitty and her friends on the supernatural chessboard, pieces in dangerously active play. And Kitty Norville is never content to be a pawn. . . .

The Black Lung Captain (Tales of the Ketty Jay #2) by Chris Wooding (Spectra Trade Paperback 07/26/2011) – I absolutely loved Retribution Falls, the first book in this sequence, and Hobbit/Mark said the second one was even better. I’m considering this one a must read.

Chris Wooding, author of the thrilling novel Retribution Falls, returns to a fantastical world of spectacular sky battles and high-flying heroics for another epic adventure.

Deep in the heart of the Kurg rainforest lies a long-forgotten wreck. On board, behind a magically protected door, an elusive treasure awaits. Good thing Darian Frey, captain of the airship Ketty Jay, has the daemonist Crake on board. Crake is their best chance of getting that door open—if they can sober him up. For a prize this enticing, Frey is willing to brave the legendary monsters of the forbidding island and to ally himself with a partner who’s even less trustworthy than he is.

But what’s behind that door is not what any of the fortune hunters expect, any more than they anticipate their fiercest competitor for the treasure—a woman from Frey’s past who also happens to be the most feared pirate in the skies.

Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding

I just posted my latest review at SFFWorld, which happens to be for the US release of Chris Wooding's awesome Retribution Falls. UK readers saw this book initially in 2009 and now Bantam Spectra will be releasing their version in about a week. In July, they'll be publishing the second book, Black Lung Captain and will hopefully time the 3rd book's release The Iron Jackal closely with the UK release.

Here's the usual excerpt of the review, with the cover linking to the review itself.

The story tells of a riffraff crew with Captain Darien Frey at the center. He’s a typical roguish-type who cares more about his ship, The Ketty Jay, more than the people working the ship. At least at the outset. Who are those crew members – Crake, the Daemonist and his golem Bess; Silo, the difficult to understand and little spoken ship’s engineer; the ship’s doctor Malvery; pilots Pinn and Harkins; and the newest member of the crew; Jez the navigator. Frey is looking to make a tremendously big score and against his better instincts, bites onto the bait of what is obviously too good to be true. In tying to escape the authorities and the consequences of their framed actions, Frey eventually attempts to bring his crew to the mythical pirate haven of the titular Retribution Falls.

...

Wooding is mixing a lot of elements in this delicious stew of a book from the larger Speculative Fiction pantry, so to speak. We’ve got pirates, an ill defined future; sorcery (or rather daemonology); beings somewhere between living, dead, and undead; an often steampunkish feel, especially with Crake’s golem; depth of an imagined world and history; and sense-of-wonder adventure. In that sense, the book will very much appeal to readers who tend to science fiction over fantasy, and vice versa. I think Chris may have even dubbed what he’s doing in The Tales of the Ketty Jay as bucklepunk. The term certainly works for this satisfied reader.

Books in the Mail (2011-04-09)

After a small respite last week, a big haul with quite a few books that jumped out at me begging to be read. How’s about some of my loyal readers tell me in the comments what looks most interesting and least interesting, or, what I’m most likely to read and least likely to read?

Spellcast by Barbara Ashford (DAW Mass Market Paperback 05/05/2011) – Debut novel from a writer who has published a number of short stries.

When Maggie Graham lost her job and her apartment fell to pieces, she decided to flee New York City for a while and hide in Vermont, at the Crossroads Theatre. She hadn't planned to audition, yet soon found herself part of the summer stock cast. But her previous acting experiences couldn't prepare her for the theater's unusual staff-and its handsome, almost otherworldly director.

Dreadnaught (The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier #1) by Jack Campbell (Ace Hardcover 04/26/2011) – Campbell’s Military SF series has really been gaining momentum over the past few years, with the most recent volume published (concluding volume of the original series) in late 2010 hitting the New York Times Bestseller list, and this book marks Campbells jump from mass market paperback to hardcover. Hobbit of SFFWorld reviewed the first book The Lost Fleet: Dauntless recently released in the UK and Mark Chitty (who runs the best SF fan blog Walker of Worlds) is a big fan of the books. Good news for me is that this specific book seems to be the first of a new series and a good jumping on point.

The New York Times bestselling series that delivers "edge-of- your-seat combat" (Elizabeth Moon, author of the Vatta's War series).

The Alliance woke Captain John "Black Jack" Geary from cryogenic sleep to take command of the fleet in the century-long conflict against the Syndicate Worlds. Now Fleet Admiral Geary's victory has earned him the adoration of the people-and the enmity of politicians convinced that a living hero can be a very inconvenient thing.

Geary knows that members of the military high command and the government question his loyalty to the Alliance and fear his staging a coup-so he can't help but wonder if the newly christened First Fleet is being deliberately sent to the far side of space on a suicide mission.


The Hidden Goddess by M.K. Hobson (Del Rey, Paperback 04/26/2011) – This is the sequel to Hobson’s Nebula nominated debut novel, The Native Star, which I also have. The book has been lingering on my to-read pile for a few months, so with the recent Nebula nomination and this sequel, I am more eager to read it. The first book, that is, then this one.

In a brilliant mix of magic, history, and romance, M. K. Hobson moves her feisty young Witch, Emily Edwards, from the Old West of 1876 to turn-of-the-nineteenth-century New York City, whose polished surfaces conceal as much danger as anything west of the Rockies.

Like it or not, Emily has fallen in love with Dreadnought Stanton, a New York Warlock as irresistible as he is insufferable. Newly engaged, she now must brave Dreadnought’s family and the magical elite of the nation’s wealthiest city. Not everyone is pleased with the impending nuptials, especially Emily’s future mother-in-law, a sociopathic socialite. But there are greater challenges still: confining couture, sinister Russian scientists, and a deathless Aztec goddess who dreams of plunging the world into apocalypse. With all they must confront, do Emily and Dreadnought have any hope of a happily-ever-after?

Sword of Fire and Sea (The Chaos Knight Book One) by Erin Hoffman (Pyr, Trade Paperback 06/19/2011) – This is Hoffman’s debut novel, the first of a series, but she’s designed quite a few video games and authored a fair number of short stories..


Three generations ago Captain Vidarian Rulorat's great-grandfather gave up an imperial commission to commit social catastrophe by marrying a fire priestess. For love, he unwittingly doomed his family to generations of a rare genetic disease that follows families who cross elemental boundaries. Now Vidarian, the last surviving member of the Rulorat family, struggles to uphold his family legacy, and finds himself chained to a task as a result of the bride price his great-grandfather paid: the Breakwater Agreement, a seventy-year-old alliance between his family and the High Temple of Kara'zul, domain of the fire priestesses.

The priestess Endera has called upon Vidarian to fulfill his family's obligation by transporting a young fire priestess named Ariadel to a water temple far to the south, through dangerous pirate-controlled territory. A journey perilous in the best of conditions is made more so by their pursuers: rogue telepathic magic-users called the Vkortha who will stop at nothing to recover Ariadel, who has witnessed their forbidden rites.

Together, Vidarian and Ariadel will navigate more than treacherous waters: Imperial intrigue, a world that has been slowly losing its magic for generations, secrets that the priestesshoods have kept for longer, the indifference of their elemental goddesses, gryphons—once thought mythical—now returning to the world, and their own labyrinthine family legacies. Vidarian finds himself at the intersection not only of the world's most volatile elements, but of colliding universes, and the ancient and alien powers that lurk between them.



Night Mares in the Hamptons by Celia Jerome (Paperback 05/07/2011 DAW) –Second novel in Jerome’s series which began with Trolls in the Hamptons

Graphic novelist Willow Tate is a Visualizer, able to draw images of beings from the realm of Faerie, bringing them from their world to ours in the process. After a ten-foot-tall red troll follows her from Manhattan to Paumanok Harbor in the Hamptons, Willow realizes that many of her relatives and their neighbors possess psychic talents-truth- knowing, scrying, weaving wishes, picking lucky numbers, and more.

So when magic and mayhem return to Paumanok Harbor, and Willow is called upon to rescue the town, she enlists the local talent. Three magical mares are searching the Long Island village for a missing colt, and their distress is causing sleeping nights, bad tempers, and dangerous brawls among the gifted but peculiar residents.

Though the Department of Unexplained Events sends Willow a world-famous horse whisperer, Texan Ty Farraday seems more interested in whispering in her ear than in rescuing the kidnapped colt whose terror only Willy can feel. Even with help, she still has to struggle with snakes, drug dealers, tourists, hidden caves, a mad scientist-and the almost overwhelming distraction of that sexy cowboy...

Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay (Roc, Trade Paperback 05/11/2010) – Kay is a magnificent writer, I’ve read about 1/3 to ½ of what he’s written and I wasn’t disappointed by any of it. This is the third version of the book I’ve received, and this time I’ll actually read it. I think.

Shen Tai is the son of a general who led the forces of imperial Kitai in the empire’s last great war against its western enemies, twenty years before. Forty thousand men, on both sides, were slain by a remote mountain lake. General Shen Gao himself has died recently, having spoken to his son in later years about his sadness in the matter of this terrible battle.

To honour his father’s memory, Tai spends two years in official mourning alone at the battle site by the blue waters of Kuala Nor. Each day he digs graves in hard ground to bury the bones of the dead. At night he can hear the ghosts moan and stir, terrifying voices of anger and lament. Sometimes he realizes that a given voice has ceased its crying, and he knows that is one he has laid to rest.

The dead by the lake are equally Kitan and their Taguran foes; there is no way to tell the bones apart, and he buries them all with honour.

It is during a routine supply visit led by a Taguran officer who has reluctantly come to befriend him that Tai learns that others, much more powerful, have taken note of his vigil. The White Jade Princess Cheng-wan, 17th daughter of the Emperor of Kitai, presents him with two hundred and fifty Sardian horses. They are being given in royal recognition of his courage and piety, and the honour he has done the dead.

You gave a man one of the famed Sardian horses to reward him greatly. You gave him four or five to exalt him above his fellows, propel him towards rank, and earn him jealousy, possibly mortal jealousy. Two hundred and fifty is an unthinkable gift, a gift to overwhelm an emperor.

Tai is in deep waters. He needs to get himself back to court and his own emperor, alive. Riding the first of the Sardian horses, and bringing news of the rest, he starts east towards the glittering, dangerous capital of Kitai, and the Ta-Ming Palace – and gathers his wits for a return from solitude by a mountain lake to his own forever-altered life.

The Unremembered (Vaults of Heaven #1) by Peter Orullian (Tor, Hardcover 04/15/2011) – Since receiving the ARC back in January, I’ve read this book and, for the most part, enjoyed it with some reservations. I’m cooking up an e-mail interview with Peter for SFFWorld, too.


The gods, makers of worlds, seek to create balance—between matter and energy; and between mortals who strive toward the transcendent, and the natural perils they must tame or overcome. But one of the gods fashions a world filled with hellish creatures far too powerful to allow balance; he is condemned to live for eternity with his most hateful creations in that world’s distant Bourne, restrained by a magical veil kept vital by the power of song.

Millennia pass, awareness of the hidden danger fades to legend, and both song and veil weaken. And the most remote cities are laid waste by fell, nightmarish troops escaped from the Bourne. Some people dismiss the attacks as mere rumor. Instead of standing against the real threat, they persecute those with the knowledge, magic and power to fight these abominations, denying the inevitability of war and annihilation. And the evil from the Bourne swells….

The troubles of the world seem far from the Hollows where Tahn Junell struggles to remember his lost childhood and to understand words he feels compelled to utter each time he draws his bow. Trouble arrives when two strangers—an enigmatic man wearing the sigil of the feared Order of Sheason and a beautiful woman of the legendary Far—come, to take Tahn, his sister and his two best friends on a dangerous, secret journey.

Tahn knows neither why nor where they will go. He knows only that terrible forces have been unleashed upon mankind and he has been called to stand up and face that which most daunts him—his own forgotten secrets and the darkness that would destroy him and his world.

The Council of Shadows (The Shadowspawn) by SM Stirling (Roc, Hardcover 05/11/2011) – Second offering in prolific author Stirling’s take on urban fantasy

New from the New York Times bestselling author of A Taint in the Blood.

Adrian Brézé defied his own dark heritage as a near-purebred Shadowspawn for years, until his power-hungry sister Adrienne kidnapped his human lover Ellen.

Now, Adrienne is dead, and the Council of Shadows is gathering its strength. To stop the Council from launching an apocalypse, Adrian and Ellen must ally with the Brotherhood, a resistance group dedicated to breaking the Council's hold on humankind...by any means necessary.

In the coming confrontation, Adrian must fight not only the members of the Council but also his own nature-and, as he will come to suspect, traitors within the Brotherhood itself...

Well of Sorrows by Benjamin Tate (DAW, Paperback 05/11/2011) –Debut fantasy which has an interesting premise, a book that seems to be flying under the radar. I received the trade paperback about a year ago and have been adding and removing it from the TBR pile. DAW repackaged the book with a much more powerful cover image that I hope will draw more readers into the pages.


An epic tale of a continent on the brink of war, and a deadly magic that waits to be unleashed on an unsuspecting world.

Colin Harten and his parents had fled across the ocean to escape the Family wars in Andover. But trouble followed them and their fellow refugees to this new land, forcing them to abandon the settled areas and head into unexplored territory-the sacred grounds of a race of underground dwellers and warriors. It was here that they would meet their doom. Driven to the borders of a dark forest, they were attacked by mysterious Shadow creatures who fed on life force. Only Colin survived to find his way to the Well of Sorrows-and to a destiny that might prove the last hope for peace in this troubled land.


Retribution Falls (Tales of the Ketty Jay #1) by Chris Wooding (Spectra Trade Paperback 04/26/2011) – Wooding has been writing for quite some time, his YA books have been well received . This is his first adult novel and, when published in the UK two years ago, garnered a great deal of praise, from no less than SFFWorld’s own Hobbit/Mark. Chris has also taken to visiting the forums.

Sky piracy is a bit out of Darian Frey’s league. Fate has not been kind to the captain of the airship Ketty Jay—or his motley crew. They are all running from something. Crake is a daemonist in hiding, traveling with an armored golem and burdened by guilt. Jez is the new navigator, desperate to keep her secret from the rest of the crew. Malvery is a disgraced doctor, drinking himself to death. So when an opportunity arises to steal a chest of gems from a vulnerable airship, Frey can’t pass it up. It’s an easy take—and the payoff will finally make him a rich man.

But when the attack goes horribly wrong, Frey suddenly finds himself the most wanted man in Vardia, trailed by bounty hunters, the elite Century Knights, and the dread queen of the skies, Trinica Dracken. Frey realizes that they’ve been set up to take a fall but doesn’t know the endgame. And the ultimate answer for captain and crew may lie in the legendary hidden pirate town of Retribution Falls. That’s if they can get there without getting blown out of the sky.

Books in the Mail (W/E 2011-03-05)

With such an enormous week of book arrivals this week, I might as well drop in the semi-regular disclaimer about these Books in the Mail posts:

As a reviewer for SFFWorld and maybe because of this blog, I receive a lot of books for review from various publishers. Since I can't possibly read everything that arrives, I figure the least I can do (like some of my fellow bloggers) is mention the books I receive for review on the blog to at least acknowledge the books even if I don't read them.

Sometimes I get one or two books, other weeks I'll get nearly a dozen books. Some weeks, I’ll receive a finished (i.e. the version people see on bookshelves) copy of a book for which I received an ARC (Advance Reader Copy) weeks or months prior to the actual publication of the book. Sometimes I'll want to read everything that arrives, other weeks, the books immediately go into the "I'll never read this book" pile, while still others go into the nebulous "maybe-I'll-read-it-category." More often than not, it is a mix of books that appeal to me at different levels.

Chime by Franny Billingsley (Dial Books for Young Readers, Hardcover 03/17/2011) – This is the latest novel, about a girl who think she’s a witch, from award-winning author Billingsly.

Briony has a secret. She believes her secret killed her stepmother, destroyed her twin sister’s mind, and threatens all the children in the Swampsea. She yearns to be rid of her terrible secret, but risks being hanged if she tells a soul. That’s what happens to witches: They’re hanged by the neck until dead.

Then Eldric arrives—Eldric with his golden mane and lion eyes and electric energy—and he refuses to believe anything dark about Briony. But he wonders what’s been buried beneath her self-hatred, hidden in Rose’s mangled thoughts, and whispered about by the Old Ones. And Briony wonders how Eldric can make her want to cry.

Especially when everyone knows that witches can’t cry.

A wild, haunting mystery and romance that is as beautifully written as it is captivating.

The Paradise Prophecy by Robert Browne (Dutton, Hardcover 07/21/2011) – Dutton is really aiming for the Dan Brown crowd with this one.

A spectacular thriller inspired by John Milton's Paradise Lost in which the final chapter of the War in Heaven is about to play out on Earth, with the fate of humanity hanging in the balance. The Myth

When God cast the archangel Satan into Hell, ending the War in Heaven, peace prevailed on Earth. Until the fallen angels took revenge in the Garden of Eden. Ever since, mankind has been in a struggle between good and evil, paradise and apocalypse: the fall of Rome, The Crusades, World Wars, nuclear proliferation, the Middle East Crisis... The War in Heaven never really ended-it just changed venues. For millennia, God's angels have been fighting Satan's demons on Earth, all in hopes of bringing about Satan's greatest ambition, the Apocalypse.

The Reality

Satan has never been closer to his goal than right now.

Agent Bernadette Callahan is a talented investigator at a shadowy government organization known only as Section, on the trail of a serial killer with nearly supernatural abilities. Sebastian "Batty" LaLaurie is a religious historian who knows far too much about the other side- and that hard-earned knowledge is exactly what Callahan needs. This unlikely duo pair up for a race across the globe, decoding clues left in ancient texts from the Bible to Paradise Lost and beyond. In the process they stumble upon a vast conspiracy-one beyond the scope of mankind's darkest imagination.


The Dark City (Relic Master Book 1) by Catherine Fisher (Dial Books for Young Readers, Hardcover 05/7/2011) – First in a YA fantasy series which originally published in the UK. The publisher is backing this one big time, based on the packages I’ve received for the book

Welcome to Anara, a world mysteriously crumbling to devastation, where nothing is what it seems: Ancient relics emit technologically advanced powers, members of the old Order are hunted by the governing Watch yet revered by the people, and the great energy that connects all seems to also be destroying all. The only hope for the world lies in Galen, a man of the old Order and a Keeper of relics, and his sixteen-year-old apprentice, Raffi. They know of a secret relic with great power that has been hidden for centuries. As they search for it, they will be tested beyond their limits. For there are monsters—some human, some not—that also want the relic's power and will stop at nothing to get it.

Seduce Me in Dreams (Three Worlds Series #1) by Jacquelyn Frank (Ballantine, Mass Market Paperback 03/25/2011) – First in a new series that seems to be a military science fiction interplanetary romance.


From the New York Times bestselling author of the Nightwalkers and Shadowdwellers series, Seduce Me in Dreams begins a sexy new futuristic series featuring an elite group of military heroes.

Dark. Mysterious. Sensual. When Bronse Chapel, the commander of a specialized unit of the Interplanetary Militia, begins to dream about a beautiful and exotic brunette, he wants to dismiss it as being induced by lack of sleep . . . or perhaps lack of sex. But his instincts tell him it’s something different, something far more dangerous.

Ravenna is the leader of the Chosen Ones, a small group of people from her village born with extraordinary powers. She doesn’t know that draws her to Bronse’s dreams night after night, but she senses that he and his team are in jeopardy. Ravenna can help him, but first Bronse must save the Chosen Ones from those who plan to use their powers for evil. Together, Bronse and Ravenna will be unstoppable. But Ravenna is hiding something that could endanger them all.


Hidden Cities (Moishu, the Books of Stone and Water #3) by Daniel Fox Trade Paperback 03/25/2011 Del Rey) – Final book in a trilogy about mythic China. This is the published version of the ARC I received earlier in the year.

The mythic beasts and glorious legends of feudal China illuminate a world at war in this, the conclusion to Daniel Fox’s critically acclaimed series.

Whatever they thought, this was always where they were going: to the belly of the dragon, or the belly of the sea.

More by chance than good judgment, the young emperor has won his first battle. The rebels have retreated from the coastal city of Santung—but they’ll be back. Distracted by his pregnant concubine, the emperor sends a distrusted aide, Ping Wen, to govern Santung in his place. There, the treacherous general will discover the healer Tien, who is obsessed with a library of sacred mage texts and the secrets concealed within—secrets upon which, Ping Wen quickly realizes, the fate of the whole war may turn.

As all sides of this seething conflict prepare for more butchery, a miner of magical jade, himself invulnerable, desperately tries to save his beautiful and yet brutally scarred clan cousin; a priestess loses her children, who are taken as pawns in a contest beyond her comprehension; and a fierce and powerful woman commits an act of violence that will entwine her, body and soul, with the spirit of jade itself. Amid a horde of soldiers, torturers, and runaways, these people will test both their human and mystical powers against a violent world. But one force trumps all: the huge, hungry, wrathful dragon.

Eona: The Last Dragoneye by Alison Goodman (Viking, Hardcover 04/19/2011) – Sequel to Eon (aka Two Pearls of Wisdon in Australia) which Bride at SFFWorld enjoyed.


Once she was Eon, a girl disguised as a boy, risking her life for the chance to become a Dragoneye apprentice. Now she is Eona, the Mirror Dragoneye, her country’s savior — but she has an even more dangerous secret.

She cannot control her power.

Each time she tries to bond with her Mirror Dragon, she becomes a conduit for the ten spirit dragons whose Dragoneyes were murdered by Lord Ido. Their anguish floods through her, twisting her ability into a force that destroys the land and its people.

And another force of destruction is on her trail.

Along with Ryko and Lady Dela, Eona is on the run from High Lord Sethon’s army. Sethon has declared himself Emperor. In order to stop him, the renegades must find Kygo, the young Pearl Emperor, who needs Eona’s power if he is to wrest back his throne.

Eona, with its pulse-pounding drama, thrilling fight scenes, sizzling tension — and many surprises — brings to a close an epic story.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Decieved by Paul S. Kemp (Del Rey, Hardcover 03/25/2011) – I enjoyed Kemp’s Erevis Cale novels, he seems to be doing very well with Star Wars now..

The Sacking of Coruscant. It was the crowning achievement of the Sith Empire’s ambitious military strategy and the moment that changed the history of the Old Republic forever. You may have read about it before, but our first cinematic trailer captures this event with breathtaking action and beautiful detail.

Republic leaders have traveled to Alderaan to engage in promised peace talks with the Sith Empire. The most powerful Jedi have accompanied them to safeguard against an Imperial deception. The Empire’s real motive, however, was simply to lure the Republic’s strongest defenders away from Coruscant and set the stage for an audacious attack. Under the command of Lord Angral, the Sith fleet approaches the Republic’s capital planet for the first time in centuries. In advance of the fleet, the strongest Sith Warriors have flown a stolen Republic ship into Coruscant’s orbit. Their mission is critical – to destroy the planet’s defense grid mainframe hidden in the heart of the Jedi Temple.

Night Magic (Wing Slayer #3) by Jennifer Lyon (Ballantine, Mass Market Paperback 03/25/2011) – Third in a series about witches who have lost their magic.

THEIR LOVE IS DESTINED TO RISE AGAIN

Ailish Donovan is a witch ready to do battle. Raised unaware of her powers, she is just sixteen when her mother tricks her into binding with the demon Asmodeus. Pure-hearted Ailish escapes with the connection incomplete but pays a heavy price: For the next eight years, she is shunned by her earth sisters and tormented by Asmodeus’s lust. After hardening her body and mind as a champion kickboxer, Ailish returns home to break the bond—or die.

The Wing Slayer Hunter Phoenix Torq is sworn to protect earth witches, but he is shaken by Ailish’s fierce independence—and his own forbidden cravings. Dark, impulsive, and haunted by his troubled past, Phoenix likewise arouses Ailish in ways she finds disturbing—and irresistible. Torn between mistrust and desire, each must go to hell and back to seek the magic that could set them both free.



Kraken by China Miéville (Del Rey Trade Paperback 03/15/2011) – This is Miéville’s obligatory squid novel, which Mark / Hobbit enjoyed a great deal. This would be the third version of the book I received (after the ARC and Hardcover).

With this outrageous new novel, China Miéville has written one of the strangest, funniest, and flat-out scariest books you will read this—or any other—year. The London that comes to life in Kraken is a weird metropolis awash in secret currents of myth and magic, where criminals, police, cultists, and wizards are locked in a war to bring about—or prevent—the End of All Things.

In the Darwin Centre at London’s Natural History Museum, Billy Harrow, a cephalopod specialist, is conducting a tour whose climax is meant to be the Centre’s prize specimen of a rare Architeuthis dux—better known as the Giant Squid. But Billy’s tour takes an unexpected turn when the squid suddenly and impossibly vanishes into thin air.

As Billy soon discovers, this is the precipitating act in a struggle to the death between mysterious but powerful forces in a London whose existence he has been blissfully ignorant of until now, a city whose denizens—human and otherwise—are adept in magic and murder.

There is the Congregation of God Kraken, a sect of squid worshippers whose roots go back to the dawn of humanity—and beyond. There is the criminal mastermind known as the Tattoo, a merciless maniac inked onto the flesh of a hapless victim. There is the FSRC—the Fundamentalist and Sect-Related Crime Unit—a branch of London’s finest that fights sorcery

with sorcery. There is Wati, a spirit from ancient Egypt who leads a ragtag union of magical familiars. There are the Londonmancers, who read the future in the city’s entrails. There is Grisamentum, London’s greatest wizard, whose shadow lingers long after his death. And then there is Goss and Subby, an ageless old man and a cretinous boy who, together, constitute a terrifying—yet darkly charismatic—demonic duo.

All of them—and others—are in pursuit of Billy, who inadvertently holds the key to the missing squid, an embryonic god whose powers, properly harnessed, can destroy all that is, was, and ever shall be.

Kings of the North (Book Two of Paladin’s Legacy ) by Elizabeth Moon (Del Rey Hardcover 03/12/2011) – Last year, when I read Oath of Fealty it was the first book I read by Mrs. Moon and I quickly became a fan. Mark and I also interviewed her for SFFWorld last year.

Elizabeth Moon returns to the fantasy world of the paladin Paksenarrion Dorthansdotter—Paks for short—in this second volume of a new series filled with all the bold imaginative flights, meticulous world-building, realistic military action, and deft characterization that readers have come to expect from this award-winning author. In Kings of the North, Moon is working at the very height of her storytelling powers.

Peace and order have been restored to the kingdoms of Tsaia and Lyonya, thanks to the crowning of two kings: Mikeli of Tsaia and, in Lyonya, Kieri Phelan, a mercenary captain whose royal blood and half-elven heritage are resented by elves and humans alike.

On the surface, all is hope and promise. But underneath, trouble is brewing. Mikeli cannot sit safely on his throne as long as remnants of the evil Verrakaien magelords are at large. Kieri is being hounded to marry and provide the kingdom with an heir—but that is the least of his concerns. A strange rift has developed between him and his grandmother and co-ruler, the immortal elven queen known as the Lady. More problematic is the ex-pirate Alured, who schemes to seize Kieri’s throne for himself—and Mikeli’s, too, while he’s at it. Meanwhile, to the north, the aggressive kingdom of Pargun seems poised to invade.

Now, as war threatens to erupt from without and within, the two kings are dangerously divided. Old alliances and the bonds of friendship are about to be tested as never before. And a shocking discovery will change everything.

The River of Shadows (The Chathrand Voyage Book 3) by Robert V.S. Redick (Del Rey Hardcover 4/19/2011) – This series seems t be flying under the radar – the reviews and response from readers I’ve seen is very good. Makes me wonder why the publisher is switching format in mid-series to trade paperback for the third book.

In the gripping sequel to Robert V. S. Redick’s acclaimed epic fantasy novels The Red Wolf Conspiracy and The Ruling Sea, the crew of the vast, ancient ship Chathrand have reached the shores of the legendary southern empire of Bali Adro. Many have died in the crossing, and the alliance of rebels, led by the tarboy Pazel Pathkendle and the warrior Thasha Isiq, has faced death, betrayal, and darkest magic. But nothing has prepared them for the radically altered face of humanity in the South.

They have little time to recover from the shock, however. For with landfall, the battle between the rebels and centuries-old sorcerer Arunis enters its final phase. At stake is control of the Nilstone, a cursed relic that promises unlimited power to whoever unlocks the secrets of its use—but death to those who fail. And no one is closer to mastering the Stone than Arunis.

Desperate to stop him, Pazel and Thasha must join forces with their enemies, including the depraved Captain Rose and the imperial assassin Sandor Ott. But when a suspicious young crewmember turns his attentions to Thasha, it is the young lovers themselves who are divided—most conveniently for Arunis. As the mage’s triumph draws near, the allies face a terrible choice: to break their oaths and run for safety, or to hunt the world’s most dangerous sorcerer through the strange and deadly dream kingdom known as the River of Shadows, and to face him a last time among the traps and horrors of his lair.

Brimming with high adventure, dark enchantment, and unforgettable characters, The River of Shadows deftly secures Redick’s place in the ranks of epic fantasy’s most original and enthralling storytellers.

Enigmatic Pilot: A Tall Tale Too True by Kris Saknussemm (Del Rey, Trade Paperback 3/28/2011) – This is the author’s second novel, after the controversial Zanesville. This is the published version of the ARC I received earlier in the year.


Enigmatic Pilot is Kris Saknussemm’s outrageously brilliant yet profoundly moving exploration and excavation of the American dream—and nightmare.

In 1844, in a still-young America, the first intimations of civil war are stirring throughout the land. In Zanesville, Ohio, the Sitturd family—Hephaestus, a clubfooted inventor; his wife, Rapture, a Creole from the Sea Islands; and their prodigiously gifted six-year-old son, Lloyd, whose libido is as precocious as his intellect—are forced to flee the only home they have ever known for an uncertain future in Texas, whence Hephaestus’s half-brother, Micah, has sent them a mysterious invitation, promising riches and wonders too amazing to be entrusted to paper.

Thus begins one of the most incredible American journeys since Huck Finn and Jim first pushed their raft into the Mississippi. Along the way, Lloyd will learn the intricacies of poker and murder, solve the problem of manned flight, find—and lose—true love, and become swept up in an ancient struggle between two secret societies whose arcane dispute has shaped the world’s past and threatens to reshape its future. Each side wants to use Lloyd against the other, but Lloyd has his own ideas—and access to an occult technology as powerful as his imagination.

The Council of Shadows (The Shadowspawn) by SM Stirling (Roc, Hardcover 04/05/2011) – Second offering in prolific author Stirling’s take on urban fantasy

New from the New York Times bestselling author of A Taint in the Blood.

Adrian Brézé defied his own dark heritage as a near-purebred Shadowspawn for years, until his power-hungry sister Adrienne kidnapped his human lover Ellen.

Now, Adrienne is dead, and the Council of Shadows is gathering its strength. To stop the Council from launching an apocalypse, Adrian and Ellen must ally with the Brotherhood, a resistance group dedicated to breaking the Council's hold on humankind...by any means necessary.

In the coming confrontation, Adrian must fight not only the members of the Council but also his own nature-and, as he will come to suspect, traitors within the Brotherhood itself...

Retribution Falls (Tales of the Ketty Jay #1) by Chris Wooding (Spectra Trade Paperback 04/26/2011) – Wooding has been writing for quite some time, his YA books have been well received . This is his first adult novel and, when published in the UK two years ago, garnered a great deal of praise, from no less than SFFWorld’s own Hobbit/Mark. Chris has also taken to visiting the forums.

Sky piracy is a bit out of Darian Frey’s league. Fate has not been kind to the captain of the airship Ketty Jay—or his motley crew. They are all running from something. Crake is a daemonist in hiding, traveling with an armored golem and burdened by guilt. Jez is the new navigator, desperate to keep her secret from the rest of the crew. Malvery is a disgraced doctor, drinking himself to death. So when an opportunity arises to steal a chest of gems from a vulnerable airship, Frey can’t pass it up. It’s an easy take—and the payoff will finally make him a rich man.

But when the attack goes horribly wrong, Frey suddenly finds himself the most wanted man in Vardia, trailed by bounty hunters, the elite Century Knights, and the dread queen of the skies, Trinica Dracken. Frey realizes that they’ve been set up to take a fall but doesn’t know the endgame. And the ultimate answer for captain and crew may lie in the legendary hidden pirate town of Retribution Falls. That’s if they can get there without getting blown out of the sky.

The Weekly Rob & Mark Review Post

Another week, another batch of reviews at SFFWorld. Mark has been picking up the slack big time and posted two reviews since last week, while I posted one.

First up is Mark’s review of Wolf’s Cross by S. Andrew Swann. This book is a follow up to one of my surprise books from last year Wolfbreed. Here’s a snippet from my review of Wolf’s Cross:

Werewolves and Teutonic Knights make for an interesting combination in Wolf’s Cross, S.A. Swann’s commendable follow-up to Wolfbreed. In the 14th Century, a band of Holy Men are hunting a monster, a demon who walks like man and beast when their trail leads them to a small Polish village. The P.O.V. character on the Church’s side is a young man named Joseph, who is just an initiate and not a full member of the order. In the village, we are introduced to Maria, a young girl living with her sick father, stepbrother and stepmother as she is tasked with helping the wounded Knights upon their arrival. Sparks fly between Joseph and Maria immediately, but their stations in life prevent them from acting on their impulses.

Mark posted his review is of Blackout by Connie Willis, who happens to be a favorite author of the man also known as Hobbit.

To the tale this time then we have four historians and four basic plotlines that diverge and converge. Michael/Mike Davies is set up as an American war correspondent sent to Dover to look at Dunkirk. Meriope Ward is given the name of Eileen O’Grady, and a position as a maid in a country house in Warwickshire in order to examine the effect of the War on evacuated children from London. Thirdly, Polly Churchill is given the role of Polly Sebastian, a shop-worker in one of the large department stores in London in order to help her investigation of life in London in the Blitz. Lastly, in 1944 Gerald Phipps is sent to investigate British intelligence and ends up displaying mock inflatable tanks in order to confuse the enemy.
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There are characters and links here to previous tales, should you wish to connect them. However it’s not overt and not essential in order to follow what’s going on here.

Mark also reviewed the latest Ketty Jay novel by Chris Wooding, The Black Lung Captain. I was pleased to see these books will be coming to the States next year through Bantam Spectra.

This one’s a humdinger. Great pace, teeth-rattling battle scenes, terrific characters, lovely world-building slyly dropped throughout. As you would want, we learn more about our crew and their past as things go horribly wrong. Chris’s action scenes are wonderful, as is his dialogue between a pretty dysfunctional crew. There’s a nice sense of fun and some humorous touches that also works well – Harkins’s ongoing feud with Slag, the ship’s cat, is a delight - and these are combined effectively with some nicely creepy components (here mainly involving group minds and Daemonism) and even pathos. Scenes with Bess, the childlike golem, still steal the show for me.

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.