July 2022 Reading Round Up

July was another great month for reading, I read a couple of authors for the first time as did many people recently, they were debut novels. Three of the books I read in July were review books for SFFWorld (one of which will post in August so I'll note that next month), but the review of a book I read in June was posted in July. The short of that sentence - I posted 3 reviews to SFFWorld in July: 

Kagen the Damned by Jonathan Maberry: Horror and Epic Fantasy tend to intermingle, just read some of the passages of Tad Williams’s The Dragonbone Chair and you’d be forgiven for thinking you’re reading a horror novel. More recently; however, some big chonker Epic Fantasy novels don’t just have horror passages, or dashes of horror, they can be considered Epic Horror novels outright – Jay Kristoff’s Empire of the Vampire and Christopher Buehlman’s Blacktongue Thief immediately come to mind. Of course, this novel could be considered Grimdark – and it will definitely appeal to Grimdark readers – but the horror DNA of Kagen the Damned is pretty potent. 

A Mirror Mended by Alix Harrow: Powerful prose, modern sensibilities, and a great sense of fun make A Mirror Mended a great follow-up to A Spindle Splintered. There are many other fables/fairy tales Harrow can explore with her fine-tuned pen and sensibilities, I for one would welcome more stories in this vein with these characters. 

Black Tide by K.C. Jones: I also like how Jones injects humorous passages into the otherwise dark and horrific tale. The best horror novels, and movies, have a laugh here or there to balance out the tension and the same can be said for Black Tide. That humor and balanced approach…i.e. not every chapter/passage being a conflict with an alien monster…helps to keep the pages and story moving at a great pace. 

In books I read that weren't reviewed at SFFWorld, I continued with Marshall Ryan Maresca’s Maradaine super series with Lady Henterman’s Wardrobe, the second in the Streets of Maradaine sub-sequence. This trilogy within the big series has a heist-like/caper feel and focuses on The Holver Alley Crew. The crew is still trying to get some kind of revenge or recompense for their homes and base of operations being burnt down. The street-wise group needs to infiltrate a high-society party to learn who was pulling the strings lead to a surprise. I’ll admit, a book with a title about a woman’s closet may be peculiar, but the book was lots of fun and was a great “episode” of the overall Maradaine saga. 

Paul Tremblay is one of the more impressive horror writers to emerge into the genre the last decade or so. A Head Full of Ghosts is one of the most perfect horror novels I ever read. Slowly, I’ve made my way through his books and this past month, landed on Survivor Song which is set during a pandemic as a new, deadly strain of rabies emerges. Although published in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Tremblay wrote it before. Timing can be interesting. Anyway, this was a pretty gripping novel focusing on the plight of Natalie, a pregnant woman who was bitten and asked her friend, a Doctor, to help her. The novel follows their journey across a small region of Massachusetts over the course of a few hour. An intense, emotional and unsettling novel. 

As the month came to a close, I cracked open Into the Narrowdark the third book in Tad Willams’s latest 4-book trilogy, The Last King of Osten Ard. Hard to say too much at this point, but I eased right back into the world and these characters. Small print at 500+ pages means I’ll be occupied with this book for a while. That is NOT a complaint. 

For my audiobook readings, all of July was consumed by Lord of Chaos, the sixth installment of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time. I’m enjoying it as a very comforting return to friends and familiarity, but I’m beginning to see hints of the dreaded “Slog.” Some fantastic character moments in the novel, more perspective from the Forsaken and dark side. 

Only one book didn’t work for me in July, Ruthanna Emrys’s A Half-Built Garden. I found the pacing to be rather slow. I didn’t’ connect with the characters and was simply not feeling the book.

2021 Reading Year in Review

It has been a few years since I did a reading year in review here at the Blog o’ Stuff, the most recent being 2018, and before that, 2015 so apparently, I update this blog every 3 years. That's a far cry from the multiple posts per week I'd publish in this blog's heyday.  

For completeness sake, here are the other previous years I’ve put up a reading year in review, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006).

As I've done every year for the past decade and a half, I've contributed to SFFWorld's Favorite of the Year lists: Fantasy/Horror, Science Fiction, and Film/TV. Where those book lists are focused only on 2021 releases, here at the dusty old Blog o' Stuff, I don't limit the list to just 2021 releases. I'm still very actively reviewing for both SFFWorld and The Tap Takeover

2021 was a tougher year than 2020 in some ways. We thought normalcy would return, but that did not happen. We are still in a pandemic. The year began for me with surgery on my shoulder (which I scheduled in 2020, but still) and for the better part of the first half of the year, our sweet dog Sully was fighting major health issues, passing away at just over 11 years old on May 4, 2021. My wife and I were heart-broken, but we realized how much joy Sully brought to us over those years. In the summer; however, our spirits were brightened by the arrival of our new puppy, Dusty! She brings a smile to our face constantly and she was and is the perfect dog at the right time, she is exactly what we needed.

Of the nearly 100 books I read in 2021, here are some stats: 

• 30 2021/current year releases 
• 33 reviews posted to SFFWorld
• 40 can be considered Fantasy 
• 32 can be considered Horror 
• 18 can be considered Science Fiction 
• 32 books by authors new to me 
• 47 Books by women 
• 15 total debut 
• 17 audiobooks

I also have to give a huge shout out to a couple of book folks on social media who have re-invigorated my love for the Horror genre. It isn't like I didn't read horror in the past, but it usually made up only about 20% to 25% of the books I read in any given year. In 2021 Horror was 34% of what I read. Fantasy is usually about 50%. Those shout outs: My college pal Dave Aldrich who started up his own booktube channel, Book Blather. Sadie Hartmann, AKA Mother Horror, who runs the Night Worms Book Box subscription service with Ashley Sawyers aka Spookish Mommy, maybe the best cheerleader/advocates for horror fiction I've come across in years as well as Neil McRobert's Talking Scared podcast. All positivity from them and quite a few books and writers I discovered this year are a result of following Sadie on Twitter and Instagram. Also, shout out also to my former SF Signal colleague Derek Austin Johnson (twitter), who has been posting one horror book per day for the whole year on his Instagram. 

So, without further adieu, below are the books I enjoyed reading the most in 2021. There's no order outside of the first two on this post.  If I've reviewed the book, the title will link to the review.

The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig
(My favorite overall novel of 2021, Favorite Horror)

What can I say about this novel without giving away too much of what makes it tick, from the dark and supernatural point of view? Nothing really, because this book turned into something quite unexpected. What I will say is that Oliver is a wonderful creation, despite the pain he feels from others, he does not crumble or wither. He finds strength in how this ability makes him want to help others. Like Oliver, what Chuck has done in The Book of Accidents is powerfully build up empathy in the characters he’s created in this novel. On the whole, their motivations seem genuine, their actions understandable if not approved, and the characters simply come to life. 

 In my review of Wanderers, I mentioned Chuck Wendig’s affinity for the fiction of Stephen King and parts of this novel (in addition to the elderly, friendly neighbor) definitely evoke the best of King’s work. The genius here; however, is that Chuck Wendig completely owns everything in The Book of Accidents. The result, a modern masterpiece of Dark/Horror Fiction.

 

The Bone Maker by Sarah Beth Durst
(My Favorite Fantasy Novel of 2021)

Getting the gang back together is a popular motif in many stories, fantasy stories included. One of the most popular (and one of the foundational fantasy sagas in this vein for me) is the DragonLance Chronicles, so I suppose I’m pre-disposed to liking stories that begin in this fashion. In The Bone Maker, the evil sorcerer was defeated 25 years ago, but at no small cost to the heroes who took him down.

Durst examines some deep things here, grief, forgiveness moving on (or not) from a powerful traumatic experience, faith/belief in ideals, and life being more than just one event. She does so this all while weaving a wonderful story and a fascinating, potent magic system in the back drop. The characters a mature, fully rounded, breathing, emotive people whose experiences so completely inform every action they take. Small things in the background of Durst’s writing, storytelling, and world-building make the story and characters on the page come across very elegantly.

In a shelf-filled with multi-volume fantasies it is not only refreshing to see and enjoy a single-volume Epic Fantasy novel, but truly something special for the book to be this amazing.

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

I’m a big horror fan, but the slasher sub-genre was never my go-to subset of the genre. It isn’t that I dislike it, I just prefer some of the other flavors of horror. Of course, I’m familiar with a couple of the big ones like Halloween, Friday the 13th, and one of my overall favorite horror movies, A Nightmare on Elm Street, so some of the character stand-ins/homages didn’t land with me 100% since I’m not super well-versed in Slasher films. Again, that isn’t necessarily the point nor are those connections required to be made to completely enjoy the novel, more like a dash of whip cream on a delicious scoop of ice cream. In fact, Dr. Carol Elliott is likely an homage to Professor Carol J. Clover, who coined the term “Final Girl” and theory in her 1992 book, Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. All of that said, The Final Girl Support Group was an enormously fun, extremely smart, thrill ride of a novel. It is a novel that both entertains and Makes a Statement, which in my mind, is what great literature should do. I continue to say this when I write about Grady Hendrix’s work, but with each novel or thing (non-fiction like Paperbacks from Hell or films he’s written) he produces in the genre, he’s cementing himself as a foundational voice in early 21st Century Horror. His novels have become appointment reading for me at this point.

Blood of the Chosen by Django Wexler

In everything I’ve read from Django Wexler, especially Blood of the Chosen, the action and combat scenes are essential, and extremely fun to experience. I didn’t feel like I was just reading the words on the page, I felt like I was a proverbial fly on the wall in the action. This is especially true of the final conflict of the novel, so much of the narrative was slow burn build that the explosive ending was extremely compelling. The slow burn of the novel’s beginning made the build-up and the action of the finale that more enjoyable. That ending also sows seeds in some verdant land for a potent continuation in the third novel.

As thick as this novel was, just over 400 pages, I read through it rather briskly. Wexler is a damned fine storyteller and his love of the fantastic comes through the page as a catchy thing.

Near the Bone and The Ghost Tree by Christina Henry

 

The Ghost Tree: Henry does a great job with the pacing of the novel as she goes between the multiple threads of the novel. Alongside that strong element of the novel are the emotions of the characters and how strongly the come across the page. From the loneliness Lauren feels, to the awful feelings conveyed by Mrs. Schneider, to the anger the Lopez family feels, Henry makes each character unique.

The Ghost Tree plays on some popular tropes in the horror genre, a 1980s setting, a small town with secret, haunted woods/tree, a hidden lineage and plays with them extremely well. One of my favorite horror novels over the past decade and a half is Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge and I found some really nice resonance between the two novels – small, isolated town with a dark secret being the most prominent.

Near the Bone: This is the second book I read by Henry, but it will be far from my last. Set in a remote, secluded mountain cabin, Mattie is in what can be considered an unhealthy relationship with her husband William. She is confined to the cabin, except when William needs her help and William wants nobody to know of their presence on the mountain. When she discovers a mutilated fox, William decides to hunt down the thing that left the corpse near their house. Strange, inhuman voices begin to cry out in the night and visitors stumble upon Mattie and William. Part psychological thriller, part monster story, Henry tells a taut, gripping horror story here.

Wizard of the Pigeons by Meghan Lindholm

Wizard of the Pigeon is a novel that can work on multiple layers, and the power of Lindholm’s prose is in the ambiguity that allows the reader for that kind of experience. It can easily be readable as a novel with real magic in Seattle while it can also be read as an account of a man suffering from severe PTSD whose coping mechanism is thinking of himself as a wizard. The third alternative is a combination of the two. For me, I see magic.

I must also comment on the physical book itself. As I intimated above, this book has largely been out of print for well over a decade. Sean Speakman, owner of Grim Oak Press decided to publish this 35th Anniversary edition and it is a book whose beauty does justice to the powerful story told between its covers. With evocative full-page color art pieces by Tommy Arnold, the book gets a truly Artistic treatment in terms of a physical book being a piece of art or an artifact.

This book is a must read, must own for readers of the genre especially if you’ve enjoyed anything by Robin Hobb. Wizard of the Pigeons is a progenitor of the Urban Fantasy genre in the truest sense of magic in the cityscape and not leather-clad vampires and vampire hunters. Not that there’s anything wrong with leather clad vamps and vamp hunters, but this book is not that. This book is a beautiful testament to the power of prose, how beauty can be found and carved out of pain and through suffering.

Mount Fitz Roy by Scott Sigler

Mount Fitz Roy is the sequel to Sigler’s hugely popular novel Earthcore. I listened to both books via audible. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read from Sigler and when he re-released Earthcore with the great Ray Porter on audio, I finally read it…and immediately wanted to read Mount Fitz Roy. The premise is that an something on is hiding in the caves of large mountains where knives form an ancient civilization are found. It really isn’t a spoiler to point out this civilization aren’t human. Sigler builds up tension incredibly well and is a master at science fiction horror. Porter is maybe the best narrator I’ve had the pleasure to hear.

 

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

A run down motel, murders in the past connected to our protagonist Carly who decides to work in the hotel to try to solve the unsolved murder of her aunt Viv 35 years earlier. St. James tells the story in parallel timelines, Carly in the present and Viv in the past, which makes the pages fly by because of St. James’s ability to end each chapter in a way that forces you to continue reading. The Sun Down Motel was a near pitch-perfect supernatural murder mystery, one of those books I wish I could read again for the first time.

The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

Ava Reid has boldly announced herself as a literary force with The Wolf and the Woodsman. The novel is impressive in its beauty, characters, and uncompromising nature and is all the more impressive for being Reid’s debut novel. I would not be in the least bit surprised if The Wolf and the Woodsman lands on multiple “Best of the Year” lists for 2021.

Of Honey and Wildfires by Sarah Chorn

Sarah Chorn’s second novel, Of Honey and Wildfires, is the start of a new series/new world and new characters. Set in a world that evokes the old West/Frontier, the Shine and mining of it dominates everything. The closest analogue I can think of is that Shine is kind of like Spice from Dune. It heals, it is a source of power, it can be consumed, it is everything. …

Human emotion, tragedy, and pain are wrought beautifully on these pages through Sarah Chorn’s carefully constructed prose. There’s a sliver of hope throughout the undercurrent of despair and pain that helps to drive the narrative. Of Honey and Wildfires is a compulsively readable novel whose relatively short page count for the genre (barely 300 pages) belies the epic story and gamut of emotions and purely powerful storytelling on display.

Whisper Down the Lane by Clay McLeod Chapman

Chapman takes very real-life events and uses that as a launching pad to spin a gripping story out of those events. He does a fantastic job of humanizing the participants of what would seem to be a larger-than-life bombastic news story. I’ve long been fan of parallel narratives and here in Whisper Down the Lane, Chapman builds up the tension in both Sean and Richard’s stories. It is probably not much of a secret that these stories converge in some fashion, but how Chapman builds towards this convergence is extremely effective. He has a knack for creating a compulsive narrative, which is why I burned through the novel in a couple of days, Whisper Down the Lane was extremely challenging to set down.

Whisper Down the Lane is a potent, compulsive thriller with horrific elements that is one of the most gripping novels I’ve read this year.

Slewfoot by BROM

Much of the story feels like a historical fantasy / fairy tale, but then Brom shifts the tone into something darker and a story firmly entrenched in horror. That build of tension and build of Abitha’s character is like a powder keg that explodes in what at one time could be considered dark magic. Here also is what Brom does so well…he upturns the historical perspective and turns the “good” on its head into something not quite so pleasant. He does this via the simmering of tension I mentioned earlier as well as the path Abitha’s nemesis Wallace takes. Brom gives readers a character to root for in Abitha and an antagonist that is unlikeable in Wallace. Brom doesn’t just make Wallace a cardboard cut-out of a villain, he balances the character by showing some insight into the Wallace’s motivation. We see why he feels the way he does, even if his reaction to those feelings are villainous.

Brom’s art, a half-dozen color plates in the center of the book and chapter icons that take up half the page, enhance the immersive experience of Slewfoot. His words are just as potent at telling the story as is his art. The obvious comparison in recent years is to the film The VVitch because the timeframe, horrific elements, witchcraft, but except maybe a bit more hopeful.

Brom has created a story that feels familiar and fresh and is the kind of powerful story that could last through the generations as a book/novel/story to revisit every Hallowe’en.

Star Kingdom by Lindsay Buroker

This is the second series I’ve read from Buroker and she has a great knack for character and storytelling in her work. She’s self-published (one of the biggest names in genre self-published authors), but most of her work is also available via audible. This series takes place thousands of years in the future when humanity has left Earth. The Star Kingdom series focuses on robotics professor Casmir Dabrowski, who is forced to flee his comfortable life when he is being hunted for reasons he can’t imagine. Joining Casmir is his best friend and roommate Kim Sato and filled with great character development, thrilling action, and are just pure fun. These audio books are available as omnibus editions and are fantastic listens.

The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan

I guess I re-read this series about once every ten years. Or when the TV Show starts up. Either way, I am in the midst of re-reading the series via audiobook and I’m loving it. I’ve said quite a bit about this series in the past, and as of this writing, I had just finished The Dragon Reborn. 

Maradaine by Marshall Ryan Maresca

Maresca’s interlinked series of series has been a delight. I read The Thorn of Dentonhill back in 2015, dove back into some of the Maradaine novels last year, and have continued to make my way through the various series this year, in chronological order not in series order, which is what Mr. Maresca recommends. These books are relatively short (barely 400 pages at most) in mass market paperback and have a sword and sorcery feel to them, taking place in a shared location. In many ways, his Maradaine saga is not unlike the Marvel Cinematic Universe, four trilogies that eventually tie together. You don’t necessarily need to read one of the trilogies to get what is going on in the other, but it makes for a more rewarding experience. Maresca has a handy "reading order" guide.

I also reviewed, and loved the 2021 entry in this series, An Unintended Voyage, which seems to act as a bridge between "Phase One" of Maradaine and the next phase. 

Miriam Black by Chuck Wendig

For all that I’ve read by Chuck Wendig, I’d never read his breakout series, Miriam Black and the only reason I’m not kicking myself for not getting to this series sooner is because I’m not getting to experience these books for the first time. Miriam can tell you how you die and exactly when you die just by touching you. That doesn’t sound fun at all, and Miriam would agree with that sentiment. Horror/thriller/mystery rolled together, I think Chuck has said he envisions these as horror novels. I’m not going to argue with the man. I’ve read the first three thus far, Blackbirds, Mockingbird, and The Cormorant.

I think it might be obvious at this point that my author of the year is Chuck Wendig. Even if I hadn’t met and chatted with him in the past, I’d love his books and writing.

So...not a bad year for reading for me. This year was the first time in probably 15 to 20 years that I got close to reading 100 books in a year.

Books in the Mail (W/E 2015-11-21)

Since only one book arrived this week and it's been a while since I did the intro to this weekly post, here goes...

As a reviewer for SFFWorld (as well as SF Signal and Tor.com) 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. I’ve been receiving a greater percentage of electronic ARCs this year which is good because death via drowning in a sea of unread books is not how I want to say goodbye to this world.

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 (i.e. from "this book holds ZERO appeal for me" to "I cannot WAIT to read this book yesterday"). Have a guess in the comments about which book fits my reading labels “I’ll Never Read…” “Zero Appeal” or “cannot wait” "maybe I'll get to it later" and so forth...

A Murder of Mages: A Novel of the Maradaine Constabulary by Marshall Ryan Maresca (DAW Mass Market Paperback 0705/2015) – Maresca’s second series in the same world as his impressive debut The Thorn of Dentonhill

A Murder of Mages marks the debut of Marshall Ryan Maresca’s novels of The Maradaine Constabulary, his second series set amid the bustling streets and crime-ridden districts of the exotic city called Maradaine. A Murder of Mages introduces us to this spellbinding port city as seen through the eyes of the people who strive to maintain law and order, the hardworking men and women of the Maradaine Constabulary.

Satrine Rainey—former street rat, ex-spy, mother of two, and wife to a Constabulary Inspector who lies on the edge of death, injured in the line of duty—has been forced to fake her way into the post of Constabulary Inspector to support her family.

Minox Welling is a brilliant, unorthodox Inspector and an Uncircled mage—almost a crime in itself. Nicknamed “the jinx” because of the misfortunes that seem to befall anyone around him, Minox has been partnered with Satrine because no one else will work with either of them.

Their first case together—the ritual murder of a Circled mage— sends Satrine back to the streets she grew up on and brings Minox face-to-face with mage politics he’s desperate to avoid. As the body count rises, Satrine and Minox must race to catch the killer before their own secrets are exposed and they, too, become targets.

Books in the Mail (W/E 2015-10-24)

Just a few books here at the home offices of the 'o Stuff, have a gander...

Departure (A Laundry Files novel) by A.G. Riddle (HarperVoyager Hardcover 10/20/2015) – Riddle is the latest self-published sensation (having sold over one million copies) to make the jump to traditional publishing. This one, as the tag line indicates, has some resonance with Lost. This is the final/hardcover of the ARC I received back in June.

Flight 305 took off in 2014...

But it crashed in a world very different from our own...

With time running out, five strangers must unravel why they were taken...

And how to get home.

FROM THE BACK COVER

Harper Lane has problems. In a few hours, she'll have to make a decision that will change her life forever. But when her flight from New York to London crash-lands in the English countryside, she discovers that she's made of tougher stuff than she ever imagined.

As Harper and the survivors of Flight 305 struggle to stay alive in the aftermath of the crash, they soon realize that this world is very different from the one they left. Their lives are connected, and some believe they've been brought here for a reason.

In addition to Harper, several other passengers seem to hold clues about why Flight 305 crashed. There's:

Nick Stone, an American on his way to a meeting with The Gibraltar Project, an international group dedicated to building a dam across the Strait of Gibraltar and draining the Mediterranean.

Sabrina Schröder, a German scientist who has unknowingly sealed the fate of half the flight's passengers.

Yul Tan, a Chinese-American computer scientist who has just made the breakthrough of a lifetime: a quantum internet capable of transmitting more data, farther, faster than ever thought possible. His invention, however, does much more than he ever dreamed possible.

With time running out to save the survivors of Flight 305, Harper and Nick race to unravel the conspiracy that crashed their plane. As they put the pieces together, they discover that their decisions have already doomed one world and will soon determine the future of ours.

No Cover Image Available Yet

The Alchemy of Chaos by Marshall Ryan Maresca (DAW Mass Market Paperback 03/02/2016) – Third book featuring Maresca’s superhero/sword and sorcery tale. I had a lot of fun reading the first one (The Thorn of Dentonhill) earlier this year, but somehow the second book never made its way to me.

Veranix Calbert is The Thorn—the street vigilante-turned-legend—and a pest to Willem Fenmere, the drug kingpin of Dentonhill. Veranix is determined to stop Fenmere and the effitte drug trade, especially when he discovers that Fenmere is planning on using the Red Rabbits gang in his neighborhood.

But Veranix is also a magic student at the University of Maradaine, and it’s exam week. With his academic career riding on his performance, there’s no time to go after Fenmere or the Red Rabbits. But when a series of pranks on campus grow deadly, it’s clear that someone has a vendetta against the university, and Veranix may be the only one who can stop them…

A Man Lies Dreaming by Lavie Tidhar (Melville House Hardcover 03/08/2016) – Tidhar is an author I’ve been wanting to read for a few years now, very glad to get this one.

A twisted masterpiece . . . A Holocaust novel like no other, Lavie Tidhar’s A Man Lies Dreaming comes crashing through the door of literature like Sam Spade with a .38 in his hand. This is a shocking book as well as a rather brilliant one. —The Guardian

A noir thriller with a twist and a Holocaust novel infused with the spirit of shund–the dark Israeli pulp fiction that thrived in the years after World War II–the British Fantasy Award-shortlisted A Man Lies Dreaming is a radical literary experiment that brings alternate history to life. Lavie Tidhar has reimagined the rainy, atmospheric energy of London in the 1930s, and the troubled private detective with an unspeakable secret who roams its streets. As A Man Lies Dreaming unfolds and more of its mysteries come to the surface, we find ourselves drawn into a novel at once gripping and profoundly unsettling.

Friday Round-Up: Reviews at SFFWorld, Mind Meld & Completist at SF Signal

Here's where I round up some of the SFF-related posts I've published over the past couple of weeks; most often reviews at SFFWorld and/or the various columns I write for SF Signal.  Going back the furthest is my review of The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu and translated by Ken Liu. The Three-Body Problem is the first major English publication of a Chinese SF novel and Liu is sort of like the equivalent to Arthur C. Clarke.

The Three-Body Problem is a novel spanning decades, galaxies, and civilizations while also showcasing intimate portraits of people caught up in the first communication between humanity and an alien species. The novel begins during China’s Cultural Revolution; a time of chaos and internal strife wherein Communism takes a stronger grip on China when a fairly prominent scientist is killed for protesting his thoughts. His daughter, Ye Wenjie, is of course affected by his death but moves into a life of science eventually working at Red Coast, a radar station for monitoring extra-terrestrial life in the late 1960s. Red Coast is also the source of many strange occurrences: people have suffered sickness and dizziness in its presence while animals show great anxiety and snow melts to rain when its antenna is extended. To say watching her father murdered before her eyes set her mind down a specific path is an understatement.
...
Liu’s narrative is not exactly linear as it is told from multiple points of view focusing on various points in time, but the whole of it builds a mesmerizing picture. As a Westerner, the world of China presented in the novel was alien in some ways, particularly the conversational patterns and the societal mores that come across from the dialogue as well as the culture on the whole. In effect, this gave a sense of not just one alien culture conversing with Earth across vast distances for the first time, but rather of two alien cultures meeting. What makes this all the more fascinating is that the physical description of the Trisolarians (what the Chinese/humans dub the aliens) is minimal and the fact that humans and Trisolarians don’t actually meet.

Also last week, my April Mind Meld was posted to SF Signal, wherein I asked Beth Cato, Cora Buhlert, Fran Wilde, Howard Andrew Jones, Joe Sherry, Kelly McCullough, Lisa McCurrach, and Rachel Aukes their thoughts about the following:

Cities in SFF and the Epic Road Trip

Q: What is your favorite story/novel/movie focusing on a City or the City as the Epic Road Trip destination?

A couple of weeks ago I read and enjoyed The Thorn of Dentonhill, the swashbuckling superhero sword & sorcery fantasy from Marshal Ryan Maresca. Following my staggered review schedule, I posted the review this week:

Veranix Calbert is a student at the University of Maradaine learning the history and uses of magic. He mostly keeps to himself, aside from a few close companions: Kaiana, a young woman and his closest friend who works in the custodial department of the University; his roommate Delmin; and his cousin Colin, a high-ranking member of the Rose Street Princes [a street gang]. Veranix mostly keeps to himself because when he isn’t in his dorm or classroom he roams the streets of Dentonhill trying to bring down the drug kingpin William Fenmere, the man responsible for both the death of Veranix’s father and the mindless state of Veranix’s mother. Veranix also has something of a Harry Potter/Dumbledore relationship with Alimen, the chief instructor of Veranix’s studies at the University. Alimen helped usher both Veranix and Kaiana into the University’s society and there’s a sense that he knows far more than he lets on about Veranix’s double life. Kai is aware of Veranix’s double life, and as the novel begins, she’s the only character who does. Alimen pushes Veranix to be a better student because he both worries for the young man’s safety and sees great potential in him.

The relationship between Kaiana and Veranix is filled with tension, Kai continually warns Veranix that he could get hurt or that his identity might be discovered. Veranix pushes the boundaries of what she’ll do to protect him and his identity. There’s a bit of romantic tension between the two, but at this point their relationship seems open to go in any direction. That is, Maresca hasn’t pigeon holed them as a romantic, but he hasn’t closed off that possibility either. I found it a bit refreshing that they didn’t end up paired up in this fashion, despite the rumors about the two of them that were floating around the University’s campus. However, when Delmin is finally introduced to Kai, Delmin finds himself drawn to her and not just because of their shared concern for and relationship with Veranix.

Lastly, just yesterday my April Completist column posted to SF Signal. In it, I discuss an author who has garnered his fair share of controversy. However, I highlight one of his lesser known, but perhaps most accessible series: Stephen R. Donaldson's Mordant's Need:

Mordant’s Need is a portal fantasy; that is, a person from “our world” travels through a portal or some other means to a different world, most often a world where magic and strange creatures live. In this case, the protagonist Terisa Morgan is a character who feels as if she has no purpose, a shrinking violet if you will. She lives in an apartment filled with mirrors so she can constantly see herself, not out of vanity, but rather to confirm her existence. A magician from the land of Mordant appears through a mirror seeking her aid. The magician, Geraden speaks of monsters “translated” to Mordant from other worlds. As serendipity/coincidence would have it, magic in the land of Mordant is connected to mirrors so Terisa’s mirror-laden apartment leads Geraden to believe he has found the right champion to fulfill Mordant’s need.

...

The pace also picks up in A Man Rides Through. He only touches upon some of the lands, enough that it makes you want to read more about those lands. Towards the final half of A Man Rides Through, Donaldson pulls together all the plot threads into one gestalt of a story which shows just how well constructed his plot and story was from the very start.

Books in the Mail (W/E 2015-01-24)

This is the biggest batch of arrivals in quite a few weeks. I've already read two of them, but the other books look very interesting indeed.

Impulse (The Lightship Chronicles #1) by Dave Bara (DAW Hardcover 03/03/2015) – A brand new Space Opera from DAW, and in hardcover release which shows the publisher has faith in his work. I think Dave’s agent may have mentioned this book to me a while back and I know his editor/publisher mentioned it when he and I chatted at the Tor.com imprint launch party. I finished this one last week and really enjoyed it, I hope it does well for Dave because I want to read more books in this series.

Lieutenant Peter Cochrane of the Quantar Royal Navy believes he has his future clearly mapped out. It begins with his new assignment as an officer on Her Majesty’s Spaceship Starbound, a Lightship bound for deep space voyages of exploration.

But everything changes when Peter is summoned to the office of his father, Grand Admiral Nathan Cochrane, and given devastating news: the death of a loved one. In a distant solar system, a mysterious and unprovoked attack upon Lightship Impulse resulted in the deaths of Peter’s former girlfriend and many of her shipmates.

Now Peter’s plans are torn asunder as he is transferred to a Unified Space Navy ship under foreign command, en route to an unexpected destination, and surrounded almost entirely by strangers. To top it off, his superiors have given him secret orders that might force him to become a mutineer.

The crisis at hand becomes a gateway to something much more when the ship’s Historian leads Peter and his shipmates into a galaxy of the unknown — of ancient technologies, age-old rivalries, new cultures, and unexpected romance. It’s an overwhelming responsibility for Peter, and one false step could plunge humanity into an apocalyptic interstellar war.

 

Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear (Tor, Hardcover 02/3/2015) – Bear churns out novels and stories with remarkable quality and regularity, something not many authors can say. My review for this engaging novel goes up this week.

“You ain’t gonna like what I have to tell you, but I'm gonna tell you anyway. See, my name is Karen Memery, like memory only spelt with an e, and I'm one of the girls what works in the Hôtel Mon Cherie on Amity Street. Hôtel has a little hat over the o like that. It’s French, so Beatrice tells me.”

Hugo-Award winning author Elizabeth Bear offers something new in Karen Memory, an absolutely entrancing steampunk novel set in Seattle in the late 19th century—an era when the town was called Rapid City, when the parts we now call Seattle Underground were the whole town (and still on the surface), when airships plied the trade routes bringing would-be miners heading up to the gold fields of Alaska, and steam-powered mechanicals stalked the waterfront. Karen is a “soiled dove,” a young woman on her own who is making the best of her orphaned state by working in Madame Damnable’s high-quality bordello. Through Karen’s eyes we get to know the other girls in the house—a resourceful group—and the poor and the powerful of the town. Trouble erupts into her world one night when a badly injured girl arrives at their door, seeking sanctuary, followed by the man who holds her indenture, who has a machine that can take over anyone’s mind and control their actions. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, the next night brings a body dumped in their rubbish heap—a streetwalker who has been brutally murdered.

Bear brings alive this Jack-the-Ripper-type story of the old west with the light touch of Karen’s own memorable voice, and a mesmerizing evocation of classic steam-powered science

Footsteps in the Sky by Greg Keyes (Open Road Media, Trade Paperback/eBook 05/26/2015) – I’m very happy to see some new original novel-length fiction from Greg Keyes. I’ve read most of his stuff (Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone, Age of Unreason, and The Chosen of the Changeling) though lately he’s been keeping busy with tie-in work, most recently the novelization/tie-in for Interstellar

The pueblo people who landed on the Fifth World found it Earthlike, empty, and ready for colonization . . . but a century later, they are about to meet the planet’s owners

One hundred years ago, Sand’s ancestors made the long, one-way trip to the Fifth World, ready to work ceaselessly to terraform the planet. Descendants of native peoples like the Hopi and Zuni, they wanted to return to the way of life of their forebears, who honored the Kachina spirits.

Now, though, many of the planet’s inhabitants have begun to resent their grandparents’ decision to strand them in this harsh and forbidding place, and some have turned away from the customs of the Well-Behaved People. Sand has her doubts, but she longs to believe that the Kachina live on beyond the stars and have been readying a new domain for her people.

She may be right. Humans have discovered nine habitable worlds, all with life that shares a genetic code entirely alien to any on Earth. Someone has been seeding planets, bringing life to them. But no other sign of the ancient farmers has ever been discovered—until one day they return to the Fifth World. They do not like what they find.

The Eternia Files by Leanna Renee Hieber (Tor, Hardcover 02/3/2015) – Victorian/Gaslight Mystery in the mid-1800s. Hieber seems to really know this era, she is after all a well known actress and Gothic Historian.

London, 1882: Queen Victoria appoints Harold Spire of the Metropolitan Police to Special Branch Division Omega. Omega is to secretly investigate paranormal and supernatural events and persons. Spire, a skeptic driven to protect the helpless and see justice done, is the perfect man to lead the department, which employs scholars and scientists, assassins and con men, and a traveling circus. Spire’s chief researcher is Rose Everhart, who believes fervently that there is more to the world than can be seen by mortal eyes.

Their first mission: find the Eterna Compound, which grants immortality. Catastrophe destroyed the hidden laboratory in New York City where Eterna was developed, but the Queen is convinced someone escaped—and has a sample of Eterna.

Also searching for Eterna is an American, Clara Templeton, who helped start the project after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln nearly destroyed her nation. Haunted by the ghost of her beloved, she is determined that the Eterna Compound—and the immortality it will convey—will be controlled by the United States, not Great Britain.

The first ina new Victorian fantasy series, Leanna Renee Hieber’s The Eterna Files is available February 10th from Tor Books. Read an excerpt below!

The Thorn of Dentonhill by Marshall Ryan Maresca (DAW Mass Market Paperback 02/03/2015) – This debut sounds like a fun mash-up of superhero fiction & sword and sorcery, in a similar vein to the very enjoyable Shield and Crocus by Michael R. Underwood. That cloak gives me a superhero feel and the cover evokes Scott Lynch. The second book/sequel is set to publish in the summer, giving Maresca (who was a Book Country member where he work-shopped the book) some fairly quick shelf presence.

Veranix Calbert leads a double life. By day, he’s a struggling magic student at the University of Maradaine. At night, he spoils the drug trade of Willem Fenmere, crime boss of Dentonhill and murderer of Veranix’s father. He’s determined to shut Fenmere down.

With that goal in mind, Veranix disrupts the delivery of two magical artifacts meant for Fenmere's clients, the mages of the Blue Hand Circle. Using these power-filled objects in his fight, he quickly becomes a real thorn in Fenmere's side.

So much so that soon not only Fenmere, but powerful mages, assassins, and street gangs all want a piece of “The Thorn.” And with professors and prefects on the verge of discovering his secrets, Veranix’s double life might just fall apart. Unless, of course, Fenmere puts an end to it first.