Friday Round Up: SF Signal Mind Meld & SFFWorld Reviews (Staveley, Williams, & Huff)

Wow, it has been nearly a month since I did one of these Friday Link dumps here on the 'o Stuff.  That's partially due to not posting reviews in Later November/Early December (the book I was reading was a gigundo omnibus of three books which took about two and half weeks to plow through). So, without further ado, here's the round up of some recent posts I've made.

At the end of November, my review of Brian Staveley's debut novel The Emperor's Blades (Book 1 of The Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne) was posted at SFFWorld. This was a fun and engaging debut.

What Staveley does so effectively with Kaden and Valyn is to give each of them their own mini-boss of sorts – or foil. For Kaden, it is the man who is training him Tan. The mentor/mentee relationship between them is contentious at best; Kaden has many questions and in Tan’s eyes, every question is the wrong question. This battle of the wills made for compelling reading; for Tan was an enigma even to some of the Monks of Shin. Through him, Kaden and the reader learn a great deal about the lore and mythology of the world, which is in contrast to the relatively barren mountain landscape where the Shin monks reside. Valyn is able to interact more personably with his cadets; he forms friendships and even a potential romantic interest which is, of course, frowned upon by the military. Valyn’s arc has as its foil the brash and outspoken Sami Yurl. A simple name, but one that credit to Staveley, easily conjures up antagonism as I hear the name in my head.

...

As is inherit with an opening volume, The Emperor’s Blades is the table-setter for the series, laying out the world and conflict the characters will have to deal with as the saga progresses. For the most part, it is very successful; I was engaged throughout and wanted to know more about the world they inhabit; particularly the deep past at which Kaden’s mentor Tan hinted. If I can compare the series – at this early stage – to any I’ve read over the past couple of years the closest would be to David Anthony Durham’s Acacia Trilogy and Daniel Abraham’s Long Price Quartet. This bodes very well indeed as these are two recent favorites you all should go out and read while waiting for The Providence of Fire.

Last week, my December Mind Meld was posted to SF Signal, wherein I asked Erin Lindsey, Jamie Todd Rubin, Julie E. Czerneda, Michael R. Underwood, Rene Sears, and Sylvia Izzo Hunter:

What Genre Holiday traditions to you partake in every year? What favorite films do you like to re-watch? What favorite books or stories you like to re-read? What are your favorite Holiday-themed episodes of genre shows (beyond the classic Rankin-Bass stop motion specials)?

This week, keeping with a holiday theme, I posted a review of God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlepig, a novella from Tad Williams featuring his snarky angel advocate, Bobby Dollar.

Let me change that, in the case of God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlepig, the novella is a nearly perfect length of story for a little side-story featuring Tad’s angel Doloriel (Bobby Dollar to most folk) an advocate for recently deceased souls. Based on the title of this novella, it should come as no surprise that the latest soul for which Bobby is advocating passes from the land of the living on December 24th. Now you might think an angel arguing for a soul to gain entrance into Heaven on Christmas Eve would be a touchy-feely Holiday Tale, you’d only be half correct. For this is a Holiday tale, but Bobby learns a great deal about the soul of Petar Vesić, not the least of which is that the man was more than just a man, he was a werewolf. What is most surprising is that Vesić doesn’t want Bobby’s help, he is prepared to go to Hell.

...

I was grinning all the while I was reading this one. I’ve made it no secret that Tad Williams is one of my favorite writers so it would be hard for me not to like this one. Instead, Tad has proven yet again why he remains a favorite writer.

Lastly is a review from a genre mainstay new to me, Tanya Huff with that rarest of beasts in the genre, a standalone fantasy novel.  Here's a bit from my review of The Silvered:

There’s a lot to like in this novel; strong well-realized characters, believable conflict, but most of all for me it was Huff’s incredible world-building. The world is similar to our own during the 19th Century, except magic is real and conflicts with science in many ways. Science and magic don’t often coexist in Fantasy novels, but here they both work together and are in conflict with each other. The Emperor uses his soothsayers (magic) to determine how to acquire the werewolves so he can use science to experiment on them. There’s a strong steampunk feel to the Empire, an aesthetic which is often a blend of science and magic. Huff has crafted such a logical and well-rounded pack dynamic for her werewolves that it seems the only way it could have existed.

Books in the Mail (W/E 2014-10-11)

Four books this week; two arrived on Monday, two arrived on Friday.

Generation V by M.L. Brennan (Roc Mass Market Paperback 05/07/2013) – Brennan’s debut and launch book for the series of the same name. Brennan has gained some very solid reviews for this vampire/urban fantasy since it published late last year so I’ve been intrigued by the book and was happy to get a copy when Nita, Ace/Roc/Daw publicist extraordinaire asked if I’d like to receive a copy. A review with ML will likely go up to SFFWorld in the next couple/few weeks.

Fortitude Scott’s life is a mess. A degree in film theory has left him with zero marketable skills, his job revolves around pouring coffee, his roommate hasn’t paid rent in four months, and he’s also a vampire. Well, sort of. He’s still mostly human.

But when a new vampire comes into his family’s territory and young girls start going missing, Fort can’t ignore his heritage anymore. His mother and his older, stronger siblings think he’s crazy for wanting to get involved. So it’s up to Fort to take action, with the assistance of Suzume Hollis, a dangerous and sexy shape-shifter. Fort is determined to find a way to outsmart the deadly vamp, even if he isn’t quite sure how.

But without having matured into full vampirehood and with Suzume ready to split if things get too risky, Fort’s rescue mission might just kill him.

Hawk (Vlad Taltos #14) by Steven Brust (Tor, Hardcover 10/07/2014) – I really enjoy Brust’s Taltos novels, as I’ve mentioned recently and I hope to catch up with them, or at least get closer to being caught up, in the more-near-than-far future.

Years ago, Vlad Taltos came to make his way as a human amidst the impossibly tall, fantastically long-lived natives of the Dragaeran Empire. He joined the Jhereg, the Dragaeran House (of which there are seventeen) that handles the Empire’s vices: gambling, rackets, organized crime. He became a professional assassin. He was good at it.

But that was then, before Vlad and the Jhereg became mortal enemies.

For years, Vlad has run from one end of the Empire to the other, avoiding the Jhereg assassins who pursue him. Now, finally, he’s back in the imperial capital where his family and friends are. He means to stay there this time. Whatever happens. And whatever it takes.

Advanced Class Guide (A Pathfinder Campaign Supplement) edited by James L. Sutter (Paizo Hardcover 09/02/2014) – The fine folks at Paize keep churning out these great RPG books.

A New Breed of Hero

Adventure like never before with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Advanced Class Guide! Explore new heights of heroism with 10 new base classes, each with 20 levels of amazing abilities. Incredible powers also await existing characters, with more than a hundred new archetypes and class options. Prepare characters for their most legendary adventure ever with massive selections of never-before-seen spells, magic items, and more!

The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Advanced Class Guide is a must-have companion volume to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook. This imaginative tabletop game builds upon more than 15 years of system development and an open playtest featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into the new millennium.

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Advanced Class Guide includes:

• Ten new base classes—the magic-twisting arcanist, the ferocious bloodrager, the cunning investigator, the daring swashbuckler, the formidable warpriest, and others.
• Variant class abilities and thematic archetypes for all 29 base classes, such as the counterfeit mage and the mutagenic mauler.
• Nearly a hundred new feats for characters of all classes, including style feats, teamwork feats like Coordinated Shot, and more.
• Hundreds of new spells and magic items, such as feast on fear and skullcrusher gauntlets.
• An entire armory of amazing equipment, from vital new adventuring gear to deadly alchemical weapons.

AND MUCH, MUCH MORE!

Sleeping Late on Judgment Day (Bobby Dollar #3) by Tad Williams (DAW Hardcover 09/02/2014) – I am a big Tad Williams fan (as anybody who has read my blog knows) and I really like this series. This is the last Bobby Dollar novel for now, I hope Tad returns to this angel.

Where does an angel go when he's been to Hell and back?

Renegade angel Bobby Dollar does not have an easy afterlife. After surviving the myriad gruesome dangers Hell oh-so-kindly offered him, Bobby has returned empty-handed – his demon girlfriend Casmira, the Countess of Cold Hands, is still in the clutches of Eligor, Grand Duke of Hell. Some hell of a rescue.

Forced to admit his failure, Bobby ends up back at his job as an angel advocate. That is, until Walter, an old angel friend whom Bobby never thought he’d see again, shows up at the local bar. The last time he saw Walter was in Hell, when Walter had tried to warn him about one of Bobby’s angel superiors. But now Walter can’t remember anything, and Bobby doesn’t know whom to trust.

Turns out that there's corruption hidden within the higher ranks of Heaven and Hell, but the only proof Bobby has is a single feather. Before he knows it, he’s in the High Hall of Heavenly Judgement – no longer a bastion for the moral high ground, if it ever was, but instead just another rigged system – on trial for his immortal soul...

Sleeping Late on Judgement Day is the third installment of Tad Williams' urban fantasy Bobby Dollar series!

Books in the Mail (W/E 2013-07-06)

Another week, another set of books. All of these are e-Arcs.


The Woken Gods by Gwenda Bond (Strange Chemistry, Paperback 09/04/2013) –I loved Gwenda’s debut, Blackwood and look forward to reading her sophomore effort, which is completely unlinked to her previous novel. .

Five years ago, the gods of ancient mythology awoke around the world.

This morning, Kyra Locke is late for school.

Seventeen-year-old Kyra lives in a transformed Washington, D.C., home to the embassies of divine pantheons and the mysterious Society of the Sun. But when rebellious Kyra encounters two trickster gods on her way back from school, one offering a threat and the other a warning, it turns out her life isn’t what it seems. She escapes with the aid of Osborne “Oz” Spencer, an intriguing Society field operative, only to discover that her scholar father has disappeared with a dangerous relic. The Society needs it, and they don’t care that she knows nothing about her father’s secrets.

Now Kyra must depend on her wits and the suspect help of scary gods, her estranged oracle mother, and, of course, Oz–whose first allegiance is to the Society. She has no choice if she’s going to recover the missing relic and save her father. And if she doesn’t? Well, that may just mean the end of the world as she knows it.

From the author of Blackwood comes a fresh, thrilling urban fantasy that will appeal to fans of Cassandra Clare, and Rick Riordan.




Ascension (A Tangled Axon Novel) by Jacqueline Koyanagi (Masque Books eBook 08/03/2013 / Mass Market Paperback 10/04/2013) – I first became aware of this, I think , from Aidan’s blog post here. This looks like it could be a very interesting novel.

Alana Quick is the best damned sky surgeon in Heliodor City, but repairing starship engines barely pays the bills. When the desperate crew of a cargo vessel stops by her shipyard looking for her spiritually-advanced sister Nova, Alana stows away. Maybe her boldness will land her a long-term gig on the crew. But the Tangled Axon proves to be more than star-watching and plasma coils. The chief engineer thinks he's a wolf. The pilot fades in and out of existence. The captain is all blond hair, boots, and ego... and Alana can't keep her eyes off her. But there's little time for romance: Nova's in danger and someone will do anything - even destroying planets - to get their hands on her!


The Republic of Thieves (Volume Three of The Gentleman Bastard ) by Scott Lynch (Bantam Spectra Hardcover 10/03/2013) – The most anticipated fantasy novel of 2013, folks have been waiting a few years to read this one. I may have to re-read the first two (Red Seas under Red Skies
and The Lies of Locke Lamora) before jumping into this one.

After their adventures on the high seas, Locke and Jean are brought back to earth with a thump. Jean is mourning the loss of his lover, and Locke must live with the fallout of crossing the all-powerful magical assassins the Bonds Magi. It is a fall-out that will pit both men against Locke's own long-lost love. Sabetha is Locke's childhood sweetheart, the love of Locke's life, and now it is time for them to meet again. Employed on different sides of a vicious dispute between factions of the Bonds, Sabetha has just one goal-to destroy Locke forever. The Gentleman Bastard sequence has become a literary sensation in fantasy circles, and now, with the third book, Scott Lynch is set to seal that success.


The Crown Tower (Volume 1 of The Riyria Chronicles) by Michael J. Sullivan (Orbit, Trade Paperback 08/06/2013) – I really enjoyed the six book/three omnibuses Orbit published of Sullivan’s Riyria Revelations about a year ago (Theft of Swords, Rise of Empire, and Heir of Novron). This book is the first of a prequel duology chronicling how Royce and Hadrian formed the Riyria.

Two men who hate each other. One impossible mission. A legend in the making.

Hadrian Blackwater, a warrior with nothing to fight for, is paired with Royce Melborn, a thieving assassin with nothing to lose. Hired by an old wizard, they must steal a treasure that no one can reach. The Crown Tower is the impregnable remains of the grandest fortress ever built and home to the realm's most prized possessions. But it isn't gold or jewels that the wizard is after, and if he can just keep them from killing each other, they just might succeed.

The Rose and the Thorn (Volume 2 of The Riyria Chronicles) by Michael J. Sullivan (Orbit, Trade Paperback 09/17/2013) – I really enjoyed the six book/three omnibuses Orbit published of Sullivan’s Riyria Revelations about a year ago (Theft of Swords, Rise of Empire, and Heir of Novron). This book is the second of a prequel duology chronicling how Royce and Hadrian formed the Riyria.

Two thieves want answers. Riyria is born.

For more than a year Royce Melborn has tried to forget Gwen DeLancy, the woman who saved him and his partner Hadrian Blackwater from certain death. Unable to get her out of his mind, the two thieves return to Medford but receive a very different reception —- Gwen refuses to see them. The victim of abuse by a powerful noble, she suspects that Royce will ignore any danger in his desire for revenge. By turning the thieves away, Gwen hopes to once more protect them. What she doesn't realize is what the two are capable of —- but she's about to find out.

Happy Hour in Hell (Volume Two of Bobby Dollar) by Tad Williams (DAW Hardcover 09/03/2013) – Last year, Tad launched this tight and powerful series with The Dirty Streets of Heaven, which I loved so clearly, I’m looking forward to reading this one.

I’ve been told to go to Hell more times than I can count. But this time I’m actually going.

My name’s Bobby Dollar, sometimes known as Doloriel, and of course, Hell isn’t a great place for someone like me—I’m an angel. They don’t like my kind down there, not even the slightly fallen variety. But they have my girlfriend, who happens to be a beautiful demon named Casi¬mira, Countess of Cold Hands. Why does an angel have a demon girlfriend? Well, certainly not because it helps my career.

She’s being held hostage by one of the nasti¬est, most powerful demons in all of the nether¬world—Eligor, Grand Duke of Hell. He already hates me, and he’d like nothing better than to get his hands on me and rip my immortal soul right out of my borrowed but oh-so-mortal body.
But wait, it gets better! Not only do I have to sneak into Hell, make my way across thousands of miles of terror and suffering to reach Pan- demonium, capital of the fiery depths, but then I have to steal Caz right out from under Eligor’s burning eyes and smuggle her out again, past demon soldiers, hellhounds, and all the murder¬ous creatures imprisoned there for eternity. And even if I somehow manage to escape Hell, I’m also being stalked by an undead psychopath named Smyler who’s been following me for weeks. Oh, and did I mention that he can’t be killed?

So if I somehow survive Hell, elude the Grand Duke and all his hideous minions and make it back to the real world, I’ll still be the most hunted soul in Creation. But at least I’ll have Caz. Gotta have something to look forward to, right?

So just pour me that damn drink, will you? I’ve got somewhere to go.

Dirty Streets in the Future Underground - 3 New SFFWorld Reviews

Three, count ‘em three reviews to mention this week! Joining Mark and I once again is the great N.E. White (aka tmso in the SFFWorld Forums. We’ve got two urban fantasies and one alternate future history…


People who have been reading my blog for a while or have come to know me through the SFFWorld Forums are likely aware that Tad Williams is one of my favorite writers of the fantastic. So it was cautious optimism that tempered my initial reaction to the news Mr. Williams was trying something new, paring down from large-scale epic to the more slim Urban Fantasy of The Bobby Dollar Novels. The Dirty Streets of Heaven is a great success:

Dolorious, a.k.a. Bobby Dollar, is our first person narrator and one of many ‘Advocate’ angels who argue against the denizens of Hell for recently deceased souls. As an advocate, Bobby often appears just as people die and similar to the role a lawyer plays, he must argue for the soul’s place in Heaven. What becomes evident is how not all souls who may have seemed virtuous get immediate entrance to the pearly gates. Hell’s advocates are vicious and much like prosecutors whereas the angelic Advocates seem to be more of the defense. Shortly into the meat of the novel, a soul whose owner committed suicide vanishes as Bobby and his antagonists from Hell arrive to argue for the man’s soul. This has never happened before and sets in motion what becomes a layered and entertaining plot.

I’ve long been a fan of the of biblical themes receiving the “gritty” treatment, making Heaven and Hell much deeper than their biblical indications would lead one to believe. After all, my senior thesis in college was on such a topic. In that essay, I recall mentioning the comic book Spawn which depicted the conflict between heaven and hell in a similar light as does Tad Williams with an emerging third faction. In The Dirty Streets of Heaven, this conflict between Heaven and Hell is more of an underneath the surface thing and informs the characters and setting more so than actually being a primary plot point. In one interview with Tad Williams, the great writer Michael Moorcock came up as an influence, specifically the similarities between Moorcock’s depiction of the eternal conflict between Chaos and Order. I’d also point to Steven Brust’s To Reign in Hell which also grittifies the conflict between Heaven and Hell and even the great Tim Burton film Beetlejuice in how the afterlife is a bureaucratic extension of the real world dictated by unseen higher ups down to street walking ‘grunts’ and pencil-pushing desk jockeys.

Mark has long been a fan of David Wingrove’s Chung Kuo series and is following along with the major re-release of the series. The latest installment is The Middle Kingdom which is now book three but was originally book one:

After the setting of the scene in Son of Heaven, and the seriously violent events at the conclusion of Daylight on Iron Mountain, here’s where the story begins to move up a gear and many of the epic story’s main characters are introduced.

Beginning in 2190, the book briefly recaps on the events outlined in Daylight on Iron Mountain: the fall of the US, the nuking of Japan and the subjugation and ethnic cleansing of Africa. These events alone would make an epic story, though they are dealt with here in the matter of a few pages.

With such a list of characters it should be obvious that this is a complex and lengthy scenario where the reader is expected to be in for the long game and therefore and not everything is resolved here in The Middle Kingdom. What keeps the reader’s interest is the juxtaposition between all these disparate and often conflicting elements. The cultural values of the Han are very different to what we see in our Westernised society today, and the way that the old traditional values are combined with the new way of progress is jaw-dropping in their implementation. (Think of the film Blade Runner for such a similarly intriguing mix of Western and Eastern values.) The Han regime is harsh, from their point of view necessarily so, but the promise for the bright and glorious future makes it potentially worthwhile. Not all in positions of power see it this way, of course, and there are secret plans and counterplots a-plenty in order to both overthrow and maintain the current positions of power.

Nila reviews Whispers Underground, the third Peter Grant series by Ben Aaronovitch, an urban fantasy series that has been gaining some good buzz over the past couple of years.

 

The story begins with a ghost, of course. An offbeat, neighborhood kid named Abigail has found a ghost living in an old tunnel beneath her school. She decides to tell Peter, whom she knows deals with “weird magic stuff”. Together with his partner, Leslie May, whose face fell off in the first book, the three head on down to investigate. Mr. Aaronovitch sets the book’s mood with this opening scene, and while not the focus of the book, we learn a bit about the magic Peter can wield and the new, tenuous relationship he has forged with his new magic-constable partner, Leslie.

As is customary of this series, the reader is in for an educational treat on the history of one of London’s neighborhoods, and police procedurals. In this case, we get a peek into the BTP (British Transport Police) and the underground system that is vast and just might include secret tunnels and a race we’ve never seen before. Maybe.

Dirty Streets & Autumn - Williams and Abraham at SFFWorld

Back to two reviews, but we jump a day. Mark looks at a slight shift in genre for a very popular fantasist whilst I continue my season journey through Daniel Abraham’s The Long Price Quartet.


Mark and I are both big fans of Tad Williams, but Mark was lucky enough to read through The Dirty Streets of Heaven before my copy arrived:

For those used to Tad’s more traditional Fantasy (such as Memory, Shadow and Thorn and the Shadowmarch series) this one is different. So different in that, had the name not been on the front, I wouldn’t have said they were the same writer.

This is being widely seen as Tad’s take on Urban Fantasy: you know, moody male with issues, living a tough life, with ‘problems’, usually of the supernatural type.
…
My inner critic made me think that this tight focus could leave to a rather flimsy novel. I was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t. Tad doesn’t avoid the big issues – How do you get to Heaven? What is heaven like? What happens to atheists when they die? – but he does cleverly side-slip them, by pointing out that he’s given up questioning and just accepts that you can’t know everything, and that often things are rather vaguely remembered, if at all. It’s rather like saying you don’t need a detailed knowledge of anatomy or biology to be human, which is probably how most of us live our lives, anyway.

Daniel Abraham’s The Long Price Quartet, takes a grander, more epic turn in the third installment, An Autumn War:

 

Abraham jumps another fourteen years between books at the beginning of An Autumn War, Otah is entrenched in his role as ruler trying to keep his nation together. While Otah is busy ruling, Maati spends much of his time in the novel reflecting. He’s a librarian now and takes great care to recount his experience with the andat (the powerful beings magically wrought who embody a powerful thought or idea brought to life), what went wrong with Seedless and Stone-Made-Soft (the andats featured in the previous two novels.  Maati’s experiences and life have given him a greater maturity and sense of care. Instead of rushing to the possibility of having an andat of his own, Maati realizes such a thing could very easily turn out to be the dark reflection of one’s hopes.
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One thing I’ve remarked about this series is the idea of consequences. Here in The Autumn War, Abraham provides a vantage point into the world outside of the cities where the andat have such an impact. As previously indicated, Galt and how they’ve lived in fear and hatred of the poet sorcerers and their pet andat which are thoughts made form and life. Rather than a small glimpse, Abraham follows the story from both sides of the conflict, much as he laid out the story from both sides of the conflict in A Betrayal in Winter. The ultimate consequences to affect this world; it would seem, is the existence of the andat, for these magically born creatures keep one nation in power with the others in the shadows.