Well of Sorrows and The Recollection SFFWorld Book Clubs

The February Book Club Discussions at SFFWorld have opened, since it is now February.

Have a thought on either book? Jump in and share it:

Fantasy - The Well of Sorrows by Benjamin Tate

Science Fiction - The Recollection by Gareth L. Powell

The Recollection and Zombie Compendium Reviewed at SFFWorld

Just because it is a new year doesn’t mean we’ll be changing the order of business here. In other words, a couple of new reviews at SFFWorld from Mark and me. Since it is only the third day of 2012, neither of us have a 2012 book reviewed…yet. Though the book I finished yesterday, the highly charged and entertaining Shadow OPS: Control Point by Myke Cole, is the first 2012 book I’ve read. That review will come in a couple of weeks closer to the book’s publication date.

Right, on to the reviews posted in the last week…

Although technically not a debut, Gareth L. Powell’s The Recollection, is his first release through a major publisher, Solaris Books, which I enjoyed:

Gareth L. Powell takes a golden age SF idea, one might even say a Clarke-ian idea, and places it squarely in the 21st (and 25th) Century – strange archways appear at random places and random times throughout the world, causing confusion and more than a bit of a scare. This is the premise of his major imprint debut, The Recollection. Though this idea is rather grand, he starts the novel very grounded, as Eddie Rico is being roughed up by some gangsters after losing a night of card games. His brother Verne bails him out of the trouble, but Verne is soon after sucked into one of the aforementioned arches. Not; however, before Ed can tell Verne that he and Verne’s wife Alice have been having an affair. Ed wants to find his brother, but Alice is hesitant until an arch appears in a remote field near her. So, the two put aside their tense past and embark on a journey to find and hopefully save Verne.
…
Powell’s greatest strength in the novel is his ability to give the four main characters (Ed, Alice, Kat, and Victor) a real sense of humanity. In doing so, I found his contrast of this humanity against galactic pressures and forces to be mostly successful. Where he was less successful, was in some of the important plot points that draw events together towards the end. Though I wouldn’t say one element in particular was completely out of left field, it did seem a bit forced and somewhat out of place in a Space Opera/Science Fiction novel. Whether Powell had this specific plot element in mind or it was an outgrowth of how his story was progressing, I can’t be sure but for me, it felt too much of an obvious insertion to solve an issue. It’s one of those points in a story that I don’t know how he could have handled this big element differently, but I don’t know if the way it was handled was the best option available.

Corvus Books's offerings continue to impress Mark, the latest of which is: Zombies: A Compendium of the Living Dead edited by Otto Penzler:

Compared with ghosts, vampires, werewolves and, frankly, most horror icons, I’ve always thought of them as one of the weaker family members of the horror genre. They’re dead, but they’re living.... they move! ....they look at you! And that’s about it. They’re also slow and dumb and pretty limited in what they do….

So, it’s going to take a lot to impress me, though I’m willing to give it a try.

The good news is that I think this book is about as good as I’m going to get. There are 46 (!) tales of dead people walking here, with some very well known authors (Stephen King, HP Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Richard Matheson, Harlan Ellison, Edgar Allen Poe, Robert Bloch....) as well as a lot of less known or unknown authors (to me, anyway) such as Jack D’Arcy, Thorp McClusky, and Henry S. Whitehead.

As you might expect with over forty stories, the range is also impressive. There are tales in unexplored lands, creepy houses, mouldy mansions, quaint cottages, the past and the present. Otto does point out that although there are some gory tales herein, he has tried to maintain a balance and so there are not that many of the stories with the ‘almost pornographic sensibility of the need to drench every page with buckets of blood and descriptions of mindless cruelty, torture and violence.’ (Introduction, page xii)

Books in the Mail (W/E 2011-08-28)

A decent mix this week just before Hurricane Irene hit New Jersey, including some nice looking books from Orbit and a debut from Solaris and the latest from a genre heavyweight from Roc.


Stone Spring (Book One of The Northland Trilogy) by Stephen Baxter (Roc) Trade Paperback 11/01/2011 – Baxter is a leading Hard SF writer, though here, he turns his pen to the distant past, something he’s done in previous books. This could be an interesting set of books.

Alternate history at its most mindblowing-from the national bestselling author of Flood and Ark.

Ten thousand years ago, a vast and fertile plain exists linking the British Isles to Europe. Home to a tribe of simple hunter-gatherers, Northland teems with nature's bounty, but is also subject to its whims.

Fourteen-year-old Ana calls Northland home, but her world is changing. The air is warming, the ice is melting, and the seas are rising. Then Ana meets a traveler from a far-distant city called Jericho-a city that is protected by a wall. And she starts to imagine the impossible...


Feed (Newsflesh Trilogy #1) by Mira Grant (Orbit Trade Paperback 05/01/2010) – I’ve seen pretty good things about this book in the year since it first published, and the book received a Hugo nomination for best novel and the second novel just published recently. Not too shabby for a writer who also writes Urban Fantasy under the name of Seanan McGuirre.

The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beat the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED.

NOW, twenty years after the Rising, Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives-the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will out, even if it kills them.


Germline (The Subterrene War #1) by T. C. McCarthy (Orbit , Trade Paperback 08/02/2011) – This is an interesting sounding military science fiction debut from an author whose background is quite impressive. I saw the Big Idea piece McCarthy did on John Scalzi’s Whatever, and I became even more interested in the book than I already was.:


Germline (n.) the genetic material contained in a cellular lineage which can be passed to the next generation. Also: secret military program to develop genetically engineered super-soldiers (slang).

War is Oscar Wendell's ticket to greatness. A reporter for The Stars and Stripes, he has the only one way pass to the front lines of a brutal war over natural resources buried underneath the icy, mineral rich mountains of Kazakhstan.

But war is nothing like he expected. Heavily armored soldiers battle genetically engineered troops hundreds of meters below the surface. The genetics-the germline soldiers-are the key to winning this war, but some inventions can't be un-done. Some technologies can't be put back in the box.

Kaz will change everything, not least Oscar himself. Hooked on a dangerous cocktail of adrenaline and drugs, Oscar doesn't find the war, the war finds him.

Hell Ship by Philip Palmer (Orbit Books, Trade Paperback 07/01/2011) – I’ve been wanting to get to Palmer’s SF for a while, from what I’ve gathered he’s a solid writer and storyteller. This one looks like a lot of fun with a great SF concept that for some reason reminds me of the old zoo exhibit in Superman’s Fortress of Solitude in classic the Silver Age stories.

The Hell Ship hurtles through space. Inside the ship are thousands of slaves, each the last of their race.

The Hell Ship and its infernal crew destroyed their homes, slaughtered their families and imprisoned them forever.

One man refuses to accept his fate. Sharrock, reduced from hero to slave in one blow, has sworn a mighty vengeance.

But help is closer than he knows. Jak has been following the Ship for years. Battle after battle has left Jak scarred and broken, a mind in a starship's body, bent on destroying the Ship for its crimes. Working together, can they end this interstellar nightmare?

The Recollection by Gareth L. Powell (Solaris Mass Market Paperback 08/23/2011) – Space Opera debut from an author who’s been plying his trade in short stories for quite some time.

When his brother disappears into a bizarre gateway on a London Underground escalator, failed artist Ed Rico and his brother's wife Alice have to put aside their feelings for each other to go and find him. Their quest through the 'arches' will send them hurtling through time, to new and terrifying alien worlds.

Four hundred years in the future, Katherine Abdulov must travel to a remote planet in order to regain the trust of her influential family. The only person standing in her way is her former lover, Victor Luciano, the ruthless employee of a rival trading firm.

Hard choices lie ahead as lives and centuries clash and, in the unforgiving depths of space, an ancient evil stirs...

Gareth L. Powell's epic new science-fiction novel delivers a story of galaxy-spanning scope by a writer of astounding vision.


Theft of Swords (Riyria Revelations Omnibus #1) by Michael J. Sullivan (Orbit, Trade Paperback 11/23/2011) – Sullivan’s series has been making great waves since he published it under his and his wife’s imprint last year – terrific reviews and supremely impressive sales. Mr. Sullivan signed on with Orbit to publish the six books of the series in three 2-in-1 Omnibus volumes publishing in November, December, and January. I’m really looking forward to reading these books.

Royce Melborn, a skilled thief, and his mercenary partner, Hadrian Blackwater, make a profitable living carrying out dangerous assignments for conspiring nobles-until they are hired to pilfer a famed sword. What appears to be just a simple job finds them framed for the murder of the king and trapped in a conspiracy that uncovers a plot far greater than the mere overthrow of a tiny kingdom.

Can a self-serving thief and an idealistic swordsman survive long enough to unravel the first part of an ancient mystery that has toppled kings and destroyed empires in order to keep a secret too terrible for the world to know?

And so begins the first tale of treachery and adventure, sword fighting and magic, myth and legend.

When author Michael J. Sullivan self-published the first books of his Riyria Revelations, they rapidly became ebook bestsellers. Now, Orbit is pleased to present the complete series for the first time in bookstores everywhere. Theft of Swords was originally published as: The Crown Conspiracy and Avempartha.