Books in the Mail (W/E 2013-12-28) Christmas Edition!

This is a slightly different Sunday post. Since no new review books arrived due to the week between Christmas and New Year's Day being virtually dead in publishing, I figured I’d post the books Santa Claus brought me for Christmas this year. I’m also assigning blame to some people for encouraging me to get these books.

The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett (Orbit) – His two most recent (as of 2013) novels The Troupe and American Elsewhere are two of my favorite books of the last few years, this here is his second novel which received the Edgar Award and received a nice review from SFFWorld pal Mark.

A trolley car pulls into the station with eleven dead bodies inside. Four minutes before, the inhabitants were seen boarding at the previous station. All are dead. And all of them are union.

The year is 1919. The McNaughton Corporation is the pinnacle of American industry. They built airships that cross the seas. Guns that won the Great War. And above all, the city of Evesden. But something is rotten at the heart of Evesden.

Caught between the union and the company, between the police and the victims, Hayes must find the truth behind the city before it kills him.

Iorich (Vlad Taltos #12) by Steven Brust (Tor) – 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 coming year.

House Jhereg, Dragaera's organized crime syndicate, is still hunting Vlad Taltos. There's a big price on his head on Draegara City. Then he hears disturbing news. Aliera—longtime friend, sometime ally—has been arrested by the Empire on a charge of practicing elder sorcery, a capital crime.

It doesn't make sense. Everybody knows Aliera's been dabbling in elder sorcery for ages. Why is the Empire down on her now? Why aren't her powerful friends—Morrolan, Sethra, the Empress Zerika—coming to her rescue? And most to the point, why has she utterly refused to do anything about her own defense?

It would be idiotic of Vlad to jump into this situation. He's a former Jhereg who betrayed the House. He's an Easterner—small, weak, short-lived. He's being searched for by the most remorseless killers in the world. Naturally, that's exactly why he's going to get completely involved...

In Iorich, Steven Brust has crafted a complex and intriguing Vlad Taltos adventure.

The Midnight Mayor (Matthew Swift #2) by Kate Griffin (Orbit Hardcover 04/2009) – I really enjoyed the launch book for this series - A Madness of Angels - when it published in 2009. Like the Brust book I received, I’ve been wanting to catch up with this series for a few years.

It’s said that if the ravens ever leave the Tower of London, then the Tower will crumble and the kingdom will fall. As it happens, that’s not so far from the truth…



 
One by one, the magical wards that guard the city are failing: the London Wall defiled with cryptic graffiti, the ravens found dead at the Tower, the London Stone destroyed. This is not good news. This array of supernatural defences – a mix of international tourist attractions and forgotten urban legends – formed a formidable magical shield. Protection for the City of London against… well, that’s the question, isn’t it? What could be so dangerous as to threaten an entire city?

 
 Against his better judgement, resurrected sorcerer Matthew Swift is about to find out. And if he’s lucky, he might just live long enough to do something about it…

The Mirror Prince by Violette Malan (DAW) – I blame this one on twitter (Violette and follow each other) and more specifically Paul Weimer. He and I follow each other, have plenty of twitter conversations, and seem to have about 75% similar reading tastes/sensibilities. He’s always had good things to say about Violette’s work so here goes.

Max Ravenhill thinks he's human . . . but he's wrong. He's been given false memories over and over again by his Wardens, who don't want him to realize that he's been alive for over 1000 years.

Max and his Wardens are Riders -- what humans call Faerie, and back in their Lands Max was the Prince Guardian, Keeper of the Talismans. As the Prince Guardian, Max lost a civil war, and was banished to the Shadowlands, the human country. To prevent his escape, his memory was bound, along with his dra'aj, the magical energy that is manifested in all Faerie. His Wardens made sure that the powerless Exile was not accidentally killed by humans.

The Banishment is nearing its end when Warden Cassandra Kennaby, gets a most unexpected warning that Max is in immanent danger from his old enemy, the Rider who has become known as the Basilisk Prince. Cassandra has personal reasons for avoiding her charge, but when the warning is confirmed by the appearance of the Hunt, she has no choice but to remember her Oath and go to the rescue. As the Hunt closes in, the only way Cassandra can save Max is to risk returning him home before the end of the Banishment. Max finds himself in the bewildering Lands of the People, where nothing, not the Riders or the Naturals or the Solitaries -- not even the Landscape itself, does what he expects. Cassandra and Max they find that the dra'aj of the Lands itself has been waning during the Banishment, and the Basilisk Prince has been growing in power since the time of the Great War. Max's old supporters desperately need Max to prevent the Basilisk from declaring himself High Prince and destroying the natural Cycles of the Lands. But it isn't really Max they need -- it's his true self, the Guardian Prince. Max must decide to give up the only life he knows, in order to become someone else, in order to fight an ancient enemy he doesn't even remember. 

Armageddon Bound (Demon Squad #1) by Tim Marquitz (Self-published) – I blame this one on twitter (Tim and follow each other), the Bastard of SFFWorld and the SFFWorld forums. Folks who have read Marquitz’s books have great things to say about them and this is his first. Tim also contributed a story to the Triumph over Tragedy anthology I helped to edit

Half-devil and miles from anything resembling heroic, perpetual underdog Frank "Triggaltheron" Trigg is the last man standing against Armageddon. As the favorite nephew of the Devil, Frank has led a troubled life, but he'd always had his uncle's influence to fall back on. Now, with God and Lucifer coming to terms and leaving existence to fend for itself, his once exalted status of Anti-Christ-to-be does little to endear him to the hordes of angels and demons running amok in the Godless world. With help from the members of DRAC, an organization of wizards, psychics, telepaths, and low-end supernatural beings, Frank must thwart the pro-Armageddon forces and rescue an angel in whose life rests the fate of humanity. Better luck next time, humanity.

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson (Dellacorte) – Brandon Sanderson writing superheroes (which one can argue he did in a fantasy setting with Mistborn). I don’t think anything else needs to be said. I shared the press release about a year and a half ago for this one.

There are no heroes.

Every single person who manifested powers—we call them Epics—turned out to be evil.

Here, in the city once known as Chicago, an extraordinarily powerful Epic declared himself Emperor. Steelheart has the strength of ten men and can control the elements. It is said no bullet can harm him, no sword can split his skin, no explosion can burn him. He is invincible.

It has been ten years. We live our lives as best we can. Nobody fights back . . . nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans who spend their lives studying powerful Epics, finding their weaknesses, then assassinating them.

My name is David Charleston. I’m not one of the Reckoners, but I intend to join them. I have something they need. Something precious, something incredible. Not an object, but an experience. I know his secret.

I’ve seen Steelheart bleed. 

D.G. Yuengling & Son, Inc. (Images of America ) by Robert A. Musson MD with a forward by Dick Yuengling (Arcadia Publishing) – I like beer and Yuengling is my go-to brand of beer. This is a neat book with a lot of historical images of the brewery, various labels and promotional material used over the years. I've already read through this and liked it.

Known as Americas Oldest Brewery, D. G. Yuengling & Son, Inc., of Pottsville has been in continuous operation since 1829. Since its start, Yuengling has been prudently managed by the Yuengling family. Overcoming the 14 dry years of Prohibition, Yuengling persevered due in part to the ingenuity and creativity of its owners and loyalty of its consumers. Unlike many of the regional brewers who were forced to close their doors over time, Yuengling found a niche for itself beginning in the late 1980s. With the introduction of Yuengling Lager and Black & Tan, the brand became a sensation in and around Philadelphia. Popularity of the beverages led to Yuengling being distributed in 14 states, making it the largest American-owned brewery. Through more than 220 historic images, D.G. Yuengling & Son, Inc., tells the story of this legendary American company.

Empire of the Blood by Gav Thorpe (Angry Robot) – I blame this one on twitter at least partially and pornokitsch specifically. I think I recall seeing a post or a tweet from Jared about these books, plus I’ve been very pleased with most of what I’ve read from the folks at Angry Robot and I’m always happy to read a new completed Epic Fantasy series, especially an omnibus. Damn is this is one thick brick of book, you could kill a rabbit with it.

The Empire of the Blood Trilogy Includes:

The Crown of the Blood
The Crown of the Conqueror
The Crown of the Usurper

THE CROWN OF THE BLOOD
He had brought his master's Empire to the furthest reaches of the world. All had fallen before him. Now he longs for home.
But home isn't what it was. Could it be that everything he's fought for all those years has been a lie?
A sweeping fantasy of immense battles, demonic magic and dark politics.


THE CROWN OF THE CONQUEROR
Ullsaard has won the crown
But when he is confronted with a truth too shocking to contemplate, he has to make the impossible choice between power and honour.
And now the real battle has begun in this stunning sequel to The Crown of the Blood, packed with gargantuan battles, demonic magic and treacherous politics.


THE CROWN OF THE USURPER
The stunning conclusion to the epic Crown of the Blood series.

Children No More (Jon and Lobo #4) by Mark L. Van Name (Baen Books) – I’ve enjoyed each of the books in this series I’ve read, going back to the Jump Gate Twist ominibus I read a few years ago, but I can initially blame wanting to read these highly enjoyable SF adventures on liviu from Fantasy Book Critic. Van Name is donating all proceeds from this novel to a charity very important to him.

NO CHILD SHOULD EVER BE A SOLDIER

Jon Moore knew that better than most, having learned to fight to survive before he’d hit puberty. So when a former comrade, Alissa Lim, asks for his help in rescuing a group of children pressed into service by rebels on a planet no one cares to save, he agrees. Only later does he realize he’s signed up to do far more than he’d ever imagined.

Jon’s commitment hurtles him and Lobo, the hyper-intelligent assault vehicle who is his only real friend, into confrontations with the horrors the children have experienced and with a dark chapter from his own past. The complications mount as Jon and Lobo rush straight into the darkness at the heart of humanity to save a group of child soldiers—and then face an even tougher challenge:

When we’ve trained our children to kill, what do we do with them when the fighting is over?

Titan (The Gaea Trilogy #1) by John Varley (Ace) – I’m not really sure where to assign blame on this one as Varley’s work, especially this trilogy which is his most famous work, has come up on podcasts, internet listings of books, and twitter for years but I did enjoy his novel The Golden Globe when I read it on the plane going to Hawai’i for my honeymoon.

Titan is first in Varley’s epic Gaean Trilogy. It was finalist for both Hugo and Nebula awards.

Gaea is a world within a world – impossible, bizarre, an endless landscape inhabited by creatures out of legend. Gaea is a goddess, sometimes whimsical, sometimes malign and always terrifying. But she is also three million years old and her powers are increasingly capricious and uncertain.

David Constantine and Mark L. Van Name Reviews at SFFWorld

Back to normal on Tuesday here at the ‘o Stuff with a review from me and a review from Mark.

Let’s start with Mark’s review, which is the first of a new series and the first novel by a previously published author under a new pen name. The novel mixes Ancient Greece and Macedonia with steampunk, David Constantine’s, The Pillars of Hercules:

The story starts straightforwardly. Lugorix is a Gaulish soldier with a sword called Skullseeker. His best friend is Grecian Matthias, an archer. The story begins by the two being hired to protect and travel with Barsine, a mystic witch, on her journey from Athens with her retainer Damitra.

In another storyline we have Alexander and his relationship with Philip, his father, as told through Eumenes, one of Alexander’s officers and Aristotle. And of course we also have the increasingly paranoid Alexander, who kills previously trusted friends whilst trying to overthrow his father..
…
The Ancient World is a rich tapestry of resources that is ripe for the use of Fantasy novels. However this is not without its complications. Trying to explain the complications of Macedonian and Grecian politics from a standing start isn’t easy, and then getting accustomed to the names can take a while: knowing your Diocles and Xanthippus from your Hephaestion is quite important. Unfortunately here there’s a lot of characters who all speak with similar voices and it was at times difficult to differentiate between them, even those we are meant to care more about.

I continued my “catch-up-with-books-that-have-been-on-my-looming-to-read-stack-for-well-over-a-year” quest with Overthrowing Heaven, the third Jon and Lobo novel by Mark L. Van Name:

On to the novel at hand…Jon decides to help a woman (Pri Suli) find her missing child, but soon after he agrees to the job, he comes under the lens of one of the governmental bodies of the galaxy who wishes to secure Wei, the man responsible for kidnapping her son. Wei is conducting illegal experiments on children on the fantastical planet Heaven. This hits very close to home for Jon, since he was once a young boy upon whom doctors like Wei experimented. His conscience overrides his frustration with government and he agrees to help Suli find her son, and in turn to find the mole the government placed in Dr. Wei’s staff, and bring Dr. Wei to justice.
…
Overthrowing Heaven is mostly a Space Opera, but it also has flavors of Military SF and posits some very thought provoking philosophical arguments. I found the ending to be very satisfactory as it brought to a close the full arc of the novel. There’s indeed a promise of more stories for Jon and Lobo and I for one will be following these protagonists on their next adventures.

Awesome Omnibus: Jump Gate Twist by Mark L. Van Name

Today’s Awesome Omnibus features Jump Gate Twist by Mark L. Van Name published by the fine folks at Baen a publisher well known for bundling their series books in handy omnibus format. Chances are, I’ll feature at least one or two more Baen titles in future installments of Awesome Omnibus.

On to this book…I read it about a year-and-a-half ago, wrote a review which disappeared when the place for which I wrote the review revamped its Web site last year. What prompted me to post about his one now is the fact that I’m finally getting around to reading Overthrowing Heaven, the third book in the series after having it on the to read stack for well over a year.

Anyway, I’d seen good things about Van Name’s novels, specifically from liviu at Fantasy Book Critic (who I have come to consider a Trusted Reader over the past couple of years).

Essentially, these books are Space Operatic SF adventure novels with a dash of Military SF. The protagonist is an augmented human and his partner is the AI of his space vessel. I kept thinking these books reminded me of Brust’s Vlad Taltos novels (which have also been omnibified), except IN SPAAAACE! Regardless, they are solid books that really capture the fun of SF very well.

Mark L. Van Name has risen quickly among Baen’s stable of science fiction novelists and with good reasons. Many of those reasons are on full display in Jump Gate Twist, an omnibus containing One Jump Ahead and Slanted Jack, the first two novels in his Jon and Lobo series plus two short stories set in the universe. Jon is the human protagonist and first person narrator while Lobo is the living, space-faring warship who provides dry responses to Jon’s rhetorical questions. The dialogue between Jon and Lobo is entertaining and provides a strong narrative current. I was reminded a bit of Steven Brust’s assassin Vlad Taltos and his familiar Loiosh in that both duos communicate on a silent, mental wavelength.

Jon is not exactly normal human, as a result of experiments conducted while Jon was younger, his body is teeming with nanobots which provide him a level of superhuman abilities, not the least of which is the ability to communicate with machines. One Jump Ahead introduces both characters as Jon acquires Lobo when vacationing on the planet Macken, Jon is convinced to help save a young kidnapped girl. Before the second full novel, we get a very early glimpse at Jon before he is the experienced courier and ex-military man. The story, “My Sister, My Self,” is set on Jon’s birth planet Pinkelponker and offers readers the only glimpse at Jon’s sister Jenni, the memory of whom haunts Jon in the two novels in the omnibus.

In Slanted Jack, the second novel in the omnibus, Jon runs into an old ‘business partner’ who lures Jon back to his side in order to save the life of a young boy who is contention point between a religious cult (with ties to Jon’s home planet of Pinkelponker); a crime lord who wants the boy for his own purposes; and strong-armed government. While the setting of the books is a vast galaxy, Van Name does a great job of making these stories personal and intimate deftly balancing character and action.

One of the cooler SF-nal elements allowing for such widespread travel are the Gates, which allow quick travel across galaxies and are thought by some to be relics of an ancient civilization or even gods. All told, I highly recommended this book both as an introduction to Van Name’s work and a great value for containing two flat-out entertaining Science Fiction novels.

2010 Reading Year in Review ... and a Dog

Here's the obligatory, I've-got-a-blog-and-talk-about-books-on-it-so-here's-my-best-of/year-end-summary-post.

I read a lot of books in 2010, but considerably less than 2009. 68 in 2010 compared to 82 the previous year. Getting that puppy in July really cut into the reading time, but I wouldn’t change it at all. I said last year I’d “be cutting back on the number of reviews I post” for various reasons and on that count, I suppose I was accurate.

The first picture I have of the dog, when she was 10 pounds (above)

In 2010, I posted 32 reviews to SFFWorld and 6 to the Sacramento Book Review /San Francisco Book Review, plus a couple here at the blog.

I also read more non-review books, too. Books I’d wanted to catch up with for some time, like Jim Butcher’s Dredsen Files and begin a re-read of Glen Cook’s Black Company, which I did. I also embarked upon something I’ve been wanting to do for a couple o years – a re-read of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time. At this point, I’m more than one third, but not quite half-way through the series and have enjoyed the revisit quite a bit. As I mentioned in my overview last year, David Weber was my top "new to me" author of the year, so I plowed through books 2 and three of his Safehold, series which has a Battlestar Galactica vibe to it for me, and I'm currently reading his late 2010 release Out of the Dark.

Here are some stats:

• 25 can be considered Fantasy
• 22 2010/current year releases
• 20 books by authors new to me
• 16 can be considered Science Fiction
• 18 Graphic Novels
• 8 debut novels (this includes books not released in 2010 like Ariel)
• 6 Books by women (plus stories in the anthologies by women)
• 5 Omnibus volumes (which if broken out into single novels, can bring my annual total up to 75 books)
• 2 Anthologies
• 3 can be considered Horror
• 1 Non-fiction

All that said, on to the categories for the 2010 … Robloggies? ManBearPiggies? Stuffies? Sullys? I don’t know! This isn’t a typical top 10 or 12 or anything, but whatever you want to call them, here are some categories for what I read in 2010 and what I put at the top of those categories.

Rob Favorite Science Fiction Novel(s) Read in 2010

I loudly proclaimed David Louis Edelman’s debut novel Infoquake “…a stunning debut novel by a lucid, precise, and talented new voice in the genre…. This may be THE science fiction book of the year.” Well, with Geosynchron the concluding volume in the trilogy having published this year, it should come as no surprise it gets my top spot in SF for 2010.

Geosynchron is a book that was very high on my 2010 anticipated reads list, I found Infoquake to be one of the most impressive SF debuts I’ve ever read and the sequel, MultiReal continued the trend and impressed me just as much. So, it was with this anticipation that I opened the first pages of the book and was immediately swept into Edelman’s intricately constructed future. Although Edelman provides a summary of the first two novels in the trilogy as an appendix, his fluid style and ability to draw the reader into the story helped to stir the memories of the two earlier books very well.

One of the things I’ve really enjoyed about Edelman’s writing throughout the trilogy is how he straddles the line between plausible futuristic technology and a sense of history bordering on myth. Between the lost time preceding the era of the novel, and the legendary family of the Surinas, Edleman has informed his world with an authentic and seamless sense of history. When characters talk of the Surinas, it is with reverence. When Natch begins to see visions of the deceased Margaret Surina, the feeling Edleman elicits is revelatory, almost like an epiphany. It comes across both mysterious and profound, and ultimately effective,

The next book I’ll mention in the SF section of our program can be categorized in many ways: horror, post-apocalyptic, vampire, and science fiction. Since the premise is science fictional in nature and the post-apocalyptic setting is also SFnal, I’m mentioning Justin Cronin’s The Passage here:

It begins in the year 2017 with a young girl who is born of an affair between a waitress and a traveling salesman. The novel then turns to a scientific research mission, then to a chase-thriller and finally to a post-apocalyptic novel with civilization clinging to life as humanity protects itself against the virals of the night. In many ways, Justin Cronin’s epic doorstopper, with its continual shifts in narrative voice, shouldn’t work. But these various methods of laying out the story give The Passage its backbone and authenticity as a chronicle of what might happen if Vampires were genetically engineered and run roughshod over humanity.

…

While the early portions (about ¼) of the novel set the foundation for the new world, the remainder focuses on a stronghold in California where the people have been able to survive for the intervening 92 years since the original breakout. Here Cronin focuses his story on a group of people born after the outbreak - our heroes Peter, Michael, and Alicia. In this compound, Cronin steps back from the shifting narrative of the first third of the book and slows down the pace, and while it may seem a stretch that such an abrupt shift would work, the opposite is indeed true. By illustrating the daily life people of the barren United States have to endure, Cronin establishes a good slice of life and exactly what the stakes are for the world and more importantly, the people.

Rob’s Favorite Fantasy Novel(s) Read in 2010

As is often the case, my reading patterns fall into the fantasy end of things. 2010 was a year with no shortage of quality fantasy novels (despite books from Martin, Rothfuss, Bakker, and Lynch still not appearing). A number of strong novels rated closely, but the one I enjoyed the most was The Desert Spear, the second book in Peter V. Brett’s Demon Cycle which began with last year’s The Warded/Painted Man. Here’s a snippet of what I had to say about Brett’s 2010 release:

Mr. Brett set the bar pretty high for himself, and perhaps unsure of whether or not The Desert Spear could live up to the promise of The Warded Man, I did not read The Desert Spear immediately upon the book’s publication. I shouldn’t have hesitated because Brett follows his superb debut with a novel that is at least the equal of its predecessor in The Desert Spear and in other cases, improves upon the foundation he initially laid.

…

I found The Desert Spear to be a gripping read, a novel that built upon its predecessor in many good ways, as well as adding new elements to the growing story. In short, The Desert Spear is just about everything one could ask for in the second volume of a fantasy series. Because of Brett’s narrative style and how he chose to tell the story in this book, it might work without having read the previous volume. Regardless, I recommend the novel without reservation and hope that Brett continues to produce the remainder of the series with both the timeliness and great storytelling ability he has with The Desert Spear.

Probably the strongest opening volume to a fantasy series I read this year is Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings, which is the first novel in his 10-volume Stormlight Archives:

Set on Roshar, a world with a harsh climate, Sanderson’s novel is a tale of war on a grand scale and the effects of that war on a personal level. For a novel that tops out over 1,000 pages, Sanderson’s tale does not falter in its narrative pull nor does his ability to evoke tension waiver. His narrative switches effortlessly between these three characters. Kaladin’s portion of the story is told with a particular flair for the epic, Sanderson switches between his current timeline as he goes from slave to leader of Bridge Four – a crew of bridgemen; and how Kaladin, whose skill and natural leadership abilities at war emerge over the course of the novel, went from being a doctor’s son set to follow in his father’s footsteps to a slave at the beginning of the novel. Though reminiscent of both the legendary Spartacus and Maximus from Gladiator, Sanderson’s skill at making familiar and resonant elements his own shines through greatly over the course of Kaladin’s journey as a character.

As intimated earlier in this review, the world itself is much of a character. The depth of the world’s history is a thing to behold, not in the way Sanderson simply lays out the facts, but in the way the characters reveal the history of the world. Or rather, how they reveal what they think they know of the world. Rent by powerful storms on one portion of the world, the rich are comforted in a scholarly setting in another, but both environs evoke a past obfuscated by the rage of years, storms, war, and lost historical records. Hints of demonic monsters in ash and red prophesized to destroy the world, chasmfiends – large insectoid monsters hunted for the shards and jewels in their bodies, men encased in what amounts to power armor, are just a few of the things that give this world a depth of character. I hesitate to go into more depth mainly because the joy of this novel is discovering and connecting with Sanderson’s powerful novel as it is laid out on the pages. There’s a mystery underlying much of what Sanderson reveals in The Way of Kings that only hints at what he has in store in the future 9 volumes of this projected 10-volume saga.

Rob's Favorite Debut(s) of 2010

Last year it was Orbit Books who impressed me with their debut novels, this year it is Tor, who published: Anthony Huso’s The Last Page which I thought “In the end though, Huso’s pure writing strength and ability to convey his imagination won out over any minor quibbles I had with the novel. The Last Page is another strong debut novel for the year, powerful in its breadth of imaginative setting, engaging in its characters, and impressive across the sum of its parts.”

Tor also published Spellwright, which I thought that was “a notch above standard fantasy fare with a nicely developed magic system … but Charlton’s inventive magic and likeable characters help to raise the quality of the novel. One way I would describe might be “Perfectly Acceptable Entertaining Epic Fantasy.”

My favorite debut of the year, also published by Tor; was easily Ian Tregillis’s Bitter Seeds, the first The Milkweed Tryptich. This book just took a hold of me and was a terrifically fun mash up of Lovecraft, alternate history, superheroes, WWII, horror, magic, and science fiction.

World War II is one of the most widely used historical periods in any genre, including Science Fiction. Ian Tregillis, a veteran short story writer, uses this setting to depict a familiar war fought with arcane weaponry and soldiers. The Nazis have bred, for all intents and purposes, supervillains similar to the Fantastic Four, the X-Men or even the Justice League. These superpowered beings are fully under the control of the Nazis and specifically Herr Doktor von Westarp, the man who used his twisted science to genetically engineer these super soldiers. The English have, through knowledge and lore passed down over several generations, access t o the Eidolons, beings outside of time and space which essentially grant the allies the power of dark magic.

All told, Tregillis takes some familiar things – World War II, Metahumans (a.k.a super heroes/super villains), spy fiction, dark magic, secret societies, horror, Science Fiction – and weaves a damned entertaining novel. If Bitter Seeds is any indication of what’s to come, then Tregillis will have a fertile writing career. The novel receives my highest recommendations and will likely be very close to the top of my best of 2010 list.

Favorite Author Whose Work I Revisited in 2010

This one is also very easy. I’ve kind of strayed from his work over the past couple of years, but did a major catch up of his current series, which just concluded in December. I’m, of course, writing about Tad Williams. In big fashion, he concluded Shadowmarch what was once a trilogy and is now a quartet. For my part, I read books 2 ( Shadowplay, Shadowrise, and Shadowheart [review forthcoming]) through 4 this year and thoroughly enjoyed all books. Let’s put it this way, I came to realize again why I’ve placed Tad Williams so high in my echelon of favorite writers. I was also lucky enough, with the help of the great Hobbit of SFFWorld (aka Mark Yon) to interview Mr. Williams for SFFWorld this year.

A bit from my Shadowplay review:

One of Tad Williams best qualities as a writer and storyteller is his ability to create worlds that feel real and with the Shadowmarch saga, that ability is on full display. Each faction of civilization or race inhabits a unique part of the greater world. From the castle of Southmarch, to the dark caverns of the Funderling town, to the ethereal and hazy world of the Twilight Lands, each portion of the world is a character unto itself. Subsequently, the society we see the most of in their homeland in Shadowplay is probably the Funderlings, and by doing this Williams only further enriches that world and those people. The Funderlings are modeled, in many ways it seems, on Hobbits with a flavor of down-home goodness. In other words, there’s both an air of familiar to them, with a decent amount of freshness.

Forum members here at SFFWorld know I’m a very big fan of Tad Williams’s writing and on that basis, Shadowplay worked very well for me. I did; however, crack open the book with some trepidation. I’d seen a few less than overwhelmingly positive reviews around the Internet and it had been quite a long time since I read the first volume – five and half years when Shadowmarch first published. Maybe that time away did help me enjoy the novel more than I might have if I had read it immediately. Despite the lack of “what came before,” something the majority of Tad Williams’s multivolume novels include, I was able to ease back into the magical, chaos ravaged world of Southmarch and the world beyond the Shadowline – the Twilight Lands.

A bit from my Shadowrise review:

Where to start with a review of the third book in a four-book sequence? A third book that was thought to be the concluding volume of a trilogy, but was then split so the author could comfortably tell his story in four volumes? With questions like that, I suppose. Fortunately for readers of Tad Williams’s sequence begun with Shadowmarch, the questions are less ambiguous and are answered, if not definitively, then with an eye towards an answer.

Though in concept, one of the conceits revealed in this novel can be considered a bit cliché, it is the process through which this conceit comes to light in the characters eyes that makes the novel so great and enjoyable. In a sense, this is one of Williams’s strongest traits as an Epic storyteller, familiar story beats told in a refreshing and entertaining manner. For all the mythic action and world building, Williams never skimps on his characters. The whole cast is relatable, engendered a sense of empathy, and general concern-for-what-happens-to-them in me. With each chapter that brought a close to that particular episode in the characters story arc, I was frustrated it ended, but conversely comforted by the movement of the story to another character about whom I cared.

MVP Author of 2010

Quite a few authors managed to have multiple books on the shelves in 2009, but few had the impact and reach of who I’ve dubbed the MVP author of 2009 and it should come as no surprise since he was named as such in my year-ender last year:

Brandon Sanderson

Continuing to pick up the reigns of revive The Wheel of Time, the defining Fantasy Saga of this generation and dropping a rat-killer sized book on shelves The Way of Kings, both of which reached the New York Times best seller list (hitting #1 with Towers of Midnight) will help to do that.

Favorite ‘New To Me’ Author(s) of 2010

This year, I’ll mention one SF and one Fantasy

For the SF, it was Mark L Van Name. I’d seen good things about his writing, particularly from Liviu at FantasyBookCritic, so when Baen put together an omnibus, entitled Jump Gate Twist of the first to novels (One Jump Ahead and Slanted Jack), I pounced on the opportunity to review it for the Sacramento Book Review /San Francisco Book Review

Jon is the human protagonist and first person narrator while Lobo is the living, space-faring warship who provides dry responses to Jon’s rhetorical questions. The dialogue between Jon and Lobo is entertaining and provides a strong narrative current. I was reminded a bit of Steven Brust’s assassin Vlad Taltos and his familiar Loiosh in that both duos communicate on a silent, mental wavelength.

While the setting of the books is a vast galaxy, Van Name does a great job of making these stories personal and intimate deftly balancing character and action. One of the cooler SF-nal elements allowing for such widespread travel are the Gates, which allow quick travel across galaxies and are thought by some to be relics of an ancient civilization or even gods. All told, I highly recommended this book both as an introduction to Van Name’s work and a great value for containing two flat-out entertaining science fiction novels.

For Fantasy, it was Elizabeth Moon. I know she’s a veteran and award-winning author, but with the release of Oath of Fealty I really became a fan of her work. Like Tad Williams, Mark and I interviewed her for SFFWorld, thought quite honestly Mark did more of the legwork on this one. I’ve got two of her omnibus volumes on the ‘to read’ pile staring at me, The Deed of Paksenarrion and Heris Serrano, that keep making me feel guilty for not reading them. In 2011, I will read at least one of them!

Elizabeth Moon is one of the brand names writing Science Fiction and Fantasy today who has shown the ability to easily jump between the sibling sub-genres. She’s received awards, sold a lot of books, and has an impressive fan base. While her recent novels have firmly been of the Science Fiction variety, the trilogy that launched her career is the popular and acclaimed Deed of Paksenarrion trilogy. This latest novel, Oath of Fealty is set shortly after the events that closed out the trilogy, published over twenty years ago.

Oath of Fealty is enough of a fresh start in the world Moon created over twenty years ago to keep new readers (like myself) engaged throughout without having to rely on the history told in those books. I expected more action and sword-fighting (although action and physical altercations are present and engaging), but the story deals more with political and courtly maneuvering and is an engrossing read nonetheless. I will even say it is a case of expectations not being met, but in an entirely satisfying manner and I don’t think I’d want to book to have worked any other way. I was very pleased to meet characters who were well rounded, strong, admirable, believable and engaging. In this respect, Mrs. Moon met (and at points exceeded) the expectations I had based on the reputation for strong characters that preceded her.

I'm noticing a pattern between the two "new to me" authors of this year and one from last year, the authors are currently publishing with Baen, or have published significantly with Baen in the past. Hmm...

Most Disappointing Reads of 2010

I don’t mark these books as disappointing with any pleasure, since in one way or another, I was very much looking forward to reading them.

At the top of these The Evolutionary Void by Peter F. Hamilton. I really enjoyed the first two in the series and was very much anticipating this book. However, the narrative wasn’t strong enough to keep my attention throughout the duration of the novel as well as the previous two books. This isn’t to say I dislike the book, just that my high hopes were not met.

Following on that theme of “I-didn’t-dislike-the-book-,-just-that-my-high-hopes-were-not-met” would be Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Empire in Black and Gold. I really wanted to enjoy the book, and parts of it I did, but I think a lot of the positive attention the book garnered when it initially published in the UK may have raised my expectations a bit higher than was fair. That said, I’ll be continuing the series at some point:

While I did have some issues with the novel and didn’t quite remain consistently connected to the narrative throughout, it is clear to me that Tchaikovsky has something interesting going on with this series. This novel could be considered a prelude to something greater, a larger movement to come. What’s more, for all the richness of the world building on display in Empire in Black and Gold, I don’t get a sense that Tchaikovsky has revealed all the cards in his hand. This could be a series to watch here in the States as folks who’ve read the UK editions have been watching with anticipation for a couple of years.

Galileo’s Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson was another major reading disappointment of 2010. I figured after a couple of aborted attempts at his landmark Mars trilogy, this would be a good fresh start for me. Unfortunately, I think I just don’t connect with KSR’s fiction

Odds and Ends of 2010

The Walking Dead, which came to TV Screens this year in the US prompted me to burn through the first four hardcover releases of the series, essentially the first four years worth of comics. Great, terrific comic book series.

Inception was hands down the best movie I saw in 2010

Mrs. Blog o’ Stuff gave me a PS3 for our 10th Wedding Anniversary and I became addicted to God of War III and am now addicted to Batman: Arkham Asylum. I’ve also got Dragon Age and Bioshock on the docket as well.

Batman or rather, Bruce Wayne, came back from the dead in grand fashion this year at the hands of Grant Morrison. I’ve been enjoying what Grant’s been doing with the Bat family and particularly like Dick Grayson as Batman.

Regrets of 2010

These are the books released in 2010 I didn’t get a chance to that I wanted to read. This just goes to show how many good books are released each year. I’m not including books that are more than a book or two away from the most recent book in the series I read, i.e. Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

• Songs of the Dying Earth edited by George R.R Martin and Gardner Dozois
• The Wolf Age by James Enge
• Firedrake by Nick Kyme
• Surface Detail by Ian M. Banks
• Echo by Jack McDevitt
• The Habitation of the Blessed by Catherynne M. Valentine
• Twelve by Jasper Kent
• Out of the Dark by David Weber (I’ll be reading it very soon, though)
• The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder
• The Black Prism by Brent Weeks
• Discord’s Apple by Carrie Vaughn
• Kraken by China Miéville
• Shadow’s Son by John Sprunk
• Speculative Horizons edited by Pat St-Denis
• Distant Thunders by Taylor Anderson
• Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
• Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay
• Prince of Storms by Kay Kenyon
• The Starfishers Trilogy (reissue) by Glen Cook
• Heretics by S. Andrew Swann
• State of Decay by James Knapp
• Empire by Graham McNeill (and it’s predecessor Heldenhammer from the previous year for that matter)

Oh yeah, as I may have stated, Mrs. Blog o’ Stuff and I got a dog in the summer. Sully’s (that's the dog's name) been a handful, but a furry fun, handful at that. Here are a couple of pictures of the puppy, now 8 months old and over 70 pounds.

Jump Gate Twist Mark L. Van Name @ SSF Book Review

I hadn’t realized until just now, but my latest Sacramento Book Review /San Francisco Book Review was posted a couple of weeks ago. The book I reviewed is Jump Gate Twist, which is an omnibus of the first two novels in the Jon and Lobo series by Mark L. Van Name.

I really enjoyed this book, and the novels/stories contained within, a great deal. A fine example of entertaining, engaging adventure SF on a wide galactic canvas, mixed with slight hints of Space Opera & Military SF. I’ll be following this series as long as Van Name is writing it.




Go check out my review.

Books in the Mail (W/E 07/31/2010)

A decent sized haul this week: The Black Prism by Brent Weeks - his first hardcover after what I thought was a very enjoyable debut trilogy: The Night Angel Trilogy; Sympathy for the Devil edited by Tim Pratt; How to Make Friends with Demons by Graham Joyce; Yarn by Jon Armstrong; Black Swan Rising by Lee Carrol; The Sword of Dawn (Hawkmoon/Runestaff #3) by Michael Moorcock; Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal; The Bloodstained Man: Netherworld Book Two by Christopher Rowley; Jump Gate Twist (Omnibus of the first two Jon and Lobo novels) by Mark L. Van Name - I'm reading this right now for the San Francisco/Sacramento Book Review and really enjoying it; All Clear by Connie Willis; The House on Durrow Street by Galen Beckett