SFFWorld & SF Signal - Last Week of February (Butler, D'Lacey, Hamilton, Ottesen)

The great Hobbit of SFFWorld, Mark Yon, turned 50 this past week and 'celebrated' with a list of what he deems "50 Books to Read before You Die." Mark also looks at Peter Hamilton's first novel for younger readers, The Queen of Dreams:

The plot is briefly summarised as follows: Agatha (Taggie) and Jemima Paganuzzi are two young sisters who go on holiday to their divorced father’s farm, Orchard Cottage, for the summer vacation. As they are settling in, the appearance of a white bespectacled squirrel seems a little unusual. Things turn stranger when they find the squirrel talks and then their dad is kidnapped down the garden well by some evil creatures doing another’s bidding… and it becomes clear that Taggie, Jemima and Felix (the aforementioned squirrel) are the ones to rescue him…

However, if I was, say, a 7-12-year old girl, I suspect they would love it. The energy and frenetic pace keep the pages turning, even when the tale veers into the decidedly twee, (and I’m thinking of, as an example, the point where there is the enrolment of a certain Princess Elizabeth Windsor in 1940’s Blitz-hit London.) Generally though there’s enough charm and verve to carry the story forward over the odd bump.

I posted my review of the second half of Joseph D'Lacey's Black Dawn duology, The Book of the Crowman:

The Crowman as a figure has increased in prominence. In Black Dawn he was a whisper, a myth, but here in The Book of the Crowman, the figure is said to have been seen by other characters. He is a lightning rod, hunted by the Ward, elevated to a savoir figure by the Green Men (the rag-tag groups who oppose the structured order of the Ward). Gordon’s sole purpose is to find the Crowman by any means.
...
As the story/novel draw to close, the environmental theme of a Mother Earth is still strong, but more Judeo-Christian overtones vie for control of the story. These overtones were hinted at during the lead up to the story’s climax, but the theme thundered full force during a very graphic scene at the end. The allegory and resonant nature of the closing elements go from hints to being actually played out by the characters. The graphic nature of that pivotal scene is much more in-your-face and visceral than the earlier horrors hinted at in the novel. Considering much of D’Lacey’s previous fiction is very much in the horror genre, this shouldn’t be much of a surprise. For me, this shift worked in the larger context and themes I felt from of the Black Dawn, but I can see this element being a divisive point for readers.

Yesterday, the latest installment of my Completest column was posted to SF Signal, and features Lilith's Brood / Xenogenesis by the late, great Octavia E. Butler:

A big theme here, obviously, is that we need to look outside of ourselves to survive. Related to that, is the theme of The Other: coming to accept the Other and the consequences of rejecting the Other. There is also an implied resonance with Lilith’s initial situation and slavery; she has no choice in being taken from her land. In being the mother to her “owner’s” children, she gains a family and secures safety for that family. This conflicts with her feelings for the remainder of humanity on the space vessel as she tries to help some of them escape. The race conflict, is of course, writ large on the conflict between humans and Oankali.

Butler plays with symbolism in the names, too. Lilith, of course has many ancient and biblical connotations. Dawn, as the title of the first novel in the series, hints at things anew on the horizon, Adulthood Rites to the maturation cycle, and Imago is the final stage of an insect’s metamorphosis which is appropriate for the title for the final novel in the series.

Nila White reviews Golak by Josefine Ottesen (Translation by Martin Aitken):

The story begins with an attack on their village. The golaks, the result of terrible genetic experiments, approach the village walls pleading for food and help. The villagers, along with Jonah and his brother, attack the golaks, driving them off.

In the process, Jonah kills two of the golaks who look a lot like a woman and child instead of the monsters he expected. After the ordeal, once everyone is safe behind the village walls, they realize Jonah’s younger sister, outside the walls grazing her cow, has been taken by the fleeing golaks.

A search party is organized, including Jonah, his estranged brother, and another village boy who is slated to marry Jonah’s sister. They scour the nearby woods, but do not find her. Jonah is convinced if they just keep at the golak’s trail, they’ll find her. Jonah loves his sister and will do anything to save her, but the elders in the search party determine it is too late. The girl is lost. They order that everyone turn back before it gets too dark.

Books in the Mail (W/E 2012-12-15)

American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett (Orbit Trade Paperback  02/12/2013) – With The Troupe, Robert Jackson Bennett may have written my favorite novel of 2012 (hint: he did) and one of the best novels I read in the past five or ten years so yeah, you could say this is high on the anticipation list for 2013.

Ex-cop Mona Bright has been living a hard couple of years on the road, but when her estranged father dies, she finds she's had a home all along: a little house her deceased mother once owned in Wink, New Mexico.

And though every map denies Wink exists, Mona finds they're wrong: not only is Wink real, it is the perfect American small town, somehow retaining all the Atomic Age optimism the rest of world has abandoned.

But the closer Mona gets to her mother's past, the more she understands that the people in Wink are very, very different - and what's more, Mona begins to recognize her own bond to this strange place, which feels more like home every day.


The Great North Road by Peter F. Hamilton. (Del Rey Hardcover 12/26/2012) – Hamilton’s latest epic is a standalone (much like his superb Fallen Dragon).  The book is out in the UK and Mark/Hobbit had some good things to say.

New York Times bestselling author Peter F. Hamilton’s riveting new thriller combines the nail-biting suspense of a serial-killer investigation with clear-eyed scientific and social extrapolation to create a future that seems not merely plausible but inevitable.

A century from now, thanks to a technology allowing instantaneous travel across light-years, humanity has solved its energy shortages, cleaned up the environment, and created far-flung colony worlds. The keys to this empire belong to the powerful North family—composed of successive generations of clones. Yet these clones are not identical. For one thing, genetic errors have crept in with each generation. For another, the original three clone “brothers” have gone their separate ways, and the branches of the family are now friendly rivals more than allies.

Or maybe not so friendly. At least that’s what the murder of a North clone in the English city of Newcastle suggests to Detective Sidney Hurst. Sid is a solid investigator who’d like nothing better than to hand off this hot potato of a case. The way he figures it, whether he solves the crime or not, he’ll make enough enemies to ruin his career.

Yet Sid’s case is about to take an unexpected turn: because the circumstances of the murder bear an uncanny resemblance to a killing that took place years ago on the planet St. Libra, where a North clone and his entire household were slaughtered in cold blood. The convicted slayer, Angela Tramelo, has always claimed her innocence. And now it seems she may have been right. Because only the St. Libra killer could have committed the Newcastle crime.

Problem is, Angela also claims that the murderer was an alien monster.

Now Sid must navigate through a Byzantine minefield of competing interests within the police department and the world’s political and economic elite . . . all the while hunting down a brutal killer poised to strike again. And on St. Libra, Angela, newly released from prison, joins a mission to hunt down the elusive alien, only to learn that the line between hunter and hunted is a thin one.

Limits of Power (Book Four of Paladin’s Legacy) by Elizabeth Moon (Del Rey Hardcover 02/21/2012) – I liked the first two in this series (Oath of Fealty and Kings of the North) quite a bit and last year I read (and thoroughly enjoyed) the first trilogy set in this world, The Deed of Paksenarrion) which is now in my Omnibus Hall of Fame [© PeterWilliam]. For reasons that I can’t explain even to myself, I didn’t yet get around to reading the third installment, Echoes of Betrayal. Hopefully, I’ll catch up in early 2013

Elizabeth Moon is back with the fourth adventure in her bestselling fantasy epic. Moon brilliantly weaves a colorful tapestry of action, betrayal, love, and magic set in a richly imagined world that stands alongside those of such fantasy masters as George R. R. Martin and Robin Hobb.

The unthinkable has occurred in the kingdom of Lyonya. The queen of the Elves—known as the Lady—is dead, murdered by former elves twisted by dark powers. Now the Lady’s half-elven grandson must heal the mistrust between elf and human before their enemies strike again. Yet as he struggles to make ready for an attack, an even greater threat looms across the Eight Kingdoms.

Throughout the north, magic is reappearing after centuries of absence, emerging without warning in family after family—rich and poor alike. In some areas, the religious strictures against magery remain in place, and fanatical followers are stamping out magery by killing whoever displays the merest sign of it—even children. And as unrest spreads, one very determined traitor works to undo any effort at peace—no matter how many lives it costs. With the future hanging in the balance, it is only the dedication of a few resolute heroes who can turn the tides . . . if they can survive.

Books in the Mail (W/E 2012-09-01)

Only a couple of books arrived this week and one of those is as thick as all the others combined.

This Case is Gonna Kill Me by Phillipa Bornikova (Tor Trade Paperback 08/29/2012) – First in a new series by Bornikova (pen name for Melinda Snodgrass) about a Vampire Law firm.

What happens when The Firm meets Anita Blake? You get the Halls of Power—our modern world, but twisted. Law, finance, the military, and politics are under the sway of long-lived vampires, werewolves, and the elven Alfar. Humans make the best of rule by “the Spooks,” and contend among themselves to affiliate with the powers-that-be, in order to avoid becoming their prey. Very loyal humans are rewarded with power over other women and men. Very lucky humans are selected to join the vampires, werewolves, and elves—or, on occasion, to live at the Seelie Court.

Linnet Ellery is the offspring of an affluent Connecticut family dating back to Colonial times. Fresh out of law school, she’s beginning her career in a powerful New York “white fang” law firm. She has high hopes of eventually making partner.

But strange things keep happening to her. In a workplace where some humans will eventually achieve immense power and centuries of extra lifespan, office politics can be vicious beyond belief. After some initial missteps, she finds herself sidelined and assigned to unpromising cases. Then, for no reason she can see, she becomes the target of repeated, apparently random violent attacks, escaping injury each time through increasingly improbable circumstances. However, there’s apparently more to Linnet Ellery than a little old-money human privilege. More than even she knows. And as she comes to understand this, she’s going to shake up the system like you wouldn’t believe….




A Guile of Dragons (A Tournament of Shadows #1) by James Enge (Pyr Trade Paperback 08/22/2012) – I two of the three novels featuring the adult Morlock, (The Blood of Ambrose and The Wolf Age), and enjoyed them but felt some connection missing. This one looks interesting, too


It’s dwarves vs dragons in this origin story
for Enge’s signature character, Morlock Ambrosius!
Before history began, the dwarves of Thrymhaiam fought against the dragons as the Longest War raged in the deep roads beneath the Northhold. Now the dragons have returned, allied with the dead kings of Cor and backed by the masked gods of Fate and Chaos.

The dwarves are cut cut off from the Graith of Guardians in the south. Their defenders are taken prisoner or corrupted by dragonspells. The weight of guarding the Northhold now rests on the crooked shoulders of a traitor’s son, Morlock syr Theorn (also called Ambrosius).

But his wounded mind has learned a dark secret in the hidden ways under the mountains. Regin and Fafnir were brothers, and the Longest War can never be over...

The Great North Road by Peter F. Hamilton. (Del Rey Hardcover 12/26/2012) – Hamilton’s latest epic is a standalone (much like his superb Fallen Dragon).  The book is out in the UK and Mark/Hobbit had some good things to say.

New York Times bestselling author Peter F. Hamilton’s riveting new thriller combines the nail-biting suspense of a serial-killer investigation with clear-eyed scientific and social extrapolation to create a future that seems not merely plausible but inevitable.

A century from now, thanks to a technology allowing instantaneous travel across light-years, humanity has solved its energy shortages, cleaned up the environment, and created far-flung colony worlds. The keys to this empire belong to the powerful North family—composed of successive generations of clones. Yet these clones are not identical. For one thing, genetic errors have crept in with each generation. For another, the original three clone “brothers” have gone their separate ways, and the branches of the family are now friendly rivals more than allies.

Or maybe not so friendly. At least that’s what the murder of a North clone in the English city of Newcastle suggests to Detective Sidney Hurst. Sid is a solid investigator who’d like nothing better than to hand off this hot potato of a case. The way he figures it, whether he solves the crime or not, he’ll make enough enemies to ruin his career.

Yet Sid’s case is about to take an unexpected turn: because the circumstances of the murder bear an uncanny resemblance to a killing that took place years ago on the planet St. Libra, where a North clone and his entire household were slaughtered in cold blood. The convicted slayer, Angela Tramelo, has always claimed her innocence. And now it seems she may have been right. Because only the St. Libra killer could have committed the Newcastle crime.

Problem is, Angela also claims that the murderer was an alien monster.

Now Sid must navigate through a Byzantine minefield of competing interests within the police department and the world’s political and economic elite . . . all the while hunting down a brutal killer poised to strike again. And on St. Libra, Angela, newly released from prison, joins a mission to hunt down the elusive alien, only to learn that the line between hunter and hunted is a thin one.

Ghost Key by Trish J. MacGregor (Tor Hardcover 08/29/2012) – Sequel to the author’s 2010 debut Esperanza

Dominica and her tribe of brujos, hungry ghosts, were driven from Esperanza on the summer solstice of 2008. In this great battle, most of Dominica's tribe was annihilated - freed to move on in the afterlife. But Dominica managed to survive the destruction of her tribe and in retaliation for Tess Livingston's role in the destruction of her tribe, she seizes Maddie, Tess's 19-year-old niece, and flees Esperanza.

Dominica ends up in the U.S., on the island of Cedar Key, off Florida's Gulf coast. Here, she tries to rebuild her tribe by recruiting new ghosts. But in attempting to take over Cedar Key, she arouses the suspicion of the U.S. government when a remote viewer, Nick Sanchez, glimpses the island - and Dominica's host, Maddie - in connection with thirteen unexplained deaths. The government believes the deaths were the result of a biological terrorist weapon and that Cedar Key is the perfect place for such a weapon, isolated, small, containable.

Meanwhile, Dominica is being pursued by Wayra, a shape shifter from Esperanza, Dominica's oldest lover and most bitter enemy, who is intent on freeing Maddie. Dominica hasn't taken into account the fierce independence of the island locals, in particular that of a single mother and bartender, Kate, who will fight to the death to protect her teenaged son- and the island she loves.

Hamilton, Abraham & Anderson/Peart at SFFWorld

Mark happened to post a couple of reviews since last week (one the day after last Tuesday’s post), so I’ll sandwich my review of second installment of Daniel Abraham's The Long Price Quartet between his reviews.


Being in the UK, folks like Mark get to read UK authors like Peter F. Hamilton before folks like myself here in the US. Here’s what he had to say about Great North Road:

To deal with the crime issues, instead of Paula Myo, superspy, we have the slightly less active but still quite effective Sidney Hurst. Sid is basically the new Paula Myo, although whereas Paula was a kind of James Bond super-spy with a broad jurisdiction, Sid is more of a super-cop, a family-man following the same type of actions in a much smaller pool (even allowing for the large planet of St Libra.) I suspect his down to earth approach dealing with crime in a systematic fashion will make him quite popular and he’s about as solid a hero as we’re going to get here.

…

I was pleased that the book is a standalone, although there are many themes from Peter’s Commonwealth books than fans will recognise. There’s lots of big machinery around, with plenty of what I call ‘Thunderbirds’ type moments: huge (and perhaps improbable) pieces of technology that are there for display and explained in enormous detail. People are still able to lengthen their life-spans. Cloning is possible. Crime still happens. Old men still lust after young women (see Misspent Youth.) Aliens (and nasty ones at that) do exist (see the Commonwealth Saga /Pandora’s Star books). Clearly there are ideas here Peter likes, and his typical readers do too, and they are dealt with as well as we would expect.

I trek ahead with my first read through of Daniel Abraham’s The Long Price Quartet, and it continues to impress me a great deal. Another subtle, yet engaging volume in a series that grows in my estimation with each volume: A Betrayal in Winter

So, taking a bit of a step away from the first volume, Daniel Abraham gives readers what is essentially a fantastically infused murder mystery set in the imagined city of Machi. Though the events in the previous volume were indeed climactic, Abraham’s story illustrates how far ranging the consequences of one’s actions can be. From the moment Otah renounced the robes of a poet to the events in this novel, nearly everything he’s done has grown out of that one act. Otah is perhaps the character who plays the most roles throughout these first two installments - he’s a prince in exile, Itani the laborer, a courier, father, and lover.

…

Gender politics become more prevalent in A Betrayal in Winter with the character of Idaan, the Khai’s daughter. Daughters cannot rule in the land of Machi and it is something which Idaan covets knowing it is something she cannot attain. The consequences of her actions as a result of her justifiable frustrations, again, have a very large ripple effect. As those consequences become steeper, Idaan has difficulty coping with all the changes being wrought. The women’s roles were pretty clear in A Shadow in Summer, but though they may be clear in Betrayal, the primary female character is not content by any means.

The band Rush has a long history as one of the most influential and popular rock bands in the past thirty years. Their lyrics have often had the feel and influence of science fictional and fantastic themes. Their drummer Neil Peart enlisted Kevin J. Anderson to bring themes from their latest album Clockwork Angels

Plot Summary: In the world of Albion, Owen Hardy, assistant orchard manager in the small village of Barrel Arbor, is, at the age of sixteen, about to become an adult. In his safe, ordered world, known as the Stability, this means settling down in a secure lifestyle knowing where he is and what he will be, managing the apple orchard and being married to his sweetheart Lavinia.

…

As a piece of genre fiction, it is as you would expect from that synopsis above – a fairly straightforward tale, well written, that looks at some great big ideas but shouldn’t scare off the casual reader. We’re not talking intense Mieville-ean debate here, more Terry Brooks entertainment. There’s a touch of Ray Bradbury in its use of the carnival as a place of security as well as fear, a smidgen of techno-magic in its coldfire energy, steampunk airships and clockwork guardians, a hint at quantum universes along the way. It would work well for a Young Adult audience, though it’s entertaining enough for adults.

Having these quite well known ideas is not too important; it’s what the authors do with them that counts. Though some of the ideas are used and then dropped without being developed too far, generally it is a great page-turner.

Books in the Mail (W/E 2012-05-12)

It’s about time I did the whole preface to the Books in the Mail post, so here goes….

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

Some publishers are on a very predictable schedule of releases, making this blog post fairly easy to compose. For example, the fine folks at Del Rey/Spectra publish quite a few books per month, in mass market paperback, trade paperback and hardcover. Most often, they send their books about a month prior to the actual publication date.

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


Blackwood by Gwenda Bond (Strange Chemistry, Paperback 09/04/2012) – Gwenda’s been blogging and writing about the genre for quite a while now, this is her debut novel and one of the launch titles for Strange Chemistry, the new YA imprint of Angry Robot Books, so no pressure, right? Right. The premise sounds interesting as I’ve have a bit of a fascination for the lost Roanoke colony.


On Roanoke Island, the legend of the 114 people who mysteriously vanished from the Lost Colony hundreds of years ago is just an outdoor drama for the tourists, a story people tell. But when the island faces the sudden disappearance of 114 people now, an unlikely pair of 17-year-olds may be the only hope of bringing them back.

Miranda, a misfit girl from the island's most infamous family, and Phillips, an exiled teen criminal who hears the voices of the dead, must dodge everyone from federal agents to long-dead alchemists as they work to uncover the secrets of the new Lost Colony. The one thing they can't dodge is each other.

Blackwood is a dark, witty coming of age story that combines America's oldest mystery with a thoroughly contemporary romance.

Undead and Unstable (The Undead Series - Betsy #11 #10) by MaryJanice Davidson (Berkeley, Hardcover 06/05/2012) – The continuing humorous adventures of Betsy the vampire.


“If you’re fans of Sookie Stackhouse and Anita Blake, don’t miss Betsy Taylor. She rocks” (The Best Reviews)—and she’s back once again as a vampire queen who finds herself an unlucky (but fashionable) passenger on the road to damnation…

Betsy’s heartbroken over her friend Marc’s death, but at least his sacrifice should change the future—her future­—for the better. But it’s not as if Betsy’s next few hundred years will be perfect. After all, her half-sister Laura is the AntiChrist, Laura’s mother is Satan, and family gatherings will always be more than a little awkward.

What’s really bothering Betsy is that ever since she and Laura returned from visiting her mom in Hell, Laura’s been acting increasingly peculiar. Maybe it’s Laura’s new job offer: as Satan’s replacement down under. Unfortunately, the position comes at a damnable price: killing Betsy, her own flesh-and-blood.

Over Betsy’s dead body. And for that matter Marc’s, too, since he’s not quite as buried as everyone thought. Now a war has been waged—one that’s going to take sibling rivalry to a whole new level, and a dimension where only one sister can survive.

Orb Sceptre Throne (A Novel of the Malazan Empire ) by Ian Cameron Esslemont (Tor Trade Paperback 05/22/2012) – I’m a big fan of The Malazan Book of the Fallen, though of Esslemont’s contributions, I’ve only read Night of Knives and from Erikson up to Reaper’s Gale. So yeah, I’ve got some catching up to do with this series:

The epic new chapter in the history of Malaz—the new epic fantasy from Steven Erikson's friend and co-creator of this extraordinary and exciting imagined world.

Darujhistan, city of dreams, city of blue flames, is peaceful at last; its citizens free to return to politicking, bickering, trading and, above all, enjoying the good things in life. Yet there are those who will not allow the past to remain buried. A scholar digging in the plains stumbles across an ancient sealed vault. The merchant Humble Measure schemes to drive out the remaining Malazan invaders. And the surviving agents of a long-lost power are stirring, for they sense change and so, opportunity. While, as ever at the centre of everything, a thief in a red waistcoat and of rotund proportions walks the streets, juggling in one hand custard pastries, and in the other the fate of the city itself.

Casket of Souls (Nightrunner, Book 6) by Lynn Flewelling (Bantam Mass Market 05/29/2012)– I read a couple of Flewelling’s novles, The Bone Doll’s Twin was the SFFWorld Fantasy Book Club selection back in June 2003. I’ve always meant to go back and finish reading the series, but well, that’s how things go.

The Nightrunners are back in this gripping novel full of Lynn Flewelling’s trademark action, intrigue, and richly imagined characters.

More than the dissolute noblemen they appear to be, Alec and Seregil are skillful spies, dedicated to serving queen and country. But when they stumble across evidence of a plot pitting Queen Phoria against Princess Klia, the two Nightrunners will find their loyalties torn as never before. Even at the best of times, the royal court at Rhíminee is a serpents’ nest of intrigue, but with the war against Plenimar going badly, treason simmers just below the surface.

And that’s not all that poses a threat: A mysterious plague is spreading through the crowded streets of the city, striking young and old alike. Now, as panic mounts and the body count rises, hidden secrets emerge. And as Seregil and Alec are about to learn, conspiracies and plagues have one thing in common: The cure can be as deadly as the disease.

Blackout (Newsflesh Trilogy #3) by Mira Grant (Orbit Tall Paperback 05/22/2012) – FEED blew me away and Deadline lived up to the promise laid out in the first book. This is one of my top 2 or 3 anticipated releases of 2012 so I’ve got high hopes.

Rise up while you can. -Georgia Mason

The year was 2014. The year we cured cancer. The year we cured the common cold. And the year the dead started to walk. The year of the Rising.

The year was 2039. The world didn't end when the zombies came, it just got worse. Georgia and Shaun Mason set out on the biggest story of their generation. The uncovered the biggest conspiracy since the Rising and realized that to tell the truth, sacrifices have to be made.

Now, the year is 2041, and the investigation that began with the election of President Ryman is much bigger than anyone had assumed. With too much left to do and not much time left to do it in, the surviving staff of After the End Times must face mad scientists, zombie bears, rogue government agencies-and if there's one thing they know is true in post-zombie America, it's this:

Things can always get worse.

BLACKOUT is the conclusion to the epic trilogy that began in the Hugo-nominated FEED and the sequel, DEADLINE.

The Mandel Files, Volume 2 - The Nano Flower by Peter F. Hamilton. (Del Rey Trade Paperback 05/29/2012) – This brings Hamilton’s take on the psychic detective to close, with the third novel in the Greg Mandel trilogy.

Peter F. Hamilton’s groundbreaking Mandel Files series concludes with The Nano Flower, a tour de force of unbridled imagination and cutting-edge scientific speculation.

Greg Mandel is a psychic detective whose skills have been augmented by powerful but dangerous biotechnology. Those abilities have won him success and almost killed him many times over. Little wonder that he has settled down to the life of a gentleman farmer.

But Greg’s former employer, the mighty tech company Event Horizon, needs him once more. After Royan, hacker-genius and husband to company owner Julia Evans, mysteriously vanishes, a business rival suddenly boasts an incredible new technology. Has Royan been kidnapped and forced to work for his captors, or is the truth far stranger? The answer may lie in a gift of flowers received by Julia—flowers with DNA like nothing on Earth. Greg already has his hands full with corporate killers and other unsavory characters. Is he going to have to add aliens to the list?

The Greg Mandel trilogy—which also includes Mindstar Rising and A Quantum Murder, available in Volume 1—set a new standard for science fiction when it first appeared in the 1990s. The Nano Flower is every bit as gripping today—and even more timely.

The Twelfth Enchantment by David Liss (Ballantine Trade Paperback 05/29/2012) – Liss has penned quite a few novels of historical fiction, this seems to be the first one which is infused with bits of fantasy

Lucy Derrick is a young woman of good breeding and poor finances. After the death of her beloved father, she becomes the unwanted boarder of her tyrannical uncle, fending off marriage to a local mill owner. But just as she is resigned to a life of misery, a handsome stranger—the poet and notorious rake Lord Byron—arrives at her house, stricken by what seems to be a curse, and with a cryptic message for Lucy.

With England on the cusp of revolution, Lucy inexplicably finds herself awakened to a world where magic and mortals collide, and the forces of ancient nature and modern progress are at war for the soul of England . . . and the world. The key to victory may be connected to a cryptic volume whose powers of enchantment are unbounded. Now, challenged by ruthless enemies with ancient powers at their command, Lucy must harness newfound mystical skills to preserve humanity’s future. And enthralled by two exceptional men with designs on her heart, she must master her own desires to claim the destiny she deserves.

Look for special features inside. Join the Circle for author chats and more.



Blue Remembered Earth (Poseidon’s Children #1) by Alastair Reynolds (Ace Hardcover Paperback 06/05/2012) – Reynolds is, arguably one of the top selling and most acclaimed SF writers currently publishing today. I’d be on the side of the argument that would say “Yes indeed.” This is the launch of a new series for him that is already garnering a fair amount of praise.

With his critically acclaimed Revelation Space novels, Alastair Reynolds confirmed “his place among the leaders of the hard-science space opera renaissance.” (Publishers Weekly) With Blue Remembered Earth, the award-winning author begins a new epic, tracing generations of one family across more than ten thousand years of future history—into interstellar space and the dawn of galactic society…

One hundred and fifty years from now, Africa has become the world’s dominant technological and economic power. Crime, war, disease and poverty have been eliminated. The Moon and Mars are settled, and colonies stretch all the way out to the edge of the solar system. And Ocular, the largest scientific instrument in history, is about to make an epochal discovery…

Geoffrey Akinya wants only one thing: to be left in peace, so that he can continue his long-running studies into the elephants of the Amboseli basin. But Geoffrey’s family, who control the vast Akinya business empire, has other plans for him. After the death of his grandmother Eunice—the erstwhile space explorer and entrepreneur—something awkward has come to light on the Moon, so Geoffrey is dispatched there to ensure the family name remains untarnished. But the secrets Eunice died with are about to be revealed—secrets that could change everything...or tear this near utopia apart.

Manhattan in Reverse, Hammered at SFFWorld

It’s Tuesday so my millions…and MILLIONS of blog readers know what time it is. That’s right, the weekly link/blurb/cover of the latest reviews to be posted to SFFWorld. As has been the case in recent weeks, there’s one new review from me and another from Mark. This week. Mark’s review will lead off things then I’ll get the hot tag and jump in the ring.*

(*right, I’ve been watching WWE again so sue me for using some wrestling lingo)

Mark takes a look at the second and latest short fiction collection from, arguably, the biggest name in Science Fiction (specifically of the Space Opera variety) today, Peter F. Hamilton, Manhattan in Reverse:

Before we get started properly, just take a look at that page count. No, that’s not a misprint. Peter’s latest book is about a third to a quarter of the size of his usual blockbusting tome. This is Peter’s second short story collection, the first being A Second Chance At Eden in 1998.

…

The stories here show many of Peter’s strengths, highlighting key human themes in a variety of different settings in an entertaining way. There are those great ideas, still: super-technology, evolution, planets connected by wormholes, alien biology and habits. However, here the typical widescreen baroque of those larger epic narratives have been replaced by something a little more focused and intimate, but these are still engaging and fun.

My review, Hammered finishes out the initial trilogy/storyline of Kevin Hearne’s supremely enjoyable Iron Druid Chronicles. I don’t think I’m giving anything away by indicating the protagonist, Atticus O’Sullivan, leads a battle against the Norse Gods, and Thor in particular. Fun stuff indeed:

Of course, since plotting to kill a major god isn’t enough for one Druid, Atticus is beset by a sect of Kabbalistic Russian Jews calling themselves the Hammers of God, warnings from the Morrigan, the increasing time spent tutoring his Druid-in-training Granuaile, keeping watch over his widow friend Mrs. MacDonagh, and last but certainly not least, taking care of his Irish Wolfhound Oberon.

...

So, with Hammered, Hearne has done a lot of things well. For starters, he pays off an undercurrent subplot from the previous two novels. He continues to flesh out his mythological world, and by including Jesus Christ, really shows he isn’t really restraining himself. Hearne also changes up the type of story he’s telling. Whilst the previous two novels had a bit of a quest and battle feel, Hammered adds the feel of a heist/thriller to the mix – both in Atticus’s first foray into Asgard, and the final onslaught with his companions. What he also shows in Hammered is that nothing should be taken for granted and that nothing is safe.

Books in the Mail (W/E 2011-08-13)

Lots of books this week, with nine arriving on Monday alone.

Circle of Enemies (A Twenty Palaces Novel, #3) by Harry Connolly (Del Rey Mass Market Paperback 8/30/2011) – Third in Del Rey’s answer to Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files. Right, I know that sounds a little unfair, but the story does fit the practicing sorcerer in the modern world.

Former car thief Ray Lilly is now the expendable grunt of a sorcerer responsible for destroying extra-dimensional predators summoned to our world by power-hungry magicians. Luckily, Ray has some magic of his own, and so far it’s kept him alive. But when a friend from his former gang calls him back to his old stomping grounds in Los Angeles, Ray may have to face a threat even he can’t handle. A mysterious spell is killing Ray’s former associates, and they blame him. Worse yet, the spell was cast by Wally King, the sorcerer who first dragged Ray into the brutal world of the Twenty Palace Society. Now Ray will have to choose between the ties of the past and the responsibilities of the present, as he and the Society face not only Wally King but a bizarre new predator.

Rage by Del Rey Trade Paperback 8/30/2011) – The latest in Del Rey’s growing line of video game novelizations/tie-ins from a writer who has experience across most genre media.

An action-packed adventure based on the award-winning videogame from id Software, the creators of DOOM® and QUAKE®, Rage follows one man’s fight to save the future of humanity in a ravaged, post-apocalyptic world.

The asteroid Apophis has annihilated Earth, and only a small percentage of humanity’s best and brightest have been saved. Buried deep below the ground in life-sustaining Arks, these chosen few are tasked with one vital mission—to restore civilization to a devastated planet hundreds of years after the impact.

When Lieutenant Nick Raine emerges from his Ark, he finds a future indistinguishable from nightmare. Humankind has not been entirely destroyed on the surface world, and a primitive new society has emerged in which life is nasty, brutish, and short. Mutants and bandits prey upon the weak, and a mysterious military group known as the Authority preys upon everyone. Worst of all, a would-be tyrant seeks to impose his will upon the shattered planet. Armed with nothing more than his combat training and survival instincts, Raine must rise to meet the challenges of the wasteland.


Thomas World by Richard Cox (NightShade BooksTrade Paperback 09/06/2011) – I’m continued to be impressed with the interesting sounding debut novels Night Shade has been publishing this year. The cover on this one looks VERY much like the Vintage trade paperback re-issues of Philip K. Dick’s backlist. Not surprising since the book is compared to PKD.

Thomas Phillips knows he''s losing his mind. He''s been losing it for as long as he can remember. And yet, when a strange old man asks him to consider that he, out of everyone in the world, knows the real truth, Thomas'' life begins to spiral out of control. He loses interest in his job and is fired. He refuses his wife''s suggestion of psychiatric care, and she leaves him. In the end, Thomas is alone. Except he''s not, because someone seems to be following him. What if you were Thomas? Where would you go? What would you do? What if you realized every person in your life had been scripted to be there? What if you were haunted by the idea that you''d lived all these encounters before, hundreds or even thousands of times before? And what if the person watching all this time was you?

Thomas World explores what happens when the borders of reality start seeming a bit pores... when things start bleeding through the edges, challenging ones perceptions of the universe. The grand tradition of Dickian, New Wave SF is explored by Richard Cox in this 21st century thriller!

Necropolis by Michael Dempsey (NightShade BooksTrade Paperback 09/06/2011) – Zombies and noir mix in Dempsey’s debut novel, which to me has a similar premise to James Knapp’s State of Decay


Paul Donner is a NYPD detective struggling with a drinking problem and a marriage on the rocks. Then he and his wife get dead--shot to death in a "random" crime. Fifty years later, Donner is back--revived courtesy of the Shift, a process whereby inanimate DNA is re-activated.

This new "reborn" underclass is not only alive again, they're growing younger, destined for a second childhood. The freakish side-effect of a retroviral attack on New York, the Shift has turned the world upside down. Beneath the protective geodesic Blister, clocks run backwards, technology is hidden behind a noir facade, and you can see Bogart and DiCaprio in The Maltese Falcon III. In this unfamiliar retro-futurist world of flying Studebakers and plasma tommy guns, Donner must search for those responsible for the destruction of his life. His quest for retribution, aided by Maggie, his holographic Girl Friday, leads him to the heart of the mystery surrounding the Shift's origin and up against those who would use it to control a terrified nation.



Twilight of Lake Woebegotten by Harrison Geillor (Nightshade Books Trade Paperback 10/04/2011) – This seems to be a sequel to Geillor’s Zombie novel set in Woebegotten with a humorous twist on a certain northwest group of vampires:

A small town... a plucky heroin, a shiny vampire, and a hunkey Native American rival with a secret. But all is not as it seems in Lake Woebegotten. Let Harrison Geillor reveal what lies beneath the seemingly placid surface. You’ll laugh. We promise.

When Bonnie Grayduck relocates from sunny Santa Cruz California to the small town of Lake Woebegotten, Minnesota, to live with her estranged father, chief of the local two-man police department, she thinks she’s leaving her troubles behind. But she soon becomes fascinated by another student - the brooding, beautiful Edwin Scullen, whose reclusive family hides a terrible secret. (Psst: they're actually vampires. But they're the kind who don't eat people, so it's okay.) Once Bonnie realizes what her new lover really is, she isn't afraid. Instead, she sees potential. Because while Bonnie seems to her friends and family to be an ordinary, slightly clumsy, easily-distracted girl, she’s really manipulative, calculating, power hungry, and not above committing murder to get her way - or even just to amuse herself. This is a love story about monsters... but the vampire isn't the monster.

The Mandel Files, Volume I (Mindstar Rising and A Quantum Murder #1) by Peter F. Hamilton. (Del Rey Trade Paperback 08/23/2011) – Omnibus reissue of Hamilton’s early novels, which are in the Psychic Detective subgenre. I’ve seen good things about these so I’ll likely get to these eventually.

CONTAINS TWO COMPLETE NOVELS!

For the first time in a single volume, Peter F. Hamilton’s acclaimed novels—Mindstar Rising and A Quantum Murder—set in a near-future so real it seems ripped from tomorrow’s headlines

In Mindstar Rising, Greg Mandel, gifted—or cursed—with biotechnology that makes him a living lie detector, is hired to investigate corporate espionage by Event Horizon, a powerful company about to introduce a technology that will solve the energy problems of a world decimated by global warming.

Set two years later, A Quantum Murder once again teams Mandel with Event Horizon and its beautiful young owner, Julia Evans, in a locked-room mystery that combines the ingenuity of an Agatha Christie novel with cutting-edge speculative brilliance.

Read together, these novels take on fresh depth and complexity, underscoring the magnitude of Peter F. Hamilton’s creative talent.


The Truth of Valor (A Confederation Novel) by Tanya Huff (DAW Mass Market Paperback 09/06/2011) – Fifth book in Huff’s Military SF/Space Opera saga from the prolific and varied Huff.

Having left the Marine Corps, former Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr is attempting to build a new life with salvage operator Craig Ryder. Turns out, civilian life is a lot rougher than she'd imagined. Torin is left for dead when pirates attack their spaceship and take Craig prisoner. But "left for dead" has never stopped Torin. Determined to rescue Craig, she calls in her Marines. And that's when her mission expands to stopping the pirates from changing the balance of power in known space.


The Book of Cthulhu edited by Ross E. Lockhart (Nightshade Books Trade Paperback 10/04/2011) – Ross has been in the Night Shade fold for quite a while and this is his first full anthology with them. Who doesn’t love some Cthulhu craziness? Only crazy folks and this looks to be another in an impressive line of themed anthologies from the NSB folks.

The Cthulhu Mythos is one of the 20th century''s most singularly recognizable literary creations. Initially created by H. P. Lovecraft and a group of his amorphous contemporaries (the so-called "Lovecraft Circle"), The Cthulhu Mythos story cycle has taken on a convoluted, cyclopean life of its own. Some of the most prodigious writers of the 20th century, and some of the most astounding writers of the 21st century have planted their seeds in this fertile soil. The Book of Cthulhu harvests the weirdest and most corpulent crop of these modern mythos tales. From weird fiction masters to enigmatic rising stars, The Book of Cthulhu demonstrates how Mythos fiction has been a major cultural meme throughout the 20th century, and how this type of story is still salient, and terribly powerful today.

Table of Contents:

Caitlin R. Kiernan - Andromeda among the Stones Ramsey Campbell - The Tugging Charles Stross - A Colder War Bruce Sterling - The Unthinkable Silvia Moreno-Garcia - Flash Frame W. H. Pugmire - Some Buried Memory Molly Tanzer - The Infernal History of the Ivybridge Twins Michael Shea - Fat Face Elizabeth Bear - Shoggoths in Bloom T. E. D. Klien - Black Man With A Horn David Drake - Than Curse the Darkness Charles Saunders - Jeroboam Henley''s Debt Thomas Ligotti - Nethescurial Kage Baker - Calamari Curls Edward Morris - Jihad over Innsmouth Cherie Priest - Bad Sushi John Hornor Jacobs - The Dream of the Fisherman''s Wife Brian McNaughton - The Doom that Came to Innsmouth Ann K. Schwader - Lost Stars Steve Duffy - The Oram County Whoosit Joe R. Lansdale - The Crawling Sky Brian Lumley - The Fairground Horror Tim Pratt - Cinderlands Gene Wolfe - Lord of the Land Joseph Pulver, Sr. - To Live and Die in Arkham John Langan - The Shallows Laird Barron - The Men from Porlock

One Salt Sea (An October Daye Novel) by Seanan McGuire (DAW Mass Market 09/06/2011) – McGuire as an extremely fast writer, who seems to manage quality along with that timeliness as she’s been nominated for several awards under the Mira Grant moniker for Feed. This is the fifth book in the series in just under two years.

October "Toby" Daye is settling into her new role as Countess of Goldengreen. She's actually dating again, and she's taken on Quentin as her squire. So, of course, it's time for things to take a turn for the worse.

Someone has kidnapped the sons of the regent of the Undersea Duchy of Saltmist. To prevent a war between land and sea, Toby must find the missing boys and prove the Queen of the Mists was not behind their abduction. Toby's search will take her from the streets of San Francisco to the lands beneath the waves, and her deadline is firm: she must find the boys in three days' time, or all of the Mists will pay the price. But someone is determined to stop her-and whoever it is isn't playing by Oberon's Laws...


Coronets and Steel (Dobrenica Urban Fantasy Series #2) by Shrewood Smith (DAW Mass Market Paperback 09/06/2011) – First novel in a series about a young swashbuckling girl.

Kim's a grad student in L.A. Her passions are ballet, fencing, Jane Austen, and swashbuckling, romantic old movies. When her grandmother begs her to go east and see if "they" are safe, then slips into an uncommunicative silence, Kim goes to Vienna to search for a family, armed with only two clues. She's having no luck when she first runs into a ghost, and then encounters a guy she mentally dubs Mr. Darcy. Only this Mr. Darcy acts like he knows her. When she goes out for a drink and wakes up on a train, the adventure begins. This story began as an homage to Prisoner of Zenda, only with a female having to prove her courage, dash . . . and honor.

Tears of the Sun (A Novel of the Change) by S. M. Stirling (Roc Hardcover 09/06/2011) – Like clockwork, it’s September and time for a new Stirling novel. The post-apocalyptic (or post-‘Change’) setting of this novel seems right up my alley in a lot of ways. I’ve never read any Stirling and this is quite a few books into the series so I wonder if it is a good jumping-on point. I’ve seen good things about Stirling, so this book may be a “I’ll catch up with it eventually”

Rudi McKenzie-now Artos, the High King of Montival-must fulfill his destiny. He wields the sword crafted for him before he was born. He has made friends of his enemies. He has won the heart of the woman he loves.

And now he must defeat the forces of the Church Universal and Triumphant, knowing he may lose his life in the final battle...

Count to a Trillion by John C. Wright (Tor Hardcover 12/20/2011) – First in a quartet of Space Opera novels by the author of Fugitives of Chaos, which I reviewed a couple of years ago.

John C. Wright burst upon the SF scene a decade ago with the Golden Age trilogy, an innovative space opera. He went on to write fantasy novels, including the popular Orphans of Chaos trilogy. And now he returns to space opera in Count to a Trillion.

After the collapse of the world economy, a young boy grows up in what used to be Texas as a tough duellist for hire, the future equivalent of a hired gun. But even after the collapse, there is space travel, and he leaves Earth to have adventures in the really wide open spaces. But he is quickly catapulted into the more distant future, while humanity, and Artificial Intelligence, grows and changes and becomes a kind of superman..


Seed by Rob Ziegler (Nightshade Books Hardcover 11/15/2011) – Relatively near future dystopic SF debut with a superb cover.

It's the dawn of the 22nd century, and the world has fallen apart. Decades of war and resource depletion have toppled governments. The ecosystem has collapsed. A new dust bowl sweeps the American West. The United States has become a nation of migrants -starving masses of nomads who seek out a living in desert wastelands and encampments outside government seed-distribution warehouses.

In this new world, there is a new power. Satori is more than just a corporation, she is an intelligent, living city that grew out of the ruins of Denver. Satori bioengineers both the climate-resistant seed that feeds a hungry nation, and her own post-human genetic Designers, Advocates, and Laborers. What remains of the United States government now exists solely to distribute Satori seed; a defeated American military doles out bar-coded, single-use Satori seed to the nation's starving citizens.

When one of Satori's Designers goes rogue, Agent Sienna Doss-Ex-Army Ranger turned glorified bodyguard-is tasked by the government to bring her in: The government wants to use the Designer to break Satori's stranglehold on seed production and reassert themselves as the center of power.

Sianna Doss's search for the Designer intersects with Brood and his younger brother Pollo - orphans scrapping by on the fringes of the wastelands. Pollo is abducted, because he is believed to suffer from Tet, a newly emergent disease, the victims of which are harvested by Satori.

As events spin out of control, Brood and Sienna Doss find themselves at the heart of Satori, where an explosive climax promises to reshape the future of the world.

Bear, Hamilton, Willis - 3 SF reviews at SFFWorld

Things are trucking along at SFFWorld , with one of my reviews posted and two from Mark.


I’ll lead of with Mark’s review of the latest novel from Connie Willis - All Clear, which finishes off what she started in Blackout,:

After the cliff-hanger ending of the first part, we get straight back into the tale. There’s a little bit of reminding of what went before (note: do read the first book first!) but pretty soon we’re back into the WW2 dilemma of Polly, Mary, and Mike. This can be a little confusing if it’s been a while since you read Black Out: you really do need to read this as one continuous novel.

The complexities of the time travel element become a little more involved here as the apparent changes in Black Out have their effect. We now find that there is a great deal of slippage: over four years, when the longest previously was about six months. Mr Dunworthy finds himself entering the fray from 2060, Mary finds herself involved with an RAF officer, whilst Mike, in his search for Gerald Phipps, finds himself at Bletchley Park and intermixing with the mathematicians involved in the ultra-secret Enigma code-breaking project. There’s also the welcome return of a character from the beginning of Black Out who has a pivotal part to play in this tale.

My review, also finishes off a larger story, The Evolutionary Void by Peter F. Hamilton:

Throughout the three volumes of the trilogy, Hamilton has juxtaposed two societies – the inhabitants of the Void who are of a medieval level society against those who live outside the void in the universe at large. The people outside the Void are divided and many of them find inspiration from one man’s dreams of the world inside the Void, specifically a young, powerful psychic by the name of Edeard, whom people have anointed the Waterwalker. A religious movement, The Living Dream, has arisen and is looking to make a pilgrimage to the inside of the Void. Problem being is the Void is expanding exponentially and threatening the integrity of the universe. In order to prevent the Living Dream from completing its pilgrimage and further endangering the universe, humanity has tried to prevent this religious cult, for lack of a better term, from completing their pilgrimage.

Hamilton continues to jump around the galaxy in his narratives, from Paula Myo’s investigative track, to Araminta’s storyline of continued discovery, to Edeards’ heroic journey of ascension in Makkathran, to the conflict between humans who have and have not chosen a post-physical existence. Through all of it, the most defined narrative for me was Edeard’s story. While Hamilton invested a great deal of time into many of characters, like Myo who has been bouncing around his books for thousands of years and pages, it is Edeard who comes across as the most clearly defined and genuine.

The last review of the day is also Mark’s s review is of a reissued recent classic by Greg Bear, The Forge of God

What these are in actual fact are two spaceships. In the case of the spacecraft crashing in the Californian Mojave desert, there is a dying alien, in its own words, ‘a flea’, hitchhiking a ride with superior beings. In English, it tells its discoverers that it is very sorry to bring bad news but that the Earth is doomed.

...

The truth is sadly more sinister. What is happening is that the aliens, attracted by radio signals emitted from Earth, have brought with them two ‘bullets’ of neutronium and anti-neutronium that are eating through the interior of the Earth. Their meeting will be the end of the Earth as we know it. Moreover there is the scary realisation that this is deliberate: it is this that creates the matter used to birth more alien spaceships, a force created by a mechanical alien species who look at humans as if they are a lower lifeform. (Saberhagen’s Beserkers are mentioned as a sf-nal reference point.)

Books in the Mail (W/E 08/07/2010)

Sully, my three-and-a-half month old Great Pyrenees and the-rescue-organization-says-Lab-but-we-think-Pointer/Hunting-Dog puppy, asleep after helping with yard work, with this week's arrivals:

The Evolutionary Void by Peter F. Hamilton (I received the ARC back in May), which I'll likely get to this month; Atlantis and Other Stories by Harry Turtledove; The Ragged Man by Tom Lloyd; and The Law of Nines by Terry Goodkind, in one of those awkward and annoying 'tall' paperbacks.

Books in the Mail (W/E 05/15/2010)

Only a few this week, but one of them I’ve been really anticipating…

The Living Dead 2 by John Joseph Adams (Nightshade Books Trade Paperback 09/15/2010) – I really enjoyed Adams’s predecessor volume The Living Dead. One of the main differences with this volume is all the stories are new:

Two years ago, readers eagerly devoured The Living Dead. Publishers Weekly named it one of the Best Books of the Year, and Barnes & Noble.com called it "The best zombie fiction collection ever." Now acclaimed editor John Joseph Adams is back for another bite at the apple -- the Adam's apple, that is -- with 43 more of the best, most chilling, most thrilling zombie stories anywhere, including virtuoso performances by zombie fiction legends Max Brooks (World War Z, The Zombie Survival Guide), Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead), and David Wellington (Monster Island).

From Left 4 Dead to Zombieland to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, ghoulishness has never been more exciting and relevant. Within these pages samurai warriors face off against the legions of hell, necrotic dinosaurs haunt a mysterious lost world, and eerily clever zombies organize their mindless brethren into a terrifying army. You'll even witness nightmare scenarios in which humanity is utterly wiped away beneath a relentless tide of fetid flesh.

The Living Dead 2 has more of what zombie fans hunger for -- more scares, more action, more... brains. Experience the indispensable series that defines the very best in zombie literature.

Contents:
Introduction - John Joseph Adams
Alone, Together - Robert Kirkman /Danger Word - Steven Barnes & Tananarive Due / Zombieville - Paula Stiles /The Anteroom - Adam-Troy Castro / When the Zombies Win - Karina Sumner-Smith / Mouja - Matt London / Category Five - Marc Paoletti / Living with the Dead - Molly Brown / Twenty-Three Snapshots of San Francisco - Seth Lindberg / The Mexican Bus - Walter Greatshell / The Other Side - Jamie Lackey / Where the Heart Was - David J. Schow / Good People - David Wellington / Lost Canyon of the Dead - Brian Keene / Pirates vs. Zombies - Amelia Beamer / The Crocodiles - Steven Popkes / The Skull-Faced City - David Barr Kirtley / Obedience - Brenna Yovanoff / Steve and Fred - Max Brooks / The Rapeworm - Charlie Finlay / Everglades - Mira Grant / We Now Pause For Station Identification - Gary Braunbeck / Reluctance - Cherie Priest / Arlene Schabowski Of The Undead - Mark McLaughlin & Kyra M. Schon / Zombie Gigolo - S. G. Browne / Rural Dead - Bret Hammond / The Summer Place - Bob Fingerman / The Wrong Grave - Kelly Link / The Human Race - Scott Edelman / Who We Used to Be - David Moody / Therapeutic Intervention - Rory Harper / He Said, Laughing - Simon R. Green / Last Stand - Kelley Armstrong / The Thought War - Paul McAuley / Dating in Dead World - Joe McKinney / Flotsam & Jetsam - Carrie Ryan / Thin Them Out - Kim Paffenroth, Julia Sevin & RJ Sevin / Zombie Season - Catherine MacLeod / Tameshigiri - Steven Gould / Zero Tolerance - Jonathan Maberry / And the Next, and the Next - Genevieve Valentine / The Price of a Slice - John Skipp & Cody Goodfellow / Are You Trying to Tell Me This is Heaven? - Sarah Langan




The Evolutionary Void (The Void Trilogy Book 3) by Peter F. Hamilton (Del Rey Hardcover 08/24/2010) – This is one of my most highly anticipated SF novels of the year after enjoying the first two (The Dreaming Void and The Temporal Void ). This series is setting the benchmark for the term Epic Science Fiction:

Peter F Hamilton's startling perspectives on tomorrow's technological and cultural trends span vast tracts of space and time; his stories are as compelling as they are epic in scope, and yet they are always grounded in characters - human, alien and other - who, for all their strangeness, still touch our hearts and fire our imaginations. Now, in The Evolutionary Void, Hamilton concludes the highly acclaimed Commonwealth saga that has unfolded in The Dreaming Void and The Temporal Void.

Having finally mastered his astonishing psychic abilities and how to harness the power of the city itself, Edeard is dismayed to find that life in Makkathran is as challenging and dangerous as ever. No matter what he does, there always seem to be threats to quash and unrest to settle. Although he knows he can eventually rid the city of corruption and anarchy, he is coming to understand that he himself will have to pay a terrible price for Makkathran's peace and liberty.

Inspired by their shared vision of Edeard's story, millions of Living Dream pilgrims embark on their gigantic, ultradrive ships, heading towards a new and perfectible life within the Void that lies at the centre of the galaxy. Their arrival will trigger a super-massive expansion of the Void which will devour everything in its path - ultimately the galaxy itself - and, for those of the Greater Commonwealth who would stop the pilgrimage, time is running out.

On the run from planet to planet, pursued by every Commonwealth faction, Second Dreamer Araminta realizes she can no longer flee her destiny and chooses a course of action that will not only confound Living Dream but also will transform her in a way no one could have expected.

Unable to deliver the Second Dreamer to the Commonwealth's ruthless field operative, the legendary Paula Myo, a desperate Oscar Monroe brings together a team of players who may just be able to stop Living Dream's pilgrimage. Unfortunately his plan includes the genius recluse Ozzie, who has no intention of embarking on any kind of mission to save the galaxy - besides, Ozzie is not quite the man he used to be... if he is a man at all.

The Accelerator faction, intent on supporting the pilgrimage so that it can gain access to the technology behind the Void, finally activates its mysterious swarm with disastrous political and military consequences for the Commonwealth. This leaves the Delivery Man, a one-time faction agent with devastating firepower at his disposal, teamed up with an unlikely ally as he frantically tries to limit the damage. Together with his new partner he travels to an alien world which has abandoned evolution in favour of fate, hoping to find a solution.

Then there is Gore Burnelli, one of the oldest, most influential humans left from the pre-Commonwealth era who claims to know much more than he is letting on and perhaps knows just enough to save the galaxy - if he can outwit Ilanthe, the driving force behind the Accelerator faction. But Ilanthe has the Cat on her side, and that can only mean big trouble for anyone who gets in her way.

The Evolutionary Void will leave no reader in doubt as to why Peter F Hamilton is Britain's number one bestselling SF Novelist.



The Zombies of Lake Woebegotten by Harrison Geillor (Nightshade Books Trade Paperback 09/15/2010) – All I know about this book is what I pulled from the publisher’s website below:

The town of Lake Woebegotten, MN is a small town, filled with ordinary (yet above average) people, leading ordinary lives. Ordinary, that is, until the dead start coming back to life, with the intent to feast upon the living. Now this small town of above average citizens must overcome their petty rivalries and hidden secrets, in order to survive the onslaught of the dead.


Harrison Geillor was born in a small three-room farm house in central MN, sometime in the middle of the twentieth century. He attended one of Minnesota's prestigious institutions of higher learning, were he obtained a degree in English. Like English majors everywhere, he want on to work in a variety of jobs that had nothing to do with books or literature. At some point in his life he decided that the best way to appreciate Minnesota was to appreciate it from afar. He splits his time between Santa Cruz and San Francisco, only returning to Minnesota for smelt fishing, and the occasional family reunion.

The Chapter’s Due (A Ultramarines/Warhammer 40,000 novel) by Graham McNeill (Black Library Hardcover 06/01/2010) – McNeill is a superstar at Black Library and churns out novels in a number of the subseries of both WH Fantasy and WH 40K.

War is unending in the life of a Space Marine. After defeating tau forces, Captain Uriel Ventris of the Ultramarines has returned to the Chapter’s homeworld of Macragge, but there is little respite. The Ultramarines are thrust back into battle, and this time the enemy is the Chapter’s greatest nemesis. The traitorous Iron Warriors, led by renegade Warsmith Honsou, have gathered together a massive and brutal warband. Their target is the realm of Ultramar. Their objective is total annihilation. It is a final showdown between legendary Space Marines, and Uriel Ventris must take on the might of Honsou if he is to save his Chapter’s homeworld..

Courage and Honour (A Ultramarines/Warhammer 40,000 novel) by Graham McNeill (Black Library Hardcover 06/01/2010) – McNeill is a superstar at Black Library and churns out novels in a number of the subseries of both WH Fantasy and WH 40K, this is the predecessor to the above hardcover volume:

Book five in the Ultramarines series follows the tale of Uriel Ventris as he tries to regain the trust of the 4th company and the Ultramarines chapter after his time in the Eye of Terror and his continued fight against the powers of chaos.

The noble Ultramarines epitomise the Space Marines, the genetically enhanced warriors who protect the Imperium from its foes. Newly returned from the Eye of Terror, Captain Uriel Ventris must redeem himself in the eyes of his battle-brothers, who fear he may have been tainted by Chaos. When the planet Pavonis is invaded by tau, what better opportunity could Uriel have to join his Chapter in combat and prove that his honour is beyond reproach?

2009 Reading Year in Review

I read a lot of books in 2009. I read 82 books, which includes graphic novels (10) but not the many single-issue comics I’ve read. This is down only 2 books from 2008, which is a blip, I should say.

In 2009, I posted 56 reviews to SFFWorld and one new one to the Sacramento Book Review /San Francisco Book Review.

I’d say that’s a pretty decent number of reviews. Having said that, in the coming year, I’ll be cutting back on the number of reviews I post. Since I started getting review books from publishers, a lot of books have been piling up. Not only those I’ve received for review, but the books that I’ve purchased and others that have been put aside in favor of the review books. I also want to do a Wheel of Time re-read/catch up and the same for Glen Cook’s Black Company. One or both of those may be an ongoing feature here on the blog. Or, since SFFWorld doesn’t have any *official* reviews for any of the Wheel of Time books, I may just post reviews of the books there. Plus I want to catch up with other series (for example David Weber’s Safehold, Ian M. Banks’s Culture, Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files and Codex Alera) and now that some series are complete (Daniel Abraham’s Long Price and Sean Williams’s Astrolopolis to name only two), I want to get through them too.

One of my personal ‘reading goals’ for 2009 was to read more books by women, which I did more than doubling the number of women-authored books I read 2008. That’s 12.5 in 2009 (one of the books was The Dragons of Ordinary Farm co-authored by Deborah Beale) vs 5 in 2008.

54 of the 82 books I read were published in 2009, roughly 2/3. Breaking down the genres, 26 could be considered SF, 32 Fantasy, 6 Horror (and a few of the books could fit in two (The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbartcould be considered both fantasy and horror or all three like Gregory’s The Devil’s Alphabet) and 5 short story collections/anthologies.

All that said, on to the categories for the 2009 … Robloggies? ManBearPiggies? Stuffies? 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 2009 and what I put at the top of those categories.

Rob Favorite Science Fiction Novel(s) Read in 2009

This year I rediscovered Alastair Reynolds, first with Pushing Ice then with what amounted to one of my favorite SF novels of 2009 House of Suns.

Since this is an Alastair Reynolds novel, one would expect some big-ideas and one would not be let down. Set millions of years in the future, ample time has passed in the galaxy for humanity to evolve and join the greater universal civilization. And what a civilization it is. Some scenes worked really well to show off a grittiness of the future, that there are still scrupulous creatures willing to make a hazy deal. Conversely, the ideals of love haven’t changed too much – certain love is embraced and other love is shunned and looked down upon. On the other, the great leaps of time that take place in Reynolds human history as well as the characters lives showcases how far humanity has evolved in this novel.

The sheer scale of intelligent civilization in this universe is mind-boggling. Perhaps most fascinating are the Machine People and the Machines who preceded them thousands of years before the events in even Abigail Gentian’s time. On the other hand, that sense of time, that tens of thousands of years can pass so effortlessly in these characters lives really adds to the sense of wonder for which Reynolds is so well known. These themes are handled with an expert’s care in Reynolds’s assured storytelling ability.

Another book at the top of my SF list for 2009 has a very strong alternate history vibe, with a bits of post-apocalyptic fiction and steampunk thrown into the mix, even though it is set about a hundred years in the future, Robert Charles Wilson’s Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America:

The tone is very comfortable and Wilson’s prose is just wonderful to read and digest. The comfortable to which I’m referring is the tone is inasmuch as we the reader, through Adam’s positioning of words, know who Julian Comstock really is. Essentially, the feel of the novel is that we are taking a peek behind the curtain at how the real events transpired around a legendary and historical figure.

…

It isn’t through info dumps or anything obtrusive that the reader learns about the world at large, technology like cars and travel to the moon are viewed as nearly magical things of the past or fallacies of fantasy outright banished from collective thought. Wilson also manages to conjure the reality of the future world and layer the details very well through the characters thoughts, actions, and words. Furthermore, by just touching on some of the details rather than flat out explaining them, Wilson lends a credibility to 22nd Century America which gives a deeper sense of resonance. Credibility and believability in this world is also conjured through Adam Hazzard’s footnotes sprinkled throughout the novel.

I couldn’t get through a top 2009 list without mentioning Peter F. Hamilton’s The Temporal Void, the middle book of a rollicking, over-the-top-in-the-best-way Space Opera trilogy.

The Temporal Void really is two intertwined novels under one cover – the Waterwalker storyline which takes place in the Void and the effect of the expanding Void and Living Dream movement outside of the Void could conceivably stand on their own as two separate books. Both ‘novels’ are compelling, with the Edeard story being slightly more so. However, considering the book (at least in US ARC form) is large enough to stop a rhino in its tracks, the read was quick and engaging thanks to the best pacing I’ve read from Hamilton. (Admittedly, I’ve yet to complete what many consider his landmark work – The Night's Dawn Trilogy). The link between the Waterwalker’s world and the Commonwealth seem tangential at first, but Hamilton hints at connections between the two throughout with further hints of a more concrete connection perhaps to be revealed in the concluding volume, The Evolutionary Void.

In a book packed with great storytelling, flaws are minor but existent. Perhaps the greatest flaw is in Edeard the Waterwalker himself. Throughout his storyline, he manages to triumph over every defeat. Reading those scenes proved exciting, but as the final chapters of the Waterwalker storyline came and went, some of the dramatic tension was lost. Despite his youth and initial lack of experience with his telekinetic powers, he still defeated all of his enemies. Theconclusion to Edeard’s story was both revelatory and powerful. I’m also hopeful that Hamilton will reveal more of Edeard and the Void’s true nature so as to better explain why Edeard overcame every obstacle. I also trust enough in Hamilton’s storytelling abilities to anticipate a solid (if at times protracted) conclusion and revelation of the connection between the Void and the outer galaxy.

Rob’s Favorite Fantasy Novel(s) Read in 2009

Again I’m torn between two books and each time I think to myself, ‘yeah, that’s the best fantasy novel I read this year’ I then think about the other one. The first of those two is Lev Grossman’s The Magicians.

Grossman’s writing is subtle and relaxed on the whole, but like the sex scene between the two male students I mentioned earlier, he will throw a sucker punch in the midst of otherwise well-flowing narrative. In two cases, this comes in the form of Penny, one scene of which is literally a sucker punch from Penny to Quentin. Another scene (not with Penny) involves a standard lecture, with Quentin being bored (as most students tend to get during college lectures) when suddenly the Beast appears shocking everyone including the instructor and killing a student. These “sucker-punch” scenes occur even more explicitly once the Physical Kids finally arrive in Fillory. Grossman shows how magic might work in the real world in an effective manner, with possibly terrifying implications. Perhaps the strongest parallel I can draw here is how well Alan Moore / Dave Gibbons showed the effects of superheroes in the real world in their landmark graphic novel Watchmen. In this sense, Grossman illustrates just how unsafe magic could be, especially in the unpracticed hands of young college students, and even older students and thos who graduated – perhaps the axiom a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing applies. Gone is the safe illusion of magic as Quentin and his friends soon realize. Just like Watchmen, The Magicians is a work I can see myself returning to multiple times in the future

That other book, is R. Scott Bakker’s return to Eärwa, The Judging Eye, which is the latest entry in his über-saga, The Second Apocalypse:

There are no absolutes in Bakker’s fictional world, or rather once something is thought of as an absolute, something or someone thrusts that absolute into the fire both illuminating and destroying what could be considered absolute. Take Sorweel again - his hatred for Kellhus is thrown asunder once Kellhus appears. The dichotomy of conflicting absolutes drives much of the fiction and can be seen in the mirrored journeys of Achamanian and the Skin Eaters and the march of the Great Ordeal. Both are striving towards what they see as the greater good, although part of what fuels Achamanian is his hatred of Kellhus. Whereas the Great Ordeal is marching in the name of good against an accepted evil, Akka’s march in the depths of darkness may eventually illuminate the true nature of Kellhus. The Great Ordeal is an army of knights and order, Akka’s march is basically a mish-mash of chaos and those on the fringes of society.

While The Judging Eye is “just the opening” of a greater story, Bakker does bring the storyline to a satisfactory stopping point. As a relatively slim volume of just over 400 pages of story, the book is somewhat small compared to other Epic Fantasies. What Bakker’s done in those 400 pages is crafted the best novel of the year, and one that hints at greater things to come. As the characters who seemingly know Kellhus the most intimately come to question much about the God who was once a man, the reader can only do the same. Is he a savior of the world, preventer of the Second Apocalypse or is he the destroyer and igniter of the Second Apocalypse. Bakker is not one to give absolute answers, but the novel gives many things to consider about unconditional perceptions.

Rob's Favorite Debut(s) of 2009

Two of the three strongest debuts for me were both published by Orbit Books. The first was a book that kind took me by surprise, Kate Griffin’s Madness of Angels which I thought “epitomizes more of an earlier (think 80s & early 90s) definition of Urban Fantasy - street magician/sorcerer, magical monsters made of trash, the Bag Lady as a prophetess/seer. No vampire fighting chicks in leather to be seen here (and that isn't a slight), just the magic of life.”
The other debut from Orbit that really impressed me was The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart, which I thought that if “readers can handle Hegel and Manfried as protagonists , they will be rewarded with an ultimately rich and entertaining reading experience, that is especially more impressive since it is the author’s first novel.”
My favorite debut of the year; however, was Peter V. Brett’s The Warded Man, the first in a series. Not only was this book one of my top debut novels, it was one of my top reads for the entire year. This is a very promising start to a series and a writer’s career:

The small isolated villages comprise the majority of human society in this novel and while I wouldn’t say it isn’t exactly a medieval setting it is a degradation to a level of technology equal to medieval. In some ways, a minor parallel can be drawn to Terry Brooks’s Shannara series in that the world of 3,000 years prior to the novel could possibly be our own world. A stronger parallel that resonated with me is the world of Stephen King’s Dark Tower – in many ways, the aura of a technological breakdown and even the Old West feel permeates Brett’s world. The harshness and unconnected pools of humanity that flavor Brett’s world also remind me of King’s opus. Other things like the name Rojer, a phonetic cousin to Roger, and much of the language bears potential fruit for a phonetically similar past as “our” world. Brett does well to only hint at such things, giving readers questions to ponder as we wait for The Desert Spear, the second volume of the as-yet untitled series.

Some readers may be put-off by the youthful protagonists and straightforward writing at the beginning would do well to soldier on towards the end. Brett’s evolution of style subtly matches the evolution of the story itself.

Favorite Multi-Genre/Non-Genre Books of 2009

These two books fit more than one genre, but both really stood out to me as engrossing, solid reads that really deserve to be called out in some fashion.

Dan Simmons’s Drood, easily falls into this category with elements of horror, Victorian literature, possible fantasy, and an unreliable narrator. I’ve read quite a few of his books and regard them all very highly. As for Drood, I read it early in the year and loved it, considering it a masterpiece:

The feel of the novel is rich and exquisitely evokes Victorian London. Since I can’t really travel back in time to check on Simmon’s veracity in his ability to evoke the time and place, I can only go with my gut and it tells me Simmons hit the mark in this respect. In that sense, the novel’s haunted feel is only strengthened by the time and place – an era of gaslights, trains and a world at the cusp of vast technological change. The London of Drood, especially the London nights, is very much hidden in shadows with smoke ‘round the corner and hints of danger and otherworldy Underworlds.

Both Collins and Dickens take mythic journeys in this novel, most notably to the Underworld of London. A vast cavern of tunnels underneath the great city where day laborers live in abject poverty and opium dens are visited by men of society, including Collins. It is a dangerous place, a place where vagrants live, where "lost boys" roam the catacombs, and where the dark figure of Drood and his two steersmen usher Dickens on a gondola to the deepest recesses of Underworld. The mythic parallels to Charon, and more explicitly, the Egyptian god of the dead, Anubis are evocative and resonant in their power. Here again, Collins’s role as Unreliable Narrator comes into play, if not during these scenes as much as they do later upon reflection of the events.

I finished The Devil’s Alphabet by Daryl Gregory late in the year and I was almost equally wowed. In it Gregory mixes up a lot of things – horror, science fiction, fantasy, to name just three:

Pax also has a difficult time reconciling with his father, whose small flashes of sanity in his dark and horrific life almost string Pax along for what could be an unrewarding ride. Gregory set up the three offshoots, charlies, argos, and betas, as distinct societal groups within Switchcreek. Lording over everything is the outwardly charming and matronly Aunt Rhoda who, in the intervening 15 years since Pax left Switchcreek, has become mayor. At times she is very supportive of Pax in welcoming him back to Switchcreek. Other times, when Pax wishes to get his father back home and out of the halfway/healing home, she vehemently, but very politely, tells him he should let things be as they are. In many ways, Aunt Rhoda reminded me of the character Frau Totenkinder from Bill Willingham’s superb comic book series Fables – on the surface warm and welcoming, but beneath the surface lies a depth and cunning.

One element of the book that slowly comes to light is how the majority of the characters who hold power are women. Aunt Rhoda, arguably the most powerful character in the novel, is of course a woman. The top doctor in town is a woman. The specter of Jo Lynn, who to me seemed the smartest character in the novel even in death, is a woman. There’s another play with gender since Pax becomes as dependent on his father’s vintage as a child is on his/her mother’s milk.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy could easily fall into this category. Granted it was published a few years ago, but I didn't get to it until this year. Although it published as a literature and fiction novel, the post-apocalyptic setting thrusts it right into Science Fiction. This was one of the best books I have ever read. Moving, powerful, and remarkable.

MVP Author of 2009

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:

Brandon Sanderson

He only published three novels and helped to revive The Wheel of Time, the defining Fantasy Saga of this generation. His solo fantasy novel, Warbreaker was a solid follow-up to his superb Mistborn trilogy and a top 10 book for me in 2009

So, after a successful trilogy, Brandon Sanderson has given readers a done-in-one (for now, at least) Epic Fantasy novel that is engaging, entertaining, and like his Mistborn trilogy, gives a new lens with which to view familiar elements of a pleasing story. If I can level any negative criticism at the novel it is that once Vivenna leaves her homeland of Idris, it is only spoken of as a place to keep out of war. Considering Vivenna is the only remaining princess after Siri is sent off to be married, I was expecting her father or a group of men from Idris to come into Hallendren in search for Vivenna. This never happened and seemed odd that a King wouldn’t search out for a runaway princess especially when that princess is his daughter. On the whole, this aspect wasn’t a detriment to my enjoyment of the novel, but it itched at my brain a bit. In many ways, the story initially has a faery-tale feel to it, with a royal daughter’s marriage binding two kingdoms. What unfolds from that simple premise is well-wrought, intelligent, and at times, surprising – one might say a conspiracy novel with hints of slight hints 1984 wrapped in a wonderful fantasy package.

He published the third book in his popular Alcatraz series.

Didn’t he publish something else though? Oh yeah, the little book that toppled the Mighty Dan Brown from the #1 spot on the NY Times Bestseller list. To say that The Gathering Storm sparked some life in Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time saga is like saying The Flash can run somewhat fast and the New York Yankees are a relatively successful sports franchise. Though I’ve yet to read it (see above for my Wheel of Time re-read/catch-up nod), the book has been nearly universally praised by many, many, people.

Favorite ‘New To Me’ Author(s) of 2009

These are books or authors that have been publishing/published for quite some time, but for whatever reason, I only managed to get to them this past year.

In no particular order:

S. Andrew Swann – I read two books by him in 2009 and though very highly of both of them. One of those books was the Space Opera Prophets and the other was the Werewolf/Historical Fantasy/Romance Wolfbreed. I’ll be following those two series and I plan to read the books that precede Prophets, plus I have the omnibus/duology Dragons and Dwarves awaiting a read.

Based on the two books I did read by Swann, he flows very well between the related subsets of Speculative Fiction. Taking a look at his bibliography would bear this out - Space Opera, Mystery, Thriller, Historical Fantasy, Urban Fantasy.








David Weber - I read his retrospective anthology Worlds of Weber in 2008 and in the Fall of this past year, I picked up Off Armageddon’s Reef the highly enjoyable opening novel of his Safehold series. Since Santa brought the second and third books in the series, with a fourth one publishing in 2010, I’ve got a nice chunk of reading ahead of me in this promising series. I also may go back to his Honorverse novels.

Warhammer/ Warhammer 40,000 - I know this franchise has been around for a while, but I read a couple of the books this past year and have a slew on the plate to review. So far, I’ve enjoyed what I read quite a bit and can really see why the universe appeals to so many people

Most Disappointing Reads of 2009

Three books for which I had high hopes didn’t work for me that I had high hopes for when I began reading them last in 2009. Each book disappointed me for different reasons, though.

The Quiet War by Paul J. McAuley is a book I looked forward to a great deal since Mark enjoyed it and I was in the mood for a good solid space opera. I didn’t get that with this book. What I got was more of a mystery with not nearly as much space opera goodies as I hoped to read.

How to Make Friends with Demons by Graham Joyce was another major reading disappointment of 2009 for me. I just couldn’t attach myself to the story enough to care. This is really a shame because everything up to this point I read by Joyce I enjoyed a great deal. I’ll chalk this up to a case of the wrong book at the wrong time.

Soulless by Gail Carriger was quite disappointing, too. The premise sounded fairly interesting – Steampunk meets Vampires, but the protagonist really wore on me after a while: By this point, it would seem that I enjoyed the novel. I did – up to the first 80-100 pages, which worked well for me. I was enjoying the way Carriger revealed her supernatural world and I liked the characters of Lord Maccoon, Alexia, and Lord Akeldama. Unfortunately, the immediacy of the opening of the novel and the charm of the characters began to wear off as the novel progressed, especially the prattling between Alexia and her friend Miss Ivy Hisselpenny, a constant wearer of ugly hats. I also found Alexia’s and Maccon’s back and forth to lack the pull when they first began their romance in the novel. Lastly, I felt browbeat by a lot of the repetitive aspects of the novel, the continual reference to Hisselpenny’s ugly hats, and the even more derogatory slant of Alexia’s Italian heritage which seemed to be pointed out every five pages, to the point where I started to say to myself, "OK, I get it, she’s half Italian and that’s not a good thing."

Favorite Author Whose Work I Revisited in 2009

Robert J. Sawyer, with WWW: Wake is what puts him in this category.

I read a handful of his novels years ago but never managed to return to them and in that time he’s published over a half-dozen books and won some awards. This WWW trilogy is quite promising.