100 Page Thoughts: IMPULSE by Dave Bara

In what has become a regular feature here (this is the third such post, natch), here are my thoughts on a book after hit the 100 page mark.  The other two posts on this "feature" also highlighted debut novels.

Impulse, Dave Bara’s first novel is a Space Opera/Military Science Fiction novel set in the far future. Far enough into the future that “Old Earth” is not the focal planet for humanity in the story…at least after the first 100 pages. Like many Military Science Fiction novels, Impulse is told in the first person. In the case of Impulse, the viewpoint character is Peter Cochrane, who is assigned to the titular ship to investigate a disaster in space which claimed the lives of fellow military personnel, including his girlfriend.

Peter received this news from his father, initially, though the assignment comes from his superior. The orders he’s given are not 100% standard operating procedure as he is going into the mission under one set of orders and he’s told to “disobey your superior if that means being loyal to the Navy.”

Much of the narrative is laying groundwork for the novel, setting up the conflict Peter must face, introducing Peter and his supporting characters, and giving a hint of the future history of the human race out in the stars.

At the outset, the best ‘high-concept’/mash-up description I can give is Jack Campbell’s Lost Fleet plus James S.A. Corey’s Expanse with a slight dash of Fringe thrown into the mix. I like the future Bara has mapped out for this one and look forward to where the story goes and what Dave reveals about this future history.

100 Page Thoughts - The Emperor's Blades by Brian Staveley

One of the most touted Debut Epic Fantasies of 2014 is Brian Staveley’s The Emperor’s Blades. Tor has a big marketing push behind the book, having shown off the cover well in advance of the book’s publication, sample chapters through the seventh chapter of the book months before the book published. as well as the cover for book 2, The Providence of Fire a year before its publication. Lastly, a trade paperback version of the book published in August 2014, not even a full year after the release of the hardcover in January 2014.

So the, hoow do the first (approximately) 100 pages work for me? Very well, indeed. Staveley gradually introduces readers over the first quarter or so of this novel to two of the three children of the Emperor: Kaden and Valyn. He also mentions the third Adar, a daughter Adare. Kaden is the eldest and has spent the better part of the previous decade training with a sect of Monks; Valyn is training the military where he can potentially fly upon the backs of giant hawks, and Adare is mentioned as being raised to Minister. There’s a bit of action, with a nice balance of world-building and character development/introduction. Early on, Valyn hears whispers of a conspiracy before it is revealed his father, the Emperor has been murdered. Staveley alternates chapters between the two brothers for these first 100 pages and it proves effective thus far. His transition between the storylines of the two brothers end seach scene with enough of a hook to keep me engrossed and reading to find out more. At this point, I hope to see more of Adare as the novel progresses.

Like many epic fantasies, this one gets compared to George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. While that may be superficially valid, the series I’m most reminded of is of another superb fantasy series, David Anthony Durham’s Acacia trilogy. This bodes very well indeed.

100 Page Friday - THE RED WOLF CONSPIRACY by Robert V.S. Redick

This might be a new feature on my blog, wherein I assess the book I'm reading at the arbitrary 100 page mark. I realize I'm far from the first of my kind (that is, an SFF blogger) to do so. This ties into the Friday trend on Twitter for #FridayReads, where folks tweet out the book they are reading every Friday. I don't know just *how* regular a feature this will be because I may not be at the 100-page mark every Friday, but at the very least, here's one post on the early assessment of a book I'm reading on Friday.

So, The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V.S. Redick is a book I've blogged about fairly often since it first came on my radar in 2009. In fact, I think it might be the book I've not read (prior to this week) about which I've blogged the most. It is the first of the four book series titled The Chathrand Voyage.

On to the book itself, at least the first 100 pages or so...quick verdict is I like where this is going.  Redick introduces a pretty wide canvas in the world of Alifros and populates it with interesting characters. He introduces mages/sorcerers, an ancient forbidden text, little people who scramble about underfoot of us "big people" a voyage on the Chathrand which brings two young people together for an arranged marriage that will broker a peace settlement. At this point, the protagonist of this many-charactered story is Pazel Pathkendlea young deckhand who near the 100-page mark was brought aboard the Chathrand. Pazel has a some magical talents, or at least, he can read strange arcane languages and his long-gone father has a checkered past as a roguish sea captain.

There are three more books in this series and if the The Red Wolf Conspiracy continues on the course it is currently charting, I'll be reading the series in full since it is hitting the correct Epic Fantasy buttons for my reading sensibilities.