November 2022 Reading Round Up

November still had a linger of horror to start, but it the month saw traipses through fantasy, horror, and science fiction. I didn’t post any reviews to SFFWorld in November, but all the reviews I posted in October made up for that, I’d hope. However, two books I read in November will end up being reviewed for SFFWorld (The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu which posts tomorrow 12/6 and The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal which will post 12/13) so as usual, I’ll focus on the other books I read.

Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia kicked off November in a great way. I’d read the author’s 80s love letter, Signal to Noise a few years ago and had my eye on this book for a while, especially since Tor Nightfire acquired the rights and wrapped the pages in a gorgeous cover by John Picacio. 

Garcia plays with vampire mythology and noir in this fantastic novel set in Mexico City. A young man named Domingo finds himself drawn to vampire Atl and despite her attempts at pushing him away, he continues to find her. Vampires are real and very much a part of the world in Garcia’s novel, although they aren’t quite welcome in Mexico City. Atl and her Doberman are on the run from a gang of “Necro” vampires led by Nick, who has a long-held grudge against Atl. 

I loved how the relationship between Domingo (not quite a “Renfield”) and Atl played out over the course of the novel. He was bright and optimistic, she a bit closed off (understandably). What I enjoyed even more was the deep vampire mythology Garcia built for this novel. It isn’t in your face world-building, rather, the backbone of the story that informs the conflicts Atl is forced to deal with in her life.

Certain Dark Things is an immediate classic vampire novel. 

The book that took up the most significant portion of my reading time in November was Chuck Wendig’s Wayward, the sequel to his epic apocalyptic Wanderers. Chuck picks up those threads and weaves a powerful, gripping story of how the survivors of a plague-apocalypse (White Mask) try to survive as humanity with the “help” of an extremely powerful and convincing AI (Black Swan) who helped to “hand pick” a select group of people and protect them from the plague as a last hope for humaity. Picking up about five years after the events of Wanderers, Chuck keeps the pace addictive over the course of the novels lengthy 800 pages. There’s a sense of anger in this novel that is completely believable, especially with the returning characters like Shana Stewart and “President” Ed Creel, though scientist Benji Ray and rocker Pete Corley balance out that anger with signs of hope. 

There’s something about “road stories” and “apocalyptic” stories that work so well when brought together, traversing a barren landscape with potential dangers out of sight makes for great storytelling. That’s one strong element of the Wayward and I again felt resonance with Robert McCammon’s Swan Song. In fact, characters in Wayward specifically called out Swan Song.

There’s also the Very Good Dog Gumball, who along with Radar from Stephen King’s Fairy Tale are co-winners of the goodest dog of the year. Many authors try to tell stories from the point of view of dogs, not all of them succeed, Chuck does. 

Chuck did a pre-release signing at the Doylestown Bookshop the Saturday before the book published, with the bookshop about an hour away from me, there was no way I was going to miss it even though I chatted with Chuck at NY Comic Con. 

In the end, Wayward was a fantastic novel, I was consumed by it for the week-and-a-half I was reading it. Never did I want to leave, never did the novel drag, never did things happen in the novel that didn’t make sense even if what unfolded over the course of the novel was not what I expected. I was surprised by where the story went, and at times even scared by a lot of what the characters had to confront. 

Put simply, a fantastic novel. 

On the audio side of things, I dipped into another V.E. Schwab novel, This Savage Song, the first of Monsters of Verity duology. Set in a world where monsters are real, the story focuses on two young characters – Kate Harker, daughter of a powerful monster hunter who oversees on portion of the city and August Flynn, adopted son of man who runs another portion of the city.

I've read a good handful of novels by Schwab and what I enjoyed in those novels was on display here - deft characterization. Kate and August felt real, genuine, and I wanted to believe them. I also appreciated Schwab's world-building especially when it comes to the various monsters who live in this world side-by-side with humans. She balances the details with the elements that are mysteries to the readers but taken for granted by the characters very well.

Lastly, I started (and am still listening to) A Crown of Swords, the seventh Wheel of Time novel. I was trucking along pretty well diving into Randland on an almost monthly basis for the first portion of the year, but it was July when I finished the preceding installment, Lord of Chaos. At this point, what can I say about a Wheel of Time novel. I knew this book is where many fans of the series see the "slog" creeping in, but so far I'm feeling very comfortable back in the world. It has been just over a decade since I re-read this book so this makes the audio version I'm currently consuming the third time I'm reading the book. 

That's it for November 2022!

March 2016 Reading Redick, Schwab, Ewalt, Lowe, Cole, Priest, Cherryh

As April begins, I’ll take a look back at what I read during the month of March.

I started out with Robert V.S. Redick’s (The Rats and) The Ruling Sea, the second book of the The Chathrand Voyage and the follow up to The Red Wolf Conspiracy. I enjoyed it quite a bit and think that like quite a bit of epic fantasy, Redick is including some dark, horrific elements in his narrative. He’s got a wonderful knack for world-building and allows his characters a nice freedom to move about in this world. I’m at the halfway point of the four book series, but worried that I waiting too long (two years) between the first and second books in the series. That said, Redick’s Web site contains a great amount of information, including summaries of the first two books. That, added to the strength of his narrative, didn’t make it too tough to immerse myself in the novel and world at this point.

Next up was V.E. Schwab’s A Gathering of Shadows the second installment of her Darker Shade of Magic series. I loved this book so much and think Schwab is an incredible storyteller. I posted my review of the book to SFFWorld last week.

I jumped out of fiction for a book with Of Dice and Men by David Ewalt. This was a fun book, both a history of Dungeons and Dragons specifically, with some broad strokes for all RPGs as well as a memoir. Ewalt interwove his own history of playing D&D when he was younger, his time away, and his re-entry to gaming with the history of Gary Gygax, TSR and how D&D became a worldwide phenomenon from humble beginnings. I would love to see this is a documentary because it read just like a really good documentary film. My only issue with the book is that there was a bit of introspective derision going on when Ewalt reflected on his own engagement with D&D. All in all, it was a fun book that allowed me to visit my own past with RPGs and had me wanting to roll up a new character for the campaign I’m in now.

The Heir of Night was the second review book I read in March and I enjoyed it. As fat would have it, I read it soon after Redick’s novel and both series contain an antagonist with the Swarm moniker. All told, a fun, engaging start to an Epic Fantasy trilogy. More detailed thoughts at my review.

Another review book followed that one, Javelin Rain by Myke Cole. I’ve been a big fan of Myke’s work since I read his debut and this is a fantastic follow-up to Gemini Cell. Javelin Rain is a great novel that will easily be a top 10 for 2016 for me. My review goes up next week.

As the month drew to a close, I started Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker. What a fun, steampunk / zombie / alternate history. I’m growing into a big fan of Priest’s work.

For most of the month, my audio book was Cyteen by C.J. Cherryh. What can be said of this one? A lot, quite a lot indeed. Cherryh is deservedly a SFWA Grandmaster and this is one of her defining, award-winning novels. After conducting this wonderful Mind Meld I was strongly urged to dive into one of her works, and what better choice than this gigantic novel?

There are some truly fascinating concepts Cherryh explores and wonderful storytelling on display in the novel. Genetic science, cloning, slavery, political machinations are all large flavors of the dramatic stew of Cyteen. What continued to come to my mind is that in some ways, the character of Ari Emory could be seen as a savior figure/character. She is an exact clone/genetic duplicate of a deceased character and is observed very closely. Will she follow the same development as her predecessor? With events, critical life changing events orchestrated to occur at the same age they occurred with her predecessor, her life is definitely something that is shaped.

I as continually thinking that this story could be seen as a science fictional equivalent to the savior figure of destiny often seen in fantasy. Or one could even draw parallels to the genetic and life shaping of Ari to the created savior figure of Paul Atreides. The shaping of Ari to follow the same patterns as her predecessor could even be compared to the role that destiny plays in the shaping of a mythical hero.

The narrators were Gabra Zackman and Jonathan Davis. Davis is the narrator on a few of the audio books I’ve listened to this past year and he always does a fine job. Davis only handled the portions of the novel that were “extracts” from archival documents and no actual narrative. Zackman capture the various ages of Ari/Ariane Emory brilliantly. Unfortunately, her portrayal of the male characters didn’t work quite as well for me. This is not so much a knock on Zackman as many of the female narrators I’ve heard don’t quite depict male character voices to my liking nor do the male narrators often capture female voices with full believably.

All that said, for as brilliant as Cyteen is, for me, I’ve never read a book that is simultaneously fascinating, enjoyable, frustrating, and tedious. Cherryh’s slight shift in narrative tone for the different characters brilliantly reflected the age of the viewpoint characters. Some of the passages; however, felt overly tedious for the belabored details expounded upon in the narrative and dragged down the pacing for me.  Still, an overall amazing novel that bears deep examination and exploration. 

After tackling the first two Crown of Stars novels by Kate Elliott in each of the first two months of the year, I just didn't get to book three, The Burning Stone in March. Must remedy that in April and at least get to that one.

February 2016 Reading: Elliott, Schwab, Gannon, Sutter, & Akers

February was a short month, but longer than usual as it was a Leap Year (yay!) and like every month for the past forever, I read a handful of books. I'll cover the books I didn't review in more detail than those I did.  I’ve been much more inclined to pick off books from the older slopes of Mount Toberead as of late than the Newer Releases. 

That said I did post a couple of book reviews in February, the first of which was for Tim Akers’s The Pagan Night, posted to SF Signal at the beginning of February. I thought this one had some good ideas, but ultimately was weighed down by an overly bulky middle and a muddling of secondary characters. Loved the monsters Tim created for this Historical Epic Fantasy.

From there I jumped into Trial by Fire the second installment in Charles Gannon’s Terran Empire series. This is a fun space opera saga that is leaning towards Military Science Fiction as the series progresses. 

Fun stuff, great aliens and Gannon mixes traditional SF with modern sensibilities quite nicely. His characters feel real, for the most part, and behave in a plausible fashion in the galactic society he’s constructed for this series.

 My only real complaint with this one is that the protagonist, Caine Riordan, seems to not feature in the book quite as prominently as he did in Fire with Fire. This book was sitting on Mount Toberead for quite a while, I picked up at the Baen Books booth back at New York Comic Con in October 2014.

I listened to two audio books in February, one of which was James L. Sutter’s Akers’s Death’s Heritic which I thoroughly enjoyed. More about that one at the link to my review, but I’ll again stress that an excellent story and a superb narrator make for a great story experience.

That story + narrator combination was full effect in V.E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic, the audio book which kept my ear-holes happy for the early part of February. A couple of years ago, I read Schwab’s Vicious which is one of the best superhero (supervillain) prose stories I’ve ever read. For A Darker Shade of Magic, Schwab turns her pen to a mix of magic and parallel worlds. As a long time comic book reader, I love parallel world stories and what Schwab with the concept is fantastic. Schwab’s concept of a magical multiverse is, if not exactly a new concept, but one that feels very fresh in how magic exists in each of the parallel worlds.

The characters were very well drawn, Kell as a pressured and roguish magician who can travel between worlds. Delilah (Lila) Bard is his co-protagonist, well initially she felt like a sidekick, but grew as the story grow. I also was slightly annoyed by her at first, but Schwab did a wonderful job of endearing the character to me by the end of the novel.

Steven Crossley is the narrator for this audio version and he’s got a very pleasant style. His narration, combined with Schwab’s at times poetic and lyrical storytelling, made me feel as if I was listening to a Dr. Seuss story. This is not a bad thing.

Continuing with my re-read and catch-up of Kate Elliott’s Crown of Stars series, I stormed through Prince of Dogs. Elliott does such great things with the characters in this one, introducing a couple of new players and continuing a Robin Hobb-esque method of torturing her characters. I’m glad I still have five more books to read in this series because this is such a fun, comfortable, and enjoyable series that hits every one of my check-boxes for epic fantasy. I’m still debating if I’m going to do a full write-up of each book in the series.

Yes, that is my copy signed

  

I loved the new character of Rosvita, especially her interactions with Liath and how she comes to an understanding of the events unfolding around her. I hope Rosvita sticks around and becomes more involved because she feels like an important person. Of course, to counter her wonderful appearance is the return of a character from King’s Dragon who was thought to be gone.

Next up was an impressive debut novel, Katherine Bonesteel’s The Cold Between. I’ll be posting my review of this one on the day it publishes (March 8), but I’ll just say right now that I was impressed with the book and Bonesteel’s novel.

Books in the Mail (W/E 2016-02-13)

Three books this week at the o' Stuff. It seems there's a general down swing in review copies circulating, at least for those arriving at my house. No complaints here as Mount ToBeRead is quite large at this point.

Disappearance at Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay (William Morrow Hardcover 06/21/2016) – This one follows a year after Tremblay’s extremely well-received A Head Full of Ghosts

A family is shaken to its core after the mysterious disappearance of a teenage boy in this eerie tale, a blend of literary fiction, psychological suspense, and supernatural horror from the author of A Head Full of Ghosts.

“A Head Full of Ghosts scared the living hell out of me, and I’m pretty hard to scare,” raved Stephen King about Paul Tremblay’s previous novel. Now, Tremblay returns with another disturbing tale sure to unsettle readers.

Late one summer night, Elizabeth Sanderson receives the devastating news that every mother fears: her thirteen-year-old son, Tommy, has vanished without a trace in the woods of a local park.

The search isn’t yielding any answers, and Elizabeth and her young daughter, Kate, struggle to comprehend Tommy’s disappearance. Feeling helpless and alone, their sorrow is compounded by anger and frustration: the local and state police have uncovered no leads. Josh and Luis, the friends who were the last to see Tommy before he vanished, may not be telling the whole truth about that night in Borderland State Park, when they were supposedly hanging out a landmark the local teens have renamed Devil’s Rock.

Living in an all-too-real nightmare, riddled with worry, pain, and guilt, Elizabeth is wholly unprepared for the strange series of events that follow. She believes a ghostly shadow of Tommy materializes in her bedroom, while Kate and other local residents claim to see a shadow peering through their windows in the dead of night. Then, random pages torn from Tommy’s journal begin to mysteriously appear—entries that reveal an introverted teenager obsessed with the phantasmagoric; the loss of his father, killed in a drunk-driving accident a decade earlier; a folktale involving the devil and the woods of Borderland; and a horrific incident that Tommy believed connects them.

As the search grows more desperate, and the implications of what happened become more haunting and sinister, no one is prepared for the shocking truth about that night and Tommy’s disappearance at Devil’s Rock.

Blood Infernal (The Order of the Sanguines #3 by James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell (William Morrow Mass Market Paperback 01-26-2016) - Rollins and Cantrell wrap-up their vampire trilogy.

What price will we pay for true salvation?

As an escalating scourge of grisly murders sweeps the globe, archaeologist Erin Granger must decipher the truth behind an immortal prophecy, one found in the Blood Gospel, a tome written by Christ and lost for centuries. With the Apocalypse looming and the very foundations of our world crumbling, Erin must again join forces with Army sergeant Jordan Stone and Father Rhun Korza to search for a treasure lost for millennia, a prize that has already fallen into the hands of their enemy.

The forces of darkness have crowned a new king, a demon named Legion, who walks this Earth wearing many faces. His reach is beyond measure—even the walls of the Vatican fall before him. To have any hope of saving the world, Erin must uncover the truth behind man's first steps out of the Garden of Eden, an event wrapped in sin and destruction, an act that damned humankind for eternity.

A Gathering of Shadows (A Darker Shade of Magic #2) by V.E. Schwab (Tor Hardcover 02-23-2016) – I just finished listening to the audio edition of A Darker Shade of Magic the first in the series a couple of days ago, which was excellent. I’m looking forward to diving into this one.

Four months have passed since the shadow stone fell into Kell's possession. Four months since his path crossed with Delilah Bard. Four months since Rhy was wounded and the Dane twins fell, and the stone was cast with Holland's dying body through the rift, and into Black London.

In many ways, things have almost returned to normal, though Rhy is more sober, and Kell is now plagued by his guilt. Restless, and having given up smuggling, Kell is visited by dreams of ominous magical events, waking only to think of Lila, who disappeared from the docks like she always meant to do. As Red London finalizes preparations for the Element Games-an extravagent international competition of magic, meant to entertain and keep healthy the ties between neighboring countries-a certain pirate ship draws closer, carrying old friends back into port.

But while Red London is caught up in the pageantry and thrills of the Games, another London is coming back to life, and those who were thought to be forever gone have returned. After all, a shadow that was gone in the night reappears in the morning, and so it seems Black London has risen again-and so to keep magic's balance, another London must fall.

2013 Reading Year in Review

I’ve done this for a few years now (2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006), so in order to maintain my flailing credibility as a a genre blogger/book reviewer I have, I'm doing it again for 2013.

As I have in the past, I’ll start with some stats: I read (or at least attempted* to read) 71 books in 2013, depending on how you count omnibus editions. I say attempted because a few books I simply dropped because nothing about the book compelled me to keep reading. About half of those, were new/2013 releases.

In 2013, I posted 38 reviews to SFFWorld and 8 to Tor.com. In addition to the book reviews I posted to Tor.com, I published 11 posts in my Orphan Black recap (10 episodes plus intro post).

Aside from the regular gamut of current year releases, some of my ‘catching up’ reads included a few installments of Butcher’s Dresden Files, a read through of David Anthony Durham’s Acacia Trilogy.

Here are some stats:

• 33 2013/current year releases
• 28 can be considered Fantasy
• 27 can be considered Science Fiction
• 22 books by authors new to me
• 8 can be considered 2013 debuts
• 6 can be considered Horror
• 12 Books by women

All that said, on to the categories for the 2013 … which, as of last year, I'll continue to call the Stuffies. As I said last year, 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 2013 and what I put at the top of those categories.

Rob’s Favorite Fantasy Novel(s) Read in 2013

2013 was another strong year for Fantasy, I’m lumping Horror into Fantasy because (a) we do that at SFFWorld and (b) the two categories often overlap, at least more than Horror and SF. With all of that having been said, a fair number of novels I read, and those I enjoyed the most, had a mixture of horror and fantasy / dark fantasy.

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill is my absolute favorite novel published in 2013. As such, it gets the call-out here under Horror and Fantasy. It was a powerful novel and I'd even rank it as one of the ten best I've read in the last decade:

The structure of this novel is quite powerful and epic. We are introduced to Manx (the villain), we then meet Vic. They have an encounter that leaves them both scarred, which is only a precursor to their return match-up. In many ways, this reminded me of an Epic or Heroic Fantasy where the hero gets a measure of their enemy and defeats that enemy at great cost with a knowledge that a final encounter looms. Throughout the novel, this tension (added by the build-up to the Christmasland reveal) is so thick and absorbing that not reading NOS4A2 was a painful thing for me.
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The novel is epic in terms of how far ranging the effects of its villain are, the swath of time it covers, and the many worlds which are possibilities brought forth by the narrative elements. On the flip side, because Hill focuses primarily on Vic throughout much of the narrative, it is also a very intimate tale; Vic becomes very familiar throughout the novel. Her fears, her needs, her insecurities and love are all internal intimacies that drive her to thwart the Dark Lord of the novel, Charles Manx.

Once again, Robert Jackson Bennett makes an appearance on this list. American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett. This is a fantastic novel that is a blend of Mystery, Science Fiction, Dark Fantasy, and Lovecraftian / Cthulhu Mythos that brings those elements together in an unsettling fusion of a powerful whole:

Bennett’s narrative takes hold and allows readers a peek into the window of a nearly perfect Small Town, USA. Mona arrives in Wink as a funeral is being held, which is not the most welcoming event to a new visitor but which also sets the tone for the novel. Of course Wink is not really normal in any fashion other than the most superficial. Posited in a canyon which is overlooked by Coburn National Laboratory and Observatory, much of Wink’s population was a support town for the lab. In a sense, think of the town Indiana Jones stumbles into in the otherwise laughable Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls – Wink is a town frozen in time with the most up-to-date connection to the outside world the 1980s sitcoms broadcast on their televisions.
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Bennett raises a lot of questions in the novel and the answers the characters provide are discovered through a narrative that is, for the most part, taut and flavored with unsettling and creepy scenes. Two primary mysteries plague Mona (and the reader) throughout the narrative – who was Laura and what was the nature of Coburn’s research? Mona’s discovery of those two things and how they relate to each other is filled with dread and some otherworldly elements that would fit right at home in an H.P. Lovecraft story.

Daniel Abraham’s The Dagger and the Coin is continuing to be the best current Epic Fantasy series on the shelves and The Tyrant’s Law, book three, further cements that status;:

I’ve previously remarked on how empowering Abraham’s female characters are—they operate as active characters who take control of their lives rather than react to the men around them. Clara’s story arc was perhaps the strongest, whether this was because she was new or because it was the most complex. The fact that she is a widow is a great indicator that she has a fresh start, Clara takes that proverbial ball and runs with it, awakening many aspects of herself she thought she knew—her mind, her drive for justice, her sexuality. She walks a thin line which divides the surface appearance of her actions and the true intent of her actions. As the series progresses, I suspect this line will only become thinner as her maneuverings have a greater effect on the world at large.
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By keeping the viewpoint to four characters, Abraham gives himself the freedom to provide readers a greater insight to each of the characters and to impart upon them believability, plausibility and empathy. In this sense, the intimacy we get as readers allows us to feel a greater sense of urgency of the epic events of the novel as a whole as they affect both the world and those characters we’ve come to know.

Chuck Wending is a writer who I’ve been meaning to read for a couple of years and I finally did with the fantastic Blue Blazes which is a superb mashup/stew of Lovecraft, secret cities, Goodfellas pulp sensibilities, and Hellboy. It also doesn’t hurt (for me) that the story is somewhat local and takes place in parts of my home state of NJ:

Mookie is at the stage in his career in the Organization that he’s gained enough trust and loyalty with the Boss that he can come and go as he pleases and run his side of the Organization as he sees fit. The problem is two-fold – the Boss is on his last legs and a young woman named Persephone is causing a great deal of havoc for the Organization and the Underworld in general. What few people know, actually nobody outside of Mookie’s closest ‘friend’ Werth, is that Persephone is actually Mookie’s daughter Eleanor “Nora” Pearl. As events unfold, The Boss appoints his grandson the heir of the Organization, new ‘partners’ are brought into the fold of the Organization, the Boss’s health takes some strange turns; Mookie is increasingly put in the middle of his loyalty to the Organization and his yearning to make things better with his estranged daughter Nora.


Despite the violence and monstrous stakes, Wendig manages to keep a lot of intimacy intact. One of the things Mookie loves, aside from his daughter and The Organization, is eating. Mookie cooks, he has a personal butcher and the food he eats (gwumpki, pierogies) are foods I grew up eating, so I found a level of kinship with Mookie, even if my only other similarity (frankly, I’m not as old as him, not as hulking, nor do I have an estranged daughter) is living in the same NY/NJ corner of the US as does Mookie.

Other fantasies that really stood out to me were:

• Shadow OPS: Fortress Frontier by Myke Cole - "Another thing Cole does in Fortress Frontier is to expand the borders beyond just the US military. When Bookbinder is introduced, it isn’t long after that readers are introduced to a contingent from the Indian military and his liaison to the Source, a Naga, a many-headed snake/serpent. Specifically, a Prince to the throne of the Naga people whom Bookbinder basically begs for assistance in getting back to Earth. 
• "Black Feathers by Joseph D’Lacey - "What I find somewhat unique—and interesting—about the story D’Lacey is telling is the dual narrative of the apocalypse as it happens paralleling the post-apocalyptic. More often than not, post-apocalyptic stories feature society rebuilding after an apocalyptic event, while sometimes these stories focus on the quick ramp-up and the immediate response of civilization to the apocalyptic event. In Black Feathers D’Lacey’s dual narrative opens the window on both time frames, and slowly reveals the connection between the two. I found the novel to be extremely addictive, a novel I didn’t want to put down, finishing it barely two days after starting to read it.."
• The Daylight War by Peter V. Brett - "The mythology/worldbuilding behind the demons hinted in the previous volume is revealed slightly more here in The Daylight War, as Brett peppers in chapter passages from the POV of the demons, providing readers with a glimpse of their society and race as a whole. Whether he will continue to expose more of the demons’ nature and origins remains to be seen, but I enjoyed the slow reveal unfolding here and I am very curious to see how much of the demons’ history Brett will allow readers to see."
• Doctor Sleep by Stephen King – I didn’t write a review of the book, but I loved it nonetheless. I hadn’t read and enjoyed a King novel since the final Dark Tower novel and this bold move to write a sequel to perhaps his best known novel was a risk that paid off with major dividends. Classic King.
• Emperor of Thorns by Mark Lawrence – “…a powerful and layered narrative whose details don’t overburden the narrative flow of the novel. Admittedly, I feel like there was almost too much to digest in one reading of the novel. One reading; however, is enough to realize that Lawrence has accomplished something quite powerful and resonant with this trilogy. Because of the fantasy-feel-in-a-far-future-apocalypse, the unreliability of the narrator and much of the “feel” of the novel, I felt a great deal of resonance to Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun."

Rob Favorite Science Fiction Novel(s) Read in 2013

Science fiction was strong this year for me. One of the more recent SF novels I read in 2013 jumped every other SF book to be my favorite. I list it under Science Fiction because the story while dealing with young people possessing super powers, utilizes science to get to these powers and the two ‘villain protagonists’ themselves are scientists. That book? The recently optioned by Ridley Scott’s production company Vicious by V.E. Schwab:

Readers familiar with comic books, especially The Fantastic Four and Watchmen might find some resonance in the tale of Victor Vale and Eli Ever, the two anti-protagonists of the novel. While the two young men may be evenly matched in their intelligence, Eli is far more outgoing, he knows how to interact and play people. Victor is the introvert. Despite their social differences, they become friends, even colleagues as they search for answers to their fantasies through science. They attempt to discover what circumstances lead one to become ExtraOrdinary (EO for short). In other words, how can people gain super powers in the same way that Spider-Man gained his super powers. The two friends come to realize Near Death Experiences (NDEs) are triggers for people gaining powers and set about, briefly, allowing each other to die in order to come back to life with a power based on their last willful thoughts before dying.

The next in my batch of favorite SF novels is by a writer trying something slightly different under a slightly different pen name. The Burn Zone by James K. Decker. A thrilling story of alien and human cohabitation:

Sam Shao is a surrogate mother to an alien child; as part of a program with the haan, humans have been helping to raise haan babies ever since their space ship crash landed approximately 50 years ago. The haan are physically similar to humans, though the clear skin and fragile bones do set them apart, as does their eyes and appetite. Sam’s life is upended when her adoptive father Dragan is seized by authorities for conspiring against the government. Sam is, of course, unwilling to believe this of her guardian and even less willing to believe, as the news vids report, that he is a cannibal and worse. Sam relinquishes the infant haan to which she bonded, struggling with the decision and making an impression with the makeshift adoption agency. Sam connects with one of her friends, Vamp, tries to touch base with people she thought were allies of her father and eventually a haan soldier by the name of Nix finds her and the trio pursues her adoptive father and to find out the truth behind his abduction. Along the way, she learns a great deal more about the truth of the haan than she expected.
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As strong as the plotting and narrative pull are in The Burn Zone, I think Decker’s greatest strength is the character of Sam. She is a fully empathetic character throughout most of the novel, the choices she made informed by the knowledge she possessed were completely believable. At times her determination and strength don’t waiver, and in the small instances they do waiver, it helps to round out her character as a fully realized human being.

James S.A. Corey (AKA Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) knock it out of the park again with the third installment of The Expanse; Abaddon’s Gate (The Expanse was signed to a TV deal earlier this year!)

The main action of Abaddon’s Gate picks up the story about a year after the events of Caliban’s War and focuses once again on James Holden and his crew of Rocinante. As has become custom with Corey’s novels, the chapters rotate through four point of view characters: Holden; Melba, also known as Clarissa Mao, sister of the late Julie Mao who died in Leviathan Wakes; Anna Volovodov, a new character, a Pastor from Europa who is sent to the Ring as a part of a larger humanitarian committee; and Bull, the security officer on the Behemoth, a ship of the Outer Planets Alliance (OPA for short, a governing body of the Solar System) sent to the Ring.


Over the course of these three books, Abraham & Franck aka Corey have produced essential space-based science fiction. They’ve built up mystery, intrigue and human characters coming to grips with the solar system and now even more so in Abaddon’s Gate, a universe that is much vaster in size and with a history more far flung than they initially thought.

Rachel Bach is new to SF, but this name is just an open pseudonym for Rachel Aaron, whose Eli Monpress novels were terrific. Fortune’s Pawn is the first installment of Paradox

The plot involves various jobs the Glorious Fool takes on, from moving goods from one planet to another in need to checking out a supposedly empty alien vessel. Mission to mission, the Glorious Fool is attacked, stops at various planets to take breaks and have equipment fixed. Each mission does build on the previous; much more is going on with Caldswell and the Glorious Fool than the surface details would imply and Devi becomes curiouser and curiouser. Because the novel is first person, this allows for the details to be very limited to only what Devi sees and hears which makes the reader (at least this one) just as inquisitive about what is really going on as Devi herself.
…
With any first person narrative, the success of the novel with the reader will lie a great deal in how the reader feels about the protagonist. I’ve tossed a couple of books across the room in frustration because I found the first person narrator so damned annoying. This is far from the case with Devi; I liked her, I felt very invested in her plight throughout the novel, and was just as curious about the things she discovered along the way as she was. For me, that speaks a great deal to Bach’s success in crafting her character, because I am really looking forward to reacquainting myself with Devi in the next volume.

Rob's Favorite Debut(s) of 2013

My favorite debut of the year was from Roc books in the US and Orbit in the UK (although it was self-published in 2012). Anthony Ryan’s Blood Song, the first installment in his Military Fantasy series Raven’s Shadow:

Vaelin Al Sorna is the son of the Battle Lord of King Janus’s Unified Realm and is dropped off at the gates of the Sixth Order, a monastic order of warriors dedicated to hunting down Deniers and ensuring all who live under the King’s rule are true to the Faith. The boy is unsure of himself, initially, but soon his resentment for his father grows inside of him, it drives him to dedicate his focus to becoming a member o the order. He truly takes to heart the idea that he belongs to the order.

Before we get to this, Ryan frames the story much like Patrick Rothfuss framed The Name of the Wind (and the subsequent novel The Wise Man’s Fear): we initially meet the protagonist through the eyes of, Verniers Alishe Someren a historian charged recounting Vaelin Al Sorna’s, known to Verniers’ people as Hope Killer, duel for honor. The historian is intrigued by Vaelin, how he answers some of the assumptions made about him and eventually asks the Hope Killer to recount his story.
…
Blood Song is a very male-centric novel featuring primarily a cast of males. However, the females who are in the novel (and especially Vaelin’s mother who is not seen and only known and spoken of in memory) have a powerful hold over the characters, particularly Vaelin.

The other debut to impress me a great deal also involves “Blood” in the title. I refer to Brian T. McClellan’s Promise of Blood, which is the launch of his Powder Mage Trilogy. This is what is considered a Flintlock Fantasy with magic and gunpowder existing side by side (and often in conjunction) with one another. McClellan brings an impressive pedigree, Brandon Sanderson was one of his college instructors.

At the start of Promise of Blood, Brian McClellan’s debut novel and first installment of The Powder Mage Trilogy, Field Marshal Tamas destroys that notion by charging the king with treason and summarily executing him. The country of Adopest erupts into chaos, primarily the center of the capital where the king is executed. Tamas, though he has allies, has made enemies over the course of his military career and many see his move as a chance for Tamas to rule, which is not what he wants. Growing tension with the Kez, the enemies of Adopest, further fuels the unrest in Adopest.
…
McClellan’s doing a lot of things in this novel, as this review might lead one to believe. But the important question is this – is he doing it well? For this reader, the answer is yes, very well indeed. I was glued to my kindle reading this novel so much so that I brought it on the treadmill and read it through the bounces as I did my daily runs. I’ve alluded to similarities, or rather, resonances with both Rachel Aaron and Joe Abercrombie, but the most obvious yet to be compared is Brandon Sanderson and Brian’s approach to inventive magic systems.

Favorite Backlist / Book Not Published in 2013 Read in 2013

While one story, David Anthony Durham’s Acacia Trilogy was a magnificent Epic Fantasy featuring global tumult and how one royal family was at the center of it. The books were published in 2007, 2009, and 2011. Although I read the first, The War with the Mein as an ARC before it published, I reread it since it’s been so long.

The War with the Mein opens on a kingdom during a gilded age during its waning days, King Leodan is old weakened, but keeps up a façade for his children whom he loves above everything; he wishes them to see only the beauty in the world. When the king is murdered in full view by an ancient enemy, the children soon learn of the truth behind the thin façade their father was projecting. The prosperity of Acacia has been built on the backs of slaves and its own citizens who are addicted to a drug, the mist, the monarchy uses to keep the populace under control.

While The War with the Mein, the first installment of David Anthony Durhams sprawling epic fantasy saga Acacia, showed a world shuffling about after the fall of a great leader, The Other Lands could be seen as a novel about the weight of leadership and how easily a leader can become corrupt. … The women of this novel take center stage: Corinn the sorcerer queen and Mena the warrior woman. Their journeys and their characters are far from simple or one-dimensional. Corrin is scarred by a life of loss and perceived treachery: her mother died when she was very young (prior to the events of the first novel); her father was murdered when she was young, but she old enough to understand death to a full extent; her brother was killed in battle; and she was a prisoner in her own castle by the man whose forces killed her father and brother, but fell for her captor; the world she lived in was stolen away from her when the truth of its foundation was revealed to her. … With the finale at hand in The Sacred Band, the history of the world comes into greater light. This progression is one of the many strong elements of the narrative and Durham’s technique is expert. Even moreso than in The Other Lands, we learn more about the horrors the slave people have had to endure, as well as the mysterious long lives of the Auldeks. The Auldeks may live forever, but they are unable to either bear children, or retain their full centuries worth of memories. While the lives of the slave children fuel them, it strips them of the ability to procreate.

It seems I’m reading one backlist title from George R.R. Martin every year. In 2013, it was the collection/fix up novel featuring Havlinad Tuf, Tuf Voyaging:

Martin has long professed his admiration for Jack Vance’s writing and these stories can very much be seen as homage to Vance or his style. The balance of humor and fantastical situations were hallmarks of Vance’s work. In particular, one might imagine Tuf himself interacting with Cudgel the Clevor or Rhialto the Marvelous. Undoubtedly, Tuf’s deadpan style and pure logic work in direct contrast to every personality he encounters. Nobody trusts Tuf, he is distressed by this lack of trust when he always attempts to present himself as, if not altruistically as possible, as logically as possible. Humanity has evolved to a state on many of the planets he visits that logic is far from even the tenth lens to view their respective world.

The final book here is A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron. I didn’t review this one and it falls slightly sideways of the normal Fantasy and Science Fiction fare I read, but as a Dog owner and lover, this book tugged at my heartstrings all the way through. Through various lives the soul of a dog (and my eyes are watering up just typing this) learns what it means to be a dog and how powerful the bond between human and canine can be and is. A wonderful, beautiful novel about man’s best friend.

MVP Author of 2013

I’ve been praising his book ever since earlier in the year but that book wasn’t the only thing he did this year …

Joe Hill

As I said above, NOS4A2 was the best book I read this year, or rather my favorite book published in 2013. In it, “Joe Hill has embraced everything that he is as a storyteller from his creative well and funneled all of it into this epic novel that should make his old man proud and one that will stand on my shelves as a singular literary achievement of wonder and power.” It is his best selling novel, reaching #5 on the New York Times Best seller list and has received nearly universal praise.

As relates to NOS4A2, Joe also launched a comic book mini-series that serves as a prequel/origin story for the villain of the novel, Charles Manx. The book and comic can be read independent of each other, but work best in unison.

But NOS4A2 wasn’t the only thing Joe Hill gave readers in 2013. His long running comic book with artist Gabriel Rodriguez, Locke & Key came to a close in December. Along its 5 year publication journey, the series has received multiple award nominations and has won the treasured Eisner Award (for Joe Hill as writer), arguably the highest honor which can be bestowed upon comic books, and the series twice won the British Fantasy Award for Best Comic or Graphic Novel.

While a TV pilot was made in 2010, rights for a feature film were secured in June 2013 by some of the same folks who are responsible for the first rebooted Star Trek film, Fringe, and Sleepy Hollow.

The film adaption of his second novel Horns features Daniel Radcliffe and premiered at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival.

Favorite ‘New To Me’ Author(s) of 2013

This is another hands-down easy one for me:

Chuck Wendig – I’ve been following him on twitter for a while and I finally read two of his novels this year: The Blue Blazes which was an absolute blast and - Under the Empyrian Sky a dystopic young adult novel that has been dubbed the first Cornpunk novel.

V.E. Schwab blew me away with Vicious and after receiving at least a dozen books by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. to review, I finally dove into The Magic of Recluce and plan on continuing with the series.

Favorite Publisher of 2013

Orbit Books

 

Seems like the obvious choice again, based on the percentage of books I read that worked for me, right? Yeah, Orbit is once again my favorite publisher of the year. Between the stunning American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett, the best selling Abaddon’s Gate by James S.A. Corey (AKA Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck); impressive debuts like Brian T. McClellan’s Promise of Blood and  Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice (even if it didn’t quite work for me) was a smashing success based on the high praise many have given it.

Orbit was one of the first imprints to bring self-published writers to the big six with Michael J. Sullivan and he published two brand new novels with them in 2013. I’ve only read one so far (The Crown Tower). The imprint brought self-publishing sensation David Dalglish to a wider audience this year with the first two novels of The Shadowdance trilogy.

Regarding books from them I’ve yet to read Mira Grant continues to be a rockstar for the imprint, with Parasite the first of a new (NOT ZOMBIES BUT REALLY) duology and Will McIntosh’s Love Minus Eighty seemed to receive universal acclaim.

Continuing series, like Daniel Abraham’s The Dagger and the Coin with The Tyrant’s Law, which does not relent.

The ‘rebranding’ of Rachel Aaaron as Rachel Bach and the launch of her Paradox series with the trhilling Fortune’s Pawn.

On top of that, Orbit continues to be one of the more reader and genre community friendly publishers, including monthly Orbital Drops wherein a book will dip to $1.99 for a period of time.

Hell, for a better more thorough case for Orbit being the preeminent Genre Imprint, look no further than Justin Landon’s post about the imprint and specifically editor Devi Pillai.

I would also be remiss if I didn’t point out that Angry Robot (and sister imprint Strange Chemistry) are really becoming a leader in the digital footprint of genre books. I also read more books from AR/SC this year and for the most part, was very pleased with those books. I also really love that Angry Robot is quick to omnibify (Orbit does this, too) their series books into one massive volume including two to three books between two covers.

Looking Ahead to 2014

What does 2014 bring (in no particular order)?

• Shadow OPS: Breach Zone by Myke Cole
• Prince of Fools by Mark Lawrence first in a new trilogy set in the Broken Empire world
• Tower Lord (Raven’s Shadow #2) by Anthony Ryan
• Half a King by Joe Abercrombie
• City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
• The Crimson Campaign (The Powder Mage Trilogy #2) by Brian McClellan
• Skin Game (Dresden Files #15) Jim Butcher
• Catching up with more of Chuck Wendig’s books
• Words of Radiance (Stormlight Archive #2) by Brandon Sanderson
• Honor’s Knight and Heaven’s Queen books 2 and 3 in Rachel Bach’s Paradox series
• Cibola Burn the fourth in James S.A. Corey's The Expanse
• The Widow's House book 4 of Daniel Abraham's The Dagger and the Coin
• Veil of the Deserters Bloodsounder's Arc #2 by Jeff Salyards

Looks like a decent batch of major releases on the small screen, big screen, and page for me. Let's just hope some of it lives up to the hype.

As I have the last few years, I leave you with pictures of my dog Sully.  Because just look at her. In the second picture, I can't tell if she's (1) guarding my books, (2) taking possession of them for herself, or (3) asking for the next books by each of the authors.

Rouaud's The Path of Anger, Scwab's Vicious, and Wallace's The Wolves of Paris

We've got a few new reviews at SFFWorld this week. Heck, ever since Dag revamped the Web site it  has been something of a hotbed for genre content like reviews and interviews.  One of the ongoing "series" at the site is "Authors review Authors." At the title implies, small press/self published authors pair up and review each other's work.

Aside from those regular updates, Mark, Nila, and I have new reviews.

Over the weekend, Mark posted his review of The Path of Anger by Antoine Rouaud, the first installment of The Book and the Sword:

I must admit my first impression was that this debut Fantasy novel was a book catering to the ‘I know-what-I-like’ reader. Admittedly the cover is very cool, but as we’re looking at a world of knights, Emperors and assassins, I was rather concerned that I’d think I’d read it all before.

How wrong I was.
...

The world is deliberately medieval-esque. It’s rather like the French Revolution of the 1790’s transposed to a more traditional medieval fantasy world. There is magic here, known as the animus, which people can tap into, although at a physical cost.

The world of Masalia is a world in transition: a place where we look at the formation of a Republic and the collapse of an Empire. It raises interesting questions, in the same way that the Star Wars trilogy does: when the Empire’s ended, the bad guys have been beaten: what happens next? The reader, and the people within this world, may not like all that they see.

Yesterday, I posted a book that will be on my list of best 2013 books. Vicious by V.E. Schwab is her fist novel for the adult market and is one of the best super-hero/super-villain deconstructions stories I've encountered:


Through a non-linear narrative, we learn in the “present” of the novel, Victor has just broken out of prison after serving for 10 years. Initially, his reason for incarceration is not given, but hints leading up to the revelation paint a good picture. The two friends were successful in their attempts to gain super powers, but as a result their friendship is forever fractured.

The first half of the narrative was told mostly from Victor’s point of view, and Eli’s point of view entered into the second half of the narrative, even if it was still mostly from Victor’s POV, with some chapters throughout from the POV of Sarah and Sydney, sisters, one of whom winds up as Victor’s ‘sidekick’ and the other a romantic interest for Eli. Schwab jumped around in time, focusing on the days surrounding the time Eli and Victor conducted their experiments in the hopes of becoming EOs and the days and weeks leading up to their final confrontation. The shortened chapters with intertwined timelines did a fantastic job of building suspense on multiple levels. It seemed a natural way for the story to be told, and I suspect it was one of those tricks that took a great deal of effort to get correct, but felt effortless due to Schwab’s incredible storytelling powers.



Today, Nila reviews Michael Wallace's The Wolves of Paris:

The Wolves of Paris is a short, fun read of murder, mayhem, and werewolves in 15th century Paris. Told primarily through three main characters; two brothers at odds with each other, and the woman they both love; The Wolves of Paris starts out funny. Not laugh-out-loud funny, but pretty darn close.

Two gate guards, an older, half-blind fellow and his younger compatriot, are freezing as night descends over Paris. The two collect tolls but their minds are decidedly in the gutter, awaiting the appearance of Lade d’Lisle’s bottom as she extends it over the Seine to relieve herself.
...
Michael Wallace writes a dashing tale of suspense, religion, intrigue, with a bit of romance thrown in for good measure. He colors his world with quick and accurate descriptions that keep the story moving briskly while filling out the histories and customs of the land. His characters are well-drawn and likeable, and the situations they find themselves in are touched with equal amounts of horror and humor.

Books in the Mail (W/E 2013-09-21)

A larger assortment than usual here at the O’Stuff household.


Battleground by Terry A. Adams (DAW Mass Market Paperback 10/01/2013) – New book in a series that was recently re-released in omnibus format. .

Hanna Bassiano, formerly known as Lady H’ana ril-Koroth of D’neera, was, like all the people of the planet D’neera a telepath. Mutated from true-human stock, the D’neerans had claimed a world of their own to escape persecution, and started a flourishing civilization there. Now, accepted by true-humans, some like Hanna had ventured out into the wider universe, using their talents to the benefit of all. Hanna herself had become humanity’s expert in first contact with other sentient races. And though her very first mission had nearly ended in her death and could have resulted in a devastating interstellar war, both Hanna and humanity had survived.

Several additional contacts had seen her firmly established as the person to spearhead this new first-contact mission. She and her handpicked team were now aboard alien contact ship Endeavor Three, following a centuries’ cold trail to a distant world that had sent its own expedition to the human colony world New Earth two hundred years ago.

Long before Endeavor reached the planet they came to know as Battleground, Hanna began to explore the starways with her mind, seeking contact with this legendary race. But when at last she managed to touch the minds she sought, Hanna could scarcely believe what she had found—a race that seemed to exist only to fight, to breed, and to die.

How could they survive for all these years? How had they come to be like this? And how would they respond to a peaceful expedition of humans arriving on their world?

This brand-new science fiction novel follows The D'neeran Factor, an omnibus of Sentience and The Master of Chaos, and continues the adventures of Hanna Bassiano, human telepath and first-contact specialist aboard the spaceship Endeavor.

Year of the Demon (A Novel of the Fated Blades) by Steve Bein (Roc Trade 10/01/2013) – Bein's sequel to Daughter of the Sword.


Detective Sergeant Mariko Oshiro has been promoted to Japan’s elite Narcotics unit—and with this promotion comes a new partner, a new case, and new danger. The underboss of a powerful yakuza crime syndicate has put a price on her head, and he’ll lift the bounty only if she retrieves an ancient iron demon mask that was stolen from him in a daring raid. However, Mariko has no idea of the tumultuous past carried within the mask—or of its deadly link with the famed Inazuma blade she wields.

The secret of this mask originated hundreds of years before Mariko was born, and over time the mask’s power has evolved to bend its owner toward destruction, stopping at nothing to obtain Inazuma steel. Mariko’s fallen sensei knew much of the mask’s hypnotic power and of its mysterious link to a murderous cult. Now Mariko must use his notes to find the mask before the cult can bring Tokyo to its knees—and before the underboss decides her time is up.

The Incrementalists by Steven Brust and Skyler White (Tor Hardcover 09/24/2013) – I have thoroughly enjoyed everything I’ve read by Brust (as pointed out here), this one is getting quite the good buzz. I don’t know much about White, though her name (as I’m has been pointed out to her numerous times in the last few years) is very … familiar.

The Incrementalists—a secret society of two hundred people with an unbroken lineage reaching back forty thousand years. They cheat death, share lives and memories, and communicate with one another across nations, races, and time. They have an epic history, an almost magical memory, and a very modest mission: to make the world better, just a little bit at a time. Their ongoing argument about how to do this is older than most of their individual memories.

Phil, whose personality has stayed stable through more incarnations than anyone else’s, has loved Celeste—and argued with her—for most of the last four hundred years. But now Celeste, recently dead, embittered, and very unstable, has changed the rules—not incrementally, and not for the better. Now the heart of the group must gather in Las Vegas to save the Incrementalists, and maybe the world.

A Dance of Cloaks (Volume 1 of Shadowdance) by David Dalglish (Orbit, Trade Paperback 08/06/2013) – Following in the footsteps of Michael J. Sullivan, David Dalglish makes the leap from success in the self-published arena to traditionally published thanks to the fine folks at Orbit Books.

The Underworld rules the city of Veldaren. Thieves, smugglers, assassins... they fear only one man.

Thren Felhorn is the greatest assassin of his time. All the thieves' guilds of the city are under his unflinching control. If he has his way, death will soon spill out from the shadows and into the streets.

Aaron is Thren's son, trained to be heir to his father's criminal empire. He's cold, ruthless - everything an assassin should be. But when Aaron risks his life to protect a priest's daughter from his own guild, he glimpses a world beyond piston, daggers, and the iron rule of his father.

Assassin or protector; every choice has its consequences.
Fantasy author David Dalglish spins a tale of retribution and darkness, and an underworld reaching for ultimate power.


Ancillary Justice (Volume 1 of The Paradox Series) by Orbit, Trade Paperback 10/01/2013) – I’ve seen nothing but positive squee from the people I follow on twitter who have read this book, so this one jumps up the pile.
On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.

Breq is both more than she seems and less than she was. Years ago, she was Justice of Toren–a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of corpse soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.

An act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with only one fragile human body. And only one purpose–to revenge herself on Anaander Mianaai, many-bodied, near-immortal Lord of the Radch.




Tour of the Merrimack: Volume 1 (The Myriad and Wolf Star) by R.M. Meluch (DAW Mass Market Paperback 10/01/2013) – This space opera/military SF has been on my radar for a while, I'd received later books in this series for review and they intrigued me. Moreover, Jo Walton's and Liz Bourke's pieces on Tor.com convinced me (as do many of their pieces) I need to get a start on these books.

The U.S.S. Merrimack was the finest battleship class spaceship in Earth's fleet, able to stand up against the best the Palatine Empire could throw at them. They were even able to survive an attack by the deadly swarms of the seemingly unstoppable Hive. Only her sister ship, the Monitor, was her equal. However, with the Palatine forces preparing a massive offensive, and the Hive targeting every living organism in the galaxy for destruction, even these two great battleships may fall....

This omnibus edition includes the first two novels of R.M. Meluch's acclaimed Tour of the Merrimack series, The Myriad and Wolf Star.



The One-Eyed Man by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. (Tor Hardcover 09/17/2013) – The latest from Modesitt (whose books I’ve received more of than any other author I think) started out as a short fiction project, but turned into this novel. The stand-alone nature of it has me strongly considering reading it.


The colony world of Stittara is no ordinary planet. For the interstellar Unity of the Ceylesian Arm, Stittara is the primary source of anagathics: drugs that have more than doubled the human life span. But the ecological balance that makes anagathics possible on Stittara is fragile, and the Unity government has a vital interest in making sure the flow of longevity drugs remains uninterrupted, even if it means uprooting the human settlements.

Offered the job of assessing the ecological impact of the human presence on Stittara, freelance consultant Dr. Paulo Verano jumps at the chance to escape the ruin of his personal life. He gets far more than he bargained for: Stittara’s atmosphere is populated with skytubes—gigantic, mysterious airborne organisms that drift like clouds above the surface of the planet. Their exact nature has eluded humanity for centuries, but Verano believes his conclusions about Stittara may hinge on understanding the skytubes’ role in the planet’s ecology—if he survives the hurricane winds, distrustful settlers, and secret agendas that impede his investigation at every turn.

The One-Eyed Man is a thrilling new far-future science fiction novel from New York Times bestseller L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

Vicious by V.E. Schwab (Tor Hardcover 08/24/2013) – This is Schwab’s first “adult” book and is a superhero / supervillain story. Though I admit to being close-minded and preferring my superhero stories in the four-color glory, this one really intrigues me. Seems like Schwab is playing a bit on the Reed Richards/Doctor Doom relationship.

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?