Orphan's Journey & SFFWorld Status

My review of Robert Buettner’s latest Jason Wander novel, Orphan’s Journey, went up at SFFWorld yesterday. As I mentioned in an earlier post I really enjoyed Orphanage and Orphan’s Destiny, the first two books in the series. With the third volume, Buettner takes things in a slightly different direction. Overall, a very solid and entertaining novel.

I recently finished David Louis Edelman’s MultiReal and should have a review posted soon. The short of it is that the book was great and Edelman didn’t lose any momentum since publishing Infoquake. The long if it, well, will be in my review.

SFFWorld and its forums and are back to normal, for now. Speaking of which, our Fantasy Book Club selection for July 2008 is The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. Yes, I know the book has been around for a while, but in the SFFW Book club, we typically only consider books in mass market paperback in order not to impose a $25 (or more) book on the folks who want to participate. which can often result in a year lag between book publication and discussion in the book club. Anywhoo, I liked the book quite a bit and even considered it one of the best of last year’s novels.

That is all for today.

Books in the Mail (W/E 7/05)

Destroyermen I: Into the Storm by Taylor Anderson – Pressed into service when World War II breaks out in the Pacific, the USS Walker—a Great-War vintage “four-stacker” destroyer—finds itself in full retreat from pursuit by Japanese battleships. Its captain, Lieutenant Commander Matthew Patrick Reddy, knows that he and his crew are in dire straits. In desperation, he heads Walker into a squall, hoping it will give them cover—and emerges somewhere else.

Familiar landmarks appear, but the water teems with monstrous, vicious fish. And there appear to be dinosaurs grazing on the plains of Bali. Gradually Matt and his crew must accept the fact that they are in an alternate world—and they are not alone. Humans have not evolved, but two other species have. And they are at war.

With its steam power and weaponry, Walker’s very existence could alter the balance of power. And for Matt and his crew, who have the means to turn a primitive war into a genocidal Armageddon, one thing becomes clear. They must decide whose side they’re on. Because whoever they choose to side with is the winner.

Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross – Sometime in the twenty-third century, humanity went extinct—leaving only androids behind. Freya Nakamichi 47 is a femmebot, one of the last of her kind still functioning. With no humans left to pay for the pleasures she provides, she agrees to transport a mysterious package from Mercury to Mars. Unfortunately for Freya, she has just made herself a moving target for some very powerful, very determined humanoids who will stop at nothing to possess the contents of the package.

A little too much, but so what

70% Geek

Created by OnePlusYou

SFFWorld Status & The 100 book meme

I know some of the folks who visit here are members of the SFFWorld.com forums - we are experiencing some problems with the site. The backend software was recently updated, so hopefully the ship will right itself soon. I can't access the site from all the places I usually do.

I know iPods have been around for a few years now, but I finally got one last week. Or rather, Mrs. Blog o' Stuff, awesome wife that she is, gave me one for our Anniversary. I've got the 8 gigger and it is already nearly filled, although I won't be putting any of my old Aerosmith or Guns n' Roses on it since I could hear either of them at any given point if I tune into either XM or FM stations. I swear, those two bands are played more now then they were 15 years ago. I've heard enough of both bands in my life, don't need to hear them again. Granted Appetite for Destruction is a seminal album. Rant aside, one of the cool things is listening to stuff I haven't listened to in a while, as I load music into it. So, that's me, cutting edge.

Since a lot of people are doing it, here's my stab at the 100 book meme.

Instructions:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own so we can try and track down these people who've read six and force books upon them.

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series – J.K. Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible
(I read this in a really cool course at Rutgers - The Bible as Literature).
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
I hated this novel; I had to read it in an early English course at Rutgers. I still can’t decide if this or Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is the book I loathed the most from my English courses
8 Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles– Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
(I took two Shakespeare courses at Rutgers– comedies and histories/tragedies so I read a bunch of them)
15 Rebecca– Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
19 The Time Traveler's Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll (If I haven’t read it by now, I probably won’t)
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – C.S. Lewis
34 Emma – Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis
(Well duh, see #33)
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin – Louis de Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – L.M. Montgomery
47 Far From the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon (Mrs. Blog o’ Stuff read this and keeps asking when I’ll read it)
60 Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby-Dick – Herman Melville (I was surprised how enthralled I was by this book that has a reputation for being boring)
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett (I read this waaay back in I think 4th grade, but recall nothing of it)
74 Notes From a Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – A.S. Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web – E.B. White (saw the movie)
88 The Five People You Meet in Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

Only 24 of the above books read – wow do I feel like a plebe.

Eclipse One Review; SFFWorld, WJ Williams, Linkage

Three new reviews went up at SFFWorld:

My review of Jonathan Strahan's eclectic speculative fiction anthology Eclipse One, which is the first of a series of unthemed anthologies.

Mark's review of The Inferior by Peadar Ó Guilín

Owen's review of Toll the Hounds, the latest doorstopper in Steven Erikson's spectacular Malazan saga.

I've said it before, but Robert over at Fantasy Book Critic is running one of the top, if not top, review/Speculative Fiction blogs today. He's recruited some help in review coverage (Liviu C. Suciu a frequent poster at the SFFWorld Forums and David Craddock) and today posted his monthly overview of what new books will be on the shelves this month.

Lastly, (but not leastly) Night Shade Books is kicking off a big promotion for Walter Jon Williams new novel, Implied Spaces (which I reviewed a couple of months ago), as well as the backlist they are publishing of his books.

Night Shade Books is proud to announce the publication of Walter Jon Williams's new novel, Implied Spaces. To celebrate the release of the book--which Kirkus Reviews describes as "an intelligent, delicate and precise novel of real depth: a pleasure to read, an undertaking to savor"--we have posted a self-contained excerpt from the book to our website.But that's not all, we've also posted a short interview with Walter about the book, and, with Walter's kind permission, have posted the complete text of his Nebula Award-winning novella The Green Leopard Plague. Both texts can be found in a variety of formats on our Downloads page, or via the links below.

Implied Spaces excerpt: PDF - HTML - Rich Text Format - MobiPocket
The Green Leopard Plague: PDF - HTML - Rich Text Format - MobiPocket

Books in the Mail (W/E 6/28)

Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie - This will jump to the top of the pile, since I have the Gollancz edition in ARC form (signed!), too. I read and loved the first two books in this series, too. Joe's a humble guy who rarely interjects himself into conversations about his work or the genre.

Gone-Away World Nick Harkaway - This sounds really interesting - a cool combination of science fiction, superheroes and surreality. Equal parts raucous adventure, comic odyssey, geek nirvana and ultracool epic, The Gone-Away World is a story of—among other things—pirates, war, mimes, greed and ninjas. But it is also the story of a world, not unlike our own, in desperate need of heroes—however unlikely they may seem.

The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox by Barry Hughart - This is an advance from Subterranean Press of the classic series set in a fantastical version of ancient China (Hughart subtitled it "A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was"). It draws on the traditional tale of Cowherd and Weaver Girl and other myths, poems and incidents from Chinese history. I've read/seen good things about these books and now I'll have a chance to read it myself.

The Dark River by John Twelve Hawks - This is the mass market release of the book I reviewed about a year or so ago. Good stuff, now all we have to do is wait for the last volume of the Fourth Realm trilogy.

Going Under Quantum Gravity Book Three by Justina Robson – The third book in Robson’s series which combines elements of fantasy and cyberpunk with her trademark themes of identity and reality, and magic and technology.

Hero of Ages: Mistborn 3 by Brandon Sanderson - I really enjoyed the first two installments (The Final Empire, Well of Ascension) of the series, as I said last week when they arrived. I hope Brandon can deliver on the promise of the first two volumes. If so, this series will be an overall standout, IMHO. Either this or Abercrombie is the book I was most pleased to see in the mail this week.

Queen SMASH!

This week’s review is Greg Keyes’s The Born Queen, the final volume in his Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone quartet. I’ve been a fan and supporter of the series since it burst onto the scene with The Briar King and through each subsequent volume. The Born Queen is no exception – I think Greg pulled off something really special in this series, something not a lot of his contemporaries have been able to do. He set out to tell a certain type of story (Secondary World Epic Fantasy with a Large Cast) in a set number of volumes (four). He did that and did it very well.

Unfortunately, this series inevitably is considered Martin-lite, which is an unfair comparison. Yes both series have very large casts and both authors don’t falter when it comes to allowing primary characters to die, but Greg’s series really stands on its own. Just check out my review, I say it there in more detail.

Mrs. Blog o’ Stuff and I caught The Incredible Hulk on Friday. I went in hoping it would be good and at the least, better than the one from a few years ago. Unlike Iron Man, I read The Incredible Hulk for a number of years, most of Peter David’s legendary run on the character, and some of the recent stuff – I had expectations of what a real Hulk film needed to do and was surprised – it was better than I expected it would be. I don’t know that I’d consider it in the upper echelon of Super Hero Movies like Batman Begins, Iron Man, Superman, Spider-Man 1 & 2 but solidly in the next class along with Hellboy, X-Men 1 & 2 and Superman II. Good action, ambiguous ending and a Geek out moment for me when the Green Goliath exclaimed HULK SMASH! I really hope Edward Norton, and the studio for that matter, decides to stick around for the hinted and hoped follow-up. In terms of summer movies of 2008, I enjoyed The Incredible Hulk more than Indiana Jones.

Books in the Mail (W/E 6/21)

Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson – I read and reviewed the Hardcover release of this book and liked it quite a bit. Tor seems to be really behind Sanderson or else they wouldn’t have passed along the reins of The Wheel of Time to him. This is the paperback with an “introductory” price of 4.99. As I said, I enjoyed the first two Mistborn novels and look forward to the final volume, The Hero of Ages in the fall.

Mistborn: The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson – See my comment above. For the paperback release, Tor has rebranded the books, which isn't necessarily bad, but not as distinguishable from other fantasy novels on the shelves as were the cover design/dress for the initial hardcovers. I think the covers are pretty nice, but I hope the final volume keeps the same design that was used for the initial Hardcover releases. The new paperback design gives our heroine a bit of a different look than on the original cover, almost like a hobbit from the LOTR films. The depiction of Vin on the covers is pretty accurate, I think. It’s all about marketing and I suspect these new covers will indeed help sell the book(s). I hope so, because I really like what Brandon has done with this series, thus far.

Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik – This is, of course, the fourth book in her Temeraire series and the first book to be released in hardcover in the US. I liked the first two, but thought the third not quite up to par with the previous. I don’t know if that’s because I read the three books in succession and I was a little over-worked on ‘my dear,’ or what. I’ve still got the third book unread on the pile.

Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi – A side-quel to John’s popular (and very good) saga begun with Old Man’s War. I liked the series very much, as well as The Android’s Dream, so this book will be pushed up on the priority pile. There’s a reason why John’s been nominated for and won genre awards – he loves the genre, gets it, has fun playing in the sandbox, and writes terrific stories. John gets another SciFi Essentials label on the book, too.

The SFX Top 100 List (a meme?

Some of my fellow FSF bloggers have already posted this list, which all but turns this thing into a meme*, so here’s the SFX top 100 with my snarky comments.

*feel free to do this at your own blog, if you so choose.

100. James Herbert
Meh…I’ve heard decent things about him.

99. Gwyneth Jones
Meh…I’ve heard decent things about her.

98. Sara Douglass
Cliched but somewhat entertaining.

97. Charles Stross
Should be higher from all the raves I see about him. I’ve only read a bit, but liked it.

96. Terry Goodkind
I thought he didn’t write fantasy.

95. Brian W. Aldiss
Reputation alone should place him higher, never read anything from him.

94. Ken MacLeod
See my thoughts on Stross

93. Olaf Stapledon
I’d think a Golden Ager would be higher.

92. Michael Marshall Smith
He won the Philip K. Dick Award, I read his novel The Straw Men and liked it.

91. Jon Courtney Grimwood
Haven’t read him, but seems well regarded.

90. Christopher Priest
I’ve only read The Prestige, but liked it a lot.

89. Jonathan Carroll
Should be higher, what I read by him I liked, especially the classic The Land of Laughs.

88. Scott Lynch
Much as I loved The Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas Under Red Skies, this seems a bit premature.

87. David Weber
Haven’t read him, but I do have a collection on the to read pile. Seems popular with the Military SF crows.

86. M. John Harrison
Light was good, Virinconium started out well, but that’s all I’ve read, outside of his bloggish ramblings.

85. Jacqueline Carey
Kushiel’s Dart was good for half a book, I loved her Banewreaker duology, but like Lynch this seems a bit high, but her quantity of output is pretty impressive.

84. Kim Stanley Robinson
I tried to read Red Mars three times and wanted to poke my eyes out each time.

83. Theodore Sturgeon
An acknowledged master, but I haven’t read him. Seems low.

82. J.V. Jones
About right, I suppose. Read only two of her Ice books.

81. Joe Abercrombie
I like Joe (and how he’ll both downplay and up-play his own writing), so I suppose this is about right if Scotty-boy gets on the list, too.

80. Joe Haldeman
Should be higher, though I’ve only read two of his seminal works.

79. Simon Clark
Who?

78. George Orwell
What?? What???? 1984 is one of the greatest pieces of fiction of all time.

77. Samuel R. Delaney Delany
He should be higher.

76. Charles de Lint
About right, I suppose. I loved The Little Country.

75. Julian May
Haven’t read her, but this seems about right, based on what I've heard/seen.

74. Edgar Rice Burroughs
Tarzan and Jon Carter should place him higher, though I’ve yet to read him.

73. Robert Silverberg
Living legend, should be higher.

72. Susanna Clarke
One interesting novel (IMHO one of the most overrated novels of all time) and one collection, switcher with any half dozen lower rankings.

71. Stanislaw Lem
Solaris was one of the most painful reads for me, but I suppose this is an appropriate ranking

70. Larry Niven
This seems pretty low.

69. Alfred Bester
See Stapledon.

68. Katherine Kerr
Haven’t read her, but her Deverry series is long and well regarded enough to get a higher ranking.

67. Jack Vance
What?!? He should easily be a top 10 writer.

66. Harry Harrison
Sure.

65. Marion Zimmer Bradley
I guess.

64. Richard Matheson
Wa-a-a-y too low.

63. Dan Simmons
Hyperion is an enduring modern classic, his horror output is equally impressive. Relatively low.

62. Elizabeth Haydon
Better than Douglass.

61. Terry Brooks
I’m not his biggest fan, but relatively speaking, he should be higher.

60. Richard Morgan
About right.

59. Stephen Baxter
About right.

58. Jennifer Fallon
Whatever.

57. Mercedes Lackey
Never read her.

56. CJ Cherryh
I tried a couple of her books (Downbelow Station and The Dreaming Tree) and neither worked for me. Ranking seems about right based on what others have said, though.

55. Harlan Ellison
Very low.

54. Jasper Fforde
Never read him.

53. Octavia Butler
Another lowballed ranking.

52. J.G. Ballard
Sure.

51. Robert E. Howard
Somewhat low.

50. Sherri S. Tepper
Never read her.

49. H.P. Lovecraft
Way too low.

48. Mervyn Peake
Gormenghast just doesn’t work for me.

47. Jules Verne
Sure.

46. Alastair Reynolds
Sure.

45. Neal Stephenson
Loved Snow Crash and didn’t like Cryptonomicon.

44. Clive Barker
Sure.

43. Jim Butcher
I guess, I love The Dresden Files, but some of the other authors should be before him.

42. Tad Williams
See Butcher.

41. Kurt Vonnegut
See Delaney Delany

40. Trudi Canavan
Never read her.

39. Michael Moorcock
Living legend, should be in the top 10

38. David Eddings
Never read him, never will, but higher than Moorcock, Orwell and half a dozen others up above?

37. Alan Moore
Scripted on of Time’s 100 greatest novels, should be higher.

36. Orson Scott Card
About right, I gues.

35. Stephen Donaldson
About right I guess.

34. Gene Wolfe
Should be much, MUCH higher. Top 10. This ranking is the final straw for this list holding any kind of validity for me.

33. China Mieville
Sure.

32. Raymond E. Feist
Very Popular, I liked the first few RiftWar novels as well as the Empire collaboration with Janny Wurts.

31. Lois McMaster Bujold
Very Popular, I’ve enjoyed the Vorkosigan novels I’ve read.

30. Roger Zelazny
Should be higher, top 15 maybe?

29. Anne McCaffrey
Who hasn’t read her Pern novels? I guess this is about right, once you adjust some of the earlier aberrations.

28. Steven Erikson
I guess this is about right, once you adjust some of the earlier aberrations.

27. William Gibson
I haven’t read him, but seems slightly low.

26. Guy Gavriel Kay
I guess this is about right, once you adjust some of the earlier abberrations.

25. CS Lewis
I guess this is about right, once you adjust some of the earlier abberations.

24. Diana Wynne Jones
I guess this is about right, if a bit too high, relatively speaking.

23. John Wyndham
I guess this is about right, once you adjust some of the earlier abberations.

22. Philip Pullman
About right, I guess. Maybe lower?

21. Robin Hobb
See Pullman.

20. Stephen King
About right.

19. Ray Bradbury
Should be a tad higher.

18. Arthur C. Clarke
See Bradbury.

17. Robert Jordan
Important, but top 20? Then again, this is a popularity contest.

16. JK Rowling
See Jordan.

15. Robert Heinlein
About right.

14. Frank Herbert
About right.

13. Peter F. Hamilton
A bit high.

12. David Gemmell
About right, considering my Jordan/Rowling thoughts.

11. Ursula K. LeGuin
About right.

10. Robert Rankin
Who is this? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a book by this author and he’s ahead of Gene Frakking Wolfe and Jack Vance and George Orwell and Steven Erikson and Michael Moorcock...?

9. HG Wells
Sure

8. Philip K. Dick
Sure, maybe a bit high.

7. Iain M. Banks
Sure, maybe a bit high. He’s British, this list is from a British magazine, but I’d switch him out with I don’t know, Jack Vance?

6. Isaac Asimov
Sure.

5. George RR Martin
Sure.

4. Douglas Adams
A bit high, but again, this is a British popularity contest.

2. JRR Tolkien
This may be the first of these types of lists where he hasn’t been Numero Uno.

1. Terry Pratchett
I’ve read what I like. Best selling British Writer, British Popularity Contest.

Neuropath by Scott Bakker

The frontpage of SFFWorld was just rejiggered, with the lead item being the tag-team review Mark/Hobbit and I did for Scott Bakker's intense and scary Neuropath.

Here's a snippet:

With Neuropath Scott turns to a contemporary thriller, a CSI-style novel with an SF edge. And from his previous work, as you might expect, it is a stylish, taut, intellectual treatise on the misuse of science and its consequences. As he says in his afterword, (page 302) ‘I wanted Neuropath to be a thriller, one that strives intellectually as well as viscerally disturbing…’

It is also very, very scary.

The story is mainly written from the perspective of Tom Bible, a psychologist and university instructor coping with the divorce from his wife Nora and the pain and difficulty of limited visitations with his children. Much to Tom’s his surprise, his friend Neil Cassidy shows up one night to catch up and reignite their ongoing debate, or rather Argument. This Argument has been a highlight of their friendship for many years and the crux of it is whether or not we have choices in what we do. At the outset, Tom thinks this visit from Neil is just a friendly, if oddly timed, hang-out session. Tom soon learns the meeting is not what he thought it was, a theme that Bakker returns to throughout the novel.

Tigerhearts, Malazans, and Battlestars Oh My!

My review of Peter David’s Tigerheart went up last night, I’ve been holding it until the publication date. I’m an admitted fan of David’s writing in the majority of its forms and really enjoyed Tigerheart. David used a different style here and I think he pulled off really well. In fact, I'd love to see more from him in this vein/style. His trademark ironic humor is laced throughout the book, though with a slightly different flavor. Good stuff all around, nor am I the only one to think so.

I feel like I just swam up the entire coast of New Jersey a couple of times, metaphorically speaking. In other words, I just finished The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson – a good experience and at the end rewarding, but damn if it wasn’t long and intense. There was a lot going on in this sixth Malazan novel, maybe too much. I liked all the stuff with Icarium and Karsa, as a result, I was very pleased with the tease in the epilogue. I’ve always envisioned Karsa to be something like the Incredible Hulk, and specifically, the way the Hulk was portrayed in the Planet Hulk storyline. I’m not entirely sure how I’d picture Icarium, but something along the same lines, with a hint of Stephen King’s Roland the Gunslinger (in terms of the vagaries of his past) thrown into the mix. I’ve said before how much I enjoy Karsa’s storyline so while I enjoyed Erikson’s further exploration of it here, I would have like to seen more.

What also worked extremely well for me in The Bonehunters was the ‘return’ of Quick Ben to the storyline and his bantering with Kalam. Ben’s interaction with the Ascendants also provided some good scenes and passages. I really like what Erikson is doing with Ben Adaephon Delat: making him more powerful with Ben seemingly none the wiser. I also was pleased to see Paran brought back into the fold. Essentially, I like how Erikson juxtaposes confusion and control in his characters., especially with the Bridgeburners.

After a great deal of bouncing back and forth between the many, many characters / plotlines, the conclusion of the novel was just fantastic. I also thought it was very good to see Laseen in the storyline, after having spent much of the saga spoken about rather than seen. The timing on this was pretty funny – I was reading through the Laseen scenes at what was probably the same time that a poster at SFFWorld happened to bring up how little Laseen is actually ‘on screen’ in the storyline.

The continuing juxtaposition of the Gods squabbles with human squabbles is one of the more overriding themes of the series and comes together even more so in this installment. The Gods don’t deal with humans very much, but when they do Erikson manages to really imbue those scenes with something very cool and an air of “whoa.”

All told, The Bonehunters was another solid entry in the Malazan saga, though not without its flaws. The character of Iskaral Pust is slowly growing on me and the scenes involving him reminded me a bit of the old couple at the Oracle from The NeverEnding Story or The Princess Bride. As I said, it thought there were just one or two too many different plotlines woven together, but as this novel ties together so much I don’t know that it could have been threaded any differently. I also would have like to see more of Karsa and Kruppe, but in the end I was left breathless with both accomplishment at reading a 1200+ page book and eager to read Reapers Gale. It’s sitting on my “To Read” shelf, but as I’ve intimated before, I need to pace myself with these Malazan books. Erikson (wait for the revolutionary statement, wait for it…) is staking his claim as the King of Epic fantasy with this series. Each cog of a book is part of the greater whole and The Bonehunters was like a keystone that holds much of the series together. As such, it might the most ambitious, audacious and impressive book in the series up to this point.

Reading these Malazan books, for me at least, I really feel like I’m truly experiencing what Erikson is trying to do with these books – something special. There’s almost a sense of community in reading each book with the book itself and others who read the books. In my personal ranking of the series, it probably falls somewhere in the middle – House of Chains is still the one I like the most.

I haven’t blogged about it in a while, but Battlestar Galactica’s season-half finale was really good on Friday. It was both a satisfying conclusion to the one of the largest themes of the series and a great cliffhanger, thank god there were no hovercycles when they landed. Many of the same questions on the mythology of the series are still there, but can be viewed in a different shade of light. Specifically, how is the civilization of the humanity we see on the show related to our civilization? The episode brought this home in a dark way and you wonder if Moore and company are ever going to give these characters more than a fleeting moment’s taste of happiness and satisfaction.

Books in the Mail (W/E 6/14)

In Odd We Trust written by Dean Koontz & Queenie Chan and illustrated by Queenie Chan – This manga debut of a natural-born hero with a supernatural twist. Odd Thomas is a regular nineteen-year-old with an unusual gift: the ability to see the lingering spirits of the dead. To Odd, it’s not such a big deal. And most folks in sleepy Pico Mundo, California, are much more interested in the irresistible pancakes Odd whips up at the local diner. Still, communing with the dead can be useful. Because while some spirits only want a little company . . . others want justice. Koontz takes his popular Odd Thomas character to an earlier time and different format.

The Night Children by Kit Reed – Inside the Castertown MegaMall, the biggest mall in the world, live the night children—runaways, abandoned kids, kids who got lost and were never found. They only come out at night, after all the shoppers are gone. When thirteen-year-old Jule Devereaux visits the mall after the mysterious disappearance of her aunt, she becomes a pawn in the war between two gangs of night children: the Castertown Crazies, led by the stalwart Tick Stiles, and the Dingos, whose leader is the batty Burt Arno. What the night children don’t realize is that the megalomaniacal owner of the MegaMall, billionaire Amos Zozz, knows all about them. This is Reed’s first young adult novel, her most recent novel being The Baby Merchant.

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson – The narrator of The Gargoyle is a very contemporary cynic, physically beautiful and sexually adept, who dwells in the moral vacuum that is modern life. As the book opens, he is driving along a dark road when he is distracted by what seems to be a flight of arrows. He crashes into a ravine and suffers horrible burns over much of his body. As he recovers in a burn ward, undergoing the tortures of the damned, he awaits the day when he can leave the hospital and commit carefully planned suicide—for he is now a monster in appearance as well as in soul. This is contemporary literature with hints of the fantastic.

The Shadow Pavilion: A Detective Inspector Chen Novel by Liz Williams – The fourth Detective Inspector Chen novel. When Chen's partner, the demon Seneschal Zhu Irzh, disappears, along with Chen's wife Inari's guardian badger, Chen must enlist all of his allies and assets in order to locate them.

Meanwhile, Zhu Irzh and the badger find themselves trapped in an unfamiliar jungle hell, stalked by a rogue demon lord and his harem of tigress demons, an assassin from between worlds targets Mhara, the new Lord of Heaven, and a beautiful Bollywood starlet holds a deadly secret...

I read and enjoyed the first and second books in this sequence, so I'm definitely going to get to this one.

SPOTLIGHT: Catching up with the Classics - Glen Cook's Dread Empire

This one is from the archives of 2007. I never got around to posting it here or at SFFWorld, so I figured with The Black Company being the book of the month in the SFFWorld Fantasy Book Club, now was as good a time as any to post my review of A Cruel Wind: A Chronicle of the Dread Empire. I was also way overdue on my plans to do a Spotlight/Catching up with the Classics once a month.

The cover is just so gorgeous I had to post it as big as I did.

Without further ado...



NightShade Books
ISBN 978-1-59780-055-6
August 2006
904 Pages

Glen Cook has been writing acclaimed fantasy (and some science fiction) for many years, just on the outskirts of the big brand names like Donaldson, Jordan, and Martin. This is not to say his writing is inferior to those more recognized names, in fact, quite the opposite. After having read Cook’s first three Dread Empire novels, collected in a beautiful omnibus from the fine folks at NightShade books under the title A Cruel Wind, I find myself eager to read more of his works, if not in the Dread Empire, then any of his novels. I was not a novice to Cook when I opened this book, I read and enjoyed three of his Black Company novels, published by the Science Fiction Book Club under the title The Annals of the Black Company. It has been a number of years since I read the Black Company novels, so I can’t fairly and precisely compare the two sets of books other than the feel both worlds evoke. Cook doesn’t mince words, either in his descriptions or dialogues. These people live in harsh worlds were war is prevalent and a fact of daily life.

The first book in A Cruel Wind, A Shadow of All Night Falling, flips between to time periods. The ‘present’ of the world and the past, illustrating the origins of a great wizard, Varthlokur. Cook presents a harsh, desert-like landscape in which the wizard-to-be is born and raised. Much of his early life is spent without speaking, though he plots a plenty. Those scenes alternate with Varthlokur’s plans coming to fruition, as he sends spies to invade the nation where his prophesized future wife rules. The foremost spy goes by the name of Mocker, a rather unassuming individual from a physical standpoint, but able to win over crowds and individuals thanks to his amazing charisma. Eventually Mocker’s way with words wins over the queen, whom he originally was intended to sway to Varthlokur’s side as his wife, as a lover of Mocker’s own. This novel sets the stage for the events in the subsequent novels, while also ending with a sense of closure. A Shadow of All Night Falling set the stage, obviously, and it was the book I enjoyed most in the omnibus. I really liked the alternating perspective Cook utilized in the narrative and his evocation of the setting which reminded me of the Hyborian Age of the Conan novels than of anything else.

The second book, October’s Child, takes more of a physical approach to the action. Whereas A Shadow of All Night Falling was more a novel of political play, the gruesome, tireless and seemingly endless cloud of war permeated the second installment of The Dread Empire. Throughout this second novel, Cook terrifically injects the darkness of war, especially in the way the characters feel. Though I thought narrative was as strong here, it fell a bit short of how much I enjoyed A Shadow of All Night Falling.

The final volume in this book, All Darkness Met, again brings more of the focus on Varthlokur’s efforts, though he is more of a secondary character. After following the wizard’s ascent in the first volume, Cook expertly builds on the character with other character’s thoughts and fears about Varthlokur. Cook's method of characterization from a distance worked for me here and I enjoyed All Darkness Met probably as much as October's Baby.

While a number of the characters are important across the three books, perhaps the most well-drawn throughout is Mocker. A fat man, with high charisma and a unique speech pattern make for a memorable and enigmatic character. Some might find his manner speaking annoying, with it’s Yoda-like word placements, but it comes across as an endearing quality, much like the small, green Jedi master. On can also see the similarities between Mocker and Steven Erikson’s Kruppe, which is no surprise since Erikson has listed Cook’s writing as an influence.

The Ragnarsson clan evoking a Nordic influence, factor a great deal throughout the storyline, particularly the final two books.

The physical book itself deserves mention. From small-press NightShade, this is a beautiful looking book, from the evocative Raymond Swanland cover, to the nice paper, to the overall feel and design of the book, one can tell the publishers put a great deal of thought into their final product. It should also be noted the book includes a great introduction by Jeff VanderMeer who paints a great picture of Cook’s writing; the preface works as both an introduction and a “love letter” of sorts.

The suggestion is often made, but fans of Erikson’s Malazan series should check out this book, as well as Cook’s Black Company. Fans with an interest in the down-in-the trenches approach without so much veneer would do well to check out these books. Hell, fans of fantasy in general would do well to read these books. I enjoyed A Cruel Wind a great deal for many reasons - the evocation of the setting, the different approaches Cook utilized from book to book, and quite simply, the overall story itself in each volume and as a whole for the saga. I did think the pacing was slightly uneven in spots from book to book, but on the whole I liked A Cruel Wind quite a bit.

© 2008 Rob H. Bedford

Thanks for the nudging Joe.

Kull Review and Malzan Thoughts

I posted up my review of Kull: Exile of Atlantis by Robert E. Howard a short while ago. This was my first exposure to Howard's Kull stories and I enjoyed them, even if some of what was in the book consisted of fragments and unfinished tales. The book itself, and I only have the ARC, is a really nice volume. A very evocative cover by Justin Sweet, with color plates at the end of the book make for a book that was made with a great attention to detail and care. Again, this is only the ARC, so I can imagine how great the final product will look.

I'm focusing all my reading right now on The Bonehunters, something that seems to happen whenever I dive into The Malazan Book of the Fallen. I plow through a good chunk of the book at each reading session, but at 1200+ pages this book will take me a while. I enjoy the story and immersing myself in Erikson's world with each volume I read, so I don't mind too much even though I'm usually reading two books at a time. More often than not, I read Book 1 at work on my lunch and Book 2 while at the gym on the cardio machines and at home. However, with The Bonehunters I especially don't want to pull away from Malazan, so The Bonehunters is essentially Book 1 and Book 2 at the moment. I'm really enjoying the book, especially the scenes with Icarium and Karsa. From what I've seen, most fans of Malazan enjoyed Memories of Ice the most, but so far I think House of Chains was the book I enjoyed the most. Not that I didn't enjoy Memories of Ice, because I did, but I think Karsa is the character I find the most fascinating so far, and to a lesser extent Kruppe.

I finished Neuropath about a week or so ago, but I'm finalizing a review with Mark from SFFWorld. We decided to try something different with this book and give it a two-pronged review. That will probably go up at SFFWorld this week, too, we just want to put a couple of finishing touches on it.

Books in the Mail (W/E 6/08)

Mr. Fooster: Traveling on a Whim written by Tom Corwin and illustrated by Craig Frazier– This illustrated novel is best described by its simplistic title. The eponymous Mr. Fooster has some whimsical flights of fancy in this small and quaint book. It seems like a lost Victorian-era novel. What I received is a final copy of the advance I received a couple of months ago.

The Last Vampire by Patricia Rosemoor & Marc Paoletti – this Vampire-meets-CSI-meets-Indiana Jones-meets-4400 hybrid sounds somewhat interesting – a five-hundred year old corpse is unearthed in Texas by the military which is teeming with mysterious DNA, and can transform normal people into powerful beings. Will it stand above the rest of the Modern-Day Vampire/Sorcerer crowd?

The Last Theorem by Sir Arthur C. Clarke and Frederik Pohl – The two SF giants collaborate on a story of one man’s mathematical obsession, and a celebration of the human spirit and scientific method. Throw in the thread of all-but-omnipotent aliens and you might have the makings of an instant modern classic. The story is of a young Sri Lankan mathematician who finds a short proof of Fermat's Last Theorem and is hired by the CIA because of the high interest in cryptographic applications of the proof. This is an ARC; the publication date is August 2009.

The Bearskin Rug by Jennifer Stevenson – The third of her sexy, supernatural adventures of a feisty heroine and her lusty 200-year-old demon sidekick continue. Sequel to The Brass Bed and The Velvet Chair.

Gypsy Morph by Terry Brooks – Genesis of Shanarra Book 3. I read Armageddon’s Children and didn’t think much of it, but Terry has his fans; this is the series that bridges Shanarra with his Word and Void trilogy. I wanted to like this series, but couldn't get past that first book. What I received was the ARC, the final book publishes August 26, 2008.

Linkdump

Keeping with the Glen Cook theme, I came across this very nice appreciation of Mr. Cook's Black Company. (Via the author himself who blogs at Vast and Cool and Unsympathetic). I'll have something to post about Glen Cook's writing myself next week.

Library Journal covers the Urban Fantasy/Modern-Day Sorcerer. (via T.A. Pratt's LiveJournal)

Cover Art is always a hot topic, at least at SFFWorld, and this weeks Mind Meld from SF Signal is a great panel of cover artists - John Picacio, Todd Lockwood, and Bob Eggleton just to name three.

Pyr keeps doing great things and publishing great books. They've started posting sample chapters of many of their books. Take a look.

The great Comic Book Web site Newsarama was overhauled recently.

I think most of my blogroll has posted this already, but what the hell. Subterranean Press announced Songs of the Dying Earth - The Jack Vance Tribute Anthology. I have an ARC of their Jack Vance Reader on the reading pile. What I've read of his prodigious output, though comparatively small, has been very rewarding.

Poison Sleep reviewed and a sport renewed

Up went my review of T.A. Pratt's second Marla Mason novel, Poison Sleep a couple of days ago. Here's a snippet:

Here, Marla is asked by the Blackwing Institute (a hospital for mentally unbalanced sorcerers and wizards) to help with one of their patients – a woman named Genevieve whose power allows her to manipulate reality – blend in Victorian streets and buildings into downtown Felport, allow monsters to run through the streets – fun stuff.

After a few years off, I joined a bowling league last night. It was as much fun and frustrating as I recall, but this is a relatively short season as most summer sessions are. This time around, I'm bowling with Mrs. Blog o' Stuff's brother, which should be fun.

SFFWorld's Monthly Book Club

In the SFFWorld monthly Fantasy book club, we are discussing The Black Company by Glen Cook. I read this years ago and liked it quite a bit. I nicked the above cover shot, even though it contains the first three books, since it is such a great picture.

Books in the Mail (W/E 5/31)

Here's what was left at my garage door/front step/mail box this week:

Out of Picture 2: Art from the Outside Looking In edited by Dice Tsutsumi – A beautiful, oversized graphic novel which collects a diverse group of artists. A nice handful of short stories, and some fantastic art.

The Ashes of Worlds by Kevin J. Anderson - The culminating volume in his Saga of Seven Suns, which weaves together the myriad storylines into a spectacular grand finale. Galactic empires clash, elemental beings devastate whole planetary systems, and the factions of humanity are pitted against each other. Heroes rise and enemies make their last stands in the climax of an epic tale seven years in the making.

Tigerheart by Peter David – I finished this in ARC form about a week ago and really enjoyed it. What I received this past week was the final book. I’ll post my review as the publication date gets closer.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Mrs. Blog o’ Stuff, myself, and another couple caught Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on Sunday night at the best movie theater ever.* I thought the movie itself was OK, maybe better than Temple of Doom but far short of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Then again, Raiders is probably one of my top 5 films of all time, so I wasn’t expecting Crystal Skull to be as good as that film. I went in with lowered expectations, so perhaps that’s why I enjoyed it as much as I did. Either that or the beer.*

In some respects, the movie captured the fears of the era – Commies/Communism and Aliens, but the execution was slightly off. I also have to say, unlike many film trailers, the trailer for Crystal Skull didn’t give away too much of the film. My biggest problem was that in the three other Indy movies, Indy took charge and led the expeditions. Here, he seemed more a passenger on the ride. That and he found the plot device – the Crystal Skull – much more quickly than the other plot devices in the previous films. On the one hand it seemed a little too easy, but on the other finding the object wasn’t the quest of the move as much as returning it was. I also though Shia LaBeouf did a pretty good job, which surprised me especially after that piece of garbage Transformers where all he seemed to say was “No no no no.”

So, was it worth the wait? It's been almost 20 years so maybe they should have waited that exact amount of time. Nonetheless, I think Indiana Jones films need to be seen on the big screen – the action in this one never stopped and there were some great effects. Ever since (and probably before, but I hadn’t really noticed until then) The Phantom Menace Lucas seems utterly obsessed with chase scenes. That is fairly evident in Crystal Skull. I will see the movie again if for no other reason to see how much I enjoy the film without the assistance of my friends from the Yuengling family, but probably not in theaters. A number of people will not buy into the plot device (which was the case with Mrs. Blog o’ Stuff), but like the plot devices in the entire franchise, it it is otherworldly. In the end, it was a fun ride but something that could have been more.

*The Cinema Cafe Pizza Special - $25.75 includes 2 movies tickets (Adult, Child, or Senior), large pizza, pitcher of beer or soda which is also available for all showings. How can you beat that when a standard multiplex theater charges $8-$9 for one ticket?!

Blood Engines by T.A. Pratt

I posted up my review of T.A. Pratt’s first Marla Mason novel, Blood Engines yesterday. As my review indicates, I really liked the book and overall, think Pratt’s entry in the Supernatural Fantasy / Modern Day Sorcerer subset of Speculative Fiction is as good as any I’ve read so far. Granted, it is tough to truly judge a series only two books in against a juggernaut series like The Dresden Files (10+ books) or Anita Blake (16+) books, but so far I can see myself tearing through this series much like I am now with Dresden. While Pratt’s work has a good deal in common with his genre peers, he also does enough different to distinguish the series and Marla as her own.

Books in the Mail (W/E 5/24)

Lord Tophet by Gregory Frost – this is the direct sequel to Shdowbridge, which I really enjoyed earlier this year. This is probably the book I’m looking forward to reading the most from this week’s haul.

The Velvet Chair by Jennifer Stevenson - hot-blooded romantic fantasy--the follow-up to "The Brass Bed"-- the sexy, supernatural adventures of a feisty heroine and her lusty 200-year-old demon sidekick continue.

The Age of Conglomerates by Thomas Nevins – after reading the description copy that came with the book, I was slightly reminded of David Louis Edelman’s Infoquake.

Now that they are in power, there are no more checks and balances. The Conglomerates, and their mysterious party chairman, have taken over everything and everyone. There is no one left to stop them. Forty years in the future, in a world where Big Brother runs amok, a powerful political party known as the Conglomerates has emerged, vowing to enforce economic martial law at any cost. Dr. Christine Salter, director of genetic development at a New York medical center, is in charge of “genetic contouring,” the much-in-demand science of producing the ideal child. But Christine is increasingly troubled by odd events, including the strange disappearance of Gabriel Cruz, a co-worker for whom she has a developing affection, and the fact that her latest assignment–making the Conglomerate chairman more youthful through genetic engineering–is an especially dangerous task.

The Man with the Iron Heart by Harry Turtledove – the master of Alternate History’s latest twisting of the past. Here, Hitler’s number 2 man Reinhard Heydrich, was not assassinated in 1942 changing the outcome of WWII and the rest of history drastically.

The Guy in the Hat and the Realm of the Shiny Craniums by James Rollins. Some tie-in to a little movie now in theaters.

Implied Spaces and a Sample Chapter

I just posted up my latest review, Implied Spaces by Walter Jon Williams. There was a lot going on in the novel, Williams managed to throw in just about every subgenre of speculative fiction into the mix to good effect. Prior to this I read (and really enjoyed) his disaster novel The Rift and his Star Wars: New Jedi Order novel Destiny's Way. I shouldn't be surprised I liked Implied Spaces as much as I did because of my past experience with his writing (as I said limited) and the quality of the stuff NightShade has been publishing. The cover is awesome, too.

It’s been up a while, but Paul S. Kemp has a sample from the last entry of his Twilight War trilogy up for perusal. I’ve got (and had for a while, sorry taking so long to get to it Paul) the first two books in the new series. I reviewed his Erevis Cale Trilogy last year and enjoyed it more than I expected, proving that Shared World fiction can indeed be above the bar, quality reading.

SFFWorld: Discussions of the Week

Something I may start to feature regularly is a highlight of a couple-few discussions in the SFFWorld forums that are "tearin' up the charts." Maybe it will be a weekly feature. Maybe I'll post the topics more frequently. Who knows. I do know I haven't followed up on any with any Catching up with the Classics* features like I promised all of you, my loyal readers. (all 7 of you).

This may be redundant, since many of you might be members of the forum anyway. Here goes.

In Fantasy forum, one of the hotter, more recent topics is 2008 debuts, wherein our members (including me) talk about books that have or will debut this year. Go figure with that elusive title. The heart of the discussion is that there doesn't seem to be a clear cut OMG THIS IS THE BEST DEBUT NOVEL THIS YEAR, LIKE NO OTHER WRITER, blah blah. What are you waiting for, go tell us what YOU think.

In Science Fiction forum, we have recent original anthologies. This topic has been floating around for a while, but people who like to yell for the death knell of short fiction should check it out just to see all the interesting anthologies publishing nowadays.

In the Writing forum, the Post your Progress Thread is always popular.

In our George R. R. Martin sub-forum the debate/discussion about when the next book is going to publish is always a hot topic: ADWD- October release?

Booky Bloggy Post

Since I’ve been writing reviews, I always try to improve what I do. My aim when writing said review is to convey my thoughts about the book I’m reviewing as lucidly and, perhaps more importantly, as honestly as possible. Providing a balance between addressing what I think important and rambling for too long is a tenuous act. Larry, who often provides good fodder for thought on such things, has an interesting post today about reviewing books that are re-thinkings / re-imaginings / pastiches / homages to earlier works. This is especially timely since I just finished Peter David’s fine Peter Pan pastiche, Tigherheart.

Some Bloggy Notes:

• Aidan recently celebrated his first blogoversarry.
  
• It isn’t exactly a new blog, but it is new to me: io9. The editors are knowledgeable and the contributors are top notch, including those with whom I am most familiar: Jeff and Ann VanderMeer and Graeme McMillan (he of the great retired comic blog Fanboy Rampage). Along with SF Signal, io9 are probably two of the best genre collective-blogs.
  

Realms of Speculative Fiction is another recently begun group blog that mainly consists of book reviews and bookish thoughts. One of the members of the SFFWorld forums is part of the group.

Another SFFWorld forum member/admin has a good blog – James L’s Speculative Horizons.

The Last Wish: Review at SFFWorld

I posted my review of Andrzej Sapkowski's The Last Wish yesterday. Reviews on this book were floating around last year when Gollancz published it in the UK. Here in the US, Orbit just released their edition of the book. This wasn't a novel, as I thought it would be, but rather a collection of stories chronicling Geralt the Witcher's encounters with various monsters and legends out of fair tales and folklore. I liked the stories quite a bit and look forward to following Geralt's adventures.

As reviews started appearing on the blogosphere, there was some heated discussion about the book with varying opinions by some of my blog-o-pals. Considering I really enjoyed the book, I obviously don't completely agree with some of them.

We also shook up the main page at SFFWorld again, bringing my review of Cory Doctorow's Little Brother up top, and also featuring Mark/Hobbit's review of Stephenie Meyer's The Host as well as his latest review Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan and my aforementioned review.

Books in the Mail (W/E 5/17)

Nothing new for review arrived in the mail this week, which might be a good thing. The backlog is probably taller than I am at this point. The good thing is that many of those books aren't publishing until Fall/Winter so I've got a decent amount of time to keep the pile manageable.

However, I did finally get around to buying Tad Williams's Shadowplay, the second of his Shadowmarch series. I've been a big fan of Tad Williams for a while, but I just never got around to picking up the book.

The Digital Plague - Virus Released!

About six months ago, I read and reviewed Jeff Somers's The Electric Church published by Oribit. From my review:

Told from the first person, the reader’s only true window into the world is Avery Cates, but he does seem a rather reliable narrator. Somers affects this very well through Cates’s deprecating internal dialogue as well as his interaction with the team he pulls together for the big kill. Even in the scenes where little action is taking place, Somers maintains a very effective narrative allowing for the pages to turn quite quickly.

The sequel (The Digital Plague) is now out* and as with the previous book, Orbit and Jeff have put together another clever viral marketing campaign. Here's what they tell me (via e-mail):

You might remember last year author Jeff Somers launched an ARG inspired puzzle to support the launch his debut novel The Electric Church (http://the-electric-church.com).

These puzzles are scripted as narratives – the first one told a short story based in the universe of the book, and allowed players to save (in a manner of speaking) the monk.

The original puzzle was solved first by members at Unfiction.com – it's pretty fascinating to watch them work their way through. (http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=20984)

His latest book, The Digital Plague, is now out, and he's scripted another puzzle – this one takes place on a messageboard where citizens of Old NewYork are coming to grips with the plague that's taking over the city.

http://the-electric-church.com/forum/

Even readers who aren't up for solving the puzzles can get a kick out of this extension of the book's universe – with topics like "Augments: A place to discuss legal bodily augmentation" and "Elective Surgeries: A place to discuss the newest surgical techniques to extend lifespans, restore youthfulness, and defeat disease."

* I have the book and will be reading and reviewing in the near future. I liked the The Electric Church too much not to find out what Avery Cates has been up to since the conclusion of the novel.

Lastly, to keep the Star Wars theme running, happy 64th to George Lucas!