2011 Reading Year in Review

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

As I have in the past, I’ll start with some stats…According to goodreads, I read (or at least attempted to read) 77 books in 2011. I say attempted because a few books I simply dropped because nothing about the book compelled me to keep reading. Many of those, 40, were new/2011 releases, but I have been trying to get back into some of the older stuff and the fact that nearly half of what I read was pre-2011 means I did just that.

In 2010, I posted 46 reviews to SFFWorld and 5 to the Sacramento Book Review /San Francisco Book Review, plus a couple here at the blog.

Some of the older stuff included catching with series I’ve been following like Dredsen Files, Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time, David Weber’s Safehold and of course a re-read of the entire A Song of Ice and Fire series in preparation for both A Game of Thrones on HBO and A Dance with Dragons

Here are some stats:

• 32 can be considered Fantasy
  
• 40 2011/current year releases
• 25 books by authors new to me
• 32 can be considered Science Fiction
• 9 can be considered 2011 debuts
  
• 6 can be considered Horror
• 12 Books by women (Not necessarily 12 different women because, for example, I read 4 total novels [one novel and an omnibus] by Elizabeth Moon)

All that said, on to the categories for the 2011 … Robloggies? ManBearPiggies? Stuffies? Sullys? I don’t know! 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 2011 and what I put at the top of those categories.

Rob Favorite Science Fiction Novel(s) Read in 2011

It’s already getting tough because three books vie for this spot and I might give a slightly different answer today compared to a week from today. The best way to go over these three books is chronologically, that is the order in which I read them.

I’ve only read one Eric Brown novel prior to reading The Kings of Eternity, but that is going to change. I found the book amazing with a powerfully addictive narrative strength:

In 1999 a reclusive writer named Daniel Langham shuns all forms of publicity living a truly introverted life on a remote Greek Island. His only real contact with the outside world is the restaurant owner where he eats every day. That is until he meets Caroline, an artist who intrigues Daniel both for her beautiful art as well as her charming personality. Because Daniel is so reclusive, he is unwilling to trust anybody very easily and his fears of being discovered on the remote island come to fruition when an investigative report hunts him down. Daniel finds solace both in the words he writes as well as the journal of his grandfather, Jonathon Langham.

In 1935 a writer named Jonathon Langham is summoned to the cottage of his editor Jasper Carnegie, along with fellow writer Edward Vaughan to witness a strange phenomena. Carnegie has everything planned for his friends and almost tortuously reveals what he wishes to show his friends. When he brings them to a clearing in Hopton Wood, Langham and Vaugham behold a portal to another world that appears strange, wondrous, and alien. Repeated viewings bring a visitor in the form of a dwarf-like alien on the run from aliens of another race who are hunting him. This meeting, of course, has a great impact on Langham, Vaughan, and Carnegie such that they are friends for the remainder of their lives.

Daniel Abraham is no stranger to the genre, though his novel with his friend George R.R. Martin’s assistant Ty Franck under the James S.A. Corey name is new. The author team with one name launched a classic Space Opera in 2011, a novel laced with noir and horror. Leviathan Wakes is the first installment of The Expanse and here’s what I said about it:

Holden’s crew is very much a family and from my most recent reads, I was reminded of the crew of the Ketty Jay from Chris Wooding’s terrific Retribution Falls. I mentioned in my review of that book, the parallels I found with Firefly. The landscape in Leviathan Wakes, though confined ‘only’ to our solar system plays off both epic and personal, space after all is large, but the sense that all the characters have a comfortable level of knowledge of the solar system much like seasoned business travelers would have a good working knowledge of the United States. Part of what makes the solar system so believable is how the problems of big business seemingly controlling things from behind the scenes and the clash of societies mirrors today’s world, just on a larger canvas.

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Much like Abraham did in The Dragon’s Path, the narrative is told through a cycling of third-person POV characters, though here we only see the aforementioned Miller and Holden. Again, this style of storytelling makes sense considering Abraham is something of a protégé of George R.R. Martin and Franck is GRRM’s assistant, and this is by no means a negative thing. Martin does this better than any writer, so why not adopt a style that proved effective, unless you can’t pull it off. Fortunately for readers, this one specifically, Corey pulled it off very well.

The last of the 2011 standout novels I’d classify as Science Fiction for two reasons: (1) Science is the impetus behind the state of the world and (2) the spine of the book says “Science Fiction” as opposed to “Horror” or “Fantasy.” Deadline is the second novel of The Newsflesh Trilogy, Mira Grant’s Zombie-Apocalypse trilogy. The second novel maintained the same tension and narrative power as the first and has set the bar high for the concluding volume. Here’s some of what I said about Deadline:

As the layers of conspiracy are revealed, Grant examines the ethics involved in the medical profession, specifically those researchers involved in curing diseases, the power of government, and how those two – when at absolutes – can lay the foundation for an apocalypse. The ethical dilemmas were handled, I felt, very well and engaging through the characters of Dr. Connolly and Dr. Abby. Dr. Abby is introduced in the early stages of the novel as a rogue scientist with a giant mastiff immune to the Kellis-Amberle virus who is in constant hiding from the CDC. Reading through their ideological positions and their conflicts with each other, which was punctuated by the matter of fact and almost cold dialogue between Connolly and Maggie was some of the more ethically thought-provoking science fiction I’ve read in quite some time.

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The Newsflesh Trilogy is turning into one of my favorite SF stories and one that is continuing to surprise me – up until the very end of Deadline. This second installment raises the stakes considerably and brings new players into the game, while maintaining the blistering pace of Feed, its predecessor. I can’t say enough good things about this novel, which has made the concluding volume Blackout, quite possibly my most anticipated novel publishing in 2012.

Rob’s Favorite Fantasy Novel(s) Read in 2011

2011 was another strong year for Fantasy, with more impressive debuts and highly anticipated books/installments in popular ongoing sagas (A Song of Ice and Fire, The Kingkiller Chronicle, Sword of Truth) – guess which one of those makes the cut?

As I did with the best SF, I’ll run through the top books in the order in which I read them.

Though published in January, I didn’t get around to it until April, Among Others was a powerful novel that hit so many notes perfectly – Coming of Age Novel, a novel about The Power of Story, Witchcraft, the Outsider – that it worked wonderfully for me and a book I think may require a second reading:

A novel like this is very difficult to sum up without giving away too many spoilers or revealing the joy of discovering what Mor experiences. Essentially, Among Others is epistolary novel told through Mor’s diary. Though I haven’t read too many novels structured in this manner, I wonder if they all hold the same addictive, powerful and voyeuristic appeal as does Walton’s novel. What made this novel work so well for me, and many readers of SF, is Mor’s unbridled love of the genre and perhaps more importantly, how it essentially saved her and allowed her to move on from the tragedy she experienced into the next stage of her life. The novel can be seen as a testament to not only the power of story and the written word, but also the power of community so strongly associated with SF. In fact, as I was reading the novel I very much wanted to visit some of the books Mor read. I made a journey to the local used bookshop to pick up some older SF contemporary with many of the novels Mor read, as well as Walton’s debut novel The King’s Peace.

Another appearance from Daniel Abraham here, this time a book he wrote all by his lonesome. The Dragon’s Path is the first novel in the series he's calling The Dagger and the Coin:

The novel starts with a prologue, hinting at the return of a very dark magic. The Spider Goddess, to be specific, and how she will consume the world. The POV character in this prologue does not receive a name other than “The Apostate.” The remaining chapters are titled based upon the character on whom Abraham focuses his engaging third person omniscient point of view. If this structure is somewhat familiar (especially to those who’ve read Daniel’s mentor George R.R. Martin) then the meat giving that structure bulk does stand apart. For example, the orphan hero is a very popular character type, especially in fantasy fiction. But how often is this orphan taken in by bankers and taught their trade? Not very often, from the many fantasy novels I’ve personally read. In the character of Cithrin Bel Sarcour, Daniel Abraham has given readers that character and watching her grow over the course of the novel was very enjoyable and plausible. At first shy and downtrodden, Cithrin comes into her own and becomes a very confident, assured character by novel’s end.


The plot revolves around power struggles for a throne under hints and threats of war, familial political machinations (primarily from Killian Dawson’s POV), the coming of age of two of the three primary protagonists (Cithrin and Geder), and the redemption of the third (Wester). Where Abraham further separates his novel from other Epic Fantasies dealing with war is where he shows how the wars begin, and through the economic maneuverings that often power the undercurrent of war. On the surface it may not seem that such a premise would make for the most compelling reading, but Abraham infused the narrative with that all important addictive quality of “I need to know what happens next.” In fact, my wife noted while I was reading the book that I couldn’t put the book down and was always reading it. She doesn’t make such a remark very often and I read about a book or two a week.

The last of the Fantasy trio should be no surprise: A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin , I didn’t do proper review of this beast, just a little response on goodreads

Rob's Favorite Debut(s) of 2011

Two of these novels could have easily been in the Fantasy category, but I wanted to spread the love, so to speak.

My favorite debut of the year was from Ace books and was a bit of a controversial title over in the SFFWorld forums. I speak of Mark Lawrence’s Prince of Thorns, the first installment in The Broken Empire trilogy. A crazed, many-ogonistic protagonist, a crapsack world, and powerful narrative made this book impossible for me to stop reading:

Prince Jorg was forced to watch his mother and brother tortured and killed as he was entangled in the thorny briar, unable to move or tear his eyes away from the carnage. This happened when he was nine years old. Fast forward a few years and he’s left the confines of his father’s kingdom and is leading a band of cutthroat bandits and mercenaries extracting coin; questing for revenge upon Renar, the ruler who killed his mother and brother; and pretty much doing whatever they want. As the title of the series, The Broken Empire, implies, the world is not whole. Scattered kingdoms, and that word applies quite loosely, vie for power against the Hundred, the dark powers seemingly in control of the world.

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Prince Jorg was forced to watch his mother and brother tortured and killed as he was entangled in the thorny briar, unable to move or tear his eyes away from the carnage. This happened when he was nine years old. Fast forward a few years and he’s left the confines of his father’s kingdom and is leading a band of cutthroat bandits and mercenaries extracting coin; questing for revenge upon Renar, the ruler who killed his mother and brother; and pretty much doing whatever they want. As the title of the series, The Broken Empire, implies, the world is not whole. Scattered kingdoms, and that word applies quite loosely, vie for power against the Hundred, the dark powers seemingly in control of the world.

The next debut author released three novels over the course of three months, a publishing strategy that has proven very successful in the past (Naomi Novik and Brent Weeks, to name just two). Kevin Hearne kicked off an Urban Fantasy series focusing on a 2,000 year old Druid (Atticus) and his Irish Wolfhound familiar (Oberon) in modern Arizona as he runs into various supernatural entities. The first book is titled Hounded. Hexed and Hammered are the other two, but here's an excerpt from my review of Hounded:

Atticus is a 2,000-plus year old Druid who lives with his Irish Wolfhond Oberon in Tempe, Arizona; runs a shop that specializes in herbal remedies and arcane books; communes with Celtic and native American tribal gods, witches and all sort of supernatural characters. When his arch enemy cranks up the hunt for Atticus, the Druid decides to stop running and confront the Celtic God Aenghus Óg. Aenghus has a somewhat fair reason to have hounded Atticus (whose true name is Siodhachan O’Suileabhain), appropriated Aenghus’s magical sword Fragrach during a battle. So, Aenghus sends his minions after Atticus and the minions get more powerful as the novel progresses until there’s an all-out spectacular battle of magic, gods, and Tuatha Dé Danann to cap off this fine novel.

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Primarily for the heavy Celtic flavor, I’d also recommend these books to readers who enjoyed Mark Chadbourn’s Age of Misrule trilogy. Hearne’s pacing and humor make the page turnings rather quickly, he’s got an addictive storytelling style. As a person who grew up with dogs and currently has a dog, I was very impressed with Hearne’s ability to really “get” the relationship between human and canine companion so much so that I imagine my dog thinking some of the same things Oberon says to Atticus. In the relationship between Atticus and Oberon, I was also reminded of Vlad Taltos and his familiar Loiosh, or even Harry Dresden and Bob the Skull. Having the protagonist/sidekick relationship allows for good story progression without the protagonist monotonously spouting a monologue at the reader and Hearne captured this element quite brilliantly, perhaps my favorite aspect of the novel.

Since I’m doing this in threes, why not continue with the debuts? The third debut that knocked my socks off was one of the grittiest, dirtiest, bleakest military SF novels I’ve ever read. It also came across as brutally honest and genuine. I refer to T.C. McCarthy’s Germline

Few novels I’ve read have depicted the dirtiness, pain, monotony and sheer distress involved in war with such believability. Wendell is not a hero, he has serious drug problems, which have led to and compounded his family problems, he isn’t the nicest or bravest guy in the world, and he has a tendency not to turn his writing assignments in on time. One thing at which Oscar excels; however, is endearing himself to the soldiers with which he follows on their tours of duty. Here is where McCarthy shows nice touches, after a minor bit of hazing from the Marines, Wendell fits in with the Marine nicknamed Ox. The camaraderie between them throughout the novel is one of the strengths and something that continually returns as Oscar travels through various points in the war zones.

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Adding to Wendell’s instability are the genetics – squads of genetically engineered female supersoldiers placed on the front lines as the elite fighting forces. For reasons that come to light as the novel progresses the only supersolders are females. Just when the novel seems to be about Wendell’s struggles for sanity, cleanliness and war, in comes the relationship angle and the question of “What is humanity?” The genetics are perfected humans, at least physically, but they unfortunately have a very short shelf life, very few living beyond 18-20 years. When Oscar first sees one from a distance, he’s fascinated, though his comrades in arms try to dissuade him from engaging with the genetics. When he does meet and talk with one in particular, Sophie, his fascination grows and becomes a physical attraction that one might say leads to obsession.

Favorite Backlist / Book Not Published in 2011 Read in 2011

I’m not including Mr. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire in this category since (1) I’ve previously read all the books save A Dance with Dragons (2) That really wouldn’t be fair. So, here goes:

The top spot goes to novel that was recently nominated for the prestigious Hugo award. It involves zombies, a political campaign, the power and evolution of news reporting. I speak of course, of Mira Grant’s FEED:

The characters are terrific and believable. Georgia is a bottom-line no-nonsense character who upholds telling the truth as the ultimate ideal. Shaun is the more adventurous type and can be seen as a charming and intelligent character from Jackass – think Johnny Knoxville or Bam Margera fighting zombies for our entertainment. The relationship between the brother and sister, adopted after their parents the Masons had to kill their own son when he became a zombie, is one of trust, love, and respect. Shaun and George are not related by blood; however, their bond is no less strong because of it. In presidential candidate Peter Ryman, Grant gives readers what seems to be the ideal man running for the most powerful job in the world. The relationship between Ryman and his wife Emily is painted as ideal as well. As much as the characters themselves are incredibly well drawn, it is in their one-on-one relationships that Grant’s ability to lend emotion to her characters really shines. Georgia/Shaun, Peter/Emily are not the only two, but the best examples in the book. When a third character comes into the picture of the paired characters; however, is when things start go, for lack of a better term, a little wonky. Again, I feel revealing the specifics might take away from the true power of Grant’s story, so I leave it to the reader to explore these themes in the novel.

The number two slot goes to an omnibus that is in my personal Omnibus Hall of Fame (© PeterWilliam) The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon.



I don’t have a review of it up anywhere, but I liked nearly everything about the three books contained in the big grey/blue book published by Baen. What’s more impressive is that these three books are the first three published by Elizabeth Moon. I think she developed the character of Paks very well throughout the novel and the world came across as quite real. Rumor has it Mrs. Moon sort of wrote these books as a reaction to how Paladins are portrayed in Dungeons and Dragons and on one hand I can see that. On the other, for my reading sensibilities, the omnibus just simply worked. This is one I’d point to if somebody was looking for what is now considered Classic High/Military Fantasy.

Rounding out the triumvirate for this category is the first book in a massively popular series by an author whose work I’ve been finding myself drawn to reading over the past couple of years with growing regularity. (I’m sure you readers are sick of me saying that). The author is David Weber and the book is the first of his Honor Harrington series On Basilisk Station:

Since this novel is set in space and deals with spaceships, a space navy, and a space station, a space battle is inevitable and rollicking. The last 100 pages or so depicting the conflict was terrific reading. Perhaps what made the book so enjoyable for me; however, was Weber’s wonderful handling of characters in tense situations. For example, there's a lot of tension in the air between Honor Harrington and one of her officers, particularly her Executive Officer McKeon. Weber depicts it very well and the resolution of that tension comes off nicely and plausibly. The level of respect that grew from their initial tension was as emotionally satisfying (perhaps more so for me) than the thrilling space battle. Tangentially, Weber relays a great deal of information about the universe set up through narrative info dumps as well as dialogue between the characters. The term info dump often holds an air of negative connotation, but in this case, it worked very well for me.

Weber openly acknowledges the Honor Harrington novels are basically Horatio Hornblower novels IN SPACE, but that does not deter from any enjoyment I experienced reading On Basilisk Station. Another admirable aspect of what Weber does with his characters in this novel is the balance between believable and heroically over the top. My only problem with his book is the somewhat rocky start. The first few chapters were a little scattershot, in terms of setting up the remainder of the novel. However, once Honor took center stage there was no turning back for and On Basilisk Station turned into a truly entertaining, engaging, and addictive novel.

MVP Author of 2011

For the first time in two years, of doing this on my year-ender Brandon Sanderson doesn't get the mention. It should come as no surprise that it is …

George R.R. Martin

The fact that “in the US it [A Dance with Dragons] had the highest single and first-day sales of any new fiction title published this year” is a testament to his fans and the continuing power of the written word.



Of course, the popularity of the book series is on the rise in small part to a little TV show on a relatively obscure cable network . Remember how I said before I re-read the four books leading up to the release of book 5? Yeah, I guarantee many other fans did just that, both the long-time fans and the new fans thanks to the show.



Hell, George was named by Time.com as one of their "People Who Mattered in 2011", Game of Thrones received many award nominations including a win for Peter Dinklage. I’m just scratching the surface here folks.

Honorable mention goes to Seanan McGuirre / Mira Grant – she published three books in 2011 (two in her popular October Daye urban fantasy series, the middle book of her superb Newsflesh trilogy, and spent a good portion of the year as a Hugo nominee.

Favorite ‘New To Me’ Author(s) of 2011

I’ll mention two, as I did last year. One author is squarely in the Fantasy genre, the other skirts the line between genres and perhaps has created a genre – bucklepunk.

The bucklepunk guy, is of course, Chris Wooding. I’d seen good things about his writing, particularly from readers across the pond who’ve been reading Chris’s work for a few years. This year, the fine folks at Bantam Spectra published the first two books in his Tales of the Ketty Jay, the first of which is Retribution Falls:

Sky Pirates of the Future could easily be the tagline for Chris Wooding superbly entertaining SF novel Retribution Falls, if it were written half a century ago. Perhaps Wooding could have thrown that tagline into the subtitle since the sense of wonder, thrill of adventure, and pure fun that is laced throughout the entirety of the novel evokes those pulpy stories which helped to provide a basis for today’s SF.

As the novel proceeds from the point when the too good becomes the crew of the Ketty Jay’s potential downfall, Wooding does an excellent job of revealing the character’s back stories. I thought this a particularly clever method for getting to know and care about the characters as the character’s history and growth read seamlessly along with the action pieces of the novel.

Wooding starts the novel out very strongly, with Frey and Crake in a sticky situation that immediately establishes what I mentioned before – Frey’s #1 concern is the Ketty Jay, even more than the life of a crew member. In some ways, this reminded me of the beginning of Scott Lynch’s Red Seas under Red Skies, except that here in Retribution Falls, we don’t know the characters quite as well. Nevertheless, the scene itself establishes the overall feel for the book and the beginnings of solid character development.

The other author is squarely in the Fantasy section of town, and at this point, the Sword and Sorcery district. Michael J. Sullivan published his first novel in 2009 electronically and with a small press. Orbit re-released his first two novels in what is now in my Omnibus Hall of Fame - Theft of Swords. I mentioned him fair amount on the blog this year and I interviewed him for SFFWorld. Here's a bit from my review:

Theft of Swords contains The Crown Conspiracy and Avempartha, the first two novels in the series. Both books are just over 300 pages. In The Crown Conspiracy, readers are introduced to the anti-heroic duo of Royce Melborn, thief, and Hadrian Blackwater, mercenary. The two call themselves Riyria and are known as a competent duo, working outside the thieves’ guild taking on jobs for nobles who would otherwise not want to get their hands dirty. Off the bat, Sullivan gives readers fully formed protagonists who are mature and not the typical farmboys of epic fantasy. In fact, the feel I got throughout The Crown Conspiracy was more of a Sword and Sorcery adventure rather than Epic Fantasy. Of course, the comparison many people have made to Royce and Hadrian is to Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. The relationship between Royce and Hadrian comes across as something that is long-standing, but as of yet, Sullivan has yet to reveal how the two rogues became partners. This is good, and a pattern of storytelling which Sullivan employs throughout The Crown Conspiracy and a method at which he excels..

Orbit was very smart to (1) snap up these books, (2) pair up two books into one omnibus, and (3) publish the three books in three months. Sullivan’s story fits in great with some of the recent books published by Orbit– I’d recommend the books to people who enjoyed the ‘old-school fantasy’ aspect of Daniel Abraham’s The Dragon’s Path and Brent Weeks Night Angel Trilogy.

Favorite Publisher of 2011

If you’ve made it this far along the blog post, and you are familiar with who publishes what books, then this shouldn’t come as a surprise…

Orbit Books

Orbit Books had a terrific year, though a fair amount of that carried over from 2010 as multiple books they published were on multiple award shortlists. For my reading time, no publisher produced books that worked as consistently from book-to-book for me. That is, on the whole, all the books I read published by Orbit worked for me in a big way. From the smart The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham, to the aforementioned Theft of Swords by Michael Sullivan, to the two novels I read by Mira Grant to the uncompromising debut by T.C. McCarthy as well as Philip Palmer’s Hellship to the rollicking top 3 SF book Leviathan Wakes, it all worked in a big way for me.

This isn’t to say that other publishers didn’t publish great stuff I enjoyed, just that nothing I read from Orbit fell into the disappointment/clunker/meh category. I can't say the same for the other publishers whose books I read in 2011.

Odds and Ends of 2011

For my birthday, I received a Kindle Fire and I absolutely LOVE IT! At this point, I’ve only read one full book on it, but I’ve downloaded a bunch from Baen Fifth Imperium and the free books available through the Baen Free Library so perhaps I’ll do a read through of the Honor Harrington saga in the coming year.

Sully, the dog who became part of our family last year and is looking at you above this section, is now a year older. She's just as loveable, sweet and a pure joy to have in our lives and everything Mrs. Blog o' Stuff and I could have hoped for when we finally decided to bring a dog into our home.

So, in conclusion 2011 was a mixed bag. It was a good reading year for me, but some really crappy things (well, one major crap thing) in my personal life that I hope is on the way to resolving itself. I hope.

Looking Ahead to 2012

Sully and her boyfriend Cooper have their backs turned on 2011 and are waiting to see what 2012 has in store for them, and all of us.

What does 2012 bring?

• Season 2 of Game of Thrones
• More Walking Dead
• The Dark Knight Rises
• Prometheus
• The Hobbit (part 1)
• The Avengers
• Caine's Law the fourth Act of Caine by Matthew Stover
• The final Wheel of Time novel
• Caliban's Law the second in James S.A. Corey's The Expanse
• The Wind through the Keyhole by Stephen King (Dark Tower 4.5)
• The King's Blood book 2 of Daniel Abraham's The Dagger and the Coin
• The final novel of Mira Grant's Newsflesh Trilogy

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.

The Recollection and Zombie Compendium Reviewed at SFFWorld

Just because it is a new year doesn’t mean we’ll be changing the order of business here. In other words, a couple of new reviews at SFFWorld from Mark and me. Since it is only the third day of 2012, neither of us have a 2012 book reviewed…yet. Though the book I finished yesterday, the highly charged and entertaining Shadow OPS: Control Point by Myke Cole, is the first 2012 book I’ve read. That review will come in a couple of weeks closer to the book’s publication date.

Right, on to the reviews posted in the last week…

Although technically not a debut, Gareth L. Powell’s The Recollection, is his first release through a major publisher, Solaris Books, which I enjoyed:

Gareth L. Powell takes a golden age SF idea, one might even say a Clarke-ian idea, and places it squarely in the 21st (and 25th) Century – strange archways appear at random places and random times throughout the world, causing confusion and more than a bit of a scare. This is the premise of his major imprint debut, The Recollection. Though this idea is rather grand, he starts the novel very grounded, as Eddie Rico is being roughed up by some gangsters after losing a night of card games. His brother Verne bails him out of the trouble, but Verne is soon after sucked into one of the aforementioned arches. Not; however, before Ed can tell Verne that he and Verne’s wife Alice have been having an affair. Ed wants to find his brother, but Alice is hesitant until an arch appears in a remote field near her. So, the two put aside their tense past and embark on a journey to find and hopefully save Verne.
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Powell’s greatest strength in the novel is his ability to give the four main characters (Ed, Alice, Kat, and Victor) a real sense of humanity. In doing so, I found his contrast of this humanity against galactic pressures and forces to be mostly successful. Where he was less successful, was in some of the important plot points that draw events together towards the end. Though I wouldn’t say one element in particular was completely out of left field, it did seem a bit forced and somewhat out of place in a Space Opera/Science Fiction novel. Whether Powell had this specific plot element in mind or it was an outgrowth of how his story was progressing, I can’t be sure but for me, it felt too much of an obvious insertion to solve an issue. It’s one of those points in a story that I don’t know how he could have handled this big element differently, but I don’t know if the way it was handled was the best option available.

Corvus Books's offerings continue to impress Mark, the latest of which is: Zombies: A Compendium of the Living Dead edited by Otto Penzler:

Compared with ghosts, vampires, werewolves and, frankly, most horror icons, I’ve always thought of them as one of the weaker family members of the horror genre. They’re dead, but they’re living.... they move! ....they look at you! And that’s about it. They’re also slow and dumb and pretty limited in what they do….

So, it’s going to take a lot to impress me, though I’m willing to give it a try.

The good news is that I think this book is about as good as I’m going to get. There are 46 (!) tales of dead people walking here, with some very well known authors (Stephen King, HP Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Richard Matheson, Harlan Ellison, Edgar Allen Poe, Robert Bloch....) as well as a lot of less known or unknown authors (to me, anyway) such as Jack D’Arcy, Thorp McClusky, and Henry S. Whitehead.

As you might expect with over forty stories, the range is also impressive. There are tales in unexplored lands, creepy houses, mouldy mansions, quaint cottages, the past and the present. Otto does point out that although there are some gory tales herein, he has tried to maintain a balance and so there are not that many of the stories with the ‘almost pornographic sensibility of the need to drench every page with buckets of blood and descriptions of mindless cruelty, torture and violence.’ (Introduction, page xii)

SFFWorld 2011 Year in Review - Science Fiction

As has been the custom for Mark Yon (aka Hobbit in the SFFWorld Forums) for the past few years, we spent a fair amount of time exchanging e-mails over the past couple of weeks as we hashed out what we thought to be the best genre offerings of 2011. We generally do this recap in three parts, so this year was no exception. The second of three parts has been posted to SFFWorld, so go and take a look:

SFFWorld Review of the Year 2011 part 2 - SCIENCE FICTION

We also have a thread in our discussion forum where you can join the forum members why we chose the wrong books for our personal top five of the year or where you can tell us how brilliant Mark and I are for covering what we covered.

Here's the Fantasy 2011 write-up Mark and I did and discussion thread, which I initially posted Friday, December 30.

Also, don't forget to vote for your favorite read of 2011!

I'll be posting my annual review of the year in reading once we hit 2012.

Books in the Mail (W/E 2011-12-31)

The last batch of review books for 2011…

Lightspeed: Year One edited by John Joseph Adams and (Prime Books, Trade Paperback 11/29/2011) – John Joseph Adams is probably the top anthologist (not named Jonathan Strahan and Gardner Dozios) in the genre right now. His careful attention to the stories he selects is very impressive, since he’s been nominated for a couple of awards. This book is both a beautiful book and has some impressive names inside.

Lightspeed (www.lightspeedmagazine.com) is the critically-acclaimed, online science fiction magazine edited by bestselling anthologist John Joseph Adams. Lightspeed publishes all types of science fiction, from near-future, sociological soft sf, to far-future, star-spanning hard sf, and anything and everything in between. Each month, Lightspeed features a mix of originals and reprints, from a variety of authors - from the bestsellers and award-winners you already know to the best new voices you haven''t heard of yet.

Now, in Lightspeed: Year One, you will find all of the fiction published in Lightspeed''s first year, from new stories such as Nebula Award finalists, Vylar Kaftan''s "I'm Alive, I Love You, I'll See You in Reno" and "Arvies" by Adam-Troy Castro, and Carrie Vaughn''s Hugo Award-nominee "Amaryllis," to classic reprints by Stephen King, Ursula K. Le Guin, George R. R. Martin, and more.


Halo: Primordium by Greg Bear (Tor, Hardcover 01/03/2012) – Bear has an extensive career having penned multiple award winning and nominated novels as well as some well-received shared world/media tie ins, including novels in this series.

A long time ago, I was a living, breathing human being. I went mad. I served my enemies. They became my only friends.

Since then, I’ve traveled back and forth across this galaxy, and out to the spaces between galaxies—a greater reach than any human before me.

You have asked me to tell you about that time. Since you are the last true Reclaimer, I must obey. Are you recording? Good. Because my memory is failing rapidly. I doubt I’ll be able to finish the story.

Once, on my birth-world, a world I knew as Erde-Tyrene, and which now is called Earth, my name was Chakas...

In the wake of apparent self-destruction of the Forerunner empire, two humans—Chakas and Riser—are like flotsam washed up on very strange shores indeed.

Captured by the Master Builder, misplaced during a furious battle in space, they now find themselves on an inverted world where horizons rise into the sky, and where humans of all kinds are trapped in a perilous cycle of horror and neglect. For they have become both research animals and strategic pawns in a cosmic game whose madness knows no end—a game of ancient vengeance between the powers who seeded the galaxy with life, and the Forerunners who expect to inherit their sacred Mantle of duty to all living things.

In the company of a young girl and an old man, Chakas begins an epic journey across a lost and damaged Halo in search of a way home, an explanation for the warrior spirits rising up within, and for the Librarian’s tampering with human destiny.

This journey will take them into the Palace of Pain, the domain of a powerful and monstrous intelligence who claims to be the Last Precursor, and who now has control of both this Halo and the fate of Forerunners and Humans alike.

Called the Captive by Forerunners, and the Primordial by ancient human warriors, this intelligence has taken charge of, and retasked, the Master Builder’s cruel researches into the Flood—which it may have itself unleashed on the galaxy more than ten thousand years before.


The Pillars of Hercules by David Constantine (Nightshade Books, Trade Paperback 03/12/2012) – Constantine is a pseudonym for David J. Williams, author of the Autumn Rain trilogy. This one is a historical fantasy of "the ancient world, as it could have been."

Alexander, Prince of Macedon, is the terror of the world. Persia, Egypt, Athens . . . one after another, mighty nations are falling before the fearsome conqueror. Some say Alexander is actually the son of Zeus, king of the gods, and the living incarnation of Hercules himself. Worse yet, some say Alexander believes this . . . .

The ambitious prince is aided in his conquest by unstoppable war-machines based on the forbidden knowledge of his former tutor, the legendary scientist-mage known as Aristotle. Greek fire, mechanical golems, and gigantic siege-engines lay waste to Alexander''s enemies as his armies march relentlessly west--toward the very edge of the world.

Beyond the Pillars of Hercules, past the gateway to the outer ocean, lies the rumored remnants of Atlantis: ancient artifacts of such tremendous power that they may be all that stands between Alexander and conquest of the entire world. Alexander desires that power for himself, but an unlikely band of fugitives-including a Gaulish barbarian, a cynical Greek archer, a cunning Persian princess, and a sorcerer''s daughter-must find it first . . . before Alexander unleashes godlike forces that will shatter civilization. The Pillars of Hercules is an epic adventure that captures the grandeur and mystery of the ancient world as it might have been, where science and magic are one and the same.


Age of Legend (Time of Legends) edited by Christian Dunn (Black Library, Mass Market Paperback 01/03/2012) – A collection of short stories set in the “Old World” of Warhammer fantasy..


The dark origins of the Warhammer World are soaked in blood. Epic wars between kindred races reshaped continents, vast civilisations rose and fell, the dead walked the earth in legions. This is an age of mighty heroes whose like will never be seen again, such as the mangod Sigmar and Caledor, the Phoenix King of the elves. It is also an era of dread villains like the Witch-King Malekith and Nagash, the Lord of the undead. In these troubled times, dragons still flock the skies and magic exists that can doom or save the world.

It is an age of legend.
CONTENTS

• A Small Victory - Paul S. Kemp
• Bloodraven - Sarah Cawkwell
• City of Dead Jewels - Nick Kyme
• The Last Charge - Andy Hoare
• The Ninth Book - Gav Thorpe
• The Gods Demand - Josh Reynolds
• Plague Doktor - C.L. Werner
• The City is Theirs - Philip Athans
• The Second Sun - Ben Counter
• Aenarion - Gav Thorpe

Deliverance Lost (Horus Heresy) by Gav Thorpe (Black Library, Mass Market Paperback 01/03/2012) – Gav Thorpe has penned a lot of books for the fine folks at Black Library, but this is his first Horus Heresy novel.


As the Horus Heresy divides the Imperium, Corax and his few remaining Raven Guard escape the massacre at Isstvan V. Tending to their wounds, the bloodied Space Marines endeavour to replenish their numbers and return to the fray, taking the fight to the traitor Warmaster. Distraught at the crippling blow dealt to his Legion, Corax returns to Terra to seek the aid of his father – the Emperor of Mankind. Granted access to ancient secrets, Corax begins to rebuild the Raven Guard, planning his revenge against his treacherous brother primarchs. But not all his remaining warriors are who they appear to be… the mysterious Alpha Legion have infiltrated the survivors and plan to destroy the Raven Guard before they can rebuild and threaten Horus’s plans.

The Word Bearers Omnibus by Anthony Reynolds (Black Library , Trade Paperback 01/03/2012) – I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again – the folks at Black Library are great for repackaging the series into handy omnibus format. This is the latest and contains three novels by Anthony Reynolds.

The Word Bearers are among the most feared and reviled of all Chaos Space Marines. Fierce warriors with a fanatical religious zeal, they blaze across the galaxy in the service of their dark gods. Worlds will burn, and entire civilisations will fall before the fury of the XVIIth Legion.

This omnibus is the definitive collection of Anthony Reynolds' popular Word Bearers series, following the cruel exploits and machinations of First Acolyte Marduk and the 34th Host. Gathered together for the first time, the novels Dark Apostle, Dark Disciple and Dark Creed are concluded with the all-new short story Torment.

SFFWorld 2011 Year in Review - Fantasy & Horror

As has been the custom for Mark Yon (aka Hobbit in the SFFWorld Forums) for the past few years, we spent a fair amount of time exchanging e-mails over the past couple of weeks as we hashed out what we thought to be the best genre offerings of 2011. We generally do this recap in three parts, so this year was no exception. The first of three parts has been posted to SFFWorld, so go and take a look:

SFFWorld Review of the Year 2011 part 1 - FANTASY

We also have a thread in our discussion forum where you can join the forum members why we chose the wrong books for our personal top five of the year or where you can tell us how brilliant Mark and I are for covering what we covered.

Also, don't forget to vote for your favorite read of 2011!

I'll be posting my annual review of the year in reading once we hit 2012.

Astounding Apocalypse and Robots!

Mark kept busy during the holidays, posting several reviews while I continued my weekly pace of a review per week.

Mark continues to produce reviews in the same way people breathe – rapidly and without missing a beat. A novel that turned out to be a favorite of his upon completion is the latest: The Astounding, the Amazing and the Unknown by Paul Malmont:

Here’s a great example of a book that mixes real events with fiction, and real people with some fictional.

The real events involve the war work of some of our legendary science fiction writers: Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, L. Sprague de Camp, L. Ron Hubbard. It is well documented in books, such as William H. Patterson’s recent biography of Robert A. Heinlein, that these writers worked together under Heinlein at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyards.

Here things are taken a step further, in that Malmont supposes that in 1943 this gang of intensely serious, studious and gifted authors are actually involved in a covert war mission. The so-called Kamikaze Group, led by Bob, are given the task of turning the science-fictional flights of imagination into something real. Ron and Isaac are employed to create an invisibility paint but really want to make scientist Nikola Tesla’s Wardenclyffe Tower work as a Wunderwaffe, a ‘wonder weapon’. The rumour is that Tesla has made this work, but shut it down following its initial tests. Tesla is now dead, believed by some such as Gernsback as murdered, so its purpose is unclear. Is it an energy beam with unlimited power, a weapon of mass destruction or a means of providing free energy to those who want it? And does it work?

Lots of debuts were published this year, but perhaps the most interesting and ranging group of debut novels were published by Nightshade Books. I haven’t had chance to read all of them, but Rob Ziegler’s Seed, is quite impressive:

The Earth Mother waking and a bleak, dystopic future aren’t new trappings of the genre, but Ziegler’s voice gives these elements a freshness. To this, he’s added a traveling band of nomadic Hispanic youths in the dustbowl-like plains focusing on Brood and his younger brother Pollo who is abducted early in the novel. The chaos continues when a designer once beholden to Satori goes her own way and the government, in the form of agent Sienna Doss, is charged with bringing her back in the hopes of the government regaining control of Satori, and therefore, the United States itself. Along the way, Ziegler brings these separate plot threads together, interweaving them with a skill that belies the fact that Seed is his first published novel.
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The book itself is really a work of art, the cover by Cody Tilson is eye-catching and encapsulates the feel and theme of the book very well. To be balanced, though, at times I felt the narrative to be a little uneven. I know, that seems to be a criticism I use often, but some parts of the novel did not move along as swiftly as the others. Despite that, Seed is an impressive debut and one that hopefully, signals more wonderful things to come from Rob Ziegler’s imaginative voice.

Continuing on his readthrough of classics, Mark had a look at two recently r-issues from the Golden Age of SF. The first of which is the story that gave us the term ‘robot,’ Karel Čapek’s RUR and War with the Newts

To be honest, RUR’s reputation beyond that of creating and using the word ‘robot’ is fairly unimpressive. What is interesting though is the fact that the robots in the play are not metal nor manufactured, as you would perhaps expect these days (and the cover rather misleadingly portrays), but are rather what we would these days call bio-engineered: that is, they are biological, created by biotechnology and, unlike R2-D2 or C-3PO, can be seen as human in appearance, even mistaken for human.

…

Though the book is titled War with the Newts, most of it deals with how the Newts were first met, how they became servile to humans and what led to the war, which actually only take up the last thirty-five pages or so. However when it does happen the war is both sad and weirdly affecting in that such catastrophic events are recounted in such a matter-of-fact manner. The last two sentences of the novel describes what must have been a common feeling at the time of writing: “And then?” “...Then I don’t know what comes next.” (page 349.)

The other Golden Age classic is the story on which the various iterations of the film The Thing is based, Who Goes There by legendary SF editor John Campbell

First published in Astounding in August 1938 (yes, that long ago!) it is a tale of identity and survival in the Antarctic. Scientists and the military discover the body of an alien stranded there. At first assumed to be dead and buried in the ice for millions of years, the alien revives and, in its place of icy isolation, kills its enemy, taking the form of the dead human. The men on the base must kill it before it escapes to repopulate amongst the urban metropolises of Earth, but first they have to determine which one of them is the alien.
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Campbell was only 28 when Who Goes There? was published and it both impresses and reflects this. It is still rather pulpy in style and content, though more thoughtful than the ‘one-bound-and-he-was-free’ style of SF dominant at the time. Characters gasp rather than speak, bound when they could walk, and so on.

Books in the Mail (W/E 2011-12-24)

A few last books before Christmas 2011 to share with you, my faithful readers, this fine day. Christmas being Sunday in 2011 is why this post goes up on Monday rather than the usual Sunday.


Galaxy in Flames(Audio) (Horus Heresy) by Ben Counter and read by Martyn Ellis (Black Library, Abridged CD 7/4/2011) –These audio versions are a lot of fun, as my reviews for Horus Rising and False Gods might suggest. So yeah, I’ll be listening to this one.

Having recovered from his grievous injuries, Warmaster Horus leads the triumphant Imperial forces against the rebel world of Isstvan III. Though the rebels are swiftly crushed, Horus’s treachery is finally revealed when the planet is razed by virus bombs and Space Marines turn on their battle-brothers in the most bitter struggle imaginable. Ben Counter brings the opening trilogy of this bestselling series to explosive life as the Horus Heresy begins!

Shadows in Flight by Orson Scott Card (Tor Hardcvover 01/17/2012)– Who hasn’t read Card’s landmark Ender novels? I went through a phase over a couple of years where I was devouring most of Card’s back catalogue zipping through the Enderverse. I made it through a few of the Bean sequels before stopping. I liked Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead very much and they still stand pretty high in my mind. Of course many people will say Card is milking the Ender franchise for everything he can. This is the second book following Shadow of the Giant.


Ender’s Shadow explores the stars in this all-new novel...

At the end of Shadow of the Giant, Bean flees to the stars with three of his children--the three who share the engineered genes that gave him both hyper-intelligence and a short, cruel physical life. The time dilation granted by the speed of their travel gives Earth’s scientists generations to seek a cure, to no avail. In time, they are forgotten--a fading ansible signal speaking of events lost to Earth’s history. But the Delphikis are about to make a discovery that will let them save themselves, and perhaps all of humanity in days to come.

For there in space before them lies a derelict Formic colony ship. Aboard it, they will find both death and wonders--the life support that is failing on their own ship, room to grow, and labs in which to explore their own genetic anomaly and the mysterious disease that killed the ship’s colony.




And Blue Skies From Pain (Fey and the Fallen Volume 2) by Stina Leicht (Night Shade Books Trade Paperback 03/17/2012) – The second book in Leicht’s well-received urban fantasy series.

It's November of 1977: The punk rock movement is a year old and the brutal thirty-year war referred to as "The Troubles" is escalating. According to Irish tradition, the month of November is a time for remembrance of the dead. Liam Kelly, in particular, wishes it were otherwise. Born a Catholic in Londonderry/Derry, Northern Ireland, Liam, a former wheelman for the Provisional IRA, is only half mortal. His father is Bran, a puca - a shape-shifting, ghostlike creature - and a member of the ancient Fianna. Liam must dodge both the Royal Ulster Constabulary, who want him for the car bombing that killed Constable Haddock, and the Provisional IRA, who want him for the deaths of Éamon Walsh and several others found ripped apart in a burned down farmhouse in Armagh. Fortunately for Liam, both the Ulster Constabulary and the Provisional IRA think he's dead. On the other hand, the Militis Dei - a group of Roman Catholic priest-assassins, whose sole purpose is to dispose of fallen angels and demons found living on this earth - is very aware that Liam is alive, and very aware of his preternatural parentage. With the help of his unlikely ally Father Murray - a Militis Dei operative who has known Liam since childhood - he must convince the Church that he and his fey brethren aren't demonic in origin, and aren't allied with The Fallen.

Jane Carver of Waar by Nathan Long (Night Shade Books Trade Paperback 03/17/2012) – Long’s been plying his writerly trade for quite a while now, having written numerous novels in the Warhammer milieu as well as some writing for TV. This book looks like a lot of fun and a psin on the John Carter of Mars story.

Jane's having a bad day. On the run from the cops after accidentally killing a pervert outside her favorite biker bar, she first had to ditch her beloved Harley in a swimming pool, and then the weird, glowing gadget she found in the cave in which she decided to hide appears to have transported her to another planet... a planet with a Tidy Bowl-blue sky, a fat orange sun, and bizarre blue shrubbery. A planet where Jane encounters a gang of nearly naked purple men in gold cloaks beating the crap out of a bunch of other nearly naked purple men in red cloaks. A planet rife with slavery, feudalism, monsters, pirates, and priests. What's a biker girl to do in a strange, savage land? Kick a little ass, of course!

From Nathan Long, author of the Warhammer novels Orcslayer, Tainted Blood, and Bloodborn, comes Jane Carver of Waar, a pulpy adventure with a very contemporary heroine.


The Doctor and the Kid by Mike Resnick (Pyr, Trade Paperback 12/07/2010) – Resnick’s second weird western featuring Doc Holliday and Billy the Kid.

The time is 1882. With the Gunfight at the O. K. Corral and the battle with the thing that used to be Johnny Ringo behind him (see The Buntline Special), the consumptive Doc Holliday makes his way to Deadwood, Colorado, with Kate Elder, where he plans to spend the rest of his brief life, finally moving into the luxurious facility that specializes in his disease.

But one night he gets a little too drunk—hardly a novelty for him—and loses everything he has at the gaming table. He realizes that he needs to replenish his bankroll, and quickly, so that he can live out his days in comfort under medical care. He considers his options and hits upon the one most likely to produce income in a hurry: he’ll use his skill as a shootist and turn bounty hunter.

The biggest reward is for the death of the young, twenty-year-old desperado known as Billy the Kid. It’s clear from the odds the Kid has faced and beaten, his miraculous escape from prison, and his friendship with the Indian tribes of New Mexico that he is protected by some powerful magic. Doc enlists the aid of both magic (Geronimo) and science (Thomas Edison), and goes out after his quarry. He will hunt the Kid down, and either kill him and claim the reward or die in the process and at least end his own suffering.

But as he is soon to find out, nothing is as easy as it looks.

Christmas Spirits

The chances of me posting here before Christmas again is quite slim, so I’ll take the time now to highlight a review of Mark did of an odd-bird of a Christmas story from, of all writers, Whitley Strieber. The Christmas Spirits is a short novelette/novella published in an e-only version, here’s the usual link, cover, and review excerpt:

Here’s a brief novella that’s A Christmas Carol revisited but given a topical update and a slightly more SF slant for good measure.

George Moore is a futures trader who runs the hard-ass firm of Moore Futures. At a time of good will, George has very little. To him, Christmas is an irrelevance that gets in the way of making money 24 hours a day, and George is an exemplary worker. This also applies to them around him. His assistant Megan is refused permission to go home early on Christmas Eve, even though she has Charlie, her autistic son to look after. However George is due a surprise this Christmas. When George gets home, he finds his late employer Bill Hill, who warns him of three visitors due that night to show George Christmases past, present and possible future, and that his life needs to change and not make the mistake deceased Bill made in his lifetime...

You might have heard of this one, before, right?

Some other Christmas Cheer, in the form of Christmas/Holiday themed beer labels

DEADLINE, 11/22/63, and Ciaphas Cain Reviewed at SFFWorld

We’ve got a few new reviews up at SFFWorld, three of which I’ll mention in today’s blog post.

I’ll start with my review…which is the second book in a trilogy that has fast become an addictive read that is ranking among my recent favorites. Deadline, is the second novel in Mira Grant’s Newsflesh trilogy:

It isn’t long before the conspiracy hinted at in the first volume comes to the forefront as a supposedly dead scientist, Kelly Connolly, from the CDC comes a knocking asking for Shaun’s help in unraveling the conspiracy that has killed many of the people Shaun loved and is controlling the world. In a world where the zombies are the result of the Kellis-Amberle virus, itself a combination of two virus cures – essentially a disease – the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is the most powerful organization in the world. With that in mind, Shaun and his team, including Rebecca “Becks” Atherton, Maggie Garcia, Alaric Kwong, Dave, and Mahir are logically a bit skeptical about Kelly’s claims. She was after all part of the organization, and her death was faked with the help of some of her colleagues.
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This is most assuredly not a typical Middle Book and to sum it up, partly because of the superb pace, partly because revealing the deepening plot would cushion the impact of the novel’s power. What I found to be very impressive on Grant’s part was how, despite both novels in the Newsflesh Trilogy utilizing the first person narrative, she was able to really set Shaun’s voice apart from George’s. In that respect, Grant’s ability at giving readers engaging, believable and unique characters is superb.

Stephen King needs no introduction. His most recent stuff has been hit or miss for many, but Mark had a good look at 11/22/63 his latest novel involving time travel and the JFK assassination:

In a slight change to most of his other fiction, this time around, 11.22.63 attempts the difficult task of merging real life events as an important element of King’s fictional world. It involves a topic of global significance but one, like the Vietnam War, that still cuts the American psyche most keenly. The assassination of a President is always shocking, but this one especially so when it happened so clearly in the full glare of the media. It also happened in the President’s own country, not whilst visiting somewhere else, at a time filled with optimism.

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The story, in its bare outline, is pretty self-explanatory. Told in the first person, it is the story of Jake Epping is a High School teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine (where else?), who is asked to meet a friend, the local greasy-spoon owner Al Templeton, who wants a favour. Jake goes to the cafe to find that, overnight, Al has aged. What we find out is that this is an older Al, who tells Jake that he’s just spent years in the past, though only two minutes (‘it’s always two minutes’) have gone now. In his larder Al has a portal that links to Lisbon Falls 1958. Jake now has the chance to go back and change history: to stop President Kennedy being shot in 1963. Jake goes back to small-town America of the 1950’s, first as a trial then for real, revelling in the relative simplicity of life there – the look, the sounds, the peacefulness, the politeness – and falls in love with colleague Sadie Dunhill, whilst all the time preparing to alter history.

Last, but not least, Kathryn (aka Loerwyn) dove into Sandy Mitchell’s first omnibus Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium, and had some good things to say:

In this collection, Cain meets a variety of the Emperor's enemies – The Tau, the Chaos, the Tyranids, the Orks and the Necrons – but he also becomes involved with the most dreaded and destructive of all things, politics. With support from his malodorous aide Jurgen, the Inquisition, a Lord General of the Imperial Guard as well as the Valhallan 597th to which he attached himself, Ciaphas manages to escape a premature death countless times. Despite his self-depreciative attitude, he proves to be more than capable as a Commissar, inspiring those around him and ensuring victory in the name of the Emperor.

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Mitchell is quite clear in his writing style, and it fits the book perfectly. I rarely found myself puzzled over the events or the dialogue. The combat scenes, of which there are many, were largely clear and seemed believable in both their length and their brutality, but the descriptions of the violence never went beyond what was necessary. The same applies to the descriptions of characters, in that we weren't told everything about them, just some basics. This meant confusing the different characters' identities wasn't particularly an issue, especially as the core cast was largely the same through the three novels. I can't say I found it perfect, however. Due to the novels being interconnected yet standalone, there's a lot of repetition of basic facts. We are frequently reminded in each novel that Jurgen has a distinctive smell, for example, sometimes to the point of it being reiterated a number of times per archive.

Books in the Mail (W/E 2011-12-17)

With the year drawing to a close, publishers are continuing to push their early releases for the next year. This week's arrivials were brought to me (and you, my faithful readers) from the fine folks at Tor and DAW.

Arctic Rising by Tobias S. Buckell (Tor (Hardcover 02/28/2012) – I’ve enjoyed just about everything I’ve read by Tobias Buckell, his Xenowealth novels (Crystal Rain, Ragamuffin, and Sly Mongoose) and the handful of short stories I read by him. This is, seemingly, a bit of a departure from his linked Caribbean flavored Space-Opera/Voodo Punk novels, but I expect Arctic Rising (the first ARC I’ve received for my Kindle) to be good nonetheless.

Global warming has transformed the Earth, and it's about to get even hotter. The Arctic Ice Cap has all but melted, and the international community is racing desperately to claim the massive amounts of oil beneath the newly accessible ocean.

Enter the Gaia Corporation. Its two founders have come up with a plan to roll back global warming. Thousands of tiny mirrors floating in the air can create a giant sunshade, capable of redirecting heat and cooling the earth's surface. They plan to terraform Earth to save it from itself—but in doing so, they have created a superweapon the likes of which the world has never seen.

Anika Duncan is an airship pilot for the underfunded United Nations Polar Guard. She’s intent on capturing a smuggled nuclear weapon that has made it into the Polar Circle and bringing the smugglers to justice.

Anika finds herself caught up in a plot by a cabal of military agencies and corporations who want Gaia Corporation stopped. But when Gaia Corp loses control of their superweapon, it will be Anika who has to decide the future of the world. The nuclear weapon she has risked her life to find is the only thing that can stop the floating sunshade after it falls into the wrong hands.

Immobility by Brian Evenson (Tor (Hardcover 04/12/2012) – This is Evenson’s first novel with a major publisher, he’s written some acclaimed horror in recent years both in short and novel form.

A far-future thriller that looks at a post human world struggling to stay human.

You open your eyes for what you know is not the first time and you remember nothing. You find out that a catastrophic event known as the Kollaps has destroyed life as we know it.

Suddenly someone claiming to be your friend tells you you're needed. Something crucial has been stolen — but under no circumstances can you know what or why. You've got to get it back or something bad is going to happen. And you've got to get it back fast, so they can freeze you again before your own time runs out.

Paralyzed from the waist down, you're being carried around on the backs of two men who don't seem anything like you at all. Who inject you regularly and tell you its for your own good... to stop the disease, or else they must cut directly into your spine.

Welcome to the life of Josef Horkai...
Critically-acclaimed and O. Henry prize-winning author Brian Evenson turns his literary eye to a post apocalyptic earth in this dazzling science fiction novel, his debut original work for a major publisher.


Sisterhod of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson (Tor (Hardcover 01/12/2012) – Another in the long line of Dune stories told by KJA and Frank Herbert’s son, Brian. I’ve only read the very first Dune by Frank Herbert, but since I haven’t read any of the books by KJA and Jr, I’ll not say anything.

It is eighty-three years after the last of the thinking machines were destroyed in the Battle of Corrin, after Faykan Butler took the name of Corrino and established himself as the first Emperor of a new Imperium. Great changes are brewing that will shape and twist all of humankind.

The war hero Vorian Atreides has turned his back on politics and Salusa Secundus. The descendants of Abulurd Harkonnen Griffen and Valya have sworn vengeance against Vor, blaming him for the downfall of their fortunes. Raquella Berto-Anirul has formed the Bene Gesserit School on the jungle planet Rossak as the first Reverend Mother. The descendants of Aurelius Venport and Norma Cenva have built Venport Holdings, using mutated, spice-saturated Navigators who fly precursors of Heighliners. Gilbertus Albans, the ward of the hated Erasmus, is teaching humans to become Mentats…and hiding an unbelievable secret.

The Butlerian movement, rabidly opposed to all forms of “dangerous technology,” is led by Manford Torondo and his devoted Swordmaster, Anari Idaho. And it is this group, so many decades after the defeat of the thinking machines, which begins to sweep across the known universe in mobs, millions strong, destroying everything in its path.

Every one of these characters, and all of these groups, will become enmeshed in the contest between Reason and Faith. All of them will be forced to choose sides in the inevitable crusade that could destroy humankind forever….


Sins of the Demon (Kara Gillian, Book 4) by Diana Rowland (DAW Mass Market 1/03/2012)– Fourth in a series about vampire hunter on the police force and second after a publisher switch (rare in the middle of a series) from Bantam to DAW.

The homicide beat in Louisiana isn't just terrifying, it's demonic. Detective Kara Gilligan of the supernatural task force has the ability to summon demons to her aid, but she herself is pledged to serve a demonic lord. And now, people who've hurt Kara in the past are dropping dead for no apparent reason. To clear her name and save both the demon and human worlds, she's in a race against the clock and in a battle for her life that just may take her to hell and back.


Leaves of Flame by Benjamin Tate (DAW, Paperback 01/03/2011) –Sequel to Tate’s previous novel, which is still on the stack. These are flying under the radar (and in my terms, not discussed all that much at SFFWorld), and I plan to read at least the first book in this series sooner rather than later.


One hundred years have passed since Colin Harten--transformed to something more than human by the magic of the lifeblood contained in the Well of Sorrows--used his new powers to broker a peace agreement between the human, dwarren, and Alvritshai races of Wrath Suvane. Since then all three races have greatly expanded their empires. And Colin has continuously sought ways to defeat the dark spirits known as the sukrael--and the Wraiths they have created to act for them in the physical world. Yet Colin has not been able to prevent the dark spirits from reawakening more and more Wells, thus extending their power across the lands.

Having mastered three of the five magics of Wrath Suvane, Colin has gifted each race with a magical Tree to protect them from incursionso f the dark forces. He has also realized that unless a certain number of the Wells are left open, their magic can never be stabilized, and the land will be torn apart by this uncontrolled force.

But now the enemy has located the one Well that is key to controlling the entire network, and if Colin can't find a means to stop them from claiming and activating this Well, it could mean the end of all three races...

House Name (The House Wars Book 3) by Michelle West (DAW Hardcover 01/03/2011) – HOUSE NAME is the third novel in The House War, the series that began with The Hidden City and City of Night. Set in the same rich fantasy universe as Michelle West’s Sacred Hunt duology and her six-book Sun Sword series, the House War novels recount the events leading to the momentous battle between the demonic minions of the Lord of the Hells and defenders of the Essalieyan Empire–a realm with a long and bloody history. The empire is ruled by the Twin Kings, themselves the sons of gods. It is also controlled by The Ten, the heads of the most influential Houses in Averalaan, the capital of the Empire.
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But The House War focuses no only on the larger war but also on the campaign to control the most powerful of the ruling Houses in the Essalieyan Empire–House Terafin.

As House Name opens, former street orphan Jewel and her den have been given shelter in House Terafin. The price for them to remain there is that Jewel must prove her value to the House. And saving The Terafin, the ruler of the House, from a demonic assassination attempt is certainly a good start.

Now Jewel has been assigned the task of finding the entryways to the ancient undercity that lies beneath the streets of the empire’s capital, Averalaan. But even with the aid of the most powerful First Circle Mage of the Order of Knowledge, Jewel’s search seems hopeless. All of the ways into the undercity seem to be magically disappearing before Jewel can lead the mage to them. And if they can’t find a means to reach the undercity, they will not be able to prevent the demon kin from whatever attack they are planning.

Not only does Jewel fear that failure on her part will see her den expelled from House Terafin, but she has been troubled by grim visions of the future–visions of the death and destruction of all she has come to hold dear.

Yet is is not until the unthinkable happens–a direct attack on House Terafin–that the stakes are raised to a whole new level. And both Jewel and the Terafin can only hope that it is not already too late to prevent the demon kin from reaching the goal they have worked centuries to achieve–the return of the Lord of the Hells to the mortal realm…..


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

Hundreds of years in the future, after the collapse of the Western world, young Menelaus Illation Montrose grows up in what was once Texas as a gunslinging duelist for hire. But Montrose is also a mathematical genius—and a romantic who dreams of a future in which humanity rises from the ashes to take its place among the stars.

The chance to help usher in that future comes when Montrose is recruited for a manned interstellar mission to investigate an artifact of alien origin. Known as the Monument, the artifact is inscribed with data so complex, only a posthuman mind can decipher it. So Montrose does the unthinkable: he injects himself with a dangerous biochemical drug designed to boost his already formidable intellect to superhuman intelligence. It drives him mad.

Nearly two centuries later, his sanity restored, Montrose is awakened from cryo-suspension with no memory of his posthuman actions, to find Earth transformed in strange and disturbing ways, and learns that the Monument still carries a secret he must decode—one that will define humanity’s true future in the universe.

Jackal, Blackdog, and Dragons - New SFFWorld Reviews

Here we are, another Tuesday at the Blog o’ Stuff and that means some new reviews to mention that have recently been posted to SFFWorld.

Chris Wooding has been one of the more discussed writers at SFFWorld lately, and he’s just published The Iron Jackal, the third Tales of the Ketty Jay novel, which Mark liked a lot :

The heist occurs, though it is unexpectedly messier than anticipated. The artefact is taken and foolishly taken out of its transport case by Darian. A two-bladed sword, the object stabs Darian’s hand and gives him a ‘black spot’, something that, it is told, will kill him. As the tale unfolds, things get complicated for Darian and this has consequences for his motley crew.

If I had any complaints this time around, and I am struggling a little, really, it’s that this time around, more so than at any time previous, I’m noticing the joins a little more. The train heist is reminiscent of the Firefly TV episode The Train Job, the roof chase Jason Bourne, the Thief of Baghdad or Hitchcock’s Vertigo. It’s very well done, it’s clearly an homage, yet unlike previous books in the series, in places I’m getting that feeling of ‘been here before’. Though some of the events here are pretty much telegraphed before they happen, it’s like watching the inevitability of a car crash that keeps you reading.

Standalone fantasy novels, not part of any series, are a rare beast in the genre. That is just one element that makes K.V. Johansen’s Blackdog stand out from the crowd. I posted my review of Blackdog today, which I thought was impressive in its mythic resonance:

Where to begin? I suppose the world itself is good enough – Johansen has created a world that resonates with ancient powers and oozes with mythic resonance. I recall one of my college courses – World Mythology – and the text of world myths on the reading list. Johansen’s novel seems as if it could fit right in with those stories, though thankfully for us as readers she’s fleshed out the bones of the myth, added muscle, organs, and more life to the story to make a compelling novel. It should, then, come as no surprise Johansen’s academic background is Medieval Studies. The knowledge and passion, she has for ancient text comes through very well in the narrative energy of the story and world she created.

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Johansen’s hook of showing a goddess coming into her maturity is slightly different in that her protagonist is not just an avatar, but the Goddess herself. That fascinating conceit and the requisite storytelling, characters and world-building back up that hook very nicely. Am I stating the stories are similar? No, not exactly, but the vein of myth coming to life and immensely powerful beings striding alongside the common man is similar. Where Johansen’s storytelling, characters and overall ‘feel’ of the novel finds the most similarity, for me, is in Glen Cook’s writing. The raw and almost primitive milieu reminded me a bit of Cook’s Darkwar.

Mark posted his review The Cardinal's Blades, the first in a series that has been called 'The Three Musketeers with dragons’:

The Cardinal’s Blades are the legendary group rumoured to have carried out secret missions on the cardinal’s behalf. Disbanded after some 'nasty business during the siege of La Rochelle’, Richelieu and the Crown have need of them again, as there are signs that the Black Claw, a dragon-led secret society, are up to no good, dealing in secret with France’s enemy, Spain. Led by the beautiful-blonde-looking Vicomtesse de Malicorne, the Black Claw are the Blades’ nemesis in this tale.

The first part of the novel therefore introduces us, in the third person, to the original members of the group, led by Captain LaFargue, as they are summoned to return to Paris. This means that we meet a motley group of superb swordsmen and women, all currently pursuing alternative lifestyles. We’re introduced to the characters that make up the band. These include Nicolas Marciac, who spends his time running up debts and duelling, living off the money he makes in such matters. Red spectacle-wearing Saint Lucq is a half-dragon, half human assassin. Arnaud de Laincourt is a Blade suspected of being a traitor to France. We have to add to this a strong heroine, Baroness Agnes de Vaudreuil. The weak point for me was the unfortunately named LePrat (who manages to get injured!) is a bit of a misstep, though clearly just one of those names that just translates badly internationally...

Books in the Mail (W/E 2011-12-10)

A batch of December books from the fine folks at Night Shade Books plus a couple of other odds and ends from some of the usual suspects.

The Daemon Prism (A Novel of the Collegia Magica #3) by Carol Berg (Roc, Trade Paperback 01/03/2011) – Berg has been on my radar for a couple of years, even more so over the past year as a few SFFWorld forum members whose opinion I trust (Erfael, NickeeCoco, and suciul specifically) have recently been raving about her work. Yet another author who I want to remove from my unread list.

“Thou’rt Fallen, Dante. Born in frost-cold blood; suckled on pain. Thy repentance was ever a lie…”

Dante the necromancer is the most reviled man in Sabria, indicted by the King, the Temple, and the Camarilla Magica for crimes against the living and the dead. Yet no judgment could be worse than his enemies’ cruel vengeance that left him crippled in body and mind. Dante seeks to salve pain and bitterness with a magical puzzle - a desperate soldier’s dream of an imprisoned enchantress and a faceted glass that can fill one’s uttermost desires.

But the dream is a seductive trap that ensnares Dante’s one-time partners and unlocks his own deepest fears. Haunted, blind, driven to the verges of the world, Dante risks eternal corruption and the loss of everything he values to unravel a mystery of ancient magic, sacred legend, and divine truth…

An Ill Fate Marshalling (The Last Chronicle of the Dread Empire Volume II) by Glen Cook (Night Shade Books Trade Paperback 12/06/2011) – I read the first two omnibus editions Night Shade published A Cruel Wind and A Fortress in Shadow a couple of years ago so it is very nice to see Night Shade continuing to publish the series, especially this new one.

King Bragi Ragnorson decides to join Chatelain Mist's coup against the Dread Empire. Varhlokkur - the King's wizard - tries to dissuade Ragnorson from this chosen path, but only the drum-beat of war is heard. The King's Spymaster Michael Trebilcock joins with the wizard to stave off The Ill Fate Marshaling, to no effect.

Many of the characters from past volumes take center stage, and the climatic events of this book shake the world of the Dread Empire to its very core, creating A Path to Coldness of Heart. Glen Cook's final Dread Empire novel was to have been published 20 years ago, but the manuscript was stolen, and the fate of The Dread Empire has been in Limbo - until now! Night Shade is proud to present the long delayed final Dread Empire Trilogy, of which An Ill Fate Marshaling is Volume 2.

Between Their Worlds (The Twelfth Novel of the Noble Dead) by Barb and J.C. Hendee (Roc, Hardcover 01/03/2011) – Another year passes, and almost exactly to the date, the prolific Hendees publish another installment in their Vampire Epic Fantasy saga. I’d wanted to read the first one for a while, but it keeps getting pushed back.

Here’s the snippet:

Magiere and Leesil must rescue Wynn Hygeort from her captivity in the Guild of Sagecraft. But Wynn doesn't want to give up access to the ancient scrolls that may help them locate the last of the magical Orbs coveted by the Ancient Enemy.

Of Limited Loyalty (The Second Book of The Crown Colonies) by Michael A. Stackpole (Night Shade Books Trade Paperback 12/06/2011) – Michael Stackpole is one of the more prolific genre authors currently being published. What I’ve read by him I enjoyed, though it is only a small portion of what he’s written. Between the various writing projects and his podcasts, I wonder if he ever sleeps. I have a copy of the first in the series (when it was a free Kindle book) so I may just get to this series which seems to have thematic similarities to Naomi Novik’s Temeraire books. .


1767. In the three years since defeating the Tharyngians at Anvil Lake, The Crown Colonies of Mystria have prospered. Colonists, whether hunting for new land or the Promised Land of prophecy, have pushed beyond the bounds of charters granted by the Queen of Norisle. Some of these new communities have even had the temerity to tell the Crown they are no longer subject to its authorities. To survey the full extent of the western expansion, the Crown has sent Colonel Ian Rathfield to join Nathaniel Woods, Owen Strake, and Kamiskwa on an expedition into the Mystrian interior. They discover a land full of isolated and unique communities, each shaped in accord with the ideals of the founders. Conflicts abound among them, and old enemies show up at the least useful moments. Worse yet, lurking out there is a menace which the Twilight People only know from folklore as the Antedeluvians; and westward penetration stumbles into their lands and awakens them. Alerted to this threat by his men, Prince Vlad petitions the Crown to send troops and supplies to destroy this new and terrifying enemy. The Crown refuses, citing massive debts from the last war. They dismiss Vlad''s claims as fantasy, and impose a series of taxes on Mystrian trade to finance their own recovery. Faced with fighting an inhuman foe in a land seething with resentment against the Crown, Vlad must unite the Colonies in a common cause, or preside over their complete destruction.


Rise of Empire (Riyria Revelations Omnibus #2) by Michael J. Sullivan (Orbit, Trade Paperback 12/14/2011) – The second of the wide release of Sullivan’s popular Riyria Revelations series. I thoroughly enjoyed, the first OmnibusTheft of Swords and recently interviewed Michael

The adventure continues as Royce and Hadrian aid the struggling kingdom of Melengar as it alone stands in defiance against the newly formed empire. War approaches and a desperate gamble behind enemy lines is their only chance at forming an alliance with the Nationalists to the south.

But Royce has plans of his own as he uses this opportunity to discover if an ancient wizard is using Riyria as pawns in his own bid for power. To find the truth, Royce must unravel Hadrian's hidden past. What he discovers will lead them to the end of the known world, on a journey rife with treachery and intrigue.


When author Michael J. Sullivan self-published the first books of his Riyria Revelations, they rapidly became ebook bestsellers. Now, Orbit is pleased to present the complete series for the first time in bookstores everywhere.

The Emperor's Knife (Book One of The Tower and the Knife Trilogy) by Mazarkis Williams (Nightshade Books, Hardcover 12/06/2011) – Debut novel, which was published earlier in the year in the UK, which has drawn some comparisons to Robin Hobb and Daniel Abraham. Yet another debut from Night Shade which is generating a great deal of positive buzz on teh intarwebs.

There is a cancer at the heart of the mighty Cerani Empire: a plague that attacks young and old, rich and poor alike. Geometric patterns spread across the skin, until you die in agony, or become a Carrier, doing the bidding of an evil intelligence, the Pattern Master. Anyone showing the tell-tale marks is put to death; that is Emperor Beyon''s law...but now the pattern is running over the Emperor''s own arms. His body servants have been executed, he ignores his wives, but he is doomed, for soon the pattern will reach his face. While Beyon''s agents scour the land for a cure, Sarmin, the Emperor''s only surviving brother, awaits his bride, Mesema, a windreader from the northern plains. Unused to the Imperial Court''s stifling protocols and deadly intrigues, Mesema has no one to turn to but an ageing imperial assassin, the Emperor''s Knife. As long-planned conspiracies boil over into open violence, the invincible Pattern Master appears from the deep desert. Now only three people stand in his way: a lost prince, a world-weary killer, and a young girl from the steppes who saw a path in a pattern once, among the waving grasses - a path that just might save them all!

Mazarkis Williams is a writer with roots in both the US and UK, having worked in and been educated in both countries. Each year is divided between Boston and Bristol and a teleport booth is always top of the Christmas wish-list.

Mazarkis has degrees in history and physics with a diverse set of interests accumulated while misspending a hectic youth. Cooking has always been a passion and in addition to feeding six children and a sizable herd of cats Mazarkis regularly caters for crowds of permanently hungry friends.

The Emperor's Knife is Mazarkis' first novel.