REVIEW: I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore
Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Puffin (26 Aug 2010)
ISBN-10: 0141332476
ISBN-13: 978-0141332475
Reviewer: Cara
Copy: Bought online

From the back of the book:
In the beginning we were nine. We left when we were very young, almost too young to remember. Almost. And now . . . Three are gone. We are here to keep our race alive, which was almost entirely obliterated. We’re just trying to survive. Six are left. But we are hunted, and the hunters won’t stop until they’ve killed us all. They caught Number One in Malaysia. Number Two in England. And Number Three in Kenya. I am Number Four. I know that I am next.

There is a small announcement on the front cover of this book “soon to be a major film” which, had I noticed when I bought the book online may have dissuaded me from purchasing it. For I Am Number Four follows the tried and tested standard Hollywood teen blockbuster format. The author, Pittacus Lore, is described as “a Lorien Elder, who was entrusted with the study of the Lorien Nine”. In reality it is the pseudonym of James Frey and Jobie Hughes, James Frey being the notorious author of the memoir A Million Little Pieces.

Teen alien, John Smith, with nascent superpowers, is on the run from his planet’s enemies, the Mogadorians who have followed him and eight others to Earth. There is a protective charm which means that the nine Loriens must be killed in order… the first three have been discovered and eliminated; now it is John’s turn. Since arriving on Earth he has lived with his protector, Henri, moving around the US, keeping one step ahead of the Mogadorians. He has avoided forming relationships, always aware of the need to leave at short notice, until he reaches Paradise, Ohio. Here he meets and falls for Sarah, the pretty blonde girlfriend of the high school quarterback. He also makes friends with the class nerd, Sam. John wants to stop running from his enemies and settle down for a while.

So there is not much originality in the plot, in a lot of ways I Am Number Four is almost a Twilight for boys as there is plenty of explosions and kick-ass action to balance the romance angle. Yet, despite the clichés, it is a surprisingly entertaining read. John’s dreams of Lorien, his home planet, give us a feel for his legacy and why it is so important that he survives. The fight scenes are also well done, reminiscent of Buffy I thought. I found the relationship between John and Henri interesting as the latter developed from protector to mentor through the book. The mutual respect between the pair was clear without becoming sentimental. Sam too was an endearing character; the archetypal nerd who acted as a foil to John’s undercover alien superhero persona. Watch out for Bernie Kosar, a rather cute beagle who befriends John…

What I didn’t like was the depiction of Sarah as the love interest. Of all the characters, she was the most one-dimensional and a bit too good-to-be-true. There were few female roles and she was too sickly sweet for my taste. Not a good role model despite her having given up cheer-leading to become more of an individual – I imagine she will be wearing a lot of pink in the movie. There was also a tendency for John’s various powers to emerge just when the situation required them. This, to me, smacked of laziness on the part of the writers, a handy plot device that was misused once too often. However, I Am Number Four is aimed at a male teen readership and anything that gets this age group interested in science fiction, no matter how clichéd or simplistic, can only be a good thing. There were sufficient action sequences to hold the Wii/X-box generation attention span and social issues such as being the new kid at school and bullying were handled well.

Overall I enjoyed I Am Number Four and it kept me entertained on a sunny afternoon in the garden when I wanted something light to read that required little effort on my part. I am not the target audience, however, so the flaws were blatantly obvious to me, but these did not distract or irritate me as much as Twilight (I couldn’t finish that book!). I will be passing I Am Number Four on to my nephew, aged 12 and will be interested to see what he makes of it.

Plot: 7
Characters: 5
Style: 6

Rating 6/10

REVIEW: Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Publishing Information: Paperback; 416 pages
Publisher: Tor Books 29 September 2009
ISBN 10: 0765318415
ISBN 13: 978-0765318411
Standalone
Copy: out of pocket
Reviewer: Tyson

Back of the Book: "In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska’s ice. Thus was Dr. Blue’s Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born. But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead. Now it is sixteen years later, and a wall has been built to enclose the devastated and toxic city. Just beyond it lives Blue’s widow, Briar Wilkes. Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenaged boy to support, but she and Ezekiel are managing. Until Ezekiel undertakes a secret crusade to rewrite history. His quest will take him under the wall and into a city teeming with ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords, and heavily armed refugees. And only Briar can bring him out alive."


When I learned that there was a steam punk novel called Boneshaker based in my hometown of Seattle I quickly ordered it. The thought of zombies stumbling through downtown appealed to me. While I have not read a lot of steam punk, mainly Chris Wooding, I had hoped to expand my author base and experience with the sub-genre.

Priest does an excellent job of showing the reader Seattle as it was during that time in history (with a few minor changes to drive her story). Anyone who has lived or visited Seattle will easily recognize the landmarks and geographical areas that are portrayed in the book. As I read Boneshaker I returned to seattle as everything was written with vivid clarity. Priest does an excellent job of world building.

The characters were a bit off for me. Deep down it is about a mother's love for her child and while that is something everyone can associate with. Boneshaker did not get it done for me personally. I found Ezekiel to be stubborn and idiotic, every choice he made confounded me. He was portrayed as a street kid with street smarts; however, once he crosses over the wall he forgets all that he has learned about being a kid surviving on his wits in the streets of Seattle and makes mistake after terrible mistake.

The pacing of Boneshaker was well done, there are a few lulls in the novel but, Priests quickly builds things back up to a frenzy. A few plot points were also a bit obvious which knocked my opinion of the book down a few notches.

While the premise of Boneshaker was intriguing and the location was familiar to me, I ended up looking to see how many pages were left in the novel so that I could go on to something else. My major complaint with Priest's Boneshaker was that I never had an investment in the characters and their predicament.

Plot 6.5
Characterization 5
Style 7.5

Overall 6/10

REVIEW: Animythical Tales by Sarah Totton

Animythical Tales by Sarah Totton
Publishing Information: Paperback; 126 pages
Publisher: Fantastic Books (27 February 2010)
ISBN 10: 1604599324
ISBN 13: 978-1604599329
Standalone
Copies: Provided by author
Reviewers: Yagiz and Tyson

"In this elegant volume, award-winning author Sarah Totton takes her readers on speculative journeys of the heart and mind that will both challenge and engage you. Within these tales, readers will learn the meaning of darkness and pain and fear. Yet they will also learn about love and happiness and laughter. Sarah Totton explores the full kaleidoscope of the human heart and peels it back, one layer at a time. She offers her readers a full palette of emotions and stories to sift through, never settling, never holding back, and never flinching. Whether she is writing about the loss of innocence through dark revelations, the point to which a human mind can be stretched before succumbing to the magic of faerie, or something as preposterous as cloud-fishing in a world with pink yaks, the stories in Animythical Tales are always told with an eye toward revealing something important about the human condition. If you have ever yearned to fall into fabulous adventures in unforgettable worlds, Animythical Tales is the collection for you."

Tyson

Sarah Totton's Animythical Tales is a collection of 10 short stories from various speculative fiction magazines and collections. Many of which are award winning stories or at the very least runners-up. Every story in the collection is terrific and nearly every one of them has a twist.

I like the cover to the collection. The Entry of the Animals into Noah's Ark by Jan Brueghel is not the usual fare and in a strange way seems to work with the stories contained within.

My two favorite short stories in the collection are A Sip From the Cup of Enlightenment and Flatrock Sunners. In A Sip From Cup of Enlightenment, Totton tackles the subject of organised religion and the myth of the Holy Grail. I loved the intrigue and the characters in the book as we are slowly edging towards the truth and the unexpected twist at the end was great.

The story Flatrock Sunners, was just odd and completely different from what I had expected. The background story was interesting and the creatures that are featured in the story where just different from what I had encountered before. The premise of the story was also very enjoyable. Again, the story had a satisfying ending.

While this is not a collection that I would have picked out by myself, I can say that I really enjoyed the short stories contained within Animythical Tales. It is a break way from the norm and I am happy that I decided to read it.

Plot 7
Characters 7
Style 7

Overall 7/10

Yagiz

In an e-mail conversation, the author used the following statement to describe Animythical Tales: "The collection comprises ten animal-themed fantasy stories with a surreal, dark or absurd twist (imagine Salvador Dalí's artwork as stories)".

I love Salvador Dalí's paintings. There's something captivating and fascinating in their surrealist themes. And to my delight, I found similar traits in most of Sarah Totton's stories.

The first story called A Fish Story brought me back to my teenage years. I was unsure about what to think of this opening story when I got hit by The Man with the Seahorse Head. I usually don't like present tense narrative too much but I loved this very-short story, which mixed sadness and happiness. I felt the impossibility of stopping time, the unavoidable surrendering to what time does to our loved ones, the happiness found in good things in life.

The third story, Flatrock Sunners was a pretty disturbing one, but a very good one nonetheless. I really enjoyed it. Was it about making bad choices or about choosing people who love us over people who want something from us? Does good really prevail over evil?

Pelly Medley was another very interesting one. The protagonist, Geoffrey, is a scientist living alone on an island as part of an expedition where he studies birds. Then one day, his life changes after a strange incident. Throughout the story, the reader can find various reasons explaining the events. I'd love to share my theories but there's no room for spoilers in the reviews, is there?

The following story, Bluecoat Jack is another very well written dark story. I was still thinking about it when I surrendered to another great story called A Sip From the Cup of Enlightenment. The question that got stuck in my head after reading this one was: Is the pursuit of knowledge essentially the pursuit of truth?.

In Choke Point, the reader has the impression that she knows where the story is going but the author very cleverly applies a twist that surprises the reader. The Bone Fisher's Apprentice is followed by A Little Tea and Personal Magnetism, which is written in a different style. The frequent quotes create a humourous setting which reminds me of those movies where suddenly everything stops to have a guru-style personality to talk a few seconds about deeply meaningful things. And the closing story, The Teasewater Five is a surreal and sad one.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by Sarah Totton's Animythical Tales. I really enjoyed most of her stories. They are surreal and dark, and some of them stay in a corner of your mind for quite some time.

Plot 8
Characters 7
Style 8

Overall 8/10

Orbit Needs You

Orbit UK is looking for an Editorial Assistant to join its publishing team based in London. You have until 6^th September to apply. If interested, you can either:

a) Follow this link and follow instructions: http://www.littlebrown.co.uk/About/JobVacancies

b) Spend eternity wondering what might have been.

If you are ready to pursue a career in SFF publishing, we would love to hear from you.

Round Table Discussion: Field of Fire by Jon Connington

Field of Fire, by Jon Connington
Format: Paperback, 376 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace, ©2010
ISBN 10: 1452827893
ISBN 13: 978-1452827896
Series: Book 1 of The Storm at the Center of the World
Copy: proof provided by author
Reviewers: Victoria, Tyson and PeterWilliam

Back of the Book: "A village burned. A boy taken into slavery. A lost treasure of a fallen empire. So begins the tale of Macsen, a farmers son, an orphan, taken from the ruins of his home to a distant land, made a slave and sent to die in the arena. But he escapes, falling into a life of adventure across a world where lands float in the endless skies, whose beating heart is a mighty Storm ten thousand miles wide. Adrift and alone, with only his will to sustain him, Macsen swears vengeance against those who shattered his life, to seize his destiny and shape it with his own hands. He becomes a warrior, a pirate, a captain, leading his fearless crew to fortune and glory in war-torn skies, blazing a path of courage, of vengeance...and ultimately of salvation. FIELD OF FIRE - the first book of The Storm at the Center of the World!"

Plot
Tyson- The plot to Field of Fire is revenge with a lot of events thrown in before Macsen, our hero, can reach his ultimate goal. There are loves lost and adventure to be had as our protagonist learns many of life's lessons as he attempts to survive and prosper in what remains of his shattered life.

Pete- One gets the sense that this story, as good as it is, merely scratches the surface of what Connington either can, or should, plan to do with it as each installment unfolds. Connington has managed to create, seemingly, an entire universe upon one planet in which to culture a fantasy fiction adventure.

Victoria- This story had a lot going on, and some really interesting themative threads. The one thread and influence I really enjoyed was the Roman empire. You could tell that part of his world was heavily influenced by the the Roman political culture in which the plebians were used to hand outs and games to keep them happy and under control. I did find, however, that some of the themes could have been expanded upon, and the novel would have been richer for it.

Characters
Tyson- I found every character enjoyable and fairly well fleshed out. Every person depicted in Field of Fire seems to come with a background and motivation for their actions. From the slaves to the various pirates. Macsen goes from a care-free youth into a hardened leader of men. Even though there are more books to come in the series there is a lot of continued growth for Macsen as there are a several loose ends to tie up until he ultimately meets his destiny. The character has yet to reach his full potential. I for one am interested in what he will finally become.

Pete- Again, I see vast potential for Connington to expand into. This story was a strong debut effort, in my opinion. However, with what we've only had the chance to glimpse at, there is certainly oceans more of content that Connington will be able to bludgeon and sate his readers with.

Victoria- Unfortunately, I'm at odds with Tyson's assessment. I thought that there were too many characters that did not have enough flesh on them, so to speak. Some just popped in and out, and we, the readers, were expected to accept them the way they are. I have to admit, I wasn't quite enamoured with a lot of the characterization in the novel.

Style
Tyson- Connington's style in Field of Fire is pretty straight forward. While he does a decent job of describing the events and surroundings, he does not waste words. I thought that the story was paced fairly well. Connington does his best not to bog us down in world building and infodumps and throws in lots of tension and action before a major lull can occur. It read an a nice clip which I found enjoyable.

Pete- Connington approaches the reader through the oft-used third-person approach. As Ty mentions, there is little to no infodumps - largely because the reader travels with a callow youth who knows next to nothing about the world anyway. As the reader, you are right there with Macsen, being alleviated of your ignorance simultaenously with the protagonist.

Victoria- The style of Field of Fire is where I had the most problems. I found that it jumped around from viewpoint to viewpoint in a seemingly random manner which had be confused more often or not. I'm not talking about a chapter for each point of view, but from paragraph to paragraph, and it wasn't always entirely clear as to who's view point we were looking at something from. This is especially true during the first half of the novel.

And I disagree, Pete, I do not think that my ignorance was alleviated simultaenously with Mascen. There were parts in the novel where events were described, as if from Mascen's point of view, that he couldn't possibly have known, such as when he's on the slave ship. He was on one level of the hold, and drugged, yet he told us everything that was going on in the ship. And it wasn't just at that point. This was an aspect of the novel that really didn't jive with me. The point of view and the narrative voice just were not consistent enough for me, I'm afraid.

Setting
Tyson- Field of Fire is set in a world where islands and continents are free floating. There are three levels of islands: high, middle, and low and the higher the land the better off economically you are. In order to travel you take ships that fly from location to location. I thought this was a great idea, my only complaint with it is that we are only told how the ships are able to navigate and stay afloat through the use of runes. Yet we are not told anything as to how the land is capable of sustaining afloat. This bothered me as it would constantly pop into my head and I would think on it for several minutes at a time. While I like a little mystery and unanswered questions in my novels, this particular issue would take me away from the story from time to time. However, this was made up for with the inclusion of pirates, lots and lots of pirates. We have a huge community of pirates that meet up in secret locations to off load their booty and engage in all kinds of nefarious activity. The corsairs in Field of Fire are the stereotypical buccaneers who like to get drunk, plunder, and then hit the closest port of call for some evening entertainment. All of this is depicted in the book, but Connington also gives each person in the crew a background and motivation which surpassed the stereotype most books and movies would have us believe.

Pete- The setting is the largest part of the vast potential Connington has given himself to expand into, as further stories are released. The setting/world for this story is several vast islands/continents/cities/floating asteroids all orbiting about some sort of gravitational inducing mass/core. In this first story (I certainly hope there will be more), there are a few locales the reader becomes familiar with, but there remain areas of the Higher realms and Lower realms, to say nothing of what truly lies "over the side," which the reader can't even begin to speculate about. Field of Fire feels as though it could merely be a prologue to a story that could immeasurably, and hopefully in my opinion, grow - reaching a monstrously epic scale (my favorite).

Victoria- I agree that the setting has an enormous amount of potential. The idea of floating landmasses is great, and it's obvious that Connington put a lot of thought of the people and the cultures within his world. I did find, however, that some of his descriptions of the societies in which Mascen associates within, were at times redundant. I found that instead of being immersed in the world, I was reading a lot of description. That said, this world does have a lot of potential, and I'd be interested to see where Connington takes this.

RIP Satoshi Kon

Acclaimed anime director, Satoshi Kon, died of terminal pancreatic cancer on August 24, 2010 at the age of 46. I am indescribably sad at his death, since I think he was one of the most brilliant anime directors to come about in the last fifteen years. He was twisted, dark, and an ardent creator of science fiction and fantasy. His work often inhabited the twisted boundaries between reality and fantasy, embodying an incredibly accurate cinematic definition of slipstream.

At the time of his death, Satoshi Kon was working on a new movie, Yume-Miru Kikai. Madhouse Studios has reported that they will finish the movie.

A few of his films:

Paprika-



Perfect Blue-

'Superman' Scribe David Goyer Sells Debut Novel To Warner Bros

In a seven-figure preemptive bid, Warner Bros has acquired film rights to a science fiction trilogy that David Goyer is writing with Michael Cassutt. Deal calls for Goyer to adapt Heaven’s Shadow, the first of the three books, He will produce through his Phantom Four banner. Deal closed on Friday.

The trilogy begins when an object is discovered heading for earth. Initial panic gives way to a competition between governments to be first to intercept what they believe is a breakaway meteor. What the astronauts discover leads to an encounter with alien forces that are a threat to humanity. It is the first book that Goyer has written and last spring, he set it at the Penguin imprint Ace Books to be published in July, 2011. Heaven’s War and Heaven’s Fall will be released in subsequent summers. The studio bought the book series after Goyer pitched it, as Goyer and his co-author are still working on the prose.

Goyer confirmed to Deadline that he’d made the rights deal with Warner Bros.

“It’s a perfect project for Warner Bros and I’ve obviously enjoyed a long and fruitful working relationship with the studio,” said Goyer.

For Warner Bros, Goyer’s has recently racked up either script or story credit on Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, the untitled next installment of the Batseries, and Superman: Man of Steel, a reinvention of the venerable DC Comics hero that's being godfathered by Chris Nolan. CAA reps Goyer.

Around the Net

I have been out of the loop for the last few weeks as I was on vacation so I am slowly getting back into the book world. Here is what I found this week of interest:

Books

Orbit has had their interns crunching numbers and came up with some interesting results for last year. The first one is the Guide to Fantasy Art
The second and third are the trend in changing fashion in Urban Fantasy and the color trend of the North American dragon and the fourth is by far my favorite with the frequency of fantasy in 2009
To wet your whistle:

The hyper-talented folks over at Orbit Books have once again undertaken their yearly survey of recurring elements in fantasy cover art, comparing the covers of the bestselling fantasy novels of 2009 with those of the previous year. Last week, the Orbit team released a series of charts revealing the results of this year’s survey. The charts are spectacular, and the shifts in various trends are both intriguing and kind of hilarious. For example, Figure 1.1: Trends in Fantasy Cover Art uncovers a shocking lack of unicorns, a puzzling increase in mysterious hooded figures, and a highly encouraging new “Non-distressed damsels” category.

The charts alone are rather funny.

The full article can be read here.

Brent Weeks' 
The Black Prism Reviews

The Black Prism has had a few positive reviews already which is good news for me as my notification that my book was shipping is on the way.

Fantasy Book Critic's review by Liviu:

All in all The Black Prism is an A++ from me while the series has the potential to become one for the ages. The main flaw of The Black Prism is that it ends - despite 600+ pages and a reasonable ending point, I still wanted another 600 at least!

And our guest reviewer from not long ago John Ottinger from Grasping for the Wind writes:

I found that Weeks really did a good job of surprising me with the plot. When I expected him to zig, he zagged, and when I expected a character to be a certain type of person, Weeks would throw me for a loop. To tell you exactly how he did this would ruin some of the really awesome surprises of the novel, but suffice it to say that Weeks has written an epic fantasy unlike any of its contemporaries. It is a truly visionary and original work, and has set the bar high for others in its subgenre.

I look forward to reading this one soon, review will be up soon after that.

Digital Anthology

Editor Jason Sizemore has posted the table of contents for his upcoming digital-only anthology, Apexology: Horror:

"It Tasted Like the Sea" by Paul Jessup
"Summon, Bind, Banish" by Nick Mamatas
"To Every Thing There is a Season" by Dru Pagliassotti
"Life's a Beach" by Alethea Kontis and Ariell Branson
"Kusatenda Uroyi" by Gill Ainsworth
"Lottery" by Gene O'Neill
"Cerbo en Vitra ujo" by Mary Robinette Kowal
"The Spider in the Hairdo" by Michael A. Burstein
"The Dark Side" by Guy Hasson
"With the Beating of their Wings" by Martel Sardina
"Enough to Make a Devil" by R. Thomas Riley
"Flash of Light" by Jason Sizemore
"Transylvania Mission" by Lavie Tidhar
"Inside Looking Out (or: Falling Through the Worlds)" by Mari Adkins
"Powered" by Deb Taber
"Disturbing Things" by B.J. Burrow
"Eulogy for Muffin" by Jennifer Brozek
"Hands of Heritage" by Elizabeth Engstrom
"The Junkyard God" by M. Zak Anwar and O.M.R. Anwar
"Bessie Green's Thumb" by Fran Friel
"Big Sister/Little Sister" by Jennifer Pelland

The anthology is prefaced by his introduction Five Years and Counting.

Timothy Zahn

Timothy Zahn has always been on my radar every since he wrote three of my all-time favorite Star Wars novels.While not a huge Terminator fan it should be noted that his latest book to take on the metal menace has hit bookshelves. From Techland:

Excerpt: Zahn's Terminator Salvation: Trial By Fire

Timothy Zahn's Terminator Salvation: Trial By Fire hit both brick and mortar and virtual bookshelves this week. The latest installment in the Terminator universe picks up where the movie left off. Connor is on the mends and the Resistance is trying to figure out what exactly Marcus Wright is and how they can defend themselves against the undetectable hybrids.
Zahn's impeccable pacing makes for a quick read of Trial By Fire and anyone interested should pick it up. It's only $8 from Titan Books.
The fourth Terminator movie, Terminator Salvation, starring Christian Bale and directed by McG was a summer box office hit, grossing over $400 million worldwide. In this brand new spin-off novel which follows on from events in the movie, a recovering John Connor grants Barnes permission to return to the destroyed VLA lab and bury his brother who was killed in the explosive opening of the movie. At the ruins Barnes and pilot Blair Williams search through the debris for the remains of their comrade. During their hunt they uncover a half-buried cable, that was clearly a data transmission line, leading up into the mountains. The two Resistance fighters head northwest to investigate. Amid the forests on the slopes of the mountains, the pair uncover an entire village that appears to have been largely untouched by Judgment Day and its aftermath. Suspicious of the villagers, Barnes and Blair decide to dig deeper....
We'll be interviewing Zahn next week, so if you have any questions leave them in comments. Oh, and here's a one chapter excerpt from the book. Enjoy!

CHAPTER FOUR

They'd been flying for nearly three hours, and Blair Williams had watched the landscape sliding beneath the Blackhawk helicopter gradually change from forest to sparse grassland and finally to desert. Above her, the sky was mottled with a mixture of feathery white cirrus clouds and long dirty gray stratus ones, interspersed with occasional patches of blue sky. All around her the air was filled with the hum of the Blackhawk's engines and the rhythmic throbbing of its rotors.
Beside her, scowling in the copilot's seat, was Barnes.
Blair sighed to herself. She hadn't wanted to take on this mission, and it had been abundantly clear that Barnes hadn't wanted her along, either. But Connor had insisted,
and John Connor wasn't the sort of person you said no to.
Especially when the only reason Connor's dark eyes were even alive to gaze at, into, and through you was because Marcus Wright had given his life to save him.
Marcus Wright. The man who in a few short days Blair had learned to love.
Not the man, a bitter-edged corner of her mind corrected mockingly in Barnes's voice. The machine you learned to love.


Read more: http://techland.com/2010/08/20/preview-of-zahns-terminator-salvation-trial-by-fire-from-titan-books/#ixzz0xURCjVhN

Tor has an interesting take on what will become of books in the future according to Science Fiction:

A Fondness for Antiques: The Future of Books According to Science Fiction

A brief except:

In the past few years, media pundits and tech experts have been abuzz with variations on the question: “what is the future of the book?” Luckily, science fiction has been around a whole lot longer than Amazon, Apple, and Google, and as such, might be able to teach us a thing or two about the future of the printed word.

Books tend to be depicted in a few different ways in science fiction. Sometimes the medium by which people “read” is altered by technology. Other times, books are preserved in their exact form as today, either as antiques or for another reason. Sometimes, books don’t exist at all or are in the process of being destroyed. And other times, books barely even resemble themselves.

Back in the summer of 2000, beautiful women would walk past the little shopping mall bookstore where I worked and into a neighboring cosmetics emphorium. But I devised a way of getting them into the bookstore. I imagined a line of facial creams that were infused with the plots of classic novels. After a little rub and scrub customers would instantly absorb the works of Dickens, Melville, and Bronte directly through their pores. They would be “reading” books in seconds! Not much came of these plans, but I’m hoping some day, when I become a mad scientist, I’ll follow through.

To read more click here.

The last bit of new is that Amazon has inked a deal for exclusive rights to Odyssey editions of many of Wylie Agency's book catalogue for two years for the Amazon Kindle eReader.

The full article from Techland is here.

Amazon Inks Exclusivity Deal for Odyssey Editions Kindle Books

Amazon has hammered out a deal with The Wylie Agency to offer 20 of its Odyssey Editions books exclusively on the Kindle e-book platform for two years.

The deal also marks the first time the books-- from authors such as Saul Bellow, Ralph Ellison, John Updike, Hunter S. Thompson, and more--have been available electronically.

The complete list of books is as follows:

"London Fields" by Martin Amis
"The Adventures of Augie March" by Saul Bellow
"Ficciones" (Spanish Edition) by Jorge Luis Borges
"Junky" by William Burroughs
"The Stories of John Cheever" by John Cheever
"Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
"Love Medicine" by Louise Erdrich
"The Naked and the Dead" by Norman Mailer
"Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov
"The Enigma of Arrival" by V.S. Naipaul
"The White Castle" by Orhan Pamuk
"Portnoy's Complaint" by Philip Roth
"Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie
"The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" by Oliver Sacks
"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" by Hunter S. Thompson
"Rabbit Run" by John Updike
"Rabbit Redux" by John Updike
"Rabbit is Rich" by John Updike
"Rabbit at Rest" by John Updike
"Brideshead Revisited" by Evelyn Waugh

Each title costs $9.99, and all are available now.


Read more: http://techland.com/2010/07/22/amazon-inks-exclusivity-deal-for-odyssey-editions-kindle-books/#ixzz0xUT92qiH

2010 Fantasy Award Nominees

Nominees for the 2010 World Fantasy Awards. 


Everyone here at Speculative Book Review would like to congratulate the nominees.  


Novel
Blood of Ambrose, James Enge (Pyr)
The Red Tree, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Roc)
The City & The City, China Miéville (Macmillan UK/ Del Rey)
Finch, Jeff VanderMeer (Underland)
In Great Waters, Kit Whitfield (Jonathan Cape UK/Del Rey)

Novella
The Women of Nell Gwynne’s, Kage Baker (Subterranean)
“The Lion’s Den”, Steven Duffy (Nemonymous Nine: Cern Zoo)
The Night Cache, Andy Duncan (PS)
“Sea-Hearts”, Margo Lanagan (X6 )
“Everland”, Paul Witcover (Everland and Other Stories)

Short Story
“I Needs Must Part, the Policeman Said”, Richard Bowes (F&SF 12/09)
“The Pelican Bar”, Karen Joy Fowler (Eclipse Three)
“A Journal of Certain Events of Scientific Interest from the First Survey Voyage of the Southern Waters by HMS Ocelot, As Observed by Professor Thaddeus Boswell, DPhil, MSc, or, A Lullaby”, Helen Keeble (Strange Horizons 6/09)
“Singing on a Star”, Ellen Klages (Firebirds Soaring)
“The Persistence of Memory, or This Space for Sale”, Paul Park (Postscripts 20/21: Edison’s Frankenstein )
“In Waiting”, R.B. Russell (Putting the Pieces in Place)
“Light on the Water”, Genevieve Valentine (Fantasy 10/09)

Anthology
Poe, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Solaris)
Songs of The Dying Earth: Stories in Honor of Jack Vance, George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois, eds. (Subterranean/Voyager)
Exotic Gothic 3: Strange Visitations, Danel Olson, ed. (Ash-Tree)
Eclipse Three, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Night Shade)
American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny: From Poe to the Pulps/From the 1940s to Now, Peter Straub, ed. (Library of America)
The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction: Sixtieth Anniversary Anthology, Gordon Van Gelder, ed. (Tachyon)

Collection
We Never Talk About My Brother, Peter S. Beagle (Tachyon)
Fugue State, Brian Evenson (Coffee House)
There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby: Scary Fairy Tales, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (Penguin)
Northwest Passages, Barbara Roden (Prime)
Everland and Other Stories, Paul Witcover (PS)
The Very Best of Gene Wolfe/The Best of Gene Wolfe, Gene Wolfe (PS /Tor)

Artist
John Jude Palencar
John Picacio
Charles Vess
Jason Zerrillo
Sam Weber

Special Award – Professional
Peter & Nicky Crowther for PS Publishing
Ellen Datlow for editing anthologies
Hayao Miyazaki for Ponyo 
Barbara & Christopher Roden for Ash-Tree Press
Jonathan Strahan for editing anthologies
Jacob & Rina Weisman for Tachyon Publications

Special Award – Non-Professional
John Berlyne for Powers: Secret Histories 
Neil Clarke, Cheryl Morgan, & Sean Wallace for Clarkesworld 
Susan Marie Groppi for Strange Horizons 
John Klima for Electric Velocipede 
Bob Colby, B. Diane Martin, David Shaw, and Eric M. Van for Readercon
Ray Russell & Rosalie Parker for Tartarus Press

REVIEW: Hawkwood and the Kings by Paul Kearney

Hawkwood and the Kings by Paul Kearney

Paperback: 704 pages
Publisher: Solaris (5 Aug 2010)
ISBN-10: 1906735700
ISBN-13: 978-1906735708
Copy: Reading Copy sent by the publisher
Reviewer: Yagiz

The western world is burning...

For Richard Hawkwood and his crew, a desperate venture to carry refugees to the uncharted land across the Great Western Ocean offers the only chance of escape from the Inceptines' pyres.

In the East, Lofantyr, Abeleyn and Mark - three of the five Ramusian Kings - have defied the cruel pontiff's purge and must fight to hold their thrones through excommunication, intrigue and civil war.

In the quiet monastery city of Charibon, two humble monks make a discovery that will change the whole world.

Aekir, the Holy City, has fallen and all now seems lost, but even on the eve of destruction the Faithful still war amongst themselves...

If I had to write one thing about Paul Kearney's Hawkwood and the Kings, it would be "Simply the best fantasy series I've read in years and years". Then, I would be quoting Steven Erikson, the author of the brilliant Malazan Book of the Fallen series. That alone would be enough for some, including me, to give this book a chance.

At the start of the book, its prologue promises a fast-paced story: A bunch of fishermen find a ship wreck on the rocks. Even though most believe that a ship from west is bad omen, some of them are brave enough to climb on board for the riches that it potentially carries. They find the ship devoid of life and all crew slaughtered, just before falling victim to something lurking in the dark corners of the hull. The events of the story take place 129 years after the events of the prologue.

The setting of the book is similar to the 15th century Eurasia. The west is a multi-cultural group of kingdoms following the religion founded by Ramusio who is a Jesus-like figure and who lived 5 centuries ago. Church is very powerful and its heart beats at Charibon, which is an autonomous city-state and it is governed by the elders of the Church. Their head is the High Pontiff.

The main story starts with the fall of Aekir, the Holy City on the eastern frontier and seat of the High Pontiff Macrobius who falls with it. This gives a multitudes of opportunities for power hungry Prelates to do a deadly dance around the vacant Pontiffship seat. The craziest of them all is Prelate Himerius who is in search of more authority by becoming High Pontiff and who is killing heretics in Abrusio. The heretics are the unfortunate Dweomer-folk, the people who are touched by or who can wield magic.

"...so they will have to elect a new High Pontiff, a man who shows by his actions that he is not afraid to incur the ill-will of kings in the struggle to fulfill God's plans, a man who has the good of the Kingdoms at heart, who is willing to purify them with the fire."

The western kingdoms face a big threat from the east. Merduks, people of the steppes, march west with a sizable army. Following my 15th century projection, Merduks would be portrayed like Turkic or Mongol nations. However as their religion, founded by the Prophet Ahrimuz, has a big role to play in the story, I would imagine them as Ottomans, who's best epoch was the 16th century.

And typical to this era, Kearney augmented the classic medieval fantasy setting with gun powder, cannons and arquebuses.

"There, that was what power looked like. It was a gleam of iron on the barrel of a cannon; the glitter of steel at the head of a lance. It was the oak of a warship's hull. These things were not the trappings, but the essence of power, and those who thought themselves in positions of authority often forgot that, to their lasting regret. Power in this day and age was in the muzzle of a gun."

One of the highlights of this series and one of the aspects that make it truly great is its multiple story lines with various points of views. I'm certain each reader will have their favorite thread with their favorite characters however each one of them is captivating. They are well balanced and well synchronized, except probably during the second book where there is a quiet large section that contains Hawkwood's story line. It's not to say that it is not a page-turner.

The main protagonist, Richard Hawkwood is a captain therefore Kearney uses quite a lot of nautical terms. Even though I'm not really familiar with some of them, I never felt an awkwardness because the story is so captivating that it just flows smoothly.

Some of the important characters are introduced late during the story. Avila and Albrec are such characters. Even though the reader can feel that their actions will change the fate of the world, they add a humourous touch to the story.

The characters in general are very well developed. They are just people, mostly with good and bad in them. It is very easy to relate to them and to strongly feel about them.

In a very small section of the book, in the very beginning, Sibastian Leger is buying time for the refugees fleeing Aekir. At the same time, Merduk cavalry is monitoring the progress of the refugees without intervening. They are channeling them along Searil road without killing the non-combatants. 8000 Torunnans are fighting a hopeless rearguard battle against 12 times their number. This part reminded me of Erikson's Coltaine and his Chain of Dogs. I wonder if this small section of the book gave a few ideas to Steven Erikson that he used in Deadhouse Gates and House of Chains.

Last but not least, both books in this omnibus contains a well-drawn map that I had to use regularly before I got familiar with the setting.

Hawkwood and the Kings is a masterfully written book built on an exceptionally well realized setting. This first volume, containing the first two books of the series, proves that Kearney's The Monarchies of God can well be on a par with the bests such as G. R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire and Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen. I cannot recommend it enough if you are a fan of Martin, Erikson or Abercrombie. You are in for a feast of breath-taking adventure.

Characterization: 10
Style: 9
Plot: 10

Overall Rating: 10/10

Memorable Quotes

"No man could truly say what he was until he had been pushed to the edge of things with the precipice of his own ruin staring up at him. Things changed that close to the brink, and people changed too. Rarely for the better." - Corfe

"Which is another reason why clerics don't merry. Women have too many demons in them! I believe all clerics have mothers. though." - Avila

"Loyalty and ambition: those two irreconcilable qualities without which a man is nothing. It is a rare individual who can balance both of them in his breast." - Queen Dowager Orelia

REVIEW: Wolverine Prodigal Son Vol 1 written by Antony Johnston art by Wilson Tortosa

Wolverine Prodigal Son Vol. 1 written by Antony Johnston art by Wilson Tortosa
Publishing Information: Paperback; 192 pages
Publisher: Del Ray 7 April 2009
ISBN 10: 0345505166
ISBN 13: 978-0345505163
Number 1 in a Manga series
Copy: out of pocket
Reviewer: Tyson

Back of the Book "The gripping, all-new adventure of the x-men's greatest icon, comletely reimagined in the Manga style

This is not the Wolverine you know.

Logan is a teenage rebel with a real good reason for having a real bad attitude. Ever since being left in a nearby forest–with no memory of who he was or how he got there–Logan (or Wolverine, as his classmates sometimes call him) has been stuck in a martial arts school in the icy wilds of Canada. No wonder he’s bored, restless, yearning. There’s a whole world out there, and Logan can almost taste it. But he’s chained to a past he can’t remember and can’t escape. Now it just may destroy his future."

When I found this comic in the bookstore I had to check it out. I have heard rumors about a Manga Spider-Man but have yet to find it but Wolverine has always been a favorite of mine. In this series opener we have a re-imagined Logan/Wolverine.

He is a teenager who was found outside a dojo with a Wolverine standing over him, which is how he received his nickname. He has his healing factor, is adept at martial arts, and has no memory of his past. The anchors that make Wolverine what he is are still there. 

The story is slightly different. Logan has found a home at the dojo and excels at his training but the master is not Japanese nor are any of his friends. He knows that something is wrong and that he is different from the rest of his peers. While the book is divided into smaller sections as all Manga does they are easy to read and I found them to be a quick read.

The art work is top notch. The characters have a Manga feel to them but still manage to retain the "Wolverine" feel while successfully giving him a youthful appearance. The action and supporting characters are drawn well and I really found Tortosa's look appealing. I would like to see his take on a lot of other Marvel and DC characters.

Overall, Wolverine Prodigal Son is a nice change of pace from the normal Wolverine stories. An updated origins story that does its best to stay true to its roots while giving it a fresh new approach that I found to be bold without upsetting the die-hard fans. The Manga look helps carry this transition. I think that anyone who would like to give the Manga type books a shot and want something they are familiar with will really enjoy the series and I will be on the look out for book two when and if it becomes available in my area. Book 2 was published on 31 March 2010.

Plot  9

Characters  8.5

Style  10

Overall  9/10

REVIEW: The Quiet War by Paul McAuley

The Quiet War by Paul McAuley
Paperback: 439 pages
Publisher: Gollancz (10 Sep 2009)
ISBN-10: 0575083557
ISBN-13: 978-0575083554
Reviewer: Cara
Copy: Bought online

From the back of the book:
Who decides what it means to be human?

On twenty-third-century Earth, ravaged by climate change, political power has been grabbed by a few powerful families and their green saints. Millions of people, most little better than slaves, labour to rebuild ruined ecosystems. Those who fled Earth’s repressive regimes to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn live in a fantastic variety of habitats, some deep underground, others protected from inhospitable atmospheres by vast tents; all scientific utopias crammed with exuberant inventions of the genetic arts.

But the fragile peace between Earth and the colonies is threatened by the Outers’ growing ambitions to spread out through the Solar System, pushing human evolution forward. On Earth argument rages: whether to take pre-emptive action against the Outers, or to exploit their scientific talents.

Amidst all the debating and turmoil, war between the two branches of humanity moves ever closer.

The Quiet War begins with an introduction to Dave#8, a genetically engineered clone, bred, conditioned and trained to be a soldier for Greater Brazil. This opening gives us insight into the politics and morality of the Earth regime, and where Dave#8 realises the paradox of him being created to fight the “anti-evolutionary engineering of [their] genomes” by the off-world colonists of the Jupiter and Saturn moons. This is a novel of big ideas set in a future Solar System after a collapse in Earth’s ecosystems.

Earth is controlled by the three powers of Greater Brazil, the European Union and the Pacific Community. The Quiet War focuses principally on Greater Brazil where government is by the ruling families, and consanguinity (or blood relationships) counts for much more than ability or merit. The dominant religion is Gaia, which to me seemed not dissimilar to Catholicism but with a strong environmental emphasis. Considerable effort is placed on restoring Earth’s ecosystems following the Overturn, a planet-wide environmental disaster, yet the majority of the population are crammed into cities and are pretty much owned by the ruling families. This future Earth is no utopia by any stretch of the imagination.

The colonies on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, the Outers, on the other hand, are democratic, libertarian and innovative. They use genetic engineering to enhance their environment and themselves both for practical and cosmetic effect. Their society is open and accepting of freedom of choice and individualism and has many similarities with our own culture, in my view, especially with regard to dissemination of information on the net. It is in the descriptions of the various colonies that McAuley’s imagination shines through

“Jupiter’s swollen disc hung high above, waxing from slender crescent to full glory and waning again in a cycle of little over seven days, fixed in the same place in the black sky because Ganymede, like Earth’s Moon, was tidally locked and always presented the same face to its primary.”

Led by culture hero and "gene wizard" Avernus, the Outers have created perfect biosystems within their domes, breeding vacuum organisms that can obtain necessary elements from the moons' soils and oceans and ice. They live in Enceladus' underground oceans, plant their crops on the shoulders of asteroid impacts, and grow gardens deep in the clouds of Saturn.

Two ideologically opposed societies are set to clash in an ideological power struggle culminating in the inevitable war. There is precedent: the Mars colonies were previously destroyed by Earth so the Outers know what could happen to them should they drop their guard. Earth comes across as being more antagonistic, I felt that the Outers would be quite happy to continue on with their lives without any interference from their home planet. Certainly Earth, with their cloned spy/soldiers, pilots with augmented nervous systems and warships in orbit around the outer planets was overtly aggressive. Yet they wanted the advanced bioengineering techniques developed by the colonies to restore their own ecosystems.

Two characters stood out for me. The first, Dr Sri Hong-Owen, is the leading geneticist for the Peixoto family of Greater Brazil. She is ruthlessly ambitious and brilliant, having developed much of Earth’s military biotechnology including the Dave clones, yet dreams of becoming a disciple of Avernus, the Outer’s genetic wizard. It is this contradiction that makes her interesting. She is not, however, likeable or sympathetic. The other is Macy, a lowly soil engineer who is sent to the Rainbow Bridge colony on Jupiter’s Callisto Moon. As an outsider in a society not her own, with a brash and forthright personality, I found her appealing and cared about what happened to her throughout the book.

Overall I enjoyed The Quiet War, but found I was occasionally bogged down by the sheer volume of technological information. While I like some background information, degree-level science is not to my taste and, to be honest, I found it off-putting as there was just too much of it. However, the politics of both Earth and the Outer colonies were intriguing and the overall ecological theme was fascinating to me, particularly given the current climate change situation we face today. I especially liked the idea of Catholicism embracing the Gaia theory and co-opting it into their doctrine, yet still remaining as intolerant as they are today. I thought that McAuley presented a clever view of how Earth’s future could be and that he showed considerable insight into how the current science and ethics of genetic engineering could possibly develop. Certainly The Quiet War left me with a lot to think about, which is always something I appreciate in a novel.

Plot: 6
Characters: 7
Style: 6

Rating 6/10

REVIEW: The Stormcaller, by Tom Lloyd

The Stormcaller, by Tom Lloyd
Paperback: 449 pages
Publisher: Pyr, ©2008
ISBN: 978-1-59102-693-8
Copy: Out of pocket
Reviewer: PeterWilliam

From the back of the book: In a land ruled by prophecy and the whims of Gods, a young man finds himself at the heart of a war he barely understands, wielding powers he may never be able to control.

Isak is a white-eye, born bigger, more charismatic, and more powerful than normal men...but with that power comes an unpredictable temper and an inner rage he cannot always hide. Brought up as a wagon-brat, feared and despised by those around him, he dreams of a place in the army and a chance to live his own life. But when the call comes, it isn't to be a soldier, for the Gods have other plans for the intemperate teenager: Isak has been chosen as heir-elect to the brooding Lord Bahl, the white-eye Lord of the Farlan.

The white-eyes were created by the Gods to bring order out of chaos, for their magnetic charm and formidable strength make them natural leaders of men. Lord Bahl is typical of the breed: he inspires and oppresses those around him in equal measure. He can be brusque and impatient, a difficult mentor for a boy every bit as volatile as he is.

But now is the time for revenge, and for the forging of empires. With mounting envy and malice, the men who would themselves be kings watch Isak, chosen by Gods as flawed as the humans who serve them, as he is shaped and molded to fulfill the prophecies that circle him like scavenger birds. Divine fury and mortal strife are about to spill over and paint the world with blood.

The Stormcaller is the first book in a powerful new series that combines inspired world building, epoch-shattering battles, and high emotion to dazzling effect.

Well, that's more than a mere blurb, but it does pretty much cover the main plot points. And a fine plot it is. While the info dump/assimilation quotient goes above average here, there is a Dramatis Personae at the end of the book for the reader to untangle all of the various personages walking through the storyline, as though it were a subway station. The faction tracking portion of keeping the plot straight was a bit difficult due the double-edged sword of: 1) info dump and, 2) lack of information on things that will probably be revealed in later installments. Other than the aforementioned potential snags, the plot of the story is engaging. The story elements of the setting (or world-building, whatever) have a nice mix of the imaginative and the "tried and true."

The characters really work for this tale. One could conceivably describe the characters as Eddings-esque (as a categorization, not necessarily a criticism), but it would be more fair to describe them as being withheld from unnecessary over-complication and, yet, still vibrant. Each character carries a key emotive role, for the reader, and it worked in this instance.

The tale is third-person in nature, even during several key dreamscape sequences. One gets the sense that the author was attempting to veer away from the third-person during the dreamscape sequences, but didn't completely commit to doing so.

Overall, a very fun read and debut. One which shapes and stores an expectation for the next book in the series.

Characters - 8
Plot - 9
Style - 7

Overall: 8/10

REVIEW: Death's Excellent Vacation edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner

Death's Excellent Vacation edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner
Contributing Authors: Charlaine Harris, Sarah Smith, Jeaniene Frost, Daniel Stashower, A. Lee Martinez, Jeff Abbott, L. A. Banks, Katie MacAlister, Christopher Golden, Lilith Saintcrow, Chris Grabenstein, Sharan Newman and Toni L. P. Kelner.

Publisher: Penguin
Format: Hardcover, 352 pages.
ISBN 10: 0441018688
ISBN 13: 9780441018680
Copy: Penguin Canada
Reviewer: Victoria

On the back of the book. . .

The editors of Wolfsbane and Mistletoe and Many Bloody Returns deliver a new collection-including a never-before-published Sookie Stackhouse story.
New York Times bestselling authors Charlaine Harris, Katie MacAlister, Jeaniene Frost-plus Lilith Saintcrow, Jeff Abbott, and more-send postcards from the edge of the paranormal world to fans who devoured Wolfsbane and Mistletoe and Many Bloody Returns.


With an all-new Sookie Stackhouse story and twelve other original tales, editors Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner


 
Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels and Toni L. P. Kelner have managed to put together a rare mix of both fun and exciting, and comical and serious stories in Death's Excellent Vacation.  No two stories are alike, and there's a story for just about every reader.  For any fan of HBO's True Blood, you can get your fill of Sookie in Harris' offering, the first story in the collection.  Have you ever wanted to see how Sookie would behave in a strip club?  See if Sookie can handle her own with a gun, a vampire and a feral crossbreed? If so, then this story is for you.
 
Katie MacAlister's story, The Perils of Effrijim bring us on a comical adventure with a demon, Pirate Dave's Haunted Amusement Park by Toni L. P. Kelner provides us with an interesting take on werewolf culture, and Jeaniene Frost with, One for the Money, gives us action, a strong plot, and some really believable characters.
 
My favourite stories in the anthology include works by Daniel Stashower, Lilith Saintcrow, A. Lee Martinez and Sarah Smith.
 
Meanwhile, Far Across the Caspian Sea by Daniel Stashower follows Jeff Clarke on his new job as an editor for LifeSpan Books.  He is assigned to the mysterious and notoriously fickle writer, Thaddeus Palgrave.  The story does not follow the usual pattern of paranormal tales, and because of that, it had me hooked from the beginning.  Stashower has a strong style which contains well thought out characters, believable dialogue and dashes of imagery.  At times I was reminded of Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, insofar as the research which forms the main bulk of the plot is concerned.  I was sad when Meanwhile, Far Across the Caspian Sea ended.  I wanted more.
 
Lilith Saintcrow takes us through a pivotal point in a gargoyle's life in The Heart is Always Right.  The very fact that Saintcrow chose to write a story about a gargoyle piqued my interest.  Perhaps my curiosity was because gargoyles rarely see the limelight, or because I loved the cartoon Gargoyles from the nineties.  Either way, I really think she has something here, and would love to see more.
 
The Heart is Always Right is an urban fantasy piece written in first person limited, the narrator being a nameless gargoyle.  He tells us the roles of gargoyles, the hierarchy and social structure of their culture.  They're on the side of good, fighting all sorts of evil creatures, but in order to gain a name, in order to become one of the coveted inner circle, he has to bring in a Heart Candidate.  When he finds one, he finds something within himself he is not entirely prepared for it.
 
A. Lee Martinez offers a comical rendition of monsters from the deep in The Innsmouth Nook.  While this piece is not full of puns or extreme ridiculousness, there are some toned down similarities to Tom Holt when it comes to comic style.  In contrast, The Boys Go Fishing by Sarah Smith is a heartfelt tale about the loneliness and isolation of the last superhero on earth.
 
Death's Excellent Vacation surprised me.  I thought I'd have some light-hearted material for when I sat in a lounger in my backyard while sipping margaritas.  While this anthology is entertaining and fun, there are some excellent gems which shine more brightly than others.

REVIEW: The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar

The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Soft Skull Press (13 April 2007)
ISBN-10: 1933368365
ISBN-13: 978-1933368368
Reviewer: Cara
Copy: Bought online

From the back of the book:
The Good Fairies of New York is a story that starts when Morag and Heather, two eighteen-inch fairies with swords and green kilts and badly-dyed hair fly throught the window of the worst violinist in New York, an overweight and anti-social type named Dinnie, and vomit on his carpet. Who they are, and how they came to New York, and what this has to do with the lovely Kerry, who lives across the street, and who has Crohn's Disease and is making a flower alphabet, and what this has to do with the other fairies (of all nationalities) of New York, not to mention the poor repressed fairies of Britain, is the subject of this book. It has a war in it, and a most unusual production of Shakespeare's  "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and Johnny Thunders' New York dolls guitar solos. What more could anyone desire from a  book?

This is a book for every fiddler who has realised, half-way through playing an ancient Scottish air, that the Ramones "I Wanna Be Sedated" is what folk music is really all about, and gone straight into it. It's a book for every girl with home-dyed hair and fairy wings who can't honestly remember what happened last night. It's a book for people of whatever shape and size who like reading good books.

I owned it for more than five years before reading it, then lent my copy to someone I thought should read it, and never got it back. Do not make either of my mistakes. Read it now, then make your friends buy their own copies. You'll thank me one day.

- from the Introduction by Neil Gaiman

It is fair to say that any book with a glowing recommendation from Neil Gaiman deserves to be read. I am very glad I did because this was possibly the funniest book I have read in a long time. Morag and Heather, two Scottish fairies on the run from their clans back home, must be the most accident-prone and unlucky characters ever to appear on the printed page, yet despite their meddling and lack of tact, they are also incredibly endearing. They mean well, even if their plans go awry. Who can resist a bickering pair of fairies that play The Ramones on their fiddles, drink whisky (even if the American stuff is too sweet!), and manage to get into all kinds of trouble in the city of New York? Not me. Within five minutes from starting to read, I was entranced.

The main plot involves Morag and Heather, who fall out soon after arriving in New York. Heather stays with Dinnie, an anti-social, grumpy overweight misfit with low self-esteem and a penchant for TV porn, while Morag flies across the street to Kerry, a pretty, friendly, free-spirited woman who is in the advanced stages of Crohn’s Disease and wants to learn to play all Johnny Thunders’ guitar solos. She is creating a Celtic flower alphabet for a local community competition and is desperate to beat her rival, Cal who is staging a production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in the old theatre below Dinnie’s flat.

At the same time as Morag and Heather arrive in Dinnie’s apartment, “Five more fairies, all suffering from massive confusion due to beer, whisky and magic mushrooms, were at that moment fleeing in drunken terror from the chaos of Park Avenue to the comparative shelter of Central Park.” They include Tulip and Petal, the children and rightful heirs of Tala, the fairy King of Cornwall. Under his leadership, with the technically-minded fairy Magris, Cornwall is undergoing an industrial revolution and becoming an oppressed fairy kingdom. Aelric is the leader of the Cornish Fairy Resistance Movement.

Added to the mix are the cynical squirrels of Central Park; Magenta, a bag lady who believes she is Xenophon, a legendary Greek hero; the ghost of Johnny Thunders; the Italian, Chinese and Ghanaian fairy communities and a triple-bloomed Welsh poppy. These threads are intercut between the main story of Morag and Heathers’ rivalry but come together in a dramatic conclusion. Sometimes, however, things became a bit confusing with all the various subplots, but the layers merged eventually, culminating in a final showdown that fitted well with the overall tone of the book.

But the plot, for me, was secondary to the humour. Morag and Heather were anarchic, chaotic, accident-prone and very, very funny. They both had spirit in abundance and this, combined with sharp wit and a tendency to inadvertently create mayhem everywhere they went, produced numerous comic scenes that had me crying with laughter. The dialogue was sharp and snappy. Mishaps and misunderstandings led to some great comic moments. Yet there were also scenes of tenderness and poignancy. It takes skill and talent to write a book as enjoyable as The Good Fairies of New York, and, like Neil Gaiman says in his introduction, I wonder why it took me so long to read this novel. Certainly I am very glad I have now found Martin Millar and I look forward to acquiring his back catalogue for future reading pleasure.

Plot: 8
Characters: 9
Style: 7

Rating 8/10

REVIEW: The King's Bastard by Rowena Cory Daniells

The King's Bastard by Rowena Cory Daniells
Publishing Information: Paperback; 448 pages
Publisher: Solaris; 31 June 2010
ISBN 10: 1907519017
ISBN 13: 978-1907519017
Series: book 1 of King Rolen's Kin Trilogy
Tyson's copy out of pocket/ Yagiz copy provided by publisher
Reviewers: Tyson and Yagiz

Back of the Book: "Cloaked in silent winter snow the Kingdom of Rolencia sleeps as rumours spread of new Affinity Seeps, places where untamed power wells up. Meanwhile, King Rolen plans his jubilee unaware of the growing threat to those he loves.

By royal decree, all those afflicted with Affinity must serve the Abbey or face death. Sent to the Abbey because of his innate Affinity, the King’s youngest son, Fyn, trains to become a warrior monk. Unfortunately, he’s a gentle dreamer and the other acolytes bully him. The only way he can escape them is to serve the Abbey Mystic, but his Affinity is weak.

Fiercely loyal, thirteen year-old Piro is horrified to discover she is also cursed with unwanted Affinity. It broke their mother’s heart to send Fyn away, so she hides her affliction. But, when Fyn confesses his troubles, Piro risks exposure to help him.

Even though Byren Kingson is only seven minutes younger than his twin, Lence, who is the king's heir, Byren has never hungered for the Rolencian throne. When a Seer predicts that he will kill Lence, he laughs. But Lence Kingsheir sees Byren’s growing popularity and resents it. Enduring loyalty could be Byren’s greatest failing."

Tyson

The title alone tells you that you are dealing with something familiar and yet something very different. In Daniells' The King's Bastard we find ourselves with a tight-knit royal family that upon closer inspection is anything close. Political intrigue is found in every corner and no one is safe from the plans of a few cunning individuals.

King Roland and his family start out as cookie cutter characters and then in the blink of an eye everything is turned upside down. We follow the exploits of three of his children, Bryson, Fyn and Piro. Bryson is our main character and Roland's second son, I found myself really liking him from the beginning. He is honorable and trustworthy and will do whatever is necessary to get the job done while protecting those weaker and less fortunate than himself. Piro is Roland's only daughter and reminds me of Arya from George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. She is headstrong, always getting into trouble and loyal to a fault. Finally, we have Fyn the third son of King Roland and forced to become a warrior monk. Fyn is an interesting character simply for the fact that he has sacrificed a great deal for his family and while he does not enjoy his time at the monastery he does what he must for his family. There is a lot of mystery surrounding Fyn and his order. I think that in the books to come we will be surprised with what happens to him.

The plots in The King's Bastard are fast and furious as we have two political intrigues going on. One is with the royal family and another is located at the monastery where Fyn is training to become accepted into the order and make a life for himself. There is also the plot of invaders entering the kingdom and making life hard for the kingdom's subjects. Daniells does a superb job of keeping them all separated and yet having them intertwine to keep you on your toes and yet not getting you confused as you move from point of view to point of view. There are also a few other plots that I will not spoil for you.

The world building in The King's Bastard is strong in parts and weak in others. The strength in world building lies in its history. The King's Bastard seems to have a well developed history. The timeline of events seem to be well constructed. My issue with the world building is in the map that is found in the front of the novel. The world seems very small. The locations that Rowena talks about seem light years away but, according to the map, are no more than a few hundred miles away (some even less than that). I get the feeling that the world is much, much larger than the map depicts and yet the map makes me feel as though I am completely wrong. It might just be a prospective issue but I took pause on occasion to attempt to get my bearings. It is a small complaint but I thought I would mention the one minor flaw I had with the book.

By the end of The King's Bastard I was ready for more. Even though Solaris has plans to release the trilogy in consecutive months, it is a long time to wait for what just might be one of my favorite books of the year. It is definitely one of the strongest debuts of the year.

Plot 9
Characters 9
Style 8

Overall 8.5/10

Yagiz

I know we shouldn't judge books by their covers but good covers are good first impressions. And I have to admit that I had been curious about The King's Bastard since I first saw its cover. Thankfully, I wasn't disappointed with what I discovered. A few minor complaints aside, the book was very entertaining and I greatly enjoyed it.

The author's style was one of the reasons why this book was glued to my hands. Daniells has a smooth and welcoming style. From the first page the reader gets a feeling of familiarity, and not in a bad way. Each section is written from the point of view of a Protagonist. Even though there was a few situations that I could qualify as sudden point-of-view shifting or leaking, it was well executed. Needless to say, this type of story-telling appeals to me very much.

More than a few times, the story contains man-against-the-beast moments where a magical beast threatens the life of a protagonist. This is probably fine for most readers but I enjoy stories where men doesn't have to dominate the nature by becoming the main predator. The book contains too much animal hunting to my taste. I enjoy stories more when men face men, the first source of wickedness in the known universe. Animals as villains are not very exciting. Having said that the story has enough ups and downs with court intrigues, well guarded secrets, jealousies, hidden agendas and traitors so that the reader keeps turning the pages hungrily.

The author constructed her story on multiple well-balanced story threads. The story is captivating and the reader feels engaged from the first pages. In more than one occasion, The King's Bastard reminded of G. R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire but the tone of the story was not as mature as I'd like a perfect story to have. At first, I thought it was because most of the main characters were young however as I continued through the book, I noticed that it doesn't feel very mature because of the characters in general and not because of their ages. The characters are not very complex, which makes their actions somehow predictable. I couldn't help by feeling nostalgic when Pino reminded me of G. R. R. Martin's Arya and her brother Fyn reminded me of Robin Hobb's Wintrow from the Liveship Traders Trilogy.

Daniells' use of outlawed magic is not an original idea however her execution is very satisfactory. This magic that needs to be contained and controlled is not only part of the nature but can also be part of men, in which case, upon discovery, the magic bearer's life can change completely. Throughout the book, the reader learns more about this soul-tainting magic however it is obvious that there is more to be discovered in the future installments of the series.

One of the surprising touches of this book was the discovery of one of the protagonists' homosexuality. The book doesn't contain anything remotely graphic in nature however I thought that it was a surprising and a good way of becoming out-of-ordinary.

And a last quick word about the book's map. I much prefer to have maps in fantasy books. And I like them when they are well drawn. The King's Bastard does contain a map but it gives the impression that it is not so important.

The King's Bastard, the first installment of The Chronicles of King Rolen’s Kin trilogy, is a greatly enjoyable book. A constant sense of danger, a forbidden magic, court intrigue, hidden agendas, love, friendship and jealousy make this book a surprisingly good read. As of this writing, The Uncrowned King is the next book in my list and I'm looking forward to its secrets.

Plot 9
Characters 7
Style 8

Overall 8.5/10