REVIEW: Pink Noise: A Posthuman Tale by Leonid Korogodski

Pink Noise: A Posthuman Tale by Leonid Korogodski
Publishing Information: Kindle/PDF; 192 pages
Publisher: Silverberry Publishing; 29 August 2010
ISBN 10: 0984360824
ISBN 13: 978-0984360826
ASIN:B004BLINMQ
Standalone
Copy: Provided by Author
Reviewer: Tyson

Synopsis: "One of the best brain doctors of his time, Nathi lost his own brain five centuries ago when he became a posthuman. He is now called upon to save a comatose girl. The damage is extensive, so he decides to map his own mind into her brain in order to replace the damaged part. But something unexpected awaits him within the girl's brain. She is a carrier of a Wish Fairy, an enigmatic sentient cyberbeing whose only purpose is to kill the Wish, a virus used to enslave all posthuman minds, including Nathi's. Liberated, Nathi forms a symbiotic union with the girl, discovers the true cause of her brain injury, and finds a way to break out of the Castle, their high-tech prison, and into the Martian polar night. But once outside, the real chase begins. It is a battle that must be fought both in the physical world and that of the mind."

Pink Noise is an interesting tale, but unfortunately one I found difficult to follow. It deals with the mind more than the body and a future that is very alien to one you would expect. With the United States finally going to Mars but quickly losing interest after they get there only to have the Africans colonizing the red world. As I read Pink Noise I had a hard time keeping up with the background and what was going on with the current story.

There is a lot of technobabble that takes some getting use to and the pdf copy that I was given had many concepts, descriptions, and guides in the margins of the book to help you stumble along as you read. Nathi was an interesting character as he is a brain stored in digital form and he continues to live well past the time most mortals would have lived. He does his best to save a comatose girl but along the way he gets much more than he bargained for. Nathi was easy to like but very difficult to decipher. You could tell that even though he was now a humanized computer program, he was lonely and looking for someone to share his existence with.

A lot of the story deals with Nathi saving the young girl but the reader must also pay attention to the clues that are given about the past. There is a war on in the universe and it is not like the wars that we are use to. The wars of the future are no longer just physical, they are now cyber and metaphysical. It is a war that has been waged for a few centuries. There are wizards who fight and command in the cyber/metaphysical world and then there are the warriors who are more traditional in that they fight in the physical plan. I liked this idea but admittedly. had a hard time comprehending the idea. It was mind-boggling to say the least and while Korogodski does a great job of explaining it, however, I still had trouble grasping the idea.

Pink Noise is a very short story but a very large concept that may or may not come to pass. It takes place several centuries from now and raises some issues about our current artificial Intelligence and just how long the human body could live for given the proper care. While I had trouble with some of the ideas that the author brought forth I can see where hardcore science fiction readers may have a blast with this story. It should be noted that the reason for the low score is due to the fact that I had trouble with the book, not because of the story itself.

Plot 8
Characters 7
Style 7

Overall 6/10

REVIEW: Pegasus by Robin McKinley

Pegasus by Robin McKinley


Publisher: Penguin Group, 2010.
Format: eBook, 586 KB
ISBN 10: 0399246777
ISBN 13: 978-0399246777
ASIN: 0399246770
Copy: Purchased on-line
Reviewer: Victoria


From the publisher. . .


Because of a thousand-year-old alliance between humans and pegasi, Princess Sylviianel is ceremonially bound to Ebon, her own pegasus, on her twelfth birthday. The two species coexist peacefully, despite the language barriers separating them. Humans and pegasi both rely on specially trained Speaker magicians as the only means of real communication.

But it's different for Sylvi and Ebon. They can understand each other. They quickly grow close-so close that their bond becomes a threat to the status quo-and possibly to the future safety of their two nations.

New York Times bestselling author Robin McKinley weaves an unforgettable tale of unbreakable friendship, mythical creatures and courtly drama destined to become a classic.

As I have stated on far more than one occasion on this blog: I love Robin McKinley's work.  I have been reading her novels for almost twenty years.  Her work brings me back to my childhood.  It reminds me to suspend my disbelief once and a while and rejoice in the simple pleasures of a good story.  Forget about grittiness or realism, or strong language and maturity.  If you're looking for that, than this young adult novel is not going to be your cup of tea.  In fact, this book is probably more for the girl who enjoyed setting tea for her friends and menagerie of stuffed animals.


Oh, and beware, it ends at a complete cliffhanger.  There's still more to come.  


Pegasus is McKinley's newest novel, set in a far away land where humans share their space with monsters and the noble Pegasi.  Through the course of the story we learn that the alliance between the Pegasi and the humans is a fragile one and mainly one sided.  While the Pegasi know much about humans, humans do not know much about the Pegasi.  That is until the princess Sylvi is bonded with her pegasus, Ebon, but not everyone is as accepting.  Not everyone likes what they find out.


The story begins with the bonding of Sylvi and the young pegasus, Ebon.  The majority of Pegasus is about their growing friendship and how their lives become intertwined in more than they, or their kingdoms, ever bargained for.  This isn't a novel packed with action scenes, but a story that revolves around friendship and what it is made up of.  It is about understanding and respecting other cultures. All fabulous things for girls to read about (or those adults who're open enough to rekindle their inner child).


I do, however, have one small criticism that falls under the category of style: the narrative rambles.  It's a cute ramble.  It reminds me of a little brook tripping and trickling over and under stones, curling around rocks and plants, but it does ramble on a bit.  This novel is not the strongest of McKinley's work, stylistically.


Pegasus is a little gem of a story about friendship and courage.  While I thoroughly enjoyed it, I think a young girl between the ages of ten and fourteen would be best suited for it.  Stylistically, it is not McKinley's strongest, but the story and the message are absoloutely wonderful.


Plot: 8.5
Characters: 8
Style: 6.5


Overall Rating: 7/10

Harry Potter FX TV Show

IGN had a quick April Fool's Day joke directed at the world of Harry Potter:

REVIEW: Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth

Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth
Publishing Information: Hardback; 400 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult; 18 May 2010
ISBN 10: 0399156356
ISBN 13: 978-0399156359
Series: Book 1 of The President's Vampire series
Copy: Out of Pocket
Reviewer: Tyson

Inside the Book "Zach Barrows is an ambitious young White House staffer whose career takes an unexpected turn when he's partnered with Nathaniel Cade, a secret agent sworn to protect the President. But Cade is no ordinary civil servant. Bound by a special blood oath, he is a vampire. Cade battles nightmares before they can break into the daylight world of the American dream, enemies far stranger-and far more dangerous-than civilians have ever imagined."

Blood Oath is the first in a series of action vampire novels that feature a vampire named Nathaniel Cade who works directly for the president of the United States. The book has a Hellboy like feel to it as the book opens up with the secret organization hiring a new young man who is going to take over as Cade's handler as his current handler is reaching retirement.

Nathaniel Cade is a true vampire, he does not glitter in sunlight, he has trouble containing his thirst, and he knows he is damned. With nearly every new chapter we learn more and more about the vampire in the universe as we get excepts of scientific research conducted on Cade that explores his abilities. Farnsworth did a great job of keeping with the origins of the literary vampire. They are not cuddly, they are an apex predator that unnerves people when they are in proximity to them. Vampires are suppose to be a scary creature and the author uses this to great effect. His new Handler, Zach, is also well written as he was fairly high in the president's inner circle for a young man and is now thrust into the deep end of a pool he had no idea existed and he was fairly believable as a character. As he goes from whinny know-it-all to a valuable asset in the black ops we see a lot of growth. The supporting characters are also well written, the enemies and co-conspirators all have a role to play and are used quite well.

While the characters are all great the best part of Blood Oath is that the action rarely lets up. The book reads really fast as you can't help but read just one more chapter, even though you really should be heading to bed. While the book does deal with vampires and other things that go bump in the night, it reads more like a Tom Clancy novel as there is plenty of intrigue and blood. There is not a lot of Lovecraftian mythos in this particular novel, but it would not surprise me if they appeared in future installments.

Blood Oath is a great escape from reality and a nice change of pace from the recent vampire novels that seem to be more popular. Farnsworth returns to what made vampires scary and added his own twist to the myth, as Cade has chosen to help America tackle terrorists and anything else that may threaten the land. It reads really fast and it is no wonder why it has been opted for a movie. Great escapism.

Plot 7
Characters 8
Style 8

Overall 8.5/10

REVIEW: Hammerfall by C.J. Cherryh

 

Hammerfall by C.J. Cherryh


Publisher:  Harper Voyager (July 2002)
Format: eBook, 464 pages.
ISBN-10: 0061057096
ISBN-13: 978-0061057090
Copy: Purchased on-line
Reviewer: Victoria


What is said. . .


Brought before the powerful ruler known as the Ila, the madman known as Marak receives a command to seek out the silver tower of his mad dreams and return with the knowledge of what the tower holds. Marak discovers, however, that reaching his destination is only the beginning of a greater and more dangerous journey. Cherryh's latest novel introduces a new universe of fallen technologies and warring interstellar empires, divine madness and world-shattering weaponry. The author of Fortress in the Eye of Time begins a new series with a powerful story that features a hero marked by his visions to save or destroy his world. - Library Journal






I was excited to read this book.  I have been reading a lot of C.J. Cherryh's work in the past year and have yet to be disappointed.   All of the previous work I have read by Cherryh was fantasy, so I decided to check out her science fiction.  While she has much longer science fiction series, I decided that Hammerfall would be the best choice, since it was the first book of a duology.  This way I was not locked into a long series that I may not like.  I have found from experience that not all authors have the capability of crossing genres, so while I might have liked Cherryh's fantasy, I might very well not like her science fiction.


First off, the story was incredible.  The landscape, the environment and the culture of the people in the novel were fully fleshed and lovingly created.  While I do not have any experience with deserts, the way in which Cherryh treated a desert people and their environment seemed realistic enough to me.  I was fascinated with the culture which permeated the story in such a subtle manner that made for smooth reading.  Not once was I confused, even when native terms and words were used.


From my previous experience with Cherryh's novels, I love her prose.  It is dense, yes, but it is littered with imagery to die for.  I was expecting the same here, but I found myself to be unfortunately disappointed.  This novel was ruined by massive chunks of description. Mind you, it was not description of the landscape that bothered me, but the constant description of characters' movements and going ons.  Cherryh decided to tell us about everything instead of showing us.  Consequently, there was hardly any dialogue or conversation between characters, which created a wall between them and me, the reader.  I never once really felt for any of the characters because I never got to know them.  I just knew that they got up onto their camel-like mount or down, or were thirsty or were having a mad fit.  I never got into their inner workings, their motives or their desires.  The characters really fell flat.


The world building and the story of Hammerfall are great and those are two aspects I really enjoyed.  Unfortunately, there was a sore lack of style and because of that the characters suffered.  I expected a lot from this novel and maybe that is why I feel so let down by it.  I will read the sequel, Forge of Heaven, for completion's sake, but not in the near future.


Plot:  8
Characters: 6
Style: 4


Overall Rating:  6.5/10

R.I.P. Diana Wynne Jones 1934-2011

Diana Wynne Jones, who died on March 26 aged 76, was a writer whose children’s fantasies won her a small but devoted following; in recent years, following the success of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books, she finally gained more popular success.

Diana Wynne Jones was born on August 16 1934 in north London, the eldest of three daughters of progressive schoolteachers who were neglectful and emotionally distant. On the outbreak of war the family was evacuated to the Lake District where they shared, with several other families, the large house which had once been home to the Altounyan children, upon whom Arthur Ransome based his Swallows and amazons stories. Ransome himself (“a small, tubby man with a lot of beard”) came round to complain about the noise the children were making; Beatrix Potter was more direct, smacking Diana’s younger sister for swinging on a gate.

Despite this unpromising introduction to literary figures — “up until then I’d thought that books were produced by machines at Woolworth’s” — Diana had, by the age of eight, determined to become a writer.

Her 40 or so books maintained a remarkably high standard in both inventiveness and the elegance of their prose. Among the most notable were Archer’s Goon (1984), adapted as a BBC television series in 1992; The Time of the Ghost (1981); Fire and Hemlock (1985); The Dalemark Quartet (1979-93); and Howl’s Moving Castle (1986) and its sequels, Castle in the Air (1990) and House of Many Ways (2008). The first of that series was filmed by the Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki in 2004.

Diana Wynne Jones was cheerful, energetic and accident-prone, and often admitted to laughing out loud as she wrote. After the success of Harry Potter, much of her backlist was reissued by HarperCollins in paperbacks; there was also a conference devoted to her work in 2009. She received numerous awards, including a World Fantasy lifetime achievement award and, in 2006, an honorary DLitt from Bristol University.
Diana Wynne Jones is survived by her husband and three sons.

Jones was diagnosed with lung cancer in the early summer of 2009. She underwent surgery in July and reported to friends that the procedure had been successful. However in June 2010 she announced that she would be discontinuing chemotherapy, "which is serving only to make her feel very ill indeed." She stated at one point that she had regained her sense of taste and smell. Mid-2010, she was halfway through a new book, with plans for another to follow. She died on 26 March 2011 from the disease.

For more information click here.

Paul Kearney's Sea Beggars To Be Completed

Did you hear the news? This is a great one for all present and future Kearney fans: After a long struggle, it looks like Solaris has secured the rights in the existing two Sea Beggars novels and the upcoming third and final volume, Storm of the Dead. Finally we'll have the opportunity to read the completed Sea Beggars series. As a fan, I'd like to thank very much to everyone who made this possible. I don't doubt that the Sea Beggars omnibus will be as successful as the Monarchies of God omnibuses.

The only bad news about this is about the publication date: We're going to have to wait until late in 2012. But I'm sure it'll be worth it. I'm really looking forward to reading and reviewing the Sea Beggars Omnibus.

Here's what John Jarrold (the agent) wrote about the deal:

Jonathan Oliver, commissioning editor of Solaris Books, has acquired UK/US rights in the two previously-published SEA BEGGARS novels by Paul Kearney plus a third and final volume, STORM OF THE DEAD. They will be published in a one-volume omnibus, following the success of Kearney’s MONARCHIES OF GOD books in this form with Solaris (who also publish his Macht novels, THE TEN THOUSAND, CORVUS and the forthcoming KINGS OF MORNING).
The book is due for publication late in 2012, and the agent was John Jarrold.
‘Paul and I are both delighted that this series will be completed and published in its entirety by Solaris,’ said John Jarrold. ‘He is a major talent and anyone reading this or his other novels will see that very quickly.’
‘It’s a great pleasure to welcome Paul back to Solaris,’ editor-in-chief, Jonathan Oliver, said. ‘Fans of Paul’s will be delighted that the SEA BEGGARS series is finally seeing completion and new readers will be bowled over by the work of this brilliant and intelligent fantasy writer.’

The Mark of Ran (Book 1)

In a world abandoned by its Creator, an ancient race once existed - one with powers mankind cannot imagine. Some believe they were the last of the angels. Others think they were demons.

Rol Cortishane was raised in a remote fishing village with no idea of his true place in the world. But in his veins runs the blood of this long-forgotten race and he shares their dangerous destiny.

Driven from home, accused of witchcraft and black magic, Rol takes refuge in the brooding tower sanctuary of the enigmatic Michael Psellos. There Rol is trained in the assassin's craft and tutored by the beautiful but troubled Rowen.

It's no accident that Rol and Rowen have been brought together, but the truth about their past is a secret they will have to fight to discover.

Now they've set their sights across the sea in search of the Hidden City and an adventure that will make them legends... if it doesn't kill them first.

You can read an extract from The Mark of Ran on the author's Web site.

This Forsaken Earth (Book 2)

Nothing moved in all that tangled mass of wreckage and shredded cordage and shattered spars. All along the decks, flesh, wood and iron had been beaten into one unholy, pulped mess from which trickled streams of blood that brightened the brown stains venting from the scuppers. The enemy vessel was a dead thing, which even the wind could no longer stir to life.

The Revenants stared around in wonder, as if uncertain as to who could have brought such a thing to pass. A silence fell, broken only by the weary creak and groan of seaborne wood, the death rattle of a tall fighting ship.

There was a moment almost of reverence.

'This," Rol said, 'is victory.'

But no one can outrun their past, as Rol Cortishane discovers when his old acquaintance in murder, Canker, King of Thieves, turns up unannounced to make Rol an offer that cannot be refused. To safeguard the hidden pirate city that has become his home, Rol must leave behind his beloved ship, Revenant, and take to the mountains of Bionar, where his sister, Rowen, is fighting for possession of the mightiest kingdom in all the world.

Amid siege, pitched battle and betrayal, Rol will discover that his world is not the place he thought it was, and he must relearn his assassin's skills in order to survive.

You can read an extract from This Forsaken Earth on the author's Web site.