A Dance With Dragons Now Has A Publication Date

I can hear some of you saying "Finally!" with a sigh of relief and at the same time I can hear some others saying "Yeah, right!" crossing their hands over their chests and frowning in a skeptical manner.

Well... Believe it or not, George R.R. Martin's publishers have a publication date for the long awaited book and the fifth of what most would consider one of the best series in modern fantasy, A Dance With Dragons.

You may not believe and think that it is just another publication date following many other disappointments however as the author himself puts it "This date is different. This date is real.": July 12, 2011.

This morning we heard the news from an Entertainment Weekly article and it has become the hottest fantasy topic on twitter and blogosphere. Some have even already pre-ordered their copy on Amazon.

What do you think? Come July, are we finally going to get a book in our hands? Have you ordered your copy already?

REVIEW: Tales from the Edge of Forever by Alexander Hammond

Tales from the Edge of Forever by Alexander Hammond
Publishing information: Paperback; 174 pages
Publisher: Nazca Plains; 16 December 2010
ISBN 10: 1610981715
ISBN 13: 978-1610981712
Anthology/Short Story Collection
Copy: Provided by Author
Reviewer: Tyson

Synopsis: "An anthology of mind bending imagination, Tales from the Edge of Forever offers a delicious collection of wildly original vignettes mixing fantasy, speculation, spirituality and science invention. Hammond has created stories with a depth and thoughtfulness that transcend their brevity. Whether on the streets of Manhattan or at the very edge of time and space itself the authors’ scenarios tease and intrigue in this stunningly unique collection. A total of twenty three creatively brilliant stories to captivate even the most jaded fantasy enthusiast, this book both challenges and enchants."

Tales From the Edge of Forever is a short story collection from Alexander Hammond and he does a fairly good job of delivering a wide gambit of genres. He tackles suicide in the story The Hotel at the Edge of Forever. Nuclear war and politics in the story The Button and UFO conspiracies in Top Secret. Every story contained in the collection reads as if it was written from a different author as Hammond finds a new voice for each story. There is at least one story for everyone regardless of your tastes.

The three stories that I enjoyed the most were The End of the World, My Special Guest Tonight, and Deity. The End of the World had a surprise ending. So did My Special Guest Tonight which takes a interesting look at violence in the media. The main character has a striking quality similar to Quentin Tarantino. Finally, in Deity we find a young man who must come to terms with his god-like powers.

There are a lot of stories contained in this collection and they read really quickly. I found myself continuing to read long after I should have taken a break. Tales from the Edge of Forever is quite an eclectic collection and I found that it was a lot of fun to read.

Plot 8
Characters 8
Style 8

Overall 8/10

OLD MAN'S WAR To Hit the Big Screen

If you haven't heard the news, John's Scalzi's Old Man's War is coming to the big screen. The rumor is that this may be a flagship movie for the studio.

More information can be found at Scalzi's Website. All I can say is congratulations to John and I look forward to seeing it come alive in theaters. Speculative Book Review's review of Old Man's War can be found here.

REVIEW: Green By Jay Lake

Green By Jay Lake
Publishing Information: Hardback; 368 pages
Publisher: Tor; Doherty Tom Associates, LLC; 09 June 2009
ISBN 10: 0765321858
ISBN 13: 9780765321855
Standalone
Copy Out of pocket
Reviewer: Tyson

Inside Cover: "She was born in poverty, in a dusty village under the equatorial sun. She does not remember her mother, she does not remember her own name—her earliest clear memory is of the day her father sold her to the tall pale man. In the Court of the Pomegranate Tree, where she was taught the ways of a courtesan…and the skills of an assassin…she was named Emerald, the precious jewel of the Undying Duke’s collection of beauties.

She calls herself Green.

The world she inhabits is one of political power and magic, where Gods meddle in the affairs of mortals. At the center of it is the immortal Duke’s city of Copper Downs, which controls all the trade on the Storm Sea. Green has made many enemies, and some secret friends, and she has become a very dangerous woman indeed.

Acclaimed author Jay Lake has created a remarkable character in Green, and evokes a remarkable world in this novel. Green and her struggle to survive and find her own past will live in the reader’s mind for a long time after closing the book."




I know it is said to never judge a book by its cover, but in the case of Jay Lake's Green, that is exactly what I did. The cover is gorgeous. The young girl turned tool and weapon of the gods hanging from a pomegranate tree is such a great image. I knew virtually nothing about Jay Green aside from the cover of this novel and went out on a limb to try him out and I am glad I did.

Green starts off fairly quickly, as a small child the 'girl' who would become to be known as Green is sold and taken to a faraway land. Almost the instant you start reading the book the imagery is rather well written. Since the girl is really young we are not given a lot of clear details as to the world outside as she begins her journey the reader begins to learn about the world around the girl just as she begins to learn as well. As she grows and matures so do we and the world becomes much more open to us even though she herself is secluded from the outside in a fancy well-provided house known as the Pomegranate Court. The way in which Lake evolves the way we read the story and how it changes and becomes sharper is very subtle and I really enjoyed that concept as I read it.

Green is the story of a girl going through massive changes as she is taught various skills and knowledge. It is told through the girl and so we are not told everything in the beginning but as you progress through the novel things become much sharper and clearer. By the very end of the story most things are made fairly clear and with a few pages to go it becomes a little obvious as to how things will end but that does not mean the journey was not worth taking. I really enjoyed reading the girl's prospective as you really have a window into her brain and you see how things unfold with her head.

The world building in Green is very graphic at times and very vague in others. The story is told in only two cities and a few small locations. The two major cities are brought to light fairly well but the overall world is not talked about in much detail. From what I gathered the story takes place in a world similar to the Mediterranean Sea as they must travel by ship to travel in between city-states but it only takes a matter of days. They do mention a few other ports of call and cities, but beyond names we have no real concept of what they look like or where they specifically are. Since the other locales were not important to the story they had no real bearing on the story but it would have been nice to have them fleshed out.

With less than 400 pages the book moves at a break-neck pace. There are a lot of details to the girl's education and yet Lake is able to have her do quite a bit more and then some. In the short span of life that the novel occurs in the girl travels far and wide and gains a reputation as she travels. I was impressed with how much was done in such a short amount of text. The book does have a few moments where the pace slows down but then things get picked back up and your are on another adventure. I thought it was all done very well.

While Green is my first Jay Lake novel, I doubt it will be my last. Green was a enjoyable read from a talented writer. A great way to be introduced to the author.

Plot 8
Characters 9
style 8.5

Overall 9/10

New Artwork Revealed for China Miéville

Pan Macmillan unveiled the full re-jacketed backlist of China’s books, to be published alongside his new novel, Embassytown, on 6th May 2011.

Crush Creative designed the covers and they look truly amazing! I can already see the fans wanting to own the entire catalogue.

They all look sublime but if I have to pick the best one, in my opinion, it would be the cover of Iron Council. What do you think?

Hardcover: 432 pages
Publisher: Macmillan (6 May 2011)
ISBN-10: 0230750761
ISBN-13: 978-0230750760

Embassytown: a city of contradictions on the outskirts of the universe.

Avice is an immerser, a traveller on the immer, the sea of space and time below the everyday, now returned to her birth planet. Here on Arieka, humans are not the only intelligent life, and Avice has a rare bond with the natives, the enigmatic Hosts - who cannot lie.

Only a tiny cadre of unique human Ambassadors can speak Language, and connect the two communities. But an unimaginable new arrival has come to Embassytown. And when this Ambassador speaks, everything changes.

Catastrophe looms. Avice knows the only hope is for her to speak directly to the alien Hosts.

And that is impossible.

REVIEW: Flesh and Bone: Rise of the Necromancers anthology

Flesh and Bone: Rise of the Necromancers edited by Jessy Marie Roberts
Publishing information: Kindle
Publisher: Pine Hill Press; 16 August 2010
ISBN 10: 1617060011
ISBN 13: 978-1617060014
ASIN: B004C05DR4
Anthology
Copy: Provided by publisher
Reviewer: Tyson

Synopsis: "Twenty-one dark short stories about the undead, and the persons who raise them... Featuring: The Blade of Tears by Lydia Sharp, No Man's Land by K.G. McAbee, Wrists by Shennandoah Diaz, All the World a Grave by Michael McClung, Blood on the Beach by Anne Michaud, The Scarlet Cat by Rebecca Lloyd, The Mortician's Secret by Kelley Frank, The King's Accord by Alan Baxter, Necrodance by Darin Kennedy, The Ghost Walk by Marianne Halbert, Blood Brothers by J. Matthew Saunders, Bequest by Greg Mellor, 9 Mystery Rose by Eden Royce, In the Dark Kingdom by Brandon Berntson, Jenna's Awakening by TW Brown, Queen of Bones by Aubrie Dionne, Small Matters of Immortality by Michael R. Colangelo, The Stoner Bride by Matthew Fryer, Sedenberry's Pest by Jon C. Forisha, A History of the Wraith King by Chris Poling & And the Greatest of these is Love by David McDonald."

While reading Flesh and Bone I was struck with the thought that this entire collection has the feel of a Creep Show or Tales From the Darkside feel to them. The collection contained in the anthology varies considerably. There are tales that are in the modern age as well as from times past. There is also a lot of fantasy elements aside from the obvious dealing with necromancy. While I found the nearly all the stories contained in the collection to be great there were a few that stood out.

The Blade of Tears by Lydia Sharp and All the World a Grave by Michael McClung were very impressive in that they should have been full blown novels. There were a lot of great ideas and characters presented in both of the stories. The Blade of Tears dealt with the undead attacking a woman bent on revenge as she attempts to recover a family heirloom. All the World a Grave had a fascinating assassin. The background for the character was impressive and the ending was something that I did not see coming. The Scarlet Cat by Rebecca Lloyd was a cross between classic Stephen King and Raimi's Drag Me to Hell. After reading the story I thought she outdid King in many respects and would love to see more work from the author.

The one stand out story that I enjoyed was Blood on the Beach by Anne Michaud. It was a short story told from the zombie's prospective as the zombie is semi-aware and not as brain dead was we are led to believe. When Michaud has the zombie looking for a hiding spot to avoid the soldiers had me chuckling.

Flesh and Bone: Rise of the Necromancers is not a collection that I would pick up on my own as it is not something that I tend to go after when I look for a new book, but I am glad that the publisher sent me the collection as it was a lot of fun to read and gave me a chance to read several talented authors that I had never encountered before. If you love the undead and those that raise them from their eternal rest then this the perfect collection for you. I wish that I had received this anthology around Halloween because it is a great collection for that time of year.

Plot 8
Characters 7
Style 7

Overall 8/10

New Pics from Transformers 3 - The Wreckers

Admittedly, I am not sure what to make of the new Transformers movie. I want to like it but at the same time the last one was painful to watch as Bay made a mockery of one of my childhood staples.

Recently, the wrecker's photos have appeared online. If you don't know who the Wreckers are, you are not alone. They are basically the special forces for the Autobots. They constantly had they robobutts handed to them by Megatron/Galvatron. They have been upgraded for the movie and appear to be NASCAR vehicles which is kinda cool but hard to be disguised with laser, missiles, and gun turrets hanging off of them.

For more information you can check out the source that broke the information over at igeektrooper.