Joshua Palmatier's Blog, page 22

Book Review: "Alien in the House" by Gini Koch

This is the seventh book in the Alien series from Gini Koch. I'm desperately trying to catch up on this series, since the books are fairly large in size and she's producing them at two per year. I'm now two books behind, but hope to catch up before the tenth one comes out at the end of the year. This is a fun, action-packed quasi-SF series, with some romance elements thrown in. But in the recent novels, the romance aspects have taken a back seat, which makes the books much more appealing to me. Not that I hate romance, but I'm much more interested in the SF aspects. And of course the fun.





In this book, Kitty Martini and crew host a party for the DC elite, since they're now part of the Diplomatic Corps, and of course one of the newest Representatives in the House (and an Alien sympathizer) is murdered almost immediately. Everyone at the party is a suspect . . . except everyone who's anyone is at the party, so it doesn't narrow down the list much. But as Kitty begins to investigate, they discover that an unhealthy number of Representatives have been "accidentally" killed during the past year, and the deaths are escalating. When Jeff is asked to replace the Representative killed at the party, he becomes one of the targets. Now Kitty must find out who's behind the killings before they have a chance to kill anyone else. But in the process, she finds out that maybe there's really one Mastermind behind not just the deaths in the House, but perhaps all of the conspiracies she's uncovered since she killed her first Superbeing with hairspray and a pen.

Again, this series is really just good old fashioned rollicking fun. It's fast-paced, with conspiracies oozing out of every opening, bad guys (some thought dead) appearing around every corner, assassins on every rooftop, and SF elements that are more along the lines of the 50s B movies than hardcore science. Not that it's all fluff. You have to keep your brain engaged so you can follow all of the unraveling plotlines. For a brief time in this series, those plot threads were far too complicated to follow, but this book and the most recent ones have backed off on the complexity a little, and I think they're better books for it. Focusing in one a few of the ongoing conspiracies, while keeping the others in the background, makes for better reading and gives the reader more focus.

This book has a pretty clear plotline, easy to follow, with only a few side elements that confuse the matter in the beginnings. Basically, those are the red herrings. I enjoyed the murder mystery here, as well as the added thriller aspects introduced because of the plot; it starts to feel like a political suspense novel with the politics, assassins and conspiracies. So it has a slightly different flavor than the previous books, which is good. My biggest issue with the plot is that I felt it took far too long for the characters to figure out the reason why the Representatives were being killed. It seemed obvious to me what the reason would be almost from the start, and yet Kitty and crew don't figure it out until well after the halfway point, and then they take even longer trying to convince others that this is the reason when those other people should have realized it much sooner as well. It was a little hard to believe some of the characters took that much prodding to convince.

But, aside from that, I loved the noir-ish, suspense feel of the book, especially the political assassination aspects. The romance elements in the book were extremely light, which I like, but I know some of you will be disappointed with. I think it's one of the better of the recent books in the series. If you're looking for some action-packed SF with romance on the side, check this series out.

Book Review: THE LOST FLEET: COURAGEOUS by Jack Campbell

This is the third book in the Lost Fleet series and I'm still thoroughly enjoying it. In fact, I've already read book four as well (review up shortly). If you like military sci-fi that's realistic, both in terms of battles, strategy, and characterizations, then you should be reading this series.





The premise is that Captain John "Black Jack" Geary was lost for a hundred years in a hibernation escape pod after his ship was destroyed at the start of the war with the Syndics. Now he's been woken up and the war is still raging. In fact, the Alliance fleet that found him has been ambushed, its leaders killed, and now Geary has to get the fleet back to Alliance space in one piece even though they're trapped far behind enemy lines because they have the key to the Syndic hypernet gates, which could tip the war in favor of the Alliance.

In this book, Geary has decided to make a direct run for the Alliance border, after a series of avoidance tactics meant to throw off the Syndics. But the Syndics are starting to learn how Geary thinks. With supplies running low, the first few jumps are successful, but Geary pushes his luck and jumps to Lakota, against some of his advisors' wishes. It's a risk, one that may get the fleet that much closer to home . . . but the Syndics aren't stupid, and there's another alien force out there who's goals are unknown. Not to mention those within the fleet who are actively working against Geary's command.

I said in my previous review that Geary's decisions were working out a little too well and that something needed to happen to show that he wasn't always right and didn't always make the right choice. That happens in this book. The Syndics are wising up and starting to think instead of just react, realizing that the Alliance fleet isn't going to fall apart and be easy pickings. Here, Geary has few options and is being out-maneuvered, the fleet forced into too narrow a corridor with too few choices. Geary's luck has run out. And it makes his character that much more real, since he now has to deal with the consequences of his command and, with the help of those loyal to him, figure out a way out.

The situation the fleet finds themselves in when they reach Lakota is real and what Geary is forced to do to escape is believable. At some point, the fleet was going to end up in such a situation, and the fact that it's complicated even more by the unknown aliens is just icing on the cake. And Geary's final act in this book is what pushed this review from four stars to five. I wasn't expecting it, and yet it makes total sense.

This series is spectacular. If you aren't reading it, you should be, even if you aren't a hardcore sci-fi fan. I'm mostly drawn to fantasy, rarely read sci-fi and enjoy it as much as fantasy, but I'm loving this series.

The Last June Book Discussion!

I've just posted the last of the June book discussions at the DAW Books blog ( dawbooks )! We're looking at the latest trade paperback release of Tanya Huff's Blood books, Blood Pact. Stop on by and tell us what you thought of the book!

Signal Boost: "Plunder of Souls" by D.B. Jackson

This book came out this week and I highly recommend it and the series. Here's the cover and cover copy to pique your interest. You should go order it, along with Shattering the Ley, of course.





Boston, 1769: Ethan Kaille, a Boston thieftaker who uses his conjuring to catch criminals, has snared villains and defeated magic that would have daunted a lesser man. What starts out as a mysterious phenomenon that has local ministers confused becomes something far more serious.

A ruthless, extremely powerful conjurer seeks to wake the souls of the dead to wreak a terrible revenge on all who oppose him. Kaille’s minister friends have been helpless to stop crimes against their church. Graves have been desecrated in a bizarre, ritualistic way. Equally disturbing are reports of recently deceased citizens of Boston reappearing as grotesquely disfigured shades, seemingly having been disturbed from their eternal rest, and now frightening those who had been nearest to them in life. But most personally troubling to Kaille is a terrible waning of his ability to conjure. He knows all these are related . . . but how?

When Ethan discovers the source of this trouble, he realizes that his conjure powers and those of his friends will not be enough to stop a madman from becoming all-powerful. But somehow, using his wits, his powers, and every other resource he can muster, Ethan must thwart the monster’s terrible plan and restore the restless souls of the dead to the peace of the grave. Let the battle for souls begin in Plunder of Souls, the third, stand-alone novel in Jackson’s acclaimed Thieftaker series.

Mini Book Tour: Day One

Today is the start of my mini book tour for SHATTERING THE LEY! I'll be signing in two places today: Green Toad bookstore in Oneonta, NY, from 1-3pm, and at Flights of Fantasy in Albany, NY, from 7-9pm. If you're in either area, swing on by the bookstore and get your copy of SHATTERING THE LEY signed!

Shattering the Ley


Erenthrall--sprawling city of light and magic, whose streets are packed with traders from a dozen lands and whose buildings and towers are grown and shaped in the space of a day. At the heart of the city is the Nexus, the hub of the ley line system that powers Erenthrall and links the city and the Baronial plains to the rest of the continent and the world beyond. The Prime Wielders control the Nexus with secrecy and lies, but it is the Baron who controls the Wielders and the rest of the Baronies through a web of brutal intimidation enforced by his bloodthirsty guardsmen and unnatural assassins.

When the rebel Kormanley seek to destroy the ley system and the Baron’s chokehold on the continent, two people find themselves caught in the chaos that sweeps through Erenthrall and threatens the entire world: Kara Tremain, a young Wielder coming into her power, who discovers the forbidden truth behind the magic that powers the ley lines, and Alan Garrett, a recruit in the Baron’s guard, who learns that the city holds more mysteries and more danger than he could possibly have imagined . . . and who holds a secret within himself that could mean Erenthrall’s destruction . . . or its salvation.

DAW's Newest Releases!

Huh, looks like I forgot to post a link to the new release post from DAW Books ( dawbooks )! New this month are hardcovers from E.C. Ambrose and Joshua Palmatier *cough* along with a new paperback from Diana Rowland, and the paperback release of Tad Williams' last "Bobby Dollar" book. Swing on by the blog and check them out!

Book Review: "Green Rider" by Kristen Britain

This is the first book in Kristen Britain's Green Rider series from DAW Books and I'm not sure why it took me so long to get around to reading it.

Karigan is a student at a school for the wealthy and elite because her father is a successful merchant. But after a sword fight with another student--an aristocrat's son--where she humiliates him, she finds herself in hot water . . . so she runs away. Or rather, she runs from the school, intent on returning home. However, as soon as she leaves she stumbles over a Green Rider, one of the messengers of the king, who's near death. The Rider charges her with getting his messages back to the king, directly into the king's hands, and before Karigan knows it, she's one the Green Rider's horse, fleeing those who killed the Rider and are intent on stopping her from delivering the messages no matter what.

That description pretty much covers only the first few chapters of the book, so as you can imagine, the rest of the book is what Karigan runs into on her adventures to find the king. But even that isn't the end of it, because there are consequences once the message is delivered. Overall, I enjoyed the book. Karigan is a young protagonist and the adventures she has were engaging. This is Kristen Britain's first book and it does suffer somewhat from that "first book" syndrome in that the beginning felt a little rough (her running into the Rider and accepting the charge of delivering the message felt a little awkward). Also, some of the adventures after that also felt a little random and rambling, not as focused as I'd expect. I also expected the bad guys to play a more significant role in the first half of the book. Instead, they appear occasionally, are made out to be extremely powerful, but then don't really come into play until the latter part of the book. I would have thought the first half would have been more focused on the bad guys attempting to capture Karigan.

But that said, the world was interesting and it's obvious that there is more story here to explore. I've been told that some of the issues I listed above are fleshed out in more detail in later books, so I'll have to see if they have satisfactory explanations when I get to those later books. Overall an enjoyable read, perhaps a little rambling, with some characters and choices made that didn't seem quite right or were a little too oblivious and unreasonable given the circumstances. But I expect that the story and writing will grow appreciably in the follow up books, which I will, indeed, read.

Not Everyone Loves SHATTERING THE LEY! *gasp*

So everyone's heard by now that my next book, Shattering the Ley, the start of a new fantasy series, has hit the shelves. You should go buy it. I've been posting the reviews as they come in and so far Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus, Library Journal, and SFRevu have loved the book. However, there were bound to be some bad reviews (or at least "meh" reviews) out there and the first one I've found comes from Tor.com. They really didn't like the book, which is fine. I liked the book, and I'm sure a bunch of others will like the book as well. But for full disclosure, here's Tor.com's review:





Tor.com: Joshua Palmatier has had a rather ragged career to date. After his first trilogy from DAW Books—The Skewed Throne (2006), The Cracked Throne (2007), and The Vacant Throne (2009) — he published two novels under the name of Benjamin Tate, The Well of Sorrows (2011) and Leaves of Flame (2012). Shattering the Ley marks a return to his Palmatier name and, it appears, lays the groundwork to begin a new series.
Shattering the Ley stands apart from the majority of second-world fantasy by having a distinctly modern cast to its world-building.

The city of Erenthrall is fuelled by the magic of the ley lines: ley magic powers its ovens and its factories, public transport and flying barges. This harnessing of magic is only possible because humans have altered the original flows of the ley lines: under the direction of Erenthrall’s Baron, ley magic “Wielders” created the Nexus and ley nodes throughout the city, to control and channel the power of the ley. Erenthrall and its associated subject cities enjoy a high standard of living, but the Baron is a tyrant whose rule is upheld by his vicious personal guard—the “Dogs”—and a cadre of bestial assassins, the “Hounds.” The Baron’s grip on the leylines of power is challenged by the ambitions of his vassals, and by a religiously-inspired group of dissidents, the Kormanley, who want to restore ley magic to its natural state.

But unfortunately, the novelty provided by Shattering the Ley’s modern cityscape—with universal schooling and a university, trams, and terrorists—doesn’t make up for its structural and narrative deficiencies. You’ll notice that while I’ve discussed the novel’s setting, I’ve yet to provide any description of what the book is about. That’s because, apart from “a bunch of things happening involving challenges to the Baron’s grip on power” and “things happening with ley magic,” I’m not actually sure. There’s no solid narrative through-line I can discern.

Shattering the Ley takes place over a period of approximately fifteen or sixteen years, with two significant jumps forward in time. There are three or four years between Part I and Part II (both relatively short sections of the narrative) and then a jump of twelve years between Part II and Part III (which is longer than Parts I and II put together). The cast of viewpoint characters is relatively large for a book of no more than five hundred pages, and many of their scenes exist for little purpose other than expositing, or so that characters can talk about what they don’t know, or what they plan to accomplish.

The narrative wanders. It staggers, to be blunt, a bit like a stag party heading for the train station on the morning after the big match. There are threads of story that veer into dead-end alleys and hints of foreshadowing that ultimately amount to nothing. Character development is next to non-existent: all of the players finish the story pretty much unchanged from the people they were when it began—and considering we first meet one of them as a twelve-year-old, that’s quite an achievement.

A writer can get away with a meandering narrative if the story demonstrates strong thematic coherence, together with compelling characters and/or pretty prose. Conversely, they can get away without thematic coherence, pretty prose, and/or compelling characters if the story is brief and brisk and filled with explosions and delightful popcorn-for-the-brain. While Shattering the Ley has several explosions, it doesn’t sustain a brisk narrative tension over the long haul, and across its various parts and movements and perspectives, it doesn’t have the kind of unity of theme or purpose that makes a whole greater than the sum of its bits and pieces.

In the hands of a better writer, the scattered nature of Shattering the Ley’s range of moving parts, the way in which alleys of perspective wander off and never return to a central through-line, the way in which ley magic is gradually breaking down in Erenthrall just as some of our main characters have lives in which relationships die or are severed or shattered, might come across as deliberate. A writer with more control over their prose and the structure of their narrative might have made these meanderings seem intentional: made them serve a theme where things fall apart and the centre cannot hold. In Shattering the Ley, I’m afraid, no such thematic lucidity holds sway.

Which makes this a passably readable book, but—alas!—not a very good one. –Tor.com

SHATTERING THE LEY Review: Library Journal

Here's Library Journal's review of Shattering the Ley. Generally positive!

Gifted from an early age with the ability to sense and use ley energy, Kara is tapped to be a Wielder, one of the special technicians who maintain the complicated ley lines that power lights, machines, and transportation in the city of Erenthrall. The ley lines are only truly understood by the Prime Wielders, who act under the control of Baron Arent. Control of the ley is command of the world, but there are those who want the power returned to its natural state. These Kormanley rebels threaten the established order, and the state police known as the Baron's Dogs hunt them without mercy. But political forces are using the Kormanley, and tampering with the ley might bring down more than just the baron's regime. VERDICT Although Kara is an exceptional character, she shares the stage with Allan, a deeply conflicted member of the Baron's Dogs with a secret connection to the ley. Palmatier (The Vacant Throne) takes familiar ideas of ley lines and magic wielders but gives them fresh life in this rich fantasy world. –Library Journal, 6/15/2014

SHATTERING THE LEY is One Day Old!

So . . . Shattering the Ley, my next novel and the start of a new series, is now one day old. Thanks to everyone who has ordered/bought the book! These first few weeks of the book's release are the most important. If you know you're going to get the book, please order/buy it now. Don't wait. It lets the publisher know that you were waiting for this book to come out, which helps indicate whether DAW should be buying my next book or not. You can also help out by telling your friends about the book, either in person or through social media. Put up a link to the book connecting it to your favorite bookstore. Put up the cover art (which I think rocks). Talk about the book for the next few weeks. And if you get and read the book, please post a review of the book at any and all reviewing spots, like Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. All of these small things really have a much larger impact on how well the books does than you might think.

And if you absolutely love the book, shout that out to the world! (Keep in mind you can always buy copies of the book to give to your friends as gifts as well.)

Here's the cover art and a little cover copy you can share with your friends right now. Please pass it around and share the artwork! I'll be posting the stops along a little mini book tour I've set up through upstate New York, New Hampshire, and Boston. There will also be links to some interviews I did, and hopefully some signal boosts from some friends and authors you may know. And of course you'll be hearing from me daily (probably) for the next two weeks or so, so please bear with me. I think this book is the best thing I've written to date, with some stunning and surprising twists (twists that surprised even me). I think everyone is going to love it!





Copy: Erenthrall—sprawling city of light and magic, whose streets are packed with traders from a dozen lands and whose buildings and towers are grown and shaped in the space of a day. At the heart of the city is the Nexus, the hub of the ley line system that powers Erenthrall and links the city and the Baronial plains to the rest of the continent and the world beyond. The Prime Wielders control the Nexus with secrecy and lies, but it is the Baron who controls the Wielders and the rest of the Baronies through a web of brutal intimidation enforced by his bloodthirsty guardsmen and unnatural assassins.

When the rebel Kormanley seek to destroy the ley system and the Baron’s chokehold on the continent, two people find themselves caught in the chaos that sweeps through Erenthrall and threatens the entire world: Kara Tremain, a young Wielder coming into her power, who discovers the forbidden truth behind the magic that powers the ley lines, and Alan Garrett, a recruit in the Baron’s guard, who learns that the city holds more mysteries and more danger than he could possibly have imagined . . . and who holds a secret within himself that could mean Erenthrall’s destruction . . . or its salvation.