Alex C. Telander's Blog, page 18
April 15, 2016
“Arkwright” by Allen Steele (Tor, 2016)
Bestselling science fiction author Allen Steele’s latest novel, Arkwright, is the science fiction equivalent of Colleen McCullough’s The Thorn Birds. Readers get to experience the saga of the family Arkwright and its friends through the centuries and across the distant reaches of space.
Nathan Arkwright is a successful science fiction author, considered one of the “big four,” along with Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein. Arkwright begins a highly successful series called Galaxy Patrol that has him writing 18 books in the series. But in the late eighties he announces the last book in the series and that he’s done with writing. For the rest of his career he focuses his research and wealth on helping science projects looking to achieve interstellar travel.
At his death, he bequeaths most of his wealth to the Arkwright foundation, a nonprofit whose sole goal is to continue helping and funding these science projects to build a spaceship that will get a small population to a distant planet and set up a new colony. This is the story of how that is done through the years and generations of Arkwrights and their team. How they create a unique way to transport this population to the distant planet and what happens when the colony arrives on a distant, new world.
Steele clearly had fun writing this, taking a trip down memory lane to the early days of science fiction and then creating a colony ship unlike any that has been done before. There have been many books written about just this subject, and Steele himself has done a number of them before, but in Arkwright readers get to see everything develop through the eyes and emotions of its characters with ideas and technology that has barely been explored before in the genre.
Originally written on March 27, 2016 ©Alex C. Telander.
To purchase a copy of Arkwright from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.
April 13, 2016
“Written in Fire” by Marcus Sakey (Thomas & Mercer, 2016)
Tensions in the United States are at the brink in Written in Fire, Marcus Sakey’s concluding volume to the Brilliance Trilogy. And like any addictive thriller, be it science fiction or not, it’s all essentially up to one man.
The White House is now a smoking pile of ashes due to what is called a terrorist attack, but was in fact conducted at the instigation of a brilliant whose self-created town was threatened and under attack. Madison Square Garden has become an interment camp for brilliants. The government would like them all tagged and controlled. The irony is not missed here.
Meanwhile there’s the town of Tesla, one that is separate from the United States, under the control and jurisdiction of a very rich and successful brilliant who caused the stock markets to crash. This town is about to be attacked by a self-appointed militia of thousands looking to take over a good portion of brilliants and bring these “abnorms” to their knees and take back their country. The town of Tesla has an impressive defensive structure in place: a microwave magnetic field that will slowly cook a person who strays too far. But the militia have captured all the brilliant children and are using them as human shields.
Like the other two books, Sakey has a talent for building the tension one block on top of another, keeping the reader addicted to the page. Our protagonist Nick Cooper seems to get all the ladies and find just the right way of resolving everything and coming out a little battered and bruised but still alive and well. Nevertheless, Written in Fire is the epitome of a thrilling read that still leaves the reader wondering until the very end how it will all play out.
Originally written on March 26, 2016 ©Alex C. Telander.
To purchase a copy of Written in Fire from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.
April 12, 2016
Book News:24 Hour Readathon, April Reads To Put You in Touch With Nature, Cumberbatch Does Some Strange Shipping & More!
BFG Update
Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s BFG now has a spiffy looking trailer.
5 Books to Watch for in April
It’s a new month and here are some books you want want to check.
For Those Rainy Days
Here are some kickass comic book umbrellas to show off when it’s raining, or just to show off.
April 11, 2016
“Quantum Night” by Robert J. Sawyer (Ace, 2016)
It’s been a few years since Robert J. Sawyer published a novel, his last being Red Planet Blues in 2013. With the passing of his brother, Sawyer needed to take some time off. Now he’s back with a new novel, Quantum Night, and if readers and fans might be wondering if the new book might be lacking in some classic Sawyer way with the time off, they will not be disappointed in the slightest!
Jim Marchuk is an experimental psychologist who has developed what he believes to be the perfect technique for identifying psychopaths. So he’s excited when he gets used in an important case to show his technique in action. But as he is cross-examined, he discovers a hole in his mind: he is missing a six-month period in his life from twenty years ago, from when he was in college.
He begins his trip down a strange memory lane he doesn’t recollect, reuniting with an old girlfriend, Kayla Huron, and discovers he was apparently somewhat abusive during this dark period, which was totally out of character for him. They reconnect and begin dating again, as he is the same lovable, interesting person. She is now a quantum physicist and has made her own brilliant discovery with human consciousness. Meanwhile tensions are heating up around the world as riots are, well, running riot just about everywhere. But Jim and Kayla might be able to work together to somehow have an effect on this worldwide tension.
Quantum Night is a classic example of a Sawyer novel: a near future with some cool tech, a complex plot that has the reader thinking and questioning from cover to cover, and plenty of Sawyer-patented wry humor. Fans will be delighted and new readers will be sucked in with this compelling story.
Originally written on March 25, 2016 ©Alex C. Telander.
To purchase a copy of Quantum Night from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.
April 8, 2016
“Sunborn Rising: Beneath the Fall” by Aaron Safronoff (Neoglyphic Entertainment, 2016)
In a galaxy far, far away is a unique blue world composed mostly of a single massive ocean, upon which island flotillas are the only forms of land. But upon these flotillas are rainforests of mighty trees reaching into the sky, housing a thriving ecosystem of the many species living in the trees on the world of Cerulean.
A young Listlespur named Barra has once again snuck into her father’s study. He has been gone for some time, so coming here is one of the few places she can feel at peace and remember him. She finds her father’s journals, ones that have never been seen before. Bursting with excitement, she begins reading.
The world of Cerulean, deep within the trees, is a somewhat dark place and this is how it has always been, it is thought. Within the journals, Barra learns of a secret blight, a mysterious plague. The trees thrive on water and light, and this creeping vine has been staunching and strangling this flow bit by bit, gaining more and more territory, and turning it into a dark and withered place. Barra has always suspected something, and here is the proof from her father, who told the Elders, and yet nothing has been done about it.
Along with the help of two close friends, a wiry Rugosic named Tory and a cute and cuddly Kalalabat named Plicks, Barra begins her investigation, traveling to unfamiliar locales. They also pass down into the dangerous—and forbidden—Middens. It is there that they see physical proof of the black vine plague taking over the trees. Suddenly, they are attacked and do their best to evade getting infected. Before they know it, they are plunging down beneath the Fall and into another part of their world that they have only ever heard legends about. There they will learn many wonders, face new enemies, as well as gaining new friends, and hopefully find a way to combat the plague. That is if they can ever make it back to their home.
When reading Sunborn Rising, one cannot help but think of Avatar, with this strange world of colorful creatures. But this story goes so much more further with its characters and plot than the movie ever did. The author does a great job of creating not just an ecosystem with the trees and flora, but showing in the ways of the character’s lives: in their food, how they talk, the language they use, the world they live in that is influenced and in many ways controlled by the arboreal world. It also shows in the vocabulary and words Aaron Safronoff uses that adds to the whole ambiance of the novel.
The book also features 40 full-color works of art and 80 unique illustrations that add more to the setting and feel of the book. Readers are shown what the colorful characters and environments actually look like, while the illustrations provide important details that help to get the thoughts solidly in the reader’s head. The way the book is written, it could be aimed and enjoyed by a middle reader, but also by adults as it does what every fantasy book should: present a unique world with interesting characters and a fascinating story that keeps the reader hooked from beginning to end.
Originally written on February 7, 2016 ©Alex C. Telander.
Originally published in the San Francisco Book Review.
To purchase a copy of Sunborn Rising: Beneath the Fall from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.
April 7, 2016
Book News: Cult Books, DC Super-Hero YA Novels, Reading Series Out of Order & More!
Scary Audio
Here are ten terrifying horror audioboooks that will send shivers down your spine.
Great Non-Bookstore Places
Sometimes you’re in a place that doesn’t have a bookstore, and here are some other places you can get books.
DC Super-Heroes Are Getting Their Own YA Novels
Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman and Catwoman will each get their own young adult book starting in 2017.
April 6, 2016
“The Last Bastion of Civilization: Japan 2041 A Scenario Analysis” by Andrew Blencowe
In 2041, the world looks quite different from what it does now. Nations have changed, alliances have formed and reformed and battles and wars have been waged and rage ever onward. But at the very top of the global food chain is Japan in its civilized resplendence, living out the idyllic life with automated robots making the industry, economy and country run smoothly, while its people enjoy many of the technological and sociological advances made by its proud nation of the past five decades.
This is the story of Japan’s rise to worldly power, as told through a series of essays from various academics, intellectuals and leading figures. Each essay covers a core component of what Japan has done, while the rest of the world has neglected, to make itself “the last bastion of civilization.” Widespread rioting, skyrocketing unemployment and the decline of faith and spirituality have taken a toll on the planet, plunging numerous countries into anarchy.
These essays provide sparks of solution and possible resolution, such as addressing social issues like illegitimacy, rising populations, violence, gangs and intellectual decline. Some essays reveal how countries have joined together to aid each other while others take on the important subject of robotics and its development and improvement over the years leading to the idealized servant robot that is used in so many ways in daily life whether it be in the home, the factory or the workplace. Of course, the development of weapons technology is also crucial in the rise of any superpower and is not lacking here. But it is more how Japan set these many events in motion many years in the past with the goal of becoming this last civilized haven.
While The Last Bastion of Civilization is a somewhat interesting look into how a nation could conceivably become a paradisaical superpower, the steps that have been taken at times have overtones of those in some works of dystopian fiction such as George Orwell’s 1984 and Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. Some essays are outright misogynistic and racist to those who live in a world that is more aware and respectful of those who are not part of the status quo that has been in effect for so long. Sacrifices that lead to immense suffering for those less fortunate and different are not worth the price. The essays all appear to be written by men, which provides a narrow vision for this future. The key to remember is that this is a work of fiction and while these may be horrifically plausible, are ones that haven’t happened yet and for some of them, hopefully never will.
Originally written on December 20, 2015 ©Alex C. Telander.
Originally published in the San Francisco Book Review.
To purchase a copy of The Last Bastion of Civilization from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.
April 5, 2016
“Every Heart a Doorway” by Seanan McGuire (Tor, 2016)
Seanan McGuire has a number of books under her belt, with both the October Daye and Incryptid series. Then there are the many books she’s written under Mira Grant. So with the publication of her new novel,with a new publisher – Tor, readers might be expecting something similar to what they’ve read before. Every Heart a Doorway is completely different to anything she has written before, and it may be (at least in my opinion) the best piece of fiction she’s written so far.
There is a special place for special children. These kids and teens have traveled to magical worlds, places of fable, locations that are disbelieved by our world. Then for one reason or another, are kicked out of their desired realm and brought back to ours. Now they feel incredibly lost and helpless and don’t know what to do. Their parents in many cases thought them lost and/or dead, and now that they’re back they appear to be wrong in some way.
Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children is this special place that will help these children. It will take them in and foster them. Eleanor West herself went through this experience, and like the many children, hopes to one day return to her magical world. For now, with the help of teachers and classes and therapy, they learn to accept the way the world is, but at the same time are encouraged to accept the way they are, yearning for a lost world.
Except now something is killing the children. Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children is no longer the safe, comfortable, welcoming refuge it has always been.
In some ways Every Heart a Doorway has a certain Neil Gaiman feel to it, but at the same time it is only the sort of book Seanan McGuire could have ever written. It is magical and lyrical and moving. While it is a short read, readers will want to race along to the end to find out what happens, but at the same time savor every word and page and make it last an eternity.
Originally written on March 24, 2016 ©Alex C. Telander.
To purchase a copy of Every Heart a Doorway from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.
April 4, 2016
April 1, 2016
King Capsule No. 1
Here’s your premiere dose of the master of horror, one Stephen King. In this first King capsule you will be introduced to four of King’s most popular and well known novels that you might want to start with when beginning with this author. Since he has published 54 novels as of March 2016 (and that’s not including short story collections), this is a lot medicine to swallow.
So it is best taken in small, simple, capsule form.
‘Salem’s Lot (1975): Every horror writer has one, and this is Stephen King’s take on the vampire story. In the quaint small town of Jerusalem’s Lot, or ‘Salem’s lot as some locals call it, or The Lot as others do, things are not always as they seem. Ben Mears grew up here and there are certainly some skeletons hiding in his closet about the town. But now he’s looking to star anew and has moved into the old Marsten home where he plans to write his new book, possibly about the history of the historic mansion; he’s not sure yet. There’s also this cute girl in town who he used to know, and he’s starting to get real friendly with her. There are also some strange things going on in the Lot, and during the day it all seems a little too quiet.
