Alex C. Telander's Blog, page 82

"Enemy of God" by Bernard Cornwell (St. Martin's Press, 1996)

In Bernard Cornwell's second installment of The Warlord Chronicles, he continues where he left off in The Winter King: Arthur has defeated the armies of Powys and Siluria, while the kings, Gorfyddyd and Gundleus, are dead, and with an alliance between the Brythonic kingdoms now near at hand, he turns to confronting their common enemy, the Saxons.

Derfel continues the telling of his tale, where he is ordered to Powys to arrange a marriage between Lancelot, a man he despises, and the beautiful Ceinwyn, who he has completely fallen in love with, though he does not tell Arthur of this.  The mighty warrior soon arrives in Powys with the beautiful Guenevere and his full entourage to enjoy the grand wedding and all seems to be going according to plan.  Meanwhile, Merlin knows of Derfel's love and offers him an ultimatum.  The magician is in search of one of the sacred thirteen treasures of the island of Britain, a powerful cauldron that supposedly has the power to bring the dead back to life.  If Derfel will join him on this quest, he will make sure Ceinwyn is his.  He is given an enchanted pig's bone which, if he breaks it, will release the magic, and Ceinwyn will belong to Derfel.  The young man must then decide what he must do, as he weighs the decisions of Arthur, his lord, with the desires and wants of his heart.

Enemy of God takes the story of Arthur in new directions, as Cornwell skillfully blends it with some Welsh mythology to make for a captivating and adventurous tale.  At the same time the Christian faith is growing in power, and Arthur must balance this fact with respect for the Druid religion, but ultimately decide what is best for Britain and its people.

Originally written on March 17, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of Enemy of God from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

Final Cover for "In That Quiet Earth"

And here is the final cover for my second collection of short stories, In That Quiet Earth, that I will be publishing in April, maybe even possible April 17th, if everything goes accordingly.  For now, enjoy the colorful cover!

"The Winter King" by Bernard Cornwell (St. Martin's Press, 1995)

There have been many books written about the legend of King Arthur, the knights of the Round Table, Lancelot and Guenevere; a story that is known the world over and been talked about for more than a millennium.  Some of those stories have tried to remain true to the original myth — though it still remains unknown whether there really was a man who went by that name — and others have gone off into their own world, using these familiar characters.  Bernard Cornwell's Warlord Chronicles is one that remains relatively true to the heart of the story, while at the same time revealing the strong themes of Britain in the fifth century, and in so doing, has become one of the main canons of Arthurian literature.

The story of the rise of Arthur and his helping of Britain begins with its narrator, Derfel, now an old monk working away in a decaying monastery.  He professes to his Bishop Sansum that he is writing the story of Jesus Christ the savior in the words of the Britons so they may better understand him, when he is really recording the story of the greatest warrior to ever live, so it may be well and correctly remembered for future generations, as compared to the tales and songs the bards sing where the true heroes are not always recognized and appreciated.

The story begins with King Uther who does not have a certain heir and is not doing well.  His son and crown prince was killed in a recent battle against the Saxons, while his bastard son, Arthur, has been sent to Armorica.  But he has a grandson, who is also named Mordred, and who he decrees is the heir to Britain, and shortly after Uther dies.  Derfel is an orphan living in Merlin's commune, only the renowned magician hasn't been seen in many years, and it is rumored he is in search of the lost treasures of Britain.  Mordred and his mother are brought to Merlin's commune where he is to be raised and educated under the Druidic religion.

Arthur comes back with his men just in time to stop King Gundleus of Siluria from attempting to kill Mordred and take over the throne of Dumnomia.  While Mordred is raised and educated, Arthur essentially rules Dumnomia, looking to unite the British kingdoms as one against the Saxons who are looking to take more land.  Then he meets Guenevere and his heart is stolen, as well as the meeting of the character of Lancelot, who is renowned as a great fighter and warrior, though it seems the man is actually a coward.

The Winter King is a great start to the trilogy that furthers the story, but has plenty of fascinating subplots that Cornwell is renowned for in his historical fiction, such as the Isle of the Dead, where the mad are left to roam and where Derfel must find a woman he loves.  In the afterword, Cornwell explains what history there is to work from, and why he went the way he did with his particular story.  Thankfully, the book doesn't end on too much of a cliffhanger, setting up well for its sequel, Enemy of God.

Originally written on March 17, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of The Winter King from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

Book Report: Book News for the Week of April 8th on Forces of Geek

Three Cups of Deceit: Last year bestselling author Jon Krakauer (Under the Banner of Heaven and Into the Wild) released a short book on Greg Mortensen and his use of the Central Asia Institute charity's money to fund personal and family trips in excess of the amount of $1 million.  60 Minutes also did an expose on the issue.  Mortensen, who co-founded the charity, has now come clean and admitted to this and will be repaying these funds and has also faced repercussions with the charity.

2012 Hugo and Campbell Awards Nominees: The 2012 nominees for the Hugo and Campbell Awards were announced on Saturday with a nice wide range of authors, writers and artists, making this one of the more interesting award celebrations in some time.  The award ceremony will take place on September 2 in Chicago at Chicon 7, the 70th World Science Fiction Convention.

Seanan McGuire: The bestselling author of the October Daye series got a number of Hugo nominations, as well as under her other persona, Mira Grant.  The cover for the next Toby Daye book has been released, Ashes of Honor, coming out September 4.  And Mira Grant has just signed a contract with Orbit books for two new novels and three novellas.

Gaiman's Musical:  Neil Gaiman, the man known for trying just about every type of writing medium at least once has announced another project he's also working on: a musical.

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2012 Hugo and Campbell Award Nominees

Courtesy of Locus.

Nominees for the Hugo Awards and for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer have been announced by Chicon 7, the 70th World Science Fiction Convention, to be held in Chicago, Illinois, August 30-September 3, 2012. The Hugo Awards ceremony will take place September 2, 2012.

BEST NOVEL

Leviathan Wakes, James S.A. Corey (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
Deadline, Mira Grant (Orbit US; Orbit UK) [ Deadline review, Mira Grant Interview #1 & #2]
A Dance with Dragons, George R.R. Martin (Bantam; Harper Voyager UK) [ Dance with Dragons  review, George R. R. Martin Interview]
Embassytown, China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan)
Among Others, Jo Walton (Tor)

BEST NOVELLA

''The Ice Owl'', Carolyn Ives Gilman (F&SF 10-11/11)
''Countdown'', Mira Grant (Orbit Short Fiction) [Mira Grant Interview #1 & #2]
''The Man Who Bridged the Mist'', Kij Johnson (Asimov's 10-11/11)
''Kiss Me Twice'', Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov's 6/11)
''The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary'', Ken Liu (Panverse Three)
Silently and Very Fast, Catherynne M. Valente (WSFA)

BEST NOVELETTE

''Six Months, Three Days'', Charlie Jane Anders (Tor.com 6/8/11)
''The Copenhagen Interpretation'', Paul Cornell (Asimov's 7/11)
''What We Found'', Geoff Ryman (F&SF 9-10/11)
''Fields of Gold'', Rachel Swirsky (Eclipse Four)
''Ray of Light'', Brad R. Torgersen (Analog 12/11)

BEST SHORT STORY

''Movement'', Nancy Fulda (Asimov's 3/11)
''The Paper Menagerie'', Ken Liu (F&SF 3-4/11)
''The Homecoming'', Mike Resnick (Asimov's 4-5/11)
''Shadow War of the Night Dragons, Book One: The Dead City (Prologue)'', John Scalzi (Tor.com 4/1/11)
''The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees'', E. Lily Yu (Clarkesworld4/11)

BEST RELATED WORK

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Third Edition, John Clute, David Langford, Peter Nicholls & Graham Sleight, eds. (Gollancz)
Jar Jar Binks Must Die… and Other Observations about Science Fiction Movies, Daniel M. Kimmel (Fantastic Books)
Wicked Girls , Seanan McGuire
Writing Excuses, Season 6, Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, Mary Robinette Kowal, & Jordan Sanderson
The Steampunk Bible, Jeff VanderMeer & S.J. Chambers (Abrams)

BEST GRAPHIC STORY

The Unwritten, Vol. 2: Leviathan, Mike Carey, art by Peter Gross (Vertigo)
Locke & Key, Vol. 4: Keys To The Kingdom, Joe Hill, art by Gabriel Rodriguez (IDW Publishing)
Schlock Mercenary: Force Multiplication, Howard Tayler, colors by Travis Walton (www.schlockmercenary.com)
Digger, Ursula Vernon (www.diggercomic.com)
Fables, Vol. 15: Rose Red, Bill Willingham & Mark Buckingham (Vertigo)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION – LONG

Captain America: The First Avenger
Game of Thrones: Season 1
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Hugo
Source Code

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION – SHORT

Community: ''Remedial Chaos Theory''
''The Drink Tank's Hugo Acceptance Speech'', Christopher J Garcia & James Bacon (Renovation)
Doctor Who: ''The Doctor's Wife''
Doctor Who: ''The Girl Who Waited''
Doctor Who: ''A Good Man Goes to War''

BEST PROFESSIONAL EDITOR LONG FORM

Lou Anders
Liz Gorinsky
Anne Lesley Groell
Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Betsy Wollheim

BEST PROFESSIONAL EDITOR SHORT FORM

John Joseph Adams [John Joseph Adams Interview]
Neil Clarke
Stanley Schmidt
Jonathan Strahan
Sheila Williams

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST 

Daniel Dos Santos
Bob Eggleton
Michael Komarck
Stephan Martiniere
John Picacio

BEST SEMIPROZINE

Apex Magazine
Interzone
Lightspeed
Locus
The New York Review of Science Fiction

BEST FANZINE

Banana Wings
The Drink Tank
File 770
Journey Planet
SF Signal

BEST FANCAST

The Coode Street Podcast
Galactic Suburbia Podcast
SF Signal Podcast
SF Squeecast
StarShipSofa

BEST FAN WRITER

James Bacon
Claire Brialey
Christopher J Garcia
Jim C. Hines
Steven H Silver

BEST FAN ARTIST

Brad W. Foster
Randall Munroe
Spring Schoenhuth
Maurine Starkey
Steve Stiles
Taral WayNe

JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER [NOT A HUGO AWARD]

Mur Lafferty
Stina Leicht
*Karen Lord
*Brad R. Torgersen
E. Lily Yu

*Finalists in their 2nd year of eligibility.

There were 1,101 nominating ballots received from members of Chicon 7 and Renovation. The deadline for online ballots and the receipt of paper ballots is July 31, 2012 (midnight PDT).

Foods on the Writing Plate

It's interesting what the change from one month to the next can bring.  Up until the end of March, my writing for 2012 consisted mainly of one particular project, but now with the onset of April and some preset deadlines for other projects, I find myself with three different projects going at once, which in my opinion is great, because while working on one book can certainly be enough to drive the writer each and every day, sometimes he or she isn't feeling it and needs to work on something else, which is why it's good to have — to use a cliche — a number of irons in the fire.  Here are my three irons going right now . . . all heating at various temperatures, some glowing with great heat, others just beginning to warm up; in the burning fires of my imagination . . . sorry, had to do that.

Iron #1: Wyrd:  This is the historical fiction manuscript that I've been playing around with for a long time now . . . by next year it will have been ten years since I started thinking about it and do some initial writings.  I've been seriously working on it, writing it, for the last two years and it's currently over 83,000 words, and while on my word count meter this shows as over halfway, I honestly don't actually think I've reached that point yet.  This is the book that's been my sole project so far this year, and my goal is at least to make it to page 500, and I'm currently a handful of pages away from 400, so on target there.

Iron #2: In That Quiet Earth: Some time in April — right now I'm tentatively saying April 17th — I will release my second collection of short stories, called In That Quiet Earth.  Like Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers, it will also be ten stories and feature the first two sample chapters to two of my novels.  I do have the cover now which my wife it working on titling and once that's all set I'll be releasing that for people to see.  And hopefully the ebook will be available April 17th, but we shall see.  Also, like Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers is now, In That Quiet Earth will also be offered as a free ebook to entice readers to check out some of my work.

Iron #3: White Horse (or Sunil's Bane): In November of last year I finished up my manuscript that I was calling White Horse, though it will eventually get a new title, once I find the right one.  With each novel that I finish I like to give it at least 3-4 months to stew so that I can firstly start working on something else, secondly allow myself to forget about it, and thirdly start my brain thinking about how I'm going to make it better when I start revising it.  It's now been over five months and all these things have happened and I'm looking forward to beginning the revision process.  I'm going to be writing and documenting my process as I do this, updates of which can be found here, to kind of show my method, but also to lay it out in detail for me as this will be one of the biggest and most through rewrites I've attempted on a novel.  Up until now I'd really just been reading through and rewriting a number of times until I felt it was right; now I'm employing a more methodical process to make it the best story it can possibly be.

And that's what I've got going on right now.  Plus a couple of short story ideas floating around in my mind that I'm going to start soon, and weekly writing exercises to keep me in shape!  I've also come up with the book I'm going to write if I do Nanowrimo this year.  I'm planning to and last night worked out what I was going to write, but that will be for another post.  And on Sunday I hope to have the first post for my revision process for White Horse out.

"Crucible of Gold" by Naomi Novik (Del Rey, 2012)

In this seventh installment of Novik's thrilling series, Temeraire, Captain Lawrence and his crew who have become close family were last left on the great continent of Australia, disgraced and abandoned by Britain in its plight against Napoleon and the French.  But now things have quickly changed with Napoleon allying with the African empire of Tswana.  Napoleon has occupied Spain and is also attacking Brazil, sending in Tswana to besiege the royal family in Rio de Janeiro.

Before they know it, Temeraire and the crew find themselves once again fighting for their country, as they are ordered to go to Brazil to negotiate with Tswana, which they have had past experience and interactions with.  They set off on a dragon-carrying ship across the Pacific and soon find themselves in trouble with a devastating storm that destroys the ship, and then come face to face with pirates.  Eventually they make it to South America, meeting with the Incas, and then make it to Brazil for their mission.  It is there they meet some familiar friends, but also an unexpected nemesis.

Crucible of Gold adopts much of the same feel of the previous book, Tongues of Serpents, where too many pages are spent on the characters slowly moving from one destination to another, with little happening.  Overall it makes for a slow book that the reader has to work at to finish, but events at the end do deliver and provide some much needed satisfaction.

Originally written on February 6, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of Crucible of Gold from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

You might also like . . .

  

And for an exclusive interview with Naomi Novik, click HERE.

"Triggers" by Robert J. Sawyer (Ace, 2012)

Award-winning author Robert J. Sawyer's new novel, Triggers, is a little different to what readers might be used to from this science fiction writer, as the genre he's used to writing in some ways becomes secondary to the main story, which is more about the relationships and interactions between a great cast of characters.  The science fiction is still very much there as part of the plot, but by the end you're caring more about the people than the science.

In a time not too distant from our own, there is a world ravaged by terrorism and fear.  The United States is one of its most vulnerable victims, the events of September 11, 2011 merely a precursor to more devastating attacks on other cities such as San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia.  With the development of a new kind of bomb that remains undetected, its destruction is unmatched, and yet it isn't nuclear; its fallout emits an electromagnetic pulse, and by then it's too late.

President Seth Jerrison begins a very important speech at the Lincoln Memorial, as he mentally prepares for the ultimate attack aimed at those who have caused the most harm; a devastating message equal to that made during World War II that brought it to its abrupt end.  Barely into the speech, an assassination attempt is made and Jerrison is shot.  He is rushed to the hospital and immediately treated, barely surviving a traumatic injury.  At the same hospital is Dr. Ranjip Singh who is performing a unique experiment on a patient to see if he can halt the man's post-traumatic stress dreams and episodes; the device is supposed to erase these memories.

But then another terrorist attack takes place, destroying most of the White House, just as Singh begins his experiment.  The EM pulse hits and something very strange happens to all the people located within a certain distance of this device.  They begin having memories; only not their own, but other people's memories all within this specific area.  It begins a chain of events that will eventually affect every person on the entire planet.

In Triggers, Robert J. Sawyer should first be applauded for a wonderfully diverse cast, as readers are immediately introduced to a powerful female secret service agent, an impressive African-American female doctor who is the president's primary physician, and the interesting Dr. Singh, who is actually Canadian, which is Sawyer's own nationality.  The book juggles an impressive cast of characters, which Sawyer does excellent job of keeping both straight and complex.  The weak point of the book to some will be the ending, nevertheless, it is a powerful novel that plays around with some great science fiction, but ultimately explores the lives of a number of interesting people and how they would react in a given situation, if they started sharing each other's memories and thoughts.

Originally written on March 17, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of Triggers from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

You might also like . . .

    

For an exclusive audio interview with Robert J. Sawyer, click HERE.

For an exclusive written interview with Robert J. Sawyer, click HERE.

BookBanter Column: Ebooks vs. Print

I think we've all reached the point now where the "e-revolution" is not just coming but it's already here and doing very well.   As for myself, I still have yet to own an ereader; however, I feel that 2012 will be the year in which I acquire one. I have only read a small number of ebooks so far, a quantity I'm able to count on one hand, but I also know that this will change, and the prophets foretell of more ebooks in my future.

So with ebooks now vying against print books for sales in the world of publishing, let us take a look at the merits and negative connotations of these two mediums of reading. For anyone not accepting and getting on the e-bandwagon, you can go and join those who are still fans of a flat earth and disbelieving in global warming.  And for the rest of us who acknowledge that ebooks are here to stay, we may be in various stages of acceptance.While I don't believe one isn't necessarily superior to the other, I know there are plenty of spokesmen for each medium; no one is likely to be the true victor, as was the case with say Blu-ray and HD DVDs.

But let's take a look at how they stack up.

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Book Report: Book News for the Week of April 1st on Forces of Geek

How to Make a Living as a Writer

Literary Agent Rachel Gardner has a popular blog where she doles out lots of useful advice to aspiring writers.  In her recent series, she explored the world of Making a Living as a Writer, dividing it into Volume, Variety, and Challenges.

 

Mistborn the Video Game 

Fans of bestselling author's Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn Trilogy – Final Empire, Well of Ascension, and Hero of Ages – will be delighted to hear the forthcoming video game version of the series coming from Little Orbit, though they'll be waiting awhile, as the planned release date is fall 2013.

Star Wars Scoundrels 

The good thing for those who just can't get enough Star Wars is that there continue to be numerous books published within the universe each year, and Timothy Zahn has just released the latest cover in his next Star Wars novel, Scoundrels.

Harry Potter Ebooks 

Harry Potter fanatics will be delighted to hear that the Harry Potter series — all seven books — is now available on ebook, which can be purchased through the Pottermore site in the price range of $7.99 – $9.99.

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