Declan Finn's Blog, page 23

Music Blog: Sonata Arctica - Fullmoon

This was a fun one. I don't know the group outside of the cover song. Or the song.



But then again, it's a song about werewolves.











It's one of the songs I used while writing the Saint Tommy series.

Read the results here.

Final Dragon (Awards) 2019

Click here to vote

Review: Somewhither, by John C Wright

Everyone knows the phrase "down the rabbit hole." It's an Alice in Wonderland reference, where the main character is in their normal, everyday life one moment, then in someplace utterly insane the next. Reality is utterly, totally, and completely different.



For John C. Wright's Somewhither, the rabbit hole wasn't good enough. No. We needed an inter-dimensional portal that opens up to an invading army, sucking our hero into a realm that makes Wonderland look positively friendly and harmless.

Ilya, as he has secretly dreamed, is called upon to save the mad scientist's beautiful daughter. With his squirrel gun, his grandfather's sword, and his father's crucifix, Ilya races to save the girl, and, incidentally, the world.

So it is, Ilya Muromets is a big, ugly, motherless boy who does not look like anyone else in his Oregon town. His father is often absent on mysterious Church missionary work that involves silver bullets, sacred lances, and black helicopters. One night, Professor Dreadful sends a warning to Ilya that his Many Worlds theory correct, but that his experiments have opened a door that should have remained closed, and his beautiful daughter, Penny, is in trouble.

The 2016 Dragon Award-winner for Best Science Fiction Novel, Somewhither is the first part of A Tale of the Unwithering Realm, a new science-fantasy series from science-fiction master John C. Wright. It is an adventure, it is a romance, and it is a coming-of-age story of a young man who is not a man, in a world that is only one among many. It is a tale of a greater and darker evil with longer reach than anything he could imagine, of pain beyond measure, and of the faith required to surmount all three. It is a story of inexorable destiny written in the stars and the stubborn courage that is required to defy it.

I loved this book. It was so delightfully insane, and so marvelously put together. I enjoyed it from the first page. Especially as our hero narrates that this was all for a girl named Penny Dreadful.



.... Yes. He went there. It doesn't even stop there. If you folks think my writing is proof that I'm a smartass, you have got to read Somewhither. And this is just page one. Which includes the line "If you blame the damsel in distress, you are not the hero."



The opening chapters may be a little slow to people who are not nerds. But you're reading a book that's one part scifi and one part fantasy. If you are not nerdy enough to enjoy Wright's conversation about the how and why's (and why nots) of branching timelines and alternate universes, why are you even reading this review?



But this is John C. Wright. He can probably describe paint drying in an entertaining fashion. Especially when he describes one incident with the supercollider as "let's just say over a dozen scientists, staff members, and visitors were electrocuted, microwaved, and Hiroshima'd."



I told you he could make anything entertaining. Especially when you consider that there's an entire conversation between Ilya and his father ... during you realize, over the course of the conversation, that things aren't all that normal with this family ("Now Ilya, you've known that since you were twelve, when we taught you quantum mechanics." Huh?). The punchline of this conversation ends with one of the most awesome reveals that I've seen in a while, and more or less backhands Stephen Pinker into next Tuesday, casually and easily, in one paragraph.



And the lovely little dissertations along the way are charming, and so un-PC, it's delightful. There's a conversation on lovely damsels. Or getting two halves of the brain arguing with each other lest they gang up on the hero to stop him from heroics. (The note I made on points like this is "Remember when Peter David was funny? Pepperidge farm remembers.")



After Ilya falls into another world, and the plot gets off to a running start, one of the running gags throughout the novel involves language. Let's just say that I think that if John C. Wright wrote Lord of the Rings, he would have sentence diagrammed elvish.



Once we get to meet the villains, they are delightfully evil pricks. In a world where astrology is an accurate science, and fate is everything, even some of the men running the evil empire are trapped. It strikes me very much like the Persian empire -- "freedom" wasn't even a word in the language. It's not in this language, either. Neither is "right and wrong." Funny that. They are so unambiguously evil, even the narrator points out

"On principle, I was not helping any group that called itself The Darkest Tower against places called the Great Golden City and Land of Light. That was a no-brainer. I mean, get serious. Suppose you were from another world and came to ours circa 1940 and you saw an SS officer in his black uniform with the silver skulls on his collar, and he said he wanted to exterminate some folks called The Chosen People from some place called The Holy Land, who would you think the bad guy was?"

Despite how obviously evil the adversaries are, they are not shallow evil. There is a bit reminiscent of Sam and Frodo being Shanghaied by orcs -- Ilya is given a tour of The Tower by a creature that even Richard Sharpe would have identified as a Sergeant just by his banter. In it, we get a perfect picture of a Screwtape bureaucracy where Ilya concludes that the empire "is all full of bureaucrats and lawyers? This place is hell."



Also, there is a lot of casual bits of humor scattered throughout. There are old sayings, misattributed here and there ("There is an old saying: if you want peace, prepare for war. I think it is in the Bible or something.") And the little shots scattered throughout this novel so so much fun to behold. There's the "Professor Dreadful" referred to in the blurb, who is a "Harvard trained symbologist" (to which Ilya's father replies, "Amazing what they give degrees in these days." And the Templars are the good guys. (Dan Brown felt that one,) The bad guys of the piece are from The Dark Tower. And all of the evil sorcerers carry golden compasses (snicker). Some of the warnings of prophecy are right out of Lovecraft. When Ilya hears that someone is a ringbearer, he says, "You mean like at a wedding? Or do you mean like Sam Gamgee Carrying Albrecht's ring when it got too heavy for Tom Covenant?"



Even the casual comments about other timelines are entertaining ("Dude, my planet is run by Pressians .... You need paperwork to get permission to go to the outhouse.")



Then there's the bit that compared Fantasy Island to The Tempest. I feel like Wright has a lot of stuff in his head and they're all stacked on top of each other.



And I swear the entire building of the final team is a reference to the X-Men, only interesting and without the angst. (We have an unkillable killing Machine. A wind manipulator called a "Cloud Walker". A ninja. A Norse Shadow meets Moon Knight. The monster that chased Bugs Bunny. Captain Nemo. And at least one reference to Lady Hawk.) Though I'm relatively certain that Wright was going for a D&D campaign given how often he comments on character classes.



For the record, I feel I must note the sections that boil down to torture porn. If I didn't know better, I would swear that Wright was a fan of Hellraiser.



If I were to sum up this book in one phrase, it would be "Anime Narnia." Thus, it would have a ton more action, epic fantasy, and make most of the golden era pulps look slow. Yes, there is a slow part here, but that's mostly a horror element.



Of course, this book ends on a cliffhanger.



Thankfully, the next book is already out.  So get Somewhither today, and get the sequel immediately after it.

Review: Gemini Man

This one came out, and I have to tell you, it's about flipping time. I read this book months ago. I probably should have written up the review immediately, but I was more interested in finishing the bloody books that came in around them.



So, anyway, this is JD Cowan's book -- Gemini Man .

A steady paycheck. A simple job. Absolutely no contact with another human being.
The night shift at a science lab sounds like the break Matthew White has been waiting for. A steady paycheck. A simple job. Absolutely no contact with another human being.

It’s perfect.

But Matthew gets more than he bargained for when he accepts a different position with the company. A job that is highly paid – and highly bizarre. He is plunged into the terrible machinations of his new boss, Mrs. Stohl, and a sullen teenaged boy named Jason is along for the ride. The fact that Jason is practically his twin only makes it all creepier.

Dragged through a mirror into an alien dimension, Matthew is in way over his head. He should have known the job was too good to be true. To escape, Matthew and Jason must brave the wilds of this new universe and learn to control their new powers.

And hardest of all, Matthew must learn to be a hero.

Will they escape Mrs. Stohl’s terrible plans for them? Can they make it home to their world, or will they be trapped in the mirror dimension forever?

Join Matthew and Jason on their pulp superhero adventure. Read Gemini Warrior today!

This was was different in many respects from the previous Silver Empire superhero universe novels. The other books were largely character based. This is both character and world based. Which makes for an interesting shift in tone and execution.



Even the tone is markedly different at times from the other novels. There are a few sections in the opening where you can imagine it being from a black and white movie, where Edward G Robinson or Jimmy Cagney is spitting out dialogue in a solid, entertaining rant. It's one of the nice things about having a shared universe spread out among so many different authors. Even the descriptions of persons and actions seem very noir.



And when the description says that this is a pulp superhero adventure, this is less the Shadow, and more Flash Gordon. We even have an evil emperor who has magic powers (come now, Ming could walk through fire, and the "science" was more magic than anything else), as well as other super powered lackeys to do his bidding. And much of the villains look like they utilize a combination of mad science and magic in order to wield unearthly forces at their command.



... And yes, I did recently watch the complete Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon serials. Why do you ask?



As for our characters ... When we meet heroes Jason and Matthew, it's fun watching the inevitable train wreck coming their way. One of the opening scenes involve locking the two of them in a room together so they can get to know each other. We soon find that while they are of similar temperament, most of their opinions are diametrically opposed to each other.



I'm looking at the note I made on the Kindle edition. "We're going to link these two at the hip, aren't we?" Yes, yes we are. And we're going to give them the code names of Castor and Pollux, because JD is that literate, and superheros are just that subtle.



So we have another, well developed world, and evil dictator wielding magic to rule over the world. We have random encounters and fights with potential friends.



Over all, I enjoyed it. Do I think it's the best of the heroes thus far? Nope. I think that award goes to the next in the sequence. In any sane system, It would be a mid-range novel -- a solid setup to an interesting universe that I would get the next books in order to see where it ends up. But given that Amazon has turned a 3-star rating to "critical," (No, Amazon, I LIKED this book) I'm going to have to give this 4 out of five stars.



Get Gemini Man here, today. And enjoy.

My wife left me last month

My wife left me last month and went to Texas.



Two weeks ago, I went down and picked her up, helping her out for both of those weeks.



For the record, she went to Texas to help a friend of ours who was recently widowed.



Then I discovered how many people I personally know who live in Texas... and they all seem to be in the same area. It's all very nice. And I think I would like to move there. I might even garner a social life. Who knows?



Anyway, stuff is happening in the background. I can't imagine any of it I can actually say just yet.



What I can say involves....



A BOX SET OF SAINT TOMMY, NYPD. 



Also, I have a new series coming out soon. These are older books that still hold up... and they're all over 120,000 words. So either these are going to be slightly more expensive, or they're going to be broken up into individual novels. Or both.



And they're going to be self published.



Why? Because My publisher is busy, I don't want to drop even more on them, and they already have Saint Tommy book 6, and three books of a space opera en route. They need more work from me like they need a hole in the head.



You'll also note that these are long books for me. Longer than most books published by people in my circles. Probably three times as long as any James Patterson novel. It's what happens when I didn't know any better -- I knew that books were 300-500 pages long. So, I made sure my books were that long.... except they were single-spaced, 8 x 11 sized pages.



So these thrillers were long.



They were also from a period in my life when I was reading two series -- Modest Blaise, by Peter O'Donnell, and the Bourne series by Robert Ludlum. The end result is a fun bit of action and no realism if I can avoid it.



But they'll be coming soon enough.



But the short version is that we're back. The blog is coming back. I'm doing a bunch of review for books I read while I was away.



I'm still doing live streams on Facebook at the Silver Empire page. So if you're interested, I'm there once a week. I'm also trying to start a few other things... you know, because I don't have enough work to do.



But it's me. Not working isn't something I do.

Blind and Frozen - Beast in Black (Cover by Minniva/Quentin Cornet/Mike ...

Apparently, this is NOT an 80s band cover.



Much to my shock.

Review: When the Gods Fell, Richard Paolinelli

Welcome to  When the Gods Fell , the latest by the Dragon Award finalist Richard Paolinelli (Escaping Infinity)

Mars Is Hiding A Secret



When the first small group of humans arrive on Mars, they expect to retrieve some probes and learn more about Earth’s neighbor. Instead, they find Oracle Veritas, of House Delphi, who has waited 65 million years to brief these children of Olympus about their own origins, their very essence … and the danger that threatens them.



Seas and lakes, deserts and icecaps, forests and mountains once covered this planet then called Olympus. Veritas tells them that it was home to a race of immortals—Zeus, Odin, Yahweh, Lucifer, and others—who guided the fates of other worlds and fought among themselves for supremacy.



Zeus, Odin, Yahweh, and Lucifer, supported by characters from other realms, had battled for control. As civil war loomed, the most powerful of all the gods, Zeus, foresaw chaos and destruction. Left with a single, terrible solution to save all the worlds, Zeus turned to the only person he could trust to carry out his last order … and change all existence forever.

This was hands-down awesome. This is one part 2001, one part Dan Simmons, and one part Babylon 5, with a hint of Mass Effect





The short version? The concepts are brilliant The execution is spot on. There is about 10-15% of the book that needed a little bit of a trim, but aside from that? Wonderful.



This one is very much a novel. I don't mean to be mean about it. But this is as much of a novel as The Martian. Only without as much smart ass. Okay, there's still plenty of smart ass -- with the Mars station Von Braun, and rovers named Aldren and The Glenn -- but this one is a bit more serious than The Martian. The execution of the science bit felt an a lot like the Martian -- sensible, straightforward, and sciencey. (I especially like how Russia, in 2040, is still trying to cover their inferiority complex with bravado.)



As the flap copy mentions, the martian crew is wandering around the planet, minding their own business .... until they stumble upon a woman just standing in the middle of the martian landscape. She's so happy that the humans seeded on Earth finally made it to Mars. Of course she managed to survive that long -- she had become a being of pure energy (damn Vorlons. They get everywhere). And it's a story 65 million years in the making (yes, I stole the Jurassic Park ad campaign).



The following story is an epic tale of ... well, we're going to take ALL the mythology, and make the gods aliens with style. There were so many mythological references in this one that I'm certain that I missed some of the references. As this is mythology, there are enough betrayals and back stabbing to make the cast of Game of Thrones look like amateur hours.



We have Caste Zion, let by Lord Yahweh, where everyone in the City of Eden is part of the national guard, which was helpful when Lucifer's House Satania challenged Chronos Saturnius' Caste Olympia a hundred years before hand, and Lord Marduk and Lord Tiamat of Houses Canaan and Dagon are plotting a followup coup....



Okay, this book is a little chocked FULL of smartass, if just requires a degree in classical studies (or a read-through of Bullifnch's mythology) to really get the joke.



As I said before, when Richard uses ALL of the mythologies, he uses ALL of the mythologies. If he missed one, I can't tell you what he may have left out. We have appearances by Thor, Loki, Shiva, Kali. Nippon, a literal Mount Fuji .... okay, Ganesh didn't make it into the book, but there's a sequel. And yes, Loki is still Loki. Then again, when everyone's pantheon gets together, everyone starts to look a little like Loki. (Honestly, straight up mythology has enough murder and incest porn to make Game of Thrones look like Kintergarten).



Now, in a book that mixes mythology and scifi -- especially when one turned mythology into Scifi -- you'd normally expect a ton of handwavium. Not really. I especially enjoyed describing Hades' House Orcus as underground, on the banks of a fire river Styx .... but that Styx had carved out tubes and caves from pole to pole, and the way the water is described as being laced with enough methane so that the water was always on fire. It was just such a nice touch. It's less scifi and more ... fi.



And the ending .... well, all I can say is that you should pay VERY close attention to the numbers they throw about.



There is only one problem with this book.



And no, I'm not kvetching about "Yahweh is a Vorlon." Even in the book, the Oracle telling the story that yes, there was a Deity to whom the gods prayed. And I've saw no mention of one of the kids becoming a carpenter. If you're that concerned, unbunch your panties and just relax. This is not Dan Brown. Paolinelli is not poking at your faith with malice aforethought.



The real problem: As the book nears the end, it's fairly obvious how this runaway freight train is going to end. In fact, we kinda know how the book is going to end from the beginning -- but the journey to how it gets there is so interesting and so readable, you don't care how it ends, you want to see how they got there. But after a certain point, runaway train is not only running off the rails, but is on fire. What comes next?



What comes next ... is a heck of an epilogue that sets up for an apocalyptic battle that I'm sure will be very interesting....



But damnit man, why did you have to end it THERE?



Anyway, at least pick up When the Gods Fell , and you'll see why I considered it for my Best SF novel for the Dragon Awards.



And please remember to vote in the Dragon Awards. If you think you know what you're going to vote for, you can click here and cast your vote right now, COMPLETELY FREE



If you think you might have some open slots in your ballot, then here's what I voted for -- and if you don't see something you like on my ballot, keep scrolling down the post, and you'll see all of the eligible books that I could find.

Review: The War Revealed, by Karl Gallagher

I almost wish that The War Revealed came out this month.  That way, I could have voted for it for the Dragon Awards this year. I'm going to have to settle for The Lost War (reviewed yesterday).

Newman and Goldenrod survived landing in a monster-infested wilderness. Their group of historical reenactors no longer fears starvation. But can they control the magic powers people are developing? Discover how they were transported there? And stay safe from the orcs and dragons?

As noted in yesterday's review, this series is amazing.



In the first book, we saw the emergence of magic just beginning to settle in among the folks of the SCA troop transported to a fantasy world where magic is common ... and so are orcs. This book goes far deeper into the mechanics of magic. I'm trying to recall when the last time I saw magic being executed this practically. In the previous novel, a lot of time was spent on logistics and how things work. This novel centered around how magic worked. There's Chekov's gun, and then there's Checkov's SAW. There were even some uses of potential energy that read a little bit like old-school philosophy (IE: Ancient Philosophy). And some of it boils down to "Magic is weird."



But yeah, there's a lot of how things get done, only with magic. Call it "hard fantasy" if you must be picky, but it's interesting and readable for well over 30% of the book.



Then there were the elves. The mother. Flipping. Elves. Who are nasty, brutish and .... tall. The following exchange from the book sums it up rather nicely.

"It's an Elf."

"Don't call it that. We don't know anything about it. If you call it 'elf' just on its looks, you're making assumptions about its culture, morals, everything. That could bite us."

"I'm not going by his looks."

"What then?"

"The arrogance."

The book 1, the reader was made aware that our heroes were brought over to help with the orc problem -- the humans are the exterminators. Here, our heroes are told the "why," and then things become fun. Once again, the moral of the story is "Don't screw with the humans."



About a third of the book is focused on magic and how it works. Twenty percent is on the elves. And the rest of the novel focuses on and gears up to The Big Battle.



Also .. yeah, I'm going to make one or two more comparisons to John Ringo. Why? Because of lines like "The reply that sprang to mind was It's my job to be an @$$hole. But this wasn't the army, he wasn't a sergeant." Then there's an entire scene where someone is counting coup, only with orcs... because infantry, apparently. Yes, I still enjoy how easily Karl does character. Ignoring that some of the names are a tad on the nose ("Autocrat Sharpquill" is my favorite subtlety hammer), when Karl does character, he can do it in a few lines. I especially like the head of the camp, "King Ironhelm." ("I played Othello and Richard the Third in front of a thousand people! I can keep a f***ing poker face.")



And I do enjoy the lines. Karl even gets in good coinage. Like "I'm a Metatheist. I don't believe in God, but I believe I should."  I'm sorry, I just like the line.



And screaming "Cannae!" to order an encircling maneuver. That was fun.



I have one problem with  The War Revealed  .... there might not be a third book. So buy book one and two, read them, review them, and make sure I get a book 3, damn it.



To help that along, you may consider The Lost War  for this years Dragon Award. I voted for it and a bunch of other stuff right here.  If you already have a slate picked out, clicking here will take you straight to the awards and voting in the nominations.

Review: The Lost War

When I was sitting next to Karl Gallagher at LibertyCon, he mentioned that Torchship was about his day job (yes, he is a rocket scientist), and that The Lost War  was about his hobby.

It was supposed to be a weekend of costumed fun. Instead these medieval historical reenactors are flung into a wilderness by magic they don't understand. They must struggle to survive and deal with monsters who consider them prey . . . or worse.

Buckle up. This is going to be fun. This is my fantasy pick for best fantasy for the Dragon Awards this year. It is awesome, and you are going to like it. And if you don't, you're wrong.



Our main character is Newman Greenhorn -- and if you can't tell that he's a newbie at a gathering of the Society for Creative Anachronism, now you know. When his girlfriend brings him to the pagan circle on the first night, well, what's the worst that can happen?



This. This is the worst that can happen.



As the circle disbands, the entire camp has moved. The flora is different. The fauna are different. The stars are different. And there are three moons in the sky. The entire camp has been moved and the struggle to survive has begun. They need food. They need weapons. They need to know what threats are out there. And look up in the sky! It's a bird.... no, it's a plane.... crap, that's a dragon.



If you're thinking "SCA surviving in a fantasy landscape. Hmm, sounds like John Ringo's Council Wars".... that is a very superficial view of it. Let's put it this way, when I read Karl's Torchship trilogy, I said in a review "Well, if David Weber ever needs help finishing Honor Harrington, maybe he should take to Karl."



Having topped David Weber, Karl has apparently decided to top John Ringo. And I don't even mean the Council Wars. Because there is a very specific reason that Newman and the camp have been brought over to this new world. The world has a problem, and the humans are to be the pest control. Thank you, rotten, mutha-bleepin elves. (Yes, think Posleen. Only worse).



However, the plot is not what got me started on thinking about John Ringo. There is so much readable logistics in this book, it's amazing. There is a ton of effort put in on how things get done -- are the flora safe? Are the Fauna safe? The amateur astronomer who confirms, "Yes, the stars are different. We are not in Kansas anymore, Toto." "Oh look, here are piles of bones, we can deduce that we aren't the only hunters out here." There are considerations about medicines, hygiene, resource consumption, resource allocation, down to "How do we make soap?" and the question of law enforcement. Karl does a great job of setting up the situation, the variations of reactions to the setting, the governing of the new world -- both official and unofficial. You can see how it feels a bit like a Ringo novel, as he's one of the few I can think of who can recreate and rebuild an entire society that completely.



Amateurs study tactics. Karl's a professional.



Also, I dare you to find someone else who will deal with fantasy parasitology, microbiology and serology.



AND EVERY LAST MINUTE OF IT WAS EASILY READABLE AND ENJOYABLE. Unlike most geniuses, Karl writes plainly and easily without dumbing it down.



The character of Newman himself is ... a lot of military guys with two brain cells to rub together. (Which seems to be most of them -- I've only met one or two I wouldn't trust to breath into a paper bag.) Down to one section of "I'm more comfortable with strangers trying to kill me in the wild than dealing with protocol for nobility. Your excellency."



It was perfect. Down to the placement of the period.



There is a lot of easy character development. At least one character became my favorite in a one-page description (look for the character of "Burnout." I suspect she is a PA).



And then human beings start developing magical powers, and we have SCA X-Men.



This leads to some interesting moments, including several instances where the characters make a deduction, follow through on the deduction, and it is apparent to the reader what is going on -- and it is AT NO POINT SPELLED OUT FOR THE READER. Because Karl figures that the reader also has two brain cells to rub together. And he's right. I didn't have to be told what was going on ... in fact, I had to double back to make certain that Karl didn't spell it out. It's great writing.



And it's so nice when a character calls out "Thalassa!" and I know what the bleep he's talking about.



I have only one problem with the book -- no chapters. The novel is more or less one continuous work. Luckily, I read quickly, so I didn't have to lose TOO much sleep.



Anyway, as I said, a great book, brilliantly executed, and I've already finished books 1 and 2 this weekend. I hope to have the sequel reviewed by tomorrow. I'm hoping there's a book 3.



Buy book 1, The Lost War, here.



It is my pick for the Dragon Awards -- to see what else I've nominated, click here.



To go straight to voting for the Dragon Awards, without looking at anyone else's thoughts.that would be here.

Review: Come, Seeling Night

What families don't have their little problems?



Paxton Lock is back, and payback can be a mutha.



Enter Come, Seeling Night.

Paxton Locke’s been in some pretty tight spaces before. This one might be the worst.

Drugged and shipped to who-knows-where on an airplane, he’s locked up by men who seem to be Feds. But they haven’t given him his phone call, and Pax isn’t sure if his cell mates are even human.

This is one cell he can’t get out of, but he’s got to find a way to escape. Mother has his girlfriend, and she wants a redo of the night she killed Paxton’s father. But this time she won’t be interrupted. Paxton’s got to find Cassie, and he’s got to stop his mother.

Or the world might end.

Apocalyptic visions from Mother’s grimoire have haunted him for years. Now she’s close to making it happen. And all Paxton can do is wait in his cell for someone to realize he’s not the bad guy.

Can Paxton escape his magical prison and stop Mother? Or will he be too late, and lose Cassie just like he lost his dad?

The third installment of the Paxton Locke series delves deeper into the meaning of love and forgiveness, while providing plenty of action, magic, and Humphreys’ signature subtle horror.

Will Mother bring about a world on fire, or a dead Earth? Can Paxton defeat her? Find out and read Come Seeling Night today!

Once again, this is a brilliantly executed plot. Even the tangential subplot that becomes a thread to be untangled in the rest of the series is nicely place. It effects the plot of this book, sets up for the next book, and we move right along.



In short, there's nothing like C4 to cut through red tape.



I'm not sure if I can add anything new to my review that isn't a spoiler. Though I will admit that the historical aspects we have revealed to us over the course of the novel are very interesting.



And if you think I mean a mention here or there, no. There are whole characters who are historical references. I think I have about or or three figured out.



But yeah, a lot of what impressed me about this book was the setup for everything to come. It almost feels like a three-book origin story.



Yeah, I know it almost feels like cheating that I'm saying so little. But everything interesting really is a spoiler... and I read the ARC for this book months ago, and I'm a bit rusty trying to catch up to my book reviews.



And damn does Paxton want to be Harry Dresden when he grows up... if he grows up. Right down to pissing off everybody he meets. And if anything ever happens to Butcher (God forbid), Humphreys can Sanderson in as replacement quite well.



And I like the punchline. Very Terry Goodkind.... except for the speeches. There are no speeches.



But Come, Seeling Night here.



This would be my Dragon Award nomination for fantasy this year -- except that Dan wants A Place Called Hope for military SFF.



Please remember to vote in the Dragon Awards.



My ballot is here.