Sarah Chorn's Blog, page 110

Triumph Over Tragedy Welcomes Timothy Zahn

Every SFF fan worth his shirt has heard of Timothy Zahn – the incredible Hugo Award winner. The man who pumps out high quality novels and has droves of fans.

Yeah, you know exactly who I’m talking about.

And you can probably understand why Triumph Over Tragedy is beyond thrilled to welcome him (and his story) with open arms.

Yep, you read that right. Timothy Zahn is donating a story to Triumph Over Tragedy.

As always, you can learn more about this project (or donate) here. 

About the Author

Timothy Zahn attended Michigan State University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in physics in 1973. He then moved to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and achieved an M.S. degree in physics in 1975. While he was pursuing a doctorate in physics, his adviser became ill and died. Zahn never completed the doctorate. In 1975 he had begun writing science fiction as a hobby, and he became a professional writer. He and his wife Anna live in Bandon, Oregon. They have a son, Corwin Zahn.

(Usually at this point I give the author’s webpage and various other methods of stalking said person. I can’t find any but Goodreads. If anyone has any information I suck at finding, please leave it in the comments.)

The Hydrogen Sonata – Iain M. Banks

About the Book

It is, truly, provably, the End Days for the Gzilt civilization.

An ancient people, they helped set up the Culture ten thousand years earlier and were very nearly one of its founding societies, deciding not to join only at the last moment. Now they’ve made the collective decision to follow the well-trodden path of millions of other civilizations; they are going to Sublime, elevating themselves to a new and almost infinitely more rich and complex existence.

Amidst preparations though, the Regimental High Command is destroyed. Lieutenant Commander (reserve) Vyr Cossont appears to have been involved, and she is now wanted – dead, not alive. Aided only by an ancient, reconditioned android and a suspicious Culture avatar, Cossont must complete her last mission given to her by the High Command – find the oldest person in the Culture, a man over nine thousand years old, who might have some idea what really happened all that time ago. Cossont must discover the truth before she’s exiled from her people and her civilization forever – or just plain killed.

528 pages (Hardcover)

Published on October 4, 2012

Published by Orbit

Author’s webpage

This book was given to me to review by the publisher.

You can purchase a copy of this book here: The Hydrogen Sonata, The Hydrogen Sonata – Kindle

Enter my Iain M. Banks GIVEAWAY here

—–

The Hydrogen Sonata is the tenth book in the Culture series, and also marks an incredible twenty-five years that the series has been running. While there are plenty of series that are ten books long, there really aren’t many that span twenty-five years and keep such a strong and expanding fanbase with each powerful release. Another aspect of the Culture series that really appeals to me, and strikes me as incredibly unique in the SFF genre(s) is that each book is a standalone, set in the same world but neatly introduces new aspects of the universe and people/things in it, and ties up with a nice (often surprising) ending.

Each book offers something different, and while I’m admittedly not a fantastically well read with the Culture series (I’ve only read two other books), that doesn’t seem to really matter. I can still appreciate the nuances of Banks and his ability to write not only a fascinating story, but a deep, thoughtful book as well. That is, perhaps, one of the things that I’ve loved the most about this author throughout all of the books I’ve read by him. He doesn’t underestimate his audience, and he writes in subtle, yet deft layers that peel away as the books progress leaving you (often times) gaping at the end and full of wonder. I have to respect an author who can completely stretch my thought processes, and Banks seems to be exactly that person.

The Hydrogen Sonata is interesting in the sense that there aren’t any new and incredibly remarkable alien species introduced (like there were in The Player of Games, for example.). Instead, we are introduced to Minds, basically spaceship type things that have their own independent personalities and thought processes. On the flip side, we are also introduced to the Gzilt, a military species who are credited with helping found the Culture, but decided not to become part of it. We are also introduced to subliming, which is basically (as I understand it) the next step in evolution, where people or entire civilizations can cross over into a Nirvana type place.

Perhaps what surprised me the most about this setup is that the idea of subliming and the Minds interested me more than the Gzilt, or the other humanoid people and characters I was introduced to throughout the course of the book. The Minds themselves have incredible names, some of them are laugh-out-loud hilarious and unique personalities that go along with them. They are somewhat godlike in some ways, floating about space with their own goals and purposes, often understanding things that humans can’t because they are, quite literally, above much of the drama that clouds most people’s judgment and understanding. While it took a little time to get used to their form of communication and understand the subtle nuances and humor of their speech, they became the highlight of The Hydrogen Sonata.

Furthermore, The Hydrogen Sonata is full of tiny, intricate and unusual details that bring an incredible sense of wonder and imagination to Banks’ universe. Though I never did quite get over missing a strong connection to a human or alien, the tiny details really brought another layer of depth and quality to the universe as a whole that can’t be overlooked. I would be somewhat remiss if I didn’t mention Banks’ incredible instrument used to perform the music for The Hydrogen Sonata itself. While I never quite wrapped my mind around what exactly it looked like, it was fascinating how much detail and effort he put into bringing said instrument to life for the reader.

The plot moves forward at a stately pace. Not too fast, and not too slow. Though due to having to adjust to the idea of Minds and their communication, it did take me a little time and some minor effort to really immerse myself in the proceedings. However, Banks doesn’t disappoint. His world is top notch. The Minds are fascinating and very compelling. The plot is interesting and peppered with plenty of Banks’ tell-tale depth and thought. The Hydrogen Sonata is not only unique and high quality, but it’s also fascinating and will leave the reader pondering long after they read the last page.

 

4/5 stars

Triumph Over Tragedy Welcomes Tobias Buckell

I’m taking a slight detour from my day dedicated to Iain M. Banks to announce another wonderful author joining the ranks of Triumph Over Tragedy.

Unfortunately I haven’t read any of Buckell’s books yet (though I plan on changing that) and all I know is that he grew up on a houseboat (which I learned from a podcast interview that lodged in my brain). That seems cool enough to mention. I’ve heard his books praised from numerous sources and I know that Triumph Over Tragedy welcomes (and appreciates) his donation of a story with open arms.

So, without  me wasting a ton of time trying to sound intelligent, I’ll just introduce you to the man himself.

As always, check out our IndieGoGo page for more information about Triumph Over Tragedy, and how to help.

About the Author (in his words): 

I was born in the Caribbean. On my mother’s side I’m the third generation of a family that started living aboard boats when my grandfather sailed off down the river Thames in a sailboat with his family aboard to explore the Mediterranean. My biological father’s side of the family hails from Grenada, leaving me a bi-racial Caribbean boy who’s “˜light but not quite white’ and long-proud in his Caribbean roots.

As a child I lived aboard boats while growing up in Grenada, then on boats with various family in the British Virgin Islands, and again in the US Virgin Islands where my family introduced my stepdad to the life.

I moved to Ohio in 1995 for my senior year of high school after a series of hurricanes destroyed the boat we lived on. My stepdad, who grew up in Ohio, moved us up to be with family. After scraping by and barely graduating, I attended a small liberal arts college in the small town of Bluffton, Ohio, and somehow never quite managed to escape the small town.

I fell in love with Science Fiction from a rather young age. I read Arthur C. Clarke and Asimov novels when I was six or seven and became addicted to the high concepts and sense of wonder I found in those books. I was a voracious reader, and high school started spinning stories out due to my inability to pay attention in class. My sophomore year I began completing stories and submitting them to magazines.

Somewhat unimaginatively, I did go to college and get an English degree. More because I was trying to buy time and continue working on my writing. It worked: I started selling short stories my junior year of college while spending as much time skipping class I could without failing out. I attended the well known science fiction and fantasy workshop Clarion during this time as well.

Since 2006 I’ve been a full time author and freelancer. I split my time between working behind the scenes for various blogs as an editor, copy editor, and writer, and also writing novels and short stories.

You can learn more about Tobias Buckell and his numerous books on his webpage.

 

Use of Weapons – Iain M. Banks

About the Book

The man known as Cheradenine Zakalwe was one of Special Circumstances’ foremost agents, changing the destiny of planets to suit the Culture through intrigue, dirty tricks or military action.

The woman known as Diziet Sma had plucked him from obscurity and pushed him towards his present eminence, but despite all their dealings she did not know him as well as she thought.

The drone known as Skaffen-Amtiskaw knew both of these people. It had once saved the woman’s life by massacring her attackers in a particularly bloody manner. It believed the man to be a burnt-out case. But not even its machine intelligence could see the horrors in his past.

411 pages (paperback)

Published on March 26, 1992

Published by Orbit

Author’s webpage

You can purchase a copy of this book by clicking on the following links: Use of Weapons (Culture), Use of Weapons (Culture) – Kindle

Don’t forget to check out my 25th anniversary GIVEAWAY by clicking here.

—–

Use of Weapons was recommended to me by a fellow blogger who assured me that this was the best book ever written in the history of mankind. Period. Of course this made me incredibly excited, so I automatically purchased the book and started reading it. Oddly enough, I found it rather hard to get into. Then, I was told to try reading either Consider Phelbas or Player of Games and try again. I followed that advice and I’m glad I did. My second attempt to read Use of Weapons was much more successful than the first.

While Banks’ Culture novels are standalones (which is wonderful), the world(s) and culture itself can be rather cumbersome for new readers to understand. Therefore, I would pass along the advice that I was given to read one of the previous two books before you start on books further in the series. While Use of Weapons is more of a character study than a culture study, being introduced to, and familiar with, the culture before you hit the character study in Use of Weapons will help immensely by allowing readers to really focus on events and character rather than spending time puzzling out various social and technological nuances.

That being said, one of the things that constantly appeal to me about Iain M. Banks is how thought provoking his novels are. While his plots are fascinating, he has an amazing way to engage the readers in what is happening, while occupying their thoughts long after with the deeper themes he so easily toys with. Use of Weapons is the same way, only magnified quite a bit. The characters are fascinating, and the situations are riveting, but it’s the ability for Banks to occupy your mind long after you read the book that really shows his success.

It should be said that there is quite an impressive, and deftly done plot twist toward the end of the book. Usually I can sense these things coming, but this one really took me by surprise, and that’s quite delicious and rare for someone who reads as much as I do. While the plot twist does change everything, it won’t make the book any less fun to reread. In fact, I’ve read this book twice now and find that knowing about the plot twist adds an incredible new dimension to events as they unfold.

Perhaps where some readers will have issues is with the timeline. Use of Weapons deals with two different courses of events, one moving forward and another moving backwards. It might take readers some time to figure out which plot thread is going what direction though it will be incredibly easy to keep them apart and differentiate between the two. If this novel fails to hook some readers, I think it will be due to the interesting use of two timelines rather than anything else.

Zakalwe is nothing short of a brilliant protagonist to follow. He’s an amazing tactician and military strategist. However, he is haunted by his past. Banks peels away layers of Zakalwe with each chapter like layers of an onion. This is where the timeline issues might come into play, as many of Zakalwe’s chapters deal with his past, and they are interspersed with chapters that focus on the present. While it might take readers some time to understand why and how the two timelines are so intimately tied together, eventually it is all revealed.

Banks never seems to underestimate his audience. He never dumbs things down. His humor is deft and sometimes very subtle. His characterization is top notch, and he manages to weave in some of the most incredible descriptions in the most unexpected times. The world and characters spring to life and the smattering of humor throughout a novel which is notably darker in tone (to me) than Player of Games, really helps ease mental burden from the reader.

The ending really is mind-blowing, and totally worth reading the entire book for, despite some of the confusion readers will face. The truth is, Banks is a master at manipulating, educating and pushing his readers and that’s worth celebrating. Use of Weapons might be frustrating to some, but its tone is completely different from Player of Games, and that just shows how versatile the author is. It’s a quality book that is sure to impress.

 

4/5 stars

Happy 25th Anniversary to Iain M. Banks + GIVEAWAY

Today marks the 25th anniversary for the Culture series by Iain M. Banks.

Banks’ Culture novels have stretched and redefined the limits of science fiction. He’s managed to both make science fiction accessible and interesting to new readers, while maintaining and nurturing his fan base with an ever expanding world that plays on unique, deeper themes sure to make you think.

Twenty-five years is an incredible milestone for any series, but keeping such a strong fanbase that keeps expanding with each new release is an even more impressive accomplishment. It is worth celebrating.

Therefore, today will be dedicated to the Culture novels. I will be reviewing Use of Weapons and The Hydrogen Sonata later today (So you get three posts in one day! Yay you!). Until then, you can wait for my esteemed opinions on these two novels by entering to win my GIVEAWAY.

Click on the image to learn more about this box set.

What you win: The new Culture box set which includes Consider Phlebas, Player of Games and Use of Weapons.

This will be a quick contest, so pay attention and enter fast!

Details:

To enter this contest, you must be a resident of the United States or Canada.
Any comment left on this post (by someone in the correct countries) automatically enters them to win.
You have until Tuesday, December 4 at midnight MST to enter.
A winner (yes, just one) will be picked at random one week from today – Wednesday, December 5.
Winners will be notified via email. You’ll have two days to respond before I pick another person.

That’s one week to enter for a chance to win three incredible books from one of the longest lasting, most mind blowing science fiction series I’ve had the honor of reading.

Good luck to all who enter and check back later for two reviews of Iain M. Banks books.

Once again, happy anniversary to Iain M. Banks. Your series is nothing short of visionary and has helped turn me into a huge science fiction fan.

Triumph Over Tragedy Welcomes Tim Marquitz

Tim Marquitz is an author I thank Twitter for.

You see, it was a Twitter discussion with two fellow bloggers (Bastard Books and Only The Best SciFi) that got me reading his books. That first book turned out to be my slippery slope. I fell in love with his writing and his fantastic twist on a very exhausted urban fantasy genre. Marquitz somehow took urban fantasy, a genre that I rarely ever have anything good to say about, and made me look at it differently and respect it for what it could be and what he made of it.

He’s a very nice guy with a great online presence and quite a list of published books under his belt. I’m honored to welcome him to Triumph Over Tragedy, and I was beyond thrilled when he approached me about donating a story to the anthology. Not only did he donate a story, but he wrote a brand new one for all of you lovely readers.

I’ve read it (several times now). It’s quite good, so be excited. Marquitz is a hell of an author, and Triumph Over Tragedy will benefit with his involvement.

Please check out this link to learn more about Triumph Over Tragedy and how you can help.

About the Author

Raised on a diet of Heavy Metal and bad intentions, Tim Marquitz has always been interested in writing, but it wasn’t until about 1995 the urge became a compulsion. However, it would be many years later before the ability matched the interest. Fortunately, the two have reconciled…mostly.

Writing a mix of the dark perverse, the horrific, and the tragic, tinged with sarcasm and biting humor, he looks to leave a gaping wound in the minds of his readers like his inspirations: Clive Barker, Jim Butcher, and Stephen King.

A former grave digger, bouncer, and dedicated metalhead, Tim is a huge fan of Mixed Martial Arts, and fighting in general.

He lives in Texas with his beautiful wife and daughter.

You can learn more about the author and his books on his website or follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

Time Marches On…

Life has been hectic, to say the least.

My cancer is back. My back surgery hasn’t ended the way I wanted it too, and now I’ve sprained my foot. That all sucks and I’m so stressed that reviewing has been hard for me recently.

However, it’s not all bad. I’m helping edit my first two books (Triumph Over Tragedy and Beyond the Sun). I’m also (when I screw my head on straight) going to dabble in slush reading for a magazine and I’ve even had the opportunity to beta read a few novels. I’ve decided that I’ll grow old and die before I find a career in freelance editing, so I’m trying to blaze my own trail and make it happen for myself.

This has all had an impact on my blog. I haven’t reviewed as much recently because I’ve been so stressed out about health issues, and so busy with editing projects, that I just haven’t had the brainpower. The truth is, I’m just living in some constant sphere of exhaustion and hyperstress that this past week or so anything that isn’t absolutely necessary has just been too much to handle.

I’ve been reading a lot and I hope to find time tonight or tomorrow to write out a ton of backlogged reviews. I also have some interviews I hope to write out soon, and some projects for my blog that I’ve completed (I forced myself to read some “romantic fantasy” and I will write a bit about the books I read and my impressions of romantic plots and etc). I need to write up some stuff regarding said project(s) for your viewing pleasure. I just need to unwind enough to get all that done.

Anyway, all that is to say thanks to all the people who have stuck with me through all the confusion in my life. I’m surprised I still have any readers. I can’t figure out what makes it worth sticking around, but I appreciate that you do.

Triumph Over Tragedy Welcomes Adrian Tchaikovsky

Adrian Tchaikovsky really doesn’t need any introduction. His series Shadows of the Apt is eight impressive (and celebrated) books long. Shadows of the Apt is, hands down, one of the most unique hybrid steampunk/ epic fantasy series that I’ve ever read. I tend to think that a person who can blend so many unique elements into one incredible series of books must have some serious brainpower.

On a music-nerd side note, anyone with the name Tchaikovsky automatically gets my attention. Thus, as a musician my fangirl status has been written in the stars.

That being said, we’re thrilled to add his name to our ever growing list of authors contributing stories to Triumph Over Tragedy.

About the Author

ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY was born in Lincolnshire and studied zoology and psychology at Reading, before practising law in Leeds. He is a keen live role-player and occasional amateur actor and is trained in stage-fighting. His literary influences include Gene Wolfe, Mervyn Peake, China Miéville, Mary Gently, Steven Erikson, Naomi Novak, Scott Lynch and Alan Campbell.

You can learn more about the author on his website, or follow him on Facebook and Goodreads.

As always, you can learn more about Triumph Over Tragedy or donate to this cause here.

 

Triumph Over Tragedy Author | R. T. Kaelin

This post is part of a series of guest posts by the authors contributing to Triumph Over Tragedy. They will spontaneously appear over the next few weeks. I have asked authors to write about how life experiences affect their writing (or reading).

Thanks to the authors for taking time out of their lives to write these guest posts.

As always, you can check out more about Triumph Over Tragedy, or donate here. 

I should note, R. T. Kaelin is the man who dreamed up this project, and he also has a wonderful story in it. Hats off to him, because none of this would have happened without his time and effort. On a personal note, the type of cancer he talks about here is the kind of cancer I’m currently battling. My heart goes out to him and his family. Cancer is a disease that affects the entire family tree, not just one branch of it. I’m honored to host this very emotional, very raw post honoring his father. 

About the Author

R.T. Kaelin is a loving husband, father of two wonderful children, and a lifelong resident of Ohio, currently in Columbus.  After graduating from college, for the first twelve years of his career he has worked as a software engineer.  After creatively writing a local gaming group, it was suggested he try his hand at writing something more prodigious.  Encouraged, he finally committed to the undertaking, writing the first book of his The Children of the White Lions series, Progeny.  When he is not writing, he loves to travel and has a passion for cooking.

You can follow the author on these websites: 


GoodReads.com Author Profile


LibraryThing.com Author Profile 
Young Adult Books Central Author Profile 
R.T. Kaelin on Twitter
R.T. Kaelin at BookBlogs
R.T. Kaelin at Shelfari


Onto his post…

When I was 16, doctors diagnosed my father with thyroid cancer. They called it a ‘good cancer,’ as oxymoronic a term as I have ever heard. Their reasoning? Most types of thyroid cancer are curable. They removed what they could, treated the rest with radioactive iodine, and life went on.

The thing I remember most about that time? We ate less salt. Dad’s post-op treatment included taking radioactive iodine that the remnants of his thyroid would collect, effectively killing itself off. Table salt has iodine and therefore diminishes the effect of the treatment. Therefore, less salt at the Kaelin dinner table.

It seems selfish that that is what I remember. But it is. When you’re 16, you are the center of your universe, everyone revolves around you, and OMG why can’t my parents just understand me?! Your worldview is woefully incomplete. Perspective is non-existent.

19 years have passed. I’ve gained life experience. And perspective. Lots of perspective. Best of all? I’ve had Dad around for my high school and college graduations, my wedding, the birth of my two kids. You know, life.

About four years back, Dad started losing his voice. It cracked at first, degraded to a rasp, and eventually faded to a constant whisper. Doctors found nodules on his vocal cord and removed them. They were benign, yet pre-cancerous. For the past four years, they have kept close eye on him. He’s had at least five more surgeries to remove additional nodules as they repeatedly grow back.

Two weeks ago, doctors removed a large mass from his vocal cords and surrounding tissue. Worried, they ordered a scan of his head, neck, and chest. A couple days later, we learned Dad now has a very aggressive form of cancer. Recommended treatment is the removal of the larynx along with extensive radiation and chemotherapy. If that were to work—a very big if—he’d have an artificial trachea, no sense of smell, and be mute.

The prognosis, if they do nothing, is bad. Yet that is exactly what Dad is doing.

He made his mind up prior to the surgery that if things were this dire, he would not seek treatment. The last four years have been very hard on him physically, emotionally, and psychologically. He effectively has not been able to hold a conversation with anyone unless it is in a perfectly silent room. He feels isolated. Alone. The frustration on his face, in his eyes, is clear.

About a year ago, he and my stepmom moved from Cincinnati to Phoenix, hoping to enjoy the sunny, hot weather in their retirement. My family—wife and two kids, aged eight and five—was looking forward to years of visiting them out there, swimming in their pool and baking in the Arizona sun. That won’t happen now.

My wife and I have invited them to come back to cold and gray Ohio to stay with us for a while. The holidays are coming and I’d like to have Dad spend some time with his only grandkids. Especially Christmas morning. I want pictures.

Dad is a good man. A proud, honorable, and sometimes stubborn man. He’s faced a litany of challenges and has pushed through them all with more grace and resolve than most could manage.

When he was two, he contracted polio in his leg, just before the vaccine came to be. He had countless surgeries as a child to keep his legs the same length, yet has suffered a rather pronounced limp his whole life. The physical stress of that has caused lower back issues, slipped disks, etc. Yet he refused to let that stop him. He was my little league coach, heading up an absolutely horrible team. We won six games in four years. Yet the kids—and parents—did not care. He was loved and respected by everyone as he ensured that every kid played no matter how good or bad he was. Hint: most of us weren’t good.

My parents separated when I was eight. I lived with Dad after the divorce. I know he did everything he could to make our life happy and normal, yet I remember him being sad a lot. Still, he pushed through, a strong and proud soul.

A few years after the divorce, he met someone and remarried. It went from being me and dad (I’m an only child) to me, Dad, my stepmother, and two stepsiblings, both of whom were younger than me. It was good. We took vacations, went to Reds games, spent weekends at my grandparents in Indiana. My stepsiblings ceased to be ‘step’ anything. They are my brother and sister.

Dad was a teacher for twenty-five plus years. Geography and American History for seventh and eighth grade. He loved his job and was damn good at it, approaching it with the same firm yet fair approach he used raising me. His students loved him, a fact to which I can directly attest as I attended the school where he taught. At the time, it seemed an awful situation. A twelve or thirteen year old going to school every day and seeing your father there? Yikes. Now, however, I love having that as a part of my past. I got to see him four or five times extra per day than most kids. And if I forgot lunch money, hey, no problem.

Dad’s been incredibly supportive of me in all I do, giving advice when I ask for it, as well as offering it when I don’t ask but probably should. He has helped guide me in my personal life as a husband, father, homeowner. He has supported me in my career as a ‘software guy,’ using me as his own personal tech support whenever something goes wrong with his PC. And he has been one of my biggest cheerleaders in my quest to change paths and become a writer.

Now, Dad and I have our differences, of course. Things on which we don’t see eye to eye.

He’s a Republican. I’m not.

He’s religious. I’m not.

He likes bacon on his pizza. I find that a horrid thought.

But he’s my dad. And I love him.

These author posts are supposed to be about how we have triumphed over some tragedy in our personal lives. Well, this one is different. I’m in the midst of a tragedy. These next couple of months will be difficult for my family and me. I know that.

This is just the first step of a crummy journey, but one in which I am going to consciously pay as much attention to the good and happy while trying to not dwell on the sad. I am choosing to triumph over this tragedy. I hope I can.

Thanks for letting my share my father with you. That’s it. I’m done now.

Oh, there’s one last thing: my dad’s name is Tom.

 

Reaper – K.D. McEntire

About the Book

Reaper is set in a world a breath away from our own. After the death of her mother, Wendy is attempting to fill her mother’s shoes and discovering that the prospect is far more difficult than she ever imagined. Learning that she is part of a powerful and ancient family of Reapers that her mother had forsaken is just the first surprise—Wendy soon discovers that the San Francisco Bay Never is filled with political powers and factions both previously unknown and completely mysterious to Wendy. Since both her mother and Piotr are gone, Wendy must struggle to manoeuvre between the machinations of the dead and the dark intentions of her living Reaper family.

Eventually betrayed and made sick unto death, the clock is ticking before Wendy will fall—she has only a matter of days to unravel the mysteries her mother left behind and to convince her wary family to accept her as one of their own.

345 pages (hardcover)

Published on August 24, 2012

Published by Pyr

Author’s webpage

This book was sent for me to review by the publisher.

You can purchase a copy of this book by clicking on the following link: Reaper (Lightbringer)

—–

I’ve noticed a few things about Pyr’s new line of young adult books, and this observation makes me endlessly pleased.  While I can always count on Pyr to produce top quality books, their young adult line pleases the part of me (which is a larger part than I’d like to admit) that really doesn’t enjoy young adult books that much. Pyr’s young adult books are more mature, less full of angst than most that I’ve run across. It’s incredibly refreshing, and the part of me that looks at young adult (much like urban fantasy) and recoils, starts to relax and ease into each YA book Pyr throws my direction. So huzzuh to them.

Reaper starts off where Lightbringer ends. Reaper is pretty much owned by Piotr. While the book is split between him and Wendy, Wendy seemed a bit more confused and less developed than Piotr and thus, he seems to propel the book forward. McEntire really delves deep with his character and his search for answers to his mysterious past. Piotr evolves and grows to be a more frustrated and angry character than I expected him to be. He also gains quite a bit of depth and really achieves an ability to hold his own, where I often felt that he had a pushed-around air in Lightbringer.

On the other hand, Wendy is searching for answers of her own regarding her family heritage, and plenty is revealed in that regard. Some of these reveals readers will expect, and some will come as huge surprises. Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of Wendy is how sidetracked she seems to get with other people/activities/chaotic plot elements that seem to slip in at the worst possible time. There were a few occasions where I thought, “Okay, we’re finally getting somewhere so I’m expecting the author to throw in something that will totally derail Wendy within the next few pages.”

Despite that small complaint, McEntire really takes the world building in Reaper to a whole new level. The world, magic system, ghostly elements, the Never and everything else that she began building in Lightbringer are elaborated upon. McEntire adds so much depth and dimension to her world that it’s actually rather surprising. Readers might have had questions about the different types of dead before (Reapers, etc) but McEntire answers all of those, and fleshes out those answers in a masterful, non infodumping sort of way. She should really be noted for that. The world in Reaper shines brightly, and is incredibly, vividly real.

McEntire also has also managed to balance her plot incredibly well. As Reaper progresses she seems to answer the perfect amount of questions readers will have from Lightbringer, as well as posing new ones as the plot(s) unfold. This is no small feat and it shows incredible growth as an author. McEntire seems to find the perfect balance between treating the reader, and dangling carrots before them to keep them going. Along with the added depth with characters and world building, I’m sure many fans of Lightbringer will be immensely pleased with Reaper and the author’s obvious growth and development.

Speaking of plot, McEntire ramps up the complexity quite a bit, adding a dash of political tension, some danger both in our world and in the Never, as well as the reveal of plenty of backstory, which adds a load of tension and danger to an already precarious situation. It’s quite amazing that McEntire manages to balance all of this in a young adult novel, and do it in such a way that Reaper never loses its young adult appeal. Inevitably (and somewhat predictably), Wendy and Piotr somehow find themselves in the center of a pivotal situation which could spell the death of both of them.

This wouldn’t be a proper Bookworm Blues review if I didn’t harp on the romance a bit (because, honestly, I have issues with romance in books). Wendy and Piotr’s interesting relationship really adds a unique dynamic to Reaper. While there aren’t many young adult books without some sort of romantic angle, McEntire keeps this relationship from straying too far into the cliché-angsty-teenage-swoon book that I’d expect from YA (sorry, but I gotta be honest). First, Reaper has a darker vibe than many other young adult books I’ve read, and their relationship is a testament to it. Secondly, and perhaps most welcoming, McEntire makes a very strong point of making their feelings for each other, and their relationship obvious, while keeping both Wendy and Piotr from straying into the I-can’t-live-without-you territory that seems to crawl under my skin the wrong way with many young adult books I’ve read.

That being said, readers should be warned. Reaper ends on a huge cliffhanger.

When it’s said and done, Reaper is a step above and ahead of Lightbringer. McEntire has grown immensely between her two books and while Lightbringer showed immense potential, Reaper lives up to that potential. Though there are some minor issues with characterization and plotting, Reaper is sure to please. It’s a strong second installment in a young adult series that I have enjoyed immensely so far, and I’m not saying that lightly, as I usually don’t mix with YA well. McEntire has not only proved that she has a promising career as a complex, layered, and talented author, but that she also has the ability to redefine the young adult genre.

 

4/5 stars