Sarah Chorn's Blog, page 39

Pill City – Kevin Deutsch

NOTE: I wrote a glowing review of this book and then someone sent me this link, regarding a controversy I wasn’t aware of. This book may be complete fabricated crap, which really pisses me off, however, it’s already online so I figured I’d keep it there with the link and a note where my absolute indignation is hopefully clear.

About the Book

April 28, 2015, West Baltimore, Maryland: Ground Zero in America’s Opiate Wars.

In this crime-plagued section of the city, the death of Freddie Gray has triggered the worst domestic rioting since the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and created a terrifying new breed of criminal entrepreneur.

Here, as looters and arsonists lay waste to already blighted parts of Baltimore, two of the city’s brightest students are helping to carry out a historic drug robbery spree–one that will flood the city with highly addictive pain pills and heroin.

The teens’ plan: to use their gang connections and computer programming skills to set up a high tech drug delivery service and Dark Web marketplace. The result: the boys became America’s youngest drug lords, in the process sparking bloody gang warfare and a nationwide wave of addiction and murder. Now mixing in deadly circles, Brick and Wax soon found their own lives were on the line…

In this groundbreaking work of investigative journalism, Newsday criminal justice reporter Kevin Deutsch chronicles the rise of these gangland upstarts as they help steal $100 million worth of high-powered opiates, and build a national narcotics empire from scratch.

As gripping and compulsive as a thriller, Pill City takes readers into the heat of the action as Brick and Wax outwit the FBI and DEA, gang members like Damage and Lyric live and die by their own brutal code, the cops battle to stop the carnage, and a high-school coach risks a bullet to get addicts into rehab.

A gritty, hard-hitting story of gangland survival, Pill City will open the world’s eyes to the plague of drug-related killings rocking America, and reveal the deadly cost of the Baltimore riots.

 

288 pages (hardcover)

Published on January 31, 2017

Buy the book

—

I don’t really know how to categorize Pill City. It’s a book that is part crime thriller, part social commentary, and incredibly interesting. In fact, this is the first, and only, audiobook I’ve ever listened to completely in one day. I was absolutely, amazingly gripped by the story being told. The whole thing was surreal, beyond reality.

But it’s real. It’s very, very real.

In order to understand Pill City, you need to understand drug addiction and the opiate crisis in the United States. Peppered throughout this book is a ton of valuable information about opioids, why people love using them, how easily accessible they are, how they are used and prescribed (too much) by doctors. Understanding why people trade heroine for an oxy is important to the story. It’s the entire reason why Pill City became such a big deal.

Contrasted with that, you need to understand the vacuum with drug delivery systems, and just how these two impoverished Baltimore high school kids figured out how to fill this vacuum. Their filling-of-the-vacuum coincided perfectly with riots happening in Baltimore at that time, which they used to strip drug stores of their precious opioids, creating a massive storage of these drugs, to cell on the darkweb program they created, called Pill City (hence the title of the book).

These two kids, who were given aliases, completely transformed the drug trade in the United States, with far reaching implications that really boggled my mind. Told in a well written, gripping way, this story wrapped itself around me. Not only did I learn a lot about drugs, the drug trade, addiction, and other things that I never really anticipated learning about – like the orphans, the kids left behind by drug addicts.

Along with this story of two kids and their darkweb program Pill City, and how all of this dramatically impacted the drug abuse in Baltimore during this time period, we have a gang war/fight for territory, a police officer who is completely overwhelmed by the increase in drug problems, hospitals that are likewise overwhelmed by overdoses and so much more.

It’s a dark story, and occasionally a bloody one. There isn’t much light in this book, and the stories that are being told are raw and real, and the author really has a way with bringing all this darkness to life in a way that makes it not just gripping, but important. It’s important to know about this problem, about this specific story, because it literally has revolutionized the way drugs are being sold and traded in our society, probably on a global level by now.

So, Pill City. It’s a program dreamed up by two poor high school kids in an impoverished part of Baltimore. It was a way for them to make money, but they managed to perfectly pinpoint the time to launch this program. They became drug kingpins, and ruled the world for a time. No one could find them. No one knew who they were. They caused gang wars, a ton of death and blood was shed because of them, they fundamentally changed the way drugs were sold, and their availability in Baltimore. They became multi-millionaires.

And it was literally impossible for me to put this book down. I listened to the audiobook in a day (and it’s a superb performance) because I just couldn’t stop. It’s dark, but it’s real, and it’s raw, and it’s uncomfortable.

At the end of the book there is an author’s note about how he did the interviews, everything he had to do to contact these two men, and some of his contacts and how he used them, as well as how his experience as a crime writer helped him sift through the bits and pieces of this story so he could distill it into a digestible, important story for his readers.

This book, folks, isn’t just fantastic – it’s important.

Read it.

 

5/5 stars

The Romanovs – Simon Sebag Montefiore

About the Book

The Romanovs were the most successful dynasty of modern times, ruling a sixth of the world’s surface for three centuries. How did one family turn a war-ruined principality into the world’s greatest empire? And how did they lose it all?

This is the intimate story of twenty tsars and tsarinas, some touched by genius, some by madness, but all inspired by holy autocracy and imperial ambition. Simon Sebag Montefiore’s gripping chronicle reveals their secret world of unlimited power and ruthless empire-building, overshadowed by palace conspiracy, family rivalries, sexual decadence and wild extravagance, with a global cast of adventurers, courtesans, revolutionaries and poets, from Ivan the Terrible to Tolstoy and Pushkin, to Bismarck, Lincoln, Queen Victoria and Lenin.

745 pages (hardcover)

Published on January 28, 2016

Buy the book

—

I don’t honestly know much about the Romanovs beyond the fact that a bunch of dudes killed them, and one kid’s name was Anastasia. In all things Russian, I’m lacking. However, the saga of this royal dynasty intrigued me. They spanned hundreds of years. Some of them were completely bonkers, and some of them were incredibly influential, ruthless, and looking into the future.

I was very excited about this book by Simon Sebag Montefiore. It’s huge, weighing in at just shy of 750 pages and it covers three hundred years of Russian history, tons of wars, plenty of death (lots and lots and lots of very ruthless, impressive killing in this book), and plenty of people being sent to Siberia for one reason or another.

There really isn’t ever a dull moment here, and the one thing I love about Montefiore’s writing, is that this doesn’t read like some college textbook. He peppers his book full of wry comments, some offbeat humor, and a ton of footnotes with interesting factoids that had me saying, “YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! Someone actually did that?!” at least a million times.

He spends a lot of time on the last of the Romanovs, but I was surprised to realize that the book wasn’t dominated by this story, and it wasn’t as focused on as I expected. He spent a ton of time on a few other Romanovs as well. There were a lot of very interesting stories in this book, about people that I’d honestly never heard of or thought much about.

I told my husband several times while I was reading that the truth is stranger than fiction, and it really is. I had no idea that one family could be full of so much carnage, vindictiveness, grand ideas, insight, progress, madness, poisonings, celebrations, lavish lifestyles. This was a group of people who ruled an absolutely sprawling country, tons of wars and fighting, was the cause of boatloads of bloodshed, and somehow managed to survive as a dynasty for three hundred years. It just boggles the mind.

Montefiore broke this book into Acts rather than chapters, and each act is headed by a family tree (which was very, very useful, and I referred to it a ton of times as I read) and a cast list. I thought it was very clever how he boiled down this sprawling family saga into acts complete with a list of players, because in many ways, this seems like a saga that is surreal, not real, beyond truth. I mean, it’s something you’d see on a stage, something that is so grand, so outrageous, so far beyond belief that the only place that it could actually be true is on a stage. And in a lot of ways, these Romanovs did turn their lives into a pageant.

The book moves along at the perfect pace, and I was actually completely surprised by how well Montefiore managed to give everyone the exact amount of space that they deserved and needed. No one felt like they were lingered on too long, and everyone got covered in some way. He did mostly focus on the Romanovs, so there is very little look at how the people of Russia were living aside from some mentions regarding how they lived, some of the issues they faced, but this was really a book about the Romanovs, and as their dynasty changed, it was kind of easy to see how the serfs would feel about some of this stuff that they saw their rulers and leaders doing.

This was my first foray into both Russian history, and a Montefiore book. I put two other books of his on hold at the library immediately after, because his writing impressed me that much. He managed to take a complex story that could have been incredibly dry, and boil it down into easily absorbed, interesting chunks that were easy this Russian noob to digest.

I cannot recommend this book enough. If you’re interested in Russian history, or you’re just interested in really creative ways of killing people for the book you’re writing (seriously, these dudes were brutal. I’m kind of impressed that they lasted as long as they did), then this might be something you should look into reading soon. It’s brilliant, weighty, and absolutely unforgettable.

 

5/5 stars

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes….

You may or may not have noticed that the header on my website has been changed.

There’s a reason for this.

I’ve been in a huge funk recently. I love my website, and I love reviewing books, but I’m feeling a bit caged, a little locked in, and this is making me feel just completely sick of it. I had to have a long chat with myself where I really reevaluated the reasons behind this website exists, and the reasons why I started it all those years ago. Then, when I had all of that sorted out, I had to decide if this website is something I’m willing to continue doing.

I’ve been reviewing for seven (7) years now, and I love every single minute of doing it, but seven years is a long time to read mostly speculative fiction and yeah, I’m kind of feeling burnt out on it. Not on the genre specifically, but on only reading and yapping about this genre. And while I do pop on here once in a while with another genre’s book to review, it’s not often, and it doesn’t really scratch my itch. I honestly feel a bit guilty when I do because my site advertises “speculative fiction book reviews” and here I am breaking my own rule. On top of reading and reviewing this genre, I’m also editing books in it (which I have absolutely NO INTENTION of giving up. It’s FANTASTIC. I. LOVE. IT.)

The truth is that I’m tired, folks. I’m tired of being basically locked into one or two genres. And it’s burning me out. Fast. And I never, ever want to get burnt out with reading. That’s like the supreme sin in my eyes, so the fact that I’m even feeling burnt out about reading really, profoundly bothers me.

But.

I started this website because I wanted a place to go where I could talk about what I read, and pretend someone out there gives a crap about my opinion. That hasn’t changed. I get all excited about the books I read, regardless of genre, and it helps me process what I’ve read, or learned, to have this nerd-haven to go to and yap about it all. That’s the root of this website. That, right there, is what caused me to start this adventure seven years ago.

I love to read. I love to get excited about what I read. And when I’m excited, I love having a place I can go and verbally froth at the mouth about my excitement. That is Bookworm Blues boiled down to the root cause that resulted in its birth.

So I had to have a conversation with myself, and I came to the conclusion that my desire to review books hasn’t changed at all. I still need that space where I can go and get all sorts of excited and pretend like someone out there cares. I still need that little haven. However, I am absolutely burning out, and that’s a cardinal sin. And I realized that the one thing that I need, desperately is to diversify my reading a bit, and fill my brain with other things. This cage I’ve created for myself, where I only allow myself to read books in one specific genre, is a cage of my own creation, so this feeling I’m experiencing, is likewise a feeling that is my own creation.

The issue I’ve run into, the one thing that has kept me from actually doing what I’m doing right now, is the fact that I have readers in the speculative fiction genre, and publishers, and authors who contact me from this genre, and I’ve worried about upsetting people if I switch gears a little bit.

I keep coming back to the simple fact that, this is my website. I set it up. I run it. I keep it going. It’s mine. This is my baby. And the only person who can determine what road I want my baby to be on is me. There is absolutely nothing keeping me from spreading my wings (so to speak) but me. I started this website for the single purpose to give myself an outlet, and I need to get back to my roots, because I do not like this burnout that I’m currently feeling. It bothers me. It isn’t me.

I’m switching gears a little bit. You’ll notice the header no longer says “Speculative Fiction Book Reviews” and it just says “Book Reviews.” There’s a reason for that. I’m not going to lock myself down anymore. I’m not going to force myself to absorb piles and piles of speculative fiction, and I’m not going to allow myself to be pressured to read it. This website will now feature reviews of whatever books I choose to read at that moment. That may be nonfiction, or young adult, historical fiction, fantasy or SciFi, romance, or whatever I feel so compelled to read.

I will always return to speculative fiction, and this website will most likely still focus on SpecFic, but I’m not going to lock myself into it anymore. For example, I’m on a huge nonfiction binge right now, and there’s a ton of books that I’ve been wanting to write about because THEY ARE SO GOOD (Simon Sebag Montifiore’s The Romanovs, for example), but I have been afraid to come on here and do that because this site has been restricted to SpecFic and I’ve felt like I’ve been betraying my purpose or something like that. I also, oddly enough, just finished listening to the audiobooks of some J.R. Ward paranormal stuff, and while the plot leaves something to be desired, her character building/cultural development really interests me, and I’ve wanted to talk about that, but I’ve been reluctant to do so.

I’m not going to be reluctant anymore.

Officially, as of now, Bookworm Blues is open to book reviews of pretty much whatever the hell I’m reading (because I want to) at any given moment. If this causes me to lose readers, or publishers stop sending me stuff to read, then that’s the price I will pay. I’ve been doing this for seven years now, and that’s a long time in book reviewer lifespan. I think it’s time for me to diversify a bit.

So, there you go. I’m getting back to the roots of why this site started. It’ll always feature SpecFic, because that’s home and everyone eventually returns home, but now it’ll be unapologetically balanced by other stuff. Whatever I want.

Because I can.

P.S. Feel free to still send me review requests, but understand that the only change on that front is now I’ll pretty much be open to any query, for any genre of book.

The Dragon’s Legacy – Deborah A. Wolf

About the Book

The last Aturan King is dying, and as his strength fades so does his hold on sa and ka. Control of this power is a deadly lure; the Emperor stirs in his Forbidden City to the East, while deep in the Seared Lands, the whispering voices of Eth bring secret death. Eight men and women take their first steps along the paths to war, barely realizing that their world will soon face a much greater threat; at the heart of the world, the Dragon stirs in her sleep. A warrior would become Queen, a Queen would become a monster, and a young boy plays his bird-skull flute to keep the shadows of death at bay.

320 pages (hardcover)

Published on April 4, 2017

Published by Titan Books

Author’s webpage

Buy the book



This book was sent by the author in exchange for my honest review.

—

Full disclosure: I read an early review of this book and I consider Deborah Wolfe to be a friend of mine, and I have a blurb on the back cover of said book, so this review is biased from the get-go.

Now that we have that out of the way…

The Dragon’s Legacy is one of those books that I’ve been waiting for someone to write. It’s an epic work, and an intimate one at the same time. There is a lot that happens in this book, and does have the potential of overwhelming some readers. If you aren’t into epic fantasy, and made up languages, and secondary worlds and all that stuff, then you’ll probably want to move on from this book. However, if you are into all that stuff, then here you go, folks. This is the book you’ve been waiting for.

The worldbuilding is the first thing that attracted my attention. I’m a sucker for different cultures, exotic lands, and the inevitable culture clashes that ensue from all of that. In a lot of ways, Wolf was brave regarding how she built her world. It’s not set in a European-esque setting (thank you for that, by the way). There are different power dynamics than people would probably expect to see, and there are culture clashes and plenty of other things that make this world go from something someone else dreamed up, to something that feels real.

Now, let’s get back to how I said that Wolf was brave when writing this book. Speculative Fiction is starting to move away from the tropes where the men are men and the women are home in the castle. There’s nothing wrong with that, per se, but I do think that it is important to give a different role to women. Let women be the strong ones, the heroes, the people who go out and kick ass and take names. In that respect, and in the respect of seeing people of color playing important roles in a book, this one absolutely excels. Personally, I think this is a fantastic thing. I also think that, with certain uh… groups…. in the genre these days, it will probably ruffle some feathers.

The book takes some time to set all the pieces up and prepare the world for the epicness that is about to befall on it. This is the first book in a series, and in some ways you can tell right away. Wolf is setting up the world. She’s explaining the rules, and setting the guidelines. She largely avoids infodumps, but she is painting her readers a picture. Things happen. Important things happen, things that will doubtlessly leave you engrossed and on the edge of your seat, but as you read you will know that Wolf is setting the playing field up for what is to come.

The point I want to segue into from that last paragraph is fairly simple. If this is just Wolf setting up a world, moving her pieces around, preparing all her characters and her readers for the Big Stuff that is going to come next, then this is one holy hell of a setup. It’s a book in its own right. It owns its story and it owns it in a positive, big way, but it’s also setting up for something more, and I honestly can’t wait to see what that “something more” is. If book one is this well developed, then book two will inevitably blow my socks off.

By and large the pacing was well done. There were some points where things lagged a little bit, or maybe it took too long for things to get to The Point of the scene, if that makes sense. Those are small quibbles, though. This is an epic book, and if you’re an epic reader you’ll realize that usually epic books take some time to get the ball rolling, and Wolf does a great job at filling that part of the book with interesting scenes, interesting characters, and interesting discussions. And also, Wolf absolutely does not shy away from bloodshed, and it’s never gratuitous.

Basically, The Dragon’s Legacy is one of those books that is an asset to a genre I love so much. It shines a light on diversity, powerful women, and a complex plot set in a unique world. There are foreign cultures, and strange people, and it all mixes together well to create a book that is an important, worthy addition to any speculative fiction library.

 

4.5/5 stars

The Shadow Soul – Kaitlyn Davis

About the Book

When Jinji’s home is destroyed, she is left with nowhere to run and no one to run to–until she meets Rhen, a prince chasing rumors that foreign enemies have landed on his shores. Masquerading as a boy, Jinji joins Rhen with vengeance in her heart. But traveling together doesn’t mean trusting one another, and both are keeping a deep secret–magic. Jinji can weave the elements to create master illusions and Rhen can pull burning flames into his flesh.

But while they struggle to hide the truth, a shadow lurks in the night. An ancient evil has reawakened, and unbeknownst to them, these two unlikely companions hold the key to its defeat. Because their meeting was not coincidence–it was fate. And their story has played out before, in a long forgotten time, an age of myth that is about to be reborn..

Published on January 1, 2014

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

This book was given to me as part of the SPFBO.

—

I meant this review to go up yesterday, but yesterday exploded in my face and I’m just sitting down to write it now.

The Shadow Soul is a finalist in the SPFBO. It’s a young adult book, the first in A Dance of Dragons series. This book is sort of a mixed bag for me. It’s got some serious good points, but in the end I felt like the plot veered away from its original goal a bit.

The first thing I feel like I should mention, which really isn’t a positive or negative point, just a point for me to make, is the series title A Dance of Dragons will make many people instantly thing of A Song of Ice and Fire, and that’s a bit misleading. These two series are so vastly different they can’t really be compared, but I do feel like that series title might lure some people in who will wind up reading something they don’t expect to read.

Kaitlyn Davis does a wonderful job at setting up a diverse, sprawling world with diverse cultures. Jinji is a character who instantly intrigued me. She’s from a group of people who have recently been destroyed, and vengeance is her real end goal. She wants to find the people who destroyed her people, and she wants to ruin them. It’s a sentiment we can all relate to in one way or another. What I loved about her, was how wonderfully Davis built up her culture, and the land she came from, not really sparing any of the details.

On the other side, we have Rhen, a prince from the west who is hiding, and on his own quest. The two characters start to travel together, each with their own secrets and own end goals. And all of that, all of that setup is masterfully done. I loved the characters, I felt for their plight, the development of the world and their motivations was perfection itself.

The magic system was quite captivating as well. Rhen’s ability to absorb fire is interesting, and I loved seeing how it affected him, and how he could use it. Jinji’s ability to see elemental spirits is also quite unique. It gives her some insight into what Rhen is hiding, but it also helps them while they travel, and it gives another insight into this land that Davis has created.

So, this is all good. Good writing, good world, good characters, good magic. What was it that was hit a little lower than the mark?

Really, the crux of the matter lies in how Jenji’s story and motivation got swallowed up into Rhen’s story. While the book started out with two different people, and two different goals, eventually Jenji just sort of forgot about hers, and became focused on Rhen’s. This frustrated me, because Jenji was a really interesting character and I was disappointed by how she became so focused on Rhen, losing sight of her own goals.

Secondly, this is a pretty typical young adult book. There are two protagonists of different backgrounds who are slammed together and forced to work through this Big Thing, while keeping their own secrets under wraps. The world and the magic system are different, and the characters are unique and captivating, but the bare bones of the story is kind of typical, and that was disappointing because everything else about it was really well done. I do think, however, that the author has set the stage for some really interesting things to happen in future books.

The Shadow Soul was good, but it didn’t quite blow me away. I do think the series has blow-me-away potential, but this book just fell short of that for a few important reasons. That being said, don’t avoid reading this one. The story is well written, the plot is interesting, and I absolutely loved the world and the protagonists. Despite the aspects of this book I picked on, I am interested enough to continue on, and that, my friends, says something important right there.

 

3.5/5 stars

Red Equinox – Douglas Wynne

About the Book

The Red Equinox has dawned, and the old gods who have slept for aeons are stirring.

Urban explorer and photographer Becca Philips was raised in the shadow of Miskatonic University, steeped in the mysteries of her late grandmother’s work in occult studies. But what she thought was myth becomes all too real when cultists unleash terror on the city of Boston. Now she’s caught between a shadowy government agency called SPECTRA and the followers of an apocalyptic faith bent on awakening an ancient evil.

As urban warfare breaks out between eldritch monsters and an emerging police state, she must uncover the secrets of a family heirloom known as the Fire of Cairo to banish the rising tide of darkness before the balance tips irrevocably at the Red Equinox.

274 pages (paperback)

Published on January 16, 2015

Author’s webpage

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This book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

—

Red Equinox was a book I got for review months ago. Seriously, a stupid amount of time ago, and I’m just now getting around to reviewing it, because I fail at life, or something. Better late than never, right?

First of all, I got this as an audiobook. It’s narrated by Susan Saddler. I’ve never heard a book narrated by her before, but I instantly loved her voice, and the way she read the book. She has a sort of unique sound, but it just fit into the story perfectly. Half the battle with audiobooks is finding a narrator who really sounds right for the story they are reading. Not every narrator is a hit, and it did take me a little bit of time to really warm up to her, but it was worth it. By the time the book ended, I couldn’t picture it read by anyone else.

Red Equinox got my attention from the start. It’s sort of a dark, brooding horror-type story with a nice dash of fantasy thrown in for good measure and a ton of history and background that all weave together to form the story that we have here. The other thing that was a surprise about this book was just how weird it was. Some people have compared it to Lovecraft’s work in some regards, and I do see that. This book is its own unique thing, but it also is a love letter to some books that have come before it.

The protagonist, Becca Philips, is a photographer, which was fantastic as that’s something that I can intimately relate to, and her style of photography is really unique. Wynne had to do a lot of research (or maybe he knows from personal experience) about photography to accurately pull a lot of those descriptions and details off. Becca’s love for photography drives her into some unique areas, and her personal family history, the things she knows about her family (her grandfather, specifically) also carries her to certain locations for her photography.

It’s on one of these outings that Becca runs into her family history head on, and from that moment on, the book completely takes off. The horror elements are pretty captivating, and I loved how Wynne flawlessly wove together history, current day Boston, and all of these otherworldly elements that are unique to this book.

One thing that I really loved about the book was how much of it focused on relationships, and none of these relationships really moved in any of the directions I expected them to. The dialogue between characters was fantastic, and very realistic, but it was also down to earth and believable. Perhaps that is one of the best parts of the book, not only are the characters wonderful, but they are incredibly human and real, and they serve to balance out a lot of the fantasy, and Lovecraftian elements of the story.

Wynne is a great author. He knows how to propel a plot forward, and flawlessly weave together so many different elements that create the story. The book felt incredibly streamlined, and though it was complex, Wynne has a way with boiling down complex elements to make them easily absorbable by his readers. Furthermore, he crafted a great eerie atmosphere which he used to his advantage throughout the book, building on it as things progressed until it culminated in an ending that perfectly suited the story being told.

Red Equinox wasn’t what I expected, and it’s really the first book of this nature that I’ve ever read, but I enjoyed it. Wynne has a way with making a complex story feel less complex, and easily digested by his readers. The characters were realistic, the plot flowed nicely, and the narrator was the cherry on top of the sundae that was this book. Is this worth reading? Yes, if you’re in the mood for something off the beaten path, and completely its own animal, then this is the book you’re looking for.

 

4/5 stars

Guest Post | Alvaro Zinos-Amaro on Call and Response

About the Author

Alvaro is co-author, with Robert Silverberg, of When The Blue Shift Comes and Traveler of Worlds: Conversations with Robert Silverberg, which is currently eligible for Hugo nomination in the Best Related category and the Locus Award for best non-fiction.

Alvaro’s more than thirty stories have appeared in magazines like Analog, Nature, Lightspeed, Galaxy’s Edge, Lackington’s, Farrago’s Wainscot and Neon, as well as anthologies such as The Mammoth Book of the Adventures of Moriarty, The Mammoth Book of Jack the Ripper Tales, The 2015 Young Explorer’s Adventure Guide, Cyber World, This Way to the End Times, Humanity 2.0, An Alphabet of Embers and The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2016. Alvaro’s essays, reviews and interviews have appeared in The Los Angeles Review of Books, The First Line, Asimov’s, Tor.com, Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld, Foundation, The New York Review of Science Fiction and Intergalactic Medicine Show. He also edits the roundtable blog for Locus.

—

If I’d had the chance to pursue a book of interviews with Robert Silverberg ten or even five years ago, I wouldn’t have done it.

For one, it was Bob’s positive response to my half of When the Blue Shift Comes (2012), our collaborative fiction project, that inspired in him the willingness to indulge my curiosity on the record.

But more importantly, even if Bob had been receptive to the notion of an interview book prior to Blue Shift, I wouldn’t have felt comfortable with the prospect. Despite my knowledge of his work, I didn’t have much experience interviewing people, and I felt that no matter how helpful he was throughout the process, I’d need a minimum of interview practice to keep it from being amateurish.

Perhaps my earliest significant interview of a s/f/h writer was one I conducted with Robert Reed. It was noteworthy because it was face-to-face in Robert Reed’s natural environs of Lincoln, Nebraska, and it was also a milestone because it was probably the first interview that paid me anything (it appeared in the Internet Review of Science Fiction, August 2009). In some ways, though, it felt like an anomaly. The interview took place over several days, in different locations, and Mr. Reed was extremely patient. I’d also had enormous lead time to prepare, and had performed abundant research. I didn’t imagine most interviews were like that–but I wasn’t sure what they were like.

I decided practice would be my teacher. I interviewed a number of great people for SF Signal, and those pieces turned out fine. They were all conducted by email, though, and again I wondered if I’d have the ability to adapt to other means of communication. Also, I had chosen my subjects. What techniques to employ if you were assigned someone to interview, maybe someone whose work you didn’t know very well?

An opportunity opened up for interviews at Clarkesworld in 2014 and I grabbed it. Over the next year I did eight interviews for Clarkesworld, and this was where I finally felt like I’d gained insight and hit on principles I could apply in the future. Some of these interviews were done by phone, some by Skype, some by email, and they represented a range of authors and editors. The experience proved invaluable. (Many thanks to Kate Baker, for her guidance and words of wisdom throughout).

Here, in condensed form, were some of my takeaways (keep in mind, these are things that work for me, not claims to universal truth):

1) A blend of specific and general questions tends to work best. Sometimes authors can be remarkably succinct in responding to a broad question, and sometimes a finely-honed observation can unlatch a whole series of comments they’ve been wanting to make. It’s hard to tell which call will produce which response until you try.

2) It’s important to listen to cues in tone and be willing to follow spontaneous developments. Some may turn out to be tangents, but some may lead to places more interesting than any pre-planned route.

3) Better to have more material than not enough; have back-up questions ready.

4) Read previous interviews with the author. It’s a fun way to learn about them, it may suggest what approach is best-suited to their personality (assuming it’s a good interview—but painful ones can be equally instructive, in what to avoid), and it may lead you to scratch out a question or two (because they are always asked those questions) or spark ideas for follow-ups.

5) One of my favorites: Consider what others—artists, philosophers, writers, mathematicians, etc.—have said about a particular topic, and feel free to quote them. An interviewee doesn’t necessarily have to respond to the specific ideas of an interviewer; the interviewer can act as an organizing conduit that channels interesting material and brings it to the interviewee for consideration.

6) It’s common courtesy to provide the author with final proofs of the interview and ask for his or her approval/confirmation.

In the conversations that inform Traveler of Worlds (2016), I relied on all of the above. I may have gotten away without the practice and the techniques it engendered, but by internalizing them I was able to relax and enjoy the experience.

At the end of the day, that may be more critical than it seems. Removing obstacles, particularly self-made ones like lack of confidence or anxiety, from the interviewer can be just as important as putting the interviewee at ease and making him or her feel they are in a safe environment. And I believe that it comes across in the finished product, too. When the interviewer isn’t sold on his or her questions, it’s hard to convince the reader that the answers, no matter how brilliant, really matter.

SPFBO2 | Assassin’s Charge – Claire Frank

About the Book  

A cold-hearted assassin. A boy with a price on his head.

Rhisia Sen is one of the Empire’s highest paid assassins. Living a life of luxury, she chooses her contracts carefully, working to amass enough wealth so she can leave her bloody trade. She is offered a new contract on the outskirts of civilization, and almost refuses—until she sees the purse. It could be the last job she ever has to take.

But when she reaches the destination, she discovers her mark is a child.

The contract, and her reputation, demand she kill the boy—if she can banish his innocent face from her mind. But another assassin has been sent to kill her, and a notorious bounty hunter is on her trail. She doesn’t know why the boy is a target, or why her former employer wants her dead. Saving the child could be her only chance at survival.

269 pages (kindle)

Published on April 29, 2016

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

This book is part of the final round of the SPFBO.

—

Assassin’s Charge is a book that left me somewhat mixed. There’s a lot about this book that I truly, genuinely enjoyed, but there are some aspects that have left me… I don’t know… I guess underwhelmed.

This is a book full of action and adventure. While it’s fast moving, I got a little tired of it, probably due to the repetitive nature of all of this action and adventure. That being said, the book is fast moving, and the action tends to really pull you in. If it does make things feel a bit repetitive, there are other areas where this novel really shines.

Claire Frank has a real skill with the written word. Her talent for writing showed right away. Her prose never let me down, and this is really shown in her well-crafted characters. Rhisia Sen is a character that instantly captivated me. She’s a high paid assassin, and the best at what she does. However, where many authors would easily build her up to be almost untouchable by flaw, she’s got her own quirks and issues that humble her and bring her down to a human level.

Rhisia is offered a contract in a remote part of the empire, and this is really where things get rolling. Rhisia has a line, and this contract crosses it. To stay ahead of the empire and all those looking for her and her new charge, she takes off and from that point on most of this book is running and dodging people looking for them.

Rhisia shines. I really liked her, and I enjoyed how Frank had created a protagonist that is obviously skilled and strong, but also unashamedly human, and it’s that humanity that makes her relatable and oh-so-captivating.

However.

I was left with a feeling that this novel lacked a bit of substance. It’s fun, and it’s fast moving and the adventure keeps on keeping on. It’s hard to not care about Rhisia and what is happening to her. The issue is, as I mentioned above, the repetitive nature of much of that action. Even more than that, though, I did feel like this book lacked a depth I like in the books I read. For example, I never was quite clear on some of the motivations behind some of the actions that take place in the book. I did feel like some of the world could have been almost any world.

I’m a reader who loves details, and when I edit manuscripts, I often pick on those details and probably drive the authors nuts with it. I think details matter, and details can make or break a book and I found myself wanting more details. I wanted those details that made me feel like this world had a sense of time and place that was all it’s own. I wanted to feel it’s history. I wanted it to give me something that would make me want to know more about it’s history, it’s time and place, and the people who have made it what it is. Often times it’s the details that make me want to know more, or that set this book apart from all the others I’ve read, and I just felt that this was lacking those subtle cues that mean so much to me as a reader.

In the end, I think this is kind of a surface level book. If you want to read an enjoyable romp and just sit back and love what you’re reading, then this is exactly what you want. It’s a story of hope, relationships, the struggle to survive and make it to the other side is really well done. The characters are poignant, and the writing it fantastic. However, the repetitive nature of parts of the plot made it feel like occasionally things dragged on too long, and I ended this book feeling like it had missed something, those damn details that I love so much, that would make it stick out and truly become its own creature, and give it that depth and substance that I tend to gravitate toward.

Was this a good book? Yes.

Did it have problems? Yes.

Should you check it out? Sure, if you’re in the mood to not poke at things too much, and just accept a book for what it is, then this is your beast.

 

2.5/5 stars

Kings of the Wyld – Nicholas Eames

About the Book

GLORY NEVER GETS OLD.

Clay Cooper and his band were once the best of the best — the meanest, dirtiest, most feared crew of mercenaries this side of the Heartwyld.

Their glory days long past, the mercs have grown apart and grown old, fat, drunk – or a combination of the three. Then an ex-bandmate turns up at Clay’s door with a plea for help. His daughter Rose is trapped in a city besieged by an enemy one hundred thousand strong and hungry for blood. Rescuing Rose is the kind of mission that only the very brave or the very stupid would sign up for.

It’s time to get the band back together for one last tour across the Wyld.

544 pages (paperback)

Published on February 21, 2017

Published by Orbit

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

This book was sent by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

—

When Kings of the Wyld showed up, I was interested. What captivated me about this book first was the fact that this very much seemed like a book that toys with the idea of what happens after these hardcore adventurers hit their prime. That’s not something that isn’t really something that I see very often in novels. Yes, there are a few grimdark books I can think of that have protagonists that aren’t quite young, but very few of them deal with what happens to these guys/gals after they retire, live a slower, quieter life.

So I was interested in that angle, and I was rather excited that Eames decided to have some time tested characters with a vivid, notorious past who have slowed down and spread out in their time apart. Then I started to read the book, and the humor just sucked me in. Basically right here you have a book that smashes together humor, and characters with a rich, entertaining past, and it worked. It really, really worked.

I pretty much devoured this book. Grimdark is a (sub)genre that really takes some concentrated effort to suck me in these days. It’s not that it’s a bad genre, I just get kind of burnt out on it. Instantly I was aware of the fact that Kings of the Wyld is going to be a brand new take on things, and that brand new take worked.

I’m kind of a sucker for wry, sarcastic, slightly dark, self-depreciating humor, and this book has it in spades. This book gets rolling pretty fast, but as I mentioned above, it doesn’t really start out the way that I expect books of this stripe to start. The characters are older. Their glory days are behind them, and their adventures are remembered by many. They are older now, and they have all moved on, married (or not), had children (or not), and found other jobs/ways of living.

Clay Cooper, the protagonist, has a daughter, a wife, a comfortable life, and works as a guard in the town he lives in, when he is approached about a problem that someone else in his once-group approaches him and asks for Clay’s help for his daughter Rose, who has found herself in some trouble.

Eventually the band gets back together, and onto another adventure they go. Age has had its way with all of them, and when they get together, the dialogue really flies and its absolutely fantastic.

However, this novel isn’t all laughs and humor. Kings of the Wyld balances things out nicely with some deeper examinations of monsters (the literal kind and the figurative kind) and how people treat those monsters, of both the figurative and the literal strip. It also explores relationships and love, and how bonds can stretch and change with time.

The world is fantastic. This book felt pretty character driven to me, but the world is just as nicely fleshed out as the larger than life characters. The magic system is well done, and I absolutely loved all of the fantasy creatures that manage to make their way into the book either by mentions or actual personal experiences with said creatures. It manages to blend the campy elements of traditional fantasy with the unique spin on fantasy and grimdark that carries Eames personal brand.

There is an undertone of darkness that hides behind all of the humor and fun in this novel, and I really ended up enjoying that aspect of the book quite a bit. Eames doesn’t shy away from darkness, whether it is in the form of emotions, personal experiences, or events.

Kings of the Wyld is a novel that really surprised me. It’s rollicking fun, with unforgettable characters, and a ton of action, but all of this is balanced by a dark undertone. In fact, this book is nearly perfectly balanced, blending an entertaining adventure with deeper thoughts on monsters (both figurative and literal), and relationships.

Kings of the Wyld was fantastic. It was a lot of fun, and left its mark on me. Eames is an author that has the potential to set genre trends with this book. This book is a breath of fresh air.

 

4/5 stars

SPFBO2 | The Music Box Girl – K.A. Stewart

About the Book

FOR THE LOVE OF MUSIC, FOR THE MUSIC OF LOVE

Steam and steel are king, nowhere more so than Detroit, the gleaming gem of the world’s industrial crown. A beacon of innovation and culture, it is the birthplace of the mechanical automatons, and the home of the famed Detroit Opera House. It is where people come with their dreams, their plans, and their secrets.

A young man with the voice of an angel and dreams of stardom.

A globe-trotting heiress with a passion for adventure and memories of a lost childhood love.

A mysterious woman with a soul made of pure music and a secret worth killing for.

Beneath the glitter and sparkle, something sinister lurks at the opera, and three lives will collide with tragic consequences.

Published on April 26, 2016

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

This book is a finalist in the SPFBO2.

—

The Music Box Girl is a book that is part of the steampunk (sub?)genre. Now, before we venture any further into this review, I want you to know that I’m really, really not a fan of steampunk, and I do just about whatever I possibly can to avoid reading it. There’s nothing wrong with the genre, it just doesn’t seem to appeal to me for whatever reason. I feel the same exact way about books that take place on boats. I just can’t bend that way for some reason.

So, right off the bat we all know that this is a book that Sarah is going to struggle with. Remember that as you read this review. 

The Music Box Girl interested me despite myself. I set out thinking, “Oh God, I’m really going to have to slog through this one…” (sorry, but I’m honest) and I ended up really enjoying myself. So that right there says something about the quality of this book.

The story is rather enchanting, and it’s fast moving. The book itself is full of tropes, but Stewart does a good job at taking some of those tropes and making them her own. Now, I wouldn’t consider this a challenging read. The book was rather predictable, and the plot, at times, felt paint-by-numbers, but there is something to be said for a book that you can just sink into and enjoy for what it is. I consider The Music Box Girl to be just that – it’s a book you’ll want to read when you really need to just put the world on pause.

I was pleasantly surprised by how well Stewart described so many aspects of the book, from the scenery, to the clothes, and all sorts of tiny details that helped this book come to life for me. Her dialogue was mostly very well done, and the emotional impact of this book was surprising. It’s a story of ambition and desire, and Stewart really made me feel those emotions, and I felt a very real empathy for some of the characters and their plights.

This is a steampunk book, and Stewart did a great job at creating a steampunk world complete with gadgets and gizmos, robots, automatons and the like, so if steampunk scratches your itch, then this might be a book you want to look at.

The Music Box Girl does have some obvious literary influences, like private music lessons from a mysterious individual (Phantom of the Opera, anyone?) and some other moments like that which will directly remind readers of other books they’ve probably come across before. While I realize that this is Stewart paying homage to others, some of these plot points and aspects of the book felt a little too redundant, maybe a little too borrowed for my taste.

The plot is fast moving, and there’s a lot of action and adventure to keep you going. The ending was a huge frustration for me, and the predictability of the plot was another (minor) annoyance. I do need to point out some editing issues I ran across, as well. Some of the dialogue was awkward, and some of the book was almost confusing because of how it was written. I think a heavier hand editing, finding those little pesky parts that are so easy to overlook, would have helped this book stand apart a bit more.

So, The Music Box Girl was an enjoyable read. It was a light, fluffy book that I didn’t really have to think too much about. While I do feel like it might have borrowed ideas from other books a little too heavily at times, and the editing left me wanting, the book itself was a great mental vacation, and an enjoyable one. This is a fun story, with some fantastically unique ideas, and STEAMPUNK.

Yes, I did have issues with this book, but I also really loved it. I love reading a book where I can just feel the author’s passion for the story he/she is telling, and I felt that here. Plus, Stewart obviously has a knack for weaving a good yarn, and delighting readers with it. A book doesn’t need to be perfect to be enjoyable, and I did enjoy this one, and I delighted in the author’s obvious love of the craft.

 

3/5 stars