Sarah Chorn's Blog, page 79

DAW BOOKS To Publish The Last King Of Osten Ard by Tad Williams

Well, my lovelies, I just checked my email and saw this juicy bit of news in my inbox. Of course I had to share it, me being a total Tad Williams fangirl and all….

ENJOY…. and get as excited as I am!

—

SEQUEL TRILOGY TO TAD WILLIAMS’ NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING MEMORY, SORROW, AND THORN SERIES

NEW YORK, NY, April 2, 2014—Betsy Wollheim and Sheila Gilbert, Publishers of DAW Books, have acquired The Last King of Osten Ard, a sequel trilogy to Tad Williams’ New York Times bestselling Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy. The series will begin with The Witchwood Crown, continue with Empire of Grass, and conclude with The Navigator’s Children.

Tad Williams has been one of the most respected names in speculative fiction since the release of his debut novel, Tailchaser’s Song, in 1985. He took the fantasy community by storm in 1988 with the first novel in the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy, The Dragonbone Chair (DAW). This first installment and the subsequent books—Stone of Farewell and To Green Angel Tower—sold millions of copies worldwide and have been translated into twenty-five languages. Since the release of this classic trilogy, Williams has authored many critically acclaimed novels, short stories, and comic books, including the Otherland, Shadowmarch, and Bobby Dollar series.

Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn was an inspiration for many of the fantasy genre’s great talents, including George R. R. Martin, author of the phenomenally popular Song of Ice and Fire series, and Christopher Paolini, New York Times bestselling author of the Inheritance Cycle, who called Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn “one of the great fantasy epics of all time.”

In this new trilogy, Williams journeys back to the magical land of Osten Ard and continues the story of beloved characters King Simon and Queen Miriamele, married now for thirty years, and introduces newcomer Prince Morgan, their heir apparent. Also expanded is the story of the twin babies born to Prince Josua and Lady Vorzheva—a birth heralded by prophecy, which has been the subject of feverish fan speculation since the release of To Green Angel Tower in 1993.

In The Last King of Osten Ard, Williams returns with the ingenious worldbuilding, jaw dropping twists and turns, and unparalleled storytelling that have made him one of fantasy’s brightest stars for more thirty years.

Cover Art Reveal | Betrayal’s Shadow – Dave-Brendon de Burgh

A while ago I frothed a bit about how excited I was that my across-the-world friend-with-a-cool-accent, Dave de Burgh got his first publication deal. I am so incredibly excited for him (and I also feel like I am living a bit vicariously through him). It’s such a big deal, and I couldn’t be more pleased.

Well, I just saw a copy of his cover art. Color me impressed. Click on the image to imbiggen.

Congratulations, Dave! I can’t wait to read your book!!

“Brice Serholm, a general in the kingdom of Avidar’s elite Blade Knights, is faced with a difficult decision – remain true to his king and his duty, or save the lives of his men. His choice takes him into the last bastion of a forgotten deity and sets him on the path to godhood.”

Special Needs in Strange Worlds with author Rhiannon Held

Today you can find a fantastic guest post by author Rhiannon Held on SF Signal for my Special Needs in Strange Worlds column. I am over-the-moon delighted that she agreed to write something for my column. The protagonist in her fantastic series called Silver has been poisoned by (you guessed it) silver and is unable to shift. Held writes about the creation of her character, and how she approached the conundrum authors of disabled characters face: whether or not to ‘cure’ said character.

I really hope you check it out, leave a comment and share the love.

Here is the link.

 

GIVEAWAY: Eternal Sky by Elizabeth Bear

There are a very few authors who get me to lose my ever loving shit every time they publish a book, or look in my general direction.

(“Wow, Sarah,” you say. “That is the most professional thing you’ve ever said in the history of your website.”)

Elizabeth Bear is one of those authors.

On April 8th she is releasing the final book in her Eternal Sky Trilogy. This trilogy has very quickly turned into one of my favorite trilogies published in the history of the universe. I love Elizabeth Bear’s writing. She is an author I really get behind. She’s not only a hell of an writer, but she’s a hell of a woman. She’s kind, and vastly intelligent, and can write books that knock me out with power.

So…. her series is ending, which makes me very, very sad, but her publicist at Tor asked if I wanted to do a giveaway of the ENTIRE TRILOGY and I wrote her back in about two seconds flat saying:

“OH MY GOD I SO WANT TO DO THE GIVEAWAY!!!”

Yup, that’s a direct quote. I am so excited to do this giveaway because I love this series so much. It thrills me half to death to share something I love so much with someone else.

Here are the contest rules:

1. Open to the United States and Canada only (sorry, everyone else).

2. You have until Wednesday, April 9 at midnight Mountain Time to enter.

3. To enter, leave a comment on this post.

4. As usual, one lucky winner will be randomly chosen by someone I work with who has no idea what I’m asking them to do. That winner will be notified via email. Once I get your shipping address, I’ll send it to Tor and three amazing books should arrive in your mailbox soon.

So there you go. Enter my giveaway!

Good luck to all of you!

(Click on the cover art images for more information about each novel.)

Not A Review: Afterparty – Daryl Gregory

About the Book

It begins in Toronto, in the years after the smart drug revolution. Any high school student with a chemjet and internet connection can download recipes and print drugs, or invent them. A seventeen-year-old street girl finds God through a new brain-altering drug called Numinous, used as a sacrament by a new Church that preys on the underclass. But she is arrested and put into detention, and without the drug, commits suicide.

Lyda Rose, another patient in that detention facility, has a dark secret: she was one of the original scientists who developed the drug. With the help of an ex-government agent and an imaginary, drug-induced doctor, Lyda sets out to find the other three survivors of the five who made the Numinous in a quest to set things right.

A mind-bending and violent chase across Canada and the US, Daryl Gregory’s Afterparty is a marvelous mix of William Gibson’s Neuromancer, Philip K. Dick’s Ubik, and perhaps a bit of Peter Watts’s Starfish: a last chance to save civilization, or die trying.

304 pages (hardcover)

Publication Date: April 22

Published by Tor

Author’s webpage

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

—

This is not a review, and as you read it, you’ll see why. I can’t review this book, because I can’t be critical of it. I just loved it way too much, and it spoke to me on a level that so many books have never accessed. I get a little personal about my own interpretations of the themes that are played with (which makes me nervous because I’m probably wrong about all of it, but part of the delight of reading a book like this is knowing everyone will take something different away from it, and none of us are wrong), and probably because of that, I shouldn’t call it a review. I can’t review a book that became such a personal, intimate journey. I just can’t.

So, it’s not-a-review’d.

I just sat down to write this review, and kind of shook my head as I pictured how the people at Tor must hate it when people like me review books way too early. Sorry, people at Tor. Sometimes the idea of holding in my excitement until April 22nd is painful, so I jump the gun. My goal in writing this review really isn’t to aggravate the hell out of the publishing industry (who would prefer me to wait until publication date or slightly after, like I normally do). My goal is to try to get as much hype about this book buzzing as possible.

Why?

Because it rocked my world.

Last year the book that I couldn’t stop thinking and talking about was Love Minus Eighty by Will McIntosh. Love Minus Eighty taught me an important lesson: I love social SciFi. I love the books that take our world, and twist it just enough to really make me examine life and all the things in it through a different lens. I like books that make me feel like I’ve lived four lives while reading them, and learned a million different things about myself. I love the books that are a mental exercise, and force me to examine just how the cultural wheels turn and stay greased.

I finished Love Minus Eighty last year, and since then I’ve been endlessly looking for my next fix, the next social SciFi book that would work its way under my skin and into my psyche just as much as that one did. I didn’t think it would be possible, and I have been endlessly lamenting the fact that you can’t read a book for the first time over and over again.

Then I got my hands on Afterparty.

Oh, Afterparty, how you worked for me. You did everything Love Minus Eighty did, and you did it so well.

Gregory’s world is in the very near future, which makes it feel even more real, which in turn will make this book even more thought provoking for readers. Combine that with his powerful no-words-wasted writing style, and characters that are mesmerizing, this book has the potential to deliver quite a punch to readers.

Afterparty is genre bending, which is part of the delicious thrill of it. This is part thriller, part SciFi, part social commentary, and its own animal. It refuses to be defined or contained, and it shouldn’t be. Afterparty truly takes on a life of its own once you start reading it. Some of the advanced technology will serve to remind readers that this book isn’t taking place “now” but in the future (like the printers that people use to make drugs, which remind me quite a bit of the new 3D printers). Likewise some of the social issues (like cigarettes are the next hot smuggling item) are a fascinating look through the lens of what-could-be.

Much like Love Minus Eighty, there is a lot going on in the periphery of the novel. Many of the social issues that Gregory forces the readers to examine aren’t presented in an in-your-face way, but a more subtle way with softer cues for readers. That’s part of the beauty of this novel. Everything matters, but it might not be evident why it matters right at first. The fact that so much of this book is happening on the sidelines also makes Afterparty feel like it isn’t an in-your-face novel, which I truly appreciated. With weighty subjects like the merging of science, medical issues, morality, and religion, being in your face is a hard thing to avoid. Gregory side steps it gracefully. That truly makes Afterparty a novel everyone can read and enjoy.

The prose is tightly woven, and there is a sort of dark humor that threads its way through the novel. You’ll probably find yourself laughing at things that might not seem like they should be funny, but even that had a carefully crafted feel to it. So much of the novel felt like Gregory was making readers examine themselves, and the world around them, in a sort of warped way. Once you get to know the protagonist, one Lyda Rose, you’ll see that looking at the world, and yourself, through a twisted sort of jaded and darkly humorous looking glass is absolutely perfect.

I have to admit that Afterparty speaks to a part of me that rarely gets spoken to. I have a Bachelor of Science degree in health science. I have been through two cancer treatments, and due to my back issues, I spent nearly two years on heavy painkillers and in pain management (so very glad that’s over). Being so intimately tied to the medical community for so long has given me a very unique window into the world of medication and just what it does for (and to) people. Technology is amazing, and it is intimately tied with medicine and “the cure” for so many things. Without technology, I wouldn’t have been able to have the surgeries I needed so I’d probably be paralyzed right now. I wouldn’t have been able to do my cancer treatment, either, so I might be dead. Technology is fantastic, and it saves lives. Hell, it’s saved mine.

Afterparty takes it one step further. Gregory blurs the line between medicine, science, technology, and religion, and asks readers to really look at just what we are doing with all we have access to. That’s the magic of it. We see these drug commercials on the television every day, back to back sometimes. Half the ad is a guy living a fantastic life, laughing with his wife and throwing a dimpled toddler in the air while the summer sun catches them all just right. The other half is all the side effects of this miracle drug you should ask your doctor about. Then, at work, everyone knows the answer to every medical problem because they are all suddenly “WebMD Doctors.” Mix into that the interesting moral conundrums of “playing God” and BAM, you have our own complex cultural stew. Gregory mixes all of this together in a pot, stirs it vigorously, and turns it into a book that you won’t ever forget.

Love Minus Eighty did it with social networking. Afterparty does it with the morality and relationships of technology, science, and religion.

Amazing. Absolutely astoundingly amazing. Afterparty is smart, but it never talks over your head. It’s funny, but with that dark tone that feels just so right. It’s so realistic it absolutely chills the marrow in my bones with the possibilities it plays with. The plot is fast moving and tightly wound. The characters are broken down, but strong and resourceful despite it, and so well realized when put into the context of everything they’ve been through and are going through. Everything about this book spoke to me on a very deep level. It just worked, and much like Love Minus Eighty, it has haunted my mental pathways long after I turned the last page.

I love books that leave echoes.

Afterparty was so amazing, I can’t even figure out a star rating for it. Just read the damn book. You’ll see.

Books I’m Eyeing

Well, I meant to get this posted much earlier today and failed in an epic way. I decided to sleep last night instead of writing posts for the website. I apologize.

Anyway…

My giveaway of Blood and Iron and The Barrow has ended. One of my coworkers picked a random number between 1-81 (which is how many people entered. Holy. Shit.). And the winner ended up being…

Matt H. from New York. Congratulations, Matt! 

In other news, I have been working hard to put together a bunch of posts for Special Needs in Strange Worlds on SF Signal. April is booked! Next month you can find posts from Rhiannon Held, Michael J. Sullivan, Daryl Gregory, and Sharon Lynn Fisher. I am booking posts for the whole year so please keep contacting me!! My inbox has been hopping and it warms my heart. I’m just AMAZED by the authors who have contacted me and their enthusiasm. This column is so very important to me. I am so thrilled so many people are willing to participate.

—

Aside from all that, here are the books I’ve been working on this week (click on the pictures for the Goodreads page):

Fury - Charlotte McConaghy

This book came out of nowhere. I gave it a shot even though everything about it puts me off. I’m not into romance. I’m not into dystopia, and I struggle with young protagonists. However, in my desire to read young adult this year, and my researching into a project I am thinking of starting, I decided to give it a shot. Three things I’m learning: McConaghy is a great author. This book isn’t really young adult. It’s actually quite adult… and the idea this book is based on is so incredibly thought provoking.

Crossover – Joel Shepherd 

This book is a lot of fun, but under all that excitement is a book that really pokes at your think-muscle. Shepherd does a great job at examining morality, humanity, and war, all the while wrapping it inside a plot that is wham-bam action and tons of fun. This is one of those science fiction books that strikes me as perfect when I’m in the mood to just enjoy, or when I am interested in thinking about things a little differently. Crossover is a quick read, and is the start to a series that I will definitely finish.

Defenders – Will McIntosh

Gah! I LOVE WILL MCINTOSH! This book is so absolutely different than Love Minus Eighty, but it is shaping up to be just as thoughtful. I thought I knew where this book was going, but now I’m not so sure. I think it is fascinating to see how McIntosh takes something that is fairly typical in SciFi (alien invasion) and totally warps it into something completely thoughtful, and absolutely different than anyone would expect. No wonder this guy has won awards…

The Goblin Emperor – Katherine Addison

I just started it, so all I can really say is that it is a fascinating concept, an absolutely riveting world, and some stunning writing.

—

Now onto BOOKS I’M EYEING.

This is my weekly (sort of) attempt to highlight the blogs I frequently visit, and hopefully direct some traffic their way.  Thanks to everyone who contributes so much incredible stuff to this fantastic genre, and thanks for making my librarians (and the hold shelf at said library) hate me.

So what books are you eyeing?

Out on Blue Six – Ian McDonald

Discovery blamed on: Weirdmage’s Reviews

About the Book

In a totalitarian future controlled by the Compassionate Society, the Ministry of Pain, and the Love Police, cartoonist Courtney Hall finds herself a fugitive. Her only escape is to an underground society–a society of violence and decadence Courtney must traverse to realize her dreams.

—

 

 

 

 

 

Expiration Day – William Campbell Powell

Discovery blamed on: Bibliotropic

About the Book

What happens when you turn eighteen and there are no more tomorrows?

It is the year 2049, and humanity is on the brink of extinction….

Tania Deeley has always been told that she’s a rarity: a human child in a world where most children are sophisticated androids manufactured by Oxted Corporation. When a decline in global fertility ensued, it was the creation of these near-perfect human copies called teknoids that helped to prevent the utter collapse of society.

Though she has always been aware of the existence of teknoids, it is not until her first day at The Lady Maud High School for Girls that Tania realizes that her best friend, Siân, may be one. Returning home from the summer holiday, she is shocked by how much Siân has changed. Is it possible that these changes were engineered by Oxted? And if Siân could be a teknoid, how many others in Tania’s life are not real?

Driven by the need to understand what sets teknoids apart from their human counterparts, Tania begins to seek answers. But time is running out. For everyone knows that on their eighteenth “birthdays,” teknoids must be returned to Oxted—never to be heard from again.

—

The Girl with All the Gifts – M. R. Carey

Discovery blamed on: Civilian Reader… and in all honesty I’ve been looking at this one for months.

About the Book

Melanie is a very special girl. Dr Caldwell calls her ‘our little genius’. Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don’t like her. She jokes that she won’t bite, but they don’t laugh. Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children’s cells. She tells her favourite teacher all the things she’ll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn’t know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad.

—

 

 

 

The Burning Dark – Adam Christopher

Discovery blamed on: The King of the Nerds

About the Book

Back in the day, Captain Abraham Idaho Cleveland had led the Fleet into battle against an implacable machine intelligence capable of devouring entire worlds. But after saving a planet, and getting a bum robot knee in the process, he finds himself relegated to one of the most remote backwaters in Fleetspace to oversee the decommissioning of a semi-deserted space station well past its use-by date.

But all is not well aboard the U-Star Coast City. The station’s reclusive Commandant is nowhere to be seen, leaving Cleveland to deal with a hostile crew on his own. Persistent malfunctions plague the station’s systems while interference from a toxic purple star makes even ordinary communications problematic. Alien shadows and whispers seem to haunt the lonely corridors and airlocks, fraying the nerves of everyone aboard.

Isolated and friendless, Cleveland reaches out to the universe via an old-fashioned space radio, only to tune in to a strange, enigmatic signal: a woman’s voice that seems to echo across a thousand light-years of space. But is the transmission just a random bit of static from the past—or a warning of an undying menace beyond mortal comprehension?

—

Strange Bodies – Marcel Theroux

Discovery blamed on: Nerds of a Feather

About the Book

Whatever this is, it started when Nicky Slopen came back from the dead.

Nicholas Slopen has been dead for months. So when a man claiming to be Nicholas turns up to visit an old girlfriend, deception seems the only possible motive.

Yet nothing can make him change his story.

From the secure unit of a notorious psychiatric hospital, he begins to tell his tale: an account of attempted forgery that draws the reader towards an extraordinary truth – a metaphysical conspiracy that lies on the other side of madness and death.

With echoes of Jorge Luis Borges, Philip K. Dick, Mary Shelley,

Dostoevsky’s Double, and George Eliot’s The Lifted Veil, Strange

Bodies takes the reader on a dizzying speculative journey that poses questions about identity, authenticity, and what it means to be truly human.

—

Survival – Julie Czerneda

Discovery blamed on: Little Red Reviewer

About the Book

Herself a biologist, Julie E. Czerneda has earned a reputation in science fiction circles for her ability to create beautifully crafted, imaginative, yet believably realized alien races. In Survival, the first novel in her new series, Species Imperative, she draws upon this talent to build races, characters, and a universe which will draw readers into a magnificent tale of interstellar intrigue, as an Earth scientist is caught up in a terrifying interspecies conflict. Senior co-administrator of the Norcoast Salmon Research Facility, Dr. Mackenzie Connor, Mac to her friends and colleagues, was a trained biologist, whose work had definitely become her life. And working at Norcoast Base, set in an ideal location just where the Tannu River sped down the west side of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast was the perfect situation for Mac. She and fellow scientist Dr. Emily Mamani were just settling in to monitor this year’s salmon runs when their research was interrupted by the unprecedented arrival of Brymn, the first member of the alien race known as the Ohryn to ever set foot on Earth.

Brymn was an archaeologist, and much of his research had focused on a region of space known as the Chasm, a part of the universe that was literally dead, all of its worlds empty of any life-forms, though traces existed of the civilizations that must once have flourished in the region. Brymn had sought out Mac because she was a biologist — a discipline strictly forbidden among his own people — and he felt that through her expertise she might be able to help him discover what had created the Chasm. But Mac had little interest in alien races and in studies that ranged beyond Earth, and as politely as she was capable of, she tried to make it clear that she was unwilling to abandon her own work.

However, the decision was soon taken out of her hands when a mysterious and devastating attack on the Base resulted in the abduction of Emily, and forced Mac to flee for her life with Brymn and the Earth special agents who were escorting him. Suddenly, it appeared that Earth itself might be under attack by the legendary race the Ohryn called the Ro, the beings they thought might be the destructive force behind the Chasm. Cut off from everything and everyone she knew, Mac found herself in grave danger and charged with the responsibility of learning everything she could that might possibly aid Earth in protecting the human race from extinction..

A Turn of Light – Julie E. Czerneda

About the Book

The village of Marrowdell is an isolated pioneer community, but it is also the place where two worlds overlap, and at the turn of light–sunset–the world of magic known as the Verge can briefly be seen.

Jenn Nalynn belongs to both Verge and Marrowdell, but even she doesn’t know how special she is–or that her invisible friend Wisp is actually a dragon sent to guard her… and keep her from leaving the valley. But Jenn longs to see the world, and thinking that a husband will help her reach this goal, she decides to create one using spells. Of course, everything goes awry, and suddenly her “invisible friend” has been transformed into a man. But he is not the only newcomer to Marrowdell, and far from the most dangerous of those who are suddenly finding their way to the valley.

896 pages (paperback)

Published on March 5, 2013

Published by DAW

Author’s webpage

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

—

Have you ever read a book that you fell head over heels in love with purely because the writing was so breathtakingly beautiful? Yeah, well A Turn of Light is one of those. Regardless of what else anyone will ever say about this book, it contains some of the most lyrical, breathtakingly beautiful writing I have run across in my many years writing reviews.

That being said, the lyrical writing might also be a downside for many readers. It takes quite a while for Czerneda to get to the point. Sometimes it feels like you have to wade through paragraphs of lyrical prose just to understand that the sun lit the meadow perfectly, or something like that. I tend to enjoy that sort of thing, but I certainly have to be in the mood for it, and I’m sure many other readers do, too.

A Turn of Light is long, shockingly so when you consider the fairly self-contained story it tells. The length might put some people off because it is quite an investment, but don’t let it deter you. The story itself requires all the pages Czerneda uses to tell it. The world building is absolutely spectacular, especially when you consider what a closed world it really is. The characters are fantastic and have a depth and reality that I really enjoyed. Despite the fact that the book takes place in Marrowdell, and Marrowdell is incredibly small, Czerneda makes it feel like it is big enough, complex enough, and dynamic enough to be a whole world in and of itself, and for some of these characters readers will get to meet, it truly is their whole world.

The magic is interesting, and fairly diverse. There was a light quality to it that really infused the whole novel. A Turn of Light is more of an upbeat, positive sort of read that we have lost track of in favor of the grimdark and realistic fantasy books that are being released by the droves right now. The magic and the tone of the book overall reminded me of the days when I was first discovering fantasy all those years ago. It took me back to a time where reading a book made me feel emotionally lighter afterword. There is something amazing about that, and I don’t think we, as readers, feel that often enough anymore. There is a place for grimdark and blood filled epics, but these books like A Turn of Light that are both sprawling, and shockingly intimate, with their own positive outlook also have a place, and I appreciate the contrast they bring to such an amazing genre.

There is a lot in A Turn of Light to enjoy. However, with a book this long, you do get some issues with pacing. Some parts felt like they went on too long, some parts didn’t go on long enough. I think that is fairly typical of a book of this length, but the problem is there. Also, some of the characters were unbelievably ignorant in some situations, and as the magic evolved and was explained to these characters (ehem, Jenn), they still remained ignorant of just how they used it, or even when they used it. And the ending felt fairly anticlimactic to me.

A Turn of Light really illuminates an area of epic fantasy that isn’t getting nearly enough attention. It’s one of those sprawling epics that takes place in a very small area. The characters are diverse, but not in a colorful, cultural way. Their diversity is quieter, based on personalities and interactions more than anything else. There is just as much drama for readers learning about how such a small group of people survive together as there is regarding Jenn and the drama that circles around her.

A Turn of Light won’t be for everyone. There’s romance and evolution, but the plot is quieter than I think many of us are used to with the current trend in book releases. There is astounding beauty with how this rather subtle book is written, and there are some amazing truths that are presented in these passages. However, A Turn of Light is different, and that difference is what made me enjoy it so much. It’s more upbeat, lighter, quieter, with a delightful ignorance (which isn’t something I ever thought I’d say). A Turn of Light has almost nothing to prove. It is a book that you need to be in the right frame of mind to read, but once you are in that frame of mind, I doubt you will find anything that will scratch your itch better than this.

Truly incredible.

 

4/5 stars

The Lascar’s Dagger – Glenda Larke

About the Book

Faith will not save him.



Saker appears to be a simple priest, but in truth he’s a spy for the head of his faith. Wounded in the line of duty by a Lascar sailor’s blade, the weapon seems to follow him home. Unable to discard it, nor the sense of responsibility it brings, Saker can only follow its lead.

The dagger puts Saker on a journey to distant shores, on a path that will reveal terrible secrets about the empire, about the people he serves, and destroy the life he knows. The Lascar’s dagger demands a price, and that price will be paid in blood.

512 pages (paperback)

Published on March 18, 2014

Published by Orbit

Author’s webpage

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

—

I read this book in record time, considering the fact that it is 512 pages long and my kid was sick at the time. I slammed through it in a day and a half, to be exact. There is something to be said about a book that I read that fast. I pretty much read it every spare second that I had, and it never once made me want to throw up.

That should be a blurb someday: “This book never once made me throw up.” – Bookworm Blues.

No, the truth is that The Lascar’s Dagger hit all the right notes. It’s epic fantasy in a uniquely crafted world complete with tight, flowing writing that almost instantly sucks readers in.  There’s magic and complex politics involving characters that you either love to love, or love to hate. The religion really did it for me, but I’m also a sucker for trees (there aren’t enough of them where I live).

Yes, The Lascar’s Dagger is a book that any epic fantasy lover will want to read. It has everything you’re looking for in all the right doses.

That’s probably its biggest downfall, too. It hits all the right notes, but none of them are that unexpected. While it is a very well crafted novel, at times it felt very fill-in-the-blank. There is a time and a place for comfort epic fantasy (which is what I would consider this book). Comfort reads aren’t always bad. Comfort books tend to remind my all the reasons I love the genre so much. Truthfully, I absolutely cherish those books that allow me to sit back and enjoy a good story without all the effort and deep thought some books require. Yeah, I might know where the plot is going way in advance, and yes, the characters might feel cookie-cutter, but you know what? Sometimes a person just needs that sort of thing.

If you need that sort of thing, look no further. There’s something to be said for an author who can write a comfort epic like this, and keep it vastly entertaining as she does it.

This is the first book I’ve read by Larke, and it won’t be the last. Everything I said above is true, but despite the fact that some readers might find fault in those facts, for whatever reason, the comfort aspect of this book hit me just right. Larke’s smooth prose and confident writing really helped, and the world truly is fascinating (look at the map in the book to see why). And, oddly enough, in epic fantasy books I tend to feel like the religious aspect of the novel is the least thought out, while in The Lascar’s Dagger, it felt like Larke put the most effort into her religion, Va and a’Va, and all the cultural implications presented in those deities. In fact, many of the fascinating social and political upheavals that Larke is setting up (to be explored in future installments of the series) are going to come right out of the religious foundation she built in this book.

On a slight aside, the fact that so much of the politics behind this book hinged on the spice trade was incredibly clever and very well done on Larke’s part. The spice trade draws parallels between her secondary world and our own world. In fact, this is one of those books that made me do some research on the spice trade back in the day just because I found the politics in this novel fascinating, and wanted to see how spices effected the politics in our own history. I love it when books make me hungry to learn.

The Lascar’s Dagger felt very much like the setup for the rest of the series. It’s obvious that Larke is only chipping at the tip of the iceberg. There is so much depth that she just starts to show readers in this book. Many of the ideas and concepts she addressed in this book felt sort of half presented, not because she was necessarily holding information back (though I did get kind of sick of one mystery that everyone knew the answer to but the protagonist), but because it just isn’t time in the story’s development for readers to know everything yet.

Probably due to that many of the characters started to only show true depth and development toward the culmination of events, and many of those developments felt absolutely fascinating to me. I honestly wished that the characters had some added depth and surprise earlier in the novel. I lamented the fact that we had the stereotypical princess fighting her role in politics, the spy, the super mean religious dude, the distant king, and the biddable prince. They all filled the epic fantasy blanks that needed to be filled. It wasn’t until the novel was almost over that I started to realize that these characters are, and will end up, being so much more than what they seem in this novel.

And that’s kind of how I feel about the book as a whole. It was surface level, stereotypical, a lot of fun, but very few surprises. There is a lot of promise that Larke will present a lot more depth and development as the series progresses, but it took most of the book for me to feel the depth I was aching for. That being said, this is a solid start to a series, and in a lot of ways it is fairly subtle. A lot happens in the background that readers will only get hints of, but these hints make me so hungry for more. There is a lot of room for Larke to explore in the future. Yes, it felt more “comfort” than “surprise” but that’s not always a bad thing.

Especially when I feel incredibly confident that I will get that “surprise!” and depth from Larke very, very soon.

3/5 stars

Gemsigns – Stephanie Saulter

About the Book

Humanity stands on the brink. Again.

Surviving the Syndrome meant genetically modifying almost every person on the planet. But norms and gems are different. Gems may have the superpowers that once made them valuable commodities, but they also have more than their share of the disabled, the violent and the psychotic.

After a century of servitude, freedom has come at last for the gems, and not everyone’s happy about it. The gemtechs want to turn them back into property. The godgangs want them dead. The norm majority is scared and suspicious, and doesn’t know what it wants.

Eli Walker is the scientist charged with deciding whether gems are truly human, and as extremists on both sides raise the stakes, the conflict descends into violence. He’s running out of time, and with advanced prototypes on the loose, not everyone is who or what they seem. Torn between the intrigues of ruthless executive Zavcka Klist and brilliant, badly deformed gem leader Aryel Morningstar, Eli finds himself searching for a truth that might stop a war.

230 pages (paperback)

Published on March 28, 2013 (UK)

Sometime in May in the US (I think)

Published by Jo Fletcher Books

Author’s webpage

 

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

—

Gemsigns hooked me instantly, directly from the back cover blurb. It didn’t take me long to realize that Saulter’s writing and the story itself was much more addicting than any blurb ever would be. In fact, for about a week there is very little else that I thought about. I ate, slept, and dreamed Gemsigns. This book absolutely captivated me.

Gemsigns tells a story that takes place in London in the not-too-future future. In fact, while this is in the future, it is incredibly relatable to our own social situations and complex problems we have in this day and age. That’s probably what makes so many of the deeper themes that are going on in the book so absolutely powerful. Saulter is telling a tale of a future time that is a direct result of our time, and it resonates because of that.

Gemsigns is Saulter’s debut novel, but it doesn’t read like a debut novel. It’s obvious that she put a lot of effort into making Gemsigns feel like something a tried-and-true author could be proud of. The writing is tight, and the world building is both subtle (in some ways) and complex. The prose is tight, and the perspective changes are done with thought so nothing really feels frivolous.

Gemsigns is an incredibly powerful story, the kind of story that will keep your mind engaged for a long time after you turn the last page. For example, I finished this book a few days ago, and I still can’t stop thinking about it. Saulter is absolutely unafraid of looking at some despicable human conditions, like segregation, for example. Humanity is healing itself after a disease that nearly wiped us off the map, and in the process of this healing, they have to decide what to do with the gems (the scientifically created, genetically altered humans which lived in horrible conditions, including slavery, and are fighting for their rights).

Dr. Eli Walker is one of the main characters in the novel who is studying the gems so he can present his findings at a conference. His storyline presents some amazingly powerful themes as he really examines what makes humans “human.” Does our humanity go past our genetic makeup? How do people who are different than us deserve to be treated? How would a desperate situation alter how we act, feel, and think? These situations are presented with regularity through Walker’s story, and they can, at times, be incredibly uncomfortable. However, they are only uncomfortable because they are so realistic.

There is something incredibly powerful about a book that forces the reader to truly examine all their light and darkness in a mirror that hides nothing.

Another reason why Walker, and many of the characters he interacts with with regularity, are so captivating is because they present the feel of people who are trying to do the right thing in the face of so much chaos. Furthermore, until the book gets somewhere after the hallway point, none of these characters really understand what the “right” thing is. They are all trying to discover what is right, and what is wrong. It’s absolutely compelling. Added to this is the agenda of plenty of big businesses who are financially invested in the creation and usage of gems. There is powerful and believable evidence from these big business faces as to why the gems aren’t human, and are, in fact, dangerous.

Along with this is the added aspect of the Godgangs. This is, perhaps, where my fault with the novel lies. While I realize that Saulter needed to add religion in there somewhere (I mean, really, all you need to do is look at the Westboro Baptist Church to see how some “out there” religions will react to social change), I felt, in some ways, that their plight and plotlines felt the most contrived. That isn’t to say that they weren’t believable, but in the face of a novel as put together and absorbing as this one, the Godgangs stuck out like a sore thumb. Their story needed to be heard, but there was a contrived air about them that kept me from fully believing their storylines. The characters were less dynamic, less three-dimensional, and their single-minded devotion to their cause was realistic, but didn’t have the carefully planned, perfectly thought out air that the rest of the book did.

That also goes toward some of the other characters to a lesser extent. Zakva Klist, one of the powerful people in one of those big businesses I mentioned above, had a bit too much of a ‘cackle-like-a-mysterious-villain’ air about her. It isn’t until the last third of the book that her concerns start seeming like they are based more in reality than her drive to be some powerhungry woman in charge of a huge swath of gems so they can do her bidding. That’s unfortunate, as most of the other characters are so well thought out, so believable, and so deliciously flawed. I wanted to see more of that in Klist, and I didn’t. The thing is, when so many of the other characters, and the situations they find themselves in, are in that delicious moral gray zone I love so desperately, the characters that don’t inhabit quite so much gray and mystery really sick out.

There are a whole lot of compliments I can march out about this book, and in the face of all those compliments, I have to minor complaints. The point is Saulter’s debut novel Gemsigns was absolutely riveting in every respect. The writing was fantastic and the story was compelling. The futuristic vision of our world is so well realized that it brought me chills at certain points. The characters, for the most part, are easy to sympathize with, and Saulter left enough mystery at the end of the book to make me wait anxiously for her next book Binary to drop on my doorstep (“Anxious” might be more of an understatement. It’s all I’m thinking about).

Gemsigns is shockingly ambitious. It’s uncomfortable and telling. It makes its readers look at themselves in a mirror that hides nothing. This is a book about what makes us human, and inspects how we react to the things we don’t understand, when those reactions, however small, can make a world of difference.

I can’t, honestly, give this book enough praise. Saulter is an author to watch. Gemsigns is a must-read book if you are in the mood for something truly powerful.

 

5/5 stars

Books I’m Eyeing

This week my giveaway for two copies of Night Owls has ended. I decided I could randomly choose two winners myself, or I could assign everyone who entered a number and have two people at my work (who know absolutely nothing about my website) pick two numbers. The two winners (as chosen by two kind people I work with) are:

Ria Bridges of the Great White North, eh (Canada). 

And

Cheryl from Sunny California

Congratulations to both of you!!

—

This week I have another giveaway going on. This one is world wide, so residents of planet earth, feel free to enter. One person will win both Blood and Iron by Jon Sprunk and The Barrow by Mark Smylie. Check out the details here.

—

As for the books I’m working on, well, I hate to say it, but I’m not really working on that many and it is all Stephanie Saulter’s fault. I was excited about her book Gemsigns (I am a total sucker for the idea of a contagion permanently altering society). I didn’t expect to enjoy her book this much. I can’t put the damn thing down. It’s all I think about. I go to work, and I hypothesize about what will happen next. My coworker today commented that the book must be amazing because I haven’t had it out of my hands all week. I just regret that I haven’t had more time to read it, or I would have finished it a hundred times over by now. Amazing stuff, here.

I also started City of Stairs, the new book by Robert Jackson Bennett (another favorite author of mine). This book should be released in September, and it is well worth keeping an eye on. It’s deep, and reminds me quite a bit of K.J. Parker in both depth, subtlety and humor. Very, very good. If it keeps being this good, it might become (in my opinion) Bennett’s best book yet.

The Lost by Sarah Beth Durst is a book I picked up for the hell of it. The author’s name is Sarah and so is mine, so why not read her book. You know how that goes. I’ve never read anything by this author before, but now I’m thinking I probably should. Some incredible writing here. I’m a little less excited about the actual plot, but this is the sort of book I’d read and love for the writing itself. I have a feeling the plot will end up enchanting me fairly soon. I just started it, so I’m not a fantastic judge yet.

I’m still plugging away with Words of Radiance (and loving it more and more and more.. I mean, wow!). It’s just so damn big so my going is really slow. These other books are easier to read while I’m putzing around the house or doing whatever. They are smaller and easier to manage. Not Words of Radiance. This book requires some dedicated time that has been hard to come by recently. Regardless, I’m savoring every page of it. Very impressive.

—

Now onto books I’m eyeing.

The purpose of Books I’m Eyeing is to shine a light on the websites I frequent. I hope to thank them for their amazing talent, let them know they are not speaking into a vacuum (your contributions to the genre matter), and hopefully send some love their directions.

So, What are you eyeing?

—

Earthfall – Mark Walden

Discovery blamed on: Fantasy Book Critic

About the Book

The battle for mankind is about to begin in this riveting story of Earth’s invasion from the author of the H.I.V.E. series.

Sam awakens to see strange vessels gathered in the skies around London. As he stares up, people stream past, walking silently toward the enormous ships, which emit a persistent noise. Only Sam seems immune to the signal. Six months later, he is absolutely alone.

Or so he thinks. Because after he emerges from his underground bunker and is wounded by a flying drone, a hail of machine-gun fire ultimately reveals two very important truths: One, Sam is not, in fact, alone. And two, the drone injury should have killed him—but it didn’t.

With his home planet feeling alien and the future unstable and unclear, Sam must navigate a new world in this gripping adventure.

—

Caine’s Law – Matthew Woodring Stover

Discovery blamed on: Nethspace (also, my love of the series)

About the book

SOME LAWS YOU BREAK. SOME BREAK YOU.

AND THEN THERE’S CAINE’S LAW.

 

From the moment Caine first appeared in the pages of Heroes Die, two things were clear. First, that Matthew Stover was one of the most gifted fantasy writers of his generation. And second, that Caine was a hero whose peers go by such names as Conan and Elric. Like them, Caine was something new: a civilized man who embraced savagery, an actor whose life was a lie, a force of destruction so potent that even gods thought twice about crossing him. Now Stover brings back his greatest creation for his most stunning performance yet.

Caine is washed up and hung out to dry, a crippled husk kept isolated and restrained by the studio that exploited him. Now they have dragged him back for one last deal. But Caine has other plans. Those plans take him back to Overworld, the alternate reality where gods are real and magic is the ultimate weapon. There, in a violent odyssey through time and space, Caine will face the demons of his past, find true love, and just possibly destroy the universe.

Hey, it’s a crappy job, but somebody’s got to do it.

—

Death Sworn – Leah Cypess

Discovery blamed on: On Starships and Dragonwings

About the Book

When Ileni lost her magic, she lost everything: her place in society, her purpose in life, and the man she had expected to spend her life with. So when the Elders sent her to be magic tutor to a secret sect of assassins, she went willingly, even though the last two tutors had died under mysterious circumstances.

But beneath the assassins’ caves, Ileni will discover a new place and a new purpose… and a new and dangerous love. She will struggle to keep her lost magic a secret while teaching it to her deadly students, and to find out what happened to the two tutors who preceded her. But what she discovers will change not only her future, but the future of her people, the assassins… and possibly the entire world.

—

 

The Sundering – Jacqueline Carey

Discovery blamed on: The Completist

About the Book

If all that is good thinks you evil… are you?

Once upon a time, the Seven Shapers dwelled in accord and Shaped the world to their will. But Satoris, the youngest among them, was deemed too generous in his gifts to the race of Men, and so began the Shapers’ War, which Sundered the world. Now six of the Shapers lay to one end of a vast ocean, and Satoris to the other, reviled by even the race of Men.

Satoris sits in his Darkhaven, surrounded by his allies. Chief among them is Tanaros Blacksword, immortal Commander General of his army. Once a mortal man who was betrayed by King and Wife, Tanaros fled to Darkhaven a thousand years ago, and in Satoris’s service has redeemed his honor-but left his humanity behind.

Now there is a new prophecy that tells of Satoris’s destruction and the redemption of the world. To thwart it, Satoris sends Tanaros to capture the Lady of the Ellylon, the beautiful Cerelinde, to prevent her alliance with the last High King of Men.

But Tanaros discovers that not all of his heart has been lost–his feelings for Cerelinde could doom Satoris, but save the race of Men…

—

Hotwire – Simon Ings

Discovery blamed on: John DeNardo over at Kirkus

About the Book

Not a sequel to his first novel Hot Head, but set in the same world and sharing some of the same preoccupations, Simon Ings’ Hotwire asks some interesting questions about how we become human, and how to become human again. Ajay made some bad choices once upon a time–he got his grandfather killed and his sister horribly mutilated; to pay to have her rebuilt, an organ at a time, he has become an all-purpose heavy, first a secret policeman and then an assassin. Rosa has never had any choices–she roams, inconsequentially, the corridors of the space station that is, in a very real sense, her mother, scared of everything she meets and sees. When these two find themselves in improbable alliance, the consequences could be scary, and are highly charged and erotic and at times touching. This is a book about coming to terms with reality, and the very improbability of much of the reality with which the central characters have to come to terms does not lessen the hardness of their choices and our sympathy with them. Full of strongly visualised exotic settings–the slums of Brazil and the interiors of mind human and artificial–this lives up to Ings’ early promise.

—

Annihilation – Jeff VanderMeer

Discovery blamed on: Wm Henry Morris

About the Book

Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; all the members of the second expedition committed suicide; the third expedition died in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another; the members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within months of their return, all had died of aggressive cancer.

This is the twelfth expedition.

Their group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain and collect specimens; to record all their observations, scientific and otherwise, of their surroundings and of one another; and, above all, to avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.

They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers—they discover a massive topographic anomaly and life forms that surpass understanding—but it’s the surprises that came across the border with them, and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another, that change everything.