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Not A Review: Three Princes – Ramona Wheeler

About the Book

Lord Scott Oken, a prince of Albion, and Professor-Prince Mikel Mabruke live in a world where the sun never set on the Egyptian Empire. In the year 1877 of Our Lord Julius Caesar, Pharaoh Djoser-George governs a sprawling realm that spans Europe, Africa, and much of Asia. When the European terrorist Otto von Bismarck touches off an international conspiracy, Scott and Mik are charged with exposing the plot against the Empire.

Their adventure takes them from the sands of Memphis to a lush New World, home of the Incan Tawantinsuyu, a rival empire across the glittering Atlantic Ocean. Encompassing Quetzal airships, operas, blood sacrifice and high diplomacy, Three Princes is a richly imagined, cinematic vision of a modern Egyptian Empire.

352 pages (hardcover)

Published on February 4, 2014

Published by Tor

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

—

Alright, folks. You’re getting a not-a-review today. Why? Because this is a book I just couldn’t finish, no matter how hard I tried.

Three Princes is a novel I have been looking forward to for a while now. The cover art is gorgeous, and I’m a huge sucker for alternative histories. An alternative history featuring the Egyptian Empire? Yes, please.

All you really have to do is read the back cover blurb to see why this book would hook me so easily. There’s a lot here for a person to enjoy. There’s some fascinating world building, an interesting premise, and the promise of a very broad, international scope. All things point to wonderful.

My excitement was curbed pretty fast.

Our protagonist, Lord Scott Oken, is right out of some spy-flick from a bygone era. He’s always in the right place at the right time. Somehow he can do everything. He has quick fixes and can screw anything that moves because he’s just that amazing. Protagonists like that are a lot of fun if they are done right, but the problem with Oken is that he’s very one-dimensional. In fact, he felt like so many other characters I have read before.

And that’s really the problem with the whole novel (at least the parts of it I read). It felt very done-before. While that’s not always a bad thing, the borrowed feeling of this book – take a villain from here, a protagonist from there, a plot twist from another place, some pretty cheesy naming conventions, and mix well – lacked a level of depth and creativity that was needed to really hook me.

The synopsis is loud and promises amazing things, and execution doesn’t live up to it. That’s probably the biggest disappointment. People will go into this book expecting so much, and it doesn’t take long for it to just fall flat.

That’s unfortunate, but it’s the truth. I hate writing not-a-reviews like this. I truly do. I realize that the author spends a lot of time writing their book and then I poo-poo it like this. It’s gotta hurt, but I have to be honest with my readers. This book had such potential, and it just didn’t live up to it. When I get sent so many books in the mail each week, I start to realize that life is too short to spend too much times on books that you don’t enjoy, so I moved on. Perhaps this book will work for other people. In fact, I can guarantee it will. It’s worth giving it a try. However, it just didn’t work for me.

Locus Magazine’s 2013 Recommended Reading List

Click this link to see the full list.

I wait for this list every year, and I’m always amazed by how many books on it I haven’t read. As always, it makes me excited to spend a few hours in my local library combing through the stacks. Here are a few books on their list that I just put on my library’s hold list. What are some books on this list that you want to read?

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The Red: First Light – Linda Nagata

About the Book

“There Needs To Be A War Going On Somewhere”

Lieutenant James Shelley commands a high-tech squad of soldiers in a rural district within the African Sahel. They hunt insurgents each night on a harrowing patrol, guided by three simple goals: protect civilians, kill the enemy, and stay alive—because in a for-profit war manufactured by the defense industry there can be no cause worth dying for. To keep his soldiers safe, Shelley uses every high-tech asset available to him—but his best weapon is a flawless sense of imminent danger…as if God is with him, whispering warnings in his ear. (Hazard Notice: contains military grade profanity.)

—

 

 

The Adjacent – Christopher Priest

About the Book

Tibor Tarent, a freelance photographer, is recalled to Britain from Anatolia where his wife Melanie has been killed by insurgent militia. IRGB is a nation living in the aftermath of a bizarre and terrifying terrorist atrocity – hundreds of thousands were wiped out when a vast triangle of west London was instantly annihilated. The authorities think the terrorist attack and the death of Tarent’s wife are somehow connected.

A century earlier, a stage magician is sent to the Western Front on a secret mission to render British reconnaissance aircraft invisible to the enemy. On his journey to the trenches he meets the visionary who believes that this will be the war to end all wars.

In 1943, a woman pilot from Poland tells a young RAF technician of her escape from the Nazis, and her desperate need to return home.

In the present day, a theoretical physicist stands in his English garden and creates the first adjacency.

THE ADJACENT is a novel where nothing is quite as it seems. Where fiction and history intersect, where every version of reality is suspect, where truth and falsehood lie closely adjacent to one another.

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Life After Life – Kate Atkinson 

About the Book

On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born, the third child of a wealthy English banker and his wife. Sadly, she dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in any number of ways. Clearly history (and Kate Atkinson) have plans for her: In Ursula rests nothing less than the fate of civilization.

Wildly inventive, darkly comic, startlingly poignant — this is Kate Atkinson at her absolute best, playing with time and history, telling a story that is breathtaking for both its audacity and its endless satisfactions.

—

 

 

Sister Mine – Nalo Hopkinson 

About the Book

We’d had to be cut free of our mother’s womb. She’d never have been able to push the two-headed sport that was me and Abby out the usual way. Abby and I were fused, you see. Conjoined twins. Abby’s head, torso, and left arm protruded from my chest. But here’s the real kicker; Abby had the magic, I didn’t. Far as the Family was concerned, Abby was one of them, though cursed, as I was, with the tragic flaw of mortality.

Now adults, Makeda and Abby still share their childhood home. The surgery to separate the two girls gave Abby a permanent limp, but left Makeda with what feels like an even worse deformity: no mojo. The daughters of a celestial demigod and a human woman, Makeda and Abby were raised by their magical father, the god of growing things–a highly unusual childhood that made them extremely close. Ever since Abby’s magical talent began to develop, though, in the form of an unearthly singing voice, the sisters have become increasingly distant.

Today, Makeda has decided it’s high time to move out and make her own life among the other nonmagical, claypicken humans–after all, she’s one of them. In Cheerful Rest, a run-down warehouse space, Makeda finds exactly what she’s been looking for: an opportunity to live apart from Abby and begin building her own independent life. There’s even a resident band, led by the charismatic (and attractive) building superintendent.

But when her father goes missing, Makeda will have to discover her own talent–and reconcile with Abby–if she’s to have a hope of saving him . . .

—

The Year of the Ladybird – Graham Joyce

About the Book

It is the summer of 1976, the hottest since records began and a young man leaves behind his student days and learns how to grow up. A first job in a holiday camp beckons. But with political and racial tensions simmering under the cloudless summer skies there is not much fun to be had.

And soon there is a terrible price to be paid for his new-found freedom and independence. A price that will come back to haunt him, even in the bright sunlight of summer.

As with SOME KIND OF FAIRY TALE, Graham Joyce has crafted a deceptively simple tale of great power. With beautiful prose, wonderful characters and a perfect evocation of time and place, this is a novel that transcends the boundaries between the everyday and the supernatural while celebrating the power of both.

—

 

 

Red Moon – Benjamin Percy

About the Book

They live among us.

They are our neighbors, our mothers, our lovers.

They change.

When government agents kick down Claire Forrester’s front door and murder her parents, Claire realizes just how different she is.

Patrick Gamble was nothing special until the day he got on a plane and hours later stepped off it, the only passenger left alive, a hero.

Chase Williams has sworn to protect the people of the United States from the menace in their midst, but he is becoming the very thing he has promised to destroy.

So far, the threat has been controlled by laws and violence and drugs. But the night of the red moon is coming, when an unrecognizable world will emerge…and the battle for humanity will begin.

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The Village Sang to the Sea – Bruce McAllister

About the Book

During the Cold War a 15-year-old American boy, Brad Lattimer, moves with his family to a fishing village in Northern Italy. It’s no ordinary village, but Brad is welcomed like a long-lost cousin. His teacher is a gentle hunchback with a lisp who is more than he seems. There are witches in the olive groves who will poison your cat, but not for the reasons you imagine. In those groves there is a village so small it shouldn’t be a village, its red doorways too short for normal men and women to pass through easily. At night, on its single narrow cobble street, creatures that should not exist walk while a single baby cries forever. On the sands of the next cove sits a pale, pretty girl who somehow knows the poetry of the great Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and wants you to drown with her, just as Percy drowned near this village over a century ago. This is the village where Mary Shelley may have dreamed her dream that became Frankenstein. It is certainly the village where Brad, too, will start to dream strange dreams and write his own first stories; where he will fall sick because the village’s magic has its hold on him, wanting him to become something other than a boy–something that can never leave it–something it can have as its own for eternity.

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More Than This – Patrick Ness

About the Book

A boy named Seth drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments, losing his life as the pounding sea claims him. But then he wakes. He is naked, thirsty, starving. But alive. How is that possible? He remembers dying, his bones breaking, his skull dashed upon the rocks. So how is he here? And where is this place? It looks like the suburban English town where he lived as a child, before an unthinkable tragedy happened and his family moved to America. But the neighborhood around his old house is overgrown, covered in dust, and completely abandoned. What’s going on? And why is it that whenever he closes his eyes, he falls prey to vivid, agonizing memories that seem more real than the world around him? Seth begins a search for answers, hoping that he might not be alone, that this might not be the hell he fears it to be, that there might be more than just this.

—

 

 

The Burning Sky – Sherry Thomas

About the Book

It all began with a ruined elixir and an accidental bolt of lightning…

Iolanthe Seabourne is the greatest elemental mage of her generation—or so she’s being told. The one prophesied for years to be the savior of The Realm. It is her duty and destiny to face and defeat the Bane, the greatest mage tyrant the world has ever known. A suicide task for anyone let alone a sixteen-year-old girl with no training, facing a prophecy that foretells a fiery clash to the death.

Prince Titus of Elberon has sworn to protect Iolanthe at all costs but he’s also a powerful mage committed to obliterating the Bane to avenge the death of his family—even if he must sacrifice both Iolanthe and himself to achieve his goal.

But Titus makes the terrifying mistake of falling in love with the girl who should have been only a means to an end. Now, with the servants of the Bane closing in, he must choose between his mission and her life.

—

The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two – Catherynne M. Valente

About the Book

“One of the most extraordinary works of fantasy, for adults or children, published so far this century.”—TIME Magazine, on the Fairyland series

September misses Fairyland and her friends Ell, the Wyverary, and the boy Saturday. She longs to leave the routines of home, and embark on a new adventure. Little does she know that this time, she will be spirited away to the moon, reunited with her friends, and find herself faced with saving Fairyland from a moon-Yeti with great and mysterious powers.

Books I’m Eyeing

Books I’m Eyeing is a (semi) weekly post showing off the books that some of my favorite websites have posted – the reviews that make me ache to get to my library. This is my way of directing attention to deserving websites and people within the genre community, while also thanking them for their contributions to the genre as a whole. I might not comment on other sites a lot, but I notice what people put up, and it always makes me so excited to be part of this exciting, constantly changing literary corner.

Here are the books I’m eyeing this week. What are you eyeing?

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John Golden: Freelance Debugger – Django Wexler

Discovery blamed on:

About the Book

John Golden is a debugger: he goes inside the computer systems of his corporate clients to exterminate the gremlins, sprites, and other fairies that take up residence. But when he gets a frantic call from Serpentine Systems, a top-of-the-line anti-fairy security company, John finds out he’s on much more than a simple smurf-punting expedition.

With the help of his sarcastic little sister Sarah (currently incarnated in the form of a Dell Inspiron) and a paranoid system administrator, John tackles Serpentine’s fairy problem. But the rabbit hole goes deeper than he thinks, and with the security of all of the company’s clients in danger, there’s more at stake this time than John’s paycheck!

—

Traitor’s Blade – Sebastian De Castell

Discovery blamed on: Nerds of a Feather

About the Book

The King is dead, the Greatcoats have been disbanded, and Falcio Val Mond and his fellow magistrates Kest and Brasti have been reduced to working as bodyguards for a nobleman who refuses to pay them. Things could be worse, of course. Their employer could be lying dead on the floor while they are forced to watch the killer plant evidence framing them for the murder. Oh wait, that’s exactly what’s happening…

Now a royal conspiracy is about to unfold in the most corrupt city in the world. A carefully orchestrated series of murders that began with the overthrow of an idealistic young king will end with the death of an orphaned girl and the ruin of everything that Falcio, Kest, and Brasti have fought for. But if the trio want to foil the conspiracy, save the girl, and reunite the Greatcoats, they’ll have to do it with nothing but the tattered coats on their backs and the swords in their hands, because these days every noble is a tyrant, every knight is a thug, and the only thing you can really trust is a traitor’s blade.

—

The Girl of Fire and Thorns – Rae Carson

Discovery blamed on: On Starships and Dragonwings

About the Book

Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness.

Elisa is the chosen one.

But she is also the younger of two princesses, the one who has never done anything remarkable. She can’t see how she ever will.

Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a handsome and worldly king—a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who needs the chosen one, not a failure of a princess.

And he’s not the only one who seeks her. Savage enemies seething with dark magic are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary thinks she could be his people’s savior. And he looks at her in a way that no man has ever looked at her before. Soon it is not just her life, but her very heart that is at stake.

Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If she doesn’t die young.

Most of the chosen do.

—

The Almost Girl – Amalie Howard

Discovery blamed on: Rob Bedford and A Fantastical Librarian

About the Book

Seventeen-year-old Riven is as tough as they come. Coming from a world ravaged by a devastating android war, she has to be. There’s no room for softness, no room for emotion, no room for mistakes. A Legion General, she is the right hand of the young Prince of Neospes, a parallel universe to Earth. In Neospes, she has everything: rank, responsibility and respect. But when Prince Cale sends her away to find his long-lost brother, Caden, who has been spirited back to modern day Earth, Riven finds herself in uncharted territory.

Thrown out of her comfort zone but with the mindset of a soldier, Riven has to learn how to be a girl in a realm that is the opposite of what she knows. Riven isn’t prepared for the beauty of a world that is unlike her own in so many ways. Nor is she prepared to feel something more than indifference for the very target she seeks. Caden is nothing like Cale, but he makes something in her come alive, igniting a spark deep down that goes against every cell in her body. For the first time in her life, Riven isn’t sure about her purpose, about her calling. Torn between duty and desire, she must decide whether Caden is simply a target or whether he is something more.

Faced with hideous reanimated Vector soldiers from her own world with agendas of their own, as well as an unexpected reunion with a sister who despises her, it is a race against time to bring Caden back to Neospes. But things aren’t always as they seem, and Riven will have to search for truth. Family betrayals and royal coups are only the tip of the iceberg. Will Riven be able to find the strength to defy her very nature? Or will she become the monstrous soldier she was designed to be?

—

Academic Exercises – K.J. Parker

Discovery blamed on – Weirdmage and Far Beyond Reality

About the Book

Academic Exercises is the first collection of shorter work by master novelist K.J Parker, and it is a stunner. Weighing in at over 500 pages, this generous volume gathers together thirteen highly distinctive stories, essays, and novellas, including the recent World Fantasy Award-Winner, “Let Maps to Others”. The result is a significant publishing event, a book that belongs on the shelf of every serious reader of imaginative fiction.

The collection opens with the World Fantasy Award-winning “A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong,” a story of music and murder set against a complex mentor/pupil relationship, and closes with the superb novella “Blue & Gold,” which features what may be the most beguiling opening lines in recent memory. In between, Parker has assembled a treasure house of narrative pleasures. In “A Rich, Full Week,” an itinerant “wizard” undergoes a transformative encounter with a member of the “restless dead.” “Purple & Black,” the longest story in the book, is an epistolary tale about a man who inherits the most hazardous position imaginable: Emperor. “Amor Vincit Omnia” recounts a confrontation with a mass murderer who may have mastered an impossible form of magic.

Rounding out the volume—and enriching it enormously—are three fascinating and illuminating essays that bear direct relevance to Parker’s unique brand of fiction: “On Sieges,” “Cutting Edge Technology,” and “Rich Men’s Skins.”

Taken singly, each of these thirteen pieces is a lovingly crafted gem. Together, they constitute a major and enduring achievement. Rich, varied, and constantly absorbing, Academic Exercises is, without a doubt, the fantasy collection of the year.

(If you click on the picture it will take you to the Subterranean Press page where you can preorder and etc).

Hey Fans, You’re Doing It Wrong.

Yeah, it’s a tongue-in-cheek title.

—

It seems like every year at this time I have a love-hate relationship with the internet. The Hugo Awards are open for nomination, and the internet divides into factions: Those who love the Hugos, and those who hate them. Both factions talk ad naseum about the award and why it is amazing/a horrible farce. Then the lengthy essays turn into diatribes about fandom and how fandom is important and I always get incredibly aggravated and sort of stay away from Twitter and blogs as much as possible until it is over.

Why?

Because I feel like, no matter what side of the line you are on, the discussion will always evolve into analyzing the right and wrong ways to be an author/genre contributor/fan. Every year I see the discussion degenerate from a worthwhile conversation about all of our places in the genre we love so much, to a discussion about who is right, and why everyone else is wrong, and who is the best fan out there and why. Everyone has something to prove.

I don’t have anything to prove.

We are all part of this genre because we love it. Reading books isn’t a hobby for those of us who dedicate so much of our time to running websites, writing books, podcasting, etc. It’s a way of life. It’s an outlet and a form of personal expression. We read and write because living one life isn’t enough for us. This genre stretches us and challenges us in ways that the world around us doesn’t. We read to learn. We read to discover. We read to forget. We read because we love it. We write because we are all full of stories waiting to break free.

There is no right or wrong way to be a fan, and there is no right or wrong way to give an award to someone. The world is changing. In my short time in speculative fiction (almost four years now), the genre has exploded. I see more and more SpecFic movies and television shows becoming popular. More people are picking up SpecFic books. The genre is getting younger, and broader in age, race, gender and whatever else. You can’t pinpoint us. You can’t box, label and categorize us. We are corporate executives and junior high school kids. No award will fit everyone perfectly, and trying to define the perfect fan, or award across a sprawl like that is impossible.

But there is room on this fun bus for all of us. The more people we welcome, the more we engage the sprawling range of our genre community, the more these awards and events will represent all of us.

Perhaps what annoys me the most about this Hugo award debacle each year is how personal it can get. I maintain that those of us in this genre have more in common than we realize. We all love this genre, and we all spend far too much time engaging in it (there’s never enough time). We are here because we love it, plain and simple. Speculative Fiction speaks to us on a level that other things really don’t, and no matter whether you are a YA reader, or a graphic novel reader, that’s something kind of amazing that pulls us all together. We love the same thing though we celebrate it differently. We love SpecFic, and that’s why we spend so much time stirring the pot, reading books, talking about books, discussing awards, writing books, drawing pictures, or whatever else we do. We love it, so we want to help it grow.

There is no right or wrong way to be a fan, no matter what stripe of fan you are – the author, podcaster, blogger, or publishing house guru. None of us are right, and none of us are wrong. We are all just loving the same thing in different ways. It’s impossible to categorize that. Perhaps there is room for some of these awards to improve and become more inclusive. That will happen through a broader audience involvement and the sheer pressure of time and evolution.

Discussion fosters progress, and I think these discussions that are happening are important. The genre is changing; it is impossible to deny that. Some people will embrace change, and some will reject it. That’s human nature. However, once we start focusing on what divides us rather than unites us, we start losing our way as a genre. We are all fans – indefinable, unique, cosmically different lovers of speculative fiction. In a genre that seems to, in many ways, celebrate being inclusive, evolving, and progressing, I find it sad that every award season the exact opposite seems to happen.

I doubt Bookworm Blues will ever win any sort of award, and I don’t really care. That’s not why I’m doing it. I run this website because I love reading and I want to share that passion with others. Period. That’s probably why I find it so important to focus on similarities – our passion for the genre and the written word – rather than differences, regardless of whether that’s a hit to my stat counter. I think it is important to celebrate accomplishments, no matter what form they come in.

What does this diatribe boil down to?

There is no wrong way to be a fan. There is no wrong way to participate in the genre we all love so much. There is no wrong way to love something. There is no wrong way to be nominated, or win an award.

Please keep that in mind during this Hugo season.

Saying Goodbye to a Trilogy: Shadow Ops – Myke Cole

Honestly, I have put off writing this “review” quite a few times. I don’t know how to go about doing it. Myke Cole is one of those rare authors who has sort of flourished at the same time as my reviewing started to take wing. It’s been a pretty cool journey for him, and it’s been really neat for me, as a reviewer, to sit back and watch this very promising, very determined and dedicated author, really take off and do what he does best.

Breach Zone is the final book in Myke Cole’s Shadow Ops trilogy, and what a final book it is. All you really need to know about it is that this is one hell of an ending to a very powerful, very fun, and very thoughtful series of books. It is, by far and away, the best book of the series. Cole knows how to end things perfectly. He ties together all the threads, ends everything with a neat (and surprising) flourish and manages to leave readers satisfied. He took us on an adventure, and it is always sad to see these really fun, high-octane adventures end.

And there’s the problem I keep running into when I try to write this review. I’ve said it all in one paragraph. This is one of those books that is good. It’s just good, plain and simple. It works on a lot of levels and it leaves me… speechless, really. But I try very hard to make my reviews much longer than this, so I can’t end it here.

I always kind of get nostalgic when a series ends. I go on a journey with these characters. I spend countless hours and days in their worlds, and I think about them for years after I finish the books. The stories and lives I read about and experience become part of me, and it’s hard to say goodbye to that. Maybe I just put too much of myself in what I read, but that’s how I feel. That’s also why I absolutely hate ending a series that I love, and I usually refuse to unless a publisher sends me the last book in that series and wants me to review it (like with Breach Zone). I just don’t want it to end. I don’t want to close the book that part of myself I discovered in those pages.

But it is more than that, in all honesty. With Shadow Ops, my blog grew alongside of Myke Cole as an author, and it’s been a rather interesting experience all around. While I’m not even close to as popular as he is (ha…. My corner of the internet is dusty and largely abandoned), I learned a lot of how to read books as a critic while he honed his writing talent. As time passed, I became a much less forgiving reader. Why this matters to my “review/rant” is because military books really aren’t my bag and never have been. I kind of turn off when large military and tactical books are put before me. So, when I accepted the author’s offer to review his first book, it was with a sort of dread. I wanted to try something new, but I knew it was a military SpecFic book, and because of the “military” in the title, I figured I’d probably hate it and I’d have to hate it nicely.

Well, that didn’t happen. I ended up loving Control Point, despite myself. I liked Fortress Frontier even more, and Breach Zone kicked the ball out of the park. So, while my reading became more critical, Myke Cole’s writing kept getting better. I never ended up hating his books the way I expected to. In fact, he showed me that it is worth giving something a-typical a shot, because you might just learn that you like it. Myke Cole’s books are the entire reason I challenge myself to read an area of the genre I typically don’t expose myself to each year. He got me to try something new. He showed me that you might not feel the way you think you’ll feel about whatever you have assumptions about – so I decided to broaden my reading horizons, and it has been so much fun.

No, this isn’t a review, this is mostly about me waxing nostalgic about Shadow Ops, what a fantastic series it is, how amazingly fun it has been to see Myke Cole grow and develop as an author, and how he stayed ahead of my critical curve with each and every book. Breach Zone is the ending of a fantastic series that taught me to never let my own preconceived notions stand in the way of a good book. Cole proved that trying something new can be so amazingly rewarding. It’s hard to say goodbye to his fantastic series, but I trust that potential readers will come across this post and decide to give it a try. You won’t regret it, and through you’re enjoyment of it, I’ll get to relive a bit of it myself. It’s a win-win all around.

And to Myke Cole, thank you for one hell of a series. I am so excited to see what you publish next.

Shadow Ops is just the first wave from an author who has the potential to create a genre tsunami.

He Drank, and Saw the Spider – Alex Bledsoe

About the Book

After he fails to save a stranger from being mauled to death by a bear, a young mercenary is saddled with the baby girl the man died to protect. He leaves her with a kindly shepherd family and goes on with his violent life.

Now, sixteen years later, that young mercenary has grown up to become cynical sword jockey Eddie LaCrosse. When his vacation travels bring him back to that same part of the world, he can’t resist trying to discover what has become of the mysterious infant.

He finds that the child, now a lovely young teenager named Isadora, is at the center of complicated web of intrigue involving two feuding kings, a smitten prince, a powerful sorceress, an inhuman monster, and long-buried secrets too shocking to imagine. And once again she needs his help.

They say a spider in your cup will poison you, but only if you see it. Eddie, helped by his smart, resourceful girlfriend Liz, must look through the dregs of the past to find the truth about the present—and risk what might happen if he, too, sees the spider.

320 pages (hardcover)

Published on January 14, 2014

Published by Tor

Author’s webpage

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

—

First of all, props to Tor because that is a gorgeous cover.

There’s something about Alex Bledsoe’s Eddie LaCrosse series that just works for me on so many levels. The books are fairly short, easy to read, quick to plow through, loads of fun, and always surprising. Furthermore, each book adds a little more history to Eddie’s life, and the lives of those that frequent these books.

Bledsoe’s transitions between novels is quite seamless. While the tone and overall attitude between novels might be different, Eddie LaCrosse and gang always stay the same – they are the tried and true friends readers have come to know throughout the series, and that’s somehow comforting. You know what you are getting with Eddie LaCrosse. There are no middle aged mental breakdowns or huge emotional burdens that readers have to wade through. The LaCrosse you knew two books ago is the same guy you get to know here. You’ll just be enjoying a different chapter of his life.

That being said, you don’t have to read all of the books in order to enjoy He Drank, and Saw the Spider. You can pick this book up and start the series off right here. Eddie LaCrosse is one of those series that you can just read as the whim strikes you, and that’s rather wonderful in a genre that so often demands that we read through copious amounts of books just to get to the most recent release. That being said, each book does reveal a different aspect of the characters’ past, so it might be more rewarding to read these books in order, though it is, by no means mandatory.

He Drank, and Saw the Spider is a lot of fun, and a rather intricate weave of past stories and current adventures. Everything weaves together quite nicely. That is, perhaps, what I enjoyed about this book the most. Bledsoe really knows how to tell his story, but he tells it with finesse and poise, and he makes it come alive so effortlessly. This isn’t a book you have to work to enjoy; you just sit back and enjoy it as Bledsoe unravels it all for you.

While there is a bit in here that is surprisingly serious, enough of the book is filled with Eddie’s sarcastic charm and wit that the serious and darker portions are easy to overlook. This book falls more into the Fun side of the book spectrum more than anything else. However, it isn’t all fun and games. There are some serious moments, some touching moments, and some descriptions that really shows off Beldsoe’s skill with words. He Drank, and Saw the Spider is a good book to pick up when you’re in the mood for a lighter read with some substance.

The plot is fast moving, and due to the fact that this is the fifth book in the series, Bledsoe has had a lot of practice packing in a lot of world building and some fast moving plots as he does so. His practice pays off, because the world is deftly built and the plot is nicely paced and perfectly balanced in nearly all aspects. It’s quite a feat to be able to pack that much into a three hundred odd paged book, and Bledsoe does it masterfully. The short(er) length also ensures that he never really gets bogged down with the details, or stumbles on any speed bumps.

However, it isn’t all perfect. As with everything, there are some drawbacks. The ending was slightly predictable and felt a little forced. How Bledsoe dealt with some of the secondary characters and side plots was a little disappointing. That’s okay, though, because the rest of the book was so perfect that it balances out.

He Drank, and Saw the Spider is a strong installment to the Eddie LaCrosse series, in fact, it is probably one of my favorite Eddie LaCrosse books. Bledsoe’s skill really shows here. Despite the fact that the ending might be a little weak, the rest of the book feels so effortless, so enjoyable, and so perfectly balanced that I know I’ll go back to it again and again.

 

4/5 stars

Today you can find me (twice) over on SF Signal

A few things are going on today: 

1. My (very late) installment of Special Needs in Strange Worlds is posted. I am (desperately) trying (and failing) to start a discussion… so go participate or something.

2. You can find me over on the SF Signal Podcast. My mic was cutting out, but you can hear me talk about my favorite books located in a winter wonder land.

3. I forgot to write a review last night, so I’ll do that when I get off work today. Expect that in a few hours.

And that’s about all I have going on right now! Enjoy!

 

Lost Covenant – Ari Marmell

About the Book

This third YA novel starring the young thief Widdershins combines the angst and vulnerability of any teenage girl with the high action of the best fantasy adventures.

It’s been six months since Widdershins and her own “personal god” Olgun fled the city of Davillon. During their travels, Widdershins unwittingly discovers that a noble house is preparing to move against the last surviving bastion of the Delacroix family.

Determined to help the distant relatives of her deceased adopted father, Alexandre Delacroix, she travels to a small town at the edge of the nation. There, she works at unraveling a plot involving this rival house and a local criminal organization, all while under intense suspicion from the very people she’s trying to rescue.

Along the way she’ll have to deal with a traitor inside the Delacroix family, a mad alchemist, and an infatuated young nobleman who won’t take no for an answer.

277 pages (hardcover)

Published on December 3, 2013

Published by Pyr

Author’s webpage

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

—

I have to admit, this is a series that is growing on me. I tend to enjoy each book more than the last. If Lost Covenant is any sign, I’m in for one hell of a kick in the pants with Marmell’s next book. There could be any number of reasons for this, but the truth is, I think if I went back and re-read this series from the first book, I’d probably enjoy it a lot more today than I did when I first read it. Now, I didn’t dislike it, but young adult has never been my thing so I tend to be harder on those books than others. Unfair, but true.

Lost Covenant was released late in 2013, and it was a highly anticipated book to many, many people. False Covenant left off with enough wiggle room to keep readers hooked and begging for more. Lost Covenant delivers. The thing about this book is that it’s a bit different than the other two in the series. Not in a bad way, but it has a heavier, more personal and introspective air about it.

In Lost Covenant, Widdershins and Olgun move beyond Davillon in an obvious move to run away from what happened in the previous book. This causes two important things to happen in Lost Covenant. First, the world building expands a bit, and with this expansion comes new characters and an interesting level of complexity to the plot as a whole. Secondly, moving on to another geographical location adds a lot of layers to the protagonist. She’s not just a strong and capable fighter, but she’s also a person who is willing to run from her problems, and because of that, this book is a bit more somber than I first expected.

In fact, I’d have to say that the emotion is just as interesting as the plot itself. The personal drama, the introspection and the tense and strained emotions that force Widdershins to grow and develop in uncomfortable ways is absolutely captivating, and it really adds an interesting dynamic to everything that is happening. I have to admit, I’m kind of a sucker for books that are equal parts personal struggle and plot, and this one hits the mark powerfully. The thing that Marmell does so well, however, is that he keeps the angst and super depressing drawn out sob scenes to a minimum. He doesn’t capitalize on the protagonist’s struggles or her development, but he lets it happen naturally and that really pays off for the reader.

Marmell really manages to balance the dark and light moments almost perfectly. Olgun is, as always, a source for hilarity. The dialogue between the god and Widdershins is often hilarious, and the levity is a nice touch to scenes and situations that could be overly brooding if Marmell let them get that way. However, he doesn’t, and because of that, the darker moments are so much easier to digest. The added humor also makes some of the tension in the plot more bearable, which is necessary because this book has some very intense moments.

One thing that never ceases to amaze me regarding this series is just how quickly I plow through the books. Usually if I read a book fast it’s generally not a good sign. However, with Marmell I can’t help but read them fast. Lost Covenant has a shockingly fast pace. Furthermore, Marmell really packs a lot into this book, from personal growth and development, to world building, introductions of new characters, a plot to die for, and so much more. I read this book fast not because I didn’t like it, but because that’s the only real way to read it. Once you start it, you won’t be able to stop.

If you’re wondering what it is about this book that warrants a docked star, it’s quite selfish, actually. I’m excited for Widdershins to get back to Davillion. I miss that city and the people I’ve grown to know and love who live there. I never quite stopped feeling like she should be back on her home turf. While I realize that Marmell is doing some work expanding the world and adding intricate layers to the plot that will tie his series together, I still miss Davillion.

Lost Covenant is, far and away, the best book of this series yet. Marmell keeps topping himself, and this book is a fantastic showcase of his skill. The plot is riveting, the personal growth is captivating and realistic, and the emotions and atmosphere are raw and vibrant. Don’t start this book if you need to wake up early the next day. You’ll be “just one more page”-ing the night away.

 

4/5 stars

Sandman Slim – Richard Kadrey

About the Book

Supernatural fantasy has a new antihero.

Life sucks, and then you die. Or, if you’re James Stark, you spend eleven years in Hell as a hitman before finally escaping, only to land back in the hell-on-earth that is Los Angeles.

Now Stark’s back, and ready for revenge. And absolution, and maybe even love. But when his first stop saddles him with an abusive talking head, Stark discovers that the road to absolution and revenge is much longer than you’d expect, and both Heaven and Hell have their own ideas for his future.

Resurrection sucks. Saving the world is worse.

Darkly twisted, irreverent, and completely hilarious, Sandman Slim is the breakthrough novel by an acclaimed author.

388 pages (hardcover)

Published on July 21, 2009

Author’s webpage

—

I have to admit that I have a soft spot for protagonists who are kind of antagonists. You tell me there’s an antihero in (insert book here) and I’m there with bells on. I love a good antihero and I don’t read books featuring antiheroes often enough. Whenever I do feast upon such a book, I feel like I’ve hit the lottery. I’m obsessed. Honestly obsessed with antiheroes. That’s fine. Whatever. We all know I’m weird, I don’t need to advertise it.

Sandman Slim, AKA James Stark is a bad boy with an attitude and he’s out for himself. The fact that his goals and aims line up with a fairly good cause is just coincidence. This guy is out for his own goals, and he’s not afraid to steal cars and kick ass along the way. I mean, this guy is screaming “baditude” and I absolutely love it. That being said, it’s not a mindless rage that Stark is feeling, there’s a very real history there, and Kadrey wastes almost no time letting readers know just what it is. You can’t help but sympathize with the guy, and feel a bit like high-fiving him because he’s doing what any of us would want to do, but probably wouldn’t have the guts to do it.

Sandman Slim is a very character focused story, while the streets of L.A. come to life for readers, there is a sense that this story could be happening almost anywhere. The fact that it is happening in L.A. isn’t necessarily important. What’s important is the events that unfold as James Stark unleashes hell on the city. The thing is, you won’t really mind the focus on Stark rather than on the place or even the plot. Stark’s voice is incredibly original and very captivating. He’s got this wry sarcasm that just works for me, and he says all the things I think all the time but never have the guts to say. This is the guy who acts, thinks, talks, and walks the way we all want to so often, but never do. There’s something about that that makes my inner repressed nerd scream with joy.

“Did I hurt your feelings again? Sorry. When this is all over I’ll send some flowers to your inner child.” – Sandman Slim

Sandman Slim isn’t all fun and games, though. There’s a very dark plot at work here that focuses on betrayal, revenge, death, and absolute depression. No matter how wry and quippy Stark gets, there is absolutely no mistaking the fact that this is an absolutely broken, haunted man. While that part of the story might get overlooked due to his rather hilarious (and almost constant) one-liners, it is there, and it does color almost everything. The truth is, only a truly broken person would do all the things that Stark does and not feel any remorse. That’s one of the delights of this book – there is a very deep, very raw, and very real emotional lining to everything. Yes, it is fairly easy to overlook in favor of the fairly loud plot and the unforgettable voice, but it is there, and it adds a lot of atmosphere and connection to the book and characters over all.

I expected Sandman Slim to be an in-and-out sort of wham-bam read – you know, the kind of book with one real plot and no side plots or any real surprises. What I didn’t get was, well, that. While the main plot is fairly loud, there’s a lot going on in the background and on the sides that hints at exciting and rather complex developments in the future. While readers are introduced to Stark and we’re given the rundown of his recent past, the world itself is complex and Kadrey doesn’t really explore it much in Sandman Slim. Stark is more than what he appears, and I’m pretty sure we’ll get to explore more about his nature in future books as well. There’s the emotional turmoil that Stark is suffering from, which makes me wonder if there will ever be any sort of closure for him. These are all rather subtle notes to the book, but they are there. Sandman Slim obviously focused on character development and an introduction to the nature of the beast (the series itself). However, Kadrey subtly wove enough in on the sides and in the background to make me think that this series isn’t all flash, there could easily be some very interesting, rather deep developments in future books.

What makes Sandman Slim work so well is the interesting blend of the action packed surface plot which makes my inner asshole scream with glee, and the subtle, deeper, background stuff which hints at so much more. While I did wish that Kadrey had expanded a bit on the world and the magic system, there’s enough promising developments in Sandman Slim that assure me that there is more to come in the series’ immediate future – more surface level action that makes my inner child happy, and some deeper developments as well. Sandman Slim is a powerful and incredibly fun start to a series that is promising to be a fantastic mix of thought provoking popcorn…. or something.

4/5 stars

Red Rising – Pierce Brown

About the Book

The war begins…

Darrow is a Helldiver, one of a thousand men and women who live in the vast caves beneath the surface of Mars. Generations of Helldivers have spent their lives toiling to mine the precious elements that will allow the planet to be terraformed. Just knowing that one day people will be able to walk the surface of the planet is enough to justify their sacrifice. The Earth is dying, and Darrow and his people are the only hope humanity has left.

Until the day Darrow learns that it is all a lie. Mars is habitable – and indeed has been inhabited for generations by a class of people calling themselves the Golds. The Golds regard Darrow and his fellows as slave labour, to be exploited and worked to death without a second thought.

With the help of a mysterious group of rebels, Darrow disguises himself as a Gold and infiltrates their command school, intent on taking down his oppressors from the inside.

But the command school is a battlefield. And Darrow isn’t the only student with an agenda.

400 pages (hardcover)

Published on January 28, 2014

Published by Random House

Author’s webpage

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

—

Here’s the deal. If you told me that I absolutely had to read a young adult book that dealt with power struggles, politics, and fights to the death, I’d probably opt out. The Hunger Games didn’t really do it for me. Sure, I’d rather read that than a lot of other stuff that is out there right now, but if I had a choice, I wouldn’t decide to read that series if I had other options. That’s not saying that it’s a bad series, I’m just not into reading books about teenagers trying to kill each other.

I entered Red Rising with a bit of reluctance. The premise was interesting, and I enjoy reading books set on other planets, with other political and cultural systems at play, but the general idea seemed very similar to The Hunger Games. Don’t worry, that’s probably a comparison you’ll see in a lot of reviews. That’s also why I think this book will be a knock out success. It’s similar enough to a very popular series, while being different enough to appeal to readers of that series, and readers like me, who just don’t get into kids killing other kids in fights to the death.

Red Rising tells the story of one Darrow, a teenaged Helldiver whose entire job is to mine elements out of the rocks of Mars that will allow the planet to be terraformed. Fed a lie since birth, Darrow and his ilk believe that they are the only people on the planet, and that they are the brave ones paving the way for the future. Now, you’re probably waiting to be wowed by any of these plot elements. The thing is, so far the bones of the story are all very similar to so many others that you’ve probably read. The devil is in the details, and we all know that this bookworm is a sucker for details.

Brown makes sure to cover all of his bases, and it’s those covered bases, and the small details that really make Red Rising work for me on so many levels. Yes, the protagonist is a teenager in years, but in true age he is so much older. In societies where the life expectancy is so low, and death is a product of the job, being a teenager is considered middle aged. Darrow might be young in years, but due to his life expectancy, being married, having a career, thinking about children is totally normal. It might throw some people off, but when you really look at it in context, the way Brown uses age as a tool to really drive home just the sort of lifestyle these people live is incredibly effective.

It also puts a lot of Darrow’s actions into perspective in the rest of the book. It reminded me a bit of Jorg from Mark Lawrence’s series. Jorg might be young in age, but in life experience he was much older than many people around him. The same can be said for Darrow. He makes mistakes, and falls into mental, emotional, and physical ruts, but his young age is juxtaposed with some very adult actions and thoughts, and these are understandable due to his cultural background.

Not everything is rainbows and happiness, though. Darrow undergoes some pretty incredible changes, some of which felt a bit too easy, and some of the plot developments felt a little too convenient. I have a hard time accepting a character’s godlike status, no matter how it is explained away. Sometimes Darrow’s mistakes didn’t balance out his physically and mentally heightened states. Basically, occasionally Darrow felt a little “too perfect” to be absolutely believable.

Brown is one hell of a writer. I really need people to understand that. Red Rising was written in an interesting, but effective style. Brown never went overboard with his descriptions. In fact, sometimes I felt like he could have been a little more descriptive. However, when I’d usually say that’s a bad thing, it really worked here. Brown used the sparse, almost reluctant feel of his writing the same way he used age – it’s a tool, and a very effective one. While Brown’s writing might feel a little reluctant, it really works to drive many of his scenes, and the emotions his characters feel, home in a very powerful way. In fact, I have to admit that Red Rising is probably one of the most emotionally jarring, beautiful young adult books I’ve read in a long time. Brown knows how to use a few words to really bring his characters and the scenes alive in blazing glory for his readers.

The plot moves forward at an easy clip, and if things can feel a bit predictable after the halfway point, it is pretty forgivable. Brown succeeds where many other dog-eat-dog young adult books fail: he keeps it believable. If the believability does occasionally falter in matters of characterization, his absolutely beautiful, emotionally jarring writing will smooth your ruffled feathers. Red Rising is the kind of book you experience. This is the way I like my young adult books written – mature, unassuming, a double punch in the gut and heart, believable, poignant, memorable, jarring, emotional, and absolutely captivatingly unique.

 

5/5 stars