Sarah Chorn's Blog, page 92

Cover Art Reveal | Dreamwalker – C.S. Friedman

There isn’t much that gets me more excited than a new C.S. Friedman book (Okay, a new K.J. Parker book would probably get me this excited, too.). Friedman was one of the first authors I read when I really started exploring the genre. Her books are deeper and darker than the typical, which is absolutely delicious to me. She has managed to perfect the antihero (my favorite type of character). No one writes like Friedman. No one. I’m a Friedman addict, always looking for my next hit.

When I heard that she has a YA/adult crossover novel coming down the pipe, I got all sorts of excited. I’m interested to see what Friedman can do with a younger audience. I always enjoy when authors that zig, take a zag and give me something a bit new and different to chew on. This looks intriguing. I’m anxious to read it.

Unfortunately, I will have to wait until February, 2014 to do that.

About the Book

All her life Jessica Drake has dreamed of other worlds, some of them similar to her own, others disturbingly alien. She never shares the details with anyone, save her younger brother Tommy, a compulsive gamer who incorporates some aspects of Jessica’s dreams into his games. But now someone is asking about those dreams…and about her. A strange woman has been watching her house. A visitor to her school attempts to take possession of her dream-inspired artwork.

Why?

As she begins to search for answers it becomes clear that whoever is watching her does not want her to learn the truth. One night her house catches on fire, and when the smoke clears she discovers that her brother has been kidnapped. She must figure out what is going on, and quickly, if she and her family are to be safe.

Following clues left behind on Tommy’s computer, determined to find her brother and bring him home safely, Jessica and two of her friends are about to embark on a journey that will test their spirits and their courage to the breaking point, as they must leave their own world behind and confront the source of Earth’s darkest legends, as well as the terrifying truth of their own secret heritage.

Author’s webpage

Published by DAW

Expected publication: February, 2014

Anthology Update

I’ve been plugging away at the anthology project. Most of the work has been research, talking to informed parties, drafting up letters, contracts, plans of action, timelines, and various other fun things. I haven’t talked much about it, because honestly, what has been going on so far isn’t that exciting. That being said, I do have some details ironed out, so I figured I’d pass them along.

For those of you who don’t know, I’m working on an anthology of short stories celebrating disabilities in SFF.

Details (so far):

1. This thing still has no name. I am pretty terrible at giving things titles, so this might be the first anthology published that has no title unless someone gives me inspiration fairly soon.

2. I have a few authors who have volunteered to be part of the anthology and a list of authors I plan to bother. Letters have been drafted. I plan on having someone smarter than I am look them over before I send them out. I will announce who is participating when I launch the crowdsourcing.

3. I hope to have about fifteen authors involved.

4. I am going to crowdsource this. That will help me raise the money to be able to pay the people contributing to the anthology. I hope to run an Indiegogo campaign in November.

5. This anthology will be released in ebook form only to keep costs low. This will also allow me to donate the most money possible to the charity I have chosen. Crowdsourcing will allow me to pay the authors and artists, and then all the remaining money, and 100% of the money from people who purchase the anthology will go directly to the charity.

6. Speaking of the charity I have chosen, I’m leaning toward Doctors Without Borders. It’s not set in stone yet. There are a few others I’m looking at, but Doctors Without Borders is appealing for a few reasons:

It is international, so it will appeal to international readers.
Doctors Without Borders routinely helps those in need, and those with disabilities who don’t have access to the medical care they deserve. It’s applicable to the anthology and the topic the anthology will be addressing.
Names have power, and most everyone will recognize that name and know the kind of work they do.

And that’s about it. That doesn’t seem like much to most people, but it’s a pretty big deal to me. It’s been a lot of work just to get it this far. And also, the whole “suggest a title” thing isn’t a joke. I am absolutely stumped, so inspiration is a plus.

REVIEWER’S CHOICE AWARD…?

There are a few things that are currently annoying me about the genre. The one at the top of my list is how so many of us reviewers are so incredibly into the genre in every way, shape, and form, yet we never get to be included in it. We don’t get to go to conferences because of where we live. We don’t get to vote in (many) awards. We don’t have a say. This isn’t a big deal, but it bugs me. Us bloggers are the epic genre fans and it seems rather disorienting to see that we have pretty much no voice, unless we are lucky enough to have enough money to go to conferences, or you live somewhere that conferences set up shop.

Plus, we review. We are genre critics. We analyze, get excited about, pick over all genre books. If anyone should give out awards, its those of us who spend hours and hours on our websites, reading books, stalking authors, analyzing everything. But we don’t. As far as I know, there is no SFF specific “Reviewer’s Choice Award.”

Unless it is due to organizational problems, I cannot fathom why reviewers don’t have their own Reviewer’s Choice Award?

There would, of course, have to be stipulations.

A few I thought off the top of my head: 

1. Nominations and voting would ONLY be open to bloggers/reviewers who post SFF specific reviews at least once a week. This would require someone(s) to check out everyone who nominates and make sure they are following the “rules.” (IE: Look at their website).

(That’s just a random number. Many bloggers post more editorials than reviews, or only post reviews once a month or whatever. It would be a number, or restrictions that would have to be discussed and agreed on.)

2. It would probably need to be a combination of nomination, popular vote, and jury… but maybe not.

3. To include everyone, it would have to be online only.

4. I’d probably have to run a Kickstarter to get money so the winners could have something hardcore to put on their shelves at home. What point is an award if you don’t get anything out of it to show off? I could award people the BOOKWORM AWARD OF THE YEAR, but who cares? No, they have to actually win SOMETHING. Thus, kickstarter.

5. I’d want nominations and awards to be in the SFF genre. There’d be YA categories, PNR, UF, SciFi, fantasy, graphic novels, horror…. But then again, breaking it down so specifically could get messy.

6. What about first books? New authors? Should they get their own award?

The problem with all of this is making it a critical, upstanding award that doesn’t get watered down by being opened up online to “everyone,” but isn’t only for special people and thus obviously somewhat bias. A lot of people have awards, and most of them don’t mean a damn thing. I’d want this one to count.

Is it possible?

What are your thoughts?

Vicious – V.E. Schwab

About the Book

A masterful, twisted tale of ambition, jealousy, betrayal, and superpowers, set in a near-future world.

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?

In Vicious, V. E. Schwab brings to life a gritty comic-book-style world in vivid prose: a world where gaining superpowers doesn’t automatically lead to heroism, and a time when allegiances are called into question.

368 pages (Hardcover)

Published on September 24, 2013

Published by Tor

Author’s webpage

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

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Reviewing has some side effects. When you read as many books as I do, it becomes harder and harder to keep me guessing. Plots might impress me; narrative might be spot on, but about 80% of the time, I probably have a rough idea of how the plot is going to unfold by the time I’ve read the first third of the book. With that said, you can probably understand why I cherish books that keep me guessing, and why I want to run up to those authors and hug them for about ten uncomfortable minutes each time I read a book that keeps me on the edge of my seat. It’s a treat, and when you read one-two hundred books a year, it is a rare treat indeed.

Enter: Vicious.

Vicious is one of those books that are hard to pin down. It’s part urban fantasy, part superhero mythos, and all dark, twisted, and wonderful. Vicious tells the story of Victor and Eli, college roommates with a weird codependent, jealousy fueled relationship. Schwab does a great job at setting up these two characters through her narrative. Vicious has a flow that some might need to get used to, but it was well planned by the author. Each chapter tells a story from a different period of history, bringing readers slowly up to the present. Chapters will switch from ten years ago, to a few months ago, to a week ago, to a few days ago, to now.

Never fear, readers, this isn’t as confusing as it sounds. The chapter will tell you how far back (or not) in time you are reading about. Normally a book written like this would bother me. I prefer to go forward in time, not back. Schwab, however, manages to bring history to life and truly gets into the psyche of each character. No one is sacred. Each character is torn apart and put back together a somewhat fractured mirror of what they might have otherwise been. The quest for power, for “otherness” is a powerful one, and her characters pay the price for it. It’s fascinating to get into their heads and see exactly what happened to them that turned them into who they end up being in the second part of the book.

So, not only is Vicious all the things I listed a few paragraphs up, but it is also psychological.

It’s that “nothing is sacred” aspect of the book that really made Schwab hit a homerun for me, it also takes the standard superhero mythos many might be expecting, and turns it on it’s head. Schwab works in a moral gray zone (another characteristic that the books I love all have in common). There is no real “good” or “evil.” Each character has a specific set of goals and while some goals might seem morally more desirable than others, once you learn more of Victor and Eli’s pasts, you’ll probably see that their goals aren’t unlike themselves. Flawed, cracked, frayed around the edges, and mostly for their own benefit (with the side-effect of impacting others). Vicious is a book that subtly hands the reader’s antiheros, and that can be uncomfortable, but I like it when the books I read make me uncomfortable.

As for the superhero mythos, it is there, but it’s much less “super” or “hero” and much more “human” than many readers might be expecting. It could easily be overlooked or unnoticed. Along with Victor and Eli’s history, Schwab takes the characters (and the readers) on a natural evolution. You have to lose it all to have it all, and readers will go through the metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly along with the protagonist/antagonist. If you keep the moral gray zone and subtle antihero aspects in mind, it might be easy for you to see how the “superhero” aspect of the book is harder to see than most other aspects. There are some definite sidekicks, but Vicious deals more with “super” and less with “hero” and I love Schwab for that. Admittedly, I’m rather sick of men in tights flying over cities and saving hapless individuals from (insert marauder here). Thankfully, Schwab took something I’m just about as sick of as vampires, and twisted it into something uniquely her own.

Schwab’s writing style is equal parts atmospheric and hauntingly beautiful. With a few words, she brings her characters to life. Their emotions are the reader’s emotions. Due to her superb writing, Vicious is amazingly atmospheric. Contrasted with that are some absolutely beautiful passages that seem incredibly, almost hauntingly eerie when they are infused with the atmosphere that Schwab fills her book with. Schwab’s stunning writing gives the main characters some introspective qualities that really benefitted the book.

“The moments that define lives aren’t always obvious. They don’t always scream LEDGE, and nine times out of ten there’s no rope to duck under, no line to cross, no blood pact, no official letter on fancy paper. They aren’t always protracted, heavy with meaning.” P. 58

On the other hand, Vicious is definitely a book about Victor and Eli. There are a few side characters thrown in for good measure, but the world and the side characters are definitely back burner. Mind you, that’s not a bad thing. Vicious is a rather selfish tale told of two very selfish individuals, so the back burner is fitting for everyone and everything else.

Vicious is a subtle type of addictive. You learn along with the characters. The first half of the book is full of, “What the hell?” moments (which I love). There is an “Ah ha!” toward the middle that makes the second half a bit more predictable, but no less interesting. Schwab really reworks an old theme here, infusing it with new life. She humanizes the superhero, makes them believable. Despite their broken natures, Victor and Eli are intensely human and that’s where the magic lies with this book. They aren’t obscure figures that obviously don’t exist. Their jealousy, rage, and competitive natures are ugly, and they are an ugliness that we all feel and relate to. Vicious is psychological, deep, and full of believable fantastic. It’s not a reality I’d want to be part of, but Schwab does a superb job at showing readers just how the quest for the extraordinary can change everything.

Part of the thrill of Vicious is that everyone who reads it will take away something different. Vicious stuck to me like glue. V.E. Schwab is firmly stuck on my radar.

 

5/5 stars

What would YOU ask Wesley Chu?

I have been thinking about how to make interviews more interesting and I had an idea over the weekend. What if I solicited my readers, or fans of the authors I’m interviewing, for questions? There are a few reasons for this. First, authors tend to get asked the same questions over and over again. What better way to shake things up a bit than by adding a fresh perspective to the mix? Secondly, there isn’t much that gets people more excited and involved than their participation.

I hope this is popular, because I think it could be a lot of fun for everyone involved. If this works out the way I hope (nothing ever does) then this will be a regular feature that I’ll add onto each interview. So stay tuned. If you think that this is a good idea, help it fly by asking a question or spreading the word.

Here are the details: 

I already have all of my questions for the author written out and proofed. I want you to leave a comment (or email me, as many of you seem to prefer, or Twitter or Facebook) a question or two you’d like to ask the author.

I’m going to leave question submissions open until they dry up. Then I will choose a handful (probably around 3) questions to add to my interview. I’ll give you credit for your question when I post the interview.

Author/Book Specs: 

Having released the wildly popular (and very entertaining/enlightening) book, The Lives of Tao (Tao #1), Wesley Chu is now getting ready to release The Deaths of Tao (Tao #2). Below I have his brief biography. For more, check out his website.

—

About the Author

Wesley Chu’s dreams as an NFL punter were quickly dashed when he learned at an early age that he was terrible at every sort of ball sport. Actually, he was bad at every single sport in the known universe that didn’t involve hitting someone or doing backflips. Thus, he did what all ex-gymnasts/kungfu masters did: go into Information Technology while moonlighting as an actor.

Since then, he has been following his new dream of writing books – Science Fiction/Fantasy books with lots of action and no round objects.

—

Read more about The Lives of Tao and The Deaths of Tao by clicking on the links.

The Making of a Cover – And a Question

I know next to nothing about cover art, how it is chosen, how people make it… nothing. I’m fascinated by the process, but I’m absolutely the most ignorant person ever. I’m trying to learn more. I’m a nerd like that.

Anyway, one thing about cover art that I’ve noticed is that covers are featuring more photographed models than I’ve seen before. Probably because of technology. It’s easier to add photos to covers, where when I started reading SFF, if a cover had a person on it, it was obviously drawn. That’s not a bad thing, and it is certainly a style that some authors and artists still stick with (and I tend to enjoy it when they do) but it seems like more and more publisher are veering away from that sort of title.

Example:

Well, over on Orbit there is a fascinating post (to me) about cover art and the process of making it. If you are interested in that sort of thing, check it out here.

Occasionally (okay, far more than “occasionally”) I will browse through Amazon to see what covers there are floating around in the ether. A few things I’ve noticed. Most romance covers have models on them (duh). More and more SFF books are going that direction (for examples of amazing covers featuring photographed people, look at the article I just linked to). I either love covers with photographed people on them, or I hate them.

Then, there’s the cover that is rather simple, doesn’t have much on it, but manages to pack a huge punch despite that.

Example:

The thing that I’m getting at is that cover art is changing, and I’m learning that I love the changes that I’m seeing. Once upon a time, most covers seemed dedicated to portraying an important scene in a book. I think many covers I see now or focused on presenting the overall tone and feeling of the book to readers, rather than displaying a scene from the plot.

I used to think that most SFF covers were moderately embarrassing, but now many of them are true works of art that pull a reader in rather than make them hide what they are reading. Yes, I realize that’s not true for all of them, but it is true for a vast majority of the covers I see. I’m very excited by the impressive artwork that is flooding the SFF scene these days, and I’m absolutely thrilled that publishers are taking advantage of the artists and technology that makes all of this possible.

So, all of that being said, do you enjoy these new-ish covers, or do you miss the Robert Jordan-esque covers? What are some of your favorite covers? 

Random Speed Review

Today I’m doing something a little different. I’m going to post short reviews of numerous books. Why? Because I’m amazingly behind, and this will be the only way to even partially catch up. It’s crazy to think that even though my life was crazy between January – June (cancer treatment, two surgeries, etc.), I’m STILL trying to catch up. So, here you go, short paragraph reviews of a few books to help me get my butt in gear.

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A Dance of Cloaks – David Dalglish

A Dance of Cloaks is a lot of fun, plenty of action, likable characters with a plot that’s easy to get into. The problem? I’ve already read the Night Angel Trilogy, and this one felt a little same-old-same-old for my taste. If you are a huge fan of that type of book, or new to it, then you’ll probably love this one. As for me? I think I read too much to be overly impressed. That being said, I can see where the author could take a turn in future books of the series, and thus, set his books apart from so many others. I hope he does because I really enjoyed the easy flow of the narrative and loved his writing style.

 

3/5 stars

 

 

Quintessence – David Walton

This book was a battle for me. On the one hand, I loved how Walton toyed with the themes of faith verses science. The narrative moved at a nice pace. The dialogue was believable and the characters were well drawn, if a bit shallow in some respects. On the other hand, the plot felt sort of ho-hum. Interesting, yes. Twisty-turny-edge-of-your-seat? No. Is that bad? Not really, but I did feel like this book left something to be desired. I would have appreciated a bit more surprise and ump. There are some deeper themes being played with and a plot that has some real potential, I just don’t feel like Quintessence ever attains it. Despite all of that, this book is unique enough to read, and to please those who read it.

 

3/5 stars

 

 

 

Bronze Gods – A.A. Aguirre

Bronze Gods is part fun and part frustrating. There’s nothing that bothers me more than reading a detective novel where I’m constantly three steps ahead of the detectives. What fun is that? That being said, the two detectives in Bronze Gods almost make all the frustration worth it. They grow on you, and by the time the book has finished, you’ve ended up having a lot of fun with them, despite the fact that you want to slap them sometimes. The plot isn’t that surprising, a lot of it is formulaic, but the world is rather fascinating and the characters are a lot of fun. This is one of those books that has plenty of problems, but it’s enjoyable, despite them. Worth reading if you’re into something with an interesting world but doesn’t require deep thought.

 

3/5 stars

 

 

 

The Human Division – John Scalzi

I don’t really like television for numerous reasons, so I struggled a bit with this book because it does read like a television show, in book form. Each chapter is a new episode in the series, type of thing. Despite that, it’s rather interesting, and not just for the unique way it is all put together. It’s Scalzi, so there’s a lot of dark humor and some deeper threads. I love how Scalzi writes on multiple levels. Even if this book did frustrate me in some respects, I enjoyed it. There really isn’t a clean resolution at the end, but it will leave readers wanting more – even readers who don’t like this sort of television-style book. I went into it not expecting much, and I ended it wanting to see what happens next. So get moving, Scalzi.

 

4/5 stars

 

 

 

Charming – Elliott James

Oh, the infodumps!! They killed this otherwise wonderful book. Great world building, lovable characters, the author infused the “fantastic” into the world in a natural, effortless way. However, there are a lot of infodumps and they bog down the plot and get exhausting. That being said, I did have fun reading this anyway. I have high hopes for the next book in the series, and I doubt that it will be so infodump heavy. Recommended, but with reservation.

 

3/5 stars

 

 

 

 

 

The Mad Scientist’s Daughter – Cassandra Rose Clark

I read this book because my kid saw it at the library. It had a moon on the cover. She’s obsessed with moons, so book = read. This is a fast read, and a fairly short book, comparatively speaking. The world is kind of vague, but the science fiction aspect is interesting. The romance is absolutely charming, which says a lot coming from this anti-romance reader. Totally recommend if you want something a little thoughtful, fast, absorbing, and very charming. Good job at nabbing this one, Angry Robot Books.

 

4/5 stars

 

 

SF Signal Column Launch

Today you can find me over on SF Signal.

Here is my official introduction.

Here is my first post – Disabilities Are Everywhere

It’s ridiculous how nervous I am about being on that website. Anyway, check it out!

Guest Post | How ‘Low-Brow’ is Fantasy? – A.J. Dalton

About the Author

“A J Dalton (the ‘A’ is for Adam) has been an English language teacher as far afield as Egypt, the Czech Republic, Thailand, Slovakia, Poland and Manchester University. He has lived in Manchester since 2003, but has a conspicuous Cockney accent, as he was born in Croydon on a dark night, when strange stars were seen in the sky.

He published his first fantasy trilogy, consisting of Necromancer’s Gambit (2008), Necromancer’s Betrayal (2009) and Necromancer’s Fall (2010), to great acclaim. He is currently published by Gollancz, with whom he has put out the best-selling titles Empire of the Saviours (2012) and Gateway of the Saviours (2013). He maintains the Metaphysical Fantasy website (www.ajdalton.eu), where there is plenty to interest fantasy fans and there is advice for aspiring authors.”

You can find out more about the author on his website.

—

The UK’s highest award for literature is the Man-Booker Prize. It considers literary fiction only, but not fantasy fiction. It considers fantasy to be ‘low brow’ genre fiction and generally not worthy. This is despite the fact that a number of Booker Prize winners have conspicuously ‘borrowed’ their themes and motifs from fantasy over the years. Nothing Tolkien ever wrote could be entered for the Booker Prize, no matter his contribution to literature and the UK’s cultural identity. More than that, fantasy isn’t considered by the Nobel Prize for Literature either! When the BBC made a one-hour special called ‘The Books People Really Read’ a few years back, they included plenty of crime genre fiction and romance, but there wasn’t a single mention of either JK Rowling or Terry Pratchett. What gives?

Why is there this denial of fantasy in certain quarters of society? Is fantasy a threat somehow? I suspect so. Basically, you can’t get a job as a philosopher these days so you have to write fantasy (or scifi) instead. The Brits consider it a bit ‘poncy’ to talk about philosophy openly, too, so they end up reading fantasy in private instead. Fantasy is perhaps all too real for certain sections of our society, sections that are insecure and inadequate, sections that like to speak in terms of ‘high’ and ‘low brow’, sections who are at the ‘top’ of society and want to quash the power of the rest. Fantasy is therefore revolutionary and has the potential power to change the real world so that it is a better place for all of us. My series with Gollancz, Empire of the Saviours, only gets two types of review – praise from the usual fantasy magazines, but utter condemnation from the wider press and media. They say the book is ‘warped’ and ‘twisted’. I reckon it’s the wider press and media who ‘warp’ and ‘twist’ things. But I could be wrong. Am I? Any other authors or readers of fantasy out there who have suffered any prejudice (overt or otherwise) for their interest/passion/dreams?

Guest Post: ‘Why Anthologies?’ – Gini Koch

About the Author

Gini Koch lives in Hell’s Orientation Area (aka Phoenix, AZ), works her butt off (sadly, not literally) by day, and writes by night with the rest of the beautiful people. She writes the fast, fresh and funny Alien/Katherine “Kitty” Katt series for DAW Books, the Necropolis Enforcement Files series, and the Martian Alliance Chronicles series for Musa Publishing. As G.J. Koch she writes the Alexander Outland series. She also writes under a variety of other pen names (including Anita Ensal, Jemma Chase, A.E. Stanton, and J.C. Koch), listens to all kinds of music 24/7, and is a proud comics geek-girl willing to discuss at any time why Wolverine is the best superhero ever (even if Deadpool does get all the best lines). She speaks frequently on what it takes to become a successful author and other aspects of writing and the publishing business. She is also the Lead Editor at Raphael’s Village, an online, nonpaying ’zine. Because she wasn’t busy enough, Gini’s added on featured guest columnist, reviewer, and webcaster for Slice of SciFi and It’s Comic Book Day. She can be reached through her website at www.ginikoch.com.

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Why anthologies? Why support them, why buy and read them, and why write for them?

When I was young, I ventured into reading horror (and science fiction, and fantasy) via anthologies. After I’d read every single mystery there was in the entire library system, the librarian at my local library, in desperation to make this girl shut up and go away, turned me onto horror. She handed me a Year’s Best horror anthology and told me to try it. Still not sure if she was a great librarian or just trying to scare me quiet.

But I read the first couple of shorts in that anthology and I was hooked.

I read all the horror out there, too, until I hit Stephen King’s collection of shorts, Night Shift. I had to stop reading horror after that — not because the stories weren’t good, they were, but because they were TOO good. I believed them. Wholly and utterly. And I couldn’t sleep without nightmares for weeks. (Same librarian then handed me the Year’s Best in science fiction, so I think she was on to something.) Now I can only read horror if I know the person who wrote it, so I can say, “Um, this didn’t really happen, right? Right? RIGHT?” Or if it’s really good. Or if it’s about kaiju. (Okay, so I’m still reading horror and still having nightmares even though I’m a great big grown up girl. It happens.)

So why do I write horror? In part because I tend to look at the world in a skewed fashion, and sometimes that fashion skews dark and weird and creepy. And because my main writing gig is to write funny, and usually funny science fiction. And being funny is a lot of work and much harder than most people realize. I write horror as a lovely break from writing funny. Though I write about kaiju, giant monsters, much more than in horror. In my first novel, Touched by an Alien, my heroine and her intrepid team of good guy aliens have to take on superbeings, which are that universe’s form of kaiju. They manage to win, but it takes a lot of ingenuity, or crazy, depending on how you look at it.

But I don’t always want the good guys to win. And sometimes, the good guy isn’t who you think it is. And horror, kaiju horror especially, lets me play around with those ideas, and more. Horror is, perhaps, the genre that most makes us think about moral ramifications of our choices, while simultaneously scaring the crap out of us. It’s a win-win for all.

So why should you fund the Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters Anthology? And why, as a byproduct, should you read it? Because it’s going to be filled with great short stories from me (writing as J.C. Koch) and a host of other awesome authors who all want to tell cool and scary stories about giant monsters doing what giant monsters do best — tearing things up and tearing things down…and so much more.

Anthologies are great ways to discover new authors, discover different aspects of authors you already know, and enjoy yourself one short story at a time. Kaiju Rising is going to be filled with amazing stories from a bevy of authors working at the top of their game. And it’s also going to be filled with beautiful artwork that brings the essence of each story into view. I can’t wait for you to see the art that Chuck Lukacs is doing for my piece because it’s perfect. Just like all the other artwork.

This may be the first anthology from Ragnorak, but it won’t be the last. This is a beautiful book, created with loving enthusiasm, and a team like this is going to do a lot more great stuff. Get in now, so you can brag later that you were there when the monsters came.