Wednesday, January 26, 2022
Book Review: A Practical Guide to Conquering the World (The Siege # 3) by K. J. Parker
Series links:
SIXTEEN WAYS TO DEFEND A WALLED CITY—FBC Review —Amazon
HOW TO RULE THE EMPIRE AND GET AWAY WITH IT - FBC REVIEW - Amazon
AUTHOR INFO: K.J. Parker is a pseudonym for Tom Holt. According to the biographical notes in some of Parker's books, Parker has previously worked in law, journalism, and numismatics, and now writes and makes things out of wood and metal. It is also claimed that Parker is married to a solicitor and now lives in southern England. According to an autobiographical note, Parker was raised in rural Vermont, a lifestyle which influenced Parker's work.
Publisher: Orbit (January 11, 2022) Length: 385 pages Cover design: Lauren Panepinto Formats: audiobook, ebook, paperback
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Order Obsidian HERE
AUTHOR INFO: Sarah J. Daley is a former chef who lives and writes in the Chicago Metropolitan area with her husband and teenaged son. She earned a degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Though she still enjoys the heat and chaos of a professional kitchen, she is now writing full-time. She enjoys traveling, creating costumes for comic con, riding the occasional horse, and streaming old sitcoms for background noise.
Release Date: January 25, 2022 Publisher: Angry Robot Pages: 400 Cover design: Mark Ecob
Yoko Ogawa at WikipediaOrder Hotel Iris HERE
INTRODUCTION: I have heard of Yoko Ogawa in connection with her most famous novel, translated as The Housekeeper and the Professor. I got a copy of that one a few years ago when it was published here in the US though I have not read it yet, but recently I opened her newest (2010) English translation, Hotel Iris and I was hooked.
Author Info: David spent more than fifteen years as a journalist, including seven years as a crime reporter with the Yorkshire Post - walking the Hull streets that would later become the setting for the Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy novels.
Publisher: Head of Zeus (January 21, 2022) Length: 375 Cover art:
Read FBC's interview with Kerstin
Publication Date: November 12, 2020 Publisher: Kerstín Espinosa Rosero Page Count: 400 Cover design: Franziska Haase
Publication Date: November 12, 2020 Publisher: Kerstín Espinosa Rosero Page Count: 400 Cover design: Franziska Haase
Other books by the author:
GREENSMITH - FBC Review - Amazon
THE LOOSENING SKIN—FBC Review —Amazon
THE BEAUTY - FBC REVIEW - Amazon
AUTHOR INFO: Aliya Whiteley writes across many different genres and lengths. Her first published full-length novels, Three Things About Me and Light Reading, were comic crime adventures. Her 2014 SF-horror novella The Beauty was shortlisted for the James Tiptree and Shirley Jackson awards. The following historical-SF novella, The Arrival of Missives, was a finalist for the Campbell Memorial Award, and her noir novel The Loosening Skin was shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke Award.
She has written over one hundred published short stories that have appeared in Interzone, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Black Static, Strange Horizons, The Dark, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency and The Guardian, as well as in anthologies such as Unsung Stories’ 2084 and Lonely Planet’s Better than Fiction.
She also writes a regular non-fiction column for Interzone
Publisher: Solaris (March 16, 2021) Length: 300 pages Cover art: Dominic Forbes
AUTHOR INFO: James Breakwell is a professional comedy writer and amateur father of four girls, ages ten and under. He is best known for his family humor Twitter account @XplodingUnicorn, which has more than a million followers. He has published three comedy parenting books that explore hot button issues like the benefits of doing as little as possible and the best ways to protect your child from zombie attacks.
Buy the book HERE
OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO: R S Ford is a writer of fantasy from Leeds in the heartland of Yorkshire. He writes historical fiction under the name of Richard Cullen.
FORMAT/INFO: Engines of Empire was published on January 18th, 2022 by Orbit Books. It is 575 pages and is told from the third person POVs of Tyreta, Conall, Fulren, Rosomon and Lancelin. It is available in paperback and ebook formats.
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: In the kingdom of Torwyn, the Guilds of commerce hold sway over the land, and few are more powerful than the Hawkspurs. Lady Rosomon has ensured that each of her three heirs are pursuing a path that will prepare them to eventually assume leadership in the guild. Conall is undergoing military service on the frontier, while Fulren prepares for an apprenticeship in artificing. Tyreta, meanwhile, has been sent to an island mining outpost to be trained in running the operations and the family business. But troubled times are sparked in the kingdom when an emissary from a rival kingdom is murdered and Fulren is framed. With no one at court willing to defend her son’s innocence, Rosomon must investigate matters on her own, and soon discovers a sinister plot. Elsewhere in the kingdom, Conall and Tyreta make disturbing discoveries of their own that will push the kingdom ever closer to war.
Engines of Empire is a fast-paced epic fantasy adventure that is always engaging, though at the cost of deeply written characters. Those who find 600-page fantasy tomes a slog may find this story more to their liking, as it never lets up the pace, constantly throwing characters from one fire into another. I found myself constantly hooked by the story and flew through it in four or five days – books of similar length have taken me well over a week.
Engines is a brutal tale with surprising moments, peppered across multiple kingdoms and different magic systems. I enjoyed the steampunk adjacent setting, where industry has risen through the use of arcana devices powered by magic stones mined from various regions. These stones power everything from giant trains to guns to mechsuits – fans of the recent Arcane will enjoy the magical technology vibe. There are also some great action set pieces (Fulren in particular has a memorable fight).
What succeeded less in my opinion was the writing of the characters. The story of Engines of Empire is so whirlwind-fast that we hardly get a moment to sit with any of our POV protagonists. The result is that everyone felt a bit the same: hot-headed, impulsive people who are nonetheless dedicated to the family and who will go to extreme lengths to protect it without a second thought. “I’ll pay whatever the cost” is a feeling almost every character utters without hesitation. While you could chock some of this up to “it runs in the family,” the result is that you have four characters who generally make knee-jerk reactions to every bit of information they receive. There’s little variation to how anyone handles the situation. No one plays the long game or is a coward or is more methodical. As a “character first” kind of reader, this was a bit of a hang up for me, but your mileage may vary!
CONCLUSION: While Engines of Empire was not a home run for me, I commend the author for writing a tome that goes by in the blink of an eye. I didn’t connect with the characters in the way I was hoping, but it is certainly an engaging story setting up plenty of mysteries and trials for the Hawkspur family to overcome.
AUTHOR INFO: Robert Rick McCammon was a full-time horror writer for many years. Among his many popular novels were the classics Boy's Life and Swan Song. After taking a hiatus for his family, he returned to writing with an interest in historical fiction.
McCammon resides in Birmingham, Alabama. He is currently working on the eighth Matthew Corbett novel, The King of Shadows.
Publisher: Subterranean Press (February 2, 2010) Length: 440 pages
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