Fantasy Book Critic: Fantasy Book Critic’s 2008 Review/2009 Preview

2008 FAVORITES:

“Other Times Than Peace”, a collection of military stories from Baen Books by David Drake, a classical scholar and former attorney who experienced war as a tanker, and whose stories about the dilemmas and problems soldiers face are always worth considering. “Marseguro”, a novel from DAW by Edward Willet that explores the collision of interstellar war/colonization, bioengineering, and fundamentalist human religion, and the consequences of extremism. “Galactic North”, a collection of works from Ace by Alastair Reynolds, with some chilling insights displayed in these short visions of the future.

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2009:

I had a chance to read an upcoming book by a new author—Diana Rowland—entitled “The Mark of the Demon” (Bantam Spectra, June 2009). It’s an intriguing police procedural about the intersection of summoning demons with law enforcement and told from the viewpoint of a woman detective. One of the great strengths of the book is its solid grounding in law enforcement, which is all too unusual in fantasies involving demons, but which shouldn’t be surprising, in that Rowland is a former street cop as well as a former forensic specialist. It’s a strong book, not for the faint-hearted, but solid and engrossing.

ON THE HORIZON FOR L.E. MODESITT, JR.:

“Imager”, the first book of the Imager Portfolio, a new fantasy series, will be released in March in hardcover by Tor. “Haze”, a standalone SF novel in hardcover, also from Tor, begins in a future world federation dominated by China several thousand years in the future when the federation discovers a planet that may be alien . . . or human-alien . . . or something else entirely. “Imager’s Challenge” is the second book in the Imager Portfolio and will be released in October/November. In addition, I’ll be having an article on the development of the magic system of the world of Recluce appearing in the next edition (#13) of Blackgate, as well as a story in the Federations anthology edited by John Joseph Adams for Prime Books.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

L.E. Modesitt, Jr. is the bestselling science fiction/fantasy author of over fifty novels including The Saga of Recluce, The Corean Chronicles, and the Spellsong Cycle. He is also the author of several nonfiction books and numerous short fiction. For more information, please visit the author’s Official Website.

NOTE: For more author responses, please visit Fantasy Book Critic's 2008 Review/2009 Preview index HERE.

6:00 PM |

Posted by Robert |

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2 comments:

Mihai A. said...: Robert, I nominated you for Kreativ Blogger Award :)

http://darkwolfsfantasyreviews.blogspot.com/2008/12/kreativ-blogger-award.html; December 17, 2008 at 7:26 AM
Robert said...: Thanks Mihai! I believe Darque Reviews also nominated me, so thank you too Kim!!!; December 17, 2008 at 10:25 AM