As the Liz William-Night Shade publishing debacle went online on 07/06/10, there were a couple of other blogs who had also run similar stories on that day namely John Ottinger's Grasping for the Wind and Rose Fox over at Publisher's Weekly blog. It turns out that not only was Liz Williams involved but also another author named Brendan Halpin who had published a book called "Mall of Cthulu" under the name of Seamus Cooper & his tale was a bit more horrific to read, for more details head over to his blog post over here
This situation was a bit freakier with terms to his book being sold by Night Shade, without having the actual book rights & with no royalties being sent to Brendan. Graeme at Graeme's Fantasy Book Review & Niall at The Speculative Scotsman have elucidated more about Brendan's situation over at their blogs. Elizabeth Moon was also another author who was having problems from her association with Night Shade and she spoke about it on Liz's Blog. Now with so many authors piling up their list of issues, Night Shade was truly in a spot of bother & they have issued a Press release regarding their glitches & basically they are accepting full responsibility for it & here's are a few crucial excerpts from their release:
"First and foremost, we at Night Shade Books would like to apologize for any problems we've caused any of our authors. The last three years have been brutal on us, although not in any way we could have expected. While we've faced the same difficulties every small and independent press has suffered in this age of sales downturns, higher-than-expected returns, and other challenges, what has caused us the most trouble have been our successes."
"This has led to some major miscommunication, and sometimes flat-out lack of communication, with our authors, sometimes, even amongst ourselves. We screwed up: Details were missed, one of us assumed another was handling a situation, or a reluctance to deliver bad news turned into an unprofessional excuse to procrastinate. The issues that have come up today, at their core, are really ones of communication. All this could have been avoided through simple phone calls and emails, through us letting people know what was happening. That said, this has been a wake-up call for us. We have been working hard to improve all areas of Night Shade Books."
"We have already addressed the issues currently at hand involving Elizabeth Moon, Brendan Halpin, and Liz Williams. We have also contacted SFWA, and will be working hand-in-hand with them to find out if any other authors have issues with us, but haven't come forward yet, and get those problems resolved. At this time, we would very much like any of our authors, past or present, who have or have had issues with our conduct or business practices, to step forward either to us or to SFWA, so that we can attempt to resolve any hardships we have may have caused."
You can read the entire release over here at Publishers Weekly blog and from the looks of it, it seems that they have accepted their mistakes and are looking to amend them & move on. Is this just a conciliatory gesture or genuine regret, we cannot say however we'll have to view their future actions and find out whether this wake-up call was heralded or not. For Night Shade's sake I sincerely hope that they get their bearings together and avoid such erroneous endeavors completely in the future as the authors [Williams, Halpin & Moon] hopefully will verify if these corrective actions in the press release have been initiated or not.
Update: Brendan Halpin chimes in with his thoughts about Night Shade’s formal apology over at his blog
12:01 PM | 
Posted by
Liviu |
Visit Lisa Mangum's Official Website Here
Read FBC's Review of The Hourglass Door Here
Order The Golden Spiral from Amazon Here
Overview: The hourglass door has closed behind Dante. It is up to Dante to stop Zo, Tony and V. In the crossing over through the door, something terrible has gone wrong. Dante is trapped in a dark, lifeless room where he can't see, hear, or do anything. He has no way of escaping. His only hope lies in Abby.
Abby has just started to accept life without Dante for a bit. She's recruited her friends to help build another time machine and help her get back to Dante. Until what she's been dreading happens. Zo has gained control of the river, the river that controls time and everyone's life. He has started by targeting Abby's life and changing things up. Some of the change is little some is life altering.
Without Dante, Abby has no where to turn for help. She must figure out how to stop Zo from changing every one's life, and she must figure out a way to free Dante to allow him to save the world and time as everyone knows it.
Format: The Golden Spiral is the second book in the Hourglass Door Trilogy. While it's not really necessary to read the first novel, it is recommended as a lot of the events wouldn't make sense without having read the first book. It stands at 384 pages. It is a mixture of time traveling, romance, and magic.
Analysis: After reading The Hourglass Door I couldn't wait to see what happened in the second book. The first book of the series was unlike any other "paranormal" romance that I have read, it was quick paced, filled with fun realistic characters and just pulled me in. I had hoped that the momentum from the first book would carry over to the second, luckily it did.
The Golden Spiral is filled with all the same elements that made me fall in love with the first book. In fact it felt as if Lisa Mangum's writing has grown with this second book.
All of the characters that are involved with the Golden Spiral were introduced in The Hourglass Door. In this installment the characters seem to grow with the readers. Abby seems to be adjusting to understanding what Dante is and how to handle the time element. The scenes that I thought were amazingly done and the best part of the book were those that involved Abby and Valerie. There was just so much emotion within the writing that these parts of the books were captivating and the pure talent that was involved with these scenes just flows out.
While I enjoyed this book there was an issue with the pacing that I came across.
Maybe it was because The Hourglass Door was so filled with action that it felt non-stop and constant, that Golden Spiral sometimes felt as if it dragged in parts. There were a lot of sections that were devoted to teenage angst and longing. These parts were needed to make the reader feel Abby's longing for Dante, but it seemed to consume the plot and was a bit overdone. The beginning of the book started out with a bang and then the pacing started to stall, and within the last 100 pages it was quick paced all the way to the end.
As with all middle books this novel does set up all the events for what is to be a very climatic ending to the series. There is a bit of a cliffhanger feeling but not enough that I felt cheated. It had a feeling of wanting to know what happens and having to wait, but I think all the events are handled very well.
Overall, I enjoyed Golden Spiral. It had a bit of a different feel then Hourglass Door but the writing was still amazing. I'm not sure it's my favorite novel of the series but it did have some amazing stand out parts of it, for example the Valerie story element. Lisa Mangum shows that her first novel was more then just a one time deal, and she leaves me hanging for the third book (scheduled for 2011 release).
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
"The Palace of Impossible Dreams" by Jennifer Fallon (Reviewed by Liviu Suciu and Mihir Wanchoo)
Official Jennifer Fallon Website
Order "The Palace of Impossible Dreams" HERE
Read FBC Review of "The Immortal Prince"
Read FBC Review of "The Gods of Amyrantha"
Read FBC Interview with Jennifer Fallon
INTRODUCTION: "The Tide Lords" which is one of the most "twisty" and ultimately daring and stunning fantasy series in recent times, has reached the third volume on US shores. I was so impressed by the first volume "The Immortal Prince" that I ordered the already published Aussie editions of books 2-4 and read them some 18 months ago, but together with Mihir who is also a big time fan of the series, I am reviewing each installment as it gets published here in the USA. This time we mix it, so the following comes from both of us without any particular attribution.
For a detailed overview of the series you can check our reviews of the first two books, but here is a short reminder of the setup: on the planet of Amyrantha civilizations fall in cataclysmic events millenniums apart and stories say that is due to the conflict of powerful immortals called the Tide Lords who are all but human - including the capability of having children with regular mortals - except for their immortality and their magical abilities that wax and wane with some kind of cosmic tide. When the series starts, the cosmic tide has been at its lowest for many centuries, so the Tide Lords are dismissed by many as legends, though of course the first novel ends with the Tide rising and the Tide Lords starting to come out of their "hiding" personae.
FORMAT/CLASSIFICATION: "The Palace of Impossible Dreams" (US hc edition) stands at about 460 pages while the Australian mmpb edition, both Mihir and myself have read stands at about 580 pages. As with the previous installments there is a prologue set in the past and featuring some Tide Lords' nefarious doings and the ordinary mortals who tried to resist them, as well as an epilogue that presages the stunning tetralogy ending The Chaos Crystal. There are two superb maps of each of Amyrantha's hemispheres.
The chapters are all from the third person perspective and feature as POV's: Stellan, Cayal, Arkady, Declan, Tiji, Warlock, Jaxyn, Lukys, while the story picks up immediately after the events at the end of "The Gods of Amyrantha".
Arkady is aboard a ship towards Senestra though not of her own accord. She is trying hard to survive being a pawn in the long-going dispute between the self-righteous Brynden and her lover Cayal.
Declan Hawkes is stunned at his recent elevation and now has to figure what he's going to do with all the power at his disposal. Stellan Desean, who became Declan's unexpected companion, has a royal personage with him and wants to survive politically and turn the tables on his former lover Jaxyn.
Tiji who thought she had been kidnapped finds out that her captivity is not factual and also learns more about her own kind, while Cayal finally meets with Pellys and Lukys and then hatches a plan to get his desired wish that propelled a lot of the action in the first volume.
ANALYSIS: "The Palace of Impossible Dreams" begins with quite a few plots going. Jennifer Fallon has to be commended as she has a rather acute sense of how to keep the reader tense and wary for the littlest clue. She constantly switches the POVs in her chapters and has the reader guessing as to where the plot is turning. Now after two books the reader will have a semblance of what is actually going on and what all the immortals are actually after. In this case it is an object known as the Chaos Crystal which apparently is the root of immortality and the power of the Tide Lords.
"The Immortal Prince" was in many ways a Cayal and Arkady novel and "The Gods of Amyrantha" started the Tide Lords full re-apparition, but here the plot thickens and we get the first glimmers of where the series is truly going. While the old favorites Arkady and Cayal still have powerful roles, this book is truly an ensemble effort as the cast goes, while geographically the series extends to cover more and more of Amyrantha.
The pace of the book is unrelenting and you *have* to turn the pages to see what happens, while the continual switching of pov's is superbly handled, so you never feel a lack of balance. The twists and turns keep coming, alliances are formed and broken, power jostling is ongoing and the Tide is still going higher since as the uber-immortal Lukys notes, after such a long low tide, there usually comes the ultimate one in a million years "king-tide". As with the previous novels, some of the most poignant moments are given by the past stories of the immortals.
The series proceeds seemingly naturally from one scene to another, however looking back from the beginning of the first volume, the change in focus and the expansion of the storyline is quite visible and on every reread of the books I am still amazed how well the author pulls it off so looked from a distance "The Palace of Impossible Dreams" could be said to belong to a different series - though again it just flows from the previous volumes.
The only niggle about the novel is that it truly begs the next volume since the tension is raised so much and the plot-lines are ready to "explode" that not having Chaos Crystal to read asap can lead to frustration. "The Palace of Impossible Dreams" is epic fantasy of the highest level.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
No More of Liz Williams' Inspector Chen Novels at Least for Now (Mihir Wanchoo)
Liz Williams at Live Journal
Read FBC Interview with Ms. Williams
Read FBC Review of the Inspector Chen short stories
Read FBC Review of The Shadow Pavilion
Read FBC Reviews of Bloodmind, Darkland, Winterstrike
Liz Williams is a prolific author & her books have always had absorbing subject matter be it her Sci-fi ones or her urban-fantasy comedic thrillers. I became a fan of her writing when I happened upon "Snake Agent", the first Inspector Chen novel. It opened up a world wherein Chinese mythology met advanced technology in a city called Singapore Three and therein resided characters such as Chen, Inari, Zhu Irzh & Badger. Thus with such intriguing characters and unique-ish world setting, Liz Williams gave us 4 tales set in the universe she had created.
After last year's "Shadow Pavilion" I was highly anticipating "Iron Khan" this year as February was supposed to be its release month. I asked Night Shade books for an ARC copy and they gladly obliged. However February went by without the release of the book & according to Amazon the release was delayed unto April or later. Even April went by with no release & the release date was further pushed back. It was around June that I thought of asking Liz Williams about this & then I happened upon this LJ post of hers; to my disappointment I discovered that Night Shade books had dropped her remaining 2 Inspector Chen novels [This year's Iron Khan & next year's Morning Star]
She also went to recount how she had not heard back from her publishers and so had to take this drastic step after she realized that her books were dropped without any formal communication from Night Shade. It is regrettable that the books have been dropped and even more so that Night Shade choose to do it in the manner they did. Liz also informed in another LJ post 4 days later as to how she received a formal apology & she accepted it.
Now while it's not surprising for any publisher to drop a series which they deem unsuccessful, I'm saddened that such a wonderful series has been dropped & all the fans will have to wait indefinitely for the further Inspector Chen novels. Though it must be said about Night Shade, that while a small press it has so far published an impressive array of titles in both Fantasy & SF.
The previous 4 Inspector Chen titles have been published in 4 gorgeous covers & also had a special edition wherein each title had an extra short story set in the same world released along with it. I hope that Liz Williams does manage to find another publisher for her remaining titles & hopefully if everything goes right Liz might announce it in the near future.
Now on a side note Liz Williams has also announced a short story sale on her blog the details which you can read over here and on the plus side there will be more Inspector Chen short stories along with other interesting titles about which you can learn more in Liz's post. I for one will definitely be subscribing & hopefully like the previous ones, will be reviewing them here as well.
Note by Liviu: Liz Williams is a favorite author here at FBC and while I am less interested in the Inspector Chen novels, I am a big fan of her sf novels which I have read almost all and of which I own all; Robert reviewed the duology Darkland/Bloodmind set in the universe of her debut The Ghost Sister , while I reviewed Winterstrike set in the universe of her multiply award nominated - and awesome novel by the way - Banner of Souls, so we all hope that these difficulties are temporary and we will see new Liz Williams novels and stories soon.
Monday, July 5, 2010
"Magic Bites & Magic Burns: Kate Daniels Books 1 & 2" by Ilona Andrews (Reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)
Visit Ilona Andrews Official Website Here
MAGIC BITES: BOOK ONE
Overview/Analysis: Magic Bites is the first book in the Kate Daniels series and opens up in an Atlanta which has been devastated by Magic. The authors have conjured up an interesting world scenario in which Magic seems to have returned with a bang. Originally both magic and science were on an even keel, however as society and mankind advanced in the field of science; magic was dwindling. Eventually science got so far ahead that the metaphysical thread connecting the two caused magic to snap and come back in waves. This makes mankind relearn its role in the grander scheme of things and thus magic comes and goes leaving mankind on the planet to share with creatures who are affected by it. The official explanation is given over here by the authors.
In the opening chapter readers are introduced to Kate Daniels, who is a mercenary and manages to scrap by doing various odds and ends jobs. She however gets a shocking letter which announces that her one-time mentor and the closest thing she has ever had as a family, Greg Feldman a Knight of the Order of Merciful Aid, has been murdered in a brutal way. She decides to follow up on his murder as her unresolved anger at him will not permit anything else. She then contacts his fellow Knights who surprisingly act in accord with her wishes and even allow her to become a temporary member of the Order to facilitate her investigations. Armed with her snappy sense of humor and her fighting abilities Kate sets forth to determine who or what killed Greg?
During the process of gathering information she learns that Greg was a bit on the friendlier side with the Pack, which includes all the were-creatures and proceeds to meet up with them. This leads up to an important event in her life as she makes her first contact with the Beast Lord who controls the pack and is the absolute authority on all things related to the Pack. Kate doesn’t exactly help with her attitude and soon gets into more trouble with the Pack and the Vampire controlling People who seem to be having similar problems with the Pack. Kate manages to make do without destroying her alliances with the Pack as well as the People and also sets about to discover Greg’s murderer. She gains somewhat of a sidekick during her investigations and also manages to intrigue some one enough to get her a dinner date.
The writing is a bit patchy but since this is the first book, it can be understood and gleaned over. The main protagonist is the biggest draw as readers see the world through her eyes. With her being such a strong individual it does help the book to be alleviated from the many strong female protagonist clones. Kate Daniels as a main character is fascinating, as a few snippets about her past are revealed, but who she is, is still very much shrouded in mystery. I guess as the series moves forward we will learn more about her. (The author are currently contracted for seven books, of which four are written).
The plot has a main murder mystery to it and is handled well, as readers is race along with the characters to spot the actual culprit. Some veteran readers might very well get the clues and figure it out, however I wasn’t one of them and thus I thoroughly enjoyed the race to the climax and the climatic sequence as well.
This was a good debut and even though it had its shortcomings, the main character and the world scenario had me hooked on to the next book.
MAGIC BURNS: BOOK TWO
Overview/Analysis – The second book opens up roughly three months after the events described in the first book which have been christened as the Red Point Stalker case. Kate Daniels finds herself in a better position than earlier as she is now a liaison officer between the Mercenary Guild as well as the Order of the Merciful Aid. She’s making a decent living and still has her preferred status amongst the Pack as well as her secrets are safe with her.
The most recent case she gets is when Derek (apparent sidekick) approaches her to do a favor for the pack as someone seems to have stolen a set of the city maps from the pack and in the process hurt more than a few of them at the same time.
Kate’s new odyssey begins where she has to figure who is the mysterious bowman who can disappear at will and why is he after these maps and the young girl Julie, who’s mom is a witch and is missing with her entire coven and lastly who is behind all of this. Kate seems to have established some sort of a working relationship with the beast Lord Curran, however newer developments might lead to further deterioration in her precocious standings and with her trying to find out more about Roland (her main enemy). This time it looks as if Kate will have more than what she can handle.
The writing is better in this one as we get to read and understand Kate better. In the first book it seemed as if the authors were a bit unsure as to how to showcase her but in this book she’s the same hard-talking and fighting female but her persona is much more appreciable. While in the first book I couldn’t connect wholly to the main character, the second book completely drew me in and made Kate Daniels and her life that much more readable. The world is also deepened with the introduction of Irish mythology as the first book featured East European myths. Readers also get to see more interaction between Kate and the Beast Lord which forms a crucial aspect of these books. There is another climatic battle in this book as well however the scale is tremendous as in the first book it was more personal whereas in this one, the entire pack gets involved. The ending is fitting and also leaves the readers guessing as to what might be happening next in Kate’s personal life.
Conclusion: I think Ilona Andrews might have given us another worthy character to follow and the world which they have created is pretty detailed and different at the same time. This series while seeming like many of those in the urban fantasy subgenre manages to differentiate itself by having a female protagonist who primarily is a bad ass but also a decent person at heart. There is also a grander plot arc working behind the scene as snippets of dialogue tell us about Kate’s crusade against Roland and how she is definitely more than what she seems to be. This is another fantastic series which I have discovered and one which I plan to follow till the authors bring it to the fantastic end which they seem to have planned for all us readers.
While this year I have done several posts about favorite novels so far, as well as updating my (collated) 2010 Anticipated Book Post with short reports and links to the full reviews when available for 61 of the 90-100 books mentioned there, I decided to do a half-year post too. I read some 97 books published in 2010 so far and I will focus on those.
There are five novels that blew me away and will compete for the top spot in their category and overall at the end of the year. A series debut, three standalones and a series finale. There are several series continuation books that raised the respective series a notch higher or confirmed it as big time favorite. Then there are the series debuts - some also author debuts - that impressed me a lot and whose sequels will get pride of place in the next year anticipated list.
At the end I will mention several books that either disappointed me to an extent or annoyed me badly.
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The Top Five in Order of Reading:
The Folding Knife by KJ Parker - fantasy, standalone, my number two anticipated novel of 2010 (full rv)
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell - literary historical fiction with a touch of the fantastic, standalone, my top non-sff anticipated novel of 2010 (full rv)
The Evolutionary Void by Peter F. Hamilton - sf, series ending and another Top 10 Anticipated 2010 Book (full rv August, short take HERE)
Cold Magic by Kate Eliott - fantasy, series debut, came out of nowhere with no expectations (full rv September, short take HERE)
The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer - literary historical fiction, standalone and author's novelistic debut, came out of nowhere (full rv)
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Series Continuations That Raised the Series One Notch or Confirmed it as a Big Time Favorite
City of Ruin by Mark Newton - fantasy, #2/4, Top 10 Anticipated (full rv)
Salute the Dark by Adrian Tchaikovsky - fantasy, #4/10 (full rv)
The Emerald Storm by Michael Sullivan - fantasy, #4/6 (full rv)
A Mighty Fortress by David Weber - theoretically sf but close in spirit to traditional epic fantasy, #4/??, my number five anticipated novel of 2010 (full rv)
Naamah's Curse by Jacqueline Carey - fantasy, #2/3, my number four anticipated novel of 2010 (full rv)
Mission of Honor by David Weber - sf, #16/??, my number one anticipated novel of 2010 (full rv)
The Map of All Things by Kevin J. Anderson - fantasy, #2/3 (full rv)
Geosynchron by David L. Edelman - sf, #3/3 and series ending (full rv)
Secrets of the Fire Sea by Stephen Hunt - this can be taken as either sf or fantasy, though it's more sfnal imho, #4/6 (full rv)
Children No More by Mark Van Name -sf, #4/?? (full rv late July, short take HERE)
Stealing Fire by Jo Graham- historical fantasy, #3/?? (full rv)
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Notable Standalone:
Black Hills by Dan Simmons - literary historical fiction with both fantasy and sfnal components (full rv)
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Awesome or Impressive Series Debuts
The Last Page by Anthony Huso - fantasy, author debut, part of a duology and one of two awesome debuts (full rv August, short take HERE)
Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis - historical fantasy, author debut as original work goes, part of a trilogy and the second of the awesome debuts of 2010 (full rv)
Passion Play by Beth Bernobich - fantasy, author's novelistic debut and part of a trilogy, very impressive and with great potential as the story deepens (full rv October, short take HERE)
The Noise Within by Ian Whates - sf, author's second novel by a month, debut of a series of unknown (by me) length, very impressive and with great potential as the story deepens (full rv)
Shadow's Son by Jon Sprunk - fantasy, author's debut and part of a trilogy, quite impressive (full rv)
The Secrets of the Sands by Leona Wisoker - fantasy, author's debut and part of a series of unknown length, quite impressive (full rv)
The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman - sf in setting, fantasy in spirit, very divisive - love it/hate it novel - but it really impressed me and its sequel stands among my highest anticipated ones ever (full dual rv that reflects this opinion split to an extent)
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Disappointments or Annoying Novels
Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds - sf, standalone, my number 3 expected novel of 2010 and a moderate disappointment (full rv)
Absorption by John Meaney - sf, trilogy debut, a novel I thought could be my #1 sf of the year and a relatively major disappointment but with chances of improvement as the series goes on (full rv)
Up Jim River by Michael Flynn - sf, #2/3(??) in a series, a novel that tried too hard and a minor disappointment (full rv)
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald - sf, standalone, a novel that was a big fail for me for "tourist postcard" world building while adequate as plot/style (full rv July/August, short take HERE)
The Dream of Perpetual Motion by Dexter Palmer - literary sff, standalone and a high expectation author's debut that fell very flat for me (full rv Robert)
Tome of the Undergates by Sam Sykes - fantasy, series and author's debut and worst novel I've read in a long time (un-review HERE); very annoying too, the potty humor and all caps words are major pet peeves of mine
This month Robert Thompson provided most of the book titles with additions by Cindy Hannikman, Liviu Suciu and Mihir Wanchoo. We are featuring 60 books. This month there were considerably more new sff releases but we tried to limit ourselves to a reasonable number and we chose the books most in tune with what's reviewed here.
The release dates are US unless marked otherwise and the books are first edition unless noted differently. The dates are on a best known basis so they are not guaranteed; same about the edition information. Since information sometimes is out of date even in the Amazon/Book Depository links we use for listings, books get delayed or sometimes even released earlier, we would truly appreciate if you would send us an email about any listing with incorrect information.
Sometimes a cover image is not available at the time of the post and also sometimes covers change unexpectedly so while we generally use the Amazon one when available and cross check with Google Images, the ultimate bookstore cover may be different.
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“The Crowded Shadows” by Celine Kiernan. Release Date: July 1, 2010.
“The Restoration Game” by Ken MacLeod. UK Release Date: July 1, 2010.
“A Handful of Pearls & Other Stories” by Beth Bernobich. July 1, 2010.
“Heartless” by Anne Elisabeth Stengl. Release Date: July 1, 2010.
“Forbidden Sea” by Sheila A. Nielson. Release Date: July 1, 2010.
"Ghostopolis" by Doug Tennapel Release Date: July 1, 2010.
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"The Blackhope Enigma" by Teresa Flavin UK Release Date: July 1, 2010.
“The Sleeping Beauty” by Mercedes Lackey. Release Date: July 1, 2010.
“Empire of Light” by Gary Gibson. UK Release Date: July 2, 2010."Death by Diamonds" by Annette Blair - 6 July 2010
"Discord's Apple" by Carrie Vaughn - 06 Jul 2010
“The Fuller Memorandum” by Charles Stross. Release Date: July 6, 2010.
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"Think of a Number" by John Verdon - 06 Jul 2010
"A Devil in the Details" by K A Stewart - 06 Jul 2010
“The Year's Best SF: 27th Annual Collection” edited by Gardner Dozois. July 6, 2010.
“Song of the Dragon” by Tracy & Laura Hickman. July 6, 2010.
“Gateways” ed. by Elizabeth A. Hull. Release Date: July 6, 2010.
“Red Hood's Revenge” by Jim C. Hines. Release Date: July 6, 2010.
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“The Girls with Games of Blood” by Alex Bledsoe. July 6, 2010.
“Pathfinder” by Laura E. Reeve. Release Date: July 6, 2010.
“The Word For World Is Forest” by Ursula K. Le Guin. July 6, 2010 (Reprint).
“Primeval” by David L. Golemon. Release Date: July 6, 2010.
“The Season of Risks” by Susan Hubbard. Release Date: July 6, 2010.
“The Magickers Chronicles” by Emily Drake. Release Date: July 6, 2010.
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“The Grimm Legacy” by Polly Shulman. Release Date: July 8, 2010.
"The Khilaian Sphere" by Aaron Rosenberg Release Date: July 8, 2010.
"The Whisperers" by John Connolly - 13 Jul 2010
“Johannes Cabal the Detective” by Jonathan L. Howard. Release Date: July 13, 2010.
“Lucy” by Laurence Gonzales. Release Date: July 13, 2010.
“7 Souls” by Barnabas Miller & Jordan Orlando. Release Date: July 13, 2010.
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“X Isle” by Steve Augarde. Release Date: July 13, 2010.
“Sleepless” by Cyn Balog. Release Date: July 13, 2010.
“The Unit” by Terry DeHart. Release Date: July 14, 2010.
“The Very Best of Charles de Lint” by Charles de Lint. Release Date: July 15, 2010.
“The Third Bear” by Jeff VanderMeer. Release Date: July 15, 2010.
"Urchin and the Rage Tide" by M.I. McAllister Release Date: July 20, 2010.
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“Masked” edited by Lou Anders. Release Date: July 20, 2010.
"Blood Men" by Paul Cleave Release Date: 20 Jul 2010
“Imager's Intrigue” by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.. Release Date: July 20, 2010.
“The Bird of the River” by Kage Baker. Release Date: July 20, 2010.
“All That Lives Must Die” by Eric Nylund. Release Date: July 20, 2010.
“Dead Space: Martyr” by B.K. Evenson. Release Date: July 20, 2010.
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“The Selected” by Patrick Cave. Release Date: July 20, 2010.
“Linger” by Maggie Stiefvater. Release Date: July 20, 2010.
“The War that Came Early: West & East” by Harry Turtledove. Release Date: July 27, 2010.
“Dragongirl” by Todd McCaffrey. Release Date: July 27, 2010.
“The Dervish House” by Ian McDonald. Release Date: July 27, 2010.
“The Hounds of Avalon” by Mark Chadbourn. Release Date: July 27, 2010 (US Debut).
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“Hawkwood and the Kings” by Paul Kearney. Release Date: July 27, 2010 (US Debut).
“The Uncrowned King” by Rowena Corey Daniels. Release Date: July 27, 2010.
“Stormlord Rising” by Glenda Larke. Release Date: July 27, 2010.
“The Chamber of Ten” by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon. Release Date: July 27, 2010.
“The Terminal State” by Jeff Somers. Release Date: July 27, 2010.
"Wolf's Cross" by S A Swann Release Date: July 27, 2010.
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“Lincoln's Sword” by Debra Doyle & James Macdonald. Release Date: July 27, 2010.
“Stuff of Legends” by Ian Gibson. Release Date: July 27, 2010.
“Heroes Return" by Moira J. Moore Release Date: July 27, 2010.
“The Four Fingers of Death” by Rick Moody. Release Date: July 28, 2010.
“The Reluctant Mage” by Karen Miller. Release Date: July 28, 2010.
“The Black Lung Captain” by Chris Wooding. UK Release Date: July 29, 2010.
Read FBC's Review of Blood of Ambrose Here
Visit James Enge's Website Here
Order This Crooked Way from Amazon Here
Overview: Morlock Ambrosius returns! Travelling alone in the depths of winter, Morlock Ambrosius (bitterly dry drunk, master of all magical makers, wandering swordsman, and son of Merlin Ambrosius and Nimue Viviana) is attacked by an unknown enemy. To unmask his enemy and end the attacks he must travel a long crooked way through the world: past the soul-eating Boneless One, past a subtle and treacherous master of golems, past the dragon-taming Khroi, past the predatory cities of Sarkunden and Aflraun, past the demons and dark gnomes of the northern woods. Soon he will find that his enemy wears a familiar face, and that the duel he has stumbled into will threaten more lives than his own, leaving nations shattered in its chaotic wake. And at the end of his long road waits the death of a legend.
Format: This Crooked Way is 412 pages divided into 16 chapters. Each chapter tells a story or episode that eventually wraps itself into a full novel. While it has Morlock from Blood of Ambrose and a few returning characters it isn't necessary to have read the first book, but some events from the first book are referenced. It was published October 27, 2009 by Pyr.
Analysis: Blood of Ambrose was a difficult novel for me to rate. I enjoyed the story but I wasn't completely completely in love with the novel. I found the wording sometimes to be a bit hard to understand and visualize. I also found it a bit hard to get into but the ending was amazing enough to make me want to read more by James Enge. The most fascinating character throughout the novel was Morlock, so when I heard that there was a second (and third) novel planned with him I thought I'd give it a try.
The best way to view This Crooked Way is to almost view it as several short stories that in the long run will all tie together. A lot of the chapters in this novel were original short stories that James Enge had written elsewhere featuring Morlock. Of course there is added content to make the chapters flow together.
While I enjoyed the complete feeling of each chapter, I did find that it was pretty obvious that some of the chapters were at one point stand alone short stories. There wasn't a forced feeling to the chapters forming a novel, it just sometimes came across as choppy as if telling a bunch of short stories without having that one connecting element. The connecting element does come along a lot later in the novel but for the first half of the book it feels a bit like a short story collection. When I first started reading the novel I had the feeling of being told a bunch of stories that I knew should go together but I couldn't piece how they were going to fit together. Luckily it was resolved but for a while there I just sat back and read.
There is one exception to all the chapters having to do with each other and that is the Fire and Water chapter, that one was a bit random and didn't really fit with the overall picture of the novel. Besides that the rest all do tie together at one point or another.
A few of the chapters are told from the perspective of characters that Morlock meets along the way. I wasn't as into these chapters as I would have liked but it in no way swayed how I viewed the novel. My biggest complaint of this was that I wanted to see more of Morlock and didn't really care what these other characters had gone through.
Writing wise I found This Crooked Way to be a lot smoother. It didn't seem to have the classic language feel the first novel had. Maybe I had just become accustomed to the writing style or it really did have a different feel to it. The pacing of the novel felt a lot quicker and it didn't have the slow burn feel that Blood of Ambrose seemed to have.
If you enjoyed Blood of Ambrose this is definitely a book for you. If you were on the fence about Blood of Ambrose, as I was, this will definitely change your mind about this novel. If you weren't a fan of Blood of Ambrose this probably won't change your mind but it might be worth a shot as it does have a different feel to it.
Overall, I really enjoyed This Crooked Way. It was great to be able to see more of Morlock and get to know more about who he is and his personality. There were several conversations that were an absolute joy to read. Along with great conversations between characters, there is plenty of magical elements and fighting to keep any fan of fantasy engaged. This Crooked Way made me a fan of James Enge when I was on the fence about his writing and I look forward to seeing his future works.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
"The Daykeeper's Grimoire: Book 1 Prophecy of Days" by Christy Raedeke (Reviewed by Cindy Hannikman)
Order The Daykeeper's Grimoire from Amazon Here
Overview: Caity Mac Fireland is a normal teenage girl from San Francisco. Her parents happen to be a legal safe cracker and a code breaker for various companies around the globe. After her family has inherited an old Scottish castle, the whole family is up rooted and moves to Scotland to see what can be done with the castle.
On day while adventuring through the castle, Caity finds a mysterious hidden room that is off the side of her huge bedroom. The hallway behind the mystery door is filled with what appear to be ancient symbols left there centuries ago. With a family of code breakers finding out the meaning to the mysterious symbols should be easy. What the code ends up telling Caity will change her life and send her on an unexpected adventure.
Caity will soon be the center of a secret society war, the key to unlocking the suppression of the Mayan Calender, and the last hope for all of humanity for years to come. First, she has to avoid the assassins and harmful men from other secret societies while trying to unlock the mystery of the prophecy.
Format: The Daykeeper's Grimoire is the first book in the Prophecy of Days series. It is a YA novel, filled with mystery, world traveling, and a plot that is heavily related to the 2012 Mayan prophecy and other theories. It stands at 352 pages and was published by Flux on May 1, 2010.
Analysis: It seems as if secret societies and clubs are the new trend amongst novels now a days. Seeing as this novel used the Mayan 2012 "End of Days" prophecy as the central element to the plot, I was interested to see how it was developed and what would come out of it. What I was greeted with was a book that had an amazing plot theme but there was a few problems at the ending of the novel that left me with mixed feelings.
The main focus of the book revolves around the Mayan Calender and the fact that it appears to end at 2012. There are so many theories and underlying meanings to this widely debated theory. While it is so huge, Raedeke did a wonderful job of building a novel that has such a unique plot element. The use of the calender didn't seem forced or put there just to jump on the 2012 bandwagon. While I enjoyed the use of this in the novel, there were parts of the novel that seemed a bit technical. For example explaining how the calender keeps time, the symbols, and how to know what days would do what. While I appreciate all this being thrown into the book it almost seemed a bit out of place and sometimes it would really lose me as far as the explanation goes.
The pacing of the novel is fairly high paced. There isn't a lot of time spent dwelling on small details and for the most part everything seemed to flow smoothly from scene to scene. There is also plenty of suspense and mystery throughout the novel but these are not dragged out and prolonged in an effort to keep page count high. Instead, everything is revealed at a smooth pace for readers.
As for characters, all the characters are normal every day teenagers. Although Caity's family is filled with code breakers and safe crackers for a mother and father, she is a normal kid who has parents that worry and watch over her. She doesn't have anything widely outlandish and is a character that the majority of the teenage readers should be able to relate to, to some extent. Her side kicks include a monkey who communicates using origami, a handsome Scottish boy, a wise Chinese man and an old friend from back in San Francisco. Between the normality of the main character and the little bit off-beatness of her side kicks, this novel really develops characters that readers will connect with or enjoy.
Although for the most part the novel was enjoyable, it was the last half of the novel that left me with mixed feelings. The events that occurred in the last third of the book seemed to happen way to fast. Without containing too many spoilers, the final task that Caity must undertake just seemed to happen to fast and easy. Everything seemed way to easy for it to have happened in the real world. Everything up to that point was believable and I could really see it happening. The events in the last half left me with mixed feelings and not sure what to really think. I just couldn't picture it happening in my mind and it was so out there that at the end of the book I was left with mixed feelings. For readers that are able to suspend disbelief for a while this part of the novel will not have as much of an impact on you as it did for me.
Overall, I really think this novel has it's audience. It'll be a hit with the YA population especially since it brings into it some conspiracy theories and secret societies. Some adults and older YA readers will find the events in the last half of the book hard to believe and will ultimately cause them to not enjoy this book. I really think that Christy Raedeke has a great theme going here and with a bit of taming and toning down on some elements throughout the book, she will be able to truly let her talent show. Raedeke is a very talented author that I look forward to seeing her future works.
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