Fantasy Book Critic

INTRODUCTION: "How Firm a Foundation" is the fifth installment in the Safehold Saga of David Weber and after finishing it I have to say that while Safehold has remained one of my top four ongoing sff series, it slipped a little down since this book while a solid David Weber offering is the weakest of the series for several reasons I will describe later, most notably the ratio depth/number of pages getting towards "extremely successful author needs to tell all details" levels.

While technically science fiction and indeed quite sf-nal in ethos, "Safehold" is much closer to epic fantasy in theme and world building. If Off Armageddon Reef had as main focus adventure and naval battles, By Schism Rent Asunder intrigue and revelations, By Heresies Distressed land war and consolidation, A Mighty Fortress faith and the second round of all-out naval battles, How Firm a Foundation is mostly a "lull in the action/setup" with a bit of "Empire Strikes Back" in it.

Since I talked at length about the setting and characters in my reviews of volumes 2 and 3 linked above, while the author talked at length about the series in my interview with him, here I will assume familiarity with the context and the main characters, so be aware of massive spoilers for volumes 1-4 below, volumes which will be referred by initials (OAR, BSRA, BHD, AMF) as is the usual when discussing a hugely popular author like David Weber.

ANALYSIS: "How Firm a Foundation" has an interesting structure in the series and while things happen I found it the least satisfying novel to date because almost all the great moments - and it has a lot of putative such - are repeats from the earlier four novels - for example we find out what the key is and it is not as mind blowing as Merlin visiting Saint Zherneau in BSRA, or the martyrdoms/Charisian retaliation, wrenching and satisfying respectively still do not compare with Eryk Dynnis and the Delferak hangings to which they are also very similar.

"How Firm a Foundation" has a high major characters body count, and I was shocked at least at one of the main character deaths which was really unexpected, though again in emotionality it did not reach Harahld's death in OAR. As series placement, the book is a clear first of the next stage of the series, so despite all, not much is decided in the end and we are left with a huge "to be continued" sign.

I think the main problem with the novel lies in its structure - OAR had a clear arc and ended at the best point possible with the invasion of Charis shattered, the schism opening and Cayleb taking over; BSRA + BHD are one huge novel split in two and again they solve their arc - the Charisian imperial reach is achieved with the alliance with Chisolhm, the defection of Emerald and the defeat of Corisande, while the Church is preparing their counterattack, which is of course the topic of A Mighty Fortress another one book story arc like OAR dealing with the second naval war between Charis and The Temple and the Charisians' overwhelming victory.

But at the end of AMF we had reached a lull and the first 200 pages of How Firm a Foundation reflect that and the book is very slow there. Things get going of course but due to the military realities, it is mostly intrigue, terrorism and mop-up on the seas until of course the last part where the proverbial **** starts hitting the fan and we get to the next stage and total war, however the novel stops there since it is already over 600 pages. So cutting the first 200 pages to 50 condensed pages of the same and expanding the last part would have done wonders.

This being said I still turned the pages and stayed way too late to read the novel and I still loved it a lot. As scenes go, as mentioned lots of great moments but we've seen them before so their impact is more muted, though there is one that truly stands out with Merlin at his inimitable cool deep in enemy territory. And Anzhelyk still rocks!

Overall How Firm a Foundation is still an A+ for the sweep of the storyline and its great characters - or if you want its epic-ness which is still there at the highest levels of sff -though a little short of the awesome novel I expected when A Mighty Fortress seemed to conclude the first part of the series. However the next novel should finally clear up the scene and move Safehold towards the decisive resolution we all expect with bathed breath!

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Tuesday, September 13, 2011

“Ganymede” by Cherie Priest (Reviewed by Robert Thompson)

Official Cherie Priest Website
Official The Clockwork Century Website
Order “Ganymede” HERE
Read FBC’s Review of “Boneshaker”
Read FBC’s Review of “Clementine”

Read FBC’s Review of “Dreadnought”

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Cherie Priest’s bibliography includes the Blooker-Award winning Four and Twenty Blackbirds, Fathom, Wings to the Kingdom, Not Flesh Nor Feathers, the Cheshire Red Reports urban fantasy series, and the Clockwork Century novels which includes the Nebula and Hugo Award-nominated Boneshaker. She is also the author of the novellas Dreadful Skin, Those Who Went Remain There Still and Clementine published by Subterranean Press, as well as numerous short stories and nonfiction articles that have appeared in Weird Tales, Publishers Weekly, and the Stoker-nominated anthology Aegri Somnia from Apex Book Company.

PLOT SUMMARY: Air pirate Andan Cly has a chance to go straight. Well, straighter. But first, he’s going to have to successfully complete a couple of jobs. One is a supply run for the Seattle Underground, paid for by Yaozu—Minnericht’s former right-hand man.

The other is a piloting job in New Orleans, for a beautiful mixed-race prostitute named Josephine Early. A woman Cly once loved. But that was a decade ago and the pirate’s heart now belongs to another. So he agrees to the request, not for Josephine, but because it’s a chance to complete two lucrative jobs at once. An offer he can’t refuse.

Unfortunately, Cly has no idea what he’s in for. Hidden at the bottom of Lake Pontchartrain lurks an astonishing war machine, a submersible called the Ganymede. This Rebel prototype could end the war, if only anyone had the faintest idea of how to operate it. If only they could sneak it past the Texians and Confederate forces searching for the machine and into the waiting arms of the Union. And if only it hadn’t killed most of the men who’d ever set foot inside it...

CLASSIFICATION: The Clockwork Century series is set in an alternate history America—circa 1880—flavored with elements of steampunk, horror, intrigue, and Western pulp...

FORMAT/INFO: Ganymede is 352 pages long divided over seventeen numbered chapters. Also includes a Map and an Author’s Note discussing the actual history used in the book. Narration is in the third-person, alternating between the prostitute Josephine Early and the air pirate captain Andan Cly. Ganymede is self-contained, but is connected to the previous volumes (Boneshaker, Dreadnought) in the Clockwork Century series. A couple of matters are left unresolved in Ganymede, but hopefully they will be explored in the next Clockwork Century novel, Inexplicable. September 27, 2011 marks the North American Trade Paperback publication of Ganymede via Tor. The cover art is once again provided by Jon Foster.

ANALYSIS: Compared to Boneshaker and the novella Clementine, Dreadnought was a disappointment, failing to deliver the same level of fun, thrills and entertainment found in its predecessors. Fortunately, Cherie Priest returns to form in her latest Clockwork Century novel, Ganymede. For the most part at least.

One of the biggest issues I had with Dreadnought was how all of the exciting parts were sandwiched in between seemingly endless pages of boredom. Ganymede still suffers from a few boring lulls, but overall the book is a more entertaining affair thanks to faster pacing, a smaller page count, tighter plotting and a narrative that once again switches between two different POVs. It also helps that the tone of Ganymede is not as dark or serious as it was in Dreadnought, while the author has reined in her exploration of such themes as racism, gender roles and war, even though they are still present.

As far as the novel’s characters, Josephine Early is another strong and interesting female protagonist in the vein of Briar Wilkes and Mercy Lynch. However, apart from her profession and the color of her skin, there is very little to differentiate Josephine from Briar and Mercy. Besides sharing the same traits and a similar narrative voice, Josephine’s relationship with her younger brother is strongly reminiscent of Briar’s relationship with her son Zeke and the relationship that Mercy establishes with her father. That’s why it’s nice there is a second POV in the book. Especially when that second POV is Captain Andan Cly. Cly is a personal favorite of the Clockwork Century’s supporting cast, so it was very rewarding to see the air pirate in a starring role. Plus, he provides a nice counterpoint to the familiarity of Josephine’s narrative.

Plot-wise, Ganymede is pretty straightforward. There are subplots involving “zombis/Dead Who Walk” and the pirate bay of Barataria, some romance, and even a little bit of voodoo, but mostly Ganymede is exactly as described in the synopsis. Because the story is so straightforward there are hardly any surprises along the way, but it’s a fun ride nonetheless. It’s also important to note that even though Ganymede is self-contained like its predecessors, the novel works better as a complement/sequel to Dreadnought than a standalone tale since it develops matters introduced in the previous book, while setting the stage for further developments in the next Clockwork Century adventure.

Of the writing in Ganymede, Cherie Priest delivers another impressive performance, led once again by highly accessible prose. Other highlights include the vibrant depiction of a Texas-occupied New Orleans with an escalating rotter problem, and the interesting history & historical figures—Horace Lawson Hunley, Madame Marie Laveau, Barataria Bay—woven into the novel. I also loved the way references are made to the other releases in the Clockwork Century series. Sometimes it’s simply the mention of a name—Croggon Hainey, Dr. Minnericht, Mr. Pinkerton’s Secret Service, Captain MacGruder—but in most cases, familiar faces and plot developments make an actual appearance in Ganymede. These include the bartender Lucy O’Gunning, Miss Angeline, Jeremiah Swakhammer and his daughter Mercy Lynch, Briar Wilkes and her son Zeke, Ranger Horatio Korman, and so on.

CONCLUSION: From an entertainment standpoint, Ganymede certainly has more to offer than Dreadnought, but at the same time, the novel falls a couple notches short of the thrilling heights attained by Boneshaker and the novella Clementine. For the most part though, Ganymede is another rewarding entry in the Clockwork Century series. A series I very much look forward to continuing in next year’s Inexplicable...

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Monday, September 12, 2011

“The Monster’s Corner: Stories Through Inhuman Eyes” edited by Christopher Golden (Reviewed by Robert Thompson)

Official Christopher Golden Website
Order “The Monster’s Corner” HERE (US) + HERE (UK)

Read “The Lake” and “Specimen 313” from The Monster’s Corner HERE
Read FBC’s Review of “The New Dead”

EDITOR INFORMATION: An award-winning and bestselling writer of horror, fantasy, and suspense for adults, teens, and young readers, Christopher Golden’s extensive bibliography includes The Veil Trilogy, tie-in novels for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Hellboy, Ghosts of Albion (w/Amber Benson), Poison Ink, the Hidden Cities novels (w/Tim Lebbon), The Secret Journeys of Jack London (w/Tim Lebbon), and a number of collaborations with Mike Mignola—Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire, the Baltimore: The Plague Ships comic book miniseries, and the upcoming illustrated novel, Joe Golem and the Drowning City. Christopher has also collaborated with Thomas E. Sniegoski on The Menagerie series, the OutCast novels, and the comic book miniseries Talent and The Sisterhood. His original novels have been published around the world in more than fourteen languages.

ABOUT THE MONSTER’S CORNER: In most stories we get the perspective of the hero, the ordinary, the everyman, but we are all the hero of our own tale, and so it must be true for legions of monsters, from Lucifer to Mordred, from child-thieving fairies to Frankenstein's monster and the Wicked Witch of the West. From our point of view, they may very well be horrible, terrifying monstrosities, but of course they won’t see themselves in the same light, and their point of view is what concerns us in these tales. Demons and goblins, dark gods and aliens, creatures of myth and legend, lurkers in darkness and beasts in human clothing . . . these are the subjects of The Monster’s Corner...

FORMAT/INFO: The Monster’s Corner is 400 pages long divided over nineteen short stories. Also includes an Introduction by the editor Christopher Golden, and biographies of all of the anthology’s contributors. September 27, 2011 marks the North American Trade Paperback publication of The Monster’s Corner via St. Martin’s Griffin. The UK version will be published on the same day via Piatkus Books.

ANALYSIS: The New Dead was one of my favorite books of 2010, so when it was announced that Christopher Golden was putting together another horror-themed anthology, I couldn’t wait. Like The New Dead, The Monster’s Corner features nineteen brand new, never before published short stories from a wide variety of authors from all genres. Where The New Dead focused on zombies though, The Monster’s Corner is about monsters. Specifically monsters that readers can sympathize with. Like the Frankenstein monster, King Kong, Godzilla, Magneto, Blade Runner’s Roy Batty, or the whale from Moby Dick. No vampires or zombies however. Christopher Golden forbid their inclusion. He also discouraged human monsters for reasons explained in his Introduction, although “a couple of them slipped in.” Instead, the anthology features monsters that reflect the author’s philosophy about monstrosity. “About how we define each other and how we define ourselves. About what we see in the mirror and what we fear others will see. About perspective and seeing the world through inhuman eyes”:

1) “The Awkward Age” by David Liss. It’s no surprise that Christopher Golden elected to open The Monster’s Corner with a David Liss story. After all, the author’s contribution to The New Dead was one of the best stories in the entire anthology. With “The Awkward Age”, David Liss delivers another satisfying winner, a cleverly written and thought-provoking tale about a relationship that develops between a forty-five-year-old husband/father stuck in an unhappy marriage, and a fourteen-year-old goth girl who is either preying on the weaknesses of a much older man for her own entertainment . . . or a ghoul...

2) “Saint John” by Jonathan Maberry. Saint John believes the Voice of God speaks to him, providing guidance and answers. This could be true. Then again, Saint John could just be mentally insane because of the terrible things that were done to him when he was a child. Either way, Saint John is now a deadly killer. He is also an unlikely beacon of light in a post-apocalyptic world plagued by disease and chaos and people stripped of their humanity. Dark and disturbing, but also interjected with glimpses of hope, “Saint John” is another impressive offering from Jonathan Maberry.

3) “Rue” by Lauren Groff. I loved Lauren Groff’s debut novel, The Monsters of Templeton (Reviewed HERE), but haven’t read anything by the author since then. So I was excited to see Lauren’s inclusion in The Monster’s Corner. Unfortunately, “Rue” was a disappointment. The tale may be beautifully written and atmospheric, kind of like a fairy tale, but I had a hard time grasping what the story was trying to convey. There is an old woman who steals a baby and raises the girl—named Rue—secluded from the rest of the world, only to lose her anyway, but who the old woman is, why she stole the baby, and the story’s setting with its Ministers and work camps, are all cloaked in a confusing haze of mystery...

4) “Succumb” by John McIlveen. Not only is “Succumb” short—only six pages long—but it’s written by someone I’ve never heard of before. In fact, I have no clue what else John McIlveen has even written since his bio provides very little information and I was unable to learn anything online. So not a lot to get excited about, although I did find the presentation of the story—a seductress having a one-sided conversation with a sinful preacher during foreplay and intercourse—somewhat interesting. For the most part though, “Succumb” is one of the weaker stories in The Monster’s Corner.

5) “Torn Stitches, Shattered Glass” by Kevin J. Anderson. It’s only fitting that an anthology about sympathetic monsters would include a story featuring arguably the most sympathetic monster of them all—Frankenstein’s monster. It also makes sense that Kevin J. Anderson is the author of this particular story since he has written about the monster before in Frankenstein: Prodigal Son, although there is no connection between Anderson’s tale and Dean Koontz’s series. Instead, “Torn Stitches, Shattered Glass” acts as a semi-sequel to Mary Shelley’s classic novel with the monster living among Jews in the Nazi-occupied city of Ingolstadt in the year 1938. The short story shares many of the same themes found in Shelley’s book, even referencing the novel several times, but Anderson’s writing is much more accessible and straightforward. Overall, “Torn Stitches, Shattered Glass” is more entertaining than it is thought-provoking, but it’s a good contribution nonetheless.

6) “Rattler and the Mothman” by Sharyn McCrumb. Native American folklore, West Virginia history (the collapse of the Silver Bridge, George Washington’s Lost Colony), the Mothman legend, and urban fantasy collide in Sharyn McCrumb’s amusing tale about a garuda supposedly responsible for “wiping out dinosaurs”, “sending the Ice Age mammals into extinction”, and other atrocities. Highlighting the short story is a wonderful narrative voice: “There’s a lot wrong with life in the twenty-first century, which is why I took to the woods in the first place, but in a world where the Dalai Lama is on Twitter, I don’t reckon there’s much hope for any of us Shamen—New People’s word—to get let alone.”

7) “Big Man” by David Moody. Having put his own unique spin on zombies and apocalyptic fiction with Haters and the Autumn series, I was curious to see what David Moody would do with his contribution to The Monster’s Corner. Consider my curiosity sated. Referencing Roger Corman, Samuel Z. Arkoff, King Kong, Godzilla and classic B monster movies like Attack of the 50 Foot Woman and War of the Colossal Beast, “Big Man” is a nearly perfect example of the monstrosity and perspective that Christopher Golden talks about in his Introduction.

8) “Rakshasi” by Kelley Armstrong. Kelley Armstrong’s short fiction has yet to disappoint me and that streak continues with “Rakshasi”, a compelling standalone story about a rakshasi named Amrita, who has served as a slave to the isha for two hundred years, eliminating evil in penance for her crimes as a human. A debt Amrita has long payed off, forcing the rakshasi to take matters into her own hands. One of my favorite entries in The Monster’s Corner, “Rakshasi” features a setup that I would love to explore further in a full-length novel or series.

9) “Breeding Demons” by Nate Kenyon. I’ve been meaning to read Nate Kenyon’s fiction for a while now, but haven’t been able to find the time. If “Breeding Demons” is any indication, then I’ve been missing out. Containing both assured prose and a nightmarish imagination reminiscent of Clive Barker, Kenyon’s visceral tale of a man caught between two worlds—love and normalcy versus evil, demons and “pornography for the supernatural”—is a standout of the anthology.

10) “Siren Song” by Dana Stabenow. “Siren Song” is a Kate Shugak short story. Who is Kate Shugak? Apparently she’s the star of a long-running mystery series—volume nineteen comes out in February 2012. As someone who has never heard of the series before, I wish the short story had done a better job acquainting me with Kate Shugak: who she is, what she does, or why I should care. Then again, “Siren Song” is not really about Kate Shugak. It’s about the Akulurak sisters, the pimp they are accused of murdering, the terrible ordeal they’ve suffered, and the real monsters inhabiting our world...

11) “Less of a Girl” by Chelsea Cain. Gretchen Lowell from Heartsick, Sweetheart and Evil at Heart would have been perfect for The Monster’s Corner. Sadly, the seductive serial killer is nowhere to be found in “Less of a Girl”. Instead, readers are treated to a short, stomach-churning tale about some ‘thing’ living in a fourteen-year-old girl’s bedroom. Very disappointing.

12) “The Cruel Thief of Rosy Infants” by Tom Piccirilli. Piccirilli has received numerous awards and nominations for his writing including four Bram Stoker Awards. It’s easy to see why after reading “The Cruel Thief of Rosy Infants”, a dark and haunting fairy tale about a fae creature charged with his family’s millennia-old duty to steal human babies and replace them with one of his own race. Definitely one of the anthology’s better entries.

13) “The Screaming Room” by Sarah Pinborough. Greek mythology is full of terrifying monsters like the Minotaur or Cerberus, but Medusa? Medusa is both terrifying and tragic, a contrast that is wonderfully captured in Sarah Pinborough’s striking short story, “The Screaming Room”, which is named such because of an interesting twist on the mythology where it takes years, not seconds before the monster’s victims are turned to stone...

14) “Wicked Be” by Heather Graham. “Wicked Be” is the first time I’ve ever read anything by Heather Graham. It was not a very memorable first impression, especially considering how much the protagonist’s narrative voice annoyed me, sounding more like a teenager than a centuries-old immortal witch. Things become better when the story focuses on Melissa’s friends and loved ones caught up in the witch trial madness of the 1600s, but as a whole “Wicked Be” is rather pedestrian.

15) “Specimen 313” by Jeff Strand. Featuring giant, carnivorous man-eating, gene-spliced Venus flytraps who can speak with each other and possess human thoughts and emotions—sadness, fear, love—“Specimen 313” offers a refreshing and entertaining take on monsters who turn against their creator...

16) “The Lake” by Tananarive Due. Can Tananarive Due write or what? Her prose alone is reason enough for why “The Lake” is a highlight of The Monster’s Corner. Of course, there’s more to “The Lake” than stunning prose. The story about a woman trying to get a fresh start in Graceville, Florida—“new job, new house, new lake, new beginning”—and the changes she undergoes there, both human and inhuman, is gripping and evocative.

17) “The Other One” by Michael Marshall Smith. “The Other One” is another expertly written offering from Michael Marshall Smith, highlighted by a convincing portrayal of a thirty-eight-year-old woman who has grown tired of her life—her job, her friends, her relationship with Richard—and an unexpected climax involving the ‘other one’. As good as the writing is though, the short story was a bit allegorical for my tastes and left me feeling unfulfilled...

18) “And Still You Wonder Why Our First Impulse Is To Kill You: An Alphabetized Faux-Manifesto Transcribed, Edited, and Annotated (Under Duress and Protest)” by Gary A. Braunbeck. If The Monster’s Corner was a competition and I had to pick a single winner, it would easily be this story. Why? For starters, the setup which features Braunbeck as a character in his own story with monsters dictating what he should be writing in the alphabetized Manifesto—“A is for Abomination”—is incredibly inventive and fun to read. Then there’s the writing itself, which sparkles with cleverness and versatility. Finally, Braunbeck’s Manifesto is bursting with humor and imagination at every turn like the monsters’ favorite author and band—Joyce Carol Oates and Nazareth; their regret at using H.P. Lovecraft as a ‘PR man’; their fear of Ken Doll; the Colophon whose goal is to “erase all printed language and destroy all digital language”; and so much more. In short, “And Still You Wonder Why Our First Impulse Is To Kill You” is the must-read story of The Monster’s Corner.

19) “Jesus and Satan go Jogging in the Desert” by Simon R. Green. Even though the previous story would have been a better choice to close out the anthology, Simon R. Green’s amusing retelling of Satan’s temptation of Jesus from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke is a nice way to end The Monster’s Corner.

CONCLUSION: Collectively, The Monster’s Corner is not quite as strong or as entertaining as The New Dead. This can partly be attributed to the anthology’s theme about monstrosity and perspective, which can be a little restrictive when compared to simply writing about zombies or post-apocalyptic settings. For me though, it was more of a personal issue I had with the editor’s choice of contributors. There’s no question the authors selected for The Monster’s Corner are talented and give the reader a diverse range of stories to choose from, but I was in the mood for something darker. Something that would send chills down my spine and leave me haunted by nightmares. In that regard, The Monster’s Corner doesn’t quite hit the spot. That all said, Christopher Golden has, in the end, compiled another impressive and successful horror-themed anthology in The Monster’s Corner...

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Sunday, September 11, 2011

“Touch of Frost” by Jennifer Estep (Reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)

Official Jennifer Estep Website

Order “Touch of Frost” HERE

Read An Excerpt HERE

Read FBC’s Interview with Jennifer Estep

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Jennifer Estep has a Bachelor’s degree in English & Journalism, and a Master's in Professional Communications. Her bibliography includes the Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series, the Mythos Academy YA urban fantasy series, and the Bigtime paranormal romance series. She is also a member of Romance Writers of America, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and other writing groups.

BOOK BLURB: My name is Gwen Frost, and I go to Mythos Academy—a school of myths, magic and warrior whiz kids, where even the lowliest geek knows how to chop off somebody's head with a sword. And then there’s Logan Quinn, the hottest Spartan guy in school, who also happens to be the deadliest.

But lately, things have been weird, even for Mythos. First, mean girl Jasmine Ashton was murdered in the Library of Antiquities. Then, someone stole the Bowl of Tears, a magical artifact that can be used to bring about the second Chaos War. You know, death, destruction and lots of other bad, bad things.

Freaky stuff like this goes on all the time at Mythos, but I'm determined to find out who killed Jasmine and why—especially since I should have been the one who died.

FORMAT/INFO: The e-ARC of Touch of Frost is 278 pages long divided over twenty-six chapters. Narration is in the first-person, exclusively via the protagonist Gwen Frost. Touch of Frost is self-contained, but is the first volume in the Mythos Academy series. An e-Prequel called First Frost, expands on events that were mentioned in Touch of Frost. Touch of Frost was released on August 1, 2011 via Kensington Books.

ANALYSIS: After hearing about Touch of Frost in an interview we did last year with Jennifer Estep, I couldn’t wait to read the book, especially since I enjoyed the author’s Elemental Assassin series. So when I was given the opportunity to review an e-ARC of Touch of Frost, I gladly dove in...

Gwendolyn Frost is a sixteen-year-old gypsy girl whose life is suddenly turned upside down when she is admitted into Mythos Academy due to certain events covered in First Frost. With very few friends and even fewer ideas about her new environment, Gwen does her best to survive, while trying to earn some extra cash with her psychometry gifts. Her fellow students include Valkyries, Spartans, and other mythological/historical warrior races who are trained in both magic and martial arts. Their purpose is to prevent the Reapers of Chaos from freeing their master, Loki, who was imprisoned eons ago because he tried to defeat the other gods and enslave humanity.

At first, Gwen doesn’t buy into any of this “magic mumbo jumbo”, but things quickly change when she happens upon a brutally murdered Valkyrie at the same time an important artifact called the Bowl of Tears goes missing. Keenly feeling the loss of Jasmine Ashton’s life which strongly resonates with her own circumstances, Gwen decides to use her powers to discover the truth of the matter. Thus begins the first volume of the Mythos Academy series, which pits Gwen Frost against powers she had no idea existed.

Main character Gwen Frost is a refreshing protagonist in the sense that she’s a normal sixteen-year-old girl who is trying to adjust to the demands of being a teenager, as well as dealing with the extraordinary wonders of her new school. The supporting cast meanwhile, is not very big, but like the Elemental Assassin series, the side characters in Touch of Frost are well-rounded and will no doubt go on to play important roles in future volumes. As a whole, Jennifer Estep’s characterization is realistic and is often the highlight of the novel.

Story-wise, Touch of Frost is fast-paced and very fun to read, with a slightly campy feel, although the novel never goes overboard with its silliness. There is some romance in the book, but it’s kept within reasonable bounds and never overwhelms the story. This was crucial for me as I don’t mind romance so long as it complements the story instead of overshadowing it. On a different note, readers familiar with Jennifer Estep’s other books might notice the sagacious elder who often helps the protagonist and also makes delicious food ;)

Drawbacks include predictable plot twists and an inescapable comparison to the Harry Potter novels. I confess that part of my attraction to the Mythos Academy series in the first place was the similarities to Harry Potter, but Jennifer Estep’s novel is more YA-oriented and doesn’t hold a candle to J.K. Rowling in terms of world-building. Of course, Touch of Frost is only the first book of a series, so Jennifer Estep has plenty of opportunities to flesh out the world of the Mythos Academy.

CONCLUSION: Despite unavoidable comparisons to Harry Potter and a predictable story, Jennifer Estep’s first YA novel is a successful one. For not only is Touch of Frost fun to read, but it’s the kind of book that can appeal to the child in all of us, while Gwen Frost is an engaging protagonist readers can root for as she tries to confront problems of love, magic and destiny...

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Saturday, September 10, 2011

Discussion of Three 2011 SF Releases by UK Authors: Eric Brown, Neal Asher and Ian Whates (By Liviu Suciu)

Since I am trying to showcase as many 2011 interesting books of various kinds as I can, but the number of full reviews I can do is limited, it is inevitable that some books won't receive as complete coverage as I wish. I keep the continually updated post with 2011 books read HERE, and from time to time I will have shorter discussions of various books.

Here I will talk about three 2011 releases from UK authors, all sf adventures with some space opera component.

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The Kings of Eternity by Eric Brown is a novel that had a very tempting blurb I will present below. However my experience with Eric Brown's work has been mixed at best - years ago I liked Penumbra a lot, while more recently I mostly liked Helix, but was meh on Necropath and sequels and I thought that the recent release of Engineman was badly dated and parochial to boot - so I did not pay close attention to it until several very enthusiastic reviews decided me to get it.

1999, on the threshold of a new millennium, the novelist Daniel Langham lives a reclusive life on an idyllic Greek island, hiding away from humanity and the events of the past. All that changes, however, when he meets artist Caroline Platt and finds himself falling in love. But what is his secret, and what are the horrors that haunt him? 1935. Writer Jonathon Langham and Edward Vaughan are summoned from London by their editor friend Jasper Carnegie to help investigate strange goings on in Hopton Wood. What they discover there – no less than a strange creature from another world – will change their lives for ever. What they become, and their link to the novelist of the future, is the subject of Eric Brown’s most ambitious novel to date. Almost ten years in the writing, The Kings of Eternity is a novel of vast scope and depth, full of the staple tropes of the genre and yet imbued with humanity and characters you’ll come to love.

The Kings of Eternity is the kind of book that needed a different publisher since with the right marketing - release at least as a tpb if not a hc, easy availability in stores and placement in the fiction shelves rather than sf the way I saw Map of Time which is not as good as this one but made a lot of splash - this is a book that could have The Time Traveller's Wife appeal and success. Reclusive writers, tragic romances, artists, Greece, a great premise for the sf newbie and excellent writing make the right combination for that.

Sadly The Kings of Eternity seems to have been very little promoted and here in the US it has not been easily available in stores, so I suspect it will be quickly forgotten, while books like the ones mentioned above will still be out there and people won't know what they miss...

This being said, as a sf novel there are some drawbacks - the story is one I read for the 100th time so I could predict it in general lines very early, the sf content is pure 30's pulp - ray guns and all - and the book verges on solipsism on occasion. The biggest failing though was the complete seriousness the sfnal part is taken: inserting enough ambiguity to make one wonder if the aliens and all are real or everything comes from the delusions of the narrator would have raised the novel to a masterpiece of sf.

All in all The Kings of Eternity (A+) is a very good book, highly recommended and one that should appeal a lot to sf newbies and show them why the genre is so well loved by its fans.

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The Departure by Neal Asher has been a highly awaited novel since I am a huge fan of the author and usually his books make my top 25 list like last year's superb The Technician. Not only that but it was billed as the start of his Owner series from which several earlier novellas promised so much.

Visible in the night sky the Argus Station, its twin smelting plants like glowing eyes, looks down on nightmare Earth. From Argus the Committee keep an oppressive control: citizens are watched by cams systems and political officers, it's a world inhabited by shepherds, reader guns, razor birds and the brutal Inspectorate with its white tiled cells and pain inducers.

Soon the Committee will have the power to edit human minds, but not yet, twelve billion human being need to die before Earth can be stabilized, but by turning large portions of Earth into concentration camps this is achievable, especially when the Argus satellite laser network comes fully online . . .

This is the world Alan Saul wakes to in his crate on the conveyor to the Calais incinerator. How he got there he does not know, but he does remember the pain and the face of his interrogator. Informed by Janus, through the hardware implanted in his skull, about the world as it is now Saul is determined to destroy it, just as soon as he has found out who he was, and killed his interrogator . . .

The Departure is a book of two halves; a very good first half and an unimaginative and mostly boring second half where only Neal Asher's explosive style and his take-no-prisoners attitude towards modern liberal pieties kept me entertained and interested.

On the other hand as a series debut it is also a setup novel to some extent, but still the second half could have been compressed a lot imho to read as a sf novel not as a standard thriller with cool toys.

I wanted to do a longer review of The Departure (B) but I realized that there is not much more to be said since outside the non-stop action that starts to verge on farce in the second half there is little else; some called this book Neal Asher's take on James Bond and while there is some truth to it, I expected so much more from the Owner series based on those novellas and I hope the author will deliver in the next installment.

I also think that starting the series with that second book while presenting the events here in maybe 100 pages would have led to a strong beginning...

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The Noise Revealed by Ian Whates is the sequel to the surprisingly good The Noise Within, and I had quite high expectations. However the early reviews were mixed at best so it took me a while to get the novel since based on those, the book moved lower on my priority list; sadly those reviews turned out to be accurate...

A time of flux, a time of change… While mankind is adjusting to its first ever encounter with an alien civilisation – the Byrzaens – black ops specialist Jim Leyton reluctantly allies himself with the mysterious habitat in order to rescue the woman he loves. This brings him into direct conflict with his former employers: the United League of Allied Worlds government. Scientist and businessman Philip Kaufman is fast discovering there is more to the virtual world than he ever realised. Yet it soon becomes clear that all is not well within the realm of Virtuality. Truth is hidden beneath lies and there are games being played, deadly games with far reaching consequences. Both men begin to suspect that the much heralded ‘First Contact’ is anything but first contact, and that a sinister con is being perpetrated with the whole of humankind as the victim. Now all they have to do is prove it.

After the surprisingly good The Noise Within, the duology ending The Noise Revealed was disappointing; there were few if any surprises, the good guys were penciled in and the bad guys started wearing "villain hats" and essentially all the intriguing and mysterious things in the debut turned out to go nowhere or just be standard genre stuff I've seen countless times.

The Noise Revealed (C) flows well and the pages turn easily so I finished it quick but more from a sense of duty - to dot the i's and cross the t's so to speak - than from interest or entertainment value. This novel is another example of how easy is to set up interesting things and how tricky is to keep them so.

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Friday, September 9, 2011

Three Mini-Reviews: “Toothless” by J.P. Moore, “Nanomagica” by Norman J. LaFave and “Tales from the Edge of Forever” by Alexander Hammond (Reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)

In the past few months, I have read quite a few books. Unfortunately, I am unable to properly review them all. Hence, I’m taking a page from Liviu and doing three ‘mini-reviews’. The common factor uniting these three titles is that all of them are from small or independent publishers and all of them had enticing descriptions:

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Toothless by J. P. Moore

J. P. Moore’s Toothless was a book which drew my attention for two reasons: the blurb which described the novel as a zombie tale set in the 12^th Century and the jaw-dropping fantastic cover by Scott Purdy.

Toothless is the tale of Martin, a Templar Knight who has become a zombie in thrall to the Black Yew, which is gathering up fallen humans to create an army the likes of which has never been seen. For the first two-thirds of the novel, Martin struggles to remember who and what he was before his life ended, while trying to reclaim his humanity. A struggle made more difficult because he cannot even talk due to the loss of half of his face (see the cover above).

Martin’s actions under the partial thrall of the Black Yew make him out to be a monster, but the author cleverly paints a different picture when we see it through the Templar Knight’s eyes and thoughts. As a result, even though Martin is a murdering zombie, the reader feels an odd kinship with the Templar Knight. Plus, with a big twist coming in the latter half of the book, the novel’s ending is a bittersweet one.

On most accounts, Toothless is a good book and should have worked for me, but it didn’t. Part of the problem I think was due to the languid pace in the first half of the story which establishes Martin and his world, but doesn’t offer much explanation about who or what the Black Yew is and the magic it wields. Perhaps the biggest drawback for me though was the length of the book which felt more like a drawn-out novella. Nevertheless, give Toothless a try if you love zombie stories, good characterization and a dark storyline...

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Nanomagica by Norman J. LaFave

Nanomagica is the debut novel of Norman J. LaFave who has quite an incredible background as a scientist, engineer and educator. Of course, the author’s background is not what attracted me to Nanomagica . . . it was the intriguing blurb, which seemed to promise a SF/detective hybrid.

Set in a partially dystopian future, Nanomagica starts mid-plot before taking the reader back to the beginning where we are slowly introduced to the main characters. This includes Chicago police inspector Robert Nazio who is investigating a case with strange anomalies in it, and his friend cum hacker cum philanthropist Greg Gilroy. What starts out as a strange case becomes something much more when certain people in the world are attacked. Attacks that no one can seem to stop, let alone understand. The root of this problem takes Robert & Nazio to Houston where they will find the answer to their issues and possibly a solution.

As a concept, Nanomagica is fascinating, while the world-building has a lot going for it. The way the novel starts out as a mystery before spiraling into something much more, including a plot twist that seems to be heading in one direction and then suddenly taking a 180 degree turn, is also impressive. On the flipside, pacing and characertization come up lacking. The latter was particularly disappointing since the two main characters are two-dimensional, which makes reading the book very predictable.

The ending is action-packed with enough surprises to keep readers on their toes, but it’s not enough to redeem the book from its drawbacks. So overall, Nanomagica is a decent debut and if the author can improve on certain issues while continuing to surprise the reader, then the sequel might be worth checking out...

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Tales From the Edge of Forever by Alexander Hammond

Tales From the Edge of Forever was a surprise pick for me. I did not know much about the novel and while the collection boasted a lot of high reviews and praise on its Amazon page, I usually don’t pay much heed to ratings unless a book has over a hundred reviews with ratings of 4/5 stars. However, I was intrigued by Alexander Hammond’s novel which was described as a “delicious collection of wildly original vignettes mixing fantasy, speculation, spirituality and science invention.”

As promised, the stories in Tales From the Edge of Forever are quite diverse, drawing influences from a wide variety of genres and sub-genres. The single factor that all of the stories have in common is very good writing by Alexander Hammond, which includes intriguing set-ups and an ability to lure the reader in with a semblance of normality and then yanking the carpet out from under them, making sure nearly every story ends on a completely different track from which it began. As a result, the reader often goes into the next story not knowing what to expect.

Out of the collection’s twenty-three tales, three stories stood out for me: “Aliens”, “Top Secret” and “The Button”. Some of the stories seemed rather short or ended in an abrupt manner, but I think this was done intentionally, to let readers figure out things on their own. Overall, I very much enjoyed Tales From the Edge of Forever, which features a great mix of eclectic stories, clever imagination and impressive writing. Heartily recommended to fans of Jack Vance, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick and thought-provoking fiction...

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Thursday, September 8, 2011

GIVEAWAY: Win a COPY of Blake Charlton’s “Spellbound” and a SIGNED COPY of “Spellwright”!!!

Official Blake Charlton Website

Order “Spellbound” HERE

Read An Excerpt HERE

Read FBC’s Review of “Spellwright”

Read FBC’s Review of “Spellbound”

Read FBC’s Interview with Blake Charlton

In support of the September 13, 2011 North American publication of Blake Charlton’s “Spellbound”—the second volume in The Spellwright Trilogy after “Spellwright”—Fantasy Book Critic is giving away THREE COPIES of “Spellbound” courtesy of Tor!!! Each winner will also receive a SIGNED COPY of “Spellwright” (MMPB) courtesy of Blake Charlton!

To enter, please send an email to fbcgiveaway@gmail.com with your Name, Mailing Address, and the subject: SPELLBOUND. Giveaway has ended. Thank you for entering and Good Luck!

GIVEAWAY RULES:

1) Open to US Residents Only

2) Only One Entry Per Household (Multiple Entries Will Be Disqualified)

3) Must Enter Valid Email Address, Mailing Address + Name

4) No Purchase Necessary

5) Giveaway Has Ended

6) Winners Will Be Randomly Selected and Notified By Email

7) Personal Information Will Only Be Used In Mailing Out the Prizes To the Winners

3:00 PM |

Posted by Robert |

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