Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Interview with Kevin Hearne

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Kevin Hearne graduated from Northern Arizona University with a degree in English literature and currently teaches high school English. He is a self-confessed comic book fan and collector. He also collects and paints miniature dwarves in his free time. He currently lives with his family in Arizona and is the author of The Iron Druid Chronicles.

OFFICIAL BOOK BLURB: Druid Atticus O’Sullivan hasn’t stayed alive for more than two millennia without a fair bit of Celtic cunning. So when vengeful thunder gods come Norse by Southwest looking for payback, Atticus, with a little help from the Navajo trickster god Coyote, lets them think that they’ve chopped up his body in the Arizona desert.

The Quiet Twin by Dan Vyleta is a pretty dark novel written in a somewhat whimsical tone that attenuates the horrors within for the most part. Vienna October-November 1939; the war has started, the Jews have been beaten and kicked out, though their murder is still only sporadic, the mentally sick and physically disabled are starting to be killed in hospitals for the good of the race, or at least this is what the characters believe - the actual killings started mostly in 1940, but rumors have been going around earlier - while forced sterilizations have been done for a while now. Integrity is rare, corruption and violence are common.

Set in a Viennese housing complex that in the spirit of the times mixed the better off with working poor and was supervised in the name of the Reich by a chief administrator/informer that worked hand in hand with the Gestapo and the police, The Quiet Twin excels in atmosphere and characters.

While Dr. Beer who still tries to do some good despite all that's going on but whose intimate secret would guarantee a one way to a concentration camp if known - hint, his wife has left him recently - and Annaliese the bright but scarred nine year old girl living downstairs are the main leads, the sinister professor Speckstein takes over the story whenever he appears; currently the police informer of the complex, he was a very respected University professor and physician tried for child rape- and acquitted - some years ago who finds National Socialism the right vehicle for his revenge on the Viennese society that shunned him despite his exoneration in court.

The Quiet Twin is mostly historical fiction and people looking for a mystery will be disappointed as there is no real such despite the talked about murders and the dog from the blurb...

The novel also has some great interludes from the press of the times - mostly about disturbed murders and their strange acts - that read stranger than fiction, but ultimately when a society is sick, the extreme slowly becomes the normal and the book's main story-lines prove that once more. Excellent novel and highly recommended.

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"When Mycroft Holmes is murdered in London, it is up to retired shadow executive Smith to track down his killer - and stumble on the greatest conspiracy of his life. Strange forces are stirring into life around the globe, and in the shadow game of spies nothing is certain. Fresh from liberating a strange alien object in Abyssinia - which might just be the mythical Ark of the Covenant - young Lucy Westerna, Holmes' protégé, must follow her own path to the truth while, on the other side of the world, a young Harry Houdini must face his greatest feat of escape - death itself.

As their paths converge the body count mounts up, the entire world is under threat, and in a foreboding castle in the mountains of Transylvania a mysterious old man weaves a spider's web of secrets and lies.

Airship battles, Frankenstein monsters, alien tripods and death-defying acts: The Great Game is a cranked-up steampunk thriller in which nothing is certain - not even death."

After The Bookman and Camera Obscura, I was wondering who else will show up in this wonderful series that just ticked all the right nostalgia boxes for me. And Mr. Tidhar did not disappoint as Karl May - starring as one of the main villains with the harsh German accent of old style thrillers to boot - Harry Houdini of the many escapes - though of course there is a special take on that too - Phileas Fogg, Bram Stoker, Lucy Westerna, Van Helsing and a few others show up in The Great Game in addition to the few regulars like the Holmes brothers, Victor Frankestein or the Comte Rochefort...

The first 3/4 of The Great Game were awesome and I thought this would be a top 25 of mine, but the ending was a bit disappointing and this is one extra reason I am hoping for more books in the series; it will be a major spoiler to say why but essentially The Great Game suffers from the "great tension, great danger, way too easy out" syndrome that sometimes afflicts even the better written sff like itself.

Still a super ride to be enjoyed, lots of moments that had me laughing out loud and of course who can resist the plethora of characters named above. Another highly recommended novel of 2012 for me.

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After the unexpectedly wonderful The Magicians and Mrs. Quent and The House on Durrow Street, The Master of Heathcrest Hall was another fantasy series ending - 3rd in 2012 so far after Percepliquis and Daemon Prism with a few more to come - that was a huge asap and while I enjoyed it and would recommend it, it just did not blow me away as earlier novels in the series.

Here I still loved the language and the setting was generally interesting, but Ivy who was undoubtedly the star of the first two novels, loses a little her distinctiveness and centrality to the story and while I did not mind that much having Rafferdy and Eldyn Garitt as the main characters, the book lost some luster for me due to that. Another issue was the acceleration of action as the earlier novels worked better at a slower pace where dialogue and setting counted for more; once the frantic action starts the fantasy part of the world building starts being exposed as quite shallow.

In addition the "everything explained, all i's dotted and t's crossed" that seems to afflict series ending these days are present here and there were quite a few "yawn" rather than "oh, what" moments too.

Overall I think that if you thought The House on Durrow Street slow, you may enjoy this more than I did as the pace accelerates a lot here, but for me the charm of the series was first in Ivy's character, next in the witty dialog and finally in the implied mysteries and all those become either secondary or solved a bit in a too cookie-cutter way in this series finale.

Often across the blogosphere, there is stuff happening that deserves to be highlighted. One of my favorite bloggers is Kristen of Fantasy Book Café. In the month of April she had come up with this incredible idea about Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy and has dedicated this month to all their wonderful contributions. Here’s what she had to say about it to kick this event off on her blog:

“After all the discussion recently about review coverage of women writing science fiction and fantasy and the female bloggers writing about these genres, I decided to dedicate the month of April to the women of science fiction and fantasy. Though I’m interested in the discussion overall, instead of talking about it more I’m choosing to make my contribution to addressing the issue by highlighting the women who are writing and reading SF&F. Throughout the month I’ll have authors, book bloggers, and other commentators making guest posts. While some of my guests will be discussing the subject itself, it’s not required to participate; the goal is just to get some interesting people, thoughts, and books all in one place.

A few years ago, I noticed that most of the fantasy and science fiction books being talked about on many blogs and forums were written by men and started questioning whether or not there was a significant number of women writing these genres. Since then, I’ve of course found that there are many female authors of fantasy and science fiction books and it’s become very important to me to make sure their work is recognized and discussed. Usually I just do this quietly by reading and reviewing a lot of books written by women, but after the topic came up again I decided I wanted to do more to showcase the many women who are writing and reviewing all kinds of different types of fantasy and science fiction.”

Kristen has since then come up a bevy of posts from many authors and bloggers who have conveyed their thoughts quite eloquently. So here’s a list of the female authors that have appeared on her blog to speak about various topics:

1] Nancy Kress
2] Carol Berg
3] Elizabeth Bear
4] Martha Wells
5] Stina Leicht
6] Moira J. Moore

Amidst the female bloggers, here’s the list of people who have contributed to this event:

1] Jessica from Read React Review
2] Kristin from My Bookish Ways
3] Janice from Janicu’s Book Blog
4] Jessica from Sci-Fi Fan Letter
5] Lisa from Starmetal Oak Reviews

For this week there are many more interesting authors and bloggers scheduled to make an appearance:
- Lynn Flewelling
- N. K. Jemisin
- M. J. Locke
- Lisa Shearin
- Sarah from Bookworm Blues
- Shara from Calico Reaction (LiveJournal, WordPress)

I for one, am absolutely thrilled that Kristen has taken this initiative and is doing such a great job with the help of all the wonderful ladies who have contributed and will be contributing in the forthcoming weeks. So please take a few moments and give these posts a read and don’t be shy to drop in a comment or two…

Note: Both pictures are courtesy of Fantasy Book Cafe.

ANALYSIS: "Kino" is a book which I would rate as an A- but I would still recommend as it has some great stuff mixed with some more common such, while the last part raises it above the "run of the mill" thriller with its "save the world, etc" that it threatened to devolve into.

I believe the author missed writing an unforgettable book by going too much the Hollywood way with chases, men in black, etc - though luckily he backs away in the end from that aspect which ultimately looks even more pointless. I also found the comparisons of the McCarthy era and later of Bush's invasion of Iraq with Nazi Germany beyond the pale and that aspect is even clearer today in the "new era" of drone executions and take no prisoners navy seals assaults ordered by our Nobel Peace Prize winner president to the unembarrassed silence and even cheering of the former Bush critics. As another negative, in the Net Galley e-arc copy I read there were also a few historical mistakes like situating Pearl Harbor in 1943, but those may have been corrected.

However the good parts - the diary of Kino about his life which arrives into the hand of his granddaughter Mina and later the revelations of his still living 92 year old wife, Mina's grandma though she has been estranged from her son for ages, the portrait of the Weimar republic and the sketches of Nazi Germany, together with the examination of the role of art in society - are just great stuff and I'd rather read those 100+ pages and the mostly standard present day thriller that fills in the rest, than many other books.

Where the book misses its greatest potential is in the sff aspect which the author uses to justify the chases and men in black as Kino's movies..., well read the book to find out why they are believed to be important even today. That part is sadly glossed over as if the author wanted to write a "realistic thriller" and was embarrassed to delve too much into the sfnal; too bad, as the potential loss there is significant, but at least the finale of the novel stands back from the men in black and that was a big plus for me.

Overall the pages mostly turn by themselves and with few exceptions when the men in black appear the book is quite the page turner, but I still wish the author would have had the courage to go the sff route and embrace fully that aspect.

OFFICIAL AUTHOR WEBSITE
Read “Of Monsters and Miracles” by Aidan Harte

Mock the vanity of small differences all you like but they’re the ones that make the biggest difference. The closer two religious denominations resemble each other, the more they're going to hate each other. That’s because thetrue believer isn't worried about skepticism; he’s worried about Heresy. To the devout, the error most closely resembling The Truth is the most dangerous. That resemblance, then, is the germ of the Albigensian crusade, the Thirty Years’ war and Uncle Torquemada’s thumbscrews. If bloodshed was the only fruit of Faith, things would be simple. But the truth is that the possibility of a world unseen, along with all that cruelty, gives us Chartres cathedral, Bach’s Passion and Dante’s Comedy. The sleep of Reason, as well as monsters, brings forth miracles.

But that’s something every reader of Fantasy knows.

Fiction began as a magic circle and, within its enchanted borders, monsters and miracles occurred routinely. Genesis. The Odyssey. Beowulf. Then the world grew dull, and the circle where prodigies were permitted was encroached upon and finally invaded by grey shriveled men insisting that there ought to be rules and decorum, that suspension of disbelief is all very well but certain things are simply not done. Reason can be a form of sleep too. The circle where the spell is yet unbroken is called Fantasy.

Irenicon, my first Fantasy novel, is the first part of something called The Wave Trilogy. Naturally, it’s the story of a monster and a miracle. It’s set in 14th century Italy, a time of fractious politics, invention, social upheaval and, most of all, a time of war – a war between the city-states and a war between Reason and Faith. Irenicon's hero is Sofia Scaligeri, the young Contessa of Rasenna, a town divided by feuds and a river that shouldn't be there. Sofia has never been in love until she falls for the worst possible person: a Concordian engineer: After all, Concord’s Wave is the reason Rasenna is divided. The engineer has come to build a bridge and his example shows Sofia that Rasenna can overcome its social divisions too. But when Concord’s rulers discover one of their engineers has “gone native”, they determine to put a stop to the rebellion and the shadow of the Wave looms over Rasenna once more.

I wrote Irenicon, while studying sculpture in Florence. The super-weapon of the story was inspired by a real Italian tradition of using hydro-engineering in warfare. During the 13th and 14th century, there were various crack-brained schemes to flood neighboring cities by diverting rivers. They were never successful, not for want of trying. Machiavelli, Da Vinci and even the great Brunelleschi had a go.

Since I’m a Kung Fu fan, Irenicon had to have flamboyant fight scenes. The story has a lot of quarrels, and quite few murders, so I took inspiration from the pageantry that’s still a part of Tuscan life to evoke that heightened, operatic, Godfather-style violence. There’s a parade practically every second day in Florence. Italians can't queue but, boy, they love parading. It’s not unusual to run into the civic fathers playing dress-up and the rows of neighbourhood “Sbandieratori” throwing and twirling their red and purple flags. The martial art of Irenicon, the Arte Bandiera, is based on this traditional skill.

AUTHOR INFORMATION – Aidan Harte was born in the late seventies, He studied in the Florence Academy of Art. He currently works as a sculptor in Dublin and his sculpture can be seen in Sol Art Gallery in Dublin. He works in the classical tradition informed by the early 20th century expressionists. He has also directed an IFTA winning, BAFTA nominated kids’ TV show, Skunk Fu, which was broadcast on BBC, Kids WB and Cartoon Network. This is his debut.

OFFICIAL AUTHOR WEBSITE

Since the 2012 Arthur Clarke Award shortlist has been announced a few days ago, I thought of discussing it here, comparing it with my prediction post etc. But as I thought the list a bit meh and my reaction was "this is a Hugo Award-like list" - as it is not a secret that I have quite a low opinion of the Hugo though sometimes it manages to surprise me with an ok shortlist - and time/energy have been in quite short supply recently I thought the post on Announcements will be my last here at least until mid-April.

The 2012 Clarke shortlist is: