"Ages of Wonder" ed. by Julie E. Czerneda and Rob St. Martin (co-Reviewed by Liviu Suciu and Bogdan Lascu, with a contribution by Adrian Craciun)
Official DAW Website
Official Julie E. Czerneda Website
Order "Ages of Wonder" HERE (US) and HERE (Europe/Overseas)
INTRODUCTION: While I love sf and selected weird/interstitial fantasy anthologies, I have always found more traditional fantasy stories less enjoyable, mostly because they are so hard to do well. Sf and weird fiction get a lot punch from twists or sense of wonder settings and those are much easier to convey at short length, while the world building and epic narrative of genre fantasy are harder to express in short pieces.
I found "Ages of Wonder" an unusually good anthology for its genre and when Bogdan Lascu who has loved it and published a Romanian language review, approached FBC about doing a joint review of the anthology I was delighted to agree and the result is the following, a joint collaboration, where my take will be noted as (FBC), the rest being the original translated review edited and formatted for our site.
Since the anthology contains a story by an up and coming Romanian sff writer Costi Gurgu, there is a third take by Adrian Craciun for that story only.
OVERVIEW:
"Ages of Wonder" is a new Canadian anthology rigorously divided into distinct periods of evolution in the human society. The book was published by Daw Books, which according to Wikipedia seems to be the first imprint in history to publish exclusively science-fiction and fantasy.
Some of the great and well-known writers published by Daw Books in their 1400 volumes, in 29 years of existence are: Marion Zimmer Bradley, Fritz Leiber, Edward Llewellyn, Jerry Pournelle, Roger Zelazny etc. Nowadays we can find Daw Books as an imprint of the larger Penguin Group.
Getting back to the stories from the anthology, I can tell you that you`ll need to prepare yourself to go on a long journey into : The Age of Antiquity, The Age of Sail, The Colonial Age , The Age of Pioneers, The Pre-modern Age and The Age Ahead. The book before our eyes offers 19 stories which will have an astonishing impact on the reader`s mind with the density of the details and their high quality.
In the introduction we find out that the anthology was born from the desire and the ideas of the two editors, Julie E. Czerneda and Rob St. Martin to explore different specifics in various historical cultures. An excellent background, that is easily adapted into a well built-up setting with many fantasy roots. Yes, you heard me well, the anthology has plenty of fantasy and/or fiction narratives to appeal to everyone`s taste. It seems that the two editors had a very rigorous selection template, so the success of our Romanian writer Costi Gurgu to be chosen is highly complimentary.
ANALYSIS:
“The Age of Antiquity” debuts with "The Curse Tablet" a story of Nina Kiriki Hoffman that give us a glimpse of the Roman world that is amazing in the fidelity and the accuracy of the details. Gods and witches, merchants and slaves, curses and blessings, all are interlocking in this text.
(FBC) - I enjoyed this story a lot, though it is fairly conventional
“To Play the Game of Men” by Caitlin Sweet is a fantasy story with more subtlety than the eye catches at first; you have to watch carefully the tracks well hidden in the text .
(FBC) - one of the two major highlights of the anthology for me, this story of Bucephalus hooked me from the first line and I re-read it twice to savor it; just superb
“Mist Wraith” by Urania Fung carries us on to the Asian continent with a story that seems to reproduce the "unknown" familiar from the Asian movie industry, full of phantasms and delusions.
(FBC) - another fairly conventional story, well written and with a twist
What will you do when you`re the last of your kind? How can you protect now your unborn child? And still, how can you write in the smoke? For all these questions and others, you`ll find answers in the appetizing story, "Written in Smoke" by Karina Sumner-Smith.
(FBC) - this story was completely forgettable for me; never really got into it
"The Age of Sail” is an Age that could not miss from such an initiative and I think everyone agrees with me on this one.
"Cloud Above Water" by Natalie Millman, "Crossing the Waters" by Ika Vanderkoeck, "Here There Be Monsters" by Brad Carson and the "A Swift Changing Course" of Jana Paniccia are acquainting us with the familiar characters often found in the neighbourhood of the sea: sirens, enslaved elemental spirits, pirates, slave merchants, ailliachi or some giant kraken - which is said to be the descendant of a certain degenerate fantastic species.
And these stories too, look to me like all are very well balanced, some of them are even sending messages of life and “how to make it” to the reader; the self-interest that drives to action the characters from the “Crossing the Waters” story, or the unsuspected resources that are staying well hidden in each can save us manny times from extreme conditions like we can see depicted in “A Swift Changing Course”.
(FBC) I loved “A Swift Changing Course”, a very well done coming of age story on board of a warship ready for battle; “Crossing the Waters” was also interesting though predictable, with wicked colonists luring naive locals, though with a twist, while the other two did not really hold that much interest for me.
"The Colonial Age" is an era in which myths have known a better spreading, from the larger area of coverage and a highlighted contact between more unknown civilization until then. In this Age we have a lot of innovative ideas for the stories:
The obscure and the attractiveness of the New World as we can see in"Blood and Soil" by Ceri Young.
The love dramas that are occurring as a result of starting wars between different nations in their expansionist policies in "Fletcher`s Ghost” by Liz Holliday.
The goblins, not so mean and aggressive like we usually encounter them, but fascinated by the incipient steam technology and mechanisms, as well as jealous at the same time of the girl in love with their beloved master, in "Immigrant" by Sandra Tayler.
For me this last story seemed to be the most interesting story from this period of time. The goblin is very funny and well drawn in his attempt to defend his "territory" against two “deadly enemies”.
(FBC) Here I had the opposite reaction from Bogdan; I liked quite a lot the "Blood and Soil" story, somewhat predictable, but told with emotion in great style and standing out from the rest; I also liked "Fletcher's Ghost", though I found that it over-promised as opposed to the final result, while the last story did not work for me and I fast forwarded through it.
"The Age of Pioneers" opens up with the story, "A Small Sacrifice” by Kristen Bonn, in which the need to keep away the tribe from the unhealthy new culture and things can only be done by blood and human sacrifice.
(FBC) I never could get into this story so I browsed it fast and cannot say I remember much
The Western wild atmosphere surrounds us in the "Pony Up" story, by Linda A.B. Davis. A text with a very suggestive title in which we can find a very fantastic Pegasus-like pony.
(FBC) Though not much into westerns these days, I thoroughly enjoyed this one since it is funny and fresh
"Gold at the End of the Railroad" by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, the only text from the anthology which failed to catch me, and therefore I have abandoned it quite early.
(FBC) Did not work for me either
"The Pre-Modern Age" is seen as a Period in which "man" ran undisturbed in his need to impose domination over nature but at the same time as a good moment for science and technology to blossom. The editors are wondering, and rightly so, can now the forces of mystical, mythology, and supernatural magic stand a chance in direct competition with these innovations?
"The Stone Orrery" by Jennifer Crow seems to be an episode off an already legendary myth meaning the "time machine". The destiny of a Russian princess blends with that of an avid researcher in search of his way up and a woman in a delicate situation. A solid story, but not necessarily great.
(FBC) A good story, I enjoyed it
Tony Pi, recently nominated for "The John W. Campbell Award” for best new writer, managed to catch me for good with his text "Sphinx!". In a Modern Period in which the Sphinxes and other hybrid fantasy figures have disappeared for centuries, fate still holds a major surprise for the heroes of our story. I liked the interesting combination of the Sphinx magic with the power of the riddles.
(FBC) Funny and thoroughly enjoyable
"A Bird in the Hand" by Queenie Tirone emerges as another foray in the world of fairy tale creature, phoenix birds, fairies, magic detectives, powerful spells and Excalibur swords, all that combined with some powerful Chinese mafia.
(FBC) Short but compelling, I liked this one for style more than content which is fairly conventional
"The Age Ahead" includes only two stories but one of the two authors is Costi Gurgu the romanian writer.
In "Mars Bound”, K.J. Gould follows an unconventional and out of the ordinary storyline. The author explores a credible future where elves live among people and manage to get on the planet Mars because of the ambition of such a being. This is a good opportunity for the author to analyze the roots of magic that the elves possessed and how they are using of it with so much grace. A story which proves that the imagination beats the stereotype and that there are still writers that can write original elves stories.
(FBC) The premise is interesting but the author' style did not quite work for me
In "Angels and Moths" Costi Gurgu deals with a missed, in the first instance, alien contact. It is a story with substance and literary force that brings to the table controversial topics. The belief in Divinity, the lure of the soul, the inexorability of fate, the weakness of the spirit and human consciousness are just a few of them. Recently I read some older stories by Costi Gurgu from "String”, an old Romanian magazine. My impression is that the story that we have here is similar, although not necessarily in the same direction and complexity, with "Cultural Relationships". Just like in "Angels and Moths", I could find in there the same interesting race of aliens, very well "dressed" literary, hypnotizing and unique through their numerical approach. The end makes you think a little and urges a re-reading of the last events for a better understanding which means that the writer managed a subtle and careful construction of the text. Far from me the desire to praise unnecessarily, but the writing here seemed solid and well done. An alien assessment of the atheism of the main character offered me the preferred paragraph from the whole anthology:
"You have decided not to believe not because you`re convinced that there is nothing divine, but because you don`t need the divine presence in your life. You can live without it."
Adrian Craciun presents his take on "Angels and Moths" – I have read form the anthology just the Costi Gurgu`s story. But I want to highlight some points independent of the rest of the volume. What`s hitting you at first in "Angels and Moths" is the richness of ideas compressed into a relatively short story. Costi's ideas here are not ones for a mere story but for a novel or even a series. In a swirl of 15 pages we have: alien contact, popular mythology, deity sclerosis, lost faith, a little bitter 'love', alien magic etc..
If I have read it with a pencil in hand taking notes I could find even more things to note. The second strength is the expression: plastic, almost poetic, with beautiful stylistic turns . The writing is natural and the speech is very fluid. "Angels and Moths" in three words: rich, consistent, attractive.
(FBC) The above two takes are consistent with my opinion; I thought of the story as "best for last" and it was the second major highlight of the anthlogy, though I still have a weakness for sad Bucepahlus, the only horse in Hell. Great stuff from Costi Gurgu and another author to watch.Conclusion: I was thinking that unlike Best Sci-fi's anthology that I have read recently, "Ages of Wonder" amazed me by its compactness, the stories having a moderate length, at about 20 pages maximum. But I should warn you that you should not underestimate it; on the contrary, a highbrow reader and a lover of fantasy style will find more than a handful of texts for her tastes, primarily due to the variety and careful construction of the subject matter. I sure have been impressed and in the future I will look out for more stories from the names present in the pages of this book, and why not, I will keep an eye on the work of the two editors also.
(FBC) While I liked "Ages of Wonder" a lot, I still do not think it compares with the great sf anthologies mentioned or reviewed recently here, but that for me is due not to the intrinsic quality of the stories but to the fact that it is truly hard to pack a true punch in conventional fantasy at short length as opposed to sf or the weirder reaches of the genre. "Angels and Moths" could stand very well in a sf anthology for example, illustrating my point.
Note: Bogdan Lascu and Adrian Craciun are members of the leading Romanian language sf website Cititor SF
2:54 AM | 
Posted by
Liviu |
John Marco is a fantasy writer, known primarily for his series of books Lukien Trilogy and Tyrants and Kings. Marco has decided to take that leap into Young Adult fantasy with Starfinder, the first of three books in the Skylords Trilogy.
Calio is a mountain city, where the Skyknights, premier pilots that fly in machines known as dragonflies, are based. Boarding Calio is the vast area known as the Reach. A never-ending area of fog, the Reach has always been off limits to the people of Calio and any other cities. Even with this restriction, crazy tales and legends have always been an important part of the lives of the citizens of Calio. Many believe that it could lead to a better life, while others believe that doom lurks just beyond the clouds of fog.
Moth, a 12 year old boy, has always wished and wanted to become a Skyknight when he grows up, an impossible feat as he is not wealthy or privileged that leads to obtaining the ability to become one. After Moth's mother died, an elderly man named Leroux and his mysterious pet kestrel, Lady Esme, took him under their wing. Leroux is filled with many tales of mysterious creatures and happenings beyond the Reach, many of which no one believes.
On Moth's thirteenth birthday everything changes, Leroux dies which sends everything in the city into ciaos. Coming home from his job, Moth finds his apartment trashed and government officials looking for something they claim is very special. Fearing for his life, Moth runs and hides hoping to keep under the radar.
After spending some time in hiding, Moth along with his friend, Fiona decide to take a journey through the Reach in order to escape the people that are after them and the illusive mysterious object. Starfinder takes readers on a journey to an unknown world beyond the Reach that is filled with many many magical creatures, and the mysterious Skylords.
Starfinder was a hard read for me as an adult. Although, keeping in mind it was a YA book geared for children, there wasn't really the appeal to the older reader for many reasons.
First, there didn't appear to be any character to bond with. Many older readers look for not only plot development but character development too. From the beginning I felt I had missed out on getting to know Moth and even Fiona. A lot of the conversations that could have built a character instead came across as stilted and forced with no natural flow. Without a character that I enjoyed throughout the story, there was a vague sense of disconnection.
Along with not having a character that there was a bond with, there was also a sense of vagueness to the plot. A lot of the plot seemed to hinge on one specific question that was never answered throughout the story or a specific scenario that was never explained. Instead the two children have to keep going around asking the same question but never really getting anywhere. This might be attributed to the fact that the story is told almost in after thoughts or a look back, although there are times readers get a glimpse into some action there is a lot that is told after the fact. This was just another contributing factor to the potential lack of appeal to adults.
Besides writing style, there was also a lot of questions that arose throughout the book that to me were left unexplained. The Skylords are such a major part of the story, however they were never explained, instead they just appeared and had this influence over the plot. Maybe the whole Skylord situation will be explained in later books, but as this is the first book of a series and majors chunks of time are devoted to Skylords its hard to understand why this was left so vague.
Putting aside the negatives for a YA book there are an awful lot of different mystical creatures throughout the book. For children this is great because it exposes them to dragons, mermaids, flying people and so forth. Having so many species helps bring a sense of wonder to the book that young readers need to keep their attention.
In the end, although I really wanted to like Starfinder I found a lack of adult appeal. This may be a great book for the intended younger audience, as it doesn't have complex plotlines and easy characters to follow. However, from an adult standpoint however, I couldn't get past the vague plots, stilted conversations, and many unanswered questions that arose throughout my readings.
The brand new series of Sherlock Holmes published by Dynamite Entertainment starts with a bang - and most literally, at that. Writers Leah Moore and John Reppion resurrected the old detective with a five-issue story arc titled The Trial of Sherlock Holmes, which puts the famous sleuth in the center of what appears to be a political conspiracy, complete with murder - a murder of which Holmes himself is accused.
Aaron Campbell's interesting illustrations sometimes remember the strange, somewhat puppetlike and slightly out-of-proportion drawings of Richard Corben. Good stuff.
The cover, by John Cassaday, already give the reader a fairly good taste of what he\she is going to find inside the pages: a grim, somber story that pays homage to Conan Doyle's greatest creation and at the same time adds to it a kind of different flavor.
"Terminator: Salvation [The official movie novelization]" (Reviewed by Fabio Fernandes)
Since the TV series Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles was just terminated (pardon the pun, but it´s just the truth) and the movie apparently will not follow anything related to it nor to the third movie (for T3, at least, we should be grateful).
A caveat: I´m not reviewing the movie, just its novelization, so I can´t vouch for any event that by any chance does not happen to not be in the movie (not that I´m telling any spoilers here, but anyway). I can tell you, however, one thing: the story of the book is good.
The story is plain and simple: it’s the future (2018), and it´s John Connor fighting as leader of the Resistance. Right?
Apparently so.
The prologue, before Judgment Day, features serial killer Marcus Wright in the death row, where he is offered a chance to help other people donating his organs. Other plain, simple thing, right?
Definitely not.
Back in 2018, after a sort of successful attack on a machine base (sort of because, for John Connor, the only survivor of the team, it wasn´t worth sacrificing the lives of his fellow combatants and the prisoners the machines make for their experiences. That´s where he and the high command of the surviving military forces of the world disagree: they consider such deaths as collateral damage. For Connor, that´s what a machine would think, and that thinking de-humanize us.
In this future, John Connor is a married man, and his wife, Dr. Kate Connor, is pregnant, so he´s not only fighting for some abstract value or something that his late mother inculcated on him. He´s fighting for a very real future. (It´s not clear, but maybe Kate is Kate Brewster, of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.) First, however, he will have to overcome the resistance of the military.
Not to mention two other things who suddenly appear in his way. A disoriented Marcus Wright, who has no memory of Judgment Day and hasn´t aged a single day since he supposedly died. Did he travel in time? Is he going to be a possible ally to John Connor -- or an enemy? Who is he really?
The second thing is a teenager who tries desperately to survive in the outskirts of Los Angeles – a young man taking care of a mute girl who can sense machines coming from a distance – Kyle Reese.
This film ignores the Sarah Connor series completely, so Kyle doesn´t have a brother and resistance soldiers doesn´t keep jumping to the past. When all the characters are introduced, John Connor volunteers to a probably suicidal mission: to test a device that can disable the machines at a short distance and let humans destroy them. But this time he will do everything to save the machines´ human test subjects – and young Kyle Reese. If the machines (and Marcus Wright) let him do it.
Alan Dean Foster, as always, does a great job at novelizations: a fast-paced, non-stop action-packed narrative I simply didn´t want to stop reading. To be honest, although a fan of Sarah Connor, I didn´t care much for the upcoming film; but, having read the book, now I want to check it out. Unfortunately, I won´t be able to do it for a few more days (Brazil will only see Terminator: Salvation in June 5th), but the American readers of this blog won´t be having this problem: the film is being released today. Have fun!
Order Cemetery Dance HERE:
1.It's been nearly 15 years since your first book Relic came out, since then you have jointly written 13 books and written 3-4 solo books each. How it feels, the journey so far, any special things you would like to mention?
Lincoln: It’s been a great journey so far. Writing is a marvelous career. I’d recommend it to any poor English major trying to figure out how to make a living upon graduation. When I first quit my job to become a writer, my parents were worried I’d become a financial burden to them. Fortunately it didn’t turn out that way.
2.The books which you have written, since the release of Relic, Riptide, Thunderhead, almost have made a genre of your own. How do you classify your books as they are quite hard to pin down in one specific genre?
We don’t bother to classify them. It’s too hard and these classifications are too limiting. We wouldn’t even call them strict techno-thrillers. Every book has a bit of science, a bit of history, a bit of archaeology, code-breaking, computers, engineering, planetary geology, paleontology… you name it.
3.In the “Writing section” on your site, Mr. Child has mentioned that writing Reliquary was a very tough thing to do & has given quite some detailed points in his explanation regarding “Sequelitis”, since then you have written a trilogy concerning Agent Pendergast and how did you deal with the sequel problems while writing the books “Dance of Death” & “The Book of the Dead”
The difference is that when we wrote Relic, we had no plans to write a sequel. That’s what made Reliquary so tough. On the other hand, “Dance of Death” and “The Book of the Dead” were actually conceived as one book which, because of its complexity, we had to split in two. It was a completely different situation.
MW: For more information about the writing about Reliquary, Here’s the explanation given by Mr. Child http://www.prestonchild.com/
4.I have enjoyed your Agent Pendergast books but have to say that your earlier adventure, stand alone stories, like Relic, Ice Limit, & Riptide had a certain charm of their own. Do you plan on writing any more of these stories soon? Will you be writing any more standalones in the future?
Our solo novels are our standalone books now. But we are discussing launching a new series featuring a series character that has not yet appeared in any of our books.
5.What’s the one book idea which either of you wanted to write but couldn’t due to the time or constraints?
Douglas: I have long wanted to write a modern day, high-tech retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo.
Lincoln: For the longest time I tried to persuade Doug that we should write a thriller set in a fictitious theme park. Ultimately, when we started writing solo books as well as joint books, my own first project, UTOPIA, ended up being precisely that book.
6.Its not widely known but D. Preston is credited as a writer for a disaster movie called “Superfire” [IMDB.Com] along with his brother Richard Preston, how did that come about to be? Do you have any aspirations to write screenplays & scripts for the small & big screen currently?
Douglas: I have no desire to write a screenplay or script. I wouldn’t be able to stand the process of writing by committee. “Superfire” came about because my brother and I had a great idea and wanted to see it made into a movie. But we didn’t actually pen the script—we were co-executive producers instead. We created the story, helped the writer with his research, read and critiqued his screenplay.
7.Mr. Child, in your biographic timeline it has been mentioned that there have been certain books that you gave up on. What’s the current status quo on them & have there been any more additions/deletions to the list?
Lincoln: Books that I tried to read, you mean? There are other books I've given up on but in fairness to the writers (they're still alive and presumably well) I have to be coy about the titles. I find that I am much less patient with books now than I used to be and will put them aside if they don't strongly hold my interest. I'm not sure if this is a result of curmudgeonly old age, or a side effect of being a writer myself.
8.How is your daily writing schedule, do you write best in the morning or evening? Or do you have a schedule like a certain Dan Brown who gets up at 4:30 & performs shirsasan [a yoga posture] before writing
Douglas: I find my mornings are best. I start at around 7:15 a.m. and knock off at around 5:00, but not all that time is spent writing. I never work at night, but I will often work early weekend mornings.
9.Its been close to 9 years since Ice limit got published & since the fans have been clamoring for a proper sequel to Ice Limit & you have dropped hints in your books [IL-II in Still life with the Crows, IL-III in the Dance of death & certain “ongoing preparations” when we are reintroduced to Eli Glinn in the Dance of Death] will you write a proper sequel to the book dealing with the consequences as mentioned in the book and the Web-only epilogue on your site
Yes, some day we will certainly write a sequel to The Ice Limit. Patience is a virtue, you know…
10.Both of you began writing your solo books as standalones however now your books have started having serial characters who after having smaller roles in earlier books, have become more central characters. [Jeremy Logan for LC & Wyman Ford for DP] how did this come about, intentional or coincidence?
Lincoln: I guess you'd call it coincidence. I wrote a chapter in DEEP STORM that was meant to be a one-off, a scene in which a researcher (Jeremy Logan) stumbles upon something very interesting that ultimately moves the main story farther. That was the only chapter in which Logan appeared, but many people were really taken with it, including my editor, who suggested that I “grow” the character. In the next book, TERMINAL FREEZE, Logan had a much larger but still subsidiary role. It's only with the solo novel I'm working on now that Logan will be the true protagonist. I've always been fascinated with supernatural sleuths and so having an “enigmalogist” as a hero is very rewarding.
Douglas: In my case it was sort of a natural progression. Wyman Ford was meant to be a minor character in Tyrannosaur Canyon, a walk-on, walk-off role, but he seized the center stage and wouldn’t leave. I became more and more intrigued by him and in that way he became a series character.
11.Tell us a bit more about this book “Cemetery Dance” and also if there was any specific reason for the name to be changed [It was previously called Revenant] and why was it delayed?
The publisher thought the word “Revenant” was too obscure. It was delayed because we wanted a little more time to work on it, get it just right.
12.Name three weird facts associated with your next book [Cemetery Dance].
(i) The classic prefrontal lobotomy was performed by sticking an object not unlike an ice pick into the eye socket, behind the eye, and driving it into the brain with a mallet.
(ii) Consecrated hosts and ground up corpses are sometimes used in making Vodou charms.
(iii) In Haiti, people are sometimes buried face down if there is a fear they might come back to life.
13.Mr. Child, in your book “Thunderhead”, in the acknowledgements page you mentioned about your Grandmother “Nora Kubie”. Was the character of “Nora Kelly” inspired/based on this atavistic persona?
Lincoln: To a degree, yes it was. My grandmother was one of a kind, a true free spirit. She didn't have to do anything—her father was shipping executive—but she ended up doing practically everything: writing, painting, archeology, history, world travel. One of my greatest regrets is that she passed on too early to witness my own success as a writer.
14.Michael Crichton passed away last year, He was considered by many to be “The Father of Techno-thrillers” your thoughts on the effect of his books for authors like yourself who can be sometimes classified as writing in the “TT” genre
Crichton was a marvelous storyteller. The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park are classics, two of the best technothrillers ever written. Both of us will never forget reading the Andromenda Strain as a teenagers—what a revelation. A lot of writers shied away from science themes, worrying they might be too difficult for readers, or too much like sci-fi. Crichton showed how it could be done.
15.What can we expect next from you both, individually & jointly?
Douglas: My next solo novel, IMPACT, will be published in January. As you may imagine, it involves a meteorite impact… Or so it seems. Enough said. My nonfiction book, The Monster of Florence, will be published in June.
Lincoln: I'm currently at work on my fifth solo thriller, which will follow TERMINAL FREEZE. It's still early in the development phase so I don't want to give too much away, other than that it will be a Jeremy Logan novel and that I think its underlying hook may well be my best yet!
16.What book/s have you read recently that has made quite an impression on you & what books/authors in same/other genres would you like to give a shout out to?
Douglas: I’ve been reading a lot of nonfiction. Some of the really superb nonfiction books I’ve read recently are: The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale, Annapurna by Maurice Herzog, Meta Math! The Quest for Omega by Gregory Chaitin.
17.Your thoughts on your growth as a writer & on the future path as well!
Douglas: Writing is like anything else in life; if you do it almost every day, push yourself, try hard, and are self-critical, you will probably succeed. Linc and I are still hoping for that Number 1 bestseller. We’ve gotten up to number 2, but the top spot has so far eluded us!
18.People whom you have met at signings have always been full of praise for you & your gracious conduct, do you have any special anecdotes to share about such occasions [the good as well as the bad]
Douglas: We enjoy meeting our readers and we are very grateful to them for buying our books. We have very good readers! I have met several Douglas Prestons at book signings and even one Preston J. Douglas, who has become a friend. As for a bad anecdote: when Linc and I were touring for Mount Dragon, I went to a booksigning in Minnesota in which the only person who showed up was Linc’s mother, and Linc went a signing in Cambridge in which the only person who showed up was my mother… That was not a good book tour.
19.After several books, what still challenges you, and what do you want to accomplish as a writer?
Douglas: Writing never gets easier. It is a daily challenge. I just want to keep writing books that get better. Linc and I have a mortal fear of going downhill, as some successful writers seem to do. We will never rest on our laurels.
20.How do you cope up with punishing schedules & stressful deadlines & what is your advice to your loyal legion of fans on the board & worldwide.
As for punishing schedules and stressful deadlines, all gainful employment features similar challenges. Our advice is be cool and be nice and don’t pick fights. Enjoy the process.
MW: I would like to thank both Messrs. Preston & Child for taking the time to answers all the questions & for providing me along with a lot of other readers with infinite hours of entertainment & knowledge via their books.
For people interested in knowing them better, kindly hop over to:
which is a wonderful website & a treasure trove of information about the authors, their books & various other sundry. Special mentions go to the “rogues gallery” & “Pangea” section.
Also they will be undertaking their biggest tour yet in support of the release of their newest book “Cemetery Dance”; for specific places and dates, kindly check the tour listings over here :
Personal Favorite from 2008: "The Ninth Circle" by Alex Bell (Reviewed By Liviu Suciu)
Official Alex Bell Website
The Official Page for The Ninth Circle at Orion
Order The Ninth Circle HERE
Pre-order the new Alex Bell novel Jasmyn HERE
INTRODUCTION: Last year there was a crop of new Gollancz debuts that were highly touted , so from those 3 or 4 novels, I ordered on publication the books that held some interest for me . The Ninth Circle was one such and while I knew nothing except the blurb about it, I was hooked when I opened the book on arriving on my doorstep courtesy of The Book Depository.
The Ninth Circle is a first person novel and as with such, especially with a "truly personal" one as a journal, the reaction of the reader to the book is massively conditioned upon how he/she relates to the narrator.
OVERVIEW: In contemporary Budapest, Gabriel a man with no memory awakens in a small apartment on August 1st. He quickly "finds out" some facts about himself - he seems to be English the way he thinks and talks, he has been here for a while, or at least he speaks Hungarian fluently, his full name is Gabriel Antaeus as stated on the lease agreement; later he finds a UK passport in his name, bank records and other similar stuff, but still no memory, no one looking for him, the landlady has no particular knowledge of him except that the lease has been paid.
Since there was a large sum of money in cash on a table, Gabriel thinks it unwise to contact the police or the UK consulate, he starts looking himself for clues about who he is and he decides to start a journal not to forget again. The Ninth Circle is that journal and it contains a superb tale of suspense, a psychological and then all too real thriller, while later powerful fantastic elements are added in for a truly satisfying mix; one which is very entertaining on a re-read despite knowing the answers.
Casey March is Gabriel's neighbor. A pregnant teen on the run from her well off family and with a younger brother in charge to boot, she is also a very endearing character and her reactions to Gabriel's friendly offers to help, start from the natural suspicion to the final acceptance and the two form as unlikely a pair as any in recent novels.
Zadkiel Stephoni is a mysterious stranger who claims to be a theology professor and a close friend of Gabriel from the past, but there are some holes in his story.
The Ninth Circle stands at 260 pages and is structured as the journal entries of Gabriel in a period ranging from his "awakening" on August 8 to the stunning climax some months later. The "entries" vary in length, tone and frequency, and it's a good attention to pay attention to their spacing since I found it relevant to the book. The novel ends in a stunning way and while the possibility of a follow up is left open, the ending is very satisfactory.
ANALYSIS: "My name is Gabriel. There - I have a name. So there's no need to be afraid. But I wish I could remember ... something more. Seven days I opened my eyes and stared...
...
I 'm only writing this down now because I - ah - don't want to forget it all again. If a man doesn't know who he is, he might cease to be a person altogether. I mean, he might just sort of ... fade ... right out of existence."
These are the opening lines of The Ninth Circle and they just hooked me on the book making me reading it end to end in one sitting as well as re-reading it later to appreciate the little clues scattered here and there in Gabriel's quest to find out who he is.
But is the quest wise? What awaits at the end? - here I am sure anyone will figure out the book provides an answer to Gabriel, so there is no real spoiler to mention that indeed he finds out the whys and the hows of his existence, but the story is much more than that and as mentioned the ending is absolutely great.
While coming out as tentative, even naive and gullible, Gabriel is a very endearing character and he really grows on you. While Casey starts as a stranger met on a hallway and possibly having in common with Gabriel just a need to hide, circumstances draw them closer and the friendship and trusts growing slowly between them is very well portrayed.
I also found Gabriel's interactions with the worldly but strange Zadkiel Stephoni very well done, presenting just the right amount of information at the time. The religious imagery throughout the book worked very well for me and it added a lot of depth and mystery.
Budapest as described in the novel is the familiar city I had visited several times in the past and which had never failed to impress me by its combination of classic and modern, but also a city of churches and religious imagery that play such an important role later in the book, so its choice was quite appropriate for the setting of the novel and adds to it a lot.
The suspense builds and builds and the revelations that come do not disappoint. I found this book very, very compelling on two levels. First as a page turner that I did not want to put down until finished; second in the voice of the author which I liked so much, that her new novel Jasmyn (June 09, UK) became one of the most awaited books of 2009 since last year when it was announced.
Highly, highly recommended as a personal favorite, notable debut and notable novel of 2008.
Read an extract from the First Chapter of Fall of Thanes
Order "Fall of Thanes" HERE(US) and HERE(Europe/Overseas)
INTRODUCTION: Brian Ruckley took epic fantasy in a dark, grim, blood and guts direction with his excellent debut Winterbirth reviewed HERE. Characters died, towns fell, Thanes plotted and a dark magician of extraordinary power was refusing to be killed and his sufferings only deepened both his power and his almost insanity. In Bloodheir, reviewed HERE, the saga continued and it got only darker, but the twisted Aeglyss almost got to be a sympathetic character for me.
So the grand finale of the trilogy has been a highly awaited novel for me. However I have to say that it turned out to be a big time let down and I disliked "Fall of Thanes" immensely. While it was a powerful novel and the writing was as good as before, it just rubbed me the wrong way almost from the beginning and I lost interest on the way, finishing it mostly as a "duty" to see what happens. I will try to explain why in the analysis part.
OVERVIEW: Since I did an overview of The Godless World universe in my Bloodheir review, I will present it here too with appropriate changes to take into account what happened in the second novel too. I will try to be as spoiler free as possible for the first two volumes, but as a trilogy ending, Fall of Thanes depends heavily on what came before.
The Godless World is a bleak, wintry land in which several races, not having a great liking for each other, share territory uneasily, if not in outright conflict. There are two main races: Huanin—humans—and Kyrinin—humanlike and capable of interbreeding with humans, but very different in culture and distinctive in appearance.
The offspring of Huanin-Kyrinin mating—the Na'kyrim—are sterile, but are the only “humans” who can directly sense the collective consciousness—the Shared—and manipulate it if powerful enough The racism between Huanin and Kyrinin is very palpable, so the Na'kyrim are few and despised, hated or feared by Huanin and Kyrinin alike. Usually most Na'Kyrim try and live in isolated, inaccessible places, sometimes under the protection of human rulers, though some act as advisers to the powerful.
In the past there were Na'Kyrim of great power and some tried, and failed, to bend the world under their will, and Aeglyss has been shaping one such powerful and dark influence, gathering more and more power both political by manipulating the thanes and magical through his experiments and suffering. "Bloodheir" was to a large extent the story of Aeglyss' rise.
There are vast mysterious underground beings called the Anain who stay aloof from the rest, but intervened in the past when the Shared was badly out of kilt due to conflict, and may intervene again. Nobody really wants to see Anain involved though, since their interventions usually result in massive rearrangements of large areas of the world.
There are two main human groupings of interest, the True Bloods and the Black Road. Both are organized in clans under the leadership of a thane, and there is a high thane for each civilization. There was a schism a while ago inspired by the visions of a poor fisherwoman heralding the existence of a Hooded God and the predestination of each human fate. The followers of the Hooded God were defeated in the ensuing war, and exiled to the really cold northern wastes, where they built the Black Road civilization with the goal of returning and taking “their land” back from the True Bloods. There were occasional wars, but an uneasy equilibrium held until the events of “Winterbirth”.
The Kyrinin are grouped in clans too, though with animal names as befitting forest people. The main clans we meet are the White Owl and the Fox, which are blood enemies and enjoy no better pastime than killing each other and any human encroaching on their areas.
ANALYSIS: I truly loved the first two books in the series so I was very surprised at my strong negative reaction toward "Fall of Thanes" and I revisited the book just to make sure it was not me having a "bad reading day" before I finalized my review. I still am not 100% sure why I disliked it so much - "Fall of Thanes" was powerful, no question about it, but it rubbed me completely the wrong way almost from the beginning.
I think that a lot of my dislike boils down to the author making the characters one-dimensional archetypes instead of the fully realized ones in books 1/2 and in consequence I lost any connection to the story, my suspense of disbelief got breached and I could not care less what happened next, finishing the book just to see where it goes.
Shadowhand becomes a non-character, a puppet; Aeglyss has scenes that reminded me of the Star Wars Emperor trying to seduce Luke to the Dark Side which make for a good movie but I generally do not want that one dimensionality in the books I read; Orisian reminded me at times of the "hero on the quest at all costs" and I thought Mr. Ruckley very courageous in not taking the easy way out and actually showing what the consequences of the "at all costs" are, but I still disliked the way he penned Orisian here. And I could continue. Only Kanin retains a nuanced personality and he is at best a "secondary" main character not that important in the grand scheme of things and not enough to balance the rest.
Also while the action follows naturally from previous volumes, let us remember that the author decides where to go and there are always various choices on how to proceed; so from what the author chose to emphasize and de-emphasize respectively, many of the choices just did not work out for me overall. In a way I expected a different book and I just did not like the book I got.
I hope other people will like it and again I do not want to say that "Fall of Thanes" is a bad book; it is just a "not for me" book which happened to be the ending of a trilogy from which I loved the first two books.
Official Kirsten Imani Kasai Website
Kirsten Imani Kasai Blog
"Ice Song" at Random House with an excerpt to come soon
INTRODUCTION: I have heard of "Ice Song" a while ago but the blurb did not excite me that much. However when the book fell into my hands mostly by chance, I opened it and I was hooked by the beautiful writing style from the first page so I put aside all the other books I was reading at the time and finished this one first.
Though "Ice Song" is not that long at 372 pages, it packs a lot of imagery and emotion so it warrants a very close reading and I let it dictate the pace of my reading to fully enjoy it. There are quite a few passages I revisited both when reading it and after finishing it and "Ice Song" became a strong unexpected personal favorite of 2009 and a notable debut.
OVERVIEW: On a future Earth or an alternate Earth like planet, ravaged by environmental degradations as well as pure and simple greed, there is a fast rate of genetic mutations in the human population which led to the existence of the "somatics", the "Traders" and other wide variation of the "normal person" and of course to the fear, loathing and persecution that "the other" has always engendered throughout history.
The "somatics" are people with mostly animal genes/mutations, the "octopus" woman Rava, the horned queen of the forest Sidra and various others that feature prominently in the novel.
Rare and highly prized in some quarters, "Traders" are people that have a genetic makeup that allows them to switch genders, change that mostly happens involuntarily under stress. While most "traders" are infertile and retain the memories of their dual persona, Sorykah Minuit is different in both respects. She is the mother of baby twins, not yet weaned and in care of devout babysitter Nels while she earns enough to support all.
Under stress Sorykah becomes Soryk, but neither remembers the other and during the novel we get glimpses of their strange past of waking up in unfamiliar places and eking out a mostly precarious living in consequence. Sorykah is the dominant personality and she is the one that got educated, got the skills to work on the Sothern Island/Continent of Sigue for "the Company", but Soryk tends to surface at inconvenient times and assuming memory loss, carry on with "his life".
Sigue is the Ice Song land, where the ice plates are grinding against each other and create haunting melodies that fascinate and attract people. The melodies of ice are almost impossible for people to reproduce or record though many try.
The mainland which almost touches Sigue at the inhospitable Floe Fields is the setting of most of the action with its Erun city and forest, as well as the nearby Isle of Mourning place of the famous House of Pleasure manor.
The Collector is a mysterious old man that has a fortress/manor somewhere in the middle of the dark forest and sends his minion, monstrous part-walrus Meertham to bring him "unusual" somatics to experiment on them. Meertham has the unusal talent of sensing "the other" even in seemingly normal humans so he homes in on the suckling twins Ayeda and Leander which are travelling to their mother's new home in Ostara on Sigue.
When Meertham "collects" the twins, Sorykah is determined to do all she can to get her children back. The whys and hows about the Collector are slowly revealed in the book together with a lot of back story that adds a lot of depth to the very imaginative setting.
"Ice Song" stands at 372 pages divided into 33 imaginatevly named chapters. There is a list of characters at the beginning and on Ms. Kasai Website there is a map of Sigue and surrounding areas, as well as a "dream casting for a putative movie" which will give you an idea of how the author imagines her characters. The narration alternates between Sorykah's quest and the mostly nefarious doings in the Collector's palace. The ending is very good and makes the novel a complete standalone with ample scope for a planned sequel.
Despite the roughly 370 page count, the novel reads like a 500 or longer one, and I say this in a very positive sense since I love "fat" books as you can see from even a cursory check of my reviews. The reason "Ice Song" feels like a longer book but with no bloat is because reading it means imagining every scene, hearing every sound, feeling every emotion, so vividly are they described for us.
From the bleak and violent Ostara wth its "somatic" bars that rough and violent "normal" humans raid for sport, to the stark but majestic ice fields of Sigue, travel by dogsled and later to the mainland with its wonders, every place feels "so real" that you have to stop and enjoy it to the full.
While for a large stretch of the novel we follow Sorykah and her desperate quest, Soryk starts appearing more and more frequently as the novel progresses and the changes between the two are handled in a very natural, believable way.
The doings in the Collector's manor seen mostly through the sad and tragic figure of the "Dog-Faced" girl Dunya play well against the main thread of the book, while the Collector remains a suitably remote menacing presence, though we slowly glimpse his true back-story and realise that there is more depth even to him than to a stock villain.
The plot is fairly straightforward but the people and places encountered by Sorykah/Soryk are quite unusual and the interactions kept the novel from flagging even for a page for me, so I read it as fast as "it allowed" me, putting it down only when I *really had to*.
The one weakness that shows that "Ice Song" is a debut is in the author's telling us a lot of the back-story rather than weaving it naturally in the story, however that is a minor niggle compared to the major achievements of the novel.
Debut novels sometimes suffer from a lack of "balance" when the author follows two or more threads, but her true interest lays in only one of them and for a while I thought that the action in the Collector manor is a bit superfluous for this book; however the way the two threads come together at the end made me reconsider and on re-reading I found the secondary storyline important for the novel, though the main attraction is still Sorykah/Soryk's journey.
A strange but wonderful novel and highly, highly recommended "Ice Song" is a book that establishes Ms. Kasai as an author to follow and get any new book asap. I am very interested in the announced sequel since I want to see more of Sigue, Sorykah/Soryk and the rest of the wonderful characters and places imaginatively created by Ms. Kasai.
Note: Graciously answering my query for more information, Ms. Kasai told me the following (reproduced with the author's permission):
Kirsten Imani Kasai:
""Ice Song" was originally more than 350,000 words. I cut nearly 200 pages from the novel, some of which ended up in the sequel, "Tattoo", and some of which I plan to post on my site as 'deleted scenes.' "Tattoo" picks up right where "Ice Song" ends. There's also a third book, "Saudade", in the works. I just finished the ms for "Tattoo" and turned it in last week, so no idea about the publication date yet, sometime next year."
"Tattoo" coming in 2010:
"The signs are everywhere. The night train prowls, picking off somatics. Ostara is caving in and cracks in the ice threaten to destroy the Sigue. Only Rava, an opium-addled octameroon, knows how to restore balance to the Sigue if she can stay clean long enough to do it."
"There's a Yahoo discussion group for "Ice Song", which I hope to use to generate questions for book clubs and answer questions about the novel. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/icesong/
I'm also working on a couple children's books at the moment, and have a lot of characters clamoring for a chance to tell their stories, so I'm writing as much as my schedule allows at the moment."
Via SFScope, we just have found out some great news about one of our favorite author and editor, George Mann. He has just sold books 4-6 of his superb steampunk series that started in The Affinity Bridge and will be continued in The Osiris Ritual to his UK publisher Snowbooks.
He also sold two books of a new series "The Ghosts of Manhattan" to Snowbook, while the US edition rights for these went to Lou Anders at Pyr who will publish them starting in 2010.
With the superb eye catching cover featured above, The Affinity Bridge was a great favorite here and we are eagerly awaiting a promised arc of "The Osiris Ritual" in time for a review for its fall publication date.
FBC congratulates Mr. Mann and we are really happy that we will see a lot more of Sir Maurice and his plucky and smart assistant Veronica Hobbes, as well as the assorted wonders of the series' imaginative setting, while we are quite interested in the new series too.
Flash News: On his birthday, FBC's co-editor Fabio Fernandes publishes another story
"Who Mourns for Washington?"His earlier stories can be found here:
This story, a contemporary speculative fiction one, is told in first person on the forty third birthday of the narrator giving you a hint about the author too. Different and more emotional than his earlier stories, Fabio's fourth story exhibits his range. Read and enjoy the birthday present Fabio gave us!
"Ganesh, in the Afternoon"
"The Arrival of the Cogsmiths (oil on canvas, by Turner, 1815)"
"The Boulton-Watt-Frankenstein Company"
Cindy, Liviu and David congratulate Fabio on his achievement and wish him Happy Birthday!!!
