Nightlife Gets Bigger and Even More Frightening – An Interview with Author Matthew Quinn Martin
Posted on June 29, 2015 2 Comments
For Halloween of 2013, author Matthew Quinn Martin introduced us to the little town of New Harbor and the very frightening world beneath it–read my co-review with Mogsy here, and our first interview with Matthew here!) Now, his NIGHTLIFE series is expanding to bring you NIGHTLIFE: HAZARDOUS MATERIAL, a novella that I reviewed here, and the full sequel NIGHTLIFE: AS THE WORM TURNS (all for the low, low price of $1.99!)
Matthew is back to chat with me about what’s in store for NIGHTLIFE, and what you can expect in the new book.
In the first book in your NIGHTLIFE saga, your aim was to make vampires scary again. You definitely achieved that! What was your horror-based goal with HAZARDOUS MATERIAL?
The aim with NIGHTLIFE was not just to make vampires scary, but to make them horrifying. To strip away all the post-Bram Stoker stuff and get to the root of a terror that shows up in the legends of nearly every culture on earth. I’ve talked at length about that (including on this site) and people can look that up if they like (and I hope they do).
As for HAZARDOUS MATERIAL…well, it’s a bit complicated. I’d originally written this as a short story. It featured a crude version of Agent Ross and an embryonic portrayal of The Division. Even then, I knew that Ross and The Division were too good to keep to just that story. So when I started work on NIGHTLIFE I pulled them into that universe.
My editor and I thought it might be fun to expand the original short story to novella length, bring it closer in line with the other NIGHTLIFE books and put it out there as a “sample” of my work. As for my horror-based goals…well a lot of my own fears are based in the most mundane concerns. “Will this next advance afford me time to finally write that breakout book?” “Will I be offered enough adjunct work to keep the pantry stocked?” “Will my fifteen-year-old car make it though another season?” And so on…
I think that sense of everyday dread resonates with a lot of readers in the current climate. The true horror of HAZARDOUS MATERIAL (I think) is that Jarrod’s existence is one of grinding monotony that he fears will lead to nothing, eventually, but the grave. Watching a character get killed by an ax-murderer might be thrilling, but it’s hollow. Watching the slow descent of an otherwise decent person who just made a wrong turn someplace…that’s the kind of horror that gets under my skin.
This is why Jarrod takes a gamble on the game. No one who isn’t desperate would ever haul back home an unknown video game cabinet that’s been sitting next to a wall riddled with bullet holes and graffiti scrawled by a spree killer 30 years ago. I mean that’s “just run out of the haunted house” kind of lunacy…but desperate people are driven to desperate measures––and a lot of times that comes at a serious cost.
HAZARDOUS MATERIAL features several news story pieces that are based on/hit very close to the reality of mass shootings that happen far too often these days. In fact, one of the book’s settings is a video game arcade that was the site of a mass shooting years before our protagonist, Jarrod Foster, finds it. Video games have always been strongly linked to mass shootings. What made you decide to make that link concrete in HAZARDOUS MATERIAL?
I don’t want to hop up on a soap box here…but every time a mass shooting happens, you see a lot of hair pulling and people pontificating about this and that, pointing fingers at stuff like violent video games, or rap music, or a million other things that have nothing to do with the real reasons.
Violent music, video games, movies, dystopian YA with teenagers killing each other––these are works of creativity. And I think the impetus to create these works, ultimately, is the same one that leads to mass shootings. We live in a world that seems to have take little issue solving its global (and corporate) problems with grand scale violence in the form of near endless wars, police actions, invasions, missile attacks, drone strikes, assassinations, crushing embargoes, and so on.
Is it any wonder then…especially when it comes to teens whose brains haven’t yet fully formed, or the mentally unbalanced…that if the most powerful countries on earth condone violent action to solve their problems and petty squabbles, some individuals might feel that that right extends to them on a personal level?
Now…of course the Polybius as I envisioned it in HAZARDOUS MATERIAL was an early experiment on the part of The Division to fight a greater threat to humanity that is still only being hinted at in the series. The mass shooting in the back story (as well as what happens with Jarrod) was never part of the plan.
When reading about the video game, Polybius, that appears in HAZARDOUS MATERIAL, I immediately thought about the game, I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST SCREAM based on the Harlan Ellison short story collection of the same name. Any connection there?
Truthfully, I hadn’t played the game until you mentioned it (then, I immediately looked it up, downloaded it and took it for a spin). Of course, I’ve read that story more than a few times over the years, first when I was about 15 (and I’m not going to tell you how long ago that was). It wasn’t my first introduction to Ellison (that would be STRANGE WINE), but it was one of those stories that really got inside me. It made me think, on more than one sleepless night, about what I would have done if I were stuck in the same situation as the characters AM is torturing.
I remember coming up with numerous scenarios about how I would have escaped AM’s clutches (even if it involved suicide…or some improbable Deus Ex Machina…but what do you want? I was 15!). What’s fantastic about the game is that it offers the player the opportunity to do just that––to play out escape scenarios no matter how futile they turn out to be.
The true horror in I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST SCREAM, about the lack of control the characters have, the stripping of their autonomy. The game offers the player an illusion of this “free will,” and that is perhaps ever more hellish than what’s presented in the story. I wonder, if on some level, Ellison knew how his story would affect readers and as an added “F YOU!” decided to show them the futility of it all first hand. Or I could just be projecting. Either way, it’s genius. And like a lot of Ellison’s work…overlooked genius.
And while there is no direct link between HAZARDOUS MATERIAL and the I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST SCREAM game. Ellison has always been one of the most important influences on my own work. It’s very rare to find a writer of weird fiction (…spec-fic, science fiction, speculative history, magic realism…you pick the term you think fits best), whose work doesn’t suffer with age. Ellison, like Frank Herbert, Walter M. Miller, Russell Hoban, and a handful of others, don’t have this problem. You can pick up one of their stories or novels (some of them almost half a century old now) and they read as fresh as the day the ink was pressed to page. This is a testament to the power of imaginative fiction that dares to go past the bounds of what’s expected of the genre.
The original NIGHTLIFE book was very small town, but with HAZARDOUS MATERIAL’s connection to the mysterious Division, the your supernatural world seems to have expanded into something much larger–and even more frightening than sewer dwelling vampires. Can you give us hints about just how far reaching the Division’s plans are?
I knew, even when I was writing NIGHTLIFE, that there had to be more to the story than just “guy haunted by his past teams up with plucky bartender to save city from underground bloodsuckers.” So I did my best to plant…well…landmines in that first book that may or may not explode in future episodes of the larger story.
I don’t want to give too much away…but The Division (as amoral as its aims may be), along its “on-the-ground-lieutenant” Agent Ross, might serve as the main antagonists in AS THE WORM TURNS, but ultimately there are far more sinister forces at work. Ross, as harsh as his methods might be, sees himself as someone working to save mankind (no matter the collateral damage). He’s sacrificed quite a bit of his own humanity to create the version of himself that we meet in AS THE WORM TURNS (and this is hinted at in HAZARDOUS MATERIAL), and in that respect, he and Jack share a lot in common.
How deep this all goes down the…ahem…”worm hole” is something that I hope to explore in further installments of the series.
The long awaited sequel to NIGHTLIFE, AS THE WORM TURNS, will be out on July 6th. In our previous interview, the worm was still turning in your head … can you give us a few more hints now about what to expect for monster hunter Jack and his new partner Beth?
Well…I would say prepare for something different. Like you mentioned about HAZARDOUS MATERIAL, the world is growing outside the bounds of New Harbor. The threats are bigger, the stakes are higher, the enemies more numerous. Alliances and allegiances shift. More of what’s been working “behind the curtain” is peeked at. And also expect changes for Jack and Beth…both as individuals and as partners.
DUN DUN DUN…..
Be sure to check out Matthew Quinn Martin’s NIGHTLIFE series, available as a complete set on July 6th! Thanks for taking the time to chat, Matthew!
Audiobook Review: The Galaxy Game by Karen Lord
Posted on June 28, 2015 15 Comments
A review copy was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Genre: Science Fiction
Series: Book 2 of The Best of All Possible Worlds
Publisher: Audible (April 23, 2015)
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Mogsy’s Rating (Overall): 3 of 5 stars
Narrator: Robin Miles | Length: 11 hrs 12 min
For a long time I’ve wanted to read something by Karen Lord, so I was excited when I was given the opportunity to review the audiobook of The Galaxy Game. This latest novel by Lord sounded very promising, featuring a compelling blurb that teases a fascinating premise and hints at some action. Thus I admit I went into it with high expectations, but regretfully came out of the experience feeling rather underwhelmed.
I also feel that I should state that The Galaxy Game is a sequel, which I did not realize until I was about half way through the book. It probably would have eased some of the initial confusion, but I still don’t believe it’s entirely necessary to have read the first book The Best of all Possible Worlds before reading this because I was able to piece together a bit of what happened and follow the main story without too many problems. Plus, while it’s true I might have gotten more out of the story if I’d read book one, doing so still probably wouldn’t have negated some of my issues with this novel’s structure or stylistic choices.
In the book we’re introduced to Rafi Delarua, a teenager who is all but imprisoned in a place called the Lyceum which is a school for young people with psi powers. In a society that deeply mistrusts psionically gifted individuals, Rafi has to endure the education and various treatments designed to control those like him. It doesn’t help either that his father’s unethical use of his powers has left Rafi and his family a legacy of disgrace.
Rafi knows it would have been different if he had lived on the planet of Punartam, where psi abilities would be seen as the norm. So the first chance he gets, he escapes the Lyceum and makes his way there. Punartam also happens to be the home of wallrunning – his favorite sport. With the help of his friend, Rafi manages to find a way to not only play but also to train with the best players. Coming here didn’t mean the end of all his problems, however. There are new deals taking place, changes happening in the dynamics between civilizations in the galaxy. Learning how to integrate into a new society is challenging enough, but now Rafi finds out he will also have a role to play in the coming political storm.
It actually sounds more dramatic than it is. While I wouldn’t call this book dull, it did feel like a considerable amount of time was given to explanations of societal themes and classifications. Like I said, if I had read The Best of All Possible Worlds I might not have felt so lost, but regardless, I don’t typically mind putting in time to familiarize myself with a story’s setting. I didn’t even have a problem with the instances where I had to listen to a few sections of the audiobook over again to ensure I understood the significance of certain details. Lord has actually created a very unique and robust world here, which I really enjoyed. No, my struggles with this book had less to do with the deluge of information at the beginning (though it did make for a rough start) and more to do with the bizarre switches in narrative voice and points-of-view, as well as jumps in the plot.
In some ways, listening to the audiobook alleviated this problem. Narrator Robin Miles’ voice work is really impressive here, especially when it comes to her talent with accents. The result is that it didn’t matter how many times we switched POVs, Miles’ use of different voices made it immediately clear to me which character we were supposed to be following, saving me the time to figure it out. The convoluted plot, however, was another matter. This isn’t a light tale to begin with, and the exposition further weighs things down. The story also takes its time to get going, so some soldiering on is required to get to get to the part where it begins to find its stride, which is quite a bit to ask of readers (or listeners, in this case).
One final thing: I wish there had been more wallrunning. What we get in here does not make the sport sound as exciting as it should, also perhaps because it is so difficult to visualize what the players are doing. Rather than getting me pumped up, the action scenes instead made me feel bewildered and out of my depth.
All told, The Galaxy Game was not what I expected. In spite of a fascinating world, I wish there had been more substance to the characters and plot. Narrator Robin Miles did an excellent job, but even her fabulous performance could not resolve the flaws I found that were inherent to the story. However, I think I would have struggled even more with this book if I had read it in its print form. If I had known ahead of time that this was a sequel, I probably would have started with The Best of All Possible Worlds as my first Karen Lord book, and not least because it is book number one – it also appears that the consensus from those who have read both books is that The Galaxy Game was not as strong as its predecessor. When I read that one I will most likely seek out the audio version as well, especially since Robin Miles is also the narrator, and I expect the experience will be more positive.
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Further reading on The BiblioSanctum:
Wendy’s review of The Galaxy Game
Audiobook Review: The Element of Fire by Martha Wells
Posted on June 28, 2015 7 Comments
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Book #1 of the Ile-Rien Series
Publisher: Self-Published (November 13, 2006)
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Tiara’s Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Narrator: Derek Perkins | Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins | Audiobook Publisher: Tantor Audio (September 16, 2013) | Whispersync Ready: Yes
The Element of Fire focuses on the royal family of Ile-Rien, which is ruled by the ineffectual King Roland who has some strange parasitic relationship with a sneaky cousin. Along with King Roland is his mother, the Dowager Queen Ravenna who is often thought ambitious and even ruthless, and the enigmatic Falaise, the king’s ignored wife. Last, we have Kade, Roland’s half-fay sister, the offspring of Roland’s father and a fayre woman known as the Queen of Air and Darkness, who reappears suddenly, leaving everyone wondering what she wants. In the middle of this family drama is Thomas Boniface, captain of the Queen’s Guard and former lover of Ravenna, tasked with finding a talented, dangerous sorcerer hiding in Ile-Rien named Urbain Grandier.
I’d probably rate this somewhere between 3 and 3.5 stars. In the beginning, this book was a ball of confusion for me. I said it started slow, but that’s not correct. How can a beginning that includes the Queen’s Guard literally being fought by a warded house be a slow start? Definitely not a slow start, but the particular moment left me feeling disoriented for a while. Things didn’t start becoming clearer until around page 50 or so. That’s when the book started to answer my question, “To what end?” While I saw a certain reveal coming, I was glad she didn’t let that drag out to the end. She introduced it about midway through the story, which gave the plot room to explore other things. Once things started to happen, this book built momentum, escalating fairly quickly by the time readers start nearing the middle of the book.
However, with the momentum came a few hiccups. There were too many instances of buildup for certain plot points and then, the denouement for these things didn’t deliver that satisfying sense of closure one expects, which can be frustrating. Some other things that were twined into the plot had a tendency to come off as “Oh my, what a coincidence!” moments, followed abruptly with, “Well, if that was the case, why didn’t they do/say/tell [insert scenario here] instead of nothing?” Some things seem to started to buildup to something interesting and then suddenly fizzle out.
I liked most of the main characters. Ravenna, Thomas, Grandier, and Kade really got to shine throughout the book. Grandier’s gray morality and “be the monster they made you” attitude was interesting. I loved Ravenna, especially the fact that, unlike other book nobility, Ravenna surrounded herself with gentlewomen and queen’s servants that she taught to be as scrupulous, resourceful, and quick-thinking as herself. Her servants were not fodder, and she was just as loyal to them as they were to her. Other characters felt a little weaker in their roles, such as the King and Queen, but they had some memorable moments as well.
I also liked that Wells’ magic system didn’t automatically make the fay overpowered. She stuck more to the mischievous, flighty, chaotic nature of them and their magic while sorcery was a more powerful tool as a learned art. Fay magic is quick and illusionary where sorcery takes years of training and dedication to master. The fay are afraid of this careful control of magic because a fay can only be so good whereas sorcery gives its users access to remarkable power. Kade toes the line of human and fay, using both fay magic and sorcery to her advantage. Kade wasn’t a magical genius, though, because she’s not a master of either magic, but both forms of magic gave her a varied arsenal of attacks, such as pulling glamour out of the air or using spellfire to light a candle.
This book was part fantasy, part mystery. I’m curious about the Seelie and Unseelie Courts and wonder if I’ll see more of them in future books. Derek Perkins was an engaging narrator and an excellent voice for this series, though I did find some of his voices a little too similar for some characters. His vocal characterization of both Ravenna and Kade were my favorites, but he did do well enough that I will continue to listen to the audiobooks. I loved the various little pieces of the puzzle coming together throughout the book, even if I felt the ultimate reveal was very dramatic against the more mellow tone of the story, especially considering how so many points had such underwhelming conclusions. I wasn’t as taken with this book as I was The Cloud Roads. The Cloud Roads feels like the type of book that I would use to introduce people to Wells’ work, but I had fun with this book all the same.
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YA Weekend: Alive by Scott Sigler
Posted on June 27, 2015 12 Comments
A review copy was provided to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Series: Book 1 of The Generations Trilogy
Publisher: Del Rey (July 14, 2015)
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Mogsy’s Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
I’ve been dreading the thought of writing this review for a while, because I know it’s going to be a doozy. For one thing, I just know I’m going to come off sounding way more negative about this book than I mean to – which just kills me because there’s actually a lot to like here. Sadly, I just can’t talk about any of it. None at all. Yes, you heard that right; most of the good stuff is spoiler territory, so you’re all just going to have to bear with me.
You know how everyone has been saying that the less you know about Alive before going in, the better? Listen to them; they’re absolutely right. The best part about reading this book was being wrapped up in the mystery, slowly gaining more answers the farther into the story you get. However, this does make for a pretty rough beginning, and a fair bit of patience and investment is required to get to the payoff.
First of all, the book starts off sounding like it was written by a twelve-year-old. However, I’m not sure if this even counts as a criticism. Yes, it was maddening, but at the same time also very appropriate. Alive is told through the eyes of a girl who wakes up on her twelfth birthday, but she has no recollection of who she is or what her life was like before she went to sleep. She finds herself in darkness, trapped in an enclosed space that feels disturbingly like a coffin. After breaking out, she realizes something feels seriously wrong. She is supposed to be twelve, but her body looks like it should belong to someone older, like a woman in her late teens or early twenties. She then finds a plaque engraved with her name at the foot of her coffin – M. Savage.
Dubbing herself “Em”, the girl looks around the room and sees it lined with dozens more coffins like hers, but only a handful of them contain other survivors. All of them look physically like young adults, but they also say the same thing as Em – today is their twelfth birthday, and none of them can remember how they ended up in their coffins. In the end, only six of them emerged; everyone else is dead and shriveled in their receptacles or lying on the ground in piles of bone and ash. Because she was the first to break out and wake the others, Em assumes the role of leader of their little group. Now she bears the responsibility of their survival, but they’ll first have to learn to trust each other and work together if they’re all going to make it out alive.
So, probably the most trying part of the book was the first hundred pages or so. It was a little like reading Lord of the Flies except we’re in a labyrinth-like setting and the characters are all pre-teens trapped in the bodies of Abercrombie & Fitch models. Em cannot seem to go five pages without remarking on how strikingly beautiful every one of her companions are, and as a leader she keeps making one terrible decision after another. Like I said, mentally Em is only twelve years old. I’m still not sure how to judge her language, thoughts and actions when they are probably consistent with what the author thinks a tween girl should sound like. Still, I think the writing style will be the biggest hurdle for some readers, since Em also strikes me as an especially petulant and somewhat naïve child with her constant obsession to be in charge.
In spite of it all, the book grew on me. After the midway point, the story gets substantially better as we find out more about the survivors’ situation. I can’t say more without giving too much away though, which is always every book reviewer’s quandary (I’m ever striving to keep my reviews spoiler-free anyway, but in this case Scott Sigler even has a whole afterword imploring readers not to spoil anything via the internet, so I’ll take extra precautions and simply avoid talking anymore about the plot). Suffice to say, in time we do get enough information to piece together some answers. And it ends up being pretty cool.
I discovered afterward that Alive is apparently part of a series called the Generations trilogy. Even so, it could work as a self-contained novel. In light of everything that happened in this book though, I don’t think I can bring myself to stop with just one. I’m very curious to find out what will happen next, so I will most definitely pick up the sequel.
Voice of Gold: An Interview with Award-winning Narrator Simon Vance
Posted on June 26, 2015 8 Comments
It’s no secret that we at BiblioSanctum are fond of audiobooks and the many narrators who bring those stories to life. It’s also no secret that one of our favourite narrators is the amazing Simon Vance, whose award-winning work encompasses almost a thousand different books over the past 30 years. We are thrilled that Mr. Vance was able to take time out of his incredibly busy schedule to give us a peek into his work as an audiobook narrator.
Tell us a bit about how you got started? Did you receive any advice from or been influenced by other narrators in the industry at the time? Any words of wisdom to share with aspiring narrators now?
It was never my plan to make my living as an audiobook narrator. Pure accident. I was a BBC Radio newsreader based in London looking for a way to fill time when I stumbled upon the RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind) Talking Book Service. I auditioned and they accepted me and for several years I spent about one afternoon a week recording books for the blind and partially sighted to listen to on special machines. There was a little travel money, but that was it. When I came to California I was looking for something to bring in a little extra cash as I got my acting career into gear and a member of my then wife’s family knew David Case (aka Frederick Davidson, now sadly deceased) who introduced me to Craig Black, the founder of Blackstone Audiobooks, and I found it was possible to actually get paid for reading – seemed ideal.
David gave me the technical rudiments (using a tape deck and stopping and restarting at pauses to cover mistakes) but no real ‘coaching’ as such… I just did what I had done at the RNIB. I vaguely knew there were other narrators out there but it was almost 10 years before I ventured out to meet any of them and by then I was quite established in my own style.
I have no idea what to say to anyone thinking of entering the field now other than that it’s harder than it seems and there are so many better ways to earn good money in voice over than with audiobooks… but none quite as artistically satisfying.
In your opinion, what makes a good narrator?
How many hours do you have and how many times can I change my mind?
With a little bit of effort the technical side of the business can be learned quite easily even though there might be a steep learning curve with some of the equipment and certainly with some of the software.
But when it comes to the artistic side of recording an audiobook that’s a whole different kettle of fish. First and foremost I would say you need what I call an actor’s sensibility: By which I mean the ability to become entirely emotionally connected to what you are reading – very much ‘in the moment.’
That emotional connection has to be truthful; you cannot just fake it as so many new narrators try to do. To me the inherent truth of a narrator‘s performance is far more important than whether they have a ‘pretty’ voice, and hearing that truth tells me whether or not any given narrator has the ability to become a great narrator.
Do you read the book in advance? Do you often work with the authors? How do you handle those tricky names and places? How do you determine the defining traits of the various characters, such as vocal mannerisms and accents?
The range of preparation varies depending on the book; anything from a scan of the pages to a detailed reading of every single word. But that there is some form of preparation is essential.
Obviously if I need input from the author, on anything from pronunciation of names to clarifying story points, I will contact the author through the publisher. But I trust that, once chosen to narrate their book, the author will trust my own artistic choices.
As far as choosing vocal mannerisms and accents I will use any clues I can find in the text. If there are none I have free reign to use my own creative juices as long as what I create works within the context of the story!
Please describe for us a day in the life of an audiobook narrator.
Well, some days I start with a run and some days I go straight to oatmeal…
I’ll usually preplan my recording schedule before I start reading the book so that I know how many recording sessions I need to do each day to finish the book within the deadline I set. I try to get anything between 2 to 3 finished hours recorded each day in the studio. I used to record for between an hour or an hour and a half before taking a break which could cover several chapters in one recorded file. But in this download world I now take a short break at every chapter (publishers now prefer each chapter in it’s own file). My stomach can start to grumble around 11am so I always break then and have a healthy snack and maybe a smoothie.
After those sessions I will usually clean up the files before uploading them to the publisher and I’ll break for lunch early to mid afternoon. After that it’s household and business chores and checking on the work that is to come.
I spend a lot of time in Los Angeles now as I’m trying to reboot my screen-acting career so several evenings are often spent in class or networking. At an age when many people are thinking about the retirement I’m probably busier than I’ve ever been in my life!
Finally, perhaps, a glass of wine and a little Daily Show (I’ll miss Jon Stewart) and then it’s time for bed.
Do you listen to audiobooks yourself? Do you have any favourite books or narrators?
It would be nice to have more time to listen to my colleague’s audiobooks but I honestly don’t. Over the years I have listened to several but it would be unfair to pick out any one amongst many.
You’ve spoken about Anne Rice books being some of your favourite books to narrate. Have any other books made it to the top of your list since? What is it about these books that makes them so enjoyable to narrate?
I do enjoy narrating Anne Rice’s books (just finished one today) but I had favorites before I narrated those and I’ve enjoyed many books since. I adore Charles Dickens and Anthony Trollope. Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time was particularly enjoyable as was Patrick O’Brien’s Aubrey/Maturin series of 21 books (Master and Commander, etc.). It seems unfair to stop naming favorites now but I really could go on for hours.
Whatever the style or genre, whether it be science fiction, fantasy, romance, murder mystery or whatever, what matters to me is that it is well-written, fluent and creates a believable world where the characters act logically according to their unique philosophy. Somewhere I can forget about myself, forget about the individual words and the construction of sentences, and just enjoy the moments.
No doubt Mr. Vance is already several hours into recording another audiobook that will end up on our reading lists very soon. We at BiblioSanctum are looking forward to it, and thank you for this insight into your world!
Backlist Burndown: Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire
Posted on June 25, 2015 14 Comments
As book bloggers, sometimes we get so caught up reading review titles and new releases that we end up missing out on a lot previously published books. As a result, one of my goals this year is to take more time to catch up with my backlist, especially in my personal reading pile. And it seems I’m not the only one. Backlist Burndown is a new meme started by Lisa of Tenacious Reader. Every last Friday of the month, she’ll be posting a review of a backlist book and is inviting anyone interested to do the same. Of course, you can also review backlist books any day you want, as often you want, but be sure to watch for her post at the end of the month to link up!
Speaking of which, I’m doing my Backlist Burndown review a day early this month…
Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: Book 1 of October Daye
Publisher: DAW (September 1, 2009)
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Mogsy’s Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
October Daye is one of those urban fantasy series I’ve been meaning to read for a long time. And unless you count her novels written under the name Mira Grant, I’ve never read anything by Seanan Mcguire before either, so this was a good opportunity to knock out two birds with one stone.
The series’ eponymous protagonist is a half-human and half-fae changeling with an incredible and downright uncanny history. The book’s prologue takes us back fourteen years ago as October “Toby” Daye investigates a missing persons case for her liege lord Duke Torquil, but her stakeout ends in disaster when she is ambushed by the fae suspect and magically transformed into a fish. And in that form she stayed, for fourteen damn years.
The book officially begins not too long after Toby returns to herself, but she’s only a shadow of who she once was. The world has passed her by while she was trapped in that koi pond. Her human family who long thought her dead are now having trouble coming to terms with her reappearance, and Toby herself is unable to face old friends, especially Duke Torquil, whom she believed she failed. Turning her back on both the human and the fae worlds, Toby retreats into herself and attempts a solitary life of night shifts and takeout, but those plans are shot when a pureblood fae countess is murdered and Toby is charged to find her killer. Now not only is Toby forced back into fae society, she also has no choice but to step back into her old role as a private investigator.
Many people I know who have read both Seanan Mcguire’s books and also her Mira Grant books have told me that the writing styles under each name could not be any more different. Those folks are right. The author also uses her names to write very different genres, which is probably the reason for their disparate styles – and from what I’ve read, I think I enjoy her urban fantasy more than her horror. The two Grant books I’ve read, namely Feed and Parasite both suffered from very hackneyed plotlines and stunted character development, but Toby Daye was a breath of fresh air with her very unique and natural voice, along with the author’s vision of fae politics and their interactions with the human world. McGuire’s writing flowed a lot better for me in this novel.
That’s not to say the book was perfect, though. The story in Rosemany and Rue itself didn’t blow me away – it’s a paradigmatic UF murder investigation which involves a lot of talk and little to no mystery in the traditional sense. After that awesome prologue, the intro drags on while we follow Toby through a tour of fae country as she makes stop after stop to tell others that the great Countess Evening Winterrose is dead and/or to ask for help. As the main protagonist, Toby is also prone to seriously bad decision-making, and maybe I just missed something, but I’m very skeptical of the author’s warped, cynical reality where a young woman can bleed all over a public bus from a gunshot wound and everyone around her can just pretend it’s not happening.
Still, it’s the background elements and potential for good side stories that really caught my attention here. The stage is set and all the players are in place, now all we have to do is sit back and let things take their course. I have a feeling the complex social hierarchies in the fae world itself should add a lot of flavor to this series and make it stand out, and I’m also interested to see if Toby will ever connect with her human fiancé Cliff and their daughter Gillian again.
I’m not typically that picky about my urban fantasy; all I’m looking for in any first book to a series is that it’s entertaining and that it serves as a good escape, and Rosemary and Rue passed the test. What I do know is that I think I’m done with Mira Grant books for now, but I’m definitely open to continuing with Seanan McGuire’s October Daye. As with most UF, I expect the books will get better once the series finds its stride.
Tough Traveling: Fathers
Posted on June 25, 2015 27 Comments
The Thursday feature “Tough Traveling” is the brainchild of Nathan of Review Barn, who has come up with the excellent idea of making a new list each week based on the most common tropes in fantasy, as seen in (and inspired by) The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynn Jones. Nathan has invited anyone who is interested to come play along, so be sure to check out the first link for more information.
This week’s tour topic is: Fathers
Comes in two types in fantasyland. Either a semi-mystical figure proving impossible to live up to or the overbearing type who doesn’t understand why his daughter doesn’t accept the traditional princess role. He may be tough to get along with but usually does think he has his kids interests in mind.
Tiara’s Picks:
Hal Creed (Hero by Perry Moore)
Hal Creed, once known as the non-powered hero Major Might before scandal caused him to be kicked from the team, works hard and takes a lot of abuse to take care of his son, doubly so after his wife leaves him to raise their son Thom on his own. Hal is very protective of his son and goes to great lengths to make sure he’s always present in his son’s life in some way despite work or anything else. He’s also very strict about talk of superpowers (which Thom has), which he doesn’t tolerate, and has problems coming to terms with his son’s sexuality. I’ll just leave this here for posterity:
Mr. Chau (Scott Pilgrim vs The World by Bryan Lee O’Malley)
When Mr. Chau finds out his daughter is dating a white boy. Well, he’s just not going to stand for that. Thus begins a period of Scott being chased by Mr. Chau with pointy things that slice. Mr. Chau is literally un-fuck-with-able, but eventually, he decides that he actually likes Scott and is okay with his daughter dating white boys.
King Ashe (Princeless by Jeremy Whitley)
I used Queen Ashe for Mother’s Day, so it’s only fair I use her husband for Father’s Day. King Ashe is the seemingly cold father of the Ashe children (three daughters, including the heroine of this title, and a son). He believes in gendered tradition and rules. He believes this is how order is kept in a kingdom. He believes his daughters should be locked away in towers for knights to rescue and his son should learn to fight even though that’s not a thing he really likes. So, how does the staunchest, manliest king in all the land end up with kids who throw all their gender roles in his face?
Maes Hughes (Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa)
Hughes is probably actually one of the best manga/anime dads (because everyone knows that 90% of manga/anime dads are trash). Hughes is probably one of the best anime characters period. He’s cheerful and friendly to the point of downright annoyance, and his soft spot is his wife, Gracia, and his daughter, Elicia. Hughes is so protective of his family that he’s actually threatened three-year-old boys about his three-year-old daughter. Did I mention they’re all three-years-old?
Father (Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa)
Also, in the FMA universe, we have Father and his Homunculi children. Unlike Hughes, Father is confident, cold, and thirsts for power. Father takes many forms as suits his purposes. The only things he seems to care about are his children, his creations named after the seven deadly sins, which is ironic since it’s believed he’s purged himself of each of these sins, leaving behind nothing but his ruthlessness.
Father in God form.
Kenji-papa (Sailor Moon by Naoko Takeuchi)
Kenji Tsukino is Sailor Moon’s dad. He’s another good sort. Helping where he can, failing gloriously as only a dad can when he tries to help in areas that he can’t (cooking). However, he was pretty much convinced that if Usagi even looked at a boy, she’d become a delinquent. This was even before she actually started dating. Also, he had pretty strict ideas about who she shod date. Despite this, Usagi believes that her dad is the standard to which all boys must live up to.
You okay, dad?
The Clockwork King (City of Heroes by Paragon Studios)
So, this was my favorite MMO ever before it shut down. Being that it was like a comic book, it had many comics based on it. One of my favorite relationships from the game/comics was the relationship between the Clockwork King and Penelope Yin. Pen has her own father, but one day she’ll be the greatest psychic in the world. The Clockwork King is rumored to be the current most powerful psychic in the world and (former, depending on when and how you encounter him) major archvillain. Somehow, he’s basically mind-melded with Penelope. Despite his mistrust of heroes, he becomes an ally with many for her sake and won’t hesitate to protect her from whatever he feels threatens her–hero or villain.
Father (The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins)
Father collects children during what is known as “adoption day.” His children remember a life before him, but by the time he’s done with them, they’re so disconnected from who they used to be that it doesn’t feel like that used to be their life. Father can do great and terrible things, things that he teaches his children, but not nearly on the same level of his own power. Father is almost godlike. Now, Father is gone, and some of his children have aspirations beyond their station.
Mogsy’s Picks:
Hello! This is how we say Happy Father’s Day in Westeros…
Rivers of London/Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch
The following is one of my all-time favorite dad-related quotes ever (because Peter’s awesome jazz-playing dad sounds a lot like my dad):
Could it have been anyone, or was it destiny? When I’m considering this I find it helpful to quote the wisdom of my father, who once told me, “Who knows why the fuck anything happens?” ~Peter Grant
Zack Lightman has always wanted to know his father, the man who died in an accident before Zack even reached his first birthday. All of Zack’s interests have been influenced by the elder Lightman’s, from the boxes of games, books, movies he discovered in the attic that belonged to the father he never knew. It is also his dad’s old journal and the contents within that starts everything rolling…
Kick-Ass by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.
Before Hit-Girl (real name Mindy McCready) got her own series, she was a supporting character who first appeared with her father Damon McCready AKA Big Daddy in the Kick-Ass comics. Damon trained his daughter from an early age to be a costumed superhero and a deadly assassin.
The Everness series by Ian McDonald
Everett Singh’s father Tejendra Singh is a brilliant scientist and a leading researcher in the study of parallel earths. Then Tejendra is kidnapped from the streets of London one day, leaving his son only a single clue with which to find him: a mysterious file on his computer called the Infundibulum. With the help of some friends, Everett travels to different parallel earths to find and rescue his dad.
The Rebirths of Tao by Wesley Chu
Cameron Tan kind of has two dads — Roen Tan who is his biological father, and another one who is an alien in his head. The quasing Tao is the “third parent” in this scenario, training Cameron to be a Prophus agent to fight against the Genjix. But Roen watches over his son too. Even though he no longer has Tao to guide him, Roen is determined to be the best dad for Cam. He and his wife Jill work hard to give their son a normal and happy childhood while trying to keep their family safe in the midst of the quasing war.
The Powder Mage trilogy by Brian McClellan
Field Marshal Tamas is an interesting kind of dad. He and his son Taniel are both powder mages, though at the beginning of this series there appears to be no love lost between the two. They are estranged at the start of Promise of Blood, but eventually father and son reach better terms as the series progresses.
Your Brother’s Blood by David Towsey
What do you do when your dad’s one of the walking dead? That’s the question Mary has to ask herself in this unique zombie western. Thomas left his family to fight in war, only to die and wake up again. He knows going home will put his loved ones in danger, but the pull towards love is too great. In the end, his arrival in town sends him on the run again, with Mary in two. It becomes a race against time as Thomas fights to evade their pursuers while keeping his little daughter safe.
And finally of course…
Wendy’s Picks
Now, now. Not all fantasy dads are bad. Some suffer from bad daddying because of the evil influence of others. I found a few that don’t fit the negative tropes, while the others, well…
Normally, I don’t include LOTR, since it generally covers all the Tough Travelling categories by default. But how could I not include such great dads?
Theoden is one of those dads that really is a good man, but that damned Wormtongue got all up in his business, causing him to almost lose his kingdom and forget his kids. Fortunately, he got his mind back just in time for Father’s Day.
Sometimes, when you look this good and are as awesome as Thranduil, it’s totally acceptable to be a bad dad. You have so much to learn, young Legolas.
Denathor just wanted to protect Gondor and do what was best for his sons. He didn’t mean to get carried away with all the burning.
RG Veda by CLAMP
Sometimes, a father loves their child so much that they are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. Or so it seems. But there is so much more to the words Ashura-ou whispered to the evil emperor that usurped the throne.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
When you decide to mess with science and create life, but that life scares the crap out of you and you run away, don’t be surprised when said creation comes to find you and isn’t pleased with your abandonment.
Birthright by Joshua Williamson
Imagine the pain of not only losing a son, but being blamed for his disappearance even by your own wife. When an adult stranger returns, claiming to be the long lost boy, dad has a chance to say “I told you so” and redeem himself. Sort of.
The Kingdom of Gods by N.K. Jemisin
Of the Three, Nahadoth is both mother and father to many of the godlings, but none does he love more than Sieh. The Nightlord us a creature of chaos, death, and destruction, but when he loves, he loves hard, and when he hurts the darkness is unbarable.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Really great parenting means making sure the children you raise are all part of a long standing rivalry and can be used against each other in a competition they are mostly ignorant of.
In Midnight’s Silence by T. Frohock
Surprise, Daigo! You’re a father! Oh and also, we need you to sacrifice the child you want to raise better than your father did for you to save the world from utter destruction. Best father’s day ever!
There is nothing Marko won’t do for his little family, whether it be slaying those who want them dead, or being a stay-at-home-dad taking little Hazel to dance lessons. Whatever it takes.
Rise of the Governor by Robert Kirkman
You have no idea how you’d act during a zombie apocalypse. You don’t get to judge the Governor. At least not in Woodbury, where he is the law and that means if he wants to keep his zombified daughter in a closet on a leash instead of putting her out of her mindless misery, we don’t question his parenting.
Batman
While Bruce Wayne has only officially fathered one child in canon, Damon Wayne, he’s taken on the responsibility of raising quite a few kids along the way. Some of them were in dire straits, orphaned by murder, surrounded by violence, and it can be said that he saved them from a potentially bad life. But just how responsible a dad is he by letting his proteges don the garb of Robin and teaching them how to willingly step into far greater danger…
You had one job, Batman… (Jason Todd feels go here)
Comic Stack – 06/24/2015: Graphic Novel Review: Gotham Academy Vol. 1: Welcome to Gotham Academy by Becky Cloonan, Brenden Fletcher
Posted on June 24, 2015 3 Comments
Full Disclosure: A review copy of this comis was provided to me by DC Comics via NetGalley. I would like to thank the author(s) and the publisher for providing me this opportunity. All opinions expressed from here forward are my own.
I know I said that I was going to start my House of M reread this week, but I totally forgot that I actually have two DC books that I’m going to review this week and next. I thought I’d just lump them together in one post, but I have enough to say about this one for it to warrant its own post. I know I said I wouldn’t focus so much on mainstream comics when I started back to doing this, but I’m capricious if you haven’t figured that out. You’ll get a little bit of everything. Besides, Gotham Academy is definitely a departure for DC, and we need to talk about this book!
Genre: Superheroes, Young Adult, Leading Ladies
Publisher: DC Comics (June 23, 2015)
Tiara’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars
When you think of schools in mainstream comic books, you think Marvel. Admit it, after years of Marvel pounding this into our head every which way they can, you start to think of this as their thing. However, no matter how much Marvel does it, it usually ends with them getting decent results love it or hate it. Despite featuring many kids with extraordinary powers, they still manage to make them relatable, especially to children and teenagers. Their problems, struggles, hopes, and dreams feel greatly like our own. I think about 13-year-old me who saw more merit in loving Kitty Pryde and Jubilee than Batman at that age. You still can’t tell me “Jubilee’s Fairytale Theater” from the old cartoon, “Kitty’s Fairy Tale” (Uncanny X-Men #153) and “God Spare the Child” (Kitty-centric, Uncanny X-Men #129) aren’t the greatest comic book stories of all time. Hell, even Mekanix, which is about Kitty going to college, came out when I was in college getting all wrapped up in science when so few women in my college were into the sciences. Do you know what that kind of stuff can mean to kids? So, don’t think there isn’t a need for kids and young adults to see images like these and that they don’t make an impact.
Now, DC has entered the arena with Gotham Academy, a book that follows a group of Gotham’s youngest and finest at a private school full of mystery. Maybe DC has tried their hand at this before. I admit to being a bigger Marvel fan, so I’m more familiar with Marvel’s lore. I’ve never really been into the Teen Titans comics much despite loving the cartoons, so I don’t know what their approach to school was. I can only speak for the titles I have read. However, whenever I read a DC book, even with its younger characters, school always seemed like some foggy, vague thing that may or may not happen in the DC universe. The scene that always sticks out in my mind about school and DCU is during Batman R.I.P. when Tim had this injury (a burn, I believe) and I was thinking, “How is he going to go to school like that?” because of all the stress he was going through as Robin, his personal life, and school. I think I remember him actually carrying a backpack once during that time. It was surreal. I just thought Batman taught everyone everything they needed to know. Now, they give me Gotham Academy.
Olive Silverlock and Mia “Maps” Mizoguchi are the leading ladies of this story along with a supporting cast of characters such as Pomeline Fitch, the mean girl who toes the line of posh goth as much as she can, Heathcliff, the boy whose throat Pom shoves her tongue down, Colton Rivera, the cool kid who has a unique skill set, and Kyle Mizoguchi, Maps’ older brother and (maybe-ex?) boyfriend to Olive.
My favorite of these kids easily is Maps. I adored her. They never go into why she’s called Maps. Instead they show you by displaying her love of charting, exploring, and map-making , which proves very useful in their adventures. She’s a lovable bundle of energy who talks non-stop about her gaming adventures such as how she led her party to an abandoned tower to face an evil wizard, but it was totally okay because, and I quote, “We were all, like, 9th level, anyway, so I wasn’t worried…” and how all her “dungeon crawling fantasies” were about to come true. She made me genuinely smile with her nonstop optimism and nerdiness. She was the just the right blend of cute, precocious, and geeky without the writers going overboard, which could’ve led into problematic territory if they had. Maps also proved to be a good contrast to the somber Olive.
The two girls find themselves on a real quest when strange things start to occur frequently at the school and many of the students blame the ghost of Millie Jane Cobblepot, obviously a long-dead relative of Penguin’s. This adventure proves somewhat good and somewhat triggering for Olive who has weathered a particularly hard summer. She avoids her boyfriend even though she still cares for him, but she finds needed sisterly companionship in Maps as they try to solve the mystery of Millie Jane along with their motley crew. In some subtle way, I guess you can see Batman and Robin’s (in a Dick and Tim supercombo kind of way) personalities mirrored in these two girls.
I was a little skeptical going into this book. As this is something totally different for DC and for me (as far as my DC reading goes), I wasn’t sure if they’d be able to pull off the vibe you expect from a book about teenagers. Marvel has mostly nailed it, but you expect that from them. DC’s brand has always seemed darker, edgier, more adult than Marvel in many ways, and as a reader, I was curious as to how this would translate to a young adult story. I was afraid that the characters would feel way “too old” in this school setting, or they’d completely lose what makes them different from Marvel and basically give me a “hip” Marvel book with DC characters.
Somehow, though, the writers have managed to make this work. The book is severe and edgy when it needs to be. Dark and mysterious when scenes call for it. And yes, there are even scenes that are bright and vibrant (something I don’t associate with many DC books) that all work well together to create this unique mix of stark and bold while maintaining the dynamic, younger feel of this book. With this, they have made these kids relatable, likable, and even contemptible at times. You feel for the characters on an emotional level because of their struggles and triumphs. You’re allowed to appreciate them as normal kids and not just capes and cowls, though they are heroic in their own right. They’re teens and you’re going to get some melodrama, but it’s tempered out with scenes like this where Kyle asks Olive not to break his sister’s heart as implied she’s done to him.
While Batman doesn’t feature prominently in this, he’s an ever exasperating presence in Olive’s life and it doesn’t seem to be because his light shines rather prominently in her room all the time. I’m curious to see how that will play out, but I’m afraid they’ll tread on too familiar territory in the story of Olive’s seeming contempt for Batman. I could be surprised, though. Most of the adults don’t feature more than to be authority figures. They spew wisdom here and there, but they’re mostly background characters. The story really focuses on the kids and their adventure. Sometimes, I think that’s where Marvel gets it wrong in their books with a ton of children–the adults’ problems start to take over the story when you’re expecting them to focus more on the kids.
I still wonder how books like this will translate years later when the lingo has changed and my kids are reading my comics. However, to DC’s credit, this book feels much more like something that will stand the test of time better than Marvel’s young adult books. Maybe because there’s less DOGE going on in this book and a more general young adult behavior (gaming nerdiness, pranks, urban legends about your high school, mean girl behavior–behavior that never really changes no matter what year you’re living in). I tried really hard to find something I didn’t like about this book because I’m supposed to be the curmudgeonly, critical one, but I really don’t have a bad word to say about this book if you don’t count some of the melodrama, some general unworthy of mention Scooby Doo moments that annoy me at times, and (what I believe is intentional) cheesiness at some points. I was highly surprised how much I enjoyed this book, but I know this may be too “kiddie” for some tastes. I’m actually glad they didn’t go HARDCORE with this book. There are so many books that already fill that gap. We need more books like this for young adults, too. While this skews a little older than my oldest, it’d probably still be right up my son’s alley since he’s getting more into tween/teen things.
Final Note: Maps’ “Crit Plz” shirt is awesome. I want it! Gaming nerds, you know I’m right! I don’t care what you play that has crit in it. You know we love it (or either you’re screaming about it being OP and needing to be nerfed when used against you). UNITE!
Waiting on Wednesday 06/24/15
Posted on June 24, 2015 19 Comments
“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that lets us feature upcoming releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on!
Mogsy’s Pick:
The Death of Dulgath by Michael J. Sullivan: November 15, 2015 (Riyria Enterprises LLC)
Whether you’re a fan of Sullivan’s or not, no one can deny his achievements in self-publishing. His Riyria Revelations books were self-published until Orbit picked them up after they became so successful, and then he released two more books in the Riyria Chronicles with the publisher. This third Chronicles book was supposed to come out with them, but due to stipulations in the author’s new publishing deal with Del Rey on his new series, it was determined that The Death of Dulgath would have to go the self publishing route (the whole story is here on Michael J. Sullivan’s blog). And so we have this Kickstarter, which has already blown away its goal and is still going strong. I had backed it on the first day, though quite frankly I don’t care how this book gets to me as long as it does get to me, because I’m a big fan of Riyria and good old Hadrian and Royce. Can’t wait for this book.
“Three times they tried to kill her. Then they hired a professional. She hired Riyria.
When the last member of the oldest noble family in Avryn is targeted for assassination, Riyria is hired to foil the plot. Three years have passed since the war-weary mercenary Hadrian and the cynical ex-assassin Royce joined forces to start life as thieves-for-hire. Things have gone well enough until they receive the odd assignment to prevent a murder. Now they must venture into a forgotten corner of southern Avryn—a place whose history predates the empire. As usual, challenges abound as they try to anticipate the moves of an unknown assassin before it’s too late. But that’s not their only problem. The Countess of Dulgath has a dark secret she’s determined to keep hidden. Then there’s the little matter of Riyria’s new employer…the Nyphron Church.”
The BiblioSanctum 