Book Review: The Voices by F.R. Tallis
Posted on May 28, 2014 1 Comment
Genre: Horror
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Pan Macmillan (May 8, 2014)
Author Information: Website
Mogsy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars
To some, The Voices is going to be just another haunted house ghost story. To others, it will be one of the most terrifying books you’ll ever read. I’ll admit I came very close to not reading this, simply because the novel’s description made it sound much too scary. As a parent of a toddler, I had a feeling this one might cut to close for comfort and give me nightmares. But true to form, in the end I just couldn’t resist a good horror.
The year is 1976, the hottest summer in the United Kingdom since records began, and Christopher Norton and his wife Laura and baby girl Faye had just moved into their a grand old Victorian era home in the desirable neighborhood of Hampstead. A composer by trade, Christopher spends much of his time in his attic studio recording music, and before long he starts to hear strange voices on his tapes. Around the same time, Laura beings to notice knocking sounds from the baby monitor and baby Faye seemingly to babble at something unseen…
Haunted houses have long been a horror fan favorite, and whether you love it or hate it, they’re here to stay. The reason why certain tropes tend to stick around is because they’re so effective – if you can’t feel safe in your own home, then where can you? – and though I’ve read plenty of books and seen many more movies based around this idea, I don’t seem to be tired of it yet. It’s interesting because the narrative structure of The Voices actually reminds me so much of watching a movie, with regards to the use of familiar themes or the way particular events have a very cinematic quality to them. The book is also intensely atmospheric, heightening the creep factor and delicious sense of dread.
In truth, The Voices is a rather uncomplicated novel. But the author, being a clinical psychologist, knows just what to say to make you squirm. Tallis builds his story around a very believable, very flawed couple, giving them a depth of emotion not often found in characters in this genre. Christopher and Laura might not be parents of the year, but their thoughts and reactions towards the strange happenings in their house are so realistic you just can’t help but feel a connection. There were a couple scenes that really shook me up, because 1) they involved a baby, and 2) I know how awful it feels to worry for your child. There were things here straight out of my worst nightmare.
But the haunting is also just one single aspect of The Voices, a piece of a larger story with a complex web of relationship dynamics. I liked that there was more substance to this novel than just the horror elements, and in fact, my only complaint is that these minor plot threads weren’t more cohesive and connected to the overall picture. There were a lot of other things going on with Christopher and Laura’s lives outside their creepy old house, and while I got the feeling they were all relevant to the story, I just couldn’t figure out how. A little more direction would have probably made for a tidier conclusion, but I was still overall very impressed at the well-roundedness of the novel.
If you’re in the mood for a good ghost story or a classic haunting, The Voices is a very good choice. It’s one of the more memorable and chilling horror novels I’ve read of this type, and a genuinely freaked me out in more than a couple instances.
Waiting on Wednesday 05/28/14
Posted on May 28, 2014 Leave a Comment
“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!
“The thief Widdershins and her own “personal god,” Olgun, return to their home city of Davillon after almost a year away. While Shins expects only to face the difficulty of making up with her friends, what she actually finds is far, far worse. Her nemesis, Lisette, has returned, and she is not alone. Lisette has made a dark pact with supernatural powers that have granted her abilities far greater than anything Widdershins and Olgun can match.
Together, Widdershins and Olgun will face enemies on both sides of the law, for Lisette’s schemes have given her power in both Davillon’s government and its underworld. For even a slim chance, Shins must call on both old friends-some of whom haven’t yet forgiven her-and new allies.
Even with their help, Widdershins may be required to make the hardest sacrifice of her life, if she is to rid Davillon-and herself-of Lisette once and for all”
Interview with Jeff Salyards, Author of the Bloodsounder’s Arc
Posted on May 27, 2014 1 Comment
So, I found out that talking to Jeff Salyards is as awesome and fun as reading his books. Seriously, I don’t recall the last time I cracked up this much while doing an interview! We’re honored to have him join us for a Q&A today, and hope that you’ll have a blast checking it out.
Jeff’s Bloodsounder’s Arc series began in 2012 with Scourge of the Betrayer, and its sequel Veil of the Deserters is available now! In case you missed it, here are the reviews for book one and book two. To learn more about this series, the author and his writing process, and why medieval flails are more than just damn cool, READ ON!
Mogsy: Hi and welcome to the BiblioSanctum, Jeff! Really excited to have you join us today, thank you for the interview.
Jeff Salyards: Thanks so much for inviting me!
 |
| Book One |
M: To start off, how would you described The Bloodsounder’s Arc to the uninitiated who have not yet discovered the awesomeness of this series?
JS: Flattery will get you nowhere. OK, maybe everywhere. I’m glad you think it’s awesome. Bloodsounder’s Arc is the story of a young bookish scribe who accepts a commission to accompany a hardened group of foreign soldiers, thinking it will provide some adventure and a break from chronicling the dull exploits of middling merchants. Only he quickly discovers that he is in way over his head, as the company is involved in all kinds of political intrigue, and the captain of the company possesses a cursed flail that bombards him with the stolen memories of men he’s killed.
M: When were you bitten by the writing bug? Which authors or books have been your greatest influences?
JS: I’ve loved writing for as long as I can remember. That sounds like a canned answer that writers default to when they don’t have a grand epiphany about their fated purpose on this Earth, but it’s still true. I was always scribbling out stories, illustrating them, and imagining the next grand adventure.
As for influences, this question always throws me, as there have been countless books and authors that impacted me at various points in my life, so I inevitably end up selecting a few and feeling bad for the ones I neglected to mention. I could write a book about that topic. And no one would read it. Or at least finish it. “Seriously, page three hundred, and still talking about your damn influences?! You self-involved bastard. I hate you.”
But I’ll take a stab at it. Early on, I loved writers like Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert Howard, Fritz Leiber, Tanith Lee, Ursula Le Guin, Roger Zelazny, Octavia Butler, Raymond Feist, Michael Moorcock. Later, I discovered Tad Williams, Joe Abercrombie, Janny Wurts, George R.R. Martin, KJ Parker, Richard Morgan. And there are plenty of authors in other genres I love: Cormac McCarthy, Bernard Cornwell, Tom Robbins, Don DeLillo. See, I could go on for days.
M: With most books, I usually have a clear favorite when it comes to characters. But with yours, it’s like, seriously, you’re going to make me choose just one? What’s your trick for bringing your characters to life and giving each and every one of them such unique and vivid personalities? Which character (or characters) was the most fun to write?
JS: I’ve always tried to take even minor characters and think of some ticks or traits that will distinguish them. Even if they are only in a few pages, might as well make them memorable or entertaining, right?
While sometimes you do this with physical descriptions or actions, I’ve found that dialogue is also a really great way to set one character off from another, make them pop. (Not revolutionary, I know.) When I took a playwriting course a lifetime ago, the instructor said one way to tell if you were doing it right was to cover or redact the character names and see if you could still quickly determine who was speaking. Whether elliptical or staccato, crude or erudite, garbled or precise, silly or weighty, prone to tangents and weird asides or straightforward and deliberate, the dialogue should be distinct. The trick of it is trying to define some qualities particular to each character, repeat them a few times to establish the baseline, and then riff on them enough so that it doesn’t get stale.
I’m really glad you felt that way about the characters, because that is something I worked really hard on.
As for the most fun to write, that depends on my mood, really. I love Braylar’s biting and sarcastic wit—he is at times slick and calculating, and other times, viciously pragmatic. Mulldoos is a hoot because he’s crude, rude, and predisposed to violence, which comes through in action and his obscene curses—he’s sort of like my id running loose in the world. Vendurro developed into one of my favorites in Veil. And of course, there’s our narrator. He is the trickiest in some ways, since everything funnels through him—I wanted him to grow the most throughout the series, but it’s always tough to make that feel natural and not too abrupt or author fiat—it had to be subtle shifts.
But really, having the characters collide, watching them interact, is the most fun for me.
M: I have to say, you played your cards pretty close to your chest in the first book Scourge of the Betrayer, with regards to the pace and amount of plot information you were willing to reveal about the story. Was that approach something you’d planned on doing from the start? How did you come to make that writing decision and did you have your reservations?
JS: Yeah, I know that strategy didn’t work for everyone in Book 1. Some readers got bored and ran off. Others got irritated and wrote nasty things in bathroom stalls about me. And if I have to be baldly honest (as opposed to just bald and possibly lying), I had some misgivings about how it worked out. The original version of the manuscript for Scourge was about 70,000 words longer, and had the present story you saw between the covers interspersed with Arki recording a lot of Braylar’s backstory. But between feedback I got from some agents about the pace and stuff I gleaned from books/sites/Magic Eight Balls, I got the feeling I needed to trim a lot of the book to make it fly.
 |
| Neverland’s Library anthology |
So after much anguish, I ultimately lopped off the backstory. I don’t know if keeping that stuff in would have made a difference for readers who objected to being in the dark for so long (it sort of broke that up, so it was less obvious). Shoot, I don’t even know if I would have found an agent or gotten the thing published in that form. But it definitely made the read different. So I did have some reservations about cutting so much, because the story that remained was deliberately coy, as Arki had to earn his keep and the trust of the members of the company before he would be privy to a lot.
But some chunks of that backstory do appear in Veil, and will pop up in the rest of the series, and even appeared in Neverland’s Library as a standalone short story, so I feel like I managed to salvage a fair amount of it.
M: And now with Veil of the Deserters, it seems that all (well, at least most!) of the cards are on the table. How did it feel to write book two and to be finally able to let it all out and reveal what the story has been building towards all along?
JS: It felt really good to reveal a lot more this go around. Some readers didn’t mind the cards-to-chest thing in Scourge, but anytime someone did object to the story being revealed slowly in dribs and drabs, I really had to grit my teeth and stop myself from replying, “Don’t give up! Book 2 will knock all those doubts silly!” Because nobody likes Defensive Writer Guy/Gal. Seriously, like nobody. And I had made a choice to deliver the story in the first book that way, for good or ill, so there it was.
Veil is meatier in every respect—more pages, more storylines revealed, more backstory and character-driven moments, more worldbuilding with Syldoonian politics and Memoridon magic, more action. The key was having Arki prove himself enough to be granted access to more information, the inner sanctum (or at least not the outer one), and when he does in Veil, readers obviously get that access as well.
I’m really anxious to see how readers respond. I feel good about it. But I’m rarely a good judge of anything. The goal is to make each book better than the last, and I feel like I accomplished that. Now I just have to sit back and see if other folks tend to agree.
M: So, I have a thing for holy/magical weapons in fantasy. And in your books, Bloodsounder is actually the name of an unholy flail. I’ll understand if you’d need to give an unspoilery answer, but you wouldn’t believe how long this question has been eating away at me! Don’t think me weird but I’ve always wondered, why a flail? Was there a specific reason you chose that and not any other medieval weapon (or maybe just because they’re so damn cool?!)
JS: I knew early on Captain Killcoin was going to have a cursed weapon. And I thought long and hard about which kind to give him. I made charts and had pro and con columns for each choice, and really deliberated for an incredibly geeky amount of time. I wanted a weapon that was vicious looking, had some personality, and was absolutely NOT a sword, because everyone and their cousin has one of those in fantasy. I considered a lot of unusual weapons, and almost went with a Hussite flail, but nixed it because I ruled out polearms in general, as Braylar needed to be able to have this thing with him at all times and people tend to look at you funny when you march up to the bar with a falx on your shoulder. Plus the weapon needed to be somewhat concealable. So I limited my pick to unusual sidearms, and ultimately settled on one-handed flail. In part because it can be nearly as dangerous to the wielder as an opponent, and that perfectly matched the nature of the curse. And also because flails are damn cool. 🙂
M: Your work has been described as dark fantasy, sometimes military fantasy. Would you agree, and what do hope to bring to the genre?
JS: That’s probably as apt as anything. The books do involve soldiers, and there aren’t a lot of sun shower and rainbow farting unicorns, so it is kind of dark. I tried to lighten it a bit with humor, but of course most of the time the humor is black too, so, uh, yeah, it is a bit rough. I know “dark and gritty and grimdark” is all the rage these days, and kickstarts all kinds of heated arguments about whether recent fantasy offerings are too bleak, too violent, too nihilistic, etc. Some of that is specious and involves “we’ve lost the golden age” hand-wringing. Dark stories have been around forever—see Greek Tragedies, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Shakespearean Revenge Tragedies, Buckaroo Bonzai. OK, not Buckaroo so much, but you know, this just isn’t the first time humans have written about morbid, difficult, gross, or terrifying topics.
 |
| Book Two |
But whether you think “grimdark” means good fiction, bankrupt fiction, or is just grimdork and a terrible label, I didn’t look around the fantasy landscape and decide to try to one-up anything else out there, or to be more grisly, gruesome, or horrible than any other books on the shelves. I just told the story I wanted, which at its heart is about Arki, a bookish, nerdy scribe who has to contend with the violence and rough sensibilities of the company he’s joined, wrestling with his own moral compass, and trying to do the right thing while chronicling some pretty brutal pragmatism.
Some fantasy is happy to gloss right over the violence and the consequence of that violence, and while I didn’t want to wallow in it, glamorize it, or throw more buckets of blood into the mix for kicks, I did want to portray what it’s like when people with sharp pointy things go stabby stabby with each other—medieval-level battles were awful affairs—and more importantly, not to skip away from the consequences when I was done. There is fear, guilt, grief, and aftershocks. Grief, in particular, ripples throughout the books.
M: I see from your author bio that your childhood was filled geeky pastimes, much like my own. Getting some time in to indulge in hobbies is probably tougher now with balancing work, writing and fatherhood, but what do you like to do for fun or to relax when you can?
JS: Yeah, with three kids under the age of 7 in the house, my past time is usually changing diapers and crying in my beer. I kid. Tough guys don’t cry. (OK, we do. A lot.) I’m glad summer’s here, as we’ll be taking the kids to festivals (balloon fest on the Fourth of July, excursions to the Ren Faire (see an early one here: http://jeffsalyards.com/2013/08/as-i-wonder-lonely-as-a-cloud/ ), and just getting out of the house to reduce their crazies. Occasionally, my wife and I arrange to have date night, which also reduces our crazies.
On rare occasions I get out with some college buddies or work friends and socialize. But since I am not the smartest knife in the drawer, this often results in cautionary tales: http://jeffsalyards.com/2014/04/terminus/.
I love to read, but don’t do it nearly as much of it as I used to. And I find myself getting sucked into more TV shows than I’d like (Game of Thrones, The Blacklist, Walking Dead, The Bridge, Orange is the New Black, etc.)
I have great intentions about exercising.
M: Okay, I know you probably can’t give too much away, but I’ll take whatever I can get! I’m already so excited about the next Bloodsounder’s Arc book. Is there anything you can reveal about it at this early point or what it might have in store for us?
JS: I’m not very good at keeping surprises, so this question is fraught with danger for me. I feel the need to clamp both hands over my mouth. However, without getting too spoilerish, I will say that Captain Killcoin and company *might* find out what is on the other side of the Godveil. Or not. Maybe they will all die trying. You know, being GRIMDARK and all.
M: Wrapping up then, other than the third book are there any other exciting projects you’re working on currently or in the near future that you’d like to share, either writing or non-writing related?
JS: I did a couple of short stories that appeared in anthologies in the last year or so, but not sure if I will take time out to do that again this year. I really want to try to make the gap between Books 2 and 3 reasonable, so I’m trying to prioritize. Which I am incredibly bad at. Ask anyone.
In the immediate future, I’ll be doing some podcasts, other interviews, some guest blog posts to help promote Veil. Then I’d like to take a nap. And back to cranking away on Book 3.
M: Once again I’d like to thank you for dropping by! And for writing such great books!
JS: Thanks so much for having me! I’m thrilled you enjoyed them.
Book Review: House of the Rising Sun by Kristen Painter
Posted on May 26, 2014 2 Comments
House of the Rising Sun by Kristen Painter
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: Book 1 of Crescent City
Publisher: Orbit (May 13, 2014)
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Mogsy’s Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
A couple of recent experiences have made me extremely wary of spin-offs, so it was probably a good thing I didn’t know House of the Rising Sun was one until I was already well into it. I’ve never read Kristen Painter before this, and I’d definitely wanted to give this series a fair shot. So perhaps it’s to her credit that I didn’t even know this was a spin-off novel until I read the author interview at the back of the book – not once did I feel lost or in over my head even if I hadn’t read her House of Comarré series. Right away, I liked how this book was the perfect jumping-on point for a new reader, which is a quality I think all spin-offs should strive for.
Augustine, who was a side character in House of Comarré gets to star in his own series here, returning to his hometown of New Orleans after some time away. He’s playing fast and loose, having very few responsibilities and getting to enjoy the attentions of human women who find his Fae heritage irresistible. He also gets free room and board whenever he wants in a luxurious Garden District mansion, thanks to his adoptive mother Olivia Goodwin, the retired movie star. It’s a good life! Little wonder then why he’s so fiercely reluctant when asked to be Guardian of the city. But when the vampire gangs start attacking innocent tourists and those he loves, Augustine finds he might not have a choice.
Meanwhile, Olivia’s biological daughter Harlow gets into a massive amount of trouble, having been convicted of cyber-hacking. Completely broke and unable to pay the exorbitant fine, she decides on the lesser of two evils and hits up her mom for help rather than go to jail, even though the two have been estranged for years.
What struck me early on was that neither Augustine nor Harlow seemed to be capable of taking responsibility of their own actions. Augustine wasn’t too bad – though it was a bit off-putting the way he figured he could get away with doing something wrong with no repercussions. When threatened with the Guardianship, all he could think about was how it would affect his cushy life. Guess what, Augustine, punishment usually goes hand in hand with breaking the rules! There’s really no sense in resenting it.
Ultimately Augustine redeemed himself in my eyes, stepping up to fulfill his role. On the other hand, Harlow’s attitude left a bad taste in my mouth and did not really fade until the very end. It was revealed early on that her estrangement from her mother was due to Olivia refusing to divulge the identity of Harlow’s father. That’s a fixation Harlow NEVER allows us to forget. Hearing her go on about it, you’d think every single one of her life’s misfortunes could be traced back to Olivia withholding her father’s name. Harlow’s introductory scene even involved her wishing daddy would come bail her out of trouble, if only she’d known who he was, and that she’d never have been duped into a cybercrime if only he’d been in her life in the first place. Somehow, I just don’t buy that. Plus, Olivia was not as bad a mother as Harlow made her sound. Characters tend to play a huge role in my enjoyment of a novel, so it was unfortunate that Harlow started off so self-absorbed and entitled, and her inability to admit “Hey, I screwed up, and it was my own fault” really grated on me.
But how I adored the Kristen Painter’s portrayal of New Orleans in this series! If she’d had wanted the atmosphere of a never-ending party, she certainly nailed it. It’s the perfect setting when it comes to a haven for fae, vampires, witches and other supernatural creatures. I loved the scene of Nokturnos, a noisy and boisterous night of festivities where everyone just wants to have fun. Can’t really blame Augustine for being so happy-go-lucky when the mood’s just so positively infectious, and world building is simply phenomenal.
Apart from the hiccups with the characters, I actually quite enjoyed this book and had a lot of fun with it. In fact, I thought the last page came far too soon, and wish ending hadn’t been so rushed. These characters have a lot of potential to grow, with Augustine having won me over already, and Harlow is well on her way to becoming a more sympathetic character. I’ll admit it – I’m raring to find out more. All in all, House of the Rising Sun is a promising start, and I look forward to the next book.
YA Weekend: Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor
Posted on May 25, 2014 Leave a Comment
Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Series: Book 3 of Daughter of Smoke & Bone
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (April 8, 2014)
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Mogsy’s Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
It’s over! And make no mistake, whatever I may say here about Dreams of Gods & Monsters, it was a good book, and the trilogy as a whole is a series I would heartily recommend. But in terms of expectations, I think I may have placed all my eggs in one basket. I went into this with hopes for the ending of all endings, which is unfair of me perhaps, but I desperately wanted back the magic I first experienced in Daughter of Smoke & Bone. Needless to say, the first book still reigns supreme as my favorite of the trilogy, but that being said, the third book didn’t disappoint either. It just didn’t leave me as satisfied as I wanted to be, but I admit I was expecting a lot.
So the war is on in this book, with Jael at the head of the angel army. On the run, Akiva and his seraph sister Liraz have fled to the other side to join Karou, who has taken control of the chimaera rebellion through an impressive feat of deception and pretense. It’s a shockingly suspenseful scenario, considering how at any moment the ruse could be discovered, destroying any chance of a peaceful resolution. Still, at last we see Akiva and Karou fighting on the same side for the same cause against a common enemy.
But as much as it pains me to say, the romance itself isn’t doing much for me anymore. How far Karou and Akiva’s love story has fallen in my eyes, when I look back to my review of the first book and see how weak-in-the-knees I was for their tale of forbidden love. And now? I feel nothing. If I can hazard a guess, I think the second book pushed the melodrama a bit too far. Watching the characters dance around each other going through the motions (and emotions) when you know they’re going to end up back together anyway? Well, that just sort of takes the fun out of it. So Karou and Akiva reconcile in this book, like we’d all known was going to happen. Did they want a prize?
Up until the last few chapters though, and minus my gripes about the romance, this book was in fact quite fantastic. There are multiple plot threads going on, each punctuated by their moments of action and suspense, but also moments of tenderness and humor as well. When Jael’s army of angels first descended to earth, it made for a few incredible chapters where the panic and disbelief practically emanated off the page.
Add to that, we have a new POV character named Eliza, whom I initially thought was introduced for the sole purpose of showing us humanity’s reaction during the aforementioned significant event. As it turned out, she had a bigger role to play as well. I still think Eliza joined us way too late and her part in the overall big picture felt a little forced, given this already cramped storyline. However, I do love her character. I really can’t say much more about her for fear of revealing any spoilers, but she brought a great personality to the story, and that’s saying a lot, considering we already have Zuzana. It goes without saying, Zuze was simply delightful. As always!
Now for the actual ending. I wish I had better things to say about it but the truth is, I thought it carried on for much longer than it should have. Talk about an ending that overstayed its welcome. When all is said and done, the foes are vanquished, friends are reunited, all I wanted to do was bask in the glory of victory and soak up the feel-good vibes. I really could have done without a final bombshell. Especially since it felt like it came out of nowhere. Granted, that stuff usually works like a charm in action movies, and hey, it might work for you. But for me it was mentally exhausting. I would prefer not to feel like that at the end of a book, and especially not at a series-ender.
Don’t get me wrong, though. None of this changes the fact that I think the Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy is absolutely fantastic and one of the strongest YA series I’ve ever read. Like I said, I highly recommend these books. And if you’ve enjoyed the first two, there’s no reason at all not to read this too and finish up the saga. Despite minor hiccups here and there, it’s a concluding novel well worth your time.
Mogsy’s Book Haul
Posted on May 24, 2014 Leave a Comment
My library saw some interesting new arrivals in the last couple weeks, as usual starting with the physical pile:
The Girl with All the Gifts – my excitement to read this book has grown by leaps and bounds ever since it first piqued my interest. Finding out that it’s a straight-up horror only made me want to read it more. My thanks to Orbit for the review copy, The Girl with All the Gifts is on my high-priority list.
Nebula Awards Showcase 2014 – these volumes have been published annually since the 1960s, reprinting the winning and nominated stories in the Nebula Awards as voted on by the members of the SFWA. I’m so out of the loop when it comes to short stories, it’s nice to have this anthology to know which ones have been getting all the buzz and attention lately at the Nebulas. My thanks to Pyr.
Resurrection – another title from Pyr, Resurrection is the third installment of the young adult Blood of the Lamb trilogy, which I knew very little about when I first received this book. It looks quite interesting, so I might look into starting with the first book!
Shattering the Ley – this one has been on my highly anticipated list for a while! Already I have seen comparisons to Rothfuss and Sanderson’s Mistborn, and while I’ll withhold judgment on that until I read it for myself, I gotta admit it does give me a little thrill to hear that. With thanks to DAW.
Prince of Fools – since I’m writing up this post earlier in the week, by the time you are reading this sentence I hope to be already well into this book! Very excited to read this bad boy! With thanks to Ace Books.
Half A King – fortune smiled upon me this month and I was able to score an ARC of Half A King from the Early Reviewers program from LibraryThing. I’ve seen a lot of great reviews for this book already, it’s gonna be hell holding off for a few more weeks to nom nom nom this!
And the new additions to the digital library:
The Line – Audible did a really cool sale last week featuring great books that are “flying under the radar” and after seeing Tammy from Books Bones & Buffy rave about this and talk about how much she’s looking forward to the sequel, I snatched this audiobook up for just a few bucks!
Monument 14 – something that caught my eye last week when I saw a link to it from Twitter. Short YA novel, looked interesting, and the ebook and audiobook bundle was a great deal. Sold!
The Boy with the Porcelain Blade – I’ve wanted to read this one for a while, it just hasn’t been released stateside yet. But strangely enough, the audiobook version was available at Audible US. Last I saw, it wasn’t supposed to be available until next year, and I don’t know if it’s a mistake or they just decided to release the audio version early, but it made no difference to me — I had a coupon burning in my pocket and grabbed this one while I could.
All Those Vanished Engines – I’ve been doing pretty well keeping my NetGalley pile in check and also managed to chisel it down some this month, so I accepted this widget from Tor which I thought looked worth checking out.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow – my first eARC from Penguin’s First to Read program. I’m very wary about cyberpunk these days; it’s a subgenre that can be hit or miss with me, but I’m totally willing and eager to give this a shot!
Exploring The Known World with Mark Smylie
Posted on May 23, 2014 2 Comments
It’s hard to believe that it’s been over a decade since Mark Smylie gave us the epic military fantasy, Artesia, and it’s been that long since Mark and I met at a little Detroit convention. We fell out of touch over the years, but thanks to a chance encounter on Goodreads, I learned about The Barrow and have happily jumped back into the Known World.
Both Mogsy and I have reviewed The Barrow here and here, and I have reviewed Artesia here. I recently had the wonderful opportunity to chat with Mark about his work and have the pleasure of sharing his thoughts with you!
Obviously, Lou Anders was impressed enough to green light the project, and now a year and a half later, not only do we have The Barrow, but Mark also has its sequels, Black-Heart and Bright Sword in the works, as well as plans for the long-awaited conclusion to Artesia’s story.
Aside from the prologue, the new format allowed Mark to add many more elements to the story, including the journey sequence where he could really show off the Known World and play around with fantasy conventions.
This isn’t a book where the good and the evil are strictly defined, and, as opposed to J.R.R. Tolkien‘s world, for example, the evil is not creatures set outside of society and humanity. “I think evil arises from intent and desire and how they manifest as actions. There’s very little in the book that doesn’t have some purpose, something it’s meant to reveal about the characters and their place in the narrative.” Mark reminds us of Harvald’s words at the beginning: “Things are never what they seem.”
Book Review: Gemsigns by Stephanie Saulter
Posted on May 22, 2014 1 Comment
Genre: Science Fiction
Series: Book 1 of ®Evolution
Publisher: Jo Fletcher Books (UK: March 28, 2013/US: May 6, 2014)
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Mogsy’s Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
I seem to be reading a lot of social science fiction lately. Given the old “too much of anything” adage about excess, you’d think adding one more to the pile would have diminished my enjoyment or value of the experience. Now, with the average book that might be true. But then, Stephanie Saulter’s Gemsigns is anything BUT an average book.
Taking place over a period of about a week, the book plays out like a flurry of quick punches, with every shot finding its mark. And I have to say, Saulter got in a couple good ones to my gut, not to mention a few more jabs to my poor battered heart. Still, while most of it flew hard and fast, I find there’s also a strangely mesmerizing quality to the story. A lot of this is in the gradual reveal of the current state of affairs, as well as what’s at stake for everyone involved. There’s a sense of inevitably to the unfolding events, knowing that every act of violence that comes to light is yet another step closer to an explosive conclusion.
 |
| US cover |
These kinds of books always get me for some reason. No doubt a lot of it can be chalked up to personal interest, as I’ve always been fascinated by stories that explore what it means to be human. Well before it became time to even think about college, I’d already known I wanted to go into Anthropology, that wonderful and broad discipline dedicated to answering this very question. Years later now, I still remember what one of my professors once told our class about human variation – that it is a thing so vast, any attempt to define “normal” is rendered kind of moot.
Gemsigns reminded me of that. The book is set in the not-so-far-off future, not long after humanity had suffered the effects of a devastating virus that almost wiped us out. To survive meant genetically modifying almost every new person born on this planet, but in order to repopulate and rebuild, the engineers went further. They created different kinds of genetically modified humans (“Gems”), tailoring them to specific duties that needed performing, with minimal thought to their quality of life or well-being. Gems were essentially nothing but humanity’s tools.
After a century of being perceived as nothing more than property, the Declaration finally freed gems from their servitude but didn’t translate or clarify their rights and status in the global legal system. To approach this issue, Dr. Eli Walker (an anthropologist, YAY!) has the task of putting together a proposal deciding whether gems are truly human. Meanwhile, certain factions want to take advantage of this period of instability, like the gemtech companies that would like to see everything return to the pre-Declaration days, or the godgangs who just want to see gems dead, period. Fortunately, the gems have Aryel Morningstar, their charismatic spokesperson who will do all she can to ensure that their voices will be heard.
What makes Gemsigns such a powerful novel is that despite its futuristic setting or its science fiction label, it is still utterly significant and relevant to the world today. Folks, this is what a great piece of social science fiction looks like. Each time I squirmed with discomfort over the nightmarish treatment of gems, or every time I pondered a question regarding an ethical issue, I knew it was the book doing its job. And it was good at it.
As I alluded to before, Saulter utilized a steady, measured approach when it came to laying out the novel’s situation. It’s a gripping story, though the suspense and intensity I felt here is more akin to that of a riveting courtroom drama, rather than say, an action-thriller. I appreciated this gradual, detail-oriented rise towards the climax, though at times I felt the pacing was a bit too restrained, resulting in a couple lulls in the story. But in the end, the author delivered the stunning ending I wanted. If I had been standing while I was reading the last few chapters, I think I would have needed to sit down. It was JUST. THAT. WHOA.
Well-written and thought provoking, Gemsigns is an all-around superb debut from Stephanie Saulter, and another winner from Jo Fletcher Books. I’m already anticipating great things for Binary, the second book in the ®Evolution sequence, which I will definitely be checking out soon.
Tough Traveling: Hidden Kingdom
Posted on May 22, 2014 Leave a Comment
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 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. Compulsive list-maker that I am, I’m very excited to take part!
This week’s tour topic is: Hidden Kingdom
Usually reached through CAVERNS or after an arduous trek into the heart of the central masssif, this is often the object of the Tour QUEST…
I’ll be honest, when I saw this week’s topic, I drew a big blank. There are plenty of hidden worlds I can think of, but most of those involve jumping through portals and planes existing on completely different realms. A lot of the ones I can think of that are hidden beneath the earth or in a mountain are actually ruins or untamed “lost worlds” that aren’t exactly kingdoms. Maybe I’m overthinking things, but I was only able to come up with a few this week. Hey, just be glad I didn’t whip out Otoh Gunga from The Phantom Menace novelization!
Hollow World by Michael J. Sullivan
The first book I thought of when I saw this topic was of course Hollow World, a cross-genre novel about a man with a terminal disease traveling into the future to find a cure. What he finds is an earth overgrown, seemingly devoid of much activity on the surface. But then he is brought below ground into a hollow world, where the denizens of the time had created an impressive civilization beneath the earth, complete with its own solar source.
Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen
Stolen Songbird is a book I recently read that fits the theme. Though later we find out that Trollus isn’t completely hidden, since some merchants know the way to trade there, but for the most part the existence of the troll city is but a mere rumor. This kingdom was buried under the ruins of Forsaken Mountain five hundred years ago by a witch’s curse, and since then the trolls have been bound to this place beneath the earth and rock. The main character Cécile was kidnapped and brought here through an underwater passage and a series of confusing caverns. This one totally counts!
The Silk Map by Chriss Willrich
Dammit, now I’m second guessing myself. Does this book really count? I know in this latest installment of the Gaunt and Bone series our dynamic duo have to travel far to the west to find the mythical land of Xembala. These books have a bit of a surreal quality to them, so it was a bit hard to follow exactly how our heroes actually managed to make it to Xembala. But it is a kingdom and it did actually exist and it was well-hidden. That, and because I’ll only have a paltry two entries otherwise this week is why I’m gonna count it!
Book Review: The Remaining by D.J. Molles
Posted on May 21, 2014 Leave a Comment
The Remaining by D.J. Molles
Genre: Science Fiction, Horror
Series: Book 1 of The Remaining
Publisher: Orbit (May 27, 2014)
Author Information: Website
Mogsy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Remaining is a great zombie book. Originally self-published in 2012, it quickly became an internet bestseller before being picked up by Orbit, and there’s a damn good reason for that. By now you’ve probably seen a lot of the positive reviews it has garnered, though I’m willing to bet few of them have praised this story for being terribly original. But does that make this a bad book? Heck no. In fact, I would argue that its devotion to the classic zombie survival-horror tradition is a massive part of the appeal.
The Walking Dead fans, this one would be right up your alley. No joke. The “zombies” in this book might not be the traditional mindless shambling hordes we’re used to seeing – the victims of the FURY plague are still capable of talking and strategizing up to a point before the virus degrades their brains (which makes them even more terrifying) – but the overall spirit and style of the narrative is still the same. It’s not out to knock you off your feet with any new or unusual or experimental ideas, but if its goal is to provide a fast-moving, action-packed and entertaining zombie story then I must say it has succeeded rather swimmingly.
Here’s what you basically need to know: the main character of The Remaining is a US Army captain named Lee Harden, who as part of a secret government program is sequestered in his bunker after the sudden outbreak of a new deadly and infectious virus. It’s not the first time this has happened. Lee and about four dozen other soldiers like him (one for every state) are placed in their bunkers every time the country experiences an emergency of national crisis. If the government falls, their job is to come out after the bunker, take stock of the situation and try to gather survivors in order to rebuild. But things in the past have never gone so far or gotten this bad before. When the lockdown period passes without an all-clear or any further instructions from his superiors, Lee emerges from the bunker and prepares to start his mission.
As a character, Lee took a while to grow on me – but he did. Strangely, the moment came when I was finally able to appreciate his faults. To understand, you must realize the few chapters really tried my patience. The entire lockdown period featured Lee being in denial, going back and forth between his decisions and second guessing his instructions. And then there were those long and wearying paragraphs about his guns. The deadline came and went. I kept tapping my foot waiting for him to stop describing the contents of his impressive arsenal, get his waffling butt out there and actually put all that stuff to good use on some hapless Infected.
Then I realized, I was being too harsh. Dude is stuck in a bunker. Not knowing what’s going on because he’s cut off from all communication. No human interaction at all because it’s just him and his dog. If the world outside has indeed gone to hell in a hand basket, he’s probably also scared to death of the responsibility waiting for him on the other side of that tunnel.
So maybe I was being a tad unfair to poor Lee. And really, what a shame it would have been if he was just another archetypal action hero, full of empty bravado rushing out headfirst to save the world? Lee is more realistic this way, even if he did end up doing some questionable things. But then, who wouldn’t make a mistake in the middle of a zombie apocalypse? Contrary to what all the zombie survival guides want you to believe, there’s no instruction manual for stuff like this. Wrong decisions or no, Lee has to make some pretty tough calls as well. The guy has a good heart, but he’s sure as hell also capable of showing no mercy to those who don’t deserve it. I love that in his character.
Bottom line, if you’re a fan of type of zombie apocalypse survival movies that Hollywood does so well, this is that in book form. After a relatively sedate start, the novel picks up and will not slow down, with always some kind of disaster or new setback waiting around the corner for the characters to overcome. No other bells and whistles or fancy-schmancy embellishments, just pure zombie fiction fun.
The BiblioSanctum 
