I got my first physical review copy today so I am slightly excited. Thank you Simon & Schuster UK you are my first. I am quite exited by the book too, 1 million Russians can’t be wrong.
Shadow Prowler by Alexey Pehov (Chronicles of Siala 1)
- review copy
Also in the mail or recently arrived books:
Geosynchron by David Louis Edelman (Jump 225 3)
- this one took its sweet time getting here from the US, much awaited too.
Earth Strike by Ian Douglas (Star Carrier 1)
- I liked his three Space Marine Trilogies so I have great expectations for this one
I also recived an ebook for review
Obama Jones & The Logic Bomb (Kindle Edition) by Rod Kierkegaard Jr.
I subscribe to quite a few podcasts on my iPhone and I want to share a few of the science fiction & fantasy and podcasts I find informative, amusing and fun. Listening to podcasts is perfect in the car or while training. My personal favorites are Slice of Scifi and Dragon Page but that changes over time. The list below is alphabetic.
Do you have a podcast? tell me about it and I’ll add it to the list.
Abaddon & Solaris Books Podcast, the
So far this year there has been a cast in January and March. I liked the interviews.
The Abaddon & Solaris Books podcast blasts out of yout earphones each month with fresh insights, general nonsense and the latest releases from our favorite Science Fiction and Horror publisher. With regular features, guest authors, and book readings. Warning: Ensure socks are firmly secured against being knocked the Hell off before listening.
Adventures in Scifi Publishing
(Farpoint Media)
Used to be a regular, but I haven’t seen any casts in 2010.
Adventures in Scifi Publishing began in October 2006 when creator Shaun Farrell decided to try something his hand at podcasting. Our first shows featured exclusive interviews with Ray Bradbury, R.A. Salvatore, Harry Turtledove, and Michael A. Stackpole. How could we stop after a lineup like that! We interview authors, editors, agents, publishers, artists, and a variety of other professionals from the science fiction and fantasy publishing industry. We have covered exciting events such as Comic-Con, the Clarion Writers Workshop, WorldCon, World Fantasy Convention, Condor, Conjecture, and live book readings. Occasionally we step outside the world of books and brave the frontiers of media, and on our website you will find interviews with Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis stars, musician Bear McCreary, and the filmmakers behind Ray Bradbury’s Crysalis. Whether you’re a writer or just love to read, you’ll find insight and entertainment in AISFP.
In addition to our podcasts, visit our website for book reviews, editorials, features, videos, news, and listener generated content.
MoH-snippet 12 Chapter 3: Benjamin IX, Protector of Grayson talk with the commander in chief of the Grayson Space Navy Wesley Matthews about their security situation.
Snippet #27 – They continue to talk about what to do with Thirsk and the fleeets that are about to be launched against them by the Church. Then they continue to talk of a preemptive strike.
Continue to read older Snippets:
Betwixt sounds like the most promising fantasy pilot this year. The news is that Celine and Morgan have now been cast, only Nix Uyarak reminds to be cast. It’s a live action adaptation of Tara Bray Smith’s novel with the same name and it has been ordered to pilot by the CW.
The cast looks really promising, I liked Allison in Kings (sad what happened to that show) and dito with Jesse in Life, another show that I liked that died a premature death.
For three teenagers dark mystery has always lurked at the corner of the eyes and the edge of sleep. Beautiful Morgan D’Amici wakes in her trailer park home with dirt and blood under her fingernails. Paintings come alive under Ondine Mason’s violet-eyed gaze. Haunted runaway Nix Saint-Michael sees halos of light around people about to die.
At a secret summer rave in the woods, the three teenagers learn of their true, changeling nature and their uncertain, intertwined destinies. Riveting, unflinching, beautiful, Betwixt shows a magic as complex and challenging as any ordinary reality.
About three teens – Morgan Brower, Nix Uyarak and Celine Halstead – who discover they’re actually “changelings,” the children of mythological fairies.
Jessy Schram (“Life”, “Veronica Mars”) as Morgan, who can transform into a creature with claws, fangs and yellow eyes.
Allison Miller (Kings) as Celine Halstead, an “ethereal beauty, who can fly.
From the book: When three teens, each haunted by uncanny happenings, receive invitations to a top-secret summer solstice celebration, they expect a typical Portland rave. Instead, they find an elaborate ritual staged to inform them about a secret, powerful nonhuman race to which they actually belong. Eagerness to learn about the race will pull readers through the first 200 pages, which introduce the connections hurling the teens toward the truth. Thereafter, the momentum slackens, with Smith haphazardly doling out facts about the teens’ true physiology and situation, and introducing confrontations with evil renegades that end before they have truly begun. This isn’t advertised as a series launcher, but many readers will emerge hoping for additional installments that clarify hazy plot elements and further develop Smith’s interesting characters—whose matter-of-fact multiculturalism is a bonus. Aspects of this dark fantasy will remind some readers of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight (2005), especially the poetically limned Pacific Northwest setting. But the language in this book is unusually raw, and occasional sexual allusions, often in a leering context, will substantially narrow the book’s audience. Grades 11-12.
Jennifer Mattson Amazon.com Booklist
Feature writer Elizabeth Chandler (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) has penned the script for the full film pilot and is executive producing with Paul Stupin (Make It or Break It).
The world Paolo Bacigalupi paints is a gritty post-gasoline world where cheap energy is a thing of the past. World trade have more or less ceased, most things are done local due to the prohibiting costs of travel. The most important thing in the world is Calories. Calories have replaced money. Most of the food outside Thailand is produced and sold by ruthless international Calorie Companies with their own patented genetically altered brands. These companies helped world recession by releasing plagues that killed off competing brands and natural food stocks. Access to original genetic material is becoming more and more important as mutated viruses attacks plants, animals and humans. Thailand is rumored to have a cache of genetic material that helped the country survive.
Protecting ones borders against plagues and diseases have become of critical importance, outbreaks are ruthlessly fought down, villages and ship are burnt on a mere suspicion. The Environment Ministery is in charge of protecting Thailand. Their troops are called ‘White Coats’. The White Coats are involved in a power struggle with the Trade Ministery who wants to open trade with the rest of the world.
Bangkok is a city about to explode.
The story let us follow a handful of characters at the backdrop of a dystrophy cityscape who’s inhabitants does anything to survive.
Jaidee is a charistmatic, driven but not very bright ‘White Coat’. He is the hero of the people, the Tiger of Bangkok. He is a hothead and one day he will go to far. I rather liked his character, it has Elan.
Anderson (I know, agent Anderson from Matrix comes to mind) the Calorie man is in Bangkok on a secret mission involving the genetic material and an escaped geneticist named Gibbon (from the ape?) the Thai’s are supposed to hide. He is not a very nice guy.
Hock Seng is a Yellow card working as a manager for Anderson. He has his own agenda that involves him getting his fortune back by stealing blueprints from Mr Anderson’s Safe. His situation is that of refugees barely tolerated by the Thai’s. His people where run out of China by a revolution of some kind and now they exist here on a pittance.
The protagonist is Emiko and she is an artificial person, a windup as the Thais call New People. Originally created as a secretary, translator and sex toy for a japanese business man who dumped her in Bangkok after a visit. Taken in by a brothel owner she is in constant fear for her life from ‘white coats’, who would end her if they could. She lives a life of constant abasement and abuse. Until one day she meets a foreigner (Anderson) that tells her about villages up north where New People live free.
Everything is colored in shades of grey. Bangkok is a city of corruption and bribery where everyone looks out for themselves. None of the characters are especially likable. I do like Emiko even though she is inhumane at times, but she grows through the story, learns more about herself and the world and change. She goes through more than survival. She is the hope of the book.
Every chapter has a character telling their point of view. It worked well for me as they have very distinct voices that makes it easy to identify them.
There is a lot of complicated politics involved in the plot and I had to put the book down a few times to sort it all out. The one problem I had with the book is that it takes a while until you get to when the action starts. I put the book away for a day or two in the beginning because of that.
The Windup girl reminds me a lot of Neal Stephenson’s Snowcrash in the beginning with the slow winding up of the story until it releases into frenetic action. It is a beautifully written gritty dystrophic bio-punk I would recommend to all readers of science fiction.
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