The Kings of Eternity by Eric Brown [Book Review]

 Books  3 Responses »
Apr 272011
 

A Wonderful love story and an Alien

I had great expectations for Eric Browns magnus opus The Kings of Eternity. The style of the book brought me back towards the classic adventure stories of Verne & Wells that usually starts at a club for gentlemen. This one doesn’t but the mysterious summon novelist Daniel Langham and his friends receive from Editor Jasper Carnegie and the strange followings in Hopton Wood are pure golden age including the recurring alien gateway and the strange creatures they discover there.

There are two timelines the first starts in 1935 and the other one starts in 1999 on Crete and centers on the reclusive and very private novelist Jonathan Langham whose life turns upside down when he unexpectedly meets artist Caroline Platt and falls in love. The setting is an idyllic village populated by people who respects privacy but also with a mysterious menacing foreigner.

Daniel’s love affair with an actress is at roads end and that contrasts well with the budding love in the other timeline. The two timelines converge as the story develops and layer after layer is revealed.

It is remarkable how ordinary everyday all the story seems but that has always been a strength of Eric Brown. He is a master of the everyday backdrop to great events. I liked it in the Bengali Station series and I like it here.

I love the characters they feel so at home in their time period and yet well-integrated in the overall drama. And the love stories are also very captivating and the ending is wonderful (I cried). The bromance is not as prominent but as the title it forms a band of brothers of a sort.

I had a hard time putting the book down. It keeps you guessing and the revelations hits fast in the end.

I am so happy Eric Brown has done it again. The Kings of Eternity is big science fiction at an everyday backdrop, great characters and a wonderful love story. This is a strong contender for book of the year; it is clearly the best book I have read so far.

Book information

The Kings of Eternity by Eric Brown – Solaris (2011) – Bought from Amazon UK | US

1999, on the threshold of a new millennium, the novelist Daniel Langham lives a reclusive life on an idyllic Greek island, hiding away from humanity and the events of the past. All that changes, however, when he meets artist Caroline Platt and finds himself falling in love. But what is his secret, and what are the horrors that haunt him?

1935. Writer Jonathon Langham and Edward Vaughan are summoned from London by their editor friend Jasper Carnegie to help investigate strange goings on in Hopton Wood. What they discover there – no less than a strange creature from another world – will change their lives for ever. What they become, and their link to the novelist of the future, is the subject of Eric Brown’s most ambitious novel to date. Almost ten years in the writing, The Kings of Eternity is a novel of vast scope and depth, full of the staple tropes of the genre and yet imbued with humanity and characters you’ll come to love.

 

Share|
 Posted by Cybermage.se at 17:00  Tagged with: , , , ,

Necropath (Bengali Station 1) by Eric Brown (Solaris 2008)

 Books  1 Response »
Mar 232011
 

Down to earth science fiction
on a multi cultural space station

The Bengali Station series is what got me really into Eric Brown’s writing and it still is the best of what I have read of him a year later. I started with Xenopath and Cosmopath because this one took forever to get to me, I think there was snow in the UK and everything stopped including the Royal Mail (that is really exotic for us who are used to a meter of snow in the winter. No we don’t have polar bears on the streets that are in Norway).

The setting is Bengali station and just the name tickles your imagination. Jeff Vaughan, the main character is a bitter and jaded telepath earning his living scanning arriving starships for unwanted elements. He hates being a telepath seeing the severs in the minds of the humans he meets at work, but he hates himself most of all so he hangs at a bar where he befriends a young girl Tiger who becomes his only friend but she is even lower than he and before long she overdoses on a new drug called Rhapsody. This set of a chain of events that tie into another discovery he makes concerning his boss at the spaceport and an off-world religious cult with ambitious plans. What is going on is much bigger and grander than you suspect at first but it is released step by step and it keeps you guessing up until the very conclusion.

I particularly liked the Hindu and Thai cultural parts of the story exemplified by Tigers younger sister Sukura left behind in the bar district below, dreaming of reuniting with her sister. Her life is really miserable and unfortunately it might only be the aliens that are the difference for many people that make their living there today. It is chilling if you really think of what is going on in some of those scenes.

This would make a great movie; the tension and suspense are great. Vaughan explores mysterious temples and alien worlds, are stalked by would be assassins from his past and are trapped by aliens while trying to uncover the truth with his reluctant police confidante Chandra.

This is a gritty and earthy story set on a space station that reminds of the tourist traps of the Far East. Jeff Vaughan is a flawed piece of humanity but that makes him more interesting and you know how much I like characters and there is a lot of personality in this one. It lives up to the high expectations I got from reading the two sequels. Highly recommended.

Book information

Necropath (Bengali Station 1) by Eric Brown (Solaris 2008) – Amazon US | UK – I bought my copy from Amazon

Bengal Station: an exotic spaceport that dominates the ocean between India and Burma.

Jaded telepath, Jeff Vaughan, is employed by the spaceport authorities to monitor incoming craft from the stars. There, he discovers a sinister cult that worships a mysterious alien god. The Church of the Adoration of the Chosen One uses drugs to commune with the Ultimate, and will murder to silence those who oppose their beliefs. The story follows Vaughan as his mistrust of his fellow humans is overturned by his love for the Thai street-girl Sukura, while he attempts to solve the murders and save himself from the psychopath out to kill him. Necropath is Eric Brown’s triumphant return to hard SF.

 

Share|
 Posted by Cybermage.se at 23:01  Tagged with: , , , , ,

New SFF Books March 2011 [My Picks]

 Books  3 Responses »
Feb 152011
 

March is around the corner and it is time to take a look at the goodies it brings.

I have ordered my books, have you?

Kings of the North

(Paladin’s Legacy 2) by Elizabeth Moon (Orbit/Del Rey) Amazon US | UK

Oath of Fealty was one of the best books I read last year. Elizabeth Moon is a fantastic story teller with vivid hearty characters you can’t help falling in love with, which she proved again with Oath of Fealty last year. It was  a great start of a series and now it is time for part two.

Elizabeth Moon returns to the fantasy world of the paladin Paksenarrion Dorthansdotter—Paks for short—in this second volume of a new series filled with all the bold imaginative flights, meticulous world-building, realistic military action, and deft characterization that readers have come to expect from this award-winning author. In Kings of the North, Moon is working at the very height of her storytelling powers.

Peace and order have been restored to the kingdoms of Tsaia and Lyonya, thanks to the crowning of two kings: Mikeli of Tsaia and, in Lyonya, Kieri Phelan, a mercenary captain whose royal blood and half-elven heritage are resented by elves and humans alike.

On the surface, all is hope and promise. But underneath, trouble is brewing. Mikeli cannot sit safely on his throne as long as remnants of the evil Verrakaien magelords are at large. Kieri is being hounded to marry and provide the kingdom with an heir—but that is the least of his concerns. A strange rift has developed between him and his grandmother and co-ruler, the immortal elven queen known as the Lady. More problematic is the ex-pirate Alured, who schemes to seize Kieri’s throne for himself—and Mikeli’s, too, while he’s at it. Meanwhile, to the north, the aggressive kingdom of Pargun seems poised to invade.

Now, as war threatens to erupt from without and within, the two kings are dangerously divided. Old alliances and the bonds of friendship are about to be tested as never before. And a shocking discovery will change everything.

The Kings of Eternity

by Eric Brown (Solaris) Amazon US | UK

Eric Brown master opus Kings of Eternity is another highly anticipated read for me this year.  I enjoyed the Bengali Station Trilogy (Necropath, Xenopath, Cosmopath) and Guardians of the Phoenix a lot. Eric is strong on characters that are human and easy to love. This has every possibility to become my book of the year. This story about strange creatures and connections across time will be out in March.

1999, on the threshold of a new millennium, the novelist Daniel Langham lives a reclusive life on an idyllic Greek island, hiding away from humanity and the events of the past. All that changes, however, when he meets artist Caroline Platt and finds himself falling in love. But what is his secret, and what are the horrors that haunt him? 1935. Writer Jonathon Langham and Edward Vaughan are summoned from London by their editor friend Jasper Carnegie to help investigate strange goings on in Hopton Wood. What they discover there – no less than a strange creature from another world – will change their lives for ever. What they become, and their link to the novelist of the future, is the subject of Eric Brown’s most ambitious novel to date. Almost ten years in the writing, The Kings of Eternity is a novel of vast scope and depth, full of the staple tropes of the genre and yet imbued with humanity and characters you’ll come to love.

To the Galactic Rim: The John Grimes Saga

(Omnibus 1-4) by A. Bertram Chandler (Baen reprint) Amazon US | UK

To the Galactic Rim: The John Grimes Saga by A. Bertram Chandler is another reprint of of a long series (28 novels and a number of short stories) this time by Baen and in Omnibus form. The first volume about ‘the Horatio Hornblower of science fiction’ covers the three first novels and a collection of short stories. It will be out in March. I hope Baen will pump them out fairly quickly or I will have to try for ACE’s series from the start of this century. The Flandry series suffered from horrible, horrible covers that they hopefully will avoid with this one, Pulp is okay but the homage to sleazy James Bond covers didn’t do it for me in the Flandry case.

John Grimes will one day command his own starship, and change the course of Galactic history, but right now he’s a wet-behind-the-ears junior officer who finds that he keeps running into problems which were never covered in his courses at the Academy.

  • The Road to the Rim—meet Lieutenant John Grimes of the Federation Survey Service; fresh out of the Academy—and as green as they come.
  • To Prime the Pump—El Dorado is a planet with a pressing problem: the men are infertile, cause unknown, and the women want someone to Do Something! Not quite the problem young John Grimes expected to deal with . . .
  • The Hard Way Up—a collection of seven tales of John Grime’s adventures, meeting danger and winning glory out at the rim of the Galaxy.
  • The Broken Cycle—John Grimes never intended to get lost in space, let alone being lost with a very attractive policewoman who’s all business. And he really never expected to run into an entity who claims to be a god and has a garden of Eden ready and waiting for the pair.

Three novels and a story collection, all in one attractively-priced volume of space adventure.

Embedded

by Dan Abnett (Angry Robot) Amazon US | UK

I try to avoid franchise series and literature, because time is limited and I have other sub genres I want to cover. The only reason I haven’t read anything by Dan Abnett before is because he mainly writes Warhammer 40k novels  but this year he will be out with a story that has intrigued me since I first heard about it. Embedded that is due in March is about a reporter that is embedded in a chip on a soldier fighting a war on an alien planet. The soldier is killed so the reporter has to take over his body and get out alive by himself.

I read a review copy last week and it was mighty good. A review will be out closer to publishing.

HE’D DO ANYTHING TO GET A STORY. When journalist Lex Falk gets himself chipped into the brain of a combat soldier, he thinks he has the ultimate scoop – a report from the forbidden front line of a distant planetary war, live to the living rooms of Earth. When the soldier is killed, however, Lex has to take over the body and somehow get himself back to safety once more… broadcasting all the way.

Heart-stopping combat science fiction from the million-selling Warhammer 40,000 author.

File Under: Science Fiction [ Future Warefare | Chipped-In | Anything For a Story | Get Out Alive! ]

Up Against It

by M. J. Locke (Tor) Amazon US | UK

It is hard to pick out the debuts that you will enjoy from the media clutter. M. J. Locke debuts with Up Against It, a workplace drama action leaning towards a somewhat twisted scifi society from what I gather from the blurbs. Sounds like fun.

Geoff and his friends live in Phocaea, a distant asteroid colony on the Solar System’s frontier. They’re your basic high-spirited young adults, enjoying such pastimes as hacking matter compilers to produce dancing skeletons that prance through the low-gee communal areas, using their rocket-bikes to salvage methane ice shrapnel that flies away when the colony brings in a big (and vital) rock of the stuff, and figuring out how to avoid the ubiquitous surveillance motes that are the million eyes of ‘Stroiders, a reality-TV show whose Earthside producers have paid handsomely for the privilege of spying on every detail of the Phocaeans’ lives.

Life isn’t as good as it seems, though. A mysterious act of sabotage kills Geoff’s brother Carl and puts the entire colony at risk. And in short order, we discover that the whole thing may have been cooked up by the Martian mafia, as a means of executing a coup and turning Phocaea into a client-state. As if that wasn’t bad enough, there’s a rogue AI that was spawned during the industrial emergency and slipped through the distracted safeguards, and a giant x-factor in the form of the Viridians, a transhumanist cult that lives in Phocaea’s bowels.

In addition to Geoff, our story revolves around Jane, the colony’s resource manager — a bureaucrat engineer in charge of keeping the plumbing running on an artificial island of humanity poised on the knife-edge of hard vacuum and unforgiving space. She’s more than a century old, and good at her job, but she is torn between the technical demands of the colony and the political realities of her situation, in which the fishbowl effect of ‘Stroiders is compounded by a reputation economy that turns every person into a beauty contest competitor.  Her manoeuverings to keep politics and engineering in harmony are the heart of the book.

Son of Heaven (Chung Kuo book 1)

by David Wingrove (Corvus) Amazon US | UK

Corvus is planing to reprint 20 rewritten Chung Kuo novels the upcoming years. The series is set in a future dominated by Chinese culture that goes to drastic steps to conquer and control the world. Son of Heaven is the first due in March. David Wingrove has the added value of being new to me. This looks like the type of scifi I know I am going to like. I get a bit of a Buck Rogers vibe of this, am I right?

The year is 2085, two decades after the great economic collapse that destroyed Western civilization. With its power broken and its cities ruined, life in the West continues in scattered communities. In rural Dorset Jake Reed lives with his 14-year-old son and memories of the great collapse. Back in ’43, Jake was a rich, young futures broker, immersed in the datascape of the world’s financial markets. He saw what was coming – and who was behind it. Forewarned, he was one of the few to escape the fall. For 22 years he has lived in fear of the future, and finally it is coming – quite literally – across the plain towards him. Chinese airships are in the skies and a strange, glacial structure has begun to dominate the horizon. Jake finds himself forcibly incorporated into the ever-expanding ‘World of Levels’ a global city of some 34 billion souls, where social status is reflected by how far above the ground you live. Here, under the rule of the mighty Tsao Ch’un, a resurgent China is seeking to abolish the past and bring about world peace through rigidly enforced order. But a civil war looms, and Jake will find himself at the heart of the struggle for the future.

Passion Model

by Megan Hart (Samhain) Amazon US | UK

I was thinking of trying some romantic scifi this year, again I should say. I tried it once before but where disgusted by how helpless and in need of help the supposedly formidable female protagonist was. This time I have my sights set on something more steamy Megan Hart’s Passion Model reprinted in March.

Protect and Serve just took on a whole new meaning.

For Recreational Intercourse Operative Gemma, patrolling Newcity’s Lovehuts and Pleasurebots isn’t much of a pleasure. But it’s work she clings to after an accident destroyed her marriage and left her with half her body made of replacement parts.

She keeps her head down and her mind on her job, waiting for the proverbial hammer to fall. The head of the ruling council is out to make those like her illegal. If anyone finds out she’s mecho, she’s toast.

A routine inspection of a Pleasurebot turns into a strictly forbidden—and mind-blowing—sexual encounter. Then she realizes it isn’t an “it” at all. He’s human, and despite the sweet-hot climaxes he gives her, she buries her report to save them both from the consequences.

Except he can’t seem to stay away from her, and for a time life seems almost…normal. Until Gemma uncovers Declan’s own deep, dark secret. A secret that could get her fired from R.I.O. Or both of them killed.

Warning: This book contains graphic depictions of sex with men, women, aliens and robots.

Resurrection Code

by Lyda Morehouse (Mad Norwegian Press 2011) Amazon US | UK

This prequel to AngeLINK novel series looks interesting and I am always looking for new authors.

North Africa is in ruins after the Aswan dams collapse and a massive flood reclaims the Nile valley. The privileged and the sane have long since abandoned Egypt to the scavengers and the dregs of society. Christian El-Aref is a street rat, living hand-to-mouth. His life is going nowhere fast. Then he stumbles over a dead body carrying revolutionary shareware tech. Now he’s being hunted. And if he’s not careful, the next dead body may be his own. This action-packed cyberpunk thriller weaves its way through the slums of a flooded Cairo, encountering murderous cults of eunuchs, an assassination plot perpetrated by angels, and an enigmatic street urchin who may or may not be the reincarnation of the prophet Mohammed. Lyda Morehouse tells the anticipated story of how Christian became the Mouse, the father of the underground Internet and the technological hope of the disenfranchised in a dystopian theocratic near-future, in this standalone prequel to her acclaimed AngeLINK novel series. Also included: Morehouse s AngeLINK-related short story, ishtartu, from the Lambda Award-nominated collection Periphery.

Share|
 Posted by Cybermage.se at 01:00  Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Guardians of the Phoenix by Eric Brown [Book Review]

 Books  No Responses »
Jan 132011
 

I should start to state I am a fan of Eric Brown. The Guardians of the Phoinix is his latest work and I was very excited when I started to read this post apocalyptic coming of age slash road movie story.

Paul the young protagonist is living alone with an old lady in the ruins of Paris when we meet him the first time. He gets captured by cannibals and is rescued by another group searching for a means of survival. Both groups are looking for a rumored cache of food and survival gear in the town.

The story has a bit of simplicity to it and the characters are less developed than in Eric’s Bengali Station Trilogy but on the other hand I felt that emphasized the survivalist feel of the book. The humanity that survived in this desert of a world where the seas has dried up and humanity is on the brink of extinction might not be so three dimensional. But there is a core of optimism in all the gloom as indicated by the title.

The Big Breakdown is never explained in detail but its aftermath involved nuclear and biological attacks. The seas have dried up and deserts cover most of earth’s surfaces that much we know. Small colonies of humans survive across Europe. It feels foreboding to read about those small, small enclaves making meager living where millions of people live today.

The group Paul joins with is on the track of a way to save the peoples in the colony they left behind in Copenhagen. And they have more than the rumored cache. Unfortunately for them so has the surviving cannibals and the story continues with a race to reach salvation first. But salvation is never as easy as it seems.

The book made me uncomfortable at times especially when he presented characters that were forced to cannibalism to survive as relatively sympathetic individuals. Some of the violence is also on the rough side. I wonder if this started out as a YA because sometimes the sex feels a bit out of place too.

I read and enjoyed Guardians of the Phoenix as a post apocalyptic space opera but know that Eric Brown can write much better than this. Another fifty pages would not have hurt the book.

Information

Title: Guardians of the Phoenix
Author: Eric Brown
Paperback: 350 pages
Publisher: Solaris (2010)
Copy: Bought it myself

Order from: Amazon US | UK

Global warming has taken its terrible toll. The seas have dried up and deserts cover much of the Earth’s surface. Humankind has been annihilated by drought and the nuclear and biological conflicts following the Great Breakdown. Desperate bands of humans still survive. Some live far underground, away from the searing temperatures and ongoing conflicts on the surface; others scrape a living in the remains of shattered cities above ground. In Paris, Pierre lives like an animal among the sand-drifted ruins of the once great city. Near death, he faces a choice: join the strangers heading south in search of water, or remain in the city and perish. Guardians of the Phoenix tells the story of the last survivors on planet Earth, their desperate fight for survival and their last hope to save the world

Share|
 Posted by Cybermage.se at 01:00  Tagged with: , , , , ,

New Science Fiction Books in September 2010 Revisited

 Books  No Responses »
Sep 012010
 

Time to have a look at September for new science fiction books to order. Here is my pick and a few other books I found interesting. It looks like a good month lots of books I will read as soon as I can unwrap them.

Many of these books are on my 13 SF for the rest of 2010 book list Guardians of Paradise, Out of the Dark, Quantum Thief, What Distant Deep, Dreadnought and The Truth of Valor.

On Order

Title: Out of the Dark

Author: David Weber
Genre: Vampire Science Fiction | Alien Invasion
Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Tor Books 28 Sep 2010

Order from: Tor | Amazon US | UK | B&N | sfbok

Vampires and space opera, it sounds cheesy but it is a Weber book so I am in. The first news made this out to be a new series but later reports says it is not.

Expanded from a short story that first appeared in George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois’s anthology Warriors, this trilogy kickoff blends elements of military science fiction and dark fantasy. In the very near future, Earth has been targeted for colonization by a galactic empire known as the Hegemony. Deemed “lunatic local sentients” by a survey team that witnessed King Henry V and his troops slaughtering the French at Agincourt, humankind has essentially been written off as bloodthirsty, expendable barbarians. When the Hegemony’s henchmen, the doglike Shongairi, show up to conquer Earth, the resistance is beyond anything they had ever imagined, especially when vampires appear to help the humans. Weber pulls off this conceit in audacious style with a focus on military-powered action that will thrill fans of his Honor Harrington series, and he keeps the pedal to the metal right up to the almost unbelievable conclusion.

Title: The Quantum Thief

Series: The Quantum Thief 1
Author: Hannu Rajaniemi
Genre: Space Opera
Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Gollancz 30 Sep 2010

Order from: Gollancz | Amazon UK | sfbok

I read a short story by Hannu, he is a fantastic writer. This promises to be a real good posthuman series.

Jean le Flambeur is a post-human criminal, mind burglar, confidence artist and trickster. His origins are shrouded in mystery, but his exploits are known throughout the Heterarchy – from breaking into the vast Zeusbrains of the Inner System to steal their thoughts, to stealing rare Earth antiques from the aristocrats of the Moving Cities of Mars. Except that Jean made one mistake. Now he is condemned to play endless variations of a game-theoretic riddle in the vast virtual jail of the Axelrod Archons – the Dilemma Prison – against countless copies of himself. Jean’s routine of death, defection and cooperation is upset by the arrival of Mieli and her spidership, Perhonen. She offers him a chance to win back his freedom and the powers of his old self – in exchange for finishing the one heist he never quite managed . . . The Quantum Thief is a dazzling hard SF novel set in the solar system of the far future – a heist novel peopled by bizarre post-humans but powered by very human motives of betrayal, revenge and jealousy. It is a stunning debut.

Title: Guardians of Paradise

Series: The Hidden Empire/Sidhe 3
Author: Jaine Fenn
Genre: Space Opera
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Gollancz 16 Sep 2010

Order from: Gollancz | Amazon US | UK | sfbok

Jaine is another author I love. Read my take on the previous books in the Hidden Empire: Consorts of Heaven and Principles of Angels.

Most people believe the Sidhe are long dead, exterminated centuries ago when the males of the race rose up and fought alongside the humans subjugated and enslaved by the female Sidhe. But Jarek Reen knows better: he’s discovered, the painful way, that the Sidhe are alive and well, and still screwing over humanity. They’ve already killed his sister, so he’s not surprised when he discovers an old friend and her partner are next on the Sidhe’s hitlist. He helps not only to foil the assassination attempt, but also to muddy the scene of the crime, leaving the Angels Nual and Taro sanMalia presumed dead – and free to join his crusade to expose the insidious influence of the Sidhe, and their evil plans to enslave the human race again. Their mission takes them across human-space, from utilitarian hub-points to rich, exotic planets – where they discover that a brilliant vacation spot hides some of the darkest secrets of all. And that’s when they discover how easy it is for the hunters to become the hunted . . .

Title: What Distant Deeps

Series: Lt. Leary/RCN
Author: David Drake
Genre: Military Science Fiction
Publisher: Baen
Hardcover: 384 pages

Order from: S&S | Amazon US | UK | B&N | sfbok

I ordered this book in November last year. Daniel and Adele has been wonderful companions so far. This is usually uncomplicated enjoyable military scifi.

This series is on my List of Military SF Series

NO REST FOR THE WEARY

Captain Daniel Leary and his friend, the spy Adele Mundy, have been in the front lines of Cinnabar’s struggle against the totalitarian Alliance. Now these galactic superpowers have signed a peace of mutual exhaustion–  But the jackals are moving in!

The Republic of Cinnabar was on the verge of collapse under the weight of taxes, casualties, and war’s disruption of trade. That the Alliance of Free Stars was in even worse condition helped only because it has made peace possible.

Years of war have been hard on Daniel and harder still on Adele, whose life outside information-gathering is a tightrope between despair and deadly violence. Their masters in the RCN and the Republic’s intelligence service have sent them to the fringes of human space to relax away from danger.

But the barbarians of the outer reaches have their own plans, plans which will bring down both Cinnabar and the Alliance. The enemies of peace include traitors, giant reptiles, and barbarian pirates whose ships can outsail even Daniel Leary’s splendid corvette, the Princess Cecile.

Unless Daniel, Adele, and their unlikely allies succeed, galactic civilization will disintegrate into blood and chaos. So they will succeed— or they’ll die trying!

Title: Dreadnought

Series: Clockwork Century 3
Author: Cherie Priest
Genre: Steampunk
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Tor Books 28 Sep 2010

Excerpt: Chapter 1

Order from: Tor | Amazon US | UK | B&N | sfbok

Boneshaker was wonderful and Clementine arrived this week so I haven’t read it yet. But I expect it to be good to.

A grizzly death in the Rue Morgue – a body sliced in half. Milady de Winter hunts the killer, and discovers the body held an incredible secret.

The quest to discover it will take her to the edge of the world and to the depths of her own soul.

Outstanding steampunk adventure from the author of The Bookman.

File Under: Steampunk [ A Ghostly Murder / A Mythical Object / A Worldwide Quest ]

Title: The Truth of Valor

Series: Confederation of Valor 5
Author: Tanya Huff
Genre: Military Science Fiction
Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: DAW 7 Sep 2010

Order from: DAW | Amazon US | UK | B&N | sfbok

Tanya is really good at characters and dialog making this one an easy choise.

Former Marine Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr is attempting to build a new life with salvage operator Craig Ryder on his ship, the Promise. Turns out civilian life is a lot rougher than she’d imagined-salvage operators are losing both cargo and lives to pirates. And when they attack the Promise, Craig is taken prisoner and Torin is left for dead.

When Torin finds out why the pirates needed Craig, she calls in the Marines to get him back-and to stop the pirates from changing the balance of power in known space.

Title: Ragnarok

Series: Ragnarok book 1
Author: Patrick A. Vanner
Genre: Military Science Fiction | Space Opera
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Baen

Order from: Simon&Schulster | Amazon US | UK | B&N | sfbok

This is probably a hit or miss kind of thing. It is Patrick A Vanner’s first novel in a series of military space opera. I have this thing for female protagonist so I will give it a try.

Captain Alexandra “Alex” McLaughlin is not a woman to be underestimated. Under her petite exterior is a spine of solid steel and a disposition to laugh in the face of impending death. A former member of the Terran Navy’s elite force, the Dead Jokers, electronic-warfare pilots with a mortality rate to match that of old Japan’s Kamikazes, Alex is a born survivor. But sometimes survival can be a curse.

Humanity is locked in a war of survival with the Xan-Sskarn, an alien race that refuses to acknowledge the rights of “weaker” creatures to live. It is a war that will not end with a peace treaty, but only the complete subjugation of one species to the other. And right now, the alien side is winning.

However, the enemy on the outside is not the only one to be faced. As the battles take on an eerily familiar pattern of no-win scenarios, Alex realized the horrifying truth; humanity has a traitor, and it’s somebody close. As each battle brings more death, Alex’s ghosts grow and so does her desire for vengeance. There is only one way for this to end, and Alex is just the human to take it there—to Ragnarok

Other New Books of Interest

Title: The Clockwork Man

Author: William Jablonsky
Genre: Steampunk
Paperback: 268 pages
Publisher: Medallion Press

Order by:  Amazon US | UK | B&N

This one sounds interesting but could be a hit or miss kind of thing.

Ernst, the first man made of clockwork, is hailed as a marvel of late 19th-century automation and gains endless admirers, but when his love for the daughter of his creator is abruptly cut short, his serene existence is shattered. Forlorn, he allows himself to wind down in a willful act of defiant suicide. Now, more than 100 years later, he awakens to a new world and mentor – a well-meaning, if slightly unstable, homeless man. Attempting to piece together the events that brought him to this new home, Ernst tries to let go of the century-old tragedy that still haunts him. This story of science fiction realism delves into the thoughts, feelings, and desires of a character who must deal with the poignant social repercussions of having been built, rather than born.

Title: Zero History

Author: William Gibson
Genre: Cyberpunk
Hardcover: 416 pages
Publisher: Viking 2 September 2010 | Putnam Adult 7 September 2010
Order from: Putnam Adult | Amazon US | UK | B&N

The iconic visionary returns with his first new novel since the New York Times bestseller Spook Country.

Whatever you do, because you are an artist, will bring you to the next thing of your own…

When she sang for The Curfew, Hollis Henry’s face was known worldwide. She still runs into people who remember the poster. Unfortunately, in the post-crash economy, cult memorabilia doesn’t pay the rent, and right now she’s a journalist in need of a job. The last person she wants to work for is Hubertus Bigend, twisted genius of global marketing; but there’s no way to tell an entity like Bigend that you want nothing more to do with him. That simply brings you more firmly to his attention.

Milgrim is clean, drug-free for the first time in a decade. It took eight months in a clinic in Basel. Fifteen complete changes of his blood. Bigend paid for all that. Milgrim’s idiomatic Russian is superb, and he notices things. Meanwhile no one notices Milgrim. That makes him worth every penny, though it cost Bigend more than his cartel-grade custom-armored truck.

The culture of the military has trickled down to the street- Bigend knows that, and he’ll find a way to take a cut. What surprises him though is that someone else seems to be on top of that situation in a way that Bigend associates only with himself. Bigend loves staring into the abyss of the global market; he’s just not used to it staring back.

Title: Human Secrets

Author: Linden Lewis
Paperback 300 pages
Publisher: Matador 6 Sep 2010

Order from: Amazon US | UK | sfbok

When Guy Hewson, a young professor of Egyptology, discovers a strange relic, he has no idea of the bizarre sequence of events that will follow. The importance of the unearthed antiquity becomes manifest when the professor is the target of an assassination attempt. He is saved by an old university friend, Justin Bloom, a man struggling to cope with the humdrum routine of his daily existence. Justin is drawn into a scenario that’s far removed from his regular family life in Norfolk. As the mystery deepens his integrity is tested by the reciprocated fascination he has for another woman, Abigail Shakespeare, who becomes involved. Eventually, the incredible significance of the relic becomes apparent and a dark secret from humanity’s past is uncovered. Whilst Professor Hewson attempts to stay one step ahead of the police and a murderous third party, it’s down to Justin and Abigail to avert a reanimated danger threatening all of civilisation. Human Secrets exemplifies a new category of credible science fiction that deals with the lives of a group of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. It is a tale of romance and adventure that questions mankind’s place in the past, present and future.

New Releases of Old Books

Title: The High Crusade

Author: Paul Anderson
Genre: Alien invasion | Alternative History
Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: Baen (1st Ed 1960)

Order from: S&S | Amazon US | UK |  B&N | sfbok

In the year of grace 1345, as Sir Roger Baron de Tourneville is gathering an army to join King Edward III in the war against France, a most astonishing event occurs: a huge silver ship descends through the sky and lands in a pasture beside the little village of Ansby in northeastern Lincolnshire. The Wersgorix, whose scouting ship it is, are quite expert at taking over planets, and having determined from orbit that this one was suitable, they initiate standard world-conquering procedure. Ah, but this time it’s no mere primitives the Wersgorix seek to enslave—they’ve launched their invasion against free Englishmen! In the end, only one alien is left alive—and Sir Roger’s grand vision is born. He intends for the creature to fly the ship first to France to aid his King, then on to the Holy Land to vanquish the infidel. Unfortunately, he has not allowed for the treachery of the alien pilot, who instead takes the craft to his home planet, where, he thinks, these upstart barbarians will have no choice but to surrender. But that knavish alien little understands the indomitable will and clever resourcefulness of Englishmen, no matter how great the odds against them. . .

Title: Engineman

Author: Eric Brown
Genre: Space Opera
Paperback: 640 pages
Publisher: Solaris (1st ed 1994)

Order from: Amazon US | UK | B&N | sfbok

Once the Enginemen pushed bigships through the cobalt glory of the nada-continuum. But faster than light isn’t fast enough anymore. The interfaces of the Keilor-Vincicoff Organisation bring planets light years distant a simple step away. Then a man with half a face offers ex-Engineman Ralph Mirren the chance to escape his ruined life and push a ship to an undisclosed destination. The nada-continuum holds the key to Ralph’s future. What he cannot anticipate is its universal importance – nor the mystery awaiting him on the distant colony world.

Engineman is a thrilling action adventure by the author of Helix and Kéthani. Also in this volume are nine stories set in the Engineman universe, including the Interzone award-winning ‘The Time-Lapsed Man.’

Title: Winter Song

Author: Colin Harvey
Genre: Hard Science Fiction | Lost Colony
Cover art: Chris Moore
Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: Angry Robot Sept 2010 (US) | 1st 2009

Excerpt: Sample chapter

Order by: Amazon US | UK | B&N | sfbok

Read my review on TLR

The planet had fallen off the map. When Karl Altman’s spaceship crashed, he had only one question: “HOW THE HELL DO I GET OUT OF HERE?” Rock-hard sci-fi adventure. No-one here gets out alive. When his spaceship crashes on an unknown and forgotten planet, scientist Karl Altman discovers himself hunted by an ancient race. The descendants of a Viking race have reverted to a savage culture of sacrifice, pillage and violence. When Karl falls in love with an outcast girl, he has only one goal: escape. But escape is a distant dream on this nightmare planet.

FILE UNDER: Science Fiction [Starship Crash / Abandoned Colonists / Alien Slaughter / Hell Planet]

Share|
 Posted by Cybermage.se at 01:00  Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Page 1 of 3 1 2 3

Advertisment