The Book of Transformation (Legends of the Red Sun 3) by Mark Charan Newton [Book Review]

Aug 042011

A leaf from the Super hero branch

This is the third Legends of the Red Sun novel; the final is due next summer. I loved City of Ruin, at least the second half so it was with great expectations I sat down to read The Book of Transformations.

As earlier there is a multitude of point-of-view characters which can be confusing at first but it pays off in the end. It still drags down a bit at times and for me some of the side stories took too much space without moving the plot forward enough.

We are mainly back in Villjamur with a detour or two to another world/dimension. Mark Charan Newton borrows shamelessly from different genres. The last book was close to a science fiction adventure but this one dresses up in super hero feathers.

The usurper Urtica tries to restore some of Villjamur’s former glory to pacify the citizens but the mysterious stranger Shaley brews up an underground movement that makes all kind of problems from crimes to assassinations.

That’s where Investigator Fulcrom comes into the story (we meet him earlier in the series). The Inquisition is failing to deal with this new threat so Emperor Urtica constructs a group of ‘super’ heroes with the help of the cultists and appoint Fulcrom as their leader. All the heroes have secrets the emperor uses to control them.

In the first two books the main character was the two cities; here for the first time it is a person, the transsexual Lan who starts out impersonating a female at a circus, transforms once and again to ends up one of the super heroes. Her life is a struggle against prejudice and need of acceptance. Mark steers clear of the obvious pointers and makes it a story about the person instead in a way I admire. Fulcrom is also something of a main character to be honest.

But there are more characters. The Cultist Dartun Súr broken and altered returns and heads back to Villjamur together with his surviving followers, the rightful heirs to the crown on their way back and many others.

We learn more about the mysterious invaders who now start to make sense but leaves more than enough unanswered questions for the next book. The world building is excellent and a unique mix of different genres. The world has a feeling of being a lost colony under a dying red sun where communication somehow was lost in ancient times now with cultists who practice their magic with artifacts they no longer understand. But things are changing, the ice age is coming and the gates to other worlds are open again. Old secrets are being revealed and we learn the truth piece by piece.

This truly is a book of transformation, personal, physical and architectonical. The super hero pill was surprisingly easy to get down. I like The Book of Transformations it feels tighter and I start to understand things (I hope). I very much look forward to the final volume next year.

Book Information

The Book of Transformation (Legends of the Red Sun 3) by Mark Charan Newton (Tor) – Amazon US | UK

A new and corrupt Emperor seeks to rebuild the ancient structures of Villjamur to give the people of the city hope in the face of great upheaval and an oppressing ice age. But when a stranger called Shalev arrives, empowering a militant underground movement, crime and terror becomes rampant.

The Inquisition is always one step behind, and military resources are spread thinly across the Empire. So Emperor Urtica calls upon cultists to help construct a group to eliminate those involved with the uprising, and calm the populace. But there’s more to The Villjamur Knights than just phenomenal skills and abilities – each have a secret that, if exposed, could destroy everything they represent.

Investigator Fulcrom of the Villjamur Inquisition is given the unenviable task of managing the Knights’, but his own skills are tested when a mysterious priest, who has travelled from beyond the fringes of the Empire, seeks his help. The priest’s existence threatens the church, and his quest promises to unweave the fabric of the world.

And in a distant corner of the Empire, the enigmatic cultist Dartun Súr steps back into this world, having witnessed horrors beyond his imagination. Broken, altered, he and the remnants of his cultist order are heading back to Villjamur.

And all eyes turn to the Sanctuary City, for Villjamur’s ancient legends are about to be shattered . . .

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Hell Ship by Philip Palmer [Book Review]

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Jul 192011

Alien Cultures Clash

Philip Palmer is new to me but he comes highly recommended so I had high expectations. Hell ship lived up to my expectations for the most part.

A mysterious vessel travels the universes and destroys all life in them. One survivor from each race is taken to the observation deck to watch their world destroyed before being made a slave forever. The slaves live in an artificial world inside the ship. This is the story of Sharrock who just saw his home world explode. He swears vengeance like all the survivors. Trouble is that Sai-Sai the ruler among the slaves is all for happiness and live the day. So she tries to convert him to acceptance and her way of life. Their struggles are the heart in the story. This is where Palmer does a good job of characterization.

The third point of view character is Jak an Explorer and former trader. He sees the ship from outside as he strives to destroy it. The social life of Jak and his fellow aliens are amusing and might hold a few pointers for real life.

You know characters are important to me so another part that I liked was the flashbacks into the pasts of the main characters which made them make sense. Sai-Sai’s makes one of those inner journeys that are at the center of good tales. Jak does too but to a lesser extent. For him it is more about equality.

The hard sciences are not important here. Palmer writes about the characters and the story they create. He does a great job at it. This makes it so sad in the end when he jumps over major resolutions in bylines and implications. The whole book was well written up until the ending and would have been five out of five if it wasn’t for a rushed ending.

Bottom line I liked Hell Ship. It was an engaging read about aliens, clashing cultures, secrets revealed and the fight for freedom. But it has, in my opinion, a weak ending, though not a catastrophic one. Hell Ship has a lot of things going for it so I would recommend you to read it but don’t expect too much.

Book Information

Hell Ship by Philip Palmer (Orbit 2011) – Amazon US | UK

The Hell Ship hurtles through space. Inside the ship are thousands of slaves, each the last of their race. The Hell Ship and its infernal crew destroyed their homes, slaughtered their families and imprisoned them forever. One champion refuses to succumb. Sharrock, reduced from hero to captive in one blow, has sworn vengeance. Although Sai-as, head of the alien slave horde, will ruthlessly enforce the status quo. But help is close. Jak has followed the Ship for years and their battles have left Jak broken, a mind in a starship’s body, focussed only on destroying the Ship. Together, can hunter and slave end this interstellar nightmare?

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Selling Out (Quantum Gravity 2) by Justina Robson [Book Review]

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Apr 252011

To Demonia and Back Again

The beautiful and feisty half-cyborg secret agent Lila Black is back for a visit to the demon realm. She goes to the land of the dead and Hell too but the last is not a place.

The Quantum Bomb opened up connections with the realms of elves, demons, fairies, elementals and the dead. At least the denizens of the first three all knew about earth before but now the humans know about them too.

Most of the characters from book one are back. And we also get to know some interesting new one like Thingumajig, the entertaining but irritating red imp. Lila also gets to explore Demonias social scene since Zal spend most of his time trapped in Zoomenon. Lila has barely landed in Demonia when the assassination attempts commence. The violence gets fairly graphics but entertaining.

The tone is darker than in book one; Lila’s trauma starts to catch up with her; her parents believing she is dead, the spirit of a dead elf necromancer she is sharing her body with; She has issues with accepting her new self when she need her strength the most. This shows more depth to her character. I think overall that the characters in this book have more depth than in the first book.

The demonic society with their violence and absolute truthfulness to themselves is creative and something I enjoyed immensely. Lila also learns that there is more to the universe than the realms she knows of, seems the other races have kept the humans in the dark.

The narration gets a bit shattered since it jumps back and forth between mainly Lila, Zal and Malachi. This gets rather frustrating at times.

Selling Out is Lila Black dancing with Demons and other minor acts of violence. It is well written, fast paced fun fantasy with a spice of science and steampunk.

Book Information

Selling Out (Quantum Gravity 2) by Justina Robson – Gollancz (2007) – Bought from Amazon UK | US

Book two of the Quantum Gravity series sees Lila Black drawn into the intoxicatingly dangerous demon realm. Capricious, in love with beauty, demons are best left to themselves. This is not easy when they can’t resist tampering with humans.

Justina Robson’s new series is a joyful melding of science fiction and fantasy brought together in the figure of the dangerously lovely Lila Black, a 21-year-old secret agent who’s had much of her body replaced with weapon-and-armor-heavy intelligent metal and who isn’t sure where her mind ends and her installed AI begins. Lila’s world is one where demons, elves, and elementals live alongside people. And somehow Lila and the other agents of the security agency have to provide security for all and stay alive themselves.

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Sea of Ghosts (The Gravedigger Chronicles 1) by Alan Campbell [Book Review]

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Apr 182011

Dark-humored steam-fantasy science fiction

This is my first Alan Campbell novel ever but it will not be the last. Sea of Ghosts have a great first scene involving a book shop, a little lost girl, magicians, a dragon and the Gravediggers themselves. It is quite entertaining hearing them discuss how get the ceiling to fall on the magician especially since it probably would crumble a significant portion of the city. It makes you understand why the Emperor wants to be rid of them. Now the Emperor is a greedy heartless tyrant but that is beside the point.

The main protagonist Colonel Thomas Granger goes into hiding as a jailer to avoid the emperors clutches but unlucky for him his sense of compassion and loyalty will soon unravel his true identity.

The world is slowly sinking into the sea due to seabottles spread by the Unmer magicians before their defeat by the Empire. They used to enslave dragons with their magic but one of their own freed them and they could not resist the telepathic Haurstaf mercenaries the Empire bought to fight them. Now the Haurstaf are paid to keep the Unmer imprisoned while the world continues to sink. If that was not enough the sea bottles pour out a substance known as Brine that turns human skin into shark skin and prolonged exposure turns you into sea people with no recollection of your previous life. It is an interesting mixture of fantasy and science that Alan cooked up here that tie into the entropy and the end of the universe theories.

It is also a good narration and at least one character you can relate to. Tomas is jaded and cynical when the story begins but he learns that behind his rough exterior beats a caring heart. He also has a dark kind of humor I like. Unfortunately the other characters are sketchier. The banter is okay to good.

The story is fast paced after a slow beginning and starts in a steampunk sword & sorcery land but evolve to a mixture of high fantasy and science fiction. I am a bit of two minds about the plot, it allures to me as a vivid reader of science fiction but I think many fantasy fans might have a problem with it but that’s just my opinion.

I found the firsts Gravedigger novel to be an amusing adventure and a great start of Alan Campell’s new series. The blend of steampunk, high fantasy and science fiction works great for me but I would have liked a bit more about the characters. With that said I recommend it.

Book Information

Sea of Ghosts (The Gravedigger Chronicles book 1) by Alan Campbell – Tor UK 2011 – Bought from Amazon UK | US

When the last of the Gravediggers, an elite imperial infiltration unit, are disbanded and hunted down by the emperor they once served, munitions expert Colonel Thomas Granger takes refuge in the unlikeliest of places. He becomes a jailer in Ethugra – a prison city of poison-flooded streets and gaols in which a million enemies of the empire are held captive. But when Granger takes possession of two new prisoners, he realises that he can’t escape his past so readily. Ianthe is a young girl with an extraordinary psychic talent. A gift that makes her unique in a world held to ransom by the powerful Haurstaf – the sisterhood of telepaths who are all that stand between the Empire and the threat of the Unmer, the powerful civilization of entropic sorcerers and dragon-mounted warriors. In this war-torn land, she promises to make Granger an extremely wealthy man, if he can only keep her safe from harm. This is what Granger is best at. But when other factions learn about Ianthe’s unique ability, even Granger’s skills of warfare are tested to their limits. While, Ianthe struggles to control the powers that are growing in ways no-one thought were possible. Another threat is surfacing: out there, beyond the bitter seas, an old and familiar enemy is rising – one who, if not stopped, will drown the world and all of humanity with it..

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Keeping it Real (Quantum Gravity 1) by Justina Robson [Book Review]

Books 2 Responses »

Mar 032011

Lila Black, Sex, Elves and Rock’n'Roll . . .

This new-to-me series (I have in fact finished all five books now) takes place in a fantasy world that works according to scientific principles where a quantum bomb unraveled reality and put earth in contact with other dimensions that already knew all about us. Alfheim, Demonia and Fae being the more accessible. Earth still doesn’t know much about the other worlds but have intelligence agencies working on it. One such agent is Lila Black, our intrepid and formidable protagonist.

Lila is not exactly peachy after being turned into half a machine after a supposedly safe recon mission into Alfheim. Her new mission is to be the body guard of a sexy elven rock star Zal of the band No Show. He is not exactly as she expected and then she gets locked in a Game with him. But before it gets too steamy things derail a bit and she has to enter Alfheim again in pursuit of answers.

I really like this multi verse of unpredictable Fey, mysterious Elves and haughty Demons. Lila’s journey through Alfheim peels layer after layer of our preconceptions of what is really going on and shows us the greater game but the ending is still a great surprise.

The characters are also great. Lila is slightly flawed, damaged psychologically from being maimed and being turned into a machine but with a lot of spirit and tenacity she prevails. Her battle mode also helps. Zal is a bit of the mysterious dangerous but charming stranger and I do enjoy the Game they play a lot. Lila also has a thing for motorcycles I enjoyed immensely. What a ride! This is something that we return to in later books too.

Keeping it Real is is a bit like a more steamy Buffy with cyborg enhancements, gunfights and wonderful one liners (they have those on Buffy too). It was a fast read too. Justina Robson and Lila Black are guilty pleasures I warmly recommend.

Information

Title: Keeping it Real
Series: Quantum Gravity book 1
Author: Justina Robson
Genre: Scientific Fantasy
Paperback: 279 pages
Publisher: Gollancz 2006
Order from: Amazon US | UK

LILA BLACK: HALF ROBOT, ALL ATTITUDE

The Quantum Bomb of 2015 changed everything. The fabric between the dimensions was ttorn and now, six years later, the people of earth exist in uneasy company with the inhabitants of, amongst others, the elven, elemental, and demonic realms. Magic is real and can be even more dangerous than technology. Elves are alien, erotic and very dangerous. Elementals are a law unto themselves and demons are best left well to themselves.

Special agent Lila Black, 21, used to be pretty, but now she’s not so sure.

Torn apart two years ago, her body is now half restless carbon and metal alloy. A machine she’s barely in control of. When it goes into combat mode, enough weapons for a small army springing from within itself, at the merest provocation. And then there’s her AI. And Lila has never known where she ends and it begins.

As for her heart . . . well ever since being drawn into a Game by the elf she’s been assigned to protect, she’s not even sure she can trust that anymore either.

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