Steampunk is my kind of fun and that was the reason I bought Heart of Iron in the first place. Ekaterina Sedia and Prime Books are both new to me so I had no clear mind to what to expect.

The cover was beautiful and so was the beginning. The setting is mainly Imperial Russia in an alternative world where the Decembrist uprising was successful. The young Sasha Trubetskaya goes to St Petersburg for her debutant ball then her aunt gets her more or less drafted to the university as one of its first female students after a quarrel with the Emperor. Sasha is adorable as she struggles with prejudices in the academic world. She gets involved with foreign students and come to the attention of the secret police.

All this is entertaining to read and I enjoyed every bit of it but this is also where it starts to go sideways. Sasha’s decisions have no foundation that makes sense to me as a reader she just is. Another thing is that whatever happens there is no tension. For example she gets into a really violent situation where she is rescued in the nick of time by one of the love interests and the only thing that happens is that you read that she didn’t go out for a while. Get me to feel her fear.

I enjoyed the read but it was light with no real sense of adventure. The rest of the story is a sequence of steampunk tropes as Sasha sets out to stop a war with China masquerading as a young Hussar traveling on the trans-Siberian railroad.

Ekaterina Sedia puts realism, women rights, steampunk, love, history and a bit of a superhero into the mix but she overuse the Deus ex machine a bit too much for my liking. The gadgetry is all there though and the world she portraits is attractive from a steampunk perspective but it lacks meat.

I like Sasha though.

Book Information

Heart of Iron by Ekaterina Sedia (Prime 2011) – Amazon US | UK

In a Russia where the Decembrists’ rebellion was successful and the Trans-Siberian railroad was completed before 1854, Sasha Trubetskaya wants nothing more than to have a decent debut ball in St. Petersburg. But her aunt’s feud with the emperor lands Sasha at university, where she becomes one of its first female students – an experiment, she suspects, designed more to prove female unsuitability for such pursuits than offer them education. The pressure intensifies when Sasha’s only friends – Chinese students – start disappearing, and she begins to realize that her new British companion, Jack, has bigger secrets than she can imagine! Sasha and Jack find themselves trying to stop a war brewing between the three empires. The only place they can turn to for help is the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace, newly founded by the Taiping rebels. Pursued by the terrifying Dame Florence Nightingale of the British Secret Service, Sasha and Jack escape across Siberia via train to China. Sasha discovers that Jack is not quite the person she thought he was…but then again, neither is she.

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..

I was really impressed after reading The Bookman so this was a book with a lot to live up to. This is in the same world but the setting is Paris some three years later. The French here had a revolution but it was the Quiet Revolution made by machines. The events in the Bookman are mentioned in passing but this is more of a standalone story in the same universe although there are arcs that I think will tie in from both books in the next one.

It is starts with the mysterious murder of an Asian man who used to be pregnant with an alien object that was cut out of his dead body. Lady ‘Cleo’ de Winter is on the case for the Quiet Council. She is a kick-ass lady with a big colt revolver and an attitude.

The Quiet Council doesn’t tell its operatives much so Mylady has to uncover a lot of background by herself before she start to understand what is going on. It is a bit uncaring from their side but they are machines so what do you expect. The whole hunt for the object brings back memories to the Saturday adventure shows of my youth just with added steampunk gadgets, machine people, the royal lizards and alien mysteries. It is a lot grittier though.

I like the story even if it is a bit over the top but it never really reach the feeling of the first book. To be honest I found the characters although they are quirky and interesting a bit shallow. Cleo is not the most emphatic heroine but that is understandable with her background and upbringing but it made it hard for me to really connect with her. It wasn’t until the last part in the book that I really started to root for her. Maybe I just miss the banter that makes me tick.

I like the world building better. The whole secret societies, ancient China, conspiracies add a spice I enjoyed. Another great taste is the French setup with the cops bowing to the Quiet Council, the underground city and the different quirky bars, shops and clubs we get to know. The alien mysteries that started with the Lizards continue with this book and add another dimension to it in its thrilling and satisfying ending.

Camera Obscura is a good read, packed with gritty action and quirky characters. It has a strong female protagonist in Lady de Winter and to be honest I can’t wait to read the next one. I want to know what comes next.

Book Information

Camera Obscura (The Bookman 2) by Lavie Tidhar (Angry Robot 2011) – Review copy – Amazon US | UK

CAN’T FIND A RATIONAL EXPLANATION TO A MYSTERY? CALL IN THE QUIET COUNCIL!

The mysterious and glamorous Milady De Winter is one of their most valuable agents. A despicable murder inside a locked and bolted room on the Rue Morgue in Paris is just the start. This whirlwind adventure will take Milady to the highest and lowest parts of that great city, and beyond – and cause her to question the very nature of reality itself.

A breathtaking alternate Victorian history adventure, set in the same world as The Bookman.

File under: Steampunk [ Alternate History | Reptilian Royalty | Murder Most Foul | The World's Fair ]

 

Imagine Europe fragmented into independent city states crisscrossed by railway lines and channeling the Wild Wild West, the country side infested with railway pirates and groups of train based mercenaries hire out to the highest bidder. Technological advances have gone differently in this universe with steam powered trains becoming dominant and the automobile never invented at the same time they have hand carried radios. The author shows so great enthusiasm for locomotives and trains that I suspect a connection there.

Erica is a formidable if somewhat deranged female protagonist and I mean that in a positive way. She starts the book at psychopathic level but ends up growing in understanding and empathy as she comes to grip with the damage done to her. Her father leaves her with the Steam Queen mercenaries as she has become too disruptive and violent to stay in the village she grew up in. She has many quirky facets to her personality but the most fundamental ones are hate of dirt and that she feels a need to punish any infringement on her person including touching with enough violence, including killing or maiming so that it will never happened again.  This makes fitting in with the mercenaries somewhat problematic.

The plot is really about Erica learning the world and herself but you can read it as an adventure story since there is a hunt for a railroad bandit, a ‘religious war’ between Diesel and Steam, a super weapon, a love interest of sorts, treachery, orphans, imprisonment and escapes before it is over.

It is a quite short book of 281 pages with double spacing making it around 150 pages with normal spacing which is shorter than I like. At first I felt a bit disgruntled with the shortness but I realized it was okay as I went through the review.

The shortness might be the reason the story feels a bit simplistic and the characters a bit sketchy. It could also be an attempt at writing in style of the 19^th century but I would have liked more fleshed out characters. Erica is likeable if quirky but she never quite steps out of the pages.

The Steam Queen is a promising debut and I think I will keep my eyes on Jack Hessey in the future. It is a fast read and channels 19^th century style of writing in a romp of steam powered war machines in the Wild Wild West of Europe.

Information

Title: Steam Queen
Author: Jack Hessey
Genre: Steampunk
E-book: 871 kB
Publisher: LazyDay Publishing 2010
Copy: Review copy

Order from: Amazon US | UK

Europe is a dangerous, virtually lawless place. Armed bandits prowl the railway lines in their armed Steam Locomotive looking for easy marks, and heavily armed mercenary engines travel from town to town looking for work in a world where every day is a struggle for its civilians.

Erica, an emotionally disturbed girl from England finds herself joining one of these mercenary teams. What follows is a trek across Europe to where two mighty cities, each representing a different way of life, stand on the verge of a war which will shape the way Europe develops.

On one side are the Steam using traditionalists of St Vith, led by the charismatic and cunning General Roosje Cuvelier. On the other, stands the mighty Winterscheid Diesel Empire under the iron fist of the merciless Kaiser Sigmund Eisenburg.

Two vicious armies, treachery from her own allies and the world’s deadliest super-weapon are just a few of the dangers that Erica must face in her journey.

Maybe Karl Schroeder planed this as trilogy from the beginning as I read somewhere but it works very well as a series. He is clearly not finished with the universe but I have no Idea if the next book is going to be a Virga book though. The whole series has been enjoyable but it is hard not to like a world of airships, pirates, air bikes, artificial suns and warring pocket nations all protected from the outside world’s artificial nature by the radiation from the central sun Candesce.

In the Sun of Suns (2006) Admiral Fanning and his wife shut down the sun so he could use radar a night. In Queen of Candesce (2007) his wife find her way back and in Pirate Sun (2008) the Admiral finds his way home and the story might have ended there if something else hadn’t slipped in when Virga’s defenses where down and now it is gobbling up city after city. There are people living out in the sunless countries, whole cities even. This story is about a formidable young woman Leal Hieronyma Maspeth a scientist in a city that is about to turn its back on the scientific method. She dreams about love and is an explorer of Virga’s past. Her knowledge and the books she tries to protect might be the only chance they have.

The characters are a delight as in the previous books but the scope is so much bigger. The book is rather self contained but there are still mysteries I would like to have explained in another installment. This is probably the first in a new Virga Trilogy (sheer speculation from my side) with a little bigger scope.

The Sunless Countries was as hard to put down as the other books in the Virga series. The tempo is slightly less than before but the revelations was worth it. I liked it a lot. This is a series you shouldn’t miss.

Information

Title: The Sunless Countries
Series: Virga book 4
Author: Karl Schroeder
Genre: Retro futuristic steampunk
Hardcover: 335 pages
Publisher: Tor (2010)

In an ocean of weightless air where sunlight has never been seen, only the running lights of the city of Sere glitter in the dark. One woman, Leal Hieronyma Maspeth, history tutor and dreamer, lives and dreams of love among the gaslit streets and cafés. And somewhere in the abyss of wind and twisted cloud through which Sere eternally falls, a great voice has begun speaking.

As its cold words reach even to the city walls—and as outlying towns and travelers’ ships start to mysteriously disappear—only Leal has the courage to try to understand the message thundering from the distance. Even the city’s most famous and exotic visitor, the sun lighter and hero named Hayden Griffin, refuses to turn aside from his commission to build a new sun for a foreign nation. He will not become the hero that Leal knows the city needs; so in the end, it is up to her to listen, and ultimately reply, to the worldwasp.

Chaison Fanning is a man driven by honor and we see time after time in this novel how it forces him to take the hard way again and again when he could have slipped away.

He and his fellow escapees are rescued by Antea Argyre, a member of the secret Virga High Guard who offers to take them back to Slipstream. But she has an agenda of her own. The Guard isn’t exactly happy about someone shutting down the protection Virga’s central sun Candesce is putting out, even if it is to destroy a monstrous Dreadnaught with the help of a radar equipped battle group. But there is more to it, something personal is driving Antea.

Both Antea and Chaison are great characters and the tension and play between them create great energy and enjoyment for me as a reader as they struggle back and forth on their way. We learn more of the fantastic world of Virga and our intrepid travelers survive through a war where cities literary collide with each other, monstrosities from the outside and other diabolic plots to stop them from reaching their goal.

Pirate Sun is fun, fascinating reading, more about honor and loyalty than about the real plot to be honest. The pacing gets a bit slow in the middle but that balance the frantic pace everything takes in the beginning and the end.

Virga is just one of the most imaginative and interesting world buildings around. I think I have to read his other books that takes place in the same universe.

It doesn’t feel like the final Virga novel, there are still lots of loose ends. Luckily for us Tor just released book four, The Sunless Countries and you can read my review of that one next week.

Information

Title: Pirate Sun
Series: Virga book 3
Author: Karl Schroeder
Genre:  Retro futuristic steam punk
Hardcover:  320 pages
Publisher: Tor (2008)
Copy: Bought it myself

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

Chaison Fanning, the admiral of a fleet of warships introduced in Sun of Suns, has been captured and imprisoned by his enemies but is now suddenly rescued and set free. He must flee through the sky to his home city and confront the ruler who betrayed him – and perhaps even find a way to regain his lovely, powerful, and subversive wife, Venera. He has not seen her since before he was captured, when she fled careening off into the air of Virga with the key to the artificial sun, Candesce, which is located at the center of Virga. With Pirate Sun, Karl Schroeder sets a whole new standard for hard SF space opera..

She eventually drifts close to one of the most ancient nations in Virga and is rescued. Spyre is old, the structure is falling apart and the social system balances on a knife’s edge.

Karl has succeeded well in creating a declining society caught up in rituals whose usefulness has passed. He also reveals more of Virga’s mysterious past, but only so much that you want to learn more. The way it works got me thinking about historical shortsightedness of countries from our own world.

Venera is a delightfully amoral character from the beginning but she grows and transforms as her character develops. She wants to survive and return to Slipstream, but it is not easy. She has to acquire means and to overcome some social and political problems to do so. It involves faking her identity, learning a new trade, causing major disruption of the political and social systems on Spyre, gaining new enemies with old grudges, and inadvertently igniting a revolution.

It is high adventure just the way I like it. The enigmatic society with all its dirty little secrets is the onion Venera has to peel before it eats her alive.

I haven’t said this before but the way Karl Schroeder paints with words is very visual. I find myself time after time loosing myself in my inner view of the sceneries here. Spyre’s spinning wheel, the view from a turret on the outer hull, the elevator on its way to the inner wheel and the view from the tower in the floorless section.

I enjoyed Queen of Candesce, it is a thrilling learning-a-world-and-yourself kind of adventure with ancient constructs, a mysterious society and strong characters. The whole Virga series is one of my best finds this year. I am off to read Pirate Sun now.

This is part Two of my reviews of Virga: Cities of the Air. Read part one Sun of Suns.

Expect a review of Book three Pirate Sun next week.

Information

Title: Virga: Cities of the Air (Queen of Candesce)
Series: Virga book 2
Omnibus: Virga: Cities of the Air (1-2) Part 1 Sun of Suns
Author: Karl Schroeder (kschroeder.com)
Paperback: 296 (592) pages
Publisher: Tor (2010, First 2007)

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

Venera Fanning was last seen falling into nothingness at the end of Sun of Suns. Now, in Queen of Candesce, Venera finds herself plunging through the air between the artificial continents of Virga, far from home and her husband, who may or may not be alive.  Landing in the ancient nation of Spyre, Venera encounters new enemies and new friends (or at least convenient allies). She must quickly learn who she can trust, and who she can manipulate in order to survive. Queen of Candesce is her story.

The civil war has been going on for 20 years and Texas is an independent country in this universe and the protagonist, Mrs. Vinita ‘Mercy’ Lunch is a nurse at a war hospital in Richmond Virginia when she receive words of her husband’s death in a P.O.W. camp and a message that her father who she has not seen since she was a kid is gravely injured and wishes to see her before he dies.

She decides to take a leap of fate and cross the continent for a chance to reconcile with him. It is not easy for a woman to travel alone but Cherie do strong women well. Many interesting and educational situations arise from this. Mercy handle herself well in most situations but she is by no means perfect. One of the things I like here is the way she deals with men, as an adult grown independent woman.

The pacing is good with a bit of thrill in the beginning when the airship crash landed in a battlefield and then it builds up speed to an explosive conclusion.

A few of the things that happened in the story seemed to be a bit arbitrary like when they sneaked over the roof and into that train car? I never really got the motivation for Mercy’s companion for doing that.

We also slowly learn about a mystery. A Mexican army force of five hundred men or so has disappeared without a trace in Texas and an undercover Texas Ranger on a mission to find out what really happened joins her on the journey. They are also joined by two Mexican officials later.

She being a rebel on a Union train on a secret mission loaded with civilian and military passengers most with their own agendas makes it so much more interesting, especially with the murders, sabotages, secret agents and traitors.

All Clockwork Century novels so far are stand alone with a few character in common with the rest here you have to wait until the end of the book for the connection.

I really enjoyed Dreadnought, Mercy is Cherie’s most compelling protagonist so far and I hope we get to see more of her in the next novel (Ganymede scheduled for fall/winter 2011).

Information

Title: Dreadnought
Series: Clockwork Universe book 3
Author: Cherie Priest
Genre: Steampunk
Paperback:
Publisher: Tor (2010)

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Nurse Mercy Lynch is elbows deep in bloody laundry at a war hospital in Richmond, Virginia, when Clara Barton comes bearing bad news: Mercy’s husband has died in a POW camp. On top of that, a telegram from the west coast declares that her estranged father is gravely injured, and he wishes to see her. Mercy sets out toward the Mississippi River. Once there, she’ll catch a train over the Rockies and—if the telegram can be believed—be greeted in Washington Territory by the sheriff, who will take her to see her father in Seattle.

Reaching the Mississippi is a harrowing adventure by dirigible and rail through war-torn border states. When Mercy finally arrives in St. Louis, the only Tacoma-bound train is pulled by a terrifying Union-operated steam engine called the Dreadnought. Reluctantly, Mercy buys a ticket and climbs aboard.

What ought to be a quiet trip turns deadly when the train is beset by bushwhackers, then vigorously attacked by a band of Rebel soldiers. The train is moving away from battle lines into the vast, unincorporated west, so Mercy can’t imagine why they’re so interested. Perhaps the mysterious cargo secreted in the second and last train cars has something to do with it?

Mercy is just a frustrated nurse who wants to see her father before he dies. But she’ll have to survive both Union intrigue and Confederate opposition if she wants to make it off the Dreadnought alive.

Other Reviews

Clockwork Century
1. Boneshaker (Tor)
2. Clementine (Subterranean Press 2010)

Space Opera with feudal castles and wooden ships, ancient compasses, old revolvers, and frothing beakers on on hand, and flying bikes, space travel, and cyborgs on the other.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) sums it up up pretty well. The story take place inside Virga, a spherical world filled with air and floating rocks, artificial suns, and nations  with a central sun Candesce – the Sun of Suns.

The migrating nation of Slipstream has subjugated Hayden Griffin’s home, Aerie and denied them a sun of their own. The opening scene of the book depicts how his mother attempts to light a sun for their home and the brutal response. He swear revenge on the man he believe responsible Admiral Chaison Fanning.

The story continues with Venera Fanning wife of the admiral. She is heading a network of secret informants and security agents and seems to be a force to be reckoned with in Slipstream. A dying scout bring photos and information to her that a rival nation, Falcon Formation is building a huge dreadnought, almost 3 km long in preparation for an attack on Slipstream. Her page for the day impresses her with his knowledge as he glimpses the photo and explains how he knows its size. That page is Hayden trying to get at the Admiral.

The Admiral is ordered to attack the nation in Slipstreams path knowing that the Falcon Formation is contemplating an ambush of the capital while the fleet is away. He and his wife develop an extensive plan to defeat the ambush involving travel to the skin of Virga, finding a legendary  treasure and using it to sneak up on the enemy.

The plan takes them and Hayden on an epic tour through the sunless countries and the central nations of Virga that involves pirate attacks, mountain dropping, fleet battles and running through airless patches. It is all a great adventure remembering of the high seas.

This is a story about fundamental ideas even if it at first glance is a wonderful romp on the high seas, sorry airs with compelling characters. Hayden befriends many new characters in his travels among them Aubri Mahallan a woman from outside Virga. From her he learns that the outside world is governed by Artificial Nature, sort of like a hive mind that has lost its creativity in artificial reality. But Candesce, Virga’s largest sun, disrupt Artificial Nature and prevent it from entering Virga so this is in many respects the last place where you can find true humans. The series works with this conflict between integrated artificial reality gone to far and ‘primitive’ humans in the real world.

Sun of Suns is a wonderful, fast paced adventure story with airships, pirates and artificial suns with one of the most compelling and impressive world buildings I have ever seen. My only complaint is that it is a bit short. All the books in the Virga universe are standalone with tie ins to previous books. I can recommend it to hard science fiction readers as well as to the steampunk adventure audience.

This is part one of my reviews of Virga: Cities of the Air. Expect part two Queen of Candesce next week.

Information

Title: Sun of Suns
Series: Virga book 1
Omnibus:  Virga: Cities of Air (Sun of Suns, Queen of Candisce)
Author: Karl Schroeder (kschroeder.com)
Genre: Retro futuristic steam punk
Paperback: 296 (592) pages
Publisher: Tor (Omnibus 2010, First 2006)
Excerpt: Chapter 1-3

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

It is the distant future. The world known as Virga is a fullerene balloon three thousand kilometers in diameter, filled with air, water, and aimlessly floating chunks of rock. The humans who live in this vast environment must build their own fusion suns and “towns” that are in the shape of enormous wood and rope wheels that are spun for gravity. Young, fit, bitter, and friendless, Hayden Griffin is a very dangerous man. He’s come to the city of Rush in the nation of Slipstream with one thing in mind: to take murderous revenge for the deaths of his parents six years ago. His target is Admiral Chaison Fanning, head of the fleet of Slipstream, which conquered Hayden’s nation of Aerie years ago. And the fact that Hayden’s spent his adolescence living with pirates doesn’t bode well for Fanning’s chances…

Terminal world is something unusual, an earth that consists of zones that appears to have different natural laws. And the protagonist is an undercover angel on the run from the Celestial Levels. I find I like the world here with its zone sickness when you pass from zone to zone; the different levels of technology in each zone and the whole mystery how the world came from what we have today to what it is here.

I listen to this in audio-book version well narrated by John Lee for Tantor Media but it was the story that caught my interest and made me finish it in a few evenings of listening. The pace is quick and the settings keep changing as the true scope of the mystery becomes revealed. The characters are compelling and their relationships twists to keep us in suspense but I also find I want to know more about them than I am given. The book is well contained and the ending gives good closure but there is more to explore in this world which makes me hope Mr Reynolds will return here.

Terminal World is steam punk with ‘real’ science and a brilliant explanation will be given by the end of the story. I am still thinking about the characters and the big idea here, two weeks after finishing the book.

Information

Title: Terminal World

Author: Alastair Reynolds
Genre: Futuristic Steampunk

Audiobook: 19h 45 m
Naration: John Lee
Publisher: Tantor Media

Paperback: 512 pages
Publisher: Gollancz (1st March 2010) | ACE (June 2010)
Copy: Bought from Amazon

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

Spearpoint, the last human city, is an atmosphere-piercing spire of vast size. Clinging to its skin are the zones, a series of semi-autonomous city-states, each of which enjoys a different – and rigidly enforced – level of technology. Horsetown is pre-industrial; in Neon Heights they have television and electric trains …Following an infiltration mission that went tragically wrong, Quillon has been living incognito, working as a pathologist in the district morgue. But when a near-dead angel drops onto his dissecting table, Quillon’s world is wrenched apart one more time, for the angel is a winged posthuman from Spearpoint’s Celestial Levels – and with the dying body comes bad news. If Quillon is to save his life, he must leave his home and journey into the cold and hostile lands beyond Spearpoint’s base, starting an exile that will take him further than he could ever imagine. But there is far more at stake than just Quillon’s own survival, for the limiting technologies of the zones are determined not by governments or police, but by the very nature of reality – and reality itself is showing worrying signs of instability …

Series: Clockwork Century 2
Author: Cherie Priest
Genre: Steampunk
Hardcover: 208 pages
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Copy: bought it myself

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

Maria Isabella Boyd’s success as a Confederate spy has made her too famous for further espionage work, and now her employment options are slim. Exiled, widowed, and on the brink of poverty…she reluctantly goes to work for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in Chicago.

Adding insult to injury, her first big assignment is commissioned by the Union Army. In short, a federally sponsored transport dirigible is being violently pursued across the Rockies and Uncle Sam isn’t pleased. The Clementine is carrying a top secret load of military essentials, essentials which must be delivered to Louisville, Kentucky, without delay.

Intelligence suggests that the unrelenting pursuer is a runaway slave who’s been wanted by authorities on both sides of the Mason-Dixon for fifteen years. In that time, Captain Croggon Beauregard Hainey has felonied his way back and forth across the continent, leaving a trail of broken banks, stolen war machines, and illegally distributed weaponry from sea to shining sea.

And now it s Maria’s job to go get him. He’s dangerous quarry and she’s a dangerous woman, but when forces conspire against them both, they take a chance and form an alliance. She joins his crew, and he uses her connections. She follows his orders. He takes her advice. And somebody, somewhere, is going to rue the day he crossed either one of them

I feel like a kid again when I read Cherie Priest’s wonderful clockwork tales. There is something soulful and handmade about the whole genre modern people is attracted to and it is the perfect excuse to indulge in airships, air pirates, secret weapons and the civil war era. Priest does more than feeding my juvenile delight in adventures, she also touches on racial issues, moral and loyalty conflicts. The characters do think about things like that in a way that feels very ‘period’ and natural. The story takes place to a background of an extended civil war where racism is very much alive and a white woman traveling with three black men has some issues.

This is a standalone story that share Clementine, Captain Hainey and his crew with Priest’s first Clockwork Novel Boneshaker.

Clementine has a good balance between fast pace  and good character development. The characters also have a good balance between strengths and vulnerabilities. Both Hainey and Boyd are formidable characters all by themselves. They don’t take crap from anyone. It is a delight to read them interact with each other, I got goose bumps. They do clash in a good way. But they come across as real humans even if they are not to be crossed.

My Clementine is a beautiful  print by Subterranean press with cover art by Jon Foster. I read the whole book in one go the same night I got it, I could not stop. Now I can’t wait until I get Dreadnought next month.

Related Posts

Clockwork Century
1. Boneshaker (Tor)

• Formidable Female Protagonists in Science Fiction Part 19 August 20, 2010
• 13 SF Books for the rest of 2010 July 5, 2010

Please jump over and read.

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Darian Frey is down on his luck. He can barely keep his squabbling crew fed and his rickety aircraft in the sky. Even the simplest robberies seem to go wrong. It’s getting so a man can’t make a dishonest living any more. Enter Captain Grist. He’s heard about a crashed aircraft laden with the treasures of a lost civilisation, and he needs Frey’s help to get it. There’s only one problem. The craft is lying in the trackless heart of a remote island, populated by giant beasts and subhuman monsters. Dangerous, yes. Suicidal, perhaps. Still, Frey’s never let common sense get in the way of a fortune before. But there’s something other than treasure on board that aircraft. Something that a lot of important people would kill for. And it’s going to take all of Frey’s considerable skill at lying, cheating and stealing if he wants to get his hands on it …Strap yourself in for another tale of adventure and debauchery, pilots and pirates, golems and daemons, double-crosses and double-double-crosses. The crew of the Ketty Jay are back!

It is not easy to twinkle like a young boy about to read Treasure Island for the first time at my age but that was how I felt when the parcel with The Black Lung Captain arrived. It has such a beautiful cover made by Stephan Martiniere. I have to admit that it was the cover of Retribution Falls that first got me interested. It was with some concern I started to read since a few early reviewers claimed some of the magic from the first book were gone but I was fast alleviated it was there, more mature and on a different level since I first meet the characters. I feel almost guilty for indulging and enjoying this book as much as I did, almost.

The Black Lung Captain has a theme about facing fears, overcome them and grow beyond them. The Kitty Jay and her charming crew are back and they will face some of their worst fears before it is all over. It is also Captain Frey’s leadership lesson number two. I think the crew would appreciate if the team-building didn’t include treacherous partners, attacks by beast-men, mysterious but dangerous artifacts, persistent ghouls and former girlfriends but luckily for us neither them or Frey have much choice in the matter.

There are many strong character moments this time around too, and you learn more about the characters as they face their fears and grow beyond them. One of the strongest moments is when Jez face one of the Awakener’s high level operatives adding a whole new level of fear to the story. Harkins’ epic and entertaining struggle with the ship-cat takes almost the whole book before it reaches climax.

The plot is not bad either with the treasure hunt, the double-crosses and the underlying sinister plan that is gradually revealed. There is action non-stop and never a dull moment. There is also a romance or three but not in the way you expect. The ending kept me smiling for hours but that’s just me.

As you understand I am a bit euphoric about The Black Lung Captain, the sequel is almost better than original. Here we learn more of their Victorian retro-future world and the characters go places they never expected to, they grow and they overcome but they stay quirky and interesting. Frey matures a bit but I suspect he will never grow up or lose his charm. The ending is wide open for a number of sequels and plot lines to follow. I can’t wait to see where the next lesson, sorry misfortune will take them.

I have good news and bad news. As part of my research I visited chriswooding.com, the good news is that there will be a book number three and four. The bad news is that Chris just threw the quarter he had written on The Iron Jackal in the bin and started over again that probably means the publication will get knocked back by a few months, meaning it’s likely to arrive late next year instead of the planned release date of August.

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Frey is the captain of the Ketty Jay, leader of a small and highly dysfunctional band of layabouts. An inveterate womaniser and rogue, he and his gang make a living on the wrong side of the law, avoiding the heavily armed flying frigates of the Coalition Navy. With their trio of ragged fighter craft, they run contraband, rob airships and generally make a nuisance of themselves. So a hot tip on a cargo freighter loaded with valuables seems like a great prospect for an easy heist and a fast buck. Until the heist goes wrong, and the freighter explodes. Suddenly Frey isn’t just a nuisance anymore – he’s public enemy number one, with the Coalition Navy on his tail and contractors hired to take him down. But Frey knows something they don’t. That freighter was rigged to blow, and Frey has been framed to take the fall. If he wants to prove it, he’s going to have to catch the real culprit. He must face liars and lovers, dogfights and gunfights, Dukes and daemons. It’s going to take all his criminal talents to prove he’s not the criminal they think he is …

I remembered sneaking a glimpse at my first pirate movie while my parents thought me sleeping. It was exciting until they caught me looking. I think it was something with Errol Flynn and Captain Frey here has the same kind of Errolesque attitude without being a gentleman about it . In a way this tale is about extraordinary accidental team-building with Captain Frey, who at first only sees the crew as a means to keep the Kitty Jay running but that change over time both for him and for his assorted crew of misfits. I like the way the story builds up depth as it moves along and we get to know the characters.

The characters are all charming quirky refugees from society. There is the haunted daemonist, his hard hitting daemon possessed suit of armor with a personality of her own, the alcoholic doctor afraid to do surgery, the former slave engineer, and two outrider fighter pilots one pining for his sweetheart at home and the other a coward outside the cockpit. We learn to know them when Jez their new navigator signs on. She has a dark secret of her own, that’s why she ended up where she is.

Frey is not the most competent Captain around but he is persistent and charming. The plot is maybe not the most original but it is mighty fun to read. It contains airship battles, conspiracies, daring rescues, vengeful former fiancées, mystic artifacts and a secret pirate lair. One of the most entertaining scenes in the book is when Captain Frey visits his former fiancée in the monastery her father forced her into to obtain information. The characters are well developed and interesting especially Jez.

The Victorian retro-future world comes alive around the characters and makes me want to know more about the Coalition, their enemies and their history. The world building is not extensive but effective for the story. I hope we will learn more in future books. Chris Wooding is a new to me author and I am mighty impressed with Retribution Falls. It is a well balanced fun adventure tale that makes me want to read more by Chris.

I am half way through the next standalone sequel The Black Lung Captain and I am still as impressed. A review will be forthcoming.

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In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska’s ice. Thus was Dr. Blue’s Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born.

But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.

Now it is sixteen years later, and a wall has been built to enclose the devastated and toxic city. Just beyond it lives Blue’s widow, Briar Wilkes. Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenaged boy to support, but she and Ezekiel are managing. Until Ezekiel undertakes a secret crusade to rewrite history.

His quest will take him under the wall and into a city teeming with ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords, and heavily armed refugees. And only Briar can bring him out alive.

Information

Everything about this book is beautiful the cover, the design and the story in itself. There is a even a beautiful map of Seattle 1879 inside by Jenifer Hanover. I think that the  popularity of Steampunk has something to do with a wish for more beautiful soulful things. I am not saying that modern design can’t be beautiful but they seldom have soul.

This is the story about  a strong persistent mother who would do anything for her son. Briar is a hardworking single mom that just manages to get by on what she brings in while she tries to live under the radar of the stigma of her former husband’s alleged crime. Her son Ezekiel convinced of his father’s innocence sets out to find proof inside the walled city.

The Author

Cherie comes quite well recommended from reviewers and nominations and she lives up to my expectations. She writes very accessible and with her own style that reminds me of pulp fiction writers like Sax Rohmer’s (Dr. Fu-Manchu) and old classic writers  like Jules Verne. This is the first book I read by her but not the last; I have Clementine on its way here and Dreadnought (the next book set in the Clockwork Century) on pre order.

World Building

I like the Steampunk version of Seattle even if I was a bit skeptical about the Zombie part at first. I am not really into horror that much. I enjoy the whole ‘what if’ with Steampunk. It makes you think and fantasize all by yourself.

Cherie uses a journalist that pesters Briar for an interview to give the back story in an excerpt from his unfinished works and the rest comes natural as the story develops with Briar doing most of the remembering. It feels like we just opened the door to the Clockwork Century and had a tiny peek, I want to know more and explore the different parts of this alternate universe. So I guess the world building worked great, I am hooked.

Plot

Zeke goes into the Blight to clear his father’s good name and Briar goes after to save his skin. The story focuses on Briar finding a way into the walled city, surviving the zombies, the blight, locating her son and getting him out of there. But it is not easy. She encounters the airship Clementine whose story I assume is covered in the novella by the same name. The walled city in itself holds more than one secret and she uncovers them one by one. The twists and turns reminded somewhat of pulp fiction but more coherent. Some of what happens seems to happen out of the blue when they do but they get their explanation later on much like they would in real life.

Characterization

I like the characters as much as I am in love with the settings. Briar is really set on saving her son from himself while she spare noting in scolding herself for her own short comings. The people she meets and form bonds with step out of the text lifelike and interesting in themselves. There are more than a couple of them I wouldn’t mind reading a short story or two about. Alastair, Cly, Fang and Angeline Princess to mention a few.

My View

I love Boneshaker, it is an easy read you will have trouble putting down and the storyline is compelling and you will want to read more of Cherie’s books afterwards. What is it that is so charming and compelling with goggles, gas masks, zombies, airships and 19th century technology? I don’t know but it got me under its spell too.

Last Week

Last week Pete and Myka tried to make friends with the town’s people with little success before going off dealing with a ‘superhero’.

This Week

We start to see more of the season arc promised by McPherson and H. G. Wells and their big plan. Mrs. Fredric arrives with a couple of agents to check Leena’s symptoms. It is all a bit creepy especially when they use the Pearl of Wisdom to examine the residues left by McPherson in her mind. Mrs. Fredric ‘smooths over’ the residue but there is always  some little echo left behind as one of the agent says and in the final scene we see the hair of someone? or a wig? or some really poorly drawn headphones drawn by Leena.

The town people’s failure to warm up to Pete and Myka get its explanation. The Warehouse’s cover story is that they are an IRS warehouse thus the cold shoulders. They go to the post office to check if Pete’s parcel with personal effects has arrived only to meet the post lady on her way out, the post is closed and she is retiring, going home to eat popcorn and watch movies.

Dr Kelly Hernandez is the local veterinarian and she doesn’t like IRS or Pete for that matter. The sparks makes me believe this is Pete’s love interest this season, besides H. G. Wells.

Claudia got the original Farnsworth communication device, but she is not happy with the old tech so she sets out to modify it so it can receive email and other modern features like a new ring tune. Artie discover her and is appalled. It is about then the Farnswoth makes strange sounds and a general alarm goes off for a disturbance in town.

Then follows a series of entertaining B movie events with marines, cowboys, gangsters, gladiators and tigers. Artie of course accuse Claudia for causing all the problems with her tweaking. Claudia goes to the hardware store to get some parts and meets Tod the clerk, looks like she might have found an interest outside work. I started to think it all had to do with Pete’s movie collection in the post office and it did sort of. They track down a projector artifact to the retired postmaster just as it is about to start a doomsday movie. I like the way Pete knows about all the geeky details in the movie. The end becomes a race as they try to get the camera for the projector to work so they can show something harmless.

All in all a good episode with all the antics we come to love with Warehouse 13. The big plan has me mystified, wonder what we learn next.

Bonus Photos

Next Week

Warehouse 13 2.04 – Age Before Beauty (Syfy)
When young super models rapidly age 50 years overnight, Pete and Myka go undercover in the glam world of high fashion to discover who – and what – is behind the transformations.

Related Posts

• New & Returning TV this Week (July 19-25)
• Warehouse 13 2.02 – Mild-Mannered July 14, 2010
• Warehouse 13 – Season 2 premiere July 6 July 3, 2010
• Myka Bering on Warehouse 13 July 2, 2010
• Warehouse 13 Season 2 Promo April 10, 2010
• Warehouse 13 renewed for a second season August 20, 2009
• Warehouse 13 pilot July 8, 2009
• Warehouse 13 sneak peak March 28, 2009

Superhero time for our intrepid artifact hunters. While Helena Wells stew away in places unknown and unseen our storehouse workers face Iron Man, the super hero and a ghost.

Warehouse 13 is so super geeky this episode lots of comics jargon and references. It’s fine the way they play off Pete’s over-enthusiasm with Myka’s ignorance and lack of understanding. Bickering and goofing around is such a big part of what makes w13 work.

Location wise it is quite charming the way Peter tries to charm everyone they meet in the small town where they live now. Myka gets her personal stuff from Washington and we learn she has a middle name that begins with O. Peter tries to guess what it is the whole episode, cute. (it is [Ofelia]).

The aftermath of McPherson’s incursion lingers. Claudia has a hard time forgiving Leena. Artie is seeing McPherson’s ghost and that leads to an entertaining cleaning session with Artie, Leena and Claudia.

Myka and Pete are sent off to Detroit where a masked vigilante is fighting crime. You should see how excited Peter becomes and how befuddled Myka is of that. We understand pretty quick who the masked avenger is but it takes the team a little longer. There is a love story at the bottom of it all, which never gets old. The artifact is somehow affecting the user’s density and strength but in an unstable manner that eventually gets out of hand.

Myka gets to dress up in an awesome outfit worthy any superhero to drain the artifact.

It ends on a sweet note when Myka and friends goes a little extra to make Pete feel at home even though his stuff hasn’t arrived yet.

Great episode, fun lighthearted genre entertainment.

Said and done

• This house is clean! (claudia)
• My Hero! (Pete to Myka)
• The City is Safe! (Pete in superhero pose)

Photos

Next Episode

Tuesday July 21

Warehouse 13 2.03 – Beyond Our Control (Syfy). When an artifact meant for the Warehouse turns up in the small town next door, the team finds themselves in the middle of a B-movie meltdown complete with cowboys, gladiators, sci-fi robots and beach storming marines. Their only chance of survival rests with the man who invented television, Philo T. Farnsworth.

I prefer female protagonists and this series of posts is homage to some of the most formidable female main characters in science fiction novels or series. This weeks formidable females contains some new favorites like Mearana, Briar, Caitlin and some old.

1. Mearana - The Harper (Michael Flynn)
2. Sparta – Venus Prime (Paul Preuss)
3. Briar Wilkes – Persistent Mother (Cherie Priest)
4. Caitlin Decter – Best Friend of the Web (Robert J. Sawyer)
5. Ilia Volyova – Triumvir Ultra (Alastair Reynolds)

Mearana - The Harper

Books: The January Dancer (2008), Up John River (2010)
Series: The January Dancer
Universe: Firestar
Author: Michael Flynn
Genre: Gaelic Space Opera
Publisher: Tor | Tantor Media

My reviews: The January Dancer | Up Jim River

In the beginning of the January Dancer a beautiful redheaded Harper walks into a bar in search for histories to sing. She approach the Scarred man that tells her the story of The January Dancer. In Up Jim River she and the scarred man goes looking for her disappeared mother. It reads like an epic gaelic saga with beautiful prose. I can recommend the audio version of The January Dancer it is just awesome, it blew my mind.

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Sparta – Venus Prime

Books: Breaking Strain (1987), Maelstrom (1988), Hide & Seek (1989), The Medusa Encounter (1990), The Diamond Moon (1990), The Shining Ones (1991)
Series: Arthur’s C. Clark’s Venus Prime
Author: Paul Preuss
Genre: YA | Science Fiction
Publisher: Avon | Pan | iBooks

I remember these books from my youth. Sparta is a beautiful and mysterious woman with advanced abilities due to her bioengineering. But she don’t remember the last three years and tries to recover her past and save her future. Beautiful description and adventures on the planets of the solar system based on short stories by Aurthur C. Clark.

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Briar Wilkes – Persistent Mother

Books: Boneshaker (2009)
Series: Clockwork Century
Author: Cherie Priest
Genre: Steampunk
Publisher: Tor

Briar Wilkes name used to be Briar Blue before her husband poisoned downtown Seattle with a gas that turned humans into Zombies with his infernal digging machine – The Boneshaker. Now her son is lost inside the walls erected to keep the gas out and she would do anything to save him. Much steampunk fun with airships and zombies.

A second book, Dreadnought in the same universe will be out in September 2010, but it has a different protagonist.

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Caitlin Decter – Best Friend of the Web

Title: Wake (2009), Watch (2010), Wonder (2011)
Series: WWW
Author: Robert J. Sawyer
Genre: Science Fiction | First Contact | Emerging AI
Publisher: ACE | Gollancz

My reviews: Wake, Watch

Caitlin Decter is a feisty young blind girl that is quite ordinary besides being a mathematical genius and after an experimental treatment to make her see again she starts to see the world wide web. Out there in the web she encounters an emerging intelligence and befriends it.

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Ilia Volyova – Triumvir Ultra

Books: Revelation Space (2000), Redemption Ark (2002)
Universe: Revalation Space
Author: Alastair Reynolds
Genre: Space Opera
Publisher: Gollancz | ACE | Tantor Media

Triumvir Ilia Volyova of Nostalgia for Infinity is an implant-free Ultra, and a major character in both Revelation Space and Redemption Ark. At the beginning of Revelation Space, Volyova is the keeper of the Cache Weapons. It is during her search for a means to control these weapons that she enlists Ana Khouri (who was planted in the role by the Mademoiselle), thus setting off a chain of events that continues throughout the novels. She maintains a long friendship with Captain Brannigan, a man melded with with his ship. When I am reading this I realize I have read these books a long time ago, it makes me want to go back and reread them.

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Read part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | index | afterword

Books are new once. But in the current distribution system books are released in different countries at different times as new releases and that makes perfect sense from a marketing point of view. A new release can also be an old book being republished which is good. Marketing is good, I want people to read more books but I also want new SF books, published for the very first time to have their own place here on my blog. This is my selection of new for the very first time, hail Madonna books that interest me.

There are many excellent bloggers out there with selections of new releases that might interest you. I can recommend Fantasy Book Critic’s extensive list or that you use the link section here on Cybermage to check out new releases yourself.

On Order

Title: Clementine
Author: Cherie Priest
Series: part of the Clockwork Century Universe
Genre: Steampunk
Hardback: 208 pages
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Order: Subterranean Press | Amazon US | UK | B&N

Clementine‘s blurb sounded like it was about such a kick-ass female that I couldn’t resist especially when it is written by the author of Boneshaker. I wanted to get into Steampunk for a while now and wet my feet. Added after mid April.

Maria Isabella Boyd’s success as a Confederate spy has made her too famous for further espionage work, and now her employment options are slim. Exiled, widowed, and on the brink of poverty…she reluctantly goes to work for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in Chicago.

Adding insult to injury, her first big assignment is commissioned by the Union Army. In short, a federally sponsored transport dirigible is being violently pursued across the Rockies and Uncle Sam isn’t pleased. The Clementine is carrying a top secret load of military essentials–essentials which must be delivered to Louisville, Kentucky, without delay.

Intelligence suggests that the unrelenting pursuer is a runaway slave who’s been wanted by authorities on both sides of the Mason-Dixon for fifteen years. In that time, Captain Croggon Beauregard Hainey has felonied his way back and forth across the continent, leaving a trail of broken banks, stolen war machines, and illegally distributed weaponry from sea to shining sea.

And now it s Maria’s job to go get him.

He’s dangerous quarry and she’s a dangerous woman, but when forces conspire against them both, they take a chance and form an alliance. She joins his crew, and he uses her connections. She follows his orders. He takes her advice.

And somebody, somewhere, is going to rue the day he crossed either one of them.

Title: The Machinery of Light
Author: David J. Williams
Series: Autumn Rain 3
Genre: Science Fiction
Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: Spectra books
Order: Amazon US | UK | B&N

I liked the first books in the series, they are gritty and action packed. You can check out my review of book 1: Mirrored Meaven.

September 26, 2110. 10:22 GMT. Following the assassination of the American president, the generals who have seized power initiate World War Three, launching a surprise attack against the Eurasian Coalition’s forces throughout the Earth-Moon system. Across the orbits, tens of thousands of particle beams and lasers blast away at one another. The goal: crush the other side’s weaponry, paving the way for nuclear bombardment of the cities.

As inferno becomes Armageddon, the rogue commando unit Autumn Rain embarks on one last run. Matthew Sinclair, an imprisoned spymaster, plots his escape. And his former protégé Claire Haskell, capable of hacking into both nets and minds, is realizing that all her powers may merely be playing into Sinclair’s plans. For even as Claire evades the soldiers of East and West amid carnage in the lunar tunnels, the surviving members of the Rain converge upon the Moon, one step ahead of the Eurasian fleets but one step behind the mastermind who created Autumn Rain—and his terrible final secret.

Title: The Noise Within
Author: Ian Whates
Genre: Science Fiction
Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Solaris
Order: Amazon US | UK | B&N

This looked so interesting. I like singularity related stories.

On the brink of perfecting the long sought-after human/AI interface, Philip Kaufman finds his world thrown into turmoil as a scandal from the past returns to haunt him and dangerous information falls into his hands. Pursued by assassins and attacked in his own home, he flees. Leyton, a government black-ops specialist, is diverted from his usual duties to hunt down the elusive pirate vessel The Noise Within, wondering all the while why this particular freebooter is considered so important. Two lives collide in this stunning space-opera from debut novelist Ian Whates!

Title: Overthrowing Heaven
Author: Mark L. van Name
Series: Jon & Lobo 3
Cover Art: Stephen Hickman
Genre: Science Fiction
Mass Market Paperback: 560 pages
Publisher: Baen (excerpt & blurb)
Order: Amazon US | UK | B&N

Jon & Lobo is light entertainment that keeps me reading.

It began as a favor to a woman trying to get away from an abusive husband.

Jon Moore grew up in a prison laboratory. When he escaped with nothing but his body’s nanotech enhancements and more anger than even a long lifetime could wash away, an entire planet died behind him. Memories of the things he’d done still haunted him; because of them, he often ended up helping those in need.

His kindnesses frequently didn’t work out well. This one really didn’t work out well. It hurled Jon and Lobo, the intelligent assault vehicle and Jon’s only friend, down an accelerating, ever more dangerous spiral involving:

• Private armies and government covert ops teams
• A courtesan who always seems a step ahead of him
• Rival superpowers that define Good in terms of their own advantage and Ethics as whatever doesn’t get in the way of their Good
• And a brilliant, amoral scientist to whom human beings are just more experimental animals–and who might be Lobo’s creator.

Jon and Lobo take the reader on a headlong rush through armed enemies and untrustworthy allies and encounter what just might be the worst danger their partnership will face: the truth.

Title: Dead in the Family
Author: Charlaine Harris
Series: Southern Vampire/True Blood 10
Genre: Horror/Supernatural
Hardcover: 320 pages | Paperback: 304
Publisher: Ace Hardcover, May 4, 2010 (US) | Wheeler Publishing Large edition 5 May 2010 (UK) | Gollancz 12 May 2011 (UK)
Order: Ace | Amazon US | UK | B&N

I love the True Blood tv show and it lead me to the books.

After enduring torture and the loss of loved ones during the brief but deadly Faery War, Sookie Stackhouse is hurt and she’s angry. Just about the only bright spot in her life is the love she thinks she feels for vampire Eric Northman. But he’s under scrutiny by the new Vampire King because of their relationship. And as the political implications of the Shifters coming out are beginning to be felt, Sookie’s connection to the Shreveport pack draws her into the debate. Worst of all, though the door to Faery has been closed, there are still some Fae on the human side-and one of them is angry at Sookie. Very, very angry…

Title: The Ambassador’s Mission
Author: Trudi Canavan
Series: The Traitor Spy Trilogy 1
Genre: Fantasy
Hardcover: 528 pages
Publisher: Orbit
Order: Amazon US | UK | B&N

The Black Magician and The Age of Five trilogies were good reads.

Sonea, once the despised commoner in the Magicians’ Guild, is now a Black Magician of Kyralia. Though she is now part of the establishment, she comes to find that the past is not so easily left behind…

Lorkin, Sonea’s rebellious son, has volunteered to join the formidable Lord Dannyl in his new post as Guild Ambassador to Sachaka – a land ruled by cruel, slave-owning black magicians. There is suspicion that some of the Sachakans still harbor dreams of conquest, so when word comes that Lorkin has gone missing, Sonea is desperate to find him. However, Guild law states that if a Black Magician leaves the city he or she will be exiled forever.

As she fears for her missing son, Sonea dedicates herself to helping her old friend Cery. For some time, there has been fear and paranoia on the streets of Imardin. Leading thieves have been dying under irregular circumstances. The need to discover who has been picking off the leading thieves of the city is now a very personal crusade – one that Sonea must aid, for the killer appears to be using magic.

Either a member of the Guild is leading a double life as a hired killer, or there is – once again – a rogue magician on the streets of Imardin . . .

I also ordered some books published before out in new form:

• Conspirator by C. J. Cherryh (Foreigner 10) from Amazon US

Other Books of Interest

Title: Climate of Change
Author: Piers Anthony
Series: Geodyssey
Genre: Science Fiction
Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Order: Tor | Amazon US | UK | B&N

This sounds epic. I am tempted.

A remarkable epic of passion and courage, savagery and survival, Piers Anthony’s “Geodyssey” is a saga unlike any ever written. It is nothing less than the story of humanity itself, told through the lives of a handful of extraordinary men and women reborn throughout history.

Now, with Climate of Change, Anthony introduces us to a new cast of characters, including Keeper, who knows the ways of nature, Rebel, a headstrong girl as brave as any man, Craft, a cunning inventor, and Crenelle, who uses her seductive charms to defend her people.

Through their eyes, we see how some of the most crucial moments in human history have been driven by natural forces, from the great ice ages of prehistory to the droughts and plagues that have destroyed history’s proudest civilizations. And we witness a harsh but hopeful future in which humanity at last transcends the devastating effects of climate change.

Title: Deceiver
Author: C. J. Cherryh
Series: Foreigner 11
Genre: Science Fiction
Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: DAW
Order: DAW | Amazon US | UK | B&N

I am following this series but I buy the paperbacks, because I started with paperbacks back when it started. Must keep the shelves neat :)

The civil war among the alien Atevi has ended. Tabini-aiji, powerful ruler of the Western Association, along with Cajeiri, his son and heir, has returned to the Bujavid, his seat of power. But factions that remain loyal to the opposition are still present, and the danger these rebels pose is far from over.

A sneak peak at the upcoming Jonah Hex movie courtesy of megan-fox.com