An Embarrassment of Riches

A Smorgasbord of Good Reads - by Heidi

So far this year I've read a number of good books so I'm going to name the best of the lot for you. The Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed is a debut novel worth reading. In many ways it's a traditional high fantasy adventure story but with a setting that evokes the middle east. Doctor Adoulla Makhslood is an aging 'ghul' hunter and while he's grown weary of the fight, he gets drawn back for one last adventure. It's a very good stand-alone fantasy adventure and I really look forward to the author's next book.

I finished the last book in Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series, Timeless. I've mentioned the series in a previous entry better than a year ago. It deserves a second mention. If you don't want to take the time to read a novel, try the manga adaption of book one. Vampires, werewolves, steampunk  urban fantasy... What more could one ask for?

I also got sucked into reading a non-genre series, the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich. They are hilarious in their own special way--I've been getting odd looks from both cat and husband at the random bursts of snickering and snorting coming from the couch when I read these. Also, in in the right perspective they really are every bit as much a fantasy as anything else I read, despite being set in New Jersey and being about an incompetent and improbably lucky bounty hunter. The Stephanie Plum books aren't even the popcorn of the book world...they're cotton candy. 

Who Would Harry Dresden Hang With? - by Heidi

I really like Jim Butcher's books, especially the Dresden Files. So, when I saw a new novel, Fated by Benedict Jacka, that has a cover blurb by Jim Butcher reading: "Harry Dresden would like Alex Verus tremendously--and be a little nervous around him. I just added Benedict Jacka to my must-read list." Well, now I'm intrigued. That's obviously the next book for me! After all, I have many long "Cold Days" to wait before the next book of the Dresden Files and I would like to find some great new books between now and then. Benedict Jacka even gives the Dresden Files a nod in this quote from the first chapter: "I've even heard of one guy in Chicago who advertises in the phone book under "Wizard", though that's probably an urban legend."

This urban fantasy does an excellent job of setting up the world that Alex Verus inhabits. Set in London, there are many familiar elements for a reader used to urban fantasy: magic is real, but rare and your average mortal overlooks it. There's even a council of the more powerful mages, divided into Light and Dark. But it works! The Dark mages hold a rather Nietzsche-like philosophy of 'might makes right'. The Light mages don't come up that much in this book but they're just *sure* that they can work with the Dark mages. There have been forty odd years of peace after all!  Because trusting that guy who thinks that if you can't stop him from doing whatever he wants it's your own fault for being weak... Yup, that's such a good idea...

Our protagonist, Alex Verus is a diviner. That's all the magic he has. He has no offensive or defense magic except that if he thinks about a question he can know the answer - at least in so far as the human mind can follow the possible branching futures. So, if someone is shooting line of sight bolts of death at him he can see which hiding places let him not die right now. He can use those moments in hiding to see paths which might trick his enemy to the roof's edge. If he needs to see something with more possible branches it might take him hours or days of looking down each path of the future, one path at a time, to see the path that leads to the outcome he wants. He can acquire magic items to help him, he can acquire allies, he even owns a gun but there's no future in which Alex is going to become a more versatile mage. The allies that are introduced in the first book include a minor air elemental and a woman named Luna who is cursed with luck. Bad things never happen to Luna. Bad things happen to anyone she passes by. Actually touching another person isn't a good idea for Luna since she's not evil.

This is the start of a trilogy. The publisher is putting out the next two books over the course of the next several months to try to build up this new author's readership. A lot of the first book is world building, but it's a really interesting world. I wanted nothing more than to see what was around the next corner. I'm really looking forward to Cursed and Taken this spring and summer. One book by this author wasn't nearly enough. I finished this book in a single sitting because I just couldn't put it down.  And having finished the first book in this series I'll say that I can see Harry Dresden and Alex Versus sitting down in a quiet pub for a beer or two and enjoying the company.

Highlanders, Fairies, and Vampires, oh my! - by Enji

With the gift-giving season over, many more people now have ebook readers.  (Amazon sold over 1 million Kindles each week in December 2011.) A friend of mine was reading A Billion Wicked Thoughts (see
also: Sex at Dawn; Bonk; Why We Love); she told me about a chapter that revealed that the reading of romances has risen along with the sales of ebook readers.  Not only are more people reading romances,
these books are also getting more explicit, and romances are becoming a mainstay of other genres as well.

I have noticed this trend...my favorite fluff is fantasy.  The major plot point is now the romance, and the good parts are now >ahem< really good, especially if I stray away from the YA books. I've also noticed there are subgenres to the paranormal romance subgenre, namely, werewolves, vampires, fairies and of all things, medieval Highlanders.  Of course, if you follow a series long enough (and these things always seem to become a book series) many of these sexy creatures show up eventually.

Here's a sampling, some of which are available as downloadable ebooks. However, you may have to wait just as long, or longer, for your ebook to become available, so why not go for it...flaunt your fluff and
check out that hard copy of these sexy tales.

The Night Huntress series by Jeaniene Frost
First in series: Halfway to the Grave.
Cat is half-vampire, she hates vampires, and she hunts them.  She's good at it...or so she thinks...until she meets a very old (and of course sexy) vampire. Humorous homages to Buffy the Vampire Slayer throughout, down to the name of her main vamp, Bones.

The Fever series by Karen Marie Moning
First in series: Darkfever
Not quite as full of explicit scenes as her earlier Highlander series (post), Moning goes darker and more complex with this intrigue full of dark Fae and other creatures.  Her Highlanders make a cameo appearance.

Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris
First in series: Dead Until Dark
Who hasn't heard of these?  HBO's True Blood is based on these books. How do I explain the appeal? Yes, there are the steamy vampires who are outed, and attempting to be accepted by humans.  But Sookie, she seems like she could be your next door neighbor, just trying to cope with blocking your thoughts from her head, getting her bills paid, and keeping her house clean.

Changlings and Zombies - by Heidi

Seanan McGuire is a new author who I've really been enjoying. Her first book, Rosemary and Rue was published September 2009. She was awarded the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer by the 2010 World Science Fiction Convention. Her first series (up to book 5 now) is about a character called October Daye.  In this urban fantasy universe the different types of fae beings may decide to pass as humans, take a human lover and have mixed species children. When the children figure out that that mom or dad really is different the children are given the changeling's choice.  They may go to faerie and leave their human life and parent behind forever or stay human, forget and live out their mortal life with their human parent.  Either way, the changeling loses one parent and the human parent is left wondering why they're suddenly bereft of a partner.

October Daye was still quite young when she had to make the choice and in crying out for her fae mother left her human father behind forever. Now a part of the fae world, where changelings are very distinctly second class citizens, October has to make her own way.  She tries to hide in the human world at first but is forced deeper into fae when an important countess is murdered.  The dead countess binds October to investigate, forcing her to resume her position in Faerie.

Seanan McGuire, writing as Mira Grant, has also started a zombie urban fantasy series which isn't to my tastes but got to the final ballot for the 2011 Hugo Award for Best Novel.  That's actually pretty impressive for someone that's only been published for 2 years. The first book in the Newsflesh series is Feed. I'm also really looking forward to the first book in her new series Discount Armageddon: An Incryptid Novel.

Le Cirque des Reves: The Circus of Dreams by Andrea Our newest blog contributor is Andrea who says of herself: "I like to read fiction, memoirs, comics, and zines. In my free time I write short fiction and publish zines and minicomics. I also moonlight as a freelance book editor, though I have recently taken a sabbatical from editing to focus on my own work." Also see her recent review of The Family Fang.

 “The circus arrives without warning.” So begins Erin Morgenstern’s stunning debut, set in both England and America beginning in 1873. Reading this book feels like curling up by a fireplace while a storm is raging outside and listening to a kindly grandfather tell you stories about the past. Tales of a fantastical circus only open at night, where things are so exquisite, they are almost painful to experience. There are black and white striped tents full of wonders: the ice garden, the cloud maze, the wishing tree. There is a room full of bottled memories you can open and smell. There are delicacies to eat like caramel corn and chocolate mice. And each night too there are the reveurs, self-described circus enthusiasts, wandering the grounds in red scarves as they follow the circus from town to town, aching for a more interesting life. Open to the possibility of magic.

At the heart of The Night Circus is a love story between--you guessed it--two magicians bound in a tense and complicated rivalry from birth. Celia and Marco find they can bend the rules that have been set by their mentors to make the challenge more about love and less about winning. Because to win this magical challenge, one of them has to die. And that will not do for two people in love.

Perhaps what is most remarkable about The Night Circus is it was originally conceived during NANOWRIMO, or National Novel Writing Month. This competition happens each November and encourages its participants to write a novel in one month. I personally have tried--and failed--a few times to complete this very challenge. The fact that the author was able to create such a masterpiece in this time frame is astounding. No doubt there were rounds and rounds of editing. I heard a rumor it took about 5 years start to finish, but the fact that the seeds of this brilliant, moving story were born during such a time of communal, frenzied writing, coupled with the self-doubt that inevitably comes with such a monumental task gives hope for the rest of us who are left behind in the real, boring world and feel the need to find magic of our own making.

For those of you who are already fans of The Night Circus, take a look at the site I09, where Morgenstern will be answering questions about her book from 1-2 p.m. Pacific Time on Monday, February 27th. You can submit your questions now.

Splattered Abercrombie - by Heidi While he's written a few books since his debut trilogy I hold a soft spot for Joe Abercrombie's first trilogy: The Blade Itself, Before They are Hanged and Last Argument of Kings.  And given these books when I say soft spot -- well, under the ribs is supposed to be a nice efficient spot to thrust a blade up into a man's heart. The cover of Book One is nicely splattered in blood in fair warning of the story itself.

In many ways this is a very traditional fantasy cast of characters. There's a barbarian berserker, a wise old wizard, a dashing swordsman and so on.  But there's a dark spin on all of them.  Think about it. Would you really want to be traveling with a trained killer of a man that can't tell friend from foe on the battlefield and towers over you?  Logen Ninefingers may be an ally of the moment but he is an unwashed savage killer and dangerous to friend as well as foe.  That wise old wizard?  Well, you've only lived a human lifespan and he's got goals that don't really count the ant-like human lives around him. The dashing swordsman?  Kind of a pathetic little man really. Of all the many characters I found myself feeling the most for the torturer Glokta. The most 'evil' of the main characters actually isn't too bad a guy...at least not for someone that is willing to torture people into confessions to support a corrupt institution.

They're off to save the kingdom...or collect a relic that can open a gate to the realm of demons.  Not that the wizard is passing out straight answers.  The series is dark, gritty and in its own way humorous.

Fun with a Side of Gore - by Heidi When Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey came out I read the review and decided it wasn't really going to be to my tastes. Too violent, too scary, too gory... not my thing at all. Then I picked it up on a whim. I needed something new to read and was in the right mood to try something that might be pretty gross. Turns out I was wrong to reject it the first time. I loved it. Sure it's violent and it's gory, but it isn't actually scary. Instead the books are really pretty funny -- in a sick, twisted, puerile and violent way -- but they are surprisingly humorous.
Stark was a callow young magician who loved his girlfriend and had a few daddy issues. Then he got betrayed by his buddies and cast into Hell. Alive. There he spent eleven years getting tortured in unspeakable ways while killing monsters and demons in an arena to amuse other monsters and demons, all to survive a little longer. Now he's back on earth, has a few anger management issues, and wants revenge, in part for being betrayed and in part for his murdered love. While he's getting his revenge he earns a buck freelancing as a monster killer for an angel and as a bodyguard for Lucifer when he's on earth. The only side Stark is on is his own.
These are nice light books in their own blood-and-unspeakable-gunk-soaked way. The books are a very fast read. I also enjoyed book three, Aloha from Hell: A Sandman Slim Novel. I hope there's a fourth book in the works!

Haiku Review: The City and the City - by Rachael

One City prospers
One City falters and fades
Chosen perceptions

The City and the City by China Miéville

Scoundrels With Hearts of Gold - by Heidi

I just finished Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan. He self-published his series as e-books and they did well enough that Orbit books picked it up to reprint in three omnibus volumes. This just doesn't happen very often so I was intrigued. Generally speaking I will turn my little nose up at anything self published. There's a lot of junk out there and some of the stuff I've read in the past... What has been seen cannot be unseen and I've become jaded enough to insist that an editor has been between me and that slush pile of badly written horrors. Sullivan is one of those occasional exceptions to the rule. 

This isn't high brow literary fantasy by any stretch of the imagination. The two main characters are introduced with a scene that's truly hilarious if you read lots of epic fantasy. Let's not talk about how late I stayed up finishing the book one night that I was home alone and didn't have that external voice of reason telling me it was past time to turn off the light and go to sleep. (Just 100 odd pages left... OK, closer to 200. Won't take me more that an hour... or two....) The author takes all the grand old tropes and cliches and goes to town with them. The heroes are scoundrels with hearts of gold. The villains all but twirl their mustaches and laugh manically. If there had been a chandelier in this book I'm certain somebody would have swung from it. So yes, the book was flawed. I've certainly read better books and I can see why editors passed it by initially. But it's just so darn much *fun* that I found myself forgiving every flaw.

It reminded me of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. You know it's not going to be 'good' but when Captain Jack Sparrow first staggers onto the screen you can't quite help but smile.

Dirigibles, Steampunk, Demons, Oh My! by Heidi

I do so love a good debut or two. Farlander by Col Buchanan, the first in a new series, introduces a steampunk world with basic pistols, dirigibles and acid rain pollution along with the standard fantasy trappings. There's a corrupt and evil empire and an order of assassin monks, the Roshun, who will sell the wealthy and paranoid an amulet. If the person wearing and bonded to the amulet dies by anything other than natural causes the monks will provide blood vengeance. The murderer will die and no other person will need to start a blood feud. Given how often everyone seems to expect the services of the Roshun to be needed, those that purchase an amulet aren't really being all that paranoid. Farlander isn't absolute perfection - there's a little new novel roughness. For example, there's never any doubt that the evil empire is Evil... and enjoying it. But it is interesting, fast-paced and fun. Find out what happens next in the recently released book two: Stands a Shadow.

I recently read J.M. McDermott's second novel Never Knew Another.  There are children of demons whose blood and sweat corrupts the very ground. Touching one will sicken and eventually kill any human.  The demon-sired children are being hunted down by a priestly order of skin-walkers, wolfish even in human skin. It is death to aid a demon and death to be a demon - even if all you want to do is hide and not hurt anybody. The wolf priests find it necessary to burn down contaminated buildings or even entire sections of town to purify the corruption. They count the resulting human pain and loss as no more than a minor pity. The humans still have their lives after all. The church will see they don't starve or freeze to death, so even if someone loses everything, they are at least alive, and not spreading the demon sickness. 

It's a little different for the genre. The writing style is meant to convey the not-quite-human perspective of the wolf priestess. The author seems to be aiming for literary fantasy. It's very fast paced: I was 100 pages into it the first time I sat down with it. It's the first in a series and I'm really looking forward to book two. The author's first book, Last Dragon, came out in 2008 and I'm putting a hold on that first unrelated stand-alone title just on the strength of writing in this book.  

The Night Circus - a Delectable Treat - by Alison

The Night Circus arrives without warning. What was an empty field by day becomes transformed by night. A city of tents appears as if by magic, drawing people through the dusk to the soft-twinkling lights and the smell of warm caramel in the air. When the guests arrive, they hardly know where to go first. One tent contains a frozen world of ice and snow all in shades of white and silver, making the visitor feel as though he has been transported into his own personal snow globe. In another a mysterious woman reads the future in her cards. In another, guests climb to the top of the tent by way of  a maze of soft clouds and, reaching the top, gently float back down to the ground.

Le Cirque des Reves showcases the purely fantastical next to the usual entertainments one might expect - the contortionists, the jugglers and of course, the magicians. What the guests don't realize is that the night circus exists only incidentally as a place to while away an evening: the circus is really a giant game-board. At its center are two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who are destined to compete in a battle to out-magic one another, a battle that will lead to the death of one.

Though Erin Morgenstern's book is already in high demand, it is well worth the wait. The Night Circus is a delectable treat of a novel, a fantastical, almost architectural dessert that is almost too beautiful to eat, but you won't be able to resist.

The Wise Man's Fear - by Heidi I'd been waiting for years to read The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. The first book, The Name of the Wind, came out in 2007. I finally get my copy. I take it home where my husband says "Great!  I've been waiting and waiting to read that!", and swipes it.  ~whimper~  At last, now that he's finally done with it, I've been able to read the book.
Rothfuss isn't a perfect writer and there are flaws in this book and the first, but the pages just flow by like water - all 993 of them. It seems like he just loves words and language. He never misses a chance to describe and expound. The protagonist of the books, Kvothe, is in many ways a trope character for fantasy. He's a hyper-competent red-head, almost a Mary-Sue, who seems to become good at almost anything he tries in no time at all. There's a funny section where he fails to become great at something-only just managing good enough... I won't spoil it further. He's also a teenage boy with all the emotional wisdom and people skills one might expect from a teenager with no adult guidance. The adult Kvothe may or may not be a reliable narrator. He's been a performer since childhood after all, and could be forgiven for putting himself in the best light.
Kvothe has to take a leave of absence from The University after a prolonged conflict with a high noble's son leaves him in a financial and social bind (see the bit above about the lack of wisdom...). He travels to a nearby country and takes service under a wealthy lord, leading to a string of (mis)adventures. Meanwhile the adult Kvothe, who is narrating the story, appears to be waiting to die.
I really really hope it's not another four years until book three of this series comes out. I'd be pleased to be wrong. And for this next series I want to read, I'll be hiding A Dance with Dragons from my husband until I get to read it, even if he did finish the first four books with greater dedication than I showed...

New Moon Rising - Elizabeth Moon - by Heidi

I should have started reading the newest series by Elizabeth Moon much sooner. In the late 80's Moon wrote a trilogy called The Deed of Paksenarrion. In a fantasy world, a sheep-farmer's daughter, a big sturdy girl, joins the local Duke's military to avoid an unwanted marriage. She rises to become a paladin and to see that lord chosen as a kingdom's heir. I liked that trilogy quite a bit. I've even held onto my yellowing paperbacks all these years. In the decades since, Moon has written a number of military science fiction novels that just didn't catch my interest, though they've been popular and well received. Recently Moon has gone back to the world of The Deed of Paksenarrion with the start of a new trilogy.  

You don't need to read the first series to enjoy Oath of Fealty, the first in this new trilogy. It has been twenty plus years since I read the original books and I had no trouble falling into this new story. Paks, the heroine of the first trilogy is only a secondary character in this trilogy.

In Oath of Fealty, after the duke, Kieri Phelan, is discovered to be the heir to a neighboring kingdom, he leaves his former holding under the care of his captains, one of whom will be named the new lord in his place. The kingdom Kieri is leaving is in turmoil after the assassination of the king, leaving an untried young prince about to be crowned. To add further to the machinations, the assassin of the young prince's father was one of his other dukes. Now the crown prince must question the traitor's entire family to find how far their service to an evil god and blood magic has spread. That leaves only one reliable person to whom the lands might be entrusted: an aging captain of Kieri's who was cast out of the family as a girl for refusing to practice blood magic. I really need to get my hands on book two, Kings of the North, in short order because the end of Oath of Fealty left me wanting more.

The Library of Forgotten Books - by Alison

If there's an afterlife for people, how about entertaining the thought of an afterlife for books? Just imagine all of those mournful leather-bound volumes, all the titles that didn't move off the shelves because of lackluster covers, all the sorry stories that languished in the shadows because they were published at the same time as Stephen King's latest. Imagine them all at their best, crisp unmarked pages, yet to have been taken into anyone's bathroom, sitting plumply on the shelves of the Afterlife Library, full of promise. What titles would you find there?

I, for one, would look for Peter S. Beagle's A Fine and Private Place. It's the story of Rebeck, an eccentric recluse who has chosen the ultimate home for a misanthrope - he lives in a cemetery. His only living companionship comes in the form of a raven who brings him stolen sandwiches. But Rebeck does enjoy another form of friendship -  he can see and talk with the ghosts of the dead, who are tied for a while to their resting places until their memories begin to fail them and they slowly fade away. His latest friends are Laura, the ghost of a bookstore clerk who wasn't watching when she crossed a street and Michael, a man who was either poisoned by his wife or committed suicide - his memory is beginning to fail.
Into this cast of characters comes the very much alive Mrs. Klapper, who is ostensibly coming to tend her husband's grave but who seems to be more and more interested in Rebeck with each visit.

A Fine and Private Place is both a mournful story of lost opportunity, and a redemptive one, of friendship and last chances. And fortunately, you won't have to visit the Afterlife Library to find a copy. What forgotten book do you wish more people knew about?

Pure Fluff and Fun - by Heidi Let's face it. I'm really just chaffing at the bit to read Ghost Story in July. Then I read a review for a debut novel, Hounded by Kevin Hearne, that compared the book and the main character to The Dresden Files and Harry Dresden, my favorite series and character. Sold! That was really all I needed to hear to give Hounded a try.
Oh man, I just love these books. I snatched up the second, Hexed as soon as I finished the first. I couldn't wait. Let's be honest though. These aren't great classics of literature... It's only the weight of the cover that keeps them from floating off - they're pure fluff and fun. These are the 'summer action movies' of books. There's adventure, occasionally crude humor, a good sidekick or two and just enough plot to hang it on. I even scared my poor timid old cat off my lap at least once with each book when I burst out laughing.

Atticus O'Sullivan (at least that's the name he's going by), the last of the Druids, is living peacefully in Arizona. He lets people assume he means 21 years when they ask his age, when he's actually 21 centuries old. He just wants to be left alone and has picked Arizona as an out-of-the-way place to avoid the magical beings that might want a piece of him. His quiet is shattered by the arrival of an angry Celtic god who wants Atticus's magical sword, forcing Atticus to call upon some unlikely allies for help. The first two books introduce the universe and all the magical beings and characters therein.

At least I only have to wait until early July before I can read book three. The publisher is putting out the first three books in three months to build up a readership for the series; a fairly common practice within the genre. I will say that the reviewer who compared them to the Dresden files was a bit off. The tone is lighter, the humor is different, the action less serious and the hero is less heroic and good-hearted. Still, I'm not at all sorry that review got me to pick up the first book. Hounded and Hexed were just such good zippy fun and it was great to get a new urban fantasy that wasn't just a thinly veiled romance. If, like me you really can't wait for Ghost Story, or just like urban fantasy, give this series a try. I haven't had this much fun reading a novel in a good long while.