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Books for Review should be sent to: Don D'Ammassa, 323 Dodge Street, East Providence, RI 02914 |
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Norse Code by Greg van Eekhout, Ballantine Spectra, 2009, $7.99, ISBN 978-0-553-59213-9
Norse mythology, fortunately, has not been completely done to death as have many other myth systems - particularly Celtic - and I still have fond memories of Edmond Hamilton's A Yank at Valhalla and Lester Del Rey's Day of the Giants. This new, quite enjoyable adventure story assumes that Ragnarok is imminent, and its effects are already making themselves known on Earth where our modern civilization appears to be crumbling under various pressures. The protagonist is a woman brought back from the dead and given a new name so that she can become a Valkyrie and help in the battle to come, but she has a more immediate agenda, recovering her sister from the land of the dead, all of which will have unexpected consequences in the greater struggle to come.. After some lively adventure, she gains a companion, an oddball god who agrees to help her in a campaign to save the world. Good fun throughout, fast paced, and the prose has a refreshingly light touch. This seemed a lot shorter than it actually was, which is usually a good sign. 6/30/09
The Last Battle of the Icemark by Stuart Hill, Chicken House, 2009, $18.99, ISBN 978-0-545-09329-3
The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan, Hyperion, 2009, $17.99, ISBN 978-142310147-5 2344-45
The Silver Door by Holly Lisle, Orchard, 2009, $17.99, ISBN 978-054500014-7
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There's been quite a bit of quite good young adult fantasy the past few years - thought sadly very little good young adult SF. Although all three of these mimic to some extent adult fantasy, the stories are shorter, faster moving, quick reads, and aren't weighed down by ponderous prose or lengthy side issues. First up is the closing volume of a young adult fantasy trilogy. The evil sorceress has been banished, but since we have one book to go, we know that she isn’t out of the fight completely. Sure enough, she’s back, and she’s brought a friend with her, and he has powers even stronger than her own. As allies, it seems that there is nothing to prevent them from gaining supreme power over the world. The good guys rally and there’s a mild surprise involved in how they save the day. Although the plot itself is less than original, the writing is quite good, particularly for a YA series, and the story certainly moves quickly. The Riordan book isn’t written on quite such an adult level, but I’ve enjoyed this series from the outset. Kronos has raised an army with which to storm Olympus, currently hidden in Manhattan, and our young hero has to play his part in the battle to defeat them. This was a fun series and I’m curious to see what the author will try next. Last we have the second in Holly Lisle’s Moon & Sun series. It’s a lot more adult in format and language, the story of an epic battle involving humans and non-humans and the young girl who is the key to the resolution of the conflict. Although probably the best written of the three, I wasn’t as interested in the story as I was in the other two. Nevertheless, all three are among the best YA fantasies I’ve read so far this year. 6/29/09
A Spell for the Revolution by C.C. Finlay, Del Rey, 2009, $7.99, ISBN 978-0-345-50391-6
The Demon Redcoat by C.C. Finlay, Del Rey, 2009, $7.99, ISBN 978-0-345-50392-3
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These are books two and three in a secret history fantasy series set around the time of the American Revolution. The protagonists are determined to use witchcraft to help Washington and his followers to defeat the British because the enemy is being aided by the Covenant, a secret society of magic users that has been manipulating the governments of Europe for centuries. In Spell, they launch a campaign to free Washington from the supernatural restrictions placed upon him. It’s quite good. Demon takes place a few years later. The revolution is over but the threat from the Covenant remains and our heroes decide to take the fight to the enemy, in the Old World. Comparisons to Naomi Novik’s series are inevitable as these are more action oriented than, say, the Empire of Unreason books by J. Gregory Keyes, which already played with early American history. The author, incidentally, might be better known to some readers as Charles Coleman Finlay. The first volume, which I’ve never seen, is The Patriot Witch. 6/21/09
The Spy Who Haunted Me by Simon R. Green, Roc, 6/09, $24.95, ISBN 978-0-451-46272-5
Eddie Drood makes his third appearance in this new title in a series related to the Nightside series. Eddie is part of an organization that shelters the human race from magical enemies and investigates odd goings on. The head of his organization is Alexander King, who is terminally ill and who needs to pass on his position to someone else in the group. King employs an old standby to choose his successor, a complex and dangerous contest that will pit the six top contenders – including Eddie – against one another as well as against the opposition. But there’s a darker side to all of this because King also knows that someone in the organization is a traitor. I can’t think of anyone who writes this kind of light, occult adventure story more entertainingly that Green, and this is one of his best. 6/15/09
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell audiobook, read by Simon Prebble, Audio Renaissance, 2009, $59.95
I have found that listening to an audiobook is generally a different experience than reading in the normal fashion. I suspect this is in part because the speed of the experience is not in my control, and since I generally only listen when I’m driving and I no longer commute, it takes a long time to finish one. I’d read this when it first appeared and enjoyed it, and I did so again this time. I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the ending because I thought Norrell deserved to get his comeuppance, but it was only a mild disappointment. I did want to mention however that this is one of the best performances by a reader in all of the audiobooks I’ve listened to over the years. It reportedly took Clarke ten years to write this. I hope the next comes more quickly. 6/15/09
Strange Angels by Lili St Crow, Razorbill, 6/09, $9.99, ISBN 978-1-59514-251-1
First in a young adult, sort of paranormal romance series featuring Dru Anderson, a teenaged girl with mild psychic powers who becomes an orphan in this one after her father is turned into a zombie. She takes refuge with a goth friend from school, except that he gets attacked by another supernatural creature and begins to change into a kind of werewolf. Meanwhile yet another nonhuman, this time a benevolent one, takes a kindlier interest in Dru’s fate. The set up for this one is kind of unusual and I have no idea where the series is going to go from here. The author writes somewhat similar books for adults as Lilith Saintcrow, and is one of the better writers working this particular vein. I found this one entertaining but unexceptional, unless the next twist turns out to be a more intriguing one. 6/15/09
Darkness Calls by Marjorie M. Liu, Ace, 6/09, $7.99, ISBN 978-0-441-01730-0
Number two in the Demon Hunter series, an urban fantasy/horror sequence which moves closer to fantasy than horror in this one despite zombies and demons. The protagonist is Maxine Kiss whose body provides the conduit through which several diminutive demons can enter our world, although they are subject to her will and are used by her to suppress evil demons and other supernatural manifestations of evil like zombies. Her romantic interest is the enigmatic Grant, who has a unique power to control other forms of life including demons, but who is now in terrible danger from forces too powerful to be dismissed. Liu writes very well and I even tracked down several of her more overt fantasy romances a while back, but this series just doesn’t come together for me. I think it’s because basically I don’t care for either Maxine or Grant, and the clever bits aren’t clever enough to overcome my distaste for them. 6/11/09
The Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff, DAW, 6/09, $24.95, ISBN 978-0-7564-0555-7
Before the current boom of urban fantasy, there were a few writers already using that form, and very well, better than most of the latecomers. Tanya Huff is a prime example and her new novel, set in Calgary, makes most of the other paranormal fantasy I’ve read recently pale in comparison. Alysha Catherine Gale, the protagonist, comes from a long line of magic users, witches if you will. When she inherits a small shop from her grandmother, she discovers that her clientele come from the local magic community, some of whom are fey. She also has an assistant who introduces himself as a leprechaun. The ordinary business of business is soon complicated by Alysha’s search for the truth about her grandmother’s life, and death, and her dealings with certain customers who want more than she bargained for. After dozens of stories of feisty women battling vampires, werewolves, demons, black magic, and so forth, this felt delightfully fresh and sometimes even funny. I wouldn’t even mind if this turned out to be the first in a series. 6/7/09
Green by Jay Lake, Tor, 6/09, $26.95, ISBN 978-0-7653-2185-5
Jay Lake leaves the clockwork world of his first two fantasy novels in his third, and introduces one of the most absorbing characters in recent fantasy fiction. Green is a beautiful young woman who was elevated, if that’s the word, from poverty to virtual slavery. She is educated and trained to fit into the highest social circles, but only because she is meant to become an effective agent, even assassin, as events require. To this end she is subjected to brutal training and indoctrination. Fortunately, she is able to become a two edged sword and use her talents and knowledge to secure her freedom. Alas, as we all know there is no such thing as absolute freedom, and in a world where political and court intrigue determines the fate of nations and individuals, subterfuge and treachery are necessarily rampant. She also has enemies, because her former masters are not happy about losing their investment. On the other hand, they may have trained her more effectively than they counted on. Liked this one a lot, but I would have been surprised if that had not been the case. 6/6/09
Faery Moon by P. R. Frost, DAW, 6/09, $24.95, ISBN 978-0-7564-0556-4
P.R. Frost has also written as Phyllis Ann Karr and Irene Radford. This is third in her new series about Tess Noncoire, a slight variation on the typical current urban female hero with unusual powers battling magic and the supernatural. She has been recruited into the battle to keep creatures from other dimensions from invading the Earth, willingly or unwillingly. The current installment opens with her hoping to get away from her job by taking her mother on a vacation trip to Las Vegas, but naturally someone with a job description like that is never off duty. When she notices that a high wire act is performing without wires, she realizes that they are really flying, that they are fairies being forced to work as performers. Meanwhile, her impish familiar Scrap has been doing some research and discovers that the bleed over between universes is getting worse. The author is an old hand at fantasy adventure so this feels a lot more polished than most similar novels, and the two protagonists, Tess and Imp, are a lot more likeable than most. This isn’t being marketed as urban fantasy, but that’s essentially what it is. 6/5/09
Blood from Stone by Laura Anne Gilman, Luna, 5/09, $14.95, ISBN 978-0-373-80297-5
Wren Valere is back for her sixth lightly romantic magical adventure. She’s on the rebound from the nearly apocalyptic events in the previous book and is more interested in rest and relaxation than in using her magical talents again. But if that was possible, there wouldn’t be much of a story. She’s at work again quickly, this time searching for the person responsible for the kidnapping of a child. Even having a demon for a boyfriend isn’t going to help when she finds herself on the wrong end of powerful magic this time. Gilman maintains a nice balance between romance and adventure, and while I have ambivalent feelings about the boyfriend, her own character is nicely drawn and appealing. I thought this was a bit of a letdown after the last couple of books, but maybe the author – as well as the protagonist – needed a chance to catch her breath. 6/3/09
The City and the City by China Mieville, Del Rey, 2009, $26, ISBN 978-0-345-49751-2
The latest from China Mieville is, as you might expect, not like anything you’ll have read before. In some unnamed Eastern European country, two cities exist overlapping each other, each in its own nation and reality, and with the citizens of each trained to “unsee” things from the other. I would not have thought it possible to make such a bizarre concept work for the length of a full novel, but I would have been wrong. Those who violate the separation of realities are subject to the powers of Breach, a mysterious organization with almost magical powers and with no apparent oversight. There are also rumors of a third city, hidden somewhere between the other two. The main plot involves the murder of a foreign archaeologist who seems to have been murdered in one reality, her body dumped – though not in violation of Breach – in the other. The detective assigned to the case initially has to travel to the counterpart city to pursue the investigation, and discovers a tangled web of intrigue and legends that might just be true. The first half of the novel is superb. It flounders a bit in the middle, though not badly, probably because routine police procedure is inherently dull and it’s difficult to make the bridging scenes more interesting. Then there’s a terrific wind up. This has been a good year so far for very unconventional fantasies of exceptional quality. 5/27/09
The Little Mermaid: A Broadway Musical by Michael Lassell, Disney, 2009, $40, ISBN 978-142311272-3
I wasn’t even aware that this Disney story had been adapted as a Broadway musical, but here is a companion book, filled with full color photographs of the cast, illustrations from the graphic version, photos of the various people involved, concept drawings, and a great deal of text. All of the characters are profiled in detail as well as details of how the show was prepared, choreographed, cast, and performed. There’s a gallery of undersea art that contains some striking pieces. Although there are a lot of pictures, there is enough text to tell me almost more than I cared to know about the production. One of the snazziest looking tie-in books I’ve seen. 5/23/09
Storm Front by Jim Butcher and Mark Powers, Del Rey, 2009, $22.95, ISBN 978-0-345-50639-9
This is a full color, graphic adaptation of the first part of the Harry Dresden novel by Butcher. More presumably will follow. The story involves a missing husband who may have decided to take up sorcery as a hobby and some pretty gruesome murders. Harry gets involved despite his love hate relationship with the local police, and several subplots complicate issues. The adaptation seems to me fairly loyal – I haven’t read the book in several years. The artwork is generally quite good – although his depiction of Dresden doesn’t match mine even remotely. One of the better adaptations I’ve seen. 5/23/09
Night of Knives by Ian C. Esslemont, Tor, 5/09, $25.95, ISBN 978-0-7653-2369-9
Esslemont was the co-creator of the Malazan series which, up till now, was written exclusively by Steven Erikson. I believe this addition takes place early in the history of that world to avoid conflict with the other novels. Malaz is a small town rather than an empire, and it is at the time of this story a place of tension because a prophecy of dire events is about to come due. These events are supposed to herald the return of an earlier ruler and there are vested interests who are determined to prevent the dilution of their own power. Two rather ordinary citizens are caught up in the tide of events and find themselves drawn together to act as a catalyst in the events that are about to unfold around them. The story’s not bad but at times it felt more like a video game script than a novel, and I never really got vested in either of the protagonists. 5/20/09
Magic in the Blood by Devon Monk, Roc, 5/09, $6.99, ISBN 978-0-451-46267-1
I really enjoyed this author’s previous Magic to the Bone, and the sequel is equally entertaining. The setting is a bit different from most of the current crop of urban fantasies. Magic has balance, so if you gain something by performing a spell, there’s a loss somewhere else. It is also possible for some people, including the protagonist, to trace magic consequences back to the spell caster, which is particularly useful if someone uses magic for illegal purposes. In her second case, Allison Beckstrom is asked by the police to help with the investigation of what appears to be a run of the mill missing persons inquiry, but that’s just the veneer over a much darker plot involving ghosts and black magic. The unraveling of this one is quite well constructed, so I won’t spoil it by revealing too much. This is shaping up to be one of the best of its kind. 5/14/09
Storm Glass by Maria V. Snyder, Luna, 5/09, $13.95, ISBN 978-0-7783-2564-2
Maria Snyder’s recent trilogy for Luna was one of the better blends of romance and traditional fantasy. This new novel continues in that vein and sets up an interesting and original magic system. Magic powers are contained in glass artifacts, supposedly impregnable to outside attack. But someone has found a way to get around the defenses, and as a consequence many magic users were killed in a surprise attack. The protagonist is a combination glass blower and apprentice sorceress who is enlisted in the effort to create new defenses, but what she doesn’t know is that she is also the repository of a power that could tilt the balance in unexpected ways. Fantasy romance that works even for readers who aren’t interested in the romantic elements. 5/14/09
The Island by Tim Lebbon Bantam, 5/09, $12, ISBN 978-0-553-38468-0
Tim Lebbon wrote a lot of horror fiction before turning to fantasy, and therefore it’s no surprise that his fantasy frequently has a darker cast than does that of most of his contemporaries. This is the fifth book set in Noreela, a fairly straightforward fantasy world, whose inhabitants are endangered by the intrusions of the Strangers, outsiders with magical powers with evil plans. The protagonist of this one is a one time investigator who specialized in countering their attacks, but he’s in hiding now, working as a wood carver in a small village. When a mysterious island appears out of nowhere during a storm, he is the first to realize that this bodes no good, that it is evidence that the Strangers are still plotting. And then some of the people in the village begin behaving strangely. Very suspenseful, even creepy at times. 5/11/09
Starfinder by John Marco, DAW, 5/09, $24.95, ISBN 978-0-7564-0551-9
John Marco, who writes well if not often enough, kicks off what appears to be a new series with the first Skylords novel. He hit some of my positive buttons right away because I’ve always enjoyed stories with zeppelins in them since Prisoners of the Sky by C.C. MacApp and The Cloud Walker by Edmund Cooper to the more recent Airborn by Kenneth Oppel. Not that the story is about zeppelins, actually, but they were still a plus for me. The story is more specifically about the coming of age of Moth, a young man who lives in a city high in the mountains of an imaginary land. Moth aspires to be the pilot, or rider, of a dragonfly, a kind of aerial army that protects the city. Moth is also fascinated by stories of the Skylords, masters of the perhaps imaginary world beyond the mists that surround his homeland. You won’t be surprised to hear that the Skylords are real after all, or that Moth is about to meet them, but you’ll enjoy the buildup because Moth is a multi-dimensional character in a genuinely interesting fantasy world. His further adventures should be even better as we presumably will see more of his surroundings. 5/9/09
The Laurentine Spy by Emily Gee, Solaris, 2009, $7.99, ISBN 978-1-84416-603-0
There have been spies of one sort or another in a great many fantasy novels, but I’m not sure that I’ve ever read one before that was so obviously a spy story set in a fantasy world. Corhonase is a fairly typical fantasy venue, a mix of good and bad attributes, with a familiar looking aristocracy and a rather oppressed lower class. It also has a lot of foreign and domestic spies, including an ex-thief who has infiltrated the ballrooms and private parties of the elite in order to gather information about the intentions of the local government. Chief among these, from our point of view anyway, is a woman named Saliel who has the added advantage of being able to practice a limited form of magic. But she has to be careful because if found out, she could be executed as either a witch or a spy, depending upon which transgression comes to light. I liked this a lot better than the author’s first novel. The prose is better and the plot is much better. Possibly a name to watch for. 5/4/09