Slow Apocalypse by John Varley

November is almost here, which for those of us in the United States means election time. It's easy to get caught up in the rhetoric that's espoused at the conventions. What springs from that is a crazy notion that the two American political parties are separated by a legion of issues from abortion, to fiscal responsibility, to same sex marriage, to defense policy.

While it's certainly true that the extremes of the two parties disagree on most of these items, many of those who identify closer to center find themselves separated by one fundamental ideology. Democrats believe government creates opportunities, and Republicans believe it restricts them. Who's right? I've no idea and both parties often find themselves in hypocritical boxes (Pro-life policies for example seem more big government, than not). But, I often wish the debate could center around this issue because there's a lot of great academic work that's been done from both perspectives.

Why do I bring this up? John Varley's Slow Apocalypse, released September 4, contains a lot of political back drop, particularly as it relates to the government's role. Not in a traditional political sense, but asking the question of when everything goes to pieces, to whom can I turn to put it back together? Is it the government? Or is me? Varley answers the question resoundingly with the latter, demonstrating the failures of of the 'system' and the weaknesses it has foisted on us all.

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A Series of Short Audio Reviews

Having been on a work trip, I find myself spending a lot of time in the car commuting and driving to various meetings. The result is a lot of time with audio books. It's been a nice break and an opportunity to catch up on a few things I haven't been able to get into in print. The following three books are what I've recently finished. Before my trip is over I suspect to finish two more, John Steakley's Armor, and probably Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint. 

Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregellis

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm pretty much done with World War II. It's just been done to death, hasn't it? The History Channel might as well be Hitler Channel for crying out loud. Or at least that's what I said before I listened to Ian Tregellis' Bitter Seeds.

Beginning in the early stages of World War II, Bitter Seeds shows the secret history of the conflict between Germany's Gotterelektrongruppe (Nazi mutants, a la X-Men) and Britain's warlocks. Tregellis uses four points of view, two from each side, to tell an immense story in an intensely personal way. It works beautifully, interweaving real events with invented ones, while never losing site of the characters that drive them.

Structurally, the novel reminds me very much of Stina Leicht's Of Blood and Honey. They both tell a story over a long period of time, jumping in at appropriate moments in the characters' lives and then jumping forward to the next. It makes for a disjointed story at times, but allows the author to only show the important bits. Tregellis also writes incredibly descriptive prose without being verbose, making even his minor characters come alive. Narrator Kevin Pariseau takes all that and uses it to great effect, creating one of the best audio book presentations I've ever listened to.

Bitter Seeds is a novel that should appeal to fans of almost any genre. Even in its most reality bending moments it feels grounded, a history that's just out of reach. I highly recommend it in any format.

The Hammer and the Blade by Paul S. Kemp

No matter how much I tried, I couldn't make myself like Paul S. Kemp's The Hammer and the Blade.  It's a well put together novel, with entertaining characters and a good enough plot. Yet, even with the masterful narration of Nick Podehl, it couldn't overcome odd pacing, moments of sheer boredom, and plot devices that robbed the characters of agency. Oh, and a first chapter that I bounced on four times before finally getting past it.

Although I mention a host of issues, the one that most frustrates me is the pace and structure of the narrative. The novel begins with Nix and Egil (or Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, or Locke and Jean, or Royce and Hadrian, et. al,) in a tomb, robbing it of the appropriate treasure and narrowly escaping with their lives. It's dungeon crawling at its finest--funny, mildly horrifying, and pulse pounding. It's also the last time the reader gets to enjoy that dynamic until the novel's penultimate chapter. Instead, Kemp gives the reader the machinations of a morally bankrupt sorcerer or Egil and Nix sitting in a bar drinking, puttering around blasted landscapes, and all the while grousing. In either case it induced in me long stretches of disinterest.

All that goes to say, it didn't work for me. I wouldn't discourage anyone from trying it themselves; it's been well received by hosts of reviewers I trust. My negativity could very well have been a result of wrong place and time for The Hammer and the Blade. I certainly won't hesitate to give Kemp another shot with his next novel despite my frustrations with this one.

Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein

Can you believe I've never read Starship Troopers? Me either! It wasn't the book I was expecting, bearing almost no resemblance to the film. I should have known better having read several of Robert Heinlein's other works.

Told in the first person by Juan Rico, a recently graduated teenager who enlists in the military, Starship Troopers recounts his experience from high school graduation to commissioned officer in the Mobile Infantry. The result is a no-nonsense look at a future dominated by the military, where humanity has embraced notions of duty and responsibility to his common man. I found it both immensely moving and horrifying in equal parts.

The vast majority of the narrative centers around Rico's training and conditioning, first in bootcamp, and later his memories of lessons taught in History and Moral Philosophy, a mandatory class every high school student is required to take. Throughout Heinlein waxes about social mores and the human condition--the things that separate us from other living organisms. It's fascinating and stimulating, often making my mind wander away from the story itself as I pondered the implications.

For Heinlein these mind expanding moments are absolutely vital to the success of the novel because the narrative itself is bone dry (a fact only enhanced by Lloyd James' detached reading). Rico shows little development as a character, often reacting to stimuli as designed, but rarely taking the time to ponder its implications. Instead, Heinlein leaves that to the reader. Very reminiscent of Ayn Rand's work, Starship Troopers isn't about the story, or even the characters, its about demonstrating a line of thought, a philosophical back and forth with his reader. Just like Rand's work, the reader's appreciation of it will vary greatly depending on the level of common ground he can find with author.

Either way, it's a vital piece of science fiction history and a novel I recommend wholeheartedly to anyone interested in how the genre got where it is today.

King of Thorns - Mark Lawrence

Prince of Thorns, Mark Lawrence's 2011 debut novel, was not well received in all corners, occasionally offending reader sensibilities. Jorg, the protagonist and narrator throughout the series, is a self interested often bloodthirsty teenager who's ruled equally by his emotions and lack thereof. Those hoping for a redemptive tale, or an ultimately apologetic tone from the author, found themselves woefully bereft. Deeply disturbing, and written with a haunting elegance, I called it the best fantasy debut of 2011. To say I was eagerly anticipating its sequel, King of Thorns, would be an understatement akin to George R.R. Martin sells a few books.

Jorg, no longer a wandering prince in search of revenge, has taken a throne. Not his father's or the Empire's, but it's a start. The path he carved has made him visible to those who share his lust for power, and now a six nation army marches toward his gates, led by a man far more suited to rule than he. An honorable man would lay down his sword and join the fledgling Empire in peace, leaving his kingdom whole and his people alive. That doesn't sound like Jorg, does it?

While Prince of Thorns was structured with frequent flashbacks, jumping between the past and present, there was a pace and direction to the novel that was clear, concise, and full of intent. The recollections merely filled in the back story, without directly participating in the primary narrative. King of Thorns is murkier. Instead of showing Jorg's past and how it influenced his future as he did in Prince of Thorns, Lawrence opts to merge two time periods into a single narrative with the present influencing the past and vice versa.

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Dauntless - Jack Campbell

Jack Campbell came highly recommended. Myke Cole, author of Shadow Ops: Control Point, instructed an entire room of people at a recent convention to read Dauntless. Putting aside the fact that Cole and Campbell share an agent and a publisher, his strong opinion on the subject piqued my interest. Of course, it didn't hurt that my fellow bloggers Rob and Kathryn of SFFWorld like wise urged me. What I discovered is quintessential military science fiction that extrapolates naval combat into the vacuum of space with a real knack for storytelling despite archetypal characters, an extremely linear plot, and workmanlike prose.

Read that last sentence again. Dauntless is uninspired in a lot of ways except one and it's a big one. It's an absolute blast to read. In fact, it's such an entertaining read that I don't hesitate to call it the perfect cozy novel for the military science fiction fan.

It's essentially the story of a war between the Alliance and the Syndicate. As the name would suggest, the Syndicate functions something like an evil corporation who cares nothing for the cogs in the wheel, just the products it produces. Meanwhile, the Alliance is a functioning government by the people, for the people, or so the rhetoric goes in a story told entirely from their point of view.

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Guest Post | Douglas Hulick in the Trenches

Bringing up the rear, is Douglas Hulick, author of one of the most exciting novels of 2011, Among Thieves. I bought the novel electronically. After reading it, I was stunned to learn that it was limited to a mass market paperback. Similar to 2012 debut author Myke Cole's Control Point (also an Ace/Roc mass market paperback), Among Thieves became a success due almost entirely to word of mouth as opposed to the big-six marketing machine.

Hulick's novel adds a new chapter to the thief subgenre and it stands out as the best thing to happen to it since Scott Lynch's masterpiece, The Lies of Locke Lamora. It's also unique in the characterization of Drothe, Hulick's protagonist and narrator. Namely, he's not special. The result is a character that the reader can identify with in a personal way even while he accomplishes things way outside the purview of his natural ability.

Let's see what he has to say about writing his sequel, Sworn in Steel...

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For the last post in this series about debut authors and their second novels, it seems only fitting that I come at the subject from a slightly different direction. Where all my predecessors have talked to you from the perspective of someone who's finished their sophomore effort, I'm going to talk to you from the trenches directly. See, I haven't finished my second novel. In fact, it's pretty damn late.

How damn late? Let's just say I was expecting to have my third book in the series done and turned in by now.

Of course, it's not like I planned for this to happen. As Mazarkis mentioned earlier this week, I was well aware of what was riding on the second book, not only for readers, but also for my reputation as a writer. Plus, I had the added advantage of being in a SF/F writer's group that can count over forty professionally published novels among its seven members. None of what was coming, be it deadlines or marketing distractions or the limits imposed by a previous book, were news to me. I had, through my fellows, seen it all before. There should have been no surprises.

And yet, here I sit, 18 months past deadline, still carving my way through the forest that is Book 2 (otherwise known as Sworn in Steel).

What happened?

I could give you a blow by blow of my progress and stumbles and discoveries, but really, it all comes down to one thing: I forgot how to write. Or, to be more precise, I forgot how I write.

For a long while, I kept blaming my delay on my method of plotting. I was always a pantser, meaning that, beyond a general character and story arc, and maybe a bit of plot, I didn't plan a whole lot. After all, I'd taken over a decade to get my first book on paper: surely it was my meandering about the page, following characters who at times seemed to be under the influence of too many tequila shooters, that had caused my delay. Couldn't I point at my earlier process for my current downfall?

But then I looked at my legal pad, heavy with outline and plot points; at what I had of my first draft, directed and, if not tight, still arguably endowed with strong forward momentum. No, I couldn't lay it at plot's door.

How about speed, then? Lord knew I'd always been a slow writer. Doubling my daily word count after my first book had initially involved going from 250 words a day to 500. (That may not seem like much, but please understand that I have, on average, four hours a day to write, five days a week, nine months out of the year. So, yeah, sloooow.) If it wasn't plot, then it had to be my sheer glacial pace.

Except, at the end of a year's worth of work on Sworn in Steel I had generated almost 200,000 words in total. That was a full 75,000 above and beyond my target. And while not all words are good words, still...come on. 200K? It wasn't lack of production.

So what was it? Blind alleys in the story? Too much verbiage? Too easily distra---oh, look a penny!

All were problems, yes, but none could explain the key issue I was having. None gave me a reason for my inability to *finish the damn book.*

And then, it hit me. In all the preparation, all the planning, all the daily word counts and plot points, I'd forgotten how I'd written the first (and my only, to date) book. In my attempt to get Sworn in Steel done, to get it ready to be handed over to my editor, I kept looking to the final version my first book, Among Thieves, as a guide post. That was the mistake.

Even though Among Thieves wasn't on the bookstore shelves when I started Sworn in Steel, it was still a polished piece of work. It had gone through innumerable rewrites on my end before being submitted, and then edited and copyedited as well. The only problem was, this had taken place over the course of years--years which conveniently fell out of my memory. All I saw was the final product--the tightly plotted, fast-paced novel that had secured me a three book contract with a Big Six publisher. And that's what I set out to write.

In short, what tripped me up was that I tried to write the final draft as my first draft. And while that probably sounds bad enough on its own, add on the fact that I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my work (“a bit”? I can hear my wife saying, along with peals of sarcastic laughter), and, well, you can see where things went off the rails.

So, have I learned anything? Looking at the above, yeah, I think I can say that I have. (I damn well better have, or Book 3 is gonna kill me!) But even more than the nuts & bolts stuff, I realized that, as much as we may beat ourselves up as new authors, there are people who are still rooting for us (even when we're horribly late). Editors, agents, and especially readers (oh, BLESS the readers, who have been unfailingly polite, not to mention the first ones to tell me to “take as long as you need”) who honestly want to see us and our books succeed. Fellow writers who nod and worry and call in the middle of the afternoon to say, “Dude, are you alright? You've gone missing for, like, three weeks....” Family and friends who grit their teeth and put up with us as we try to navigate this new career and all the stresses it can entail.

The second book is, in many ways, a much more lonely, terrifying, and frustrating slog than the freshman effort. It is our first real exposure to what it means to be a professional writer. And, as we've seen these last two weeks, it's a different experience for each of us. But it's also very much that same, in that we each learn not only how to push and stretch and believe in ourselves, but also how much we aren't alone in this after all.

***

You can find Douglas Hulick on the web and Twitter. Be sure to visit the former to learn more about the Tales of the Kin series. Hulick is a 17th century Italian rapier combat (in the tradition of Ridolfo Capoferro) hobbyist. Come to WorldCon and watch him teach it!

Unfortunately, because Sworn in Steel is deep in the editorial process, there won't be an excerpt later today. I'm sobbing too. It's ok. Instead, I'll be announcing a huge grand prize giveaway to commemorate the end of Debut Authorpalooza 2012. Stay tuned.

Guest Post | Mark Lawrence on Scary Shit

Prince of Thorns was one of those books I had to buy. For a book reviewer, who gets plenty of free reading options, that's a significant factoid -- especially for a debut author. But, Mark Lawrence's debut had such an incredible amount of buzz it demanded my attention.

Reading him for the first time left a strange taste in my mouth. His protagonist is completely unlikeable, loathsome even. And yet... two words that demonstrate the kind of talent Lawrence possesses as a writer. Despite all of Jorg Ancrath's despicable qualities I want so much to know his story. If you haven't given Prince of Thorns a try, or you're on the fence about reading King of Thorns (my review will be done soon), hopefully this post will set you on the righteous path, a direction wantonly ignored by Lawrence's boy king.

Mark Lawrence leads off Debut Authorpalooza 2012.

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Writing book two is some scary shit!

It would have been much worse if I were writing it now after seeing the reception that Prince of Thorns received. Firstly I would feel all those fans of book one at my shoulder, wanting book two to blow their minds. Secondly I would have had a vociferous minority of critical voices nagging at me, scratching away at the back of my thoughts, and quite possibly cramping my style. Most likely by me going out of my way to irk them further!

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Upcoming Ace/Roc, DAW Releases - Fall/Winter

Now that we're at the halfway mark for the year, I thought it would appropriate to point out all the novels coming out from August-December that strike my fancy. I'll be breaking my posts down by publisher. Below are the novels coming this Fall and Winter from Ace/Roc and DAW that will be must reads for me. The truth is though, I can't read them all. So I'll be looking forward to seeing what interests you.

Here's what caught my eye:


The King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence (August)

The Broken Empire burns with the fires of a hundred battles as lords and petty kings battle for the all-throne. The long road to avenge the slaughter of his mother and brother has shown Prince Honorous Jorg Ancrath the hidden hands behind this endless war. He saw the game and vowed to sweep the board. First though he must gather his own pieces, learn the rules of play, and discover how to break them. 

A six nation army, twenty thousand strong, marches toward Jorg's gates, led by a champion beloved of the people. Every decent man prays this shining hero will unite the empire and heal its wounds. Every omen says he will. Every good king knows to bend the knee in the face of overwhelming odds, if only to save their people and their lands. But King Jorg is not a good king. 

Faced by an enemy many times his strength Jorg knows that he cannot win a fair fight. But playing fair was never part of Jorg’s game plan.

The truth is, I've already read this and it's amazing. Next!

Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines (August)

Isaac Vainio has spent the past two years working at the Copper River Library in northern Michigan, secretly cataloguing books for their magical potential, but forbidden from using that magic himself . . . except for emergencies. Emergencies like a trio of young vampires who believe Isaac has been killing their kind, and intend to return the favor. 

Isaac is a libriomancer, brilliant but undisciplined, with the ability to reach into books and create objects from their pages. And attacking a libriomancer in his own library is never a good idea. 

But vampires are only the beginning. This was merely the latest in a series of attacks against members of Die Zwelf Portenære, a secret organization founded five centuries ago by Johannes Gutenberg to protect the world from supernatural threats. But things are worse than Isaac imagined. An unknown killer of unimaginable power has been torturing and murdering humans and vampires alike. And Gutenberg, now more than six hundred years old, has disappeared. 

As Isaac searches for Gutenberg and the murderer, hoping they aren’t one and the same, he uncovers dark secrets about magic’s history and potential. Secrets which could destroy Die Zwelf Portenære and loose a magical war upon the world. If Isaac is to have any hope of preventing that war, he will have to truly master the magic of libriomancy.

I've wanted to read Hines for a while, but more because I wanted to read him than because I wanted to read his goblin novels. Not that I don't like goblins. They just don't grab me. 

Libriomancer on the other hand looks like a tremendously fun young adult urban fantasy novel. It couldn't come at a better time for Hines who received a Best Fan Writer Hugo nomination. Could this be a big coming out year for him? I'm pretty sure this book is waiting for me on my doorstep right now, so stay tuned!

Clean by Alex Hughes (September)

Adam used to work for the Telepath’s Guild before they kicked him out for a drug habit that wasn’t entirely his fault. Now he works for the cops, helping put killers behind bars. His ability to get inside the twisted minds of suspects makes him the best interrogator in the department. But the cops don’t trust the telepaths, the Guild doesn't trust Adam, a serial killer is stalking the city—and Adam is aching for a fix. But he needs to solve this case. Adam’s just had a vision of the future: he’s the next to die.

This falls into the 'I don't read urban fantasy, but try it sometimes' category. Clean has an intriguing conceit. For some reason anytime something talks about a Guild with a capital G, I get excited. Who knows why?


Slow Apocalypse by John Varley (September)

Despite wars with Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as 9/11, the United States’ dependence on foreign oil has kept the nation tied to the Middle East. A scientist has developed a cure for America’s addiction — a slow-acting virus that feeds on petroleum, turning it solid. But he didn’t consider that his contagion of an Iraqi oil field would spread to infect the fuel supply of the entire world... 

In Los Angeles, screenwriter Dave Marshall heard this scenario from a retired U.S. Marine and government insider who acted as a consultant on Dave’s last film. It sounded as implausible as many of his scripts, but the reality is much more frightening than anything he can envision. And now he must protect his wife and daughter from the coming apocalypse that will alter the future of Earth — and humanity...

Tom Clancy has called John Varley the best living American writer. While he's received some critical acclaim over the years, he's never quite broken through into the big bucks. He says on his website, "I will say to you that this novel is NOT like anything I've written before. I am so pleased to see my old friend George RR Martin raking in the dough; this is my attempt to reach a larger audience, like he has..." Sounds interesting to me.

Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman (October)

In the year 1348, Thomas, a disgraced knight, comes upon an orphan of the Black Plague. An unnerving picture of innocence, she tells Thomas that the disease is only part of a greater, more significant cataclysm — that the fallen angels under Lucifer are rising in a second war on heaven. 

Is she really blessed? Or is it delirium? As hell unleashes its fury, as the true nature of the girl is revealed, Thomas will find himself in a macabre battleground of angels and demons, sinners and saints, and a damnable struggle for nothing less than the soul of man.

Buehlman gained some recognition last year with his debut novel, Those Across the River. More of a gothic horror novel, I'm not sure how much it resonated with the kind of folks who read this blog. It certainly didn't hold any interest to me. His second novel seems much more in-line with what I generally expect from Ace. It might bear some similarities to Teresa Frohock's Miserere: An Autumn Tale that I liked so well last year, perhaps?


The Cassandra Project by Jack McDevitt and Mike Resnick (November)

Two science fiction masters—Jack McDevitt and Mike Resnick — team up to deliver a classic thriller, in which one man uncovers the secret history of the U.S. space program... 

A half-century after the first moon landing, NASA is plagued with public disinterest and budget cuts. Still, public affairs director Jerry Culpepper does his job, trying to drum up interest in the legacy of the agency. Then a fifty-year old secret about the Apollo 11 mission is revealed, and he finds himself embroiled in the biggest controversy of the twenty-first century, one that will test his ability — and his willingness — to spin the truth about a conspiracy of reality-altering proportions...

I've never been a big fan of collaborations because they usually mean a big name author is sticking their name on it and the much less experienced author is doing the writing. See Tom Clancy or James Patterson. That isn't the case with The Cassandra Project as both McDevitt and Resnick are recognized at the top of their field. Either way, they had me at "secret history of the U.S. space program." God I love secret histories!

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Anything catch your eye? Anything else from the Penguin imprints that I didn't mention for the second half of the year?

Pod - Stephen Wallenfels

Warning. Short Review. It's a short book!

Yesterday, someone whom I did not know very well walked up to me and asked, "I've been hearing about this post-apocalypse thing. The The Windup Girl was too gnarly for me, Seed sounds like an agriculture text book, The Stand is eleventy billion pages too long, and The Hunger Games makes me want to eat a sandwich, what should I read to see what all the hubbub is about?" It was a fortuitous moment as I had just a few days prior finished reading Stephen Wallenfels's Pod. That's because Pod is easy to stomach, has aliens instead of seeds, clocks in well under 300 pages, and tells an extremely authentic story about some teenage kids. Sure the novel uses some well worn tropes, and contains a veiled political message I'm not terribly jazzed about, but the final product is an expertly fashioned young adult appropriate novel that I could not put down.

Set in what appears in all respects to be the modern day, Pod begins with the arrival of giant spinning black balls in the sky. An alien presence, or some kind of watcher from beyond, the balls strike dead anyone caught outside. They also seem to have a penchant for automobiles. An observant reader will quickly pick-up on Wallelfels's undertones that seem to suggest the invasion as a response to the Earth's current condition, and humanity as a herd that needs to be culled. As the novel goes along the characters notice new 'earthy' smells and wild animals returning to the world. It isn't judgmental, but hovers right on the edge, a fact that may turn off some readers. I found the whole thing a little unnecessary.

Narrative wise, Wallenfels tells his story from two perspectives: a hard luck twelve-year-old girl named Megs trapped in a hotel parking garage and sixteen year old Josh stuck at home with his borderline obsessive-compulsive father. Not surprisingly, the hotel quickly devolves into an authoritarian regime that Megs has to navigate for survival. Guns, drugs, and food are scarce resources. Josh, on the other hand, is staving off a different kind of crisis -- teenaged angst locked up with an overprotective father.  It's in this setting where Pod shines best. Wallenfels perfectly captures the teenage boy psyche as Josh and his father try to relate to one another.

All told, Pod tells a simple story with simple themes -- human nature is selfishness and aliens probably aren't going to show up to make friends. It eschews the grand apocalypse story that's become so popular in recent years, choosing instead to tell an intensely personal one on a minuscule scale. For the experienced post-apocalypse and/or alien invasion reader, there's very little new to Stephen Wallenfels's debut. But that shouldn't be misconstrued to mean it isn't worthwhile. Pod is an excellent example of the subgenre and something I would encourage everyone to share with their favorite teenaged reader.

Blue Remembered Earth - Alastair Reynolds

Blue Remembered Earth. Great title, isn't it? The evocative image of leaving Earth behind, only to remember its color in the blackness of space. It's an image that resonates on a visceral level. It also perfectly describes the nature of the technological period imagined -- the moment when Earth no longer becomes the center of humanity. Vast in scope and dense with character development and world building, Alastair Reynold's newest novel is a return to Utopian science fiction whose story isn't about the darker side of humanity, but the boundaries of our collective horizons.

Set one hundred and fifty years in the future, Africa has become the dominant technological and economic power. Crime, war, disease, and poverty have been banished to history courtesy of mandatory implants that curb and/or correct deviant behavior. While humanity has colonized the nearby planets, Earth remains the center of attention with known(ish) physics underpinning the whole operation.

Geoffrey Akinya is heir to the corporate super power that makes much of it possible. He's also a loner, living on the family estate and conducting experiments on the endangered elephant population that lives there. When his grandmother and company founder, Eunice, dies, Geoffrey's more entrepreneurial cousins task him to ensure the family's name remains unblemished after mysterious assets come to light.

It's really as simple as that. Blue Remembered Earth is a classic quest novel. One clue leads to the next, leads to the next, leads to an eventual big reveal that opens up a host of new possibilities for future novels. Given this standard narrative structure, Reynolds's novel places a premium on thematic exploration, characterizations, and world building. The degree to which he does it makes the novel a rousing success despite a plot that's as inventive as hyperdrive.

Admittedly, I wondered in the early going whether Reynolds was writing a novel or transcribing a science fictional reality television show about the African Walton Family. Entitled rich kids, a black sheep, an artist, the old guy, and a few insensitive assholes made up the cast who spend page after page just living their lives. As things progressed, I began to appreciate the pacing. Reynolds folds his world building into his characterizations and plot seamlessly, never resorting to sloppy info dumps or exposition. Does it cost him an extra hundred pages along the way? Probably. But it's time well spent, delivering a crystal clear picture of his imagined future and characters that shine.

From that basic framework Blue Remembered Earth takes a different approach than so much of today's genre fiction. Not dark or grimy, Reynolds spins a yarn that reflects on something inherently optimistic -- wonder and awe.

"Geoffrey had never been further than the Moon in his life. The sun was now more than thirty times as distant as it appeared from his home, and the light it offered was over nine hundred times fainter. It was a bullet hole punched in the sky, admitting a pencil-shaft of watery yellow illumination, too feeble to be called sunshine. For the first time in his life he truly understood that his home orbited a star."

It's not all roses among the stars though and Reynolds's excellent prose communicates the fear of the unknown and the inherent claustrophobia of space. If it's a throw back to Arthur C. Clarke science fiction as some might observe, it's a throwback with an understanding for the modern reader, embracing something of the space opera tropes and melding them with the hard science fiction tradition.

I have little doubt that there will be detractors out there. Blue Remembered Earth is not a thrill a minute science fiction. Slow burn is an accurate discriptor, but even once things get moving there is little action. Instead Reynolds offers the tension of space walks, faulty heat shields, and out of control robots. Perhaps such conceits no longer hold mystery for the cynical reader. They do for me and I found Alastair Reynolds's first effort in the Poseidon’s Children series to be an exceptional piece of milieu science fiction.

Triggers - Robert J. Sawyers

Robert J. Sawyer is one of those names that float through the genre world that everyone presumes everyone else has read. Especially since his starring role on the hit television show Lost -- he's really good looking isn't he? Regardless, I was ashamed to admit that I'd never read Sawyer, who isn't quite genre and isn't quite mainstream, falling instead into an odd gully occupied by the likes of Michael Crichton, Margaret Atwood, and Peter F. Hamilton (that's a joke). Triggers, his newest novel set in a very near future United States, broke that pattern of behavior for me, but didn't entirely convince me of his status as an industry icon.

In Sawyer's vision of the future, terrorism and fear have overtaken America. Bombs in Chicago, San Francisco, and Philadelphia have been detonated to catastrophic result. President Seth Jerrison has had enough. On the day before an unprecedented strike against the Middle East, an assassin's bullet strikes him during an address to the nation at the Lincoln Memorial. Rushed to the hospital (not George Washington Hospital?), surgeons struggle to save his life.

At the same hospital, researcher Dr. Ranjip Singh is treating a soldier suffering from PTSD. An expert on memory, Dr. Singh has developed an experimental device that can erase traumatic memories. When another terrorist bomb detonates, destroying the White House in the process, the blast perverts Singh's device, causing a group of people to access one another's minds. Now someone has access to the president's memories -- including classified information regarding the upcoming military mission. The task of determining who has switched memories with whom falls to the agent-in-change of the President's Secret Service detail, Susan Dawson, who's got problems of her own.

For all intents and purposes, Triggers is more psychological thriller than big idea science fiction. Sawyer's premise that an experimental memory machine gone haywire causes individuals to share memories isn't all that out there in a world where Flashforward and Momento have run the proverbial traps. He lays enough scientific foundation to suspend the reader's disbelief, but not so much that it becomes the novel's focus. Instead the focus remains on his cast of characters, how they interact with one another, and the inherent biases that make up their perceptions.

In that way, Triggers is not unlike the 1957 Sidney Lumet film 12 Angry Men, which was a character study of twelve white men sitting in judgement of a Latino teenager. In the film Lumet has:

"the self-made man who angrily remembers his son's defiance of authority. There is the garage owner seething with racial prejudice. There is the calm stockbroker who seriously has arrived at his verdict of guilty. There is the wise-cracking salesman anxious to vote so as to be able to get out to the ball game. There is the handsome, vacillating Madison Avenue advertising man. There is an old man, wise and benign with the years. And there is a refugee watchmaker who is appreciative of the ideals and freedoms of democracy." (N.Y. Times, A.H. Wheeler, 1957)

Sawyer likewise delves into the heads of each of his afflicted and disparate subjects, from the racist eighty-seven year old woman, to the opportunistic and libido driven attorney, to the misguided, but committed leader of the free world. Rather than a young man on trial for his life, Sawyer's defendant is the President's response to terrorism and the rightness of an eye for an eye. By the novel's conclusion his position is self evident. Using his cast of characters to ask what makes people unique and how those attributes color their interactions with the world, Sawyer ultimately focuses on those that unify.

Oh, did I have the wrong

Sawyer?

Unity, in the sense that there is or should be or could be some factor that brings 'us' all together, is a the underlying theme of Sawyer's novel and it's one I struggled with on a personal level. Perhaps that's why I found Triggers so underwhelming in the final moments. Sawyer carefully constructs tension built on the notion that the President's knowledge of a secret attack could be revealed at any moment, calling into question the safety and security of the United States. The resolution to the problem cuts through that tension like the Gordian Knot, not so much invalidating the narrative as rendering it obsolete. Even had I found the conclusion uplifting, as was surely intended, and not horrifying and off-putting, the consequences of it to the larger narrative remain intolerable to me.

That said, the construction and build-up to the conclusion are without peer. Sawyer demonstrates a tremendous ability to write compelling characters that cannot be ignored and a knack for pace. Going into the final pages I was already considering Triggers to be one of the better novels I've read this year. Of course, that makes my ultimate verdict so much harder to hand down. While Sawyer's newest novel contends for excellence, it fails to deliver on the promises made in the early chapters. What is presented as, and reads like, a techno-thriller, concludes like a novel with a philosophical agenda that's ill-suited to the trappings around it.

Fans of Robert J. Sawyer, and new readers alike, will find lots of like here, but I fear disappointment will be the most common outcome of its conclusion. Triggers is due out April 3, 2012 wherever books are sold.

Curious Covers - Prince of Thorns

Last year, Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence was one of the most well received first novels in some time. Debuting to both commercial and critical success, Lawrence has had several reprints, and will be released in paperback in the UK in April.  Any day now the foreign editions are going to start popping up.  Wait, what?  The Spanish edition is out?  Well, let's take a look!

Wait... is that the same illustration from the US and UK editions?  No.  No it's not.  Sure looks like it though, doesn't it?

Oh, wait, maybe they just altered some of the color and shadows like they did on the paperback edition in the UK?

No, that doesn't appear to be the case.  It appears that the Spanish publisher (Minotauro) just copied the illustration and did their own version of it.  The original cover was done by the great Jason Chan, and for all I know so was the Spanish one.  I don't know what I don't know.  Maybe the conflict was between Ace and Minotauro about the cover rights, so Minotauro just asked Chan to do a redux version.

Even if everything is above board (I'm assuming it is), basically copying a cover design is lame.  I can understand reusing a great cover like Chan's on every edition, but recreating it?  I just don't get it.  If you're paying to have a new illustration done, why not do something new, that's customized for your market?  Minotauro should just look across the Pyrenees Mountains and take a lesson from Bragelonne who's doing unquestionably the best cover work in the world right now.

A few awesome covers from Bragelonne while I'm on the subject:

Shadow Ops: Control Point - Myke Cole

Ever read a novel and say... I can't say anything bad about it?  That's pretty much the case with Myke Cole's debut novel Shadow Ops: Control Point.  It's not a great novel; it lacks the artistic flair of something by K.J. Parker or the deep emotional resonance of something like The Tiger's Wife (Obreht).  It is, however, a very good one that tells a compelling story connected to well conceived world building and substantial undercurrents.  After finishing it I'm flabbergasted that Ace decided to only release it in mass market paperback as I've read few novels that will appeal to such a broad spectrum of readers.

Control Point begins with a scene too familiar to the American mind -- school shooting.  In this case, the students are shooting fire.  Across the country and in every nation, people are waking up with magical talents. Untrained and panicked, they summon storms, raise the dead, and set everything they touch ablaze.  They're latents, young people incapable of controlling in-born magical power, and because of it they've been marked for termination.

Oscar Britton, Cole's protagonist, is an officer attached to the military's Supernatural Operations Corps.  His mission is to bring order to a world gone mad.  An archetypal military officer, Britton believes in his government despite struggling to obey orders in conflict with his personal code.  Having read Cole's reflection on his time spent serving in Iraq, I can only venture a guess at the nascence of Britton's internal conflict.  When Britton suddenly manifests a power of his own, he's forced to reevaluate his conflict and his answer is to run.

He doesn't get very far and in that moment he becomes a part of Shadow Ops.  I won't say anymore as the revelation of where things go from there is a real treat.  Cole moves away from what resembles urban fantasy and into something wholly new.  Control Point isn't urban fantasy or military science fiction (I've seen it referred to as both), but rather a blending of the two -- military urban fantasy.  It's a combination I've not seen before and one that works because of Cole's authentic point of view as an active member of the U.S. Armed Forces.

To have a discussion about the novel, it's almost mandatory to know something about Cole himself.  He did three tours in Iraq -- some as a security contractor and some as a Coast Guard officer.  He's served as a government civilian, working Coun­tert­er­rorism and Cyber War­fare and he was recalled to serve during the Deep­water Horizon oil spill.  Talk to him for a minute and his passion for service is palpable.  Given that, I was stunned by the skeptical lens by which he examines government and those who serve it.  The impetus for the novel begins with the question, what would the government do if magic existed and it was illegal?  Cole's answer is: establish a secret government agency to control it and use it for its own purposes.

Ok, so maybe that's not so much of a leap.  But, beyond that the core of Cole's novel is the conflict of duty and mortality and self-preservation and self-sacrifice.  He forces Britton to make choices about where duty ends -- at what point has the government asked you, as an individual, to do too much to your own humanity to continue?  Taking it a step further, he asks at what point is it your responsibility to fight against the establishment asking you to do those things?  Cole tries to answer these moral riddles, but in so doing admits the answers are as elusive as right and wrong in a world gone gray.

While all of these themes operate beneath the story, the primary take away is that Shadow Ops: Control Point is an absolute blast to read.  Oscar Britton is a fallible, modern character, and Cole surrounds him with a vibrant cast.  The plot won't be confused for a twisty thriller, but it gives a creative world and dynamic characters the space to shine, which they absolutely do.

I received my ARC for Control Point back in October, started it the same day, and finished it two days after.  If you're a lover of fantasy, comic books (X-Men parallels are prevalent), and/or video games, my advice is to run, don't walk, to your nearest bookseller and buy a copy on February 1.  I predict Myke Cole's debut is going to be a monster success -- don't make me wrong.

Among Thieves - Douglas Hulick

Among Thieves is the fifth book I've read this year that I put in the, "This was published because of Scott Lynch" category.  I'm not going to make a big deal about it.  One has nothing to do with the other beyond the fact that editors know they sell because they've sold something like it before.  Ironically, had Douglas Hulick's debut been published in 2006 the category might be named after him.

Drothe - Hulick's protagonist, narrator, and golden boy - is a nose.  In thieves' cant, that means he's an information gatherer.  Working for one of the nastiest crime bosses in Ildrecca, Drothe also dabbles in his fair share of criminal racketeering.  When an Imperial relic he's trafficking goes missing, he'll do just about anything to get it back.  In this case, anything includes brutal torture and manipulating everyone around him.

All that sounds pretty straight forward which does Among Thieves a great disservice.  Not only is Hulick's novel densely plotted (the above 'summary' is the tip of the iceberg), it contains one of the better first person voices in recent memory.  Starting the novel with a brutal torture of one of Drothe's associates, Hulick leads the reader to believe that his main character is morally bankrupt.  Drothe supports the point, thinking it's all quite distasteful, but nothing to lose sleep over.  Afterward he continues to make cutthroat decisions... until they aren't.  And yet, his thoughts don't always recognize the shift, leading me to believe that Drothe is not necessarily as dog-eat-dog as he tries to make himself believe.

While much of the book is medieval spy fiction, there are moments of all out swashbuckling. Hulick, an 17th century Italian rapier combat enthusiast, brings incredible voracity to his fight scenes.  They always conjure a clear sense of energy, but also a technical precision that screams close familiarity.  Unfortunately, Drothe is a pretty average swordsman so most of the fight scenes are him struggling to keep up.  I can only imagine the level of detail Hulick could drill down to inside the head of an adept duelist (Degan, anyone?).

That's an appropriate segue into an area that Among Thieves shines - characters.  For a first person narrative Hulick does a bang up job drawing his cast of ne'er-do-wells.  Degan, a professional mercenary, gets the most screen time as Drothe's protector and best friend.  From the street contacts, to crime bosses, to Imperial guards, Among Thieves is populated with characters that bleed off the page.  It's all too easy for a first person novel to end up with cardboard cutouts for ancillary characters, but in the moment Hulick had me believing their lives continued whether Drothe was there to listen, or not.

As for problem areas, there aren't a lot.  In fact, my only major complaint is that Hulick occasionally ruins his narration with exposition. Most of it takes place in the early going, but in choosing a first person style any sort of exposition sticks out like a sore thumb.  It reminds the reader that he's reading a book written by someone who isn't the narrator.  A certain discipline is required when there's a large amount of information to convey and it's always easier in the third person.

For minor complaints, I found the pace almost too fast.  I never had a chance to take in the scenery leaving me somewhat lukewarm about Hulick's setting.  His city, Ildrecca, isn't clear in my mind, nor are the political workings of the larger empire.  I kept wondering if a few establishing scenes early on before Drothe got pulled into the main plot would have improved the novel's general ambiance.

In a year of strong debuts, Among Thieves is surprisingly one of the best.  If I'm being honest, and, as my readers know (I hope), I always am, the premise is not only familiar, but somewhat tired.  I've read dozens of novel with with a crafty thief and tough sidekick swordsman.  As in all things well worn though, there is a place for someone to do it well and Hulick did that and more.  Where many novels of this type lean heavily on the grittiness of the story to communicate some measure of gravitas, Hulick manages to leverage the relationship between Drothe and Degan into a frank discussion on the nature of commitment.  The ability to interweave some subtext behind what is cosmetically an adventure romp was a compelling and welcome addition.

That, combined with a dynamic voice, and well drawn characters make Among Thieves one of the better debuts of 2011.  Douglas Hulick has added a new chapter to the thief subgenre and it stands out as the best thing to happen to it since Lynch's masterpiece.  I can't wait for the sequel and anything else he churns out in the years to come.

You can follow Douglas Hulick on Twitter or on his website.

Prince of Thorns - Mark Lawrence

Prince of Thorns, by debut author Mark Lawrence, has been within the "buzzosphere", as Carles at Hipster Runoff might say, for the last eight months. Of course, hype doesn't always make right and recent hype-machine bull riders such as Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman and The Unremembered by Peter Orullian have met with reviews that trend negative. In Lawrence's place I may have been a bit nervous given how long the reviewing community has had their hands on the novel. As it turns out, Me-Mark would have been wrong. Prince of Thorns has been almost universally praised as one of the best debuts of the year and I don't disagree.  

When Prince Honorous Jorg Ancrath was nine, he watched his mother and brother killed before him. Three short years later he was the leader of a band of bloodthirsty thugs on the run from his responsibilities as heir to the throne.  Since the day he was hung on the thorns of a briar patch and forced to watch Count Renar's men slaughter his family, Jorg has done little but vent his rage.  Under the tutelage of his Brother's, he's become a psychotic killer with little regard of anyone or anything.  Now the time has come to return home and face his demons, but treachery and dark magic await him in his father's castle.

My first reaction while reading Prince of Thorns was how much it reminded me of Fallout.  Remember Fallout?  It was a computer role playing game from the late-90's on the PC.  Set in a post-apocalyptic world it allowed for a lot open ended decision making by the player.  The first time I played through it, I was a hero, making all the good guy choices and enjoying the plot Interplay put together.  Great game.  Where things started to remind me of Lawrence's novel was on my second play through.  I decided, fuck it, and I just killed everything that got in my way.  Talk my way out of a situation? Nope - minigun!  In Prince of Thorns, the answer is always - minigun!

There are other similarities to the game, most notably that the setting is not second world fantasy and is instead post-apocalypse Earth.  This is hinted at in the early going as Jorg refers to philosophers like Nietzsche and Plato and places like Roma and Normardy (sic).  Still, most of the novel reads like a second world fantasy with knights, horses, and some as yet unexplained magic.  Technology does rear its head a few times, and I can only suspect that will continue in future installments in the planned trilogy.  For this reader, it worked well.  While things occasionally get close to the shark's event horizon (one scene in particular) they never clear it and with a modicum of suspension of disbelief everything makes sense.

As the short summary indicates the plot itself is rather humdrum - if not overtly simple.  As a result the novel succeeds (or fails) on the back of Lawrence's protagonist Jorg, a fourteen year old would-be-king of a fractured Empire.  Telling the entire story from inside the head of a deranged individual leads to some difficult moments.  There seems to be a trend in Science Fiction/Fantasy right now to produce first person narratives.  If I'm right and there is a trend, I think it stems from a movement to have more character driven stories.  The trend would fit right in Prince of Thorn's pocket.  Among the few bad reviews out there, most of them seem to center on the fact that they just couldn't read about an extremely troubled teenage killing machine who objectifies women, glorifies nihilism, and is willing to sacrifice anything or anyone to accomplish his goals.

None of that was particular problematic for me, but had Jorg been even an iota less compelling the book might have fallen flat on its face.  As it stands, Jorg is incredibly compelling and thus so is the novel.  Those who read the novel and paint Jorg as a sociopath or insane might be missing the mark.  Lawrence layers the narrative very well telling back story intermixed with current events.  As the layers peal away on the back story so to do the layers to Jorg's psychosis.  By the novel's conclusion there's a great deal of question about how many of his actions were his own.  On his twitter feed Lawrence mentioned that the novel was originally a stand alone before becoming a trilogy.  The questions left on the table about Jorg are very open to interpretation and as someone who loves to mull a book over after I finish it I almost wish this was the end of the story.

It seems to me that Mark Lawrence has accomplished something pretty extraordinary for a debut author.  His novel is functionally a psychological thriller of a young man walking a tight rope between insanity and genius.  None of this would have been possible without an incredible grasp of the language, how to use it to communicate complex imagery, and how to keep it all moving.  Lawrence has this is spades.  Many metaphors stick in my mind, most notably one discussing a swords sharpness as making the wind bleed (awesome, right?).  Additionally, the whole thing has a tremendous pace that had me finishing the novel in two relatively short sittings.

In an interesting a fit of parallel, I think Lawrence was walking a tight rope very similar to Jorg's.  Where Jorg's was a tight rope of sanity, Lawrence was walking one between authenticity and repulsiveness.  When someone gets that kind of finesse right, the end result is something spectacular and Prince of Thorns is that.  In a year of tremendous debuts, Lawrence deserves his place at the table.  I highly recommend anyone with a strong stomach read this immediately and I look forward to his sequel next year.