The City's Son by Tom Pollock

Tom Pollock writes beautiful prose. It's the first thing I noticed about his debut novel, The City's Son. So good in fact, that it buoys a straight forward young adult urban fantasy to new heights. It's a rare novel of that ilk that's able to hook me enough to give it a full run. I was pleased that not only did it engage me enough to finish the novel, but I found myself coming back to it time and again despite finding the plot just short of boring.

I admit that last sentence is about the biggest back handed compliment I've ever given someone. Guilty as charged, however, it's not that simple. Allow me to explain.

Beth is a trouble maker, daughter of a Hackney widower with a penchant for artistic tagging, and she's pulling her best friend Pen Khan down with her. After a rough encounter with corrupt school administrators, Beth runs away from her endlessly grieving father. In London's back alleys, she sees something she should never have seen. Caught up in the divine forces on which the city is built, she finds herself in a war between London's deep history and her ruthlessly modern future.

The architecture grew darker, stranger: a heavily graffiti'd old cinema building, its neon sign long-dead and its doors shuttered; an electricity sub-station half-hidden behind a cloud of razor-wire, and everywhere, the cranes massed on the skyline like cruel sentinels.

City's Son is a love story, both in the traditional sense and otherwise. Beth is struggling through life. She's a teenager who lacks direction. Her dad is checked out. She's falling through the cracks. Her brilliance is unappreciated by anyone other than her best friend. Pollock guides the reader through her awakening to the world outside her own skull--her love for the people around her and their love for her. Not love as excretion as so often is the case in juvenile fiction (notice, I didn't say young adult as adult fiction can often be more juvenile this regard than the younger variety), rather love as acceptance, both of herself and others.

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Libriomancer - Jim C. Hines

Before I talk about Jim C. Hines' newest novel Libriomancer, I wanted to briefly address his recent decision to withdraw from a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) session with the Fantasy Subreddit community. The Fantasy Subreddit is made up of nearly 18,000 highly engaged readers. It's a wide ranging group of fans, some of a more literary bent and some Sandercrombiefuss fanboys of the highest order. I've been a member for a few months now and I've really enjoyed my experience there.

Hines backed out of his AMA when a thread, in an unrelated Subreddit, came to his attention. The thread was providing a forum for rapists to discuss their crime. It's a disturbing series of comments. So many comments when I can't imagine anyone being interested in reading it. In that way, I support Hines' decision; he's long been an advocate for the awareness of violence against women. His decision regarding the AMA is wholly consistent with his position. I'm also disappointed that the result of his decision was a loss for the Fantasy Subreddit, although I in no way begrudge it.

Putting that aside, I think the situation raises important questions. Questions that will only become more prevalent in an ever expanding on-line world. On a massive site like Reddit, which prides itself on providing an unfiltered mechanism for discussion, how do we hold separate units accountable? Do we punish users completely unrelated to the material we find offensive? How do we regulate it? Should we regulate it?

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The Rook - Daniel O'Malley

Daniel O'Malley's debut novel features the tagline, On Her Majesty's Supernatural Secret Service. It's an apt description of The Rook which to describe it more verbosely is James Bond meets Harry Potter if Money Penny was the main character. Cool, right? I thought so too. Unfortunately what begins as an entertaining and clever urban fantasy novel descends into a poorly structured, infodumptastic (made up word!) narrative that can't get out of its own way.

Myfanwy (rhymes with Tiffany) Thomas is a Rook, a high-ranking member of a secret organization called the Chequy. It's their job to battle the many supernatural forces at work in Britain. Unfortunately for everyone involved, Myfanwy is more Urkel than Stefan. Despite her incredible power to control living matter she's become a desk bound budget hawk with the social skills of a dim witted honey badger. One night she 'wakes up' in a London park surrounded by bodies with no recollection of who she is or how she got there, a letter in her coat pocket the only clue. To find out who she is, who wants her dead, and why, Myfanwy will have to rely on herself, and her letters to herself from her other self.

If reviewing The Rook was a simple matter of endorsing its concept, the quality of its prose, and the strength of its characters, this would be a much shorter review. I give O'Malley's novel high marks in all three categories. The secret government organization is always a blast in light of the general predisposition to believe governments hide all kinds of awesome things. Along with the premise, O'Malley demonstrates excellent control of the action. He never leaves anything unclear and I never lacked a comprehensive picture of the scenes or the characters in them.

Those characters for the most part dazzle, with one major exception -- Dark-Phoenix-Myfanwy. She's not poorly drawn, but in comparison to a vibrant surrounding cast, and more importantly her previous incarnation, she falls short. While her humor is wry and she's an extroverted go-getter, the structure of the character is teeth-grindingly expected. I struggled to suspend my disbelief over her immediate and constant capability, as well as the response of a top-secret government organization to her obvious personality changes. 

Meanwhile, Jean-Grey-Myfanwy, who O'Malley only shows via letter, is utterly compelling. Her weaknesses and strengths, so distant from the expected 'hero' of the urban fantasy paradigm, provide The Rook with a unique flavor it would otherwise have lacked. Likewise, many of the ancillary cast members such as Myfanwy's personal assistant Ingrid, her bodyguard Anthony, and her Rook counterpart Gestalt, provide a staggering amount of life to the novel given their relative insignificance.

It's unfortunate then that The Rook reads like it was written for the sole purpose of showcasing O'Malley's imaginings of the Chequy and its inner-workings. Parts of the narrative (guestimate around 25%) are told through the text of dozens of letters -- some of which move the conspiracy plot along, others that simply provide background. Letter after letter, especially in the early going, reads like an RPG dossier, dumping a kitchen-sink's-worth of world building into the reader's lap. To paraphrase one example:

Myfanwy: Oh look, there are these elite units in the Chequy called the Barghast. I wonder if I wrote a letter to myself about this because I sure don't remember anything. 

Old Myfanwy: I thought you might want to know about the Barghat. They're special forces and let me give you their history. 

[Three Pages Later]

Old Myfanwy: And that's what the Barghast are. 

Myfanwy: Well, I'll be.

Many of the asides have little to no bearing on moving the narrative forward, instead focusing on self-indulgent information apropos of nothing. I found myself putting The Rook down every time a letter surfaced. I'd roll my eyes and go do something else. The phenomenon worked both ways. Once I returned to the novel, I'd get into the letter, engrossed in Original-Recipe-Myfanwy, and dread the return to Extra-Crispy.

Furthermore, why the hell wouldn't Disk-Format-Error-Myfanwy just read all the damn letters in the first weekend? O'Malley dribbles out the left behind knowledge all the way to the final pages. Obviously done for dramatic effect, I found it a lot more annoying than nail biting. My frustration stems from the fact that the amnesia story line wasn't necessary other than as a means to world build, which to be quite honest feels like a cheap gimmick.

Despite the negatives, and they are legion as they relate to pace and structure, I can still recommend The Rook to some readers, with some trepidation. The premise and characters are good enough to provide substantial entertainment and the conspiracy/mystery is well executed. I think many urban fantasy acolytes will find a great deal to enjoy here. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those. For me, the removal of the amnesia plot device in its entirety would have made for a stronger novel. It would have allowed the world building to occur organically and provided an opportunity for actual character growth as opposed to the convenient manifestation of the stereotypical snarky no-nonsense female urban fantasy protagonist.

But, that isn't the book Daniel O'Malley wrote. So I instead I can only say, maybe the next one will be better. I hope so.

Tooth and Nail - Jennifer Safrey

Contrary to the article that graced this blog last week, I have been known to choose a book to read (or not read) based on genre. Usually I do it to avoid things I know I won't like, as opposed to trending toward things I know I will. For example, I hate paranormal romance and dislike most urban fantasies (because they masquerade as paranormal romance). Over the weekend, I made a choice to read an Urban Fantasy book specifically because I realized I should practice what I preach. With that in mind I read Jennifer Safrey's novel Tooth and Nail, from Night Shade Books.

Gemma Cross's boyfriend is running for congress. She used to be a professional pollster, but now she's retired to support her boyfriend's ambition. To keep herself busy she's rededicated herself to boxing, a childhood love and lifetime hobby.  Her life is perfect, until a magnetic young woman shows up at her gym offering her the job of a lifetime.  See, Gemma is half faerie - specifically half tooth faerie. Get it? Tooth and Nail.  As a hybrid of fae and human, Gemma is destined to defend the Olde Way, the memory of an idyllic life that pre-dates humankind. To bring back the Olde Way, the fae collect innocence, which is -- not surprisingly -- encapsulated in the baby teeth of children.  Someone is threatening that process, and Gemma is the only person who can stop it.

Before I go any further let me be clear, this is an utterly ridiculous premise. How ridiculous? Like John Travolta insisting he's straight, ridiculous. Ok, maybe not that bad. But, Tooth and Nail is about the tooth faerie saving the world, an idea I thought put aside for good after the movie starring the Rock. Unlike the movie, I'm pretty sure Safrey isn't going for tongue in cheek comedy (unless I'm really dense), instead opting for a serious take on (I feel silly even saying it) the mystical being that replaces teeth with small change. Some readers just won't be able to get past that, and I wouldn't hold that against anyone. That said, and believe me this is hard to say, I really enjoyed it.  In fact, I enjoyed it so much I read it in one sitting.

Perhaps I was predisposed to like Safrey's novel. Set in Washington DC, in the midst of a Virginia Congressional election, the book moves through a lot of my circles.  Even a boxing gym in Chinatown, where one actually exists, is rendered with a touch of familiarity. Safrey deftly captures the paranoia of a political race, and the mindset of most candidates as they have their life picked apart. There's even a blogger called the D.C. Digger.  Trust me when I say, there are plenty of those in the real world. Added to this perfect (for me) milieu, are dynamic and effective characters, a distinct lack of overt romance, and a well designed plot, making Tooth and Nail everything I want from my urban fantasy (that I almost never read).

The novel focuses on three primary points in Gemma's character that ultimately drive the narrative. First, that Gemma isn't some trophy wife, who will sit on the sidelines while her man makes laws.  Second, being a tooth fairy isn't exactly what she had in mind.  Third, filling that role is a lot more than she bargained for, jeopardizing her life, her boyfriend's career, and the way she relates to the world at large.  To the first point, I think a lot of the novel's success is predicated on Gemma being a real woman with... AGENCY. I've been waiting to use that term ever since Liz Bourke wrote her review of Theft of Swords.

Gemma doesn't wait around for men to solve her problems. She isn't overly beautiful, or stereotypical in any way that I've come to recognize females in fantasy novels. Sure, she gets weak in the knees at the sight of a set of six-pack abs, but that comes across more realistic than gratuitous and for an urban fantasy novel, Tooth and Nail spends very little time developing romantic tension.  Safrey instead develops tension by challenging her characters and their mores, asking them to exist in real space, not some contrived romantic or supernatural boondoggle. That's not to say there aren't some contrived scenes (there are several), but they are the exception as opposed to the rule.

For those who read this blog regularly and/or converse with me on Twitter, I'm sure this review is somewhat staggering. Tooth and Nail is radically divorced from what I typical read or enjoy. Tying it back to my article from Friday, that's the beauty of reading without preconceptions. The truth is there are good urban fantasies and paranormal romances, just as there are epic fantasies and space operas. It's unfortunate that I'll read very few because of how they're defined by the marketplace.

I'm glad to have read Jennifer Safrey's newest novel and I'd love to hear from anyone out there with ideas for novels I might enjoy off my beaten path.

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.

Midnight Riot - Ben Aaronovitch

U.S. Cover.

Diana Gabaldon said, "Midnight Riot is what would happen if Harry Potter grew up and joined the Fuzz.” I think that's sort of a red herring. I get it, Harry Potter is wildly successful and the quote targets a massive audience that will enjoy Ben Aaronovitch's novel. However, if I was asked to write a more accurate blurb, it might read, "Midnight Riot is what would happen if Shadow from American Gods was an apprentice wizard with a wry sense of humor who wandered around London waxing poetic about it and solving crimes under supernatural circumstances." Ok, so that probably wouldn't sell as many books, but it's a lot more descriptive.

Peter Grant is a rookie copper working the streets of London. As he nears the end of his probationary period and decisions are being made about his long term position in the force, a ghost gives him a lead in a case of mysterious murder. Next thing Peter knows he's in up to his ears in the arcane, assigned to the department's in-house wizard Thomas Nightingale.

Most of Midnight Riot is spent with Peter wandering around London trying to solve a murder and/or settling a long standing dispute between the river gods. When Peter isn't doing either of those things, he's learning magic or trying to get laid both of which are endlessly entertaining.  And that's sort of the heart of what Aaronovitch's debut novel is all about - entertainment.  It has wit, action, and charm in spades.  Unfortunately the one thing it really lacked was a compelling plot which ultimately left me feeling a bit flat.

Don't me wrong, the novel itself is rather compelling and exceptional readable.  Aaronovitch takes his readers on a guided tour of the city and her rivers, building into it an occasional history lesson and cultural what's what of modern London.  All that's very fun and more than a little cool, but much of it ended up feeling like a smoke screen covering the aforementioned average story.

U.K. Cover. Looks like

it belongs on a Martin

Amis book.

I won't to get into details on why the plot underwhelmed me.  There are twists and turns I don't want to spoil.  Suffice to say, the story itself would fit nicely into a TV procedural without too much grief.  And I don't mean a season finale level episode either, more like the last episode before sweeps start.  The secondary plot, negotiating peace between the river gods while more interesting lacked any sense of impending disaster if Peter failed in his mission.  In other words, I just didn't care that much.

Now that I've panned the novel as 'uninteresting', I'm going to backtrack a bit because all the other things I mentioned like characters, setting, ambiance, and wit make Midnight Riot a pleasurable reading experience.  Because of the importance and emphasis Aaronovitch places on the city of London I have to think that Londoners will get more from the novel just as readers from Tempe, Arizona get a little something extra from Kevin Hearne's Hounded.  Still, there's a lot here to enjoy laying the base for, what I imagine will mirror Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, steady improvement with each installment.

I admit I'm not exactly Midnight Riot's target audience.  I'm not a huge urban fantasy fan, nor am I particularly ensnared by the police procedural.  Nevertheless I'm glad I was exposed to Peter Grant, Aaronovitch's London, and his excellent first person voice, all of which caught my interest and held it for 300+ pages. I absolutely recommend it to fans of the subgenre, and fans of fantasy in general with the caveat that the plot won't leave you out of breath.

I read a lot of Midnight Riot in-between sets at the gym. Rawr!

Midnight Riot is available anywhere books are sold in Mass Market Paperback. Aaronovitch's sequel Moon Over Soho came out earlier this year and has received strong reviews thus far.  It's available in both Hardcover and Trade Paper Back in the UK from Gollancz and in Mass Market Paperback in the U.S. from Del Ray.

Blood Rights - Kristen Painter

I recently finished a book that was completely beyond the scope of what I normally read.  The book?  Blood Rights by Kristen Painter.  I don't read a lot of urban fantasy and I read zero paranormal romance (and by zero I mean none).  Why in God's name did I decide to pick up this title then?  Well, I'll tell you - I trust Orbit Books.  The more I read the more I come to depend on publishers I trust to consistently put out quality books regardless of subject matter.  Not to mention Orbit and Nekro put together an absolutely gorgeous cover that appealed to me as a red blooded American male.  We're so simple aren't we?

In any case Blood Rights is a vampire book set in the near future. I kept expecting some kind of science fiction action, but it never developed. The story follows Mal, a vampire living in exile, and Chrysabelle, a comarré (think vampire feeding device trained from birth to serve) on the run from vampire nobility. When Chrysabelle finds her vampire patron dead she feels sure the blame will fall on her. She flees into the human world chased by Tatiana, a noble vampire with a bad attitude and a craving for ultimate power. Naturally our intrepid comarré ends up in the hands of Mal who is trying really hard to not to eat people and has a grudge of his own to settle with Tatiana.  As might be expected the pair find themselves very attracted to one another and Mal ends up in the role of protector as Chrysabelle tries to stay alive and clear her name.

When I first started Blood Rights I really wasn't expecting to like it.  One of my twitter and message board friends (Bastard Books) is a big urban fantasy reader.  I tease him frequently about his love of tramp stamps and crossbow wielding broads, but I realized it might be intellectually dishonest of me to ridicule him without actually knowing what I'm talking about.  Picking up Child of Fire by Harry Connolly or Storm Front by Jim Dresden would have felt like a cop out.  So I consulted my trusty book catalogs and found Blood Rights which thankfully met all my criteria - publisher I trust (check), sexy girl on the cover (check), gothic feel (check), some sort of supernatural thingy (check), and written by a female (check).  For better or worse, I was committed.

Then something sort of funny happened, it ended up being for the better.  There is no question that Blood Rights is paranormal romance in the very well done disguise of urban fantasy.  That's not a criticism at all since Painter made her hay as a writer with covers that feature rock hard abs and curling smoke.  To ignore her experience in that genre would be a mistake and she integrates it well largely because the nature of the romance is so unexpected.  There are no heaving bosoms (alas) or comparing of bodies to chiseled works of art.  In fact, there's not really any sex that I can recall (well unless you count demons doing evil vampires) and only a smattering of kissing.  Instead Painter creates an entire culture of eroticism around blood sucking.  To a vampire sucking blood from a comarré is the equivalent of Kim Kardashian walking up to my desk right now and straddling me - irresistible and all together impossible to ignore.  There is tension and passion and it's all tied to self-denial.

Sure, things get a little bogged down in the early going as Painter dwells a bit on Mal's insatiable desire to chomp down on Chrysabelle's neck.  And by the third or fourth time I was definitely ready to move on and get to the action, but I never had to wait long before things picked up.  Additionally, the novel does an excellent job of dribbling out bits of world building within the romance to give me a reason to be there other than as the creepy guy in the closet (this would be a good time to include a link to R. Kelly's In the Closet).   And for me, it totally works.  So well in fact that after finishing the novel I tweeted the author with, "I can't look at my wife's veins without feeling 'dirty'."

As to be expected with an experienced author, Painter's writing style is very accessible and fits the subject matter well.  There isn't a lot of subtext, but who really wants any when it's time to kill vampires?  She has created a lush imagining of the supernatural culture replete with shapeshifters, demons, fallen angels, and others who all orbit around the vampire nobility.  The comarré - humans living among vampires - are far more than they appear to be much of which I believe remains to be revealed.  Interwoven among these races and humanity is a Biblical thread that promises much more to come in future books.  If I had to try to put a bet on what such a conflict might look like, I'd go pick-up John Milton's Paradise Lost and dust it off.

For someone who wants romance, vampires, and hot chicks with full body golden ink, Kristen Painter's Blood Rights is a great place to start.  While it hasn't convinced me to go commando on the urban fantasy wilderness, I won't be shy about picking more up in the future.  As for the rest of the House of Comarré series, I'm very much on board.

Oh, and I guess Bastard was right.


Blood Rights is available now in the U.K. and on September 27 in the U.S.

Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern

ARC cover.

 You open up the packaging from Doubleday Books.  There's a certain anticipation that you expect as the novel within is revealed and this one doesn't disappoint.  A black and white starburst, alternating between matte and glossy, surrounds the title which is lettered in a fire engine red.  The pop of color amidst the contrasting blacks and whites entices you in a visceral way.  Your eyes run down it as your fingers trace the edges to the inscription at the bottom.

It reads:

The Advanced Reader's Edition

Entitles the Holder to Unlimited Admission

        

Not for Sale

Violators Will Be Exsanguinated

You quirk an eyebrow, wondering if any reading experience could be so rewarding as to warrant the desire for "Unlimited Admission".  Your fingers slide down the right edge feeling the separation between the cover and the coarse pages beneath.  The cover lifts and you pause the image of your body paling as the blood drains from it.  You shiver and assure yourself you have no intention of selling the book.  Shrugging it off you open the book and begin the journey knowing only that you have no idea where it will take you.

                                    

I wrote the above as a bit of an homage to Erin Morgenstern's beautiful asides that begin and end her novel, The Night Circus.  Written entirely in second person these asides (also interspersed throughout the novel) take you right into the circus - experiencing the sights, sounds, smells, and wonder that accompanies a visit to each tent.  In that way the novel is both a narrative and an exhibition.  No matter how the novel is classified it is a spectacular work of fantasy that transcends genre, age, and gender.  I did not want it to end, but at the same time knew that it must.  Sound a bit like a kid at the circus don't I?

The core of Night Circus is a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco.  Trained from childhood for this battle by their father and instructor respectively.  The circus, or Le Cirque des Rêves, is the stage where they will display the talents they possess in an exhibition that will ring throughout the world. But it is also a love story, and Celia and Marco despite their misgivings possess a deep, magical love that literally makes the world shake at a touch.  Bound by magic the game cannot be stopped.  True love or not the fate of the circus, and the thousands who adore it, hangs in the balance.

U.S. cover

Written from three perspectives in time, Morgenstern's novel oftentimes reads as a series of set pieces designed to dazzle the reader more than a continual narrative.  The aforementioned asides, the "present" that constitutes the meat of the plot, and the near "future" that features a young circus lover, are interwoven throughout differentiated only by a date printed in each chapter header.  If I have one complaint about the novel it is that these titles were subtly printed belying their importance.  Bringing these three lines together in the final pages cements Night Circus as more than a vehicle for lush prose and gorgeous imagery unveiling it as the fairy tale it is meant to be.

On the subject of prose Morgenstern made an interesting choice to write the novel from the present tense.  This choice, a brilliant one I might add, made me feel as though I was the narrator.  Night Circus is not a story related by some unknown omniscient entity rather I was a voyeur observing just off "screen".  Interestingly two characters in the novel also fit into this category.  While they do on occasion actively grace the pages, Hector (Celia's father) and Alexander (Marco's instructor) are functional voyeurs to the story as they watch their proteges battle in amusement.  I have no idea if there's a literary device at play here, but I found the comparison interesting.  Is Morgenstern hinting that maybe the "narrator" is an unseen magician watching all that goes on?

UK cover.

I think I want to stop here.  If I keep writing I'm going to give away parts of the novel that shouldn't be spoiled for anyone.  When a novel receives the kind of hype Night Circus has it's always difficult to live up to.  I think it's unfortunate that some have billed it as a young adult novel trying to cash in on fans of Harry Potter and Twilight.  I suspect those comparisons have largely come from the fact that Summit (producer of the Harry Potter and Twilight film franchises) has already purchased the film rights. In reality the novel is far more in the mold of something from John Crowley, or Cathrynne Valente, or maybe Téa Obreht (who I've not read, but blurbs the book).  It is lyrical and atmospheric and not remotely young adult in any way I understand the classification.

Yet it is also a novel for everyone - young and old.  Readers of genre fiction, mainstream fiction, or even those who read infrequently will find themselves sucked into The Night Circus.  I seriously hope that come this time next year we're talking about how Erin Morgenstern won a major literary award or was robbed by weird voting and nominating practices.  Go read this.  Right now... well, tomorrow when it comes out.

Zoo City - Lauren Beukes

Lauren Beukes is the Queen of Metaphors.  I capitalized and underlined it so it must be true.  I'll go into why this is an awesome novel in a second, but first let me treat everyone to one of Beukes' metaphors:

"I haven't drive in three years and the car handles like a shopping trolley on Rohypnol."

 I don't highlight much when I read, if at all, but I found myself marking sentence after sentence reading Zoo City.  Beukes writes with a rare vividness that would keep me reading regardless of what the hell she's writing about.  As it turns out, what she's writing about has the same zest and magnetism as how she's writing it.

Zinzi December is a Zoo.  Having committed an unforgivable act she has become animalled, cursed (blessed?) with a Sloth that's an extension of herself.  Unfortunately, to everyone who looks at her, Sloth is a scarlet letter marking her a criminal.  She exists on the fringes of Johannesburg in the slum known as Zoo City where the criminal underclass and their animal companions live in fear of being separated.  A recovering drug addict, she owes money to some bad people.  She writes 419 scam e-mails to keep the mob off her back and in her spare time she finds lost items for cash.  When a client turns up dead before paying, Zinzi is forced to take on a missing person's case.  She's hired by the private and wholly odd-ball music producer Odi Huron to find a teenage pop star.  The case is her ticket out of life in the slums, but it might cost her the last shred of human dignity she has left.

Joining a masterful group of first person SFF novels written over the past few years (developing trend?), Zoo City is told entirely within Zinzi's head.  To some degree, Beukes' novel is a pastiche.  Scenes and plot devices referencing The Golden Compass and the film District 9 are obviously prevalent.  There are elements of noir, urban fantasy, psychological thriller, not to mention a bit of not-so-thinly veiled social commentary.  Somehow Beukes manages to pull all this together and instead of coming off as imitation of these various styles she instead finds something all her own.  Let's call it urban noir magical realism (that's gold baby, copyrighted!).

In telling the story, Beukes takes her readers on a ride through Johannesburg.  When I read Dervish House earlier this year I mentioned Istanbul as one of Ian McDonald's characters.  I think the same holds true in Zoo City.  Johannesburg, its music scene, and its abject class warfare, occupy significant space in the novel.  Beukes' flawed protagonist is in many ways reflected in this space - corruptible, decayed, and hopeless.  But she is also trying to be something else.  In many ways the city acts as her foil - its static nature contrasting Zinzi's desire to be better despite her frequent failures.

The most impressive accomplishment in Zoo City is it managed to make me forget I was reading a novel of speculative fiction.  Basing the story in an realistic urban environment certainly aided Beukes' cause, but the depth and rawness of her prose grabbed me with its conviction.  The city's music scene in particular was given so much dimension that Angry Robot and South African production house African Dope. released a Zoo City Soundtrack to compliment the novel.  It's clear that Beukes' world isn't just an author's passing fancy.  Zoo City is the representation of a fully realized vision of what Johanassburg would be if our conscience had four legs and fur.

Sadly no novel is perfect, and there a few hiccups here and there.  Things get a little occult toward the end, more so than the early parts of the novel might suggest, and the villain's motivation is a tad esoteric.  There are also moments when the pace slows down usually as a result of not always brief asides.  It's easy to breeze through these moments to get back to the compelling story.  I strongly suggest reading them closely, not only for the key world building information provided, but for the fairly hilarious inter-textual Easter eggs scattered throughout.

Nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for the best new writer in Science Fiction and Fantasy for her work in Zoo City, Lauren Beukes has established herself as someone to watch in the coming years.  Regardless of the outcome of the vote, Zoo City is a novel that will stand up today, tomorrow, and for decades to come.  I'm going to be in San Francisco next weekend and I'm hoping to take a daytrip to Reno and WorldCon.  If I do, I fully plan to find my favorite South African writer and give her a big high five.