First will come a reprise of what should have been posted last week ... No technical problems just honest me problems and it was a pretty great week of books to get overlooked so here is my look back in shame...
The Exodus Towers by Jason M. Hough
This is the second book is the pretty marvelous Dire Earth Cycle. Jason writes with all the vigor and hunger as a Old Man's War era Scalzi in this story about a decimated earth where an mysterious alien artifact arrives in out near future giving us both apparently an elevator to the stars and soon there after a potently virulent 28days later for lack of a better word zombie like plague that gets called SUBS. The first book in this series, The Darwin Elevator came out in July and the third, The Plague Forge, is due out in September and if the first third of this novel is any indication things have gone way beyond the fire for the characters that thought they have gotten out of the frying pan only mostly scorched. These stories are so well told I really want to go back and read sci fi that does not fall into a sub genre category again because Mr. Hough has mixed and matched things so well that I can compare this to so much, the heroes are akin to those hard puckers written about by Joss Whedon you know the ones on that firefly class ship, the setting has both a corrupt corporate cyberpunk feel and a what is really going on here mystery akin to Alastair Reynolds, Asimov and Bradbury. I may be giving this too hard a sell but I am enjoying these books too much to not.
Here is a short story set in this univers to give you a taste... The story has action adventure to spare but his characters at the heart of it are relateable ... even the ones you hate... And here is a link to an excerpt of The Darwin Elevator... Enjoy
Crux by Ramez Naam
This is another sequel to a previously well recieved book; I do not recall who on the SF Squeecast talked about Nexus last year but my handy look up skills (yeah right google did all the work) tell me it was none other then one of my favorite writers Elizabeth Bear. Having yet to read the first one from my recollection this was a near future thriller that is what cyberpunk may have become if it had not disappeared in the early nineties. This is a novel written by a computer scientist who has written on the reality of biological enhancement and has recieved awards for his exploration of real Transhumanism. His fictional work has been praised by Elizabeth Bear who I think has written the definitive modern Bionic Woman story ( Hammered), by Cory Doctorow, Hannu Rajaniemi, and Scientific American. To me this looks like again a return to a fiction style abandoned before its time and updated... I have to read Nexus first but Crux is high on my list of to reads..... Here is a link to the Angry Robot Books site so you can check it out too... And here is a link to the amazing SF Squeecast where you can check out the books they Squeed about including Nexus... Hopefully Crux will be among the cast choices next year....
Sherlock Holmes The Stuff of Nightmares by James Lovegrove
James Lovegrove has been on my reading radar since before his highly popular Godpunk series of novels from Solaris books; I still have my yet to be cracked copy of Escardy Gap by James Lovegrove and Peter Crowther from back in 1996... um maybe that is not such a good thing to reveal about me but James has been a successful author for a good while. The Godpunk books his is recently gained notoriety for have drowned my attention but as a fan of interpretations of the redoubtable Holmes this book has my full attention. The really sad thing is or the really happy thing is depending on how you look at it is that I read Chuck Wendig's blog like an addict and this showed up this week... Titan publishing is below "some people's" radar (read my usual source) but thankfully not below Chuck. Here is a link for you to check out the interview with James and hopefully it hooks you as it does me.
For those of you wanting a synopsis here it is from Titan books...
It’s the autumn of 1890, and a spate of bombings has hit London. The newspapers are full of fevered speculation about anarchists, anti-monarchists and Fenians. But one man suspects an even more sinister hand behind the violence. Sherlock Holmes believes Professor Moriarty is orchestrating a nationwide campaign of terror, but to what end? At the same time, a bizarrely garbed figure has been spotted on the rooftops and in the grimy back alleys of the capital. He moves with the extraordinary agility of a latter-day Spring-heeled Jack. He possesses weaponry and armour of unprecedented sophistication. He is known only by the name Baron Cauchemar, and he appears to be a scourge of crime and villainy. But is this masked man truly the force for good that he seems? Is he connected somehow to the bombings? Holmes and his faithful companion Dr Watson are about to embark on one of their strangest and most exhilarating adventures yet.
Time of Contempt by AndrzejSapkowsk
Ok, wow I wish I had tied to find all the promotional work for this last week when it was about to come out. People were at least talking about the first two I was spotlighting but this one is kind of hard to find. It is a sword and sorcery series from Eastern Europe that has spawned several game franchises and has several novels that can be found in multiple languages around the globe. Ok yes it fits the white haired amoral swordsman archetype to a tee but based on my reading of the books I picked up in the Netherlands a couple years ago its pretty good Sword and Sorcery all gaming hype aside. I would hope that grim dark fantasy fans might give this series a go because its a good deal of fun and its well told.
On to the week of the 3rd of September ...
The Grim Company by Luke Scull
This is a book that has been getting a bit of buzz and having read the prologue and a bit more I can understand it. The feel of the bits I have gotten through remind me of my first excursions into the world of Erikson's Malazan; this is a world where there is great magical potential but it has come at a great price. Some reviewers have been critical of this work because of its grim tone but others have said that if its the last hurrah of the Joe Abercrombie's its a worthy read so I'm totally onboard and Penguin were nice enought to gift me a copy so you all can expect a review shortly. Its written by a video game plotter and that is what it may be but taking the prologue as a guide I think this looks like a very good first novel... I have hopes...
Here is the book synopsis...
The Gods are dead. The Magelord Salazar and his magically enhanced troops, the Augmentors, crush any dissent they find in the minds of the populace. On the other side of the Broken Sea, the White Lady plots the liberation of Dorminia, with her spymistresses, the Pale Women. Demons and abominations plague the Highlands.
The world is desperately in need of heroes. But what they get instead are a ragtag band of old warriors, a crippled Halfmage, two orphans and an oddly capable manservant: the Grim Company.
23 Years on Fire by Joel Shepherd
This is another series of novels that take up the mantle of cyberpunk nd run with it in the same vein as Elizabeth Bear's Hammered series. Joel has written three previous novels in this series that are all available from the great PYR books and I am so glad that he has written a fourth one. To me the novels have a bit of a Eastern European overtone but that may just be me... I love Cassandra Kresnova in the same way I love the Black Widow from Marvel comics... there is small comparison but where the characters is written well she is great...
Here is a link to the PYR page for it and a bit of the synopsis...
Cassandra Kresnov-a highly advanced hunter-killer android-returns to face down a rogue government's plot to eliminate free will.
Commander Cassandra Kresnov has her hands full. She must lead an assault against the Federation world of Pyeongwha, where a terrible sociological phenomenon has unleashed hell against the civilian population. Then she faces the threat from a portion of League space known as New Torah, in which a ruthless regime of surviving corporations are building new synthetic soldiers but taking the technology in alarming directions.
On the Torahn world of Pantala, Sandy encounters betrayal, crisis, and conspiracy on a scale previously unimaginable. Most challenging of all, she also meets three young street kids who stir emotions in her she didn't think she was capable of. Can the Federation's most lethal killer afford unexpected sentiment? What will be the cost if she is forced to choose between them and her mission, not only to her cause, but to her soul?
Chimes at Midnight by Seanan McGuire
For fans of Urban Fantasy I would hope that mentioning Seanan McGuire and her new novel but as a fan myself of her, her fiction and her podcast I have to gush and squee a bit. I have been a fan of her Toby stories for a couple of years and think she is one of the most entertaining writers in the genre right now, no offence to Chuck Wendig and Stephen Blackmoore whom I consider Noir fantasy and well there is always Brn Aaronovitch too but really I do really enjoy the fae worlds of Seanan McGuire. To be honest I'm a couple books behind but Chimes at Kidnight is on my buy the week of release list. Seanan is one of the creators of the SF Squeecast and a super sweet woman who talks a lot about ending the world...
Here is the book synopsis for this volume
Things are starting to look up for October "Toby" Daye. She's training her squire, doing her job, and has finally allowed herself to grow closer to the local King of Cats. It seems like her life may finally be settling down...at least until dead changelings start appearing in the alleys of San Francisco, killed by an overdose of goblin fruit.
Toby's efforts to take the problem to the Queen of the Mists are met with harsh reprisals, leaving her under sentence of exile from her home and everyone she loves. Now Toby must find a way to reverse the Queens decree, get the goblin fruit off the streets--and, oh, yes, save her own life, since more than a few of her problems have once again followed her home. And then there's the question of the Queen herself, who seems increasingly unlikely to have a valid claim to the throne....
To find the answers, October and her friends will have to travel from the legendary Library of Stars into the hidden depths of the Kingdom of the Mists--and they'll have to do it fast, because time is running out. In faerie, some fates are worse than death.
Seanan is up for the Hugo this year for her novel Blackout written under the pen name Mira Grant.... Go Sea... Um Mira.... Ok so yes I want Saladin to win I Loved Throne of the Crescent Moon forgive me... Or at least kill me fast....
Happy Hour in Hell by Tad Williams
I'm so exited about this book for all the wrong freaking reasons... I have yet to read the first book Dirty Streets of Heaven and am stupidly basing much of my excitement on this on my love of the Castiel character on Supernatural but in all my reading of synopsis and reviews this is the book out there for those of us who like him. Ok yes it silly and such but I really want this to be the print version of the dark angel story without all the gods assassin thing I liked so much in Hellblazer. Anyhow all my silly thoughts aside the people who have written about the Bobby Dollar series have said great things and I will be reading it as soon as I can get time... With all the other great things out there these days...
Here is a bit of add copy to egg you on too... Till the next season of Supernatural... I hope Meg made it somehow....
I’ve been told to go to Hell more times than I can count. But this time I’m actually going.
My name’s Bobby Dollar, sometimes known as Doloriel, and of course, Hell isn’t a great place for someone like me — I’m an angel. They don’t like my kind down there, not even the slightly fallen variety. But they have my girlfriend, who happens to be a beautiful demon named Casimira, Countess of Cold Hands. Why does an angel have a demon girlfriend? Well, certainly not because it helps my career.
She’s being held hostage by one of the nastiest, most powerful demons in all of the netherworld — Eligor, Grand Duke of Hell. He already hates me, and he’d like nothing better than to get his hands on me and rip my immortal soul right out of my borrowed but oh-so-mortal body.
But wait, it gets better! Not only do I have to sneak into Hell, make my way across thousands of miles of terror and suffering to reach Pandemonium, capital of the fiery depths, but then I have to steal Caz right out from under Eligor’s burning eyes and smuggle her out again, past demon soldiers, hellhounds, and all the murderous creatures imprisoned there for eternity. And even if I somehow manage to escape Hell, I’m also being stalked by an undead psychopath named Smyler who’s been following me for weeks. Oh, and did I mention that he can’t be killed?
So if I somehow survive Hell, elude the Grand Duke and all his hideous minions and make it back to the real world, I’ll still be the most hunted soul in Creation. But at least I’ll have Caz. Gotta have something to look forward to, right?
So just pour me that damn drink, will you? I’ve got somewhere to go.
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