Sunday comics....

 

With issue six Filipe Smith shows how he is doing something different with the story of the All New Ghost Rider and its hero Robbie Reyes. Firstly I will miss the crazy kinetic art of Traad Moore on this title but I have to say that by the second read through I really warmed up to Damien Scott's graffiti influenced lines mixed with manga style and I can say now I dig it and I can look forward to Traad other places. I have my worries about the titles longevity and I think with how much I really loved the new issue I have to give it a bit of review age and signal boost.

From the first issue All new Ghost Rider read like a mix of east and west comic images tropes and sensibilities; since I've been a long time Japanese anime, superhero and manga fan it did touch that Devilman, Fist of the Northstar, Baribari Densetsu and Riding Bean fan in me as well as my enjoyment of the Spirit of Vengence. Looking into Filipe's background he's got a very interesting history in comics including the fact he's one of the few western creators who has written and drawn Japanese manga in Japan and been a success. He has also worked on several american comics and strangely this is the first project where he actually has to produce scripts for his stories. Coming from a manga background he is used to both writing and drawing his stories but I would not have guessed that from reading the series. I would love to interview him about his history in manga and his influences.

The All New Ghost Rider is set in a poorer neighborhood in Los Angeles about teenager Robby Reyes, high school student car mechanic and guardian for his differently abeled brother. The series wastes no time throwing us into his life and his extra curricular activities that include borrowing cars he's working on for the garage and using them to street race for more money to support him and his brother. He's not the obvious nerd in school, he's not the popular kid he is just one with more adult respincibilites then most. By the end of the first issue he finds himself on the wrong end of the henchmen of Hyde/Dr. Zabo's guns and in the gunsights of a local gang banger.... oh and also most probably dead in an alley. He soon becomes the racing suited cool helmeted skull visaged character with the flame effects and the flameing wheeled supernatural muscle car.

The series proceeds apace as you'd want with a muscle car centric theme. It has as much in common with my memories of Speed Racer ad it does with the Fast and Furious film franchise. The first story keeps it focus on the players in LA, there are no guest appearances; no ubiquitous Wolverine, Spider-Man or Avengers guest shot. Robbie has to deal with the violence invading his neighborhood and life in addition to the mysterious ghost that he's now bound to who has yet to reveal anything about itself. As the second act opens with new art that is more graffiti influenced that take some getting used to but Damien Scott the artist seems a good choice given the not totally super hero nature of the story.

I'm really writing this to hopefully creat interest in the story because I'm worried it is not hitting its possible audience. Robbie seems a great new addition to the diversity in the marvel universe given he is Hispanic and he's certainly a different sort of character then the usual and the story is going somewhere else then the usual coming of age teenager tale. He is someone saddled with much more responcibility then usual and I think it will be an interesting journey to see him grow into being a local hero. The opening of issue six points to the neighborhood thinking they have a hero of their own and one I'd love to see him get the chance to become. There is a collection of 1-5 coming out so its likely to be easy to check out soon and the current story promises an appearance by the second Ghost Rider Johnny Blaze....

So yeah a plea to keepa superhero horror comic out there for those of us who dig them.... The collection comes out Oct 14th.....

 

Here is the cover of issue ... 7

 

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Wanted Dispatch August 30 2014

Looking at September in Speculative Fiction there is a lot good to look forward to no matter your tastes... I'll finish with the book that needs no signal boost so here are the ones that may not be on your list just yet.

 

Grudgebearer by J.F. Lewis

This is one that I know next to nothing about other then the fact that the great editors at PYR thought it worthy of print which is just about good enough endorsement for me based on how much I've loved the books chosen by Lou Anders and his staff over the years. Being a little image oriented the feeling of the cover reminds me of Stormlord by Tom Lloyd which I particularly loved; the description of this reminds me of it too to a small extent. So here is the synopsis for you and you can decide...

Kholster is the first born of the practically immortal Aern, a race created by the Eldrennai as warrior-slaves to defend them from the magic-resistant reptilian Zaur. Unable to break an oath without breaking their connection with each other, the Aern served the Eldrennai faithfully for thousands of years until the Sundering. Now, the Aern, Vael, and Eldrennai meet every hundred years for a Grand Conjunction to renew their tenuous peace.

While the tortures of slavery remain fresh in Kholster's mind, most of the rest of the world has moved on. Almost six hundred years after the Sundering, an Eldrennai prince carelessly breaks the truce by setting up a surprise museum exhibit containing sentient suits of Aernese armor left behind, never to be touched, lest Kholster kill every last Eldrennai. Through their still-existing connection with their ancient armor, the Aern know instantly, and Kholster must find a way to keep his oaths, even those made in haste and anger. While Kholster travels to the Grand Conjunction with his Freeborn daughter and chosen successor Rae'en, his troops travel by sea, heading for war.

 

Stories of the Raksura by Martha Wells

Martha Wells has apparently written many more stories set in the same world that began with the book The Cloud Roads and expands the world with several novellas and short tales set both before and during the series. I would hope that these tales stand well on their own and can bring more readers to what was a great second world fantasy that duly deserves more readers. Here is a link to Martha's website and the synopsis for a couple of the stories..

"The Falling World"

Jade, sister queen of the Indigo Cloud Court, has traveled with Chime and Balm to another Raksuran court. When she fails to return, her consort Moon, along with Stone and a party of warriors and hunters, must track them down. Finding them turns out to be the easy part; freeing them from an ancient trap hidden in the depths of the Reaches is much more difficult.

"The Tale of Indigo and Cloud"

This novella explores the history of the Indigo Cloud Court, long before Moon was born. In the distant past, Indigo stole Cloud from Emerald Twilight. But in doing so, the reigning Queen Cerise and Indigo are now poised for a conflict that could spark war throughout all the courts of the Reaches.

Also includes the short stories "The Forest Boy" and "Adaptation," both set before The Cloud Roads.

 

Acceptance by Jeff Vandermeer

I've been looking forward to this since closing the cover on my copy of Authority. I honestly don't know if Jeff has any intention of answering any of the questions I have about Area X or if the closing volume of this series will raise another series of thought provoking questions but I am fully on board for the rest of the journey. Jeff manages to writer weird fiction that hints at things wondrous chilling and sometimes hilarious but always worth the price of admission and the time invested in the trip. .... So here is the synopsis... I fully expect the owl on the cover to have something to do with the story like the rabbits on Authority...

It is winter in Area X. A new team embarks across the border on a mission to find a member of a previous expedition who may have been left behind. As they press deeper into the unknown—navigating new terrain and new challenges—the threat to the outside world becomes more daunting. In Acceptance, the last installment of Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy, the mysteries of Area X may have been solved, but their consequences and implications are no less profound—or terrifying.

Maplecroft by Cherie Priest

Cherie Priest has been well known for the last several for her Steampunk series that began with Boneshaker but now she is returni to her southern gothic horror inspired roots with a story that grown out of the Lizzie Borden history. This may I fear go unnoticed because its not something with gears and guns on the cover..... Here is the synopsis ...

 

Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks; and when she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one....

The people of Fall River, Massachusetts, fear me. Perhaps rightfully so. I remain a suspect in the brutal deaths of my father and his second wife despite the verdict of innocence at my trial. With our inheritance, my sister, Emma, and I have taken up residence in Maplecroft, a mansion near the sea and far from gossip and scrutiny.

But it is not far enough from the affliction that possessed my parents. Their characters, their very souls, were consumed from within by something that left malevolent entities in their place. It originates from the ocean’s depths, plaguing the populace with tides of nightmares and madness.

This evil cannot hide from me. No matter what guise it assumes, I will be waiting for it. With an axe.

 

Though Seanan Mcgiure probably needs little signal boost I have to add her newest Toby novel Winter Long to this week.... For all the urban fantasy fans out there who need a new series to love...

 

And lastly I don't think David Mitchell needs my help to sell books but his new novel The Bone Clocks comes out this week...

 

 

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Wanted Dispatch Aug 26th 2014

The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley

Kameron is one of the authors that I discovered because of Night Shade Books a few years back, I managed to get a copy of her first novel Gods War signed by her through their blog and I've loved her work ever since. Her previous series had a marvelously strong and uncompromising female hero and equally unflinching writing. Personally I have high hopes for this series comming from Angry Robot Press. Tor.com was nice enough to post up an excerpt here and for your reading pleasure a bit of synopsis.....

Check out The Mirror Empire, the first installment in a new series from Kameron Hurley, available worldwide this September from Angry Robot!

On the eve of a recurring catastrophic event known to extinguish nations and reshape continents, a troubled orphan evades death and slavery to uncover her own bloody past… while a world goes to war with itself.

In the frozen kingdom of Saiduan, invaders from another realm are decimating whole cities, leaving behind nothing but ash and ruin. As the dark star of the cataclysm rises, an illegitimate ruler is tasked with holding together a country fractured by civil war, a precocious young fighter is asked to betray his family and a half-Dhai general must choose between the eradication of her father’s people or loyalty to her alien Empress.

 

Solaris Rising 3 edited by Ian Whates

Regular visitors here will know I'm a fool for anthologies and particularly ones that feature so many British authors that I seldom see here in the US. With so many avenues to get speculative fiction in the short form we are pretty much spoiled for choice so having good editors around like Ian at Solaris is a great thing. Here is the TOC for the collection...

1. “A Smart-Mannered Uprising of the Dead” by Ian McDonald
2. “The Incredible Exploding Man” by Dave Hutchinson
3. “Sweet Spots” by Paul di Filippo
4. “Best SF of the Year Three” by Ken MacLeod
5. “The One that Got Away” by Tricia Sullivan
6. “Rock Day” by Stephen Baxter
7. “Eluna” by Stephen Palmer
8. “Shall I Tell You the Problem with Time Travel?” by Adam Roberts
9. “The Lives and Deaths of Che Guevara” by Lavie Tidhar
10. “Steel Lake” by Jack Skillingstead
11. “Mooncakes” by Mike Resnick and Laurie Tom
12. “At Play in The Fields” by Steve Rasnic Tem
13. “How We Came Back From Mars” by Ian Watson
14. “You Never Know” by Pat Cadigan
15. “Yestermorrow” by Richard Salter
16. “Dreaming Towers, Silent Mansions” by Jaine Fenn
17. “Eternity’s Children” by Eric Brown and Keith Brooke
18. “For the Ages” by Alastair Reynolds
19. “Return of the Mutant Worms” by Peter F. Hamilton

 

The Broken Eye by Brent Weeks

So for some people Brent Weeks will not be an unfamiliar name in the epic fantasy field but I think he may be one of the lesser known of the newish group of exiting fantasy authors. This is the third in his second fantasy series, both of which have their one distinct atmosphere and a grittier realistic storyline that will appeal to new fans to the genre who love the work of George RR Martin and Patrick Rothfuss. Jumping on in this volume is possibly not the best idea but seeing as I've done so a few times to find great stand alone books by accident possibly could happen here. Here is a link to Brent's web presence and a synopsis from his page....

 

The Broken Eye continues the spectacular Lightbringer series from the New York Times bestselling author of The Black Prism and The Blinding Knife.

As the old gods awaken and satrapies splinter, the Chromeria races to find the only man who can still end a civil war before it engulfs the known world. But Gavin Guile has been captured by an old enemy and enslaved on a pirate galley. Worse still, Gavin has lost more than his powers as Prism–he can’t use magic at all.

Without the protection of his father, Kip Guile will face a master of shadows as his grandfather moves to choose a new Prism and put himself in power. With Teia and Karris, Kip will have to use all his wits to survive a secret war between noble houses, religious factions, rebels, and an ascendant order of hidden assassins called The Broken Eye.

 

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Sorry...late...

Hi... Seems a relative is coming into town today and I forgot about it... My post for today will be unforgivably late.... And its such a good week coming up... Dast.... Well ....

 

 

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Wanted Dispatch Aug 15th....

We Will All Go Down Together by Gemma Files

One of my favorite Canadian authors Gemma Files author of the greathorror western Hexslinger series a few years back has a modern horror offering for readers. This time around here dark imaginings take us to modern day Ontario involving secret sects of witches changelings and such that are the nightmares of many urban fantasy tales. I expect lots of dark and grim events interspersed with equally dark humor and insight. Here is the synopsis. As always I'm exited when ChiZine has a new offering... Here is a link to their website...

 

In the woods outside Overdeere, Ontario, there are trees that speak, a village that doesn’t appear on any map and a hill that opens wide, entrapping unwary travellers. Music drifts up from deep underground, while dreams—and nightmares—take on solid shape, flitting through the darkness. It’s a place most people usually know better than to go, at least locally—until tonight, at least, when five bloodlines mired in ancient strife will finally converge once more.

Devize, Glouwer, Rusk, Druir, Roke—these are the clans who make up the notorious Five-Family Coven. Four hundred years ago, this alliance of witches, changelings, and sorcerers sought to ruin and recreate the Earth in their own image, thwarted at the last only by treachery that sent half of them to be burned alive. Driven apart by rage and hatred, their descendants have continued to feud, intermarry, and breed with each other throughout the centuries, their mutual dislike becoming ever more destructively intimate.

But now, from downtown Toronto to the wilds beyond, where reality’s walls grow thin, dark forces are drawing the Coven’s last heirs to a final confrontation. Psychics, ex-possessees, defrocked changeling priests, shamans for hire, body-stealing witches, and monster-slaying nuns—the bastard children of a thousand evil angels—all are haunted by a ghost beyond any one person’s power to exorcize unless they agree to stand together once more, at least long enough to wreak vengeance upon themselves.

The Godless by Ben Peek

Between City of Stairs , the new book by Robert Jackson Bennett, which involves a world where the gods have been killed and this novel where the gods are dead or dying I think fantasy novels are treading some interesting metaphysical ground. It doesn't hurt that Jeff Vandermeer has blurbed this even if its an odd one in attracting my attention and the fact that tor.com posted sample chapters to view here doesn't hurt either. Here is a bit of synopsis...

The Gods are dying. Fifteen thousand years after the end of their war, their bodies can still be found across the world. They kneel in forests, lie beneath mountains, and rest at the bottom of the world’s ocean. For thousands of years, men and women have awoken with strange powers that are derived from their bodies.

The city Mireea is built against a huge stone wall that stretches across a vast mountain range, following the massive fallen body of the god, Ger. Ayae, a young cartographer’s apprentice, is attacked and discovers she cannot be harmed by fire. Her new power makes her a target for an army that is marching on Mireea. With the help of Zaifyr, a strange man adorned with charms, she is taught the awful history of ‘cursed’ men and women, coming to grips with her new powers and the enemies they make. Meanwhile, the saboteur Bueralan infiltrates the army that is approaching her home to learn its terrible secret...

 

 

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Somewhere through the wardrobe....

 

The Magician's Land brings Lev Grossman's adult love letter to portal fantasies and magical academies to a fantastic and thoughtful close. Wether your fond childhoods fantasy memories are from over the rainbow, down the rabbit hole, through the looking glass or departing from a number 9 and 1/2 the worlds he dreamed up will be sure to be familiar and manages binds all those stories together. Lev explores the rocky territory of adulthood with all the disappointments, loss and regrets through the continues journeys of Quentin Coldwater, the character from Breakbills and out of Fillory as they make their way either I the real world or the fantastic without magic ever becoming a get out of jail mfree card. I can say this novel endeared me to his creations and succeeds brilliant by itself because its the only one I have as of yet read and given my enjoyment of it I'll be soon fixing that oversight. I've often heard the series called Harry Potter for adults but this one novel showed me its much more, its a fond look back to those stories of childhood than manages not to get stuck in nostalgia or grim remakings of the same.

The novel follows two separate stories the first following Quentin who has been exiled from the magical land back into the real world and the other about the adventures of his friends who now rule the land of Fillory that was in the last volume aparently his. Quentin's tale is as much about the caper he becomes part of as the novel opens as it is about him trying to come to terms with the multiple losses he suffers. Though still a magician if a mediocre he he was ousted from his childhood dream home, separated from his friends as well as the real world losses that we learn of as the story progresses to being us up to date. For all the sadness that these events cause this part of the book contains a lot of the magic in the story, the alchemy of taking the lot you have and finding the formula that makes it a life worth living.

The Fillory adventures include fighting off an invasion, learning of a comming apocalypse and taking up of heroic quests and though these are stapes of the portal fantasy the thrust of these stories become a travelogue with much ado about talking. Lev makes great use of language and pacing to offset the stories from one another and the dichotomies between the magical realm and the real one feel afterwards not the ones I'd have expected. Elliot, Julia, Poppy and Josh are living there now and lev does a great job of normalizing the fantastic the way they read are as if its normal not as wide eyed tourists. I would not say he makes it more adultish or even sees things through a cynical adult eye but it has a quality of difference that goes beyond mearly grittifying things and adding swearing and sex to old familiar kids stories.

The Magician's Land introduced me to characters I very much would love to have more time with, took me to places that were filled with wonder and not all of because they were magical in nature. He reminded me of stories that I thought I knew, heard and half remember from my own childhood and that is why for me it worked so well on its own; Lev's obvious fondness for the mythical figures of his childhood shine through as do his creations inspired by the likes of Lewis Caroll, Frank L Baum, J M Barry to name just a few. The Magician's Land which is part caper part quest and part aplocalypse plot wise is more about the human spirit finding its way through loss and regret that comes with adulthood yet ultimately never loses a sense of wonder. Much like Neil Gaiman's Ocean at the End of the Lane this novel shows and author who can write a kids story for adults that can remind you what it was like to be a kid but see it with new eyes and appreciate the wonder for its own sake. This is one of the books I will be recommending without much reserve, it has a lot of heart, delivers on its promises and like portal fantasies makes you want just one more trip after the last page is turned. This is the kind of been that even not a follower of the series is worth having and possibly even have it in hard cover.

 

Now where are those Fillory books ... I must have copies somewhere in all by boxes of books....

 

 

 

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Wanted Dispatch... August 5 2014

(hopefully a return to my regular feature to spotlight books coming out ... hopefully to return to its regular Saturday spot....writer crosses fingers...)

Assail by Ian C Esslemont

For people unfamiliar with the Malazan series of epic fantasy novels this may not be the right place to start but Ian's storytelling is often strong enough so unfamiliarity may not be too big an issue. Assail promises to explore some of the less seen but oft talked about places in the world and may reveal some of the more intriguing pieces of history and legends in their magnificent world. With the main series written by Steven Erikson being over this is a series that may be off people's radar and that is a shame given the wealth of myths that they created for their worlds. If you want to sample Assail here is a link to the tor.com site. Here is the synopsis...

Tens of thousands of years of ice is melting, and the land of Assail, long a byword for menace and inaccessibility, is at last yielding its secrets. Tales of gold discovered in the region’s north circulate in every waterfront dive and sailor’s tavern, and now countless adventurers and fortune-seekers have set sail in search of riches.

Into this turmoil ventures the mercenary company, the Crimson Guard. Not drawn by contract, but by the promise of answers: answers to mysteries that Shimmer, second in command, wonders should even be sought.

Arriving also, part of an uneasy alliance of Malazan fortune-hunters and Letherii soldiery, comes the bard Fisher kel Tath. And with him is a Tiste Andii who was found washed ashore and cannot remember his past life, yet who commands far more power than he really should. Also venturing north is said to be a mighty champion, a man who once fought for the Malazans, the bearer of a sword that slays gods: Whiteblade.

And lastly, far to the south, a woman guards the shore awaiting both her allies and her enemies. Silverfox, newly incarnated Summoner of the undying army of the T’lan Imass, will do anything to stop the renewal of an ages-old crusade that could lay waste to the entire continent and beyond.

 

The Widow's House by Daniel Abraham

Another fine epic fantasy that may have not gotten attention is the Coin and the Dagger series which began a couple years back with The Dragons Path. Daniel has a real love for the genre and has taken many of his favorite aspects from the genre and blended them with his far reaching imagination to produce this gem of a series. Like GRRM his characters are fully formed having dreams and goals far beyond achieving some quest or fulfilling some vague prophecy and best of all they do not play close to type. Villains in his stories don't commit evil for the sake of being the bad guy as readers you can see and understand their actions heinous though they may be. I've fallen behind on this series as time has gone by but knowing this unique world is out there to revisit is a good thing. The endorsement at the top from Martin goes beyond just a quote since he chose Daniel to write the comic adaptation for Game of Thrones. Here is a link to a sample chapter of this complex character driven fantasy...

 

Broken Souls by Stephen Blackmoore

When it comes to urban fantasy my tastes tend to run to crime noir edge of the pool and Stephen Blackmoore is possibly one of the more entertaining finds in that area outside of Chuck Wendig. Stephen has a particularly dark sense of humor and I've been looking forward to a follow up to last years novel Dead Things which introduced necromancer Eric Carter. Looking at the description of this along with the list of writers who blurbed this they would have had me with necromancer and Aztec death goddess alone. You can go here to read about it and click through to an excerpt...

 

Throne & Bones Frostborn by Lou Anders

Lou Anders first novel is something I've been waiting years for since having heard he was working on one. As an editor Lou can pretty much do no wrong in choosing novels or short fiction that is going to be just my kind of thing and this Norse/Viking myth inspired book I expect to be pretty much the same. I don't know I may be setting my sights pretty high but I expect great things from this YA adventure novel and hope to be recommending it wholeheartedly at the store that I work at. Here is a link to Lou's website with a synopsis.. And a further link to Random House's site where there is apparently an excerpt....

 

The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman

Ok, not that Mr. Grossman needs much signal boost for his series about Quentin Coldwater and the magical land of Fillory but I feel I have to add this along with e fantasy section here. I for one missed volumes one and two and chanced into reviewing volume three and given I am familiar with Portal fantasies I found this third in a series quite readable on its own. I will hit up a full review later this week but suffice to say it was a great mix of moral quandaries, capers, quests and apocalyptic battles as one might expect from a final volume in a series. Here is a link to synopsis and such.... I would ask you to pursue getting yours at a local Indy shop rather then one of the bigger venues...

 

 

 

Arrows of Time by Greg Egan

Like he Magicians Land Arrows of Time is the final book in a series; this though is a hard science fiction tale set in a universe where traveling at near the speed of light makes time go faster for the travelers rather then the people who remain behind. Its a bizarre reverse of our physics and is a compelling setting with its own set of problems and dynamics. Its a series that almost got lost when Nightshade Books near imploded and I'm glad to say it didn't get sucked into that abyss. If you want to read an excerpt go to tor.com here... And what follows is a bit of synopsis...

In an alien universe where space and time play by different rules, interstellar voyages last longer for the travellers than for those they left behind. After six generations in flight, the inhabitants of the mountain-sized spacecraft the Peerless have used their borrowed time to develop advanced technology that could save their home world from annihilation.

But not every traveller feels allegiance to a world they have never seen, and as tensions mount over the risks of turning the ship around and starting the long voyage home, a new complication arises: the prospect of constructing a messaging system that will give the Peerless news of its own future.

Greg Egan’s The Arrows of Time is the final volume of the Orthogonal trilogy.....

So I have a few more but those will have to wait till tomorrow....

 

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