Update: Catching up – Books, Blogs and other stuff part 1

This is going to be a little random and maybe a little long but I have a lot of catching up to do.

He’s the plan so far. In this post I’m going to try and catch up with this months releases and highlights, leaning quite heavily on Robert aka Fantasy Book Critic so I hope he doesn’t mind too much. Then I’ve got a stack of book-o-sphere/RSS/Newsgator feeds-type catch up do to. And I want to mention a few books and publishers who’ve got in contact with me and then hopefully I’ll have cleared some of the backlog. That’ll keep me going for the next few posts at least. And then I should get to the books I’ve been pecking away at reading.

Deep breath. Here we go.

It’s not often I see Stephen King getting a blog review so it was nice to see Duma Key getting a positive review on Fantasy Book Critic. I’m a little behind on Mr King (aren’t I always) but this one might slip past the ones I already have waiting so I can experience, ‘Just like the ending of The Sixth Sense, readers will want to go back and read “Duma Key” to search for the clues they missed, as well as to re-read the segments that slapped them in the face with starkness.’

Sticking with Fantasy Book Critic. He has a wonderful and extensive round-up of March’s releases (I know we’re past the middle of March).

There a few books that stand-out for me. Kay Keyon is writing four novels called the The Entire and The Rose Quartet. The second book called A World Too Near is getting its US release both from Pyr. I missed the release of the first one, Bright of the Sky, in the UK last September (though it’s had a large format paperback release this month and I didn’t even know that Pyr released books over here.) SFReviews have a wonderful reviews of both Bright of the Sky (review by Sci-Fi.com) and A World Too Near (review by Sci-Fi.com) . The bit that caught my eye was the universe that Keynon has created:

The Entire is an artificial universe created by the Tarig, a curious humanoid race who have peopled their creation with engineered duplicates of species from natural universes like our own, which they call the Rose. The Entire itself beggars easy description. It is like a landscape of sorts that spans galactic distances and even possesses the radial shape of a spiral galaxy. It is bordered on its sides by roiling curtains of ineffable exotic matter, and above by a sky that never darkens. The Tarig rule their subject species like the despots they are. Only they possess the ability to communicate across the Entire’s vast radial arms, the primacies. And they control the most important means of travel, achieved with vessels piloted by beings called navitars that journey a river, the Nigh, made of yet more exotic matter.
Extract from Bright of Sky review on SFReviews

Darren Shan is a writer that has never really appealed to me, basically the covers didn’t appeal to me or present the type of thing that I can see myself reading. Now Darren Shan has morphed into D.B Shan to present The City Trilogy to older (more adult?) readers. He starts with Procession of the Dead:

‘The first volume in a noirish, gritty urban fantasy for adults from the bestselling author otherwise known as Darren Shan. Quick-witted and cocksure, young upstart Capac Raimi arrives in the City determined to make his mark. As he learns the tricks of his new trade from his Uncle Theo — extortion, racketeering, threatening behaviour — he’s soon well on his way to becoming a promising new gangster. Then he crosses paths with The Cardinal, and his life changes forever. The Cardinal is the City and the City is The Cardinal. They are joined at the soul. Nothing moves on the streets, or below them, without the Cardinal’s knowledge. His rule is absolute. As Capac begins to discover more about the extent of the Cardinal’s influence on his own life he is faced with hard choices. And as his ambition soars ever higher he will learn all there is to know about loss, and the true cost of ultimate power’!

I might actually give these a go! Sounds up my street. Released by HarperVoyager

Speaking of things up my street. I do have more than a glancing knowledge of tarot cards so it’s interesting to see a novel based around them. The Magician and the Fool by Barth Anderson:

Two fallen scholars vie for control over the earliest known tarot deck, and find themselves in a battle with a force beyond their reckoning. One homeless man with an unspeakable gift hides in the shadows from an unknown enemy and wrestles with the riches and horrors that true power bestows. One ancient and mysterious document holds secrets that should never be spoken. All converge in one explosive fate that exposes what real magic actually means, and shows us what true sacrifice entails.

The other plus point is that I’m having a pull towards more historical novels. So this book seems to mix both interests. US import released by Bantam.

There are a few more that caught my eye.

The Dark Lantern by Gerri Brightwell:

A fascinating portrayal of a vanished England as well as an unconventional mystery, The Dark Lantern exposes the grand “upstairs” of a Victorian home and the darker underbelly of its servants’ quarters. The clash between the classes makes for a suspenseful novel of mistaken identities, intriguing women, and dangerous deceptions.

I can’t seem to find any enlightening reviews of this one, so I’m looking forward to, hopefully, seeing some soon. US import published by Crown.

The Reef by Mark Charan Newton

I have to say that I’m not overly convinced by the synopsis as I can’t quite grasp what’s going on. But it seems to involve water and ancient technology so I’ll go with that. The real reason why The Reef stands out is that Mark Charan Newton has just signed a two-book deal with Macmillan/Tor UK. So the lad has something (and yes he’s a lad as he’s the tender age of 26). He also has a series of posts called Road to Publication that are worth checking out. Mark’s debut is released by Pendragon Press.

The Dreaming Void by Peter F. Hamilton is getting it’s US release this month courtesy of Del Rey. This is quite exciting as it’s usually the other way around and us Brits have to wait for (and in my case usually miss) books that have been out in America for quite a while. I really enjoyed reading The Dreaming Void when I reviewed it last year and I hope it’ll pick up Hamilton a few more us fans.

The next two books show how behind I am as the wonderful Fantasy Book Critic has already passed judgement but that’s not stopping me from mentioning them.

The Lost Ones by Christopher Golden.

I have to say that I’ve never registered Christopher Golden but I’m going to forgive myself as he’s not yet, as far as I can tell, had a major UK release. Which seems a shame considering that The Lost Ones brings to a close The Veil trilogy and it follows on from The Myth Hunters (Flames Rising Review) and The Borderkind (SciFi.com review). Why is it a shame? From the looks of it Golden plays with myth and reality another love of mine (do I love too many things?). You can find Fantasy Book Critic’s review of The Lost Ones, plus links the other reviews and a Bonus Q&A with with author here. US import published by Bantam Spectra

Poison Sleep by T.A. Pratt

Covers in the US seem to be getting a bit more painterly these days and are quite stunning and it wasn’t until I saw the cover of Blood Engines that I remembered about seeing T.A Pratt before. I’m the same with people. I can remember a face 100 times easier than I can a name. I think in some ways I do judge a book by its cover. Poison Sleep is second book of what looks to be a four-part series based on Marla Mason and slightly worryingly the Marlaverse. The taste of cheese doesn’t quite end there as the bit of the blurb from Blood Engines that I love is:

A rival is preparing a powerful spell that could end Marla’s life — and, even worse, wreck her city. Marla’s only chance at survival is to boost her powers with the Cornerstone, a magical artifact hidden somewhere across the country in San Francisco. But when she arrives in the pretty white city by the bay, she finds the quest isn’t quite as simple as she’d expected… and that some of the people she’d counted on for help are dead.

Both books have a lot of praise from FBC, ‘both terrific reads and if Tim can keep it up with the next couple of books, then the Marla Mason series will be one of the first that I recommend to readers wanting to discover great urban fantasy…’ And I’m sure they aren’t as cheesy as I imagine them to be. US import published by Bantam Books.

Moving on from the Fantasy Book Critic, at least for a while, with a few UK releases that caught my eye:

It’s not very often that I see a book that I just have to read ASAP. Well it happened last year with Never the Bride by Paul Magrs and now his second book, Something Borrowed, on the adventures of Brenda is out in paperback. I wonder what will happen in the quiet little town of Whitby this time? It’s waiting patiently in my Amazon basket for payday.

Kelly Armstrong is another Urban Fantasy writer that I need to get into. I’ve read Bitten, the first novel in her The Otherworld series before stalling. Have I mentioned that I don’t like getting into things halfway through? As much as I enjoyed it. Werewolves just don’t get me going. I will read Stolen. I wonder if it’s safe to skip to Dime Store Magic, where the narrator changes to Paige, but she also features in Stolen. Dilemma. Anyway the reason for mentioning Kelly Armstrong is that books seven and eight are now out. No Humans Involved gets a paperback release after coming out in hardback and Personal Demon has a hardback release. It shows something of the appeal of Armstrong that she gets a two-stage release schedule. It looks Jeremy from Bitten is still around in No Humans Involved where necromancer Jamie Vegas looks into the darker side of LA calling on her personal angel, Eve and a chaos demon to investigate the things that keep haunting her as she sees them in the corner of her eye and hears fragments whispered in her ear. Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review has a review and it seems like he got a taste for more. Both books are presented by the wonderful people at Orbit.

I have a soft spot for a good cover design and one that keeps grabbing my attention is Swiftly by Adam Roberts. I loved his third book, Stone, where the narrator tells a rock about his life and crimes and how he came to be imprisoned in an unescapable prison. And it is one of the best works of sci-fi I’d read. I’ve tried to get into his first and second books, Salt and On, but they are so different that they didn’t click. Back to Swiftly, the blurb says, ‘A rip-roaring 19th century adventure, a love story and a thought-provoking pre-atomic SF novel about our place in the universe’ and ‘Wellsian sequel to Gulliver’s Travels and a unique piece of SF literature all of its own’. Never a man to have small ideas is Roberts. Released by Gollancz

And finally for part one I’ve just spotted a new book and a new series on Amazon by Garth Nix. It has the title of The Fall (The Seventh Tower). The synopsis says:

Tal is getting ready for the Day of Ascension – a day when all the 13-year-old Chosen from the Castle of Seven Towers enter the spirit world of Aenir. Then his father disappears with the family’s Primary Sunstone. Without it, Tal cannot enter Aenir and bind himself to a Spiritshadow – a guardian being, both protector and friend.
Tal tries to steal a Sunstone, but during his act of thievery is thrown off the Castle of Seven Towers by a powerful Spiritshadow Keeper. He falls down to the iceworld below, where he is captured by Icecarls. To save his life, he must team up with Milla – a Shield-Maiden-in-training – and offer his aid to the nomads. Which complicates his task immeasurably…

Now this sounds like my sort of book and if it’s told with any of the care and skill that Nix used on The Old Kingdom series I’m going to be more than happy. Oh, I found a review of it here. Released by HarperCollins Children’s.

In part two, I’m going to be taking a look at what’s been happening in the book-o-sphere whilst my back’s been turned.