Epic Plains

Tigana (10th Anniversary Edition)
by Guy Gavriel Kay

Jakob’s Goodreads Rating: (5) of 5 Stars – “It was Amazing!”
Recommended for: Fantasy readers of any type.

Book description:

A masterful epic of magic, politics, war… and the power of love and hate.

This is that rare, spellbinding novel in which myth comes alive and magic reaches out to touch us.  Tigana is the magical story of a beleaguered land struggling to be free.  It is the tale of a people so cursed by the black sorcery of a cruel, despotic king that even the name of their once-beautiful homeland cannon be spoken or remembered…

But years after the devastation, a handful of courageous men and women embarks upon a dangerous crusade to overthrow their conquerors and bring back to the dark world the brilliance of a long-lost name: Tigana.  Against the magnificently rendered background of a world both sensuous and barbaric, this sweeping epic of a passionate people pursuing their dream is breathtaking in its vision, changing forever the boundaries of fantasy fiction.

I have read Kay books before.   I discovered him through a friend about a year ago reading The Fionavar Tapestry and Sarantine Mosaic, The Fionavar Tapestry being right up there in books that I now love.  Kay books usually take me a little bit to get into, but once I do I cannot put them down. Tigana was no different.  Yet now that I have finished it, it ranks up there with the best books I have read period.  It grabbed me on an emotional level that makes me wish I had discovered it years ago.

As the description states, the book is about a land that was conquered.  Not only was their land taken from them, but their name was taken from them. The implications of this are what Kay explores in this novel.  This struck a cord with me partially because I have a similar theme in the novel I am working on, but Kay takes it in a different direction.  With their name goes their identity.  Their history, deeds, story all lose the root and focus.

Pain, loss, hate are all explored here.  Yet also we see love, sacrifice, and wondrous deeds done in the effort to regain what was lost.  Magic exists in this novel and world.  (As the basis of the novel is a spell that makes everyone except the people born in that land before the spell was cast forget the name as soon as they hear or read it.) Yet, it is really a sideline for most of the novel.   They interactions of the people and what they feel are what Kay focuses on.

As this is a stand-alone novel, if you haven’t read Kay before, this would be a great place to start with his works.  This specific edition was nice to read with the afterword by the author.  It helps explain some of where he came up with the ideas and what he was going for with the plot themes. He accomplished his goals very well.

The Dragon Factory
by Jonathan Maberry

Jakob’s Goodreads Rating: (4) of 5 Stars – “Really liked it”
Recommended for: Action/Thriller Readers

Release Date: March 2nd, 2010 – Reviewing Advanced Reader Copy

Book description:

Joe Ledger and the DMS (Department of Military Sciences) go up against two competing groups of geneticists. One side is creating exotic transgenic monsters and genetically enhanced mercenary armies; the other is using 21st century technology to continue the Nazi Master Race program begun by Josef Mengele. Both sides want to see the DMS destroyed, and they’ve drawn first blood. Neither side is prepared for Joe Ledger as he leads Echo Team to war under a black flag.

This book was a fun read that kept me interested the whole time. The Dragon Factory isn’t in my regular genres, but that was part of the fun in this case. I received this book through a Goodreads “First Reads” contest, so wanted to bump it up on my reading priority list. I came into both the story and author cold, meaning I hadn’t read any other reviews and Maberry was a totally new author to me. (He was kind enough to stop by this site and point out some links to free fiction on his own website and wished me well with the book.)

The book took me a little to get into as I didn’t know the characters and didn’t really get how Maberry was doing his scene changes. Without giving too much away, I will simply say between scenes he would have an additional scene taking place elsewhere and at a different time. I initially found this a bit jarring and couldn’t follow, but as the story unfolded those scenes started to make sense and by the end reflecting on them they were critical to the plot.

The second half of the novel was jam-packed with action. The story was really smooth sailing from there on out and I just kept reading one more chapter till I finished it. Maberry does an excellent job of keeping the story interesting and the plot moving the whole time. A reason I don’t often read the genre is I find a lot of it too predictable. We can generally guess about halfway through the rest of the book what needs to happen. This book quite often had a part of what I would guess, but certainly not in the way I would guess and contained plenty of moments that surprised me.

Jonathan also left a note on Goodreads mentioning that he will shortly be finishing the third book in the series (The King of Plagues) and that the series is in development for TV. Pretty exciting actually. I would recommend this book for anyone who loves action/thriller/covert-ops sort of stories. For this genra to get a 4-star from me and keep my attention that well, that says its good. I am looking forward to reading more of Jonathan’s work and keeping my eye out for that TV series!

Here are the links to Jonathan’s free fiction:

There are also two free Joe Ledger short stories available online (and they won’t add to the clutter in your room): COUNTDOWN takes is a prequel to PATIENT ZERO (http://us.macmillan.com/CMS400/uploadedFiles/COUNTDOWN_free.pdf) . And DEEP, DARK (just posted yesterday), takes place just before the second book, THE DRAGON FACTORY. Here’s the link: http://jonathanmaberry.com/download-the-free-joe-ledger-story-deep-dar

I have added a couple of more author blogs to the resources page.  Jim C. Hines and Kelly McCullough.

Both of these authors are actually new discoveries for me.  I just discovered them in the past year.  Both have had reviews done fairly recently on this site as well.

Jim is the author of the Princess series which takes the classic Disney characters and puts a Grimm’s meets Charley’s Angels sort of spin on them.  Read the review for The Mermaid’s Madness.  He also has a Goblin trilogy out that I have read great things about.  Since I know I like his writing style, I will have to pick those up and review them at some point as well.

Kelly is the author of the Ravirn series.  I have reviewed Cybermancy, Codespell, and MythOS so far on this site.  These books are a fun mix of Greek mythology, cyberpunk, and fantasy.  They are a blast to read and his fun quirky style is a pleasure to read.

I encourage you to check out their sites and if you haven’t, pick up a copy of their books.  I enjoy following both of them outside of their novels and you might too.

I have been meaning to do a post for a while.  Jeff over at Fantasy Book News & Reviews had a good post discussing and responding to some comments on his reading preferences.  A lot of the responding originates from this post on a different site.

The key part of the discussion I picked up on is whether the gender of an author determines whether or not I read a book.  Apparently a few folks did “Best of” lists that didn’t include female authors or something along those lines.  I am going to have to agree with Jess on this one – the gender of an author has nothing to do with whether or not I will read a book.

The post goes on to discuss some of the comments in the one article criticizing Jeff’s reading habits.  The thing that most bothered me about the post and the comments is that by somehow reading more male authors than female makes you sexist, limits your horizons, or other such stuff at that.  One commentor actually seemed to have a level head though.

The key part of what Aiden said was this:

It bothers me that Jeff even has to think consider whether he’s ‘sexist’, because of the gender of the authors he enjoys.

Bottom-line, I don’t think people should worry about the authors race/number of fingers/gender, and just read books they enjoy. Just because all the books on my ‘Favourites of ’09′ list are written by white males doesn’t mean I chose them for that reason, it just means that those white males wrote the best books I read this year.

Jeff somewhat agreed with this for his own reasons, though he did say he tends to purposely select male protagonists.  You know what – that’s fine.  I read what I like, he reads what he likes, and we both post about it.  People tend to enjoy the best what they can identify with.  The whole discussion seems a bit silly to me.  Who cares if someone is “limiting” their choices or not?

All that being said, I would be annoyed if the same was said about me.  True this site is fairly new and to date I have reviewed and written about all male authors, though one does approach things from a female protagonist reviews.  Most of my favorite authors are males, but there are quite a few female authors I read.  My own novel I am writing does have a male protagonist, but certainly contains inspiration from Katherine Kurtz more than anyone else.

To be honest though, I don’t pay that much attention to the gender of an author.  I see a book title, description, or blurb that interests me, I read the back (description) and if I like it flag it on my “To-Read” list on Goodreads.  Seeing as I subscribe to quite a few Review sites, sign up for book contests, and now am starting to get PR releases (and hopefully ARC’s soon) I get flooded with possibilities.  I really don’t even pay attention to whether or not the name is male or female, etc.   I tend to look at the cover and read the description before even really seeing who the book is by.

This post got a little longer than expected and I hope the topic is beat to death.  The only change I anticipate making here on Epic Plains is to review books whether or not I actually like them.  Seeing as my “To-Read” list is rarely less than 50 books, I end up being pretty selective in what I purchase, so generally only buy books I know I am going to like.  However, I do have a ARC and contest book coming in, so consider those randoms that while in my genre I may or may not like.

Any thoughts?

Janet over had her blog has a good post on what you need before you send an agent for a query. She has it split into three sections: Fiction, Memoir, and Non-Fiction.

Of interest to me of course is the Fiction section… so reviewing it I need a finished Query Letter, Website, dedicated query/author email, Wordcount, and Finished Project. Yep, I have a bit more work to do on those things.

The Myriad (Tour of the Merrimack, #1)
by R.M. Meluch

Jakob’s Goodreads Rating: (2) of 5 Stars – “It was ok”
Recommended for: Military Scifi Readers

Book description:

The U.S.S. Merrimack was the finest battleship class spaceship in Earth’s fleet, able to stand up against the best the Palatine Empire could throw at them, even able to attack and kill swarms of the seemingly unstoppable Hive. But nothing could have prepared the captain and crew of the Merrimack to face the Myriad-three colonized worlds in the midst of a globular cluster that the Hive had somehow overlooked.

Military SciFi is one of my favorite sub-genres. I picked this up thinking something along the lines of Weber and the book did fit the genre. Plus it mentioned one of the cultures being based on Ancient Rome. Seeing as Ancient Rome is my favorite historical period, I figured this book would be the greatest story ever.

However, it did take me a little bit to get into the story. A lot of the beginning of the book started with hints of background that read like this was a book in the middle of a series and you should have read the previous book before starting this one. Once I got past the first 50 pages I started to get into the story a bit more. The basic premise is that two former enemies have allied to defend against something even worse. A hive insect sort of race that’s only goal is to make everyone its next meal. That combined with what felt like fairly stock characters made this into a sort of Star Trek meets Starship Troopers.

The book however did manage to carry itself almost all of the way through, far enough to make me want to know more, until the end. I will avoid spoilers, but the twist at the end was jarring and just not needed. It detracted from the whole story instead of adding to it. Without it, I may have considered continuing on in the series, but in light of a story that took a lot for me to get into in the first place ending like that, I lost all interest in following the adventures of the U.S.S. Merrimack.

That being said, plenty of people love this book. So if the plot sounds of interest it might be worth your time. I would recommend instead reading David Weber and Steve White’s Starfire series. The last couple (In Death Ground and The Shiva Option) dealing with Arachnids who want to eat everyone. That being what I had hoped this book was going to be.

Here are a few interesting posts/links I came across over the weekend:

Fantasy Book Critic – Cindy’s Anticipated 2010 List.

Nice list of books coming out in 2010 that might be of interest

Scifi Signal – Scifi Tidbits for 1/17/10

Of particular note on this is the CultPop interview with John Scalzi and Jim C. Hines.  Having just reviewed a book by Jim I enjoyed his part of the interview the most.

Scifi Signal – A Dozen Doses of Free Fiction From Robert A. Heinlein and Fritz Leiber

Links to a bit of free fiction from those two authors.

Tribal Writer – the problem with outlines and word quotas (and why they sometimes might lead to sucky writing)

Good post on how outlines and wordcounts might hinder your writing process.

I am sure there are plenty of others that I missed linking.  This post is scheduled for Monday morning and I will add more if I come across others before then.

MythOS
by Kelly McCullough

Jakob’s Goodreads Rating: (4) of 5 Stars – “Really liked it”
Recommended for: Fantasy and Geek Readers

This is the fourth book in Kelly’s Ravirn series, starting with WebMage, Cybermancy, and Codespell.  Ravirn once again finds himself in a heap of trouble.  Best intention tends to backfire on him yet again.

Book description:

In the 21st century, magic has advanced with the times and gone digital. But when Ravirn-a computer savvy sorcerer-is thrown into a parallel world where magic runs on a different operating system, he’ll need mad skills to get out alive.

As I mentioned in my reviews of both Cybermancy and Codespell these books are a blast to read.  It is a fun mix of cyberpunk, Greek mythology, and fantasy all rolled up into a quirky ball.  Like the others, I finished the book fairly quickly in a couple of days.  Once again however, that had more to do with reading for long stretches than it being an abnormally short book. (Yes, I ended up staying up quite late once again to finish this one… which is why this review is being posted pretty quickly after the last one.)

MythOS is a bit of a departure from the last three books in a way.  We have some of the old cast we have come to know.  Ravirn, Melchior, Tisiphone, and the missing webtroll Ahllan make appearances. However almost all of the other characters are totally different.  See in this 4th book, Ravirn departs the Greek Pantheon and ends up in a universe where the Greek Gods are silly stories and the Norse Pantheon walks the world. Ravirn still is a lesser power, but in a totally different playing field.

Naturally through the course of the novel Ravirn manages (whether through action or inaction) piss off just about every faction in the Norse Pantheon as well.  (Perhaps this is the true talent of “The Raven.”) We also end up meeting everyone from Loki to Odin and quiet a few in between.  It was kind of jarring going to a totally different pantheon.  This probably is what Kelly was going for here.  We really get into Ravirn’s situation when he too is trying to recall half forgotten legends and figure out how that will impact him returning “home.”

MythOS progresses at a fast pace and is enjoyable the entire time.  Ravirn finally starts to build himself up and make his own choices as opposed to just going with whatever seems best at the time.  He consciously starts to turn himself into something greater.  The part that sticks into my mind the most is the point in the book where Ravirn has to actually pick sides. Chaos power or not, Ravirn is building into a heroic figure.  I am really looking forward to what Kelly has in store for us with the 5th book.  I recommend picking these up and following the whole series.

CodeSpell
by Kelly McCullough

Jakob’s Goodreads Rating: (4) of 5 Stars – “Really liked it”
Recommended for: Fantasy and Geek Readers

This is the third book in Kelly’s Ravirn series, starting with WebMage and then Cybermancy.  We again join Ravirn trying to fix the universe and generally trying to get himself out of whatever hot water he finds himself in.

Book description:

The universe needs a reboot…

In the twenty-first century magic has gone digital, and Ravirn, a direct descendant of one of the three Fates, is a talented sorcerer and computer hacker extraordinaire.  So when Necessity, the sentient computer that runs the universe, catches a virus that crashes most of the magical Internet, Ravirn is tasked with fixing it.  Whoever repairs Necessity will, for that moment, run the universe.  Unfortunately for the sorcerer, some very dangerous beings have figured that out too.

As I mentioned in my review of Cybermancy, these books are a fun read.  It is a fun mix of cyberpunk, Greek mythology, and fantasy all rolled up into a quirky ball.   I finished it in a couple of days, but that had a lot to do with not being able to put it down for the last third of the book.  (I blame Kelly for keeping me up late on a Thursday night and being sleepy while writing this review! )

Codespell I worried might suffer from a middle book or series syndrome since the plot description of both it and the following book sounded like a story line had been split between the two.   (Fixing Necessity.)  However the book stands on its own quite well and I was pleasantly surprised.   Ravirn grows up a bit more in this novel and we have some new characters introduced. Zeus finally makes an appearance and being described as the “ultimate frat boy” was hilarious.   I have seen some comments by people that not as many new characters were introduced in this book and somehow that was a bad thing.  (By the tone it should be obvious that I do not agree.)

To continue on that, what is most compelling about this book is the character/relationship development from the previous novels.  Less new characters meant Kelly was able to spend more time developing the ones that we already have met.  Cerice ends up being out of the picture (or at least on the sidelines) far quicker than I anticipated, though the way Kelly had started developing the character in the previous novel was to be expected.  With Tisiphone (the fury) and Melchior (webgoblin/familiar/sidekick) along for the ride Ravirn has some help in his task.  Which is good since he seems to be pissing off for one reason or another just about everyone above him on the totem pole.

Part of the ending felt clunky to me so I stopped, re-read the page, and continued on.  However, there was a lot going on so perhaps I was reading to fast for what the section allowed for.  Either way the book was a blast.  I am looking forward to getting started on MythOS in order to catch up with where the novels currently are.

The Mermaid’s Madness:
by Jim C. Hines

Jakob’s Goodreads Rating: (4) of 5 Stars – “Really liked it”
Recommended for: Fantasy and Fairytale Readers

In this sequel to the The Stepsister Scheme we rejoin the princesses Danielle, Talia, and Snow (A.K.A Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White) on another adventure.

If you are unfamiliar with Jim’s Princess Series, what he has done here is take the classic fairy tales and added his own twists to the tales. The stories and backgrounds he comes up for the characters are far different (and darker) than you might remember from watching Disney movies. This is part of what I find fun about the world Jim has created here. The characters are aware of this “fluffy version” of the stories about them in a vague sense but Jim gives us the “real” story through bits of dialog and world building.

The Mermaid’s Madness is an excellent follow on to the first. In this book we add an additional princess into the mix and as you can guess from the title “The Little Mermaid” makes her appearance in this book. After the first few pages though you get over your preconceived notions of what you think you know about the little mermaid and go along for the ride. The second half of the novel really got going and I kept reading till I finished. Things start twisting around so your not sure where the story is going, who is actually good or bad, and which of the mermaids you are actually supposed to like.

When it was all said and done, the most compelling character in this novel surprised me. Talia became the most fascinating character for me. Her character is the most “off” from what you think of as the Sleeping Beauty story, which really drives the reader to keep trying to figure her out. Through The Mermaid’s Madness we see her character grow and learn more about her. She became a more complex person than she seemed in the first novel, which I hadn’t anticipated. This isn’t to say that the other characters in the book didn’t also develop, but the ways in which Talia was described and changed were simply the most fascinating to me. We also learn a little more about her back story prior to The Stepsister Scheme that helps give her additional depth.

This book is certainly worth any fan of fairy tales time to read. I would recommend it to any fantasy fan though. The twists, humor, and fun you find in the books makes them enjoyable to read.