Special Guest Post by Steven White: Q & A with Preston & Child (With a Giveaway)!

Steven White of Rainy Day Reading List recently conducted a Q & A with Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child and was kind enough to let us host it.  Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway at the bottom of the page to enter a drawing for an ARC of White Fire!

First, thank you so much for writing one of my favorite series of all times and providing years and hundreds of hours of enjoyable reads (and rereads!), and for taking the time out to answer a few questions for your fans!

Preston & Child: Thank you for having us and for all those kind words! We look forward to your questions.




1. In White Fire, you decided to create a chance encounter between Oscar Wilde and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that ended up being the missing link that Pendergast needed to solve the case. What led you to choose these two authors? Was it nerve-wracking to write an “offical” Sherlock Holmes tale to include in White Fire’s plot, with the permission of the Conan Doyle estate of course? Was it hard to jump into the mindset of an author long dead and try to make it sound like it was in his voice? What did the estate think of your idea and eventual story? Was Sherlock Holmes any inspiration during your creation and development of Pendergast?

Linc: By happenstance, I learned about a true incident in which Conan Doyle had dinner with Oscar Wilde at a posh London hotel. This was mind-blowing; I couldn’t imagine two more different writers. What could they have talked about? I knew there was a book in there somewhere, and an immediate brainstorming session with Doug brought the bones of that book together.

Yes, it was a little nerve-wracking to write an officially sanctioned Sherlock Holmes story. Holmes was, after all, one of the numerous inspirations for Pendergast (as you surmise). And the Estate needed to see the opening of the story before they would give permission. So for a week I did little but surround myself with actual stories from the Holmes canon. Then I took a deep breath and forged ahead with the first draft. Luckily, with Doug’s help, everything worked out splendidly.

Doug: It was amazing to see how the idea developed. Once Linc had come up with the opening concept, I suggested a setting of Aspen, Colorado, because I thought the idea of Pendergast in his black suit and vicuña overcoat knocking around that chic and fashionable ski resort, like a fish out of water, was just too good to pass up. (We eventually changed the name of the town to Roaring Fork, because we wanted to alter some historical and geographical details.) I also suggested a back-story involving man-eating grizzly bear attacks, the digging up of a historic cemetery to make way for development, and a serial arsonist burning down multi-million dollar mansions—with the families inside. All these elements were woven together to create a seamless story. It was a great example of our writing partnership working at its most creative pitch.

2. As a team, you both put a lot of thought into your titles. I remember submitting ideas for Two Graves, but then loving the final title so much better than my suggestions. What other ideas were thrown out while writing White Fire, and what made you settle on White Fire?

Linc: Our working title for the book was BANE. Our publisher wasn’t happy with that, and so we started the process of bouncing possible titles back and forth. At the time, I was reading the biography of a famous horror writer, and at one point in it the title of a very old book—I believe it was a collection of poetry, but I’m not even sure it was ever published—was mentioned in passing. That title was WHITE FIRE. It seemed perfect to me for our use, referencing as it did both the snowstorm and the dreadful arsons that together dominate the story (in addition to being an arresting image on its own.) Our publisher agreed.

3. I’m constantly trying to get new readers to join the Pendergast fan club. I want the series to keep going for years to come! I sometimes have trouble describing the series to them though, as it’s so many things -- mystery, thriller, history lesson, detective novel, horror story, techno/supernatural tale… If you had to describe your works for a new set of readers, how would you describe it?

Doug: We have the same trouble ourselves, and I’ve noticed that bookstores put the books all over the place in various sections. The Pendergast books contain a taste of all those genres. But what brings it all together is the unique character of Pendergast himself, who is a man out of his time, the embodiment of old-fashioned values, codes of conduct, and civility that have largely been lost in the modern age—combined with a strong sense of justice, a hatred of bullies, and a love of fine food and wine.

4. Do you plan on bringing back the new character, Stacy? I really liked her! What about some of our other cast members, like Nora Kelly, Margo Greene, Viola Maskelene, or others? We all know you’ll bring D’Agosta and Hayward back in the future already! Haha! What about Diogenes? Any chance he escaped death and will return?

Doug: After all these novels, we’ve created a kind of alternate reality, populated with a wide cast of characters. Stacy is a wonderful character and I would love to see her in another book, so I would say that is quite possible. Margo plays a major role in the Pendergast book we are now writing. Nora will surely appear in the future. Viola Maskelene… Well, maybe I shouldn’t tell you this, but her relationship with Pendergast is firmly over, and she will not appear in a future book. As for Diogenes, I will only say this… did anyone see his dead body?

5. Is the next Pendergast book in the works already? Any tidbits you can share about that one?

Linc: I wish I could, but we’re keeping the details close to the vest for the time being. We can confirm, however, that it will be a standalone book, and not the start of a trilogy.

Doug: A hint: a terrifying sequence takes place in the ruins of an abandoned resort on the shores of the Salton Sea in California…

6. You’ve also co-written other books together, most recently the Gideon Crew novels. When can we expect a third installment of that exciting series? Will there ever be any more of a crossover other than Eli Glinn’s presence?

Doug: Yes, and the next Gideon Crew novel, entitled THE LOST ISLAND, will be published in the late summer of 2014. It is a story involving an ancient illuminated manuscript, a mysterious map, and a harrowing journey through an isolated and forgotten corner of the Caribbean Sea.

Linc: There will be a fourth installment in the Gideon series, and there will be what we think is a huge crossover into one of our early novels. Our projected title alone probably says it better than I could: BEYOND THE ICE LIMIT.

7. Do you plan on releasing any more short stories like Extraction? It was a fun story, and a good way to help satiate some of your fans’ ravenous hunger for more Pendergast!

Doug: Absolutely. We are working on some wild ideas for a Pendergast story. Those who subscribe to our newsletter, “The Pendergast File,” will get advance notice.

http://www.prestonchild.com/faq/pendergastfile/Not-your-ordinary-newsletter-;art232,296

8. Mr. Child, I read The Third Gate last year and really loved it! Any plans on writing another book with Jeremy Logan? I very much enjoyed his character and would love to see him return! Or maybe one of the protagonists from Terminal Freeze or Deep Storm?

Linc: Thank you so much! Yes, I am hard at work on another novel featuring the ‘enigmalogist’ Jeremy Logan, and I’m very excited about how it’s progressing.

9. Mr. Preston, I’d love to see another book starring Wyman Ford soon, or maybe a return of Tom and Sally in one of those Wyman Ford books. Any updates on when we’ll get another Ford book?

Doug: Yes. My next solo novel, entitled THE KRAKEN MISSION, will be published in May of 2014. It stars Wyman Ford.

10. Lastly, as both of your started out as editors, do you have any tips on writing for other aspiring authors? Did that experience as editors help you in your own writing, or did you prove, like doctors, to be a “terrible patient” if you will?


Again, thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedules of writing and being awesome to answer a few questions for your fans! We (and by we, I definitely mean *ME!!!*) can’t wait for more Pendergast, and honestly, anything else with Preston or Child on the cover. Thanks for a fantastic new installment in the epic saga that is the Pendergast series, and for more Corrie!

Doug: Our experience as editors definitely helped. Honestly, seeing what doesn’t work in other people’s manuscripts is a great help, so we know what to avoid. That may be even more valuable than figuring out what works. As for tips, my advice to the aspiring writer is to write every day. Just as violinists must practice daily and marathon runners must run, writers must write. It seems obvious, but you would be surprised at how many writers only sit down to work once or twice a week. You have to do it every day and you have to carve out a sacred, inviolate period of time to do it in, and be sure your family and friends are instructed not to disturb you during that time! My second tip is to get involved in a writers’ group, where you read and critique each other’s work.

Thank you for the great questions and for all your kind words about our books! We love interacting with readers through email, which we answer http://www.prestonchild.com/faq/contact/Contact-the-Authors;art137,173

and through our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/PrestonandChild



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Special Guest Post by Steven White: White Fire (and a Giveaway)

Review of Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child’s White Fire

(Release Date: November 12, 2013)

Published by Grand Central Publishing, the Hachette Book Group
Review by: Steven White of Rainy Day Reading List

The RECAP:
Corrie Swanson needs to make a huge splash on her thesis, as she’s competing in John Jay College’s Rosewell Prize for Outstanding thesis and a junior, like her, has never won before. After a few failed attempts to pitch ideas to her advisor, a conversation with the College’s museum/library coordinator leads her to an interesting tale: Oscar Wilde, famed author, heard tales of bear attacks in Roaring Fork, Colorado, in which the bears devoured the victims. Thinking that she could provide a huge contribution to research in the area of animal markings left on bones, she forces her advisor’s hand into approval and sets out to the rich tourist trap of a town. The ski resort city, while at first seeming to be friendly and willing to lend her a hand, soon closes the proverbial doors on her. Things escalate, leaving Corrie in prison for a simple B&E, and Pendergast steps in. Good thing too, because Corrie’s discoveries reveal that it was something other than a bear that ate those miners a century before… and soon, a serial arson killer joins the fray. The slow burn becomes a raging fire and a race against time as three massive storylines, along with a Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle thread, reach an explosive, fiery finish.

The REVIEW:
Wow, what a ride! This might just be my favorite entry to the series since Book of the Dead. Not to say there haven’t been some great books since the end of the Diogenes trilogy, but this one really raises the bar. Fast-paced, chock full of murders, Sherlock Holmes, shocking twists near the end, great new characters, and even a moment of Pendergast showing some real emotion.


There are three main storylines in White Fire:
1. Corrie’s thesis project, based around the bodies of 9 miners who had been killed and eaten by *something* in the 1870s, when the town was still a huge mining area rather than a ritzy ski resort -- and the powers controlling the town fighting against her solving the mystery.
2. A serial killer and arsonist, murdering townie after townie and burning their bodies and their homes, as Pendergast works with local law enforcement (who are in over their heads with said killer) to catch them as soon as possible.
3. The search for a lost Sherlock Holmes story that Conan Doyle wrote after hearing a disturbing tale from Oscar Wilde at a chance dinner meeting.

All three of them are done well and integrated seamlessly into one big novel. The ending is cringeworthy, in a good way… it will have you on the edge of your seat as you await the conclusion, which ties up well, and hopefully has brought a new character into our beloved cast of recurring players.

Overall, I give this story a 5 out of 5 stars. One of my favorite reads of the year, and one of my favorite entries of the series, right up there with Still Life with Crows, Book of the Dead, and my personal number one, Cabinet of Curiosities.

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*I was provided an ARC for review by the publisher and Netgalley.

Introducing Detective Sergeant Mulheisen

Reviewed by James L. Thane
Four out of five stars


First published in 1977, this is the book that introduced Detective Sergeant "Fang" Mulheisen of the Detroit P.D., the protagonist in Jon A. Jackson's excellent series of crime novels. Also appearing for the first time is Joe Service, the mob hit man who would be Mulheisen's long-running nemesis.

The book takes place during a brutally cold and snowy December. As it opens, a beautiful and wealthy young housewife is savagely murdered during the course of an apparent burglary. I mean, one minute you're lounging in the tub with your aromatic bath salts and five minutes later, you're stumbling into the neighbor's house with a knife sticking out of your back. It's just that kind of a day.

Det. Sergeant Mulheisen is soon on the job and is intrigued to learn that the woman's husband is Arthur Clippert, a former gridiron star known as The Clipper back in his glory days. More recently, the Clipper is the last man standing when the Fidelity Trust Insurance Company goes under in an investment scandal of gargantuan proportions. Twenty million dollars is missing in the fraud and Clippert is the only member of the firm who hasn't yet been indicted.

Mulheisen begins doggedly pursuing the case and turns up a sexy young friend of the murdered woman who has some very interesting tales to tell. Things proceed as they naturally will and before you know it, it's Christmas Day; one of the biggest blizzards in history has hit Detroit; the city is basically closed down, and a bunch of really nasty villains are in the wind.

One really shouldn't say more for giving away too much of the plot, but Mulheisen is a very intriguing protagonist, and I'm very much looking forward to re-reading this series and following his career all over again. This story, like all of the others, is very well-told; the characters are well-drawn, and there's enough suspense and wry humor to satisfy virtually any crime fiction fan.

If you somehow missed this series, you might well want to look for it. But you should understand that Mulheisen and Joe Service have a long and complicated relationship that evolves over the course of the series. You'll definitely want to start at the beginning and watch it unfold.

A Pigeon Sings

The Good Rat by Jimmy Breslin
Review by Jason Koivu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jimmy Breslin made me an offer I couldn't refuse: a book with mobsters, crooked cops, a turncoat, and a trial in which a stool pigeon sings about the mafia's secrets.

Journalist Breslin made a career of following the mafia, writing of Queens, NY from the street-level. In The Good Rat he writes of the 2006 trial of two police detectives as they are brought down by the testimony of Burton Kaplan, an aging man with thick mob ties, who decided to come clean in hopes of seeing the outside again and spending time with his family before he dies.

As they are described, you can smell the streets and even feel as if you've walked into the mob-frequented bars alongside the writer, who spent much of his time in such joints. But beyond even that, Breslin's real talent is in creating a mind's eye image of these almost larger-than-life characters. I call these real-life men "characters," because what else do you call men with nicknames like Gaspipe, The Clam, Fat Tony and Three-Finger Brown?

The Good Rat masterfully interweaves the trial with NY mafia history, going back and forth to illuminate some time, place or person mentioned during Kaplan's testimony. Conversely, this background info is presented to set up thrilling reveals during the trial.

Who are the good guys? Who are the bad guys? Is a rat ever good? Sure, he's helping to put away some men who did terrible things, but after all, he wouldn't have the information with which to dig their graves unless he himself had gotten his hands dirty.

View all my reviews

The Great Boobie Juice Debate

Bottled Up: How the Way We Feed Babies Has Come to Define Motherhood, and Why It Shouldn’t by Suzanne Barston
Reviewed by Jason Koivu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Strident yet understanding and always smart, Bottled Up is a thoughtful argument for chillaxing on the women that formula-feed their babies as opposed to breastfeeding them.

As the "Fearless Formula Feeders" blog master, Los Angeles Family Magazine Editor-in-Chief Suzanne Barston stands as a sort of champion for reluctant-but-proud bottle feeders and those women who wanted to breastfeed, but for whatever reason, can not. In Bottled Up she fights back - not against breastfeeding, but against the nonsense flung upon mothers who nourish their infants on formula, a product much maligned recently.

With Barston's own sad-but-humorously-relayed tale and those of others woven into the argument, the book is highly entertaining and more importantly, informative. In fact, the notes, reference and further reading section takes up nearly a fifth of this thoroughly researched book. The real life stories are suspenseful, hair-raising and even occasionally blood-chilling. In some instances, this hot topic has affected life and death situations. It's not all doom and gloom, however, as Barston interjects welcome wit and mood-lightening humor just enough to keep things from becoming too depressing.

As a baby-less, non-breastfeeding man, I can't say that I was too aware of the apparently vicious battle going on between the two camps. Certainly I knew that breastfeeding was considered the healthier choice, but having come from a time when pretty much all people my age (including myself I believe) were bottle-fed formula as infants, I didn't think it was such a big deal. IT IS! Holy Moses, there are some mean-ass ladies out there casting down condemnation and fiery vitriol upon women who would DARE feed their babies formula this day and age. Barston does a hell of a job countering their arguments with very valid reasons for why, in some circumstances, the correct choice is formula. I welcomed this informative look into a sub-world war, if you will, that someone in my position would normally not be privy to.

Claire Dewitt and the Bohemian Highway

CLAIRE DEWITT AND THE BOHEMIAN HIGHWAY

Sara Gran

2013 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Reviewed by Carol

4 of 5 stars

 

Excerpt:

“‘That’s wonderful,’ I said.

‘Do you really think so?’ Lydia said. ‘Do you really think it’s wonderful?’

Did I really think it was wonderful? Wonderful was probably an exaggeration. I thought it was fine. Maybe even good. I couldn’t say the last time I thought anything was exactly wonderful. This implied more joy than I may ever have felt. But that was what she wanted to hear.’”

Claire is a mess. A word of advice to those that allow her in their homes–keep your drugs locked up, as she’ll be in the medicine cabinet hunting for Valium and oxycodone as soon as your back is turned. You know Claire. I was friends with her in college. I’m not precisely sure if I love the character, or my memory of the Claire-like friend. Beautiful. Burning with intelligence. Supremely dysfunctional in an utterly honest way. Prone to exploiting and helping those around her in equal amounts.  Not with maliciousness, mind you; more an instinctual focus on meeting her own needs, her desperate attempt to fill the holes in her psyche. And yet, despite all those dysfunctional behaviors, it’s heartache for friends to walk away. (Come to think of it, I’m in a Claire-like relationship with a certain book site right now).

Set in San Francisco some time after Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead, Claire has set out her detective shingle in her usual ambivalent way, unloading much of her work on her new assistant–a former medieval history student who was strangely drawn to a certain detective how-to book he accidentally discovered in the library. One night, she is awakened by the police calling her; this time, they are hoping that she can offer solace to the wife of an old friend, Paul. Little does the officer know Paul and Claire were star-crossed lovers, and his death might just be the result of damage a decade in the making. The story ricochets between two main cases, the case of Paul’s murder (aka ‘The Case of the Kali Yuga’) and the long-ago case of Claire’s missing Chloe (‘The Case of the End of the World’), but like we already know from Jacques Stilette, Claire’s really solving the mystery of herself.

“But then I felt tense, and the moment turned yellow and eerie, like the moment when the clouds have gathered and the light turns before it starts to storm. Like in a movie when you see a couple looking so happy and alive, but you knew when you brought your ticket: This wasn’t a story about love. This was a story about murder.”

I picked up the book once, and after a chapter in, realized my schedule was too busy to fully commit to Claire (no allowing her near my medicine cabinet). Once I cleared a little space, I picked it up again and was rapidly re-impressed by Gran’s ability to weave a tale. Once again, she astounds me with her writing, particularly her ability to capture small explosions of emotion with direct, profound simplicity. 

When someone says, ‘oh, that detective book you guys like,’ referencing the book  Détection which gave shape and purpose to the teenage Claire’s life, the response is:

“This book we liked. Like this air we breathed, this sun that shone on us.”

Thankfully, the heartache of Claire’s past case and the destruction of the current one are leavened with Gran’s sly humor. Sometimes, it’s in Claire’s descriptions:

“He had on a worn bathrobe over pajama bottoms and a T-shirt and fake leather slippers that had seen better days, although I think it would be fair to say that none of their days had been exactly good.”

And sometimes, it’s the side cases, such as when Claire and her assistant take on a case of missing miniature horses:

“My theory was that the little fellow were running away to try to get some big boy genes back in the mix, or maybe committing suicide. I made a mental note to research equine suicides.”

One of the most sorrowful aspects of the book is Claire’s gradual implosion. Though she knows investigation won’t bring Paul back, she can’t help picking at the pieces of his life and their relationship. She ends up doing endless amounts of drugs in an attempt to mitigate the pain. It happens slowly, piecemeal, but one of the first signs is Claire’s exhaustion:

“Maybe that was all there was to life. One long case, only you kept switching roles. Detective, witness, client, suspect. Then one day I’d be the victim instead of the detective or the client and it would all be over. Then I’d finally have a fucking day off.”

Gran’s sophisticated layering of social commentary isn’t present at the same level as City of the Dead, despite the potential of San Francisco. The enormous dichotomy of the city– tech/hippies, billionaires/street-dwellers, society mavens/potheads–remains largely unexploited. Instead, analysis is more subdued, tossed into asides:

“Besides, she and Paul didn’t live so high on the hog. Other than their house in the Mission, which had cost about a billion dollars, they lived like everyone else, except they didn’t worry about money while they did it.”

As an aside, I enjoyed following Gran on Facebook before she deleted her account. Perhaps I conflated her with Claire, but she had a fascinating mix of posts: old Hollywood photos, art, random laughs, New York news and feminism.  One time, there was a post full of irritation, bemoaning the male gaze that evaluated all women by their ‘fuckability,’ which resonated with me for a number of reasons. It was no surprise then, to find Claire sharing her own bon mots on the concept of ‘pretty’:

“On the other hand, a pretty girl is always the object, never the subject. People think you’re dumb and treat you accordingly, which is sometimes helpful but always annoying. I figure once you hit thirty it’s diminishing returns on your investment anyway. Might as well move on and put your money into more useful skills.”

The time shifts between the two cases were done well, and I found myself equally invested in both stories. Both felt real: the teenagers looking for identity in the face of absent parents felt familiar; Claire’s current desperation and mourning felt painfully so. Unfortunately, the ending was less than satisfactory. There was a sudden group of short, choppy chapters, a kalediscope of fragments wrapping up a tale. And, could that be? A cliff-hanger ending?  Given Gran’s general writing style and her preference for stand-alone books, I am–like all the times I forgave my Claire-like friend–completely willing to blame an editor or a publisher. And buy the next book.


Do I recommend it? Absolutely, if you’ve read the first. It won’t work for everyone, but it is an unusual, profoundly heartbreaking tale.


Cross-posted at:  http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2013/09/30/claire-dewitt-and-the-bohemian-highway-by-sara-gran/

The Drowned Cities

Paolo Bacigalupi
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Reviewed by: Nancy
4 out of 5 stars

Summary

In a dark future America where violence, terror, and grief touch everyone, young refugees Mahlia and Mouse have managed to leave behind the war-torn lands of the Drowned Cities by escaping into the jungle outskirts. But when they discover a wounded half-man--a bioengineered war beast named Tool--who is being hunted by a vengeful band of soldiers, their fragile existence quickly collapses. One is taken prisoner by merciless soldier boys, and the other is faced with an impossible decision: Risk everything to save a friend, or flee to a place where freedom might finally be possible.

This thrilling companion to Paolo Bacigalupi's highly acclaimed Ship Breaker is a haunting and powerful story of loyalty, survival, and heart-pounding adventure.

My Review

Being unemployed can be nice. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to read a book all the way through, barely stopping for meals or a drink. Since this was such a page-turner, I surely would have been late to work or missed an appointment.

Though this is the sequel to Ship Breaker, there is a different set of characters. Mahlia and Mouse are two young refugees who fled their home to escape the terrible violence going on in the Drowned Cities. Now they are in the care of Dr. Mahfouz, a man with a peaceful heart whose life is devoted to caring for others. Mahlia is invaluable as the doctor’s assistant, despite her lack of a right hand which was chopped off by the Army of God. Though they have a good life with the doctor, they are still outsiders, constantly reminded of the fact they are “castoffs” or “war maggots.”

Their lives change drastically when they discover the severely wounded Tool, who is a “half-man” engineered for war. Part tiger, part hyena, part dog, and part man, Tool has exceptional strength and endurance. He also has retained human characteristics, which makes him a really fascinating character.

Once Tool receives the antiobiotics he needs to survive, the doctor decides to return to the village which is now overrun with soldiers and Mahlia has a choice to return to her village or to flee with Tool. Mouse returns to the village and finds his life is irrevocably changed, as he is armed, branded and now a soldier. Mahlia is strong, brave, determined and risks her life and safety to get Mouse back.

This story is not as action-packed as the first, but the character development is much stronger and the story is considerably darker. It explores the physical and psychological effects of war – on children, families, communities and infrastructure.

It is brutal, harrowing, sad, frightening, and humane. It lacked the fun and adventure of Ship Breaker, but I was absorbed into the story instantly and unable to stop reading until I was done.

Because of the graphic situations, I would recommend this to older teens.

I love Bacigalupi’s writing and can’t wait to read his adult books!

Also posted at Goodreads.

China Mountain Zhang

China Mountain Zhang

Maureen F. McHugh

Reviewed by Zorena

Four Stars

Summary

Winner of the James Tiptree, Jr. Memorial Award, the Lambda Literary Award, the Locus Award for Best First Novel, and a Hugo and Nebula Award nominee.
With this groundbreaking novel, Maureen F. McHugh established herself as one of the decade's best science fiction writers. In its pages, we enter a postrevolution America, moving from the hyperurbanized eastern seaboard to the Arctic bleakness of Baffin Island; from the new Imperial City to an agricultural commune on Mars. The overlapping lives of cyberkite fliers, lonely colonists, illicit neural-pressball players, and organic engineers blend into a powerful, taut story of a young man's journey of discovery. This is a macroscopic world of microscopic intensity, one of the most brilliant visions of modern SF.

My review

I'm not sure what I expected from this book but considering all its awards and nominations I was hoping it was legitimately good. I got what I hoped for. While I love space opera and action styled science fiction, I also love a good character driven story. This falls into the latter category.

I gravitate towards the more specific genres of science fiction such as dystopian, post apoc and cyber punk because they are topics that I've put some thought into. So has McHugh. A Chinese dominated dystopian society is not one I've even considered and add into the mix the fact that the main character is also gay. It made for some really good backdrop, dialogue and therefore good reading. It could even be said this is an alternate universe as it doesn't feel like a distant future.

There are many subplots that almost weave into one. All of them do touch on the main character at one point or another but not all are resolved or are they resolved very obliquely. Which didn't seem to matter to me because I was so caught up in Zhang's character.

I also loved the glimpses into some future or possible current tech. Nothing too earth shattering but the swim suits were a fascinating concept and totally plausible. I'm glad I delved into this book before I ventured into some other current dystopian novels where the emphasis seems to be more on the physical horror.

Failed to Get Under My Skin

Embedded
by Dan Abnett
Published by Angry Robot

2 Out of 5 Stars
Reviewed by Amanda 

Embedded is set in a future where humans have begun to colonize other planets. Eighty-Six is the most recent settlement and it's where universe-weary, award-winning journalist Lex Falk has arrived to investigate rumors of political unrest and a military lockdown on all information leaving the planet. Falk's clout gets him embedded with the military, but it's not until he's approached by a clandestine party that can actually embed him into the body of Nestor Bloom, a combat soldier, that he gets the real story about what's happening on Eighty-Six.

Elmore Leonard famously advised "Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip." If Dan Abnett had taken this approach, the novel could have been about 150 pages shorter and far more enjoyable. He has apparently never met a simile that he's not keen on rubbing up against.

The book is far too descriptive and I know many people might argue that such is necessary for believable world-building, a sentiment with which I might normally agree. If you're going to present me with an alien world, I want to see it. The problem here is that Eighty-Six isn't much different from Earth. There are no alien life forms, no exotic landscapes, no cultural clashes. And yet Abnett is always keen to tell us what shade of blue the sky is and what the green trees in the forest look like. Other than the existence of "blurds" (some form of insect/bird hybrid), there's really nothing unusual about the setting. And there's nothing particularly futuristic other than the ubiquitous presence of a poison called Insect-Aside and apparently inorganic foodstuffs that always end with the suffix "-effect" (such as chicken parmigiana-effect, which can be washed down with a can of tasty NoCal cola-effect). Even the tech through which Falk is embedded into Bloom is clichéd--Falk is suspended in a Jung tank, which is just a clever name for the science fiction trope of a womb-like tank in which Falk is suspended in a viscous, amniotic-like liquid. None of this is particularly bad, but none of it is particularly good--and it's been done much better before.

The book takes forever to get going, developing characters and relationships that are promptly jettisoned as soon as Falk is embedded within Bloom. The actual embedding--the part of the story with the most promise--missed out on so many opportunities to explore the psychological issues of dwelling within another's mind. If Bloom and Falk had been inhabiting the same consciousness throughout most of the narrative, there could have been some really standout scenes. However, Falk is simply a repressed observer, a passenger, within Bloom until Bloom is shot in the head. At this point, Bloom becomes an unconscious passenger in his own body and Falk has to take over, a plot that still has some possibility as Falk is not a trained soldier. However, every time Falk gets into a jam, Bloom's muscle memory arrives to save the day, allowing Falk to blast his way out of every inconvenience with which he comes into contact. When Bloom is shot and his persona disappears, the book basically becomes a stripped down version of Avatar, only without the aliens.

Other issues include:

1. From what I can tell, the U.S. is now the United Status (no explanation is given for this) and the army with which Falk is embedded seems to be U.S. As a result, all of the British spellings for words seem incongruous and often jarring. A minor pet peeve, I understand, but there it is.

2. So we're apparently centuries into the future, colonizing planets, and the two dominant powers are the U.S. and the Bloc, who speak Russian and whose military vehicles are all adorned with red stars. That's right--we're fighting a Cold War with the Communist Bloc in outer space. I might forgive this in a piece of 1950's science fiction, but in 2013? We can't come up with a fresh new narrative for who the bad guys are?

3. It is never made clear as to how Bloom's body is still functioning after he's been shot in the head, right below the eye. The mental image I kept getting as Falk tried to will Bloom's body to do his bidding was Weekend at Bernie's in military garb.

4. The ending. What. The. Freek®. So, in the last 10 pages, Falk actually, against all plot odds, discovers something half ass interesting. But that's the thing--only half ass. We don't get the whole ass. What he finds is only hinted at and the repercussions are ambiguous. Basically, it took 400 pages to get to the real story and then it just stops. I wanted to hit something and hit something hard when I reached the end.

5. The whole use of Freek® as a linguistic patch that prohibits a person from using any expletive other than "Freek."

In the end, I can only offer this advice: read John Scalzi.

The Cold Touch of Magic

The Night Watch

Sean Stewart

Ace

Reviewed by: Terry 

4 out of 5 stars

 

Sean Stewart is one of those writers I used to buy sight unseen (before he unfortunately dropped out of writing novels and decided to devote his time to writing interactive online games). His books tend to be very character driven, something I personally like, and he has an individual writing style that manages to be 'writerly' without getting bogged down in stylistic tricks.

Basically it is the story of a future earth in the year 2074 after an inundation of magic has flooded the world (this flood started soon after WWII in Stewart's timeline) and only pockets of human civilization are left in the sea of wild and magical frontiers (in this the story can be seen as a member of the same universe as _Resurrection Man_ and _Galveston_). The novel concentrates on two societies, the Southside, which is a relatively technological and militaristic state located where Edmonton used to be and Chinatown, located in the appropriate region of Vancouver. The former community has made a Faustian deal with the spirits that haunt the Northside in return for the opportunity to be left alone, while the latter lives in the midst of its spirits, especially the three godlike, and archetypal, beings the Dragon, the Lady and the Monkey and the beastlike barbarians (magically mutated humans from the initial magical explosion).

Following the lives of several intertwined groups of characters from each community, Stewart examines the dynamics of these two opposing points of view in an era where the high tide of magic is finally starting to recede and, as ever, human machinations and politics attempt to take advantage of the situation.

Stewart manages to populate his world with many interesting, and realistic, characters. None of them are painted in black-and-white terms and even the 'villians' have realistic motivations that point to a multi-faceted melding of both self-interest and even love of community. The real star of the book for me, though (even with Stewart's finely realized and well-drawn characters) was the world itself. It is a world we can recognize, and yet at the same time it is completely alien. The small enclaves of humanity fighting for survival in a world that can barely be understood in the rational terms humanity had been wont to apply to it before the 'Dream' overtook them are intriguing reflections of both humanity's ever-present willingness to fight against the odds, as well as an acknowledgment of the myriad of ways in which this can be done. In many ways I felt that Stewart had managed to capture the air of the medieval romance (in terms of world-building if not in style or content) with the minor 'kingdoms' of humanity placed in the midst of the ever encroaching 'wild wood'...a place where demons and ghosts walked and adventures or power might be bought, though at a very high price. The lure of the dream-world is always in contention with the obligations and comforts of human society.

I also like the way in which Stewart paints magic. It is a wild and largely uncontrollable force, though as mentioned certain deals can be made with it in exchange for ability or power. It seems to me to be an appropriate way to look at something that truly is the reverse of 'science' in that while magic does follow certain rules these are more along the lines of adhering to agreements and obligations than being a cookie-cutter 'physics of magic' where spells of fireball or lightning can be produced given the proper reagents and incantation. It is a force that is mysterious and wild, in that sense at least it mirrors nature, though it cannot be easily understood or defined by rules of cause and effect in any systematic way.

The story itself deals with the beginning, and dissolution, of relations between the Southside and Chinatown as we see the leaders from each community vying for power and control. In the midst of this the heir to Southside's virtual king must make a choice that will determine not only her own future and safety, but that of her people and one of the 'heirs' to a great power of Chinatown must come to terms with her place in the world and her familial relationships as well. This book, like all of Stewart's, is primarily about human relationships. He examines how they grow, and end, in the midst of stress and change. He also looks at the price they exact upon us and the give-and-take that must be accepted in our attempts to balance our personal and individual desires with our public and communal responsibilities.

All in all _The Night Watch_ is a great book. It's a well-written story of human relationships set against a backdrop of conflict and magic in a world that could almost, but not quite, be our own.

Also posted at Goodreads