Although it’s been over a year now since I first challenged myself to start reading science fiction, I still find myself intimidated by the hard core stuff. To me, Gateway by Frederik Pohl falls into this category because it’s written by a top scifi author and it has a cover featuring spaceships shooting at each other in outer space. That’s heavy-duty scifi stuff.

But when I recently found myself in possession of a copy of Gateway I thought it couldn’t hurt to take a look inside, just to test the waters. To my surprise, I was immediately drawn into the story by the casual narration style and before I knew it I was half-way done with the book. While at first I was compelled to keep reading by the easy writing style- so different from many of the other scifi that I’ve tried- I was soon caught up by the thrill of the story and I could barely bring myself to put the book down, until I finished it all.

Bob Broadhead has always dreamed of being a prospector; of flying a Heechee ship in search of the valuable relics hidden on far off-planets- all that remains of the mysterious Heechee race. But becoming a prospector is expensive and far beyond Bob’s means, so he has to settle for following in his parent’s footsteps and working in the food mines.

The life of a miner is hard and by the time Bob is twenty-six he has lost both his parents to the mines. Bob has little hope that his life will get any better until the day he wins $250,000 in the lottery, which he immediately spends on a ticket to Gateway.

Gateway is the place to go for anyone wanting to make their fortune through prospecting. It’s the asteroid where the Heechee ships were first discovered and it’s there where training and accommodations are provided for those who risk their lives in search of Heechee treasure. The problem is that no one knows exactly how the aircrafts work. Each ship appears to be pre-programmed to a particular destination but the destinations can only be determined once a prospector has traveled there. If a prospector is lucky he will be brought to an undiscovered planet full of Heechee relics, for which he will be awarded enough money to retire for life. The unlucky never make it back at all, or at least not alive.

Bob is excited to finally fulfill his dreams of becoming a prospector, that is- until he gets a look at the remains of a ship from a failed mission. The bodies of the prospectors, mysteriously ripped apart, cause Bob’s excitement to dampen and suddenly he isn’t sure if this is what he wants at all.

As his friends and fellow prospectors eagerly set off into the unknown, in fulfillment of their own dreams, Bob haunts the tunnels of Gateway wracked by fear and indecision. Should he give up his dreams of glory when he is already so close or risk his life in a possibly deadly mission?

Years later, Bob is facing the consequences of what he experienced at Gateway and the events which led to the final and horrifying trip that brought him the fame and fortune he had longed for.

Gateway starts off with a counseling session between Bob and his robotic psychiatrist whom he calls Sigfried. As Sigfried attempts to get Bob to talk about the painful events of his past, Bob reluctantly recounts the story of what brought him to Gateway and what happened there. The story switches between Bob’s conversations with Sigried, and his own recollection of events. At times I was frustrated by this because the counseling sessions keep hinting at events that have not yet come to pass, so I knew to expect certain things to happen, which I didn’t like. But otherwise it was a good way to break up the intensity of the story, by inserting conversations between Bob and psychiatrist.

As the story progressed I came to like Bob less and less, due to his behavior and interactions with some of the other characters, but at the same time I was able to sympathize with his plight. The intensity of emotion in the story is tangible, as each character sets off on a mission that could end in either glory or a horrible demise. I was on edge throughout the story, waiting for Bob to finally go on a mission of his own, but also fearful of how it would end.

I did have a few doubts about some aspects of the story, such as the fact that after hundreds of years, so little information has been discovered about the workings of the Heechee aircrafts. If the world has advanced to the point where people can reside on other planets, as they do in this book, then technology must be sophisticated enough to have developed robots that could have been used for experimentation with the aircrafts. And such robots could also have traveled on the missions instead of people, in order to discover where the ships go to.

I thought it was interesting, though, that we don’t actually learn anything in the story about the Heechees themselves or their history. I actually felt quite comfortable with this part of the story because a number of fantasy books that I’ve read recently have similar themes, of past alien cultures that have left remains for the current human race to discover. But I do believe Pohl talks more about the Heechees in his sequel to Gateway, which I am certainly planning on reading.

One of the things I liked best about Gateway was that I actually understood everything that took place. The science part of the book was very low-key and I wasn’t required to know any scientific terms or understand any complicated technological equipment, which is what often intimidates me about science fiction books. Gateway was a pleasantly easy book to read, which I really appreciated.  Gateway turned out to be a really fantastic book that I would recommend to anyone looking for a thrilling literary adventure. If you are new to science fiction then this is an excellent book to start with, though I think even people who don’t read scifi would really enjoy it as well.

Published: 2008

I’ve never been a real fan of short stories though I have to admit that I’ve also never given them much of a chance. Even after signing up last year for a short-story reading challenge I barely even cracked open the anthology I had chosen to read. So when Danielle Ackley-McPhail contacted me about reviewing her books I thought this would be a good opportunity for me to give short stories another try, with her Bad-Ass Faeries anthology. It’s been a while since I read a book about faeries and Just Plain Bad intrigued me with its promise of dark and unusual stories about the fae.

Just Plain Bad is the second book in the Bad-Ass Faeries series and it contains twenty-four unique stories by various authors, none of whom I was previously familiar with. Like with most story collections, some of the stories were better than others, and a couple of them I skipped altogether, but I actually ended up really enjoying the majority of them.

While there are too many stories for me to summarize each one, I will describe a few of my favorite from the anthology.

Moonshine by Bernie Mojzes: A young woman comes into a bar with a sample of a special liquor that her family personally prepares. She offers the bartender a taste with the promise of providing him as much stock as he wants, if he likes it. While at first the bartender is skeptical, after tasting the liquor he quickly agrees to stock his bar with the drink and soon it becomes the most popular drink in the city. And as the popularity of the drink increases so do the violence and crime. Only Tom realizes who it is that is providing the liquor and what their dark purpose is in doing so, and only he may be able to stop them.

Whiskey Sour by Skyla Dawn Cameron: Juliette is a young woman with faerie blood who contracts lycanthropy after a one-night stand. Juliette is burning for revenge against the man who infected her and when he comes to her for help she just might have her chance to pay him back.

Do You Believe by C.J Henderson: A newsman looking for a juicy story stops off by a bar where the supernatural are known to gather. After a round of drinks, and some pleading, he manages to wheedle out of Darby, the story-telling king, the story of the cockroach faeries. Though, as in all dealing with the fae, he will likely come to regret it.

Repostiltskin by James Daniel Ross: This modern retelling of Rumpelstiltskin was definitely my favorite of the stories. Samuel, a nerdy, unpopular boy, is celebrating his birthday at home alone when an unpleasantly smelly and very short man barges into his house and demands from his mother the sixteen red diamonds owed him. When Samuel’s mother is unable to provide them, the man carries Samuel away. On the way to the Faery Queen’s Court, where Samuel will be forever enslaved, the two of them make a few stops at other houses whose occupants have also signed contracts with the dwarf. And like Samuel’s mother, those who can’t fulfill their contracts will have to pay dearly.

And since I received the book from Ackley-McPhail I paid particular attention to her contribution to the book, Within The Guardian Bell. This story features Lance, a Halfling faery and the leader of a biker gang made up of rejects from the Faery Court. On the way home, Lance is attacked by a gremlin who has been sent by the Faery King to eliminate him. I liked the idea of biker faeries and was left wanting to know more about the story. But unlike most of the other stories in the book this one didn’t feel fully-formed but more like it was part of a larger story, which it is. Luckily I was also sent the Ackley-McPhail’s novella, The Halfling’s Court, which has the full story about Lance and his gang and I look forward to reading that next.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed reading Just Plain Bad and I now have a new appreciation for short stories. I liked being able to complete a whole story in the time that it took me to eat breakfast, or just during a short break from work. I liked knowing that within just a few pages I would receive a resolution to the plot, something I don’t always have the patience for with regular books. I was particularly impressed, though, with how the authors managed to get me to care for their characters within the space of those few pages. That takes some real writing skill and almost all of the stories very much succeeded in this. And even though each of the stories dealt with faeries, in one form or another, I didn’t feel that the stories were similar or repetitive, at all. Though, for some reason, quite a few of them did take place in bars.

If you enjoy reading about faeries and have a taste for tales that are a bit dark and twisted, then this would be a great book for you. As long as you remember that not all faery tales have a happy ending.

80! Memories & Reflections on Ursula K. Le Guin

Karen Joy Fowler & Debbie Notkin, eds

Genre:

Publisher: Aqueduct Press

Release Date:  Oct 21

A private gift to Ursula K. Le Guin becomes a gift to all readers, an exciting chance to enjoy someone else’s birthday present. In 2009, for the momentous occasion of Ursula K. Le Guin’s 80th birthday, Karen Joy Fowler and Debbie Notkin put together a volume of tributes and appreciations, as a birthday present. The project, known in academic circles as a ”festschrift,” or ”celebration book,” resulted in a single copy, handbound in green leather, which Karen presented to Ursula a few days after her birthday in October. The original idea came from Kim Stanley Robinson, who also contributed an essay to the book. With Ms. Le Guin’s kind agreement, Aqueduct Press is delighted to share this unique celebration with Le Guin’s readers and fans. The book contains poetry, personal essays, academic essays, biographical information about Le Guin, as well as fiction, including previously unpublished fiction by Andrea Hairston and John Kessel. Publication will coincide with Le Guin’s 81st birthday. Contributors include Eleanor Arnason, Brian Attebery, Richard Chwedyk, Karen Joy Fowler, Molly Gloss, Eileen Gunn, Andrea Hairston, Jed Hartman, Gwyneth Jones, John Kessel, Ellen Kushner, Nancy Kress, Sarah LeFanu, Vonda N. McIntyre, Pat Murphy, Julie Phillips, Paul Preuss, Kim Stanley Robinson, Nisi Shawl, Lisa Tuttle, Elisabeth Vonarburg, and Jo Walton, among others.

All Clear

Connie Willis

Genre: Science Fiction

Publisher: Spectra

Release Date: October 19

In Blackout, award-winning author Connie Willis returned to the time-traveling future of 2060—the setting for several of her most celebrated works—and sent three Oxford historians to World War II England: Michael Davies, intent on observing heroism during the Miracle of Dunkirk; Merope Ward, studying children evacuated from London; and Polly Churchill, posing as a shopgirl in the middle of the Blitz. But when the three become unexpectedly trapped in 1940, they struggle not only to find their way home but to survive as Hitler’s bombers attempt to pummel London into submission.  Now the situation has grown even more dire. Small discrepancies in the historical record seem to indicate that one or all of them have somehow affected the past, changing the outcome of the war. The belief that the past can be observed but never altered has always been a core belief of time-travel theory—but suddenly it seems that the theory is horribly, tragically wrong.  Meanwhile, in 2060 Oxford, the historians’ supervisor, Mr. Dunworthy, and seventeen-year-old Colin Templer, who nurses a powerful crush on Polly, are engaged in a frantic and seemingly impossible struggle of their own—to find three missing needles in the haystack of history.

Against All Things Ending (The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Book 3)

Stephen R. Donaldson

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: Putnam Adult

Release Date: October 19

The long-awaited sequel to The Runes of the Earth and Fatal Revenant returns readers to the Land-and unravels some of the mysteries haunting Covenant and Linden Avery.  Thomas Covenant is alive again, restored to his mortal body by the unimaginable combined force of his own white gold ring, Linden Avery’s Staff of Law, and the ancient dagger called High Loric’s krill. His resurrection is Linden’s defiant act of love, despite warnings from mortals and immortals that unleashing this much power would destroy the world. She brought his spirit back from its prison in the Arch of Time, and revived his slain body, so that Covenant lies whole on the cool grass, and the world seems at peace. But the truth is inescapable: The thunderclap of power has awakened the Worm of the World’s End, and all of them, and the Land itself, are forfeit to its devouring. If they have any chance to save the Land, it will come from unlikely sources- including the mysterious boy Jeremiah, Linden’s adopted son, whose secrets are only beginning to come to light.

Blood Trinity ( Belador Bk1)

Sherrilyn Kenyon

Genre: Paranoral Romance, Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Pocket

Release Date: October 19

Supernatural warriors bound by an extraordinary code of honor face an ultimate test of loyalty in the exciting new paranormal thriller from New York Times bestselling authors Sherrilyn Kenyon and Dianna Love.Atlanta has become the battlefield between human and demon. All her life, Evalle Kincaid has walked the line between the two. Her origins unknown, she’s on a quest to learn more about her past . . . and her future.When a demon claims a young woman in a terrifying attack and there’s no one else to blame, Evalle comes under suspicion. Now she’s on a deadly quest for her own survival. Through the sordid underground of an alternate Atlanta where nothing is as it seems to the front lines of the city, where her former allies have joined forces to hunt her, Evalle must prove her innocence or pay the ultimate price.But saving herself is the least of her problems if she doesn’t stop the coming apocalypse. The clock is ticking and Atlanta is about to catch fire. . . . All day.

Crescendo (Hush, Hush, Bk 2)

Becca Fitzpatrick

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing

Release Date: October 19

Nora should have know her life was far from perfect. Despite starting a relationship with her guardian angel, Patch (who, title aside, can be described anything but angelic), and surviving an attempt on her life, things are not looking up. Patch is starting to pull away and Nora can’t figure out if it’s for her best interest or if his interest has shifted to her arch-enemy Marcie Millar. Not to mention that Nora is haunted by images of her father and she becomes obsessed with finding out what really happened to him that night he left for Portland and never came home. The farther Nora delves into the mystery of her father’s death, the more she comes to question if her Nephilim blood line has something to do with it as well as why she seems to be in danger more than the average girl. Since Patch isn’t answering her questions and seems to be standing in her way, she has to start finding the answers on her own. Relying too heavily on the fact that she has a guardian angel puts Nora at risk again and again. But can she really count on Patch or is he hiding secrets darker than she can even imagine

Diving Mimes, Weeping Czars, and Other Unusual Suspects

Ken Scholes

Genre: Anthology

Publisher: Fairwood Press

Release Date: October

Return to Ken Scholes’ Imagination Forest in this second collection of quirky, off-beat stories. These 17 tales range from his first published story in 2000 to his most recent in 2009, including two stories set in his Psalms of Isaak series. You’ll encounter cynical Santas and explore the dating woes of superheroes. You’ll join God and Satan in the bar for a glass of merlot and watch the hyjinx unfold as Reverend Sparkle Jones leads his rag-tag gang of misfits across a post-apocalyptic America in search of the holy grail to stem the tide of an alien invasion. You’ll meet the Lady of the Lake in the Oklahoma Dust Bowl and bump into Abe and his backup singers as they do their part to save the world. So settle in for the ride and keep your hands inside the vehicle at all times. Here in the Imagination Forest, you never know who — or what — you’ll come across.

Hunger

Jackie Morse Kessler

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Graphia

Release Date: October 18

“Thou art the Black Rider. Go thee out unto the world.”

Lisabeth Lewis has a black steed, a set of scales, and a new job: she’s been appointed Famine. How will an anorexic seventeen-year-old girl from the suburbs fare as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? Traveling the world on her steed gives Lisa freedom from her troubles at home—her constant battle with hunger, and her struggle to hide it from the people who care about her. But being Famine forces her to go places where hunger is a painful part of everyday life, and to face the horrifying effects of her phenomenal power. Can Lisa find a way to harness that power—and the courage to fight her own inner demons? A wildly original approach to the issue of eating disorders, Hunger is about the struggle to find balance in a world of extremes, and uses fantastic tropes to explore a difficult topic that touches the lives of many teens.

L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future: The First 25 Years

Kevin Anderson

Genre: Scifi and Fantasy Anthology

Publisher: Galaxy Press

Release Date: October 19

This book holds between its pages the best new science fiction and fantasy stories and illustrations of the year, discovered by the judges of the Writers & Illustrators of the Future Contests—a veritable who’s who in the field of speculative fiction writing and illustrating.

Pock’s World

Dave Duncan

Genre: Science Fiction

Publisher: EDGE Science Fiction & Fantasy

Release Date: October 15

Pock’s World, long settled by humankind, is accused of being infected by humanoid aliens. It has been quarantined and may have to be sterilized. Five people are chosen to go there and examine the evidence: saintly but ruthless Father Andre; Ratty Turnsole, a muckraking reporter ripe for romance; ambitious politician Athena Fimble; manipulative bureaucrat Millie Backet; and shady billionaire Linn Lazuline. Some of them carry grudges – all have their own agendas.  Pock’s World surprises them all. Nothing is what they expect. Quickly entangled in love, politics, religion, and deceit, they discover that the clock is already ticking and the fate of humanity itself is at stake.

Nightshade Andrea Cremer

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Philomel

Release Date: October 19

Calla Tor has always known her destiny: After graduating from the Mountain School, she’ll be the mate of sexy alpha wolf Ren Laroche and fight with him, side by side, ruling their pack and guarding sacred sites for the Keepers. But when she violates her masters’ laws by saving a beautiful human boy out for a hike, Calla begins to question her fate, her existence, and the very essence of the world she has known. By following her heart, she might lose everything–including her own life. Is forbidden love worth the ultimate sacrifice?

The First Book of Grimm

Shiloh Walker

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Publisher: Samhain Publishing

Release Date: October 19

Once upon a mission… Candy Houses Now that Greta is a Grimm—guardian angel and official paranormal ass-kicker—romance is hard to find. There’s only one man who makes her heart race, a fact that scared her right out of his arms. But now she needs a hand.  The last woman Rip expected to see on this dangerous mission is the one who rejected his love. Faced with a danger neither of them saw coming, the question is which is the greater danger—the one threatening their lives, or their hearts?  No Prince Charming With days spent trolling for demons and nights with a sometime lover, Elle thinks she’s finally gotten over her so-called Prince Charming. But now, on the eve of her most dangerous mission, he’s back—the man who broke her heart.  Michael jumped at the chance to become a Grimm, though he knew Elle would never forgive him. It looks like she’s doing just fine without him, but he’s ready to use every weapon in his not-so-charming arsenal to save her, if necessary. Kill for her, live for her, die for her… Warning: Dark, sexy, a little bit scary—these twisted fairy tales are only for grownups and are best saved for bedtime.

The Rebel Prince

Celine Kiernan

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: Orbit

Release Date: October 18

Wynter Moorehawke has braved bandits and Loup-Garous to find her way to Alberon-the exiled, rebel prince. But now that she’s there, she will learn firsthand that politics is a deadly mistress. With the king and his heir on the edge of war and alliances made with deadly enemies, the Kingdom is torn not just by civil war – but strife between the various factions as well. Wynter knows that no one has the answer to the problems that plague the Kingdom – and she knows that their differences will not just tear apart her friends – but the Kingdom as well.

Weight of Stone: Book Two of the Vineart War

Laura Anne Gilman

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: Gallery

Release Date: Oct 19

An island nation has vanished. Men of honor and magic have died unnatural deaths. Slaves flee in terror. . . . Are the silent gods beginning to speak? Or is another force at work in the Lands Vin? Laura Anne Gilman’s critically acclaimed, Nebula Award–nominated Flesh and Fire introduced a brilliantly imagined world where the grapevine—cultivated by the Vinearts who know the secrets of wine magic—holds together disparate lands. Now, confusion, violence, and terror are sweeping over the Lands Vin. And four people are at the center of a storm. Jerzy, Vineart apprentice and former slave, was sent by his master to investigate strange happenings—and found himself the target of betrayal. Now he must set out on his own journey, to find the source of the foul taint that threatens to destroy everything he holds dear. By Jerzy’s side are Ao, who lives for commerce and the art of the deal; Mahault, stoic and wise, risking death in flight from her homeland; and Kaïnam, once Named-Heir of an island principality, whose father has fallen into a magic-tangled madness that endangers them all. These four companions will travel far from the earth and the soul of the vine, sailing along coastlines aflame with fear, confronting sea creatures summoned by darkness, and following winds imbued with malice. Their journey will take them to the very limits of the Sin Washer’s reach . . . and into a battle for the soul of the Lands Vin. For two millennia the Sin Washer’s Commandment has kept these lands in order: Those of magic shall hold no power over men and those princes of power shall hold no magic. Now, that law has given way. And a hidden force seeks the havoc of revenge.

Banished

Sophie Littlefield

Genre: YA Paranormal

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Release Date: October 12

There isn’t much worth living for in Gypsum, Missouri—or Trashtown, as the rich kids call the run-down neighborhood where sixteen-year-old Hailey Tarbell lives. Hailey figures she’ll never belong—not with the popular kids at school, not with the rejects, not even with her cruel, sickly grandmother, who deals drugs out of their basement. Hailey never knew her dead mother, and she has no idea who her father was, but at least she has her four-year-old foster brother, Chub. Once she turns eighteen, Hailey plans to take Chub far from Gypsum and start a new life where no one can find them.  But when a classmate is injured in gym class, Hailey discovers a gift for healing that she never knew she possessed—and that she cannot ignore. Not only can she heal, she can bring the dying back to life.

Confused by her powers, Hailey searches for answers but finds only more questions, until a mysterious visitor shows up at Gram’s house, claiming to be Hailey’s aunt Prairie.  There are people who will stop at nothing to keep Hailey in Trashtown, living out a legacy of despair and suffering. But when Prairie saves both Hailey and Chub from armed attackers who invade Gram’s house in the middle of the night, Hailey must decide where to place her trust.

Will Prairie’s past, and the long-buried secret that caused her to leave Gypsum years earlier, ruin them all? Because as Hailey will soon find out, their power to heal is just the beginning.  This gripping novel from thriller writer Sophie Littlefield blazes a trail from small-town Missouri to the big city as Hailey battles an evil greater than she ever imagined, while discovering strengths she never knew she had.

Beautiful Darkness (Caster Chronicles, Bk 2)

Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers Release Date: October 12

Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena’s family of powerful supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.  Sometimes life-ending.  Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan’s eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there’s no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town’s tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems.

Elixir

Hilary Duff

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Release Date: October 12

As the daughter of a renowned surgeon and a prominent Washington D.C. politician, Clea Raymond has felt the glare of the spotlight her entire life. And though she dreads the paparazzi who track her every move, she herself is a talented photojournalist who takes refuge in a career that allows her to travel to the most exotic parts of the world.

But after Clea’s father disappears while on a humanitarian mission, eerie, shadowy images of a strange and beautiful young man begin to appear in Clea’s photos—a man she has never seen in her life.  When Clea suddenly encounters this man in person she is stunned—and feels an immediate and powerful connection. As they grow closer, they are drawn deep into the mystery behind her father’s disappearance and discover the centuries-old truth behind their intense bond.  Torn by a dangerous love triangle and haunted by a powerful secret that holds their fate, together they race against time to unravel their past in order to save their future—and their lives.

Enchanted

Ivy Sarah Beth Durst

Genre: YA Fantasy

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Release Date: October 12

What Lily Carter wants most in the world is to attend Princeton University just like her grandfather. When she finally visits the campus, Grandpa surprises her: She has been selected to take the top-secret Legacy Test. Passing means automatic acceptance to Princeton. Sweet!  Lily’s test is to find the Ivy Key. But what is she looking for? Where does she start? As she searches, Lily is joined by Tye, a cute college boy with orange and black hair who says he’s her guard. That’s weird. But things get seriously strange when a gargoyle talks to her. He tells her that there are two Princetons—the ordinary one and a magical one—and the Key opens the gate between them. But there are more secrets that surround Lily. Worse secrets.

When Lily enters the magical Princeton, she uncovers old betrayals and new dangers, and a chance at her dream becomes a fight for her life. Soon Lily is caught in a power struggle between two worlds, with her family at its center. In a place where Knights slay monsters, boys are were-tigers, and dragons might be out for blood, Lily will need all of her ingenuity and courage—and a little magic—to unite the worlds and unlock the secrets of her past and her future.

Fatal Error (Repairman Jack, Bk 14)

F. Paul Wilson

Genre:

Publisher: Tor

Release Date: October 12

The End of the World is at hand!  Munir Habib’s life has become a nightmare. His tormentor has warned Munir not to report the kidnapping of his family, or else they will pay a terrible price. A friend realizes something is terribly wrong and tells Munir he doesn’t have to go to the cops. There’s a guy who fixes situations like this-Repairman Jack. Jack is backed into helping Munir despite his ongoing involvement in the cosmic shadow war between the Ally and the Otherness. Or perhaps because of it. He’s chafing at being forced into the defensive role of protecting the Lady, the physical embodiment of the consciousness of the planet Earth.  Meanwhile, the Septimus Order and the Kickers are seemingly working in concert on a plot to extinguish the Lady and open the way for the Otherness to take over our reality. To top it all off, Dawn Pickering finally goes into labor and delivers a baby she only glimpses as it’s whisked away, and is terrified by what she sees. Later she’s told the baby died, but she doesn’t believe it. Neither does Weezy. Neither does Jack. All these interlocking plots mean doom for humanity. But Jack never gives up or gives in.

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer

Lish McBride

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co

Release Date: October 12

Sam leads a pretty normal life. He may not have the most exciting job in the world, but he’s doing all right—until a fast food prank brings him to the attention of Douglas, a creepy guy with an intense violent streak.  Turns out Douglas is a necromancer who raises the dead for cash and sees potential in Sam. Then Sam discovers he’s a necromancer too, but with strangely latent powers. And his worst nightmare wants to join forces . . . or else.  With only a week to figure things out, Sam needs all the help he can get. Luckily he lives in Seattle, which has nearly as many paranormal types as it does coffee places. But even with newfound friends, will Sam be able to save his skin?

Just Add Magic

Cindy Callaghan

Genre: Children/YA

Publisher: Simon & Schuster’s Aladdin M!x

Release Date: October 12

While cleaning the attic one day, Kelly Quinn, a curious sixth grader with a passion for cooking, finds a book of secret recipes bearing a warning: Beware of the Law of Returns. Using the book, Kelly starts a cooking club with her best friends, clumsy roller-skating Darbie and fashionista soccer star Hannah. The dishes from the book are delish, but they seem linked to strange occurrences at home, at school and on the soccer field.

Passion Play

Beth Bernobich

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: Tor

Release Date: October 12

Ilse Zhalina is the daughter of one of Melnek’s more prominent merchants. She has lived most of her life surrounded by the trappings of wealth and privilege.  Many would consider hers a happy lot. But there are dark secrets, especially in the best of families. Ilse has learned that for a young woman of her beauty and social station, to be passive and silent is the best way to survive.  When Ilse finally meets the older man she is to marry, she realizes he is far crueler and more deadly than her father could ever be. Ilse chooses to run. This choice will change her life forever.  And it will lead her to Raul Kosenmark, master of one of the land’s most notorious pleasure houses…and who is, as Ilse discovers, a puppetmaster of a different sort altogether.  Ilse discovers a world where every pleasure has a price and there are levels of magic and intrigue she once thought unimaginable. She also finds the other half of her heart.  Sure to appeal to fans of Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Legacy series.

Revolution

Jennifer Donnelly

Genre: YA

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Release Date: October 12

BROOKLYN: Andi Alpers is on the edge. She’s angry at her father for leaving, angry at her mother for not being able to cope, and heartbroken by the loss of her younger brother, Truman. Rage and grief are destroying her. And she’s about to be expelled from Brooklyn Heights’ most prestigious private school when her father intervenes. Now Andi must accompany him to Paris for winter break.  PARIS: Alexandrine Paradis lived over two centuries ago. She dreamed of making her mark on the Paris stage, but a fateful encounter with a doomed prince of France cast her in a tragic role she didn’t want—and couldn’t escape.  Two girls, two centuries apart. One never knowing the other.

But when Andi finds Alexandrine’s diary, she recognizes something in her words and is moved to the point of obsession. There’s comfort and distraction for Andi in the journal’s antique pages—until, on a midnight journey through the catacombs of Paris, Alexandrine’s words transcend paper and time, and the past becomes suddenly, terrifyingly present.  Jennifer Donnelly, author of the award-winning novel A Northern Light, artfully weaves two girls’ stories into one unforgettable account of life, loss, and enduring love. Revolution spans centuries and vividly depicts the eternal struggles of the human heart.

Stork

Wendy Delsol

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Candlewick

Release Date: October 12

Oh baby! A hip heroine discovers that she has the ability to decide who gets pregnant in this witty YA blend of romance and the supernatural.  Sixteen-year-old Katla has just moved from Los Angeles to the sticks of Minnesota. As if it weren’t enough that her trendy fashion sense draws stares, she learns to her horror that she’s a member of an ancient order of women who decide to whom certain babies will be born. Add to that Wade, the arrogant football star whom Katla regrettably fooled around with, and Jack, a gorgeous farm boy who initially seems to hate her. Soon Katla is having freaky dreams about a crying infant and learns that, as children, she and Jack shared a near-fatal, possibly mystical experience. Can Katla survive this major life makeover and find a dress for the homecoming dance? Drawing from Norse mythology and inspired by The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen, debut author Wendy Delsol conceives an irreverent, highly entertaining novel about embracing change and the (baby) bumps along the way.

The Half-Made World

Felix Gilman

Genre: Steampunk

Publisher: Tor

Release Date: October 12

A fantastical reimagining of the American West which draws its influence from steampunk, the American western tradition, and magical realism The world is only half made. What exists has been carved out amidst a war between two rival factions: the Line, paving the world with industry and claiming its residents as slaves; and the Gun, a cult of terror and violence that cripples the population with fear. The only hope at stopping them has seemingly disappeared the Red Republic that once battled the Gun and the Line, and almost won. Now they’re just a myth, a bedtime story parents tell their children, of hope.  To the west lies a vast, uncharted world, inhabited only by the legends of the immortal and powerful Hill People, who live at one with the earth and its elements. Liv Alverhyusen, a doctor of the new science of psychology, travels to the edge of the made world to a spiritually protected mental institution in order to study the minds of those broken by the Gun and the Line. In its rooms lies an old general of the Red Republic, a man whose shattered mind just may hold the secret to stopping the Gun and the Line. And either side will do anything to understand how.

The Lost Hero

Rick Riordan

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Hyperion Books for Children

Release Date: October 12

Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up on a school bus holding hands with a girl. Apparently she’s his girlfriend Piper, his best friend is a kid named Leo, and they’re all students in the Wilderness School, a boarding school for “bad kids.” What he did to end up here, Jason has no idea—except that everything seems very wrong.  Piper has a secret. Her father has been missing for three days, and her vivid nightmares reveal that he’s in terrible danger. Now her boyfriend doesn’t recognize her, and when a freak storm and strange creatures attack during a school field trip, she, Jason, and Leo are whisked away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood. What is going on?  Leo has a way with tools. His new cabin at Camp Half-Blood is filled with them. Seriously, the place beats Wilderness School hands down, with its weapons training, monsters, and fine-looking girls. What’s troubling is the curse everyone keeps talking about, and that a camper’s gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist they are all—including Leo—related to a god.

The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

J. W. Rinzler

Genre: Science Fiction

Publisher: Random House

Release Date: October 12

In this lavish thirtieth-anniversary tribute to the blockbuster film Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, New York Times bestselling author J. W. Rinzler draws back the curtain to reveal the intense drama and magnificent wizardry behind the hit movie—arguably the fan favorite of the Star Wars Saga.  Following his The Making of Star Wars, the author has once again made use of his unlimited access to the Lucasfilm Archives and its hidden treasures of previously unpublished interviews, photos, artwork, and production mementos.

The result is a comprehensive behind-the-scenes, up-close-and-personal look at the trials and triumphs, risks and close calls, inspiration, perspiration, and imagination that went into every facet of this cinematic masterpiece.

Here’s the inside scoop on:

• the evolution of the script, from story conference and treatment to fifth draft, as conceived, written, and rewritten by George Lucas, famed science-fiction author Leigh Brackett, and screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan

• The development of new key characters, including roguish hero Lando Calrissian, sinister bounty hunter Boba Fett, and iconic Jedi Master Yoda
• The challenges of shooting the epic ice planet battle in the frozen reaches of Norway and of conjuring up convincing creatures and craft—from tauntauns and snowspeeders to Imperial walkers
• The construction of a life-sized Millennium Falcon and the swamp planet Dagobah inside a specially built soundstage in Elstree Studios
• The technique behind master Muppeteer Frank Oz’s breathing life into the breakthrough character Yoda
• The creation of the new, improved Industrial Light & Magic visual effects facility and the founding of the now-legendary Skywalker Ranch

In addition, of course, are rare on-the-scene interviews with all the major players: actors Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and David Prowse; director Irvin Kershner; producer Gary Kurtz; effects specialists Richard Edlund, Dennis Muren, Ken Ralston, and Phil Tippett; composer John Williams; and many others. Punctuating the epic account is a bounty of drawings, storyboards, and paintings by Ralph McQuarrie, Joe Johnston, and Ivor Beddoes, along with classic and rare production photos. An added bonus is a Foreword by acclaimed director Ridley Scott.

The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is a fittingly glorious celebration of an undisputed space-fantasy movie milestone. Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

The Scorch Trials

James Dashner

Genre: YA Dystopia

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Release Date: October 12

Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end. No more puzzles. No more Variables. And no more running. Thomas was sure that escape meant he and the Gladers would get their lives back. But no one really knew what sort of life they were going back to.  In the Maze, life was easy. They had food, and shelter, and safety… until Teresa triggered the end. In the world outside the Maze, however, the end was triggered long ago.  Burned by sun flares and baked by a new, brutal climate, much of the earth is a wasteland. Government has disintegrated–and with it, order–and now Cranks, people covered in festering wounds and driven to murderous insanity by the infectious disease known as the Flare, roam the crumbling cities hunting for their next victim… and meal.  The Gladers are far from done running. Instead of freedom, they find themselves faced with another trial. They must cross the Scorch, the most burned-out section of the world, and arrive at a safe haven in two weeks. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.  Thomas can only wonder–does he hold the secret of freedom somewhere in his mind? Or will he forever be at the mercy of WICKED?

Trance

Linda Gerber

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance/ Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Speak

Release Date: October 14

It begins with a subtle vibration, a tingling. There is time to take only one breath. The trance begins. When it is through, she is certain of two things: Someone she knows is about to die. And she is powerless to stop it.  Ashlyn Greenfield has always known when bad things are going to happen. Each time that familiar tingling at the back of her neck begins, she knows what’s to come a trance. She’s pulled in, blindsided, an unwilling witness to a horrible upcoming event. But she’s never been able to stop it not even when the vision was of her mother’s fatal car accident. When soulful Jake enters Ashlyn’s life, she begins having trances about another car accident. And as her trances escalate, one thing becomes clear: it’s up to her to save Jake from near-certain death.

In the Meantime

Paul Tremblay

Genre: Scifi and Fantasy Short Story Anthology/Horror

Publisher: ChiZine Publications

Release Date: October 15

A history teacher begins his unorthodox senior course with clips from an ominous surveillance video, causing a student’s home life to deteriorate along with the lessons. A girl with a second head that changes into different historical and fictional identities tries to find her father while figuring out how to handle Mom and the book club. A blog documents society’s slow, unexplained, but inexorable end, or is it only a collection of pixel-sized paranoia? A once-awkward teen holes up in a kiddie-themed amusement park after the end of the world, and schemes to take Cinderella’s Castle by force. This collection by Paul G. Tremblay (author of THE LITTLE SLEEP and NO SLEEP TILL WONDERLAND) features fifteen stories of fear and paranoia, stories of apocalypses both societal and personal, and stories of longing and coping.

Published: 2006

The last time that I had read a book by Kate Elliott was about eight years ago, when I had been fully engrossed in her Crown of Stars series. And although Elliott had made a great impression on me at the time, I haven’t read anything else by her since then, mostly because I have not encountered any of her books here in Israel. But when I recently came across the author online I was reminded of how much I had enjoyed her books and so I decided to try to catch up with all of her books that I had missed out on over the years, starting with Spirit Gate.

For hundreds of years the Guardians have ruled the world of the Hundred, but these powerful gods no longer exert their will on the world. Only the reeves, who patrol on enormous eagles, still represent the Guardians’ power. And the reeves are losing their authority; for there is a dark shadow across the land that not even the reeves can stop.

A group of fanatics has risen to devour villages, towns, and cities in their drive to annihilate all who oppose them. No one knows who leads them; they seem inhumanly cruel and powerful. Mai and Anji, riding with a company of dedicated warriors and a single reeve who may hold a key to stopping the deadly advance of the devouring horde, must try, or the world will be lost to the carnage. But a young woman sworn to the Goddess may prove more important than them all . . . if they are not too late.

Spirit Gate offers readers a panoramic view of a land which is slowly being overtaken by a dark and unknown force. The Guardians, who had once ruled the land, have been gone for so long that no one knows if they ever really existed, and the Reeves have lost the authority which had allowed them to bring order, in place of the Guardians. But the intervention of visitors from an outside land will have far reaching consequences that may help in the fight against the encroaching darkness.

Spirit Gate follows several different and very diverse characters, switching from one point of view to another throughout the book. Each character has their own journey that they have embarked upon but as the story progresses the individual stories begin to merge, eventually bringing all of the characters and their stories together.

Mai is the beautiful daughter of the most prestigious merchant family in Kartu Town, expected to make an advantageous marriage someday to a respectable boy. But when a Qin Captain spots Mai in the marketplace one day and expresses his interest in marrying her, Mai’s father has no choice but to give up his daughter to the man. Mai is both frightened and excited by this turn of events which may offer her the freedom she has always longed for, though it all depends on what kind of man it is that she has married.

Mai’s uncle Shai is the seventh son, placing him at the very bottom of the family hierarchy. Seen as superfluous by the family, it is no surprise when Shai is the one chosen to accompany Mai when she leaves Kartu Town with her new husband. But Shai is also given the task of finding out what had happened to his older brother who has gone missing many years ago. Shai is elated to finally be free of the family who had always held him in contempt but he quickly discovers that finding a place to belong will be a lot more difficult then he had expected.

Joss is a Reeve, dedicated to maintaining justice and order in the land alongside the giant and intelligent eagle that he rides. But for twenty years he has been haunted by a single foolish and thoughtless act committed in his youth, and which ended in tragedy.  The repercussions of that day have altered Joss’s life but now he is determined to take a stand and finally fight back against the enemy that has been cutting the reeves down.

Kesh had been sold off as a slave by his family when he was just a child, and for the past twelve years has worked endlessly to pay off his debt. Now a recent stroke of good luck may have handed him just the treasure that he needs to finally buy his freedom, if he can protect it long enough to make the journey home. And even then his path to freedom is not yet clear.

I admit that when I started Spirit Gate I was a bit thrown off because I had expected this book to be somewhat similar to the others that I had read by Kate Elliott, which it is not. Though once I got used to the unexpected style of the narration, I was easily immersed in the story.

At first I was a bit distracted by the fact that the story doesn’t focus on any one character for very long, but instead switches from one character’s point of view to another.  This prevented me from feeling particularly connected to any one of the characters, which normally would hinder my enjoyment of the book, but once I got used to it I found that I really didn’t mind. And as I got more involved in the story I discovered that I had gotten to know each of the characters enough that I did care about what happens to them. The style in which Spirit Gate was written actually reminds me quite a bit of Steven Erikson’s Gardens of the Moon, though it was a lot easier for me to get through. The epic feel to the story as well as the wide and detailed world building felt similar to Erikson’s novel, though the characters are not quite as intense. There is also the same kind of vague feeling to the story regarding who the villains are and what the specific danger is.

The pacing is slow but steady and the regular shifting of the point of view helped keep me interested, as did the different conflicts encountered by each of the characters.

On the back of Spirit Gate there is a quote from Sci Fi Weekly stating that this book is “a treasure for readers who enjoy the journey as much as, or more than, the destination,” which I think is very aptly put. Where the characters are headed and what their purpose is in this endangered land, largely remains unclear, but it’s the journey on which each of them have embarked that is the focus of this book. Kate Elliott has skillfully woven a wonderful story here with fantastic world building and interesting characters and I highly recommend it to all fantasy readers who enjoy a good epic tale.

Published: 2010

Cassel comes from a family of curse workers — people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they’re all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn’t got the magic touch, so he’s an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail — he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.

Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He’s noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he’s part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.

I had picked up this book on a whim, not really knowing what to expect as I haven’t read anything by Holly Black before, and was pleased to find myself almost immediately engrossed by the story. I actually ended up staying up late into the night just so I could finish it. The story is refreshingly unique and full of unpredictable twists that kept surprising me until the very end.

The one fault I found with White Cat is that it contains very few likable characters. It took me a bit of time to warm up to Cassel, who is not the most engaging guy, though compared to most of the other book characters, he is downright lovable. The characters seem to fall into two categories, those who are bullying and manipulating others and those who are being and manipulated and bullied, and even those characters who are meant to be neutral seem to fall into this pattern, which started to really annoy me after a while. I particularly disliked how Cassel kept allowing himself to be pushed around by others, even claiming at times to enjoy it, which made him less appealing to me.

I really did enjoy reading this book though, probably more than I had anticipated, and I’m sure that those who generally read YA books will enjoy it as well.  I look forward to picking up the sequel, Red Glove, when it comes out next May.

Published: 2000

In my continuous quest to understand the wide popularity of Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden books, I decided to listen to the second book in the series, Fool Moon.  In my review of Storm Front I had mentioned my several unsuccessful attempts to get through this book and how I finally decided to give the audio book a try, which I found surprisingly enjoyable. But even with my enjoyment of the Storm Front audio book, I still didn’t see what it is about these books that has captured such a large audience of readers. So I was hoping that perhaps listening to Fool Moon would help shed some light on this great mystery.

Business for Harry Dresden has slowed down to a crawl since the events of the last book and it’s been weeks since the local police, Dresden’s main source for work, have thrown a case his way. But just as Harry is wondering how he is going to pay for his next meal, he gets approached by Murphey who reluctantly admits that his help is needed in solving a series of murders. Each of the murders have taken place on the night of a full moon and each of the mutilated corpses found on the scene have been surrounded by bloody paw prints. Despite Murphey’s lingering anger at Harry she realizes that he may be the only one able to solve this case and help catch the murderer before he strikes again.

Fool Moon starts off slowly with a series of events that rather closely mirrors the beginning of the previous book. An angry encounter with Murphey, a confrontation with Marcone, disparaging behavior from the local cops and some humorous interactions with the skull, Bob, all stuff we already experienced in Storm Front. The pace does pick up about halfway through the book at which point I found myself getting caught up in the story, but my enjoyment was frequently interrupted by certain aggravating aspects of the storytelling.

I think what irritated me the most were Murphey’s frequent angry attacks against Dresden, which came across as irrational and unprofessional, as well as Dresden’s constant self-recrimination, which I quickly got tired of. I found myself wondering why these issues are just coming up now between Murphey and Dresden if the two of them have been working together for years.  I was also annoyed by Dresden’s need to repeatedly rehash the current situation, unnecessarily reminding us of the fact that it’s up to him to protect Murphey and why. Nor did I appreciate Dresden’s long-winded reflections on magic or good and evil just when things were getting heated up. And rather than sounding philosophical I thought these monologues just sounded cheesy; like he was trying too hard to come across as deep and sensitive.

My magic. That was at the heart of me. It was a manifestation of what I believed, what I lived. It came from my desire to see to it that someone stood between the darkness and the people it would devour. It came from my love of a good steak, from the way I would sometimes cry at a good movie or a moving symphony. From my life. From the hope that I could make things better for someone else, if not always for me.

There’s more magic in a baby’s first giggle than in any firestorm a wizard can conjure up, and don’t let anyone tell you any different.”

I admit that Fool Moon was a step up from Storm Front, in terms of the story being more interesting and exciting, but I’m still not seeing what it is about these books that are drawing so many readers. The writing is not particularly impressive and the only character that I found remotely compelling is the crime lord, Marcone. I’m not sure if I could have gotten through the book without the help of James Marster’s dulcet tones and I’m not particularly tempted to pick up the next book in the series. So as far as I can see, the mystery of Harry Dresden’s appeal still remains a mystery.

So Peter, you’ve been working hard to keep The Desert Spear‘s storyline under wraps as much as possible, but are there any particular tidbits about the plot or characters that you would be willing to share with eager fans?

Sure. With regards to my secrecy, it’s mainly protectiveness towards my readers. Personally, I hate spoilers. I’ve been known to bite the still-blabbing heads off of people who comment on things to come in a book I’m not finished reading, and I’ve threatened to feed people to the demons for putting LOST spoilers in their facebook/twitter status updates. I read forewords last, and never read reviews of the books on my TBR shelf.

I think many writers would agree that when they write a book, they very carefully pace the flow of information to the reader in order to maximize tension and present a smooth exciting narrative that is full of surprises. That manuscript is the pure form of how we want the story told. Everything else is marketing.

I want as much as possible to preserve that pure form, but I’ve also made a point of giving away excerpts, usually from the earliest sections of each character arc, to let readers have a taste of what’s to come without lessening the experience. They can be found on the blogs Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, A Dribble of Ink, and the Random House website.

What I can say about the book, spoiler-free, is that The Desert Spear is a darker and more complex story than The Warded Man, both by design and a natural evolution of my writing style. Much as the first book detailed the lives of Arlen, Renna, and Rojer, The Desert Spear gives a deep look into the struggles of two relatively minor characters from The Warded Man, Ahmann Jardir and Renna Tanner. Telling their side of the story broadens the landscape and challenges some preconceived notions readers might have after The Warded Man.

There are also long sections in the point of view of Arlen, Leesha, and Rojer, continuing to follow these characters as they grow, and giving insight into some of the “lost years” of their past.

In The Warded Man you built the foundation for your story by introducing a new world and the characters that populate it, and in The Desert Spear the story takes off, right from the beginning, building on its predecessor. Is the experience of writing the first book in a series, where everything is fresh and new, very different from writing the following books?

Not really, because I think each book has its own rhythm and personality, and finding it is always a fresh and new experience. In some ways, each progressive book in a series can be more restrictive to write, because you are not able to contradict anything you have written before, but in other ways, the previous books are very freeing, providing a firm foundation upon which to add new and exciting layers of interpersonal dynamic and politics.

The Desert Spear also has new POV characters, which helps to keep things exciting. I think as I build an ensemble cast for the series, things will seldom get boring, because I will always be able to jump into the head of a new character with great deeds still ahead of them.

Did the fact that The Desert Spear is a darker book make writing it more difficult?

The Desert Spear was a more difficult book to write because of its size and complexity, but not because it was dark. It was always my intention to start out with a comfortable and easily accessible starting point in The Warded Man, and then take the series in a more complex and mature direction. That shift really freed my hands in a lot of ways, allowing me to confront some issues that were tiptoed around in the first book.


I know that authors are often influenced by some of the books they read or movies that they see during the time that they are working on a book. Was your writing influenced at all by any outside media while you were working on The Desert Spear?

I didn’t read or go out to the movies nearly as much while writing the second book, mainly because we had a new baby in the house, and every moment not spent writing was spent helping take care of her. It left me with very little leisure time.

I think my strongest influences for The Desert Spear were probably Shogun, by James Clavell, and Frank Miller’s graphic novel, 300. Both books introduced a strict warrior culture guided by principles of honor and glory, with proud death in battle being the greatest honor a warrior could dream of. I watched the 300 movie with a wicked glee, glorying in all that spear fighting and the beautiful shield formations. I also listened a lot to Loreena McKennit’s album An Ancient Muse.

Another movie with excellent spear-fighting, by the way, is Troy, which rises above being a Brad Pitt/Orlando Bloom vehicle at times.

You mentioned in another blog interview that the Krasian tribe of fierce desert warriors in your books was inspired largely by the samurai culture of Medieval Japan, but I myself couldn’t help making comparisons to what I know of the Islamic culture, as I’m sure many others will as well.

In The Desert Spear, in particular, we get to know more about these men, whose sole purpose is to give their lives to the destruction of demons, thereby receiving eternal rewards in the afterlife. These characters strongly, and eerily, reminded me of modern-day suicide bombers and I was wondering what kind of research did you do in order to portray such characters so realistically?

The Krasians started as an amalgam of many cultures, and have become a people unique unto themselves in my mind. They are not meant to be a commentary on any real-world cultures, and readers seeking to find hidden politics written between the lines will likely be disappointed.

That said, I am a New Yorker, and was in Manhattan on September 11. My wife’s parents were in the Trade Center when the planes struck, and it was hours before we knew if they were safe. The themes of fear/helplessness and the way it affects people that are prevalent in The Warded Man were a reflection of what I and others I knew went through that day.

I’ve always been a student of mythology and religion, and after the attacks I spent a lot of time pondering religious extremism, and it’s something I try to explore in my writing.

It’s interesting to note that the concepts of martyrdom and rewards in the afterlife are in no way unique to any one culture or part of the world. The Vikings believed a glorious death in battle would win their way into Valhalla, the resting place of heroes, while cowards went to Hel. The ancient Greeks had similar beliefs about Elysium and Hades. The path of Christianity is filled with martyrs and crusaders rewarded in Heaven and sinners sent to Hell. In fact, if you follow Christianity, Judaism, and Islam back to their common root, Abraham, you find a man whose faith was so strong he was willing to sacrifice his own son at God’s command.

With regards to samurai, take this quote from the Hakagure, which was something of a guide book for samurai behavior:

Meditation on inevitable death should be performed daily. Every day when one’s body and mind are at peace, one should meditate upon being ripped apart by arrows, rifles, spears and swords, being carried away by surging waves, being thrown into the midst of a great fire, being struck by lightning, being shaken to death by a great earthquake, falling from thousand-foot cliffs, dying of disease or committing seppuku (ritual suicide) at the death of one’s master. And every day without fail one should consider himself as dead.

It’s easy to see how this mindset affected a samurai’s worldview, and evolved into things like the Kamikaze fighter pilots of WWII. I considered all these sources, as well as others, as I developed the mindset of the Krasian warrior caste.

While writing the scenes involving the Krasians did you find yourself holding back at all in consideration of possible negative feedback, as certain parts of The Desert Spear will probably strike sensitive chords with some of your readers.


Not really. I didn’t really pull any punches about some of the abhorrent things the Krasians do, but I think I also did a good job of balancing that by showing the circumstances by which their society evolved, and the real sense of faith, honor, and protection of humanity that are the culture’s foundation. It’s very easy in writing (and real life) to dehumanize your antagonists without truly understanding them. My goal in setting the first 200 or so pages of the book in Krasia was to show the reader that there was a level of complexity there that they might not have seen in the first book.

That said, there was one incident of Jardir striking a woman that was cut from the final draft after consultation with my editor. It’s the only time I can think of where I cut something I thought was in character due to outside pressure, but it was a relatively minor point in the grand scheme of things.

And going back to my question about research, did you do any particular kind of research in order to get into the heads of individuals who were part of these warrior societies, in creating Jardir and the other Krasians in such a realistic manner?

I read Sun Tzu’s Art of War, and The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi, as well as accounts of King Leonidas of Sparta’s war with Xerxes and Skaka Zulu’s conquest of Africa. I also did a fair amount of research into world religions, but that’s always been a hobby of mine. I have a nicely growing collection of the Men-at-Arms and Warrior books from Osprey publishing, which are wonderful references for historical arms and armor. I also use Wikipedia all the time to answer quick research questions.

The wards, which are the humans’ main defense against demons, are an essential part of the books and I was curious as to why no physical descriptions of the wards themselves, or any explanations of how they are drawn, are included in any of the stories

I try in general not to over-describe things in my books. I think a core part of the reading experience is the reader’s use of their own imagination to visualize some of the characters or other aspects of the world, including the wards. Besides, the wards have been illustrated in almost every edition of the book worldwide.

I have detailed notes on how the warding magic system works, but until there is a need to include that information in the story, it would just be extraneous information that would bore most readers and reduce overall tension. The Daylight War and the subsequent stories will continue to explore the magic system and add depth to the reader as needed. Magic is returning to the world after a long absence, and it will have a large part to play in the war with the corelings.

Authors often receive suggestions and advice from their readers, sometimes directly and other times through book reviews. I was curious if you ever implement some of the suggestions or critiques that you receive from your readers or that you come across in reviews.

I do read every review, great and small, kind and kicking. I am constantly working to improve my craft as a writer, and will think deeply on any good points in negative reviews to see if I can learn from them. The influence of these sorts of things is relatively small, though. Most of my critiquing is internal, or from a small but sharp-tongued group of beta-readers I can trust to think deeply and pull no punches.

How long did the writing of each of your previous books take and when can we expect to see the completion of your next book (in other words, how long do I have to wait to get my hands on The Daylight War?)

Ha. I honestly don’t know. The Warded Man took me about seven years to write, but it was something I was working on in my spare time while I had a separate career and an active social life. The Desert Spear took three and a half years to write, but some of that overlapped with work on The Warded Man, and it was done while working from home in a 2 bedroom apartment with a newborn baby.

I am hoping to turn The Daylight War around in approximately half the time of The Desert Spear, but I’m not making any promises. The book is coming along very well at the moment and promises to be my best work yet, but it is still in an early prose stage, and there may be unforeseen pitfalls to come. I will not sacrifice quality for speed.

Regarding your recent publication of The Great Bazaar, a collection of short stories about Arlen and some of his experiences off-scene during The Warded Man, where exactly did these stories come from? Were they deleted scenes that didn’t make it into the final novel or separate creations that you went back and wrote after the publications of your books? Do you plan to publish additional such novelettes?

The title story of The Great Bazaar is an entirely new tale that was written well after I finished The Warded Man and had started The Desert Spear. In order to keep the pacing the way I wanted it in the first book, I left some large gaps in the lives of the characters.  There were two points in the novel where a section ends and then the next one picks up several years later.

Some of these gaps are childhood periods of schooling that weren’t where I wanted the story to go, but there were others that I always imagined to be full of adventure, like Rojer’s years as an itinerant Jongleur, and the 3+ years that Arlen worked as a Messenger, traveling to every major city on the map, and hunting through ancient ruins in his spare time. These are fertile periods for storytelling, and I always meant to get back to them, in part with future novels (as with some scenes in The Desert Spear) and in part with novellas like The Great Bazaar.

Bazaar started as a backup story for a deluxe version of The Painted Man in the UK. I was very proud of how it turned out, but that deluxe edition was shelved indefinitely, and I ended up sitting on the story for almost a year before I found a new home for it. The other two stories in the book were large deleted scenes from The Warded Man, along with some supplemental materials on wards and a Krasian dictionary.

The Great Bazaar is meant to be a companion book to The Desert Spear, and I think it adds a lot, but I think it also works as a standalone book to introduce readers to my work. One of my favorite aspects of the book are the discussions about the writing process included with the deleted scenes, showing why I decided it was better for the overall book to cut them even thought I thought they were really good. There are several more of these (with commentary) on my website: http://www.petervbrett.com/excisions/

There is another Arlen Messenger novella entitled Brayan’s Gold which is already written and will be published by Subterranean Press in their Tales of Dark Fantasy 2 anthology later this year. The story is included in the German translation of The Great Bazaar, which is on sale now. I have a full plate at the moment, but I intend to do more shorts as time allows.

While novellas seem like a great way to keep readers satiated while waiting for your next novel (and considering the book has been sold out, it appears to have been a great success), don’t they take away from time otherwise spent writing your next book?

I usually work on the shorts in my “down” time, when I am feeling a little burnt out on a novel and need a break, or when I have sent the novel to my test readers/agent/editor for commentary. Large epic fantasy novels can be very draining to write, and take years (at least for me) to finish.  It’s nice and mentally refreshing to work on something that I can finish in a few weeks and share with readers.

Of course, I seem to have less and less down time as my career progresses…

Now that you are a successful author you get to rub elbows with some of the hotshots in the literary world. Is there anyone that you were particularly excited to get to meet?

Lots of people. I am still a fan at heart, so sometimes it’s hard to keep my composure at times like that. I met Robert Jordan twice before he died, and both experiences were quite memorable. At a World Fantasy Convention party a couple of years ago, someone asked me to pass the chips, and I turned around to find that it was George RR Martin. I’m pretty sure I stuttered through the entire conversation that followed.

At New York ComicCon in 2008, I got to meet Terry Brooks when the Editorial Director of our mutual publisher Del Rey Books introduced us so that I could ask Terry to read (and possibly blurb) The Warded Man. It was a business meeting and I suppose I should have been professional, but instead I brought my copy of The Elfstones of Shannara, begged him to sign it, and gushed like a fanboy. Terry did end up reading the book, and gave an incredible review that has adorned my book jackets ever since.

It’s also been great getting to know my peers in the current generation of fantasy writers, which is a bumper crop of amazing talent. Brent Weeks and I were like buddy cops at WFC last year crashing Gail Carriger’s Soulless launch party, and I’ve been enjoying corresponding with great writers like Pat Rothfuss, Joe Abercrombie, and Blake Charlton.

Wow, that’s so awesome! Man, what I would give to pass the chips to George Martin…

There is a question that I have been wondering about for a while and since I saw you mention on your website that The Warded Man had been optioned for film, I thought I would take the opportunity to ask you about it.

So why is it that authors are so enthusiastic about having their books made into movies? While I understand that a movie brings worldwide attention to the book that it is based on, the movie is rarely as good as the book and people therefore make assumptions about the books without having ever read them. I know a number of people who have decided that certain books are not worth reading because they didn’t enjoy the movies made off of them. And I would assume that after putting so much time and effort into writing a book, authors would be weary of having the stories that they worked so hard on tampered with by film makers.

That’s a good question, and I think the answer varies for everyone. From a purely practical standpoint, you can’t put a price on the attention it brings to one’s work to have a major motion picture made. I think for everyone who chooses not to buy the book because the films were bad, there are a great many readers who would never have heard of the book otherwise, and are willing to take a chance on it. Anything that garners more readers try my work is wonderful in and of itself.

But beyond that, for all the bad movie adaptations out there, there are also some really great ones. Beyond the obvious Lord of the Rings movies, you have things like The Road, Watchmen, or the Harry Potter films, not to mention some of the incredible films that have been coming out based on Marvel Comics. I also have really high hopes for the HBO show based on George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire.

I didn’t sell the movie rights to my material causally. There were several interested parties, and in every situation I was very defensive and protective of my baby. I grilled director Paul WS Anderson for hours about his vision for the films and what he liked about the books before we even talked about actually making a deal. Paul really impressed me with his love and respect for the source material and his desire to show the overriding themes in the adaptation. In addition, I’ve been on set with him and seen how hard he works. I think the books are in good hands, and the movies are going to be awesome.

And if not, so what? The books on my shelf, my legacy to the world after I’m gone, will be unchanged.

Well, that’s a pretty good answer and congratulations on your movie deal. Although I’m generally weary of books adapted to film, this does sound like an exciting project and I look forward to seeing the results.

Thank you so much Peter for taking the time to answer all my questions, especially with your busy writing and book touring schedule.

For more information about Peter Brett visit www.petervbrett.com.

Published: 2010

For the Win is another brilliant piece by Cory Doctorow. Like his previous work, Little Brother, Doctorow aims technology in the face of politics. This time around, he places the economy front and center, using the worlds of massive multiplayer online roleplaying games (thankfully abbreviated as MMORPGs) as a basis for understanding the economy.

The story follows the tale of  factions of gamers who are being paid to pit against each other, until finally someone convinces them that they are all being exploited and should demand better treatment. Skeptical? Honestly, so was I – and I’m a true geek. For those of us in the safety of Western democracies, the importance of a virtual economy on real life is hard to swallow. Yet Doctorow does an elegant job of changing our perspective: for the poor citizens of Shenzhen, China; or Dharavi, India; the virtual economy can be more important than the real one.

The plot is complex and sprawling, and there are a large host of characters, but the story focuses around three groups – General Robotwallah in Dharavi, Los Angeles teenager Wei-Dong and his gamer friends in Shenzhen, and Big Sister Nor and her sidekicks in Singapore.

General Robotwallah (real name: Mala) is saved from poverty when a mysterious businessman realizes she has a talent for defeating foes in an online world called Zombie Mecha. He hires her and her friends to hunt after rival factions of professional game players. Soon, Mala is making enough money so that she and her mother can afford to live comfortably – which means finding a place with indoor plumbing. It’s too good to be true – until an associate of her employer begins to make inappropriate advances.

Wei-Dong (real name: Leonard Goldberg) plays online games because he finds it entertaining, and he joins up with a crew of professional Chinese players. Matthew, Lu, Ping, and others work for Boss Wing in Shenzhen, China. Boss Wing owns a “gold farm”: a factory where rich Americans decide that they don’t want to spend fifty hours of boring playtime getting all the fanciest online weapons and amassing a hoard of gold. No; these rich Americans decide that they’re not patient enough, so they outsource their game-playing to a bunch of Chinese until they’ve got a sufficiently strong virtual warrior. Matthew decides that he’s done working for Boss Wing, and he’s going to start his own game-playing business.

For thirty bucks, his clientele can get their game god, and Matthew can buy 561 bowls of pork dumplings. Not a bad deal for playing games – until Boss Wing sends two goons over to crush him, throw him back into the factory, and force him to play twenty-two hours straight. At the end of the day, Boss Wing takes all the real cash for himself, along with all the in-game treasures and gold that can be auctioned of on the open market.  His workers get a place to sleep – all eighteen of them in a small room – and what to eat while they play, seven days a week, eighteen hours a day. If they don’t give him their gold and treasure, he shoots them. When they complain, the police shoot them.

When Big Sister Nor introduces herself to them through an MMORPG, she convinces General Robotwallah and Matthew from Boss Wing’s factory to unionize and demand better treatment.  Within a short time, the gold farming factory bosses like Wing are sending thugs and gangs after Nor and her associates.

Sound ridiculous? Absurd? Even a little crazy? Maybe, but it’s all true. There are professional gamers in China, people who are forced to play World of Warcraft or EverQuest all day and night because someone else is willing to pay for that service. Doctorow builds on this idea, building a convincing picture of the actual world: virtual economies are real.

At any given moment, thousands of virtual items can be bought on Ebay, from virtual dolls to virtual trading cards. Even the Supreme Court of Korea has weighed in on the relationship between real and virtual currency. Doctorow does an excellent job here, guiding the reader through the messy complexities of modern gaming and the equally muddy waters of modern finance. Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt (the authors of Freakonomics) would be very proud.

For The Win is an extremely compelling work. I couldn’t put it down. The characters are deep, the action is surprisingly real, and the gamerese doesn’t bog down the story. While the individual subplots are less cohesive, the overall story is well-crafted and quickly paced. Stylish, sassy, provocative, and intense, For The Win does indeed win.

Reviewed by Baruch Speiser

by Gail Carriger

Published: 2010

Less than a year after the publication of her debut novel, Soulless, Gail Carriger has already provided readers with the second book in her Parasol Protectorate series, thereby firmly placing her high on my list of favorite authors. It also helps that these book are so delightfully fun to read, offering a fresh take on the world of vampires, werewolves and the supernatural, all within the setting of Victorian London.

Alexia is enjoying her new status as Lady Woolsey, with all the perks it has to offer (especially those that take place in the bedroom) when her new husband begins exhibiting strange behavior, culminating with his sudden disappearance to Scotland. At the same time, a strange new phenomenon has suddenly affected London’s supernatural creatures with mortality, and it’s Alexia’s job as Muhjah to get to the bottom of this new threat. Alexia’s investigation leads her to Scotland, where she makes some new discoveries about her husband, her absent father, and her own powers as a preternatural.

First off I want to say that based on the blurb on the back of the book, I was expecting certain events to take place which never actually do, and at first this distracted me somewhat from the story itself. The description of Changeless makes it sound like the plot centers on Alexia’s search for her missing husband, which it does not, so I just wanted to begin with a warning that the description on the back cover is not an accurate portrayal of the events in the book.

Changeless does start off a bit slow, as we accompany Alexia on her errands and listen in on her interactions with various friends and acquaintances. In this manner we learn about the current threat to London’s supernatural and we meet some new interesting characters who will accompany Alexia on her adventures. Though it’s when Alexia sets of to Scotland that the story really picks up, and the reader discovers the extent of the mystery in which Alexia is now involved.

Changeless offers readers the same wonderful writing and witty humor which were present in Soulless, though this book discusses in a bit more depth some of the steampunk elements in this world, particularly the aethographer, a contraption used to relay messages over far distances. We also get more of an insight as to what Alexia’s soulless status might mean for her, as well as for others. And I was particularly pleased that Changeless provided an explanation for the relevance of goggles to steampunk, which is something that I’ve been wondering about for a while

I had just finished a couple of rather heavy fantasy novels when I started on Changeless, and it was just what I needed. It was a fun and fast read that was thoroughly engrossing, but also provided enough depth and ingenuity to give it substance. And towards the end, the story rushes to a climatic finish which had me tightly gripping the book’s pages, and which was only forgivable because the third installment of the series will be available in just a few months. Otherwise, I would not have been at all happy.

Changeless was a very satisfying sequel to Soulless, and I can barely contain my eagerness for the final installment in the series. I will admit that I assume that these books will generally appeal more to female readers than male, due to the strong focus on romance, though I do know of some men that have enjoyed them as well. But if you are someone who enjoys books with strong female characters, humorous dialogue, romance and some light steampunk, then I highly suggest you give this book a try. Though if you have not yet read Soulless, I recommend you do so first.