Elitist Book Reviews

A good while ago, I had my first run at buying sushi. I'd sampled it before with friends and such, but had never purchased any myself. Apart from initially mistaking the twirl of wasabi for some tasty guacamole (How? Looking at it from this side of things, I honestly have no idea) it was a great experience. When I was finished, I decided to try the other interesting-looking thing on the plate. The one that looked like marinated flower petals. I found that it was sweet and actually pretty good, but then arose the over-powering taste of...soap? Later, a good friend told me what I had actually ingested.

The connection? My impression of this book in two words: candied ginger.

CUTTLEFISH by Dave Freer is a young-adult story about a pair of kids that spend a good amount of time on a coal-powered submarine. Clara Calland is the daughter of a pair of intelligent scientists. Her father has recently been imprisoned and at the beginning of the tale, she and her mother are on the run from quite a few potentially violent parties that are all intent on acquiring Dr. Calland's recent discovery of a cheap way to make nitrates. (For those of a non-technical nature: nitrates = bombs and fertilizer.) The two of them find their way onto the Cuttlefish, the submarine of note, where Clara first meets Tim Barnabas, a young submariner. Though at first the two clash with each other quite fiercely, as the story progresses they do become quite cordial with one another. Would we expect it to happen any other way? Hardly.

And then it's run, run, run, run, run, run, run. Err. Swim, swim, swim... yeah, you get the picture.

The first portion of the book jumps between the POVs of Clara and Tim in the present, and Clara in the past. Clara's past portions catch us up from her being taken from school by her mother, through an escape or two, to finally arrive on the submarine. The switch between these three POVs was somewhat confusing at times, as it wasn't always readily apparent what part of the story I was reading. After this was over though, I really started to enjoy the story. The world-building was quite well-done. History and detail not only in the world, but in the lives of the characters of interest. There was a great sense of place and tension as the Cuttlefish made its way through first the canals of a drowned London, and then around the isle of England and out into the Pacific. Also, something that I don't think many writers get right, there was a great sense of the ignorant disregard that most young people have for very dangerous situations. I'm not sure what makes kids have this, but Mr. Freer nailed it.

And then came the soap.

Once out into open water, the story became incredibly boring. Tim does his jobs on the submarine, Clara starts to learn of being a submariner herself, and apart from a few forays that, quite frankly, felt rushed in every sense of the word, very little else happened until the end. Where it stopped. Without fanfare or applause. I'm told there's a sequel to this book. They probably should have been combined into one book, because there was absolutely no closure here.

This book is a great example of starting out with immense promise, but then instead of going anywhere interesting with the story or the characters, turning its head and taking a nose-dive back into the morass of mediocrity. A shame really. Those first scenes, with the Cuttlefish darting and hiding within the canals of drowned London were really a lot of fun.

Recommended Age: 14+
Sex: A few mild references
Violence: Very mild fights
Profanity: A few mild words

Still want it? Here's your link: CUTTLEFISH

I love Westerns. LOVE them. I grew up reading Louis L'Amour and watching John Wayne movies. When I got older I found I loved the more mature stories in the genre. You know, Unforgiven and the like. Can you even begin to imagine how excited I was when Joe Abercrombie announced his next novel would have Western themes in it? And it would be called RED COUNTRY? If that doesn't scream Western-styled violence, I don't know what does.

In short, RED COUNTRY is the best Fantasy Western I've read.

Right from the start of RED COUNTRY, we are introduced to a couple new characters, Shy South and Lamb. They represent your typical frontier family with past baggage. They live. Survive. Make ends meet mostly. You find out shortly that Lamb isn't Shy's actual father, but he's promised to raise Shy and her little brother and sister.  Lamb is made out to be a coward of sorts, but you know there is more to him than is immediately said.

And then Shy and Lamb return to their home to find it burned to the ground, and Shy's little brother and sister have been taken. This scene not only acts as the inciting incident for the rest of the novel, but it also serves notice that this is a Western Fantasy novel. Everything has that Old West/Living on the Frontier feel to it. Shy and Lamb start tracking the kidnappers, and this journey is 90% of the story.

While the cast here isn't as charming (in a gritty way) as the main characters from, say, The Heroes, Shy, Lamb and Temple (introduced later, and I personally thought he was an amazing character) all have their moments. I think this is mostly due to these characters growing more over the course of the novel than the already-grown characters in THE HEROES. The character development in RED COUNTRY is a bit more reminiscent of the First Law Trilogy, but without a full trilogy to give us a full picture.  Make no mistake, this novel has some great characters, but we just don't get enough of them in varied settings to see their full growth potential.

When I think of Westerns, I expect a slow burn until an explosive ending. In many ways that theme is carried out--maybe even a bit too far--in RED COUNTRY. The beginning is fascinating, and the ending (including a bona fide standoff!) is explosive...but the middle loses its direction in a couple of places. It's as if Abercrombie was so anxious to show how authentically Western he could make this book, that he did so at the expense of focus and pace. There are a few places that add nothing to the story, and could have been cut completely. In fact, their absence may have made the book a tad better. But the ending, again, makes up for any issues in pacing.

Another nice thing about RED COUNTRY is the absence of women being treated like sex objects. In a previous novel, Shy South would have been objectified and we would have had a few awkward sex scenes. Not here. Her character, and her actions, feel much more grounded and normal. It's refreshing to see Abercrombie portray a female as a strong protagonist without delving into shock value.

I had one other issue with the novel which strays almost into spoilers. I'll try to be as vague as possible, but feel free to skip this paragraph if you want. I may ridicule you forever for doing so, but how bad could that possibly be? Anyways, I had a bit of a problem with how quickly the kidnapped children seemed to just say, "Yay! New family!" In one case, one of the children goes from an attempted escape to Stockholm Syndrome in a paragraph. It's jarring, and it feels forced. I understand the reasons for it, but it just felt rushed to me. In reality it's a minor nitpick, but when books are this good, those nitpicks stand out.

Yes, RED COUNTRY is extremely good. Almost every facet of the novel was incredible. The non-traditional Fantasy mashed up with a Western was, dare I say, almost perfectly executed. The way people spoke, acted and thought was spot on. The action scenes were absolutely terrific in true Joe Abercrombie fashion, but they felt completely different from the action scenes of his prior novels.

Saloon brawls, standoffs, the introduction of guns, boom towns, fearsome indigenous tribes (called Ghosts in the novel), street fights, and hangings are all mixed in with Sword & Sorcery tropes. This isn't my favorite Joe Abercrombie novel in every aspect, but it is in some. Joe Abercrombie novels, by now, should be a automatic purchases whenever they are released.

Recommended Age: 17+
Violence: Joe Abercrombie went Unforgiven on us. It's way violent.
Profanity: Lots and lots.
Sex: Talked about frankly, but no super-long, awkwardly descriptive scenes.

Quit screwing around and go buy Joe Abercrombie's novels:

Romance? I know. I can hear the tumult of the masses lurching in defiance from here.  Since when does EBR review romance novels?  Answer:  since King started writing them while his publisher was marketing them as otherwise.  There was nothing even remotely romance-related to this book that I came across prior to getting into its pages.  Not on the outer cover, not inside the cover, not in any official summary of the book.  Not anywhere.  In fact, despite everything that made my deductive reasoning lean toward the contrary, I didn't even fully accept that the book was a romance until the very end.  Not until the last sentence of the book.

And did that bother me?  Immensely so.

11/22/63 is another recent offering in Stephen King's literal plethora of novels.  I've been a fan of his for a couple decades now, and in that time I've been a constant reader through the highs and the lows, the weirds and the whats, and the absolute genius that is Mr. King.  My excitement for this novel was no less, and perhaps even a bit more (outside of the Dark Tower novels) than it had been for any other of his books.  In this book, our main character, Jake Epping, a divorced high-school teacher and frequent facilitator of adult GEDs, becomes privy to the existence of a hole in time that connects his "when" in 2011 to a "then" in 1958.  This allows for an eventual connection between Mr. Epping and one of the largest, most impactful events to hit the giant that is America, and even the chance to make a difference by keeping that single event--the assassination of John F. Kennedy on 11/22/63--from ever occurring.

If the premise alone wasn't enough to lock me in, the first few chapters made it a literal improbability that I might not love this story.  The amount of character development threaded through the introduction of Jake Epping and his friend, the severely handicapped janitor, Harry Dunning, was incredible.  From this launching point, Jake takes a test trip to see if changes he makes when going through this time hole will translate to changes in the present day, and then back into the hole again to head for the date most pivotal to the crux of the novel.

The first portion of the novel was nearly perfect, in my estimation, and encompasses the story of the test trip through time and Jake's subsequent return.  It hits you hard early on, moves fast toward the point of conflict, and pays off in a big way.  This section of the book could probably have been retained by itself, marketed as a true-to-form thriller, and it would have done just fine.  Simply amazing.  But all of this was just the ramp-up for the real thrust of the novel:  the drive toward 11/22/63 and saving JFK.  I couldn't wait.

But this was where the novel began to get...difficult.  The inception of the idea that became this novel came to King decades ago, but he ultimately dropped it because of the amount of historical research that he felt he'd need to do in order to do the novel right, and the amount of research that he finally did accomplish is very apparent here.  For so many potential readers, the late 50's and early 60's America portrayed in the novel will be a world as foreign as that of Middle Earth, and King does a very good job of relaying that world to us.  It was here that Jake's drive toward the "end goal" started to get fuzzy. It was a very gradual change, and moved the plot from being focused on Lee Harvey Oswald, the supposed perpetrator in the assassination, to being focused upon the world in which Jake was living.  The research, as they often say, took over the story.  After a good spell of this, the plot moved yet another step away from where it started through the introduction of a love interest, Sadie Dunhill, and Mr. Oswald gradually receded from view until he became something akin to a minor side plot.

Until, of course, the end rolled around, where the main characters are all running their hearts out to make it to the assassination on time, and there's a whirlwind "climax", an explanation of how everything works (including a horrifically blatant plot hole that nearly killed me), and...

Ta da!  I'm a romance novel!

At which point in time, I wanted to throw the book to the dogs, but I had already finished the dang thing and even the thought of doing such was supremely unsatisfying.  I'd been tricked!  Duped!  I thought I'd gotten myself into a great novel.  I thought I'd found a winner.  But instead, the novel ended up being nothing like what it had purported itself to be at the beginning.  The really irksome part of all this is that even books that are horribly written with crappy characters and wandering, pointless plots will end up being the same book that they started out being.  So why not this one?

If this book had ended the story that it started, it probably would have been amazing.  Of this I have little doubt.  If the book had begun the way that it ended, I would have never picked it up.  Again, of this I have little doubt.  Instead of either of these, what I got was a horrible mish-mash of awesome sauce and an are-you-kidding-me switch-a-roo that left me more frustrated than a single father chasing his black-marker-weilding three-year-old sextuplets through the Church of the White Nun.

One of my least favorite reads of the year.  By far.

Recommended Age: 16+
Sex: Frequent references, most quite mild for King, does detail the early moments of one scene
Violence: Very violent and gory in parts
Profanity: Infrequent, but consistent. Pretty low-key for a King novel, but it IS a King novel in this regard.

This is easily the most difficult review I have had the opportunity write.  I start it off much the same I way wrote the review for the previous WoT book.  It's difficult to write a review solely on A MEMORY OF LIGHT, without considering all that has come before.  Opening the cover of this book, and reading those first words, all the way to finishing the last words and closing the book, has been been an inevitability hurtling (sometimes crawling) at me for 17 years or so.

Drafting reviews for this book has been a frustrating experience. \ It would wobble back and forth between reviewing the series, and reviewing the characters.  Neither of those things are up for criticism anymore which, in my opinion, is the largest failing of our review of TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT.  I can't review the characters.  They have nearly as much of a history of existence as I do.  I can't review the series.  Those books have already been reviewed and the plot analyzed that some could get degrees on the subject.  Plus, and let's be honest, at this point in the series you'll read the book (or not) regardless of what we say.  I can't review Brandon's writing.  Number one, it isn't all his writing.  Number two, his writing stands on its own now.  Brandon can take a weekend, vomit some words into a manuscript, send it to Tor, have it be published, and it will still be awe-inspiringly professional.  This is Jordan's finale, not some weekend project.  Brandon took his care with this.  It isn't just professional, it's carefully crafted.

So, in my mind, there is only one thing left to review.  Only one topic left to discuss.  Its role as a finale to the biggest fantasy series of our time.  This is not going to be an impartial review based on story-structure, pacing, characters, plot, and content.  The book itself is going to be polarizing, and that's simply unavoidable.  With it being the end, there will be emotions running high, and many will love it.  Many will hate it.  And the reasons for both will be myriad, some more concrete than others. In fact, calling this a review may be a tad misleading.  There's too much baggage (good and bad) to review it the way I would another book.  So instead I'll do what I think all reviewers should do with the book.  Talk about how it felt.  How I experienced the end of the series.  If you've been paying attention, you can see I've already been doing that.  This, here, is just pointing it out for those of you who are slow to catch on.

Reading this book carried a weight with it.  Even the most mundane moments in the book were a fairly emotional experience.  And then there were the moments that hit me right in the feels.  Of those, there were more than just a few.  As a reader of the series I felt the end of an era rushing towards me, just as the characters felt the end of an Age roaring at them.  The writing here is good, but the emotional "meta" carries it into something more.  The characters don't think they will ever see each other again, same as we know we will never see them again.

It's actually funny.  Steve and I would lambaste this series for hours together, through post after post on forums, or even in our reviews here.  Over 20 years the series has been going, sometimes with huge gaps between books, with us wanting the next book, and the conclusion sooner.  We just wanted it to end so we could call it a day (twenty+ years) and move on.  We wanted the series to be finished, and that had become priority number one.  Now that it's over, and hopefully avoiding too much melodrama, I wish I had enjoyed the moment a bit more.  The Wheel of Time series is over, and these characters, for better or worse, that have been such a part of my, our, literary life are done. Frustrations aside, the series shaped much of fantasy writing today, and instilled a love for the epic fantasy genre in me, and to countless readers around the world.  To have that story finally come to an end is bittersweet.

Now obviously no one comes to EBR to read a review that's written like this, all about feels and such.  So in the interest of giving people what they want, as well as actively trying to avoid the length of the last two WOT reviews we did, here are a few of the more critical thoughts I had on the book.

Finishing up TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT, I realized it was a checklist book.  Business.  Getting things done to set this book up properly.  Still, as I mentioned way back then, the checklist eventually seemed small when all was said and done.  This book, though a finale, has a similar checklist feel to it.  There are so many plots and threads to a story of this magnitude that needed an end, and a lot of that didn't get resolved until the end.  Some of the resolutions being superb, and others...just okay. When I say "okay" don't think I mean disappointing, just that some were better (or much better) than others.  Yes, it might have something of a checklist feel to it, but it's a checklist I gladly put marks to. These are all of the things we have been waiting for literally years to see resolved.  And frankly, it was a lot of fun to start a segment of reading and realize, "Yes!  Here it comes!"

When I first started reading the series I always thought the last book would be called Tarmon Gai'don, and it very well could have been.  This entry weighs in at 909 pages, and the last 500+ of those pages are the war, with multiple battle scenes being depicted even before that.  It would be very easy to get tired of the constant battles, but it doesn't happen.  Brandon transitions quickly enough, and injects enough character and heart into the war events to make it a personal affair.  Sometimes it borders on the wordy side, but we knew that was to be expected, and one scene never overstays its welcome. There are also moments where the "Pattern" just makes everything super convenient--but again, we all knew that was to be expected. Killing Trollocs does become a little old though. It just seems like we are past the point of that being interesting. Especially when multiple characters make short work of multiple Fades.  The book does bounce around a lot during all of this, and it does get difficult to remember exactly which army is doing what (there are 4 battles going on simultaneously across the continent, and multiple armies in each).  If you've read R. Scott Bakker's THE THOUSANDFOLD THOUGHT, it has that same way of jumping around, just with more detail and longer scenes. The action sweeps forward and carries the reader with it, so we don't get caught slogging through nit-picky descriptions of army maneuvers to keep the clarity.  That would have been a boring book.  Still I can see this as something that will detract from the experience for some readers.  Especially those who read slower, knowing that you still have hundreds of pages of similar action going on.

Similar in structure to the above, are the series' trademark feuds.  It is the exact same experience as the actual battles, but on a smaller scale.  There are a number of feuds.  They are interspersed throughout the book, and make up a large portion of the content. Some will like this, some won't.

Speaking of trademarks.  The Wheel of Time is renowned, loved, and hated, for character immortality.  It's not likely someone will die, and if they do, well barring balefire, they come back. Constantly.  This changes a bit with the last book.  You know if someone dies, as far as we care and can be concerned they are dead.  So deaths had a lot more oomph to them, and there are obviously a lot more deaths here than in previous books.  A ton more.  Some will be surprises.  Some are actually main characters.  But, I personally, still don't feel there was enough.  I don't necessarily want to see the world burn, but for all the descriptions about how horrible and trying and difficult of an experience it is for the characters, I wanted to see more characters fail/fall, so the successes meant more. It's a similar complaint I have about the The Lord of the Rings.

The Lord of the Rings.  In THE EYE OF THE WORLD, it is very obvious that Jordan wasn't just inspired by it, but he modeled some of his story after it.  That emulation dissipated as the series went on, but if TEOTW is Jordan's THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, AMOL is his THE RETURN OF THE KING.  So much so in places that I actually stopped reading and sat thinking about the similarities.  In fact, this has to be my largest complaint of the book itself.  In writing this, I originally pointed out the similarities--there was over a dozen of them that were incredibly strong, with many more that are more subtle--but in the interest of potential spoiler prevention I edited them out.  Let's just say it was way more than I liked.

Now, as to how it felt as a conclusion.  I'm completely satisfied.  The ending didn't drag on forever. Actually, it almost had an abrupt feel.  I expected a lot, A LOT, of falling action in WoT form.  But the ending snuck up and the book was closed before I knew it.  There are still questions hanging after the end, but the story, the plots we have been chasing, and the conflict we have observed, were completed.  No one I know thought it could be done.  It was too big.  Too much needed to happen for one book.  But somehow Brandon did it, and he did a fantastic job of it.  When I finished the book, I even sent Brandon a text, essentially letting him know I had joined the masses of Brandon worshippers for a minute (just one, though).

Because I think it is fun, I put some in the last WoT review, and because it's from these moments that the origins of this website were stirred, I want to include a little bit of Steve and I texting about the book as we read through it.
***
S:  So far it's not too bad.  Kinda explainy, but that's WoT for you.  I like the "holy crap, the end is here" feel so far.  You get far yet?  I assume so, you read faster than I do.
N:  Yeah.  Finished it today...
S:  What did you think?  No Spoilers!
N:  I actually quite liked it.  I liked the resolution.  I didn't expect that.
S:  Huh...  That's not the reaction I expected from you.
***
N:  Writing the review right now.
S:  Right on.  Thanks.  I'm halfway through.  Surprisingly entertaining.
***
There is no reason to include the content rating.  Swearing is done in WoT-verse language, and with (sometimes) hilarious effect in Elayne's case.  Sex is non existent in detail, and only referenced in passing.  There is a ton of violence.  An entire book of warfare worth of violence to be exact.  But it isn't graphic.  Hmm.  I guess I just included the content rating.  I guess a little bit of Jordan rubbed off on me, here at the end, and I just kept writing.

Thank you Robert Jordan for beginning something that created so many wonderful beginnings.  I may have moved on from adoration since I started your books, but now you hold my respect.  Tai Shar Malkier.

Thank you Brandon Sanderson for closing the Third Age and bringing the Dragon's Peace to fruition.

So, the end of 2012 totally snuck up on us here at Elitist Book Reviews. One minute we were looking at all of our most anticipated novels for 2012, and the next they were all on our collective bookshelves.

And man, did we have some great reads this year. We haven't even had time to post reviews for all of them yet--don't worry, they are coming.

So, here is our list of favorites for the year. They aren't in any particular order, and we cheat wherever we want (if you aren't cheating, you aren't trying hard enough).

BEST OF 2012:

CALIBAN'S WAR - JAMES S.A. Corey - Review
THE KING'S BLOOD - Daniel Abraham - Review
SCOURGE OF THE BETRAYER - Jeff Salyards - Review
MONSTER HUNTER LEGION - Larry Correia - Review
THE BLINDING KNIFE - Brent Weeks - Review
RANGE OF GHOSTS - Elizabeth Bear - Review
THE COLDEST WAR - Ian Tregillis - Review
KING OF THORNS - Mark Lawrence - Review
RED COUNTRY - Joe Abercrombie - Review
THE DUSK WATCHMAN - Tom Lloyd - Review
THE DAEMON PRISM - Carol Berg - Review
ASSASSIN'S CODE - Jonathan Maberry - Review
THE DIVINERS - Libba Bray - Review
PARTIALS - Dan Wells - Review


HONORABLE MENTIONS:

FORGE OF DARKNESS - Steven Erikson - Review
EXPEDITION TO THE MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON - Mark Hodder - Review
THE PROVIDENCE RIDER - Robert McCammon - Review
LEGION - Brandon Sanderson - Review
THE HOLLOW CITY - Dan Wells - Review
COLD DAYS - Jim Butcher - Review


WORST OF 2012:

11/22/63 - Stephen King - Review
NOCTURNAL - Scott Sigler - Review
ANGEL - Nicole Marrow - Review


THE BEST COMING IN 2013...

A MEMORY OF LIGHT - Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson (Actually we've already read it. look for a review on January 8th, 2013)
ABADDON'S GATE - James S.A. Corey
THE TYRANT'S LAW - Daniel Abraham
REPUBLIC OF THIEVES - Scott Lynch (PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE!!!!!!!!!!)
PROMISE OF BLOOD - Brian McClellan (Already been read, actually. Awesome.)
NO RETURN - Zachary Jernigan
THE GRIMNOIR CHRONICLES: WARBOUND - Larry Correia
FRAGMENTS - Dan Wells
THE BLOOD MIRROR - Brent Weeks
Stormlight #2 - Brandon Sanderson
SHATTERED PILLARS - Elizabeth Bear
GRAVEYARD CHILD - M. L. N. Hanover
FROST BURNED - Patricia Briggs
EXTINCTION MACHINE - Jonathan Maberry
EMPEROR OF THORNS - Mark Lawrence

And yeah, we could keep listing anticipated reads. I mean, good grief, there is an unbelievable amount of stuff coming out.

What were your favorite reads? What are you looking forward to?

It is with no small amount of irony and quite a large piece of humble pie that I finally sit down to write this review a full month after the book's release.  With how much I harped on the poor treatment Mr. Abraham received surrounding the publication of his Long Price series and the single fact that I consider Daniel Abraham to be my current favorite fiction author today, you'd think that I'd be more on top of things when it came to the release of this book.  The U.S. trade omnibus paperback treatment of his story has been a long time coming--longer than I think it had any right to be--but I am supremely happy to see it finally happen.  In my mind, this is one of those stories that deserves all the praise and publicity that can be heaped upon it.

THE PRICE OF WAR is an omnibus of the final two novels in the Long Price quartet (AN AUTUMN WAR and THE PRICE OF SPRING).  The first two are found in the omnibus SHADOW AND BETRAYAL, which was released earlier this year.  The four books in this series make up one of the most engaging and engrossing fantasy stories that I've ever read.  It's just that good.

AN AUTUMN WAR picks up about 15 years after the close of BETRAYAL IN WINTER.  The characters that we've been introduced to in the first half of the series have grown again from those that we know.  Maati, the andat Poet.  Itani become Otah Machi and Khai of the Cities Khaiem.  Liat, past lover of them both and mother to Maati's child.  New to the cast of characters is the Galtic general, Balasar Gice.  The story herein revolves around these few as the Galts finally come within reach of their ever-present drive to destroy the power protecting the cities of the Khaiem and thus the people themselves.  Although there is little actual "war" in this book, the characters and their lives are all intimately affected by the results of the devastating punishment inflicted upon the cities of the Khaiem by the Galts.  It is devastating and yet supremely powerful in its portrayal of the events.

THE PRICE OF SPRING comes in another 15 years after the close of AN AUTUMN WAR and brings to a close the story of Otah and Maati that began in A SHADOW IN SUMMER.  The people of the Khaiem are suffering the effects of the Galtic war, reeling from the blow dealt to their power and learning a new way of living.  But there are those that will not give up the old ways, those that want the Khaiem to return to their position of power, and they will give anything to see them have it once again.

The ultimate strength of this series is found in the presentation of its characters and their intimate connection both with the world at large and with each other.  They are strong and nuanced and driven.  There's no real "bad guy" in this series, and although the Galts can definitely be seen as the antagonist of the series, their motives and passions are relayed to us through Balasar Gice and given a humanity and level of sympathy that makes the lines of "good" and "evil" disappear completely.  It is through these characters, through the morals and decisions of each, that the world is shaped and changed.

And oh boy is it changed.

It was so easy to get caught up in these books.  Every story line and every character was my favorite.  I loved them all.  Seriously.  So often in books there'll be a character or two that I just want to get done with.  I think we all have them.  There weren't any like that in this series for me.  True, the story is a fairly slow-moving one.  None of these are books that fly by and quickly forgotten.  They build slowly and surely, and every piece weighs upon the next.  The amount of extraneous in this series is essentially nil.

Don't read this series to learn everything there is to know about the Khaiem and its people, although you will learn of them.  Don't seek to understand completely their religion or the economy of their enemies, but you will see plenty.  Find these characters and let them live and breathe through the pages.  It'll be an easy path from there.  Mr. Abraham will take you on a trip through their lives and the strength and heartache and even devastation that comes to both them and the world around them.

This is an amazing series and not one to be missed by anyone that loves fantasy.  This guy has everything in his stories that I, over three decades of reading, have come to love and admire.

He makes me believe.  And a little bit more of that is exactly what this world needs.

Recommended Age: 16+
Sex: It's been a while since I read these, but I don't remember there being much
Violence: The war fallout gets pretty brutal
Profanity: Infrequent but strong

Buy these books and read them all!  Start your year off right with some goodness from the mind of Daniel Abraham:
SHADOW AND BETRAYAL
THE PRICE OF WAR

PATHFINDER, the first book in Orson Scott Card’s Pathfinder series (of which RUINS is the second book), kind of blew me away (read my review here). I am a big fan of Card’s older work. ENDER’S GAME is a classic. I loved the rest of the Ender series, (the Shadow series not so much) and I loved both WYRMS and TREASON. But I have had a hard time getting into his work lately. This series however feels like a bit of that Old Card coming through.

The plot, for those of you who haven’t gotten on board, follows Rigg a boy who can see paths, the paths that humans have traveled in and how recently. To some extent it lets him see the past, who went where and when they did it. I’m gonna get all spoilery of the first book in a second so if you want you can just jump down to the bottom of the review where I will tell you if this is a good book or not (hint: it is).

The first book, PATHFINDER, ends with Rigg having found his sister, who can manipulate time as well, though in different ways, and together with her, his friend Umbo and two ex-soldiers Loaf and Olivenko have crossed the barrier between their land and the land bordering it. RUINS deals with Rigg and his pals exploring some of the other lands that make up the planet Garden. The scope of the series is almost immediately widened and a bigger view of where the series is going as a whole is brought to the forefront. I thought maybe Card would spend this book dealing with just the one one new place and the problems that the new Wallfold faces, but I was wrong. Card wastes no time moving from one place to the next, and indeed even one time to the next. It was difficult at times seeing the characters go back and forth in time. The group would travel forward and backward in time to see certain events or bypass various obstacles. There was a lot of it and at times I wasn’t sure WHEN the book was happening. It didn’t matter. The story unfolded pretty smoothly and was a fun quick read.

During the book as Rigg and his friends go from land to land (called Wallfolds in the book), the group would discover something new, something that those particular inhabitants had spent the last ten thousand years cultivating and exploring. As I was reading I had an uneasy sense that I’d read that before. Card is plagiarizing someone else’s idea I thought. Then I realized where I had read the idea before. It was in a previous Orson Scott Card book called TREASON (an excellent book, one of my favorites of Card’s writing). The idea is still cool here and going from place to place to see what each different set of people had created or discovered was one of the joys of the book.

That being said, I think I enjoyed the idea a bit more in TREASON. The book was shorter, more action packed and to the point. That’s not to say that RUINS wasn’t a lot of fun (it was). Just that particular idea seemed better used in that shorter work.

RUINS is still a lot of fun. At a time where I had almost given up on Card’s work he comes out with this Pathfinder series to remind us all of why we liked him in the first place. This series isn’t destined to be another ENDER’S GAME. But then what is? RUINS is still fun and worth your while.

Age Recommendation: I dunno, whenever they want to read it I guess. The time travel stuff can be a bit confusing and the two boys Rigg and Umbo, are immature and make a few rude jokes, but nothing really offensive here.
Language: Not really
Violence: Nothing I recall was too bad
Sex: Maybe mentioned but nothing to get upset about.

Want to give this series a try? Here are your links:
PATHFINDER
RUINS

I don't know if I can accurately describe just how excited I was to dive into this book. Mark Hodder's Adventures of Burton and Swinburne were some of the most amazing books that I read in the last few years. Major anticipation in this corner. So the fact that this book was nothing like I thought it would be, AND ended up being Science Fiction, AND I still really liked it says something impressive about Mr. Hodder and his burgeoning array of great stories.

A RED SUN ALSO RISES, to all appearances, is a stand-alone novel in the same vein as Hodder's previous trilogy and definitely a not book that you'd find Arthur Krystal picking up at your local bookstore. Go ahead and check out the very fine book cover and tell me that it doesn't make your mind just go, SPROING! Seriously great artwork there. And the story ain't half bad either!

Inside, we delve into the life of Aiden Fleischer, a priest struggling to make the connection between playing the part of a man of the cloth and actually being one in truth. In short order, a woman comes into his life, Miss Clarissa Stark, and the both of them are soon romping around an alien planet, filled with the weird and strange lifeforms of Mr. Hodder's supreme imagination and trying to understand just what kind of world they've been thrown into. Massive bag aliens, and hybrid wolf aliens, and aliens erupting from other aliens-aliens. Seriously wild stuff.

The background is built upon many aspects of the history of our world, introduces a very large change, and then flies into the speculative stratosphere. Unlike Hodder's previous books, RED SUN was very much enamored with two foci that I see as being highly important to Science Fiction: exploration of the unknown and the exploration of God. An overwhelmingly large portion of the book was devoted to these two ideas, and yet they were all wrapped up and woven throughout the tapestry of the over-arching story so well that they frequently disappeared amongst the strata. A good thing in my book.

The downside was that the development of these aspects overtook a few of the other very important pieces of the story. Those being characterization and direction. Fleischer's character is well-drawn during the beginning of the book. Inner-torment over his priestly duties and his understanding of God and the presence of evil in the world (by way of a Jack the Ripper cameo) paint the conflict within Fleischer very well. Once the new venue made a showing however, the book made a pretty large shift. The adventure portion of the story took hold, and consequently the direction of the plot also became a bit more nebulous. This did make the story drag a bit in parts, especially toward the middle, but the end made for a rip-roaring mash-up where all the cards finally came tumbling out of Mr. Hodder's hand. I really liked how it all turned out.

I think Hodder's fans will like this new adventure, especially those whose tastes tend more toward the realm of Science Fiction. It's a relatively short read with a interesting premise, logical plot progression (peppered with wandering exploration), and a satisfying ending that will remind Hodder's readers of all the things they love about his work. Definitely one to add to the old bookshelves.

Recommended Age: 18+
Sex: Inclusion of sex without any scenes or real description
Violence: Themes surrounding Jack the Ripper. Quite grisly and violent in sections.
Profanity: Very low.

Find the book here: A Red Sun Also Rises

Like the hair in your panna cotta, or the blow fly in your bisque, a bad salesman will most often destroy the goodness that surrounds it, no matter how much of that goodness may be available. At least, it will often destroy the idea of large-scale goodness for me. This single idea represents one of the most important reasons why I just couldn't bring myself to love this most recent read. And yet, I will often pull the fly out and eat the soup anyhow. I mean, who can resist a good soup!

KOP KILLER, by Warren Hammond, is the third book in his Kop series, but is handled well-enough that it has little problem standing on its own. The story is set on the planet of Lagarto, where the long day and night cycles make for some interesting dynamics, and nearly every inhabitant living there understands that their lives can sink no further than this.

Juno Mozambe is a waste of a man. His wife is dead. He's lost his job with the Koba Office of Police (KOP), where he and his now dead partner ran the joint with a pair of fists dirtier than septic tank cheese balls. Now all he has left is his wits, a few of his old connections, and his drive to see KOP taken down. So he's hired a few cops that are still on the beat and still dirty as he is and starts a business as a thug for hire. But things are never as simple as they seem, and very soon Juno is juggling more pins than he has hands.

This book really has a lot going for it. It's dark, gritty, and fast-moving. Right from the get-go we have a large number of characters with history that shapes the way they interact with one another. Juno is strong and driven toward a single goal, and the frenetic pacing of the novel never once lets you rest. It's part police procedural, and part dystopian science fiction, but all punch and kick and scream. The largest hit to its karma, though, comes through the poor sales of Juno as a “bad guy”. From the very beginning he's out to let everyone know just how terrible he really is, and yet the way that he thinks about and responds to the various situations in which he finds himself made me think of him more as weak and scared and often incompetent.

Also despite his rock-solid driving force at the beginning, as the end of the book gets closer his driving force wavers all over the place: from destroying KOP, to setting up a new leader for KOP, to avenging the deaths of several people, to killing someone that is even worse than he is, to... It soon got very confusing why he was doing anything that he did, other than the fact that one event led him to next and the next and finally to the end.

The second bad sell was the alien planet bit. There's very little to no atmosphere or detail contained in the story to give the impression that these events are actually happening anywhere other than Earth. Yes, there's a long day/night cycle. And a spaceship blasts off into the sky once. And he eats four different gecko tacos that dribble hot sauce onto various parts of his anatomy. But still. It was a tough sell for me.

And yet, despite these fairly large flaws, I liked the way that things played out. Hammond's prose isn't amazing by any stretch of the imagination but it's strong and connective. It pulls you along, and relays a story that is twisted, and strange, and ultimately engaging, even if it's not perfect. Reminded me quite a bit of the little Richard K. Morgan I've read, though I've seen that comparison bandied about a lot lately.

Sound decent? If it does, give it a whirl. It's probably a book for you.

Recommended Age: 18+
Sex: Numerous, strong references throughout
Violence: Very high. Gory, bloody, and descriptive
Profanity: Frequent. Strong. Sometimes distracting.

Want it? Here's your link!

KOP Killer

Emma Bannon is a sorceress in the employ of the Queen herself, tasked with protecting Archibald Clare, an unregistered and failed mentath. Why? Because other mentaths all over Londinium are dying unexplainable and grisly deaths and there's more to it than a serial killer.

Set in an alternative Victorian England, THE IRON WYRM AFFAIR blends magic and steampunk with enthusiasm. Known for her Urban Fantasy series, Lilith Saintcrow tries something different with a steam-sorcery-mystery tale that threatens Britannia herself.

In chapter one our PoV characters meet through Clare's eyes as he deduces who Emma is as well as her Shield Mikal, her protector. Clare's character is interesting because he sees the world differently and Saintcrow paints him well (despite some later inconsistencies). Emma is a sorceress with a knack for darker magic, who is powerful enough to expect to get everything she asks for. Their PoVs aren't particularly disparate, and sometimes I even confused their dialogue. But they're likable characters well aware of their own strengths and weaknesses. Mikal could have been a more interesting secondary character if only his brooding glowers were less frequent. Saintcrow's other characters are fun to read and she gives them the details they deserve.

From the beginning we're thrown into Saintcrow's world of magic. There's Victrix, the vessel of Britannia, the soul of the kingdom itself. Magic-wielders with varying degrees of ability. Gryphons who are the protectors of Britannia, but love to eat sorcerer flesh above all. Young dragons who live in the shadows while their elders sleep. Mentaths whose abilities with logic and deduction border on the obsessive and require constant work or they go mad. Tideturn re-supplies magic-wielders the energy for creating their magic. I could go on but that would ruin the story for you--you'll have to discover Saintcrow's cleverness for yourself.

But where WYRM's strengths of setting is what makes this a fun read, it's also unfortunately its weakness. Saintcrow has so much information of place, magic, verbiage, and people and she immerses us into the story so quickly we get lost amongst all the New Words. Not everything is explained. And while it's great when authors move a story along and reveal as they go, it's not so great when the reveals are choppy or arrive frustratingly late. Add to that transition issues between scenes and within action scenes, which made it hard to sometimes know what was going on. And alas I'm not sure I can bear to discuss Saintcrow's sometimes florid prose.

I almost gave this book a Like rating, it barely made it into Mediocre, the main reason being that I don't want to steer dear EBR readers wrong thinking that this book is without much flaw. But those who like the flair of typical Urban Fantasy but with a Victorian romantic twist will likely enjoy this addition to Saintcrow's body of work.

Recommended age: 15+
Language: A couple instances
Violence: Throughout the novel, and it's occasionally gory
Sex: A few references only, and without detail

You can find the start of this new series here:
THE IRON WYRM AFFAIR

Do you know Repairman Jack? If you don't, you've been missing out on a terrific series of books by F. Paul Wilson. The Repairman Jack series has, over the years, grown into one of my favorite series. It has a near perfect mix of horror and thriller elements while managing to inject humor here and there.

Through the series, I've always had questions in my mind about Jack. I know what happened to his mom (and his reaction to it), but what did he do after? How did he meet Julio and Abe? What events forged him into the man we meet in THE TOMB?

Those questions start to be answered in COLD CITY.

COLD CITY is the first in a trilogy of the the early years of Repairman Jack...when he was just Jack. He's just a young guy who has decided he wants to live completely of the radar. He's just moved to New York City, and it's 1990. That cold and calculating professional we all know and love? Yeah, he doesn't exist yet. This Jack is still figuring things out. He does more on the fly than we the readers are used to. He makes knee-jerk decisions without thinking, and gets out of control. The natural fear here is the reader's ability to buy into this, and perhaps a lesser author would have had difficulty pulling this off. Not F. Paul Wilson.

COLD CITY feels like a perfect line was drawn from Repairman Jack's present self to his youth.

So what is this novel about? Like I said, this is about the fire that forges Jack into the vigilante we cheer for. Trouble is drawn to Jack, and COLD CITY wastes no time throwing Jack into the deep end of the pool. He gets a job driving a truck smuggling cigarettes. The pay is outstanding, the job easy for a bright kid like Jack. And then everything goes wrong. Jack finds himself the target of some vengeful Dominicans and Islamic terrorists. He starts up a love affair with an old friend. And then there is the whole thing with helping Julio with a couple of problems.

You know, business as usual for the fixer that Jack will become.

The pacing of the novel is relentless. There's no fat needing trimmed here, and for me, the pages flew by. When I absolutely had to put the book down to get some sleep, I dreamed about it. I couldn't stop telling my literate friends at work about it.

So yeah, I freaking loved COLD CITY.

I do have a few things I need to point out. First, for all you veterans of the series, there's none of the the monster/supernatural/Adversary feeling in this book. That stuff starts in THE TOMB. Secondly, this book is not a standalone like the rest of the books in the series. In fact, my biggest complaint of COLD CITY is the ending. It just stops. Huge, massive cliffhanger. I literally screamed at the book that it could NOT BE DONE YET!!!! Needless to say, it didn't listen. None of the plot threads are resolved. In a way, it's frustrating. The year waiting for the next book is going to be complete agony. Last, the love affair Jack starts up didn't really click for me. It may not bother you at all, but it did me.

All that said, I loved this book. Have you ever gone a looooong time without a truly amazing steak dinner? When you take that first bite, and the medium cooked morsel (or however you personally like it cooked) melts in your mouth. You don't mean to, but you close your eyes and chew in pure, decadent pleasure. Every bite thereafter is like the best treat ever...and then suddenly, the steak is gone. You've eaten it all. That's how COLD CITY was for me.

Maybe you've never read a Repairman Jack novel before. Maybe you read the first few, but now catching up seems daunting. If you fall in either of those two camps, COLD CITY is a great place to start (or re-start, if you will).

Enough talk. Go buy this book.

Recommended Age: 17+
Profanity: Yep. It can get pretty strong depending on the character talking.
Violence: Oh geez. Some scenes are just crazy in their brutality.
Sex: A couple of detailed scenes, not to mention some frank discussions. Additionally, one of the main themes of the novel is sex slavery.

Here's you link to buy COLD CITY, and the first Repairman Jack novel, THE TOMB:

COLD CITY

THE TOMB

Military Science Fiction, oh how I've missed you. In the never ending journey to expand my interests I find that I have neglected my favorite of all genres. The recent release of Halo 4 had me jonesing for a military sci-fi fix. Fortunately, around that time the notorious William C. Dietz asked if I would be interested in reviewing ANDROMEDA'S FALL, the latest Legion of the Damned novel.

This marks my first Legion of the Damned novel, and it tells the story of Catherine Carletto, a wealthy socialite. In the blink of an eye Catherine's life is turned upside down when the Emperor's sister makes a bold power grab. In order to consolidate power and excise the threat of rebellion the newly crowned Empress has the dead Emperor's friends and supporters assassinated. Catherine's and her family fall under this category. Orphaned and on the run, Catherine enlists with the Legion under the alias Andromeda McKee.

ANDROMEDA'S FALL is the tenth book in the Legion of the Damned series, though as I understand it is also the beginning of its own mini-arc. A prequel of sorts. I've always wanted to get into the Legion of the Damned series but I just never got around to it. The more books that have been published the more daunting it seems to begin. ANDROMEDA'S FALL strikes me as a middle ground - a good starting point for beginners and a glimpse into the background lore for the fans.

ANDROMEDA'S FALL is very accessible. Though largely military oriented the hardcore jargon is kept to a minimum. I was looking forward to learning about the Legion but ANDROMEDA'S FALL is primarily focused on McKee. Not that I'm complaining. I mostly like McKee as a character. She's a strong woman, a dedicated soldier, and a quick thinker. The transition period between celebrity Carletto and soldier McKee might be a little too smooth. For someone who has lived such a privileged life Catherine Carletto adjusts to life on the run and then life in the military rather well. McKee does express moments of self doubt and sadness however, and these scenes help to flesh out her character.

The supporting cast could use some development. Trooper Larkin is a lovable rogue and I find his relationship with McKee to be interesting. I like the way it is handled and I appreciate the fact that Larkin lives in a moral grey area. I do want to see more from the rest of the cast, especially some of the cyborgs. I find the Legion's use of cyborgs fascinating and I would love to learn more about them and catch some more from their perspective.

I like Andromeda McKee and Trooper Larkin well enough but I will be sticking around because of the Legion. I've read about future Marines, future Navy, and future Army plenty. ANDROMEDA'S FALL is the first I have ever read about the future of the French Foreign Legion (Legion etrangere). What a fascinating organization! From the bits and pieces I picked up from this novel I am now hooked on the history of the Legion. I just want to read more. Both the Legion's past and future are highly interesting. I love the use of cyborgs alongside standard infantry. I've seen mechs and power armor in Military Sci-Fi but I like this approach.

ANDROMEDA'S FALL is full of action and suspense. I usually rate one of these novels by how memorable the battles are and two from ANDROMEDA'S FALL are emblazoned in my brain. I can't wait to continue the story of Andromeda McKee (there are definitely sequels on the way) and in the meantime I'll try and grab a few copies of the earlier books.

Recommended Age: 14+
Language: Some, what do you expect from soldiers?
Violence: Lots, what do you expect from soldiers?
Sex: Suggested but nothing vivid.

Want it? Get it here. While you're at it you may want to check out the LEGION OF THE DAMNED video game on iPhone and iPad. I bought it a couple days ago and it's a really cool way to round out the ANDROMEDA'S FALL experience. If you enjoy strategy games it will be right up your alley.