Tag Archives: BEA

War Dogs by Greg Bear

WarDogs
War Dogs by Greg Bear

War Dogs is the first book of a new trilogy by Greg Bear. I received an early review copy at BEA this year from the Orbit desk in the Hachette pavilion. This book is scheduled for release on October 14th 2014, one month from today.

War Dogs is a futuristic sci-fi military novel. It takes place in the future, however it is not so far in the future that it is unrecognizable. As a matter of fact, humanity has not really had huge technological advances in this time and any real advances have come from external sources. Yes, that means there are aliens. These visitors are known as the Gurus. The Gurus gave Earth technological gifts and other bits of knowledge. This much is on the cover flap, so I can safely say that I am not spoiling anything. They came in peace and initially asked nothing in return. Eventually they did reveal that their actions were only partially altruistic. More of a reciprocal altruism in fact. They let it be know, to their small cabal, that they have been traveling around fighting their long time enemy which we have come to known as the antagonists. Antags for short. Earth was enlisted to help fight this ancient war as the Antags were making their way into the solar system. This was technically optional, but if you want to get new shiny toys from the Gurus, you became signatory.

Not much is known about the Antags, even by the soldiers who were sent to fight. Actually, not much is know about the Gurus either, other than by the very small group that makes up the inner council. People do not even know how many may be on Earth. What people do know is that we get all of this great stuff from them, so we might as well follow them. Soldiers are sent off to the unforgiving vastness of Mars to fight the Antags at the request of their reclusive benefactors.  This is where the story takes place, more or less. This is where we join our main character, Sgt. Michael Venn. Venn is a Skyrine. An elite fighting force trained for these Mars drops and fighting in these conditions. In his latest campaign, he is dropped onto Mars in a botched operation. With the mission in shambles and the intel uplinks not communicating or sending orders, the soldiers revert to simply trying to survive. What they come across when traversing the harsh Martian landscape is unexpected and potentially game changing. Unfortunately they are not the only group who knows what they now do and Command seems to have different ideas regarding how to deal with its tactical nature. The adventure is laced with Antag attacks, Mars settlers, racist groups, falling comets, psychedelic experiences and adverse conditions.

Now, that is only half of the setting and plot. When you open to the first chapter, you will notice that the setting is not on the red surface of a dusty planet, rather here an Earth. Sgt. Venn ha just returned to Earth from a drop and is en route to a safe house. What happens is that the viewpoint shifts between Venn recounting, in first person, the events that transpired on Mars, and the present day omniscient third person with Venn in the safe house accompanied by a friend of a friend.

What I really liked was the Mars lore Bear is establishing. What the Skyrines come across and learn is a fairly interesting plot line that sets the hook to bring readers along to the next volume of this series. Unfortunately you really only start getting to the more interesting unravelings towards the end of the book, leaving you with a cliffhanger. The cliffhanger certainly makes we want to continue on, but I do wish I learned a bit more first.

The characters were well done, but it seemed to go through quite a bit of them for such a small group. Bear takes the time to really paint each of them out and reserves a few pages for exposition on many of them. With all of that, I don’t know how much sense I got of who any of them really are, other than key one or two. Some of their personalities tended to shift, by the author’s designs of course, but that does make it a bit more difficult to really know that character. I think the characters were pretty well developed, but there feel that there were too many that I was supposed to care about, which ended with me not caring enough.

Now, here is the major criticism I have : All suspense that I thought I should feel in the Mars chapters is mitigated by the fact that the story is being retold on Earth by the main character. You really do not have to wonder if your main character will survive… he did. You already know he did. Since the first page. Obviously you could not tell the present day story without this effect, but it did have an effect nonetheless. It by no means ruined to narrative, it is still a great story, I think it just drained some of the punch.

Stepping back and look with everything in its place, It was a very good book. The Sci-Fi is somewhat believable given the time period. That characters are generally well done, and the author really does paint a very nice picture of world(s) around them. Overall I think it is somewhere between a 3.5/5 or 4/5. I think after the next book I will want it more at the 4, but right now I just want to know what happens so I have to live with that nagging feeling for now.

Greg Bear’s webiste

War Dogs page on Bear’s site

Greg Bear’s Goodreads

War Dogs Goodreads

BookCon Recap

Yesterday marked the coming and going of the first BookCon. As i mentioned in my previous post, BookCon is the progeny of the Power Readers day of previous years, and the coordination of ReedPOP, the NY ComiCon guys. The first thing I have to say about it was it was incredibly unorganized. Registration felt hastily thrown together, then a  separate line was arranged outside. Meanwhile the BEA crowd picked up their passes and lined up right at the show entrance. The BookCon side was also half the size with a line essentially drawn down the middle and security checking badges at those points. I understand them keeping the international sections on the trade side and other B2B companies separate and honestly it does take a little of the confusion out of who to speak to.

I did not feel we benefited from all aspects of the separation though. Macmillan for example had areas arranged on both sides. On the Con side, there was a nice area set up with mini-speaker sessions, some chairs and a giveaway area, with giveaways and topics being rotated. I cannot complain too much because I did pick up a galley there. What existed on the BEA side though was a large pavilion with information on all Macmillan imprints. Since, in all honesty, my main interest in them in Tor, I felt that there was very little information. From 2-2:30 I did go to a small Tor talk where the brought  up a few things, like the upcoming Locked In from John Scalzi, and the highlight of the talk being The Three Body Problem, the trilogy currently being translated to be released by Tor. Unfortunately there was not much more being discussed than what is already available from Tor.com. The one thing the woman did mention was  the Scalzi would be continuing the Old Man’s War series, but she was not sure if it was officially announced yet. I do know that there were Tor reps and authors on the other side though. In fact, I know John himself was there other days.  I also know Hugh Howey was on the BEA side this week, and may BookCon consumers were upset to Learn the highly marketed Len Dunham appearance early on was only on the BEA side

Hachette had a great pavilion on the other hand whit one of their largest spaces dedicated to Litte, Brown & Co. In that area, they had each of their imprints with distinct booths setup. I of course was concerned with the Orbit desk which was one of my first stops upon the doors opening. There was a mad rush by some folks for their galleys, and they did go rather quickly. I did get an info sheet on some upcoming books that I will have to look over, then if i have time to get to any of them, report back. Harlequin Simon & Schuster had similar arrangements, though I tend to read a lot less from them than I do Orbit, Tor and Del Ray/Spectra.

I was not impressed with most f the authors in the autograph areas either as they mostly did not fall into the SF/F genre. What I did like were Simon & Schuster’s separate autograph areas. They brought Cary Elwes from Princess Bride and Danielle Fishel from Boy Meets World. While I would have loved to have met Topanga, I sadly missed both her autograph and her panel. Cary Elwes on the other hand, I was able to squeeze in both his autograph and his panel, which turned out to be by far the greatest part of the whole day.

Cary was so incredibly nice, shaking everyone’s hands unlike most autographers who will use hand sanitizer after waving to you. I got the intro chapbook to his upcoming book As You Wish, about the making of the classic film. This was of special interest to me since I loved the movie, and the book is also classic fantasy. Cary Elwes and Rob Riener were both big fans, and of course William Goldman, the author, was involved. His panel was fantastic and simply out, it made the event worth it. I even sat next to a really cool couple dressed as Buttercup and Westly. Cary had some really fantastic stories which I am sure will make it into the book as well. My favorite part was they they actually queued up clips from the DVD and he talked about them. We got to watch scenes from one of our favorite films for many in attendance, with the star and hear live commentary. Honestly, I could have sat there the whole time and listned to him do live commentary with behind the scenes info.

I unfortunately did not get into the 2pm panel with Lev Grossman because getting out of the previous one at 2:00 meant that I could not get into line early enough. I did run up to Macmillian instead for the Tor discussion I mentioned previously. The last panel I made it to was on Dystopian futures, moderated by Veronica Roth. While it was good, it was YA focused, and generally out of my demographic. The panels were not bad, but after Neil Gaiman last year, it was hard to measure up for me. I really thought that most booths were lacking and I looked across the line longingly more than a few times.

There were also a lot less galleys this year for the consumers. Probably not wise to complain about free stuff, but lets not lie, it is a huge benefit to get ARCs at a show like this. I did pick up a few, one that was on my to read list anyway. I also grabbed a bunch of comics from Image. (If you are an SF/F fan and have any appreciation for comics, I cannot recommend Saga enough. Wonderful and funny blending of the two sub-genres.) Contrasting this year which felt like a free for all where many people picked up every book whether or not they cared to read it, last year the power readers were give a tote full upon picking up passes, with other being given out by publishers at their booth. I know from others that the trade side was loaded though and the distribution was much, much smoother. I think next year i will pay the $90 for the blogger pass, but I was planning to go with a friend this year who would not have been able to get one. I could have gotten a pass for all days, but I cannot get away from work at end of month. The price was much less this year, but I am inclined to think the discount was not worth the deficits.

I spoke to other show goers, parents bringing their children, and professionals as well as exhibitors coming over to the BookCon side from BEA and it was generally unanimous that it was very poorly organized and lacked from last year. If they maybe expanded the area, made a consumer only day, or reverted I think it would be a lot better. I love BEA, but BookCon needs work if it is going to continue. If not far Cary Elwes, I would have had a less than stellar day. With him there however, it was a fantastic experience that I would not have given up. If you have never been to something like this, I can cautiously say to try it, but not give a wholehearted recommendation. I would say that if you can register as a professional, the extra price of BEA is probably worth it.

BookCon

This Saturday will be the first BookCon event. A few months ago now ReedPOP, the organizer of BEA (Book Expo America) as well as NY ComiCon, officially announced the first BookCon. If you are not familiar with BEA, it is essentially a trade show for books. There are writers, authors, purchasers, librarians, media,  bloggers, publishes, self-publishers, distributors, and basically anything else you can think of related to books and publishing. There also tend to be a lot of ARC books, of which many received a ridiculously heavy bags, needing to be lugged around all day (I know I’m bitching about free books, but seriously, print editions are not light).  A few year ago the final day of the trade show was opened up to the public as “Power Reader Day” where consumers got the chance to walk the trade floor at Javits and see the latest things on the market. This was not only publishers showcasing their latest works, but groups like SFWA, new eBook distributor, indie publishing assistance and all sorts of book related booths. I have attended these and it is quite interesting and very enjoyable. There were great book signings and authors taking the stage. I got to see authors ranging from Neil Gaiman, to comedian Jim Gaffigan.

This year ReedPOP decided to change the image of the Power Reader day and re brand it as BookCon. Now I am not sure if your average readers are as open to a “Con” environment as my fellow SFF readers, but I have sure seen some mixed feedback on this. While this even sounds great, there are some drawbacks. If you were one to purchase the power reader ticket early, and expect the same event as last year, you are out of luck. Sure we are told that there will be more public centric events, but much of the trade aspect is no longer available to you. BookCon will only have access to a specific area. There will no longer be access to BEA as a whole. This is a thorn in a lot of people’s sides, and honestly I understand. It feels like bait and switch. On the other hand, being on that end, I remember going and thinking “Ok, I’m here, what now? Who can I speak to and in what ways can I interact with these people?” I honestly thought it very overwhelming at first.

What turning this into a Con should do is make it more of an approachable event to the public. Events and authors will be focused on the reader this day, unlike the trade event, focusing on all of the other aspects of the industry. The guest list is probably more consumer minded with people such as Stan Lee, Cary Elwes best known as the the Dread Pirate Roberts/Westley, Danielle Fishel from Boy Meets World and R.L Stein. While I can appreciate the guest list, I do feel that the SF/F world is a bit underrepresented. Lev Grossman will be there which is great, but there are not many other big names in the genre that call out to me. This is mildly disappointing (not Lev he is quite the opposite of disappointing, I mean that there are not more like him) considering that there are many great authors with upcoming books or recently released books that I would have loved to have seen though. YA and romance certainly have much  larger presence. All in all it does have the potential to be a nice experience. There are certainly negatives to the new format, but perhaps it will successfully bring more of my fellow book nerds together with a great opportunity to interact with the publishers and authors we love. Maybe if this has a better turnout than the previous Power Reader days, it could grow and we the fans could dictate what we would like in the future.