Tag Archives: Orbit

The Falcon Throne by Karen Miller

May 17, 2015 SFFStorm Leave a comment

The Falcon Throne is the first in a new epic fantasy series (The Tarnished Crown series) by Karen Miller. It has taken me a long time to actually find the time to sit down and write this review. In fairness, it took me a long time to read it, even to get a chance to read. I received the book a little later than I anticipated so I had to move my queue lineup around, and a couple other larger reads have been shuffled around, with some breaks for smaller items in the middle. Needless to say, my review schedule was all out of whack. Luckily, while I did not write this review when I finished it a few months ago, I did write parts of it immediately then wrote down my notes so I could come back with thoughts in tact. The first note I have is that this book doubles as a weapon. It is quite large. Normally when I get print books from publishers I get a paperback review copy. A basic uncorrected proof, sometimes without even the final cover and author’s notes, acknowledgements, etc. This one came in the full hardcover retail glory. It was huge.

I had really mixed feelings about this book. The characters were very well done. I do not even know how to do justice to how well they were crafted and with how much depth. The detail that the author used was incredible. It was generally a really, really well written book. On the other hand, it takes a lot more than great characterizations and descriptions. It was really a 700 page setup book for the rest of the series. So much time was spent setting the scene that it was tiring, almost a chore. There was so much going on in power plays, but the physical action was much less that that there was little excitement. There was certainly a fair bit, it felt… diluted maybe. It is more political than action based. A lot of people are comparing it to Game of Thrones. I can see the resemblance. Several groups in different kingdoms, trying to assert dominance over each other. There is puppetry behind the scenes, good people in bad situations, bad people in good places. I just felt that it moved a little too slow for me. Not a bad story, I just wished there was more excitement.

As a setup book, it was well done. I think there is a lot of interesting content coming in the future of Miller’s series that I can honestly say I am excited for. The ending left me with some things that I really wanted to see play out, but I was also glad to be done. Usually when people criticize books for being slow, I tend to disagree. The Curse of Challion gets heat on that front constantly, but I absolutely loved it and offer only praise. While The Falcon Throne had a rich and deep story, and perhaps even more action than Challion, I was not drawn in by it, not compelled. I also ended up hating all of the characters by the end. Even the “good” ones were too flawed for me to like as protagonists. Flawed characters are the most relate-able, but if they’re also hate-able, the connection to them is lost. I can’t even say that there are not-so-good, but likable anti-heroes. I hated everyone. Viscerally. I’ve read plenty of books where the author specifically went for this vibe. It was likely intended, and I can somewhat understand it, though that does not mean I like it. I gave it 3/5 stars because, as I said earlier, it was a really well written book, but I just could not get completely drawn in by it. While a 3 star review isn’t generally a strong recommendation, I think it may be worth reading this to get into a series that I personally believe has lots of potential. Besides, regardless of what I thought, you might love it.

Disclaimer: I received this book through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program in exchange for an honest review.

Review, SciFi

War Dogs by Greg Bear

September 14, 2014 SFFStorm Leave a comment

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 14^th 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

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BookCon Recap

June 1, 2014 SFFStorm Leave a comment

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.

Fantasy, Links, Preview, SciFi

Links & Stuff

March 13, 2014 SFFStorm Leave a comment

We are almost halfway through March and it has been quite a month already. This month saw some highly anticipated books (such as Words of Radiance and Tropic of Serpents) with even more to come.

If there weren’t enough new books out there for you, Storybundle.com has a great “Epic Fantasy Bundle”. Those who are familiar with the Humble Bundle will know the format. You choose the price, and if it is over a certain amount, you unlock the other books. Basically (as of this writing) if you pay $12 or more you will get 9 epic fantasy novels by authors such as Neil Gaiman, Brandon Sanderson and Tracy Hickman. All are DRM free and a portion will go to a charity of your choosing. Hurry though because this expires in 14 days.

Going back to new books, I have put together a couple of links with excerpts for upcoming novels. You can read a little bit and get a preview before it comes out.

First (because it comes out in 2 weeks on 3/25) is Lockstep by Karl Schroeder, published by Tor. This space opera is about a 17 year old boy who is stranded in a dead galaxy. He wakes up unexpectedly on a thriving planet… 14,000 years later. So far people have really enjoyed Schroeder’s world building in this. Take a look and see if it interests you.

The next book is Defenders by Will McIntosh, which is being published by Orbit on May 13th. Earth was invaded by telepathic aliens and the human response was to create genetically engineered super-soldiers with inherent resistance to psychic attacks. Once the war is over, what becomes of these defenders who were created with the sole purpose of being soldiers a psychic war? Will it be a Sci-Fi version of Rambo: First Blood? Perhaps an allegory for current veteran status? The only sure thing as that this looks interesting. Check out the prologue over at io9. Also check out Will McIntosh’s website.

Now to take a step away from books for a second. I know many Fantasy fans are also gamers. An immersive fantasy environment is naturally appealing. With this in mind, I did want to point out that The Elder Scrolls Online is right on the verge of the PC release. I mention this because I have been involved in the last few ESO beta sessions, so between working, reading, and the beta on alternate weeks, I have neglected some of my updates here and on twitter. At first I could not mention anything due to Zenimax’s strict Non Discolsure. After the NDA was lifted 2 weeks ago I was planning to write up something with screen caps and some videos, but I think I will wait until next week, as the beta this weekend will be a better version with some extra content. Check back here for that post.

Fantasy, Review

Arcanum by Simon Morden

February 25, 2014 SFFStorm Leave a comment

Originally scheduled for release last November, Arcanum by Simon Morden is fantasy/alt-history novel set in medieval Carinthia. The publication date was later set to January 28th to be published by Orbit, a part of Hachette Book Group in the US and Little, Brown Book Group in the UK. The novel starts in a palatinate which is indirectly governed by magic. Regular daily functions are made easier by the use of magic -magical lights, boat steering, water- and it is just about necessary for day to day life. Magic is not a skill everyone posses, nor is is simply innate abilities that grants one powers. You can tell a hexmaster (sorcerer) by their white robes. Also, any exposed skin is sure to be covered in tattooed spells. The hexmasters of The Order are extremely powerful and rightfully feared across Europe.

This, however, is not Arcanum’s story. It is a story about challenges. After centuries, the magic stops working. The magic does not just stop working overnight, though for the people, it may as well have. For Carinthia, this provides a unique challenge of how to readjust to life without magic and without hexmasters. People are so dependent on magic, it would be the same as if our power suddenly stopped working, not even batteries or generators. Things that were taken for granted, just cease to function. Needless to say it is a lot a cope with. The book combines that fantasy action scenes with alternative-historical looks at the political situations arising from the newly magic-free world. I have to admit that it took a while to build, but eventually it got to a really good pace.

The story follows several characters, too many to consider any of them the main characters. The major players come from several areas. The Prince certainly one of the central characters, while most of the others work for him in some way. His huntmaster Peter Büber, librarian Frederik Thaler, and fellow book-lovers Sophia Morgenstern and her father Aron, (local Jewish residents of a pagan town) serve the predominate major roles as do members of the Order, depending on how far into the book you are. Without getting too involved in the story and revealing anything, I will simply say there are at least two or three other major roles at any given time, though some are dynamic. The novel is broken up into three parts and they really did feel like three distinct books in a series.

The school of magic in the beginning of this story is very original, and that is something always appreciate. In all honestly, I do wish it existed a bit longer. I felt that our exposure to it was way too short. I really appreciated the political aspects though. The way the author addresses hoe the palatinate deals with the issues that arise, including public works, economics and military considerations, really interested me. I know that this is not uncommon in fantasy books, but perhaps it is the fact that we are talking about real places that added to it for me. I felt that most of the battles were well done. There was one however that I felt was too short and should have ended more fantastically.

I appreciated the depth of characterization in a number of the characters, though I think there were too many major characters to develop them equally. It was already not a short book. The array of characters did make for interesting dynamics, shifting favor and some well engineered disappointment. I think the Librarian and huntmaster stood out to me the most. The role of the library in general (again, to me at least) was great. As a lover of books, science and history, it appealed to many of my interests.

The messages relating to struggles and overcoming certain issues were ever present and sometimes I thought were a bit strong. I get the re-adjusting, the fighting, and the civil issues. I felt though that the religious issues were a bit too overt and in your face. Messages are laced into many stories, but I prefer that as an undertone as opposed to put right out in front. I understand the purpose and through my own family’s religious background I completely relate. It just seemed a little forced at times. In some segments it fit very well with the story, other times it seemed more like the author was just reminding us. I did appreciate the care taken in language and the accuracy of the belief structures.

I found it somewhat difficult to come up with a rating for this book. I did like the book quite a bit. It is absolutely something I would recommend. Could I keep reading it all night? Yep, certainly could. Was it something I absolutely could not put down and needed to see what happened next? No not really. The slower beginning and some rushed or abrupt scenes took a little away from it in my opinion, so i would have to say 3.5/5 would be a fair rating in my eyes. Still very good and worth picking up.

Check out a preview here on the publisher’s website: Excerpt

Simon Morden’s Website

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