Fantasy/Sci-Fi Book Review Roundup
Daylight Savings has ended, which means that Seattle can stop pretending to give us clement weather and get on with the natural cold grey dark. Unless you’re one of our readers from the Antipodean wonderlands (in which case, good luck with the hell-spiders) I expect your surroundings will be following suit sooner rather than later. Don’t worry, though – what this means is that your summer dalliance with that “outside” thing has ended, and you can tackle a stack of winter books.
I’ve gotten a head start on fantasy/sci-fi releases new and old, so here’s a selection of recommendations and dissuasions to get you started. Brew some coffee, add your personal appropriate splash of whiskey, and dive in.
The Casebook of Newbury & Hobbes, George Mann
From Titan Books, a new collection of steampunk mystery short stories featuring gentleman investigator Maurice Newbury and his sometimes much less gentle partner Veronica Hobbes. George Mann has been writing at this pair for a while, and slips into their voices & habits like Sherlock Holmes’s well-worn slippers, minus the hidden cocaine. Steampunk really isn’t my forte (apart from Seattle’s own Cherie Priest) and I think a lot of the potential richness of tech’d up Victorian London was lost on me; however, Mann’s deft hand with suspense and occasional moments of self-aware slyness kept Newbury & Hobbes readable at worst, and pretty damn enjoyable in its stronger moments.
To Read: in half-hour intervals, one story at a time, on a zeppelin if at all possible.
All the Windwracked Stars, Elizabeth Bear
One of spec-fic’s most terrifyingly prolific authors, Liz Bear can also be found on Twitter, Tumblr, and teaching workshops, which begs the question “When do you sleep?” As an entry point into her deep and wandering bibliography goes, this post-apocalyptic fantasy’s a great one. Stars takes the general canon of Norse mythology and does wonderful, intriguing things with it, guided by Bear’s strong grasp of prose both epic and mundane. The highlight of the book is the antagonist, a murderous, grieving, and frighteningly sensual presence known as the Grey Wolf, whose double-edged hungers drive both the book’s plot and its affecting tone. At its core, Stars is a romance, and like any good love story it’s both compelling and kind of scary.
To Read: at the end of the world, preferably with someone to take a break and make out with.
Khan of Mars, Stephen Blackmoore and King Khan, Harry Connolly
Dorkadia favorite Evil Hat Productions scored a tie-in coup when other Dorkadia favorite Chuck Wendig wrote the gloriously pulpy Dinocalypse Now to promote its tabletop adventure RPG, Spirit of the Century. Sadly, these two follow-ups, concerning the adventures of “erudite ape” Professor Khan, don’t fare nearly as well. Khan of Mars is just awkward, an attempt at trope-laden pulp by an author not suited for the punchy sentences and action-movie set pieces; Connolly’s take flows better, but lacks the joyous charm of Dinocalypse to carry it past the inevitable pitfalls of a Giant Pulp-Fiction Clusterfuck. Both books honestly read like nothing so much as the chronicles of a Spirit of the Century tabletopping campaign, and honestly, might have been better for it.
To Read: not unless you really like smart gorillas.
A Dance With Dragons IN PAPERBACK, George R.R. Martin
This of course needs no introduction, but I thought everyone should know that Dance is finally out in US mass-market paperback. If you’ve been following along with the TV show, this is as good an excuse as any to read ahead and get caught up with the books. The fourth season of Game of Thrones looks like it’ll start incorporating material from this book, as the split nature of books 4 & 5 (Dance has Tyrion, Daenerys and Jon Snow, A Feast For Crows had Jaime Lannister and six thousand Greyjoys) leads inevitably to some creative adaptation choices. So get in ahead of the game and read all the insane shit they will never, ever pay to film, and do it in a format that doesn’t break either your back or your wallet.
To Read: at your own pace. You’ll definitely finish it before the next one comes out.
The Darkness That Comes Before, R. Scott Bakker
Finally, in an effort to stave off the chill of a Seattle winter (which starts in late October and lasts through approximately June), I’ve picked back up an old favorite, the sprawling and weighty Prince of Nothing trilogy, which starts with this book. Bakker, a Canadian fantasist who also moonlights in philosophy and literary criticism, penned one of the most spectacularly ambitious spec-fic series in recent memory, a well-developed, incredibly rich wedding of meticulously world-build high fantasy and deep thoughts about the nature of faith and consciousness. It’s Lord of the Rings on bath salts, with murder-addicted elves, sorcery powered by syllogism and Aristotelian logic, and warring Crusader nations in the shadow of an ancient apocalypse; Sauron is a biotech godling that eats unborn souls, and Aragorn is either a prophesied Christ-figure or a mind-reading sociopath (unless he’s both). The series (now at five books, with a second in-progress trilogy) is not without its faults, but they’re the grandiose faults of an author reaching for the stars at every opportunity, because he wants to see if they explode when you squeeze ‘em. If you have the patience and the intestinal fortitude (it’s seriously pretty fucked-up in places), Darkness is one hell of a rewarding read, and really, part of an oeuvre worthy of its own article. Hmmmmm.
To Read: with a stiff drink and a healthy skepticism about the ability of humans to make their own rational, informed decisions.
So there you go – a few shining lights for the cold dark, from several different sources of nerdery. Enjoy, or don’t, at your leisure, and then tell us why you did or didn’t! We’ll be here…possibly reading.
