[Book review] The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett

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Washington state is the new “in place” in fantasy fiction.  From Cherie Priest to Kat Richardson, many more novels are being set in the Pacific Northwest.  The Company Man is no exception, creating a fictional city near the ocean in Washington and populating it with both machines and machinations.

Cyril Hayes occupies an odd position in McNaughton corporation—part of it, but operating in its more shadowy corners.  With a war brewing between company men and union workers, a horrible crime occurs.  A trolley arrives at its station with eleven dead bodies in it, and all of them are union men.

Now Hayes must solve the murders and put an end to the growing unrest in the city.  Tensions rise, and it’s almost impossible to know who to trust.  But the problems run deeper than anybody suspects.  Something is stirring within the great city—something that is heard in whispers and seen in dark corners.  And whether it bodes good or ill remains to be seen.

[Book review] Brooklyn Knight by C. J. Henderson

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One of the hottest properties in urban fantasy these days is Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files.  It’s inevitable that imitators will crop up, and indeed I’m pretty sure that Butcher’s influence has been a huge help in the flowering of the genre.  But that doesn’t mean that every novel measures up to the high standards that a lot of readers have come to expect.  Brooklyn Knight makes a valiant effort, but ultimately falls flat.

Professor Piers Knight of the Brooklyn Museum is pleased to hear from an old friend on an archaeological dig in Syria, and especially pleased to hear of the great discovery coming to light.  Only one thing is needed to help with the work: the Dream Stone, long thought nothing more than a curiosity and relegated to museum storage.  Knight readily grants permission for his friend to view the stone.

But Knight and his new assistant, the lovely Bridget Elkins, are quickly plunged into a nightmare nobody could have foretold.  From an attempt to steal the artifact from the museum to attacks by demons and wraiths, events make it clear that the Dream Stone is far more important than anybody realized.  And someone will stop at nothing to get it.

[Book review] Ascension by Sable Grace

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One of the cornerstones of a good supernatural fantasy is a convincing mythology.  Since most of them include such creatures as vampires, werewolves and witches, it behooves the author to make sure that these critters have their backstories straight.  An overly complicated mythos can burden a tale.  Such is the case with Ascension, a rather muddled story that nonetheless contains a lot of potential.

Kyana is half Vampyre and half Lychen (werewolf), and she’s the only one left of her kind.  She works for the Order of Ancients, hunting the Dark Breed who have escaped from Tartarus and are now terrorizing humanity.  Apparently, the pit was opened with a long-lost key, and only this key will shut the gates again.  Kyana is tasked with finding the key and returning it to the gods.

Her partner on this mission is Ryker, a demigod descended from Ares, the Greek god of war.  Although there is no love lost between them, they must cooperate for their mission to succeed.  And the mission is deadly indeed.  A powerful being older than the gods may be behind the opening of Tartarus, and its followers will stop at nothing to keep Kyana and Ryker from completing their task.

[Book review] WWW: Wonder by Robert J. Sawyer

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Robert J. Sawyer’s books are always fast reads for me.  I’ve been a fan of his work ever since I was a teenager and had the good fortune to pick up The Quintaglio Ascension.  His science fiction carries a lot of the human element that I think resonates so well with sci-fi that touches on societal concerns.  This is especially true in WWW: Wonder, the final novel in the Webmind trilogy.

The entity known as Webmind has survived one dedicated attempt to shut him down, but the incident teaches him a lot about how humanity might try to wipe him from existence.  It also shows him how people will react to his presence, as his existence is no longer a secret.  His human friend, Caitlin, is enduring the life a reluctant celebrity because of her association with the enigmatic Webmind.

Although all the Webmind wants is peace and harmony (for both altruistic and self-serving reasons), there are those who simply cannot believe that he means no harm.  One of these is Colonel Peyton Hume, an A.I. expert with the American government.  His Pandora protocol calls for any emergent A.I. to be destroyed before it can become too powerful, and he’s bending all his efforts to ending Webmind’s existence.

And Webmind himself is learning more and more about his own functioning and consciousness.  Could he be capable of evil, as so many think he will?  What are his morals, his values, and his limitations?  Only time will tell, and time is rapidly running out before Webmind might be shut down forever.

[Book review] The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar

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When I first saw the Angry Robot imprint of Random House start showing up in bookstores, I didn’t think much of it.  But once I started reading their titles, I found that they were a veritable treasure trove of the unusual and intriguing.  On the whole, their novels seem to be striking out into new territory and telling some unique stories.  One of those is Lavie Tidhar’s The Bookman, a story set in an alternate Victorian era that must be read to be believed.

Orphan spends his days working in a bookshop and his nights with his girlfriend Lucy.  The kingdom, ruled by a family of giant sentient lizards, is seething with unrest and rumors that the Bookman has returned.  When Orphan and Lucy unintentionally get caught up in dire events, Orphan must go on a quest for the Bookman. 

The journey will take him across the ocean and into the depths of London itself.  Well-known figures such as Captain Nemo and Jules Verne will play a part in Orphan’s fate.  And always in the background are the Bookman and his nemesis, the Binder, moving humanity around like chess pieces.  But towards what end?

[Book review] The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham

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One of the pressing issues in epic fantasy is that of how much scope should the novel cover.  Should far-off events be hinted at, or explored in detail?  Should every character’s decisions and actions be chronicled, or can some be glossed over?  It’s a delicate balance to strike, and as can be seen in the case of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, it’s easy to go overboard in the wrong direction. I’m on the fence as to how well The Dragon’s Path did in this regard, as there’s a good case to be made for either side.

In a world where long-dead dragons created the thirteen races of humanity, war is brewing.  Marcus Wester, former military man, is now reduced to guarding caravans.  When his men get arrested, he has to hire some unlikely helpers to get a caravan to its destination.  One of the wagons contains, not merchant goods, but the aggregate wealth of an entire bank.  Its driver, a young girl fostered to the institution, must protect this wealth no matter what.

Far away from these events, an army is marching on a pivotal city.  Political events back home leave Geder Palliako, a meek and scholarly man, as the governor of the conquered city.  His obsession with a mythical object that may be the greatest weapon in the world leads him to shocking actions that will set him on a path that may compromise his morals and conscience.

And back in the ruling city, the king dithers on where to foster his son, the prince, not wanting to show favoritism to any one family.  But those who seek power are not content to wait on the decision, and unrest begins to brew.  What happens next may cause the downfall of many a great man, just when all need to stand united.

[Book review] Discord's Apple by Carrie Vaughn

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I’ve been reading Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty Norville novels since they first debuted, and I find her writing very enjoyable.  Now that she’s doing stand-alone stories, I wanted to pick those up as well.  The first one of hers that I’ve read, Discord’s Apple, contains many plot elements that I love—myth, magic, action—but it’s debatable whether the story forms a cohesive whole.

The world of this novel is a much scarier place than we know.  Martial law is in effect and everyone is afraid of unrest.  Evie Walker hurries home to Hope’s Fort, Colorado to care for her dying father, leaving behind her work on a popular comic book.  But when she arrives there, she finds that her family holds secrets that she never could have expected.  Specifically, her father’s basement is a storeroom filled with magical artifacts.  And Evie is expected to become its next guardian.

Occasionally, someone will come and request an item, and Evie can tell if they should have it or not.  But when an ancient queen arrives demanding one of the most dangerous and disruptive artifacts in the storeroom, Evie must find a way to keep it out of her hands.  The item is the apple of Discord, the very apple that precipitated the war in Troy, and its power could sunder the world.

[Book review] Phoenix Rising by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris

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This review contains minor spoilers.

I have a love/hate relationship with steampunk.  I never fell head-over-heels in love with the genre the way some people have.  At best, I’ve tolerated its presence on the shelves.  Recently, I’ve read some steampunk that I thought was good, but I still don’t consider myself to be an aficionado.  Therefore, I tend to approach any novel with steampunk elements with a bit of trepidation.  Phoenix Rising does indeed fit the bill of steampunk, but contains many other story elements as well.

Wellington Books, Archivist for England’s Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences, finds himself in a most uncomfortable position: captive by the House of Usher.  But his salvation comes in the peculiar form of Eliza Braun, field agent for the Ministry and someone overly fond of explosives.

As a result of the dramatic rescue, Braun is reassigned to the Archives with Books.  Although initially not to her taste, the apparently boring job gains intensity when the two begin investigating a dead case—the one that landed Braun’s previous partner in Bedlam.  What they find is a conspiracy that threatens the very foundations of the monarchy.

[Book review] A Hundred Words for Hate by Thomas E. Sniegoski

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I’m not normally one for novels with a heavy religious baseline, but something about the Remy Chandler novels intrigued me.  The series first came to my attention when I read a novella in the anthology Mean Streets, and I ended up hunting down the first novel soon after.  A Hundred Words for Hate is the fourth novel in the series, and unfortunately, it just doesn’t live up to the previous stories.

After losing his wife Madeline to disease and age, Remy never thought to love again, but he finds himself in a budding relationship with Linda, whom he met recently.  But they barely have time to explore what they feel for each other when Remy is once again caught up in the events of Heaven and Hell.

The Sons of Adam, protectors of the original man, seek out Remy to enlist his help.  The Garden of Eden is returning to the world, and a dying Adam wants nothing more than to be buried there.  The Sons of Adam need Remy to help them find the key that will open the gates of Eden—gates that, coincidentally, Remy shut all those eons ago.

And deep within the bowels of Hell, Lucifer Morningstar is rising, threatening Heaven and Earth once again.

[Book review] Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch

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I’ve really come to like the recent upsurge in urban fantasy novels that blend the supernatural with police procedural.  The two elements mix well and often create a tense and gripping story.  Ben Aaronovitch has tapped into this with wonderful results.  His second novel, Moon Over Soho, continues the adventures of PI Peter Grant in the streets of a London far different than what you may have seen.

Peter Grant may still be recovering emotionally from the events of a couple of months back, but his partner Leslie is still physically healing from her horrible facial wounds.  While she recovers, Grant works with his mentor Nightingale to improve his ability to control magic.  But the respite isn’t long, and soon there’s another body to deal with—this one emitting the faint strains of a jazz tune.

Now Grant and Nightingale are caught up in a mystery that may have begun during World War II, a mystery that leaves jazz musicians dead for apparently no reason.  And to solve this case, Grant is going to have to turn to someone very close to home: his own dad.

[Nature] Keep Them Wild!

Keep Me Wild!

This is a website set up by the California Department of Fish and Game explaining the need to not feed wild animals and demonstrating how to be safe around such animals.  Read it and know how to treat our precious wildlife!