From The Minds of the Masters

I found this at another bloggers site and loved it. The great writers of the 50's and 60's that literally laid the foundations for today's modern speculative fiction tell us candidly their opinion of their own creations. Its very dry but informative.

Making it to The Bigs!

Mr. David Anthony Durham dropped me a note about his new book, Acacia. It seems that relatively soon it might be possible for audiences to enjoy his work without having to read a word. Relativity Media has bought the production rights and hired a screenwriter to adapt his book to the big screen.

You can check it out here.

Congrats!

Deep Inside?

Ok, maybe this one is just a little out of my league.

Ms. Frost very graciously asked me if I would read her book of erotica, supernatural erotica. She sent me a copy and I dutifully read it. It is a collection of short fiction meant to be highly erotic, she told me.

This is where it leaves my usual bailiwick. I HATE to pan books, really HATE it. But this one was not very erotic, and to my way of thinking, not even very good. While some of the stories were very romantic (not in the classic sense, more like some very twisted individuals highly romaticized), they weren't at all entertaining, nor erotic, nor even titillating. Erotica is NOT my thing, per ce, but I loved Poppy Z. Brite's Love In Vein. That one would raise the Titanic. It was incredibly hot.

Deep Inside made it much easire to read my next books. They are engaging, I identify with the characters, I can suspend disbelief and enjoy them, None of which happened while reading Deep Inside. My recommendation? Give it a bye.

Just a note

I have done what every blogger does eventually. I have started a new blog that has absolutely nothing to do with specualtive fiction. Its mostly rants, but feel free to visit and rant at me. Its at htpp://thoughtspinning.blogspot.com and it is my sincere hope that what I say there makes you angry, sad, or satisfied. I just hope that it give you sufficient cause to think. Rant over. At least here....

A Bright Spot

Kay Kenyon's Bright of The Sky is the first book in her new (and first) series, The Entire and The Rose. I've read and discussed Mrs. Kenyon's books before amd have been quite impressed. Its very hard to describe, so it might be easier to describe what it is not; it is not hard science fiction, it is not fantasy, and it is not a classical romantic adventure novel. Yet is has elements of all of these and much more. She is a exceptional character writer, which lends much needed help to the reader in the suspension of disbelief. Her premises are absolutely fantastic and fantastical. But her characters seem to see them as such and react to them in very believable and sometimes very profound ways.

In Bright of the Sky, Earth is ruled by corporate entities that scour the populous for intelligent, productive people and pay the rest to stay out of the way. One of the super intelligent elite spurns the status quo to be a pilot, navigating through the FTL tunnels that are corporately created and maintained. During one of his flights, the tunnel collapses supposedly killing him, his crew, his wife and his very young daughter. Weeks later, he turns up on a planet, delirious, spouting nonsense about an alternate universe where his family is stranded. He refuses to recant and is corporately ostracized. He is given retirement and paid to stay out of the limelight.

Then, an AI in charge of maintaining one of the tunnels, is fed a problem in quantum physics by a student. It goes bonkers, shutting down the tunnel and killing several people in the collapse. But the data that is retrieved shows that particles exist and are shooting through the tunnels. Particles that can only come from a quantifiable and therefore existing universe that is different from our own. It exists across a thin quantum barrier that FTL technology inadvertently penetrates. And it turns out that one human being has been there and come back to tell the tale.

Oh! The profit potential of taking shortcuts through our universe by going through another! Can it be done? Will the denizens of the alternate reality be friend or foe? Is it even possible? Or will there be conflict? (The answer to that last one? This IS a series...).

Mrs. Kenyon has again painted broad scenes of fantastic proportions and developed characters that are multi-dimensional (no pun intended). This was a great read. The only problem I have is that after reading the book, the story is just starting. I have the second book and will read it forthwith because, dammit, its a good story!

Finally! A Book Review!

I had to wait to talk about this one until my step-daughter finished reading it. Ms. Harrison made a visit to my little piece of the world, so we visited her and had her personalize a copy to the step-daughter. While we were there, Ms. Harrison dropped a hint or two about Rachel's future: We will definitely find out who killed Kisten, and there are 4 more books in this series. But this step in the journey concerns The Outlaw Demon Wails....

If you've read my reviews, you realize that I pretty much detest series work, unless the are exemplararily written and that basically they are a single story told in several volumes. An incredibly good writer can write complete books that stand alone in and of themselves, and are integral parts of a much longer story. Lois McMaster Bujold is the past master of this as evidenced by the Miles Vorkosidan series. Watch out, Mrs. Bujold, here comes Kim Harrison.

In this installment, the tension between Rachel and Ivy is settled (pretty much), we find out much more about Trent, and the world of demons comes into a clearer focus. Are there still mysteries? You betcha, but the reader leaves satisfied that the characters have grown, that the present challenges have been well and truly met. There are the inevitable loose strings, but the strings are vague, and like the characters, the reader is completely happy to leave them for another day.

In possibly the best book of the series thus far, Ms. Harrison further develops her core characters, introducing only one new somewhat minor character (doubtless to be developed later). She does vastly develop characters that were minor in previous installments, but the reader is already familiar with them and has already formed attitudes about what to expect from these characters....most times even correctly.

Our: Story:

Rachel is heartbroken about Kisten and depressed. Ivy is still trying to find a bllod balance with her. A new man is introduced (more than one, actually, but see the last paragraph about correctness of readers' assumptions) for Rachel's love interest, but that's undeveloped in this story. Ceri, the elfin princess that was Al's familiar, is, as one would expect, the savior of the elfin race. But her partner is surprising in both his identity and his character developments in this tale. Jenks is Jenks. All in all, its damned hard to write this review without spoilers. The Hallows have become such a comfortable place to visit that one just wants to talk about their adventures there and show off the pictures taken while on sojourn there. Rachel must save the day, defeat the nefarious bastards that are trying to kill her, and keep her soul and personality intact at the same time....again. Its a familair plot line, but the characters make this a more personal story than just the kick butt, shoot 'em up that it looks to be on the surface. Each character has their vunerabilities and weaknesses, even Al.

If you want to learn more, you'll just have to read this one. When you do, let me know what you think.

Geez! I thought I had a pretty good vocabulary...

Goodness gracious! I have been deperately trying to get through Fatal Revenant for over a month. Its not that its a bad book, it isn't. Its just very heavy reading. I have to stop about every 5 pages, grab a dictionary, and look up what Mr. Donaldson is trying to tell me. His words, once the definitions are clear, are spot on and very descriptive. But Dang! I'm only about 1/3 of the way through and I'm just now getting into the action.

I'm going to set it aside again and read some Kaye Kenyon, Kim Harrison's new book from her Rachel Morgan series, and then maybe I'll come back to this. Its just taking forever for me to read this, and I consider myself a pretty fast reader.

Of course, maybe my vocabulary isn't what I thought it was. Its truncated rather than expansive. My comprehension is less than proliferate, maybe even circumscribed. *Sigh*
Ain't that a downer! I was a-thinking my teachers had done learned me real good.

Sci-Fi Love - Ain't It Grand?

I was, of course, sniping ideas from other blogs and one of my favorites had a list of her favorite love stories in science fiction. So, of course once again, I'm going to steal it. Here's my list:

Neo & Trinity - The Matrix

What is a good savior story without a love interest? Neo had to love Trinity to overcome his own shortcomings in a lot of ways. His miraculous "removal" of the virtual bullet that was killing her in RT was how he discovered how fully he could manipulate The Matrix. Of course her death in real time removed his last obstacle to giving himself to save Zion and the Machine World from total annihilation. There's nothing like a Christ story to get the blood pumping (Read Frank Herbert's The Jesus Incident if you want a hard science fiction look at Christian dogma from a skewed perspective). This is a recurring theme in SF/F. Jonathan Michael Valentine Smith, Neo, Thomas Covenant and the VR brain in Otherworld. Agape at its best.

Beren & Luthien - The Silmarillion

How else would one describe the first union between the Elves of Middle Earth and Men? One word - Epic! Luthien was the daughter of one of the most powerful elves of Middle Earth. He rules hidden Dorthonion, the last of the great eleven kingdoms to fall to Morgoth and to be ruined by the Silmarils. But before Darthonion fell, Beren met and fell in love with Luthien. Men and Elves were not so estranged as they later became and Beren's father and Beren himself served Thingol and Melian (she, as was Tolkien's habit, was actually the power in Dorthonion. She was one of the Maia, a lesser god. Thingol was an Elf that had never left Middle Earth to go to the West and had built Doriath and later, with Melians help, he built and she hid the city of Dorthonion there). Beren stumbled into forbidden Doriath after a battle and was sick and wounded. Luthien found him and healed him. Love grew between them and Beren sought Luthien's hand from her father. He did NOT aprove. Thingol sent Beren to fetch the Silmaril that Morgoth had set in his crown, despite the warnings from his wife that there was no outcome that was good in doing so.

Beren, being in love, sets off to fulfill this requirement. Luthien sneaks away and joins him. And despite overwhelming odds, they succeed. On the return trip to Doriath, Morgoth sets his dog, Carcharoth, on them. Attempting to use the Silmaril to ward off the dog, Beren held aloft the jewel in his right hand. The dog bit it off. The Silmaril killed the dog, eventually. Luthien once agin healed Beren, but could not restore his hand. They returned to Dorthonion and confronted Thingol. Thingol demanded the Silmaril. Beren, now called One-Hand, held up his stump and declared that, even now, the Silmaril was in his right hand. Then Beren and Luthien departed the sight of elves and men for the remainder of their lives. Luthien chose to fade rather than live without Beren. And they were never seen again. Thingol never saw his daughter again, because she never entered the Halls of Mandos.

But from Beren , son of Beor, and Luthien, daughter of Thingol and Melain, came the race of Kings of Numenor. But that's another story...

Miles & Ekatrin - The Vorkosigan Saga

What good is space opera without a good love story? I've made no secret that I think the Vorkosigan Saga is probably the best space opera ever written and thus, this is one of its best love stories. Is there anyone out there who deosn't know who Miles Vorkosigan is? (If you do not, do yourself a huge favor and investigate thoroughly immediately! E-mail me if you need help.) The last four books in this amazing story are about Miles falling in love with and winning the heart of Ekatrin Vorsoisson. She is independent, smart, loyal, and beautiful. Which scares Miles to death. But, being Miles, he comes up with a battle plan. Only problem is, winning a woman's heart isn't a battle..its war!


These are my top 3 love stories. If you haven't read them, perhaps you should. Then we can have an argument about which was best. Which is great! Then we can make up and that's always fun!

Once Bitten...Bite Me Again!

Ok, I have a small confession to make. I started reading MARVEL comics when I was about 5 years old (one of my babt-sitters discovered it was a great way to keep me quiet and out of trouble--I was hooked!). I still love Spider-Man, Daredevil and the Fantastic Four. Now this may seem immaterial, but its not. Into this challenge to the suspension of disbelief slinks Jaz Parks, ex-vampire slayer turned CIA assassin.

She is the proto-typical comic book heroine with a cast right out of MARVEL comics (and to be fair, DC as well). She is tough, yet haunted and vunerable. She is loyal and thus inspires heroic loyalty among her peers and comrades. She's smart, strong, sassy and daddy's little girl, the girl-next-door all rolled into a fast action, rock 'em, sock 'em heroine against the "We're going to end the world so we can rule what's left" bad guys. Its classic!

Jaz is introduced mid-story, we get glimpses of prelude as we go through the current story, including a mysterious benefactor that grants certain "advantages" to Jaz in her quest to save life, liberty and the American way. She and her 300-year vampire partner are given an assignment to take out a terrorist. But as they investigate, we are introduced to what every comic book character needs: the arch-nemesis. In this case its someone you never see called The Raptor. He is the brains behind the scenes pulling the strings as his minions attempt to release a curse that will, quite literally, consume the planet.

Is this "fantasie-haute"? Definitely not. Is it a great, larger-than-life story that tells the reader than, somewhere, some how, they can be better? Yep. Its a quick read and Mrs. Rardin is whipping them out faster than I can read them (3 books in six months), But, the first one is definitely worth reading. Especially for all those super-hero/heroine fans out there. Fortunately, that includes me.

Selling Out by Justina Robson

In yet another interminable series (that's right, there will be more), I must say that this one is pretty entertaining. The characters are multiplying like crazy, our heroine is even more insecure thatn the first novel, and there are plenty of unexplained phenomena to frustrate the reader. Having said that, Ms. Robson's blending of pretty hard sci fi with classic fantasy elements is flawless. Her characters are all flawed in very human ways and therefore approachable if not downright likeable. I really hate to admit it, but PYR has brought out yet another great speculative work that deserves to be read. (I HATE series!)

The drawbacks: It is incredibly necessary that you read the first book prior to this one, or you will be completely lost. It IS a series book, so the story is not complete. Characters and places are becoming numerous - very numerous, with independent story lines a-plenty. I find that while this adds depth to the major characters, it can (and in this case does) detract from the central story.

Lila Black is sent to Demonia to research a tourist book for Ootopians (read: humans). While there, she inevitably gets caught up in local politics which are particularly nasty as can only be expected from demons. Meanwhile, her elvin boyfriend gets caught in Thanatopia from which all things elemental flow, but which cannot sustain any other kind of life as we know it. Meanwhile, (see what I mean?) her fairy partner is sailing the depths of non-space looking for ghosts with a renegade research group. Meanwhile, ... you get the idea.

This is a good book and, so far, an enjoyable series. If you've read Keeping It Real and enjoyed it, then you will definitely enjoy this one. If not, I recommend that you start immediately.