Robots and Vamps

Reviewed By Matt

Disclosure: This novel was purchased by the reviewer’s own hard earned cash.

It is not a well guarded secret that K.E. Mills is actually the pen name for Karen Miller. Ms. Miller is absolutely one of favorite authors and I have read most her novels enjoying each and every one. I am beginning to realize that her strengths are dialogue and characters, with plotting somewhat lagging. The second book in the Rogue Agent series, Witches Incorporated, highlights these strengths and underlines her weaknesses but it is such entertaining novel that in the end is was just a total blast.

Witches Incorporated takes place shortly after the events of the first book, The Accidental Sorcerer. Gerald has become a rookie janitor and is assigned a mission to help in obtaining information about a saboteur. Melissande, Reg and Bibbie have joined together to form Witches Incorporated who specialize in solving magical problems.

The first half of the story it is pretty light and breezy in that does not really involve the main plot. Basically it is to reintroduce the characters, establish new ones and set up the dynamics among the group of friends. Even though not much happens during the first part I really enjoyed the interplay between the characters with several laugh out loud moments.

The second half picks up at a crazy pace as both Gerald’s mission and the Witches Inc.’s paid assignment converge together into a desperate situation that will dire consequences if they can’t work together. As much as I liked the first the second half is even better. The only criticism I would have is that the mystery had a Scooby Doo feeling to it. I keep expecting the bad guy to quip, “And I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for you meddling kids”.

Witches Incorporated is a solid sequel to The Accidental Sorcerer that is less dire but a lot more fun. Ms. Millers’ characterization and dialogue shine through in spades and if this is your cup of tea then you will love this novel as much as I did. I am highly looking forward to the third book, Wizard Squared.

Reviewed by Matt

Disclosure: This novel was purchased by the reviewer’s own hard earned cash.

Narrated by Paula Christensen and Jesse Bernstein
Running time: 15 hours and 6 minutes

Introduction: Feed is the first book in planned trilogy.

Author’s bio: Born and raised in Northern California, Mira Grant (pen for Seanan McGuire) has made a lifelong study of horror movies, horrible viruses, and the inevitable threat of the living dead. In college, she was voted Most Likely to Summon Something Horrible in the Cornfield, and was a founding member of the Horror Movie Sleep-Away Survival Camp, where her record for time survived in the Swamp Cannibals scenario remains unchallenged.

Mira lives in a crumbling farmhouse with an assortment of cats, horror movies, comics, and books about horrible diseases. When not writing, she splits her time between travel, auditing college virology courses, and watching more horror movies than is strictly good for you. Favorite vacation spots include Seattle, London, and a large haunted corn maze just outside of Huntsville, Alabama.

Mira sleeps with a machete under her bed, and highly suggests that you do the same.

Dust jacket summary: In 2014, two experimental viruses—a genetically engineered flu strain designed by Dr. Alexander Kellis, intended to act as a cure for the common cold, and a cancer-killing strain of Marburg, known as “Marburg Amberlee”—escaped the lab and combined to form a single airborne pathogen that swept around the world in a matter of days. It cured cancer. It stopped a thousand cold and flu viruses in their tracks. It raised the dead.

Millions died in the chaos that followed. The summer of 2014 was dubbed “The Rising,” and only the lessons learned from a thousand zombie movies allowed mankind to survive. Even then, the world was changed forever. The mainstream media fell, Internet news acquired an undeniable new legitimacy, and the CDC rose to a new level of power.

Set twenty years after the Rising, the Newsflesh trilogy follows a team of bloggers, led by Georgia and Shaun Mason, as they search for the brutal truths behind the infection. Danger, deceit, and betrayal lurk around every corner, as does the hardest question of them all: When will you rise?

When Senator Peter Ryman of Wisconsin decides to take a team of bloggers along on his run for the White House, Georgia and Shaun Mason are quick to submit their application. They, along with their friend Georgette “Buffy” M. are selected, and view this as the chance to launch their careers to a whole new level…that is, if they can survive the campaign trail.

Thoughts & analysis: Holy shit. Excuse me for a second while I catch my breath and I apologize for the curse words. For a change, I am going to discuss the ending of this novel first. There is an event that occurs at the end of this story that absolutely crushed me and I still can’t believe that Ms. Grant did it. It was truly epic. For spoiler reasons I won’t discuss the plot twist here but I am in total awe of the author for taking this risk in this day and age of safe urban fantasy fiction. I am still in shock. Let’s put it this way, it affected me the whole day at work as I replayed the events in my head. Wow.

Feed starts off as your typical post-apocalyptic zombie novel and then turns into something more. For me, the book is not about the battle against the zombies but is really about the culture of fear. If you transpose the word zombie in this novel with the word terrorist, gangster or banit it would work the same. The people of this future world live in a constant state of fear of being attack and this has lead to overriding personal freedoms for the greater good. What will a society give up to live in safe environment?

The main plot line involves a political thriller that for most part works and sometimes seems a tad unrealistic. Again, the undercutting theme behind the plot is what works best. It shows how far some political figures will go to keep the citizens in line by using fear and that the best tactic against this is a media that has an interest in uncovering the truth.

The really strange thing is that for the majority of the novel I felt as if the characters were really not all that developed. But when the ending hit and it hits hard, I lost all feeling and felt like someone slammed a door in my face. I haven’t been this affected emotionally since reading Stephen King’s The Stand when Larry Underwood is killed.

Again, wow

Final word: Feed is one of the best I have read this year. The story will plod along and then it reaches a point that you become so intertwined that you must continue reading to find out what happens next. What puts this novel head and shoulders above the standard zombie novel is the underlying themes that will give the reader something to think about well after you have finished the story. Finally, as a word of warning, keep tissues near by when are getting towards the end, you will need them.

Author’s website: Miragrant.com

Reviewed by Matt

Disclosure: This novel was purchased by the reviewer’s own hard earned cash.

Introduction: Ship Breaker is Paolo Bacigalupi’s second novel. It follows his highly acclaimed first novel, The Windup Girl which is the winner of 2010 Nebula, of the 2010 Locus Award for Best First Novel and currently nominated for a Hugo. In many respects these novels share many of the same themes and could foreseeably take place in the same universe.

Author’s bio: Paolo Bacigalupi’s writing has appeared in High Country News, Salon.com, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. It has been anthologized in various “Year’s Best” collections of short science fiction and fantasy, nominated for three Nebula and five Hugo Awards, and won the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best sf short story of the year.

His debut novel THE WINDUP GIRL was named by TIME Magazine as one of the ten best novels of 2009, and was nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula Award. His short story collection PUMP SIX AND OTHER STORIES was a 2008 LOCUS Award winner for Best Collection and also named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly. His most recent novel, SHIP BREAKER, has just been released from Little, Brown. He currently lives in Western Colorado with his wife and son, where he is working on a new novel.

Dust jacket summary: In America’s Gulf Coast region, where grounded oil tankers are being broken down for parts, Nailer, a teenage boy, works the light crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make quota–and hopefully live to see another day. But when, by luck or chance, he discovers an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, Nailer faces the most important decision of his life: Strip the ship for all it’s worth or rescue its lone survivor, a beautiful and wealthy girl who could lead him to a better life. . . .

In this powerful novel, award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi delivers a thrilling, fast-paced adventure set in a vivid and raw, uncertain future.

Thoughts & analysis: Ship Breaker significantly toned down the violence, language,etc. that was predominate though out The Windup Girl. Since the target audience is Young Adult, the story had to be ratcheted back. This doesn’t mean the themes have less of an impact but that are just presented in a different manner. For me, the main topic is the huge difference between the rich and the very poor. In the universe of Ship Breaker, the world’s economy has disintegrated, digital technology has almost faded out, carbon fuel sources have become depleted and environmental disasters abound. People have been reduced the basic element of the haves and the have-nots. There is no real middle class to speak of.  Mr. Bacigalupi does an excellent job of presenting both sides of the argument without getting too preachy.

The novel is in many respects is a fish out water type of story. A rich teenager, Lucky Girl, is dropped into this desperate society and she must learn to survive in order to return home. There are numerous arguments between Nailer and Lucky Girl about how the rich take advantage of the poor and how the poor are used by the rich.  Again, these are handle with forethought and skill so that the story does the story does drown itself in social commentary.

In between the social lessons there are numerous action sequences that will keep young readers entertained. There is even an old fashioned ship to ship battle like in any good pirate movie.

Final word: Even though many of the same themes of The Windup Girl are explored in Ship Breaker, the novel stands on its own. It provides more action sequences that will hold the readers attention but there is underlying social commentary that will give you something to ponder after the novel is finished. Mr. Bacigalupi is two for two in the damn good novel category; I am highly anticipating any future volumes from this author.

Author’s website: Windup Stories

Reviewed by Matt

Disclosure: This novel was purchased by the reviewer’s own hard earned cash.

Introduction: Bitter Seeds is a debut novel by Ian Tregillis and I suspect the first in a planned series.

Author’s bio: Ian attended the University of Minnesota from his sophomore year in high school through the end of graduate school many years later. Eventually the university decided it had seen quite enough of him, so it politely but firmly asked him to leave, grow up, and get a real job. Ian’s parting gift was a doctorate in physics for his research on radio galaxies. In 2002 he joined a research collaboration between Los Alamos National Laboratory and Princeton University. He spent the next year unwisely living in New Mexico and New Jersey simultaneously, and making frequent cross-country trips.

In 2005, Ian attended the Clarion Writers’ Workshop in East Lansing, Michigan. (This was the second-to-last Clarion class in the program’s 35 year run at Michigan State University, before the program moved to its new home at UCSD in 2007.) There he spent six weeks living in a sweltering, slightly creepy, soon-to-be-condemned sorority house with twelve other aspiring writers. Scurvy was a problem. However, in spite of many predictions, cannibalism was not.

After Clarion, he joined Critical Mass, New Mexico’s premier writing critique group. There he strives to make the science-fictional imaginings of Walter Jon Williams, Daniel Abraham, Melinda Snodgrass, S. M. Stirling, and George R. R. Martin bear at least a passing resemblance to real science. In return, they strive to make his prose bear at least a passing resemblance to English.

Nowadays he lives in northern New Mexico, where he consorts with writers, scientists, and other disreputable types.

Dust jacket summary: It’s 1939. The Nazis have supermen, the British have demons, and one perfectly normal man gets caught in between

Raybould Marsh is a British secret agent in the early days of the Second World War, haunted by something strange he saw on a mission during the Spanish Civil War: a German woman with wires going into her head who looked at him as if she knew him.

When the Nazis start running missions with people who have unnatural abilities—a woman who can turn invisible, a man who can walk through walls, and the woman Marsh saw in Spain who can use her knowledge of the future to twist the present—Marsh is the man who has to face them. He rallies the secret warlocks of Britain to hold the impending invasion at bay. But magic always exacts a price. Eventually, the sacrifice necessary to defeat the enemy will be as terrible as outright loss would be.

Alan Furst meets Alan Moore in the opening of an epic of supernatural alternate history, the tale of a twentieth century like ours and also profoundly different.

Thoughts & analysis: Along with being a fan of Sci-Fi / Fantasy fiction, I also am huge history buff that loves anything to do with World War II. I really became thrilled when I read the description of Bitter Seeds and that it involved an alternate history of World War II with supernatural elements thrown in to boot.

The high points of this novel are the ideas that it is built upon. Super powered humans fighting magicians against the backdrop of World War II is just flat out cool. The battle scenes in the novel are very intensive and highly entertaining.

The novel alternates chapters involving the British and the Germans. The Germans, through Dr. von Westarp, have experimented on orphans that lead to the development of super-powered humans. These enhanced humans are discovered by the British during the Spanish Civil War and again, when the British army is massacred at Dunkirk. In response the British turn to quasi-magicians to battle against these super German soliders. The British are not really magicians per se but are more of communicators with beings known as Eidolons. They get the Eidolons to perform supernatural feats but there is a very severe cost every time this has to be done.

In most respects this story comes done to a battle between the British secret agent Raybould Marsh and the German super-powered Gretel, who has the power to see in future and in fact, can see many futures depending on actions that take place in the present. Gretel and Marsh’s paths cross many times in the novel but it is hard to fight someone who can anticipate your every move.

Most of the characters are mildly interesting and at times flat. By far, the most remarkable character for me was Gretel. Gretel has a very distinctive edge to her that makes her more appealing than any other character in this novel. She is always working towards her own agenda and at times these come into conflict with the German High Command war plans. She will only provide advice when it suits her goal but she has to balance providing just enough intel to keep from being executed. Plus, Gretel is also slightly insane but then again anyone who sees the future would be alittle crazy. None of the other super-powered Germans really made much of an impression with me.

Marsh is your standard action hero type that always gets the job done no matter the odds. Marsh goes from one secret mission to the next mostly succeeding in typical James Bond fashion. Mr. Tregillis does attempt to turn Marsh into a damaged and tragic character bent on revenge but falls somewhat short.

Final word: Overall, this debut novel was a mixed bagged as it contained some pretty incredible story ideas but the characters are not as well developed as they should have been and the narrative tends to be flat in potions of the novel.  I suspect if this story continues as a series it will only get stronger.

Author’s website: Ian Tregillis

Reviewed by Matt

Disclosure: The Audio version of these novels was purchased by the reviewer’s own hard earned cash.

Narrated by Jessica Almasy

Blood Engines Audio Length: 10 hours and 24 minutes
Poison Sleep Audio Length: 9 hours and 41 minutes
Dead Reign Audio Length: 9 hours and 47 minutes
Spell Games Audio Length: 9 hours and 10 minutes

Introduction: Marla Mason is a four book series written by Tim Pratt under the pen name T.A. Pratt. Unfortunately the publisher decided to cancel this wonderful series in 2009 after releasing Spell Games.  I assume that is why the audio book price dropped so quickly because as of this writing each novel can be downloaded off iTunes for only $6.95 per book or $27.80 for the whole series. If you have never experienced an audio presentation this would be a great chance to give it a try for a minimal investment.

In addition, since this is such a beloved series, Mr. Pratt is writing the fifth novel, Broken Mirrors, as a reader-funded serial novel. If you have enjoyed this series please click here and contribute. Maybe, the whole e-book revolution will help keep this series alive.

Author’s bio: Tim Pratt lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife, Heather Shaw and their son River. His fiction and poetry have appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, Strange Horizons, Realms of Fantasy, Asimov’s, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Subterranean, and Tor.com, among many other places.

In October 2007 he began publishing a series of urban fantasies featuring ass-kicking sorcerer Marla Mason. The first was Blood Engines, followed by Poison Sleep (April 2008), Dead Reign (November 2008), and Spell Games (April 2009). He serialized a prequel, Bone Shop, online in 2009. The fifth book, Broken Mirrors, is currently being serialized and will appear in print in late 2010.

He won a Hugo Award (for “Impossible Dreams” in 2007), and has been nominated for a Nebula Award, Stoker Award, Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, a couple of Gaylactic Spectrum Awards, and a Seiun Award. In 2004 he was a finalist for the Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

Dust jacket summary:

Blood Engines: Sorcerer Marla Mason, small-time guardian of the city of Felport, has a big problem. A rival is preparing a powerful spell that could end Marla’s life–and, even worse, wreck her city. Marla’s only chance of survival is to boost her powers with the Cornerstone, a magical artifact hidden somewhere in San Francisco. But when she arrives there, Marla finds that the quest isn’t going to be quite as cut-and-dried as she expected…and that some of the people she needs to talk to are dead. It seems that San Francisco’s top sorcerers are having troubles of their own–a mysterious assailant has the city’s magical community in a panic, and the local talent is being (gruesomely) picked off one by one.

With her partner-in-crime, Rondeau, Marla is soon racing against time through San Francisco’s alien streets, dodging poisonous frogs, murderous hummingbirds, cannibals, and a nasty vibe from the local witchery, who suspect that Marla herself may be behind the recent murders. And if Marla doesn’t figure out who is killing the city’s finest in time, she’ll be in danger of becoming a magical statistic herself.…

Poison Sleep: Someone wants Marla Mason dead. Usually that’s not news. As chief sorcerer of Felport, someone always wants her dead. But this time she’s the target of a renegade assassin who specializes in killing his victims over days, months, or even years. Not to mention a mysterious knife-wielding killer in black who pops up in the most unexpected places. To make matters worse, an inmate has broken out of the Blackwing Institute for criminally insane sorcerers—a troubled psychic who can literally reweave the fabric of reality to match her own traumatic past.

With her wisecracking partner Rondeau reluctantly in tow, Marla teams up with a “love-talker” whose dangerous erotic spells not even she can resist. Together they’re searching the rapidly transforming streets of Felport for a woman who’s become the Typhoid Mary of nightmares, infecting everything—and everyone—she touches with a chaos worse than death itself.

Dead Reign: Death has come calling, and one woman has what he wants most of all…

As chief sorcerer of Felport, Marla Mason thought she’d faced every kind of evil the magical world had to offer. But she’s never faced a killer like this. He’s dark, glib, handsome as the devil—and exactly who he says he is. Death—in the flesh. He’s arrived in Felport with a posse composed of a half-insane necromancer and the reanimated corpse of John Wilkes Booth, and he isn’t leaving until he gets what he came for. Only Marla is crazy enough to tell Death to go back to Hell.

With the Founders’ Ball just around the bend, drawing together the brightest, meanest, and most dangerous of Felport’s magical elite, the last thing Marla needs is all-out war with the King of the Underworld, but that’s exactly what she’s got. As the battle lines are drawn, she can count on her hedonistic, body-hopping partner Rondeau…but how many of her old allies will stand by her side when facing the ultimate adversary? To save her city, Marla will have to find a way to cheat Death…literally.

Spell Games: Brain-eating fungi, wannabe sorcerers, long-lost relations–does even a hard-core witch stand a chance?

Mad sorcerers, psychic vampires, an army of vengeful demons, Marla Mason would rather face them all than a flesh-and-blood ghost from her dysfunctional family past: her con artist brother, Jason. As Felport’s chief sorcerer, Marla would ordinarily consider it her duty to protect her town from such an unscrupulous ne’er-do-well. As his sister, things are a lot…trickier. Now, as Marla attempts to train an apprentice oracle whose magical wires have gotten crossed, Jason is setting up an elaborate sting and drawing her ever-so-corruptible partner Rondeau into the ruse.

Their patsy is a filthy-rich wannabe mage and their bait is something so valuable, so dangerous, so sought after, it probably doesn’t exist. But now word’s gotten out that the Borrichius spores do exist and instead of a sucker Jason and Rondeau have a much bigger–and much deadlier–fish on their line: a reclusive sorcerer whose devotion to the mushroom god and command of vegetal magic could bring a fungal apocalypse to Felport. It’ll be the mother of all bad trips unless Marla can pull off the ultimate magical switcheroo…and somehow live to tell about it.

Thoughts & analysis: I began listening to these novels with much trepidation. I knew that the series had been canceled and there would not likely be any more future volumes. So I decided to give the first novel, Blood Engines, a listen and if I hated it then I would just stop there. Needless to say, I ripped through all four books with much glee and when the final book ended my first thought was damn, I am really going to miss Marla Mason.

The strongest qualities to Mr. Pratt’s writing are the plots to his stories. Each story is unique and contains a well thought out plot which is surprising in a genre that has a bad habit of rehashing well worn ideas. For example, in Poison Sleep Marla is sporadically sucked into a fantasy world created by another magician, Genevieve. For spoiler reasons I don’t want to give away too much about how this “alternate” world was created and how the bad guy came into existence is pure genius and something the reader will not expect.

The characters are the other factor that make this series is so entertaining. The main protagonist, Marla Mason, is sorta of a mob boss with a soft side. Mr. Pratt attempts to make a Marla into a bad ass like Tony Soprano but I don’t think his heart was committed into making her a heartless goon. Marla will usually do the right thing in the end even though it may go against her nature.

But for me, the characters that surrounded Marla where much more interesting. Rondeau is Marla’s sidekick but is a “spectral” being stuck inside human’s body and has no knowledge of his past. Rondeau plays a significant part in Spell Games and the ending to that novel is absolutely brutal. Mainly because it affects my other favorite character Bradley Bowman, or just B, who is a seer. In addition, there are numerous other magicians who inhabit this world and all are unique in their descriptions and powers. Mr. Pratt does not rely on cardboard cut-out archetypes to create his characters.

By the way, as a word of warning, do not get too attached to any of the characters as Mr. Pratt does not hesitate to kill anyone of them off. I still miss Ted from Poison Sleep; he didn’t deserve the ending that he got.

Final verdict: For me, Marla Mason will go in the annals of Firefly, Space: Above and Beyond and Carnivàle as a series that was highly entertaining and canceled well ahead of it’s time. It was truly one of the best urban fantasy series’ on the market and it is a shame that publisher did not give it more of a chance to survive. This series just kept getting stronger with each passing novel and was building towards something very special before it was prematurely cut off at the knees.   Mr. Pratt is an excellent author and I will be reading anything that he produces in the future.

My advice, give it a try as I did and you will not be sorry.

Link to the reader-funded fifth Marla Mason book and other stories: Marla Mason

Author’s website: Tropism (LJ Annex)

Reviewed by Matt

Disclosure: This novel was purchased by the reviewer’s own hard earned cash.

Introduction: Magic on the Storm is the fourth book in the Allie Beckstrom urban fantasy series.

Author’s bio: Devon Monk has one husband, two sons, and a dog named Mojo. She lives in Oregon and is surrounded by colorful and numerous family members who mostly live within dinner-calling distance of each other. When not writing, Devon is either knitting, remodeling the house-that-was-once-a-barn, or hosting a family celebration. Devon has sold over fifty short stories to fantasy, science fiction, horror, humor, and young adult magazines and anthologies. Her stories have been published in five countries and included in a Year’s Best Fantasy collection.

Dust jacket summary: “Magic stirred in me….I closed my eyes, wanting to lose myself to it. Wanting to use magic in every way I could. But that would be bad. I had enough magic inside me; I could burn down a city. And I didn’t want to do that….”

Allie Beckstrom knows better than most that when magic’s involved, you always pay. Whether the price is migraines, amnesia, or muscle aches, she is committed to her work as a Hound, tracing illegal spells back to their casters. But her job is about to get much more dangerous.

There’s a storm of apocalyptic force bearing down on Portland, and when it hits, all the magic in the area will turn unstable and destructive. To stop it from taking out the entire city, Allie and her lover, the mysterious Zayvion Jones, must work with the Authority–the enigmatic arbiters of all things magic–and make a stand against a magical wild storm that will obliterate all in its path.”

Thoughts & analysis: I am usually not a big fan of urban fantasy novels but Devon Monks’ Beckstrom series has been able to keep me enough entertained to follow the series and highly anticipate future volumes. That being said, the fourth installment, Magic on the Storm, is the weakest story so far.

To me, Magic on the Storm just seemed like long lead into the next novel, Magic at the Gate. One of the hallmarks of urban fantasy is that each novel is a self-contained story with a few series arcs that flow through each book. The first half of this is book was pretty much stagnant with the second half of Magic on the Storm picking up the pace but it ends in a serious cliff hanger that will lead directly into Magic at the Gate.

One of the elements that I have enjoyed in this series was that each novel built upon plot elements introduced in the previous books. But Magic on the Storm really stood pat in this area. Yes, we explore further the magical group known as The Authority and learn all about the pending war between the two factions but there is not really much new content that is introduced.

Ms. Monk does really hit the whole Soul Compliments plot thread pretty hard. It supposed to be extremely rare occurrence in this universe but is seems that every other person in this story has a Soul Compliment. Personally, I believe Ms. Monk has overplayed her hand with respect to Soul Compliments and now it has lost the uniqueness that it was supposed to represent.

Final verdict: Magic on the Storm felt like the filler episode of a really good TV series. The diehard fans will certainly enjoy it but the average viewer will be less enthralled. Since I lean more towards diehard fan, I enjoyed the novel but I just wish the book would have started about half-way through the story and then move forward.  The story only really picks up and becomes interesting in the last quarter of the novel.  But, I will be picking up Magic at the Gate because I just have to know how the story will end.

Author’s website: Devon Monk and Deadline Dames.

Reviewed by Matt

Disclosure: This novel was purchased by the reviewer’s own hard earned cash.

The Warded Man (AKA, The Painted Man), the first book in series, was one of the most pleasant surprises to come out last year. In fact, it won my RaVon award as the best novel of 2009. Needless to say, I was highly anticipating the release of The Desert Spear but was cautious that it would be able hold up to what made The Warded Man so special. For the most, The Desert Spear was also great novel and in some ways better than The Warded Man but there are few issues that I had with the story.

Mr. Brett takes a very interesting tact with this novel. The three main characters from The Warded Man mostly do not appear until after 200 pages into the story. Instead the reader is treated with the biography of Ahmann Jadir. Mr. Brett covers his life from the very beginning with Jadir being forcefully drafted into the Kaji all the way up to the time that he declares himself the Shar’Dama Ka, the Deliverer. Arlen, The Warded Man, does make a brief cameo during this time but the story is told Jadir’s viewpoint versus Arlen’s viewpoint as in The Warded Man. In essence, Mr. Brett basically has written a short novella at the beginning of a long book. At first, I was alittle put off by this but after a few chapters I really began to enjoy learning about the culture of Krasia (think of them as the Klingons from the Star Trek universe where honor and dying in battle are everything). By the end of novel you realize how important this initial set up was as the story heavily relies on the clash of cultures and understanding the fundamental differences is essential to the enjoyment of the story.

Jadir learns that to become the true Shar’Dama Ka, he is required to invade the North lands and bring the population under his control. At that point, he can wage war on the demons and become the true Deliverer.

At about page 200, Mr. Brett leaves Jadir and rejoins Arlen, Leesha and Rojer. For some strange reason Jadir does not reappear in the story again until about page 400. The story then kinda muddles from this point forward as Arlen struggles with the title of the Deliverer and is slowly being absorbed by the wards that are tattooed on his body. Leesha is now running things at Deliverer’s (AKA Cutter’s) Hollow and Rojer is attempting to teach students how to use music to fool the demons. I honestly enjoyed catching up with the main characters from the first novel and interaction between them now that they have risen to certain levels of power.

During this time there is a side story that is also introduced. Renna, Arlen’s promised bride from The Warded Man, is fully fleshed out in several intervening chapters. At first it is not clear why we are spending time with this minor character but eventually her story line converges into the main story line. I really liked how Mr. Brett handles Renna and how she becomes a central part in the story. I am looking forward to see how it all works for Renna in the subsequent novels.

The rest of novel involves the Karsia army invading the North lands and taking a foot hold. Arlen, Leesha and Rojer are all scrambling to marshal the forces of the North to rally them against the people of the desert. Again, the story somewhat stalls at this point. Jadir stops his invasion and becomes involved with Leesha and Rojer. The clashes of culture are very evident during this part of the story and makes for some very interesting reading as the tension level rises between the two groups.

The main quibble I had was with the story was one of the ending points. I will not go into detail for spoiler reasons, but much of the story has Jadir pursuing Leesha and after one event, she is allowed to leave without much of an argument. This part did not ring true for me.

In the end, I highly enjoyed The Desert Spear and it is a worthy successor to The Warded Man. It does have some issues of a typical second novel in a series. But the strength of the novel is that Mr. Brett is keeps the main focus of story on the war against the demons instead delving into pointless side quests. This is fast becoming one of favorite series and I am looking forward to the next installment.

Author’s website: Peter V Brett

Reviewed by Matt

Disclosure: The Audio version of this novel was purchased by the reviewer’s own hard earned cash.

Narrated by Todd McLaren
Audio Length: 23 hours and 19 minutes

The Kollin brothers have created a futuristic society that is a CEO’s wet-dream. Basically, corporations are good and government is bad. Politically, this topic is a hot potato and I going to stay away from it as best as I can. Based on your political beliefs you will either cheering for the main character, Justin Cord, or relishing his downfall. My advice is not to get to wrapped up in the various arguments, for or against corporations, and just go with story.

The premise behind The Unincorporated Man is that world economy suffered a grand collapse several hundred years prior to start of the novel. The solution was to incorporate every person on the face of the Earth. When a person is born they are allotted a  number of shares and these shares are traded publicly. Corporations and other people are free to buy shares of anyone. Basically, the more successful or popular a person is, this will increase the cost of their individual shares. If a Corporation owns a majority of stock in you then they own you and can dictate the direction of your life. In essence, a person’s goal in life is to make enough money in order to buy back a controlling interest in themselves. In addition, allotments of shares are automatically given to the parents and the government. In theory, your parents will then have an investment in their children and will do what they can to help them to become successful.

This is the world that Justin Cord comes crashing into. Justin is a billionaire from 21st Century but he was suffering from a non-curable disease and decides to build a hibernation chamber.  His plan is to freeze himself until there is a cure found.  When Justin is recovered in the far future, he is cured of his disease and discovers alot has changed.  And so begins his cat and mouse game with the government and the corporations. The problem with Justin is that he was born prior incorporation and the law is unclear on how to handle this unusual scenario.

The rest of story involves Justin fighting off several court challenges regarding his status as the only unincorporated man. Justin firmly believes that incorporation is akin to corporate slavery. There are decent arguments among the other characters that the people of the 21st Century also suffered under a different form of economic slavery and their system is much more fair. These discussions were fascinating but only went up to certain point then the authors would back off. In my opinion, if this novel was to be a commentary on economics then they should have gone all out with the good and bad behind the ideals of incorporation. Whether the reader agrees with their principle or not, it would be a truly fascinating topic to have a bull session over.

The one story line that just did not ring true was the reason behind the grand collapse. The authors blame it on Virtual Reality. Nothing more, just Virtual Reality. People became so addicted to their virtual lives that they neglected their real ones and wasted away. In my opinion, the authors just did not fully develop this idea to make it more of a believable scenario.

The majority of complaints that I have read in other reviews have to with one dimension characters. While I have to agree that the characters are basically caricatures, this is not all detrimental to the story itself. Most Sci-fi novels are not really character type novels; they are more about the future society and the plot. As with The Unincorporated Man, it is more about ideas of what constitutes a free person and the effects upon civilization rather massaging Justin Cord and his friends. I can live with weak characterization as long the plot is solid, which for the most part The Unincorporated Man does.

There is also side plot that really comes out of the blue. It involves AI and is very fascinating how the authors handle this aspect. I don’t want to go into too much detail for spoiler reasons, but I actually really enjoyed this story line and wish there was more of it in the novel.

The Unincorporated Man is an incredibly interesting novel of a different type of future that is truly unique. Economics is rarely explored subject in Sci-fi which is strange as it is so fundamental to every day life. While the novel did not hit every note for me, it hit enough that I truly enjoyed this story and will be picking up the next one in the series, The Unincorporated War.

Author’s website: the unincorporated man

Reviewed by Matt

Disclosure: The Audio version of this novel was purchased by the reviewer’s own hard earned cash.

Narrated by Anne Flosnik
Audio Length: 14 hours and 32 minutes

Laura Anne Gilman is a veteran author of several paranormal fantasy novels, including her ongoing Retrievers series. She is now taking a leap into a pure fantasy series with Flesh and Fire. While this is not her debut novel, it is a change in scenery for Ms. Gilman as she wades into the crowded waters of the fantasy genre and comes out the other side with a fairly impressive novel. Flesh and Fire is not quite the page turner of a Brandon Sanderson or a Karen Miller novel, but it is a very close second.

What makes Flesh and Fire so unique is the magic system that Ms. Gilman implements. Basically, magic spells are derived from grapes that are eventually turned into spellwines. This is an over simplification of the process but the novel goes into ample detail of the development and the nuisances of creating a spellwine. It takes some time to get used to these ideas but after awhile it does start to make sense.

The introduction to novel quickly explains that the Prince-mages controlled all magic and they had become drunk (bad pun, sorry) on power. A god like figure known as Sin Washer overthrew the Prince-mages, taking away their powers and setting down new rules. The magical powers were then passed to numerous Vinearts and limited their spells into specific specialties, thereby not allowing one person to gain too much power.

The novel follows Jerzy from his time as a slave into his apprenticeship as a Vineart. The majority of story consists of establishing the relationship between Jerzy and his master, Malech and Jerzy learning the art of creating spellwines. The rapport between Jerzy and Malech is tenuous at best as Malech is a very demanding and unsympathetic teacher. As with most apprentices in fantasy novels, Jerzy has a distinctive ability when comes to magic and he becomes a quick leaner.

The pace is decidedly slow during the first three-quarters of novel but I enjoyed the time spent detailing Jerzy’s education and his growth as a person. The reader will become attached to Jerzy by going with him as he struggles through this strange world.

The last quarter of the novel is the real beginning of the series. Under pretence, Jerzy is sent to another country to study under a different Vineart named Giordan. But, his real mission to investigate some strange happenings and then report back to Malech his findings. Allowing a student apprentice with another Vineart is strictly forbidden by Sin Washer’s laws but Malech is very desperate to gather information. The political intrigue and Jerzy’s uncovering of a nefarious plot sets the entire series into motion and it has me highly anticipating the next novel.

Anne Flosnik’s narration is spotty at best. She does a decent job but there were several annoying enunciations that just drove me crazy. For example, she would pronounce Malech as MalecK (with a very hard K). After awhile it actually kinda became funny but ultimately distracting.

In many ways this was a typical first fantasy novel of a series, the characters were adequately established, the magic system was well explained and the overall plot arc was introduced. What sets this novel apart is the unique magic system and the way it is handled that really makes for fascinating read. Throw in a great protagonist, such as Jerzy, and this makes for a pretty decent fantasy yarn that creates a solid foundation for a potentially enthralling series.

Author’s website: Laura Anne Gilman

Reviewed by Matt

Disclosure: This novel was purchased by the reviewer’s own hard earned cash.

Sasha, the first book in series, was one of the pleasant surprises to come out last year. It was a deeply and highly engrossing fantasy novel that ended up being one of my favorite reads of 2009. So, I had some concerns if Mr. Shepherd would be able carry over the elements that made Sasha special into the sequel, Petrodor. While Petrodor does not have sweeping grandeur of Sasha, it was also a very entertaining novel that effectively builds upon aspects that were established in the first novel.

In my opinion, there are really two main characters in this story, Petrodor, the city itself, and Sasha. Petrodor is where about 95% of the story takes place and it is structured so well that it truly felt like any medieval type of port city. Mr. Shepherd really has a knack for settings and the politics that makes a city a run. There is no King and Queen that rule the city in which all the citizens are happy go lucky. Most people are just happy with their normal lives including raising their families among the community. Petrodor can seem mean to the unsuspecting but there is also nice side of life for the citizens. I was not all that excited when Sasha left Lenayin but once I got a chance to visit Petrodor, I really hated to leave it.

The events of this novel take place soon after the end of Sasha. After leading a rebellion against her father, the king of Lenayin, Sasha is banished to live with her master, Kessligh, in Petrodor. As mentioned, the detail of world building that Mr. Shepherd created in Sasha for the country of Lenayin is brought down to the city level. There is no one ruler of Petrodor but the power is concentrated among several merchant families. Each family has a certain amount of power and this is kept in check by the other families. Alliances are forged between the various parties that make for rivalries and at times, small scale wars.

The wild cards in Petrodor are Priests and Archbishops that follow and preach a religion of Verenthane. Think of it as an akin to Catholicism, which include Saints and the elaborate pageantry. The lower classes of Dockside and Riverside area are deeply religious and will follow their religious leaders, versus the merchant families, with certain amount zeal. In essence, if a ruling family wants to totally control Petrodor then they need to get the blessing of the Archbishop.

In the middle of all this are the Nasi-Keth, who are humans that are sympathetic to a race known as the Serrin. The Nasi-Keth have converted to their ways of the Serrin as they to understand this foreign race. In fact, much of the story spends time going through the nuisances that constitute a Serrin way of thinking, which is very unusual.

I also really enjoyed the politics of Petrodor. The ruling families are building armies to march on holy lands that are held by Serrin. In response the Serrin are in Petrodor to stop the war by playing one family off one another. Unfortunately, their plans do not work out so well which causes the citizens of Petrodor to pick sides of the conflict in a brutal city battle.

The last quarter of the novel is a running battle inside the city. Mr. Shepherd handles the battle scenes masterly as I never got lost in the action. The only issue I have is that Sasha is such a bad-ass warrior that you truly never feel like she is in any mortal danger. I also had same the issue with Mr. Shepherd’s Cassandra Kresnov novels. But this is such a minor thing in this wonderful story.

The character building is somewhat thin this time around but then again they were so well established in Sasha that there is no real need to rehash the same plot again. There many new characters introduced and some are more fleshed out than others.

In the end, I really enjoyed this novel almost as much Sasha. This series has all the fun and critical elements to become a classic in the fantasy genre. I suspect as the third and fourth books are released more and more people will partake in this enjoyable adventure.

Author’s website: Joel Shepherd