Posts from 2012 :: Page 6

I’m one of those guys that plays video games for the story. I much prefer a solid campaign over online multiplayer any day of the week. For this reason I am a huge advocate of tie-in fiction. I love to delve deeper into characters and events that are barely touched upon while playing the game. When I caught word of a prequel novel to the Darksiders franchise from THQ my interest was piqued. When I saw that it would be penned by Ari Marmell, author of the YA Widdershins series, I was sold. May I present you, DARKSIDERS: THE ABOMINATION VAULT (Amazon).

There exists a vault containing weapons of unimaginable power. The vault remains a legacy of the atrocities committed by the Nephilim. Of the four Horsemen, the last surviving Nephilim and protectors of the Balance, only Death is aware of its being. Now an unknown enemy strikes from the shadows, intent on acquiring the weapons stored within the vault and unleashing a wave of destruction across Creation. Only Death, with the assistance of his younger brother War, has the ability to prevent the coming catastrophe.
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When I want to treat myself to a good book, or when I desperately need to forget a terrible novel that makes me want to give up on literature entirely, I find that I turn to a very, very small selection of authors.

James Barclay is pretty close to the top of that list.

You see, I know that when I pick up a Barclay novel, I won’t be disappointed. Reading Barclay is like having your favorite steak, cooked to perfection. The first book in his Elves Trilogy, ONCE WALKED WITH GODS (Amazon), is the kind of book where I can forget I’m a critic. I just get to sit down, dig in, and enjoy the hell out of it.
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The people who claim Gallantrybanks as their capitol don’t have American Idol. They don’t have rock stars. Sure there are the rich and famous, but the rich are the nobility. The American Idol of Gallantrybanks are the Trials, and their equivalent of famous rock stars are what they call tregadors.

The tregadors are troupes of four men who work together to create plays using magic–and not with simply images, but with smells, sounds, and whatever else is necessary to draw in the audience. If a young man is lucky enough to have the skill and the group, he can become famous and rich.
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Young Adult fiction has really evolved from what it used to be. There are a lot more options than there were when I was a kid. It’s not just the scope of books that has increased but the depth as well. Authors are examining mature themes that really didn’t seem so present years ago. Then again it could just be me, but I really don’t remember any YA books that examined the plight of war refugees in dystopian societies. I have to applaud authors like Paolo Bacigalupi for writing books like THE DROWNED CITIES (Amazon). Teenagers do not like being condescended to in the least and THE DROWNED CITIES offers some very dark, adult themes.
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LIGHTBRINGER (Amazon) is newcomer K.D. McEntire’s first novel in a new YA series. It starts off with Wendy’s twelfth birthday, and a terrible car accident that awakens her inherited latent ability–she’s a reaper, and can help lost souls to leave limbo and find the Light. But she came into her powers too early, and learning the nuances of guiding the dead has come with a price.

By the time she reaches high school she’s already reaped a thousand souls under her mother’s strict tutelage. But during the summer mom was in an accident and lays comatose at the hospital while Wendy struggles with helping her dad with two younger siblings, a secret but increasing reaper load due to her mother’s absence, and as a result her grades are slipping. Poor girl has no time just to be a regular teenager.
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I a little ashamed to admit that I was late to the works of Robert McCammon (and honestly Horror in general). I mean, what kind of reader worth his weight in books hasn’t read McCammon? I was a member of that downtrodden and sad club until a few years ago when I found an excerpt on the Subterranean Press website of a novel titled MISTER SLAUGHTER (EBR Review). If that title doesn’t grab your attention, then you should probably go back to reading emasculated sparkly vampires.
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I think Steve was giggling maniacally to himself as he added this book to my review stack. He probably took one look at the cover and assumed it would be bad. Go ahead, take a look at it again. You might make that assumption, as well. And would you be wrong?

OK, who am I kidding… yeah, Steve’s unerring taste runs true, even without having read it. Unfortunately I did have to read it.
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The Sword & Sorcery sub-genre is currently the most important facet of my reading life. This is the sub-genre that got me back into Fantasy after a five year hiatus where I read nothing but Science Fiction. With that in mind, I take the authors and novels of this genre very, very seriously. At first glance SCOURGE OF THE BETRAYER by Jeff Salyards (Amazon) failed to catch my eye. I didn’t find the cover immensely appealing (don’t give me that look, we all judge books by their cover) and the synopsis sounded like somewhat standard fantasy fare. At second glance, however, one might notice a quote by an esteemed fantasy author, comparing this novel to the works of Joe Abercrombie and Richard K. Morgan. Name dropping of that caliber is the surest way to stroke my curiosity.
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Dan Wells has had quite the run. The John Cleaver series — starting with I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER (EBR Review) — was a fantastic blend of Horror and Fantasy with a YA tone (although it wasn’t really marketed as YA in the US). His novel PARTIALS (EBR Review) has been getting some really strong reviews. So I was pretty excited when I got my hands on an ARC of his latest work, THE HOLLOW CITY (Amazon).

I’d heard him describe the basics: a story told from the point of view of a paranoid schizophrenic, Michael Shipman. A man who literally can’t tell what’s fantasy and what’s reality. He’s seeing faceless men, and is convinced they’re trying to kill him. But no one else can see them, and he hasn’t been taking his medication in months. To make things worse, there’s been a serial killer at work in the area. Someone’s been killing people and essentially destroying their faces, and Michael is a prime suspect.
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Talyn the Dark, one of the immortal Vaerli (aka Breaker of Oaths), hunts the enemies of Caisah of Conhaero, Master of Chaos. As his Hunter, she rides her nykur on the Road or the Void itself to fulfill the bounty on Manesto, Ahouri, and Portree alike, to return them dead or alive to the city of Vnae Rae (aka Perlious and Fair). At the same time Talyn works to undo the Harrowing (aka the Great Conflagration) and fulfill her people’s oaths with the Kindred.

Oy vey.
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