Reviews :: Book Rating :: Books We Like :: Page 37

Carrie Vaughn writes books for the female demographic, no doubt about it. Her Kitty Norville series (review of her latest book in that series coming later) has scooped up quite a bit of popularity and recognition, so really it was only a matter of time before she started branching out more and more. DISCORD’S APPLE is her latest effort towards giving her readers something a little different from her normal releases.
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I was first introduced to the work of Catherynne M. Valente a few years ago when my brother bought me THE ORPHAN TALES: IN THE NIGHT GARDEN (Amazon). Based entirely on that one present he is now my favorite brother. That book was amazing. I almost cried when it was over because there wasn’t any more of that fascinating story to read. I never wanted it to end. Needless to say when Valente’s PALIMPSEST (Amazon) was released I picked up a copy immediately hungry for another beautiful story.

PALIMPSEST is the tale of a sexually transmitted city.
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Because we are the benevolent Book Gods that you have to know, love, and worship, we have a treat for you today. A review AND an interview. Without further ado, we present JC Marino, author of Dante’s Journey.
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If you haven’t read any Naomi Novik you’re a little behind the times, but that’s okay, because I can give you a quick run-down on the series thus far. We first meet Captain Laurence and his dragon Temeraire in HIS MAJESTY’S DRAGON (Amazon), which is set during the Napoleonic Wars, where battles aren’t only fought on land and sea, they’re also fought in the air with dragons. However, these aren’t your run-of-the-mill dragons, most of them are huge and have their own aerial crew with captain, lieutenant, riflemen, bombers, and etc.

Captain Laurence, who became Temeraire’s rider by happenstance, has spent his military career playing by the book; but Temeraire, unlike most dragons of the British Air Corps, is very intelligent and has his own ideas about how things should be done. This combination makes for some fine adventures that take place from France to Africa clear to Temeraire’s country of origin, China. Novik follows the Napoleonic Wars pretty faithfully in the first books, but then the series veers from history when Napoleon attempts to invade England.
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Lois McMaster Bujold is easily one of my favorite authors, from her Hugo Award winning PALADIN OF SOULS (Amazon) to the immensely popular Miles Vorkosigan series. When she began The Sharing Knife series I was excited to see her writing new fantasy, and picked up BEGUILEMENT when it first came out in paperback in 2007. The fourth and final book, HORIZON, was released in paperback this past January.

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I feel really bad. How am I supposed to review the fourth and concluding volume of a series? Either you’ve already read the first three books and nothing I say will sway you to read it or not, or else you haven’t read any of the preceding volumes… and in that case what are you doing reading this review? It’s gonna have major spoilers!

So, that being the case, I’ve decided to do the only decent thing I can and review all four books in one single review. That’s right, four reviews for the price of one. Are you ready? Here we go.
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SASHA by Joel Shepherd (Amazon), was kind of a surprise for us. We knew Joel’s work from his Cassandra Kresnov series, but we didn’t quite know what to expect from the first novel in his A Trial of Blood and Steel. While there were a few issues we took with the novel, we actually enjoyed what was offered and look forward to the sequels. Read on, slaves and loyal followers, to find out why.
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China Miéville is like Dan Simmons in a way. No matter how odd or bizarre the idea or synopsis, the novel turns out well. Imagine Miéville’s editor when China said, “So I’m gonna write this novel. It’s a comedy. Kinda. In London. Kinda. Where a giant squid is stolen. And there are people running around with a giant hand in place of their head–Knuckle-heads, get it? And there is a Star Trek phaser that works. And there are cults of every kind whose gods are all legit. And they all have real and scheduled Apocalypses.” With his track-record, what can Miéville’s editor say but, “Awesome! I’ll sell it tomorrow for a ton of money. Yay us!” (Note: This is similar to a post our friend, Larry Correia, did on the previously mentioned Dan Simmons. It was awesome, and it reminded us completely of how we feel about Miéville).
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So. Another Hugo nominated novel. Considering the luck we have had so far with the nominated novels, we weren’t holding our breath for anything awesome with Robert Charles Wilson‘s JULIAN COMSTOCK (Amazon). Thankfully, JULIAN COMSTOCK was an excellent and different read.

Wilson’s latest novel is a a tale set in 22nd Century America, in and around 2172. That makes it SF right? This novel is written by Wilson, so is HAS to be SF. Right? Well… kinda… but not really. Get all your preconceived notions out of the way. COMSTOCK is not really SF, and perhaps this is why some people have been put off by it. This is not like Wilson’s prior novels. Rather, COMSTOCK reads like a Civil War novel while simultaneously being a biopic of a famous “historical” figure: Julian Comstock.
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We had the very distinct pleasure of meeting Jon Sprunk and his wife this past World Fantasy (coincidentally both Jon’s wife and son have the same names as Steve’s wife and son). We had already heard a lot about him, and had emailed back and forth a few times. It was obvious we would like him, and we did. So when his book came out we were nervous about reviewing it. Jon is a friend, and this is his first book. Luckily we don’t have to hate on his book! It was a very fun book to read.
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