Category :: Review :: Page 83

Adrian Tchaikovsky is gold! Gold, we say! We have stated over and over in our reviews that one of the main things we look for in a series is growth. Growth in the story, growth in the characters, and especially growth in the author. The instant we began reading Tchaikovsky’s work we were hooked. Sure, EMPIRE IN BLACK AND GOLD had some problems–what authors don’t have problems in their first novel? But even with those problems, EMPIRE was awesome. With each novel he got better. The problems slowly vanished. The characters in the series matured. The setting, somehow, got infinitely better. It got to the point where we were mentioning Tchaikovsky in the same breath as our favorite authors.
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It isn’t often that we’re completely taken by surprise by how deep the scope of a series is. After finally getting around to reading Alan Campbell’s SCAR NIGHT (EBR Review), we were left feeling complete and satisfied. The novel was fantastic, and it had a strong and definitive-feeling ending. In short, we had no idea where Campbell was going next with the story.

Just a few pages of IRON ANGEL (Amazon) will have you–as with us–saying, “Holy crap… so THAT’S where this is going.” The scope will throw you for a minute, and then you will begin devouring the pages of the novel that has raised the stakes and the bar significantly higher.
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FOR THE WIN (Amazon) is Cory Doctorow‘s novel from last summer. If you have read and liked Doctorow’s work in the past, then this book will be just right for you. If not, then I don’t think this book will push any buttons that Doctorow’s stuff missed in the past. Basically this is the typical Cory Doctorow novel.

The novel is about a bunch of online gamers forming a union.
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Matthew Swift is the epitome of the urban sorcerer. Proof: he takes the bus. But there are ways he’s not your usual sorcerer, the least of which being that he serves as the Midnight Mayor of London. He also shares a body with the blue electric angels. And he’s got a conscience.

But being the Midnight Mayor is not all roses and bon-bons. Sure he’s got a fleet of aldermen to do his bidding… assuming they’d listen to him (it’s hard to take a guy seriously when he wears grubby t-shirts). And sure he’s powerful enough to have defeated the destroyer of cities in THE MIDNIGHT MAYOR (EBR Review). But now in THE NEON COURT (Amazon), the underground Tribe and the fae Neon Court have declared war over a murder—with London as the battleground—unless Swift delivers the chosen one.
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Sarah Beuhall is pretty sure she needs therapy. Her personal demons of doubt and self-identity keep her from being happy with her life, even though at first it appears to be going well. She’s got a job she loves (blacksmithing; props for a local B movie director), beautiful girlfriend who loves her (Katie), and a chosen family in her Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) reenactor friends–so why does everything still seem to go wrong?
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Every once in a while I come across a book, or series of books, that totally yanks the carpet out from under me. I don’t expect more than the ordinary when I pick ‘em up (other than, perhaps, noticing the amazing cover art). I plop myself down in a chair, open the thing up, and quite simply just get to it. Then it reaches out, smashes me in the face with its awesomeness, and says, “You love me!” Leaving me with naught to do but obligingly respond, “Yes. Yes I do.”
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How do you end a series? We’re sure this is a question every author asks at some point during a career. We’ve read quite a few series from start to finish, and have decided that writing that satisfying ending and conclusion must be the hardest thing to do. Why? We chalk it up to expectations. This can be crippling to the final book in a series, especially when the series has been SO good.
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There is a scene in the show Deadwood that has stuck with us for years. A preacher has a seizure that ravages his brain. He can’t do anything about it. He can’t see straight. Can’t hardly walk or talk. It gets to the point where he can’t do anything. Enter Al Swearengen, the owner of a whorehouse, and an extremely unlikable fellow. It is one of the few moments in the show where Swearengen’s exterior is stripped away and we are left seeing the anguish he feels at the preacher’s condition. In a heart-breaking scene, Swearengen does what no one else is willing to do.
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Magic is not what it used to be. Now it’s less potent. It’s less reliable. Fewer people can use it. As a result science has gained popularity and the people of Sabria are experiencing a Renaissance.

But the Aspirant wants to change all that—and he will resort to murder to get what he wants.

The story began in Carol Berg‘s THE SPIRIT LENS (Amazon), a fantasy whodunit told from the viewpoint of Portier, cousin to the king, and charged with finding the source of a failed assassination plot. It unravels into a mystery beyond a simple murder attempt and into full-blown conspiracy, with the king’s bosom friend Michael de Vernase as the suspected instigator.
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Just saying the name “Gene Wolfe” is enough to evoke contemplations of Hugo Award votes, so we figured we should give his novel from last year, THE SORCERER’S HOUSE (Amazon) a read. It didn’t end up nominated, but we are nevertheless glad we picked this one up. Wolfe has the ability to write the absolute best, or the completely mediocre. Thankfully THE SORCERER’S HOUSE is one of those novels that instantly grabs you, and remains weird and entertaining from start to finish.
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