"The King's Bastard: King Rolen's Kin #1" by Rowena Cory Daniells (Reviewed by Cindy Hannikman)

Read Rowena Cory Daniells Guest Blog Here
Visit Rowean Cory Daniells Website Here
Order King's Bastard from Amazon Here

Summary: The Kingdom of Rolencia sleeps as rumours of new Affinity Seeps, places where the untamed power wells up. By royal decree all those afflicted with Affinity must serve the Abbey or face death. Sent to the Ab­bey, the King’s youngest son, Fyn, trains to become a warrior monk. Elsewhere others are tainted with Affinity and must fight to survive. Political intrigue and magic combine in this explosive first book in an exciting new fantasy trilogy.

Format: The King's Bastard is an epic fantasy with many different plot threads floating around the book and various character point of views. It stands at 640 pages and was released June 29, 2010 by Solaris.

Analysis: I am always on the look out for a new fantasy series to try out. So when I heard about the King Rolen's King Trilogy I had to give it a shot. What I encountered was a very interesting fantasy experience.

King's Bastard can only be described as a fantasy soap opera with some magic thrown in on the side. That's not to say it was bad, but if you don't like multiple story lines and melodrama occurring at every twist and turn, then this probably isn't the book for you. Just to give you a brief idea of the drama involved in King's Bastard there was: jealous siblings, a cousin who had a father who was banished, an oppressed daughter, a closeted homosexual, a love triangle, a brother who is living in his twin's shadow all the time, and a third son who was sent away to be a monk. And those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head!

Some of the story threads were a bit predictable at times but nothing came across as overly in your face predictable. I had a feeling stuff would happen but yet I wanted to read on!

Even with all the drama swirling around King's Bastard, I enjoyed it. I found it a fast moving, gripping fantasy. Due to the massive size and sometimes multiple plot lines going on, I could easily knock off 3 to 4 chapters before I knew it. However, like most soap operas I could only take these a little bit each day. I really feel if I had sat down, read through the whole book in one sitting (which wouldn't have been hard with this book) I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much. I liked having the suspense and intrigue and drama to look forward to every day.

While I enjoyed the book and loved it, I would have loved to see the land and the magic a bit more fleshed out. I felt almost like it was glossed over and I was missing something about the magic and land. Of course there are two other books so there is certainly time to get to those, but I really would have liked to see the magic in full effect in this novel.

If you're looking for a novel that has multiple characters and plot threads going around then King's Bastard is for you. I can't wait to see what happens in Book 2, and believe that Rowena Cory Daniels is off to a great start with this series!

Odds and Ends: 2010 Booker Prize and compiling a list of Future SF Classics written by women

Yesterday, the winner of the 2010 Man Booker prize was announced in London and to the big relief of the British bookies who were standing to lose tons of money on bets made on the big favorite "C" by Tom McCarthy, so much so that betting was closed last week by some agencies, a dark horse "The Finkler Question" by Howard Jacobson won.

Said to be the first comedic novel that has won the Booker, The Finkler Question was the only one I did not check out so far of the six shortlisted novels. I reviewed Room and will review In a Strange Room this week for its US publication, while I strongly disliked the big favorite "C". The other two I have started but not yet finished, though I read enough to have a good idea about them.

Since The Finkler Question has also just been released here in the US, I will take a look at it especially that the online extract I looked at on Amazon read well. While I doubt the book will come close in my appreciation as the superb Room, maybe its choosing is a sign of the times - when things are less rosy even the literati prefer comedy... I will see soon.

Edit later 10/13 As expected I found a copy of the novel this evening and started reading from it and I like it; quite funny in a bittersweet way so far and not a book I will read end to end, but one to savor slowly especially when feeling down. Not the emotional Room or the stark beautiful simplicity of In a Strange Room, but neither the pretentious jargon, "look at me, I am important" of "C", The Finkler Question goes well with the uncertain mood of the times, so I am not surprised anymore that it won.
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On Niall Harrison's Torque Control there has been a heated debate with 218 comments so far about "Women and the Clarke" It is worth reading the comments especially that some well known sff authors like Richard K Morgan and Liz Williams chimed in, but here I want to talk about Mr. Harrison's initiative to compile a list of notable sf written by women between 2001-2010 under the heading Future Classics since several years ago there was a furor about a Gollancz list of Future Classics that had no women authors.

Personally I am very skeptical of any "classics", "must read" lists done by any publishers since to my mind they are a marketing ploy for attention and no more - so I never really pay attention to such, but this effort here is independent and merits all our support.

So email Mr. Harrison your list top ten sf novels by women from the last ten years (2001–2010), before 23.59 on Sunday 5 December. For more details about eligibility as publishing dates go read his post, but otherwise there are no restriction on publication country and as for what is sf - another topic that merits a length post and debate - I will just direct you to the AC Clarke award shortlists of the past several years for guidance.

So Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Retribution Falls qualify - which to my mind means that a lot of stuff does - but again that is for another day, though I am very curious to see if Kraken gets nominated and accepted for 2010 since that would automatically would add most UF on the sf lists as per all this discussion which of course would render it kind of moot...

I will present here my list which I emailed as above with links to our reviews when available and to Google books extract when not.

1.Spirit – Gwyneth Jones (FBc Rv LS)
2.The Year of Our War – Steph Swainston (Google books extract)
3.The Etched City – K.J. Bishop (Google books extract)
4.Chaos Space - Marianne de Pierres (FBC Rv LS)
5.The Alchemy of Stone - Ekaterina Sedia (FBC Rv RT)
6.Principles of Angels - Jaine Fenn (FBC Rv LS)
7.Darkland – Liz Williams (FBC Rv RT)
8.Daughters of the North aka The Carhullan Army - Sarah Hall (FBC Rv LS)
9.Spin State – Chris Moriarty (Google books extract)
10.Banner of Souls – Liz Williams (Google books extract)

"The Half Made World" by Felix Gilman (Reviewed by Liviu Suciu)

Official Felix Gilman Website
Order "The Half Made World" HERE
Read FBC Review of Thunderer
Read FBC Review of Gears of the City
Read FBC Interview with Felix Gilman

INTRODUCTION: With only two novels so far - the duology Thunderer and Gears of the City, both in my top novels of 2008 and 2009 respectively, at the time and now also - Felix Gilman has become one of the top-notch authors of interesting and unusual fantasies that mix the traditional and the strange. So despite knowing little about "The Half Made World" at the time, the book was a highly anticipated novel of 2010 and when the blurb below surfaced, my interest only grew:

The world is only half made. What exists has been carved out amidst a war between two rival factions: the Line, paving the world with industry and claiming its residents as slaves; and the Gun, a cult of terror and violence that cripples the population with fear. The only hope at stopping them has seemingly disappeared—the Red Republic that once battled the Gun and the Line, and almost won. Now they’re just a myth, a bedtime story parents tell their children, of hope. To the west lies a vast, uncharted world, inhabited only by the legends of the immortal and powerful Hill People, who live at one with the earth and its elements. Liv Alverhyusen, a doctor of the new science of psychology, travels to the edge of the made world to a spiritually protected mental institution in order to study the minds of those broken by the Gun and the Line. In its rooms lies an old general of the Red Republic, a man whose shattered mind just may hold the secret to stopping the Gun and the Line. And either side will do anything to understand how.

FORMAT/CLASSIFICATION: "The Half-Made World" stands at 480 pages divided into five parts and 52 chapters, all named and with an epilogue that sets up the concluding volume of the series. The novel follows the POV's of its three main characters, Dr. Liv Alverhuysen, Agent of the Gun Credmoor and Sub-invigilator Grade 3 Lowry, with occasional flashback snippets that illuminate the larger picture.

The first part of an intended duology, "The Half-Made World" is a fantasy set within a wild-west kind of mythology; with elements of both steampunk and magic "The Half-Made World" sits at the boundary between the more traditional adventure fantasy and the new weird. "The Half-Made World" stops at a very good point and offers a complete reading experience, though of course I really want to see where the story goes next.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS:"The Half-Made World" is quite a strange book. It is dark and dense, but a page turner nonetheless that would not let go once I entered its flow. The known-world is divided between the settled East and the expanding into uncreation West. Some centuries ago the seemingly impassable mountains that formed the border of the settled world opened and people started settling the lands beyond and in the process fixing them into reality. However un-natural or supernatural things sprung out here and there, most notably spirits, demons and "magical" engines, while the local people of the "uncreation" who may be immortal and have magic are pushed farther and farther away, with the remnants enslaved.

The settled parts of the West consist of many independent lands but all live under the ever expanding shadow of the Line, a highly regimented industrial and well armed civilization of millions, led by the magical engines of above, currently 38 in number, that span tens of thousands of miles of tracks; opposing them are the Demon Guns and their agents, who are few - some tens, maybe a hundred - in number, but who have extreme powers of endurance and who foment uprisings, rebellions and generally wreak havoc wherever they think the Line is vulnerable.

Some decades ago a "free republic" has risen, led by a General who was rumored to have had a pact with one of the original natives and knew how to use their magic; nevertheless after 40 years of flourishing, the Republic was finally crushed by the Line and after 10 more years of underground resistance, the General was rendered mad by a Line "noise bomb" in his last stand and he was presumed dead.

However it is rumored that he is now a patient at an asylum on the farthest borders of the West with the uncreation, asylum that is neutral and under the protection of a powerful spirit; a letter surfaces hinting of an "ultimate" weapon the General may have been given by his native allies and both the Line and the Gun want it. Effective but unruly Gun Agent Credmoor is sent to infiltrate the asylum, while a thousands strong - with flying machines, poison gas, bombs, machine guns and the like - Line force is also dispatched to deal with the Asylum and their Spirit, with sub-invigilator, grade 3 Lowry as one of their officers.

Liv Alverhuysen, a psychiatrist from the far away settled cities of the East and with a traumatic past of her own, receives an invitation to join the Asylum staff - invitation actually addressed to her much older and recently deceased husband, but she figures out she would be gladly received too. She engages on the long and harrowing journey with her servant/protege, who is a relatively young man of her age, very strong physically but mentally challenged so to speak. And so it starts, with the three main characters above converging on the Asylum and then of course lots and lots of things happen.

What are the strengths of "The Half-Made World"? In the above overview I mentioned two - most notably its exquisite and quite original world-building which makes reading the book worthwhile on its own. And of course, the energy of the narrative flow that does not let go of the reader. The combination of story, action and descriptions are balanced perfectly and the continual switching between the three main threads is smooth.

There is also an interesting dynamic represented by the characters: Lowry is a devoted Line official, one in literally millions who has really never known life outside his mechanistic and grimy civilization, though he has participated as operative on Gun Agent hunts. So he is less of an individual and more of a cog in the machine.

Credmoor is the supreme individualist bonded with a Demon Gun whom he more or less has to obey in return for the immense physical benefits, but the Guns are quite anarchic too with essentially one purpose - wreak havoc to avoid the Line crushing them for ever... So Credmoor is both the "lone gunman" of the Wild West mythology, but also its outlaw.

Liv represents settled civilization and culture; sure she has her own traumas and the decision to go into the unknown shows she wants to "escape" the confines of her society, but overall she is the one clearly humane character of the novel. So we have the machine, the rebel and the explorer , though they are all quite memorable characters on their own too.

While "The Half-Made World" immerses the reader into its world, the author's superb writing style exerts its magic and the novel offers quite a lot, the big picture remains a bit murky to the end. There are tantalizing hints sure, the storyline and the fate of the main characters are more than enough reasons to strongly enjoy the book, but I was left wondering about the series' destination and even if there is such.

All in all "The Half-Made World" (A++ and currently my #8 fantasy and #13 novel of 2010 in a very strong year) is a powerful novel that confirms Felix Gilman as a master of the new weird fantastic.

The Top Books of 2008 Revisited (by Liviu Suciu)

Recently I decided to look back at the 2008 books I have read taking into consideration the ones I read later in 2009 or 2010, so 161 as of my last count. I put a top 25 list on Goodreads *based on my feelings today about the books* which I then compared to my FBC Top 2008 List.

The FBC list is of course more elaborate - split into categories for example - but as a rough comparison the two lists make a good example of how books stay in my mind as time passes. The most notable difference is that Anathem which I thought a "once in a decade novel" upon reading it, faded very quickly and I never felt the compulsion to reread it, the way I did Spirit, 2666 or BSRA for example.To a lesser extent Caine Black Knife also faded in my memory, while Night Angel or The Engine's Child stayed strong as core-fantasy novels of 2008 go.

I read Desideria, Omega and The House at Riverton in 2009 and those would have clearly made the list in 2008 as probably The Company would have done too, while several novels stayed in my memory much more than I expected at the time: The Magicians and Mrs. Quent, Empire in Black and Gold, Chaos Space, Red Wolf Conspiracy and The Immortal Prince.

Here are the lists with links to the FBC reviews and when not available to my Goodreads mini-reviews. Since 2666 is on my list of top 00's novels and I plan to start reviewing big-time-favorites of mine from earlier years at least once a month - for October The Notebook qualifies and I hope to review either Use of Weapons or The Kindly Ones soon - I should have a full review of that one here.

On Goodreads and current:

1: Spirit: The Princess of Bois Dormant, Jones, Gwyneth
2: 2666 Bolano, Roberto
3: Desideria Kornher-Stace, Nicole
4: By Schism Rent Asunder Weber, David
5: Omega Evans, Chris
6: Night Angel Weeks, Brent
7:The Engine's Child Phillips, Holly
8:Anathem Stephenson, Neal
9:Memoirs of a Master Forger Heaney, William aka Joyce, Graham
10:The Gargoyle Davidson, Andrew
11:The Magicians and Mrs. Quent Beckett, Galen M.
12:Thunderer Gilman, Felix
13:Caine Black Knife Stover, Matthew
14:The Kingdom Beyond the Waves Hunt, Stephen
15:The Immortal Prince Fallon, Jennifer
16:Empire in Black and Gold Tchaikovsky, Adrian
17:The Company Parker, K.J.
18:The House at Riverton Morton, Kate
19:Serious Things Norminton, Greg
20;The Quiet War McAuley, Paul J.
21:The January Dancer Flynn, Michael
22:The Gift of Rain Eng, Tan Twan
23:Line War Asher, Neal
24:The Red Wolf Conspiracy Redick, Robert V.S.
25:Chaos Space (Sentients of Orion, #2) Pierres, Marianne de

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On FBC Originally posted in early 2009

SF:

1) “Anathem" by Neal Stephenson. A once in a decade novel for me, the essence of sf. Reviewed HERE.
2) “Spirit: The Princess of Bois Dormant” by Gwyneth Jones. Count(ess) of Monte-Cristo in space. Reviewed HERE.
3) “By Schism Rent Asunder” by David Weber. Epic fantasy with an AI wizard. Reviewed HERE.
4) “The Quiet War” by Paul McAuley. Solar system space opera with a hard sf tinge. Reviewed HERE.
5) “The Temporal Void” by Peter F. Hamilton. Urban fantasy within a space opera setting. Reviewed HERE.

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Fantasy:

1) “Caine Black Knife” by Matthew Stover. Caine as a promising young star and his life 25 years later. Reviewed HERE.
2) Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks. Individually, none of the books would make it in my Top 5, but as a whole it’s the best debut trilogy since Joe Abercrombie’s the First Law. "The Way of Shadows" reviewed HERE.
3) “The Engine's Child” by Holly Phillips. Most surprisingly superb genre novel for me; magical engineer girl lies, builds, loves. Reviewed HERE.
4) “Thunderer” by Felix Gilman. Music, gods, strange city, flying sea vessel. Reviewed HERE.
5) “The Kingdom Beyond the Waves” by Stephen Hunt. A sense of wonder adventure sf as epic fantasy. Reviewed HERE.

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Mainstream (fantastic)

1) “Memoirs of a Master Forger” by William Heaney (Aka Graham Joyce). Fairy tale for adults; superb, heart warming antidote to sadness and depression. Reviewed HERE.
2) “El Juego del Ángel” (Spanish language) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Dr. Faustus in Barcelona.
3) “The Gargoyle” by Andrew Davidson. Love and third degree burns across space and time. Reviewed HERE.
4) “The Ninth Circle” by Alex Bell. Redemption by forgetting.
5) “Ghost Radio” by Leopoldo Gout. DJ loves the supernatural and the supernatural likes him back. Reviewed HERE.
5) (tie) “Black Ships” by Jo Graham. Trojan priestess helps Aeneas found Latium.

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Mainstream (non-fantastic)

1) “2666: A Novel” by Roberto Bolaño. Another once in a decade novel; masterpiece of world literature.
2) “The Good Thief” by Hannah Tinti. Darker, adult version of Hector Malot’s classic “Nobody's Boy”. Reviewed HERE.
3) “Le Salut de l'Empire” (French language) by Claude Schote. The missing half of Alexandre Dumas' last novel finished by noted Dumas biographer Claude Schott based on the original outline, including some chapters written by Dumas. Hector fulfills his destiny.
4) “Sashenka: A Novel” by Simon Montefiore. Decadence and revolution in Tsarist Russia, romance and torture in Stalin's USSR.
5) “The Minutes of the Lazarus Club” by Tony Pollard. Victorian science and technology to kill for. Reviewed HERE.

Two Capsule Reviews: "The Crowfield Curse" by Pat Walsh and "No Such Things As Dragons" by Philip Reeve (Reviewed by Cindy Hannikman)

As I've mentioned one of my favorite things to do is to read some of the middle grade fantasy books. After all our interest in fantasy has to be sparked at some point in our lives. So I always will reserve a little time to read some of what is considered "Middle Grade" fantasy/Sci-fi. Here are two of my more recent reads, "The Crowfield Curse" by Pat Walsh and "No Such Thing As Dragons" by Philip Reeve.

The Crowfield Curse by Pat Walsh
Order Crowfield Curse from Amazon Here


The setting is 1347 and Will is an orphaned boy who is forced to work amongst the Crowfield monks. One day as Will is given the task of gathering firewood in the forest he comes across a small creature who has been wounded by a fox trap. Although the creature looks like a small cat it is anything but a cat it turns out to be a hobgoblin and not every human can see him.

As a favor to Will for rescuing him, the hobgoblin reveals a secret that the Abbey has been keeping for over 100 years. In the back of the abbey, buried deep below the ground is an Angel. This secret brings a lot of questions up for Will. How can an Angel die? What secrets does the Abbey hold that he doesn't know? What could be so evil to actually kill an Angel? And who is this strange man that is visiting the abbey when the abbey hasn't had visitors in years? Is Old Magic making a come back?

The Crowfield Curse was a bit of a mixed bag for myself. While the story and plot seemed interesting, the novel was written in a very middle grade style. The font in the book is huge and the chapters are about 5-10 pages long making this a really quick read.

So here is what made Crowfield Curse a mixed experience for myself. First, the novel starts off very slowly. It details things that I had already learned on the back flap of the book. It wasn't until the halfway point that readers were introduced to other elements outside what was already told. Once those elements were given the book really did pick up. The characters have a bit of personality but don't expect anything too deep or detailed.

What I really enjoyed about Crowfield Curse was the mixture of a medieval setting, the fey and Christian themes. While the Christian themes were spread throughout the novel, it didn't seem forced and really worked for the story. I thought the whole last half of the book was a unique twist and combo of Old Magic and fey stories.

If you are looking for an easy read or children's story that is fairly well written, then Crowfield Curse will give you that. It is a first book of a series and I look forward to what Old Magic will be springing up on Will in the next novel.

The Crowfield Curse stands at 336 pages and was released September 1, 2010 by The Chicken House, a division of Scholastic. It is a mixture of medieval abbey, mystery, old magic and Christian lore.


No Such Thing As Dragons by Philip Reeve
Order No Such Things As Dragons from Amazon Here

Ansel is a mute boy who is sold by his father to a dragon hunter. Ansel has been mute ever since his mother died a number of years ago. Brock is the dragon hunter who goes from village to village in shiny armor, telling tales of how he destroyed dragons and hunted them down. Although Brock tells these villages that he hunts dragons, everyone knows there really is "no such thing as dragons".

While Brock takes Ansel to a small village in an effort to dupe a village into believing he is hunting dragons, Brock and Ansel run into a mysterious creature that really does look like a dragon. But it can't be a dragon, because dragons don't exist..... or do they?

No Such Thing As Dragons is 192 page novel that was released September 1, 2010 by Scholastic, Inc.

I'm a dragon lover and have been for a while. Give me any book with a dragon and I'll read it. I've even been known to read picture books with dragons! However, this novel just didn't do it for me. Here's why.

There is a lot of emphasis on religion. While it didn't bother me, it was really packed in there. I sorta felt that, the time that was focused on religion could have been spent on something else like developing characters. I just don't believe in a book that is geared for grade 4 through 6 there should have been such an emphasis on God and the Devil and why these things were part of the Devil.

The major drawback for myself was that this whole book was almost told to the reader. It didn't feel as if I was experiencing the story with the characters and instead I was told what had happened to them. There is very little dialogue and at one point in the novel it jumped between 4 different characters in a 2 page span. It just seemed like so much was packed into the novel in such a short space.

The good parts of the book were the descriptions of the travels. Such as when the characters were on the mountain. I loved the descriptive feel of the book and just wished that there was some dialogue mixed in with it.

This is definitely a short, quick book for young readers. There isn't anything that really stands the book out from any other books about dragons but it would be a great intro reader for younger readers looking for a mystery and easy read.