“Slums of the Shire” by Daniel Polansky

Official Daniel Polansky Website

Order “Low Town” HERE (US) + HERE (UK)

Read An Excerpt HERE
Read An Interview HERE

Watch the Book Trailer HERE

Read FBC’s Review of “Low Town”

Occasionally you'll be with a group of people and they'll get to talking about their favorite historical epochs, nostalgic for lives they never led. One person will talk up their childhood love of the Wild West, another reveal a penchant for Victorian England. This last one just has a thing for corsets, but it's better not to call them on it.

When my turn rolls round I take a sip of whatever we're drinking and look at my shoes. “The mid 90's were pretty good,” I say lamely. “Slower internet and everything, but at least we had penicillin.”

Perhaps it's my being a history buff, but the past sucked. For about a millennium and a half after the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe just seems like a real shit place to reside. Lots of rooting in filth until you die at thirty a half mile from where you born. Nominally the nobles had it better, but still, your fever would have been treated with the application of leaches and your pretty young bride had like a one in two chance of surviving child birth.

This probably is why I don't understand fantasy—that is to say that collection of high medieval tropes collected by Tolkien and gleefully reproduced by two generations of descendants.

Take elves for instance—though perfectly capable of imagining a world where higher intelligence evolved in a species separate from humanity, my powers of make believe fail when positing that the relation between said species would be anything beyond unceasing warfare. Even a cursory glance at human history reveals our collective willingness to commit genocide on fellow homo sapiens—how much quicker would we have been to eradicate a separate species competing for identical resources? If elves existed, our ancestors would have hunted them down to extinction and erected a monument to the accomplishment.

But I digress.

Even when nestled comfortably in a quest to kill a dragon or overthrow a dark lord or what have you, strange thoughts plague me. What does the shady side of Gondor look like? How many platinum coins would a dime bag set me back? What is the point of hobbits? They're just short, fat people. People are plenty fat as it is.

Low Town is sort of my attempt to answer some of those questions (not the last one). It's the story of the Warden, a former intelligence agent and current drug dealer, whose gradual slide into self-destruction is briefly checked by the discovery of a dead body in the neighborhood he runs. An ill-timed bout of conscience rattles the easy cage of venality he's built for himself, and leads him on a collision course with the life he'd left behind. The Warden is a guy trying to survive the next few days, and not particularly squeamish as to what that requires—the sort of person more likely to populate a classic crime novel than to be found stocking the fantasy section of your local Borders (RIP).

More broadly, Low Town is an attempt to meld the best aspects of noir with a low fantasy setting—a meeting of tastes which I think complement each other nicely. The spare language and fast pace of good noir offers a pleasant counterpoint to the sprawling—one might even say bloated—length of much modern fantasy. On a somewhat broader level, the tendency of fantasy to focus on world shaking events often renders it irrelevant to the average reader, whose life relatively rarely devolves into single combat against vaguely satanic analogs. By contrast, noir is concerned with the individual, with greed and lust, sins all of us can comprehend to some degree. Low Town centers on the conceit that a world with magic wouldn't be altogether different from a world without it. People are still (on the whole) selfish, stupid creatures, focused almost exclusively on the immediate satisfaction of their basic desires, only now some of them can shoot fire out of their hands.

That's the idea at least. Low Town comes out today (August 16^th) in the US and Canada, and on Thursday (August 18^th) in the UK and Commonwealth. I hope you check it out and see if I've succeeded, or if I'm just a pretentious clown. Or both.

“Ghost Story” by Jim Butcher (Reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)

Official Jim Butcher Website

Order “Ghost Story” HERE (US) + HERE (UK)

Read An Excerpt HERE

Read FBC’s Review of “Changes”

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Jim Butcher is the bestselling author of The Dresden Files, which has been adapted into a SyFy television show and a series of comic book adaptations produced by Dynamite Entertainment. He is also the author of The Codex Alera epic fantasy saga. In addition to writing, Jim Butcher is a martial arts enthusiast and live-action gamer. He currently lives in Independence, Missouri with his family.

OFFICIAL PLOT SYNOPSIS: When readers last left the mighty wizard detective Harry Dresden, he wasn’t doing well. In fact, he had been murdered by an unknown assassin.

But being dead doesn’t stop him when his friends are in danger. Except now he has no body, and no magic to help him. And there are also several dark spirits roaming the Chicago shadows who owe Harry some payback of their own.

To save his friends—and his own soul—Harry will have to pull off the ultimate trick without any magic…

CLASSIFICATION: The Dresden Files is an Urban Fantasy series that blends humor with action.

FORMAT/INFO: Ghost Story is 477 pages long divided over fifty-one chapters, an Author’s Note and an Acknowledgments page. As usual, narration is in the first-person, exclusively via the private investigator/wizard Harry Dresden. Ghost Story is the thirteenth volume in The Dresden Files after Changes. It is highly recommended that new readers start at the beginning of the series since Ghost Story builds on plot developments and characters that are introduced in the previous books.

July 26, 2011 marked the North American Hardcover publication of Ghost Story via Roc Books. The UK edition (see below) was published on July 28, 2011 via Orbit Books.

ANALYSIS: With the way Changes ended, readers were understandably excited and anxious for the arrival of Ghost Story. Ghost Story begins much like any other Harry Dresden novel except for one glaring difference . . . he’s DEAD! Well, sort of. Harry soon learns that he’s neither completely dead nor fully alive. He also learns that three of his friends are in dire jeopardy, but not who, so now he must go back to Chicago to try and save his friends and discover who murdered him, all without the use of his magical powers.

In many ways, Ghost Story is pretty similar to the other Harry Dresden books with the same accessible prose and the same blend of humor, supernatural action, and gravitas. Then again, Ghost Story is also different. After all, it’s been months since Harry ‘died’, so Ghost Story has a gloomier feel to it and it’s interesting to see how others—Karrin Murphy, the Alphas, Father Murphy, Molly Carpenter, etc.—are coping with his loss. It’s also interesting to see how Harry handles things without his powers, which may result in fewer epic battles compared to the rest of the series, but definitely brought a smile to my face.

The supporting cast remains large and revolving, with a couple of characters receiving an upgraded role that will excite the fanbase, while others are noticeably absent or only make a cameo appearance. There is also a brand new character who I’m sure will have a much larger role to play in future volumes.

Plot-wise, Ghost Story resolves the mystery of who murdered Harry and why. The clues were all laid out in Changes, so I—and a host of others—had already guessed the killer’s identity. However, I was very interested in the reasoning behind Harry’s death. Unfortunately, I thought the author utilized the easy route with the killer’s motive, when he could have made it more sinister or even fantastic, so I was a bit deflated by the revelation. The ending though goes a long way in redeeming the novel’s twist and revelations, while nicely setting up the next volume in the series, Cold Days. There is also a revelation about a major event in Harry’s past which doesn’t do much with the main plot in Ghost Story, but is very appreciated since it shines a light on things that could come into play in the future.

The major negative factor in Ghost Story is how much time & effort Harry spends rationalizing his actions in Changes. There’s no question Harry faced some horrific choices in the previous book, but up till now, Harry has always been a person who does things fully committed with no middle ground. So it felt rather strange and false to me that Harry would spend so much time trying to justify his actions. More like an authorial decision than actually acting or thinking in line with Harry’s personality.

CONCLUSION: Ghost Story was a difficult book to review. As usual, Jim Butcher delivers another entertaining blend of humor, action and urban fantasy goodness, but after twelve volumes, The Dresden Files is starting to show cracks. Ghost Story certainly has its share of weak points and could have been tighter overall. Nevertheless, Ghost Story is still a good book and I can’t wait to see what kind of trouble Harry gets into in Cold Days...

The Not the Booker Longlist and The NPR Top 100 SFF Vote Getters

After two years of controversial success, Guardian's Not the Booker returned for a third season with a great change for the shortlist vote; this time you have to write a review - 150 words or more - for the book you vote for from the pretty big longlist HERE.



There are some very good sff choices on the longlist - I put there The Clockwork Rocket by Greg Egan which is still my overall number one novel of the year so far - but for the shortlist choice, I voted for a sf novel with good chances of making the top six, namely Embassytown by China Mieville which is quite superb too.



Go check the list and if you have read at least one of the choices there, liked it and are in the mood to write a quick review in the comments on the Guardian site or for that matter somewhere else like Goodreads, Amazon or a blog and link it there, show your support!



As I will also point out in the next item, the main point about the Not the Booker is its origination in one of the mainstream newspapers with a pretty good global audience and promoting sff there is always something to cheer for.



Vote HERE!



*********************************************************



Recently I have posted the NPR longlist for their Top 100 sff of all time and my ten choices I voted for; the top 100 vote getters have been recently announced and you can find them HERE.



I was not that surprised about the list compiled from about 60000 votes, while 7 of 10 of my choices appeared there, one in the top 10 too.



As expected the usual grumbles from several corners appeared with the usual reasons - this came ahead of that, the quota of this particular gender/race/ethnic group has not been filled especially compared with the longlist where the percentage of that was x, but here in the top 100 we have the lower percentage y - and yes people count that - complaints which imho miss the main point of this list, namely its origination in one of the pillars of mainstream media, home of such famous shows like Prairie Home Companion, This American Life and Car Talk to name some of my favorites I listen to on and off...



Promoting written sff - and the list had a lot of breadth to make it a decent one at the least - in the mainstream is nothing to be sneered at imho and I am really happy NPR offered the genre fans this chance!

"The Crown of the Conqueror" by Gav Thorpe (Reviewed by Liviu Suciu)

Official Gav Thorpe Website

Order "The Crown of the Conqueror" HERE or HERE (ebook)

Read FBC Review of The Crown of the Blood HERE



INTRODUCTION: As it can be seen from my review, I have enjoyed the series debut "The Crown of the Blood" quite a lot but I was apprehensive about The Crown of the Conqueror on two counts. The twist at the end while indeed cool and unexpected, indicated a clear deepening of the magic used in the universe and of course the "middle book syndrome" which has been keeping quite a few books in a narrative harness that lessened their potential.



On opening The Crown of the Conqueror, I was immediately sucked into the flow of the story and while both points above turned out to be pertinent, the powerful writing of the author and the interesting characters and setting of the series made the novel another page turner I had to finish as soon as possible.



Since the following discussion will have major spoilers for The Crown of the Blood as The Crown of the Conqueror directly continues the story there, if you have not read the series debut, continue at your risk!



OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: For people who have not read The Crown of the Blood, the salient facts about the series are: it is set into a world that mixes Roman-style armies with middle-Eastern - from the Assyrian or Babylonian Empires of yore - customs and attitudes and with magic that becomes much more important in this second volume. The legions and style of fighting resemble the Roman armies, but the Greater Askhos Empire's provinces resemble oriental satrapies rather than Roman provinces as do customs like a special brand of polygamy - the high nobles marry all the sisters from another noble family, custom that is quite important in the structure of the series. The way the imperial power is structured resembles also the middle-Eastern experience as are the naming conventions.



The main character is Ullsaard, who from provincial ranks became general, hitched himself to the star of Aalun, the second prince of the blood since the eldest was sickly and almost incapacitated and when the old king Alluan refused to name Aalun heir, was forced to rebel first in Aalun's name, but soon he started aspiring to the crown himself.



Since the Askhos crown has been passed only to the direct descendants of the founder, Askhos himself, Ulssard seemed to have no chance until it was discovered that despite a tradition of "disappearing" all children of the blood outside of the first legitimate boys - one as heir, one as "reserve" so to speak - Ullsaard was actually the bastard son of Alluan and indeed the oldest of the blood to which the crown could rightfully belong.



And The Crown of the Blood ends with Ullsaard crowning himself only to discover that Askhos himself - his spirit, ghost, etc - haunts the crown and takes over its wearer so the founder has been ruling the empire beyond the grave while the reason for the tradition above becomes clear. But due to the circumstances, Askhos cannot take over Ullsaard and the two start an unusual "cohabitation" in Ulssard's head though the new king soon finds out how to diminish the influence of Askhos and to the founder's horror is ready to set the empire on a completely different course - a very reckless expansionary one in Askhos' view.



In the meantime, former slave dealer, all around slimy but cunning Anghlan, current governor of the important border town of Magilnada, has his own plans that involve sticking the knife in his patron's back, the Brotherhood, the priesthood that actually formed the bureaucratic backbone of the state has been disbanded by an angry Ullsaard who soon discovers that empires do not run by themselves, its leader, another old man with an agenda grooms Erlaan, the grandson of Alluan, though since the youngster would usually be just lunch for the experienced Ullsaard, lots of magic is needed, while the Salphorian clans targeted for invasion by Ullsaard refuse to heed their king's pleas and unite to deal with the empire.



So a volatile mixture with some things going for Ullsaard, but a lot more - including the unresolved tensions in his family of three wives, three sons and an injured friend who saved his bacon at great personal cost - going against, while the new king is ready to make his mark on the world and conquer Salphoria despite Askhos' desperate pleas that is way too soon as his centuries long plans go. And magic of course, the usual "ancient evil soon to be awoken" lurks somewhere too!



Action galore, including a duel for the ages, battles and intrigue, but The Crown of the Conqueror also expands the universe a lot and we get to see not only the width and breadth of the empire and a big chunk of Salphoria, but also another neighbor, the usually undisciplined "savage" Mekhani who now may have found their messiah-king of legend and are ready to sweep the Askhos away...



The character development continues strongly here and we see different facets of Ullsaard who shows that he can make mistakes as everyone, he can be scared as everyone but he is still the dodged fighter who would not give up but use the smallest edge to turn things around. On the other hand the other characters - especially Anghlan who loses most nuance from the first volume - have somewhat reduced roles, though there are several that stand out from the page and offer some great scenes, most notably the drunk king of Salphoria and the nasty chief priest of the Brothehood.



The more important role played by magic in this novel -role that moves The Crown of the Conqueror away from the straight-up military fantasy of the series debut towards the more traditional epic - was integrated skilfully by the author and I never felt my suspension of disbelief waver at any moment.



While the action advances a lot and the main threads of the novel are wrapped up well, The Crown of the Conqueror is still a middle book in the sense that the big picture issues remain to be addressed. Following the example of The Crown of the Blood, the ending is on another twist though this time it is foreshadowed so it comes as less of a shock, though it serves well its purpose of hook for the next installment as well as giving a slight hint where that will go.



All in all, The Crown of the Conqueror (A+) is another excellent fantasy that I strongly recommend without and the author has another winner here!

"The Forgotten Locket" Book Three of the Hourglass Door Trilogy by Lisa Mangum (Reviewed by Cindy Hannikman)

Read FBC's Review of The HourGlass Door Here

Read FBC's Review of The Golden Spiral Here

Visit Lisa Mangum's Website Here 

OVERVIEW: Abby walked through the black door at the end of the Golden Spiral (book 2 of the Hourglass Door Trilogy). The decision to walk through the door meant that she had to leave Dante, Abby's one true love, behind. However, it is the only one that can help her save her family and stop the river of time from being destroyed by Zo. If the river of time is destroyed the past, present and future will be thrown into pure chaos and everyone's future will be uncertain.

FORMAT: The Forgotten Locket is the third book in the Hourglass Door Trilogy. It is a YA novel that contains a mixture of time traveling, romance, magic and action. Events within The Forgotten Locket pick up right where The Golden Spiral left off and it is imperative to read the previous novels before starting this final book. The Forgotten Locket stands at 416 pages and was published May 30, 2011 by Shadow Mountain Publishing.

ANALYSIS: The Hourglass Door Trilogy has slowly become one of those series I couldn't wait to read the next book in. When I read the first novel, The Hourglass Door, I was a little taken aback. I loved the characters and the plot but there were some elements, mainly the time traveling and river, that left me a little confused.

Jump ahead to the second book, The Golden Spiral, and things really picked up. There was action, adventure, and the characters continued to grow and develop right before my eyes. The one downside? It ended in a cliffhanger and like every fantasy reader cliffhangers just make me want to read the next book immediately.

So now, we've come to the end of the Hourglass Door Trilogy and I have to say that The Forgotten Locket is the perfect ending to a wonderful and amazing series.

Lisa Mangum absolutely knows how to take a story, develop it right before your eyes and wrap it up with no loose ends. Everything that I loved about the previous two books, mainly the characterizations and plot line, continued throughout The Forgotten Locket. Abby, Dante, Zo and Valerie continued to become fleshed out characters that are multi-dimensional. So many authors get wrapped up in ending the series that they forget to let the characters continue to grow. Luckily for readers, Lisa Mangum seized the opportunity to let her characters grow while finishing the series.

The Forgotten Locket is just as much a page turner as the previous books in the series. However, I did start to feel the novel drag a little towards the end but this could be because things were wrapping up and the plot was starting to come full circle.

One of the elements that I was still a little confused about, the river of time, really did come together in the end. After reading all three books it makes sense. It still might be a little confusing if you just take it at face value in the first or second book, but when you put all three together it just fits.

While I really enjoyed the characters and plot development, what I absolutely loved about The Forgotten Locket was the way that Lisa Mangum tied everything together. Little clues that were dropped in previous novels are brought back and explained in further detail. I thought this was a nice touch and a great way to acknowledge the previous novels without rehashing everything for the readers.

Overall, I thought this was a perfect way to end the series. In fact, I couldn't think of a better way to end it if I had written it. There was just the right blend of sweet romance between Abby and Dante, and heart pounding action between Dante, Zo and Abby.

I really believe that because this series bares the stigma of "YA romance/fantasy" it is overlooked by many people who would enjoy it. Lisa Mangum is an amazingly gifted author who really hit the fantasy scene with an outstanding debut. While the door for this series comes to a close, I really can't wait to see what new door opens for Lisa Mangum as I am almost certain that this will not be the last we hear from her.