“Eyes To See” by Joseph Nassise (Reviewed by Robert Thompson)

Official Joseph Nassise Website

Order “Eyes To See” HERE

Read An Excerpt HERE

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Joseph Nassise is the author of more than a dozen novels, including the internationally bestselling Templar Chronicles and several books in the Rogue Angel action/adventure series from Gold Eagle. He’s also a former president of the Horror Writers Association, and a two-time Bram Stoker Award and International Horror Guild Award nominee. He currently lives with his family in Phoenix, Arizona.

PLOT SUMMARY: Jeremiah Hunt was happily married, the father of a lovely young daughter, and successfully employed at Harvard. Then his life fell apart. One moment, his daughter was playing in her room; the next, she was gone without a trace. Within months, Hunt’s obsessive search for his daughter cost him everything else of value in his life: his marriage, his career, his reputation. Desperate to reclaim what was lost, he finally turns to the supernatural for justice.

Sacrificing his normal sight so that he can see the ‘unseen’, Jeremiah enters a world of ghosts and even more dangerous entities that stalk his worst nightmares. Doomed to walk between the light of day and the deepest darkness beyond night, Hunt now earns a meager living chasing away wayward spirits that are tormenting the living, while taking on the occasional consulting job for the Boston police department.

On his latest consulting job, Jeremiah is asked to investigate a series of brutal murders that leads him to new friends, new enemies and new clues about his daughter, propelling Hunt on a desperate search for answers. A search that will force Hunt to confront an ageless, malevolent entity that would use him for its own nefarious purposes...

FORMAT/INFO: Eyes To See is 320 pages long divided over fifty-six numbered chapters. Each chapter is subtitled either ‘Now’ to represent the present, or ‘Then’ to represent the past. For the most part, narration is in the first-person via Jeremiah Hunt, but the narrative switches to various third-person POVs (hedge witch Denise Clearwater, an unnamed creature, etc.) throughout the novel. Eyes To See wraps up some of the book’s main storylines, but it is the first volume in The Jeremiah Hunt Chronicle, which will be followed by King of the Dead in 2012. October 11, 2011 marks the North American Hardcover publication of Eyes To See via Tor. Cover art is provided by Cliff Nielsen.

ANALYSIS: Urban fantasy is a genre I’ve almost completely sworn off due to reasons vented elsewhere. That said, I’m always on the lookout for titles that might bring something new to the table. In the case of Joseph Nassise’s Eyes To See, readers are promised an urban fantasy novel that “charts daring new territory in the field” if the synopsis and author blurbs are anything to go by, but does the book really deliver on that promise? The answer is yes . . . and no.

For the most part, Eyes To See is a typical urban fantasy novel. Between Jeremiah Hunt’s first-person narrative; his supernatural gifts—including the ability to see and communicate with ghosts; the contemporary urban setting where vampires, demons, angels, witches and the like all exist; and a story that mixes mystery & police procedural with the paranormal, Eyes To See offers very few surprises for anyone familiar with the genre. In fact, I was constantly reminded of Mike Carey’s Felix Castor series and The Dresden Files as I was reading the book, although there are a couple of neat ideas in the novel like Jeremiah’s ability to borrow attributes (sight and strength) from a ghost.

What separates Eyes To See from its competition is the disappearance of the protagonist’s daughter five years earlier, which not only precipitated the chain of events that resulted in Jeremiah Hunt developing supernatural abilities, but also acts as the driving element behind his current actions in the novel, whether it’s performing exorcisms or doing consulting work for the Boston PD. As a father of two young children, I was really moved by Jeremiah’s loss, which is relived in painful detail through gut-wrenching flashbacks that cover his daughter’s disappearance, the despairing search for the missing girl, Hunt’s descent into madness, and the Faustian deal that made him blind, while granting him ‘ghostsight’. It’s heartbreaking stuff, infusing Eyes To See with an emotional punch that is unusual for the genre, but refreshing.

Unfortunately, Joseph Nassise is unable to maintain this emotional impact for the entire novel. After the secondary characters have been fully introduced and the story kicks into high gear, the disappearance of Jeremiah’s daughter becomes overshadowed by more conventional urban fantasy fare, including a murder mystery, an attraction developing between Hunt and the hedge witch Denise Clearwater, and dealing with a supernatural threat. To make matters worse, the author’s execution is hit-and-miss over the last two-thirds of the novel, punctuated by third-person POVs that pale in comparison to Jeremiah Hunt’s first-person narrative, at the same time failing to flesh out any of the secondary characters, and a narrative plagued by inconsistencies (Why is the creature trying to frame Jeremiah which seems at odds with its original plan?), characters acting out of turn (Dmitri giving up on Denise so easily), improbable scenarios—Hunt’s effortless escape from the police, Detective Miles Stanton’s timely intervention, etc.—and a climax that feels rushed.

Joseph Nassise does redeem himself at the end of the novel when the fate of Jeremiah’s daughter is unveiled, but the revelation lacks the impact it could have had if the book hadn’t become sidetracked by murder mysteries, romantic developments and supernatural drama.

Writing-wise, apart from weak supporting characters and issues with the narrative, Eyes To See is a very polished urban fantasy novel, highlighted by Jeremiah Hunt’s compelling first-person narrative and skilled prose:

“A sudden, overwhelming sense of despair washed over us. One moment we were perfectly fine and the next, drowning in a sea of emotion. It was the helplessness of a young child lost at the county fair without a familiar face in sight, the horror of a prisoner facing a life sentence in a six-by-eight box of a cell, the utter hopelessness of watching your family slaughtered horribly before your eyes while you lay bound on the floor, unable to do anything to stop it, all rolled up into one neat little package.”

“Parents experience a unique kind of fear. It is at once more visceral and more paralyzing than any other fear, a cold, clammy hand that squeezes your heart until your very blood starts to drip from between its fingers. It invades your mind like an alien presence, disrupts your thought processes and ratchets your emotions right off the scale, until you can’t possibly think straight and every second is an eternity, an eternity where all you can do is think about all of the terrible things that could have happened to your precious child.”

CONCLUSION: Because of the emotional punches landed by Jeremiah Hunt’s missing daughter, Joseph Nassise’s Eyes To See is partially successful in bringing something new to the genre, but in other areas, the novel doesn’t measure up to its peers due to one-dimensional supporting characters, narrative shortcomings, and relying too much on familiar urban fantasy trappings. Still, as far as the genre is concerned, Eyes To See is solidly entertaining, and I’m curious to see what happens in the next Jeremiah Hunt Chronicle, King of the Dead...

“The Emperor's Edge” by Lindsay Buroker (Reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)

Official Lindsay Buroker Website

Order “The Emperor’s Edge” HERE

Read An Excerpt HERE

Read FBC’s Review of “Encrpted”

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Lindsay Buroker is a writer who was influenced by J.A. Konrath to become a self-published author. She has a B.A from the University of Washington and also served in the military. Nowadays she works as an independent Internet professional and lives in the greater Seattle area. She has written six books so far including Encrypted and Flash Gold.

PLOT SUMMARY: Imperial law enforcer Amaranthe Lokdon is good at her job: she can deter thieves and pacify thugs, if not with a blade, then by toppling an eight-foot pile of coffee canisters onto their heads. But when ravaged bodies show up on the waterfront, an arson covers up human sacrifices, and a powerful business coalition plots to kill the emperor, she feels a tad overwhelmed.

Worse, Sicarius, the empire's most notorious assassin is in town. He's tied in with the chaos somehow, but Amaranthe would be a fool to cross his path. Unfortunately, her superiors order her to hunt him down. Either they have an unprecedented belief in her skills . . . or someone wants her dead.

FORMAT/INFO: The Kindle edition 318 pages long divided over twenty-one chapters and an Epilogue. Narration is evenly divided in the third-person omniscient chapters between Amaranthe Lokdon and Emperor Sespian Savarsin. The plot is completely self-contained, but is the first book of the Emperor’s Edge series.

ANALYSIS: Liviu Suciu previously reviewed Lindsay Buroker’s novel Encrypted on FBC, which is how I became interested in the author’s work. So when I heard about The Emperor’s Edge, a fantasy-steampunk hybrid, I immediately bought a copy on Amazon.

The Emperor’s Edge is set in the capital city of the Turgonian Empire, which is ruled by science and refutes magic as an unworthy practice. It is also facing tension across its borders from the country of Nuria where magic is given free rein. Into this backdrop, reader are immediately introduced to Amaranthe Lokdon, a lowly corporal stuck on patrol duty with her lazy partner Wholt. Readers are also introduced to Emperor Sespian Savarsin, who is trying to get back on his feet, while Commander Hollowcrest helps him rule the empire. During a routine patrol, Amaranthe and Wholt discover a suspicious fire that spirals out of control. Soon after, events occur which pull Amaranthe from her normal duties as an imperial enforcer to hunting down Sicarius, the most dangerous assassin in the world. And thus the plot to this fantastical story begins...

Instead of going for an all-original idea, Lindsay Buroker has taken an oft-used concept and presented it with her own additions. So even though The Emperor’s Edge is described as a “high fantasy novel in the era of steam”, the book comes across as a campy fantasy adventure hybrid . In fact, what I liked most about the novel was its campy feel, which includes characters and situations often cropping up to delude the protagonists of their well thought-out but slightly improper plans. This kept me chuckling constantly as the humor quotient is kept at a remarkably steady level. Granted, the story sometimes takes silly turns, but the plot twists and Lindsay Buroker’s writing make these moments entertaining rather than overtly stupid.

Another important factor for me was the great characterization. Even though there are only two POVs in The Emperor’s Edge, there are several supporting characters involved in the main plot and the author makes sure each one is unique, if not a bit stereotypical, but I think that was more for comedic effect. Amaranthe though is the most well-rounded character in the book, as readers are shown a close look at her down-to-earth, hard working personality; her thoughts; and using her tenacity and gift of persuasion to overcome the challenges in her life. Not only that, but Amaranthe is the emotional core of the book. Be it her interactions with Sicarius, Books, Maldynado, etc.; her calm nature; or her deductive ability; Amaranthe comes across as a heroic persona.

Sicarius is another intriguing character, but not many details are revealed about him. Hopefully the author will rectify this in the sequel. World-building is also very impressive with the world of The Emperor’s Edge brought to life through vivid descriptions. Lastly, there’s no quasi-European feel to this novel. So instead of the usual medieval routine, Lindsay Buroker offers readers a more tropical setting highlighted by racial diversity.

Not everything about The Emperor’s Edge is rosy however. The plot for instance, is very linear, not to mention predictable, while secondary characters possess clear-cut agendas and are pretty much black and white.

CONCLUSION: After reading just one book—the very fun and entertaining fantasy adventure hybrid that is The Emperor’s Edge—I’ve become a Lindsay Buroker fan and can’t wait to read the rest of her series. For anyone who loves David Eddings, Terry Brooks and Rachel Aaron, The Emperor’s Edge is a book I heartily recommend to you...

"A Shore Too Far" by Kevin Manus-Pennings (Reviewed by Liviu Suciu)

Official Kevin Manus-Pennings Website
Order "A Shore Too Far" HERE or HERE
Read 20% of A Shore Too Far HERE

INTRODUCTION: Here at Fantasy Book Critic we get tens of indie review queries a week, some with the full ebook included, some with samples and I dutifully open all that are not UF or YA but very rarely something hits the special combination of content/style I look for in any book I try. Usually the indies fail on content since there is so much "ancient evil, destined boys/girls" or their science fictional analogs coming in that I almost stopped opening such, but in the few cases a book has an intriguing blurb, the writing style needs also to hit it with me and that is a very subjective thing.

When "A Shore Too Far" popped in the inbox, the blurb below was interesting enough to make me take a look and it turned out that the novel was a first person narration which a bit to my surprise grabbed me from the first paragraph you can also read in the sample linked above.

"Kara Asgrand, daughter of the king, is the greatest military mind of her time, but now a wondrous fleet has approached her people’s shores. When this new people arrive, the visitors’ tale of woe doesn’t add up, and their plea for help may be a prelude to invasion. Kara must decide if her warrior’s instincts are keeping her cautious or are they betraying her and endangering thousands."

"A Shore Too Far" is advertised as the first book in "The Daughters of Damendine" series.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: "A Shore Too Far" is a very entertaining series debut which takes place on a secondary world with the usual pseudo-medieval society but with no magic so far. The novel is a first person narration from Kara Asgrand, daughter of the king of Avandi and commander in chief of the army.

Kara is also a rival to her two brothers, Eric, a very able administrator and current ruler of Abrigol, the most important city outside of the capital, and Kollus who is mostly a scholar, though as royalty he also rules a province - one of the conceits here is that in Kara's country the succession is decided by the king stepping down in favor of a successor that may or may not be one of his children - this is really unlikely to work and would lead to countless civil wars as history shows in any society without clear and accepted lines of succession and sometimes even in those, but that's more of a plot device so far to motivate the rivalry and subtext between Kara and her older brother Eric.

When a strange fleet is sighted close to Abringol, Kara summons her fastest cavalry and rides there to strengthen Eric's defenses, while the king and the rest of the army will tae some ten days or more to get there. What follows is a story of first contact between the Avandi and the mysterious strangers that call themselves the Kullobrini and claim they were blown off course to a colonization mission on some remote and less hospitable areas of the continent, while now a sickness developing on their fleet forced them to come ashore in the Avandi kingdom. Any misstep can lead to a deadly confrontation and Kara has to make the decisions as her father puts her unexpectedly in charge of the "alien diplomacy" over her governor brother

The main strength of the novel is in the first person narration of Kara. While the novel is predictable to some extent, the tension is maintained to the end and the pages turn by themselves since you do not want to stop until you find out the implied secrets of the Kullobrini and how things will turn out for both people.

As an added bonus there is some backstory recounted and we understand more about Kara's relationship with her siblings too. In addition to Eric, there are a few notable secondary characters - the Kullobrini leaders, a young ambitious and very wealthy merchant of Abrigol who is an on-and-off flame of Kara, while grizzled veteran Gonnaban plays well the role of the princess' master at arms and all around skeptic.

Overall, A Shore Too Far (A+) is another very promising indie series debut which I recommend for a fast and very enjoyable read. I also want to note that the novel wraps up its main storyline so it's a standalone from this point of view, but of course more is promised in the interesting universe created by the author.

“Black Light” by Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan & Stephen Romano (Reviewed by Robert Thompson)

Official Black Light Facebook Page

Official Stephen Romano Website

Order “Black Light” HERE (US) + HERE (UK)

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan have written the screenplays for Saw IV, Saw V, Saw VI, Saw 3D, and The Collector, which Dunstan also directed. Currently, they are filming The Collection—a sequel to The Collector—and wrote Piranha 3DD, which comes out this Thanksgiving from Dimension Films. Black Light is their debut novel.

Stephen Romano is an acclaimed author, screenwriter and illustrator. His works include the illustrated novel Shock Festival and adapting Joe R. Lansdale’s Incident On and Off a Mountain Road for Showtime’s Emmy Award-winning series Masters Of Horror.

PLOT SUMMARY: If you have a supernatural problem that won't go away, you need Buck Carlsbad: private eye, exorcist, and last resort. Buck's got a way with spirits that no one else can match, and a lot of questions that only spirits can answer.

Buck has spent years using his Gift to look into the Blacklight on the other side of death, trying to piece together the mystery of his parents and why he can’t remember anything before the age of seven. His quest for answers led him to the Blacklight Triangle, a stretch of unforgiving desert known for the most deadly paranormal events in history. A place where Buck almost died a few years ago, and where he swore he would never return.

But then Buck takes a call from billionaire Sidney Jaeger, and finds himself working the most harrowing case of his career. One that will either reveal the shocking secrets of his life, or end it forever...

FORMAT/INFO: Black Light is 336 pages long divided over twenty-three titled chapters. Narration is in the first-person, exclusively via the protagonist Buck Carlsbad. Black Light is self-contained, but is the first volume in a proposed series. October 5, 2011 marks the North American Hardcover publication of Black Light via Mulholland Books. The UK version (see below) will be published on October 13, 2011 via Mulholland UK.

ANALYSIS: On the surface, Black Light features many of the same traits regularly employed in the urban fantasy genre including a contemporary setting, a first-person narrative, a cynical protagonist, et cetera. However, the book possesses some key ingredients that help differentiate the novel.

First and foremost is Buck Carlsbad’s unique Gift, which allows him to Pull a ghost/spirit into his body—imagine a human version of the proton pack and trap from Ghostbusters. Once a spirit is ingested, Buck can then see into the Blacklight, the world of the dead. Not only that, but he also has the ability to pull Artifacts from the Blacklight back into the real world, which plays an important role in the novel. Containment meanwhile, is a whole different matter involving regurgitation and silver urns.

Next, Black Light is immensely entertaining, fueled by breakneck pacing and an action-packed story. Granted, things take a little while to get going after the initial introduction to Buck Carlsbad and his Gift, but once Buck finds himself on a maglev train facing off against the Blackjack Nine, Black Light goes into overdrive for the rest of the novel, highlighted by surprising twists and nearly nonstop excitement. What makes Black Light even more fun to read is the book’s refreshing mix of noir-influenced urban fantasy and in-your-face, R-rated horror. We’re talking grisly violence, profanity, explicit gore, a high body count, the works.

Finally, the prose in Black Light, particularly the scenes where Buck is using his Gift and looking into the Blacklight, is visceral and gripping:

“The heat washes over my body, weaker than ever before, but then I tighten my grip on the madness, giving myself to it . . . and the madness is good, the madness fuels my body in a dreamtime sizzle, bursting and flashing, energizing. The dark blue glow intensifies. The voices of a million billion angry bastards rip off in my ears, thundering in the infinite spaces set before me, the neon-striped outlines of the real world just outside the menagerie of slithering zero gravity shapes, like half-formed moray eels and faces filled with burning eyes and cursing tongues.”

As impressive as the prose might be, the rest of the authors’ performance is uneven. Characterization for example, is shallow and unemotional. So as badass as Buck Carlsbad is with his powers and martial arts skills, I never really sympathized with the protagonist or his plight. And don’t even get me started on the one-dimensional supporting cast. Dialogue and plotting on the other hand, are both fairly solid, if not conventional, specifically the banter and various plot devices used throughout the narrative. Creatively, I loved Buck’s Gift and the Blacklight, but things do get a little far-fetched, especially towards the end of the novel when events venture into comic book-like territory.

CONCLUSION: Black Light may be rough around the edges due to weak characterization and uneven writing, but the novel’s action-packed story and refreshing mix of horror & urban fantasy helped mask the book’s shortcomings, while delivering a thrilling reading experience. In the end, Black Light entertained the hell out of me and I sincerely hope Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan & Stephen Romano offer up another serving of Buck Carlsbad in the very near future...

"Debris" By Jo Anderton (Reviewed by Liviu Suciu)

Official Jo Anderton Website
Order Debris HERE

INTRODUCTION: When I saw the blurb below for Debris in the Angry Robot fall 2011 lineup, I was intrigued, so I took a fast look when I got the e-arc from the publisher. At that very short glance, I thought "I've seen this story hundreds of times before and this does not stand out", but the first person voice of the novel unexpectedly stayed with me, so some days later I got back to the novel and once I opened it, I had to read it before I could move on to something else.
Debris is advertised as the first book in the Veiled Worlds trilogy.

"Tanyana is among the highest ranking in her far-future society – a skilled pionner, able to use a mixture of ritual and innate talent to manipulate the particles that hold all matter together. But an accident brings her life crashing down around her ears. She is cast down amongst the lowest of the low, little more than a garbage collector. But who did this to her, and for what sinister purpose? Her quest to find out will take her to parts of the city she never knew existed, and open the door to a world she could never have imagined. "

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: Debris has been a surprisingly entertaining book that took over my reading a bit unexpectedly. All because of the compelling narration from the main heroine, showing once again that when first person narration works, it really does so.

As mentioned above, the storyline is very standard at least in the first half of the novel - well off, high achiever but from a family that is not really important, Tanyana, a respected professional is set up to spectacularly and expensively fail in an important task and is thrown out of her job, so she has to start doing some nasty low-level work instead. There she meets a crew of oddballs, tough, rough but ultimately likeable, and from then on she presumably works towards getting her revenge, finding the dark secrets that her dismissal covered etc - you've seen it I bet many times either in sff or in thrillers/crime...

The setup is covered in the blurb above and it has two main characteristics: urban action and a far future technology that allows people with the right talents and training to manipulate matter at its basic level. While considering the second part of the novel, there is a case for considering Debris as fantasy, especially that the novel focuses on people, their interactions and abilities rather than on technology, its ethos is clearly modern and science fictional, based on rationality and technology however advanced and unexplained, with the backward looking and conservative elements associated with fantasy - destined ones, bloodlines, etc - missing.

So the strengths of the novel are in the voice, the characters - both the heroine and the supporting cast - and the mysteries of the universe. There is action, romance, some twists and the story ends at a good point while I really want the sequel and further adventures of Tanyana and her friends.

Another aspect I enjoyed about Debris, was its fast moving style that flows well on the page and compelled me to turn the pages once I got hooked by the narrator's voice:

“Enough of this,” I told the pions. My pions. Stern, but kind, I was a mother, a teacher, a firm hand. “We have a job to do. Enough.”

But they couldn’t hear me, or wouldn’t. So I approached them, balancing on hot steel beams wet with condensation. I reached up to the closest finger bone, placed my hand against its stretching, writhing not-quite-metal-anymore form so the pions in me and the pions in it could touch, could mingle.

“Listen–”

But then, only then, so connected to the finger bone, so focused, did I see them.

Pions, yes, but not like any pions I had never known. Red, painfully red, and buried so deep inside reality that even the collective skill in the building site below hadn’t seen them. When I tried to communicate with them they burned like tiny suns and heat washed over me, and anger, such a terrible tearing anger I could feel from my head to my chest and deep, deep inside me. In my own pion systems."

Overall, Debris (A+) is a fascinating sff adventure that grabs you from the first page and does not let go till the end, delivering a tale of fall and redemption as narrated by a very intriguing heroine. One of my highly recommended novels of 2011 for which the sequel has become another read on receive book.