The Spirit Eater by Rachel Aaron w/ bonus review of Spirit's Oath (Reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)

Official Author Website

Read An Excerpt HERE

Order “The Spirit Eater” HERE

Read FBC Review of "The Spirit Thief"

Read FBC review of “The Spirit Rebellion”

Read FBC’s Interview with Rachel Aaron

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Rachel Aaron lives in Athens, Georgia with her family. She has graduated from University of Georgia with a B.A. in English Literature. She has been an avid reader since her childhood and now has an ever-growing collection to show for it. She loves gaming, Manga comics & reality TV police shows. She also blogs on a semi-regular basis on the Magic Districts website along with a host of other authors.

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS: With the pressure on after his success in Gaol, Eli Monpress, professional thief and degenerate, decides it's time to lie low for a bit. Taking up residence in a tiny seaside village, Eli and his companions seize the chance for some fun and relaxation.

Nico, however, is finding it a bit hard. Plagued by a demon's voice in her head and feeling powerless, she only sees herself as a burden. Everyone's holiday comes to an untimely close, though, when Pele arrives to beg Eli's help for finding her missing father.

But there are larger plans afoot than even Eli can see, and the real danger, and the solution, may lie with one of his own and her forgotten past. If only Nico could remember whose side she's on…

CLASSIFICATION: The Legend of Eli Monpress is a classical fantasy series set in a medieval world of sorts; the style and settings of the story invoke tales popularized by Terry Brooks and David Eddings with a huge slice of Terry Pratchett.

FORMAT/INFO: The Spirit Eater is 422 pages long divided over twenty-two numbered chapters and a prologue. Narration is in the third person via many different characters such as Eli Monpress, Miranda Lyonette, Nico, Josef Liechten, Slorn, Benehime the Shepherdess, Alric of the League of Storms, Sted and a few other minor characters as well. December 1, 2010 marked the mass market and e-book publication via Orbit Books.

ANALYSIS: The Spirit Eater is the third book in the Legend of Eli Monpress series and one whose review is long overdue. I had read the book a few months after its release but somehow due to my own laziness never got around to posting the review. So today when Spirit’s Oath (prequel novella) is being released, I realized this would be a good chance to review both stories. In a quintet series this is book III, so to discuss its plot will mean that there will be spoilers for the first two books. I’ll try my best to avoid major spoilers so read ahead with caution and only if you have read the previous two books.

The book begins with an event occurring nearly two years before the events of the first book and like its predecessors, shines a light on a pivotal event featuring some of the main characters, in this case being Josef & Nico and this being their first meeting. The story then begins as Sted the ex-league swordsman is looking for revenge against Josef. He manages to track down Slorn for a better sword than the last one. His search reveals a bit more about Slorn’s past and then he ends up with more than he bargained for. Miranda Lyonette is back with the Spiritualist court with her name cleared from the events of the first book. She is then approached for by another faction of the court and soon is given more details about the going on in the courtly realms. Lastly there’s Eli, Josef & Nico who are approached by Pele to search for her father Slorn who has suddenly gone missing. All in all while Eli wants nothing but to lie low but his friendship with Slorn stands in the way of that sensible plan and then there are larger events afoot which involve the Shepherdess, the league of Storms, Demonseeds and the Demon of the dead mountain. This time around Eli is outmanned, outwitted and out of his reach when it comes to magic.

This book follows a crucial pattern like its predecessors and the focal point of this book is Nico. This is a bit of a giveaway from the title and after the events of the previous book, its high time the author decided to reveal more about her, her not-so-unique problem and the underlying problems of the world. This book also acts a wonderful transitionary volume for the series as its no longer a light hearted comedy like the first book and while it does retain all of its charm, humor & likability, it also takes a dark sheen over the plot. While many might think that the author is suddenly changing her plans and shifting gears, rest assured this is all part of the overall series scheme. The author had long ago revealed that she had planned the series arc before she started writing the books and each book would focus of a main character. This book focuses on the most endearing one among them.

The story has a lot of things going for it namely its pace and plot twists, while the reader’s grasp of the world is suitably widened. The main revelations in this story have to do with demons and demonseeds, and this was very especially tantalizing to read about. I was very curious after all what was revealed in the second book and so with this book I had high expectations which were suitably & generously met with. Characterization is similar to the first two books and while the character cast is increased, the author does her best to make the new characters as much interesting as the old ones. Humor has always been a highpoint for this series and with this book, it takes its first dip which I think has more to do with the plot matter. Its still funny but due to the darkness inherent within, it does not produce as many laugh-out-loud moments as say the first one. The plot line also encompasses some terrific SF edges to this fantasy story and I had asked the author about it in her interview and she replied by saying:

“The Shepherdess and the “what is going on with this world” questions are the big plot of the series, and the closer we get to the end, the bigger these problems get. They play a big roll in book 4 and book 5 pretty much is nothing but dealing with these problems because things are really going to hell.”

It’s very much evident from this book as to how screwed up things are and how much down hill the future seems to be. After reading all the revelations and plot hints for the future books, I can’t wait for June to get my hands on Spirit's War.

Drawbacks being similar to the first book are present in this one as well, the characters act a bit stereotypical and this perhaps will be the biggest flaw experienced by most veteran fantasy readers. Also the ending has a huge revelation for one character but it has a bit of "Deus ex Machina" feel to it which robs its sheen. This series however has been very clearly marketed for the type of fantasy it is and one can’t really complain in the third book that the reader didn’t know what type of book it was going to be.

CONCLUSION: Rachel Aaron’s series is progressively getting better with each book and with Spirit Eater, she not only ups the ante but also darkens the world of Eli Monpress in many a twisted way. Combining action, humor and plot twists to come up with an exciting story, the Spirit Eater is the best book of this series and now it remains to be seen how it all ends in the forthcoming books.

Order Spirit’s Oath HERE

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: Spirit’s Oath is a novella which acts as a prequel to the main series; It focuses on Miranda Lyonette and is set four years before the events of the first book. It's being released today as a "thank you" from the author & publisher to the fans of the series. The book features Miranda as a twenty year old who has just taken her spiritualist vows and also gotten hold of a wind spirit. Things however aren’t looking good for her when her family drags her back to her home and reveal what plans they have for her.

Her parents and younger sister don’t share her enthusiasm for her spiritualist duties and want to marry her off to a man, who wishes to enter the higher social circles and his marriage to Miranda will pave that way. What he doesn’t count is Miranda’s attitude and the presence of a certain ghosthound whom readers will recognize from the latter books. The tale is about nineteen thousand words but feels much longer than that due to the sheer excitement, which is packed into the story. Miranda’s stubbornness and her innate sense of justice is brought to the fore very strongly and this was an aspect which I enjoyed reading.

The book is a bit predictable due to the nature of all prequels, this is something that is very hard to avoid. This book is no stranger to such a theme however the author tries her best to make the eventual ride a pleasant one as much as possible. It is a book which thoroughly integrates Miranda’s past with her story in the future saga. I very much enjoyed this trip as it showcased the formation of the bond between her & Gin. I can’t wait to see where she ends up in the next book as in the end of the third book, her life takes a rather strange turn and she gets a new partner as well. Kudos to the author for giving the reader a short but vital look into the past of one of the main characters of the saga.

"Dark Eden" by Chris Beckett (Reviewed by Liviu Suciu)

Official Chris Beckett Website
Order "Dark Eden" HERE

INTRODUCTION: I heard of Chris Beckett's work when The Turing Test collection won the prestigious Edge Hill Short Story prize in 2009. I immediately bought a copy of the collection and I read a few of the stories there. I generally enjoyed them and I plan to read all of them as time goes by, but they seem to work only in smaller doses for me maybe because they are quite concentrated.

However his previous two novels, Holy Machine and Marcher never really tempted me, so when Dark Eden was announced with the blurb below I was not sure either. Remembering vaguely that I read a story with the same title in The Turing Test, I checked the collection and sure enough the story Dark Eden is in there and it is precisely the tale of Angela and Tommy told through their two quite distinct voices in alternating parts. As I quite liked it and some reviews showering great praise on the novel appeared too, I decided to buy a copy for myself and try it immediately.

"You live in Eden. You are a member of the Family, one of 532 descendants of Angela and Tommy. You shelter beneath the light and warmth of the Forest's lantern trees, hunting woollybuck and harvesting tree candy. Beyond the forest lie the treeless mountains of the Snowy Dark and a cold so bitter and a night so profound that no man has ever crossed it. The Oldest among you recount legends of a world where light came from the sky, where men and women made boats that could cross between worlds. One day, the Oldest say, they will come back for you...."

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: In talking about Dark Eden, there are two different aspects that need to be considered, namely literary quality and sfnal scope. In short, Dark Eden is superb as a literary novel but something I've seen many times before as sf or (pre) historical fiction and not only that, but its scope is very limited since there is only so much you can do with a primitive society as sense of wonder and big picture - in other words the attributes that define high class sf - go.

After all, you are given a small grouping of people - no advanced tech to sustain too many or too hostile an environment and the tech base of the society is not able to tame said environment - relatively rigid rules which where justified once upon a time when survival was the first imperative, rules that lead to what the current younger generation perceive as stagnation, and the maverick hero/heroine who is set to change all that and in doing so breaks the social compact for better or for worse.

This is the sfnal structure of Dark Eden too and as mentioned I've read this so many times that in terms of the big picture there is not much to surprise and there is a clear logic of events that you can already guess from the blurb. The specific world building - planet in intergalactic space, with no sun but life, atmosphere and heat coming from underground volcanic activity - is interesting though and there is a lot of potential for complexity if the author chooses to develop this universe more.

If sfnally the novel is just good due to its limited scope, literary Dark Eden is superb. Its structure alternates narration mostly from John Redlantern and his girlfriend Tina Spiketree - they have 21 and respectively 16 of the 46 total chapters - with a few other characters with their own distinctive voices presenting their take on events at various points.

The rules and habits of the Eden society, their way of life, rituals, food gathering and hunting, mating, division into "normal" humans and the disfigured ones - as expected the descent of all 532 humans which live in Eden at the start of the book from Angela and Tommy has quite a few genetic negatives - are slowly revealed and the author balances action with world building and back story perfectly.

The transitions between chapters are very smooth and all characters that narrate even for only a chapter come alive. Of course as they have the bulk of the story John and Tina are the most nuanced and developed of all and we see their growth from a wondering but confused boy who is well liked by most women in the colony to a mature and determined leader in John's case:

"And in the back of my mind a little thought came to me that there were other worlds we could reach that weren’t hidden away in Starry Swirl, or through Hole-in-Sky, but here on ground, in Eden. They were the places where the woollybucks went, the places they came from."

and from a young girl who cherishes her "desirability" by men but does not really question her society and its way of life to one who discovers the courage to confront the "public opinion" and follow John in looking for a better life:

"John was interesting. I mean he looked nice, and I fancied him in that way, but what fascinated me most was the way he behaved. All that hunting trip he was trying to be different, trying not to be the same as all the other newhair guys. He went right up that icy ridge. He annoyed Old Roger and David by questioning the True Story."

So despite that almost everything that happens is predictable as it follows the logic described above, I was still captivated by the novel and turned the pages to see what happens with John, Tina and their growing band of followers.

While a standalone novel and with a very good ending that leaves open a lot of possibilities, I wish the author will return to Eden and tell us more about the fascinating human society he created there. Dark Eden is a highly recommended novel of 2012 and excellent literary sf that I can easily see shortlisted for both genre and mainstream prizes that appreciate writing style and "realistic" characters rather than sense of wonder and big picture speculations.

The Rook by Daniel O' Malley (Reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)

Official Author website

Order The Rook HERE

Read the first four chapters HERE

Watch the Book trailer HERE

Read Suvudu interview with author HERE

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Dan O’Malley was born and brought up in Canberra, Australia. He then came to USA for his further studies and graduated from Michigan State University. He also earned a Master’s Degree in medieval history from Ohio State University. He currently works for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, writing press releases for government investigations of plane crashes and runaway boats and also acts a spokesperson. This is his debut novel.

OFFICIAL BLURB: “The body you are wearing used to be mine.” So begins the letter Myfanwy Thomas is holding when she awakes in a London park surrounded by bodies all wearing latex gloves. With no recollection of who she is, Myfanwy must follow the instructions her former self left behind to discover her identity and track down the agents who want to destroy her.

She soon learns that she is a Rook, a high-ranking member of a secret organization called the Checquy that battles the many supernatural forces at work in Britain. She also discovers that she possesses a rare, potentially deadly supernatural ability of her own.

In her quest to uncover which member of the Checquy betrayed her and why, Myfanwy encounters a person with four bodies, an aristocratic woman who can enter her dreams, a secret training facility where children are transformed into deadly fighters, and a conspiracy more vast than she ever could have imagined.

FORMAT/INFO: The Rook is 496 pages long divided over forty-three numbered chapters. Narration is in the third-person via the "new" Myfanwy Thompson and in first person via the form of letters by the "old" Myfanwy Thompson and an one-off third-person mini-chapter by Ingrid Woodhouse. The Rook is a standalone book however the author has plans for a sequel.

January 12, 2012 marked the North American hardback and e-book publication of The Rook via Little, Brown and Company.

ANALYSIS: Daniel O’ Malley’s The Rook is a debut which comes with high praise and lots of hype as well. When we received the review request, I read a couple of chapters and I was immediately hooked. This is the opening paragraph of the book and is an excellent hook for the book:

“Dear You,

The body you are wearing used to be mine. The scar on the inner left thigh is there because I fell out of a tree and impaled my leg at the age of nine. The filling in the far left tooth on the top is a result of my avoiding the dentist for four years. But you probably care little about this body’s past. After all, I’m writing this letter for you to read in the future. Perhaps you are wondering why anyone would do such a thing. The answer is both simple and complicated. The simple answer is because I knew it would be necessary. The complicated answer could take a little more time.”

The simple answer as well as the complicated one both takes a while to become apparent to the reader however the journey throughout until then is quite a pleasant one as I found it.

With that paragraph, the story of the Rook begins and introduces the reader to Myfanwy (rhymes with Tiffany) Thomas who has two black eyes, more-than-few bruises and absolutely no memory of who she is and how she got here (here being standing in the rain in a park in London). She however finds two letters in her jacket that inform her of her name and what she has to do next. She then slowly makes her way to a safe place but not before encountering a few of her pursuers and then discovers her powers. She discovers more about herself via the letters left by the original owner of the body. The basic premise of the book is the presence of the organization known as the Checquy, which has a hierarchal similar to that of a side of a chessboard. It’s this organization that Myfanwy is a member of and holds the position of a Rook. Thus the story follows Rook Thomas as she has to learn what her role in the organization entails, potentially stave off a supernatural invasion and discover who was the person that caused this predicament to her old self.

The book was a delight to read with its mix of the Jason Bourne-like identity crisis and the way the author unveils the world and history slowly. The author has elaborately alternated the storyline with chapters in the current timeline and the letters from the "old" Myfanwy thereby making the reader go through the same confusion, which avails the "new" Myfanwy. This aspect was a great move by the author and while it will remind many of one of the most famous amnesia-tinged stories (the Jason Bourne series by Robert Ludlum). Readers will have to keep in mind that this book is much lighter than the aforementioned series, the mystery aspect of the book's plot is very strong and is the main thread that propels the story. The eventual mystery is also resolved satisfactorily in the climax and then the author has inserted a nice twist to the story thereby hinting at a sequel as well as making sure that the readers get a savory ending.

Another aspect of the story that resonated with me was its understated comedy, the book doesn’t really go all out on the humor front but it has its moments of dry humor which will surprise the reader and keep them chuckling along. Consider this as a good example of the story’s humor quotient:

“ With the sort of power these new processes granted them, the members of the brotherhood were in the perfect position to seize power. In any other country, a massive, bloody war would have ensued. Horrors would have stalked the land, unholy amalgamations of flesh would have fought on the fields and the nights would have held new unspeakable terrors.

Fortunately this is Belgium we’re talking about!”

With a succinct sense of humor, the author manages to make this story from becoming too dreary. The magic system is also unveiled along with the world history in the form of anecdotes and letters; this was great to read, as it didn't feel too much like an info-dump. The characterization was particularly good as Myfanwy’s development is very nicely shown and to contrast with that the letters which showcase her older persona. Lastly the part which made this book stand out from me was that while its an urban fantasy book, it very nicely avoids the genre trappings by not featuring the usual type of supernatural creatures, romantic angle/triangle sub-plot, etc. All these factors made this debut a very fun one to read.

For factors going against it, the biggest part would be that the pacing is a bit on the slower side and while the story develops along nicely the pace of the story never transforms into the express variety. It takes a while to pick up and but once it does, it does hold its own all the way to the climax. Readers who want a fast sort of read might not get what they want. Another aspect which felt funny to me was the story felt to be grappling the twin genres of YA and adult, there were some sections which felt as if the tale was YA but then after a few pages some plot twist/turn would come up to disavow it of the YA tag. Maybe this was what the author intended and if so then it was a great mix of a story.

CONCLUSION: The Rook is a good debut showcasing the author’s skills as a writer and plotter. It’s a book that genuinely makes the reader invested in the story and its characters. I was most certainly entertained and bemused by its whimsical nature and overall mystery-laced plot. Give it a try if you are in the mood for a urban fantasy book without the usual genre trappings, definitely a debut to remember.

"The Map and the Territory" by Michel Houellebecq (Reviewed by Liviu Suciu)

Michel Houellebecq at Wikipedia
Order The Map and the Territory HERE

INTRODUCTION:Michel Houellebecq is one of the most acclaimed and controversial French writers of today. With four major novels to date, all controversial in a way or another - though he has written other novels and novelettes, non-fiction including a book about HP Lovecraft, performed psychedelic rap and directed movies - and three Goncourt prize shortlists in 1998 for The Elementary Particles/Atomised, 2005 for The Possibility of an Island and 2010 (won) for The Map and the Territory he is hated, adulated and anything in-between...

While I read his sfnal The Elementary Particles some years back - I liked it but thought that as sf it was not that original - and his very controversial Platform (no comment as such are easily misinterpreted today by the thought control police, just read the book and make your own mind about it) pretty much on English language publication in 2002, I sort of forgot about his work until recently.

I got, read and was very impressed by The Possibility of an Island - very sfnal/review upcoming in a few weeks - but The Map and the Territory was a novel that hit it out the park for me so to speak and I will try to explain why next.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: The Map and the Territory starts with an epigraph that reflects the attitude of the author's alter ego in the book - named also Michel Houellebecq and described as the reclusive author of the novels above, rather than the outlook of the relatively energetic hero of the novel, painter and photographer Jed Martin.

"The world is weary of me,
And I am weary of it."

While the above epigraph could well reflect the philosophy of his earlier novels, especially of The Possibility of an Island, where the world ultimately becomes tired of humanity so to speak, The Map and the Territory is the tamest Houellebecq novel to date as content goes and the most ironical one, not least because of his self-portrait in the book. It is also "very French" and in turns both a love letter to France and an (occasionally scathing) critique.

The first part of the novel taking place in the early 2000's and in which we meet our hero Jed Martin, we find out a little about his past and in which he launches himself in the art world with photographs inspired by the Michelin maps of France, while both the title of the novel and the author's view of France as the ultimate tourist destination for whichever nationalities are on top, like the Englishmen and Americans of the 20th century or the Chinese and Indians of the 21st, are presented, is quite interesting but the true power of the novel resides in the middle part that takes place in the 2010's.

Through Jed Martin's paintings and the whole discussion and reaction to them, the author offers a sfnal like assessment of today's society; I disagree with quite a lot of what the author says here, but his perspective is coherent and I would say Balzacian though of course with 21st century realities and sensibilities.

"Two convinced supporters of the market economy; two resolute supporters also of the Democratic Party, and yet two opposing facets of capitalism, as different as a banker in Balzac could be from Verne’s engineer. The Conversation at Palo Alto, Houellebecq stressed in his conclusion, was far too modest a subtitle; instead, Jed Martin could have entitled his painting A Brief History of Capitalism, for that, indeed, is what it was."

The structure of these first two parts of the novel as a sort of biography/historical fiction told from the future about a 21st century artist is also very sfnal, while of course the epilogue carries the story to the 2040's and offers a glimpse of the future geopolitics in addition to continuing Jed Martin's saga.

"Even if today it is considered a historical curiosity, Houellebecq’s text—the first of this size devoted to Martin’s work—nonetheless contains some interesting intuitions. Beyond the variation of themes and techniques, he asserts for the first time the unity of the artist’s work, and discovers a deep logic in the fact that having devoted his formative years to hunting for the essence of the world’s manufactured products, he is interested, during the second half of his life, in their producers."

The third part of the book is contemporary and structured as a police investigation with all new characters, while Jed appears in a consulting role and despite the major change in focus and pace, this part works superbly because of its topic which I won't spoil though you will easily find out about if you read the blurb for example.

The Map and the Territory has lots of great tidbits, scenes and vignettes and the author uses Wikipedia for a lot of information - leading to nonsensical accusations of plagiarism as the use of public information in novels is a traditional one.

“What defines a man? What’s the question you first ask a man, when you want to find out about him? In some societies, you ask him first if he’s married, if he has children; in our society, we ask first what his profession is. It’s his place in the productive process, and not his status as reproducer, that above all defines Western man.”

Michel Houellebecq's usual themes - aging and death, sexuality and its loss with age, the conflict between generations - appear in droves but here they are more nuanced than in the stark The Possibility of an Island and balanced by a rounded "big picture" analysis of cultural/societal values.

The one niggle that stopped me from ranking The Map and the Territory as my #1 novel of the year to date was the ending from the epilogue which I found a bit dissonant with the rest; a little more ambiguity there would have made the novel even stronger imho.

Overall The Map and the Territory is a great novel well deserving of its Goncourt prize and a top 25 of mine in 2012. While not strictly speaking sfnal despite its taking place in the 1990-2040 period, I strongly recommend it for any sf lover as its big picture themes are very similar (and much better done imho) with the ones in near future sf.

Three Upcoming 2012 Fantasies of Great Interest, Galen Beckett, Beth Bernobich, Mark Newton (by Liviu Suciu)

So far 2012 has been dominated by science fiction with a sprinkle of literary and historical fiction - out of 19 books I have read in 2012 and of 14 2012 releases read so far, only two have been fantasies - and based on my current interests this trend is sure to continue in the indefinite future, so for balance I thought of highlighting some upcoming fantasy novels I am really looking forward to, novels that I hope will find their way here sooner rather than later.

All are part of series and all previous novels in the respective series have been reviewed here, mostly by me, some by/with Robert, and all have been in my top 25 of their respective years.

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After two wonderful novels in The Magicians and Mrs. Quent and The House on Durrow Street, the saga of Ivy and of her family and friends comes to an end in The Master of Heathcrest Hall. Great atmosphere and superb characters in a combination of the classic and the modern, of the strange and the familiar.

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After the wonderful debut Passion Play, comes Queens' Hunt, the next chapter in the story of Ilse and her strange employer/mentor/lover Raul Kosenmark. I have been waiting for this novel for a while now as it has been delayed from its original 2011 release date and I am really eager to find out what happens next as the ending of Passion Play demanded the next installment asap!

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The Legends of the Red Sun saga also ends this year after three superb novels, Nights of Villjamur, City of Ruin and The Book of Transformations. While the ending of the third novel gave some hints where the story will go, I am really curious what surprises were prepared by Mark Newton for The Broken Isles!