Two 2011 SF Novels that are past their expiration date: John C Wright, Jack McDevitt (By Liviu Suciu)

In a tale of contrasts here are my short takes on two 2011 sf novels that are past their expiration date; modern content but very dated style versus superb storytelling skills in an universe that is homogenous 50's US ten thousand years in the future and ultimately crashes any suspension of disbelief...

I still believe that the best sf debut of the 00 decade in the US has been the Golden Age Trilogy of John C. Wright and because of that I have always had a soft spot for the author despite that his follow-up novels veered towards urban fantasy (War of the Dreaming) and then YA fantasy (Chronicles of Chaos of which the first volume was somewhat interesting but I never got the urge to read more).

These first lines that open The Golden Age show sf at its best and most wondrous:

It was a time of masquerade. It was the eve of the High Transcendence, an event so solemn and significant that it could be held but once each thousand years, and folk of every name and iteration, phe-notype, composition, consciousness and neuroform, from every school and era, had come to celebrate its coming, to welcome the transfiguration, and to prepare.

Splendor, feast, and ceremony filled the many months before the great event itself. Energy shapes living in the north polar magnetosphere of the sun, and Cold Dukes from the Kuiper belts beyond Neptune, had gathered to Old Earth, or sent their representations through the mentality; and celebrants had come from every world and moon in the solar system, from every station, sail, habitat and crystal-magnetic latticework.

Mr. Wright's detour in "classical" sf - Null A Continuum, sequel to one of the best golden age series of AE Van Vogt that has made me a lifelong sf fan - was a disaster as the author tried to imitate the dated prose of the 40's, but I shrugged and enjoyed some his more recent short length offerings that were superb, most notably The Far End of History, Judgement Eve or Murder in Metachronopolis.

So when his new space opera series that starts with Count to a Trillion has been announced, I was very excited and I asked for a review copy as soon as I could. To my surprise the novel turned out to be a major disappointment and for the same reason I strongly disliked Null A Continuum, though this one at least has updated sfnal content, so it is readable.

Here is the blurb which is reasonably accurate:

"Hundreds of years in the future, after the collapse of the Western world, young Menelaus Illation Montrose grows up in what was once Texas as a gunslinging duelist for hire. But Montrose is also a mathematical genius—and a romantic who dreams of a future in which humanity rises from the ashes to take its place among the stars.

The chance to help usher in that future comes when Montrose is recruited for a manned interstellar mission to investigate an artifact of alien origin. Known as the Monument, the artifact is inscribed with data so complex, only a posthuman mind can decipher it. So Montrose does the unthinkable: he injects himself with a dangerous biochemical drug designed to boost his already formidable intellect to superhuman intelligence.

It drives him mad.Nearly two centuries later, his sanity restored, Montrose is awakened from cryo-suspension with no memory of his posthuman actions, to find Earth transformed in strange and disturbing ways, and learns that the Monument still carries a secret he must decode—one that will define humanity’s true future in the universe."

The author tries to marry the pulp sf conventions - throw in concept after concept in a madcap non-stop action with no depth both in world building and characters, no particular bother to understand or explore human relationships beyond the surface - with modern high grade sf and it simply does not work since the book is way too self-serious for its style and way too silly in style for its content so to speak.

The novel abounds with moments where despite its supposed world encompassing milieu, it reads like something set on a bare stage with one or two participants that have delusions of grandeur. There is very little sense of the external world outside Menelaus and his friend/arch-nemesis and the declamations of both hero and villain simply sound ridiculous.

Not to speak of the math gibberish that annoyed me here and there but again I wouldn't mind such in a "fasten your seat belt and join the ride fun novel" that does not take itself too seriously, but I mind in sf that tries to get at Reynolds or Egan levels in content.

The ending is quite dramatic and a cliffhanger offering some hope that the series will improve, so I may just check the next installment to see if that is the case, but it will be far from the priority of this one.

Also on the plus side there were a lot of interesting concepts in the book and there were moments where I glimpsed the awesomeness of the Golden Age series - especially when the existential threat to life and all, casts its shadow, so who knows maybe the next book will return to a more suitable style that the author has shown he can command in his recent stories for example. I still believe that despite protestations to the contrary in some circles, there is no real yearning for sf to return to its "age of sf is 12" roots...

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Since I have read A Talent for War in the early 90's I have been a big Jack McDevitt fan and his subsequent novels mostly worked out very well for me with the Academy series being a huge highlight opened by the superb The Engines of God which alongside A Talent for War still ranks in my highly recommended list of A++ sf novels.

Here are the opening lines of A Talent for War that made my list of memorable first lines and note the mystery and sense of history they exude:

THE AIR WAS heavy with incense and the sweet odor of hot wax.
Cam Chulohn loved the plain stone chapel. He knelt on the hard bench and watched the crystal water dribble across Father Curry's fingers into the silver bowl held by the postulant. The timeless symbol of man's effort to evade responsibility, it had always seemed to Chulohn the most significant of all the ancient rituals. There, he thought, is the essence of our nature, displayed endlessly throughout the ages for all who can see.

His gaze lingered in turn on the Virgin's Alcove (illuminated by a few flickering candles) and the Stations of the Cross, on the simple altar, on the hewn pulpit with its ponderous Bible. It was modest by the opulent standards of Rimway and Rigel III and Taramingo. But somehow the magnificence of the architecture in those sprawling cathedrals, the exquisite quality of the stained glass windows, the satisfying bulk of marble columns, the sheer angelic power of the big organs, the sweeping choir lofts: it all got in the way. Here, halfway up a mountainside, he could look out over the river valley that the early fathers, in a burst of enthusiasm, had dedicated to St. Anthony of Toxicon. There was only the river, and the ridges, and the Creator.

So when Mr. McDevitt returned to the world of Alex Benedict and Chase Kolpath in Polaris, I was quite apprehensive as the mysterious far future of A Talent for War did not quite seem suitable for too much exploration. Still in Polaris, Seeker and The Devil's Eye (FBC Rv) the superb storytelling skills of the author managed to suspend my disbelief in an universe that while set some 10 thousand years in the future, looked not unlike the homogenous middle class US of the 50's with a few - but not that many either - new gadgets around. A sort of retro future sf which I heartily dislike in general as I think it has had its expiration date a long time ago.

When the author turned his hand to a light but ultra-fun time travel story in Time Travelers Never Die (FBC Rv), I hoped that Alex and Chase have been retired at the top, but it was not to be and last year's Echo just brought my suspension of disbelief to a crash in a novel that while readable - again as a testimony to how mesmerizing the author can be - was utterly laughable in world building from beginning to almost the end.

So this year's Firebird has been a very low expectation novel for me but I opened it and this time the story took over from maybe page 50 on and I turned the pages and enjoyed it till the end.

There are the usual McDevitt touches - Alex and Chase investigating, the blind alleys, the mysterious enemies, the stunning discovery - but this time the big picture of the universe is involved and it works much better than in Echo; the ending made me hope that Firebird is the last novel in this series since the author is way too good a storyteller not to have a better and more up-to-date tale to regale us with.

GUEST POST: “The Joy of Cooking Tropes” by Michael Dempsey

THE JOY OF COOKING TROPES

Tropes are tricky ingredients to handle. Even master literary chefs sometimes have problems with them. We've all experienced a meal of fiction where the trope was tough, or left a bitter aftertaste, or just plain seemed inappropriate to the dish. So when I set out to write my sci-fi noir novel Necropolis, I knew I had to be very careful in my use of them.

As most writers know, there are a wide variety of tropes. I myself prefer American-grown tropes. For instance, the crime story. Although initially cultivated by European growers like  Arthur Conan Doyle, in my opinion crime/mystery/detective stories came to full fruition in the States, with unique, new flavors developed by people like Chandler, Cain and Spillane. Connoisseurs of writers like Agatha Christie claim her tropes are more subtle and delicate, but personally I find them bland. American tropes often do have a grittier, rougher taste (like many things American), but I find these more exciting, even if sometimes they bluntly assault the palate. The same goes for science fiction tropes . . . Dick and Gibson's may come out of the ground unusually shaped, but they certainly provide a unique culinary experience.

Organic tropes are preferable. Are they just imposed onto the meal or do they arise naturally from the needs of the story? You’d better have a good reason why these characters behave the way they do, and why the plot progresses the way it does. Otherwise, tropes can overpower your other flavors. Besides being organic, the key is seasoning them in a unique way. Crime and science fiction tropes have certainly been combined in the same dish before, so my goal with Necropolis was to use them in familiar but still unique ways.

One of my first decisions with the book was to be bold with my tropes. Some authors try to hide them, to chop them up and bury them in the stew. I think this usually fails—for instance, it doesn't take an English professor to notice that there's nothing incredibly ground-breaking about a novel's vampire protagonist agonizing over whether to screw or exsanguinate his love interest. So I thought, don't try to hide them. In fact, showcase them, trumpet them, have fun with them! The trick is, as I said, to keep them organic and not become a total cliché. That would spoil the recipe.

The premise behind Necropolis is a detective solving the hardest crime there could ever be—his own murder. That gave me a great reason to put crime noir and science fiction in the same pot. After all, I had to bring him back in order to do it (well, I could have made him a ghost or a zombie, but I kept those ingredients on the shelf . . . they seem a tad overused these days, like mini hamburgers or chipotle).

The first trope that organically arose from this premise was the fish-out-of-water element. An appealing classic, it works especially well in science fiction. First, it solves all kinds of thorny exposition problems, because there's a justification to explore all the wonderful or terrible changes the world has undergone. And we can vicariously experience all the pitfalls right along with our hero, when he stumbles and falls as a result of his unfamiliarity with the new terrain. My protagonist, Paul Donner, stumbles a lot. He awakes fifty years in the future to a New York utterly transformed. A ubiquitous virus called The Shift is bringing dead DNA back to life. The city is now quarantined under a geodesic dome. The culture, completely freaked out over the laws of nature suddenly changing, has retreated into a nostalgic retro culture:  they dress and speak right out of “The Maltese Falcon,” and technology is hidden behind this noir façade. Donner suddenly finds himself a member of a hated minority—reborns. His life cycle has been thrown into reverse, so he's growing younger. And he's all alone—his friends and family are dead. As Donner says (in his first person detective narration—another trope!), “I'd survived my own death. No. Worse. I'd survived the death of my whole world. I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to deal with this.”

The noir detective genre is chock-full of tropes, some of them pretty creaky at this point. It has a standard cast of characters, like the troubled, hard-drinking hero. Donner is certainly that, but I think that's justified considering the situation he's in. He was on his way to wrecking his marriage before he and his wife were murdered, and now, on top of this retrofuturistic nightmare he's in, he's consumed by survivor's guilt over his wife not coming back when he has.

Other noir character tropes include the femme fatale, the plucky sidekick and the mysterious villain manipulating things behind the scenes. The science fiction element gave me a great chance to riff on those archetypes, to explore them and play with them, maybe add a new twist.

For instance, our detective's assistant—his “Girl Friday”—is in this case a sentient hologram called a smarty. I realized that the spunky female sidekick archetype might be a little sexist and dated nowadays, so while Maggie may begin as a reluctant sidekick, she is eventually revealed to be much, much more, with a serious agenda of her own. (Sorry, no spoilers!) Also, through her, we get a window into smarty culture as well as some areas of Necropolitan society that Donner wouldn't otherwise have access to.

I could go on with other character tropes, but you get the idea. The point I'm trying to illustrate is that with this particular concoction, I was playing a tricky balancing act. I wanted to make familiar tropes fresh and fun, to allow us to relish them by winking once in a while at the reader, but still to ground them in a believable, tough and challenging world. In other words, cheese was not a flavor suitable to this meal.

The final story ingredient I have strong feelings about is reversals. I recently read a Hugo-winning novel (that shall go unnamed) where almost nothing happened for the first several hundred pages.  Many people love this book,  but while it was beautifully written, to me it was a slog. One of the reasons was the absence of reversals (or at least really big ones). My philosophy is, throw the kitchen sink at your hero! What kind of obstacles can you throw in the way of his achieving his goal?

One of the reasons I loved the TV series Lost was its reversals. The writers of that show were really courageous (at least until the finale...grrr). I could just picture them sitting in the writer's room, asking each other “what's the craziest, wildest thing we can throw at these characters,” completely without regard for how they hell they were going to justify it later or whether they were about to write themselves into a corner. They didn't eke out information to us like misers trying to prolong the change in their purse, they just threw every wild thing they could find into the pot and saw which ones rendered down properly. I may be wrong, but I really believe that they went, “Let's have this crazy metal hatch in the ground that makes absolutely no sense on a deserted island,” and then they figured out how to justify it. Some writers may find that dangerous and even irresponsible, but I think it's awesome. Sure, it makes the writer work overtime to integrate these wild changes into a cohesive story and resolve things properly, but one of the results is it gives the reader a honest-to-god roller-coaster ride.

That's how I operated when writing Necropolis—I asked myself, “what can happen now that will absolutely cut the legs out from under Donner?” or “What's the most bizarre or upsetting revelation I can introduce that makes the reader go 'Wha...??'” And then I tried to figure out how I could make it work. In a future where even death is no longer a constant, the sky is the limit, which helped a lot. So if you like your meal straight-forward and traditional, I must warn you that Necropolis is a real cornucopia of flavors: crime, mystery, horror, science fiction and romance, with plenty of humor for seasoning.

Okay, so I've worn this cooking metaphor down past all reasonable justification and likely have tried your patience something awful. So I'll stop now. I'll finish by saying that in my opinion,  there's nothing new under the sun anyway, so it's perfectly acceptable to use tropes you think are cool. But you better find an interesting, new way to integrate them into your story. Time and the critics will tell whether I've sufficiently accomplished that with Necropolis. But I must say, it was an absolute blast sweating in that hot kitchen.

Bon appétit.

ABOUT MICHAEL DEMPSEY:

Michael Dempsey is a novelist, actor, playwright and theatre director. He wrote for network television in the 90s, most notably CBS’s Cybill, and has sold and optioned screenplays & television scripts to companies such as Christopher Lloyd’s Tritone Productions and Carsey-Werner Productions (The Cosby Show, Roseanne, That 70′s Show). Necropolis is his first novel. For more information, please visit the links below:

Official Necropolis Website

Order “Necropolis” HERE

Read An Excerpt HERE (PDF)

Watch the Book Trailer HERE

Spotlight on December Books

This month we are featuring 30 books. There are more than twice as many new sff and related releases this month in traditional publishing not to speak of the countless indies from Amazon and Smashwords but we are limiting ourselves to books that will be reviewed here or are similar with such. For the full schedule of December 2011 titles known to us, you can consult the Upcoming Releases page.

The release dates are US unless marked otherwise, though for books released in the UK and US in the same month but on different dates we use the earliest date without comment and they are first edition unless noted differently. The dates are on a best known basis so they are not guaranteed; same about the edition information. Since information sometimes is out of date even in the Amazon links we use for listings, books get delayed or sometimes even released earlier, we would truly appreciate if you would send us an email about any listing with incorrect information.

Sometimes a cover image is not available at the time of the post and also sometimes covers change unexpectedly so while we generally use the Amazon one when available and cross check with Google Images, the ultimate bookstore cover may be different.

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“The Hedgewitch Queen” by Lilith Saintcrow. Release Date: December 1, 2011. Published by Orbit. (FAN).
“Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell. UK Release Date: December 1, 2011. Published by Gollancz. (Collection).

“Supervolcano: Eruption” by Harry Turtledove. Release Date: December 6, 2011. Published by Roc. (SF).
“Earthbound” by Joe Haldeman. Release Date: December 6, 2011. Published by Ace. (SF).

“Honor's Paradox” by P.C. Hodgell. Release Date: December 6, 2011. Published by Baen. (FAN).
“Galactic Courier” by A. Bertram Chandler. Release Date: December 6, 2011. Published by Baen. (Omnibus).

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“An Ill Fate Marshalling” by Glen Cook. Release Date: December 6, 2011. Published by Night Shade Books. (FAN).

“Himmler's War” by Robert Conroy. Release Date: December 6, 2011. Published by Baen. (AH).

“Of Limited Loyalty” by Michael A. Stackpole. Release Date: December 6, 2011. Published by Night Shade Books. (AH).

“The Miscellaneous Fictions of Clark Ashton Smith” by Clark Ashton Smith. Release Date: December 6, 2011. Published by Night Shade Books. (Collection).

“The Emperor's Knife” by Mazarkis Williams. Release Date: December 6, 2011. Published by Night Shade Books. (FAN).

“Myths of Origin: Four Short Novels” by Catherynne M. Valente. Release Date: December 6, 2012. Published by Wyrm Publishing. (MISC).

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“Planesrunner” by Ian McDonald. Release Date: December 6, 2012. Published by Pyr. (YA).

“Artemis” by Philip Palmer. Release Date: December 12, 2011. Published by Orbit. (SF).

“Rise of Empire” by Michael J. Sullivan. Release Date: December 14, 2011. Published by Orbit. (FAN / Omnibus).
“Count to a Trillion” by John C. Wright. Release Date: December 20, 2011. Published by Tor. (SF).
“Touch of Power” by Maria V. Snyder. Release Date: December 20, 2011. Published by Mira. (UF).

“City of Light and Shadow” by Ian Whates. Release Date: December 27, 2011. Published by Angry Robot. (FAN).

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“Babylon Steel” by Gaie Sebold. Release Date: December 27, 2011. Published by Solaris. (FAN).
“Empire State” by Adam Christopher. Release Date: December 27, 2011. Published by Angry Robot. (SF).
“The Demi-Monde: Winter” by Rod Rees. Release Date: December 27, 2011. Published by William Morrow. (SF).
“77 Shadow Street” by Dean Koontz. Release Date: December 27, 2011. Published by Bantam. (MISC).

“Hell Train” by Christopher Fowler. Release Date: December 27, 2011. Published by Solaris. (HF).

“Bestial” by William D. Carl. Release Date: December 27, 2011. Published by Permuted Press. (HF / Reprint).

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“Dark Revelations” by Anthony E. Zuiker & Duane Swierczynski. Release Date: December 29, 2011. Published by Dutton. (MISC).
“Phases of Gravity” by Dan Simmons. Release Date: December 31, 2011. Published by Subterranean Press. (SF).
“Gothic High-Tech” by Bruce Sterling. Release Date: December 31, 2011. Published by Subterranean Press. (SF).
“The Ballad of Ballard & Sandrine” by Peter Straub. Release Date: December 31, 2011. Published by Subterranean Press. (Novella).
“All About Emily” by Connie Willis. Release Date: December 31, 2011. Published by Subterranean Press. (Novella).
“Hidden” by Kelley Armstrong. Release Date: December 31, 2011. Published by Subterranean Press. (UF).

"Ex-Patriots" by Peter Clines (Reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)

Official Author Website

Read FBC’s review of Ex-Heroes

Order Ex-Patriots HERE

Read an excerpt HERE

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Peter Clines was born and brought up in Maine, he moved to California when he grew up and worked in Hollywood for a number of years. He has also been a prop master for several movies and TV shows. He has written reviews for the Cinema Blend website as well as for the Creative Screenwriting magazine. He has previously interviewed many famous film personas such as Frank Darabont, Paul Haggis, Kevin Smith, George Romero, Akiva Goldsman, David Goyer, Mark Herman, Nora Ephron and many others. He lives in Southern California.

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS: It’s been two years since the world ended.

Two years since the dead rose and the plague of ex-humanity decimated mankind. For most of that time, the superhero called St. George, formerly known to the world as the Mighty Dragon, has protected the people of Los Angeles at their film studio-turned-fortress, The Mount. Together with his fellow heroes—Cerberus, Zzzap, and Stealth—he’s tried to give the survivors hope and something like a real life. But the swollen population of the Mount is becoming harder and harder to sustain, and the heroes are feeling the pressure.

Hope arrives in the form of a United States Army battalion, based in a complex a few hundred miles away in Arizona. This is not just any base, however. The men and women of Project Krypton are super-soldiers, designed and created before the outbreak to be better, stronger, and faster than normal humans. They want the heroes and all the people of the Mount to rejoin America and have normal lives again.

But can the military be trusted? And is there even a country left to rejoin? There is a secret at the heart of Project Krypton, and those behind it have an awesome power that will help them keep that secret hidden. The power of Freedom!

FORMAT/INFO: Ex-Patriots is 292 pages long divided over a prologue, thirty-two numbered/titled chapters, and an epilogue. All chapters are either divided into “Then” or “Now” sections. Narration is in the first-person for all “Then” chapters and in third person for all the “Now” sections. The POV's both first person and third person are via Stealth, Dr. Emil Sorenson,Staff sergeant Kennedy, Sergeant Harry Harrison, Cerberus, Zzzap, Captain John Carter Freedom, John Smith, First sergeant Paine, Platoon sergeant Johnson, Private Kurt Taylor, St. George and a few minor characters. Ex-Patriots has a self-contained plot and is the second book in the Ex Trilogy. Readers can read this book without having read the first but there will minor spoilers for the first story as well some confusion in regards to certain plot & character developments.

September 4, 2011 marked the paperback and e-book publication of Ex-Patriots via Permuted press. Cover art is provided by Garret DeChellis.

CLASSIFICATION: Mixing zombies with superheroes in a desolate world. Peter Clines’s world of Ex-Patriots is George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead meets Matthew Reilly’s Area 7 meets The X-Men.

ANALYSIS: After reading Peter Clines excellent debut Ex-Heroes, I was very excited to see where he would take the characters and the world he had written about, in the next book. As is the case with most successful debuts, the sequels come up high anticipation and therein lies the quandary for the author as to come with a story which will resonate with the readers and give them something from the previous book and also at the same time head the characters in a new direction. It’s a tight rope act and one which has to done precisely as there are no second chances.

Peter Clines’s sequel to his exhilarating debut is titled Ex-Patriots and focuses on events a year later after what has happened in Ex-Heroes. The Mount community has more than doubled in its size due to the influx of immigrants from the other side. The Heroes have had their share of losses but their workload has even increased and now there’s a bit of resentment being aimed at the heroes by someone who believes they are taking away their civilian choices and rights. Things however look up as they celebrate Independence Day and people have a good time. Their celebrations are noticed by a military drone which brings out two choppers of US soldiers. These soldiers aren’t just the ordinary kind, they are from the project Krypton headed by Dr. Emil Sorrenson. They prove their capabilities and invite the heroes to their base as the Cerebrus armor is something which would be invaluable to them. On arriving at the Krypton base, things start going southwards as the heroes learn of certain things. But the main question is who is the real villain amidst all these events and what does this mean for all the humans still living in the Mount?

Sequels are always hard things to write however the author does the smart thing by sticking to his original successful formula of structuring his story and making sure that the readers instantly feel reconnected with the characters, however the new thing which he does is that he shifts the location of the action from Los Angeles to Project Krypton out in the Arizona desert. This shift causes a change of scenery as well as helps in widening the focus of the story and giving the readers an outward look at the events which have been happening. This pattern was very reminiscent of Matthew Reilly’s Scarecrow novels wherein the first two books had a similar plot structure but were in diametrically opposite environments.

The characterization is again top notch as we re-enter the lives of the POV characters picking up from where the readers were left off & the fit is smooth. This time however the flashback then sections focus more on the newer characters thereby giving us a fresher look at the story but this move also detaches a bit of the attachment to the primary characters. As this time around its the new characters who are the recipients of the "Then" sections.

This book had a primary drawback which was that during the middle portion, it tends to have a lull in the action and robs the story of some of its energy as well as the tension. This move while explained in the climax seems premeditated but somehow doesn’t quite come across so clearly. There’s also the addition of the new characters which aims to bring new zeal but some of the these characters aren’t as intriguing as the earlier POV ones. Also some of them don’t get enough time to develop as the story restricts their flashbacks. These points might be something which were noticed only by me and many wouldn’t be bothered by them however anticipation often is a double-edged blade. The ending however redeems these points completely as the author reveals his final twists which will definitely surprise many a reader and continues the tie-in with the overall all series arc.

CONCLUSION: Peter Clines’s sequel aims to please all new as well as the previous readers however the overall execution didn’t come across as envisioned. But the book is still a great effort and continues the excellent story begun in Ex-Heroes. Ex-Patriots is a crackerjack of a sequel, continuing in the same vein and yet delivering a thoroughly refurbished product in which readers can get lost in. Its an excellent middle book & now I can’t wait to see how it all ends in Ex-Communication.

Interview with Anne Sowards (Interviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)

BIOGRAPHY: Anne Sowards is an executive editor at Penguin Group (USA) Inc., where she primarily acquires and edits fantasy and science fiction for the Ace and Roc imprints. Some of the great authors she works with include Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, Anne Bishop, Ilona Andrews, Karen Chance, Jack Campbell, and Rob Thurman. When she's not reading, she listens to Chinese rap and spends way too much time playing video games. She recently won the ESGR Patriot Award as well. Follow her on twitter.

In the past decade I have come across many authors whose books have thrilled me to the core. Over a period of time, I noticed one similarity in all of them, they were all thanking one person profusely i.e. their editor Anne Sowards. I happened to also notice that the imprint wherein she works also produced some of the best books in urban fantasy currently and since I have an active interest in this specific sub-genre. I was looking forward to hearing her thoughts on many subjects. I would like to thank Liviu my senior editor for his acumen and insight with this interview and some of the questions, also a extra, special THANK YOU to Ilona Andrews for agreeing to participate & coming up with their own set of questions for Anne and lastly to Anne herself for taking the time amidst her hectic schedule. The interview has been divided into three sections, so read forth to know more about Anne & her views...

PERSONAL QUESTIONS:

Q] Welcome to Fantasybookcritic, You’ve been editing for a while now. Where does your love for writing/editing arise from and what events led you to pursue a career as an editor?

ANNE: I was always reading as a child—and I’d read whatever was around the house, even the cereal box or encyclopedias. In my quest for reading material, I soon expanded to my parents’ bookshelves. My dad was a major science fiction fan so I discovered authors like Frank Herbert and Robert A. Heinlein through his book collection.

In college I majored in English but wasn’t sure if I wanted to teach, so I started thinking about what else I could do, and considered publishing as a career. I joined our student-run science fiction magazine and found I really liked it, so a few months after graduation I moved out to New York City to look for a job. I was hired as the assistant to Susan Allison, the editor in chief of Ace, and worked my way up from there.

Q] Earlier you were a senior editor and since May 2009 you have ascended to the position of an Executive editor, how many responsibilities have increased with this shift? Conversely what are the perks you now enjoy that you didn’t earlier?

ANNE: In editorial a change in title is partially a recognition of your value to the company, and your actual day-to-day job may not change radically. I still find books for the company to publish and work with my authors through the whole publication process. That being said, I’ve become much more involved with scheduling (deciding which books we’ll publish when). As far as perks, I’d love to tell you all about my jaunts to London on the company plane but the truth is, I don’t think Penguin even has a company plane. I did get new business cards, though!

Q] With editing being your profession, you must often get very little time for personal reading. But if & when you do, what are the genres you like to read in? Also who are your favorite authors besides the ones you work with?

ANNE: It’s true, I have less time to read for pleasure than I used too—most of my reading time is taken up by the books I’m working on. When I’m reading for fun, I like historical fiction, romance, fantasy & science fiction, Young Adult, and narrative nonfiction.

Q] Could you please describe a typical day in your professional life? How much of your work do you bring home with you?

ANNE: There are three aspects to my job:

1) acquiring new books for the company to publish.

2) editing the books I acquire and working with them throughout the entire publication process.

3) everything else—a lot of resolving problems and answering questions.

I read submissions on the train, and primarily edit at home. The “everything else” takes up the bulk of my time when I’m in the office. I’m the point of contact person for the book and the author, so any questions the author or agent have for different departments (publicity, sales, etc.) go through me—and any questions in-house departments have about the book go through me. This results in a lot of questions! I spend a surprising amount of time composing emails and responding to questions.

I write marketing materials and put together sales information, selling points, quotes praising the author or the book, a description of the story, etc. and combine it into what we call a TI or Title Information sheet. These are used by all the other departments.

Also: attending meetings. We have a meeting to decide on a cover approach, a meeting to strategize the book with the sales department, and a meeting to discuss publicity for current titles on sale. There are also meetings to decide on the pricing of a book, to decide how many copies to print and reprint, and the list goes on and on. Again, since I’m the point of contact for the book, I go to many of these meetings.

Q] I hear you are an avid gamer, so which system do you have/prefer and what are your favorite games?

ANNE: I am definitely a gamer. I don’t know if I’m allowed to call myself an avid one; I’ve been so swamped lately I haven’t had a lot of time to play! Of the current gen consoles, I have a PS3. But I have a GameCube and Xbox kicking around and my Nintendo DS is still getting a fair amount of play. I love RPGs and puzzle games so some of my all time favorites are STAR WARS: KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC and THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: OCARINA OF TIME.

I just finished DRAGON AGE 2, started MASS EFFECT 2, and am also working on unlocking decks in MTG 2012: DUELS OF THE PLANESWALKERS (Archenemy mode is so fun!). My brother tried to teach me to play HALO but I kept falling off the stairs and getting stuck in corners—something about the first-person view in FPS games gives me trouble. Plus I admit shooting things and boss fights are not usually my favorite parts of a game.

Q] On your penguin page you have mentioned that only terrific storytelling can make you go forward with stories involving cannibalism, incest & circuses. Could you give us examples of each wherein the story (you read) involved one or more of the unreadable trinity? Lastly I’m curious, the first two subjects are icky and understandably gruesome, why circuses though? Circuses don’t seem to be in the same league.

ANNE: The opening line to Jeff Carlson’s PLAGUE YEAR is “They ate Jorgensen first.” In spite of my dislike of cannibalism, I pressed on, because you have to admit that’s a killer opening sentence. And Jeff’s terrific post-apocalyptic story, of people struggling to survive after a nanotech plague kills off everyone below 10,000 feet, won me over. George R. R. Martin’s rich storytelling and characterization drew me in even though there’s a brother-sister affair between Cersei and Jaime Lannister. I’m still looking for the Great Circus Story. Though to be honest, since circus storylines don’t generally appeal to me, I’m not looking super hard.

I agree, on the surface circuses don’t seem to be nearly as disturbing as cannibalism or incest. But you’re forgetting the clowns.

Q] You are also known to watch Bollywood which is very cool to know, especially for a non-desi. How did this fascination arise? which films are your favorites & who are you favorite actors (if any)?

ANNE: My interest in Bollywood came about serendipitously, like many things. I was channel surfing one day and came across a Southeast Asian entertainment program that was showing videos of dance numbers from popular Bollywood films. I was fascinated. I’ve always liked musicals and dance movies, and have also had an interest in India ever since I read my mom’s copy of SHADOW OF THE MOON by M. M. Kaye (historical fiction set in India during the time it was under British control).

So this was a great chance to learn more about India while watching movies that were all musicals (even when it sometimes seems incongruous). I started renting Bollywood films, kind of randomly. These days sometimes people give me specific recommendations but I rely a lot on Netflix reviews. Some of my favorites are DHADKAN, JODHAA AKBAR, GANGSTER, OM SHANTI OM, and (of course) DHOOM 2. As far as actors, I particularly like Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai, and Shah Rukh Khan.

[Photo Credit: Myke Cole]

PROFESSIONAL QUESTIONS:

Q] What are the factors/elements that you look for in any new submission which you receive? Are they genre-specific or something which work across the spectrum?

ANNE: I am looking for a story I can fall in love with and characters I care about. It doesn’t matter if it takes place on a spaceship or on horseback if it has those qualities.

Q] Do you have any specific reading habits or methods for evaluating submitted manuscripts?

ANNE: I read my submissions on my trusty Sony e-reader, on the subway going to and from work. Generally, I read until I have a sense of the story, quality of writing, and commercial appeal. Sometimes I can determine this after a sentence or a page; sometimes I need to read the whole book to decide whether it’s right for us.

Q] Who is the one author (either living or dead) that you would give a limb to work with? And what is it about her/his writing that makes it special for you?

ANNE: I admire the late Octavia Butler tremendously. When I read her Xenogenesis trilogy (now in an omnibus as Lilith’s Brood), I was gripped by the story she created—a frighteningly plausible story of an alien invasion. But these aliens haven’t come to kill, but to assimilate. They survive by finding new partner species to trade genes with—it’s how their race evolves. So humans are faced with joining the Oankali, knowing their children will no longer be human, or resisting and fighting against them. It’s an amazing series, so powerful and thought provoking.

Q] While evaluating manuscripts in the past couple of years, did you ever have a conflict between your personal preferences versus that of being the executive editor? If so how did you resolve it?

ANNE: Certainly there are sometimes submissions that are not necessarily to my own personal reading taste. (Maybe the story involves clowns.) Acquiring manuscripts is very subjective, and my list is a reflection of my tastes and what I think will interest readers. I’ve had to pass on books that I loved but that we didn’t think were viable commercially. I’ve also passed on books that were commercial but just didn’t do it for me as a reader. Part of my role is to get everyone else at the company excited about a book, and it’s hard to do that if I don’t fall in love with the story.

Q] What is your opinion on an imprint having an "image"? Is it advantageous as that means you have a stable of committed readers, or is it sometimes limiting in a way or another?

ANNE: Well, since Ace and Roc are science fiction and fantasy imprints, it means I can’t publish something wildly off base (like nonfiction about the history of Laundromats). It’s just not what retailers and readers expect or want from us. That being said, I feel lucky to work on science fiction and fantasy. The kind of books we can publish are so varied, I rarely feel limited.

Q] What are your thoughts about online book promotion? What roles do social media (Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads) and review blogs play?

ANNE: Review bloggers are so important! There are not as many print reviewers covering books these days, and even when there were more, their focus was usually not on genre titles. So it’s great that online reviewers are filling in the gaps and discussing fantasy and science fiction titles.

Goodreads is also valuable; it’s amazing how early buzz can start there. One of my YA books, FALLING UNDER by Gwen Hayes, got put on some lists in Goodreads pre-publication and I definitely think it helped to increase awareness about the book.

Online book promotion can be incredibly powerful, or incredibly annoying. It all depends on how it’s done. For me, it’s about connection, and also about being genuine. I have a Twitter account but I don’t tweet BUY THIS BOOK 24/7. I would unfollow anyone who did that!

Sometimes readers fall in love with a book and want to find out more about the world, what’s coming next, the author, or what other people thought about the book. So they might seek out the author’s website or Facebook page or Goodreads listing, or [and here’s where I come in] the publisher’s or editor’s website or Twitter feed.

The trick is to be interesting, engaging, and real (hence, no endless BUY MY BOOK posts). My feeling is that readers want to connect with authors via social media because they liked the author’s voice / storytelling; if you’re just doing BUY MY BOOK posts they won’t necessarily stick around. They want to know YOU.

So I talk about books and what I’m working on. But I also talk about laundry, what video games I’m playing, my knitting, and my current obsession with K-dramas. I post links to stories about the publishing industry and links that are funny or quirky or possibly interesting to no one but me. I have a lot of fun with it, and hopefully the people who look at my Twitter feed do too. And by coming to know me and my tastes, they may become interested in the books I like and the authors I’m working with and want to check them out.

Q] Ace & ROC are pretty much the leaders in urban fantasy, not surprising you also publish Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files which by almost universal fan opinion is the best UF series out there. How did this occur? Was it a conscious decision on the part of Ace to specifically focus on UF? What more avenues will be looked upon in the future?

ANNE: We were in on the ground floor with the urban fantasy movement, because of our success with Laurell K. Hamilton, Jim Butcher, and then Charlaine Harris. As their sales grew, we recognized that readers wanted more stories that were set in our world, but with vampires / werewolves / magic in them, so we looked for authors writing those types of books. As a result, today we have one of the strongest urban fantasy line-ups in the industry.

But our list is quite varied, and we don’t limit ourselves to urban fantasy. We’re always looking for the next thing, whether that is military science fiction, steampunk, or edgy fantasy. Publishing is a business, and we want to bring people the books they’re interested in reading. We do our best to keep up with what’s coming out and paying attention to what’s successful—with the goal to continue publishing the books readers want.

Q] What are some of titles which are coming out in the second half of 2011 & the forthcoming year which you are excited about?

ANNE: This is a toughie! We have lot of great books and there’s no way I can cover them all, so please check our website or Facebook page to see everything we publish.

Here are a few highlights:

In December, check out--

Kelly McCullough’s BROKEN BLADE, which is the beginning of a terrific new series about an ex-assassin trying to make his way in the world after the goddess he served is destroyed.

Ilona Andrews’s FATE’S EDGE is a fabulous and romantic story about an ex-thief and a con man who team up in the Edge, a unique world where the mundane world of Wal-Mart and technology is on one side and a magical realm of Changelings and Blueblood warriors is on the other.

Upcoming in the first quarter of 2012 we have--

SHADOW OPS: CONTROL POINT by Myke Cole, first in a hard-hitting military fantasy series. Imagine today’s ultra-realistic modern combat combined with magic and you get Shadow Ops. Myke Cole is currently an officer in the US Coast Guard Reserve and also served three tours in Iraq, so he’s the real deal and that authenticity comes through in his writing.

FAIR GAME, the new Alpha and Omega novel from Patricia Briggs, about the hunt for a serial killer targeting werewolves and fae. There are events at the end of this book that will have major ramifications for this series and the Mercy Thompson series, since they share a world. Exciting!

FATED by Benedict Jacka, which is a tremendous new urban fantasy series about a mage in London. Alex Verus is a diviner or probability mage, which means he can sense likely futures, and it is awesome. Definitely check this out if you’re a Jim Butcher fan and suffering from Dresden Files withdrawal.

There will be many more fantastic books coming, so please do check out our website or Facebook page if you’d like to be aware of what’s in the pipeline.

[Photo Credit: Elze Hamilton]

AUTHOR QUESTIONS BY ILONA ANDREWS:

Q] You edit many authors in the Urban Fantasy sub-genre such as Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, Karen Chance, Ilona Andrews, Devon Monk, Lisa Shearin, and many others. When you started out, have you ever imagined you would be an "urban fantasy" editor?

ANNE: My career has definitely taken unexpected directions! Back then, I thought of myself as more of an epic fantasy girl—I was a huge fan of authors like Robert Jordan and David Eddings. But then I read Laurell K. Hamilton’s first Anita Blake novel, GUILTY PLEASURES, and it blew me away. I hadn’t ever read anything like it before, and my love for urban fantasy was born. I feel so lucky to be able to work with all the amazing authors that I do.

Q] When you offer editorial suggestions, how extensive are the changes you usually request?

ANNE: It completely depends on what the project needs. For some books my suggestions are miniscule, for others, they could be 20+ pages of suggestions.

Q] Do all authors implement the changes you suggest, or have you had instances of someone refusing to make the edits?

ANNE: At the end of the day, it’s the author’s name on the book, and it’s their story. So it’s their decision how they respond to my suggestions, and some authors prefer to handle the issues in a different way.