"In a Strange Room" by Damon Galgut (Reviewed by Liviu Suciu)

Damon Galgut at Wikipedia
Order "In a Strange Room" HERE or ebook HERE
Read an excerpt from "In a Strange Room" HERE

INTRODUCTION: "In A Strange Room" is a book that based on blurb or cover would not have me tempted in any way until I saw it on the Booker Longlist and later on the Shortlist. Even so I was skeptical that it would interest me enough to read it, but the excerpt linked above seemed to be on my taste so I looked to get a copy. To my surprise I read it in several hours since it hooked me from the first pages, once the story gets going in South Africa.

"A young man takes three journeys, through Greece, India and Africa. He travels lightly, simply. To those who travel with him and those whom he meets on the way - including a handsome, enigmatic stranger, a group of careless backpackers and a woman on the edge - he is the Follower, the Lover and the Guardian. Yet, despite the man's best intentions, each journey ends in disaster. Together, these three journeys will change his whole life. A novel of longing and thwarted desire, rage and compassion, "In a Strange Room" is the hauntingly beautiful evocation of one man's search for love, and a place to call home."

FORMAT/CLASSIFICATION: "In A Strange Room" stands at about 225 pages and is divided into three stories narrated in an intimate third-person mode by the author's alter-ego as we can deduce from the little details mentioned: name, where he comes from...

The stories are separated in time by years - Damon as a younger man, then some years later in his early thirties, then as a supposedly respectable forty-ish one - and space, one starting in Greece and then taking place mostly in South Africa and Lesotho, one taking place in several African countries and the last going to India.

"In A Strange Room" is literary fiction that uses the travelogue format to explore the human nature.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: I got a copy of In A Strange Room today and I read it in several hours after work; just hooked me from the first several pages and the first two stories were fabulous - both are mostly African travelogues, one is backpacking with a friend encountered in Greece, but the story is stranger than you think; the second is hopping between several groups of people and as opposed to the very intimate first story (not in a romantic or sexual way though), it is a story with lots of character snippets
...more In A Strange Room consists of three stories that follow the main character Damon on three quite different journeys. Despite its contemporary content - which is quite essential especially in The Lover and The Guardian since the main part of the journey depends on modern travel, while a lot of the substance of the stories stems from the intersection of the contemporary local politics and mores with the personal - In A Strange Room reads also as a timeless tale of exploration, especially in The Follower, where the interaction between Damon and Reiner in the wilds of Lesotho is key to the story.

The Follower:

"Enjoy the ruins, the German man smiles. The South African says that he will. Then they part again with a nod and draw slowly away from each other on the narrow white road, looking back now and then, until they are two tiny and separate points again, rising and falling with the undulations of the land."

Damon meets a strange young German Reiner in Greece; after a tentative friendship seems scotched by their cross-schedules, the mutual attraction is too much and they get back together. They plan a big African backpacking trip and later they get to it but the story is stranger than you think. A very intimate first story though not in a romantic or sexual way.

The Lover:

"A few years later he is wandering in Zimbabwe. No particular reason or intention has brought him here. He decides on impulse one morning to leave, he buys a ticket in the afternoon, he gets on a bus that night. He has it in mind to travel around for two weeks and then go back."

Damon goes on a trip to nearby Zimbabwe and then his trip expands to the middle of the continent. Hopping between several groups of people allows the author to expand this story towards the "big picture" eg the state of the world or at least of the particular African countries visited and how the European tourists who may have come with the best intentions see it, though a Swiss trio met by Damon at a border crossing get the tale back to the intimate and personal.

The Guardian:

Even before their departure, when he goes to meet her flight from Cape Town, he knows he’s in trouble. He last saw her a month ago and she was in a bad way then, but look at her now. The first one off the plane, striding far ahead of the crowd. Her peroxide job has gone wrong, so that her hair has turned a strange yellow colour, standing out in angry spikes from her head. But more than this, something has changed inside her, which you can see from a long way off. She seems to burn with a luminous white light. Her face is knotted and anxious, bunched in on itself, and it takes her a long time to notice him. Then her expression clears, she smiles, as they embrace she is his old friend again.

This last story is weaker - it deals with drug abuse and travel to India; Damon is older and more of an observer than participant, while his nominal role of guardian for a young troubled high powered executive is not really suited for him as he soon finds out.

The writing style is very sparse but quite descriptive too and immerses one completely in the story. "In A Strange Room" (A+) is a novel of exploration in our age that is quite deeper than its seeming simplicity may imply at first glance. Damon's journeys will stay with you for a long time.

Cindy Hannikman Cybil Awards 2010 First Round Panelist and Nominations Information

Visit the Cybils Official Website Here

The Cybil Awards or Children's and Young Adult Bloggers Literary Awards, are held every year. This year I am pleased to announce that I will be a returning first round panelist in the Sci-fi/Fantasy Middle Grade Category. These awards are a great opportunity for book bloggers to get together and recognize the most outstanding books of the year in each category.

My fellow panelists include:
Anamaria Anderson of Books Together
Gwenda Bond of Shaken & Stirred
Aaron Maurer of Coffee for the Brain
Nicole Signoretta of Booked Up
Charlotte Taylor of Charlotte's Library
Karen Yingling of Ms. Yingling Reads

There are so many sci-fi/fantasy books put out each year that the category is split between Middle Grade and Young Adult. The first round judges will sift through over a hundred books and narrow the selection down to those 6-7 that are most representative of the category they were nominated for. From there the second round judges will pick the winner from the nominated books.

Nominations come in via the public and are open until October 15, 2010 at 11:59 PM EST. As long as the book was published between October 16, 2009 and October 15, 2010 it's eligible. If you have a book that you feel should be nominated for any of the categories feel free to nominate the book here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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