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As noted before I keep and continually update a post with all the 2011 releases I finish with links to reviews and/or comments - with the limitations mentioned there (essentially I include only English language novels or anthologies/collection published in 2011 regardless of genre, but not non-fiction or foreign language books) and as of today I have read 30 such titles with several more I started and will finish in the near future. So far in fantasy there are three books that have a claim at my number 1 of 2011 and three more that will be a top 25 for sure, with Naamah's Blessing currently being the tentative top 2011 book of mine, so wonderful it was. Of course The Hammer and The Sea Watch are the other two, while The Soul Mirror, The Book of Transformations and The Dragon's Path are the top 25 A++ caliber fantasies of 2011 in addition to the previous three.In sf Leviathan Wakes reigns unchallenged for me so far but next week comes Embassytown, so we shall see. So far no other genres (historical or literary fiction) have a book in my expected top 25, though I've read two excellent historical fiction ones that will be in my highly recommended list for sure.Also this year has been a strong independent authors books for me with two such already on the highly recommended list and quite a few ones I expect later in the year with great potential, not to talk of the unexpected ones...
Official Author WebsiteOrder the book HERERead an excerpt HERERead FBC interview with the author HERERead FBC review of Sepulchral Earth: The Long Road AUTHOR INFORMATION: Tim Marquitz is the author of the previously released Armageddon Bound, the 1st book in the Demon Squad series and “The Long road” chapter 1 of the Sepulchral Earth. He is also an editor, a heavy metal aficionado. He lives in El Paso, Texas with his wonderful family. He’s currently writing the next chapter in the Sepulchral Earth series.
PLOT SUMMARY: Two years after the dead rose up to murder the living, the remnants of humanity face a brutal extinction. They are hunted day in and out with nowhere to turn to. The survivors have learnt to suffer under the inevitable shadow of death and survive at any cost. In such a brutal reality Harlan Cole wages a continuous war against the vast and destructive forces of the undead, aided by friendly spirits he tries his best to remain humane and yet survive. Driven to bring peace to the souls of his wife and daughter, Harlan vows to return the dead to the ground once again, or join them in the process!
In the first chapter we meet Harlan Cole a ragged survivor who is trying to live in the world wherein the dead are awakened and now hunt the living, he’s a necromancer of sorts with a ghostly partner whom he refers to as Professor. His only mission is to return the undead back to their earlier status as dead. However he’s just one man and can he survive in this brutal world … wherein humanity is on its lasts dregs and the only humans left are perhaps the most inhuman after all!
FORMAT/INFO: The e-novella consists of about 38 pages which runs like a singular chapter. Narration is via Third person, and features Harlan Cole as the protagonist. This is episode two of a possible 3-4 episode story.
December 1, 2010 marked the e-book release via Damnation Books. Cover art is provided by Jessica Lucero.
ANALYSIS: I’m a fan of Tim Marquitz and his previous books have always left me wanting for more. “Sepulchral Earth: The Long Road” was an exciting start to a new tale and it did not disappoint. I was going to review this chapter near its release however could not do so due to personal effects. So before I jumped in to chapter Two, I reread The Long Road, just to have a bit of continuity with the tale.
We begin again with Harlan as he flees battered from the events in the climax of the Long Road, Harlan walks toward his quarry as told to him by the spirit of Walter. He meets up with another kindred soul near the oracle and soon finds that his task might be much more difficult than previously thought out. As he finds out that not only is science involved in raising the avalanche of the dead but also there have more conspirators including someone who he met in the recent past. The problem is compounded by the fact that to shut down the Breach will now involve taking on the human and inhuman opponents.
His mission now, is to not only close the Breach but also to face people who might be stronger than him and have better incentives for keeping the world as it is! Thus begins Harlan’s attempt to abort the unnatural happenings and perhaps be at peace!
The pace is quite ratcheted in the second chapter and the prose remains the same as before. What is different from the previous chapter is the melancholy and gloom in this one. Things were already worse to begin with and in this chapter things take a deadly turn. Harlan Cole is still the eyes for the reader and one can surely empathize with him as he strives to finish his task and hopefully join his dead family. He’s a survivor but one who’s slowly and surely losing his sanity and humanity as thoughts of his family drive him forward while at the same time weakening him. We also get a bit of background on the events leading up to the resurrection of the dead and this also lays bare a few things about Walter and the person who caused the Breach to occur.
The ending is a cliffhanger and now it only remains to be seen how Harlan accomplishes his tasks or whether he perishes trying to accomplish his heart’s desire. Tim Marquitz does not disappoint with the second chapter of Sepulchral Earth as the pace of the story never lets up. However the only small disappointment is that the chapter ends rather quickly [in fact too quickly for some readers] and leaves the reader desperately wanting for more. Readers will be well advised to read both chapters back to back to help with the wait for release of chapter three.
CONCLUSION: A dark and fast read but a bit short for my liking, The Temple of The Dead is what it is promises to be, an express-paced, grim thrill ride about one man’s sojourn to make the dead, dead again!
Official Christian Cameron WebsiteOrder "Tyrant: King of the Bosporus" HEREINTRODUCTION/OVERVIEW: "Tyrant: King of the Bosporus" is the fourth book in the extended Tyrant series and the second book in the series that follows Satyrus and Melitta the children of the heroes of the original Tyrant duology - series that now seems to be planned at four volumes, making for a total of six Tyrant books all together - that started in Funeral Games last year.The original series that comprises of two books, Tyrant and Tyrant: Storm of Arrows follows the adventures of Kineas, an Athenian nobleman and commander of Alexander's allied Greek cavalry until he and his comrades are politely but summarily dismissed after the final defeat of Darius at Gaugamela in 331 BC.Not welcome back in democratic Athens as both nobleman and "lackey of the Macedonians", Kineas is forced to find his fortune on the Black Sea as cavalry commander for the tyrant of Olbia; with a mixture of former and new comrades and allying himself with the Scythians Sakje, Kineas rises high in the Black Sea and contiguous steppes arena, though he is haunted by a prophecy about his final battle... And the Macedonians are coming both for the free Greek cities of the Black Sea in the West and to subdue the Scythians of the steppes in the East, so Kineas must face his former boss and idol, the Boy King and his Companions in battle.This duology while hemmed a little by the prophecy which made the last several hundred pages a bit too predictable starts like a good but "I've seen this before" one, only to explode into one of the most memorable books about the era of Alexander with great characters, atmosphere and take-no prisoners attitude. Highly recommended.Fast forward some 12-13 years later to 316 BC, seven years after Alexander's death when the fight for the pieces of his empire is intensifying and Tyrant: Funeral Games begins. Kineas' twin children with his Scythian warrior-princess wife are growing up with their mother who leads a mixed Greek-Scythian city founded by Kineas in the Black Sea hinterland. But when Eumeles, a former comrade of Kineas and now local bigwig, decides the three are a threat to his ambitions and brutally murders their mother Srayanka, the twins escape only due to the martial skills of their guardian, the Spartan warrior Philokles who was their father's best friend and companion.Chased by Eumeles' minions led by the brutal Athenian mercenary Stratokles and getting involved in the wars of the successors, Satryus and Melitta find sanctuary in Alexandria at the court of Ptolemy, Alexander's former general who had some interesting encounters with Kineas in the original series. With the fortune of the African merchant Leon - another of Kineas' people - and the soldiers of Diodorus- one of Kineas' officers who kept to the mercenary business all this time - the two plan both revenge and to claim their inheritance and take the Black Sea cities from Eumeles, but first they have to help Ptolemy survive a challenge to his rule of Egypt from the most powerful of Alexander's generals Antigonus who wants nothing less than to recreate the full empire with him in command. And the fight that comes will be bloody and worth of the book title...The story of Ptolemy's securing his rule in Egypt was also recounted in a slightly more fantastic setting in the wonderful Jo Graham novel Stealing Fire (FBC review).King of the Bosporus starts in 311 BC when Funeral Games ends and Satyrus and Melitta believe they are finally ready to take on Eumeles. But Melitta is pregnant, so she is unwillingly confined to bed for a time, while Eumeles and his powerful allies have a long reach even to Alexandria, so he is prepared...Before discussing why "King of the Bosporus" is another successful offering from the author, I would like to mention that Christian Cameron has started another wonderful series, this time about the turbulent era of the Persian Wars in the 490's-470's BC. The first volume published last fall, Killer of Men was another big time favorite which I have just missed reviewing here as I did with Funeral Games for that matter, but I plan to remedy this and review the sequel Marathon later this year when it will be published.ANALYSIS: What makes Christian's Cameron historical fiction set in the Classical World in general and this book in particular stand out?The first thing you notice when reading any Tyrant or Long War series book is the meticulous research and the pitch perfect atmosphere. No anachronisms here and also no "modern attitudes" from the characters which is one of my main turn-offs in the genre unless done extremely well in an ironical mode. The author's website linked above has a lot of "behind the scenes" information about the period in cause and how he chose this or that term, this or that scene and that adds considerable value too.The novels are also page turners and relatively free of infodumps, so the recreation in depth mentioned above is incorporated seamlessly in the narrative and in each of the 5 books to date, I found myself compelled to keep reading as much as time would allow once I opened the respective book.Getting down to the Satyrus and Melitta tetralogy and to King of Bosporus in particular, I would say that the main difference here is the youth and expectations of the main characters, though it is well tempered by the superb ensemble cast from the original duology as well as the new ones appearing here first.The twins are born to relative privilege and expectations - the Scythians have a strong matriarchal component, so Melitta like her mother Srayanka could and (of course later would) become a warrior too, heir on her own to the Sakje "crown", while Satyrus could claim his Greek heritage in the Black Sea cities. Brutally thrown out of their normal life in a mixed Greek-Scythian milieu and running for their lives as 13 year olds tends to shape one's character and I think that the author managed to show that very well.Satyrus alternates between overconfidence and insecurity, while Melitta tries to both emulate her mother's warrior heritage but also fit into the Greek world where "decent" women, especially of the upper classes, are expected to stay home, defer to men and run the household, rather than go and fight with bow and arrows on a trireme or on horseback and bed the men of their choice. It is true that their formative years in the "new life" are in Alexandria which at the time is a new city with less tradition than say Athens, but this "belonging and not belonging" at the same time is to me the main characteristic of the two main heroes of the tetralogy and shapes their actions to a large extent.Like Funeral Games, King of the Bosporus is also almost end to end action, on sea, on land, on the steppes with naval battles, sacked cities, brutal killings, pirates, cavalry action, but also intrigue, camaraderie and the expected touch of the fantastic in the classical world style of blurring the line between reality and the supernatural.Since this book has a lot of closure and in a sense concludes the main thread from Funeral Games, I am really curious where the series will go in the next two volumes announced for early 2012 and 2013, but King of the Bosporus (A+) is a book that fulfills the promise of the first volume and of the preceding duology in spades.
As announced HERE on George R.R. Martin’s website and HERE by EW.com, A Dance With Dragons, the long-awaited fifth volume in A Song of Ice & Fire, finally has a firm release date—July 12, 2011—and a new cover as seen above.
According to the EW article, the manuscript is huge with the publisher estimating the hardcover edition “will run more than 900 pages, putting it about the same length as the longest book in the series, A Storm of Swords.”
The article also includes a preview from an interview Entertainment Weekly did with George R.R. Martin:
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What took so long?
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN: I’m not sure I have a good answer. If I did, I would have taken less time. It’s enormous. It’s as long as A Storm of Swords. It’s very complicated. I have a lot of characters and points of view. And I’ve been doing a ton of rewriting, trying to get it where I wanted it to be. Some of these chapters I’ve rewritten more times than I can count before I’m satisfied with them.
EW: Can you tease something from the book?
GRRM: I don’t want to spoil any surprises. I can say all the characters people have been waiting for are there: Daenerys, Jon Snow, and Tyrion. There’s also new characters, and viewpoints from characters who did not have viewpoints before.
For more of George R.R. Martin’s interview—where he compares A Dance With Dragons to the previous four books, and weighs in on the HBO adaptation—pick up this week’s print edition of Entertainment Weekly.
EW NOTE: That the author is still writing might worry some longtime fans (giving Martin a deadline is a bit like making a photo request of J.D. Salinger) but his publisher assures us the date is firm. Winter, and A Dance With Dragons, is coming...
Official Jesse Bullington Website
Order “The Enterprise of Death” HERE (US) + HERE (UK)
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s Review of “The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart”
AUTHOR INFORMATION: Jesse Bullington is a folklore and outdoor enthusiast who holds a bachelor's degree in History and English Literature from Florida State University. His bibliography includes The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart and The Enterprise of Death.
PLOT SUMMARY: As the witch-pyres of the Spanish Inquisition blanket Renaissance Europe in a moral haze, a young African slave finds herself the unwilling apprentice of an ancient necromancer. Unfortunately, quitting his company proves even more hazardous than remaining his pupil when she is afflicted with a terrible curse. Yet salvation may lie in a mysterious tome her tutor has hidden somewhere on the war-torn continent.
She sets out on a seemingly impossible journey to find the book, never suspecting her fate is tied to three strangers: the artist Niklaus Manuel Deutsch, the alchemist Dr. Paracelsus, and a gun-slinging Dutch mercenary. As Manuel paints her macabre story on canvas, plank, and church wall, the apprentice becomes increasingly aware of the great dangers that surround her. She realizes she must revisit the fell necromancy of her childhood . . . or death will be the least of her concerns...
CLASSIFICATION: Like The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart, The Enterprise of Death is a hard-to-classify fusion of folklore, historical fiction, fantasy, horror and black comedy in the vein of the Brothers Grimm, Clive Barker, Chuck Palahniuk, Warren Ellis and a bit of Joe Abercrombie. In this case, the historical-influenced setting is centered around the Spanish Inquisition, the Italian Wars and the Protestant Reformation during the late 15th/early 16th centuries. Actual historical figures, items and events woven into the novel include Boabdil’s exile from the city of Granada and the words his mother supposedly spoke to him upon reaching a rocky prominence—“Thou dost weep like a woman for what thou couldst not defend as a man.”—Niklaus Manuel Deutsch, his wife Katharina and the painting the book’s cover is based on; the Swiss mercenary captain, Albrecht von Stein; Heinrich Kramer’s treatise on witches, the Malleus Maleficarum; Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, better known as Dr. Paracelsus; and the Battle of Bicocca. Fantasy elements meanwhile include necromancers, animated corpses and vampires.
FORMAT/INFO: The Enterprise of Death is 464 pages long divided over a Prologue and thirty-nine Roman-numbered/titled chapters. Extras include an Excerpt from Jesse Bullington’s debut novel, The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart, and a Bibliography of the material researched for The Enterprise of Death. Narration is in the third person via several different point-of-views including Awa, Omorose, Niklaus Manuel and Monique. The Enterprise of Death is self-contained. March 3, 2011/March 24, 2011 marks the UK/North American Trade Paperback publication of The Enterprise of Death via Orbit Books. Cover art is based on this painting by Niklaus Manuel Deutsch.
ANALYSIS: The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart may have been extremely vulgar and gruesomely violent with a disappointing ending and possibly the most revolting protagonists to ever star in their own book, but for all of that, Jesse Bullington’s debut offered a very different, and at the same time, very rewarding reading experience. As such, I was excited to see what Jesse Bullington’s sophomore effort would bring to the table.
Unfortunately, The Enterprise of Death did not immediately grab me the same way that Jesse Bullington’s first novel did. Part of the problem can be attributed to a somewhat confusing narrative that alternates between the story’s present time and past events, although that distinction does not become clear until later in the novel, while the author’s annoying tendency to switch between viewpoints without any warning only added to the confusion. The real problem though lies with how vile things can get at the beginning of the book with cannibalism, necrophilia and self-cannibalism some of the more disgusting topics covered. For all of its vulgarity and gruesomeness, there was always a healthy dose of dark humor in The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart to help lighten the mood. In contrast, humor has been significantly reduced in The Enterprise of Death, and what humor is present is of the more morbid variety. As a result, it’s much more difficult not to be disturbed by the vileness in The Enterprise of Death, and I have to admit there were a number of times when I almost gave up on the book altogether.
Thankfully, I stuck it out and I’m glad I did. Once I got a handle on where the story was heading, who the major players were, got past the novel’s more repulsive moments, and became fully acclimated to Jesse Bullington’s writing style, reading The Enterprise of Death was a much smoother and more entertaining affair. Of course, it helps that Awa is a lot more likable as a protagonist compared to the Grossbart brothers, even if she is a necromancer, remarkably nonchalant about killing people, and suffers from shallow characterization. In fact, I really grew to care about Awa and whether or not she would be able to break the curse and defeat her evil master. The supporting characters meanwhile—which includes the real-life artist/mercenary Niklaus Manuel, the African beauty Omorose, the Dutch gunner/whoremonger/giantess Monique, the historical figure Doctor Paracelsus, etc.—are an eclectic bunch, but don’t really add much to the novel apart from some engaging dialogue on things like the differences between faith and religion and whether necromancy is good or evil.
Personally, what made The Enterprise of Death worth reading was Jesse Bullington’s clever writing—“Two individuals of the opposite sex will, if forced to go on a journey together, fall in love. Often begrudgingly, and with a great deal of reluctance by at least one of the parties, to be sure, but love will fall as surely as night after day. In the unlikely event that one of the two is homosexual, asexual, already in a loving relationship, or otherwise disinclined from romancing their traveling companion, love will fall all the harder, like cannon fire upon a charging cavalry; indeed, the less likely the two are to fall in love naturally, the more certain it is that the sojourn will bring them together.”—and a vivid imagination which included everything from fire salamanders and a hyena-like demon to a different kind of vampire and unique necromantic abilities like being able to kill someone with a simple touch, speaking with the spirits of things both animate and inanimate, and healing incurable wounds by ingesting body parts. The ending is also a lot more satisfying than the one in The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart, and even leaves room for a sequel or two that I would love to check out, especially if the author wrote one featuring the Bastards of the Schwarzwald.
Overall though, The Enterprise of Death is not as good as The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart. Jesse Bullington’s sophomore effort pushes vileness to a whole new level, but without the humor and entertainment that made the author’s debut novel such a unique reading experience. Still, it’s hard not to be impressed by the author’s boldness and creativity, and that alone is enough to keep me interested in whatever Jesse Bullington decides to write next...
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Liviu's Take: The Enterprise of Death is an interesting book in many ways and I think that if you liked the author's debut for his "take no prisoners style" you will like this more since the content is more unpredictable and the characters from Awa to Manuel and Monique are more interesting and less of a caricature, but I had two major issues with the book:First I found it hard to take it seriously since all those raising of dead persons, the dead and undead characters and the "today magic happens at 1 pm but not at a 2.15 pm" - no consistency in the laws of the nature in other words is essentially solipsistic so why care? So my suspension of disbelief broke any moment when I got out of the flow of the novel and started thinking for a second.And here came the second problem: if the style of the author would coincide to my taste, I probably would have enjoyed the novel for the characters - especially Awa and Manuel whose banter was always entertaining - but sadly the novel lacked that special "magic" for me that would make me turn page after page and forget the essential inconsistent nature of the world building, so when reading it, I would find myself often thinking "how absurd, if this is allowed by the laws of the universe why not that happens?" way too many times too enjoy it where "this" ranges from waking the dead to the clear delineation of mind-body and "that" ranges from why do not the dead take over to various issues well known about the mind-body duality. Another smaller problem I had with The Enterprise of Death at least for a while was the fact that it sounded anachronistic: the way the characters talk sounds very 21st century, not 15/16th century. This is of course more a matter of perception than of fact lacking a time-machine to go and see how people really talked then and considering that written artifacts tend to be conforming to official styles in many periods of human history, but I found a gap between the world view of the 15th century that is generally accepted in history books and the way people are portrayed to think in this book All in all The Enterprise of Death (C) is a book that I had high hopes for and it just did not pan out though the author's style was entertaining enough in his dark, ultra-cynical way that we got to expect to keep me reading. I expected literary fantasy and I got mostly formula and sadly the formula of the kind I do not overtly care for the reasons mentioned above - nothing wrong with formula btw as long as is the kind I appreciate. Though I see myself opening another Jesse Bullington book if the subject is more appealing than here.
