Nothing new today but I hope to have Nekropolis finished and a review up by tomorrow.

I do have a couple of things in the works that aren't quite ready to be posted just yet.

So what is everyone else reading right now?

Also, Michael Jackson is dead.

As every self-respecting internet/book geek should know, Cory Doctorow makes a habit of giving his books away for free online under Creative Commons Licenses online. His latest effort, Makers, is no exception. Makers doesn't come out until Nov 11th 2009 but it will be serialized in 81 parts on Tor.com. A new "chapter" will be released every Mon/Weds/Fri.



Now Doctorow isn't stupid. He knows that internet downloads translate to paper sales. There is a reason why the 81st chapter of this book is coming out 27 weeks from now in Jan 2010 AFTER the physical copy hits shelves. There are 3 important groups of people in his financial equations.

1) People who like physical books are going to buy the physical book whether its online or not.
2) People who like the story are going to read the first two thirds of the book online and then want the resolution as soon as it is available so they buy the book online
3) People who were never going to buy the book whether it was free online or not. They might read it or they might not.

So Doctorow has got the guaranteed sales from group #1 (which includes myself) and he won't get any sales from group #3.

If he offers the book online, he picks up sales from group #2 who might or might not have bought the book. Plus a couple of people from group 3 might read his book for free, like it, and talk about it. There are also still a few honest people in this world that will buy the physical book to support the author even after they have finished it online.

If he doesn't do this, he still picks up group #1 but no one reads the sample chapters and Doctorow has no additional sales from group #2 or recommendations from group #3.

Also, Tor.com is a young site but it seems to be putting out quality content on a frequent basis so it's reader base has to be growing if not already substantial.

Doctorow just guaranteed a free ad for his book on their front page every Mon/Wed/Fri for the next 6 months. Anyone who visits Tor.com in that time span is going to be aware of his new book.

It will be interesting to see when the remainder of the formats that typically accompany a Cory Doctorow book will be released. I do think that offering the book for free as a finished ebook will cannibalize views from Tor.com but I don't know if that is a concern.

As for myself, I might sample a few of the early sections to get a feel for the novel but I will most certainly be buying it. I'm not a huge fan of reading online and I enjoy a story better when I can immerse myself in it and read it at my own pace rather than having it portioned out to me in bite-sized chunks.

Makers tells the story of a group of hardware hackers who fall in with microfinancing venture capitalists and reinvent the American economy after a total economic collapse, and who find themselves swimming with sharks, fighting with gangsters, and leading a band of global techno-revolutionaries. The first 50,000 words of Makers were serialized on Salon some years ago under the title Themepunks.

Sounds like something straight up Doctorow's alley.

Here's the full story from on Tor.com

Part 1 (of 81) of Makers

So which group do you fall into?

Just a reminder that Warehouse 13 premieres on The Sci-Fi Channel SyFy tonight. Part X-files, part Indiana Jones, Warehouse 13 is an hour long dramedy straight out of the script for National Treasure 3.

After saving the life of the President, two Secret Service agents find themselves abruptly transferred to Warehouse 13 -- a massive, top-secret storage facility in windswept South Dakota that houses every strange artifact, mysterious relic, fantastical object and supernatural souvenir ever collected by the U.S. government. The Warehouse's caretaker Artie (saul Rubinek) charges Pete (Eddie McClintock) and Myka (Joanne Kelly) with chasing down reports of supernatural and paranormal activity in search of new objects to cache at the Warehouse, as well as helping him to control the warehouse, itself.

I'd rather see a more serious Sci-Fi show from SyFy to replace Battlestar Gallactica (Virtuality perhaps?). I do enjoy SyFy's other dramedy Eureka (returning July 10th!). I also loved the pulpy fun of the first 3 Indiana Jones movies as well as the two National Treasure movies. If Warehouse 13 can manage to capture the tone of these shows without becoming too cheesy, it should be an enjoyable summer show to watch on those rainy afternoons. I would prefer if the show were a little bit more serious than Eureka perhaps matching the tone of some of the lighter episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I would agree that the show most likely can't try for realism or a dark tone given the subject matter.

Hopefully this show is a success and SyFy will start to get back on track with their programming. After the loss of Battlestar and Stargate Atlantis, SyFy is somewhat lacking in original content. Stargate Universe (yay Scalzi!), Caprica, and the Alien Nation reboot will hopefully be quality but they all represent continuations or reboots of existing properties. Eureka, Warehouse, and Sanctuary are the only "original" shows they have running now I believe. It's nice to see completely new properties in a media landscape dominated by CSI spinoffs, Comic Book movies, and Reality TV garbage. Try and make an effort to watch Warehouse 13, if for no other reason than to support something unique.

Learn more about Warehouse 13 at The Official Warehouse 13 Website

21 Words or Less: A brilliant debut that paints a harsh but strangely realistic portrait of tomorrow with a grace rarely seen in comparable works.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Pros: Intriguing ideas, realistic approach, recognizable/relatable characters

Cons: Hands-off approach takes some getting used to early on.

The Review: Reading Moxyland is a lot like watching a painting develop. Early on, when the canvas is mostly blank, it’s difficult to make sense of the individual brush strokes and envision the end result as a cohesive story. Lauren Beukes plunges you into the South Africa of tomorrow without warning, as you follow the lives of Toby, Kendra, Lerato, and Tendeka; four very different twenty-somethings that become entangled in a series of events that will change their lives forever. As each character narrates, you see the interworkings of their future with little explanation or contemplation. While frustrating for the reader at first, the end result is a speculative South Africa that feels more real. When was the last time you thought about how your cell phone worked or delved into the intricacies of xBox Live in your everyday conversation? Those explanations are often a benefit for the reader, but they detract from the authenticity of the story. Beukes manages to riff on the future of communication, video games, corporate sponsorship, modern art, biotechnology, advertisement, crime and punishment, corporate culture, class warfare, government authority, and more, all while remaining within the lives and thoughts of the characters.

Moxyland truly is a Jackson Pollack of ideas, rather than of color. The ideas are everywhere; more often than not intermingling in unpredictable but interesting ways. Cell phones for example, become more than communication devices, becoming wallets, game devices, security keys, and even behavior modifiers (i.e. shock collars). Not having cell phone service in today’s world is an annoyance, in Moxyland disconnection is a form of capital punishment. The ideas come hard and fast, more often than not just giving you just a casual mention or a bit of dialogue to describe an idea another author would frame an entire story around. Becoming a corporate s It’s impossible to tell if one splash of prediction is too much or in the wrong place, but somehow they all seem to fit bizarrely together in a way which is scarily easy to trace back to current trends. It’s a future which is shockingly different yet disconcertingly similar.

In the end, I rated Moxyland 4.5 stars but an uneven 4.5. Early on I was projecting a 3 star book, having difficulty keeping up with the unrelenting flurry of idea after idea. Any book with 4 POV characters is going to take a while to develop, especially within a future setting that might as well be a character on its own. However, once I managed to get acclimated to the unapologetic style with which Beukes conveys her vision of the future, I was captivated for the remainder of the book. I couldn’t put it down and engaged with the world and the characters at the level I expect from a 5-star book. I was afraid that Angry Robot Books had made a mistake; that their flagship novel was a flop. Make no mistake; Moxyland is a work of art.

Hopefully by this point I'll have finished Moxyland and moved on to Tim Waggoner's Nekropolis. Nekropolis, like Moxyland, is a debut title from new publisher Angry Robot Books.

The publisher's description:

Meet Matt Richter. Private eye. Zombie.

His mean streets are the city of the dead, the shadowy realm known as Nekropolis. In this first case, Richter must help a delectable half-vampire named Devona recover a legendary artifact known as the Dawnstone, before it’s used to destroy Nekropolis itself. That is, if he can survive the myriad horrors that infest the city itself.

Pulp and proud, cracking wise like we just dug up the rotting corpse of Dashiell Hammett and put him back to work at his typewriter, Nekropolis is just the first of a trio of fabulous urban fantasies Angry Robot will be bringing you from the mighty Tim Waggoner.

Originally published as a limited run novella, the expanded Nekropolis is the definitive version of this massively entertaining series opener.

At first glance this appears to be part-Jim Butcher/part-China Mieville. Supernatural detective in a supernatural city. I'm expecting something fast-paced, fun, and profoundly weird.

Based on the description, it appears that we've got some vampires and zombies running around the city of the dead. Vampires and Zombies are some of the more overused elements in urban fantasy, so it will be interesting to see what unique spin, if any, Waggoner uses. This will also be my first book by Waggoner so I'm not sure what to expect from him.

Nekropolis will be available in the UK on August 1st but doesn't hit US stores until January 2010.

For the past week, the SFF blogosphere has been abuzz with the news of Alastair Reynolds' BFD (Big Fraking Deal) with Gollancz. That figure (1,000,000 GBP) sounds high but it's also a 10-year, 10-book deal so while still considerable, it's not quite up there with the latest Yankees contract (or Manchester United if you are lucky enough to live where Reynolds books are released first). $150K per book is nothing to sneeze at. Unless you're Dan Brown, Stephen King, or John Grisham, I don't think too many authors would be turning that down. Make sure you add Reynolds to your Fantasy Science Fiction team.

Last week, Alastair Reynolds had a discussion with The Guardian which you can read here. I recommend checking it out as Reynolds offers some unique thoughts on Hard SF.

I don't like a lot of what's published as hard SF," he says. "Much of it is rightwing, reactionary crap." Hard SF's insistence on abiding by the laws of contemporary physics is more than just a straitjacket, he continues – it's also unrealistic. "If you're speculating about the state of knowledge 500 years from now, or even 50 years from now, there will clearly be things that will be known then that we would now consider to be nonsensical, or which would directly contradict present theories, in the same way that plate tectonics would have been considered pseudoscience 100 years ago."

I tend to agree with him here. A lot of Hard SF ends up being boring, incomprehensible, or both just because authors let their imaginations get reined in by the current understanding of science. While I think you need to stick to some Hard SF rules, the story should always be the most important element. The most critical aspect for me isn't 100% scientific accuracy, just internal consistency. (Star Trek reboot, I'm looking at you)

Reynolds also provides some insight on the (bad pun alert) novel ideas that might materialize over the next ten years.

As part of the discussions over the new contract, he was asked to sketch out an idea of where he might be in 10 books' time, he continues, "which is crackers. But actually it's not that hard to think of 10 books I want to write." At the moment he's hatching a trilogy charting man's exploration of the galaxy, inspired by a visit to the Kennedy Space Center last year. "It was almost like an epiphany," he says. "I was completely sold on the idea that this is still a valid ambition for us as a species." He's planning to chart a possible future open to us if we can pass through the planetary bottleneck which confronts us now, with books set in logarithmic jumps 100, 1,000 and 10,000 years into the future. With a refreshing lack of the reluctance many novelists show when asked to discuss as-yet-unwritten works, he describes how he is aiming to move beyond the well-trodden path of setting up fictional bases on the moon or Mars, and re-examine how the solar system might be conquered in the light of new scientific data from the last 10 to 15 years.

That sounds interesting. Almost everything I have read has dealt with the beginnings of colonization with the Moon or Mars or assumes it's already happened before the time frame of the book. It would be interesting how Reynolds thinks the colonization of our solar system might play out. I'm guessing we would get to Mars by 2100 and visit anywhere in the solar system we can land without dying by 3000. It will still be interesting to see how that plays out and how he intends on tying a plot to it.

Reynolds also discusses gender issues in SF, settling for imperfection, and why he became a SF writer. Go read it.

And for the love of Asimov, START PUBLISHING REYNOLDS WITH WORLDWIDE RELEASE DATES. I'm tired of waiting for the US editions.

Dead Men's Boots - Mike Carey

The next Felix Castor novel, Dead Men's Boots, is a must read for me. The Felix Castor books rank only behind Harry Dresden in my favorite Urban Fantasy series.

Always Forever (Age of Misrule Book Three) - Mark Chadbourn

The final book in the Age of Misrule series, Always Forever should be interesting. Features Celtic mythology in today's Britain. Check it out if you are a fan of Pyr or great cover art.

The Kingdom Beyond the Waves - Stephen Hunt

Steampunk adventure continuing the story of archaeologist Amelia Harsh that began in The Court of the Air. The first was a fast paced thrill ride. I expect the same pulpish feel in the sequel.

Wireless - Charles Stross

Stross, one of today's SF giants, has a short fiction collection featuring a brand new novella. I haven't read any of Stross's short fiction so it's all new to me.

The Boys Volume 4 (v. 4) - Garth Ennis

The 4th TPB of the rude and crude comic series featuring superheroes at their worst. Definitely not for the kids. I'm serious. If you see your child reading this, take it away from them.

The Price of Spring (The Long Price Quartet) - Daniel Abraham

The concluding volume of The Long Price Quartet. I hope The Price of Spring can deliver on the success of the first three books. There's always M.L.N. Hanover, I guess.

Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America - Robert Charles Wilson

Originally a June release, Julian Comstock got strong enough reviews to get added onto my July list. Hugo-winner Wilson predicts a future America after oil runs out and religion takes over.

Are there any books out there I may be missing out on?

So far this year, I've managed to read 27 books although 7 of which were graphic novels.

Here's a few interesting stats about my reading habits the last 6 months.

Science Fiction: 7
Fantasy: 9
Non-Fiction: 2
Star Wars Books: 3
Short Story Anthologies: 2
Young Adult Books: 3
Fiction Writers I Hadn't Read Before: 8
Books over 500 pages: 7
Graphic Novels: 7
Male Authors: 15
Female Authors: 4

My goal for this year was to average at least 50 pages a day or about 1 full length novel a week. I've found this is about as aggressive as I can be while maintaining a full-time job and a social life. Without graphic novels I am stand at 20 books, 6 off from the pace at the half way mark. However, I might still be there in terms of page count since I made an effort to get through some of the doorstopping tomes that had been taunting me from the Reading Pile particularly Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell as well as the mammoth (and classic) Bone omnibus.

I managed a decent mix between Fantasy and SF with Fantasy getting a little boost from the two Fantasy trilogies I read (Power/Voices/Gifts and The First Law) versus only Star Wars (3 books) adding to the SF side of things. If you count series as a single book it's a 1:1 ratio so I'm happy with the blend of SF and Fantasy along with some non-fiction and graphic novels. It helps to avoid getting too burnt out with a specific genre or sub-genre. I recommend keeping it fresh by balancing "heavy" reading with faster "popcorn" reads and not to try too many new authors back to back to avoid the potential of several "misses" in a row.

I managed to sample a portion of Short Fiction with the 2 anthologies but I'd still like to be better read in that subsection of genre fiction. I'm also a little disappointed in the ratio of male to female authors. You could say my reading habits are sexist but honestly I never even thought about it until now.

I also managed to read 8 fiction authors I never have before.

-Paolo Bacigalupi
-Joe Abercrombie
-Stephenie Meyer
-Jose Saramago
-Bryan Lee O' Malley
-Susanna Clarke
-Bernard Beckett
-China Mieville

Out of those 8 I would say Abercrombie, Bacigalupi, Mieville and Beckett are the ones I would be most likely to read again although I will have to finish the Scott Pilgrim series whenever the concluding volume hits stores.

Favorite Read of the Year: The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. I know the books didn't come out this year but it doesn't stop Abercrombie's debut trilogy from being the most enjoyable and entrancing thing I pulled off the shelf this year. I absolutely tore through them at least a 100 page a day pace. Such a fun, fresh, and face paced take on the genre really revitalized my opinion of Fantasy, which was somewhat jaded after watching so many long series drag on forever only to end poorly.


Goals for the 2nd Half of 2009
-Continue to read at a 50+ page a day pace
-Read at least 3 more short fiction anthologies
-Read Shadows of the Wind
-Read at least 3 more Hugo/Nebula winners
-Tackle Y: The Last Man (10 Graphic Novels)

So 6 months into 2009, how many (and what kind of) books have you read? What are your reading related goals for the rest of the year?

Moxyland is the debut title from new genre publisher Angry Robot Books. It's written by a South African author named Lauren Beukes and I believe it's her first novel as well. Amazon promises:

A frighteningly persuasive, high-tech fable, this novel follows the lives of four narrators living in an alternative futuristic Cape Town, South Africa. Kendra, an art-school dropout, brands herself for a nanotech marketing program; Lerato, an ambitious AIDS baby, plots to defect from her corporate employers; Tendeka, a hot-headed activist, is becoming increasingly rabid; and Toby, a roguish blogger, discovers that the video games he plays for cash are much more than they seem. On a collision course that will rewire their lives, this story crackles with bold and infectious ideas, connecting a ruthless corporate-apartheid government with video games, biotech attack dogs, slippery online identities, a township soccer school, shocking cell phones, addictive branding, and genetically modified art. Taking hedonistic trends in society to their ultimate conclusions, this tale paints anything but a forecasted utopia, satirically undermining the reified idea of progress as society's white knight.

The blurb has me intriguing and I always love reading about projected futures for non-American cultures. Charles Stross's Halting State (Ace Science Fiction) and Ian McDonald's Brasyl and River of Gods were great reads so it will be interesting to see if Beukes can do the same for her native South Africa. The SF ideas sound like something straight out of a Stross novel. Add in the fact that Beukes is the debut author Angry Robot Books is hanging their hope on

The cover art is attention grabbing and those "image missing" icons get me every time. The neon orange really attracts the eye and the missing faces would probably get me to flip the book over. It's not my favorite cover ever but it certainly gets the job done. I'd give it a B/B+

Moxyland is 304 pages long. I'm not sure when I will be able to post a review because of the upcoming holiday weekend but it will be up in the near future. As always, read along if you can!

I watched the 2-hour pilot of Virtuality on Friday and long story short: I want to see more.

While not perfect, Virtuality is legitimate SF of the kind not seen on network TV. While I'm sure they took some liberties with the physics, Virtuality is plausible Hard SF. Lost, Firefly, Fringe, Battlestar Galactica, Dollhouse, Heroes and every other example of "genre" TV current on the airwaves has at least some elements that could be considered fantastical.

The only questionable item in Virtuality was the virtual reality system they used for R&R and escape from the reality TV cameras. It seemed to be a little too immersive for just the visors but it certainly didn't break any fundamental rules of physics or try to explain why genetic mutations would allow you to fly or predict the future. Cough *Heroes* Cough. This is the kind of SF that could get a new generation interested in space travel.

I was fairly impressed with every aspect of the show. The cast was great. The writing was good. The premise was solid. The effects were better than most on TV. The show wasn't predictable (the events toward the end of the pilot really surprised me). The plot threads they introduced were intriguing. While somethings could have been better, I didn't have too many complaints, especially for a pilot. Compared to Dollhouse or Fringe, Virtuality hit a home run.

I'm not sure why they were trying so hard to screw over the show. Maybe Ron Moore wanted too much money, maybe the SF budget is too high for the expected ratings, who knows? But they did dump the premiere show on a Friday night, in the middle of summer, against the opening weekend of Transformers 2 with almost zero advertisement. I don't get it. What did they expect to happen? Record ratings? Add to the fact that it was also running against specials commemorating the lives of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett and it's no surprise it didn't do well. Pair it against Dollhouse and I guarantee it will find an audience.

Virtuality is definitely marketable. It has the spaceship and SF tropes to connect with the core geek audience but it also has the reality TV and relationship drama that could reach out to female viewers without alienating them with the more extreme SF tropes like aliens or time travel. More than Stargate, Heroes, or Fringe, I feel like Virtuality could be watched in mixed company. I've even heard from a source or two that the eye-candy on board the ship works both ways.

All in all, I'm disappointed that Virtuality did so poorly. The show has a lot of potential and I want to know what was going on. Who is the murderer on board? And what did the victim's last message mean? I would definitely tune in again to find out. The fact that I will most likely never know makes me hate the economics of network TV. Any chance the SyFy channel is looking for another show?

You can watch Virtuality on Hulu here if you enjoy the pain of knowing this decent show most likely died before it even aired.

20 words or less: Mediocre Star Wars novel that takes no chances while slowly progressing the overall plot of Fate of the Jedi.

My Rating: 2.5/5

Pros: Avoided mistakes of Legacy of the Force, no glaring continuity errors

Cons: Mostly a set-up novel, overly cutesy at times, poor execution of Luke/Ben subplot, weak page count.

The Review: If I were judging Omen by itself, I would give it a 1 or a 2. But Fate of the Jedi appears to be trying a more serialized structure than Del Rey’s two previous SW series so it's hard to distinguish one book separately from the series. Fate of the Jedi is really putting the “opera” back in “space opera.” Rather, I’m going to focus on its role within the series. There are the overarching threads that began in Outcast and continue here but aside from a very poor sub-plot featuring Luke and his son Ben there are no internal plotlines that get resolved by the end of the book. Young Jedi continue to go crazy with the mysterious Force sickness, Jaina and Jag continue to investigate what could be causing it in the face of government pressure, Luke and Ben continue to retrace Jacen’s five year sojourn, and Leia and Han continue to do nothing of importance. The book felt like a continuation of the series but it didn’t do anything that necessitated it as separate release from that of Outcast, especially given the fact that fans of the series waited 3 months to get a meager 236pages.

The only new information or plot development that we really gott was the introduction of a Sith remnant that had been marooned on the planet of Kesh for the last 5,000 years. Recent developments in the SW universe had set in motion a series of events that ended up with an ancient and sentient Sith ship locating the planet and allowing the Sith castaways to escape the planet. This was one of the more interesting plots of the book but it felt strange that it was introduced in this book rather than the previous one. It’s almost as if the series planners decided there wasn’t enough plot to carry a 9 book series without filler so they decided to introduce another plotline to boost the still low page count.

Other the insane Jedi plotline, which is interesting but extremely slow paced, the other characters have very little to do. Han and Leia took their granddaughter to buy a pet. Seriously? This very predictably started out as a mash-up of all of the creatures ever witnessed in a Star Wars film (rancors,rontos,banthas,etc.) and even more predictably turned into a fairly boring action sequence when the creatures get loose. The probability that Han Solo dies from being attacked by that large cat species from Attack of the Clones is so small that C-3PO couldn’t quote me the odds. Han and Leia are stuck in a character limbo where they can’t be killed off but they also can’t be fade into retirement; either of which would apparently upset the fanbase more than just making up ridiculous, implausible ways to give them something to do. But I can’t blame Christie Golden for making nothing out of nothing. She’s writing in a set series and she has to work within what she has assigned.

What I do blame Golden for is the lack of delivery in Luke and Ben plotline. She was giving the Aing Tii monks to develop, a mysterious Force sect that can use the Force to teleport, time travel, and who knows what else. There was so much potential and all of it ended up wasted, with the Aing Tii being extremely boring and developed as well as Michael Bay plot. There was a brief thread about a mysterious prophet that was interesting at first but that thread ends up being very poorly resolved with a conclusion straight out of an after school special. This wasn’t too different that the Baran Do (another Force sect) plotline in Outcast which didn’t do much other than give something for Luke and Ben to discuss and resolve until they figured out the next stepping stone in Jacen’s journey. They could give these Force traditions so much more depth and character but they turn them into these boring groups which are too stupid to solve their own poorly developed problems.

Another problem I had with Golden’s delivery was her choices of language. More than a few times, she chose weird turns of phrase that I can’t really describe other than “not Star Wars.” Even when they weren’t bad writing, they were still just off somehow. For example, towards the end of the book, Ben Skywalker gets excited and exclaims “Lubed!” That’s not a Star Wars utterance, and it shouldn’t every be said. Anywhere. At other times, she tried to be a little too cute with the dialogue between characters in relationships (Han/Leia or Jaina/Jag) and the conversations felt more at home in a romantic comedy than in Star Wars. Han and Leia tease each other in the movies but they aren’t so sappy about it. Golden seems to be the weakest of the 3 series authors so far, at least in terms of pure writing ability. I was not impressed with her Star Wars debut.

Regardless of quality, the overall plot did advance and it managed to do so without the rehashing and confusion that happened in the Legacy of the Force series which was one of my major concerns going into the series. They planners have really made an effort to organize FotJ, almost to the point where it seems like the books are overly simplistic because there is no room for organic growth. This book was released in hardcover with only 236 pages (the shortest HC Star Wars book ever, I believe). There were 4 major plotlines and I think that it wasn’t until page 90 or so that a single POV was repeated. 236 pages isn’t enough to write a complex and compelling story for four distinct groups of people whose storylines have yet to intertwine. If they combined it with the 309 pages of Outcast and edited out a few of the unnecessary scenes, you would have had a 545 page book that clearly established the plot of the series and would be worth the cover price. As a single 236-page book, Omen fails significantly. However, the faults of the book are independent of the faults of the series. As an entry in the Fate of the Jedi series, Omen manages to progress the story along without screwing up characterization or retreading old plot and I'm interested to see what happens when the storylines finally do manage to intertwine.

I got Omenon Wednesday and but I still had a couple hundred pages of Powers left so I had to get through that first. Any book in the Star Wars "present" automatically jumps to the front of my reading queue. It might be bad, it might be pulp, but it's Star Wars, which has always had a special place in my heart.

Omen is Book 2 in the Fate of the Jedi after March's Outcast. Outcast was a huge departure from Del Rey's usual offering in the sense that it was a fairly stand-alone book, despite being the first of the 9 book arc. It gave some hints at a larger plot but not a whole lot. Basically, we know that something is driving the Jedi insane, we know there is something in the Maw that is being omnious, and we know that Luke and Ben are off in the Unknown Regions looking for what happened to corrupt Jacen but that they haven't found anything yet. It terms of open plot threads, almost everything was neatly tied off at the end of Outcast. I found this a bit strange but also a positive sign of change.

The previous series, Legacy of the Force was another 9-book series, but it only contained about 5 books worth of story. Because the books were being written simultaneous by different authors, there was often a lot of rehashing and repeated character development between books. It seemed like there wasn't a clear definition of where one book was going to end and where the next would begin. Characters would make the same decisions or realizations two, three, or more times, leaving readers confused and irritated. It was messy, poorly organized, and the story suffered.

But it looks like Fate of the Jedi is avoiding that by using clearly defined milestones between each book. I guess I'll be able to judge that better after I finish Omen.

Omen is the first book I've read by Christie Golden, so I'm not familiar with her writing style. If she can describe an action sequence better than Troy Denning and write humor like Mike Stackpole or Aaron Allston then I'm sure she will do fine. Just stick to the continuity, try to research the characterizations, and you will do fine.

Here's the Amazon description:

The Jedi Order is in crisis. The late Jacen Solo’s shocking transformation into murderous Sith Lord Darth Caedus has cast a damning pall over those who wield the Force for good: Two Jedi Knights have succumbed to an inexplicable and dangerous psychosis, criminal charges have driven Luke Skywalker into self-imposed exile, and power-hungry Chief of State Natasi Daala is exploiting anti-Jedi sentiment to undermine the Order’s influence within the Galactic Alliance.

Forbidden to intervene in Jedi affairs, Luke is on a desperate mission to uncover the truth behind Jacen’s fall to the dark side–and to learn what’s turning peaceful Jedi into raving lunatics. But finding answers will mean venturing into the mind-bending space of the Kathol Rift and bargaining with an alien species as likely to destroy outsiders as deal with them. Still, there is no other choice and no time to lose, as the catastrophic events on Coruscant continue to escalate. Stricken by the same violent dementia that infected her brother, Valin, Jedi Knight Jysella Horn faces an equally grim fate after her capture by Natasi Daala’s police. And when Han and Leia Solo narrowly foil another deranged Jedi bent on deadly destruction, even acting Jedi Grand Master Kenth Hamner appears willing to bow to Daala’s iron will–at the expense of the Jedi Order.

But an even greater threat is looming. Millennia in the past, a Sith starship crashed on an unknown low-tech planet, leaving the survivors stranded. Over the generations, their numbers have grown, the ways of the dark side have been nurtured, and the time is fast approaching when this lost tribe of Sith will once more take to the stars to reclaim their legendary destiny as rulers of the galaxy. Only one thing stands in their way, a name whispered to them through the Force: Skywalker.

I already gave a discourse on the FotJ cover art here. In summary, I like it. A lot. The Omen cover features a Sith looking female so I am slightly curious to see where that goes.

I'm also curious as to what Omen refers to. Star Wars is often extremely bad about having titles that actually pertain to the events of the novel. Invincible featured a death. There were no revelations in Revelation. However, Outcast did feature an outcast so Del Rey is currently 1-for-1 with FotJ.

Omen is a disappointly short 250 pages. I should be able to get through it today so hurry if you are reading along.

20 words or less: This trio of YA fantasy novels focuses on teens maturing through difficult situations but contains a deeper message for readers everywhere.

My Ratings
Gifts: 4/5
Voices: 3.5/5
Powers: 5/5

Pros: Simple yet elegant prose, allegorical themes pulled off by a genre master, accessible at multiple levels

Cons: Some YA tropes. Slowly paced. Lacks concrete plot.

The Review: When I learned that Ursula K. Le Guin’s Powers had won the Nebula, I was surprised. I hadn’t heard any buzz about the book and knew almost nothing about it other than it was YA (Side Note: I am not prejudiced against YA, Little Brother was one of my favorite reads last year). I assumed that it was a prestige award based on name recognition alone. I thought it was 2004 all over again, when Joe Haldeman won the Nebula with the almost indescribably terrible Camouflage. I do make an effort to read the award winners though and I set out to read her Annals of the Western Shore books, if only to satisfy my completist compulsions.

I could not have been more wrong.

I was going to review these books individually but I realized that they were best read together, so I might as well speak to them together. In fact, as I read the second and third books, my feelings toward the prior books morphed and changed and I started to take meaning from the stories that I wasn’t expecting; mostly due to their YA “stigma”. These books may be written for kids and about kids, but they have some very profound ideas hidden in their depths.

Each book focuses on a different protagonist growing up in a different part of the Western Shore in a different social climate. In Gifts, Orrec Caspro faces the pressures of being the son and heir of a noble bloodline. In Voices, Memer deals with being a young woman born into a once noble family subjugated by misogynistic and repressive conquerors. In Powers, Gavir struggles with the harsh realities of being a slave in a rigid class structure. Without spoiling the details, each of the characters experience life changing events that affect themselves as well as the social structure in which they were raised. I will say that the events are not epic in the sense of the traditional fantasy novel. There is no Dark Lord, no Chosen One, and no Elves, no Dwarfs, no Dragons, or other fantastic creatures. Aside from the imagined geography and some minor mystical abilities, these books are very personal stories that could have taken place within our own history.

All three novels deal primarily with the paths the protagonists take through their formative years, foregoing strong plot cohesion to focus on who these characters are. The stories meander through their lives, lingering on seemingly mundane moments but not hesitating to leap forward months or years without warning. In this respect they are typical YA fare, focusing closely on the central characters and dealing with the questions and uncertainties that are a part of growing up. There are also some even more adult topics, namely slavery, rape, and murder. These are definitely not children’s books. While some YA novels get heavy handed with their discussions of maturation and societal expectations, Le Guin demonstrates why she is a master of the craft, managing to write realistic teen characters without having them come across as angsty and putting them through difficult situations without being explicit or gratuitous. In case you didn’t know, Le Guin is 79. She hasn’t been a teen for 61 years.

The Annals of the Western Shore work as YA fiction, and work well. However, the real enjoyment for me was the message within the stories that Le Guin seemed to be sharing with her readers. Granted, I could be reading things from the text that were not intentional but Le Guin’s love for writing and literature really came across in her characters. I’m reluctant to use the term “swan song” because I’m confident Le Guin has more stories to tell, but I got the sense that these novels were a reflection on her career as an author and the importance that writing and storytelling has had in her life. Despite dramatically different situations, each one of these teens has the benefit of literacy and education in their lives, and in each case, it becomes a source of satisfaction and strength. Through her characters, Le Guin demonstrates her belief in the power of stories; that they can transcend mere words to become beauty, healing, inspiration, knowledge and more. Stories can motivate people to change, bind communities together, preserve history and culture, bridge societal gaps, and capture the imaginations of all that hear them. There is a intrinsic power in stories, a power available to anyone regardless of class.

Mirroring this theme, Le Guin also addresses the common reasons why people in real life don’t read and creates analogs within the lands of the Western Shore. There are people who believe stories are only for children, cultures that think books and knowledge can only corrupt, and places where the written word simply doesn’t exist. She doesn’t belittle them for their beliefs but pities them for all they are missing. I really connected with her emphasis on the power of words (it’s more discreet and less cheesy than my brief synopsis), especially as a lifelong bibliophile who has often felt like their passion for reading wasn’t fully understood. I also fully endorse and respect her efforts to communicate this idea to the YA readers at which this book is targeted. I encourage anyone who loves reading and literature to try these books, or at least to give them to your teens. I know I will be.

As a final note, Powers might not have fit my expectations of a Nebula winner but this book connected with me and spoke to me on a level few do. Le Guin is truly a master of the craft and Powers is yet another spectacular book in a continually unbelievable career.

Just a reminder, Ron Moore's Virtuality airs tonight on Fox from 8-10 ET (7-9 CT). I haven't read a ton on it, but I know it deals with crew of astronauts on an extended mission in outer space passing the time using a sort of virtual reality. The astronauts' lives aboard the Phaeton.

Here's the official Fox blurb:

From Ron Moore and Michael Taylor, the minds behind "Battlestar Galactica," comes the World Broadcast Premiere of the new science-fiction thriller VIRTUALITY. As the crew of the Phaeton approaches the go/no-go point of their epic 10-year journey through outer space, the fate of Earth rests in their hands. The pressure is intense, and the best bet for helping the crew members maintain their sanity is the cutting-edge virtual reality technology installed on the ship. It's the perfect stress-reliever until a glitch in the system unleashes a virus onto the ship. Tensions mount as the crew decides how to contain the virus and complete their mission. Meanwhile, every step of the journey and every minute of the crew members' lives are being taped for a reality show back on Earth.

Sounds interesting. I'll be watching and I encourage everyone to do the same, even if it's only leaving the TV on and turned on to Fox. C'mon, who really goes out before 10 anyway? Don't give me Transformers as an excuse. The reviews sucked.

You should watch, and watch live because regardless of quality this "pilot" is one of the few actual examples of speculative fiction with the potential for airtime next year. And it needs to have spectacular ratings because right now, it's just a movie. There's no follow up series without a spectacular rating. I don't know what defines spectacular for a series airing at 8 PM on a Friday night in the middle of the summer with absolutely no advertising but I'm guessing it's unreasonable. I'm confident Fox will manage to outfox themselves again but still; the more watchers the more likely we get an actual SF series.

There's always the possibility that the series will suck, but we will never know unless it gets made. No series is perfect from it's pilot episode so be forgiving and try to stick with it the whole two hours, even if it means leaving the TV and reading a book in the other room. There's always time to cancel it later.

This is just one episode on one day. It's a minor commitment. You don't have to do much, just make sure your DVR/Cable Box/ratings monster thinks that you are watching Virtuality (preferably live). Your geek friends will thank you later.

Don't leave half-finished red Slurpees with extra long straws on your bedside table and attempt to turn off your bedside lamp while half-asleep at 2am.

Why? No particular reason. Just suggesting it might lead to something most would consider to be unpleasant.

In other news, I have a fool-proof idea for an alarm clock.

I'm a shameless Star Wars geek but I will keep it brief.

Omen (Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi, Book 2) came out yesterday. Look for a review sooner rather than later. You can welcome Christie Golden to the New York Times Bestselling Author list next week.

Fate of the Jedi Book 5 was given the title Allies. Like Omen, Allies will be written by Christie Golden. It will hit shelves in March 2010 as a Hardcover.

Blood Oath by Elaine Cunningham will hopefully be released in April 2010. I posted about the delay earlier here. According to Sue Rostoni over at the StarWars boards, the book was delayed due to "events beyond the author's control, or wishes." If there were in fact circumstances beyond her control, I apologize and I hope that everything turns out okay. More on Blood Oath as details surface.

Lastly, there is a preview section for Issue #2 of Dark Horse's new series, Invasion, which is set during the NJO. Insanely obsessed fans like me will know that the extragalactic Invasion story arc was originally proposed by Dark Horse but somehow Del Rey ended up with a 21 book arc instead. Check it out over at Dark Horse and pick up issue #1 at your local comic shop on July 1st.

I though with the discussion about blogs that are mailing it in floating around lately, it might be interesting to stay positive and focus on those blogs out there that are putting out quality content.

The rules are simple, link a blog you enjoy, admire, or one that does something better than everyone else out there. If you get tagged, copy the list in a post on your own blog, pick one of your favorite blogs to add to the list, and then notify them that they've been tagged.

With all of the crap out there, who do you recommend?

1. Fantasy Book Critic - Among other things, they do the best monthly genre round-up I've found on the Internet. I can't count the number of books/authors I've picked up becaue of FBC.

2. OF Blog of the Fallen - From Liviu at FBC - "Of course Larry's blog is number one favorite even when disagreeing with its contents. Lots of "different" books talked about is the main reason. I found quite a few gems from Of Blog of the Fallen

So how about it FantasyBookCritic? Who do you recommend?

Update: Fantasy Book Critic weighed in with their recommendation and tags Blog of the Fallen. I've updated the list accordingly but I hope that the tagged blogs will continue the meme on their own sites so more people can follow the recommendations for the upper echelon of blogs.

By way of A Dribble of Ink, I found my way over to OF Blog of the Fallen, where Larry expressed his distaste for bloggers who were using promotional giveaways, excerpts and other content-light methods to attract readers rather than providing quality content. Without going into specifics, I would have to agree. Several blogs I used to consider to be high content have recently become giveaway heavy and content light to the point where they are little more than P.R. shells for the publishers which send them books.

It’s the primary reason that I started blogging (very recently) after months and months of contemplating it. I just wasn’t seeing the kind of content I wanted to see and I wasn’t finding the discussions I wanted to participate in. Also, I felt like I was reading a lot but not really thinking about what I was reading and why I did or didn’t like it. Like many bloggers, I would like to be an author someday. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an author. I’ve taken a creative writing class but I’ve also went skydiving. And I don’t call myself a bird. Sitting down and actually thinking about what works and what doesn’t feels like the first step toward deciding the kind of story I want to write someday.

Aidan over at Dribble of Ink added to the discussion by discussing why he was blogging and what he looks for in a blog. I would recommend checking it out if you haven’t see it yet.

His post inspired me to write a Blogger’s Anthem. Many people start out with an post about what they intend to do with their blog but I wasn’t really sure what I was looking to do.

On Blogging: I’m not here to make money and I’m not here for free books (although I wouldn’t say no to either as long as I can still write about what I want to). I’m here because I love speculative fiction and I want to talk about it. There aren’t enough people in my daily life that are truly interested in the ins and outs of the SFF world and I’ve wanted a better outlet for my rants, recommendations and interests. Book blogging seemed like a natural enough choice. I could provide the kind of content I like to see and hopefully have some people interested enough in what I had to say to generate some conversation. I love the feeling of having someone come back and tell me that they absolutely loved a book I recommended to them. I’m happy to say I got my first comment like that today and it meant a lot.

On Content: In my brief time in the blogosphere, I’ve noticed a few things. First, it’s hard to generate significant amounts of original content on a daily basis, read at a decent pace, AND manage the other aspects of your work/life balance. I try to post something once a day, just to remind anyone who happens to be reading that I’m still here. Whenever I do post, I try to personalize it, even if it’s only a response to cover art or my feelings on the new authors’s press release.

On Press Releases/Blurbs/Excerpts: A brief blurb is okay to give with reference to a book received or being read/reviewed. Excerpts should be linked, not pasted on the front page, I enjoy reading press releases and commentary on them. One of my favorite things about reading book blogs is discovering new authors and learning when one of my favorite authors announces a new book and short of walking through the SFF section in the local bookstore, book blogs are one of the best ways to find out about what’s coming out soon. I absolutely love fantasybookcritic’s next-month-preview that they publish at the end of each month. It’s probably my singular favorite feature post out there.

On Free Books: I wouldn’t say no to free books but I wouldn’t feel obligated to review anything that I didn’t personally solicit from a publisher. I would only solicit something I was interested in reading anyways. There’s too much quality content out there to read something you’re not interested in. If I did receive something in the mail, I would mention in a weekly/monthly post but I’m not guaranteeing I will read it or give it a starred review.

On Finishing Books: I’m a finisher, I don’t like putting down a book unfinished regardless of quality but at the same time I am fairly selective about the books I pick up. I might buy a subpar book on a whim but chances are it won’t make it to the top of my reading list.

On Contests: I never win them. They suck. The two thoughts might be connected

On Posting Cover Art: Covers are shiny. I like to look at them. They work in a bookstore, why wouldn’t they work in a blog?

On Reviews: I love SFSignal’s style of reviews. Give a quick summary, hit the high points and the low points and then give an extended review for the benefit of someone who is really interested. I don’t like an overly verbose review that rambles on without saying much. I try to keep my reviews to 500 words or less.

On Interviews: Like them when they are well done. I’ve got some author’s I would like to contact down the road once they release their new books. To feel comfortable writing an interview I feel like I would need to 1) really like the author and want them to get some more press or 2) have read their current book or at least previous books to tailor questions appropriately.

On Posting Personal Information: If you can write it as interestingly as John Scalzi, go for it. But keep it short. If I really wanted to know everything about your life I would be your friend.

If you are still reading, thanks! And what's you're blogger list of ethics?

Pyr-o-mania: You're Going to Love Eva Forge

Pyr is walking on dangerous ice. And you really shouldn't mix hot and cold like that.

In the above link, Lou Anders has announced that they picked up .the second book in Tim Akers debut steampunk/noir trilogy a new Tim Akers steampunk/noir book entitled The Horns of Ruin. Steamnoir? Noirpunk? Anyway, Akers' has another fantasy series going starting with Heart of Veridon which is being published later this year. By Solaris.

Now I have nothing against Solaris or Pyr. Business is business and if Pyr thinks that Akers going to be a big enough draw then good for Tim and good for Pyr. I'll admit the book sounds intriguing.


What has me worried is my bibliophilia. When books series change publishers they do one or more of the following.

1. Change cover sizes (HC to TPB, PB to HC, etc)
2. Change cover artist
3. Change cover layout (fonts,positions,etc.)

When this happens, the bibliophile in me loathes to line up two disparate books on the shelf. Try to get a matching set of Stephen King's Dark Tower series. Doesn't exist. Jim Butcher's Dresden Files went to HC around Book 7 and the cover art changed dramatically. I'm still not sure what to do with myself.

So Pyr has purchased the 2nd book in the series, the 1st of which is being released in mass-market paperback. The majority of Pyr titles are released in trade paperback format (which I prefer to MMPB). So chances are that we will have a situation.

Something similar happened before with David Louis Edelman's Jump 225 series. I believe Solaris put out the 1st edition of Infoquake and then Pyr took over with the 2nd Book, MultiReal. I know there was a cover change and maybe a format change but I believe Pyr actually put out a reissue of the 1st book with a spine close enough to the 2nd book that they could line up on a shelf together.

I've spoken with Lou Anders in the past and I believe he as much of a bibliophilic cover-junkie as I am. If Pyr covers are any indicator, then he is. If that's true Pyr might manage to republish the Heart of Veridon in a matching format. Or at least something that won't make me cringe every time I look at the shelf.

Heart of Veridon will be released September 29th, 2009.

UPDATE: Lou Anders was kind enough to stop by and explain that the books are in different series so there will be no bibliophilic anxiety after all. I misread his post and combined it with some information from Amazon.com regarding Heart of Veridon being the first book in a trilogy. Most of this post makes no sense now but I am glad the Pyr has vowed not to hijack authors mid-series.

Congrats to Tim!

Earlier tonight, NBC debuted the first two episodes of the BBC produced Merlin. Merlin is a new twist on the Arthurian legend. Merlin features the typical heroes as teenagers with Arthur, Merlin, Morgana and Guinevere making appearances in the first two episodes. Lancelot is nowhere to be seen but I'm guessing he will be appearing sooner or later. I read somewhere that Merlin is best described as a Smallville meets Camelot and I really couldn't agree more. Sub-par acting, lazy plot devices, and teens. That's Smallville 101.

The first two episodes featured MotW (Monster of the Week) villains; a haggish witch out for revenge against the King and a duplicitous knight whose attempts at cheating would put Sammy Sosa to shame. They do little but establish the world of Uthar's Albion; magic is illegal, Merlin has an inate but untrained magical ability, Merlin gets a job as Arthur's manservant, etc. The plots themselves are fairly tame and predictable, relying on a few agonizing techniques to get the characters from point A to point B. For example, when the weapons dealer sells the crooked knight a magical (and illegal) shield and shows him how to use it, the crooked knight kills the weapons dealer in a fit of predictability that would be right at home on CSI: Denver.

The production values aren't anything to write home about. The special effects are fairly poorly done and it's pretty obvious most of the SE budget went into the dragon in the cave which manages to always give Merlin the right idea (He's 2 for 2!). None of the characters are especially attractive (my fiance provided the female perspective) so there is no eye candy there, either. The scenery and the props are decent but more often that not the poor special effects and/or awkward cinematography really drew attention to themselves.

Honestly, while I didn't particulary enjoy the show, I wouldn't go so far as to give up on Merlin. The first two/three episodes of any series are garbage. You have to go through the paces of establishing the rules of the world and the relationships between the characters before you can really let loose. Look at Fringe or Dollhouse, both of which started with subpar first and second episodes (Fringe was especially horrible) and both of which managed to hit a few homers by the end of their rookie seasons. I apologize for the excessive baseball references, I was at a thirteen inning Cubs game yesterday and I haven't got it out of the system just far. So while Merlin didn't wow me from the get go, I'm not going to cancel it off the DVR just yet. After all, there's nothing else on TV.