YetiPreviews

I'm going to start doing a companion piece to the YetiReviews here at Stomping on Yeti. The brilliant name is... wait for it ... YetiPreviews.

Basically, I'm going to just provide the cover and the publisher's blurb and my thoughts on both along with some general thoughts on the author and what I'm expecting from the book.

Look for the first YetiPreview later today/tonight.

Resisting the Robotic Revolution is Futile

Robots are coming. Angry robots. An army of angry robots. And that army is growing...

Angry Robot Books is a new imprint that will be hitting bookstores this fall (summer in the UK). They've confirmed a few books thus far across a variety of speculative fiction sub-genres including horror, urban fantasy, and near-future SF thriller. I've heard of a few of their debut authors but for the most part, it looks like they are giving some new talent a chance.

I'm always curious about new imprints as they usually bring some fresh perspective, new authors, and fantastic stories. Most imprint debut novels are winners as it makes little sense to establish a reputation of poor quality with your readers. Hopefully, the editors are picking those first few novels very carefully as it can make or break the reputation of your brand.

Earlier this week, Angry Robot Books detailed 3 more authors they have added to their line up. Some quick thoughts

Maurice Broaddus is writing a trilogy about the "Knights of Breton Court" which is being described as King Arthur retelling set among the drugs gangs of modern day urban America. This doesn't strike me as necessarily speculative but I'll read anything that's good so this will definitely be added to my watchlists. I'm most curious who the Merlin character will be. A corrupt cop? The dope suppliers? An old and wizened ex-dealer?

The 2nd author, Matt Forbeck, has sold a pair of novels. The first, Amortals, which is scheduled for November 2009, sounds like your typical neo-noir futuristic noir in the vein of Blade Runner or Altered Carbon. These books can be either really good or really meh. Hopefully, Forbeck can make it something worthwhile.

His second book intrigues me more. In late spring 2010, VEGAS KNIGHTS will hit the shelves. Touted as Oceans Eleven meets Harry Potter, this sounds like a fun thriller that I'll keep an eye out for.

The 3rd author, Mike Shevdon has two books in queue, both in a Fantasy/Urban Fantasy series (can't tell which). Sixty-One Nails and The Road to Bedlam are the first two books in the Niall Petersen chronology, promising a hidden world below our own. I love good urban fantasy but loathe paranormal romance and this sounds like its more of the former which is a good thing. Plus the first book is touted as "immense" something many publishers are reluctant to give debut authors unless they think they have something worth the page count.

Be sure to keep an eye on Angry Books and their cadre of authors in the coming months, they might be up to something special.

YetiReview: The City and The City

20 words or less: Engrossing murder mystery combining masterful worldbuilding with one heck of an idea piece with a very fulfilling ending.

My Rating: 4.5/5

Pros: Imaginative worldbuilding that had me thinking about the book even when I wasn’t reading it, very strong ending that flowed naturally from the set-up.
Cons: Character depth/backstory a little lacking, occasional infodumping

The Review: China Mieville has written some weirdly wonderful stories. His latest offering, The City & The City, is no exeception. In his first few works, Mieville established a reputation for creating astounding cities almost beyond description emphasis on the word “almost.” Mieville has now taken his talent for urban worldbuilding and raised the bar, weaving a murder mystery in, over, and through the cities of Beszel and Ul Qoma. Without getting into the particulars (which is half the fun of the story), it is clear the two cities are closely intertwined in ways that are not fully understood by even the denizens of the two cities themselves.

When Detective Tyador Borlu discovers the lifeless body of a young woman in Beszel, he refuses to let it go. His quest for answers eventually leads him across borders and boundaries he never planned to cross: some physical and some something else entirely. Soon it is not one but two mysteries that drive this story forward; why was this young woman murdered and what does her murder suggest about The Cities?

While less overtly fantastical than some of his other novels, The City and The City captured my imagination pretty much from the get go. It started off a little heavy as Mieville tries to relate the rules of the world he’s writing in quickly and succinctly, at times resorting to the dreaded info-dump. However, as soon as I finally felt like I understood the rules of the story, Mieville started breaking them. Just trying to wrap my mind around the potential solutions became increasingly difficult as the twin mysteries began to intertwine. As the clues surfaced, I began to doubt everything I thought I knew about these strange exotic cities. The twists kept coming until the very end and I was impressed with Mieville’s ability to make me fluctuate between potential answers without ever feeling manipulated. Some mysteries lay it on too thick and characters act in irrational ways, solely for the sake of throwing the reader off the trail. In interviews, Mieville describes his feelings toward the whodunnit genre and what he believes is its intrinsic flaw: that the questions are always more interesting than the answers the author provides. If this is true, then he has managed to combine his attempt at noir with his penchant for the fantastic into something that rises above perceived genre trappings.

While strong, the mysterious plot and the imaginative world Mieville has concocted often dominate the story to the point where the characters seem less important than the settings and situations they find themselves in. While I am glad he didn’t resort to such tropes as the alcoholic divorced cop who only lives for the thrill of the case, the characters didn’t have much back story of their own. This seemed strange and off putting at first, the more I considered the missing characterization the more I was glad Mieville didn’t try and force a specific vision of Borlu or any of the other characters on us. By visualizing my own character concepts, I really got into the story itself and imagined myself walking side by side with Borlu down the city streets. Without realizing it, I had gotten lost in The City and The City and I was glad I did.

Comments Open

Just as a reference, I've opened the comments to make it easier to post.

Don't go too crazy.

Primeval Extinct?!

Horrible puns aside, Primeval’s cancellation is just another kick in the teeth for us fans of sci-fi television. While it wasn’t the deepest SF show on TV, the first two seasons were quality fun (haven’t seen the full 3rd season yet) and they managed to elevate the story quality past Monster of the Week. Primeval improved on itself in Season 2, both in terms of quality and sci-fi content (time-travel/alternate history). Unless the quality dropped significantly toward the end of Season 3, this is somewhat surprising, especially the spoilers floating around which suggest that there is absolutely zero closure to any of the plot lines.

I know TV is all about money. While the showrunners and writers might be crafting labors of love, the networks executives have all the power. Unless you are George Lucas (who could afford to run a Star Wars TV show without any advertisers at all, probably on its own channel), without the networks, you don’t have a TV show. Things are slowly changing with the internet but without a network budget profitably lower than your advertising revenue, your show is dead. Primeval either cost too much or was watched by too few. And now it’s extinct.

I’m not sure about the actual percentages but I'm sure a not-so-insignificant amount of revenue comes from DVD sales. I know Family Guy and Futurama sold well enough on DVD to get new episodes. Firefly did well enough to get Serenity which, while not a box-office smash hit, was a quality SF adventure. There has to be some money there, right? You’ve seen them in the stores: Jericho: The Complete Series, Firefly: The Complete Series, Journeyman: The Complete Series. The fans who loved the series will buy the DVDs. Some for enjoyment, others with some deranged hope of getting the series renewed, yet others to gift to their friends to show them what they were missing. “Can I borrow Season 2?” “Cancelled, you say?” “Thanks, asshole.”

I for one won’t buy a series DVD without some resolution, at least not for serialized TV like most SF tends to be. I didn’t buy Firefly until there was Serenity. I’ll admit I should have been watching when it was on, but I didn’t realize it was there until after it was gone. Journeyman, I watched the episodes on TV but why would I want to rewatch a show with no ending? If you are going to pay good money for some story content, shouldn’t you want at least some semblance of a completed story? There is more quality content out there than you can ever hope to consume. And most of it has a resolution.

Would you buy a book that was missing the last 200 pages? Sorry, the book got canceled. A CD that abruptly cuts off in the middle of track 7? How about a video game with no bosses? The final level just doesn’t happen. Go see Shakespeare on a stage where the actors just do the first two acts because the runtime was getting too long. These would be lampooned by reviewers, consumers, and everyone else in between. So why can the TV production companies get away with it? Why do we let them kill our favorite TV shows AND then pay them for the privilege of owning the headless corpse?

Primeval: The Incomplete Series will be arriving in your local Best Buys and Wal-marts this fall

A Tale of A City and Another City

Deeply engrossed inside Mieville's The City and The City. Should have a review up tomorrow or Monday. Then comes Best Served Cold or the Nebula award winning Powers by Le Guin.

Anyone else reading/finished TC&TC? What do/did you think?

Also, if you aren't reading xkcd, why not?. Here's a recent favorite:

Throw another book on the Pyr...

No, not Farenheit 451. Over at Pyr-o-mania Lou Anders has announced that debut author Jon Sprunk has been signed to a 3 book deal with Pyr. His fantasy trilogy, comprised of Shadow's Son, Shadow's Lure, and Shadow's Master is given the following blurb.

The first book, Shadow’s Son, is the story of an assassin thrust into the
middle of a political and religious upheaval that threatens to topple the
last bastion of civilization. It's got everything that Pyr fantasy is coming
to represent - great action, grit & grime, morally ambiguous characters,
strong females who are more than foils, complex politics, actual magic, and
lots and lots of swordplay.

Now, I'm a huge fan of Pyr. They've only been on the scene for a few years and in my mind, they have established a reputation of quality publishing, to the point where I will give a book a chance just because its got the Pyr insignia on the spine. Ian McDonald (Brasyl, River of Gods), Joe Abercrombie (The Blade Itself), Kay Kenyon (The Entire and the Rose), the Fast Forward anthologies (Fast Forward 1). All quality. All Pyr. Right now, I'm eagerly anticipating Paul McAuley (The Quiet War), another British author getting a lot of good press before his US debut.

One of my favorite things that Pyr does is publishing on a schedule thats reader-centric. Rather than rolling out US releases for UK books out several months or even years apart, like some publishers are apt to do, Pyr has debuted several trilogies in consecutive months. I absolutely love this. When you read 40+ books a year, waiting a year between books can make it almost impossible to enjoy the second or third book in a trilogy without rereading. This quick schedule allows me to either wait a few months until all the books are released to begin reading without losing interest in the series or forgetting to look for the book release. Just right now, I have the first 2 Age of Misrule books (Mark Chadbourn) on my shelf waiting for the concluding volume.

I'm not sure off the release schedule for Jon Sprunk's Shadow trilogy, but if it's anything like previous Pyr releases, it's something you will want to check out.

Congratulations Jon!

Horrible News Everyone!

Word around the internet suggests that a certain animated show created by Matt Groening set in the year 3000 is getting new episodes on Comedy Central. No, not The Simpsons: Season One Thousand and Eleven, the other one. FUTURAMA!

Futurama has always been a favorite of mine since its original debut in 1999. It was The Simpsons for the hardcore geek, blending math and science jokes, science fiction clichés, and floating celebrity heads. Futurama offered a cast of characters more diverse and almost as numerous as that of The Simpsons. Fry, Leela, Bender, Professor Farnsworth, Zap Brannigan, Calculon, Morbo, Hedonism Bot. My list of favorite characters could go on and on. If you haven’t seen the original episodes, do yourself a favor: Futurama, Volumes 1 - 4

Unfortunately, Futurama debuted in an unfortunate timeslot, airing on 7:00 PM ET Sundays, just early enough to be pre-empted every other week by the long running NFL football game. I remember the traumatic experience of popping in a VCR tape only to watch 25 minutes of a game I could care less about followed by a mangled 5 minutes of insensible Futurama if anything. Those were the days before Tivo. Those were dark days. For the most part, a geek audience is a loyal audience as long as they are happy. Pre-empting episodes, showing episodes out of order, and generally abusing a show is not how you keep a geek audience happy. (See Firefly).

Eventually, the production of new episodes for Fox ceased but Futurama refused to die. Lingering on in comics and syndication on Cartoon Network, Futurama (paired with Family Guy) got enough ratings to eventually justify a syndication promotion to Comedy Central in combination with 4 Direct to DVD feature length movies (Bender's Big Score, Bender's Game, The Beast with a Billion Backs, Into the Wild Green Yonder), the last of which was released in February of 2009.

Obviously the cable ratings remained decent enough and DVD movies and TV seasons sold well to prove that Futurama was still a viable property. It might not be sustainable on Network TV like CSI: Cincinnati or Law & Order: Campus Police but for a smaller station like Comedy Central, Futurama represents a profitable franchise with a built in audience. Something increasingly hard to develop in today’s mediaverse, resulting in the re-use and overuse of any tangible property.

So Futurama is coming back with 26 brand new half-hour episodes. It’s like Christmas in June. But which Christmas? Christmas 2000? Or X-Mas 3000, complete with Evil Robotic Santa? Since cancellation we’ve gotten 4 feature length Futurama movies. They were ok. I laughed occasionally, but most of the time I didn’t want to admit to myself I was disappointed. It could just be that Futurama works best in 22 minute chunks and when expanded to feature length most of the plot-centric jokes get too stale to still be funny. Hopefully, the new episodes will recapture the tone of the old.

Family Guy, the original animated Lazarus, was renewed after stores realized they couldn’t keep the DVDs on the shelves. However, when it debuted it returned like something buried in sacred Indian soil. It looked like Family Guy and sounded like Family Guy but it wasn’t the same thing that we buried. The characters seemed different and the jokes weren’t as funny. Maybe the jokes were all used up. Maybe the cancellation/rebirth made the writers feel like they could get away with anything. The jokes that used to be offensive and hilarious were just offensive now. The magic was gone. Not to mention the fact that Family Guy somehow mutated the once classic Simpsons into a shadow of itself.

I want more Futurama. But only on the condition that it’s quality Futurama. Family Guy, once great, is now merely passable. The Simpsons, as iconic as iconic can get, is no longer remotely watch-able. I don’t think I can stand to watch another property slowly ground into bachelor chow.

I hope the new Futurama episodes will reach Omicron Persei 8 before they destroy the planet. I fear our alien overlords might obliterate us anyway.

All Glory to the Hypnotoad.

Best of the Naughties

Classic. Must-read. Essential.

These words are thrown about a lot with books and movies, particularly in SFF circles. But ask someone how to choose a classic and you’ll get more definitions than examples of bad science in Star Trek.

I think fundamentally, it comes down to the answer to the question “If I am going to grant a portion of my finite existence to SFF, which SFF books have the highest probability of being worth a fraction of my life?” Much to the chagrin of many completists like myself, you can’t read/watch/experience everything. You can certainly try. You will also most certainly fail.

Like most abstractions, it’s easy to ask the question. It’s harder to answer it. And it’s almost impossible to explain why your answer is correct.

For example, try and tell me what science fiction books written in the current decade are classics. What are the must read fantasy tomes of the past ten years? What is in the essential SFF geek library on the shelf marked 2000-2009?

Do you go by popular opinion? I would include Harry Potter in my classics but I’ll burn the library down before I put the Twilight books on my shelf. Kevin J. Anderson’s Dune books outsold Richard Morgan’s Altered Carbon, what does that say about the popular vote?

How about the award winners?

Nebula Award
2000 - Parable of the Talents
2001 - Darwin's Radio
2002 - The Quantum Rose
2003 - American Gods
2004 - The Speed of Dark
2005 - Paladin of Souls
2006 - Camouflage
2007 - Seeker
2008 - The Yiddish Policeman's Union

Hugo Award
2000 - A Deepness in the Sky
2001 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
2002 - American Gods
2003 - Hominids
2004 - Paladin of Souls
2005 - Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
2006 - Spin
2007 - Rainbows End
2008 - The Yiddish Policeman's Union

American Gods. Yiddish Policeman’s Union. Spin. There is some good stuff there, certainly. Some of the winners might be classics but I doubt that 10 years from now every one of those books will be consider the best book of the year.

Outside of sales and awards, there isn’t a whole lot else to go on. Internet reviews? Blog consensus? Convention panels? I don’t think you can pick a classic. Some might be early bloomers, books with classic potential from day 1, and some might not hit their essential spurt til their junior year of high school.

It might be a simple as the right book at the right time. I’ve picked up books I couldn’t finish the first time and absolutely devoured them later. It might be an event years later that makes society read a book in a different light. It might be classics are just the favorite books of the upper echelon of the genre authors, editors and other influential voices. In the end, I think attempts to declare essential or classic genre books within a few years of their release is, while extremely fun, ultimately futile. Not to mention the chances of your predictions lasting long enough to be confirmed or disproven.

So all that being said: what are your three essential books of the new millennium?

hit counters

Do or Do Not: There Is No Try.

Ewan over at http://www.swbooks.co.uk/ is reporting the following about the Dec 2009 Star Wars novel Blood Oath.

"It appears that Elaine Cunningham's much anticipated Legacy of the Force sequel, Blood Oath, has either been postponed again (it was originally scheduled for release in April this year but had to be put back to December because LucasBooks had not received Elaine's manuscript in time), or even cancelled. This is because RandomHouse.com has removed their listing and Amazon.com have stopped taking Pre-Orders for this paperback. The last time Blood Oath 'disappeared' from RandomHouse.com was when it's release was re-scheduled from April 2009 to December 2009. However since RandomHouse.com's listings can only list scheduled releases for the next six months, it is possible (and more likely than cancellation) that Blood Oath's release has been put back beyond RandomHouse.com's listing capabilities, i.e. it has been re-scheduled for release beyond December 2009 for reasons, as yet, unknown."

This is disappointing and also somewhat unexpected. The information deluge incarnate in the internet often results in projects being announced, discussed, and available for pre-order months, if not years before they hit the shelves. Given that, this isn’t the first, second, or hundredth time an announced book has gotten delayed (care to comment GRRM?). But it’s not just the fact that the book was delayed that has me scratching my head.

It’s the fact it was a Star Wars book.

Now I’m a Star Wars junkie but I’m not going to pretend SW books are higher literature. They are tie-in novels for a franchise. A popular franchise. A profitable franchise. A very profitable franchise. A Star Wars tie-in novel isn’t just a book, it’s an opportunity. Ask Mike Stackpole, Timothy Zahn, Karen Traviss, or Matthew Stover. These are four authors who write phenomenal stuff. These are also four authors I probably wouldn’t have heard of or tried if not for their Star Wars novels. These are also 4 authors who can now put “New York Bestselling Author” on their books any time they want. I don’t know their financials (or they hope I don't) but I’m guessing they also get at least 10x the sales for their Star Wars novels then they do for their other books (if they are even still in print). They also probably get a monthly residual check from Star Wars that their other books don't provide. Don’t let the literary elite trick you, writing a “hack” tie-in novel can be a great career move, both in terms of financial support and name recognition.

I’ve read a lot of Star Wars novels. Some are extremely good (see authors mentioned above). Some are agonizingly bad. Most, however, are mediocre. I don’t think it’s exceedingly difficult for a previously published writer (requirement for Lucasbooks) to put together a story that meets their standards. Don’t kill Luke, Han, or Leia and you’re halfway there. I find it hard to imagine that Ms. Cunningham (or any other contracted author) can't put together an acceptable novel within the agreed upon time. There's just too much incentive on the table.

Maybe the folks over at Lucasbooks feel like their publishing schedule is too strong for the weakened economy to fully support. Maybe George Lucas swung his incontestable lightsaber of final edit. Maybe there were extenuating circumstances I’m not privy too. But if you get the opportunity to write a tie-in novel for Star Wars (or Halo, Warcraft, or any of the New York Times worthy franchises), I suggest you take it. Then aside from other work to which you are contractually obligated, make it your No. 1 priority. Write it to the best of your ability. Don’t phone it in, the effort you put in this juncture could have implications throughout your career. And for the love of Yoda, turn it in on time!

My apologies to Daniel Abraham

Like a lot of readers out there, I enjoy Urban Fantasy. Jim Butcher's Dresden Files and Mike Carey's Felix Castor Novels are two series that I place in the illustrious DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) category. I also enjoy Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt Novels and Simon R. Green's Nightside series. I've also heard good things about Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mysteries although I haven't had the chance to try them out. There is a veritable plethora of Urban Fantasy out there, just waiting to be read.

Enter M.L.N Hanover, author of Unclean Spirits and Darker Angels, the first two books of the Black Sun’s Daughter series. If you aren’t aware, M.L.N. Hanover is a pen name for Daniel Abraham, whose Long Price Quartet is extremely well written and equally well covered. I enjoy Daniel Abraham’s books and eagerly anticipate the release of The Price of Spring (The Long Price Quartet) this summer.

I will not read M.L.N. Hanover.

First off, I am ignoring the fact that Daniel Abraham is publishing under a pen name. Different type of book, different pen name. Authors have done it before and will do it again. This one is particularly troubling because the “M.L.N Hanover” moniker is specifically targeted to confuse the targeted reader (i.e. women) into thinking that the book is written by a woman (at least hiding the fact that it was written by a man). Who cares what the author’s gender is as long as it’s engaging and well written? Regardless, that’s not why I will skip this series.













I’m not reading because the cover is beyond terrible.

It's a textbook generic Urban Fantasy cover. If you don’t know what I mean, watch this video:



See?

I made a vow to myself years ago when Urban Fantasy flooded the market. I swore to never buy a book with a cover like that. I refuse to give a single dollar of my money (and I buy enough books to keep several publishers in business) to a publisher who puts out a cover that bad. It’s a disservice to the readers AND the authors. It's saying this book is no different than any of the dozens of others out there and expecting us to develop some Pavlovian response mechanism. Since publishers apparently only understand money, we’ve got to speak to them in a language they can understand: sales. This is a trend that needs to stop.

On Unclean Spirits, I count at least 4 Urban Fantasy Cover Sins.

1. Female character facing away from reader
2. Lower back tattoo (more commonly referred to as a tramp stamp)
3. Leather Pants
4. Weapon at the ready

Throw a moon in there and swap the tank top for a corset and you have a cover so stereotypical it’s sickening.

Now go back and look at the covers for the 5 series I mentioned at the beginning of this post. Each of them has a clear style that repeats from book to book. You could take every bit of text off a Dresden Files novel or a Southern Vampire Mystery and I would know exactly who wrote it and what kind of a book to expect. You do that for Unclean Spirits or any of the covers featured in that video and you get a very uniform result. When I see a cover like that, I expect generic trash. It doesn’t help that any well-earned name recognition is out the window due to the pen name.

My sympathies to Daniel Abraham, I’m sure this cover wasn’t your decision, and I’m guessing the name change wasn’t either. If theses books are as well written as your other work, I’m sure they are some quality fiction. Quality Fiction I won’t be reading. I made a promise to myself a long time ago. A promise I intend to keep.

YetiReview: The Lost City of Z

20 words or less: An intriguing tale of Amazonian adventure that depicts a more dangerous era of exploration despite some filler material.

My Rating: 3.5/5

Pros: Mystery of Fawcett/Z is compelling and drives the story forward, Amazon descriptions are both terrifying and beautiful, strong last third.

Cons: Some filler material which detracts from overall enjoyment, no balance between historical and contemporary stories

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon , by David Grann, a staff writer for the New Yorker, is the story of Percy Harrison Fawcett. Fawcett, a genuine man's man, explored the Amazon rainforests in the early 20th century; mapping land and rivers no European had seen before. He would often disappear into the jungle without a trace, only to emerge emaciated and ragged weeks or even months later. Over the course of his explorations and interactions with the native Indian population, Fawcett came to believe in the existence of a mythical city he referred to only as Z.

Z was hypothesized to be the pinnacle of pre-colonial South American civilization. Hidden in the unexplored depths of the rainforest, Z was to have proven that the so-called “savages” utilized techniques vastly more sophisticated than the anthropologists believed. It was environmental Darwinism; the hellish quality of life so often experienced by Fawcett and his fellow explorers couldn't possibly sustain a magnificent city. Or could it?
Fawcett became haunted by Z, risking everything each time he set off into the untamed jungle in the hopes of returning with proof that would change history. In 1925, Fawcett gambled one last time and lost, disappearing with his son into the jungle, never to be seen again.

In The Lost City of Z, David Grann chronicles the tragic life of Fawcett. It is a heart-breaking character study, depicting both the heroic adventurer who was seemingly impervious to danger or disease and the darkly determined man who was unwilling to accept failure or weakness at any stage. While Fawcett is doing the remarkable page after page, you know that Grann framed his book around hiss disappearance and that he ultimately does not succeed. Because of this, I felt the first two thirds of the book end up being slightly overweight. Knowing Fawcett’s fate erodes the dramatic tension from his early expeditions and while the depictions of the jungle depths are profoundly interesting, his endless quests for funding in the civilized world wear thin quickly. The story of Fawcett, while too complex to be detailed in a magazine article, simply doesn’t have enough variety to fill a 300 page book, especially when Grann makes no attempt to disguise Fawcett’s ultimate fate.

Instead, Grann drives the book forward with his own search to find out what really happened to Fawcett, hoping that he can find a clue that hundreds of others have missed. To do this, Grann alternates chapters of Fawcett's history with his own experiences tracking down Fawcett’s fate. He tries to draw parallels between Fawcett's quest for Z and his own search for Fawcett but they fall flat for most of the book, not possessing the same level of danger and mystery as actual exploration. It isn’t until the point that Grann's need for the truth draws him into the jungle in Fawcett's own footsteps that the story becomes a page turner. The hope for some semblance of closure drove me through the last third of the book and left me wondering what else might be hidden in the verdant labyrinth of the Amazon. In the end, Fawcett’s incredible explorations in the jungle and Grann’s quest for answers really made this book enjoyable and captivating despite some filler material in the first two-thirds to bolster the page count.

Books in the Mail this week.

None!

But if you want to send me some to review, shoot me an e-mail and we'll set something up.

Incentivizing the Kindle

I, like most bibliophiles, have a lot of money invested in my physical book collection. I purchase a lot of books in hardcover, display them proudly on my shelf, and take great care of them. I even manage to read paperbacks without breaking the spine, much to the amazement of my friends and family. I love my bookcases filled with books. Taking this into account, the potential e-book revolution scares me.

I like the concept of the Kindle. A portable library that doesn't take up suitcase space? Sign me up! Getting books almost instantaneously? Heck Yes! $360 for the device (480 for the deluxe) plus $10 electronic books that I can't put on a shelf? Uh...what?

I get most of my books from Amazon, HCs around 15-19 (let's call it 18), PBs around 6-8 (let's call it 7). Assuming I buy as many PBs as HCs that's $25 for 2 books plus free shipping. For $360 dollars I can get 29 more books. If I wanted the Kindle and the 28 books, it would cost me around $650, and thats assuming that all of the books are available in Kindle format. That's 52 more books.

Even if you save $2.00 per Kindle book, it will still take 200 books before the Kindle has paid for itself. If you read 40 books a year, 200 books would take 5 years, more than enough time for Amazon to release Kindle 3,4, and 5.0. And that's for e-books, which have no physical form, no pages, no shelfability. What happens when the Apple iReader comes out and the Kindle books are non-transferable? Where does that leave my library?

Even if I was willing to shell out the money, there is also no assurance I will enjoy reading on the Kindle. I've downloaded the Kindle app for my iPod and read some sample chapters. That wasn't for me. I understand the Kindle is bigger with a different screen but until I sit down and read a couple of BFFs (Big Fat Fantasy), I don't know whether it would be for me or not.

So, in my mind it's going to take some incentive to get me to shell out a good chunk of change AND give up my comfort with the physical books. The Kindle is not an iPod; I can't buy one and fill it with the books that line my shelves. It's not as simple as buring your CDs to MP3s and dumping them to your iPod. But what if you could?

Amazon is in a unique situation as they are both the #1 internet book seller and the producer/seller of the newest big name e-Book reader. The Kindle is linked to a specific Amazon.com account. I know this because you can send samples of books from Amazon.com to your Kindle/Kindle app while you are browsing. If the Kindle knows what sample books your Amazon account requests, why can't it also know what physical books have been purchased by your Account? If I could buy a Kindle and it would come with free/low-cost (.$25-$1.00) electronic copies off all of the books I've bought off Amazon in the past 6 months/1 year/since Kindle go-live, I would definitely reconsider. Then you are getting about as close as you can get to an eBook iPod, short of including CDs inside every cover.

I'm thinking there are at least 3 business models that Amazon is in the unique position to take advantage of.

Option 1 (Conservative): Buy a Kindle and get the option to purchase a Kindle
Copy of any physical book already purchased on your linked account for a low
cost. You've already bought the hard-copy, chances are you won't pay another
$5-10 for the Kindle copy but you might be tempted to get one for a quarter or
two.

Option 2 (Decent): Buy a Kindle and get the option to download a
Kindle Copy of X number of physical book already purchased on your linked
account. If I can put 10/20 free books on my Kindle, I'm much more likely to try
one.

Option 3 (Awesome): Buy a Kindle and you get free Kindle copies of
all the physical books you've purchased/will purchase from Amazon.com on the
linked account. It's the equivalent of burning your library (or at least the
Amazon.com purchased portion of it) on to your Kindle. If I could do this, I
would buy a Kindle today. I could have my physical books and have the
portability/instantaneous delivery of the Kindle.

The worst case scenario I can see is 2 people sharing the account, one person getting the physical copies and the other getting the physical ones. You are still selling Kindles and it's no different than people simply passing the physical copy off to their friends when they are done with it.

The best case scenario on the other hand would have a number of benefits.

• People buying more Kindles (I would get one)
• People getting used to reading on the Kindle
• People potentially switching to Kindle full-time (which is more profitable due to no shipping, warehousing, or physical paper cost),
• Added incentive to purchase books from Amazon rather than other retailers.
• Satisfying the bibliophile technogeeks that love both tech and books and don't want to choose.

I think that this would be a brilliant move for Amazon. What do you think?

P.S. If anyone from Amazon reads this and likes it, a Kindle (and some stock options) would be appreciated.

What the prequels should have been...

Recently at E3, Bioware and Lucasarts debuted a cinematic trailer for the upcoming Star Wars MMORPG "The Old Republic" which is set approximately 3,650 years before A New Hope and about 300 years after KOTOR I and KOTOR II.

Words can't describe how awesome this is. Just watch it.

Star Wars: The Old Republic - Cinematic Trailer

Wow. Just Wow.

I don't think it's a stretch to say the trailer is the best Star Wars video content released in the past 20 years. If I could have a single CGI movie of this caliber, I would give up the prequels, the Clone Wars TV shows, and all of the SW video games in the past 10 years (You can't have TIE Fighter or Dark Forces). This is the type of content that would have me as a fan opening my wallet and shaking it out for more. If only it weren't for an MMO...

I don't play MMOs for philosophical reasons (more on that later) but all of the press surrounding the game (storyline, KOTOR time period, tie-in comic) had me interested. Add this trailer into the mix and I am tempted. Very tempted.

This trailer is full of the Dark Side. And win.

What to Read Next?

Last week, I bought China Mieville's The City & The City and it's currently been sitting at the top of my To-Be-Read Mountain. However, today Joe Abercrombie's new book, Best Served Cold arrived via Air Mail from jolly old England. The UK Edition has an earlier release date and a significantly better cover than the US edition so it was really a no brainer. Now that I have both sitting on my bookshelf, I don't know what to read next. I haven't read Mieville before and I am hearing a lot of good things about The City and The City but at the same time I read Abercrombie's First Law trilogy earlier this year and I absolutely loved it. It's a question of sampling a new dish that everyone is raving about or ordering one of your favorite meals. I'm not sure which to read but it's not a bad problem to have.

Any suggestions?

YetiStomper Picks: Books for June

I'm somewhat of a shameless bibliophile so I tend to accumulate books at a faster pace than I can read them. Here's what I'm looking to buy this month.

Warbreaker - Brandon Sanderson
The Strain: Book One of The Strain Trilogy - Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan
The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Sixth Annual Collection - Gardner Dozois (Editor)
Green - Jay Lake
The Angel's Game - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The New Space Opera 2 - Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan(Editors)
Daemons are Forever (Secret Histories, Book 2) - Simon R. Green
Omen (Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi, Book 2) - Christie Golden

Omen is Book 2 of 9 in the Fate of the Jedi series. Book 1, Exile, was decent and while not a lot happened, it looks like Del Rey may have ironed out some of the issues that plagued the previous Legacy of the Force series. Christie Golden wrote this one so I’m not sure what to expect. She has done a lot of media tie-in novels in the past (Warcraft, Star Trek, Star Craft) but this is her first SW novel. We got some vague hints into the overarching plot in Outcast but not a whole lot so I am hoping things will start to heat up in Omen. Also, the cover art is freaking gorgeous. I love the direction they’ve taken with the FotJ covers. It really distinguishes them as a series in the sea of other SW books.

Bottom Line: Must-read for a Star Wars junkie like me.

YetiReview: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: A Novel

20 words or less: Susanna Clarke weaves an intricate, character-based tale of English magic that is well worth the page count

My Rating: 4/5

Pros: Intricately crafted characters, extraordinary blending of historical England with magical elements, language that is intricate and elegant without being excessive or unintelligible

Cons: Slow pace won’t be for everyone, more character than plot driven, very little “action”

This past weekend I finally finished up Susanna Clarke's behemoth historical-fantasy tome Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: A Novel . The story is one of magic; men of magic, acts of magic, and books of magic. In one of the earliest passages of JS&MN, Mr. Norrell explains the difference between these books, dividing them into two categories “Books about Magic” and “Books of Magic.” Books about Magic are mundane, historical texts, with very little appeal to those interested in magic. Books of Magic, on the other hand, not only discuss but contain magic within their every page and word. Make no mistake; JS&MN is a book of magic.

At first glance, this book seems like it would be a chore. Over 750 pages, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is a character study of two bibliophilic magicians set against early 19th century England. Think Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre and your junior year of high school. Instead of trying to ignore the trappings of the time period, Clarke embraces them, making the two titular magicians stand out against the mundane rather than being overshadowed by it. Jonathan Strange and Gilbert Norrell both fall outside typical societal expectations and these differences ultimately made me connect with the characters more and care about their lives. Rather than struggling through each chapter, I was enthralled and often found myself reading much more than I expected.

The main focus of the book is on the two magicians and their conflicting views on the future of English magic. Should magical knowledge be hoarded for the righteous few or disseminated to the curious masses? What acts of magic are appropriate for a proper English magician? These and other questions of magical philosophy influence the paths Strange and Norrell take through the book, weaving around each other and several minor characters, each of which ultimately has a significant role to play when all is said and done. While the book was very dense, I would be at a loss to try and cut a single character or plot thread.

To be fair, this book is not for everyone. It is a very intricate, very subtle story. These are not Michael Bay’s magicians. As the title advertises, this is first and foremost the story of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell; two very multidimensional characters. My proposed litmus test would be to read the first 3 chapters or so until you get to the first act of magic. If that doesn’t move you to read more, chances are the rest of the book may not impress you. For me, once the curtain was drawn back and the magic behind the mundane revealed, I was entranced.

YetiStomper Picks Index

Here's the index of past YetiStomper picks.

YetiStomper Picks aren't the only books that are coming out but they are the ones that I recommend the most and the ones you will most likely be seeing reviewed here. Rather than repeating a cover blurb, I'm giving you the reason why I added them to the list. If you tend to agree with my reviews, I hope you'll try my recommendations. That's one of the principle reasons I started this blog. You have the ability to find out more by yourself provided you can use the internet or click the titles which are hyperlinked to Amazon.

YetiStomper Picks Index
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009


Let me know if you find anything you like!

Submission Policy

Stomping on Yeti deals mainly with genre fiction (Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror) as well as some coverage of genre TV and film. If you are interested in submitting books for review or suggesting a topic for discussion, please contact me at YetiStomper [at] gmail [dot] com for further information or a mailing address.

Note: I cannot guarantee that all recieved books will get reviewed unless I have personally solicited a review copy. I will however make a point of mentioning any received book in a Books Received post.