YetiReview: Scenting the Dark and Other Stories

30 Words or Less: In one of the most impressive debut collections I’ve read, Kowal proves why she deserves the Campbell Award for Best New Writer by portraying identifiable characters in unforgettable scenes.

Rating: 5/5 stars

The Good: Kowal’s stories evoke honest emotion with apparently little effort; Authentic sounding dialogue free from tags and other distractions; Simple scenes that will sneak into your memory and stick there.

The Bad: The price to page ratio is a little poor though price to quality remains high, the majority of stories are more speculative fiction than Hard SF or Fantasy.

Mary Robinette’s debut collection, Scenting the Dark and Other Stories, is built like a featherweight boxer. It might be short and lean but if you aren’t ready for it, it’s got a punch that will knock you on your ass. Luckily for me, I received fair warning from John Scalzi, Paul Melko, and whoever voted for the 2008 Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

Scenting the Dark weighs in at only 80 pages but it’s safe to say that there isn’t an ounce of fat anywhere in this collection. A lot of first collections seem to be everything the author has published so far, regardless of quality. From the 8 stories included here, it appears that Kowal selected the best of the best. On the other hand, if this is all of Kowal’s short fiction to date: Wow. The most remarkable part of Kowal’s writing isn’t the weight of her ideas or whatever passes for quality plot in short fiction. The ideas and the plots are there (and stronger than the average piece published in the genre magazines) but Kowal’s most impressive feat is how she evokes such emotion is so few pages. Two of the collection’s best stories, “Just Right” and “Locked In” check at only 8 and 4 pages respectively but I felt a greater connection to those characters than I have in entire novels.

Here’s a story by story breakdown of Scenting the Dark and Other Stories:

Portrait of Ari – 4/5 – A great selection for opening story, “Portrait of Ari” focuses on a young artist whose memories of his girlfriend aren’t exactly what they seem. The mysterious tone and lack of clear detail provoke the imagination in preparation for future stories.

Death Comes but Twice – 4.5/5 – I’m a sucker for “Victorian Biological Science Fiction” and this very short story works perfectly as a letter confessing the results of some dangerous experimentation. At only six pages, this is just another example of Kowal doing less with more.

Some Other Day – 4/5 –Josie grows up in the shadow of her father whose name became a curse after inadvertently kills off the mosquito population. As her relationship with fellow researcher Stan grows, she discovers more than she anticipated. Kowal’s strength really lies in developing characters with minimal description and efficient use of dialogue. All the relationships in this book feel real, but this pairing stood out as particularly authentic.

Just Right – 5/5 - A heartbreaking story set in a kitchen over breakfast. The scene Kowal lays out is memorable, frightening, and realistic all in one. It’s not exactly SFF but who cares when the stories are this moving.

Scenting the Dark – 4.5/5 – Titular story in which a blind man and his dog encounter…something. Using non-visual stimuli, Kowal ratchets up the tension in this story that is all too easy to close your eyes and envision

Locked In – 5/5 – While “Scenting the Dark” is scary, dark and unsettling, “Locked In” is all that and more. In only four pages and without leaving a hospital bed, Kowal induces one of the most basic human fears.

This Little Pig – 3/5 - Arguably the weakest story in the collection, This Little Pig is yet another story that’s not quiet SFF. Concerning a simple boy whose chief goal in life is to drive around in an old fashioned car (i.e. Internal Combustion Engine) with his school crush, the story doesn’t generate the same level of intrigue the rest do. At the same time, I use the term weakest only in comparison to the other 7 stories. Kowal maintains her standard of relatable characters and crisp, clean dialogue. It wasn’t a bad story, just forgettable.

Jaiden’s Weaver – 4/5 – Evoking thoughts of Charlotte’s Web, Jaiden’s Weaver has an optimistic, YA flavor to it. Telling a simple story of a girl and her pet teddy bear spider, Kowal demonstrates a knack for world building that I hope to see more of in future stories.

All in all, Scenting the Dark makes it clear that Kowal can do in 5 pages what other authors can’t do in 50. It’s going to be interesting to see what she does with 300 or so pages to play with in her debut novel, Shades of Milk and Honey, due out from Tor this summer. I expect huge things.

Covering Covers: King Maker

The Place: Angry Robot Books. The Book: King Maker by Maurice Broaddus. The Cover:

Cover Artist: Steve Stone @ Artist Partners

The blurb for King Maker:

On the streets of Indianapolis, the ancient Arthurian cycle is replaying in the lives of rival street gangs. Told through the eyes of King, as he gathers like-minded friends and warriors around him to venture into the fastness of Dred, the notorious crime lord, this is a stunning mix of myth and harsh reality. A truly remarkable novel.

While the book itself is one I'm eagerly anticipating, the cover doesn't do much for me. I like the King Maker font but the Knights of Breton Court subtitle is off center and bugs me to no end. Anyone who reads my Covering Covers pieces also knows I'm not a fan of photorealistic characters on my covers. I'm not sure if its the fact that they interfere with my own mental image of the characters but they just don't feel right. This general design also evokes bad Urban Fantasy covers, which I don't care for. Angry Robot is always trying new things with their covers and while some of them aren't great they are at least trying to give each book its own unique look.

King Maker comes out in the UK in March 2010 and the US in September. I've got a few questions though.

1. Do foreign readers enjoy/understand the geography of America? Does setting the story in Indianapolis rather than Dallas or Nashville mean anything to UK audiences?
2. Why are publishers unwilling to put more stylistic covers on genre works? Why can we only get characters, cityscapes, or spaceships?
3. What do you think of this cover?

YetiReview: Total Oblivion, More or Less

30 Words or Less: Depicting the ancient past’s invasion of the American present, DeNiro’s debut novel echoes the feeling of his surreal shorter fiction: imaginative and unpredictable but at times uneven.

Rating: 3/5 stars

The Good: When it works, the base concept is interesting, thought-provoking, and even hilarious at times; The somewhat chaotic plot comes back together in unexpected ways toward the end of the novel;

The Bad: Lack of internal world logic may bug the rationale types; Had trouble attaching myself to the protagonist; Somewhat random asides disrupt the main plot

When I did some research for my interview with Alan DeNiro last year, I read his short fiction collection Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead. Each story evoked a different emotion from me. Some stories I loved, others fell completely flat. The strangest part was that it wasn’t a gradual progression. I would be amazed by the sixth story, struggle to finish the seventh, and then devour the eighth. There was no denying that all of it was imaginative and all of it felt like it was really trying to say something worth saying. The simple truth was that for me, some of it worked and some of it didn’t. As I turned the pages of Total Oblivion, More or Less, I realized that it was happening again.

The main thread of the book concerns Macy Palmer, Minnesotan and her mildly dysfunctional family. They aren’t extremely dysfunctional just the average American blend of middle-child syndrome, oversheltered youths, and other mild maladies. The Palmers travel down the Mississippi seeking safer shores after an unexpected invasion. Not an invasion of Canadians or Russians, mind you, an invasion from the past. Things begin to happen without reason. Barbarians begin to invade and pillage. Ancient imperial armies appear to combat the barbarians but claim the land as their own. Diseases with symbolic symptoms spread and kill and spread some more. Technology stops working. The world rapidly becomes a weird, weird place. Naturally, Macy’s dad decide Minnesota isn’t safe and decides to move his wife, two daughters, and Napoleonic son to St. Louis to take a teaching job and escape the rapidly deteriorating conditions. And that’s just the setup. There are wooden submarines, talking dogs, stone skyscrapers, and even a giraffe or two.

To be fair, this wasn’t the best book for me. I think very rationally and I get easily hung up on inconsistencies. When the world stops obeying the laws of time, physics, and internal logic, it’s only a matter of time before I have a hard time accepting things. But to DeNiro’s credit, he can write some extremely imaginative sequences and make them work. Despite my natural inclinations, when the book was good it was great. By pushing this typical American family through a series of obstacles so strange it would make Double Dare do a double take, DeNiro seems to be making some statements about the state of American family and culture. Ranging from subtle irony to outright satire (as an example, the barbarians keep McDonald’s open for the fast food), there are a number of layers to this work and I have no doubt that you could delve deeper and pull out connections that you missed on your first read through.

But for every segment that really hooked me early on, there seemed to be another that just didn’t fit. At times, the plot seemed to stagnate as DeNiro focused on developing the principal characters in his story. Unfortunately, none of these characters are especially sympathetic or interesting until late in the novel. They aren’t shallow; they just don’t feel worth reading about. It was simply too easy to set the book down and walk away.

Not helping was the structure of the story itself. In between each of the chapters, DeNiro places an aside that exposes a little piece of his larger, illogical world. Each aside was different in content and tone, ranging from health advice from imperial doctors and urban legends to random correspondence and Palmer family backstory. Some were certainly interesting but others fell short of that mark and in a book that was so chaotic already, they just provided further distraction.

Ultimately, the narrative becomes more focused on Macy herself. When this happens she stops serving as a lens through which her family is overanalyzed and instead takes on a more active role in the book. This marks a turning point in the novel at which a plot begins to emerge out of the absurdity and the wildly inconsistent scenes trend toward a satisfying conclusion. Even some (but not all) of the offputting asides were brought into cohesion with the larger story. I still don’t think they benefited the novel but DeNiro at least managed to redeem their prior inclusion.

In the end, despite my distaste for portions of the book, I felt like its strengths outweighed its flaws. Even the parts that I didn’t enjoy seemed overly ambitious rather than intrinsically flawed. I understood what he was trying to do and while it didn’t work for me, I could respect it from a more literary perspective. There is no denying that DeNiro has one of the most imaginative and unique voices in the genre today. If he can learn to pair his unpredictable creativity with a tighter story, the resulting book should be something special. Total Oblivion, More or Less is less than a total success but there is clearly enough potential to expect big things from DeNiro’s future efforts.

Covering Covers: Tongue of Serpents (Temeraire Book 6)

Naomi Novik has posted the cover and synopsis of Temeraire Book 6, Tongue of Serpents, over on Temeraire.org

Synopsis: Exiled to Australia, Laurence and Temeraire must navigate treacherous political waters to protect three dragon eggs.

There is also an excerpt if you are interested enough. Which you should be. Cause Novik is a seriously talented writer and you know, cause, dragons are awesome, and stuff.

On the cover, I really like the stylized dragon covers clutching the orb. It sets the series apart from more cliche dragon covers. This cover is very simple but attractive. The one minor issue I have is tha I think it works better against a more colorful background. The white sand dunes in back ground wash the cover out a lot and I think I would have preferred a solid white background to the wavy dunes if the white color was a must. Books 1-4 had covers of blue, green, red, and black and they were very cohesive and unique. I am very glad they returned to the original cover style. Book 5 had a decent cover but if you have such a great look going through 4 books, why change it? And don't get me started on the paperback to hardcover nonsense...

As a final note, Novik appears to be done with Tongue of Serpents (it does come out July 13th), and that means she owes me my final Keeping An Eye On interview. Do you think you and your dragons are better than everyone else just because you write bestselling books full of fantastical adventures in exotic locations? What's so great about that?

Anyway, what do you think of this cover?

YetiReview: Dark Harvest

30 Words or Less: Portraying a dark, violent Halloween night from sunset until the church bell chimes midnight, Dark Harvest is small-town-American horror dripping with strong evocative prose.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

The Good: Fantastic, almost lyrical prose full of rich detail and unexpected but suitable metaphors; Narrative voice is perfect for the tone and content of the story; Story is a twisted riff on the realities of small-town America.

The Bad: Tone of the novel is set up and then changed very quickly; Somewhat out of season at the moment

In the 20 years or so that make up my reading career, I haven’t sampled much horror. After finishing Norman Partridge’s Dark Harvest: I have to ask myself: “Why the hell not?” It's simply not a book I would normally pick up. The sub-200 page book concerns an annual tradition in Anytown, U.S.A. in which the local teenage boys attempt to stop a possessed pumpkin creature from reaching the bell tower in the local church before the stroke of midnight. Stop him and you earn your freedom from the drudgery of small town America. But the contest isn’t without risk: the October Boy is born with a blade in his hand and revenge in his heart. At a basic level it sounds like a bad horror movie you might end up watching on some third rate cable channel. A possessed Jack-O-Lantern wielding the knife used to carve his face? Really…?

As I said, not my typical read. But horror author and interview subject Joe Schreiber spoke highly of the book. It was short and it was different, so I figured why not? After reading about three or four pages, I was hooked. Partridge’s prose is some of the best I have ever read. It’s fast paced and somewhat abstract but it works. The simple opening sequence of a mysterious stranger cutting the October Boy loose and bringing him to life is utterly captivating. I wish I had more technical expertise to describe what exactly Partridge does but it really reads like it was spoken out loud. And it should be. (I would pay good money to hear Neil Gaiman read this story to me.) The simple yet evocative prose coupled with a strange blend of 2nd and 3rd person narration makes it feel like you are hearing some dark legend whispered over stale beer in dirty glasses in the back corner of some poorly lit no-name bar. Something that happened to a friend of a friend of a friend. You aren’t reading the story, you’re part of it. With his hybrid narration, Partridge assures the reader that they know this town, they lived there, they hunted Ol’ Sawtooth Jack, and they even won the contest years before.

As the story gets going and Partridge’s everyman protagonist, Pete McCormick, sets his mind on the big orange pumpkin prize, the story quickly begins to accelerate, almost to my dismay. The flavor of the story is so strong and delicious that you don’t want to get to the end, instead savoring each page of twisted metaphor and almost lyrical word play. I said before that the plot sounds like something right out of the DVD clearance bin the day after Halloween. It does start out that way but Partridge’s writing is so impressive that you end up not caring. The whole book could have been that simple as long as it was written as well as the first chapter. But the plot gets thicker...

As you (and Pete) slowly learn more about the origins of the October Boy and the town’s sinister secrets, Dark Harvest gets darker. Under a fairly simple presence lurks a much more robust story, one I wasn’t expecting when I opened the cover. It’s not that the new direction is bad (quite the opposite) it’s that I was enjoying the straight forward story of predator versus predator so much that I would have liked to spend more time with it before it moved into second gear. The first encounter that the October Boy has with a group of over zealous teenagers is so strong that I wanted to see the October Boy make his way through obstacle after obstacle. To continue the food analogies, the main course may be delicious but I’m still going to be a little pissed when you take away my appetizer before I’m done with it. I don’t know if its necessarily a fault of the novel but the change in tempo did jolt me out of the story for a few pages before I got used to the new rules and the prose sucked me back in. Soon enough you find yourself watching all the players converging on the town church with only minutes to spare.

By the end of the relatively short book, I was extremely satisfied. While the prose was worth reading and rereading, the story continues to move forward aggressively without become lost. I can't name another book that had such strong prose and moved at such a tremendous pace. Dark Harvest is ultimately a blend of many thematic elements ranging from teen angst and pulp horror to small-town monotony and revenge fantasy. Partridge does a fantastic job mixing these elements together into a dark but extremely satisfying tale. Apart from a brief hiccup which was most likely the fault of my expectations rather than Partridge’s weakness, I highly recommend Dark Harvest. Although you might want to wait until next October, you won’t look at a pumpkin or a piece of candy the same way again.

YetiStomper Picks for January

It's the 1st of the month (and the new year!) and that means YetiStomper Picks...

Freedom (TM) - Daniel Suarez

Suarez is a self-publishing success story. His self published near future techno-thriller caught the eye of a Wired writer and was recommended throughout the tech community where it was met with high praise and extreme interest. Daemon introduced a powerful computer program determined to implement an new world order. In this follow up, the corporations and governments fight back, trying to hold onto their power through any means possible. Suarez knows his stuff and his unique vision of an near future AI power struggle is one worth reading.

Starbound - Joe Haldeman

Haldeman has been very hit or miss for me. The Forever War is a timeless classic. Cameoflague is terrible drek and I have no clue how it managed to win the Nebula. Starbound is the follow up to last year's Marsbound and details escalating conflict between humans and The Others, an alien race as strange as they are powerful. Haldeman can do Hard SF so I'm looking forward to this one.

Prince of Storms - Kay Kenyon

The last book in Kay Kenyon's Entire and the Rose series. I haven't read the summary to avoid spoilers but I'm going to be reading the entire series in January. I've heard a lot of good things about this series. Plus it's being published by Pyr, who know how to pick them. And the covers...I would read the phone book if it had a cover like that.

The Domino Pattern - Timothy Zahn

Timothy Zahn's 4th (and I believe final) book in his Frank Compton Novels. Zahn is severely underrated and I'm not sure why. I loved his Star Wars books and his Conquerer's Trilogy is space opera at it's best. Not to mention the fact that Avatar might have ripped off his Manta's Gift in more ways than one. If you like pulp sci-fi with aliens and adventure, I'd suggest giving the Compton novels a try.

Star Wars: Crosscurrent - Paul Kemp

This is the Star Wars book I've been waiting for. Tight plotting, original characters (that could possibly die unlike Luke/Leia/Han) and spectacularly well written action sequences. Crosscurrent also features a higher level of prose quality that the typical Star Wars adventure. Think Empire Strikes Back not The Phantom Menace. You can read my full review here.

Coyote Horizon - Allen Steele

This is the PB release of the latest of Allen Steele's Coyote books. The first few books in the Coyote series are underrated SFF classics and I'll be interested to see if Steele continues the quality with this follow-up.

Dust of Dreams - Steven Erikson

Book 9 of the Malazan Books of the Fallen. I haven't actually read any of them to date but I know a lot of SFFers who do and they all seem to be very high on these books. This is Book 9 of 10 and as far as I understand it, the depth and breadth of Erikson's worldbuilding is almost unparalleled.

Digital Domains - Ellen Datlow (Ed.)

Ellen Datlow collects some of the best fiction from the last ten years of Webzines/Webfiction including Omni Online, Event Horizon, and SciFiction. I'm always interested in finding good fiction online but I don't know how to separate the quality from the crap. That's what editors are for!

Unwritten Vol. 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity - Mike Carey

Mike Carey's Felix Castor novel's are one of my favorite Urban Fantasy series and although I haven't sampled any of his prior comic work, Unwritten intrigued me. Tom Taylor is the subject of a bestselling fantasy series (think Harry Potter) authored by his father. But his life unravels and he starts to doubt which version of Tom Taylor is the real thing. That metalevel premise sounds very similar to Lev Grossman's The Magicians and is one I'm very interested in reading.

The Walking Dead Book 5 - Robert Kirkman

Kirkman's The Walking Dead comic is one of the most unpredictable and enthralling series in comics today. Focusing on survival in the wake of a zombie apocalypse, this is anything but a stereotypical zombie story. This is the 5th Hardcover which collects TPBs 9 and 10. If you like zombie survival horror, and aren't reading this series, you are missing out.

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If you want to read 1 book this month, I'd highlight Paul Kemp's Crosscurrent. I just finished it recently and it's a return to the Star Wars of the original trilogy with none of the Prequel nonsense. Tight plot, well written action. If you read Star Wars it's a must read for you. If you don't but are interesting in trying, Crosscurrent is about as stand-alone as you are going to find in the expanded universe these days.

Anyway, as always, if you are interested in more details regarding any of the above books, just click on through the Amazon links. I'm more interested in telling you why I recommended them rather than simply what the books are about. out there. Anything that might have escaped my genre nets? Which one of these covers is your favorite?

You can view previous installments of YetiStomper Picks here

Favorite Books of 2009

Defining the best books of 2009 is a bit of misnomer. No one can read all the genre novels and only a few people read more than 100 or so books which would give at least a decently informed opinion. For every book I did read (40) there were 2 additional 2009 books that I still want to get to. The best I can do is review the books I read in 2009 and decide which ones I like best. There is no objective method behind my madness, purely my own opinions.  I also limited the selection to only books that were published in 2009. I read some older books as well but no one needs me to tell them that Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a good book. (It is a good book if you haven't read it).

Anyway, without further nonsense, here is the list you came to see.

Favorite Reads of the Year:

1. The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi – The world and characters in this book are so realistic and human that I can’t say enough good things about them. I don’t get a vote for Hugo/Nebula but this novel deserves at least one of them. Bacigalupi will be a force in science fiction circles for years to come. (Full Review)




2. The Devil's Alphabet - Daryl Gregory – Strong characters that spoke to me (twenty something angst!) in a setting that was as bizarre as it was imaginative. Daryl Gregory integrates these fantastic elements into his fiction so well that you take them for granted behind the characters in the forefront. Gregory’s work balances the line between Science Fiction and Fantasy so he might fall through the cracks but his work is absolutely fantastic. (Full Review)




3. Moxyland – Lauren Beukes - Maybe I’m a sucker for the combination of strong characters, plausible futures, and culture but I loved Moxyland’s bleak outlook where corporations control things without being impossibly evil. Lauren Beukes’s 2nd novel, Zoo City, is on my anticipated titles of 2010 list. (Full Review)





4. Best Served Cold – Joe Abercrombie - Gritty, blood soaked and fun. Abercrombie’s First Law World is one I’ve fallen in love with and can’t wait to return to. If you like Fantasy and haven’t read Abercrombie, you are really missing out on something. I devoured all 4 of Abercrombie’s books this year at a 100 page a day pace and they just get better and better. (Full Review)




5. The City & The City - China Mieville – This book didn’t have the deepest characters but the dual city of Ul Qoma and Beszel had my mind reeling and my mouth talking. Absolutely unreal world building. (Full Review)

So thats my top 5 fiction books that I read in 2009. I know I should have put them in reverse order for suspense but I don't feel like changing it now. Now's the part where you tell me how wrong I was and provide your perfect list.

Onward to 2010!

Reading Retrospective: 2009 in Review

Back at the end of June I took a look at my reading habits over the first six months and set some goals for myself for the remainder of the year. I'd like to take a look at the entire year as a whole and see if I managed to meet the projections I made for myself.

Over the course of 2009, I managed to read 39 books and 20 graphic novels (59 individual items total)

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Here's a few interesting stats over the last 12 months.

Science Fiction: 16
Fantasy: 16
Horror: 2
General Fiction: 1
Literary Fiction: 3
Urban Fantasy: 5
Non-Fiction: 3
Star Wars Books: 6
Short Story Anthologies: 3
Young Adult Books: 5
Fiction Authors I Hadn't Read Before: 20 (+3 Graphic Novel Authors)
Books over 500 pages: 8
Graphic Novels: 20
Male Authors: 23 authors, 29 total fiction books
Female Authors: 5 authors, 7 total fiction books

I also managed to read 20 fiction authors I never have before as well as 3 new graphic novel writers.

• Paolo Bacigalupi
• Joe Abercrombie
• Stephenie Meyer
• Jose Saramago
• Susanna Clarke
• Bernard Beckett
• Alan DeNiro
• China Mieville
• Christie Golden
• Harry Connolly
• Joe Schreiber
• Lauren Beukes
• M.L.N. Hanover/Daniel Abraham
• Norman Partridge
• Paul McAuley
• Philip K. Dick
• Scott Westerfeld
• Tim Waggoner
• Robert Charles Wilson
• Paul Kemp
• Brian K Vaughn
• Bryan Lee O' Malley
• Joss Whedon

Out of those 20 I would say Abercrombie, Bacigalupi, Mieville, Beukes, Abraham, Westerfeld, and Kemp are the ones I would be most likely to read again. I won't mention the worst but lets just say Urban Fantasy is very hit or miss for me.

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My goal for this year was to average at least 50 pages a day or about 1 full length novel a week. Without graphic novels I finished with 40 completed fiction books, 12 off the book a week of 52 (77%) Page count wise, I read a grand total of 14,858 or so pages regular word filled book for an average of 40.7 a day. This puts me at 81.4% of my goal, a little bit higher than my book count but still below my goal. I’m going to try to shoot for the 52 book or 50 pages a day mark next year, but I don’t know if it will be doable with increased workload, getting married, moving, and trying to maintain this blog.

On the other hand if you include my 20 graphic novels and 4388 pages, I am suddenly at 59 books and 52.7 pages a day. So I kinda made it but unfortunately not to my own satisfaction.

I continued to manage the even balance of Fantasy and SF that I started the year with. I didn’t read as many series in the second half of the year but as I bounced from genre to genre, I managed to get a good mix of everything from Star Wars to Urban Fantasy to Hard SF to Literary fiction without being oversaturated. I would like to increase my horror input ever so slightly next year, and with a few suggestions from Llaird Barron and upcoming novels from Joe Hill and a few others, I might be able to do it.

I find that reading a variety of fiction lends itself to keeping things fresh. I’ve read other blogs that tend to focus more on one aspect of speculative fiction (Epic Fantasy for example) that have mentioned that reading and reviewing similar books over and over again can get monotonous. Luckily for me, I enjoy most of the speculative subgenres and finding something new and different is fairly easy. It’s reading everything I want to that’s a problem.

One place where I will admit that I need to work on is reading books by female authors. Only 7 books out of 40 were written by women which is hardly excusable. My only defense is that the 2nd half of the year was oriented toward Keeping An Eye On authors which were predominantly male but I need to be more conscious of this in 2010. I don’t want to set a quota for myself but there are a lot of good authors out there that I’m simply not reading and I'm not sure what else I could do. There will probably be something to address this in my forthcoming 2010 Reading Resolutions post but I’m not quite sure what yet.

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Speaking of Reading Resolutions, let's take a look at my Goals for the 2nd Half of 2009 that I made at my Mid-Year Review. You don't really have a choice do you?

Goals for the 2nd Half of 2009

1. Continue to read at a 50+ page a day pace
2. Read at least 3 more short fiction anthologies
3. Read Shadows of the Wind
4. Read at least 3 more Hugo/Nebula winners
5. Tackle Y: The Last Man (10 Graphic Novels)

1. Continue to read at a 50+ page a day pace (Actual 40.7) – Failed

I don’t know if this is a realistic goal but I went for it. I’ll try it again next year too.

2. Read at least 3 more short fiction anthologies (Actual 1, Started 2 others) – Failed

I have trouble sticking with anthologies because it’s so easy to jump outside the anthology once you finish a story and set the book down. It also doesn’t help that novels get all the attention on the blogosphere so they tend to be much more hyped

3. Read Shadows of the Wind (Actual Did not read Shadows of the Wind)

No Excuse Here

4. Read at least 3 more Hugo/Nebula winners (Actual 0, Possible 1 if The Windup Girl get what it deserves

Focusing more on new books rather than old books to establish the blog was the culprit here. Look for a Reading Resolution here too.

5. Tackle Y: The Last Man (Actual BOOYAH!)

I’m not a complete failure.

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I’m also pleased to say that I've successfully maintained this blog and written over 200 posts to date. I've also slowly developed a tiny following here at Stomping on Yeti, enough that I’ve started attracting attention from a couple of publishers. I’m definitely open to receiving review copies of books but the core principle of my blog remains the same: high quality, honest content. Some of my once favorite blogs have become nothing more than publisher mouthpieces full of contests and excerpts and little else. I don’t want to join those ranks. If I can get through 2010 with blog, integrity, sanity, and real life intact, I won't have too much to complain about.

If you feel up to it, take a look at your own year in review and post a link in the comments. I'd be interested to see what my readers are reading.

Now is also the chance to comment on anything you like, dislike, want more of/less of here at Stomping on Yeti. Any recommendations you have to make my blog better in 2010?

Come back later this week for my 5 Favorite 2009 books (everyone is doing it!) as well as my Reading Resolutions for the 2010 campaign.

YetiReview: Crosscurrent

30 Words or Less: In one of the better Star Wars novels in recent memory, Kemp portrays a more intimate adventure focusing on two Jedi and their dance with the dark side.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

The Good: Feels like Star Wars (and Dark Forces Star Wars no less); Tight plot focusing on a small cast of characters allows for character development and intrigue; Action sequences that are well written and exciting; Jedi characters are represented as intelligent, fallible beings.

The Bad: Some plot elements might turn SW fans off; At points it feels like it might be channeling the OT just a little too much; I would have liked more integration with the Dark Forces backstory

Just before Christmas I was given an early present; the opportunity to review Paul Kemp’s debut Star Wars novel, Crosscurrent, almost a month before it hit shelves. Star Wars has always a guilty pleasure for me and Kemp’s teases of a Jaden Korr adventure had me eagerly anticipating the novel. However, just because Star Wars is a guilty pleasure doesn’t mean I go any easier on it. I might expect a different kind of experience then I do reading pure science fiction or epic fantasy (Star Wars is a little of both) but I still expect strong characters, interesting storylines, and professional quality writing. Any honest fan will tell you that recent Star Wars books haven’t always delivered. Lazy plotting, character arcs mutated by exposure to plot-onium, and other subpar writing techniques have diminished the luster of the galaxy I grew up reading. Much to my surprise, Crosscurrent exceeded my expectations and delivered a Star Wars novel that reminded me what I love about the galaxy far, far away.

The main strength of Crosscurrent is in its intimate scope and tight plotting. Rather than a galaxy spanning epic, Kemp focuses his storytelling on a cast of six and how their fates intertwine above an icy moon deep in the Unknown Regions of the galaxy. There are a few other surprise cameos here but the short dramatis personnae teased by Kemp is accurate. One half of the action follows Jaden Korr as he tries to re-evaluate his devotion to the Jedi order and interpret the will of the Force in light of recent events. The other portion takes place 5000 years in the past as a master and padawan attempt to stop a Sith ship whose cargo could have dire implications for the Jedi Order and the Old Republic. Anyone who has read the Amazon summary knows that the two plots do eventually “cross currents” but there is more going on than the blurb will lead you to believe. As a warning, the methods used to get everyone in the same place may turn off a few readers with conservative conceptions of what you can and can’t do in a Star Wars novel but Kemp provides enough detail to make it work.

Kemp weaves the storylines together wonderfully, hopping between PoVs to build suspense and balance the duality of predator and prey, two roles that are not always assigned as expected in the latest Star Wars paperback. There aren’t any scenes that jump out as superfluous, something that has been increasing problematic in SW novels as of late. Every PoV features a unique, enjoyable voice which their own concepts of fate and the Force and how the two should interact. Despite the scope of the novel being very tight and a page count of only 318, Crosscurrent still manages to do a lot between the covers. As Jaden begins to realize why the Force has called him to this backwater system in the Unknown Regions, the suspense ratchets up a notch, drawing you into the plot in a way few Star Wars novels manage to do. I honestly didn't know what to expect and can't wait for Kemp's follow up effort.

As I briefly mentioned, Kemp’s Force users aren’t your typical cookie cutter Jedi and Sith but fully realized three-dimensional characters who don’t see the universe purely in black and white. As the twin plotlines begin to intersect, they form a crossroads for the six main characters. The characters face decisions that could mean the difference between life and death, light and dark. They feel genuinely human (or alien, you know what I mean) but despite their flaws, you are genuinely interested in their fates. If anything, I’m reminded of the Jedi of the Dark Forces video game series (in which Jaden Korr makes his first appearance). You might aspire to be a bastion of light but sometimes you just want to fry a little Sithspawn with a healthy dose of Force Lightning. (If you’ve played those games, you know what I’m talking about. If you don’t, you should, those games are excellent)

While the Jedi are the focus of the novel, Kemp doesn't forget to channel his inner Han Solo, managing to weave some ancillary characters into the mix. Crosscurrent gives prominent roles to an assassin/bounty hunter used to operating in the shadows and a pair of down on their luck salvage traders who happen to be in the wrong cantina on the wrong day. The “Force muggle” role is one often forgotten amidst the lightsabers and the force lightning and it’s a pleasure to see that dynamic back in play. From page one on which we get a traditional SW opening, it's evident that Kemp really captured the feel of Star Wars; something which is surprisingly hard to do (I’m looking at you, Prequel Trilogy). Too often lately, Star Wars novels have been mostly mediocre, assuming that if you put Luke, Han, and Leia in a book and have them run around for 250 pages, the book will be worth reading. Crosscurrent on the other hand is a return to the high adventure of the Original Trilogy in the same vein as The Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi (minus the Ewoks).

Not only is Crosscurrent an enjoyable Star Wars novel, it’s an enjoyable novel, period. The prose and the action are very well written and you can really get a visual sense of the action sequences with enough flavor to prevent it from reading like little more than a movie screenplay. There are going to be a lot of little things that the average sci-fi fan isn’t going to be clued into but Crosscurrent is one of the few Star Wars novels accessible enough to recommend to anyone looking for a good space adventure. If you are a Star Wars fan, Kemp's debut should be a must read for you. If you’ve just seen the movies, Crosscurrent is all of the fun Star Wars has to offer with none of the baggage typically attached to tie-in fiction.

Author Spotlight: Paul S. Kemp

One of my favorite video game franchises growing up was Star Wars: Dark Forces. From the early games pitting the mercenary Kyle Katarn against the Empire to the later games in which you play apprentice to Katarn (now a Jedi Master), the series has always been a underappreciated piece of the larger tapestry of the Galaxy Far Far Away. Not to mention the massacre of countless Storm Troopers. Bryar Pistol, Lightsaber, Force Lighting, Force Choke. Kill Counts in the quadruple digits. So when I heard that one of Katarn's apprentices, Jaden Korr was getting his own book my first thought was: It's about damn time. And the author giving us a prose window into this microcosm of the Skywalker-dominated shared universe? None other than Paul S. Kemp.

This is also Kemp's first foray into the GFFA, so I thought it would be beneficial to talk to Paul and shed a little light on the author behind the words. He was kind enough to participate, so read on to find out more about Crosscurrent, Kemp's other work, and his writing career in general.

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SoY: So Paul, your first Star Wars novel, Crosscurrent, comes out January 26th, 2010. Can you tell us a little about that?

PK: Sure. Crosscurrent is a standalone novel featuring Jaden Korr and set right about at the end of the LotF series. The story also has a connection to the Fate of the Jedi series (though one need not read the Fate of the Jedi series to follow Crosscurrent's story).

SoY: What else are working on right now? What will Paul Kemp publish in 2010? (Novels, short stories, or whatnot...)

PK: In Star Wars, I'm working on two things: First, a sequel to Crosscurrent, though I'm not sure when the publication date is. Second, something I…er…cannot yet announce. And, of course, Crosscurrent itself will be published in January.

In the Forgotten Realms (the sword and sorcery setting where a lot of my previous work was set), my Erevis Cale Trilogy will be combined into a single volume omnibus edition that will include not only the three novels of the Erevis Cale Trilogy (Twilight Falling, Dawn of Night, and Midnight's Mask), but also two short stories that feature into the Erevis Cale story arc. Oh, and for those not playing at home, Erevis Cale is my signature character in the Forgotten Realms, a priest and assassin in service to the God of Shadows.

In non-tie-in work, I'm shopping a supernatural thriller/horror novel. Hopefully I'll have some good news to report on it sometime in 2010.

SoY: Some more recent Star Wars novels have seen stylistic departures from the standard Star Wars format. We've seen Star Wars Horror (Death Troopers, Star Wars Noir (Coruscant Nights), Star Wars Military Sci-Fi (Republic Commandos). How did you approach writing a Star Wars novel? Did you want to bring in a certain style or accomplish something specific in Crosscurrent?

PK: That's a tough question. First and foremost, I wanted to be true to the feel of Star Wars. "Feel" is a difficult concept to articulate, but Star Wars novels have a unique vibe that mixes high adventure and cinematic action with a fair amount of philosophy. So, I wanted all of that to be there. At the same time, my strength as a writer (or so I tell myself) is in characterization. I wanted to really dig deep into Jaden's character (not to mention the other characters in the novel) and hopefully sear him into the minds of Star Wars fans. I like to think I've done that, but time will tell. And while I did all that, I wanted to stay true to my own writing style, which I'd characterize as fairly dark and gritty.

SoY: Many of today's genre writers were heavily influenced by Star Wars growing up? Would you include yourself in that category? If so, what's it like writing in the Galaxy Far Far Away from a fan perspective? If not, what would you say were your biggest influences in the genre?

PK: Oh, I was certainly influenced by Star Wars growing up. For years, I got Kenner action figures and ships every Christmas and birthday (the Snowspeeder being a favorite). I had the comic books, adored the movies (still do), collected the trading cards (your remember those? They featured stills from the movies with a little caption, and came in red, yellow, green, and blue sets). So, yeah, I guess you could say I was influenced.

As for what it's like: in a word, awesome. I had a blast writing Crosscurrent and contributing even a small part to the Star War phenomenon is more than a little cool.

SoY: It's recently come to light that you've been asked to do another Star Wars book building off of Crosscurrent. Are you still limited in what you can say about the follow-up? Can you provide any hints at all about the new story idea, even if it’s a teaser or two?

PK: Unfortunately, I can't. The NDA-Force is strong with Lucasfilm.

SoY: What's been the highlight of your career so far? In the statement "If I could write a book that ________________ , I would consider my career a success." what would you put in the blank?

PK: It'd be easy to say hitting the Times bestseller list or writing a Star Wars novel, but it's nothing like that.

Instead, it's this: I once received a fan mail from a reader who'd lost his father. He explained to me that my handling of a particular plot point in Midnight's Mask (the third novel in the Erevis Cale Trilogy) really helped him get through it.

SoY: The majority of your published work has been done with the Forgotten Realms shared universe. How has that experience helped you make the transition to Star Wars? In what ways are writing in the universes different?

PK: Well, both settings are highly detailed secondary worlds/universes, so they're similar in that you've got to dive into the lore with both hands and get to know the world/universe pretty well. As for how they're different: well, setting aside the subject matter differences, Star Wars fandom is vastly larger and vastly more…er…zealous than Realms fandom. Make no mistake, I and millions of others love the Realms, but as I said above, Star Wars is a global cultural touchstone.

SoY: Star Wars has some of the most complex continuities of any cross-media franchise out there, not to mention a fan base that can be... let's say "less than kind" to authors who don't give continuity the proper attention. Was the transition from writing Forgotten Realms to writing in the Star Wars universe difficult? What did you do to prepare yourself?

PK: Del Rey sent me thousands of pages of material and I read and read. I also browsed some of the more popular Star Wars message boards, watched and rewatched the movies, and so on.

SoY: Do you have any ambitions to develop your own fictional universe? In an ideal situation, what would you like to be writing?

PK: I do and am in the process of doing so. As I mentioned above, I've already got a supernatural thriller/horror novel making the rounds, and I'm working (as time allows) on an epic fantasy. I'm hopeful both of those will see print eventually.

SoY: On the subject of rabid fanbases, some of the discussion surrounding Crosscurrent is regarding one of the main characters, Jaden Korr. In the Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy game, Korr was a customizable character that could be a male or female from various species. In your book he is locked down as yet another male human Jedi. While I don't believe you made that decision, would you have made the same decision if it was up to you? Should authors writing in these universes keep their characters human and more relatable to the reader or fully embrace the diversity available to them?

PK: I actually did make that decision. In the end, I think authors should write the character through whose eyes and voice they can best tell the story they want to tell. For me, that meant a human male Jedi. That said, many of the supporting characters in Crosscurrent are alien (an Anzat, a Cerean, a Kaleesh).

SoY: Did you play any of the games to prepare? Will we see any of the other Jedi Knight characters in Crosscurrent either in flashbacks/back-story or in live action? Kyle Katarn or Rosh Penin perhaps?

PK: Never played any of the games, but Katarn's teachings to Jaden are the lynchpin around which Jaden's internal journey takes place.

SoY: What is a typical writing day like for you? Do you have any weird writing habits that somehow work for you?

PK: Nothing weird. When the outline is done and I’m into a novel, I try to write 1,500 to 2,000 words in a weekday, and at least touch the manuscript (writing, say, a few hundred words) over the weekend, just to stay in tune with it.

SoY: An Askajian Jedi apprentice, really? That doesn't seem like the most graceful of candidate species. Do the males have any unique features to match the females?

PK: Other than ample adipose tissue, I don't get too much into it. I do get in a Moon Lady reference, though.

SoY: This will be many Star Wars fans first time reading Paul Kemp. Suppose someone loves Crosscurrent and immediately churns through your catalog of books. If they enjoyed what they read, what other authors would you recommend? What's the best thing you've read recently?

PK: I sure hope those who enjoy Crosscurrent will go out and read my Erevis Cale novels. I think those who enjoy my storytelling style will enjoy it in both settings.

Authors that inspire me and inform my writing are folks like Michael Moorcock, Fritz Leiber, and GRR Martin. So if you enjoy my writing, you'll certainly enjoy theirs, being, as they are, masters of the craft.
As for what I've read and enjoyed recently, let's call it a tie between Haldeman's The Forever War and Chabon's Yiddish Policeman's Union.

SoY: Going forward into the future, where can we keep an eye on you and your work?

PK: Well, I'll be hanging around the Star Wars EU for a while, I think, and all of my Erevis Cale novels remain in print. Meanwhile, I've reached verbal agreement with another tie-in publisher of fantasy fiction. That announcement will come sometime in 2010. So, I think my work should be easy to find.

[You can keep an eye on Paul at his livejournal: http://paulskemp.livejournal.com/]

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Crosscurrent comes out January 26th, 2010. Storm Troopers watch out.

Table of Contents: Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, Volume 4

Over at Notes from Coode Street, Jonathan Strahan has announced the contents of Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume 4 which hits shelves March 29th.

Introduction, Jonathan Strahan
1. It Takes Two, Nicola Griffith (Eclipse Three)
2. Three Twilight Tales, Jo Walton (Tor.com)
3. Secret Story [To Be Announced in March]
4. The Island, Peter Watts (The New Space Opera 2)
5. Ferryman, Margo Lanagan (Firebirds Soaring)
6. A Wild and Wicked Youth, Ellen Kushner (F&SF)
7. The Pelican Bar, Karen Joy Fowler (Eclipse Three)
8. Spar, Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld)
9. Going Deep, James Patrick Kelly (Asimov’s)
10. The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, Holly Black (The Eternal Kiss)
11. Zeppelin City, Michael Swanwick & Eileen Gunn (Tor.com)
12. Dragon’s Teeth, Alex Irvine (F&SF)
13. This Wind Blowing, and This Tide, Damien Broderick (Asimov’s)
14. By Moonlight, Peter S. Beagle (We Never Talk About My Brother)
15. Black Swan, Bruce Sterling (F&SF)
16. As Women Fight, Sara Genge (Asimov’s)
17. The Cinderella Game, Kelly Link (Troll’s Eye View)
18. Formidable Caress, Stephen Baxter (Analog)
19. Blocked, Geoff Ryman (F&SF)
20. Truth and Bone, Pat Cadigan (Poe)
21. Eros, Philia, Agape, Rachel Swirsky (Tor.com)
22. The Motorman’s Coat, John Kessel (F&SF)
23. Mongoose, Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear (Lovecraft Unbound)
24. Echoes of Aurora, Ellen Klages (What Remains)
25. Before My Last Breath, Robert Reed (Asimov’s)
26. Jo Boy, Diana Wynne Jones (The Dragon Book)
27. Utriusque Cosmi, Robert Charles Wilson (The New Space Opera 2)
28. A Delicate Architecture, Catherynne Valente (Troll’s Eye View)
29. The Cat That Walked a Thousand Miles, Kij Johnson (Tor.com)

I find it very interesting that Tor.com has 4 stories making the anthology. If I'm correct, they've been around for less than a year. Quite a start. I didn't realize that the fiction over there was so strong. I don't typically read a lot of fiction online because I prefer the book form to get away from the screen when possible. Out of the big three F&SF has 5 stories, Asimov's has 4, and Analog 1. That would put Tor.com on pace with any of the big 3 short fiction magazines.

Also, congratulations to Alex Irvine and Elizabeth Bear (Keeping An Eye On Authors and friends of the site) on writing stories that made it into the book.

Also, all 29 authors happen to be all women, what's up with that?

Made you look. Just Kidding!

Covering Covers: Blood of the Mantis

Over at Pyr-O-Mania, Lou Anders has posted the Pyr cover to the US edition of Adrian "Have Fun With That" Tchaikovsky's Blood of the Mantis

I must say I like this cover alot. More so than Jon Sullivan's previous Pyr re-cover for Empire in Black and Gold shown below. I don't normally like photorealistic characters on my covers but the new one isn't bad, whereas the WaspWarrior guys on the EiBaG cover look a little goofy (especially the wings). The thorn people on BotM are very intriguing and make me want to know more. My eye is also drawn to the red glow at the bottom of the book which highlights the authors name and adds a sense of mystery to the scene portrayed.

While I don't love the Empire in Black and Gold cover, I do love the layout and spine of both books. I think the font choice is unique and well spaced/accentuated. The spine design will guarantee that the books should look fantastic lined up on a shelf. I do hope that they keep the Pyr logo the same size. It changes based on the spine width and that bugs me in series.

On the other hand, the original Jon Sullivan covers (UK editions) were great as well). I'm not sure if I like the old covers more or not. It's a toss up. All in all, Jon Sullivan seems to have a great grasp on this series. I think I will go cover hunting to see what else he has designed.

What happened to the cover for Dragonfly Falling? 2 comes BEFORE 3, Lou...

UPDATE: Aidan was kind enough to link me the Dragonfly Falling Cover, which I now remember seeing. That one might be my favorite. It's between 2 and 3 certainly. So Lou can count. I just can't remember.

Covering Covers: Through Bended Grass

Fellow book blogger Aidan Moher maintains the site, A Dribble of Ink which has been a favorite of mine for a while now. From reading the site, I know he's been slowly struggling to write a first novel entitled Through Bended Grass He's been working on it for a while but he has always managed to maintain the frequency and quality of his blog without letting it become a soap box for his own work.

But today in a rare blog post about his book, Aidan comfirmed that he has wrapped up the final chapter. While it's not finished, it's a big point in any aspiring writers life and a moment that anyone who wishes they could be a published author appreciates.

I offered to publish Aidan's novel on my home printer for sale in Nepal through the imprint Stomping on YetiBooks. He initially turned down my initial offer of $5 but agreed to wait until he saw the projected cover art to make his final decision. So here's the first look at the cover to Through Bended Grass. Please note that this IS complete finished artwork.

Yes, we do publish books in that height/width ratio. And no, the book is not available for purchase yet. No matter how bad you want this cover on your shelf.

Congrats Aidan!

New Poll Update: Voting Possible and Additional Options

Having the poll open until January 2010 would help.

Since no one voted due to technical difficulties. I also included the series suggested in the comments as well as Jo Walton's Small Change alternate history series.

The updated poll is as follows

Which completed series would you like me to tackle in 2010?

• Joe Pitt Casebooks - Charlie Huston (Urban Fantasy)
• The Entire and the Rose - Kay Kenyon (Hard to describe SFF Hybrid?)
• Starship Pentalogy - Mike Resnick (Military SF)
• Saga of Seven Suns - Kevin J. Anderson (Space Opera)
• Mistborn Trilogy - Brandon Sanderson (Epic Fantasy)
• Old Man's War Series - John Scalzi (Military SF)
• Codex Alera - Jim Butcher (Epic Fantasy)
• The Fourth Realm Trilogy - John Twelve Hawks (SFF Thriller)
• Small Change - Jo Walton (WWII Alternate History)
• Traitor to the Crown - C.C. Finlay (Revolutionary Era Alternate History Fantasy)
• The Godless World - Brian Ruckley (Gritty Fantasy, Think Joe Abercrombie)
• Age of Misrule - Mark Chadbourn (Theopunk?)

Vote for as many series as you would like. Any other recently completed series that you would recommend?

Reader's Choice: Results and 2010 Series Poll

Unfortunately, I've reached the end of the interview pool unless Naomi Novik is lurking around somewhere and just enjoys watching me squirm.

I've got a few things planned for 2010 and a few end of the year pieces in the works but it may be a little slow around here due to travel and the holidays.

In the midst of this down period, I am going to try to catch up on some reviews (2 left) and finish a few more books by the end of the year including Paolo Bacigalupi's Ship Breaker.

Technically, Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan won the reader's choice poll I conducted last month but since I already finished it (probably due to its quality), I'm going to read the 2nd place finisher as well. Not ignoring the fact that I love Bacigalupi's stuff. On a completely unrelated note, Paolo Bacigalupi's favorite anagram for his name is Labia Goal Cup Poi. Who knew?

For next year, I'm going to start the year off with a completed series or two or possibly three. I'm considering quite a few series and I'm not sure which I will feel like reading at this point. I will however, read one completed series as nominated by you the readers.

So the new poll, running through mid-January is:

Which completed series would you like me to tackle in 2010?

• Joe Pitt Casebooks by Charlie Huston
• The Entire and the Rose by Kay Kenyon
• Starship Pentalogy by Mike Resnick
• Saga of Seven Suns by Kevin J. Anderson
• Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson
• Old Man's War Series by John Scalzi
• Codex Alera by Jim Butcher
• The Fourth Realm Trilogy by John Twelve Hawks

Vote for as many series as you would like. Any other recently completed series that you would recommend?

YetiReview: Darker Angels

21 Words or Less: Another well-written series installment set in voodootacular New Orleans that balances the normal with the bizarre by utilizing relatable characters

Rating: 4/5 stars

The Good: Strong first person narration balances the paranormal with the mundane, Well written characters that feel like old friend; New Orleans setting/culture intrigues without being overwhelming or unnatural

The Bad: Lack of over-arching plot movement; Subplot is fairly predictable (and spoiled by back cover); Some awkward foreshadowing disrupts an otherwise seamless voice; Cover still sucks

My experience reading urban fantasy is a lot like my experience with family reunions. It’s not so much what you are doing but who you’re doing it with. If you don’t get along with your family you aren’t going to have a good time, regardless of what vacation spot you choose. On the other hand, the right group of people can make even the most mundane of destinations memorable. But what happens when you get both? In Darker Angels, the second novel in M.L.N. Hanover’s Black Sun’s Daughter sequence, Jayne, Aubrey, Ex, and Chogyi Jake make the trip to New Orleans, Louisiana for some rest, relaxation, and just the slightest bit of hunting for a serial-killing body-switching voodoo demon. There may be more of the latter and less of the former but that doesn’t make Darker Angels any less fun.

The strongest part of this series so far has been the characters. One of my favorite aspects of the Unclean Spirits (Book 1) was how real the characters felt. Unlike many Urban Fantasy series (Dresden Files, Felix Castor, etc), Hanover made the decision to start Jayne's story at the beginning. Rather than starting out as the experienced guide to the supernatural world for the reader, Jayne is as clueless as the rest of us. So many times you see characters make the transition into the larger fantastical world behind their own mundane lives with little hesitation. So it's a relief to read a character who asks the same questions and has the same doubts that I imagine any normal twenty something would have when placed in the same situation. Even the little things like looking for a good wifi connection, making small talk over dinner and drinks, and seeking familiar comforts at a coffee chain work to normalize a cast of characters that are immersed in an otherwise abnormal world of possession, magic, and monsters. The absurdity of the supernatural elements balanced with the normal problems of maintaining relationships and mixing work with life reminded me of some of the best of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

As notable as Hanover's cast of characters is the location he places them in. From the fairly nondescript Denver setting featured in Unclean Spirits, Jayne and Co end up in New Orleans, LA. New Orleans is undoubtedly one of the most supernaturally charged cities in America and Hanover does an excellent job meshing the character of the city into the book without betraying the first person perspective of Ms. Heller. Some books only make token references to the setting, enough to ground the action and little more. Other stories lay on the detail a little too thick, trying to work their research into the story where it doesn’t belong. Darker Angels presents the city and its mysteries as Jayne sees them. As she journeys through water-logged ruins and the re-emerging tourist district in a hunt for voodoo cults and lost children we witness New Orleans through her eyes rather than some omniscient out of place narrator. I would say that the voice has improved from the first book in which Hanover (actually Daniel Abraham) seemed to have the occasional difficulty writing from the female perspective. While the majority of the narration is clear and consistent, there are a few places where it feels out of sync with the rest of the story. At times Jayne makes references to things people said that she misunderstood at the time of the story but that she now understands clearly in the future world from which she narrates her adventures. These points feel more like teasers than natural extensions of Jayne’s voice.

At the same time, that may have been my frustration with the overall arc of the series. While I appreciated Hanover’s skill at balancing his characters and his world-building, I couldn’t help but be irritated with the lack of answers to questions presented in Unclean Spirits. The plot itself feels light and somewhat predictable (especially if you read the back blurb) and the majority of the novel deals with fleshing out Jayne’s character rather than moving the bigger story forward. There are a few more tantalizing hints to a larger story involving her uncle, her tattoos, a vast fortune, innate magically ability and a possible destiny but little follow-up.

I drew parallels earlier to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and if I had to provide an analog for Darker Angels, it would be to the early episodes of the classic genre show. The characters have been introduced and hints at a larger story have been provided but the second or third episodes always seem somewhat stand-alone, serving as an additional jumping on point rather than aggressively pushing the story forward. There isn’t anything wrong with this per say. In fact, it’s more realistic than every episode dealing with the same evil force lurking in the background and single-mindedly building toward a season finale. But when you’re dealing with books, it’s not a matter of days or weeks until the next installment; it’s a matter of months. When you get to the end of the last chapter and you don’t feel like you don’t know any more than you did at the beginning of the book, it’s difficult to call the book a complete success. I’d like to see a better balance of subplot and superplot in future volumes.

Despite the disappointing lack of revelations regarding Jayne’s strange inheritance, this installment was another fast-paced fun read that returned to the enjoyable, relatable characters introduced in Hanover’s 1st work. I eagerly anticipate the release of Vicious Grace, the next book in the sequence. If you are interested in the series, I’d recommend picking up all three books and mainlining them like your favorite TV series on DVD.