Yeti Review: The Alchemist - Paolo Bacigalupi / The Executioness - Tobias Buckell

In A Few Words: The Alchemist and The Executioness showcase two rising stars in the the genre but aren't completely successful in fully realizing the inherent potential in their shared fantasy world.

Pros:
1) Fast, fun stories that work both in print and audio formats
2) The Alchemist is a fantasy version of pitch perfect Bacigalupian exposition
3) Bramble ravaged world feels real as the vegetative threat influences the entire culture

Cons:
1) The worldbuilding away from Lesser Khaim is underdeveloped
2) Buckell attempts to put too much story into The Executioness, resulting in pacing problems

The Review: Fantasy is a genre that lives and dies by magic. It's what unifies a thousand different worlds and yet makes each one distinct. Each author imbues their world with a unique approach, relying on the reader’s sense of wonder to make their words come to life. In some stories, magic is re-entering a world that had all but forgotten it. In others, powers relied on for far too long are beginning to wane. In the shared universe constructed by Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias Buckell, magic not only defines the world, it attempts to destroy it. It’s a world where magic comes at a terrible price, even if it doesn’t earn you an encounter with the executioner’s axe. The world of The Alchemist and The Executioness is slowly being consumed by a poisonous bramble which thrives on magic, encroaching ever closer with every whispered word and forbidden act.

It may be difficult to sell coma-inducing vegetative growth as a legitimate threat but it’s hard to deny that the two stories are their strongest when firmly entangled in thorns and vines. You can’t write paired novellas (or good ones, anyway) without fleshing out the world in advance. In the case of The Alchemist and The Executioness, the entire world is structured around the bramble, the culture that created it, and its effect on the peoples that resist it. It’s got depth but not necessarily breadth. As a result, when the stories leave the bramble behind, they border on becoming generic fantasy.

Luckily, Bacigalupi’s offering rarely strays far from the heart of the story, detailing the exploits of Jeoz the alchemist as he attempts to engineer a device capable of eliminating the resilient bramble. The intrigue caused by the possibility of this “balanthast” is somewhat predictable but the way that Bacigalupi develops the characters and their collective culture more than make up for the simple story. The interactions between Jeoz and his daughter are genuinely heartfelt and as the story progresses it’s easy to become drawn in.

Bacigalupi’s bread and butter has always been environmental fiction, and it doesn’t take a literary scholar to see the similarities between this imagined world and ours. With the ever encroaching bramble, humanity faces a slow death of their own creation while anyone capable of substantive change selfishly ignores potential solutions for personal gains. While the global warming analogs are hard to ignore, they are never heavy handed. This may be his first foray into fantasy but with it he proves that his trademark style transcends genre. Bacigalupi’s flawless execution of show-not-tell worldbuilding is what earned him the Nebula and Hugo awards. The same skills are present here even if they aren’t quite as ambitiously applied as in The Windup Girl.

The Executionness has a harder time keeping the story in the deep end of the world. The story begins promisingly as a middle-aged woman is called to do her dying father’s work. Tana reluctantly joins the ranks of the magister’s executioners as the only executioness - a title that sticks with her despite the tumultuous events that change everything else. Before long, Tana is off and running on a quest of vengeance. The problem is that Buckell attempts a novel’s worth of characterization and exploration but only has a quarter of the pages to deliver it. To compensate, he skimps on critical development, resulting in a strangely paced story that feels rushed on more than one occasion. The piecemeal presentation of the final two acts often resorts to what are essentially “training montages” and the scenes in which the novice quickly becomes a master are only missing the bad 80s soundtrack.

This is frustrating because Tobias Buckell has crafted a story worth telling. The middle aged female protagonist is appealing and unique, the villains are more than just cardboard blackhats, and way the story ultimately plays out is memorable. Tana travels most of the continent on her quest for revenge, abandoning the intricate city of Khaim – the same setting that serves as the foundation to Bacigalupi’s tighter, more intimate tale. On said journey, she encounters a variety of interesting factions only tangentially related to the bramble. Because they lack the shared infrastructure of Khaim that links the two novellas, they require additional exposition. Sadly though, there isn’t any room for much more than moving from one set piece to the next. Buckell just lacks the page count/play time necessary to fully develop the elements he has introduced.

Ultimately, the combination of new characters, new locations, new cultures, and an aggressive plot is simply too much development to juggle in a novella of this length. None are intrinsically problematic but sometimes it’s necessary to cut scope in order to deliver higher quality. Even if increasing the word count wouldn’t have made the already 5+ hour audiobook unwieldy, it would still have the negative result of either inflating the word count of the well-composed The Alchemist or unbalancing the two stories.

As of this review, I’ve both listened to the audiobooks and read the advance print copies. I’m reluctant to steer readers one way or the other or suggest a definitive reading order. On one hand, the stories were original meant to be read aloud and the dialogue and sentence structure clearly reflect this. On the other hand, if you are anything like me, you will pick up on a lot more of the subtle details that create a cohesive world if you have the ability to easily re-read a line or two. Not to mention the promised interior illustrations from Subterranean Press.

While the stories are quick and entertaining, it’s difficult to label them complete successes or failures. The Executionness explores an atypical heroine as she travels across a diverse landscape dripping with potential for future narrative exploration. It also gets caught over-achieving at times, trying to do too much with too few words. The Alchemist is less ambitious but the simple tale is brilliantly executed and much more suited to the length and format. Neither would be the same without the other and together they are more than the sum of their parts. When the linked creation actually gets the detailed development it deserves, the magic is plain to see. The key to future entries into this shared world will be maximizing that magic while eliminating the bramble.

Covering Covers: The Alchemist and The Executioness [Print Editions!]

Do you want to experience Paolo Bacigalupi's and Tobias Buckell's shared world novellas but only consume media in a format you can afford to throw at the wall?

Well good news! Subterranean Press announced today that they've secured the rights to print The Alchemist and The Executioness in all the gravity demanding glory inherent in a pair of signed hardcovers.

Cover Artist: J. K. Drummond



Now I hoped that Subterranean would put them together in a back to back edition like those old pulp SF doubles but with covers this good I can't complain. (Even if both characters look younger and healthier than their stories would actually indicate). Even better, the blurb on Subterranean's website also promises interior illustrations, something I consider to be severely underrated.

I've actually known that they were publishing print editions ever since I received some unexpected ARCs earlier this summer. That being the case, I've already read AND listened to these novellas and a review is just around the corner. If you want to know more about the story, check out the original story about the Audible.com exclusive audiobook.

The Alchemist and The Executioness will be out from Subterranean Press in January of 2011 from these two:

I had to show this one more time...

Books Received: Early September

Per usual, Early September saw the reading pile increase substantially. Click on through for the detailed list. 

Unicorn! Pegasus! Kitten!

Fantasy pits a lot of strange creatures against each other. Vampires vs. Werewolves. Orcs vs. Elves. Dragons vs. Humans. Hobbits vs. Rings. And of course, the all-time classic match up:

Unicorn Pegasus Kittens vs. Auto-Immune Diseases.

What is a Unicorn Pegasus Kitten you may ask? The answer:

Cover Art by Jeff Zugale

One of my favorite things about the members of the genre community is the way they band together for a cause. The latest example of this is Clash of the Geeks, an anthology of "fanfic" inspired by the piece of Epic Imagery above.  Besides being awesome, Clash of the Geeks is also a charitable project aimed at raising money for Michigan/Indiana affiliate of the Lupus Alliance of America. Lupus is an autoimmune disease which afflicts approximately five million people world wide, including the wife of Bill Schafer, editor of Subterranean Press and co-conspirator in this project. Other co-conspirators include fantasy wunderkind Patrick Rothfuss, the tragically underread Rachel Swirsky, and a couple of newcomers who won Scalzi's original fanfic contest. Here's the short description:

Wil Wheaton, John Scalzi and Subterranean Press are proud to announce the publication of Clash of the Geeks, a special and fantastical electronic chapbook featuring stories by Wheaton, Scalzi, New York Times bestseller Patrick Rothfuss, Norton Award winner and Hugo Best Novel nominee Catherynne M. Valente, Hugo and Nebula Award nominee Rachel Swirsky and others, for the benefit of the Michigan/Indiana affiliate of the Lupus Alliance of America. The chapbook is free to download, but voluntary payment is strongly encouraged, via Paypal or by tax-deductible donation forms, both linked to later in this entry. All proceeds from this chapbook will go to the Michigan/Indiana affiliate of the Lupus Alliance of America. Please enjoy the stories, link your friends to this page — and give!

You can read the long version at http://unicornpegasuskitten.com/. I encourage everyone to check it out, download, and donate. It's good fiction for a good cause.

The Brandon Sanderson Interview: A StompingMad YetiHatter Collaboration - Part 1 of 2

Anyone who has finished The Way of Kings knows that when you get to the end of the book, you want more. More story. More words. More information. More anything. Ideally, you want the next book, but as that isn't set to hit shelves anytime soon, you will have to settle for what you can get.

I assumed that "what I could get" would be a whole lot of nothing until Michael (of Mad Hatter's Bookshelf and Book Review) offered me the opportunity to co-interview Sanderson (and to glean a few more tantalizing morsels about The Stormlight Archives in the process.)

Now, I'm not sure if together we would be called a StompingMad YetiHatter or a Mad Yeti Hat Stomper. What I do know is that we ended up with a pretty damn good interview. Sanderson graciously answered all of our questions. Except for the fact that his version of "answered" is like his version of "novel," resulting in a lengthy interview with lots of juicy details. Sanderson talks about his new novel, The Way of Kings, his work completing Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, and the future for his new flagship series, The Stormlight Archives. Sanderson also touches on the mystery of Asmodean...

It's a little bit lengthy than I like to post on the main page so you'll have to click through to read the whole thing.

Read Part 1 of the interview after the jump.
Read Part 2 of the interview over on Mad Hatter.

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You Can't Always Get What You Want

And if you try sometime, you ... still won't get what you want.

As productive and successful as your favorite word machine may be, they most likely are not literally a word machine (except for Brandon Sanderson, he bleeds oil, not sure what that is about). For the most part, authors are artistic creatures subject to all the risks of the creative life - project apathy, writer's block, the need to consume calories with the intention of continued existence. For whatever reason, authors decide to move on to other projects. It happens.

But in the age of internet immediacy, it's not a surprise to learn about a novel in its infancy, long before the first draft is finished and sometimes before a contract is even signed. If you hang around on Twitter enough, you might also witness a project's conception from an orgy of 140-character ideas. Writing a 250,000 word novel doesn't happen overnight, blog updates are expected on a semi-frequent basis. What do you think the authors are going to end up talking about?

As such, it's possible and even probable that you will get attached to the promise of a story long before you ever see a word of it. It doesn't help that the people who are reading about these prospective projects are also the people who admire an author's work enough to rifle through the garbage of the internet for mere scraps of news. What's the chance that those people (ok..ok...us people) get excited for a new book before the actually buy it?

But as the adage goes (sort of), not every egg does a chicken hatch. Novels don't sell, contracts fall through, publishers drop series, half finished manuscripts are shelved in favor of the new hot thing.

Compounding this problem is the fact that the situations that put a project into a literary limbo are often not of the variety that inspire detailed updates. As such, these projects can disappear quicker than Sprinkles the Hamster after your family went to Disney World, leaving rabid fanchildren with little to no explanation as to why they will never get to read the book that got them so excited. Even worse, sometimes authors pour salt on the wound by suggesting that they will take the book of the shelf "in a year or two" or "after they finish some other work."

Now, I am by no means arguing that the authors owe their readers every project they start or propose. Or that they should be required to finish something that they have no more interest in. Or that they even owe us an explanation of a situation that is often complicated, sometimes painful, or unsurprisingly both.

Consider this a lamentation for the loss of the potential project. That notion of a novel  that never amounted to anything more more than a few words buried in the archived blogposts of your favorite author.

For me, the most painful of these abandoned books is undoubtedly John Scalzi's The High Castle. It's predecessor, The Android's Dream was published by Tor in 2006 and somehow ended up flying under most radars. Maybe it was dismissed as an aside from Scalzi's flagship Old Man's War series, maybe the fantastic cover art was too unique to connect with that part of the reader's brain that loves spaceships, swords, and tramp stamps - who knows? It was science fiction in the vein of Douglas Adams, the kind that is simultaneously hilarious and unputdownable. (Unputdownable is a word in the way that pineapple isn't). And the best part? There was going to be more!

Until there wasn't.

I've been following Whatever for years. John still mentions The Novel That Could Have Been from time to time. It just reminds me of what could have been. Sadly, there is no more concrete information than there was three or four years ago. Maybe one of these times, "next year" will actually see the book committed to paper.

For all those readers who got excited about a project that didn't ever materialize, here's hoping.

UPDATED - Covering Covers: King's Justice - Maurice Broaddus

Cover Artist: Steve Stone

Update: I've redacted some of my comments but left them here because I feel selective editting destroys credibility. So you can still read my nonsense, if you so desire.

This is just another example of Angry Robot being Internet savvy and blogger friendly. They reached out to me to clear up some confusion about the situation in a very polite matter despite the light my poorly researched post portrayed them in. The model in question was always dark skinned and Angry Robot made sure that the author thought the cover was representative of book, going so far as to recommission a new cover when the first cover didn't live up to Broaddus's expectations. At no point was "whitewashing" suggested or pursued.

In my defense, I did think that they switched the model upon first glance and there was possible RaceFail afoot. However, that doesn't excuse my misrepresentation of the facts and the overly inflammatory nature of the original post. My apologies to Angry Robot and Mr. Broaddus.   

Now to be fair, I don't know if the character on the cover of King's Justice is the same as King Maker. He's got a similar sword/gun combo, but without having read King's Justice, I can't be sure. I'm assuming it is. But if it is, King looks somewhat lighter skinned than he did on the cover of King Maker. Maybe it's not King, maybe it's the angle, maybe it's the greenish tint to the cover, maybe it's just me, but I see a noticeable difference between the covers. And it's not just me, several other people I asked agreed.

Update: It is the same character, and in fact the same model. It appears that the greenish tint to the cover made me misinterpret things.

I don't want to be the blogger who cried whitewashing but this does appear to be a text book case in which a publisher portrays a darker skinned character with one of significantly lighter complexion on the cover.

Update: Damn it. I am the blogger who cried whitewashing... Textbook case of BlogFail on my part in which a blogger makes assumptions and makes an ass of himself. As an aside, contrary to popular vernacular, when you assume you just make make an ass out of yourself.

Some further investigation on Maurice's blog reveals an interesting post in which not only raises the topic of RaceFail, but cites the King's Justice cover as an example of RaceWin!

"This is the cover art for The Knights of Breton Court Book Two: King’s Justice by the incredible Steve Stone (the model’s name is Lloyd Nwagboso*)"

"Now would be the time when I would point out that not all publishers buy into the cycle of reinforcing racist ideas. I would point to Angry Robot’s cover for South African writer Lauren Beukes‘ second novel, Zoo City (art by John Picacio). Or my own novel from them, Knights of Breton Court: Kingmaker. Instead, I will point to the just released art for my second novel, Knights of Breton Court: King’s Justice one more time because it’s just so pretty:"

"We’ll soon find out whether or not black people on a cover will hurt sales. Nevertheless, having this conversation won’t hurt. Apparently it’s long overdue to happen."


"*Lloyd was actually the second model chosen. In an interesting parallel to the Bloomsbury debacle, Angry Robot asked me what I thought of the first model the artist was leaning towards. I said that I thought he was too light as I had imagined King as much darker. The folks at Angry Robot immediately, and I mean, IMMEDIATELY agreed and changed course. You can’t ask much more than that from your publishers."

So if I read that correctly (UPDATE - I read that pretty poorly indeed. ReadingComprehensionFail), Angry Robot suggested a lighter skinned model, Broaddus politely said he felt that it was not representative of the character and they found someone else that fit Broaddus's mind's eye.

Here is a normal photograph of Lloyd Nwagboso

 
So he is definitely not a Caucasian model, as was the case in many of the past RaceFails (Liar and Magic Under Glass). At the same time, I can't help but wonder if the image was edited during the graphic design phase to give the character a lighter complexion. It appears that Angry Robot definitely wanted to go with a lighter model from the beginning, and would have, if not for Broaddus's polite objection. Now if the author is fine with the cover, than there really shouldn't be any issue. But that still doesn't explain away my gut reaction upon seeing it for the first time. - "Holy Crap, they whitewashed the cover!"

King's Justice: The Knights of Breton Court: Book 2 will be out in February. We will see if it gets a new cover before then.

What do you think? Am I just seeing things?

Update: I am.

I For One Welcome Our Angry Robot Overlords

Angry Robot is the newest kid on the publishing block. Originally born of HarperCollins UK, they made a big splash in the UK before being adopted by Osprey Publishing Group earlier this year. After a slight transition period, they've re-emerged ready to take over the world. As of September 1st, those lofty aspirations are firmly directed toward another prodigal son of the British Empire, the U.S. of A.

Now, if you happen to know anyone born after you, they are most likely more comfortable with technology and far better at it, than you were at a comparative age. Angry Robot, along side Pyr, represents the gold standard of what an internet savvy publishers should be. Not only have they embraced the blogosphere with their frequently updated blog, they've also organized one of the best virtual street teams, suitably referred to as their Robot Army. I also think every Angry Robot author is on Twitter, which is surprisingly uncommon.

But that's all just good marketing. Where Angry Robot really sets themselves apart is their willingness to embrace the digital publishing revolution. Where larger older publishers insist on price points to rival the hardcover editions and locking down their books like the newest Harry Potter manuscript, Angry Robot's eBook approach embraces 3 key principles:

• DRM-Free
• Sensibly-priced
• No territory restrictions

And that's not Terry Goodkind "sensibly-priced" at $39.12, that's $3.99 for a Kindle edition, half that of the physical MMPB. $3.99 is about the same price as a substandard fast food meal and is definitely within the impulse range that is critical for less established authors. I don't think a text-only eBooks should ever go above $5.00 and Angry Robot seems to agree. And when you buy their book, you can keep their book none of that DRM nonsense that locks a book into the life of a single device.

Regarding the catalogue itself, I'm not going to lie to you and pretend that every book in the Angry Robot batting order is a home run hitter. I like Angry Robot and their approach to publishing but they don't pay me anything.

On the other hand, I have read enough of the Angry Robot books have no qualms about saying that, while every book might not be perfect for you, you will absolutely love at least a few books in their eclectic catalog. And those aforementioned home run hitters do exist, specifically in Lauren Beukes' Moxyland, a veritable Jackson Pollack of ideas and Kaaron Warren's profoundly disturbing portrait of a sociopath in Slights. Out of the several Angry Robot books I've read so far, those two were the most impressive.

If you are interested in finding some quality fiction at a decent price from a publisher worth supporting, here are the main titles leading the Robot Army's charge. 

  

September (Available Now)
Kell's Legend - Andy Remic
Moxyland - Lauren Beukes - My Review
Sixty-One Nails - Mike Shevdon - Review Planned
Slights - Kaaron Warren - Review Forthcoming
Triumff: Her Majesty's Hero - Dan Abnett
Winter Song - Colin Harvey

October (Available September 28th)
Angel of Death - J Robert King - Review Planned
The Bookman - Lavie Tidhar - Review Forthcoming
Crown of the Blood - Gav Thorpe
Edge by Thomas Blackthorne
King Maker: The Knights of Breton Court - Maurice Broaddus - Review Forthcoming
Nekropolis - Tim Waggoner - My Review

November (Available October 26th)
Book of Secrets - Chris Roberson
City of Dreams & Nightmare - Ian Whates
Damage Time - Colin Harvey
Road to Bedlam - Mike Shevdon
Servant of the Underworld - Aliette de Bodard - Review Forthcoming
Soul Stealers - Andy Remic

Reader's Block

I apologize for the lack of updates around these parts. The day job is rapidly approaching project go-live and free hours are hard to come by. Things should ease up a bit after this weekend.

At the same time, I would be lying if I said that all was right in the world of this Abominable Blogger. I seem to have hit a bit of a reader's block of sorts. After finishing the highly enjoyable White Knight, I've had a hard time getting into my next book. I've sampled several but I haven't been able to get past the first few chapters and into the meat of the text. I fear my normally miniscule attention span may be further reduced by the veritable plethora of activities consuming my life at the moment.

While I haven't done any heavy reading in the past week or so, I have been burning through some of Bill Willingham's excellent Fables trade paperbacks and several short stories. I've also been working on sekrit stuff in the background, mostly interviews and the like.So I'm not being a total waste of literary consumption. But as I have way to many books on my reading list, I should really get back to the pile sooner rather than later.

Any advice for getting out from under an avalanche of books?

YetiStomper Picks for September

September has at least one book for everyone or in my case too many books for me. There goes any hope I had of catching up on the reading list.

Dreadnought - Cherie Priest

Clockwork Century, Book 3. Priest's Boneshaker was the surprise hit of 2009 and she returns to the world for a third tale after the limited edition Subterranean Press novella, Clementine, completely sold out earlier this year. Focused on a different character within the same shared world, Dreadnought explores more of the steampunk setting that made Boneshaker such a hit. Originally, I thought Steampunk was a bit of a stillborn subgenre that was talked about more than it was actually published but Priest is showing the the Steampunk style is very much clanking along. (September 28th from Tor)

Tome of the Undergates (The Aeons' Gate, Book 1) - Sam Sykes

The Aeons' Gate, Book 1. The debut novel from Sam Sykes made a sizeable splash across the pond earlier this year and Pyr is helping us poor ignored Americans catch up on the newest names in fantasy. Anyone who follows Sykes on Twitter or his blog knows that he's irreverent, hilarious, and endlessly entertaining. [He may or may not comment here if I bait him enough]. TSykes imbues his fantasy adventure with that same wit, creating a debut novel that should entertain any genre fan. (September 7th from Pyr)

Antiphon - Ken Scholes

The Psalms of Isaak, Book 3. Although I'm not happy about the change in cover direction, there is no denying that The Psalms of Isaak is one of the best fantasy series running today. Rather than settling to be just another doorstop fantasy series, The Psalms of Isaak gives you a fantasy fix in a fast paced package. The series mixes science fiction and fantasy elements in a far future Earth that is for all intensive purposes unrecognizable from our own. Antiphon is the middle book in a planned five book series and should be indicative of the direction of the series as a whole. (September 14th from Tor)

An Artificial Night - Seanan McGuire

October Daye Novels, Book 3. In a publishing landscape where there are a million new Urban Fantasy books trying to capitalize on the success of Jim Butcher and Charlaine Harris, the one name I've heard again and again is Seanan McGuire. McGuire returns to the world of her half-fae heroine for a third adventure dealing with abducted children. (September 7th from DAW)

Twelve - Jasper Kent

The Danilov Quintet, Book 1.. Where Naomi Novik's Temeraire novels insert dragons into Napoleonic times, Jasper Kent returns to the same historical period with a vampiric twist and from a Russian perspective. Pyr continues its trend of importing well reviewed fiction from foreign markets with a blend of intense action and historical detail. Book Two, Thirteen Years Later is out in UK now and the series shows no signs of slowing down. (September 7th from Pyr)

The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack - Mark Hodder

Burton & Swinburne, Book 1. More Steampunk fun from Pyr. Hodder's new series puts real historical figures in fictitious but plausible situations. Assuming of course that time-travelers, werewolves, and demons are considered plausible in an alternate history which flawlessly integrates steampunk elements into a Victorian setting. (September 7th from Pyr)

Zero History - William Gibson

The Stormlight Archives, Book 1. In the third book of a loosely connected trilogy, Hollis Henry finds herself once again employed by the mysterious Bigend. Gibson is one of the most literary SF writers out there today. Even twenty plus years after the groundbreaking Neuromancer kick started the Cyberpunk genre, he is still providing commentary on the way that technology will shape our future. (September 7th from Putnam)

Monsters of Men - Patrick Ness

Chaos Walking, Book 3. August saw The Hunger Games trilogy come to a close. September sees the end to the Chaos Walking Trilogy, another excellent YA quasi-SF series that transcends age groups. Focusing on an apocalyptic world where women are all but extinct and men can read minds, Ness has constructed a trilogy that works on multiple levels. Early reviews label this as a strong finish but warn that newcomers may want to start with The Knife of Never Letting Go.  (September 28th from Candlewick)

Out of the Dark - David Weber

Untitled SF Vampire Series, Book 1. Humanity is all but powerless against a race of conquering aliens. The impending extinction of the human race is met with resistance from a surprising source - vampires who believe humanity is their prey alone. This is probably the most interesting and original premise for a story involving vampires, I've heard in recent years. Weber is a proven genre master and he writes books like Brett Favre retires so the series should move along at a quick pace. (September 28th from Tor)

The Fall - Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

Strain Trilogy, Book 2. Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan's continue their quest to reclaim the vampire as vicious bloodsucking monsters worth fearing with the 2nd book in The Strain trilogy. After the huge debut of The Strain last year, this series fell off the map somewhat but I expect to see a return to prominence with the second book and the planned movie treatment.   (September 21st from William Morrow)

Salute the Dark - Adrian Tchaikovsky

Shadows of the Apt, Book 4. Tchaikovsky's insect based fantasy series is as fun as Tchiakovsky is hard to spell. Fortunately, Salute the Dark continues the strong work Tchaikovsky has published so far, avoiding the typical stagnation that prolonged fantasy series typically experience. Unfortunately, Pyr is quickly reaching the end of Tchaikovsky's UK only backlist and soon us US fans will have to suffer the same wait as our British counterparts. (September 7th from Pyr)

Blameless - Gail Carriger

The Parasol Protectorate, Book 3. A combination of Urban Fantasy, Period Fiction, Steampunk and who knows what, Blameless is the latest entry in Carriger's well received Parasol Protectorate. Imagine if your favorite Urban Fantasy heroine lived in London a century or so ago and you'll only partially grasp the elements that Carriger successfully combines.  (September 1st from Orbit)

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YetiStomper Pick Of The Month: While I have to reserve judgement until after I get through the promising Out of the Dark, I have to go with the sure thing in Cherie Priest excellent Dreadnought. You aren't going to easily find a better combination of writing and world building. Plus zombies!

YetiStomper Debut Of The Month: I don't know if Tome of the Undergates still counts due to its UK release date earlier this year, but its still worthy of debut o' the month status. Sykes has a strong voice reminscient of the excellent Joe Abercrombie and although his debut isn't perfect, it shows that he has something worth saying.

YetiStomper Cover Of The Month: And which one of these covers is your favorite? I think it comes down  to Out of the Dark and Dreadnought again. While it's pretty close, the edge has to go to Weber's latest, considering the gorgeous artwork and the way the arrangement of the text plays of the title. Bonus points go to Putnam for the atypical cover of Zero History. It is trying something different but there is something about the contrast that just feels off to me. Worst has to go to the new style for Antiphon which is abandons the stellar paintings of Lamentation and Canticle and replaces it with way too much blue

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. Let me know if there is anything I may have missed in the comments.

You can view previous installments of YetiStomper Picks here.

Yeti Review: The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson

In A Few Words: The Way of Kings delivers on the hype, introducing a new fantasy series that echoes Wheel of Time in scope and complexity and has the potential to surpass it in writing quality and readability.

Pros: You will not get a better bang for your buck than the 1,000 pages of The Way of Kings; Highly readable fast-paced prose atypical in a fantasy doorstop; Sanderson takes standard tropes and make them his own, creating a cast of characters both recognizable and original; Subtle clues that will inspire discussion and rereading 

Cons: Very much an introductory volume, leaving a lot of questions unasked or unanswered; Kaladin flashbacks end up being somewhat prolonged and anticlimactic; Book 2 not due until 2012 at the earliest.

The Review: The most anticipated fantasy tome of 2010 is undoubtedly Brandon Sanderson’s Towers of Midnight. The best epic fantasy title of 2010 is also penned by Sanderson but that book does not belong to the classic saga started by the late Robert Jordan nearly two decades ago. Instead, that honor belongs to The Way of Kings, the first volume of The Stormlight Archives, in which Sanderson introduces us to Roshar, a world ravaged by torrential rain and torn apart by war, and the small cast of characters destined to stand against its storms.

At a high level the cast is generic - Dallinar, the noble noble playing a game of thrones – Adolin, the questioning son, loyal but unsure – Kaladin, the Gladiator-esque once-hero-now-slave trying to regain the honor and respect he once held – Shallan, a con-woman who becomes enamored with the person she pretends to be – Szeth, the unstoppable assassin who wants nothing more than to stop killing – but Sanderson uses his intimate familiarity with the genre to great effect, creating characters that are recognizable to fans but also distinct and memorable.

The forty odd words given to the characters above cannot do justice to the hundreds and hundreds of pages of complexity Sanderson uses to make the cast his own. If Sanderson’s cast is lacking is anything it is the scene-stealing antagonist that fans can love to hate. The closest character Sanderson provides is Szeth, more of an anti-hero than antagonist, whose vertigo inducing assassinations are some of the most spectacular scenes in the book. Either way, Szeth is destined to gather a loyal following as one of the genre’s favorite fighters.

This deficiency is not a problem per se but it is indicative of a frustrating aspect of The Way of Kings - there is no clear overarching plot to measure progress against. As such, it is difficult to fully judge The Way of Kings without knowing more about the series as a whole. Sanderson’s latest is very much a series debut, spending a wealth of words developing the complex world of Roshar and the people who inhabit it but only hinting at the overall plot of the planned ten book series. Despite the massive page count of the book, the vast majority of the action focuses on these five characters, four of which are tightly focused on the politics of Alethkar and its war with the Parshendi nomads following their assassination of the Alethkari king (and Dalinar's brother).

This leaves the fifth and shortest of the “major” POVs to lay a bloody foundation to The Stormlight Archives along with a small number of one-off “interludes” that appear to be only tangentially connected to the major perspectives. Even when taken together, these few pages barely scratch the surface of the larger tapestry on which The Way of Kings is woven. Likewise, Sanderson only provides brief glimpses into Roshar’s magic system. Somehow combined the incredibly curious Spren, Stormlight and Shardplate, the teases suggest that Sanderson has yet another of his trademark systems in store even if he is not ready to fully divulge its secrets.

Even though The Way of Kings provides disappointingly few overt clues at the overall direction of the series as a whole, that disappointment itself speaks to the quality of the story Sanderson has begun to craft rather than a flaw in his creation. Even with the 1,000+ pages of action and intrigue he supplies, the world of Roshar still begs for further exploration. Some doorstop fantasy novels claim to be epic in scope but the only thing epic about them is the nature of the editing fail they represent. When you struggle to get through page after page of tedium the end is a welcome blessing not a curse. This is not the case here.

Sanderson belongs to the less-is-more faction of worldbuilders and it shows in the relentless pace of The Way of Kings. The book moves swiftly, jumping from perspective to perspective and constructing Roshar through active exploration rather than passive infodumping. The only slow threads in the book are some of those which detail Kaladin’s backstory before becoming a slave. They feel somewhat prolonged and when Sanderson finally reaches the pivotal moment of his life, the revelation borders on the anticlimactic. Considering the aforementioned page count, much of his backstory could have been compressed and the extra pages could be removed or, even better, repurposed to explore more of Sanderson’s brilliant new world.

The last act is particularly demonstrative of the success of this introductory volume. As the fates of Dalinar and Kaladin align on the Shattered Plains, the story begins to move at such a pace and scope that it’s impossible to put down. At the same time, it’s hard to want to finish too quickly, considering that it will be years before the second volume hits shelves. Even when I did reach the dreaded conclusion, I found myself returning to reread some of the more initially ambiguous sections. While I faulted the book earlier for lacking overt direction, upon revisiting the most cryptic sections there is a seemingly endless supply of subtle clues to discover and discuss. Sanderson accomplishes the incredible, making a dauntingly long book read quickly and leaving the reader still wanting more.

In the end, it’s impossible to deny Sanderson’s talent for storytelling. Sanderson’s prose is impressive, possessing an almost cinematic quality. While most of the thousand or so pages read effortlessly, there are several scenes which transcend good storytelling and become utterly entrancing. Whether it’s Lord Dalinar resplendent in his Shardplate (an incredible creation in its own right), Kaladin in the midst of battle, or Szeth’s capacity for gravity defying carnage, his words leap off the page and into your imagination. The storytelling is further enhanced by the beautiful illustrations dispersed throughout the book, depicting some of the more abstract portions of his storm-influenced world on the rare occasion when Sanderson’s descriptive prowess is insufficient.

Based on the introductory volume alone, it’s hard not to agree with the bold claim that The Stormlight Archives has the potential to be for the newest generation of fantasy readers what The Wheel of Time was to the last. The subtle hints at the larger scope of The Stormlight Archives are sure to attract a rabid fan base that could easily rival Jordan’s, especially with the carry over that Sanderson’s Wheel of Time books are sure to generate. But I don’t want to make any guarantees based on only ten percent of the overall story.

At this point, the best praise I can provide to The Stormlight Archives is that I devoured the thousand pages of complex worldbuilding and imaginative storytelling contained in The Way of Kings and at the end I was still hungry for a thousand more. The most disappointing aspect of Sanderson’s new series is undoubtedly the fact that the second volume will not be out until 2012 at the earliest. I’ll be waiting.

Big News from Joe Schreiber

Over at his blog, The Scary Parent, horror writer Joe Schreiber has some exciting news. First, he has sold a new YA novel, entitled Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick. Schreiber mentions that he wrote Au Revoir in a three week fit of whatever the opposite of writer's block is earlier this year and after a choice bit of editing, he's been trying to find a home for it. Well that home is Houghton Mifflin, and they've bought not only Au Revoir but an unwritten sequel as well.

Schreiber goes on to provide some more information about the book.

"Au Revoir is a middle-aged novelist's attempt to recapture what it feels like to be back in high school again, that simultaneous sense of anything-is-possible exhiliration and sheer adrenalized panic."

and

"...what might happen if John Hughes had been hired to write La Femme Nikita.Basically, Au Revoir is about a high school kid with a female foreign exchange student living in his house, who turns out to be an international assassin with a one-night multi-kill job in New York City before she gets sent back home. As the night gets progressively wilder, our teenage hero gets roped into driving her around whether he likes it or not. The idea kind of drove me nuts, in a very pleasant way, like a pop song that you can't get out of your head..."

Sounds like your standard novel sale right? It was, and then someone mentioned the sale in a industry magazine with the tagline "Ferris Bueller meets the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." To put it more bluntly, "Classic Movie Beloved Across Generations" + "Biggest Book on the Planet Right Now"

Any guesses what happened next?

If you are thinking, Joe Schreiber solo dance party, you are only partially correct. But if you guessed Hollywood bidding war, you're right. Paramount eventually ended up with the rights and while by no means a guarantee any movie will ever be made, it's still a step in the right direction and a sign that there is something special in the story. And while Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick isn't the catchiest title I've ever heard the book itself does sound pretty cool. I'll be keeping an eye out for this one.


In an industry where rejections outweigh sales by a sizeable margin, it's always cool when you hear news like this. Congrats to Joe and good luck with the new property!

Winners of The Long Price Giveaway

Out of all the entries in the contest for Daniel Abraham's complete The Long Price series, random.org somehow selected two winners from the same city. What are the odds?

Without further ado, the two winners are

#11 - Ben O' C. from Washington, DC

and

#18 - Josh W. also from Washington, DC

Congrats to the winners! If you weren't lucky enough to win, I encourage to still go out and buy the series, it's well worth the price of admission.

Covering Covers: Diving Mimes, Weeping Czars and Other Unusual Suspects - Ken Scholes

Cover Artist: Paul Swenson

I hate it when people settle for the obvious choice...

Table of Contents

• A Weeping Czar Beholds the Fallen Moon
• The Night the Stars Sang Out My Name
• The God-Voices of Settler's Rest
• The Music of the Spheres
• Four Clowns of the Apocalypse and the Mecca of Mirth
• The Boy Who Could Bend and Fall
• The Second Gift Given
• Invisible Empire of Ascending Light
• There Once Was a Girl from Nantucket (A Fortean Love Story) with John A. Pitts
• The Taking Night
• On the Settling of Ancient Scores
• In Time of Despair and Great Darkness
• Of Missing Kings and Backward Dreams and the Honoring of Lies
• Grief-Stepping to the Widowers Waltz
• Love in the Time of Car Alarms
• What Child is this I Ask the Midnight Clear
• Grail-Diving in Shangrilla with the World's Last Mime

Diving Mimes, Weeping Czars and Other Unusual Suspects is out now from Fairwood Press. Order directly from them and support a small press.

Covering Covers: Vicious Grace - M.L.N. Hanover

Cover Artist: Unknown

Ah the Urban Fantasy cover... Admire it in it's generic beauty. Attractive White Female? Check. Uncomfortable Pose? Check. Tattoo? Check. Bare Midriff? Check. Weapon that may or may not appear in the book? Check. Random Gust of Wind? Check.

All joking aside, these covers are constructed to convey one simple message:  "Look! Urban Fantasy! Right Here!" And there is no denying that they do that. I would even say that the red tint provides a vibrant touch and the rifle is not your trademark sword. And is that symbol of the Galactic Empire in the background? [Ok, I'm not done with the kidding yet]

But ultimately, it's not what's on the cover that counts, but what's inside it. Inside this cover is Vicious Grace. Vicious Grace is Book Three of M.L.N. Hanover's The Black Sun's Daughter Sequence, one of my favorite Urban Fantasy series alongside Jim Butcher's Dresden Files and Mike Carey's Felix Castor books. Black Sun's Daughter features Jayne Heller, your typical kick-ass heroine. In the first book, Heller inherits her uncle's friends and fortune and discovers the mysterious world in which he made his millions. The books are fun, fast-paced, and the cast of characters is one of the best ensembles outside of Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. You can read my reviews of Darker Angels (Book 1) and Unclean Spirits (Book 2).

Here is what Jayne (don't ask me to pronounce that) is up to in her latest adventure:

For the first time in forever, Jayne Heller's life is making sense. Even if she routinely risks her life to destroy demonic parasites that prey on mortals, she now has friends, colleagues, a trusted lover, and newfound confidence in the mission she inherited from her wealthy, mysterious uncle. Her next job might just rob her of all of them.

At Grace Memorial Hospital in Chicago, something is stirring. Patients are going AWOL and research subjects share the same sinister dreams. Half a century ago, something was buried under Grace in a terrible ritual, and it's straining to be free. Jayne is primed to take on whatever's about to be let loose. Yet the greatest danger now may not be the huge, unseen force lurking below, but the evil that has been hiding in plain sight all along - taking her ever closer to losing her body, her mind, and her soul...

And if you didn't know M.L.N. Hanover is a pen name for Fantasy Author Daniel Abraham. There is only one day left to enter the contest for Abraham's complete fantasy series The Long Price.

Vicious Grace will be out from Pocket Books on Nov. 30th of this year.

Books Received: Early August

Experimenting with a new format for the Books Received posts.

If you would like to see what books I obtained this week, click through to the main body of this post. Otherwise, do what you will.

SubPress Announces New Peter V. Brett Novella

Like many of my fellow genre readers, I am somewhat of a completist. And by somewhat, I mean that I have 100+ Star Wars novels and counting. It's an addiction, and an expensive one. But on the plus side, it means I keep an eye out for material that flies under the radar. A great place for that kind of material is Subterranean Press, a small press that features high quality, signed, and often exclusive titles.

Today they announced another exclusive Peter V. Brett novella set in the same world as The Painted Man and The Desert War. Earlier this year, they offered The Great Bazaar and Other Stories, a signed collection of Brett's work that tied into his larger mythos. That book sold out upon printing and is now very difficult to find (impossibly so if you are looking for something cheap). The new novella is titled Brayan's Gold and will feature exclusive art as well as some interior illustrations from Lauren K. Cannon. I think interior illustrations are a brilliant touch.

Included with the announcement was a basic summary:

Humanity has been brought to the brink of extinction. Each night, the world is overrun by demons-bloodthirsty creatures of nightmare that have been hunting the surface for over 300 years. A scant few hamlets and half-starved city-states are all that remain of a once proud civilization, and it is only by hiding behind wards, ancient symbols with the power to repel the demons, that they survive. A handful of Messengers brave the night to keep the lines of communication open between the increasingly isolated populace.


Arlen Bales is seventeen, an apprentice Messenger in brand new armor, about to go out for the first time alongside a trained Messenger on a simple overnight trip. Instead Arlen finds himself alone on a frozen mountainside, carrying a dangerous cargo to Count Brayan's gold mine, one of the furthest points in the duchy. And One Arm, the giant rock demon, hunts him still.


But Brayan's Gold may offer a way for Arlen to be free of One Arm forever, if he is willing to wager his life on the chance.

 Subterranean doesn't have the cheapest books, but they sure are pretty. Brayan's Gold should see print in Jan 2011 and will probably sell out way before that. You don't need to buy it, but if you're interested I'd recommend ordering sooner rather than later.

YetiContest: Complete Long Price Quartet - Daniel Abraham

I don't do contests around here very often. I consider it one of the cardinal sins of blogging. I've given away a few books when I've somehow ended up with an extra copy or two for one reason or another. I just don't think that contests = content. But for every rule there is an exception.

So I present to you a contest. Daniel Abraham is an author who I originally interviewed last year and an author I've enjoyed immensely. He's also a criminally underread author, particularly his excellent Long Year Quartet which was inexplicably undermarketed by Tor. Since then, he has shifted to Orbit, who has republished The Long Price Quartet in a pair of giant omnibus editions. Orbit is also publishing his new fantasy series, The Dagger and The Coin which I am very excited to read (as is everyone's favorite Inkboy who has an early synopsis over on his blog). Unfortunately, I don't have any early copies of that to give away.

What I do have though, is not one but two sets of the handsomely covered Omnibus editions from Orbit - Shadow and Betrayal and Seasons of War.

---

Shadow and Betrayal - In a remote mountain academy, the politically expendable younger sons of the Great Houses study for an extraordinary task. Most will fail, some will die, but the reward for the dedicated few is great: mastery of the andat, and the rank of Poet. Thanks to these men - part sorcerers, part scholars - the great city-states of the Khaiem enjoy wealth and power beyond measure, and the greatest of them all is Saraykeht: glittering jewel of the Summer Cities. There are those in the world, however, who envy such wealth. There are great riches to be had in the Summer and Winter Cities, and only the threat of the andat unleashed holds the enemies of the Khaiem in check. Conflict is brewing in the world. Alliances will be broken and friends betrayed. The lowly will be raised up, the mighty will fall and innocents will be slaughtered. And two men, bound to each other by an act of kindness and an act of brutality, may be all that stands between the civilised world and war. War and something worse ...

Seasons of War - The poets and their magical andat have protected the cities of the Khaiem against their rivals in Galt for generations. Otah, Khai of the Winter City of Machi, has tried for years to prepare his people for a future in which the andat can no longer be safely harnessed. But his warnings have been ignored, and now it-s too late.A ruthless, charismatic Galtic general believes he has found a way to strip the andat of their power. If he is wrong, Galt will be destroyed. If he is right, the Khaiem will fall. Only one thing is certain: conflict is inevitable, and Otah and his old friend and enemy the disgraced poet, Maati, must fight a desperate battle to protect their cities from slaughter. These two men, bound together by shadow and betrayal, will bring the world to the edge of a cataclysm unlike anything either side had imagined. For if the cost of war is high, the price of peace may be unimaginable . . .

---

To enter, simply send an email with "The Long Price" in the title and your name and snail mail information in the body to yeticontest [at] gmail [dot] com. Obviously, if you have used email before, you know you need to replace the words with an @ symbol and a .

The contest will run until Friday, August 20th at 11:59pm when two lucky winners will be drawn using a randomizer. That is if I don't decide to just pocket these awesome editions for myself. Good luck!

Covering Covers: Knife of Dreams eBook - Robert Jordan

Tor has been recovering the Robert Jordan's classic fantasy series The Wheel of Time in lead up to the final two books, due out at the end of this year and late 2011/early 2012, respectively. While I'm not the biggest fan of the original covers to Jordan's books, I do applaud Tor for sticking with the artist through the end.

This morning, Irene Gallo debuted the new artwork for Knife of Dreams over at Tor.com

Cover Artist: Michael Komarck

I hope that when the series is done, Tor republishes the series in physical format with these new covers, either in paperback or HC. I would have to assume this is the case because it's a shame for such great work to only see the light of day in electronic format. My kindle doesn't even support color.

Michael Kormarck's reenvisioning of Knife of Dreams is no exception to the trend established by the previous artists. Kormarch has previously done a lot of work depicting scenes and characters from GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire, one of the only series capable of competing with Jordan's masterwork. Irene Gallo comments on a sense of frozen motion and permanent imbalance in the work over in the blogpost and I must say I agree. And that photorealism is quite amazing.

Covering Covers: The Heroes (w/ final summary)

  UK Cover                                                               US Cover

Map: Dave Senior                                                    Artist: Steve Stone

      Axe: Didier Graffet.                                           Design: Lauren Panepinto

Design: Laura Brett                                                                              

Coordination: Gillian Redfearn                                                                          

I have to declare victory for the team over at Gollancz for yet another great cover. The bloody US cover is alright (and much better than the atrocity that was their version of Best Served Cold) but Abercrombie covers have become synonymous with objects placed over a bloody map. It just conveys the tone of looming bloodshed so perfectly, and so much more subtly than the gorefest on the US cover.

Earlier this week, Abercrombie shared the final copy for The Heroes over on his blog:

“They say Black Dow’s killed more men than winter, and clawed his way to the throne of the North up a hill of skulls. The King of the Union, ever a jealous neighbour, is not about to stand smiling by while he claws his way any higher. The orders have been given and the armies are toiling through the northern mud. Thousands of men are converging on a forgotten ring of stones, on a worthless hill, in an unimportant valley, and they’ve brought a lot of sharpened metal with them.

Bremer dan Gorst, disgraced master swordsman, has sworn to reclaim his stolen honour on the battlefield. Obsessed with redemption and addicted to violence, he’s far past caring how much blood gets spilled in the attempt. Even if it’s his own.

Prince Calder isn’t interested in honour, and still less in getting himself killed. All he wants is power, and he’ll tell any lie, use any trick, and betray any friend to get it. Just as long as he doesn’t have to fight for it himself.

Curnden Craw, the last honest man in the North, has gained nothing from a life of warfare but swollen knees and frayed nerves. He hardly even cares who wins any more, he just wants to do the right thing. But can he even tell what that is with the world burning down around him?

Over three bloody days of battle, the fate of the North will be decided. But with both sides riddled by intrigues, follies, feuds and petty jealousies, it is unlikely to be the noblest hearts, or even the strongest arms that prevail…

Three men. One battle. No Heroes.”

More Black Dow! Very excited for that. Right now I plan on ordering the UK version for the cover art continuity but as I mentioned yesterday, The Heroes is probably my most anticipated fantasy tome for 2011. I may just defer to whichever method gets me the book faster.

The Heroes will be published by Gollancz in the UK on Jan 20th, 2011. Orbit will publish the US edition two months later in March. I don't think I'll be able to wait.