Sherwood
Smith has been telling the tale of a military genius in her well-constructed
world in which magic is not allowed in war. In the normal course of events
Inda (paper), as a second son, would have stayed home, and
utilized his talents to defend his family’s castle while his older brother
serves the king and inherits. His people have no mages and buy the magical
items they need, but the council of mages have declared them warlike and
has forbidden mages to renew the spells on even basic waste disposal devices.
At the same time the ancient Venn Empire, because of political problems,
has decided to look south to Isca Lerror and their chief mage wants to
break the taboo against war magic. So Inda, along with the other second
sons, is sent to the military academy where he excels. But politics, and
antagonism to the heir to the throne, gets him exiled to sea.
Eventually known as Elgar The Fox (paper) he commands a pirate fleet
dedicated to preying on pirates. The Venn attempt to control the
seas, soon puts him in conflict with them too. Then he discovers that the
Venn intend to invade his country. He is welcome because the king and his
heir have been killed and the king’s second son, now the ruler, want him
to stop the Venn invasion as the King’s Shield (hard from DAW)despite the
fact that he has no training in land war. He manages to stop the Venn army
which then retreats more out of home politics then the battle loss.This
is an intense, fascinating epic and Inda is a memorable character. I’m
really eager for the next tale
I
liked the series so well that I purchased Ms. Smith’s juvenile, Crown
Duel (paper from Firebird) about a young woman coming of age and finding
love. Meliara and her brother have inherited the poor province of Tlanth,
and a greedy king wants to give it to another noble. Hoping that others
will join their uprising, and with an untrained army but a good knowledge
of their mountainous territory, they decide to fight a guerrilla war. Then
Meriara is captured and brought to the capitol city. Then she manages to
escape and is chased across the land until she and her brother find allies.
The second half takes her to court where a new king is being chosen. The
choice is not someone that Meriara likes, but she has to adapt to a court
life alien to her, make friends, and then somehow stop the family of the
last king from retaking the throne. Lots of fun.
Terry Brooks has spent decades writing about Shanara, one of the first Tolkein imitations. The tales take place in a fantasy world of our future and the question has always been how did Shanara form out of our world. He’s been answering it in his latest trilogy, Genesis of Shanara which shows our world collapsing under demon attack. But there is a plan to save a few of Armageddon’s Children (paper). They are helped by two Knights of the world that were introduced in Mr. Brooks excellent modern fantasy series, The Word and the Void which also introduced the destructive demons. And they are joined by The Elves of Cintra (paper) whose city has to be shrunk by magic and carried to the refuge. They are led by a half-magical boy, The Gypsy Morph (hard from Del Rey), surviving by the skin of their teeth, to the high mountains of the Northern Pacific region, to create a refuge while the rest of the world is destroyed. This is a must for fans of the series and a lot of fun.
Now we come to two books marketed as juvenile that are anything but.
Simon
Morden tells a tale taking place seven centuries after the fall of technologic
civilization on Earth. Val at one time raised an army in Russia and stopped
the Caliphate invasion. They he repented of the destruction he had caused
to become a monk. But his monastery stores an indestructible encyclopedia
of The Lost Art (hard from David Pickling Books) and is razed to
the ground, with Val the only survivor. So he sets off on a quest to retrieve
them. At the same time Benzaimr Michael Mahmood arrives from the stars
(where humanity is still advancing) to hunt down his own people who wish
to uplift Earth against the wishes of the council. Dr. Morden has a fun
use technology with magic with magic carpets as well as starships.
His characters from all walks of life, are all fascinating and the medieval
future feels quite real and filled with very ordinary people. Neat.
Peadar
Ó Giolín shows us The Inferior (hard from David Pickling
Books) savages living in an artificial city under a light-providing roof.
The only food available is the meat of intelligent aliens who have to be
hunted down at horrible risk. When one species manages to get itself wiped
out, another appears and has to face the facts of their new, horrible existence.
Stopmouth is a human hunter who falls in love with a woman from the technological
roof who ends up in his tribe when a war in the heavens causes her
flying globe to crash. Fleeing his brother who wants the same woman, they
start a quest through this horrible world to a place where sky meets land
and to a gateway to the roof. But religious exiles from the roof need his
help to survive in this people-eat-people world. Too intense for all but
older teens, but absolutely fascinating.
Joe
Haldeman’s latest starts off reading like a juvenile. Carman’s family is
Marsbound (hard from Ace) when they decide to open the new colony
to families with teen age children. Carmen is nineteen and starting college
via VR. Everything goes fine until she goes out on the martian surface
in a funk, falls down into a chasm and almost dies until rescued by aliens.
The aliens were settled on Mars thousands of years ago, to watch
human development. Nothing quite new her, but Joe Haldeman always tells
a fun tale. His reputation should get this an award nomination.
David Valentine, now in his fifties, has been fighting the alien invaders of E. E. Knight’s Vampire Earth since the Kurian’s conquered the US. Now the Southern Command wants him to enlist and train a company of soldiers to be part of a force to aid a miner’s rebellion in Kentucky. But their leaders are murdered upon arrival and Valentine has to help lead a Fall With Honor (hard from Roc) in a retreat back to the Free Zone to save his troops and himself. This is a harsh future filled with monstrous creatures and requires heroes who couldn’t survive in a civilized world. Great series.
The
late Author C. Clarke and Frederik Pohl who has been writing since Science
fiction was named, have a neat tale about a young man from Sri Lanka who
discovers a short proof of The Last Theorem (hard from Del Rey)of
Fermat and that puts in a place where he can observe the aliens sent to
destroy humanity after the guardians of the galaxy receive our radio signals.
Of course everything somehow works out. Fun but a little improbable.
I
love tales about anti-heroes (like the Saint which I had a nearly complete
collection in my teens) Jon survives by taking oddball jobs. In his first
adventure he ended up owning (or partnering with) an intelligent combat
spaceship, Lobo and thwarted a kidnaping scheme by staying One Jump
Ahead (paper). Now his old con-man buddy, Slanted Jack (hard
from Baen by Mark L. Van Name) wants him to help protect a kid during a
paid interview with the head of an oddball church, the kid is a seer. The
problem is that Jack is wanted by the mob for welshing a bet, the head
of the religion will stop at nothing in getting the kid, the local EC government
wants in because they think gun running is going on, and Jack has skipped
out leaving Jon and Lobo holding the ball. Lots of fun, and a neat scam
on all the ungodly(as the Saint would call them).
Vlad
Taltos is an assassin on the run. In his eleventh adventure,
Jhegaala (hard from Tor)he decides to follow clues to his family origin
to a small town in the human east. No one there, not the merchants guild
that runs the town, the coven of witches that stay in hiding, nor the Count
who owns the paper plant think he doesn’t have ulterior motives and, as
a result, when he finally finds a house owned by people who could have
been his family, they’ve all been murdered. Soon everyone is after him,
including an assassin from the Dragaera empire. Lots of fun if you can
follow everything that’s happening.
Jack
Campbell has his lost fleet working its way home through enemy territory
make a Valiant (paper from Ace) recovery from it’s previous defeat.
But then Captain John “Black Jack” Geary has to deal with mutiny. As usual
Mr. Campbell makes the fleet tactics fascinating, has a neat puzzle about
aliens manipulating the two human empires, and there is a suggestion that
the series is coming closer to a solid ending. Fun and I’m still enjoying
it.
Patricia
Bray is one of the more dependable minor fantasy writers, always telling
a fun tale. The Final Sacrifice (paper from Del Rey which I bought
electronically) concludes the tale of illegal magic which put the soul
of a dying monk into the body of a noble heir to the throne. In the previous
books he became the Emperor when the Empress died and then managed to save
his Empire by coming up with ancient knowledge to aid them in a sea war.
But two souls in one body is killing the body and Josan sneaks away, hoping
to cross the inland sea disguised as a monk and then to find his cure in
the largest library in his world. Politics, pirates, war, and wrecked ships
interfere, until a chance story teller provides the clue. Lots of fun.
Five paranoromal romances this month.
Patricia
Briggs, who moved from will told fantasy to the paranormal romance field
with her fun Mercy Thompson adventures. Cry Wolf (paper from Ace)
set in the same background, is the tale of Anna, a werewolf for three years
and abused by her previous pack. Charles, her new mate (their inner wolves
bond instantly) is the enforcer for a pack in Montana. In the middle of
winter he, still wounded from rescuing Anna, and Anna set off into the
wilds to hunt a rogue werewolf. But there is a devilish witch hiding there
and without help they are doomed. Lots of fun and I’m looking forward to
more adventures.
Jeanne
C. Stein’s latest tale of Anna Strong, a bounty hunter turned vampire has
Anna dealing with the werewolf ex-wife of the vampire who tried to kill
her in the first book. Anna doesn’t want his Legacy (paper from
Ace) but there is magic involved that makes everything worse. At the same
time Gloria, Dave’s ex-girlfriend (Dave being Anna’s partner in the bounty
hunter business) is accused of murdering a business partner of hers. Fun,
but I liked the earlier books better.
Seattle
is a classic place for monsters living in its paved-over Underground
((hard from Roc). So when someone starts murdering the homeless there,
Kat Richardson sends her PI Harper Blaine into the darker corners to find
an ancient Indian monster. Harper can seen into the supernatural grey and
into the undissolved layers of the past to help solve the puzzle. Fun.
In
Laurell K. Hamilton’s Blood Noir (hard from Berkley which I bought
electronically) , Anita Blake decides to help one of her male friends whose
father is dying of cancer. So she goes with Jason to the small North Carolina
town where everyone is so inbred that Jason looks like a twin of Keith,
the son of the Governor of the state. It doesn’t help that the Governor
is a potential Presidential candidate and that his son’s wedding has brought
out the press in full. Adding to the complications is the fact that Keith
has run off with a vampire, and the master of the city who owns this vampire
has sent out a hit team to recapture her. As usual with these later Anita
Blake tales, there is too much sex and not enough action. But I’m still
reading.
Yasmine
Galenorn has a fourth tale of her three half-fae sisters sent as agents
from the Otherworld and who have been cut off because of the war waging
there. It doesn’t help that a demon is trying to open a gate to Earth and
destroy it. The Dragon Wytch (paper from Ace) Camille is telling
the tale and her three boyfriends proving to be a relationship challenge.
Fun, but there is no resolution in sight and Ms. Galenorn’s tendency to
put every known supernatural being in it adds too much complexity.
Finally
for cat mystery fans I was a little late getting to Shirley Rousseau Murphy’s
tale of Cat Deck the Halls (hard from William Morrow which I bought)
in which the talking cats, Joe Grey, Dulcina, and Kit) investigate the
murder of a man newly arrived to Molena Point who is shot under the village
Christmas tree.
Tor has reprinted in paper the first two books of Brandon Sandrson’s excellent series, Mistborn and The Well of Ascension. There is a very good reason why Mr. Sanderson was picked to complete Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series and these books tell why. Rudy Rucker’s tale of Mathematicians in Love (trade from Tor) about students who can modify the real world, has also been reprinted. There is a 40th Anniversary Edition of Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn (Roc Trade) which was made into a movie many years ago. Baen has reprinted in paper the second book of David Weber and Linda Evans’s tale of war between two universe straddling empires linked by gates they didn’t make, Hell Hath no Fury ; and Joel Rosenberg’s Paladins II : Knight Moves about knights with magical blades.
Sheri L. McGathy has an Omnibus collection of four tales (trade from Double Dragon). Martin H. Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes had put together a collection of new tales that take place in the Dimension Next Door (paper from DAW).Eric Flint and Mike Resnick have put together the The Best of Baen’s Universe #2 (trade from Baen). Ben Bova’s funny tales have been collected in Laugh Lines (hard from Baen)
Animated Batman fans will want Batman: Gotham Knight (paper from Ace and novilized by Louise Simonson) based on the movie coming out later this summer.
Philadelphia Science Fiction Society will have its August meeting on Friday the 22nd at 8:00p.m. at International House on the Penn campus in Philadelphia. Hugo-nominated author Michael Flynn will speak. Guests are welcome.