Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Book trailer - "Burn Me Deadly" by Alex Bledsoe

One of the titles that caught my attention through the positive reviews received is Alex Bledsoe’s “The Sword-edged Blonde”. This week I ordered a copy of the novel and I should give it a try by the end of the year, but until then I have to admit that, besides the novel reviews, seeing the blurb and the blend of fantasy and detective story I am very curious about “The Sword-edged Blonde”. By the end of the year a second novel in the series will be published, “Burn Me Deadly” and on the Alex Bledsoe’s blog I found an interesting trailer for his book. And here is also a blurb for “Burn Me Deadly” from the publisher’s website:

Above Angelina’s Tavern in down-and-dirty Neceda you’ll find the office of Eddie LaCrosse, a freelance sword jockey who, for twenty-five gold pieces a day, will take on any task short of murder for hire. Eddie’s on his way back from a routine investigation when his horse almost runs down a half-naked blonde in serious trouble. Against his better judgment, he promises to protect the frightened young woman, only to find himself waylaid by unknown assailants and left for dead beside her mutilated body.

Eddie isn’t the kind of guy to just let something like this pass. But who killed Laura Lesperitt? Eddie’s quest for payback leads him to a tangled mystery involving a notorious crime lord, a backwoods dragon cult, royal scandals, and a duplicitous femme fatale who has trouble keeping her clothes on. As bodies pile up, attracting the unwelcome attention of the king’s guards, Eddie must use all his wits if he hopes to survive . . .

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

In the mailbox

Here are the latest arrivals in my mailbox. I've been looking forward for the Pierre Pevel's novel, "The Cardinal's Blades", so this one certainly will be my next reading, as soon as I finish the current one :)

- "The Cardinal's Blades" by Pierre Pevel (through the courtesy of Gollancz);

Paris, 1633. Louis XIII reigns over France . . . and Cardinal Richelieu governs the country. One of the most dangerous and most powerful men in Europe, Richelieu keeps a constant, sharp eye on the enemies of the Crown to avoid their assassination attempts, thwart their spies and avert their warmongering. But he's up against people who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals, even going so far as to forge alliances with France's oldest and deadliest enemies. Spain, and the Court of Dragons.The nobility keep tiny dragonnets as pets; royal couriers ride tame wyverns, and lethal man-shaped scaled dracs ropam the country. But the power rising from the Court of Dragons is anything but mundane; the Black Claw sect draws on dragons as they once were: ancient, terrible, utterly merciless . . . and poised to move against France.
Faced with the growing threat from Spain, Richelieu summons Captain la Fargue, an exceptional swordsman, devoted officer and brilliant leader. If he's to turn aside the Black Claw's schemes, La Fargue and his legenday company of swashbucklers and rogues must be persuaded to once again risk their lives, fortunes and reputations for Richelieu, and for France.
It's the biggest challenge yet for The Cardinal's Blades - and they'll need to be sharp . . .

- "Rage of the Behemoth" edited by Jason M. Waltz (through the courtesy of Rogue Blades Entertainment);

This RotB Anthology contains 21 stories about the biggest, baddest, boldest behemoths ever to roar across the pages of heroic adventure! Over 150,000 words of monstrous mayhem record the ferocious battles that rage between gargantuan creatures of myth and legend and the warriors and wizards who wage war against, beside, and astride them. Behemoths and battles will be presented in four-story sections of five different habitats introduced by the stunning illustrations of John Whitman and headlined by well-known authors Mary Rosenblum, C.L. Werner, Brian Ruckley, Lois Tilton, and – writing together for the final time - Andrew Offutt and Richard K. Lyon.

- "Nyphron Rising" by Michael J. Sullivan (through the courtesy of Robin & Michael Sullivan);

War has come to Melengar. To save her kingdom, Princess Arista runs a desperate gamble when she defies her brother and hires Royce and Hadrian for a dangerous mission.
As the power of the Nyphron Empire grows, so does Royce's suspicion that the wizard Esrahaddon is using the thieves as pawns in his own game. To find the truth, he must unravel the secret of Hadrian's past…what he discovers could change the future for all of Elan.

- "The Folklore of Discworld" by Terry Pratchett & Jacqueline Simpson (through the courtesy of Transworld Books);

Most of us grow up having always known to touch wood or cross our fingers, and what happens when a princess kisses a frog or a boy pulls a sword from a stone, yet sadly some of these things are now beginning to be forgotten. Legends, myths, fairytales: our world is made up of the stories we told ourselves about where we came from and how we got there. It is the same on Discworld, except that beings which on Earth are creatures of the imagination - like vampires, trolls, witches and, possibly, gods - are real, alive and in some cases kicking on the Disc.

- "The Wit & Wisdom of Discworld" by Terry Pratchett (through the courtesy of Transworld Books);

The Wit and Wisdom of Discworld is a collection of the wittiest, pithiest and wisest quotations from this extraordinary universe, dealing one-by-one with each book in the canon. Guaranteed to transport you back to your favourite or forgotten Discworld moments it is the perfect book for die-hard Pratchett fans, as well as anyone coming to the Discworld for the first time.

- "Breaking Point" by John Macken (through the courtesy of Transworld Books).

There is a killer loose on the London Underground. He kills without leaving any forensic trace, and seemingly without motive. Genecrime, the UK’s elite forensic unit, are stretched to the limits trying to find one usable clue.
And there is another problem facing Genecrime. Before he was sacked as head of the unit, Reuben Maitland developed a system to predict latent homicidal behaviour from people’s DNA. Now rogue elements in the police, believing that prevention is better than cure, are using Reuben’s research to hunt down and incite latent psychopaths beyond their breaking point.
Reuben must track down whoever is misusing his technology and stop them before more lives are destroyed. But what he cannot know is that his investigation will lead him directly into the path of the Underground killer.

Thank you all very much!

Monday, October 26, 2009

Cover art - “Dansînd pe Marte” (Dancing on Mars) edited by Michael Haulică

In a market where the cover artwork seems rather neglected comes a new title with one impressive artwork decorating its cover, “Dansînd pe Marte şi alte povestiri fantastice” (Dancing on Mars and other fantastic stories) edited by Michael Haulică. But this not the only praiseworthy thing of this title. The Michael Haulică’s anthology is published by Millennium Press, a small Romanian publishing house, but an admirable one for its work on promoting Romanian speculative fiction authors, and “Dansînd pe Marte” (Dancing on Mars) is no exception. Also the beautiful cover artwork is made by a Romanian artist, Alex Popescu, with whom I had the pleasure to make an interview for my blog. The anthology contains stories written by Mircea Coman, Cătălin Sandu, Liviu Braicu, Roxana Brînceanu, Robert Coller, Ioana Vişan, Aron Biro, Liviu Radu, Mircea Pricăjan, Marian Coman, Cătălin Maxim, Bogdan-Tudor Bucheru, Ana Veronica Mircea, Andrei Gaceff, Ben Ami, Dumitru Cl. Stătescu, Ştefana Czeller, Florin Pîtea and Mioara Musteaţă and although many of these authors are unknown to me too we will discover them together in a review I’ll write when I get a copy of the Michael Haulică’s “Dansîd pe Marte” (Dancing on Mars).

Friday, October 23, 2009

Antoher anthology to look for

As I previously said there are already two appetizing anthologies on my wishing list with two very impressive line-ups in their table of contents. But here comes a third, “Swords and Dark Magic: The New Swords and Sorcery” edited by Lou Anders and Jonathan Strahan and which will be released on June 2010 by Harper Eos, with an equal impressive line-up, announced by the editors Lou Anders and Jonathan Strahan:

- "Introduction: Check Your Dark Lord at the Door" by Lou Anders & Jonathan Strahan
- "Goats of Glory" by Steven Erikson
- "Tides Elba: A Tale of the Black Company" by Glen Cook
- "Bloodsport" by Gene Wolfe
- "The Singing Spear" by James Enge
- "A Wizard of Wiscezan" by C.J. Cherryh
- "A Rich Full Week" by K. J. Parker
- "A Suitable Present for a Sorcerous Puppet" by Garth Nix
- "Red Pearls: An Elric Story" by Michael Moorcock
- "The Deification of Dal Bamore" by Tim Lebbon
- "Dark Times at the Midnight Market" by Robert Silverberg
- "The Undefiled" by Greg Keyes
- "Hew the Tint Master" by Michael Shea
- "In the Stacks" by Scott Lynch
- "Two Lions, A Witch, and the War-Robe" by Tanith Lee
- "The Sea Troll's Daughter" by Caitlin R Kiernan
- "Thieves of Daring" by Bill Willingham
- "The Fool Jobs" by Joe Abercrombie

The anthology will have also a limited edition published by Subterranean Press. I am looking forward to see the cover artworks for the two editions and to grab a copy for myself when the time comes.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Cover art - "Necroscope: The Plague-Bearer" by Brian Lumley

Subterranean Press is one of the publishing houses to look for when it comes to cover artwork, and not only that. And as you can see they’ve done it again, this time with two covers for a new Necroscope novella, “The Plague-Bearer”. There is something I don’t like about this release since the novella will have two different covers, one for the two editions published by Subterranean Press, trade and limited, but there is nothing I can do about it. Still, I can admire both of them, the work of the renowned artist Bob Eggleton and wait for the release of the Brian Lumley’s novella, scheduled for April 2010.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

"Interregnum" by SJA Turney

"Interregnum"
Format: Paperback, 444 pages
Publisher: YouWriteOn.com
Review copy provided through the courtesy of SJA Turney

For twenty years civil war has torn the Empire apart; the Imperial line extinguished as the mad Emperor Quintus burned in his palace, betrayed by his greatest general. Against a background of war, decay, poverty and violence, men who once served in the proud Imperial army now fight as mercenaries, hiring themselves to the greediest lords.
On a hopeless battlefield that same general, now a mercenary captain tortured by the events of his past, stumbles across hope in the form of a young man begging for help. Kiva is forced to face more than his dark past as he struggles to put his life and the very Empire back together. The last scion of the Imperial line will change Kiva forever.

SJA Turney made his debut this year with a historical fiction novel, “Marius’ Mules”, followed shortly by a fantasy novel, “Interregnum”, set in a very similar setting.

The second novel of SJA Turney, “Interregnum”, is set in fantastic world, but one very similar with the Roman Empire. The world of “Interregnum” has politics, military aspects and historical facts that resemble a lot with the scheming for power, the legions and the maddened emperors of the Roman Empire. Also looking over the map at the beginning of the novel, the Turney’s world looks very similar with the map of Europe, a little distorted though. This is the only element, if I am not mistaken, besides the story that will incline the novel towards the fantasy genre. Although I would have liked to see a bit more depth to this world, in terms of customs and religion, I have to admit that I find it to be an interesting setting.

The novel moves around quite a number of characters, shifting from different point of views. Above all I find the most attractive and powerful character to be Kiva, but I can’t honestly say that I grew very familiar with him either. All the characters have their place in the story, but because of the fact that the novel moves often from a point of view to another I think that these characters suffer a bit in their development. They are involved in familiar and predictable plot, but one turned by the author in an interesting one through a series of events and actions that will lead to some unexpected turns. The story benefits also from a lot of very good action scenes and very engaging battle scenes. I really liked these scenes, but I have to say that some of these scenes can be a bit brutal and gory.

Still, I found some of the aspects of “Interregnum” not sitting well with me. I found some of the characters actions inconsistent and misplaced. To give you an example, at the beginning of the novel after a young Quintillian assists at his first very brutal battle scene and recoils from the image of that battle scenes moments later he shots a running man with a bow pretty nonchalantly. Like I said the novel moves around a number of characters, but from these ones only one is a woman, Sathina, and it lacks heavily feminine figures. It is true that it is a military fiction, but I believe that the novel would have benefit from the presence of more feminine characters, be them minor ones and their absence weakens the story greatly.

Overall, I think that SJA Turney’s “Interregnum” would not be suitable for any awards, but it is a relaxing one with a military and action packed story.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

A blog relocation

The wonderful Tia Nevitt who runs the amazing blog Fantasy Debut decided to relocate her blog to a new one, Debuts & Reviews. Not to worry though, all the changes that her blog suffers are for the better and are only made to enrich the content. Here are those changes in Tia’s own words:

What I’m Keeping
- Writer Wednesday. This proved to be a popular feature, so I will continue it here.
- Discovery Showcases. Now open to any genre, and posted sometime on Sunday.


What I’m Changing
- Debut Showcases. These will be posted weekly, and will be more round-ups than full-fledged showcases. I hope to cover a wide variety of genres, not only speculative fiction.
- Debut-focused reviews. I will now review any novel that fits in my areas of interest. I still expect to read a lot of debuts, since I will learn of them through the debut round-ups. As ever, I prefer to be queried, rather than sent unsolicited copies.

What I’m Eliminating
- Can’t think of anything.


What I’m Adding
- More genres. I have my favorites, but I’m not going to limit myself.
- More personality. Expect me to go off-topic more frequently. I enjoy lots of things, not just reading.

As I know Tia I am certain that her new blog will prove as successful as Fantasy Debut so, I recommend a visit to Debuts & Reviews to see more, I already bookmarked it.