The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens

I got an advanced copy of The Emerald Atlas in the mail the other day. It's a young adult fantasy novel about three orphans who find a magic book.

My feelings on this novel are somewhat mixed. On the one hand, I enjoyed reading the book. The plot was reasonably exciting and fairly fast paced once it got moving. The premise was bit shaky in spots; in ancient times wizards made three super powerful magical books, any one of which could grant near god-like powers, but somehow their city was destroyed by Alexander the Great, and the books were lost. I know if I had those three books, it would take a lot more than Alexander the Great to stop me.

The main problem with the book is the language. I've read plenty of books written for teens and even children. For many of them, I wouldn't know they were written for younger people if it didn't say so in the book.  This is not one of those books. This is one of those books where the language is dumbed down, sometimes to an almost condescending level.

This isn't a bad book, but it's not all that great either. I might be tempted to pick up the rest of the series, but the author really needs to learn not to talk down to his readers.

Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist

I got a copy of Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Linqvust from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program. I didn't really care much for this book for several reasons. It's not really a bad book. In fact I think it's pretty good, but it's really not for me.

First off, this is being marketed as a horror novel, but isn't really a horror novel at all. Yes there are reanimated corpses, but I tend to be of the opinion that, much like vampires, that doesn't make a horror novel. What horror needs is to be horrifying. This book is not horrifying in any way. The titular undead aren't standard flesh eaters. They don't kill people. They're figures of pity, not terror.

Secondly, I don't much care for the translation. This is an American edition of the book, but the publishers seem to have gone with a British translation. I know what the British words mean, but for an American audience, you'd be better off using a translation geared for Americans.

Thirdly, this book is kind of slow moving. The dead come back. The government hauls them off. Their families fret a bit. Some try to hide the "reliving." Really, there's far to little action.

This is the sort of book that's supposed to make you think, and it does that, but fiction should also be entertaining, and this really wasn't very entertaining at all. I give it three yo-yos.

Horns

I was lucky enough to get a freee review copy if Joe Hill's Horns. I've read Hill's other novel and the short story collection, and enjoyed them, so I was very happy to get a free copy of this. After I read it, I was even happier. This is a great book. It's part horror, part mystery, part tale of revenge, and part part philosophy on morality. It's about a guy named Ig Perrish, who grows a set of horns.

These horns give him some unusual powers. People feel compelled to share their darkest secrets with him. He can make them act out their secret desires. By touching people, he can know their whole story.

Ig soon realizes how useful this would be, because he's a man with a problem. One year ago, his love, Merrin Williams, was brutally raped and murdered. Despite his innocence, Ig was the only suspect. Unfortunately, the physical evidence was destroyed in a lab fire, and Ig was never cleared. Now Ig would have the chance to find out who the killer was.

On the way, Ig learns quite a lot about the nature of good and evil. He develops a philosophy about the place  of the devil in creation. He comes up with a new take on morality. OK, and he kicks some ass, eventually.

Seriously, this is an awesome book. Read it. Read it NOW!

The Gathering Storm

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from The Gathering Storm. I like the Wheel of Time series. I like Brandon Sanderson. However, I tend to be somewhat wary of these "posthumous collaborations," because usually they're only a step or two above fanfic (if that).

In the case of The Gathering Storm, mt worries were unfounded. This is a truly excellent continuation of the series. I think it's actually better than some of the middle of the series novels where Jordan let the plot lag a bit too much. The plot doesn't lag here, and Rand's character actually develops.

My only complaint, is a general complaint with the series: there are too damn many major characters. This means that many of the characters from the past who were interesting seem to either be given less time in the novel (Mat doesn't show up until halfway through) or disappear altogether (Elayne for instance doesn't get anything more than a few mentions). Even so, this is a good book.

The Warded Man

If you like reading fantasy, then you should pick up a copy of The Warded Man, by Peter V. Brett, when it comes out on March 10, 2009. I really think this is the best fantasy novel I've read since George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones.


The Warded Man has everything you need to make an excellent fantasy novel. It has strong characterization with interesting characters. It has an interesting plot. There's solid world building. Most of all, it's an original story.

It's the tale of a young man named Arlen, who witnesses the killing of his mother by demons. These demons arise every night and kill any human or animal they can find that isn't protected by magic wards. Arlen vows to find the ancient fighting wards that allowed men to fight the demons millennia ago.

Seriously, I liked this book. The sequel is definitely on my want list when it comes out.

The Lost City of Z

Wow! The Lost City of Z, by David Gramm, is a very cool book. It's the tale of Col.Percy Fawcett, the last of the great Victorian explorers. In 1925, he set off on his last great journey of discovery, the quest to find the mysterious Amazonian city that he called Z. He, his eldest son, and a third companion set off into the rain forest to search for it and were never seen again. Many other people set off into the rain forest to find the trio, and many of them--100 by the author's estimation--also disappeared without a trace.

Col. Fawcett was a very experienced explorer, and, unlike many of his contemporaries, he made a habit of befriending the Indians he encountered in his travels. He knew how to live off the land, and had an almost legendary immunity to tropical diseases. He was getting old, but even so, he was remarkably fit. His disappearance was very mysterious.

This book is an action filled account of Col. Fawcett's life as an explorer, the events surrounding his disappearance, and the author's own journey into the Amazon to find answers. If I were to make a list of the top ten books I read this year, this book would probably make the list.

For a Few Demons More, by Kim Harrison

For a Few Demons More is book five of the "The Hollows" series. This is the first book in the series that I haven't been able to get in an omnibus edition, but that doesn't mean I don't like it. I thought it was pretty good. (If you're wondering why I haven't reviewd any of the other books, it's because I've stopped reviewing book club omnibuses.)

I love the main characters in these books: Rachel, the gutsy and tough witch; Ivy, the seriously messed up lesbian vampire; and Jenks the fiesty and funny (male) pixie. Plus there's Trent (the Elf crime lord), Big Al (the demon), Kisten (Rachel's vampire boyfriend), and quite a few more. Besides the interesting characters, there's a lot of action, which I always like in my books.

The only problem I have with this book is the plot. It's all over the place. I really think it would be better off if the plot were divided between to books instead of one. I'll give you a synopsis, so maybe you can see what I mean.

A demon named Newt shows up Rachel's home looking for something. Rachel thinks it might be the cursed statue she picked up in the last book (it allows werewolves to turn humans into werewolves). Meanwhile someone is killing werewolves and Rachel gets involved in the investigation. Trent is getting married and Rachel is asked to provide security. At the wedding practice she sees Big Al (another demon), who she is known to have associated with in the past. Al goes on a rampage. The vampire lord Piscary is released from prison to deal with Al. Piscary kidnaps Ivy. Then ther's still more stuff that I won't reveal because it would be a spoiler.

While it is all tied together, I can't help but think the story would be better if the cursed statue/werewolf killer and Big Al/Piscary plotlines were in two seperate books so the could be fleshed out more. Even so, I don't think it was bad, and in fact I think it was a pretty good book.

I give For a Few Demons More four yo-yos.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

If you haven't at least started reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows yet, most likely your not a fan of the series of you're on the space station. I'm going to review it anyway, though.

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the forces of evil are in ascendance. Voldemort's forces can do pretty much whatever they want, and pretty soon the Ministry of Magic is their puppet. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are on a quest to find and destroy the Horcruxes, which ultimately leads to the final battle with Lord Voldemort.

I though this was a very satisfying ending for the series. Most of the plot threads have been tied up. There's lots of good action and some character development. We learn something of the history of Dumbeldore and Snape. We learn what the heck a "Deathly Hallow" is. We find out who dies, and who Hermione hooks up with. We even get to see some of the less pleasant characters in a new light.

The only thing I didn't like was the epilogue. It's set (I believe) nineteen years after the main action, and shows some of the characters sending their children to Hogwarts. I won't get into details (to avoid spoiling it), but it didn't really add much to the story and was boring.

Despite that, this was a great book. I give Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows a full five yo-yos.

Blood & rust, by S. A. Swiniarski

Blood and Rust is a nice little omnibus. It contains two vampire dective stories. The first one, Raven, is about a man who is trying to figure out how he was killed and turned into a vampire. The second, The Flesh, the Blood, and the Fire, is about the hunt for the Cleveland Torso Killer.

I thought these books were great. Both of the stories feature vampiric antiheroes, but both avoid all that vampire sex appeal stuff. The vampires are still all to human, though some of them are monsters.

Anyway, I give Blood and Rust five yo-yos, and I'll have to look for some more of his stuff.

Widdershins, by Charles de Lint

I'll admit that I'm a big fan of de Lint's work, especially the Newford stories, and especially especially ones with Jilly Coppercorn in them. So naturally--seeing as how this is a Jilly Coppercorn book--I loved this one.

This is the story of how Jill and Geordie finally get together (and how Jilly is finally healed from the tragic events of The Onion Girl and her own screwed up childhood). It's also a story about responsibility--almost all of the characters have something to learn about taking responsibilty for what they do and about not taking responsibility for what is done to them.

Besides that, it's also exciting. There's a war shaping up between the native Animal People and the Fairies. Unfortunately, this brings up the only problem I have with the book and much of de Lint's recent works. It's not a major problem, but I'll still mention it anyway. He has a need to constantly bring out the "big guns." Lately a lot of the action has focused on the super powerful spirit being like the Animal People and fairies, especially the uber powerful ones like Raven and the Crow Girls. It's not really a bad thing, but if you want a story where a person struggles against adversity, it's probably more realistic if they on't have a bunch of god-like beings as friends.

Still, this is a great book. I give Widdershins a full five yo-yos.

Thriller, edited by James Patterson

The main reason I bought the Thriller anthology is because it contains a Repairman Jack short story. As a rule, I don't read a lot of books that would be classified as a thriller. Still, I largely enjoyed this collection.

I won't get into detail on each story, but I will point out some of the high- (and low-)points. I like F. Paul Wilson's "Interlude at Duane's," but then I like most of his Repairman Jack stories. J. A. Konrath's "Epitaph," was pretty damn good, too. I like Heather Graham's "The Face in the Window," because it was suspenseful.There were some vaguely supernatural elements in David Dun's "Spirit Walker," which makes it border-line fantasy. I really liked Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child's "Gone Fishing." The only story I didn't like so much was Dennis Lynds' "Success of Mission," and even that wasn't bad; it just felt out of place, because it was written in the sixties and the other stories were written specifically for this anthology.

Over all, I highly recommend this book. I give Thriller four yo-yos.

Politics of the Imagination, by Colin Bennett

I'm really not sure what to say about Politics of the Imagination: The Life, Work and Ideas of Charles Fort. Despite its title, it's not really a biography of Charles Fort. It's more of an analysis of his ideas and their place in modern society, especially in relation to how science and the moder, consumer culture are trying to destroy imagination (or something). To be honest, I'm not entirely certain that I grasped the book. It kind of confused me, so, despite the fact that I liked it, I'm not actually going to rate it. I'll just say that it was certainly enlightening.

Stolen, by Kelly Armstrong

I decided to put off reading the POD book for the time being. I started reading the first chapter, but the writing style put me off. Seriously people, if you're writing a series and you want to include back story in volume two, put it in a prologue, so people can skip over it.

Anyway, the latest book I read is Stolen by Kelly Armstrong. It's volume two of the "Women of the Otherworld" series. As with volume one, it focuses on Elena, the only female werewolf.

In this book, Elena is kidnapped by a billionaire, who is keeping supernaturals prisoner so his pet scientist can study them. The rich dude is also a bit of a psycho and like to hunt and kill the supernaturals for sport.

It's a good book. I like the characters. I like the writing. I love the action. It's a good book, but I can't think of a lot to say about it.

I give Stolen a full five yo-yos.

Bitten, by Kelly Armstrong

I started off in reading the middle of the Women of the Otherworld series., mainly because Dime Store Magic and Industrial Magic were available in cheap $5 copies. Now I decided to go back and start at the beginning of the series with Bitten . This book tells the story of the only female werewolf. It's also full of action, which I always like.

Elena, the female werewolf, is a member of the Pack, which is sort of the governing body of werewolves. Non-Pack members are called mutts, and are looked down on by the Pack. In this book, one of the mutts shows up in the Pack's territory and starts killing people. Elena, and the rest of the Pack, have to track him down and kill him.

There's quite a bit more to the story too. We get to see Elena trying to fit in to the human world, and not really succeeding as well as she wishes. We also get to see her struggling to finally come to terms with her lycanthropy, and to figure out which man she really loves.

These are great books and are highly recommended. I give Bitten a full five yo-yos. Up next, I'll hopefully get around to reading that POD I got a review copy of, but I might end up reading the seqal to Bitten.

The Black Tea Experiments, by Ray Atkinson

I love getting things for free. So, when a publicist offered too send me review copies of two books, I jumped at the chance. Once I got the books, there were some warning signs that the quality might not be too high. One of the books was obviously POD book, and the other (which I'm reviewing today) was published by a "publisher" who's on Writer Beware's "Two Thumbs Down" publisher's list and is strongly not recommended by Preditor's & Editors.

The Black Tea Experiments calls itself an "airplane book," by which the writer means it's intended to be picked up at an airport bookstore, and is short enough to be read during a single flight. If that's what your looking for, then I would recommend this book. It does have an original plot and interesting characters, which can make it a fun read.

The plot goes like this: there's a Russian mad scientist/mob boss who made a serum that turned some kids into super-geniuses and altered their blood. One of these kids gets murdered on a college campus and the hero's girlfriend is blamed. Somehow the hero's super-dooper telescope managed to catch pictures of the crime. It's fairly interesting.

Unfortunately the book has some major style problems. There is way too much extraneous information. It seems like every character (major & minor) gets his own little backstory or side story, which distracts from the main plot. Then there's the fact that the POV keeps shifting from one character to another with no warning. Hell, it shifts from one character in the main plot to another character's back- or side story with no warning. There are also quit a few typos and word misuses like this one:

Your Honor, the defendant has been discovered on a security camera leaving the library with the decendent...

I suspect the author meant deceased. Also, the dialog is pretty bad in spots.

I can only give The Black Tea Experiments three yo-yos. I hope the POD book is better, but I'm not holding my breath.

Proven Guilty, by Jim Butcher

I've managed to get quite a few books lately, one of which is Proven Guilty, by Jim Butcher. It's the eight Dresden Files Book.

I love the Dresden Files books (the show not so much). Since I've reviewed vols. 1-7 in omnibus editions, I can't think of anything new to say about this one that I haven't said about the others, except that I like the way Dresden's character is developing.

It's a good book. I give Proven Guilty five yo-yos.

Dominic Deegan Volume Two: Ecstasy and Evil, by Michael "Mookie" Terracciano

I got my copy of Dominic Deegan volume two today. I just love Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire

This volume covers chapters 10 & 11. It's a great story, and it has commentary by the author. The only bad thing is "A Brief History of the Strange Life of Szark Sturtz." In his about the author bio, Mookie says that he's quite bad at prose writing, and now I know why. Still, he's great at writing comics. This is well worth picking up from the Seer's Catalog.

I give Dominic Deegan Volume Two a full five yo-yos.

Shadows Linger, by Glen Cook

I read the first Black Company novel a few months back, and liked it enough to get the second one, Shadows Linger. I didn't like this one quite as much. I didn't think it was bad, but I didn't think it was great either.

For one thing, the chapters are too damn short. There are forty nine chapters, and only 319 pages in the book. That works out to an average of 7.5952381 pages per chapter. This is especially annoying because the viewpoint alternated between two characters from chapter to chapter. So every couple of pages it would switch from one character (Croaker) to the other (Shed).

I also didn't really like the characters that much. They came across as a bunch of thugs. The best one was Shed, and he murdered (and maybe worse than murdered) several people.

On the plus side, there was lots of action. It was good enough for me to give the book three and a half yo-yos.

Wizard at Large, by Jim Butcher

Wizard At Large is the third Dresden Files Omnibus put out by the Science Fiction Book Club. It contains Blood Rites and Dead Beat. It is so cool.

Blood Rites is a strange tale involving sex vampires, a porno movie, and a deadly curse. It managed to keep me enthralled. Dead Beat was probably my favorite Dresden novel yet. I just couldn't put the book down. I was up until almost 3 last night reading it. It's got zombies (including a zombie dinosaur), necromancers, a ninja ghoul, a demoness, and other cool stuff. Harry Dresden finally gets some respect from the Whit Council in it, too. I just loved it.

That's why I give this particular omnibus a full five stars.

Industrial Magic, by Kelly Armstrong

Industrial Magic is the sequel to Dime Store Magic, which I just reviewed a few posts back. Like it's predecessor, this is a great book. I will definitely pick up th rest of the books in the Women of the Otherworld Series.

I like the characters. I like the plot. I like the mafia-like Cabals. I like the psychotic killer. I like the mystery elements. I like that I only payed $4.99 for it. What else can I say? Not much really.

So, let's just sum it up by giving Industrial Magic four and a half yo-yos.