"Discarded" by Miranda Suri :: Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week

My Story Recommendation of the Week is for Discarded by my friend Miranda Suri, from the November 2013 issue of the webzine Electric Spec.

In short fiction, it's critical to grab the reader's interest early. In "Discarded," Miranda Suri does that with a superb opening passage:

A dragon lives on Governors Island. He is made out of chair legs, bits of discarded furniture, and afterthoughts. His eyes are the negative space left by splintered pieces of scrollwork from a banister, his scales the sawed-off ends of two-by-fours.

By day he sits on display in an outdoor art installation. Cut grass feathers his legs and his faded paint peels. He drowses in the late summer sun while weekend visitors from New York snap his picture and peer at the little plaque by his feet. It amuses him that they believe he is only a piece of art.

Suri's story was inspired by an actual sculpture on Governors Island (pictured above). In the story "Discarded," the dragon is both a work of art and an artist himself. The dragon watches as a fugitive arrives on Governors Island and contemplates what's missing from his own artwork.

"Discarded" is a beautifully written story, and a thought-provoking commentary on the artistic process, one that doesn't necessarily flatter creative people the way literature typically does. I recommend it highly.

Miranda Suri holds a PhD in Anthropology and has published extensively on her archeological research. Her fiction has appeared previously at Electric Spec and at Every Day Fiction.

"This Quiet Dust" by Karl Bunker :: Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week

I've turned over the next bracket of the Battle of the Books to Amy, which gives me time to do some other posts, starting with a few story recommendations. My first Story Recommendation of the Week in far too long is for "This Quiet Dust" by Karl Bunker, from the January/February 2014 issue of Analog.

One thing I generally find unsatisfying about alien stories (including my own) is that the aliens aren't truly alien. I suspect if we ever do encounter an alien intelligence, it will be so strange that we could easily fail to notice it's alive, let alone sentient. That's exactly what happens in "This Quiet Dust," in which an exploration vessel launched from Earth touches down on an alien planet, inhabited by an intelligence nearly too alien even to recognize.

This is an Analog story, so the tale focuses on how the aliens work, with not a whole lot of time spent on the human characters. But Bunker's eccentric, poetry-quoting main character Henrick is likeable enough, and the way he irritates fellow crewmembers makes for entertaining reading. More importantly, Bunker's aliens are fascinating, and their interactions with Henrick, both onstage and implied offstage, are very nicely handled in such a short piece.

Karl Bunker is a fellow Writers of the Future winner (Vol. 23), and has since appeared in Asimov's, F&SF, and Interzone. When you can sell to each of the top print magazines in the field, you're clearly doing something right. Incidentally, the January/February 2014 issue of Analog is a solid one, containing strong work by my friend Marie DesJardin, Thoraiya Dyer, Christie Yant, Richard A. Lovett, and others. It seems editor Trevor Quachri is doing an able job taking over for Stanley Schmidt.

Battle of the Books, Bracket Six :: Wrap-up

We have completed Bracket Six of the Fantastic Reviews Battle of the Books. There were good matches along the way, involving a number of  books worth reading. Hope you had a good time and heard about about some new books and authors!

Congratulations to Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey (aka Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck), winner of Bracket Six of the Battle of the Books!  Let's give a round of applause for all the participating books!

To see the whole bracket, click here.

All sixteen of these books are now available. Listed below are the featured books, sorted alphabetically by author. Click on the book title links to go that book's most recent book battle review.

Earth Unaware by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston (Tor)
Pazuzu's Girl by Rachel Coles (JournalStone)
Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey (Orbit)
Besieged by Rowena Cory Daniells (Solaris)
Vampire Empire: The Kingmakers by Clay and Susan Griffith (Pyr)
After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress (Tachyon)
Technomancer by B.V. Larson (47North)
Blood of the City by Robin D. Laws (Paizo)
London Eye by Tim Lebbon (Pyr)
False Covenant by Ari Marmell (Pyr)
Be My Enemy by Ian McDonald (Pyr)
No Peace for the Damned by Megan Powell (47North)
The Snow by Ross S. Simon (Damnation)
The 13th Zookeeper by Bernd Struben (Strider Nolan)
The Skybound Sea by Sam Sykes (Pyr)
WorldSoul by Liz Williams (Prime)

Some of these books and authors may be new to you, but after reading Aaron's book descriptions and battle reviews, I hope some of them sparked your interest. Perhaps we introduced you to a few new books. Only one book can win each battle, and only one book can win the bracket, but there were many good books in the competition.

Battle of the Books match-ups are decided based on reading a sample of the book. Most upon reading a mere 25 pages or 50 pages. So if a good book starts slow, in this review format, it may face an uphill battle. These matches are inherently subjective. Battles are decided based on which book the reviewer, Aaron, would rather continue reading.

Stay tuned for Bracket Seven of Battle of the Books. We have another sixteen books lined up for the next competition.  Aaron is taking a break from Battle of the Books.  I, Amy, will be judging and reviewing Bracket Seven. We'll be announcing the new group of contenders soon.

Battle of the Books, Bracket Six, Championship Round :: After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress vs. Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey

We have arrived at the championship of Bracket Six of the Fantastic Reviews Battle of the Books. In one corner we have After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress. In the other corner we have Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey.

After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall: Tachyon trade paperback, April 2012, 183 pages, cover design by Elizabeth Story. After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall won this year's Nebula and Locus Awards for best novella and was nominated for the Hugo. It reached the Battle of the Books championship round by knocking off The Skybound Sea by Sam Sykes, Pazuzu's Girl by Rachel Coles, and Earth Unaware by Orson Scott Card & Aaron Johnston.

After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall is a pre-/post-apocalyptic novel, with scenes alternating between the present day, the very near future as ecocatastrophe strikes, and in a ruined future a generation from now. In the present day, mathematician and new single mother Julie Kahn attempts to determine the pattern behind a series of strange child abductions, while simultaneously becoming alarmed by environmental research she has come across. In the year 2035, the last few surviving humans scratch out a life in an enclosed habitat, using a time machine provided to them by unseen aliens to obtain supplies and reinforcements from the past. In their cramped home, interpersonal tensions are reaching a boiling point, and our main character Pete desperately seeks some avenue of escape.

Caliban's War: Orbit trade paperback, July 2012, 595 pages, cover art by Daniel Dociu. James S.A. Corey is the joint pseudonym of Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck. Caliban's War is the second volume of their Expanse series; the first book, Leviathan Wakes, was a Hugo nominee. Caliban's War got here by defeating Blood of the City by Robin D. Laws, London Eye by Tim Lebbon, and Be My Enemy by Ian McDonald.

In Caliban's War, a bizarre creature has attacked Ganymede. Everyone suspects the creature is related somehow to the alien intelligence that wreaked havoc in Leviathan's Wake before settling on Venus. Jim Holden, a spaceship captain who was a main character of Leviathan's Wake, is sent to Ganymede to investigate, where he joins forces with Prax, a researcher on Ganymede desperate to find his daughter, who was abducted the day of the attack. Meanwhile, Bobbie Draper, a spunky soldier who survived the Ganymede attack, meets up with Chrisjen Avasarala, assistant to the undersecretary of executive administration on Earth, who pretty much runs the whole Earth governmentan from that position.

The Battle: Usually I judge the championship round by reading both books to page 200, and deciding which book I most want to read to the end. We have to modify that for this battle, since After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall is only 183 pages long. Exercising my judge's discretion, I decided to read to page 150 of that one, while still reading to page 200 of Caliban's War. That means I've read more pages of Caliban's War, but a greater percentage of the story of After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall, so hopefully that evens out and makes for a fair contest.

The first thing to be clear about is these are both very strong, wonderfully written stories. They are entertaining and thought-provoking, and I recommend both books. But I have to choose one as our Bracket Six champion. So I'm going to manage to find fault with one of them, but it doesn't change the fact that they are both very fine works.

The Battle of the Books makes for an awfully demanding format. To win a bracket, not only does a book need to be very well written, but it has to succeed in building the reader's interest through multiple sections. You need a good opening 25 pages to win in the first round, then to follow the opening scene up with something interesting through the first 50 pages to win in the second round, and then keep building tension through 100 pages to make it through the semifinals. Finally, to win the championship, the section after page 100 has to continue to develop the story, so that the reader can sense interesting turns and a strong climax to the story on the way.

As much as I'm enjoying After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall, for me the section after page 100 has not done much to build my interest. In the present day, Julie has gone into hiding, believing herself in danger from some conspiracy to conceal the coming ecological catastrophe. She may be right, but I don't much care. We already know the world is going to end in a matter of months, so whatever short-lived conspiracy may exist seems irrelevant to me. In the future, the story has settled into Pete and a former rival foolishly obsessing about finding and killing the alien beings who provided the habitat and time machine that keep them alive. They're obviously in no position to do any real damage, so this also feels a bit pointless. After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall is still a wonderfully done story overall, but the Battle of the Books is about more than whether the story succeeds "overall."

In contrast, between pages 100 and 200, Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck have managed to continue to build interest in the story. For one thing, they paired up their viewpoint characters in a way that really works, at least for me. I wasn't especially interested in Prax's search for his daughter, but it intrigued me when Prax and Holden met up, and now I want to see where their joint investigation will lead them. Similarly, Bobbie is a great character but I wasn't sure what role she would play in the main narrative. But now that she has gotten together with Avasarala, we can see that she will continue to be in the middle of the action, which makes me want to keep reading.

The authors include plenty of action, but vary it nicely. For instance, Holden and Prax get into a gun battle in one scene, but in another scene they avoid a gun battle by a clever impromptu negotiation. And the characters continue to develop in interesting ways, particularly some of the side characters. For example, Holden's crew member Amos had previously come across as easy-going, but between pages 100 and 200 of Caliban's War we get more glimpses of his complete personality, notably some bottled-up rage that comes to the surface unexpectedly.

Even though I really like After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall, after 150 pages it wouldn't be quite so difficult to put down as it would have been after 25 pages or 50 or 100. Whereas after 200 pages, I want to keep reading Caliban's War more than ever.

THE WINNER: Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey

Caliban's War wins Bracket Six of the Fantastic Reviews Battle of the Books. Congratulations to Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, who join Elizabeth Bear, James Renner, Paolo Bacigalupi, Ian Tregillis, and Keith Brooke as Battle of the Books champions.

I'll now hand the Battle of the Books over to Amy to judge Bracket Number Seven. Stay tuned for a whole new set of battles to come!

Battle of the Books, Bracket Six, Second Semifinal :: Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey vs. Be My Enemy by Ian McDonald

Our second semifinal in Bracket Six of the Fantastic Reviews Battle of the Books features Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey going against Be My Enemy by Ian McDonald. The book I (Aaron) most want to continue reading after 100 pages will reach the championship round.

Caliban's War: Orbit trade paperback, July 2012, 595 pages, cover art by Daniel Dociu. Caliban's War reached the Final Four by defeating Blood of the City by Robin D. Laws in the first round and London Eye by Tim Lebbon in the second round. Caliban's War is the second volume of James S.A. Corey's series The Expanse, following the Hugo-nominated Leviathan Wakes. James S.A. Corey is the joint pseudonym of Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck.

Caliban's War began with a bizarre creature attacking Earth and Mars forces on Ganymede. The creature is surely related somehow to the alien intelligence encountered in Leviathan's Wake. The opening 100 pages feature Jim Holden, the spaceship captain who was one of the main characters of Leviathan's Wake and who has been sent to Ganymede to investigate, and three new viewpoint characters: Bobbie Draper, a spunky soldier who survived the Ganymede attack; Chrisjen Avasarala, assistant to the undersecretary of executive administration on Earth, but actually pretty much the driving force behind the entire Earth government; and Prax, a researcher on Ganymede, desperately trying to find his daughter, who was abducted the day of the attack.

Be My Enemy: Pyr hardcover, September 2012, 263 pages, cover art by John Picacio. Be My Enemy reached the Final Four by defeating Besieged by Rowena Cory Daniells in the first round and No Peace for the Damned by Megan Powell in the second round. Be My Enemy is the second volume in Ian McDonald's Everness young adult series, after Planesrunner.

The two main characters of Be My Enemy are teenager Everett Singh and teenager Everett Singh. The two Everetts are from different alternate universes. One Everett is a crewmember of the airship Everness. In the opening 100 pages he works furiously to help the Everness escape an attack on a frozen alternate Earth. Meanwhile, the other Everett (Everett M) has been modified by a strange alien race, adapted into the ultimate soldier. Both Everetts are converging on airship-Everett's version of Earth, hoping to find Everett's father, who was a key figure in discovering the means to travel between alternate universes.

The Battle: Through 100 pages, I am enjoying the hell out of both these books. They both feature strong main characters, amusing side characters, interesting and colorful settings, and absorbing action. I remain very impressed with Abraham and Franck as a writing team, while Ian McDonald does YA far better than I might have guessed. Caliban's War has a slight advantage in that I've read the previous book, but so far Be My Enemy stands alone well——althought to McDonald's credit, it's made me very interested in going back and reading Planesrunner.

Still, the rules of the Battle of the Books require me to choose one book to continue reading. So I have to try to find some bases for preferring one, even though I have no complaints at all as to either novel. So let's see . . .

I love the dialogue in Caliban's War. Many of the characters are clever and witty, yet they all speak with distinctive voices. For example, there's a great scene in the second 50 pages of Caliban's War in which the authorities inspect Holden's ship. Because Holden is a bit of a celebrity, he tries to blend in as a crew member while his first mate Naomi poses as the captain. To Holden's astonishment, his mild-mannered engineer Amos suddently starts antagonizing the inspecting marines, asking whether the smooth crotches on the front of their spacesuits are anatomically correct. After the inspection, Holden confronts Amos:

"What. The. Fuck," he said through gritted teeth, "was that all about?"

"What?" Naomi said.

"Amos here did just about everything he could to piss the marines off while you were gone. I'm surprised they didn't shoot him, and then me half a second later."

Amos glanced down at Holden's hand, still gripping his arm, but made no move to pull free.

"Cap, you're a good guy, but you'd be a shitty smuggler."

"What?" Naomi said again.

"The captain here was so nervous even I started to think he was up to something. So I kept the marines' attention until you got back." . . .

"Shit," Holden said.

"You're a good captain, and you can have my back in a fight anytime. But you're a crap criminal. You just don't know how to act like anyone but yourself."

"Wanna be captain again?" Naomi said. "That job sucks."

There's nothing wrong with the dialogue in Be My Enemy, but I'd especially hate to miss any of the upcoming conversations in Caliban's War.

The characters are also more varied in Caliban's War. I enjoy the contrast between chapters from the point of view of, say, Holden, who is self-confident but not at all arrogant, and Bobbie, who is a nice person and a good soldier but also a bit of a wreck after seeing her team torn to bits on Ganymede. In Be My Enemy, most of the narrative is from the point of view of Everett Singh, albeit two different Everett Singhs, whose personalities are beginning to diverge interestingly. Even though I like what McDonald is doing with the two Everetts, the variety of characterization in Caliban's War makes it a bit harder for me to put down.

Another distinction, which is unfair because it's subjective but there's no point pretending it doesn't exist, is that space opera spanning the solar system appeals to me a bit more than an alternate universe story. If you particularly like alternate universe tales, my guess is you will really enjoy Be My Enemy, but for me Caliban's War is the one I most want to continue reading.

THE WINNER: Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey

Caliban's War advances to the championship round, where it will face After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress.

To see the whole bracket, click here.

Battle of the Books, Bracket Six, First Semifinal :: Earth Unaware by Orson Scott Card & Aaron Johnston vs. After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress

The Fantastic Reviews Battle of the Books returns with the long-anticipated first semifinal in Bracket Six, featuring Earth Unaware by Orson Scott Card & Aaron Johnston going against After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress. The book I (Aaron) most want to continue reading after 100 pages will reach the championship round.

Earth Unaware: Tor hardcover, July 2012, 364 pages, cover art by John Harris. Earth Unaware is the first volume in the First Formic War, a prequel series to the classic novel Ender's Game. Earth Unaware reached the Final Four by defeating The Snow by Ross S. Simon in the first round and False Covenant by Ari Marmell in the second round.

The first 50 pages of Earth Unaware introduced us to three key characters: Victor Delgado, a young engineer mining comets with his clan beyond the orbit of Pluto, who learns of an object decelerating toward the solar system, which he believes to be an alien spacecraft; ambitious businessman Lem Jukes, who determines to steal the comet currently being mined by Victor's clan, in order to test a new "gravity laser"; and Mazer Rackham, a Maori soldier being tested for a very elite fighting force. In the next 50 pages, Victor's clan debates how to respond to the approaching object, Mazer's tests take an alarming turn to torture, and Jukes begins his attack.

After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall: Tachyon trade paperback, April 2012, 183 pages, cover design by Elizabeth Story. After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall won this year's Nebula and Locus Awards and was nominated for the Hugo. It reached the Final Four by defeating The Skybound Sea by Sam Sykes in the first round and Pazuzu's Girl by Rachel Coles in the second round.

The first 50 pages of After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall introduced three parallel timelines: today, mathematician and single mother-to-be Julie Kahn analyzes the pattern behind a series of peculiar child abductions; in the near future, ominous new strains of bacteria are mutating; in the year 2035, the last few surviving humans cling to life in a strange habitat, using a time machine to obtain supplies and reinforcements from the past. In the next 50 pages, the bacteria in the near future become a threat to Earth's plant life, Julie goes into labor, and our viewpoint character in the far-future, Pete, begins to break from the strain of their enclosed lifestyle. He becomes violent and despondent with jealousy and foolishly attempts to run away.

The Battle: Generally, by the time we get to the semifinals, we're choosing between some darn good books. This battle is no exception. Through 100 pages, both these books are entertaining and engaging.

I might have expected Earth Unaware to begin with bass drums and cymbals as the seemingly belligerent "Formics" (come on, we all know they're the Buggers) arrive in our solar system. Instead, the novel starts earlier, introducing us to three interesting viewpoint characters, who have no idea yet that they've arrived at a crucial moment in history (although Victor suspects). All three storylines are well-constructed, with some nice interpersonal conflicts already established. I don't know how much of this is actually written by Orson Scott Card, but it all feels like his style——Aaron Johnston has taken well to Card's tutelage.

Similarly, After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall is an apocalyptic tale, but Nancy Kress is much more concerned with the emotional strain on individual human beings than on explosions and special effects. The present-day and 2035 timelines are very nicely written, with solid characterization. The near-future timeline, which lacks any characters, feels a bit repetitive, but it does build an ominous mood as Julie's timeline begins to converge with it.

Through 100 pages, both these books have proven well worth the reader's time. Both feature interesting storylines and good characters. But there is only one character in either book who is compelling to me. In the year 2035, Pete is fighting hard to survive in a bizarre future, but his thoughts are consumed by feelings of love and jealousy and betrayal that any of us can relate to. He is in love with an older member of their band, but he doesn't get to have her because he is not fertile. His internal struggle leads him outside the survivors' enclosure.

While I'd be happy to continue with either of these semifinalists, Pete is the character I most care about, and so his story is the one I don't want to stop reading.

THE WINNER: After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress

After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall advances to the championship round, where it will face either Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey or Be My Enemy by Ian McDonald.

To see the whole bracket, click here.

Amy's bookshelf :: A Clash of Kings in Russian

This is one of the most unusual books in my collection. The Russian title is битва королей (Battle of Kings). It’s A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin translated into Russian. It's a small sized hardcover, approximately 8" x 5 1/4" x 1 1/4", with 764 pages, published in 2001.

I also own copies of Игра престолов (A Game of Thrones) (you can see that book here), and Буря мечей (A Storm of Swords). They are a matching set of three books.

I can't actually read these books. My dad, during the Cold War in the 1960s, took classes in Russian. He tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to teach me some words and the Cyrillic alphabet. I still have his Russian dictionaries and text books.

Here's the first sentence from the back cover of the book:
Перед вами - величественное шестикнижие <<песнь льда и огня>>.
which translates as:
Before you - a majestic Hexateuch << A Song of Ice and Fire >>.

Battle of the Books, Bracket Six :: Final Four

After some delays, we're finally down to the Final Four in Bracket Six of the Fantastic Reviews Battle of the Books:

Earth Unaware by Orson Scott Card & Aaron Johnston vs. After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress

Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey vs. Be My Enemy by Ian McDonald

We hope you've enjoyed this tournament so far. This sixteen-book bracket, our sixth, contained books from across the genre. There were science fiction, high fantasy, urban fantasy and horror books. Hopefully some sparked your interest. Good books can and do get knocked out of the competition in the first and second rounds due to strong competitors. I know there are books that I (Amy) would like to read.

Stopping reading good books after only 25 or 50 pages can be difficult, and so can judging between two completely different books. The Battle of the Books format allows us to sample and spread the word about many more new books and authors than we otherwise could.

Now only four books remain. All four "seeded" books made it to the Final Four. This is the first time this has happened.

Thanks again to all the authors and publicists sending us great books to consider. If you're an author or publicist, click here for the rules and an address to send your book if you'd like to be included in a future bracket.

We have had a great response to the Battle of the Books format. More brackets are to come!

Battle of the Books, Bracket Six, Second Round :: No Peace for the Damned by Megan Powell vs. Be My Enemy by Ian McDonald

Our last second round match of Bracket Six of the Fantastic Reviews Battle of the Books has No Peace for the Damned by Megan Powell doing battle with Be My Enemy by Ian McDonald. The winner will be the book I (Aaron) most want to continue reading after the first 50 pages.

No Peace for the Damned: 47North trade paperback, July 2012, 252 pages, uncredited cover art. No Peace for the Damned is Megan Powell's debut novel and book one of the Magnolia Kelch urban fantasy series. It reached the second round with a win over The 13th Zookeeper by Bernd Struben.

The opening 25 pages of No Peace for the Damned introduced us to Magnolia Kelch, a young woman with remarkable abilities, including mind-reading and regenerating her body, even after horrible injuries. Magnolia has escaped from her evil and ambitious family and volunteered to join the Network, a secret organization aligned against her family. The second 25 pages give us more flashbacks to Magnolia's mistreatment by her family, all of whom despise her, in part because they fear she will become too powerful to control. Meanwhile, Magnolia is having trouble gaining acceptance by the other members of the Network, most of whom mistrust her motives.

Be My Enemy: Pyr hardcover, September 2012, 263 pages, cover art by John Picacio. Be My Enemy is the second volume in Ian McDonald's Everness young adult series, after Planesrunner, although it is not difficult to follow without having read the earlier book. Be My Enemy got here with a first-round win over Besieged by Rowena Cory Daniells.

Be My Enemy stars two different versions of teenager Everett Singh, from two different alternate universes. One Everett Singh, a crewmember of the airship Everness, is working furiously to try to get the ship out of a frozen wasteland alternate Earth, as a massive warship closes in on them. The other Everett has been modified by a strange alien race, adapted into the ultimate soldier. Both Everetts are intent on finding the airship-Everett's father.

The Battle: One thing I love about the Battle of the Books is it prompts me to sample a whole lot of great stuff that I probably would have missed otherwise. I had never heard of Megan Powell and am not all that intent on finding a new urban fantasy series to read, but so far No Peace for the Damned is most engaging and interesting. Meanwhile, I am certainly familiar with Ian McDonald, one of the leading SF authors working today, but I probably would have been more inclined to read some of his adult books that I've missed, rather than his new YA series. Yet judging from the first 50 pages of Be My Enemy, this series compares favorably with McDonald's best work, which is saying quite a lot.

Through 50 pages, No Peace for the Damned is flowing very smoothly, and Megan Powell has done a marvelous job of generating sympathy for her main character Magnolia Kelch. Magnolia has an impressive array of abilities——mind-reading, telekinesis, becoming invisible——and yet she very much still seems the underdog, because her entire powerful family is aligned against her, while most of the members of the Network are also hostile to her. I am quite interested to see how she settles into the group, and how she combats her delightfully malicious family. There is also a potential romance brewing between Magnolia and one of the other members of the Network, but I'm less interested in that, because Powell has so far given no reason for Magnolia's attraction to the guy other than his looks.

Meanwhile, the opening of Be My Enemy is slam-bang awesome. Both Everett characters are engaging, and the similarities and differences between them are most interesting. McDonald also lets us see enough of the other characters around them to pull us into the story. The characters surrounding the Everett out on the ice are a very likeable group, particularly the captain and her spunky young daughter, who get to star in a terrific aerial battle in the second 25-page section. The characters the other Everett are encountering are a dangerous, perhaps trecherous lot, while the aliens' purposes are enigmatic. The latter Everett has so far retained his own personality through the physical changes he has undergone, but it will be a challenge for him to maintain that as he works alongside this ruthless group.

It's always a test whether a sequel can pull me into the story quickly enough to do well in the Battle of the Books. It's a testimony to Ian McDonald's skills that I'm fully enjoying Be My Enemy, while at the same time anxious to go back and read the prequel Planesrunner. No Peace for the Damned is off to a solid start, but Be My Enemy is the book that already has me fully absorbed in the story.

THE WINNER: Be My Enemy by Ian McDonald

Be My Enemy advances to the semifinals, where it will take on Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey, aka Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck.

To see the whole bracket, click here.

Battle of the Books, Bracket Six, Second Round :: London Eye by Tim Lebbon vs. Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey

Our third match of the second round of Bracket Six of the Fantastic Reviews Battle of the Books features London Eye by Tim Lebbon going against Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey (aka Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck). The winner will be the book I (Aaron) most want to continue reading after the first 50 pages.

London Eye: Pyr hardcover, October 2012, 228 pages, cover art by Steve Stone. London Eye is the first volume of Lebbon's Toxic City YA series. It reached the second round by defeating WorldSoul by Liz Williams in the first round.

In the first 25 pages of London Eye, we learned that two years earlier London was devastated by the release of a powerful biological agent, starting at the London Eye Ferris wheel. The government has quarantined the city, declaring this a terrorist attack, but Jack and Lucy-Anne and our other young characters believe otherwise. They meet Rosemary, a refugee from the city who has the power of healing, who confirms there are survivors in London who have developed other strange abilities. In the second 25 pages, our characters begin an underground trip into London. But to get there, they will have to battle their way past a pack of wild dogs.

Caliban's War: Orbit trade paperback, July 2012, 595 pages, cover art by Daniel Dociu. Caliban's War is the second volume of James S.A. Corey's series The Expanse, after the Hugo-nominated Leviathan Wakes. James S.A. Corey is the joint pseudonym of Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck. They reached the second round of the Battle of the Books with a win over Blood of the City by Robin D. Laws.

The opening pages of Caliban's War showed us a bizarre creature attacking Earth and Mars forces on Ganymede. Readers of Leviathan's Wake have little doubt that the creature is related to the alien intelligence seen in that book. In the second 25 pages, we get to know Bobbie Draper, a spunky soldier and the only survivor of the attack, who will soon be sent on a mission to Earth. Perhaps she will meet Chrisjen Avasarala, who holds the title of assistant to the undersecretary of executive administration on Earth, but it turns out she pretty much runs the whole damn government. The other viewpoint character in this section is Prax, a researcher who right now is just a dad, desperately trying to rescue his daughter from the mayhem on Ganymede.

The Battle: London Eye has a strong opening, with good young characters, some nice atmosphere through their underground passage, and a good action scene involving a fight with wild dogs. The dog scene at first feels like a preliminary, not very closely related to the main narrative, which we expect will involve people in London with strange superpowers. But on reflection, it effectively raises the issue whether our young characters have placed too much trust in Rosemary, the London refugee, for she should have warned them of this danger.

Meanwhile, through 50 pages, Caliban's War is taking names and kicking ass. Daniel Abraham is one of my favorite authors working today, and Ty Franck must be awfully good too, since I can't tell which of them has written which sections of the book. There is a good action scene early on, and here there is no question that the action pertains to what will become a focus of the narrative, the strange presence on Ganymede.

Abraham & Franck also do a masterful job of connecting readers to their characters quickly. Within a few pages, it becomes clear that Avasarala is a hard-ass leader, but also a very likeable person. The scene in which Bobbie Draper wakes from the attack on Ganymede is terrific. Here, for instance, she begins to gain consciousness, in a state of mind that causes us instanty to sympathize with her:

"She's conscious, but just barely," the voice said. It was a deep, mellow male voice. It seemed filled with warmth and concern. Bobbie hoped that the voice would keep talking until she fell back asleep.

A second voice, female and sharp, replied, "Let her rest. Trying to bring her fully awake right now is dangerous."

The kind voice said, "I don't care if it kills her, Doctor. I need to speak to this soldier, and I need to do it now. So you give her whatever you need to give her to make that happen."

Bobbie smiled to herself, not parsing the words the nice voice said, just the kindly, warm tone. It was good to have someone like that to take care of you. She started to fall back asleep, the coming blackness a welcome friend.

When Bobbie wakes up, we see that she's tough as nails. But she's in a situation she can't control, with people she can't trust. I really want to see what happens to her. I also want to see more of Holden, a favorite character from Leviathan Wakes, who has only had one scene through 50 pages, so there is a lot to look forward to here.

I have no criticism of London Eye -- based on the first 50 pages I would recommend it, especially if a YA book with superpowered characters sounds appealing to you. Lebbon just ran into extremely tough opposition with Caliban's War.

THE WINNER: Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey

Caliban's War moves into the semifinals, where it will take on either No Peace for the Damned by Megan Powell or Be My Enemy by Ian McDonald.

To see the whole bracket, click here.

Battle of the Books, Bracket Six, Second Round :: After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress vs. Pazuzu's Girl by Rachel Coles

Apologies for neglecting the Battle of the Books recently; I've been distracted by some turmoil in my private life. (No, I'm not saying what -- this ain't that kind of a blog, eh?) I'll try to pick it up through the end of this bracket, and then Fantastic Reviewers Patty and Amy will be coming to my rescue, judging two of the next three brackets.

With that, we now continue the second round of Bracket Six of the Fantastic Reviews Battle of the Books with the matchup of After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress versus Pazuzu's Girl by Rachel Coles. The winner will be the book I (Aaron) most want to continue reading after the first 50 pages.

After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall: Tachyon trade paperback, April 2012, 183 pages, cover design by Elizabeth Story. After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall is a current nominee for the Hugo Award for Best Novella, and it recently won the Nebula and Locus Awards. It reached the second round by defeating The Skybound Sea by Sam Sykes.

The opening of After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall introduced three parallel timelines. In the present day, mathematician and single mother-to-be Julie Kahn analyzes the pattern behind a series of strange child abductions. In the very near future, new strains of bacteria are mutating. A generation into the future, the last few surviving humans cling to life with a time machine, which they use to obtain supplies and reinforcements from the past. They believe aliens they call the Tesslies have destroyed the world and preserved the survivors for unknown reasons. The second 25 pages focus primarily on the future survivors, including the dynamics between the last survivors of the old days, the few people born in captivity (so to speak) who lived, and the children snatched from the past.

Pazuzu's Girl: JournalStone trade paperback, February 2012, 266 pages, cover art by Philip Renne. Pazuzu's Girl is the first novel by Rachel Coles. It advanced to the second round with a win over Technomancer by B.V. Larson.

The title character of Pazuzu's Girl is Morpho Wilson, living in modern-day suburbia with her father, the Mesopotamian demon Pazuzu. Pazuzu alternates between human form and existing as a plague of locusts, but Morpho has no such supernatural talent. Through 50 pages, we have had multiple hints that Morpho is in danger from her father's former demon lover, who killed Morpho's mother just as Morpho was born. Morpho also faces a more mundane threat from some nasty schoolmates.

The Battle: This was a much closer battle than expected. The Nancy Kress book is currently cleaning up in the awards season, while Pazuzu's Girl is the first novel by an unheralded author, but Rachel Coles held her own nicely.

Pazuzu's Girl features a solid story with some nice touches of humor. I feel that the narrative voice falters at time, and there is a scene of an attempted rape that could have been handled better——for one thing, it's the protagonist being attacked, yet Coles slips into the point of view of a minor character for that scene, which feels like a cop-out. But when Coles hits her stride, the writing is impressive, as in this scene shortly after Morpho's attack, when she uses the bathroom in her prospective boyfriend's house:

The light was burnt out, so she cracked the door and maneuvered by the sliver of hall light. As she was rinsing her hands, she surveyed her pale face and leaped back with a start. Ghostly silver moths fluttered in the mirror in front of her. But there were no moths visible outside the mirror, in the air.

She waved her hand before her reflected image and the moths in the mirror moved aside for the picture of her hand. Then they alighted on the image of her arm and shoulder. She felt a slight tingle where the moths landed. She quickly brushed her sholders and arms in a panic, though there was nothing there. As her trembling hand reached the door, a faint female voice whispered her name, pleading.

"Morpho, you know me."

"How do you know my name?"

"I named you. I am your mother."

The words dropped into a well of silence around Morpho.

After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall is also very nicely written, and Kress varies the narrative voice for her different timelines perfectly. So far I'm particularly enjoying the "after the fall" scenes, which present some interesting group dynamics among the survivors, while simultaneously conveying in simple language a heavy sense of loss. Here, for example, the de facto leader of the survivors, McAllister, tells our viewpoint character Pete that she has named an infant he snatched "Petra" in his honor:

Petra. Despite himself, Pete rolled the name on his tongue, savoring it as once——only once——he'd savored "candy" that Paolo had Grabbed when he'd found himself sent to a store. They'd all had a piece. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, McAllister had called them. Feeling the astounding sweetness dissolve on his tongue, Pete had hated the Tesslies all over again. This, this, this——he might have had a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup every day of his life! A whole Peanut Butter Cup, every day!

He might even have had a woman like McAllister.

I am enjoying both these books through 50 pages, but forced to choose only one to continue, I have to stick with Nancy Kress.

THE WINNER: After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress

After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall advances to the semifinals, where it will take on Earth Unaware by Orson Scott Card & Aaron Johnston.

To see the whole bracket, click here.

Battle of the Books, Bracket Six, Second Round :: False Covenant by Ari Marmell vs. Earth Unaware by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston

We begin the second round of Bracket Six of the Fantastic Reviews Battle of the Books with False Covenant by Ari Marmell going against Earth Unaware by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston. The winner will be the book I (Aaron) most want to continue reading after the first 50 pages.

False Covenant: Pyr hardcover, July 2012, 280 pages, cover art by Jason Chan. False Covenant is the second book in the Widdershins YA series. It reached the second round by defeating Vampire Empire: The Kingmakers by Clay & Susan Griffith.

False Covenant opened with an action scene in which our heroine Widdershins gets caught up in a robbery gone wrong. In the second 25 pages, we learn that Widdershins is returning to her criminal roots in hopes of saving her struggling tavern, the Flippant Witch. Adding to her problems, a mysterious creature is terrorizing the citizens of Davillon at night, and the Finders' Guild orders Widdershins to investigate. Meanwhile, a stranger named Evrard is looking for Widdershins. Before he finds her, the phantom-like creature finds him.

Earth Unaware: Tor hardcover, July 2012, 364 pages, cover art by John Harris. Earth Unaware is the opening volume in the First Formic War series, a prequel to Card's classic novel Ender's Game. It advanced to the second round by defeating The Snow by Ross S. Simon.

The first 25 pages of Earth Unaware consisted of a chapter from the point of view of Victor Delgado, a young engineer mining comets with his clan beyond the orbit of Pluto, who learns of an object decelerating toward the solar system, which may be an alien spacecraft. Now in the second 25 pages, we have a chapter following ambitious business leader Lem Jukes, who plans to steal the comet currently being mined by Victor's clan, to test his company's new "gravity laser." The beginning of chapter three shows some New Zealand soldiers being tested for an elite fighting force, including a young man named Mazer Rackham.

The Battle: Both False Covenant and Earth Unaware are entertaining and engaging through 50 pages.

Starting with False Covenant, Widdershins is a spunky YA protagonist, and the story is moving along briskly so far, making the book easy to read. There are some good hints of who the players in the tale will be, including the enigmatic character Evrard. But it might have behooved Marmell to give us a better sense through 50 pages what's at stake in this story, to make the book harder to put down.

Anyone familiar with Ender's Game has a pretty good idea what's at stake in Earth Unaware, and the early appearance of Mazer Rackham plays that up effectively. But the greatest strength of the book through 50 pages is the interesting and intricate way Card and Johnston present their characters. For example, Lem Jukes is determined to conduct a successful test of the gravity laser, as a stepping stone to wresting control of their corporation from his own father. He confronts the lead researcher Dr. Dublin about the instructions he received from Lem's father about Lem:

"He told me you were going to be the captain of the ship," said Dublin. "He called you 'most capable.'"

A compliment from Father? A sign of the apocalypse. Of course Father was probably just trying to put Dublin at ease about the crew.

"Did he advise you to take any precautions on my account?" asked Lem. "Did he in any way suggest that you were to take care of me? Look out for me? Keep and eye on me?"

Dublin looked confused. "Your father cares for your well-being, Mr. Jukes. You can't fault him for that."

"A yes or no, Dr. Dublin. Did he give you special instructions regarding me?"

Dublin was taken aback. He fumbled, searching for the right words, trying to remember. "He said I was to make sure nothing happened to you."

So there it was. Undercut by Father again.

The paranoia seeping out of this passage makes Lem an intriguingly unlikeable character, which makes me want to keep reading.

THE WINNER: Earth Unaware by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston

Earth Unaware advances to the semifinals, to face either After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress or Pazuzu's Girl by Rachel Coles.

To see the whole bracket, click here.

Battle of the Books, Bracket Six, First Round :: Be My Enemy by Ian McDonald vs. Besieged by Rowena Cory Daniells

The final battle of the first round of Bracket Six of the Battle of the Books features Be My Enemy (Book Two of the Everness Series) by Ian McDonald versus Besieged (Book One of The Outcast Chronicles) by Rowena Cory Daniells. The winner will be the book I (Aaron) most want to continue reading after 25 pages.

Be My Enemy: Pyr hardcover, September 2012, 263 pages, cover art by John Picacio. Be My Enemy is the second volume in Ian McDonald's Everness young adult series, after Planesrunner, although so far it does not require familiarity with the previous book. Ian McDonald is one of the preeminent authors in the field of science fiction today. He has won or been nominated for nearly every award in the field, including winning a Hugo Award for his novelette "The Djinn's Wife," and being nominated for the Best Novel Hugo for River of Gods, Brasyl, and The Dervish House.

The two stars of Be My Enemy are teenager Everett Singh and teenager Everett Singh. The setting is multiple present-day Earths, after discovery of travel between alternate universes. One Everett Singh is aboard the airship Everness, which escaped a battle (presumably at the end of Planesrunner) into a barren, frozen Earth. Using his father's revolutionary discoveries about the multiverse, Everett is working on how to get the Everness out, while worrying about which universe his father has fallen into. Meanwhile, we meet a different Everett in a universe where humans have encountered a strange alien intelligence occupying the dark side of the moon. This Everett's father died in a traffic accident before reaching his breakthrough. Everett is given a mission to go into an alternate universe to find his alternate father's discoveries.

Besieged: Solaris paperback, July 2012, 670 pages, cover art by Clint Langley. Australian Rowena Cory Daniells has written three epic high fantasy trilogies, the T'En Trilogy (beginning with Broken Vows, under the name Cory Daniells), The Chronicles of King Rolen's Kin (beginning with The King's Bastard), and now The Outcast Chonicles, which begin with Besieged. She also writes paranormal mysteries under the name R.C. Daniells.

Besieged opens with the birth of the king's son, which the king is horrified to discover has six fingers on each hand, marking the child as a half-blood. It seems "True-men" humans fear and despise the magical, elf-like T'En, and so shun half-blood children with "wyrd" traits in common with the T'En. The king is inclined to kill the baby, but our protagonist High Priest Oskane persuades the king to allow him to take the child into exile. The first 25 pages end with a glimpse of a group of T'En warriors, one of whom is in childbirth herself.

The Battle: Through 25 pages, both of these books are written at a very high level, so I will have to try to nit-pick some possible justification to drop either one out of the Battle of the Books.

For Be My Enemy, I got nothin'——the opening pages of this novel are pretty near flawless. In the opening chapter, Everett Singh is hit by a car while running to catch a bus after playing in a soccer game. He wakes in a strange white room. After a few minutes, he realizes where he must be:

The cold rushed into him. The strength drained out of him. His knees buckled. He put out his hands to steady himself against the glass. And his arms and hands opened. Rectangular patches on the backs of his hands lifted up on plastic struts. Long hatches opened on his upper and lower forearms. The back of each first finger joint flipped up. There were things inside. There were things inside . . . moving. Things not his flesh. Things not quite living but not quite machine. Things unfolding and extending and changing shape. He saw dark empty spaces inside him full of aliens, pincers and grippers and manipulators and scanners reaching out of his body.

He screamed.

A little old woman appears and says, "Greetings, Everett M. Singh. It is the eighth day of Christmas and you are on the dark side of the Moon."

That is a bang-up opening chapter. Then we get a strong passage about the other Everett Singh, the one familiar from Planesrunner, who is working hard to get his shipmates out of a frozen alternate Earth. This passage reads smoothly by itself, but also has nice resonances with the first chapter, for example this Everett remembering the good old days when he used to have time to play soccer.

Chapter Three takes us back to the first Everett, who is instructed by government officials to work with "Madam Moon," the aliens' interface for interacting with humans, to find his alternate father's discovery about the multiverse. The officials are quite trusting of these aliens, but since the aliens have dedicated themselves to spreading through the galaxy, skeptical readers must be suspicious of their motives for wanting to better understand the multiverse.

There is a lot going on here, and a lot of reasons to want to keep reading.

The opening of Besieged is also strong, with a memorable initial scene, when King Charald realizes his son is tainted——he literally throws the child across the room. By his contrast with the king's other scheming advisors, High Priest Oskane instantly becomes a likeable character. The prejudices at work here make me interested in what will become of the child.

But forced to try to find something to complain about, I must say the writing in Besieged strikes me as a bit heavy-handed. Several small details did not ring true to me, for example this description: "He paced, his boots sinking into the sandy soil, crushing fallen pine needles; their tangy scent filled the clearing, mingling with the fresh smell of the sea." I have stepped on pine needles a great many times and never had the air suddenly fill with a new tangy scent.

More importantly, I had the same reaction as to important plot points. For instance, the king blames his young bride that their child is a half-blood. Oskane's rival Nitzel determines to take advantage of this by replacing the young queen with his own daughter. Since she is already married, he will have to kill his own son-in-law first. I can believe that he would do that, but it strikes me as entirely out of character for the brash, self-important king to accept his advisor's daughter as a bride, when she is already married and has born another man's children. But the author compels the king to do it, anxious to show how evil Nitzel is.

A few such moments of Daniells pulling her characters' strings a bit too obviously are a small quibble, but enough to decide this Battle of the Books, since I found the opening of Be My Enemy so impressive.

THE WINNER: Be My Enemy by Ian McDonald

Be My Enemy moves to the second round, where it will face No Peace for the Damned by Megan Powell. Incidentally, this completes a strong first-round showing by Pyr's YA hardcover series, which has gone 3-0 so far in Bracket #6.

To see the whole bracket, click here.

Battle of the Books, Bracket Six, First Round :: The 13th Zookeeper by Bernd Struben vs. No Peace for the Damned by Megan Powell

The penultimate match-up of the first round of Bracket Six of the Battle of the Books has The 13th Zookeeper by Bernd Struben taking on No Peace for the Damned by Megan Powell. The winner will be the book I (Aaron) most want to continue reading after 25 pages.

The 13th Zookeeper: Strider Nolan trade paperback, February 2012, 303 pages, cover art by Azim Akberali. Bernd Struben was born in Holland but raised in the United States. The 13th Zookeeper is Struben's second novel after 40 Years (2008). He has also co-edited the anthologies Visions Vol. 1 and Visions Vol. 2, to which he contributed stories.

In The 13th Zookeeper, the planet of Zooearth has been terraformed to resemble prehistoric Earth and populated with Earth fauna, including primitive humans. Twelve zookeepers and a host of automated systems keep watch over the planet. Auren Bilder is a rich slacker, appointed as a zookeeper at his family's behest to save them the embarrassment of his presence in galactic high society. In the opening chapters, Bilder tracks down a poacher on Zooearth, while elsewhere in the galaxy a group of scoundrels discusses the possibilty of stealing valuable resources from Zooearth.

No Peace for the Damned: 47North trade paperback, July 2012, 252 pages, uncredited cover art. No Peace for the Damned is the debut novel of Megan Powell, who previously placed several stories in semipro publications (mostly from 2000-2003) and edited the anthology The Witching Hour (which published one of Nnedi Okorafor's earliest stories). No Peace for the Damned is the first in the Magnolia Kelch urban fantasy series. The sequel, No Love for the Wicked, is due out in August 2013.

The heroine of No Peace for the Damned is Magnolia Kelch, a young woman with extraordinary talents, including the ability to read minds and to regenerate herself even after gruesome injuries. As the book opens, she escapes from her evil and cruel family and volunteers to help the Network, a secret organization combating evil powers in the world, chief among them her family. Not surprisingly, several members of the Network distrust her motives.

The Battle: The Battle of the Books format causes me to sample many books I otherwise would not have opened. Here are two books I would not have read on my own, but I'm glad I gave them a try, for both start stronger than I had any reason to expect.

The 13th Zookeeper is an independent book with a frankly uninspiring premise: the protagonist has to defend a planet-sized zoo against an invasion of thieves. But for all that, the writing is solid through the opening 25 pages. I particularly liked the description of the band of ruffians we suspect will soon set off to Zooearth to do some crimes.

Unfortunately, my appreciation for The 13th Zookeeper is diminished by what I consider serious missteps in how the opening chapters are presented. First, our protagonist Auren Bilder discovers a poacher on Zooearth. Instead of capturing him to serve what, we are told, would be a two-year prison sentence, Auren instead uses the fellow's own poaching weapons against him, murdering the guy brutally and in cold blood. Struben has given readers no reason to believe Auren——who describes himself as lazy and certainly does not come across as an antihero——would do such a vicious thing, and absolutely no reason for us to approve.

Then we have a chapter following Captain Zacharia Thames and his band of ruffians. For most of this chapter the group seemed to be presented as lovable rogues. But then they discuss the possibility of abducting human beings from Zooearth for slave trafficking. So that's contemptible, and at the end of 25 pages I have no characters I can root for, and so not much desire to keep reading.

In contrast, No Peace for the Damned also gives us some very evil antagonists, but it's clear from the outset that they are evil; meanwhile, Magnolia Kelch is a most likeable protagonist. There is a harrowing flashback to some of the horrible treatment she received from her own family, which simultaneously cements our dislike of them and our sympathies for her.

That's not to say all the characters break into simple good-guy/bad-guy categories. Rather, some of the members of the Network are so suspicious of Magnolia that, from her perspective, they can be seen as adversaries. Yet their suspicions are understandable, in light of their own experiences with Magnolia's family. Those suspicions are also a barrier between Magnolia and a potential love interest.

So we have likeable people facing deadly antagonists, even as the good guys are in conflict with each other, through no fault of their own——that's a story I'd like to read more of.

THE WINNER: No Peace for the Damned by Megan Powell

No Peace for the Damned advances to the second round, to take on either Be My Enemy by Ian McDonald or Besieged by Rowena Cory Daniells.

To see the whole bracket, click here.

Battle of the Books, Bracket Six, First Round :: Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey vs. Blood of the City by Robin D. Laws

We continue the first round of Bracket Six of the Battle of the Books with Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey going up against Blood of the City (Pathfinder Tales series) by Robin D. Laws. The winner will be the book I (Aaron) most want to continue reading after 25 pages.

Caliban's War: Orbit trade paperback, July 2012, 595 pages, cover art by Daniel Dociu. Caliban's War is the second volume of James S.A. Corey's series The Expanse, following the Hugo-nominated Leviathan Wakes. James S.A. Corey is the collaborative pseudonym of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. On his own, Daniel Abraham is best known for his fantasy works, including The Long Price Quartet (beginning with A Shadow in Summer) and The Dagger and the Coin series (beginning with The Dragon's Path). He also writes urban fantasy under the name M.L.N. Hanover. Abraham has won the International Horror Guild Award and has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards. Ty Franck's only publication before the Expanse series was a short story in Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show.

Caliban's War begins on Ganymede, where strange forces are at work. Creepy people abduct a young girl whose mother disappeared on Ceres Station——which, readers of the first book in the series recall, was recently attacked by an alien weapon/intelligence/ whathefukwazzit. Then a bizarre creature assaults Earth and Mars troops stationed on Ganymede, potentially ending the tense cease-fire between the two superpowers. We check in with Jim Holden and the crew of the Rocinante, heroes of Levaiathan Wakes, who are told to return to base because "something's happening on Ganymede."

Blood of the City: Paizo paperback, September 2012, 346 pages, cover art by Adam Danger Cook. Blood of the City is a tie-in to the Pathfinder role-playing game. It's the fourth Pathfinder book we've received for the Battle of the Books, and the previous three have made a strong showing, going 2-1 in their opening round matches, with Nightglass by Liane Merciel advancing to the Final Four of Bracket #5. Robin Laws is a successful game designer, who has written multiple RPG tie-in books, including a previous Pathfinder volume, The Worldwound Gambit.

The heroine of Blood of the City is Luma, a young half-elf "cobblestone druid," who can sense things by listening to the "citysong" of her native town of Magnimar. She is part of a band of mercenaries fighting for her wealthy family. As the book opens, they rescue a young nobleman from kidnappers, then clash with a group of "Hellknights," the official peacekeepers in the city.

The Battle: While I have been very impressed with the quality of the Pathfinder books we have seen so far for the Battle of the Books, Blood of the City faces a daunting challenge in this Battle, for Daniel Abraham is one of my favorite authors working today, and I thought Leviathan Wakes was most deserving of its Hugo Award nomination.

Blood of the City takes its best shot by opening with a good action scene. But here is a thing I'm learning doing the Battle of the Books: while a slow opening without much happening can lose readers quickly, so can a fast opening with a lot happening, when the author hasn't given readers any reason to care about it all. As the book begins, Luma and her companions are fighting for their lives, but I don't really know who Luma and her companions are. They are trying to rescue someone, but I don't know who it is (still don't at the end of 25 pages). So the action doesn't have much impact for me.

Caliban's War also opens with action, but does a more effective job of giving me a sense of the people to whom the action is happening and what might be at stake. It helps that I've read the previous book in the series, but even if I hadn't, a passage like this shipboard dialogue would quickly have me caring about the characters involved:

He pulled out his hand terminal and called Naomi.

After several moments, she finally answered, "Uh, hello?"

"The galley doesn't work, where's Amos?"

A pause. "You called me from the galley? While we are on the same ship? The wall panel just one step too far away?"

"The wall panel in the galley doesn't work either. When I said, 'The galley doesn't work,' it wasn't clever hyperbole. It literally means that not one thing in the galley works. . . . Do you have power up there? Are we hurtling out of control and you guys were trying to figure out how to break the news to me?"

Holden could hear tapping from Naomi's end. She hummed to herself as she worked.

"Nope," she said. "Only area without power seems to be the galley. Also, Alex says we're less than an hour from fighting with space pirates. Want to come up to ops and fight pirates?"

"I can't fight pirates without coffee. I'm going to find Amos."

Abraham & Franck make this look easy, but they always leave you wanting to read more.

THE WINNER: Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey

Caliban's War moves into the second round, where it will face London Eye by Tim Lebbon.

To see the whole bracket, click here.

Battle of the Books, Bracket Six, First Round :: London Eye by Tim Lebbon vs. WorldSoul by Liz Williams

Here at the Fantastic Reviews Battle of the Books, we've had a tenday's delay, as I focused on completing a story of my own instead of reading work by accomplished writers. (I'll let you know when the story appears in Asimov's——of course, Sheila Williams will have to buy it first, but gosh, how could she not?)

With that disruption behind us, we enter the bottom half of Bracket Six of the Battle of the Books with London Eye (Toxic City Book One) by Tim Lebbon versus WorldSoul by Liz Williams. The winner will be the book I (Aaron) most want to continue reading after 25 pages.

London Eye: Pyr hardcover, October 2012, 228 pages, cover art by Steve Stone. London Eye is the first volume of Lebbon's Toxic City young adult series. Tim Lebbon is a successful author of horror and fantasy, with some three dozen books to his name (about two dozen novels, a half-dozen collections, and a half-dozen tie-in books). Lebbon has won the Bram Stoker Award and is a four-time British Fantasy Award winner, including for his novel Dusk. He has also been nominated for the World Fantasy Award, among many other honors.

London Eye takes place in England, two years after the release of a devastating biological agent in London, beginning at the London Eye Ferris wheel. The government has declared it a terrorist attack and quarantined the city, but our young characters——particularly Jack and Lucy-Anne, who are boyfriend and girlfriend but starting to drift apart——believe there is more to it, that there are survivors in London who have developed remarkable, strange abilities. By the end of 25 pages, they meet one of those survivors, and Jack learns that his mother, believed lost in the attack, may still be alive in London.

WorldSoul: Prime trade paperback, June 2012, 311 pages, cover art by Oliver Wetter. WorldSoul is a fantasy novel in which the magic involves lots of books. (Another example of this will be in an upcoming bracket of the Battle of the Books, Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines. So we have a new subgenre, which I hereby christen "bookpunk.") By my count, Liz Williams has published fourteen novels and two collections of short fiction. Her work includes multiple varieties of science fiction and fantasy, including the five-volume Inspector Chen series of fantasy/mysteries, beginning with Snake Agent. She has been shortlisted for the Philip K. Dick Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the British SF Award, and others.

The protagonist of WorldSoul is Mercy Fane, a librarian in a strange vast library. The library apparently includes volumes from across space and time; for instance, the prologue shows us that most of the Alexandria Library was not really lost in the fire. In the opening chapters, Mercy selects a weapon and heads into Section C of the library, where something is amiss. Meanwhile, a pair of other magical characters plan incursions into the library.

The Battle: This is a first-round battle between two top-flight British authors.

London Eye is setting up a series about people with superpowers, a subgenre that doesn't much appeal to me. But Lebbon does such a solid job with the opening sequence that he has interested me in the book despite myself.

His teenaged characters are likeable and resourceful but believable. Lebbon establishes the uncertain relationship between Jack and Lucy-Anne nicely. And with an impeccable sense of timing, Lebbon ends his first 25 pages with Jack learning that his mother may yet be alive, setting the stage for our young characters to make an incursion into the derelict city of London, which I would like to see.

Conversely, as a book lover and collector, I was very interested by the book-centric premise of WorldSoul, but the first 25 pages didn't pull me in as much as I hoped.

The problem for me is that Williams is too cryptic through her opening about what's going on here. I know there is a vast library. I know some of the characters can do some sort of magic. That's about all I know after 25 pages. I have no idea so far as to the significance of this library or what's at stake in the story. I've read enough by Liz Williams to be confident the tale will gain more interest as it goes along, but the Battle of the Books tends to punish books that start a bit slowly.

THE WINNER: London Eye by Tim Lebbon

London Eye advances to the second round, to take on either Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey or Blood of the City by Robin D. Laws.

To see the whole bracket, click here.

Battle of the Books, Bracket Six, First Round :: Technomancer by B.V. Larson vs. Pazuzu's Girl by Rachel Coles

The first round of Bracket Six of the Battle of the Books continues with Technomancer by B.V. Larson going against Pazuzu's Girl by Rachel Coles. The winner will be the book I (Aaron) most want to continue reading after 25 pages.

Technomancer: 47North trade paperback, July 2012, 366 pages, uncredited cover art. Technomancer is the first book in a new urban fantasy series starring Quentin Draith. B.V. Larson is a new writer who has managed to release a dozen books in the past three years, mostly self-published——I believe Technomancer and its sequel The Bone Triangle are Larson's only titles so far that are not self-published, part of Amazon's strategy of picking up some of the most successful independent authors for its 47North imprint.

Technomancer begins with Quentin Draith waking in a sanatorium with no memory of who he is or how he got there. He quickly decides that he is a prisoner, that the staff has kept him heavily sedated so as to hold him against his will. The evidence for this is rather flimsy, since he really has suffered severe injuries, but he's confident enough in his conclusion that he promptly beats the crap out of an orderly and holds a nurse at gunpoint to get out. He confronts the person in charge, Dr. Meng, who proves to have magical powers. She teleports him out of the sanatorium, telling him to continue his investigations.

Pazuzu's Girl: JournalStone trade paperback, February 2012, 266 pages, cover art by Philip Renne. Pazuzu's Girl is the self-published first novel of Rachel Coles, who previously published a short story in the anthology What Fears Become, as well as two indie collections of her other short fiction.

Pazuzu's Girl brings the Mesopotamian demon Pazuzu into the present day. The heroine of the story is his daughter Morpho Wilson. Morpho is having a little trouble fitting into high school life. We get an example why when she meets a boy she likes, who is promptly scared witless by a visit from Pazuzu in the form of a plague of locusts. Other problems to emerge in the first 25 pages include a warning from the homeowners' association that said plague of locusts is a covenant violation, and hints that Pazuzu's former demon lover, who killed Morpho's mother when Morpho was an infant, may soon be coming after Morpho as well. Pazuzu fears that he may not be able to protect his daughter.

The Battle: We have two urban fantasies going head-to-head, rendering my mild prejudice against the sub-genre irrelevant.

Technomancer begins with the protagonist waking up with severe amnesia. This is a bit cliché, so Larson needs to give me a reason pretty quickly to stick with the story. Instead he has the protagonist immediately start bashing heads, when it has not been clearly established this was necessary. Indeed, it seems it was not necessary, since it soon turns out Dr. Meng was perfectly happy to release him. We get a glimpse of magic, as Dr. Meng gives Draith the vague instruction to continue his investigations. Unfortunately, this does not give me any reason to continue my reading, since I have no clue what these investigations entail or what may be at stake. No doubt Larson intends to reveal that eventually, but such gradual disclosure of what the book is about tends not to go over well in the Battle of the Books format.

Pazuzu's Girl also eases us into the story gradually, but with some important distinctions. First, Coles has let us know in broad terms what's at stake: Morpho's life is in danger from another demon, perhaps too powerful for Pazuzu to stop. Second, there is some effective humor, such as Pazuzu's warning from the HOA to get all those locusts off his property. Third, and most importantly, Coles does a nice job of interesting us in her characters. Here, for example, Morpho introduces herself to her potential love interest JD while serving detention:

"Morpho. That's a cool name. Like the butterfly. Did your parents name you that or did you change it?"

Morpho sat up straight. He knows what my name means, she thought. No one ever knows what my name means. "My parents. My mother. She was——" Suddenly wistful, she cleared her throat to get control again. But it drew Mr. Johnson's attention.

"JD, Morpho, stop talking and write, or you get another detention added onto the list."

They put their heads down for a few minutes. Then JD's hand slid over to the middle of the aisle with an inked word on his palm. Was?

Morpho nodded. JD nodded back. I'm sorry, he wrote. She smiled and scribbled aimlessly on her page. "Me too," she whispered.

I accused B.V. Larson of cliché, and this dialogue——"My mother's dead." "Oh, sorry."——could also come across as cliché, except Coles turns it into a charming moment by having JD write the words "I'm sorry" on his hand. Little touches like that can be the key to making me want to read further.

THE WINNER: Pazuzu's Girl by Rachel Coles

Pazuzu's Girl advances to the second round, to face After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress.

To see the whole bracket, click here.