Battle of the Books, Bracket Seven, Second Round :: The Apocalypse Codex by Charles Stross vs. Apollo’s Outcasts by Allen Steele

After some delay, due to issues such as stinking rabbits getting in my basement, here's our fourth and last, second round match in Bracket Seven of the Battle of the Books featuring The Apocalypse Codex by Charles Stross going against Apollo’s Outcasts by Allen Steele. The winner will be the book I (Amy) most want to continue reading after 50 pages.

The Apocalypse Codex:  Ace Books hardcover, July 2012, 255 pages, cover art by Mark Fredrickson. Charles Stross is a well-known Scottish science fiction author, who has written around twenty books. The Apocalypse Codex is the fourth book in his Laundry Files series. The Apocalypse Codex reached the second round by defeating Free Radicals by Zeke Teflon.

Persephone Hazard and her assistant Johnny McTavish parachuted into Bavaria at night. They carefully broke into Schloss Neuschwanstein, the castle which inspired Disneyland's Castle, and returned an occult amulet to its rightful place, and removed the forgery from the display.

Bob Howard is a computational demonologist working for an ultra-secret agency of the British government called the Laundry, which defends the realm from occult threats. HR sent Bob to a management training class for the regular civil service with a cover story that made him hugely unpopular. At a bar, Bob meets an older man, Gerald Lockhart, who is a higher up in the Laundry. Bob will be assigned to Lockhart's department for a project.

Lockhart visits the London townhouse of Persephone Hazard, who is an intelligence officer and witch working for him. Lockhart wants Persephone to take Bob on her next suitable excursion. So they can privately discuss a situation that has come up, Persephone fires up a summoning grid, a "pentacle with attitude", opening a circle in another universe.

The Golden Promise Ministries are somehow involved in the situation. Persephone and Johnny go to an arena-sized evangelical revival service led by Pastor Raymond Schiller.

Apollo's Outcasts:  Pyr Books, November 2012, 307 pages, cover illustration by Paul Young. Allen Steele is an American science fiction writer. He's written around 20 novels, including the Coyote series. He has won three Hugo Awards for his short fiction. Apollo's Outcasts reached the second round by defeating Blood Zero Sky by J. Gabriel Gates.

Apollo's Outcasts is set in 2097. Jamey, who is sixteen and physically disabled due to weak bones from Lunar Birth Deficiency Syndrome, and his seventeen year old sister, Melissa, and are awakened after midnight and told to pack an overnight bag for an unexpected and unexplained trip.

Their father, Dr. Stanley Barlowe, stealthily drives Jamey, Melissa and their old sister, Jan, out of the Washington DC area to the space launch facility at Wallops Island. The President is dead in an apparent coup, and Dr. Barlowe fears being arrested for signing an ISC (International Space Consortium) petition. He and two other parents who work for ISC are sending their kids to the Moon to protect them. The other kids are Jamey's best friend, Logan, and Eduardo and Nina Hernandez. At the last minute, a government car arrives with a teenage girl named Hannah. The parents decide that Hannah must go on the shuttle, but there are no more seats. Jan, Jamey's oldest sister, volunteers to stay.

The kids are quickly examined and outfitted. Jamey is put in a padded cocoon to cushion his body during the high-g launch. The countdown is moved up when federal marshals show up. Hannah says they're after her. The shuttle is launched by magnetic catapult and it outruns several chasing jets. The LTV (Lunar Transfer Vehicle), which they're in, is jettisoned. The LTV pilot, Capt. Gordon Rogers (an homage to Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers?), evades an anti-satellite missile, but when the weapon explodes a fragment penetrates the LTV’s hull. The kids race to find and seal the hole before they lose their air.

The Battle:  This match-up features an occult science fiction British spy thriller going up against a YA science fiction book with political intrigue.

After 50 pages of The Apocalypse Codex, we've been introduced to the characters, and they've gotten their assignments to work together. Admittedly, some recap is needed because this is book four in a series. But no immediate, likely supernatural, threat yet been revealed, so the plot hasn't really left the starting gate. Yet the writing is sharp and witty.

On the other hand, Apollo's Outcasts starts fast, with the characters on the run from a threat that becomes very real. There's tension building. But the exact reason why they are threatened, the details of the political conflict, are not yet specified. The former Vice President, and new President, apparently orchestrated a national emergency.

The kids in space in Apollo's Outcasts are a nicely diverse group. Jamey is physically disabled. Eduardo has some sort of mental impairment. The Hernandez kids are Hispanic. Melissa tends to be whiny. Hannah is undoubtedly important politically. Half of the kids are girls. This is looking like a YA space adventure.

In The Apocalypse Codex, Bob is a sarcastic, thirty-something IT guy whose job runs from the boringly mundane to the dangerously weird. In this series, advanced computer science can lead to dark magic. I got a kick out of Bob zoning out during training class and having a song running through his head (four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire; and though the holes were rather small, they had to count them all). Persephone Hazard is a kick-ass woman of many talents, inspired by the British comic strip character Modesty Blaise. I'm curious why they are investigating the American televangelist's church.

For Battle of the Books, I'm not necessarily saying one book is better that the other. I'm picking which book I'd rather continue reading. For this round, I'm judging these books after reading only 50 pages. Both books are good and readable, which made this decision difficult. The battle came down to that I tend to personally enjoy fantasy strangeness over speculative realities.

THE WINNER: The Apocalypse Codex by Charles Stross

The Apocalypse Codex advances to the semifinal round to face Quantum Coin by E.C. Myers.

To see the whole bracket, click here.

Battle of the Books, Bracket Seven, First Round :: Apollo’s Outcasts by Allen Steele vs. Blood Zero Sky by J. Gabriel Gates

Our last first round match of Bracket Seven of the Battle of the Books features Apollo's Outcasts by Allen Steele versus Blood Zero Sky by J. Gabriel Gates. The winner will be the book I (Amy) most want to continue reading after 25 pages.

Apollo's Outcasts: Pyr Books, November 2012, 307 pages, cover illustration by Paul Young. Allen Steele is an American science fiction writer. He's written around 20 novels, including the Coyote series. He has won three Hugo Awards for his short fiction.

Apollo's Outcasts begins near Washington D.C. in 2097. Jamey, who is sixteen and physically disabled, is woken up after midnight by his dad and told to get dressed. He'd rather sleep, but he gets moving with the aid of his "mobil" device. Jamey has weak bones due to Lunar Birth Deficiency Syndrome. His seventeen year old sister, Melissa is awakened by their older sister, Jan. They are told to pack an overnight bag. They are going on an unexpected trip, and are not given any explanation.

Their dad, Dr. Stanley Barlowe, sneaks their van out of their neighborhood. On I-95, he doesn't switch to auto as required. He has replaced the van's traffic control and GPS chips to hide their track. Hovertanks and troop carriers pass them on the highway. Jamey and Melissa are informed that the President is dead, and their dad is going to be arrested for signing an ISC (International Space Consortium) petition.

They drive to the space launch facility at Wallops Island in Virginia, where Jamey meets his best friend, Logan, whose dad is also an ISC senior administrator. Another man is there with his wife and two kids. The parents are sending their kids on a cargo shuttle to the moon, to protect them. When they are about to board, a black government car arrives. The parents talk with the driver. Inside the car is a girl around Jamey's age, who needs to go on the shuttle, even though that means leaving one of other kids behind.

Blood Zero Sky: HCI, October 2012, 371 pages, cover illustration by Joshua Mikel at Sharkguts Design. J. Gabriel Gates has also written a teen horror novel, and is the co-author of the Tracks Series, a YA supernatural trilogy.

Blood Zero Sky is a dystopian novel set in the not-too-distant future. It begins with two peeks of things to come. The first scene features a young woman (probably May) who just shot someone outside N-Corp headquarters. The second scene introduces a group called The Protectorate, ready to do battle for freedom in a second American Revolution.

May Fields is the 25-year-old daughter of the CEO of N-Corp, the company that runs half the world. She works marketing N-Corp products. There are no competing products, but they constantly advertise to make people desire those products, such as on The Jimmy Shaw Hour in Christ. Earlier, May promoted the mandatory IC/Cross interface which requires a black, cross-shaped, cheek implant. The Cross, which is wired into the brain, allows people to control electronic devices with their thoughts, and, apparently, also influences their thinking.

Cities have been renamed as numbered N-Hubs. Almost all people are in debt to the Company. Those whose debt load is too high can be "repossessed" and sent to a Company work camp.

Randal, an old friend of May's, is working with her on a report for the board. Randal is on a neuro-enhacement drug that makes him a genius, but he stutters, can't sleep, and works 21 hours a day. Randal's revenue projections, which they double check together, show something terrifyingly unthinkable, that Company will lose money this year.

The Battle: This match-up features a YA science fiction book with political intrigue versus a dystopian novel with an oppressive ruling corporation.

Apollo's Outcasts begins with a sense of urgency and building tension. It isn't stated why Dr. Barlowe and his fellows at ISC fear being arrested, or what was in the petition they signed. The president's death appears to be part of a plot by the vice president to declare a national emergency.

Jamey is a likable teenage boy character. But Melissa seems to me to be a bit of a teenage girl stereotype. She lives in her own world of clothes and boys. She whines about having to leave home suddenly. Melissa's "pad" is taken away so she can't inform her online friends. Their older sister, Jan, seems relatively bland.

Blood Zero Sky tells of controlling technology and a repressive society. The setting achieves being unsettling. News stories point to the horrors of N-Corp, but most people don't care. It's not hinted yet why, or how, America went this far down this path.

I found it hard to emotionally connect with the protagonist May. She belittles the server at a coffee shop, and seems bothered even by her friend Randal. I have no problem with May apparently being a lesbian. But I would have liked to see more from her point of view. Maybe a tidbit of her back story would have helped to make her a more relatable character.

After 25 pages, both of these books have something to offer. But I'd rather read the book which I think is better written, and seems to be going somewhere faster.

THE WINNER: Apollo's Outcasts by Allen Steele

Apollo's Outcasts advances to the second round to face The Apocalypse Codex by Charles Stross.

To see the whole bracket, click here.