Battle of the 2013 Books, Bracket One, First Round :: Burning Paradise by Robert Charles Wilson vs. Trinity Rising by Elspeth Cooper

This match-up, our sixth, in Bracket One of the Battle of the 2013 Books features Burning Paradise by Robert Charles Wilson going up against Trinity Rising by Elspeth Cooper. The winner will be the book I (Jackie) most want to continue reading after 25 pages.

Burning Paradise:  Tor Books; November 2013; 317 pages; jacket art by Getty Images; jacket design by Base Art Co. Robert Charles Wilson wrote the Hugo Award winning Spin and has won various other awards. He is a prolific science fiction writer.

Burning Paradise takes us to an alternate reality where WWII never happened. Instead, a 1914 Armistice created, so far, 100 years of peace. However, the United States is not a "free" country. Members of a freedom-seeking underground organization, the Correspondence Society, are being shot, killed, and eliminated. They were forced to go underground after the 2007 massacre of the Correspondence Society.

Somehow, some group or government has engineered a pseudo-human called a simulacrum that looks very human unless it gets ripped apart and the inner guts of green goo, smelling like chlorophyll, oozes out.

Cassie, who is 18, and her 12-year-old brother Thomas have lived with their Aunt Ris for 7 years, ever since their parents were killed in the 2007 massacre. The family is part of the Correspondence Society, and the kids have a plan of escape in case they are discovered. One evening when Aunt Ris is out with her boyfriend, Cassie sees a strange sight out the window: a man, who looks like he's headed to their apartment, is hit by a car. Green goo exiting his wounds reveals him as a simulacrum. Cassie immediately wakes up her brother, they grab their pre-packed bags, and they head to another secret location.

Meanwhile, in a remote farmhouse attic, Ethan Iverson, former University Professor, looks at a video screen showing the approach of a stranger, which he knows is a simulacrum. When he opens the door for the stranger, he zaps it with his 300kv shockgun.

Cassie and Thomas make it to 21-year-old Leo Beck's apartment. Beth Vance, his unpleasant girlfriend, is staying with him. Leo is the son of the famous Werner Beck, a higher-up in the Correspondence Society. Cassie tells her story of the gooey simulacrum, and the four of them grab their bags and squeeze into Leo's car. "So where are we going?" asks Beth.

Trinity Rising:  Tor Books; September 2013; 338 pages; cover art uncredited. Trinity Rising is book two in Elspeth Cooper's "The Wild Hunt" series that began with Songs of the Earth. The third book in the projected quartet is The Raven's Shadow.

Trinity Rising begins with magic as Savin steps through a "Veil" that he created in the air. He ends up in a cold room in a castle. He flicks his finger and a fire bursts forth in the fireplace. A sudden shift in the air lets him know he's not alone as he's drawn to a mirror on the dresser. Inside, instead of seeing his reflection, he looks into a writhing void. A voice comes to him from the mirror asking if he has found "it." Savin says no, and that the task has turned complicated. The voice replies that the master grows impatient. Savin talks about the Guardian and an apprentice that he can't "read." The voice warns that unpleasant consequences will occur if Savin doesn't deliver soon.

In a camp that hints of Scottish bagpipes and clans around a campfire, Drwyn lights the funeral pyre of his father Drw, chief of the chiefs. Drwyn has been impatient for his father to die because Drwyn plans to replace him as chief. Drw finally does die while sleeping with Teia, a young 15-year-old girl. At the evening campfire, Drwyn's musings are interrupted by Ytha, an elder "Speaker." She enters his thoughts, saying Drwyn must bed the young Teia in case she got pregnant by his father, so that any future child by the dead chief could be claimed as his. She directs him that the time is right for a speech.

Teia is alone cleaning dishes while the other single females are at the funeral celebration. Teia is grieving the old chief's death, thinking of him as a nice man. Teia needs to gather more water, so she goes to the creek. Looking in the bucket of water she scryes to see the future. Ytha walks up behind her asking, "Are you scrying?" Teia lies and says no. The Speaker Ytha demands that Teia go to Ytha's tent immediately. Ytha wants to prepare Teia for Drwyn's bed.

The Battle:  We have two different types of books to decide between, which is never easy.

The alternate reality, science fiction book Burning Paradise offers a mystery and creates a many questions: Who are the bad guys? Who's behind the creation of the simulacrums? What is the fate of the kids? What's the purpose of the Correspondence Society? There are hints that Leo Beck plays an important role in this society. Various quotes are attributed to him, such as "Beware the attention of strangers." The society also preaches warnings. "In a crisis, always assume the worst." "Park, warn and run." "No telephone calls."

Ethan Iberson, the former professor, stores and protects files and firearms for the society at his farmhouse. He's been isolated for the past seven years. Ethan claims that "one useful device by which a solitary man could keep touch with sanity was a regular schedule, strictly obeyed." That determined his daily routines, which was why he was well prepared before the simulacrum knocked on his front door.

Normally, I’m not a big fan of alternate reality books as much as fantasy or science fiction. However, this book seems more character driven, which works well for me.

Trinity Rising is full of magic and intrigue and cool medieval fantasy settings. Even though this is the second book in the series, I find it easy to follow, without any feelings that previous information is stuck in here and there. The book has a flow that compels me to read further.

Savin seems to be the probable villain in this novel. I'm curious to find out whether or not he's a pawn or strong character. I also want to know more about the elusive Guardians and the apprentice.

My reading ended with the character Teia, and I wanted to turn the page and see what happened next.

This is a very tough decision. After reading 25 pages, I want to continue reading both books. However, for Battle of the Books, I (Jackie) must choose between them. In this case, I plan to delve into an alternate reality!

THE WINNER: Burning Paradise by Robert Charles Wilson

Burning Paradise advances to the second round to take on Shadow People by James Swain.

To see the whole bracket, click here.

Battle of the 2014 Books, Bracket One, First Round :: The Raven's Shadow by Elspeth Cooper vs. Empress of the Sun by Ian McDonald

We begin Bracket One of the Battle of the 2014 Books with The Raven's Shadow by Elspeth Cooper taking on Empress of the Sun by Ian McDonald. The winner will be the book I (Aaron) most want to continue reading after 25 pages.

The Raven's Shadow: Tor hardcover, March 2014, 567 pages, cover art by Dominic Harman. The Raven's Shadow is the third book in the high fantasy series The Wild Hunt, the first published work by British author Elspeth Cooper. The previous volumes were Songs of the Earth and Trinity Rising. Songs of the Earth competed in Amy's Battle of the Books Summer 2012 bracket. This version of The Raven's Shadow was preceded by the Gollancz UK edition, released August of last year.

The primary protagonist of the Wild Hunt series is Gair, a young man blessed or cursed with a connection to a type of magic called the "Song." He's been learning to use his power, but apparently with mixed results.

As The Raven's Shadow opens, Gair is licking his wounds from a battle he barely survived; he believes that a close friend was not so lucky. One suspects Gair will soon be off to seek vengeance, but in the first 25 pages he is too dazed yet to think about that. Meanwhile, other major characters——Masen, an apparently well-intended older magician; Savin, clearly an evil sorcerer; and Ytha, a power-hungry sorceress——are converging on the north, where further conflict looms.

Empress of the Sun: Pyr hardcover, February 2014, 280 pages, cover art by Larry Rostant. Empress of the Sun is the third volume in McDonald's Everness YA series, after Planesrunner and Be My Enemy. Be My Enemy competed in Battle of the Books Bracket Six, where it reached the semifinals before falling to Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey. But I liked it well enough that I ended up finishing it and also reading Planesrunner. Ian McDonald is a science fiction writer from Northern Island who has won the Hugo Award and many other awards and accolades. Because I am a fan of McDonald and enjoyed the first two Everness books, I named Empress of the Sun one of the "seeded" books in Bracket One of the Battle of the 2014 Books.

The Everness series involves travel between alternate universes, with steampunk elements thrown in for fun. Our teenaged protagonist Everett Singh is on the run from the authorities who control the ten known alternate Earths. They want Everett because he possesses the "Infundibulum," a computer program devised by his father, essentially a map of all the nearly infinite (I assume it's "nearly" infinte, because how you could have a map if it's infinite?) alternate Earths out there. Everett doesn't trust those powers, for good reason, so he's keeping the Infundibulum to himself while he searches for his lost father.

As Empress of the Sun opens, Everett has just used the Infundibulum to help his gypsy-like friends escape on their huge airship from an Earth dominated by out-of-control nanotechnology. Two problems. First, the escape didn't come off as well as he hoped, as the airship has promptly crashed on a lush, overgrown version of Earth. Everett feels blamed by his friends, who assume he made a miscalculation. Second, Everett M. Singh, an alternate version of Everett assigned to find the first Everett, followed him to the nanobot world and only managed to get away by promising the nano groupmind, the "Nahn," to help it escape its quarantined universe. He has carried a piece of the nanotechnology to the first Everett's home, where he thinks he has it trapped in a peanut butter jar. Uh huh.

The Battle: This battle features two books that are both third in a series, which would make for a fair contest, except that I've read the first two books in Ian McDonald's series (as well as plenty of his SF for adults), while I've never before read anything by Elspeth Cooper. But the Battle of the Books is nothing if not subjective and arbitrary, so let's proceed . . .

The first few pages of The Raven's Shadow read like fairly routine high fantasy. The characters recite the names of various locations in the north, giving me a sense of unease that the author will feel compelled to take us to each of them in turn. But the fact that the book defies high fantasy convention by not including a map of these places bodes well.

Where my reading glasses started to prick up was the introduction of the sorceress Ytha. Ytha does not come across as a nice person, but perhaps not an evil one either. Rather, she is an ambitious person, whose personality has been shaped by the rules in this realm, a place of ongoing power struggles in which women are not expected to participate. We see her manipulate the thick-skulled chief she ostensibly works for, and then lead a ceremony with seventeen women with magical potential:

Firethorn seared her skin and the force of the binding knocked all the breath from her lungs. She staggered, gasping as heat spread outwards from the hand-print, raced over her skin and lifted every hair on her scalp. It surged into her breasts, sank into her secret places. She was a woman seventeen times over and she knew it in every bone, every fibre, felt it the way the earth felt the quickening of spring. . . .

By the Eldest, this felt good. As good as the first time she'd ever wielded her power, against the fat herdmaster who'd wanted her to suck the juice from his root when she was ten, and laughed at her when she said she'd be a Speaker one day. As good as the day she'd taken the mantle from old Brynagh and, for the first time, saw a man kneel at her feet instead of the other way around. Better. With power like this, she would bow her head to no one.

That's a nicely written passage that makes me interested in this character's story. Through three chapters, however, I'm less interested in the main character Gair, who hasn't yet had the chance to do much of anything.

Turning to Empress of the Sun, it's a good idea at the start of the third book in a series to let readers know that this book won't be just a rehash of the prior books. Ian McDonald accomplishes that by immediately crashing the airship that has been Everett's safe haven into a jungle. Not only does this disrupt the story, putting Everett and his friends in danger and thwarting his plan to find his father, but it has a great impact on Everett emotionally:

Mchynlyth and Captain Anastasia were bent over the hatch. Everett ached with guilt.

"Is there something I can do . . ."

Mchynlyth and Captain Anastasia turned at the same time. The looks on their faces froze him solid. He died . . . there, then, in a clearing in an alien rainforest in a world that didn't make sense, in a parallel universe. Died in his heart. He stepped back.

He had never been hated before. It was an emotion as strong and pure as love, and as rare. It was the opposite of everything love felt, except the passion. He wanted to die.

This is the opening scene of the book, and it simultaneously draws me into the storyline and makes me feel sympathy for Everett. I don't feel any such sympathy for his double Everett M., however, since even for a teenager, helping the Nahn escape its universe is unforgivably irresponsible. It does make for a good story, though, putting not just the entire Earth but nine entire Earths in jeopardy.

The opening pages in the third book of a series are all about quickly offering new readers reasons to become interested while reminding returning readers what they liked about the previous books. In the opening pages of The Raven's Shadow and Empress of the Sun, Elspeth Cooper does that well, and Ian McDonald does it superbly.

THE WINNER: Empress of the Sun by Ian McDonald

Empress of the Sun advances to the second round, to face either The Barrow by Mark Smylie or The Emperor's Blades by Brian Staveley.

To see the whole bracket, click here.

Battle of the Books, Summer 2012, Second Round :: Songs of the Earth by Elspeth Cooper vs. Taft 2012 by Jason Heller

We continue the second round with Songs of the Earth by Elspeth Cooper versus Taft 2012 by Jason Heller. The book I most want to continue reading after 50 pages will move on to the semifinals.

Songs of the Earth: Tor Books hardcover, March 2012, 467 pages, cover illustration by JS Collaboration, Book One of The Wild Hunt. Elspeth Cooper is a UK writer. Songs of the Earth is her first novel.

In the first 25 pages, Gair, a novice Church knight with inborn magical ability, was found guilty of witchcraft. Gair was granted clemency, to the protest of Elder Goran, and sentenced to branding and banishment instead of death. A stranger, an older man named Alderan, helps Gair. Unfortunately, a witchfinder is already on Gair’s trail.

Gair must leave the parish by dusk. Alderan gives Gair back his lost clothes and sword. Gair and Alderan hurry, only to have their horses slowed by traffic near the city gate. Gair gets anxious. Later, in the hills near the parish boundary, the road is blocked by knights who are Goren’s men, and the witchfinder. Gair refuses to be taken. Gair and Alderan manage to outwit and pass through the other men.

Elsewhere, the Gatekeeper Masen learns that the Veil, the boundary between our world and the Hidden Kingdom, is weakening. He captures, using a magical net, a magnificent stag that a came through a Gate when running from a hunter on other side. Masen returns the stag to the Hidden Kingdom where it belongs.

Taft 2012: Quirk Books paperback, June 2012, 249 pages, cover illustration by Doogie Horner. Jason Heller is a culture journalist and author. Taft 2012 is his first novel.

In the first 25 pages, Former President William Howard Taft mysteriously appeared covered in mud at a White House press conference in 2011, almost a hundred years after he went missing. Secret Service agent Kowalczyk shot Taft in the leg. Taft's identity was confirmed by DNA tests and his knowing a secret presidential ID code.

Taft is moved to a secure DC apartment, designated Big Boy One. Agent Kowalczyk commands his security detail. Taft gets annoyed with history Prof. Susan Weschler. Congresswoman Rachel Taft (Ind.-OH) invites her great-grandfather to Thanksgiving dinner. Kowalczyk brings in a (Wii) game console so that Taft can play golf. Taft is recognized and mobbed like a rock star when walking toward the Library of Congress. Next time going out, Kowalczyk makes Taft incognito in T-shirt and baseball cap. Taft shares a table at a deli with an African-American woman.

The Battle: These books are very different in subject and tone. Songs of the Earth is a medieval-like fantasy with a powerful church and outlawed magic. Taft 2012 is a modern-day political satire about a former US President back after apparently hibernating for nearly a hundred years.

In Songs of the Earth, I really liked that magic was termed song and used by the power of will. I’m curious about the Hidden Kingdom, which seems peopled by fey or elves. But, on the other hand, I found it odd that Alderan would decide to ride with Gair, a convicted man, and leave the city. When Gair used his magic, I liked the special effects on Gair, but it didn't much alter the situation.

I liked the readability of Taft 2012. The inclusion of snippets from other media humorously added other points of view. Historical facts about Taft and his comments about our society were inserted interestingly. But not much really happened to advance a plot.

Both books are good in their different ways. I could have continued with either. But after some thought, I decided that I’d rather continue reading about former President Taft.

THE WINNER: TAFT 2012 by Jason Heller

Taft 2012 by Jason Heller will advance to meet The Coldest War by Ian Tregillis in the semifinals.

To see the whole bracket, click here.

Battle of the Books, Summer 2012, First Round :: Songs of the Earth by Elspeth Cooper vs. The Games by Ted Kosmatka

The third matchup of the Summer Bracket of the 2012 Battle of the Books pits Songs of the Earth by Elspeth Cooper against The Games by Ted Kosmatka. Per our contest rules, I have read the first 25 pages of both, and the winner will be the book I most want to continue reading.

Songs of the Earth: Tor Books hardcover, March 2012, 467 pages, cover illustration by JS Collaboration, Book One of The Wild Hunt. Elspeth Cooper is a UK writer. Songs of the Earth, her first novel, was originally published in Great Britain by Gollancz in 2011. The first 25 pages is conveniently exactly two chapters.

Gair, a novice Church knight who has been imprisoned for months, faces judgment from his Order. Alderan surreptitiously watches the proceedings. Gair is found guilty of witchcraft and the punishment is death by burning. But Gair is granted clemency by the Preceptor, to the protest of the Elder Goran, and his sentence is commuted to branding, excommunication, and banishment.

After his hand is branded, Gair was brought to an inn by Alderan. Gair doesn’t know the older man, and reluctantly accepts the needed help he offers. Alderan asks Gair how long he has been able to hear the music. Alderan knows the unspoken ways magic manifests itself in young people. Gair relates some of his own experiences. When Gair complains of an odd headache, Alderan suspects that a witchfinder is already on Gair’s trail.

The Games: Del Rey Books hardcover, March 2012, 356 pages, cover design and illustration by David Stevenson based on a photograph copyright Reichelt R./plainpicture/Corbis. Ted Kosmatka is a US writer. The Games is his first novel. Kosmatka’s short fiction has been nominated for the Nebula Award and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. The first 25 pages covers a prologue and almost all of chapter one.

In the prologue, a boy, Evan Chandler, is tested by doctors and men in suits. A teacher working with Evan was seriously hurt. Evan has neurological abnormalities, an odd mix of gifts and disabilities. Evan is taken away from his mother to apparently be a research subject.

In chapter one, Dr. Silas Williams, head of Olympic Development, attends the laboratory birth of a genetically engineered creature, a future gladiator. The USA has won the last three gold medals awarded in the gladiator completion, a fight to the death event where the only rule is no human DNA. Silas designed the previous winners, but under pressure to win, the commission this time chose a disturbing design by the unseen Evan Chandler. The appearance of the newborn creature shocks even its developers.

The Battle: These are two very different books: a medieval-like high fantasy with witchcraft and a near-future science fiction thriller with genetic engineering. Both are first novels. Both appear to involve questions about the ethics of the book’s fantastic element, although perhaps in differing degrees.

In Songs of the Earth, witchcraft is condemned by the religion of the Goddess. What’s unusual is that the accused witch, Gair, is also quite religious. As many fantasy protagonists, Gair has no family. He’s a likable enough character and seems honorable. Magic is interestingly portrayed as a natural development, at least for a few people, needing to be controlled, instead of something painstakingly learned from arcane books.

The Games seems to be heading towards scientists unwisely creating something monstrous. There’s antagonism and competition between the various scientists and administrators. Genetically designed Teddy pets and renewable marriage contracts make the setting not exactly like today. The writing in The Games is tighter, angrier, but I haven’t yet been pulled emotionally into the story.

It’s hard to say which book will ultimately be more entertaining after reading a mere 25 pages. But I’d rather read more about the witch escaping the witchfinder than about the gladiator beast.

THE WINNER: SONGS OF THE EARTH by Elspeth Cooper

Songs of the Earth will advance to meet either Hunter and Fox by Philippa Ballantine or Taft 2012 by Jason Heller in the second round.

To see the whole bracket, click here.