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 :: 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 :: 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, 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.