Battle of the Books, Bracket Seven, First Round :: Guardians of Stone by Anita Clenney vs. River Road by Suzanne Johnson

Our fourth match in the first round of Bracket Seven of the Battle of the Books, the last match in the first half of the bracket, involves Guardians of Stone by Anita Clenney and River Road by Suzanne Johnson. The winner will be the book I (Amy) most want to continue reading after 25 pages.

Guardians of Stone: Montlake Romance, December 2012, 311 pages. Anita Clenney is a paranormal romance author. She has also written the four book Connor Clan series. Guardians of Stone is the first book in Clenney's The Relic Seekers series. The second book in this series, Fountain of Secrets, is also out.

Kendall Morgan has a sixth sense, she can see the history of things. She works for rich relic collector Nathan Larraby. One evening her boss calls and tells her to come immediately to his Virgina estate. There she's surprised to meet Jake Stone, who Nathan has also called in on short notice.

Nathan has a job, for both Kendall and Jake. He's sending them to straight away to Italy in search of an ancient box, which for centuries was guarded by a secret order, containing something powerful. There's urgency because a mysterious, possibly dangerous man is also seeking this box. When Kendall is shown a mere sketch of the box, she has a traumatic vision of blood and bones.

In Italy, Jake and Kendall are booked into a luxury hotel suite, with separate bedrooms. In the elevator, a man looks at Jake and Kendall and does a double take. Kendall sneaks out of their shared room, without telling her bodyguard Jake, to spy on the man. When Jake finds her missing he worries, but eventually he finds Kendall lurking on another floor of the hotel. After overhearing the man from the elevator talking on his cell phone, they are not reassured.

River Road: Tor books, November 2012, 332 pages, cover art by Cliff Nielsen. River Road is the second book in the Sentinels of New Orleans series. The first book in the series, Royal Street, Suzanne Johnson's first novel, was in our Fall 2012 bracket of Battle of the Books. A third book in series, Elysian Fields, is also now available.

River Road is set in New Orleans. After Hurricane Katrina, unbeknownst almost everyone, old gods, historic undead and other preternaturals flooded into New Orleans. The Elders employ wizard sentinel Drusilla Jaco, aka DJ, to handle paranormal problems.

At a hotel in the French Quarter, there's a meeting between Drusilla and the historical undead pirate Jean Lafitte. He saved her life during Hurricane Katrina and now he's requesting her help for a friend. Lafitte wants DJ to try to negotiate a truce between the feuding merpeople clans living near the mouth of the Mississippi. Each clan blames the other for poisoning the waters. Lafitte also wants as repayment a dinner date with her.

DJ drops by the apartment of her co-sentinel, the shapechanger Alex Warin, to inform him of an upcoming meeting, but Alex is out on a date. She encounters Alex's cousin, Jake, a former Marine, who is now, because of Drusilla, a loup-garou, a werewolf. When DJ arrives home, she trips over toilet paper unrolled by the cat.

The Battle: This match-up features a paranormal romance going up against an urban fantasy.

Guardians of Stone is a paranormal romance, with the emphasis on the romance part. Nathan is the handsome, rich guy and Jake the hunky, tough guy. Kendall is described as blonde with "killer" legs. Kendall's breasts get mentioned multiple times in the first 25 pages.

Jake's banter with Kendall, which is occasionally humorous, is often overtly sexual, which I don't think is appropriate for people who have just met, working together on a job. Kendall merely slams a door in Jake's face.

Kendall and Jake are supposedly in Italy, but, in my opinion, there weren’t enough descriptive details to make me believe that they were truly in Italy. In this age of heightened security, it bothered me that the supposed good guys are traveling under fake passports, and Jake brought a gun overseas.

River Road is an urban fantasy full of slang expressions and references to things in New Orleans. French words are sometimes thrown in. For the most part, I found the results to be sassy and fun. But occasionally I think the author went a bit overboard, such as when a DJ admitted, "My face warmed to the shade of a trailer-trash bridesmaid’s dress, one whose color had a name like raging rouge."

I liked that DJ got annoyed with her high heels, and took her shoes off.

This is book two in a series, and I think the author did a good job of incorporating back story elements that probably happened in book one.

It bugged me, somehow, that the historical figure, Jean Lafitte, has the hots for the female protagonist, Drusilla. For me, another case of a historical figure out of their context. But I'm OK with DJ finding the undead Lafitte sexy.

Both of these books contain romance elements, with their female characters admiring "hot males". To be honest, I've never been a reader of romance. So, after 25 pages, I'd rather continue reading the book that contained more fantastic or paranormal elements, which I also found to be more colorfully written.

THE WINNER: River Road by Suzanne Johnson

River Road moves on to the second round, to take on The Doctor and the Rough Rider by Mike Resnick.

To see the whole bracket, click here.

Battle of the Books, Bracket Seven, First Round :: Wolf Hunter by J.L. Benét vs. The Doctor and the Rough Rider by Mike Resnick

Our third battle in the first round of Bracket Seven of the Battle of the Books is Wolf Hunter by J.L. Benét versus The Doctor and the Rough Rider by Mike Resnick. The winner will be the book I (Amy) most want to continue reading after 25 pages.

Wolf Hunter: Belfire Press, December 2012, 199 pages, cover art by Tamar Karataş. Wolf Hunter is Denver horror writer J.L. Benét’s first novel.

During WWII, a group of Nazi scientists under the command of a high ranking SS officer secretly transform Viktor Huelen and a trio of other men into werewolves. The items they use to perform this are an audio device called a Feraliminal Lycanthropizer, a pungent all-body salve, and a wolf-hide girdle with a pentagram of iron rivets.

Huelen tries hard but is unable to control the werewolf he becomes. In the first test, Huelen helps kill the weakest member of their werewolf pack. Afterward, Huelen is thrown into a dungeon-like cell where he is repeatedly given drugged raw meat and experimented upon. In another test, two men are released in the forest and Huelen is told which one to hunt. The beast inside Huelen tracks the wrong man and kills him.

A group of armed SS soldiers arrive and they escort everyone outside the castle. Apparently the werewolf experiment has been terminated.

The Doctor and the Rough Rider: Pyr Books, December 2012, 304 pages, cover art and interior illustrations by J. Seamas Gallagher. Mike Resnick is the author of over seventy novels, and over two-hundred and fifty stories. He has won five Hugo Awards for his short fiction. He has also edited over forty anthologies. The Doctor and the Rough Rider is Resnick’s third book in his ongoing A Weird West Tale series.

Doc Holliday is a card dealer at a saloon in Leadville. Two young men, seeking to make a reputation for themselves, confront Holliday supposedly over their friends’ deaths at the O.K. Corral. Later they threaten Holliday's life and he shoots them in self-defense. The Sheriff arrests Holliday and throws him in jail.

Geronimo visits Holliday in jail in the middle of the night. In this world, Geronimo is a shape-shifting magic man. The United States is prevented from expanding west of the Mississippi by an Indian barrier spell. Geronimo is willing to negotiate an end to the spell with only one man: Theodore Roosevelt. Bat Masterson knows Roosevelt. Geronimo magics Holliday and a clerk to the telegraph office in order for Holliday to send a telegram to Masterson telling him that it's essential to bring Roosevelt to Tombstone as quickly as possible.

Bat Masterson arrives in Medora in the Dakota territory seeking out Theodore Roosevelt at his ranch.

The Battle:This match-up features a werewolf horror book going up against a steampunk weird west fantasy. These books are very different in tone. So far, Wolf Hunter is dark and bloody, and The Doctor and the Rough Rider is a lightweight, sometimes humorous, adventure.

In Wolf Hunter, I liked that there were codified items and a pseudo-scientific method used to make werewolves. I found it interesting that the Lycanthropiser machine utilized Latin chants and made Huelen's mind feel "floaty".

Huelen seemed like a decent guy, but he had little backstory. He merely reacted to the things happening to him. I wondered why Huelen was chosen for this werewolf experiment.

There were a couple of instances of sexual content that I felt were gratuitous. In my opinion, these could have been dialed back a notch.

The Doctor and the Rough Rider uses historical figures as main characters, instead of as supporting characters, in an unreal fantasy setting. I'm not sure that I’m totally on board with doing this. I feel it’s using these people out of their context. This being book three in the series probably didn’t help the issue. Yet The Doctor and the Rough Rider is easy to read and the dialogue is good.

Resnick wrote that the day in Leadville was as hot as Tombstone (and hotter than hell), which I found difficult to believe. According to Wikipedia, the all-time record high temperature in Leadville is 85 degrees, not exactly sweltering.

I liked the illustration of the steampunk gun at the head of chapters, and the talking prairie dog was cute.

After reading 25 pages of each of these books, I found this to be a fairly close match. Both of these books are potentially interesting, in their different ways. But for my pick, I’ll go with steampunk western.

THE WINNER: The Doctor and the Rough Rider by Mike Resnick

The Doctor and the Rough Rider moves into the second round, to take on either Guardians of Stone by Anita Clenney or River Road by Suzanne Johnson.

To see the whole bracket, click here.

Battle of the Books, Bracket Seven, First Round :: Beautiful Monster by Jared S. Anderson & Mimi A. Williams vs. The Rise of Ransom City by Felix Gilman

The second match-up in the first round of Bracket Seven of the Battle of the Books features Beautiful Monster by Jared S. Anderson & Mimi A. Williams going against The Rise of Ransom City by Felix Gilman. The winner will be the book I (Amy) most want to continue reading after 25 pages.

Beautiful Monster: Damnation Books, August 2012, 185 pages, cover art by Dawné Dominique. Beautiful Monster is Jared S. Anderson's first published novel. Mimi A. Williams is a pen name of children's author Kim Williams Justesen.

Sterling Bronson is good looking, and he knows it. He's also rich. At the gym he's been watching a woman for weeks. He corners her to ask her out, acting like Mr. Nice Guy. But, since this is told in first person, we know his snide thoughts about her. The woman, Melanie, gives Sterling her phone number. They agree to meet the next evening at a restaurant for dinner and drinks. Afterwards, Melanie unwisely follows Sterling to his home, where Sterling seduces and kills her.

Brenna Carlson is a student taking classes to become a social worker. She works at a clinic with kids. Brenna chats with her roommate Courtney. Brenna is pondering if her boyfriend Trey is "the one". Brenna has been waiting until it feels right to go all the way.

The chapters of Beautiful Monster alternate point of view between Sterling and Brenna.

The Rise of Ransom City: Tor Books, November 2012, 366 pages. The Rise of Ransom City is Felix Gilman's fourth novel, and is a loose sequel to The Half-Made World, which I have read.

The Rise of Ransom City is the autobiography of the once famous, or notorious, Mr. Harry Ransom. In the forward, the editor, fictional newspaperman Elmer Merrial Carson, states that it took him years to track down parts of the scattered manuscript.

The book begins with Harry's childhood. He grew up in a coal mining town, youngest of four children, son of a undertaker. His home town was neutral in the Great War between Gun and Line, but near Line territory. When young Harry became deathly sick with a mysterious illness, Harry's proud father pleaded with some Linesmen, who had more advanced medicine, to save Harry's life. The Linesmen demanded a heavy price from Harry's father, including publicly supporting the Line, to cure Harry with a strange electrical apparatus.

Harry was self-educated. He sold encyclopedias to help pay his family's debts. By the time he was nineteen he had built a prototype for his Ransom Light-Bringing Process, inspired by the electrical apparatus the Linesmen used on him. He started calling himself Professor and traveled seeking potential investors. Harry barely escaped being killed in Melville City's Main Street Hotel by an off-target, Line-made, poison gas rocket.

The Battle: This time we have a battle between an erotic horror book and a steampunk fantasy set in an alternate world inspired by the American Old West.

Beautiful Monster, in my opinion, contained a disturbing mix of explicit sex and graphic violence. In the first 25 pages there were two sadistic sex scenes. The writing was very direct, and, I felt, lacked subtlety.

The authors of Beautiful Monster successfully made Sterling Bronson into a nightmarish character, which is good, I guess, if you like this type of horror. But I'd prefer not to read about a serial killer, and especially not from the killer's point of view.

The Rise of Ransom City is a rambling tale, told in a chatty, old-fashioned style. There were teasers for where the story is heading in Harry Ransom's humorously long-winded manuscript title, of which this is only the first third:

          AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY, in Parts,
Written on The Road Between Here and The Western Rim,
          And Mostly On The Run, I expect

  CONTAINING AN EXPLANATION OF SORTS
              And An Apology OF A Kind
     For Some Recent Events in The Great War

         and SOME ADVERTISEMENTS for
     Ransom City, soon to rise In The West,
          "THE CITY OF THE FUTURE"

Battle of the Books is inherently subjective. I read 25 pages of each of these books. For me, The Rise of Ransom City wins this match hands down.

THE WINNER: The Rise of Ransom City by Felix Gilman

The Rise of Ransom City advances to the second round to face The Demoness of Waking Dreams by Stephanie Chong.

To see the whole bracket, click here.

Battle of the Books, Bracket Seven, First Round :: The Demoness of Waking Dreams by Stephanie Chong vs. The Hour of Lead by Kathleen De Grave with Earl Lee

We begin the first round of Bracket Seven of the Battle of the Books with The Demoness of Waking Dreams by Stephanie Chong vs. The Hour of Lead by Kathleen De Grave with Earl Lee. The winner will be the book I (Amy) most want to continue reading after 25 pages.

The Demoness of Waking Dreams: Harlequin MIRA paperback, August 2012, 259 pages. The Demoness of Waking Dreams is book two in the paranormal romance series The Company of Angels, sequel to Where Demons Fear to Tread.

The beautiful Rogue demon, Luciana Rossetti, escaped home to Venice, Italy. She just had her plans for revenge foiled and narrowly eluded capture by the Company of Angels, events covered in the first book, in which Luciana is a secondary character. Luciana goes on the hunt. Each year during the Festival of the Redeemer she makes an offering of a single victim to the Prince of Darkness. Luciana's attention falls on a striking man. Upon a closer look Luciana realizes that he's not human, he's an angel. Luciana delights at the thought of making an angel her victim.

Then the book steps backward a day to introduce the angel. Brandon Clarkson is a supervisor in the Company of Angels in Chicago. Before his death ten years ago, Brandon was a police officer. Brandon was killed in a shooting which still gives him nightmares. Brandon's unit is called into the office in the middle of the night for a conference call with the Archangel Michael and the L.A. unit of the Company of Angels. Their assignment is "disposal" of the demoness Luciana. She concocted a poison with which she killed another demon and so could kill an angel. Brandon decides to go after Luciana himself, alone.

The Hour of Lead: See Sharp Press, September 2012, 255 pages, cover photo by Emilia Ungur. This is Kathleen De Grave's second novel. She has also written a nonfiction book.

The Hour of Lead is set in Kansas, in the near future, approximately 2040. It's a time of deadly tornadoes, new diseases, robots and nanotechnology. There's a Corporate Government called CorGo.

Weylan Collins is a nanotechnology scientist who created a pychobiotic nanobot which can untangle memories. A traumatized young boy named Mikey, one of hospital's displaced children, was made Weylan's first human test subject. Weylan believed his experimental nanobot would heal Mikey by allowing Mikey to understand that what he went through wasn't his fault. Instead the treatment left Mikey semi-catatonic.

Weylan feels guilty and considers himself a failure. But before giving up on Mikey, Weylan wants to try something first. His partly native-American grandfather years earlier showed him how to use psychedelic mushrooms.

The Battle: Here we have a battle between two very different books: a science fiction book and a paranormal romance.

The Hour of Lead begins with a new technological treatment that failed. Given what I learned in the flashbacks, I'm not sure this experiment should have been done in the first place, but maybe that's the point.

The first 25 pages of The Hour of Lead, in my opinion, didn't entirely pull me into the story. How Mikey was traumatized, when he and his sister suffered heat stroke, was heart-wrenching.

The Hour of Lead presented some speculative ideas. The futuristic setting with severe weather changes was interestingly different. I particularly liked the wind-resistant igloo homes.

The Demoness of Waking Dreams did not, in my opinion, exactly blaze new ground. It has angels and demons instead of vampires and werewolves. Nothing extraordinary or superhuman has happened yet. But the book is well written. I liked the touches of humor, such as when the old woman caused a commotion in church because she recognized Luciana as what she really was, a demoness, and the old woman was silenced by her embarrassed family.

I found The Demoness of Waking Dreams to be pleasantly easy to read. I enjoy fantasy, but I don't usually read paranormal romance.

I need to choose one book over the other based on only their first 25 pages. Who knows if I'd judge these books differently if I read them entirely. But at this point, I have to admit that I'm more interested in reading about the demoness and the angels.

THE WINNER: The Demoness of Waking Dreams by Stephanie Chong

The Demoness of Waking Dreams advances to the second round, to take on either Beautiful Monster by Jared S. Anderson & Mimi A. Williams or The Rise of Ransom City by Felix Gilman.

To see the whole bracket, click here.

Battle of the Books, Bracket Seven

Announcing Bracket Seven of the Fantastic Reviews Battle of the Books!

We have finally arrived at our seventh bracket of the Battle of the Books. Apologies for our delays. We have fallen way behind our originally planned schedule. Since last April, each of us here at Fantastic Reviews have been dealing with our own, completely separate, changes in our real lives. Changes which unfortunately made it more difficult for us to find time for reviewing books.

We've been doing our Battle of the Books format for two years now.  If you want to know why we started Battle of the Books, click here. For all the rules, click here.

Aaron reviewed and judged the first, second, fourth, fifth and sixth brackets of the Battle of the Books, won by Elizabeth Bear’s Range of Ghosts, James Renner’s The Man from Primrose Lane, Paolo Bacigulupi’s Drowned Cities, Keith Brooke’s Harmony, and James S.A. Corey's Caliban's War.  I (Amy) reviewed and judged the third bracket won by Ian Tregillis’ The Coldest War.  This new group of contenders in Bracket Seven will be judged and reviewed by me (Amy).  (I also, as webmaster, pulled together and formatted all the book cover graphics)

We've put together 16 more contenders, selected four "seeded" books -- the four we are most looking forward to out of this group (marked with asterisks) -- placed one seeded book in each quarter of the bracket, and then filled in the rest of the bracket randomly. Here are your matchups.

First Quarter of Bracket:


Stephanie Chong
The Demoness of Waking Dreams
(Harlequin MIRA)
vs.
Kathleen De Grave w/ Earl Lee
The Hour of Lead
(See Sharp)



Jared S. Anderson & Mimi A. Williams
Beautiful Monster
(Damnation)
vs.
Felix Gilman
The Rise of Ransom City***
(Tor)

Second Quarter of Bracket


J.L. Benét
Wolf Hunter
(Belfire)
vs.
Mike Resnick
The Doctor and the Rough Rider***
(Pyr)


Anita Clenney
Guardians of Stone
(Montlake)
vs.
Suzanne Johnson
River Road
(Tor)

Third Quarter of Bracket:


Kevin J. Anderson
Clockwork Angels
(ECW)
vs.
Ronan Cray
Red Sand
(Cray)


Dan O’Brien
The Path of the Fallen
(self-published)
vs.
E. C. Myers
Quantum Coin***
(Pyr)

Fourth Quarter of Bracket:


Charles Stross
The Apocalypse Codex***
(Ace)
vs.
Zeke Teflon
Free Radicals
(See Sharp)


Allen Steele
Apollo’s Outcasts
(Pyr)
vs.
J. Gabriel Gates
Blood Zero Sky
(HCI)

To see the whole bracket, click here.

Some notes on the field:
-- Classifying books before you read them can be difficult, but my best guess is that three are near-future science fiction, three are steampunk, three are paranormal romances, two are YA science fiction, and there's one book each of science fantasy, action adventure, werewolf horror, erotic thriller, and an occult spy thriller.
-- Of the competing books, eleven are written by men and three are by women. One book is a collaboration between a man and a woman. Another book is by a woman with credit to a man.
-- A little over half of the books are part of a series: two begin a series, and six are continuations or subsequent books in a series. Seven of the books seem to be stand-alone novels.
-- Three books are published by Pyr, two by Tor, and one each from Ace, Harlequin MIRA and Montlake Romance. As far as small publishers, See Sharp has two books, and one book each are from ECW Press, Belfire Press, Damnation Books, and HCI Books. The remaining two books look to be self-published.

Good luck to all the contenders!

"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.