“Red Planet Blues” by Robert J. Sawyer (Ace, 2013)

One of the purposes of science fiction is to take a good story and insert it into a futuristic world of science fiction, making it a great story; something you haven’t read before.  Bestselling author Robert J. Sawyer does just this with Red Planet Blues as he presents the classic noir detective novel that just about everyone is familiar with, and inserts it into a future world of a colonized Mars, which makes for some very riveting reading.

Enter Alex Lomax, a Private Eye who left Earth for reasons we’re not sure of, but he’s not welcome there.  So he makes his home now in New Klondike on Mars, underneath the great dome.  But New Klondike is very much the edge of the world locality that it’s named after; the Martian frontier.  The city is dirty, run down; there’s prostitution and drug use and crime.  It’s a dead-end world, just where Lomax expected to end up.

The hope many of the citizens of New Klondike hold out for is making it rich on Martian fossils.  Alien life was found to exist on Mars, but has long died out.  All that remain are some fossils that are worth a fortune back on Earth.  Some of the lucky few have made discoveries and are now doing well for themselves; others continue to spend their time in their suits out on the plain in search of riches.  There is also the nugget of knowledge that everyone knows: somewhere out there on the Martian desert is the alpha deposit, first discovered forty years ago by Simon Weingarten and Denny O’Reilly that began this Great Martian Fossil Rush; the mother lode that would make its discoverer rich beyond their wildest dreams.

Another reason people want to strike it rich is so they can become immortal.  In this world there are those known as transfers: essentially practically indestructible robots that have had people’s minds and consciousnesses downloaded into them.  Becoming a transfer is expensive, but then you’re practically unstoppable; you don’t need to eat or breathe or even feel.  You can go out on the harsh Martian plain and continue looking for those pricey fossils.

Lomax isn’t that likeable a character.  He’s a drinker, a womanizer, and doesn’t think very highly of himself.  But he has integrity.  So when he gets a couple of new clients looking to find out the true history behind Weingarten and O’Reilly’s discovery, as well as the alpha location, he agrees to do it for good money, but also becomes he knows what’s at stake.

Sawyer has done a great job in creating a concrete, believable world and some strong characters, especially in Lomax who you don’t really like, but still kind of care for.  At times events seem a little over the top and ham-handed, but that’s just Sawyer remaining true to the genre, even if it is on another planet.  Science fiction readers will not be disappointed; noir crime readers will not be disappointed; and where the twain shall meet shall be one very satisfied reader.

Originally written on April 27, 2013 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of Red Planet Blues from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

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“The Casual Vacancy” by J. K. Rowling (Little, Brown, 2012)

After the unfathomable success of the Harry Potter series, with over 450 million copies sold worldwide, likely making it one of the biggest phenomena of our lifetimes, J. K. Rowling is now back with her first new book in five years.  She now turns to a much more adult story about a quaint little English town where everything is most certainly not as it seems.

In the idyllic west country town of Pagford, where things pass at their own pace and everything stays pretty much the same, a change is about to happen.  A respected citizen of the community, Barry Fairbrother suffers a sudden brain aneurysm and dies unexpectedly.  It is a very sad time for the family and for the community, as he touched many lives during his time, as well as being an important member of the town’s council.  But Barry’s passing is also the lighting of a spark that sets off an explosive chain reaction, as the empty space on the town council starts many wondering who should fill his seat, and a number of unlikely candidates come out of the woodwork.

The Casual Vacancy is also the story about a number of the characters of this community, and how they begin to act and react when this person who had an effect on their lives is gone and is no longer there to provide aid and advice.  The book is by no means a happy novel, as these characters make terrible decisions that lead them down a downward spiral of despair.  By the end of the book, the reader is left hoping their might be some sort of cathartic uplift, but Rowling is going for a harsh true-to-life approach here, where things don’t all of a sudden get magically better.

Overall the book comes off as a letdown, slow and dragging at points, with nothing to drive the reader along to keep reading, as things get worse and worse for just about everyone it seems.  Rowling is perhaps pulling from some earlier experiences in her life before her fame and riches, as there are characters dealing with drug addiction, poverty, marital problems, and a whole host of unsavory issues.  The book also comes off somewhat amateurish, as Rowling constantly references many places throughout this imaginary town that confuse the reader, and could have easily been aided with a handy map at the beginning of the book.  Then there is the large host of characters, featuring many couples of about the same age, some even with the same first letters of their names, which often makes things confusing, and could’ve been helped with a simple cast list.  Finally, there is the constantly switching P.O.V. from paragraph to paragraph, without any break in between, so that the reader becomes quite untethered and lost at times.

The Casual Vacancy was an experiment by Rowling in seeing what happens to a town when an important member dies and all the people he’d had an effect on begin making bad decisions that then effect the rest of the town.  By the end of the book the reader is sad over the events of the book, though Rowling makes it clear that if any of the characters had made the decision to not think of themselves for a moment and to notice that nearby person suffering and help them, things would have come out quite differently.  But because this social message is buried in the clunky format and pitfalls of the book with no satisfactory resolution, the reader is left wondering what was the point of reading this book to the last page.

Originally written on January 8, 2013 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of The Casual Vacancy from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

“Cold Days” by Jim Butcher (Roc, 2012)

Harry Dresden, wizard for hire, is officially no longer a ghost.  Back from the dead, he’s alive and relatively well, recovering from not being in the land of the living, and everything that happened to him when he was killed.  But he’s not your usual wizard anymore, he’s the Winter Knight and under the rule and thumb of Queen Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness.  And this is also a Jim Butcher book, so in the blink of an eye, Dresden up you-know-what creek with nothing to paddle with.

When Dresden is finally somewhat back to normal, and enjoying his new superpowers as a Winter Knight, he is charged by Queen Mab with his first assassination, to kill an immortal.  Someone who cannot be killed, the perfect seemingly insurmountable job for Dresden.  He returns back to Chicago to meet up with some old friends and try not to get them too involved, because then they’ll be used against him.  He also travels his his personal, powerful island, Demonreach, though he is more summoned.  It is there he learns the true history and reason for this island located at a nexus of ley lines, and also that things are reaching crisis that could result in the end of Chicago and the surrounding area.  And then there are a bunch of people out there who just want Dresden dead, as usual.

Cold Days is a return to the classic Dresden book, after the interesting and introspective Ghost Story.  At times is seems like Butcher may have put a little too much into this book, as it can leave the reader exhausted in parts, with it feeling just too much at time.  But then this is what fans have come to expect from Dresden and his world.  There are also some hints and references to something much bigger brewing, something that will come to fruition in future Dresden books.  Of course, for now, fans will just have to wait.

Originally written on February 11, 2013 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of Cold Days from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

“Midnight Blue-Light Special” by Seanan McGuire (Daw, 2013)

Verity Price is back, doing her best to juggle everything going on in her life, whether it’s working her job to get enough money to eat, checking on and protecting the many cryptids of New York City who need help, and trying to make it big-time as a ballroom dancer.  New York Times bestselling author Seanan McGuire first introduced us to the Prices and this unique world in Discount Armageddon, but in Midnight Blue-Light Special she doesn’t waste any time throwing the reader back into catastrophic mayhem.  But then in you’ve read a McGuire novel before, you’d be disappointed if that wasn’t the case.

Verity Price has a big problem.  Other than the fact that her boyfriend, Dominic, is a member of the clandestine, evil group known as the Covenant which is out to rid the world of all cryptids; it’s that the Covenant is coming to New York to check up on Dominic and see what sort of a job he’s doing, and decide if the city is ready to be purged of all cryptid life.  So Verity has to get every cryptid gone or hidden, and hope none of the Covenant check underground for the giant dragon.

With a sequel, readers might have expected another fun adventure, but no, McGuire pushes everything to the limit here with an ultimate showdown that sucks the reader in and doesn’t let go.  Building on the great world she started in Discount Armageddon, readers will be left wanting the next book in the series.

Originally written on February 11, 2013 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of Midnight Blue-Light Special from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

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“Fables, Volume 18: Cubs in Toyland” by Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham (Vertigo, 2013)

The Fables are back again in a new collected volume and up to plenty of antics.  Willingham is still putting the pieces together for the next big saga of Fables and the blossoming full story isn’t clear yet, but readers are having a lot of fun along the way with the different subplots.  Snow White and Bigby wolf have always known that one of their cubs was destined for a great role, and its seems like it’s been filled when Winter begins training for the role of the North Wind, but each cub has a prophecy and some are fulfilled in this 18th volume, Cubs in Toyland.

Therese is an easily confused child, and when she finds herself a toy boat that talks to her, she is more than gullible.  The cub is led on a journey to a river, where the toy boat enlarges to a real-sized one.  She hops on and is taken across a great ocean through storm and sea until she reaches an island of broken and discarded toys, the misfits of toy society who all have voices and personalities.  They want little in life but to have a new queen to love them.  Therese thinks she might be this person, but soon discovers there is no food on the island, and begins to starve, while the incessant toys turn her into a dark and twisted person as time passes.

Darien is the leader of the pack and has always known he is the hero and must do everything he can, no matter what he takes.  He follows the clues about his missing sister and crosses the great ocean to find this distant land of mutated toys and knows what he must do to save his sister.

Cubs in Toyland is a great stand-alone story of the Fables universe, exploring some of the roles that the cubs of Snow and Bigby are destined to fulfill, pushing and pulling on the emotions of the reader, as they are ultimately just children, even if they are fables.  Included in the collection is the story of Bufkin in the Land of Oz, illustrated by Shaw McManus.

Originally written on February 11, 2013 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of Fables: Cubs in Toyland from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

“The Frozen Sky” by Jeff Carlson (JVE, 2013)

The Frozen Sky by Jeff Carlson, bestselling author of the Plague Year trilogy, began as a novelette of the same name that went on to win Carlson the Writers of the Future award.  Carlson knew he had a good story, something deep and complex, and decided to expand it into a full length scifi novel, and the result is well worth the upgrade.

Alexis Vonderach is part of the science team sent to find out what there is exactly on Jupiter’s moon, Europa.  More colonizers and ships are coming from Earth, but they’re the first inspection team and aren’t really sure what they’re going to find.  It’s a couple centuries into the future and humanity has good space travel and great tech.  The crew uses advanced spacesuits that are essentially adaptive machines with intelligent computer systems in them that can be used and controlled by the person in the suit.

As they begin to cut into the ice and go below the harsh outer skin of the moon, they encounter aliens for the first time, first through carvings and pictograms in the stone and ice that seem fairly advanced, and then encountering the actual alien beings: strange, many-tentacled creatures that are incredibly fast and seem to only want to attack when seen by humans.  Before the team knows it, they’re on the run, and then a short while later Von is all who is left, the rest of the team killed.  She continues to flee, going deeper into the ice where it is getting warmer, letting her suit do most of the work, but still sustaining injury as she thwarts the attacking alien creatures.  She discovers the frozen sky of the title to be the roof of the ice, covering the world beneath.

After a long, nail-biting section that lasts for a third of the book, Von eventually makes it back to the ship and her people, where she is healed and repaired in multiple ways.  And the second part of the book begins, as the different people and nations decide what exactly to do with Europa.  It can be used to generate wealth for those back on Earth, but at the expense of killing these alien creatures.  Even after everything that Von has suffered, she is the loudest voice in support of the creatures, claiming they are intelligent and deserve respect and the right to live.

The Frozen Sky is part action-packed chase scene that pushes you to the very edge of your seat, and part political piece on what could possibly happen if and when we find other intelligent life out there: will we come through and kill much like the white man has done in history, or will we try to communicate and connect with it.  The novel does what all good science fiction should, providing some great description and action on an alien world, as well as making the reader contemplate on what it exactly means to be on another planet, especially where there is intelligent life there already.

Originally written on February 21, 2013 ©Alex C. Telander.

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“The Demonologist” by Andrew Pyper (Simon & Schuster, 2013)

In this new dark thriller, along with elements of horror, Andrew Pyper, author of The Guardians and Los Girls, presents a tale that is perhaps best described as The Historian meets The Exorcist, blending a world of history and symbolism and meaning with one of demons and sheer terror.  If Dan Brown were to pen an outright horror novel, it might look something like The Demonologist.

David Ullman is a college professor who specializes in Christian religions, myths and symbolism; he is also one of the foremost scholars on Milton’s Paradise Lost.  With a failed marriage, apart from his teaching all he truly cares for in his life is his wonderful daughter.  When he is mysteriously offered a free flight and stay in Venice to attend a certain meeting employing his expertise as a “demonologist,” he is very reluctant at first, but then decides to go and give his daughter a short vacation in beautiful Venice.  At the meeting with a stranger he sees something that shouldn’t be possible, that isn’t possible he tells himself.  Fleeing in terror he finds his daughter speaking in the voice of one he has read about and studied in many books, before she jumps from the roof of a high building.  Now he begins his true quest, to hunt down the origin of this voice and creature and with hopes to get his daughter back somehow.

The Demonologist is a balance between an interesting professor waxing about the greatness of Milton with plenty of quotes throughout and thrilling, terrifying action scenes as Ullman confronts what can only be called a demon inhabiting a human form, and he is on the run.  The symbols and meanings seem a big stretch to reach at times, but ultimately lead the character to where he needs to go.  As the novel progresses, things get a little uncanny, which might lose some readers, but Pyper brings them back to home in the end with an intense but satisfying conclusion.

Originally written on July 15, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of The Demonologist from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

“The Blood Gospel: The Order of the Sanguines Series” by James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell (William Morrow, 2013)

Many readers are familiar with James Rollins, known for his bestselling Sigma Force novels, as well as his standalone thrillers like Sandstorm and Amazonia.  Not as many people may know the author James Clemens, who is in fact a pseudonym for James Rollins.  Under this name, he has published seven fantasy novels.  The Blood Gospel, a new novel from Rollins collaborating with Rebecca Cantrell, author of thrillers like A Trace of Smoke and A City of Broken Glass, is the first in a new series known as The Order of the Sanguines, and marks Rollins’ return to the world of the supernatural and the fantastic.

In this gothic tale, a strange trio is on the hunt for a sacred text out of ancient history that must be recovered, known as the Blood Gospel.  The story begins with a devastating earthquake in Masada, Israel, killing many, but also revealing the hidden location of a sacred tomb.  The trio is assembled: Sergeant Jordan Stone, a forensic expert working for the military; Father Rhun Korza, a strange priest sent by the Vatican; and Dr. Erin Granger, a brilliant archaeologist who had been working nearby at the time.  Within the tomb they find the strange crucified body of a young, mummified girl.

Before they know it, the trio finds themselves under attack by some very strange characters, some of which don’t appear to be human, but they survive.  This begins the chase to track down the secret location of the Blood Gospel.  The enigmatic Father Korza reveals some important details about this sacred text and why it is important, and perhaps who some of these unusual characters they’ve been running into are.  As they follow clues, using their individual skills as well as plenty of intuition, the search leads them deep into the heart of Europe, within an ancient German castle.

As the story continues to open and reveal itself, like a beautiful, sacred tapestry, the authors do a great job of ratcheting up the suspense and action, making things tougher for their characters, as well as showing more of the back story, which has a history reaching back thousands of years.  Back to a time and origin of some strange beasts, which bear an uncanny resemblance to their current enemies.

The Blood Gospel is an impressive collaboration between Rollins and Cantrell, revealing a complex and fascinating tale, as well as an intriguing world that sucks the reader in from the start.  Each main character has his or her own point of view, adding a depth and intricacy to them that is not usually common in these types of thrillers.  Unique answers that fit the story are presented to questions like: Why are Catholic priests sworn to celibacy?  Why do they ware pectoral crosses?  Why is wine consecrated and transformed into Christ’s blood during Mass?  And what is the real story behind the raising of Lazarus?  Whether you’ve tried Rollins or Cantrell before, The Blood Gospel will be the ride of your life.

Originally written on February 6, 2013 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of Blood Gospel from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

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“The Colony” by A. J. Colucci (Thomas Dunne Books, 2013)

The Colony, a debut novel from author A. J. Colucci, who has spent fifteen years working as a magazine editor and newspaper reporter, combines elements of styles of the horrific with the likes of Stephen King, along with the science and fast-paced thriller of a Michael Crichton novel.  Slap a catchy James Rollins quote on the cover, and you’ve got yourself a creepy, terrifying, addicting read.

With books about things like killer ants, you want the story to get started right away, and not involve too much build-up.  The Colony does just this with a contemplative prologue that sets up the story, and goes straight into some opening chapters of ordinary New Yorkers going about their daily lives, and then being attacked and overrun by millions of ants, as they are poisoned and eaten alive.

Our main characters are Kendra Hart, a brilliant entomologist working in the deserts of New Mexico, who is picked up by the US government and taken to New York to join the team, which includes her ex-husband, Paul O’Keefe who has become an international celebrity as “the ant guy” and made fortunes from it.  Kendra also finds her ex-boyfriend, Jeremy, on the team, using his entomological and computer skills.

But the bodies are piling up, and things are turning into a national catastrophe.  What all these talented scientists know is that the big invasion is coming too; trillions of ants of a new, murderous species have been growing and multiplying beneath New York City and will soon begin their attack.  It’s up to the ant scientists to come up with a plan to stop them, because they have the military breathing down their necks with the only sure and known way to kill these ants, but that will involve destroying Manhattan with a nuclear bomb.

The Colony is a gripping book that’s hard to put down.  While the quasi love-triangle gets a little heavy handed in the middle of everything going on, Colucci does a great job of mixing up action packed scenes with descriptively horrific moments involving a tiny, seemingly innocent insect.  The Colony gives you shivers and sets your heart racing; just what every good book should do.

Originally written on February 6, 2013 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of The Colony from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

For an exclusive interview with the author, A. J. Colucci, click HERE.

“Diverse Energies” Edited by Tobias Bucknell and Joe Monti (Tu Books, 2012)

There have been a number of science fiction anthologies released over the last few years, and a good portion of them were on the subject of dystopian worlds.  A future time where things don’t look so great, but the characters in the stories have hope for something better.  But none of them are anything like Diverse Energies edited by Tobias Bucknell of British and Caribbean heritage.  In the introduction, Bucknell talks about growing up and loving science fiction, but was always disappointed how the covers featured tough white guys with chiseled chins; that none of them ever looked like him.  So when he set out to put Diverse Energies together, he was looking for diversity in every story.

“The Last Day” by Ellen Oh is set in a dystopian Japan where the world is at war and the children fear the next explosion will wipe out everything.  “Next Door” by Rahul Kanakia is a world where the rich and well off are hooked into their virtual worlds, while the poor squat in their homes trying to eke out a living; in this story two boyfriends search for the ultimate place to live.  “Good Girl” by Malinda Lo is about a relationship between two girls set in a world where races need to be pure otherwise people will become infected with a lethal illness; at least that’s what the government is telling them. The high point of the anthology is “Uncertainty Principle” by K. Tempest Bradford about a girl whose world keeps changing and she’s the only one who knows it’s happening.  The collection also features stories from Paolo Baciagalupi and Ursula LeGuin.

Diverse Energies features no stories with tough white dudes and their chiseled chins.  It features real people, from all walks of life, from all classes, from a number of different races, nations and cultures.  The plots are unique and interesting encompassing many different worlds, and while all of them are of a dystopian nature, some have a little more hope and possibility than others.  Diverse Energies is an anthology like no other, which is exactly why you need to read it.

Originally written on December 9, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of Diverse Energies from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.