The Tattered Scroll News, Reviews, & Opinions on Fantasy and Espionage Books

Today in Fantasy: October 21, 2009

FBNR Stuff:

I'm reading Servant of a Dark God by John Brown. I'm probably about 80 pages into it (reading mostly on my iPhone. Stanza says I am 14.5% into the book) and enjoying it quite a bit so far. Hope the goodness continues. I am also very interested in that new ereader Barnes & Noble announced yesterday, the Nook. Will try to find some time to post details about it tomorrow.

Authors/News:

-According to Paul S. Kemp, his next Forgotten Realms novel, Godborn, is available for preorder on Amazon. Interesting thing is its looking to be trade paperback. I have seen some tbp Wizards of the Coast omnibus book, but haven't noticed them use the trade paper size for a single book.

-Karen Miller has started Reluctant Mage. Yippee!

-David B. Coe with news on his next release, The Dark-Eyes' War (another one I am looking forward to).

-Trudy Canavan posted the cover of her next book, The Ambassador's Mission. Looks like the first book in a new trilogy...the sequel trilogy to her The Black Magician Trilogy. Tentatively due May 2010.

Reviews:

Visceral, action-packed, and wholly engrossing, Dead Men's Boots is easily the best book in the series so far.

link: REVIEW | Dead Men's Boots by Mike Carey (Grand Central) ~ Mad Hatter's Bookshelf & Book Review

Salamander is an entertaining read that serves as a good primer for the Warhammer 40K universe. I like the mythology that surrounds the Salamanders as well as the universe itself. Kyme has laid out a solid foundation for his series, so I’m looking forward to the second installment of The Tome of Fire trilogy. Furthermore, Kyme has laid more than enough minor details about the Warhammer 40K universe in Salamander to encourage me to read more of the books in the this universe.

link: Salamander by Nick Kyme - Official sffworld.com review

Westerfeld’s vision of WWI is stunningly iconic – this is steampunk upped an order of magnitude. Huge walkers reminiscent of Star Wars’ Imperial Walkers rush to battle. Enormous zeppelins ply the skies for dominance. Mechanical scout vehicles put horses to shame. And this is just one side of the battle – the Clankers.

link: Neth Space: Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld (I bought a copy of this last week. Need to find time to read it, though I am worried about the cliffhanger ending several folks mention)

In The Windup Girl, Paolo with-the-unpronounceable-last-name (Bacigalupi), uses fiction to provide social commentary on such things as the environment, big business, international relations, and religion. Using themes of abandonment, failure, and the “other”, Bacigalupi provides a tale of political intrigue and power in a near future Bangkok.

link: Book Review: The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi | Grasping for the Wind

The only real criticism I would level at The Island is that I feel - like Fallen - the ending is a little underwhelming; there's an aspect to the resolution of the plot that just felt a little cheap to me (not to mention rather unlikely). But this flaw aside, Lebbon deserves credit for constructing a well-constructed plot that unfolds at an even pace, with a really fresh feel to it

link: Speculative Horizons: Book review: The Island by Tim Lebbon

This was not the story I expected when I first saw this book. First and foremost is about survival and secondarily it is about uncovering a family mystery. The Seattle that Ms. Priest created felt like a real place instead of just a prop. She slowly painted the picture of her city as the story moved along creating a fully realized three dimensional place. The constant tension felt by the group of people still living inside the city is caused by the ever present threat of a zombie attack combined with the control exerted upon them by Dr. Minnericht.

link: Robots and Vamps » RaV Book Review: Boneshaker by Cherie Priest