Ian
McDonald has been looking at the future in exotic places. In 2027, after
Turkey finally joins the European Union, and at a time when gadgets based
nano-technology are common, a series of events effect the inhabitants of
The Dervish House (hard from Pyr) in Istanbul. Everything
starts when a woman on a nearby tram literally blows her head off. One
of the witnesses, an ex-drug addict sent from his family after burning
his sister, starts seeing djins. A boy with a heart condition and a toy
that can morph from monkey to bird and can be directly controlled by his
computer, uses his toy and access to the internet to investigate
the mini-robots filming the bombing and gets involved with his kidnapping.
A dealer of relics is paid to hunt for a mellified man (a mummy created
with honey) and a young woman with a business degree is hunting for half
a mini-Koran that has a contract etched on it. It’s a calmer future than
my potential, but a neat one. I expect this nominated for awards.
Darren
Shan tells of a Capek Raimi young man come new to the city to work
for his uncle’s gang as a potential heir. However the Cardinal, the true
leader of the cities gangs, notices him and, after having the uncle killed,
takes him in. But Capek has no memory of his past before coming to the
city. Other people seem to simply vanish, like Capek’s driver and friend,
and no one remembers them. There is a list of people who seem to have simply
appeared in the city labeled Ayuamarcan (which means Procession of the
Dead (hard from Grand Central Publishing)in Aztec) with Capek’s drivers
name crossed out. There’s a real, but magical solution to what Capek is
and where he comes from. I hope someone nominates this too.
I
was blown away by Jacqueline Carey’s first novel and she is one of my favorite
writers. A few generations after her first tale and in the same world,
we continue the tale of Moirin, a druid witch related to the nobility of
Terre D’ange. This time it’s Naamah’s Curse (hard from Grand Central
Publishing) that drives her from China to outer Mongolia to hunt for her
lover, Bao. Finding him married to the Grand Khan’s daughter she works
to null this political marriage only to be kidnaped by a religious fanatic
and brought to Russia. Escaping that she learns that Bao has gone South
seeking her, making her travel across the Gobi Desert and the Himalayas
to find him netted by a famous assassin cult. More travels are promised
in the next tale and I can’t wait.
Jennuifer
Estep has an exciting new adventure for the ex-assassin, spider. In a world
where some people have power over the base elements, Gin Blanco can work
with stone and water (usually ice). She is drawn into a Web of Lies
(paper Pocket), a fight between two dwarfs. The greedier one has
a huge coal mining operation that is running out of coal, and he has discovered
diamond running under the land of the other, land owned for centuries.
Before long Gin is in the home of Mab,the fire mage who rules the city
and may have murdered Gin’s parents, hunting the coal miner who will stop
at nothing to drive the other dwarf off his land. I couldn’t put the book
down.
I
also really enjoyed Stacia Kane’s second adventure of Chess Putnam which
takes place after ghosts rose and killed people. Once church has taken
over the world to protect people and Chess, who is also an addict, works
for them. Unholy Magic (paper from Del Rey) has chess caught between
two rival gangs because someone is murdering hookers from both sides
and stealing their souls. At the same time, her real case involves a tv
actor with faked hauntings and an agent willing to blackmail Chess over
her addiction. Of course the cases come together with a major confrontation
of a ghost and its helper. Lots of fun.
I
love a good pulp fantasy and Jon Sprunk delivers. Shadow’s Son (trade
from Pyr) is about a hard-hearted assassin with the ability to magically
hide in shadows and with a ghost that no one else can see looking after
him. Sent to kill and old man, he finds the man dead and soldiers ready
to kill the man’s daughter. So of course he rescues her which puts him
at the heart of plots to destroy the kingdom. There are two other assassins
involved, one an ex-noble just as dangerous as Caim, our hero, is, and
another with strong magical powers, both are soon after Caim and his charge
who turns out to be far more than the old man’s daughter. Lots of fun,
some romance, and a hint of more adventures to come.
Todd
McCaffrey continues the tale of Fiona, one of the major figures in Pern
History. The Dragongirl (hard from Del Rey) lived during the third
fall of Thread since the settlement of Pern and the world has been hurt
by plague of both human and dragon. There aren’t enough dragons or riders
to successfully fight the thread and timing (time travel) to add extra
fighters creates complications. One weyrleader actually is sure he will
die when a man with his coat is killed fighting thread. Todd has done a
good job with his mother’s series and this is a must for fans of Pern.
S.
A. Swann has a nice series about mediaeval werewolves and the knights sworn
to hunt them down and kill them. Darian, who had his whole family
murdered by the members of this holy order, is wrecking vengence on them,
but he hadn’t counted on finding Maria, a werewolf kept human by the silver
Wolf’s Cross (trade from Bantam Spectre) identifies herself as human
and is assigned to tend the wounded Josef, one of the knights hunting her
kind. This is a nice play on the traditional love triangle. I’m hoping
for more in the series.
The late Kage Baker has
another of her fun fantasies which I think were better than her company
tales. A teenage girl and her younger bother are left orphaned when her
diver mother is lost after finding a corpse of a nobleman in the river.
Eliss soon finds a place as lookout on the riverboat, The Bird of the
River ( hard from Tor) and gets involved with the young man her age,
who is undercover and hunting the murderer of the nobleman. Add in a gang
attacking the towns along the river, and an interesting background explored
in other books in the series, and you have a fun juvenile. I can only hope
that there are other tales in this wonderful series still awaiting publication.
Naomi
Novik continues her tale of Captain Lawrence and the dragon Temeraire during
the Napoleonic wars. The two have been transported to Australia, after
being convicted of treason for giving Napoleon’s dragons the cure in a
previous book. They have been asked to find how Chinese goods were being
smuggled into Sydney and the trail leads them across the continent to a
colony supplied by trained Sea Serpents. Tongues of Serpents (hard
from Del Rey) integrates historical figures like Captain Bligh and events
like the loss of a British fleet in an attack on a French colony that didn’t
have any dragons or Sea Serpents in our universe. This is a must for fans
of the series.
Baen
has been reprinting Sharon Lee and Steve Miller tales of the far future
that have been around for decades. The Dragon Variations
(trade) has three early novels. Local Custom introduces us to clan Korval
(the dragon) and the master Trader Thom who has been asked by his first
cousin Daav to make an arranged marriage to have an heir for the
clan. But his heart was stolen by Anne Davis, a Terran expert in Liaden
culture. So he returns to her planet only to discover she had born him
a son. Of course true love has to over come custom. Then Scout’s Progress
introduces us to Aelliana Caylon, math genius who is abused by the heir
of her clan, her brother. Because she has won a starship, she comes into
contact with Daav whose hobby is to work on ship repair at an old friends.
Love ensues. The tale continues in the latest novel in the series, House
and Dragon (hard) which continues Davv and Aelliana dealing with the
complications of his impending arranged marriage. Her clan commitments
and a nasty pilot kidnaping plot. I didn’t like the left turn at the end
that made this latest tale a prequel to Fledgling (paper).
David
Weber’s fourth tale about a reformation war in a planet, regressed to middle
age technology because of aliens who almost wiped out humanity, continues
with A Mighty Fortress (hard from TOR) in which the Church is slowly
rebuilding its Navy and in between killing all its internal enemies. The
action at the end is worth the wait. David Weber latest tales have been
epic with tons of characters and, as a result little action. This latest
is no exception. This book is for fans of this series only.
I
enjoyed Ryk E. Spoor and Eric Flint’s tale of finding an ancient alien
base on Mars, Boundry (paper and free ebook). Threshhold (hard
from Baen) starts with another base at Ceres investigated by both our American
heroes and new European players who play dirty. The heart of the tale is
an extremely slow race to circle Jupiter and head for a base on Saturn.
The evil members (I mean that literally) have sabotaged the American ship,
but the Americans have adapted an ancient alien ship to chase the bad guys
with. The science is neat, but, alas the bad guys are cardboard.
Baen paperback reprints include Mark L. Van-Name’s third tale of Jon and his assault craft Lobo, in Overturning Heaven; John Ringo’s tale that puts Michael O’Neil in the Eye of the Storm; and three classic Andre Norton tales in The Game of Stars and Comets.
Del Rey has reprinted in paper Alan Dean Foster’s final tale of Flinx Transcendent in paper.
The Science Fiction Society will have its next meeting on July 16th at 8:15p.m. at International House on the University of Pennsylvania. Campus. This is the annual panel evaluating works nominated for the Hugo award and I’m one of the evaluators. Guests are welcome.
Dr. Henry Lazarus is a local Dentist and the author of A Cycle of Gods from Wolfsinger Publications