Henry L Lazarus
4603 Springfield Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19143
Science Fiction for July 2011
By Henry Leon Lazarus
Monsters have been popular for the last few years, especially
vampires, werewolves, and zombies. Most have been fairly generic, and rely
on readers expectations. However, every so often, a writer looks with very
different eyes at these standard monsters and sees the human living within
them.
Jake
is The Last Werewolf (hard from Knopf Doubleday). He is only half
his potential life span of four centuries. A virus has blocked a werewolf
bite from creating new werewolves and hunters have slowly killed the remaining
monsters off. Only Jake remains, despite interest in the vampire community
because a werewolf bite may confer sunlight immunity. If this sounds like
True Blood it really is not. Jake is very aware of his time in beast form
and captures the souls of humans he eats, souls he hungers for as much
as the actually killing. At the beginning, Jake is ready to die, but there
are players who would prefer he survive. Glen Duncan throws twist after
twist into this complicated noir version of the monster within us. Very
literate and worth nomination to some award.
Daryl
Gregory messes with the basic zombie premise. Night of the Living Dead
in his world may have been a documentary, but after three days the
living dead regain their sanity and have to stay hidden from a government
petrified that they might create new zombies by biting people. Enter a
farm family who finds a zombie baby and goes about Raising Stony Mayhall
(trade from Del Rey). Stoney, miraculously, grows to adulthood and leaves
his home and finds security in a living dead community, some of whom are
pushing for a big bite to create enough new zombies to be safe. There’s
a zombie who owns a fast food conglomerate and wants to send zombies out
to colonize space, and a mad medical researcher in charge of the prisons
that Stoney eventually finds himself sent to. Very neat and unlike any
other zombie tale you’ve ever read.
After
saving a princess in China, and then going to Tibet to rescue her future
husband, Moirin and Bao return to Terre d'Ange and is thrown immediately
into politics in order to protect Desirée, who survived Queen Jehanne’s
death in childbirth. But when Prince Thierry is reported lost on an expedition
to the Aztec Empire, the King commits suicide. The only way to make things
right, according to Jehanne’s ghost is for Moirin and Bao to go to Central
America and rescue the prince from a man from Moirin’s past who has mastered
a river of darkness. So with Naamah's Blessing (hard from Grand
Central Publishing) Moirin again must use her magic and survive a great
journey. Jacqueline Carey is one of my favorite authors and this is one
of her best books. I’ve read Kushiel's Dart (several times) and this is
just as good.
Under
the harshest conditions, most people succumb, but some rise to excellence.
As Paul Hoffman tells it, the sanctuary of the redeemer is a horror for
the boys brought under its control. Taught to be merciless killers they
survive barely edible food, supplanted by the accessional rat they can
catch. After seeing brutality even they can’t stomach, Cale and his friends
escape to Memphis capital of the Materazzi empire whose nobility are impossible
to beat at war. After beating up some of the nobility, Cale comes to the
attention of the nobility where his skills (along with some luck) raise
him. But his plans for taking down Memphis, created before his escape,
lead him, both to love, and to be the hidden general and The
Left Hand of God (trade from New American Library) of that Empire.
This tale is impossible-to-put-down. I can’t wait for the sequel.
David
S. Goyer and Michael Cassutt, both powerful movie people, decided to write
the novelization of their movie Heaven’s Shadow (hard from Ace)
which is due out next year. Less than a decade from now NASA is back sending
men to the moon. When a Near Earth Object, a huge asteroid dubbed Keanu,
comes close enough, they revamp a moon lander to explore this strange object.
Another team from an international coalition also sends a lander. Even
though they race to land first in typical astronaut one-up-manship, the
two teams have to work together, especially when they discover that Keanu
is really a million-year-old, slower-than-light starship looking for intelligent
life. The NASA lingo is perfect, and the astronauts both real and very
interesting. Other characters include the staff from mission control in
Houston and one of the Astronauts teenage daughter still mourning her mother
killed in a traffic accident. This will make for a very exciting movie
and is hard to put down. I had two qualms. The first is a tiny nuke placed
on the NASA lander in secret. Nukes tend to be much larger then what is
depicted, but most people won’t realize that. The second problem I have
is with something that is part of the super-science of the aliens who made
Keanu. I don’t want to give it away, but I afraid audiences will laugh
when confronted by it.
A
few decades from now the world is very different because of changes in
computers and economics. Detective Inspector Liz Kavanaugh is head of theRule
34 (hard from Ace by Charles Stross) Squad of the Edinburgh police,
which refers to an internet rule saying everything on the web has a porn
aspect. A weird murder, which has computer aspects to it, purposefully
defective replacement parts, has been echoed all over Europe. Many of these
victims were part of a criminal organization who has one of their executives
trying to find out what has happened to his contacts. A third low-level
functionary has gotten a legal job as an honorary council to a newly created
East European country that can’t afford to use its own citizens. He also
finds that part of his new job is criminal related and has ties to that
executive. The tale is told in second person, for a good reason,
which makes it a bit hard to get used to. It is also terse enough to make
it difficult to follow. It’s a fun read for anyone interested in artificial
intelligence, computers, or how our future is being shaped who doesn’t
mind a challenging read.
In
a massive war between good and evil, good has impossible wins against overwhelming
odds. However the Dark Lord’s forces just see one loss after another as
The Goblin Corps (trade from Pyr) lose battle after battle. Luckily
Ari Marmell knows that readers like their heroes to win, so his monsters,
very likable, form a Demon Squad who have to learn to live together and
they complete their missions. There’s an orc, a kobold, an ogress, a gremlin
, a troll, a doppleganger, and a gremlin who go on various quests for the
Charnel King and his lovely queen who has motivations of her own. The actual
war is so distant, that when they return home on their final quest (successful
of course) and discover the capital of the empire they served destroyed,
they are devastated. I was so caught up in rooting for this improbable
team, that I mourned the loss of those that die on the journey. This was
a lot of fun, and worth treasuring.
Mystery
fans who like odd backgrounds will enjoy Stacey Jay’s tale of a young girls
body found Dead on the Delta(paper). The southern states have been
infested by mosquito-like fairies and most people live in protected towns
like Louisiana’s Donaldsonville. Anabelle who has been drifting though
life since she dropped out of Medical school, is the town’s only person
immune to fairy venom. So she is the one who has to investigate look at
the body, and then work with the FBI when they come to town because of
the drug manufacturers who make an addictive drug out of fairy dung. But
her old lover from Medical School is on the team, and heavily involved
is the richest family in town who were the dead girl’s adopted family.
I can’t wait for the sequel.
Derryl
Murphy tells us that magic users can see the number floating around. Some
of them can even survive after death by linking themselves to living magic
users. Certain talismans linked by numeric coincidence The most powerful
of these is Napier's Bones (trade from ChiZine Publications) an
abacus created from the actual bones of the inventor of logarithms.
Dom was almost killed searching for another talisman and now has the spirit
of John Napier chasing him. Helping him is Billy, a spirit searching for
his original memories, and Jenna, a waitress who can see the numbers but
is new to the world of magic numerology. Eventually it all comes down to
a duel in Scotland with the bones shaping reality and Jenna’s understand
of Heidelberg’s notebook necessary for survival. Lots of fun and I hope
for a sequel.
Atticus,
the ancient druid was Hounded (paper) by an Irish God over a stolen
sword, until Atticus had to kill him in Tempe Arizona. Unfortunately,
a bunch of the local witches died too. So, as Kevin Hearne tells it, Atticus
is Hexed (paper from Del Rey) by a group of ancient Germanic witches
whom Atticus had had a run in during World War II. Add in a bunch of Bacchants
(like the one from True Blood, only meaner) and he has his hands full.
Still fun.
I bought two books about evil assassins for my Kindle app.
Gin
Blanco is a retired assassin, the Spider, who has the rare power over two
elements. She’s at war with a very powerful fire elemental, Mab Monroe,
who basically runs the town because of her power. She has hired Elektra
LaFleur, an assassin with electrical powers who likes to burn her prey
to death. It’s a mess of Tangled Threads (paper from Pocket by Jennifer
Estep) because Elektra has Gin herself on the hit list, not knowing that
Gin and Spider are the same person. Gin also has to protect her sister,
Bria, a cop also on the list. As usual lots of fun. I can’t wait for Spider
to finally tackle Mab.
The assassin, Oleander likes poison, especially October Daye and her
friends. So October has to run about San Francisco and its Fae magical
spaces to find out who is working with Oleander and what are their motives. It’s
a case of Late Eclipses (paper from Daw)as the Queen of Mists insists
of charging October with treason, blaming her for the deaths, and condemning
her to death. Seanan McGuire also has fun with May, October’s personal
fetch who was created in a previous book to take her soul when she dies.
May is certain that October’s death is soon and doesn’t want to leave the
life and she has found in the city. I like this series.
Finally
Libba Bray has a tale of Beauty Queens (trade from Scholastic Press
which I bought for my Kindle App) who are survivors of a plane crash (think
Lord of the Flies or Gilligan's Island, not Lost).
They were the contestants to the Teen Dream pageant, and at first they
work on getting their pageant stuff better, rather than survival because
they think they are going to be rescued soon. But the evil corporation
who sponsors everything in America, doesn’t like the low rating of the
pageant, so they stop rescue attempts hoping the girls will die before
a pirate reality show uses the island. The girls not only survive but find
their true strengths The humor is sometimes over-the-top but the girls
emerge as real people.
David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer have made their
selection of the Year’s Best SF 16 (paper from Harper Voyager),
tales published in 2010. I could find only one tale in here that was nominated
for a Hugo. The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities (Hard
from Harper Voyager and edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer) is a collection
of Steam punk tales about the strange objects found in the cabinet
Dark Horse Comics has reprinted the eighth season of Buffy
the Vampire Slayer in seven combination volumes. The first half of
it is also available as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 Motion Comic
(DVD/ Bluray from 20th Century Fox)
Reprints from Baen this month include Deadly
Dreams (paper and includes two novels)from the late Andre Norton; Robert
Heilnlein’s classic about Farnham’s Freehold (trade), a place to
survive the fall of America; and the last fun, Leary and Mundy, space opera
from David Drake, What Distant Deeps (paper)
Transformer fans (not me) will be happy to
find Peter David’s novelization of Transformers: Dark of the moon
(paper from Del Rey).
If you’re worried about the end of the world, there’s
Travis S. Taylor and Bob Boan’s Alien Invasion: The Ultimate Survival
Guide for the Ultimate Attack.(trade from Baen)
The Science Fiction Society will have its next meeting
on July 8th, 2011 at 8 pm at International House on the University
of Pennsylvania. Campus. This is the Annual Hugo Review Panel which goes
over all the selections for the award.. Guests are welcome.
Blackout/All Clear (two books) by
Connie Willis won the Nebula Awards this year,
Dr. Henry Lazarus is a local Dentist and the author
of A Cycle of Gods from Wolfsinger Publications which can be bought on
Amazon.com.