Science Fiction for August 2010
by Henry Leon Lazarus
Mediaeval fantasy usually reflects many r modern
concepts into the ancient world like woman’s lib and human equality.
The actual society, however, was quite different with a strong belief in
place in society and of the strong hand of God moving the world. It was
a place of piety, where everyone knew their place was fixed as were their
children’s place.. It was the time where Nobles knew they were better than
anyone else. It was the time of the Black Death.
Maeb
Longtofte’s father fought in the Crusades and left her no dowery, so she
thought, when he died. She became a lady-in-waiting for the Countess of
Pengraic who was pregnant with her eighth child. The Earl was a very powerful
figure at the court of Edward III. Then a strange disease chases the household
to Pengraic, a disease that causes people to burst into fire. As Sara Douglass
tells it, the disease is Satan’s tool to find The Devil’s Diadem
(hard from William Morrow) stolen from the Templars. The Earl is also not
what he seems, and Maeb sees imps in his presence. When Maeb almost dies
of the plague, she sees a strange forest and wolves who drive her back
into life. This a very powerful tale and captures the mediaeval mind set
perfectly.
Dianne
Duane sets her wonderful tale of myths and legends during the early fourteenth
century. It is when the Swiss revolted against the Austrian nobility,
who were trying to turn them into surfs, and formed the original confederation.
It is most famous as the time of William Tell. It is also a time when the
gods and goddesses have gone into hiding with the rise of Christianity
and A Wind from the South (trade from Badfort Press which
I bought for my Kindle App)is blowing the change of freedom.. Mariarta
dil Alicg is educated because she is the daughter of the Mayor, but she
has inherited powers of the wind from her great, great grandmother, who
may have been the goddess of the hunt. She needs to control these powers
if she would help her people, and that means finding the hidden goddess.
On the way she confronts a magical bull hurting her home village. Then,
with her parents dead, she pretends to be male, living as a hunter. She
confronts the goddess of love in a cave where a friend is trapped, a ghost
trapped after a love suicide, and becomes involved in helping the rebellion
as she rides around on a magical stag. I loved it and can’t wait for the
sequel.
Mark
Lawrence starts a tale of Prince Honorous Jorg, who ran away from his father’s
kingdom after surviving the murder of his mother and brother by being caught
in a briar patch. Now at fifteen, this Prince of Thorns (hard from
Ace) is determined to use his father’s kingdom as a base to restore a broken
empire. It’s a thousand years since ancient weapons destroyed the technology
of our world. Ancient wizards work behind the thrones of many of the new
rulers and they present the biggest problem Jorg has to face. Jorg is so
violent he makes Conan the Barbarian seem like a wimp, and lucky enough
to survive the crazy risks he takes. I’m looking forward to the next book
in ths series.
David
Chandler tells an absolute romp through a mediaeval city, overcrowded with
people, a few dwarves, and even an orc. Malden, son of a whore, while trying
to join a Den of Thieves (paper from HarperCollins) accepts a commission
to steal the crown of the local ruler, not knowing it has magical properties.
But the problem is that the city is being turned upside down to find it,
and he had given it to a powerful wizard whose home is filled with magical
traps. Only with the help of a solid ghost and one of the five knights
of the ancient blades, has he any hope of stealing the crown back. This
is a very satisfying adventure and I couldn’t put it down.
Drew
Magary has depressing and intense look at our world after a cure
for aging is discovered a decade from now. John Farrell, The Postmortal
(Paper from Penguin) whose diary forms the basis for the story. At first
a divorce lawyer, he eventually becomes an end-of-days specialist helping
people suicide and eventually hunting criminals with death warrants. Even
though Mr. Magary looks at the evil side of human nature, throwing his
character again and again against the worst humanity has to offer, he really
captures a sense of humans react, both good and bad. There are terrorists
trying to stop the cure, and activists with various agendas. There’s even
a reference to a woman sick enough to want her baby to stay a baby for
eternity. I couldn’t put it down despite the nightmares..
I
immersed myself in the world of Jane True after getting the fourth
in the series and buying the rest for my Kindle App. According to Nicole
Peeler, there is a group of supernatural in our world actively keeping
themselves hidden. These tales are an odd mix of chic-lit,
and urban fantasy with a dark core of villains who enjoy torture.
Jane doesn’t realized she is the daughter of a selkie who deserted her
human family because of the call of the sea is too strong. Jane, who can’t
turn into a seal, can and needs to swim in the cold dangerous waters of
a giant tidal whirlpool called the Old Sow near the tiny
village of Rockabill in Maine. There she looks after her ailing father,
and works quietly in a bookstore. Then with Tempest Rising (paper)
she finds a corpse floating in the whirlpool which she manages to drag
to shore. That gets the attention of Nell, a local gnome, Anyan who can
swap from man to dog, Trill a Kelpie, and Ryu, a vampire (he only needs
a little bit of blood the way Jane needs to swim) and investigator
from the ruler of the local council. But the trail leads to the Alfar (think
elf) compound where the beings killing halflings are revealed. In Tracking
the Tempest (paper) a halfling with huge fire powers escapes from a
medical lab and starts killing all those who put him there. Jane, who has
been working on her magical abilities, wants to help and again the trail
leads to others mimicking the half-Ifrit. Just as Jane dumps Rhu, in Tempest’s
Legacy (paper)she is told that there are more of these medical labs
in which the halfling doctors spend more time torturing their pure-blood
subjects after using a drug that strips their powers. Jan’s mother is one
of the victims and Jane is at the heart of the fight to bring proof of
their villainy to the Alfar. The only way to capture the head of the research
is for Jane to be captured. Proof means nothing after a Royal assassination.
But back in Rockabill in the Eye of the Tempest (paper from Orb)
there’s a monster underneath the tidal whirlpool that both the Jane
and her friends, including a very ancient powerful person Jane calls Blondie,
have to confront. There are surprises below including the real history
of the supernaturals. In all the books Jane keeps getting more powerful
and there will be an ending which I can’t wait for.
In
Hexed (paper) Atticus, the two millennium old druid, promised
his vampire and werewolf lawyers that he would lead them to Asgard to get
Hammered (paper from Del Rey) by killing Thor, the Norse God
not the Comic Book/movie hero. Added to their party are a minor Thunder
God from a different pantheon and a Chinese Wizard both with an ax to grind.
Add in some Frost Giants and the rest of the Aesir and you get a fun tale
with lots of build up to the final battle. I suspect that Kevin Hearne
has more Atticus tales to come and I can’t wait.
Jacob
sees the monster who kills his Grandfather, but no one else does. His grandfather
had been a war orphan, the only survivor of his family, who spent part
of the war on an island off of Wales at Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar
Children (trade from Quirk Books which I bought for my Kindle App).
The children there were very peculiar, according to his Grandfather, one
being lighter-than-air, another had her mouth on the back of her head,
etc. To get over the trauma of the murder, Jacob and his father travel
to the island, where, Jacob first discovers that the home had been destroyed
by a Nazi bomb. But there is a magical link to 1943 where the children
in the pictures are still living, hiding from the monster. Ransom
Riggs has included a series of real pictures from the period to illustrate
the tale and that adds a wonderful extra level of depth. The ending is
wide open for a sequel which I will definitely buy, The plot is a bit generic,
which didn’t bother me, but I had expected something with more of a sense
of wonder.
Faith
has the Luck of the Devil (trade from Entangled Publishing) because
she literally is his daughter and has to hide the horns and tail that prove
it. As Patricia Eimer tells it, the Devil has three children Tolliver who
is rising high in Hell’s administration and who turned Faith’s roommate,
Lisa into a secubus; and Hope who is running a satanic sect out west. Lisa
eats the soul of Faith’s boss making her hide the body and leaving an inconvenient
ghost. Then her sister arrives after her demon husband falls up (becomes
good) and cleans up the sect. Then her dad and her flighty mother arrive
with almost mortal martial problems. It doesn’t help she’s being stalked
and is almost killed by a car bomb. Or that her seemingly mortal neighbor
may be more angelic than he seems. Even though the Alpha and the Devil
are getting along, there is still a hoard of angelic troops ready to kill
demons. Of course the ending has a deus-ex-machina feel because the Alpha
is involved. One of the funniest scenes is of him and his brother (Satan)
playing a Wii game badly. I giggled all way through and can’t wait for
the sequel.
Robert
Buettner continues his tale of Jazan Parker who had quit the spy game after
the last adventure. Then the love of his life, Kit, is captured on a mission
to a low tech planet on which the Yavi’s have found something that could
change the cold war between them and the Earth humans. So Jazan is literally
parachuted from orbit to find the local rebels. He has the impossible task
of not only rescuing Kit, but also somehow stopping his enemies from shipping
out the important mined material. Only an ability to think on his feet,
survive the Undercurrents (trade from Baen) of politics, and with
an awful lot of luck, and friends he makes on the ground allow him any
chance at succeeding. Lots of fun.
Jeannie
Holmes returns us to a world in which vampires are not only living, but
can stand the sun. Alexandra is still on suspension from the FBPI, but
her talent with psychic auras brings her back as a serial murderer, the
doll maker, resurfaces by killing a coed from the local college. It’s a
case of Blood Secrets (paper from Bantam) as the doll maker has
been killing his human victims to increase is psychic strength and is very
focused on Alexandra. Mystery fans who like the intensity of police procedurals
in weird environments will really eat this tale up, It’s a nice series
with plenty of ghosts in Alexandra’s past for many future tales.
Fans
of Kim Harrison’s tales of Rachael and Ivy in the Hollows will find that
Blood Work (hard from Del Rey), the tale of Rachael and Ivy’s first
meeting as agents for Inderland Security is a fun Graphic Novel. The agents
are on the trail of a cabal of witches who are killing Werewolves for a
magic spell.
Baen paperback reprints include Virginia Demarce’s
addition to Eric Flint’s long running series 1635:The Tangled Web;
David Webber’s latest Honor Harrington tale, Mission of Honor; Mark
L. Van Name’s tale of children turned into soldiers, Children No More;
and Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s continuation of the tale of Theo Waitley,
Saltation.
Orb has reprinted Kate Elliott’s tale of Cold
Magic (paper) in a nineteenth century world of magic, science, and
dirigibles. Bantam spectre has reprinted William Gibson and Bruce Sterling’s
tale of nineteen century computers, The Difference Engine(trade).
More short tales can be found in Ring of Fire
III (hard from Baen) which fill in gaps in Eric Flint’s long running
series. Carol Hightshoe has put together A Taste of Armageddon
(trade from WolfSinger Publications) with new tales about the end of
the world. I have a tale in it. Del Rey has republished some of the original,
classic Conan the Barbarian (paper) tales from Robert H. Howard
which are probably very different from the movie.
The Science Fiction Society will have its
next meeting on August 12th at 8:15p.m. at International House on
the University of Pennsylvania. Campus. Norman Spinrad, noted editor, author
and science fiction bad boy will speak. Guests are welcome.
Dr. Henry Lazarus is a local Dentist and the author
of A Cycle of Gods from Wolfsinger Publications