Science Fiction for September 2012
by Henry Leon Lazarus
Steven
M. Irwin posts a world economically devastated after the polarity of the
Earth’s magnetic field switches. Not only that but people start seeing
individual ghosts. Some of them commit murder and The Broken Ones (hard
from Doubleday) who murder because their ghost tells them to, have an out,
a police department nicknamed the barelies who can certify the murder wasn’t
their fault. Oscar Mariani head the small department in London, now down
to two members. Then he decides to investigate a corpse with ritual scribbles
on it and not pass it on to homicide. Soon he barely survives attacks on
his life and has his car blown up. Evidence collected disappears along
with assistant coroners and his partner is murdered. There’sno one he can
rely on and the corruption extends far higher than he knows. This is a
dogged, gritty tale and impossible to put down.
Kat
Richardson’s tales of Harper Blaine, a private detective who can see into
the world of ghosts and magic has tried to keep her paranormal beings almost
real. This time she is the insurance investigator for the Seawitch
(hard from Roc) a yacht missing for twenty-seven years and suddenly returned
to Seattle. Working with police detective Ray Solis, who is willing to
accept the weird parts of the case, Harper has to face Ms. Richardson’s
version of Selkies and Mermaids, that somehow is tied in with the awful
wreck of the S. S. Valencia (actually built in Philadephia) in 1906. This
is very intense and hard to put down.
I
love Stacia Kane’s tales of church witch Chess Putnam enough to buy the
episodes that somehow never get sent to me. In Chess’s world the dead rose
up and an obscure church provided the only protection. Chess’s main job
is finding people who fake hauntings for the payments the Church gives
for real hauntings. But she is a drug addict, using uppers and downers
to stay sane. This time someone is putting ectoplasm into cocain and adding
magic to turn the addicts into mind-controlled slaves. So Chess and her
lover Terrible have to go into the darkest areas of the city Chasing
Magic (paper from Del Rey) to save the urban slum from destruction.
According
to G. T. Almasi, World War Ii ended with four major powers and a Shadowstorm
spy war that included agents amped up with cyborg modifications. Nine-teen-year-old
Alex Nico can run at thirty-five miles per hour, jump to the roof a five
story building, and, of course see in the dark. But she is only one of
many modified spies.Her father had been a top U. S. Agent until his death.
Then when a mission she had faked her way into, goes bad, she learns that
her father may not be dead after all and that she is being hunted by a
group of ex-agents, the Blades of Winter (paper from Del Rey). Soon
she is jetting around the world with her lover/partner, who is the same
age, hunting for Winter and searching for clues of her Father. Impossible
to put down and luckily the first of a series. G. T. Almasi is an author
to watch and definitely on my must buy list.
Michael
P. Spradlin must have loved the old westerns like The Lone Ranger
and The Wild Wild West. Blood Riders (paper from Harper Voyager)
introduces us to Jonas P. Hollister a former captain in the Calvary who
was court marshaled because they didn’t believe him as the only survivor
of a vampire attack. Allan Pinkerton, working for President Grant, believes
him and sends him and his partner Che (a quarter Chinese with kung fu abilities,
and a quarter Indian) armed with special weapons and a specially
designed train off after a mad vampire trying to created enough followers
to wage war against humanity. There’s a sexy good vampire, Shaniah, whose
people try to live in peace drinking only animal blood. Yes this is as
much fun as it sounds and I’m looking forward to the sequel.
Dani
and Eytan Kollin have taken a future, where mankind fills the solar system
and is a peace, through the turmoil of a civil war because of a man, Justin,
who had been in suspended animation since our near future. They reach
The Unincorporated Future (hard from Tor) through oa series of horrific
war crimes that leave billions dead. The series has been notable for solid
characters, cardboard villains who luckily don’t have much screen time
in this final book, and a description of space war that should be must
reading for future admirals of space fleets. The ending is worth the trip
and I really enjoyed the whole series.
Clay
Griffith and Susan Griffith conclude their fun, dashing tale
of humans fighting a vampire empire which conquered the northern part of
the world in 1900 after the beginning of an ice age. In the third and final
act, Prince Gareth, as heir to the English vampire thrown must go to England
and meet the Kingmakers (trade from Pyr) while Empress Adele sends
fleets of flying warships to bomb the vampires while they deliberate their
choice between Gareth and his evil brother Cesare. But Mamoru plans to
use Adele’s Gomancer powers in a way that will kill her. Very exciting
and a strong ending to a fun series.
I’ve
always felt that Carrie Vaughn’s tales of Kitty Norville, werewolf with
a radio show on the occult The Midnight Hour, would make a fun television
series. The latest send her to London for an International Conference on
Paranormal Studies, much more fun than the Olympics. She is the keynote
speaker and behind the scenes dealing with a potential vampire war. Of
course Kitty Steals the Show (paper from Tor) and saves her friends.
P.
I. Dan Chambeaux feels like Death Warmed Over (paper from Kensington)
because he kept working trying to solve his own murder and his other open
cases, After the Big Easy a lot of unnaturals appeared, according to Kevin
J. Anderson and zombies, ghosts, werewolves are just a few of them.
Together with his ghost office manager Shayenne whose murder he was also
trying to solve, and Robin his living, lawyer partner, they investigate
a divorce settlement between a man and his werewolf wife; protect a interior
decorator vampire (he only drinks soy blood) whose neighbors have all been
murdered; and finding out why zombies are melting all over town. He uses
the best cosmetic morticians to stay in shape while facing off the normal
and unnormal bad guys. Yes this is a silly as it sounds, but it is properly
silly. I giggled all through it and couldn’t stop reading.
Rachael
Caine is always fun. Bryn Davis is a Working Stiff(paper) who died early
in the first tale and brought back to life by a drug Returné by
a corporation Pharamadene. Now addicted to the drug, because otherwise
she dies again, she is running the funeral home where she started. But
she doesn’t get Two Weeks Notice (paper from Roc) when she is asked
to find out about a Pharamadene shell company as part of her agreement
to work with the FBI. What she finds is seven corpses, a bomb, and a flash
drive with movies showing revived people being tortured and then cremated.
There’s a new player in the game and they are after her. I’m waiting for
the third.
Ilona
Andrews has a new tale set in Atlanta where Magic ebbs and flows, destroying
many building in the process. A reclamation project run by Andrea’s ex-boy
friend finds a hidden vault and the shape shifters guarding it are murdered
by snakes. The return of Magic has allowed the return of old guards and
soon Adrea and her friends are involved with these old gods and Gunmetal
Magic(paper from Ace) Add in love and romance and shape-shifter politics
and you have fun. As a plus there’s an extra Kate Daniels novelette that
takes place at the same time with overlap of some of the same scenes. Both
are fun.
It’s
been eight years since Emma Donahoe, who started off as a nanny,
lost her love John Chen who also was Xuan Wu an important celestial god
in the Chinese mythology that is quite real in this series. Her charge
Simone is now fourteen and dropping classes to kill demons attacking the
Northern Kingdom. In this first book of the second trilogy, Emma has to
go from Earth to Hell (paper from Harper Voyager) and back again.
Kylie Chan has a good sense of how Chinese Mythical characters might exist
in a very real Hong Kong. Emma was injuected with demon stuff and has to
work and not transforming into a Demon Mother. What she’d rather transform
into is the huge snake that somehow att.atched itself to her. I really
enjoy this series, but new readers should start with the first trilogy.
It’s
been five years since Shanna Swendson lost her publisher for her fun, albeit
silly tales about Katie Chandler who got a job working for Enchanted, Inc.,
a magical company headed by Merlin. Katie has returned from Texas for a
better job in the advertising department. But their competitor Spellworks
is selling darker magic and creating magical illnesses so they can sell
the cure. There is Much Ado About Magic (ebook) because her boyfriend
Owen is being painted as the villain and the parents he never knew have
something to do about it. I’ve loved this series and this tale provides
a complete closure.
Six
years ago John Ringo’s Princess of Wands (available for free on
the Baen website) introduced us to a demon killing soccor mom who got her
powers from her Protestant belief in God. Queen of Wands (hard from
Baen) drops all the relationship parts of this genre. In the first part
Janea lost her Ka while investigating a Girl’s school that was creating
soulless zombies from local boys. Barbara is called in and soon is killing
the girls who were calling up a demon, and the boys they converted. Then
Janea has to recover her Ka by going to a mystical version of Dragon Con.
Finally both women have to face huge Lovecraftian monsters that require
more power than both of them have. This is not for fans of the genre who
like relationships in their adventure. Fans of John Ringo’s war fiction
should really dig it.
P.
I Remy Chandler was once the angel Remiel. In his third adventure he has
to help the still living Adam and his sons, along with a woman who has
inherited a spark from Eve, deal with the return with the Garden of Eden.
Thomas E. Sniegoski tells us that evil knows A Hundred words for Hate (trade
from Roc) but I found the tale a bit over-the-top and clichéd. I
started skimming to get to the end, which is never a good sign. People
who take standard religious mythology of angels and the devil with enjoy
this more.