A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin

When George R.R. Martin’s A Storm of Swords begins, the War of the Five Kings has just ended, and it looks like the Lannisters have won the realm. They control King’s Landing, Westeros’ capital city, as well as the fifteen-year-old King Joffrey. Stannis Baratheon is in retreat, and their remaining foes, the Starks and the Greyjoys, have turned on each other rather than allying against a common enemy. Basically, the bad guys have won, but A Song of Ice and Fire isn’t over… Many of the greatest moments in A Storm of Swords turn on new twists to characters we thought we could safely revile… everything that happens in A Storm of Swords is succinct and thrilling, and Martin weaves just enough threads between these characters to assure his audience that all of this is heading to a common fate for all of Westeros. Although there is no common storyline uniting these characters yet, A Storm of Swords is still a winner. In fact, it might even prove to be the best entry in the series. Read the rest.

Epiphany of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe

… A smooth speaker, naturally athletic, and an intuitive and inventive tactician, Silk may well prove to be the greatest Caldé that Viron has ever had. He even has impeccable manners… In Epiphany of the Long Sun, Gene Wolfe compensates for Silk’s flawlessness by imposing an impressive set of handicaps and obstacles upon him… How will Silk lead his people to freedom and safety? While some people may find Silk an unlikely leader, I enjoyed his story. Silk is unlikely, particularly when compared to other SFF heroes. Silk often talks, rather than duels, his way to victory, and readers who enjoy well-crafted dialogue should appreciate Epiphany of the Long Sun. In comparison to the first omnibus, Litany of the Long Sun, the scope of the novels’ conflict has shifted from Silk becoming a leader to the intrigues of Silk’s leadership. Gene Wolfe, as always, leaves a healthy amount of conflict and tension in the details and careful readers will find themselves rewarded for paying close attention. The setting, a generation ship that has been traveling so long that its people have forgotten that they’re aboard a spaceship, is fantastic, but what makes Epiphany of the Long Sun, and The Book of the Long Sun as a whole, such a success is that Gene Wolfe has so carefully, perhaps flawlessly, executed his vision. Perhaps it is the excellence of Wolfe’s writing that makes Silk’s unlikely leadership so believable. Read the rest.

Pattern Recognition William Gibson

William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition was published in 2003 and it marks the first of what has come to be known as the Bigend trilogy, a series of three novels united by a background character, Hubertus Bigend… Here, Gibson’s writing is subtle and the characters are nuanced. The conflicts and themes that Gibson discusses — which often relate to style, marketing, and the way that ideas are spread — are mature. It should come as no surprise that Pattern Recognition’s characters live in the world after September 11th, 2001. There is a subdued paranoia that lurks in the background of every conversation and careful readers will find themselves surprisingly responsive to the atmosphere that Gibson has created here. Although Pattern Recognition offers very little action-adventure, it may yet prove itself Gibson’s masterpiece. Pattern Recognition is a deeply satisfying novel from one of science fiction’s finest writers. Read the rest.

Neuromancer by William Gibson

Originally published in 1984, William Gibson’s debut novel, Neuromancer, has it all: clones, artificial intelligences that manipulate human affairs, and ninjas… Gibson’s writing is often remembered for its influence on cyberpunk and science fiction… There’s a lot here that warrants applause. So perhaps it should come as no surprise that Neuromancer won the Nebula, the Hugo, and the Philip K. Dick award. Some people remember William Gibson as a prophetic author who coined the term ‘cyberspace.’ Neuromancer is more accurately understood as an excellent read and an impressive start to what has become one of the most acclaimed careers in science fiction. It’s required reading. Read the rest.

Perdido Street Station by China Miéville

… Perdido Street Station and its sequels have made China Miéville one of the most acclaimed fantasy writers of the 21st century. Perdido Street Station is an outstanding urban fantasy full of unconventional plot twists and the most unlikely of heroes… there is a great deal going on here, and Miéville clearly enjoys introducing his readers to all of the back alleys and shady bars that make up New Crobuzon… Miéville has achieved a great deal in this novel, and it’s a story that has earned him a loyal fan base, not to mention numerous awards. The excitement of Perdido Street Station is very much the excitement found in a truly urban city, one where even the hippest residents struggle to keep up with what is going on. Read the rest.

Litany of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe

Though not essential, it wouldn’t hurt to do some homework before reading Litany of the Long Sun, Gene Wolfe’s omnibus edition of two novels: Nightside the Long Sun and Lake of the Long Sun. Litany and its companion omnibus Epiphany of the Long Sun make up the Book of the Long Sun series, which is itself an independent part of Gene Wolfe’s Solar Cycle… Though his novels are not found on the bestseller list, Gene Wolfe is among the most acclaimed writers in his field. Readers looking for a complex blend of fantasy and science fiction peopled with mature and intricate character interaction could hardly do better than to start with Litany of the Long Sun. Though Silk’s story is just one part of Gene Wolfe’s Solar Cycle, readers should not shy away from starting with this fantastically written novel. Read the rest.

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

…Guards! Guards! is among the best of the Discworld novels and is a possible entry point for readers new to Terry Pratchett’s body of work… Although Pratchett is acknowledged as a talented humorist, he is an undeniably skilled fantasy writer. Many readers enjoy the Witches and Rincewind novels, but Pratchett brings his game to a new level in his creation of the City Watch. His satiric targets (here including buddy cop stories, secret societies, and the use of dragons in fantasy) are focused and work well together to create not only a humorous read, but also an exciting and interesting one. More than anything else, Pratchett has taken the time to create comparatively nuanced, round characters in the City Watch. The Discworld novels make for a sprawling series and new readers may find themselves confused over where to start. Some of his early novels feel a little unpolished, but with Guards! Guards!, Pratchett has clearly found his stride. For its enjoyable characters, amusing plot, and its memorable humor, Guards! Guards! is a must-read Discworld novel. Read the rest.

Zero History by William Gibson

It is getting more difficult to classify William Gibson as an SFF writer. Although Gibson’s earliest work stands alongside the best of science fiction and cyberpunk, and The Difference Engine, which he co-wrote with Bruce Sterling, is a well-respected steampunk novel, Gibson’s Bigend trilogy has left cyberpunk, outer space, and human cloning behind. Instead, Zero History is about jeans… The writing in Zero History stands up to anything that Gibson has written to date. The plot is exciting, perhaps because Zero History is as much a techno-thriller as it is a mystery or spy novel — forget about sci-fi. Ultimately, Gibson has delivered a well-crafted conclusion to what has been an unusual trilogy of “science fiction” novels. Read the rest.

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones is set in Westeros, a continent that was divided into Seven Kingdoms until the Targaryens and their dragons conquered it. Fourteen years before the story begins, Ned Stark, Robert Baratheon, and Jon Arryn led a rebellion against the mad king Aerys Targaryen. Robert became king, Jon became the King’s Hand, and Ned returned north to govern his lands. Now, Jon has died and Robert demands that Ned come south to help rule the realm. Unfortunately ruling the realm without dragons is easier said than done. The overwhelming majority of Westeros’ leaders imagine their role as a “game of thrones” rather than responsible governance… A Game of Thrones is decidedly bleak and often feels all too realistic for comfort… Martin’s decision to undermine everyone’s motivations offers readers an unusual experience, regardless of their genre preferences. Consequently, A Game of Thrones is an impressive start to an excellent fantasy series that will hopefully finish as strong. Read the rest.

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

… If ever a book was aptly named, it must surely be George R.R. Martin’s A Clash of Kings. Sadly, no one will escape the horrors and atrocities of this civil war. Lords and knights are supposed to provide the weak with protection, but the “common people” suffer rape, pain and death more than any other class in this war. So although most people in Westeros think monsters are just “grumkins” and children’s tales, we know the truth: there are plenty of monsters in the Seven Kingdoms, all of them fighting for just a little more power… Martin has an uncanny ability to create larger than life heroes (and villains) with little more than a nickname or a sigil… This is especially true for Tyrion Lannister… Is Tyrion a hero, a villain, or a monster? Many readers will find themselves convinced that Tyrion is all of the above, which may well be Martin’s greatest achievement. A Clash of Kings is a fast-paced and intriguing fantasy, one that delivers on every promise made in A Game of Thrones. It is also a violent, brutal novel, and few readers will want to live in Westeros. However, nearly every reader will return to it and to Martin’s third novel, A Storm of Swords. Read the rest.

Dune by Frank Herbert

… Frank Herbert’s Dune is now considered a masterpiece of science fiction, but if its setting were only slightly altered, it would be universally considered a monumental work of fantasy. It certainly offers everything a reader of fantasy could ask for, from world building to dueling to political intrigue… it can be approached from many perspectives. Readers can follow Paul’s rise to power as a coming-of-age story. The conflict between the Harkonnens and House Atreides feels suspiciously similar to an epic fantasy driven by a quest for revenge. The ecological determinism that Herbert describes might now be considered ahead of its time, as is its exploration of the nature of leadership. Herbert alludes to Arab culture, a variety of religions, and the politics of empire — all of which provide interesting paths for the reader. And of course Dune can be read as an action-adventure in which marauding Fremen armed with knives made from teeth ride sandworms across the desert to punish cruel villains… Dune is an easily read work whose conflicts certainly remain fascinating today. Regardless of why or how, Dune is a must read for all SFF fans. Read the rest.

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

Readers considering whether they should read Neal Stephenson’s breakthrough novel, Snow Crash, would do well to read the novel’s opening chapters about the Deliverator. Rarely has a sales pitch been so blatantly — and so masterfully — launched at the start of a novel. Even James Bond must envy such a rich opening gambit. For some readers, the remainder of Snow Crash will not live up to the pacing of the opening sequence. In fact, I’d even go so far as to suggest that Stephenson’s hero, Hiro Protagonist — who carries a katana and who is supposed to be “type A on steroids” — does not live up to his introduction. Yet, the style and sheer attitude of the opening is a joy to read, and this mood, which skates the line between irony and geek enthusiasm, is maintained throughout. Read the rest.

The Scar by China Miéville

… Miéville catapulted to fame amongst fantasy readers with his first Bas-Lag book, Perdido Street Station and has done something even more amazing in its sequel, The Scar… readers will find themselves wishing that they could live in Miéville’s pirate city. Armada is a stunningly original setting, and Miéville relies not only on his characters but also on his fascinating ideas to keep the story moving… Miéville has a stunning ability to stand outside many of the standard paths taken in fantasy, creating utterly new perspectives and motivations in his unusual characters. Perhaps Miéville’s novels make for such refreshing reading because they so successfully defy genre expectations. For this reason, many choose to classify Miéville’s writing as “weird” rather than fantasy. Certainly it’s fantastic, and The Scar has swords that operate outside the realm of possibility and sorcery that remakes humans into ocean creatures. No matter how we classify Miéville’s work as a whole, The Scar is required reading for fantasy fans in the 21st century. Read the rest.

Anathem by Neal Stephenson

In his “Note to the Reader” at the start of Anathem, Neal Stephenson writes “if you are accustomed to reading works of speculative fiction and enjoy puzzling things out on your own, skip this Note.” My advice is this: Don’t skip the Note. In spite of years of speculative fiction reading, I found myself constantly referring to the novel’s chronology and glossary, not to mention online summaries and Stephenson’s acknowledgements page. Here’s why. Our narrator, Fraa Erasmus, is an avout, a fid, and an Edharian. He is a Hylaean, a Protan, and a Decenarian. He lives in the mathic world, not extramuros. Nor does he live in the Sæcular world, though he was born there. It is worth noting that Erasmus is also not a Procian, an Ita, nor a Hierarch. He is also not a member of the Inquisition, the Millenarians, or even the Old Lineage. He’s not even an Earthling… Read the rest.

The Dark Tower by Stephen King

Stephen King’s concluding volume of The Dark Tower series, The Dark Tower, is nothing if not surprising. Since its release, fans have squabbled over whether King hits a homerun or hits the ditch in the final volume of what has been described as his masterwork. Without giving away the ending, I think the resolution of The Dark Tower is fantastic… However, what will it mean to finish this quest? What makes The Dark Tower novels impressive is the romance that King has lent to Roland’s quest. Only the broadest details of what the Dark Tower is have been given. Instead, King has built his Dark Tower almost entirely out of allusions and recollections. Readers, like Roland, simply trust that the destination will justify the journey. Read the rest.

The Saxon Shore by Jack Whyte

… The Saxon Shore follows Caius Merlyn Britannicus (still known as Caius), who finds himself the leader of a beleaguered Camulod. Last bastion of civilization or not, Camulod has been sorely weakened by its battles in The Eagle’s Brood, and Caius is doing everything in his power to ensure that the colony survives… As always, Whyte does a fine job with his battle sequences and world building, and we make it all the way to Ireland in this installment… it is truly gratifying to see all that foundational work paying off. And if nothing else, Whyte truly has provided the details to take his Roman legionaries, step by step, all the way to this proto-Round Table colony. However, the story is not over yet. Arthur is still a young man and his destiny awaits. The Saxon Shore is, beyond any doubt, a work in the midst of a series, but it begins to pay dividends on the investments of the early novels in this unusual historical fantasy series. Read the rest.

City of Dreams and Nightmares by Ian Whates

… If fantasy is a genre that is prone to recycling old ingredients to make something new, then Whates has clearly proven himself with City of Dreams and Nightmares. Fantasy veterans will find plenty of familiar tropes, including the young street rat that discovers a secret power… ideas may feel familiar, but they allow Whates to touch on many of fantasy’s most enjoyable motifs. Ultimately, Whates’ greatest achievement is the gritty streets of Thaiburley… City of Dreams and Nightmares is one of those rare books that doesn’t need a blurb on the back cover to motivate the reader to carry on. Just turn to the first page. Whates wastes no time setting up his opening gambit and delivers on his promises with Thaiburley, a mountain city that’s as much fun as snakes and ladders. The towers and turrets of City of Dreams and Nightmares are a maze that hides corrupted leaders, desperate street thieves, and an overworked police force trying to make sense of it all. Read the rest.

Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko

Anton Gorodetsky is a magician-detective from Moscow’s Night Watch, an organization of light wizards and sorceresses that police the dark magicians… it’s difficult to make out the logic that underlies Lukyanenko’s world… However, if the world that Lukyanenko has created suffers from its fuzzy details, it also benefits from the ambiguity. The cold war between the light and the dark in Moscow is a compelling premise and Lukyanenko has a talent for creating suspense through standoffs between the rival watches. And even if the world never feels complete, Night Watch feels complete enough to keep the reader turning pages as Anton strives to save sorceresses, outwit dark wizards, and survive his boss’ intrigues and schemes. Read the rest.

Shadows Linger by Glen Cook

…The Black Company books are often categorized as military or dark fantasy, but perhaps “hard fantasy” would be more accurate, as Glen Cook combines the hard-boiled voice with classic fantasy tropes that we might expect to see in a board game. The setting could not be any more “sword and sorcery” if it tried… Cook’s narrator, Croaker, has a tired voice that comes straight out of a hard-boiled detective novel… The Black Company series has become a classic work of fantasy, and of the original three books, my favorite entry is Shadows Linger. Here, Cook begins to invest in his characters without sacrificing the hard-boiled edge that made The Black Company so fun to read. Read the rest.

The Curse of the Wendigo by Rick Yancey

… The Curse of the Wendigo is a surprisingly clever young adult novel. If we’re lucky, we’ll see a series of stories in the tradition of Sherlock Holmes about Dr. Pellinore Warthrop, the monstrumologist who attempts to disprove the existence of monsters. With this series, Yancey has become one of young adult literature’s finest craftsmen and it should come as no surprise that he received the Michael L. Printz Honor for the first installment in this series. Yancey is a fine writer, and he shares Lemony Snicket’s gift for allusions. One part The Hound of the Baskervilles, one part Dracula, Yancey’s latest novel is a joy to read. Yancey’s characters are wonderfully weird, and it is a great deal of fun to follow Dr. Pellinore Warthrop and his assistant Will Henry as they attempt to deconstruct The Curse of the Wendigo. Read the rest.

The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King

There is a lot to be said in praise of Stephen King, but one of his most admirable talents is his ability to vest his heroes with such unlikely and frustrating vulnerabilities. King certainly wastes no time castrating the recently victorious Roland Deschain in The Drawing of the Three, the second of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower novels… Fans of The Gunslinger may find themselves at a loss to explain how King managed to turn his back on the radioactive Mid-World across which Roland followed the Man in Black. There are no wizards, no flashbacks to Roland’s childhood home of Gilead, and no lone wolf tale. Instead, King trades in the lonesome wanderer motif in order to recruit a posse of New Yorkers. If The Gunslinger is an unusual novel within King’s body of work, The Drawing of the Three brings Roland’s tale into sync with the rest of King’s bizarre universe… Read the rest.

The Wizard and the Glass by Stephen King

The Wizard and the Glass, the fourth of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower novels, returns to the Mid-World of Roland’s youth. Having recently bested his teacher in combat, Roland is now a gunslinger, one of the cowboy-knights of Gilead. However, Roland is young, and his father sends him away from his court — and away from the villainous sorcerer Marten Broadcloak. With his two companions — clever Cuthbert and the steady, cerebral Alain — by his side, what’s the worst that can happen? Unfortunately, there are no safe places for Roland in Mid-World… The Wizard and the Glass stands out among King’s Dark Tower novels for its tight plot, its western setting, and its fantastic villains. Read the rest.

Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King

In Full Dark, No Stars, the latest short story collection from Stephen King, our heroes explore the boundaries between victim and predator, often exchanging roles as they navigate their way through the twisted passages of King’s mind… Full Dark, No Stars offers everything that readers expect from a Stephen King story. There are references to Americana — the kind that King twists as his protagonists descend into madness. And King always offers a clear metaphor to explain simply how his murderers come to justify their actions. As Wilf says, we all have a “conniving man” inside of us, whispering. That may or may not be true for us, the readers, but it is true for the characters in these stories. Perhaps most impressively, King has the ability to make America seem like an utterly disturbing place. Beneath its veneer of wholesome middle-class lifestyle, something twisted is lurking… In Full Dark, No Stars, there is always something unthinkable. And it’s waiting… Read the rest.

Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison

If Harlan Ellison’s afterword from 2010 is to be believed, Deathbird Stories is a short story collection about the merits of religion and the religious. Given that Ellison is perhaps as confrontational as he is influential in sci-fi circles, we can expect him to crush eggshells as he goes. However, with a few exceptions these stories tend to examine the values and ideas that we have placed at the forefront of our society. In short, Ellison explores the West’s changing values and the new deities of the 20th century… Deathbird Stories has been a highly regarded short story collection for 35 years, and rightly so. It’s focused, imaginative, and often more humorous than Ellison lets on… Read the rest.

Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson

… Sanderson has assembled a real plot again in Towers of Midnight… there are many reasons to read Towers of Midnight, not the least of which is that it begins to reward all the time that Robert Jordan’s fans have dedicated to this epic series. On top of this, there are fine action sequences and battles — it feels like forever since we last read about Trollocs, but they’re back. The world is ending, but Sanderson reserves a lot of time for humor, particularly with Mat. And there are moments of prophecy offered, defied, and fulfilled. In short, Towers of Midnight features some of the best things that The Wheel of Time has to offer. Read the rest.

The Eagle’s Brood by Jack Whyte

The Eagle’s Brood, by Jack Whyte, is the third book in the Camulod Chronicles… Once again, there are fierce battle scenes and duels, but they are more than balanced with planning of battles and logistics, philosophizing about Christian doctrine and politics, and, of course, administrating Camulod… Whyte is nothing if not meticulous about historical detail. These stories and their protagonists are products of the Middle Ages and although they are creative and innovative in an age that is often associated with stagnation, Whyte ensures that his heroes come by their ideas honestly… Whyte’s great strength remains his ability to flesh out a world that could give birth to Arthur. The Eagle’s Brood is a fine piece of historical adventure. Read the rest.

The Book of the Short Sun by Gene Wolfe

… Gene Wolfe has earned a reputation for writing novels that benefit from being read twice. His works are often complex and they do tend to reward careful reading, so much so that it’s not uncommon to hear prospective readers asking which of his Solar Cycle works is the easiest to read. Wolfe’s Book of the Short Sun trilogy is certainly not the place to start, but it is an otherwise fine finish to this distinguished cycle of stories that bridge the gap between fantasy and science fiction, and for some readers, between literary and genre fiction… the voice and dialogue in particular are superb… there’s more at stake in the narration and narrative structure here than ever before… this closing trilogy from Gene Wolfe’s Solar Cycle does offer an engaging puzzle for readers, and perhaps it is best considered over more than one reading. Read the rest.

Soldier of Sidon by Gene Wolfe

…Considering how long Latro’s story has been waiting, readers could be forgiven for expecting Soldier of Sidon (published in 2006) to be a disappointment. Fortunately, both Wolfe and Latro have aged very well. Years have passed and Latro still cannot remember what happens from one day to the next… In Soldier of Sidon, Latro and his story move at a fast pace, but not so fast as to keep Wolfe from writing fantastically nuanced scenes… Four decades into his career, Wolfe’s writing remains reliably rich and his plots full of mystery, swords, and dazzling damsels (who are not necessarily as distressed as they appear). As in the first two Soldier books, Wolfe does his best to tell Latro’s adventures without overlooking the day-to-day life in an ancient civilization. Soldier of Sidon is a fine work, and perhaps the best thing about it is that it leaves room for a fourth novel. Read the rest.

The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson

… Simply put, the premise, characters, and world building of Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age are fantastic. It is a joy to read about Nell’s journeys in her primer, which are always built around archetypal fairytales, as well as her attempts to escape poverty… Stephenson maintains a light balance of sci-fi exploration, adventure, and humor… The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer is most often criticized for its abrupt ending…. while Stephenson does not finish telling the story of The Diamond Age, he does reach a sense of resolution with A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer. In other words, the coming of age story is concluded, but we can’t help wondering what happens next… Regardless, this flaw did not prevent Stephenson from winning both a Hugo and a Locus Award for The Diamond Age, and it should not prevent anyone from reading about A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer. The two storylines add up to an excellent novel from one of speculative fiction’s finest authors. Read the rest.

City of Hope and Despair by Ian Whates

In City of Dreams and Nightmares, Ian Whates introduced us to Thaiburley, a mountain city where the rich literally live at the top of the mountain and the poor make do in the City Below. When Tom, a street-nick with a burgeoning gift for magic, ran afoul of a scheming arkademic, Magnus, he only just managed to escape… Like its predecessor, City of Hope and Despair puts together all of fantasy’s most popular ingredients: extended duels between assassins, a teenager discovering his magical powers, and even hints of an ancient war (is it back?). Yes, there are elements of Whates’ narrative that feel familiar — Thaiburley feels like a PG-13 version of China Miéville’s New Crobuzon and the Rust Warrior recalls Tool from Gardens of the Moon. Still, City of Hope and Despair offers fantasy fans a quick read, a memorable adventure, and the promise of more to come. Read the rest.

The White Rose by Glen Cook

The final entry in a trilogy requires something special. In fantasy, that usually means finding godly machinery and amassing armies that will face each other on some distant, volcanic plain while a small band of covert heroes pull off a daring, one-in-a-million scheme. However, up to this point, Glen Cook’s Black Company series has stood out for its noir atmosphere more than its epic company of mercenaries. Surprisingly, in The White Rose, Cook sacrifices his hard-boiled narrative for an epic fantasy storyline. It’s a daring, one-in-a-million scheme. But it pays off… Cook’s final entry of The Black Company: The Books of the North consistently feels like a classic, archetypal high fantasy. Archetypal stories can invite authors to focus on broad details, but Cook is clever enough to pay attention to the little things. There are many fine details to applaud in The White Rose… an enjoyable fantasy novel and a satisfying conclusion to the first trilogy in what is now recognized as a classic fantasy series. Read the rest.

Embassytown by China Miéville

…Embassytown devotes a great deal of time to language, and it seems fitting that China Miéville showcases his most mature and refined (least pugnacious?) writing to date. The writing suggests and evokes, trusting our imagination to fill in the details… The early plot of Embassytown is decidedly slow, and readers will need to be prepared to revel in this unusual universe, its strange aliens, and the Hosts’ unique Language. Miéville’s heroine, Avice, is often insightful but rarely engaging, which gives the narrative voice a detached feeling… This distance allows Miéville to outline just how cool his latest setting is, but it just as often mutes the novel’s tension. Consequently, Embassytown may not be the easiest introduction to China Miéville’s writing. However, it is remarkable that Miéville has produced such a consistently strong and thoughtful body of work. His fans, as per usual, will have little to complain about. Indeed, Embassytown is yet another piece of evidence suggesting that Miéville’s unusual career path — which defies genres, series, and the sense that there is a limit to anyone’s imagination — has arguably led to the most exciting body of work of our time. Read the rest.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

… What’s the point of fantasy if it doesn’t offer us the chance to escape the mundane? Readers looking for an innocent high fantasy in which quests are taken on and completed after gaining a sense of self-awareness, defeating evil, and saving the princess should probably skip The Magicians. This story refuses to attempt those things innocently… hardly a page in The Magicians goes by without Grossman’s characters alluding to popular fantasies and then mocking what makes them “fantasies.” However, don’t mistake the characters for the author. While his characters are busy nurturing their cynical worldview in a traditionally optimistic genre, Grossman orchestrates a surprisingly “by the numbers” fantasy in which we move from training to testing to questing… Grossman manages to satisfy all of our expectations of a high fantasy while offering a bandage of irony for the self-esteem of adult readers that are too insecure to admit that they enjoy Harry Potter novels. Read the rest.

The Magician King by Lev Grossman

… if a clever, amusing voice were the only thing driving The Magician King, it would surely be received as a disappointment. Instead, Grossman demonstrates that he has honed his fantasy chops. Critics will find it difficult to simply label The Magician King as “Harry Potter for adults” as they did with its predecessor. There’s just too much plot, and readers will almost certainly enjoy reading a clever rendition of their favorite trope, whether it be dragons, trickster deities, or even a brief war of the gods. Grossman has done his homework, and it shows. Even the sword dueling is quite impressive… The Magician King is a very enjoyable fantasy, one that is sure to impress fans of The Magicians and that will also hopefully satisfy Lev Grossman’s detractors. It’s clear that he has the potential to become one of the best authors SFF has to offer. Read the rest.

Reamde by Neal Stephenson

… Reamde is further proof that Neal Stephenson is writing in a class of his own. He fuses his typically convoluted plot with the pace and structure of a thriller, and he quite happily tosses bullet points into his fiction. Almost every reader will come upon a section of (the 1000 page long) Reamde that feels unnecessary or indulgent. However, it’s difficult to fault these sequences because they illustrate that Neal Stephenson’s plots are fun enough in spite of, perhaps because of, these digressions. Few other authors digress with such confidence that their audience will still be reading when they finish… Reamde is a fun, engaging thriller. Though long, it feels as though it could quite easily be made into a Hollywood blockbuster. (Or perhaps it feels like it was inspired by a Hollywood blockbuster.) Consequently, Reamde is a novel that will certainly satisfy Neal Stephenson’s fans, but it may also serve as a gateway into his canon for newcomers. Read the rest.

The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King

Stephen King’s latest, The Wind Through the Keyhole, is a DARK TOWER novel. The cover assures readers that they can read this novel even if they have not read the rest of the series, which is probably true, but the already converted will be interested to know that The Wind Through the Keyhole is something like the 4.5^th book in the series. While King may not (cannot?) offer any revelations here that will significantly alter the course of the series, he does offer readers another chance to join Roland and his posse of gunslingers as they make their way toward the Dark Tower… The Wind Through the Keyhole may not be the best novel in the DARK TOWER series, but it works very well as a DARK TOWER adventure. In his Foreword, King writes that he “was delighted to discover my old friends had a little more to say. It was a great gift to find them again, years after I thought their stories were told.” I agree, and would be happy to read further stories from Mid-World. Read the rest.

The Skystone by Jack Whyte

You’ll be forgiven for overlooking that Jack Whyte’s The Skystone is an adaptation of Arthurian legend. Believe it or not, Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table are nowhere to be found. Instead, Whyte’s story is about Roman general Caius Britannicus’ dream for Britain. The Skystone is set amidst the Roman withdrawal from Britain… Whyte has a talent for action scenes, and he adds a few political intrigues, feuds, and rivalries to keep his reader occupied. However, the bulk of The Skystone is about meticulously building a colony that can give rise to Arthur, a king who can unite the British against their invaders. As such, although there are a few duels and romances, The Skystone is primarily concerned with reflection, consideration, and especially dialogue. Whyte’s heroes work their way carefully through ideas that a contemporary reader would take for granted, and Whyte has a talent for solving mysteries within the framework of a 5th century Roman soldier’s worldview. Perhaps the most difficult mystery of all is that of the Skystone. It produces a better quality of metal than anything else Varrus and Britannicus have ever encountered. Where did it come from, and where can more be found? At the start of the novel, Varrus only has enough to make a knife, but what if there was enough to make a sword? A 5th century audience might find such a sword magical. Read the rest.

The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar

…The Bookman is an alternate history of Victorian England that focuses on the authors of the era, as well as many of their fictional creations. For some, this clever premise may strongly recall Alan Moore’s graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Is that a problem? Most will argue not since, like Moore, Tidhar has a great deal of fun stirring up trouble in the Victorian Era and then setting his poets and canonical characters on the trail of a mysterious villain. In The Bookman, Tidhar has created a wonderfully clever world, relying either on a house full of Victorian-era books or a heavily stamped library card and late fees. Either way, many of Tidhar’s creations are fantastic, a standout being the simulacra of Lord Byron, a robot designed to recall the great Romantic poet. With a sigh he will admit that he doesn’t have the original Byron’s love of poetry… Read the rest.

Un Lun Dun by China Miéville

…Regardless of their age, fans of Miéville’s work will find satisfaction in the fantastic creations on display in Un Lun Dun… To his usually well-described creations, Miéville has added charming illustrations throughout the text… Miéville’s willingness to meld genres has earned him a considerable audience, but that may work against him here. Fans of Miéville’s more daring and adult moments may find Un Lun Dun’s plot somewhat unsatisfying. Ironically, young adult readers accustomed to the relentless plotting of The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins) or Uglies (Scott Westerfeld) may find Un Lun Dun’s plot too drawn to its creations and characters. However, readers prepared to explore Un Lun Dun on its own terms should find it a satisfying young adult digression from one of our best fantasy writers. Read the rest.

Looking for Jake by China Miéville

…In Looking for Jake, Miéville freely explores whatever ideas take his fancy, without the burden of smoothing everything into a sensible narrative. Not surprisingly, many of the stories in Looking for Jake therefore have a sort of experimental flavor… Miéville moves effortlessly from one genre to another, ranging from graphic stories to ghost stories to medical entries… Because Miéville has earned the reputation of a weird writer among weird writers, some readers may see Looking for Jake as a sort of sampler plate. If so, beware: Miéville does not reach the same heights here as he does in Perdido Street Station or in later successes like The City & The City. Then again, Miéville’s greatest strength as a writer may be his overwhelming originality, and the stories collected in Looking for Jake certainly stand witness to his versatility and potential. Read the rest.

King Rat by China Mieville

An urban fantasy set in London, China Miéville’s debut novel King Rat tells the story of Saul Garamond, the Prince of Rats. Unfortunately for London’s rats, the Pied Piper of Hamelin has recently come to town… Miéville’s debut contains many of the ingredients of his later work, including an unusual urban setting, a revisionist approach to fantasy, and an original vocabulary. As we might expect, Miéville tosses in a few great ideas, my favorite here being the rebellion of the rats against their king. Compared to other urban fantasies, King Rat feels hip and adult, perhaps because Miéville focuses on drum & bass culture as much as he does on rat powers and life in the sewers. Many readers will approach King Rat in the hopes of reading something more akin to Miéville’s later work, and these readers may find themselves a little disappointed. However, urban fantasy fans will find a great deal to love in King Rat. Though King Rat may not be as exciting and “weird” as his later novels, China Miéville was already off to a good start when he wrote King Rat. Read the rest.

Spook Country by William Gibson

William Gibson’s Spook Country is set in the same universe as Pattern Recognition, but Hubertus Bigend aside, there is little here that recalls its predecessor. Spook Country is perhaps the weakest entry in Gibson’s Bigend trilogy… Spook Country is not a novel that will reward readers looking for a clear and thrilling plot. While Cayce Pollard of Pattern Recognition made for a fascinating protagonist, none of her three successors is fit to fill her “Cayce Pollard Unit” shoes. Readers should instead focus on the subtly paranoid atmosphere that Gibson crafts in the background. And sentence-to-sentence, Gibson’s writing is as sharp as ever. In the world that Gibson has created in the Bigend series, the citizenry is hopelessly uninformed — and incapable of changing their lot. As such, the most exciting things in Spook Country are restricted, and we only barely glimpse them. It can be frustrating, which is why Spook Country is ultimately a novel for the already converted. Read the rest.

Luka and the Fire of Life by Salman Rushdie

The Little Prince and Alice in Wonderland are sometimes considered “Children’s Literature,” but both stories speak to the human imagination so directly that they free themselves from the shackles of young age. In his latest novel, Luka and the Fire of Life, Salman Rushdie seeks to write a transcendently ageless, imaginative story about Luka, a boy who was born to turn back time… Rushdie has created an often-surreal atmosphere in Luka and the Fire of Life, but his word play is the most memorable part of the novel… Like Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events, Rushdie is ever allusive and humorous. Rushdie is one of the most acclaimed writers of our time, and readers that are able to tune in to the magic realism that Rushdie has created here are likely to enjoy Luka and the Fire of Life. Read the rest.

Atlantis and Other Places by Harry Turtledove

Atlantis and Other Places is a collection of short stories published over the last ten years, in which Harry Turtledove does his best to showcase the freedom offered to writers of alternate history. Just ask “what if” and see what happens. For example: What if 21st century news media existed during World War Two? What if centaurs suddenly discovered humans? What if complex intelligence had evolved in mollusks instead of people? They’re interesting ideas and it’s tough not to be curious about what sort of ride Turtledove has constructed for his audience. What’s more, Turtledove clearly enjoys exploring these historical reversals and alterations… Some of these stories and characters are a little too smoothly drawn. However, readers with an enthusiasm for history and a weakness for “what if?” will find something to enjoy in Atlantis and Other Stories. Read the rest.

Hawkmoon: The Runestaff by Michael Moorcock

…Hawkmoon: The Runestaff is an old-school sword and sorcery tale. Originally published in 1969, Michael Moorcock’s The Runestaff is the fourth entry in The History of the Runestaff… Hawkmoon: The Runestaff is pretty fun, especially if contemporary readers approach it as a classic work of epic fantasy and adventure from a legend in the genre. Moorcock’s characterization here is very direct — Hawkmoon is a straight-up good guy — and the battle lines are clearly drawn… At times, Hawkmoon: The Runestaff is as heroic as prose can get. Fortunately, it pays to be heroic in this world… readers prepared to explore an epic fantasy from the 1960s should enjoy this re-release… Read the rest.

The Singing Sword by Jack Whyte

…The Roman Empire is in retreat and soldier/ blacksmith Publius Varrus chronicles the early days of Caius Britannicus’ Roman villa. Arthur is still nowhere in sight… It can be a long, tedious bit of work. But for Whyte, and for many fans of fantasy, storytelling is about the details… The Singing Sword, like The Skystone before it, is not a novel for the faint of heart. As exciting as Whyte’s action sequences may be, they are often separated by vast amounts of exposition. On the other hand, fantasy fans who think they’ve read it all might do well to check out this historical fantasy. If nothing else, it’s an impressive feat of world building, and it’s been assembled with an eye for historical detail. Read the rest.

Procession of the Dead by Darren Shan

…First published in 1999, Procession of the Dead was originally titled Ayuamarca and was intended to be the first novel in The City trilogy. Unfortunately, the series did not find an audience and the third book was never published. The original author, Darren O’Shaughnessy, went on to fame and fortune under a new pen name (Darren Shan) and with a new series. In 2008, Ayuamarca was re-written, re-titled and re-released, and was now written by “D.B. Shan.” It has since been released again with Darren Shan listed as the author… Although most of Darren Shan’s audience is drawn from his young adult work, Procession of the Dead’s stairway trysts make it clear that the story is written for an adult audience… Perhaps the greatest failing of Procession of the Dead is that its plot is less interesting than its publication and marketing history. On the other hand, Shan has two more novels to flesh out Capac’s corrupt world of criminal leadership. Read the rest.

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Sausages by Tom Holt

… Dry cleaners, darts games, and an unreliable fabric of reality — these are the questions and dilemmas that characters face in Tom Holt’s Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Sausages. Holt has established a reputation for writing unusual SFF stories, and his latest novel is no exception. Holt’s setting is contemporary England, and his characters are more likely to sit behind a desk than astride a horse. The problems that set these characters on their adventures are quite mundane, but make no mistake: the world is ending. It’s an unusual approach to SFF, but one that can also be refreshing… I found myself enjoying Holt’s humor but it was not enough to draw me into his plot. Still, readers looking for “something completely different” should certainly give Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Sausages a go. Read the rest.

Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko

Day Watch is the second novel in Sergei Lukyanenko’s Watch series. Like its predecessor, Day Watch contains three short stories set in Russia and Europe that can be read independently or as part of a larger narrative arc. His work has once again been skillfully translated from the Russian by Andrew Bromfield… all of our heroes are from the “Day Watch,” ostensibly a villainous faction of magic users known as “Dark Others.” However, in Lukyanenko’s world, we can never be sure who the villains are… It seems that there is no difference between the Light and Dark Others… until there is… The lack of detail behind the world-building can be frustrating, but it does allow Lukyanenko a great deal of freedom with his “Others” universe… Don’t think; just follow the politics of the moment. Read the rest.

Nation by Terry Pratchett

… Nation is a rare departure for Terry Pratchett: a young adult alternative history… There are some impressive sequences in Nation, but I struggled to engage with the plot, perhaps because its solutions feel contrived… Pratchett’s solutions to the challenges of a post-colonial society feel especially simple… For a novel that departs from fantasy, it is striking that so many of Nation’s resolutions rely on fantastic coincidence. So I was surprised to read the Author’s Note, “Thinking: This book contains some. Whether you try it at home is up to you.” At the risk of being accused of not thinking, I will admit that I found Nation uneven in comparison to Pratchett’s best work. Read the rest.

Twilight Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko

… In the third novel of the Watch series, Twilight Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko sends Anton out of Moscow in order to expand this universe of confused magicians… we are introduced to new magic users like Arina. Arina is a witch and her magic is alien to both Anton and his girlfriend, the sorceress Svetlana. There’s no underlying logic for this magic, but in this series readers have to accept this as part of the ride… there are, as always, three investigations that work independently but add up to a larger narrative arc… On the whole, Twilight Watch does what we might expect the third novel of an SFF series to do: stakes are raised, relationships are complicated, and the magic world is expanded. There’s little in Twilight Watch that will prevent the already converted from enjoying this novel. Read the rest.

A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin

We’ve come a long way since Ned Stark left Winterfell. A Song of Ice and Fire, which once was dominated by a “clash of kings,” is now being torn apart by two queens. Their conflict is so intense that Martin gave the previous book, A Feast for Crows, to Cersei Lannister. A Dance With Dragons belongs to Daenerys Targaryen, who is younger, more beautiful, and much more sympathetic. In the distant eastern city of Meereen, Daenerys holds court before her supplicants. Though she has freed the slaves of Meereen, Daenerys is not hailed as a hero. Instead, she faces daily demands asking her to restore the fighting pits so that slaves can earn glory killing each other once again. Lords that made their wealth on the back of slave labor now plot Daenerys’ downfall… Although A Dance with Dragons is the longest entry in A Song of Ice and Fire, it’s difficult to escape the feeling that the intrigues have become so complex that they require hundreds of pages just to be introduced. Aside from a startling ending, it makes for a strangely calm “dance of dragons.” Read the rest.

At The Edge of the Universe, we review mainstream authors that incorporate elements of speculative fiction into their “literary” work. However you want to label them, we hope you’ll enjoy discussing these books with us.

In his introduction to Micro, Michael Crichton explains that children today are “cut off from the experience of nature, and from play in the natural world.” Crichton’s purpose, it would seem, is to take the seemingly mundane world and reveal the wonderful details that don’t make it onto Wikipedia and computer models. Crichton had reportedly finished one third of Micro when he passed away, and the novel has since been finished by Richard Preston.

Peter Jansen and his friends were just regular Cambridge students until Nanigen MicroTechnologies came recruiting. One of the recruiters is Peter’s brother Eric, who tries to be discreet about Nanigen’s very cool, but very proprietary, technology while also hinting that the company has invented tools that will lead to a new era of scientific knowledge. Peter does not find a new microscope, but he does discover a miniature plane in Eric’s car. What does Nanigen MicroTechnologies do? The students decide that they will have to travel to Hawaii to find out. However, before they leave, Peter receives a text message from his brother warning him not to come. It is afterward followed by a phone call from the company informing Peter that Eric has disappeared.

Peter decides to investigate. When he confronts Vin Drake, the psychopathic CEO of Nanigen MicroTechnologies rushes Peter and his fellow students into a “safe room” that turns out to be a “Tensor Generator.” The Tensor Generator (which seems like an homage to Star Trek’s transporter) can “dimensionally change” matter. Drake shrinks the students to an inch in height and then attempts to feed them to a snake. No fuss, no muss.

However, Peter and his colleagues escape the lab into the Oahu rainforest, where they are forced to pit their scientific expertise against the ferocity of the “micro world.”

It is tempting to compare Micro to Crichton’s earlier novel Prey, which pitted scientists against sentient swarms of nanotechnology. However, the conflict that Micro offers might actually be more akin to Jurassic Park. Rather than speculating about the eyesight of the Tyrannosaurus, Crichton spends his time outlining the chemical defenses and biological armor of beetles, wasps, and centipedes. Rather than humans fighting against terrible lizards, tiny scientists fight against monstrous insects.

Crichton’s depiction of the insect world is not speculative, and it is here that readers will see why Crichton chose to write about the natural world. It is clear that he finds the natural world fascinating, though brutally violent.

The premise works well, which is important because Micro’s characters are very flat. None of our heroes has as much personality as Dr. Grant from Jurassic Park, Norman Johnson from Sphere, or even Amy, the gorilla in Congo. However, the real weakness of the novel is Vin Drake, the psychopathic villain who madly pursues the microbiologists across Oahu. He doesn’t stroke his mustache, but the gesture would not have been out of place.

Still, the “micro-world” is an exciting place to visit. If Crichton’s goal in Micro was to make his readers see nature in a new way, I think he has succeeded. However, if his goal was to make today’s children to trade in computer models for first hand experience in nature, he may have failed. Yes, the adaptations that allow insects to survive the micro world are amazing, but I suspect that most readers will find the venom sacs of spiders and the mandibles of centipedes just as gross – if not grosser – after finishing the novel as they did when they started reading.

The Dervish House by Ian McDonald

Set in the near future, Ian McDonald’s The Dervish House explores the rise of nanotechnology — the next great technological revolution — in Istanbul. McDonald’s story has six protagonists whose stories are held together by the titular Dervish House, which is located in Adem Dede Square, a backstreet in the Queen of Cities… Because McDonald’s story contains so many perspectives, I found that The Dervish House often had to rely on the premise, rather than the plot or even the characters, to keep my interest. There is very little time for complications and setbacks, and our characters generally move from one successful venture to another. It’s an approach that does little to enhance suspense… The future that McDonald envisions is indeed compelling. Though I found the plot too convenient, there is a great deal here that warrants acclaim. I would encourage hesitant readers to pick up a copy of The Dervish House. Read the rest.

City of Light & Shadow by Ian Whates

Ian Whates’ City of Light & Shadow is the third novel in the CITY OF A HUNDRED ROWS series. The series title refers to Thaiburley, a city of rows built on top of each other. The lowest rows are plagued by gang violence while the well-intentioned leaders at the Heights do their best to keep order. The previous novel, City of Hope & Despair, relied on its supporting cast of assassins and gang leaders to drive the plot forward. Here, the plot has become considerably more epic… The shift from the local to the grandiose is not uncommon — or even unexpected — in the third installment of a series. However, I have found Whates’ focus on the smaller details to be the best part of this series… Regardless, Whates has a knack for world building, and although I found the plot of City of Light & Shadow a disappointment compared to the previous two novels, it packs a lot of punch for action fans and it does offer a heck of an ending. Read the rest.

The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie

Joe Abercrombie’s The Heroes is not named for its characters. Instead, “The Heroes” are a circle of stones at the top of a hill. Warriors were presumably buried beneath these stones long ago, and there will certainly be a high number of bodies to bury by the novel’s conclusion. Yes, The Heroes is a fantasy novel about the soldiers caught in the middle of a war between the armies of the North and the armies of the Union. Readers are treated to scheming politics, petulant and pompous generals, and hard-working soldiers struggling to survive the next battle. There is no overarching purpose or justification to the war or to either side beyond power, so don’t look for good or evil. Look for gore. The Heroes is a hard-boiled fantasy that fans of Glen Cook’s THE BLACK COMPANY or Steven Erikson’s MALAZAN books will enjoy. In other words, this is definitely not a traditionally romantic fantasy… Read the rest.

Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear

Greg Bear’s Hull Zero Three is a science fiction thriller with a touch of horror thrown in for good measure.

The novel starts quickly with a spaceship arriving at a distant planet. A man wakes suddenly, naked, and tries to figure out where he is. He can remember sleeping and dreaming, and the memories of those dreams remain. He otherwise knows very little about himself, aside from the names of his organs, and how he has come to be where he is. He doesn’t even know how to avoid being eaten by space monsters. Curiously, he has memories from Earth. Though the majority of the novel is told from the hero’s point of view as he tries to unravel the nature of his existence, his thoughts are often interrupted by monsters that try to kill him. It is only thanks to a little girl, Nell, that he survives, and he will run into Nell at multiple times during the story… Read the rest.

Weight of Stone: by Laura Anne Gilman

… Although the Lands Vin is an interesting world to visit, Jerzy’s quest could use a little more action. Still, Gilman has set up some interesting conflicts, and she offers her audience a variety of portals through which to explore the Lands Vin. Some readers may choose to read Weight of Stone allegorically, focusing on the conflicts that have arisen from the separation of church and state. The novel can also be approached as a hero’s tale, following Jerzy’s journey and the taint of the vina magica. Other readers will choose to curl up with a favorite vintage and enjoy this world where no art stands above that of winemaking. In The Vineart War, Gilman has created an elegant fantasy that will please mature readers. Gilman’s talent for world building is impressive and she has bent all of her resources as a writer to nurturing the Lands Vin in Weight of Stone. Now it’s time to put her fruits under stress. Read the rest.

The Witch and the Wizard: The Gift by James Patterson and Ned Rust

… Although The Gift bridges numerous genres — urban fantasy, dystopian literature, young adult literature — Patterson and co-writer Ned Rust have produced an otherwise formulaic young adult novel. In fact, The Gift feels like it was calculated to hit all the right buttons with a young adult audience. Chapters alternate between Whit and Wisty’s point of view, both of whom manage to speak in a spunky but self-conscious first-person voice that recalls some of the most popular young adult titles of the 21st century: Bella from Twilight, Percy Jackson from Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and Katniss from The Hunger Games… Artificial or not, it’s tough to fault The Gift’s message: be yourself, follow your dreams, and read books… Read the rest.

Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed

Saladin Ahmed’s Throne of the Crescent Moon might well remind readers of the Arabian Nights, given that it’s the first thing mentioned by the publishers when advertising Ahmed’s debut fantasy novel. They could also mention that it offers almost everything readers tend to expect from the genre. Read more »

Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King

In Wolves of the Calla, the fifth novel in Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series, Roland and his posse defend a village from monsters. King borrows the great ideas of a variety of favorite stories, yet his final product is ultimately less than the sum of its parts… If King has been restrained in his homage up to this point in the series, he really lets loose in Wolves of the Calla. In addition to drawing upon his own novels, King borrows liberally from Marvel’s comics, Asimov’s robots, Star Wars’ light sabers, and J.K. Rowling’s snitches (which are explosive). However, these are all minor allusions compared to the plot itself… Read the rest.

Song of Susannah by Stephen King

… Song of Susannah is arguably the weakest of King’s Dark Tower novels. If The Waste Lands expanded Roland’s quest to nigh-impossible-to-overcome levels, King does his best in Song of Susannah to show that even the most daunting of problems can be overcome with the help of incredible providence, authorial intervention, and uncanny gunslinger instincts. It’s a strategy that dominates King’s later work, and one that some readers will feel betrays the originality of earlier novels like The Gunslinger and The Wizard and the Glass. However, as with Wolves of the Calla, even the strongest critics should take note that few readers will turn their back on the Dark Tower. It draws both the energy and the readers of the universe toward it. What will Roland find there? Read the rest.

Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson

Steven Erikson’s Gardens of the Moon is the first novel in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. The world that Erikson has created here is remarkably complex, and its history spans millennia… Erikson brings together some of the most popular elements of fantasy, and readers who love to explore new worlds have a remarkably complex creation in Gardens of the Moon. In addition to a variety of political moves and countermoves, there is a history of fantasy monsters and races that reaches back ages in geological time. Erikson also has an enthusiasm for creating competing magic systems… Gardens of the Moon is the first in what has become a popular fantasy series, but some fantasy fans may choose not to sign up for this gritty campaign. At times, Erikson’s plot is as difficult to follow as Empress Laseen’s schemes, and the manipulations of this world may be too complex for casual readers to survive. Read the rest.

The Waste Lands by Stephen King

… The Waste Lands, the third novel of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower novels, focuses on fleshing out the details of Roland’s quest… The Waste Lands does not showcase King’s talent with villains. Roland and his gang face off against a deranged train obsessed with riddles and a tick-tock man behind a curtain. If these sound like rather obvious allusions, they’re meant to be. Still, a good villain often serves as an anchor for the plot, and The Waste Lands could use a stronger antagonist to help define its place in the road to The Dark Tower. For the time being, readers will have to make do with the villainous shades of our heroes, particularly relentless Roland. What kind of knights are these? Ultimately, The Waste Lands is as essential for Stephen King fans as any of the other novels associated with The Dark Tower. However, its crafting is comparatively loose, leaving it one of the weaker novels in this series. Read the rest.

Songs of Love and Death edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois

…Songs of Love and Death brings together some of the biggest names that SFF has to offer… However varied these entries may be, each of them can be loosely tied to “star-crossed lovers,” a theme that Martin and Dozois suggest can be found throughout world literature. If all love stories are somewhat recycled, the best entries here tweak the archetypes just enough to feel new… many of these stories are surprisingly straightforward, particularly the many paranormal romances that are included… If Songs of Love and Death strays a little too often into genre exercises and the realm of paranormal romance for my taste, it doesn’t change the fact that fantasy readers looking to branch out could hardly do better than to check out a Martin and Dozois anthology. Read the rest.

Hell’s Horizon by Darren Shan

Darren Shan’s Hell’s Horizon is a weird sequel — if you think it’s weird to completely ignore the hero of the first novel in a trilogy… The shift to noirish detective novel is somewhat jarring. Thankfully, some of the supporting cast remains… Shan does bring the two novels together in the last five pages, but the relationship between the two narratives remains about as hazy as the green fog with which Incan monks alter the history of the City. Perhaps the final installment will bring everything into clearer focus. However, on its own, Hell’s Horizon feels like a misstep. As a detective story, it is disappointingly flat and as the sequel to Procession of the Dead, it is disappointingly irrelevant. Read the rest.

City of the Snakes by Darren Shan

City of the Snakes is the final entry in Darren Shan’s The City trilogy. The City is so corrupt that it should have fallen to pieces when its criminal overlord, the Cardinal, died. However, Ferdinand Dorak made careful plans for his successor, preventing the gang war that everyone was expecting. Dorak made a deal with the villacs, blind Mayan priests, and together they created human puppets known as the Ayuamarcans. Over the years, the Cardinal made many Ayuamarcans, but the Cardinal’s masterpiece was his successor Capac Raimi. Raimi is calculating, ruthless, and immortal. He can die, and does many times, but after each horrifying death, he returns to the City on a train three days later, young and unharmed. This is what Raimi was designed to do. Although he will die if he leaves the City for more than a day or two, Raimi’s goal is to expand his sphere of influence until he controls the world. It’s a lofty goal, but he has eternity to meet it. Unfortunately, things are not going well for Raimi. Years have passed since he first took control of the City, and now rival gangs are testing him again… Read the rest.

A Feast For Crows by George R.R. Martin

… A Feast for Crows is a disappointment, but it would be difficult to recommend that readers skip it. Although little “happens,” Martin does rearrange his chessboard. It has begun to snow, inviting the Starks to change their family words, “Winter is coming,” to “I told you so.” The Iron Islanders are repurposed as raiders of Westeros, the politicians in King’s Landing are given quite a strong shake, and Martin highlights that perfectly powerful armies remain in the Vale and in Dorne. They may yet cause trouble, though they do little here. Consequently, A Feast for Crows feels like an interruption, rather than continuation, of the series. In many ways, A Feast for Crows feels like a failure in an otherwise dazzling fantasy series… Read the rest.

At The Edge of the Universe, we review mainstream authors that incorporate elements of speculative fiction into their “literary” work. However you want to label them, we hope you’ll enjoy discussing these books with us.

Haruki Murakami’s Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World begins in Murakami’s “hard-boiled wonderland.” This wonderland is postmodern territory: our disaffected hero is in an elevator that is moving so slowly that “all sense of direction simply vanished.” Murakami finds a nexus between the detective story, postmodern literature, and cyberpunk. Faced with the dilemma of the elevator, the narrator, almost predictably deadpan, reflects that

“it could have been going down for all I knew, or maybe it wasn’t moving at all. But let’s just assume it was going up. Merely a guess. Maybe I’d gone up twelve stories, then down three. Maybe I’d circled the globe. How would I know?”

Here we see the voice of the detective novel and a familiar helplessness of the postmodern hero. We’re given a nice dose of cyberpunk when the narrator passes time in his elevator by simultaneously counting the change in his right and left pocket. He explains that “it’s hard for those who’ve never attempted the procedure to grasp what it is to calculate this way, and admittedly it is tricky at first. The right brain and the left brain each keep separate tabs, which are then brought together like two halves of a split water melon. No easy task until you get the hang of it.”

This is Murakami’s way of explaining that our hard-boiled narrator is a “Calcutec.” Briefly, a “Calcutec” has a job that recalls William Gibson’s Johnny Mnemonic – he stores code in his mind. Although the narrator explains that most Calcutecs cannot do this work for long, he’s been doing it for years.

Calcultecs can divide their minds in two and Murakami has divided his novel in two. In addition to the “Hard-Boiled Wonderland,” we are treated to a seemingly separate narrative set in “The End of the World.”

In The End of the World, we read about a hero that has been separated from his shadow and finds himself in a fantasy world (it even comes with a map). This is a town that is set in its ways, where the Gatekeeper to the end of the world explains that “we do it that way and that is how it is.” Here, our hero takes on the role of a dream reader. Adjusting to life at the end of the world is a bit gruesome. Our hero’s eyes are pierced, and he works with unicorn skulls in search of dreams. However, his shadow may have the harder job. In fact, it seems that the shadow is being deliberately worked to death. Will the hero’s shadow survive the coming winter?

Of the two narratives, I thought the “hard-boiled wonderland” had more potential. Powerful corporate intrigues are hinted at, there are subterranean monsters called “INKlings,” and we even get to meet an eclectic scientist. He explains that he’s “a biologist. But the word biology doesn’t begin t’cover all that I do. Everythin’ from neurophysiology to acoustics, linguistics to comparative religion. Not your usual bag of tricks, if I do say so myself.” Like Murakami, this scientist is a man with ambitions of assembling disparate ingredients into a provocative work.

Unfortunately, I felt that Murakami may have lost control of this novel. Yes, there are many interesting ideas to entice readers, but there are so many ideas that I found myself disappointed that none of them were given a more prominent place on stage. I quite readily admit that this may be my own bias. When I read about corporate plots, the end of the world, and cyberpunk detectives, I find it difficult to put aside certain expectations. Just because Murakami opens with familiar ingredients does not mean that he has to take them in expected directions. Regardless, I found Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World a calculated but unmoving experiment from Haruki Murakami.

The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

At one point in The Wise Man’s Fear, the second novel in Patrick Rothfuss’s THE KINGKILLER CHRONICLE, Kvothe is advised to play tok (a board game) in order to produce a beautiful and interesting game rather than just playing to win. Rothfuss appears to have adopted a similar maxim when it comes to writing. The Wise Man’s Fear invites readers to sink into the text in order to revel in the aesthetic moment rather than marching toward resolution. It’s a bold approach, and it allows Rothfuss to attempt something richer than “just” a page-turner with swords and magic… Read the rest.

The Affair of the Chalk Cliffs by James P. Blaylock

Langdon St. Ives returns in The Affair of the Chalk Cliffs, James P. Blaylock’s latest Langdon St. Ives Adventure. St. Ives is described as “the greatest, if largely unheralded, explorer and scientist in the Western World … piecing together a magnetic engine for a voyage to the moon.” Unfortunately, the premise of The Affair of the Chalk Cliffs is less ambitious than its protagonist… Instead of plotting, characterization or setting, Blaylock has focused on tone and voice, giving The Affair of the Chalk Cliffs the feel of a pastiche. J. K. Potter’s illustrations do a good job of introducing a wry tone early, and his representations of Dr. Narbondo are actually quite funny. However, although a pastiche will imitate other works, it still needs to do something with its allusions and our expectations. Sadly, The Affair of the Chalk Cliffs rarely manages more than a few good jokes. Read the rest.