The book: The Firebird's Vengeance is the 3rd book of the Isavalta series (so far a trilogy, but there's plenty more life in this), the book can be read and enjoyed on its own without any knowledge of the first two books though. Sarah Zettel, author of 9 books (my counting), is better known for her Science Fiction books, but, telling from her Isavalta output to day, is/will be making herself a name in the Fantasy scene very quickly, and for a good reason.
The plot: Bridget Lederle, an unloved outsider in our world, is a powerful sorceress in a parallel world called Isavalta. Her parents, having made the same transition, were involved with the caging of the powerful Firebird, which, owing to the death of its captor, is now free again, and looking for vengeance (hence the title of the book). Several factions are trying to use/control the bird and its powers, with Bridget's daughter, herself a very powerful sorceress to be, and believed to be dead by her mother, being the wild card. It's a complicated plot, not everyone is what they seem, and the ending is unusual, a bit surprising, and reminds of Japanese tales.
The Rise of the Iron Moon is the 3rd book in Stephen Hunt's Jackelian series (which stands at 6 books as this is written). It's been sitting on my bookshelf for a while, as I had some mixed feelings about my enjoyment (or, in parts, lack thereof) of the previous volumes, The Court of the Air, and The Kingdom Beyond the Waves. I have to admit that The Rise of the Iron Moon has not changed my views...
The story centres, yet again, on Jackals, which is, yet again, threatened by a mysterious outside power which can, yet again, only be defeated through ancient and mysterious means and weapons, channeled through the likes of Molly Templar, Commodore Black, and Coppertracks the Steamman. So far so par for the course. The enemy threatening (and actually overrunning) Jackals, Quatershift, the Catosian Leage and the rest of the civilised worlds is the Army of Shadows, which, we learn, come from the Iron Moon, which used to be known as a regular comet until it changed course, and attached itself to the world. Molly's Hexmachina is trapped in the centre of the world, and thus powerless; which means that other protagonists, with other secret powers, need to be brought into plays, including the re-incarnation of a famous Jackelian Warrior Queen, and of course Connor of Cannarabia (groan...).
I would like to draw your attention to Lohengrin & Tanhauser, a rather marvelous story by A. S. Salinas which can be found in Issue 13 of Rudy Rucker's 'Webzine of Amazing Tales', Flurb.
I very much liked the lightness of touch and general cleverness, as well as the incessant name dropping and references to classic tropes and other works (Bene Tesseract, anyone?).
Entertaining stuff - we want more! The picture to the right is part of a drawing by Lee Sargent - I found it rather fitting for a story on a low-gravity alien world where the inhabitants go around on pogosticks (no Predators, though).
Ok, ok, ok, I know, this is NOT a new book. Nevertheless, The Floating City is a classic book containing two stories from Jules Verne, one of the masters/forefathers of Fantastic&Science Fiction, and it is well worth a read. This is just a quick run-through, as this is a book that’s a good 100 years old…
The first story, The Floating City, describes the author’s trip aboard the “Great Eastern”, going from the UK to America and back. The Great Eastern is the giant ship that Brunel (yup, the very one) built, you can still go and see the huge timbers of the shipyard where it was built, as the archaeologists dug them up (Isle of Dogs, west side). The second story is an account of the maiden voyage of the ‘Dolphin’, the fastest ship that there was at thetime, built in Glasgow; to be used as a blockade runner during the American civil war.
From the uncharted depths of my reading pile comes Newton's Wake, a stand-alone novel by Ken MacLeod, featuring Glasgow gangsters, a number of post-singularity civilisations, Combat Archaeologists (focus on the first part for a picture of what they do), resurrected 21st Century Folk Singers, and rather unusual answers to questions around 'reality', 'identity', 'memory', and the reasons for not joining the Raptured uploads ...
Ken McLeod is a Scottish SF writer, with, as this is written, 13 Novels and some collections to his name – his latest book, 'Intrusion', has been out since March 2012, with the paperback edition expected next January. And yes, I'm planning to get round to that one, too...
Newton's Wake plays in a world, nay, a Universe, after the 'Hard Rapture' (somebody mentions the 2040s for that – something to look forward to!), a military-driven singularity which took its operators, scientists, and the most of the rest of the 'wired' world with it. What's left are the new civilisations – America Offline (top pun!) who escaped the Hard Rapture for being non-wired technology luddites; the Knights of Enlightenment (Japanese hands-off technology fetishists); DK (essentially the remains of North Korea). And the Carlyles, who control the Skein, the network of wormholes connecting the known Universe.
Kindan is a boy in a mining company on Pern. When his father, the Watch-Wher (a kind of night/underground dragon) handler dies in a mining accident Kindan's life - and that of the entire colony - are thrown into disarray. Secrets, internal conflicts between miners and dragon handlers, and lack of knowledge about the Whers' abilities (Kindan is chosen as handler for the new baby Wher for the mine) make life interesting (Chinese definition), and thus worth another Pern book.
The story is set in the Pern universe, or, to be exact, on Pern the planet, and mainly underground. There are 17 books in/on/about Pern to date. This book, albeit deeply embedded in this environment, can be read on it's own without ploughing through the other 16 books first. A short introduction of the history, organization and challenges faced on Pern is provided at the beginning.
