Here's a previously published review for The Language of Stones byRobert Carter, the first book in a trilogy telling the story of the 3rd coming of Arthur (the ‘famous’ one from the legends being the 2nd… yes, honestly). The book provides us with an alternative version of the War of Roses, as it might have been if…
Willand (‘Will’) lives in the Vale, a twee and isolated backwater. He just turned 13, the age where he is considered a man now, and is allowed to wear his hair in braids. The day doesn’t end happy, as he is visited by Master Gwyndion (who used to be known as ‘Merlyn’, amongst a lot of other names in the olden days), who is the last of the ‘Ogadad, an ancient brotherhood of magicians who protect the ‘Realm’ (England and Ireland). He reveals to Will that his coming was prophesized, that he is the ‘Child of Destiny’, and that he was found as a baby, and hidden here to be brought up by foster parents. Think slight paradigm shift...
The larger setting is England in the 15th century, during the war of Roses (or what goes for it in this universe slightly different from ours). There is growing unrest in the Realm, which is ruled by a weak king under bad influence, defending himself against other, older claims to the throne, during a time of general unrest and raising levels of aggression. The reason for this is that the old network of circles, standing stones, and power lines (‘Lorc’), left behind by the Faes when they left the Realm, is stirring again, as the roads and buildings of the ‘Slavers’ (think Romans) are crumbling.
Harry Connolly is an American author with, to date, 4 novels and a shared/collaborative short story collection to his name. Child of Fire was his debut novel, and the 1st book in the 20 Palaces series, which runs to 3 books and a prequel; and which is on hiatus as it (as I understand it) wasn't selling as well as the publisher felt it should.
The story kicks off with the two main protagonists, Ray Lilly and Annalise Powliss on the road, apparently on a job to kill. Annalise is a sourcerer, and part of the 20 Palaces society, who controls the use of magic in the world, especially as it has the potential to bring in predators which could bring about the end of the world/humanity. Ray Lilly is an ex-con (framed?), and now Annalise's 'Wooden Man', ie her decoy and cannon fodder, with an explicit role of flushing out and distracting their targets, and of drawing fire in the process – something which suits her, as she'd like to see him dead, but is forbidden to do the deed herself.
We learn that there is a backstory behind the fact – that Ray betrayed Annalise at some point, that he made her kill her best friend, that he has killed his own best friend who was infected with a predator – and also that he has a copy of a stolen spell book, something which would be an automatic death sentence should the 20 Palaces society learn about it. Using this book he created his Ghost Knife which features rather a lot in the story, and he also once looked into the parallel world, also known as The Empty Spaces, or The Deeps. This is where the predators come from, looking for living things (or worlds) to devour. They are drawn to magic, and can be summonded (they love to) and held in place for power (they hate this). And Annalise/Ray are chasing people who have the power to do so, or who have predators, both to stop the spread of magic and to protect the world.
It's a 1st person account, nominally transcribed from tape, by a senile old lady in an old people's home who is visited by an Alien.
It's short, delightful, thought provoking, and ever so slightly emotional as most of us have family members in similar situations (minus the Alien, in most cases, I presume).
The full story can be read here, or listened to as a Podcast on Drabblecast.
Science Fiction silvery needles- a black creature thrusting from the dark- water, water-
An old book. A beautiful book. And most likely the most unusual SF story I’ve read. Ever.
The great, nuclear, worldwide war has finally happened around the turn of the millennium (yes, the book was written quite a few years back), and civilization/society is in tatters, and decaying further. The only country not affected by the war is Japan, but the subsequent wave of human mutations and new, mutated plagues don’t spare it, either.
Yoshiro ‘Josh’ Nakamura, of Japanese descendent, grows up in Hawaii, or what is left of it (glass beach, tribal warfare between mutant gangs, lo to no tech existence), together with his disabled (mutant?) brother and his old grandmother, which are the only family members who survived the war.
Ryoko Ishida, the daughter of a Japanese Minister, is contacted by aliens on her sea voyage to study the situation in Hawaii first hand. For the whales, aliens living on this world, designers of the modified genome of the Japanese race, have decided to speak to humanity again, and provide them with a future amongst the stars, away from Earth.
Makers is a novel by Cory Doctorow, who (in his own words) is a Canadian “science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger -- the co-editor of Boing Boing (boingboing.net) and the author of the bestselling novel Little Brother". He’s also a John W. Campbell and a Locus award winner (neither for the book at hand), with, as this is written, 6 novels and a number of collections and non-fiction books to his name.
The book kicks off with Suzanne Church, a journalist writing for the San Jose Mercury and a veteran of the Silicon Valley/DotCom boom, attending a press conference by Landon Kettlewell, who has just bought two old Dinosaurs (Kodak and Duracell) and merged them into a new company he calls Kodacell. His plan is to become nimble, work with thousands of cells of innovators and inventors, with quick turn-around times and even quicker time to market. He sets Suzanne up with a model unit for his new approach where she is planning to follow the progress of this new venture (The New Work, it will later be called); which is how she meets Perry and Lester, two highly creative geeks and serial inventors, and observes their transformation from one-off collector’s market work to cutting edge, million-unit shipping New Work unit. Not all is happiness and sunshine, though – with success come imitators and haters (Suzanne has her nemesis Freddie, a British journalist with a distinctly different slant in reporting, and a rather unfriendly take on things), and all the 3D printing eventually brings IP issues, and in the form of Disney a very major player into, er, play.
The story felt slow to get rolling, it just trundled along, and did not really draw me in for a good part of the book. The ‘I want to know what happens next’ factor was mainly missing for me – I could, in most parts, have put this down and left the book and its story without feeling any urge to go back to it. The distance to the story varies greatly – some parts are only told in the biggest, broadest of brush strokes; but then we zoom in and get blow-by-blow, word-for-word accounts of events.
It plays on Ghost Street, an entertainment district, staffed by robots (or are they?), animated by what used to be humans (or so they think?), made for humans. Except that these have stopped visiting - the only human is a boy who was left as a baby and is being looked after by the 'ghosts'.
Fascinating, well written, and ever so slightly creepy and unsettling I found. A story to enjoy, and a writer to watch!
The picture on the right is called Hyakki Yako (Hundred Demon Night Parade) and was painted by Jasmine Becket-Griffith. You can buy prints of it here.
