Reviews

Isn’t It Romantic: The Blade Itself in RT

Joe Abercrombie’s The Blade Itself,as reviewed in Romantic Times magazine, October 2007:

“Abercrombie kicks off his series masterfully with a heroic fantasy without conventional heroes. Its clearly the characters that take center stage here. Their dialogue is full of cynicism and wit, their lives full of intrigue, battles and magic.”

Also awarded 4 ½ stars and defined as “Fantastic — Keeper.” Sweet.

Meanwhile, a Reader Review on SFFWorld, from PapaJ, which describes the book as “tight, character driven and with characters that are ‘believable’ and ones that I could identify with easily, yet complex and mysterious. The universe feels expansive yet is without the fluff of detail that bogs down many fantasy novels… All round well balanced, tight, quality fantasy fiction.”

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NSS on Hurricane Moon

Chairman of the Space Books Committee and one of NASA’s first ten women flight controllers Marianne Dyson has reviewed Alexis Glynn Latner’s Hurricane Moonas the featured book for October for the National Space Society. Which is a very cool person and a very cool place for a review of a book about planetary colonization indeed. And her verdict? Well, she has an interesting discussion of whether or not moons are essential for the stabilization of climate. But she concludes, “For those of us entertained by contemplating starship designs, planetary choice criteria, and biological considerations, this book has it all. But the book is also a great read for those who enjoy science fiction about people making choices based on the kind of world and future they want to build for themselves. What kind of people will sign up for one-way trip to an unknown world? What sort of challenges will they face? Will they be willing to change their plans, their minds, even their own humanity to survive beyond the stars? I highly recommend Hurricane Moon to anyone who wants to imagine life on another world.”

Remember, of course, that you can visit Alexis online at her website or her group blog, and that you can read the first three chapters of Hurricane Moon online here.

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Joel Sheperd Attains Critical Mass

Don D’ammassa’s Critical Mass reviews Joel Shepherd’s forthcoming Killswitch: A Cassandra Kresnov Novel,which he calls, “Space opera the way it ought to be written.”

“My favorite android is back. …Espionage, battles, secrets revealed, escapes, political intrigue, personality clashes, high adventure, outer space – it’s all here. Easily the best of the three. I hope there’s more on their way. Most novels with this general background get caught up in the military content and forget about the characters. Shepherd manages to keep everything in balance. “

And, of course, we’re still excited about Publishers Weekly’s “Robert Ludlum meets Elizabeth Moon in this classic military SF adventure, buoyed by Shepherd’s knack for balancing crisp action with characters you can really root for.”

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The Blade Itself – Frustratingly Good

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Rob H. Bedford’s latest review on SFFWorld is up. This time, he proclaims his “frustration” with Joe Abercrombie’s The Blade Itself. “Abercrombie is a damned frustrating writer. He writes so well and his story is so infectious it is difficult to stop reading and even thinking about the layers of his story and world.”

Very gratifying to me are the comparisons with George R R Martin, Greg Keyes, and Scott Lynch. “The novel bears some comparison to Greg Keyes Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone and Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire for the multiple points-of-view and aforementioned wide screen action…” and “One thing I like a lot about Abercrombie’s writing was something I enjoyed about Scott Lynch’s writing – attitude.“

I’ve never read GRRM’s fantasy (I know, I know), but Keyes’ The Briar Kingis a favorite of mine as well as a yardstick for quality, whereas I picked up the Lynch when I was considering The Blade Itself specifically because I knew that Gollancz had marketed them together in the UK and I wanted to see how they compared. (I found them tonally very similar, which was one of the many data points that encouraged me to pick up Abercrombie.) So yeah, Rob, couldn’t agree more!

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Something Old, Something New

The Not Free SF Reader chimes in with some thoughts on my anthology, Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edge.They “definitely” recommend the book, and say “The stories are good, the average rating being 3.53, which is a bit over what you hope for from a book, and is rather well done in a new original project as opposed to some sort of reprint… it is a book that is well worth looking at.”

Meanwhile, Michael Swanwick reprints an essay he originally ran in the NYRSF called “A Nettlesome Term That Has Outlived its Welcome.” The essay is about the way the term “fix-up”, originally created to mean a novel assembled out of previously published material and which covers some of the greatest works in the field (as in Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles, for example) is now perhaps a derogatory term that does more harm than good. Along the way, he discusses Jack Dann’s marvelous The Man Who Melted,a novel which “didn’t make it big, the way later Dann novels such as The Memory Cathedral and The Silent would. It was much too intensely personal for that. But it’s one of those neglected books that nevertheless contain a great deal to interest the intelligent reader.”

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This Man Knows How to Write

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Neth Space has just posted a review of Michael Moorcock’s forthcoming work, The Metatemporal Detective.I’m really glad to see he likes the book, especially since Neth confesses to being a Moorcock virgin. Those already initiated will know that pretty much everything in Mike’s extensive canon takes place across the various quantum realities of his “multiverse,” wherein the majority of his protagonists (and a few of his antagonists as well) are all various permutations of the same reincarnated soul. What’s more, this particular book not only collects and unifies all of Mike’s Seaton Begg stories, but also ties in directly with his recent Elric trilogy as well, so for Neth to declare that the book is “one of the more enjoyable books that I’ve read in a while” really makes me smile. He further says that “My immediate impression of Moorcock’s writing was one of awe and appreciation for someone who clearly is a master of language. The writing was an absolute joy to read while never becoming flippant. In mere moments, the mood was set and characters brought to life. This man knows how to write.”

Update: Just noticed that The Fantasy Review posted their thoughts on The Metatemporal Detective as well, which I’m pleased to say are equally as positive: “…an entertaining collection of short stories that are highlighted by controversial figures, engagings dialogues, vivid landscapes and enigmatic characters. Moorcock does an excellent job of creating engaging mysteries that kept me guessing until the very end. If you are a fan of mystery and intrigue I would recommend checking out this book. If are a fan of Michael Moorcock’s Elric saga then this book is an absolute must read and if you don’t pick it up you should be ashamed of yourself!

Update Two: And the Library Journal says, “Moorcock’s storytelling is impeccable, his humor both arch and to the point. Most libraries should consider adding this themed short story collection to their holdings.”

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Resnick’s Ivory is Solid Speculation

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Ryun Patterson takes a look at Mike Resnick’s classic Ivory: A Legend of Past and Future,a tale set 6,000 years in the future and which traces the path across the galaxy of the very real and enormous tusks of the legendary Kilimanjaro elephant. In his review on Bookgasm, Ryun states that Resnick writes about Africa “as if he grasps some of the subtleties of the hugely diverse and multifaceted continent. Ivory, which was first published in 1988, demonstrates this, along withResnick’s flair for solid speculation.”

Ryun also takes the time to praise the cover, which always makes me really glad to see, as art and prose are closely linked in our genre, and I applaud those reviewers who take the artwork into account. In this instance, the cover illustration is by Bob Eggleton, and the layout is by our own Grace M. Conti-Zilsberger. Bob turned in what may be my favorite piece he’s ever done, while the bronze band solution Grace came up with for displaying the author’s name has a classical feel that I’m considering adopting for future reissues as well. As Ryun says, “It’s also got the best cover it has ever had and a great, solid feel – which many classic reissues deserve but don’t receive – thanks to Pyr.” Very glad someone noticed!

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Ivory: A Lament for the Disintegration of Distinctive Cultures

Lee Clarke Zumpe praises Mike Resnick’s Ivory: A Legend of Past and Futurein the Tampa Bay Newspapers Online Edition. Lee begins by proclaiming that “The name Mike Resnick may not be as familiar as, say, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Silverberg, Ursula K. Le Guin or Harlan Ellison, but it should be,” and then goes on to justify this claim.

Lee goes on to talk about the stories-within-the-story, and then nails what I personally love about the book by saying, “ While the individual accounts of the warlord, the thief, the curator and the others who play a role in the history of the tusks display the appealing escapism of classic science fiction, the novel has an overriding melancholy about it that underscores the tragedy of post-colonialism and vanishing heritage. Resnick’s subtle theme of conservationism encompasses not only the flora and fauna of this planet, but the distinctive cultures of its varied ethnic groups – particularly those of Africa.”

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A Realistic Assessment of The Blade Itself

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Grasping for the Wind chimes in on Joe Abercrombie’s debut fantasy epic, The Blade Itself (The First Law: Book One).They key off barbarian warrior Logen Ninefinger’s catch phrase, “You have to be realistic about these things,” noting the various elements of our own history woven into Abercrombie’s fantasy setting. (For my money, the novel also weaves aspects of Tolkien and Arthurian mythos together quite expertly.)

They say that Abercrombie is “a skilled writer whose clever turns of phrase are darkly funny… Each character’s motivations are different but compelling, and the fight scenes are impressively described.” Finally, they conclude, “The story is wickedly funny, the fight scenes memorable, and the characters fascinating. Nothing in this novel is as it seems, and Abercrombie’s contribution to the genre is sure to endure.”

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Selling Out: The New Bionic Woman

Here’s a rather amusing fill-in-the-blank style review of Justina Robson’s Selling Out (Quantum Gravity, Book 2)up at Wistful Writings. They say the book is, “an excellent read that’ll challenge imaginations and hook its talons deep.”

My favorite bit:

The cover sez and shows: The New Bionic Woman II striking a pose. I think it’s for a magazine ad. For Swiss Army knife arms. All the rad these days with the kiddos.

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