Monster Hunter Vendetta, Larry Correia, Baen, ISBN 978-1-4391-3991-0, $7.99, 612 pgs.

Image by jpellgen via Flickr

This is the second book in Correia’s Monster Hunters International series. It picks up where the first book left off with Owen Zastava Pitt settling in to his new role as a squad leader in the monster hunting organization and as husband to Julie, daughter to the werewolf leader of MHI and granddaughter to the founder of the organization. MHI hunts supernatural threats, collecting the bounties that have been placed on them and generally keeping the planet safe from things that go bump in the night. They compete with the governmental Monster Control Bureau who is also tasked with getting rid of monsters as well as keeping the general populace ignorant that monsters even exist in the first place. This sets up a highly competitive environment between the two organizations with no love lost between the two and friction aplenty. This time a former member of MHI has begun the process of world destruction by invoking the awakening of an otherworldly presence who will enter our world by destroying it. Needless to say the folks at MHI are eager to put a stop to this, especially since it’s the work of a former member. Owen and his crew get the front row seats and all of the characters from the first book return as well as one or two new ones. There are a few twists and turns but the story is a pretty straightforward one of killing beasties with large weapons, explosives, and bravado.

Correia writes in a very straightforward manner, telling the story without much obfuscation or misdirection. This is basically a what you see is what you get kind of tale. While there are some plot twists they are more of the anticipated variety than the kind that take you fully by surprise. For example, there is a spy in the organization that we know about from early on and the only surprise comes when we learn who it is.

This book is perfect for the reader that likes a story full of tough characters with big weapons taking on nasty beasts with just a touch of humor thrown in the soften the blood and gore. There is not a lot of internal dilemma or character development, more a sense of prophecy fulfillment or action taking on the role of fate.

This is not to say that the book is not an entertaining book to read. It is. Very. Just that you should be expecting a shot gun blast rather than the subtle stroke of a hidden stiletto. Definitely recommended if you like your action fast paced and direct.

To get the book go here:

Monster Hunter Vendetta

Swords and Dark Magic, Jonathan Strahan & Lou Anders, Eds., EOS, ISBN 978-0-06-172381-0, 544 pgs., $15.99

Image via Wikipedia

Anthologies are great places to learn about new authors without having to lay out a lot of cash first. For example, if you are a lover of sword and sorcery fiction this book provides you with 17 short stories from 17 different writers. So, if you’ve been wondering who might be writing stories similar to Fritz Leiber‘s or Robert Howard’s or Lin Carter’s, then this is the place to start looking. Editors Strahan and Anders have gathered a good mix of veteran authors and sorted in a number of up and comers to balance things out. Steven Erikson is there alongside Robert Silverberg. Tim Lebbon and Michael Moorcock are there. Joe Abercrombie and Glen Cook have stories in the book. And not just stories but Cook provides a new Black Company tale, Silverberg a new Majipoor story and Moorcock a new Elric tale.

Fantasy has included the sub-genre of sword and sorcery for almost as long as fantasy has been around. Statements like this, though, can become long, boring academic arguments and I have always been more interested in how entertaining the fiction is and not whether it fits in any particular niche or not. Suffice it to say that sword and sorcery stories have been around for a while and this book is an excellent representation of that type of work in its many forms. I should also note that this is not a reprint anthology so don’t expect to find these tales anywhere else. All of the stories contained within were written specifically for this book.

Besides those authors listed above, the anthology also contains work by Tanith Lee, Garth Nix, Michael Shea, Gene Wolfe, C. J. Cherryh, and Caitlin R. Kiernan as well as another half a dozen or so.

One of the big issues with anthologies is that sometimes they are like record albums or CDs (this may be a bad reference because it assumes that there are still some of you out there who remember vinyl or still buy CDs) where you buy the thing only to find that there are only one, maybe two, tracks really worth listening two. That’s not the case here. As you finish one great tale you immediately find that the next one is equally as entertaining.

Sword and sorcery is one of my guilty pleasures and I was very happy to have the chance to read through this book. Now I am suggesting that it would be a wise choice on your part to go out and get a copy. Highly recommended. This is a well constructed anthology that provides hit after hit.

Nights of Villjamur, Mark Charan Newton, Ballantine Books, ISBN 978-0-345-52084-5, 437 pgs., $26.00

Image via Wikipedia

The city of Villjamur is home to thousands and capital of a mighty empire. But, things are changing; the darkness is coming and with it the cold and ice. As snow flies more frequently and as the ice begins to cover everything, people begin to flock to the city. Refugees gather outside the gates of a city that can not hold them and, from the perspective of many, should not even try. As a debate begins about what to do, the Emperor suddenly dies. A detail is sent out to gather the Emperor’s long estranged daughter as she is the heir. Along with her sister, the new queen struggles to come to grips with the politics and machinations of those born to power. She feels a certain kinship with those outside the gates and wants to do something. At the same time, her younger sister, long raised to entitlement, has come under the thrall of a new dance teacher who is not quite what he appears to be, although he does seem to know both the swordplay and the dance he is to teach her. While all this is beginning to play out, Inspector Rumex Jeryd, who is a rumel, a species of non-human that can live for hundreds of years, is tasked with investigating the murder of a councilor. As he begins his investigation he discovers layer and layer of deceit and misdirection, including some of it targeting him. Besides the humans and rumel in Villjamur, there are the birdlike garuda and the banshees whose cry always heralds death. All will be affected by the actions building within the city’s walls. Eventually all of the key players will also be threatened by this broad conspiracy and all must act in one form or another if they hope to survive.

Nights of Villjamur is Newton’s first novel and it is very well done. Newton’s universe (yeah, yeah, I know) is very complex and he presents it in a very understated way. His introduction of the rumel, for example, is through the interplay of the difference in longevity they have over humans and the conflicts such a difference can bring to such simple things as who gets promoted to a new position in the workplace. It is this understatement that pulls the reader deeper and deeper into the complexity of the city and the maneuverings of those who rule within the sheltering walls.

Newton’s writing style is both direct and straight forward, not leaving the reader to suppose what was meant but also not bringing everything to one’s attention all at once. Newton moves from character to character, pushing the story forward a part here and a part there and all the time developing an atmosphere that is consistent, moody and oppressive, as one would expect with an encroaching ice age at the door.

I enjoyed the book and Newton is working on a sequel which is good news as this first book leaves quite a few loose ends. Definitely recommended.

Click the link below to buy the book.

Nights of Villjamur (Legends of the Red Sun)

The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch, Bantam, ISBN 978-0-553-58894-1, $7.99, 722 pgs.

I picked up this book because I had received word back through the ether that it might match what I had been searching for, which was a book with characters who were sarcastic, smart, challenged by their environment, and operating in a system where some would die before the final pages. The ether was mostly right although there were some bugs in the execution.

In the fantasy world of Camorr, Locke Lamora is an orphan who ends up being sold to a con artist who is running a religion. Lamora’s path to the con artist is a somewhat arduous one and we learn about a lot of it after the fact, through flash backs. I’ve never been a fan of flashbacks as they jerk me out of the story more than anything. Still, I thought they were well done and they did provide information that was good to have in order to understand character development.  I’m just a linear kind of reader.

Soon enough Lamora finds himself in charge of a group of thieves and con men calling themselves the Gentlemen Bastards. He’s so good that he’s fooling everyone, including the ruler of the underworld, the secret police, and pretty much everyone else. But then, one day, everything changes. A new presence enters the city, one connected with sorcery and evil intent. A presence that no one sees coming and, apparently, no one can do anything about. Within a very short time the Gentlemen Bastards are destroyed, Locke nearly loses his life, the ruler of the underworld is killed along with many of his followers, and a new order is established.  Even the rulers of the city of Camorr will find themselves threatened with destruction.

It all comes down to Locke Lamora and his willpower to seek revenge on both a personal and professional level.

This is a long book at 722 pages. It would have benefited from some editorial tightening. Having said that it is still a very engaging story that moves along fairly quickly and involves a number of different storylines. The book could probably have been broken into a trilogy without much effort. I found that Lynch did a good job with the creation of the universe (the city) within which the characters moved. He kept his focus on the characters, using the surroundings as an fascinating backdrop to their actions without getting into a descriptive travelogue. The City of Camorr is certainly an interesting place and well suited to the setting of any number of adventures.

If you enjoy your fiction cut with a dash of humor and horror, and if you find cunning plots to be of interest then you will enjoy this book. I do recommend it.

You can get the book here:

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=booksfantasti-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&m=amazon&f=ifr&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&asins=055358894X

Last Argument of Kings, Joe Abercrombie, Pyr, ISBN 978-1-59102-690-7, $15.98, 636 pgs.

Image by wertheim via Flickr

This is the third and final installment in the First Law trilogy. The Ghurkish war in the south, coupled with the invasion of the Northmen from the north have created allies of opportunity between Logan Nine Fingers, the Union’s Colonel West, the First of Mages Bayaz, and young swordsman Jezal. As the third chapter opens, West is in the north, fighting a siege and gaining more real world experience than he wants, Logan is heading north to join the fighting and the two will meet prior to developing a plan to finally take apart the army of the northmen and their self-declared king. At the same time Jezal has returned, happily, to the capital, where he hopes to begin a life that is uncomplicated and shared with Ardee West. Bayaz is stymied at not finding the seed which he had planned to use to rid the world of his evil brother mage. Meanwhile the King of the Union dies, throwing all into turmoil. Jezal soon finds himself declared a bastard of the king and set on the throne. At about the same time the general leading the northern army dies leaving the plan in chaos and stagnant. Jezal makes West head of the army, and, at the same time, discovers that the Ghurkish have invaded the capital. Glotka, crippled torturer, struggles with his lot in life but manages to work his way to the top of things by taking out his superior. Bayaz, working through Jezal, promotes him. With an untried king on the throne, chaos in the north and the Ghurkish knocking on the door, everything seems set for despair and doom.

Well, clearly there is a great deal going on in this final chapter and Abercrombie plays it all off brilliantly. His characters are self-absorbed, self-conscious and moving through plots of their own, and others, makings. Sometimes it seems as if there is not a single major character who is not working an agenda. And underlying it all is a dark, ironic sense of comedy which makes the whole thing a simple joy to read.  Plots unfold, plans go awry, things never seem to work out, even when they do, and just when it all seems to be falling apart something else comes up to make it worse.  This is certainly a very dim world view that these characters move in.  And yet they manage to muddle through, succeed, survive, and grow.

I really loved the characters and Abercrombie’s complex plotting. From beginning to end this book was a joy to read. I was sorry to see if finally reach and conclusion but I will definitely look forward to seeing more from Abercrombie in the near future. Brilliantly done and highly recommended.

Werewolf Smackdown, Mario Acevedo, Eos, ISBN 978-0-06156720-9, $7.99, 354 pgs.

Image via Wikipedia

Felix Gomez is sent to Charleston, South Carolina to intervene in what could become an incredibly bloody war between two rival factions. But this is intervention with a difference. Gomez is a vampire, the group that’s sending him is the ultra secret Araneum, a cabal of master vampires dedicated to keeping the existence of supernaturals secret from human society, and the warring factions are werewolves.

Oh yeah, and Gomez is being stalked by not one but two beings from his past: a vampire who wants him dead and another vampire, an ex girlfriend, who may not want to kill him but doesn’t necessarily want him to be around any longer than necessary. All Gomez wants to do is get in and get out and settle things as quietly as possible. That’s not going to be easy, what with the way rival werewolves feel about each other and that pesky vampire who keeps trying to kill him, along with any number of additional problems that crop up and which seem to be all part of Gomez’s karma. He’ll stick with it though, for what choice does he have? Fail the Araneum and they’re just as likely to take you apart and use your skin to send messages (write the message on the skin in blood, seal it in a light-proof tube and be assured that once read and exposed to sunlight all traces are gone.

This is the fifth book in Acevedo’s series featuring Felix Gomez, vampire PI. Acevedo has done a great job with taking the vampire mythos that we all are familiar with and updating it, technologically speaking. This universe features all of the supernaturals we have come to know and love as well as a fair amount of acerbic wit and cynical insight. Gomez, as a main character is no pushover and yet has a heart, even if it doesn’t beat. Gomez is also one of the few Latino lead characters in SF and fantasy at this time which makes him extremely unusual as well.

I’ve really enjoyed all of the books in the series and think Acevedo does an excellent job with plotting and pacing. I also really like that he’s not tried to re-invent the whole vampire history just re-explain it in modern terms. All of the books in the series are fun to read, with Acevedo’s quick pacing presented through mostly short chapters and a lack of expository rambling. Of all the supernatural series out there today, and there are a lot of them, I would have to say that Acevedo’s Felix Gomez series is at the top. A sure-fire recommendation.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N. K. Jemisin, Orbit, ISBN 978-0-316-04391-5, $13.99, 412 pgs.

Yeine Darr is an outcast, barely accepted in her village in the far Barbarian North, she is brought to the city of Sky where things are much worse. Darr’s mother was the daughter of the King but fled Sky when her marriage to a common man was forbidden. She fled, with that man, to the far north, hoping to live in obscurity. Her mother’s death, under somewhat mysterious circumstances, initiates a chain of events that threaten her very being.

The city of Sky is a huge artifice, designed to reiterate to everyone just what their place in society is. The city is as structured and rigid as the castes which inhabit it and the king who rules it. Everyone has a place and knows it, even the gods who have been fallen to unwanted service. Yeine finds that her grandfather is a devious old man. Upon her arrival he names her heir to the throne, shocking all. The problem is that there are already two named heirs, cousins of hers who have grown up in Sky and are much more adept at the politics of the city and the gods who wander there. Yeine is out of her league and confused about why her grandfather has, essentially, recalled her to the city to die.

Yeine meets her cousins, who are nearly opposites although both quite bloodthirsty, meets some of the gods, and is introduced to like in Sky by servants who, she discovers, are also relatives. Everyone in Sky, it seems, is related to everyone else in some way, shape or form. Yeine is a quick learner but with the day quickly approaching when the heir, most likely the surviving heir, will take the throne, there seems to be just too much she has to know for it to make any difference at all. As the political maneuvering beings, Yeine discovers that all in Sky is not quite as ordered as it seems. Everyone has a history that drives numerous plots, including he gods themselves.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is Jemisin’s debut novel. And a very complicated novel it is. There is a depth to the universe that Jemisin has created that is presaged by the title. While we never actually learn much of the hundred thousand kingdoms the world operates as if they exist which creates a layering of plot and story that constantly leaves the reader thinking that there is more here and more going on than visible within the words used. This layering is used within the social structures as well with the gods, the elites and the servants all moving in a complicated dance of status and position and ranking. Throwing Yeine into the mix allows Jemisin to explore the universe and explain the world.

I liked this novel and while I did find myself scanning in a few areas where it seemed to lagged, the fact that this is a debut novel overcomes any paltry issues I might dredge up. It’s a good book, an interesting read and a fascinating and complicated world that Jemisin has created. Definitely recommended and I look forward to seeing her revisit this place again.

You can buy the book here: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (The Inheritance Trilogy) ;

Audrey’s Door, Sarah Langan, Harper, ISBN 978-0-06-162421-6, $7.99, 412 pgs.

Image by Adam Jones, Ph.D. via Flickr

This is Sarah Langan’s third book and it continues the themes found in the first two–self-destruction brought on by supernatural forces. This time the setting is New York City Where Architect Audrey Lucas manages to sign a lease for the Breviary, an affordable but oddly proportioned apartment building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The building is an example of 1880’s Chaotic Naturalist architecture and is the last of its kind since all others were condemned shortly after being built. Seems the Chaotic style is a bit unstable. The Breviary was the home to the wealthy children of robber barons and contains more than an echo from that time, either in decaying residents or the odd sounds that waft through the building. Lucas is determined to make it work however, ignoring the creaks and groans and bad feelings she has in order to make a new start. She also starts making a door in her living room. A door that leads to the past, or maybe just to death, or perhaps, worse of all, to her own past.

This is a creepy book, but then I’m not sure that Langan can write anything but. I did find it to be a bit too long in the middle, which definitely detracted from the sense of foreboding which had been building. But this is a minor quibble. As with many horror stories perhaps the greatest threat the writer faces is dealing with the question, from the reader or watcher, about why the protagonist stays in what everyone can see is a deteriorating situation. Langan addresses this by utilizing interior dysfunction and internalized self-destructive behaviors. It works in this situation very well.

I liked this book, as I liked Langan’s previous two books, and certainly look forward to the next book she produces. There is something about pairing the internal fears an individual has with real supernatural threats that works really well as a device to ratchet up the scare factor. Definitely recommended and a book you will want to read only in the day time.

Get it from Amazon here:

Audrey’s Door
 

Before They Are Hanged, Joe Abercrombi, PYR, ISBN 978-1-59102-641-9, 543 pgs., $15.98

Cover of Before They are Hanged (First Law)

And the plot thickens. Or, more exactly, becomes more convoluted. This is the second book in Abercrombie’s The First Law trilogy and picks up right after the first book. And so, we join Superior Glokta, imperial torturer who finds himself suddenly on the wrong side of politics and quickly to be sent to the city of Dagoska, a city he is tasked with defending and whose fall is imminent. Elsewhere, the Northmen have spilled over the border of Angland and are spreading fire, fear and death. Crown Prince Ladisla is sent to drive them back. Unfortunately, the Prince is incompetent, his generals argue who has more power, and the officers who know what needs to be done are not listened to. While this happens, Bayaz, the First of the Magi is heading west, leading a group consisting of the most feared man of the north and the most hated woman of the south. They are rounded out by a navigator so full of himself that he can barely stop telling everyone how great he is and the current foil champion of Angland, a preening fool with no experience but much cockiness.

These stories interweave back and forth as the plot advances, each carrying the narrative along and each critical to the overarching theme of self-sacrifice and self-destruction. The are battles individual and mighty, bloody and self-fulfilling, and chaotic and meaningless. Death and destruction are everywhere. Survival is due as much to luck as skill. And, yet, each group, persists onward, either fulfilling fate or creating destiny.

Before They Are Hanged is an interesting book and Abercrombie manages to maintain his dark humor throughout, his characters opining in somewhat sarcastic fashion about their situations and those around them.  Because Abercrombie is telling three distinct stories here the plotting is a bit convoluted and the reader needs to be able to juggle these disparate plot lines while trying to keep the main plot in mind.  This is no easy feat although Abercrombie’s eye to detail and plot lines helps a great deal as does his ability to make each of his characters very distinct.

I liked this book, as much as I like the series and I am definitely looking forward to reading the third and final book.  Abercrombie has created a world worth reading about and characters that move about in it that are worth caring about.  Even Glokta, the crippled torturer, is a joy to follow due to his Machiavellian mind and attention to purpose.  Highly recommended.

Click here to buy at Amazon.
Before They Are Hanged (The First Law: Book Two)
 

Kill the Dead, Richard Kadrey, Eos, ISBN 978-006-171431-3, 434 pgs., $22.99

 

Image via Wikipedia

 

This is the second book in Kadrey’s Sandman Slim series. Stark is back and trying to put the pieces together after escaping from hell, exacting a certain amount of bloody revenge, and saving the world in the process. He still has the animated head of a former peer living with him–part of that bloody revenge, and he’s still living above a video rental store in a sleazy section of Los Angeles. This time though Stark is offered a job being a body-guard for Satan, if offered is what you would call the demands of the Devil, and is trying to figure out how best to return to Hell and finish up on the revenge he started. Before he can get there though he meets a Czech pron star who turns out to be a zombie hunter, gets involved in trying to figure our why so many people attached to the families related to the supernatural side of LA are turning up dead, and where the sudden surge of zombies might be coming from. He gets help from many of the characters in the first book and from a few new ones as well. It seems the world, or at least LA, once more hangs in the balance and Stark is the only one who can stop it.

Kadrey writes with a raw energy that translates well to a protagonist from hell with an attitude to match. The action is violent and often messy and the language is strong and straight. Stark is an interesting anti-hero, struggling with a past that includes a lot of torture and serious personal loss. Kadrey adds emotional layers to Stark so that the character is both intriguing in terms of internal conflict and interesting in terms of attitude. There is a lot of dark humor here as well which helps to take the edge off what amounts to a lot of killing and dismemberment.

I really liked the first book in this series and so I had really high hopes for this book. I have to admit to be slightly disappointed, more so with the beginning of the novel which seemed to rehash old material in a way that was not as good as the original. Or perhaps it was just that Kadrey set the bar so high with the first book that there was no way he was going to match it with this one. As I read deeper I did find myself enjoying it more but it still seemed flat in places. I would still certainly recommend the book and if you have not read the first book, Sandman Slim, then you should definitely go out and get that one first. It’s hard to know whether this book reflects a mid-series slump, which often happens with the sequel novel, or a case where all the good stuff occurred in the first book and there’s no where else to go but down. I’m hoping for slump and will definitely read the next book in the series.