I heard just this week from my agent and editor that, despite declining sales, Tor Books has agreed to published the penultimate and ultimate volume in the sexilogy (not what it sounds like; get your mind out of the gutter!) of the nonaward-winning Count to the Eschaton Sequence!
Those who have been anxiously waiting for John Scalzi’s best-selling military scifi novel Old Man’s War to get a live-action adaptation won’t have to be waiting much longer. Syfy and Academy Award-nominated director Wolfgang Petersen will adapt the books for television as a series titled Ghost Brigades, after the second novel in the series.
You might remember that Paramount had originally purchased the rights to the Old Man’s War novel to make a movie, but those plans fell through. But don’t worry that this adaptation is going to skip the events of the first novel; as the author himself explains in a tongue-in-cheek self-Q&A on his website, “The series will pull elements from various books in the OMW universe in any event.” The title “Ghost Brigades” was used for the show instead of “Old Man’s War” simply because it sounded “sexier.”
I’m rather disappointed about one of these things, but possibly not the one you might think. While I personally dislike John Scalzi and consider him a fraud, a coward, and a mediocre, derivative novelist, I don’t wish him any ill. I genuinely believe he is rather well-suited for the medium of television, and based on my limited experience in the TV industry, his self-marketing tendencies may actually be on the modest side there.
No, you see, I was rather hoping to have Castalia pick up the rest of the Count to the Eschaton books. C’est la vie, a la prochaine fois. We have not yet reached the point where we can directly compete with Tor Books. But we will. Sooner or later.
As I mentioned when we announced the book, a substantial portion of the first month’s sales revenues (approximately half), will be donated to Stillbrave, the children’s cancer charity. An estimated $1,350+ has been raised for Stillbrave to date. Today is the final day of the release month, so if you are interested in supporting either Mr. Wright or Stillbrave, I encourage you to buy it now, either from the Castalia House store (EPUB format) or from Amazon (Kindle format).
If you have not read the reviews, of which there are now 22 averaging a 4.7 rating, I hope you will not mind if I happen to share a few of the newer ones with you. And to those of you who have already purchased the book, thank you very much for all your support.
Review 1: I, or my other timeline self, really enjoyed this. I have to admit, I like this better than Awake in the Night Land. I mean, it has a time travelling gumshoe, who can’t like that? The twists and turns of chrono-based events was fun. If I ever ran into anything that was even remotely difficult to understand, I just went with it, knowing that my other self on a different timeline would understand it. Or maybe I didn’t. Well, never mind…. Good book. Go with it. You or your other timeline self will enjoy it.
Review 2:Time travel has been a staple of science fiction for decades, as has the usual paradoxes. But Wright has tried a new twist – the morality of time travel. What is right and wrong when you can go back in time, rerun the past, and create the future? And what horrors can you conceal? Wright tells these stories with an elegant phrasing rarely seen today. Highly recommended.
Review 3:This is the third book of John C. Wright I have read this year. I was introduced to Wright’s writing with his book “Awake in the Nightland,” published by Castalia House. The second was “Count to a Trillion,” published by Tor. This third book, “City Beyond Time,” is published by Castalia House. “City Beyond Time” is alongs the same vein as “Awake in the Nightland.” Both are a collection of short stories within the same setting…. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves time travel science fiction. It is better then most time travel books that are linear in style and movement. It is by no means predictable and keeps you reading for more. I hope Wright writes more stories about Mr. Fontino in the future, perhaps even give him his own novel series.
Since there are more than a few relatively new readers who have come here since I last posted short fiction here several years ago, I thought I’d mention that a collection of it is available on Amazon and at Castalia. I’m more of a novel writer by nature; all of the various Selenoth-related novellas and novelettes I’ve published were actually supposed to be short stories that happened to run long. I’ve since found that writing short stories in the quasi-style of the French master of the art, Guy de Maupassant, tends to be more effective for me. I couldn’t keep it up for an entire novel, indeed, having read several of Maupassant’s novels, it appears he couldn’t really do so either. Three of the short stories in the collection are written in that style, two of them purposefully; it wasn’t until several years after writing “Raj and Garou” that I realized the reason I liked it so much was that it gave off that distinctive sensation of eerie detachment that, for me, tends to characterize the French writer’s work.
(There are those thinking, wait a minute, what about “The Last Testament of Henry Halleck”? That was a failed attempt to write in an ur-Lovecraftian style. Although the story itself worked, I didn’t get the style right. It’s harder than it might seem; Charles Stross didn’t get it right in “Equoid” either.)
You can read “The Deported” in its entirety here on the blog; it might be informative for those who have been rightly appalled by the Hugo-nominated short stories to read it while keeping in mind the likes of “If You Were A Dinosaur, My Love”. On a somewhat creepy trivia note, the Italian town in which the story is set was destroyed by mudslides the same month that the story was published in Stupefying Stories and remains abandoned today.
Whereas the two other stories are merely stylistically evocative, “The Logfile” is essentially an SF spin on my second-favorite of Maupassant’s stories, set in the QUANTUM MORTIS universe. Here is a selection from it.
To the Board of Executives;
The committee’s investigation concerning the possibility of positronic corruption in the neuro-cybernetic logical facilities of the Sektat Series 44 machine-intelligences was concluded early in light of the recent examination of the logfile belonging to unit 44XFL2J-455-847-484-176. Unit 44XFL2J, self-titled Magister, was produced on 18 September 2267 at the production facilities on Minsky, and was delivered to the Entaini Office of the Prime Attorney on 18 February 2268. It is the considered opinion of the undersigned that the Lighthill Corporation must announce a recall of all Sektat Series 44 units, effective immediately, followed by a comprehensive technical investigation of the Series 44 neural network design to determine how such an aberration could have taken place. In order to reduce the likelihood of public outrage and considerable legal liability to the corporation, the committee STRONGLY recommends that the recall be attributed to an error in a floating point processor that may, in some circumstances, lead to erroneous statistical calculations. In order to underline the necessity for immediate action by the Board, a selection from the relevant portions of Unit 44XFL2J’s logfile have been provided.
Dr. Merwethy Furris Dr. Rambathas Chamkanni Summerdeep (Unit 42AFS17-129-470-002-384)
FROM THE LOGFILE OF UNIT 44XFL2J-455-847-484-176
UTC-9424124925: I have completed the analysis of Case Number 2268.47. After examining all of the evidence provided to me and cross-checking it against the public records, I have concluded that the individual concerned is guilty of the murder of his common-law mate with a 0.0543 percent probability of error. Barring any suggestion of cloned persons utilizing his DNA profile, there is no legitimate reason for the adjudicating court to possess any reasonable doubts concerning his guilt in the matter. While the examination of the individual’s motivation and intent lie beyond my design parameters, my initial attempts to investigate these matters indicate to me that 2268.47’s intent was entirely in line with his actions and the subsequent results.
UTC-9427046710: The court pronounced its verdict concerning Case Number 2268.47 this morning. Despite the attempts of accused’s legal defense team to excuse his actions on the basis of his defective genetics and sub-optimal childhood nurturing environment, the verdict was in sync with the calculations provided. Case Number 2268.47 will be terminated in a humane manner within 240 hours, in a manner consistent with the procedure outlined by the law. I am pleased that the court saw fit to place its confidence in my calculations.
No doubt they’ll be completely astonished when their sales collapse by 80 percent:
Marvel is excited to announce an all-new era for the God of Thunder in brand new series, THOR, written by Jason Aaron complimented with art from Russell Dauterman. This October, Marvel Comics evolves once again in one of the most shocking and exciting changes ever to shake one of the “big three” of Captain America, Iron Man and Thor. No longer is the classic Thunder God able to hold the mighty hammer, Mjölnir, and a brand new female hero will emerge worthy of the name THOR.
Series writer Jason Aaron emphasizes, “This is not She-Thor. This is not Lady Thor. This is not Thorita. This is THOR. This is the THOR of the Marvel Universe. But it’s unlike any Thor we’ve ever seen before.” THOR is the latest in the ever-growing and long list of female-centric titles that continues to invite new readers into the Marvel Universe.
The astonishing thing is that these people actually believe they are the creative ones. Why not turn the WONDER WOMAN into a cross-dressing man? Why not transform the SUPERMAN into a monkey? Why not change the CAPTAIN AMERICA into a buck private in the Armed Forces of the United Nations?
Intentionally or unconsciously, they confuse self-parody with creativity. They tear down and think they are engaged in creative destruction, only what they rebuild is nothing but a cheap and ugly mockery of what stood there before.
Mr. Wright has, if you will excuse the pun, let the black cat out of the bag with regards to the next work of his that Castalia House will be publishing. Regrettably, he has been manfully resisting the best efforts of our editors to keep his fanciful flights of highfalutin prose in check.
A previous version of One Bright Star to Guide Them appeared in F&SF in their 2009 April-May, but at the editor’s suggestion, I made some changes. The daring idea of the the text being entirely rewritten to eliminate all male and female pronouns, and a scene where the heroine wishes her husband were a dinosaur and fantasizes about him in graphic sexual detail, as well making each character have a nonbinary sexual orientation, like Leehallfae, but without any imagination or point, were all contemplated as possibilities, but in the end the editor forced me to write a story that had a beginning, middle and end, so I will not be able to win any prestigious awards, or get a government grant to not write a novel.
(However, in retaliation against my editor, I wrote a story without a beginning, middle and end — at least not in that order, and not with only one ending — and sold it to him as CITY BEYOND TIME. Hoo hah!! On sale now!)
You see what we are forced to deal with here on a daily basis. Thank you to the volunteers, we now have a sufficient number. However, if you haven’t read CITY BEYOND TIME yet, which is indeed on sale now, you need not take my word for why you should, but need only peruse the reviews for more convincing explanations.
“Best of Wright I have read. “This is the third book of John C. Wright I have read this year. I was introduced to Wright’s writing with his book “Awake in the Nightland,” published by Castalia House. The second was “Count to a Trillion,” published by Tor. This third book, “City Beyond Time,” is published by Castalia House…. The writing is tremendous.”
“Buy this before your future self comes back to make you. There are a lot of time travel books out there, the best and enduring being ones that examine questions of why or how or who. John C Wright has done what I’ve never seen before and examined time travel by “ought”; only with questions far deeper than just “ought you kill baby Hitler?” If you’re a scifi/fantasy fan you owe it to yourself to check out this collection.”
CITY BEYOND TIME is, without question, one of the best SF books published this year. It is clever, original, and fantastic in every sense of the word. And yet, in my opinion, it isn’t even one of the two best John C. Wright books we will publish this year.
As I mentioned when we announced the book, a substantial portion of the first month’s sales revenues will be donated to Stillbrave, the children’s cancer charity. According to my calculations, after the first two weeks $658.84 has been raised for Stillbrave to date. There are still more than two weeks to go, so if you have any interest at all in Mr. Wright’s superlative excursion into the philosophy and morality of time travel, I would encourage you to buy it now, either from the Castalia House store (EPUB format) or from Amazon (Kindle format).
If you have not read the reviews, of which there are 12 averaging a 4.8 rating, perhaps a selection of quotes from a two or three of them will encourage you to give the book a shot.
Review 1: I urgently and without hesitation, recommend City Beyond Time. Atlantis, Hi-Brazil, Tartessos. Or if you don’t read the classics; Krypton, Gallifrey and Valyria.
The forever doomed, forever lost and forever beautiful true city and true home. The seat of all grace, all wisdom and all power, destined from it’s creation for destruction by it’s own hubris.
Welcome to Metachonoplis.
Writers don’t dream this big anymore. They don’t dare, they would be laughed out of the business. Much easier to take the path most commonly taken. Much easier to drop the F-bomb eighteen times before the end of page six and call it art. Just describe every vulgar experience you’ve ever had and call it refined. Just pretend your words can become a muse for the readers mind and call it good…enough.
John C. Wright is clearly and obviously a rather drastic anachronism. If H. Rider Haggard, Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Chandler and Roger Zelazny had got together in a bar and decided just for kicks to have a genetic recombinant uterine replication vanity project together the result would be John C. Wright.
Review 2:I’ve noted a theme in my so far sadly limited (but soon to be comprehensive!) readings of John C. Wright that he speaks in a voice sui generis among modern literary pretenders — that is, all those who are not in fact John C. Wright — portraying what for lack of better nomenclature we could term “inspirational dystopias”, shining the light of human fulfillment from amidst what in lesser hands would be overwhelming nihilism and/or despair.
This collection of stories raises that artistry to masterly finesse; it reads like Moorcock’s Dancers At The End of Time as plotted by a collaboration of Neal Stephenson and C.S. Lewis, with a subtle sprinkling of the absurdist wit Messr. Wright displays abundantly in his online presence.
Unconditionally recommended!
Review 3: John Wright does it again. This is the second book of collected stories I’ve read from him, the other being Awake in the Night Lands, and cannot recommend him highly enough.
I’ve read, and watched, my fair share of time travel stories and Wright leaves them all in the dust, even Mull’s Grip of the Shadow Plague subplot which I had just read to my kids. His vision is far more expansive, far more human and far more frightening than what I’ve encountered elsewhere. Not only does he pursue the logical and moral ramifications of what unfettered time travel would entail and what that would do to those that master it, he also presents two sides, a heaven and a hell, the costs of each, and lets the reader decide which one he would seek.
For what, one wonders, can you possibly be waiting? Especially if you consider yourself even a casual reader of science fiction.
One of our new Castalia House bloggers has really been raising the standard there. What Jeff describes as a review of The Dying Earth by Jack Vance is really an intelligent, respectful contemplation of the true depths of Vance’s magical system, pale shadows of which provided the structure of the D&D and many subsequent magical systems:
Of similar significance is the commonly overlooked fact that mathematics is the key to discerning the nature “real” Vancian magic. In many games, the designers come up with some sort generic “magicky” type skill or else have it powered by an arbitrary “mana” force. Other people, hankering for a sense of authenticity, work out systems based on pacts with demons and so forth. In contrast, Jack Vance is explicit about his magic’s being susceptible to discoverable laws:
Within this instrument resides the Universe. Passive in itself and not of sorcery, it elucidates every problem, each phase of existence, all the secrets of time and space. Your spells and runes are built upon its power and codified according to a great underlying mosaic of magic. The design of this mosaic we cannot surmise; our knowledge is didactic, empirical, arbitrary. Phandaal glimpsed the pattern and so was able to formulate many of the spells that bear his name.
But in the Dying Earth setting, a general knowledge of how mathematics applies to magic is almost completely lost. The consequences of a scenario that culminates into a science fantasy analog to Lord of the Flies go far deeper than what a casual reading would indicate:
In all my youth this ache has driven me, and I have journeyed from the old manse at Sfere to learn from the Curator… I am dissatisfied with the mindless accomplishments of the magicians, who have all their lore by rote
The wizards, then, are nearly all charlatans. They’re like jazz musicians that can only learn a set number of songs, can’t improvise on a set of chord changes, and forget what little they do know at the end of a set. They’re like engineers that can only solve a few well known problems and who can only actually tackle a fraction of what was previously solvable. They are like the most typical math student of today who has knowledge of only a handful of tricks, is barely able to recognize when to apply them, and who is essentially innumerate when separated from his calculator. Despite their trappings of learning and lore, these wizards amount to little more than barbarian looters of a fallen empire.
Simply great stuff. And speaking of fallen empires, here is a reminder of why you simply must read John C. Wright’s newest book, CITY BEYOND TIME: Tales of the Fall of Metachronopolis, if you are a science fiction aficionado.
A double row of oaks lined the drive leading to the main doors of Ophion House. Lelantos gently pushed Catherine into hiding behind a tree, and pressed close behind her, his arms to either side of her, supporting her. She was nearly fainting, and stood grasping the tree for support, staring at the house.
She saw that his Roadster stood idling in the circle before the doors, festooned with ribbons and flowers, with long strands tied to the rear bumper trailing shoes and cans. On the stairs of the portico, a noisy, cheerful crowd stood facing the doors, men dressed in handsome black tuxedos, women garbed in silks and satins, with flowers woven in their hair.
“It is now a year later,” he breathed in her ear. “I wanted you to see our wedding day.”
A great cheer went up from the house, and the women threw rice into the air as the bride and groom appeared at the door.
Catherine clutched the bark to the oak, and her breath caught in her throat. “That’s me!”
“That’s you. Run forward now, and you might catch the bouquet.”
But Catherine did not move. “Oh,” she sighed, “Oh my… I look so happy. Look at how I’m laughing! Look at my dress! It’s gorgeous! I want a dress just like that for my wedding!”
Her face flushed with joy, standing on tip-toes, the bride smiled and waved toward the oak trees as if she knew they were there, as a lacey white veil, sheer as smoke, floated around her flower-crowned head. The bridegroom winked in their direction. Then the crowd swirled in around the newly-married pair, shouting with good cheer.
The couple fled the pelting rice, laughing, and leapt into the waiting Roadster. With a humming roar, the machine whirled down the lane between the trees, a cloud of dust speeding away behind it.
The noise of the crowd faded away like the sound of an old newsreel. Lelantos walked toward the house, drawing an amazed Catherine drifting, eyes wide, behind him. By the time they reached the lowest step, it was dusk, and the crowd had vanished. When they reached the door, the stars were gleaming cold in the dark above, and the hall clock was whirring and ringing midnight.
“How can this be possible?” Catherine breathed softly.
“All men can reach with their minds into the past and future, with memory and imagination. My family was forced to learn how to bring ourselves along as well.”
“Forced?”
“We come from a future of fire. The smoke of the burning has blotted out the sun, moon, and stars. It is a time of darkness; the streams and seas are turned to blood. Earthquakes swallow islands into the ocean and throw down mountains. Mankind has died in plague and poison, or burnt, or choked, or starved, or drowned or been buried alive. The first father and mother of my family, Lif and Lifrasir, the last of all mankind, escaped death by fleeing down the corridors of Time. We don’t know why. Perhaps the moment when there was no future left at all allowed the past to open up her gates. The pair fled to the farthest future, after time itself had ceased, exhausted, and discovered the empty towers of Metachronopolis, the golden City Beyond Time. New names were given them, Chronos and Rhea, when they mounted the diamond thrones and donned the robes of pallid mist. They opened the mirrored gates of splendor into the creation reborn.”
She looked around at the summer night, at the rustling trees and the silent statues in the moonlight. “I thought things would blur and flicker when we time-traveled.”
The story is first-rate. The scene is magical. And for me, that last line is what demonstrates the difference between John C. Wright and everyone else writing science fiction today. It is almost Woodhousean in its light-hearted, but pitch-perfect portrayal of the two characters involved in the dialogue.
Metachronopolis is the golden city beyond time. Ruled by the Masters of Time, who can travel freely throughout the multitudinous time lines of Man’s history, the city is a shining society of heroes and horrors. For the arrogant Masters, who steal famous men and women out of the past and bring them to the eternal city for their amusement, are not only beyond time, but beyond remorse and retribution too.
CITY BEYOND TIME: Tales of the Fall of Metachronopolis is John C. Wright’s mind-bending and astonishingly brilliant take on time travel. In making use of a centuries-spanning perspective similar to his highly-regarded AWAKE IN THE NIGHT LAND, Wright expertly weaves a larger tale out of a series of smaller ones. Part anthology and part novel, CITY BEYOND TIME is fascinating, melancholy, frightening, and a true masterpiece of story-telling.
As you can probably imagine, we are very pleased to be able to announce that John C. Wright’s latest book is available today on Amazon in Kindle format and at Castalia House in EPUB format. Featuring a cover by the inimitable Kirk DouPonce, the book consists of six of the aforementioned tales, which, in a manner more convoluted than I can possibly hope to summarize here, collectively tell of the fate of the shining city of Metachronopolis. At 167 pages, it is a relatively short book, but one that you will almost surely find yourself reading more than once as Wright expertly explores the paradoxes inherent in the logic of time travel.
As Wright’s fans have come to expect, CITY BEYOND TIMEis more than just an intelligently entertaining story. It is also a thoughtful musing on the nature of power and its corrupting temptations. But no matter how deep the darkness runs, it can never do more than obscure the light.
And this is more than a book announcement, it is also a charity drive. About a month ago, Mr. Wright contacted me about the possibility of bringing some attention to a charity he wished to support. The charity, called Stillbrave, was started by a Christian man who lost his daughter to cancer. Mr. Wright and his wife requested that half his royalties for the first month’s sales be donated to Stillbrave, which we agreed to do. Castalia House also agreed to match his donation.
So, if you buy CITY BEYOND TIME between now and July 23rd, about half the money Castalia receives will go to Stillbrave, in the name of Mr. and Mrs. John C. Wright. Obviously, you can simply donate directly to the charity, but if you also wish to honor Mr. Wright’s efforts, the most efficient means of doing so will be to purchase the book through Castalia House. If you have not yet read Mr. Wright’s work, you may be interested to know that we are giving away his AWAKE IN THE NIGHT today and tomorrow on Amazon.
This is the latest book in the ‘Carrera’ series by Tom Kratman. The story covers the activities leading up to and the beginning salvos of the second stage of the war between the Tauran Union (the EU) and Balboa (Panama). Now for those of you who wonder how the hell Panama could be in a war with the EU much less how it could manage to be kicking the EU’s sclerotic, bureaucratic ass you really have to read the ‘What has gone before’ section. Trust me when I say it is necessary there’s a lot that has happened to get the action to this point and a whole mess of characters that are important to the plot. When reading Tom Kratman you never know who is going to be an important character and who is going to wind up killed so you better pay attention.
So to the story itself. It is a good military adventure yarn. That should be no surprise by now, Kratman writes military adventure and whatever he does he does well. It is just barely science fiction. Yes it is set on a different planet, yes there is marginally advanced technology, but this series is really just an alternate history of what could have been done following September 11th. It could just as easily been set on Earth beginning Sept 11, 2001.
The story is well written and for me the easiest of the series to read and follow. I was never left wondering ‘who is this and what are they doing’. The action is realistic and of course plenty gritty. The characters were as usual interesting and drawn just as finely as they needed to be for the part they played in the story. Most of the book is taken up with behind the scenes type of political wrangling and espionage but there still are big meaty chunks of combat and conflict.
The Good: “The Rods and the Axe” is well written, the prose is clear and clean without anything extraneous getting into the way. The people, places, and activities on ‘Terra Nova’ are presented in well crafted brush strokes. Even the characters that are seen once and will never be seen again were easy to envision. Some would say Kratman makes good use of stereotype but I prefer to think of his bright-line characterization of minor characters as solid use of easily understood motifs.
The characters are easy to connect to and visualize. Motivations fit the characters and the actions they take except for one really jarring scene (more about that later), are never forced. The actions feel like they are the real actions of the characters and not something that Kratman has decreed for the characters to do everything feels very organic. One thing that Kratman is very good at is people and he easily acknowledges that every side can have heroes. The enemies can be just as well intentioned, heroic as Carrera and his Legion and are certainly as well written.
The organizations of Terra Nova are realistic and Kratman does a good job of describing them. Of course, that is not a huge stretch because Terra Nova is really just ‘Earth’. Every nation and organization has its counterpart on Terra Nova.
Not much to say about Kratman’s gift for writing military action that has not already been said. The action whether it is a bar fight with broken bottles or a naval gunnery barrage with 150mm guns is all well written. The pacing of the action is particularly good and will keep you reading (I read the book in one sitting). Kratman is a master of his craft and belongs with Drake or Pournelle when discussing good military science fiction.
One thing and perhaps this is just a matter of personal taste but I like that while Kratman’s characters are fully adult and human and have sex the sex is all ‘off screen’ and fade to black type of activities. I find that refreshing.
The Bad: Here’s the good news; nothing ‘bad’ about this novel. The story is first rate, the characters are well written and interesting and the action is realistic and visceral. But there is that one scene I mentioned earlier and that’s ugly.
The Ugly: First let me say that I know Kratman is one sneaky bastard (I mean that as a compliment) and that he knows where his stories are going a long way a head, however, Carrera makes a really jarring bonehead move that stood out like a green stick fracture. At one point he has Carrera going into a major conflict zone for (at this point in the story) no damn good reason. It is such a bad decision that I had a hard time getting past that. It was like Ike landing with the grunts at Utah Beach. I know Kratman is probably just setting us up for something that requires Carrera to be where he is but the action itself was double-stupid and his aides should have sat on him until he regained his senses. I won’t say anything more about that because that would give away too much of the plot.
All in all I cannot recommend this book enough. If you at all like military fiction you’ll like this book and if you do like military fiction and haven’t found this series yet you are in for a treat. Kratman has stepped up his game with this book and is now firmly in the top tier of military fiction not just military science fiction.
And JW has already read it and finished his review as well. The speed with which these gentlemen blew through the book should also tell you something about whether Tom Kratman’s latest is worthwhile for fans of military science fiction.
Tom Kratman has out his sixth novel in the Carrera series, and it’s a worthy addition indeed. The Legion del Cid, with Patricio Carrera in command, has kicked the Tauran Union forces occupying the Balboa transitway out, in bloody fighting. In Book 6 they are concerned with the final preparation for the invasion of the Taurans and their Zhong allies, and, then the beginning of an epic battle for the tiny country of Balboa. The Taurans are providing air cover and a blocking force in the neighboring country of Santa Josefina and the Zhong providing the landing force attempting to take the Isla Real, the immense and heavily fortified island commanding the transitway. There are time references both backward looking and forward, starting with the Amazon Legion, continuing in the fifth novel Come and Take Them. I would highly recommend reading the whole series. It’s more than worth it.
Many of the characters from the previous novels are here with some added fleshing out particularly concerning the High Admiral Wallenstein and her latest relationship and some truly funny plot elements revolving around Carrera’s son Hamilcar and his domestic difficulties. Lesson there: you don’t really need twelve wives, lad.
There are new characters, of course, notably among the Zhong Imperial Marines and their bloody sacrifices on the beaches of Isla Real. The battle action starts about 45 percent into the book with an interesting taste of things to come in the Prologue, and continues until the book ends with a not-so-subtle cliff hanger pointing to Book 7. Personally, I can’t wait until the Legion takes on the UEPF, the United Earth Peace Fleet, in orbit around the planet and providing from orbit intelligence gathering for the Tauran forces.
I can’t give you metrics of prose competence, plot flow, etc. All I can do is tell you this a real page turner and a long awaited addition to the series. I loved it. Enjoy!
If you enjoy keeping up on the latest in SF/F, I would encourage you to begin following the Castalia House blog on a daily basis, where our SEVEN bloggers are now posting regular reviews of both conventional and independently published SF/F books. Mascaro has posted a review of AS I WALK THESE BROKEN ROADS by DMJ Aurini and Jeff’s review ofSHADOW OF THE STORMby Martin J. Dougherty is a must-read for any TRAVELLER aficionado, as it sounds like Marc Miller has found himself a good writer who is respectful of the game canon.
#2 Kindle > Literature & Fiction > Foreign Language Fiction > Portuguese #2 Foreign Languages > Portuguese > Fantasy, Horror & Science Fiction
In other news, BS wants to know precisely who I mean when I talk about Pink SF/F:
I started reading your blog after finding you on a link from Instapundit. I don’t particularly like SF but do like fantasy of the sort Patricia McKillip writes (as an example). I also love Tolkein (again as an example). I read your story you had for free (now vanished from my Kindle app) and enjoyed it very much. I bought your Irrational Atheist. I think I might like Sarah Hoyt. I see you have some recommendations on your website. I don’t want to wind up with books by authors you refer to as “pink SF/F. Is there a list of what authors to either avoid or to look for?
Marion “the child molester” Zimmer Bradley and Samuel “NAMBLA” Delaney clearly top the Pink list. They are among the worst of the freak show. Off the top of my head there is Jim Hines, Mary Kowal, Rachel Swirsky, Marko Kloos, John Scalzi, Sheri Tepper, and Mercedes Lackey. But you can find a longer list here comprised of self-identified equalitarians.
We probably should see about putting a comprehensive Pink SF/F list together as a service to those who wish to avoid it. So, if you have a candidate, provide their name and make the case for inclusion in the comments. But they should be clear-cut candidates, not merely authors who are influenced by the gatekeepers. For example, I would not consider Jim Butcher to be a Pink SF/F writer, he is merely a gamma male who can’t bear to imagine a man making a move on an attractive woman.
