The BoSS for 05/09/10

And so, to the second edition of The BoSS double header. Yesterday, we talked YA. Today, we're back on the books for growed-ups, including two I've already read and several installments of series I've begun - all of which makes me feel a little less shitty about all the pretty books that come through the door and the dire lack of time of time I have to enjoy them. This week, by chance as much as any other thing, I made the grade.

Well... I would have had I not broken with tradition to put two of these posts up. *sigh*

For the moment, click through to Meet the BoSS for an introduction and an explanation as to why you should care about the Bag o' Speculative Swag, or read on for a sneak peek at some of the books - past, present and future - you can expect to see coverage of here on The Speculative Scotsman in the coming weeks and months.

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The Black Prism

by Brent Weeks

Release Details:

Published in the UK on
26/08/10 by Orbit

Review Priority:

5 (Immediate)

Plot Synopsis: "Gavin Guile is the Prism, the most powerful man in the world. He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserves a tenuous peace. But Prisms never last, and Guile knows exactly how long he has left to live: five years to achieve five impossible goals. But when Guile discovers he has a son, born in a far kingdom after the war that put him in power, he must decide how much he's willing to pay to protect a secret that could tear his world apart."

Commentary: I'll confess to no small amount of excitement when I tore open the latest care package from Orbit to find a review copy of The Black Prism. Brent Weeks is, yes, another of the authors I've heard great things about, but never read; he made quite the splash, I'm given to understand, with The Way of Shadows last year. Thus, I jumped at the chance to get started on this, the first volume of a new trilogy entitled Lightbringer, and though my feelings on it are more mixed than I'd hoped, The Black Prism is a fun read at the very least. Expect a review within the week.

One question, though: why's it called The Black Prism? I read the whole thing and I'm no closer to grasping that. Anyone? Was it just a neat name?

Engineman

by Eric Brown

Release Details:

Published in the UK on
14/10/10 by Solaris

Review Priority:

4 (Very High)

Plot Synopsis: "Once they pushed bigships through the cobalt glory of the Nada-Continuum. But faster than light isn’t fast enough anymore. The interfaces of the Keilor-Vincicoff Organisation bring planets light years distant a simple step away. Then a man with half a face offers ex-engineman Ralph Mirren the chance to escape his ruined life and push a ship to an undisclosed destination. The Nada-Continuum holds the key to Ralph’s future. What he cannot anticipate is its universal importance – nor the mystery awaiting him on the distant colony world."

Commentary: A reissue, I believe, of one of Eric Brown's standalone sci-fi sagas, complete with a gorgeous new cover and "nine stories set in the Engineman universe, including the Interzone award winning The Time-Lapsed Man". Quite the package, then.

Sagas are one of my pet peeves, and one of the reasons I tend to read less sci-fi - though I suppose there are an equal number of serial narratives in fantasy fiction - so this looks to be right up my street. Doesn't hurt that it looks so purdy, either. I'll be reading Engineman just as soon as I can find time to.

The Usurper

by Rowena Cory Daniels

 

Release Details:

Published in the UK on
02/09/10 by Solaris

Review Priority:

3 (Moderate)

Plot Synopsis: "Now a slave, Piro finds herself in the Merofynian Palace where, if her real identity is discovered, she will be executed.

"Meanwhile, Fyn is desperate to help his brother, Bryen, who is now the uncrowned King. Bryen never sought power but now he finds himself at the centre of a dangerous resistance movement as the people of Rolencia flee vicious invaders. How can Byren defeat the invaders, when half his warriors are women and children, and the other half are untrained boys and old men?"

Commentary: Solaris have outdone themselves with the untraditional publication schedule for these books; these books being The King's Bastard, The Uncrowned King and The Usurper, volumes one through three of King Rolen's King, which the aforementioned (small?) press have released one-a-month for the past three months. I'll be honest, I don't know that I'd have looked twice at Rowena Cory Daniels' series were it not for the way Solaris has opted to release it - but I'm glad they did. I've read the first book and started on the second, and King Rolen's King has been pretty fine fantasy so far. Saying that, though, I'm officially behind! Fancy that...

Dead Space: Martyr

by B. K. Evenson

Release Details:

Published in the US on

01/07/10 by Tor

Review Priority:

4 (Very High)

Plot Synopsis: "We have seen the future: a universe cursed with life after death.

"It all started deep beneath the Yucatan peninsula, where an archaeological discovery took us into a new age, bringing us face-to-face with our origins and destiny.

"Michael Altman had a theory no one would hear. It cursed our world for centuries to come. This, at last, is his story."

Commentary: Ahhh. The inevitable Dead Space tie-in. Now don't get me wrong, guys and gals: I loved the game, and I had high hopes for the book given Brian Evenson's talent (as evidenced by Last Days). This is thus another of the week's arrivals that I've already managed to gorge on, but sadly, whatever my feelings about the game, Dead Space: Martyr ain't all that. Evenson has, despite his remarkable original fiction, turned in what amounts to hack work for hire, investing himself not at all in the world, nor indeed its characters, such as they are.

A damn shame, if you ask me; I'm dearly anticipating the day shared worlds fiction comes into its own. But you'll hear all about that, and this book, shortly. Stay tuned for the full review in the not-too-distant.

The Crowded Shadows

by Celine Kiernan

Release Details:

Published in the UK on

02/09/09 by Orbit

Review Priority:

3 (Moderate)

Plot Synopsis: "Wynter Moorehawke has fled the dangers of court for bandit-infested forests, seeking exiled prince Alberon. But more than just thieves lurk in these shadows. Every tyrant and zealot who has ever threatened the kingdom is sending emissaries to meet Alberon, whose motivations seem unclear. Razi and Christopher had also set out to track Alberon, and find Wynter as enemies close in. With a savage wolf clan on their heels, they must seek sanctuary with the nomadic Merron. But this leaves them enmeshed in a net of sinister black magics and forbidden ritual. Their safety and the kingdom's future will depend on a web of alliances and hostilities. And Alberon and his war machine sit at its heart."

Commentary: As per my review back in April, I had mixed feelings about The Poison Throne, which this book follows on from. As the second book in The Moorehawke Trilogy, The Crowded Shadows will have the hardest job of the lot in terms of telling a story worthwhile in and of itself, but The Poison Throne ended on a promising note, and if the energy and enthusiasm which pervaded it carry over, I don't doubt The Crowded Shadows will make for a fun few hours even if middle volume syndrome does the dirty.

The Technician

by Neal Asher

Release Details:

Published in the UK

on 20/08/09 by Tor

Review Priority:

3 (Moderate)

Plot Synopsis: "The Theocracy has been dead for twenty years, and the Polity rules on Masada. But the Tidy Squad consists of rebels who cannot accept the new order. Their hate for surviving theocrats is undiminished, and the iconic Jeremiah Tombs is at the top of their hitlist.

"Escaping his sanatorium Tombs is pushed into painful confrontation with reality he has avoided since the rebellion. His insanity has been left uncured, because the near mythical hooder called the Technician that attacked him all those years ago, did something to his mind even the AIs fail to understand. Tombs might possess information about the suicide of an entire alien race.

"The war drone Amistad, whose job it is to bring this information to light, recruits Lief Grant, an ex-rebel Commander, to protect Tombs, along with the black AI Penny Royal, who everyone thought was dead. The amphidapt Chanter, who has studied the bone sculptures the Technician makes with the remains of its prey, might be useful too.


"Meanwhile, in deep space, the mechanism the Atheter used to reduce themselves to animals, stirs from slumber and begins to power-up its weapons."

Commentary: What?

For an apparently standalone novel, The Technician sure does sound like it relies on a not insignificant amount of knowledge of the Polity universe Neal Asher has been working within for as long as I can recall. Which, I'm afraid, I do not have. Still, I'm interested. For one thing, the quote from The Daily Mail - or whichever of the UK's tabloid rags it was - that used to put me off Asher's books is, praise the lord, gone. And there's that giant insect alien on the cover (which reminds me of Lost Planet concept art) to consider. How could a giant insect alien not equal fun? We'll see about this one...

Oh, and if some kind soul wants to sell me on The Technician - explain whether it is or is not suitable for readers entirely unversed in the Polity, say - the odds of further coverage here on TSS are only going to get better.

The First Collected Tales of

Bauchelain and Korbal Broach

by Steven Erikson

Release Details:

Published in the UK
on 19/09/09 by Bantam

Review Priority:

3 (Moderate)

Plot Synopsis: "Blood Follows" - In the port city of Lamentable Moll, a diabolical killer stalks the streets and panic grips the citizens like a fever. As Emancipor Reese's legendary ill luck would have it, his previous employer is the unknown killer's latest victim. But two strangers have come to town, and they have posted in Fishmonger's Round a note, reeking of death-warded magic, requesting the services of a manservant. "The Lees Of Laughter's End" - After their blissful sojourn in Lamentable Moll, the sorcerers Bauchelain and Korbal Broach - along with their manservant, Emancipor Reese - set out on the open seas aboard the sturdy ship Suncurl. Alas, there's more baggage in the hold than meets the beady eyes of the crew, and unseemly terrors awaken. For Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, and Emancipor Reese, it is just one more night on the high seas, on a journey without end. "The Healthy Dead" - The city of Quaint's zeal for goodness can be catastrophic, and no one knows this better than Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, two stalwart champions of all things bad. The homicidal necromancers - and their substance-addled manservant, Emancipor Reese - find themselves ensnared in a scheme to bring goodness into utter ruination. Sometimes you must bring down civilization... in the name of civilization."

Commentary: Once upon a time, I had planned to read and review all the novels of The Malazan Empire. After you all came out in force for it in my holiday reading poll, so very many moons ago, I began to put the pieces of a weekly feature series together. The Malazan Diaries, I was going to call it. I designed a banner, got properly stuck into Gardens of the Moon, and drafted the first month's four posts. I knew what a huge committment it would be, so I held off on publishing them till I had a little more headway behind me. Then a certain someone beat me to the punch.

Needless to say, the experience left me with a bitter taste in my mouth, but the hours I'd spent immersed in the Empire were hardly for naught. I very much enjoyed Gardens of the Moon, and I fully intend to catch up at some point... when I've a little more time to spare, perhaps. In the meantime, the Malazan novels keep on coming. The Crippled God, the last book in the series, is due out early next year, and to tide Erickson fans over till the curtain comes down, Bantam have released this collection of related novellas: The First Collected Tales of Bauchelain and Corbal Broach. It's a pretty package, and one of these days, I will get to it. Sadly, until I've made more progress with the series itself, I can't see myself digging into it in earnest. So.