Book Review | Katya's World by Jonathan L. Howard

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IndieBound / The Book Depository

The distant and unloved colony world of Russalka has no land, only the raging sea. No clear skies, only the endless storm clouds. Beneath the waves, the people live in pressurised environments and take what they need from the boundless ocean. It is a hard life, but it is theirs — and they fought a war against Earth to protect it. But wars leave wounds that never quite heal, and secrets that never quite lie silent...

Katya Kuriakova doesn't care much about ancient history like that, though. She is making her first submarine voyage as crew; the first nice, simple journey of what she expects to be a nice, simple career. There is nothing nice and simple about the deep black waters of Russalka, however. Soon she will encounter pirates and war criminals, see death and tragedy at first hand, and realise that her world's future lies on the narrowest of knife edges. For in the crushing depths lies a sleeping monster, an abomination of unknown origin, and when it wakes, it will seek out and kill every single person on the planet.

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Having cut his comedic teeth writing the Broken Sword series of point and click puzzle games, and honed them to a sharp point through three novels starring Johannes Cabal, the renowned necromancer and detective, Jonathan L. Howard continues his mission to maintain a presence on bookstore shelves with the first volume of The Russalka Chronicles, and I bet it'll be his greatest success yet.

Katya's world is dystopian, of course. "But for its polar ice caps, there was not even a square meter of dry land on the whole planet," (p.7) yet when a probe finds a veritable treasure trove of rare minerals in the oceans of RIC-23, folks from all across Russia are brought in to colonise it in any case. They name their harsh new home after "a race of mermaids, beautiful and mysterious. If they had looked deeper into the [originating] myth, they might have changed their minds — a Russalka was a predator that would use her charms to draw men down to the water, where they would be drowned and fed upon." (p.8)

An ill omen, no? On an underwater world, to make matters worse! But for a time, despite the odds stacked against them, the Russalkans thrive. That is until Earth attacks: a century after abandoning the colony entirely, an army arrives out of the blue, demanding the people's fealty. When they dare to disagree, the Terrans promptly wage war. In a matter of minutes, they devastate all they can of the planet, but finding themselves ill-equipped for prolonged underwater assault, Earth's forces eventually retreat... broken, if not nearly beaten.

From here, the Russalkans live in perpetual fear — and into this climate comes our heroine Katya Kuriakova, an aspiring navigator with admittedly little interest in her homeworld's history. For better or worse, that will change when - in the middle of her first official mission - she becomes involved with public enemy number one, Havilland Kane:

"He was a ruthless pirate, a murderer who had saved her life. He was probably a Terran, a Grubber, one of the filth who had killed her father and thousands more, yet he had also saved the Novgorod and everybody aboard her. Katya didn't know what to think. She couldn't bring herself to hate him, but she certainly couldn't like him either. That only left her the option of indifference, and Kane was a hard man to be indifferent about." (p.88)

Like many books of its particular ilk, Katya's World lives and dies on the basis of the relationship between Kane and our plucky young orphan. But wait till you hear this: they don't even kiss! Howard simply isn't about such an easy out. Instead, Katya and her chance companion are at one another's throats throughout, smartly arguing ideologies and debating what they should do with the leftover megaweapon they find on the ocean floor. Yet when a still greater threat arises - from within as opposed to outwith their world - they demonstrate themselves adult enough to put aside their differences.

Call me an easy mark, but I fell for Katya and Kane incredibly quickly. The latter is an immediately engaging antagonist, with secrets, clearly, and though Howard's characterisation of Katya is at times a touch discordant - one moment she's brave and pragmatic, the next she's "just a stupid little girl [with] no idea what she was doing" (p.149) - overall I came to care a great deal about her, especially in light of all that she's lost... not to mention all she loses over the course of this surprisingly merciless coming of age tale.

Half the fun of Katya's World, however, is in one's discovery of it; of its aquatic marvels and unearthly terrors equally. To wit, I wish the author had parceled out the heavy wedge of information he dumps whole-hog in the prologue. Other than this, Howard equips himself tremendously well, such that the first volume of The Russalkan Chronicles towers above most contemporary attempts to invoke dystopia.

The climax, finally, is fantastic. It may boil down to "one long round of jumping out of frying pans into successively larger fires," (p.324) yet the last act's successive set-pieces unfold so spectacularly that they're a joy to behold, albeit in one's imagination. Even then, Howard's prose is so pure that at this stage I don't even need to see the movie — and if Hollywood doesn't come a-calling shortly, filmmakers are missing a trick.

But you know what? For this, I'd line up on opening night anyway.

Romance aficionados need not apply, but all other fans of fun are likely to find lots to love about Jonathan L. Howard's new novel. Imagine The Hunt for Red October meets Retribution Falls. Rich in the character department and packed full of underwater wonders from prow to stern, Katya's World is exactly as enjoyable as all that. When the chance to return to this marvellous maritime planet arises, consider this critic suited and booted!

...

This review was originally published, in a slightly altered form, on Tor.com.

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Katya's World
by Jonathan L. Howard

UK & US Publication: November 2012, Strange Chemistry

Buy this book from
Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com
IndieBound / The Book Depository

Recommended and Related Reading

Meme, Myself and I | All About the Books

Timely as ever, I picked up this age-old meme from the Strange Chemistry blog, where Amanda has been having the new imprint's authors answer a couple bookish questions to give her readers a better sense of her writers.

From whence it came originally... I haven't the foggiest. Sorry!

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1) One Book That Changed My Life

As tempted as I am to say The Scar by China Mieville, because it was the book that finally sold me on speculative fiction, or latterly Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay, because it, in turn, was the on that I had to start a blog to talk about... no. These are the answers you'd expect if you've been reading The Speculative Scotsman for any length of time; they would expose nothing new about who I am or what made me me, and if memes like this have a saving grace, it's that.

So I'm going to go back a bit further. 

I'm going to go all the way back, in fact, to a book that my Mum read aloud to me, chapter by chapter, for a period of some months when I was very, very young. When she'd finished it, I went right back to the start on my lonesome. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende didn't strictly speaking teach me how to read, but I don't doubt that it helped; it was the first book I read that I didn't think was for kids. Whether in retrospect it was or was not, at the time my kiddie mind assumed length meant maturity, and The Neverending Story was certainly long.

I have had occasion to wonder how different my taste in fiction as an adult might have been had I only read something else as an innocent...

2) One Book I’ve Had to Read More Than Once

I very rarely do this. Really, very rarely. Does that make me an odd duck?

But there have been a few books I've returned to. Always after some serious time has passed since I read them last. There's The Gunslinger by Stephen King, AKA book one of The Dark Tower, and still the best in the series, for my money. There's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner. There's the first volume of The Long Price by Daniel Abraham, A Shadow in Summer, which I had to read a second time - rather recently, at that - because upon starting A Betrayal in Winter I realised I'd forgotten the detail that I'd loved about the book before it. There's The Terror by Dan Simmons. Silk by Caitlin R. Kiernan.

I'm sure there have been others, but truth be told, they're few and far between. There's always so much that I haven't yet read to read, you know?

Anyway, you only asked for one book, so count yourself lucky, master of memes.

3) One Book I’d Want on a Desert Island

I'd want something very long, obviously. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson comes to mind, or The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. Perhaps The Stand? Classic King; now that I'd read again in a heartbeat, if I only had a month to myself with no other obligations.

4) One Book That Made me Laugh 

Hmm.

Let me think about this one and get back to you in a bit.

5) One Book That Made me Cry

An easy one, this: Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. When the identity of The Fool was revealed in the last chapter, in case you were wondering.

Nothing since has moved me to tears, but before Tigana - which is to say when I was an easier reader to manipulate emotionally - there were a fair few. Truly great stories have spoiled me in that sense.

6) One Book I Wish I’d Written

All the books? 

Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear most lately. Anything exceptionally pretty prose-wise makes my creative instincts envious.

7) One Book I Am Currently Reading

At this very second I'm in the middle of Last Days by Adam Nevill, in whose acknowledgements (which for some reason I always read) I was over the moon to see The Speculative Scotsman. Yay! It's been really creepy, incidentally. Maybe a bit bloated, but still more gripping, I think, than anything Nevill's written before. Stay tuned for the full review... soon.

Next up on my reading agenda: one of the Strange Chemistry proofs that came in the mail last week, I should think. Least I can do for stealing the meme Amanda brought back from the great graveyard in the ether. :)

8) One Book I Am Looking Forward To

What, just the one?

I'm sorry, but no. I can't. Just in the next couple of months, there's Sharps by K. J. Parker, and The Prince of Heaven - the sequel to The Shadow of the Wind, by the sounds of it - by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. And oh! It wouldn't do to forget Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey.

Beyond that, the list gets a lot longer.

4) One Book That Made me Laugh

Right. Now that I've had a think about this one, I have an answer. But on reflection, I don't think I read a great many authors who go out of their way to split sides, as it were. That sort of description puts me right off, in fact. Thus: I don't read Terry Pratchett, or Tom Holt, or Robert Rankin. The closest I can remember coming to that sort of thing are the Ben Aaronovitch books.

But one novel above all others in recent memory has made me laugh. That'd be Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde. There's one line in particular, about a typo which led to generations of children being given a smack before bed instead of a snack that cracks me up just thinking about it. Even besides its sense of humour, Shades of Grey is a truly brilliant book from start to finish - give me Painting By Numbers now, please! - and any excuse to recommend it is a good one by me.

***

By the dead, it's been ages since I did something along these lines. A meme. I forget why I stopped. Oversaturation? Boredom? Whatever the reason, it's been fun, this one... this once.

You tell me, dear readers. Going forward, would you want more of this sort of thing on The Speculative Scotsman, or even less?

Guest Post | Amanda of Strange Chemistry on Becoming A New Type of Reader

Who am I kidding? Amanda Rutter needs no introduction! But I'm going to introduce her anyway. :)

 

Hell, it's the least I can do, given the magnificent guest post she's written for The Speculative Scotsman. Most of you, of course, will remember Amanda from Floor to Ceiling Books, and though it was a sad, sad day when she closed the door on her old blog, she began again immediately over at the Strange Chemistry site.

Some of you might be wondering why she blogs for "a global imprint dedicated to the best in modern Young Adult science fiction, fantasy, supernatural and everything in between" these days. Well there's a very good reason: it's her imprint!

 

I'll have more to say about Strange Chemistry later in 2012, when the imprint makes its debut in bookstores around the world -- and not before time, too. I'm certainly excited about some of the talent she's signed up. You guys should be too.

Anyway, given (I gather) how very much her habits have had to change of late, Amanda thought the thing to do for the guest post below was to talk a bit about the way we read. I'm sure you'll agree it makes for fascinating reading in its own right.

 

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First off the bat, I want to say thank you to Niall for inviting me to contribute to his fancy blog while he’s away in the wilds of America!

 

*takes a good look around*

 

“Oooh, what does this button do…?”

 

*scuttles away as blog disintegrates*

Because I’m now in a very different role than I was six months ago (from blogger and occasional accountant to editor and occasional blogger!) I was asked if I could write a post talking about the transition, or the ins and outs of the publishing world as I see them. But I decided not to do this! (I’m a rebel like that! [We wouldn't have you any other way, Amanda! - Niall]) Instead I’m going to talk about Types of Reader.

1. The One Book a Year Reader

This reader does not generally read. Through choice they will do any other activity. Reading is a bit of a bind. But they usually manage to slog through one book a year (most often while sitting on a beach!) The book they pick is usually the most popular published that year – they’ve heard people rave about it and thought they’d give it a go. Also known as Da Vinci Code Readers. 

 

2. The ‘I Read One Author’ Reader

A little different from the One Book a Year Reader! This type does actually enjoy reading – it’s just that they tried one particular author and never really moved on to anything else. Why should they, when they get all they need from that author? They will re-read the books this author has written time and time and time again and, despite being told ‘if you like them, you’ll like this’ they can’t bear the idea of moving out of their comfort zone. Usually a fan of Catherine Cookson or John Grisham!

3. The Casual Reader

They have their favourite authors. They buy a book now and again. They are perfectly happy reading, but equally happy watching TV or working on some crafty project. Right slap bang in the middle of the spectrum. Slightly incomprehensible to both ends of the spectrum – I mean, if you’re going to read anyway, why not do it *more*, say the Fervent Readers, while the One Book a Year Reader wonders why they are wasting their time on picking up more than just that one book.

4. The Fervent Reader

This person loves to read! They adore it. There is nothing more fun than sitting curled up on a sofa all afternoon reading. The library is their favourite haunt. They are unable to tell you their favourite author or book – there are just too many to pick from!

5. The Blogging Reader

Okay, so this is a step above the fervent reader. The blogging reader is prepared to read just about anything. They know the publishing schedule better than most publishers do. They read critically and are prepared to argue their points – and in a very passionate manner! They still have favourite authors, but sometimes the most recent book from that author will lie unread for months while they work through the other review copies they need to tackle. [This. This exactly - Niall] They don’t have TBR piles – they have TBR mountains! A blogging reader is forced to log their books on a spreadsheet or Goodreads just to know what they own and what they want to own.

So where do you think you fit in on the spectrum?

I do have a reason for talking about this, even though I’ve approached it in a flippant manner. One of the odd aspects of stepping into publishing that I have faced is becoming a new type of reader. When a manuscript comes in, I have to read it with thoughts as to whether it would be popular to a wide audience; I have to consider the marketing angles; I have to decide about what level of editing the manuscript requires. I no longer simply read a book – I have to work out what exactly is making it stand out for me, so that I can communicate that effectively to the rest of the team around me.

 

 

Conversely, my reading outside of work has become entirely casual – reading for pure escapism, without having to swap scenes around mentally, or suggest whether a new character might be appropriate to carry the story forward. I find myself re-reading novels that were favourites years back, because of the comfort in knowing that I will enjoy without any sort of analysis. I read puff fiction and pulp fiction; books that demand little from me in return for the entertainment that they provide. And I am returning to my favourite authors – those authors who slipped a little by the wayside while I was a blogging reader and I can now catch up with all their output without any pressure.

But you know what hasn’t changed? And what doesn’t change, no matter what type of reader you are? That sense of potential as you open a new book or a new manuscript. That sense of stepping somewhere new, that journey of discovery. The best part of being an editor and commissioning books is knowing that I can make those discoveries and then share them with as many people as feasibly possible. Rewarding doesn’t even come close!

 

***

 

Thank you ever so much for that, Amanda. You're an absolute star.

But I'd add a sixth type of reader to your tally: in fact, let's call it The Larry. :P

Remember, you can find Amanda over at Strange Chemistry these days, and if you're looking to cast your mind back into the past - when the grass was greener and the chocolate creamier - why not take a long look through the archives of her fantastic former blog?

 

Now then. The lovely lady asked you a question! What type of reader are you?