Book Review: Breath of Earth by Beth Cato
In an alternate early 20th-century world where Japan and the US have created a powerful alliance, a secret geomancer struggles to protect herself and the city she loves from forces seeking to shake San Francisco to pieces in Breath of Earth, the first in a new alternate history fantasy series by Beth Cato. In the alternate world that Cato depicts, there is magic in the world, and the primary form of magic are those magicians who are sensitive to the movements of the earth. These geomancers not only can keep San Francisco tectonically stable, but can channel the bled off energy into a mineral, kermanite, whereupon that energy can be discharged to do work, to power vehicles and other things in the same way that a battery can. Thus, kermanite is an extremely potent strategic resource, and its acquisition and control is part of the reason for the Japan-US alliance. Even better, the novel shows the clear costs and dangers of geomancers. It’s a potent form of magic, but one that can cause not only destruction around the user, but actively be harmful for their health. There are also social costs to being a geomancer, a theme that Cato has explored previously in the Clockwork Dagger series.
Book Review: Rosewater by Tade Thompson
In the mid-21st century, the year 2066 to be precise, Kaaro has a number of jobs and ways to make ends meet in the conglomeration of humanity known as Rosewater, located in Nigeria. From foiling Nigerian bank scams to finding people and things, Kaaro’s unusual psionic abilities, his connection to the so called xenosphere, are a mixed blessing to be sure, but they are also a way to make ends meet. It is a living, for better and worse. Rosewater, too, is much like that, a welter of humanity that lives around the alien domed structure known as Utopicity. Every so often the dome opens, and people who are near the dome when it happens can be cured of their ailments, diseases and problems. This is, for better and worse, not always a smooth process for those chosen to be healed. Over a variety of time frames, we piece together not only Kaaro’s story, but the story of Rosewater as well, Kaaro’s crucial role in the creation of the alien dome, and the community around it. And we slowly get to unfold what its future, and the future of Kaaro, too, will be.
Book Review: Cloudbound by Fran Wilde
Fran Wilde’s debut novel Updraft flew onto the scene in 2015. With fliers, cities of bone, invisible skymouths and more in a lean and mean YA format, Updraft was a gust of fresh air in fantasy. Cloudbound takes place not long after the revolutionary events at the end of Updraft. The unjust order of the Spire has been overthrown. The old order is gone. Updraft is upsetting an unjust order. Cloudbound asks, and answers the question — once you have toppled that unnatural order, how do you build a new one? How do you make society work? And what do you do about people willing to take advantage of the chaos, confusion and upset social structures to make their own plans for the future manifest?
Guest Post: Jen Williams on her Favorite Rogues
The main character of my book, The Copper Promise is Wydrin of Crosshaven, also known as Wydrin Threefellows, also known as the Copper Cat in certain circles – usually the sort of circles with sawdust on the floor and a general stench of stale beer hanging in the air. Wydrin is a rogue, right down to her battered boiled-leather boots, and personally, I love a rogue, so I thought I’d write about some of my favourites here. But first of all, what do I mean by rogue? What are the very special and charming qualities a character requires before he or she fits into this particular archetype? (In true rogue fashion, I will be judging entirely by my own definition…) Well, firstly, funnily enough, charm. A quick wit and a certain way of talking themselves out of trouble – this is an essential rogue trait. Secondly, a healthy dollop of self-interest; rogues are, undoubtedly, out for what they can get, and even when they get roped into stuff like saving the world, they still have half an eye on the coin purse. Next up, skill. Rogues are good at something – they have a particular talent, a thing they do better than most people, and it’s usually how they make their living. And lastly, they are morally dubious. Wydrin has been many things over the years – mercenary, sell-sword, bodyguard, tomb raider – but call her a thief to her face, and you might regret it. However, that’s not to say she isn’t one… So. Top Rogues.
Book Review: No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished by Rachel Aaron
The reward for a job well done, is another job. Or another challenge, anyway. Julius Heartstriker has defeated his mother, Bethesda, head of the Heartstriker Clan. Instead of killing her, as a Dragon would be expected to, he has simply defanged her, and proposed a power-sharing arrangement for a council, not an autarch, to rule his clan. This is rather unprecedented for dragons, where might makes right is a way of life. Julius can propose a council, but actually getting his siblings and his mother to go along with this plan is nothing but trouble. And given the large size of the Heartstrikers clan, bringing everyone back to the homestead to meet for this council is a recipe for intrigue…or disaster. Actually getting a bunch of dragons to come together to elect and cooperate in a council, however, isn’t even the biggest problem that Julius faces. Algonquin, the powerful river spirit that rules Detroit, has announced her intent and desire to wipe out all Dragons from the face of the Earth, everywhere, and might have the power to make that threat more than an idle one. Other Dragon clans are rather interested in Julius’ feat in defeating his mother, and scheme and plot as to what this means. The US Government is awfully interested in Julius, the Heartstrikers, and his human mage partner Marci. Especially Marci, given her strange connection to Ghost, who in the two novels of the series has revealed himself to really be much more than Marci first thought.
Book Review: Mechanical Failure by Joe Zieja
Sergeant R Wilson Rogers, having given up a cushy berth in the make-work peacetime military fleet to try his hand at the profitable world of smuggling, finds himself dragged back into the military when it turns out that interstellar smuggling isn’t as easy as it seems. Fortunately, he can even get back into his old unit, the 331st. The bad news is that, even in the relatively short time since he has been gone, the military has gone even more around the bend. And only Sergeant Rogers seems capable or aware enough to try and stop an interstellar war and a robot uprising at the same time, despite his tendency toward indolent laziness. Like it or not, Rogers is going to have to do some real work for a change. The Two Hundred Years Peace is riding on it.
