REVIEW | Control Point by Myke Cole

Military Fantasy has been a staple of genre for decades. The Black Company, Malazan, Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt, and the Warhammer universe are some good examples, but none that I'm familiar with tackle the military in the present times. Contemporary Military Fantasy is something that we've clearly been lacking and Myke Cole's Control Point hopes to fill that void though it often has the feel of an Urban Fantasy even though much of the action takes place elsewhere. Given Cole's long military experience with 3 tours of Iraq he does have a unique experience to fuel the story.

Cole's series opener provides deep glimpses of some of the harsh realities and amazing highs capable in a military life even while mincing in some geek humor to take the edge off. Magic has seeped back into the normal world giving abilities to certain people. The world knows magic exists and all those capable of it in the United States are conscripted into the military except for a few people adept in the forbidden classes of magic. Those are silenced less they become the monsters humanity has always feared. The legal schools include the basic elements of those that can summon storms, move the earth, control fire, and command water at will. Illegal ones include those that can animate the dead and create portals to anywhere at will. This sets up a class system that is easy to hate and turns magic users into little more than drones. At least those that acquiesce to authority.

I ended up reading the first 2 chapters of Control Point 3 times before finally getting into the style as the first chapters can be difficult for those who abhor cold blooded killings of young people. That's exactly the choice that Oscar Britton faces in the opening pages. To do his job he must kill a teenager who has magic that she cannot be allowed to let loose. She's a Selfer who doesn't worry about the greater good. At least that is how the government characterizes Selfers.

After that mission Britton is faced with an even tougher choice. He manifests abilities in one of the prohibited schools of magic and things take a turn as he runs. The biggest weakness of the novel is Oscar. The world is very compelling, the politics, the magic, and the different views on the same issues (magic). But Oscar just goes too much back and forth over what he wants to do, what he feels his duty is, and what he believes in. He fights himself too much. He is a military man so why turn away from that when it is what he loves? At points he acts totally for himself and never really accepts that certain events were totally his fault. Granted he isn't put in a good place and left with many decisions so perhaps this fault is going too much into his head in the narrative. But when the chips are down Britton delivers.

Even with the weakness of Oscar I still ended up liking him. Control Point is at its best when the action happens, which is really quite often. Britton is flung from one life harrowing mission to another within pages. The magic is very impressive, especially when a skilled user is letting their full abilities loose. The sequencing of battles is particularly vivid. Picture those with the abilities from Avatar: The Last Airbender in modern combat situations from everything to a search a destroy mission in a sewer to an all-out battle on the field.

There are a lot of aspects I wish were explored more such as China being a country where magic users are free to live a semi normal life along with the magical plane that is only sparsely discussed. Also, I'd like to know a bit more about how the common people view those with latent abilities besides awe and fear.

Control Point is a solid, action packed debut with a few shaky parts that has a lot of appeal to it. By the end Cole more than found his footing and left me with high hopes for the continuation of the Shadow Ops series. I give Control Point 3.5 out of 5 Hats. The sequel Fortress Frontier should be out in February 2013, which I plan on checking out.

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REVIEW | Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

When he was nine, he watched his mother and brother killed before him. By the time he was thirteen, he was the leader of a band of bloodthirsty thugs. By fifteen, he intends to be king...

It's time for Prince Honorous Jorg Ancrath to return to the castle he turned his back on, to take what's rightfully his.

The Empire is broken and has been for generations. Small kingdoms and fiefdoms battle one another continuously. Told from the first person perspective of Prince Honorous Jorg Amcrath aka the Prince of Thorns we see things from a decidedly dark and sometimes naive view since he is still a teen. But Jorg has not had a easy road. Who would be normal if they witnessed the murder of their mother and sister? Even if you don't like Jorg you'll understand his reasons for doing things his way.

Prince of Thorns is the story of a teen matured by death and evil. It may in fact be far too dark and nihilistic for some, but for those that like bloody action you've plenty to look forward to. Yet it does have a YA feel to it caused by the seemingly young protagonist who has seen and done too much. Think Abercrombie minus any attempt at redemption and akin to Wolfe's Books of the New Sun for depraved teens.

Some parts of the story don't seem believable at first such as a 14-year-old leading a band of outlaws, but through the sly use of flashbacks all the pieces fall into place. Jorg has a cold passion for revenge. He is tired of people pulling his strings and has for the last few years gone out in the world to equip himself with the tools needed to prepare for what he sees as his future. The flashbacks themselves are what kept me going for the first half of the book as I wanted to see how Jorg's so called brothers fit together and were formed. But don't get too attached as death comes to many during the course of the story.

This is a quick moving story with very short chapters that is apt to call a page turner with surprisingly believable action sequences that fit in with the characters as they like to fight dirty. Prince of Thorns was far from a perfect novel as some things are left just too sketchy, but it grabbed me in a way that is hard to articulate. And there is certainly plenty of time left for Lawrence to expand on the huge seeds he has laid. There is some magic in the world along with Necromancers, but while it does come into play in important parts it is more about the actions that come because of certain magical interference.

Even amongst the horribleness of the main characters there is something compelling about this world. It isn't merely Fantasy, but scents of something larger are in the air. Hints are dropped about the world's past even going so far as to reference city names and writers of our own past which can be perplexing at times, but you just have to go with it. Lawrence is building to something. In one way I see Prince of Thorns as a simpler version of Mark Charan Newton's work mixing Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and post apocalyptic societies, but Lawrence keeps you more in the dark and in many ways reminds me of a pared down Gene Wolfe novel. It is for that reason alone I'm interested to follow this series just to see where his mind brings things.

Big twists abound in a story that barely let you catch your breathe. Touted as being the next big thing in Epic Fantasy Prince of Thorns falls somewhat short, but still delivers an exciting story with a lead character you've likely not seen before. I give Prince of Thorns 7 out of 10 hats. While not wholly grabbing there is a certain appeal to Lawrence's writing that it quite catching. The sequel King of Thorns in this planned trilogy should be out in August 2012 and I'm keen to see where things go from here even if I wasn't totally won-over.

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Covers Unveiled for Heaven's Shadow by David S. Goyer & Michael Cassutt

US Cover

Three years ago, an object one hundred miles across was spotted on a trajectory for Earth's sun. Now, its journey is almost over. As it approaches, two competing manned vehicles race through almost half a million kilometers of space to reach it first. But when they both arrive on the entity, they learn that it has been sent toward Earth for a reason. An intelligent race is desperately attempting to communicate with our primitive species. And the message is: "Help us."

Heaven's Shadow is the debut novel from David S. Goyer & Michael Cassutt.  It seems to be a mix of hard Sci-Fi and Thriller, but it hard to tell with the scant information that has been release thus far.  The just released US cover art is quite nice though and intrigues me much more than the UK version (below) as I wasn't too enthused by the color palette. The name David S. Goyer should be familiar to most of you as he is the screenwriter of the Blade Trilogy, the latest Batman Franchise, and notable Sci-Fi movies such as Dark City as well as the too short lived TV shows FlashForward and Treshold. While Michael Cassutt is no slouch either having written episodes of The Twilight Zone, seaQuest DSV, Stargate SG-1, Farscape, Andromeda, and Odyssey 5. He was also the main writer for one of my favorite TV shows as a child Eerie, Indiana.

Heaven's Shadow will be released July 5th and could be quite an entertaining summer read. It is also the start to

UK Cover

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REVIEW | Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds (Ace)

The world is fractured and broken. History of the world that came before is lost. There is one last enormous human city known as Spearpoint. Advanced technologies exists, but will only work in certain areas while places nearby are regulated to steam-powered technology or horse and buggy. Terminal World journeys from the highest steeps of the world to its lowest, most desolate desert plains. Techno-Angels, twisted humans, and coal-fueled men all vie for control and survival. This is a world of secrets that will not let them be wrestled easily from its grasp.

I should start this by saying Terminal World is my first Reynolds novel and from what I've heard not his typical milieu, but does still mix some aspects of the Space Opera genre that he is known for doing well. This is definitely not your typical steampunk novel and when you get down to it has very little to do with steampunk and quickly moves past where most of the technology is located. Sure there are airships and they are important to the plot, but given the complex nature of the world their use is well warranted and is not done just for aesthetic value. Terminal World is a world fraught with fractured technological and physical zones that it can often be hard to follow. As the story progress we learn just enough to infuriate about how this world came about.  Clearly some large scale apocalyptic actions occurred thousands of years ago, but no clear answers are to be had.

The story starts as an escape from Spearpoint, which moves along very quickly yet after that the story slows down considerably. Quillon is a pathologist living in one of the more technological areas of Spearpoint, but he is being chased after by the tech-style angels for something in his past. He quickly leaves Spearpoint where we get something of a grand tour of most of the city and some of the key players. Quillion and his guide Curtana are always at odds and closed off from one another, which makes it difficult to connect with either. At many points it is almost as if the story is an actual afterthought to the world-building and detailing forgoing development.

For me this was one of those Sisyphus pushing a rock up a hill books. The closer you got to the top you learned you were nowhere near the end. I kept waiting for these big reveals or developments as there are lots of leading discussions that could blow this world into the stratosphere and outside of one major reveal nothing came as a surprise. Even with the problems there are many bright points to the book such as the cultures that have developed in the wastes of the world and the Swarm fleet of ships. The scale of the world certainly gives it an epic feel. But Terminal World gets bogged down by a snail's pace and many scenes that are unneeded to move the story further. I quickly tired of Quillion's medical scenes where every little movement was described. Reynolds certainly paints a detailed picture of the world, but it is at an overwrought loss to the characters and their story.

The biggest issue I had with Terminal World is the fact that it is at best half the story of this world and characters. Normally that isn't a problem for me, but nowhere on or in the book or anywhere online does it say this is part of a series. I give Terminal World 6 out of 10 hats. That score would have been better if I had gone in knowing what I was getting involved in. I definitely would have been half as annoyed at the non-resolution of the story otherwise. Things move along, but in the end nothing is answered after so much being built up. I was left intrigued enough that I would pick-up a sequel if any is ever forthcoming to get a resolution, but not until I have some assurance there is a resolution. This should definitely not be your first Reynolds and I wish I had tried another of his first, but it has inspired me to push Pushing Ice up on my to-read pile to see exactly why he is so revered.


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REVIEW | The Good, The Bad, and The Uncanny by Simon R. Green (Ace)

The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny is the 10th volume in the always strange Nightside series by Simon R. Green. The strangeness is at an all-time high as the Nightside is still reeling from the events of Just Another Judgement Day, which was one of the quickest volumes and more of an interlude than anything else. I read Just Another Judgement Day right before this one, which lays the ground work for the crux of Uncanny. There was something of continuity error in Uncanny that I hope got cleared up before it went to press as I am basing my review off an advance reading copy. Than again this is the Nightside and it is all about screwing with continuity. Basically two characters talk about something as if they hadn't already in the previous volume.

If you haven't read the other Nightside books do not skip ahead to this volume as it would ruin everything that happened prior. Green does nothing if not build off everything that is seemingly unimportant from past volumes and he is still not scared of killing off some fairly prominent characters. The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny shows that Green is still able to push the envelope with John Taylor as he hasn't lost the touch of putting him in situations that seem unwinnable just to somehow sucker punch his way out of. The series formula has not wained on me at all, which is especially telling of such a long running series.

Flying carpets, biker neaderthals, twisted religious men, hot pink transportation, and the truth about the running of the Nightside are all covered this time around. To start we get a nice little almost novella of Taylor taking a case to get an Elf to the otherside of the Nightside, which from what I can remember is the first such instance of this race having a role in the Nightside. Green takes it from the angle that Elves and their ilk should never be trusted and rightly so. In typical style Taylor enlists aid for the trek. This time around from the little seen Ms. Fate who is a kind of like an Emma Peel drag queen superheroine. She is much more likable than I was expecting. At first I was missing Deadboy, but Ms. Fate more than holds her own with her dialogue and battle skills. After Taylor clears up that trouble he is accosted by Larry Oblivion to help find his brother Tommy who has been missing since the Lilith War saga. We get Larry's origin story from his point of view, which was nice for a change of pace. A lot of closure happens this time around as things come to a head for many characters including Taylor who gets a 'best of' tour of sorts from Walker in his attempt to have Taylor better understands what it means to be Walker.

Fans of the series will not be disappointed as a real showdown with Taylor and Walker finally happens. Through it all you gain a deeper insight into the underpinnings of the Nightside and the growth of John Taylor. The one flaw in the series is the constant repetition of some lines such as "in every way that matters." Yet Green certainly moves the story along at a fox's pace. I give The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny 7.5 out of 10 Hats. This is setting everything up for the penultimate volume in the series as Green has said he will stop at the twelfth volume. The groundwork has been laid to give the series a strong show stopper.


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