Couch is quite a mundane title for such an outlandish book. Three guys move a couch, save the world. That is the tag line and it is quite apt. It drew me in immediately and from the moment I started I knew this would be a truly special read. Couch is quite unlike any book I've read before. Its aim is to tell a modern day quest through very unconventional and seemingly meandering means yet it never falls off track.
Couch is the kind of book where the less you know about the story before you start the better it will be. It is very intimate with its telling. A low-level con man, a hacker, and a prophetic dreamer share an apartment and a comfortable couch and it goes from there. I identified with hacker more than I have with any character in a very long time. The dialogue is perfect for who the characters are as lazy, but intelligent twenty-something's with little to no prospects in life. But each has their role to play in the quest and fulfills it to the utmost. Giving all that they have to something they don't understand all the while trusting destiny and serendipity.
The Quiet War is over. The city-states of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, founded by descendants of refugees from Earth's repressive regimes, the Outers, have fallen to the Three Powers Alliance of Greater Brazil, the European Union, and the Pacific Community. A century of enlightenment, rational utopianism, and exploration of new ways of being human has fallen dark. Outers are herded into prison camps and forced to collaborate in the systematic plundering of their great archives of scientific and technical knowledge, while Earth's forces loot their cities and settlements and ships, and plan a final solution to the "Outer problem."
But Earth's victory is fragile, and riven by vicious internal politics. While seeking out and trying to anatomize the strange gardens abandoned in place by the Outers' greatest genius, Avernus, the gene wizard Sri Hong-Owen is embroiled in the plots and counterplots of the family that employs her. The diplomat Loc Ifrahim soon discovers that profiting from victory isn't as easy as he thought. And on Earth, in Greater Brazil, the democratic traditions preserved and elaborated by the Outers have infected a population eager to escape the tyranny of the great families who rule them.
Meanwhile, in the outer reaches of the Solar System, a rag-taggle group of refugees struggle to preserve the last of the old ideals. And on Triton, fanatical members of a cabal prepare for a final battle that threatens to shatter the future of the human species.
After a conflict fought to contain the expansionist, posthuman ambitions of the Outers, the future is as uncertain as ever. Only one thing is clear. No one can escape the consequences of war—especially the victors.
Set in a world where color is the basis of all magic, Gavin Guile is the current Prism - and one that happens to have many secrets. Secrets like his brother Javen, who he defeated in the great war years earlier and now keeps in a dungeon below his home. Or secrets like his son Kip, a young man raised in another land who has yet to realize the full extent of his powers.
As Kip begins to learn the truth behind Gavin and Javen's great schism, he will also learn that time is running out for the world as they know it. For the Prism is not what he seems to be, and there are greater powers afoot than could ever have been imagined.I say bring it on. The Night Angel series more than lived up to expectations and shows Weeks can write great characters in highly realized settings.
Behold my new pile of stuff, which is a mixture of purchases and recently received review copies. This will also serve as a sort of preview of what I expect to review at least partially over the coming months.
True story: in 1899, Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla decided to end war forever. With Twain's connections and Tesla's inventions, they went into business selling world peace. So, what happened? Only now can the tale be told - in which Twain and Tesla collided with Edison and Morgan, an evil science cabal merging the Black Arts and the Industrial Age. Turn of the century New York City sets the stage for a titanic battle over the very fate of mankind.
Next we have Elegy Beach by Steven R. Boyett, which is the sequel to cult classic Ariel. I just read Ariel so expect a review of sorts shortly. Though I may wait until I read Elegy and do a combined review. I received both as review copies.Thirty years ago the lights went out, the airplanes fell, the cars went still, the cities all went dark. The laws humanity had always known were replaced by new laws that could only be called magic. The world has changed forever. Or has it?
In a small community on the California coast are Fred Garey and his friend Yan, both born after the Change. Yan dreams of doing something so big his name will live on forever. He thinks he's found it-a way to reverse the Change. But Fred fears the repercussions of such drastic, irreversible steps.
From Galileo's heresy trial to the politics of far-future Jupiter, from the canals of Venice to frozen, mysterious Europa, Robinson illuminates the parallels between a distant past and an even more remote future—in the process celebrating the human spirit and calling into question the convenient truths of our own moment in time.
Nicodemus Weal is a protagonist that all of us can identify with. SPELLWRIGHT features a unique system of magic and characters that are genuine inhabitants of that world. SPELLWRIGHT is a letter-perfect story: an absorbing read and recommended." —Robin Hobb
The Good, The Bad, and The Uncanny by Simon R. Green is the 10th book in Nightside series. I plan on catching up on the series shortly along with the mass market release of Just Another Judgement Day. This was received gratis as well.Things were going so well for P.I. John Taylor, that it was only a matter of time before everything hit the fan. Walker, the powerful, ever-present, never to-be-trusted agent who runs the Nightside on behalf of The Authorities, is dying. And he wants John to be his successor-a job that comes with more baggage, and more enemies, than anyone can possibly imagine.
The Next Queen of Heaven by Gregory Maguire of Wicked fame. Maguire has entered into a charity venture with Concord Free Press. Concord gives all of the books they publish away for free on a first-come, first-served basis, but they expect a donation to be made to a charity of your choice and the book to be passed on after reading. I was lucky enough to be among the 2,500 people to receive a copy.In a flyspeck upstate NY town at the end of the second millennium, something dangerous is coming—either Y2K, salvation, or murder. Following an accident in a church basement, a fundamentalist family is knocked off its fundaments while the choir director in the Catholic church next door schemes to escape both his sorry past and his sorrier future.
Next is To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, which I picked up used after the recommendation from my friend Jason. Sounds like a fun Fantasy/Sci-Fi mix and I've been meaning to read a Willis book for awhile.In her first full-length novel since her critically acclaimed Doomsday Book Connie Willis, winner of multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards, once again visits the unpredictable world of time travel. But this time the result is a joyous journey into a past and future of comic mishaps and historical cross-purposes, in which the power of human love can still make all the difference.
The Sword-Edged Blonde by Alex Bledsoe has been on my radar since Jeff over at Fantasy News gave it a great review. A mix of Detective/Swords & Sorcery certainly sounds like it would be a fun read and the sequel Burn Me Deadly is due out shortly. I'll probably read and review this in the coming weeks.It should have been a case like any other: a missing princess, a king willing to pay in gold for her return. But before he realizes it, sword jockey Eddie LaCrosse is swept up in a web of mystery and deceit involving a brutally murdered royal heir, a queen accused of an unspeakable crime, and the tragic past he thought he’d left behind.
Ignatius Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things. He woke up the next morning with one hell of a hangover, a raging headache . . . and a pair of horns growing from his temples. Once, Ig lived the life of the blessed: born into privilege, the second son of a renowned American musician, and the younger brother of a rising late-night TV star, Ig had security and wealth and a place in his community. Ig had it all, and more - he had the love of Merrin Williams, a love founded on shared daydreams, mutual daring, and unlikely midsummer magic. Then beautiful, vivacious Merrin was gone - raped and murdered, under inexplicable circumstances - with Ig the only suspect. He was never tried for the crime, but in the court of public opinion, Ig was and always would be guilty. Now Ig is possessed with a terrible new power to go with his terrible new look, and he means to use it to find the man who killed Merrin and destroyed his life. Being good and praying for the best got him nowhere. It's time for a little revenge; it's time the devil had his due.
Christopher Moore has posted the first two chapters to his third vampire book Bite Me. Here is a small sample:
Being the Journal of Abigail Von Normal
Emergency Back-up Mistress of the Greater Bay Area Night
The city of San Francisco is being stalked by a huge, shaved vampyre cat named Chet, and only I, Abby Normal, emergency back-up mistress of the greater Bay Area night, and my manga-haired love monkey, Foo Dog, stand between the ravenous monster and a bloody massacre of the general public. Which isn’t, like, as bad as it sounds, because the general public kind of sucks ass.
Still, I think that this battle of dark powers, the maintenance of my steamy, forbidden romance, the torturous brea- in of a new pair of red vinyl, thigh-high Skankenstein platform boots, as well as the daily application of complex eye make-up and whatnot, totally justify my flunking Biology 102, (Introduction to Mutilation of Preserved Marmot Cadavers, with Mr. Snavely, who totally has his way with the marmots when no one is around, I have it on good authority.) But try to tell that to the mother unit, who deserves this despair and disappointment for cursing me with her tainted and small-boobed DNA.
Allow me to catch you up, S‘il vous plait. Pay attention, bitches, there will be a test.
1. Scalzi is really a clockwork automaton who has been programmed to slowly spread angst wherever he goes.
2. As we all know Wheaton is the Bizarro Scalzi. If Scalzi ever shook hands with Wil Wheaton the world would end. It would be like matter and antimatter smashing together.
3. Scalzi has written 5 of the biggest blockbuster movies of the last decade. He chooses to do it under a pen name to avoid getting e-mails from people trying to get him to read their scripts.
4. While George R.R. Martin is not your bitch, Scalzi freely admits he is. Be sure to send a note when you need your laundry to be done and the gutters need to be cleaned out. His rates are very reasonable.
5. Scalzi once created a flow chart on who could and couldn't be a dick on Whatever. Really he did! He did this as there were too many half-witted-Scalzi clones trolling about. They were left over from his failed experiments of cloning himself in order to spend more time taping bacon to cats and playing video games.
6. Scalzi's internet sensation of taping bacon to a cat would truly be out done if he released photos of his bacon tuxedo.
7. Scalzi has a sentient wart in his armpit that helps him instill terror wherever he goes. It is also very good at charades.
8. Scalzi controls the internet.
9. Scalzi's real "Big Idea" is to co-opt all readers attention.
10. If there were no Coke Zero or Bacon Scalzi would waste away to nothing.
I came up with a few of these awhile back, but thanks must go to Jim C. Hines's post of 20 Neil Gaiman Facts as it did inspire me to no small degree.
You Might Also Like:
Covers Unveiled for Simon R. Green, John Scalzi, and Stephen Deas
Scalzi's The Abject Holy Terror Of Night Ranger
The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines
Kristine Kathryn Rusch has been writing under various names in multiple genres gaining accolades wherever she has ventured. Rusch was also an editor for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction for a number of years winning a Hugo for her work there. Diving Into the Wreck is my first try of her work, but will surely be only the start to many others.
Diving Into the Wreck is like something out of the Golden Age of Sci-Fi as it feels like a timeless tale in the far future, which is an amazing irresistible and speedy read. The book is broken into 3 interlocking stories that would have acted well on their own in novella form, but together form a rich universe and history. It is a very personal book that ends up being quite a bit more than you expect. The stories get bigger and bigger with the telling until you reach a somewhat intense culmination.
Diving is very reminiscent of Pohl's Gateway or possible placed in something close to the Babylon 5 universe. The stories are told from Boss's view in an almost journal like fashion. She is not some hero archetype, but a loner who only has human interactions when she deems it necessarily and operates everything she does in a business-like fashion. At first this can make her seem cold, but she has a lot more layers that come through. Boss makes her living traveling through space looking for wrecked space ships, which she hopes can be plundered for treasure, sold, salvaged, or possibly toured with inexperienced divers out for a thrill. Think of her job as an expert scuba diver, but only in space and with a lot more risk.
Diving Into the Wreck is easy on the science for those who don't like amazing long scientific explanations to go along with the story. But Rusch's science is well enough explained to suit the story's purpose. It is her universe's history and character building that you'll be drawn to. The crux of the story surrounds Boss's discovery of mysterious ancient vessel that may have lost technology that could change everything in her sector of the universe. She mounts an expedition of sorts into the vessel with a trusted group of divers and odd things happen. From there we also encounter an eerie space station where people have been disappearing for years.
Perfectly paced and immensely readable Diving Into the Wreck will satisfy even the most jaded of Sci-Fi reader. If I had any complaints it would only be that it was over too soon and left me for wanting more out of Boss and her cadre of divers. I give Diving Into the Wreck 8 out of 10 Hats. I plan on reading more Rusch and have already ordered a copy of The Disappeared, which is book one in The Retrieval Artist Series a Mystery Sci-Fi series. Unfortunately, The Disappeared is out of print, but used copies are easily had. Maybe an omnibus is needed of the first 2 or 3 in the series to indoctrinate new readers as she only recently released the sixth volume in the series. Rusch also mentioned on her blog another Diving Universe book is possible. I sure hope it happens as there is at least one more major mission waiting for Boss.
Book Link: US | Canada | Europe
You Might Also Like:
The Quiet War by Paul McAuley
Implied Spaces by Walter Jon Williams
***Review copy provided by Pyr
Sub by Email
Twitter Me
