Cover Unveil for Seveneves by Neal Stephenson

Whenever Neal Stephenson comes out with a new novel it becomes a major event and his latest Seveneves sounds like the Space Opera we always knew he could write. I believe this would be a first for him though judging by the description he will surely give it his own original spin. I haven't been excited personally for a Stephenson novel in quite a few years, but this one has me salivating more than a little bit. It seems a bit like The 100 only on a grander and surely deeper scale. Here's the current blurb:

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anatham, Reamde, and Cryptonomicon comes an exciting and thought-provoking science fiction epic—a grand story of annihilation and survival spanning five thousand years

What would happen if the world were ending?

A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space.

But the complexities and unpredictability of human nature coupled with unforeseen challenges and dangers threaten the intrepid pioneers, until only a handful of survivors remain . . .

Five thousand years later, their progeny—seven distinct races now three billion strong—embark on yet another audacious journey into the unknown . . . to an alien world utterly transformed by cataclysm and time: Earth.

A writer of dazzling genius and imaginative vision, Neal Stephenson combines science, philosophy, technology, psychology, and literature in a magnificent work of speculative fiction that offers a portrait of a future that is both extraordinary and eerily recognizable. As he did in Anathem, Cryptonomicon, the Baroque Cycle, and Reamde, Stephenson explores some of our biggest ideas and perplexing challenges in a breathtaking saga that is daring, engrossing, and altogether brilliant.

Seveneves will be release May 19th.

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Cover Unveiled for The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi

After five years of waiting more concrete information on  Paolo Bacigalupi's first adult book since The Windup Girl has been revealed. The title The Water Knife has been floating around for at least the last 2 years as he worked on his younger audience books such as Ship Breaker, The Drowned Cities, and Zombie Baseball Beatdown. Now we have the cover and a description to boot.

The eagerly anticipated follow-up novel by the best-selling, National Book Award-nominated author of The Windup Girl: a scorching thriller born out of today’s front-page headlines that preys on our worst fears about potential catastrophic failures awaiting us in our resource starved future. Think Roman Polanski’s Chinatown as written by Michael Crichton. WATER IS POWER.

In the very near future, the American Southwest is battling for water. Phoenix is covered in dust, desolate, and on the verge of total breakdown. Severe drought has demolished Texas. Nevada, as always, is trying to cash in.

Into the fray, steps Angel Velasquez, a water knife working for Las Vegas water mogul Catherine Case. Case is in the Arcology business, opulent real estate in which lush, luxury living environments are raised out of dry earth. Zipping around in his tricked out Tesla, Angel “cuts” water for Case. Hijacking pumping stations or unearthing long forgotten water rights, he is a detective and mercenary rolled into one. When an informant shows up dead in Phoenix, Angel is sent to find out what has happened. It turns out that a major power play is taking place, and the race is on to find a long-forgotten deed between the state of Arizona and a Native American tribe that grants Phoenix the rights to enough water to rebuild itself but to crush Las Vegas in the process. Angel is not the only one hunting down the old agreement. A shady West Coast conglomerate is watching closely, as is Lucy Monroe, a journalist and Phoenix native, desperate to save her city. Angel and Lucy are natural enemies, but the two realize the only way they may stay alive is by joining forces. The missing piece to the puzzle is Maria, a fifteen-year-old Texas migrant, blessed with street smarts, but burdened by getting herself into something over her head. Pretty soon the body count begins to rise, alliances come in to question, and it looks like either Phoenix or Las Vegas is going down in flames.

The Water Knife is currently scheduled for an August, 2015 release from Knopf. For those who can't wait for more Bacigalupi, his latest YA book The Doubt Factory will be out this October.

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Cover Unveiled for John Scalzi's Lock In

Fresh off his Hugo win for Redshirts and the commercial success of The Human Division, John Scalzi is coming back with what looks to be another standalone. And it is also his second near-future novel, if you could Agent to the Stars, which I do. Lock In explores a virus that is running rampant and for the most part it is manageable, but for some it turns them into virtually living statues. I'm definitely interested to see how Scalzi's trademark snark work into such a story.  Here's the teaser description:

Fifteen years from now, a new virus sweeps the globe. 95% of those afflicted experience nothing worse than fever and headaches. Four percent suffer acute meningitis, creating the largest medical crisis in history. And one percent find themselves “locked in”—fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus.

One per cent doesn't seem like a lot. But in the United States, that's 1.7 million people “locked in”...including the President's wife and daughter.

Spurred by grief and the sheer magnitude of the suffering, America undertakes a massive scientific initiative. Nothing can restore the ability to control their own bodies to the locked in. But then two new technologies emerge. One is a virtual-reality environment, “The Agora,” in which the locked-in can interact with other humans, both locked-in and not. The other is the discovery that a few rare individuals have brains that are receptive to being controlled by others, meaning that from time to time, those who are locked in can “ride” these people and use their bodies as if they were their own.

This skill is quickly regulated, licensed, bonded, and controlled. Nothing can go wrong. Certainly nobody would be tempted to misuse it, for murder, for political power, or worse....

I'm not sure if the cover is final, but currently it seems a little bland for a Scalzi cover though it moves him into the clean look that has become so popular for many best-selling authors. Lock In should be out in late August, but it should be noted Scalzi is still currently writing the manuscript.

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Cover Unveiled for Armada by Ernest Cline

With Ready Player One released just two years ago Ernest Cline created the nearly perfect nostalgia trip to gamer culture of the 70s and 80s. His next work Armada seems to fit in a similar mode though in the real instead of the virtual. Judging from the blurb I'd say this will give heavy nods to things like Flight of the Navigator and The Last Starfighter. Here's the official blurb:

Zack Lightman is daydreaming through another dull math class when the high-tech dropship lands in his school's courtyard-and when the men in the dark suits and sunglasses leap out of the ship and start calling his name, he's sure he's still dreaming.

But the dream is all too real; the people of Earth need him. As Zack soon discovers, the videogame he's been playing obsessively for years isn't just a game; it's part of a massive, top-secret government training program, designed to teach gamers the skills they'll need to defend Earth from a possible alien invasion. And now…that invasion is coming.

As he and his companions prepare to enter their ships and do battle, Zack learns that the father he thought was dead is actually a key player in this secret war. And together with his father, he'll uncover the truth about the alien threat, race to prevent a genocide, and discover a mysterious third player in the interplanetary chess game he's been thrown into.

The cover goes for a early Galaga/Space Invaders vibe which should hit the right market, but this may not be final. Armada will be released in July, 2014 from Crown. I'll be there with book tokens ready to plock down.

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Covers Unveiled for Lexicon by Max Barry

US Cover, Art by Will Staehle

I've been a fan of Max Barry's since his satirical Sci-Fi winner Jennifer Government, but it was Company that truly won me over with it hilarious views of corporate governance and organization. His last effort from 2011, Machine Man (reviewed here), was quite the twisted view on trans-humanism, but his latest Lexicon, goes after language itself. We've got two covers to gander at. They both do the job well enough, but the type treatment on the US is a bit stronger. The UK cover is clearly going after the style that was done on Jennifer Government. In either case I'm very interested with what going on in the inside. Whatever happens I expect a funny yet intelligent read.

UK Cover, Art by Ben Summers

Here's the blurb:

At an exclusive school somewhere outside of Arlington, Virginia, students aren’t taught history, geography, or mathematics—at least not in the usual ways. Instead, they are taught to persuade. Here the art of coercion has been raised to a science .Students harness the hidden power of language to manipulate the mind and learn to break down individuals by psychographic markers in order to take control of their thoughts. The very best will graduate as “poets”: adept wielders of language who belong to a nameless organization that is as influential as it is secretive.

Whip-smart orphan Emily Ruff is making a living running a three-card Monte game on the streets of San Francisco when she attracts the attention of the organization’s recruiters. She is flown across the country for the school’s strange and rigorous entrance exams, where, once admitted, she will be taught the fundamentals of persuasion by Brontë, Eliot, and Lowell—who have adopted the names of famous poets to conceal their true identities. For in the organization, nothing is more dangerous than revealing who you are: Poets must never expose their feelings lest they be manipulated. Emily becomes the school’s most talented prodigy until she makes a catastrophic mistake: She falls in love.

Meanwhile, a seemingly innocent man named Wil Jamieson is brutally ambushed by two strange men in an airport bathroom. Although he has no recollection of anything they claim he’s done, it turns out Wil is the key to a secret war between rival factions of poets and is quickly caught in their increasingly deadly crossfire. Pursued relentlessly by people with powers he can barely comprehend and protected by the very man who first attacked him, Wil discovers that everything he thought he knew about his past was fiction. In order to survive, must journey to the toxically decimated tow nof Broken Hill, Australia, to discover who he is and why an entire town was blown off the map.

As the two narratives converge, the shocking work of the poets is fully revealed, the body count rises, and the world crashes toward a Tower of Babel event which would leave all language meaningless. Max Barry’s most spellbinding and ambitious novel yet, Lexicon is a brilliant thriller that explores language, power, identity, and our capacity to love—whatever the cost.

Lexicon hits the shelves in June.

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REVIEW | Scoundrels (Star Wars) by Timothy Zahn

What's this? Me read a Star Wars novel? Well stranger things have certainly happened. The last time I got into a SW story it was The Force Unleashed, which I liked well enough, but the video game was better. Scoundrels though is a decidedly different style though and is part of the movement to diversify the stories told in the SW universe.

Scoundrels is the caper we've all wanted from the SW universe and what should be the type of story that Disney attempts next rather than jumping into Episode 7. They need to do a side story or something only loosely attached to get their feet wet and what better than something that plays off the fun side of the SW Universe?

The story takes place not long after the events of Episode 4, so those memories are fresh for the characters, especially the destruction of Alderaan. Scoundrels is above all things a caper/heists, which is pulled off quite well as Han is put on the trail of over 100 million credits in the hands of the Black Sun, which is basically an intergalactic Mafia outfit used in many of the SW novels. Han, not one to be too greedy, brings in a crew to share the wealth and danger.

There are a few too many characters to keep track of on the team of 11 that Han has assembled, but Zahn has done an admirable job giving each their own distinctive voice and not throwing the balance too much in favor of any. The story is at its best when Lando and Han get into the thick of it. Han in particular spends too much time behind the scenes giving Lando a lot of time to grab attention, but isn't that what Lando is best at? Chewie even through all the warbling is still somehow an endearing character, but it was those I just met such as the ghost burglar, Bink, that I keep hoping would get more page time.

The villains though are much more of a standout than the traditional SW villains showcasing a keen intelligence and understanding of the implications at hand as they try to thwart all comers. With a caper it is all in the planning and finally improvisation to really sell it, which Scoundrels does well.

All in all this is a big step away from the traditional SW novels focused on action with plenty more tension and planning, but there are still plenty of things that go boom. And that ending was a nice twist I didn't see coming.

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Cover Unveiled for You by Austin Grossman

A few years back Austin Grossman's Soon I Will Be Invincible flipped the superhero story giving it from the point of view of the villain. You, Grossman's latest book looks to give us the videogame experience from the side of the programmers. The cover itself doesn't do much for me as the color is a bit bland, but it does give a sense of the content at least. Here's the blurb:

A novel of mystery, videogames, and the people who create them, by the bestselling author of Soon I Will Be Invincible, Austin Grossman.

When Russell joins Black Arts games, the hottest studio in the game industry, he meets an eccentric crew of nerds hacking the frontiers of both technology and entertainment. But when their revolutionary next-gen game is threatened by a mysterious software glitch, Russell finds himself in a race to save both his job and the people he has grown to care about.

The bug is the first clue in a mystery leading back twenty years through real and virtual worlds, corporate boardrooms and high school computer camp, to a secret that changed a friendship and the history of gaming. YOU is a thrilling, hilarious, authentic portrait of the world of professional game makers; and the story of how learning to play can save your life.

Could this be Snow Crash with a funny angle? I sure hope so. You will be out March 26th, 2013. Mark that another as one to watch for next year.

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MICRO REVIEW | Year Zero by Rob Reid
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MICRO REVIEW | Year Zero by Rob Reid

Like Ready Player One, Year Zero is the type of book that will hit the sweet spot for those of a certain generation. Year Zero revels in the music of the 80's and 90's and also the Napster era legal issues of the 00's. Some characters are even supposed to resemble names you might know from the late 80's to early 90's pop music. Reid certainly has the right pedigree to write such a book having started Rhapsody. There are plenty of laughs to be had as we meet a cadre of unusual aliens and odd situations.

There are some issues, which keep Year Zero from attaining its potential. The main character comes off very flat and doesn't go through much growth despite the outcome. Yet he knows himself well. However, many of the side characters are also very one dimensional as well and just seem there for a specific joke at times. Especially the space slut.

Besides the many in-jokes, the time exploring the other races of the cosmos was very inventive, especially a certain race whose name isn't worth mentioning. All in all, a very solid albeit light first novel, but don't going into thinking this is the next Hitchhiker's Guide or you'll be disappointed. The style actually reminded more of Christopher Moore in space mixed with some court room theatrics and a decent send-up of reality television.

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MICRO REVIEW | Alif: The Unseen by G. Willow Wilson

Alif The Unseen is a story with a lot of depth. Many social issues are brought to the fore in an honest and believable ways. The characters while cold at first grow so much as things progress. You can feel them changing through the experiences they share. The setting is an Arab city where the divide between the classes is very apparent and is the closest I've glimpsed this society from the inside. Activism or hacktivism culture as it has become known as is at the center of things, but so is a magical world. Alif, the protagonist, learns that the two do not have to be mutually exclusive in his fight to stay alive.

Alif The Unseen is many things. A cyber thriller, a peek into the Arab way of life, and a journey through the mythology of the middle east. And it does each equally well in what ends up being one of the most memorable stories I've read this year. Superb in nearly every facet.  Simply, a brilliant cross of Hackers, Middle Eastern Society and Djinn. I can't wait to see what Wilson does next.

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REVIEW | Redshirts by John Scalzi

John Scalzi never disappoints. He writes very solid and entertaining stories, but with Redshirts he's letting his geek flag fly at all-time heights. Even further than he did with The Android's Dream. If you've been a fan of Sci-Fi and Star Trek: TOS in particular then you understand the idea of being a red shirt means you're probably going to die or at least be relegated to a bit player. Redshirts shows us a future where being issued a wardrobe of red is a very bad thing.

It is true that Redshirts skewers early Trek and it does it very, very well. And it contains the best BJ joke you've probably heard all year. Yet Scalzi goes much deeper as things progress and just gets out and out strange in the last third. The story begins simply enough with new ensign level crew members coming aboard the Universal Union flagship Intrepid, which just always seems to be running low on crew. They quickly realize they are the expendable type, but something more seems to be going on then that. Improbable things keep happening and then things get meta and weird. Or is all meta weird?

The story is not without its faults. Very little character growth occurs and some of the characters aren't very indistinguishable from others. There are many instances of some clunky bits especially in the aforementioned final third. However, this hardly ever dampened the grin the story continual caused me to sport. Either way Scalzi has written the book he's probably been dying to get to for years and the Star Trek parody I've always wanted. And while it is in a similar camp as Galaxy Quest it's setup rather differently and explores the trappings of Sci-Fi in a very unusual manner. To go into it much more would ruin things. Suffice to say if the initial hook works for you I can't help but recommend this to most Sci-Fi fans, especially those of an older generation that are looking for more than a few laughs.

It is a much stronger showing then Fuzzy Nation, but still doesn't reach the level of detail or characterization that the Old Man's War books achieve. Redshirts is most definitely Scalzi's lightest and funniest novel to date. I give Redshirts 4 out of 5 hats. The story ends with 3 codas that are ancillary short stories closing off some loose ends brought up in the main narrative. The first was overly long and the third felt unneeded, but these parts are the more emotionally fueled sections.

P.S. If you haven't read/seen Stefan's Redshirts photo review get thee to Civilian Reader.

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REVIEW | Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway

Nick Harkaway burst on to the scene with The Gone Away World, in 2008 with what many considered one of the best debuts of year. We had to wait 4 years for his next book Angelmaker. People cry afoul when authors don't get a book out a year or even every two years, but many times those are the books worth remembering for the long term, which is the case here. Meet sensible Joseph Spork, careful Joseph. Then young and adventurous Joe. And finally crazy Joe along the way.

Angelmaker is part Spy novel, part family legacy, part end of the world, and just plain crazy. Well plain may not be right, but you get the idea. This is a melding that in most writers hands would fall apart, but Harkaway has the indelible skills to bring them together in a most satisfying way. Each and every character from the top down to those who only get a few pages are brought to life, right down to the little dog too.

"The dog's name is Bastion, and it is without shame or mercy. Any dog worth the name will sniff your crotch on arrival, but Bastion has buried his carbuncled nose in the angle of Joe's trousers and shows no inclination to retreat. Joe shifts slight, and the dog rewards him with a warning mutter, deep in the chest: I have my mouth in close proximity to your genitals, oh thou man who talks to my mistress over coffee. Do not irk or trifle with me! I possess but one tooth, oh, yes, for the rest were buried long ago in the flesh of sinners."

This could be considered Steampunk to a certain degree for those who don't think they like Steampunk. Yet it isn't exactly Steampunk, but it does take the most beautiful elements of the genre and incorporates them in a gorgeous fashion at the heart of a Spy/Adventure story.  The story flips between present in London following around Joe Spork, who fixes clockwork devices while lamenting his family's lurid past along with the adventures Edie, a female secret agent more than fifty years before in her glory days. And when the two stories collide things just start exploding.

There are many flashbacks, which at first seem a bit much, but you just have to go with. They almost always payoff. The language is quite endearing even when it goes off the rails a bit. Harkaway isn't one adverse to a bit of slapstick as evidenced by character names such as Rodney Titwhistle. But there is a lot of beauty is the story. Especially, the artisan devices that proliferate this world and the characters love for each other shines through amid all the hi-jinks and capering. This is very much a kitchen sink book with every back story told and every mystery explained even when you don't think there will be time.

If Opium Khans, horny secretaries, crazy cultists, mechanical doomsday devices, and shady underworld dealings sound at all intriguing then Angelmaker is a can't miss story. Just don't expect to be entirely sane at the end. The characters certainly aren't.  Angelmaker is definitely one to savor and not push through. As of right now it's my favorite new book this year and it will take a doozy of a story to knock it off that perch. I give Angelmaker 5 out of 5 hats. Despite some sluggishness at the start it turned out to be a rip-roaring adventure I'd have love to be stuck in the middle of.

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(New) Cover Unveiled for Amped by Daniel H. Wilson

Last year a different cover was released for Wilson's next novel Amped, which focused more on the neuron's firing aspect from the story as a design element. I'm guessing that version didn't standout as well as some people would have liked so we've got this bold number mimicking the power button on computers. I like it but this is overly derivative of the design for Mira Grant's Newflesh trilogy. This doesn't change the fact that I'm still looking forward to Amped and this is in addition to the overly sales-y copy:

Technology makes them superhuman. But mere mortals want them kept in their place. The New York Times bestselling author of Robopocalypse creates a stunning, near-future world where technology and humanity clash in surprising ways. The result? The perfect summer blockbuster.

As he did in Robopocalypse, Daniel Wilson masterfully envisions a frightening near-future world. In Amped, people are implanted with a device that makes them capable of superhuman feats. The powerful technology has profound consequences for society, and soon a set of laws is passed that restricts the abilities—and rights—of "amplified" humans. On the day that the Supreme Court passes the first of these laws, twenty-nine-year-old Owen Gray joins the ranks of a new persecuted underclass known as "amps." Owen is forced to go on the run, desperate to reach an outpost in Oklahoma where, it is rumored, a group of the most enhanced amps may be about to change the world—or destroy it.

Once again, Daniel H. Wilson's background as a scientist serves him well in this technologically savvy thriller that delivers first-rate entertainment, as Wilson takes the "what if" question in entirely unexpected directions. Fans of Robopocalypse are sure to be delighted, and legions of new fans will want to get "amped" this summer.

Wilson doing super-powered humans just has to be a good fit. Doesn't it? Come June we'll all get a chance to find out.

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Cover Unveiled for vN by Madeline Ashby

Sometimes you see a cover and gloss over and other times a quick glace turns into a long stare. vN is decidedly in the latter camp as the cover is filled with all sorts of bits that intrigue. Angry Robot certainly outdid themselves with this one.  vN is Madeline Ashby debut and the first in at least a two book series formerly called the Von Neumann Sisters Sequence, but henceforth known as the Machine Dynasty series. Here's the blurb:

Amy Peterson is a self-replicating humanoid robot.

For the past five years, she has been grown slowly as part of a mixed organic/synthetic family. She knows very little about her android mother’s past, so when her grandmother arrives and attacks her mother, little Amy wastes no time: she eats her alive.

Now she carries her malfunctioning granny as a partition on her memory drive, and she’s learning impossible things about her clade’s history – like the fact that the failsafe that stops all robots from harming humans has failed… Which means that everyone wants a piece of her, some to use her as a weapon, others to destroy her.

vN is scheduled for an August release and it is one I'll be watching for.

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UK Cover Unveiled for Hannu Rajaniemi's The Fractal Prince

Rajaniemi's debut The Quantum Thief took the Sci-Fi world by storm in 2010. It certainly made an impression on me. So saying I can't wait for the next book The Fractal Prince is no understatement, especially given the book was delayed a bit already. The organic looking spaceship art is quite eye catching, but I'm not a fan of the white background yet it does go along with the style from the UK paper release. Here is the blurb:

The sequel to Hannu Rajaniemi's extraordinary debut novel is set to build on the extravagent promise of one of the most exciting new voices to come out of the genre this century. Jean le Flambeur, posthuman thief, is out of prison, but still not free. To pay his debts to Oortian warrior Mieli and her mysterious patron the pellegrini, he has to break into the mind of a living god. Planning the ultimate heist takes Jean and Mieli from the haunted city of Sirr on broken Earth to the many-layered virtual realms of the mighty Sobornost. But when the stakes of the pellegrinis game are revealed, Jean has to decide how far he is willing to go to get the job done.

On the edges of physical space a thief, helped by a sardonic ship, is trying to break into a Schrodinger box. He is doing the job for his patron, and owner of the ship, Mieli. In the box is his freedom. Or not. The box is protected by codes that twist logic and sanity. And the ship is under attack. The thief is nearly dead, the ship is being eaten alive. Jean de Flambeur is running out of time. All of him. And on earth, two sisters in a city of fast ones, shadow players and jinni contemplate a revolution. There are many more stories than can be told even in a thousand nights and one night, but these two stories will twist, and combine. And reality will spiral. In Hannu Rajaniemi's sparkling follow-up to the critically acclaimed, international sensation THE QUANTUM THIEF, he returns to his awe-inspiring vision of the universe and we find out what the future held for Earth.

The US cover was released sometime ago and again graced by wonderful Kekai Kotaki art. The Fractal Prince will be released in the UK from Gollancz and Tor in the US come this September.

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REVIEW | Faith by John Love

My last "what should I read next" poll had a clear winner with Throne of the Crescent Moon, which has already been receiving high marks (I liked it as well, but that comes later). Being a bit of a contrarian I wanted to also pay some service to the low-runner in the poll: Faith by John Love. Why was it the low-runner? I suspect it has to do with the book being Sci-Fi while most of the others were Fantasy of one stripe or another. Fantasy still trumps Sci-Fi in terms of fandom, in the US at least, but it really shouldn't especially with something as special and different as John Love's debut Faith.

Faith isn't about the Science, but there are some intriguing ideas here in that regard. It is a smart, thoughtful exploration of humanity and how far obsessions can take us. So the back story. A few centuries ago a mysterious ship nicknamed "Faith" attacked the space faring Sakhran Empire (vaguely lizard-like humanoids) causing their society to pull back technologically. No one knows what Faith is exactly. Is it even like a normal ship with a crew or some kind of space-born creature? That mystery alone pulled me in and gave off a very strong Star Trek vibe. Faith is what you might get if Joe Abercrombie turned his dark skills to Science Fiction after reading a few Robert J. Sawyer novels and seeing a few too many Q episodes of Star Trek. This isn't a hard Sci-Fi read by any stretch, but that should help pull in the more fringe readers who fear something too technical and just want a totally enthralling story.

Presently, humanity has expanded into space and created the Commonwealth along with a few other races including the Sakhrans. Faith has returned. She is hostile and no one knows how to defeat her, but there is a chance. A slim chance that the Commonwealth's latest Outsider class vessel captained by Aaron Foord. Outsider ships are crewed by brilliant yet deeply flawed people that hope to match and possibly defeat the almost mythological Faith. Each Outsider ship is christened with a name to remind those aboard of what they are. Charles Manson is the name of the vessel charged with stopping Faith at all costs. That name alone should give a good idea of who the people are that man the Manson. This isn't a crew of do-gooders, but they are damn good at what they do.

Faith is a challenging read that attacks preconceptions of what is right. Love also reminds us what a lonely and cramped place space can be especially given the submarine-like atmosphere of the Manson and the isolation that most of its crew crave. Faith herself becomes the most endearing character as I winced at each battle scar she earned.

Deeply introspective, Faith, keys into many elements of psychology with deep influences of Moby Dick. For pages at a time nothing seemingly happens except for character examining the implications of what is to come and just what got them in the situation they are in. This "nothing" is completely riveting as exploring these characters and their motivations are what propel the story. At first the story seems like one of redemption for the crew, but as things move along it is clear they aren't looking to be redeemed or even accepted. They just want to win. As their past is revealed many uncomfortable things that would typically turn me off to a character intrigued me more about how they went from such evil to the point of being the possible savior of an entire vast multi-planet society.

This is a story that can appear slow at first, however it is one of the most suspenseful novels I've read recently. This is a complete story from beginning to end, which is quite something given the micro and macro scales Love examines. Once the chess game is officially started between Faith and the Charles Manson you'll be hooked as their back and forth fights are taut scenes that please.

Faith my not be for everybody, especially those that generally turn away from the dark side of humanity, but it is a rewarding experience that leaves you with that sense of wonder about space, what it can hold, and our place in it. I give Faith 4 out of 5 hats. Whoever found John Love for Night Shade Books should get a bonus for finding the next great Science Fiction star. Love is going to eventually belong in the same breathe as some of our greatest Sci-Fi writers. If Faith had been published just a month earlier I have no doubts it would have made my best of Sci-Fi shortlist.

And remember a little Faith can kill you.

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NEWS | Charles Yu's How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe Optioned for Film

1492 pictures has smartly picked up the film rights for How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu, which was one of my favorite Sci-Fi novels last year. Here is a bit from Hollywood Reporter:

Columbus and 1492 principals Michael Barnathan and Mark Radcliffe will produce and Brendan Bellomo is set to direct.

Bellomo is a New York University film school graduate who wrote, produced and directed a cast and crew of 200 students and professionals for the live action sci-fi short Bohemibot, which won a bronze medal in the narrative category at the 2009 Student Academy Awards. He is represented by WME and Prolific Management.

1492’s production credits include The Help, Night at the Museum, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and the first three Harry Potter films, among others. In addition to producing those films, Columbus' credits include directing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Home Alone, and writing The Goonies and Gremlins.

It will definitely be interesting to see what choices the director and screen writer make for the film. Will they keep the humor? Pump up the action? Even more sexualize the AI in the story? Time will only tell, but the team behind the film has certainly got the chops to pull off the story well.

Yu's second book of short stories Sorry Please Thank You will be released in July and he is hard at work on his next novel Trilogy: A Novel, but that has no official release date yet.

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New Cover Unveiled for Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

As my gushing review a couple months back intimated I'm a huge fan of Ernest Cline's debut Ready Player One. It is simply one of the most enjoyable books I've read in the last 10 years and pushed all the right geek buttons. For the paperback release Cline's publisher has decided to not use the pac-man cover, except for the basic type. But the kicker is that they've illustrated the trailer stacks the protagonist Wade Watts lives in, which amount to a future slum. So for those of you who didn't bite for the hardcover release (really, just ask for it for Christmas, you won't regret it) will have the cheaper paperback version out in April.


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Cover Unveiled for Daniel H. Wilson's AMPED

After the huge success of Daniel H. Wilson's Robopocalypse (review here) this year many are eager for his next offering and we don't have too long to wait. Wilson's follow-up is Amped, which will be out in June. The cover above may not be final, but it is certainly intriguing if a little subdued compared to Robopocalypse. Amped isn't related to Robopocalypse, but it still treads into areas Wilson is very knowledgeable about. Amped is a techno-thriller that like Max Barry's recent Machine Man (review here) explores the idea of what it means to be human. Here is a bit more detail from an NPR interview with Wilson earlier this year:

WILSON: Yeah. In fact, that question was really appropriate, because my follow-up is called "Amped," and it's about this near future. There's no robots in "Amped," by the way, which is sort of, I know, a departure. But it's about this near future in which people are starting to integrate technology into their bodies a lot, and we're starting to realize that people who we thought were disabled are becoming super-abled. And it's really a mind, you know, it's total shift in thinking. And some people are interested in, you know, not having to implant their children in order to have them be competitive in school.
And, you know, I think that adopting new technology is always a change and it's always scary. But the moment that it starts going into our bodies is going to be a pretty scary moment for civilization, and I think it's coming.

Also of note is that Wilson's middle-grade reader A Boy and His Bot will be released in paperback this January for those wanting more robot related fiction.

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Cover Unveiled for The Games by Ted Kosmatka

This week we are treated to the cover for the Nebula award nominee Ted Kosmatka's debut The Games, which sounds a little like The Hunger Games crossed with Splice. Originally titled The Helix Game the title was shortened to just The Games so it would probably cast a wider net with readership as the story is a Thriller in addition to being hard Sci-Fi. I like the helix type in the title, but besides that I'm not a big fan of this, but I love me some debut action and I've enjoyed a couple Kosmatka shorts so I'll be there for it.  Here is the blurb:

...a riveting tale of science cut loose from ethics. Set in an amoral future where genetically engineered monstrosities fight each other to the death in an Olympic event, The Games envisions a harrowing world that may arrive sooner than you think.

Silas Williams is the brilliant geneticist in charge of preparing the U.S. entry into the Olympic Gladiator competition, an internationally sanctioned bloodsport with only one rule: no human DNA is permitted in the design of the entrants. Silas lives and breathes genetics; his designs have led the United States to the gold in every previous event. But the other countries are catching up. Now, desperate for an edge in the upcoming Games, Silas’s boss engages an experimental supercomputer to design the genetic code for a gladiator that cannot be beaten.

The result is a highly specialized killing machine, its genome never before seen on earth. Not even Silas, with all his genius and experience, can understand the horror he had a hand in making. And no one, he fears, can anticipate the consequences of entrusting the act of creation to a computer’s cold logic.

Now Silas races to understand what the computer has wrought, aided by a beautiful xenobiologist, Vidonia Joao. Yet as the fast-growing gladiator demonstrates preternatural strength, speed, and—most disquietingly—intelligence, Silas and Vidonia find their scientific curiosity giving way to a most unexpected emotion: sheer terror.

The Games will be released March 13 from Del Rey. For those unfamiliar with Ted Kosmatka check out "Diving Light" for free here, "Deadnauts" here, or "The Ascendant" here.  Also, I've got to give it up for a man who wears a swank hat like this..

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REVIEW | Machine Man by Max Barry

Scientist Charles Neumann loses a leg in an industrial accident. It's not a tragedy. It's an opportunity. Charlie always thought his body could be better. He begins to explore a few ideas. To build parts. Better parts.

Max Barry has developed a style of skewering corporations. With Company he tackled the absurdity of office politics and in Jennifer Government what it means to become a company drone. Barry's latest pushes things further in a more personal yet funny manner.

The Singularity is closer than we all think. Our bodies are becoming more malleable or at least we're forcing them to be, but where will that progression push us? Machine Man explores this desire to improve one's self. Where do you start? Where do you end? How far are you willing to push or sacrifice? It all starts with an accident in the lab that turns Charles, an aloof guy, into a man bent on improving his body.

Machine Man is much darker book than Barry's last few efforts. This is partly because of the some times gruesome events Charles puts himself through. Yet it also stems from the selfishness of the main character who I guess you'd describe as having large social inadequacies. But he is also a technical genius. Even though I found it hard to like or even empathize with the main character the story permeated my mind so much I couldn't wait to get back into it. Almost like watching a car accident in progress. You can't turn away until you learn how it ends.

Machine Man is a very matter-of-fact story. Barry even goes as far to name characters after their traits such as Neumann. Get it? So much of what happens is a foregone conclusion. There were problems with the female love interest. She was left too unformed until the end where it just seemed tacked on.

Seeing the technologies evolve and the incremental steps that brings Charles to the end point was well done and enthralling. Everything is all too feasible right down to the money hungry corporation and science lackeys willing to try anything after watching what their mentor goes through.

Alternative Cover Not Used

Filled with geek and cringe-worthy humor Machine Man is a delightfully screwed-up little book. Barry tells it in a very believable manner with flawed characters in a world that seem like it is just next week. I give Machine Man 8 out of 10 Hats. While not as laugh-out loud as Company, Machine Man has its moments and offers up some nice commentary about where the world is headed and the decisions we must face.

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