London Falling by Paul Cornell

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

LondonFallingA long undercover police investigation following one of London’s most powerful organized crime figures is approaching its conclusion. The crime boss, Rob Toshack, is suddenly acting erratically, visiting a string of his houses, disappearing to the attic only to reappear and head to a different place. Costain and Sefton, the two undercover agents who have been inserted into Toshack’s organization, can’t figure out why their target is suddenly running all over London. Quill, the officer in charge of the operation, finally decides to bring in the criminal, but during the initial interview at the station, Toshack suddenly dies in a horrific and apparently supernatural attack…

London Falling by Paul Cornell mixes urban fantasy, horror, and police procedural elements into a dark, captivating novel. The easiest comparison would be the Peter Grant series by Ben Aaronovitch: Aaronovitch writes hilarious novels that combine dark magic and realistic police work set in contemporary London; Paul Cornell has done the same in London Falling, minus the “hilarious” part.

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The Different Girl by Gordon Dahlquist

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

TheDifferentGirlIn Gordon Dahlquist’s new novel The Different Girl, Veronika, Caroline, Isobel and Eleanor are four young girls who live on a small island with their two adult caretakers Irene and Robbert. The girls are completely identical aside from the color of their hair: one is blond, one brunette, one red, and one black. They don’t know exactly why they’re on the island; all they’ve been told is that their parents died in a plane crash so Irene and Robbert are raising them there. Each day passes more or less like the last: the girls wake up, do a number of learning exercises under the guidance of the adults, help with meal preparation, and go to bed.

Everything changes when a different girl arrives on the island under mysterious circumstances. She looks different, she speaks differently, she knows and says things the other girls don’t understand. Gradually everything begins to change as the four girls learn more about their true nature and their origins.

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Author Interview: Lev Grossman (2013 edition!)

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)
Lev Grossman (credit MATHIEU BOURGOIS)

Lev Grossman (photo credit: Mathieu Bourgois)

Since “Lev Grossman third book” seems to be the most frequent search term leading people to this site (something I’m probably not helping at all by using that phrase to start off this interview), I think it’s only fair to post a brief follow-up to last year’s long interview with Lev Grossman to ask about The Magician’s Land, the forthcoming sequel to The Magicians and The Magician King.

Far Beyond Reality: So, Lev, how is the new novel coming along?

Lev Grossman: At this exact moment, it is in a state of crisis.

Not in a terrible way. I plan ahead a lot — I’m a big outliner—but the best things I write generally come when the plan fails and the outline breaks down and I have to start improvising. That’s what’s happening right now. The plan failed, bigtime.

There is a solution, but it involves me throwing out large chunks of story that I’ve spent a lot of time on. That’s a bit painful. But as Robert De Niro says, the map is not the territory. And the outline is not the novel.

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River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

RiverofStarsIt would be wrong to call Guy Gavriel Kay’s new novel River of Stars a sequel to 2010’s Under Heaven. As Mr. Kay recently said in an interview I conducted with him: “If someone wrote a book about 16th century Italy (think, Renaissance) and another about Garibaldi in the 19th century, would we be discussing how they were similar or different, 400 years apart?”

It’s true: yes, these novels share the setting of Kitai, a fantasy version of China that’s, as the author likes to say, “a quarter turn to the fantastic” from history as we know it. However, they’re also set several centuries apart, changing the focus from the Tang Dynasty period to the very different Song Dynasty. They’re different in terms of main characters and thematic focus. They are entirely different novels, aside from both being set in Kitai and, of course, having been written by Guy Gavriel Kay, who is easily one of the most talented authors working in this genre and puts a recognizable stamp on anything he does.

So, calling Under Heaven and River of Stars a diptych like Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors would be unfair. Still, I believe there’s some worth in taking a look at the new novel from this perspective, and not just because many readers will approach River of Stars that way. Continue reading →

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The Iron King by Maurice Druon

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

TheIronKingThe Iron King by Maurice Druon is a historical novel that is about to be read by a large number of fantasy readers, mostly on the strength of a little quote by one George R.R. Martin on its cover. Ready for it? Here it comes: “This is the original Game of Thrones.”

I have to admire the decision to place this quote at the very top of this book cover, because there is no other way that an almost sixty-year-old historical novel set mostly in 14th Century France would cross over to fantasy fans as successfully as this one is about to. (The fact that fantasy is being used to market historical fiction also speaks to the way popular culture has changed in the last decade or two, but that’s another discussion.)

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What Makes You Die by Tom Piccirilli

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

WhatMakesYouDieThis is somewhat irregular, but I’d like to start off this review with a painful confession: I somehow wasn’t familiar with Tom Piccirilli and mistook his new novel What Makes You Die for a debut.

Come back. Stop laughing.

In my defense, so far Piccirilli seems to have written mostly (though not exclusively) in the horror and thriller genres, which aren’t really my bailiwick. The ARC for What Makes You Die came in from Apex Book Company, a relatively small press. It’s a short little book, just 150 pages in my Epub copy. The blurb somehow yelled “autobiographical first novel” at me. Obviously, I’d somehow never heard of Tom Piccirilli, and of course I assumed that must mean he’s new.

So after about 30 pages, I’m sitting here thinking “whoa, this guy can write,” and I decide to fire up the ole Google. Turns out Tom Piccirilli has written over twenty novels and a gabillion short stories. He won a number of major awards, including the Bram Stoker Award on more than one occasion, and has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award. I was so shocked at my own painful ignorance that I decided the only way to atone for it was to display it in grand fashion at the start of this review.

If everyone’s done laughing, we can now move on to the actual review.

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Wolfhound Century by Peter Higgins

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

WolfhoundCenturyI’ve read several novels over the last few years that were compared to China Miéville by reviewers, publishers, or both. In most cases, I thought the comparison was a stretch, to say the least. In some cases, it was simply ludicrous. Setting your fantasy novel in a grimy city where it rains a lot is not enough. Not every weird/slipstream dystopia qualifies. There is more to it than that.

When Wolfhound Century by Peter Higgins arrived on my doorstep, featuring a prominent quote by Richard K. Morgan that compares it to “vintage Miéville or VanderMeer”, I was understandably sceptical. Here we go again. I expected the standard mediocre descriptions of grey, rain-swept buildings. Tired, noir stylings. Grim and grimy characters without much spark.

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Quintessence by David Walton

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

QuintessenceChristopher Sinclair is an alchemist who cares about only one thing: discovering the quintessence, the mystical fifth element that may be able to transmute base metals into gold and even bring the dead back to life. Stephen Parris, a physic in the court of England’s sickly Edward VI, strives in his own controversial way to extend life by practicing the forbidden art of human dissection to further his medical knowledge. Neither man is willing to accept the strictures imposed on their research by religion: they are guided by scientific principles and rational discourse, not the limits of revealed knowledge.

This puts them in direct conflict with the religious powers of the day, at a time when the Counter-Reformation is on the verge of sweeping over England and making life for heretics of various persuasions extremely unpleasant. Parris and Sinclair strike out for Horizon, an island on the edge of the world where the Inquisition won’t be able to reach them and, more importantly, where they may discover more about the quintessence….

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Author Interview: Guy Gavriel Kay

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)
Guy Gavriel Kay

Guy Gavriel Kay

For today’s interview, I’m extremely proud to welcome one of my favorite fantasy authors ever: Guy Gavriel Kay!

GUY GAVRIEL KAY was born in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, and raised in Winnipeg. In the 1970’s he was retained by the Estate of J.R.R. Tolkien to assist in the editorial construction of Tolkien’s posthumously published The Silmarillion. He returned to Canada from Oxford to take a law degree at the University of Toronto and was called to the Bar in Ontario.

Kay became Principal Writer and Associate Producer for the CBC radio series, “The Scales of Justice”, dramatizing major criminal trials in Canadian history. He also wrote several episodes when the series later moved to television. He has written social and political commentary for the National Post and the Globe and Mail and for The Guardian in England, and has spoken on a variety of topics at universities and conferences around the world.

In 1984, Kay’s first novel, The Summer Tree, the first volume of The Fionavar Tapestry, was published to considerable acclaim in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, and then in a number of countries and languages. In 1990 Viking Canada’s edition of his novel Tigana reached the national bestseller list, and his next book A Song for Arbonne debuted at #1 nationally.

Kay has been a bestseller with each novel since. Translations of his works exceed twenty-five languages. He has been nominated for and has won numerous literary awards and is the recipient of the International Goliardos Prize (presented in Mexico City) for his contributions to the literature of the fantastic.

Guy Gavriel Kay lives in Toronto with his wife and sons.  His new novel River of Stars is out on April 2nd, 2013. I’m very grateful that Mr. Kay took the time out of his busy pre-release schedule to answer my questions.

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Talking With Tom: A Conversation Between Tom Doherty and Harriet McDougal

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

Today Tor.com posted the second installment in my Talking With Tom series, which covers a series of conversations between Tor Books Publisher Tom Doherty and some of the authors he’s worked with over the years. In this article, Tom Doherty chats with Harriet McDougal, the widow and editor of Wheel of Time author Robert Jordan, about Harriet’s work as an editor, Jordan’s early career, and of course the Wheel of Time series.

Please click here to read the article.

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