Excellent deal on The Mongoliad right now!

Posted on February 23, 2013 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

Mongoliad Book ThreeI don’t do these kinds of posts very often, but this is just too timely: if you’re a Neal Stephenson fan like me but were holding out for the final book of The Mongoliad (the amazing alt-history Stephenson created with Greg Bear, Mark Teppo, Nicole Galland, Erik Bear, Joseph Brassey and Cooper Moo), you can now take advantage of these great deals for the Kindle version:

– The Mongoliad: Book One – $2.99

– The Mongoliad: Book Two – $2.99

– The Mongoliad: Book Three – $2.99

(And… if you’re caught up on the series and want a sneak peek at the third book, check back here on Monday for an exclusive excerpt!)

Unrelated, but also still on sale (which is really kind of amazing, given that this sale started back in December) are the first three novels in one of my favorite fantasy series ever, the Wars of Light and Shadow by Janny Wurts:

The Curse of the Mistwraith – $0.99

The Ships of Merior – $1.99

Warhost of Vastmark – $3.79

If you have a Kindle and are looking for some good reading material, you really can’t go wrong with these deals!

Note: I’m not sure how long these deals will last, so make sure to double-check prices before you order!

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Fade to Black by Francis Knight

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

FadeToBlackRojan Dizon is a bounty-hunter in the vertical city of Mahala, an ancient, towering structure where neighborhoods are built on top of neighborhoods. The rich and powerful live at the top, enjoying sunshine and fresh air, while the poor live in the dank and dirty atmosphere of the lower levels. Those bottom-dwellers also have to deal with the residual poisonous seepage of “synth,” a fuel source that has recently been discontinued in favor of the—supposedly—cleaner magical “Glow” because, as it turns out, exposure to synthtox leads to a slow, painful death.

Rojan is successful at chasing down runaways and criminals in part because he’s secretly a pain mage, which allows him to locate people or change his appearance as long as he can draw magical strength from pain. He has a tiny office in a bad part of town, a secretary who is never happier than when the constant womanizing that Rojan calls his love life results in chaos, and a serious case of unresolved anger towards the Ministry, the shadowy religious organization that rules Mahala with an iron fist.

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Trafalgar by Angélica Gorodischer

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

TrafalgarTrafalgar by Angélica Gorodischer is a wonderful and deceptively complex little book that will play havoc with your mind in general and any preconceived genre expectations you may have in particular. I highly recommend grabbing it for that reason alone, but read on if you need more convincing.

Angélica Gorodischer is the Argentine author of more than twenty books, only two of which have been translated into English thus far. The first one of these was Kalpa Imperial, translated by Ursula K. Le Guin no less. (We now briefly pause to let the contingent of readers who have just been convinced to read Gorodischer complete their online orders.)

Thanks to the wonderful folks at Small Beer Press, there’s now also Trafalgar, originally published in Spanish in 1979 and translated to English by Amalia Gladhart. (I can only hope someone will convince her to translate more Gorodischer. Kickstarter, anyone?)

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Posted in Fantasy, Reviews, Science Fiction, Short Story Collections | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Excerpt: River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay

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

RiverofStarsI’m extremely proud and happy to present the entire first chapter of Guy Gavriel Kay’s forthcoming novel River of Stars, due out on April 2nd, 2013 from Roc (Penguin). Enjoy! 

CHAPTER I

Late autumn, early morning. It is cold, mist rising from the forest floor, sheathing the green bamboo trees in the grove, muffling sounds, hiding the Twelve Peaks to the east. The maple leaves on the way here are red and yellow on the ground, and falling. The temple bells from the edge of town seem distant when they ring, as if from another world.

There are tigers in the forests here, but they hunt at night, will not be hungry now, and this is a small grove. The villagers of Shengdu, though they fear them and the older ones make offerings to a tiger god at altars, still go into the woods by day when they need to, for firewood or to hunt, unless a man-eater is known to be about. At such times a primitive terror claims them all, and fields will go untilled, tea plants unharvested, until the beast is killed, which can take a great effort, and sometimes there are deaths.

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Homeland by Cory Doctorow

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

HomelandTo prepare for Homeland, the sequel to Cory Doctorow’s wildly successful 2007 YA novel Little Brother, I decided to give that first book a quick re-read. Not for the first time, I was struck by how clever and awesome it is that Doctorow offers his novels as free downloads under a Creative Commons license because, even though I’m positive that I own at least two physical copies of the book, I couldn’t find them anywhere. (Hey, I just moved, give me a break. They’ll turn up.) So, I happily downloaded a copy and tore through it at more or less the same breakneck speed as I did back when it just came out.

Impressions: it’s still a great YA novel, if clearly a document of its time (but more about that later.) For a story that relies heavily on then-current(ish) technology, it hasn’t aged too badly, despite a few blips like “I checked the phone—­my home PC had sent it an email.” Also, Little Brother obviously had a big impact on Doctorow’s career, given that (counting Homeland) he’s since written three more YA novels that are cut from a very similar mould, to wit: tech-savvy teenagers using information technology to fight injustice. On the cover of the previous one, Pirate Cinema (review), it was called his “newest novel of youthful techno-defiance,” and, well, yes—there’s clearly a bit of a formula at work here. Still, I’m not complaining: the books are fun, relevant and successful. At least for the moment, I’m not the only one who’ll keep reading them as long as he keeps writing them.

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Shadow Ops: Fortress Frontier by Myke Cole

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

FortressFrontierWith last year’s Shadow Ops: Control Point, Myke Cole burst onto the scene with a bang, launching a cool, action-packed new series that combines elements of military fantasy and superhero fiction in a contemporary setting. The novel introduces a world in which random people suddenly find themselves with magical powers, able to control the elements, create portals to another realm, even raise the dead. The U.S. military has taken control of these powerful new abilities because, as they say, “magic is the new nuke.” People who discover they are “Latent” must report themselves or face persecution as “Selfers.” On that first novel’s cover, Peter V. Brett called it “Black Hawk Down meets the X-Men,” and that’s still the best summation of this series I’ve seen so far. (The publisher seems to agree, as that quote is in the same prominent spot on the new book’s cover.)

Now, about a year later, Myke Cole delivers Shadow Ops: Fortress Frontier, the eagerly awaited sequel to that spectacular debut. (You can find an excerpt and the rather awesome book trailer here, and a review of the first novel here.) Quick summary for people who haven’t read Control Point yet: this new installment is just as good as the first one, so if you were waiting to see if Cole manages to avoid the dreaded sophomore slump, rest assured and jump right in. For more info, including some vague plot details from the first novel, read on.

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The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

TheBestofAllPossibleWorldsThe Best of All Possible Worlds is Karen Lord’s second published novel, after her 2010 award-winning debut Redemption in Indigo. I haven’t had the chance to read that first novel yet, but it’s definitely on my list after reading her second effort. The Best of All Possible Worlds is a thought-provoking novel that hides a surprising amount of depth under a deceptively cheerful narrative. It’s not perfect, but it’s so brimming with interesting concepts that it practically begs for in-depth discussion.

The novel starts off with a shock: while on an off-planet  retreat, a Sadiri man is informed that the entire population of his home planet has been killed in a horrific attack. We leave the scene right after he hears the news, when he understandably enters into a numbing state of shock.

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Posted in Reviews, Science Fiction | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Author Interview: Kathleen Bartholomew, sister of Kage Baker

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)
Kage Baker and Kathleen Bartholomew, circa 1985

Kage Baker and Kathleen Bartholomew, circa 1985

Kage Baker was one of my favorite authors, an incredibly talented and imaginative writer who seemed to be able to do it all: SF, fantasy, horror, essays, short stories, and novels. Gardner Dozois called her “the best natural storyteller to enter the field since Poul Anderson.”

She was also the first author I ever worked up the courage to email, back when she was between publishers and I was desperate to find out when the next installment of her incredible time travel epic about Dr. Zeus Inc. would come out. I exchanged a few emails with her over the years, and got the chance to meet her at a signing here in San Diego. She was an amazing person and one of my favorite writers to ever work in science fiction and fantasy.

Kage died of uterine cancer at the age of 57, exactly three years ago today. Her sister Kathleen Bartholomew, who was an integral part of Kage’s life and writing, is now continuing the author’s legacy by completing some of her unfinished works. The first one of these, Nell Gwynne’s On Land and at Sea (review), was released in December 2012.

I was fortunate enough to conduct the following long, in-depth interview with Kathleen Bartholomew about her amazing sister and the incredible stories they created together.

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The Crossing by Mandy Hager

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

TheCrossingSister Maryam lives on Onewēre, a small island in the Pacific chosen by the Apostles of the Lamb after the Tribulation destroyed life on Earth as we know it. The people of Onewēre lead their lives according to the religion of the Apostles and unquestioningly follow their Rules. Part of this means that indigenous girls entering womanhood are sometimes chosen to live in the Star of the Sea, the Holy City that’s located on a huge ship stranded nearby, where they are allowed to serve the Apostles directly. When young Sister Maryam finally makes the crossing, she quickly learns that life in the Holy City is very different from what she expected, and the beliefs she has held all her life are shaken to the core.

The Crossing is the first book in Mandy Hager’s YA dystopian SF series Blood of the Lamb. The novel was first published in New Zealand in 2009 and won the 2010 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Award. Thanks to Pyr, a publisher with a great track record of importing titles from other English-speaking markets, it’s now also being published in the United States.

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Posted in Reviews, Science Fiction, Young Adult | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Giveaway winners! (Imager’s Battalion giveaway)

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

ImagersBattalionThe winners of last week’s giveaway are:

Brian K. of St. George Brant, ON

Brian H. of Forest Grove, OR

Lauren M. of Acton, MA

Congratulations to the winners! Your copies of Imager’s Battalion by L.E. Modesitt (my review) are on their way, courtesy of the kind people at Tor.

And for those of you who didn’t win, thank you for dropping by the site and participating, and make sure to come back regularly as I plan to set up more giveaways in the very near future…

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