Be My Enemy by Ian McDonald

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

Be My Enemy is the sequel to last year’s Planesrunner, the book that launched Ian McDonald’s first ever YA series in spectacular fashion. I dearly love both of these novels and don’t want to ruin your enjoyment of them in any way, so if you haven’t read Planesrunner yet, stop reading this now and instead check out my review of that first novel, because there will be some spoilers for the first book below the cut. In other words: if you’re new to the Everness series, stop reading here until you’ve had the chance to devour Planesrunner. Gentle reader, you have been warned.

At the end of Planesrunner, Everett and the crew of the airship Everness won a significant victory, but not without paying a dear price for it. Against all odds, they managed to escape from Charlotte Villiers and the military might of her allies. More importantly, they were able to keep the powerful Infundibulum—a map of the billions of parallel worlds and universes—out of her hands. Still, at the start of Be My Enemy, the situation is far from ideal.

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Mockingbird by Chuck Wendig

Posted on September 10, 2012 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

Here’s my review of Mockingbird by Chuck Wendig. Thanks to the publisher’s generosity, I have two copies of this excellent novel to give away to readers in the US, Canada and the EU. Details on how to enter the giveaway can be found at the end of the review.

Earlier this year, Chuck Wendig’s Blackbirds took me completely by surprise. (Here’s my review.) Initially attracted by Joey Hi-Fi’s gorgeous cover illustration, I was quickly sucked into the story of Miriam Black, an opportunistic young drifter whose unique curse/gift allows her to see the exact time and circumstances of the deaths of the people she touches. She mainly uses this mysterious skill to loot the occasional bit of cash from the soon-to-be-deceased, allowing her to stay in motels and keep enough booze on hand to numb her many personal demons… until one day she sees one particularly gruesome future death scene in which the victim’s last words are her own name.

As much as I hate to see or use the phrase “compulsively readable” in reviews, in the case of Blackbirds it’s applicable as it’s ever going to be: a unique, tightly written novel you just can’t put down until you’ve read every last dark, gory detail. If you haven’t read it yet, now’s the time to rectify the situation because this month, mercifully quick on the heels of Blackbirds, Chuck Wendig already delivers its sequel, Mockingbird. The further adventures of Miriam Black, wrapped in yet another stunning Joey Hi-Fi cover? Well, “must-buy” is another one of those phrases I really don’t like much, but in this case…

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Giveaway winners: The Corpse-Rat King

Posted on September 8, 2012 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

The winners of last week’s giveaway, who will each get one copy of The Corpse-Rat King by Lee Battersby (review), courtesy of Angry Robot, are:

Renee G. of Valleyford, WA

Andy H. of Villach, Austria

Congratulations to the winners, and thanks again to Angry Robot for generously providing these prizes.

And… if you didn’t win this time, keep an eye on Far Beyond Reality as I’ll have many more reviews and great giveaways coming up in the near future!

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Legion by Brandon Sanderson

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

Stephen Leeds, the main character in Brandon Sanderson’s new novella Legion, has a unique mental condition. It resembles multiple personality disorder but is much stranger and infinitely more useful: he has a group of imaginary personae who “live” with him and who each have a distinct personality and skill set. The one called J.C., for example, seems to be a former Navy SEAL and often takes the lead in violent situations. This group of “personae” makes Stephen come across like a one man “A Team” in which all but one of the members are imaginary.

Stephen can also generate new personae at will when he needs to learn a new skill. For example, when he has to speak Hebrew for a trip to Israel, he browses through a language guide and a short while later, a new persona pops up who can translate Hebrew for him. It never becomes entirely clear whether there’s something supernatural going on here or whether Stephen is just a very strange genius who can learn an entire language in a few hours but then needs an invisible, imaginary person to translate it for him rather than just speak it himself.

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The Corpse-Rat King by Lee Battersby (includes giveaway!)

Posted on September 2, 2012 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

Here’s my review of The Corpse-Rat King by Lee Battersby, out last week from Angry Robot. Thanks to the publisher, I have two copies of the novel to give away to readers in the US, Canada and EU. Details on how to enter the giveaway can be found at the end of the review.

Marius dos Hellespont is a scoundrel of the worst sort: he’s an opportunistic liar, an occasional con-man, but maybe worst of all, he often makes a living as a “corpse-rat,” stealing valuables from soldiers’ dead bodies after recent battles. It’s grim (and highly illegal) work, but it’s been making Marius enough money to feed himself and even take on an apprentice. Everything changes when, one day after a major battle, he comes upon the corpse of an actual king and tries to steal the crown.

When a dead soldier mistakes Marius for a real king, the corpse-rat finds himself transported to the realm of the dead, because just like living people, the dead need a king too, and the position happens to be vacant. It quickly becomes clear that Marius is about as far removed from actual royalty as possible, so the dead make him an offer he can’t refuse: he must go back to the land of the living to find an actual, real king for the dead. If not, his life will be forfeit.

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Hey look, someone interviewed me!

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

I was extremely flattered when Mieneke van der Salm, proprietress of the excellent A Fantastical Librarian blog, asked to interview me for her ongoing Blogger Query series. The end result was just published, and (as you’d probably expect from me) I went on and on and on in my answers. If you’re interested in finding out more about me, make sure to take a look! Here’s an excerpt:

Negative reviews, yay or nay? And why? 

Yes, absolutely. It annoys me to no end when blogs never or only very rarely post negative reviews. I tend to lose interest and, ultimately, respect for reviewers who only post positive reviews. If you want to be taken seriously, you need to be able to write about books you didn’t like. If you can’t or won’t do that, you’ll sound like a cheerleader. At the same time, I really don’t appreciate reviewers who can’t express a negative opinion without going overboard. We’re writing about someone’s baby here, about a book someone spent blood, sweat and tears on. If you didn’t like it, fine, by all means let us know – but don’t make it a hatchet job. I dislike it when reviewers are more concerned with sounding clever than with the book they’re supposed to be reviewing, and I hate snark for snark’s sake. One of the hardest things to write as a reviewer is a negative review that’s still balanced, detailed and polite.

You can read the entire interview here!

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Giveaway winners: Whispers Under Ground + Peter Grant series!

Posted on August 27, 2012 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

The winners of last week’s giveaway of Ben Aaronovitch’s Peter Grant novels (my review) are:

First prize: copies of all three Peter Grant novels (Midnight Riot, Moon Over Soho, Whispers Under Ground) by Ben Aaronovitch: Elizabeth H. of Spring Hill, KS

Second and third prizes: a copy each of Whispers Under Ground: Tim L. of Keizer, OR and Galena O. of Lansing, MI

Congratulations to the winners, and thanks again to the kind people at Del Rey for generously offering these prizes!

And, if you didn’t win in this giveaway, make sure to keep reading Far Beyond Reality, as I hope to continue offering giveaways in the near future!

(Also, coming soon: new reviews! I realize it’s been quiet here lately, but that’s mainly because I’ve been reading and reviewing books that are due out over the next few weeks and I try to publish my reviews as close to the release date as possible. I’ve got a bunch of stuff queued up, so you’ll see new reviews popping up here more regularly very soon.)

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The Woman Who Married a Cloud by Jonathan Carroll

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

I read my first Jonathan Carroll novel shortly after discovering Graham Joyce. I’d read everything Joyce had written up to that point and was desperate for more. The top recommendation I kept hearing at that time was Jonathan Carroll, probably because there’s a certain similarity between the two writers: they both write fiction set in our contemporary reality with relatively small added fantasy elements. You can call this magical realism, but Joyce disagrees with this classification—he prefers the wonderful term “Old Peculiar” to describe his fiction—and I’m not sure if Jonathan Carroll is completely happy with it either. Still, it does seem to fit the bill somewhat and provides a good point of reference for people who are unfamiliar with them.

While there may be touching points with magical realism in both authors’ works, there are also considerable differences between them in terms of style and tone, so it’s a bit of an oversimplification to constantly call out their names in the same breath. Still, I think that many people who enjoy one of these excellent authors’ works will also enjoy the other one.

All of this serves to say that, if you’ve just read Graham Joyce’s wonderful new novel Some Kind of Fairy Tale (read my review here) and, like me, you’re now somewhat grouchy about having to wait a year or more for his next one, here’s the perfect opportunity to discover Jonathan Carroll’s works: the new, huge, career-spanning short story collection The Woman Who Married a Cloud, out on July 31st from Subterranean Press.

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Giveaway! Midnight Riot, Moon over Soho, and Whispers Under Ground By Ben Aaronovitch

Posted on August 17, 2012 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

Thanks to Del Rey, I have another great giveaway for my readers in the US and Canada. The first prize winner will receive one complete set of Ben Aaronovitch’s three Peter Grant novels: Midnight Riot, Moon over Soho and Whispers Under Ground. The second and third prize winners will each receive a copy of the latest novel in the series, Whispers Under Ground. If you’re not familiar with the series yet, you can find my review of the latest book here.

To enter the giveaway, simply send an email with subject line “WHISPERS” to fbrgiveaway AT gmail DOT com with your full name and mailing address. One entry per person, please: multiple entries will result in disqualification, but please feel free to tell your friends! Once again, please note that at the publisher’s request this giveaway is available to US and Canada residents only. (But not to worry: I’m sure I’ll have something for my readers in other parts of the world soon, so stay tuned!)

The giveaway will end on Wednesday, August 22nd at 11:59 PM, and I’ll contact the winners later that week.

Void where prohibited by law, rules are subject to change, may impair your ability to operate machinery, discontinue use immediately if skin irritation arises.

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Giveaway winners: vN by Madeline Ashby

Posted on August 16, 2012 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

The winners of last week’s giveaway of vN by Madeline Ashby, courtesy of the kind people at Angry Robot, are:

Brendan H. of Scarborough, ON

Martin S. of Dublin, Ireland

Congratulations to the winners! And, if you didn’t win this time, make sure to follow, subscribe to or otherwise keep your eye on this site, because I’ll have another great giveaway coming up in just a few days!

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