If you read many science fiction and fantasy short stories or anthologies, you’re probably already familiar with the name John Joseph Adams, but just in case: John is the highly acclaimed editor of a truly impressive amount of genre anthologies, including (deep breath) Under the Moons of Mars: New Adventures on Barsoom, Wastelands, The Living Dead, The Living Dead 2, By Blood We Live, Federations, The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Way of the Wizard, and what’s possibly my favorite genre anthology ever, the dystopian SF collection Brave New Worlds. John is also the editor of the excellent online magazine Lightspeed.
Boneyards by Kristine Kathryn Rusch is the sequel to Diving into the Wreck and City of Ruins, two excellent novels featuring a memorable character who specializes in exploring derelict space vessels and who simply goes by the name “Boss.” The first two novels did an excellent job combining intriguing SF world-building with interesting characters and high intensity plots, so my hopes for Boneyards were extremely high. Unfortunately, it’s by far the weakest entry in the series, and while it still holds enough interest for readers who have been following the story so far, I sincerely hope that the series will regain its energy in future volumes.
(Warning: the rest of this review will include some details about the plots of the first two novels in the series, so if you haven’t read them yet, you may want to check out my reviews of those books instead. My review of Diving into the Wreck can be found here at Fantasy Literature, and my review of City of Ruins is here at Tor.com. This second review is actually quoted on the back cover of Boneyards – which has to be one of the most exciting things to see for any book reviewer.)
Thief’s Covenant is the story of Widdershins, a young woman formerly known as Adrienne Satti, who grew up an orphan on the streets of Davillon, escaped poverty to join the city’s powerful aristocracy in a rags-to-riches story, and then shockingly found herself cast down to the bottom rungs of society again. Now she’s clawed her way back up to the life of a successful thief… and the ghosts of her earlier life, make that lives, come back to call on her..
Ari Marmell, the author of this entertaining YA fantasy novel, goes back and forth between the different stages of the young thief’s life, slowly revealing details until, by the end of the story, you finally have a more or less complete picture of not only Widdershins/Adrienne as a character, but also the balance of power in the city of Davillon.
Fifty Page Fridays is a regular feature here at Far Beyond Reality, meant to highlight books I usually wouldn’t cover in a regular review. In each post, I start off by explaining why I wasn’t planning to review the book. Then I’ll read fifty pages (hence the name) and give my honest impression of that sample. Finally, I’ll give a verdict: do I want to read more or not?
This week’s installment of Fifty Page Fridays is about Fair Coin by E.C. Myers.
A few quick announcements today:
– I was recently invited to participate in one of SF Signal‘s Mind Melds, something I found incredibly flattering as it’s such a great series of posts. The Mind Meld in question was published yesterday, and you can read it here.
– The winners of last week’s Janny Wurts giveaways are:
– Rebekah Hodder (who wins a copy of The Curse of the Mistwraith)
– Glenn Morano (who wins a copy of Initiate’s Trial)
Congratulations to the winners, and stay tuned for future giveaways!
My path to Bradley Beaulieu’s writings was probably different from most people’s: I discovered him only recently through Strata, the excellent science fiction novella he co-wrote and self-published with Stephen Gaskell (reviewed here). I enjoyed Strata so much that I immediately went back to check out his ambitious full length debut The Winds of Khalakovo. Now, about a year later, Night Shade Books delivers the second novel in the Lays of Anuskaya series: The Straits of Galahesh.
Short version: if you enjoyed The Winds of Khalakovo, I’m relatively sure you’ll like The Straits of Galahesh even more. The new novel brings to the table the same strengths and weaknesses as its predecessor, but all in all it’s a more polished work that promises great things for Bradley Beaulieu’s future.
In the year 2035, all that’s remaining of humanity is a group of twenty-six people who live in the Shell, an enclosure built two decades ago by the alien race known as the Tesslies when an environmental cataclysm made our world uninhabitable. The six genetically mutated children who were born inside the Shell are mankind’s final hope of survival, also because they are the only ones who can use the Tesslie technology known as the “Grab”: a brief ten minute trip back into the time before the Earth’s environment was destroyed, during which they can gather precious supplies and capture other young children to augment the survivors’ gene pool.
In 2013, Julie Kahn is a talented mathematician who is helping the FBI investigate a series of mysterious kidnappings. Thanks to her algorithms, it gradually starts to become clear that the strange break-ins and disappearances follow a pattern, allowing investigators to close in on the next crime.
And in 2014, a new bacterium appears deep underground, setting off a far-reaching chain of events….
The name of this blog was inspired by the Beyond Reality discussion group, which has been around for almost two decades and which I’ve been managing for more than half of that time. The group is currently housed at GoodReads (a site I love) and has over 850 members. Because this site’s name took its inspiration from the group, I post monthly updates about the group here, including our Books of the Month, our series discussions, and any other special events like giveaways or author visits. Please consider this an invitation to join us, if you’re interested in SF&F book discussion. And if book discussions aren’t your thing, maybe you’ll find some additional book recommendations in this monthly feature!
Far Beyond Reality 