Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

There are ghuls on the loose in the kingdoms of the Crescent Moon, but Dr. Adoulla, the last living ghul hunter in the great city of Dhamsawaat, is old, tired, and out of shape. Nowadays, he much prefers eating a good meal, reading some poetry and sipping cardamom tea over hunting down the fearsome, unnatural creatures who serve the Traitorous Angel. However, when two family members of his old flame Miri get slaughtered, he reluctantly gets involved, hoping to win back her heart.

Together with his young assistant Raseed bas Raseed, a devout dervish with incredible fighting skills, Dr. Adoulla leaves the great city to investigate the site of the murder. There, they meet a young tribeswoman named Zamia, who is blessed with the power to shift into the shape of a lion and who has her own reasons to hunt down the unusually powerful ghuls that are on the loose. Dr. Adoulla, Raseed and Zamia decide to join forces, but when they return to Dhamsawaat, they discover that the hunt for the ghuls has become nothing less than personal now…

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Posted in Fantasy, Reviews | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Love a blog? Nominate it.

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

The deadline to submit your Hugo nominations is March 11th. The Hugo Awards are the fan awards, unlike, say, the Nebulas, which are voted on by members of the SFWA, an organization that has certain criteria in terms of membership. The Hugo Awards are open to anyone who was a member of last year’s Worldcon or becomes a member of this or next year’s Worldcons. That could be you. You can become a Supporting Member of this year’s Worldcon (called ChiCon) for just $50, and for that amount you also will get this year’s Hugo Voter Packet. We’re not sure yet what that will entail, but last year’s packet contained e-versions of every single novel, anthology, novella, novelette, short story and graphic novel on the final ballot, as well as a bunch of other goodies. If it’s something similar this year, the packet is easily worth twice the cost of the Supporting Membership – plus you get to be an active participant in the Hugo process and help decide the winners in the genre’s biggest awards. If you’re at all interested in SF&F, and I assume you are if you’re still reading this, you should really consider becoming a Supporting Member. Now, to be absolutely clear, if you weren’t a ChiCon member before you started reading this article, you won’t be able to make nominations this year. That deadline has passed. But you’ll still be able to vote in this year’s Hugos, and you’ll be eligible to make nominations next year. So it’s still a good thing to do. Go ahead. I’ll wait while you sign up. Go ahead. I’ll wait while you sign up.

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Posted in News and Other SFF-Related Ramblings | Tagged | 1 Comment

The Legend of Eli Monpress by Rachel Aaron

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

The Legend of Eli Monpress is an omnibus containing Rachel Aaron’s first three novels: The Spirit Thief, The Spirit Rebellion, and The Spirit Eater. The fourth novel in the series, entitled The Spirit War, is due out in June, so this book is a great way to catch up if you’re unfamiliar with this light but entertaining fantasy series. I enjoyed these novels, back when they were first released within three months of each other in 2010, but the new omnibus edition is a nice improvement over the individual books. That’s partly because the cover illustration by Sam Weber suits the series so much better than the original covers — and partly because the price tag is more attractive.

So, if you didn’t catch these novels when they were originally released and if you enjoy light, action-packed (and often funny) fantasy, this is a great opportunity to check out Rachel Aaron’s The Legend of Eli Monpress.

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Posted in Fantasy, Reviews | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Arctic Rising by Tobias Buckell – includes giveaway!

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

Here’s my review of Arctic Rising by Tobias Buckell. Take a look, and please let me know what you think in the comments. Thanks to the generosity of the kind folks at Tor, I have one hardcover copy of this novel to give away to a lucky winner anywhere in the world, so make sure to read through to the end and, if you like what you read, enter the giveaway at the very end of the review!

Whether you call it climate change or global warming, by the time Tobias Buckell’s long awaited new novel Arctic Rising gets started, the results are obvious: the Arctic ice cap has melted down, and the Northwest Passage has opened completely for shipping. Companies are rushing into areas like Greenland to take advantage of the abundant natural resources that are much more easily accessible now all that pesky ice is no longer in the way.

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Posted in Giveaways, Reviews, Science Fiction | Tagged , | 5 Comments

The Week that Was: March 4th, 2012

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

Here’s this week’s installment of Far Beyond Reality’s roundup of interesting SF&F-related articles: The Week That Was!

Before I get started, an announcement: last weekend, fellow blogger Civilian Reader (whose name happens to be Stefan too) launched a weekly roundup of SF&F-related links called The Week In Review. To avoid confusion, I’ve suggested combining our posts into one big post called The Week That Was in Review by the Stefans. That way no one will mix us up, what with the similar-sounding titles and his posts also ending with an overview of the other articles he had on his blog that week. If the combined post doesn’t pan out for some reason, just remember: FBR does The Week That Was, CR does The Week in Review, and both of us are Stefan. Whatever the future may bring: Far Beyond Reality officially welcomes CR to the ranks of weekly news rounder-uppers and hopes his weekly-news-rounding-up career will be a long and fruitful one!

Anyway, here’s FBR’s very own installment of link-laden goodness for this past week!

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Posted in News and Other SFF-Related Ramblings | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Fifty Page Fridays: Girl Genius Omnibus Volume One: Agatha Awakens by Phil and Kaja Foglio

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

Fifty Page Fridays is a new regular feature here at Far Beyond Reality, meant to highlight books I received but usually wouldn’t cover in a regular review. In each post, I’ll 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 impression of that sample. Finally, I’ll give a verdict: do I want to read more or not?

The first installment, about Touchstone by Melanie Rawn, was posted last week and includes a longer version of why I started this recurring feature, in case you’re interested in my somewhat rambling thoughts on book reviewing. Today is the second installment: Girl Genius Omnibus Volume One: Agatha Awakens, by Phil and Kaja Foglio.

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Posted in Fifty Page Fridays | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Meanwhile at the Discussion Group: March 2012

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

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!

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The Magician King by Lev Grossman

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

The Magicians by Lev Grossman came as a huge surprise for me, because at the time I expected something like the “Harry Potter for college students” hype the book received, and instead found a novel that was somehow both funny and moving, a novel about escapism and the inevitable point when that escapism is confronted by reality. It was a great story that also had a lot of thematic depth, a book that’s both entertaining and thought-provoking.

Today I’m posting my review of its sequel, The Magician King, partly because I liked it almost as much as its predecessor, and partly because I’m currently lucky enough to be conducting an interview with Lev that’s getting longer and longer. Because we’re talking about some of the same ideas I mention in these reviews, I decided to post both of them even though the books have been out for a while.

(I also wanted to put some text here before the actual review starts, because it starts off with a spoiler for the first book. So, if you haven’t read The Magicians yet, you may want to go read my review of that novel instead, and skip this one until later.)

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Posted in Fantasy, Reviews | Tagged , | 7 Comments

Giveaway winners – Strata by Bradley Beaulieu and Stephen Gaskell

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

Here are the winners of last week’s Strata giveaway:

Wade2121 (MOBI)
Two Dudes in an Attic (PDF)
Shadow
Ryan (MOBI)
Jack Kligman (EPUB)

Congratulations! Each of you will get one shiny e-copy of the awesome novella Strata by Bradley Beaulieu and Stephen Gaskell, which I reviewed here. If you already told me which format you want, it’s listed next to your name. If you still need to tell me which format (PDF, MOBI or EPUB) you want, please do so ASAP by posting a comment or emailing to my new handy dandy giveaway email address fbrgiveaway AT gmail DOT com. One of the authors will send you your prize via email – but only once we know which format you want!

And… if you didn’t win, please consider just buying the novella. It’s only a buck, and I promise you it’s worth every penny!

Thanks to everyone who entered! There’s another giveaway running right now, and I hope to set up more, maybe a few times per month, so… stay tuned!

Posted in Giveaways | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Giveaway! The Legend of Eli Monpress by Rachel Aaron

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Stefan (Far Beyond Reality)

This week sees the release of The Legend of Eli Monpress, which is an omnibus edition containing Rachel Aaron’s three first novels: The Spirit Thief, The Spirit Rebellion and The Spirit Eater. I’ll have a review coming up here very soon, but meanwhile I already have a treat: thanks to the author, I have one big fat juicy paperback copy (over 1,000 pages!) to give away to a lucky reader in the US.

To enter the giveaway, simply send an email with subject line “ELI” to fbrgiveaway AT gmail DOT com with your full name and mailing address. Easy right? Right. The author will be sending out your prize, so if you’d like the book signed or personalized, let me know in the email.

Now, it gets even better: if you’d like to improve your chances of winning, you can gain additional entries in the raffle by following me on Twitter, following the blog via email, and/or liking the site on Facebook (links on top right of this page). You gain one additional entry for each of those, so together with the first entry you can have a total of four chances of winning the raffle. If you do the Twitter, Facebook or email thing, mention your Facebook or Twitter name in the email so I can verify everything. (People who already follow/like the blog can also get those additional chances by mentioning their Facebook or Twitter names in the email.)

The giveaway will end on Monday, March 5th at 11:59 PM, and I’ll contact the winner the following day. Please note again that this giveaway is only open to residents of the US. Void where prohibited by law, rules are subject to change, may impair your ability to operate machinery, and of course, batteries not included. Bunch of cheapskates.

Posted in Giveaways | Tagged , | 8 Comments