Feed Your Interest

Have you guys met Kitty?

She’s a radio DJ who has accidentally, “kinda”, revealed to all of the listeners of her midnight program that there is an entire community of werewolves (and other creatures that go bump in the night) living amongst them.

Kitty & the Midnight Hour is the first of this great series. For any fans of Kim Harrison or Charlaine Harris, this series by Carrie Vaughn is well worth picking up!

In case you’ve already been reading this series, then you’d be pleased to know that we’ve got the latest two books on hand at the moment!
Kitty & the Dead Man’s Hand, which takes place in sunny Las Vegas (not that much of the action take place in the day time at all…), and Kitty Raises Hell which attempts to prove (successfully, I might add) that what happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay in Vegas!

Well worth reading!

We’ve also got other books (delivery of 6 boxes!), but it’s Michelle Sagara’s Hidden City that I’m very excited about!

I read it in hardcover and it was absolutely freaking awesomely fantastic!
And now its in paperback and everybody else can get it and enjoy it too!!!

Come on in and pick up a copy when you can

This is what I’ve been distracted by recently. (Amongst other things.)
The Accord by Keith Brooke had a cover recommendation by Peter Hamilton (of Dreaming Void fame). Since I can’t remember ever having seen a cover recommendation by Hamilton before (I’m sure others can prove me to have a bad memory), it immediately caught my eye.

And the book is good.
It is an interesting idea. Well, it’s an old idea, with a different sort of a twist to it. The concept of immortality through digitization has been around for a while. Morgan’s Altered Carbon (yes, I know it is still lacking an image and a description. yes, I intend to get on to it. eventually…) was the most recent that I really loved.
Anyway, here, the Accord is Brooke’s style of immortality. It is a warehoused copy of a person. Upon the person’s death, his most recent warehoused copy is uploaded into the Accord. In effect, the Accord is where people go after they die… It is a man-made heaven, but accessible to all who can pay for a warehousing service, as opposed to those who have (or don’t have) a religious bent.

The Accord is interesting. It is named such as the scenery that the people in it see, the rules, the occupations, are all the result of the majority subconscious vote. So to a large degree, because people have pre-conceived perceptions of what their life is like, it will continue in a similar fashion in the Accord.
But at the same time, for those who have longed to be something different in live, the Accord will allow them to do so as long as the majority of the subconscious-es don’t mind…
And of course, since everybody has the perception that the afterlife is a place where people can’t die… There is immortality for all…

All that having been said, there is the actual story that I’ve yet to cover.
Basically, the creator of the Accord (if it can ever be traced to one person) is a gentleman by the name of Noah… He has indulged in an affair with the wife of an extremely possessive politician. The possessiveness leads to a murder, and Noah and Priscilla find themselves dead (alive?) in the Accord. And still being chased by the man who killed them, as his jealousy and anger knows no bounds.

The tale is told in a measured pace from multiple PoVs. Don’t expect Hamilton style action and speed. It’s not stupidly slow like Dune either. The pacing is really just right for Brooke’s style of story-writing.

The political wrangling, the techy discussions and explorations are well done, blend in with the rest of the tale and add to the overall atmosphere.

It is a book well worth reading!

If you can live forever…
If you HAVE lived forever…
You’ve done everything that is possible under the sun…
You have gained the skills and the abilities to be able to learn and do anything new that might eventually appear under the sun…
If you have the power such that you can magically do everything you ever wish you could do…

Then what will you do next…?

In Cayal the Immortal Prince’s case… He chose to die.
But as you can imagine. It isn’t that easy for an Immortal to die…

Jennifer Fallon is a top rate Australian author. She’s always had a different style of fantasy writing, and now her skill and her story telling are truly blooming and are showcased here in her latest series: The Tide Lords.

Comprising of four books, The Immortal Prince; The Gods of Amyrantha; The Palace of Impossible Dreams; and The Chaos Crystal, the Tide Lords have long been in hiding as the magical Tide that grants them their powers has been out. So long they have been in hiding, that the humans treat them as myths, and the only people that still remember and believe in them are the half-human slaves that were created for the sole purpose of serving the Tide Lords all those ages ago…

But now as the Tide returns, deeper and more powerful than it ever has in the past, the Tide Lords start to stir from their shadows, beginning to scheme and to plot to place themselves at the head of humanity again, and in position to rule the world of Amyrantha all over again.

And in their glee and desire to conquer all, they will turn their collective sights against Cayal… For he seeks a way to die. And if his mortality is rendered true, then the rest of the Tide Lords too, can die, and they have no desire to ever be able to do so…

If you haven’t realise yet… THIS IS WELL WORTH READING!!!

So, for some strange reason, the website is lacking covers and descriptions for both Altered Carbon and Broken Angels. Clearly I should fix that relatively soon.

I’ve just finished re-reading Broken Angels. I’m kinda starting in the middle of the story here (Altered Carbon is the first), but given that each book is fairly well self-contained, there’s nothing significant that I’m giving away. Well, apart from the fact that Takeshi Kovacs survived the events of the first book. Which tends to be something you’d expect when the first book is subtitled “Takeshi Kovacs Book 1″.

One thing I’ve really come to enjoy about Richard Morgan’s sci-fi books is his social commentary. It’s a different take that a lot of sci-fi authors don’t necessarily go into. There are a few others that might, but they don’t do a good job of it. it comes across as a lecture. Or a disjointed, jarring hitch in an otherwise acceptable read.
With Morgan, it is a smooth relevant insertion into a paced novel that enhances the tale and sets you to thinking after the book is done.

In Broken Angels, Kovacs is a mercenary soldier fighting to overthrow a rebellion on a little planet miles away from anywhere. Somewhere along the line, he is offered a chance to grapple with a bit of Martian technology. If he takes the chance, if it pays off, he’d be able to buy his war out of the way, and to get himself hypercasted to a different planet that isn’t at war and sleeved into a much more comfortable body that hasn’t been plastered by little bits of shrapnel over and over, repaired by not-so-comforting doctors, and then sent back out into the dirty little battle field…

(For those of you who are going “what the hell are hypercasting and sleeving!?” Morgan’s universe is set in a time when human consciousness can be digitized and downloaded into a little container known as the cortical stack. Thus a person can have ever lasting life as long as they have the funds to transfer their consciousness from one body to another - now known as sleeves - and also to have their consciousness transferred - aka hypercast - across space to a new body in a new place…)

Along the way to get this little possible bit of Martian technology (yes, there were Martians in Morgan’s universe. no, they don’t seem to be around anymore. yes, people will pay big bucks for Martian technology), he will encounter a multitude of problems, including corporations that have a conflict investment portfolio, smart evolving nanobots that have an extremely short life of 4 days, a man of voodoo, radioactive fall out, and of course… Martian technology.

If you’re wondering about the psychological conditioning… Well, Kovacs was an Envoy… An Envoy is the UN Protectorate’s bug bear. They are the elite soldiers that are sent out to troublesome worlds to put down problems and to maintain the status quo. They aren’t elite due to powerful weapons or tactical genius… Those are easily accomplished by having enough money or AI. They are elite due to their psychological conditioning. They think faster, they intuit faster, they control their emotions better, they understand better… The Envoys were what convinced humanity that mind trumped all matter. And it scared the crap out of them.

My description has been a little bit more focused (ok, a lot more) on the events of Broken Angels…
If I were to focus a bit more on Morgan’s books as a whole…
I’d say that the Takeshi Kovacs books are noir-style cyberpunk at its peak of brilliance. That his story telling is superb, his action is visceral, his points are well made, and that Quellcrist Falconer seems like an awesome person I would have liked to meet…
You’ll just have to read the three books if you’d like to find out a bit more about Quellcrist…

His three Takeshi Kovacs books are highly recommended. Highly highly recommended.

The difference between virtuality and life is very simple. In a construct you know everything is being run by an all-powerful machine. Reality doesn’t offer this assurance, so it’s very easy to develop the mistaken impression that you’re in control.
– Quellcrist Falconer

After finishing Temporal Void, I just had to go back and re-read some of Hamilton’s other stuff. Have I mentioned how stunningly-crafted his stories are?
They are filled with epic ensembles of characters that strangely do not blur into one… They maintain very distinct, very unique characters that continue to develop through out the books. And eventually events will bring them all together, leaving you (well, me at least) with this sense of having travelled through the galaxy’s most amazing social revolutions…
After which I realize I’ve just finished another one of Hamilton’s books and now need to wait for him to stop slacking around and to deliver the next…

Fallen Dragon is unique amongst his books thus far as it is a stand-alone. There are no prequels, there are no sequels (yet and not likely ever). While some lament this as being indicative of a lack of his customary depth, I say “hey, at least you don’t have to wait for the next book!”

And the idea that it is lacking in depth and scope is one that is flawed anyway. The events of the book span from Earth to Thallspring. A colonized planet many light-years away, and one that has been the target of the most recent asset realization of the ZB Corporation…

Asset Realization is interesting.
The basic idea is that colonies cost a *lot* of money to get started and to get going. And that doesn’t include the cost of space travel, which in itself is also a very significant amount. It is for this reason that the majority of corporations have actually stopped investing in colonization entirely. It costs a lot, and due to the distances involved, there is no way for the corporations to profitably invest more time and finances to realize a profit. Ultimately, that investment (and the colony’s debt to the corporation) are written off as a loss on the corporation’s books…

Long term, what the corporations do instead, is 10-20 years down the road, when the colony has itself up and running, is self-sustaining and using its own resources to manufacture finished products, it sends its fleet and military forces to the colony, and claim a large portion of those finished products as a portion of its assets.
Since there was no cost to the corporation in creating those products, their spacefleet and military already existed, every single one of those products has a zero manufacturing cost, and all sales of the products are immediately profitable.

The side effect of course, is that in the midst of that realization, they tend to piss off the populance, they tend to wreck economic havoc with the colony planet, and they tend to get innocent people hurt.

The main character is a fairly nice guy by the name of Lawrence Newton who happens to be the squad leader in the military force that is sent into Thallspring to maintain law and order during the realization.

The narration takes a slightly round-about view of events. Showing the events as they are occurring “now” on Earth and on Thallspring, as well as showing the events that led Lawrence to his current occupation and state of mind.
And yes, there *are* other equally interesting characters through the book, not the least being a girl whose DNA has been rewritten to make her more than human, and a guy who is a product of a long line of on-going genetic experiments back on Earth…

It’s one of my favourite books by Hamilton, and I’d whole-heartedly recommend it to any reader of the sci-fi genre.

I just realised as I was writing this, that both books I’d just finished reading were filled with assassins. One a babe, and the other a dude.

Cally’s War
One of John Ringo’s spin-offs from his Posleen war series. This one actually takes place years after the war has ended (now you know who wins!! ;)), on an Earth that is at relative peace with the aliens that inhabit it and help rule it. All behind the scenes of course.

Our heroine is an assassin. Brought up that way, trained and mentally conditioned that way. She is freaking scary. In the opening scenes, we meet a guy that absolutely scared me. He’s brutal, he’s evil, he’s suspicious, and he’s really really really fond of torturing girls…
Cally of course, eventually goes up against him, takes everything he can throw at her, and then beats the crap out of him before going home for a nice bubble bath and sleep.
Cally rocks.

The main event is mostly interesting and fast moving. There are bits where the pace suddenly drops, or the focus switches entirely to a different character entirely. It can be a little jarring… But what the heck, John Ringo’s not known for an awesome literary skill. He’s better known for explosive, nail-biting action books that are a thorough joy to read…
The backdrop to the main event however, is quite very interesting. There’s a powerplay going on in the back ground that will obviously be played out in later books. Don’t get me wrong, this is a self-contained book. But you can tell that there is an over-arching strategy for the humans to get rid of those annoying aliens that are attempting to manipulate the events of Earth…

All in all, quite really actiony fun!

The other one was Way of Shadows.
This was the one I was whinging about not having been able to read because people kept stealing my last copy before I was able to get to it…
It’s good! It really really is. It’s got some of those good old stereotypes that you’d expect. Apprentice assassin from the streets, master assassin imparting all his knowledge before he permanently retires from the scene.
But built up on top of that is very skilled story writing, well-paced action, hopes and dreams and the shattering of them…

So there you go! More great books to read!

Ok, so now I have read Temporal Void.

Actually, I read it a fair few days ago as a way to procrastinate. The problem with reading a book like that to procrastinate, is that that “10 minutes - just a few pages” tends to turn into “10 hours - one book later…”. How time flies when you’re stuck in the temporal void! hahahaha… (Sorry, I couldn’t resist…)

It was good. I loved it. It was a lot more focused on Edeard and his events in the Void, but to a certain degree, that was an expected move on Hamilton’s part. Afterall, it *is* the second book in the trilogy, so you would expect it to set things up for the grand finale. Yes, it was a stronger second book than Neutronium Alchemist. Tighter told, the meanderings were less aimless. Yes, I know it’s a bit strange a thing to say since we can’t tell how useful the events of the second book were until we’ve read the 3rd… But you also get a sense that there is a point and a reason to everything.

The raw strength and power of the Waterwalker is really brought to reality in this book. There are moments where it seems like the whole deus ex machina resolution he had in The Naked God might make a reappearance, but then the costs of Edeard’s reality bending is shown, and you wonder if it is right and worth it.

The problem with trying to comment on a book is always “how much to give away”… Paula’s still running around playing (super) detective, Ozzie’s still out there trying to find the Second Dreamer, Kazimir’s going crazy trying to prevent the aliens - who understandably blame the humans for the devourament phase - from attacking the humans - who themselves are trying to blow each other up in an effort to enter the Void. Troblum is unbelievably still alive and running free. And the Second Dreamer is off in her own little world…

If you liked the first book, this 2nd part of the trilogy continues to deliver the amazing depth and breadth of epic sci-fi that you’d expect from Hamilton. ie: go read it.

So I *DIDN’T* end up reading Temporal Void last night. I was intending to, but I got distracted by Night Shift by Lilith Saintcrow.

I’ve read her stuff before (Working for the Devil (Dante Valentine)) and really enjoyed it. It’s not particularly special to have tough-as-nails heroines flying solo against the forces of evil. But it *IS* special to have it be well-written, to have significant character growth (I personally felt Dante was a bit escapist at times…), and to have an honestly dark story. I’m not just talking about bad things happening. I’m talking about bad things happening to the heroine. I guess it’s kind of to be expected when her employer is lucifer himself…

And oh, another special thing about her series is that they actually finish… The Dante Valentine novels had a grand total of 5 books and finished. We all know how annoying it is for series to just keep going and going, with the characters getting more and more powerful, and more and more repetitive…

Back to the main topic. I just finished Night Shift, and it was good. It’s the first book of the Jill Kismet series. Unlike Dante, we learn early on that Jill voluntarily approached a hellbreed with an offer of an exchange of her services for the hellbreed’s power. She takes on the possibility of losing her soul for the real benefits of being able to fight other hellbreeds and weres 1-on-1 and come out the victor.

And it also becomes obvious early on that it is a power she needs and wields well… She is the Hunter that the police go to for help; she is the Hunter that the FBI and the CIA have respect for; she is the Hunter that the creatures of the nightside fear and avoid where possible.

If you’re looking for something in the paranormal contemporary genre, I’d recommend this as a possible book to read.

Narrelle Harris’ The Opposite of Life is finally back in stock!

In case you missed it the first time, this is a story about a girl and a vampire, but of an entirely different stripe from all the others that are rife in the market at the moment. For one thing, they aren’t madly in love with each other. For another, neither girl nor vampire are sexy and well-bosomed/-muscled.

Instead, this is a unique, well told story of a Melbournian girl who somehow finds herself contemplating what it means to be alive and what it means to be (un)dead, all the while stumbling through the swathe of destruction left behind by some fairly unruly vampires.

Well worth a read!