Link Love

Can't make it to Comic Con this weekend?  Here's some links to take your mind off all the fun us cool kids will be having...

• Women With Swords in Art

• The Misuse of Mary Sue

• Multicultural Steampunk

• Power to the People: SFF Stories Dealing With Dissent

• Norton Juster's "The Phantom Tollbooth" at 50

• Things Science Fiction Film Has Ruined for Me

• People Behind Sci Fi: 8 Recent and Forthcoming Author Biographies

• Dumping DRM can increase sales while reducing piracy

• An Interview with Sir Terry Pratchett

• The political possibilities of SF

New York Comic Con 2011

So it's that time of year - the New York Comic Con is happening at the end of this week at the grand ol' Javitts Center in lovely mid-town Manhattan and yours truly will be there.  The hardcore fans will probably go every day but me, I'm just going on Friday.  School and work should cut down the numbers of attendees that day, leaving Saturday and Sunday the huge days to go.   I don't like crowds and there is still plenty to do and see on Friday, especially since, for the first time,  Friday will be a full day at the convention.  I plan on attending several panels.  Some that have caught my eye: 

• Zombies, Fallen Angels, and Other Paranormals Give New Meaning To
• The Del Rey Spectra Steampunk Zombie Invasion
• Intro to Intellectual Property Law
• The Never Ending Battle (A PBS Documentary) Exclusive Preview 
• Steampunk 101
• XX: The Women of Queer Comics
• Steampunk in Comics and Literature
• Demonic Hotspots, Infernal Pit Stops and the Badlands: The Great American Roadtrip to Hell

Huh.  Eight panels.  That's a pretty long list.. for me.  In past years, my must list was maybe  three panels long and I'd spend the rest of my time roaming the floor and talking to book publishers, trying to find out if anything hot was coming down the pike.

Anyway.  When I was gearing up for BEA 2011,  I put together a couple of NYC informational posts for those visiting from out of town.  I thought the info could be helpful to those coming to comic con and I've linked to them below.  

• BEA - Places to Eat in NYC    
• BEA - Things To Do/Resources

Have a great time at comic con, don't act like a douchebag and be safe!

Review: Blood Rights by Kristen Painter

Well, this is a exciting new entry to the vampire genre.  A dark, gothic-y tale with some intricate world building, plus a tormented hero and a dangerous heroine.  Right up my alley.  I'm not sure if I would categorize this book as urban fantasy or paranormal but since the publisher is Orbit, it's probably considered UF.  Whatever it is, I liked it.  Despite some familiar tropes, Painter's take on the world of vampires manages to be fresh, layered with a deep, rich history and the result is a multifaceted world ruled by complex power structures.


Blood Rights by Kristen Painter
House of Comarré, #1
ISBN13: 9781841499697  
Published October 1st 2011 by Orbit
Grade: B+
Back Cover Blurb: The lacy gold mapped her entire body. A finely-wrought filigree of stars, vines, flowers, butterflies, ancient symbols and words ran from her feet, up her legs, over her narrow waist, spanned her chest and finished down her arms to the tips of her fingers. 
Born into a life of secrets and service, Chrysabelle’s body bears the telltale marks of a comarré—a special race of humans bred to feed vampire nobility. When her patron is murdered, she becomes the prime suspect, which sends her running into the mortal world…and into the arms of Malkolm, an outcast vampire cursed to kill every being from whom he drinks. 
Now Chrysabelle and Malkolm must work together to stop a plot to merge the mortal and supernatural worlds. If they fail, a chaos unlike anything anyone has ever seen will threaten to reign.

Book Pimpin

Discount Armageddon (Incryptid #1) by Seanan McGuire
IT'S A FAMILY AFFAIR 
Cryptid, noun:
1. Any creature whose existence has been suggested but not proven scientifically. Term officially coined by cryptozoologist John E. Wall in 1983. 
2. That thing that's getting ready to eat your head. 
3. See also: "monster." 
The Covenant of St. George was founded to uphold one simple ideal: anything that was not present on the Ark—anything they deemed "unnatural"—needed to be destroyed. Monsters. Creatures of myth and legend. All of them would be wiped from the Earth in the name of Man's dominion. Unfortunately for them, not all the monsters agreed with this plan...and neither did all the human beings. 
After their rather abrupt departure from the Covenant, Alexander and Enid Healy found themselves alone in the world, but with a simple mission of their own: to protect the cryptids of the world from those who would harm them without just cause. It was a cause that would eventually claim both their lives, leaving their children, and their childrens' children, to take up the fight. Now in the modern day, their descendants struggle to stay beneath the Covenant's radar, while defending the cryptids from humanity—and humanity from the cryptids.
Drops March 6, 2012


Something About Witches (Arcane Shot #1) by Joey W. Hill
Ruby Night Divine is a witch who runs a gun shop. Magic can fail – she knows that first hand, having experienced it with full-blown tragic consequences, far beyond what Dr. Phil can fix. Smith & Wesson is a whole hell of a lot more reliable, and nothing’s as cathartic as the ability to put a few holes in the things that piss you off. Like Derek Stormwind.
A powerful sorcerer, Derek is determined to get to the bottom of why she pushed him away and ran three years before. He also wants her help. A coven needs training to face a demon and his army of minions. Oh sure. It’s amazing what sweet things a guy will offer to get back into a woman’s heart, and into her bed. 
Only in this case, she knows he never left her heart, and in her bed is exactly where she wants him to be. Unfortunately, her bed’s already made, and she’s close to losing her soul. And not even Smith & Wesson or Derek Stormwind can fix that.
Drops February 7, 2012

Link Love

I link... because I love.  The least you could do is read them.  Is that too much to ask?..  Fine.  Do what you want.  You will anyway.

• Are Fantasy Tropes a Punk Response to Literature?

• Challenges of Writing Alternate History in Other Cultures

• Sympathy for the Devil: How To Write Killer Villains

• Writer Beware and "The Write Agenda"

• Lessons for Writers and Serial Killers

• Sci Fi Mashups

• Judge suggests DMCA allows DVD ripping if you own DVD

• The Steampunk That Dare Not Speak Its Name

• Is Popular Romance Homophobic?

• An Aside: Orbit Books 'thrilled' about first eBook-only launch, I'm 'skeptical'

• The Revolution Will Not Be Whispersync'd

Tangle of Need - excerpt

The cover has been released for Nalini Singh's Tangle of Need but I still haven't found a description for it so I can post it to my Upcoming Books 2012 page.  Oh well.  In the meantime, you can read this excerpt over at Singh's blog.  

Some Book News

• Looking for some info on J.R. Ward and her Black Dagger Brotherhood series?  The Obscured Vixen has a JR Ward Book Signing Recap from a few weeks back with quite a few interesting tidbits.

• Liza at Blogging by Liza, also has some spoilers for upcoming books.  Looks like Blay and Qhuinn's book will be happening after Tohr's.  From the blog:                                                         TEAM QHUAY!!!She said it needs to be next after Tohr’s book. 2 things have to happen in Tohr’s book to set it up – Team Qhuay won’t be happy with one of the things that happens. Both must happen for their book to be ready. FYI, this is the first time she called it a book rather than a novella. Not sure if that means we get an actual book, but kind of makes me wonder…                   You can read more here.

• There's a rumor going around that the Qhuinn and Blay book will be in hardcover.

• Orbit has posted an early look at some covers for books coming out in 2012.  Once a description has been posted, you'll see many of these show up on my Upcoming 2012 list but for now, check out some pretty covers.  Go ahead, it's art.

• All this week, Tor.com and Barnes and Noble are co-sponsoring a steampunk book appreciation week.  You can find book recommendations, sweepstakes and blog posts here.

• Booklamp is a website designed to help readers discover new books.  You put in the name of a book you read and enjoyed and Booklamp will make recommendations based storyline, themes, genres, and writing styles.  Personally, despite a super long TBR pile, I'm always interested in discovering new books so this could come in quite handy.

• Another good place to check out new books, as well as read the first chapters, is D. Renee Bagby Presents First Chapters.  You can search by authors, publishers, labels, and relationships.  It's a risk free way to dip your toes in before deciding whether a book is worth buying.

• F. Paul Wilson is ending his very successful Repairman Jack series.  He's at the point where he feels it is time to resolve the long-term story arc or else the series will begin to grow stale.  More here from Wilson on the decision.

• Orbit will be publishing Gail Carrriger's next adult series in 2013.  Called The Parasol Protectorate Abroad, you can read the announcement here.

• Abaddon Books is launching a venture for it's Pax Britannia series.  The next two installments will be published as ebooks and the readers will be able to vote on how the wish the series to continue.  Hellnotes has the details.

More Book Pimpin - Upcoming 2012

Geared for Pleasure: An Elemental Steam Romance by R.G. Alexander, Rachel Grace

The world of Theorrey runs like a well-oiled machine. The elements are in balance, passion is tamed and the young queen is the heartbeat of it all. But nothing is ever as it seems…

Earthly Desires
Demeter “Dare” Senedal is the Queen’s Chalice—her protector and closest companion. So when the queen goes missing Dare rushes to locate her, even though the search leads her straight into trouble. 

Gaming den owner Bodhan revels in carnal delights, but when a naked and bound woman appears on his shore, his hunger to possess wars with his need to protect. As Bodhan shares his knowledge of pleasure, Dare must decide if she can trust him, both with her mission and her heart. 

Fiery Temptations
Seraphina always lands on her feet. After all, she is a Felidae—more feline than human—and an excellent thief. There has never been a job Phina wouldn’t take or a man who could tame her…until she meets Cyrus Arendal. 

As the Queen’s Sword, Cyrus should have known better than to fall victim to a beautiful bandit. Now, to find the dagger that she stole from him, he’ll need to convince Phina not to judge a man by his station, but by how completely he can satisfy her desires.

Drops March 6, 2012

Royal Street (Sentinals of New Orleans #1) by Suzanne Johnson

As the junior wizard sentinel for New Orleans, Drusilla Jaco’s job involves a lot more potion-mixing and pixie-retrieval than sniffing out supernatural bad guys like rogue vampires and lethal were-creatures. DJ's boss and mentor, Gerald St. Simon, is the wizard tasked with protecting the city from anyone or anything that might slip over from the preternatural beyond. 

Then Hurricane Katrina hammers New Orleans’ fragile levees, unleashing more than just dangerous flood waters. 

While winds howled and Lake Pontchartrain surged, the borders between the modern city and the Otherworld crumbled. Now, the undead and the restless are roaming the Big Easy, and a serial killer with ties to voodoo is murdering soldiers sent to help the city recover. 

To make it worse, Gerald St. Simon has gone missing, the wizards’ Elders have assigned a grenade-toting assassin as DJ’s new partner, and undead pirate Jean Lafitte wants to make her walk his plank. The search for Gerry and the killer turns personal when DJ learns the hard way that loyalty requires sacrifice, allies come from the unlikeliest places, and duty mixed with love creates one bitter gumbo.

Drops 4/10/2012

Link Love

Boy, I've really dropped the ball on the Link Love posts.  Have you been feeling neglected?  Did you think it was 'cause I no longer care?  Not true, not true at all.  Let me prove my love.  See.  Look at all these nice links I have for you.  Some of these are a bit old, some are new but all are pretty interesting.  Check out what's been happening around the tubes....  and never doubt my love again.

• On the prevalence of US tropes in storytelling

• Sarah Kate on Censorship and Amazon Banning Her Book

• What's Wrong With Sex?

• Only 9% (and falling) of US internet users are P2P pirates

• Freaky Field Guide: Tokyo's Top 10 Mythical Beasts

• Falser Words Were Never Spoken

• Flick Chicks: A guide to women in the movies

• A Dialogue with Sarah, aged 3: In Which It Is Shown That If Your Dad Is A Chemistry Professor, Asking "Why" Can Be Dangerous

• Covers - You can't go wrong with a man in a hood

• Science, Naturalism, and Truth

• The Glory of Bad SF and Fantasy Cover Art

• The Science Behind Superheroes

• Top Ten Banned or Challenged Books of 2010

• What Does "Authentic" Mean, Anyway

• Amazon Is Nobody's Friend, Part One

• Across the Digital Divide

• Do We Have to Like Characters for Them to be Interesting?

• Everyone Can Promote Equality in Genre Writing

Bitty Reviews: Meh, Yay, Blah

Geist (Book of the Order #1) by Philippa Ballantine
I wanted to enjoy this book much more than I did. It's a complex story set in a complex world with complex characters but the end result was convoluted. The setting is one of those "days of yore" worlds commonly found in fantasy, sorta medieval but with some minor steam punk elements like dirigibles and guns thrown in which does give it a unique spin. There is a lot of detail here and the reader is introduced to some strong, flawed characters... and yet, I never felt that the characters developed any further as the story went along. 
The story moves quickly, perhaps too quickly for my tastes. We are often told details instead of shown, without the author ever laying down any real groundwork to explain the twists and turns within the character's relationships. I never felt that the characters came alive beyond their initial introduction, (as good as that may have been.) For example, trust is an issue between the three main characters. When this begins to change, I didn't buy it. Not because the characters were not worthy of each others trust but because the change in the relationships felt superficial. I accepted it because the author told us but I didn't believe it because it was not shown. I found it difficult to be emotional engaged by this story despite the fact that intellectually it is an interesting one. This is one of the few times when I felt like a book should have been longer so that the author's writing could match the depth of the world she portrayed.
Grade: C

Book News

• Ann Aquirre has just sold two new series.  The first is a science fiction trilogy  described as Prison Break in  space.  The second is a steampunk whodunnit written with Andres Aguirre.  Both are out in 2013.  You can read all about it here.

• From Meljean Brook's Really Infrequent Newsletter comes this:   In January 2012, "Mina Wentworth and the Invisible City" will be included in the mass market reprint of The Iron Duke and issued as a standalone ebook a few months later. I've also been given the go-ahead on a novella for Scarsdale -- look for that in Summer 2012.   HOORAY! Scarsdale!  I am so ready for his story. I wonder why it's a novella, though.  Lord knows Scarsdale has enough baggage for a full length story.

• This sounds like it could be interesting... From Lilith Saintcrow: I’m happy to announce that Orbit short fiction will be bringing out my “teenage Antichrist” short story, Unfallen, this fall. I must admit a great deal of the genesis of that story was reading Slacktivist’s awesome blow-by-blows of the Left Behind series. (He reads so we don’t have to! And really, we’re grateful for that.) Slacktivist articulates a number of things that have always made me incredibly uncomfortable about evangelism and Dominionism, and especially the current craziness swallowing evangelical Christianity in America as a whole. All that aside, however, the short story came from a very simple question: what if the Antichrist was just a teenager who wanted to be liked?

Review: Shadow Kin by M. J. Scott

Shadow Kin (The Half-Light City #1) by M. J. Scott

Back Cover Blurb:  On one side, the Night World, rules by the Blood Lords and the Beast Kind. On the other, the elusive Fae and the humans, protected by their steadfast mages...

Born a wraith, Lily is a shadow who slips between worlds. Brought up by a Blood Lord and raised to be his assassin, she is little more than a slave. But when Lily meets her match in target Simon DuCaine, the unlikely bond that develops between them threatens to disrupt an already stretched peace in a city on the verge of being torn apart...

This is a solid start to a brand new series trilogy.  And I think it is the first time I have read a gaslight fantasy.  What's that you ask?  Well, thanks to Wikipedia, I can tell ya.  It's a fantasy set during the Victorian era with a nod to the gothics.  (You can read more about it here.)  Scott does a nice job of creating a darkly evocative atmosphere in a world populated by the Beast Kind, the Fae, Vampires and Humans.  The story begins during what is known as a treaty year: that time when the four races negotiate the terms, trade and territories that allow them to co-exist in some semblance of peace.  Transgressions by any of the races can result in a loss of privileges.  Since the treaties will last for three years, each race has a lot at stake regarding the outcome of the negotiations and so must keep hidden any nefarious shenanigans lest they lose entitlements.