All posts by Mieneke

Character Query: Get Your Gargoyle Here

emmanewman-betweentwothornsLast February I reviewed my favourite debut of the year so far, Between Two Thorns by Emma Newman. Its sequel Any Other Name, will be out on June 6th and I plan to have a review for it up soon after. However, not only is Emma going to be doing publicity for the sequel, Angry Robot decided to send out the inhabitants from the Split Worlds out to do the rounds as well. I decided to take the opportunity to sit down* with one of my favourites from Between Two Thorns, the Gargoyle. He was kind enough to answer (almost) all of my questions frankly and I can’t wait to catch up with his story in Any Other Name. Without further ado, I’d like to introduce you to Gargoyle.

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By Mieneke Published 23 May, 2013 Posted in fantasy, interview Tagged: , , | 2 Comments

Midkemia Reread: Raymond E. Feist – Magician

raymondefeist-magicianrevedAt Crydee, a frontier outpost in the tranquil Kingdom of the Isles, an orphan boy, Pug, is apprenticed to a master magician – and the destinies of two worlds are changed forever. Suddenly the peace of the Kingdom is destroyed as mysterious alien invaders swarm through the land. Pug is swept up into the conflict but for him and his warrior friend, Tomas, an odyssey into the unknown has only just begun. Tomas will inherit a legacy of savage power from an ancient civilisation. Pug’s destiny is to lead him through a rift in the fabric of space and time to the mastery of the unimaginable powers of a strange new magic…

Magician is the first book in the Riftwar Cycle. First published in the United States in 1982, it has since been republished numerous times and published in over 25 countries. It’s also been published in two parts, Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master, in a revised, author’s preferred and a special 20th anniversary leather-bound edition, one of which resides in my bookcase. The fact that I went and bought the anniversary edition, despite being a perpetually short-on-cash university student, should be telling about how much I love this book. Still, it had been at least a decade since I’d read Magician and in that decade I’ve become far-wider and well-read in the genre. I finally read The Lord of the Rings, for one, and I discovered the online genre community, which has broadened my genre horizons immensely. So, taking that into account I was quite curious to see whether the book would hold up to my memories of it. Strangely enough, it both did and it didn’t. On the one hand, I recognised much more of its influences, while on the other I recognised its influence on what today we know as staples in the genre. And tossing all that aside, I still cared as deeply for its protagonists as I did the first time I read it.

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By Mieneke Published 22 May, 2013 Posted in fantasy, review Tagged: , | Leave a comment

Midkemia Reread: An Introduction

raymondefeist-magicianrevedThis month sees the publication of Magician’s End, the thirtieth and final book set in Raymond E. Feist’s Midkemia. The first book Magician, was first published in the UK in 1983, which means it also brings an end to a thirty year project for Feist. I first discovered Midkemia soon after I started reading fantasy books in 1994. After reading Eddings on the recommendation of a class mate and discovering Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar off of the horsey cover – I was fourteen, hush! – Magician, together with Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon – was one of the first fantasy novels I picked up on my own. It blew my mind and I quickly collected all of the Midkemia books which had been published up until then, after which I followed along faithfully with each book that came out. For some reason though, once I hit Talon of the Silverhawk, I stopped following the books as closely, but I caught up in spurts up to Rides a Dread Legion. The publication of Magician’s End and the end of the Riftwar cycle seemed like a good point to reread – in some cases read for the first time – the entire cycle.

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By Mieneke Published 22 May, 2013 Posted in article Tagged: , | 3 Comments

Wesley Chu – Lives of Tao

wesleychu-livesoftaoWhen out-of-shape IT technician Roen Tan woke up and started hearing voices in his head, he naturally assumed he was losing it.

He wasn’t.

He now has a passenger in his brain – an ancient alien life-form called Tao, whose race crash-landed on Earth before the first fish crawled out of the oceans. Now split into two opposing factions – the peace-loving, but under-represented Prophus, and the savage, powerful Genjix – the aliens have been in a state of civil war for centuries. Both sides are searching for a way off-planet, and the Genjix will sacrifice the entire human race, if that’s what it takes.

Meanwhile, Roen is having to train to be the ultimate secret agent. Like that’s going to end up well…

One of my favourite TV shows in recent years was Chuck. For those of you unfamiliar with the show: Chuck is about a regular geeky guy who one day wakes up to an email from his long estranged roommate from Stanford and opens it. Once he does a video starts playing and the next thing he knows he’s lying on the floor of his bedroom with a huge headache. Little does he know he’s downloaded a super computer into his brain and he is now wanted as a valuable asset for the CIA and other TLA’s. Not only does the Intersect, the previously mentioned super computer, allow him access to amazing amounts of data, he also has sudden access to incredible fighting skills. The series is wildly entertaining and if you haven’t checked it out, you really should. But how does this relate to Lives of Tao in any way, shape, or form? Because if anything, Lives of Tao‘s protagonist Roen, reminds me of Chuck a lot. Only instead of the Intersect, Roen is possessed by a symbiotic alien called Tao.

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By Mieneke Published 20 May, 2013 Posted in review, science fiction Tagged: | 1 Comment

Quick ‘n Dirty: Andrew Fish – Erasmus Hobart and the Golden Arrow

Quick ‘n Dirty is a term used for that first quick search you perform when starting a new research project. It doesn’t have to be exhaustive and all encompassing; it’s just an exploratory search to see what is out there and to collect more search terms before starting a true literature review. I thought it would be a good description for reviews of shorter works, such as short stories or novellas or for less comprehensive reviews of longer works. They may not be as in-depth as I usually try to write my reviews, but hopefully they’ll be a good introduction and indication whether you’d like the stories or books reviewed.

andrewfish-erasmushobartIn this time-travelling romp, Andrew Fish brings a new slant to the classic legend. Erasmus Hobart is the perfect new adventurer for fans of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett.

Robin Hood was a crook! But was he as good a crook as the legends suggest? That’s what Erasmus Hobart – school teacher, history fanatic, time-traveller – wants to find out. In this, his first adventure, Erasmus takes his time-travelling privy back to mediaeval Nottingham in his quest for knowledge. But with homicidal knights, amorous female outlaws and mischievous squirrels complicating his investigation, will he uncover the truth in time to get back and mark 4A’s history homework?

Erasmus Hobart and the Golden Arrow is a relatively short novel at 212 pages, but it is quite entertaining for all of them. Published through HarperCollins’ Authonomy imprint, it is a delightful retelling of the Robin Hood legend through the eyes of a time-traveling history cum physics teacher. Erasmus Hobart is a young and well-meaning teacher, who has built his own time-travelling machine in a store room off his class room. In the hours after his pupils have gone home, Erasmus tinkers about with intricate calculations and the privy he remodelled into a time machine, all the while hiding what he does from the school’s nosy head master. Inspired by the school play and some questions from his history pupils who he’s teaching about Magna Carta, he travels back to the time of King Richard and King John to find out the truth behind the legend of Robin Hood.

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By Mieneke Published 18 May, 2013 Posted in historical fiction, review, science fiction Tagged: , | Leave a comment

Peter Higgins – Wolfhound Century

peterhiggins-wolfhoundcentury

Investigator Vissarion Lom, has been summoned to Mirgorod in order to catch a terrorist – and ordered to report directly to the head of the secret police. Vlast, a totalitarian state, worn down by an endless war, must be seen to crush home-grown terrorism with an iron fist. But Lom discovers the capital to be more corrupted than he imagined: a murky world of secret police and revolutionaries, cabaret clubs and doomed artists.

Lom has been chosen because he’s an outsider, not involved in the struggle for power within the party. And because of the sliver of angel stone in his head . . .

Bute there is a secret hidden beneath police headquarters: a secret so ancient that only the land remembers.

And a thousand miles east, deep in the ancient forest, lies a fallen angel, its vast stone form half-buried and fused into the rock by the violence of impact. Alone in the wilderness, it reaches out with its mind . . .

Wolfhound Century is a rare beast. I’d already read some reviews before receiving my own review copy of the book and I knew I was in for an interesting read. I hadn’t expected it to be as interesting and genre-bending as it was, even though I’d been thoroughly warned. It’s both noir urban fantasy, featuring a lone-wolf detective, but also a tale of political intrigue, supernatural creatures and alien invasion. Set in an alternate world Russia, the story is both easy and hard to place. Easy because Vlast is clearly the Soviet Union and Mirgorod is a version of Moscow and the atmosphere Higgins invokes is that which is emblematic of the majority view of communist countries: grey, depressing, paranoid, and dangerous. It’s hard to place exactly because it is an alternate world version of ours and it is not really clear whether it is just an alternate history set on our planet or set on a secondary world. I’m leaning towards the latter option myself, but it is certainly debatable. Continue reading »

By Mieneke Published 16 May, 2013 Posted in fantasy, review Tagged: | Leave a comment

Author Query – James MacManus [Blog Tour]

jamesmacmanus-blackvenusThis morning I posted my review for James MacManus’ novel Black Venus. As part of my stop of the blog tour I also was lucky enough to be able to ask the author some questions. Unfortunately, due to real life hitting me over the head, it completely slipped my mind to send in my questions on time. Fortunately, Veronica, the publicist organising the book tour had her own list of questions and was kind enough to share the answers to the questions that were closest to my own. So I still get to present you with a Q&A with James MacManus after all. Thank you, Veronica! And thank you to James MacManus for answering these questions.

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By Mieneke Published 15 May, 2013 Posted in article, historical fiction, interview Tagged: | Leave a comment

James MacManus – Black Venus [Blog Tour]

jamesmacmanus-blackvenusFor readers who have been drawn to The Paris Wife or Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, Black Venus captures the artistic scene in the great French city decades earlier, when the likes of Dumas and Balzac argued literature in the cafes of the Left Bank. Amongst the bohemians the young Charles Baudelaire stood out—dressed impeccably thanks to an inheritance that was quickly vanishing. Still at work on the poems which he hoped would make his name, he spent his nights enjoying the alcohol, opium, and women who filled the seedy streets of the city.

One woman would catch his eye—a beautiful Haitian cabaret singer named Jeanne Duval. Their lives would remain forever intertwined thereafter, and their romance would inspire his most infamous poems—leading to the banning of his masterwork Les Fleurs du Mal and a scandalous public trial for obscenity.

Black Venus recreates the classic Parisian literary world in vivid detail, complete with not just an affecting portrait of the famous poet but also his often misunderstood, much-maligned muse.

When I read the synopsis for Black Venus, it immediately grabbed my attention, with its mentions of Paris, artists, and bohemians, I immediately thought Toulouse-Lautrec and the Moulin Rouge. It turns out I was thinking a couple of decades too late, as Baudelaire lived from 1821 until 1867 and Toulouse-Lautrec was only born in 1864, but the spark of interest had been lit. The subject matter of Charles Baudelaire and his muse Jeanne Duval would suggest a romantic story; however, James MacManus gives us anything but a conventional romance in his latest novel Black Venus. Instead he gives us a strange blend of fiction and history book, which while fascinating left me feeling largely unconnected to its protagonists.

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By Mieneke Published 15 May, 2013 Posted in historical fiction, review Tagged: | 1 Comment

Guest Post: Al Ewing on Comics Breaking the Fourth Wall

alewing-thefictionalmanLast month I raved about Al Ewing’s The Fictional Man. I hugely enjoyed it and I really think it might be an award contender for next year’s ballots. If you haven’t picked it up yet, make sure to get it next time you visit your local book store, because it’s really something special. Today I’m happy to bring you a guest post from Al on how comic books breaking the fourth wall affected him. So, take it away, Al!

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Previously on the Blog Tour, I’ve found myself drawn into thoughts of the Reader’s Voice in the humour comics of my youth, and thoughts of Ambush Bug, the American comic that took that easy breakage of the fourth wall and ran with it, creating something rather sublime in the process. But Ambush Bug wasn’t the last American comic to smash the fourth wall, or the last one to make an impression on me in doing so.

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By Mieneke Published 14 May, 2013 Posted in guest post, science fiction Tagged: | Leave a comment

James Maxey – Witchbreaker

jamesmaxey-witchbreakerLong ago, Lord Stark Tower – the famed Witchbreaker – nearly wiped out the witches. Today, only a handful of women still practice the weaving craft in secret. The witch Sorrow, Infidel’s fellow adventurer, has vowed to right this wrong, crushing the Church of the Book and launching a new golden age of witchcraft. In pursuit of her goal, she has bonded her soul with Rott, the primal dragon of decay, giving her near-limitless powers of destruction.

Unfortunately, this power has cost Sorrow her humanity, leading her to a desperate quest to find the greatest witch of all time, Avaris – rumoured to still be alive after hundreds of years – in hopes of mastering her dark magic before it destroys her. But she’s not alone in hunting Avaris, as fate throws her into an uneasy partnership with a man who wants to be the new Witchbreaker. Can either of them survive their mutual quests when their journey leads them into battle with Tempest, the primal dragon of storms?

Witchbreaker is the third in James Maxey’s Dragon Apocalypse series. I tremendously enjoyed the previous two books, Greatshadow and Hush, and I was really looking forward to this book, which I thought was the concluding volume. The good news is that Witchbreaker is just as fun as the other books; the bad news is that although it is the last volume, the story ends on an open-ended note. It makes for a dissatisfying ending to a fabulous series and I’m hoping that Maxey will return to this world in the future to give us the rest of the story. Before it sounds as if I’m being overly critical, let’s jump into the review and you’ll understand my reasoning.

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By Mieneke Published 13 May, 2013 Posted in fantasy, review Tagged: | 2 Comments

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