6 Degrees of Separation
Following on from a recent post I read in which readers create a chain of six books leading from a monthly title, this month being The Tipping Point (2002) by Malcolm Gladwell — I thought I would join in, but, of course, having never read this month’s title and starting point, nor knowing the author, I hit my first hurdle.
Then I gave it a moment’s thought and wondered about the title, ‘tipping point,’ which brought me of all places to physics. Yes, that kind of tipping point—the point where there is no turning back, where a thing will go from being balanced, to being unbalanced. Which in turn reminded me of a book I read just last month, The Missing Informant by Anders de la Motte. Where David Sarac and, in fact, a number of characters in this fast-paced thriller face their own ‘tipping points,’ and, as the various story threads weave and intertwine, we’re pulled toward the story’s gripping and climactic ending.
Q&A with Chris Panatier
To start with, would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself?
Thank you for having me! I live in Dallas, Texas, where all the heat in the world comes from. I spend most of my time being a dad to my six-year-old, and I fill the time gaps writing, drawing album covers, and practicing law.
From artist to storyteller, can you tell us what drew you to writing The Phlebotomist?
I’d been writing novels for several years when I had the idea for The Phlebotomist, though none of them had been published. In fact, I was in the middle of writing a different book when the premise for this one came to me. I was upset about the fast-moving, malignant blend of aristocratic authoritarianism that was spreading through our government and a premise came to mind. I didn’t want to write a straight-up political screed, so I couched it in a dystopian story and tied it to a well-loved trope that I’m not going to disclose because spoilers! Sorry!
Captain Moxley and the Embers of the Empire by Dan Hanks
Back Cover Blurb
In post-war 1952, the good guys are supposed to have won. But not everything is as it seems when ex-Spitfire pilot Captain Samantha Moxley is dragged into a fight against the shadowy US government agency she used to work for. Now, with former Nazis and otherworldly monsters on her trail, Captain Moxley is forced into protecting her archaeologist sister in a race to retrieve two ancient keys that will unlock the secrets of a long-lost empire—to ensure a civilisation-destroying weapon doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. But what will she have to sacrifice to save the world?
Celebrating Military SF
There is one thing you can be sure of, modern science fiction gives us plenty of choice to choose from when it comes to sub-genre. Of course, it all depends on who you speak to about what may, or may not, make it onto the list but, for arguments sake, here are a few of what makes it onto my list:
- Alien Invasion
- A. I. (Artificial Intelligence | Nano Tech | Virtual)
- Colonisation (also: Terraforming)
- Dystopian
- First Contact
- Galactic Empire
- Generational Ships
- Military SF
- Near Future
- Parallel Universes
- Post Apocalypse
- Robots & Androids (see also AI above)
- Space Exploration
- Space Opera
- Time Travel
- Utopian
The Last Smile in Sunder City by Luke Arnold
Back Cover Blurb
Welcome to Sunder City. The magic is gone but the monsters remain.
I’m Fetch Phillips, just like it says on the window. There are a few things you should know before you hire me:
- Sobriety costs extra.
- My services are confidential.
- I don't work for humans.
All The Devils Are Here by Louise Penny
Back Cover Blurb
On their first night in Paris, the Gamaches gather as a family for a bistro dinner with Armand’s godfather, the billionaire Stephen Horowitz. Walking home together after the meal, they watch in horror as Stephen is knocked down and critically injured in what Gamache knows is no accident, but a deliberate attempt on the elderly man’s life.
When a strange key is found in Stephen’s possession it sends Armand, his wife Reine-Marie, and his former second-in-command at the Sûreté, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, from the top of the Tour d’Eiffel, to the bowels of the Paris Archives, from luxury hotels to odd, coded, works of art.
It sends them deep into the secrets Armand’s godfather has kept for decades.
A gruesome discovery in Stephen’s Paris apartment makes it clear the secrets are more rancid, the danger far greater and more imminent, than they realised.
Soon the whole family is caught up in a web of lies and deceit. In order to find the truth, Gamache will have to decide whether he can trust his friends, his colleagues, his instincts, his own past. His own family.
For even the City of Light casts long shadows. And in that darkness devils hide.
“Hell is empty, and all the devils are here!” — William Shakespeare
In The Dark Spaces by Cally Black
Back Cover Blurb
A genre-smashing kidnapping drama about Tamara, who’s faced with an impossible choice when she falls for her captors.
Yet this is no ordinary kidnapping. Tamara has been living on a freighter in deep space, and her kidnappers are terrifying Crow people – the only aliens humanity has ever encountered. No-one has ever survived a Crow people attack, until now—and Tamara must use everything she has just to stay alive.
But survival always comes at a price, and there’s no handbook for this hostage crisis. As Tamara comes to know the Crow people’s way of life, and the threats they face from humanity’s exploration into deep space, she realises she has an impossible choice to make. Should she stay as the only human among the Crows, knowing she’ll never see her family again … or inevitably betray her new community if she wants to escape?
The Ashes of London by Andrew Taylor
Back Cover Blurb
London, September 1666. The Great Fire rages through the city, consuming everything in its path. Even the impregnable cathedral of St Paul’s is reduced to ruins. Among the crowds watching its destruction is James Marwood, son of a traitor, and reluctant government informer.
In the aftermath, the body of a man is discovered in the ashes of St. Paul’s. But he had not died in the blaze – there is a stab wound to his neck and his thumbs have been tied behind his back. Acting on orders, Marwood hunts the killer through London’s devastated streets … where before too long a second murder is uncovered.
At a time of dangerous internal dissent, Marwood’s investigation will lead him into treacherous waters – and across the path of a determined and vengeful young woman.
The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown by Vaseem Khan
Back Cover Blurb
For centuries the Koh-i-Noor diamond has set man against man and king against king. Now part of the British Crown Jewels, the priceless gem is a prize that many have killed to possess. So when the Crown Jewels go on display in Mumbai, security is everyone's principal concern. And yet, on the very day Inspector Chopra visits the exhibition, the diamond is stolen from under his nose. The heist was daring and seemingly impossible. The hunt is on for the culprits. But it soon becomes clear that only one man—and his elephant—can possibly crack this case...The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
Back Cover Blurb
Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of 18th century Cairo, she’s a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trade she uses to get by—palm readings, zars, and healing—are all tricks, sleights of hand, learned skills; a means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles.
But when Nahri accidentally summons an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior to her side during one of her cons, she’s forced to accept that the magical world she thought only existed in childhood stories is real. For the warrior tells her a new tale: across hot, windswept sands teeming with creatures of fire, and rivers where the mythical Marid sleep; past ruins of once-magnificent human metropolises, and mountains where the circling hawks are not what they seem, lies Daevabad, the legendary city of brass, a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound.
Q&A with Michael Mammay
To start with, would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself?
I started writing late in life—in my 40s. I’d wanted to be a writer since my late teens, but that was more in theory. I liked the idea of being a writer. But I never did anything about it. I cut myself a bit of a break about that, since I was pretty busy being an army officer. But I started thinking about it more, and I started writing some really bad fantasy. The thing is, I didn’t know how to write. But I read a ton of books, and how hard can writing one be, right? This culminated with me sending a very much not good manuscript out to a bunch of agents and getting a lot of quick rejections. And right about then I discovered this writing contest called Pitch Wars. So I entered. And even before they picked their winners, I’d already learned that I wouldn’t be one. Because for the first time I had met some other writers and let them read my book. That’s right…I entered Pitch Wars with a book that nobody had ever seen but me.
Spoiler: I didn’t get selected. But I did meet some great critique partners, and I learned a lot about what I was doing wrong. So I started studying. Specifically, I studied plot structure. And I started doing critique for other people, and in doing that, I started to see what they were doing wrong, and more important, I was having to explain to them not only that it was off, but why. And learning to do that helped me figure out my own writing. It was a very cool time for me, as a lot of the people I worked with now have books sitting on my shelf.
The Lost Man by Jane Harper
Back Cover Blurb
Two brothers meet at the remote border of their vast cattle properties under the unrelenting sun of the outback. In an isolated part of Australia, they are each other's nearest neighbour, their homes hours apart.They are at the stockman’s grave, a landmark so old that no one can remember who is buried there. But today, the scant shadow it casts was the last hope for their middle brother, Cameron. The Bright family’s quiet existence is thrown into grief and anguish.
Something had been troubling Cameron. Did he choose to walk to his death? Because if he didn’t, the isolation of the outback leaves few suspects…
The Defence by Steve Cavanagh
Back Cover Blurb
Eddie Flynn used to be a con artist. Then he became a lawyer. Turned out the two weren’t that different.
It’s been over a year since Eddie vowed never to set foot in a courtroom again. But now he doesn’t have a choice. Olek Volchek, the infamous head of the Russian mafia in New York, has strapped a bomb to Eddie’s back and kidnapped his ten-year-old daughter, Amy.
Eddie only has forty-eight hours to defend Volchek in an impossible murder trial—and win—if he wants to save his daughter.
Under the scrutiny of the media and the FBI, Eddie must use his razor-sharp wit and every con-artist trick in the book to defend his ‘client’ and ensure Amy’s safety. With the timer on his back ticking away, can Eddie convince the jury of the impossible?
Lose this case and he loses everything.
Velocity Weapon by Megan E. O'Keefe
Back Cover Blurb
Sanda and Biran Greeve were siblings destined for greatness. A high-flying sergeant, Sanda has the skills to take down any enemy combatant. Biran is a savvy politician who aims to use his new political position to prevent conflict from escalating to total destruction.However, on a routine manoeuvre, Sanda loses consciousness when her gunship is blown out of the sky. Instead of finding herself in friendly hands, she awakens 230 years later on a deserted enemy warship controlled by an AI who calls himself Bero. The war is lost. The star system is dead. Ada Prime and its rival Icarion have wiped each other from the universe.
Now, separated by time and space, Sanda and Biran must fight to put things right.
Cold Storage by David Koepp
COLD STORAGE is an incredibly fast read, not just because it’s only 308 pages long, but because it’s that kind of a story. A book you simply cannot put down. I read this in a day. Yes, seven hours on a Sunday, from beginning to end. I really didn’t want to stop as there was too much at stake. Yes, I know, it’s not real, but the science in COLD STORAGE, along with the excellently researched background to the alphabet soup government departments and processes, were spot on.
The context for this story, a mutated, fast breeding ELE fungus capable of eradicating all life, as we know it, is so plausible as to scary the bejesus out of me! Based on reality, and stretched to the what-if point like any good author should, Koepp takes the reader on a wild, scary ride. But then, tempers the real-life horror with two flawed, familiar, and sympathetic characters—Teacake and Naomi—that you are immediately drawn too and root for.
All the fingernail biting tension is further tempered with plenty of dry humour including the line that I think COLD STORAGE is going to be most remembered for: “The fucking deer just took the fucking elevator.” Uttered by the astonished Teacake (great name btw) who was a character I took an instant liking too.
While it’s true Diaz and his partner, and senior officer, Trini Romano, get an opener to the book that will blow your socks off (and, might I suggest, not be read before bedtime! Trust me.) It’s Teacake and Naomi who, for the most part, carry the weight of the story. It’s the investment into their two lives that make us care, care about what happens, and adds the heart to what could be an otherwise chilling read.
Over all, this is a riotous read. Suspend your disbelief at the first page, jump in with macabre glee—after all this is fiction—and have a fun, frightening, all too plausible ride on the horror-tinged train.
Title: COLD STORAGE Author: David Koepp Publisher: Harper ISBN: 9780062960467 Genre: Thriller
10 Women in SFF
For my inaugural post here on Book Blurb, I want to share some of my all time fav SFF authors with you. Specifically, my favourite female authors (old and new).
There’s always this ongoing online discussion about do women write SF and, of course, the answer is yes. More over they write some fantastic fantasy and yes, creepy horror too. After all, isn’t Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein first and foremost horror? Anyway, I’m not here to talk about who writes what, and getting into any lengthy discussions I just want to share some of my fav authors with you.
So, if you haven’t already done so, maybe you’d like to check out these ladies below: