Waiting On Wednesday: Only Superhuman by Christopher Bennett

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.



This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:



Only Superhuman by Christopher Bennet



2107 AD: A generation ago, Earth and the cislunar colonies banned genetic and cybernetic modifications. But out in the Asteroid Belt, anything goes. Dozens of flourishing space habitats are spawning exotic new societies and strange new varieties of humans. It’s a volatile situation that threatens the peace and stability of the entire solar system.



Emerald Blair is a Troubleshooter. Inspired by the classic superhero comics of the twentieth century, she’s joined with other mods to try to police the unruly Asteroid Belt. But her loyalties are tested when she finds herself torn between rival factions of superhumans with very different agendas. Emerald wants to put her special abilities to good use, but what do you do when you can’t tell the heroes from the villains?



Only Superhuman is a rollicking hard-SF adventure set in a complex and fascinating future. (Oct 16, 2012)



So, let's see - we have "rollicking hard-SF adventure" and a "complex and fascinating future" coupled with a heroine "inspired by the classic superhero comics of the twentieth century." Count me in!

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GUEST POST & GIVEAWAY by Rowena Cory Daniells

Why I love the WWW (Or How the web set me free)

by Rowena Cory Daniells





I grew up on the Gold Coast in the 60s and 70s.



Me with my cat. In the background you can see the shed. We kept chickens and grew vegetables, went swimming every weekend.

Back then the Gold Coast was fibro shacks, surf, sun and sand. All very idyllic but lacking in any sense of permanence. Back then the Gold Coast was famous for metre maids.

These were girls (not women) who wore golden bikinis and dropped coins in your metre if it ran out, so that people didn’t get tickets. (As a child I didn’t want to grow up to be a metre maid, I wanted to be an astronaut).



The closest we came to history was this wreck on Stradbroke Island.

But of course, I’d never seen it. I’d heard the grown ups mention it in passing and no one seemed to know much about it. Back then, there was no way to find out anything. I suppose I could have gone to the library and asked, but I only remember going into the library once when I was about eleven, and I didn’t know you could ask librarians to find things. I didn’t know that there were people interested in history, trying to piece the past together. See here. (The Galleon they are talking about is not the wreck in the photo above. More on the galleon here).



Back then we had one bookshelf in our home and it contained a couple of books and some magazines. I read everything I could find. The only way I could see the world was through TV which was black and white and our local TV stations must have bought a couple of seasons of Gilligan’s Island, Bewitched and Hogan’s Heroes and just kept playing them over and over until I knew the dialogue off by heart and was close to gnawing off my leg in frustration.



To put it simply I was desperately hungry for anything that gave me a glimpse of the wider world.



In my early twenties I moved to Melbourne and opened a second-hand book and record shop. It was heaven. I could read all day long and talk to people about books. As soon as I found an interesting book I would devour it, and I’d keep it just in case I ever needed to refer to it again. Books were like treasures. The more I had, the richer I felt. Beautiful books on art. Books on science. Fantasy and SF books...
In fact, it got to the point recently when I had to go through my shelves and cull my books. They were starting to block the windows.

Resorting to great ruthlessness, I sorted them into keep and give to the local second-hand bookstore piles. The second-hand bookstore gave me $500 credit. I’ve used it all up, plus every time I go to a convention I come back with a couple of hundred dollars worth of books.

Confession - It’s been over twelve months since I cleaned out my book shelves but they are stacked two rows deep again.



All of which brings me to why I love the internet. I can find out anything, at the click of a mouse. I know. It’s amazing...



Recently, I was writing a fantasy set in a dangerous tropical paradise and I needed to know how far the horizon was if you were sitting in a rowboat, then how far it was if you were up on the lookout of a sailing ship. It’s out there. The information is out there, all you have to do is look.



My ‘bookmark’ file on my web browser now looks like my bookshelves. There are hundreds of folders and subfolders with all sorts of amazing facts about the world. I love it that I can read the science blogs, and New Scientist. This is the kid who memorised the planets of the solar system when she found a book about it, just in case she never found the book again.



I love it that people put up pictures of cats with funny captions.

It is such a relief from the official news, which is all doom and gloom. The world can’t be such a bad place, when people love their pets.



I love it that I can find links like this - the Paris apartment that was locked up before World War two and only opened again recently. (There’s a romantic story attached to this apartment).



I love the wonderful but sad, like Hashima Island, where 5,000 people used to live on one square mile. But when the coal ran out the island was deserted (more photos here). And this is a link to a video made by a man who goes back to the island to look around.

The internet brings me closer to people all around the world. It’s not a perfect world. For instance, there’s this series of photos of people with degrees who spent years studying and find themselves sweeping streets or serving tables.



I love twitter because I follow artists, writers and political activists who are always putting up interesting links. I’m still hungry for information about the world and its people.



Sometimes I wonder if it’s a writer thing. Writers find people and the world endlessly fascinating because we are always observing, trying to make sense of life.
This is why I love the WWW because it has set me free. The more I learn, the more I want to know.

αωαωαωαωαωαωαω

GIVEAWAY

Rowena has a copy of either her gritty, noir-paranormal crime thriller The Price of Fame, or the first book of either of her fantasy trilogies, King Rolen’s Kin or The Outcast Chronicles to give away.



This competition is open to anyone anywhere in the world. 



Just answer Rowena's question in the comments below: "What do you love about the web? Surprise me!"

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eBook Review: Getting Better by Tyr Kieran

Shaun has been institutionalized, condemned to Agronaville Mental Health Center by his traumatic past. As the story opens he is hiding in his room, awkwardly barricaded against the orderlies and patients by nothing more than the strength of his bed frame. He claims to be Getting Better, and even if he seems a bit paranoid, who wouldn't be under those circumstances?



For the most part, the young man comes across as a sympathetic character, abused and betrayed by the system that was supposed to heal him. When he's summoned to his first group therapy session, something doesn't quite seem right, but attendance is not voluntary. As we listen to the other patients explain why they were committed, we begin to understand a bit more about why Shaun is there. His violent hallucinations regarding the patients are as shocking as they are vivid, but what really makes the story so unsettling is the way in which we come to understand his justifications.



Of course, we do get to understand a bit of why Shaun is there as well, just before he heads back to his room for lunch.



There are two twists upon which the story hangs, one of which I suspected, but the other completely blind-sided me (kudos to Tyr Kieran for that!). They both come just before the end, and to say they alter our perspective of the story is an understatement. They're not cheap, and you don't feel cheated by them, which is why they work so well. Instead, they send a chill down your spine, making you doubt yourself almost as much as you doubt Shaun.



Short, but effective, this is a great read.

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eBook Review: The Succubus Gift by B.R. Kingsolver

Before I get into my review, I should be up front about something . . . okay, two things. Number one, I don't generally read a lot of urban fantasy. Not sure why, but I guess I prefer a more complete escape or disconnect from reality. Second, I don't generally read too many books that cross over onto the paranormal romance shelves. It's not that I have anything against romance, just that I'd rather it not be the dominant focus of the story.



So, with all of that in mind, it's a bit of a surprise that I agreed to give B.R. Kingsolver's The Succubus Gift a read, and even more surprising that I quite enjoyed it.



This is a book that wastes no time in getting down to business. We barely even know the main character's name yet, and suddenly we're smack-dab in the middle of an unexpected family reunion made awkward by supernatural secrets and secret society politics. It's a little bewildering, but it certainly serves to keep you off-balance, unsure as to what's coming next. Fortunately, Brenna is a strong, colourful, likeable character who serves to keep the reader grounded. Even though she's been a telepath all her life, the revelations of a wider supernatural world (and her place in it) are as new to her as it is to us.



There were two elements of the book that initially kept me reading, and ultimately kept me entertained. The first is the mythology behind the book, which incorporates an ancient Goddess, gifts of telepathy and telekinesis, and an actual succubus. I liked the way Kingsolver played with out expectations of the various elements, twisting them to create a mythological background all her own. It's quite varied and strong, and really holds the novel together.



The second element, the one that kept me entertained, is the strength of her characters. Strong, vibrant, and colourful, they all seem larger than life, the kind of people you really wish could exist off the page. More than that, though, they are characters that grow and evolve. In some cases, that growth simply comes from us learning more about them. In the case of Brenna, however, she really does develop over the course of the story, maturing from this nervous, insecure young woman into someone far more confident, powerful, and capable.



If I were to have one complaint, it would be that the pacing is somewhat uneven. That frantic, headlong rush into the story gives way to several drawn out scenes that seem a little too carefully crafted to create drama, as opposed to moving the story along. It's not a huge issue, and nothing that impacted my enjoyment of the read, just an observation looking back. For the most part, the storytelling is solid and both the action and the romantic sequences work well.



All-in-all, a pleasant surprise.

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Waiting On Wednesday: Coldbrook by Tim Lebbon

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.



This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Coldbrook by Tim Lebbon



THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT HAS CHANGED FOREVER 

THE REASON IS Coldbrook



The faculty lay deep in Appalachian Mountains, a secret laboratory called Coldbrook. Their's was to be the greatest discovery in the history of mankind, but they had no idea what they were unleashing. 



Now the disease is out and ravaging the human population. The only hope is a cure and the only cure is genetic resistance, an uninfected person amongst the billions dead. 



In the chaos of destruction there is only one person that can save the human race. 



But will they find her in time? (Oct 11, 2012)



No word so far on a North American release, but this one has really caught my attention.

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Canada Day Blog Hop WINNER

First of all, a HUGE thank you to everybody who stopped by for the Canada Day Blog Hop. It was (by far) the most popular post I've done to date, and one which has introduced me to a wide range of friends and followers.



I did draw the winner yesterday morning, as promised, but wanted to wait for confirmation before announcing it. Our big winner literally just got back to me, and even if I 'm a bit disappointed that he wants to remain anonymous, I love what he plans to do with the books.



Mr. D (as I 'll refer to him) is a Canadian who moved down south a few years ago to help with the clean-up from Hurricane Katrina. He quickly fell in love with the people there and, after 40+ winters of snow and cold in the prairies, decided it might be nice to stick around. Even with the relatively warm, snow-free winter we just had, I honestly can't say that I blame him!



While he hasn 't ruled out an eventual return home, he is quite content to remain in his adopted home . . . which brings us to the books.



In an effort to not only help rebuild, but to also inject a little Canadian culture, he has chosen to donate the books to his local library. So, thanks to his generosity, the literary ambassadors of Kay, Erikson, Czerneda, and Huff will be making the move south, hopefully to win over an entirely new audience.



Very nice, Mr. D. Very nice indeed.

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eBook Review: Overkill by Steven Shrewsbury

Overkill is the latest of the Gorias La Gaul stories from Steven Shrewsbury, a heroic fantasy franchise that brings back memories of Robert E. Howard's original Conan tales. Fear not if this is your first exposure to La Gaul, for his stories are able to be read as standalone novels.



In fact, this was my first exposure to the character, and I quite enjoyed it.



Gorias is a man of few words, but those he offers are chosen well. He's a direct, sarcastic, often vulgar warrior who has seen and heard it all. More than 700 years old, he still finds the world amusing, and the women it it arousing. This is no grumpy old man, dragged out of retirement, to save the world. No, this is a lustful, bloodthirsty man in the prime of life . . . dragged out of a brothel to save the world.



In a world where YA fiction seems to be overtaking the shelves, this is a deliberate throwback to the kind of pulp fantasy that long-time adult readers of fantasy can sit back and enjoy. Shrewsbury offers up a hearty mix of politics and religion, each with their own complexities, and a refreshing dose of old-fashioned "who the hell cares how it works!" magic. If there's one thing I've begun to find rather tiresome about fantasy novels over the past few years is the tendency to have to explain how magic works and somehow justify it to the reader. It's fantasy. It's not real. It's magic. Thank you, Steven, for letting us take it for granted and get on with it.



It should also be said - assuming the cover didn't give it away - that this is a book about dragons. Again, Shrewsbury bucks the historical realism trend and gives us our dragons, as mighty, ferocious, and dangerous as we want to remember them. I loved the way he worked them into the plot, and the way in which their legends have come to have very real implications, tied very much to that of La Gaul.



The story here isn't overly deep, but it's more than sufficient to carry the novel, especially one so action packed from cover-to-cover. There are plenty of twists and turns, some of them rather clever and others completely unexpected, and just enough humour (with a dash of romance) to alleviate the tension. Similarly, the characters are only as deep as they need be to carry the story, but they live and breathe upon the page - and that, more than any reams of useless lineages and life stories, is what makes them compelling.



An altogether satisfying read, and one worth looking into.

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