Quick Review: EVERYTHING BELONGS TO THE FUTURE by Laurie Penny (Tor.com)

September 8, 2016 Civilian Reader Review Everything Belongs to the Future, Laurie Penny, Most Anticipated 2016, Novella, Politics, Sci-Fi, Social Commentary, Tor.com

An interesting novella of future politics and society

Time is a weapon wielded by the rich, who have excess of it, against the rest, who must trade every breath of it against the promise of another day’s food and shelter. What kind of world have we made, where human beings can live centuries if only they can afford the fix? What kind of creatures have we become? The same as we always were, but keener.

In the ancient heart of Oxford University, the ultra-rich celebrate their vastly extended lifespans. But a few surprises are in store for them. From Nina and Alex, Margo and Fidget, scruffy anarchists sharing living space with an ever-shifting cast of crusty punks and lost kids. And also from the scientist who invented the longevity treatment in the first place.

I quite enjoyed this novella. Set some distance in the future, but still recognizable and relatable. Inequality has worsened, the wealthy able to extend their lives considerably. Readers are introduced to a bohemian group of anarchists, who do what they can in their quest to make life even a little bit more fair. Introduced to someone with links to the rejuvenation formula, though, they plan a much larger, more audacious plan to address this future society’s inequality. Unfortunately for the group, there are forces already maneuvering to bring them down… Continue reading →

Interview with LAURIE PENNY

September 8, 2016September 8, 2016 Civilian Reader Interview Bitch Doctrine, Dystopia, Everything Belongs to the Future, Laurie Penny, Most Anticipated 2016, Novella, Political, Science Fiction, Tor.com

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Laurie Penny?

Back-of-a-napkin CV? I’m a writer and a political journalist, I live in London, and I come from the internet, just like you. I’m 29 years old, a pinko queer feminist social justice warrior, and a huge nerd.

Your new novella, Everything Belongs to the Future, will be published by Tor.com in October. I enjoyed it quite a bit. How would you introduce it to a potential reader?

It’s a near-future quasi-dystopian anarchist fable about biotechnology, surveillance, state violence, love and time. It’s got a cool weapon in it, and also some dirty bits.

What inspired you to write the novella?

I’ve been interested in the politics and practical applications of biotechnology for a long time, and a scientist friend challenged me to write a story about anti-ageing treatments. Then it was a question of following the characters where they led. Continue reading →

New Books (August-September)

September 7, 2016August 23, 2018 Civilian Reader New Books Alan Sepinwall, Amy Schumer, Anthony Riches, Blake Crouch, Colson Whitehead, Django Wexler, Edward Cox, Eowyn Ivey, Fran Wilde, George Saunders, Greg Iles, Gregg Hurwitz, J Patrick Black, James Barclay, Jill Leovy, John French, John le Carre, K.V. Johansen, Karine Tuil, Lila Bowen, Mark Hill, Matt Zoller Seitz, Michael Tolkin, Mira Grant, Neely Tucker, Owen Laukkanen, Sarah Perry, Susan Perabo, Tim O'Mara, Wendy N Wagner

Featuring: James Barclay, J. Patrick Black, Lila Bowen, Edward Cox, Blake Crouch, John French, Mira Grant, Mark Hill, Gregg Hurwitz, Greg Iles, Eowyn Ivey, Vic James, K.V. Johansen, Owen Laukkanen, John le Carré, Jill Leovy, Tim O’Mara, Susan Perabo, Sarah Perry, Anthony Riches, George Saunders, Amy Schumer, Alan Sepinwall, Matt Zoller Seitz, Michael Tolkin, Neely Tucker, Karine Tuil, Wendy N. Wagner, Django Wexler, Colson Whitehead, Fran Wilde Continue reading →

Upcoming: THE BOOK OF MIRRORS by E.O. Chirovici (Century/Atria)

September 6, 2016 Civilian Reader Covers, Upcoming Atria, Century, E.O. Chirovici, Emily Bestler Books, Most Anticipated 2017, Mystery, Penguin UK, Simon & Schuster, Thriller

I am really looking forward to this novel. Already sold in 38 territories, UK-based Romanian author E.O. Chirovici‘s first novel in English, The Book of Mirrors, sounds great. You can read a short piece about it from the Guardian here. Here’s the synopsis:

When big-shot literary agent Peter Katz receives an unfinished manuscript entitled The Book of Mirrors, he is intrigued.

The author, Richard Flynn is writing a memoir about his time at Princeton in the late 80s, documenting his relationship with the famous Professor Joseph Wieder.

One night in 1987, Wieder was brutally murdered in his home and the case was never solved.

Peter Katz is hell-bent on getting to the bottom of what happened that night twenty-five years ago and is convinced the full manuscript will reveal who committed the violent crime.

But other people’s recollections are dangerous weapons to play with, and this might be one memory that is best kept buried.

Unfortunately, we have quite some time to wait before we’ll be able to get our mitts on the book: The Book of Mirrors is due to be published on January 26th, 2017 in the UK by Century; and in February 2017 in North America, by Atria Books. Well, given that it’s September already, I suppose it’s not that far away. It just feels like it…

Guest Post: “The Ties That Bind” by Brad Beaulieu

September 6, 2016August 28, 2016 Civilian Reader Guest Post Bradley Beaulieu, Fantasy, Gollancz, Most Anticipated 2016, Of Sand and Malice Made, Song of the Shattered Sands, Twelve Kings, Twelve Kings of Sharakhai, With Blood Upon the Sand

When I first started writing Of Sand and Malice Made, I didn’t have a small novel in mind, or even a set of interconnected novellas. It began only with a single story, “Irindai”, which eventually sold to Ragnarok Publications for their Blackguards anthology. But as I developed that first story I knew it wouldn’t be the last in the series. I started having more and more thoughts about where I could take the story’s primary mover, a djinni-like creature name Rümayesh. I thought more about the sons of the trickster god that were working against her. I thought more about the new character, Brama, a two-bit thief who got pulled into something much larger and more dangerous than he ever expected. And I thought about what it could all mean for the heroine of the series, Çeda. Continue reading →

Interview with JAMES BENNETT

September 5, 2016August 28, 2016 Civilian Reader Interview Ben Garston Series, Chasing Embers, James Bennett, London, Most Anticipated 2016, Orbit Books, Urban Fantasy

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is James Bennett?

That’s a big question. James Bennett is someone who finds it weird to refer to himself in the third person, but who is, predominantly, a Fantasy writer. Also an international playboy. I made that last bit up.

Your debut novel, Chasing Embers, is published by Orbit. It looks rather intriguing: How would you introduce it to a potential reader? Is it part of a series?

Thank you. Chasing Embers relates the story of Ben Garston, who, to all intents and purposes, seems like your everyday Londoner, albeit a little rough around the edges. But Ben has a secret hiding under his skin. In fact, the world has a secret hiding under its skin. Imagine if all those medieval tales of fabulous beasts were actually real. Imagine if there were only a few of them left and living among us, endangered species, survivors in the modern world. The Ben Garston books take that idea as their central premise. Continue reading →

Upcoming: WHO’S AFRAID TOO? by Maria Lewis (Piatkus)

September 2, 2016September 2, 2016 Civilian Reader Covers, Upcoming Australia, Little Brown, Maria Lewis, Piatkus, Tommi Grayson Series, Urban Fantasy, Werewolves, Who's Afraid, Who's Afraid Too

Today, we have the cover for Maria Lewis‘s second novel, Who’s Afraid Too? I rather like the cover-style for these novels (the first is at the end of the piece). The next novel in the author’s well-received Tommi Grayson urban fantasy series, here’s the synopsis:

Book Two in the bestselling Tommi Grayson series is a gutsy, fur-flying, feminist read for fans of urban fantasy. If you love Patricia Briggs, Darynda Jones, Keri Arthur, Kelley Armstrong or Buffy the Vampire Slayer, don’t miss Maria Lewis!

Tommi Grayson: all bark, all bite… and now she’s BACK!

After the sh*t show that was her family reunion, Tommi needed to get gone. She’s spent the last few weeks trying to understand her heritage — the one that comes with a side order of fur as well as her Maori history and how she can connect to it.

But she can only escape for so long — when an unspeakable evil, thought long destroyed, returns, Tommi needs every bit of the skills she’s learned. With the help of allies both old and new, she’s going to take the fight to the enemy…

Maria Lewis’s Who’s Afraid Too? is published in the UK by Piatkus, on January 10th, 2017. Who’s Afraid? is out now.

For more on Lewis’s writing and novels, be sure to check out the author’s website, and follow her on Twitter and Goodreads.

Eight Quick Audiobook Reviews

September 1, 2016September 1, 2016 Civilian Reader Review Amy Schumer, Antonio Garcia Martinez, Audible, Audiobooks, Biography, Dey Street Books, Harper Collins, Irin Carmon, Jessi Klein, Memoir, Nick Offerman, Non-Fiction, Orion, Penguin, Philip Delves-Broughton, Randall Munroe, Richard Porter, Shana Knizhnik, Simon & Schuster, Simon Vance

A quick round-up of recent audiobook ‘reads’, with thanks to Audible UK for the review credits (except for the first reviewed, which I borrow from the Toronto Public Library). I’ve kept the reviews very short on purpose. I’ll try to keep on top of these reviews in a more timely manner in the future.

Featuring: Philip Delves-Broughton, Irin Carmon, Jessi Klein, Shana Knizhnik, Antonio Garcia Martinez, Randall Munroe, Nick Offerman, Richard Porter, Amy Schumer Continue reading →

Interview with CASSANDRA KHAW

August 31, 2016August 31, 2016 Civilian Reader Interview Cassandra Khaw, Codemancer, Hammers on Bone, In The Living City, Most Anticipated 2016, Tor.com

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Cassandra Khaw?

Cassandra Khaw is definitely not used to talking in the third-person, so I’m going to make the switch back to first-person perspective. Most days, I’m the business developer (aka BUSINESS CAT) for Ysbryd Games, a Singaporean micropublisher that specializes in beautiful, narrative-rich video games. What this actually means is that I spent a lot of time sending emails. (So many emails. So many.) I also do other things like handle appointments, talk to reporters, talk to developers, talk to civilians, and bounce between countries like a pingpong ball on a caffeine high.

It’s great. Sometimes.

I also occasionally write for Eurogamer and Ars Technica. In the past, I worked as a tech and video games journalist for a variety of outlets, but that has taken a backseat with the proliferation of games we’re releasing and a focus in fiction.

When I’m not involved in all of that, I write video games and punch things, and occasionally people. Continue reading →

Upcoming: ALL OUR WRONG TODAYS by Elan Mastai (Dutton)

August 28, 2016 Civilian Reader Upcoming All Our Wrong Todays, Alternate History, Dutton, Elan Mastai, Fiction, Literary, Most Anticipated 2017, Penguin Random House, Sci-Fi, Time-Travel

Having just finished Blake Crouch’s excellent Dark Matter, the synopsis for Elan Mastai‘s tale of altered reality/history caught my attention (apparently, I’m in the mood for this type of novel, now). After doing some further digging, I also learned that Mastai wrote the movie The F Word, which I very much enjoyed (starring Daniel Radcliffe, Zoe Kazan and Adam Driver, it was both endearing and funny).

All Our Wrong Today’s sounds really interesting:

You know the future that people in the 1950s imagined we’d have? Well, it happened. In Tom Barren’s 2016, humanity thrives in a techno-utopian paradise of flying cars, moving sidewalks, and moon bases, where avocados never go bad and punk rock never existed… because it wasn’t necessary.

Except Tom just can’t seem to find his place in this dazzling, idealistic world, and that’s before his life gets turned upside down. Utterly blindsided by an accident of fate, Tom makes a rash decision that drastically changes not only his own life but the very fabric of the universe itself. In a time-travel mishap, Tom finds himself stranded in our 2016, what we think of as the real world. For Tom, our normal reality seems like a dystopian wasteland.

But when he discovers wonderfully unexpected versions of his family, his career, and — maybe, just maybe — his soul mate, Tom has a decision to make. Does he fix the flow of history, bringing his utopian universe back into existence, or does he try to forge a new life in our messy, unpredictable reality? Tom’s search for the answer takes him across countries, continents, and timelines in a quest to figure out, finally, who he really is and what his future — our future — is supposed to be.

All Our Wrong Todays is about the versions of ourselves that we shed and grow into over time. It is a story of friendship and family, of unexpected journeys and alternate paths, and of love in its multitude of forms. Filled with humor and heart, and saturated with insight and intelligence and a mind-bending talent for invention, this novel signals the arrival of a major talent.

All Our Wrong Todays is published by Dutton, on February 7th, 2017. I’m really looking forward to this one.

Civilian Reader

(Books, Music, Movies)

Year: 2016