Interview with TROY CARROL BUCHER

August 14, 2019January 31, 2021 Civilian Reader Interview

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Troy Carrol Bucher?

Former marathon runner. Former resident of Arizona. Soon to be former Lieutenant Colonel. Served in the Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Your debut novel, Lies of Descent, is due to be published by DAW in August. It looks really interesting: How would you introduce it to a potential reader? Is it part of a series?

It’s the first of three books in the coming-of-age story of two characters, Riam and Nola. While it begins along the lines of the typical hero’s journey, things soon spiral in very different directions for the protagonists. It’s an otherworld fantasy, in a place where the gods fell from the heavens and fought long ago. It has a bit of military flavour, since it is loosely centered around the regiments that remain from the Fallen Gods’ War. So that’s were the story begins, with Riam and Nola plucked from their homes to serve in the regiments that remain. Whether or not they ever get to serve, or if they even should… well, those are for the reader to find out. Continue reading →

Interview with FONDA LEE

August 13, 2019 Civilian Reader Interview Fantasy, Fonda Lee, Green Bone Saga, Jade City, Jade Legacy, Jade War, Orbit

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Fonda Lee?

A novelist, martial artist, action movie aficionado, recovering corporate strategist, and Eggs Benedict enthusiast.

Your latest novel, Jade War, was recently published by Orbit – who have also announced the follow-up: Jade Legacy. They are the second and third novel in your Green Bone Saga series. How would you introduce the series to a new reader? And what can fans of the first novel expect from the middle and third books?

The Green Bone Saga is an epic urban fantasy Asia-inspired gangster family saga. I’ve referred to it as “The Godfather with magic and kung fu.” Fans of the first novel can expect the second book, Jade War, to be bigger in every way — not simply in terms of page count, but because the scope of the story broadens onto an international stage. Jade Legacy is going to take place over a longer period of time and gives the conflicts introduced in the earlier books intergenerational aspects and repercussions. Continue reading →

Quick Review: IMPERIAL TWILIGHT by Stephen R. Platt (Knopf/Atlantic Books)

August 12, 2019 Civilian Reader Review Atlantic Books, China, East India Company, History, Imperial Twilight, Non-Fiction, Opium War, Stephen R Platt, UK, Vintage

A fascinating re-examination of the causes and consequences of the Opium War

As China reclaims its position as a world power, Imperial Twilight looks back to tell the story of the country’s last age of ascendance and how it came to an end in the nineteenth-century Opium War.

As one of the most potent turning points in the country’s modern history, the Opium War has since come to stand for everything that today’s China seeks to put behind it. In this dramatic, epic story, award-winning historian Stephen Platt sheds new light on the early attempts by Western traders and missionaries to “open” China even as China’s imperial rulers were struggling to manage their country’s decline and Confucian scholars grappled with how to use foreign trade to China’s advantage. The book paints an enduring portrait of an immensely profitable — and mostly peaceful — meeting of civilizations that was destined to be shattered by one of the most shockingly unjust wars in the annals of imperial history. Brimming with a fascinating cast of British, Chinese, and American characters, this riveting narrative of relations between China and the West has important implications for today’s uncertain and ever-changing political climate.

Stephen R. Platt’s Imperial Twilight is a substantial, highly readable history of the causes and consequences of the Opium War. This is an extremely fine history: exhaustive, fascinating, and engaging from beginning to end. Continue reading →

An Interview with KAMERON HURLEY

August 12, 2019August 6, 2019 Civilian Reader Interview Kameron Hurley, Losing Gravity, Meet Me in the Future, Sci-Fi, Short Stories, Tachyon Publications

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Kameron Hurley?

Honestly, I just got back from a book tour and am severely jetlagged, so I couldn’t really tell you. James S.A. Corey says I’m “one of the most important voices in the field”, though! That’s something. Always listen to the Coreys.

Your new book, Meet Me in the Future, will be published by Tachyon. It looks really interesting: How would you introduce it to a potential reader?

Meet Me in the Future is a collection of my best short fiction to date. It’s got everything: a body-hopping mercenary who avenge his pet elephant, an orphan who falls in love with a sentient starship, fighters who power a reality-bending engine, and a swamp-dwelling introvert who tries to save the world from her plague-casting former wife. And that’s just off the top of my head. I wrote many of these stories with the support of my Patreon backers, and these are the best gems of the lot. Continue reading →

New Books (July-August)

August 6, 2019August 7, 2019 Civilian Reader New Books Agatha Christie, Andrew Skinner, Claire North, Dan Bevacqua, Dan Carlin, Dave Hutchinson, Derek Künsken, Drew Williams, Hannu Rajaniemi, Jacob Weisman, James Grippando, Jason Aaron, Jason Arnopp, Jason Pinter, Jeffrey Archer, Josh Reynolds, Kate Elizabeth Russell, Kim Newman, Kristyn Merbeth, Mary Robinette Kowal, Matt Ruff, Michael Rutger, Mike Pearl, Olivia Laing, Paul Richter, Rachel Maddow, S.C. Emmett, SC Emmett, Sheena Kamal, Steven Wright, Susan Rice, Tade Thompson, WL Goodwater

Featuring: Jeffrey Archer, Jason Arnopp, Dan Bevacqua, Dan Carlin, Agatha Christie, S.C. Emmett, W.L. Goodwater, James Grippando, Dave Hutchinson, Sheena Kamal, Mary Robinette Kowal, Derek Künsken, Olivia Laing, Rachel Maddow, Kristyn Merbeth, Kim Newman, Claire North, Mike Pearl, Jason Pinter, Hannu Rajaniemi (ed.), Josh Reynolds, Susan Rice, Paul Richter, Matt Ruff, Kate Elizabeth Russell, Michael Rutger, Andrew Skinner, Tade Thompson, Jacob Weisman (ed.), Drew Williams, Steven Wright

Continue reading →

Interview with MIKE SHACKLE

August 5, 2019July 2, 2022 Civilian Reader Interview Fantasy, Gollancz, Grimdark, Last War, Mike Shackle, Most Anticipated 2019, We Are The Dead

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Mike Shackle?

I’m a Brit who’s lived and worked all over the world but has settled in the wonderful city of Vancouver with my family. In my time, I’ve sold washing machines, cooked for the Queen, designed a few logos and made a lot of ads for some of the biggest brands in the world. But I’ve always been a dreamer and I’m happiest disappearing into made-up worlds, full of dark and interesting characters, whether that’s in my own writing or enjoying our people’s novels.

Your debut novel, We Are The Dead, is due to be published by Gollancz in August (one of my most-anticipated debuts of the year). How would you introduce it to a potential reader? Is it part of a series?

We Are the Dead is the first book in the Last War trilogy. As per the blurb, it’s a story full of crunching revolutionary action, twisted magic, and hard choices in dark times. It’s about what happens when the bad guy wins and there are no heroes left to come and save the day. It’s a tale about a coward, a teenage psychopath, a single mother and a crippled soldier forced to stand up and fight when it matters most. It’s grim and it’s dark but, at its heart, it’s a story about families and hope. Continue reading →

Upcoming: THE GLASS HOTEL by Emily St. John Mandel (Knopf)

July 29, 2019 Civilian Reader Upcoming Dystopia, Emily St John Mandel, Fiction, Knopf, Most Anticipated 2020, Picador, Post-Apocalyptic

Like many readers, I absolutely loved Emily St. John Mandel‘s Station Eleven. I was, therefore, extremely happy to learn about the author’s follow-up, The Ghost Hotel. We still have quite some time to wait before it arrives in bookstores (curses!), but I wanted to give it a quick shout-out here, just in case you’d missed it. Here’s the synopsis:

From the award-winning author of Station Eleven, a captivating novel of money, beauty, white-collar crime, ghosts, and moral compromise in which a woman disappears from a container ship off the coast of Mauritania and a massive Ponzi scheme implodes in New York, dragging countless fortunes with it.

Vincent is a bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star glass-and-cedar palace on an island in British Columbia. Jonathan Alkaitis works in finance and owns the hotel. When he passes Vincent his card with a tip, it’s the beginning of their life together. That same day, Vincent’s half brother, Paul, scrawls a note on a windowed wall of the hotel: “Why don’t you swallow broken glass.” Leon Prevant, a shipping executive for a company named Neptune-Avramidis, sees the note from the hotel bar and is shaken to his core. Thirteen years later Vincent mysteriously disappears from the deck of a Neptune-Avramidis ship.

Weaving together the lives of these characters, The Glass Hotel moves between the ship, the skyscrapers of Manhattan, and the wilderness of northern Vancouver Island, painting a breathtaking picture of greed and guilt, fantasy and delusion, art and the ghosts of our pasts.

The Glass Hotel is due to be published by Knopf in North America (March 24th, 2020) and Picador in the UK (April 30th, 2020).

Also on CR: Review of Station Eleven and Last Night in Montreal

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Twitter

Interview with BREANNA TEINTZE

July 23, 2019May 8, 2019 Civilian Reader Interview Breanna Teintze, Empty Gods, Fantasy, Jo Fletcher Books, Lord of Secrets

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Breanna Teintze?

I’m a mom, a nurse, and I once set myself on fire cooking peas (it’s okay, I put it out, I was fine). I write books about the sort of people who have also probably set themselves on fire cooking peas.

Your debut novel, Lord of Secrets, will be published by Jo Fletcher Books in July. It looks really interesting: How would you introduce it to a potential reader? Is it part of a series?

When I was writing Lord of Secrets I described it as my “puzzles and explosions” book. If you like fast action, creepy temples, snarky humor, and magic people grappling with family difficulties, you’ll like this book. Also: skeletons.

It’s the first book in a series called The Empty Gods. I’m working on edits for book two in the series at the moment, which could be described as Relationship Goals But Also There’s Mummies. Continue reading →

Interview with ALEXANDER DAN VILHJÁLMSSON

July 22, 2019June 28, 2019 Civilian Reader Interview Alexander Dan Vilhjálmsson, Fantasy, Gollancz, Hrímland, Iceland, Most Anticipated 2019, Shadows of the Short Days, Urban Fantasy

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Alexander Dan Vilhjálmsson?

I am an Icelandic fantasy author, who currently lives in Reykjavík. I write in both Icelandic and English and translate my own work (by necessity).

Your next novel, Shadows of the Short Days, is due to be published by Gollancz in July. It looks really interesting: How would you introduce it to a potential reader? Is it part of a series?

Shadows of the Short Days is set in a fantastical, alternate version of Iceland called Hrímland. The story follows two outcasts, Sæmundur and Garún. Garún is a revolutionary activist slash visual artist, who uses psychoactive, sorcerous graffiti to alter the world. She is fighting for a better society for herself and others who are oppressed by the colonial rules of Hrímland, the Kalmar Commonwealth. Sæmundur is a drug-addicted, outcast galdramaður, a magician who will do anything to reach full mastery and understanding of the extremely dangerous type of magic he practices. Both of them will sacrifice anything to reach their goals, pay any price. Continue reading →

Interview with AMAL EL-MOHTAR and MAX GLADSTONE

July 18, 2019June 24, 2019 Civilian Reader Interview Amal El-Mohtar, Jo Fletcher Books, Max Gladstone, Most Anticipated 2019, Saga Press, Sci-Fi, This is How You Lose the Time War

Let’s start with an introduction: Who are Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone?

AE: Two sentient beings, both alike in dignity, in fair EssEffEff, where we set our — wait maybe that’s too zoomed out. Let’s see. Max is a brilliant superhuman writer, author of The Craft Sequence books (at six and counting!), just-released standalone space opera The Empress of Forever, and head writer of Serial Box’s Bookburners.

MG: And Amal is a world-renowned and award-winning writer, editor, scholar, NYT-published critic, and general badass — her phenomenal “Seasons of Glass and Iron” won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards!

This is How You Lose the Time War, a novel you have written together, will be published in July. It looks really interesting: How would you introduce it to a potential reader?

AE: It’s an epistolary spy vs. spy novella across time and space; think Griffin and Sabine meets Killing Eve by way of Steven Universe. Alternately, imagine if Florence + the Machine’s Lungs was a novella in which all the songs are sung to women in letter-form. Continue reading →

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Year: 2019