Author: Civilian Reader

Excerpt: THE WATCHMEN OF ETERNITY by Paul Witcover

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WitcoverP-2-WatchmanOfEternityUKHere is an excerpt from Paul Witcover‘s anticipated sequel to The Emperor of All Things, The Watchmen of Eternity. Published this week by Bantam/Transworld Books in the UK, here’s the synopsis:

In the seventh year of its war against France, England faces threats from abroad and at home, from above – and below. Buoyed by a series of military victories on land and at sea, French forces are gathering for their final push across the Channel. In Scotland, Jacobites loyal to Bonnie Prince Charlie plot to restore the Stuart dynasty to the throne. Beneath the bustling streets of London, a subterranean race prepares to rise. And in the realm known as the Otherwhere – home to dragons, demons and gods – civil war has erupted, causing a great and powerful weapon to be cast into the world. That weapon is a clock – a watch, to be precise, of a size to fit comfortably in a man’s hand…a watch with a taste for blood – a mechanism that contains the doom of all that lives.

Daniel Quare, of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, was sent by his masters to find that deadly time- piece. But he was not alone in his pursuit: both the mysterious thief Grimalkin and the ruthless French spy and assassin Thomas Aylesford were on its trail. But with the help of Lord Wichcote – an aristocrat of many talents and more disguises – Quare succeeded in seizing the watch. But not for long: Aylesford took it from him – and with it, Quare’s hand. And now the French spy is on his way back to his masters, Lord Wichcote lies gravely wounded and Daniel Quare has vanished . . . which would seem to mean that all hope for the world is lost…

Also on CR: Interview with Paul Witcover

And now, on with the excerpt! Continue reading →

Upcoming: CHILDREN OF TIME by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor)

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TchaikovskyA-ChildrenOfTimeUKHot(ish) on the heels of stand-alone fantasy novel Guns of the Dawn, the details of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s first sci-fi novel have emerged! Children of Time is due to be published by Tor Books in the UK in June 2015. To the right is the rather nice cover, and here is the synopsis:

WHO WILL INHERIT THIS NEW EARTH?

The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age – a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind’s worst nightmare. Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?

Also on CR: Interview with Adrian Tchaikovsky; Guest Posts on “Nine Books, Six Years, One Stenwold Maker” and “The Art of Gunsmithing – Writing Guns of the Dawn“; Excerpt from Guns of the Dawn; Reviews of Empire in Black & Gold and The Bloody Deluge

An Interview with LUCY HOUNSOM

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HounsomL-AuthorPicLet’s start with an introduction: Who is Lucy Hounsom? 

I am a hopeless dreamer who spends half her time in other worlds and the other half inside her own head… which is pretty much the same thing. I used to get told off at school for not listening except when we studied English or wrote poems/ stories. You know that loner you saw squandering their lunch break in the library reading Dragonlance? Yeah – that was me. Before then, I was training to be an actress and a dancer at theatre school and I worked a fair bit in the industry. I can’t imagine being an actress now, but that’s what might have happened had I not discovered how much I loved telling stories. Today I live in East Devon on the shores of the Jurassic Coast, dividing my time between writing and bookselling. And occasionally playing the piano.

Your debut novel, STARBORN, was recently published by Tor Books in the UK. How would you introduce the novel to a potential reader? Is it part of a planned series?

Starborn is the first book in a trilogy called Worldmaker, a traditional fantasy with the flavour of Eddings and Canavan. It’s the story of a young woman called Kyndra who discovers that she (and indeed the world as she knows it) might not be all they appear. After a disastrous coming of age ceremony, she finds herself fleeing her home in the company of two strangers, who take her halfway across the world to a hidden subterranean citadel – the home of the fabled Wielders, who can draw upon the energy of the sun and moon. It’s here she begins to uncover a truth long forgotten by everyone except a fanatical sect living in the depths of the citadel and their mysterious leader – a truth inextricably bound up with her own destiny. Continue reading →

Review: A DANGEROUS FICTION by Barbara Rogan (Penguin)

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RoganB-DangerousFictionA publishing industry whodunnit?

When a glamorous literary agent falls prey to a violent stalker, she discovers that the publishing biz can really be murder…

Jo Donovan always manages to come out on top. Originally from the backwoods of Appalachia, she forged a hard path to elegant lunches and parties among New York City’s literati. At thirty-five, she’s the widow of the renowned novelist (and notorious playboy) Hugo Donovan, the owner of one of the best literary agencies in town, and is one of the most sought-after agents in the business. But all this is about to fall apart, as a would-be client turns stalker, a hack shops around a proposal for an unauthorized tell-all biography of Hugo, and a handsome old flame shows up without warning.

Both a seasoned author and a former literary agent herself, Barbara Rogan knows the publishing world from all angles. Fans of Lisa Lutz and Jaqueline Winspear will adore Jo Donovan and Rogan’s wickedly sharp tale that skewers the dangerous fictions we read—and the dangerous fictions we tell ourselves.

This was a pretty interesting novel. I first heard about it years ago, but only recently picked it up at the Strand Bookstore, in New York (easily one of the most overwhelmingly magical places on the planet…). A Dangerous Fiction is a well-written, interesting novel. There was one main weakness, but I nevertheless enjoyed reading it. It’s a must for anyone interested in publishing, too. Continue reading →

Upcoming: CITY OF BLADES by Robert Jackson Bennett

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I loved the first novel in Robert Jackson Bennett‘s new series, City of Stairs. Not long ago, Bennett’s US publisher Crown unveiled their cover for the sequel, City of Blades:

BennettRJ-2-CityOfBladesUS

Today, though, I spotted the UK cover for City of Blades over on Quercus’s website (below). Sadly, fans of the series will have a bit of a wait — the novel is not due to be published until January 2016.

BennettRJ-2-CityOfBladesUK

Here’s the synopsis (from Goodreads):

The city of Voortyashtan was once the domain of the goddess of death, war, and destruction, but now it’s little more than a ruin. General Turyin Mulaghesh is called out of retirement and sent to this hellish place to try to find a Saypuri secret agent who’s gone missing in the middle of a mission, but the city of war offers countless threats: not only have the ghosts of her own past battles followed her here, but she soon finds herself wondering what happened to all the souls that were trapped in the afterlife when the Divinities vanished. Do the dead sleep soundly in the land of death? Or do they have plans of their own?

Also on CR: Interview with Robert Jackson Bennett; Guest post on “City of Stairs & the Super Tropey Fantasy Checklist”; Reviews of City of Stairs and The Company Man

An Interview with STEPHANIE SAULTER

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SaulterS-AuthorPicLet’s start with an introduction: Who is Stephanie Saulter?

She’s Jamaican-born, American-educated, a Londoner by choice. A good cook and a bad singer. Possessor of a career that’s had at least as much to do with what could be learned as what could be earned. The person who never ends up seeing the films that everyone else is talking about, because she stayed home and read a book.

Your novel Binary is due to be published in the US by Quercus in May 2015. It’s the second in your ®Evolution series – how would you introduce the series to a new reader, and what can fans expect from book two?

The ®Evolution trilogy is set in a London of the near future, around a hundred years after a technologically-caused pandemic known as the Syndrome came close to wiping out the entire human species. Genetic engineering of embryos eventually provided immunity and prevented extinction, but with some babies it was taken further, creating a servant class of genetically modified humans known as gems. This continued for generations, until the indenture system was abolished and gems were acknowledged to have at least some of the rights of other humans. The first book, Gemsigns, takes place against the backdrop of the upheaval that follows this decision. The gemtechs are trying to overturn it and reclaim the people they think of as their property; those people are living in freedom for the first time, and fighting to preserve it; there are progressives who want to help them, and religious extremists who want to wipe them out; the norm majority are conflicted, fearful and easily manipulated. It’s an explosive mix. Events pivot around the gems’ charismatic leader, Aryel Morningstar – a woman whose origins and abilities are shrouded in mystery, and who is loved and feared in equal measure. Continue reading →

Guest Review: GUARDS! GUARDS! by Terry Pratchett (Corgi)

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PratchettT-GuardsGuardsUKReviewed by Ryan Frye

“Vimes ran a practised eye over the assortment before him. It was the usual Ankh-Morpork mob in times of crisis; half of them were here to complain, a quarter of them were here to watch the other half, and the remainder were here to rob, importune or sell hotdogs to the rest.”

Insurrection is in the air in Ankh-Morpork. The Haves and Have-Nots are about to fall out all over again. Captain Sam Vimes of the city’s ramshackle Night Watch is used to this. It’s enough to drive a man to drink. Well, to drink more. But this time, something is different – the Have-Nots have found the key to a dormant, lethal weapon that even they don’t fully understand, and they’re about to unleash a campaign of terror on the city. Time for Captain Vimes to sober up.

Many years ago I read my first Terry Pratchett book. I started where I normally start with any author that I’m new to, the beginning. Sad to say, The Color of Magic and I did not find sweet harmony together. Why? Honestly, it was too long ago to remember what exactly it was I didn’t like about that first read, but I stayed away from Pratchett for a number of years, only to return again a few years later for another shot at this vaunted author. My reread of The Color of Magic went much like the first, and I left feeling sort of ambivalent towards the whole Discworld thing.

Through the passage of years, and my involvement in blogging, online forums, twitter, and the like, I’ve become increasingly aware of the fact that the lack of Pratchett-penned novels has left a gaping hole in my fantasy reading resume. With Pratchett’s recent passing I was inspired by the vast outpouring of love towards this man to give his work a third and final shot. If things didn’t work out on the third try…well, sorry Sir, three strikes and you’re out.

Going in, I knew I needed to take a different approach. I sure as hell wasn’t gonna read The Color of Magic again. I needed to move on to different pastures…

The Light Fantastic was out, since that is the sequel to The Color of Magic. Not going there. I kept moving chronologically, reading synopses until I read the blurb for Guards! Guards!, and I knew I had my next Terry Pratchett read. Continue reading →

Mini-Review: CALIFORNIA by Edan Lepucki (Little, Brown)

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LepuckiE-CaliforniaUKPBAn interesting, different dystopian novel

The sunshine state lies in darkness.

Los Angeles is in ruins, left to the angels now.

And the world Cal and Frida have always known is gone.

Cal and Frida have left the crumbling city of Los Angeles far behind them. They now live in a shack in the wilderness, working side-by-side to make their days tolerable despite the isolation and hardships they face. Consumed by fear of the future and mourning for a past they can’t reclaim, they seek comfort and solace in one other. But the tentative existence they’ve built for themselves is thrown into doubt when Frida finds out she’s pregnant. 

Terrified of the unknown but unsure of their ability to raise a child alone, Cal and Frida set out for the nearest settlement, a guarded and paranoid community with dark secrets. These people can offer them security, but Cal and Frida soon realise this community poses its own dangers. In this unfamiliar world, where everything and everyone can be perceived as a threat, the couple must quickly decide whom to trust.

Edan Lepucki’s debut rocketed to the top of bestseller lists when it received the Colbert Bump — in the midst of the Hachette-Amazon feud, Stephen Colbert mentioned the novel as a debut that people should check out, but one that was not available to pre-order (very important for debuts) because of the ongoing battle between the retailer and publisher. As a fan of dystopian fiction, I was naturally intrigued. It’s taken me a while to get around to reading it, though. It’s an interesting take on the sub-genre, with some interesting things to say, too. Continue reading →

Interview with MICHAEL ALAN NELSON

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NelsonMA-AuthorPicLet’s start with an introduction: Who is Michael Alan Nelson?

I grew up in a small farming community in northern Indiana. Lots of corn and woods and swamp, but not much else. However, we lived about ninety minutes from downtown Chicago, so my parents would make sure to get me into the city now and again to remind me there was a larger world out beyond the seemingly endless cornfields. It was actually a nice place to be. I got to experience that stereotypical “small town” life (for all its good and ills) and yet still be exposed to a large, diverse world beyond my back yard. I would spend a Saturday helping my dad cut down trees and split wood (we heated our home with a wood burning stove) and then head into the city on Sunday to visit Adler Planetarium or the Field Museum–though, to be honest, I much preferred the museums to splitting wood.

I was also a bit of a kid-of-all-cliques when I was growing up. I was always shy so people never paid much attention to me. That allowed me to occupy this odd space that floated between several different social strata. I was in theater, competed on the speech team, but I was also a varsity wrestler. Of course, sometimes I would skip practice to play Dungeons&Dragons. When I was supposed to be working on takedowns, I’d be in the bed of a pick-up truck parked in some random cornfield rolling for initiative. Needless to say, I didn’t have a very promising wrestling career. Continue reading →

Upcoming from Jo Fletcher Books/Quercus…

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Here are just a handful of interesting titles coming out soon (and a couple not-so-soon) from Jo Fletcher Books/Quercus. We’re really living in a new golden age of fiction, if you ask me…

HairD-PyreDavid Hair, PYRE (JFB UK, June 4th, 2015)

Mandore, Rajasthan, 769 AD: Ravindra-Raj, the evil sorcerer-king, devises a deadly secret ritual, where he and his seven queens will burn on his pyre, and he will rise again with the powers of Ravana, demon-king of the epic Ramayana. But things go wrong when one queen, the beautiful, spirited Darya, escapes with the help of Aram Dhoop, the court poet. 

Jodhpur, Rajasthan, 2010: At the site of ancient Mandore, teenagers Vikram, Amanjit, Deepika and Rasita meet and realize that the deathless king and his ghostly brides are hunting them down. As vicious forces from the past come alive, they need to unlock truths that have been hidden for centuries, and fight an ancient battle… one more time.

A new novel by the author of the Moontide Quartet series – so far including Mage’s Blood, Scarlet Tides and Unholy War. The Moontide Quartet is also published in the US by Quercus.

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masquerade.inddTrevor Hoyle, THE LAST GASP (JFB UK, April 2016)

It began with the Tokyo Alert – men, women and children collapsing on the street, gasping through blackened lips for the world’s most vital resource: air. 

Man-made pollution has poisoned the oceans and eaten through a crucial link in the planet’s life-support system. The seas that recycle the world’s air have reached saturation point and the supply is running out, fast. 

Now a breakaway group of men and women from corrupt institutions in America and Russia must work together to find a solution before Environmental war destroys the Earth completely. 

This edition of The Last Gasp is a rewritten version of the 1983 novel. (This means the novel is as old as I am… Which, strangely, makes me want to read it more.) It would be really interesting to do a comparison of the two versions.

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LineyP-3-InConstantFearUKPeter Liney, IN CONSTANT FEAR (JFB UK, August 6th, 2015)

Over a year has passed since Clancy and the gang managed to escape from the hell that was the City. Pursued by the ruthless leader of Infinity – the corporation behind the mass murders of thousands of ‘lower class’ citizens – they’ve been on the run ever since; constantly looking over their shoulders. 

Despite this, they have forged a new life working the land on an abandoned smallholding on the other side of the mountains. Hidden there, they are as close to happy as they can be. 

Until strange things start to happen in the valley: too many unlucky coincidences convince them that another power is rising against them, and there are many questions to be answered: what is the shadow maker? And who – or what – has begun to howl in the night?

This is the third novel in Liney’s dystopian series, following The Detainee and Into the Fire. Liney’s series is published in the US by Quercus US.

Also on CR: Interview with Peter Liney; Guest Post on “Seeds in the Desert”; Excerpt from The Detainee

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SaulterS-R2-BinaryUSStephanie Saulter, BINARY (Quercus US, May 5th, 2015)

Zavcka Klist has reinvented herself: no longer the ruthless gemtech enforcer determined to keep the gems they created enslaved, she’s now all about transparency and sharing the fruits of Bel’Natur’s research to help gems and norms alike. 

Neither Aryel Morningstar nor Dr. Eli Walker are convinced that Klist or Bel’Natur can have changed so dramatically, but the gems have problems that only a gemtech can solve. In exchange for their help, digital savant Herran agrees to work on Klist’s latest project: reviving the science that drove mankind to the brink of extinction. 

Then confiscated genestock disappears from a secure government facility, and the more DI Varsi investigates, the closer she comes to the dark heart of Bel’Natur and what Zavcka Klist is really after-not to mention the secrets of Aryel Morningstar’s own past…

The second novel in the marvellous Revolution series coming out in the US! This is a great series, and a must-read for all. Quercus US also publishes the first novel, Gemsigns.

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SaulterS-R3-RegenerationUKStephanie Saulter, REGENERATION (JFB UK, August 6th, 2015)

The gillungs – waterbreathing, genetically modified humans – are thriving. They’ve colonised riverbanks and ports long since abandoned to the rising seas and the demand for their high-efficiency technologies is growing fast. 

But as demand grows, so do fears about their impact on both norm businesses and the natural environment. 

Then, a biohazard scare at Sinkat, their colony on the Thames, fuels the opposition and threatens to derail the gillungs’ progress. But was it an accident, or was it sabotage? 

DCI Sharon Varsi has her suspicions, but her investigations are compromised by family ties. And now there is a new threat: Zavcka Klist is about to be released from prison – and she wants her company back.

The third novel in the Revolution series, out soon in the UK — Gemsigns and Binary also published in the UK by Jo Fletcher Books.

Also on CR: Review of Gemsigns; Guest Post on “Influences & Inspirations”; Excerpt from Gemsigns