Author: Civilian Reader

Very Quick Review: THE TUSKS OF EXTINCTION by Ray Nayler (Tor.com)

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NaylerR-TusksOfExtinctionUSHCAn intriguing, intelligent, and empathetic “eco-thriller”

When you bring back a long-extinct species, there’s more to success than the DNA.

Moscow has resurrected the mammoth, but someone must teach them how to be mammoths, or they are doomed to die out, again.

The late Dr. Damira Khismatullina, the world’s foremost expert in elephant behavior, is called in to help. While she was murdered a year ago, her digitized consciousness is uploaded into the brain of a mammoth.

Can she help the magnificent creatures fend off poachers long enough for their species to take hold?

And will she ever discover the real reason they were brought back?

Ray Nayler’s novel The Mountain in the Sea has been generating a lot of buzz since its publication, and racked up a number of award wins and nominations (most recently, the Locus Best First Novel Award). When The Tusks of Extinction popped up available for review, I thought it would be a good introduction to the author’s work, and I dove in as soon as I got it. I’m happy to report that I enjoyed it, and it’s a well-written and engaging eco-mystery. Continue reading →

Very Quick Review: STARTER VILLAIN by John Scalzi (Tor)

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ScalziJ-StarterVillainUSHCSo you suddenly find yourself in charge of an evil corporation…

Inheriting your uncle’s supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who’s running the place.

Charlie’s life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.

Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.

But becoming a supervillain isn’t all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they’re coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.

It’s up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyper-intelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.

In a dog-eat-dog world… be a cat.

An entertaining and unusual fish-out-of-water story about a man who inherits his uncle’s evil empire. Fast-paced, amusing, and starring some cats, I enjoyed this.
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Quick Review: THE ENGLISH EXPERIENCE by Julie Schumacher (Doubleday)

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SchumacherJ-EnglishExperienceUSHCProfessor Jason Fitger returns for another academic misadventure

Jason Fitger may be the last faculty member the dean wants for the job, but he’s the only professor available to chaperone Payne University’s annual “Experience: Abroad” (he has long been on the record objecting to the absurd and gratuitous colon between the words) occurring during the three weeks of winter term. Among his charges are a claustrophobe with a juvenile detention record, a student who erroneously believes he is headed for the Caribbean, a pair of unreconciled lovers, a set of undifferentiated twins, and one young woman who has never been away from her cat before.

Through a sea of troubles — personal, institutional, and international — the gimlet-eyed, acid-tongued Fitger strives to navigate safe passage for all concerned, revealing much about the essential need for human connection and the sometimes surprising places in which it is found.

This is one of my most-anticipated novels of the year. The first two in the series — Dear Committee Members and The Shakespeare Requirement — are superb, and among my favourite reads of their respective release years, but also (in the case of the first) more generally. As I had no doubt that I would, I really enjoyed this. Continue reading →

Quick Review: A STROKE OF THE PEN by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday/Harper)

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PratchettT-AStrokeOfThePenUKHCAn interesting collection of early Pratchett pseudonymous stories

Far away and long ago, when dragons still existed and the only arcade game was ping-pong in black and white, a wizard cautiously entered a smoky tavern in the evil, ancient, foggy city of Morpork…

A truly unmissable, beautifully illustrated collection of unearthed stories from the pen of Sir Terry Pratchett: award-winning and bestselling author, and creator of the phenomenally successful Discworld series.

Twenty early short stories by one of the world’s best loved authors, each accompanied by exquisite original woodcut illustrations.

These are rediscovered tales that Pratchett wrote under a pseudonym for newspapers during the 1970s and 1980s. Whilst none are set in the Discworld, they hint towards the world he would go on to create, containing all of his trademark wit, satirical wisdom and fantastic imagination.

Meet Og the inventor, the first caveman to cultivate fire, as he discovers the highs and lows of progress; haunt the Ministry of Nuisances with the defiant evicted ghosts of Pilgarlic Towers; visit Blackbury, a small market town with weird weather and an otherworldly visitor; and go on a dangerous quest through time and space with hero Kron, which begins in the ancient city of Morpork…

This is an enjoyable collection of short stories by Pratchett, originally published while he was still working as a journalist, and before his published his first novels. They offer a fascinating glimpse at an author experimenting with his craft and voice. This is a must for Pratchett fans. Continue reading →

Upcoming: ALIEN CLAY by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor UK)

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TchaikovskyA-AlienClayUKHCI stumbled across Alien Clay while looking for a different book by Adrian Tchaikovsky, but it should come as no surprise to anyone who’s been following CR for even a short while that I am a big fan of the author’s work, so it is always nice to learn of another upcoming book! This is obviously now on my Most Anticipated in 2024 list. Due to be published next year in the UK by Tor Books, here’s the synopsis for this “thrilling far-future adventure”:

The planet of Kiln is where the tyrannical Mandate keeps its prison colony, and for inmates the journey there is always a one-way trip. One such prisoner is Professor Arton Daghdev, xeno-ecologist and political dissident. Soon after arrival he discovers that Kiln has a secret. Humanity is not the first intelligent life to set foot there.

In the midst a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem are the ruins of a civilization, but who were the vanished builders and where did they go? If he can survive both the harsh rule of the camp commandant and the alien horrors of the world around him, then Arton has a chance at making a discovery that might just transform not only Kiln but distant Earth as well.

Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Alien Clay is due to be published by Tor Books in the UK, on March 28th, 2024. No information about a North American publisher, at time of writing, but many of the author’s previous novels have been published across the Pond by Orbit Books.

Also on CR: Interview with Adrian Tchaikovsky (2012); Guest Posts on “Nine Books, Six Years, One Stenwold Maker”, “The Art of Gunsmithing — Writing Guns of the Dawn“, “Looking for God in Melnibone Places: Fantasy and Religion”, and “Eye of the Spider”; Excerpt from Guns of the Dawn; Reviews of Empire of Black & Gold, Guns of the Dawn, Children of Ruin, Spiderlight, Ironclads, Made Things, Shards of Earth, One Day All This Will Be Yours, and Ogres

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Quick Review: MOTHER NATURE by Jamie Lee Curtis, Russell Goldman & Karl Stevens (Titan Comics)

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CurtisJL-MotherNatureHorror meets environmentalism, against a backdrop of personal & family struggle

After witnessing her engineer father die in mysterious circumstances on one of the Cobalt Corporation’s experimental oil extraction projects, Nova Terrell has grown up to hate the seemingly benevolent company that the town of Catch Creek, New Mexico, relies on for its livelihood and, thanks to the “Mother Nature” project, its clean water.

Haunted by her father’s death, the rebellious Nova wages a campaign of sabotage and vandalism on the oil giant’s facilities and equipment, until one night she accidentally makes a terrifying discovery about the true nature of the “Mother Nature” project and the malevolent, long-dormant horror it has awakened, and that threatens to destroy them all.

This is Oscar-winner Jamie Lee Curtis’s first graphic novel, co-authored by Russell Goldman, and with artwork by Karl Stevens. Adapted from a screenplay Curtis wrote, it’s an intriguing mystery/horror story about family, environmentalism, exploitation, and more. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I rather enjoyed this. Continue reading →

Upcoming: THE LAST DAYS OF THE MIDNIGHT RAMBLERS by Sarah Tomlinson (Flatiron)

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TomlinsonS-LastDaysOfTheMidnightRamblersUSHCIt’s always interesting to see how a smash-hit book can spur the rise of a mini-genre, and there’s no denying that Taylor Jenkins-Reid’s Daisy Jones & the Six generated a lot of interest in music-related fiction. As a long-time music fan/obsessive, I naturally am very taken by the genre — not only is Daisy Jones… one of my recent favourites, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed many other novels that have popped up in the sub-genre (e.g., Emma Brodie’s Songs in Ursa Major). So, I’m always on the look-out for more music-related fiction.

In The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers, due out in February 2024, Sarah Tomlinson takes an intriguing new approach to the genre. Here’s the synopsis:

Three Rock & Roll icons. Two explosive tell-all memoirs. One ghostwriter caught in the middle.

Anke Berben is ready to tell all. A legendary model and style icon, she reveled in headline-grabbing romances with not one but three members of the hugely influential rock band the Midnight Ramblers. The band members were as famous for their backstage drama as for their music, and Anke is the only one who fully understands the tangled relationships, betrayals, and suspicions that have added to the Ramblers’ enduring appeal and mystique. That is most evident in the mystery around Anke’s role in the death of Mal, the band’s founder and Anke’s husband, in 1969.

When Mari Hawthorn accepts the job to work with Anke on her memoir, she is dead set on getting to the truth of Mal’s death. She has always been deft at navigating the fatal charms of celebrities, having grown up with a narcissistic, alcoholic father. As she ingratiates herself into the world of the band, she grows enchanted, against her better judgment, by these legendary rock stars. She knows she can’t get pulled in too deep, otherwise she’ll compromise her objectivity — and her integrity.

Love the premise, and am very much looking forward to reading this.

Sarah Tomlinson’s The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers is due to be published by Flatiron Books in North America and in the UK, on February 13th, 2024.

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Upcoming: TOMORROW’S CHILDREN by Daniel Polansky (Angry Robot)

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PolanskyD-TomorrowsChildrenI’ve been a fan of Daniel Polansky‘s writing ever since I read an early review copy of 2011’s Straight Razor Cure (Low Town in North America). The Low Town trilogy remains one of my favourite fantasy trilogies, and each new novel (or novella) by the author has been a must-read for me. Early next year, Angry Robot Books are due to publish the author’s latest novel, Tomorrow’s Children — as it happens, one that falls in a sub-genre that is also very much of interest to me: post-apocalyptic New York City. Here’s the synopsis:

A high-octane post-apocalyptic romp set in the ruins of Manhattan

Tomorrow, the funk descends on Manhattan – a noxious cloud which separates the island from the rest of the world and mutates the population.

Some generations on, the surviving population exists amid the rubble of modernity, wearing our cast-off clothing, worshipping celebrities as dim gods and using emojis in place or written language. The Island exists in a state of uneasy peace, with each neighborhood an independent fiefdom, protecting itself with scrap metal spears and Molotov cocktails.

But something new has come to the Island, the first tourist in centuries, and this uneasy equilibrium is about to shatter…

I’m really looking forward to reading this.

Daniel Polansky’s Tomorrow’s Children is due to be published by Angry Robot Books in North America and in the UK, on February 27th, 2024.

Also on CR: Interview with Daniel Polansky (2011); Reviews of Straight Razor Cure, Tomorrow the Killing, She Who Waits, A City Dreaming, The Builders, and The Seventh Perfection

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Very Quick Review: THE ROAD TO DALTON by Shannon Bowring (Europa Editions)

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BowringS-RoadToDaltonUSHCsmAn excellent novel about the lives, loves, and secrets that make up a small town community

It’s 1990, and the lives of the inhabitants of Dalton, Maine play on.

Rose goes to work at the diner every day, her bruises hidden from both the customers and her two young boys. At a table she waits, Dr. Richard Haskell looks back on the one choice that’s charted his entire life, before his thoughts wander back to his wife, Trudy, and her best friend.

Trudy and Bev have been friends for longer than they can count, and something more than lovers to each other for some time now — a fact both accepted and ignored by their husbands. Across town, new mother Bridget lives with her high school sweetheart Nate, and is struggling with postpartum after a traumatic birth. And nearer still is teenager Greg, trying to define the complicated feelings he has about himself and his two close friends.

In most small towns, the private is also public. When one of Dalton’s own makes an unthinkable decision, the community is left reeling. In the aftermath, their problems, both small and large, reveal a deeper understanding of the lives of their neighbors, and remind us that no one is exactly who you think they are.

The Road to Dalton offers valuable understandings of what it means to be alive in the world — of pain and joy, conflict and love, and the endurance that comes from living.

A very quick review, today, for Shannon Bowring’s debut novel, The Road to Dalton. It’s the story of a small town in Maine, told in linked chapters, each told from the perspective of a different town resident. I really enjoyed this. Continue reading →

New Books (August)

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Featuring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Matt Gallagher, Andrew J. Graff, Janice Hallett, Lindsay Lynch, Claire North, Megan O’Keefe, Joe Pitkin, Terry Pratchett, Douglas Preston, Richard Russo, A. J. Ryan, Nicolas Shakespeare, David Swinson

Continue reading →