Interview with SARA B. ELFGREN and MATS STRANDBERG

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Let’s start with an introduction: Who are Sara B. Elfgren and Mats Strandberg?

Sara: I was born in 1980 in Stockholm, Sweden and I still live here. I surround myself with books. I tend to rant about stuff I love, and stuff that annoys me. What We Do in the Shadows made me laugh and I saw it twice in the cinema. I like people who are empathetic and sarcastic.

Mats: Well, I am 38. I grew up in a small town with some similarities to Engelsfors, minus the apocalypse. I now live in Stockholm. I watch way too much reality TV. I am horrible at remembering people’s names and it’s very embarrassing. I never finish books that I don’t like after 100 pages.

The third novel in your Engelsfors trilogy, The Key, will be published in the UK by Hammer in January 2015. How would you introduce the series to a potential reader, and what can fans of the first two novels expect here?

Mats: The trilogy is about six very different girls, who find out that they are witches, and have to work together to stop the apocalypse.

Sara: Meanwhile, they have do deal with the problems of their everyday lives: parents, partners, friends, bullies and homework. In The Key, the fans can expect answers to all the big, and many of the little, questions. The plot will thicken… Continue reading →

Review: THE PROVIDENCE OF FIRE by Brian Staveley (Tor)

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StaveleyB-CUT2-ProvidenceOfFireUKAn excellent sequel to The Emperor’s Blades

War is coming, secrets multiply and betrayal waits in the wings…

The Annurian Empire’s ruling family must be vigilant, as the conspiracy against them deepens. Having discovered her father’s assassin, Adare flees the Dawn Palace in search of allies. But few trust her, until she seems marked by the people’s goddess in an ordeal of flame.

As Adare struggles to unite Annur, unrest breeds rival armies – then barbarian hordes threaten to invade. And unknown to Adare, her brother Valyn has fallen in with forces mustering at the empire’s borders. The terrible choices they face could make war between them inevitable.

Fighting his own battles is their brother Kaden, rightful heir to the Unhewn Throne, who has infiltrated the Annurian capital with two strange companions. While imperial forces prepare to defend a far-distant front, Kaden’s actions could save the empire, or destroy it.

Coming so soon after my review for the first book in the series, it’s a little tricky to think of how to write this review. Most of what I loved about The Emperor’s Blades is true for The Providence of Fire: Staveley’s writing and storytelling are great, his characters interesting and nuance. However, all of these elements have improved for this second novel. If you haven’t read Staveley yet, then you are missing out. This is a must read series. Continue reading →

Excerpt: THE PROVIDENCE OF FIRE by Brian Staveley (Tor)

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As I prep this post, I’m in the middle of reading Brian Staveley‘s debut, The Emperor’s Blades – the first novels in the author’s Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne series. It’s certainly very good. It’s sequel, The Providence of Fire is now out in the UK and North America, published by Tor Books. To whet your appetites, Tor has allowed me to share this excerpt from the first chapter. But first, here’s the synopsis:

War is coming, secrets multiply and betrayal waits in the wings…

The Annurian Empire’s ruling family must be vigilant, as the conspiracy against them deepens. Having discovered her father’s assassin, Adare flees the Dawn Palace in search of allies. But few trust her, until she seems marked by the people’s goddess in an ordeal of flame.

As Adare struggles to unite Annur, unrest breeds rival armies – then barbarian hordes threaten to invade. And unknown to Adare, her brother Valyn has fallen in with forces mustering at the empire’s borders. The terrible choices they face could make war between them inevitable.

Fighting his own battles is their brother Kaden, rightful heir to the Unhewn Throne, who has infiltrated the Annurian capital with two strange companions. While imperial forces prepare to defend a far-distant front, Kaden’s actions could save the empire, or destroy it.

Now, on to the excerpt! Continue reading →

Quick Chat with DAVE BARA

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BaraDave-AuthorPicLet’s start with an introduction: Who is Dave Bara?

Honestly, I’m a just guy who was pretty much born to write science fiction. My earliest memories are of watching the Gemini and Apollo missions on TV, plus Star Trek, Lost In Space, Outer Limits, Twilight Zone. I was always fascinated with space and science fiction, so it seems like it was my destiny to write it.

Your debut, IMPULSE, will be published by DAW Books in February in the US. How would you introduce the novel to a potential reader? Is it part of a series?

It is part of a series, of which Starbound will be the second volume in early 2016 and Defiant will be the third. If I was introducing it I’d say it’s character-driven SF/action-adventure, the kind of thing I like to read. If you’re into space opera and military SF, you’ll probably love Impulse. Continue reading →

New Books (Jan-Feb 2015)

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Featuring: Dave Bara, J.L. Bourne, Peter V. Brett, Patricia Briggs, Royce Scott Buckingham, Ally Carter, Sara B. Elfgren, Chris Evans, Neil Gaiman, Wayne Gladstone, Erika Johansen, Caitlin Kittredge, Michael Moorcock, Naomi Novik, Mats Strandberg, Mark Stay, E.J. Swift, Erika Swyler, Ian Tregillis, Ben Tripp, Will Wiles, Dick Wolf Continue reading →

Q&A with MELISSA PIMENTEL

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PimentelM-AuthorPic2Although Love By The Book is a novel, the premise comes from an experiment that you conducted in your own life, that you turned into a blog called “Love by the Book.” What made you want to try this and how did you come up with the idea?

The idea came after a year of semi-successful dating in London. I’d come out of a serious relationship the year before (a marriage, in fact) so I wasn’t looking for anything remotely serious… and yet every time I tried to convey that to a guy, they seemed to think I was trying to trick them. It was getting annoying, so when the idea came to me to try these different dating guides – and effectively turn my love life into a science experiment – it instantly appealed. I’ve always thought that dating should be fun – when I was in college, I used to play a game called “wrong or funny” with my roommate in which we’d get ourselves in slightly awkward/controversial situations with guys and then ask each other if the situation was wrong or funny (the best ones were both) – so this felt like killing two birds with one stone: making a game out of dating and also (maybe, hopefully) learning something about male behavior along the way.

Why did you decide to write this as a novel and not as a memoir?

In truth, I ran out of material! The real-life experiment was going really well for a few months. It was fun (if exhausting) and the blog was starting to get some traction… but then lo and behold, I went on a first date with one of the test subjects and fell in love. It was sort of a double-edged sword: on the one hand, I was happy to have met the love of my life (we’re now engaged) but on the other, I was kind of annoyed that I had to give up the project. I actually tried to keep it going for the first month we were together, but it was getting too weird. An editor at Penguin who had been following the blog suggested a try to fictionalize it, and here we are! Continue reading →

Review: THE EMPEROR’S BLADES by Brian Staveley (Tor)

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Staveley-1-TheEmperorsBladesUKA superb, must-read debut epic fantasy

The circle is closing. The stakes are high. And old truths will live again…

The Emperor has been murdered, leaving the Annurian Empire in turmoil. Now his progeny must prepare to unmask a conspiracy. His son Valyn, training for the empire’s deadliest fighting force, hears the news an ocean away. And after several ‘accidents’ and a dying soldier’s warning, he realizes his life is also in danger. Yet before Valyn can act, he must survive the mercenaries’ brutal final initiation.

The Emperor’s daughter, Minister Adare, hunts her father’s murderer in the capital. Court politics can be fatal, but she needs justice. Lastly Kaden, heir to the empire, studies in a remote monastery. Here, the Blank God’s disciples teach their harsh ways, which Kaden must master to unlock ancient powers. But when an imperial delegation arrives, has he learnt enough to keep him alive, as long-hidden powers make their move?

There was much hype around The Emperor’s Blades when it was released last year. Naturally, being the ornery and difficult fellow, I decided to wait. And wait. As the weeks passed, I became distracted by other things and other new books. Then I moved to Canada. After the arrival of the sequel, The Providence of Fire, I decided I had waited long enough, and started reading The Emperor’s Blades (wow, that was one long, convoluted tale that was utterly unimportant and uninteresting…). And then I kept reading. Well into the night, multiple times. With only a couple of niggles, I can sum things up thus: Believe the hype. This is a great novel and the beginning of something special. Continue reading →

Guest Post: “Thinking Like A Monkey” by Gareth L. Powell

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PowellGarethL-AuthorPicOne of the largest challenges I faced while writing my ‘Macaque’ trilogy (Ack-Ack Macaque, Hive Monkey and Macaque Attack – all published by Solaris Books) was in writing chapters and scenes from the point of view of my main character.

Ack-Ack Macaque really is a monkey. He’s not a guy in a rubber suit. So, I felt duty bound to make him act like one. I had to imagine how a monkey (even a monkey whose intelligence has been boosted to human-like levels by artificial implants) would react in given situations and interact with the other characters in the book.

For instance, early in the first book, he warns somebody he’s just met not to smile at him, as, to a monkey, baring one’s teeth can be a challenge, as can sustained eye contact.

“Don’t take it personally,” he says. “It’s a primate thing.” Continue reading →

Excerpt: KING OF MORNING, QUEEN OF DAY by Ian McDonald (Open Road)

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McDonald-KingOfMorningQueenOfDayORAvailable in as an eBook via Open Road Media, today we have an excerpt from Ian McDonald‘s King of Morning, Queen of Day. Here’s the synopsis:

Winner of the Philip K. Dick Award and the Prix Imaginales: Three generations of women share a mysterious power—one that threatens to destroy them.

In early-twentieth-century Ireland, life for Emily Desmond is that of the average teenage girl: She reads, she’s bored with school, and she has a powerful imagination. Then things begin to change. Her imagination is so powerful, in fact, that she wills a faerie into existence—an ability called mythoconsciousness. It’s this power that opens a dangerous door that she will never want to close, and whose repercussions will reverberate across time.

First to be affected is her daughter, Jessica, who, in the mid-1930s, finds that she must face her mother’s power by using the very same gift against her. Then, in the near future, Jessica’s granddaughter, Enye, must end the cycle once and for all—but it may prove too powerful to overcome.

The novel is currently part of Open Road Media’s “Coming of Age” eBook promotion. Continue reading →

Cover: KILLING PRETTY by Richard Kadrey (Voyager)

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I’m a big fan of Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim series, and I just stumbled across the cover for the seventh novel, Killing Pretty. Due to be published in July 2015 by Voyager Books in the UK and US, I was unable to find a synopsis… Nevertheless, here’s the cover, which continues the very cool, vintage-pulp movie poster feel:

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Also on CR: Reviews of Sandman Slim, Kill the Dead, Aloha From Hell, Devil in the Dollhouse, Devil Said Bang, Kill City Blues, The Getaway God, Killing Pretty