Further FBS tournament announcement

FBS is (and so am I) proud to present an actual award this year for the winner of the Fantasybookspot 2007 Book Tournament. Yep, just like the Hugo’s, the Nebula’s, the PKD award and every other *official* award show – FBS has one too! I mean, how cool is that?! Certainly looks shiny..

If you want to participate in the upcoming Fantasybookspot tournament (you can!), go here and register an account. See you there on the 9th of March!

The Watchman by Robert Crais (Simon & Schuster)

The Watchman by Los Angeles based Robert Crais, is the first of his novels focusing on Joe Pike, instead of his usual wisecracking ex-Ranger, Elvis Cole. For those not familiar with the American mystery/crime author, Crais has worked on scripts for television shows such as Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey, Quincy, Miami Vice and L.A. Law. His Elvis Cole/Joe Pike novels are numerous; eleven novels featuring the duo have been published up until date. Throughout these novels, the role of his Joe Pike character has mostly been supportive, a secondary to Elvis Cole.

In this novel, set in modern L.A. (note, write what you know best), Joe Pike is faced with the task of protecting the life of Larkin Connor Barkley. Miss Barkley is a young heiress to a rich, multi billionaire father, who’s more intently focused on strengthening his family’s vast empire. As of a result of her negligence, she has been living the wild life, partying 24/7 in the nightclubs littering the city of Angels. Unfortunately, one night she gets caught up in a “wrong place, at the wrong time” situation and soon after find herself running for her life with cold-blooded killers on her tail. To protect her precious ass, Mister soldier of fortune, Joe Pike is wired in. How does a seemingly unrelated person like Joe gets involved, you may ask. Good question. Money ? No, it’s not the money. In fact, Joe doesn’t even want money – like true Soldier of Fortune. If it is not about the bounty, then what is it about? To explain this ‘plot hole’, we need to go back in time. Years ago a certain boy was kidnapped who needed to be tracked down by Pike and Cole. However, it was fairly impossible to do this on their own, so they decided to hire the help of a guy named Jon Stone. The man price’s was simple, one day he would call Joe for a job and Joe had to say yes. That was the price and Joe paid it. Now, when the tide is rising, Jon Stone calls. Joe says yes and rapidly finds himself battling a South American drug-cartel money launderer and his gang. The Department of Justice seems unable to cope with the problem, so Joe Pike is on his own in this tricky situation. No biggie, for a man of Pike’s caliber:

“I qualified as a scout/sniper and served in Force Recon, mostly on long-range reconnaissance teams, hunter/killer teams, and priority target missions. I’m black belt qualified in tae kwon do, kung fu, wing chun, judo and ubawazi. I like to run and work out. I like to read.” (p. 82)

Or is it?

The reason I am spending so much time outlining the plot and the main characters is to show you how ridiculously this all sounds when you analyze it more carefully. Certainly, with this type of action packed story, you need a healthy dose of suspension of disbelief, but even so, there are limits. Robert Crais went right of the charts with this one. From the bat off, the novel didn’t not work for me and it got progressively worse. I might be in the minority here, judging from the unanimous praise the novel got from the Chicago Sun-Times, New York Times and other major newspapers, but I thought the novel was flawed.

Primarily the novel seems to suffer from an inconsistency in the details. When an author leaves many threads hanging or just plainly contradicts himself, this is cause for frustration. For example, Robert Crais spends a lot of time characterizing Joe Pike as the guy who never smiles or talks. His dialogues with other characters are pointy, with short staccato replies. The character Elvis Cole (among others) references more than once to Joe’s typical style of making phone calls. All good and well. Then at page fifty, we find the following scene:

“Cole was building up the sandwiches when Pike’s cell phone rang and Pike brought the phone out to the deck. Cole layered the vegetables onto whole wheat bread, spread the layers with hummus, then placed the sandwiches back in the grill pan to crisp the bread. The running water suddenly stopped and its absence was loud in the silence. A few minutes later, the girl came down to the hall. Pike was still outside with his phone.” (p. 51)

This is just one of the many irritating inconsistencies I’ve encountered in the narrative. Maybe one shouldn’t be bogged down by minor details, but I cannot shut my eyes for them and pretend they don’t exist. Apart from the inconsistency, some details also seem ridiculously out of place. Details such as Joe being a vegetarian or the way Cole’s cat is described, (“The cat blinked as if it was falling asleep, then abruptly licked its penis. Cats are amazing animals.”) are not tuned with action packed plot. Would readers empathize more with Joe Pike if they know he’s a vegetarian? Of course not, it doesn’t have any importance to the overall story.

Related to this is Robert Crais’ failure to create compelling characters. I would not say I had difficulty empathizing with a character caught up in a life-threatening situation, that’s quite easy – just let yourself be sucked right in. No, what I’m alluding to here is how two dimensional Joe is as a character. For more than ten novels, he has been the sidekick and it shows in Robert Crais’ writing. His non-talkative nature doesn’t sit with the character development, as it is in the interaction with other characters, where a character usually displays personality. The essential life-spark was lacking in the dialogues, resulting in a rather lifeless, flat dialogue. Ultimately, it affected the characterization as well, as one can’t just display character purely based on hit and run action scenes without explaining what drives ‘the man behind the wheel’. Maybe sticking with a first person perspective would have been the more suited point of view here, reckoning it’d probably have forced Crais’s hand on the characterization of his protagonist. The attempts Crais did make to focus on Joe Pike’s more vulnerable side seemed contrived and artificial.

Not to mention that most of the cast seemed to fit the mold perfectly. Larkin exactly behaved the way you would expect from a stereotypical, spoiled teenage girl, say a younger version of Paris Hilton. Elvis Cole, partner in crime, wasn’t particularly innovative either. The few chapters ‘airtime’ the character actually had, didn’t do his characterization any good. Instead, it confirmed my earlier assumptions of the staleness of his characterization.

Another weakness of the book had to with the predictable way the story unfolded. I had seen the manner in which the loose plot lines were tied together, coming from miles ago. Rest assured I won’t spoil the read by revealing the plot, but suffice to say, the antagonist was all but given away in one of the early scenes of the book. Also, the novel contains an astonishing number of ‘revelations’, information important to the plot that seemed to pop up out of nowhere. Elvis Cole plucks information of the bad guys right off the internet, John Chen (one of the most atrocious, moronic secondary characters I’ve seen in a while) identifies fingerprints on some guns and then proceed to link the prints to the confidential files of Ecuadorian mobsters, Joe Pike suddenly has some streetwise contact willing to help him out, a guy named Frank Garcia, who happens to be closely connected to the cartels in South-America – just to name a few revelations that completely stopped my suspension of disbelief dead in its tracks. This actually added up to the number of unrealistic, unbelievable details I referred to earlier on.

The only thing I am willing to credit Robert Crais for in this novel, is the pacing. The novel is structured in typical fashion: short hit and run scenes, bursts of dialogue and keeping the action packed chapters down to the minimum length – all to maximize the pace. He did succeed in pulling off a fast read, I clocked it in under four hours (which is quite fast for my standards).

Rounding up this review, I think it is safe to conclude Robert Crais’ The Watchman was an extremely unsatisfying book to read. Even though the pacing was well ‘maximalised’, the rest of the novel fell flat. The novel suffers from countless inconsistencies and small details that are ridiculously out of place in this thriller. Robert Crais also fails to create a compelling protagonist or an interesting cast to go along with. Joe Pike has always been the sidekick and it shows in Robert Crais’ writing. Reading The Watchman is like driving in a Fiat Multipla, you can hit the speed limiter alright but you’ll still be driving in one of the ugliest cars on Earth.

4/10

Michael Cisco interview now up

It almost slipped my mind, but I wanted to let you know the interview with Michael Terry Cisco now up on FBS. Michael Cisco is best known for his first novel, ‘The Divinity Student’, which has won the prestigious of the International Horror Guild Award for Best First Novel of 1999. Other works by Michael Cisco include ‘The Tyrant’ (2003), ‘The San Veneficio Canon’ (2004) and two books published in 2007, ‘The Traitor’ and ‘Secret Hours’. I’m extremely pleased how this interview turned out, couple of people seemed to really enjoyed reading – which is always great to hear. Damon even remarked my “interview flow worked well in this interview”. What are you waiting for? Follow the link through the interstellar cyberspace.

On a related note, while you’re at it, be sure to check out this article written my Mr. Cisco as well. Recommended reading for New Weird readers (just read it in Jeff VanderMeer’s excellent anthology).

It’s a steady job but he wants to be a paperback writer

The hell. For weeks this guy’s quiet, and then all of a sudden three posts pop up in a row. How totally unreliable. Anyway, I thought of some paperback releases I wanted to share with you guys here. Mostly recently purchased material by the Pit too.

For those who have missed it, couple of weeks ago the nominations of this years Philip K. Dick awards were announced. If you missed it, check the list at the usual news source. The list includes a lot of prolific writers like M. John Harrison, Sean Williams, Elizabeth Bear and.. Minister Faust! Well, I had not heard of the latter before so I was eager to find out what his From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain was all about. Turns out it’s essentially a fictional self-help book for Superheroes written by the character Dr. Eva Brain-Silverman a.k.a. Dr. Brain, the world’s leading therapist! Also turns its a science fiction book (no shit — PKD awards), but not really in the usual sense of the word. Insofar as I have gathered from the excerpts posted online of this book, it doesn’t really contain any techno mumble-jumble, that so many (fantasy) fiction fans find hard to grasp. I found the first few scenes to be quite hilarious as well, I must add. The long and the short of it, I bought the book. Couldn’t be any other way.

Another, not entirely mainstream SF/F effort, recently burst unto the scene. I am talking about “The New Weird” anthology published by Tachyon Publications. An brand new anthology edited by Jeff and Ann VanderMeer, I have high hopes for this. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly said of it, “this extremely ambitious anthology will define the New Weird much as Bruce Sterling’s landmark Mirrorshades anthology defined cyberpunk.” Of course, one should take such statements coming from PW with a grain of salt, but I still look forward to reading this. If I recall correctly, Brian mentioned on FBS he had “already written down an entire sheet (front & back) of questions, problems, observations etc.” Looks like there is a lot of stuff in this anthology that can be discussed. Always fun to do.

The Blindsight paperback slated for the fourth of March, is definitely made of Hard SF stuff. Written by Canadian science fiction author and marine-mammal biologist Peter Watts, the book has been described by Charles Stross as “Imagine a neurobiology-obsessed version of Greg Egan writing a first contact with aliens story from the point of view of a zombie posthuman crewman aboard a starship captained by a vampire, with not dying as the boobie prize.” Sounds awesome. On top of that, Blindsight was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel on March 29, 2007. MattD already wrote a lengthy review of it on FBS. I’ll be copping this as soon as it comes out on the streets.

In two days time from now, Del Rey will release the anticipated first volume of their Elric saga collection, Michael Moorcocks famous anti-hero. The first volume, Elric: The Stealer of Souls, will feature the original Elric stories from Science Fantasy magazine, previously published as The Stealer of Souls (1963) and Stormbringer (1977), as well as other material, plus a new introduction and explanatory material. Cover and interior illustrations are provided by John Picacio. Folks over at the westeros.org board have already responded positively.

The third Joe Pitt casebook by Charlie Huston was also published (in the UK that is) about two weeks ago. I am reading Half the Blood of Brooklyn right now and I’m telling you – it’s straight fire. No really, Joe’s back in form, chaining lucky’s, putting bullets in every vampire that stands in his way. Joe has style, Joe has attitude and I’m loving it. If you have not read the book yet, cop this right now or start reading the casebooks by purchasing Already Dead.

That’s it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a flight to catch to Manhattan.

Total body count: 10K

This almost passed by unnoticed. But I have – or rather you have reached the ultimate round number. Ten thousands unique visitors in little more than 7 months. Normally, I don’t give not two cents about blog stats (the reason why I don’t add a fancy blog stat-o-meter to my sidebar) but this is the exception to the rule. Okay I have done it before, but I promise you not to bother anymore from this point on. I would like thank all who have linked to my blog, thanks for all the comments (123 of them) and thanks for stopping by even if you’re not leaving any messages — you’re still being tracked! Big brother & Inner Party are watching you! *insert maniacal laughter here*

But 10K, damn who would have believed that.. Not me.

Halting State by Charles Stross (Ace Books/Orbit UK)

I just posted my review of Charles Stross’ techno thriller Halting State on FBS. Halting State is Charles Stross most recent published effort, published by Ace Books (US) in 2007 and by Orbit (UK) in January of this year. The book features, as you would expect from a science fiction work, a number of speculative technologies, including those that can be characterized as ‘speculative computer technology’. Most notably, virtual server networks over mobile phones are part of that equation. Indeed so, with his latest novel Charles Stross seemed to have tapped into a well of technology that’s rapidly expanding and growing. In a time where virtual MMOs (massive multiplayer online games) have greeted their tenth million active player (World of Warcraft anyone?), it was just a matter of time before these virtual realities would become the subject of interest in speculative fiction works.

Halting State is convincing as work speculating on technology and where it will take us. It offers an unique reading experience in the form of a second person perspective, which is unnerving at first but greatly enjoyable once you’ve gotten out the starting blocks. The novel however pretends to much more than “just” a speculative work but doesn’t really convince as techno thriller. Ultimately this is disappointing, because Charles Stross’ can be a visionary writer when his ideas are not undermined by a lack of care for the other aspects of his novels.

I rated it 7/10. If you’re interested, the full review can be found on FBS.

The FBS good life..

Some interesting stuff over at FBS these days:

- First off, shameless self-advertising. I conducted an interview with Charles Stross about a week ago and posted the result on FBS. We have had him before, way back in 2005, so it was fun to reflect a bit on the times. I specifically asked him some questions on his latest novel ‘Halting State’ (review forthcoming) and his upcoming ode to Heinlein ‘Saturn’s Children’. It was the second real interview I’ve conducted so far, I am pleased with the result. Anyway, check it out.

- Secondly, since you’re at it anyways, be sure to check out Brian’s interview with Allan Guthrie. His (Brian that is) interviews are always a pleasure to read. They have a distinctive conversationalist aspect which is very enjoyable. It was praised by Duane Swierczynski (a “wonderboy” according Mr. Mysterybookspot), describing it as: “The only way to describe Brian Lindenmuth’s recent interview with Al “Sunshine” Guthrie over at FantasyBookSpot.com is that it’s like Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk ‘Til Dawn: it starts out as a sober-minded discussion of noir writing, then about halfway though, all living fuck breaks loose, and you’ve got chainsaws, dead hookers, blowup dolls, and rampant insanity.” I’m telling you, crime is rocking the house. Fo’ sure.

- Thirdly, Craig Gidney reviewed Sacrafice by Sarah Singleton, which was “An edge of the seat y/a fantasy thriller by a supreme prose stylist.” Looking good, I’d have to say.

- Fourthly, Valashain is keeping up the pace with his review of Feist’s Rise of a Merchant Prince. I have never got around reading Feist, nor have I any intention to in the near-future. Feist has always struck me as a mediocre fantasy writer, his work neither very challenging nor groundbreaking. In a period where I’m tackling all the major classics (Animal Farm, Fahrenheid 451, 1984, A Canticle for Leibowitz anyone?) this author just does not interest me much. That is not too say the review is crap, far from it!

- Fifthly and lastly, Sandra Ruttan has a nice review out of Jennifer McMahon’s Promise not to tell. I can’t really comment on it in depth, since I am complete n00b when it comes down to talking mystery (I’m only familiar with Charlie Huston). However, I can recommend you to check it out if you’re not like me. Which is the rest of the world.. Rather nice..

- It appears that I spoke to soon. Lastly, Direach Barimen has a review up of Marcus Sakey’s At the City’s Edge. Like I said, I am a mystery/crime novice (euphemism) but this sounds actually quite good. I am not sure whether I would be bothered as much by the “Sakey seems to enjoy playing with the tried and true plot devices of crime fiction” complaint. Seems like I have yet another title to jolt down on my wishlist. How delightfully frustrating.

* I can’t be accused of doublethink by the telescreens!*

Second annual Fantasybookspot Tournament

For the full announcement, go here.

Anyone who has frequented FBS around this time of the last year, is no stranger to the annual tournaments held there. Each year the books and, more importantly, those people that have read them, duke it out publicly to see who holds the top honors for the year. The best book of the year should be able to stand tall on a pile of beaten books proudly wearing its bloody nose as a badge of honor. Like last year, FBS will be holding two tournaments. There will be a competition for books released in 2007 with 64 entrants. There will also be a competition for some of the classic books in the field with 32 entrants. Each round of the competition will take place over a designated number of days. At the end of each round in the tournament a winner will be determined with the bruised and bloodied moving to the next round and the broken will be left behind to lick their wounds.

The tournament schedule:

All Time Tournament

3/9 – 3/15 – 1st Round
3/16 – 3/22 – 2nd Round
3/23 – 3/29 – Quarterfinal Round
3/30 – 4/5 – Semifinals
4/6 – 4/12 – Championship

2007 Releases Tournament

3/9 – 3/11 – 1st round
3/12 – 3/15 – 2nd round
3/16 – 3/22 – Sweet 16
3/23 – 3/29 – Elite 8
3/30 – 4/5 – Final Four
4/6 – 4/12 – Championship

Winner announced on 4/13

Nominations include:

2007 Tournament

A Betrayal in Winter by Daniel Abraham
Acacia by David Anthony Durham
Axis by Robert Charles Wilson
Black Man/Thirteen by Richard Morgan
Bone Song by John Meaney
Brasyl by Ian McDonald
Butcher Bird by Richard Kadrey
Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge
Dragon Outcast by EE Knight
Dragons of the Highlord Skies by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
Empre of Ivory by Naomi Novik
Fatal Revenant by Stephen Donaldson
Flora Segunda by Ysabeau Wilce
Grey by Jon Armstrong
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
Ice by Valdimir Sorokin
Ilario by Mary Gentle
Ink by Hal Duncan
Interfictions
Jamestown by Matthew Sharpe
Keeping It Real by Justina Robson
Mainspring by Jay Lake
Making Money by Terry Pratchett
Mistborn: Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
Music of Razors by Cameron Rogers
Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff
Nova Swing by M John Harrison
One for Sorrow by Chris Barzak
Orphans Tales: In the Cities of Coin and Spice by Catherynne M. Valente
Pirate Freedom by Gene Wolfe
Postsingular by Rudy Rucker
Powers by Ursula K. Le Guin
Ragamuffin by Tobias Buckell
Reaper’s Gale by Steven Erikson
Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch
Saffron and Brimstone: Strange Stories by Elizabeth Hand
Shadowplay by Tad Williams
Shadowstorm by Paul S Kemp
Silverfish by Dave Lapham
Spaceman Blues: A Love Song by Brian Francis Slattery
Spook Country by William Gibson
Territory by Emma Bull
The Best of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
The Book of Joby by Mark J. Ferrari
The Dark River by John Twelve Hawks
The Dreaming Void by Peter F. Hamilton
The Electric Church by Jeff Somers
The Last Colony by John Scalzi
The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate by Ted Chiang
The Metatemporal Detective by Michael Moorcock
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Orc King by R.A. Salvatore
The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall
The Spiral Labyrinth by Matthew Hughes
The Terror by Dan Simmons
The Traitor by Michael Cisco
The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon
Titans of Chaos by John C. Wright
Un Lun Dun by China Mieville
Under My Roof by Nick Mamatas
White Night by Jim Butcher
Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay

All-time Tournament

5th Head Cerberus by Gene Wolfe
A Case of Conscience by James Blish
A Scanner Darkly by Philip K Dick
Altered Carbon by Richard K Morgan
Canticle of Lebowitz by Walter Miller
Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Gateway (Heechee) by Frederick Pohl
Golden Compass (His Dark Materials) by Phillip Pullman
Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake
Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K LeGuin
Little Big by Jonathan Crowley
Lord of the Light by Roger Zelazny
Lord of the Rings by J R R Tolkien
Master & Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
More Then Human by Theodore Sturgeon
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke
Replay by Ken Grimwood
Sandman by Neil Gaiman
Slaughter House Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Stars my Destination by Alfred Bester
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
The Einstein Intersection by Samuel Delaney
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll
The Physiognomy by Jeffrey Ford
The Warhound and the Worlds Pain by Michael Moorcock
Watchmen by Alan Moore
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Wizards First Rule by Terry Goodkind
Worm Ourboros by E R Eddison

So are you up for the challenge? Are you ready to defend your picks? Go sign up here and participate!

Black Man by Richard Morgan (Gollanzc)

Just posted my review of Richard Morgan’s latest, Black Man, on FBS. Check out what I had to say about the book by clicking here or on the picture on the left.

In short, this what I thought of the book:

Black Man confronts the reader with some interesting issues and draws a parallel with the way in which we now struggle with the human consequences of previous centuries of colonialism. It does bring something new to the table compared to the Kovacs novels. The novel actually satisfies on multiple levels. On one end, it satisfies in telling a compelling story that sticks, but on another also satisfies by digging deeper in character and motive. Either way, you are in for a treat! I consider it one of the best efforts released in 2007 and certainly recommended reading it to every fan of the genre.

I rated it 8.5/10

The review actually had a long time coming. I wasn’t really satisfied with my first draft, it was too chaotic. So I used the ‘peer-to-peer review’ system we have in place on FBS to get some feedback on my review. A couple of members (MattD, Maria, Brian) came up with useful suggestions. With those in mind, I went back and revisioned a lot of paragraphs. The result is, in my humble opinion, one of the more accomplished reviews I have managed to write so far. Of course, mileage may vary – but let me know what you think of it! Drop a line here or in the review comments topic on FBS. Much appreciated!