Vicious by V.E.Schwab

I’m a comic book fan from way back. I learned to read in four colors. I spent thousands of dollars of allowance money on the adventures of my favorite heroes and villains up until I graduated high school and moved on to other things. I’ve read a few books in the superhero genre, but they are few and far between. But when I read the blurb for Victoria Schwab’s Vicious, I knew I had to give the book a read. Schwab’s story of two college friends whose quest to become Extra-Ordinary not only changes them both in astonishing ways but propels them toward an eventual collision that is all but guaranteed to leave one of them in the grave. Schwab’s exploration of the nature of good and evil and heroes and villains kept me turning pages into the wee hours and challenged my expectations of the level of realism that can be brought to the four-color genre. 

Round Table: Gender Bias in SF/F Part Two

Life's been pretty hectic lately, but in the best ways possible. I tied the knot two weeks ago and am settling into life with the best wife on the planet. The honeymoon was followed by a trip for a promotional exam for my second job as a martial arts instructor. So between things marital and martial I've had precious little time for anything. But I am finally getting back to my usual schedule. So with out further preamble the second part of the Round Table on Gender Bias in SF/F. I've included my response to the first talking point, which leads into this part of the discussion. A link to first post is
                                            provided below if context is needed.

Gender Bias in SF/F Part One

Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear

Elizabeth Bear is one of those writers who I’ve been meaning to read for a long time. Her body of work is universally well regarded, and many reviewers whose opinion I trust have raved about Range of Ghosts. I’ve recently made a commitment to gender parity in the reviews on the site, and Range of Ghosts was the first title that immediately came to mind. It’s really a shame that I waited this long. Bear turns in a unique and exquisitely layered tale that avoids almost every trope in the epic fantasy handbook without ever risking alienating the entrenched fans of the genre. Bear has vaulted easily onto my list of must read authors with this opening volume of her first foray into epic fantasy.

Gender Bias in SF/F Round Table: Part One

I like top ten lists, they generate a lot of traffic, are fun to write, and don't take a lot of time. So I do one once a quarter or so and they've been very successful, but when I posted my latest Fall Edition, I got a eye opening tweet from a fellow reviewer.

"All men. Had you noticed that?"

In the spirit of honesty and full disclosure, I'll admit that I hadn't. And my first reaction was to be angry that I'd been called on the carpet and to dismiss it out of hand. But once the initial bout of defensiveness wore off ( I'm proud to say it didn't take more than my drive to work) I knew this was something that I needed to talk through. I'm not a person who considers myself a sexist or a some one who marginalize anyone based on any reason of color, gender, or any such identifier. So I reached out to Stina, whose opinion on these matters I have come to greatly respect, and we exchanged some emails that left me feeling slightly embarrassed, a great deal more educated and determined that this topic bears discussion on a public forum.

Interview with Tad Williams

Tad Williams was the first professional to ever ask me if I'd like a review copy. I was hardly getting started, and was astonished when I received Tad's message. That book was The Dirty Streets of Heaven. I was too green and intimidated to ask for an interview that time around, but after reviewing Happy Hour in Hell, I found I had a lot to say about some of the criticism I read. So I thought, I'd ask for an interview and ask Tad about some of those topics. I was ecstatic when he agreed and then intimidated as I wrote the questions. I've done plenty of interviews, but this one was the first with an author I read as a teenager. Just another awesome perk of screaming my opinions into space. Tad was gracious enough to answer my sometimes rambling questions and I hope you enjoy the results. 

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

I've been thinking a lot about rankings lately. Which is odd, because other than my quarterly Trending Ten posts, I spend very little time "ranking" books. I don't use a star rating or 5 point scale on my reviews. I just don't like taking my love of words and turning it into anything more than the most elementary of math. I'll use Goodread's rating system but that's about the long and the short of it. But because of The Shining Girls I'm going to talk about the only criteria that I can come up with that explains what makes a five star book for me.

The Shining Girls is the latest from Lauren Beukes, whose Zoo City won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Novel in 2011. While her latest effort doesn't rely so heavily on genre trappings, reading much more like literary fiction, there are plenty of strange goings on in this dreadfully beautiful mash up of thriller, horror, and speculative tropes. Fans of Stephen King, James Patterson, and Audrey Niffenegger will not want to miss Beukes' nuanced and page turning tale of a time-travelling serial killer and the "shining girls" he is drawn to kill.

Red Country by Joe Abercrombie

A lot of people feel that Joe Abercrombie is the heir apparent, if not the king, of the fantasy genre. I suppose that depends on your world view, reading habits, personal tastes, and the phase of the moon. While I’ve enjoyed Abercrombie’s work, finding the genre subversion, over the top violence, and gallows humor to be an engaging change of pace from the staples of the genre, I don’t know that I could place his work at the top of the genre pyramid. In fact, I put off Red Country for a long time, not in the mood for the bleakness and the grit that I knew it would contain. I feel foolish for that decision now. Red Country showcases all of the things I love about Abercrombie’s work, his deft hand with character and dialogue and a blending of unexpected genre tropes that kept my knuckles tight on the pages for the considerable duration of his exploration of the Western viewed through the grime encrusted lens of his oeuvre.

It’s important to note that I cut my reading teeth on westerns. Though I abandoned the Wild West for Middle Earth and similar environs, I never lost my appreciation for stories of hard men and women prying a life out of a hostile world. Abercrombie shows an masterful understanding of the genre whose trappings he borrows and as expected promptly uses the best of those to turn in a rousing tale, that while not blazing new ground never disappoints.