Free Stories and Novels/Update
Sep
19
2008

I’ve seen quite a few free stories and novels available the past couple of days so thought I’d post them here in case anyone has missed any of them.

Tor.com has decided to bring back having free e-books available on the site for a limited time. Right now War for the Oaks by Emma Bull and Dogland by Will Shetterly are available for download here. (If you are not a registered user already, you will need to sign up in order to access these.)

Also on Tor.com is a short story by Elizabeth Bear entitled “The Girl Who Sang Rose Madder.”

In honor of International Talk Like A Pirate Day, a story from the forthcoming Fast Ships, Black Sails anthology edited by Jeff and Ann VanderMeer is available as a PDF on the Geekdad Wired Blog – “Boojum” by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear. (As I’m sure anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, those are my two favorite new authors I’ve discovered this year.)

I am reading Hell and Earth, the second part of “The Stratford Man” duology in Elizabeth Bear’s Promethean Age series now, which is even better than the first two books in the series. It’s much more mature and has none of the problems of too many characters that Whiskey and Water had – in fact, the new duology has a rather narrow focus on Christopher Marlowe and Will Shakespeare that works excellently. While the first set of books had more references to mythology, this set has more references to history and literature (but characters such as Puck and Lucifer are still present and the first set of books certainly had a few references to literature and history as well). Either set of books can be read first as long as the two parts are read in the correct order (Blood and Iron followed by Whiskey and Water or Ink and Steel followed by Hell and Earth). I think I would have started with Ink and Steel first since it does take place before the other books and now there are parts I want to reread because of it.

I’m hoping to make some progress on reviewing this weekend since I have no major plans (although I may end up doing some cleaning now that I’ll be home for a weekend finally -ick). The next reviews will be The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia and Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. After I’m done with Hell and Earth I’ll review the duology (which was originally intended to be one book until it grew too long).

Review of The Cipher
Sep
16
2008

The Cipher
by Diana Pharoah Francis
432pp (Paperback)
My Rating: 4.5/10
Amazon Rating: 4/5
LibraryThing Rating: 4.14/5
Goodreads Rating: 3.67/5

The Cipher is the first novel in the Crosspointe series by Diana Pharoah Francis. The next book, The Black Ship, is supposed to be out in November of this year and the third book, tentatively titled The Turning Tide, is in progress. From what I have read about the series in brief descriptions and an even briefer excerpt from the third book, each novel has a different set of characters although they all take place in the fictional world of Crosspointe.

Ever since she was a child, Lucy Rampling has known she has the ability to detect majick. Unfortunately, everyone believed her so-called gift was a ploy for attention except for a stranger who tried to kill nine-year-old Lucy after she asked him about his majickal items. This taught Lucy to keep her talent a secret, although she developed an illegal obsession with collecting ciphers, majickal items created by the famous sorcerer Errol Cipher that often are cursed. One day Lucy senses and seeks out a cipher that attaches itself to her wrist, unable to be removed and invisible to all but Lucy, who becomes more reckless and dangerous the longer she wears it. Even worse, someone has discovered Lucy’s store of ciphers and threatens to reveal their knowledge if she does not agree to do as she’s told. As a member of the royal family that already has a shaky standing in the kingdom and so little funds that they must all work for a living, the consequences of this revelation could be devastating for the Ramplings.

During a particularly bad storm at sea, Lucy finds herself required to take charge as the senior official in the vicinity while she is on duty at her job as a customs inspector. A magical barrier protects Crosspointe from sylveth, majick which changes anything it touches whether alive or inanimate into strange and unique creatures. When sylveth washes up on shore during bad weather, those infected must be killed. Lucy’s friend Jordan stays to aid her and keep her drunk enough to handle it and introduces her to Marten Thorpe, one of the best captains around. Due to his reputation as a gambler and therefore lack of integrity as a human being, Lucy takes an instant dislike to him; however, she will not be able to get rid of Marten’s attentions so easily.


When I picked up The Cipher, I was in the mood for a book that would hold my attention and be easy to read without a lot of mental effort. It certainly suited this purpose in the beginning and kept me reading although it was never what I considered to be a very good book – just a mildly entertaining one.

Lucy begins as a decent character – a determined and hard-working woman in spite of her social status as cousin to the king. Yet she despises Marten for his gambling addiction and considers his illegal actions to mean he is lacking integrity and rather stupid. Considering Lucy’s own unlawful cipher collection, this is rather hypocritical. While hypocrisy is a very realistic human failing, it is one that makes her difficult to like at times. By the time I got to the last 75 pages or so of the book, I found that I no longer cared about what happened to Lucy or Marten and just wanted to be finished with the story.

The romantic aspect of the novel seemed forced and not very believable to me. Lucy is very harsh toward Marten and Marten is a gambling smooth talker. I suppose it was one of those cases where I could see no reason for either of them to like the other. Plus at times the romance was just plain cheesy, such as this conversation during dinner:

“You still look hungry,” she said.

“I am.”

A thrill rippled deliciously over her skin at the smoky desire coloring his voice.

“There’s plenty to eat. Don’t stop on my account.”

Thoughtfully he set down his glass and stood, coming around the table to pull her to her feet. He bent, his breath whispering over her lips. “I am hungry on your account.”

Of course, it leads to passion and kissing and all that, but fortunately scenes such as this one do not actually occur often in the book.

My biggest problem with the book is one I can only be vague about to avoid spoilers: the ending. It was very contrived and far too convenient.

The Cipher begins as a somewhat interesting story but characters who overstay their welcome and a terrible ending ruined this one for me. I will not be reading the other books in the Crosspointe series.

4.5/10

Read the first chapter for free.

Review of Archangel Protocol
Sep
08
2008

Archangel Protocol
by Lyda Morehouse
352pp (Paperback)
My Rating: 8.5/10
Amazon Rating: 4.5/5
LibraryThing Rating: 3.54/5
Goodreads Rating: 3.14/5


Archangel Protocol is the first book in the AngelLINK series by Lyda Morehouse (who also writes the Garnet Lacey series under the name Tate Hallaway). This book is followed by Fallen Host, Messiah Node, and Apocalypse Array, which are supposed to work as stand-alone novels even though they are set in the same universe as the first book. Unfortunately, the books in this series are out of print, although new copies can be found at Dreamhaven (which is where I got my own signed copy of the first book at regular price). Lyda Morehouse is currently writing an AngelLINK prequel called Resurrection Code.

Just after the midway point of the 21st century, the destruction produced by the terrible Medusa bomb led to the official movement of America from a democracy to a theocracy. In a world with drive-through churches in which it is a crime not to belong to some sort of organized religion, the presidential candidates are Rabbi-Senator Grey and Reverend-Senator Letourneau, who is claiming to be the second coming of Christ. These claims appear to be justified with the appearance of the LINK-angels, awe-inspiring angelic beings who appear within the cybernetic virtual reality almost everyone is connected to. Since the LINK-angels cause a strong emotional response when sighted–something that is impossible to do through technology–it is believed that they are a miraculous sign from God.

Deidre McMannus went from being a successful detective to a struggling private eye after her investigative partner Daniel publicly murders the Pope. For the offense of her association with Daniel, Deidre is excommunicated from the Catholic church and disconnected from the LINK, meaning it is hard for her to find work and access to credits. While undergoing a particularly bad day due to the loss of a client, Deidre is visited by a drop-dead gorgeous cop in jeans and black leather by the name of Michael Angelucci. Michael would like to enlist Deidre’s aid in exposing the would-be messiah Letourneau and his supportive LINK-angels as a fraud. In return, he promises to give Deidre access to the addictive LINK.


Archangel Protocol is hard to define since it incorporates a diverse blend of genres – I suppose you could call it a cyberpunk mystery romance socio-religious/political adventure. This is part of what made the book stand out to me since anytime I’ve tried reading cyberpunk before, it has bored me. I tried to read Snow Crash since it was supposed to be a fantastic cyberpunk book and gave up eventually. I struggled through Neuromancer and came away from it with the feeling that it was the longest 200 pages I have ever read. These books were all about the tech and the cool hacker characters that I had no attachment whatsoever to. Yet Archangel Protocol had the cyberpunk feel and the technology as a core component of the story without compromising characters or plot. In addition to this, it had a plausible future scenario containing interesting prospects about the complete removal of the separation of politics and state.

Deidre is a sympathetic character – a social pariah because of a crime she did not commit with a sense of left-over Catholic guilt preventing her from simply joining another religion just to become a part of the real world once again. She even finds some comfort in the preacher who rants outside her window every day since “at least someone thinks I’m worth saving.” Other characters are not as fleshed out as Deidre, but I found them likable in spite of not feeling they were particularly deep. Michael seems like a typical nice guy, but I did find his brother Morningstar intriguing when he did show up.

This book is rather fast-paced and getting involved in the story was effortless. It was one of those books that captured my attention in the first chapter and held it all the way to the end, making it very difficult to put down.

The story is told from the first person perspective of Deidre and the end of each chapter has a newspaper article or other relevant interludes such as political interviews or religious essays. Some of these were serious, others were amusing, but they all added to the story being told and did not feel out of place.

The main complaints I have about this book is that some of the romance did seem a bit cheesy (which is hardly unusual) and although I enjoyed Deidre’s character she did seem to be a bit slow at times. I suppose if such unusual events happened to me, I’d be a bit hesitant to believe it as well, but she had all the pieces of the puzzle at times but later would seem to forget what she had known just a little while ago.

Archangel Protocol is a very enjoyable novel combining a fast-paced plot, a fairly well-developed main character, some romance, religious themes, and a fun mystery.

8.5/10

Review of Wanderlust
Aug
31
2008

Wanderlust
by Ann Aguirre
320pp (Paperback)
My Rating: 8/10
Amazon Rating: 4.5/5
LibraryThing Rating: 5/5
Goodreads Rating: 4.34/5

Wanderlust, which just came out this past Tuesday, is the second book in Ann Aguirre’s Jax series following her debut novel Grimspace. Grimspace did have the distinction of being the most entertaining, easy to get into and most difficult to put down book I had read this year – at least until I read Wanderlust, which I liked even better. Fair warning for those who haven’t read Grimspace yet: some spoilers follow.

After exposing the corruption and deception of the Farwan Corporation, Sirantha has been sequestered from the rest of the crew and questioned for many days. Because of this, she is expecting more interrogation when she is summoned to the conference room. Instead Sirantha finds herself reunited with her telepathic boyfriend March and ship’s mechanic Dina and offered a job as an ambassador for the Conglomerate. If she accepts her first task is convincing the bug-like aliens on Ithiss-Tor to join the Conglomerate, since Sirantha is in the unique position of having befriended one of them, the bounty hunter Velith who was sent to kill her in the last book.

Although ambassador is not Sirantha’s first choice of jobs, it is difficult to refuse the money, especially after discovering her despicable husband wiped out all her funds when she was declared prematurely dead. To further complicate matters, Sirantha’s mother shows up and says someone has threatened to kill her unless her daughter takes the job. The would-be assassins consider Sirantha the only acceptable candidate; they are opposed to Ithiss-Tor joining the Conglomerate, and think Sirantha has an excellent chance of screwing up negotiations. In spite of the danger, Sirantha, March, Dina and Vel begin the journey to Ithiss-Tor with several mishaps along the way.


Wanderlust was never difficult to get into but the earliest chapters did not immerse me into the book quite as quickly as its predecessor did – mainly since there was a lot of recap interspersed with new plot in the first chapter. The viewpoint is first person from Jax’s (often humorous) point of view so when she kept interjecting thoughts that would be very obvious to her by now about March being a telepath or how Kai died, it did not seem natural. Chapter 1 is short, as all the chapters are, and this was not something I noticed much after that so this was a minor quibble, especially considering there was enough introduction to the new book in this section to keep me interested.

Once I got past the first couple of chapters, it was very difficult to put the book down. It’s very fast-paced and I always ended the chapter wanting to read the next one to find out what happened next. Sirantha’s perspective is told in present tense which just adds to the urgency when she or one of the other characters is in danger.

In spite of a lot of action and adventure, this is not a book that is all about the plot and equal time is dedicated Sirantha herself and her relationships with the other crew members. Sirantha, our mouthy, bald, and scarred heroine, has lost a lot and deals with paranoia from being the center of so many conspiracies. She’s tough and sarcastic on the outside but vulnerable to the core. Reading about interaction between the crew members is as much fun as reading about their adventures. Sirantha and Dina are constantly ragging on each other but are obviously good friends in spite of the way they sound. March and Sirantha have a complicated relationship and Vel’s attempts at learning human customs make him quite endearing.

Although the characters are not particularly deep or complex, they are interesting and very likable. Everyone seems to be fighting the demons from their past and present. March had a difficult time adjusting to his telepathic abilities and has a dark side that comes out at times, and Dina was a member of a royal family until her parents and siblings died. In addition to the humans, there are some interesting alien species and one of the more intriguing characters is the bounty hunter Vel, known as a “Slider” because he can wear human skin and slide into someone else’s life, appearing indistinguishable from the real person he’s imitating.

From start to finish, Wanderlust had me hooked with its submergence of fast-paced action, humor, and enjoyable characters. I read this book in a day, which I almost never do anymore, but I always had to read “just one more chapter.” Highly recommended to anyone looking for a light and diverting story that draws you in easily and keeps you reading.

8/10

Read the first chapter online

Reviews of other books in this series:
Grimspace (#1)

Update
Aug
29
2008

After finishing The Cipher one week ago, I’ve finished 3 more books (it helps that I’ve had the last 3 days off from work). Here are the next books I need to review and some short impressions of them:

The Cipher by Diana Pharoah Francis (of course) – This one started off somewhat good (although never that great) but by the end, I really didn’t like it very much at all. I won’t be continuing with the Crosspointe series.

Archangel Protocol by Lyda Morehouse – This is the first in a series I definitely will be continuing with – a cyberpunk story about not just the tech but religion with an interesting female lead and a mystery. Any time I have tried reading cyberpunk I haven’t liked it because the character and story always seemed secondary to the cyberpunk aspect of it but this one didn’t have the same problems.

The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia – A lovely, well written story using the character of an intelligent automaton to explore social inequality.

Wanderlust by Ann Aguirre – I read this in one day. That is something I have not done in forever but this was very difficult to put down. I liked it better than the first book in the series, Grimspace (which I also couldn’t put down). It was very fast paced with lots of adventure yet still had focus on character interaction (this one was more about friendships than the romantic relationship although there was some of that too).

Now I’d better read some longer books while I get caught up on all these…

Iain Banks Q&A
Aug
29
2008

Part two of the Q & A with Iain Banks is up on his site. Readers emailed him questions about the books, writing quirks, video games, and what kind of tattoo based on his books he’d get.

Part one, which was put up in July, is available here. This one has more questions related to the books but if you ever wanted to know what places to visit in Scotland, this is the one to read.