New Book Discussion!

I've posted the latest book discussion over at the unofficial DAW Books blog (dawbooks)! We're looking at Irene Radford's third Children of the Dragon Nimbus novel, The Wandering Dragon. Swing on by and check it out! Leave a comment if you've already read it and let everyone know what you thought.

New Book Discussion!

We're talking about Codex Born, the second book in Jim C. Hines' Magic Ex Libris series over at the unofficial DAW Books blog (dawbooks)! Swing on by and check it out! Leave a comment if you've already read the book and tell everyone what you thought.

TEMPORALLY OUT OF ORDER Anthology Kickstarter!

There are only 2 days left to get in on the TEMPORALLY OUT OF ORDER anthology kickstarter! It's already reached goal, so this is your chance to get the kickstarter-only edition of the book and to help us reach our stretch goals, which include the addition of more authors and stories to the project, as well as increase the pay for the authors! So swing on by the kickstarter and make your pledge today! There are some great reward levels left, including a few tuckerizations, and a chance to catch up on the kickstarter editions if you missed our first anthology CLOCKWORK UNIVERSE: STEAMPUNK vs ALIENS! Just check out the "ZNB Kickstarter Anthologies" reward level.

And if you happen to write SF&F stories, we have an open call for submission to the anthology with a deadline of November 30th. Check out the submission guidelines here, with details on the theme, payment, formatting, and the rights we're seeking. It's your chance to be part of this project!

New Releases from DAW Books!

I've posted the new releases from DAW Books (dawbooks) over at the unofficial blog! Swing on by and check them out. New Mercedes Lackey, plus an omnibus of P.R. Frost's first two Tess Noncoire books.

Latest Book Discussion: "Sleeping Late on Judgement Day" by Tad Williams

I've posted the latest book discussion for Sleeping Late on Judgement Day by Tad Williams over at the unofficial DAW Books blog (dawbooks). Swing on by and check it out! Leave a comment if you've read it already. Let us know what you think!

Book Review: "Redshirts" by John Scalzi

Before I begin, I must admit that I'm a Star Trek fan and so this book already had an appeal to me. I feel for the redshirts.





So, the premise of the book is that Ensign Andrew Dahl has just joined the crew of the flagship of the Universal Union fleet. It's a prestigious assignment, but as soon as he's on the ship he begins noticing that everyone acts weird, especially around the bridge officers. And then he finds out that on nearly every away mission, someone dies, and that the crew has designed ways to make certain that THEY aren't included on any such away missions. Upon further investigation, Dahl and his fellow "new" crewmates discover a hideous and horrifying explanation . . . and then set out to stop it. Because they're all redshirts, and if they don't, they know they'll be part of an away mission eventually and might never come back.

The book is, of course, a tongue-in-cheek take on the issues of being a redshirt on an away mission and their propensity to die horribly at some point during the mission. Everyone who enjoyed the Star Trek franchise knows where this is coming from. Scalzi plays with the tropes and the mythology of the phenomena well here, with plenty of humorous elements and characters throughout. The final "reason" for why the redshirts are dying so often is perhaps not as interesting or as plausible as one would hope with such a cool starting point, but it does fit the theme of the book well. Once you've accepted that element, then the rest of the book plays out just like you'd expect, using standard tropes from the television series that the book I spoofing.

The characters are fun and you enjoy following their discovery and their resolution. The main story has the same feel as the TV shows that the lore is based on and is highly enjoyable. The book takes a more heavily literary direction in the three codas at the end, where the consequences of what's happened are examined in a much more serious light for three of the characters touched on in the main story. These codas raise the book slightly above the level of "just for fun," which is nice, although I'll be the first to admit that a book that is "just for fun" is nice once in a while.

So, a good book to read if you love the SF TV series that it's spoofing, in particular Star Trek, of course. It isn't stunning or as mind-blowing as the blurbs on the book would lead you to believe, at least not in my opinion, but it is good fun with a serious slant.

Book Review: "Alien Research" by Gini Koch

This is the eighth book in the "Alien" series by Gini Koch. I've been trying to catch up with the series, but it looks like I'll still be two books behind with the release of UNIVERSAL ALIEN in another month or so.





The premise of this book: Kitty Martini discovers that the three mega-corporations behind many of her and the other AC's recent woes are slowly being revived. Titan Security is stumbling back into existence along with YatesCorp. But the recent arrival of a new drug on the streets seems to point toward Gaultier Enterprises, which appears to be trying to hide some of its research from Kitty's friend Amy, the heir of the corporation. While Amy fights the corporation in the courts, they decide they need find out what's going on in its inner layers, before this new and more deadly drug hits the streets and cause them even more pain. But what they find inside Gaultier may be even worse than a new drug on the streets. Because Gaultier, Titan, and YatesCorp have even more up their sleeves than the drug market . . . and all of the nefarious plots still seem to point to a single mastermind behind it all.

Another action-packed installment of the "Alien" series, with plenty of twists and turns, as everyone has come to expect from Gini Koch. This book again focuses more on the SF action and plotting than the romance elements. Those elements are still there of course, but they take a back seat. There are a few shocking moments in this book, turns that I don't think any readers of the previous books would expect, and a few of the mysterious elements from previous books are also explained here. I can't say anything about them without spoiling them. However, one of them deals with ACE and addresses something that I had concerns about in previous books. I felt that what happened here with ACE needed to have happened. Another deals with the AC "elves" and I have some rather strong reservations about how this will play out.

So again, if you're looking for some action-packed space opera that feels like the 50s in terms of science fiction, with a pinch of romance thrown in, then definitely pick up this series.

Book Review: "How the White Trash Zombie Got Her Groove Back" by Diana Rowland

This is the fourth book in the "White Trash Zombie" series from Diana Rowland, which follows the zombie death of Angel Crawford. I've enjoyed the series from the beginning and this book certainly adds to the series.





The premise is that Angel's boss has been kidnapped, supposedly by one of their own, someone they trusted. The betrayal sends waves through the zombie mafia, but Angel and the few with her that escape the initial attack on the organization don't have time to deal with it. Instead, they head off to the city to save their boss and find out exactly what's going on with the Saberton Corporation, the people responsible for the kidnapping. But Angel has never stepped outside the bounds of her southern hometown and the fast-paced, highly-populated city comes as a shock. Thankfully, she can focus on saving her boss and keep herself distracted . . . at least until she realizes that Saberton hasn't just kidnapped her boss. Suddenly the stakes have become much more personal . . . and once they're inside Saberton, they find the stakes are also much higher for all of zombie-kind.

After the previous novel in this series, I had some doubts that Diana Rowland would be able to continue this little franchise. I enjoyed the previous book, but it wasn't as strong as the previous two. This one rebounds nicely and takes Angel and the zombie plotlines into entirely new directions, revitalizing the series. Angel continues to grow out of her stereotypical "white trash" label in convincing ways, and she moves beyond her regular job as a body collector for the morgue here as well. The corporate intrigue was a nice new direction for the series, and the politics being woven into the series is also cool. There are some cool twists in the zombie mythology here as well, although I would say that they border on "changing the rules" established in the first few books. Not quite, but close.

So another good addition to the series that makes me want to read the next. Which of course won't come out until next year. *sigh*