More Free Book Goodness

I just got the heads up that there is a giveaway at MentatJack (a new blog discovery for me...) for 2 sets of T.A. Pratt's Marla Mason series (Blood Engines and Poison Sleep) I haven't read either one of these but I've heard good things about them. Be sure to head on over and enter.

The Book Swede has also got a contest going on. He's giving away three signed copies of The Tower of Shadows by Drew Bowling.

If you haven't already, be sure to head over to Sci-Fi Chick and enter to win a copy of Dragonforge by James Maxey. She's picking a winner for that tomorrow.

Book Review: Invisible Prey by John Sandford

Coombs had parked on the street. She got a bag and a bottle of Summer Sunrise Herbal Tea from her salt-rotted Chevy Cavalier and carried it over to the Porsche. The Porsche, she said, as she buckled in, was a "nice little car," and asked if he'd ever driven a Corolla, "which is sorta like this. My girlfriend has one."

"That's great," Lucas said, as they eased into traffic.

She nodded. "It's nice when people drive small cars. It's ecologically sensitive." Lucas accelerated hard enough to snap her neck, but she didn't seem to notice. Instead, she looked around, fiddling with her bottle of tea. "Where're the cup holders?"

"They left them off," Lucas said, not moving his jaw.

Halfway to Grandma's house, she said, "I drove a stick shift in Nepal."

"Nepal?"

"Yeah. A Kia. Have you ever driven a Kia?"

Being a detective, Lucas began to suspect that Gabriella Coombs, guileless as her cornflower eyes might have been, was fucking with him.

~Excerpt from Invisible Prey by John Sandford

Following the trend of my last review, I recently read another book not on my review list. Whenever I get bogged down in one genre, like I have been lately, I like to pick up something different and my usual choices run to detective novels. John Sandford has been a favorite of mine for years. Mostly I read his Prey novels, which I believe has eighteen in the series now, the first of which was published in 1989.

The Prey novels (the titles always have the word "Prey" in them) are about Lucas Davenport, a man who started out as a Detective with the Minneapolis Police Department but has since worked his way up the ladder to an appointment as an Investigator for the Minneapolis Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCI) working directly for the Governor.

Davenport is your basic tough guy investigator-- at least typical of novels of this kind. But at this stage of the game he's an aging tough guy. He still has the ability to intimidate but it doesn't come so easily anymore. In Invisible Prey, Davenport investigates the murder of an elderly woman and her housekeeper in the richest neighborhood of Minneapolis. At first the crime appears to be random, but as different pieces begin to fit into place the crime turns out to be much larger than it first seemed. In fact, Lucas has a political hot-potato on his hands while he's trying to investigate the case and most of his attention is focused on that until it becomes apparent that more murders are linked to the case.

The most interesting thing to me about this novel wasn't so much the detective story-- it wasn't that unique as far as a Sandford novel goes. No, the interesting part was the character development of Davenport. When the first Prey novels were published, Lucas was a tough guy who was known as something of a womanizer-- again, not unusual for a detective novel. But there was always something likable about him. Now, he's older, married, has kids and he's a little tired-- and I like that. I really appreciate that Sandford brings that kind of realism to the character.

Another really strong point to Sandford's writing is his touch with dialogue. I love the conversations Davenport has with the people he meets in the book (like the excerpt above). Each character he runs into has a distinct personality and it comes across very convicingly. In a book of this nature, when the main character has to interact with lots of different people, dialogue is hugely important and I think Sandford nails it better than most.

As far as the plot-line of the book, it's not bad, but I wouldn't say it's one of his best. On the other hand, it still beats most of the other stuff you're going to find on the shelf IMO. The plot was a tiny bit convoluted at times and if you haven't read a Prey book in over a year, like me, you tend to forget who's who. Nonetheless it's still a fast enjoyable read and if you've already read, and enjoyed any of the Prey books, you're likely to like this one. If you haven't read any of the Prey books, and you like detective novels, I suggest you start from the beginning, since they are chronological, and give the series a try. Unlike some other best-selling authors (James Patterson comes to mind) Sandford hasn't lost his touch and the Prey books continue to be one of the most consistent series' out there.

Tagged... And I'm It

I am so bad. I was tagged by ThRiNiDiR about a month ago and I still haven't responded. I am horrible with memes. Half the time, I forget to them altogether and the rest of the time I break the rules by not tagging anyone. So, as usual, I'll do the first part of the meme and disregard the rest.

Grab the nearest book and turn to page 123. Write down the fifth sentence, post it, and then tag 5 others to do this.

Right now I'm reading The Iron Hunt by Marjorie M. Liu...

Dizziness cut.

That's it. Two words.

Like most memes, this one has been making the rounds and I'm not sure who hasn't done this one. If you have not, consider yourself tagged (if you like). I'd also like to suggest Harry and Shaun as tagged if they haven't been tagged already.

Wow. I didn't totally break the rules...

Book Review: The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

~Read excerpt HERE

The Lies of Locke Lamora is a book that has been out since 2006 and has received tons of hype since then. So why am I reviewing it now?

I have had a heck of a time with my reviews lately. I must have tried to read 15 books and put each one down by the time I hit 50 pages. It's not that the books are bad-- well, maybe one-- it's just that when I read so many books of the same genre for review, it's hard to find something that distinguishes itself.

What I'll often do, when I hit the wall reviewing-wise, I'll pick up a book that I don't have to review. Sometimes it will be in the fantasy/sci-fi genre, sometimes it won't. "The Lies of Locke Lamora" is a book that I've had sitting on my shelf for over a year and never read. I've picked it up a couple of times but always put it down in favor of books I just had to read.

Not this time.

Let me just say this, Scott Lynch does not need me to gush about his book. The reviews he has received have been nothing less than stellar. He has recommendations on his book by George R.R. Martin, Kate Elliott, Richard Morgan, Elizabeth Bear, Hal Duncan as well as many respected publications.

Does he deserve all the hype? In a word, yes.

"The Lies of Locke Lamora" is about a young thief. Locke is such a skilled deceiver that he earns a death mark as a child. Sold to Father Chains, a thief who masquerades as a blind priest, Locke is raised to be a Gentleman Bastard. The Gentleman Bastards are a group of thieves, raised by Chains, who are trained to emulate the noble classes of Camorr and steal huge sums of money from them. The only problem is that by stealing from the nobles, the Gentleman Bastards violate the secret peace of Camorr and risk violent retribution from Capa Barsavi, who rules over the thieves of Camorr.

But Locke, now personally known as the Thorn of Camorr, and his gang continue to steal from the nobles and amass huge sums of money, until The Gray King appears. The Gray King decides to make a play for Capa Barsavi's power and Locke ends up caught in the middle of a big, bloody power struggle.

I have read lots of descriptions that compare "The Lies of Locke Lamora" to "Oceans Eleven" or "Robin Hood." But I tend to think that only works if you put the guys from "Ocean's Eleven" in the middle of a mob war. While this book does have its humorous moments, I wouldn't characterize Locke and his gang as being cute-- which is how I think of the characters in "Ocean's Eleven." In fact, most of the time Locke and his friends are barely keeping their heads above water. The Gray King is a power to be reckoned with and The Gentleman Bastards soon find themselves out of their depth. After being set up by The Gray King, with disastrous consequences, Locke ends up on mission of revenge. The plot twists and turns, with lots of bloody action, until we find out what The Gray King's real motivation is.

For those of you who like to know the magic system in a book, this one mixes magic and alchemy to great effect. Neither Locke nor any of his group practice magic, though they come up against some magic in the war between The Gray King and Capa Barsavi. Mostly Locke and his gang use alchemical devices in their disguises; just as alchemy pops up in virtually every aspect of daily life in Camorr.

This is one of those books that was a lot like watching a suspenseful movie for me. I found that I had to put the book down a lot because the story was so tense. I actually worried about Locke! For me, that's a sign of a great writer. I never felt I could take anything for granted. I really didn't know if things would turn out well for Locke or any of the main characters. The book moves at a fast pace with tons of action. You barely have a chance to catch your breath before Lynch thrusts you into another hectic sequence.

If I could find a complaint, and there isn't much to complain about, it might be that Locke spends more of his time getting his butt kicked by The Gray King than he does pulling off his cons. But that complaint doesn't even work because if there is a theme for the book it would be that no one is above getting hoisted by their own petard, and Locke's struggles fit into that theme nicely. The pacing and the plotting of the book are so deftly done that I still can't believe this is a debut novel. It is one impressive piece of work.

I finished this book almost regretfully because it was such a satisfying read. The world-building in first rate and the complexity of the story is made all the more amazing by Lynch's ability to put it all together. The only caveat I might have for anyone inclined to pick up the book is that it is violent, profane and not your typical everyone lives happily ever after book. But then, why would you want anything different?

I already have a copy of the sequel, Red Seas Under Red Skies and I plan on losing myself in this one very soon.

Book Review: The Viper of Portello by James C. Glass

James C. Glass won the grand prize in the Writers of the Future Contest in 1990 and has since gone on to publish dozens of short stories and several novels. Now comes The Viper of Portello, a new novel from Fairwood Press with a bit of a Central/South American flare.

Eduardo is a soldier in charge of Zed Force, a special ops unit from Nova Brasilia. But when a mission on Colomba, a jungle world, ends up in the betrayal of he and his men by another military officer, Eduardo finds himself suddenly commissioned as an assassin for the League, hunting down the people responsible. The war on drugs, it seems, is only just beginning and people higher up than expected are part of it. And there are other secrets that Eduardo will have to find out...secrets that could drastically change who he trusts.

Glass' novel is a fast paced military thriller centered in a somewhat illusive universe. I say illusive because I wasn't sure where it was. Earth isn't mentioned, so either Earth has become some other planet or Glass isn't working within our Solar System. I think on the one hand this is a good thing, but on the other hand it left me wanting more. I want to know where this is. Maybe I missed it, or maybe Glass is working on a whole different universe. If so, I want more in this universe!

In any case, the universe Glass has created reminds me very much of a futuristic Mexico or Central America, with a little South America thrown in there too. This isn't just in the names of the characters, but also in the way the world is built--drug cartels, etc. (and this is in no way an attack on said parts of the world, but it can't be denied that such things like drug cartels are linked to those areas). This is probably the only SF novel I have ever read with such a strong Hispanic influence and, well, it works. Glass' characters have depth--particularly Eduardo, who does deal more with the difficult issues of the piece--and the bad guys are really fascinating. I always find it interesting when authors attempt to give characters who are somewhat ambiguous. Here the bad guys are bad, but at the same time they are very "human"--and I use that word very lightly. Certain characters, who shall remain nameless so I don't ruin the book for you, actually have horrible reactions to what they have done, while others have become evil from no fault of their own (in fact, they became "evil" due to the actions of other evil characters). The result is that, for some of these bad characters, I sympathized with them, understanding why they are the way they are, even though I don't agree with what they are doing.

The plot itself moves relatively quickly, which is probably a good thing for a novel like this. A slower novel would have dragged. One complaint is that Glass doesn't give me enough of the world/s. I wanted to know more about where this was, how it was created, etc. I understand that we all don't want authors to infodump, but I am very curious about Glass' fictional universe. Perhaps Glass will write more novels written in this universe (or already has), which could give us a wider view of the universe as a whole. As is, the novel does work without the additional information, but at the end you do want to know more. Another complaint would be that there comes a point where Glass goes into the head of several characters who aren't really main characters, and a little late in the story. While I understood the reason for doing this, I feel like it pulled us a little too far from who we should have been focusing on (Eduardo and a couple other characters). Perhaps it could have been done differently. The good news is that Glass only does it a couple times and not consistently throughout the story or even semi-consistently. If he had done it consistently, this story would have been very different, and if he had done it semi-consistently, the story would have fallen apart (mostly because when you try to get the reader to be interested in ten different characters, and give each of those characters the same page space, well, it just doesn't work).

Another good point of Glass' novel is that it adequately deals with the issues of being a "killer". With Eduardo becoming an assassin, he has to, in a way, become another person, and even that is jarring to the psyche. His reactions aren't dark or brooding, even though he has to be somewhat cold to do his job. Instead, he has real nightmares and real concerns over what will become of him and those around him as he does what he is supposed to do. I think something about that is rather fascinating. Often times we think of assassins as bad guys, or at least purely cold or cynical. It's perhaps, to some extent, a little unusual to consider that an assassin may just be someone like us: relatively normal people pulled into a violent and immoral act to secure justice.

Overall, Glass' novel is a fast military romp, with some political intrigue and romance thrown in the mix. It benefits from a solid writing style (one that doesn't get in the way) and sympathetic characters. If you're looking for a military adventure, with rebellion and cool weapons, this is a book for you. If not, well, if you enjoy SF, you may just enjoy Glass' novel too.

I look forward to seeing more of Glass' work in the future.

Lies of Locke Lamora--extended excerpt

I just got done reading this fabulous book by Scott Lynch and I have a review in the works. But when it came time to pick out an excerpt from the book I kept wanting to use one particular piece that had me laughing out loud. But it is considerably longer than what I usually put at the beginning of a review. So, what to do? I decided that I had to put up this excerpt-- call it a bit of blog hubris. But I think it captures the spirit of the book well and if you haven't read Lynch yet, this might give you an idea of whether or not The Lies of Locke Lamora is something you'd like to check out.

** Excerpt contains profanity**


The trellis ran up the full height of the Broken Tower, on a the westward face of the structure, over-looking a narrow alley. The lattice of the wood was threaded with tough old vines and built around the windows on each floor. Though something of a bitch to climb, it was the perfect way to avoid the few dozen familiar faces that were sure to be in the Last Mistake on any given night. The Gentlemen Bastards used the Vine Highway frequently.

The alley-side shutters banged open on the top floor of the Broken Tower; all light inside Locke and Jean's suite of rooms had been extinguished. A large dark shape slid out into the mass of trellised vines, and was shortly followed by a smaller shape. Clinging with white-knuckled determination, Locke gently eased the shutters closed above him, then willed his queasy stomach to quit complaining for the duration of the climb. The Hangman's Wind, on its way out to the salty blackness of the Iron Sea, caught at his cap and cloak with invisible fingers that smelled of marshes and farmers' fields.

Jean kept himself two or three feet under Locke, and they descended steadily, one foothold or handhold at a time. The windows on the sixth floor were shuttered and dark.

Thin slivers of amber light could be seen around the shutters on the fifth floor. Both climbers slowed without the need for words and willed themselves to be as quiet as possible; to be patches of gray invisible against the deeper darkness, nothing more. They continued down.

The fifth-floor shutters flew outward as Jean was abreast with them on their left. One hinged panel rebounded off his back, almost startling him out of his hold on the trellis. He curled his fingers tightly around wood and vine, and looked to his right. Locke stepped on his head in surprise, but quickly pulled himself back up.

"I know there's no other way out, you miserable bitch!" hissed a man's voice.

There was a loud thump, and then a shudder ran up and down the trellis; someone else had just gone out the window, and was scrambling in the vines beside and just below them. A black-haired woman stuck her hair out of the window, intent on yelling something in return, but when she caught sight of Jean through the cracks in her swinging shutter, she gasped. This in turn drew the attention of the man clinging just beneath her; a larger man even than Jean.

"What the hell is this shit?" he gasped. "What are you doing outside this window?

"Amusing the gods, asshole." Jean kicked down and tried to nudge the newcomer further down the trellis, to no avail. "Kindly heave yourself down!"

"What are you doing outside this window, huh? You like to sneak a peek" You can sneak a peek of my fist, cocksucker!"

Grunting with exertion, he began to climb back upward, grabbing at Jean's legs. Jean narrowly yanked himself out of the way, and the world reeled around him as he regained his balance. Black wall, black sky, wet black cobblestones fifty feet below. That was a bad fall, the kind that cracked men like eggs.

"All of you, get off my damned window now! Ferenz, for Morgante's sake, leave them be and get down!" the woman hollered.

"Shit," Locke muttered from a few feet above and to her left. His eloquence temporarily cowed into submission. "Madam, you're complicating our night, so before we come in and complicate yours, kindly cork your bullshit bottle and close the gods-damned window!"

She looked up, aghast, "Two of you? All of you, get down, get down, get down!"

"Close your window, close your window, close your fucking window!"

"I'll kill you both shitsucker," huffed Ferenz. "Drop you both off this fucking---"

There was a marrow-chillingly loud cracking noise, and the trellis shuddered beneath the hands of the three men clinging to it.

"Ah," said Locke. "Ah, that figures. Thanks ever so much, Ferenz."

Then there was a torrent of polysyllabic blasphemy from four mouths; exactly who said what would never be clearly recalled. Two careful men were apparently the trellis' limit; under the weight of three careless flailers, it began to tear free of the stone wall with a series of creaks and pops.

Ferenz surrendered to gravity and common sense and began sliding at a prodigious speed, burning his hands as he went, all but peeling the trellis off the wall above him. It finally gave way when he was about twenty feet above the ground, flipping over and dashing him down into the darkened alley, where he was promptly covered in falling vines and wood. His descent had snapped off a section of trellis at least thirty feet long, starting just beneath Jean's dangling feet.

Wasting no time, Locke shimmied to his right and dropped down onto the window ledge, shoving the screaming woman back with the tip of one boot. Jean scrambled upward, for the shutter still blocked his direct access to the window, and as the section of trellis under his hands began to pull out of the wall, he gracelessly swung himself over the shutter and in through the window, taking Locke with him.

The wound up in a heap on the hardwood floor, tangled in cloaks.

"Get back out the fucking window now!" the woman screamed, punctuating each word with a swift kick to Jean's back and ribs. Fortunately, she wasn't wearing shoes.

"That would be stupid," Locke said, from somehwere under his larger friend.

"Hey," Jean said. "Hey! Hey!" He caught the woman's foot and propelled her backward. She landed on her bed; it was the sort commonly called a "dangler"-- a two person hammock of strong but lightweight demi-silk, anchored to the ceiling at four points. She went sprawling across it, and both Locke and Jean suddenly noticed that she wasn't wearing anything but her smallclothes. In the summer, a Comorri woman's smallclothes are small indeed.

"Out you bastards! Out, out! I--"

As Locke and Jean stumbled to their feet, the door on the wall opposite the window slammed open, and in stepped a broad-shouldered man with the slablike muscles of a stevedore or a smith. Vengeful satisfaction gleamed in is eyes, and the smell of hard liquor rolled off him, sour and acute even from ten paces away.

Locke wasted a second wondering how Ferenz had gotten back upstairs so quickly, and another half second realizing that the man in the doorway wasn't Ferenz.

He giggled, briefly but uncontrollably.

The night wind slammed the shutter against the open window behind him.

The woman made a noise somewhere in the back of her throat; a noise not unlike a cat falling down a deep, dark well.

"You filthy bitch," the man said, his speech a thick slow drawl, "Filthy, filthy bitch. I jus' knew it. Knew you weren' alone." He spat, then shook his head at Locke and Jean. "Two guys at once too. Damn. Go figure. Guess it takes that many t' replace me.

"Hope you boys had y'selves a fun time with 'nother man's woman," he continued, drawing nine inches of blackend-steel stiletto from his left boot, "'cause now I'm gonna make you women."

Jean spread his feet and moved his left hand under his cloak, ready to draw the Sisters. With his right hand, he nudged Locke a pace behind him.

"Hold it!" Locke cried, waving both of his hands. "I know what this looks like, but you've got the wrong idea, friend." He pointed at the petrified woman clinging to the hanging bed. "She came before we came!"

"Gathis," hissed the woman. "Gathis, these men attacked me! Get them! Save me!"

Gathis charged at Jean, growling. He held his knife out before him in the grip of an experienced fighter, but he was still drunk and he was still angry. Locke dodged out of the way as Jean caught Gathis by his wrist, stepped inside his reach, and sent him sprawling to the floor with a quick sweep of the legs.

The was an unappetizing snapping noise, and the blade fell from Gathis' grip; Jean had retained a firm hold on his wrist, and then twisted as the man went down on his back. For a moment Gathis was too bewildered to cry out; then the pain broke through to his dulled senses and he roared.

Jean hoisted him up off the ground with one quick yank by the front of his tunic, then he shoved Gathis with all his might into the stone wall to the left of the window. The big man's head bounced off the hard surface and he stumbled forward; the blurred arc of Jean's right fist met his jaw with a crack, abruptly canceling his forward momentum. He flopped to the ground, boneless as a sack of dough.

"Yes!" cried the woman. "Now throw him out the window!"

"For the love of the gods, madam," snapped Locke. "Can you please pick one man in your bedroom to cheer for and stick with him?"

~Full review coming soon...

"Awaken Me Darkly" by Gena Showalter

Author: Gena Showlater
Title: "Awaken Me Darkly"
Pages: 384
Publisher: Downtown Press
Misc: Gena's Blog

So, in order to acknowledge my quirk for chronology I decided to start the whole Alien Huntress series from the start, since I had the first two books anyways and even though that I am supposed to review all the top new titles, I will be indulging myself in everything that can make you go squee, especially if the reader is new on the scene. Before "Savor me Slowly" Gena Showlater didn't ring a bell at all.

Mia Snow is a special agent in the New Chicago Police Department, working in the A.I.R unit (Alien Investigation and Removal). The setting is in the near enough future to have your typical American mentality and yet far enough to see that water has been excluded from showring and that cars don't need steering and that aliens of all kinds have nestled on Earth, but without all the hysteria about it. Given the new circumstances justice, legal justace had to adapt and AIR is what the humans came up with. But enough with the pre-word, let's move on to the plot.

While investigating a new strand of serial murders Mia Snow stumbles into big trouble as what seems like an usual psycho alien on the loose, turns out to be a large scale illegal operation that has a lot more to do with Mia than she actually realizes. In the mix we throw a sexy alien, who is a primal murder suspect, Kyrin en Arr, to whom Mia is very sexually drawn; a hidden scheme; mystical abilities that manifest themselves and leave Mia asking questions. When Dallas, her partner and the only man, who can stand her, lies down with a lethal wound that has him dying slowly, Mia is forced to work with Kyrin behind the back of her boss in order to help Dallas and hep clear Kyrin's name, although she doesn't believe him.

In order to avoid spoilers I will not mention the ending, but be sure that Mia confronts a part of her past, which she hadn't known, but she could have gone without. When it all comes down to her, can she handle the strain and could she remain herself with what she knows? Quite the tease, aren't I? In order to find out, you would have to go read the book and that is what I urge you to do.

I have to admit that being a starter novel, this book definitely had to set the stage, so it wasn't was interested as I had anticipated after reading "Savor Me Slowly". The plot is at first glance not that special, since we have a female cop getting herself into trouble, which the TV is full of. However it's the amazing skill of Gena Showalter to strap a well known plot on the surgery table and give it a new look. What starts simple enough spins out of control like a mutating puzzle with every block sealing Mia's choice to act any other way than she did. Of course we have Mia of course, who I think is tough without being haughty or overestimatuing herself like some heroines in the same genre are. Thus we believe her. When she tells she can make someone's life a living hell we don't snort and wave her off as another emancipated daddy's little girl, although she does have her issues with her father.

As a conclusion I just have to say that this novel is a very promising first novel of a series, which has sky rocketed so far with five titles situated in the same world. You couldn't possibly go wrong with this novel, look at the title.