To pilot the fleet’s finest ship…

Few options remain for Byron. A talented but stubborn young man with a troubled past and rebellious attitude, his cockpit skills are his only hope. Slated to train as a Cosbolt fighter pilot, Byron is determined to prove his worth and begin a new life as he sets off for the moon base of Guaard.

Much to Byron’s chagrin the toughest instructor in the fleet takes notice of the young pilot. Haunted by a past tragedy, Bassa eventually sees through Byron’s tough exterior and insolence. When a secret talent is revealed during training, Bassa feels compelled to help Byron achieve his full potential.

As war brews on the edge of space, time is running short. Byron requires a navigator of exceptional quality to survive, and Bassa must make a decision that could well decide the fate of both men. Will their skills be enough as they embark on a mission that may stretch their abilities to the limit?

There’s a that Alex gets right in this book – the characterization is top-notch, giving Byron and Bassa a welcome sense of emotional reality, and there is a definite sense of growth in both characters – they aren’t static and unchanging and their personal journey’s will probably resonate with many readers.

Action-wise, Alex manages to make the combat scenes both thrilling and exciting – the pilots in the Cassan Navy are able to use a unique move in combat that Alex uses to great effect and, combined with the directionless arena of space, brings a definite sense of position and movement to these scenes, not to mention the sense of danger, frustration, sadness and elation that the pilots feel. It’ll be interesting to see how Alex ups the action in the next novel, and what direction that action will take.

Looking at the plot of the novel, though, I’ll have to say that that there’s a definite setting-the-stage feel to the book – I don’t know how many books Alex has planned to tell Byron’s tale, but I’m sure that as the series continues we’ll see much more and experience much more; hopefully the canvas broadens nicely. The world-building of the novel was, in some places, a bit sparse – there’s not a definite sense of just what the world of Cassa represents in the greater scheme of things – it’s place in the galaxy relative to Earth (in terms of both history and distance), for example. In fact, I can’t remember Earth being mentioned, and if it was, I do apologize. The Cassans are threatened by an alien species and there’s also no real explanation for the ensuing war – what the motives of the aliens are, for example. I do hope this is touched on in the next novel – it’ll be great to find out just what pushed the Vindicarn into such militancy.

All in all, CassaStar is an entertaining, well-paced and exciting adventure, with a nice emotional focus and some great battles – the cool definitely does outweigh the bland, and Alex shows a definite talent for storytelling. If you’re looking for an entertaining, focused read that won’t break your head and will keep you flipping the pages, CassaStar is for you. I know for sure I’m looking forward to the next book, CassaFire.

7 / 10

To order your copies of CassaStar click here for Amazon UK, here for Amazon US, and here for South Africa (available from Exclusive Books). If you’ve read CassaStar and would like info about CassaFire, check out this link – the book will be available on the 28th of February, so be sure to pre-order your copy.

What I’m trying to say here is that Colin Harvey knew the steps. He knew how to dance.

Winter Song opens with a bang – Karl Allman is attacked, his Ship is destroyed, and though he manages to escape he finds himself on a planet that not even the extensive records he had at his disposal could tell him much about. From there the tale settles as more is revealed about the world he has reached, the people who live there, their culture and beliefs, until Karl makes a desperate bid for freedom that could result in the biggest, best thing he could have ever done with his life.

In this one novel (Winter Song is a standalone novel) Colin manages to plunge us into not only really interesting SF-worldbuilding (the backdrop of Karl’s world before his Ship is destroyed) but well thought out and plausible culturebuilding; and as the world and the universe blossom around the reader, he brings onto the stage some truly memorable characters, too. There is action in this novel, too, but suitable action, no overwhelming explosions and intricate setpieces that razzle and dazzle. The relationships between the characters, and between the characters and the world they live in, is at once true and wonderful and sad and liberating; there is a sense of going on a journey with the characters, not witnessing the journey. Colin took a major chance bringing the novel to a close as he did, but upon further reflection it is the perfect ending, and ending that emphasises just how damned good this novel is.

If you’re looking for intricately designed alien cultures, vast space battles, black-hole surfing or lasers, you won’t get it in Winter Song – it’s the kind of novel that explores what SF can do and even perhaps what SF means by staying closer to home, even as it takes place on a planet very, very far away, and it’s a novel that deserves to be read and re-read and re-printed for many, many years. It’s a novel that will make you sad that Colin Harvey is no longer with us, but at the same time, it’s a novel that will stamp his name into the Mt Olympus of SF – at least, I hope so. Because it’s a damned good novel that brought back that sense of holy-freaking-hell-this-is-awesome that only incredible SF has managed to make me feel.

Read this!

9 / 10

To order Winter Song, click here for Amazon US, here for Amazon UK, and here if you’re in South Africa (just don’t take the blurb on the site too seriously – sounds like a completely different book!). Don’t forget to head on over to Angry Robot – you can also browse their eBooks store and get yourself not only Winter Song and Damage Time (Colin’s two Angry Robot novels), but plenty more.

Until next time,

BE EPIC!

So there we go! Hope you get your orders in before all the stock is gone!

This’ll probably be my last post for the year (I’ll try and squeeze in a review -of which I have plenty coming up- before the end of 2011, but no promises), but I do work in retail…

Until next time,

BE EPIC!

I’ve always tried to make my reviews as balanced as possible – after all, no novel in existence is perfect; there will always be aspects of the work that don’t hit the expected notes, that veer off the path, that make the reader blink and say either, “What? That didn’t make sense!” or “Oh, come on, that is so stereotypical it makes me feel sick.” One thing that I’ve always tried to remember is that my opinion (and it is just that, an opinion) won’t be shared by anyone else; well, it might, but not for exactly the same reasons. And as such, I shouldn’t be afraid to voice my opinions, especially when authors go to the trouble of sending either electronic copies or physical copies of their novels to me. I s’pose many people may read a certain review and think, “Hell, it’s obvious that that opinion was bought – it’s nice getting free books as bribes, huh?” and I won’t disagree with there definitely being reviewers of that ilk out there, but most of us try to be as fair and honest as possible. After all, if reviews generate purchases, then we have to be honest.

Sometimes, though, as I’m sure everyone knows, honesty can be painful, even when it’s not agreed with. So, with all this in mind, let’s get to the review.

The Caulbearer: Young Tierney is a thriller in the vein of The Da Vinci Code, a tale of an unfolding conspiracy that reveals hidden and potentially explosive facts. What is a ‘caul’, you ask? Well (and I didn’t know this at all – reading this novel is the first time I’ve heard of a ‘caul’), a caul is a covering of skin that an infant human is sometimes born with – it effectively covers the eyes, nose and mouth, and is attached to the infant’s head with loops of skin that hook around the ears. When an infant is seen to be born with a caul, doctors have to first cut incisions in the caul so that the infant can breathe, and then they proceed to remove the caul. Because it occurs so rarely, seeing a baby born with a caul is probably a frightening and inexplicable thing to see, and there seems to be quite a bit of superstition attached to it, and it is this caul around which the story revolves.

I won’t go into details (I don’t want to spoil those who’ll be reading the novel), but the novel follows a family from the time of Nostradamus all the way to our era; there is a prophecy that follows them and which certain members of the family are told about, so that the knowledge of the prophecy is never forgotten, and it is also a prophecy that groups such as the Roman Catholic Church and MI5 will do anything to either stop or find out about. Taken together, this all seems interesting and left me thinking, “Okay, this sounds cool – a pretty cool angle to write a conspiracy-thriller from,” but unfortunately the novel fails in many respects, and to be honest, I really struggled through it.

Lee may have imagined an interesting plot, but the actual writing left a lot to be desired. For example, sometimes a passage would be written in a way that confused me, or that raised questions that were never answered – ‘Within this package is my caul, Vladimir. It is the only way you can prove your identity and the only way the Brotherhood will accept you. Should you be captured along the way, it must be destroyed?’ My first question when I read this was, ‘If the caul isn’t Vladimir’s own caul, how does it prove his identity? Wouldn’t his master’s caul prove his master’s identity?’ Also, ‘the way’ is in italics – earlier in the book, ‘the way’ is in italics because it refers to something specific, but its use in this context is just plain confusing. The question mark at the end of the sentence is plainly something that slipped through during the proofing or editing, and I would have overlooked it, but it’s one of the earliest examples of similar errors throughout the novel.

Another thing that bothered me was how the plot-focus would change, moving from something that didn’t really seem important or inimical to the plot. For example, when the novel needed to focus more on the caulbearers and the reasons they had to remain hidden (and the lengths to which they went to do so), some of the focus shifted to bare-knuckle fighting; a bit too much of the focus, in my opinion. Whereas these scenes could have been used to add more characterization or more of a sense of place, they seemed to only bog down and slow down the narrative. Some things didn’t make sense only because they weren’t explained at all – such as how a family known for being good bare-knuckle fighters can gain a lot of influence and make a lot of money.

Sometimes characters acted very strangely, for example one of the characters closely connected to Young Tierney himself almost drowns, and instead of panicking and fighting, she thinks about sleeping – this would have worked if there was some kind of characteristic unique to her, or some psychological condition that led her to not panic in a situation that could lead to her death, but there was no explanation. I just can’t see someone who realizes that they might drown in the next few seconds wanting or wishing for sleep – wouldn’t there be a panic-fuelled fight for air? To breathe? It just doesn’t make sense.

There are, regrettably, many similar instances in the book and much of the time I was, honestly, incredulous.

Now I hear you asking, “Why did you carry on reading, then?” Well, the plot itself, the foundation-plot or major plot, kept me reading – it was interesting enough that I wanted to know what would happen next, and that I can only congratulate Lee for. The concept of the Caulbearer is interesting, as is the concept of a family who knows the special significance of a caul (the Tierney clan, in the novel), and also to Lee’s credit, towards the end of the book there was some very clever placing of red-herrings and an ending that I didn’t see coming at all, which definitely went a long way to helping me to decide that I would, in fact, like to read the rest of the series. I was left interested and curious enough, and that, too, I can congratulate Lee on. Yes, the book does have many flaws, but in the end the story pulled me through.

So, would I recommend that you read the book? Definitely! I did say that this review is my opinion of what I’ve read, and I’ve stated the reasons why I have the opinion I do – when you read the book, you may disagree completely; it’s one of the reasons I’ll never say ‘Don’t read this book’, because even though you may be reading this review to help you decide what to read next, the decision is ultimately yours.

I’ll give this book a strong 6 / 10, and I’m looking forward to reading the next two novels.

To order the book, click here for Amazon US, here to order from Book Depository, and if you’re in South Africa, clisk here to order from Loot.

If you want more info on Lee and his work, head on over to the blog here, and to get a preview of the book, check this out.

Until next time,
Be EPIC!

I’ve only ever read Gate’s of Fire, and I was expecting basically the sme kind of read – dramatic, emotional, heartfelt, with viceral and hard-hitting battle-scenes and a deep understanding of battle itself and the warrior ethos. I didn’t get exactly what I wanted, but that wasn’t a problem at all. You see, The Profession isn’t the same kind of book, or read, at all; it is similar, yes, but different in important respects.

Where Gates of Fire is the personal (and yes, fictional) account of someone who witnessed one of the most intense (physically and emotionally) battles that has ever taken place, The Profession is the kind of book (even though it, too, is fictional) that reminds me of Mark Bowen’s Black Hawk Down. Why? Well, even though I know it’s fictional (and it takes place some years from now) it lulled me into believing that I was reading the personal account of a mercenary who had really, trully experienced everything that happens in the novel. It was as if I was reading a documentarY the likes of which we see on the History Channel – a personal, and very real account, a memoir, perhaps, of events that actually took place and included living, breathing people.

The effect of this ‘style’ of the novel is pretty damned intense – and scary, too, when taking into account the story’s implications and the author’s vision. I’m sure many readers probably shook there heads in stunned amazement many times while reading this book, as I did, thinking, ‘How the hell did it come to this? How did we let this happen?’ and the realizing, ‘Wait, none of this is true.’ And then the belated thought: ‘YET.’ Just for this accomplishment The Profession is a stand-out novel, juggling that sense of reality so well that I was convinced I was reading a true account; but this isn’t the only reason I enjoyed the book so much.

Steven brings an intense character-focus into this book, too, as he did in Gates of Fire; the main character is a likeable guy who does what he’s good at, not really for a sense of enjoyment or for material gain or social standing, but because he feels that he is exactly where he should and must be – a warrior. His is a noble and honourable and ultimately tragic profession, and he knows this, understands it deep within himself, and as such his motives are pure (soppy as that may sound) and yes, noble, too. He’s made mistakes, he’s not perfect in any way, but he understands the core of who he is and tries to remain true to that even as he is forced onto a path that causes him deep pain. I don’t know if I’m a ‘warrior’, and hopefully I’ll never be forced to find out, but I could sympathize with him, could put myself in his shoes, and experience that warrior-sense, at least for a limited time.

Another reason why this book stands out is that even though some of the technology in the book doesn’t yet exist (at least, in the forms it appears as in the novel), there is a feeling of complete and utter authenticty to it; even the reasons for the existence of many and varied mercenary companies makes sense and, I’ll dare say it, sounds almost prophetic. There’s nothing way-out-there about the tech – it is scary and terrifying and the situations and ‘history’ leading up to the events in the book (as well as the events throughout the book) seem nightmarishly plausible.

Where Gates of Fire made me cheer (even though I knew that there was going to be a slaughter at the end), The Profession is a book that builds momentum in different, and more plausible, and therefor hard-hitting, ways – I was left hoping that Steven’s vision doesn’t come true, although there already seems to be hints and portents enough that may make his vision (or at least the important, world-situation aspects of it) unavoidable.

This is the kind of book that excited me on many levels and has had me thinking about and looking at events around the world differently, and closer that I usually did. It’s a warning, but it’s also an adventure, and a sensitive vision of what warfare and being a warrior means.

8 / 10

To order your copies of The Profession, click here for Amazon US, here for Amazon UK, and for readers in South Africa, here’s the link for Exclusive Books. For more info on Steven and his work, head on over to his website here.

Until next time,

BE EPIC!

Don’t forget, Inheritance, the final book in the Cycle, is available right now, so get to you closest Exclusive Books and grab your copy!

Without further ado, let’s get to announcing the winner!

Remember, there were entries on the blog as well as pre-order entries in-store, and I’ll be using Random.org to draw the winner.

There were a total of 33 entries, (combining blog-entries and in-store pre-orders), and the winner is……!!!!!

Mr Van der Schyff, who pre-ordered the book in-store! Congratulations!! Your copy of Inheritance is waiting for you at Exclusive Books Kolonnade, as well as the copies of Eragon, Eldest and Brisingr that you’ve won.

We had a total of 33 entries for this giveaway and we thank each and every one of you for taking the time to take a chance; hopefully the success of this giveaway will lead to many more.

Until next time,
BE EPIC!

Unfortunately the book didn’t live up to the hype I allowed it to gain in my mind – it’s not a terrible novel, but it is a novel that could have been so much better.

What’s wrong with it? Well, it seemed to me that I was reading a mash-up between Rendezvous with Rama, Rama II, Armageddon (the big-spectacle movie), and Apollo 13 (also the movie).

I say that because the formula seemed so similar – the first section of the book introduces the major characters, much as the major personalities were introduced in Armageddon: the introductions are pulled off well and the characters themselves are immediately interesting and entertaining (especially an astronaut who has had to raise a teenage daughter, I mean that in itself would make for an interesting novel!), but once the action starts the characters take their places a bit too nicely and fittingly; there just didn’t seem much room for surprise.

The action and storyline does a lot to save the book – but also led me to call to mind novels such as the first two Rama books and the movies I mentioned. There are some very well-done surprises in store for the reader, which I really enjoyed because I just didn’t see them coming, and where the characters go and what they go through held my attention and was actually pretty cool, but having read the Rama novels, I was able to make the connections, and then it just didn’t seem so cool anymore.

Like I said before, it wasn’t terrible, or even bad, or even mediocre – it was basically a re-treading of territory I’ve already enjoyed, and I was expecting something new and fresh and inventive. Now, having said that, I realize that there will be plenty of people who, in fact, haven’t read Arthur C. Clarke’s Rama Cycle, and you will probably enjoy this novel – forgetting the similarities between Heaven’s Shadow and the Rama Cycle, the book really is great: the characters take shape quickly and fully, the action is what you’d come to expect from Goyer (with a dash of JJ Abrams), the science was okay (and by okay I mean interesting enough that it didn’t steal the show but kept me wondering), the SF-aspect was interesting and begged many questions (especially as to where this trilogy might be heading), and the style of the writing is fast-paced and attention-holding.

I would aim this book at readers who haven’t yet read much SF – it’s light enough (in terms of subject matter and science) that it won’t break their heads and entertaining and quick enough to keep them turning the pages until they’re done; one of my friends who doesn’t read a lot of SF summed it up nicely by telling me that it wasn’t amazing or incredible but that she couldn’t put it down. I do think, though, that well-read SF-readers (people who’ve read Hamilton, Asher, Reynolds, Ballantyne, Egan, Clarke and the like) won’t be really impressed by the book – in fact, they might even agree with me when I say that Heaven’s Shadow is more Hollywood-SF than novel-SF. (Not surprising, when I remember that the trilogy has already been optioned by Warner Brothers…)

I’ll definitely be back for the next two books, though – it’s just the kind of read that will be quick, entertaining and serves as a nice break when wanting to take a break from a particular non-SF genre.

7 / 10

To order your copies of Heaven’s Shadow, click here for Amazon US, here for Amazon UK, and to order online in South Africa click here for Exclusive Books. You’ll also be able to order the book in-store – stock should be arriving any time now from the UK, brought to us thanks to Pan Macmillan SA.

Until next time,
Be EPIC!

Yep, in conjunction with Exclusive Books Kolonnade I’m running a giveaway for one set of the first three novels in Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle – Eragon, Eldest and Brisingr.

As you all probably know, the final book in the series, titled Inheritance, will be released world-wide on the 8th of November of this year, bringing to a close one of the most popular (even in spite of a terrible big-screen adaptation) Fantasy series in the world.

Random House Struik (the South African division of Random House) have been kind enough to supply me with a set of the first three books, and as I’m a bookseller, too, I’ll be running the giveaway on the blog and in-store, simultaneously. What does that mean? Well, you can either enter here on the blog, or if you’re heading into Exclusive Books Kolonnade any time soon (but before the 8th of November) you can enter in-store.

As I’d like to get as many entries as possible for this giveaway I’m not going to make it difficult to enter:

If you’d like to enter here on the blog, all you need to do is leave a comment on this post with your name and email address so that I can contact the winner once the giveaway ends. Entries are limited to people in South Africa, please – postage is hectically expensive!

If you’d like to enter in-store, all you need to do is pre-order a copy of Inheritance – your contact details will be taken by the booksellers.

Entries close on the 7th of November at 11PM – the winner will be announced here on the blog (be it someone who entered here or someone who entered in-store) and in-store on the 8th of November as soon as we start opening the boxes. The winner will be chosen by me by running the amount of entries through Random.org, just so everyone knows it’s fair.

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Please note: I’ve only got one set to giveaway – if the winner is one of those who left a comment on the blog, the set will be posted through to you. If the winner is one of the people who pre-ordered Inheritance in-store, the winner will be notified via a phone-call and will be able to pick up the prize at their convenience.
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Exclusive Books Kolonnade is situated in the Kolonnade Shopping Centre on Zambezi Drive in Montana Park, Pretoria, on the first floor close to the Ster Kinekor entrance.

So there we go – you can enter here on the blog or in-store, and the winner will be notified and announced on the 8th – Release Day!

Until next time,
BE EPIC!

The first thing that struck me about Meat is that in the opening passages I already felt uncomfortable, as if something ugly and fragrant and unlike-us was watching me and I was aware of its regard but not where it was – the opening passages introduce the main protagonist of the tale, but in a manner that makes you wonder just what the hell is wrong with him, where he lives, and why he’s doing what he’s doing when you meet him.

From there, the book becomes sinisterly relentless – the world in which he lives, a town in the middle of nowhere and nothing, grows with hints of what people believe, how they live and work, and while this world grows and the various characters are introduced, Joseph is slowly planting the seeds of a repulsive, incredibly shocking, and deeply affecting reveal. It’s at this point that I think many readers, if they have thought of putting down the book, will put the book down and stop reading and try and forget that they ever picked up the book.

In speaking to friends and customers about Meat, I used this scenario to describe it: imagine you’re on the road, driving, to work or wherever, and the road is busy; traffic starts to slowy back up and before long you’re inching along, fuming because of the heat and the fact that your plans have got to wait; as you inch along, you start seeing the evidence of an accident – a tyre lying on its side, rubber-stripes on the tar where the driver tried to stop, and then pieces of shattered glass here and there, splashes of what is probably oil – and as the evidence builds you can’t help thinking that this was a terrible accicdent. And as you approach the wrecked hulk of the car, you don’t want to look, because you know you’re either going to see the state of the car and your imagination will fill in the blanks or you’ll see the body, or bodies, or pieces of bodies, and even though you don’t want to look, as you reach the wreck, you do…

The subject matter of Meat punches hard, relentlessly and without mercy; Joseph doesn’t spare you. But he doesn’t only freak you out and unsettle you – the characters that populate the town are real and vibrant -sometimes sickeningly so- and Joseph shows that he has a real eye for the kind of personal dialogue and interactions that help you slip behind the eyes of the characters, making it so that understanding them and their point of view is effortless. Some of the characters I wanted to beat to death because they revolted me, others I was intensely curious about, wondering if they were, in fact, human, and still others I sympathized with even though what they were doing would spell trouble for everyone and everything later on. Like Stephen King, Joseph has an amazing ability to put the every-day man into srange, incredible and insane situations without forgetting the fact that he’s writing about people and telling their story.

Meat is an intensely unsettling book – it really shocked me and made me think, and Joseph’s afterword was perfectly fitting; this won’t be a book that will make you feel good, although you might crack a smile in some instances – this is the kind of book that will make you smile in a malicious way as you enjoy the fates of the some of the characters. And it’s also one of the most important reasons why this is such a damned good book – it doesn’t pull any punches, it explores the blurred line between depravity and getting used to something, between good and evil, and in a brutal, feverish and yet I-can’t-stop-reading manner.

Josepf D’Lacey is the kind of writer that might just make you retch and lose sleep, but he’s also the kind of storyteller that tells the stories you don’t want to, but need to, hear.

Read this book!

10 / 10

To order your copies of Meat, click here for Amazon UK, here for Amazon US, and here if you’re in South Africa (you can order the book in-store through Ingrams at any Exclusive Books or place your order online). To get more info about Joseph and his work, click here.

Until next time,

BE EPIC!

After having read (and really enjoyed) I Am Number Four, and after watching the movie adaptation (which was also pretty damned good, I have to admit), I’d been seriously looking forward to getting The Power of Six, and I’m glad to report that the second book in the series didn’t disappoint at all.

The Power of Six is quite a departure from the first book, though – still written in the first-person perspective, the novel opens with a Loric that we’ve not yet met, and proceeds to tell her story as well as the continuation of John Smith’s story. So, having two different first-person perspectives to read might confuse some readers out there – I’m not sure it was the way to go, but towards the end of the novel the two perspectives do come together (from a certain point of view), and there is enough of a difference in the ‘voices’ that after a chapter or two the initial confusion recedes.

The new Loric character was a bit boring initially, I have to admit – but as her story unfolded I found myself really sympathizing with her; John’s guardian was all about keeping him safe and up-to-date on everything Lorien and Mogadorian, but her guardian isn’t, which created a tense isolation for her to deal with. This, coupled with what happens toward the end of the novel (and the revelations, pertaining to a certain ‘other ship’ that John had a vision of in the first book), made her storyline entertaining enough – but not as cool as John’s storyline.

John’s is full of action and humour and does more to advance plot – not only do we find out even more about Lorien and Mogadore, but we get plenty of awesome action scenes and -dare I say it- an excellent cliffhanger.

The Power of Six can stand alone as a great novel, even though its structure and writing style differs to I Am Number Four, and if you’ve watched the movie but not read the book you can still enjoy The Power of Six. As I Am Number Four was, the second book is entertaining and fun, and I’m pretty sure that the next book will be intense and filled with wall-to-wall action.

7 / 10

To order your copies of The Power of Six, click here for Amazon US, here for Amazon UK, and here for SA (Exclusive Books); the book is on the shelves across South Africa, so if you don’t do online-ordering, just head into your closest Exclusive Books and get yourself a copy.

If you want more info about the series, check out this link.

Be EPIC!