Shout-Out: The Darkside War by Zachary Brown

Aliens have conquered Earth, but they haven’t conquered humanity—yet. A young army conscript battles for survival in this action-packed futuristic thriller that will appeal to fans of Halo and Inglorious Bastards.

People used to wonder if we were alone in the universe. Well, we’re not. Not by a long shot. Aliens come in all shapes and sizes, and even the good guys are likely to haunt your nightmares. And oh, you’ll have nightmares, even after you leave the service. If you leave the service.

Devin is a reluctant conscript to an alien-run army: when the Accordance conquered Earth, they said it was to prepare against the incoming alien Conglomeration forces. But as Devin travels to the dark side of the moon for boot camp and better acquaints himself with his so-called allies, his loyalties are increasingly tested. Because the enemy of the enemy is not always a friend. Sometimes they’re a far, far worse threat.

Shout-Out: The Red: First Light by Linda Nagata

I found out about this book when Tor.com posted an excerpt a little while back.  It sounds pretty interesting.

There Needs To Be A War Going On Somewhere: Lieutenant James Shelley commands a high-tech squad of soldiers in a rural district within the African Sahel. They hunt insurgents each night on a harrowing patrol, guided by three simple goals: protect civilians, kill the enemy, and stay alive-because in a for-profit war manufactured by the defense industry there can be no cause worth dying for. To keep his soldiers safe, Shelley uses every high-tech asset available to him-but his best weapon is a flawless sense of imminent danger . . . as if God is with him, whispering warnings in his ear.

Book Review: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

Pros: clear, concise writing, hard SF, relatable protagonists, interesting worldbuilding, exposition was limited and was worked into the story

Cons: We’ve already passed the book’s future.

Reviewer's Note: This review is of the author's preferred edition of Forever War, published in 1997.

Forever War follows the military career of draftee William Mandella after aliens attack an Earth space ship outside a collapsar jump.  Collapsar's allow long range space travel, and Earth refuses to give up the use of them.  The best minds, both male and female, are drafted to fight this exhorbantly expensive war the rest of Earth must pay for.  But as the years pass on Earth due to special relativity, and only months pass for the soldiers who survive combat, Mandella starts to wonder if he'll recognize home when his tour is over.

Forever War does for Vietnam in science fictional terms what Alexander Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich did for the Russian gulag: allow regular people to experience it.  Mandella's career is exceptional, as the author uses him to explore all aspects of the war, from training on earth and Charon, to witnessing combat, returning home and realizing he no longer belongs, reinlisting, getting medical treatment, becoming an officer, and more.  Through his eyes we experience fear, love, PTSD (in minor ways) and more.

The novel packs an emotional punch and covers an amazing amount of information, given it's size.  Haldeman's prose is clear and concise, a pleasure to read.

As the war progresses over the centuries, Haldeman occasionally explains how the Earth has changed to face the circumstances.  The most detailed of these passages comes when Mandella's first tour ends, 2 and 27 years after he enlisted.  Earth is a cross between Harry Harrison's Make Room, Make Room and the later part of Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower.  In other words, Earth is overcrowded and violent.  His exploration into sexuality as it pertains to population control is interesting, espcially considering the current controversies over gay marriage.  For a book that's 38 years old, it's surprisingly relevant.

This is a hard SF story, meaning the planetery battles are short while the battles in space are long and drawn out with very little action.  Mandella's a physicist, so most of the info dumps are via conversations he has with others, where he either explains the scientific concept, or has new concepts discovered while he was on a mission explained to him.  Like the rest of the writing, these passages are short, to the point and integrated properly into the story.  This reviewer has limited physics knowledge and had no problem following the novel, even though most of the science went over her head.

The only 'complaint' with the book is that it's dated.  Meaning, the aliens attack in 1996, which obviously didn't happen.  This is very easy to overlook and shouldn't detract from anyone's enjoyment of the book.  There's some talk of hippies, but none of the sexism the word 'dated' tends to imply when it comes to older science fiction stories.  In fact, this is a remarkably feminist work, with women and men treated equally in the army (though more men then women end up in positions of command as far as Mandella's experience is concerned).

If you haven't read this yet, you should.  And if you're hesitant to read hard SF, this is a good introduction to the subgenre.

New Author Spotlight: Gord Zajac

New Author Spotlight is a series designed to introduce authors with 3 books or less in the different SF/F subgenres. Today's spotlight shines on Gord Zajac! His debut novel is Major Karnage published by Chizine Publications. Here's the cover copy...

It has been 20 years since The War, and Major John Karnage has finally settled into retirement: locked up in an insane asylum, with an explosive device embedded in the back of his neck to curb his violent tendencies. Karnage and his troopers have been deemed unfit to live in normal society. Like a bit of old chewing gum stuck under a coffee table, the world has left The War and its scarred, unstable veterans behind. The military has been disbanded and World Peace has descended upon the Earth. Its inhabitants live happy, profitable lives under the global rule of the benevolent Dabney Corporation. All is tea and roses in this new, sanitized world... until a terrifying threat from beyond the stars rears its squiggly head! An invading armada of aliens threatens to destroy the Earth, and it's up to Major Karnage to stop them - as long as he doesn't accidentally blow his own head off first.

Check out his book if you like never ending wars or soldiers fighting past their prime:

• Veteran by Gavin Smith (Gollancz)
• Old Man's War by John Scalzi (Tor Science Fiction)
• The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (St. Martin's Griffin)

New Author Spotlight: Brett Patton

New Author Spotlight is a series designed to introduce authors with 3 books or less in the different SF/F subgenres.

 Today's spotlight shines on Brett Patton! Brett's debut novel is Mecha Corps published by Roc. Here's the cover copy...

Matt Lowell is in hell-and there's no place he'd rather be. At a training camp on the backwater planet of Earth, he and his fellow cadets are learning to ride Mechas: biomechanicals sporting both incredible grace and devastating firepower. Their ultimate aim is to combat the pirates of the Corsair Confederacy, but before they survive a battle, they have to survive their training. Because every time Lowell and his comrades "plug in" to their Mechas, their minds are slowly being twisted and broken by an unseen power that is neither man...nor machine.

If you like military SF that uses mechanized armour, check out these other books:

• Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein (Ace)
• Armor by John Steakley (DAW)
• Germline by T.C. McCarthy (Orbit)

Author Interview: Patrick A. Vanner

Novels: Ragnarok

> What's Ragnarok about?

Ragnarok is a ‘what if’ story. There are a several stories in books, TV series, and even movies that have to deal with humanity and/or civilized human cultures being destroyed or pushed back by an encroaching enemy. A majority of these stories deal with this premise by having the protagonist fighting back to reestablish civilization or find a new home for civilization. But, what if the heroes of the story realized that the reestablishment of civilization is beyond their ability, but instead, decide to clear the way for someone else? Ragnarok is the expansion of that idea. One ship, one crew, willing to sacrifice everything to eradicate an alien menace by any means necessary, to include genocide, in the hopes that humanity will be able to rebuild itself with the threat of alien aggression severely stunted or outright removed.

> There are several series about female army commanders/ship captains (David Weber's Honor Harrington, Elizabeth Moon's Heris Serrano, etc.), what made you write about a female Marine, ie a 'grunt'?

I am fascinated by other male author’s portrayal of female military members, whether it is in a novel, TV, movie, or game. Both of my parents were Marines, I was a Marine, several of my relatives were Marines, multiple friends of my family were members of all branches of the military, just as many of my own friends and comrades were; in fact the best commanding officer I ever had the privilege to serve under was female. Having spent my entire life around military members, of both genders, I have witnessed the differences in the way the genders approach situations. I wanted to see if I could capture those differences and bring them to life in the pages of my book and portray believable characters of both genders.

> What made you want to be a writer?

I have these characters living in my head, in multiple universes, all with their own lives, experiences, and stories to share. Sometimes, their adventures go in directions I would never expect, but I go with it anyway, it is their story, not mine, and I think those stories need to be shared.

> If you could, would you change places with any of your characters?

Right now, I would trade places with Tracy Clark, the recon marine. I feel more of a kinship with her than I do with most of my other characters, and her personality and zest for life just seems to be so infectious. I can’t but help and be jealous of her sometimes.

> What was the first novel (published or unpublished) that you wrote and how long did it take to write it?

Ragnarok was my first novel, and as to how long it took to write it is hard to say. I originally came up with the concept for it while I was still in the Marine Corps, back in 1998. I played with and poked the idea for quite some time, coming back to visit it over many years. I actually put pen to paper as it were, back in 2005. I played around with the first part of the story for most of a year, but then Alex would not be ignored any longer. In 2006, I pushed out the last 65,000 words in less than three weeks, and began the long process of editing and back and forth with my publisher. There were several life altering events between many of the people involved in the process, so the actual time line was much longer than was anticipated, but I am happy everything worked out in the end.

> What was the hardest scene for you to write?

The scenes between the chief of naval operations and the secretary of war. I had never been privy to those levels of interactions as a lowly (rank), and I had to do a lot of reading and research to even get an idea of how a meeting like that would go.  It wasn't as strong a scene as I would have liked, but I've gained some more experience and insight since Ragnarok so I hope to do better in the future.

> If you still have one, what’s your day job?

My wife hasn't let me become a full-time starving artist yet, so I still slave away to The Man working as as middle management in the telecommunications field.

> What is your university degree in and does it help with your writing?

I majored in Aerospace and Electrical engineering at Penn State, and when I separated from the Marine Corps, I went back to school to get a degree in Network Administration and Telecommunications. It helps less from the “style” side of things, but more from the “technical” side of things. It allows me to come up with some plausible technological ideas, as well as follow the logic in situations that otherwise might be missed.

> When and where do you write?

I don’t really have a “when and where” to my writing. I tend to write on my lap top, but I do it all over the house. As for the when, that is a bit more complicated. Real life obligations can make it hard to be productive without distractions, but it only takes a short period of quiet in my life to let the words flow. I wrote the short story, “The Question”, for the Citizens anthology in just a few hours. Work and life are coming up on an even keel now, so I am hoping for good things in the near future.

> What’s the best/worst thing about writing?

Best: Someone telling me that they are looking forward to what happens next.

Worst: The world conspiring to make things too crazy for me to be able to tell people what comes next.

> What is something you didn’t know about the publishing industry before you had your first book published?

I knew a fair bit about the publishing world going in to this, not because I did inordinate amounts of research, but because several of my friends are authors and publishers. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to pick their brains over the course of several years.  What I've learned since having the book published, has really been on a more personal level in how I deal with critiques, and praise, and moving more into the spot light at events instead of just being there to support others.

> Do you have any advice for hopeful authors?

Write something. Everyone has stories to tell, just instead of sitting around with your friends talking about it, put it on paper.Then have someone who will give you honest feedback read it. Don’t kill yourself trying to write a bestseller the first time out, just tell a tale that someone will want to know the ending of. Writing, like anything else in life, will improve with time, effort, and practice

> Any tips against writers block?

I can't think of anything to write for this.  But seriously, It is hard for me to tell the difference between writers block or just not having the energy or creativity to write anything due to outside factors and stressors.  I will tell you that getting the newest video game when it comes out and spending weeks playing it does not help.

> How do you discipline yourself to write?

For me, it is less a matter of disciplining myself to write, as it is disciplining myself to stop. When I am writing, it is not uncommon to see the sun coming up and wonder where the time went, and if I can call off work that day. I will say that I have tried to force myself to stick to a schedule of writing for set times each day, and for me that does not work.  Writing is storytelling, and when I try to force it, it becomes a chore.  I believe that telling a story should never be a chore, but fun.

> How many rejection letters did you get for your first novel or story?

Ragnarok is my first book, and Baen was my first choice in publisher. I am immensely happy that the good folks at Baen took the risk on a new author. With a little luck and a lot of guidance from their wonderful editing staff, I hope to keep my rejection letter count at zero.

Book Review: Germline by T. C. McCarthy

Pros: realistic depictions of war, interesting use of genetically engineered soldiers, deals with the aftermath of war as well as the war itself

Cons: character driven, very intense descriptions

War between the Americans and the Russians over minerals in Kazakhstan is big news, and Stars and Stripes reporter Oscar Wendell is the first reporter allowed to visit the front lines. His addiction to drugs, the time he spends at the front and meeting a contingent of genetics irrevocably change him so that when his brief mission is up, he decides to return to the war rather than go home.

I've only read a few military SF books (Starship Troopers and On Basilisk Station are the only ones I can think of), so this was a unique read for me.

Germline is told from a first person perspective that really gets you into the war. And while most SF and fantasy allows you to experience things like violence from a distance, Germline gets you up front and very personal with war. Because though it's set in the future, take away the fancy weapons and genetics and this could be a book about a reporter in Iraq or Afghanistan today.

While the story was fascinating, there were times when I just couldn't handle more descriptions of random deaths and body parts flying through the air and had to put the book down. Not to say that this book is needlessly graphic. It's not like Battle Royale where the point of the story is to shock you with violence. It was just TOO real at times and I needed to put some distance between myself and what Oscar was going through. In fact, some of the more horrifying moments are when people around him die so suddenly that Oscar doesn't have time to react to the deaths, depriving you of the chance to deal with what just happened via his emotional response.

I'm not too keen on character driven stories, and found Oscar difficult to like at times, mainly due to his drug addiction. There are a few jumps in time to speed up the story which was a bit disorienting interposed as they were between the visceral every day experiences. But half way through the book it becomes very linear as the story simply follows the last few months of the war.

I loved how Oscar takes time to appreciate how the war has changed him and the world around him, questioning the cost vs benefit of what they've done. It's the first book I've read in a long time that had me highlighting passages. Like this one:

"Almaty had once been a city like any other, with people who had dreams of doing something other than being invaded and killed, and I doubted that many of them even knew the current market price for rhenium or selenium or lanthanum; they probably didn't even know what the metals were used for. But we did. The Russians did. At the moment word got out that Kaz had something everyone wanted, someone at the Pentagon dusted off the abacus and did the math, a simple equation that estimated the cost of deployment, engagement, and retreat, to be balanced against the estimated reserves of rhenium and someone's wild-ass guess at how much we could get out - a kind of lottery that the locals hadn't even known they'd played until they were notified of winning the grand prize: us. ... Now it was like seeing a trillion one-dollar bills in person versus hearing it described; if you saw the cost of getting our share, it was indescribable, and you'd realize that there had been no words for all this until now. The cost was a hotel in the middle of an empty rubble field, surrounded by the dead."

I also liked that the novel ends by showing how war changes people. Oscar suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, having flashbacks and startling at every loud noise. This is a part of war that most people tend to ignore, how to reintegrate with society after suffering through so many MANY horrors. It reminded me of stories I've heard about what happened to Vietnam veterans when they returned to the US.

This is a well written novel that makes you consider the costs of war in very personal terms.

New Author Spotlight: T. C. McCarthy

New Author Spotlight is a series designed to introduce authors with 3 books or less in the different SF/F subgenres.

Today's spotlight shines on T. C. McCarthy.

T. C. McCarthy's books include:

• Germline by T.C. McCarthy (Orbit)

Here's the cover copy for Germline:

Germline (n.) the genetic material contained in a cellular lineage which can be passed to the next generation. Also: secret military program to develop genetically engineered super-soldiers (slang).

War is Oscar Wendell's ticket to greatness. A reporter for The Stars and Stripes, he has the only one way pass to the front lines of a brutal war over natural resources buried underneath the icy, mineral rich mountains of Kazakhstan.

But war is nothing like he expected. Heavily armored soldiers battle genetically engineered troops hundreds of meters below the surface. The genetics-the germline soldiers-are the key to winning this war, but some inventions can't be undone. Some technologies can't be put back in the box.

Kaz will change everything, not least Oscar himself. Hooked on a dangerous cocktail of adrenaline and drugs, Oscar doesn't find the war, the war finds him.

If you like this title, you might also like:

• Embedded by Dan Abnett (Angry Robot)
• Death's Head by David Gunn (Del Rey)
• Rebels In Arms by Ben Weaver (Eos)

Author Interview: T. C. McCarthy

Novel: Germline

Short Stories: 

"The Legionnaires" in Orbit Short Fiction

"Private Exploration" Nature, Vol 474, 2011

"A.I.P." Story Quarterly Issue 45, 2011

"A Dry and Dusty Home" Per Contra, Spring 2010

"The Best Liar Even" Bards and Sages Quarterly, July 2010 & Bardic Tales and Sage Advice, Vol III anthology

"The Goat King", Arkham Tales Issue 6, 2010

Website: www.tcmccarthy.com

> What's Germline about?

Pavlodar, Kazakhstan, has fallen; when U.S. forces capture its metallic resources using bioengineered troops, reporter-turned-drug-addict, Oscar Wendell, is in their midst. During the ensuing war with Russia, Oscar only has to grow-up, clean-up, and save his girlfriend - a genetically engineered soldier - if he wants to survive.

> What made you want to be a writer?

Being a reader. I used to stay up all night when I was in first grade reading the Taran Wanderer series, the Narnia series, anything I could get my hands on, and at some point I began appreciating books so much that I knew someday I'd write my own. Eventually it became a "I-have-to-be-a-writer" thing. Let me say this, however: the fact that people - who I don't know - are going to pay for my books is intimidating because once the book goes out, I have no control; all readers' opinions are valid opinions and if one doesn't feel as though he/she got his/her money's worth it's my fault. I lose sleep over this. But at the same time it's not like I'll stop writing because it's such an incredibly fun thing to go to a bookstore and see your own work, and I'm so fortunate to have gotten published in the first place.

> You write both literary and science fiction. What are the advantages of writing the different genres?

I LOVE writing literary fiction, and there may come a point where I try writing a mainstream or literary novel. I should also caveat my response up front: I am far less learned on this subject than many of the people I interact with in the writing community. Nick Mamatas once referred to people who pursue jobs in literary academia - without having obtained a decent education on the subject - as "plucky provincials;" that is exactly what I am, having had no formal education in literature. With that caveat, however, my take is that when I sit down and write something "literary" there is far more freedom to experiment and I can try all sorts of things; for example, I could use a thousand semicolons in a row! Also, it's been my experience that literary magazines tend not to shy away from topics or language that genre venues, for example, might never consider for fear of alienating readers. I could be wrong on this, and am open to being told so!

On the other hand, literary stories require a greater attention to detail because you have to get the right language and tone for the magazines you're targeting; one wrong word can make the story feel too heavy handed or melodramatic. The same can probably be said for science fiction stories, but having read a lot of both, I'm not sure that genre magazines (not all, but many) have as high a bar. My literary short stories tend, therefore, to be short. Really short, because they take so much effort.

> Beyond the matter of length, do you find it easier writing short stories or novels?

For me, novels are easier. You have a lot of room to work with, there's plenty of space to get into the head of your characters, and you can pursue subplots that you'd never put in a short story. I have a horrible sales record when it comes to selling my SF short stories. Horrible.

> If you could, would you change places with any of your characters?

No way! Not yet anyway; maybe if I write about a character who lives in Nantucket and has the easiest life in the world - maybe then I'd change places. My main characters tend to be people who are hurting and fallible, but who take control of their lives and manage to salvage something. I'd hate to have it that hard.

> What was the hardest scene for you to write?

In Germline, almost every scene came easily. In book two (Exogene), however, every scene was difficult and I can't think of any one that stood out above the others. Exogene was difficult for two reasons. First, the main character is a woman and so took a lot of thought and observation to figure out what the protagonist was thinking and how she would respond in certain circumstances. Second, she was a genetically engineered human - artificial. So her experiences often differed greatly from ones that normal people would have had in the same situation. I really tried to get it right in Exogene, but that's for reader's and reviewers to judge, not me.

> When and where do you write?

I write between 4 and 7 or 8 in the morning and late at night because it's the only free time I get; I have a family and a full time job. Anna Gregson once quipped that this must be the reason my characters are so nutty, and she may be right because by the end of a book I'm totally sleep deprived.

> What’s the best/worst thing about writing?

The best thing: getting fan mail that sincerely appreciates what I've written because it lets me know that I've reached at least one person.

The worst thing: not knowing how a given book will be received by a general audience. It's terrifying.

> What is something you didn’t know about the publishing industry before you had your first book published?

I never imagined the schedules would be so tight. After accepting Germline for publication I had six months to write Exogene, and then six months for the final book in the series. It was extremely demanding. Also, I didn’t know how willing to take risks publishers would be. DongWon Song, an editor at Orbit, gave me - a complete unknown - a huge break and that fact isn't lost on me. Orbit displayed a kind of willingness to take risks that really made me think of publishers in a completely new light.

> Do you have any advice for hopeful authors?

Keep going. Keep writing. Ignore rejection as long as you're getting some personal notes indicating you're on the right track; if you're not getting personal rejections, stop and think about whether it's time to look for something else or at least take a short break.

Eventually your work will wind up on the right desk at the right time. Write short stories if that's what you really like, but if you really want to write a novel, write a novel. Your first novel doesn't have to sell and your second, third and fourth will be even better.

And go have a life outside of writing. I'd never trade my career experience for anything because I've run into so many people and situations that help me with my characters and my writing.

> Any tips against writers block?

Work through it. I had deadlines to help me, so whenever I got writers block there was always a date hanging over my head, which gave me no choice but to write no matter if I felt like it or not. I was almost paralyzed sometimes. But as soon as I started reading/editing what I'd already written, or typed more words, the block went away.

> How do you discipline yourself to write?

If I didn't have a contract and deadlines, I would find it hard to write more than a book a year because I have so much to keep me from writing; thanks DongWon!!!

> How many rejection letters did you get for your first novel or story?

Too many to count. No, I'm not kidding.