Shout-Out: Proxima by Stephen Baxter

The very far future: The Galaxy is a drifting wreck of black holes, neutron stars, chill white dwarfs. The age of star formation is long past. Yet there is life here, feeding off the energies of the stellar remnants, and there is mind, a tremendous Galaxy-spanning intelligence each of whose thoughts lasts a hundred thousand years. And this mind cradles memories of a long-gone age when a more compact universe was full of light...

The 27th century: Proxima Centauri, an undistinguished red dwarf star, is the nearest star to our sun - and (in this fiction), the nearest to host a world, Proxima IV, habitable by humans. But Proxima IV is unlike Earth in many ways. Huddling close to the warmth, orbiting in weeks, it keeps one face to its parent star at all times. The ''substellar point'', with the star forever overhead, is a blasted desert, and the ''antistellar point'' on the far side is under an ice cap in perpetual darkness. How would it be to live on such a world?

Yuri Jones, with 1,000 others, is about to find out...

PROXIMA tells the amazing tale of how we colonise a harsh new eden, and the secret we find there that will change our role in the Universe for ever.

Stranger Than Fiction: The Medieval Cook by Bridget Ann Henisch

A column dedicated to pointing out interesting tidbits of history, some of which would be cool to see in a fantasy novel or two.

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This isn't a proper book review, more of a quick pros/cons section with some point form notes of things I learned from this book.

Pros: lots of interesting tidbits, quick read, lots of examples, cautions on use of texts and trouble finding examples

Cons: some repetition, only 19 illustrations which are all black & white and all in chapter 6

The book consists of 6 chapters: 1 cook in context, 2 cottage cook, 3 fast food and catering, 4 comforts of home, 5 staging a feast and 6 the cook in art

It's quite amazing how much information the author managed to glean from the sources available, which are predominantly margin drawings from manuscripts.

- had to fetch water and fuel for fire, keep fire going through cooking (& heating), which took up a LOT of time

- had to grind grain at mill, often had to bake at baker’s (no oven at home but could bake in pan or on coals)

- wafers were popular

- could buy different foods from specialists

- had versions of ‘fast food’ for people in towns who had to work, students (no kitchen facilities)

- could bring filling to specialist who would make pie crust, could get it back cooked or uncooked (uncooked was cheaper but you’d need a way/place to cook it yourself), could also buy fully made pies

- high table at feasts got better food than regular tables, similarly higher ranked people got better/more food than lower ranked at high table

- couldn’t eat eggs or milk for lent, so pancake Tuesday (which was the day before lent started) was used to get rid of them (Calendar picture for February, book of hours, French, 2nd quarter of 16th C., Bodleian Library, MS Douce 135, fol. 2v)

- Tacuinum sanitatis (health handbooks) - group of manuscripts, show more kitchen details

- used white aprons without upper bib, use knotted strings to hold things on (no pockets)

- image of mobile oven, bringing pies to outdoor stall that also sells bretsels (Ulrich Richental, Richentalchronik, 1465. Rosgartenmuseum, Constance, MS Hsl, fol.23a)

Crowd Funding: Vultureman

Last year I had the pleasure of reviewing The Hangman's Replacement: The Sprout of Disruption by Taona Dumisani Chiveneko.  The book had minor SF elements but an interesting mystery and fascinating setting (Zimbabwe).  Well, the author's doing a fundraising campaign on Pubslush to raise funds for editing, printing and promotional services for book 2, Vultureman, set to come out next summer.  For a $10 pledge you get ebook copies of the first 2 books.  Here's the cover blurb for book one.  You can read several pages on Amazon (which is what convinced me to review the book).

Zimbabwe’s last hangman retired in 2004. As the nation drifted towards abolition, no determined effort was launched to find a replacement. However, the discovery of carnivorous flame lilies at the Great Zimbabwe monument triggered a spirited search for a new executioner. Those who know why this discovery energized the recruitment effort refused to talk.

The frantic attempts to find a new hangman were impeded by the lack of suitable candidates. Well-placed sources confirmed that the fear of ngozi was a deterrent. According to this traditional belief, the spirit of a murdered person torments the killer and his family for generations. However, this is only half the story. Several promising applicants did come forward. None met the minimum requirements for the job. The selection criteria were designed to exclude the mentally ill, the vindictive, and the sadistic. However, they did not rule out the desperate.

And for those of you who have read the first book, here's the cover and synopsis for book two.  You can read an extract on his blog.

After Abel Muranda secured the job as Zimbabwe's newest hangman in Book 1 (Sprout of Disruption), his life is now in worse danger than the convicts he was hired to execute. While his faceless masters are eager to empty death row, Abel Muranda's recruitment has also stirred a contrariam force that is determined to ensure he does not live to attend his first day of work.

As human and animal predators stalk each other across the Zimbabwean landscape, the most fearsome is a creature that appears to belong in neither camp. A being that no one has ever seen but all had hoped did not exist: The Vultureman.

Video: Assassin's Kittens Unity

I'm not much of a video game player, but I love watching my husband play games with good stories and/or interesting graphics.  The Assassin's Creed games are on that list (I loved watching Ezio jump around the rooftops and streets of Florence and Constantinople).  So here's a kitty version of the soon to be released Assassin's Creed Unity by Mr. TV Cow.  It's adorable.

Book Review: Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie

Pros: fascinating characters, interesting narrative approach, develops new world-building aspects

Cons: character driven

A week after the events of Ancillary Justice, Breq, now fleet captain and assigned to Mercy of Kalr, departs on Anaander Mianaai’s orders to Athoek to make sure the system stays safe.  In addition to her experienced lieutenants, Seivarden and Ekalu (of the Kalr), she has a new 17 year old one, Tisarwat, to train.  Once they arrive at the station, they find a suspicious captain, disturbed by the lack of communication after the attack on Omaugh Palace and the destruction of several gates, racial tensions, and minor issues covering larger problems that need to be addressed. 

As with the first book, the real aspect of interest is in how Breq sees the world.  You don’t get flash backs to when she was Justice of Toren, though that’s often in her thoughts, instead you get her trying to keep up with frequent run downs of the sort of information she would have have had instantaneously as a ship, sent to her by her ship, Mercy of Kalr.  It’s an interesting way of seeing things, and allows Breq to pretend she’s still one part of a larger whole while also being a narrative means of showing the reader what’s happening in places outside Breq’s physical sphere.  There is a plot, but in many ways this feels like a character driven novel because Breq’s presence is so overpowering.  If you don’t like her unique way of seeing the world, you won’t enjoy this book.

Breq comes across as a tough as nails captain.  Sometimes she’s too tough, pushing her crew beyond what she should, something I suspected would eventually cause her problems, but her extensive experience means she’s able to pull back at just the right moment.  Even knowing what Breq was trying to do, I thought she was too hard on Tisarwat at times.  Not only had the lieutenant been through a traumatic experience with little recovery time, she’s given little to no positive reinforcement when she does things right.  So while Tisarwat was an interesting character, seeing her through Breq’s eyes made her less sympathetic than she probably deserved to be.  It was fun seeing her grow up and mature.

I was a little surprised at the number of secrets she kept from her crew, her true identity as Justice of Toren and what happened with Tisarwat being the main ones, but it does make sense that the crew might balk at such things, so keeping them secret probably made sense.

There’s more information about how the military works and there’s a unique supporting cast.  I enjoyed learning more about the military and political politics, both between the ships but also how it applies to a station and planet once they get to Athoek.  I’m hoping we learn more about the Presger in the next book.  What little was revealed here merely whet the appetite.

Shout-Out: Facial Justice by L. P. Hartley

'The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy...'

Jael 97's good looks have been deemed a cause of discontent among other women, and she finds herself reporting to the Ministry of Facial Justice, where her face will be reconstructed to become 'beta' (second-grade). For she lives in a post-apocalyptic world, where society is based on a collective sense of guilt, where all citizens are labelled 'delinquents' and obliged to wear sackcloth and ashes. Individuality and privilege, which might arouse envy, are stamped out.

But Jael refuses to fit in. Forced to become 'beta', and thus exempt from envy, her self-respect and rebellious spirit cannot be suppressed so easily. Slowly, she begins the struggle to reassert the rights of the individual.

This is a reprint of a book that came out in 1960.  I've not heard of it before, so I'm glad it's being brought to attention again because it sounds really interesting.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Books Coming in December 2014

As usual, this list was compiled from Amazon Canada's listings for the month.  I'd like to point out that Jim C. Hines has published in ebook format an annotated version of the first novel he ever wrote, Rise of the Spider Goddess.  There aren't that many reprints this month compared to the last few, but again we're seeing a rise in trade paperback and ebook formats and a real lessening in the number of mass market books coming out.

Hardcover:

Books of the Dead – Annmarie Banks

Carbide Tipped Pens: Seventeen Tales of Hard Science Fiction – Ben Bova & Eric Choi

Elite: Wanted – Gavin Deas

Andromeda’s War – William Dietz

Star Trek: Ships of the Line – Doug Drexler & Margaret Clark

The Top of the Volcano: The Award-Winning Stories of Harlan Ellison – Harlan Ellison

Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman – Christopher Golden, Hank Wagner & Stephen Bissette

The Magician’s Land – Lev Grossman

Return of the Plumed Serpent – Graham Hancock

Spirit of the Wolves – Dorothy Hearst

The King’s Deryni – Katherine Kurtz

Collision – Mercedes Lackey, Dennis Lee, Veronica Giguere & Cody Martin

A Timely Dream – Fleur Lind & Lloyd Hopkins

Emissary – Thomas Locke

The Strange Library – Haruki Murakami

Beauty – Sarah Pinborough

Charm – Sarah Pinborough

Nobody’s Home – Tim Powers

Station Eleven – Emily St. John Mandel

The Immortals of Meluha – Amish Tripathi

Sustenance – Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Trade Paperback:

Time Bomb – Scott Andrews

Undercity – Catherine Asaro

Proxima – Stephen Baxter

Gods and Monsters: Mythbreaker – Stephen Blackmoore

Elysium – Jennifer Marie Brissett

Phoenix Island – John Dixon

The Observers – Chuck Downing

Tony Macaroni – Mark Elliot

Warhammer 40K: Ahriman: Sorcerer – John French

Blackthorn – Simon Hawk

Legacy of a Warrior Queen – Maria Herring

The Future is Ours – Edward Hoch

The Beating of His Wings – Paul Hoffman

Worlds in Chaos – James Hogan

Atlas 2 – Isaac Hooke

The Awakened Kingdom – N. K. Jemisin

The Inheritance Trilogy Omnibus – N. K. Jemisin

The Lady – K. V. Johnsen

21st Century Robot: The Dr. Simon Egerton Stories – Brian David Johnson 

Imaginarium 2014: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing – Sandra Kasturi & Helen Marshall

The Stag Lord – Darby Kaye

The Twelve Kingdoms – Jeffe Kennedy

Warhammer: Bane of Malekith – William King

The Maggot People – Henning Koch

Moth and Spark – Anne Leonard

Moon’s Artifice – Tom Lloyd

The James Lovegrove Collection vol 1 – James Lovegrove

The Genome – Sergei Lukyanenko

The Mammoth Book of SF Stories by Women – Alex Daily MacFarlane

The Vault – Emily McKay

The Occasional Diamond Thief – J. A. McLachlan

Phoenix in Obsidian – Michael Moorcock

On Her Majesty’s Behalf – Joseph Nassise

Retribution – Mark Charon Newton

The Wanderer’s Children – L. G. O’Connor

Dangerous Games – Jonathan Oliver

The Rose Cord – J. D. Oswald

City of Eternal Night – Kristen Painter

Myth and Magic: Queer Fairy Tales – Radclyffe & Stacia Seaman, Ed.

The Fortress in Orion – Mike Resnick

Into the Night – Suzanne Rigdon

The Wild West Exodus Anthology – Brandon Rospond, Ed.

Incident in Mona Passage – Douglas Savage

The Glass Lady – Douglas Savage

Infection and Containment: Alaskan Undead Apocalypse Books 1 & 2 – Sean Shubert

The Beautiful and the Wicked – Liv Spector

Paradigms Lost – Ryk Spoor

The Heads of Cerberus – Francis Stevens

A Man Lies Dreaming – Lavie Tidhar

Something More Than Night – Ian Tregillis

Prototype – M. D. Walters

Chaos Quarter – David Welch

Crystal Venum – Steve Wheeler

Journey Through the Mirror – T. R. Williams

Agony of the Gods – Tom Wolosz

Mass Market Paperback:

For a Few Souls More – Guy Adams

Darkness Fall – Keri Arthur

Working God’s Mischief – Glen Cook

The Queen’s Necklace – Teresa Edgerton

The Tess Noncoire Chronicles – P. R. Frost

Hot BLooded – Donna Grant

Forgotten Realms: The Herald – Ed Greenwood

Work Done for Hire – Joe Haldeman

Jason – Laurell Hamilton

Vacant – Alex Hughes

Revenant – Larissa Ione

Pathfinder Tales: Pirate’s Promise – Chris Jackson

Universal Alien – Gini Koch

No True Way – Mercedes Lackey

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Missing – Una McCormack

Reg Regis – L. E. Modesitt, Jr

Macaque Attack! – Gareth Powell

The Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs – Mike Resnick & Robert Garcia, Ed.

Spheres of Influence – Ryk Spoor

V-S Day – Allen Steele

The Shadow’s Heart – K. J. Taylor

Halo: Mortal Dictata – Karen Traviss

Supervolcano: Things Fall Apart – Harry Turtledove

Low Midnight – Carrie Vaughn

Hunter of Sherwood – Toby Venables

Like a Mighty Army – David Weber

ebook:

The Fall – Jay Allan

Alacrity – Alivia Anders

Star Chasers: Torn, Turn, Shattered – Emily Asimov

Under Different Stars – Amy Bartol

Rage of the Diamond’s Eye – Shawn Becker

Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations: The Collectors – Christopher Bennett

The War of Alien Aggression – A. D. Bloom

Will – S. F. Burgess

eMOTION: False Positive – C. Ryan Bymaster

eMOTION: Hard Wired – C. Ryan Bymaster

Hard Vacuum 2 – Simon Cantan

Anamore – Jason Cooke & Tracey Cooke

Hellsbane Hereafter – Paige Cuccaro

Gateway to Prophecy – Duane D’Vein

Empathy for Andrew – W. J. Davies

Heroes Wanted – Allen Donnelly

Spellbound Souvenir – Beth Durkee

The Complete Zimiamvia – E. R. Eddison & Douglas Winter

Blades of Sorcery – Terah Edun

Fantasy For Good: A Charitable Anthology – Jordan Ellinger & Richard Salter, Ed.

Naero’s Trial – Mason Elliott

The Creator’s Eye – R. N. Feldman

Eradicate – Corrie Garrett

Dilesios – Thomas Greanias

Dungeon Breakers – James Ivan Greco

Journey of Thieves – C. Greenwood

The ABACUS Protocol – Thea Gregory

Azimuth: Arc of Visibility – Elayne Griffith

Portals of Water and Wine – R. L. Haas

Tides of Maritinia – Warren Hammond

A Girl Called Random – Valentina Hepburn

Rise of the Spider Goddess: An Annotated Novel – Jim Hines

Living in Illusions – John Hope

The Lamtin Star – Larry Itejere

Mention My Name in Atlantis – John Jakes

The Lost Word of Khymera – Theresa James

Talon – C. J. Johnson

The Embers of Hope – Nick Jones

The City of the Moon – Walter Junior

Defect – Autumn Kalquist

Lady Macbeth: Daughter of Ravens – Melanie Karsak

The Fey Man – James Kelly

Slay Ride – Simon Kewin

Court of Nightfall – Karpov Kinrade

3000 Years After New Earth – Petar Kostadinov

Artificial Evolution – Joseph Lallo

The Gifted – Tamra Lassiter

Outskirts of Vision – Nir Levie

The Darkness Shines – Kieran Lowley

The Thief Who Knocked on Sorrow’s Gate – Michael McClung

The Last Prince – Kristy McCluskey

Solaris Seethes – Janet McNulty

Away Your Forfeit Life – A. K. Meek

Frend – Jonathan Miller

Erawan – Laura Montgomery

The Hades Contract – Ken Mooney

The Third Word – J. C. Nathans

The Sacrifice – A. J. Nuest

The Wanderer’s Children – L. G. O’Connor

Caretaker – John O’Riley 

Stonehill Downs – Sarah Remy

Mind the Gap – Tim Richards

The Adventures of Tarin Kowt – D. Ethan Richards

Emissary – Chris Rogers

A Land Overflowing – Peter Schnake

Soulwoven: Exile – Jeff Seymour

Latent Magic – Kate Shaw

Scrapplings – Amelia Smith

Tingermage – Kenny Soward

The Ghost of Sephera – J. D. Tew

A Passage to Asteria – Charles Underwood

Compile: Quest – Ronel van Tonder

List of the Dead – R. Curtis Venture

Frotwoot’s Faerie Tales – Charlie Ward

Heart of the South – C. J. Watterson

Mariposa – Kim Wells

Thunderlight – Adrienne Woods

Los Angeles: A. D. 2017 – Philip Wylie

The Murderer Invisible – Philip Wylie

Between Worlds Right Now – Chryse Wymer