Recommended Reading by Professionals... with Gail Carriger

In this series, I ask various publishing professionals (including authors, bloggers, editors, agents etc.) to recommend 2-3 authors or books they feel haven't received the recognition they deserve.

Today's recommendations are by Gail Carriger.  New York Times Bestselling author Gail Carriger writes comedic steampunk mixed with urbane fantasy. Her debut novel, Soulless, won the ALA's Alex Award. Her Parasol Protectorate books, their manga adaptations, and the first of her new YA series, Etiquette & Espionage, are all bestsellers. Her new book, Curtsies & Conspiracies, released November 5, 2013. She was once a professional archaeologist and is overly fond of tea.  

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1. Judith Tarr is a well known author within the SF/F community but I don't think she has ever quite attained the broader recognition her books deserve. My favorite of her work is Lord of the Two Lands, a fantastical alternate history of Alexander the Great moving into Egypt. The main character, an Egyptian priestess named Meriamon, is sent as a lure, omen, and diplomat into the heart of the invading Greek army. What makes Tarr brilliant is her writing style: she uses short, punchy, fragmentary sentences that nevertheless manage to convey eminence depth of meaning, emotion, and characterization. Everything she writes is precisely implemented, bladed and cutting, even when joyful. For example:
   
   After a long while she found another word. "Sekhmet?"
   "Here."
   Soft paw, prick of claws. Murmur of inquiry: "Mrrrrttt?"
   
   Trust me, in context, those few words will make you cry. The Lord of the Two Lands is as near to perfect as a book can get, filled with adventure, action, and tension yet also bittersweet and wildly romantic. It's one of those I return to again-and-again, and as an author I am always slightly disheartened knowing I myself could never write such clean sharp prose.
2. Ann Maxwell [aka Elizabeth Lowell] is a prolific writer better known for her romance novels then her science fiction, of which her last was Timeshadow Rider in 1986.  (I still live in hope that she may finish the Firedancer series, three of which came out in the early 80s and ended on a cliffhanger). I can't fault her, since her romances afford her a living, we writers must eat. But if you can get ahold of some of her stand alone science fiction, you're in for a treat. Timeshadow Rider is my favorite. Where Tarr is a master of brevity, Maxwell dances with words. Her prose is lyrical, poetical, and flowing but not flowery. Her science fiction reads like some surreal myth about the future. Her aliens are precisely that, so alien I feel, as a reader, like they are almost beyond my comprehension, and yet I am eager to try to understand them all the more because of that. Each time I reread her books I feel like I am learning something different about her dream-like vision of the future. 
3. Claudia J Edwards wrote four fantasy novels in the late 80s, one of which was the first in a planned series. Sadly, she died in 2010. That series might have been one of my favorites, but as it's unfinished, I'll focus on Taming the Forest King. I adore this book, it's one of the few I reread regularly and I know will always cheer me up. It's a straight up classic fantasy with a super tough female main character, military service, magical monsters, and one of the most perfectly executed love triangles ever written. This is one where I'm not going to comment on the writing style, because, frankly I'm too sucked into the story - every time - to be able to tell you anything about it. And that, in and of itself, is a major recommendation.

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Stay tuned for the next post where we get reading recommendations from Andrew Post!

Rick Owns Fashion Show Uses Stepping

This is pretty amazing.  Instead of using conventional models, fashion designer Rick Owens used real women to model his new line of clothes by stepping (traditional dance) on the runway.

You can read more about this show, and the choreographer, in this article at Ms. Magazine.

And yes, I understand there's no real SFF connection to this, but sometimes - for writing and other purposes - it's good to think outside the norm.  This presentation may change how the fashion industry picks models.  Thinking outside the traditions of SFF may make your novel the next big thing.



via Janet Reid's blog

See Brandon Sandersin, James Dashner and Christopher Paolini talk in NYC - or online

If you're in New York City, there's an awesome YA author event coming up this Saturday.  Here are the details from the email I got:

Random House Children’s Books is pleased to announce that three of the biggest name authors in science fiction and fantasy are coming together for an afternoon panel hosted by the 92nd Street Y in New York City on November 16th. James Dashner (The Eye of Minds), Christopher Paolini (Eragon: 10th Anniversary Edition), and Brandon Sanderson (Steelheart) will entertain their fans via an interactive panel discussion moderated by Alexander Zalben of MTV News. One of the first YA events that the 92nd Street Y has hosted, the panel will be livestreamed to viewers across the globe who won’t be able to make it to the New York area to see the event in person. The link for the livestream will be found here: http://92yondemand.org/livecast/

Dashner, Paolini, and Sanderson are all forces to be reckoned with in the children’s literature world. Dashner, best known for his Maze Runner series, has sold over 2.4 million copies of his books in North America alone. Fall 2014 will see the feature film debut of The Maze Runner (20th Century Fox). With a loyal fanbase that has dubbed itself the “Dashner Army” (#DashnerArmy) as well as the publication of The Eye of Minds, the first book in his new Mortality Doctrine series, Dashner continues to gain in popularity amongst both teenagers and adults.
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To purchase tickets to this one-of-a-kind event, visit http://www.92y.org/Event/Paolini-Dashner-Sanderson.aspx. A discounted ticket price is offered to attendees under 35 years of age. The authors’ newest titles—Eragon: 10th Anniversary Edition, Steelheart, and The Eye of Minds—will be available for purchase, and to be signed by the authors, at the event.

Here are all the important details for those who wish to attend in person:

Date: Sat, Nov 16, 2013, 3 pm
Location: Lexington Avenue at 92nd St
Venue: Buttenwieser Hall
Price: from $22.00

And remember, the free live webcast will be available here.

Book Review: Hammer of Witches by Shana Mlawski

Pros: diverse characters and creatures, storytelling magic, author's note

Cons: (*historical inaccuracies), characters bad at hiding their identities, uses common fantasy tropes

When Balthasar Infante is picked up by the Malleus Maleficarum he discovers that his uncle is correct and stories have power.  Turns out he's a Storyteller, a sorcerer able to pull items and creatures out of stories.  He quickly learns that his parentage isn't that of a converso Jew as he's always believed, but Muslim.  

Armed with a prophecy he wants to stop, and still running from the Malleus Maleficarum he joins the crew of the Santa Maria as Cristobal Colon's new translator, heading west to the Indies.

I loved the diversity of the characters.  Spain at this time was multiracial and though everyone either had to convert to Christianity or leave, the whole point of the Inquisition was to root out false converts, meaning there assuredly were some.

Balthasar's experiences being bullied for his heritage and his hero are realistic, making him a very sympathetic protagonist.  It's great watching him learn more about the world, questioning his beliefs as he must interpret the different stories to call on his magic.

I also appreciated that the stories came from different backgrounds: Jewish mythology, Arabic mythology, Greek mythology and fairy tales.  Storytelling itself was an awesome form of magic that I know I'd love to have.

* The difficulty in talking about this book is that several of the things that annoyed me in the story were either explained later in such a way that they became accurate (like Catalina's feminist reading of Sleeping Beauty), or were mentioned in the author's note (like her depiction of the Malleus Maleficarum).  I loved her author's note.  Having a detailed overview of what she manufactured vs what was historically accurate was awesome.  I'd love to see more authors do this at the ends of their books.

The biggest hurdle the book must face is the reader's knowledge (regardless of how accurate) of Columbas' journey.  I don't know much of what happened (which made her author's note all the more fascinating as I'd assumed she'd fabricated more than she had), but I do know that things don't end well for the natives.  There were times when it was hard not to get annoyed by Balthasar's naivete in the face of my knowledge of what's to come.

The biggest irritant in the book itself was that despite the fact that Balthasar and Jinni board the Santa Maria under assumed names, they continually scream each others real names out whenever something happens, in front of other people.  Yet no one questions this.

The book uses several common fantasy tropes.  On a few occasions they're subverted, making them feel fresh, but often they're not.  

But despite the book's problematic elements I appreciated that the author didn't shy away from the horrors of the real world.  And her use of characters and creatures outside the fantasy norm is much needed to revitalize the genre.

PokeRap - Gotta Name Them All...

College Humor has updated their PokeRap to include all 718 Pokemon.  There's some amusing commentary between the rap segments as the rapper's throat gets sore and he's forced to keep going.  It's quite a long song so you feel for the guy.

I wasn't a huge Pokemon fan, but I did watch the show for a while and did some fan art for my nephew.  I'm surprised by how many of the Pokemon I still know.

CollegeHumor's Favorite Funny Videos

Shout-Out: The Cure by Douglas E. Richards

If only I could read everything ever published.  There are so many, many great books.  And here's one that deals with psychopaths, which is such a fascinating topic.  And then you bring up the idea of curing them...

Psychopaths cause untold misery. If you found the cure for this condition, just how far would you go to use it?

Erin Palmer had a devastating encounter with a psychopath as a child. Now a grad student and scientist, she's devoting her life to studying these monsters. When her research catches the attention of Hugh Raborn, a brilliant neuroscientist who claims to have isolated the genes responsible for psychopathic behavior, Erin realizes it may be possible to reverse the condition, restoring souls to psychopaths. But to do so, she'll not only have to operate outside the law, but violate her most cherished ethical principles.

As Erin becomes further involved with Raborn, she begins to suspect that he harbors dark secrets. Is he working for the good of society? Or is he intent on bringing humanity to its knees?

Hunted by powerful, shadowy forces, Erin teams up with another mysterious man, Kyle Hansen, to uncover the truth. The pair find themselves pawns in a global conspiracy-one capable of destroying everything Erin holds dear and forever altering the course of human history . . .

American society in the early twenty-first century seems to be experiencing a growing epidemic of psychopathic monsters. Douglas E Richards's The Cure explores this condition, and the surprisingly thorny ethical and moral dilemmas surrounding it, within an explosive, thought-provoking, roller-coaster-ride of a thriller that will have readers turning pages deep into the night.

Reading Unbound: Ramez Naam

One reader's adventure in the great sea of literature outside the comfort zone.

This is a new series I'm hoping to start on my blog.  Due to work I probably won't do too many of them before the new year, but I'd like to make this a regular feature when things settle down.

My plan with this column is to introduce authors from different backgrounds or authors with works that go beyond the 'norm'.  In other words, to get myself out of my comfort zone.  If there's someone you'd like to see me feature, please leave your suggestions in the comments.

Ramez Naam was born in Egypt though he grew up in the U.S..  He is a computer scientist, having worked at Microsoft and founded his own company, Apex NanoTechnologies, "the world’s first company devoted entirely to software tools to accelerate molecular design".  He has published four books.  The Infinite Resource and More Than Human are non-fiction science books, while Nexus and Crux are science fiction.

Here's the synopsis for Nexus:

Who decides what you can put in your brain? Who draws the line between human and non-human? How do we choose between liberty and security?

In a near future scarred by the mis-use of advanced technologies, government agencies and international treaties use extraordinary powers to suppress research that could lead to new horrors. In this world, the experimental and illegal nano-drug Nexus can link humans together, wirelessly connecting brain to brain. There are some who want to improve Nexus. There are some who want to eradicate it. And there are others who just want to exploit it.

When a young and idealistic American scientist named Kade is caught improving Nexus, he’s blackmailed into spying on an eminent Chinese researcher who may or may not be weaponizing Nexus – turning it into a tool for coercion and political assassination. Bit by bit, Kade is thrust over his head into a world of danger and international espionage – with more at stake than anyone realizes.

From the halls of academe to the halls of power; from the headquarters of an elite US agency in Washington DC to a secret lab beneath a top university in Shanghai; from the underground parties of San Francisco to the illegal biotech markets of Bangkok; from an international neuroscience conference to a remote Buddhist monastery in the mountains of Thailand – Nexus is an exploration of the next step in human evolution, a scathing critique of the US War on Drugs and War on Terror, and a thrill ride through a world on the brink of explosion.

Want to learn more?  Here's his website, blog and twitter handle: @ramez.

You can see a fascinating talk he gave earlier this year on the science behind Nexus. (The talk ends at the 38 minute mark, after which there's a Q and A period.)