A Review of the Upcoming Star Wars Novel, Heir to the Jedi, by Kevin Hearne

Image from NetGalley

Heir to the Jedi is the latest Star Wars book in the official canon, due out in March. I've already expressed my love of Kevin Hearne novels, so I was looking forward to reading this one. In the story, Luke is sent on a mission for the alliance to save a genius alien programmer from Imperial captivity, in exchange for her services for the Alliance. Along the way he meets a rich girl who's decided to do something to help the rebels and the two need to go on a couple of side quests to help raise the money to complete their mission. Hearne does a great job depicting the early Alliance is a realistic setting: no home base, not much money, and still trying to build a group of allies and operatives to continue their war against the Empire.

I loved this look inside the early years of Luke Skywalker. In the movies and older novels we jump from inexperienced farm boy to budding Jedi knight, but what about in between? Aside from having a great story and good look at Luke outside the immediate settings of the rebellion, I really enjoyed reading about his musings about the force and what it was capable of. Seeing Luke question whether the force is useful for more than just dodging blasters and TIE fighters drives home the idea that he grew up in a galaxy where knowledge of the force has been ruthlessly repressed.

This is a different direction for Kevin Hearne, author of the Iron Druid series and one of my favorite new authors. This isn't the best Star Wars book I've ever read. It feels more like an interlude, a cool story filling in the gap between other, more substantial works, but that doesn't mean it wasn't an enjoyable read. Taking on the Star Wars universe isn't easy, and there's a lot of expectations surrounding the new canon books, but I think Hearne did a great job on his first Star Wars novel. I will definitely be buying a copy in March.

Wesley Chu Announces Sale on The Lives of Tao

Remember when I said following authors on social media was a good way to find deals on their books? Well it paid off today. Wesley Chu posted to Facebook today that The Lives of Tao is on sale for only $2.99 for the Kindle on Amazon. This is a book I've praised in the past and still do. It's also on Reddit's list of underrated fantasy books, which I thought was tragic. So if you've never read the book take this opportunity to go get a great story from an up and coming author. Leave me a comment if you buy it and what you think of it.

Anthem's Fall, The Debut Novel by S.L. Dunn

Cover from Goodreads

Anthem's Fall is the debut novel from S.L. Dunn, and it's a pretty good debut. This isn't a straight sci-fi book. It's not set in the future and it's not about a technologically superior, space faring race. In fact, when I started reading it I forgot it was sci-fi at all. 

The story starts in New York City with a young woman named Kristen Jordan, an incredibly brilliant geneticist and a student at Columbia. She's working on a new technology that allows us to create synthetic cells that are exact copies of biological templates. The science is a little over my head, but you don't really have to follow it and Dunn doesn't spend whole chapters hashing out the science behind it like some authors do. 

The book then takes us to the planet Anthem, home to the Primus race. While they do have superior technology, that isn't really the thing this race focuses on. The Primus, you see, are vastly superior to us in strength. Dunn has created a race of people that don't need technological weapons, because none can hurt them. The only thing that can is their own prodigious strength, given to them by the Sejero genes they inherited 2000 years previously. This has led to the creation of a culture where might makes right. The strongest of their number advance the highest. Interestingly, the highest order of the Primus, the Royal blood lines, look just like humans. Humans with the strength to level cities. 

I thought the story was good. I was interested and engaged the whole time. Dunn wrote good action scenes, and the fights between the Primus are visceral and super human. It's a little hard to visualize clashes between people that are stronger than tanks, but the fights are described very well to help with that visualization. I also think Dunn hit the nail on the head when he described the way the population would react to what was happening. The total bedlam he described seems to me to be an accurate guess. 

There are a couple things I didn't like about the book. I wish Dunn would have explained Sejero genetics more fully. I wanted to know where it came from, what it meant, and what happened during the war with the Zergos in the distant past. I also wanted to know more about the link between the Primus and humanity and how Pral Nerol knew about Earth. I'm hoping those questions will be explained more fully in the later books. In term's of the writing, I had trouble believing the dialog between the two Primus soldiers on Earth. I just don't think that two people from a society so different from ours would speak in such a normal manner with each other.

Anthem's Fall is a genre bending book. There's aliens, but the fact that they fly around in space ships is minimized. No one uses technology too far ahead of what we have now, and the Vatruvian Cell technology the book focuses on seems plausible right now. The genre of the book isn't as important as the values the story is espousing. At it's core Anthem's Fall is a book about the morality of the strong dominating the weak because they can. It's a conflict between a society where the strongest dominate because no one and no technology could stop them and a protector who feels the strong have a duty to protect those at a disadvantage. It was a great debut novel, and I can't wait for the next one. Anthem's Fall is set to publish in July, so look for it soon.

What is a reader to do?

I've been thinking about books a lot lately. I've always loved reading as much as I could, but since I started this blog books have been on my mind more than normal. I'm connected with a few authors and my favorite publishers on social media and I get emails from a few about new releases. And I just don't know where to go next.

For those of you who don't know me, which is all of you since this is the internet and I'm not a celebrity blogger yet, I'm 28. I'm also an accountant so you'll have to bear with me here on the annoying math bits of this post. So I have 2,148 books right now. I know because I have a spread sheet that keeps track of them all, including books I have, related books that I still need, and (rarely) the disposition of books I've disliked, such as sold to half price books or donated to my local library. I also have a spreadsheet tracking books that I've read so I know where I am in series and don't read a book over unless I want to. This sheet contains metrics such as the number of books I've read so far this year, the total page count, the average time to read a book, and the number I've read since starting the spreadsheet. Did I mention the accountant thing? We're not all this square, I promise. Anyway, I read about 55 books per year right now, a number I can only assume will go down after I have kids. Simple math tells me that I will be done with my collection in just over 39 years.  I will be in my late 60's. Not that old in this day and age, but getting there.

The problem is that doesn't include any new books added to my collection. That number also doesn't count the nice number of ARCs I'm getting to read for this site, including the one I'm currently reading (check out the cool feature on the right of the screen). So do you see my dilemma? How do I pick which books to read and which to let go before I die? I'm constantly bombarded with new stuff I want to read. Orbit's advertising an Orbital Drop on facbook? Great, just what I needed. What's that? Dayton Ward posts to Facebook about a book that looks pretty awesome? Thanks Dayton, like catching up on Vanguard and reading Star Trek: Seekers wasn't enough from you. And of course my own room betrays me. I thought I had mapped out a strategy on what to read next, but sitting here writing this I see the whole Terry Brooks Shannara series looking at me forlornly because I've never read one yet. (You wouldn't believe how accusing a book can look)

So my question to you folks is, what's a reader to do? How do I decide what to read before I leave this mortal coil and my relatives build the Tavern at the End of the Universe Memorial Science Fiction and Fantasy Library, or drop a whole moving van of books off at Good Will? Since I'm a glutton for punishment, why don't you drop me a comment with something I should read soon? If I have it, or it looks good enough to add to the collection, I'll feature it on here too.

Review of Words of Radiance

If Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson was a marathon read, I definitely have a runner's high. I think. Anyone who knows me would know I'd be more likely to have a runner's heart attack than a runner's high. And those people should stop ruining my metaphors. Anyway, I loved this book. That's not a surprise, since I've liked everything Sanderson has written, but I am going to try to be a little critical here instead of being another fanboy.

Words of Radiance is the second book of a planned 10 in The Stormlight Archive series. It feels like this was the second book in a trilogy though, with a nice set up at the end for a final book to wrap up. I think Sanderson is planning to have smaller story arcs within the 10 book set. I have a couple of complaints with the story, and I will try to be light on my spoilers, but you've been warned. I feel like the last few pages of the book threw a ton of new bits of story at you all at once. I know an epilogue sets up the next story, but we meet three new Radiants right at the end with no explanation of what their orders mean, one of which is the most frustrating, as Sanderson didn't really even allude to the fact that they were becoming a Radiant. I know Sanderson's style is to drop a lot of hints about the world and then explain fully in later books, but that just left me frustrated instead of excited. I also think it's weird how Kaladin and Shallan spent months with their respective spren while learning to be Radiants, but the new batch seem to have spren that already know who they are and don't have any of the memory problems that Pattern and Syl did.

Those frustrating bits aside, I think this was a great book. Way of Kings is set during a war, yet its not all about battles. There are a lot of political machinations happening, yet it doesn't get bogged down in slow political scenes. There are several main characters being followed, but you can easily keep their stories straight in your mind and the interaction between them works well. Sanderson has taken elements from several genres (epics, political tales, and war stories) and blended them all seamlessly into a story with good pacing and a killer plot. I rarely found myself bogged down in a slow chapter, though some of the interludes seemed unimportant for now, and I also didn't feel like he was rushing through a scene just to get to the next one.

You learn a lot more about the world of Roshar and how the powers of the Radiants work in this book.  I liked seeing the different styles that his characters have while learning to use a power that they can access instinctively. Sanderson does a great job in giving his characters real life and personality that is unique to them. Their personalities carry through faithfully in all of their interactions, but they aren't flat one dimentional people either.

I can't wait to read the next book in the series, although history tells me I'll be waiting quite a while. I'm anticipating a great deal of conflict between the orders of Radiants and their individual members. I also can't wait to learn more about how the worlds of Roshar and Shadesmar really work.

Shared Universe Stories 3: Variations on a Theme by Gygax

Welcome once again to my round up of my favorite shared universe series. So far I've discussed Warhammer, in which Gotrex and Felix novels are my favorites, and Star Trek, which offers a great sci-fi experience with lots of different stories. Today, though, I'm going to talk about the series I read all through college. These two series are both based on Dungeons & Dragons and have their own pen and paper RPGs. Have you guessed it yet? I'm talking about Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms!

I love both of these series for several reasons. First, I feel they have a more compelling central story line than other shared universe series. Warhammer has basically no main story arc. Sure, Gotrek and Felix are a story line unto themselves, but they aren't the focus of the Warhammer world. I feel like every Warhammer book I read is a side story to the main adventure, which doesn't actually exist except in your table top game. Star Trek has a main line I suppose, but I tend to read the side stories more anyway. But Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms both have strong main story lines, plus the tons of side tales you would expect from a shared universe story.

The main arc of Dragonlance starts with Dragons of Autumn Twilight, the first book in the Chronicles trilogy. This trilogy, and the other core stories that follow, revolve around a group of companions and the war of the lance. You get to learn a lot about the world and these characters, and the nice part of an RPG tie in is you can find more information about anything you're curious about by searching the different guides online. I found the stories confusing at times, with jumps in the plot, but that is partly because I read them out of order. There is a great guide to the reading order here. I found that I liked the different characters and they had well thought out, if a little formulaic, personalities. TSR put together a standard group of D&D adventurers (a half-elf, warrior, mage, dwarf, human, and kender) and gave them a fun adventure. Despite the fact that the Dragonlance tales are in no way groundbreaking in their depiction of fantasy characters, they are fun to read and the story will draw you in. You will want to know what happens next in the war and the betrayal from one of the main group will leave you as angry as if you were there.

There are many other stories in the Dragonlance world to choose from. I liked the Heroes series, which tells the stories of some of the famous historical figures you hear mentioned in other books. There's also a set of Tales books which deal with the history of certain events and tales of the different races such as The Cataclysm and Kender, Gully Dwarves, and Gnomes. There's even a trilogy written about the minotaurs, and I always love stories written from the perspective of the "bad guys". Sadly, it seems like Dragonlance books aren't coming out much any more. Even if this series is done being written it had a life of more than 20 years. There are lots of stories to fall in love with and I would suggest it highly.

Forgotten Realms is another D&D spin-off with it's own set of playing manuals and books. The main story line within the Forgotten Realms is all about Drizzt Do'Urden, everyone's favorite dark elf. No, this is not another one of my tales from the evil side of fantasy. Drizzt is the archetypal black sheep. He's a good dark elf. You can learn about his upbringing and exile from the dark elf society in the Dark Elf trilogy. That story, however, is a prequel to The Icewind Dale trilogy. I would recommend reading Icewind Dale first. There are presently 26 Drizzt books out or being published this year. Many of these have been collected in omnibuses, which makes getting the stories easy and slightly cheaper. Drizzt's life is long, and not always easy, but his tale is well worth reading and the books are well written.

Like all the shared universe books, The Forgotten Realms have many stories to tell in addition to the main story line. The are tales written from all different parts of the world and from different time periods. I've collected several of the omnibus editions and they make a good read when you have a week to power through a story, although I guess most people don't read 600 pages a week. Either way, they are worth the money. Not all of them have caught my attention, in particular the Maztica trilogy. I was surprised, because the series is written by Douglas Niles, whom I really like, but it just didn't grab me. The trilogy is a Forgotten Realms version of the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Aside form that one series, I have liked the other books I've read very much. I would highly recommend The Forgotten Realms, but keep in mind you are getting sucked into a commitment of at least those 26 Drizzt books, because you won't be able to stop.

Great eBook Bargains are Everywhere Right Now

So as I've mentioned before, I'm warming to the idea of eBooks. Slowly. I'm sure finally joining the modern age and getting my Samsung Galaxy has helped. I love that I can send an eBook file from my laptop to my phone or download one from the different online services I get them from whenever I need. It's nice to know my days of being stuck on the train or eating lunch without a book are basically over.

That being said, I'm always on the hunt for great deals and new authors. That's why I'm very excited about the different eBook bargains I've run across recently. I can combine my love of loving authors with my love of being a miserly young curmudgeon.

First, find you favorite authors and follow them on social media. They will often talk about any discounting promotions going on with their books. Also, look through the forums of some of the groups on Goodreads. Authors, especially independents, will often post about discounts they are offering. If any of you aren't regularly looking on the sub-reddit /r/fantasy, you really should be. Just a quick browse today let me see a few bargain priced eBooks , such as The Thousand Names by Django Wexler (what a great name btw) and Hollow World by Michael J. Sullivan, who is a great guy.

Social media is also a great way to follow your favorite publishers. I follow all my favorite publishers on Facebook and get notified every time they have something special going on. Every week I look for a post from Orbit Books advertising their Orbital Drop, a special eBook sale with titles that change all the time. Paying attention to the goings on of your favorite publishers can help you identify new authors to try too.

You can also bargain hunt with sites like Amazon. Amazon is a huge eBook retailer. Although they may be controversial with their practices, you can get a great deal on eBooks they are having a special sale on. Just this week I was introduced to a site called Book Bub, which is free to subscribe to. Book Bub takes your interests and sends you a daily email with bargain priced or free eBooks you can get online. I just started and I already downloaded a book from a new author that I can't wait to try out. There are a lot of sites like that that you can use to find bargains.

Bargain eBooks are a great way to find some new books to read. Hopefully you will find some new favorites and go on to purchase more of the author's work. If you know of any other great places to find a deal on books leave me a comment. I'm always looking for new deals.