Jul 05 2018

The Book Of Hidden Things by Francesco Dimitri

In all honesty, I can’t decide whether I liked that ending or not. It sorta demands more storytelling when this book is clearly complete as it is, and while I could not help but smile in satisfaction at the last word of the novel, I also felt — in hindsight and not, crucially, at the time itself — that it leaves things open-ended in a way that is less “here, go play with your imagination and interpret as you will” and more “teehee, there is more that I’m not telling you, too bad.” Which, for a book named after the book written by one of the main characters, the charismatic and possibly insane Art, is fitting despite, and perhaps in some small part because of, how unsatisfying it can feel.

Well there, that’s enough metaphysics in fiction for this review: let’s talk about the plot. Four friends return to their small hometown in the south of Italy every year to catch up on old times. There’s art photographer Fabio, lawyer Mauro, surgeon Tony, and Art, who lives in Casalfranco again after years of gadding about abroad. Only this year, Art doesn’t show up, and the three friends’ search for their missing mate sets into motion a tale that is partly fantastical, uniquely Italian and wholly mature.

See, it’s been so long since I’ve read adult fantasy that I’ve almost forgotten how weirdly real it feels compared to YA. To a certain extent, it’s hard to really categorize The Book Of Hidden Things as a fantasy novel, when the three friends easily concoct reasonable explanations for most of what they run into. TBoHT is primarily a book about friendship, a deep dive into the psyches of these very different men and the roads they’ve taken since leaving their small town beginnings. There is betrayal and violence but above all a deep and abiding bond between the four of them. TBoHT is a celebration of male friendship that also examines family ties and religion in ways that are even-handed and convincing. I was a little concerned, at the beginning, that the women in the book would be cardboard cutouts, and while they’re clearly supporting characters, they are complex and strong and their own people, not merely consigned to being passive wives and sisters and girlfriends.

Shockingly, this is the author’s first book in English, after establishing himself as a master of fantasy in Italian. I’m so glad Francesco Dimitri has decided to write in English, as it really allows those of us unfamiliar with his mother tongue to enjoy his writings as he intends them (no slight to translators, who do very important work, but nuance occasionally gets lost when writing from the original.) His depiction of an Italy that is at once modern, fantastic and deeply rooted in history is a joy to experience.

Oh! I should warn you: the depiction of the hanged dog on the cover is accurate to the contents of the book, so if that kind of thing bothers you, you might want to skip this.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2018/07/05/the-book-of-hidden-things-by-francesco-dimitri/

Jul 01 2018

To Kill A Kingdom by Alexandra Christo

A savage yet still somehow YA retelling of The Little Mermaid fairy tale that eschews insipidity and gender tropes, but has some really annoyingly poor language choices throughout. Princess Lira is a siren, seventeen years old and raised by her mother the Sea Queen to be a deadly killer. Her preferred target is the princes of the Hundred Kingdoms and, once every year, she finds one to draw into the ocean before ripping his heart out as a trophy. When she accidentally saves the life of Prince Elian of Midas, her enraged (and quite frankly a bit deranged) mother, punishes her by turning her into a human. Only if Lira kills Elian will she be returned to her natural state.

But Elian is a killer himself, a hunter of the sirens who prey on humanity. Preferring the wide ocean waters to the kingdom he is heir to, he sails around the world with his handpicked crew, searching for a way to end the siren threat once and for all. When a man comes to him in a tavern, promising an ancient artifact that could effect this, Elian cannot help but be intrigued. When his and Lira’s paths cross, Lira too becomes privy to this information, and forms her own plan to make the powerful artifact hers.

On the whole, it’s a thrilling tale of pirates and treasure hunting with sassy, believable characters; terrific world-building, and a plot that essentially takes the fairytale we all know and mostly love and gives it a fresh interpretation with 100% less romantic pining and 100% more self-actualization and ambition. There were some really odd gaps in the logic (e.g. Sakura’s stay in Midas made not a lick of sense; I didn’t understand the mermaids’ motivations half the time; how did Kardia just suddenly show up in the conversation) and there were a lot of inappropriately used words. Not that there were profanities, just that some of the conversations were absolute drivel because the words were being used as nonsense babbling. Elian at one point asks Lira if she needs him to keep a secret, and she responds that she needs him to keep a favor but then asks him for something that is in no way, shape or form a favor, and I guess that at that point they’re so worn out from their journey that this seems the height of wordplay but it’s really not and it’s kinda annoying, in the “stop trying to make fetch happen” sort of way. I appreciate the inventive use of language but that was not what was on display here. And while I liked that the book was told from alternating viewpoints, I think it would have really helped if those had been demarcated by chapter headings or somesuch instead of randomly switching without warning.

Anyway! It was still a really cool retelling of Disney’s version of the Hans Christian Anderson fairytale, and I greatly enjoyed it, with those few exceptions. I especially liked how it examined radicalization and deprogramming, albeit lightly, as well as trust and the benefits of laying down arms. The female characters were complex and multi-dimensional throughout and I especially enjoyed the relationship between Lira and Madrid. Bonus points also for being a standalone novel and not part of some unnecessarily multi-book behemoth.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2018/07/01/to-kill-a-kingdom-by-alexandra-christo/

Jun 27 2018

An Interview With G. S. Denning, author of My Grave Ritual

Q: Every series has its own story about how it came to be conceived and written as it did. Reading A Study In Brimstone, I figured this series would mostly be a light-hearted spoof, so have been greatly excited by how it has developed into an intriguing, complex ongoing narrative with the release of My Grave Ritual. How did the Warlock Holmes books evolve in your mind and on the page?

A: You know, I thought it would be a simple spoof, too, for a minute. The day I started, I sat down to write a short story, just for yucks. But that night, as I lay in bed thinking about it, I realized I didn’t want to. I’d started to like the idea too much. I realized it could hold a series and—judging by the history of geek-love for Sherlock—I figured I could get it published. So I dove right in.

Q: Do you write with any particular audience in mind? Are there any particular audiences you hope will connect with this story?

A: I think the audience is… me. And all the people out there who are basically me. The Whovians. The Sherlockians. The lovers of Adams and Pratchett. The people who should probably stop giggling at fun geek stuff and get a real job,  but who resist with every fiber of their soul. Hi guys! Here’s a book for you.

Q: What is the first book you read that made you think, “I have got to write something like this someday!”

A: I think it was The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I already loved sci-fi/fantasy. And I already loved humor. To see them married like that made me so happy! But there wasn’t enough, you know? I’ve been churning out geek humor for over two decades, but mostly on the stage, not on the page.

Q: Your author biography states that you did over two decades of improv before finally learning to write stuff down. How did your experience with improv inform your writing process?

A: Improv taught me to write. It taught me what an audience likes and how to feel when my story was on the ball and when it wasn’t. If you want to write, I highly recommend trying improv. Oh, as a special bonus: anybody who has to make up 8 stories per night while a live audience watches is not going to suffer from writers’ block.

Q: Do you adhere to any particular writing regimen?

A: Someday, I’d love a writing regimen. Sigh… Someday… Right now I’m still working 40 hours a week doing MRI and trying to keep my two young kids happy and alive. The books you’ve been reading were written a few hours at a time at coffee houses or burger joints that will let me sit in a corner table and write. I steal time after the kids are asleep or between dropping them off at school and heading in to work. I swear 50% of book 3 was written at Red Robin on Friday nights after work.

Q: While reading A Study In Brimstone, I was certain you were a pantser (someone who writes by the seat of their pants) but by the end of My Grave Ritual, I’m convinced you must be a plotter. Which do you think you tend to be?

A: Well, you were never wrong. I’m a bit of both. I tend to figure out the large plot/thematic points I want to hit and write towards them. Oh, and I have help on this particular project. A famous British dead guy wrote all my plot outlines for me a hundred years ago. Any of you pansters out there who want to try writing to an outline, but don’t know how to make a solid plan, try this: write a parody. Strip the muscles and skin off a beloved old story. Keep those solid and venerable bones, but give it new flesh. It’ll teach you a lot.

Q: Given your broad background in geekdom, what made you choose Sherlock Holmes pastiche specifically as your means of expression?

A: It was an accident. I had just watched the first episode of the BBC’s Sherlock and found myself recommending to a fantasy writer that she build a powerful-but-flawed character like Holmes for her book. She said Holmes would never work in fantasy—how would you ever adapt that. On the drive home, I started laughing, because the answer occurred to me and it was so simple: everybody thought he was magical, anyway, so all you had to do was let him be. Then I thought up the pun Warlock Holmes. I was so excited. I ran upstairs to Google it and see what the geeks before me had done with that joke. There was nothing. So I sat down to write it myself.

Q: What has been the reaction of Sherlock Holmes fans to your novels?

A: Surprisingly good. I thought I was going to get flamed so hard. I am, after all, messing with one of the most beloved literary figures of all time. But I’m doing it lovingly enough, I think, and with enough nods and Easter-eggs to the originals that the Holmes fanbase has been exceedingly welcoming to me. There was one guy who gave me a one star review and called the series “Openly-flaunted degeneracy.” That was so choice, we were going to use it as the top blurb on the back of book 3, but he took it down. Boooooo!

Q: Readers can expect the fourth and fifth books in the series, The Sign of Nine and The Finality Problem, in April of 2019 and 2020 respectively. What can you tell us about your next project, whether it be these upcoming books or something else entirely?

A: Let’s see… Book 4 is all about Watson’s darkest days. He’s trying to figure out how magic and Moriarty and Adler work and he’s injecting himself with a mystic solutionn to have prophetic dreams. It’s slowly killing him, but he can’t stop trying to get that last clue he needs to best Adler. Book 5 is all about Watson’s adventures in matrimony with Mary Morstan. I also have a YA novel done and ready to market if my agent ever decides to give it a spin (you listening, Sam?) It’s basically Romeo and Juliet if the Montagues were the Indiana Joneses and the Capulets were mad scientists.

Q: What are you reading at the moment?

A: My own stuff, over and over? The original Holmes stories, over and over? Oh! Actually I’m re-reading Scott Lynch’s Lies of Locke Lamora. Really satisfying fantasy con/heist story. Highly recommended.

Q: Are there any new books or authors that have you excited?

A: What I’m really excited about now is actually a literary trend I’m hoping will take off. I am able to do my books because Sherlock Holmes is moving into the public domain. The other one that is going in right now is the collected works of H.P. Lovecraft. I can’t wait to see what people do. Who’s got a humorous Lovecraftian series? I want to read it!

Q: As a self-proclaimed “terribly friendly geek”, what is your favorite geeky pastime and why?

A: Pen-and-paper role playing, especially with authors and improvisors. If you play kick-in-the-door-kill-the-monster-take-its-treasure-style, live RPGs are just crappy seconds to video-game RPGs. But, when the stars align, when you get the right group and a narrative-based adventure, you get to be a character in your favorite story, ever.

Q: Tell us why you love Warlock Holmes!

A: The size of it. There are so many original stories, so many beloved characters, so many mysteries and plots that I really get to take my time and let Warlock grow and expand at the pace I want. I’ve got a nested plot structure. Each mystery has its own plot. Each book has an overarching plot (Book 1 is the intro. Book 2 is Holmes’s origin and Watson coming into his own as an adventurer. Book 3 is the villains coming in to mess the boys up. Book 4 is the descent into darkness). And the series itself is the story of how Holmes and Watson broke the world. The sheer size of the original canon and the geek-world’s collective patience with my series means I get to let it grow and change.

Thanks for taking an interest in Warlock, Watson and me. As long as you guys keep reading ‘em, I’ll keep writing ‘em!

~~~

Author Links:

g s denning

~~~

My Grave Ritual was published May 15th 2018 and is available via all good book sellers. My review of the book itself may be found here.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2018/06/27/an-interview-with-g-s-denning-author-of-my-grave-ritual/

Jun 26 2018

Summerlong by Peter S. Beagle

Abe, a cranky retired history professor who’s pretty good on the harmonica. Joanna, a flight attendant who’s logged plenty of miles but still has a ways to go before she can stay on the friendly ground. They’re an unlikely pair, and they maintain their separate residences, separate worlds, but sixteen years together have been good to both. They know when to be together, when to keep their distance, how to keep their lives in and around Seattle rolling along. Until one day.

They don’t recognize it immediately, though they do recognize that something significant has happened. That’s one of the pleasures of Beagle giving older characters the lead in Summerlong. Beagle tells a kind of story that feels unusual to me in fantasy and science fiction, though it is common in more mundane settings. His characters are neither young people discovering who they are, nor old ones either looking back or having one last adventure. Instead, they are mature people, rounded and complete in themselves showing new sides of themselves or finding different ways of being who they were all along. It begins with a discussion in a restaurant about what steps Joanna (Delvecchio, whom Abe often calls Del) should take to keep the gray from taking over her hair, and the two of them pulling the server into their conversation.

“She’ll probably be calling me Mom too, by the time we get to the salad.”
Abe looked up at the girl standing patiently by the table. “Would you really do that?”
“No,” the girl said. “I would just call her ma’am, and I would say, ‘I’ll be your server tonight. May I tell you about our Special of the Day?”
She was tall, almost as tall as Abe, and slender, and her voice was low and clear, with the slight, warm hint of an accent. … She said, “The special is blackened snapper in a ginger-mango sauce, over a jasmine rice pilaf. I really recommend it.”
“Primavera,” Abe said softly. “Primavera, by God.” She looked blankly back at him. Abe said, “Actually by Botticelli. It’s a Renaissance painting of a young girl who represents spring — that’s primavera in Italian. You remind me of her.”
The waitress did not smile, but a shadowy dimple appeared under one cheekbone. “Perhaps she reminds you of me. I can also recommend the pan-seared scallops.” (pp. 23–24)

Joanna’s gray is forgotten already. Wheels are turning.

When she had gone to fetch their wine Abe said, “California. Santa Cruz, maybe San Diego. They’re all moving up here. Unbelievable.”
“She’s not from California,” Joanna said. “You know she’s not from California.”
“Greek, maybe. Balkan somewhere. The accent could be Greek.”
Joanna patted his hand. “Listen to you. We used to have a captain who always came on the P.A. like that, talking in little tough grunts. Sweets, that child just knocked you on your ass, and you’re hoping I won’t notice. Forget it, she knocked me on my ass too. How old do you think she is?”
“Nineteen. Eleven. One hundred and twenty-six. I have no idea.” He realized that his voice was shaking, no matter how level he tried to keep it. “Del, I taught European history until last spring. People really do look different in different times, that’s just something I know. You look at the paintings, the statues — faces change, it’s genetic and cultural and spiritual, all together. That look — Del, that model got discontinued a very long time ago.”
“Well,” she said, and the light-brown eyes that he knew so completely widened in teasing affection. “Sometimes maybe one slips through.” (pp. 24–25)

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2018/06/26/summerlong-by-peter-s-beagle/

Jun 20 2018

An Interview with R S Ford, author of A Demon In Silver


Q: Every book has its own story about how it came to be conceived and written as it did. How did A Demon In Silver evolve?

A: It actually sprang from an idea for a totally different novel. I came up with a concept set in the modern day, featuring warring gods who had fought one another through the ages. They were known by different names in different cultures throughout time, but were now on the brink of extinction. I canned the idea as it was obviously very close to Gaiman’s American Gods, but the concept of warring gods stayed with me. When I later got to thinking about a fantasy realm that had once been ruled by magic but now there was none, the two ideas kind of evolved into the War of the Archons series.

Q: I really enjoyed the way you constructed A Demon In Silver as essentially a chase narrative, introducing many important characters only as they become involved in the pursuit of Livia. I was also impressed with how you wound the plot back around to the beginning of your narrative, closing the circle, as it were, even as you left room for lots more to come. What inspired you to structure the story in these non-traditional ways?

A: I don’t really like rules, would be the quick answer. Basically, some of the plot reveals required a non-linear plot structure for a bigger impact. But I think the story bounces along fast enough so as not to ruin the pacing and plot.

Q: Do you write with any particular audience in mind? Are there any particular audiences you hope will connect with this story?

A: Readers of fantasy have become much more diverse in recent years, which is reflected in the wide array of fantasy that’s currently available. Aiming at a particular demographic only limits your readership so I don’t tend to write for any one perceived group. I think the best a writer can do is produce the kind of novel they’d like to read, then you just have to set in free and hope other people like it too.

Q: What is the first book you read that made you think, “I have got to write something like this someday!”

A: I’ve read and admired a lot of novels over the years. I think the one that made me sit up and take notice the most was The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. On the face of it the story has been told a dozen times before, but it casts aside all the old tropes to become its very own thing. And I don’t think I’d ever laughed out loud that much at any novel I’d read before.

Q: How did you learn to write?

A: Practice, practice, practice. I’m a great believer in learning on the job, and writing novels (or anything for that matter) requires that you put in the hard hours. I wrote around five novels before I had a word published. The process of writing a novel from start to finish, even if it turns out to be horrendous, is more valuable than any creative writing course you could go on. That’s not to say those things aren’t valuable, but finding your own ‘voice’ as a writer is the key to success.

Q: Do you adhere to any particular writing regimen?

A: I find myself easily distracted, so I subscribe to a very strict regimen. I tend to cut my chapter plans down into bite-size pieces and go at them in short sprints. Then I’ll go back through in one session revising the huge mess I’ve just made.

Q: In the acknowledgments to A Demon In Silver, you talk about the changes you had to make to the novel as plotted. Do you generally consider yourself a plotter or a pantser (someone who writes by the seat of their pants)?

A: That particular plotting snafoo occurred because I didn’t have a firm plan for where the novel was going when I started it. Normally I have a strict chapter breakdown before I’ve written a word. Needless to say, I won’t be ‘pantsing’ again.

Q: What made you choose fantasy, and particularly the blend of high meets grimdark (highdark?) in A Demon In Silver, as your means of expression?

A: Ooh, Highdark! I like that, can I steal it? (Doreen responds: Absolutely!)

I’ve always been a fantasy fan, probably due to the freedom of expression it gives. You’re not tied down to a real time or place and are free to come up with whatever background you like. Also, I’ve always found that despite their ‘otherworldly’ settings, fantasy novels are essentially about people and character, as opposed to SF, which usually seems to be about high-concepts and ideas. I’m all about the characters.

Q: Speaking of high fantasy meets grimdark, I see that you’ve also written short stories set in the Warhammer and Pathfinder universes. Are you much of a role player, and how does that inform your writing, if so?

A: I used to work as an editor for an RPG company back in the dim and distant, and I have been known to roll the odd funny shaped die. I don’t take much influence from roleplaying, as the traditional adventuring-party concept doesn’t really fit in with the kind of books I write. However, I love a look through a setting guide every now and then, and find them a great source of inspiration.

Q: Are there any new books or authors in fantasy that have you excited?

A: I’m currently reading The Court of Broken Knives by Anna Smith-Spark and liking it a lot. I’ve also heard some very good things about Blackwing by Ed McDonald so I’ll be picking that up at some point and most likely adding it to my ever expanding to-be-read pile.

Q: What can you tell us about your next project?

A: As we speak I’m thrashing out book two in the War of the Archons series; The Hangman’s Gate, while I also dream about the other projects I’d love to write if only I had the time.

~~~

Author Links:

Hear All, See All, Say Nowt richard4ord.wordpress.com
Follow him on Twitter @rich4ord

~~~

A Demon In Silver was published June 12th 2018 and is available via all good book sellers. My review of the book itself may be found here.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2018/06/20/author-interview-with-r-s-ford-author-of-a-demon-in-silver/

Jun 19 2018

The Synapse Sequence by Daniel Godfrey

Anna Glover is not a war criminal, but that doesn’t mean that she isn’t treated as such by the public at large. Blamed for giving the United States and United Kingdom a reason to wage war with China during her former life as an air crash investigator, she now works to build an experimental synapse sequencer which accesses the memories of multiple witnesses to reconstruct pivotal events, a technology that its owner, Jake Morley, wants to monetize for use in London’s judicial system. Desperate to prove the value of the project — and, by extension, herself — Anna flings herself into the seemingly minor case of a foster teen beaten into a coma. As she dives deeper into N’Golo Durrant’s life, she realizes that the very underpinnings of modern society are in jeopardy… and that that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

The synapse sequencer is a fascinating fictional construct. In Daniel Godfrey’s hands, this exploration of memory and technology becomes a cautionary tale of the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and politics, and makes for thought-provoking reading. I did not personally believe in Mr Godfrey’s depiction of life on a Universal Income (essentially a guaranteed basic income which has been tried to great success in certain European countries in real life,) but I definitely appreciate the dilemmas raised as the plot unfolded. How much of our lives are we willing to cede to authority and technology? How much of memory is reality as opposed to perception? Twisty and bleak but not without its own cautious optimism, The Synapse Sequencer is the kind of dystopian thriller that will have you reevaluating what you think you know about your relationship with modern tech.

Stay tuned for an interview with the author within the next few weeks!

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2018/06/19/the-synapse-sequence-by-daniel-godfrey/

Jun 17 2018

Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

Just in time for World Cup, I have finished Unseen Academicals, the Discworld book that takes up soccer — football, as it is known in some places, or foot-the-ball, as it is generally called in Ankh-Morpork. I had not been looking forward to this particular book on my trek through all of the main Discworld novels. It focuses on the wizards of the Unseen University, who are my least favorite among the groups of characters who appear in multiple Discworld books. I was tired of Rincewind by his second appearance as the protagonist of a wizards’ novel, and while the others are more enjoyable to read about than he is, they still don’t hold my interest very well. Second, the later novels that don’t feature Tiffany Aching are starting to seem more programmatic, with Pratchett’s interest in exploring a technological development or aspect of society driving the story, rather than telling a good story that happens to look at some subject in particular. Third, Unseen Academicals is the longest Discworld novel, clocking in at roughly 540 pages. The page count has been creeping up through the recent books, without commensurate gain. I like Pratchett’s stories better when they are brisker and tighter than when every development in the tale is lovingly indulged by author and editor.

The book also shares Thud‘s problem, that of an important and universally known aspect of culture that the author has somehow failed to mention in 36 preceding books. Pratchett nods in this direction early on, writing that there is so much violence in the game that the participants keep it clandestine, and so many participants that the Watch finds it expedient to steer clear of games as they happen. I wasn’t convinced. For example, if the game is as important to the social lives of Ankh-Morpork’s right poorer inhabitants as Unseen Academicals claims, then young Sam Vimes would have been a part, and he would surely have said something about it in all the novels where the conditions of his growing up are mentioned.

Pratchett does better with his handling of Rincewind; namely, he sends him off-stage right away. The main trunk of the plot grows from two developments. The budget of the Unseen University — and thus, crucially, the institution’s ability to support the wizards’ luxurious eating habits — depends on a bequest, one of whose provisions is that the University must field a football team regularly, and the time defined by “regularly” is about to expire. The other is that Vetinari has decided to put a damper on the massive mob violence that accompanies foot-the-ball matches. Here, readers can see echoes of the violence that plagued British soccer in the 1980s and 1990s, along with efforts by authorities to curb it. Both reasons seemed contrived to me, and contributed to my overall sense of the book as programmatic, rather than a story arising naturally from the characters and setting.

In addition to the senior wizards who have been around for several books, Unseen Academicals stars several people from the serving class that keeps the university running. Glenda is in charge of the night kitchen, makes formidable pies, and embodies the bedrock decency of most of Pratchett’s protagonists. She also comes in for criticism because of some of the things that she assumes that are part of her decency. That is a level of reflection I have not often seen in Pratchett’s work; on the other hand, it’s Vetinari doing the criticizing, and he hardly has any room to talk in the matter of manipulating people. As he would freely admit. Juliet works in the kitchen with Glenda. Juliet is not very bright, but she is stunningly beautiful; some of her choices lead to a subplot on fashion and celebrity. Trevor Likely is part of the cadre that ensures the university’s candles are all artfully dribbled. He is also the son of a famous foot-the-ball player and has no small amount of talent himself but has sworn to his dear mum that he will stay away from the violence. Mr Nutt is a dribbler like Trev, and turns out to have an even more unusual personal history.

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2018/06/17/unseen-academicals-by-terry-pratchett/

Jun 15 2018

War for the Oaks by Emma Bull

War for the Oaks had a band-naming scene before the name of your next band became a Thing. It had fantastic conflicts in a downtown setting before vampires were ever thought to be sparkly. It has strong female protagonists as if that is the most natural thing in the world, which of course it is. It is set in the Minneapolis that Prince had shown the world in Purple Rain, three years before the publication of War for the Oaks. Prince himself might well have been playing at one of the venues the characters drive past, or a club they went to in between scenes actually shown in the novel.

In a city where rock and funk are crossing their boundaries, the divisions between the mundane and the magical are coming down too. Eddi McCandry doesn’t know that at first, she just knows she’s breaking up with her awful boyfriend and quitting his band at the same time. She doesn’t need that shit. In the breakup, she keeps the drummer, Carla DiAmato, who’s a good friend, too.

On the way home from that ill-fated gig, a man follows Eddi through the downtown streets. She tries to run, but he appears in front of her or beside her when she was sure she left him far behind. She trips on a flight of stairs and loses consciousness.

As her senses return, she hears two voices. One, she discovers, belongs to a dog. The other is

A woman [who] rose from the [fountain’s] water. She seemed to be standing on its surface, to be a coalescence of water into a woman-shaped pillar. Her long gown looked like water, too, spilling over her breasts and straight down in a current of darkness and green-shot light. Where it reached the surface of a pool, it disappeared into it, indistinguishable. Her hair seemed fluid as well, but snowy white, pouring down around her to her feet. Her face and arms were moon white. (p. 18)

Things are not as they seem in Minneapolis.

Readers and Eddi discover things at the same pace, seeing the world reveal another aspect that had been there all along, hidden in half-sight. War for the Oaks is not obviously deep, but it is obviously, and tremendously, fun. It’s the kind of book that had me tapping my feet in gleeful anticipation of what would happen next, and I polished it all off within 48 hours of first cracking the covers.

Why does the book work so well? Eddi and Carla and the rest seem like natural people, even the supernatural ones like the talking dog (who also has an incarnation as a dapper gent) and the woman from the fountain. One slightly odd thing leads to another odder thing, and before the break between sets, Eddi is part of a fight between rival courts of the fae folk. Bull leads Eddi and readers into the other world step by step. It’s appealing, but also appalling, and by the time Eddi knows most of what is really happening, the only way out is all the way through and, if she survives, out the other side. It’s a great jam.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2018/06/15/war-for-the-oaks-by-emma-bull/

Jun 14 2018

The Royal Art Of Poison by Eleanor Herman

I’m one of those overwhelmingly practical (some would say dull,) people who, when asked which historical time and place I’d most want to live in, answers “Right here and now is just fine.” Don’t get me wrong, like any other closet romantic, I have a fancy for the decadent trappings of bygone Europe, with the caveat that the rich who could afford such finery were few and far between, the middle class were barely considered people, and the poor suffered even more mightily than those even a little bit higher on the social scale. Eleanor Herman puts it best when she contrasts the highlights of the past with the drawbacks:

I am seduced by beautiful gowns, glittering jewels, and gorgeous palaces. I revel in fantasies of candlelit banquets, river regattas, and royal pageantry.

It should be quite clear, however, that my answer to a theoretical life as a baroque princess is a firm no. At this point, I would be afraid to time travel even for a few hours–attend a Versailles ball, let’s say–because I might bring something horrifying back with me. Worms, perhaps. And if I stayed there longer, well, it would be hard to enjoy the splendors of court life if I were in agonizing pain. Or dead.

See, the royal courts of Europe were hotbeds of intrigue, with assassination attempts by poison at one point being thought to be so prevalent that monarchs and others in positions of power went to extraordinary, and to our modern eyes comical, lengths to avoid such a death. Still others openly researched new poisons and became notorious for an alleged mastery of this “royal art.” Documents from the era detailing poisoning, suspected poisoning, and the many gruesome forms of death which carried away the rich and famous abound.

It is these documents that form the basis for this immensely entertaining book. Ms Herman is a historian with an eye for irony, detailing not only the often unfounded fears of the nobility but also the many ways in which these same people were voluntarily poisoning themselves, whether through the advice of physicians, the pursuit of beauty or the general lack of hygiene and sanitation. She then spends the bulk of the text examining twenty-two famous historical cases where a person’s demise was suspected to have been helped along, comparing notes from the time with current medical and scientific knowledge to make an educated conclusion as to the real causes of death. Each case is given a juicy amount of gossipy background: I learned a lot of memorable information about European courtiers that I won’t be forgetting any time soon. I also learned a lot more that was flattering to Napoleon than my Anglophile upbringing had deigned to impart, so it’s not all decadent sexy time gossip.

I was impressed even further by Ms Herman’s acerbic recounting of how poisoning, which faded in popularity when the democratic curbs to the power of the European monarchy offered a less murderous alternative for effecting change, made a comeback with the Soviet state, and how its practices continue to date. She lists a quite horrifying number of poisonings that can be laid at the doorstep of one modern European ruler, who has his own medieval precautions:

Knowing that karma is a bitch, Putin is the only world leader known to employ a personal food tester as the kings of old did. Rather than relying on his security team to ensure his food is free of poison, as other leaders do, he has a physician on staff who works closely with his personal chef. Both ingest a little bit of everything well before it is served to him. We can picture them crossing their fingers that they won’t vomit, pass out, and glow an eerie green in the dark.

Ms Herman concludes with a handy guide to all the poisons she’s previously listed, as well as their effects and a list of darkly humorous superlatives. As with the rest of the book, she writes in a style that’s both engaging and educational. I appreciated that she doesn’t hesitate to reflect on what the prior political predilection for poison means in our modern times. The Royal Art Of Poison is a terrific look at a subject that is at once morbid and racy, and embodies the best of popular history writing.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2018/06/14/the-royal-art-of-poison-by-eleanor-herman/

Jun 13 2018

A Demon in Silver (War of the Archons #1) by R.S. Ford

Maybe I don’t read enough (hahaHAHAHA) but I honestly can’t think of a grimdark meets high fantasy series that is as accessible as R. S. Ford’s War of The Archons. Granted, we only have the first book, A Demon In Silver, but I was well impressed with how Mr Ford took the best elements of both genres to create a very readable series debut. Written as essentially a chase narrative, we’re introduced to the various players as they become embroiled in the pursuit of Livia Harrow, a farm girl who begins to display magical powers thought to have disappeared over a century ago. Best of all, the book then circles round to its beginning to upend everything we thought we knew about the narrative. It’s a thrilling, twisty trip through a brutal fantasy land that isn’t, thankfully, just a reimagined Europe, and I’m definitely on board to see where Mr Ford goes with this series next.

One thing I could use a little less of were the (thankfully only occasional) incidents of tortured prose. Style is as style does, and while I can overlook the creative use of adverbs (and the overuse of the word “trews”,) this next was just too much for me:

“Her fingers moved across the blanket that covered her until her fingertips were consumed by [her dog’s] soft fur.”

No, her dog does not have carnivorous fur, and no, her fingertips did not undergo some sort of physical or spiritual transformation. As much as I love my people at Titan Press (hello and thank you for the books!) this kind of nonsense begs for stricter editing. But if that kind of thing doesn’t bother you, then I can absolutely recommend ADiS as a terrifically written high grimdark fantasy, especially since it is far and away the most fun I’ve had with the genre since early Ciaphas Cain (which technically is genre-adjacent, I know, don’t @ me.)

Stay tuned for a special treat, readers: we’ll be posting an interview with the author himself on the 20th as part of his blog tour. Check out some of the other stops using the infographic in the meantime!

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2018/06/13/a-demon-in-silver-war-of-the-archons-1-by-r-s-ford/