Why Now and Not Then?

When a writer reaches a certain level of renown, and then suddenly a book touted as his "previously unpublished first novel," is finally published, you have to wonder, what happened? Is this first novel actually no good, but now that we know the writer is good, we'll read it anyway? Or is it simply that the publishing industry was too lame, greedy, or snotty to recognize decent work when they saw it the first time?

Greg Keyes' Footsteps in the Sky is one of those works, a suddenly-first-time-in-print-first-novel. Having now read it, my curiosity is further piqued. While the writing is at times disjointed, indicative of a first attempt, the story holds its own and the book is well worth reading.

Tinder by Sally Gardner

The cover says it all: A snarling, snow-white werewolf with razor sharp teeth leaps over the frosty rooftops of a medieval town. This sums up the novel in my opinion - startling, dark and intense.

I'll start by saying that the artwork by David Roberts, which is sprinkled throughout Tinder, is very effective. Every drawing seems to emerge from the mist. They sneak up on you and before you realise what is happening, they've got their bony fingers around your throat.

The story begins with 18 year-old Otto Hundebiss, he's a deserter of the Thirty Years War (1618 - 1648). His decision to flee comes after seeing a vision of Death cross his path. Lost in a dense forest, wounded and wrestling with a series of fever-dreams, Otto is rescued and nursed back to health by a mysterious shaman.

Before releasing him, the shaman gives Otto a set of dice. As you'd assume, the dice aren't for the occasional game of Yahtzee, they are magic, and Otto relies on them to guide him through the entire novel.

Traveling through Mitteleuropa, he stumbles upon Safire, a beautiful redhead who's also on the run from a group of dastardly soldiers. They meet and fall in love, but, as good stories go, Safire is taken away and Otto finds himself on a quest of madness and self-destruction in order to get her back.

Oddest of All: Nine Odd Stories by Bruce Coville

Perhaps when you were young, you read some of Bruce Coville's books. Maybe Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher or My Teacher is an Alien or one of the hundreds of other books he wrote. Perhaps you didn't know that he writes novels for teens, or retellings of Shakespeare plays. Or collections of short stories, like the ones in Oddly Enough,Odder Than Ever, or today's selection, Oddest of All.

The book contains nine short stories, some that are decidedly science-fiction (as is the case with the first story, "In Our Own Hands", in which aliens arrive and make an offer to the inhabitants of a struggling Earth: They will give Earth the superior science it needs to fix all its ills - including curing illnesses and more - if Earth will vote to let the aliens have complete control until such a time as the people of Earth are ready to handle all the new ideas and technology they will receive. What would you do? Would you give up your autonomy if the entire planet could be cured? With a nod to prior stories like Frank Stockton's "The Lady or the Tiger", the story leaves the reader to ponder the question without knowing the precise outcome.

There are contemporary stories of real life, as with the unfortunate events that befall Murphy Murphy when he reaches the age of 13 and Murphy's Law really kicks in for him in "What's the Worst That Could Happen?", and horror in "The Thing in Auntie Alma's Pond." (It's way worse than a creature. Or is it?) And one of my favorite of Coville's short stories ever, "The Hardest, Kindest Gift", a retelling of the story of Melusine, a woman under a spell, or alternately, a fairy under a spell, who is the perfect wife and mother as long as she gets to spend her bath time uninterrupted. Too bad her husband doesn't honor his promise, cursing her to an unhappy half-life . . .

Then there's "The Mask of Eamonn Tiyado", something like an unfunny version of the movie, The Mask, or like a more thoughtful version of R.L. Stine's The Haunted Mask from the Goosebumps series aimed at an older audience, in which a boy trying to escape his own existence becomes trapped in a hideous world where his wish to look different is granted, but it comes at a terrible cost: he's got on the mask of an attractive young boy, but he cannot take it off, and there are "Faceless Ones" after him.

  "The Faceless Ones were my husband's victims. They were--had been--people born with great beauty but weak character. Or perhaps their character was weak because of their beauty, because it made life too easy for them. In any event, they were my husband's natural prey, and he was able to bring them under his power and steal their faces."
  Harley shivered. Against his will, his fingers crept to the handsome face now covering his own plain, pudgy features.
  "He stole their faces then sold them as living masks to men and women who were rich and royal but hardly fair of feature. The customer would go off on a journey ugly and months later return home with not only a new face but a new name, telling some story about being the favored first cousin--and heir--of the rich and royal man or woman who had died tragically while traveling abroad."

Does the story end well? I leave it to you to read and find out.

Sadly, the hardcover appears to be out of print, though you may luck into a copy at a library near you, but the book was recently released by the publisher as an e-book in all the various formats, and can be found at the usual online retailers.

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE is a history. 

This is all true.

All roads converge at the point of Austin Szerba's pen poised at the top of a blank page in a leather-bound log-book from the 70s, courtesy of McKeon Industries. 

Austin Szerba, a cigarette-smoking Lutheran boy, narrates this post-apocalyptic journey of self-discovery and disaster. He is accompanied by his best friend, Robby Brees, and occasionally his girlfriend, Shan Collins, tags along for the ride. Austin thinks he might be in love with Robby Brees. Austin knows he loves Shan. It's all very confusing for Austin.

The Big Reveal, or Not

There are two kinds of people who watch movies or read books like The Sixth Sense or Fight Club which rely on big secrets for their intrigue. There are those who like to figure out what the big surprise of the story is going to be before it gets revealed and those who like to wait to be surprised by the story when it reveals its secrets in its own time. (Among movie-goers, there is a subset of the first kind who likes to blurt out the surprise midway through the movie, spoiling the fun for everyone within earshot. These people are called "jerks." I confess to being a recovering jerk.)

The story in Scott Sigler's new book, Alive, is one which relies heavily on big secrets and big reveals. Don't worry, I'm not going to spoil any of them.

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

After a too-long separation, I finally got to spend some quality time this week with a good friend of mine. This guy has run me -- and all of his other friends -- through the wringer. Bad relationships, health problems and serious injuries, questionable career choices, crises of faith, a child he didn't know he'd fathered, brushes with the law, troubling associations with bad folks... Heck, we were all even convinced he was dead for quite a while. All that aside, he's one of the most genuinely GOOD people I've ever read.

HARRISON SQUARED, by Daryl Gregory

Though I'm not that fond of H.P. Lovecraft, I like books with a hint of Lovecraftian style -- novels that leaven Lovecraft's weighty Gothic sensibilities with just enough quirk to let us know it doesn't take itself too seriously. This novel is one of the best examples of the Lovecraftian I've read - and while not technically marketed to YA, it crosses over perfectly.

Summary: Harrison Harrison - H², as his mother calls him - is the fifth male of that name in his family - H²5. Harrison the Fourth was killed in the accident that lost H²5 his leg when he was just a toddler and their boat overturned somewhere on the California coast, and from that accident, Harrison remembers... tentacles. And rings of pointy teeth. That's entirely wrong, of course. A piece of metal seriously injured Harrison's leg, there aren't any toothy, tentacled monsters in California, regardless of what he remembers...and regardless of the lingering terror of water which it seems will haunt him for the rest of his life.

Aside from an irascible grandfather and an incredibly flighty aunt, most of H²'s family is in Brazil and his mother is all he has left. When she's in Absentminded Professor Mode, which is most of the time lately, he fends for himself, which is why he's come along to Massachusetts on her latest research venture. Harrison and his mother are trucking across country to the grim little Northeast coastal village of Dunnsmouth, because there have been sightings of something ginormous in the water - possibly a giant squid. Dr. Harrison's just going to set out buoys at certain GPS coordinates, buoys which will ping back information to the computers at the research center in San Diego. Only, Harrison isn't feeling like Dunnsmouth is an entirely healthy place. The kids in the junior class all look the same - pale with dark hair, like an extensive cult of sun-avoiding vampire zombies. The teachers are another lot of weirdies, the villagers scuttle about bearded and gloomy like something out of Melville or The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and some weird half-fish dude - no, seriously, he was slimy and he had gills - stole Harrison's comic book. Exactly WHAT is going on in this freaky little town? And, why does his stump hurt here all the time? When Harrison's mother vanishes - the mysterious little town turns deadly. All Harrison wants is some straight answers and his mother back, - NOW - but it will take heart, determination, and the team of total misfits he's gathered to help him.


You KNOW you want to read an excerpt, so here, have one.

There's a lot to like here: The obvious ODD in this novel just sells it for me, from the tentacle-festooned cover onward. It hooks the reader, and drags them seamlessly beneath waves of sheer weirdness. Strange, strange people - with characterization that liken them to sea life - descriptions of the grayish little town with its clammy weather, depressing architecture and this utterly bizarre school - I was taken in immediately. I loved the dry humor, the references to Dr. Harrison's Terena ancestry and H²5's biracial "Presbyterian"-Terena ancestry (according to Harrison, “like 'eggshell' and 'ivory,' 'Presbyterian' is a particular shade of pale”) being cause for concern in the very white, very backwards Massachusetts village - an oppositional poke to the racism that shows up in H.P. Lovecraft's work - in fact, in general, racists become a little joke poked at repeatedly. It's interesting how Harrison's fatal flaw - a rotten temper - works for him and against him. He's truly a take charge of things in his own life, and make them work kind of character.

Harrison's voice is confiding, snarky and bewildered by turns. He's slightly delusional in the beginning of the novel, but unlike many YA heroes, he's never self-deceiving. I love him as a character because he KNOWS there's stuff going down in Dunnsmouth, and he's not afraid to look at it and find out. Also, because he's hilarious. To wit: "Mom once said Selma wasn't a woman but an ad in a women's magazine: glossy, two-dimensional and smelling like a perfume insert." Snark! The zingers are a great deal of fun, even the dumb science jokes and the manga references. Each chapter begins with a piece of Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," which is another lovely thing that will make readers feel smart - especially if you were a reader assigned this for school and never enjoyed it before - you will now! All told, this novel is sheer enjoyment.

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I received my review copy of this book courtesy of Tor. After March 24th HARRISON SQUARED by Daryl Gregory will be available as an ebook or at a brick-and-mortar independent bookstore near you.

Snap it up.

X-posted at Finding Wonderland

Interworld: The Silver Dream

"The Silver Dream" is the long-awaited follow-up sequel to Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves' "Interworld" novel from 2007. Interworld was the story of a boy named Joey who always gets lost. One day he gets so lost that he walks right out of his world and into another dimension.

Adventures and sci-fi shenanigans ensue, and Joey turns out to be a dimensional Walker who is part of a team that fights to save the world from the evil Binary and HEX organizations. In The Silver Dream Michael Reaves and Mallory Reaves continue Joey's story. Joey is a cadet at Interworld Academy, along with countless other incarnations of himself. That's right - all the trainees and officers are other versions of Joey from alternate timelines and worlds. Joey and his teammates must fight evil organizations, rescue new recruits, and figure out mysteries of the universe while still trying to look cool and make friends

This is a series for boys who love adventure novels. Fans of The Lightning Thief and Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl and Ender's Game will enjoy this series the most. It reads like a movie - because it was originally conceived as one. It is action-packed, funny, and told from a typical teenage boy's perspective. The science fiction details get a little confusing at times, but it just adds to the cool factor. While it isn't the best plotted or well-written sci-fi adventure, it is definitely a fun and fast read.

Hey Y'all, Comics!

In middle school, I used to take all my allowance and blow it on a fist full of comics. Every week or so, I'd bum a ride to the local comic book store and load up on anything that looked interesting, then pore over the fat stack of magazines all afternoon. It was a pretty good time to get into comics. Not only were the big superhero publishers putting out some pretty good stories, but there was a burst of weird, amazing, and fantastic independent and art comics appearing on the shelves those days. Over the years, as graphic novels have come along, I've drifted away from the thrills of "comic book day," but there's a bunch of really great comics titles out right now, so I figured I'd talk about some that really excite me!

New Old School Sci-Fi

Perhaps it's not fair to call Sergei Lukyanenko's The Genome (released today) "old school" sci-fi. But the book feels like it comes from another era. Not that that's a bad thing. Not at all.

Alex Romanov is a starship master-pilot with an animated tattoo on his shoulder that acts out his current emotional state. He's just been released from a hospital on a distant alien world called Quicksilver Pit. He's low on cash and without a job when he meets Kim, a teenage girl who is getting harassed by some unsavory characters on public transportation. Alex offers to help her out, but she declines and deals with the problem directly by smashing the head of one of her tormentors through the bus's window.

NIL by Lynne Matson

NIL is a story of survival and self-discovery. When Charley is mysteriously transported to the unmapped island of Nil she must learn the rules and survive a year of deadly animals, gate-hunting, and new romance. Nil is a beautiful island paradise, haunted by the ghosts of those who have gone before and the howls of whatever dangerous beasts have been dropped in by gates. Charley is taken into Nil City by Thad, the current Leader, and initiated into the tribe of teenagers Searching for their personal gates out of there.

Department 19 by Will Hill

I know that this book has been discussed in the past here on this blog, but I just couldn't pass it up!

Dracula, Van Helsing, and Frankenstein - plus some really cool high-tech and futuristic firepower to boot! I plowed through this book in no time as more and more of Jamie Carpenter's story and his family history were revealed. Hill jumped in time filling in the history of the Carpenter family, the origins of Department 19, Frankenstein and Jamie's father, Dracula and the first vampires which all provided the backdrop to the current story of Jamie and his attempt to save his mother from one of the oldest vampires in the world.

Pages filled with non-stop action, thrills, gore and horror!

A must read for any action/horror fan. 

League of Seven by Alan Gratz

League of Seven, one of the most fun books I've read recently, is chock full of all kinds of cool stuff that I get excited about: Lovecraftian monsters, steampunk, alternate history, mythology, secret societies, ninja robots, and giant city-crushing beasts. Honestly, this book is chock-full of the good stuff! And that's no coincidence-- when Alan Gratz talks about the book, he flat out admits it. "When I set out to write this book, I thought about all the things I thought were cool: monsters, robots, ninjas. And I decided I would just stick them all in one book and have as much fun writing as much awesome stuff as possible."

"Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories," edited by Alisa Krasnostein and Julia Rios

The recent debate around #WeNeedDiverseBooks highlighted the great shortage of - and hunger for - novels that speak to and from the experiences of writers of color, women writers, LGBTQI writers, differently-abled folks, and other voices outside the mainstream narrative.

And while it's true that mainstream publishing still has a diversity problem (which some folks frame as a white supremacy problem), it's also true that there are a ton of amazing diverse books and stories being written and published and celebrated.

Case in point: Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories.  This anthology highlights twenty stories that are creepy, funny, edgy, entertaining, and thought-provoking. There's all kinds of dazzling diversity on display here: the authors are diverse, the speculative concepts are diverse (stories about drugs that let you see the future, and ancient deities giving life lessons, and superpowers, and urban legends gone wrong) and the settings for the stories are diverse (Palestine, China, New Jersey).

Black Science # 1 by Rick Remender, Matteo Scalera & Dean White

The good news: Scientists have discovered a way to travel inter-dimensionally, forever changing science and the world that we know. The bad news: Most of the things that live in those other dimensions want us all dead.

That is the conundrum facing Grant McKay and his team of researchers, who get stranded "Lost in Space" style within multiple dimensions, most of them extremely dangerous.

McKay is a broken man, struggling with the fact that he's put his family in danger, he's cheating on his wife, and yes, he probably smokes too much weed. He has to put all of that behind him, however, if he's going to get them all home alive.

Little green men at the Mercury inn by Greg Leitich Smith

This is a cool little book that I stumbled upon (I think it was in the new book cart at work) and I was glad that I did read it. Aliens walk among us is the overarching theme of this book which details the adventures one summer of a twelve year old Aidan who lives in a motel that his parents own. The motel is open to the public but also has its share of long term residents.  Cocoa Beach is in close proximity to and the hotel occupancy rate increases whenever there is a rocket launch as curious folk want to see the goings on. Neeedless to say Aidan has seen a lot of weird things and if you ask him some of the motel guests are as weird as any extra terrestrial!

Copper by Kazu Kibuishi

In our middle school library, which is heavily frequented by boys, there are a few authors whose books never seem to touch the shelves before being checked out again. Chief among them are graphic novelists Jeff Smith (the Bone series), Doug TenNapel (Cardboard, Bad Island), and Kazu Kibuishi (the Amulet series).

I'm always hoping these guys will release another dang book -- so when I realized that I'd somehow missed Kibuishi's 2010 collection of his webcomic Copper, published by Scholastic, I ordered it right away.

Shovel Ready by Adam Sternbergh

Imagine this: New York City has been hit with a dirty bomb. No, I'm not talking about a bomb that tells inappropriate nursery rhymes, I'm talking about a bomb that spreads radioactive waste, slowly killing everything in its wake. Throw in some climate change-related disasters, a super addictive online video game and you've got the perfect recipe for the dystopian sic-fi thriller that is Shovel Ready.

Spademan is a hit-man, before that, when the world was still semi-normal, he was a garbage man. Then the terrorists dropped the bomb on New York, killing his wife and his will to carry on as he did before. 

He has specific rules about his job, he kills both men and women but he won't kill children because according to him that's "a different kind of psycho." Then, out of the blue, he's given a job with a very lucrative payoff. The catch? The target is an eighteen year-old pregnant girl.

"Fire on the Mountain," by Terry Bisson

Maybe you remember John Brown from your history class. An abolitionist, he believed that peaceful reform of slavery was impossible, and only a violent disruption of the slaveholding status quo would end this massive, brutal injustice. In 1859 he attempted to start a slave revolt by seizing the US arsenal at Harper's Ferry in Virginia, but the assault went wrong and he and his comrades were caught and executed for treason.

Terry Bisson's Fire on the Mountain is an alternate history that asks the question - what if the assault had succeeded? What if instead of a civil war started by slaveholders who wanted to continue exploiting human beings, America had a revolution started by people who believed that all human beings should be free? In real life, John Brown worked closely with Harriet Tubman, and many scholars believe that if she hadn't been prevented by illness from traveling south to help him plan the attack, he would have succeeded. Fire on the Mountain takes a simple change - she didn't get sick, she helped the rebels, the attack was successful and started a revolution - and extrapolates a whole complicated marvelous utopian future from that. It opens 100 years later, as the prosperous state of Nova Africa is about to put a man on Mars, and pieces together the history through letters and testimonials. 

Avalon by Mindee Arnett

Avalon starts off with a bang - Jeth and his crew of teenage thieves must steal a ship and get it back safely to their crime lord boss, Hammer. Then the action slows, and we learn about the crew, Jeth and Lizzie's past, their parents' deaths, and all about their ship - also their home - the "Avalon". Soon we're swept up in their newest job - collect a lost ship from the treacherous Belgrave Sector - like the Bermuda Triangle of space - and get back to their home station within 2 weeks. With faster-than-light metaspace travel, potential paranormal powers and aliens, a government conspiracy, budding romance, quirky/funny friends, and all kinds of action Avalon is one hell of a joyride.