Jody Lynn Nye is the author of forty novels and more than one hundred stories, and has at various times collaborated with Anne McCaffrey and Robert Asprin. Her husband, Bill Fawcett, is a prolific author, editor and packager, and is also active in the gaming field.
RECOMMENDED BOOKS
by Bill Fawcett and Jody Lynn Nye
The books we recommend in this issue bring to mind the Monty Python catchphrase: And now for something completely different. Through no fault of our own we have received a number of books that stand apart from the average novels.
The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume One
by Poul Anderson
Baen Books
October, 2017
ISBN-13: 978-1481482844
This collection of stories and short novels is a veritable time machine. Though they date from the 1950s and 1960s, Poul Anderson has written them so well that they are good entertainment by any of today’s standards. Reading them is like traveling back to those times. (Yes, this reviewer is old enough to remember them.) The hero, and everyone else, lights up cigarettes; flying cars are everywhere; we have a colony on Mars; and computers are large enough to fill buildings. The Psychotechnic League presumes that, in the 1960s, after a disastrous nuclear war and the occupation of Europe by Russia, a new science develops: psychotechnics. With the use of that tool, scientists and sociologists are able to plot the best path for a peaceful and prosperous future, though less optimal actions and leaders can endanger this goal. The United Nations in the Psychotechnic world is democratic, benign, and a stabilizing force for society. Stories range from the early times, when a beloved but dictatorial European leader has to be displaced so that the plan can begin, to high-tech spy action over the next century. A fascinating note is that the agents, who all look alike, are modified clones of one man. Their sense of brotherhood and shared willingness to sacrifice themselves for one other and a better future make them a powerful, if hidden, secret.
If you are old enough to remember the sixties, read this series. If you want to better understand the worldview that gave us Star Trek and Heinlein’s novels, Poul Anderson’s stories will give you some real insight. If you are a fan of Poul Anderson’s writing, these stories, published in magazines half a century ago, have finally been collected in one place for your library.
* * *
Valiant Dust
by Richard Baker
TOR Books
November, 2017
ISBN-13: 978-0765390721
This novel takes you into a very different far future. At first, Valiant Dust reads like a fairly normal, well-written space opera. The influence of the Forester’s Horatio Hornblower series and similar novels is apparent, but there is a second layer that makes Valiant Dust both more interesting and almost challenging than that world. The universe of Sikander Singh North, the hero, is based upon one very different and one fairly common element.
A thousand years after the collapse of a widespread Empire, the inhabited planets are just re-establishing wide contact with one another. A few multi-system empires have survived with their high level of technology intact. These jockey with each other for power and wealth. Sikander is a third son of the ruler of a less advanced planet whose settlers were originally from India. His father, an Aquilan vassal, has arranged for him to become an officer in the Aquilan Navy, a situation is parallel to an Indian nabob of the nineteenth century enlisting in the Royal Navy.
The universe has different assumptions to those that American readers are accustomed to in space adventure novels. The Earth that settled space was one on which a planet-wide Caliphate had taken power, so the dominant faith on hundreds of planets is a belief in some version of the Quran. Most adopt the very moderate version of Islam as defined by Martian Mullahs before the collapse. There is no more oppression or jihads than you would expect to find, with half a dozen of the advanced Empires constantly trying to one up each other. Most of the strife is not religiously based. It may be less easy for readers of other philosophic backgrounds to just slip into this universe but it is worth it. The story moves quickly. Sikander is new to the navy. He already felt like an outsider on the Aquilan light cruiser when he joins a party landing on a planet whose technology is similar to his homeworld but antiquated, from two generations earlier. Even before he arrived, the Great Game, jockeying for colonies and control, is in full force. The planet erupts with a revolt and a coup in different regions. His cruiser finds itself taking on two enemy space ships. The ground action is well done, the story maintains a fast pace, and Sikander evokes your sympathy and interest. A good read for anyone who enjoys the Lost Fleet, Honor Harrington, or any of the Age of Sail novels. Valiant Dust is a most interesting read for those who want to see what a possible future might be where Islam is dominant when we burst into the stars.
* * *
Iron Angels
by Eric Flint and Alistair Kimble
Baen Books
September, 2017
ISBN-13: 978-1481482561
We have reviewed and recommended novels from Eric Flint before, but we are happy to present this one because it is different from his previous publications. It still has what is familiar to Flint fans: a wry sense of humor, fascinating characters that feel like they could be your neighbors or local policemen, and a rich setting. The difference is the style; Iron Angels is a mystery novel, a police procedural, with a large infusion of contemporary horror added in. You’ll feel an absolute certainty that the investigation, into a murderous cult and the demons they are summoning, is spot-on real. This is hardly a surprise since Flint’s co-author, Alistair Kimble, is a special agent for the FBI. This verisimilitude adds a great deal to the story.
Bodies begin appearing in northern Indiana, mauled or drained in hideous ways. The scene of the investigation is a fascinating combination of diners, slums, warehouses and abandoned buildings. When two men are cornered after kidnapping a child, they commit most unusual suicides. This announces to the reader that things are just not normal, not at all. The local FBI agent finds himself recruited by Temple Black, the outspoken head of the Bureau’s clandestine Scientific Anomalies Group. The mystery gets further complicated when the duo finds a second cult who may or may not be opposed to the murderers. The clues are there, the investigation feels real even when its target is a demon-summoning maniac. The dank, dark setting of an industrially grimy northern Indiana fits the plot beautifully.
This book is most recommended for all mystery readers, contemporary fantasy/horror readers, and anyone who wants to read a really enjoyable mystery that follows FBI procedures written by someone who has lived them. We do hope the real FBI’s office politics aren’t as bad as Kimble presents them.
* * *
Black Chamber
by S.M. Stirling
Ace
July, 2018
ISBN-13: 978-0399586231
An alternate history with strong steampunk elements, Black Chamber takes us from the moment that Teddy Roosevelt won the presidency after the tragic and premature death of William Howard Taft and Vice President Sherman declining to assume the office by reason of illness. Once in office, Roosevelt made sweeping changes that would not have surprised his contemporaries or later biographers. Modern technology is encouraged and supported, creating jobs and raising the standard of living for everyone in the United States. Roosevelt also supported universal suffrage and equal rights for minorities, themes that are expanded greatly in this novel. Protection and oversight of social change is discussed and overseen by his private cabinet of security officials, the Black Chamber.
The United States does not exist in a vacuum, however. Those scientific advances aren’t unique to the US and its allies. Powers such as Germany consider the upstart across the Atlantic needs to be struck down so that they can conquer the weaker neighbors on their doorstep. Rumors have reached the Black Chamber of a powerful weapon. To discover the details, a young and beautiful spy has been dispatched, Roosevelt’s own goddaughter, Luz O’Malley Arostegui.
Highly trained in skills and disciplines that one could picture being used by Emma Peel or Modesty Blaise, and with broad sexual tastes, Luz infiltrates the source of the weapon. It is even more horrible than she had been led to understand. With the help of a female ally she meets in the castle where the weapon is being prepared, Luz must try to protect the United States from widespread death and destruction. Black Chamber is a terrific adventure, hard-hitting where it needs to be, with moments for tender romance and a solid dose of feel-good patriotism. Recommended for those who like a good spy story, steampunk, and nail-biting adventure.
* * *
Vallista
by Steven Brust
Tor Books
October, 2017
ISBN-13: 978-0765324450
This recommendation is both a review and our classic for the column. Vallista is the latest book in the Jhereg series. Jhereg and its sequels are the story of Vlad Taltos, an accomplished assassin and thief. His missions tend to involve him, to his definite frustration, in literally world-changing events. His world is unique, filled with magic, and its history tends to run in dramatic cycles. In the present cycle, the long-lived Dragaerans dominate; in another it had been the magically-talented Isolla. Vlad is an Easterner, basically a human. He is accompanied by two intelligent and poisonous small dragons who are not above commenting on Vlad’s mistakes. House Jhereg is licensed to control all of the organized crime. Vlad’s missions tend to put him at odds with it, so as of the beginning of Vallista he has a price on, or rather for, his head.
A friend, the daughter of a god and a world-warping wizard, is trapped in a time—and place-shifting castle. This may be because of her own magical origins. She appeals to Vlad to save her from it. He plunges into a castle where taking a few steps can send you to another room or two hundred years into the past. There, amid a range of hostile monsters, mages, and servants, he has to solve the mystery of the place to free his friend.
The strength of all the Jhereg books is in Steven Brust’s writing. It is wordsmithing and tale telling of the highest order. The books are also great fun to read, and the cynical and deadly main character immensely appealing. He is just about the ultimate rogue. If you have already discovered the series, we don’t have to tell you to rush out and get Vallista. Anyone else who reads fantasy novels should start from the beginning and give yourself the pleasure of enjoying the entire series.
* * *
The Brightest Fell
by Seanan McGuire
DAW Books
September, 2017
ISBN-13: 978-0756413316
Continuing the bestselling October Daye paranormal fantasy mystery series, The Brightest Fell opens with Toby celebrating her bachelorette party ahead of her wedding with Tybalt, King of the Cats (Cait Sidhe). All seems normal, if you factor in that the party was organized by her own Fetch, May Daye (if you don’t like horrible puns, stop here), and the guests include a host of mythological creatures and shapeshifters. Among the guests singing karaoke and getting plastered, even Toby, whose half-fae metabolism sheds liquor in a matter of minutes, manages to enjoy herself. When she returns home, full of good spirits, the worst of all possible visitors arrives on her doorstep seeking Toby’s help to solve a missing persons case: her mother Amandine. More than reluctant to open any of the cans of worms presented to her, Toby is plunged into the world of the fae in search of her half-sister, August. Fast-moving in an intricately drawn world full of fascinating creatures, hard philosophical choices, and wry humor, The Brightest Fell is a worthy addition to the October Daye series. Recommended for fans of paranormal fantasy and urban fantasy. If you have not read any of these before, McGuire includes enough background information for this volume to stand alone, but it will leave you eager to seek out the rest.
* * *
The Complete Sookie Stackhouse Stories
by Charlaine Harris
Ace Books
November, 2017
ISBN-13: 978-0399587597
If you’re a fan of the Sookie Stackhouse novels (brought to video in the HBO television series True Blood), you need this volume to supplement your collection. Over the years, Charlaine Harris has contributed short stories about telepathic waitress of the small town Bon Temps, Louisiana, Sookie Stackhouse, to anthologies co-edited by Harris with her friend and colleague Leigh Perry.
Each of these stories is told in the first person by Sookie. Here, Harris has the leisure to expand upon the personal stories of characters that her readers have come to know and love or fear (or both) in her novels. From the first, “Fairy Dust,” about fairies Claude, Claudine, and their triplet Claudette, to the last, “In the Blue Hereafter,” you’ll find the same solid storytelling you’ve come to expect from Harris. Her personal favorite, “Two Blondes,” involves Sookie and 160-year-old vampire friend on a road trip to a casino in Mississippi. Every tale is a gem. You can binge-read the volume, but it’s better to savor it one story at a time. Recommended for fans of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, as well as serving as an introduction to new readers who might want to sample Harris’s writing before committing to whole novels.
TOR MINIS: An Announcement
In the mail, we received the first six of these. They certainly fit into a column full of the new and different, not to mention one’s paperback bookshelf. TOR Books is coming out with a new book format, something that has not happened since Pocket Books introduced the paperback novel in 1939. (Many then predicted those new-fangled paperback books would be the doom of publishing.) TOR Minis are mass market—sized hardcover novels. The covers and paper are hardcover quality. The smaller pages make the books a bit thicker than a normal hardcover book or trade paperback, but they are much shorter and narrower than even some other paperback-sized books. The price point is around fifteen dollars, halfway between a $7.99 paperback and a $24.99 hardcover. Their size makes these books convenient to carry or read in a crowded space such as on a jet or subway, and will fit more easily into a jacket pocket or purse. For people who still love the feel of a paper book, you’ll be able to keep your favorite TOR book with you.
Copyright © 2018 by Bill Fawcett and Jody Lynn Nye