Kindle Spotlight -- Gears of Wonderland

Ever wondered what would it would be like if someone wrote a steampunk version of Alice in Wonderland? Well, wonder no more, for Jason G. Anderson's Gears of Wonderland (steampunk fantasy) is here to show you.

James Riggs has a lousy girlfriend and a lousy job. But, as he soon discovers, things can get so much worse. He witnesses his oldest friend murdered at the hands of a hulking assailant, and narrowly avoids becoming the next victim when a mysterious man in white pushes him down a hole. He ends up in a strange Victorian city, and is informed by a gun-toting woman named Kara that it's actually Wonderland. He thought it was just a book, but it's all too real. Unfortunately, the place has kinda gone to hell since Alice visited. The queen has been assassinated, and her evil son Lahire has seen fit to become king and enforce his own vision of a perfect Wonderland by any means necessary. James must join up with the resistance in order to depose Lahire, get the girl and fulfill his destiny.

I really liked Gears of Wonderland. It has a gripping plot and compelling characters. Steampunk and Wonderland might seem like an unlikely pairing, but Anderson pulls it off and makes it look easy. While there are typos here and there, Anderson makes up for it by building upon Wonderland lore and literally humanizing the characters (Caterpillar and White Rabbit are now people). He presents a fleshed-out world you'd actually want to visit (after Lahire is gone, natch).

Go pick up Gears of Wonderland from the Kindle store. For $2.99, it's a good value.

Kindle Spotlight -- Peacemaker

Here we are: Peacemaker, the third novella in Lindsay Buroker's Flash Gold steampunk series. I previously reviewed the first two books in the series, so you may want to read those before diving into this.

The story picks up some time after Hunted. 18-year-old Kali McAlister has begun building the airship which she very much hopes will get her and her bounty-hunting partner Cedar out of the Yukon. Cedar has been making himself scarce as of late, so Kali is having to build the thing by herself in a cave, so as you can imagine it's not going as fast as she would like. Complicating matters is a Pinkerton agent looking to bust Cedar for a murder that happened in his past, as well as a series of seemingly supernatural murders. Once again, Kali and Cedar must work together to defeat the bad guys and solve a mystery. Oh, and the dastardly Cudgel Conrad finally makes his appearance, seeking to gain the mysterious substance Flash Gold for his own undoubtedly evil ends.

Peacemaker serves to reveal the respective pasts of Kali and Cedar. We learn about Kali's upbringing in her mother's native tribe, and Cedar's time before he met her. The story gives us more insight into what motivates these two, and that's very important in fiction.

But, of course, that's not all Peacemaker offers. Buroker has ratcheted up the action to an explosive new level, as evident by the story's fiery climax. In addition, the plight of female murder victims in the story gives the narrative emotional weight.

I'll wrap this up by saying the same thing I said in the review of Hunted: Lindsay Buroker is a talented writer who continues to deliver a solid read.

Secrets of the New World is now available on Kindle

The sequel to The Game Called Revolution has finally arrived! Join Farahilde and company as they journey to America, battle foes, and (of course) uncover secrets.

Buy here

Kindle Spotlight -- The Girl Who Bled Forever

Today I'm looking at an experimental novella: Kent David Kelly's The Girl Who Bled Forever (The Slipstream Chronicles). This book is every bit as macabre as the title suggests, and it's also pretty unconventional.

The story centers around Captain Alan Ramsey, USAF. He's being detained for disobeying orders. What exactly he did is revealed slowly as the story progresses. The plot is told entirely through military records,  meaning there is no real narrator to tell the reader what the protagonist is thinking. I guess you could say it's the literary equivalent of video camera movies like Cloverfield or Paranormal Activity.

Interrogating Captain Ramsey is Anna Morgenstern, a woman he has a relationship with...at some point (since the story is not told entirely in chronological order, we don't really know when their relationship took place). Anna wants to know the details of the year in which Ramsey had to watch a mysterious girl die every night while she (the girl) tried to climb out of a hole in the sky. The details of her daily death are particularly graphic, so people with weak stomachs should beware. Why is this poor girl caught in a never-ending death loop? Ramsey has some theories, but they involve quantum mechanics so they ended up taxing my brain.

The Girl Who Bled Forever runs about 92 pages, so it's not very long. It's mostly the set-up for a much larger story involving time travel and other universes. It's pretty interesting if you can understand Ramsey's narrative, which touches on high-level scientific concepts ranging from Schrodinger's Cat to causality theory. Nevertheless, the story is nicely formatted and the protagonist is a compelling one. I recommend this story to either hardcore sci-fi readers or fans of the TV show The Big Bang Theory (that's me).

Revisiting the Classics -- Ubik

Today I have a real gem for you: Philip K. Dick's Ubik. Written in the 1960's, Ubik, like a lot of Dick's work, was way ahead of its time.

The story depicts the future (1992) as imagined by Dick. In it, telepaths are used for corporate espionage. The protagonist, Joe Chip, works for a company that detects these psychic spies for clients concerned they may have been infiltrated by them. Now, it is also important to explain that in this future when people die they are put into cold storage ("coldpac") where they are kept alive in a semi-vegetative state, and every so often their relatives can have them thawed out briefly for social contact.

Anyway--Joe assembles a team of his own telepaths ("inertials"), and they, along with their company's boss, Glen Runciter, head to the moon to ferret out spies. However, it turns out to be a trap, and a bomb goes off, and Runciter dies. Or does he? Despite being told their boss is too far gone even for coldpac, Joe and the team begin receiving messages from Runciter in the most unlikely places, telling them to seek out a mysterious product called Ubik. This, of course, confuses the hell out of them, and to make matters worse, the world around them begins regressing at an accelerated rate. Everything--technology, money and even food--starts becoming older and older. This means that soon all food will become too old to eat. Why is this happening? Where is Runciter? What is Ubik, and does it in fact hold the key to saving their world?

Ubik is a smart, fast-paced ride that has withstood the test of time (an ironic statement, considering the problems its protagonists face). I kept telling myself, "Just another pair of pages." The book is a page-turner, no doubt. It has interesting characters and a not-so-predictable ending. And, as is characteristic of Philip K. Dick stories, the narrative stands as a warning about the unchecked advancement of technology, although in a slightly lighter tone than, say, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (the fact that Joe must insert coins into his front door like a pay phone every time he enters or exits his apartment--and the door gripes about it if he fails to do so--is particularly funny. I place Dick into that exclusive class of visionaries inhabited by Jules Verne and Arthur C. Clarke, and this could quite possibly be my favorite of his novels.

Soulless: The Manga

This past week at Barnes & Noble, I picked up the first volume of Soulless, the graphic novel based on Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate steampunk series.

The story centers around well-endowed (in more ways than one) Alexia Tarabotti. In addition to having to deal with the public's belief that she is well beyond the marrying age (she's 26), she is also a Preternatural, a being with the ability to nullify the powers of both werewolves and vampires. One night she is attacked by a rogue vampire but manages to kill him with her brass-weighted parasol. The creation of new blood-suckers is strictly regulated, and no one can account for this new one, so this presents a mystery. Where did he come from? And why are werewolves around London disappearing? To find the answers, Alexia teams up with alpha wolf--and potential romantic interest--Lord Maccon, as well as the extremely effeminate vampire lord Akeldama. Action and comedy ensue as these unlikely allies battle both bad guys and sexual tension.

I haven't read any of the novels this is based on, so I'm just going to treat this as a stand-alone story. Despite being classified as a manga, it is in Western left-to-right format rather than the Eastern right-to-left. However,  the visual gags have a definite anime style (for example, characters will get comically deformed when they yell at each other). I'm no expert on drawing, but I find the art style of this book very appealing. The artist, REM, is unquestionably good at drawing beautiful women, and the cover illustration (see below) is really slick.

I'm honestly not entirely sure who this book is catered to. Alexia's cleavage is front and center throughout, yet there is also female fan service. I guess that just means Soulless can appeal to anyone. There isn't anything too graphic in here, though; it's rated "Older Teen."

Overall, I feel the fusion of steampunk and manga worked out really well here. They are two great tastes that taste great together.

Kindle Spotlight -- Lady of Devices

Recently Shelley Adina's Lady of Devices, the first book in her Magnificent Devices series, became free on Kindle. I had never read any of her work before, so I decided this was a good time to start.

The story takes place in 1889 London. The protagonist is 17-year-old Claire Trevelyan (no relation to the bad guy from Goldeneye, I'm sure), a young woman from a noble house. Like a lot of steampunk heroines, Claire has a knack for mechanics, and so she aspires to pursue higher education. Her mother, on the other hand, wants nothing more for her than to marry well and live the good life in high society. Unfortunately, a tragic turn of events derails both their plans and threatens to destroy the entire family. Claire ultimately has a chance to rise from the ashes of her old life like a phoenix, but first she'll have to deal with the consequences of her parents' poor choices, murderous thugs and even a Dickensian group of cockney street urchins.

I enjoyed Lady of Devices. At first it seems like it's just another steampunk story, and you think there's going to be a great evil to overcome. Well, there is, but it's not what you might expect. The true villain of this story is society's many weaknesses, but that doesn't mean Claire's struggle is any less noble. As she fights to gain the trust of people society forbids her from associating with, you end up rooting for her more and more, and by the end Adina has assembled a lovable cast of characters. Moreover, the story is not as predictable as I expected. I would elaborate on that, but that would entail spoilers. You'll just have to trust me.

The book is well-written, and I really don't have anything bad to say about it. It's a fine example of what steampunk has to offer, and since it's free, you have nothing to lose by giving it a try.

Secrets of the New World Cover

Here is the cover for my upcoming novel, Secrets of the New World, the 2nd book in the Infini Calendar series.

Revisiting the Classics(?) -- Driving Blind

When I think of Ray Bradbury, I think science fiction. However, Driving Blind, published in 1997, proves that's not all he does. I thought it was sci-fi when I picked it up at a book store, but for the most part that's not what I got.

Driving Blind features 21 stories, some of which were inspired by events in Bradbury's life. Most of the stories take place in the 1940's and 50's in small-town America. I was expecting an anthology along the lines of Steven Spielberg's TV series Amazing Stories, but the tales in this book are far less fantastic. Driving Blind is more of a celebration of a simpler time, when television was in its infancy and people connected with each other on a more meaningful level. As Bradbury illustrates, our interactions with other people shape us, and can be either positive or negative experiences.

I feel this book could have benefited from more focus and less stories. Most of the stories only last a handful of pages before you're on to the next one, and I can't recall most of them off the top of my head. The ones that stand out best are the few that indulge in fantasy and sci-fi, like the man who is surprised to find he's been dead for several years and has inexplicably returned from the cemetery. One of the best of this collection is the titular story, "Driving Blind," about a man wearing a dark hood who is in search of an identity to call his own.

Driving Blind is strange, yet strange in the sense that most of these stories could actually happen (and according to Bradbury, some of them did). It's also well-written, but don't come into it expecting a lot of science fiction or fantasy, and don't hold out hope that the stories will make a lot of sense. Many of them end suddenly and lack resolution, but that's OK with me.

Revisiting the Classics -- Paris in the Twentieth Century

Today I'm taking a look back at the lost Jules Verne novel, Paris in the Twentieth Century. Rejected by his literary agent, the book wasn't published until 1994, so whether or not you consider it to be a classic is debatable.

As the title suggests, the story concerns what Verne imagined Paris would be like in the 1960's. In his version, the City of Lights has grown to encompass most of France. Large buildings tower over the city, and a sophisticated rail system, powered by compressed air and electromagnets, get Parisians where they need to go. Central to all of this is a school system owned by big business. Science and math are king, while journalism, literature and the arts have been largely forgotten. Michel, the young protagonist, has a talent for Latin, but in this overly-practical society that makes him an outcast, laughed at for his proficiency at "useless" endeavors. He yearns to write poetry and devour the literary classics, but struggles to find his place in a world that has moved beyond such things.

The name Jules Verne, along with the futuristic book cover, may lead you to believe this is mainly a science fiction story. In actuality, it is a celebration of French culture up to Verne's time. French authors, poets, journalists and scientists are named one after the other at rapid-fire speed. Verne couldn't list them fast enough. The soulless technology of 20th-century Paris stands in stark contrast to these dead heroes, a metaphor made complete by a cemetery scene at the end of the book.

I'm torn on Paris of the Twentieth Century. On the one hand, Verne eerily predicts future technological advancements such as the mass transit system, cars, instant messaging, defibrillators, and the electric chair. On the other hand, there isn't as much sci-fi in the story as I would have liked. Also, the main character is kinda whiny and the ending resolves nothing. Still, the book stands as a testament to Jules Verne's vision and imagination.

Music Review -- Bleach Berry Best

I wrote a review for the third Bleach OP/ED soundtrack, Bleach Berry Best, but for some reason Amazon won't publish it. So I decided to post it here:

This is the third Bleach OP/ED soundtrack featuring the full versions of the opening and ending themes. These songs cover roughly the last part of the Hueco Mundo arc to the Karakura Town battle. It features a number of different musical styles, from the guitar riffs of "Velonica" to romantic ballads such as "Tabidatsu Kimi e [On a Journey to You]". Long story short: if you watch Bleach, you probably already know whether or not you like these songs. I sure do.

Track list:
1.) "Velonica" by Aqua Timez
2.) "Hitohira no Hanabira" by Stereopony
3.) "Sky Chord ~Otona ni Naru Kimi e~" by Tsuji Shion
4.) "Shoujo S" by Scandal
5.) "Kimi o Mamotte, Kimi o Aishite" by Sambo Master
6.) "Mad Surfer" by Kenichi Asai
7.) "Anima Rossa" by Porno Graffitti
8.) "Sakurabito" by Sunset Swish
9.) "Tabidatsu Kimi e" by RSP
10.) "chAngE" by miwa
11.) "STAY BEAUTIFUL" by Diggy-MO'
12.) "Echoes" by Universe
13.) "Koyoi, Tsuki wa Miesu tomo [Bleach 3rd movie ending theme]" by Porno Graffitti