CHILD OF FIRE: AN URBAN FANTASY NOVEL BY HARRY CONNELLY

Child of Fire is an Urban Fantasy novel that has been “on my radar” for some time now.  “Excellent reading…delicious tension and suspense”, Jim Butcher author of the Dresden Files Novels is prominently featured on the cover, and even though this is my current favorite author and series, I still did not purchase Child of Fire. What was my hesitation to read Child of Fire? The main protagonist Ray Lilly was clearly a former criminal and from my minimal research, did not seem like a particularly likeable character. I’m not a fan of the anti-hero; and yet Child of Fire still intrigued me.

Finally, after more than two years from its original publication date, I bought and read Child of Fire by Harry Connolly. I was right that Ray Lilly, Child of Fire’s main character was not your standard “hero”, but it turns out that he is fairly likeable.

The novel starts with Ray driving his “boss” Annalise Powliss on a mission to find the cause of children missing from the small town of Hammer Bay, Washington. Ray is a “wooden man” assigned to Annalise , who is an agent of the Twenty Palace Society – a group of sorcerers that hunt down and kill other users of magic. Ray, a former car thief, is released from prison by the Twenty Palace Society for the sole purpose of acting as a sort of body guard and servant to Annalise.  When they arrive at Hammer Bay, no one in town remembers the missing children and it quickly becomes apparent that magic is the key to their disappearance.

The tone of Child of Fire is very “noir”, but the action and mystery elements keep the story from bogging down and becoming too morbid – despite the many deaths of both the innocent and guilty. The magic in Child of Fire is very different from most other Urban Fantasy novels, in that it involves the use of written spells, as opposed to the usual verbal ones. Not much time is spent on either explaining the magical rules or the origins of the Twenty Palace Society that Ray and Annalise work for. This causes a bit more work for the reader than I’m used to, but it works for Child of Fire in that it forces you to focus on the plot at hand and work out the magical rules for yourself.

The sequel to Child of Fire, Game of Cages was published last year, and I’ve already bought this – with plans to read it in the coming months. If I like that as much – and hopefully more – than the first novel, then I will more than likely buy and read the third novel, Circle of Enemies – published in August of 2011 – as well.

TECHNICAL: Plot – 9 Characters - 8 Style - 9 World building – 9 Big Finish - 9

VISCERAL: Imagery – 9 Creativity – 9 Intellectual – 8 Emotional – 9 Involvement -9

TOTAL RATING: 88

A fairly recent trend in publishing is to create "trailers" for novels. Here is the full trailer for the Twenty Palaces books, created by Wyrd Films.

OLD MAN’S WAR: A SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL BY JOHN SCALZI

I haven’t used GUARDIANS OF THE GENRE! to review the books I read, because most of the books I read either didn’t  motivate me enough to spend my time reviewing; or I didn’t think enough of the followers of this blog would be interested in reading them.

As I mentioned in my SHELFARI IS DA SHIZNIT! post April 18, 2010, I joined this social networking website devoted to books earlier that month. I have been using Shelfari’s features – which include creating your own custom profile, building a virtual bookshelf , rating and discuss books and discovering new books – for the past nineteen months and have surprised myself by posting thirty-one (mostly short) reviews of the forty-five books I’ve posted there as having read in the past two years.

Anyone interesting in reading some of my book reviews, or just some of the books that I’ve read, can click on the Shelfari widget in the right column of this blog (right below the “Labels for lookin’”) or click on this link: http://www.shelfari.com/?kmi=2369330.

I was sufficiently excited by Old Man’s War by John Scalzi to share with you this brief review.

Vincent Chong's artwork for the Subterranean Press limited edition of Old Man’s War

John Scalzi’s “Old Man’s War” is definitely in the tradition of Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" and Haldeman's "Forever War”. However, Mr. Scalzi’s take on future war is more concerned with how technology affects man, than in the actual combat itself.

The point-of –view character of “Old Man’s War”, John Perry, is very much an everyman. But unlike the characters from the previously mentioned classics (both of which I’ve read and liked), Perry is an elderly man who volunteers to join the Colonial Defense Forces, [MINOR SPOILER] so that he will be put into the body of a young man and given a second chance at life – provided he survives his ten years of service. This gives his character a different outlook on advanced technologies, alien conflict and general human philosophy. Scalzi examines all these topics and more, while advancing the plot of Perry’s training in the CDF and his eventual trail-by-combat.

I greatly enjoyed “Old Man’s War” and its humanistic approach to the problems of future war. I will definitely be reading the sequel “The Ghost Brigades”!

For science fiction fans who have been dissatisfied with the recent depictions of human and alien conflict in both film and Television, you may find reading Old Man’s War will satiate your need for a more in-depth  depiction of the subject.

Director Wolfgang Petersen

If you need any more motivation to read this book: Paramount Pictures has acquired screen rights to the John Scalzi novel Old Man’s War, with Wolfgang Petersen attached to direct and David Self adapting the tale into a large-scale science fiction project. Scott Stuber will produce through his Stuber Pictures banner, with Petersen also producing.

Read the book now, so that when you see the movie you can groan along with me and say, “The book was better!”

BALTIMORE, OR THE STEADFAST TIN SOLDIER AND THE VAMPIRE

BALTIMORE,

OR THE STEADFAST TIN SOLDIER AND THE VAMPIRE

MIKE MIGNOLA AND CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN

CREATED A GOTHIC HORROR CLASSIC!

Despite being a huge Hellboy fan, I admit I passed on buying or reading Baltimore when it was first published in 2007. However, after buying the new comic sequel to the novel, I had to give it a go. Fortunately, the local library had a copy and I was able to read it before the comics. I was glad I gave Baltimore a try. This Gothic horror vampire novel is not a complete departure from Mignola’s Hellboy stories. However, the 19th Century story telling technique of relating each story from the point-of-view of a different character telling the tale to each other, is at first distracting; but eventually it won me over as it created the atmosphere of the time in which Baltimore was meant to take place. If I have any complaint about this novel is because of the format. It reads more like a series of short stories. Also, the middle section of the book spends a little too much time telling the stories of each of the supporting characters. However, the final part on the book that features Lord Baltimore confronting the evil that transformed his life was truly mesmerizing. Baltimore is also filled with wonderful black and white illustrations by Mike Mignola that help to set the tone of the prose as well.

The current five issue series, Baltimore, the Plague of ships is a direct sequel to the novel. It is co-written by Mignola and Golden and features moody artwork by Ben Stenbeck that captures the feel of early 20th Century illustrations. I recommend both the novel and the comics for fans of turn of the century literature and horror. Hmmm... I think even that old zombie windbag Zombzany would like Baltimore. I think I'll get Bill E. Bones to leave a copy of the comic in his crypt.