A synopsis for Neil Gaiman’s next novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, has surfaced, and I haven’t stopped drooling since:
It began for our narrator forty years ago, when the family lodger stole their car and committed suicide in it, stirring up ancient powers best left undisturbed.
His only defense are three women on a farm at the end of the lane. The youngest of them claims that her duckpond is ocean. The oldest can remember the Big Bang.
It’s short and sweet, but hints at all the magic that I expect from Gaiman, who explains the novel as “a fable that reshapes modern fantasy” and “a novel of childhood and memory. It’s a story of magic, about the power of stories and how we face the darkness inside each of us. It’s about fear, and love, and death, and families. But, fundamentally, I hope, at its heart, it’s a novel about survival.”
The Ocean at the End of the Lane will release on June 18, 2013, and this blogger’ll be in line at the bookstore.
Publisher: Flux/Jo Fletcher Books -
Pages: 480 -
Buy: Book/eBook
Tom Pollock writes beautiful prose. It’s the first thing I noticed about his debut novel, The City’s Son. So good in fact, that it buoys a straight forward young adult urban fantasy to new heights. It’s a rare novel of that ilk that’s able to hook me enough to give it a full run. I was pleased that not only did it engage me enough to finish the novel, but I found myself coming back to it time and again despite finding the plot just short of boring.
I admit that last sentence is about the biggest back handed compliment I’ve ever given someone. Guilty as charged, however, it’s not that simple. Allow me to explain.
A war between London’s deep history and her ruthlessly modern future.
Beth is a trouble maker, daughter of a Hackney widower with a penchant for artistic tagging, and she’s pulling her best friend Pen Khan down with her. After a rough encounter with corrupt school administrators, Beth runs away from her endlessly grieving father. In London’s back alleys, she sees something she should never have seen. Caught up in the divine forces on which the city is built, she finds herself in a war between London’s deep history and her ruthlessly modern future. Read More »
Libriomancer
By Jim C. Hines
Hardcover
Pages: 400 pages
Publisher: DAW
Release Date: 08/07/12
ISBN: 0756407397
It’s interesting to be reviewing a professional author who is also the prohibitive favorite to take home the Best Fan Writer Hugo Award next month. It seems counter intuitive, although it shouldn’t be given the outstanding blog Jim C. Hines maintains. It’s so good, in fact, that I wouldn’t be surprised if many of his blog’s readers have never read his fiction, a category that I certainly fell into before reading Libriomancer.
Hines’ protagonist, and in grand urban fantasy style, first person narrator, Isaac Vainio has the ability to “reach” into books and pull out whatever he touches. Excalibur? Sure. Neutron bomb? Knock yourself out. Get your hand bit by a vampire? Well, there might be some complications.
There were no wands, no fancy spells, no ancient incantations. No hand-waving or runes. Nothing but the words on the page, the collective belief of the readers, and the Libriomancer‘s love of the story.
It all began five hundred years ago when Johannes Gutenberg (yes, that Gutenberg) started a project to control magic. He founded a secret organization known as Die Zwelf Portenaere who “took an oath to preserve the secrecy of magic, protect the world from magical threats, and work to expand our knowledge of magic’s power and potential.” Read More »
Hot off of yesterday’s review of Thieftaker, I thought I’d point you to a fun short story written by D.B. Jackson and published on Tor.com that ties into the series and introduces readers to Ethan Kaille, the titular protagonist of the series.
Ethan Kaille is a thieftaker in Colonial Boston, scratching out a living by restoring stolen property to its rightful owners. But unlike others in his profession, Ethan relies on magical spells as well as his wits to track down thieves. Being a conjurer doesn’t make him popular with the law in Boston, so Ethan is taken aback when the sheriff seeks his help in settling a dispute between a pair of wealthy merchants and a ship’s captain who has threatened their lives. Ethan knows the captain can back up his threats with magic of his own. But there is more to this matter than the merchants have let on, and Ethan soon discovers that what he doesn’t know might actually kill him.
You can read D.B. Jackson’s “A Spell of Vengeance” on Tor.com. If you’re interested in more from Jackson, he recently wrote a great guest post here on A Dribble of Ink, What Do Authors of Historical Fiction Owe to History?
Thieftaker
By D.B. Jackson
Hardcover
Pages: 336 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: 07/03/12
ISBN: 0765327619
EXCERPT
Prior to reading D.B. Jackson’s (aka: David B. Coe) most recent novel, my only exposure to the idea of a thieftaker, or a private individual hired to capture criminals, was Julian Sandar from Robert Jordan’s iconic Wheel of Time. Interestingly, my only experience with pre-Revolution America in genre fiction also came by way of Robert Jordan in his Fallon Blood series written under the pseudonym Reagan O’Neal. Jackson’s Thieftaker lifts both limitations, deftly blending historical fiction and urban fantasy to create a who-dun-it dressed up with tricorn hats and blood magic.
Set in 1765 in Boston, Massachusetts, during The Stamp Act riots, Thieftaker follows the exploits of Ethan Kaille, Jackson’s protagonist and only point of view character. Making his living finding stolen goods, Ethan is also a speller, capable of turning organic material into magical energy. When he’s asked to recover a necklace worn by the murdered daughter of a prominent royalist, he finds himself in the middle of a conspiracy to upset the delicate balance between Britain and her colonies.
As that summation suggest, Ethan is the narrative impetus, and the vehicle that Jackson uses to snare the reader. His history, power, and moral center held my interest despite a standard crime fiction plot structure that won’t overwhelm anyone with its inventiveness. In particular, it’s Ethan’s back story and how conjurers interact in a world that reviles their existence which gives Thieftaker its unique flavor. Read More »
