Tag: dystopian fiction

The Sunday Post AKA What’s On My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 2-9-14

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Blog Hops> Fire and Ice Blog Hop> Giveaways> Share the Love Giveaway Hop> The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand

Sunday Post

It’s warmed up a bit in Seattle, but on Wednesday no one cared about the temperature. 700,000 people lined the streets downtown for the Seahawks’ welcome home parade. The library faces the parade route, so we had a marvelous (and warm) view of the whole thing. What a blast!

Between the Share the Love Giveaway Hop and the Fire and Ice Blog Hop there are two chances to win a $10 Amazon or B&N gift card. Both hops are open until February 15.

Current Giveaways:

fire and ice blog hopShare the Love Giveaway Hop: $10 Amazon or B&N Gift Card
Fire and Ice Blog Hop: another $10 Amazon or B&N Gift Card
Hunting Shadows by Charles Todd (hardcover)
The End and The Long Road by G. Michael Hopf (paperback)
Tourwide Giveaway: $25 Amazon Gift Card from Victoria Davies
Tourwide Giveaway: Happy Medium Trilogy (ebook) from Meg Benjamin

hunting shadows by charles toddBlog Recap:

C Review: The End by G. Michael Hopf + Giveaway
B+ Review: Happy Medium by Meg Benjamin
Guest Post from author Meg Benjamin on Scary Stories + Giveaway
A- Review: Love at Stake by Victoria Davies + Giveaway
D- Review by Cass: Halo by Frankie Rose
A- Review: Hunting Shadows by Charles Todd + Excerpt + Giveaway
Fire and Ice Blog Hop: Hot Reads for Cold Nights

dreams of the golden age by carrie vaughnComing Next Week:

Dreams of the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn (dual review)
Haunt Me by Heather Long (blog tour review)
After I’m Gone by Laura Lippman (blog tour review)
Back to You by Jessica Scott (review)
Cass moved her Series Shakedown of Terran Times to this week. Great snark takes time!

Review: Halo by Frankie Rose

Posted on by Cass | Author : | book reviews> Draconismoi> ebooks> NetGalley
HaloFormat read: eARC from Netgalley
Formats available: ebook, POD
Genre: YA Dystopian
Series: Blood & Fire #1
Length: 354 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace
Date Released: January 10, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble.

She has no name.

She has her knives; her training; her halo.

The first and second give her the tools and the skill to defeat the opponents she is pitched against each month. The third frees her from pain and fear. From any kind of emotion at all. Everything is as it should be. Everything is as it should be, until…

FearPainAngerHappinessDesireGuilt

Love.

When a newly-named Kit escapes the Sanctuary after killing her best friend, the last thing she needs is another knife in her hand. Or Ryka, the damaged, beautiful blonde boy, who she refuses to let save her. Still learning how to process the onslaught of her new feelings, the sights and sounds of Freetown are overwhelming and strange. There are a hundred differences between her old home and her new one, but one thing remains starkly similar: the matches. Yet where the blood in the Sanctuary landed only on the colosseum floor, Kit will quickly learn that a river of red runs through Freetown’s very streets.

Freed from the oppression of a society who stole her right to feel, the true horror of her old life leaves Kit wondering if she really has been freed at all. Would she be better off without the crippling horror of all the blood on her hands, or is the love of one boy worth living through all the pain?

Raksha is the call of the dead. The rumbling chant for fresh blood from the other side, the demand for sacrifice. The colosseum is behind Kit. The fighting pits await.

My Thoughts:

Following the massive success of The Hunger Games, it is only to be expected that pale imitations will crop up in a blatant attempt to ride those multi-million dollar coattails. This has led to a absolute flurry of Dytopian YA publishing. And let me just say how excited I am to see Dystopian YA edging out all the Twi-lites and Twi-harders. You cannot write a Dystopian YA that I am not going to read.

As with any imploding subgenre, there are fantastic additions (Shatter Me), middle of the pack reads that quickly blur together (Divergent), and non-sensical piles of shit that completely miss the point of the entire goddamn genre.

Guess where on the scale Halo falls?

Halo has an extremely promising start. I greatly enjoyed the Hunger Games meets the Roman Colosseum vibe. In this rigidly class-divided world, you are born and bred for a specific station. Our protagonist is one of the Falin (fighters), whose entire purpose in life is to fight, kill, and die for the entertainment of the bloodthirsty masses. The upperclass “Trues” are socialized to see the Falin as contemptible subhuman animals, thus preventing any niggling morality issues with the monthly child slaughter, while the Falin are drugged and brainwashed into emotionless automatons. This keeps the Falin from uniting to kill their captors.

(This tactic comes highly recommended by Eric Northman.)

Ahem. Back to the Dystopian.

The problems with Halo come once Kit escapes from the walled and isolated Sanctuary.

People outside Sanctuary are spread out in cities and towns across the country. Kit stumbles into the nearby Freetown, where she is immediately introduced to a society without the rigid class structures she is accustomed too. However, this so-called “free” town has ridiculously oppressive laws/customs against women.

Kit quickly learns that women are required to wear skirts covered in freaking bells. (A noise burka!) When she notes this would prevent her from, say, quietly moving around town, defending herself from attack, or even outright running away from danger,  she learns this is a non-issue! Because women are forbidden from fighting, being educated in any kind of physical art, or carrying anything that could be construed as a weapon. If Kit doesn’t want to be attacked, sexually assaulted, and/or raped, she has to make herself utterly defenseless. Those obsessive woman-hating child-beating murdering rapists never attack teenage girls! (Aw, shucks grandpa, thanks for ‘splaining things.)

I don’t think I have ever read a book where it was so perfectly clear where it all went wrong. After an attempted gang (implied) rape, Kit is on the verge of being forced to give up her knives for her own, ahem, protection. (I’m serious, that’s their bullshit justification. That she brought the assault on herself, and one day, would totally be raped, and it would be all her fault. For daring to know how to use a knife in self-defense.) Kit beautifully acknowledges the laws of Freetown, and states that she will respect them. By leaving.

Fuck yeah! Kiss these misogynist assholes goodbye, and let their so-called enlightened abolitionist leaders take a hard look at the bullshit laws that send the newly emancipated slave out into the world looking for actual freedom. Kit could go Free Town shopping! Roam the countryside spreading enlightenment and self-defense lessons while dodging bounty hunters from Sanctuary….

Of course that didn’t happen. Instead, Kit gets special dispensation to keep her knives, and a cute teenage boy bodyguard. Because he’ll be able to keep her safe. As opposed to her training and weapons.

Then she has the privilege of spending the rest of the series fighting on behalf of the misogynist shiteaters who keep trying to kill, main, or rape her. Sit back everyone, and watch this train derail.

The point of a YA Dystopian is freedom from oppression, and coming into your own power. Not exchanging one form of slavery for another.  Or being dependent on someone else to protect you when you’re 150% capable to taking care of yourself. I always tell my clients that shack up with a new man right after we’ve kicked the abusive husband to the curb to “Trade Up.”

Kit did not trade up.

Raksha

Beyond the blatant and unchallenged misogyny rampant in the book (though there is a super-special woman-hater who keeps whining about all the misandry, and how men just don’t have enough power), you’ll need to be prepared to ignore some bizarrely inept world-building.

A particularly pathetic example pops up when Freetown discusses their trading practices with Sanctuary. Apparently the high-tech walled-off city ships mass quantities of grain and other food out to the country towns in exchange for high-quality weapons produced by artisans out in the sticks.

No really, it makes sense! So long as you don’t know how industry and farming work, but do accept any and all points of plot convenience. (There are many more, this is the just the most blatantly moronic of them.)

Halo was originally published in May of 2013 as Raksha. I prefer the original cover. Kit looks a bit more like the ass-kicking knife-master she is, and less like an indecisive girl wandering aimlessly through a poorly depicted world. Oh, wait…..

Escape Rating: D- for the extreme douchebaggery of taking a goddamn champion gladiator and forcing her to defend a deeply misogynist city. Take a hint from your revamped cover Kit, and walk the fuck away.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: The End by G. Michael Hopf + Giveaway

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | blog tours> book reviews> C Reviews> Giveaways
The End by G. Michael HopfFormat read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook, paperback, audiobook
Genre: post-apocalypse, dystopian, science fiction
Series: New World #1
Length: 442 pages
Publisher: Penguin
Date Released: April 3, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

For Gordon Van Zandt life once was one of duty and loyalty to his country, so when 9/11 happened he dropped out of college and joined the Marine Corps. This youthful idealism vanished one fateful day in a war torn city in Iraq. Ten years later, he is still struggling with the ghosts of his past but must now face a new reality thrust on him and his family. North America, Europe and the Far East have all suffered a devastating Super-EMP attack that has caused catastrophic damage to the power grids and all electrical devices. With nothing working from cars to phones and with the total collapse of the economic infrastructure, Gordon must fight for the limited and fast dwindling resources. He knows survival requires action and cooperation with his neighbors; but as daily life continues to break down so does all sense of civility within his community. With each passing day Gordon makes choices that would seem extreme in today’s world but necessary in this new world.

My Review:

I have a ton of mixed feelings about The End. I couldn’t put it down. The story is absorbing. However, there were a lot of points, especially at the beginning, where I wanted to shake the author and scream “SHOW don’t TELL”, loud and often.

There is a lot of infodumping about the characters and their points of view. Lots of exposition and not much action or dialog.

Then “the end of the world as we know it” finally happens, and the story starts to take off. Although there is action in other places, the main story is one ex-Marine who figures out right away that an Electro-Magnetic Pulse weapon (EMP) has wiped out the infrastructure of the entire U.S. So the story is the breakdown of society, seen in the microcosm of one gated community in San Diego. There are side-plots focusing on the government’s collapse and the fragmentation of the military.

But the focus is on how Gordon Van Zandt and his family are affected.

Gordon is a survivor; and he has determined that his family will survive, his wife and two kids. (We know his daughter survives because the entire story is told by her as flashback)

It’s not just that Gordon is a polarizing figure, both in the moment and historically, but his point of view is very patriarchal. While that might help him survive, for the story it means that the only women seen are shown in relationship to their husbands or as power-mad, stupid and out-of-touch with the new reality.

The lead up to which is supposedly happening right now. The description of the events that lead up to The End felt more like political agenda than story because it’s so close. YMMV.

What made me keep reading was the scenario. The concept that an EMP could wipe out our infrastructure was all too plausible. But at the same time, once that infrastructure was gone, the survival story reminded me all too much of other works, particularly Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling and the classic Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven.

The End ends on a cliffhanger; with Gordon, his family and his supporters setting out on a cross-country trek across the blasted landscape, with the prospect of fighting their way through militarized gangs and avoiding radiation-soaked destroyed cities.

Escape Rating C: In spite of its problems, I couldn’t put this book down. Once the story gets going, it really zips along.

Because this is an extreme survival story, most of the characters that we follow are more anti-heroes than heroes; they commit acts that would not be condoned in any other circumstances. It’s not just that a lot of people die as a result of the disaster, but all the focus characters kill, not just in self-defense, but sometimes as prevention of a possible threat, rather than reaction to an imminent threat.

Thank goodness there are no zombies, vampires or any other supernatural creatures involved. What made The End seem plausible is that the story completely focused on the unfortunate but all too realistic ability of humans to turn on each other, and the lengths that some people would go to survive at all costs.

~~~~~~GIVEAWAY~~~~~~

The Long Road by G. Michael HopfMichael is generously giving away a paperback set of both The End and book 2 in his New World series, The Long Road. This giveaway is open to US/CAN only
a Rafflecopter giveaway

TLC
This post is part of a TLC book tour. Click on the logo for more reviews.
***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: Sharp by Alex Hughes

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> book reviews
Sharp by Alex HughesFormat read: paperback provided by the author
Formats available: paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genre: Urban fantasy; science fiction
Series: Mindspace Investigation #2
Length: 352 pages
Publisher: Ace/Roc
Date Released: April 2, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

HISTORY HAS A WAY OF REPEATING ITSELF, EVEN FOR TELEPATHS.…

As a Level Eight telepath, I am the best police interrogator in the department. But I’m not a cop—I never will be—and my only friend on the force, Homicide Detective Isabella Cherabino, is avoiding me because of a telepathic link I created by accident.

And I might not even be an interrogator for much longer. Our boss says unless I pull out a miracle, I’ll be gone before Christmas. I need this job, damn it. It’s the only thing keeping me sane.

Parts for illegal Tech—the same parts used to bring the world to its knees in the Tech Wars sixty years ago—are being hijacked all over the city. Plus Cherbino’s longtime nemesis, a cop killer, has resurfaced with a vengeance. If I can stay alive long enough, I just might be able to prove my worth, once and for all…

My Review:

In this second full-length novel in Alex Hughes’ absolutely awesome Mindspace Investigation series, the mind of the killer is sharp; unfortunately, the mind of the telepath investigating the crime is anything but.

clean by alex hughesLevel 8 telepath Adam Ward injured his mental pathways at the end of Clean (incredible, stunning debut, see review) and is left trying to hide his hopefully temporary disability from the school of sharks he works among, otherwise known as the DeKalb County Police Department.

He’s estranged from his only friend and protector, Isabella Cherubino, because saving her life required revealing that he had been resting against her calming mindspace just a bit too often, and that they had accidentally developed a mental “Link”. Now he really can’t stay out of her head, and she feels, rightly so, that he has betrayed her trust.

In the ever-simmering background of the cop shop, there’s the seething resentment of a consultant making the “real” cops look bad with his showmanship, and as the perfect cherry on the sundae, a new round of budget cuts. People’s jobs are on the line, and every cop in the place thinks the first one to go should be Adam, because he’s not one of “them”.

But Adam needs the work. Not just the paycheck, the work. Coming in to solve puzzles, to get bad guys off the streets–to work with Cherubino–is a big chunk of what’s keeping him clean and off drugs.

That and an awful lot of NA meetings and service projects with his sponsor Swartz.

But this case that lands in Adam and Cherubino’s laps turns out to be all about the sins of the past–and it nearly ends both of their futures.

The first murder victim is also the last victim of Adam’s drug addiction while he was still part of the Telepath Guild. His botched mental surgery killed her telepathic gift. Now she’s dead, and one of the other victims is missing.

The cop killer who murdered Cherubino’s fiance has started another serial spree. These things should not be related, but are they?

And while Adam needs desperately to get back into Cherubino’s good graces in order to save his sanity, one of the pillars of his life is struck down–Swartz has a heart attack and the only way to save him is for Adam to strike a deal with the Guild.

He’s not sure who is betraying whom or if it will all be worth it in the end, especially when it looks like the Guild is involved in the entire murder spree, up to its secretive corporate neck.

Escape Rating A+: The Mindspace Investigations series takes place in a gritty and realistic dystopian/post-apocalyptic setting. Even cooler, the setting is a very recognizable Atlanta and its suburbs. I used to live there and it feels right in a just-off-kilter way.

Even cooler, this dystopia is not that far in the future. People then remember our now, or close. The apocalypse inbetween them and us are the Tech Wars, when wired technology went sentient and then viral. We could get there from here.

The Telepath Guild developed to fight tech with human-based mental skills. It makes a sick and twisted sense. But power still corrupts and absolute power definitely corrupts absolutely.

Adam is so very human. Even his name; Adam, the first man. (It’s slightly geeky cool that his name is Adam Ward. I wonder if he was named after Adam West and Burt Ward; the Batman and Robin of the 1960s?)

In some ways, Adam is Icarus, he flew too close to the sun, his wings melted, and now he’s fallen. But the fallen Adam is a better person than the original. He tries harder.

A lot of reviewers compare this series to Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files, because of the urban fantasy plotline. The comparison doesn’t work for me, much as I love Harry. Dresden borrowed the cops but didn’t try to be part of them, and you don’t get much of the cop shop vibe in Dresden. Also Dresden is firmly fantasy, while Mindspace is absolutely science fiction.

A closer parallel might be J.D. Robb’s In Death series, minus the romance. There’s the same police procedural mystery driving the case, albeit with some different procedures. But also there’s the same looming near-future post-apocalypse in the background. Robb’s Urban Wars and Hughes’ Tech Wars have a lot in common.

Adam and Cherubino are extremely flawed, scarred people. They need each other, but navigating their way toward each other, even as partners, is a big part of the fascination in this ongoing series.

As well as the continuing corkscrew convolutions of the mundane politics, the Telepath Guild and whether the humans in this world are going to draw back from the brink of destruction again. And whether Adam will manage to thwart his precognitive visions of his own self-destruction.

marked by alex hughesThis series is awesome stuff. I’m on the edge of my seat waiting for Marked.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Guest Post by Author Alex Hughes: A Discussion of the Tech Wars + Giveaway

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Book Giveaway> Giveaways> Guest Posts

Today I’d like to welcome Alex Hughes, author of the absolutely awesome Clean (reviewed here).This fascinating combination of urban fantasy, science fiction and near-future dystopia was one of the best books that I have read this year. I can’t wait to read the rest of this series!

A Discussion of the Tech Wars
by Alex Hughes

The Mindspace Investigations series (Clean, Payoff, Sharp, Marked) is set about sixty years after a devastating event called the Tech Wars. A madman and his followers circulate computer viruses that shut down the entirety of the world, from smart houses to smart cars, leaving huge casualties in their wake. Then, because of peoples’ brain implants and biotechnology, the viruses end up going bloodborne in one of the worst plagues the world has ever seen. Then, it gets worse. And yet worse.

clean by alex hughesIn the end the Telepaths’ Guild steps in to save the world—but what they do to end the war changes forever how the normals see them. The Guild earned their freedom and their right to choose their own destiny—at the price of fear that hasn’t died out even sixty years later.
People often ask me why I leave so much of the Tech Wars backstory unsaid. Partially, I do this because my readers on the mystery side care far more about cases and pacing than they do about backstory. Partially, I enjoy holding secrets and parceling them out in small doses—it keeps both me and the reader interested over a long series. But mostly, I have this idea in my head that one day, when I’m good enough, I’ll write the Tech Wars as a separate series. To do that well, I’ll need plenty of empty space to fill with individual characters’ choices; the major players will need the room to tell me how they, personally, will change the world.

While I like structure, my best work often happens in these empty spaces, in the things left undecided. So I’m guarding that space, quietly, in consideration for a future series—guarding the magic that will let me write it well.

Today, though, I’ll open the box just a little more to talk about the personal side of the Tech Wars, where the idea comes from and what I have to say on the topic. (Warning: opinions ahead!)

The Tech Wars reflect a concern I and a lot of others have with technology becoming so much a part of our lives so quickly. I grew up with a green-and-black-screen computer, and later with the early Internet. I follow science, and I love the information and history available online, things I would never have been able to get twenty years ago without trips around the world and a lot of patience. I delight when new gadgets come out to make our lives easier. I am by no means a Luddite. But when the whole world is in your pocket, along with constant interruptions by social media and the latest trends, there is no silence.

With the advent of social media, the Internet—and all the people and ideas it involves—becomes a daily part of our lives, one click away. We are drowning in a sea of information all the time, and because the information is set in sound bites, even ‘scientific’ and ‘serious’ information is often sensationalistic and overly simplified to fit in the form. My attention span, at least, has shrunk significantly, as my brain becomes less and less comfortable with down time. I fight for that down time and that silence with a true passion, but it’s hard to get and hard to keep—there are constant distractions and deep thought doesn’t seem to be the currency of our generation. I have to be counter-cultural, and I have to turn off the world, to get my true work done.

Sharp by Alex HughesI imagine a world one step ahead of ours, in which you are jacked into the sea of information directly through an implant in your head. The world is ‘enhanced’ so there is no more silence, no more direct experience without analysis and subtext. Every part of your life is run by a computer in direct communication with your preferences and likes. The polarization of politics is just the beginning; when you’re only shown information that agrees with your ‘preferences,’ confirmation bias takes over your life. Your way is the only way. You are always right. And, whatever fast food commercials say, that’s actually a dangerous thing. You begin to miss important clues that the world is about to change.

And then the wars begin, and the world falls apart. You’re forced to rely on neighbors—people you may never have met—and poorer folks unable to afford the implants. You’re forced to deal with reality without the filter, for the first time in your life. What kind of world change would that create?

I’m still figuring that out. But I can say, that kind of world-change would stick with you. People would remember, even two generations later, even after sixty years. And that’s the legacy of the Tech Wars in Adam’s world. A legacy of quiet fear and remembrance.

Alex HughesAbout Alex Hughes

Alex Hughes is the author of the Mindspace Investigations series from Roc. She is a Semi-Finalist of the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards, a Finalist in the 2013 Silver Falchion Awards, and a graduate of the pro-level Odyssey Writing Workshop. Over the years, she has lived in many neighborhoods of the sprawling metro Atlanta area, including Decatur during her time at Agnes Scott College.
On any given week you can find Alex in the kitchen cooking gourmet Italian food, watching hours of police procedural dramas, and typing madly. Find out more about Alex at her website or follow her on Twitter.

~~~~~~GIVEAWAY~~~~~~

Alex is giving away one paperback copy of Clean to one lucky winner (US/Canada). To enter, use the Rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Stacking the Shelves (68)

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves

For two weeks’ worth of stack, this is not too bad. Or so I keep telling myself.

goddess with a blade by lauren daneTwo notes about this stack. Blade to the Keep is the sequel to Lauren Dane’s fantastic Goddess With a Blade. Now that was part of the first batch of books that Carina Press approved me for on NetGalley when I first started blogging, back in 2011, so I’d have fond memories of it anyway, but it was marvelous. Vampire politics, sex, and a serial killer to catch. I’ve always hoped for more, and finally, it’s here!

Rhys Ford’s Fish and Ghosts is the other one I’m really looking forward to. Her Black Dog Blues ended up on my 2013 Best Ebook Romances list at Library Journal, so when I saw a new paranormal series from her get offered at The Book Pushers I jumped at it. Ghostly serial killers and romance–sounds like fun!

For Review:
Blade to the Keep (Rowan Summerwaite #2) by Lauren Dane
Carousel Sun (Carousel #2) by Sharon Lee
Cold Iron (Cold Iron #1) by D.L. McDermott
Deeper (Caroline and West #1) by Robin York
The End (New World #1) by G. Michael Hopf
Fish and Ghosts (Hellsinger #1) by Rhys Ford
A Highly Unlikely Scenario, or a Neetsa Pizza Employee’s Guide to Saving the World by Rachel Cantor
The Long Road (New World #2) by G. Michael Hopf
Love a Little Sideways (Kowalski Family #7) by Shannon Stacey
Sail Away With Me by Kate Deveaux
Training Season by Leta Blake
Turtle Recall: The Discworld Companion…So Far by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs
Wicked After Midnight (Blud #3) by Delilah S. Dawson
Wrede on Writing by Patricia C. Wrede

Purchased:
After the Golden Age (Golden Age #1) by Carrie Vaughn
Gossamer Wing (Steam and Seduction #1) by Delphine Dryden
Heating Up the Holidays by Lisa Renee Jones, Serena Bell and Mary Ann Rivers
The Marriage Bargain (Marriage to a Billionaire #1) by Jennifer Probst

Borrowed from the Library:
Cursed (Fallen Siren #1) by S. J. Harper

Guest Post by Author Sonya Clark on Trancehacking + Giveaway

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | ebook giveaway> Guest Posts

Today I’d like to welcome Sonya Clark, the author of the totally awesome blend of urban fantasy/paranormal/dystopian romance that is Trancehack (reviewed here). 

Trancehacking
by Sonya Clark

Tracehack by Sonya ClarkTrancehack is set in a dark future where witches are identified at birth and sent to live in urban zones with no rights of citizenship. The reason they were sent to urban zones specifically is because of the lack of understanding of magic by Normals who made the laws. Normals believed that being forced to live in an urban environment would mute the nature-oriented magic practiced by witches. What they didn’t know is that magic in this world is about more than fire, earth, air, and water. For some witches in the Magic Born world, it’s also about neon, concrete, cyberspace, and music.

When I decided I wanted to play with ideas on urban magic, I knew I didn’t want to just transplant the usual stuff encountered in fiction into city environs. I wanted to see if I could stretch my own ideas about magic, where to find it, and how to use it. The first thing I did was figure out basic correspondences: fire = neon, earth = concrete and steel, air = cyberspace, and water = music. I played around with ways the city elements could be used. One in particular really set off my imagination: the idea of using astral projection to enter cyberspace. This is where the book gets its name – trancehacking.

I’d already drawn from one childhood influence in creating the Magic Born world – Blade Runner. Both the movie’s future-noir sensibility and the sprawling metropolis that is almost a character unto itself were in the back of my mind while writing parts of Trancehack. When I started thinking about what it would be like to travel through cyberspace as just an entity of consciousness, temporarily apart from the body, I thought of another movie from childhood – Tron. I’ll be the first one to admit Tron hasn’t aged as well as Blade Runner, but both movies left a mark on my young imagination. When I found out the sequel to Tron did not involve exploring the internet, I lost interest in the movie and never saw it. It’s just as well because then I was able to let my imagination run wild. Here’s the first time witch Calla Vesper trancehacks in the book:

“Enchantress of Numbers, guide my journey,” she intoned. With a push of her will she sent magic into her wand and from there flowing into the cable. While Calla’s body sat on the hard floor of a filthy abandoned building, her consciousness slipped into cyberspace with practiced ease. Familiar blue-white light formed at the edge of the darkness. Dots and lines not unlike the city lights at night glowed brighter as she settled more fully into the different environment.

The small handful of witches like Calla who are able to trancehack have to hide their abilities from Magic Born and Normal alike, lest they wind up lab rats or worse. Even so, they’re able to do a lot of good for the Magic Born by hacking for information, as well as doing other things with their unique gifts. The Magic Born are up against bigotry, poverty, and the law itself, so they need all the advantages they can get.

And I have to admit, combining magic and technology was a lot of fun, too.

About Sonya Clark
Sonya Clark grew up a military brat and now lives in Tennessee with her husband and daughter. She writes urban fantasy and paranormal romance with a heavy helping of magic and lots of music for inspiration. Learn more at her website. Find her on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

~~~~~~GIVEAWAY~~~~~~

Sonya is kindly giving away a digital copy of Trancehack. To enter, use the Rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: Trancehack by Sonya Clark

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> blog tours> book reviews
Tracehack by Sonya ClarkFormat read: ebook provided by the author
Formats available:  ebook, audiobook
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Dystopian, Science Fiction Romance
Series: Magic Born #1
Length: 231 pages
Publisher: Carina Press
Date Released: October 28, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, All Romance

It’s 2065. Those born with magic abilities live in government-run zones, without rights or freedoms. Fear of magic created this segregated world and fear keeps it intact.

A high-profile murder brings Detective Nathan Perez to Magic Born Zone 13. He’s had little experience with the Magic Born and isn’t sure what to expect during his first encounter with a witch, but he never thought he’d be so drawn to her.

Trancehacker Calla Vesper uses magic to break into computers and aid the Magic Born underground. She has no interest in helping a cop, even if he is smoking-hot, but money’s tight and Nate offers a tidy amount for help navigating the Zone. Calla’s determined to keep it all business, but sparks start flying before the investigation even gets started.

When Calla’s trancehacking and Nathan’s investigation uncover a conspiracy, Calla becomes a target. Nate can protect her by keeping her role a secret—but then who will protect Nate?

My Review:

I fell in love with the world created by Sonya Clark in Trancehack to the point where I’m having a difficult time reviewing it because of the sheer number of resonance images it carried for me. Clark’s imagery of the magic users’ ghetto, or FreakTown, borrowed from so many awesome stories and historical settings, even some she didn’t intend, AND added a sweet and white-hot love story like a cherry on top.

Okay, what is this thing, anyway? We have a dystopian society that it turns out human beings mostly made instead of an apocalypse raining down from above.

Even more screwed up, somehow “magic born” started springing up in the population, and then getting segregated into ghettos by mandatory DNA testing. Half a century later, you get the world of Trancehack.

They really are using magic, no joke. Lighting fires, playing with electricity, healing, and some other very interesting talents. But the dystopia comes from the reaction to the people who use the magic.

Religious zealots in the US are the ones who created the anti-magic laws and the ghettos. And guess what? The US became such fanatics that other countries decided not to have much to do with us after that. Even more interesting, US students who studied abroad stopped coming back, so they clamped down on US students studying abroad.

Repressive society much?

It gets worse. All children get tested for the magic DNA. Any found with the gene are automatically taken away from their parents and their records expunged. There is no appeal. Think of what that does not just to the infants who are abandoned inside the magic zones, but also to the young couples who live in fear of having babies with magic and seeing them taken away.

The cost to society as a whole.

Now we have a story. Nathan Perez is a cop who knows he’s a potential scapegoat. An unregistered magic user has just murdered a prominent research physician. There are three very interesting facts about the late Dr. Forbes: 1) he was researching the production of the illegal street drug Nightshade, 2) he was infamous for being responsible for the testing that removed magic-born infants from their parents and 3) he was best-friends with influential Senator John Beckwith, who wants the man’s murder handled quickly and quietly. Oh, and there is no such thing as an unregistered magic-born, so all the crime scene tests must be mistaken.

At least until all the people involved with ever having seen or heard of those “mistaken” tests start turning up dead.

deryni rising by katherine kurtzEscape Rating A: It’s the worldbuilding that made Trancehack so much of a pleasure for me. I kept hearing the echo of Katherine Kurtz’ ancient Deryni crying that “the humans kill what they do not understand” because part of that felt right. The non-Magic Born were afraid of the Magic Born power, so they hemmed it in and legislated it out of sight. They feared what they couldn’t understand so they attempted to control it.

It also reminded me very much of the Mage Towers (for that read Mage Prisons) in Dragon Age: Origins video game world. Again, a world where magic power is feared so much that mages are locked away, in that world by an omnipotent church that takes magic-using children from their parents.

There is also an intentional parallel to the Underground Railroad of U.S history. The Magic-Born may not be slaves, but the restrictions under which they live are designed to make them feel less than human.

Calla Vesper embodies a lot of the conditions under which the Magic-Born live. Not just by being Magic-Born, but by knowing who her birth parents were. She has created someone different, but she is able to visualize exactly what might have been, and so can we.

Nate and Calla’s relationship smacks of Romeo and Juliet, but they are both adults and well aware of the potential consequences. They see the doom going in, they just choose to ignore it for awhile. When doom catches up, they keep running.

And we have the “good cop investigating corrupt society” case in this mix too. Clark keeps a surprising number of plates spinning in the air, and does it in a way that kept this reader enthralled from beginning to end.

Must be magic.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Apocalypse Blog Hop

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Apocalypse Blog Hop> Blog Hops> Giveaways

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Welcome to the Apocalypse Blog Hop, hosted by Heidi of Rainy Day Ramblings, Maja of The Nocturnal Library and Christy of Love of Books.

It’s the end of the world as we know it. Maybe we do feel fine?

Dystopia with clock from wikipediaSometimes I give talks to library groups (or librarian groups) on romance and other genre books. One of the questions is usually about post-apocalyptic and dystopian fiction, and what the heck are they, anyway?

I generally say it’s about where are we going and how did we end up in this handbasket? If the society knows how it ended up in the handbasket, it’s post-apocalyptic. If they don’t know or don’t care, it’s just dystopian.

Dearly departed by Lia HabelDearly, Departed by Lia Habel (reviewed here) is still the best YA post-apocalyptic steampunk zombie romance I’ve ever read. And it’s still the only YA post-apocalyptic steampunk zombie romance I’ve ever read. Dearly, Beloved is on my TBR stack.

On the other hand, Black Dog Blues by Rhys Ford is a totally excellent (reviewed at Book Lovers Inc) bit of post-apocalyptic urban fantasy. Not the only, but very recent and quite, quite good.

 

 

~~~~~~GIVEAWAY~~~~~~

As part of the hop, I’m giving away a $10 Amazon gift card! To enter, use the Rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway
And please be sure to visit the other blog hop stops for more chances to win!

Review: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> book reviews
Scarlet by Marissa MeyerFormat read: print book borrowed from the Library
Formats available: ebook, hardcover, paperback, audiobook
Genre: Young adult science fiction
Series: The Lunar Chronicles, #2
Length: 464 pages
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Date Released: February 5, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She’s trying to break out of prison–even though if she succeeds, she’ll be the Commonwealth’s most wanted fugitive.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn’t know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother’s whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.

My Review:

Scarlet could be called the cybernetic fairy tales, part two. This is the second book in Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles, so if you haven’t read book one, her dystopian re-telling of Cinderella (Cinder, reviewed here), stop now. Book two is Red Riding-Hood’s turn. In this futuristic turn, make that hood a red hoodie.

Everything else has been transmuted as well. Red’s–oops, I meant Scarlet’s–beloved grandmother has not, well not exactly, been eaten by a wolf. When the story starts, Scarlet Benoit’s beloved grand-mere has disappeared. The officials are calling it a voluntary disappearance. After all, everyone knew that Michelle Benoit was crazy.

Except her granddaughter, who just wouldn’t let it go. And that’s where the story begins. Scarlet, refusing to believe that her grandmother just left her behind, blows her red-headed temper up while delivering vegetables from their farm to a customer. Being discovered by a day-laborer, and night-time bare-knuckles fighter named, of course, Wolf, who has never eaten a fresh tomato before.

Scarlet spends most of the story trying to figure out whether big, powerful Wolf is one of the good guys or one of the bad guys who has been trying to fool her all along. And she’s right to be suspicious. Because Wolf isn’t any too sure himself.

But all the while that Scarlet and Wolf are hunting for Scarlet’s grandmother, Cinder is on the run trying to find that very same Michelle Benoit. Because Cinder has discovered that Michelle Benoit, once upon a time, was one of the Earth officers that may have been part of saving her from Lunar when she was a baby. And part of her adoption by Garan Linh so many years later.

Meanwhile, Queen Levana is hunting all of them. And Emperor Kai’s time, and the Earth’s, is running out.

Escape Rating B+: The three stories are interwoven so tightly that the reading flows from one to another seamlessly, even before Cinder and Scarlet inevitably meet.

Cinder by Marissa MeyerCinder spends a lot of the story hoping that there is a way out. She wants to be free, but she’s smart enough to know that being Queen or even leading a Rebel Alliance is about as far from freedom as a person, or cyborg, can get.

Scarlet and Wolf’s love story hinges on a concept that has been used before in paranormal romance, the idea that cross-breeding with wolf genetics will accidentally build in the conditioning that wolves mate for life. Just because it’s been used before doesn’t mean it can’t be used effectively again or that it wasn’t effective here.

I have a question about Queen Levana. A big question. Why is she doing all this? Why go through all these machinations to take over the Earth? She seems to have more than enough power and military might, as well as magical charisma to just charm everyone into submission. There’s something I’m simply not seeing about her motives. And she’s just too bwahaha evil to make sense.

As very fractured fairy tales, The Lunar Chronicles are great fun. But there are, as they say, wheels within wheels within wheels. I hope that Queen Levana’s deeper motives are in one of those wheels we haven’t seen yet.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.