Author Archives: Keith West

Tales of the Emerald Serpent Launced on Kickstarter

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I came across something a few minutes ago I wanted to pass along.  Scott Taylor has launched a new project on Kickstarter.  It’s called Tales of the Emerald Serpent.  It’s a shared world anthology with a couple of my favorite writers signed on, as well as some I’ve heard good things about and have been intending to try.  The authors are Lynn Flewelling, Harry Connolly, Juliet McKenna, Martha Wells, Robert Mancebo, Julie Czerneda, Todd Lockwood, and Michael Tousignant. This will be an illustrated anthology, with Todd Lockwood, Jeff Laubenstein, and Janet Aulisio providing the art.  If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, then please click on the link above, read the description, and watch the introductory video.

Even if you don’t support this project, you might want to consider supporting other projects on Kickstarter.  Several fantasy authors and game producers have recently posted projects on the site.  This seems like a good way for niche audiences to find things they like that major publishers would never do.

Odds and Ends

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I thought I’d pass along a few items of interest that have come across my computer screen in the last couple of days.

First, you may recall that I said Pyr books was the number one publisher you should be reading in 2012, and I stand by that statement.  The latest electronic newsletter, Pyr-a-zine, has an interview with Jon Sprunk, whose Shadow trilogy concludes this month with Shadow’s Master (reviewed here). I would include a link, but the interview is an exclusive to the newsletter.  Another advantage to the newsletter is it contains an exclusive discount on one of the Pyr titles.  You can subscribe at the Pyr main page on their website.

Bradley P. Beaulieu is holding a giveaway to promote the forthcoming publication of The Straits of Galahesh.  Night Shade Books was second on my list of publishers you should be reading, and Beaulieu’s debut novel, The Winds of Khalakovo was one of the main reasons why.  There are some cool prizes in the giveaway, including tablets and ereaders.  Details are here. 

Beaulieu is also giving away copies of his short science fiction novel, Strata, that he co-wrote with Stephen Gaskell.  The giveaway is next Tuesday and Wednesday, March 20 and 21.  I recently reviewed Strata and found it to be exciting, fast-paced, and a lot of fun.

And speaking of The Straits of Galahesh, it’s in my list of titles to review.   It’s number 3 on the list, after Echo City by Tim Lebbon and Trang by Mary Sission.  Echo City is for the David Gemmell Awards, but I’ll post a link to the review here when it goes live.  Trang is science fiction, so that review will be posted over at Futures Past and Present.  After that, I’ll review The Alchemist of Souls by Anne Lyle, which hits shelves here in the US at the end of the month.

With all the novels I’ve been reviewing, I’ve had very little time to read any short fiction or work on my own writing.  As a result I’m going to cut back on the number of novels I review once I fulfill my current commitments (approximately 3 others not listed).  I’m also going to punctuate the novel reviews and other posts with some short fiction centric posts, like the one the other day on the current issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies.  I’ll still accept review copies, but I’m going to be a lot pickier for the next few months.  There’s a lot of great short fiction I want to read (and hopefully write).  Working in academia means I don’t have much time during the academic year as I would like, which is why the frequency of posts here and at Futures Past and Present have slowed down since the middle of January..  Things should pick back up during the summer.

Science Fantasy Emphasis at Beneath Ceaseless Skies

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If you check out the current issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies and happen to be paying attention, you might notice references being made to Science-Fantasy Month.  This in my opinion is a good thing since science-fantasy is one of the subgenres we don’t see much of these days.  And since BCS is published every two weeks, and this is the first issue of March, there should be another issue with this emphasis next week.  So how does this issue hold up?

The first story is “The Mote-Dancer and the Firelife” by Chris Willrich.  It’s the story of I-Chen, a widow who has journeyed to the homeworld of the aliens who killed her husband on what appears to be a mission of revenge.  Of course it’s much more than that.  Willrich comes up with an interesting alien culture, and while we don’t get a great deal of detail about how that culture works (this is short fiction, after all), what he does show us is original and intriguing.  For instance, in order to determine who picks up the check in a restaurant, patrons solve a puzzle of dried noodles, and the one who makes it collapse buys. 

I’m not sure I would have labeled this one as science-fantasy if the story didn’t involve an application of Clarke’s Law.  There are remnants of alien technology, and one of these is dust that creates a telepathy like state.  It’s common affect in the Spinies, the aliens in the story, but rare in humans.  I-Chen is one of the rare cases of the dust having this effect in humans.  It’s the reason why she can still see and talk to her dead husband.  And that’s the driving element in the story.

Willrich is a writer whose name I’ve seen, but I don’t recall having read anything by him.  I may have, but nothing comes to mind at this point.  I’ll be keeping an eye out for his work in the future.  Hopefully we’ll see more of this universe.  The Glyph Lords, the aliens who’ve left the relics and vanished are intriguing.  And the division among the Spinies between the Sanchos and the Quioxites is clever and original.  And totally believable the way it’s presented.  There’s also a podcast version of the story available.

The second story is “Scry” by a collaborative sister team writing as Anne Ivy.  This is the tale of Eyre Isri Esthe, a woman with the ability to see the future who is abandoned by her husband when he flees with the prince from an invading warlord.  He leaves her in the house thinking he has provided her with a way out.  Instead, he leaves her a vial of poison while takes off with the prince and his mistress. 

Esthe decides that just because she is going to die doesn’t mean her death can’t be on her own terms.  What follows is a dark and surprisingly moving story of a strong but damaged woman making the most of a difficult situation.  There are multiple layers to what one sees in the future, as well as what one doesn’t see.  This is one of the more powerful stories I’ve read in quite a while.  The authors are working on a novel featuring the warlord, Karnon Dae.  He’s not human, but what exactly he is, well, we’re given hints but never enough to make an exact conclusion about him.  I’m looking forward to the novel.

This story clearly falls into the science-fantasy camp, what with the scrying, even if it does seem to have a scientific basis of some sort..  It’s never stated upon what world the story takes place.  It could be a future earth, but I don’t think so.  Some of the hints about Karnon Dae make me think this is a far future tale.  Whichever, it’s still a top-notch piece of short fiction.

Also included in this issue are interviews with the authors of both of the stories.  The interview with Chris Willrich is only available in the subscription edition.  Speaking of which, although the stories are available for free, you can subscribe to Beneath Ceaseless Skies.  It’s available in both epub and Kindle formats.  The convenience of having it on your ereader more than makes up for the cost.  If you like what BCS publishes, then consider supporting them so they can continue to do what they do.  I consider Beneath Ceaseless Skies to be one of the top fantasy publications, print or electronic, currently in existence.  Subscription information is here. 

What I Thought of John Carter

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Lynn Collins as Dejah Thoris

Yeah, I know the movie is entitled John Carter, not Dejah Thoris, but I’d rather look at Lynn Collins than Taylor Kitsch. Besides, in many ways she’s the central figure of the film.

This review is going to be a little different than some of the ones I’ve posted. Confession time:  As much science fiction and fantasy as I’ve read over the past [ NUMBER DELETED] decades, I’ve never actually gotten around to Burroughs until now.  (Please don’t judge me.)  Every time I’ve intended to, something has disrupted my reading schedule.  Which is not to say that I’m not familiar with the basics of at least some of his work.  I just don’t have a strong working knowledge of the details.  I’m about one-third of the way through A Princess of Mars right now, and I will definitely read the other books in the series.  So I won’t discuss where the film deviates from the written work; there are plenty of people more knowledgeable than me to do that. Start with Ryan Harvey’s review.  Instead, what I’m going to do is approach the film from the perspective of someone who would be a member of the general public rather than a fan.

Having said that, and acknowledging I want this film to succeed, I think it scores a home run.  At no time does the movie insult the audience’s intelligence, or at least not much.  More on that in a bit.  The plot is coherent and makes sense.  The characters behave in rational ways, with motives that are believable.  There are plenty of little moments that develop the characters.  This could have been a brainless mishmash of fight scenes and bombastic dialogue. 

Instead, we’ve got people, regardless of how many arms and tusks they have, about whom the audience comes to care.  While the CGI is great and in many ways makes the movie, what ultimately propels the film is the story.  This could have been another Avatar, all fancy CGI with no depth, originality, or individual characters.  Thank God that didn’t happen.  Instead there’s a real respect for the source material here, and it’s evident in almost every frame.  I’ve not gotten far in the book, but I was picking up on details.  Yes, there are a lot a changes from what Burroughs wrote, but the film remains true to the spirit of the novel. 

John Carter battles the White Apes

The CGI brings Barsoom to life.  The aliens are believable, as are the cities and the flyers.  This one has got eye candy galore.  And I’m not talking about Lynn Collins in that sentence.

Speaking of Ms. Collins, she steals half the scenes she’s in.  Her character is a little different than Burroughs wrote her, at least as she’s appeared in APoM to the point I’ve read.   Dejah Thoris is every bit Carter’s equal in courage and heroism, especially early in the movie where she often surpasses him in these qualities.  And she’s better than him when it comes to swordplay.  The character of Dejah Thoris as she’s presented her is one that very possibly could go down as a model for strong female characters in fantasy.  If there’s one thing she’s not, it’s a damsel in distress.

I only have a few complaints.  First, the movie opens with a prologue which is nothing more than an infodump.  I found it confusing, and I knew the basics behind what was going on.  I’m not sure what the general audience thought of it. 

Second, and this point and the following one are where I felt my intelligence insulted, every time the moons of Mars are shown, it’s the same picture.  Even Burroughs knew and discussed that the moons have very different orbital periods, something we’ve know since long before Burroughs first put pen to paper.  There was no variation in their relative positions or any discussion of waiting on the moons to align.  I bring this up because it does have a bearing on the plot near the end.

The last thing, and this probably bothers me more than anything about the movie, is that at times there doesn’t seem to be a great deal of consistency in Carter’s enhanced strength.  When he’s first captured by the Tharks, he breaks his chains and escapes from the nursery where he’s imprisoned.  Later, during the arena scene, he can’t seem to break the chain holding him in the arena.  He seems to have whatever strength he needs do what whatever the plot requires at that time.  Ditto for how high and far he can jump. At least some of the time.  There are other times when he clearly has limits on what he can do.

Still, those things weren’t nearly enough to spoil the movie for me.  It was well handled all the way through.  The fight scenes are great, the characters have depth, and the story never flags.  John Carter is fantastic and an example of how to Get It Right.  Go see it.  And take a friend.

Mastering the Shadows

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Shadow’s Master
Jon Sprunk
Pyr Books
trade paper, 313 pp., $17.95

Jon Sprunk is a relative newcomer to the fantasy field, this being only his third novel, the conclusion to a trilogy.  And a right satisfying conclusion it is, at that.  The story that was begun in Shadow’s Son (reviewed here) and continued in Shadow’s Lure (reviewed here) wraps up in Shadow’s Master.  This one is darker, bloodier, and better than its predecessors.

While I won’t give any spoilers to the present book, I might let a few slip from the previous volumes.  Just giving you notice.

The story picks up where the previous novel left off.  Caim, accompanied by three companions, is heading north into the Northern Marches.  There’s something in his head that’s pulling him in that direction.  As she died, his aunt Sybelle told him to look for a dark fortress if he wants to find out what happened to his mother.  Caim thinks he’ll find her when he finds whatever seems to be calling him.

Meanwhile, in Nimea, Josie has survived several assassination attempts and much political intrigue.  She, too, is heading north, ostensibly to tour the northern portions of her kingdom, but in reality she’s searching for Caim.  If she can’t find him, she at least hopes to find some word of him.  She carries his child, something that would give Lady Philomena apoplexy if she knew.  What Josie finds is squabbling nobles, starving peasants, and an invading army.

Most of the book focuses on Caim.  The land he travels is blighted, with the Sun never shining, even on the longest day of summer.  The people barely manage to survive, and those that do, do so by the sword.  If Caim is to reach his destination, he’s going to have to do it over spilled blood.

Sprunk’s handling of the characters shows greater depth than in his previous works, not that those works didn’t show depth of character.  They did.  It’s just that Sprunk is maturing as a writer, growing and expanding.  Much of the territory over which Caim travels is bleak, and the story reflects that.  While Caim struggles to understand his feelings for Josie and his conflicting feelings for Kit, Josie is wrestling with her feelings for Caim as well as the attractive young nobleman who joins her guard.  All of this is in addition to the deaths that Caim and Josie have on their consciences, and knowing that they both have to make decisions that will cost people their lives.

To my mind, though, it was the minor character of Balaam who was one of the most fascinating.  Favored servant of Caim’s grandfather, Sprunk shows us enough of the choices the man has made to paint a picture of regrets and internal conflicts.  This is more than just a bad guy from central casting.  This is one area in which Sprunk’s skills can be seen to have matured.  None of his villains are truly evil except for one, and even with that one the evil is understandable.  Instead, Sprunk gives his villains motives, and noble motives at that, at least from their point of view.  Balaam at one points says that if he’s a killer, at least he’s a killer for a cause while Caim is a killer for profit.  While Sprunk doesn’t beat the reader over the head with them, he does raise some philosophical issues for which there aren’t always easy answers.  Honor, duty, and sacrifice all play a role in the story.  Without them, this would be a far lesser book and a far more generic plot.

There’s plenty of action and combat, and Sprunk handles it with finesse.  Fans of action oriented sword and sorcery will find plenty to cheer about here.

I don’t know if Sprunk plans on returning to this world.  He leaves enough loose ends that further volumes could follow naturally.  I would especially like to see more of Josie.  By the end of the book, she has grown into the role of Empress and is a woman not to be trifled with.  There is still enough unresolved intrigue for at least one novel centered on her.

Shadow’s Master is scheduled for a March release.  I haven’t been in a bookstore in a few weeks, so I don’t know if it’s on the shelves or not.  Barnes and Noble and Amazon both list it, but Amazon shows a release date of March 27.  I’ve seen Pyr books in B&N before their release date, so you may be able to snag a copy sooner than the end of the month.  This one is an example of why Pyr is one of the best publishers of fantasy and science fiction around.

RIP Ralph McQuarrie

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I’ve been traveling this weekend, so I just heard the news when I got home and logged in to the computer.  Ralph McQuarrie has passed away.  He was most famous for his work on Stars Wars, but I think my favorite work of his was the set of illustrations for Isaac Asimov’s Robot Dreams, back in the 1980s.  He will be missed.  Rest well, Ralph, and peaceful dreams.

A Study of the Feminine Graces: Wit, Charm, Snark, and Theft

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Thief’s Covenant
Ari Marmell
Pyr Books
Hardcover, 273 p., $16.95
various ebook editions (Nook, Kindle) $7.99

I’ve heard of Ari Marmell, but until now I hadn’t read one of his books.  Thief’s Covenant won’t be the last.

Part of Pyr’s new YA line, this is a fun, albeit dark, novel.  The central character is Widdershins, formerly known as Adrienne Satti.  She’s an orphan, at one time adopted into a noble family.  Until she was witness and sole survivor of a massacre at the temple of her god.  Fearing she would be blamed for the killings, she fled back to the slums, adopting the identity of Widdershins.

Oh, and there’s one thing.  Her god went with her.

That’s one of the unique things about the world Marmell has created.  At some point in the past, a Pact was formed among the gods and their worshippers.  There are 147 sanctioned gods, and strict rules apply to how they and their followers interact, with a Church to oversee the whole setup.  The god Widdershins was worshiping wasn’t one of the 147.

That was two years ago.  Now things are beginning to heat up in the city of Davillon.  The Archbishop is coming for a visit.  The people behind the massacre are still looking for Adrienne.  The Taskmaster of the Finder’s Guild (the Thieves’ Guild, in other words) has a personal vendetta against her.  Widdershins is beginning to take more and more risks.  And someone, somewhere, is about to make a vicious play for power.

For a YA novel, this one is pretty complicated.  There are a number of named characters, both major and minor, the plot is complex, and things get pretty dark at times.  The dust jacket says the book is for readers twelve and up, but I’m not sure how many twelve year olds are emotionally mature enough for some of the content.

But then my son has several years to go before he reaches that age, so I tend to think in terms of what would be appropriate for him.

Regardless, this was a great book.  Marmell is definitely an author I’m going to read again, probably starting with The Goblin Corps, his previous book for Pyr.  Marmell writes from the viewpoint of multiple characters, giving us a fully fleshed-out world and allowing us to see certain individuals through multiple eyes.  This is highly effective; the reader understands the interactions between the characters more than they do themselves.

The society is modeled after French nobility in the years before the French Revolution, so there’s some contrast between the haves and the have-nots. Widdershins has a habit of sneaking into balls and parties in disguise.  This isn’t an era I’ve seen used much in recent fantasy, so the setting was a nice touch (and the source of this review’s title).

The humor and verbal fencing were delightfully cheeky, perfect for a YA novel.  Here’s a sample from a flashback showing Widdershins’ first day in an orphanage:  “Sister Cateline smiled shallowly at the dull, mumbled chorus of amen, already drowned out by the scraping of cheap wooden spoons on cheap wooden bowls, scooping up mouthfuls of cheap porridge (probably not wooden, but who could really say for certain?).”  Clearly Marmell is a man who has eaten lunch in the school cafeteria and on more than one occasion.

That’s another thing Marmell does well, the flashbacks.  Almost every other chapter shows an incident in Widdershins’ past.  We get a little more information about her and about events that led to the present crisis, but never in one large serving.  Instead, Marmell uses the flashbacks to serve up small bites, whetting our appetites while at the same time making us hungry for more.  It’s one of the most effective uses of flashbacks to build suspense and create a sense of mystery that I’ve seen in a long time.

This is the first in a series.  False Covenant is due out in June, and I’ll be watching for it.

Whether you’re twelve in real years, or merely still twelve in some part of your heart, Thief’s Covenant is a book I highly recommend.

Blood and Thunder, Release 2.0

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Blood and Thunder
Mark Finn
The Robert E. Howard Foundation Press
$45 REHF members, $50 nonmembers, plus shipping

It’s been a few years since the first edition of this volume was published, and in that time Howard studies have moved forward, with new biographical material coming to light.  In fact, new biographical details  have continued to be unearthed since this edition went to press. That will probably (hopefully) continue for some time.

As he explained in the two part interview posted here last year (part 1, part 2), Mark Finn felt it was time for a second edition.  Rather than rehash his remarks, I’m going to get straight to the point and discuss the book.

Including the endnotes but not the bibliography and index, the book comes in at 426 pages.  It starts slow, giving family background information.  That’s typical in any biography, so please don’t take the previous sentence as negative.  That’s just the way it is.  The book is divided into four sections, same as in the previous edition, with some chapters being heavily rewritten and others hardly touched.  Again, not surprising or in any way atypical of many biographies that have new editions.

The book really took off for me in the second section, with the first chapter, “Authentic Liars”, discussing the oral storytelling tradition in which Howard grew up.  It’s the tradition of the porch raconteur, the spinner of tall tales, the person who mixes enough truth into his words that you’re never really sure at which point he begins pulling your leg.  It’s also a tradition that is vanishing, and in many parts of the country, lost.

This chapter sets the tone for much of what follows.  Finn’s central thesis, or one of them at least, is that to understand Howard, one must understand the Texas in which he grew up.  It’s a valid point, and one which is easy to overlook.  With many of the traditions and values of the time being passed down relatively unchanged, we often forget how much has changed.

While this concept was central to the first edition of the book, Finn has expanded on it.  What’s fairly new, and in my opinion of major importance to future Howard studies, is Finn’s assertion that an understanding of Howard’s humor is required to truly understand the man and his work.  This is in my opinion one of the strengths of the second edition.  I’ve never gotten into Howard’s humor.  After reading the new material on his humorous stories, and reading again about how those stories fit in with the tall lying tradition, I’m going to be seeking them out.  There’s a lot there I’ve been missing.

Finn tries his best to avoid the excesses of arm chair psychoanalysis engaged in by L. Sprague de Camp in Dark Valley Destiny.  In many ways this book was written as a refutation of that biography.  Fans of de Camp, and of DVD in particular, won’t be pleased with what they find here.  While some interpretation of how events in Howard’s life showed up in his work is inevitable in any study of the man, Finn walks a delicate line between projecting his own agenda and biases on his subject and erring on the side of caution too much by not offering any interpretations at all.  For the most part, I think he’s successful.  He tries to delineate what are his opinions and what are facts.

By the time I turned the last page, I had a new understanding of Robert E. Howard the man.  While I had always pictured him as someone who wanted to fit in, some of the details had been filled in.  Hopefully I’m not merely projecting my own experiences growing up in a similar small Texas town nearby onto what I read.  Finn  quotes from Howard’s correspondence (collected in three volumes by the REHF Press), especially his correspondence with H. P. Lovecraft (collected in two volumes by Hippocampus Press).  I’ve got these volumes but haven’t finished reading them.  I will, if for no other reason than I want to understand better the different facets of his personality Howard presented in his correspondence.

Never one to shy away from controversy, Finn has expanded his remarks on Conan.  Rather than get into Conan here, I’ll just say that he thinks “Queen of the Black Coast” isn’t one of Howard’s best Conan tales.  While I’ve not posted anything new in my series on Conan (see links in the sidebar) in a while due to other projects, I’ve not given up on the series and will save my remarks for upcoming installments. 

I do have a few gripes about the book overall, though nothing major.  At the front is a map of West Central Texas during Howard’s time, showing the roads.  Mark told me at ConDFW last weekend that he had pieced the map together from several maps and had removed more than one road that didn’t exist in Howard’s lifetime by hand.  He missed one major highway, though:  Interstate 20.  The interstates weren’t built until a couple of decades after Howard’s death.  This might seem to be a minor thing, but it does call into question the accuracy of the rest of the map.  For what it’s worth, the interstate is near the top in the middle of a number of other highways (I used a magnifying glass to confirm it was there), and thus easy to miss.  I personally don’t think it’s a huge deal.

A map of Cross Plains during Howard’s lifetime would have been nice, though.  Surely it wouldn’t have been too difficult to obtain one.  I was also disappointed in the number of photos.  Each chapter opens with a photo.  There’s no section of photographs, and some of the more famous ones are missing.  Primarily on this point, there’s no photo of Novalyne Price.  I’m not that crazy with the one on the cover, either.  In fairness, I realize that copyright issues probably prevented Finn from including some of the photos most readers might expect.  Also, more pictures of Cross Plains in the 20s and 30s would have been a nice touch.  And I’ve never seen a drawing or map of the Howard property at the time of his death.  Where was the car parked?  Was it outside or in a garage?  Did they even have a garage?  Also, Howard took to wearing a mustache near the end of his life.  Did he still have it when he died?  It’s clearly visible in the last known photo of him (included in the book).

Overall, though, this a major work.  Howard scholarship and fandom are contentious enough that it would be easy to stoop to the level of picking nits (which I’m sure some will say the preceding two paragraphs did).  Finn has set the standard here by which future biographical projects will be measured.  By examining the cultural influences on Howard, Finn has expanded the avenues by which scholars can approach their subject.  I would like to see further analysis of Howard’s humor for example.  Still, this is a volume that belongs in the library of any serious fan of Texas literature, Robert E. Howard, or the pulps.

Publications from the REHF Press tend to be priced out of the range of the casual fan.  The production values make them worth the money, and the limited print runs mean if you want a copy, don’t wait.  While popular titles go through more than one printing, not all of them do.  While I have every expectation this one will see a second printing, they take time.  If you want a copy, grab one now.

Sailing on the Carpathia

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Carpathia
Matt Forbeck
Angry Robot Books
UK/RoW
1 March 2012
384pp B-format paperback, £7.99

US/CAN
28 February 2012
384pp trade paperback
$12.99 US / $14.99 CAN

eBook
28 February 2012, £4.49

That movie by James Cameron a few years back kind of cooled my interest in the Titanic.  Matt Forbeck has rekindled it.  It seems the shipwreck was only the beginning.  The real nightmare started after the Carpathia picked up the survivors.  The ship was infested with vampires trying to return to the safety of the  old world.  Can you say smorgasbord?  Now why couldn’t Cameron have filmed that part of the story?  It would have made a much more interesting movie than that sappy love story.  Oh, well.  To each his own.

This is the story of Quentin Harker, Abe Holmwood, and Lucy Seward (perhaps you’ve heard of their parents?), who are traveling to America.  Abe and Lucy, engaged to be married, will travel the continent until Lucy starts college in the fall, at which time Abe will return home to England and wait for his bride-to-be to finish school.  Quin will seek employment in a law firm in New York. 

Except it’s not that simple.  Quin is in love with Lucy.  This love story is much more interesting than the one in the movie.  Then the ship hits the iceberg.  You probably know this part of the story.  Of course, all three are rescued. 

That’s when the fun starts.  There are a number of vampires who are returning to Eastern Europe, where they feel it’s safer than New York.  Some of them have gotten careless and drawn attention to themselves.  This has created a bit of a power struggle in the ranks, with the leader Dushko Dragovich being challenged by the upstart Brody Murtagh.  Of course there’s a female vampire stirring things up.  (I told you this love story was more interesting than the one in the movie.)

HMS Carpathia

The chapters are short, lending a sense of urgency to the story.  Forbeck shifts the viewpoint between multiple characters, major and minor, human and vampire, while keeping the focus on the trio.  The dialogue is sharp and crisp, witty and fast paced.  The chapters focusing on Lucy, Quin, and Abe read like we’re eavesdropping on long time friends, each with his or her own distinct personality. Even the red shirt characters are more than just cardboard cutouts; although brief, each is given a backstory.

The imagery is often creepy.  The scene towards the end, with the hold full of sleeping vampires, was especially effective.  These are not the angst-ridden, pedophilic vampires of Twilight fame who glitter in sunlight.  These are, if you’ll pardon the expression, the real deal.  They sunburn easily.

Comparisons with Jasper Kent’s Danilov Chronicles are probably inevitable.  I’m a huge fan of Kent’s work (see my reviews here, here, and here), and I have to say this book holds up well against them while blazing its own trail. It’s a fine addition to the subgenre of historical vampire fiction.

That’s not to say the book isn’t without its flaws.  I thought the ending was a little over the top, although I loved the way the romantic triangle was resolved.  (Much more interesting than the movie.) 

In the chapters in which the Titanic is sinking, Forbeck gives a number of famous people who were aboard cameos.  I’m okay with that; the temptation to do so would be too great to refrain.  The one famous person who has more than a cameo is Molly Brown, nicknamed “Unsinkable” for her habit of sailing on ships destined to sink while not going down with the ship herself.  She and Lucy end up in the same lifeboat.  Once they are on the Carpathia, Ms. Brown is never heard from again.  This I have a problem with.  Forbeck departs enough from recorded history that I don’t understand why he didn’t include Molly Brown in the rest of the story.

That’s a minor point, though.  Overall, this was a highly enjoyable vampire novel, enough so that I’d be willing to read more of Forbeck’s work, and one I recommend if you like traditional vampires.  The book hits shelves and is available for download next week.  Look for it.