Sailing on the Carpathia

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.

Report on ConDFW XI

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Author GOH Cherie Priest

ConDFW XI was held over the weekend, beginning on the afternoon of Friday, February 17 and ending, as these things tend to do, just over 48 hours later, on Sunday February 19. The author Guest of Honor was Cherie Priest, and the artist Guest of Honor was William Stout.

I wasn’t able to get away as early as I’d hoped Friday morning, so I missed the afternoon panels. I visited with friends, kibitzed with Mark Finn during his signing, then went and grabbed some food. The Opening Ceremonies were held after dinner and only lasted five minutes. Since I was five minutes late, I got there just as everyone was leaving.

I visited with some more folks, confirmed the time for an interview, and generally hung out. Mark Finn hosted a panel on talking during the movies, a sort of live Mystery Science Theater 3000. I only sat through part of one of the movies, but it was baaaddd. I visited the Fencon party, the only one on Friday, and called it a night.

Self-publishing panel

There were a couple of panels on electronic publishing Saturday morning. The first was really good and consisted of advice from Tom Knowles, Carole Nelson Douglas, Nina Romberg, Kevin Hosey, and Bill Fawcett. This was followed by a panel on scams aimed at authors looking to self-publish. It consisted of P. N. Elrod, Lillian Stewart Carl, Melanie Fletcher, Mark Finn, and Bill Fawcett. I snuck out of this one part way through to stick my head in on a panel about breaking writing rules. Panelists included Kevin Hosey, Chris Donahue, K. Hutson, A. P. Stephens, and Rhonda Eudaly.

I had lunch with some former students. When I returned I attended a reading by Martha Wells and Sue Sinor. Afterwards, Martha was gracious enough to answer a few questions for an interview. I’ll post it after I’ve transcribed it. I poked around in the dealer’s room, then ended the afternoon with a couple of panels.

Space Opera Panel

The first one on trends in space opera, a subgenre near and dear to the lump of coal that passes for my heart. This panel was the most fun. The panelists were Ethan Hahte, Lee Martindale, and Mark Finn (who always introduced himself differently on each panel). Poor Bill Ledbetter tried to moderate. Mark was drinking an energy drink, and the conversation was lively. Since I’m friends with all the panelists, I tended to throw in my two cents a lot as well.

From there, I went to the opposite extreme, the panel on using Norse mythology in your fiction, another topic near and dear to my heart. I got there a minute or so after the panel started and stood at the back. It was in one of the larger rooms and well attended. What I could hear of the discussion, which wasn’t much, was interesting. Unfortunately the woman moderating spoke in just above a whisper, and at the risk of sounding sexist, so did all the other women on the panel. The only panelist who even tried to project his voice to the back of the room (and succeeded) was the sole male. After about ten minutes, I decided that if I had been sitting down, I would have fallen asleep, so I went and met friends for dinner.

That night was the traditional panel on pornography vs. erotica. The conclusion was that erotica is what I like, and pornography is what all you perverts like. If you want details, you’ll have to provide proof of age. I went party hopping after that. The best one was thrown by Tom Knowles, author and the publisher of Dark Star Books. In addition to homemade corn bread and venison chilli, I scored a free copy of Morticai’s Luck by Darlene Bolesny. Look for the review sometime this spring, probably April.

Sunday brought an interview with Brad and Sue Sinor, some readings, and a panel on how to fix terrible prose from Lee Martindale, Mel White, Lou Antonelli, and Adrian Simmons, one of the editors of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly. Then I rode off into the sunset. Literally.

Other than the whispering panel, I only had one frustration. There was a late addition to the schedule, a tribute panel to Ardath Mayhar. I had an appointment for an interview at that time, and when I got there (still within the advertised time), the room was empty. While I applaud the con committee for adding the memorial, I I wish it had been emphasized more. I hope someone attended. Hopefully there’ll be one at Fencon. Ardath was one of the guests one year.

The dealer’s room didn’t have as many books as in the past, mainly because Edge Books is in the process of shutting down and only had two tables. Still it was good to see them there. I was under the impression that had closed for good.

The hotel is a great venue. It’s a triangular atrium style design, with the elevators in the middle of the place, facing each other. It was fun to watch get off them and then try to figure out which way to go to get where they were headed. The restaurant gave convention attendees a 10% discount, a nice first.

I’ve attended all but one of the ConDFWs. I have to say this was one of the most enjoyable.

Guest Post by Ty Johnston

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Fantasy writer Ty Johnston is touring the blogosphere this month, in part to promote his latest e-book novel, Demon Chains, but also because he loves blog touring. His other fantasy novels include City of Rogues, Bayne’s Climb and Ghosts of the Asylum, all of which are available for the Kindle, the Nook and online at Smashwords. To learn more about Ty and his writing, follow him at his blog tyjohnston.blogspot.com.

Some questioning from a fellow fantasy writer got me to thinking recently. Why do I write mostly in the fantasy genre?

It is a question with no easy answer. Literature of the fantastic and speculative was part of my childhood, a big part, so perhaps there is a bit of nostalgia which keeps my interest going.

That being said, after spending some time thinking over this topic, I came to what I feel is a stronger reply, a better answer. I remain tied to the fantasy genre because of the freedom it allows me as a writer and as a reader.

While the general public might hear the word “fantasy” and think of dragons and men waving around big swords, fantasy is so much more than that, not that there’s anything wrong with dragons and men waving around big swords. When I write in other genres, I often find myself feeling limited intellectually and emotionally, possibly even spiritually. I have no sense of such fetters when working within fantasy.

Fantasy writers write in their favored genre for a lot of different reasons, but one of my draws is exploration of the mind and perhaps the soul. I like to delve into the various elements that makes us human. I find the ability to do my exploring through fantasy. When I am withdrawn into fantasy, I feel as if I’m an explorer of old, charting new territory. If not new territory for others, often enough I am discovering new territory for myself, within myself.

Again, I gain little sense of this from the other genres.

I do not mean to belittle other genres of literature, because each has its place, its good and its bad, and I read widely across all genres. However, as a writer, I find the other genres limiting, making me feel forced to refrain from boldly traveling to new worlds, whether those worlds are physical or metaphysical or beyond.

Within fantasy, nearly anything can occur, anything can be thought and weighed. Admittedly some of the sub-genres of my favorite literature offer limitations, but those limitations are often similar to the ones I find in the non-fantastic genres. When I feel the need, I can work within those limitations, but when I wish to expand, it is to the wider possibilities of fantasy I must turn and return.

The simple answer, then, is that I write mostly in the fantasy genre because of the philosophical freedom it allows me as a writer and reader. The other genres I find somewhat stifling, at least part of the time, and often too literal, too strict, too methodical. With fantasy, I can fly, I can soar.

And hopefully readers will explore and travel with me.

The Next Week or So

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I’m getting over a sinus infection at the moment, something that isn’t helped by the dust and the wind here on the South Plains. Unless something major happens tomorrow, I probably won’t be posting anything new until Sunday night or more probably Monday evening. I’ll be attending ConDFW this weekend and will give a full report when I get back. I’m also reading Mark Finn‘s updated biography of Robert E. Howard, Blood and Thunder, and Matt Forbeck‘s Carpathia. They’re both great reads, and I’ll review them next week. I had hoped to finish one of them in time to write a review before the con, but being sick has slowed me down some.

In the meantime, this Saturday will see the first guest post here. Author Ty Johnston is doing a blog tour to promote his new book, Demon Chains, the latest in his Kron Darkbow series. I’d like to thank Ty in advance for his column. I’ve read it, and it’s good. Check it out. And if you haven’t read any of his books, start with City of Rogues, which I reviewed a few months ago.

Coming up after the report on ConDFW, I’ve got commitments to review (not necessarily in this order) Shadow’s Master by Jon Sprunk, Thief’s Covenant by Ari Marmell, The Alchemist of Souls by Anne Lyle, Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig, Trang by Mary Sisson, and Rise and Fall by Joshua P. Simon. I’ll probably look at some short fiction in the midst of all that, plus the occasional essay.

First Professional Payment

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After years of sporadically collecting rejections, I received my first payment for something I’d written. Well, for fiction at least. Review copies of books don’t count in this context. And while it’s not professional rates by SFWA standards, I got paid for it, so by that loose definition it’s professional. I just transferred the money from my Paypal account to my bank account. What a rush. I can definitely get used to that. Anyway, the story is supposed to be available in a few weeks, so I’ll post a notice when that happens.

A Visit to the World House

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The World House
Guy Adams
Angry Robot Books
416pp A-format paperback
£7.99 UK $tbc Aus
416pp mass-market paperback
$7.99 US $8.99 CAN
ISBN 978 0 85766 037 4
ebook £4.49 / $5.99
ePub ISBN 978 0 85766 038 1

This one has been out for a while but it’s still worth a read. As Dean Wesley Smith likes to point out, books aren’t produce; they won’t spoil. When the book arrived in the mail, I was on my way back to work after meeting my wife for lunch and had stopped by the post office. I decided to read it on my lunch breaks. That didn’t happen for two reasons. One, I keep having to run errands during lunch, and two, I was just too drawn into the story to be able to read only a short number of pages every few days.

The idea of a house where each room contains a world or a passage to a world isn’t new. James Stoddard used it in The High House and The False House, just to give one example. And while Stoddard’s books had some creepy moments, The World House does them one better.

This house is not one you want to live in. In fact, it’s basically a prison. I’m not giving away anything by saying that; the cover copy mentions a prisoner waiting for a door to be unlocked.

I’ll mention some, but not all, of the things you find in the house. There’s a Snakes and Ladders game painted on the floor of the nursery; when you step on it, it becomes three dimensional and the snakes are alive. There’s a chapel with blood-thirsty cherubs. The bathroom has an ocean in it. (No, nothing has backed up.) Various rooms have taxidermy, which can come to life. The library has a book about each person’s life, unless of course the book worms eat your volume. And let’s not forget the cannibals…

For a novel of this length, Adams includes a large number of characters, roughly a dozen or so, depending on how you want to delineate between major and minor characters. Not all of them make it to the end. Still, he does a good job of making them individuals, and some are deliciously evil. They come from the late 1800s to the early 2000s, and all of them entered the house the same way. They fell through a box.

There’s a small Chinese box. If you find yourself in a life threatening situation, say about to get the crap beaten out of you by a loan shark, or being chased by your fiance who has taken you somewhere isolated so he can rape you, and you happen to be in contact with the box…well, you just fall in. Once you do, you’ll find yourself somewhere in the house.

The characters try survive and figure out how to get home. The box is known in the real world, and a few have managed to make it back. And of course, there are people who are searching for the box for reasons of their own.

I’m not going to try to summarize the plot lines involving the characters any more than I have, which I realize isn’t much. I’ll just say that who the heroes and villains are may surprise you. And that’s one of the satisfying things about this novel. Adams doesn’t do the obvious with the characters, and there are hidden relationships between some of the characters which aren’t revealed until the final pages.

This one was a lot of fun. Adams has a wonderfully dark and twisted imagination, especially when it comes to populating the rooms of the house. Half the fun was seeing what he would throw at the reader next. Even though the story isn’t over, I thought for the most part he did a fine job tying up all loose ends for the first half. The second part of the tale, Restoration, is sitting on my desk at work. I’ll be starting it soon.

John Seery-Lester’s Safari Paintings

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Cover Painting for Legends of the Hunt

Jim Cornelius had a new post this evening over at Frontier Partisans. It featured a link to the safari art of John Seery-Lester. These are paintings of classic safaris, many of them based on actual safaris. Teddy Roosevelt is prominently featured in some of them. The paintings brought back my boyhood dreams of going on safari. If this is something that might be of interest to you, check it out. If you really like his work, there’s a link to order a collection of John’s paintings.

Battlepug to be Collected by Dark Horse

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For just over a year now, Mike Norton has been writing a weekly webcomic, Battlepug. With Allen Passalaqua and Crank assisting on the artwork, it’s a unique blend of a Conan-like barbarian and giant animals. I just discovered it today. I’m still trying to decide if it works for me, but I like the visuals and the framing story. With weekly installments, it took a while for the story to really get going, but it seems to be picking up steam. Norton is beginning to flesh out the background and add supporting characters. Dark Horse recently announced it would collect the first year, to be published in July. Anyway, I thought I’d mention it in case some of you who aren’t aware of it might be interested.

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