Book Review: The Raven Key by Harper L. Carnes

Can you hope for love if your heart is filled with shadows?

Seth is a troubled high school student. His first boyfriend dumped him without saying why, and his second turned out to be a violent abuser. Maybe his newest crush, a mysterious college student with a melancholic air, will be Mr. Right? The only problem is that his crush is an adult, and Seth won't be for some months, so the legal implications of pursuing that relationship leave everyone looking bad. Choosing lust over good sense, Seth lies about his age, betting that soon enough it won't matter anyway. Spoiler: it does turn out to matter, with heartbreaking results.

But his age isn't the worst secret Seth is keeping. There's a darkness inside him, an ancient power that has remained dormant all his life. The threat he carries moved his mother to try to kill him as a child, and he's been dealing with that trauma ever since. Even with her locked away in a mental hospital, he hasn't gotten rid of the constant nightmares. Of course, he has never believed her desperate claims that he's too dangerous for this world, that the thing that lurks within him must be eliminated. He tells himself she's just hopelessly deluded. She has to be.

Still, strange events seem to follow Seth everywhere. His touch starts giving people small electric shocks. A wolf crosses his path, looking at him like it knows him from somewhere. And no matter where he goes, a flock of ravens is never far behind, watching out for anyone who dares to threaten him. He takes refuge in his new relationship to try to forget about all the weirdness, but his Tall, Dark, Handsome obviously knows more of occult matters than he's letting on, and the way his eyes gleam sometimes hints of something beyond this realm...

The Raven Key is a slow-burn romantasy that takes its sweet time to really get going, but the extended buildup is no less enjoyable than the action. For most of the first half of the book, we follow Seth taking the risk to fall in love again after some awful past attempts, and the hidden encounters with his crush are narrated with the sweetness of youthful yearning. One almost forgets this was supposed to be a fantasy story, with how much space is given to developing this growing relationship, but the author knows how to make the mundane feel compelling and meaningful. Seth just wants to be happy, despite the indelible way his mother hurt him, despite his self-doubts, despite the legally questionable choices he knows he's making. And by the story's midpoint, it almost looks like he's succeded.

But the weirdness only gets worse from there, snowballing into an unstoppable train of awful consequence after awful consequence that starts when his boyfriend finds out about his age. That part is painful enough, but at the same time the presence that lives inside Seth gains more power and starts manifesting its intentions in horrific ways, seizing more and more control over him. He needs to find where this curse came from, even if it means talking to his mother after all these years, because if he doesn't stop what's happening to him, he will lose himself completely, and the whole world will suffer.

The escalating revelations that come during the second half of the book do a good job of rewarding the reader for waiting all through the first half. The truth behind Seth's curse points to a layer of mystical phenomena underlying our reality, giving the reader the right amount of detail to satisfy this book's longstanding mysteries but leaving ample space for further secrets to be explored. The ending, however, comes too abruptly, a cliffhanger at the wrong time that makes the built-up momentum crash against the last page. It's one thing to write your book as the first in a series and leave some events unfinished; it's another to take your climactic scene and rip it with a machete. The misjudged execution of this ending is the only reason I don't give the book a higher score.

The Raven Key is written with impressively polished prose for a debut, and the thorny legal question at the center of its plot is handled with the proper care and nuance. It's clearly conceived as introducing a whole series, and the reader must be prepared for a less than conclusive ending to this first entry. Setting aside that last bit, it's a captivating story with a solidly delineated protagonist and judicious doses of worldbuilding. Recommended with minor reservations.

Nerd Coefficient: 6/10.

POSTED BY: Arturo Serrano, multiclass Trekkie/Whovian/Moonie/Miraculer, accumulating experience points for still more obsessions.

Reference: Carnes, Harper L. The Raven Key [self-published, 2023].

Book Review: So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole

A YA, Jamaican-inspired, dragon-filled fantasy dealing with friendship, family, and cultural clashes. 

The premise of Kamilah Cole’s YA fantasy So Let Them Burn had my attention as soon as I read the description: Jamaican-inspired; dragons; sisters. As a Jamaican-born, old school nerd who devoured Anne McCaffery as a teen, this story seemed tailor made for me. But I have been disappointed by seemingly perfect stories before. Fortunately, So Let Them Burn is an enjoyable page-turner filled with likeable characters and engaging Jamaican references.

The island nation of San Irie had been struggling under the suffocating and violent colonialist rule of the oppressive Langlish Empire. So Let Them Burn opens five years after San Irie’s defeat of the Langlish. The island is now free but still reeling from the devastation of war and wary of the nearby Langlish Empire which still seeks to re-conquer them. The Langlish forces are made up of fearsome dragons and their psychically bonded human dragon riders. The people of San Irie (Iryans) have powerful weapons of their own. They can summon the spirits of their ancestors to help them fight and their military forces use drakes—semi-sentient airships which can defeat dragons. But the biggest weapon is the protagonist Faron, the Childe Empyrean, a teenaged girl who has been granted the power to summon the three Iryan gods: Irie, Mala, and Obie. The novel focuses on Faron, the rebellious, sharp-tongued, reluctant hero who would prefer to footrace and play rather than walk around in her Empyrean robes.

There is a lot of backstory in the set up for the novel but it’s neatly woven into the adventure so it doesn’t slow the rapid pace of the book. During the great war, the Langlish forces killed and maimed thousands while trying to destroy the temples and cities in a quest for something mysterious. Ironically, their defeat was partly brought about by the military commander’s son, Reeve, who became a traitor to aid the Iryan fighters. By stealing his father’s military secrets, he gave the Iryans the boost they need to fully defeat the Langlish. But Reeve’s betrayal comes at a high price for him. He must now live in exile, hated by the people he helped save (because he represents the murderous race who attacked the island) and despised by his home country who views him as a traitor. His only allies are Faron’s strong but kind sister Elara; Aveline, the young queen of the island; and a few of the locals who take him into their household as a foster child.  

All of this happens before the book begins. At times, it feels like we are joining the adventure midway because of the complicated but fascinating set up. The history is so interesting that I wish we had some of that backstory on the page, even if just in a prologue. The passing references to Faron becoming the nation’s savior at age twelve or Reeve betraying his parents to help the Iryans, are worth more than a footnote. When the novel begins, those twelve year-old heroes are now seventeen, looking back on their past choices with more tiredness than pride.

The main plot of the book starts with the Iryan queen’s peace summit on San Irie attended by various nations including the enemy Langlish. In violation of the intent of the summit, the Langlish bring dragons, who are parked on a nearby isle. When one of the dragons gets loose, Faron’s sister Elara unexpectedly bonds with it and with the dragon’s lead rider, Signey. Faron is able to draw on an unknown astral power to control the chaos. However, the dragon’s psychic bonding with Elara is irreversible, so the Langlish commander proposes that Elara move to Langley to learn dragon riding. No Iryan has ever bonded with a dragon and the turn of events means Elara must leave her home country and live with the enemy. Knowing the situation is probably a scheme by the Langlish, the young queen Aveline decides to use Elara as a spy, which Elara readily accepts. However, Faron is furious about her sister’s departure and reluctantly decides to work with Reeve (who she dislikes) to find a way to free Elara from the bond. While Reeve wears himself out in research, Faron secretly connects with a sinister force to get what she needs. Meanwhile Elara gradually builds a friendship with her dragon, her fellow riders, and particularly her co-rider Signey to whom she grows attracted.

So Let Them Burn delves unexpectedly into toxic love.  Reeve’s cruel parents go to terrible extremes to save the son who ultimately turns against them. Faron’s love for her sister is unrelentingly intense. Both Elara and Reeve are victims of oppressive acts of love that have been forced on them with devastating results.

The ensuing adventure is a page-turner that’s hard to put down, especially with the appealing references to elements of Jamaican culture including patois, dancehall music, and food like breadfruit, saltfish, and guinep. However, I miss the days when a YA fantasy novel would tell a complete story and leave just enough room for a sequel. So Let Them Burn is the opening act of a larger story. But the addictive pace, likeable characters, and appealing references to nuances of Jamaican culture ultimately make this journey worthwhile.

--

The Math

Nerd Coefficient: 7/10

Highlights:

• Jamaican-inspired references
• Toxic family relationships
• Page turning, dragon-riding fun

Reference: Kamilah Cole, So Let Them Burn [Little Brown Book Group, 2024]

POSTED BY: Ann Michelle Harris – Multitasking, fiction writing Trekkie currently dreaming of her next beach vacation.  

 

Review: The Book of Tea Duology by Judy I. Lin

These are books you can safely judge by their covers: gorgeous in their concept, rich with symbols, all the more exquisitely detailed the closer you look

         

In the gods-touched land of Dàxī, the delicate art of Shénnóng can heal and comfort, reveal secrets and connect hearts, weaken and kill. By pouring boiling water over the right mix of herbs, a practitioner of Shénnóng magic can hold the fate of entire kingdoms in a cup of tea.

But someone has tainted the magic: all over Dàxī, some batches of tea leaves have turned out to be lethal. Shénnóng apprentice Zhang Ning accidentally kills her mother and makes her sister gravely ill with a recipe made from the adulterated tea. Without her mother's guidance, she must rely on her incomplete training to figure out an antidote before her sister dies. When a message arrives from the capital city, summoning all Shénnóng apprentices for a competition to appoint a new court mage, Ning thinks that may be her chance to learn from more experienced tea brewers and study the advanced manuals that she can't find in her village. For her sister's sake, she'll try anything.

However, when she arrives at the imperial palace, she finds that the government has its own problems to deal with: princess Li Ying-Zhen has been placed in charge of the empire because her father is suffering from an unexplained sickness, and her tenuous hold on power creates an opening for schemers and opportunists to gain favor by all means. Meanwhile, the emperor's banished brother is rumored to be gathering forces to make a daring move for the throne. As Ning laboriously advances through the competition, she becomes more and more entangled in the dirty games of politics, and falls for the charms of an enigmatic young man who seems to be pursuing his own agenda in the imperial court. Will Ning survive the rounds of cutthroat intrigue and unexpected backstabbing in time to solve the case of the poisoned tea and save her sister?

Judy I. Lin's debut novel A Magic Steeped in Poison is a quick, effortless read, but it packs a surprising amount of high-stakes drama within its short page count. Through Ning's eyes, we're introduced to a political system on the brink of abrupt change, a setting molded by centuries of complex history, and a mystical world fertile in possibilities.

That last element is the strongest hook of the story. The author has created a magic system based on the selection and combination of ingredients taken from real-world Chinese medicine, but endowed with otherworldly powers. The steps of each recipe are narrated in loving detail and constitute the main anchor from which the tone of the prose emerges. Even the most violent scenes are filtered through a dreamlike style that maintains the reader's sense of wonder. Descriptions are meticulous; dialogues are heartfelt; spells are extraordinary. This is powerful magic, but it doesn't produce any flashy explosions. It requires subtlety, patience. All the ingredients of a cup of tea need to interact harmoniously and in the right amounts. Just sharing a cup is an intimate ritual with lingering effects.

The other elements of the story are handled with no less mastery. The imperial court harbors ambitious sages and ministers whose trustworthiness can be best summarized as fluid, and the head-spinning chain of betrayals toward the end of the novel escalates the danger to world-spanning proportions.

The sequel and conclusion, A Venom Dark and Sweet, follows Ning after running away from the palace, and alternates her story with that of Kang, the son of the banished pretender, who is now mere steps from securing the throne. This time, Ning needs to travel to the northern provinces of the empire to find soldiers who are still loyal to princess Zhen and are willing to retake the capital city for her. As she explores landscapes ruled by ancient and unpredictable magic, Kang conducts his own inquiries, spurred by the suspicion that his father's military campaign may be under the influence of someone with more sinister intentions.

In this second book, the author takes Shénnóng magic beyond what seemed to be its limits. Ning's empathic connection to herbs grows deeper and more versatile, and when the true nature of the threat to the world is revealed, divine forces begin to get involved in the plot. (Here you need to take your Western eyeglasses off, because the deus ex machina trope does not apply to other narrative traditions.) Once it is fully presented, the focus of the conflict refers back to a question briefly mentioned in the first book: Is human nature good or evil? In a refreshing move away from the Protestant concept of inborn taint we're familiar with, the conclusion of the story delves into both the strength and the frailty of humanity, and sets these qualities in contrast with the timeless battles between gods. All this time, Ning and other mages like her have been drawing power from the divine realm, but is the reverse possible? Is there something about humanity that would lure a god?

What's certain is that there are abundant ideas in these two books to lure the reader. Every story about magic is, deep down, a story about power. And against the power of tyrants who would sacrifice thousands of lives to expand their dominion, the Book of Tea duology rejects the easy route of fighting fire with fire. Instead, it proposes the humble power of gathering with your chosen family around a table, having drinks poured from the same teapot, and creating a moment of true connection. The weapons are right there in the pantry. Every seat added to the table is one fewer enemy. Togetherness is the measure of victory.

The Math

Baseline Assessment: 8/10.

Bonuses: +1 for an enthralling feat of worldbuilding.

Penalties: −1 because, after dozens of dangerous situations solved with the quiet charm of tea, the big final battle leans closer to flashy explosions.

Nerd Coefficient: 8/10.

POSTED BY: Arturo Serrano, multiclass Trekkie/Whovian/Moonie/Miraculer, accumulating experience points for still more obsessions.

Reference: Lin, Judy I. A Magic Steeped in Poison [Feiwel and Friends, 2021]; Lin, Judy I. A Venom Dark and Sweet [Feiwel and Friends, 2022].

Review: How to Date a Superhero (and Not Die Trying)

A hilarious and sweet novel that deconstructs comic book tropes about relationships

Astrid Rose has everything under control. In her meticulously plotted trajectory towards a medical degree with top grades, she has planned her daily tasks to the exact minute and second. She has allotted time to study, time to sleep, time to shower, time to do homework, time to run between classes, time to cram for tests, time to use the college lab, time to go to the library, time to eat a hurried brunch while she reviews flash cards, time to socialize with her one friend, time to collapse in tears for her weekly nervous breakdown. Not a moment is wasted. She has regimented her life into a nonstop cycle of millimetric efficiency.

But Astrid can't control how she feels around Max Martin. She has known him since high school, and now that they're finally dating, she has added time for him in her perfect schedule, but his gentle, soothing presence melts everything inside her. When she's with him, her entire methodology for time micromanagement goes out the window. He's funny, smart, responsible, and a total gentleman to her. It doesn't hurt that he also has the perfect smile, perfect hair, perfect eyes, perfect biceps. So Astrid is more than happy to allow this fountain of chaotic sensations into the otherwise monastic strictness of her routine. As things stand, Astrid's life is looking bright.

Until one night, when an incident with a superpowered villain forces Max to reveal his secret to her: he is a superhero. He has the strength, and the speed, and the enhanced senses, plus he can fly. And this is actually not too uncommon, because they live in a world where superheroes and their catastrophically destructive fights are an accepted part of life. Alien invasions and mad scientists and extradimensional monstrosities appear on a daily basis, and while mutants and demigods fight to save the world, normal people keep doing their normal stuff.

Except Astrid's life is not normal anymore. As a superhero's girlfriend, she has new duties to take care of. In addition to her double major at premed school, now she has to attend a secret school for significant others of superheroes, where she learns the practical lessons of any Lois Lane and MJ Watson worth her salt: how to run from danger, how to handle being kidnapped, how to untie your knots, how to make up excuses for unexplained absences, how to hide during an epic battle, how to hang from a ledge while you wait to be rescued. No matter how tight her schedule is, she absolutely needs those classes. The irresistibly gorgeous Max may be the dream boyfriend, but being near him means standing directly in the line of fire. Will Astrid stay alive long enough to get a passing grade? How many world-ending crises can their relationship survive? And what's with the mysterious lab saboteur who appears to be turning into her own archenemy?

How to Date a Superhero (and Not Die Trying), the debut novel by Cristina Fernandez, is a clever parody of every super-girlfriend story ever, as well as a hot romance story bursting at the seams with barely contained desire. Astrid is head over heels for Max, even as windowpanes explode and vehicles crash and buildings crumble right next to her. It's a delightful experience to watch the plot shift back and forth between serious, intense emotions and absurdist comedy without skipping a beat. The key to this stellar feat of narrative skill is the character of Astrid, the most relatable weirdo you've never met. Her obsession with living a life exactly according to plan is a heightened version of the anxieties we've all had in our youth, when we suddenly faced responsibilities for the first time and feared that one small mistake could derail our future. Inevitably, her overcomplicated coping strategies clash against each other and reveal glimpses of the lingering insecurities she's been nurturing since a close brush with death led her to take "seize the day" a bit too literally.

The result is a fascinatingly layered personality that carries the plot through the fun and the drama, through ridiculous dorm room antics and crucial life-or-death decisions. What allows this novel to weave so many different emotional tones without unraveling from incongruity is the robustness with which Astrid is written. The exquisite fragility from which she experiences the world is kept concealed under a regime of panicked self-castigation. I know this sounds like it should produce a numbing effect, but somehow it's the complete opposite. The more you see Astrid aggressively discipline herself, the more you want to know her and hug her and tell her that you hope she finds happiness. And the unique workings of her mind provide an inexhaustible torrent of outlandish yet irrefutable reasonings and unexpectedly gut-punching insights. If her uncontrollable bodily reactions clearly show what she finds attractive in Max, her immensely interesting thought process explains why Max loves her.

Building on the rock-solid basis of this protagonist, Fernandez poses profound questions that the superhero setting amplifies to unavoidable proportions. How much sacrifice is acceptable and fair as a show of love? Why would you need to be a world-class champion before you have the right to feel good about yourself? If you view happiness as a project, when can you say it's finished? (And doesn't it sound kind of alarming to finish it?) Should the prospect of death make us more or less motivated? (But why should death be a source of motivation in the first place?) Is it worth the effort to love someone that you know could die at any time? (Well, isn't that the case for everyone who has loved someone?)

By the time Astrid reaches her senior year at college, her growth as a person is by no means complete, because no one ever gets there, because we can't know in advance which lessons life will force us to learn. But she's become a more open person, still impressively organized, but more accepting of herself, more adaptable to failures. As she rides the rollercoaster of falling in love and falling into depression and falling from buildings and falling behind in her career, she discovers a healthier reason to go on than the raw urgency of time. And that is, in its own way, a form of superstrength we can all achieve without having to survive a freak accident.

The Math

Baseline Assessment: 8/10.

Bonuses: +1 for consistently uproarious humor.

Penalties: −1 because the big villain reveal was obvious all along, −1 because the author seems to love the verb "to hover" way too much.

Nerd Coefficient: 7/10.

POSTED BY: Arturo Serrano, multiclass Trekkie/Whovian/Moonie/Miraculer, accumulating experience points for still more obsessions.

Reference: Fernandez, Cristina. How to Date a Superhero (and Not Die Trying) [Katherine Tegen Books, 2022].

Interview: Rena Barron, author of Kingdom of Souls and Reaper of Souls

Photo Credit: Aaron Gang

Dark magic,  danger,  trading years of your life in a gamble to save everything you love. Ambitions, legacies, and courage.  An imperfect heroine who has to make the hardest decisions in the face of transgenerational trauma.  I told you all of that first, because once you see the cover art of Rena Barron's books, you'll stop reading and click right over to your favorite bookstore's website to place an order.

Rena Barron's Kingdom of Souls came out last fall to much acclaim. A YA novel where a teen protagonist inherits the power of her people, and the responsibilities of stopping an ancestral evil from destroying the world. Arrah is tenacious and driven, but is she strong enough?  How much is she willing to give up to get what she needs?  A powerful tale of witchdoctors, sacrifice, and ambition, this looks like an incredible read!   And don't worry about a cliffhanger ending, as the sequel, Reaper of Souls, will be here before we know it, in February of 2021,  with a third book in the works.  Film rights to the series were recently sold to Warner Brothers, with Michael B. Jordan as producer.

If the YA reader in your household has a younger sibling who isn't quite old enough for Kingdom of Souls, Barron also has a middle-grade title coming out this September, Maya and the Rising Dark. In this contemporary fantasy set in Chicago, when pre-teen Maya's father disappears, it puts her at the center of a battle between our world, the Orishas, and the Dark World. Can she save the world in time to attend ComicCon? 

Barron has loved fantasy stories her whole life. She read non-stop as a child, and yearned to see more characters who looked like her.  Kingdom of Souls first came to the attention of agents and editors during 2017 Pitch Wars, when it was titled "The Last Witchdoctor".

 

NOAF: What inspired you to write Kingdom of Souls?

RB: The world of Kingdom of Souls was inspired by tales of people in my community who practiced voodoo and the stigma around that tradition. In a sense, the story explores me coming to terms with how those tales shaped my perception.

I have rarely (if ever) heard of voodoo, witchdoctors, folk magic, or any traditions from Black communities presented in a positive light in western society. I wanted to write a story that could subvert that perception and paint this idea that magic isn't good or bad; it's how people choose to use it.

NOAF: You participated in 2017 Pitch Wars, and came away from that experience with multiple offers of representation for "The Last Witchdoctor". What was it like to participate in Pitch Wars? What do you know now, that you wish you knew then?

RB: Pitch Wars was a whirlwind of emotions, very little sleep, and frantic revisions. I met my most trusted writing critique partner and good friend, Alexis Henderson ("The Year of the Witching") during Pitch Wars. We spent most of the three months swapping pages to get our manuscript into shape.

I'd gone through ten years of querying different manuscripts and getting rejected prior to entering Pitch Wars, so I didn't really go into it with many expectations. Before I entered Pitch Wars, my last manuscript had gotten a lot of bites from agents, including requests to "revised and resubmit," so I felt that I was getting close. Speaking strictly from interacting with the mentees and sharing information, I wished I would've known that everyone's experience would be widely different.

NAOF: Arrah is such a fascinating character! She's so young when she has to make life altering decisions. When you were first working on this series, how did you develop Arrah's character? Did she change at all, from your original idea, to the Arrah that readers meet?

RB: In a sense, Arrah's trading years off her life in exchange for magic is a metaphor for the sacrifices and struggles that we face in everyday life. She is powerless in her world, but is she really? It's not magic that drives her desire to protect her friends and family; it's her heart, tenacity, and courage. Those are her greatest gifts. One thing that is subtle in her character, too, is that she is suffering from transgenerational trauma. Writing her character was an exercise in examining my own traumas. That was the key to her character for me. She's a survivor.

When I was first developing Arrah's character, I leaned heavily on exploring the expectations, disappointments, and challenges that she would face and how she would attempt to overcome impossible odds. I wanted her to feel real and well-rounded—not like a caricature.

NOAF: Arrah doesn't know everything, and she's not a perfect person (perfect people are boring, if you ask me!). She makes mistakes, and she's flawed. Why did you choose for her to make those particular mistakes? Why does she have those particular flaws? How do her mistakes and regrets shape her future decisions?

RB: Often we like our heroines to have superficial flaws, but I don't see that as true to human nature. Arrah makes mistakes; she's not perfect. She's flawed, driven, and relentless in her pursuit of what she believes to be right. The mistakes that Arrah make stem from her thinking that she has to be the one to fix the world. It's not a spoiler to say that she’s right, but she doesn't have to do it alone.

NOAF: Who was your favorite character to write?

RB: Arrah's grandmother is one of my favorite characters. She's the leader of her tribe, strong, iron-willed, patient, and always has a trick up her sleeve.

NOAF: Without giving us too many spoilers, can you tell us what's next for Arrah and her friends in Reaper of Souls?

RB: The end of Kingdom of Souls leaves Arrah in a really tough spot. She's going to have to reckon with her mistakes and decisions while facing bigger problems in Reaper of Souls. Expect to see much more of Arrah's friends—Rudjek, Sukar, Essnai, and the whole crew.

NOAF: That cover art though! I do not know how someone can not look at that cover art and NEED to pick up these books! Did you have any input on the cover art? Do you feel the cover art accurately portrays the characters and the story?

RB: I love that the cover of Kingdom Of Souls incorporates so many elements from the book. The throne, the lion head, the snake, and the bone charm are all important symbols in the story. The artist, AdeyemiAdegbesan, really hit it out of the park. I was very fortunate to provide early input into the design, and I pitched the idea of a girl on a bone throne.

NOAF: You grew up reading fantasy, outer space, and adventure. What were some of your favorites?

R.B. Most of the books I gravitated toward were adult. I think it was because I've always loved complicated stories more on the dark side, and I don't recall seeing a lot of that in kidlit at the time. I do remember enjoying the Last Vampire series by Christopher Pike, the Animorphs series, and anything by RL Stine.

NOAF: Thank you so much for letting me interview you!

POSTED BY: Andrea Johnson lives in Michigan with her husband and too many books. She can be found on twitter, @redhead5318 , where she posts about books, food, and assorted nerdery.

Interview: Gideon Marcus, Kitra and Galactic Journey

You very likely know Gideon Marcus from his Hugo nominated fanzine Galactic Journey, his work as a space historian, and his educational lectures, but did you know he also writes fiction?  His short fiction appears in the anthology Tales of Alternate Earths 2, and his debut YA novel, Kitra, is available now.

Nineteen-year-old Kitra dreams of traveling to the stars like her mother, and she jumps at the chance to fly into space on her own ship.  A diverse crew of nerdy young adults on an old junked Navy ship,  what could possibly go wrong? Well. . .  everything.  Before they know it,  they are stranded. No fuel, no way home, and no one coming to rescue them.  Did I mention Kitra's ex-girlfriend is among the crew?  Talk about awkward!

Kitra is a story of perseverance in the face of fear and uncertainty, and that we only get through times like these by helping each other.   Uplifting and positive,  this novel speaks to all ages.

Galactic Journey is Gideon's Serling award winning and Hugo nominated web-project. Going back in time 55 years to bring today's readers news from the past, the site features reviews of published short stories and novels, and tons of articles on movies, tv shows, "current" events such as the Space Race, and other interesting things. The neat thing is that everything on the site is written as if it is happening right now. You can also follow Galactic Journey on twitter, @journeygalactic.

Gideon was kind enough to let me ask him all sorts of questions about the novel and Galactic Journey.  In our wide ranging conversation we talk about everything from recent trends in YA fiction to characters writing the story themselves, to the importance of small moments, to the future of Galactic Journey, and more!

Let's get to the interview!

NOAF:  Congratulations on your new novel, Kitra! Who is Kitra and why is her story so compelling?

Gideon Marcus: Thanks very much! Kitra is a 19 year old amateur glider pilot with one overriding passion: to go to space. Her mother was an interstellar ambassador, an almost larger than life figure, and when she died, she left behind big (metaphorical) shoes to fill. What makes Kitra special is what can make anyone special: persistence and a determination to seek help in achieving one's goals.

As for what makes her story compelling, I think a story of hope against odds, of ingenuity beating adversity, always resonates. But right now especially, when we're all stuck in various levels of isolation and there's no clear path back to normal, a story about being trapped in a small ship for weeks on end resonates all the more strongly. It's eerily timely and, I'm hoping, inspiring.

NOAF: Sounds like there's a lot of wonderful things happening in this book!  What challenges did you come across, when you were plotting out everything that needed to happen?

GM: Plotwise, I wrote myself into a corner about 65% of the way through the book. I really didn't know how Kitra was going to accomplish the most important thing she needed to do to get home. When you read how she and her crew got through the puzzle, you'll think it was just brilliant foreshadowing . .  . but really, I just sat in my backyard and thought, "What would the characters do?" They quite literally wrote their own solution.

More technically, my biggest challenge was scientific consistency. Kitra is a "young adult" novel, which means it needs to be accessible to everyone age 10 and up. At the same time, there's plenty of Star Wars-style science fantasies out there that play fast and loose with physics. I wanted to write a story that is plausible science fiction while still enjoyable and a quick read. That was the challenge, making sure I kept all the numbers right - how much fuel they had, their food reserves, the mechanics of space travel, etc. It's all invisible to the reader (this is a novel, not a textbook!) but that consistency is important to me.

NOAF: What inspired you to write this novel?

GM: Two main reasons. First: I wrote what I wanted to read. Second: No one else was doing it.

I grew up on "classic" science fiction, mostly stuff from the 50s through the 80s. There wasn't a YA genre back then; it was called "juvenile" instead and usually featured young men doing adventurous things among the stars. Back then, space was the final frontier, after all.

For the last twenty years, YA has been dominated by fantasy and dystopia. Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, but it got to the point where everyone was trying to write the next Harry Potter or Hunger Games. Space hasn't gotten any less interesting; science shouldn't be passé; and characters don't need magic or special powers to be extraordinary.

As for why Kitra in particular, in those books I grew up with, there weren't enough (read ANY) young women protagonists . . . except in my beloved L. Frank Baum Oz books. There weren't queer protagonists, rarely persons of color in starring roles. It was something I didn't notice when I was a kid. And that's, of course, the problem. I want young people, and older ones too, to read my book and see a world that looks like theirs, with all the diversity therein.

NOAF: What surprised you the most, while you were writing this novel?

GM: A lot of the book was planned well in advance. I'm not exactly a plotter, but I like to bullet point the pivotal scenes. Some, though, I just sat in front of a blank page with my 1000-words-a-day deadline looming, and pulled a chapter out of . . . hyperspace. :) The snowball fight was one of those.

I didn't plan the situation between Kitra and Marta. In retrospect, it's obvious - two close friends with a romantic history trapped together in an enclosed space - something was bound to happen. Not only does it affect the events in Kitra, it will be important to later books in the series, too.

I think that's the mark of successfully realized characters. They do what they want regardless of what you have planned for them!

NOAF: I hear there is a second novel in the series in the works! Where does Kitra's story go from here?

GM: I'm never certain how much to spoil in these interviews! Kitra's saga definitely doesn't end with the first book, though Kitra wraps up satisfactorily (all of the books in the series will; no one likes a novel that's not a complete story.) By the end of the first book, Kitra and her friends have just been forged into a crew. There's a whole universe to explore, and mind-boggling things to discover. Plus, Kitra will grow as a person, as will those around her. I think that will resonate with readers, too, watching these characters mature over time.

NOAF: In another interview you did, you mentioned that you're "not really about villains". Does Kitra's world not have any bad guys?  What does a world without baddies look like?

GM: What's a "bad guy"? I grew up on superhero comics, and I enjoyed the MCU for a while, but I got tired of the zero sum game. If there were heroes, the rationale went, there had to be equally powerful villains, and they had to fight incessantly. In a dystopian novel, there's the big evil government. In a fantasy, there's the Sauron/Voldemort. I wanted to try something different.

The real world is a complicated place. The "enemy" can be poverty, natural disaster, or closest to home right now, a pandemic. There are definitely selfish, cruel people in this world, but they are almost always the symptom of a problem rather than the source.

My wife once observed that "good writing is the art of making small things matter." Writers have gotten obsessed with toppling Big Bads, or a series of successively tougher "bosses". The scope is always enormous: the world, or the universe . . . maybe even the multiverse. With Kitra, I dialed it back. It's just her and the four friends she feels obligated to help. There is no enemy, just a challenging situation to deal with creatively.

That said, the scope will expand as the series goes on. Will there be trouble? Of course. Politics? To a degree. People who try to hurt Kitra and her crew, sure. But there will never be an arch-nemesis for her to rail against.

NOAF: I'd be a terrible interviewer if I didn't congratulate you on your Hugo nomination for Best Fanzine, Congratulations!  You've been on the Hugo ballot a few times now, how did it feel to get that first nomination? What will winning a Hugo mean for you?

GM: Becoming a Hugo Finalist was literally a life-changer. It happened at the same time as my first professional fiction sales (I've been a nonfiction writer for 15 years) as well as my first educational performances. That was when I realized I could make a go of this writing thing. Two years later, I have a successful publishing company, I'm working with laureled authors, and I'm doing what I love most - telling stories that entertain.

NOAF: Why did you start Galactic Journey? Has Galactic Journey's goals or focus changed since you started it? Where do you see the site going in the next few years?

GM: It all began in 1954. That's when my dad started collecting science fiction magazines. He died in 1993 and left me almost a thousand of them. In 2009, I decided I wanted to read them all. To keep me on a regular schedule, I decided to read them once a month "as they came out" with a time-shift of 55 years. In 1958 . . . er . . . 2013, my wife asked me to recommend some of my favorite stories. I decided to write a blog instead, sort of projecting myself into the past to live in the bygone age, day by day. I'm a space historian, and my specialty is the late '50s, so I added articles about the Space Race, too.

Well, you can't immerse yourself in a time, listening to the music, watching the movies, reading the paper, and not have it become part of you. And I kept seeing our modern age reflected in the past. 55 years ago is now, just a little crappier. I found myself excited on the rare occasions I saw a woman's byline in my fiction and started chronicling the (these days largely forgotten) contributions women made to science fiction back then. I got invested in the struggle for civil rights which, even today, is far from complete...and has faltered lately. I wanted to know more about the world of that age, not just the fiction and technology, but the culture, the fashion, the politics, and how they ultimately led to the age we know today.

Twenty people make up the Journey now, demographically diverse, from all hemispheres of the globe. What we make is, I think, a lot more than just a fanzine. It's a living time capsule with something for everyone. We've finished The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, and we pretty well wrapped up the latter Silver Age of science fiction. Doctor Who is in its second season and will go on for a long time. Over the next few years, we're going to be covering a lot more familiar franchises: Star Trek, the New Wave of SF, 2001.

And we're really just starting the 1960s in earnest. Society is about to be turned on its ear, and at the end of the revolution are the seeds of our current world. I hope folks enjoy the trip as much as I am!

NOAF:   Thank you so much Gideon!

Microreview [Book]: Catfishing on Catnet by Naomi Kritzer

A YA thriller with a warm fuzzy digital heart

Fresh from stealing our hearts away in various pieces of short fiction, including the Hugo Award winning and highly zeitgeisty "Cat Pictures Please" and this year's Hugo finalist "The Thing About Ghost Stories", Naomi Kritzer is back with her first published novel in some time - and her science fiction debut - the much anticipated Catfishing on Catnet. Although my primary fandom is dogs, I also maintain an ongoing interest in cat-related media, and having been lucky enough to pick up a Catfishing on Catnet fridge magnet (yes, apparently some books have fridge magnets now!) this has been a very highly anticipated release for me, one which I'm pleased to confirm doesn't disappoint.

Catfishing on Catnet follows Steph, a teenager whose life has been defined by her mother constantly moving her to escape an abusive father she knows almost nothing about. Steph's mother claims that her Dad is an arsonist, who tried to burn down the house with them in it and is now hunting them down. Steph has no reason not to believe this (her Mom carries a laminated version of the article with the information in, after all) but is still not enamoured with having to change schools every few months, and the only real life friend she ever made was a girl she hasn't seen or heard from in over ten years. Luckily, Steph has friends that go with her everywhere she moves - the buddies she's made on an online chatroom system called CatNet, which only requires payment in animal pictures to use its services, and organises users into "Clowders" based on what Steph thinks are fancy algorithms, but what is actually the engineering of a benevolent AI trying to make its human users' lives better.

The AI of CatNet is, of course, the same AI from "Cat Pictures Please": a story which deals with the misadventures of an all-seeing intelligence trying to make humans happy while also learning how humans actually work. The kinds of actions taken by the AI in that story are reflected in some early scenes here: a bad teacher at Steph's school, for example, resigns after a delivery drone "accidentally" drops a load of books on how to quit your job and guidebooks for a city where her friend is conveniently hiring for a position in a totally different career. However, most of the time the AI - called CheshireCat by Steph and her Clowder based on its screenname in their group chat - is focused on the more serious issue of Steph's father, and the mystery surrounding both her parents. As CheshireCat becomes more invested in both the mystery of Steph's past and her wellbeing as one of its friends in its "favourite" Clowder, its actions start to increasingly expose its own identity, raising issues about trust and acceptance based on who we choose to be online.

What plays out from this is almost a sort of cosy thriller, starring some great mystery solving internet teens, as Steph's mother comes down with an illness and Steph becomes increasingly involved in piecing together the story of her family. With the support of her Clowder and CheshireCat, Steph also starts befriending a couple of girls at school, notably Rachel, an artistic prodigy who offers a rare note of non-internet friendship in her transient life. At around the halfway mark, the tone switches gears and Steph's "IRL" and "internet" spheres start overlapping, as events converge on the town of New Coburg and the risks to discovering the truth start to increase for everyone involved. Because of the book's mystery elements and the way its structured, there's not much I can say about the plot without starting to give things away, but I will note that despite the book's cover zeroing in on an ominous "how much does the internet know around you" tagline, Steph and the Clowder's suspicions never fall on CheshireCat, and neither are we directed to suspect it as readers (it is after all the first point of view voice we meet in the book). The focus in Catfishing on Catnet is quite definitely on the positive and negative ways in which humans use technology, rather than scaremongering about technology itself, and the focus never wavers from the fact that there are real, human people involved in this at every stage.

The rest of Steph's clowder - especially her best friend Firestar, and regular Clowder members Marvin, Hermione and Icosahedron - are great characters in their own right, with enough characterisation to bring their bonds with each other to life and make the AI's intention in bringing them together clear, without being too saccharine or co-opting the story. Catnet itself is portrayed as a niche app, which goes some way to mitigating the sense of anachronism of a group of near-future teenagers using a chatroom with handles and a complete lack of emojis and gifs. I should be clear that I can't speak to how much Catfishing on Catnet will actually speak to the internet of teenagers now, rather than the inner teenager of a millennial in her 30s, but I'd like to hope that its hitting on something timeless. Subcultures of people forming bonds exclusively online, rather than using the internet to augment connections with their existing friends, is perhaps niche enough anyway that Catfishing on Catnet doesn't need to be about the evolution of AirDrop and TikTok into whatever teens will be using in the era when their sex ed classes are being taught by awkwardly programmed robots and self-driving cars are a real, but not uncontroversial, development.

Overall, Catfishing on Catnet offered a great reading experience, blending together insights on internet culture and use of technology with a thriller-esque plotline that kept me turning the pages without overstaying its welcome. Though I can't speak to how particular cultural elements will land with people actually within the YA age bracket, its characters feel real and sympathetic and their use of an internet chatroom - albeit an extraordinarily well curated one - makes sense within the context of their respective lives.

The Math

Baseline Score: 7/10

Bonuses: +1 Great interactions between teenagers, AI and adults which takes online friendship seriously

Penalties: -1 Not as many CheshireCat antics as the original short story

Nerd Coefficient: 7/10

POSTED BY: Adri, Nerds of a Feather co-editor, is a semi-aquatic migratory mammal most often found in the UK. She has many opinions about SFF books, and is also partial to gaming, baking, interacting with dogs, and Asian-style karaoke. Find her on Twitter at @adrijjy.

Reference: Kritzer, Naomi. Catfishing on Catnet (Tor Teen, 2019)

Tip of the Hat: The Wollstonecraft Detective Agency

Occasionally, there's something that comes along that simply reminds you of the joy of fandom. The execution may not be perfect, but it's nevertheless touching, or thought-provoking, or simply fun. "Tip of the Hat" is our occasional series to shine a light on those things when we find them.

This month will see the release of The Perilous Palace, the final book in the Wollstonecraft Detective Agency series of middle-grade books by Jordan Stratford and illustrated by Kelly Murphy. As the series concludes**, what better time to celebrate it, and tip my hat to a job well done?

As a parent of my children — and they are very much my children in the apple-doesn't-fall-far-from-the-tree sense — it has been a joy to read them books that I loved as a kid like A Wrinkle in Time, The Hobbit, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and watch them fall in love with those stories, too. And there have been other classic kid-lit books that I personally missed, but thankfully found in time for them, like The Phantom Tollbooth. As a kid I loved the fantastic, but I also adored mysteries, and I read (I think, without hyperbole) every single Hardy Boys book that was in print through the mid-to-late 1980s. So, I gave one of my kids one of the original Hardy Boys books a couple of years ago, and they put it down immediately. I opened it up, read a few pages, and then didn't blame them one bit. As it happens, there seemed to be a lot more distance between 2015 and 1927 than there was for me between 1985 and 1927. It's no wonder, really. The world has moved on.

Luckily for my family, this Hardy Boys debacle went down right about the time that The Case of the Missing Moonstone: The Wollstonecraft Detective Agency Book 1 was released. I mentioned the series here at the time in my Summer Reading List post, writing:

Enter Jordan Stratford, and his amazing "what-if" scenario: what if, as children, Mary Wollstonecraft (later Shelley, who invented science fiction) and Ada Byron (later Lovelace, who invented computer programming) had known each other...and solved mysteries. I'll be...ahem, my kids...will be all over this, and I expect the wait for Book 2 will be a difficult one.

They were, and it was. Similarly for book three, and there was an actual cheer that went up in my house when I told them book four was coming. These books are well written and fun, loaded with so many historical and literary allusions that while I seem to catch most of them (if I'm not giving myself too much credit), the kids are able to catch some of them, too, like the appearance of a young Charles Dickens.

When it comes right down to it, there are just a lot of things that this series did fantastically well. Certainly, they are good stories well-told and the books are all connected in a way that feels organic and rewarding, but beyond that, these are stories of smart, determined girls doing awesome stuff when nobody thinks them capable of it. The  books prize logic and scientific inquiry, and highlight actual individuals from history that left profound marks in the sciences and literature (and resources at the back of each book suggest how to learn more about these actual people). And, on a personal note, Ada is clearly on the spectrum, and raising a child who is, as well, I can tell you that it meant something very profound to be able to read passages in which another kid — the hero of the book, no less — reacted in similar ways to similar stimuli, and thought of things in the same way, and struggled in the same way in many of the same situations.

So I tip my hat to Jordan Stratford and Kelly Murphy. And while I'm sad the series is concluding, I'm very grateful to have one more trip to take to a pre-Victorian London with this group of kids, and my own.

** After we published this, author Jordan Stratford reached out on Twitter to say that, despite what the Penguin Random House page for the new book says, the series will not be concluding. We regret the error. 

Posted by Vance K — cult film reviewer and co-editor of the proudly Hugo Award-nominated nerds of a feather, flock together since 2012.

Tip of the Hat: The Arlo Finch Experience

Occasionally, there's something that comes along that simply reminds you of the joy of fandom. The execution may not be perfect, but it's nevertheless touching, or thought-provoking, or simply fun. "Tip of the Hat" is our occasional series to shine a light on those things when we find them.

A-list screenwriter John August decided he wanted to write a middle-grade fantasy series, and this month he has delivered not just the book, but an entire experience that, as a writer, I think is one of the coolest and most fun vicarious adventures I've gone along on in recent memory.

John August has always been staggeringly generous with his time in service of other writers, and so it's not a surprise that his podcast Launch, which has accompanied the release of his first middle-grade novel, Arlo Finch in the Valley of Fire would be another gift to writers. August has written a ton of movies, including the film and stage adaptations of Daniel Wallace's Big Fish, the Charlie's Angels movies, Frankenweenie, and he started his career with Go. For the last several years, he has also co-hosted the weekly Scriptnotes podcast, about screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters. But long before Scriptnotes, he was fielding questions for IMDb from aspiring writers about formatting, writing for the screen, and the business of doing so. So for him to decide a couple of years ago to put that career on hold because he wanted to try writing a book, it was a ballsy thing to do.

It was also admirable. It's a shame so many of us are handicapped by a doubt that keeps us from telling our stories, in whatever form they may take, and he took a big risk to step away from a multi-million-dollar career in favor of stepping into the unknown. I love stepping into the unknown, but I usually don't risk much to do it. It might pop into my head, "I wonder if I could animate a music video?" And then I figure out how to do it, and then do it. All it costs me is sleep. Or wonder if I could make a horror movie for $500. Or I might wonder if I can write and record an EP about classic monsters in a week. There are many, varied creative journeys I've taken over the years, and through the Launch podcast, it's been a trip to go on one that had always been closed to me.

I don't intend to review Arlo Finch in the Valley of Fire, except to say, "Yeah, it's pretty good." I'm not a middle-grade reader, but I have kids who are and while it's no Wollstonecraft Detective Agency (oh, how I love that my kids love those books), I happily handed Arlo to my daughter after I read it and she's plugging away on it now. But Launch takes us on the entire creative and industry journey for the book. In my early 20s, I very much wanted to be a novelist. I wanted to land a top-notch agent (mine was definitely a few notches below "top"), and have publishers clamoring for what I'd written. I wanted to have those conversations. I wanted to see a book with my name on the spine in my local bookstore. It never occurred to me to think about going to the actual plant where the books are made, but all of these things occurred to John August, and he had a digital recorder along the way. So the seven episodes of Launch, the last of which drops this week, begin literally at the moment when the first Arlo Finch book occurs to the writer, through the writing, pitching, selling, and revising conversations, through the font selection for the final book (I love geeking out about fonts!), through watching the first book come off the line, then the release party and book tour, and finally the sales numbers and how we measure success.

I expected I might feel a pang of jealousy somewhere in this journey — after all, listening to an agent flip out over somebody's book isn't the same as having an agent flip out over *your* book — but that never happened, and I think the reason why it didn't is just joy. John August is so joyful throughout this entire process, and so willing to talk about his own uncertainties and fears, that each moment winds up being just so relatable and dripping with joy. It'll be a long time before I forget him exclaiming, "That's my book!" when he sees the first bound copy come off the line. This podcast is a celebration of authors, a celebration of books (which warms all our nerdy hearts here), a celebration of risk, and a celebration of just walking the road.

It's a joy. And the world needs more joy.

Check out the podcast from iTunes here and on Stitcher here. Or just play the first episode right here:
 

Posted by Vance K — cult film reviewer and co-editor of nerds of a feather, flock together since 2012, Emmy-winning producer and folk musician.