6 Books with Rob Hayes

Rob J. Hayes has been a student, a banker, a marine research assistant, a chef, and a keyboard monkey more times than he cares to count. But eventually his love of fantasy and reading drew him to the life of a writer. He’s the author of the Amazon Best Selling The Heresy Within, the SPFBO-winning piratical swashbuckler Where Loyalties Lie, and the critically acclaimed Never Die.

Today he shares his Six Books With Us...




1. What book are you currently reading? 

 I'm currently reading King of Assassins by RJ Barker. It's book 3 in the Wounded Kingdom trilogy and each book is sort of a murder mystery in a fantasy setting. I like to describe book 1 (Age of Assassins) as a murder mystery without a murder from the perspective of the murderer. It's got a lot of emotion, more intrigue than a day with the Lannisters, and such cool imagery. The author manages to keep the mystery fresh in each book and the series just gets better and better as it goes on. I'm going to be really sad when I get to the end of this book and say goodbye to the characters.



2. What upcoming book are you really excited about?
 
Paternus: War of the Gods by Dyrk Ashton. It's another book 3 funnily enough. Dyrk first came to my attention because of Mark Lawrences Self Published Fantasy Blog Off (SPFBO), and then I ran into him at a convention and he handed me a sighed copy of his book 1. I had no idea what I was getting into. The Paternus series breaks the rules of what we're generally allowed to do. From head hopping to expositional infodumps, to lines written in a foreign language with no translation. Somehow Dyrk manages to make it all work with a skill I'd wager few others could boast. It's a truly epic series about a war between the gods... all of them... ever. And I can't wait to see how he ends it all.


3. Is there a book you’re currently itching to (re)read? 

I am itching to read The Shadow Saint by Gareth Hanrahan. This one is a book 2 (the problem with reading books as they come out is you find yourself part way through a number of series at once). I read book 1 (The Gutter Prayer) last year and the scale of imagination on display blew me away. From the get go, you know you're getting something different and unique as it all kicks off with a chapter from the perspective of a building. I've never read anything like it before. From there on it just revels in the weird and wonderful between sentient candlemen, colonies of worms dressed as humans, warring gods, and living statues. It was one of the most fantastical fantasies I've read in a long time, and I can't wait to sink my teeth into book 2.


4. How about a book you’ve changed your mind about – either positively or negatively?

Might be a unpopular choice, but I'm going to go with Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I think I enjoyed it well enough at the time of reading it, though it often felt a bit cringy with the references, almost as though the author was congratulating himself on adding in as many as he could. But I've really become burned out by all the nostalgia that's flooding media these days. From film reboots to throwbacks and everything in between. So while I can't deny the book's popularity, and it certainly accomplished something, these days I just see it as a bit of a cheap laugh. Sort of a "Hey, all these things you used to love... let me name them all." And for me that actually makes the book feel more and more hollow, the more I think about it.


5. What’s one book, which you read as a child or a young adult, that has had a lasting influence on your writing?

I'm gonna say The Dark Portal by Robin Jarvis (and the whole Deptford Mice series). They were the books that really got me into fantasy as a child, and even back then I think I learned a lot from them. They are aimed at children, but they don't hold back in many ways. They can get quite dark, which is something I've been accused of a few times. There's character deaths (including my favourite character of the whole series), moments of horror as well as heroism, glorious redemption as well as falls from grace. It really was an epic fantasy, despite being about mice and aimed at children, and it's one I don't think I'll ever forget.


6. And speaking of that, what’s your latest book, and why is it awesome?

I'll go with my next release as it's coming on 30th March! Along the Razor's Edge is awesome because it's set entirely in an underground prison called the Pit. It follows along behind a young girl with more fire than sense who is thrown into the prison for war crimes after her side loses a big war. It's tightly focused, claustrophobic, and full of emotion. I'll include the official blurb below.

No one escapes the Pit.

At just fifteen Eskara Helsene fought in the greatest war mankind has ever known. Fought and lost. There is only one place her enemies would send a Sourcerer as powerful as her, the Pit, a prison sunk so deep into the earth the sun is a distant memory. Now she finds herself stripped of her magic; a young girl surrounded by thieves, murderers, and worse. In order to survive she will need to find new allies, play the inmates against each other, and find a way out. Her enemies will soon find Eskara is not so easily broken.


---
POSTED BY: Paul Weimer.
Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.

Microreview [Comic]: Sonata vol. 1 — The Valley of the Gods

David Hine and Brian Haberlin's scifi adventure comic Sonata is a beautiful planet opera which has a hard time taking off.

On planet Perdita (or alternatively Vianna), somewhere in the farthest reaches of the galaxy, two competing human civilizations have founded their own colonies. Their spaceships are able to reach it only once in a while when the worlds are favourably aligned, so the colonies of both the peaceful Ran and the less gentle Tayans have to mostly make do on their own.

These civilizations are polar opposites of each other. The Ran are peaceful, dinosaur-flying environmentalists who are on good terms with the less advanced ogre-like Lumani natives of the planet whereas the Tayans are into guns, technology, looking down on the "primitives" and, if needed, destabilizing the planet's ecosystem with huge dam constructions and the like. Obviously, the new inhabitants of Perdita/Vianna (both sides have their own name for their new homeworld) are made to not get along, even though the green and flourishing planet should be able to support them all. That is, if you steer clear of humongous mythical monsters known as sleeping giants, of course.

The story starts rolling when the Ran decide to sabotage the Tayans' new dam which deprives them and the Lumani of necessary water. The two factions are quickly on each other's throats, apart from two individuals: Sonata, the daughter of one of the Ran leaders, and Pau, son of the Tayans' bossman. The two teenagers end up adventuring together (along with Sonata's Lumani friend Treen) and becoming fond of each other, in addition to discovering that the Lumani are not the illiterate, unadvanced primitives everyone imagines.

So, let's see: strange worlds, intriguing aliens, a love story between characters whose races/civilizations are not getting along… For a contemporary science fiction comics series, it sounds quite familiar, right? Dismissing Sonata as a poor man's Saga clone would be a bit harsh but it wouldn't have hurt to spice it up a notch so that Hine and Haberlin's creation would stand out.

Haberlin's art is superb and it makes the world really come to life but the story itself feels like a fat stack of clichés. Even if it is a well-paced and entertaining story, the worn-out themes of star-crossed lovers and nature versus technology could really have used some twists and more imaginative and unexpected takes. Very few plot developments that the comic threw at the reader were things I did not see coming, and that is always disappointing. Only one thing which took place towards the end of the story (and which I won't spoil it here) seemed to take the tale to an interesting direction, and that was basically the set-up for the next story arc.

Hopefully the subsequent adventures of Sonata and Pau manage to lift them off the beaten track and make them really come to life. The first graphic novel Valley of the Gods which collects Sonata issues 1 through 6 did not succeed in establishing the series' main characters as anything other than two curious teenagers, so there's certainly room for development.

***

The Math

Base Score: 7/10

Bonuses: +1 for dazzling art

Penalties: -2 for fizzling story

Nerd Coefficient: 6/10 – "still enjoyable, but the flaws are hard to ignore"

Reference: Hine, David & Haberlin, Brian. Sonata, volume 1: Valley of the Gods [Image 2019]

***

POSTED BY: Spacefaring Kitten, an extradimensional enthusiast of speculative fiction, comics, and general weirdness. Contributor since 2018.

Microreview [book] A Pale Light in the Black, by K.B. Wagers

A Pale Light in the Black brings the talents of K. B. Wagers from far future to nearer term and nearer to Earth Space Opera, telling the story of the NeoG, the Space Coast Guard of the 25th Century.

In the 25th Century, Space is still Big and Scary. The Navy is concerned with large scale issues, especially given that Humanity, bouncing back from the Collapse, has spread by means of wormhole technology to the Trappist system. The 25th Century humanity is actively colonizing and terraforming the solar system, too, with all of the issues--bandits, pirates, and the vagaries of space travel come into play. And just as in the modern day, a force is needed for when one’s spacecraft is flounding between Earth and Mars. And THAT is the story of the Near Earth Orbital Guard--the NeoG.

The story of A Pale Light in the Black runs along two Hoffmann Transfer Orbits. The first is the Boarding Games. From  the beginning of the novel, we learn about the Boarding Games, a multievent physical and mental competition between various branches of the armed forces (Navy, NeoG, Army, Marines, Air Force) that is watched by millions. At the beginning of the novel, we learn the NeoG, led by the crew of Zuma’s Ghost, has suffered a tragic close loss to Navy, and is looking forward to trying to get back in the finals next year, training hard for it in between their regular job.

Which leads us to the other orbit.. Lt. Commander Nika Vagin, one of the best swordfighters (did I mention swords are very useful in a world where projectile weapons are a hideously dangerous idea in space?) in the NeoG and an anchor for Zuma’s Ghost is getting a promotion and a transfer out to the Trappist system. For a found family and tight knit family, it's bad enough, but there is additional stress. For you see, transferred from a desk job by her request, Lt. Maxine Carmichael is her replacement. Yes, she’s one of THOSE Carmichaels, THE family in the solar system, since they have the patent and controls on LifeX, the treatment that has allowed post-Collapse humanity to have longer lifespans, and greater resilience to radiation during space travel. LifeX makes interplanetary (and beyond). So when in the course of their investigations, the NeoG stumbles upon what might be a dangerous knock off of LifeX, the new Lieutenant of Zuma’s Ghost suddenly has a case of divided loyalties, with healthy doses of intrigue, family secrets, and danger. The NeoG is often derided as “Space Cops” and for a Carmichael to join them instead of service to, say, the Navy or the Company, that is simply Not Done. So there are all sorts of crossed wires and tangled threads that eventually encompasses the entirety of the crew as well.

There is a lot to love in the novel, and it starts with the characters [Rosa, and Jenks Jenks Jenks]. Captain Rosa is a nicely complicated and well rounded character, she is happily married to a loving wife and two daughters, and she has a complicated relationship with her mother, her faith (which keeps her from accepting promotions that would send her to Trappist) and managing her found family on the Ghost. Rosa’s personal thread is a minor theme compared to the major themes of the novel, and it shows the range of things going on among the crew, and develops Rosa’s character nicely. However, the real star of the novel, often overshining even Lt. Carmichael is Petty Officer Atlandai Khan, better known as Jenks. A kid from the streets, adoptive sister to the aforementioned Nika, Jenks strides across the page with verve and strength like a latter day Lieutenant Starbuck. A wounded bird who doesn’t want to give up her heart, she’s feisty, fierce, fun, determined and the best person at individual combat not only in the NeoG but in all the forces, and has the wins in the Boarding Games to prove it. Whenever she is on the page, explosions and action and adventure are almost always quickly on her heels--except for those times where Wagers explores Jenks’ emotional beats, again making what could have been a one note character into a character with nuance and depth and the potential for growth.

The action beats are where the novel shines, too. Not only in the training sequences and within the Boarding Games themselves, but in the day to day job of the NeoG, the novel has a lot of fun with people in Space, including a harrowing spacewalk set piece. The author’s Indrana novels are set in the far future, on alien planets, ships and stations, but this novel has a much more cheek by jowl feel about Space and how people interact with it, giving it a different sort of feel than those novels in this regard.

The novel is delightfully geeky. Jenks is an enthusiast for our time period, and is definitely a Hoppy Frood who knows where her towel is. I laughed out loud when she made, of all things, a Babylon 5 reference. The novel knows and respects the traditions it is working in, and it leavens the novel with an even greater sense of fun, especially around the rambunctious Jenks. Too, the novel is optimistic. Yes, the Collapse, in the rear view mirror of their history was bad, an near extinction level event. But this is a society that has survived it, albeit by the skin of their teeth, and is now moving forward. The author does a great job throughout the novel as they seed bits of worldbuilding and information about what the world is like after the Collapse, and what has been lost. It makes for a sketched in enough future history for readers to fill in the gaps and imagine the rest, although history does play a role as a minor theme of the novel in another way as well.

There is a bit of a plotting issue that annoyed me. As mentioned above, there are two major plot threads that dominate the novel--the story of Lt. Carmichael, her family, LifeEx and the mystery that surrounds it, and the mystery that the NeoG works at through the entire book. This plot thread starts and resolves satisfactorily, even as there are hints that there is much more to be uncovered regarding what is uncovered when the NeoG turns over stones in the course of that plotline. It is the other plotline, though, the Boarding Games that does not resolve anywhere near so satisfactorily. This plotline starts off in the first chapter and the chapters are all labeled and titled in relation to the next Boarding Games. And yet, the absolute finale of the Games as depicted in the book doesn’t hook up with the beginning and the burning question posed at the beginning of the book, and so I was left vaguely dissatisfied as a result with that plot.

With that aside, however, A Pale Light In the Black is an entertaining and rollicking mid-term future Solar System Space Opera novel with excellent action beats, a wide variety of characters, a message of hope and resilience, The novel, as noted above, may take place “In space” like the Indrana novels do, but unlike those novels, mostly planet bound or set on huge spaceships, space stations and the like, A Pale Light in the Black gives a real and palpable sense of people who live and work and deal with the cold hard vacuum of space.

As a side note, I consumed this book in audio as well as print, and the audio narration by Marisha Tapera is excellent, throughout. This is definitely an audiobook that lends itself to long drives to eat up the miles.

A Pale Light in the Black shows the burgeoning strengths and wide ranging talents of one of the most exciting SF authors writing today. I look forward to reading more of their novels set in this verse and am hoping to see much more of the solar system. Space is Big, and we’ve only seen the tiniest fraction of this verse. More, please!

---

The Math

Baseline Assessment: 7/10.

Bonuses: +1 for a rich and diverse set of engaging characters with strong personal plotlines and growth, +1 for excellent action beats, depicting what it is like to work in space evocatively.

Penalties: -1 The Boarding Games plot thread did not end and resolve quite satisfactorily for me

Nerd Coefficient: 8/10 well worth your time and attention

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.

Reference: Wagers, K B. A Pale Light in the Black  [Harper Voyager, 2020]

Microreview [Book]: Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

A young adult tale of near-future utopia with a neurodiverse, trans protagonist which punches way above its weight in its complexity and thoughtfulness

Pet is the second published novel, and first young adult book, by author Akwaeke Emezi, following their debut Freshwater. It's a book that I've been meaning to get my hands on for far too long, and I was incredibly lucky to have some wonderful humans of the SFF community send a copy my way. As a relatively short and easy read, even for its age range, Pet was also perfect for the tail end of yet another winter cold: yet its a book that packs a punch well beyond what its length might lead one to believe.

Pet is the story of Jam, a girl living in the town of Lucille in an unspecified future time when many of the social problems and prejudices of our own time have been solved. Prisons have been abolished, queer family units and gender fluidity are considered normal, Blackness is casually celebrated, accommodations for disability and neurodiversity are commonplace, and the town is generally shown to have moved on from the bad old days of repression and discrimination, and from the revolution that caused the shift a generation previously. To Jam and others of her generation, the events of the past are told through the lens of "angels" and "monsters": the former, the revolutionaries who led from behind and got the work done that caused the change; the latter, those who upheld the system or committed crimes under it, and who needed to be stopped in order to create the relative paradise that Lucille has become. To suggest that the work of this revolution wasn't complete has now become almost taboo, and the idea that monsters might still be living in Lucille treated as unthinkable by the older generation.

And yet, to Jam and her friend Redemption, monsters are still very much a subject for debate, and the question about whether any remain in their community comes to the fore when Jam accidentally summons a monster-hunting creature called Pet from one of her mother's paintings. The appearance of Pet surprises Jam's parents, not because they weren't expecting a monster-hunting creature to be summoned from a painting, but because the time for summoning monster-hunting creatures from paintings is, as far as they are concerned, over. And yet, Pet is convinced that a monster is out there in Lucille, and that they are active in Redemption's house. Its up to Jam and Redemption to figure out who they need to protect and how - no easy feat when the adults they are closest to are determined to keep the information they might need to understand what's happening away from them both, and Pet's own motivations for the hunt seem to go against everything they've been taught about forgiveness and careful finding of information, not to mention making sure they have enough time to process and support themselves through the challenging new aspects of human nature that come to light.

Pet's narrative structure is narrow and straightforward, with a relatively small cast of named characters representing the wider community of Lucille and its "angels". We meet Jam's parents, Aloe and Bitter; Redemption's parents, Malachite, Beloved and Whisper and some more members of his family; the town librarian Ube; and the old revolutionary-turned boxer Hibiscus and his wife Glass. Having a small, family driven cast underscores the particular sense of community being projected in Pet, giving us characters who are selectively flawed and blind while ensuring that - for almost all of the characters - that blindness is in pursuit of understandable goals. In doing so, Pet punches far above its weight, turning what could be a slightly speculative after school special into a story with a ton of nuance about what makes a community strong and, in particular, how adults can create environments for their children to flourish. That its done in a utopia that never stops feeling like a utopia makes the message even stronger: this isn't a group of people who are about to be punished for believing that caring, inclusive communities without brutality and abuse are possible, but one whose understanding of how to protect that environment is about to be challenged - a wake-up call, but one that errs very much on the side of a positive reading of human nature.

At the centre of this is Jam herself, a resourceful and emotionally intelligent young protagonist who is both trans and neurodiverse. Jam's trans identity is dealt with unambiguously and matter-of-factly at the start of the story: as a three-year-old, she made it clear to her family that she was a girl, and since then everyone has treated her as such, and she's had informed access to all the hormone blockers and treatments to make her puberty as a girl straightforward. Once Emezi gets that out of the way, there's no reason for Jam's trans identity to come up again as anything other than when its relevant to a description (for example, mentioning after she's been standing outside that her estrogen implant feels cold under her skin). Being trans, or non-binary (as Redemption's parent Whisper is) is not a point of complication or conflict in the story, because nobody in Jam's life views it as complicated or controversial. Her neurodiversity impacts much more on how she interacts with the world around her, but here too Emezi doesn't make it a point of conflict. Jam is shown as averse to speaking aloud, and therefore uses sign language and other methods of communication with other people when she can. The narration also has her use synesthesia-like descriptions combining emotion with physical qualities, such as when "fatigue [collides] with her body" or Pet leaves "a tang of pride" in her room. Disappointment slithers, and sadness is twisted but soft. Having not read Emezi's other work, I don't know if this kind of description is common to their style, but here I read it as an aspect of Jam's voice, bringing to life a perspective that felt very different from my own while being totally comprehensible. Jam's use of sign, and of thought-speech with Pet, offers further nuance to the book's themes about communication, as characters are shown adapting to her preferred communication methods and the importance attached to them (vocalising her words being the method that requires the most effort and therefore has the most weight) but unable to communicate more than fairy-tale simplifications of the state of the world before her birth.

Ultimately, Pet is a story whose surface simplicity has enormous, complex depths. As a utopia, this might be the most interesting book I've read since Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed, albeit one that doesn't go into great detail about how it's being upheld: problematising aspects of Lucille's social organisation without passing judgement on the people who developed it and their assumption that a better system was possible. It offers its protagonist a coming-of-age story about her place in the world that has nothing to do with her trans identity or neurodiversity, making it clear that her influence and voice on the wider community goes beyond any axis of self-acceptance. As a white adult cis woman, Pet is not a story intended for me, but it's a story I feel I really benefited from reading and I very much hope it finds its intended audience, and the rest of us along the way. Meanwhile, Emezi is an author whose future releases I'll be anticipating with great interest.

The Math
Baseline Score: 7/10

Bonuses: +1 gorgeous, evocative writing which brings characters to life without straying from an easy-to-read young adult style; +1 a complex, thoughtful story about community and coming of age

Penalties: -1 I could read so much more about the world of Lucille, even if it wasn't relevant to this particular story!

Nerd Coefficient: 8/10

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: Emezi, Akwaeke. Pet [Faber and Faber, 2019]

Interview: Rita Woods, author of Remembrance

Remembrance is a multi-generational story of how to protect those you love against the background of horrific circumstances.  A little magic and magical realism never hurt, but what happens when the magic is at its limit?    Debut author Rita Woods has created an emotional and beautiful story of generations of women who are connected through tragedy and unique supernatural powers.   Fans of magical realism, stories of endurance,  and unique storytelling need to get their hands on a copy of Remembrance!

Remembrance is a secret stop on the Underground Railroad. If you can make it there, if you can find it, you'll be protected there.  As Mother Abigail's  abilities fade,  so does the protection of Remembrance. Who will take on her mantle and responsibilities? As the world changes, will Remembrance still be needed, or will it be needed all the more?  Where do these magical abilities come from, and how will the bearers know when and where they are needed?  In this bold and uncompromising novel,  Woods' strong characters do what needs to be done, as they know the far-reaching consequences of giving up.

Rita Woods was kind enough to answer my questions about her favorite scenes to write in Remembrance,  how she developed the characters, the scene that still gets under her skin, the book tour,  tips for healthy travel,  how her career in medicine has informed her writing, and more.  She lives in suburban Chicago with her family, and you can learn more about her on her website, ritawoodswrites.com  and by following her on twitter, where she is @RitaWoodsAuthor .  

This month she is wrapping up a whirlwind book tour that took her all across the Midwest, and then to Texas, California, Lousiana, Georgia, and elsewhere. I hope we see many more novels and short stories from Rita Woods!  And I hope once her tour is finished, that she gets some well deserved rest.

Let's get to the interview!

NOAF: Congratulations on your debut novel, Remembrance! Can you give us the elevator pitch?

RW: Remembrance is the story of four women, each imbued with unique powers over the physical world. Spanning three centuries, beginning just before the Haitian Revolution and reaching into the 21st century, it tells the story of woman linked through the centuries, using their powers under some of the most horrific of circumstances to protect themselves and the ones they love.

NOAF: Abigail,  Margot, and Gaelle are women who are living in drastically different worlds and circumstances.  How did you develop their personalities, their supernatural abilities,  and their specific backstories?

RW:  Abigail was the first character to appear, the one around which Remembrance was meant to pivot. While the initial idea was to have this powerful priestess create this amazing sanctuary for runaway slaves, it became clear that in order to tell the story it was necessary to know how she got to this place. Where had she come from? Why would she create this place as opposed to a different response to slavery? How did her power come into being? This led back to New Orleans and ultimately to pre-Revolutionary Haiti. Much of the same calculus was in effect for the other characters.

Who were the people that populated Remembrance? What was it that made them strike out for their freedom?   While slavery was the constant background refrain, I wanted it to be clear that these were individuals, with different perspectives, different experiences and very different responses to their circumstances. And while not a slave, there were still reverberations of history/historic events in Gaelle's catastrophic loss. Like the other women of the story, she suffers great tragedy and has to find a way to herself again.


NOAF: I appreciate that we see your characters in times other than their robust youths.  As Abigail ages, she realizes there will be a time when she isn't strong enough to provide the protections her community has become accustomed to. Speculative fiction is filled with young people who are in their prime. Why is it important for readers to see powerful characters who are of an older generation?  Why write older characters?  

RW:  In the real world, power is most often not the currency of the very young. One need only to examine the world of business, medicine, politics. Power consolidates around experience, around alliances and is strengthened with practice over time. In Remembrance, while each of the women have raw talent, raw abilities, in each case these abilities have to be honed, focused, a process that takes time. I believe there is also a maturity of thinking that was necessary to make the decision to use their power for something bigger than themselves. It felt right that it was the elders (and this is a relative term) were the ones to step up and try to right the wrongs of the world, to be the keepers of tradition and their people.

NOAF: What was your favorite scene to write?  Which character was the most satisfying to write? 

RW:  I loved all my characters but surprisingly, it was some of the secondary characters that I had the most fun writing. I loved Dix and the little twins. Louisa was always fun and of course Josiah who was so deliciously creepy. Favorite scene is a bit harder. I loved writing the pivotal scene when Winter confronts the slavers in Remembrance. Another extremely satisfying scene to create, the one that haunts me and continues to live under my skin is the one in which Abigail accompanies her mistress to the Quenelle plantation on Saint Domingue in an effort to save Hercule.

NOAF: As I write these interview questions, you are in the middle of a book tour across the Midwest.  What's been your favorite experience on the tour so far?  Any tips for keeping your health and sleep in check, while being a travelling celebrity?  (I used to travel for work, and failed miserably in the "keeping my health & sleep in check" dept.)

RW:  There are so many super cool things about this tour. I've really enjoyed meeting other authors. Almost to a one, they have been such supportive, generous people and, for an insecure first time writer, offered encouragement and advice on an unexpected level. I'm trying to learn everything I can from their experience. It's also been amazing meeting people who've read and loved Remembrance, people who grab you and talk about Josiah and Winter and Margot like people they know personally.

As for the travel itself, I've been loading up on elderberry, vitamin C and echinacea. I try to get into the sauna at least once a week and have been disinfecting every airplane surface I can (something I saw another passenger do, and thought . . .BINGO). I've also been trying to drink my water (a struggle when all I want to do is mainline caffeine) and whenever possible pick up a Pilates class. 

NOAF: When you're not writing fantastic fiction, you're a Physician. How has your career in medicine informed your writing, if at all?

RW:  Medicine, it sharpens your storytelling skills. Every time a patient comes to you, they're telling you a story. Why they're there. When did the problem start. Can you describe exactly where the pain/swelling etc is. What does something sound/look/feel like. What makes it better. What makes it worse. All problems have a beginning, middle and hopefully an end. Physicians have to be extremely astute observers. We have to be able to interpret both verbal and nonverbal clues. We have to pick up subtext. All of those skills are directly transferable to writing. 

NOAF:  Thank you so much!  Now excuse me while I go buy some Vitamin C and echinacea!

6 Books with Ilana C Myer

Ilana C. Myer has worked as a journalist in Jerusalem and a cultural critic for various publications. As Ilana Teitelbaum she has written book reviews and critical essays for The Globe and Mail, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Salon, and the Huffington Post. Last Song Before Night was her first novel, followed by Fire Dance and The Poet King.

Today she shares her Six Books with us...

1. What book are you currently reading? 

I just finished reading Hope Against Hope by Nadezhda Mandelstam, a harrowing memoir of Stalinist Russia. Her e husband, the poet Osip Mandelstam, was persecuted and ultimately murdered by Stalin’s regime, for the crime of writing a poem.

Nadezhda Mandelstam was a genius and her insights into the psychological effects of totalitarianism are as relevant now as they ever were. She also has much to say about the artistic community—how artists either withered in the oppressive political climate, or enriched themselves by writing dutiful propaganda. Her eye for personalities is acute, and devastating.

2. What upcoming book are you really excited about?

I’ll be first in line to buy Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light, the last of her trilogy about Thomas Cromwell. She is one of the best writers working today.

Before Mantel made a big splash with Wolf Hall, she wrote other good books. I particularly recommend Beyond Black, a dark, sardonic fantasy about living with trauma.

3. Is there a book you’re currently itching to re-read? 

There are certain books I love so much that they enter into my permanent rotation. Then there are others that bide their time, waiting for just the right moment.

I am due for a reread of Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond Chronicles, since the last time I read them I was in my early twenties. I know much more history now than I did at that age, and will likely appreciate the books even more.

4. How about a book you’ve changed your mind about – either positively or negatively?

A book I recently reread and loved, when I had not had feelings about it either way before, is The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald. Sometimes we read a book at the wrong time in our lives and fail to appreciate it—I am glad I gave this book another chance.

The challenge in Fitzgerald is that she packs a world of meaning in each line, each paragraph. It means the reader must pay close attention. On the other hand: her books are short.

5. What’s one book, which you read as a child or a young adult, that has had a lasting influence on your writing?

I am not sure I would be writing fantasy today if I had not read Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana when I was sixteen. That book showed me that fantasy can explore themes in powerful ways, with perhaps greater freedom than other kinds of writing.

6. And speaking of that, what’s your latest book, and why is it awesome?

 In The Poet King, poets hold magical and political power—including the power to reshape their world. The conflicts that are initiated in Last Song Before Night and reach a critical point in Fire Dance reach a climax in this book. While wars and politics make an appearance, the heart of these books are the characters, who are tested to—and sometimes beyond—their limits.

Celtic and Middle Eastern mythologies, among others, were my inspiration in this book. I did a great deal of reading, almost a year’s worth, before I began writing. That has been true for each book in the trilogy.

---

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer.
Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.

Microreview [book]: Sixteenth Watch by Myke Cole

The Coastguard takes centre stage in this lunar military sci fi adventure with high stakes and setpieces a-plenty

Myke Cole is an established author of military fantasy, but this is his first published science fiction book, and it takes the military genre into an institution that's often overlooked: the coastguard! What's more, this is one of two coastguard-focused space books releasing at nearly the same time (the other being K.B. Wagers' A Pale Light in the Black, which I'm really looking forward to). My knowledge of coastguard responsibilities and operations, and of maritime security in general, being extremely limited, I went into Sixteenth Watch with relatively little in the way of expectations, and was pretty taken by the brand of MilSF that I did get from it, with a few caveats.

In the world of Sixteenth Watch, humans are in the process of colonising and mining the moon, but political tensions from Earth have followed them over, and both China and the USA are now vying for positions which let them capitalise on the new territory's resources, particularly supplies of Helium-3. Both the US navy and the coastguard have been deployed into space as an extension of their regular duties, while the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) protects Chinese space. With smuggling of Helium-3 on the rise, tensions are rising on both sides and the Coastguard is increasingly seeing itself pushed out by the Navy and the Marines, due in no small part to more effective PR about who would be better at maintaining US "territorial" boundaries.

Enter Jane Oliver, a coastguard captain whose only tour of duty in space gets cut short during the book's lengthy prologue, in which a mission goes terribly wrong and ends up claiming the lives of a number of servicepeople, including some extremely close to her. Understandably, Jane hasn't really recovered from the trauma of this, and has since been serving in a quieter position - which still very much takes advantage of her skills - in the training facility back on Earth. Of course, if we were to leave Jane alone to quietly get over things this would be a very short book, and sure enough it becomes clear that only Jane is qualified to take on the very specific mission needed to reinvigorate the coastguard, prove to the President that they're the right force for the job of maintaining peace on the moon, and stop the world from sliding into all-out war between the two powers.

And so, Oliver (who, true to military convention, is referred to by her surname throughout the book - confusing for the first few pages, but you very quickly get used to it) hops back on a shuttle to the moon, in order to lead the coastguard's most elite force in the event of the year: the military's annual "Boarding Action" exercise, where teams compete against each other to demonstrate how well they can execute protocol in spaaace. This annual exercise, which involves all the relevant law enforcement bodies present on the moon (including the post office, and, yes, I am taking recommendations for your favourite "space posties" series right now), has somewhat inexplicably become a big event back on Earth, and has been won for the last several years by a team of extraordinarily talented marines. In order to get some positive press and the ear of the president, the Coastguard has decided that it needs to win this year's competition, and that Oliver, in just three months, is the woman to whip their own equally talented but more fractured team into shape.

It's tough not to love Oliver and the rest of her core crew, all of whom fill tropey but satisfying roles within the team. There's Ho, the snarky but competent and charming second-in-command, who comes with Oliver to the post; Chief, the put-upon senior NCO who needs to learn to do things less by-the-book; McGrath, who worked with Oliver in her previous mission-gone-wrong and is in the position where he gets shot a lot; Pervez the hotshot but insubordinate coxswain (i.e. she steers the ship), and Okonkwo, quiet engineer who learns to stand up for himself. It's a quietly diverse group of people, and the commitment to showing women and people of colour at all levels permeates the book, though "the Chinese" remain a completely faceless and unified enemy force throughout (of course, it's realistic that Oliver wouldn't exactly have a direct line to her PLAN counterparts, but it's still a little jarring). Added into the mix are a range of more senior rank people who more or less believe in Oliver's methods and give her a hard time accordingly, and the internal interactions are, if a little predictable but enjoyable in their routineness. The fact that the coastguard setting means that the crew's very military life and purpose is about maintaining peace and avoiding the use of force makes is a refreshing set-up, allowing for Oliver to be a sensible, "let's not go to war for the sake of it" type of military commander with a rather different relationship to more hawkish seniors and adding nuance to her renegade status: she is, after all, upholding the organisation's mission to a far greater extent than those willing to take the Navy's lead. Peacekeeping in books is always something I'm interested in, and the premise of the book being about military measures to avoid war is one that I thought held great promise.

Whether it delivers on that promise is likely to be dependent on how one feels about military science fiction in general, and the amount of time one wants to spend thinking about successful boarding manoeuvres and how they impact on the psychology of each team member and the cohesion of the squad as relayed through the main character. There's a lot of talk of a process which involves nipples (not that kind) and cutting perfect holes out of spaceship exteriors, as well as some close quarters spaceship battles that were a bit hard for me to picture, and while I'm very impressed that Cole was able to write possibly the first non-erotic speculative novel by a man which had a reason to use the word "nipples" as much as it did (again: not that kind), these process elements did leave me cold at times, particularly during the sections where the squad is entirely focused on the Boarding Action competition and not on actual callouts, or the wider impact of their mission on Lunar Politics. The genre also informs the ending, which has Oliver pull off a manoeuvre which has very little to do with peacekeeping (though its impact is another story). It's satisfying on one level, but I was left wishing that the payoff for centring the coastguard in this book ended with something a little more sophisticated than "hey, there's another branch of the military and they wear distracting orange!" That said, there's clearly a lot more story to be told here, both in the characters' interactions (and where they end up at the ending) and the political factors, and I'd like to see Oliver and the crew's role play out over a longer series.

If you're after a military science fiction that offers all the standard satisfaction of the subgenre with an interesting new angle, Sixteenth Watch is a book to look out for. While it didn't win me over to the excitement of boarding action in general, its characters and many of the wider plot strands kept me reading right up until the end. I'm keen to see more in this universe and I'll definitely have Cole among my authors to watch in future.

The Math

Baseline Score: 7/10
Bonuses: +1 A space coastguard whose mission and values were refreshing and engaging from the start; +0 uses "nipple" a lot without being weird about female characters (I can't actually award points for that, but I wanted to note it anyway)

Penalties: -1 Uneven application of the stakes means some set pieces are a lot less engaging than others

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: Cole, Myke. Sixteenth Watch [Angry Robot, 2020]